I will look back on this and say "What the hell was I thinking?"

[kingandy]

So, 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.

Comments

[kingandy]

Hmm ... not in any kind of official literature. It's probably just me, I tend to use the words pretty interchangeably.

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

After the Face of Boe 'incident', they appear wiling to retcon anything. Frankly, all bets are off.

And as a kid, doesn't your brain work better against the concept of 'the Universe is unmeasurably large, and we travel through space and time in a non-linear, sometimes non-sensical fashion' much easier if 'but it's OK, cos there are only a dozen people involved, and they all know each other'?

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

I've had my suspicions about Donna since it was "revealed" she was the next companion. I strongly suspect she will turn out to be a Time Lord, especially if the theoretical "big bad" is indeed the return of Gallifrey.

[kingandy]

You are guessing Rani, yes?

We went back and watched Time and the Rani not too long ago. It takes Sylv a while to find his feet, but Kate O'Mara basically carries the show until he does so.

[wulfboy.livejournal.com]

Ya. Or evil romana. Or the Master. I did suspect that the wife was really the Master :)

[ed-fortune.livejournal.com]

"I love humans. Always seeing patterns in things that aren't there." - which is in itself, a quote from a Who story with the Master in it.

" I strongly suspect she will turn out to be a timelord"

[anne-l-davies.livejournal.com]

Now, ya see, my boyf was CONVINCED, totally, that Martha was going to turn out to be the Master. And he was wrong. But I do think we haven't seen the last of Lucy.