A new Doctor Who soundtrack album featuring Murray Gold’s music from ‘The Day of the Doctor’ and ‘The Time of the Doctor’ is released this month.
The 2-CD album will be available from Monday 24 November with reversible covers.
> Order the album on Amazon now.
As always, we fed the entire album through Handles’ data banks, and then picked our 10 favourite tracks…
‘I.M. Foreman’
One of several tracks on the ‘Day of The Doctor’ disc that features previously unheard music, ‘I.M. Foreman’ begins with stoic restraint and then veers wildly into an electro-trance effusion that was presumably meant to accompany Clara motorcycling toward/into the TARDIS. There’s a real disconnect between the first 28 seconds and the remaining 40. Just grab your motorcycle helmet and a glow-stick and go with it.
‘He Was There’
Quite rightly parts of the ‘Day of The Doctor’ soundtrack hark back to the show’s musical past. There’s some ‘Caves of Androzani’–style ‘voom-voom!’ vamping on the synth, but before you have time to reach for that sweet sweet bat milk it breaks out into a modern and militaristic swashbuckle featuring a burst of ‘The Stolen Earth’s Dalek theme for good terror.
‘Nice Horse’
‘Nice Horse’ is a seamless galloping patchwork of ‘where’ve I heard that before?’ Who hits. There’s a cheeky three seconds of ‘Westminster Bridge’ (older fans will remember that from way way back in ‘Rose’), then a nice riff on Ten’s timeless ‘All the Strange, Strange Creatures’, then a cheeky few notes of the Season 4 ‘Doctor Forever’ theme in the style of ‘The Shakespeare Code’ pop up.
And then to round it all off there’s a few rounds of the 2005-09 Doctor’s Theme. Aah, memories…
‘We are The Doctors’
It’s a huge shame this wasn’t featured in ‘The Day of The Doctor’ (I suspect it would’ve been used for when they emerged from the painting), but at least it’s here.
‘We are The Doctors’ is a short but effective salutary burst: a fanfare that unites Who‘s synth-y musical past with its voluptuous orchestral present to provide something suitably heroic for 3 Doctors striding in to save the day.
‘This Time there’s Three of Us’
Music to set the universe right to. We move from the quiet resignation of planetary genocide, to the tense excitement of potential salvation, to the triumphalist fanfare of cup-a-souping the entire Time Lord race.
By the end you’ll want to shout out a Tennant-style ‘OH YES!’. Go on, allow yourself that. Even if you’re on the bus. Onlookers be damned.
‘Song for Four’
I’m not sure this one made it into ‘The Day of The Doctor’ in one piece, so enjoy it all here. There’s a vague recollection of ‘Song for Ten’ that meanders and twinkles underneath before it all ends in a rousing fanfare of that worn old favourite, ‘The Majestic Tale’. After a season of the show without it, it’s nice to hear it again.
‘Back to Christmas’
Proof that Murray Gold brings the trimmings to any Christmas special, turkey or not, ‘Back to Christmas’ hopeful, melancholy, and straining with nostalgia.
Listening to it is like remembering a really good Christmas dinner you had once, many many years ago.
‘Never Tell Me the Rules’
Oh yes. This one will have you jabbing the ‘Repeat’ button. Just as The Doctor throws his everything at the Dalek ship, so Murray Gold throws the entire orchestra at this one, and conductor Ben Foster makes sure it’s delivered.
It’s a victorious crotch-grab of orchestral exuberance, blending the Gallifrey theme and ‘I Am The Doctor’ into a furious, roiling mass of brass and strings.
‘Trenzalore/The Long Song/I am Information (Reprise)’
Not exactly a catchy name for what everyone else refers to as ‘Eleven’s Regeneration’, but it’s an evocative mix.
‘Vale Decem’ (featured on the ‘Specials’ album) sets the benchmark for regeneration tracks, but this comes close, especially if you like your regenerations to be poignant without being emotionally overwrought.
‘Hello Twelve’
Kidneys! The Capald-era begins with an exciting rejiggering of Eleven’s theme, reflecting the jangled and banjaxed synapses of the new Doctor.
Yes, it’s just a bit of filler, and at 39 seconds long if you sneeze you’ll miss it, but it’s an exciting way to finish off proceedings.
Can we have the Season 8 album now please?
> Order the album on Amazon now.
What was your favourite piece of music in ‘The Day of the Doctor’ and ‘The Time of the Doctor’? Let us know below…