DOCTOR WHO IS BACK WITH A NEW SEASON AND, AFTER HALF A CENTURY, IT’S GONE FROM TV SHOW TO NATIONAL INSTITUTION. AND ITS MUSIC – AND THE POP IT HAS INSPIRED – HAS BECOME A GENRE ALL ITS OWN.
Back in Issue 8 of Classic Pop, I looked at one of the most curious 7” singles to spin off from Doctor Who – 1972’s Who Is The Doctor by Jon Pertwee. Before producer Rupert Hine brought the world records by Howard Jones and The Fixx he worked on this, the only musical rendition of the show’s theme to feature an in-character Doctor on the mic. Pertwee camps it up, explaining everything and nothing over a rollicking Radiophonic Workshop-style backing. “I cross the void beyond the mind,” he intones, “the empty space that circles time. I see where others stumble blind, to seek a truth they never find.”