| Agency | Red Bee Media |
|---|---|
| Client | BBC Wales |
| Language | English |
| Running time | 60 seconds |
| Product | |
| Release date(s) | 19 October 2013 |
| Directed by | Matt Losasso |
| Starring | |
| Production company | Red Bee Media |
| Produced by | Carrie Hart |
| Country | United Kingdom |
The Doctor Who 50 years trailer is a sixty-second television trailer which promoted "The Day of the Doctor", the fiftieth anniversary special episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Filmed across two days in a studio, it stars Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, with multiple other actors providing images and poses of the key characters, over whom features of the original actors would be placed. The trailer premiered on BBC One on 19 October 2013.
Summary
The sixty-second trailer features a 3D bullet time sequence through a frozen landscape filled with images from Doctor Who's history, including the Doctor, many of his companions, and enemies, as well as a multitude of props from the show's episodes. During this, the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) narration talks about him running "all my lives" from "the day of the Doctor". The trailer ends with the hashtag #SaveTheDay.
Filming and production
Red Bee Media, which had previously produced trailers for Doctor Who such as the 2008 campfire trailer, was hired to work on a special trailer for the fiftieth anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor". It was directed by Matt Losasso and produced by Carrie Hart, with sound design provided by String and Tins. Red Bee Media conceived the basic outline to emphasise the fact that "The Day of the Doctor" would be shown in 3D. Major elements of the trailer were recorded on 15–16 August 2013, at Stage 1 of Black Island Studios in London. The original costumes and props were supervised by Andrew Beech. During filming, actors were hired to pose as the key characters, over whom the features of the original actors were placed:
- Andy McInnes as the First Doctor
- Stephen Rose as the Second Doctor
- Jon Crowley as the Third Doctor
- Paul Hughes as the Fourth Doctor
- Nic Zabilowicz as the Fifth Doctor
- Chris Laurens as the Sixth Doctor
- Jim Ewan as the War Doctor
- Robert Ratajczak as the Ninth Doctor
- Josh Sutherland as the Tenth Doctor
- Jan Hoffman as the Eleventh Doctor
- Ami Kandel as Clara Oswald and Sarah Jane Smith
- Robert David Cashin as the Master
- Natalie Wood as Rose Tyler
- Bella Sabbagh as Donna Noble
- Naomi Delrme as Amy Pond
- Valona Irons as Martha Jones
- Joseph Paxton as the policeman
- Michael Pearson as the soldier and the Dalek victim
The images of Matt Smith (Eleventh Doctor) and Jenna Coleman (Clara Oswald) were captured on 2 September 2013 in London, while Smith's narration was recorded on 5 October during recording of "The Time of the Doctor". Many of the camera movements were recreated in the software Flame. To do this, the cameras were tracked and stabilised, before being recreated into a stable camera movement. This stable movement allowed the inclusion of more subtle references from the show.
The still of William Hartnell (First Doctor) is the first image of the actor to be presented in high-resolution colour. To create the image, Losasso sourced a black-and-white image from the episode The Web Planet (1965), and spent hours placing elements from a double over the top of the original still in Adobe Photoshop to manipulate the image to colour. Following this, Framestore visual effects supervisor Oliver Bersey added slight edits, before adding subtle 2D manipulations to give a 3D effect. Bersey also created a matte painting of the vast landscape that appears at the end of the trailer.
Release and reception
The BBC announced the trailer on 19 October 2013 alongside a promotional image of all eleven Doctors. The trailer aired on BBC One the same day at approximately 8:20 p.m., after Strictly Come Dancing, and was subsequently released on YouTube. The Verge's Ellis Hamburger called it "essential viewing for any Doctor Who fan", and Radio Times felt it "was the sort of thing that could only have been made for a fanbase as fervent as Doctor Who's". #SaveTheDay trended on Twitter after the trailer was released, and the video received almost one million views on YouTube within two days.
References
- ^ Hamburger, Ellis (20 October 2013). "BBC's Doctor Who 50th anniversary trailer is filled with hidden Easter eggs". The Verge. Vox Media. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
- ^ Dowell, Ben (19 October 2013). "Doctor Who: Fans react to the dazzling Day of the Doctor trailer". Radio Times. Immediate Media Company. Archived from the original on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
- ^ Pixley, Andrew (August 2014). "The Day of the Doctor". Doctor Who Magazine. Vol. The Year of the Doctor: The Official Guide to Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, no. Special Edition 38. Royal Tunbridge Wells: Panini Comics. p. 12.
- ^ "Doctor Who 'The Day of the Doctor - 50 year trailer'". Framestore. October 2013. Archived from the original on 14 June 2015. Retrieved 8 November 2014.
- ^ Ainsworth, John, ed. (2016). "The Day of the Doctor and The Time of the Doctor". Doctor Who: The Complete History. 74 (17). London: Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks: 75–77. ISSN 2057-6048.
- ^ "Doctor Who Trailer to Celebrate the Last 50 Years". BBC. 19 October 2013. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
- Connelly, Brendon (19 October 2013). "New Doctor Who Trailer To Air On The BBC Tonight, First Look Image Arrives". Bleeding Cool. Avatar Press. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
- Davis, Lauren (19 October 2013). "50th Anniversary teaser flies through the history of Doctor Who". io9. Gawker Media. Archived from the original on 22 October 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
- "Doctor Who 50th anniversary teaser trailer: the best of what you may have missed". Radio Times. Immediate Media Company. 21 October 2013. Archived from the original on 1 March 2021. Retrieved 25 November 2024.
- Chapman, Matthew (21 October 2013). "Doctor Who brings back past Doctors for 50th anniversary episode trailer". Campaign. Haymarket Media Group. Archived from the original on 24 November 2024. Retrieved 25 November 2024.