Doctor Who Series 13: Goodbye, Mr. Chibs

[mothman]

I think so, yeah. It was that bit where if you were singing it in the playground, you'd realised you started too high because you'd get to that bit and just peter out in confusion. I shall check out the 50th anniversary ep then, I'm hankering after some nostalgia-induced dopamine.

https://youtu.be/dn5U1eJjSxE

Starts about 30 seconds in.

Struck though by how rubbish the rest of that one is. Way too much percussion.

[Jerzy Bondov]

The more orchestral it sounds the more I hate it. The Jodie one is pretty good but it doesn't suit the actual show because it sounds too interesting

[Mister Six]

Why not just play them all at once?

[Jack Shaftoe]

https://youtu.be/dn5U1eJjSxE

Starts about 30 seconds in.

That's the bit! Clearly they're in more of a rush to get on with the story now, so less time to do the widdly wee bit.

I also dislike the theme the more orchestral it gets, sounds artificial and trying too hard, whereas ironically, the more electronic the sound, the more sincere, for me.

[The Roofdog]

The more orchestral it sounds the more I hate it. The Jodie one is pretty good but it doesn't suit the actual show because it sounds too interesting

It's the highlight of any Jodie episode. Hence the worst Jodie episode is automatically The Woman Who Fell To Earth because it doesn't even have opening titles.

[Ambient Sheep]

I tend to stand with The Roofdog.  The horn motif, in particular, is vile.

That's the bit! Clearly they're in more of a rush to get on with the story now, so less time to do the widdly wee bit.

A muso would call that "the middle 8" - a general term for the bit in the middle of a song that's not the verse or chorus and is often, but not always, 8 bars long.  Which in Doctor Who, it is. :-)

I also dislike the theme the more orchestral it gets, sounds artificial and trying too hard, whereas ironically, the more electronic the sound, the more sincere, for me.

I quite agree.  Over-active cutlery drawer[nb]And is it just me getting used to it, or did they tone it down after the first few eps?[/nb] aside, I rather like Segun Akinola's version.

Do you mean the melodic bit that only came back (in the new era) for the 50th anniversary ep?

Um, wasn't it first brought back for The Christmas Invasion, following complaints throughout S1 that it was missing?


Fake EDIT: Yes, yes it was, and it's much nicer here, from 12s in:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=On8O8Eb9fR0

If you count 1, 2, 3, 4 along with it, you'll find yourself doing it eight times. :-)

[mothman]

I stand corrected. Maybe I never noticed it was there because it always got overdubbed by the audio of the "Next time..." trailers?

[olliebean]

If you count 1, 2, 3, 4 along with it, you'll find yourself doing it eight times. :-)

It's literally a middle eight.

[pigamus]

Somebody said they didn't like it because it sounds like Do They Know It's Christmas

[Ambient Sheep]

I stand corrected. Maybe I never noticed it was there because it always got overdubbed by the audio of the "Next time..." trailers?

I could be wrong, but I think it was just a one-off for that Christmas special, and was, IIRC, broadcast unmolested.

It's literally a middle eight.

Thaaaat's what I said! :-)

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Somebody said they didn't like it because it sounds like Do They Know It's Christmas

It's practically identical. I just cannot accept that Geldof and Ure weren't aware of this, the plagiarising charity pricks.

[Psybro]

My favourite use of the middle 8 was as the crescendo to the ending of Turn Left and the absolutely batshit trailer for The Stolen Earth. I dunno if the DVDs keep the Next Time... trailers so you can enjoy the moment without the continuity announcer treading all over it:

https://youtu.be/E7Iy-bZA_TU

This was Peak RTD for me.

[Ambient Sheep]

Ah, so maybe they used it all through S2 but, as mothman said, it always got trampled over.

Am pretty sure the Xmas one wasn't though, as they made a big thing of how the Middle 8 was coming back and that fans of it should watch The Christmas Invasion's closing credits.

[daf]

It's practically identical. I just cannot accept that Geldof and Ure weren't aware of this, the plagiarising charity pricks.

I remember Me Jaw mentioning subconsciously nicking the Z Cars theme - is that the same bit were talking about?

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The DW middle eight does sound a bit like the Z Cars theme tune too, yes, but the bit from DTKIC we're specifically talking about is the instrumental motif that starts at 02:13.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjQzJAKxTrE

[Kelvin]

All the themes are blended together really well here:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YFpthAzAtw

It's pretty jarring that the newer versions sound much less atmospheric than the classic era. The movie is an absolute banger, though.

[Norton Canes]

Things were going smoothly until the 2005 version kicked in and a did a big cry

TBF I have been out in the garden drinking

[pigamus]

Everyone seems to like the wibbles but me, I wish Delia hadn't put them in, I prefer the stark original - and if RTD says it sounds "empty" he can stick it up his arse

[Psybro]

I think I liked the Season 7 theme bringing back the bass mainly because the Howell theme is the heaviest shit ever and all themes should contain an oblique reference to it at the very least.

I really liked the vibrato on the melody and the electric guitar sting in the middle 8 of the McCoy version but people seem to hate on that one because the show died on its watch.

[daf]

This one went right over my head for years - Pink Floyd referenced the Dr Who theme in their 1971 song "One of These Days I'm Going To Dance With The Chief of Police". here's the specific "wee-ooh" bit (around 3 minutes in)

And a later live version of that bit that a bit clearer > > > here

[Thomas]

The movie is an absolute banger, though.

RTD has spoken about how the sensibilities of his series owed a lot to the McCoy era, in which the TARDIS was just as likely to materialise on a driveway in a housing estate as on an alien planet, but the 2005 title sequence draws really heavily on the TV movie.

The vortex is virtually identical (sans asteroids), the cast name format is very similar, and we even get the TARDIS spinning towards the camera halfway through. It's also the first orchestrally intoned version of the theme.

[daf]

I prefer the stark original - and if RTD says it sounds "empty" he can stick it up his arse

It's great, but I wish they had stuck with the the first theme - which has a sodding great THUNDERCLAP that was only heard on the un-broadcast Pilot version (as seen on the DVD).

Apparently, it was nixed because Sydney 'pop-pop-pop' Newman didn't like it - the cloth-eared barmpot!

[pigamus]

Meh. I'm with Sydney tbh

[Ambient Sheep]

Everyone seems to like the wibbles but me, I wish Delia hadn't put them in, I prefer the stark original.

The "electronic spangles"?  She wished she hadn't had to put them in either.  It was at the producer's request; there's a quote from her along the lines of she felt it was "over-gilding a simple little tune".

As someone who grew up on Pertwee (he fell out of the TARDIS in Spearhead from Space not long after my 5th birthday) I've always liked them, but sometimes I can appreciate the starkness of the original too.

Interestingly, when Mark Ayres was given free reign of all the master tapes, the only element of the original themes he couldn't find in isolation was the spangles.

...and if RTD says it sounds "empty" he can stick it up his arse

Did he?  I didn't know.  He's just 20 months older than me, so presumably that's why.


Also, I'd like to thank daf for his Pink Floyd post.  I was about to post much the same, so he saved me the trouble, cheers!

[Huxleys Babkins]

I hope we can unanimously agree that the short-lived Delaware version was utter shit.

[Ambient Sheep]

Oh totally.  God knows what they were thinking.

[Mister Six]

My favourite use of the middle 8 was as the crescendo to the ending of Turn Left and the absolutely batshit trailer for The Stolen Earth. I dunno if the DVDs keep the Next Time... trailers so you can enjoy the moment without the continuity announcer treading all over it:

https://youtu.be/E7Iy-bZA_TU

This was Peak RTD for me.

Fucking hell, I forgot how vibrant and bonkers Doctor Who used to be. So sad that it's degenerated into the beige mediocrity of Chibnall's, for want of a better word, "vision".

[Bad Ambassador]

This one went right over my head for years - Pink Floyd referenced the Dr Who theme in their 1971 song "One of These Days I'm Going To Dance With The Chief of Police". here's the specific "wee-ooh" bit (around 3 minutes in)

And a later live version of that bit that a bit clearer > > > here

Isn't it "One of These Days I'm Going to Cut You into Little Pieces"? Based on the Jimmy Young montage they'd often plays live?

[Ambient Sheep]

Indeed, it's named as such on the Live at Pompeii video (until when I'd never worked out what Nick Mason was growling past the first seven words).

I assumed daf was just being amusing in a mondegreen-stylee.

[Malcy]

The best New-Who theme was the one from Eccleston's Do You Wanna Come With Me trailer. Not far off what we got but a key or two lower and sounded more serious and sinister.