It’s rare, but not unheard of, to claim to have enjoyed the music from a movie or TV show tremendously, while not enjoying the story that spawned the music. Much of the sixth season of revived Doctor Who is like that for me – the season’s reliance on, and constant referral to, the Doctor’s apparent date with death, just rubbed me the wrong way. It might’ve been a brilliant device to use if it had been the final season for the incumbent Doctor, but in this day and age the general public knows that the actor in question is contracted for several years, and won’t be bowing out at the end of his second season. All the constant refrain of the season’s already-witnessed cliffhanger did was remind me how suspense-free the whole enterprise was. It was right up there with the third season (the “Martha season”) as my least favorite year of the show’s revival.
Could I separate my noncommittal grunt of a response to the season from the music? Yes and no. Murray Gold gamely gives his all to every episode, though there’s a lot of referring back to the Doctor’s new theme established in the previous season (and on that season’s soundtrack). There’s also a lot of referring back to the style that Gold employed for much of the Davies/Tennant years – unashamed orchestral bombast, even in scenes that don’t always call for it – and less of the promising experimentation of the fifth season. The season’s opening two-parter is at its best when it’s using a slightly twangy electric guitar to signify its setting, although the “Apollo 11” cue is as good a musical theme for the launch of the first moon landing mission as I’ve ever heard. “Another Perfect Prison”, “Day Of The Moon” and “I See You Silence” are the best examples of this, recalling the best of John Barry’s James Bond scores.
The Curse Of The Black Spot and The Doctor’s Wife have outstanding music, with the latter being a standout of the season both musically and story-wise. The “Run, Sexy” cue is one of the few overt examples of the orchestra-and-electronics-joined-at-the-hip style that made the fifth season’s soundtrack such a welcome change of pace from what had come before. The Rebel Flesh and The Almost People, a two-parter dealing with clones demanding independence, are more subdued to make way for dialogue.
But things crank up for the second half of the mid-season cliffhanger. (Sadly, it’s one of the silliest episodes in the series’ nearly-50-year history, but nobody’s perfect.) Let’s Kill Hitler gets a snarlingly oppressive march for the Nazi terror, a good place for orchestral bombast if there ever was one.
The second half of the season has more interesting episodes and more interesting scores. Night Terrors has a deceptively calm opening theme and sinister passages, while The Girl Who Waited is dripping with uncertainty as Amy comes to grips with a TARDIS-free reality on the run, and then learns that even that isn’t immutable. The God Complex has some very unusual keyboard/synth-heavy cues (including the recurring “muzak” motif). “Room Of Your Dreams” opens up with the kind of electronics that haven’t been heard since the original series.
Closing Time sounds almost like a sitcom in its opening track, and most of the cues presented here stay light-hearted. The music from the season closer, The Wedding Of River Song, starts with a rollicking opening track, “5:02 PM”, before becoming surprisingly quiet. One of the better tracks, “Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart”, accompanies the kick-in-the-gut meta moment where the Doctor learns of the his old friend’s death (Nicholas Courtney, the actor who portrayed the Brigadier in all of his appearances, had died earlier in the year) to a wistful tune.
Wedding finishes off by rehashing the Doctor’s theme in various ways, and includes the cue that sees out the season, accompanying the closing moments in which a portly severed head bellowing “DOCTOR…WHO?” over and over. The soundtrack itself closes by wrapping around to a cue from Day Of The Moon which, again, repeats the Doctor’s theme.
There’s some music here that I’ve had no desire to re-listen to, but that may well represent a failing on my part to separate music from story subject matter. Murray Gold still delivers a unique, full-blooded sounded that’s unlike anything else on TV, and the soundtracks released by Silva Screen are uncommonly generous with their double-disc set covering all 13 of the season’s episodes. Next year, I just want the stories to be as good as the music.
Disc One
The Impossible Astronaut / Day of the Moon
- I Am The Doctor In Utah (1:44)
- 1969 (2:01)
- The Impossible Astronaut (3:16)
- Trust Me (1:39)
- Help Is On Its Way (3:59)
- Another Perfect Prison (0:53)
- Greystark Hall (2:53)
- Apollo 11 (0:54)
- Day Of The Moon (2:44)
- I See You Silence (1:05)
The Curse of the Black Spot
- You’re A Dead Man (1:40)
- Deadly Siren (5:30)
- Perfect Reflection (1:03)
- All For One (3:49)
- The Curse Of The Black Spot (1:14)
The Doctor’s Wife
- I’ve Got Mail (0:45)
- My TARDIS (1:30)
- Run, Sexy (1:56)
- Locked On (1:11)
The Rebel Flesh / The Almost People
- The Chemical Castle (1:30)
- Which One Is The Flesh? (1:39)
- Scanning Me (2:31)
- Ransacked (2:01)
- Always With The Rory (1:22)
- Double Doctor (2:02)
- Tell Me The Truth (3:48)
- Loving Isn’t Knowing (The Almost People Suite) (5:29)
A Good Man Goes to War
- River’s Waltz (1:53)
- Pop (1:36)
- Tell Me Who You Are (1:52)
- Melody Pond (2:36)
Disc Two
Let’s Kill Hitler
- Growing Up Fast (1:21)
- The Blush Of Love (1:22)
- Terror Of The Reich (3:05)
- The British Are Coming (1:07)
- A Very Unusual Melody (2:53)
- When A River Forms (1:32)
- Pay Attention Grown Ups (2:10)
- The Enigma Of River Song (3:59)
Night Terrors
- Bedtime For George (2:24)
- Tick Tock Round The Clock (2:11)
- A Malevolent Estate (3:58)
- Night Terrors (1:19)
The Girl Who Waited
- Apalapucia (1:29)
- 36 Years (0:55)
- Lost In The Wrong Stream (3:25)
The God Complex
- The Hotel Prison (0:47)
- Room Of Your Dreams (1:21)
- Fear Enough (1:17)
- What’s Left To Be Scared Of? (1:00)
- Rita Praises (1:08)
Closing Time
- Stormageddon, Dark Lord Of All (1:34)
- Definitely Going (1:56)
- Over Your Shoulder (1:11)
- Ladieswear (0:45)
- Fragrance (2:17)
- My Time Is Running Out (4:55)
- Tick Tock (vocal track) (1:23)
The Wedding of River Song
- 5:02 PM (2:43)
- The Head Of An Enemy (1:15)
- My Silence (1:13)
- Brigadier Lethbridge–Stewart (2:19)
- Forgiven (2:31)
- Time Is Moving (1:31)
- The Wedding Of River Song (4:32)
Day of the Moon
- The Majestic Tale (Of A Madman In A Box) (4:01)
Released by: Silva Screen
Release date: 2011
Disc one total running time: 68:05
Disc two total running time: 55:27