On 28th September 2023, Doctor Who @ 60: A Musical Celebration was performed to a select group by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and The BBC Singers. Conducted by Alistair King and hosted by Jo Whiley, the beautiful event is now available for listening on the BBC Sounds app for the next 29 days. Further, it will be broadcasted on Sunday 15th October on BBC Radio 2.
Eagerly, I listened to the stream last night after having heard stories that the attendees were treated to glimpses of upcoming Murray Gold compositions and the new theme music. I was not disappointed and found that, even without these treats, the entire event is a joy to hear. Also, there were hints towards what future Doctor Who will feel like throughout the event and I will give my thoughts on this during my article.
Doctor Who @ 60
Doctor Who @ 60 truly was an adventure through the past, present and future. Encompassing musical arrangements of the classic era, the post-2005 NuWho era and the upcoming RTD2 era, the musical journey effectively covered 60 years of Doctor Who. Likewise, Jo Whiley’s interviewees were Doctor Who contributors picked up from different periods in the show’s history.
Aptly the event opens with one of Doctor Who’s most dynamic and exciting scores: I Am The Doctor (Murray Gold’s composition for the 11th Doctor that is heavily associated with series 5’s 2010 reboot of the show). Whiley describes the song as harbouring a “Distinct riff to let us know the Doctor had a plan”. Towards the end of the evening, Murray Gold commented that this 7-4 beat composition is “all about [The 11th Doctor’s] gangly walk”. This unforgettable theme goes hand in hand Matt Smith’s most memorable moments. It plays throughout the iconic series 5 trailer (Where the Doctor and Amy are stargazing before being jettisoned into the time vortex). It introduces the 11th Doctor during his defining Eleventh Hour scene- in which he drags the Atraxi back to Earth to assert that he IS the Doctor. Moreover, I am the Doctor bookends series 5 during the 11th Doctor’s powerful Stonehenge speech to all his enemies. Matt Smith had big boots to fill in replacing David Tennant and the transition was greatly helped with I am the Doctor’s supplementation- Matt Smith is the Doctor.
Following this, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales then performed 2007’s exhilarating All the Strange Strange Creatures. The song, whose title is inherited from a line in Murray Gold & Neil Hannon’s Love Don’t Roam, is heavily attached to the series 3/4 scenes of The Doctor and Martha/Donna running or facing intense climactic moments/cliffhangers. This song is used for the frantic chase down from the Futurekind in Utopia, Bad Wolf appearing absolutely everywhere at the end of Turn Left, all the companions banding together against the Daleks in Journey’s End or the Doctor’s triumphant return to Bowie Base One in Waters of Mars. If a moment in Doctor Who has ever thrilled you to the limits, All The Strange Strange Creatures was likely playing.
Next, love is shown to the Classic Era of Doctor Who as the Radiophonic Workshop’s music for The Sea Devils, The Curse of Fenric, The City of Death and The Five Doctors is showcased. The City of Death’s theme is the most fantastic piece of (non-theme tune) music from classic Doctor Who. Accompanying the Doctor and Romana’s scenic travels across Paris and Cambridge in The City of Death and Shada, the piece perfectly conjures images of green grass, dynamic costumes and beautiful buildings.
Jo Whiley then interviews the Radiophonic Workshop’s Mark Ayres and Peter Howell where in she rightly notes how Ron Grainer’s theme (“brilliantly reimagined by Delia Derbyshire”) is the very first thing we ever hear in the show. Peter Howell tells of how Ronald Grainer went on holiday having written a few lines on manuscript paper and, when he came back, he couldn’t believe the amazing effect of what Delia Derbyshire had done. He continues that Derbyshire had taken quite primitive sound-sources with a “sort of homemade guitar string thing” and painstaking oscillators, going through the most enormous amount of trouble to get the dynamics and everything in it. Mark Ayres then talks of how Delia Derbyshires enormous tape trailed down a massive corridor. Both mention the intense budget and time constraints of composing Doctor Who music in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Mark and Peter were emotionally touched and privileged hearing music they wrote 35 years ago being “realised in such a dramatic form”.
Abigail’s Song (Silence is all you know) from A Christmas Carol is played next (featuring the voice of Rebecca Lee) in a performance dedicated to the episode’s star Michael Gambon who tragically died on the 27th September 2023- a day before the Doctor Who @ 60 event. Former Steven Moffat then took to the stage and joked that he would only “Hope and pray that [the music] would play over the explanatory scenes quite loudly”. On a serious note, in relation to Abigail’s Song, Moffat claims that (in the episode’s script) he wrote ‘Could Murray just write a really good song here” to which Gold certainly provided. Steven Moffat then gives an insight into how he wrote the Doctor. With a new actor, he would always just write the Doctor because he knows how the Doctor thinks and then he would see how that plays out of a persons mouth. According to him, you could make Matt Smith’s Doctor as cold & terrible as you like and you’d still love him all the same. Inversely, with Peter Capaldi “you could put in as many silly jokes as you like…he will still scare the crap out of you!” in his mission to “consume the universe with eyebrows!”.
This Is Gallifrey and The Long Song proceed Moffat’s interview. Much like Abilgail’s Song, The Long Song was diegetic and heavily plot-relevant. It was sang, by a diverse array of hundreds of aliens, at the godly Akhaten in The Rings of Akhaten as a song of hope. “You wouldn’t do that in Star Trek!”, notes Moffat, “You’d have lasers but we have some nice singing because we’re British and we’re Doctor Who!”.
Rose Tyler, Martha Jones, Donna Noble & Amy Ponds beautiful and defining themes were then showcased in a very lovely Murray Gold piece called The Companion Suite. Rose’s theme has solemn beginnings which exudes into magnificence inspiring awe and wonder (yet somehow remaining solemn) much like Rose’s character journey. It leaves a listener wanting more as the Doctor similarly yearned for her return. Murray stated later on that “It wasn’t until Billie Piper’s (Rose’s) radiant smile staring out at the universe and then deciding the one thing she’d like most is a bag of chips that the themes of Doctor Who really started to land and cohere with the characters”. Martha’s theme projects intelligence, wisdom and inspiration- her character’s strengths. Suitably, Donna’s theme is loud, boisterous, funny and unpredictable- laced with a businesswoman air of sophistication (it has Donna written all over). Of course, Amy Pond’s theme is that of a whimsical fantasy accompanied by strong feelings of mourning.
Emily Cook, Doctor Who’s real-life companion-helper, was a saxophonist during The Companion Suite. Cook takes to the stage by laughingly admitting that she’s played the saxophone all her life but has never had a lesson. Jo Whiley talks to Emily Cook about how pivotal her global Doctor Who: Lockdown! Twitter simulcast rewatches were to inspiring the upcoming era of the show. Whiley states a claim (also made by Russell T Davies, David Tennant and me in my whole Masters Dissertation) that “I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that none of this would have happened if it wasn’t for you”, asking Cook, “do you think that’s fair?”. Humbly embarrassed, Emily Cook replies “I don’t know what to say Jo, it’s quite overwhelming, amazing and magical” contributing that “I think it’s just the power of Doctor Who […] I think the fans are the second beating heart of the show”. During Doctor Who: Lockdown!, an notable moment came when 300+ fans around the world virtually came together to sing a cover of The Long Song in both English and Latin led by German guitarist Borna Matosic. Matosic was in the attendance of Doctor Who @ 60 where she met her virtual collaborator Emily Cook in real life for the first time!
Borna Matosic performed alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for their next song- the heartbreakingly devastating Doomsday. This piece followed Rose’s determination and tragedy at the climax of series 2 when, forever separated to parallel Earths, the 10th Doctor and Rose cry against a multiversally corresponding wall. She then follows the sound of the Doctor’s voice to Bad Wolf Bay for their final farewell. Whiley describes the song as “the sound of a million hearts breaking” at how memorably emotional the scene is.
Part one is closed by a Latin song led by the orchestra’s choir- Vale Decem. Another song with heartbreaking connotations for the 10th Doctor, Vale Decem (Goodbye Ten) is incidentally scored during his character’s death as he regenerates into Matt Smith’s incarnation during the End of Time Part 2. Vale Decem is the Ood singing the Doctor to sleep.
Opening part two, The BBC National Orchestra of Wales performed the 12th Doctor theme- A Good Man?. Murray Gold’s piece is described by Whiley as “heroic” whilst “hinting at a conflict for the troubled character”. It scored Capaldi’s incarnation’s introspection as he delved deep into moral self-examination with disbelief in the notion he is a good man. This moral conflict is resolved in his final episode (Twice Upon A Time) when he effectively proves to the 1st Doctor that their lives are worth continuing. I am a Good Man is a resolving sister song to A Good Man which plays during the 1st Doctor’s regeneration in this episode. It is wonderfully performed by the orchestra.
When Chris Chibnall took over reigns of Doctor Who’s showrunner in 2017 to write for the first woman Doctor (Jodie Whittaker), Segun Akinola replaced Murray Gold as the series’ composer. Both Segun and Chris were interviewed together by Jo Whiley at Doctor Who @ 60. In a humorous moment Chibnall joked that he never noticed any levels of scrutiny of his controversial era. He stated that he was prepared for scrutiny & that he knew there’d be an attraction of more scrutiny from changing the Doctor gender. Unfortunately, Chris Chibnall’s assumption was correct but he lightly proclaimed “But that’s the fun of it! You’re doing something new and trying things out. You go in knowing you have to put your suit of armour on, pull your helmet down and do the thing you want to do creatively.”
On discovering Segun, Chibnall stated that he listened to a lot of composers and Segun’s name kept being highly recommended to Chris. He listened to Segun’s documentary work and thought “he’s really interesting!”. Laughing Segun described his experience of working on Doctor Who as “A dose of terror and then a little bit more terror and then a little bit of encouragement from Chris and then a bit more terror”. Chris Chibnall and Matt Streven’s advice to Segun was ‘Just do you!’ and that wonderfully paid off.
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales then performed Segun’s new suite (The Woman who Fell to Earth) which bombastically complied his compositions from The Woman who Fell to Earth, Spyfall and The Power of the Doctor. The suite begins with an aroma of the dawn of a new era with a refreshing feeling of newly-cut grass which conjures the image of Jodie Whitaker’s forestry Doctor reveal video when she unveils her hood. It jumps into action with the fun and mysterious brass instrumental vibe of a James Bond spy thriller which suddenly breaks into a very suspenseful string arrangement before a dramatic, threatening and ominous turn. With a drum section, the suite kicks into an action sequence that connotes to Jodie’s fam running before a slow, calming sting performance.
In the evening’s first taste of the upcoming instalments of Doctor Who, Ruby Sunday’s companion theme is gloriously revealed for the very first time. Composed by returning Murray Gold, The Life of Sunday, the waltz is performed by Catherine Roe Williams on piano. Softly dancing into a twinkle, the piece is certainly one for wedding songs. Around a minute in, it gets very high paced and tense for a moment before returning to its soft dance. Strings then heighten the dance into a beautiful celebration. If I were to predict Ruby Sunday’s character from this piece, I would say: she seems to be an elegant character, with a doe-eyed wonder for the worlds around her, whilst harbouring a sombre heart.
The evening’s star, Murray Gold, is the subject of Jo Whiley’s next interview. He describes his Doctor Who return as a “move back into a house you don’t quite recognise anymore”. He describes listening to The Life of Sunday before it’s usage in the show as exciting, noting how it’s an unprecedented one-off for playing an episode’s score before an episode before hinting “Well, actually, it’s a bit of a two-off…WINK!”. His working relationship with Russell is perfected by their shorthand that has developed over decades and is always able to deliver precisely what Russell wants.
Jo Whiley asked Murray Gold how he approaches composing a theme for a character to which he responded that, “How do they walk? How do they talk? Do I like them? What are they like? Are they sweet? Are they unsavoury?”. On Ncuti’s upcoming 15th Doctor theme, Gold hints that, “it tells you that he’s definitely the Doctor” who goes “running around the universe a lot- dragging people with him. Just a sort of wonderful character, his whole soul projects out of his face!”. The key hint, here, I believe is the sense of dragging people. When listing to the 15th Doctor’s bouncy theme I can envision him pulling Millie Gibson’s Ruby Sunday by the hand and enthusiastically racing off across time and space.
Immediately, 15’s theme hits you with excitement and unpredictability which only builds into a faster melody. One thing is for sure about the upcoming era of Doctor Who from this composition- it will be action-packed! The Doctor’s hearts beat through trumpets in this joyful song which gives me optimism that we will have a positive, hopeful Doctor- who’s hardships may be few. (I mean, come on, they’ve been through enough in NuWho! Give the Doctor a break!).
Russell T Davies gives us the final and most exciting interview of the night. He sarcastically says, “I think you can tell from the 15th Doctor’s theme that we’re coming back subtler than ever!”, referencing how relentlessly fun his theme is. He gives a shoutout to Murray Gold, Segun Akinola, Ben Foster (Torchwood) and Sam Watts & Dan Watts (Sarah Jane Adventures) noting that Sam and Dan now compose The Traitors who’s music is “very Doctor Who-y. It’s dramatic and full and brilliant!”. He states that all of the composers have something in common in that the “music gets to the heart of what’s going on”. Notable, he blurts “One year… series 4, I’m gonna write an episode that’s all music and no dialogue”. There’s three things I take from this: 1. We’re finally getting a musical episode of Doctor Who (yay!) 2. There’s at least a further 2 series of Russell’s showrunning beyond the series 14 & 15 we know of (yay!) 3. They may be resetting the series numbering back to 1 so new fans don’t have that massive 13 series catch-up backlog (yay!). If my final assumption is correct then NuWho is over and we’re entering an entire new age of Doctor Who- which feels correct but I wonder what they’ll name it!
Closing his interview, Russell gives a fantastical monologue about how viscerally unique Doctor Who really is. He says, “I think that called out to you when you’re 8 years old and beginning to realise that you’re unique. When sometimes you think you’re the only person who can think and round about that time you see this very individual show with a very remarkable lead character-it’s a man! It’s a woman!- it’s just so unique and I think something wraps itself into your soul at that age and just NEVER LETS GO! And may it never let go!”. Which perfectly describes my personal relationship with Doctor Who (and millions of others!).
Penultimately, the orchestra perform The Shepherd’s Boy with is a victorious song depicting the end of Heaven Sent as the Doctor breaks free from his 4 billion year Confession Dial trap.
Finally, we are TREATED to a listen to the brand new incarnation of Delia Derbyshire’s iconic Doctor Who theme for 2023. It is more grandiose than ever before! Running alongside the famous “oooo weee ooo” is a spin with an ever-building loud, dramatic rhythm which reminds me of an intense Mission Impossible-like spy scene. My absolute favourite part of the Doctor Who theme has always been the middle eight so I was overjoyed to hear that this part is uniquely sung by a choir! That was a risk which paid off big time! If I had to sum up the new theme in one word (after 25 listens)- Epic!
Doctor Who @ 60: A Musical Celebration is available on the BBC Sounds App & I would recommend this joyful listen to any Whovian.
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