Music and Monsters (CON episode)

 was the episode of Doctor Who Confidential broadcast alongside The Runaway Bride.

Unusually, this episode bore a subtitle. Instead of just Doctor Who Confidential, it went out under the banner Doctor Who Confidential Christmas Special.

This episode, similar to the previous year's Backstage at Christmas, had a limited amount of information regarding production of The Runaway Bride as it was broadcast several hours before the Christmas special; instead its focus was the 2006 Doctor Who-themed Children in Need benefit concert, Doctor Who: A Celebration.

This episode was co-produced with BBC Music.



Aspects of production covered

 * The origin of the concert from Julie Gardner and Murray Gold.
 * Rehearsal of the orchestra and the camera crew.
 * The challenges of being the composer for Doctor Who.
 * Choreography for the monster actors, and rehearsing the different styles of movement for them, as well as rehearsals for the people who would be 'possessed' by the Sycorax within the concert
 * Murray Gold discusses some of his pieces, and his reasoning for designing them in the way that he did.
 * Bringing a Dalek onto stage for the concert, and Barnaby Edwards discusses the rehearsal process for the production.
 * Nicholas Briggs discusses improvising for the concert, as he had no fixed script for the Dalek.
 * Having Cybermen within the audience, and the logistics of that.
 * First day of filming on The Runaway Bride.
 * Catherine Tate talks about the character of Donna, and the excitement of being part of Doctor Who.
 * Russell T Davies and Julie Gardner discuss the positive reception of the concert.

Additional topics covered

 * The tight timeframe (half a day) between getting into the Wales Millennium Centre to set up and the actual performance.
 * Discussion of the history and effectiveness of the theme for Doctor Who, and some of the different versions of it through the classic run of the show.
 * David Tennant talks about his nervousness at presenting the event.
 * Presentation of some of the music pieces performed at the concert.
 * A excerpt from The Runaway Bride, shown at the concert as a sneak preview as it had yet to be broadcast, along with orchestral accompaniment.

Elements retained in Cut Down
There was no "Cut Down" version of this episode.

Home video releases
The full length version of the episode was included on the Doctor Who: The Runaway Bride DVD released on 2 April 2007; and the Doctor Who: The Complete Third Series DVD box set released on 5 November 2007.