26 - Planet of Fire

Composer: Peter Howell
Director: Fiona Cumming

What's the score?
The clue's in the title - most of Planet of Fire is set on a dry, volcanic world. Along with his regular synths, Peter Howell accordingly brings some sounds appropriate to the setting. Several of the percussive elements in this score have a tinkly quality to them, like shards of pottery being knocked together, while many scenes feature airy, breathy musical cues that sound as if they're being wafted out through volcanic vents.

Musical notes

• Part One is very sparsely scored. It boasts less than six minutes of music, probably the least Howell has ever recorded for an episode of DW, with several large gaps between cues, one of them a full six minutes long. The reason for this is that Howell's music is saved for the alien elements in the story - the planet of Sarn, and the Trion beacon that Howard's diving team find. Scenes set in Lanzarote warrant no incidental music, except when the beacon is held in close-up.
• The signature sound for the beacon is a downward pitched whir. It seems to be a signifier for the "Misos triangle" emblem on the top of the beacon rather than for the beacon itself - there's a glitchy whirring cue in Part One when Turlough discovers the beacon and reveals a matching triangle branded into his upper arm.
• Kamelion's signature is a plucked string sound arranged in fast phrases. (It's tempting to suggest a reference in the synth strings to Kamelion's previous appearance, when he played a lute, except that the sound here doesn't bear much relation to the lute.) It also forms the steady beat under the cue at the end of Part One when Kamelion takes on the appearance of the Master. 
• There are several Master-related cues scattered through the story that consist of a high-pitched whine overlaid with uneasy treble synths. Howell seems to have enormous fun falsetto-ing this motif at the end of Part Three when the tiny Master is revealed. 
• This story sees further uses of the "repeated simple element" tension-building method commented on under The Awakening, although nothing quite so drawn out as the minute-long examples heard in that story. The cue that plays over the Part Two cliffhanger and Part Three reprise is a fine example, a series of alternating dramatic notes and pneumatic "phung!" noises as the Kamelion-Master demands that the Doctor and his friends be sacrificed in the Cave of Fire. Howell plays a rather interesting game with the reprised cue in Part Three: as the scene shifts from the action inside the great hall to Turlough and Malkon lurking outside, Howell drops the volume on the music, as if it were actually playing inside the great hall. There's no suggestion that it's a diegetic piece of music, yet it behaves like one in order to reinforce the visual separation of the interior (loud) and exterior (quiet) scenes while at the same time joining both in a continuous sequence.

Vox pop
By now, readers should have a pretty good idea of how I'm likely to react to a score by Peter Howell. This is another good one, and one that again does a fine job of adding narrative value to the story - in a sophisticated way in the Part Three reprise cue mentioned above, and in a more obvious way in the appropriate choice of sounds to reinforce the volcanic setting.

Availability

• The BBC DVD release includes the full isolated score as an audio option. The DVD also includes a re-edited special edition of the story from which, inexplicably, all the music has been removed.
• Doctor Who - The Music II included a suite of music from this story.