Doctor Who and electronic music

Isn't it a lovely thing in life when your interests take a natural conversion? Last year, there was an excellent documentary on the rise of electronic music, Synth Britannia, on BBC Four. It featured artists emerged in the 1970s, such as Kraftwerk, Gary Numan, The Human League and John Foxx - basically many of my own favourite artists - and quite bizarrely, after watching it, I really fancied watching some late 70s Tom Baker-era Doctor Who!!

As a lover of Science-Fiction, with obviously, the good Doctor topping the list, I've always found that certain styles of electronic music somehow connect me back to the show. I fondly recall as a child, watching Peter Davison's episodes and listening to Jean Michel Jarre's "Oxygene". For me that was just a perfect combination! Still is!

Clearly, the original Delia Derbyshire theme tune arrangement is an electronic masterpiece; way ahead of its time, and something that still sounds unique and distinctive today. If they were to re-instate it, I'm sure it would work better than ever, not sounding at all dated. It is as well known and as big as the show itself!

Watching some of the old Hartnell episodes recently, I was impressed with the incidental music - in "The Daleks" for example, where in place of incidental music, we have a low, menacing and totally mysterious, haunting drone. For me this is far superior to any dramatic orchestral score.

And there's also the incidental music of the 70s and early 80s from Malcolm Clarke, Roger Limb and Peter Howell. Granted some of those analogue warbles sound a little dated today, yet still very appropriate and identifiable with Doctor Who.

Speaking of Peter Howell - his version of the theme tune still sounds absolutely superb today. It's probably my personal favourite version, being the one I grew up with. Yet its use on the intros of BBC DVDs, over the choice of the original, certainly says something. It just works. Totally appropriate - and, like the original, it hardly sounds dated today.

So in that sense, while the show has been updated with current trends and a modern take, I do miss the atmosphere of an electronic score, as for me, the two will forever go hand in hand.