WOTAN - the Font of Doctor Who and the War Machines
By @edent
· Doctor Who font · 7 comments · 250 words · read ~976 times.
As part of my silly floppy artwork, I wanted to find a retro computer font. Then I remembered that there's a 1960s Doctor Who serial with this beauty.
The War Machines is a cracking slice of 60s sci-fi. It's very groovy.
But what font is it?
It isn't Westminster. 
The W is completely wrong. And the letter T is mirrored.
Westminster has a surprising and interesting history.
It isn't Data 70. 
Which, in any case, was released a few years after the episode. Time travel is complex though.
It isn't a modern font like Computer Font 
As far as I can tell, it is an original font which is heavily inspired by Westminster. The T is a particular giveaway.
There are only a few title screens, so there are only a limited number of characters available.
With a bit of jiggery-pokery, we can grab a few more character. A flipped E easily becomes a 3, for example.
I am indebted to my producer Clayton Hickman for his original investigative work.
Just noticed the War Machines title font isn't one of the regular typefaces I assumed it was. Was it specially made? pic.x.com/jiyfllgl8d
I so need to use this on a retro video! 🤓
Isn’t it MICR - the magnetic ink font widely used for machine-readable text on documents such as cheques?
Westminster is a derivative
Caroline Jarrett says:
Oops - double-checked and of course MICR doesn’t have alphabetical characters.
Given that this was the 1960s and the era of Letraset lettering, I’m wondering if the BBC just got a designer to make up the lettering they needed.
This may be peak Terence.
Mirrored letters: could be the method used to make these slides. Did they have them on transparencies and could place them backwards? They wouldn’t notice for letters like ‘T’.
(This doesn’t explain the ‘W’ however)
Interesting thing i noticed with "The Law Machines"
They use data seventy (the K-9) font for the tile and "machines" range, not the custom made one they used in the story
BUT the WOTAN W on the machine is the original font
shkspr.mobi/blog/2020/09/w…