Compiled by Julian Knott, Space Adventures was a very limited-edition release (packaged first as a cassette and later, with bonus tracks, as a CD) compiling stock library music tracks from various sources that were used in the early years of Doctor Who. For a variety of reasons – budget being a frequent one – library music was often used in the show’s black & white days, simply because it was cheaper to pay for a needle drop on a stock music record than it was to have an original score composed. And while this may sound like a cheap way out today, several of these cues are now as indelibly associated with the Doctor’s journeys as any piece of specially composed incidental music that was ever created for the show.
Some time back, I reviewed a CD released to coincide with The Tenth Planet, containing several stock music cues that became a sonic signature for the sinister Cybermen. Space Adventures (which actually takes its title from the very same piece of music that accompanied the Cybermen’s early appearances) was the first public premiere of that work, and apparently it was no easy task. Music libraries, if they want to stay in business where paying clients are concerned, have to evolve with the times, creating newer, more modern pieces of music to offer and retiring older ones whose styles have fallen out of use. Such was the case with the various music libraries from which theese tracks were culled: with no demand for their more distinctly 60s-flavored tunes, the companies put the master tapes away in a vault with very little in the way of protection or preservation taking place. To make a long story short, it was up to an amateur soundtrack producer (with the benefit of expert advice) to restore the damaged tapes; if not for Knott, there would’ve been no Tenth Planet CD, because those library master tapes would have all but disintegrated.
The material archived here covers the first eight years of Doctor Who on TV, going all the way back to a piece of source music (that is, music that the characters in a scene can hear) used in part one of the first story, An Unearthly Child. The library tracks included feature both electronic and more traditional instrumentation, and while it’s nice stuff and lovingly restored, there’s a “diehards only” vibe about it all: it’s background music, with a capital “back” and capital “ground.” There are few real standout tracks, and it’s highly likely that a listener’s enjoyment of those tracks would be dependent on his familiarity with the episodes in which the music was used.
That aside, though, it’s a pity that the BBC has never relicensed this material, paid Knott for his hard work and re-released this collection as an official Doctor Who branded product, rather than as the fan-made CD that it is. The niche nature of the material does explain that a bit, but on a purely selfish level, copies of this CD are outrageously expensive on the collectors’ market, and listeners who don’t feel like having to choose between Space Adventures and paying their bills for a month would probably be forever grateful.
- Three Guitars Mood 2 (2:04)
- Machine Room (3:01)
- Illustrations No. 4 – Little Prelude (1:28)
- Asyndeton (0:29)
- Illustrations No. 4 – Hunted Man (2:58)
- Palpitations (0:36)
- Telergic (0:45)
- Lunar People – Andromeda (2:42)
- Music For Technology Part One (1:36)
- Electronic Music: Bathysphere (3:01)
- Spine Chillers (1:25)
- Space Adventure (2:17)
- Power Drill (1:15)
- Universe Sidereal (2:28)
- Illustrations No. 4 – Frightened Man (4:44)
- Electronic Music: Meteoroids (1:26)
- Space Time Music Part One (1:25)
- Space Time Music Part Two (1:21)
- Musique Concrete II (2:22)
- Impending Danger (2:13)
- World Of Plants (2:32)
- Desert Storm (1:54)
- Musique Concrete (0:57)
- Blast Off! (2:24)
- Astronautics Suite (2:40)
- Youngbeat (2:54)
- Spotlight Sequins No. 1 (1:58)
- Mutations (0:44)
Released by: Julian Knott
Release date: 1998 (original version released on cassette in 1987)
Total running time: 55:39