Doctor Who’s New Music Reveals The Problem With Whittaker’s Era
A recent interview with Doctor Who composer Segun Akinola shines a fascinating light on one of the many problems facing the current series.
You Are Reading :Doctor Who’s New Music Reveals The Problem With Whittaker’s Era
Doctor Who’s new music neatly symbolizes the problems of the Chris Chibnall era. The classic Doctor Who series is largely divided by main actors; think of the Hartnell era, the time of Tom Baker, or the McCoy era. But the relaunched Doctor Who series is characterized more by the different, distinctive showrunners; the Russell T. Davies era, the Steven Moffat run, and – now – the age of Chris Chibnall.
Chibnall’s run has proved divisive. The current showrunner believes Doctor Who should be educational, and as such he’s enjoyed some carefully-structured historical episodes, and presented quite strong social commentary on current issues. He’s determined to leave his mark on the franchise, and in Doctor Who season 12 he retconned the show’s entire history. He revealed the Doctor is actually the Timeless Child, an ancient being who potentially predates the entire universe, and who became the base genetic code for the entire Time Lord race. This has understandably divided the fanbase, with some wishing it could all be retconned away and others interested to see where it goes next. The problems run a lot deeper than the Timeless Child retcon, however, as was revealed in a recent interview with composer Segun Akinola.
Flickering Myth recently asked Akinola about his approach to composing music for Doctor Who’s classic monsters, and his responses were fascinating. Surprisingly, Akinola chose not to look back at any previous episodes for inspiration. “In musical terms, it’s just been a blank slate,” he explained. “Yes, the Cybermen are coming back, but it’s a blank slate and they’re going to have a new theme – even Captain Jack, he has a new theme.” The problem is that this approach removes any sense of musical continuity between the age of previous composer Murray Gold and his successor. Akinola is treating Doctor Who as though it is a brand new series, as though he has no lessons to learn from the recent past. The same appears to be true of Chris Chibnall himself.
In truth, Chibnall doesn’t seem to have been willing to learn anything from the Davies and Moffat eras. The Timeless Child retcon fits with classic Who but not modern, which makes sense given it was an idea Chibnall came up with when he was growing up watching the original series in the 1980s. Although the production value of Doctor Who has never been better in visual terms, the pace of episodes has slowed; countless scenes take place in static shots, with the dynamism of Davies’ relaunch forgotten. And yet, for all that’s the case, Chibnall is clearly ambitious to permanently transform the franchise.
There is a fundamental problem with this approach. It forgets an entire generation of fans fell in love with Doctor Who through the Davies and Moffat eras, and the show will only succeed so long as these viewers keep on tuning in. Yes, it’s fine for a showrunner and a composer to want to make their mark and create something unique, but there also needs to be a sense of continuity. Audiences love Doctor Who, but that means people have their own ideas what Doctor Who should look (and sound) like. If you forget that, you’ll simply irritate people and get them changing channel.
Link Source : https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-new-music-whittaker-era-problems/