The NBC sitcom Community's show-within-a-show Doctor Who parody made a third appearance last night in the Christmas episode "Regional Holiday Music." Early on, Inspector Spacetime fan Abed Nadir suggests to his group of friends that they could watch the lost 1981 Inspector Spacetime Holiday Special, which has a running time of two and a half hours and was "so critically reviled after it aired the creator had his knighthood revoked."
Apart from giving a shout-out to the various Doctor Who Christmas specials that have aired regular since the show's return in 2005, this also makes fun of the infamously horrible 1978 Star Wars Holiday Special that was so bad Star Wars creator George Lucas has refused to allow it to be officially released on home video.
Towards the end of the episode, Abed is sitting at home in his pajamas watching the Inspector Spacetime Holiday Special. "Happy Time Day, Reggie," says the Inspector as he hands Constable Reginald Wigglesworth a Time Day gift. "It is tradition to give one's Constable a gift at the end of each orbital cycle."
"Blimey! A hologram!" exclaims Constable Reggie. "Let's activate it and view the performance." Sure enough, a Star Wars-like hologram of a rock band appears and starts playing bad music.
Abed stares at the screen, finally declaring "This is terrible." Later, after Abed's friends arrive at his door singing a Christmas carol, they all sit down to watch the Inspector Spacetime Holiday Special. We hear the Inspector's arch-enemies the Blogons chanting "Eradicate! Eradicate!" followed by Santa Claus who wishes everyone a "Merry Time Day."
And a Merry Time Day to all of you at home. If you'd like to see the scenes mentioned, you can view them below thanks to the kindness of YouTube user TVGirl17...