‘Doctor Who: 60th Anniversary’ Teaser Shares More Than You Think
Seemingly out of nowhere, a new Doctor Who teaser trailer appears! It only clocks in at 10 seconds, and yet it tells you more than you might think!
Okay. So. There are these things called BBC Idents. They’re basically little, couple-second clips reminding you that you are, indeed, watching the BBC. They take all manner of forms, oftentimes also serving as a means to advertise upcoming TV programmes (look, man, we’re spelling things British), live events, movies, whatever.
As it happens, only a few days ago a BBC ident with a bit of Doctor Who 60th-anniversary goodness turned up. Which sounds exciting until you realize idents only last a few seconds.
Yes, this is a 10-second clip. Yes, it features things we’ve already seen before. But, also, yes, there are some very telling hidden, sneaky revelations there, too. So let’s go into way too much detail over 10 of the (arguably) most important seconds in the history of advertising the Doctor Who 60th Anniversary special.
Courtesy of BBC Worldwide
Doctor Who and Cryptic Reversals
On the surface, most of this Doctor Who teaser is old footage. There’s an image of the TARDIS from the episode “Planet of the Dead“. There’s a shot of Donna causing the Timelord meta crisis from “Journey’s End”. And there are images of both the Doctor and Donna which are technically new but don’t really tell us anything.
The biggest thing you notice upon first viewing of those 10 seconds though is the sound. It sounds all garbled — unless you play it backward. If you play the 10 seconds in reverse you hear the Doctor say, “Cryptic, I hate that” and Donna say “Why did this face come back”.
What’s fun about these two audio clips is that they metatextually play with fans. After all, “Why did this face come back” is the question everyone wants the answer to when it comes to the return of David Tennant. And this ident is, in and of itself, quite cryptic.
Thankfully, there’s more information in the slightly more hidden details.
Courtesy of BBC Worldwide
Beep the Meep, the Black Sun, and the Star Beast
In addition to all the images we’ve talked about, there are also some numbers and some binary code that are also incredibly relevant to our Doctor Who interests. For example, we see at one point binary which basically translates as “The Star Beast”. And in another spot, “DWW#19#26 80”. The “DWW” stands for “Doctor Who Weekly” and the numbers correspond with the issues and year of the Doctor Who comic, Doctor Who and the Star Beast” which introduces Beep the Meep.
“Hey, who is Beep the Meep?” Thank you for asking! Beep is the leader of the Meep, a peaceful, alien race. Well, peaceful until radiation from a black sun transforms them into a race of violent, intergalactic invaders. Meep crash lands on Earth, meets a human, Sharon Davies, and tricks both she and the Fourth Doctor into thinking he’s this cute, defenseless creature on the run from these giant outer space police monsters, the Wrarth Warriors.
And wouldn’t you know it? Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors both appear in the first Doctor Who 60th Anniversary teaser trailer. In fact, Beep appears to tell Donna’s daughter Rose that the Wrarth are “monsters”. So it’s looking more and more as though at least one story from this new series of specials in 2023 will borrow from the classic comic “The Star Beast”.
Plus, in the cryptic teaser, we see maybe a black star. And a UNIT officer’s eyes glow with what appears to be that black star’s reflection.
Courtesy of BBC Worldwide
The Next Doctor Who Trailer?
There is precisely one other bit of secret code which reads: “Loading New Sequence User ID: EV1305”. Sound like nonsense? Well, it might if you are living outside the UK and Europe. However, “EV” does likely stand for “Eurovision”. And we say that because Eurovision 2023 does just so happen to conclude on the 13th of May. Or, put another way “EV1305”.
Guess where Eurovision is being hosted this year? Liverpool. That’s right. The UK. And that means honestly anything to happen. For all we know, David Tennant could pop out of the TARDIS with Neil Patrick Harris and Jinkx Monsoon and sing a song in two weeks’ time. We might get a full trailer for the entirety of the upcoming 60th Doctor Who specials.
Or, we could get more cryptic teasers. Let’s be honest, with over half a year left to go, Russell T Davies and company can keep up hanging on a string indefinitely. But that some new Doctor Who something will appear during Eurovision is all be assured.
Even if it’s just another teaser, think of it this way – the last 10 seconds told us A LOT. Who knows what the next 10 seconds may hold?
