Brigadier Bambera and Ancelyn are finally reunited in Knightfall, Volume 4 of Big Finish’s UNIT: Brave New World!
An epic conclusion to a wonderful series as our UNIT team sets out on a journey to the mythical Albion.
UNIT: Brave New World has been a perfect musical playground for me ever since we did the first set in 2022. I created an electric guitar-driven cinematic music style for the series, as my aim was to make the stories sound more like action blockbusters than like typical audio dramas. Being a guitarist, this also allowed me to add real performances to a score otherwise comprised of virtual orchestral instruments, which made the music sound much more alive.
The score for Knightfall is built like a movie score, closely following the action and reacting to hundreds of hitpoints to add a contour to the scenes that creates a clearer image of what’s happening in the mind’s eye. One example of this is how the music ramps up and comes to a full stop just before an actor delivers a one-liner, which is then followed by the music reacting to that and taking off in a new direction. This adds a strong emphasis to the highlighted line and the same technique works equally well with important sound effects, like a gun being fired.
I had just started working on Knightfall when I learned of Marcus Gilbert’s passing, so every time I was scoring one of his character Ancelyn’s big speeches or other important moments, I tried to make them extra special. When we first met Ancelyn in the Doctor Who TV story Battlefield, his musical theme was a screaming electric guitar. One interesting concept I used for Ancelyn in Knightfall is that in the beginning there is no guitar as part of his underscore, but throughout the story, as he regains his confidence and becomes a leader, more and more guitars can be heard – culminating in harmonizing lead guitars otherwise reserved for heavy metal songs!
The second Knightfall story opens with a mythical tale about King Arthur and Albion’s history. This scene unlocked a whole new musical landscape for the series and added a more fantasy-inspired classical orchestral style with sweeping string melodies, epic brass and choirs. I decided to score this scene like an overture and introduced several key themes that would later be reprised as the story progressed.
One important part of Knightfall are two dragons, each belonging to a different world and seemingly in conflict with one another, but there’s a twist: They’re actually lovers! The music foreshadows this revelation by giving the dragons themes that can be played together to create a perfect harmony.
But the most important part of our story is the love between our heroes Bambera and Ancelyn. I had been trying to find their perfect love theme for a while but every idea sounded too cheesy. Then one night as I was struggling to fall asleep at 3am it hit me, somehow my subconscious had fused Bambera’s theme with Ancelyn’s theme and I immediately knew this was exactly what I had been searching for. I jumped out of bed to record a voice memo to make sure I wouldn’t forget it. And then I was finally able to fall asleep.
UNIT: Brave New World: Knightfall is available now from the Big Finish website.
Boxset description:
Worlds are about to collide as Winifred Bambera faces the greatest dilemma of her life. Her lost beloved husband Ancelyn is back – and all hell is about to break loose.
Facing armies of darkness and the wrath of the mighty Queen Guinevere, can the course of true love run smooth – just this once?
4.1 Deep Water by Georgia Cook
Ancelyn is back! But all is not well in the other-dimensional realm of Albion. Magical assassins have been sent across the cosmic rift to do the bidding of the paranoid Queen Guinevere.
Can UNIT save their intended victims in time? And just how will Savarin and Rix survive Bambera’s rocky reunion with her knight errant husband?
4.2 Storm Over Albion by Felicia Barker
Bambera leads UNIT forces on a dangerous mission to face Guinevere in Camelot. But Ancelyn is declared a traitor to the crown, and the mad queen sees any challenge as an act of aggression. The fates of two worlds hang in the balance…
4.3 Shining Armour by Robert Valentine
Sleeping dragons wake, knights and fae clash in the streets of London, and the countdown to the end of all worlds begins!