200+ watchers/friend people, yay! That's pretty awesome. *happy dance ensues* Ahem. Anyway.
Huh. This mix turned out relatively mellow, which is a bit odd, considering Donna. It kind of took me for-freaking-ever to do, especially the latter half of the season. As with the other mixes, a song for each episode. Hope you enjoy!
A Doctor Who Series Mix, V4: For We Are Bound By Symmetry
*Sample lyrics and explanations*
4x00 - Voyage of the Damned: The Lord Dog Bird - The Gift of Song In the Lion's Den
The lion's den is stretching out before our eyes
We're in the thick of it, you and I...
Falling through the clouds in a lonely way
That we know how to show them the way
And the gift of song comes bringing us all peace
[So this song is mostly unintelligible, but it's the feeling here, not the words, that's important.
And it's a rather glorious feeling to start the season off with.]
4x01 - Partners in Crime: Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running
Every night my dream's the same, same old city with a different name
They're not coming to take me away, I don’t know why but I know I can’t stay
There’s a weight that’s pressing down, late at night you can hear the sound
Even the noise you make when you sleep can’t swim across a river so deep
They know my name 'cause I told it to them,
But they don’t know where and they don’t know when
It’s coming, when It’s coming...
Keep the car running
[Donna's just been waiting. And waiting. But she'll be ready when he comes.]
4x02 - The Fires of Pompeii: Mumford and Sons - Roll Away Your Stone
Roll away your stone, I'll roll away mine; together we can see what we will find
Don't leave me alone, not this time, for I'm afraid of what I will discover inside
You told me that I would find a hole within the fragile substance of my soul...
But darkness is a harsh term, don't you think?
And yet it dominates the things I see
Seems that all my bridges have been burned
You say how that's exactly how this "grace" thing works
[Guh. This song. Luff. Anyway, Donna, throughout the episode, is full of questions, mainly about the
Doctor's decisions and actions. She tests and questions and challenges him and his temporal authority
constantly, though he gives as good as he gets. But then, he's forced to make a terrible choice: the
burden of a Timelord, he explains to her. She sees the Doctor in a moment of greater conflict than
perhaps any companion has seen before. But she gets it - she pushes the button with him and makes it
her burden, as well.]
4x03 - Planet of the Ood: Bodies of Water - I Guess I'll Forget the Sound, I Guess, I Guess
Though my heart once was broke it's been mended
And the sting of the fracture has ended
But still the sound of the hearts that are breaking...pervades
Before the day that I first touched your face
Oh the roar of these things filled my ears...
There is a noise that is taking the place in the hollow of my inner ear
It is far more than the sum of its parts, a white noise sure as the sun
[Kickin' horn section? Ba-ba-bums? Giant group sing-along feel? It's like this song is tailor-made for
my particular brand of musical nerdiness. And okay, so he doesn't forget the sound of the Ood's
slavery song, but because he shares it with Donna, he at least gains some mutual understanding/empathy
that he normally doesn't have. As with the last episode, she gains a greater understanding of what
it is to be a Timelord. Even then it is too much for her to fully bear.]
4x04 - The Sontaran Stratagem: The Old Believers - Granny's Song
I'll bet you haven't changed a bit...
Nothing makes it to you and nothing makes it to me
It's a bright hot morning but the air is tight
Better figure us out, man, make things right...
That old house was a home of mine
[Donna returns to her old home flooded with love and nostalgia, both for her previous life and her
recent adventures.]
4x05 - The Poison Sky: The Acorn - Dents
I can see your years in my reflection, dents and cracks embedded in my skin...
And all the miles that we have put between us
Have been filled with loving blisters and sour truths
One by one the seasons change you, maybe once but not for all
Time can't paint the picture for you; dying leaves need time to fall
Let me be the one you're running to
[Martha, having now spent time away from The Doctor, can reflect on all the good and bad he has brought
her. Despite what her time with him has made her, she still cannot completely stifle the devotion she
once so ardently felt.]
4x06 - The Doctor's Daughter: Delta Spirit - Strange Vine
You're such a strange vine wrapped around my neck, all twisted up between my steps...
I'm tripping and falling over things we just couldn't get over
I tried my best to get it off my chest
Songs we never wrote, seeds they wouldn't sow
We're taking it all to the end and we're planting our own garden...
Maybe I'll make a home with you...
[This is the closest the TARDIS has ever come to being domesticated. Had Jenny not "died," I imagine
it may have been a bit like the Partridge Family bus. Donna would have made a pretty kickass mom.
Her BS tolerance level is set at zero; kids wouldn't get away with shit.]
4x07 - The Unicorn and the Wasp: Miracle Fortress - Little Trees
Basing everything I say on the red read words you've been sending my way
At the end of each day I'll have lent you a phrase
That I've read to regret 'til I'm red in the face.
I won't ask for a cure, not for a verse,
Not for a glimpse from the Heavens of Earth...
Chasing history round with the birds,
For the secrets in sounds and the weeping of work...
[A somewhat frothy episode in turn merits a rather cheery-sounding little song.]
4x08 - Silence in the Library: Lenka - Like a Song
I can't forget you when you're gone
You're like a song that goes around in my head
And how I regret, it's been so long
Oh what went wrong? Could it be something I said?
Time, make it go faster; I'll just rewind
To back when I'm wrapped in your arms.
[Lyrically, this song doesn't quite fit the mold I was going for. While I imagine River to miss The
Doctor when he's gone, I highly doubt she'd be so girly about it. But musically, it almost feels like
it could be her theme song (it's somewhat reminiscent of Rose and Martha's themes).]
4x09 - Forest of the Dead: The Decemberists - Red Right Ankle
This is the story of your red right ankle and how it came to meet your leg
And how the muscle, bone, and sinews tangled and how the skin was softly shed
And how it whispered “Oh, adhere to me, for we are bound by symmetry
And whatever differences our lives have been, we together make a limb.”
This is the story of your red right ankle...
This is the story of the boys who loved you, who love you now and loved you then...
Some had crawled their way into your heart to rend your ventricles apart
This is the story of the boys who loved you; this is the story of your red right ankle
[I actually found a song that was called "Where Has Your Husband Gone Donna?" but I figured the title
was a bit too on-the-nose (plus, in the song, the husband drinks himself to death: not exactly applicable).
This is probably one of my favorite songs ever, both lyrically and melodically.
In a way, this episode is a bit reminiscent of The Doctor's time as John Smith. Only Donna is human. This
life could have been an actual possibility for her. So when it and her seemingly ideal life and love are forcibly
ripped away, it is of little wonder that she needs more recovery time than The Doctor. He at least got
the satisfaction of facing his enemies, of knowing he saved the universe, despite how horrible he found
the punishments he enacted (in Family of Blood). Donna is simply without.]
4x10 - Midnight: Devics - If We Cannot See
You were born with a heart that can never be filled
And a head like snow that can never be still
There are streets paved in gold that shine so bright
That you force yourself to look away
If we can't see now, we might never see
We only kill ourselves more slowly
[The Doctor needs to watch himself. And never go anywhere without Donna. Look what happens!]
4x11 - Turn Left: The Secret Life of Sofia - Nanda Devi
When you were born your eyes were closed
And you were indistinguishable from the other babies, we argued over names...
When you were old enough I began to teach you which greenery you could eat
To survive alone out in the wilderness, like me
The earth is the grandest of living things
And with it we are linked inextricably...
But I'd only introduced you to the glory of mountaintops
When the avalanche swept me from the face of a dear friend...
We were like specks of dust in nature's beautiful broom,
Nanda Devi, rejoining the river
[That Donna never was one for reverence, but in her time with The Doctor, she's certainly become worthy
of it. Indeed, the most important woman in the whole of creation. If only she still knew.]
4x12 - The Stolen Earth: My Brightest Diamond - Inside a Boy
Inside a boy I found a universe
And in his eyes are a thousand stars
On a dark sky we are clouds, we are whispers
Like fauns and shape-shifters
Our edges can never be found out
No, our edges keep moving further out
We are stars colliding
Now we crash like lightning into love
[Oh Rose.]
4x13 - Journey's End: Wilco - On And On And On
On and on and on we'll stay together yeah
On and on and on we'll be together yeah...
One day we'll disappear together in a dream
However short or long our lives are going to be
I will live in you or you will live in me
Until we disappear together in a dream
Please don't cry we're designed to die...
On and on and on, we're going to try
[Yeah. It was either end it on a somewhat happy note or go cry in a corner. Seriously though, does
RTD get off on crushing peoples' souls? Does he collect them, keep them on display in a jar? Frak.]
ZIP HERE
Doctor Who Series Mix, B-Sides: We Expected Something More
A few alternates from the above mix, plus some that generically encompass
the whole current series (as in 2005 on).
*Sample lyrics and explanations*
The Dying Seconds - In the Dying Seconds
(Instrumental)
Millbrook - The Shores and the Plains
Will you walk the shores with me and
Will you walk the plains with me my love?
Will you wait the storms with me and
Will you come away with me, my love, somewhere?
[Sort of general, all encompassing, "Hey, let's go exploring" song, applicable to most companions.]
Rufus Wainwright - The Tower of Learning
I'm looking for the tower of learning
I'm looking for the copious prize...
I really do fear that I'm dying
I really do fear that I'm dead
I saw it in your eyes what I'm looking for
I saw it in your eyes what will make me live
[Another sort of general song. The Doctor (and most of the companions) seem to be in search of something,
whether a good time or answers - and they tend to find some approximation of it in each other.]
Cinematic Orchestra - To Build a Home
Out in the garden where we planted the seeds, there is a tree as old as me...
I climbed the tree to see the world when the gusts came around to blow me down
I held on as tightly as you held onto me
Cause, I built a home; for you, for me
Until it disappeared from me, from you
And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust
[My super-cheesy alternative track to The Doctor's Daughter.]
The National - Start a War
We expected something, something better than before
We expected something more
You were always weird but I never had
To hold you by the edges like I do now
Walk away now and you’re gonna start a war
[That Doctor, he's a meddler.]
The Trio (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt) - Wildflowers
Just a wild mountain rose, needing freedom to grow
So I ran fearing not where I'd go...
Hitched a ride with the wind and since he was my friend
I just let him decide where we'd go
When a flower grows wild, it can always survive
Wildflowers don't care where they grow
[Applies to most companions, really.]
Sunset - The World is Awaiting
The city is sleepwalking...talking in a stupor
While computers rust away on shelves
The world is awaiting
[Very atmospheric and lyrically pertinent to the restless longing exhibited by most of
those people in the opening credits.]
ZIP HERE
Oh, and here's a blank version of the first cover.
Previous DW Series Mixes:
[ series one ] [ series two ] [ series three ]
Huh. This mix turned out relatively mellow, which is a bit odd, considering Donna. It kind of took me for-freaking-ever to do, especially the latter half of the season. As with the other mixes, a song for each episode. Hope you enjoy!
A Doctor Who Series Mix, V4: For We Are Bound By Symmetry
*Sample lyrics and explanations*
4x00 - Voyage of the Damned: The Lord Dog Bird - The Gift of Song In the Lion's Den
The lion's den is stretching out before our eyes
We're in the thick of it, you and I...
Falling through the clouds in a lonely way
That we know how to show them the way
And the gift of song comes bringing us all peace
[So this song is mostly unintelligible, but it's the feeling here, not the words, that's important.
And it's a rather glorious feeling to start the season off with.]
4x01 - Partners in Crime: Arcade Fire - Keep the Car Running
Every night my dream's the same, same old city with a different name
They're not coming to take me away, I don’t know why but I know I can’t stay
There’s a weight that’s pressing down, late at night you can hear the sound
Even the noise you make when you sleep can’t swim across a river so deep
They know my name 'cause I told it to them,
But they don’t know where and they don’t know when
It’s coming, when It’s coming...
Keep the car running
[Donna's just been waiting. And waiting. But she'll be ready when he comes.]
4x02 - The Fires of Pompeii: Mumford and Sons - Roll Away Your Stone
Roll away your stone, I'll roll away mine; together we can see what we will find
Don't leave me alone, not this time, for I'm afraid of what I will discover inside
You told me that I would find a hole within the fragile substance of my soul...
But darkness is a harsh term, don't you think?
And yet it dominates the things I see
Seems that all my bridges have been burned
You say how that's exactly how this "grace" thing works
[Guh. This song. Luff. Anyway, Donna, throughout the episode, is full of questions, mainly about the
Doctor's decisions and actions. She tests and questions and challenges him and his temporal authority
constantly, though he gives as good as he gets. But then, he's forced to make a terrible choice: the
burden of a Timelord, he explains to her. She sees the Doctor in a moment of greater conflict than
perhaps any companion has seen before. But she gets it - she pushes the button with him and makes it
her burden, as well.]
4x03 - Planet of the Ood: Bodies of Water - I Guess I'll Forget the Sound, I Guess, I Guess
Though my heart once was broke it's been mended
And the sting of the fracture has ended
But still the sound of the hearts that are breaking...pervades
Before the day that I first touched your face
Oh the roar of these things filled my ears...
There is a noise that is taking the place in the hollow of my inner ear
It is far more than the sum of its parts, a white noise sure as the sun
[Kickin' horn section? Ba-ba-bums? Giant group sing-along feel? It's like this song is tailor-made for
my particular brand of musical nerdiness. And okay, so he doesn't forget the sound of the Ood's
slavery song, but because he shares it with Donna, he at least gains some mutual understanding/empathy
that he normally doesn't have. As with the last episode, she gains a greater understanding of what
it is to be a Timelord. Even then it is too much for her to fully bear.]
4x04 - The Sontaran Stratagem: The Old Believers - Granny's Song
I'll bet you haven't changed a bit...
Nothing makes it to you and nothing makes it to me
It's a bright hot morning but the air is tight
Better figure us out, man, make things right...
That old house was a home of mine
[Donna returns to her old home flooded with love and nostalgia, both for her previous life and her
recent adventures.]
4x05 - The Poison Sky: The Acorn - Dents
I can see your years in my reflection, dents and cracks embedded in my skin...
And all the miles that we have put between us
Have been filled with loving blisters and sour truths
One by one the seasons change you, maybe once but not for all
Time can't paint the picture for you; dying leaves need time to fall
Let me be the one you're running to
[Martha, having now spent time away from The Doctor, can reflect on all the good and bad he has brought
her. Despite what her time with him has made her, she still cannot completely stifle the devotion she
once so ardently felt.]
4x06 - The Doctor's Daughter: Delta Spirit - Strange Vine
You're such a strange vine wrapped around my neck, all twisted up between my steps...
I'm tripping and falling over things we just couldn't get over
I tried my best to get it off my chest
Songs we never wrote, seeds they wouldn't sow
We're taking it all to the end and we're planting our own garden...
Maybe I'll make a home with you...
[This is the closest the TARDIS has ever come to being domesticated. Had Jenny not "died," I imagine
it may have been a bit like the Partridge Family bus. Donna would have made a pretty kickass mom.
Her BS tolerance level is set at zero; kids wouldn't get away with shit.]
4x07 - The Unicorn and the Wasp: Miracle Fortress - Little Trees
Basing everything I say on the red read words you've been sending my way
At the end of each day I'll have lent you a phrase
That I've read to regret 'til I'm red in the face.
I won't ask for a cure, not for a verse,
Not for a glimpse from the Heavens of Earth...
Chasing history round with the birds,
For the secrets in sounds and the weeping of work...
[A somewhat frothy episode in turn merits a rather cheery-sounding little song.]
4x08 - Silence in the Library: Lenka - Like a Song
I can't forget you when you're gone
You're like a song that goes around in my head
And how I regret, it's been so long
Oh what went wrong? Could it be something I said?
Time, make it go faster; I'll just rewind
To back when I'm wrapped in your arms.
[Lyrically, this song doesn't quite fit the mold I was going for. While I imagine River to miss The
Doctor when he's gone, I highly doubt she'd be so girly about it. But musically, it almost feels like
it could be her theme song (it's somewhat reminiscent of Rose and Martha's themes).]
4x09 - Forest of the Dead: The Decemberists - Red Right Ankle
This is the story of your red right ankle and how it came to meet your leg
And how the muscle, bone, and sinews tangled and how the skin was softly shed
And how it whispered “Oh, adhere to me, for we are bound by symmetry
And whatever differences our lives have been, we together make a limb.”
This is the story of your red right ankle...
This is the story of the boys who loved you, who love you now and loved you then...
Some had crawled their way into your heart to rend your ventricles apart
This is the story of the boys who loved you; this is the story of your red right ankle
[I actually found a song that was called "Where Has Your Husband Gone Donna?" but I figured the title
was a bit too on-the-nose (plus, in the song, the husband drinks himself to death: not exactly applicable).
This is probably one of my favorite songs ever, both lyrically and melodically.
In a way, this episode is a bit reminiscent of The Doctor's time as John Smith. Only Donna is human. This
life could have been an actual possibility for her. So when it and her seemingly ideal life and love are forcibly
ripped away, it is of little wonder that she needs more recovery time than The Doctor. He at least got
the satisfaction of facing his enemies, of knowing he saved the universe, despite how horrible he found
the punishments he enacted (in Family of Blood). Donna is simply without.]
4x10 - Midnight: Devics - If We Cannot See
You were born with a heart that can never be filled
And a head like snow that can never be still
There are streets paved in gold that shine so bright
That you force yourself to look away
If we can't see now, we might never see
We only kill ourselves more slowly
[The Doctor needs to watch himself. And never go anywhere without Donna. Look what happens!]
4x11 - Turn Left: The Secret Life of Sofia - Nanda Devi
When you were born your eyes were closed
And you were indistinguishable from the other babies, we argued over names...
When you were old enough I began to teach you which greenery you could eat
To survive alone out in the wilderness, like me
The earth is the grandest of living things
And with it we are linked inextricably...
But I'd only introduced you to the glory of mountaintops
When the avalanche swept me from the face of a dear friend...
We were like specks of dust in nature's beautiful broom,
Nanda Devi, rejoining the river
[That Donna never was one for reverence, but in her time with The Doctor, she's certainly become worthy
of it. Indeed, the most important woman in the whole of creation. If only she still knew.]
4x12 - The Stolen Earth: My Brightest Diamond - Inside a Boy
Inside a boy I found a universe
And in his eyes are a thousand stars
On a dark sky we are clouds, we are whispers
Like fauns and shape-shifters
Our edges can never be found out
No, our edges keep moving further out
We are stars colliding
Now we crash like lightning into love
[Oh Rose.]
4x13 - Journey's End: Wilco - On And On And On
On and on and on we'll stay together yeah
On and on and on we'll be together yeah...
One day we'll disappear together in a dream
However short or long our lives are going to be
I will live in you or you will live in me
Until we disappear together in a dream
Please don't cry we're designed to die...
On and on and on, we're going to try
[Yeah. It was either end it on a somewhat happy note or go cry in a corner. Seriously though, does
RTD get off on crushing peoples' souls? Does he collect them, keep them on display in a jar? Frak.]
ZIP HERE
Doctor Who Series Mix, B-Sides: We Expected Something More
A few alternates from the above mix, plus some that generically encompass
the whole current series (as in 2005 on).
*Sample lyrics and explanations*
The Dying Seconds - In the Dying Seconds
(Instrumental)
Millbrook - The Shores and the Plains
Will you walk the shores with me and
Will you walk the plains with me my love?
Will you wait the storms with me and
Will you come away with me, my love, somewhere?
[Sort of general, all encompassing, "Hey, let's go exploring" song, applicable to most companions.]
Rufus Wainwright - The Tower of Learning
I'm looking for the tower of learning
I'm looking for the copious prize...
I really do fear that I'm dying
I really do fear that I'm dead
I saw it in your eyes what I'm looking for
I saw it in your eyes what will make me live
[Another sort of general song. The Doctor (and most of the companions) seem to be in search of something,
whether a good time or answers - and they tend to find some approximation of it in each other.]
Cinematic Orchestra - To Build a Home
Out in the garden where we planted the seeds, there is a tree as old as me...
I climbed the tree to see the world when the gusts came around to blow me down
I held on as tightly as you held onto me
Cause, I built a home; for you, for me
Until it disappeared from me, from you
And now, it's time to leave and turn to dust
[My super-cheesy alternative track to The Doctor's Daughter.]
The National - Start a War
We expected something, something better than before
We expected something more
You were always weird but I never had
To hold you by the edges like I do now
Walk away now and you’re gonna start a war
[That Doctor, he's a meddler.]
The Trio (Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt) - Wildflowers
Just a wild mountain rose, needing freedom to grow
So I ran fearing not where I'd go...
Hitched a ride with the wind and since he was my friend
I just let him decide where we'd go
When a flower grows wild, it can always survive
Wildflowers don't care where they grow
[Applies to most companions, really.]
Sunset - The World is Awaiting
The city is sleepwalking...talking in a stupor
While computers rust away on shelves
The world is awaiting
[Very atmospheric and lyrically pertinent to the restless longing exhibited by most of
those people in the opening credits.]
ZIP HERE
Oh, and here's a blank version of the first cover.
Previous DW Series Mixes:
[ series one ] [ series two ] [ series three ]
 |  mellow Things in Herds - You Know |
81 illusions | it's not a trick...