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NOTE
This transcript was created on 2026-06-07 at 13:56:49

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Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety, the only Doctor Who podcast coming at you forwards in time, backwards in time and sideways in time.

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I'm Brendan.

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I'm Nathan.

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I'm a pointy bitter chalk and a gaudily hilted prop sword for this one, so you watch yourself.

5
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It's about to get a trifle sharpish on the battlefield.

6
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It's a really terrible prop sword.

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Something that gets to be enclosive.

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On all the time.

9
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I'm thinking, didn't I get this in a show bag?

10
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This is part of the 1988 Doctor Who showback, which the year before had invisible ink and a cutout pregnant looking Mary Tan.

11
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She's in this and all, isn't she?

12
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Guess who we've got?

13
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We've got Gene Marsh.

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We have.

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And we've got Angela Douglas.

16
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We have, carry on.

17
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Brigadier.

18
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Actually, was Gene Martian a carry-on?

19
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She wasn't, she should be.

20
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I don't believe she was, but I could be wrong.

21
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I was saying to you during the week, Richard.

22
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I'm surprised that fewer carry-on actors were in the Avengers.

23
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You know, we've had a few in...

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They just saw themselves, saw themselves a little bit middle to high brow for what they were doing.

25
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So they didn't lampoon themselves quite that way.

26
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They had half the cast of dad's army.

27
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Yeah, well, class.

28
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And dad's army didn't start till late 67.

29
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Ah, well.

30
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But no, I just found that odd because, of course, Angela Douglas was the female lead in about 3 or 4 carry-ons, I think.

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She was.

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Carry on up the kyber.

33
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No, I'm not joking.

34
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And carry on up the jungle.

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Why is it up everything?

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She's always in the...

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Don't you love how these seasons have started?

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You know, for one of them, we've got an extraordinary moment in, you know, above the earth, hovering with malcontent and fizzling with expectation, and then another season, we have a starburst and the death of a doctor, and now we have a lovely garden centre and some retired people. that's the best opening.

39
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I think that's why people like this season so much as it's like every villain is going to be Patricia Rutledge, you expect.

40
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And I have to say, Richard, I think great minds think alike here because our dear listener, other Pete, made the same observations.

41
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No, we did not.

42
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During doing marathons.

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I did not, did he?

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I love you other people.

45
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Get off my patch.

46
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It's a lovely opening and it is in a way...

47
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They said that of him as well.

48
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Well, you know, when we had all of that sort of introduction of who the brigadier was and stuff in Morden undead, you know, now Sergeant Benton's a used car dealer and all of that sort of thing that was...

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Yeah, better than he ought to be, either.

50
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But this is really terribly sweet.

51
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Wasn't that fronty of them to say that too.

52
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I mean, where's Mike Yeates now?

53
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He runs a fish shop.

54
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They don't even mention him next to a primary school.

55
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And in Richard Franklin's novel, Operation Hate.

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Oh, ow.

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Really hurt.

58
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I believe it is implied that, of course, Yeats had his dishonourable discharge with the dinosaur invasion, but of course, that novel is also about Yeats coming to terms with his sexuality in a time that was, you know, difficult.

59
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So Richard Franklin has said, yes, this is semi-autobiographical, and I'm putting some of my own life into Yeats' life.

60
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Still in publication?

61
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So originally it was called The Killing Stone, and it's been rewritten and retitled Operation H, which I believe is still in publication.

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And people have said, it's not actually bad.

63
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Wasn't that the 3rd reboot of Thunderball with Joe Collins as Fatima Blush?

64
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Everything goes blurry in the wash doesn't it?

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George Lazenby as Bond.

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George decay as Fiona Volpe.

67
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Actually, I would so pay to watch that.

68
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Do you know why this show is so freaking great, kids?

69
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It's not for any of the lovely garden scenes.

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I'm staying in the bloody garden scenes.

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I love this.

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How the hell would he get that house?

73
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I think Doris.

74
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I think I think Doris.

75
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I think he married up.

76
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I think it's Doris' money.

77
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This is the same universe as Ambassadors of Death.

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Get it?

79
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Get it?

80
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No, it really is.

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Mars Landings in the 70s.

82
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Britain has a space program.

83
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No, okay, it's still Doctor Who, so of course it's the same universe, but it is actually LinkedIn really nicely.

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You know what?

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I think you're onto something there, though, with the brig marrying up, because when he leaves, Doris asks, does all this mean so little to you as if this is what she is offering?

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Yeah, this is...

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Am I just your cash cow?

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This is her house.

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She answers the phone.

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She does too, doesn't she?

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And when at the end, she's like, make dinner for us.

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Yeah, because you are my B at.

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B for BH, Brigg.

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Except that the name Doris, of course, comes from Planet of the Spider.

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She's a nice watch.

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She's a bit of a scrubber. that's right.

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I thought she was a sort of good time girl and he was kind of...

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He was sort of embarrassed to have had this liaison with her in Brighton, presumably while still married to Fiona.

99
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Volpe.

100
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He was still very starchy though, and the 70s were, that's Sutech agrees.

101
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Yeah, he was very starchy.

102
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So judgy, isn't she?

103
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No, those opening scenes are properly charming.

104
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And this is closest Doctor Who gets to to the manor born.

105
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This is Doctor Who does Sigma.

106
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And it's really time we had this.

107
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There's so much.

108
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I don't want to get to the rewritten, a hastily rewritten end scene because you know that this was meant to be the last story of the brig.

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And that there were, in fact, as Nick let spill in one of the things there were, it was the end of the Death of the Greyhound.

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So they did, in fact, rehearse 2 tag scenes, 2 end scenes.

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So I think that the narrative still is building up to the death of the brigadier because, you know, we see him suit up, we see him decide to go back.

112
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We even see the moment where he would have been killed where the destroyer.

113
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Yeah, all full of busty promise standing there twitching away like quite like a would-be extra for a Mel Gibson casting call covered in wad and full of mock Scottish promise. even for a poll anyway.

114
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I think is he the greatest pole of the season?

115
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Marek Anton?

116
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Oh, my.

117
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Oh, if you could only have seen young Brendan's face light up.

118
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It was like you got full tilt on the pinball.

119
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We'll see more of him in a couple of weeks, yes.

120
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Oh, I see quite a bit of him here.

121
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Is it just in my head that he's got a blue painted chest?

122
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Do you actually not see it in this?

123
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No, you do.

124
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Yeah.

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You pause and your whole, your sad old VHS is stretched like a tacky old bit of playground rubber band by the end of it because you've been pausing on that scene for so long.

126
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There's a photograph with Sue Mansfield fitting his head, as it were.

127
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And yeah, he's not wearing anything.

128
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Right in front of her salad.

129
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Gigantic nipples, right, in front of her cell.

130
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Is he still with us?

131
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I think so.

132
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Well, of course, we had our viewing marathon for this a couple of weeks ago and we were watching from various locations.

133
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I think you were having work done in your bathroom.

134
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Not a euphemism.

135
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But no, James and I were sitting together watching Maracanton in Curse of Fenrich and just kind of gushing, as it were.

136
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And I believe I have found, I found a website of a Merrick Anton.

137
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The face shape is similar.

138
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He looks very different, of course, because it's 30 years on.

139
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But he's aged rather well.

140
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So it seems he's still with us.

141
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He's still doing bathroom renovations in London, like most Polish gentlemen.

142
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That is a euphemism.

143
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No, something I really love about those early scenes with the brig.

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I kind of like, and I kind of don't like the disillusionment in Modron Undead because a lot of season 20 relates to the destruction or erosion of dreams, snake dance, for instance.

145
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Terminus, of course, you know, people are promised a cure, but just kind of thrown in a radiation chamber and we hope for the best.

146
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Given Sarah Sutton instead.

147
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In enlightenment, you know, the Eternals basically want to be able to dream and they can't.

148
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You know, with unit, it was kind of seen as this golden age of Doctor Who even then, but what Modron Undead does is goes, no, this is the real world, you know, soldiers do retire and they do go on to prosaic day jobs.

149
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Well, this kind, it still honours that because Doris refers to the teaching.

150
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I think, yeah, that's what rescued him.

151
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They obviously had a falling out.

152
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He had a breakdown.

153
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Oh, this is such a soap, isn't it?

154
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Yeah, I'm surprised that Russell didn't refilm all of this, do we?

155
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Probably did.

156
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But yeah, and then and then she rescued him from his.

157
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So he goes from chalk from his bitter chalk.

158
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Yeah, he goes from living in like a studio caravan on the school grounds to this grand old country house with a wife who adores him.

159
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It's reclaiming some of that, but also still honouring what's come before.

160
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It's one of the more deft moves of continuity we have in the 1980s because you don't need to have seen that he was a teacher in order to understand that scene.

161
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Yeah, better not to, really.

162
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Yeah.

163
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I think the one the one sort of flaw in that scene is where poor Doris has to say, you don't regret it, do you?

164
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he's like, regret what?

165
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Leaving United Nations intelligence task force.

166
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Binary location. 01 zero.

167
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You kind of go, oh, yeah, that kind of makes sense.

168
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People need to know what it is. central.

169
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Anyone who knows what unit means.

170
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If she just says unit will understand it.

171
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Anyone who doesn't know what unit means is still going to go, United Nation Intelligence Task Force.

172
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What the hell is that?

173
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It's it's the Blofeld moment from Spectre.

174
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We're back to the...

175
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But yeah, Angela Douglas and Charming.

176
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It's a really strong female cast in this one.

177
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Angela Bruce and Angela Douglas actually conflated my head.

178
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I don't know how, but I really would have liked to have seen some standoffs between them.

179
00:11:01.799 --> 00:11:03.720
But we'll get that, won't we?

180
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Miss Whittaker.

181
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We will.

182
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Well, I mean, but later on, unit becomes a sort of completely female organisation.

183
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I think they're all women in the Zygon invasion and the Zygon inversion, apart from a few grants.

184
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This is really pressing it, isn't it?

185
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It's the 1st time that it's actually looked like something from the United Nations that has a little bit groovy casting.

186
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Yeah, yeah.

187
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So you have Zabegnyev and you have, you know, actual people who are from other countries.

188
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You know who he is, don't you?

189
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He's Frobisher in the audios.

190
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Yes, he really.

191
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Robert Jessak.

192
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He's Frobisher.

193
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I know, isn't it great?

194
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Don't you wish?

195
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Throw a bit of that in.

196
00:11:39.480 --> 00:11:40.679
But what it does.

197
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And it's what happened so rarely was to bring an element of the past back and give it something completely new to do.

198
00:11:47.639 --> 00:11:50.039
And when I say completely new.

199
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I guess the nearest analogue is the demons where we see unit confronting the devil in essence and magic and stuff like that.

200
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And it is given a scientific explanation, but Miss Hawthorne points out, well, that scientific explanation is just going to say that, yes, magic is real.

201
00:12:07.620 --> 00:12:11.759
So we have had unit facing magic and the supernatural.

202
00:12:11.820 --> 00:12:16.740
Here we have it again in a really sort of sword and sorcery way.

203
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Something that we've never seen unit confront.

204
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You know, it was endless sort of aliens invading the home counties.

205
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Here we have something really different where unit confronts this myth, this Arthurian myth, where it confronts the doctor's future, confronts the other greatest piece of British mythology of all time.

206
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And we haven't really seen it done in media.

207
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Monty Python and John Borman's Excalibur do not count as current, you know, as current modern reinterpretations.

208
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The closest, in fact, we had in media at the time was, um, and I was already starting to really date, which is, of course, talking, and whatever media representations of Lord of the Rings.

209
00:12:57.419 --> 00:13:01.379
Butch isn't really exactly Arthurian, but it's probably the closest that we had.

210
00:13:01.440 --> 00:13:04.620
Yeah, the King Arthur Myth is right up there with Anibelund.

211
00:13:04.679 --> 00:13:11.759
Yeah, we're about almost 10 years on from Ralph Baske's attempts to do the Lord of the Rings animated films, which tripped me out as a kid.

212
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And they're actually so bloody Wagner anyway.

213
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He's he's taken it all from the Norse stuff.

214
00:13:16.620 --> 00:13:32.220
So in the extended version of Battlefield, because this, Nathan, you've mentioned this problem of, you know, they write too much material. and it's a big thing this season, pretty much every story this season overruns in terms of shot material.

215
00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:35.220
And there's a bit that's on the special edition DVD.

216
00:13:35.220 --> 00:13:37.500
And it wasn't actually cut because of time.

217
00:13:37.559 --> 00:13:39.179
It was cut because it didn't look very good.

218
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It's the doctor and ace walking up a spiral staircase to get to after the spaceship.

219
00:13:44.159 --> 00:13:58.019
But they cut the bit where Ace is asking how magic exists and the doctor explains, have you heard of Clark's law, which is any form of sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic, and the doctor has the wonderful line of the reverse is also true.

220
00:13:58.080 --> 00:14:00.779
Any form of significantly advanced.

221
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Magic is indistinguishable from technology.

222
00:14:03.120 --> 00:14:11.700
So I actually think that is, you know, that's a take on the demon's explanation, but it's much better and it's not...

223
00:14:11.759 --> 00:14:16.799
Yeah, you know, we kind of agreed that Pertwee is a bit patronising towards Miss Hawthorne.

224
00:14:16.860 --> 00:14:19.620
Which isn't, which isn't...

225
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Every single person.

226
00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.419
Yeah, here's your superior offer.

227
00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:27.120
He's even a little bit withering at the Maypole, isn't it?

228
00:14:27.179 --> 00:14:31.620
I'm glad you're mentioning cut scenes because that's where this story gets interesting.

229
00:14:31.679 --> 00:14:33.480
Have you watched the elongation?

230
00:14:33.539 --> 00:14:36.480
I have ages ago. did for this one.

231
00:14:36.539 --> 00:14:37.080
Yeah.

232
00:14:37.139 --> 00:14:39.059
Most of the cut scenes.

233
00:14:39.120 --> 00:14:41.039
Well, there's a there's a line in any of them anyway.

234
00:14:41.100 --> 00:14:46.259
They mentioned that this is the time of the Azanian ceasefire that's occupying most of unit forces.

235
00:14:46.320 --> 00:14:55.139
It was one of the proposed names for a post-apartheid South Africa, which is, you know, sadly, when Nelson Mandela, then a multiracial democracy.

236
00:14:55.259 --> 00:14:57.840
He didn't turn to even war for inspiration, oddly enough.

237
00:14:57.899 --> 00:14:59.460
But it is mentioned in Scoop.

238
00:14:59.519 --> 00:14:59.759
Right.

239
00:14:59.759 --> 00:15:01.919
And it was one of the perceived things.

240
00:15:01.980 --> 00:15:04.740
So we're actually now back in an even war universe.

241
00:15:04.799 --> 00:15:06.000
Which is nice.

242
00:15:06.059 --> 00:15:07.019
I like that.

243
00:15:07.139 --> 00:15:07.980
All right, we probably aren't.

244
00:15:08.399 --> 00:15:10.259
You could be.

245
00:15:10.320 --> 00:15:15.179
Again, it's tagging and feeling into other great British literary.

246
00:15:15.240 --> 00:15:16.620
There's the word.

247
00:15:16.679 --> 00:15:17.519
Yeah, no.

248
00:15:17.639 --> 00:15:17.940
Go on.

249
00:15:18.000 --> 00:15:20.580
What I was going to say is just to pleasure our listeners.

250
00:15:20.639 --> 00:15:21.179
Tropes.

251
00:15:21.240 --> 00:15:23.399
Bingo cards at the ready.

252
00:15:23.460 --> 00:15:32.220
What I was going to say is that, of course, Aronovich's 1st story goes back in time to look at the history of the program in remembrance of the Darlings.

253
00:15:32.220 --> 00:15:34.500
And now his story is the opposite of that.

254
00:15:34.559 --> 00:15:36.059
He's going forward in time.

255
00:15:36.120 --> 00:15:37.500
Sideways.

256
00:15:37.500 --> 00:15:39.120
And what, to ITV?

257
00:15:39.179 --> 00:15:39.480
Yes.

258
00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:50.820
And using it as a way of also examining the past of the program by bringing us back the unit era, but also by talking about Doctor Who being a new modern thing.

259
00:15:50.879 --> 00:15:57.539
Like this time, Doctor Who is set in the distant future of 1999, I think.

260
00:15:57.600 --> 00:16:02.879
They don't say it on in the script, but yeah, I think that that's what it's supposed to be.

261
00:16:02.940 --> 00:16:08.220
And so we've got, you know, that stupid phone, like Peter Walmsley has a car phone.

262
00:16:08.879 --> 00:16:13.980
You know, The brigadier doesn't care if it's the king on the phone.

263
00:16:14.039 --> 00:16:16.559
So Doctor Who was killed Queen Elizabeth?

264
00:16:16.980 --> 00:16:20.159
No wonder she was avoiding him down and, you know.

265
00:16:20.279 --> 00:16:24.299
Well, it's their revenge for Silver Nemesis and not being able to get Andrew.

266
00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:26.039
Or was Edward?

267
00:16:26.100 --> 00:16:27.600
It's Edward.

268
00:16:27.600 --> 00:16:28.919
Wonder.

269
00:16:28.980 --> 00:16:32.159
They're always the glove puppet children on the goodies.

270
00:16:34.740 --> 00:16:39.059
Oh, I did say with it being said in 1999.

271
00:16:39.240 --> 00:16:41.340
It's like, 0 yeah, £5 for 2 soft drinks.

272
00:16:41.399 --> 00:16:42.419
I remember those.

273
00:16:45.059 --> 00:16:52.860
This, as you alluded, Nathan, was actually Ben Aronovich's 1st pitch for the show, Stormover of Valley on.

274
00:16:52.980 --> 00:16:57.419
Yes, we're a Valiant, and that's the, so our world is available.

275
00:16:57.779 --> 00:17:04.799
In fact, in that extended version, the storm. is actually much more of an element in that 1st episode.

276
00:17:04.859 --> 00:17:07.440
You know, there's this big inexplicable storm.

277
00:17:07.500 --> 00:17:16.019
It's why the missile convoy is stuck in the mud and it's clearly associated with the arrival of these knights from an alternative dimension.

278
00:17:17.099 --> 00:17:21.299
In a real Warner Brothers, bugs, bunny one.

279
00:17:21.660 --> 00:17:27.779
But that doesn't really sort of survive the savage cuts that the thing has to understand.

280
00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:29.519
And that's the problem. also a budget cut.

281
00:17:29.579 --> 00:17:30.960
I think the reason this doesn't work.

282
00:17:31.019 --> 00:17:35.700
And okay, we know the publicity because it is, Brendan, go on as far as ratings goes.

283
00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:41.400
We have the lowest rated episode of Doctor Who of the classic season as part of this.

284
00:17:41.460 --> 00:17:44.519
The 1st episode gets 3.1 million.

285
00:17:44.579 --> 00:17:49.019
Which is almost respectable for today's audiences, considering everyone's on an iPad.

286
00:17:49.079 --> 00:17:50.099
I believe.

287
00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:51.960
Yeah, for a 1st run.

288
00:17:52.019 --> 00:17:56.940
Yeah, the lie of the land is the only episode to get a lower 1st run figure.

289
00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:10.559
Now, part of the reason for that was the lie of the land was up against the X Factor final, which was unusual because the X Factor final was going to be on Sunday, but Sunday there was a benefit concert after the Manchester bombings.

290
00:18:10.559 --> 00:18:15.779
And pretty much every other channel put something on that wasn't going to rate very well anyway.

291
00:18:15.839 --> 00:18:23.039
But that meant moving the X Factor finale opposite Doctor Who, which is why they should have taken Doctor Who off for that week, really.

292
00:18:23.099 --> 00:18:25.380
It was the live, the land.

293
00:18:25.440 --> 00:18:26.640
I mean, no big loss.

294
00:18:27.720 --> 00:18:36.660
And yes, and of course, you know, you can see that this is a really even-handed play on Britain at the time and the real dangers that the world was seeing.

295
00:18:36.660 --> 00:18:44.339
The wall was just about to come down in Berlin and Sophie Aldred almost died because of it.

296
00:18:44.400 --> 00:18:50.460
Yeah, no, she apparently was also got sick from having to stay under the water and try and hold her sorted up price.

297
00:18:50.519 --> 00:18:56.039
It's real hard to hold these things straight and maintain an upper middle class disposition.

298
00:18:56.099 --> 00:18:59.700
It's actually really funny, that scene, because she just...

299
00:18:59.700 --> 00:19:02.940
Hands anselling the sword and says, here, you can be king of England.

300
00:19:03.299 --> 00:19:04.680
Yeah.

301
00:19:04.680 --> 00:19:05.759
Factually.

302
00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:07.500
That for post-tach.

303
00:19:07.619 --> 00:19:10.319
For anyone who doesn't know, 102nd version.

304
00:19:10.380 --> 00:19:14.400
When Sophie Eldred is in the water tank and it's filling with water, the glass wasn't thick enough.

305
00:19:14.460 --> 00:19:15.779
When you see it break on screen.

306
00:19:15.900 --> 00:19:17.579
It actually bows, you can see it.

307
00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:19.140
It breaks for real.

308
00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:25.440
Water goes over the floor and Sylvester, it shouts out to everyone. you know, get off the cables, get Sophie out of the tank.

309
00:19:25.500 --> 00:19:28.380
And yeah, if she, the glass never broke completely.

310
00:19:28.440 --> 00:19:29.640
It just kind of crashed out.

311
00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:31.799
There's electrocution that could have actually been the problem.

312
00:19:31.859 --> 00:19:35.339
But also, you know, she could have passed through it and got quite badly cut.

313
00:19:35.400 --> 00:19:43.140
And for years afterwards, that studio footage was used in a BBC production safety tape on working with water tanks.

314
00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:44.940
Working with So Field.

315
00:19:45.000 --> 00:19:48.000
Well, she's only allowed to do voiceovers.

316
00:19:48.059 --> 00:19:49.380
It's not exactly glittering.

317
00:19:49.440 --> 00:19:51.539
Yeah, she's only allowed to do voiceover since Doctor Who.

318
00:19:51.599 --> 00:19:52.859
How's it to your health?

319
00:19:52.920 --> 00:19:56.279
It's not very good either because they clearly don't.

320
00:19:56.339 --> 00:19:58.200
Well, they don't have enough coverage for that scene.

321
00:19:58.259 --> 00:20:02.160
So one of the shots, like there are some shots where the camera's struggling to gain focus.

322
00:20:02.279 --> 00:20:12.000
There's shots where the glass is breaking and there's shots where studio guys have their sort of hands around Sophie Aldred and are hauling them.

323
00:20:12.059 --> 00:20:15.900
Yeah, which was pretty much a daily a car.

324
00:20:16.680 --> 00:20:19.619
As received, wisdom will take.

325
00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:24.119
I have to say just generally, I don't think this story is very well directed.

326
00:20:24.180 --> 00:20:25.440
It's not.

327
00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:26.220
It's chunky.

328
00:20:26.279 --> 00:20:27.539
And the reason I don't think it works.

329
00:20:27.599 --> 00:20:30.059
It's budget and it's time, but it's also props.

330
00:20:30.119 --> 00:20:31.259
Those guns, come on.

331
00:20:31.319 --> 00:20:34.559
You know the armour was meant to be robocop looking?

332
00:20:34.619 --> 00:20:35.220
Yeah, yeah.

333
00:20:35.220 --> 00:20:37.559
The designs for them to be stock armour, don't they?

334
00:20:37.619 --> 00:20:40.740
Which you've seen in lots of other BBC period productions as well.

335
00:20:40.799 --> 00:20:44.460
It's probably stuff, you know, that was in Black Adder and things.

336
00:20:44.819 --> 00:20:49.500
You know, I think it's the weakest story of Sylvester's era.

337
00:20:49.559 --> 00:20:51.119
I would not disagree.

338
00:20:51.180 --> 00:21:02.940
Well, you know, it fights it out down the bottom there with Silver Nemesis, but the fact that these are the weaker stories of the era, I think, is really telling, because I found Battlefield incredibly entertaining.

339
00:21:02.940 --> 00:21:06.119
Much more fun than I remember, and I hadn't watched it for many years.

340
00:21:06.180 --> 00:21:09.779
Yeah, And it has that unit comfort food thing going.

341
00:21:09.839 --> 00:21:16.019
You know, the fact that unit, we're on earth, which is nice, you know, we're on location a lot.

342
00:21:16.079 --> 00:21:18.240
We're in a lovely part of England.

343
00:21:18.299 --> 00:21:22.319
Yeah, it's really a holiday brochure to go and get shot for, isn't it?

344
00:21:22.380 --> 00:21:22.980
You know?

345
00:21:23.039 --> 00:21:27.839
Have a nice old witch queen, you know, kill your bint, but she'll also cue a blindness.

346
00:21:27.900 --> 00:21:33.960
But you've got exactly you've got the fabulous Gene Marsh in her, what, 3rd appearance in the program?

347
00:21:34.259 --> 00:21:38.160
I think the cat disagrees, but no, it is the 3rd appearance.

348
00:21:38.220 --> 00:21:39.119
And she's wonderful.

349
00:21:39.180 --> 00:21:40.380
I mean she's just tremendous.

350
00:21:40.440 --> 00:21:42.180
She really holds it together.

351
00:21:42.240 --> 00:21:50.039
It's just on the edge of how, of, you can see that JNT would have thought, oh, get a whole hour of panto out of this. stretch it up.

352
00:21:50.099 --> 00:21:52.680
And she is slightly painter, but she manages to keep it.

353
00:21:52.740 --> 00:21:57.839
The scene with the brig and Gene Marsh, or the bion twins.

354
00:21:59.519 --> 00:22:02.460
You know, I didn't even think that.

355
00:22:02.519 --> 00:22:04.019
That's wonderful, isn't it?

356
00:22:04.079 --> 00:22:05.160
I killed you before.

357
00:22:05.220 --> 00:22:09.000
She said, now you have and you just watch yourself because it's Margot now.

358
00:22:09.059 --> 00:22:10.380
That's the whole thing of yes.

359
00:22:10.440 --> 00:22:13.920
Oh, and yeah, but that's also very Nibelundi, isn't it?

360
00:22:13.980 --> 00:22:16.500
Actually, although it's, no, the Arthurian.

361
00:22:16.559 --> 00:22:18.359
No, no, no, let's not go to those Norses.

362
00:22:18.420 --> 00:22:24.299
I'll go to those Ikea people. you know, with their Alan Keying, their stories together.

363
00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:25.140
No, no.

364
00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:26.160
It's an English story.

365
00:22:26.220 --> 00:22:31.920
So of course it has incest, rape, and buggery. pork pies.

366
00:22:33.000 --> 00:22:46.440
Oh, for you Game of Thrones fans out there, there is a shot of the actors who play Jamie Lannister and you're on Grey Joy at the football together, but not looking terribly happy and someone's put the caption on it when you are forced to hang out with your sister's new boyfriend.

367
00:22:48.180 --> 00:22:50.460
Now I understand that, man.

368
00:22:50.519 --> 00:22:52.980
I've seen them all week and had no idea what it was about.

369
00:22:53.039 --> 00:22:55.019
Can we talk about?

370
00:22:55.079 --> 00:22:57.359
can we talk about the thematic stuff?

371
00:22:57.420 --> 00:23:03.180
Like I actually think, well, despite the fact that it is a fun romp in that sort of unit style.

372
00:23:03.240 --> 00:23:05.880
It does at least attempt to have something to say.

373
00:23:05.880 --> 00:23:10.740
And what's interesting about it is that there are 2 types of soldier in it.

374
00:23:10.799 --> 00:23:13.980
There's the brigadier and the people from unit.

375
00:23:14.039 --> 00:23:20.339
And, um, you know, Morgan recognises that he's a soldier and recognises that he's steeped in blood.

376
00:23:20.400 --> 00:23:21.779
He's killed a lot of people.

377
00:23:21.839 --> 00:23:28.619
And then there's more gain and, you know, all of the people from the parallel universe.

378
00:23:28.680 --> 00:23:44.940
And you get those 2 viewpoints exemplified by Winifred Bambera and Anselon, who have that gorgeous sort of rom-com arc, which I think works so terrifically well and should really have happened all the time in Doctor Who.

379
00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:46.980
There should always be a rom-comer, I think.

380
00:23:47.460 --> 00:23:55.140
And it's one of the few times we actually get token extras who are meant to be Totty, who are in fact attractive.

381
00:23:55.200 --> 00:23:55.799
Yeah, yeah.

382
00:23:55.799 --> 00:24:00.900
Both Mordred Nance and you think, oh, you know, it depends whether you play which side of the chessboard you play on, you've got a piece.

383
00:24:02.759 --> 00:24:09.359
So there's a scene after the big final battle, you know, which is really incredibly poorly done.

384
00:24:09.420 --> 00:24:14.700
It should have been done with the Yakety Yak theme tune from Betty Hill, and then it would have worked.

385
00:24:14.759 --> 00:24:16.619
Yeah, no, it's not very well.

386
00:24:16.680 --> 00:24:18.720
No, it's real.

387
00:24:18.720 --> 00:24:23.519
Well, just tighter and less time between them and maybe a few more mixing the shots up.

388
00:24:23.579 --> 00:24:30.420
Yeah, well, it's just a lot of people running around shooting in each other. got no idea of how the battle's going or what's happening or anything.

389
00:24:30.480 --> 00:24:35.460
And it's why people criticise Silv when he runs in and says there will be no battle here.

390
00:24:35.460 --> 00:24:44.339
And people kind of go, oh, it's completely inappropriate. like, no, it's not inappropriate if he's shouting it to a 1000 people, which is what Silv has read the scene and what the scene is written as.

391
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:52.380
But as we see it on screen, there's like Mordred and Anselin and one guy off behind a tree who's a bit embarrassed to be in the shot.

392
00:24:52.440 --> 00:25:05.519
It's actually the Californian Monty Python Appreciation Society meeting the Society of a Creative Anachronists to make them make their own chain mail out of dad's old beer cans and they're meeting together.

393
00:25:05.579 --> 00:25:06.240
Yeah, nah.

394
00:25:06.299 --> 00:25:07.559
It's not going to work.

395
00:25:07.619 --> 00:25:13.019
And the Wigan Women's Country Association reenacting the Battle of Trafalgar.

396
00:25:13.079 --> 00:25:13.859
Oh, how delicious.

397
00:25:13.920 --> 00:25:16.380
That was awesome. remember that.

398
00:25:16.440 --> 00:25:19.019
I'll put that in the show notes, you have to say.

399
00:25:19.079 --> 00:25:23.700
Actually, how good would it have been if they'd been entirely in mud and drag?

400
00:25:24.839 --> 00:25:44.880
The weird thing is, like with those big battle scenes, the bits I really like are the bits where, you know, Mordred, Anselon, and Bambera actually have lines in interaction with each other, like there's that great bit where Anselon, um, swans on and Morden says I'll teach you about courage, and Anselon just, um, Marcus Gilbert just completely goes off at the top.

401
00:25:44.940 --> 00:25:53.039
Courage from the man who fled the field... such a bummer, isn't it?

402
00:25:54.180 --> 00:26:00.119
It's just the thing is, it wouldn't work if he wasn't an Arthorian knight, you know?

403
00:26:00.599 --> 00:26:05.579
Had we had Kenneth Brenner's endless four-hour version of Hamlet at this point?

404
00:26:05.640 --> 00:26:07.980
I'm not sure. really good?

405
00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:09.839
Like everything Brandon does.

406
00:26:09.900 --> 00:26:12.359
It's just because it's Branner that we discouraged it.

407
00:26:12.420 --> 00:26:14.339
Have you seen Dunkirk yet?

408
00:26:14.400 --> 00:26:18.359
Dear listener, go and have a look. at Brenner's favourite moment because he's hardly in it.

409
00:26:18.420 --> 00:26:19.500
But no, it's really, yeah.

410
00:26:19.559 --> 00:26:21.059
Yeah, Brenner has gravitated.

411
00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:21.480
I am.

412
00:26:21.480 --> 00:26:23.940
So just much unlike this episode.

413
00:26:24.000 --> 00:26:31.500
I'm actually looking forward to Kenneth Braner as Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express with Judy Dench and Daisy Ridley.

414
00:26:32.759 --> 00:26:34.740
Butchers, though.

415
00:26:34.799 --> 00:26:37.079
Both is Miss Levin.

416
00:26:37.440 --> 00:26:38.819
Yeah.

417
00:26:38.819 --> 00:26:39.960
Meanwhile.

418
00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:50.880
Um, and then and then we get that great bit at the end where um, Ansel and and Morda are having their sword fight and the doctor wanders in between them and hello and they both do a double take, which shouldn't work.

419
00:26:50.940 --> 00:26:53.039
But it really does.

420
00:26:53.099 --> 00:26:59.400
And yeah, I think it's one of the few instances where just having a static camera works because it lets the actors do their job.

421
00:26:59.460 --> 00:27:07.140
I'm just hoping that Jodie Whitaker puts on one of Nicole Kidman's old cast off ginger wigs and then we could redo this.

422
00:27:07.200 --> 00:27:10.380
I have been waiting all this time for the ginger doctor and we all have been.

423
00:27:10.440 --> 00:27:12.720
It's even, you know, everybody thought.

424
00:27:12.779 --> 00:27:20.339
Everybody thought that Tennant was lampooning Chris Evans when he says I'm my ginger, and it was a take on Billy's ex-husband in Indoctrine.

425
00:27:20.400 --> 00:27:21.839
But no, he's actually referencing this story.

426
00:27:21.900 --> 00:27:26.339
Because in the novelisation, which is actually by Mark Platt, because it's good.

427
00:27:26.400 --> 00:27:30.359
Well, Beneronovich used to not be able to write... notorious.

428
00:27:30.359 --> 00:27:31.559
Yeah, having a hissy.

429
00:27:31.559 --> 00:27:33.119
And not using a backtop.

430
00:27:33.180 --> 00:27:36.900
Yeah, well, so Mark Blatt had to step in and finish the novelisation.

431
00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:39.480
He was the Kate Orman all the time, wasn't he?

432
00:27:39.539 --> 00:27:43.140
Well, Kate Orman had to step in and finish one of his new adventures novels.

433
00:27:43.200 --> 00:27:47.700
Which, spoiler alert, is one where a main character dies and it was delayed by about five.

434
00:27:47.759 --> 00:27:51.000
It was technically brought out after Virgin had lost the license.

435
00:27:51.059 --> 00:27:52.440
So it was just a...

436
00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:55.259
Yeah, it was a good grace arrangement with the BBC.

437
00:27:55.319 --> 00:27:56.099
Yeah.

438
00:27:56.099 --> 00:28:00.599
Well, I mean, they'd already published the novels that came after that in which that character was dead.

439
00:28:00.660 --> 00:28:03.420
And of course, now he's a very successful novelist.

440
00:28:03.480 --> 00:28:05.819
But it is a very good novelisation, I think.

441
00:28:05.880 --> 00:28:10.079
Again, like Aronovich's remembrance of the Daleks.

442
00:28:10.200 --> 00:28:14.099
It spends a lot of time in the characters heads telling us a little bit more about what they think.

443
00:28:14.160 --> 00:28:20.700
But can I just get back to that, that sort of conflict between 2 kinds of ways of looking at soldiering.

444
00:28:20.759 --> 00:28:27.299
So at the end of that battle, there's a scene where Anselon and Winifred are resting afterwards.

445
00:28:27.359 --> 00:28:40.380
And Winifred sees the dead body of the guard captain, the young man who gets one or 2 lines earlier on and he's died and she's she's sad about that.

446
00:28:40.440 --> 00:28:45.299
And Anselon says something about it being a glorious battle and she looks at him in horror.

447
00:28:45.359 --> 00:29:02.099
And in that moment, our conception of the way war works where it's deplorable and tragic and not glorious, not something that we should be proud of, that scene is superior.

448
00:29:02.160 --> 00:29:13.440
But then at the very end, the way that Gene Marsh is defeated, you know, she, the doctor doesn't cross some wires or press buttons or do something to defeat the enemy in this.

449
00:29:13.500 --> 00:29:15.960
He goes...

450
00:29:15.960 --> 00:29:16.740
He persuades her.

451
00:29:16.799 --> 00:29:23.700
But what he persuades her off is the superiority of her own morality as a warrior.

452
00:29:23.759 --> 00:29:25.980
He poshes it up. doesn't he?

453
00:29:26.099 --> 00:29:32.039
Well, he just says you wouldn't you wouldn't deploy weapons of mass destruction against civilian population.

454
00:29:32.099 --> 00:29:33.000
Thatcha.

455
00:29:33.059 --> 00:29:33.720
Yeah.

456
00:29:33.779 --> 00:29:36.240
And that's what that's what...

457
00:29:36.299 --> 00:29:37.319
Yeah, exactly.

458
00:29:37.380 --> 00:29:38.279
That's what this is about.

459
00:29:38.339 --> 00:29:43.859
You know, like the nuclear weapon convoy, which is taken straight from mind of evil, isn't it?

460
00:29:46.380 --> 00:29:51.119
You know, the nuclear weapon is there to...

461
00:29:51.180 --> 00:29:59.640
Yeah, it's there to embody our attitude to war, which is vast deaths among innocent civilian populations.

462
00:29:59.700 --> 00:30:06.000
Yeah, and it goes back to what the doctor said in Happiness Patrol, and it goes back to something that Mordred does to the doctor here.

463
00:30:06.059 --> 00:30:07.619
Look me in the eye, end my life.

464
00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:13.079
And it predicates survival in a really nice, gee, this is a good 3 years of doctor.

465
00:30:13.140 --> 00:30:15.599
But yeah, that scene is so powerful.

466
00:30:15.660 --> 00:30:21.900
And the doctor's speech, you know, a child turns its eyes to the sun and its eyes turn to cinders.

467
00:30:21.960 --> 00:30:29.039
When I hear that, I think of Sarah Connor's nightmare in Terminator 2 when she's standing outside the playground.

468
00:30:29.160 --> 00:30:33.240
And I know Spielberg watched Doctor Who, I don't know if James Cameron did.

469
00:30:33.299 --> 00:30:34.680
They all did.

470
00:30:34.740 --> 00:30:35.279
Yeah.

471
00:30:35.339 --> 00:30:40.799
Well, you know, Joe Michael Strazinsky says he did, George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, all those people.

472
00:30:40.859 --> 00:30:41.579
George stole.

473
00:30:41.640 --> 00:30:44.640
I think it's more of, you know, it's easy to not to say.

474
00:30:44.700 --> 00:30:49.859
Empress of Mars is entirely a George Lucas rift.

475
00:30:49.920 --> 00:30:52.740
You know, it was actually George ghosting on that story.

476
00:30:52.740 --> 00:30:53.880
There is no Mark Gatis.

477
00:30:53.940 --> 00:30:56.220
No, there's only Sam Kisgard.

478
00:30:58.019 --> 00:31:00.180
We are so fan.

479
00:31:00.299 --> 00:31:09.240
Something else, it presages is Ace's attitude to racism, which will become important in ghost light and in survival and in the new adventures.

480
00:31:09.299 --> 00:31:10.619
I am a little bit disappointed.

481
00:31:10.680 --> 00:31:14.579
I know it's the 80s and we get it with Benny Summerfield in the books, but I'm a little bit disappointed.

482
00:31:14.640 --> 00:31:32.819
She's not a little bit girl on girl because a lot of young ladies watching this were getting their very first, you know, and we know this from, even at the time, certainly now, it wasn't just the little boys having a girl, a companion they could actually identify with young queer women, we're saying, this is the 1st time I've actually felt involved in Doctor Who.

483
00:31:32.880 --> 00:31:34.259
I am now being represented.

484
00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:36.299
So just a little bit of flirtation would have been nice.

485
00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:37.799
Yeah, yeah.

486
00:31:37.859 --> 00:31:39.960
I mean, with one of the one or 2 of the guilds.

487
00:31:40.019 --> 00:31:40.380
Why not?

488
00:31:40.440 --> 00:31:42.660
Oh, we get that in ghost light. am I saying?

489
00:31:44.039 --> 00:31:46.740
Who knows what's going on behind those screens?

490
00:31:46.859 --> 00:32:01.680
But also in this last season is just when Ace starts developing as a romantic or sexually interested character, I'm not a little girl anymore, Captain Soren.

491
00:32:01.740 --> 00:32:04.019
We don't really see it in this story, but we see it.

492
00:32:04.440 --> 00:32:06.180
We see it there.

493
00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:09.599
And we did have a little bit of it with Mike last year, of course.

494
00:32:09.660 --> 00:32:13.259
We've really moved on from here to the 70s, haven't we?

495
00:32:13.380 --> 00:32:28.079
But also, I think, and, you know, I'm not quite knowing where of, I speak here, but I think Ace could be seen as a role model for queer women because in terms of the mould of the Doctor Who assistant.

496
00:32:28.140 --> 00:32:39.059
She is already queer in that she, you know, her interest in explosives and fighting and her physical attitude and her sort of righteous anger about things.

497
00:32:39.119 --> 00:32:41.880
We haven't really seen that in any other Doctor Who companion except Leila.

498
00:32:41.940 --> 00:32:47.099
And it's entirely, exactly, and it's entirely appropriate for a period where there was an illness decimating the community.

499
00:32:47.279 --> 00:32:58.380
Another deleted scene in this, of course, is when the brigadier just reduces Ace to the latest one and she gets really annoyed about that.

500
00:32:58.440 --> 00:33:00.180
She does face, doesn't she?

501
00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:05.339
Yeah, and she storms off and the brigadier says, oh, I just can't understand women.

502
00:33:05.400 --> 00:33:14.579
And the thing is, I think that scene kind of critiques, that old-fashioned attitude without moralising or sermonising. you know, it happens organically.

503
00:33:14.640 --> 00:33:24.000
And I love the doctor's response, which is don't worry, brigadier, people will be shooting at you soon, which is why later on in the car, the doctor's like, the brigadier, are you happy now?

504
00:33:25.559 --> 00:33:29.339
It does feel as if everyone's on holiday. doesn't it Yeah.

505
00:33:29.339 --> 00:33:30.240
Despite the death thing.

506
00:33:30.299 --> 00:33:31.559
In fact, the deafiness, that's the thing.

507
00:33:31.619 --> 00:33:33.359
There is no real threat of deathiness in this.

508
00:33:33.420 --> 00:33:34.859
And that's what kind of lets it down.

509
00:33:34.920 --> 00:33:36.240
It's lovely. and frothy.

510
00:33:36.299 --> 00:33:47.940
And you've got everyone working terribly hard to say, no, no, it's actually serious and people are going, no, they're not going to get hurt at all unless it's by a low-flying eccles cake or, you know, one of those bloody pork pies again or a scabbard.

511
00:33:48.000 --> 00:33:50.640
That's the most threatening thing in this whole production.

512
00:33:50.819 --> 00:33:54.720
I do think that the one death in this that's really effective.

513
00:33:54.779 --> 00:33:59.099
And we touched on it earlier, is the death of Flight Lieutenant Lavelle.

514
00:33:59.160 --> 00:33:59.940
Thank you.

515
00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:02.279
That is actually the only poignant moment, isn't it?

516
00:34:02.339 --> 00:34:04.200
And it's handled quite well, do you think?

517
00:34:04.259 --> 00:34:05.279
it's handled quite well.

518
00:34:05.339 --> 00:34:07.079
I mean, with a dustbuster.

519
00:34:07.140 --> 00:34:07.380
Yes.

520
00:34:07.619 --> 00:34:10.619
Aside from Bambera.

521
00:34:10.679 --> 00:34:17.159
Lavelle is given the most character development of the new soldiers, and she's really fun and likeable, like...

522
00:34:17.579 --> 00:34:21.059
Do you speak Czech lieutenant only when I'm drunk, sir?

523
00:34:21.239 --> 00:34:23.280
So what have you got on you?

524
00:34:23.400 --> 00:34:31.860
But having her a young woman as well and having the brigadier kind of misgendering the new brigadier, you know, because he's such a crusty old thing.

525
00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:35.159
And she is really sort of terribly sweet.

526
00:34:35.219 --> 00:34:39.840
She's got a foreign accent, so she's not English like unit was back in the 1970s.

527
00:34:39.900 --> 00:34:41.699
She is really good.

528
00:34:41.760 --> 00:34:49.199
And I think the way that she's killed by Gene Marsh's character is another way of selling her alien morality.

529
00:34:49.260 --> 00:34:53.159
You know, she'll kill Lavelle, but then pick up the tab, you know.

530
00:34:53.219 --> 00:34:56.219
I mean, I especially love all good killers should.

531
00:34:56.280 --> 00:34:59.219
Lavelle confronting Mordred.

532
00:34:59.280 --> 00:35:00.900
And he says, am I to do nothing?

533
00:35:00.960 --> 00:35:02.519
Well, you can get the tab if you want.

534
00:35:02.579 --> 00:35:10.019
And he's like, yeah, you know, and it's that thing you were talking about earlier, Nathan, they see each other as warriors and they understand what that means.

535
00:35:10.079 --> 00:35:18.480
And yet that bit where Gene Marsh restores Pat's eyesight paid by Beryl Reed's girlfriend of June Bland.

536
00:35:19.139 --> 00:35:22.139
Yeah, that bit where she restores...

537
00:35:22.260 --> 00:35:23.880
With exactly the same haircut.

538
00:35:23.940 --> 00:35:28.079
I think she had that haircut from 1962 and she never got rid of it.

539
00:35:28.139 --> 00:35:29.760
Well, when you're onto a good thing.

540
00:35:29.820 --> 00:35:32.099
But she's very good in this, isn't she?

541
00:35:32.159 --> 00:35:33.059
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

542
00:35:33.119 --> 00:35:34.679
Much better than she was in Earth Shore.

543
00:35:34.739 --> 00:35:43.079
She does some terribly unconvincing braille reading. to be able to see what she's doing, Nathan, obviously, so judgy.

544
00:35:43.079 --> 00:35:44.519
Like she's playing the piano, though.

545
00:35:45.960 --> 00:35:48.780
I read a wonderful opinion piece.

546
00:35:48.840 --> 00:35:49.920
Well, I say wonderful.

547
00:35:49.980 --> 00:35:53.340
Wonderful in terms of its evocativeness and terrible in what it was about.

548
00:35:53.400 --> 00:36:06.599
A blind woman whose husband, of course, parks in disabled spots when he's taking her places and they constantly get challenged, despite the fact she's got a cane and glasses and she finishes the article on what a lot of people don't realise is that not all disabilities are visible.

549
00:36:06.780 --> 00:36:09.960
And I just thought, oh, what an amazing choice of words.

550
00:36:10.019 --> 00:36:11.519
A lot of it is fandom.

551
00:36:12.300 --> 00:36:13.800
Indeed.

552
00:36:13.860 --> 00:36:19.260
Ruin this for me, Chibnell. vomit. all over my microphone.

553
00:36:19.320 --> 00:36:29.519
Now, of course, the problem with with Pat and Elizabeth and Mr. Walmsley is when the plot runs out for them, they're just evacuated at the end of episode three.

554
00:36:29.579 --> 00:36:33.539
Well, I mean, that is a step up from hurting them onto a bus and blowing them up.

555
00:36:33.599 --> 00:36:35.039
That's true We haven't learned.

556
00:36:35.639 --> 00:36:41.340
They just heard them onto a bus with a bit of casual racism and hypnotism.

557
00:36:41.400 --> 00:36:45.539
That bit where Pat challenges Major Husack by saying, you can't tell me what to do.

558
00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:46.440
You not English, are you?

559
00:36:46.500 --> 00:36:48.719
But that's exactly what he would have said.

560
00:36:48.780 --> 00:36:50.340
Oh, yeah, absolutely. realistic.

561
00:36:50.400 --> 00:37:00.119
And that there's the soft, the pianoforte peddling of that, that, yes, I mean, they're likeable characters, but they're still racist bug beats because they are of a certain age.

562
00:37:00.239 --> 00:37:01.380
People are like them.

563
00:37:01.440 --> 00:37:02.820
Speaking of proof.

564
00:37:02.820 --> 00:37:04.019
Dismissal.

565
00:37:04.079 --> 00:37:10.079
So I was going to say, because you were talking about more gain in the in the caravan of courage, again, which is with all the blinking lights.

566
00:37:10.139 --> 00:37:12.300
It does, it does feel very early career.

567
00:37:12.360 --> 00:37:14.099
Chris Brosnan doesn't understand.

568
00:37:14.159 --> 00:37:16.260
Well, there's dangerous blinking lights, cook off at any second.

569
00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:17.219
It's a terrible set.

570
00:37:17.280 --> 00:37:20.519
Well, he takes the key and as if she's not going to do anything, but that's the point.

571
00:37:20.579 --> 00:37:23.280
She will submit to being shackled.

572
00:37:23.340 --> 00:37:25.980
Receive phantom at the time was what a ridiculous ending.

573
00:37:26.039 --> 00:37:28.260
She's, you can't leave unit to lock her up.

574
00:37:28.320 --> 00:37:29.880
She's a star destroyer.

575
00:37:29.940 --> 00:37:35.460
She's an enormous, delta shaped wedgie in space that can destroy her, you know.

576
00:37:35.880 --> 00:37:40.320
Ornithopter at like 50 paces just to glance.

577
00:37:40.380 --> 00:37:41.340
But that's the point.

578
00:37:41.400 --> 00:37:44.039
It's because it's nobility, you know, it's morality.

579
00:37:44.039 --> 00:37:47.460
And she would, she would allow herself to blow it away and she probably just disappears quietly, you know?

580
00:37:47.519 --> 00:37:49.500
In the novelisation.

581
00:37:49.559 --> 00:37:50.519
The ending's very different.

582
00:37:50.579 --> 00:37:51.360
Do you remember this?

583
00:37:51.420 --> 00:38:00.179
That someone comes from the parallel world that they're all from to the brigadier and says, actually, we've got an opening for king of England.

584
00:38:01.500 --> 00:38:04.559
So he heads back to replace King Arthur.

585
00:38:04.619 --> 00:38:07.199
Did I dream that or is that a thing that happened?

586
00:38:07.260 --> 00:38:08.400
Scott, that can read it.

587
00:38:08.460 --> 00:38:09.840
That'll be worth it.

588
00:38:09.960 --> 00:38:10.199
Yes.

589
00:38:10.260 --> 00:38:12.780
The thing is, the other thing that topples more gain.

590
00:38:12.840 --> 00:38:17.340
And this is something, it's a recurring thing in the Sylvester McCoy era.

591
00:38:17.340 --> 00:38:28.079
And that is Andrew Kartmel's Vision of Doctor Who is that all humanoid beings in some way or another are driven by their love and affection for another.

592
00:38:28.139 --> 00:38:31.559
So, you know, the other...

593
00:38:32.460 --> 00:38:34.440
It should have always been that way.

594
00:38:34.500 --> 00:38:35.699
It kind of always was though.

595
00:38:35.760 --> 00:38:38.760
Except for locking out your...

596
00:38:38.820 --> 00:38:41.760
When she gets the 1st whiff of hormones.

597
00:38:42.059 --> 00:38:44.340
We haven't always done it have we?

598
00:38:44.460 --> 00:38:44.940
Yeah.

599
00:38:44.940 --> 00:38:46.199
Well, that's the thing, you know.

600
00:38:46.260 --> 00:38:51.539
Doctor Who's approach to love used to just be, and then she runs off with some blokes she's never met.

601
00:38:51.659 --> 00:38:52.860
My good room, you don't.

602
00:38:52.860 --> 00:39:06.300
Whereas at the end of the Happiness Patrol, Helen A is finally stopped because her dog is dying and she absolutely loves Fifi and the planet's going to be okay because Earl Sigma and Susan Q appear to be going on a romance.

603
00:39:06.360 --> 00:39:07.860
The brigadier is asked at the beginning.

604
00:39:07.920 --> 00:39:08.820
It's bit hot, actually.

605
00:39:08.880 --> 00:39:11.699
The brigadier is asked at the beginning of this.

606
00:39:11.699 --> 00:39:14.579
Bye, Doris. you know, do I mean so little to you?

607
00:39:14.639 --> 00:39:15.539
She's appealing?

608
00:39:15.659 --> 00:39:17.400
She's appealing to his love?

609
00:39:17.460 --> 00:39:23.280
And Mulgain, you know, her last words are about how much she loved Arthur and now he's gone and she'll never see him again.

610
00:39:23.340 --> 00:39:25.079
So what is the point in fighting anymore?

611
00:39:25.139 --> 00:39:34.260
Is this the polarity of duty and love and really what Britain and the Western world were going through at the time on what are we and what are our structures, but who are we?

612
00:39:34.320 --> 00:39:35.639
And they're not necessarily the same thing.

613
00:39:35.699 --> 00:39:46.380
And if you think about your own life, dear listener, there's probably a single person or a group of people whose approval and affection and love, you kind of base some of your actions on.

614
00:39:46.440 --> 00:39:51.420
Some of the people at home that could be a group of dogs can they just intervene?

615
00:39:51.480 --> 00:39:52.679
Yeah, that's true.

616
00:39:52.739 --> 00:39:55.260
That's fine, even-handed, we're not, yes.

617
00:39:55.320 --> 00:39:57.539
Something we're not judgy about your pets.

618
00:39:57.659 --> 00:40:03.599
Something we've joked about in the last few episodes. is, of course, Ian Levine's reaction to the casting of Jodie Whittaker.

619
00:40:03.659 --> 00:40:05.400
But when you view...

620
00:40:05.400 --> 00:40:07.980
I have such a gentle space for Ian living in my heart.

621
00:40:08.039 --> 00:40:08.519
I really do.

622
00:40:08.579 --> 00:40:09.239
I really get him.

623
00:40:09.300 --> 00:40:18.000
But just like, for instance, okay, we can understand Gene Marsh's character is driven in part by the love for Arthur, which I don't think weakens her character in any way.

624
00:40:18.059 --> 00:40:20.280
No, it's strength, it makes it so much more interesting.

625
00:40:20.340 --> 00:40:23.760
That doesn't excuse that she's killed Lavelle. just gives us a better understanding.

626
00:40:24.239 --> 00:40:26.820
Well, she saw Lavelle as a peasant.

627
00:40:26.880 --> 00:40:30.539
That's why Oh, but she sees her as a warrior too.

628
00:40:30.599 --> 00:40:32.340
Yeah, but I think, yes, that's right.

629
00:40:32.400 --> 00:40:33.840
There's a there for an excuse to do so.

630
00:40:33.900 --> 00:40:36.480
And she doesn't kill her out of sadism.

631
00:40:36.539 --> 00:40:37.619
She kills her to get information.

632
00:40:37.739 --> 00:40:40.559
Now if you look at something like Game of Thrones.

633
00:40:40.619 --> 00:40:47.880
The end of the 1st episode where Jamie pushes Brian out of the window, he does so with the explanation, the things we do for love.

634
00:40:48.480 --> 00:40:52.920
It's the only book of Game of Thrones I've read and it's really good in the book.

635
00:40:52.980 --> 00:40:53.820
Yeah, yeah.

636
00:40:53.880 --> 00:40:59.280
But it's a common feature of very good drama, and it's something that... right. right.

637
00:40:59.340 --> 00:41:01.380
Louise Jamison was there 1st though, wasn't she?

638
00:41:01.440 --> 00:41:02.340
long before.

639
00:41:02.400 --> 00:41:10.500
But also, remember, it's something that Silv said was his approach to the character, that his elderly grandmother who was so sad. because everyone she loved was gone.

640
00:41:10.559 --> 00:41:15.239
When she turned to 100 and she said that, she said, that's it. and she's never, she was a teetotaller.

641
00:41:15.300 --> 00:41:29.099
She was a very careful Scottish Presbyterian lady who never touched alcohol, never smoked cigarettes, and she that hoisted up her skirts, said, that's it, and started on the whiskey and fags, and she died 3 years later, and he said the last 3 years were the happiest year.

642
00:41:31.860 --> 00:41:34.559
That story's not...

643
00:41:34.619 --> 00:41:40.019
It's true, retrospectively. awesome.

644
00:41:40.320 --> 00:41:55.260
But, you know, all of a sudden, doctor was talking about the power of love, and it's not, and this isn't an indictment of the new series, but there are quite a few stories in the new series where the power of love defeats aliens because aliens don't understand what love is.

645
00:41:55.320 --> 00:41:56.519
Whereas this is...

646
00:41:56.519 --> 00:41:57.360
Or it's a black cube.

647
00:41:57.840 --> 00:42:00.539
Oh, honestly, Stephen Moffin.

648
00:42:00.659 --> 00:42:03.539
That is one of my favourite stories he's done. yeah go on.

649
00:42:03.599 --> 00:42:04.559
Well, that's by Chipnal.

650
00:42:04.619 --> 00:42:05.699
Yeah, don't get it.

651
00:42:05.760 --> 00:42:09.599
But so's exit wounds inside the lady person.

652
00:42:10.079 --> 00:42:12.599
Just in case we're still on the subject.

653
00:42:12.659 --> 00:42:28.559
But here, love is seen as as a driving force for various characters, you know, for Pat and Elizabeth, for the brigadier, for more gain, and to a lesser extent, as the story goes on, because they're just getting to know each other, Bambera and Ansulin.

654
00:42:28.619 --> 00:42:30.659
Mordred, Mordred loves his mum.

655
00:42:30.719 --> 00:42:31.619
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

656
00:42:31.679 --> 00:42:33.000
Yeah, way too much.

657
00:42:33.119 --> 00:42:34.739
Yeah, and you know what?

658
00:42:34.739 --> 00:42:37.559
He is the child of an incestual relationship.

659
00:42:37.619 --> 00:42:38.460
So it's no wonder.

660
00:42:38.579 --> 00:42:44.340
I do have to say, I think Christopher Bowen's performance is probably the weakest in the story.

661
00:42:44.400 --> 00:42:45.840
He's Mordred.

662
00:42:45.900 --> 00:42:49.199
I don't really get where he's going with his performance.

663
00:42:49.260 --> 00:42:57.179
He gets a few good moments. to be snarly and have lovely pretty rich boy hair and he actually thinks he's just presenting the boat race. folk.

664
00:42:57.239 --> 00:42:58.260
He's really just a rich kid.

665
00:42:58.320 --> 00:42:59.280
Yeah.

666
00:42:59.340 --> 00:43:02.159
He's like Eric Trump talking about his father, you know.

667
00:43:03.300 --> 00:43:04.739
Yeah.

668
00:43:05.699 --> 00:43:08.159
Make a valley on great again.

669
00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:10.739
In particular.

670
00:43:10.860 --> 00:43:21.360
And I know it's gauche to talk about this, but the laughing scene, and I do have to wonder if just the comms unit to the floor manager was down and they're saying, he can stop laughing now.

671
00:43:21.420 --> 00:43:23.760
For God's sake, Christopher, stop.

672
00:43:23.820 --> 00:43:27.420
That always goes into the Panto Christmas party outtakes.

673
00:43:27.480 --> 00:43:28.440
They always do that.

674
00:43:28.500 --> 00:43:29.940
No, just...

675
00:43:29.940 --> 00:43:30.900
Keep it going, keep it going.

676
00:43:30.960 --> 00:43:31.320
Keep it going.

677
00:43:31.380 --> 00:43:32.880
Dude, it's gorgeous job, Chris.

678
00:43:33.420 --> 00:43:36.300
I do have to say, I've seen him in other things and he's great.

679
00:43:36.360 --> 00:43:37.380
He's not a bad actor.

680
00:43:37.440 --> 00:43:40.079
I just think he misses the mark in this, although...

681
00:43:40.079 --> 00:43:40.800
I don't think he does.

682
00:43:40.860 --> 00:43:43.199
I think he's playing spoilt Shallow Rich boy really well.

683
00:43:43.260 --> 00:43:49.860
And I also think he's getting the tone of the production and it might not be the tone that we want it, but it's the tone that we get.

684
00:43:49.860 --> 00:43:51.840
It's the tone that we deserve.

685
00:43:52.440 --> 00:43:56.820
It's actually the held over late broadcast Christmas pantos.

686
00:43:56.880 --> 00:44:01.380
Yeah. like it's fun and light, you know, like the script clearly doesn't want it to be.

687
00:44:01.440 --> 00:44:08.880
The script clearly wants it to be a bit more serious, but the production clearly decides to go summary and ridiculous.

688
00:44:08.940 --> 00:44:09.900
And that's okay.

689
00:44:09.960 --> 00:44:12.000
That's one of the reasons why it's entertaining.

690
00:44:12.059 --> 00:44:20.519
And we do, of course, now have the neon blue TARDIS as it was repainted at the end of the happiness patrol, much to the shragrin of Clayton Hickman.

691
00:44:20.639 --> 00:44:22.739
I actually think it's gorgeous.

692
00:44:22.800 --> 00:44:23.639
It goes with the whole field.

693
00:44:23.699 --> 00:44:26.760
If you're not following Clayton Hickman on Twitter, please do.

694
00:44:26.820 --> 00:44:28.500
He posts rare photos of TARDIS.

695
00:44:28.559 --> 00:44:37.019
And for instance, he's explained why the 1st doctor's TARDIS in the upcoming Christmas special doesn't have the white windows because halfway through the war machines.

696
00:44:37.079 --> 00:44:38.579
We all knew that anyway.

697
00:44:39.480 --> 00:44:44.880
But there were about 3 weeks where he just had to retweet it once a week and he's like, wasting battery power.

698
00:44:44.880 --> 00:44:45.719
We're typing that out.

699
00:44:45.780 --> 00:44:46.380
We all knew that.

700
00:44:46.440 --> 00:44:49.920
He kept having to retweet it, saying, I'm having to explain this to people again.

701
00:44:50.159 --> 00:44:55.320
I wasn't angry about it. frustration, can't you?

702
00:44:55.380 --> 00:44:58.980
But yeah, if you're not following him on Twitter, he's seriously lovely, so please do.

703
00:44:59.039 --> 00:45:21.239
One other thing I would like to mention in this episode because during our viewing marathon, Nathan and I had different opinions on this, and so Richard, I'd be interested to hear yours, the scene in the circle where Ace and Xiao Yung, can we just mention a non-white supporting character, once again, much like Earl Sigma last year, so Doctor Who is trying to get non-white faces on screen, which is fantastic.

704
00:45:21.300 --> 00:45:22.800
In general, I really like her.

705
00:45:22.860 --> 00:45:24.179
I think she's a good foil for ace.

706
00:45:24.239 --> 00:45:37.019
In the circle scene where Morgain starts manipulating them and Xiao Yung starts talking about how Ace is a juvenile delinquent and Ace fires back with pretty much racist abuse.

707
00:45:37.139 --> 00:45:38.940
What do we think of that scene?

708
00:45:39.000 --> 00:45:39.539
Does she?

709
00:45:39.599 --> 00:45:40.739
Yeah, she does.

710
00:45:40.800 --> 00:45:43.619
It's really hard to hear.

711
00:45:43.619 --> 00:45:49.980
We're discussing it on Twitter with friend of the podcast, Andrew Hodson, and I may have misheard what's said, and I don't want to say it.

712
00:45:50.039 --> 00:45:51.599
Do you know what I mean on this podcast?

713
00:45:51.659 --> 00:46:05.699
But the trouble with it, and it's an unavoidable problem, I think, in that you aren't going to really broadcast, you know, on a show where she constantly calls people bilge bag and toe rag and stuff, like her kind of abuse is always.

714
00:46:05.699 --> 00:46:09.179
So Manchu talons and fingers.

715
00:46:09.239 --> 00:46:13.019
But she's never going to say anything that sounds like a real racial slur.

716
00:46:13.260 --> 00:46:14.639
Yeah.

717
00:46:14.699 --> 00:46:20.579
And so it is kids TV racial slur and it is, she sort of swallows it as if she's embarrassed by it.

718
00:46:20.639 --> 00:46:21.719
She certainly says it really quickly.

719
00:46:21.780 --> 00:46:23.099
Look, I think...

720
00:46:23.099 --> 00:46:24.840
I don't mind having those things brought to the surface.

721
00:46:24.900 --> 00:46:27.059
No, I don't think that's bad either.

722
00:46:27.119 --> 00:46:29.400
I just don't think the scene quite works.

723
00:46:29.880 --> 00:46:37.500
It's just nice to have another young lady who doesn't have elongated fingernails in this one.

724
00:46:37.619 --> 00:46:39.539
Well, I mean, it's pretty Kruger fingernails.

725
00:46:39.599 --> 00:46:45.900
It would have been nice to have Shao Jung in the show without having to make a point of her race at some point in the story.

726
00:46:46.380 --> 00:46:49.260
Yeah, but it's a point of crisis.

727
00:46:49.320 --> 00:47:01.019
It's unwrapping of the id and, you know, the removal of the super ego and the seeing of the what is are the real flaws and what with the true fears in both of these young people.

728
00:47:01.079 --> 00:47:12.420
So, of course, it could actually just be a projection of, I keep wanting to refer to her as the girl from the Tomorrow people, because she didn't register for me as a character, which is a nice thing.

729
00:47:12.480 --> 00:47:15.360
She registered for me as just another girl in the show.

730
00:47:15.420 --> 00:47:21.239
So I agree with you, and that's probably why it is a shock and why I missed it, because you don't read her that way.

731
00:47:21.300 --> 00:47:30.420
So when there is a race of slurs, because, oh, because that Dorothy is your fears and probably the other girl's great fears that have been projected and that Ace is picking up on.

732
00:47:30.480 --> 00:47:34.500
They're all picked, they seem to be mirroring each other's darkness.

733
00:47:34.559 --> 00:47:38.699
So it does make sense that, oh, you've seen my shame or what I fear.

734
00:47:38.760 --> 00:47:40.019
Yeah.

735
00:47:40.079 --> 00:47:41.340
I think it works really well.

736
00:47:41.400 --> 00:47:42.360
I really like that scene.

737
00:47:42.420 --> 00:47:48.719
It could have been cripplingly celestial toy makery, but it gets...

738
00:47:48.780 --> 00:47:55.380
Oh, and I quite like then Gene Marsh appears and she's underlit because she's outside of the bright circle and also not as young as she was.

739
00:47:55.980 --> 00:48:06.179
But there's also the thing too, where the whole point is that she's got to protect the sword and when she fails to do that, the doctor isn't angry at her like she expects it to be a failure.

740
00:48:06.239 --> 00:48:12.780
She's failed, but in fact, you know, provided that she stayed alive. interesting that Morgan let them live.

741
00:48:12.900 --> 00:48:18.000
Yeah, again, she does have a different morality. think that's respect for Merlin.

742
00:48:18.059 --> 00:48:18.659
Yeah.

743
00:48:18.719 --> 00:48:21.659
And also that they are, they are non-combatants.

744
00:48:21.719 --> 00:48:22.380
They are not soldiers.

745
00:48:22.440 --> 00:48:23.340
Very true.

746
00:48:23.400 --> 00:48:29.460
I said a few weeks ago that there was one scene where I thought Silv just doesn't get the line reading, right?

747
00:48:29.519 --> 00:48:34.679
And it's actually when he comes back to the hotel when Morgain is attacking ACL.

748
00:48:34.739 --> 00:48:36.420
If they're dead.

749
00:48:36.480 --> 00:48:46.199
It's like, it's like he's going for, if they're dead, and also trying to shout it at the same time, and it just, I don't get what he's going for in that.

750
00:48:46.260 --> 00:48:47.579
Pierce Brosnan either.

751
00:48:48.059 --> 00:48:52.320
That's what you call everything bad these days, Richard.

752
00:48:52.380 --> 00:48:53.460
Really?

753
00:48:53.460 --> 00:48:55.199
Dinner, you know.

754
00:48:55.260 --> 00:48:56.519
The weather.

755
00:48:56.579 --> 00:49:00.599
Malcolm, Malcolm Turnbull's very Pierce Brosnan.

756
00:49:00.659 --> 00:49:03.239
Actually, that could be dated by the time we put this out.

757
00:49:03.300 --> 00:49:04.920
He may not be Prime Minister anymore.

758
00:49:05.699 --> 00:49:09.780
We could have a potato as prime minister instead of a bag of rice.

759
00:49:10.860 --> 00:49:12.599
Anyone for chips?

760
00:49:14.639 --> 00:49:23.699
So we've got the tag scene, which feels like the end of one of the early Emma Peel Colour Avengers episodes.

761
00:49:23.760 --> 00:49:25.739
Nathan, you may not have seen these.

762
00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:30.000
So season 4 of the Avengers.

763
00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:32.219
The black and white ones thing.

764
00:49:32.280 --> 00:49:36.059
They always drive off in a different vehicle, something related to the episode.

765
00:49:36.119 --> 00:49:50.340
They continue that in the 1st colour season, but it's always the same country house they're driving away from, they have a little conversation inside, and then all of a sudden they're out in some weird car and drive out through the gate, and that's the tag scene.

766
00:49:50.400 --> 00:49:57.420
And that's what this feels like to be because you've got the brigadier, Anselon, and the doctor sitting out in the garden.

767
00:49:57.420 --> 00:50:02.519
And then it turns out that all the female leads.

768
00:50:02.579 --> 00:50:06.900
So Doris, Bambera, Xiao Jung, and Ace are going off for a drive-in town.

769
00:50:06.960 --> 00:50:08.099
I had shopping.

770
00:50:08.159 --> 00:50:10.920
Yeah, because that's what girls do. right.

771
00:50:10.980 --> 00:50:11.699
I don't mind it.

772
00:50:12.360 --> 00:50:15.000
I wish more gain had been there as well.

773
00:50:15.119 --> 00:50:16.440
She could have gone shopping as well.

774
00:50:16.500 --> 00:50:17.400
Wouldn't that have been awesome?

775
00:50:17.460 --> 00:50:19.440
What is this thing you call shopping?

776
00:50:19.920 --> 00:50:23.219
It's a very carry-on kind of ending, isn't it?

777
00:50:23.280 --> 00:50:26.159
It feels like the cover of the beano or the dandy Christmas special.

778
00:50:26.219 --> 00:50:29.699
But the script is originally heading towards the death of the British.

779
00:50:29.699 --> 00:50:30.059
Yes.

780
00:50:30.119 --> 00:50:33.900
Yeah, so we would have had a very, very different ending from that.

781
00:50:33.960 --> 00:50:37.920
But the show is no longer as cynical as it once was.

782
00:50:38.039 --> 00:50:43.019
And this and the previous 3 and 3 quarter episodes would not have supported it.

783
00:50:43.079 --> 00:50:43.980
No, exactly.

784
00:50:44.039 --> 00:50:45.719
The tone would have been quite wrong.

785
00:50:45.780 --> 00:50:47.880
And so it's a lovely ending.

786
00:50:47.940 --> 00:50:51.960
And there is that thing, we'll bring a major character back and kill them.

787
00:50:52.019 --> 00:50:53.099
That's drama.

788
00:50:53.159 --> 00:50:53.880
That's so exciting.

789
00:50:53.940 --> 00:50:56.400
But it's such a...

790
00:50:56.400 --> 00:51:00.119
Adolescent, Saywardian kind of...

791
00:51:01.260 --> 00:51:03.840
You know, version of drama.

792
00:51:03.900 --> 00:51:06.480
Whereas this, I think, is so light and so funny.

793
00:51:06.539 --> 00:51:12.119
It gets sort of ludicrous, cafe comedy cartoon music at the end of it.

794
00:51:12.179 --> 00:51:14.820
Which, you know, works for once.

795
00:51:14.880 --> 00:51:17.940
I do think this is Kef's worst score for the show.

796
00:51:18.480 --> 00:51:30.420
Yeah, it's a big house, I know, but, you know, okay, there's a piece in Paradise Tower, which is worse than anything in this story, and that's the March of the Cleaners, which I've already mentioned.

797
00:51:30.480 --> 00:51:33.539
Like when they have a cleaner going down a corridor.

798
00:51:33.599 --> 00:51:34.619
Shall we speed up the footage?

799
00:51:34.679 --> 00:51:39.780
No, let's just put on this 62nd piece of dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun.

800
00:51:39.840 --> 00:51:43.079
Yeah, I was gonna say, it makes the sorcerer's apprentice.

801
00:51:43.139 --> 00:51:48.780
Yeah, and as I was doing that, Richard covered Soutex ears, so she also upset.

802
00:51:48.840 --> 00:51:51.480
But yet, the scene is so lovely.

803
00:51:51.539 --> 00:51:54.300
And yeah, the death of the brig would have been terrible.

804
00:51:54.360 --> 00:51:57.900
In the broadcast version, and the special edition version.

805
00:51:57.960 --> 00:51:59.760
I haven't watched the 2 scenes back to back.

806
00:51:59.820 --> 00:52:06.059
But the scene in the special edition version where the doctor's saying, you know, you were meant to die in bed and cradling the brigadier in his arms.

807
00:52:06.119 --> 00:52:14.340
I think they must have done something to the footage because in the broadcast version, Nick Courtney is just sitting there blinking.

808
00:52:14.880 --> 00:52:26.460
But in the special edition version, maybe I just haven't noticed, but I think they've like composited earlier frames onto his face, so his face is still, but the bridge is waking up and saying, of course I didn't stay inside.

809
00:52:26.519 --> 00:52:28.739
It's like, that is totally in character.

810
00:52:28.920 --> 00:52:31.019
You know, back in season 10 and season 11.

811
00:52:31.199 --> 00:52:33.480
We kind of criticise that he'd become Colonel Blimp.

812
00:52:33.539 --> 00:52:35.760
But he's really back in force in this one.

813
00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:38.579
I love him in Spearhead from space.

814
00:52:38.579 --> 00:52:39.300
Yeah.

815
00:52:39.360 --> 00:52:40.739
And he's jolly rompers.

816
00:52:40.800 --> 00:52:43.320
And just the sly and saturnine.

817
00:52:43.380 --> 00:52:45.179
You know, this is really department S units.

818
00:52:45.239 --> 00:52:47.519
BBC being terribly glamorous, my dear.

819
00:52:47.579 --> 00:52:52.440
I can't wait to get popping your vesty thing that you're wearing right now.

820
00:52:52.500 --> 00:52:56.820
You're expecting him to be the sort of dumb, unimaginative, straight man.

821
00:52:56.880 --> 00:52:57.960
But in fact...

822
00:52:57.960 --> 00:52:58.800
Later on years.

823
00:52:58.860 --> 00:53:00.480
But that's not how he was written.

824
00:53:00.539 --> 00:53:04.079
No, he's amused by the doctor.

825
00:53:04.139 --> 00:53:05.699
How lovely was he in the invasion?

826
00:53:05.760 --> 00:53:07.500
He was a slick call.

827
00:53:07.559 --> 00:53:11.340
And what about Webber Fear when he was the saturnine anti-hero?

828
00:53:11.460 --> 00:53:13.500
Courtney's had a great.

829
00:53:13.559 --> 00:53:14.340
Oh, Brett Vion.

830
00:53:14.400 --> 00:53:19.739
No, this, I mean, this is his final appearance, obviously, in the classic series.

831
00:53:19.800 --> 00:53:24.659
So, you know, it was an incredible career and really worth celebrating, I think.

832
00:53:24.719 --> 00:53:25.800
He was spectacular.

833
00:53:25.860 --> 00:53:28.559
And that's what the story has become, and it is a later edition.

834
00:53:28.619 --> 00:53:31.019
There was no brigadier written into the story.

835
00:53:31.079 --> 00:53:32.519
It was JNT suggestion.

836
00:53:32.579 --> 00:53:35.039
Oh, if you're having a brig, why don't we use this one?

837
00:53:35.099 --> 00:53:36.960
She was a USAF colonel, wasn't she?

838
00:53:37.019 --> 00:53:38.579
Yeah, I think that's right.

839
00:53:38.579 --> 00:53:39.480
I'm meant to be American.

840
00:53:39.539 --> 00:53:41.579
Yeah, back in Silver Nemesis.

841
00:53:41.639 --> 00:53:44.400
Nicholas Courtney was one of the tourists wandering around Windsor.

842
00:53:44.460 --> 00:53:47.940
And that's when he got chatting to JNT and JNT said...

843
00:53:48.000 --> 00:53:53.340
Well, it was actually JNT who said to him, hey, if we wrote a script, would you like to come back?

844
00:53:53.400 --> 00:53:54.420
And he said, oh, yes, please.

845
00:53:54.480 --> 00:53:57.300
And Janti said, what if we killed you off in a blaze of glory?

846
00:53:57.360 --> 00:53:58.139
Oh, yes, please.

847
00:53:58.199 --> 00:54:00.659
Because you know, any actor wants to do a death scene?

848
00:54:00.719 --> 00:54:05.880
But I mean, I'm glad goodness they didn't do that. yeah It would have been inappropriate.

849
00:54:05.940 --> 00:54:06.599
And I love that sign.

850
00:54:06.659 --> 00:54:12.239
You were meant to die in your sleep, and then, of course, Russell would have really stuck to that for Sarah Jane.

851
00:54:12.300 --> 00:54:13.380
It's just lovely.

852
00:54:13.440 --> 00:54:16.500
And a really appropriate sendoff, yeah.

853
00:54:16.559 --> 00:54:17.099
Yeah, yeah.

854
00:54:17.159 --> 00:54:18.119
This is his story.

855
00:54:18.179 --> 00:54:19.860
I don't mind that it's his story.

856
00:54:19.920 --> 00:54:21.239
He deserves it.

857
00:54:21.300 --> 00:54:24.300
But I do wish he'd been Brett Vion.

858
00:54:55.260 --> 00:55:03.360
Well, dear listeners, Sylvester McCoy has just cooked us lovely supper, but now we're off to somewhere where you really don't want to try the soup.

859
00:55:03.420 --> 00:55:05.280
We'll see you next week for ghost light.

860
00:55:05.340 --> 00:55:13.980
You can find us online at flightthroughentirety.sexy flightthrough entirety on Facebook and Apple Podcasts and at FTE podcast on Twitter over on Bondfinger.

861
00:55:14.039 --> 00:55:17.940
We are on a top of things with the Pierce Brosnan era of James Bond.

862
00:55:18.000 --> 00:55:23.579
You can find that at bondfinger.com, bondfinger on Facebook and Apple Podcasts and at FTE podcast on Twitter.

863
00:55:23.639 --> 00:55:24.780
Until next time.

864
00:55:24.900 --> 00:55:26.820
Boom.

865
00:55:26.880 --> 00:55:28.679
Thank you very much for listening, good night.

866
00:55:28.739 --> 00:55:29.340
Good night.

867
00:55:29.400 --> 00:55:30.300
Good everything.

868
00:55:48.900 --> 00:55:53.820
That was Flight of Entirety, starring Nathan Bottomley, Brendan, Jones, and Richard Stone.

869
00:55:53.880 --> 00:55:57.780
Theme arrangement by Cameron Lamb, logo designed by Anthony Wells.

870
00:55:57.840 --> 00:56:02.940
This episode, why is it up everything, was recorded on the 6th of August 2017?

871
00:56:03.000 --> 00:56:06.420
The next episode will be released on the 22nd of October.

872
00:56:08.099 --> 00:56:19.260
Fans of Parallel Worlds in Doctor Who will enjoy Pete's World, the world with fascists spoiling in lava, and the world where people's rights aren't subject to a ridiculous postal survey.

873
00:56:20.280 --> 00:56:23.519
It's the one where she saves the world thinking of her mum.

874
00:56:23.639 --> 00:56:25.980
Again, again, and a puddle.

875
00:56:26.039 --> 00:56:30.599
Left a puddle on the floor. a whole euphemism there for ladies.

876
00:56:30.659 --> 00:56:33.599
Some moistened bin throwing around spaceships.

877
00:56:33.659 --> 00:56:36.420
There's no representative basis for government.

878
00:56:41.280 --> 00:56:44.564
And yes, and of course, you know, you can see that this...