Since strating this blog I’ve brought you the various Doctor Who theme tunes as seen on TV and occasionally performed by others. Never before have I seen the theme tune performed in such an unusual and I have to say, dangerous way. Art or madness, you decide!
Austin’s own ArcAttack plays Texas Rockfest during SXSW. ArcAttack uses a MiKo to power two self-built Tesla coils, that produce “singing lightning bolts” which require no speakers. ArcAttack controls the coils through MIDI, as well as a full drum set controlled by robotic mechanisms. ArcAttack are taking their MiKo on a European tour this summer, 2009. For more information on ArcAttack, visit their website at http://www.arcattack.com.
I’ve always considered Jon Pertwee’s last story, Planet of the Spiders, to be one of the best. My earliest memories of Doctor Who are of this story and the giant spiders were the stuff of nightmares. I was very pleased to find that iTunes have included this story as a download. It ‘s one of the Jon Pertwee stories that have, as yet, not been made available on DVD, however has previously been released on VHS.
I’ve now added this story to my digital collection of Doctor Who. I have also created a new piece of artwork, based on the Region 2 DVD covers and inspired by the original VHS cover artwork.
The plot of the story is as follows;
Sarah is invited by Mike Yates to visit him at a Buddhist meditation centre where he has been staying. A group of people there, led by a man named Lupton, are misusing the meditation rituals in order to make contact with powerful alien forces, which manifest themselves as a giant spider. The spider is an emissary from the ruling council on the planet Metebelis 3, sent to recover the blue crystal that the Doctor previously found there and that has now been returned to him by Jo.
The Doctor and Sarah journey to Metebelis 3 and aid its human colonists in an attempt to overthrow the ‘eight legs’. They then return to Earth in the TARDIS. The Doctor recognises the meditation centre abbot K’anpo as his former Time Lord guru and, at his prompting, returns to Metebelis 3, where the humans’ revolt has ultimately failed. He demands an audience with the Great One – a huge mutated spider revered by the others – and offers her the crystal.
The Great One uses it to complete a crystal lattice, which she believes will increase her mental powers to infinity. Instead, the rising power kills her. The other spiders also die as their mountain explodes. K’anpo has meanwhile been killed while protecting Yates from an attack by the spider-controlled residents of the meditation centre, only to be reborn in the form of his assistant Cho-je – his own future self.
Some weeks later, the Doctor is brought back to UNIT HQ by the TARDIS, having been fatally affected by the radiation in the Great One’s cave. K’anpo appears and, with his help, the Doctor regenerates, see YouTube clip below with updated regeneration effects.
A UK-USA co-production resulted in this 1996 TV Movie, directed by Geoffrey Sax, in which Paul McGann replaced Sylvester McCoy. The theme music was re-arranged by John Debney to place Ron Grainer’s famous middle eight at the start. Unfortunately the full John Williams-esque orchestral performance totally submerges the alien quality which made the original 60s/70s recordings so spooky. The graphic design is more successful, reviving Bernard Lodge’s 1970 logo in 3D-CGI.
“3 years is the optimum period for an actor to play the Doctor”, said the BBC, so Colin Baker was fired and Sylvester McCoy cast. Cue a new title sequence, the first to be realised with CGI. The independent company CAL Video generated the graphics, designed by Oliver Elmes. Meanwhile Keff McCulloch was handed the commission of re-arranging the theme tune, and composing almost all the incidental music heard within the McCoy episodes. I love the graphics, especially the TARDIS trapped in a bubble.
Colin Baker played the Doctor from series 21 onwards as brash and colourful, so Sutton was instructed to make the titles brash and colourful. He animated the Doctor’s face by dissolving from a frown photo to that of a beaming grin – possibly the friendliest that Colin Baker ever looked during his short tenure! Plus, rather than forming from stars, the neon logo now zoomed into place via DVE, bent down at the edges and tinted purple. The old saying suggests that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” a saying that John Nathan Turner cheerfully ignored. For series 23 in 1986, he dropped Peter Howell’s fantastic theme arrangement, in favour of Dominic Glynn’s less-than-pleasing “bedroom bontempi” version.
Post-Tom Baker, the starfield titles had been in use for only one year. Sid Sutton refreshed them with Peter Davison’s face. Rather than mixing in, the photograph wipes in using a “venetian blind” pattern. There are also some subtle variations on the opening starburst effect.
As I’m going away for a few weeks, I thought I’d share this rather fun take on alternative Doctor Who themes I found on YouTube. There are 10 alternative mixes of the familiar tunes that we know, fused together with the video title sequences. It should keep you happy until I get back!
For the anoraks amongst you, here’s the breakdown of what you’re listening to:
0:00-0:50 1st Dr – Dr. Who – Eric Winstone & His Orchestra
0:48-1:10 2nd Dr – Dr. Who – Don Harper’s Homo Electronicus
1:10-2:35 3rd Dr – “Who is the Doctor” – Sung by Jon Pertwee, Theme performed by Rupert Hine
4th Dr – Dr. Who – Geoff Love & His Orchestra
late 4th Dr/5th Dr – Dr.Who: Cosmic Remix – Mankind
6th Dr – Doctor Who: Terror Version – Dominic Glynn
7th Dr – Doctorin’ the TARDIS (Instrumental) – The Timelords/The KLF
By 1974, with Tom Baker assuming the title rôle, graphics designer Bernard Lodge hit his stride with arguably the best title sequence in the series’ history. He applied the slit-scan technique to images of the TARDIS and a morose-looking Baker, thereby evoking the most sensational time tunnel effects. Possibly the scariest bit is when the diamond logo dissolves out of the time tunnel, accompanied by a loud hiss of gas.
An experimental colour change with brown and orange filters in 1975 was transmitted on episode one of Baker’s second story The Ark in Space, but deemed unsuccessful. The original version of this sequence was retained from series 12 right up to series 17 in 1979; the only change made was a variation in the font used to spell out the story names and writers’ credits.
The Gallifrey Guardian 