The Doctor Who Incidental Music Poll Round 4: The 60s

[SiHart]

Slightly later than planned, here's the your chance to vote on the incidental music writers of the 60s.
There's a huge variety: from Norman Kay's spooky music in the first season through Tristam Cary's amzing electronica to Dudley's original scores for the series...

But who will you vote for, and why?

Your options are:

Norman Kay: An Unearthly Child, The Keys of Marinus, The Sensorites

Tristam Cary: The Daleks, Marco Polo,The Daleks Masterplan, The Gunfighters

Richard Rodney-Bennet: The Aztecs

Stanley Myers: The Reign of Terror

Dudley Simpson: Planet of Giants, The Crusade, The Chase, The Celestial Toymaker, The Underwater menace, the Macra Terror, Evil of the Daleks, The Ice warriors, Fury from the Deep, Seeds of Death, The Space pirates, the War Games

Francis Chagrin: The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Raymond Jones: The Romans, The Savages

Humphrey Searle: The Myth Makers

Don Harper: The Invasion

Vote now!

Si xx

[Pip Madeley]

It's got to be Dudley this time round - his "Fury from the Deep" music alone does it for me.

[Captain Tancredi]

I voted for Stanley 'Cavatina' Myers. Then realised I actually intended to vote for Richard Rodney 'Schubert lieder accompanist' Bennett. So I've messed the whole thing up- sorry.

[Pip Madeley]

I've erased your vote for you Ian, so go on

[SiHart]

I'm going to go with my first instinct, which was to vote for Norman Kay, who's rather spooky scores were very effective. After all, no-one else is likely to vote for him.

Si xx

[Rob McCow]

Tristram! The score for The Daleks is spectacularly surreal and works perfectly for the story. It's one of my favourites.

[Nathan]

There is some very good stuff here, but it has to be Dudley who produced some very different and well thought out scores in the sixties (I think he starts to lose it during Fury from the Deep though and I'm not keen at all on his 70's stuff).

Evil of the Daleks is a superb piece of work - easily his best.

Big shout out to to Norman Kay (and his spooky sax), Tristram Cary (who defines the Daleks) and Don Harper (with his 60's spies vs military pipes sound).

[Andrew Curnow]

I'm actually torn between Don Harper, who gives the early episodes of "The Invasion" such an unsettling feel; and Norman Kay who gives the very first story a really 'scary' feel even today.

I don't really like Dudley's 60s stuff, or at least not what I've heard - his score for "The Chase" goes along with the comedy of the presentation, whereas what the story needed was for the incidentals to really give it that edge of tension. I don't think much of his score for "The Seeds of Death" either, except purely for 80s nostalgia.

I'm going for Norman Kay - after all, that's how it all started.

[Wayne]

Tristram Cary for me. He was so ahead of his time with the soundscapes he created for 'The Daleks'.
It was re-used on a fair few Hartnell stories, & in many ways it defines the earlier Hartnell era, for me.

[Nathan]

I don't really like Dudley's 60s stuff, or at least not what I've heard - his score for "The Chase" goes along with the comedy of the presentation, whereas what the story needed was for the incidentals to really give it that edge of tension. I don't think much of his score for "The Seeds of Death" either, except purely for 80s nostalgia.

The Seeds of Death is atrocious isn't it? He starts moving towards that with Fury from the Deep, although thankfully he still manages to pull some nifty tricks - such as the very bleak piece that runs under the beach sequence at the end of episode 3.

But Evil of the Daleks is superb (his best of all his work I would say) and Ice Warriors is wonderfully different too. I've not heard it for a bit, but The Space Pirates is good in places if I remember.

[transvamp]

Who was it who did Web of Fear?

[Pip Madeley]

As far as I know, The Web of Fear was a mixture of library music and specials sounds (courtesy of Brian Hodgson).

thankfully he still manages to pull some nifty tricks - such as the very bleak piece that runs under the beach sequence at the end of episode 3.

That's one of the finest bits of Who music EVER. Combined with Troughton's very worried Doctor admitting "I don't know... I, I simply don't know" just before it, and the sound of the waves and that persistent heartbeat, it all makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Great stuff.

[Dirk Gently]

As far as I know, The Web of Fear was a mixture of library music and specials sounds (courtesy of Brian Hodgson).

Was that the same for Power of the Daleks?

[Andrew Curnow]

I thought Power reused the Daleks stuff?

[Nathan]

Who was it who did Web of Fear?

Stock.

I'd have voted for him, but there isn't an option. He was so much better before he got involved with Aitken and Waterman

[Wayne]

Who was it who did Web of Fear?

Bela Bartk.

[Dirk Gently]

I thought Power reused the Daleks stuff?

In that case I've gone for Tristam Carey, not just for Power but because I've got his CD of music & it's quite a good one.

[SiHart]

Web of Fear also has Martin Johnson's Space Adventures and Space Time Music by Wilfred Johns.

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

Stanley Myers "Reign of Terror" music is my ringtone.

Si.

[transvamp]

Well in the end I voted Dudley, on the strength of Evil of the Daleks

[Phillip Culley]

I went with Dudley for the wonderful Macra Terror and Fury from the Deep soundtracks (as well The Celestial Toymaker, The Evil of the Daleks and The Space Pirates), however the 60's just had a lot of wonderful music (definitely my favourite era for it), and it feels wrong to omit the music for stories like The Daleks, The Reign of Terror, The Myth Makers, The Daleks' Master Plan, The Savages and The Invasion!

[Dave Tudor]

There really was some great, very varied music in the sixties, wasn't there? Even if much of it was stock music! In fact, personally, if the soundtracks for the first three Cybermen stories had been an option, I'd have gone for them!

However, in the end - and as brilliant as Dudley's music was - I went for Tristram Cary, who produced some stunning and truly timeless musique concrete for The Daleks, and who also came up with some wonderfully different music for 'Marco Polo' and 'The Gunfighters' - yes, 'The Ballad Of The Last Chance Saloon' included!! Add to that the fact he scored 'The Ladykillers', my joint-favourite film ever, and he's a winner in my book. But a big round of applause for everyone else, though.

Oh, and by the way, I think Deadly's season six scores, 'The Seeds Of Death' included, are brilliant. I just love those phased timpani and organ sounds.

[Larry]

just for his opressive and at times Claustrophobic score with the Daleks city i;ve gone for Tristam Cary

[Antony Cox]

I'm the lone voter (at this stage, anyway) for Don Harper. I absolutely love his music for The Invasion - it works so well even though it wasn't composed for each scene.

It makes Doctor Who sound like The Sweeney - I can just see Benton shouting to the Brig "Shaaaat it!"

[SiHart]

If you haven't already voted, you have until this evening to do so!

Si xx