Soundtracks: Doctor Who Series 4, Torchwood

For the past few years, an important element of Doctor Who has been the incidental music. There have been some pretty strong themes recurring in the series, such as the haunting solo vocalist performed Doctor's Theme, the heart rending Rose's Theme, and the variations of Martha's Theme which has created sadness and inspiration. In the first series, these were performed in studio, but as of Series 2, the National Orchestra of Wales has performed the music, lending a cinematic quality to it. Coincidentally this coincided with David Tennant's arrival.

Composer Murray Gold is actually quite similar in his music to David Tennant's performance. Quirky is a bit off, action is pretty bombastic, and emotional is heart tugging. Each series his work gets better and better, and Series 4 is the best soundtrack of all to date.

Kicking off with new version of the Doctor Who theme (I don't like that we've lost the single brass note in the titles anymore), we quickly go, choronologically through the episodes, taking a small break in the middle for a suite of music from Voyage Of The Damned.

The tracks are all very grandiose and quite, quite beautiful, although I think that the best is easily The Greatest Story Never Told from Silence In The Library which is one of the most inspirational pieces in the entire series. The Song Of Freedom occurs twice, once as a piece from the incidental music of Planet of the Ood, and once at the end in a single version, and it's a stunning piece of music. If Murray Gold's music could be likened to any one composer, it would James Horner.

What's really worth mentioning, though, is The Unicorn And The Wasp piece, which is probably going to appeal very much to fans of the classic series of Doctor Who. It's very much in the style of Geoffrey Burgon who did the music for Terror Of The Zygons and The Seeds Of Doom. Moody woodwind brings back the feel of the 1970s as opposed to the full orchestral sound that most science fiction programmes (including Doctor Who these days) use.

This is one of the best soundtracks I own, and that has nothing really to do with it being Doctor Who. It has everything to do with it being bloody good.

Also on sale now is the official Torchwood soundtrack. Although Murray Gold composed the theme for Torchwood based on a short piece of music he wrote for Doctor Who, it is his conductor and orchestrator Ben Foster who writes the music for Torchwood. It's worth mentioning that the Torchwood theme is a lot longer on the soundtrack and is quite a fascinating piece of music that isn't really done justice in the title or closing sequences of the television show.

However if Murray Gold is James Horner like, then Foster is David Arnold like. His music tends to be a lot more action packed, rarely taking time to be introspective. That said, don't get me wrong - like Arnold his love music is quite beautiful. Jack's Love Theme and Toshiko & Tommy are sweet, and there is a lot of emotion in The Death Of Dr Owen Harper and The End Is Where We Start From.
However it is the action music which really sets Torchwood aside from Doctor Who in terms of soundtrack. The Chase, Everything Changes...the list is quite endless in terms of the absolutely amazing action.

In many ways this is a very complementary soundtrack to the Doctor Who one and having them both actually makes them even more fantastic than listening to each one separately. But, rather happily, both stand very well on their own.