6 Times Doctor Who Was Nearly Cancelled (And The Time It Actually Was)

Many would cite the cancellation of Doctor Who as the low point of its history, and the beginning of the dark times. Whilst the wilderness years were a tough pill to swallow for many viewers, I pose to you that this was not the show’s darkest hour.

No, that would be the 1985 charity single: Doctor In Distress.

To set the scene: Colin Baker is at the TARDIS console with controversial show runner John Nathan-Turner helming the show through a very divisive era of the show. Criticisms of the show at the time ranged from cries that the show was too violent, the writing was poor, the production quality was shoddy and most chiefly that the Doctor was written as, to be frank, a bit of an a***hole. And none of these critics was quite so vocal as one man: Michael Grade, the BBC One controller at the time. It’s fair to say, in no uncertain terms, that Grade hated the show - he didn’t exactly mince his words when talking about it. He wanted Doctor Who gone.

In 1985, he got his wish, announcing the cancellation of the show. Due to initial backlash, this cancellation was speedily relabelled as an indefinite hiatus. People were coming out in defence of the show, though in many cases this was due to fond memories of what Doctor Who had once been, as opposed to what it currently was. Despite this temporary stay of execution, it was clear that Doctor Who was still under significant threat.

So the cast and crew decided to do something about it. Something that, in hindsight, was most certainly ill-advised…

Inspired by the success of the previous year’s Band Aid, they decided to form a supergroup and record a charity single in an attempt to save the show. This next smash hit was due to include the likes of Elton John and Gary Glitter, alongside the cast and crew of the show.

Unfortunately none of the special guests turned up, each making their own excuse to distance themselves from this disaster waiting to happen (with the exception of a young Hans Zimmer, who turned up to play the keyboard. It goes without saying that this was before he hit the big time…).

Listening to the resulting song is, and we hate to say it, akin to having your brain ripped out and plonked into a Cyberman.

Needless to say, almost no one bought the charity single and the show ended up as even more of a laughing stock than it was before. Colin Baker has cited this as his one single regret in the forty years he has spent as part of the show (and this is the man who spent years dashing around on prime time telly in a technicolour dream coat and strangling his companions).

To top everything off, the name of the supergroup was Who Cares? Oof. Hit the nail on the head with that one…