A bit of pastoral acoustic guitar is almost the last thing you’d expect to here from any soundtrack whose title ends in the words “…of the Daleks”, and yet here we are, with the first of the “series 13 specials” leading up to the end of Jodie Whittaker’s tenure as the Doctor (whose music has already been reviewed here).
Things quickly get more modern, though, with a sense of technological urgency defining much of the score to Eve Of The Daleks. The lower-register minimalism works wonders when contrasted with outbursts of menacing brass, but there’s another kind of minimalism on display in some tracks – particularly “Deja Vu” and “Not A Great Plan” – where things slow down, there’s a little bit more breathing room between notes rather than the insistent bass synth ostinato running through most of the tracks. Particularly in “Not A Great Plan” and “Took You Long Enough”, when the music resumes its slower, acoustic feel, with the addition of a double bass, it’s almost jazzy – might be Doctor Who, might be an episode of The Avengers.
Much of Eve Of The Daleks‘ musical landscape lies in the tension between those two modes: acoustic vs. electronic, less predictable rhythms vs. a steadily percolating synth bass line, and ultimately, as the story itself dictates, human vs. machine. Really a simple idea, but it serves the story remarkably well.
Though “A Brilliant Plan” and “Important Stuff To Do” shake things up with some rapid-fire strings to accompany the score’s synthetic pulse, and “Fireworks” closes things out with a more relaxed sense that all has turned out as it should (and the return of the jazzy acoustic motif), there just isn’t much of a musical exclamation point at the end. The previous end-of-year special (and previous Dalek episode score) Revolution Of The Daleks provided that kind of major shift to accompany the exit of Ryan and Graham, but Eve Of The Daleks just doesn’t have that kind of catharsis at the end of its story or its score. It’s just another day at the office, nobody’s leaving, and the status quo is restored. Without that, Eve Of The Daleks just quietly ends. An interesting episode, and an interesting score, but as a standalone listening experience, it’s the least remarkable of the series 13 specials.
- Here We Are Again (02:17)
- Out Of Service (03:27)
- I Am Not Nick (02:33)
- Deja Vu (03:39)
- The Correction (03:06)
- Sorry Sorry Sorry (01:09)
- Not A Great Plan (06:57)
- Took You Long Enough (08:44)
- We Will Not Stop (03:50)
- We Go Again And We Win (04:01)
- The Doctor Cannot Save You (03:29)
- A Brilliant Plan (03:56)
- Important Stuff To Do (04:11)
- Fireworks (03:06)
Released by: Silva Screen Records
Release date: December 2, 2022
Total running time: 54:21