"Daisy Bell"

The song is performed by a singer at the Palace Theatre. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang ^[+]Loading...["The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)"])

"Daisy Bell" was a song performed at the Palace Theatre in 1889 whilst the Fourth Doctor and Leela were attending. The singer, Lettie Randall, sang the lines:

Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do.
I'm half crazy all for the love of you.
It won't be a stylish marriage.
I can't afford a carriage.
But you'll look sweet on the seat of a bicycle built for two.

The audience were invited by Miss Randall to join in with the chorus. The Doctor assured Leela that they were not obliged to do the same. (TV: The Talons of Weng-Chiang ^[+]Loading...["The Talons of Weng-Chiang (TV story)"])

The Scorchies sang an alternate version of the song to Henry Gordon Jago:

Jago, Jago, give me your answer, do.
You'll go crazy when you are torn in two.

(AUDIO: Encore of the Scorchies ^[+]Loading...["Encore of the Scorchies (audio story)"])

The song was sung by those possessed by the reservoir of evil. Daniel O'Kane sang it, as did Peter Russell, William Bruffin and Patient One. Jeremiah O'Kane listened to it. (HOMEVID: The Zero Imperative ^[+]Loading...["The Zero Imperative (home video)"])

In 2367, Robots 1 and 2 sang this song when the Eleventh Doctor deactivated them. (TV: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship ^[+]Loading...["Dinosaurs on a Spaceship (TV story)"])

When Petronella Osgood tested her microwave emitter on Josh Carter, Josh sang the first two lines of the song. (AUDIO: Vanguard ^[+]Loading...["Vanguard (UTNS audio story)"])

Behind the scenes

"Daisy Bell", as recorded in 1894 by the Edison Phonograph Company

• The robots singing "Daisy Bell" as they died is a reference to HAL doing the same in Arthur C. Clarke's film 2001: A Space Odyssey, which was itself a reference to the first song ever sung by a computer made by a human (the IBM 704) in 1961.
• The song's full title is "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" and was composed by Harry Dacre in 1892, which makes its performance in the 1889 setting of The Talons of Weng-Chiang somewhat of an anachronism. However, within the television story, Litefoot is seen reading a copy of the February 1892 edition of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine which cannot possibly have been published 3 years prior, therefore the television story has to be set sometime in or after 1892 which fits perfectly with the composition of the song. The 1889 setting comes from other media and cannot be applied to the television story.