The New Doctor Who Logo Is A Callback To The Tom Baker Era
Spoilers ahead for the recent "The Power of the Doctor" "Doctor Who" special and the regeneration reveal.
Attention Whovians! Change is in the air! A brand new regeneration is coming with Ncuti Gatwa as the Fifteenth Doctor, and David Tennant's recent reveal as the Fourteenth Doctor because things are all wibbly wobbly timey wimey. The upcoming new season will feature the return of showrunner Russell T. Davies, setting a course for the TARDIS in 2023. (He started the "Doctor Who" revival in 2005, in case you didn't know.) We've also got Disney+ as the new home for the long-running series outside the U.K. and Ireland.
On top of all of that time-traveling goodness, there is a brand new logo for the show, which premiered in a new video. Just like the strains of the theme song's beginning, seeing the "Doctor Who" logo on the screen is a moment of joy for people who love the series. Of course, that logo has changed over the years, from the simple black and white lettering of the first Doctor William Hartnell in 1963, to the neon sign versions of the early 1980s, to the icky chonky letters with cursive above it in the later '80s, to the TARDIS symbol appearing in a DW combo in the early 2010s. The new one is a bit of a throwback to one of the most popular pre-Doctor renaissance eras — that of Tom Baker.
Wibbly wobbly timey wimey
The new logo has the word "Doctor" in an arched and enclosed band over the brightly lit "Who" in blue, surrounded by bright yellow. Both words are set over a diamond with a sort of art deco pattern. The logo that covered a lot of the Tom Baker era (he played the Fourth Doctor) from the early 1970s into 1980 is very similar. One version of that has basically the same art deco symbol, all done in dark blue, silver, and white. Another has a whole lot of orange, yellow and blue.
It will be interesting to see if there is any connection to the Tom Baker era of stories that prompted this homage. Will Gatwa wear a long and fancy scarf? Will he have a robot dog companion? Perhaps we'll see the return of Romana or a nod to his warrior companion Leela? Will the homage come during Tennant's return or when Gatwa becomes the new Doctor incarnation? Could the new sonic screwdriver have any resemblance to Baker's?
Even if it's just to celebrate the brief return of a classic Doctor (Tennant) and the classic showrunner who started it all up again, and even the return of the best companion (fight me) in Donna Noble (Catherine Tate), it's a really cool design.
Only time (heh heh) will tell, of course, but it gives us a lot to speculate on over the next year. We're not going to see the new season until the 60th anniversary special in 2023.