The Time Siren Diaries

Vampires of Venice

We were all sitting around one night last week trying to help my friend Kristen take her mind off her busted rotator cuff and broken finger, and of course the distraction of choice was a David Tennant Doctor Who marathon. As the evening progressed, the show’s awesome music invariable led to the discussion of ring tones. Myion wanted not just the song, “The Sound of Drums”, he wanted the Master yelling, “Here come THE DRUMS!!!” right before the music erupts onto the screen. Custom tone, tall order. Can’t just log onto T-Mobile to get that one, right?

My personal favs leaned towards a particularly ravishing use of, “The Doctor’s Theme” on the Murray Gold soundtrack for Seasons 1 and 2, and an almost hypnotic score piece found not on any of the soundtracks, but on the opening DVD menu for Seasons 3 & 4! Heh, we don’t do anything easy around here.

Determined after a few days of listening obsessively to both pieces, I recorded them, got them edited them down to a manageable ring tone size and, with some cleverness, got them into my cell phone. Wasn’t easy without internet access, but nothing worth doing ever is. Enjoy them, they were made possible through a mad love for the series.

 Here Come the Drums - added 4/1/10 – made for my friend, Myion
TARDIS Landing and Take Off
The Doctor’s Theme

We are so having this at our Doctor Who party on the 17th…

Instructions on how to make this here. Thank you, Kamikaze Cookery, for your wonderful & weird contribution to the world of human food and to the heritage of the Time Lords.

An older one made for a friend.

As we near the release date for Doctor Who in the U.K., podcasts, articles, interviews, images and clips have are giving us a steady stream of news about our favorite Time Lord. Will he wear a face this time around that will become our favorite? Will it be the face for the next new generation of Who Fans? Everyone has a different answer, but the one thing we all have in common is that the news is piquing all our curiosities.

Because the news is so scattered across the internet, I thought I’d compile it all here in one spot for my readers, and thank you, those of youu who have joined my Feedburner and RSS feeds from the links to my 5th Doctor fan fiction on Whofic and FanFiction.net. More will be coming your way as well in stories, avatars and wallpapers, I promise.

Recent Who News as of Tuesday, March 23, 2010:

On Blogtor Who -

Steven Moffat – BBC Breakfast Interview is also here “STEVEN MOFFAT was a guest on today’s edition of BBC Breakfast…In it he confirms that an old monster will return, the Weeping Angels are “way worse this time” and that Matt is an “elegant shambles”.” I love the term, “elegant shambles”! SPOILER ALERT in the links on this page. If you don’t want to know anything further about specific episodes, DON’T click on any video clips without reading the accompanying descriptions, OR on the “2010: THE NEW SERIES” episode links on the right-hand side of the page. There are no plot spoilers in the 2010 links, BUT there are episode images and SCRIPT EXCERPTS…I am so loving this ‘site…

Blogtor Who also contains press launch interviews with Matt, Karen & David, 1st episode clip snippets, pics of the spread in the Radio Times, more snippets from Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, links to tons more video, pics and to their friends at Den of Geek for a spoiler-free review.

Doctor Who in the Media – Article Round Up

I have been wanting to do a review of the music for the new Doctor Who series ever since the first album came out in 2006. There are currently three soundtracks out; Doctor Who: Original Television Soundtrack (original mushc from Series One and Two), Doctor Who, Series 3 and Doctor Who, Series 4. I will touch base on all of them here.

Every year I go to our local Doctor Who convention, Gallifrey, at the LAX Mariott, I pick up as much music as I do visual Who fare. A soundtrack is so important, it makes the literal difference between how you perceive the identical story, but one version with a good soundtrack and one with an awesome soundtrack.

We are deeply sense-driven beings at times, and some of us more than others. Visuals can touch you – as in the case of the opening fanfare scene of flying through the Time Vortex, but without the music, it is harder to get that “rush” or “buzz” of excitement that comes from deep within our brain as it is stimulated by a sweeping score.

Doctor Who Television Sountrack Series 1 and 2

The first television soundtrack, released in 2006, did not fail to deliver. I always get a chill listening to the first track, simply titled, “Doctor Who Theme”, but not simple in how it makes me shiver with excitement. There are a few tracks on here that don’t float my boat, #30 for one (I could do without vocals, thank you), but I gladly put up paying for them with such treasures as the hypnotic track #3, “The Doctor’s Theme”. Evocative of the lonliness and heartache of a Time Lord forever on the run, who must always and ever let go of the friends and companions he makes on the way, it never fails to bring me to tears and move me down to my soul’s very core. Several pieces are sprinkled with snippets of this haunted, deeply moving theme, coined the “Bad Wolf Theme” by its composer Murray Gold. It is a testament to the deep, intertwined relationship between Rose Tyler and the Doctor that this piece was, “initially associated with the Doctor’s dark and private history, but later became identifed with the “‘Bad Wolf’ plot strand”, a plot that saw Rose risk destruction of her humanity by becoming the “Time Goddess” – all to save her beloved doctor’s current life.

Doctor Who Television Sountrack Series 3

“Martha’s Theme” – track #2 in the Series 3 collection, is airy and light, like the flirtatious, come-hither-and-see-the-stars-with-me glance the Doctor gives Martha after they get back to Earth, escaping a Judoon occupation on the Moon. An amazing soundtrack compilation too good to pass up, too much stuff to include here!

Doctor Who Television Sountrack Series 4

“Voyage of the Damned Suite” – track #12 jumps through highlights of diverse, sweeping music litanies heard throughout other track, highlighting the best of the tragic tale of the doomed starship, “Titanic”. Starting out as “James Bondish” as the Doctor in his black tux (and who can resist that?), moving quickly through heroic strands of the-day-is-saved “bits” to brief and sad, poingnant touches on the all-too-brief Doctor companion Astrid’s ghostly appearance after her ultimate sacrifice to save the Time Lord, ship and crew. I particularly love the driving, urgent bits as they run through the ship, racing against time to avoid an atmospheric re-entry death of everyone aboard.

It’s impossible to go over all the amazing pieces of music on each album (nearly 30 pieces on each album!), so please take it from a particular and discerning lover of movie and t.v. soundtracks and rest assured, these three are worth every penny you spend to get them.

More to come as I make them. Send me your ideas and pics and I’ll see what I can whip up!

The Master. Destroying stupid people that won't get in the groove...one planet at a time!

Haven’t you ever felt like breaking out and destroying the world ’cause it just won’t get with the program?!?