TOS RD VII DVD

“…there are only about three people who are really interested in chapter points”? It’s at least double that. Highlights this time round include Duct Soup‘s “Boy is it Cramped” (useful for skipping to the only amusing scene in the episode), Beyond A Joke‘s “Cat In GELF’s Clothing” (which is more amusing than anything in the episode), and Identity Within‘s “Mission In-puss-ible” (which is the kind of title I’d give… for each chapter point). The best thing is being able to talk about Identity Within as a real episode…

To go with all this, there’s also a load of new menu shots. Stop tantalising us, you bastards. Actually: Stop tantalising us, you bastards. Finally, Stop tantalising us, you bastards.

We also have some interesting bits about the music cues – and most interesting is the menu shot, with the revelation that loads of Howard Goodall’s stuff was replaced with library music in the edit. (It’s a pity that library tracks can’t be included in the music cues – must be yet more rights issues.) This means lots of previously unheard stuff of his on the music cues (hooray!) – but perhaps also begins to explain why he wasn’t used at all for VIII. I adore a lot of Howard’s stuff, so it will be interesting to compare the unused pieces he did for VII with the library pieces used. Was his unused stuff just shit? Were they great pieces of music, but just didn’t work with the final episodes in the edit? Or would it have been better to use them? Or are all three true in different cases? We’ll find out in less than three weeks…

Indeed, we’re told that this exact thing happened with the assasination scene in Tikka – Howard’s original score (“which endeavours to tie the Kennedy plotline with Lister’s curry hunt by use of more Indian-sounding instruments” – which sounds interesting, but also doesn’t sound like it’d work, either, as it would miss the entire point of the scene) was replaced with a library track, Target Imminent. Which is surprising, as the music just fits so well with the visuals. (It’s the high spot of the episode for me, that sequence – if the rest of VII had continued in this vein, I wouldn’t be whinging.)

Interestingly, Target Imminent was written by Alan Hawkshaw – and being the sad git that I am, I’ve coincidentally spent the past week listening to some of his stuff. He wrote the original Grange Hill theme (called Chicken Man), which was written one hour before it was recorded, and was also used on Give Us A Clue. Another piece he wrote is Best Endeavours, as used for Channel 4 News – this was also bizarrely used in the Clint Eastwood film Pale Rider, but then library tracks show up in the oddest of places. He also did the Countdown theme. Slightly more obscurely, he also wrote Technicolour, which was used on ATV trailers in the 70s, and also as the main theme for the BBC’s Midlands Today in the 80s.

Oh, and he also did this. Reports that he also wrote Sounds of the Supermarket: 20 Shopping Greats are unconfirmed.

And finally, we’re promised “something of an online surprise” coming up. Oooh. And like a sucker, I’m all excited again. YOU EMOTIONALLY MANIPULATIVE BASTARD, ANDREW.