Take it to the Bridge

Doctor Who: Musical Interlude #3

Doctor Who and music seem to have a weird, semi-abusive relationship at times.

It’s a show with incidental music ranging from odd radiophonic dustbin clanking to someone farting through a kazoo, and from deranged woodwind ensembles to the worst excesses of 1980s Bontempi molestation.

It’s a show that during it’s classic era seemed to pick real-life musical tracks from the bottom of the Radio 2 playlist and hope nobody noticed. 

Hell, that even extended out into the other formats.  Timewyrm: Revelation shoehorns in Aztec Camera, while the less said about Tony Blackburn throwing shapes on The Rapture the better.

And the new series isn’t much better.  Britney, Rick Astley... but by far the worst offender is the appearance of Tight Fit, not only for the sheer weirdness of the situation, but for the fact it’s being played in a parallel universe.

Whatever next - a bunch of robots in deep space all hearing Bob Dylan songs in their head?

Hearing it in that context... well, it’s just ridiculous.  Why would music evolve in the same way in different timelines, after all?  I mean, whatever next - a bunch of robots in deep space all hearing Bob Dylan songs in their head?

And like many people, I make jokes about Murray Gold.  Sorry, can’t hear me?  I’ll speak up.  I SAID, I MAKE JOKES ABOUT MURRAY GO...ah, that’s better.  At times his music can be intrusive and overblown, dubbed on at levels which can knock the fillings from your teeth at 30 yards.

But he’s also responsible for doing something very special.  A song that will forever be a part of Doctor Who, of the show’s rebirth.  A song I can still hear and get a shiver running down my spine. 

And it’s not the one you’re thinking of.

On the first soundtrack album, it’s called Westminster Bridge.  But it’ll forever be THAT music as the new series opens.  You know the one.  It became the running theme through series 1 - literally, since whenever someone was running during scenes on contemporary Earth, it seemed to be playing in the background.

So why do I love Westminster Bridge?  Because it set the tone for the new series.  That sweeping orchestration at the start, into the frenetic fusion of orchestration and electronica, linking classic and contemporary together.  If anything, it became an anthem for the series, barreling along with energy and passion and just a feeling of fun.

If anything, it’s as much a theme for series one of the new Doctor Who as the real theme is, with all due respect to Delia and Ron, god rest their souls.  Yes, there’s better music on the soundtrack - Donna’s theme, for instance, which is so fun and likeably good it even cropped up in The Apprentice last week.  Or Song for Ten, a beautiful song no matter who’s singing it, which Stuart rightly lauds elsewhere on this esteemed organ.

But there’s something special about Westminster Bridge as a piece of music.  Music’s about moving you.  And there can be few who watched Rose - be it on BBC One, on SciFi, on a laptop three weeks early - that didn’t watch that swoop down to the Earth, watch Billie and Noel larking about in Trafalgar Square, watch the Doctor and Rose holding hands as they ran across the bridge itself, and not allowed themselves a little grin of satisfaction.

So, Murray, thank you for the music.