"Doctor Who" Christmas special goes old school with new TARDIS and new title sequence.
Published: 12/26/2012 10:32 AM
Last Modified: 12/26/2012 10:44 AM
The opening titles for "Doctor Who" have always been a popular trademark of the show. Every Whovian's hearts skip a beat when that familiar time tunnel shows up and we hear all the whooshing. Whooshing is very important.
Since the series started in 1963, the opening titles have remained largely unchanged as long as you forgive the Seventh Doctor's production team going a little crazy with some off the shelf animation software. The Second Doctor started an odd tradition of putting the lead actor's face in there, presumably so you know which Doctor it is, given all the regenerating and whatnot.
Those floaty heads stayed in place until the 1996 TV movie, where the head was removed, and the score was reworked and played on real instruments. When the series was relaunched in 2005, the BBC took a lot of cues from the TV movie even though many consider it an epic fail(but a fail on the same level as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, in that these same people will still watch it over and over again like I do). We got a new, shiny time tunnel and a new score, but we didn't have our float heads. Well, I am happy to report that the floaty heads are back!
The 2012 Christmas special seems like a re-boot in many ways, but one that owes a lot to the original series. "Doctor Who" likes to add little 'jumping in' spots throughout the series, and this is one of them. A new TARDIS and a new companion and a new mission is a great spot for the uninitiated to tune in and not have to worry too much about continuity.
The new title sequence mirrors the openings that were in place throughout the 1980's, complete with Matt Smith's head, and we get a more stripped down and shorter score, that is way more retro then anything we've seen so far in the new series.
We also get a new console room. This is the third re-design of the new series, and this one is also a combination of old and new. Gone are the steam-punk inspired copper hues, replaced by a colder, grayer more stark, what I can only describe as "spaceship" like. More 2001 than Willy Wonka. Thematically, this implies that the Doctor has been on his own for a very long time. Long enough that he's had time to reconfigure his entire ship. It is also a comment on his overall mood. He's become a back to basics, business only old miser, which also plays nicely into a story about Christmas and about winter and isolation and about keeping the cold at bay. Show runner Steven Moffat has promised that the second half of series 7 will show more of the TARDIS than we have ever seen before, so we have that to look forward to.
In yet another nod to the classic series, the Doctor has a new outfit, which is decidedly more Victorian. There is a lot more tweed than wool going on here, and he looks less like a college professor of applied science, but he does get to keep the bow-tie. Most of the classic Doctors took their fashion cues from turn of the century England, and it looks like the 11th Doctor is heading that way as well.
Here is the preview for the second half, which is set to air in the spring, and promises among other things, a submarine, Cybermen, Sontarans,and Warwick Davis.
Do you have a topic you would like the Prairie Nerds to address? Let us know at PrairieNerds@tulsaworld.com
Written by
Jason Powers
Scene Writer
