Score of the week

Of course, I think the new Doctor Who has been perfect from the very first episode. The minute Delia Derbyshire's cliffhanger scream played over the time vortex from the opening titles, I was instantly transported back to my childhood. The deal was sealed about twenty minutes into the first episode, when Rose Tyler (Billie Piper) ran toward the TARDIS yelling 'Doctor!'. This was the real deal, Doctor Who was back on telly, and it was fucking brilliant.

A more critical part of my brain, however, notices that the careful balance between barminess and adventure that Doctor Who needs to hit was very much a work in progress for the first two seasons. It might even be argued that the show only hit its stride when unburdened of the loaded relationship between Rose and the Doctor. The latest series in particular, buoyed by Catherine Tate taking the re-invention of the companion further than Billie Piper ever did, went from strength to strength, with perhaps the only duff episode being 'The Doctor's Daughter'.

Of course, the show couldn't have hit such diverse highs as 'The Unicorn and the Wasp', 'Midnight', or 'The Stolen Earth' without the careful build up of the first couple of seasons. The show needed Rose Tyler to lead up to Donna Noble. In a similar fashion, the music of Murray Gold started out pretty strong and developed into some of the best scoring we're currently hearing on the box. Series 1 was scored entirely with synthesizers and samples, which to an extent limited the effectiveness of some of the scoring, although some cues recalled the avant-garde electronica which was a staple of Doctor Who music in the 60s and 70s. As the popularity of the show has solidified, Gold has been given expanding resources to realise his scores, and is now able to utilise the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. His scores, like the show itself, vary wildly in styles and tone, and are never ashamed of big broad strokes.

This is the third soundtrack release for the series, presenting music from Series 4. It kicks off with Murray Gold's third (and best) reworking of the immortal Ron Grainer/Delia Derbyshire theme, with chugging guitar and high energy percussion propelling along Derbyshire's unearthly howls. Then we're treated to highlights from the material Murray Gold wrote for Series 4 - from the jaunty theme for Donna ('A Noble Girl About Town') through to action ('UNIT Rocks', 'The Dark and Endless Dalek Night') heartbreak ('The Rueful Fate of Donna Noble') and triumph ('Song of Freedom'). It's obvious that Murray Gold has been paying attention to Michael Giacchino's brilliant work for Lost, and elsewhere influences as diverse as John Murphy and Ennio Morricone can be heard, although Murray Gold definitely has his own distinct voice.

As with the previous two albums, Gold's music is better served here than in the show itself, where it often re-edited and tracked into different episodes, and frequently too prominent in the mix. This last problem has been rectified in Series 4, but the tracking of older cues remains an issue: the finale from the cue 'The Daleks', which fit the scene it was written for (the cliffhanger of the penultimate episode of Series 2, 'Army of Ghosts') like a glove, was far less suited to use in the Series 3 episode 'Evolution of the Daleks' and suffers even more by being repetitively tracked into several sequences in the Series 4 finale 'Journey's End'. I suspect these problems are more due to the producers of the show rather than decisions made by Gold.

But the album presentation is terrific, even though some of my favourite musical moments are not represented, such as the mime sequence from 'Partners In Crime', the introduction of Agatha Christie in 'The Unicorn and the Wasp', or the cliffhanger from 'The Silence in the Library'. But there was such a wealth of material composed for this series it's no wonder some good stuff had to get left off. The importance of Murray Gold's contribution to the show's success cannot be over-estimated. Doctor Who has always been an ever evolving beast, and the new incarnation has cleared such hurdles as the changing of Doctor and companion. With the show about to go through changes again, it will be interesting to see if Gold stays on - or if not, who would be capable of replacing him.