The Dark Lord…of Time?
This might just blow your mind a little. But first let’s get it out of the way that there has been fan speculation for years that the exterminating Daleks on Doctor Who appear to have served as inspiration for the design of R2D2 in Star Wars, and the Daleks made their television debut in 1964 too — more than a decade before Star Wars hit theaters in 1977. While there’s no official source to confirm this, the similarities are undeniable — just Google R2D2 Dalek and there’s pages and pages of fun stuff, like this and this and this and this and this and especially this.
But there’s another and much more infamous character from Star Wars who made something of an appearance in the opening and closing credits of Doctor Whoduring the early 1970s — the era of The Third Doctor (played by Jon Pertwee). It’s the Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader himself, who seems to materialize repeatedly during the opening/closing sequences. This is a quick shot of a frame from the closing credits:
Below you’ll find the show’s title sequence and closing credits edited into a single video (but “clean” without credits). You don’t even need to cross your eyes or squint for this one. And once you see it, I promise you can’t unsee it.