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Fixing the music in that “We’re All Your Children” scene in The Reality War (sort of)

The line "sometimes I think we're all your children" scene in The Reality War isn't only cringeworthy, it's also just *bad* even from a storytelling sense when we consider the fact that the Doctor's companions have only ever previously been referred to as "his children" in a negative context. To give an example, Davros taunts the Doctor in Journey's End by calling his companions his "children of time", in a way that comes across as belittling toward them. The concept of his friends being his 'children' or his 'followers' has never been a positive thing.

In addition, the "we're all your children" scene is one of the only moments in The Reality War that actually holds space, compared to the rest of the episode that seems rushed. And really, for those reasons, I actually don't completely blame Murray Gold for making the music so ridiculously overdramatic, because it's clear that this line was supposed to be put on a pedestal in comparison to everything else. And it's not like Murray could motivically call back to any other moment in the show where this "children of the Doctor" idea was explored, since it was only really done so in a context that shames the Doctor rather than upholding him.

I'm sure some people would accuse me of 'coping' when I say this, but as someone who's a huge fan of Murray Gold and the way he's handled motivic development across the previous seasons, as well as a general film music nut, I really have no clue what else he could have done in that scene - at least within the context of this episode. Even if he used some of the depressing theme that follows that Davros speech from S4, or even the theme that plays when Jenny (his 'daughter') dies, it could have maaaybe worked in ISOLATION, but not when this idea of the doctor's friends being his 'children' is presented in this heroic and inspiring manner. And honestly, I think in general the issues with the music throughout the entirety of Ncuti's run can be boiled down to the fact that the story just isn't as good. When the companions and the Doctor themselves are not given enough development or even inconsistent development, it can be hard to come up with a good score if you're someone who relies as heavily on motivic development as much a Murray Gold does.

With that being said, that didn't stop me from trying to see what would happen if I did place a piece of music over this scene that felt more closely aligned with how this 'doctor's children' idea should have been presented. I added the music that plays in the second half of Davros' speech from Journey's End toward the beginning of this scene, music that plays when the Doctor is reminded of the number of people who have died in his name or in his service.

Following that, I thought that it would also be very effective if this theme then blended into the same theme that plays when Ruby meets her biological mother for the first time. Obviously the two tracks don't blend very well on their own but it would absolutely be possible to merge these two themes together. I would personally make the Ruby theme much denser, with similar orchestration to the Davros speech theme.

Finally, I was thinking that when the Doctor mentions that he's the only one who can shift reality because he's 'the last of the timelords', there could be some sort of background motif / countermelody that is associated with this idea. I said in this video that it could maybe be an adaptation of the descending four note idea from 'A Sad Man With A Box', but there could also be some other things that would work.

Once again - this wouldn’t really work properly in The Reality War considering the way this line is framed, but it could have absolutely worked if this concept was handled better.