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.

Doctor Who: The Specials - Murray Gold

The moment all Who fans thought would never come, David Tennant left the TARDIS after three years and a of occasional hour long specials, culminating in the understatedly titled The End of Time in which he made his last stand against the Master. Well, until they meet again of course... For his last year in time and space, Murray Gold's music receives the double disc treatment, with lengthy contributions from each Special score and over an hour from his last stand.

Tenant's last light hearted Christmas special was The Next Doctor; unsubtly playing with the audience's expectations over whether Tenant would leave sooner than expected. He didn't, but it was still a fine special, even if the Cyberking (a kind of Cyberman Iron Giant) was just a bit too silly. Gold takes the Victorian setting to heart with a grandiose main theme. Of course it's not long before it's going all action, although the swaggering Bondian brass is perhaps a touch incongruous, but Gold has always been good at setting styles off against one another. However, as the longest of the Specials outside The End of Time, it's rollicking fun throughout, although there's still time for a reflective pause in The Greats of Past Time. 

Planet of the Dead was the weakest of the Specials, seemingly dragging out a serviceable mid-season episode to an hour of unnecessary asides, a Potter-esque flying bus and creatures that seemed dimly reminiscent of Pitch Black. Gold's score is fun enough, but rather inconsequential. Waters of Mars was a much better entry; a thrilling combination of grand horror, sci-fi, time travel, a moral dilemma and the Doctor believing he can start to play god. The suite emphasises the gentler moments, touching gently on the horror and action in By Water Borne. Something of a shame that some fine action scoring was missed out, but it's properly dramatic, notably The Fate of Little Adelaide which is quite gorgeous.

Not since Tom Baker's epic send off has a Doctor's end been quite so heavily foreshadowed - indeed, previous regenerations, especially in the original series, were somewhat perfunctory affairs. However, for his last story, Russell T Davies decided to pull out all the stops, bring back the Master, the Time Lords and make it a grand epic. As ever, some of it works, some of it doesn't but importantly, it's the bits that really matter that work the best. The Master's madness and the Time Lord's (brief) return are great bluster, but the emotional substance of Tennant's last stand is brilliantly pulled off, even if the denouement is a touch drawn out, although as he enters the TARDIS for the last time, there may well have been sobbing at Chez Tom.

Gold throws more or less every trick in his musical book into the mix; gentle choirs for the Ood, a little perky town music for Donna's granddad, Wilf, a terrifically portentous version of his Gallifrey theme from the third series for The Council of Time Lords and a reprise of his whirling Master music from the same series. The circular string motif (inspired by the Wicked Witch of the West's theme from the Wizard of Oz), coupled with the four note knocking motif, never ceases to impress as an ingeniously unhinged theme for an unhinged genius. It would have been so easy to assign a fairly standard villain motif, but Gold manages to capture The Master's eccentric madness quite superbly.

As the moment approaches, Four Knocks finally tells the Doctor that his 10th incarnation's time is up, leading to Vale Decem as his regeneration takes place. As perfect a scene as the show has ever produced, Tennant's regeneration is spine tingling and wonderful, Gold's music is no small part of the reason why. Yes, it's overwrought to some extent, but when you have a lead character turning into a new man amidst huge explosions, nothing less will do. Then, as on the show, it's swiftly onto this new man as the real New Doctor starts dealing with a crashing TARDIS...