Review Summary: A new era, a new Doctor, a new soundtrack.
In early 2010, David Tennant took his final voyage across the seas of space and time in the TARDIS, and handed the role over to much younger Matt Smith. Whereas Tennant portrayed our favourite Time Lord as a simultaneously happy and upbeat yet dark, troubled and vengeful spirit, Matt Smith brought contrast to William Hartnell's tenure- whereas Hartnell portrayed a crotchety old man on the outside yet a joyous, youthful teenager in the inside, Smith portrayed a dashing young man on the outside yet grandfatherly on the inside. With Smith, you got a sense of just how old The Doctor is- there's a grandfatherly air to his portrayal, how he strokes Amy's cheek and says "Come along, Pond!" in a cheery voice and how he tries hard to convince us how "cool" something is, Smith shows us just how old the Gallifreyan has gotten.
All of this is reflected in Murray Gold's magnificent score for the new series. In a sense, the music itself has "regenerated" and has had new life breathed into it; whereas Ten's tenure was full of dark and sorrowful yet fantastical shanties, Smith's tenure is filled with upbeat melodies, at times even proggish. Unfortunately, things are off to a rough start with "Doctor Who XI", which may be the worst version of the DW theme since Dominic Glynn's attempt at reinventing the tune in the late eighties. The attempt to shoehorn in an "ominous" horn blast at the beginning is an ill-advised idea for the get-go, especially when you have tons of orchestral bombast underneath (with even a few choirs underneath). But afterward, it does improve; music from the episodes are all presented in chronological order over two discs, and the majority of them are a joy to listen to.
Perhaps the song that will stand out most to you is "I Am the Doctor". The song could essentially be called "progressive classical" with all the time signature changes and mood-changes; beginning with the unusual time-signature that bears some resemblance to the opening of Rush's "Subdivisions" to the ultra-unusual signature near the end with sprinklings of choirs near the end; but it's the adventurousness of the music that is worth mentioning. The shifts from "suspenseful" to "LOUD" to "heroic" are effortlessly done, and hearing this song live would be an absolute pleasure. Amy's themes ("Little Amy", "Can I Come With You?", "Amy's Theme") display the sense of childishness that still rings in her heart from all her time traveling with the man with a big blue box. The balance of themes is well done- with the obligatory "scary monsters" themes ("The Beast Below", "Vampires of Venice") and "tear jerkers"- in fact, all of the themes present from "Vincent and the Doctor" are well done and tear-jerking. The episode is incredibly powerful enough; with The Doctor meeting Vincent Van Gogh, there's a scene where The Doctor takes Vincent to the present and shows him just how much his work has impacted people, in a London museum. The scene itself will make you cry, but especially on its own, the music that surrounds it is just beautiful. It's hard to not see Gogh's surprised face in your mind when you hear it. Near the end of the album, the music takes a turn for the more comedic/action packed- The Doctor's bumbling stay with Craig in "The Lodger" is perfectly quirky and cutesy, and with the final two-parter based around the Pandorica, the album is drawn to a fitting close.
At 131 minutes, series 5 of Doctor Who is well summarized with the usual Murray Gold bombast, and I'd be hard pressed thinking of someone who can make the music change just like our beloved time lord as well as Gold. Two discs worth of music that demands to be played loud is an understatement- you'll need it played at full blast, and to sit in the middle of the room with your eyes closed,pretending you're in the TARDIS spinning out if control through the time vortex at full speed. But don't get too daydreamy now- you might accidentally get lost in the seas of space and time...
