The Musical Themes of the Thirteenth Doctor

There’s three basic variations of Thirteen’s theme that I’ve found to be the most predominant throughout the Thirteenth’s Doctor’s run in the series. Segun Akinola created the themes without the 3rd of the scale, which is the main note that gives the “sound” of a piece of music its “major” or “minor” sound. Because of this omission, Akinola was able to play around with different harmonies and modifications to the theme in order to highlight and create different moods for whatever scene he was including the theme in.

There’s a variety of keys that the themes are played in throughout the series, but the ones that seem to be most often used are in the keys of D, A, G, and E. In order to highlight the differences in the themes, the examples here all in the key of D.

First a note on the music terminology in this breakdown.

A phrase is the terminology for a musical idea that ends with a sense of completion, in part or in whole. Thirteen’s full theme has two phrases, though the first phrase is the one mostly used and modified, with rarer instances of the full theme being played in the show. A key refers to the home note that a melody or a piece of music’s is in — it’s “root” note. A mode is the particular set and order of half and whole steps in a scale. So for example, the following example is a D Major scale, which is in the key of D, and using the Major (aka Ionian) mode:

This is an example of a D Dorian scale, in the key of D, and using the Dorian mode:

And finally, this is an example of a D Minor scale, in the key of D, and using the Natural Minor (aka Aeolian) mode:

The two modes that Akinola uses in these variations of Thirteen’s theme are the Dorian and Minor modes. There’s only one note different between the two of them: the 6th. In the Dorian mode, the 6th note has the same quality as it does in the Major mode, so it’s not raised or lowered (in D Dorian, that’s a B natural note). In the Minor mode, the 6th note is lowered in comparison to the Major mode (in D Minor, that’s a B flat note).

Theme 1:
The first version of Thirteen’s theme we hear is in Dorian, which is a version of a minor mode, but has a natural 6th note. This is heard throughout the Thirteenth Doctor’s run, but is especially prominent in S11, and is played in hopeful moments, like the “I’m the Doctor” scene in The Woman Who Fell to Earth, and the scene at the end of The Vanquishers where the Doctor puts the pocket watch with her memories into the TARDIS.

This is the full theme, complete with both phrases:

And this is a simplified version of the first phrase in D Dorian, which I’m including because the subsequent examples of the modifications of the theme have a similar structure:

Because the natural 6th note is also found in the Major mode, when Thirteen’s theme is in D Dorian, Akinola is able to highlight that B natural note at the end of the first and second phrases, so the audience can feel that “Major” sound, which gives the theme a more “hopefull” or “successful” feel, especially when the harmony for that note includes a Major chord.

Theme 2:
Another variation of Thirteen’s theme we hear a lot through Series 12 and 13 is very similar to the first variation, but it’s entirely in a Natural Minor mode. Examples of when this theme has been played are at the end of Spyfall 2 when the Fam asks Thirteen about herself, and in the hologram scene in Survivors of the Flux (this version is combined with Yaz’s theme).

Because the 6th note is now lowered (now a B flat), but isn’t highlighted in the third measure, and the held notes in the phrase are found in the Theme 1 variation, it gives a bit more of a meloncholy feel to the theme, but it isn’t as devastating sounding as the Theme 3 variation is. As Yaz’s theme is also mostly in Minor modes, this version of Thirteen’s theme works very well in combination with Yaz’s theme.

Theme 3:
There’s also a variation of Thirteen’s Minor theme that emphasizes the flat 6th much more strongly, where it’s played on strong beats both times it shows up, and the downward movement in the third measure starts and ends with notes that are lower than their counterparts in either of the two previous variations of the theme. This is played at the moments where the Doctor is at her lowest points. It’s played when Thirteen steps out of the TARDIS and sees Gallifrey distroyed at the end of Spyfall 2, the scene with Byron reciting the poem at the end of Haunting of Villa Diodate which also includes almost a full version of Thirteen’s theme played in this variation, it’s played while saying goodbye to the Fam at the end of The Timeless Children, and in Once, Upon Time, it’s played as she’s walking back to the TARDIS at the end of the episode.

Interestingly, in The Timeless Children, even though Thirteen’s goodbye with the Fam has the Theme 3 variation as the soundtrack, as she leaves to confront the Master, the theme changes to the Theme 2 version, which I would interpret as Akinola showing that she’s more devastated at leaving the Fam than she is at confronting the Master, sacraficing herself, and knowing she’s going to be eliminating all life on Gallifrey.

I have yet to do a full listen to all of the episodes in Thirteen’s run to pick out where each of these themes are used and how, but I think that would lead to very interesting discoveries for how Akinola has been using the various themes he’s created for Thirteen to emphasize what’s going on in each of the scenes they feature in.