Doctor Who fans decode 60th anniversary details in cryptic teaser

Tyler Constable
An image of David Tennant as the Fourteenth Doctor in the upcoming Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials.

Doctor Who fans have decoded some details about the show’s upcoming 60th anniversary specials by analyzing a surprise cryptic teaser.

On April 29, 2023, Doctor Who fans were taken by surprise when a brand new teaser for the beloved Sci-Fi show’s 60 anniversary specials ‘glitched’ onto the UK TV channel BBC1 during an indent between programming.

The Whovian community immediately put their detective hats on and started analyzing the cryptic teaser which featured a brief look at the upcoming episodes, and some mysterious binary codes.

Fans were swiftly able to decode the teaser and uncovered some exciting details about the 60th-anniversary specials, including the potential name of an episode, some interesting dialogue, and when we might see another official trailer.

Doctor Who fans decode 60 anniversary details in cryptic teaser

One of the first findings by fans was some new dialogue uttered by David Tennant‘s Fourteenth Doctor, and Catherine Tate’s Donna Temple-Noble. Shortly after the teaser aired, it was shared on Twitter by the fan account @Whovian_Life who discovered that reversing the footage reveals the previously incoherent dialogue.

In the reversed footage, The Fourteenth Doctor can be heard saying “Cryptic, I hate that.” followed by Donna asking “Why did this face come back?”

Donna’s dialogue is clearly directed towards the return of David Tennant’s Fourteenth Doctor who shares a face with the Tenth whom she had previously traveled with. The context of The Doctor’s line is less clear but it could be a meta nod to the enigmatic teaser itself.

Three binary codes were featured in the teaser that another fan quickly decoded. According to the tweet, the three codes translate to 7!@THE#!!” ^@^@ STAR &% #(BEAST(*2” which is a direct reference to the comic ‘Doctor Who and the Star Beast’ the first story to feature Beep the Meep – a creature we know will play an important role in the specials.

Finally, a message reading Loading New Sequence User ID: EV1305 also appeared in the teaser and this has led many fans to believe that a full trailer could air during the broadcast of the Eurovision Song Contest finale that will take place on May 13, 2023.

Only time will tell if we do see a new trailer on May 13 but it’s certainly an exciting time to be a Doctor Who fan as the 60th-anniversary celebrations draw ever closer.

You can keep up with all the latest Doctor Who news and information by visiting our home page for the show.

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About The Author

Tyler is Dexerto's Gaming Evergreen Specialist. He loves many games but is particularly fond of JRPGs and The Last of Us. When he's not writing about or playing video games, he's probably watching Doctor Who or reading a book. You can contact him at tyler.constable@dexerto.com