Doctor Who at the Proms

I was pretty excited when the ABC announced they were playing Doctor Who at the Proms. Ok, so at the time I actually didn’t know what Doctor Who at the Proms was but that was part of the reason I was excited. Its one of those things that’s mentioned all the time in the Who-niverse but, living as I do in the great brown land, I’d never actually seen one.


For anyone who didn’t see it, Doctor Who at the Proms is basically a big concert featuring the music from Doctor Who played by the BBC Orchestra. In the Royal Albert Hall. With lots of fancy lights and people dressed up as monsters and giant video screens. If you’re not a Doctor Who fan you’d probably find it almost painfully dull. But if you’re not a Doctor Who fan you’re also an idiot. So you’re opinion is invalid.
Frankly it was awesome.


Usually this kind of thing would involve a lot of sweeping boom work. Booms, in case you’re not aware, are those big cameras on sticks that go WOOOSH across the audience and make all concert coverage vaguely sickening. I hate boom cameras. This hatred has nothing to do with the fact I once spent a whole day sitting beneath one as it was operated with a fair degree of reckless abandon (and zero thought for the safety of those sitting underneath) by a trainee. Point is- booms equal ick. But Doctor Who at the Proms managed what I had hitherto thought impossible- gentle, spectacular and totally not nauseating coverage of a live show. Ten million points to them.


All in all it was remarkably well produced. Accompanying each piece of music was a montage of scenes from Doctor Who shown on big, huge screen things. Whoever editing those together can also give themselves ten million points. They were brilliant. Cleverly combining the mood of the music with segments that effectively recapped the episode , character or event they were depicting.


The soundtrack for series 5 is, probably without argument, the best so far. There was a while where the soundtrack was pretty dodgy. All of which climaxed with the whole Sith lightening and jarring, distracting string section fiasco last Christmas. But ‘I am the Doctor’ is all kinds of awesome. It’s a song I’d actually play out of context. Excuse me while I hum it to myself while waving my arms around- dun dun dun dadada dundundun da da etc.


But my favourite bit was when Matt Smith came out as The Doctor. That sequence was cleverly written where it could have been cringe inducing. Funny where it could have been corny. Matt Smith jumped rather a lot in my regard when it came to choosing a volunteer from the audience.
If I wasn’t in love with him already.


Instead of picking one of the many children leaping up and down on their seats going “PICK MEEEEEE!” he went for a little quiet kid. One who was sitting on both his hands and not saying anything at all. No one ever picks those kids. Ten million points to Matt Smith as well. I’d also like to give him a hug.


The whole thing really made me want to be seven or eight years old. My friends and I have had this discussion a few times as people who came to Doctor Who long after Santa stopped delivering us presents. I can’t help but be jealous of those little faces who look up at Matt Smith, in costume, with so much wonder in their eyes. To them this man really is The Doctor. And that’s such a magical thing to have.


So yes, I really enjoyed it. (Even if the otherwise excellent camera work didn’t let me see what spectacular sock based offering Mr Smith had on.)
The final person who deserves credit is the person at the ABC who finally noticed that we actually like Doctor Who rather a lot. Fasting tracking Smithmas has made a lot of people very happy. Showing Doctor Who at the Proms helped me to make a day of it. We appreciate it. Ten million points to you.

That concludes our Smithmas coverage.