Episode 119
A Really, Really Good Length
Sunday 16 July 2017
After acquiring a mysterious treasure map from a German Expressionist filmmaker, Richard goes off to discover a fabulous treasure hidden deep in the bowels of a space mall, while Brendan and Nathan stay behind pouring milkshakes on each other. It’s Dragonfire.
Well, that’s democracy for you
You now have less than a week to vote for a Peter Davison story to be the subject of yet another FTE commentary podcast; we’ll be announcing the result at the end of our Tom Baker commentary episode next week.
To cast your vote, just visit the shownotes for Episode 116.
Buy the story!
Dragonfire was released on DVD in 2012. It was released on its own in the US (Amazon US), of course, but in Australia and the UK, it was released as part of the Ace Adventures box set, along with The Happiness Patrol, for some reason (Amazon UK).
Notes and links
Tony Osoba plays Kracauer, one of Kane’s followers. This is the second of three Doctor Who appearances: he was previously a Movellan in Destiny of the Daleks, and will go on to play an astronaut in Kill the Moon. He was also in Charles Chilton’s Space Force 2, a BBC science fiction radio series which served as a sequel to Chilton’s Journey into Space. He also appeared in Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker, in which he played a black Scotsman, which was apparently a hilarious thing in the 1970s.
Australia’s answer to Martha Stewart (without the criminal record) was called Tonia Todman, and who expected her to turn up in this episode? She’s still with us, apparently, and seems to have outlived her fame, such as it was.
Big Finish have staged a reunion between the Seventh Doctor, Mel and Ace in A Life of Crime, Fiesta of the Damned and Maker of Demons.
Coincidentally, many of this story’s characters share names with famous figures in the history of film criticism, including Pudovkin, Kracauer, Belazs (nearly) and Eisenstein.
The guard’s line about “the semiotic thickness of a performed text”, which we are all terribly fond of, is a direct quote from Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text, which was an early attempt at academic criticism of Doctor Who.
Nathan mentions a version of the Sylvester McCoy title sequence created in 2016 by Cloister Productions using modern CGI in less than 24 hours.
Dominic Glynn did a full stereo remix of his version of the Doctor Who theme for The Trial of a Time Lord box set in 2008.
Picks of the week
Brendan
Brendan recommends a Big Finish audio starring Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford: Flip Flop, which consists of two discs that can be played in either order. Big Finish calls it “a unique innovation in storytelling”, which is sweet of them.
Nathan
Nathan recommends getting a subscription to Audible (US) (UK) (AU), where you can buy audiobook versions of many of the Doctor Who Target novelisations, particularly Delta and the Bannermen read by Bonnie Langford.
Richard
Richard goes all highbrow on us this week, recommending the films of Japanese screenwriter and director Akira Kurosawa, including Ran (1985), Yojimbo (1961), and The Hidden Fortress (1958.
He also recommends the films of Josef von Sternberg, particularly those starring William Hartnell–lookalike Marlene Dietrich, including The Scarlet Empress (1934), Morocco (1930) and Shanghai Express (1932).
Follow us!
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.
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Bondfinger
Over on Bondfinger, we’re halfway through our flight through the Pierce Brosnan era, with commentaries on GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. Fans of things much better than those films will enjoy our commentaries on the Timothy Dalton films. Or will they?
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.
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