In Episode 8: What The Hell Are We Supposed To Do With A Hat Rack?, Pablo Jones, the man behind our theme song and A Very Dalek Hanukkah, joins Pat, Kelvin and Joshua for five rounds AWESOME! Listen as the boys discuss music in Doctor Who, add another piece of Doctor Who verse to the growing Get Off My World library, come to very different conclusions about the Fifth Doctor story Frontios and throw Vislor Turlough and Captain Jack Harkness into the Death Zone to see who is the superior companion!
Show Notes and Other Tidbits
-Geoffrey Burgon fan site.
-The Frontios-related fan fiction mentioned by Pat is The Puppet King by Dale Smith
-The Frontios-related short story mentioned by Kelvin is Life After Queth by Matt Kimpton.
-Download the Fifth Doctor and Turlough audio Loups-Garoux from Big Finish for only $2.99 and find out what Joshua is making such a fuss over.
-Speaking of Joshua, listen carefully and you’ll hear him call the Tractators Tetraps! He will live with that shame for the rest of his life.
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Another excellent episode, guys, but c’mon, will no one speak in defense of poor, abused Murray Gold? I share the frequent irritation at music that ham-fistedly demands emotion—though that phenomenon is epidemic in movies and TV in general—but I’d argue the worst of Gold’s excesses happened when the entire show’s excesses were at their worst. (In the late-Tennant era, the music was particularly up its own ass, but then so was the show: all that horrid, overblown choral nonsense perfectly fit RTDs vision at the time.) But I think people tend to focus on the clunkers and overlook how consistently good Gold has been for 100+ episodes. (On one end of the spectrum, if you HAVE to have “get excited” music, the 11th Doctor’s theme is awesome; on the other end, this season’s “Listen” shows Gold can do that spooky, ambient-music thing you guys like so much.)
Thanks for the comments, Unaffiliated Critic!
You make some frustratingly good points. You’re right, Mr. Gold was downright understated during most of Series 8, Listen in particular. And, yes, I agree, the 11th Doctor’s “get excited” theme was contagiously exciting. I’m not sure I can go so far as to say Gold has been “consistently good” but I’m willing to concede he hasn’t been as consistently bad as we frequently suggest. We’ll do our best to return to the topic of Murray Gold in the not too distant future and try to be a little more objective. It’s the least we can do for the poor hack.