List of Doctor Who composers

History

The Doctor Who theme music was composed by Ron Grainer and initially arranged by Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. Various composers subsequently arranged it for later versions of the theme.

In the classic series, each serial's director chose the freelance composer for the incidental music in the serial. Some directors chose to use stock music or special soundscapes from the Radiophonic Workshop instead of specially composed music as a cost cutting measure. During the 1970s, the incidental composer primarily associated with the programme was Dudley Simpson, composing most of the decade's music. When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, he decided that the music needed to be updated, and took Simpson out for a meal telling him how much he appreciated his work on Doctor Who but that it would no longer be required as he intended to have the BBC Radiophonic Workshop provide music from that point. While Simpson was contracted to score Shada, the unfinished nature of that production meant he never started work. As a result, his last broadcast work on Doctor Who was for The Horns of Nimon.

The 1980s saw the music composition brought in house at the BBC by various members of the Radiophonic Workshop, before transitioning back to freelance composers at the end of the original series's run. This decade saw a more heavy use of synthesizers than before.

John Debney was chosen to score the 1996 TV movie, and he achieved this together with his proteges Louis Febre and John Sponsler.

The revived series' scores were entirely composed by Murray Gold for the first ten series. Gold utilised a score created with first with orchestral samples for Series 1, and later with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from Series 2 onwards; with heavy use of leitmotifs for characters such as the Doctor, the companions and monsters. Gold's music was played at the Proms, such as for the 50th anniversary celebration. Several singers performed in the soundtracks of these series, for instance, Neil Hannon in "Song for Ten". However, the programme had previously had a singers - The Gunfighters featured Lynda Baron singing "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" composed by Tristram Cary in 1966 and Delta and the Bannermen featured "The Lorells", a fictional group created by the show's incidental music composer Keff McCulloch in 1987.

Segun Akinola replaced Gold for the duration of the Thirteenth Doctor's run. Akinola's scores tended to be more ambient than Gold's, with a great variety of instruments for different episodes.

In April 2023, it was announced that Gold would again join Doctor Who as composer.

''Doctor Who'' composers

Stock music

Instead of using specially composed music, some serials were scored completely with pre-recorded stock music. Some of these serials used music by one composer as noted below:

• The Edge of Destruction
• The Web Planet - Music by Les Structures Sonores
• The Space Museum
• Galaxy 4 - Music by Les Structures Sonores
• Mission to the Unknown - Music by Trevor Duncan
• The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve - Music by Pierre Arvay
• The War Machines
• The Tenth Planet
• The Highlanders
• The Moonbase
• The Faceless Ones
• The Tomb of the Cybermen
• The Enemy of the World - Music by Béla Bartók
• The Web of Fear
• Inferno

Spinoff composers

Notes

References

References

1. "The Horns of Nimon ★".
2. "Adventures in Time and Sound PDF".
3. "Who Music in Notes".
4. "BBC 2013 Proms".
5. "Neil Hannon - Song For Ten Lyrics".
6. "Doctor Who Series 12 Soundtrack World".
7. "Award-winning composer Murray Gold returns to Doctor Who | Doctor Who".
8. "Russell T Davies on Instagram: "MURRAY GOLD will be the composer for the next season of Doctor Who! Is anyone surprised?! Full story & interview in this week's new DWM ♥️"".
9. "Doctor Who composer confirms Jodie Whittaker's final special is his last".
10. . (2 November 2023). ["The Daleks will return in a spectacular colourisation"](https://www.doctorwho.tv/news-and-features/the-daleks-will-return-in-a-spectacular-colourisation).
11. (2016). "The Crusade, The Space Museum, The Chase and The Time Meddler". [[Panini Comics]], [[Hachette Book Group.
12. Ayres, Mark. (August 2015). "Composers: The 1960s". Panini UK Ltd..
13. Martin-Jones, Josh. "'Doctor Who' Spin-Off 'The War Between the Land And The Sea' Taps Legendary Composer Lorne Balfe".