Doctor Who: Every Title Sequence Ranked From Worst To Best
2. The Third & Fourth Doctors (1973-1980)
Come 1973, Doctor Who was just as popular as it was when it launched ten years earlier. Jon Pertwee was producing his final season, and Bernard Lodge (creator of all the openings up to this point) was commissioned to produce an all-new title sequence for the show. This was the first radical change to the established style of the opening. Gone were the howlround effects, and in came the more recognisable time vortex. Jon Pertwee's image was promoted to a full-height shot of the actor, and the iconic diamond logo was introduced. The theme tune however, remained the same.
When Tom Baker took on the role in 1974, the rough concept of the previous title sequence remained. However, the TARDIS was used for the first time in the opening sequence, and unlike his next titles, Tom Baker's Doctor portrait is much more flattering. The vortex effect used after the image of the TARDIS has become iconic in its own right, appearing in the likes of Family Guy of all things. Whilst the explicit vortex was dropped between 1980 and 1996, this was the first big step up in the visual effects used in the title sequence, and it still holds up incredibly well today.