Murray Gold Murray Gold was the composer for the revived series of " Doctor Who " from 2005 to 2017 , as well as being the composer for some episodes of " Torchwood " in series 1 and the entirety of series 4 . He was also the arranger of the BBC Wales versions of the " " Doctor Who " theme " as heard on " Doctor Who " , " Doctor Who Confidential " and " Totally Doctor Who " , as well as the composer of the " Torchwood " , " Torchwood Declassified " , " Sarah Jane Adventures " and " Sarah Jane ' s Alien Files " theme music . " Doctor Who " . Gold was assigned as Doctor Who ' s composer in 2004 after an email from Russell T Davies who asked him to work on the show . Gold immediately took up the offer . The music from Series 1 was composed and created by himself using sampled instruments at his digital music studio in his flat in Frognal ( Hampstead ) , London . All of the music was created digitally , except for Gold ' s use of the Crouch End Festival Chorus for heavy choral parts , most notably the Dalek motifs . He went on to form a good relationship with the choir , as demonstrated in his further use of them in the following seasons . Shortly after the airing of Series 1 , Gold and the producers proposed that the music should be written and adapted to be performed orchestrally . The show ’ s growing popularity and increased budget catered for this and so Gold began his involvement with Ben Foster and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales . The 2005 Christmas Special was the first episode to feature orchestral music , however Gold continued creating many minor pieces completely digitally using sampled instruments until around Series 3 . In 2007 Gold moved to , and mainly based himself in New York and Los Angeles , though he often travels between the US and the UK . As shown in a 2008 Confidential episode , recording sessions of music were viewed by him through a digital video link in order for him to communicate with the orchestra , conductor and music team . Gold ' s most prominent work for the DWU has likely been new arrangements of the " " Doctor Who " theme " . He has arranged multiple different versions of the theme for broadcast ( including three distinct opening theme arrangements , plus another version that was only used in trailers and promotions in 2005 ) and several more for live performance . Gold has therefore created more official arrangements of the theme than any other " Doctor Who " franchise composer . Gold has also written seven non - score based lyrical songs for the series : " Song For Ten " ( " The Christmas Invasion " ) , " Love Don ' t Roam " ( " The Runaway Bride " ) , " My Angel Put the Devil in Me " ( " Daleks in Manhattan " ) , " The Stowaway " ( " Voyage of the Damned " ) , " Song of Freedom " ( " Planet of the Ood " and " Journey ' s End " ) , " Vale Decem " ( " The End of Time " ) and " Abigail ' s Song ( Silence Is All You Know ) " ( " A Christmas Carol " ) . Murray Gold also appeared , in a cameo role , as a guitarist in " Voyage of the Damned " . ( DWMSE 20 ) He was interviewed about his DW music by " Sound On Sound " magazine in the June 2007 issue . ( See ) Gold stayed on as house composer for the 2010 season of " Doctor Who " and created a third major rearrangement of the theme tune , bringing in a short new melody at the beginning of the theme . The televised version has had the bassline lowered dramatically so as to make the intro ' s lightning effects audible , which has prompted complaints to the BBC . He also contributed to the charity reference book " " . In early 2018 , Murray Gold announced his departure from " Doctor Who " at the Gallifrey One convention , confirming that the 2017 Christmas special , " Twice Upon A Time " , was his last episode . During his panel talk at the convention , Gold gave a presentation about his time on the show . Soundtrack releases . Several soundtracks for Gold ' s " Doctor Who " work have been released . He has been active in the production of each release . Additionally , two soundtracks for spin - off series " Torchwood " have been released since 2008 , with Murray Gold working alongside fellow " Torchwood " composer , Ben Foster , on the initial release . Spin - offs . Gold has written the theme for both " Torchwood " and " The Sarah Jane Adventures " , as well as " Torchwood Declassified " and " Sarah Jane ' s Alien Files " which featured re - arrangements of the themes of their parent series . Although two " Torchwood " CDs have been released , none have been released for " SJA " as of 2011 . He has not been heavily involved in the incidental music scores for the spin - offs . With the exception of a few early episodes in the first series of " Torchwood " , he has mostly only scored the parent programme . However , he was the main composer for " " . Relationship with RTD . Gold has enjoyed a long working relationship with Russell T Davies and has in scored virtually all of RTD ' s productions since 1999 , including " " , with Christopher Eccleston and Lesley Sharp , and with David Tennant , Shaun Parkes and Nina Sosanya . Other work . Despite a close relationship with RTD , Gold is far from " RTD ' s composer " . He has gained notoriety on a variety of non - RTD projects . For instance , he started work on the TV series at about the same time as " Doctor Who " , and has been scoring both series for the same amount of time . In the early 2000s , his theme music for — a show that featured the talents of actors Christopher Eccleston , Lesley Sharp and Sarah Lancashire , and director Geoffrey Sax — was RTS - nominated . More recently , he was the composer on David Tennant ' s mini - series and of the Suranne Jones / Lesley Sharp police procedural , . Awards . Though nominated four times for different projects , including " Doctor Who " , Gold has never won a BAFTA award . He has , however , won a Royal Television Society Award for his work on " Queer as Folk " .