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Episode 117

Thatcher’s Britain

This week, Richard’s admiring the architecture, Brendan wants to say how-you-do, and Nathan has had a disappointingly small meal and is still feeling a little peckish. We’re all trapped in an excitingly hopeful modernist dystopia, so what else could it be but Paradise Towers?

Attendance is compulsory

Once again, we’re asking you to shape the future of this podcast by nominating a Peter Davison story to cover in our next commentary episode. But beware: this time the choice comes with potentially complex interpersonal repercussions.

To cast your vote, just go to the shownotes for Episode 116.

Buy the story!

Paradise Towers was released on DVD in 2011. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Le Corbusier was a French architect who was massively fond of steel, concrete and plate glass, and who would probably have enjoyed more than a few astringent beverages with Kroagnon in Space Architect School.

High-Rise tells the story of “a class war…inside a luxurious apartment block”. It was written by J G Ballard, about whom Richard has some surprising things to say.

David Snell was originally commissioned to write the incidental music for this story, but his score was rejected by JNT, and Keff McCulloch ended up hastily writing a replacement score instead. Snell’s score is available as a DVD extra.

Deputy Chief Caretaker Clive Merrison played Sherlock Holmes alongside Michael Williams as Watson for BBC Radio 4, covering every canonical Sherlock Holmes story. They’re all available from Audible, so go out and buy them immediately.

In Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan talked about the differences between hot and cold media, which are concepts dear to the heart of any Doctor Who fan who has ever attempted to watch the Loose Cannon reconstruction of The Space Pirates.

Big Finish tackles some of this story’s themes in Spaceport Fear by William Gallagher, starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford.

Steven Wyatt had got the job partly on the basis of Claws, a TV play starring Brenda Blethyn and Todd’s beloved Mary Morris. It’s about cat people. Like Survival, I imagine.

And, as always, we come back to Totally Tasteless: The Life of John Nathan Turner by Richard Marson. JNT was a gay, you know.

And going slightly more highbrow, Richard alludes to The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, which discusses the implications of our newfound technological ability to experience works of art whenever and wherever we like.

Brendan mentions the fraught political history of Yooka-Laylee, which actually looks like a lot of fun.

The Pruitt-Igoe public housing project seems like it was a massive conglomeration of dozens of Paradise Towers in St Louis, Missouri. Read about it here.

Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman offered Michael Grade some surprising advice about how to fix Doctor Who in the 1980s. More information about this is available as a DVD extra on the Time and the Rani DVD.

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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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

Brendan recounts his experiences reading his way through the Doctor Who novels on his blog, The Doctor Who Reader.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll chase you down carrydors and catch you where we can.

Bondfinger

Yesterday we released a new commentary on the second Pierce Brosnan film, Tomorrow Never Dies. If we put that side by side with our commentary on GoldenEye, we’ll have a pair.

Of course, you can still catch our commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 117: Thatcher’s Britain · Duration 0:54:12 · Download · Open in new window

Season 24The Seventh Doctor