Murray Gold

Murray Gold is a television and film composer currently best known as the in-house music maestro of the revived series of Doctor Who. He has also provided soundtracks for Shameless, Queer as Folk, and has worked with composer/conductor Ben Foster as well as co-composer Stu Kennedy on Torchwood. His film scores include I Want Candy and Hoodwinked Too: Hood Vs. Evil.


 * Associated Composer: Has provided several scores for writer/producer Russell T. Davies, including Queer as Folk, Casanova, and of course, Doctor Who. He hung around on the latter when Steven Moffat took the reigns, however.
 * Bootstrapped Theme: Several, despite the popularity of the Doctor Who theme tune. "All the Strange, Strange Creatures" was used in endless promotional material after receiving its first airing during the Series Three trailer.
 * Bootstrapped Leitmotif: "Captain Jack's Theme" from Torchwood was initially used as a generic action/chase theme. It prominently stood in as Jack's theme in part of Series Two (and tagged as such on the soundtrack) and throughout Children of Earth.
 * The Day the Music Lied: The End of Time, Part Two:.
 * Dramatic Pause:
 * "The Pandorica Opens":.
 * To a lesser degree, The End of Time, Part Two:.
 * Dream Melody: The sound of drums, and everything that entails.
 * Ethereal Choir: Various, notably the One-Woman Wail of "The Doctor's Theme" and latterly "The Mad Man with a Box", and the Ominous Hebrew Chanting of the Daleks.
 * Heartbeat Soundtrack: The sound of drums, and the theme tune's bassline.
 * Left the Background Music On: "Forest of the Dead", when the little girl is flicking through TV channels, the BGM changes for each shot.
 * Leitmotif
 * Lonely Piano Piece: The End of Time, Part Two:.
 * Mocking Music: A possible example from The End of Time, Part Two:.
 * Musicalis Interruptus: "The Pandorica Opens".
 * Musical Nod: Gold sometimes sprinkles retro-sounding synth into his scores, to evoke the Classic Series. Notably done for the reveal of the TARDIS in "Rose".
 * Musical Spoiler: "Army of Ghosts"..
 * Ominous Latin Chanting: "There will be only Dalek music!"
 * One-Woman Wail: Melanie Pappenheim and Yamit Mamo for various pieces including "The Doctor's Theme", "Doomsday" and "The Mad Mad With a Box".
 * Orchestral Version: Gold's 2005 reworking of the "Doctor Who Theme" (though John Debney got there first with his theme for the TV Movie).
 * Playing the Heart Strings: "The Pandorica Opens".
 * Psycho Strings: Various, including the Master, "Midnight" and the Weeping Angels.
 * Public Domain Soundtrack: "The Christmas Invasion": Gold was particularly pleased to hear "Jingle Bells" was out of copyright, and thus available for rescoring as battle music during the christmas tree attack.
 * Rearrange the Song:
 * Gold has rearranged the Doctor Who Theme no less than four times in the space of six years.
 * "Martha's Theme" sounds suspiciously like a rearrangement of "The Doctor Forever" (or vice versa, given their introduction at around the same time), intended to hint at the connection between the two characters.
 * Recurring Riff: The Doctor Who theme, across all six of Gold's series (and for forty years prior).
 * Recycled Trailer Music: Inverted. The pre-series trailers were often used to debut a new theme; Series Three's "All the Strange, Strange Creatures" (which didn't appear until episode three) and "I Am the Doctor" prior to its use in episode one of Series Five.
 * Soundtrack Dissonance:
 * "Love Don't Roam", a pop song played at a wedding party all about being separated from your loved one forever.
 * "The Pandorica Opens".
 * Suspiciously Similar Song: Gold has confirmed that his opening track from Series One, "Westminster Bridge", is an imitation of Pixies' Cecilia Ann.
 * Theme Music Power-Up: Various. "The Doctor's Theme" made a triumphant return at the climax of "Forest of the Dead" and . "The Doctor Forever" is often used for moments of heroism (especially "Voyage of the Damned"). "Martha's Theme" becomes "Triumphant" in her final scene of "Last of the Time Last"; and "I Am the Doctor" is basically one big power up.
 * Theme Song Assonance:
 * The Master's Theme incorporates both the "four knocks" bass line from the show's theme tune as well as a rising string motif that screams "The Mah-STER! The MAH-STER!" Gold confirmed in his liner notes.
 * Jack's Theme in Torchwood was based on the phrase, "Here Comes Jack in a Ruddy Big Tractor", as a reference to a (literally) barn-storming arrival in the episode "Countrycide", accompanied by the theme.
 * Theme Song Reveal: "Utopia": ).
 * Theme Tune Cameo: The sound of drums, and ).