Logo-a-gogo.

TV Good evening. I know I haven't been around much anymore, but some extra shifts at work and writers block have forced a certain lethargy in relation to this blog. Anxiety has led to me seeking passive routines, as it so often does, so I've been mainlining the From The Archive section of the BBC iPlayer and Lindsay Ellis's film essays during the day and watching a film every night after dinner and then some Doctor Who. I'm roughly half way through a rewatch of the Capaldi era (see this Twitter thread).

But you didn't come here for such scrutiny of the centriole.  Tonight we received the next step in my favourite franchise's regeneration, the release of the new logo and an even greater idea of the direction the show is heading under the stewardship of Captain Chris.  Find above the recently released animation designed to introduce the logo, although the YouTube thumbnail rather gives away the surprise.

My guess this is the opening chunk of the new title sequence, the TARDIS dodging through space creating the title before dodging onward into the usual tunnel or whatever.  You could imagine this being used when the show appears on commercial television as the advertising buffer and as a piece of visual theatre it has an epic quality which would work within a variety of settings in and of itself.



The official Who social media has also released what the logo might look like in merchandising situ or on posters, in this case what would work just well as a vinyl cover for the soundtrack album.  Notice that because 13th (15th) is mainly in silhouette we can't see what she's doing with her hands so still no idea about pockets.  The bum bag can't be the ultimate solution, can it?  Even if it is dimensionally transcendental?

That fanny pack really is a strange choice.  In her post-regenerative torpor will she be struggling with being a different gender and not knowing what to do with things?  Are we to expect that she'll try the bum bag, realise its stupid and simply add pockets to her costume realising that girls can have those too?  Or will she try out various luggage across the series.  Perplexed, Liverpool.

Speaking of Liverpool, this has probably been released because of the presentation at the Echo Arena this week at which its been revealed that the show won't be returning until October, which makes some sense given that its only ten episodes this time around and means that Strictly will be able to get its massively long opening episodes out of its system before Who launches.  No news on the potential Sunday move though.

Oh the logo?  I love it.  It feels very NOW! and doesn't conform to anything else we've had before which is as it should be and in a similar way to the taxi cab logo of the RTD era.  It is thin, but that should only mean that merchandisers will have to be more creative with how it appears on covers.  DWM has more recently had a flat colour behind the logo so they'll just need continue with that but with darker shades.

It also fits the latest trend of putting the company name above a franchise title and this placement reminds me especially of MARVEL Studios. The BBC have previously tended to drop it at the bottom of the frame of a title screen and its good to see this variation which you would hope could be applied to all programming with a bespoke logo.  Unless that's just for this launch.

The official website has also uploaded a wallpaper friendly version of the above image:



And what must be how the logo will appear in smaller spaces:



Which curiously would have been a perfectly fine variation on the circular BBC One ident before it was replaced with the current earthlings in their natural habitat selection we have now.  I do like how the line through the O somewhat resembles the circles around a planet and the H has an element of the alien script about it.  Not sure what a whole font based on this would look like.

In terms of logo hierarchy it's right up there.  I almost expected a return to the Pertwee logo from the TV Movie which I'll always covert due to it being from the time I became a fan.  But it's certainly better than the one from the Matt Smith era with the stupid DW Tardis shape in the middle.  Anyway, here go again.  Now I'm off to watch The Zygon Inversion.