Silva Screen Records releases the Doctor Who soundtrack compilation Pyramids Of Mars, featuring synthesized recreations of highlights of numerous 1970s Tom Baker-era Dudley Simpson scores, performed by Heathcliff Blair. 
Silva Screen Records releases the Doctor Who soundtrack compilation Pyramids Of Mars, featuring synthesized recreations of highlights of numerous 1970s Tom Baker-era Dudley Simpson scores, performed by Heathcliff Blair.
Dudley Simpson, the Australian-born veteran BBC composer whose sound defined Doctor Who in the 1960s and ’70s, as well as such series as Blake’s 7, The Tomorrow People, Moonbase 3, and many others, dies at the age of 95. Simpson scored his first Doctor Who serial, the second season opener Planet Of Giants, in 1964 at a time when the series often relied on stock music. He solidified his position as Doctor Who’s house composer during the Troughton era, scoring pivotal stories such as The Evil Of The Daleks, The Ice Warriors and The War Games, and became the dominant musical sound of the series during the Pertwee and Tom Baker eras, during which he provided all but a handful of original scores and stock music fell by the wayside. It was only when incoming producer John Nathan-Turner took over as Doctor Who’s showrunner in 1980 that Simpson’s Doctor Who tenure ended. He retired to Australia in the 1990s.
Silva Screen Records releases Dudley Simpson’s score from the 1977 Doctor Who story The Sun Makers digitally and on CD. Unlike the previous Pyramids Of Mars release from the 1990s, which featured synthesizer recreations of Simpson’s music, this is a rare example of a complete original Simpson score from the composer’s 1970s heyday.