The theme tune to Doctor Who is iconic, of that there’s no mistaking. It’s right up there with The Sweeney, The Professionals and The Casualty in terms of instantly recognisable television themes.
We all know that Ron Grainer was the composer of the theme tune for Doctor Who and we also know that it’s gone through many different arrangements in the 47 years it’s been around.
The first was by a fantastically talented young lady called Delia Derbyshire. When we say talented, we mean it. She was so far ahead of her time that it’s scary. She took Ron’s composition and went to town on it.
There’s a school of thought that says young Delia – only 26 at the time – really made the Doctor Who theme memorable by her painstaking splicing of audio tape to realise Ron Grainer’s vision of the theme. In fact she put so much of herself into it that Ron questioned whether or not he’d even written it!
Skipping ahead 42 years and we have the Murray Gold arrangement. Strange that it should be called an arrangement given that it heavily samples the original Delia Derbyshire piece.
Gold’s arrangement seems to almost entirely consist of the addition of a militaristic drumbeat which in itself is rather odd given The Doctor’s dislike of all things militaristic. Still I’m sure Russell T Davies approved of it wholeheartedly… We digress. The whole point of this post is to get a handle on the preferences of our brave readers.
Which is better Murray Gold’s new version of the theme or Delia Derbyshire’s original? Sadly we don’t have Harry Hill’s uncanny knack of arranging fights between two opposing options, so we’ve had to go for a poll instead.
Before you answer said poll though, here’s a reminder of the two themes. First, the original version:
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And next the new and improved version:
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Loading ...We hope you voted wisely.