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HcN Soundtrack Sunday Vol. 9

Hi, all. I'm Doug and I'll be your Soundtrack Sunday guest host for this week.

A couple of weeks back, the web-site Total Sci-Fi released the results of a poll in which their users chose the best SF TV theme song of all time. The winner was the theme to Doctor Who and I thought it would be interesting to present a history of that theme. And Jonathan is allowing me to do so as part of the Soundtrack Sunday series. (Thanks, Jonathan!)

Be warned that, as this will be the history of a tune that's been around since 1963, it's going to be a little more long-winded than the standard StS. All right, then, we're off...

I love this theme, even in some of its more iffy incarnations. It's been with me, in one form or another, since childhood. That bass line starts and my heart-rate increases in anticipation of an adventure across time and space. Then the lead line starts and we're well into our adventure. (You all know it. All together now: ooo-EEE-oooo!) And the heroic "middle eight" as we enter a major key, with the Doctor clearly triumphant...

As well as just being an amazing tune, the Doctor Who theme has some historical significance, being a very early example of electronic music, before the advent of synthesizers and everything was analogue. The tune was composed by Ron Grainer, then given to the now-legendary Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. You can read about the insanely difficult manual manipulation process Derbyshire went through at the Wikipedia. It's pretty mind-blowing. And this was the result:

Man, that's cool. This essentially was the theme used through the first 17 seasons of the program, from William Hartnell's time on the show to part way through Tom Baker's tenure, although there were a few tweaks here and there. During the Patrick Troughton years, the "stutter" or "electronic spangles" were added at the beginning of the opening theme and, for the Jon Pertwee years, the famous "sting" was added to the start of the closing credits.

The first major variation of the theme came in 1980 for season 18, the last for Tom Baker. New producer John Nathan-Turner (bless 'im) decided to take the show in a new direction, and this included making the opening music a little more "futuristic". Unfortunately, the 1980s version of "futuristic" quickly turned into "badly dated". This included the theme (now arranged by Peter Howell), which suddenly lost a lot of its previous charm; the change was not generally liked by Doctor Who's fanbase.

Not really bad, but lacking... something. This theme last through all of Peter Davison's tenure and into Colin Baker's. During C. Baker's final season (the season long "Trial of a Time Lord"), however, the arrangement was changed a bit (this time by Dominic Glynn), giving it back a bit of its former eerie quality.

When the BBC unceremoniously dumped Colin Baker, that version of the theme song also met its end. When Sylvester McCoy stepped in as the 7th Doctor, yet another arrangement of the theme was heard. Unfortunately, it was a return to the over-heavy synth sound from the Davison era. This version, arranged by Keff McCulloch, lasted until the original show's last season in 1989.

Jump ahead to the 1996 TV movie starring Paul McGann. For the first time on screen, the theme is given a full orchestral treatment, arranged by John Debney. Which should make it sound majestic, but somehow falls a little short of the mark. It also takes its time to get going as the beginning was originally in the background as McGann does some narration.

Another big jump, this time to 2005 with Doctor Who's return to the airwaves, with Christopher Eccleston. Murray Gold, composer for all of the new program's incidental music, did a wonderful job in updating the theme for the 21st century. Gold embraced the best of the original theme (some of it directly sampled from earlier versions), while still making it his own. I particularly love the rising and falling strings. This is how a (partly) orchestral version should sound.

As with earlier themes, this one has gone through a couple of minor tweaks. When David Tennant became the Doctor, the theme seemed to be moved up a pitch or two, but otherwise remained the same.

And there you have it. A (believe it or not) condensed history of the Doctor Who theme. Other variations have been created for different Doctor Who projects as well, such as the Big Finish audio adventures... but I think that would be a whole 'nother post.

Tags: doctor who, soundtrack sunday

9 Comments

Comment by Jonathan Llyr on May 3, 2009 at 12:28am: Awesome post Doug! I love it when folks heavily participate in the site like this. It's what we're here for! Feel free to do another anytime your heart desires!

Comment by Joe O'Brien on May 3, 2009 at 12:36am: Great post, Doug, and really comprehensive. Good job! It is probably worth mentioning David Arnold's contribution for Big Finish, just because he's arguably the highest profile composer to handle the theme (with a resume stacked with major Hollywood blockbusters), and because his version is admirably creepy, almost malevolent.

Comment by Doug A Scott on May 3, 2009 at 12:46am: Thanks, guys!

Joe, I was thinking the David Arnold version would fall under that hypothetical "whole 'nother post". :-)

Comment by Nigel-63 on May 3, 2009 at 8:46am: ... Thank you Doug, thank you Jon...
... I came on board during Patrick Troughton's time, but really 'woke up' with Jon Pertwee...
... while I remember each (some after the first half-dozen bars), what I find particularly interesting is the feelings, and then the associated memories, that were evoked... other British shows (eg. Blake's 7, Sapphire & Steel, etc), and the music of the day...
... I find that the music hasn't aged nearly as much as a couple of those credits have... (oy)...
... I'm glad to hear the 'Sylvester McCoy' theme again... I feel a little bit attached to that because at the time of it going to air here, (rumour has it that) a person-with-scheduling-'powers' within the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) really had had enough of "that Dr Who" and proceeded to play 'silly buggers' with the time slot (advertised times becoming suggestive rather than merely definitive)... if was a fight, of sorts, to actually catch the show...

... I really enjoyed this - thanks again...

Comment by James Marshall on May 3, 2009 at 9:51am: Great job Doug. Every time I hear that theme I'm taken back to my childhood.

My favourite theme is still the Jon Pertwee version. I think that is probably because it was the first I heard.

I really like the Tom Baker/Peter Davison one, especially the key-change and the slide guitar effect. I thought it was a nice update, while still staying true to the original theme.

I never really liked the Trial of the Timelord theme. It always sounds compressed to me, as if it was played on a keyboard for kids. The richness of the earlier themes was gone from it.

The Sylvester McCoy one...eh. Pretty much like his run as The Doctor, forgotten in the annals of time.

I think the movie theme is dreadful. The tempo feels off . Thematically, it sounds like it wants to be a march, but it's too slow and plodding.

The new series versions were just about the most anticipated part of the show for me. I remember having a discussion at my old fencing club one night about the new show and we were all wondering what it would sound like. Would they use the melody from the original or head off in some totally new direction? After the first episode aired, we all agreed, it was still Doctor Who, although a couple of people didn't like the strings. I liked the orchestral backing and thought it filled the theme out nicely. I think the addition of the percussion for the David Tennant version was a nice addition as well, although there is a point where it starts to sound a bit too much like an Emerson, Lake and Palmer song.

Comment by jim mcclure on May 3, 2009 at 10:20am: yup, it's one of my top 5 favorites, and easily the most recognizable theme song ever written

Comment by Robert Harding on May 3, 2009 at 11:16am: it's funny. I may be one of the only people who really likes the guitar version that Peter Howell did though the original will always be my fav. Other versions short of Peter Howell's just didn't do it for me. Including the new one originally. I don't care for the horns when you come into the upper octave section of the song but that seems to have been fixed with the new David Tennant started and I have to say that the newest theme may be my fav to date (again short of the original).

Great post by the way!

Comment by Gregg Taylor on May 3, 2009 at 7:14pm: Well done Doug!

Comment by Doug A Scott on May 5, 2009 at 6:27pm: Thanks everyone. I'm glad folks enjoyed this! (Maybe I need to start thinking of a possible follow-up...)

HcN Soundtrack Sunday Vol. 9

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