8. Castrovalva
New Doctor, new frontiers. As well as a love letter to the art of MC Escher, ' Castrovalva' was a winning fusion of old & new in more ways than one. The Master returned, and Paddy Kingsland's incidental music is just as twisty-turny & wonderful as the artwork which shared its name. Want recursion? You got it, and Paddy translates it into sound with an ear so keen you begin to wonder if he hadn't somehow gone back & stood watching Escher at work. Somebody clearly had, as elements of his later (Castrovalva dating from 1930) works ' Relativity' ( 1953), ' Belvedere' ( 1958), and ' Ascending and Descending (1960). It may have been Wassily Kandinsky who popularised crossbreeding between painting & music- you're honourably referred to his famous line "Colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul.' But Mr Kingsland, as well as writer Christopher Bidmead, director Fiona Cumming and the principal cast (Peter Davison's Doctor & the Anthony Ainley Master on spectacular leading-men form) can take the credit for bringing it into the Whoniverse in a manner that's not been matched since.