Doctor on the Slide

We're on the final leg of Rewind TV's repeat run of London Weekend's 'Doctor' series, derived from the Richard Gordon novels with Doctor on the Go.  (Unless they are going to show the Australian spin-off series, Doctor Down Under or the brief BBC revival Doctor at the Top, as well).  Doctor on the Go, which ran from 1975-77, was the fifth incarnation of the series, which had debuted in 1969 with Doctor in the House.  By this time, only three of the original cast of characters were left - Robin Nedwell as Dr Waring, Geoffrey Davies as Dr Stuart-Clarke and Ernest Clarke as Professor Loftus - with original star Barry Evans having left to do sex comedies after Doctor at Large, while George Layton had departed at the end of Doctor in Charge (although he continued to write for subsequent series) as had Richard O'Sullivan, who went onto TV sitcom superstardom with Man About the House.  Consequently, Doctor on the Go feels a pale shadow of previous incarnations, despite its attempt to return the series to its origins with a hospital setting and medically based gags after the eccentric digression of Doctor at Sea.  The trouble was that, by this time, they'd already used up the best medical gags in earlier series (not to mention the preceding series of films derived from the novels), so it all feels more than a little bit repetitive.  Moreover, by this time, the main characters look and feel far too old to be engaging in the kind of shenanigans which had seemed amusing when they were medical students, but now, with them as qualified and experienced doctors, just seem utterly irresponsible.  You can't help but sympathise with  Professor Loftus as he bawls them out and threatens to sack them on a weekly basis.

As a result, it is far more difficult to sympathise with either of the leads.  Indeed, by Doctor on the Go, you find yourself praying that Stuart-Clarke is going to get struck off, so incompetent and dangerous to patients he has become.  He was bad enough in Doctor at Sea - lazy, crooked and disloyal - but by Doctor on the Go he is insufferable.  Watching seventies sitcoms is, more often than not, a disconcerting experience, so different were the attitudes and humour displayed in them, compared to today, a sobering reminder of how radically things can change over a relatively short period of time.  Sexism, racism and bigotry of all kinds are treated as the norm, with all manner of misogynistic and racist terms happily bandied about without consequence.  But even as the seventies progressed, things began to change and Doctor on the Go, even in 1975 seemed somewhat old-fashioned in its humour - by 1977 it seemed positively prehistoric.   Which is something that reverberates down the decades when you see it again now - whereas the earlier series, despite their problematic, by modern standards, aspects, are actually still amusing and entertaining to watch - Doctor on the Go just seems tired, a cynical attempt to wring some more mileage out of the format.  Doctor in Charge, which showed from 1972-73, probably represented the series at its peak, reflected in its ratings at the time, despite its relatively crude (by modern standards) production values, still retains a degree of freshness and manic energy, both of which Doctor on the Go lacks.  Even Stuart-Clark isn't quite insufferable, despite his incompetence.  Maybe I'm biased because Doctor in Charge is the first of the 'Doctor' series I have a clear memory of watching, but I can't help but feel that it was all downhill for the format after that.

When Executions Go Wrong

My money is still on it being some kind of criminal fuel scam, possibly involving siphoning red diesel from farm vehicles then selling it back at sky high prices.  Certainly the petrol in those vans seems to indicate something to do with under the counter fuel sales, but the authorities - probably to cover up their own incompetence - still seem determined to try and pin the whole Fairford debacle on Iran and somehow 'prove' that it was terror-related.  So, now they've arrested some Anglo-Iranian guy in London on terror-related charges and are trying to link him to the guys they've already had to bail because of a lack of evidence of them being terrorists. Still, the British police have always been good at fitting people up for crimes - whether they actually committed them or not, so I've no doubt that they'll eventually come up with some kind of dodgy 'evidence' that they foiled a major terror attack.  But enough of the nonsense going on here in the UK, what about the latest outrage in the US?  Two attempts at lethal injections and still they can't manage to kill a death row prisoner.  This debacle just goes to underline the barbarity of capital punishment - the fact that someone has been found guilty of a heinous killing doesn't justify killing, (or trying to kill), them in cruel and agonising ways, in front of an invited audience.  But what else do we expect from our blood-thirsty, violence-obsessed transatlantic cousins?  Frankly, I'm only surprised that their cable TV networks haven't invoked some kind of constitutional amendment in order to get their cameras in there and broadcast executions live - this one could have been featured in 'When Executions Go Wrong'.

Now, I know that we shouldn't, in any way, make light of something as inhuman and unpleasant as a botched execution, particularly when, instead of killing the condemned, it leaves them in a critical condition in hospital, but, I couldn't help but think that they were bloody lucky this wasn't a B-movie.  Because usually in such films, when someone survives an execution, they are usually revived as a blood-thirsty zombie.  At least the woman they were trying to execute didn't suddenly revive, tear off her restraints, leap up from the trolley she had been strapped to and start tearing out the throats of guards and officials with her teeth, before attacking the ghouls in the audience.  These zombies are always impervious to bullets, so there would just have been no stopping her - she could have gone on an orgy of revenge killings.  But at least it was only a lethal injection she survived - if they'd been trying to fry her in the electric chair and she survived, then she would have been electrically supercharged and been able to zap people with bolts of electricity from her hands - like an ICE agent wearing those gloves - as she burst out of the chair, glowing and crackling.  As for the gas chamber, well, she would probably just have sucked up all the gas, giving herself super powers in the process, then blown it out into the faces of everyone nearby as she broke out of the chamber, fatally gassing them.  So, I'd say that they all had a lucky escape - the prison authorities are probably only facing a multi-million dollar lawsuit, rather than a rampaging zombie hell-bent on revenge.  But, as I said, we really shouldn't be making light of any of this dreadful business.  You should be ashamed of yourselves...