Discuss Doctor Who's famous title theme, Murray Gold's incidental music, the cheesy synth from the '80s, and other random songs that make their way into the series here!

So...what's everyone's favorite version of the title theme? Mine is the 1980 version that played throughout all of the Peter Davison era. I thought it had a good, catchy beat and was the most exciting version of the theme. As a kid whenever I heard it at the beginning of an episode, I knew I was in for some fun TV. Plus, it had this alien-sounding weirdness that I miss in Murray Gold's orchestral's version for the new series.

I listen to the Big Finish audios, and I have to say that Colin Baker's Trial theme has grown on me.

Dude, until recently it was my ringtone.

I do like it; it has some extra melodies the new version doesn't have. But damn, do I love the new version's them. And I always get a kick out of the intro signaling the end of the episode and beginning of the preview for next week.

I also like Orbital's take on the them. It's fun.

It is my ringtone! Hee.

I love the version that Orbital did for the main theme. It starts with this bit of dialogue that I can't for the life of me identify and then the dun dun dun starts. It's awesome.

I'm pretty sure that the normal version (at least the one I have) doesn't have any dialogue in the beginning. But I do have this live version that starts off with the First Doctor's speech to Susan from "The Dalek Invasion of Earth" (and the beginning of "The Five Doctors"):



I think the new new version does have them now, if you mean what I think you mean (some fans call it "the middle 8")--it played during the end credits of "The Christmas Invasion", but I think an announcer talked over it.

Orbital's mix of the theme is my favorite Whoish music, second only to Dean Gray's "Dr. Who on Holiday" from his American Edit mash-up album. I love the way the crowd in the live recording goes absolutely wild when they hear the first few notes. The dialogue at the beginning of the song is from a 2nd Doctor episode. Don't know which one. Here's the exact quote:


Edited because a "nob" and a "knob" are two rather different things. ;)

Why don't I have that dialogue in my song? What the hell kind of ripoff version did I download?

And you gave it to me! Stop spreading your disease! This version seems to come from The Altogether, and I think it's probably correct. The dialogue version may be from somewhere else.

Gold updated the theme arrangement for "The Christmas Invasion," following a long tradition of tarting up the theme arrangement a bit with each new Doctor (originally it was the addition of whooshes and spanglies, and the Cliffhanger Scream in the end titles.)

I initially found Gold's music a bit too reminiscent of the cheesy synth/drum machines stuff of the last few seasons of the original show -- it was weird liking Sylvester McCoy's Doctor so much but despising the cheap underscore to the extent that I did (and still do.) It got better in a hurry, though, and there are some nice things about Gold's underscore -- including the choral voices in several episodes.

Of the theme arrangements, I'm still fondest of the Delia Derbyshire original -- but I know what she had to do by way of realizing Ron Grainer's composition (it's said that Grainer, hearing it for the first time, asked "Did I write this?" He was intending to sweeten the piece with a string section, but Derbyshire's production caued him to toss the charts -- he considered it fully complete. It's interesting that Gold's version reflects that intent with its string counterpoints.)

For background on the Who music, I highly recommend a documentary called Alchemists Of Sound, which is about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. One of the people featured in the piece is composer Mark Ayres, who served as composer for the series for a time; he's become quite the historian when it comes to the history of the music for Doctor Who.

There are several CD collections of music from the show, John Debney's score for the TV movie is available if you search (a composer promo was released, but hardly in minimal quantities), and there's a double CD collection from Tristram Cary, another experimental composer who did some music for the early stories.

The story of the music for Who is rather fascinating, I think.

Left-field Who music: look for a site called WhoMix; this features rmixes, remakes an remodels of the Doctor Who theme -- some of them are spectacular (some less so.) Also, Pink Floyd fans may well smile when thinking of Meddle -- "One Of These Days" plays with the bass riff and bits of the lead line, something made more explicit in the live version on Pulse.

And for those who'd really rather dance -- The KLF masquerading as the Timelords with "Doctorin The TARDIS" which mashes Gary Glitter's "Rock And Roll Part Two" with the Who theme (there was more recently a mashup of Green Day's "Holiday" with the Who theme, Dalek lines and George W. Bush -- "Dr. Who On Holiday.")

(Edited to correct a title.)

Mike Ayres has a really interesting web page about the history of the theme.

areacode212 and Polter-Cow, I was talking about a live version that starts with the dialogue that mswyrr described. (Thanks by the way)

For the people who saw The Christmas Invasion: what's the name of the song that played when the new Doctor was changing clothes? And where can I find it? It's adorable but I just can't find it. Maybe it was written for the show?

Ack, mid-90s clubbing flashbacks! Duck and cover!

Apparently, it was composed by Murray Gold and sung by Tim Phillips. It's called "Song for Ten" and you can listen to part of it here.

I also love the song from "Christmas Invasion." And the ethereal choral theme that repeats throughout the (new) series, it's so spooky and beautiful. I hope they release a soundtrack at some point.

Dalek: "Bosh bosh bosh, loadsamoney!" I'm surprised they haven't re-released it with updated pop-culture references... probably not a very KLF-y thing to do though.

My favourite version of the theme is still the Pertwee/Baker-era Radiophonic Workshop one, but Murray Gold's remix has grown on my a lot. I don't know if the Gold version is online, but somebody called Hardwire has done a few very close versions of it (remixes of a remix...) here - it's called 'Good As Gold'.

Hated the thudding, warbling McCoy version though. Ugh! (Mind you, I hated almost everything about the McCoy era... best left forgotten!)

One thing I think the new arrangement is missing is a kind of hissing, breathing sound underneath the closing credits. I always imagined that it was a Kaled breathing or something. Of course, it's been a while since I watched the closing credits of the new series, so I could be totally wrong.

I have to say that I love, love, love the latest arrangement. Give me some strings over another layer of electronic bleeping any day. To me, the stringy bits add just the right hint that this is going to be an an adventure, and take away a touch of the Sci-Fi cheese. In that way, it works for the new series. (It's also in the same key as the original theme, which is important to me for reasons beyond my comprehension.)

Having said that; this being Doctor Who, there should be some electronic bleeping and Sci-Fi cheese. Therefore, I'm less of a fan of Gold's fully orchestral version, despite its inclusion of the middle eight.

You can listen to most of them here.

Thanks, SnoodMasterK! That is an awesome site!

Woot! That site rocks.

I was wondering where the Who thread was!

SnoodMasterK, thanks for that site. I gave up trying to find "Song for Ten" a while ago.

My favorite versions of the theme are not the ones on the TV show, but the varitations that have been made for various CDs. The "Terror" version is one of favorites, it's just so creepy it's brilliant.

Tomb of the Cybermen.

I bought the VHS off eBay and played it for my roommate (who had been rocking out to the song with me; his jaw dropped when he saw the actual episode with the dialogue!)

Having seen the series, I think the music does get better. I found the music in Rose a bit too video-game like at times. But as others have pointed out, his use of choral voices in the later episodes is extremely well done. And there's one scene in Bad Wolf where...well, that would be spoiling things...



I'm on the other side of the fence there...McCoy is my favorite Doctor.

Good feck, I spent the Christmas holidays running Google into the goddamned ground trying to find out what that song was. Gah! Double gah!

Thanks for the info on the themes. I'd never had the chance to hear them back to back so I don't actually have a fav version yet. I'll be able to pick one once I've hear them all.

As per music used on the show, I've only seen the first two eps of the 9th doctor's season so I don't know how that is goin to shape up but wanted to comment that not just being in danger of death but being in danger of death WHILE BRITNEY SPEARS MUSIC PLAYS is one of the most horrific fates a companion has ever faced. It was brilliant. It also just proves how evil trampolina really was.

"Dosh, dosh, dosh", surely, after the Harry Enfield character's catchphrase?

Before he was 'officially' called Loadsamoney on Saturday Live, he was The Plasterer, and part of his routine would go something like "Into the house, bosh bosh bosh [waves hand around as if slapping plaster onto a wall]... loadsamoney!" God, I feel old remembering that.

Murray Gold is up and down for me. Some scenes he'll do wonderful stuff with -- the end of "The End of the World" and the whole of episode 12 spring to mind. But then he'll reuse a major track in such a way that jars (particularly obvious in 13) or the music will be a bit too loud or a bit too obvious. I guess a lot of it is a budget thing that they can't record new music all the time, but still...

Never knew that! I stand happily corrected.

Please keep the thread topic in mind.

I have to say that the full orchestral version of the theme is awfully wonderful (thanks, SnoodMasterK, for that incredible link!), now that I've had a chance to check it out. But my favorite is still the original. As cheesy as it sounds, I grew up with that theme song. And now that I found out how it was recorded originally, I love it even more. Delia Derbyshire was a frakkin' genius! (For anyone who doesn't know what I'm talking about, you can look her up on Wikipedia.)

Guess I'm all about the cheese. Or my childhood. Whatever, same thing.

As for the songs in the show, the Brittney was disturbing, but still kinda funny. As long as they don't play any of Billie Piper's songs, I think I'll be okay.

yeah, i thought Toxic playing was a riot. The main theme music passes in my book.

Oh, I love Song for Ten! Thanks for the link!

I have a certain fondness for the Davison-era theme (when I first really paid any attention to DW) but the fully orchestral version rocks. I love that the spine-tingliness doesn't have to be down to the speeps and bloops and radiophonic warbles - it sounds as good played on traditional musical instruments!

The montage that showed while "Toxic" was playing was so very music video-esque that it threw me right out of the episode. I half expected to see Rose slithering around on the floor in a bejeweled body stocking.

According to a program segment on the making of the Toxic video, that was no body stocking. That was a whole lot of time spent by someone with a bottle of glue and other materials doing the same kind of work directly on Britney's body that some Playboy playmates have done for "costume" parties at the mansion. Some of Britney's contortions were to avoid showing a bit too much, but less modest shots of playmates have passed muster with US TV censors, because you don't tend to notice they're not "really" wearing anything.

Hell, I think it's on topic..

For the benefit of those outside the UK, British Telecom's latest gimmick to make us text landlines is that they get read out to the recipient by a recording of Tom Baker.

Predictably, there are lots of sites with the Doctor saying very naughty things, but this is not one of them. No;

The Doctor Sings

My favourite is "Wish You Were Here".

Classic! I love the quasi-xylophone on How Soon Is Now, but yes, Wish You Were Here is just too cool for school.

Hm, there was a lovely bit of music on the BBC's Who site last week. I meant to record it, but when I checked today, I found that the TPTB decided to change the page, and the music is no longer there. The DW Theme Repository doesn't seem to have it either, but I thought maybe someone here had.

The original theme was actually a staggering technical achievement. This site goes into how it was produced/recorded, for those interested in the details of such things.

I do remember some tinkly music that was playing with the hospital of New Earth in the background in the middle of an open field. I thought it was going to be associated with the episode. I didn't get a copy of it, though. Was that what you were thinking of? The home page used to not have all the computer displays.

I'm delighted the 'Middle Eight' is back in the closing credits for Season Two. It felt kinda wierd without it.

And personally, i think its the best arrangement in years; definately more 'orchestral' than 'disco'.

Which is always a good thing.

I was really diggin' on the incidental music in the last few minutes of "Girl in the Fireplace", especially when the piano echoes the "diddly-dum" of the theme.

I hope they put out a soundtrack.

I know!! When I was a kid, it used to be included solely at the end of a season, and I loved it. I was listening for it especially on the Parting of the Ways closing credits and when it wasn't there was I gutted. I was so happy to hear it back this season :-) And on all the episodes, no less!

omg. The Doctor singing "Common People" was brilliant, particularly in light of all the Ten/Jarvis Cocker comparisons.

I did too. And I usually hate incidental music shows tend to throw in.

Oh, why why why is there not a full version of "Song for Ten" available? When they played that in "Christmas Invasion" I practically wept tears of joy. It's perfect and I want to listen to it every day for the rest of my life! </wibble>

Anybody know what that song was that played on the record player in the beginning of the television movie from 1996? I've been going crazy trying to find who did it and the title. Been wanting a copy of it for years...

EDIT: Doh! I misread the first post. I thought it referred to any season of Who, since it mentioned the old-school theme music, but it meant just any of the old music that gets snuck in in the current orchestrated themes.

Gad, this is about something in the last UK S2 ep so I shall err on the side of caution...

The music playing when Ten's in the pit, which is falling apart, so he scrambles backwards and suddenly bumps into the TARDIS. It starts out all worrying and so-this-is-it-we're-going-to-die, and then at that critical moment bam, just four chords. Four stunning chords.

I've rewound that more times than I care to admit just for that bit. I don't know off the top of my head who's responsible for the orchestral background music, but I wish to declare them a genius.

I was looking at the bbc site and found a PDF for Doctor Who Confidential (Season 1/Ninth Doctor) songs listed by episode. I found it interesting and thought you might as well.

Buni, I thought the music throughout The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit was gorgeous, especially in the sequence where the Doctor is going down the pit. The beautiful cello while Ten is talking mediatively to Ida...