Doctor Who logo

The logo used for the main titles of Doctor Who has changed periodically. Although it is sometimes thought it changes with every Doctor, this has not always been the case (although, coincidentally the logo currently used for Tenth Doctor happens to be the 10th version of the logo.

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 Annuals and other products.

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 howl 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.

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. 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.

Logo Four
Used from 1974–1981, Season 11 - Season 17

Known colloquillay as the 'diamond logo' and commonly associated with Tom Baker's tenure as the Fourth Doctor 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, including CDs, Doctor Who Magazine, etc. - but not the Virgin New Adventures book series - in the two-three years immediately preceding the introduction of Logo Eight.

Logo Five
used from 1981–1984, 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 tenure as the Fifth Doctor. This logo, which links all the letters together in a continuous line, resembles a neon-tubing sign, and as such is known colloquially as the "neon sign" or "neon tube" logo.

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.

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

For Sylvester McCoy's Seventh Doctor the title sequence was produced via computer generated imagery, this included a new logo being an interactive part of the title sequence. 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.

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, however changed to blue.

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 2008, this logo remains the franchises official logo on merchandise (books, DVD releases, and audio including the Big Finish line) relating to the first eight Doctors.

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

Introduced when Doctor Who was 'revived' for production by BBC Wales this newly designed logo like the two previous logos is interactive within the title sequence. For the first time the two words of the title are presented horizontally rather than vertically, and the new design was initilly 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 -, Series 3 -

This logo was a more 'clean' version of the Doctor Who logo originally designed in 2005 and featured in the 'Coming Soon' trailer, this logo is also interactive within the title sequence. 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 and BBC trailers and the Doctor Who Confidential documentary series). 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.

Links

 * The Doctor who logo collection