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Title cards/Doctor Who

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Revision as of 20:18, 22 April 2024 by Botgo50 (talk | contribs) (Updating links from Season 26 to Season 26 (Doctor Who 1963))
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Title cards for Doctor Who have either the episode title, writer's name or episode number superimposed over the opening title sequence or initial sequences of the episode.

The following sub-sections have galleries illustrating the changes in font and format that the Doctor Who title card has gone through, from the earliest title cards where each episode had an individual title, to the 1980s, through to today, where each title card became more uniform as post-production methods became far more controlled.

First Doctor

For Seasons 1, 2 and most of 3, each episode had its own title, so each episode title card is shown. For most William Hartnell episodes the title card was superimposed over the action instead of the opening titles.

Font: Grotesque from Stephenson Blake (or variant).[note 1]

Animation: Fade in, Fade out.

Beginning with TV: The Savages each story had an overall title followed by an episode number.

For TV: The War Machines a special computer-style font was used, with each letter appearing one at a time, while flashing in and out of negative. TV: The Tenth Planet had the title card appear and disappear amongst numerous letters.

Font: Grotesque One Three (TV: The Savages, The Smugglers) / Eurostile (TV: The Tenth Planet onwards)

Animation: Fade in, Fade out.

Initially, DVD releases for early First Doctor stories each had a special title card at the beginning.

Second Doctor

While having the title card superimposed over the action was still the norm, starting from TV: The Macra Terror it started being superimposed over the opening titles for some episodes.

During the Patrick Troughton era, several stories had special film sequences made for the title cards to be superimposed on to. In TV: The Ice Warriors where the title cards would appear blurry, zoom out, become clear then disappear, over shots of glaciers and ice. In TV: The Wheel in Space they were superimposed over a mixture of the opening titles and shots of The Wheel. In TV: The Seeds of Death they were superimposed over shots of the Earth & Moon in space. And in TV: The War Games the were superimposed between shots of explosions & gunfire, flashing in and out.

Font: Eurostile (except TV: The Ice Warriors, The War Games)

Animation: Fade in, Fade out.

Third Doctor

Starting with TV: Spearhead from Space the title card is superimposed over the opening titles, with TV: Inferno the only exception where the title card was superimposed over shots of a volcano erupting, with it appearing burly, zooming out, become clear then disappearing.

Font: Futura Bold (until TV: The Green Death) / Futura Extra Bold (TV: The Time Warrior onwards)

Animation: Fade in, Disappear. (Exceptions: TV: Spearhead from Space started small and zoomed in towards the camera. Appeared and Disappeared. TV: The Ambassadors of Death which used a unique format: hard cut to the words "The Ambassadors", zoom towards the camera, then "of Death" appearing with a "sting" sound effect.)

Fourth Doctor

Font: Futura Extra Bold (until TV: The Seeds of Doom) / Della Robbia Bold (TV: The Masque of Mandragora - TV: The Horns of Nimon) / OPTI Formula One but can be substituted with Helvetica Rounded Bold with Upper Case "G" & Lower Case "t", from VAG (TV: The Leisure Hive onwards)

Animation: Appear, Disappear (TV: Robot – TV: The Horns of Nimon) / Fade in, Fade Out (TV: The Leisure Hive onwards)

Miscellaneous

Fifth Doctor

Font: OPTI Formula One but can be substituted with Helvetica Rounded Bold with Upper Case "G" & Lower Case "t", from VAG

Animation: Fade in, Fade Out.

Sixth Doctor

Font: OPTI Formula One but can be substituted with Helvetica Rounded Bold with Upper Case "G" & Lower Case "t", from VAG

Animation: Fade in, Fade Out.

Miscellaneous

Seventh Doctor

For the first time in the show's history, the episode title and writer's credit appear on the same title card, a setup which has now become the norm.

Font: Univers Light Ultra Condensed (story/writers credit) & Eurostile Extended Bold ("by" credit).

Animation: Fade in, Fade Out.

Dimensions in Time

Doctor Who returned in 1993 for TV: Dimensions in Time. While the story used the same title sequence, the typography on the title card and writer's credit was notably distinct.

Eighth Doctor

Font: Post Antiqua

The Night of the Doctor, though an Eighth Doctor story, borrows the series 7b title card format used by the Eleventh Doctor in a darker vortex effect.

Miscellaneous

Ninth Doctor

Font: Futura Book Animation: Fades in/Fades out

Tenth Doctor

Title Card fades in and out from 2005-2009. During 2009 the title fades in, slightly zooms in and fades out. Font: Futura Book

Miscellaneous

Eleventh Doctor

From The Eleventh Hour to The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, the title caption appears at the bottom for the first time since Season 26. The font is SF Movie Poster and the text blurs in, grows slightly, and blurs out.

From Asylum of the Daleks onwards, the title and writer centred again with greater spacing, and with a filamentous animation. The font used is Contax Bold Small Caps, and has a mottled effect.

Miscellaneous

Twelfth Doctor

Font: Heroic Condensed Medium

Style: Series 8: Typeface fluctuates between lowercase (Episodes 1-4) and uppercase episode titles (Episodes 5-12) and writing credits. Series 9: Typeface standardised to lowercase lettering for both episode title and writing credit, the latter now being preceded by a 'Written by...' credit. Series 10: Typeface for episode title and writer's credit has become entirely capitalised, with the spacing between each letter being expanded. The writing credit has once again lost its preceding 'Written by...' writing credit, now abbreviated to 'by...' presented on a separate line to the writing credit.

Animation: Series 8-9 (Deep Breath - The Return of Doctor Mysterio) - the title card appears behind the TARDIS as it shuffles off screen. Series 10 (The Pilot - The Doctor Falls) - the title card fades in using a blurred fade effect - with the episode title appearing first, followed shortly by the writer's credit. Twice Upon a Time used the same animation from Series 8-9.

Miscellaneous

Thirteenth Doctor

Font: Axiforma

The Woman Who Fell to Earth has no title sequence; instead, the episode, writer, series producer and director's names appear in the beginning of the end credits sequence. From The Ghost Monument onwards, these names appear in the opening titles; the series producer and director's names appear after the logo, and the episode title and writer's name appear after a light flash on the title sequence, with a golden texture, slowly scaling down while the theme music ends.

Resolution returned to the format of The Woman Who Fell to Earth, by forgoing the title sequence and featuring the title at the beginning of the end credits.

Also different for The Woman Who Fell to Earth and the New Year Special is that the titles appear in white texture.

Series 12 returned to the format used in majority of the previous series, with the addition of Part One and Part Two appearing with the Spyfall card.

Series 13, called Doctor Who: Flux, would use the same format, however with Chapter [number] added in smaller writing above the title itself. The 2022 specials removed this new addition.

Miscellaneous

All the accompanying Case Files followed a similar style, except the text was smaller and completely golden. The Case Files were discontinued following Resolution.

Fourteenth Doctor

Font: Town 10 Display Medium

Fifteenth Doctor

Font: Town 10 Display Medium

Notes

  1. ↑ The foundry Stephenson Blake closed in the 1990s. Their designs included a grotesque from the 19th century similar to the one used in the First Doctor title cards and credits. Today equivalents include:
    • Bureau Grot (formerly Grotesque) by Font Bureau (1989)
      • Weight Comp Book (formerly One Three).
    • Grotesque No 9 by URW++ (2000)
      • Available weight is bolder.
    • Grotesque 6 by Émilie Rigaud (2010)
      • Available variants are not compressed.
    • Brezel by MilieuGrotesque (2011)
      • Available variants are not compressed.
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