{"id":7320,"date":"2013-12-11T11:11:07","date_gmt":"2013-12-11T16:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7320"},"modified":"2013-12-11T11:38:01","modified_gmt":"2013-12-11T16:38:01","slug":"cd-doctor-who-50th-anniversary-2-cd-set-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=7320","title":{"rendered":"CD: Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Collection – 2-CD set (2013)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return to<\/strong>:\u00a0Home <\/a>\/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews<\/a> \/ <\/em>D<\/a><\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Rating: Very Good<\/p>\n

Label: Silva Screen Records<\/a>\/ Released: March 25, 2013<\/p>\n

Tracks & Album Length: \u00a0CD1: 23 tracks + CD2: 22 tracks<\/p>\n

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Special Notes: Also available as a digital album.<\/p>\n

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Composer: Various<\/p>\n

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Review:<\/p>\n

To mark the 50th anniversary of the BBC\u2019s Doctor Who<\/strong> series, Silva Screen\u2019s been allowed to mine the broadcaster\u2019s huge archive of music and release a series of sets, each seemingly designed as a teaser towards the release of a limited 11-disc ultimate set which will follow the 4-disc set coming out this month.<\/p>\n

This 2-disc edition is a tighter distillation of material spanning the show\u2019s five decades, and provides a sampling of the various styles and uses of electronic gear that an assortment of composers employed for their respective scores, plus some previously unreleased music.<\/p>\n

Whereas Disc 2 favours music from the 80s through the rebooted series scored by Murray Gold (of which season and episodic suites were released in separate discs<\/a>), the real treats arguably reside in the first half of Disc 1 which focuses on the early material crafted by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.<\/p>\n

The contrasts through the decades does become apparent as the music shifted from mono to stereo, and budgets were boosted for the 2006 reboot, allowing Gold to craft increasingly huge orchestral-synth scores with his own rich thematic material, often augmented by chorus. The earlier material from the eighties and nineties tended to favour more minimal motifs, with thematic material timed to get in and out of scenes with strategic precision. The budgets also necessitated a need to create more abstract sounds since there wasn\u2019t always room to fully develop material into lengthy cues.<\/p>\n

Most of the music from the nineties offered a balance of atmospheric and thematic music, quoting Ron Grainer\u2019s famous theme only when necessary, giving the composers optimum room to develop and explore their own material, whereas the earliest scores from the sixties and early seventies were much more experimental \u2013 a reflection of the talent within the BBC\u2019s workshop, and perhaps a decision to approach the show with abstract sounds that better matched storylines involving time travel and alien cultures.<\/p>\n

After the original mono theme version \u2013 crafted not with synthesizers but\u00a0 audio sounds edited from differing pitches \u2013 Disc 1 moves into a classic sixties jazz-pop instrumental (\u201cAn Unearthly Child \u2013 Three Guitars Mood 2\u201d) with bopping drums and electric bass. The classic Tardis takeoff sound effects are followed by \u201cThe Daleks,\u201d an amazing 3 min. piece filled with tones and undulating shrill sounds, organ chords, and airy sounds with just a slight evocation of a Theremin. The breathiness and crawling bass chords are followed by an assortment of sharp tones, echoplexed ambient tones, and shrill drones reminiscent of the Martian machine sounds from War of the Worlds<\/strong> (1953), and the cue\u2019s closing bars consist of wavering sounds.<\/p>\n

Other cues contain more traditional instruments \u2013 drums, trumpets, and guitar heavily echoplexed for a sense of displacement \u2013 or descending electronic pulses reminiscent of Louis and Bebe barron\u2019s Forbidden Planet<\/a><\/strong> (1956). Cimbalom and oboe are used in the suspenseful \u201cThe Invasion \u2013 The Company,\u201d and the rare stereo cue \u201cMusic from the Sea Devils\u201d is a narrative of pulses and glassy tones and harsh chords which runs over 4 mins. Heavy abstraction also dominates the 6+ mins. of \u201cMusic from The Mutants\u201d with synthetic keyboards, undulating tones and Moog chords, some affected by primordial vibrato and staccato effects.<\/p>\n

\u201cTerror of the Zygons Suite\u201d offers a welcome shift to delicate chamber orchestra with harp, woodwinds, and a lovely flowing melody in the first half, and in \u201cLogopolis \u2013 It\u2019s the End,\u201d the approach is an overt prog-rock with synths, electric bass, and rock drums.<\/p>\n

The cues in this 2-disc overview collection have been nicely mastered from surprisingly clean sources, with clarity in the highs and resonance in the bass coming through nicely in the mono tracks. While fans may prefer the new 4-disc set (or might prefer to hold off until the 11-disc set, house in a wooden Tardis, finally debuts), this compact sampler gives a good overview of the changing styles which supported the Doctor through the first fifty years on the BBC.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2013 Mark R. Hasan<\/p>\n

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External References:<\/p>\n

IMDB <\/a>— Soundtrack Album<\/a> — Composer Filmography<\/a><\/p>\n

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Select Merchants:<\/p>\n

Amazon.ca<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.com<\/a>\"\" —<\/span> Amazon.co.uk<\/a>\"\" —\u00a0BSX<\/a> —\u00a0Intrada<\/a> —\u00a0SAE<\/a><\/p>\n

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Return to:\u00a0Home \/\u00a0Soundtrack \u00a0Reviews \/ D . Rating: Very Good Label: Silva Screen Records\/ Released: March 25, 2013 Tracks & Album Length: \u00a0CD1: 23 tracks + CD2: 22 tracks . Special Notes: Also available as a digital album. . Composer: Various . . Review: To mark the 50th anniversary of the BBC\u2019s Doctor Who series, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[2370,22,155,2372,4212],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-1U4","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7320"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7320"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7328,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7320\/revisions\/7328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}