Doctor Who: A Voyage Saved
 

The other day, I started on a joke project called "All Aboard the Failboat," that was designed to make fun of Murray Gold's latest attempt at a Doctor Who theme which premiered with "Voyage of the Damned." I put in his incorrect bassline with horribly misunderstood second layer (it's two semitones down before each bit of the bassline, not after!) and I started building a mix around it.

But eventually I decided that I couldn't in good conscience produce a Doctor Who theme mix that was designed to suck. So I changed the name to "A Voyage Saved," and I set to work fixing the bassline notation and replacing Murray's ideas with some of my own. I scrapped Murray's string arpeggios and replaced them with something of my own creation. I also added new layers that give the mix a much more haunting feel. Overall, I'm very pleased with how the mix is sounding, and I'm surprised it began its life as a parody of the Muzzmeister's latest theme. I now think it takes a few of the ideas from the newest theme (mainly the drums and the more distorted bassline) and expands on them, hopefully turning out a better theme as a result.

Click here to listen to Doctor Who: A Voyage Saved.

Enjoy! Let me know what you think.

To quote the ninth Doctor "Fantastic" :)
And a lot kinder on the ears than Mr Golds current effort. You can actually enjoy this at full volume without fear of going deaf:D

Smashing, Danny! A huge improvement over the original. If it did not land you into trouble with them I would be writing into the BBC and recommending you. Plus I would like to see the look on Murray's face if he got fired and replaced by you/

I still think it needs it's own melody.

Other than that it's fantastic.

As I told you on gtalk, Danny, I think it is really brilliant. I love how you've taken all of the best parts (not many :P ) from the VotD theme and bashed them into something awesome. The percussion works really well, it's a sort of endless pulse that drives the whole thing. Definitely on my iPod.

I agree with RV, it does need its own melody. It needs some jiggly jiggly spacey noises and the main sections need to be brought out a tiny bit, but other than that, it's truly excellent.

Edit: I've added some stuff; A Voyage Saved With Synthdamentalism.mp3 (Mediafire)

I love the middle eight in that version.
jiggly jiggly spacey noises =:D

I really really enjoyed it, great job! I sure wish this was the theme...
The middle eight's my favorite part too. :)

Wow thats great. I still like everything about the new theme but I love this too.

Ok, I've got a new challenge.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use the "London Symphony Orchestra" version of the theme, and add Murray Gold like elements (strings, horns)...but, here's an option for you, you can change the notation a little so you come up with something different (like A Voyage Saved), have the orchestral sounds, OR use an electronic sound to replace the orchestra...what d'ya say?...This message will self-destruct in 5...4...3...2...1...1...1...1...1...1...

This is brilliant work :D

Danny, what about doing a huge project called Doctor Who: A Series Saved? Where the whole community fixes series 3, you can be the Doctor, although we may need to make you wear a wig.

Somehow I think that wouldn't go so well. We'd need rocket lawnchairs to make up for our low low budget and untrained actors.
(Besides, I look more like The Doctor than Danny does...)

Dibs on playing a Dalek....or someone who gets killed. i make a excellent corpse.:)

I will play the poor hobo like people.

Somehow I doubt that any of this will happen. :P

Let's stay on topic, too, people. This thread is for discussing my remix.

What do you think on my London Symphony Orchestra idea?

Maybe some day. Likely not in the immediate future.

So far, my pick for the best of the Gold inspirees to date. I would submit both versions to WhoMix; the collaboration version is my favorite. Keep up the great work both of you. :)

Thanks, but the collaboration was just Rat Soufflé layering stuff on top of my original file. There was very little collaboration involved.

Pretty much. To be honest I'm kind of sad that your version has taken some of the spotlight away from mine. :(

Sorry, Danny, Shall I make a new, crap version of mine and put it up instead? :P

No no, that won't be necessary. :P

Here's a little bonus for everyone. An extended remix of "A Voyage Saved" is currently underway. It's still a work in progress, but I'll post what I have of it so far to get a feel for what people think. Overall changes (other than the mix obviously having been extended) include more refined mastering, a new additional bassline, and an experimental new lead melody during the bridge (heavily inspired by the Glynn bridge).

Please share your thoughts: http://www.dannystewart.com/upload/avs_ext.mp3

It's absolutely brilliant. I love the new bassline, and it sounds a lot more professional and 'punchy' in this version. I'd definitely prefer this to be on the show, although that's not really saying much :P

Never, ever a bad thing.

I still think you should take what you started here and turn it into a full-blown 'Danny Stewart' arrangement.

Show Murray how real men arrange the themes of revived old campy sci-fi series.

Thank you very much!

Agreed. :D

Actually this is the plan. I intend to replace everything in the theme with something of my own creation, including the scream and wind bubble at the end.

Having a fondness of Bass in all forms (I am trying to get a Bass Guitar to join my friends band ) I also have to applaud it. Sterling job Danny!

RV approves.

I want to know when Danny might start making Doctor Who fan episodes.

How would that be possible, honestly? :P

I really really anticipate "the Danny theme" too. Who knows, it may become famous!

Not any time soon. :P

Thank you, Chris.

Hooray.

Not any time soon. :P

With a talented group of actors, a decent script, and a camera or too. And Final Cut Pro on my Mac.

You guys do know I've done numerous themes that do not make any use of Derbyshire samples, right? :P

Yes, I know, but this one in particular. :P

I've actually pondered the "fan episodes" idea myself. It involved a Bionicle crossover and a trans-species Doctor. I do have the means to do so, Flash CS3 and all, just not the inclination. Besides, all I'm that capable of doing is animation with premade graphics, mostly crappy sprite animations like this: http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/Su.../episode_1.swf
(Plot: Torchwood has a sector on a made-up Bionicle fan-place called Hapori-Nui, and they're still persuing the transimensional project. Instead of Cybermen they get inverted copies of themselves. REALLY BAD plot I know. I came up with this a long time ago... I've since moved on to better ideas.)
(I've considered redoing that starfield, but had no inclination.)


ANYWAY
I realize I haven't posted my thoughts yet. I really enjoyed it, this one's going in your folder in my music folder for sure. ... is it strange that I'm sort of dancing to it? :P

One day I'm going to meet Danny IRL and we're going to stomp around, breaking into people's houses and telling them we're Torchwood.

Even I dance to it. Weird? Possibly.

Oh yes we are. Victory day is coming soon to a Cardiff near you.

Sounds awesome, I'll try to get to Cardiff and 'bump into you' on purpose, as I don't think my mum would exactly approve of me meeting 'Danny from Maryland' who she doesn't know and who I only know from the internet :P

We can barge into Murray's house.

Then it'll be a party.

The most clatterous party ever.