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kingandySo, on listening intently to the Doctor Who Season 3 soundtrack I spotted something very disturbing.
Donna's Theme begins as Jessica Fletcher style "comical woman detective" music, and slowly builds momentum through a sort of "comical woman detective in danger" vibe, introducing riffs that keep the same basic character but could be used in a variety of different musical cues in an episode. Then, suddenly, quite unexpectely, at 2:17 there is an out-of-place staccato chord. Dum-ba-di-dum. Followed by a squeaky trumpet sounding three notes. Those three notes are reprised once more, in a slightly different context, further down the track, but taken immediately after the staccato (referred to by Gold as "Russel's triplet alarm clock") it is quite clearly a riff from another theme on the CD.
Hang on, the sample on that site doesn't hold the right riff. Bear with me.
Ah, here we go. da DA-da...
According to the sleeve notes regarding that track, the way three notes seem to sing "The MA-ster!" is not unintentional.
Now I could be reading too much into this. It's entirely possible that Donna's Theme (also available on YouTube, in fact, purely for reference purposes of course) was scored and arranged in that form for the Runaway Bride and that Murray only realised what the notes were singing when he came, later, to score the Master's triumph. But I know a certain amount of remixing, blending and reconstructing comes into play when Gold merges the different musical cues into a single piece for the soundtrack album, so it's equally plausible that it was slipped in retroactively, on purpose. I am clearly going to have to buy Season 3 and watch And The Runaway Bride again, with my soundtrack head on.
Of course, with this already in my mind, when Tennant noted in interview with the BBC today that Donna has been through some "changes" (and is "pleased to see the Doctor") it only enhanced my suspicious.
Naturally, Doctor Who fandom being what it is, I'm sure I'm not the first...
EDITED TO ADD: In tangentially related news, here is The Mill's Showreel as of Season 3, which I thought was quite nice. CONTAINS SQUID.
Donna's Theme begins as Jessica Fletcher style "comical woman detective" music, and slowly builds momentum through a sort of "comical woman detective in danger" vibe, introducing riffs that keep the same basic character but could be used in a variety of different musical cues in an episode. Then, suddenly, quite unexpectely, at 2:17 there is an out-of-place staccato chord. Dum-ba-di-dum. Followed by a squeaky trumpet sounding three notes. Those three notes are reprised once more, in a slightly different context, further down the track, but taken immediately after the staccato (referred to by Gold as "Russel's triplet alarm clock") it is quite clearly a riff from another theme on the CD.
Hang on, the sample on that site doesn't hold the right riff. Bear with me.
Ah, here we go. da DA-da...
According to the sleeve notes regarding that track, the way three notes seem to sing "The MA-ster!" is not unintentional.
Now I could be reading too much into this. It's entirely possible that Donna's Theme (also available on YouTube, in fact, purely for reference purposes of course) was scored and arranged in that form for the Runaway Bride and that Murray only realised what the notes were singing when he came, later, to score the Master's triumph. But I know a certain amount of remixing, blending and reconstructing comes into play when Gold merges the different musical cues into a single piece for the soundtrack album, so it's equally plausible that it was slipped in retroactively, on purpose. I am clearly going to have to buy Season 3 and watch And The Runaway Bride again, with my soundtrack head on.
Of course, with this already in my mind, when Tennant noted in interview with the BBC today that Donna has been through some "changes" (and is "pleased to see the Doctor") it only enhanced my suspicious.
Naturally, Doctor Who fandom being what it is, I'm sure I'm not the first...
EDITED TO ADD: In tangentially related news, here is The Mill's Showreel as of Season 3, which I thought was quite nice. CONTAINS SQUID.
