Doctor Who: This teaser for the First Doctor Adventures is wonderfully nostalgic
By James Aggas
There’s a brand new video teaser for The First Doctor Adventures: Volume 4, and it’s a fantastic watch, especially for fans of Doctor Who’s early years.
You’ve probably noticed in the past that I absolutely love a good teaser trailer. A teaser trailer can be very difficult to get right – you want to give your audience an indication of your release’s story without giving too much away. But when it’s done right, it can really hook the audience’s interest on its own terms.
This has been especially true of Big Finish’s teaser trailers over the past few months, particularly those made by Chris Thompson. Making a visual teaser for an audio release can be potentially difficult, but what Thompson does is focus on creating something brand new that relates to the story.
For example, his teaser for Doctor Who spin-off series The Robots was in the form of a short information film about both the titular robots and their world. And for The War Master: Anti-Genesis, he focused on the construction of a Dalek. It’s simple and pays a clear tribute to the teaser for Terminator 2, but it works.
However, Thompson may have outdone himself with his latest animated teaser. Made for the release of The First Doctor Adventures: Volume 4, fans of the original Dalek serial are sure to love this one. You can see why in the clip below.
Nostalgia and atmosphere
There’s a lot that stands out about this little teaser, especially if you’re a fan of The Daleks. It’s fantastic to see the Dalek city and the petrified jungle once more, closer to how it originally was than we’ve seen in decades.
There’s a rich sense of atmosphere to this teaser, too. From the black and white imagery to Benji Clifford’s music to even the flashes of lightning (which, for the record, are important to the story), the teaser captures both an air of mystery and classic Sixties nostalgia.
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What’s just as effective is that we don’t see a single Dalek in this. It’s the exact opposite approach to what we saw in the teaser for Anti-Genesis, but it works. Because we know the Daleks turn up in this story, we know that they’re still out there. But the fact that they’re completely unseen in this teaser works brilliantly for it.
Lastly, it’s also a smart move to play it like the end scene of an episode previous to Return to Skaro. Not only does it complete that sense of Sixties Doctor Who nostalgia, but it’s also a neat little way of crediting the main stars of the series, too.
If you want to know what happens next, you can listen to Return to Skaro right now by getting The First Doctor Adventures: Volume 4 directly from Big Finish’s website.
Does this teaser make you feel nostalgic? What teasers for Doctor Who do you think have been effective in the past? Let us know in the comments below.