The original 1963 titles

Things have changed during the last 5 decades, and they are much better than 50 years ago, in the beginning this has been seen as stunning and original, like everything about early Doctor Who. This title sequence was like nothing ever seen on television before. The first title sequence consisted of a simple “howlround” or “howl-around” effect over the stark original arrangement of the Doctor Who theme.

While experimenting with a camera looking at a monitor showing its own picture, BBC Technical Operations Manager Norman Taylor, made the serendipitous discovery of “visual howlaround”. Bernard Lodge and a small team of BBC engineers created the finished sequence.

The Doctor Who theme was composed by Ron Grainer. Although Ron Grainer has always received sole credit for the theme music, Delia Derbyshire with the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was responsible for all the arrangements for Seasons 1 through 17