Left-wing scriptwriters hired by the BBC during the 1980s tried to inspire a 'Tardis revolution' by using Doctor Who as propaganda to undermine the Tory prime minister. [snip]...Former actors and writers on the show admitted yesterday that there was also thinly veiled support for the miners' strike and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
Sylvester McCoy, the actor who played the Doctor from 1987 to 1989, said: 'Our feeling was that Margaret Thatcher was far more terrifying than any monster the Doctor had encountered.
'The idea of bringing politics into Doctor Who was deliberate. We were a group of politically motivated people and it seemed the right thing to do.
Not surprisingly, the show tanked when McCoy and editor Andrew Cartmel incorporated their heavy-handed socialist preaching into the show's plot line. In fact, the Thatcher government outlasted Doctor Who- The longest-running science fiction television series was taken off the air in 1989 due to a rapid decline in viewers.
Now, I don't think I've ever seen a single episode of Doctor Who in my life, but when I first read this article, I couldn't help but think about the numerous movies Hollywood churned out about the US Military in Iraq or Afghanistan that continually tanked at the box-office and it almost seemed to confirm that the same I-don't-give-a-damn-about-how-watchable-it-is-as-long-as-MY-message-gets-out mentality is at work as well. Yeah yeah.....I know The Hurt Locker won best picture, but take a look at some of the money-hemorrhaging clunkers that came before it- typically portraying American soldiers and Marines as evil, bloodthirsty, murderous criminals or hapless, semi-literate hillbillies or gang-bangers duped into enlisting by predatory recruiters.
I guess the only difference is that it took the Doctor Who writers and cast members some 20 years to admit their bias.
I was a big Dr. Who fan.
ReplyDeleteDouglas Adams of The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy fame even wrote some of the episodes.
Like most everything from the entertainment industry, there was some left-bias in the shows, but up until Sylvester McCoy took the role, it was mostly just in side comments and off the cuff remarks that had little or nothing to do with the general plots. The political piffle was very easy to ignore.
The show became unwatchable when Sylvester McCoy took over. I never gave much thought to why I lost interest in it at that time.