10. The Theme Tune
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkcHgI_TIYQ You can almost imagine the scene in Sydney Newman's office when he realised that a space-age programme must, simply must, have a theme tune to match. 'Get me Ron Grainer, quick!' he may well have bellowed, a similar exchange later forming the basis of part of a similar urgent telephone call for the Doctor in ' The Tenth Planet'. Luckily for Sid, he didn't need to regenerate in its aftermath. He did, though, get Ron Grainer. And though it's often forgotten, the Australian did the preliminary sketches for what would go down as one of the all time great musical Futurist manifestos, Delia Derbyshire finishing it off and helping shape what it became. Among her devotees are Peter Kember (aka Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3, with whom she collaborated in Experimental Audio Research prior to her death in 2001) and 'new Who' composer in residence Murray Gold, whose arrangements of the series theme tune, more of which later, retain elements of her Radiophonic matronly hand. It's hard not to wonder how much more she could have done to make the classic series even better, but surely some crumb of comfort lies in the fact that of the treasure trove of 267 of the many and varied experimental recordings found after her passing, she'll always be beloved of a certain special kind of geek thanks to just a few. Rest in peace and thank you, Ms Derbyshire. Attagirl. No wonder she was and most likely still is revered as a cult heroine of experimental music, you're probably saying to yourself, and you'd be quite right. Plus isn't one of your favourite moments when sitting down to watch the latest episode the sheer rush of hearing that familiar 'ooh-wee-oo'? Whole generations have in some form, and despite the many and varied arrangements by several composers in the years since the classic-era Workshop's passing, all retain certain key elements. There's the intro ( in humming terms, the "ba-da-da-bum, ba-da-da-bum..." bassline), and the main melodic thread of the 'ooh-wee-oo', which are arguably the most important, and the pieces around which Murray Gold paints all- new sound pictures. A shout-out must also go to rave-lords Orbital for their brilliant remix of the Third Doctor's theme, which you can find on their 2001 album ' The Altogether'- and it's that sense of malleability, fluidity, that makes it all the better. Compare, contrast, and marvel at the fact Matt Smith ' performed' it with them at Glastonbury. I'm still not sure he really can play keyboards, but nonetheless, keyboards are cool.