Was never a great fan of Dr Who myself, although as a kid I loved Davros and the Daleks. .

Here is a video from 1982 showing how the theme music was composed using technology of the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZuf0LIU-2A

I seem to recall that the 1960s original theme was created before synthesisers were available. The keyboard attached to the oscillators used only had half a dozen or so keys and this limited the compositions that were possible.

Can play it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_theme_music

Had a quick look on the net but couldn't find a picture of this keyboard.
The later themes expanded on the '60s original but the basic original tune has endured.

Had another look for this keyboard which I saw on TV many years ago, but no luck.

Did find out though that the basic tune was composed by an Aussie, Ron Grainer. The finished original music according to Wikipedia was "realised" by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Delia Derbyshire. When Grainer heard the finished music he asked "Did I write that?"
Grainer tried to get equal billing for composition for Derbyshire, but the BBC weren't having it. So she missed out on decades of royalties.

Grainer also composed the Steptoe and Son theme, among much else.

In my music collection is the Dr Who theme which I got from a CD many years ago, in lovely stereo.

The author is listed as Ron Grainer. I didn't know he was Aussie.

Here's an even earlier video on the subject, from 1965: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsRuhCflRyg

The synth he's using is a rare vintage Yamaha CS-80 that can go for up to $30k today. The microphone is an AKG D-202 that had dual dynamic transducers for wide range response.

Post 2: 'The keyboard attached to the oscillators used only had half a dozen or so keys'

My comment about the keyboard attached to oscillators is not backed up by watching the online videos of the process - yet I did see something like this.

The original music was literally put together by splicing pieces of magnetic tape note by note - very tedious and a single mistake meant starting again. Delia Derbyshire was the best at this. Keyboards came later.

The Who theme was too early to employ the Modular Moog but could have been done at that time with a skillful Theremin player plus processed 'Knack-Bass' as pioneered by Ladi Geisler.

One of the earliest forms of Moog was used by Gershon Kingsley (Think that's how its all spelt) to create "Popcorn"

The Russian who invented the Theremin in 1920 was a genius!
Here a talented lady plays Dr Who on a Theremin!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uzLAWYgYw8

Did some of his 'best' work for the KGB:

QUOTE: Theremin invented another listening device called The Thing, hidden in a replica of the Great Seal of the United States carved in wood. In 1945, Soviet school children presented the concealed bug to the U.S. Ambassador as a "gesture of friendship" to the USSR's World War II ally. It hung in the ambassador’s residential office in Moscow and intercepted confidential conversations there during the first seven years of the Cold War, until it was accidentally discovered in 1952 -- Wiki

That is funny, real life Trojan Horse

Must have been a good battery in the Thing.

There were some brilliant thinkers; They had to put devices on the windows as someone worked out that you could use Doppler Shift to turn a window or similar into a microphone. That's likely how that bug worked, no batteries required.

Marc

Must have been a good battery in the Thing.

That was the trick -- no battery:

QUOTE: Theremin's design made the listening device very difficult to detect, because it was very small, had no power supply or active electronic components, and did not radiate any signal unless it was actively being irradiated remotely. These same design features, along with the overall simplicity of the device, made it very reliable and gave it a potentially unlimited operational life.