Distress call

A distress call was any signal that requested assistance. It was typically sent by an individual or group that encountered a problem they could not handle on their own. The purpose of the signal was to summon those who could help.

Notable examples
The Twelfth Doctor loved distress calls, and considered them "[his] theme tune". As he had learned, "You only see the true face of the universe when it's asking for your help." (TV: Oxygen)

According to the Fourth Doctor, the first rule after surviving a crash landing was to set up a distress beacon. Indeed, it was what a survivor Rutan Scout intended to do after crashing on Fang Rock. (TV: Horror of Fang Rock)

Most Daleks could emit an automatic distress call if their casings were tampered with. (TV: Planet of the Daleks)

In the year 37,166 the Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane Smith responded to a distress call from Zeta Minor. A space crew landed shortly after their arrival on the planet. (TV: Planet of Evil)

Lord Cardinal Hemal sent a distress call to the Fifth Doctor to investigate a Time Lord murder. It was soon discovered that the murder had been caused by a vampire. (COMIC: Blood Invocation)

When Turlough and the Fifth Doctor went to Sarn, Turlough sent a distress call to Trion requesting assistance for the people, who were threatened by a volcanic eruption during the Time of Fire. (TV: Planet of Fire)

When they learned of the imminent arrival of a blue star to their solar system, the Antarians sent out a distress call, but were shortly afterwards wiped out by the Valerons, who also destroyed their world, with Dynil the only survivor. (PROSE: A Universe Called Fred)

The Tenth Doctor and Martha Jones received a distress call from New Earth when the Cybermen and Judoon joined forces to catalogue all the humans on the planet. (COMIC: In-Flight Entertainment)

Alonso Frame sent a distress call for the Titanic to be salvaged. (TV: Voyage of the Damn)

K9 was capable of sending an emergency distress call, as K9 Mark 2 attempted to do when he was attacked by the Anubian Nehetka. (TV: Curse of Anubis)

Hundreds of Time Lords, who were stranded in the bubble universe by House, used hypercubes to send distress calls. The Corsair's hypercube arrived in the main universe and found the Doctor's TARDIS. After the Eleventh Doctor arrived in the bubble universe, he heard the distress calls on Nephew's translation sphere and assumed this meant there were living Time Lords. Unfortunately, all the Doctor found was a cabinet filled with hypercubes, as House had murdered every Time Lord whom it had encountered. (TV: Doctor's Wife)

During the Battle of Demons Run, the Doctor had a squad of Dalek-upgraded Spitfires destroy the communications array of Demon's Run so Colonel Manton would not be able send a distress call to his fleet. (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)

The Eleventh Doctor also picked up a distress call inside his TARDIS from Terrin and Alyst Blakely, who were being attacked by Daleks. (PROSE: The Dalek Generation)

Renegade Time Lord Drax made the Shadow a device which would transmit an Intergalactic Computer Distress Signal, which he then used to capture K9 Mark II. The Fourth Doctor picked it up in the TARDIS, and used a portable receiver to try to find the source, but was captured instead. Drax claimed to the Doctor that he had built it to try to escape from the Shadow, but that it had gone missing. (TV: The Armageddon Factor)

A sentient cell culture (the Culture), endangered by a virus infection, was able to send a telepathic distress call to the Seventh Doctor. (COMIC: Culture Shock!)

After awakening on the Firebird in 1983, Grand Marshall Skaldak activated a distress signal from his armor in an effort to get the rest of the Ice Warriors to rescue him. After they failed to show up, Skaldak took it as a sign that his species was extinct. However, an an Ice Warrior starship eventually arrived in response to the distress call, raised the Firebird to the surface and teleported Skaldak onboard. (TV: Cold War)

In an effort to test 's redemption, the Twelfth Doctor had her respond to a distress call from a Mondasian colony ship with the help of his companions Bill Potts and Nardole. The distress call turned out to be because the ship had gotten stuck too close to a black hole. (TV: World Enough and Time)