Peter Capaldi made his first public appearance as The Doctor of the long-running British sci-fi drama Doctor Who on Friday, ahead of the series highly anticipated return Saturday.

Capaldi and costar Jenna Coleman, who plays his onscreen companion Clara Oswald, surprised fans at London’s Parliament Square as he inspected a replica of the series’ iconic TARDIS that had “crash-landed.”

The entire event stemmed from the BBC’s desire to engage fans on non-traditional channels and add a blockbuster element to the brand’s relaunch with the new face.

Working with Red Bee Media, the BBC combined a YouTube masthead banner with an unexpected live event, in order to attract as broad a reach as possible, targeting both fans and non-fans alike.

Red Bee Media created an online game that would appear in the expandable YouTube banner space, in which players controlled the TARDIS and tried to get it to land on earth. Players who successfully created the mission saw the TARDIS land in Parliament Square, which unlocked exclusive show content.

The specially-built TARDIS replica was unveiled Friday as part of that mysterious live event.

“Red Bee, working in close collaboration with our internal teams, has delivered two ideas that beautifully and dramatically bring to life to the enormity of this moment,” said Hugh Davies, head of marketing at BBC Drama.

UPDATE Sept 2, 2014: The BBC has also released a time-lapse video of the installation:

CREDITS

BBC:

BBC Marketing Head of Drama: Hugh Davies

BBC Marketing Manger: Kerry McDonagh

BBC Marketing Executive: Claire McDonald

BBC Publicist: Catherine Moor

BBC Publicist: Christopher Duggan

Red Bee Media:

Creative Director: Jim DeZoete

Creative: Jason Thomson

Producer: Erin Moroney

Account Director: Christopher Godfree

Special Build Production: Hothouse

Photo: BBC/Guy Levy

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