In the classic series, each serial's director chose the freelance composer for the incidental music in the serial. Some directors chose to use stock music or special soundscapes from the Radiophonic Workshop instead of specially composed music as a cost cutting measure. During the 1970s, the incidental composer primarily associated with the programme was Dudley Simpson, composing most of the decade's music. When John Nathan-Turner became producer of Doctor Who in 1980, he decided that the music needed to be updated, and took Simpson out for a meal telling him how much he appreciated his work on Doctor Who but that it would no longer be required as he intended to have the BBC Radiophonic Workshop provide music from that point. While Simpson was contracted to score Shada, the unfinished nature of that production meant he never started work. As a result, his last broadcast work on Doctor Who was for The Horns of Nimon.[1]
The 1980s saw the music composition brought in house at the BBC by various members of the Radiophonic Workshop, before transitioning back to freelance composers at the end of the original series's run. This decade saw a more heavy use of synthesizers than before.
John Debney was chosen to score the 1996 TV movie, and he achieved this together with his proteges Louis Febre and John Sponsler.
The revived series' scores were entirely composed by Murray Gold for the first ten series. Gold utilised a score created with first with orchestral samples for Series 1, and later with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales from Series 2 onwards; with heavy use of leitmotifs for characters such as the Doctor, the companions and monsters.[2][3] Gold's music was played at the Proms, such as for the 50th anniversary celebration.[4] Several singers performed in the soundtracks of these series, for instance, Neil Hannon in "Song for Ten".[5] However, the programme had previously had a singers - The Gunfighters featured Lynda Baron singing "The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon" composed by Tristram Cary in 1966 and Delta and the Bannermen featured "The Lorells", a fictional group created by the show's incidental music composer Keff McCulloch in 1987.
Segun Akinola replaced Gold for the duration of the Thirteenth Doctor's run. Akinola's scores tended to be more ambient than Gold's, with a great variety of instruments for different episodes.[6]
In April 2023, it was announced that Gold would again join Doctor Who as composer.[7][8]
Instead of using specially composed music, some serials were scored completely with pre-recorded stock music. Some of these serials used music by one composer as noted below:
^Also composed music for the 2017 version of Shada and additional music for the 2023 colourised version of The Daleks[10]
^Botterill performed eight minutes of percussive music for the score, with the rest from stock.[11]
^Three serials credited to Cary (The Rescue, The Ark, and The Power of the Daleks) just reuse music originally recorded for The Daleks or The Daleks' Master Plan with no new music.
^Ainsworth, John, ed. (2016). "The Crusade, The Space Museum, The Chase and The Time Meddler". Doctor Who: The Complete History. 5 (11). London: Panini Comics, Hachette Partworks: 133. ISSN2057-6048.
^Ayres, Mark (August 2015). "Composers: The 1960s". Doctor Who Magazine Special Edition. No. 41, The Music of Doctor Who. Tunbridge Wells: Panini UK Ltd. p. 24.
