Well, I've loved Murray's work, and he's outlasted every other element of production, so it'll be a shame but also a good chance for someone new to come in and do something different.
Incredible how much he'll have defined the show though. I thought in the last few years we've had fewer tracks that have been memorable and repeatable (later character themes didn't sink in to for me), but you think that then he does a piece like the Heaven Sent moment and knocks it out the part again.
Silva Screen started releasing some classic soundtracks again recently, which makes me wonder if things have started moving again after the underlying soundtrack rights got sold. Perhaps with soundtrack sales tailing off a bit (IIRC?) and Capaldi being on the way out they've just decided to save everything for an era boxset, maybe with just a limited edition for the physical.
I just watched Last Christmas again. I'll miss Steven Moffat's very broad fairy tale take on Doctor Who. Just a few days after watching Mark Gatiss's Robot of Sherwood, which I think is perhaps the perfect comic episode of Doctor Who, this one is a lovely mind game with a bitter sweet tone.
I dig 13's look, it's simpler and has some flair, kind of channeling the 5th and 6th Doctors a bit here. I'm sure there will be a ton of variants with different colors of pants, shirts and suspenders too. So if you're on the fence about it there will probably some changes as the series' progress.
Sad to see Murray Gold go, but a new composer should be great for a fresh start.
Do we know who could replace Gold on the score? It makes sense for him to leave at this point, but him staying on the show for s8 and beyond was one of the things that signaled to me that the music will still be a huge part of the show. Also that it was still gonna be good.
It's reasonable to assume any newcomer may have worked with Chris Chibnall in the past. I didn't watch Broadchurch enough to get a clear impression of the incidental music, but Wikipedia lists Ólafur Arnalds as the composer. Chibnall also ran a short-lived production for Starz called Camelot, and the composers there are listed as the Canadian brothers Mychael and Jeff Danna. Mychael won an Oscar for his original score for Life of Pi.
These are just wild guesses based on known past associates. Don't take them seriously.
The Gunfighters is great, but for a long time there was a popular conception that it was terrible.
This is mainly due to a write up in Doctor Who: A Celebration by Jeremy Bentham which claimed that it was the worst Doctor Who story ever. Back in those days, fans had no way to go back and watch older Doctor Who episodes, so younger fans just took it for granted that The Gunfighters was one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever.
As time went on and fans could actually go back and watch it, they realized that it was actually really good and funny, but some of that old concept that it was terrible still remains. It's definitely one of the more unique Doctor Who stories, but delightfully so.
Yeah, I genuinely enjoy The Gunfighters. It's fun and shows some of the more comedic elements of the era. Just, The Ballad of The Last Chance Saloon gets a bit much when you're not watching the show once a week the way it was meant to.
"People keep trying to give me guns and I do wish they wouldn't" is a great line from Hartnell.
The Gunfighters is great, but for a long time there was a popular conception that it was terrible.
This is mainly due to a write up in Doctor Who: A Celebration by Jeremy Bentham which claimed that it was the worst Doctor Who story ever. Back in those days, fans had no way to go back and watch older Doctor Who episodes, so younger fans just took it for granted that The Gunfighters was one of the worst Doctor Who stories ever.
As time went on and fans could actually go back and watch it, they realized that it was actually really good and funny, but some of that old concept that it was terrible still remains. It's definitely one of the more unique Doctor Who stories, but delightfully so.
The Gunfighters certainly had a bad rep because of that Haining book (which I poured over dozens of times as a kid), partly because historicals weren't popular with SF fans and partly because lots of UK westerns gave UK-made westerns a bad rep. There are a bunch of 60s Who stories that modern viewers appreciate more than people who were there the first time and The Gunfighters is one of those.
Gunfighters works (apart from that song. Oh god that song sung by Nurse Gladys Emmanuel from Open all Hours) better now because we see it as something the BBC used to do very well in the 60s when they couldn't often pull off SF properly and that was period costume drama, which also makes it seem less dated than say The War Machines- which was both a well-made SF and contemporary (so it looked less dated new and incredibly dated when viewed now. Apart from the odd dodgy accent here and there, Gunfighters does work quite well.
I can also say, it's more watchable than the rather dire A Town Called Mercy only a few years ago
It's reasonable to assume any newcomer may have worked with Chris Chibnall in the past. I didn't watch Broadchurch enough to get a clear impression of the incidental music, but Wikipedia lists Ólafur Arnalds as the composer.
I've got the (short) Broadchurch S1 album, I'd be interested to see what Arnalds could do, but the Broadchurch soundtrack wouldn't strike me as a good example; it's (understandably) rather melancholic.
Town Called Mercy certainly isn't my favourite Series 7 episode, but according to Wikipedia it was the most widely viewed of that series, and had a high viewer appreciation index. I certainly recall nothing "dire" about it. Have I missed the memo again? I always seem to miss the memo, as do the millions of other fans.
I think I enjoyed The Gunfighters first time around, too, but mainly because of what I remember as the rather eerie and unworldly production. I was a small child with little interest in the Wild West, so the subject matter went completely over my head. I only later learned of the historical context. The whole "Americans obsessed with shooting people" theme is a bit of a giggle, looking at the highlights again on YouTube.
Town Called Mercy certainly isn't my favourite Series 7 episode, but according to Wikipedia it was the most widely viewed of that series, and had a high viewer appreciation index. I certainly recall nothing "dire" about it. Have I missed the memo again? I always seem to miss the memo, as do the millions of other fans.
Have you ever considered that you might have a better time on a discussion forum if you're willing to tolerate people having opinions that differ from yours?
Have you ever considered that you might have a better time on a discussion forum if you're willing to tolerate people having opinions that differ from yours?
I like to point out when opinions that are expressed as if they were beyond debate are in fact very much in the minority. That doesn't mean those opinions are wrong, just that the poster goes well beyond reason in presuming to present fringe opinion as fact. Those who say the most popular episode of Series 7 was "dire" are very much in a highly unusual minority.
Or would you prefer an echo chamber in which nobody challenges weird opinions?
I like to point out when opinions that are expressed as if they were beyond debate are in fact very much in the minority. That doesn't mean those opinions are wrong, just that the poster goes well beyond reason in presuming to present fringe opinion as fact. Those who say the most popular episode of Series 7 was "dire" are very much in a highly unusual minority.
You made absolutely no arguments as to A Town Called Mercy's quality- you deferred to the facts that it had a high audience (who knew the episode's quality before they saw it, I suppose?) and that other people liked it, and used them to discount ClivePwned's opinion in a snide, offputting fashion.
Using an obviously-subjective adjective is no call for you jumping down someone's throat. ClivePwned was very obviously not talking for anyone other than themselves.
Or would you prefer an echo chamber in which nobody challenges weird opinions?
You made absolutely no arguments as to A Town Called Mercy's quality- you deferred to the facts that it had a high audience (who knew the episode's quality before they saw it, I suppose?) and that other people liked it, and used them to discount ClivePwned's opinion in a snide, offputting fashion.
And of course you find absolutely nothing snide or off-putting in writing off a very popular, well reviewed episode as "dire."
Just because somebody puts forth an extreme fringe view as if it were a universal opinion, does not oblige me or you to do anything. We merely observe that the view expressed certainly does not represent the general opinion.
There's nothing wrong with loathing an episode. I draw the line at misrepresenting an episode's reception. We've had this discussion before, in the old place, where there was something similar concerning Series 6. Fan communities are infamously prone to this kind of distortion. That doesn't mean we have to let it go unremarked.
Kill the Moon was my favorite Moffat era episode until Oxygen and The Eaters of Light came along this year. That's just the sort of stuff I love to see from Doctor Who.
Just because somebody puts forth an extreme fringe view as if it were a universal opinion, does not oblige me or you to do anything. We merely observe that the view expressed certainly does not represent the general opinion.
They... never claimed it did represent the general opinion? ClivePwned is very clearly only talking about their own opinions, which makes you waving about ratings even more baffling a debating tactic.
I'd be extremely interested to see if you'd jump down someone's throat to a similar degree if they expressed a positive opinion on something the fandom widely considered to be crap.
There's nothing wrong with loathing an episode. I draw the line at misrepresenting an episode's reception. We've had this discussion before, in the old place, where there was something similar concerning Series 6. Fan communities are infamously prone to this kind of distortion. That doesn't mean we have to let it go unremarked.
You don't have to do anything. You CHOOSE to have a go at posters who don't fall into lockstep with a wider critical consensus, again and again. Please stop doing it.
I'd be extremely interested to see if you'd jump down someone's throat to a similar degree if they expressed a positive opinion on something the fandom widely considered to be crap.
I've believed for a long time aside from the very ill-considered blowjob joke (and the cruelty of that 'life' - I don't feel like it's in the Doctor's character to even bring somebody back in that way even if he could) I think Love & Monsters is actually one of the best crossover sci-fi and slice-of-life episodes of TV ever written - it's just let down by the above and by the monster design (which, to be fair, game from a nine year old).
If we're talking worst episodes, btw, the worst episodes of New Who are Fear Her (shit) and In the Forest of the Night (hilariously shit). I always wonder what on earth happened with the latter, because it's just awful. At least with Fear Her we know that it was a combination of Doomsday sucking up all the money so there was no budget and Stephen Fry's script falling through quite late so it was fairly rapidly written.
There's a lot of really dubious distinctly average stuff, though, and it's usually a 'theme' episode like Curse of the Black Spot, Kill the Moon, etc. I think Series 7a is probably most guilty of this in that I think that production decree that every episode should be able to be sell-able in a single like "Dinosaurs on a spaceship! Robot in the wild west!" meant that they all fizzle out in weird ways. Even Asylum of the Daleks, which is a good episode, sort of squanders its core concept in that 'the daleks too insane even for the daleks' amounts to ones that are, er, a bit broken. The difference between 7a and 7b in quality is enormous.
The Lie of the Land gave it a run for its money, but The Doctor's Daughter is still the worst episode that modern Who has ever put out, and the only one to rank with the worst that the old series had to offer.
The Lie of the Land gave it a run for its money, but The Doctor's Daughter is still the worst episode that modern Who has ever put out, and the only one to rank with the worst that the old series had to offer.
Fear Her's bad, but it's got a few decent visuals and a few good bits (the TARDIS materialisation gag, Tennant with his fingers in the jam, etc.) It's certainly in the lower tiers, but I'd put in with something like Curse of the Black Spot in a "drearily mediocre" category rather than "soul-flayingly awful".
The Doctor's Daughter's appalling-looking, stultifyingly boring, features the worst set of performances in the new series, has the worst monster designs in the new series, has a big sci-fi twist that makes absolutely no kind of sense, and squanders a potentially interesting core concept in the single least interesting way. It's appallingly bad- Murray Gold can be proud of what he turned out for that episode, but no one else can.
I'd be extremely interested to see if you'd jump down someone's throat to a similar degree if they expressed a positive opinion on something the fandom widely considered to be crap.
I don't like Fear Her myself, but I know several people outside of the fandom who'd call it their favourite episode they'd ever seen. It played well to the general public, and I can see why too.
The Doctor's Daughter just doesn't work, in any sense. It's a broken product.
THE FISH DROWNS, AND WE'RE MEANT TO FEEL SAD ABOUT IT
I posted my comment before all the Fear her mentions that followed the post I was quoting. :) I guess it was fairly predictable that it would get mentioned.
I don't like Fear Her myself, but I know several people outside of the fandom who'd call it their favourite episode they'd ever seen. It played well to the general public, and I can see why too.
The Doctor's Daughter just doesn't work, in any sense. It's a broken product.
THE FISH DROWNS, AND WE'RE MEANT TO FEEL SAD ABOUT IT