By Segun Akinola

Silva Screen, out now to download and on CD 11 November

The third compilation of Segun Akinola’s scores for Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor.

When Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker ushered in the 13th Doctor’s era as a complete new-broom sweep to make it a good jumping-on point, as well as changing up the effects house, and cinematography, they also brought in Segun Akinola to replace Murray Gold as composer. Akinola was perhaps best known for his scores for documentary series, with a great ear for epic scale and tone.

For Series 11, the biggest change that the new composer brought was a switch of theme and leitmotif-heavy scoring, which had been Gold’s trademark. Essentially, with the exception of a theme for Thirteen and for the “fam,” most of his scoring owed more to the early years of the show, in the sense of being about atmosphere, mood, and tone, matched to the settings and imagery on screen. A true accompaniment that was part of the episode, rather than meant as a listening experience. For Series 12 a little bit more thematic material arrived – notably for the Master and the Cybermen, culminating in the awesome Cybermasters cue. Also the middle eight returned to the closing credits.

For Flux, the overall title for the drastically shortened Series 13, this progression continues, with more thematic material creeping in – though still below Murray Gold levels – while much of the sound remains focused on atmosphere and mood.

The soundtrack album from Silva Screen comes in a two-disc form for digital download, but three-disc form for the physical release. Discs 1 and 2 are the soundtrack for Flux, with the first covering “The Halloween Apocalypse,” “War Of the Sontarans,” and “Once, Upon Time,” and the second having “Village Of The Angels,” “Survivors Of The Flux,” and “The Vanquishers”.

Disc 3 of the physical media release, you ask? A physical release for Series 12: Revolution Of The Daleks, which had previously been released as digital download only.

 

In terms of recognisable themes, Thirteen’s theme remains, with nice pianistic variance in “Dancing Across Space And Time” in particular, as well as in “I Will Find You,” as the does the “fam” theme, which mainly seems to be relating to Yaz and the TARDIS this time around, especially with “Short Term Repair,” (with the other two having left at the end of Revolution Of The Daleks). Likewise, the Sontarans get a brisk and ceremonial snare drum motif, the Cybermen’s musique concrete style metallic theme from Series 12 pops in here and there, and the Weeping Angels, Grand Serpent, Vinder and Bel, and Swarm and Azure all have their own themes blended in, which is nice for leitmotif fans. There’s not much of a Dalek theme, for either Revolution or Flux, sadly.

A lot of the runtime is taken up with the standard musical style that Akinola has brought to the series – the sort of echoey void sound, a distant wind tone, mood melody overlaid, and a roughly 150 bpm percussion either with piano or soft synths for tension, or harder percussion for flight and action. Pretty much as per Series 12. Then we have the more floaty melodic themes overlain on that. This is true of both the Flux and Revolution discs.

It’s less orchestral sounding than the Murray Gold era, but the piano work is really good, along with the high strings on the Doctor’s and Fam’s themes. It’s also a logical progression and development from Akinola’s prior two seasons, and gets to bring in a decent amount of the epic depth that his documentary scores had promised when he was announced as taking on the composing duties for Who. This especially true of the big mystery moments in the cues for The Halloween Apocalypse and the Sith-like swelling “And Then We Will Play,” as well as the epic “The Ultimate Betrayal” from The Vanquishers. The “Village Of The Angels End Credits” also may be the spookiest version of the theme tune ever, which is awesome.

Overall, the whole package is a good follow on from Akinola’s previous Doctor Who scores, with a good proportion of nice emotionally bittersweet flow and epic moments among the regular atmospheric and percussive regularity. It’s a slightly more listenable experience as a listening experience than the previous ones (which had their listenable sections too), and has a wide range of styles to boot.

This is definitely a score worth acquiring in whatever format, and the physical release is strongly recommended, for containing the physical version of the Revolution score. The Revolution disc is worth it too, being not as good as the season scores, but essential for completeness, and so a great addition to the physical package, with some nice piano work there too, though it again relies heavily on the void/wind sounds and rather plinky tension percussion. There’s only a small thematic element for the Daleks, with a distinct two-tone fall and rise that occasionally pops up. Nevertheless, it’s still worth grabbing, for the “Bad Boys” track, and good use of the Doctor’s and Fam’s themes.

Verdict: A pretty good set, even if the theme’s middle eight has disappeared again (having been present in the closure of the Series 12 soundtrack). Now if Silva Screen would just remember where they put the long-awaited Series 10 score, and release that… 8/10

David A McIntee

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