With the new season of Doctor Who this weekend, what was Fridays of Ice and Fire are now Doctor Who themed on The Lowdown. I haven’t come up with a punny name for these posts yet but that’s not going to stop me from starting with this post and continuing on with reviews next week.

You might not know the name Billy Hanshaw but you’re going to know his handy work very soon. Hanshaw created his own mockup of a new title sequence for Doctor Who’s 12th Doctor, Peter Capaldi. The result went viral and got so much attention that Doctor Who producer Steven Moffat saw it and commissioned the BBC graphics department to use it as a basis for the title sequence that you’ll see tomorrow.

First, here’s the original Hanshaw intro.

The big difference is that Hanshaw swapped out the space and time vortex motifs that had been featured in Doctor Who since 1963 for a clock motif. Steven Moffat referred to Hanshaw’s intro as “the only new title idea I’d seen since 1963.” Personally, I don’t mind it except for the smiley face. I hate the smiling Doctor faces in the old intros. I hate it now. I’d rather something like the translucent Matt Smith face from the most recent season. We’ll have to see what the differences between fan-made and BBC-made are on Saturday.

By the way, rumour has it that there will be a remixed theme song for the new season. It’s supposed to be closer to the classic themes that Gold’s big orchestral themes that we’ve had since 2005.

Cross-posted from et geekera. For more from et geekera, follow on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Tumblr and RSS.