Doctor Who: The Giggle Review - 8 Ups And 4 Downs

We’ve touched on the return of Murray Gold briefly in our previous reviews of these specials, but this week, he gets his very own up. This is the week we truly felt his presence in the episode, with so many familiar leitmotifs popping up throughout. We got hints of Donna’s theme after she went to town on the creepy dolls, a rejuvenation of UNIT’s theme in line with the modern era of the organisation, Ten’s ‘Doctor Forever’ theme, and, most notably, a medley of ‘Hologram’ and ‘Vale Decem’ (Nine and Ten’s iconic regeneration music) for the moment where Fourteen thinks he’s saying goodbye. By the way, thank you RTD for giving us the slightly less on the nose ‘Allons-y’ as the final line, which is still the inverse of ‘I don’t want to go’, but infinitely better than the terrible fan suggestion of ‘I’m ready to go.’

The episode also had some standout new music too, from the creepy melody that played for The Toymaker, utilising the arpeggio that Mel points out in the episode, and the return of that soaring woodwind theme that we suspect might be Fourteen’s theme. Last but not least, Fifteen’s theme, with its marching beat and sexy horns, is a certified bop that we expect will be so overplayed in the next few years to the point where we hate it.

We’re done geeking out over music now, you may proceed.