Hello, dear listener, and welcome back to Flightthrough Entirety
the only Doctor Who podcast that was secretly doing Sean behind
Vicki's back the whole time.
Sorry, Martha.
I'm Nathan.
I'm James.
I'm Todd. and I'm 2 buckets of Nembutal in a red dress with a cock
pistol for this one.
Well, it's been an entire year since our last episode, and we've
been going from house to house telling everyone we meet about how
much we all owe to the work of Eric Seyward.
Have our efforts been in vain?
Let's find out as we discuss the series 3 finale, Last of the Time
Lords.
I can't decide whether you should live or die or you'll probably
blow it ever.
Please don't hang your head and grind, I wonder why my heart feels
dead inside.
It's going hard and petrified.
Lock the doors and close fly.
Going for a ride.
So we open it.
One year later.
So Russell says that he got this idea from Battlestar Galactica, I
think.
And so you might remember that Battlestar Galactica has this
incredible thing, which happens, it doesn't even happen at a
commercial break or at a season finale or, you know, in between
episodes.
It happens in the middle of an act where Gaius Baltar puts his
head in his hands and then it's a year later.
And it's wonderful.
I mean, it's such a great idea.
And I think Russell says no one watched Battlestone Galactica in
England, so he could afford to do it on his lovely show, which
1000000s and 1000000s of people were watching every Saturday.
You're so joyous about this fact.
I am not.
I loved it on Battlestar Galactica up to this point.
Very few shows like these days we've got, like in the last 10
years, so many shows do time jumps all around the place has just
become ad hoc in any American thing.
But up to this point, you know, it's a science fiction concept.
The moment I saw it, I just went, oh, great.
We're going to have a Voyager reset button happening and it just
put me off the entire episode.
Oh, but come on.
We must have known there was a reset button happening by the end
of last week's episode.
I think the giveaway was Bobby Ewing in the shower.
Yeah, that's right.
With John Sims and Lucy.
The rest of the show isn't going to continue after a 10th of the
earth's population has been destroyed, which happens at the end of
the previous thing.
And we've seen the paradox machine.
And I think if we have our wits about us.
We't mention the paradox machine last week.
Red Wedding Tardis.
Well, I didn't have my wits about me, right?
And so the paradox machine just went over my head.
Like, and it still goes over my head.
I mean, I see that it's there.
It's all, Russell has, has got everything set up.
You said last week, you know, people complain about him just
making it up on the spot, but this time around, It's actually all
plotted out so that we're going to be able to get to an end where
the master doesn't just jump into his TARDIS, which happens to be
in the corner as a grandfather clock, right?
There are consequences.
And we know that their companion is getting written out, right?
So he's actually moving all the elements to an end.
But I just loathe one here later.
It's a personal thing and it's one of many little things in this
episode that, for me, take the shine off where it's going, right?
And they just annoy me, right?
So I think it's a good idea, and I think the reason is that it
gives the masters victory a chance to stick.
So the master's victory lasts for a long time and has a massive
effect on the world.
So it enables the scale of the master's victory to be something
that we've never, ever seen before.
So it's a little bit like the Dalek invasion of Earth, where we
arrive, and the Daleks have been in control of Earth for a long
time, and we get to see that here.
We get to see the master have a massive effect on the world.
And so the scale of what he's able to achieve wouldn't have been
possible.
And that makes the stakes so much higher.
And I do think that the reset button, which, as we said, is just
inevitable from the moment that he destroys a 10th of the world's
population last week, is earned, and it's not a proper reset bung
because it still happened, as Francine says, at the very end.
All of those things still happened.
I remember them.
And so it's the effect that it has on the characters that we care
about, that means that it's not all thrown away.
You know, very often on Voyagers, as you say, Todd, they'll have
an adventure and no one remembers it, except ask the audience.
And so who cares?
But here, it has a massive devastating effect on Martha and her
family and as a result, the doctor.
I don't disagree with you.
Like in that thing.
I just don't feel it.
I don't feel the effect on the mother.
I don't feel it.
When they say like Martha's the only person to get out of Japan
alive.
I just rolled my eyes and went, yeah, okay.
Yeah, you're making your point that, you know, this is the
devastating thing, but we're not really going to see that.
You know, Martha's walk to the earth.
What we see is a budgetary constraints where she walks on a beach
and we get a flashback to her beach and we get a flashback to the
11 lot of room that she sits in to talk to people.
Like, we don't see all those things we get told about it.
And that's, as I said, it's a budgetary thing here where you don't
get to see all those things where I really want to see that, to
really feel it and I don't feel it.
So what Russell does instead is he does some representative bits
of that.
So we get to see what her life is like, not by spending a year
going around with her and, you know, some spinoff media will do
that later.
But we get to see sort of what that must have been like.
And again, you know, the master is always risking being cute and
cuddly because the job of the master is to make us like him or her
more than we like, the doctor.
And the master is often successful at that.
Missy is a past mistress at it.
We love her enormously and she is much more fun, even than
Capaldi's doctor, I think.
Surely she's a past master.
She is a past master.
Not yet.
She's a future master at it.
So having him kill everyone in Japan, having him devastate the
world and reduce them to sort of slave workers helps Russell to
make his political point, you know, that...
Yeah, well, the...
It's not high Wickham, is it?
But it is, it's neoliberalism. you know, turning the world into a
machine for manufacturing things to give power to a small number
of people.
It's a beautiful point.
It's exactly what this master.
Well, it's late stage capitalism in apotheosis.
Yeah.
No, that's it. in the room, yes.
And so I just think that it creates an enormous scale for what the
master does.
And we had to go up.
It was so hard not to do that.
Not just because the previous 2 finales were the end of the world
as I said, in the intro of last week's episode.
But because the master had, you know, trying to invade Earth so
many times with the help of another alien race.
He really had to win once Oh totally agree.
I thought Toya Wilcox wasn't available and the and the Teletubbies
were already signed up.
Well, they were in last week's episode, actually.
So quite early on in the episode, we get the doctor, Francine, Jack
Tish, and Clive trying to stage a coup against the master, which
ultimately fails with this number three.
And it's alluded that this is not the 1st time they've tried
this.
No, but it's a heist and that's really fun.
So it gives us, it reminds us who all of these characters are. that
they haven't been completely cowered by the master, but it does
tell us how Michael Kane would have done it if he was posited into
this film.
Not a lot.
People know that.
My God, it's the Italian job.
It's wonderfully fine. middle of this.
It's quite cleverly also sitting up the whole countdown concept
that Martha uses at the end of the episode.
They do the 3 because they're at 3 o'clock, they are going to try
this.
And so it's setting up watch the clock.
Yeah, because later on there's a big countdown to the sort of
giant attack that the master's going to launch on the rest of the
universe from Earth.
And it gets people to do their shtick.
And it also kind of justifies a really wonderful scene, I think
with the Jones family when they're all in prison afterwards.
And they're all there talking about killing the master.
And Francine and Clive do this kind of, you know, the kiss where
they're kind of, you know, they've turned evil and so they're sort
of back together, they're going to kill the master, all 3 of them
even Tish will kill the master, given the chance, and they do a
sort of wonderful conspiratorial kiss.
Clive and Francine.
And it sells, I think, what's coming up later, which is the fact
that Francine very nearly kills the master and is rescued from
that. by the doctor.
It also sells the impact that this year has had on these
characters.
It's damaged them quite a lot.
Look how Todd feels.
Thanks, Richard.
And he was just watching it.
But it sells the fact that Martha has to leave the doctor, even if
you know, but the whole I'm in love with you and you don't want me
thing aside, she has to leave because she has to look after her
family.
And she's a doctor.
And that's the 1st thing we ever saw her do.
She's the doctor. yeah.
Yeah, that's the 1st thing.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, 1st thing we ever see her do is to try and prevent Clive
from bringing Annalise to Leo's party.
Whatever happened to Annalise?
Wow, I would have loved to see the maids uniform.
It's the cruellest thing that she's not in this, really.
Or in a talklafane head.
Maybe she's floating around in a Toclophane mirror ball up there
you know, banging away to the rouge continuum or whatever it is.
I've got a question though.
Do we know under what religion Russell was brought up?
Was it a Welsh Baptist?
I don't know.
Harry, the Church of Harry Seacam.
There's a lot of New Testament references in this, would you not
say?
Yeah, yeah.
I'm not even getting to that, to when it all, it all goes up to
the post-revelations, Andrew Lloyd Webber moments at the end.
Yeah.
Well, I think Russell, and we've observed this before, even this
year, where gridlock is largely about religion, I mean, it's also
about capitalism too, but it is, you know, to a great degree about
religion and has some very obvious Protestant religious elements
in it.
And this one here has a religious resolution where it's faith.
You know, the master mocks Martha and says, so that's your
solution, is that prayer?
And prayer works.
The faith of these people actually works.
See, I think that's where Russell's continue where Russell's
position falls down because I can see Russell talking to Matt
Gruning about just, you know, just put a whole panel of thoughts
and prayers buttons in front of him.
Yeah, and then get or in front of Mr. Burns and then give him the
do nothing button.
Because I really believe that after, you know, if this is, can be
parallel to the shootings in the US, of which what day is it now?
Russell, I'm really surprised at that.
And that's the one point of this.
I wonder if that's something that has annoyed Todd in the way that
it was perhaps disappointing and how this was brought about.
I really like where he's coming from.
And I'm actually quite serious about the, has he come from a, from
that from that Welsh church background, which is a little bit
Methodist in a way that it's, you know, it's very much this
collective can do attitude.
You know, we will keep a welcome in that hillside.
I think that there is something about the resolution that is very
human.
So we get this faint, don't we?
And we will talk in more detail about Martha's Quest and so on.
But what we think the quest is about is about, it's like a science
fiction quest to collect bits of a gun to assemble and so that
Martha can shoot the master in the head and he can't regenerate.
And I think we should be uncomfortable about that when we hear
about it, but I'm not sure that we are.
And part of the reason is that the situation is so incredibly
desperate.
Like, you know, this is the worst things have ever got, perhaps in
a Doctor Who episode, apart from what Inferno episode, 5 or
whatever, when the world's on fire. things are very bad.
And so maybe in that situation, Doctor Who thinks we have to shoot
the villain in the head for once.
And then we discovered that that's not what's happening.
And what it is that saves us.
Isn't the doctor does something really clever, although he plays
his part and he's a focus of it.
It's human faith and it's human solidarity.
It's that these people hope that there's a better story than we
just shoot the villain in the head.
And that's Doctor Who.
You know, that's the ethics of Doctor Who.
Now it turns out Lucy just shoots the villain in the head anyway.
So it is a little bit, you know, it's a little bit of a cheat.
It is the Simpsons.
But, um, I think that this is Russell at his most rustly, because
Russell, as you said last week, Richard, you can't, it's
impossible to overstate how cynical and bleak Russell can be in
his darkest moments, and we saw that in years and years.
We saw it in cucumber.
We saw it, you know, all the way back, I think, to queer as folk.
There were really sort of terrible sort of nihilistic elements in
that.
We'll go on to see it next year in, I think, midnight and turn
left, you know.
His stuff can be incredibly bleak, but here he goes for the human
response.
We don't just have, I mean, we don't have, you know, Jesus, doctor
resurrected by the power of prayer and glowing and all of that, and
all of that's sort of slightly embarrassing.
And I'm sure that Todd would agree with me about that.
But the fact that the solution comes from people and that it's
about talking.
It's about doing what we've done all our lives.
What this podcast is about is telling people about Doctor Who.
And it's talking about the doctor as a hero and aspiring to be
like the doctor that saves the situation.
And so I love it, you know.
I feel like I had my own small part in the master's downfall here
saving the world with the power of podcasts.
Yes, exactly.
One pair of earbuds at the time.
I like the idea.
I find the execution of it a little more clunky than what... perhaps
what you do.
I find that we don't get to see Martha really walking the earth.
She gets to be hidden using the key.
But her brother is also hidden.
He hides away from the master, right?
Without.
With Annalise.
Without.
With the power, for the power of Annalise.
Say 3 times it's a big finish series.
Yeah, yeah.
He manages to do it without that special power.
Like he can just hide by himself, right?
It's called fame.
He's too popular to be in the show.
I'm just saying it's just a little thing for me.
Yeah, I agree.
I love Francine's storyline all the way.
She makes this work.
She really makes it work.
And when she collapses into the doctor's arms at the end for that
brief moment, it's like, I wish there could be just a little bit
more, but you then get that lovely, when she looks out the window
that sort of begrudging sort of thing, yeah, we've been through
this together.
I respect you.
You respect me.
I love that.
And that is so powerful.
We also get, and you're going to explain this to me, Nathan
because I know that you'll have an answer, right?
So in the previous episode, the doctor whispers something to
Martha, right?
Which seems to take about how many seconds?
Yeah.
10.
Oh, if that.
If that.
And so in those 10 seconds.
Does he then tell her, just correct me if I, you're going to
correct me because I'm obviously wrong, that she needs to walk the
earth to tell the story and she needs to be at this point at a
certain time because there's going to be a countdown and at the
same time come up with some other means to sort of...
Do you know what I'm saying?
Oh no, I agree.
And so it's like, what has he said to her?
like that makes all this happen.
She's obviously a resourceful woman and so there's the whole 4
potions gunplot thing, which is not his idea.
But at this time on this day in a year, and at the same time, he
recognises that he's going to be able to tune himself into this
the network.
And so then, you know, at that point in time, he'll be able to
undo the Dobby doctor through magic and sort of be this floating
Kai figure that is like Rose from series one.
Do you know what I'm saying?
Like all these little things that I've just mentioned, just set me
off, like I'm shaking right now in this room, listener, that they
just, it undermines what I think is a really good concept.
Like it's just hasn't quite got it for me.
Like, I'm sorry.
I mean, I just, it's not what Christopher H.
Bidmead would have done.
I just think that it needs to hang together long enough for us to
get to the end of the episode.
And I think that, I mean, we've had a lot of time to ruminate on
this.
And I think that, you know, there is some sort of fridge logic
where he just hopes we don't press it too hard.
But I mean, Doctor Who's been doing that, you know, ever since it
began.
And I think it just sort of needs to work on a sort of level of
themes and spectacle, I think.
And so I don't know what the doctor says to her and, you know, he
couldn't sort of possibly tell us.
Maybe he just said, tell people about me and be back here on such
a date or something.
But how would he even know that?
And I mean, the clever thing is the Archangel Network, which has
the perfect name, doesn't it?
which is being used by a timelord to hypnotise all of humanity.
And the doctor sort of counters it and uses it against the master
which is absolutely classic per twee defeating Delgado, isn't it?
I love the arcade to me.
This is the one thing in this rewatch that I actually really do
like.
Yeah, all of that.
They could have easily had a couple of scenes where, you know, when
they're trying to defeat the master with the whole, you know, like
3 o'clock thing, why not have had that then getting some
information out to Martha.
Like, I mean, they could have been a way of explaining that, you
know, they had actually been conspiring with her the entire time
which would fix that issue.
Yeah, I mean, I think that any solution, and usually the solutions
to things about RTD plots that annoy people, normally the solution
to that is why couldn't we have this exposition scene?
And I know that's not what you're asking for here, but he doesn't
want to do that.
He doesn't want to have the exposition scene and he wants us to
find out at the same time as the master finds out.
He wants us to believe the story about the gun.
Yeah.
Don't you think?
I think that he really can.
Oh, yes, yes.
I definitely thought that's where they were going.
My further problem with all of this is that we get, for most of
the episode.
Freema has to act, keeping herself very much her emotions to
herself.
Yeah.
And I mentioned many moons ago, I had this perception of Martha
blank face.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. being quite restrained and wooden and wooden.
And I realise watching this, this is the episode that I get it
from because it's so unlike Martha in every other situation.
Even when she's protecting the doctor before World War I in the
family of blood, she's still emoting, she's still showing her true
character, whereas here for so much of the episode, it's just this
blank wall.
And it's a great performance, but I just struggle with it because
I don't feel emotionally invested.
When she sits down in that house to tell those people about the
doctor.
I feel like she could be saying, he cooked a great hamburger and
you should eat those hamburgers because they were, the cows were
out in the field and it was all lovely.
Like I, I, my care factor is literally close to zero.
And I know that's unfair on whether it's the writing, the
performance or the direction, the fact that we get that one
sequence in the recap where I think there should be more scenes
with different types of people in different situations.
It all compounds me.
And then we get the Toclophane.
When they open the chocolate thing, like we then get, oh, they're
all a hive mind, so they all know about Crete and is it supposed
to be Crete?
Like, no, it's not.
But to me, it gives the impression that through the eyes and that
sort of thing and her reaction that it is like that.
And I think that's a mistake.
Yeah, no, and I think that he walks up to the edge of that.
He didn't want to have the little kid who won a competition to be
the guest star in Utopia, end up being a shrivelled head in a
ball.
That's what I feel.
Yeah.
And so he gets as close to that as possible by having him say the
skies are full of diamonds or something like that.
But then we get a line saying, no, we all share the same memory.
So we know it's not that.
We know, but we do have Crete ending up like that.
That's the really, really dark thing about it, and it's as dark as
Doctor Who has ever gone, because utopia, we talked about this 2
weeks ago.
There's something incredible about the setup for utopia, which
makes it kind of emblematic about the human condition.
You know, we all face some kind of mortality.
Many of us spend much of our lives trying to escape it or forget
about it or mitigate it or do something, trying to make our lives
mean something in the face of the end of everything.
And these people look like, you know, there's a moment of triumph
where the rocket ship goes off, heads to utopia, and they've
escaped and we're excited, and what's in utopia, it's, you know
the planet Mustafa with less CGI, and everyone just turns
themselves into a sort of bouncing robot head.
You know, like it's horrible.
It's really as bleak as Russell's ever been.
There's no escape from death. they turn themselves into monsters
in order to try and escape it.
And that's never solved.
That's never solved.
No, and he's not going to solve it.
Like, like, the ultimate end to the human race is death.
Yeah.
They're stuck at the end of the year.
They're going to die. is no salvation.
No.
It is actually never a result.
We are in a loop, but no, that's still how it ends.
Well, and there's no St.
Francisine to say.
So the loop gets broken.
So the point of the paradox machine is, of course, it permits the
grandfather paradox to take place where you can go back in time
and kill your ancestors and still exist.
That's why we have the paradox machine.
So that photographane don't wink out of...
Kill this hit show. after killing all of these people.
And so it snaps back.
It's solved.
But what isn't solved is what you say, James, the ultimate fate of
humanity is disgusting and horrifying and we turn ourselves into
monsters at the end of all things.
And it's like the end of, you know, series 3 of Blake 7, where we
all turn into the tar and woodbeast, you know?
Terrence Woodburst. would be.
Title.
And this is much worse than that.
M much, much worse than that.
And even worse than, you know, the master killing huge sways of
the population and turning us into a giant missile base to kill
everyone else with turning, you know, the West into this giant
military machine whose job is basically to launch missiles to kill
other people remotely.
You know, much worse than that is the fact that everyone will die
and there's no escaping it.
We were using drone tech in Afghanistan. back then.
Russell doesn't miss much.
No no.
It's really amazingly, amazingly dark.
Oh, definitely.
Sorry, I'm still struggling with the whole paradox machine thing
because it goes back to something like Day of the Daleks, which I
always struggle with where, you know, by coming back in time
they've created the paradox that they blow up the house and all
that sort of thing.
But they have a Tartar, so they prevent it from happening.
That's what that's called.
It's 60s SF stuff.
It goes back to and you see, you know, my head in.
Good writers did it in original Star Trek, Harlan Ellison, of
course, is a writer who used it a lot.
Samuel Delaney used it.
Yeah, it's a trope that I think it might actually work better in
fiction when you've got 400 pages than an hour's TV.
And it has to be the sort of thing that the master does because
the master can't just be a guy in a nice suit who does
conspiracies.
He has to be a time lord, and so he has to play with time.
And so the paradox machine enables him to do that.
And have a think too, we just alluded to this earlier on about
Lucy.
Like the reason that Lucy is why she is is because she's seen
utopia.
The master took her to see utopia and she realised that everything
dies, everything ends and therefore nothing matters.
Yeah, to break her.
Yeah.
But that's what he's like.
You know, he's motivated by, we said this last week.
I talked about it last week.
He's motivated by being the agent of time in the sense that he
destroys things.
He's the ultimate end of everything.
And so to make her his henchman, he shows her that truth.
It's some Russell is, you know, for all of that jolliness for all
of that.
Everything's marvellous and wasn't everything wonderful and all
those Doctor Who confidentials where he was, you know, so excited
by everything.
As he kicks over a sand car.
And it's all for the kids.
Hey, kids, one day everyone you love will be dead and so will
you.
I have to praise.
John Simm.
Yeah, and I have to praise very much.
Lucy, for their performances in this episode.
I believe that it is an absolute tour de force for him, and I
without him, for me, this episode would have fallen to pieces.
And because he's acting against the Doppy Doctor, and I know that
happened because David Tennant was filming other things and they
needed to go there, but I absolutely hate the Doppy Doctor beyond
all.
I just really dislike it, right?
I love the moment when John Simpson sneaks up behind the door.
He's in the cage and he's in his dressing gown and he sneaks in
like on tiptoe into the room.
It's wonderful.
But his whole performance through this where the doctor tries to
say things to him and he goes, he stops him all the time.
And then obviously at the end where he is shot and refuses to
regenerate.
He's just phenomenal throughout that whole thing.
Russell has thought through all these things, right?
I love the fact that we, you know, he's not going to be locked up
on an island with a governor, right?
Or that he's going to escape in a cock to come back again.
But he's got a, he's got the whole get out of jail card with the
ring that's picked up out of the fire.
I think that's all, it all ties it together.
And I think John Sims performance acting against nothing dealing
with the family and then Lucy, just the battered wife syndrome.
Yeah, yeah.
Just, again, all of that is just amazing.
And I really, that's the part, that's the aspects of the episode
that I really connected with and helped me get through.
I think the battered wife thing is actually maybe just slightly
too dark for Doctor Who, but it is not overplayed.
I also really like.
There's a moment, you know, when the Dolby Doctor 1st emerges, like
crawls out of David Tennant's suit, and then the master gives this
look, like he's seen how crap the special effect is and he's
slightly embarrassed on the doctor's behalf, which I think is
great.
Look, this season, and we've said it over and over again.
We said it over and over again, they reach further than they can
grasp special effects wise.
And I would sooner they did that than be timid.
I would sooner endure a crappy special effect than a lack of
ambition.
And so the Dolby doctor doesn't really work.
It looks nothing like David Tennant. really slightly
embarrassing.
In fact, that's actually one of the most Doctor Who things about
series 3 is that Doctor Who has always reached for than the
special effects could manage.
Look at the CSO in the 70s.
Yeah, no, that's why we love it.
Yeah.
It's the ambition of the, of it to make something brilliant even
when you don't have, you know, 2 pennies to rub together.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, he basically takes over the show.
It's the absence of David Tennant apart from a voice and the big
thing that's fun to watch is John Sim is the master. just
tremendous.
He is tremendous.
The other 2 people I really love in this episode.
Tom Ellis, who is Tom Milligan.
I cannot go past his performance.
Most of performance.
Most of us.
That's what I'm talking.
Well, if you watch Lucifer, then you'll know his performance just
gets better and better, really.
Most of us paused abruptly when he appeared on the screen.
Well, what is he playing with?
Lucifer.
That's him.
Oh, he has done well for himself.
It has indeed.
And the other person is John Barrowman, who I think does a really
stellar performance, is Jack.
Yeah, Tom Milligan's really great.
Let's talk about that little bit that going to see the Toclafane
reveal with Alison Doherty, Professor Doherty.
I just think that is so well told, so economically told.
You know, it's the sort of thing that would have taken easily an
episode or 2 in the classic series, but they just sort of rush
in.
Everything's told really super economically.
Then we get the sort of giant reveal.
And then we humanise it with Professor Doherty, who I just think
is an amazingly good character with a, you know, pining for
countdown and all of that.
I hate the fact that at the end Martha goes and gives her
flowers.
I see, I loved that.
No, I hate it.
Why?
Because it just doesn't ring true to me.
She didn't actually do those things.
But she didn't.
No, it didn't.
But in the bubble universe, it happened.
And I had that potential in her as we all do when your family is
threatened.
You will do anything to say.
I think that's the message.
I think Martha knows that.
And so that's just about Martha forgiving her.
I think that there's something humane about that.
Our response to the master is to want to kill him with a big gun.
Alison Doherty betrays Martha and has her delivered to the master
and it just shows us some forgiveness.
And I actually quite like the sort of little baffled, you know, I
quite like seeing her what her life is like without that year.
Do you know what I mean?
She's an academic at university.
She's happy.
It's really our only chance to see the world set right again, you
know, because the world isn't set right really properly for the
people on the valiant.
So the only sign that everyone's sort of gone back to normal.
I guess it's that and then when she rings Tom in the hospital and
and then hangs up because she knows she can go and get him later
you know.
She doesn't, unfortunately.
Well, maybe she does.
Look, I take your point.
It doesn't move me at all.
I don't particularly like her performance in the show, like I
don't think it's a stellar performance.
I think it's by the numbers.
And I like her phoning Tom, I like that sort of thing.
That's fine, but it just doesn't work for me.
See, the closest we get to sort of a normal person reflecting on
what her life has become in this year, I think.
True.
Tom Milligan point and the destruction of Milligan by Doggerty is
I think, the point of redemption and why I still assume that
Russell is coming from the old Welsh Church position of, you know
forgive everything and be redeemed in turn, buy it.
You may lose everything, but you will actually still be yourself.
Yeah.
Yeah, I think that's that sort of moment of forgiveness.
Like he gets killed and the master makes a fantastic joke.
Like it's horribly bleak, isn't it?
The way that the master kind of shoots him and then does that
throwaway line about it.
Oh, I've never killed anyone before.
My 1st blood, you know, he says, and he kind of laughs and stuff
and it's horrible.
Like the master is sort of super horrible in it.
But just, just having it put right, you know, Tom's okay and
Alison's forgiven and we can move on and I guess that's what
Martha's job is at the end of the episode, isn't it?
to kind of fix what they've experienced.
It is super religious, isn't it?
You know, the world has gone to hell and it's saved through faith
and it's a very anti-Russell.
Yeah.
It's a very anti-Russell position to take.
I would have thought, but perhaps not.
Well, I think that, yeah, every cynic is actually an optimist in
search of the truth and redemption.
Yeah, or, you know, like he seems to have a sort of wistful kind
of feeling about religion.
You know, his 1st mention of religion is in the end of the world
where he lists it as one of the weapons that's forbidden on
platform one.
But gridlock talks about religion being a positive unifying force
that enables these people, all of these disparate, diverse people
to find a way of living together under really difficult
circumstances.
But at the same time, he sees it as a thing that prevents them
from doing anything about those terrible circumstances.
So he's not one way or another about religion, and he's not
religious, but he's clearly interested in it, and he's happy to
borrow its iconography.
These are stories that, you know, permeate our culture and and
even though we're all sort of, you know, in a post-religious
environment, those stories are really resonant.
I think that it's nice to see him kind of dip in and use them.
So, of course, Martha just happens to survive through chance, Tom
running out and saving her, the master's quite prepared to kill
off a Doctor Who companion, and then she just happens to get taken
up to the craft just in time for the countdown to be going down
and a series of conveniences, and she's still Martha Blankface up
until the point where she begins to laugh.
I find it. great to see that happening, but I find it so jarring
after an episode of very little, for me, emotion from her.
Suddenly it's like this, this laughter, but in that moment, it
reminded me of how much I really love Freema, and she's such a
this is such a Joe Grant moment.
I just feel that.
And the fact that we then see everybody chanting the doctor at the
same time, and I'm getting chills now.
I really love that moment, you know, obviously through this, I've
been talking about all these nickels that I have.
But I just want to say to people, I still like this episode
right?
I still give it 7 or 7.5 , but that's 2 points less than what I
would give last week because of those things.
But through her actions at the end, through getting rid of the
dormy doctor, through John Sims performance, through her mum's
performance, the sheer will of the performances get me through to
this point.
And I think I can't see any other way of doing it.
Like Russell has plotted everything out, right?
And it's, I think it's some of the best plotting that he's ever
really done and set up.
And he ties up everything.
But for some reason, I'm for some reason.
I'm still at this point, slightly unsatisfied, which is why it's
not my favourite finale of these 1st 3 years.
But in that moment, in that moment of everybody chanting the
doctor, I think it's, I think that's a magical moment, magical.
What I think is a little bit less magical is David Tennant
cradling John Simmons in his arms and blubbing and boring snort
all over him and just doing his usual horrible overacting thing.
I just found that all just a little bit hard to take.
This is where I think John Simm absolutely shines in that moment
and it makes David Tennant.
He's saying, I would rather die than continue this scene with
him.
But making a joke out of it, but actually, this comes back to what
we were saying earlier about the masters never really won.
And in that moment, he wins.
Yeah.
He says, well, you know, you've defeated my plan.
You, you know, you want to imprison me in your Tartars for the, for
the rest of eternity.
No, I get to win.
I'm going to win in this situation.
I'm going to die.
Yeah.
He doesn't die.
He's got another plan.
Russell said it's the Rani that rescues the ring.
Yeah, yeah.
Back in the day.
Or it ends up being Mrs. Trefusis, doesn't it?
Which, of course, is Vivian Faye, isn't it?
Yes Yeah.
But I think it's, you know, the governor of Wentworth cell block
age.
I think it's some, definitely.
Mrs. Davidson.
Well, no, it's actually like it's actually Tracy Simpson's hand.
Okay, right, right.
And that is set up.
So it does look like he wins by dying, but he does have a sort of
evil backup land.
Yeah, get out of jail free car.
But I like that because so often in the original series, he's like
burnt to death and then no explanation as to why he's been
resurrected.
And I like that little touches that you can take it or leave it.
But it will come back into play.
So he did escape from Castrovava after all.
But they, I mean, he does get to talk about the sea devils and the
axons.
I like that stuff.
It's very good.
But there's no escaping the end of the season and the departure of
Martha Jones, if we can talk about this for a moment.
Yeah.
I think it's the best companion departure in you who, having now
watched 11 years.
For once somebody gets to leave on their own terms, without being
displaced in time, near death, you know, away from their real
world.
And yes, she's got a job to do, but it's her job and the strength
that she shows in that sequence.
I'm just so in awe of not only the character and the writing, but
the performance of Freema and my opinion of her has just
completely changed.
I would tend to agree with you on that.
So this character for the entire season has been robbed somewhat
of her agency.
She's got a crush on this man who basically takes perfect
granted.
And in that moment she says, no, I'm in control of my life.
I'm making this decision.
I'm leaving because this is my life.
I like how she gets to say it.
Like, initially, she says, I have to leave and look after my
family, and that's what she has always done.
You know, she is caring in a way that Rose wasn't.
And then she comes back and says, no, actually, here's why I'm
leaving.
And I really, really like that scene and I kind of like it because
we've talked before.
I cry at companion departures.
I don't cry when the doctor regenerates, particularly because
they're still the doctor, but this one, I just think, is amazing.
And I love her coming back and telling that story and the doctor
kind of goes, is this going anywhere?
you know, where is this going?
And then she makes her point and she gets to leave triumphantly.
And it's a problem, you know, that the show has, basically the
only way you can write someone out is having the doctor lock the
door on them and leave them outside the 1st time they meet some
passing Scotsman.
Yeah.
Doing the accent.
That's right.
And now that the doctor can control the TARDIS and come back
whenever he wants.
Why would a companion ever have to leave at all?
And they went to great lengths to get rid of Billy.
And this one is brilliant.
She just says, nope, I'm done.
I've had enough, and it's not a sort of Tegan, I can't cope with
another Eric Saywood story.
I've got to go.
See?
Yes. 9 stories, 900 stories.
I mean, we've talked about, you know, companion departures in the
classic series being a case of, uh, contract Hodson's contract
roulette.
That's right.
And so how so many of them are so poorly flagged and visualised.
And here, it is just so well done.
I think I hope that, obviously, we've just watched the 1st series
of Jody.
I hope that when these 3 companions go, that Chris takes a note of
this rather than having to kill them or pseudo kill them or
whatever it is, that they can leave on their own terms like this
because I just think it should have happened more than when it's
happened now.
But it makes it unique at this and that's why it's so powerful.
So she's the only companion who doesn't leave for science fiction
reasons.
Is that right?
In the new series.
Well, I mean, look at look at Rose.
Like, so she's an alternative thing.
You look at Rory and Amy, like they've been zapped back in time, so
they can't see the family.
I mean she gets the choice to make, but he doesn't.
Yeah, and then Clara and Bill both travel in time together and
become the doctor and stuff.
But then dead or alive.
Depending on what you think.
Or a puddle.
Play a radio puddle.
To me.
And then, of course, Donna, the version of Donna is not the same
version.
Like, she dies in a way.
So that's why I really love this departure.
I think they always sort of play it in such a way and they do it
kind of deliberately, you know, that thing where in a companion's
last episode, they say there's no way I could ever leave you, ever
ever, ever sort of thing.
And then they're, you know, a bird flies into them or something.
You know.
And so just having someone leave for normal character reasons, I
think is great. is brilliant.
And Martha, we'll be back next year.
She makes that quite clear and in fact, I think she does 4
episodes next year, 4 or 5 episodes, and she'll do a few
torchwoods as well.
So she is back, perhaps not quite as rewardingly as we might have
hoped, but she'll be back.
And I think it's the best companion departure, like you, Todd.
I think it's the best companion departure of the new series.
I'll go with my pick at the wink.
And as always, I'm going to go with a classic Doctor Who story.
Brilliant.
One which has the Toclafane of the original series.
Very shimmery and I'm sure their ultimate reveal will just make
you dumbfounded.
Vardens.
It's got the original space rhinos of the original series, the
Santarans.
It's even got Time Lords in it.
And it's got one of the best companion departures ever in the
history of Doctor Who.
This is how it should be done in contract roulette.
It's even got a slight cliffhanger into the next series with a bit
of a reveal.
So, of course, as we know it here, it's Tom Barker and Lois
Jemison in carry on Galafreeing, or as you will know it, the
invasion of time.
Good choice.
I thought I was wrong.
It is actually a very good story for all the reasons it shouldn't
be.
Invasion of time.
Maybe there's got some parallels to this one because of that as
well.
Maybe.
You know, it's for the companion departure, right?
As a...
Are you saying it's unparallel with this companion?
We've just seen how good it can be.
Oh, I think they wanted to go back and see, well, you know.
Dodo sends her love and I hope so.
Ow.
So my pick of the week is life on Mars.
Oh, good choice.
Oh, wow, yeah.
I still think it is one of the best mystery, police procedural
supernatural sci-fi fantasy shows that the BBC has ever made.
And they've made a lot of them.
It shows that Matthew Graham can actually write.
Yeah.
Sorry, what else did you do for me and the listeners?
Fear.
And the rebel flesh, the also people.
Oh, well, that's very good.
Did he do the doctor's daughter as well?
No, that's Stephen Greenwood. sorry.
I forgot that.
I was thinking the doctor's wife.
We're cutting all this.
It makes us look like we don't know about Doctor Who.
I'm shocked that you haven't chosen a big finish.
I know.
So am I. Yes, I mean, I really love life on Mars.
I think it is brilliant and ashes to ashes, I think, actually
improves on it.
So go and watch them now.
Brilliant.
When are we doing the life on Mars Ashes to Ashes podcast?
You just did it, darling.
Hey.
That was it.
We are coming up on the 2 year mark since the yes result in the
postal survey.
And on a personal note, we're recording this on the day before, uh
well, the the day before my 1st anniversary, 1st wedding
anniversary, and of course, the 1st anniversary of the release of
our World War 3 episode just as importantly.
And so what I want to recommend is a book called How Powerful We
Are by Sally Rugg, who ran the Marriage Equality Campaign.
She was an activist who used to work for get up, and it is an
account of the years of work that led up to our final victory in
that horrific postal survey that was inflicted on us.
It is a hard read at times and it does bring back memories of a
pretty rough few weeks, but it is absolutely, I think, worth
remembering and commemorating.
So that Sally Rugg, how powerful we are.
It's also kind of draws a parallel to the power of the human
spirit to turn doctor into an angel.
Oh, it's Martha going around the world and telling people to vote
yes, in the postal service.
My only pick of the week and it's really little.
And I think you can actually get it free.
Just because it's grabbed for me this week, what Russell's been
writing about.
And because of lovely friend of the podcast, Richard Ewitt, I have
subscription to the London review of books.
And thank you, Richard.
And John Manchester, who's one of the really good writers, talks
about the case for the universal basic income.
And it really does feel like, oh, this is just another Russell
episode if he actually stuck around.
I think it's what this story has been telling us, if we simply
have a structure of society that supports everyone, no matter what
side of politics you come from, we could avoid the Saxons.
Although they are fun.
They are fun.
For a little while.
It's difficult, isn't it?
How much fun do you need?
Well, there is her, we're off to hunt whatever's still left of our
families at this point, so that's all the time we have for this
week.
We'll be back next week to clear up all the mess we've made in the
last few months in our series 3 retrospective.
In the meantime, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts
and you can keep up with us at Flight Through Entirety on Facebook
at FTE podcast on Twitter, and on our website, Flightthrough
Entirety.com, where you'll find links to our other podcasts
Bondfinger and Jody Interterra.
Until next time, remember that the universe ends in a 100 trillion
years, so you've probably got enough time for just one more space
1999 marathon.
Thank you very much for listening and good night.
See you soon.
Good everything.
That was Flight Through Entirety, starring Todd Bilby, Nathan
Bottomley, James Selwood, and Richard Stone.
Theme arrangement by Cameron Lamb, Strings Performance by Jane
Orberg.
This episode, saving the world with the power of podcasting, was
recorded on the 22nd of September 2019 and released on the 8th of
December.
It took us about 12 years to come up with all that nonsense about
last of the time, Lords.
If you want to see what we can come up with in just a couple of
days, make sure you're still subscribed to our Doctor Who
flashcast Jody into Tara, which will be starting up again in the
new year.
Do you know the Sean and Vicky reference that I did?
Sean and Vicky.
Nathan, I've got no idea what you just mentioned about the Sean
and Vicky records.
I've got no idea This isn't going in.
So it's, it's, um, it's, Sean, Vicky is the person who was in love
with Sean, the flatmate.
She was in love with Sean the whole time, but he never noticed
her.
It's the story that Martha comes in and tells the dog.
That's right.
So we were doing Sean the whole time behind Vicki's back.
Okay, thank you.
I was so proud of that.
That's very clever.
That's my jokes.
That's all right.
All right.
So director Colin Teague is back.
Hooray.
For part two.
What's he done besides these 2 episodes?
Torchwood.
Oh okay.
Lots and lots of torchwood.
Tortured in the Sarah Jane adventures mostly.
Right, okay.
But no other Doctor Who other than these two episodes?
I think he comes back. he?
Can we look it up?
Yeah, I think we really ought too, James.
Keep talking when it's slow.
Well, wait, no, no, don't keep talking.
We can't solve anything.
Uh, Wiki.
Also, more graphy.
I am almost there.
I heard a cry.
That was me.
I heard a cry.
That was...
Holby City, lovers burning shooters, Sarah Jane tortured Doctor
Who, 3 episodes, 2007 to 2008.
So you must have done one next year.
Being human, hustle.
Okay.
Maybe we could talk to that.
So this is this is Colin 2nd episode.
Yeah, and we'll do one more next year.
So we open.
One year later.