45 - Silver Nemesis

Composer: Keff McCulloch
Director: Chris Clough

What's the score?
Keff McCulloch dishes up a somewhat similar score for the Cybermen to the one he provided for the Daleks earlier this season. (In his defence, the stories are pretty similar too, and I'm tempted to follow up my comments about Malcolm Clarke's Davison-era scores and the interchangeability of the two DW monsters.) Once again the score is characterised by the heavy use of percussion with horns for the villains, which in this case means both the Cybermen and Herr de Flores' neo-Nazis; the synth choir makes a modest reappearance in some villain scenes and a raucous comeback in the scene of the Nemesis statue awakening in Part Three. McCulloch does introduce some new sounds as well - most notable are the weird distorted synth chords and rattling noises heard in the scene in Part Three in which Ace talks to the Nemesis statue.

Musical notes

• The directors of the 1960s Cyberman stories used the take-no-prisoners brass library tune "Space Adventure" by Martin Slavin; Carey Blyton used a touch of funereal organ music in the 1970s; Malcolm Clarke set the standard for the 1980s stories by layering the sound of a metal girder being beaten over a growling synth march. How does Keff McCulloch introduce the Cybermen in Silver Nemesis? With a tinkly march that makes the metal monsters sound like clockwork soldiers. This debuts in the lead-in to the Part One cliffhanger, but isn't reprised in Part Two as an entirely different cue (one with plenty of synth choir) is substituted as a lead-in to the story's big gunfight. However, there are hints of it in several later cues.
• The other contender for McCulloch's defining Cyber-cue is the blaring two note, three note sequence introduced in Part Two in the scenes of the Cybermen relocating their spaceship. The two-three rhythm recurs in some later Cyberman cues in the story, but overall these are outnumbered by cues that use the clockwork motif.
• Lady Peinforte and Richard, the time travellers from the Caroline era, are represented throughout by the harpsichord. McCulloch provides a "ticking clock" rhythm for the scene in Part One in which they travel from 1638 to the present day in Part One. Actually, this isn't far removed from the Cybermen's clockwork motif - is McCulloch trying to suggest a connection? We get a couple of very lovely harpsichord cues later in Part One when the Doctor and Ace nip back in time to nose around Lady Peinforte's home - the second of these adds a pleasant oboe melody that seems, strangely, to include a small quote from the main theme from Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". 
• McCulloch indulges in a couple of small theme-referencing moments in this story. The first comes in Part Two when the Doctor and Ace find the two skinheads who were earlier tied up in a field by Richard. He asks "Who did this to you?", they reply "Social workers!", and McCulloch slips out an "oo-wee-oo" over the Doctor's bemused expression. A more substantial bassline quote with two "oo-wee-oos" can be found near the end of Part Two as the Doctor observes a small tree lizard crawling out from under a leaf and deduces that the Cybermen's space fleet must be hidden from view. The ponderous tempo of the cue reflects the Doctor's laborious thought processes in this scene.
• As jazz not only features in but plays a part in this story - a recording of a jam session being used to jam the Cybermen's communications - McCulloch, with his known love of Latin jazz, would seem an obvious choice of composer. And yet there isn't much evidence of jazz influences in his score - all the actual jazz heard in the story was provided by special guest Courtney Pine and his band, either in front of the camera in Part One or on tape later in the story. (Contrary to the blurb on the back of the DVD, you will not be able to hear "the jazz styling that flummoxed the Cybermen" while listening to the isolated score.) There is, however, more than a hint in a rejected cue from Part Two, which would have seen Lady Peinforte and Richard strolling down a street in Windsor to an absurdly cheery daytime TV-esque air on synth flute. This was replaced with a more earnest, conventional piece, but the rejected cue can be heard on the photo gallery for this story's DVD release.
• It was during this story that Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred filmed the links for a two-minute trailer for Season 25, for which McCulloch composed a new piece of music. It's of interest to this blog, as the trailer music was included in The Doctor Who 25th Anniversary Album, under the cryptic track title of "8891 Royale". It wouldn't do much good to describe this piece in detail - it's a patchwork of wildly disparate elements, which I suppose reflects the nature of the trailer, although it's worth just mentioning the unexpected burst of upright piano in the middle - but the overall effect is of being attacked by a hyperactive child with a mallet.

Vox pop
As I've suggested, there isn't much to choose between this season's two Keff McCulloch scores. This one's probably the better of them - the action scenes aren't much different from those in Remembrance of the Daleks with their heavy percussion under synth strings and horns, but the score for Silver Nemesis distinguishes itself in other areas, notably with the harpsichord and oboe cues mentioned above and with the weird shrieking sounds used in some scenes of the active Nemesis statue. It's less even than the Remembrance score, but more interesting because of that.

Availability

• The BBC DVD release includes the full isolated score as an audio option.