Doctor Who: Season 5 - Murray Gold

...and so it came to pass, David Tennant did regenerate into Matt Smith and Russell T Davies did regenerate into Stephen Moffat. For a show that, until 2005 (and ignoring the 90's TV movie), had a budget of approximately £3.96 an episode, the Doctor Who of 2010 seems almost improbably well made with a movie scope, even if it has a budget per episode that would make about 1.2 seconds of Avatar. For all the on and off screen change of cast, Murray Gold remains the show's in-house composer and doing a pretty good job at being the same, but different, for Matt Smith's 11th Doctor.

For my money, Matt Smith is every bit the equal of Tennant, although the writing has been disappointingly uneven and, despite delightfully sparky rapport with his new companion, Amy Pond hasn't quite hit Rose Tyler levels of popularity. Similarly unpopular is Gold's new arrangement of Ron Grainer's classic theme tune. The opening trumpet fanfare is a bit naff and makes it sound more like a kids' show theme, knocking out some of its more adventurous impact and almost completely neutering its mysterious quality. His new Doctor theme is, however, a lot more adventurous than Tenant's more wistful tune and right enjoyable it is too.

As ever, Murray traverses as much musical time and space as the show itself. From WWII heroics when Spitfires face the Daleks in Victory of the Daleks to unusual low end wind timbres for the Silurians (one of the less successful reincarnations of an old school Who monster, although the crappy new Dalek design... OK, don't get me started... back to the music) to eerie effects for the Weeping Angels (proving many is sometimes less scary than one) to the typically grand score for the season finale, Gold is still coming up with the goods.

The wild eclecticism of the previous albums is replaced by a more cohesive style, so there's less standout stuff but it does flow better. Call it a maturing of style or simply the new producers wanting a more through composed sound, but Gold has modulated his approach to some extent; the same but different. It is, fortunately, still by and large, rollicking stuff replete with full orchestra, choir, vocal soloists and everything fans of the show have come to expect.