Doctor Who Prom (2008)

In 2006, the Doctor Who production team had presented a concert titled "Doctor Who: A Celebration" at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff, as a fundraiser for Children in Need. The success of that concert encouraged Doctor Who producer Julie Gardner and David Jackson (then Head of Music at BBC Wales) to meet the Director of the BBC Proms, Roger Wright, and suggest a Doctor Who-themed Proms concert. The Doctor Who Prom replaced the Blue Peter Prom, which had been held from 1998 to 2007. The Doctor Who Prom was part of an ongoing drive to make the Proms more accessible and inclusive. Some critics accused Wright of "dumbing down" the Proms, against which Wright defended the programme, pointing out that "we're hosting a concert for families that include pieces by Holst, Wagner and Prokofiev." The audience included many families with children, as well as older Doctor Who fans. The Times described the concert as the "most over-subscribed concert" of the Proms season. == Programme ==

In addition to the Doctor Who music by Murray Gold, several classical pieces were included in the concert, including one piece which had its United Kingdom début. Julie Gardner told Doctor Who Magazine that the concert's planners considered a theme of "time and space" to tie in with Doctor Who, but decided that this "would lead to using the big sci-fi tracks from the likes of 2001, which would make the concert feel too much like a 'film and TV soundtrack day'." Instead, the producers chose "the Doctor's love of humanity" as a theme, and selected pieces which they felt connected with that theme. Act One Act Two == Production ==

at the Doctor Who Prom. The concert was conducted by Ben Foster and Stephen Bell, featuring the BBC Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Choir, with solo performances by Tim Phillips and Melanie Pappenheim. Foster also arranged Gold's compositions for the performance. Sarah Walker presented BBC Radio 3's coverage of the concert. The full concert was rehearsed on Saturday, 26 July, the day before the performance. In the plot of the mini-episode "Music of the Spheres", a space-time portal opened from the interior of the Doctor's TARDIS to the Royal Albert Hall. During the episode, both the alien Graske and the Doctor's musical composition "fell" through the portal. Actor Jimmy Vee appeared on stage as the Graske, and sheets of music manuscript paper dropped onto the orchestra from the flyloft above the stage. Julian Bleach, who had played Davros in the 2008 television episodes "The Stolen Earth" and "Journey's End", reprised his role under Davros' heavy makeup for the concert. == Broadcast ==

The Doctor Who Prom was broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. and were also made available on digital television via the "Red Button". The television broadcast included "Concert Prologue", "All the Strange, Strange Creatures", "The Doctor Forever", "Rose" and "Martha vs The Master"; the mini-episode "Music of the Spheres" (with audience reactions); "The Daleks and Davros", "Donna"/"The Girl in the Fireplace"/"Astrid", "This is Gallifrey", "Doomsday", "The Doctor's Theme/Song of Freedom" and the "Doctor Who Theme." None of the non-Doctor Who music was included in the highlights broadcast on television. This edition of the concert was released as a bonus feature on the DVD for "The Next Doctor". Uncut video of the concert was available via the Red Button for a period beginning 11 January 2009, and for a period beginning from 12 January 2009 was available to UK residents on the BBC's Doctor Who website. == Reception ==

at the concert Writing in The Times, Caitlin Moran called the event "the hottest ticket in town this week," and added, "As a child's introduction to orchestral recitals, it is peerless." Moran also noted "a moment of squirming shame" at the realisation that composer Murray Gold has not won a BAFTA. Bruce Dessau, writing in the Evening Standard, felt that the classical compositions "jostled for attention" with Gold's work, and called "The Torino Scale" "cacophonous". Of the Doctor Who pieces, Dessau singled out soloist Melanie Pappenheim for her performance of Doomsday describing it as "haunting" and that it "hoisted the emotional level to a peak unsurpassed even when the team saved Earth, accompanied by the soaring Song Of Freedom." Dessau's sole complaint was that the concert gave insufficient attention to the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and that the programme's conclusion with the Doctor Who theme "felt more like an afterthought than a climax." Covering the event for Doctor Who Magazine, David Darlington noted that the stated aim of the Proms is "to encourage an audience for concert hall music who, though not normally attending classical concerts, would be attracted by the low ticket prices and informal atmosphere" and concluded that if the children in the audience had such a love for Doctor Who "that they have come all this way to spend an hour or two listening to the music from the show, and that they will happily also sit through a formal, experimental and rather abrasive piece of modern classical music and then enthusiastically applaud at the end, then all concerned can be happy with their day's work." Reviewing the highlights from the concert shown on television, Paul Byrne of Dublin's Evening Herald called the concert "a delightfully silly idea" with an "irresistible charm". Anna Lowman of TV Scoop noted that some of the power of the featured Doctor Who music came from the audience associating the themes with powerful scenes from the television series. She added, "It was a joy to watch it on the TV, so I can only imagine that it was magical to be there on the night itself." Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Gillian Reynolds listed the Doctor Who Prom as one of several successful elements in the 2008 Proms season. Jenny Abramsky, the BBC's former Director of Audio and Music, praised Proms director Roger Wright "for creating such a wonderful and exciting event that clearly grabbed children's imagination." Anna Picard, music correspondent for The Independent, included the Doctor Who Prom as a highlight in her year-end review of classical music in 2008. However, by April 2009 a journalist for The Sunday Times said that "there have been complaints that the Proms need no more gimmicks – such as David Tennant hosting a Doctor Who prom for children last year" (although Tennant did not host the Prom). == References ==