Monthly Archive for February, 2010

Theme Tune Showdown!

Published by Jon on 14 February 2010 in Music.

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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So then, which is the best theme?

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We hope you voted wisely.

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Doomsday: Void Material

Published by Jon on 8 February 2010 in Cybermen, Daleks, Deus Ex Machina, Doomsday, Episodes, Russell T Davies and The Tenth Doctor.

This is the first in a number of posts about the disastrous climax of series two of the new Doctor Who, the episode in question – Doomsday – contains what is possibly the worst dialogue ever broadcast. Not only that but some of the ideas it contains, and the implementation of those ideas, are beyond ridicule.

Enough of all this spiel, let’s get on with the curious case of Void material…

In Doomsday we discover that anyone that’s been in the Void gets covered in Void Material. The longer you’re in, the more gets stuck to you. Simple. How do you detect if you have any of this Void material on you though?

Well the only way to detect Void material is by the use of a complex series of detectors that unravel all the tightly knotted dimensions of space that surround the target and count the number of positive hits from the particles of Void material as they struggle to return to their own dimension.

Either that or just put on a pair of cheap 3D glasses.

Void material detection for the unimaginative.

This is yet another example of Davies’ piss-poor writing for Doctor Who and his lack of imagination. He just goes for a very cheap and unsatisfying gimmick that runs the length of the show until the disappointing reveal at the end.

It’s as if we’re supposed to sit there watching The Doctor running about in 3D specs and think that it’s just The Doctor being all whacky and out-there.

The problem with that is that we always know that if The Doctor is doing something whacky and out-there, sooner or later it’s going to become a plot point. It never actually is The Doctor being a little eccentric, every time he does it, it’s being done with a higher – albeit entirely unfathomable – purpose.

Remember when he used to eat Jelly Babies? There was no particular reason for that other than plain old eccentricity. Continue reading ‘Doomsday: Void Material’

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Selling Doctor Who By The Pound

Published by Jon on 7 February 2010 in Announcements.

The BBC in their usual short sighted, money grubbing manner have decided to auction off a number of old props. Another brilliant idea from the same company that decided to destroy old episodes of Doctor Who to make way for more Last Of The Summer Wine.

It goes without saying that it will have been difficult for them to have come to this decision, what with Doctor Who being at its most popular in thirty years and the BBC’s licence fee under constant threat.

The auction takes place on the 24th of February at Bonhams, admission is by programme only and a program costs £15. There’s some guff about a portion of the programme cost going to Children In Need but really, who gives a shit?

Some of the classic props – that should obviously have been gifted to The National Media Museum – can be seen over at io9.

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