Music in Buffy and Doctor Who

Repost from my G+, only minorly edited:

I've been re-watching the entire Buffy the Vampire Slayer series over the past while.  In the second half of season 5, now.

But I had forgotten about The Body.  Now, this is going to sound off-topic for a moment.  While I love Doctor Who and adore the music, there have been times, including some notable times in series 7 so far, where some lazy script-writing was covered up by emotionally charged and manipulative music.  Scenes that wouldn't have been terribly moving had it not been for using variations of themes from some other genuinely devastating moments from previous episodes.  The Doctor Who people know how to use the music (and have also used lack of it, during the end credits after Adric's death, for example) to make you really feel for what's going on and advance the story.

Where this connects is that the Buffy episode The Body is all the more powerful for not using any music at all during the episode, except during the credits sequence.  There are sounds from what's going on in the scene, or backgrounds of locations, but no actual score.  Leaving it to the actors to carry the story.  And they do so spectacularly.  I bought Buffy's pain, right to the core.  I could feel the awkwardness and uncertainty of her friends.  I truly fell in love with Anya, her wanting to understand, trying to express deeper feelings, offering her support to Buffy at the hospital in a way that would put most off if they didn't actually listen to how she used her voice, the expression on her face.  I could appreciate a glimmer of genuine Willow and Tara chemistry, and felt good that they actually used subtlety finally.  Willow's freaking out about what to wear under emotional distress made me connect to her a little more.  I even disliked Xander far less than usual.  I bought the entire thing.  It's a very moving episode.

Bringing me back to Doctor Who.  Series 7 has been great so far.  Getting emotionally invested in the characters is easy to do.  But episodes 1 and 5, Asylum of the Daleks and The Angels Take Manhattan, well...  They have some great ideas, some key plot points, they turned me into a sobbing mess both for sad and happy.  But the writing is sloppy.  The actors, being fantastic, pull it off.  But I don't think they could have done it alone without the soundtrack.  It covered up some seriously careless writing.  Not unexplained points and holes, or things done that point to something to be explained one day in the future, but some terrible bits of writing.  On the other hand, I found episodes 2 and 4, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship and The Power of Three,  to be a delight to watch in comparison.*  Perhaps I didn't go through as many tissues, or have quite the fangirl joy at seeing River Song again, but they were solid and I love them more than any of the other episodes so far because of a strong script with sympathetic and relatable characters and believable dialogue.  The soundtrack was fantastic as always, but it complemented and accentuated, rather than hiding and distracting.

No, I'm not claiming that I could do better.  No, I don't expect every episode to be perfect.  There are always duds.  But I do recognise how music can so change perception, and quite dislike manipulation to that extent.  Despite getting a good soundtrack to buy after the season is over.

* Note:  The closing line of The Power of Three was terrible.  Enough to put a bad taste over the entire episode.  If you re-watch it, I recommend stopping the show before Amy says that last line with the moment, or muting at that point.  Seriously.  Also, it was a teensy bit confusing for them to use a variation of the little Amy music when saying goodbye to Kate, but there's a vague possibility that it might lead somewhere.  Maybe.  But it didn't throw everything, so there's that.