Curious correlation between Dr Who regeneration and BBC One globe changes

Today marks the 57th anniversary of the first episode of Doctor Who. BBC One marked the occasion with a trail teasing the return of John Barrowman as Captain Jack in the festive special.

But there is a strange – and entirely coincidental – link between the original series and Pres. Revamps of the BBC One globe seem closely related to The Doctor’s regenerations.

In 1966 the BBC One globe changed and later that year so did The Doctor. But after that the link becomes almost spooky.

In November 1969 the familiar mirror globe was introduced with the launch of colour. At the time the series was on holiday. When it returned in January, Jon Pertwee made his debut. The original black and blue mirror globe introduced each Jon Pertwee episode.

Then in 1974 – in the very week of Tom Baker’s debut – the globe changed. The blue and orange globe was in use all through the Fourth Doctor’s era.

Are you spotting a theme yet?

The globe then changed in 1981 between Tom Baker’s final episode and Peter Davison’s official debut. Unusually Colin Baker made his debut before the end of the 1984 series while the 1981 globe was still in use.

If the normal pattern had been followed his debut would have been in January 1985. That’s also when the COW globe was due to debut before the launch was put back by a few weeks.

The COW survived Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy and introduced every episode until the original run of the series ended.

You can’t help but wonder whether there would have been a new Doctor in 1991 otherwise…

What a strange coincidence made all the more amusing by the fact that there genuinely is no suggestion that this happened by anything other than pure chance.

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