Happy Birthday, Delia Derbyshire!

Ron Grainer: Did I really write this?

Delia Derbyshire: Most of it.

Delia Derbyshire would be celebrating her 76th birthday today.

She might not have worked on the series for long, but she sure did leave a dent in it: her two interpretations of Ron Grainer's theme song were used on the show for a cumulative seventeen years, from the series' inception in 1963 until her second arrangement was replaced with Peter Howell's in 1980. However, because of her employment at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, she was denied credit for her work under an anonymity clause, despite Ron Grainer himself considering her the co-composer of the song.

Though there's nothing wrong with the more bombastic, theatrical versions of the theme that have been used since, I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for Derbyshire's quiet, ethereal mix, which lends itself to a mysterious feel and sends shivers up my spine whenever I hear it.

Delia went on to have a long career in electronic music, releasing albums, writing scores for films and theater productions, and inadvertently helping to score the 1970 Doctor Who serial Inferno via her contributions to the Standard Music Library. She was one of the earliest proponents of what is today a very mainstream genre, and it's a shame she died in 2001, before it got as big as she would've wanted it to be.

You can learn more about her contributions to the series here, and hear the full length of her original theme here.

"Army of Ghosts"

Original Air Date: 1 July 2006

So, I finally am getting my brother to watch this with me.

She said the title! SHE SAID THE TITLE!
You have no idea how excited I was when she first said that she died. I really thought she did!

Awp, Jackie's crazy.

Was that Martha working at Torchwood???? Googled it...yep! And Katheine Gillian was a soothesayer in "Fires of Pompeii" #HowToBecomeACompanion (Yes, I know they validate it by saying that she's Martha's cousin.)

Ever notice the music in this one sounds like the music from Torchwood?

Jackie, why can't you just be happy for your daughter?

Ooooh the Void Stuff glasses!

He said "allons-y!" for the first time!

Now, what do you make of that? Its a giant cookie.

Oh neowww teh grosts is cybermens.
And teh sphrere haz derlerks!

"Rose"

Original Air Date: 26 March 2005 (leaked on 5 March 2005)

Have I ever mentioned that I love the song that plays at the very beginning  It's called "Westminster Bridge" if anyone's interested.
Did you notice that one of the autons chasing Rose is a shirtless woman?
About sixteen minutes in, we get the first glimpse of how this Ninth Doctor is gonna be.

Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it. The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go. That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home.

And, as soon as that bit ends, we hear "The Doctor's Theme" for the first time. It is an almost entirely vocal piece, deigned to evoke feelings of sadness and being lost. And it does. Prior to hearing this, the Doctor has appeared as a happy man, and every time we hear the song and the note progression from it, we know that the Doctor is remembering his past, what he is running from, and how alone he is.
Just once, I'd like to see someone go in the TARDIS for the first time and just be like, "Oh, okay, bigger on the inside."
Why do the boyfriends of "Who" get turned in to plastic?
"Lots of planets have a North!"
I've always found this episode a bit rediculous. Perhaps its just the idea of the Nesetene Consciousness and the whole living plastic thing. I don't know.