Doctor Who logo

Over the decades, numerous logos have been introduced for the Doctor Who series and associated merchandise.

Logo One
Used from 1963 to 1966, Season 1 to Season 4

This logo was a simple white text on a black background, it was used to great effect to create the title sequence. It is associated with William Hartnell's tenure as the First Doctor. It remained in use for Patrick Troughton's first few stories up through The Moonbase. It saw some use on merchandising such as Doctor Who Annual and the Frederick Muller novelisations. Much later, in the 1980s, Marvel Comics combined Logo One with elements of Logo Four for its Doctor Who comic book.

Logo Two
Used from 1966–1969, Season 4 - Season 6

This logo made its first appearance with The Macra Terror. The font was altered to Times New Roman, a completely new "howlaround" pattern was created and Patrick Troughton's face was added for the first time. Initially it used the same music as the previous logo, but starting from Episode 2 of The Faceless Ones, a new arrangment of the theme replaced the old one. It does not appear to have been widely used on merchandising, though it did appear on the record release Doctor Who: Variations on a Theme years later. A variation utilizing thicker, sans serif lettering was used by Target Books on its earliest novelisations before moving into a variant of Logo Four.

Logo Three
Used from 1970–1974, Season 7 - Season 10

Primarily associated with Jon Pertwee's time as the Third Doctor, this logo was reused in 1996 for Doctor Who: The TV Movie - see Logo Eight, below. While the title sequence was shown in colour in order to achieve the affect similar to previous sequence it was originally designed in black and white. As noted below, this logo is currently (2008) the standard logo for merchandise related to the 1963-89 TV series.

Logo Four


Used from 1974–1980, Season 11 - Season 17

Known informally as the "diamond logo" and commonly associated with Tom Baker's time as the Fourth Doctor, this logo was actually introduced during Jon Pertwee's time as the Third Doctor for his final season. Although known as the diamond logo, in fact the diamond-shaped background was often omitted when the logo was used on books and other merchandise. The logo returned to service in the 1980s and 1990s when it was used for video releases of the series (in lieu of logos Five and Six), as well as for the Virgin Missing Adventures book line. It also ultimately replaced Logo Seven on most tie-in publications and merchanding, though not the Virgin New Adventures book series, in the two-three years immediately preceding the introduction of Logo Eight.

Logo Five
Used from 1980–1984, Season 18 - Season 21.

Introduced in the final season of Tom Baker's era (Season 18), this revamp of the logo complimented the new title sequence of a 'star field', it was then used throughout Peter Davison's time as the Fifth Doctor. This logo is known colloquially as the "neon sign" or "neon tube" logo. After a brief lag after its introduction the logo began to be used on merchandise such as the Target Books novelisations and Doctor Who Magazine.

Logo Six
Used from 1984–1986, Season 22 - Season 23

Introduced as Colin Baker took the role of the Sixth Doctor, this was similar to the previous logo, but tinted purple along with the rest of the title sequence giving it a more colourful hue. It also takes on a slightly curved appearance along the bottom. This variant was only used for the TV series broadcasts; all merchandise including books relating to Colin Baker's era and DWM continued to use the original version of Logo Five (except for Matt Irvine's book Special Effects).

Logo Seven
Used from 1987–1989, Season 24 - Season 26

For Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor a new title sequence was produced using computer generated imagery, with the new logo being a three dimensionally animated part of the title sequence. The logo was subsequently adopted by DWM and the Target Books line, as well as for merchandise. Following the TV series' end in 1989 this logo would continue to be used for the Virgin New Adventures novels and other merchandise including Doctor Who Magazine until the early 90s when it was replaced on most products (except the New Adventures books) by the more famous Logo Four. Its final on-screen use was for the 1993 mini-episode Dimensions in Time.

Logo Eight
Used in 1996, Doctor Who: The TV Movie

This logo was used for Doctor Who: The TV Movie, with Paul McGann as the Eighth Doctor and is in fact a re-use of the logo used in Season 7 - Season 10, just changed to blue. A notable difference is that the TV movie presents a 3-D version of the logo, which is briefly viewed from the rear.

Following the TV movie it was used as part of BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures, from The Eight Doctors to Autumn Mist it was silver in colour, then from Interference: Book One onwards was blue in colour. It was also used for the BBC Past Doctor Adventures novels (again starting off silver and then changing to blue). During the 40th anniversary year, 2003, a variation of this logo appeared on some merchandise, with the H in WHO modified to become a 4, creating W40. Although replaced by a new logo when the series was revived in 2005, as of 2009, this logo remains the franchise's official logo on merchandise (books, DVD releases, and audio including the Big Finish line) relating to the first eight Doctors. As of 2009 the logo has been in continuous use in one form or another for close to 13 years, making it the longest-running logo. (Although Logo Four has been used frequently since its introduction in 1974 and continues to be used on some merchandising in 2008 (such as comic books), it has not been used without interruption as it was supplanted by later series logos before its brief revival in the early 1990s.)

Logo Nine
Used from 2005-2006, Series 1 - Series 2

For the first time the two words of the title are presented horizontally rather than vertically, and as reported by BBC News the new design was initially controversial with some fans. This logo was used for Christopher Eccleston's tenure as the Ninth Doctor and the first series with David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor.

Logo Ten
Used from 2007 - present, Series 3 - present

This logo was a "cleaner" version of the Doctor Who logo originally designed in 2005 and featured in the 'Coming Soon' trailer. This logo is also an animated component within the title sequence moving three dimensionally during the credits. The lettering is considerably more squat than that used in Logo Nine. Introduced in The Runaway Bride as the new logo within the title sequence, this has become the logo for David Tennant's tenure as the Tenth Doctor. Variations of this logo have also been used for various merchandising and promotions, including Doctor Who Magazine, BBC trailers, the BBC Tenth Doctor Adventures book line, comic books, and in a modified form in the supplementary series Doctor Who Confidential. Variations include changing the shield to off-white or grey, with black lettering, a more flat gold or olive colouring for the shield, and occasional dark coloring of the shield with white lettering.

The Logo Ten variant appears to only be used for TV broadcasts, as book releases and other merchandise such as toys continue to use the original Logo Nine version.

Future logo
As of January 2009 the BBC had yet to announce whether a new logo (Logo Eleven) will be introduced once Steven Moffat takes over as series producer in 2010, along with new actor Matt Smith playing the Eleventh Doctor (although, as noted above, such changes have often coincided with changes of producers and of Doctors). As merchandise featuring Logo Ten has already been announced well into 2009, it is assumed that the current logo will stay in place for the remainder of Tennant's tenure, although this has yet to be officially indicated (the first official broadcast of the 2009 specials "gap year" season, Planet of the Dead, retained Logo Ten, which is rendered in high definition for the first time).

Sci Fi Channel variant logo
For promoting its broadcasts of Doctor Who starting in 2006, the American Sci Fi Channel network created a unique logo. In basic shape and form the logo resembles a mix of logos Two and Three/Eight (and is very similar to that used by Target Books novelisations between 1973 and 1975), however the O is modified to include the silhouette of a man. As such the logo resembles that of the 1960s spy series The Man from U.N.C.L.E. The logo has been used on television ads, print, and on Sci Fi's website, but has otherwise never been used within the programme itself.

Links

 * The Doctor who logo collection