The Doctor Who 25th Anniversary Album

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Order this CDThis was the first Doctor Who music released to CD as part of the show’s highly-merchandised silver anniversary in 1988. The greatest distinction of this CD – which is now out of print and getting harder to find with each passing year – is that it contains every broadcast version (minus a handful of barely-distinguishable variations which later cropped up on 30 Years at the Radiophonic Workshop) of the famous Doctor Who theme music, from the creepy 1960s/70s incarnation (achieved entirely by tape-looping means that would seem incredibly primitive today) to the various and sundry versions that kept changing throughout the 1980s: the synth-guitar-driven theme from the Peter Davison era (my favorite), the less effective electronic version from Colin Baker’s final season in the role, and the more atmospheric version by Keff McCulloch that ushered the show out of its existence with Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor. Numerous incidentals from the 1987 and 1988 episodes also appear on this album, all of them by Keff McCulloch, but their abundance of cheap synth sounds and sampled hand-clap percussion gets old very 2 out of 4quickly; a handful, such as one haunting twisted-lullaby theme from 1988’s Remembrance Of The Daleks, barely stand the test of time. But if you’re after an almost complete catalog of the show’s theme music (the wonderful orchestral version which introduced the 1996 Fox TV movie is unavailable anywhere), this is a worthwhile disc to seek out.

  1. TARDIS – Doctor Who theme 1963-1979 (2:26)
  2. Doctor Who theme 1987-1989 (0:56)
  3. Gavrok’s Search (2:11)
  4. A Child’s Return (2:33)
  5. Towers el Paradiso (2:42)
  6. Burton’s Escape (1:24)
  7. Drinksmat Dawning (1:30)
  8. Future Pleasure (3:19)
  9. Newsreel Past (2:52)
  10. The Sting (1:43)
  11. Doctor Who theme 1980-1985 (2:42)
  12. Doctor Who theme 1986 (2:56)
  13. 8891 Royale (1:56)
  14. The White Flag (1:44)
  15. Guards of Silence (2:39)
  16. The Making of Pex (1:23)
  17. Cemetary Chase (2:26)
  18. The Brain (3:03)
  19. Here’s to the Future (1:59)
  20. Goodbye, Doctor (0:35)
  21. Doctor Who end credits 1987-1989 (1:14)

Released by: BBC Records
Release date: 1988
Total running time: 44:13