Vicky Leigh’s ‘Doctor Who’ Tribute
When I saw the proposal for Whorovision on Twitter a few months back, I knew this was something I wanted to get involved in. Not only did I have two ‘Doctor Who’ inspired songs dating back to 2018/19 laying around, I thought this project would be a great way of exposing myself to a wider audience as an artist, especially one inspired by my favourite TV show. The two songs I had to choose between were called ‘The End’ and ‘I Don’t Enjoy This Station’; ‘The End’ has never been released, but ‘I Don’t Enjoy This Station’ was originally released in March 2019 on my first double album called ‘at what point does a town become a city?’
I listened back to them both to figure out which one would take the least amount of time to update and integrate some timey-wimey goodness into. I chose the latter before realising the original version from 2019 had me reciting a speech from an episode called ‘Ghost Light’. Five years on, I like to think I’ve grown and (hopefully) improved as an artist, and decided to take on the challenge of sampling the actual quote instead of reciting it; weaving it into and between the music and lyrics I’d recorded. A music video was preferred for the Whorovision project, and the idea soon came to me of syncing the scene itself with the quote. That’s when the core idea of the music video was born.
I took on an additional challenge, with the help of a friend called Cara, to go outside to film at the bus station in town. The Doctor mentions a bus station in the quote, which is the original reason I chose this quote out of 60 years worth of history. Why not use it to make a visual and auditory connection? Right by the bus station is a phone box too; sadly not a 60’s style blue box, but that furthered the ‘Doctor Who’ connection and was a must to include in the video. You could also argue the “at home” filming with a galaxy light represents flying through the Time Vortex, but it represents something much different to me personally.
In addition to being a challenge to myself and an opportunity for exposure, it’s also the first music video made and released under the artist name Vicky Leigh. I must have produced around five or so music videos back in 2018, which are no longer available to watch, so I was extremely excited at the opportunity to commit a Vicky Leigh song to a visual format. To tell some kind of loose story, while also having fun ~ but with me being me, I feel as though I took the entire thing all to seriously. Hopefully people enjoy it, that’s a big hope for this project.
Something which didn’t occur to me until very late into production though, is how I’ve made a ‘Doctor Who’ inspired song in the same year of the shows 60th anniversary. That wasn’t planned at all, you have to believe me. It just happened! I’ve wanted to do something to celebrate my favourite show this year, but with being pulled around so much, I’d either lost motivation or was focussed on different things. Just as the end was in sight for the music video, I realised: this is a celebration of my favourite show, sixty years after it first aired. It’s littered with ‘Doctor Who’ references and memorabilia, big and small, and samples dialogue from one of my favourite TARDIS teams. My love for the show and inspiration from it is front and center here.
Funny how things work out with time, isn’t it? And how things develop without us even noticing they’re happening. Sometimes it’s right under our noses but we’re just too blind to see.
‘I Don’t Enjoy This Station ‘23’ is available to hear and download FOR FREE on my SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/vickyleighmusic
You can watch the music video for it here: https://youtu.be/ZTxTFaLkC98
In addition to a behind the scenes/making of video here too: https://youtu.be/57P1sRzdOH4
[The next Vicky Leigh single will be released on August 25th 2023]
