Hello, Delissa and welcome back to Flight for Entirety, the only
Doctor Who podcast that's armed with Dalek guns and ready to fall
over and die whenever that's required by the plot.
I'm Nathan.
James.
I'm Peter.
I am a human darling. for this episode.
Hi, and a little bit camped.
Just a little.
Uncle Arthur.
It's Peter Laurie and a negligee.
Well, we've been standing here for an entire week admiring the
terrifying animatronic penises adorning Dalek sex face and
wondering what on earth is going to happen next.
Let's see if Dalek Set can accomplish something not even Eric
Seywood could manage, evolution of the Daleks.
So we didn't really get much of a chance to talk about this last
week, but that mask is shockingly bad.
It's terrible.
Is it?
Well I kind of think so.
I think it's Gay Hilaire.
I think the problem with it is that the actor can't breathe
through his nose.
And so every line of dialogue sounds like it's being delivered by
someone who has got their fingers up their nose.
So he sounds like this and it's very difficult to take anything
that he says seriously.
And how would you feel if you've been shoved into a brass bolted
front tense caro loader and squished about, at least it dry
cleaned your suit. lovely though, didn't it?
In fact, there's a bit of mucus on this.
It looks like that one of those Dalek anyway.
Dalek emoleans. product.
I think he's also sabotaged slightly by the accent.
Yeah, the accent doesn't help.
And the animatronics...
Yeah, Willies.
Yeah, I mean, what we're skirting around is it's basically dalek
bum with dalek penises attached.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, there's a lot of tradition.
We have talked about this on the podcast before, but there is a
long tradition of Doctor Who monsters that in some way resemble
human genitalia, and it's an honourable tradition, which includes
the verboids and erato and obviously the draconians.
Maybe I just need to see my doctor.
Everything was thrown at Captain Jack.
That's right And so, you know, I don't think we can complain about
that, but I do think he's got a really crucial role to sell here
because we move from the Daleks as a metaphor for capitalism, I
think, into that sort of Whitakarian idea about Daleks and humans
the Dalek factor and the human factor.
And we saw that play out incredibly well in evil of the Daleks.
It's perhaps the best thing about Evil of the Daleks.
And here we've got to buy the idea that, you know, SEC has chosen
to merge with humanity because humanity is sort of violent and
warlike and survives at all cost and thrives and all of that.
But he ends up adopting all of these sort of negative human
emotions like empathy and compassion and stuff.
Yeah, but he's got a big rubber thing on his head.
But what is it he actually wants to do?
I mean, he wants to progress the Dalek's evolution.
Okay.
But by adding the human factor, that's going to make him more
empathetic and open to change.
Evil and Dalek's got it.
Why does he then need the doctor to help them?
Why does it mean that he's no longer a Dalek?
Yeah.
There's that incredible speech by Hugh Korschi's character by
Solomon from Hooverville, where he, I think it's an extraordinary
speech, and I think he delivers it really, really well.
And he kind of says if you have compassion kind of spare us and
they kill immediately, but the way that sex stops the doctor from
being killed is meant to indicate that he's got compassion.
But it's more than that because he actually reacts to Solomon's
death with shock.
That actually he plays quite well.
He does.
And that's one of the bits of the episode, I think, works very
well because also Dalek, whoever it is, by his side looks at him
when he does that and is going, oh, oh, that's the moment when
they go, we have to get rid of this bloke.
I mean, you can see it coming.
It is all sort of rather obvious and it's telegraphed.
The doctor gives that speech about music and what music's for.
And that scene ends with Dalek Sec picking up the broken radio and
just looking at it.
And so it's telegraphed, deliberately telegraphed.
We know where this is going.
Yeah, and even though, you know, Solomon's speech is all right.
I don't know if it actually fulfils anything in the plot.
I mean, yes, I see what they're trying to do, but we know he's
just going to get exterminated straight away.
So what's the point of the speech?
I guess it is to kind of exhibit the human factor to show what
humanity is like.
And we've had humanity characterised as, you know, the face of
capitalism, that humanity is all about, exploiting the weak in
order to make profit.
And that's not how Hooverville works.
So would it have not been nice for a Dalek sect to have stepped in
and saved Solomon because of the speech that he'd given?
Yeah.
I actually think that scene where, and David Tenner does it twice
in this episode where he stands up, spreads his arms and
encourages the Daleks to kill him.
And, you know, the 2nd one I was kind of slightly disappointed
that they didn't.
I mean, but that 1st scene, why is he even doing that?
He doesn't seem to be drawing them out.
In the 2nd one.
He's confident that because, and we'll talk more about the science
of this perhaps later, that because the human daleks.
No, the Dalek humans have been infected by Timelord DNA.
He's confident that they won't kill him So when he stands on top
of the chairs and says, kill me, he's just giving them the
opportunity to do what he already knows they're going to do.
He also has 2 Daleks facing him who might not have the same
points.
I know.
Why don't they just shoot him?
You know, it is that.
It is that thing.
And it is a little bit silly.
I don't know why he wants to kill himself in that in that 1st
speech in Hooverville.
It's to give the doctor big moments, and the doctor is only ever
as good as the Rice of Ricing them.
And so, you know, if Russell or Stephen is giving the doctor a big
speech like that.
They give him something interesting to say.
Whereas I don't think, and again, I'm not getting at Helen Rainer
here because, you know, it's her 1st outing on the show.
It's just to give the doctor something to grandstand on, but it's
not particularly well done.
And so all you get is tenant grandstanding, which is something
that we are a little bit sick of, perhaps, by this point.
Exactly.
Well, that's all we have time.
Yes, I think maybe the criticisms of this story all fall onto this
2nd episode because we had so much hope and joy and wit in the 1st
one whereas this one is about, ooh, there's a lot of wool.
What shall we knit?
And there's no begonia pope at hand, is there?
So what do we make?
It's trying to make logic out of something that should be silly
and fun in camp.
I think the problem is trying to search for a plot.
Don't need one.
It's Doctor Who.
No.
I mean, I think that the idea that the Daleks get infected with
humanity and that doesn't work and then seeing the Daleks roundly
reject that.
I think that that's something interesting.
And for a second, I think, because it's so early on, we actually
don't know that Dalek sex is going to fail, or do we?
We do.
Um, I think we know from the fact that the other dialects are
going to turn on him that he's going to fail because he succeeds
the other dialects will fail.
Yeah, yeah.
And it does mean that we won't have Daleks to play with anymore
but I guess we don't know at this point that the Daleks are just
going to be sort of regular monsters who turn up every so often.
But also the script muddies the idea because it is about the human
factor and the dialect factor, but then it sort of introduced the
weird McGuffin where the doctor gets electrocuted by the lightning
bolt and somehow his DNA gets passed by a lightning bolt into the
human dalek DNA and that's why they rebel, right?
That's good for their humans. lightning bolt, if it's coming from
the sun.
Oh, but none of that matters. absolutely none of that matters.
It's more the fact that they introduced the doctor's DNA as being
part of it, whereas they should have just played with the concepts
that they had, which is human factor and dalek factor.
Yeah.
You say that muddies the waters a bit.
It would have been cleaner to have some kind of sort of parallel
between what's happening to Dalek Sec and what happens to the
human Daleks.
Or make it the triumph of the human spirit, evil of the Daleks.
Yeah, 3 dogs.
Yeah, I would prefer to have seen the triumph of the Dalek
spirit.
But all of that magic, and it is absolutely openly magic, where
it's about humans and daleks and time lords having a particular
essence, which is conveyed through various means, you know, various
McGuffins, like gamma radiation or whatever.
That's not what DNA is and we all know that.
And that, in a sense, doesn't matter because it is just the human
factor and the dalek factor, they're kind of alchemical essences
that those races possess.
And that's how Whittaker did it in evil of the Daleks.
And so in evolution of the Daleks.
We get the same thing.
And it absolutely doesn't worry me at all, that DNA doesn't work
like that.
I just don't care.
That's just a little bit silly.
It's more the fact of, you know, let's do something with that
idea.
Let's do something with the fact that SEC is becoming more human
and the human dialects are obviously have dialect DNA in them.
So you know, let's see that work.
Let's see the 2 chafing against each other.
This really is not a two parter, it's a two thirds plus a third
and that's being generous.
Yeah, it does seem to run out of steam, like 15 minutes early.
Much like this podcast.
The point is, you're coming back to everything you were all saying
is that it's how likeable are these characters?
For me, Miranda Raisin, if there were a pyramid structure, is the
most likeable, and Lazlo being reflected in her glory, is also
there.
Mr. Diagalev, whatever.
Oh, where does he get that name from?
I don't know.
He's either Diagoras, the poet, or Diagoras, the sportsman.
No, so he's a philosopher.
Rhodes, and one of them came from Milos.
Elos?
Yeah.
Diagras is an Olympic winner or a wrestler or something like
that.
Kinder writes an ode about him.
Whereas Milos is a Dalek penal colony and a terrination story in
19 blah.
That's right.
So the other Diagoras gets thrown out of Athens for being an
atheist and lives in Corinth, I think, in exile.
But it's hard to know what the point of...
Well, actually, I can see a little bit of both.
I mean, if they're also making the point that Mr. Diagros is now
Dalek Sec and Dalek Sec is now an atheist, so that Sec does not
believe anymore in the religion of the Dalek, which the emperor
was imposing, then I can kind of see a little bit of that.
That's a bit beautiful Yeah.
I mean, it's not really a point which is made, but it's a point
which is there. what we're here for.
If he's talking about Digress, the sportsman, I think he was a
boxer and then like achieved great things at the Olympic Games, but
then saw his children achieve more and become more successful and
apparently died the happiest man that you can die because you've
achieved great things and then your children have achieved great
things.
Then there's also something in that in that Dalek Sec wanted to
see the children of the Daleks go on and achieve more and could
then die happy.
But again, it's a point, which is sort of there, but not made.
It does start to get sort of one McGuffin too many, I think.
And that scene, I mean, I do kind of like there's, there's
references to Frankenstein aren't there.
I mean, there are these empty shells that are going to be
reanimated by electrical power.
I think they're taking their piss out of Paul McGann.
I mean, yes, Frankenstein and also Island of Lost Souls, which is
like a 30s adaptation of the island of Dr. Moreau.
Right, okay.
And also Phantom of the Opera.
Oh, okay.
As always, as usual.
As always.
But then I also feel that the design may have fumbled here a
little bit because you've got all that beautiful stuff with the
Empire State Building in the dialects being Deco, and it all seems
to fit.
But then you go down into the Daleks laboratory, and I think
that's meant to be a sort of universal horror movie Frankenstein
ish style, and it's not really.
It's a bit of the millennium stadium or wherever with some things
attached to it.
They should have gone the full Morbius on it and added in some
deco and it would have looked wonderful and made the point for
them.
Yeah.
I think it was a disused power station.
Okay.
So yeah, it feels like they've kind of fumbled that in the design
and haven't made the point.
There was never a disused power station that Ed Thomas didn't
like.
Or a backstreet in Cardiff.
Let's not go there.
But yeah, I mean, that would have made the point better, I think
and it would have added some visual interest to the story because
it loses visual interest in the 2nd half.
It all starts to be set in that kind of underground silo, which is
just not that interesting to look at.
It's all just a bit earnest.
It's all just a bit season 11. 2nd episode.
Yeah, maybe, maybe.
I do have a massive soft spot for the scene which we alluded to
last week, but didn't really discuss, which is the scene between
Tallula and Martha upstairs when she's going through the various
versions of the architect's plans to work out what's been done to
the big antenna on top.
Was that when Martha's about to make brunch?
Oh, dead there.
That is kind of terrible, but we will get there.
But there is a really nice scene and we have objected to Martha
and the doctor's relationship.
But having her talk about her relationship with the doctor and
then having to Lula, talk about Lazlo, who at this point has been
abandoned sort of down in the cellar.
They don't know whether he's alive or dead.
And I think that's really nice.
And I think she does a tremendous job.
Miranda Raisin?
She's just terrific.
Really like her.
They're both good characters, and you enjoy watching both of
them.
I just wish that Martha propelled the plot a little bit more.
Yeah, so they send her upstairs to do that, don't they?
Also, I think there's a there's a missed beat there where she's a
doctrine training and she's just murdered a whole heap of people
and it's just like, oh, I killed them.
I mean she does get to react to that, doesn't she?
But it's kind of against a Hippocratic goes.
The story helps itself to science fiction reasons not to care
about the deaths of people.
So the pig slaves.
You know, they were all going to die anyway for science fiction
reasons and they were no longer people.
Their minds had been taken away.
So we don't have any moral obligation not to kill them.
They're not part of our moral community.
And the same with the human daleks or dalek humans.
They've been emptied out.
There's nothing left of what they once were.
And there's a whole heap of dialogue to establish that.
And that is, I think, so that we don't care when they're all
killed. when 1000s of people are just, yeah, wiped out.
Caring about dead people is a very recent thing in Doctor Who.
Yeah.
We didn't really used to give much of a toss, did we?
Well, the thing that I remember is how upset.
I was about the bus exploding in Delta and the Bannerman.
Because all those lovely, wonderful, silly people all get killed.
And it does have a plot purpose.
One of my favourite moments in the story.
I love that story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So why do you say that, though?
Because it's such a jolt.
Such a lovely, jolly story, and Mel was there going, goodbye
goodbye.
And then they kill them all and you think, oh, God.
And because the Bannermen are sort of rather silly.
And so that makes them a proper threat.
And I think they are reluctant.
It's what Stephen Moffatt says about the master.
He wants the master to kill people from time to time just to
remind us that the master is a bad person, that they're a
villain.
And here the Daleks have to kind of kill people, and it's the only
real chance that they get.
But like, I think Martha killing all the pig slaves is not a good
choice.
Also, I think all of the human daleks dying at the end is not a
good choice.
It's sort of the Seywardian way out of like where we'll just kill
them off.
But it would have been much more interesting to have, again, you
know, it's my problem with this story is that it's a mile wide and
an inch deep.
There's nothing that's really kind of investigated or interrogated
in the story.
I want to know what's then going to happen to these people who
have some of the dialect factor in them, but are still human.
Let's see them go off into Hooverville with Laszlo.
Let's see an aftermath for them.
I think that that is exactly right.
And it reminded me of the way that New Earth was originally going
to end with all of those freed people being killed just to kind of
get them out of the way so we didn't have to deal with them in the
plot.
And it is very much like we don't want to talk about what happens
to them, so we'll just have them all killed.
And it does make the Daleks more evil, but I do think it's a
missed opportunity.
You could have killed some of them to have made a point, but I
mean, just off the top of my head, and I know it's fool's errand
sort of saying, well, you know, maybe this story could have done
this, so my version's better than the original version.
But just to take one example.
How about Dalek Sec has been killed, then Dalek Khan, the only
remaining Dalek, realises that to keep the race going.
He's going to have to take some of these human daleks under his
wing and turn them into proper daleks, teach them to be daleks, and
they all time jump off together.
I mean, that's just one idea of, you know, let's do something
interesting with this concept.
Let's lay the groundwork for something in the future.
Because it is thrown away in one scene.
I would have loved John Wyndham alternate universe, dialect
child.
I mean, we've actually seen all of that before as well, haven't
we?
It's really just called totally Doctor Who, isn't it?
The audience for that.
But it's what Moffatt does, the way that Moffatt changes our earth
so that it's full of zygons.
You know, and that's absolutely audacious and super interesting.
And it would have been more interesting if they'd referred to it
occasionally more often, and they do refer to it again, though
don't they?
beyond the Zygon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that idea that there are zygons among us and it would be
interesting because he's already equated human beings with
daleks.
When human beings are warmongers and acquisitive and all of those
things.
They're characteristics that Sek initially admires.
So to have Daleks among us might have been a little bit more
interesting, I think.
Or to have human dialects go off with Dalek Khan and be the new
Dalek race.
What does this lead to?
I mean, I know that's not the way it pans out.
But you know, the point is that any number of ideas are more
interesting than just having them all killed.
Yeah, yeah.
As for the pig slaves, you know, we're supposed to not care about
them.
Bit hammy.
But, oh, God, sorry.
There is a wonderful scene.
Gives me the trance.
You know, when they're going up in the lift. and one of them is
looking at the, above the lift and they're kind of just sort of
waiting there for the lift to open, all standing face.
You know, they're exactly like us. music.
It would have been awesome.
But it is a genuinely funny scene and it's over quite quickly.
And, you know, again, making them just things that die anyway is
like it's cheating a bit.
It is.
And I mean, can I just say, what are the pig slaves?
Who, what, and why?
Why are they pigs?
Why are they slaves?
Why do the Daleks do these things?
And then like, oh, they only last for a couple of weeks, then why
bother?
Why not just keep the most?
Because equity the equity rights to Ogron.
They're just so difficult to work with.
They should have been robo pigs.
Well, you know, like, I think it kind of works in that Russell
likes aliens that are people with animal heads. they do look quite
good.
I think they look good and I guess the idea is that the Daleks are
experimenting with hybrids, aren't they?
They're planning to hybridise humans and daleks and so they
practice with humans and another earth animal, which is all they
have access to.
Are we getting a bit of All's Animal Farm and maybe Golding's Lord
of the Flies as well?
Or Dr. Moreau, perhaps.
Oh, yes, Dr. Moreau, yeah.
The best worst film of all time.
One shot out here.
It's slightly undone by the fact that they've already had space
picky in aliens of London, who is an altogether better
anthropomorphic pig.
Yeah, although these, I mean, these do look sort of scary.
I think they, I think they work.
And I want Daleks to have humanoid slaves.
You know, there's only 4 of them.
And all they do is kind of like snarl in the background, although
there is one moment where one of the Daleks gives pig slave an
order and it winks back to it. is amazing.
What do we think of the climax with sort of Talek Sec on stage in
chains in front of the Dallas?
I mean, if it was if it was a show.
I'd certainly pay to go and see.
It's very comic book.
It's only become Dalek sex.
That's the cash register.
It does actually sound when he 1st says his name after he's come
out of the cloacre of doom.
He does sound like he actually says, I am Dalek sex.
Because, like you said earlier, Nathan, he can't breathe through
his nose.
No.
I think that that scene is too talky and that it goes on too
long.
And doesn't have enough drama to it.
No, it's not saying, let, you know, come on, come at me.
And we already know that they're not going to do that.
So it's already, there's no sort of particular, you know.
It's got the whole cliche of sex throwing himself in front of the
Dalek blast and popularised by Jacqueline Hill in Megloss, of
course.
It looks great.
I mean, I do like because there's a lot of explosions in that big
assault on Hooverville, which does seem to be slightly pointless
but it at least gives us some much needed explosions.
But they're not going to spend the money on the special effect of
people being exterminated in that scene.
So we never see that.
We see lots of people kind of, you know, leaping away from
explosions and stuff and sort of landing on their faces or
whatever.
So we do get to see Dalek Sec being exterminated.
We get to see his skull with the one eye in the middle of the
forehead and stuff.
And I think that's pretty fun.
But it is sort of undramatic and I was starting to tire of it a
little bit by then.
I think.
I think that's why we're getting a negative sense then from the
collective for this story.
But I certainly don't believe the overall story deserves that.
And a denouement is simply that.
It's meant to be a lessening done.
And maybe the message is actually that none of us are buying that
humans are really all that wonderful in the 1st place.
Really?
Dalek factor in the human factor pretty much interchangeable and
this probably wouldn't work out this way.
Need to induce a bit of DNA from the time lords just to make
things interesting.
It's very cynical.
That would be actually a little bit more interesting.
Again, we're advancing our own versions that we would have been
more interested in, but it does take a sort of fairly
uncomplicated look at what the human factor is and what the Dalek
factor is.
And the doctor kind of weighs in and says, no, that's not what
humans are like.
It is about music and compassion and all sorts of things like
that.
A well prepared meal.
Yes, exactly.
I do wonder as well if some of the disappointment about the
episode.
I think some of mine is, is the fact that we're being asked to
invest in the story of the dialects and, you know, where they've
come from, where they're going, what changes they're going
through.
And so they use Dalek Sec as a cliffhanger to the 1st episode.
You're meant to find, oh, wow, look, there's now a human dalek
which isn't actually that interesting or dramatic.
They then put Dalek sex big head on the cover of the radio times
for the next week.
Again, like you're supposed to be interested in that.
And it reminds me of the 80s where they would say, okay, we're
going to bring back Omega because it's the 20th season.
Well, you think, well, does that actually mean a thing to the
audience?
They're told that he was someone from the 10th season, the 10th
anniversary.
You think, okay, great, but that's the extent of it.
So is what we're seeing here, we're being told to be interested in
what the Daleks are and what they become or actually not.
We're only interested in the fact that the Daleks are monsters and
what's their latest plan.
I think that what we are interested in though, is the world that's
created in episode one.
And I am not a big fan of people saying this just needed to be a
two-parter because I think that that's almost certainly a recipe
for just 42 additional minutes of something that's rather
disappointing.
Episode 2 of 42.
Yeah, yeah.
Episode 2 of victory of the Daleks.
Like, we've talked about this before, Nathan needs to be a 0
partner.
But what you do get from Long Doctor Who stories is the chance to
hang out with characters in a world that you like.
And I think that this story successfully does that.
I care about Hooverville.
I care about Frank.
And actually we made to care a little bit more about Frank in this
episode because we see him grieving the loss of Solomon.
And I think that that's a really nice touch and it is something
that I think matters.
I care about Tallula and Laslow.
I think that that's lovely and her kind of bravery and all of that
like I think is really, really something.
And even though Laslow is dying for a sort of science fiction
reason.
I actually don't mind that either because I think the tidy thing
to do would be to just have him die.
You know, that he dies and doesn't live on and we don't end up
with a world in which there's a pig guy living in New York in
1930.
And, you know, that's the same instinct.
I think that makes people want Ursula to die in love and
monsters.
And what we get instead is that the doctor and the world of Doctor
Who, and even just, you know, trauma changes people in weird ways
and the consequences of that are something that has to be lived
with.
And I think that's a really interesting thing.
I think the choice of having the doctor save Laslo, which I think
is a great scene and then having Laslo live on in Hooverville, I
think, is terrific.
But also having Tallula very definitely staying with him and in
love with him because she's choosing that as well.
She's choosing to live through whatever he's going to live through
with him.
Yeah, I think that's really lovely.
It is nice.
You know, she refuses initially, doesn't she, to recognise him.
Like it takes a while before she can recognise that that's
last...
Yeah, I think that's actually a choice on the character's behalf
where, you know, anyone can see that it's actually Laszlo, but
he's being changed, but she's refusing to recognise that it's him
for a while.
But she never, you know, she's still physically affectionate with
him.
She calls him sweetheart.
She touches his face and his tail and his tail.
And I look forward to Sunday brunch.
I wonder how much pig he is.
Oh, yeah.
I think that's I think that's fun.
And I do love the fact that they have some accommodation in
Hooverville, you know, that people will stare at him, but he's
accepted.
And that's what Hooverville is, isn't it?
That's the human factor.
I also love about Hooverville, the fact they can't afford bread
but they've got a nice stash of guns.
It's America.
Actually, that is true.
It does set up a wonderful world.
I like the world of Daleks in Manhattan.
And for the same reason I was saying last week that I really enjoy
all the plate shots of 1930s New York skylines and everything
which look amazing and really set the tone.
I want this world to be interesting, and it turns out to be a
little bit less interesting than I wanted it to be, and that's the
root of the disappointment.
It's not massive disappointment.
It's disappointing anyway.
You know how last week we talked about the Dalek voices and how
Nick Briggs does a Peter Hawkins Dalek voice.
There's actually a point in the episode where when Dalek Khan
takes control of the cult of Skaro.
He changes the pitch of the voice.
And the in-world reason for that is that, you know, he's in
charge.
He's now in charge, so he's changed his voice because Dalek's
respect, a more sort of high pitched screechy voice.
But the real reason was because he'd given Dalek Khan this deep
raspy tone and it was hell on his throat. throat.
So he changed it there so he could actually get through the
recording without dying.
So there's that big final scene, isn't there, with Dalek Khan and
the doctor just sort of confronting one another.
Facing off in the laboratory.
People are playing against type here, and that's what Russell was
going for, and that was his instruction to Helen Rayno, but I
think we're also seeing, it doesn't necessarily work out for the
narrative or for the audience or indeed for the play itself.
If you're really going to posit a vault face in your main
villains.
We kind of need a bit more happening behind us than building a
gorgeous skyscraper and you know how much I care about gorgeous
skyscrapers and Art Deco motifs.
And are you being served references?
Thank you, James.
That's in there as well.
And there's nods to Marilyn Monroe.
I mean, it's everything's out of time and out of place, but it's
the fundament of it being that we survived the global recession in
the 20s and we'll do it again.
This is 2007 when this went out.
So we really did not think that the GFC would be survivable and
perhaps we're not actually over that yet.
Maybe that's where October 31st, or if you've got your bingo card
Brexit, is coming from.
This is perhaps uncomfortable to perform and to stage as well as
to being in with as a viewers because it's a little bit too close
to the point that we can't really write about how this would work
out.
If you are going to tell this as a truthful, not even a metaphor
as a truthful piece of what is our dark and what is the light
aspects of humanity.
There's just got to be a massacre at the end of it because that's
the best Doctor Who story of all time.
All right, so it's time for pix of the week, and James, we're
gonna throw to you.
Well, I picked the 1931 adaptation of Frankenstein, the classic
Boris Karlov black and white film.
James Whale.
Mainly because it was one of the main inspirations for the visuals
and a lot of the storytelling in this 2 part.
So when the Dalek army sort of heads off into Manhattan.
James Strong lifts.
He deliberately references the torch.
It's basically it's the villagers carrying pitchforks and torches
kind of... those crossfades and things like that.
Yeah, like that's very deliberately lifted from towards the end of
Frankenstein.
The beds.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Human dalek shells are waiting, are waiting on are very
deliberate.
The ones that are kind of lowered from the ceiling.
Yeah, in the same way that the bed that Frankenstein's monster is
on that is all incredibly...
Yeah, and even, even, you know, waking them up with electricity
like it is a deliberate reference.
I mean, that's the that's the most obvious of the references there
is that bringing something to life with a bolt of lightning.
And also the Lemley, the Carl Lemley period at Universal, where it
was such a beautiful deco experience and the sets and the timing
of it, it's right on the mark.
I rewatched it last night for the 1st time in years.
It's beautiful in a way that I think Daleks, in Manhattan
evolution of the Daleks wants to be.
And visually, I think, is in places, but I really enjoy the film.
And if you don't want to stop there, go on to brighter
Frankenstein.
In many ways, a better film.
Yeah, and it's gorgeous.
It is just, it is such a wonderful film.
Oh, so Lancaster.
Wow.
And if you haven't had enough there, then I would suggest Paul
Mars's, Brenda and nephew mysteries.
Oh, they're fun.
They start with Nefer the bride.
So Paul Mars wrote for Doctor Who Fic for a long time and also.
Well, the Tom Baker audios before he was at Big Finish, but they
are set in Whitby from Dracula.
I've got Susan Jamison.
And they are basically the bride of Frankenstein, after she has
retired to Whitby, as an elderly lady, and she's running a B&B
That sounds great.
Paul Mars is, of course, the inventor of Iris Wild Time.
Is that right?
Yeah.
The BBC have done radio adaptions of them.
Right.
So, yeah.
Peter.
My pick of the week is someone which I picked off my bookshelf
about 2 months ago and had to read because I recently returned to
the country to live and so I've been going back to my parents
house and just going through my old library and occasionally, you
know, plucking something out to have a read of.
And this was Terence Dick's blood harvest, his new adventure from
19, I don't know, 1994, 95, somewhere around there.
So if you want to read something which is roughly contemporary
with Daleks in Manhattan, and set in a similar city, Chicago, and
a writer having enormous fun with their subjects matter, then go
and give it a read.
I think his books were better than his TV.
Tories on the whole.
I loved his missing adventures or new adventures.
Oh, me too.
Although I don't agree with you about his TV story.
Exodus is great.
Oh, Exetus is brilliant.
But if you look at the TV stories that Terrence actually wrote.
He's just a master, the war games, Breen of Morbius.
Horror Fang Rock.
The 5 doctors.
Praying a Porpius wasn't written by Terrence Stewart. by Robin
Bland.
Actually, if you look at the sensibility of that, It's all Terence
sticks.
Like it feels like him.
But yes, read Blood Harvest.
You won't regret it.
Aside from sort of a late switch to Gallifrey, which doesn't work
at all.
It never does.
With its beige sofas.
Well, indeed.
And the antithesis of beige is the soundscape of this story, and I
think that's probably why I love these 2 episodes, because Murray
Gold has really enjoyed himself here.
And even the little moments and the, the, almost to the point of
Foley, just the, the sound points that he places in the score are
beautiful.
But I would just go and listen to Gershman's Rhapsody in Blue
because he notes it at the beginning when they're under the Statue
of Liberty, and then the rifts keep going through it.
It's just a beautiful piece of music.
You don't have to take out a novel then or watch.
I did last night in preparation in this podcast.
Yeah, and it's really gorgeous.
Yeah.
Well, I'm tempted to pick years and years again.
I can't remember the last time.
I done that?
I'm not allowed to do that.
Alright, absolutely allowed to do that.
Well, you should all watch it anyway.
It is tremendous.
And it just reminds us that we don't deserve Russell T.D. Davies.
But failing that, someone we do deserve is Eric Sayward, and I'm
going to recommend the novelisation of Resurrection of the
Daleks.
I have started it and it is as terrible as you would imagine.
And I do want to thank friend of the podcast, Colin Neal, who
actually sent me a copy of it signed by Eric Saywood. as Colin
Neal.
And no, I've seen a photo of Colin with Eric Saywood and a pile of
the novelisations to hand.
So I'm assured that it really is Eric's signature, and I just hope
that Colin didn't tell Eric Saywood.
Exactly.
Did Eric sign at Snog marry or a boy?
Oh, God.
Because I did best, which I don't think is actually short for all
the best.
It's short for I am the best.
Eric, say what.
Why, oh, why, couldn't we have had the novelisation of
Resurrection of the Daleks by, oh, John Peel?
Weldy listener, that's all we have time for this week.
We will see you next week for what looks like a truly alarming
product launch as we suit up to witness the Lazarus experiment.
In the meantime, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts
and you can keep up with us at flightthroughentirety.com.
Flight through entirety on Facebook and at FTE podcast on
Twitter.
You can also find our series 11 flashcast Jody Interterterra.com
and at Jody Interterra on Twitter at our James Bond commentary
podcast bondfinger at bondfinger.com at bondfinger on Facebook and
at bondfingercast on Twitter.
Until next time, may you find true love or bacon in the arms of a
man like Laslow.
Thank you very much for listening and good night.
Good night.
Good night. and get crackling.
That was Flight through Entirety, starring Nathan Bottomley, Peter
Griffiths, James Selwood, and Richard Stone.
Theme arrangement by Cameron Lamb, Strings performance by Jane
Orberg.
This episode, a long tradition of Doctor Who monsters that in some
way resemble human genitalia, was recorded on the 11th of August
2019 and released on the 13th of October.
Founder and beloved host of the podcast, Brendan Jones is really
killing it with his YouTube channel right now.
To see what he's been up to, search for brandy bongos on YouTube
or follow the link in our show notes.
It doesn't really go anywhere, does it?
This episode itself doesn't really go anywhere.
I can talk about that.
So I feel like I've closed down to arguments in a row.
Yeah, see, we've gone through the 1st 5 things on my list.
That's the thing.
My, my, my notes for the 1st episode are like 7 pages of hormones
for the 2nd are...
Because it's a story wrapup.
Yeah, it really is.
Okay.
As we were saying, this really is.