As part of the 60th-anniversary celebrations of the iconic series Doctor Who, one of the show’s most renowned tales underwent an out-of-this-world update as it received an artistic colourisation. Originally transmitted between December 1963 and February 1964, The Daleks follows the very first crew of the TARDIS as they land in a petrified forest on an alien planet. Determined to explore, the Doctor (William Hartnell) leads his companions into a metal city, where they discover danger at every corner and what will become his deadliest enemy – the mutant Daleks. The seven original 25-minute episodes have been colourised and weaved together into a 75-minute blockbuster. With a brand-new soundtrack – created by Mark Ayres utilising elements of Tristram Cary’s original music – The Daleks has been updated, whilst ensuring that the original classic story remains as thrilling as it was when it began in 1963…

Let’s face it. The Daleks in Colour was not really for me. The cut-down, colourised version of the original Dalek serial was created for a younger generation of viewers, who might otherwise have avoided the sedately paced, monochrome era of Doctor Who like the plague. As someone who loves the black and white, 175-minute 1963–1964 original, watching the coloured-in, truncated 2023 version felt… wrong. Just a colourisation would have been fine, or maybe a less savage edit. There’s only so much that even the most talented editor can do to tighten up a seven-part ‘as-live’ television production (yes, you can edit around points where the original vision mixer cut to a different camera, but if a single shot is slowly paced, there’s not a lot you can do about it) and the result was decidedly uneven.

However, we’re not here to talk about the visuals. We’re here to discuss the music. While the moving images, plot strands and character moments were being cut down or cut out altogether, the incidental music was being built up, with Mark Ayres reusing, augmenting, layering and developing elements from Tristram Cary’s original and fairly minimal electronic soundtrack to create an almost omnipresent score. As a result, this 70-minute score runs 20 minutes longer than Silva Screen’s 2017 release of the seven-part serial’s soundtrack.

“The main instruction was to ‘be bold’, and not be too hidebound by the original,” said Mark Ayres of this re-scored classic. “That original is ingrained in my nearly-63-year-old DNA, so that was a challenge! But a good one. There was some early discussion about doing a complete re-score, but I argued for keeping as much of Tristram Cary’s original as possible. I wanted my contribution to be both celebration and reinvention: respectful to the original, while not entirely reverential. After all, Tristram was a friend of mine, as is [sound designer] Brian Hodgson, and I think their work is groundbreaking, unique and wonderful.”

The first two tracks on the album are not by Tristram Cary at all, though, for obvious reasons. First comes the music from the opening “Whoniverse” ident, composed by Murray Gold. Then we have the “Doctor Who Opening Titles (‘In Colour’ Mix, Daleks Version)”, composed by Ron Grainer, realised by Delia Derbyshire and now enhanced by Mark Ayres, with additional Brian Hodgson vworps and whooshes.

Once we get into the soundtrack proper, several of the earliest tracks, including “The Petrified Jungle and the City”, “No Alternative” and “The Box”, are mostly or entirely the work of Tristram Cary, though the end of “Uninvited Passengers”, with its combination of brass and intermittent percussion, is more redolent of a similarly named Doctor Who composer, Carey Blyton. Some of these cues have been brought forward from later in the story. As a result, following a souped-up version of “To the City”, one gets the distinct impression of Ayres saying to himself, “Oh, crap! I’m running out of music here. Better start writing some new stuff…”

For the next 13 tracks, with the notable exception of “Mutations”, which is wholly and recognisably Cary, we hear a combination of Cary and Ayres elements, in compositions such as “Inside the City (1) (The Labyrinth and the Lift / Barbara Captured)” and “Capturing a Dalek (A&B)”. Occasionally, Ayres reaches forward in time to make use of cues created by Cary for subsequent stories, including The Daleks’ Master Plan in “Which One of You is Going?” and “The Storm / Susan and Alydon”. Sometimes it’s possible to detect (or, at least, imagine) the influence of other musicians as well, such as mid-1970s Dudley Simpson in “The Storm / Susan and Alydon” and early 1980s Peter Howell in “Inside the City (2) (Radiation Poisoning / The Daleks / The Cell / Interrogation)”. “Ian the Dalek”, which is probably my favourite track on the album, sounds at times like a funky ITC signature tune. Perhaps in another universe it was the theme to Terry Nation’s unmade Dalek spin-off series…

The next dozen tracks are, apart from Cary’s “Heartbeats”, primarily Ayres compositions. Some of these, including parts of “The Expedition and the Swamp Monster” and “The Final War Part 2”, are reminiscent of his late 1980s work for Doctor Who. Other sections feel like a much later era, post the 2005 revival of the show, as evidenced by the emotive qualities of “Ambush and Aftermath” and “The Final War Part 2”, and the strident, orchestral flavour of “The Fall” and “The Final War Part 1”. Both parts of “The Final War” reference the Doctor Who theme, to soulful effect.

The closing track is “Our Destiny is in the Stars”, which accompanied the final throw-forward montage (like a “Next Time” trailer for the entire Hartnell era) and end titles. This is based on Murray Gold’s “The Wedding of River Song”.

This review is of the content that will be available to stream or download digitally, and will appear on Disc 1 of a double CD set. Disc 2 of the double CD set (which was not available for review) will contain alternative edits and unused cues that will only be available on CD.

Mark Ayres’ musical style (layered and melodic) is very different from that of Tristram Cary (stark and unsettling), so this score is very noticeably the work of more than one artist. The clash of styles is often quite jarring and, like the cut-down edit of The Daleks in Colour itself, the result is decidedly uneven. Despite Ayres’ respect for the source material, a complete re-score might actually have been preferable. It would certainly have been more consistent.

6

Richard McGinley