Murray Gold Hints at “Controversial” 50th
In a lengthy interview at Den of Geek he said: “There’s some really interesting things to say about that but I can’t say them. It’s very, very well directed. There’s a thing they’ve done in it, which might be controversial… It’s interesting though.”
Perhaps this is something to do with John Hurt’s Doctor and the numbering?
He revealed that some Tennant themes will return: “I had this really weird nostalgic feeling – and you have to bear in mind I am not good at revisiting my own past being reminded of where I was three years ago, onwards is my motto. So, suddenly being where I am now, used to seeing Matt on screen and then suddenly seeing David there. Definitely gonna use some music that is resonant of David’s time.”
Asked for his thoughts on Matt Smith’s departure: “I thought, ‘Well that means a lot of work!’ [Laughs] I thought, ‘Oh my god, are we really not going to hear I Am The Doctor again?’ [Laughs] I instantly began to think. ‘Could we use it for the next one as well?’ Does it maybe capture something eternally Doctorish, does it have to not be there ever again until Matt appears again, as hopefully one day he will, on some new version of the multi-Doctor story. Are we never going to hear I Am The Doctor again until the 60th? If we don’t, then what follows it has to be stronger. I think that, in a way, I Am The Doctor is stronger than the themes Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant had. So, I was thinking those thoughts.”
Gold said he hasn’t thought about the music for Smith’s regeneration yet: “Because that’s the only part of whatever the Christmas Special will be that we’ve had music for before. I’ve written music for regeneration sequences. If it ends up being an hour-long episode then I get about fifty minutes of music with the National Orchestra of Wales. If the episode becomes one hour fifteen [minutes], for example, usually have to find fifteen/twenty minutes of music from some other source other than the most recent session. So, if there was a regeneration sequence and I was short of orchestra music, I might fill it from another regeneration sequence, the music I mean. I still think the regeneration music in episode thirteen, series one [Bad Wolf] is the regeneration music.
He adds: “I just don’t know how it’s gonna happen. Vale Decem could not have been written without a walk through the snow with an Ood sent to lead him to his death. I don’t know what Steven’s [Moffat] gonna do. Maybe it’ll all be chat and talk and then a regeneration, and sound effects – certainly won’t be room for a song. It just depends how Steven writes it. I’m sure he’s aware that there’s potential for something musical. Nudge, nudge!”
Gold says he’s thought about the 12th Doctor’s theme: “I think it should maybe link to the Eleventh Doctor’s theme somehow. If there was a way of doing that, though I just have to wait and see… I don’t know if I can top I Am The Doctor. Maybe it can metamorphose somehow. I don’t know what’s out there, imaginatively – maybe there’s something that will come to mind. Again, it depends who’s cast. And how the first episode looks.”
Gold intends to return for Series 8 saying: “There’s still nothing better to write for.”