The Doctor Who title sequences have undergone quite a bit of change since 1963. If there’s any of you out there that have been watching the good doctor since the early 60’s, and I’m sure there are plenty, you’ll have witnessed just what happens as a show crosses over from generation to generation. In the 60’s the crazed patterns and simple lettering were enough to keep people’s attention and alert them to the fact that things were about to get a little out there. Eventually the face of the hero would be shown briefly in the intro before it continued with the psychedelic colors, giving the impression finally that Dr. Who was the main basis of the show. By the 70’s an impressive star field was in the works, though it was quickly given over to the tunnel of colors with the light at the end, also accompanied by a picture of the doctor.
The 80’s saw the shifting star field come back, replacing the shifting, colorful tunnel for a while as the doctor’s face was outlined in the stars before he was revealed. The synthesized music got a little deeper but the overall theme was the same, though with what sounds like a guitar riff in there to make the sound a little more unique. The sound changed again in the late 80’s, taking on a different edge but remaining fundamentally the same. CGI started to be a big thing around 1987 it looks like, as the effects of this could be seen in the opening theme. The music was changing quite a bit as well.
By the 90’s things had taken on almost a whole new sound and look. The color-ridden tunnel was there again, but almost like an ethereal presence that could disappear at any moment. The effects that took over in the 90’s definitely took the theme in a new direction, but by the early 2000’s things went back to the normal theme and added in even more impressive CGI effects. The tunnel was now far more impressive and one could see the Tardis making its way through the tunnel at a very swift clip. By 2010 the tunnel was more like being in a storm cloud complete with forks of lightning stabbing every which way. This tunnel soon emptied into what looked like a fiery furnace that the Tardis soon disappeared into.
By 2013 the tunnel was gone again, this time replaced by billowing clouds of energy that briefly revealed the doctor’s face before dissolving into the the various clouds again. And then as of 2014 the position of a Time Lord was made very clear by the swirling clock faces that soon gave way to the ribbons of light and stars beyond.
Dr. Who has changed a great deal since the 1960’s and as fans would see it he’s changed for the better at times and for the worse at others. But many fans seem to be up in arms right now since the current Dr. Who is a woman, something that has never happened since the inception of the show and was not expected. Granted it’s kind of a drastic change, but it could be extremely interesting as well.
