Doctor Who Series 13: Goodbye, Mr. Chibs

[daf]

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.

Yes, please forgive the microscopic in-joke - back in the mid-80's before the internet, with only a cassette and no lyrics, this is what me and my big brother honestly believed was being growled on the track. *

- - - - - - - - - - -
* (and, as my brother isn't even on CaB, I'm just tickling my own funny-bone here!)

[Ambient Sheep]

Myself and a schoolfriend thought it was "One of these days I'm/we're going to dug with the new beat", which even we conceded didn't make a whole lot of sense, but we couldn't come up with anything better. :-)

[Ambient Sheep]

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".

This.

[Deanjam]

Pages of discussion on the relative theme variants because there's just nothing to say about the actual new show. So sad.

[Malcy]

Pages of discussion on the relative theme variants because there's just nothing to say about the actual new show. So sad.

As much as I'd love to know a bit more I prefer it this way. The amount of spoilers that were available over the years definitely took away from the enjoyment.

[mothman]

Is there a good compilation (i.e. complete) on YouTube of the 2005-onwards titles and themes? I mean i could search for one obviously but I wouldn't know if it was complete.

[Psybro]

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

I like the pitch bending notes in the middle 8 on the one that ended up on Carnival of Monsters.

[GoblinAhFuckScary]

guess i'm in the minority here, loving capaldi's intro a lot

[McDead]

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.

Spine tingling stuff, though I think this one hits the middle eight even better. https://youtu.be/CLc4nla79LE

God, it really was a golden age.

[Rev+]

I know absolutely nothing, but have been advised that if you're the gambling type it might be worth sticking a couple of quid on Belinda Owusu as the next doctor.

[samadriel]

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".

I think it's dumb as fuck, but even I would take RTD over Chibnall.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Oh totally.  God knows what they were thinking.

"We've just spent a ton of licence fee payers' money on a cutting edge synth and we need something to show for it," I suspect.

[Blinder Data]

I know absolutely nothing, but have been advised that if you're the gambling type it might be worth sticking a couple of quid on Belinda Owusu as the next doctor.

Her only TV credits are EastEnders and Holby City. Hmmmmmmmmm.

[Huxleys Babkins]

I know absolutely nothing, but have been advised that if you're the gambling type it might be worth sticking a couple of quid on Belinda Owusu as the next doctor.

Monster, monster, monster!

Her only TV credits are EastEnders and Holby City. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Pretty major roles in both, though.

[Ambient Sheep]

"We've just spent a ton of licence fee payers' money on a cutting edge synth and we need something to show for it," I suspect.

Yup!

Still can't believe they couldn't get better sounds out of it than that, though.  Who was it in the room that thought "I know, let's replace that big thumpy bass line with the sound of someone twanging a small children's toy."?

[Replies From View]

What's even more unfathomable was the decision to replicate it for Colin Baker's second season.

[Replies From View]

I've always thought that Sylvester McCoy's version sounded like somebody rasping away on a kazoo.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Yup!

Still can't believe they couldn't get better sounds out of it than that, though.  Who was it in the room that thought "I know, let's replace that big thumpy bass line with the sound of someone twanging a small children's toy."?

And at no point did they ever think to use other instruments to bulk it out either. I suspect they were in Look Around You "I can't believe this isn't a real orchestra" mode with their new toy.

[Norton Canes]

The Peter Howell theme is imperious. Heresy I know, but I'm a Macra's chuff away from proclaiming it better than the Derbyshire original.

[pigamus]

The Peter Howell theme is imperious. Heresy I know, but I'm a Macra's chuff away from proclaiming it better than the Derbyshire original.

It's fabulous isn't it? I love the full version with the climbing-up-the-scale bit in the middle

[Mister Six]

Her only TV credits are EastEnders and Holby City. Hmmmmmmmmm.

Matt Smith only had supporting roles in a few things, the only major ones being the Billie Piper adaptations of Philip Pullman's steampunk detective stories, prior to Who, didn't he?

Be surprised if we get a new Doctor announced before the new showrunner, mind you.

[Ambient Sheep]

The Peter Howell theme is imperious. Heresy I know, but I'm a Macra's chuff away from proclaiming it better than the Derbyshire original.

I disliked it at the time, but now recognise that it's really good.  There's a video somewhere with him showing how he made it.

Will never quite beat Delia's though IMHO, but I sympathise with those like you that think that it might. :-)

[M-CORP]

The definitive theme tune for me is the 1970s version - retains the ethereal nature of the original 60s version, with an added punch that hooks you in better. All over in 30 seconds, the whooshes happen in the right place...

People talk about bringing the original theme back even though its weightless ambience would be at odds with the fast pace of the modern show. This problem doesn't apply so much with the 70s theme.

To be fair there haven't been that many duff interpretations - the only outright misfire would be the aforementioned Delaware shopping channel cock-up. And the middle eight from the Capaldi version, which was never heard on-screen. And you thought it was high-pitched before. https://youtu.be/EMdWJqXn_cU?t=30

But for me, all the themes worked in context of their stylistic eras. Even the Capaldi and McCoy themes, with their shrill high-pitched leads, have an energy and pace about them that made up for that.

[Replies From View]

The 70s used a variety of different approaches, for example a GABOING effect twanging in during the Ambassadors of Death titles.  Quite weird.


I really like how the most unaltered version of the first Pertwee theme chugs around in a loop at the end, as the titles swirl around back and forth.  That's the best editing that was ever done to the Derbyshire original, in my view.

[Deanjam]

While we're discussing the theme I may as well re-post this banger from Traffic Experiment.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRm8qmM-DTg

[Replies From View]

While we're discussing the theme I may as well re-post this banger from Traffic Experiment.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRm8qmM-DTg

Yes; the one they use on the Verity podcast.

[the hum]

But for me, all the themes worked in context of their stylistic eras. Even the Capaldi and McCoy themes, with their shrill high-pitched leads, have an energy and pace about them that made up for that.

Yeah I'd still hold a candle for the Keff McCulloch arrangement. Apparently he did it all on a Prophet 5, so it still has a reasonably lush analogue flavour to it, and it works well with the visuals. Unfortunately when he was tasked with incidental music he seemed to have no understanding of context and atmosphere and just threw a sack of digital MIDI horrors at every scene.

[Midas]

Was thinking about the episode penned by Robert Shearman in 100 today.

I think it contains one of the most resonant moments for me in any of the audio dramas I've heard, when the inexplicably old Mozart stands on stage, puts a gun to his own head, and addresses the crowd...

Great art is just a matter of knowing when to stop... I have some music to play you. It's not very good. The notes are alright, nothing's discordant, but it has no point to it. No soul. I've nothing to say anymore. It's just pretty noise. I've had nothing to say for years, and I look back, and I wish I'd died young - before I realised I was just another mediocrity.

Mediocrity insecurity is a theme in some of Shearman's other work but (setting aside the admittedly more interesting analysis of this speech as: addressing the uncertainty of the role of Big Finish post-2005; a means for the writer to metatextually express his frustration at being asked numerous times to conjure up Doctor Who material, despite having explored his ideas for the series to their fullest potential already; a sorrowful means for the writer to form a connection with despairing listeners... yes, setting all this aside...), to me, this small monologue epitomizes my own perplexingly resentful feelings toward the space the series occupies in the present day. Pretty noise. Why must the series endure? Does it actually have anything else to say at this point? Obviously the purpose of the series is to grab viewers, generate capital and so on...

But if we're able to leave the bastardized, homesick, looping epoch of 20th century detritus we're stuck in, when the 21st century is actually able to flourish, how much longer can they keep churning this series out? If Doctor Who is a 20th century phenomenon (which I evidently think it is), wouldn't it be better to end it all on a high note? Why do do we feel that it has to go on forever?

[Mister Six]

Why do you feel it shouldn't?

It's a uniquely adaptable, renewable (regeneratable?) series, with infinite opportunities for relevancy and import. So long as kids are interested in adventure, excitement, space, time and monsters (and I can't see them changing their opinions on that any time soon), it'll have an enthusiastic audience. Devouring itself Timeless Child-style is the only way I can see it losing its audience, and even then it'll come back again at some point.

The only thing that could genuinely kill it stone dead would be if Earth made contact with alien beings or developed time travel. And both of those seem fairly unlikely, I think.

[Replies From View]

Must say I don't understand a desire to separate out the 20th and 21st centuries and leave something behind within a century.  Is this our reward for allowing people born after 2000 to become adults and speak their minds?