Being a very music-orientated person, I had always loved the scores of Doctor Who, however, I didn't really start to hone in on this area of our favourite tv show until the BBC Proms in 2010. I remember watching the wholething on youtube, very jealous that I wasn't able to experience Murray Gold's fantastic music. Little did I know that two years later, I had had that chance - twice!

In February this year, I travelled down to Melbourne in extreme fanboy mode to see the first Symphonic Spectacular, and several months later, flew down to Sydney to see the second. This time, instead of being excessively excited for the event, I was much calmer (I was still excited!), and was able to appreciate the music, and indeed the whole event, a lot more. Needless to say, the whole event was fantastic!

Having experience Melbourne, I knew what to expect with the crowd, and I was not disappointed. If anything, my expectations were exceeded, as there was a lot more variety in the costumes. Cardboard cut-outs also littered the foyer, providing many photo opportunities, but the main drawcard was a Jon Pertwee (Third Doctor) era dalek standing on a podium, tucked away in thecorner. This, unfortunately, made it rather inaccessible due to unfortunate positioning of stalls. If there's one complaint I have to make pre-show, it's that the foyer was too small, and that moving around was made very difficult.

In Melbourne, I was lucky enough to sit in the centre of the auditorium, in the second row back from the stage. In Sydney, I was way back in the circles at the end of the hall. This enabled me to get a good view of the orchestra in action, a sight which I relished (when I remembered to look down from the big screen!) The auditorium in the Opera House was a lot smaller than the one in Melbourne, therefore meaning that the monsters were mostly limited to moving around at the front, but sitting up the back still granted you a good view, and I had the occasional Cyberman and Vampire Girl walk pass my seat.

Now, onto the music: I loved every second of it, of course, but I do have a few favourites. 'I am the Doctor', 'Amy' and 'Abigail's Song' were the standouts of the first act, whilst 'The Majestic Tale of a Madman with a Box', 'This is Gallifrey/Vale Decem' and 'The Final Chapter of Amelia Pond' were the best of the second. Of course, the two encore pieces 'Song of Freedom' and the 2010 version of the theme tune were marvellous as well. One complaint that I do have to make, however, is that I found the music, particularly in the first half, was played too loudly over the speakers. Most of the time, this wasn't really a problem, as the music was so good it didn't matter, but occasionally the volume became so loud that it rendered the experience uncomfortable.

The two hosts of the event, Mark Williams (Brian Williams) and Alex Kingston (Melody Pond) were fantastic, and showed great comedic timing. Alex even did a brief demonstration of 'Gangnam Style' which warranted a facepalm from me. Murray Gold also made an appearance, making a brief speech before joining the orchestra to play the piano in the two encore pieces, and of course Ben Foster was the conductor. Special mention must also go to Antoinette Halloran and Daniel Bonic-Goodwin, who were the Soprano and Countertenor of theafternoon respectively.

Overall, as in Melbourne, the afternoon was a resounding success. It was fun, moving, exciting, but most of all, musical, and the experience was made even more special by the fact that I attended the show on my birthday, making it one of the best birthday presents ever! Thank you to everyone behind the scenes who made the show work, as well as to the Metropolitan Orchestra, the Sydney Philharmonia Choir, and to the hosts of the show. I hope that the successes of Sydney and Melbourne encourage the BBC and ABC to work together to send the show on tour, where it will hopefully end up in Brisbane (or even better, Townsville!). With the Symphonic Spectacular out of the way, the next big Doctor Who event for us Australians will be the Doctor Who Convention being held in Sydney on the 7th April and in Brisbane on the 14th April next year, featuring Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, John Leeson and Frazer Hines...

PS: The biggest disappointment of the afternoon was that David Tennant got the biggest cheer of all the Doctors when his regeneration scene was shown. Oh well, nothing's perfect.