I'm one of those people who needs a creative outlet or I start to go insane. When I'm not pounding out posts about TV on this blog, I'm usually writing something else, or drawing, or playing around with my four-track recorder. My love of music and the creative process attracted me to the video below, which runs about eight minutes and gives a rather detailed account of how the theme to the old Doctor Who series was both composed and performed. I have never seen a single episode of any incarnation of Doctor Who, but that really doesn't matter, I was just fascinated by how all this equipment, most of which is now completely obsolete, was used to create the futuristic theme for the show.
If you're a Doctor Who fan, check it out. If you're a fan of electronic music, check it out. If you're neither of those things, then I have nothing for you. Try checking back later.
[via Brad Sucks]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
3-31-2007 @ 12:09PM
Samuel McConnell said...
Hmm, I always assumed that it was a theremin.
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3-31-2007 @ 10:42AM
Joe Siegler said...
If I remember right, this was an extra on one of the DVD's released. Wouldn't be surprised if this video disappears off of Youtube because of that.
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3-31-2007 @ 11:28AM
erroneous_nick said...
I've been a Doctor Who fan for a very long time. It was interesting seeing how the theme was created. Kind of funny, too, seeing how it took a room full of "modern" equipment to do it.
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3-31-2007 @ 12:40PM
Paul Scholz said...
Interesting. This is the theme song for Doctor Who from 1980 to 1985. It covered the last season of the fourth Doctor (Tom Baker), all the fifth Doctor (Peter Davison). It was modified for the sixth Doctor (Colin Baker). There is an extended play version of the theme song running over 2 minutes & 30 seconds.
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3-31-2007 @ 2:16PM
Gene Cowan said...
As interesting as the 1980 theme was, the real innovation was Delia Derbyshire's original in 1963. It was so iconic that it was brought back for the series revival.
Composer Mark Ayres has a comprehensive history of the original theme on his website (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Mark_Ayres/DWTheme.htm) which describes the creation of this electronic composition in the era before synthesizers and samplers -- simply put, it was created using huge loops of tape, built sound by sound, without "modern" equipment other than tape machines, oscilloscopes, and noise generators... resulting in a piece of electronic music in an era where no one had heard its like before. It still sounds incredible today.
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3-31-2007 @ 3:08PM
DaveD said...
Actually Tom Baker's run as Doctor Who was from 1974-1981.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/classic/episodeguide/index_fourth.shtml
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4-02-2007 @ 10:25PM
sean tubbs said...
I lost interest in this when I realized it wasn't the Delia Darbyshire version.
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