The season of new space and time adventures is slowly approaching. It’s been way too long since we last had news about our favorite thousand year old alien with a time machine, and we’re starting to really miss seeing new planets, meeting new species, and running around a blue box that’s bigger on the inside.
Doctor Who still has a long way to go until it comes back to our screens this fall, but with San Diego Comic Con approaching —and thus, the Doctor Who panel nearing every second— what better way to start getting hyped up than listening to some songs that always make us think about our dearest Time Lord —or shall I say Time Lady now?
Let’s get to it!
1. “Champagne Supernova” by Oasis
The lyrics may originally mean something else —although if you ask Gallagher, he’ll say they mean something different every time you listen to them. And, honestly, what better way to start a playlist than with Oasis?
Someday you will find me
Caught beneath the landslide
In a champagne supernova in the sky
2. “Hopeless Wanderer” by Mumford and Sons
Steven Moffat’s era really explored the Doctor’s regrets, the Doctor’s fears, his haunted past. In fact, he dedicated the entire 50th anniversary special to right the Doctor’s biggest wrong to date: he allowed him to save his home planet, Gallifrey. But if Moffat’s Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors seemed dedicated to one thing, it was to roam the galaxy free of judgement, shrouded in liberty. It was, granted, the only way the Doctor could keep on going without having to feel constantly ashamed of who he had become.
Yes, wandering about seemed to be what the Doctor was best at, what he truly desired with his entire heart. And so, he became, oddly enough, a very hopeful wanderer.
Hold me fast, hold me fast
Cause I’m a hopeless wanderer
And I will learn, I will learn
To love the skies I’m under
3. “Stars” by Fun.
And because we love us some astronomical references, it seems only fitting that we’d include a song named after what our Doctor loves to visit so much. Okay, strictly speaking most of the lyrics are far too specific to relate directly to a time traveling hero with a suspiciously accurate British accent, but the chorus does talk about a very specific trait of his —hers.
Holding on to stars. What the Doctor, perhaps, does best.
Oh, and you
You’re always holding on to stars
I think they’re better from afar
Cause no one is going to save us
Oh, and perhaps because it is also our cry for help to the Doctor, to keep us safe from everything dark that tries to consume us.
4. “Oh My Stars” by Andrew Belle
We promise we’re nearly done with the astronomy puns. But allow me to indulge in the small pleasure of including one song that has always made me think about one of my all time OTPs for this show, because who would we be if we didn’t include at least one OTP song?
My poor heart sold itself to Eleven and Clara way before we even knew who Clara was —back when she was Oswin, back when she was a Dalek, back when she died (the first time) saving the Doctor. And ever since, and for as short as their run was, my soul was dedicated to these two, Doctor and companion, showing each other the stars.
Oh my stars
Everything I see is ours
Or it could be if you would try
I wish you would, I wish you might
If everything you said to me has been true
Then all my stars are leading me to you
5. “Madman With A Box” by Halia Meguid
If you’re not familiar with Halia Meguid, drop what you’re doing right this second and head to her Tumblr. She’s a musician who collaborated with former Doctor Who composer Murray Gold and was, among other things, the singing voice of the siren in “The Curse of The Black Spot.” Essentially, she takes Gold’s soundtrack and writes lyrics to them, and then sings her own version of it. She’s got a bunch of great ones, but this one is especially dedicated to the madman himself.
And you, my shadow man,
with pockets full of sand –
It’s a lonesome life you lead,
wrapped all in time and tweed…
PS. If you’re also a Whouffle shipper, make sure to check her version of Clara’s Theme, “Impossible Girl.”
6. “Start Again” by Gabrielle Aplin
One of her songs was going to end up on this list, it was either this one or Start Of Time, which, frankly, might be more accurate title-wise. But lyric-wise, Start Again seems to cover the nostalgic side that every Doctor seems to have, the desperate loneliness that seems to haunt every version of the Doctor that we’ve seen to date. Plus, it has the added benefit of making sense from the Doctor’s point of view and the companion’s —and isn’t that kind of the entire point of the show anyway?
Home is just a word
Without a time or place
I’ve fallen in and out of love
With the loneliness I’ve traced
7. “Starman” by David Bowie
For obvious reasons ridiculously clear in the title, one of Bowie’s anthems seams to speak volumes about the Doctor’s personality —personalities— and role in this, our vast and complicated universe. Fair enough, it looks like the ‘man’ in the title won’t be as relevant when Jodie Whittaker takes over as the first female Doctor in over fifty years of show history, but the lyrics seem to speak for her regardless:
There’s a starman waiting in the sky
He’d like to come and meet us
But he thinks he’d blow our minds.
And blow our minds he —she— does. Our Doctor and our TARDIS, watching over, waiting for the newest adventure alongside the universe’s greatest mystery: humans.
Doctor Who returns autumn 2018.
