Saturday 31 July 2010

My visit to Doctor Who at the Proms (Sunday 25th July)


I have been to a few classical concerts over the last few years –Rachmaninov, Film themes, Tchaikovsky – all were really fantastic, and this concert was no exception. I was one of the lucky 10,000 people to have booked a ticket to see Doctor Who at the Proms. I attended the Sunday performance on the 25th July, and it was also the first time I had personally seen Doctor Who music performed live. And I absolutely loved it.

The ‘Madman with a Box’ intro was inspired, and Yamit Mamo’s vocals were just beautiful, with the added reverb making them sound magical. It was definitely one of my favourite pieces of the concert. Then two fun and lighter pieces followed – ‘An Untimely Arrival’ and John Adams’ ‘Ride in a Fast Machine’, which was an interesting, if rather experimental piece. The highlight for most people I suspect though was Murray Gold’s main theme for Series 5, listed as ‘I am The Doctor’, which was as absolutely magnificent as it was meant to be, and another favourite of mine. I also enjoyed the performance of Holst’s ‘Mars’ from The Planets, which seemed particularly energetic.

Of course, it wasn’t too long before the Monsters came out, first Judoon and Cybermen, followed by an ‘Ironside’ and an all-new Supreme Dalek, and later Silurians and Vampires would fill the hall later on. Even The Doctor himself, appeared in character for a brief spot of audience participation.

Most of the rest of the concert featured more of Murray Gold’s more incidental music such as ‘Battle of the Skies’, ‘Liz, Lizards, Vampires and Vincent’ and ‘The Pandorica Opens’, which although were still good, lacked the epic and melodious nature of his most loved themes. Fortunately, there were more of those to come.
My most favourite piece of the concert though, was ‘Amy’ (Amy’s Theme), which was epic, magical, moving, rousing, and definitely the most powerful piece of music of the day. I just love it to bits. It just seemed to have everything.

There was also an extended flashback to the Russell T. Davies era via a performance of ‘This is Gallifrey’ with an added new arrangement of ‘Vale Decem’ – the 10th Doctor’s Regeneration theme. ‘Vale Decem’ in particular was a spectacular piece to hear live, after it’s impressive appearance in The End of Time, with Mark Chambers once again wowing the audience with his high vocals. The arrangement was also fascinating too, with a powerful organ playing out underneath it’s powerful climax, making the ending feel very Dudley Simpson-esque (Dudley Simpson composed incidental music for Doctor Who between 1964 and 1979).

After an entertaining performance of ‘Song of Freedom’, the best TV theme in the World (the Doctor Who theme of course) was performed brilliantly by the orchestra, although the bass line was sadly lost once more. After such a brilliant, I am in no doubt that Murray Gold must surely be Doctor Who's best ever incidental music composer.

As a side note though, I was disappointed with the reaction to the Doctor Who Proms by outside media, saying that Doctor Who fans were so swept up by Matt Smith and the monsters that they wouldn’t appreciate the genius of the older classical music in the concert, which I find very insulting. I became a big fan of classical music at around the same time that I became a Doctor Who fan (1995), and I’m sure that anyone over the age of 10 who loves Murray Gold’s music will be able to equally appreciate and love the music of other classical composers. Any below that age will of course be more affected by a Cyberman or Matt Smith, because they’re too young to have educated and defined tastes in Music, it should go without saying. Sometimes, I think cynicism should be a sin.

Back to the bright side, overall I had a fantastic day out. I heard some amazing Doctor Who music live, seen Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill on Stage (albeit unfortunately at a great distance), and even had time to look round London afterwards. I even saw glimpses of Doctor Who royalty such as the Peter Davison family, Mark Gatiss, and even accidentally walked in the way of Steven Moffat and son (sorry Steven) (I was embarrassed for over an hour). A day to remember.

Monday 19 July 2010

My Reflection on Doctor Who - Series 5 (2010)


Over 3 weeks ago now, the New Series 5, or Season 31 (as I like to call it) of Doctor Who finished in spectacular style with The Big Bang. The last few weeks have allowed time for the last 13 episodes to sink in, and looking back, I’m both happy and excited that it was a resounding success, not just as a series by itself, but also as a forward-thinking, positive improvement in the quality of Doctor Who on the whole.

Not that it was in an absolute mess beforehand mind you; both Series 4 and The Waters of Mars were a world away from the dire excesses of Series 2 in 2006, but I felt generally that the programme was gradually slipping into more lazy, self-indulgent, and celebratory story-telling – living off Doctor Who’s recent past successes. After Steven Moffat took over head-writing and executive duties from Russell T. Davies though, he made Series 5 an effective reboot that while paid respect and homage to the magnificence of the Russell T. Davies era, returned the programme back to a clear and firm sense of direction and purpose, the like of which hadn’t been seen since Series 1 back in 2005 with Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor. Then as now, with Matt Smith and Karen Gillan, there was a great dynamic and developing relationship between both Doctor and companion, and a strong Story arc that overall lived up to its promise.

Now though, lightning seems to strike twice for the new revived incarnation of WHO. As with Series 1, Series 5 has put Doctor Who back on the map as a brilliant, imaginative and quality show. And its stars have excelled too. What Matt Smith lacks in gravitas, he more than makes up for in character and performance; and Karen Gillan is proving to be one of the most fun and interesting companions ever.

Although, I still feel that New WHO is a distance away from the height of its powers. Even though this is the best the programme has been in a decade, it still hasn’t quite matched the heyday of the show in the 1970’s, even with better production values. The Big Bang may have finished off the Series well, but it could have worked even better had Steven Moffat not tried to out-epic Russell T. Davies in the scope of his writing. I am confident though, that if his early success this year is anything to go by, then his future series are sure to be amazing. Who knows? We may soon even enter the best Golden years Doctor Who has ever had! It has never been a more exciting time to be a Doctor Who fan! (Well not for my generation anyways.)

Thursday 1 July 2010

My thoughts on...the UK General Election 2010: Part 1 – Where I Stand on Gordon Brown

The reason why for me, the UK’s 2010 Election was an important one, apart from being a UK citizen, was because it felt that there was so much at stake, that it would be a much tighter result, and for the first time in my generation’s history, it felt we could actually make much more of a difference.

I voted for the first time in the 2005 General Election (I think I voted Labour), and ever since had become fascinated and gradually more emotionally embroiled in Politics. After a couple of years (2007) I found my political voice – I was a supporter of the Left with some Liberal tendencies, a believer in the great social courses, such as greater equality, care and opportunity for all, the elimination of poverty, and the need to put aside selfish nationalist ways for the greater good of the World community.

Being the sad geek that I am, I frequently tuned in or recorded most of the weekly sessions of Prime Minister’s Questions to get a flavour of the political mood in Westminster.

So yes, you could take it from that, that I was a Labour supporter. My view on Tony Blair though was mixed. I admired him for fighting for what was right, but at the same time he often proved slightly delusional in the level of belief in some of his own Spin, which I didn’t like at all. You just can’t defend a point of view with Spin as it shows up your weaknesses and ultimately undermines you. As far as Iraq is concerned I do believe the illegal invasion was wrong. It was right to remove Saddam Hussein, but it should have been on considered UN terms, when all possible peaceful avenues had been spent. And further more it should have been planned much, much better, especially when it meant that strategic and military incompetence led to deaths of many thousands of innocent Iraqis who should never have been in the firing line.

However, when Gordon Brown became Prime Minister in 2007 (after being Chancellor of the Exchequer for 10 years previously), things started to look up. Despite not having the same communicational skill as Tony Blair, he seemed, and later proved, to be a much more honest and decent man.

As we now know though, the bright future he wanted was not meant to be. Sure, every politician makes mistakes, and Brown made a few himself, such as the cancelled election and the accidental elimination of the 10p tax rate. Despite this though, I genuinely believe that Brown never did anything seriously wrong throughout his career in Government. Yet crisis after crisis challenged Brown; from month to month a new trouble would arise. From Floods to Volcanoes, from hyped up non-elections to incompetent civil servants, and all the while the National Media publically lynched him in text and verbal commentary every week. Trial by Fire doesn’t remotely cover what this poor man had to endure.

...and then the World Economy collapsed.

I don’t blame Gordon Brown for the financial crisis that has caused such pain for both people and businesses alike. It has been proven conclusively on several occasions that it was a WORLD banking crisis, mainly created by the careless, selfish and greedy actions of Western Banks around the World. In this country in particular, the framework of the financial system was setup in such a way that it allowed Banks to take huge risks with their capital for just short-term gains. It is true that in hindsight, Gordon Brown should have put more regulation into finance law, but he admits that as much himself, and nobody could have predicted at that time exactly what would happen.

However, my faith in the Labour Party waned considerably due to the overall performance of the Labour government. They seemed tired, and out of new ideas; and were overly reactive to the comments and agendas of the media. Making policy on the basis of newspaper headlines was bad government, and it showed that ministers cared more about their poll ratings than their long-term convictions. Gordon Brown seemed to be the only exception to this, but it didn’t matter in the end, because he was always made to take the buck for the failures of his cabinet. In the end, I had to feel sorry for him, as it literally appeared that almost everyone was against him, especially in the media. No wonder he was always angry and depressed, I know I would be.

Despite what you may think of Labour, it is my firm belief that Gordon Brown was one of the UK’s best and most respectable Prime Ministers of all time. He may have been socially inept at times, but being a bit like that myself, I can sympathise with that. It is also true that Brown took his time with important decisions too, but that didn’t make him a weak leader. If anything it meant he was being thorough and wanted to be as sure as possible that he was taking the right course of action. In my mind, he was sensitive and caring, hardworking and conscientious; a big man, with a big heart. Any future Prime Minister would do good to take a leaf out of Brown’s book.


The high level of public opposition to Brown though, left the popular vote open to the other main parties, who frequently touted themselves as – ‘the new politics’. But are they really as fresh and revolutionary as they claim?