I have loved Murray's music but, I must admit, up until (and including) the season 7 soundtrack the music was very recognisable and perhaps even a bit iconic.

The themes for Rose, Martha, Donna and Amy for instance and the variations on the Doctor's own theme and "I am the Doctor" (of course). The 'Davros' music. Its all stuff I can actually hum (honestly, I can).

But for the past couple of seasons it has become a little more generic. It is still excellent incidental music, but just not something I would go out and buy the CD for.

I think when 'Class' used 'the Doctor's theme' from season 1, it made me go a bit misty eyed and realise how much more recognisable Murray's work used to be.

The Clara theme was also great I thought. So whimsical and romantic if a lot like "Let's Go Fly a Kite" from Mary Poppins!

I think the problem with Series 7 for me was a lack of consistency. The earliest series lacked it too, but were limited by budget and range and so still came out pretty decent sounding (the fact that Series 1 and 2 share a CD is still a real shame as there's many great omissions). Series 3 and 4 were very John Williams-esque, Series 5 and 6 felt very Danny Elfman-esque, Series 8 and 9 are at their best quite Hans Zimmer-esque. But Series 7 was forced to go along with the standalone episodes and the sheer number of unrelated stories in that year meant no coherency... just as the episodes themselves felt like a big collection of 'specials', the soundtrack never felt like part of a collective whole. The best tracks on it for me are those that borrow from elsewhere...Amy and Rory's departure music borrowing from Series 5 a fair bit. There's some real creativity in there (i.e. the tracks from A Town Called Mercy) but less in the way of coherency.

There's a lot from Series 8 I admit to finding quite forgettable, though at the same time its best tracks were stellar - I find my now-favourite track of all from Series 8, well, Last Christmas at least. The verdict on Series 9 kind of depends on the eventual soundtrack release, but there was a lot I loved... a lot of the music in the opening two-parter, some of that from the Zygon story, The Husbands of River Song especially its ending, and then there's Heaven Sent - the music used in the montage was especially superb, expanding upon a brief piece of music heard in the 50th anniversary episode...I recall watching that at the time, rather unimpressed, but thinking that brief bit of music sounded really nice...and was glad to hear it expanded upon and it is easily one of my favourite pieces.

Overall I don't personally see a dip in quality anywhere across the nine series. Some have a greater number of strong tracks than others, by pure reasoning that one series has to have the least it just happens to be Series 7 for me.


I love Clara's theme, and just how versatile it is. Some versions of it are really whimsical and upbeat, others are a bit more restrained and poignant.

Once Series 10 is done, it might be time for a bit more of a Murray Gold appreciation thread...full of lists of favourites and things (I love lists )... especially if it does turn out to be his last!

I kind of get where your coming from with the lack of consistency thing with Series 7 but in terms of the soundtrack, it's nice when listening to it one go (as I often have) just to hear it change all of a sudden. That produces images in my head of things I associate with how it sounds and not just the relevant episode.

I think if the other soundtracks were the same as that one then I agree it wouldn't be that good. For me, Series 5 and 6's soundtracks are top notch with 3, 4 and 7 closely behind.

As I've said, Series 8's felt the same all the way through. Nothing stood out in any way for me. If I'm honest, it just all sounded the same and it's not as if I haven't listened to it. I really have, it's just so bland that was my problem with it.

It's why I'm hoping Murray can return some of the big, wow music again that I feel has been lacking for a while now in time for the next series. If it his last, I do hope he goes out in style.

I think with both Series 8 and 9, the soundtrack has felt more... refined? I do agree that Series 8's soundtrack sounded rather much the same all of the way through... most of its tracks, whilst not bad, aren't distinct either. Whilst I draw a comparison to Hans Zimmer for his inspiration, Zimmer's soundtracks build through his films (i.e. the big climatic tracks of Pirates of the Caribbean borrow and reinterpret cues used throughout the entire film, or even an entire trilogy of films) whereas I don't think the Series 8 soundtrack has that same sense of satisfaction. It doesn't build, it is just merely there. And I concur it isn't bad, and Last Christmas for me remains an exception to all I've just said (the two most recent Xmas specials have both ended with music I've loved because the final piece is a climatic reinterpetation of various other tracks used along the way...it feels like it's built up to that point and is satisfying in that sense, also giving the rest of the soundtrack a relistening factor) but I'll agree because it doesn't satisfyingly build up to something, nor is it distinctive enough along the way.

Series 9 on the other hand I feel builds up to something. The earlier music in the series sounds a bit like something from Series 1 or 2. By the end there's these big climatic pieces that consist of cues heard throughout the rest of the episodes, and are distinct in their own way. The only thing that doesn't help Series 9 is that the stories are more or less all two-parters. So whilst I feel it is a vast improvement on Series 8, to the point I think Murray Gold got his second wind with it, there just wasn't enough variety in the stories themselves to allow him to deliver as varied a soundtrack as he had done previously.

Maybe then, Series 10 will be a winning combination. From the looks of things there's to be plenty of standalone episodes again as well as a new companion to write a theme for too. Combining that with what I think has been a strong couple of years for Gold (couple of years as in looking back to Last Christmas onwards), it could be a more universally satisfying soundtrack and a high for him to go out on?

Unofficial confirmation on GB that both Rona Munro (who wrote Survival) and Peter Harness have both written for Series 10.

So the writers list currently looks like this:
Steven Moffat (Eps 1, 10, 11, 12)
Frank Cottrell-Boyce (Ep 2)
Sarah Dollard (Ep 3)
Mike Bartlett (Ep 4)
Mark Gatiss
Jamie Mathieson
Rona Munro
Peter Harness

I'm guessing it's just me who's never really been too keen on Murray Gold's work for the show. It's either ranged from too repetitive, noisy and overblown to almost non-existant and uninspired, but it's rarely been something I've thought "That's catchy, I need to find that one". I'd welcome a change of musician to be honest.

Quite like Survival could be a good addition. Also a fan of Harness, both his episodes i liked but they for a lack of a better term weren't that polished. Definitely feel he could be someone who may write an amazing script if it all comes together.

I thought Kill the Moon was actually quite good until the whole "the moon is an egg" business let the whole thing down.

Never watched Survival so I've no judgement on Rona, but I have not enjoyed Peter Harness' work at all. The whole moon egg debacle was bad enough but the way the Zygon two-parter was trying to be this right on, yeah politicially messaged thing just felt so not like Doctor Who that it really annoyed me.

Plus, the speech of the Doctor's (which some see as one of the finest ever moments in DW history) for me is so awful. It felt like it was Harness making the Doctor preach to us his view, not the Doctor's. The Doctor should never be preaching, that's one of my beliefs in the character. It was just so wrong.

Didn't Moff write the speech?

Survival is an interesting one for me.

On one hand, the script itself was almost a 'new Who' script, inasmuch as it continued to focus on the companion and her personal journey. This story reveals more about Ace's life and background and reaffirms the reasons she travels with the Doctor.

On the other hand, the show's production values were very poor by this stage. These episodes in particular looked quite cheap. And, at the risk of being shot down, neither Sylvester McCoy nor Sophie Aldred were particularly good actors.

So I've never really been that fond of Survival but it may be the script was actually very good but just let down by what was actually delivered on screen. Certainly, watching Survival in isolation, you would never believe how truly great the show used to be.

Well whoever wrote it, for me it was one of the biggest mistakes I've seen in Peter's era of the show which I've not liked from the very beginning. It just felt so totally wrong for the character and for the show.

The Doctor never has and never should be a preacher in my books.

So aside from the inevitable Gatiss episode, we've got potentially one more slot to fill, writer wise.

Anyone for Christopher H. Bidmead? He did write some cracking stuff - Logopolis for example.

I think I know that some people will have an opinion on this...

I'm guessing one of the writers listed (without an episode) will be doing a 2 parter.


SM has said there will be some 2 parters in Series 10, I'm guessing 11+12 plus another one (5+6 written by Jamie Mathieson maybe).

I'm just going to get my gun.

So what do we actually know about series 10? other than writers, haven't checked these parts in ages, as DW went dead with nothing happening, came back with Class starting and promptly gave that show up after the first two episodes (didn't work for me) and now looking to see what's up with DW and its still as quiet as a mouse.....

I thought there would be some juicy stuff out by now, the only thing I see is that Matt Lucas character is becoming a regular.... purely because the actor wished it and Moffat went yeah why not.... have to see how that goes, but that character returning doesn't do anything for my pretty none existent excitement for series 10, is there really any call for that chracter to come back, I thought his story arc (if you can call it that) was a one off and done with in last years Xmas episode... and in my opinion was a unremarkable character anyway...

Oh and the info that Missy would be coming back... But that should of been taken as a given anyway so that info doesn't feel like its telling us anything new that we didn't know about series 10... as soon as series 9 ended we could predict/know that series 10 would have Missy and the Daleks in it...

I would say it was time to start building our episode-by-episode "what we sort-of know" post, but I dont think it would be worth it as of yet. Just not enough episodes filmed.

Really... I guess I'm way off then, I thought they'd be like half way through filming the next series by now if not more... the gap from the last series has been ages.... Suppose that's why there's not much in the way of spoilers... Series 10 must be starting a good distance into 2017, April or May if they are still at the early stage of filming... I was hoping it would be starting early 2017, like sometime in February or March...oh well...

Yeah, Peter Capaldi has said April of next year. I imagine filming will likely finish in March or April (it usually takes 9-10 months) so they may not be finished when the first episode goes out. I don't think they'd finished when series 9 began.

Including Xmas, they've filmed 5 episodes and the current block should be nearing completion, so that she another two episodes completed.

A full trailer for the Christmas special will air on the 18th (Children in Need?) and a trailer for Series 10 will be attached to the end of the special itself.

Its not a popular viewpoint, I know

That makes sense. Can't wait.