My favourite Doctor Who Soundtracks
The music for the show has certainly changed over the years from sound design, to synthesizers to small orchestras to large orchestras. In the blog I will discuss some of my favourite music from some of my favourite episodes. I will not be discussing the opening/closing theme of the show in this article but maybe in a future one. I can’t discuss every single episode or every single track I like so i have chosen a few I quite like.
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Tomb of the Cybermen 1966
Composed by Various Artists
If your a Doctor Who fan even if you haven’t seen the episode surely the know the iconic scene of the Cybermen breaking out of their Tombs. The music from the 60s Doctor Who episodes certainly was distinctive and you’ll be hard pushed to find many things similar. The story used a combination of orchestral instruments such as percussion and brass but also using synthesizer sounds and elements of sound design. A lot of the music for the episodes was stock music which was written for other or older stories. The music for the Cybermen Tomb was originally used in Tenth Planet but for some reason is more synonymous with this story. Listen Here
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Earthshock 1982
Composed by Malcolm Clarke
The Soundtrack to the episode Earthshock is a lovely combination of sound design and synths that truly create a wonderful sense of fear of the Cybermen. The metallic hits represent a march of an army one made of metal. I would be surprised if a Doctor Who fan heard this music and not recognise which story it is from. Listen Here
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Warriors of the Deep 1984
Composed by Jonathan Gibbs
The soundtrack to Warrior of the Deep is truly a dark one creating many dissonant sounds on synthesizers, it truly creates a sense of a bleak, isolating and dark future in this underwater base. Some of the my favourite pieces of music from the story are actually when we see the Silurians and Sea Devils before they enter the base when the Silurians are awakening sea Devils and when the Silurians are first shown Listen Here
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Partners in crime 2008
Composed by Murray Gold
Perhaps the lightest on this list but this episode creates some very funny and also heart pumping action sequences. The music that accompanies The Doctor and Donna avoiding each other and finding each other is both funny and also reminds me of some of the Tom and Jerry cartons were music responds very well to each movement (Mickey Mousing) this especially prominent when they see each other through the window. The orchestral Action music in this episode really builds the excitement of the characters running away from the villains using a combination of fast tempo, hard dynamics, strings, brass and percussion. Listen Here
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Midnight 2008
Composed by Murray Gold
Midnight has some truly spine tingling moments from it’s piano tinkiling to it’s tremolo strings to it’s range of tempo changes and dynamic changes which truly push you on edge as the threat in the episode works it’s way round the confined spaces of carriage. Some of the scariest moments are perhaps the silence waiting for the next sudden cue to start. Listen Here
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12th Doctors Theme 2014-2017
Composed by Murray Gold
I don’t think the 12th Doctors theme got the love it deserved it may not of helped that the full version was 7 and a half minutes long or that they were still milking the 11th Doctors theme in the closing credits sequences also that the main part of the theme doesn’t really kick in till over the 2 minute mark. I myself did a midi mock up cover of my 3 favourite minutes of the music which you can listen to here. Replicating the sounds of some of your favourite pieces of music can be difficult but I often find you learn more about music creation and about the artist when studying or covering someone else’s music. Listen Here
As a little bonus to the article a link below contains a track I composed during my music degree and i sampled loads of dialogue from the show which i triggered with a midi keyboard