Radio Trailer - Analysis

This is a radio trailer for the final episode in BBC1's Doctor who series. It was played on many well known radio stations and helped generate a large audience for the final episode of the series. It lasts 33 seconds and contains several generic elements of radio trailers, these are;

- Quotes from the show

- Show Information (including where its shown, times etc)

- Music

The trailer begins with a male voice over that tells the listeners where the show is being broad casted. "On BBC1", it is straight away advertising the channel and helping pull in an audience as people will watch the show if they recognize the channel.

After this the first quote from the show is played, there is no sound or music played along with it which adds to the blunt effect of the speech. "The Pandorica will open, silence will fall", this will help lure in the audience as they will want to know what the Pandorica is and what happens when it opens. Also the idea that silence will fall could imply an apocalyptic theme which will intrigue sci-fi fans (Doctor who falls into the sci-fi genre). An interesting technique used in this trailer is with the music: as the female voice says "silence will fall", the complete opposite happens and the music starts to build. The music is non-diegetic and in minor tone, it starts low and monotonous and builds, becoming more dramatic as the more vivid quotes are played from the show.

As the music builds there is a collection of voices from the show, their voices are panicked, hysterical and serious. Interestingly the majority of quotes are female which adds to the stereotypical idea of 'damsel's in distress', the voices which seem to be asking for help are all female. The quotes also make a reference to the protagonist of the show, the Doctor. This helps to establish the audience as when they hear 'Doctor' they automatically recognize the show.

The last quote of the collection is from the 'Doctor', he stereotypically plays the calm, collected and brave male. He is brought across as strong as his voice is loud and confident. He also draws in the audience by having the last thing he says 'come on', the listeners will interpret this as he is talking to them.

As with the majority of radio trailers they end with the main information about the show. The same male voice from the opening returns and gives information about where the show can be seen and at what time. The music also reaches its climax and drifts into the easily recognizable 'Doctor who' theme tune, again this will draw in fans of the show.

Radio's can obviously only project sound to their audiences, therefore radio trailers have to involve a lot of interesting and intriguing sounds. This trailer does this effectively as it uses voices, music and sound effects from the show. These make the trailer more interesting and appealing to listen to and will therefore help generate a larger audience.