Time Made Of Strawberries – Un Temps De Fraises

The Doctor Who Series 12 Soundtrack composed by Segun Akinola is out 3 April. Image courtesy of Silva Screen Records.

Relive the sonic adventure from the comfort of your own speakers

The Doctor Who Series 12 Soundtrack is set for release early next month. As hiatus begins, fans of the longest-running sci-fi programme will be glad to know that they are able to pre-order the full album now.

Fans will be able to own the thrills and twists of the last series of Doctor Who in musical form on 3 April. Available to pre-order now, the 48-track escapade can be purchased via the Silva Screen Records website on CD, digital download and streaming. Silva Screen, the record label behind the Doctor Who soundtrack releases, tells Time Made Of Strawberries the album will be released through “an all distributions channel, so it will be available in all shops that want to stock it.” This will certainly include stores such as HMV and independent record stores, but due to shelf space will only include supermarkets if they wish to stock it.

A spokesperson for Silva Screen added “there’s a possibly that we may put it out on vinyl later in the year, but that’s not confirmed yet.”

The two-volume Doctor Who series 12 soundtrack will have album artwork featuring The Master, The Doctor, Yaz, Ryan and Graham. Credit: Silva Screen Records.

Retailing at £9.99, the 48-track album will be spread across two volumes, including “new themes for The Master and the Cyberman and celebrates the epic, action packed storytelling of series 12,” Silva Screen says. Fans will be able to listen to The Spy Master, The Lighthouse, Something Is Coming For Me and a special appearance from the Doctor Who Series 12 Opening Titles music in volume 1. Across volume 2, await titles such as She Was The Universe, Brendan, The Ascension Shall Begin, The Division, Tecteun, Cybermasters and Time Lords.

The twelfth series of Doctor Who came to a close Sunday night, with The Timeless Children as the concluding episode to an epic two-part finale. From the Spyfall opening two-parter to the unexpected plot-twist in Fugitive of the Judoon, scenes were woven with moving, emotional and captivating musical notes carefully crafted by the show’s composer Segun Akinola.

Doctor Who Showrunner Chris Chibnall (left) praises Segun Akinola’s (centre) work. Jodie Whittaker who plays The Doctor stands right. Credit: Doctor Who Page.

Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall has highly appraised Akinola’s work, telling Silva Screen “his extraordinarily eclectic, bold and emotional scores for the series are part of Doctor Who’s identity.” He added “this collection showcases the range, ambition, precision and brilliance of Segun as a composer.”

Segun has been composing for Doctor Who since 2017 and has clearly been enjoying his new role. Speaking to Silva Screen, he says “From the experimental sounds of ‘Orphan 55’ to the emotional rollercoaster of ‘The Timeless Children’, it’s been a complete joy working on the music for Series 12 and I hope that whilst listening to this album, fans can relive all their favourite moments.”

The Doctor Who Series 12 Soundtrack CD album art. Credit: Silva Screen Records.

Looking back on the series 11 soundtrack and knowing what is to come, it’s fair to say Segun has proven himself to be a fantastic successor.

His predecessor Murray Gold composed for the show from its revival in 2005, with Series 1 until series 10 in 2017. Yet, the series 10 soundtrack has still not been released to date. Silva Screens had fans on “Doctor Who Soundtrack Watch” until 2017 when they finally announced the release of the series 9 soundtrack. The series had aired in 2015. Is a Doctor Who Series 10 soundtrack still to follow?

BBC Worldwide now BBC Studios sold the rights to Doctor Who music back in 2016. Credit: Wikipedia

In 2016, the rights of Doctor Who music were sold by BBC Worldwide (now BBC Studios) to BMG. Since all prior Silva Screen soundtrack releases are from seasons which aired before that year, does that compromise the possibility of a series 10 soundtrack release? According to Silva Screen, in short, no. “I think that that doesn’t affect us. We would still license it from BBC Studios, as they’re now called. It’s just not available. I don’t know why that is. I can only assume it’s probably something just to do with they haven’t got the music from the composer yet. I really don’t know. But I just know it’s not available for us to release.”

Since it would appear the fate of the Doctor Who Series 10 soundtrack might well be linked with BBC Studios or BMG, both have been contacted for further comment and are currently still investigating what happened with the soundtrack. As soon as there are any updates regarding this or a possible future release, you will hear it here first.

Edit 30.03.2020: According to an update from BBC Studios, fans should not expect a Doctor Who Series 10 soundtrack any time soon. It would appear that its fate does not lie with BMG after all, since Silva Screen Records do still hold the license to it. In response to Time Made Of Strawberries’ query about the soundtrack, BBC Studios said:

“The rights to the Doctor Who Series 10 soundtrack are on licence from Silva Screen Records. There are currently no plans to release the soundtrack to the consumer market.”

So, fans can free up that shelf space put aside for the Series 10 soundtrack and replace it with the Series 12 soundtrack when it does arrive next week.

For now, fans will have to wait and see. But there is not too long to wait until the Doctor Who Soundtrack of the series with arguably, the most epic finale yet. Speaking of the upcoming release, Chibnall said “No Doctor Who fan should be without it, and no lover of contemporary film scores should miss it.” You’ve been told.