David Tennant and Catherine Tate are back in three new audio adventures, scored by the fantastic Howard Carter. Learn more about his work on the soundtrack in a new interview...

The musical talent behind more than 90 Big Finish releases, Howard Carter's themes have been heard in some of our most acclaimed titles, including Doctor Who: Damaged Goods, Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4 and UNIT: Extinction.

Earlier this year, Howard took on the challenging task of creating the soundtrack for the eagerly awaited Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures, building masterful new motifs for the Tenth Doctor and Donna's new journeys in space and time.

Howard has kindly taken time out of his busy schedule for an exclusive interview on working for Big Finish and bringing the blockbuster new stories to life. Read the full article below, and listen to a excerpt from the score for Doctor Who: Technopobia on the Sound Cloud player below.

How did you come to write music for Big Finish?

I started working for Big Finish about seven years ago soon after I’d graduated. I’d just finished my music degree and was put in touch with Nick Briggs about a spot of freelance work, and haven’t looked back since.

What was your reaction to being asked to write music for the Tenth Doctor?

I was thrilled. I’d been working on the New Series releases for the past seven months and knew these were coming up so it was great to finally get stuck in. I read all of the scripts in one sitting and was thrilled at how brilliant they were and how much scope there was for me to be creative with the sound design and the music. It was also slightly daunting, knowing how important this series would be both to established Big Finish fans and those who just loved the Doctor and Donna.

What particular challenges did the three stories present to you?

The main challenge was to be as creative as possible with each episode and give them a different feel while keeping a sense of continuity throughout the set. As such there are a few themes and stylistic tropes that tie the scores of each episode together, but otherwise they’re quite different in scale and scope.

The other main challenge was to try to evoke the era as much as possible without resorting to clumsy pastiche. Murray Gold’s scores for the series are so unique and important to fans of that era that it would be possible to ignore them, but at the same time I felt it was important to be as original as possible.

With the Big Finish audios I’ve always felt that we’re moving the world of Doctor Who forward rather than just recreating what’s been before. And while it’s important to retain a certain level of stylistic familiarity I was keen to make sure the musical language was fresh and not too restricted by Murray’s style. As such I studied the scores from the era and used them as a starting point, and then concentrated on writing pieces that best served the plays and the overall atmosphere of the set.

What is your favourite piece you put together for the set?

It’s hard to choose as I loved working on all the stories so much, but I had particular fun with Technophobia. I wanted to combine the more bombastic orchestral feel of the New Series with a collection of synthesised sounds and effects that wouldn’t have sounded too out of place in the Radiophonic Workshop. As such I sketched lots of ideas for the orchestra and then set about adding extra voices and textures using analogue and modular synths. As this was the first story of the three it allowed me to establish some themes for the Doctor and Donna and also to set the creative tone for the set. In some passages the synthesisers go wild, becoming detuned and out of time to reflect the breakdown of technological understanding in the story, and in other passages they fall back in step as accompaniment to the larger orchestral underscoring. This score represents all the things that I love about writing music - combining traditional compositional methods and orchestration with new technology and sounds to create as unique and diverse a sonic world as possible, in order to add more texture, depth and emotion to the drama it underscores.

What are you currently working on for Big Finish?

I’ve just finished work on UNIT: Shutdown and am in the middle of scoring Doctor Who: Classic Doctors New Monsters Volume 1. Then it's on to Doctor Who – The War Doctor 3: Agent of Chaos!

You can hear Howard's work for yourself when you order Doctor Who – The Tenth Doctor Adventures, available to buy and download today from the Big Finish website.

Consisting of three brand new stories by Matt Fitton, Jenny T Colgan and James Goss, you can buy the titles either individually or as part of the Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor Adventures Volume 1 – Limited Edition set.

Limited to just 5,000 copies and available exclusively from the Big Finish website, this lavish book-sized box set includes exclusive artwork, photography, articles, a one-hour documentary featuring interviews with the stars and production team – alongside a bonus documentary examining the worlds of Doctor Who at Big Finish. Check out our video guide to the set's contents below.

Order your copy for just £30 on CD or £25 to download, with the individual stories available for £10.99 each on CD or £8.99 to download (with bundles also available). With complimentary download copies included on all CD orders of these releases, you don't even need to wait for delivery to enjoy the stories!

Check out Big Finish's full range of audios based on the New Series of Doctor Who on our range page here.