"Doctor in Distress," oh...the pain!

[The Borgified Corpse]

I finally was able to find a dirt cheap copy of the "Trial of a Time Lord" box set. (I won't tell you how cheap. You'll hate me with envy.) I was flitting through some of the bonus features and I found "Doctor in Distress," the 1985 song written to protest the BBC's decision to put Doctor Who on hiatus for 18 months. Oh...dear...GOD! I think this may top the Star Wars Holiday Special & the various musical efforts by William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy as the greatest indignity a large sci-fi franchise has ever endured. In addition to just being a terrible 1980s pop song, it's just embarassing seeing Doctor Who fans reacting to the cancellation as if it's a great social injustice. Normally protest songs like this are only put together to raise awareness about wars, poverty, AIDS, & genocide in various 3rd world countries.

 

[Turbo]

Aaaagh! No! The memories! *goes to find something 120-proof*

 

[Cyke101]

I watched this on youtube after reading this thread. It's like Live Aid + Xanadu.

 

[Cutter John]

Think thats bad? I still have a vinyl copy tucked away. I was at a con in New Orleans with JNT, Colin Baker, and Nick Courtney when the thing appeared. And of course, being a rabid fanboy...

To be fair though, proceeds from the sale actually went towards cancer research.

 

[Flibble]

Oh my goodness! I was hoping that this had been sent down a black hole somewhere!

 

[OmahaStar]

*cries from the pain*

 

[Allyn Gibson]

I don't approve of torture, but for Ian Levine and "Doctor in Distress"...? Yeah.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I just listened to it on Youtube. What the was wrong with those people.

 

[Phillip Culley]

To be fair though, proceeds from the sale actually went towards cancer research.

Shame sales were so bad that nothing went to Cancer Research in the end - luckily Ed Stradling (who helped produce the Trail DVD) arranged for some of the proceeds from the DVD to go to CR.

Although to be fair even Ian Levine admits the thing was quite horrible, and cost him a lot of money in the end!

 

[jbny67]

I found "Doctor in Distress," the 1985 song written to protest the BBC's decision to put Doctor Who on hiatus for 18 months. Oh...dear...GOD! I think this may top the Star Wars Holiday Special & the various musical efforts by William Shatner & Leonard Nimoy as the greatest indignity a large sci-fi franchise has ever endured. In addition to just being a terrible 1980s pop song, it's just embarassing seeing Doctor Who fans reacting to the cancellation as if it's a great social injustice. Normally protest songs like this are only put together to raise awareness about wars, poverty, AIDS, & genocide in various 3rd world countries.

Think thats bad?

No I don't think it's that bad.





I think it's worse.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

BTW, I'm trying to figure out who some of these people are in the video. Of course, I recognize Colin Baker, Nicola Bryant, Nicholas Courtney, & Anthony Ainley. I think I also may have spotted Lalla Ward in there. But who are all these other people? Are they famous? Are they some kind of 1980s British pop stars that I wouldn't recognize because (a) I'm not British and (b) I wasn't aware of pop music back in the 1980s?

 

[wamdue]

just found this on YouTube, yep its pretty bad

 

[Sci]

Doc! Tor! In! Di! Stress!
Let's all answer this S.O.S.!

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Even worse than the lyrics is the fact they had Faith Brown trying to impersonate Tina turner......

You can imagine the glee on Micheal Grades face when he heard this monstrosity.

 

[The]

Burn it! Burn it!

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

You can imagine the glee on Micheal Grades face when he heard this monstrosity.

I was surprised by the candor of the BBC execs on the "Trial of a Time Lord" DVD documentary. They just flat out admitted that the 18 month delay was merely a pretext for canceling the show altogether. They admit that they hated the show, mostly because they thought the production values didn't hold up against other sci-fi like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., & Star Wars. (A bit of a dubious criticism considering these were the guys who controlled the show's budget in the first place.) Michael Grade even denigrates the fanbase, suggesting that all of the protest letters that the BBC got were the same 3 fans writing over & over again.

 

[Mitty]

I'm not even going to search for it. I remember everyone telling me, "No, no, don't watch the Star Wars Holiday Special, you'll regret it as long as you live" and yet I crazily watched parts of it... and it really was as bad as they said, not worth watching. So I'm not doing it again with this.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

I'm not even going to search for it. I remember everyone telling me, "No, no, don't watch the Star Wars Holiday Special, you'll regret it as long as you live" and yet I crazily watched parts of it... and it really was as bad as they said, not worth watching. So I'm not doing it again with this.

Good for you. Unfortunatly for me I did watch it and I can say only one thing.

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!

KILL IT WITH FIRE!!!!!!

 

[Haggis and tatties]

You can imagine the glee on Micheal Grades face when he heard this monstrosity.

I was surprised by the candor of the BBC execs on the "Trial of a Time Lord" DVD documentary. They just flat out admitted that the 18 month delay was merely a pretext for canceling the show altogether. They admit that they hated the show, mostly because they thought the production values didn't hold up against other sci-fi like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., & Star Wars. (A bit of a dubious criticism considering these were the guys who controlled the show's budget in the first place.) Michael Grade even denigrates the fanbase, suggesting that all of the protest letters that the BBC got were the same 3 fans writing over & over again.

Yeah considering the amount of licence fee payers money the BBC was wasting at the time with stuff like the failed Eldorado's soap opera and the likes.