Episode 101
Cardboard and Wooden
Sunday 5 February 2017
Trapped in a futuristic dystopia run by crazed B-grade reality television stars, Brendan, Nathan and Todd attempt to take their mind off things by watching the remarkably vengeance-free Vengeance of Varos.
Buy the story!
Vengeance of Varos was originally released very early on: in 2001 in the UK, in 2002 in Australia, and in 2003 in the US. Mercifully, a special edition of the story was released in 2012. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Notes and links
Todd draws a deft comparison between this story and Gogglebox, a television programme on Channel 4 in which we get to watch various households watching various other television programmes. There’s an Australian version as well.
In Australia, this season of 45-minute episodes was broadcast in a 25-minute timeslot, which led to some horrifically bad cliffhangers. The worst of these will be horribly evident next week.
Nigel Kneale, creator of Quatermass and conservative grandpa angry about the way the nurses keep moving his pills, was the creator of The Year of the Sex Olympics, which depicts a future where the elites pacify the population with a steady diet of violence, pornography and reality television.
Owen Teale plays Maldak in this story, a guard with a truly regrettable 80s hairstyle. He will go on to appear in the Torchwood episode Countrycide, and in a popular television programme called Game of Thrones, which Nathan has never even heard of.
Despite his performance in this story, Jason Connery will go on to have a distinguished acting career. He stars in Robin of Sherwood Season 3 as fake replacement Robin Hood after the original Robin leaves the show/is shot to death by arrows. He also plays Ian Fleming in Spymaker: The Secret Life of Ian Fleming (1990).
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Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. The Flight Through Entirety theme was arranged by Cameron Lam. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.
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Bondfinger
Bondfinger is back for the new year with our final Rodgecast, a commentary on A View to a Kill. We will be embarking on the Bond franchise’s Rassilon Era in a few weeks’ time.
A full range of Rodgecasts are also available, from Live and Let Die to Octopussy. Other Bonds are also available, of course. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.