Music of the Spheres

I was lucky enough to be at the 2008, ‘10 and ‘13 Doctor Who Proms thanks to having parents who already regularly attended The Proms and were pretty ‘on it’ with this kind of thing. At the 2008 show we were in the unbelievably fortunate position of being in the box just under Russell T Davies, Peter Davison, Catherine Tate, Julie Gardiner, Phil Collinson. Towards the end of the show I shot up to their box with my little brother and got signatures from all of the above. I most clearly remember Catherine and the kind, generous Russell who had bounds of positive energy. I let my little brother approach as I thought at 15 I might be seen to be a bit too old - I wish I hadn’t now as I’m a WAY bigger fan then he is/ ever was. He told Russell that his favourite of his episodes was Journey’s End to which Russell agreed. Murray Gold’s music was astonishing throughout the evening - especially that spine tingling Gallifrey and Doomsday themes which were spectacularly put back to back. That is an incredibly special memory for me.

Music of the Spheres was, of course, a rather minor cutaway scene which they smartly folded into the action on the day featuring another appearance from a monster that Doctor Who of this era liked to whip out for “extra” content like this - the Graske. It’s a cute scene where Tennent eulogises about the importance of music, writes a (deliberately) terrible song for orchestra to play and then chases a Graske off screen… who heads into the Royal Albert Hall! It was hugely gratifying to see live but independently of the day itself probably doesn’t add up to much!