Doctor Who Series Eleven: New titles won’t be revealed until episode two?

Those of us who’ve been excited about a new arrangement of the Doctor Who theme tune may have to wait a little longer, based on comments from Chris Chibnall.

There are many things that us Doctor Who fans have been eager to see with Series Eleven. The new Doctor. The new companions. And of course, the brand-new TARDIS.

Of course, there’s something else that we’re really keen to see: the new titles. A new era means a new theme arrangement, especially with Segun Akinola as the new composer for the series. What will this theme be like? Will it be like the 2005 version of the theme and go virtually back to basics? Or will it be even stranger and different than what we’ve heard for the past few years?

Unfortunately, it sounds like we’ll have to wait just a little bit longer to get the answers to those questions. In the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine, Chris Chibnall has commented on the following.

"There’s a new opening title sequence too, and a new arrangement of the opening theme, by our brilliant new composer Segun Akinola…You’ll have to wait till episode two to see those in situ, though. Episode one starts slightly differently."

So what exactly does this mean? Will the theme tune not show up in Jodie Whittaker’s first episode at all? Or will we at least hear a version of it? If so, how will it be different to what follows? And most important of all: why is the first episode taking such a bold risk?

Changing the routine

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Keep in mind that, since the series came back in 2005, almost every episode of Doctor Who has included the theme tune. In fact, Rose began without a cold open right before it, one of the only episodes to do so. Why? Because it was an easy way to grab the audience’s attention and say that Doctor Who was back.

The only episode of the New Series – in fact, possibly one of the only episodes ever – that hasn’t featured the theme tune was Sleep No More. Which was probably one of the less popular episodes of Series Nine. Is this a complete coincidence? (Yes, yes it was. But still, a lack of usual titles definitely didn’t help.)

On the one hand, it’s something small. It is only one more week that we have to wait for, after all. On the other hand, this could be a small change just for the sake of it. Which is slightly worrying. As I’ve said before, even Russell T Davies knew that the series had to begin with a bang by kicking off with that intro.

Then again, Chibnall could have a really good storytelling reason for shaking things up with the intro. At this point, we can’t be too sure. Regardless, I hope this will be worth the wait.

What do you think of this news? Are you disappointed that we most likely won’t be getting the new theme tune with the first episode? Or are you curious to see what the opening episode will do exactly? Let us know in the comments below.