Things to come (Patreon)

So!

2023 is a big year. 60th Anniversary of Doctor Who. And I've been mulling over how I'd like to celebrate it. Also, I moved to a much better job end of last year and my health has improved a lot, so I really feel like I've got some time and energy to commit.

I knew I was likely going to want to make something for the 60th itself, but also something to inaugurate Ncuti Gatwa's debut as the 15th Doctor for Series 14. Work on the latter has begun and it's very exciting if I say so myself. Think "big". But I wasn't overly happy with choices I'd made for the melody which is quite possibly the most crucial element of any Whomix next to the bassline.

I started messing around with creating my own little instrument, sampled from the original Derbyshire melody. This very quickly devolved into trying to recreate the core elements from scratch with the tools available to me. Not just the melody but the bassline too. Yes, the bassline. Madness, it must be madness to try that. But no, on my hard drive now exists an almost complete emulation of the Derbyshire theme, made with the original principles in mind but with 21st century resources. With further work, it may even be passable to share widely.

In my infinite wisdom, I thought: why stop there? Could I remake more themes? Even, in one fit of what may turn out to be astonishing hubris, the seemingly impossible Howell's theme?

Cue the above video.

Everything there, apart from the background effects and Melody 2, is completely fresh. It'll need tweaking, but in terms of pure personal development, I am overjoyed already with how this has turned out. A Keff McCulloch emulation is already cooking and it won't take much to get a Dominic Glynn theme going. McGann's TV movie theme? It's all orchestra!

In terms of how this relates to the 60th, I'm going to commit to the following:

Barring any nasty surprises to come until November, I'm going to create and release a version of every official Doctor Who theme broadcast on telly since 1963. That's my big 60th project. I'm definitely a nutter for trying.

I will caveat this - if I've already released a theme relatively recently (e.g. the series 1 theme, the series 5-6 theme), they won't be getting a brand new take.  They could be due a fresh mix though, so they won't be completely left alone!

So yeah. That's a big announcement. Hope it's as exciting to you as it is for me! But keep it just between us on here for now, I want to see how long I can keep this a surprise.