It's surprisingly difficult to know how to react to the announcement this weekend that Matt Smith is leaving the BBC's Doctor Who at the end of this year after four years as the time-traveling Time Lord known as the Doctor. On the one hand, there's genuine sadness at the idea of Smith stepping down so soon, but on the other, there's more than a little suspicion about whether or not everything is as it seems.

Doctor Who has, after all, enjoyed some intentional misdirection with the press in the last few years, announcing Jenna-Louise Coleman as the new companion and then introducing her into the series months before her "official" debut. It also sent out preview copies of the most recent episode of the series with the final scene missing – the one that introduced John Hurt to the series as yet another incarnation of the Doctor – in order to keep the secret until the episode aired.

Thus Saturday's news that Smith will leave the series with this year's Christmas episode felt like something less than cut and dry. Not that Smith won't be leaving – issuing a fake release about that would seem a little too cruel, after all – but the timing seems odd, given that we have the show's 50th anniversary episode coming on November 23, where viewers will learn more about John Hurt's version of the Doctor and his role in the show's mythos. In that light, it seems possible that we've already met the actor who'll replace Smith in the role, or that the changeover could happen on a slightly different timeline than the one announced.

If Hurt is only a temporary Doctor – and, given his status as Big Time Movie Star, that is fairly likely – then it's time for another round of "Who'll Be the Next Doctor?," everyone's favorite game of speculation. Names already being thrown around the Internet include Hugh Laurie, former Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint, and even Benedict Cumberbatch, who may be too busy with major movie roles and Sherlock to take the job, despite his history with current Who showrunner (and Sherlock co-creator) Steven Moffat.

The upcoming change also offers the show a potentially important opportunity to break from tradition in terms of Doctor casting. The series could finally give give us the first non-white Doctor – an exciting move in general, but especially relevant after the BBC recently had to defend the show from claims of racism. Or maybe Moffat plans to back up his teases that the next Doctor could be a woman.

"[Attitudes to that idea] have been changing... It is a part of Time Lord lore that it can happen - a Time Lord could potentially turn into a woman," said Moffat at the Edinburgh International Television Festival last year. "The more often it's talked about, the more likely it is to happen someday."

Like it or not, Doctor Who is a time travel show that little by little is beginning to feel anachronistic; by making its central character – the one who will always be one step ahead of everyone else, just a little better than everyone else around – a white male in every single instance, the show reflects a patriarchal, British imperialist culture that doesn't really exist anymore. Unlike most popular franchises, where the appearance of main characters is more fixed, Doctor Who's narrative mechanism allows for and even demands the change and evolution of its main character on a regular basis. So why not really allow the Doctor to change and evolve?

Doctor Who fans have shown that they can not only deal with change, but come to embrace it in time. Smith's departure, whenever it actually occurs, offers the show a unique chance to take advantage of that, using the show's half-century celebration to bring the series up to date and deliver a Doctor who, for once, reflects a Britain – if not a world – that isn't exclusively white and male. The question now is whether the people in charge of the show are as ready to take a step into the unknown as their characters.