Author Archive for Jon

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Oh God No, Not Again

Published by Jon on 15 March 2010 in Amy Pond, Companions, Donna Noble, Rose Tyler and The Eleventh Doctor.

Here we are again, the start of the end.

It would appear that the new Doctor Who production team loves anagrams as much as Russell T Davies. Shit.

How do we know this information? From whence did the revelation come? Well, blame The Guardian – which it seems is the hot place for Doctor Who info these days – they’ve got an interview with Karen Gillan and in it she describes the audition process and her recall, which is where the anagram nonsense comes to light.

Then I got the recall, the second audition. That was when I started sweating. This huge thing. And it was so secretive I couldn’t even tell BBC reception where I was going, had to pretend it was for something called Panic Moon, which is an anagram of companion.

Panic Moon? Jesus.

Let’s hope it’s just for the audition process and they abandon it in the show, huh?

Still at least a bit of hope comes from the fact that young Gillan admits that she’s not a huge follower of Doctor Who. This can only be a good thing after all who wants her trying to be all cow-eyed like Billie Piper or dim like Catherine Tate?

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There Once Was Hope…

Published by Jon on 10 March 2010 in Blink, Dalek, Daleks, Rise Of The Cybermen, Russell T Davies, Silence In The Library, The Doctor's Daughter, The Ninth Doctor and The Tenth Doctor.

In view of the relaunch of Doctor Who – with the wonderful Matt Smith – we thought it was about time that we discussed some of the moments that excited us during Russell T Davies tenure at the helm.

As odd as it sounds – coming from us at least – there were a few incidents that reminded us of classic Who and offered a glimmer of hope that things might have gotten better.

They were few and far between but it’s only fair that we list them. This shouldn’t take too long… Continue reading ‘There Once Was Hope…’

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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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