Hello, Delistra, and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety, the
only Doctor Who podcast, still having very vivid dreams about John
Sim every night for the last 11 years.
I'm Nathan.
I'm James I'm Peter.
And I'm Skeletor.
Well, Christmas is cancelled.
There's a crazed billionaire running the world and leering at his
half-wit daughter, and Tony Blair is wandering the wastelands and
eating the homeless.
So things are very much business as usual in the penultimate
episode of the David Tennant era, the end of time part one.
I think we're gonna break with tradition and just start at the
very beginning.
Very good place to start.
Yeah.
So we actually start with the classic Russell T. Davis shot for
the last time of the Earth from space, don't we?
We don't sort of descend through the clouds into Chiswick, but we
do start with that particular moment, I thought it was worth
noting because it's our last one, sort of.
And of course, Moffo will do that.
Start next season's a cheeky little reference.
Yeah, although he has a different take on the on the opening scene
after the credits begin, but we're getting ahead of ourselves.
How do we feel about this opening scene?
It's got Sir Bernard in it, so obviously it's superb.
I think it's great to see him trundling along and, you know, um
with his shopping and it's Christmas and then we're going into the
church and there's the whole voiceover stuff and I just love all
the stuff with, um, you know, as he spies the TARDIS in the
stained glass window.
I just really like, like, I have a notion.
Yeah, it's not going to be particularly Christmassy, is it?
But this is the most Christmassy bit.
I think maybe it's choir practice because no one else seems to be
in the church.
And we have Wilf in front of a war memorial, which will be
important, I think, you know, both this week and particularly next
week.
And we have Timothy Dalton.
And I am not a big fan of voiceovers.
And I think the way this story relies on voiceovers makes me think
that perhaps another revision might have not gone Australia.
It always seems to be a sort of crutch a bit.
But it does the Moffat trick where the person doing the voiceover
the narrator actually ends up being a major character.
That's an absolute Moffat thing to do.
And it is, of course, Timothy Dalton, who is incredibly great.
But Nathan, I think that the voiceovers in this paper over the
cracks in the plot, really, like they're holding it together.
Yeah.
And he's never used it before, has he?
Well, I mean, no, he does at the beginning of doomsday, I think, or
what is it?
Army of Ghost starts with Billy's voiceover.
Yeah, that's Rose, though.
It's not a character who's just sort of, you know, its omnipotent
voice.
No.
And I guess we've got Elton telling the story of love and
monsters.
And he sort of has control over the narrative in the way that sort
of wrestle on Will.
But it is sort of a sort of slightly strange thing, I think.
Well, it's the kind of thing which Russell's always shied away
from.
And I think it might be indicative of a few of the problems I have
with this episode and that he's fallen back on that and he never
has done in the past. hm, where's this leading?
In fact, it puts me in mind of Romana.
Remember she says portentous?
Well, that's what it is, but pretentious is the word.
I can forgive all the cracks that this episode has because it has
wealth in it.
Getting back to Bernard Crippen's like, I love the fact that he
becomes a companion for 2 episodes.
I think that's fantastic.
Yeah, no.
And he's in the opening credits, so the master's a companion as
well.
And the fact that the opening focusses on Wolf means that this is
going to be to a certain extent good because you know it's going
to have an industrial level of will in it.
Yeah.
And it is Wolf's story.
I mean, the job of the pre-credit sequences to tell us what the
episode will be about.
And so that pre-credit sequence ends with the master laughing
which is the dream that everyone in the world or possibly the
universe.
It's hard to tell has been having for the last little while.
And so it goes from Wilf.
It touches on his war thing.
It touches on the, you know, what the doctor's job is.
Um, and then it hits the beat with the master.
Yeah, and you've got the mystery woman in white just apparating in
and out, you know, as part of the plot.
I think it's Chancellor Flavia.
Rodan.
Well, she certainly wrote an in from somewhere.
So Brendan, father of the podcast, Brendan, agrees with Russell T
Davis that it's the doctor's mum.
It very clearly has to be a doctor's mum, in which case it's
abusive torturer Tech Teune, which is a sort of fairly upsetting
thought.
Don't bring Chris Tripple into this.
Well why not?
I mean, there's lots of time lords, galafray nonsense.
In fact, I think, now, I'm a big fan of hating on Gallifrey, and
we will talk more about Gallifrey next week, because it's
obviously hugely important, and this episode doesn't really do
Gallifrey, but I do think after absolutely not doing Gallifrey for
5 years, I think it's inevitable here.
And I think it's Julie Gardner as well, who agreed with that, that
we now get to touch on Galafray, we now get to do the thing that
the show started with, which, which was the reveal of the time
war.
I think it was inevitable as well, but unfortunately, I think they
stuffed it up.
Right.
Yeah.
That's entirely possible.
So here we have something that's all set up.
Is that right?
This episode really is establishing the players and shifting
things into place and the voiceover actually kind of says that.
So Timothy Dalton comes back at about 29 minutes.
It's the whole episode is basically a 60 minute pre-credit
sequence for the 2nd episode.
And it often happens that that's the case with a two-parter
doesn't it?
Yes, and especially the Russell two-parters.
Like, we're just marking time and moving people around and trying
to give red herrings and give funny bits of dialogue and bits of
heart and but also, you know, put you off track and and have you
guessing and not give you all the information until, you know, we
get into part two.
Yeah, episodes one's all build up, so 2 is all payoff.
Well, it should be.
Well, that's what I think might be a structural problem and that
episode one builds up to the big cliffhanger, but then the big
cliffhanger is kind of thrown away, and episode 2 doesn't pay it
off.
So it's a strange structure.
We will talk about the cliffhanger at the end, of course.
I think it's spectacular for a couple of reasons, but we will get
to it.
Well, we start off with the oud, really.
The doctor turning up in a comedy classic scene of, you know, with
his keys to the TARDIS and...
So you know where that scene was filmed?
Alaska.
Whoopie hole.
W wonderful. found out this could only have been improved by one
of those cybermen turning up and maybe the vogan round the
corner.
Can anyone give?
And possibly someone almost drowning?
So I think this scene is super weird. and I think it actually
points to why the specials kind of fail.
So we build up to this massive, massive character moment at the
end of Waters of Mars, which I think doesn't work at all and
showcases all of the worst things about David Tennant's
performances, the doctor.
And then we kind of throw it away.
And I don't know, are we meant to read his kind of offhanded
comedy thing is menacing because he's not really playing it like
that.
Yeah, I think maybe we're meant to read it as the doctor is kind
of vamping a little bit and having fun because he doesn't want to
face what's going on, but it just comes across as misplaced
whimsy.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, like comedy in Doctor Who is great and naming a
galaxy.
Alison is a pretty cool thing to do, but I just don't know.
We had this big, big giant moment.
You know, the doctor had gone crazy and he'd gone too far because
he saved a bunch of people and that was wrong for some reason.
And now he's, like, and there's no, is there any, any cost to
that?
You know, the doctor has been fooling about instead of doing what
Bude Sigma told him to do.
I think the cost is however much you're willing to pay for Time
Lord Victorious.
Yeah, no, that would be right.
Whatever that is. a lot I think it could have worked, but it
actually needed to be funny, and the problem with those scenes is
they're not actually very funny.
You know, the TARDIS kind of thing clicked locket and...
It's not actually very amusing.
Whereas it'd be genuinely funny. would have gone along with it.
I think part of it is that it is just intentionally broad because
it's Christmas.
Do you know what I mean?
And so the joke that that the sort of sonic screwdriver being the
you know, key fob for your car.
Oh, yeah.
Like, that's cute and sort of funny.
It's not super witty or anything.
And Russell doesn't go for like massively hilarious jokes sort of
generally.
I don't know, I just found it irritating.
There is a line of dialogue that says, you know, if only you'd
come straight here or whatever, something might have been better
but there don't seem to be any consequences to her.
There's a cleverness lacking in the scene, I think, which I'm used
to from Russell.
Russell's an extremely clever, an able writer, and yet they feel a
little bit disappointing, and it's got to be the fact that he was
running on empty, having written so many episodes and like come
back for the specials when, you know, he basically from the next
doctor, he'd sort of run out of steam a little bit.
But yeah, I'm disappointed him and I'm not I'm not bagging him for
that because my expectations of Russell are so high.
This is like the 10th episode in a row he's written.
Oh, next week, it's the 10th episode.
Right is written, I think.
Yeah.
Oh, I don't mind it.
Well, I mean, I think it's, I think it's agreeable enough.
I think it's a way into the next bit, which is the ood telling
what's going on now and having flashbacks to the end of series 3
with the master and trying to do a big, huge info dump with the
master, the master's wife, the naysmiths, and all of that
happening kind of all at once. which I think Russell does very
well.
You know, he gets all that information out there.
And you don't feel like it's a headless chicken or whatever they
what's that, the timeless children episode where you just get the
where you just get spoken to, right?
And so boring.
Whereas whereas here he's trying, we're going from the comedy bit
into this info dump and we're trying to make it as easy as
possible so that everybody's on the same page.
So we have the oud talking about a prophecy, and at this moment in
our episode, I want to do a prophecy count.
So how many prophecies are out there kind of kicking around at
this point.
You will knock 4 times.
He'll knock 4 times.
The Oudes prophecy.
He is returning.
He is returning. returning. returning.
So is it three?
It's they and he.
Okay, that can be 5 then.
Martha and Mickey will get together.
Yeah.
So I want that spinoff.
I actually think it's just about permissible.
Okay.
You hate prophecies, Todd?
Is it you who hate its prophecies?
No, you're good with them.
I don't know.
I'm so tired.
I have no idea.
I no idea.
On that note, do you know what I don't like about prophecies?
I don't like mysterious figures?
and this will appear, I think, at the start of the next episode
where we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves, but
mysterious figures who talk nonsense and are delivering
prophecies.
And there's one with the time lords.
The old woman who's scratching away at the things and going, blah
blah, blah, he will return.
It's exactly the same as Dalek Khan from Journey Zend, who is
infinitely more entertaining.
You're not sure reminds me of the Rybots operation.
Yes.
Yes, if only you could have had anti, I'd imagine boons of our
fathers.
Oh, this is our kids.
There's no way that Russell didn't steal that from there.
Of course.
And she's got a sort of sisterhood of Khan vibe.
But I think that the prophecies kind of work in a way, because
prophecies and coincidences, because we've not even mentioned
Claire Bloom prophesying either, so we're probably up to about 12
by now.
Because the time lords are returning and because the time lords
have this relationship with time, that Russell makes properly
mysterious, Russell's time lords have a much more kind of weird
you know.
Yeah, yeah.
And so time, you know, causality goes backwards and there are
coincidences and all of these things are happening because gala
phrase is about to kind of burst onto the stage.
So I'm going to let it pass even though it is probably a bit of a
cheat.
But also, if you're going to have big portentous slash pretentious
prophecies.
These are the episodes to do it.
These are like the big banner episodes.
It's an important series for the public.
Do something big.
That's fine.
Clan likes to prophesy, doesn't she?
Doesn't get our prophecies very right. like, you know, tell the
doctor of nothing of this.
His life could still be saved as long as you tell him nothing.
Really, honey, he's got 2 episodes to go, he's not going to be
safe.
Well, he doesn't get killed.
He just turns into Matt Smith. which is not such a bad thing.
But also, if you're going to tell the doctor nothing.
Why are you bothering to tell Wolf?
That's right.
Just don't mention it.
And she tries to get him to take the gun, right?
Like later on when they're watching the queen's speech and I love
the fact that she's got that sort of hair and the pearl necklace
and all of that sort of thing and she turns up on the tally
instead of the queen being sort of terribly posh.
Everyone in Russell stories turns up on the telly.
Rose did.
If you got a telly, there they are.
Yeah, speaking of turning up on the telly, you know that Lachelle
Carl was actually supposed to have a guest role in this, not on
the telly.
Trinity Wells was actually going to appear in person reporting, I
think, at one point.
I think it's the scene where the doctor arrives at the prison.
Ah, yeah.
And she would have been reporting on the scene and would have
given him some information that would have moved the plot on.
You see, if they hadn't have had the oud in the 2nd half, we will
sing you to your sleep.
They could have had Trinity Wells turn up without a mic and
everything.
Dr. Staggers towards the Tartars. amazing.
What dramatically reporting of this man is taking to it?
We have seen Rose Tyler walk up the stairs to the flat.
Oh dear.
Or maybe before we launch into the our analysis of the episode as
a whole, there is another introductory scene that we need to talk
about, which is obviously the prisoner cell block age scene.
Can I just say it's just absolutely hilarious that we have like
the governor, right?
And then Mrs. Trefusius?
I wonder if she she obviously made it across from Spain or
wherever.
The Stone Circle, she did.
And Lucy Saxon, you've got all of that going on.
It's like a game of you know, because they put down one card, right
to say, well, we've trumped you because we've got the books of
Saxon.
And then Lucy's doing something.
So she tries to trump her with the next you know card.
It's like, it's layer upon layer upon layer, and it makes, like
it's just ridiculous.
It makes me smile, but it's just so like, well, look at us.
We've started this and we've countering you and we're countering
you and curse of fatal death.
Well, I mean, that scene can only have been improved if the freak
had turned up, gloves and all.
Well, I think that the missus whatever.
She's not the governor, but the sort of chief.
I mean, the governor sort of Erica Davison, perhaps, you know, just
a few decades earlier.
And then that sort of grey-haired woman has a very kind of Maggie
Kirkpatrick sort of vibe.
She does.
She could have brought back Harold Saxon from the dead and got a
cut of the poke money or story at the same time.
But I love the way in which it is tied back to season 3 and that
was always an ouch.
Like, that was always set up, which is great.
I mean, if we'd just got this as a cutaway that wasn't back in
that episode with the master dying, then I would have been quite
irritated, but he's obviously, again, it's this Russell thing
where he does things, and then I pay off later, even if he hasn't
got it fully planned at the time.
Yeah, I suspect that he didn't have it fully planned, but he knows
that you're always going to want to bring the master back.
He's a child of the 80s.
Yeah, exactly right.
He knows, you know, that scene in Planet of Fire, where I
genuinely thought as a kid that that was it.
The master was dead.
He burned up. you know, how can he get out of this?
And so Russell absolutely kills him.
Has the doctor burned his body and then leaves an out.
And it's fantastic that Chris Chibnall has actually built on that
because when the master has to live through the 20th century, He
obviously has written the 5 or 10 volumes of the books of Saxon in
that time because he's not going to interfere with any of his
other history during that time.
So he's just sat in a room and he's written all these books that
they can then use.
I think that you should email that to Christian all because that
will be the basis of a future episode.
I can hardly wait.
The next season finale.
Yeah, I would think.
You see, I'm sad that they brought the master back because not
because I don't like the master, but because I thought his
character arc was so good in sound of drums and last of the time
lords, that he's kind of brought back for nothing but to be a
spectacle in these episodes.
There's no sort of character development there, really.
Oh, you don't think?
No, no, no.
I think that there's really interesting character development.
I think we'll leave it till our next episode.
But he is brought back for a reason.
And the other reason I think he's brought back.
I mean, you know, Russell knows about the final game and the fact
that Pertley didn't get to face off against the master in his
regeneration story, which was sort of rather tragic.
So he's obviously pairing them again.
What has he got to do every single season finale?
And this is functionally a season finale, isn't it?
The series finale, has had the master or the cybermen or the
Daleks.
And so, you know, he always goes big for the series finale.
So he brings the master back.
And there's no monsters in this story.
Well, he kind of turns the master into a little bit of a monster
in those scenes and that's actually one of my problems with the
character.
I think it debases the character a little bit.
But don't you think that that's what's actually happened?
Because so he's still the master.
And I think the costuming is really brilliant because he's wearing
a black hoodie.
So he's got a hood and you can see his red t-shirt, like the hem
of his red t-shirt.
And actually, this was at the same time that David Cameron, pre
being Prime Minister, was running his whole hugger hoodie
campaign.
All right.
So he goes from being Prime Minister of Great Britain to being, you
know, one of the kind of lowest members of society as far as
status is concerned.
I think that's kind of interesting because I think this story, and
I'll get into it a bit later, is about hierarchy and status, you
know, in a huge way.
That I have no problem with.
I think that's really good.
But then what becomes of the master, you don't get character
moments between him and the doctor, you don't get any exploration
of that theme.
You get the master turning into a Marvel or DC sort of villain and
bouncing round the place and firing energy bolts from his hands
and things.
And I think that could have been any villain.
Why is that the master?
See, I agree with both of you.
I think it's an interesting thing to make the master this sort of
debased character who has lost all his power and sophistication
and status.
But I think making him into some sort of weird flying skeleton man
is a move too far.
But except that wonderful scene with the food truck where he eats
the 2 ladies who are making sandwiches.
Like we go back to the food truck and they're just kind of charred
skeletons.
And that's our only kind of death.
Todd, you must have been hanging out for it. just love that.
They cut back to it and you've got them still in their outfits, but
they're child skeletons.
I 1st out laughing because in the 1980s, the original series of V
there was this triangle between Charles, Diana, and Lydia, and
Lydia was trying to poison Diana, but instead, the poison cup goes
to Charles, and Lydia walks in, and she's talking to Charles, and
the chair spins around, and there's this skeleton of a lizard in
the V outfit, and it just reminded me of that so much.
I think it's brilliant.
And I love the fact that the master's this super, um, skeletor, you
know, type creature because I think in, in all of this, the
brilliance of Russell Teen Davis actually shines through because
he keeps coming back to Wilf and saying, you know, you're not
special or you're special and, and I keep meeting you, right?
And at no point I actually think that it's going to be the knock 4
times thing, right?
He's got all these other red herrings all the way through.
It kind of reminds me a bit of the mask of men, Dragra, where
you've got the count who thinks he's the main villain, right?
But he's not.
That's the Naysmiths, then you've got Hieronymus, which is really
the master.
And but behind all of that, you've got the Mandrago Helix, which
of course is Wrestleon and the Time Lord.
And then we've also got the cactus people.
So you've got all these different things that he's set up where
you think, well, they're going to be the villain, they're going to
be the villain, who is the villain, and everything keeps coming
back to Will all the time to keep, but then they break away with a
joke or a heartfelt moment or some plot thing.
And so I have no problem with the master turning into Skeletor at
all.
I actually think it's really funny Although it does give us that
appalling moment in David Tennant's acting where he's on the
ground with John Sim and asks him something and I just thought
that is the worst bit of acting that David Tennant has ever done
in the history of his time on Doctor Who.
I've got to find it in my notes.
Sorry.
Oh, yes, the master he is, he is like one, two, three, four, and
the doctor says, what's inside your head?
It's the worst bit of acting David Tennant has ever done.
Is that the moment where the doctor realises and therefore the
master realises that the 4 beats inside his head are real.
So they're audible to tenet.
I don't like that moment.
But I think John Simmons spectacular in this, and I give him
absolute kudos for all of the things that he has to get into all
of those different outfits, you know, at the end and play all
those different characters slightly differently.
And even when he says like the master race, like it could have
been so like so cheesy, but I just adore it.
Like, I did not like John Sim back in season 3 originally at all
right?
Second time through.
Much improve.
And I think he does a spectacular job here.
And when he's hungry all the time, like ripping, doesn't it make
you feel a bit sick, seeing all of that fast motion eating?
It's meant to, isn't it?
absolutely intentional. doesn't mean I want to watch it.
And he's ripping that turkey apart and what we're doing now.
Thanks, Peter.
And David Harewood, is it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
David Herald is like mortified from Supergirl.
Yeah.
You know, I can't take him seriously.
Like he's got gravitas.
But he's got the English accent here and I'm so used to him being
in retirement mode in Supergirl using John Jones using the
American accent.
But here, like the nice Mr. Built Up, and I'm going to make my
daughter discovered the secret books and, you know, really, she's
just like from the secret housewives of, you know, Cambridge on
Thames or something like that.
And so for me, it's like, I love the fact that Russell has created
these really super crap villains who think they're all that, but
they really are all crap.
Yeah, yeah.
And the fact that he loves her so much and he's going to put it on
a pedestal and she's so appalling.
Like it just is just, it's delicious.
That is one of the things I quite like about this episode.
The supervillains in it are really inept.
Yeah, well, it's kind of funny, isn't it?
And it is because they're a faint.
It is because they're not the real villains.
But I do think making them billionaires is interesting because
you've got homeless people.
You've got the middle class family, you know, the noble family
you've got billionaires.
You've got the master who is makes his way up that hierarchy.
Only, you know, once he hits the top of the hierarchy, suddenly
he's SmackDown because there's something much, much worse than
anything we've ever seen before in Doctor Who.
And you've got the aristocracy coming back.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, that yeah, that's exactly it.
Yeah.
And you've got June Whitfield and the Silver Cloak.
You've spent weeks now talking about how crap June Whitfield is in
this, but I actually think...
No, you're the one, Peter.
You're the one, Peter, who has talked about how rubbish shit.
June Whitfield can bite me.
I think there's very, very little between her performances, mother
on Ab Fab and her performance here.
It's not quite as sort of demented as the mother in ab fab.
Isn't that the whole point?
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.
Like, she is supposed to be, you know, we've had a few whiskeys
and scotches and, oh, it's June Whitfield and she knows she's
comedy relief and she's playing for comedy relief, but it totally
takes me out of things watching it now.
It's a mugging for the camera.
I mean, it's 0 god.
And her friend, her friend who's so into David Tenner. who looks
like who Richard Franklin friend.
Oh, a bit of crumpet or whatever.
He really wants David Tennant's photo.
But that's the problem.
They're both into him.
And I afraid that being old doesn't give you license to grab
someone's arse.
Hashtag mini too.
And she did it like every take, she pitched his parmada.
But I think it works, Lieutenant, because Tenant is so kind of
sexually confident as the doctor, you know?
Oh, so he doesn't have a bumby, has he?
That's right. should lose a hand.
So I don't, you know, like, I don't mind that at all.
And I also like the fact that Russell allows old people to be
sexual, which is not a thing that is normally sort of permitted on
television.
Junkie.
She's not that old.
Speaking as an old person.
She's younger than you.
No, no.
Actually, June Whitfield is fine.
She does mug for the camera and it is irritating and I love her.
So, you know, me, my bones rot saying it.
I love it too.
But I just think it's hilarious.
Like, you know, the master and the doctor are in that junkyard or
boatyard or wherever they are.
What is it?
Well, I walked into that, didn't I?
And then they just enter from stage left, like out of nowhere.
Like, the camera just sort of cuts to them and it's like, where's
the bus?
Where they come from?
Oh, no, they were all as a pack.
They're moving as a pack and they've found him as a pack.
And I just laugh at that bit of direction by Euroslim.
They were just waiting behind some scrap.
For their cue.
Exactly, James, exactly.
That is what it looks like.
They're just polished off the remains of those people in the
truck.
Yeah, no, this is indicative of the problem.
June wheatfield is fine.
But the silver cloak is just dressing.
And that's all this episode is it's all dressing.
There's no meat on the bones, so to speak.
You know, the silver cloak was actually a discarded idea that
Russell came up with for partners in crime.
Oh, really?
It's also what the Vardens wore in the invasion of time.
So, so was the idea, because it took Donna a year to find the
doctor and the silver cloak do it in about 15 minutes, was it, was
Wilf helping Donna find the doctor originally?
Is that what was that the plan?
Who knows?
That's better.
That's all I know.
Yeah, Will wasn't really a live thing in the planning of series 4
in any case.
He just ended up being there.
Yeah, I mean, it's another one of those coincidences.
And you can just about sell it because there's a line about there
being lots of coincidences, you know, or no such thing as
coincidence.
The thing is, you have all that scene with, you know, let's get a
photograph with the doctor and just as I'm beginning to get
irritated.
We then jump to Will from the doctor in the cafe, having that
conversation with Donna turning up outside and just the emotional
resonance and how sort of affected that I get by it all the time.
So just when you have a, I find that in this episode, when I have
a moment where it's like, oh, that's a bit crap.
I then suddenly have a moment where I'm laughing or I'm really
that he goes for the heart strings.
I think David Tennant is really good in that scene.
And when David Tennant has to cry and stuff, I usually find him
like super irritating.
But here, there's that moment where he's just about to burst into
tears and where Wolf, you know, is so kind of heartbroken and his
response is so just sort of warm and beautiful.
And then it's diffused, like they kind of laugh or, you know, he
doesn't quite come back.
It's not quite jolly, but he sort of, he sort of pulls it together
and kind of tries to make light of it.
And it's so real and it's so good and tenant is great in it.
It's a really good scene.
And it's not overwrought. melancholy.
Yeah, yeah, that's what you want.
There will be overwrought later.
Right, absolutely, there will. agree with you.
It's one of the highlights of dated tenant in this episode, but
it's also the fact that he's against Bernard Crippis, who's almost
breaking down as well.
And the scene also has a lot of like info sort of dump dialogue
you know, I'm going to die.
He will knock full times, we keep coming back to that.
And even if I change it feels like dying, some new man goes
sauntering away, like all that foreshadowing of what's to come and
and we've been through it all before, you know, these new, the new
series fans have experienced it once already quite out of the
blue.
So now for the 2nd time with the doctor, they've loved for 3 years
and universally loved.
They know where it's all heading and how they're going to feel.
And so I think those fields begin in that scene in this episode.
It's funny, isn't it?
Because when someone like Russell talks about or, you know, Moffatt
or or people who grew up on the old series, talk about how it
feels to have a new doctor.
The show isn't apparently aware of that, you know, like there'll
be a sort of heartwarming moment or something, possibly, um, or
you know, the Rani will just turn him over and it'll be, you know
Sylvester McCoy in a wig.
I was heart warmed by that.
But this show is super aware of it.
And because it's the most popular show on TV.
And I think we talked about this in our Planet of the Dead episode
or I said that regeneration is a bit of a hack, you know, it's a
bit of a, it's a tiny bit crap. they really do need to kind of let
you know that they know how you're going to be feeling about
this.
And so the idea that the doctor fears regenerating and feels like
it's an annihilation of his kind of self, that's not in the old
show at all, but it sort of works here.
Do you remember in Death of the Doctor, the Sarah Jane Adventures
episode?
where Matt Smith doctor says that it hurts, that it always does
that it's painful, you know?
So that's that from the other direction.
It's what we were saying about on the stolen Earth and Journey's
End podcast about the fact that the audience is complicit in
doctor at this stage because it is so popular and it is such an
icon of television that you've got complete license to be
emotional about the fact that David Tennant, the most popular
doctor there has ever been, is leaving the series.
I don't particularly like seeing the doctor get very emotional but
it's totally warranted here.
I kind of like it.
It is the thing that that Russell's brought to the program is
giving the doctor some interiority.
And I remember that moment, the moment where Eccleston like tears
up.
You know, his face is otherwise completely immobile.
He doesn't cry or, you know, there's no quivering bottom leap or
anything, but he tears up when Jabe is talking to him about the
Time Lords.
I thought that that was an absolute just revelation.
You know, it was so amazing.
And I'm glad that he brought that to the show.
I think my problem with it is that David Tennant tends to kind of
overplay it a bit and he doesn't in this scene.
No, he gets it right.
The other thing that appears in this scene is, of course, Donna
and I think that she's amazing in this.
I totally agree.
You can see that the character, Nathan, has she's still Donna, but
she's not the Donna from the Runaway bride.
She she's not the donner that she ended up being, but there is
growth there.
The fact that she actually has a fiance and she can still give it
to the ticket officer woman.
Yeah.
It's just lovely seeing Catherine Tate come back and do these
small parts.
It's intensely frustrating because I want these episodes to be
about Donna.
I want them her to be all throughout them and I wish she was.
However, it was the correct decision by Russell. not to do that.
And he knows that you wish she was the star of it.
And that's incredible thing.
And initially she, in the original draft original drafts of the
script, she was in it a lot less.
She was only supposed to make a short cameo and he decided to put
her in more, but as this character who is floating around in the
background is a shadow of her former self.
But it works too, because it also gives the opportunity to bring
in Sylvia.
Yeah, and see the growth in Sylvia, like that hilarious scene
where she says hello to the doctor or Merry Christmas or
whatever.
And, you know, the last time they did not end on very good terms.
But, you know, she seems to have gotten past that to an extent and
can share a bit of a moment and then berate him.
Exactly, James.
You know, I do want to say one more thing about that cafe scene
because there's a choice that Auros makes, which is to shoot Donna
and Sean through the window.
Yeah, maintain that distance.
Yeah, yeah.
And so we are kept away from them.
And there's that other scene where we see them opening Christmas
presents and watching the Queen's speech and stuff like that.
But they're also in the background too, because it's all, yes.
From Wolf's perspective.
Yeah.
So it is amazing getting her back, you know, having a companion
back, but she's not allowed to interact with a doctor, she can
never interact with a doctor at any point.
And we so wanted it because those 2 were so magical together.
It's really good.
And so Russell makes you feel the way that you feel.
It's an exercise in restraint on Russell's behalf, and it's
absolutely the right decision, but it's so frustrating.
But it is the brilliance in his writing here that I think shines
through all this emotional stuff that you want that to happen, but
you're not going to get that.
And then in that scene, giving Wolf the moment to piece together
the naysmiths and the book.
You know, it's another clue as to his importance.
But you don't really realise that when you're watching it.
Yeah, the 1st time through, it's just, it just happens, but it
keeps coming back to him and keeps coming back to him and then he
gets to get into the TARDIS and... thinks it's dirty.
It's not as clean as I expected.
So doesn't the script lampshade that bit where it's not really a
good idea to park the TARDIS in the street outside where Donna
lives?
Lovely little comic moments with the emotional resonance that, you
know, Russell gives us.
And this episode gets it so right.
You just want to spend more time with these characters and you get
more time with these characters.
And I think that that's what, I think that that's what he's doing
and I think the reason, perhaps, that the plot isn't particularly
satisfying, there's almost nothing at all to it, is because his
last, you know, biggest season finale ever, was so stuffed, had so
many characters in it and was super plotty.
And this time it's kind of like, no, let's just give David Tennant
some time to do some things.
Let's just let the audience spend some time in the world that the
last 5 years of Doctor Who has created.
And so, you know, there's a way in which this is a bit indulgent
but there is also a way in which he's giving space for us to say
goodbye to this version of Doctor Who and cluttering it up with
plot and science fiction things and stuff would just detract from
that.
I mean, I agree in one respect.
I think Russell played his best hand with the stolen earth
journey's hand.
That felt like it should have been the end of the doctor because
it was so warmly resonant at the show that had come.
However, I slightly disagree because I think these episodes
especially this 1st one, are stuffed with plot, but it's
meaningless plot.
It's just it's talking about big plot.
And so that detracts from these lovely scenes which you have with
the family and everything because it gets in the way of those.
I think you still have to give everyone sort of Doctor Who-ey
things to do.
But I mean, it's not like anything's very complex.
It's not blink or anything.
It is just super linear and a little bit sort of throwaway.
There's a kind of, this is never an insult, but there is a kind of
Sarah Jane adventures kind of vibe to the, to the nasmiths in a
way.
They're very two-dimensional, but for a reason.
But I like the fact that we're now getting drawn into their world
actually to their mansion and we're seeing their scientists that
are helping them and the absolutely brilliant Sinead Keenan, who
plays Adams, the scientist.
And I'd just seen her, I think, playing Russell Toby's girlfriend
Nina, the werewolf, being human.
In being human.
And so I was really excited that she was in it.
And it's interesting how like her and her offsider, whose name I
cannot.
I think it's Rossiter.
It is Rossiter.
I just call them the Meglos twins.
Wow, that's super racist.
Initially...
Initially they were supposed to be called Shanshay and Shanshay.
And with a slightly different pronunciation, but Wolf couldn't
work out what the difference.
I love the fact that they're sort of in the background and now
they're sort of, you know, coming to the forefront and you know
something's not right.
And then, of course, David Tennant gets to meet them when they go
downstairs and he gets to say the word Shimmer.
And I love how he says Schimmer. schlock from the reboss of
Horatia.
And he keeps saying it.
I just want to keep saying Shrimmer.
Shrimer.
And she's so great.
I just love her energy as one of the cactus people.
Sorry.
She's kind of not putting up with any of his crap.
I mean, that just seems to be her kind of default thing.
She's kind of annoyed with him and not intimidated by him.
I think she's really good.
And do you remember that makeup?
The green makeup is entirely computer generated.
They didn't paint the actor's green.
They put green prosthetics on them.
And kind of faded into their skin tones and then had to digitally
retouch every shot that they were in green because they went, oh
actually, that looks a bit pants.
And in fact, another use of CG, and I've just read about time.
So I didn't know this before this, that the turkey in the Queen's
Christmas speech scene, because that takes place at 3 o'clock in
the afternoon, the speech normally, rather than the morning.
The turkey was raw on the set.
And Russell realised that, of course, by 3 the turkey would be
cooked, so they digitally cooked it in post-production.
It's a computer effect.
I didn't have too much budget on this show.
Oh, that's fantastic.
They've got the immortality gate.
I love these names that Russell comes up with and the Nace Miske
to talk about the immortality gate, but yet again, it's a slight
misdirection because what they believe it to do is not actually
what it actually does.
And it's like with Donna having been memory wiped and if she
remembers everything, she's going to die.
Well, that's not exactly true, and this is another Russell trope
that he likes to sort of give a certain information or an
interpretation of what something actually does.
It's our last anti-plastic of the era, isn't it?
It's the immortality gate.
It makes people immortal.
It's really very simple and does what it says on the tin.
It's the sort of techno babble that I actually really quite like.
Because again, this is a Christmas special and it's being half
watched, while drunk and full of turkey.
And so it needs to be straightforward.
But I like the fact that the master has the ability to repair it.
He's a timelord.
He's repairing it.
And at the same time, then, you know, when he's talking to Adam's
the doctor's talking to Adams, you know, it makes people better
but why so big and there's these questions and then it's like, well
it doesn't, men's whole planets and then it's like the David
Tennant run. like, this is much worse than we expected.
Which we had at the beginning of the episode when he runs back to
the Tartars.
Like, this is really bad and then it's the run.
You know how he jumps off the wall and it's like we've got to stop
this and then it's all hell breaks loose because Skeletor gets to
you know, zap his hands and jump into the gate and everybody
begins to shimmer.
You know, things are really bad when David Tennant does that big
run with his arms and legs everywhere.
I love it.
And it's such a new series thing because you can't run in the
studio.
You just don't have the space for it.
And so now we're in location, the doctor can properly run.
Wasn't there a story that either David Tennant, Matt Smith or Matt
Smith and Peter Capaldi needed the same operation done on their
knee because of the running down corridors.
Tennant and Capaldi.
So, Todd, let's talk about the cliffhanger then.
I contend that it, well, I went on Twitter.
I actually live tweeted my watching of this hashtag, Final Days of
Planet Earth, and I made the bold contention that this was the
best cliffhanger of the era, and I kind of want to defend that.
And part of the reason is that I'd forgotten the final scene.
And so I expected it to end with the master running around and I
think Sim is wonderful in this because he's running from place to
place and when he sees another one of him, he's super excited and
he throws his arms out and he's jumping up and down.
He's wearing dresses.
I don't know how he did it as an actor.
You would be so tired to have to go through all of those costume
changes.
I hope to God that they actually filmed it over several days.
All on one fee as well.
It deserves an extra fee for it.
But I also like the fact that he talks about like in here, I think
Russell throws in hypnotism and mind control and they're all going
to become me.
Like, I like all these little subtle explanations back or links
back to the original series.
It's like Shada, where Christopher Nemes' character, Skagra, wants
to put his mind into everyone in the universe.
And for a 2nd the doctor thinks that that's what the master's plan
is.
But the master's plan is much better than that because it's so
ridiculous.
And so those wonderful scenes where like Sylvia and Sean and
Barack Obama all turning into the master.
And remember, this is set on Christmas Day, let's say at the time
it was broadcast.
So it's also happening to the viewers at home and Barack Obama.
My head was spinning watching this.
But Barack Obama, it's like we've never mentioned the real...
No, this is real.
Why Obama?
He went to great pains to avoid Tony Blair and George W.
Bush in the sound of...
Well, did he though?
I mean, someone like George W.
Bush was cast.
And he kills Tony Blair and stuffs him in a closet in Aliens of
London.
He turns President Obama into the master.
I mean, it's very definitely Obama, and I wonder why I made that
decision.
But I think it's so that it's the viewers at home because one of
the things that you can do with, remember Pirate Planet episode 4
where Xanac is about to materialise around Earth, and I like to
imagine that it's going to materialise around Earth while you're
sitting watching the program, right?
And that that's what the doctor prevents.
He's actually preventing you, the viewing audience from being
killed.
Or in Daleks masterplan, where we know that the Daleks are on
their way to contemporary Earth while we're watching it in those
sort of middle episodes.
On Christmas Day.
Yeah, yeah.
And so this is a cliffhanger that affects everyone who's watching
the show.
And so it has that.
And so, you see, you're, like, your touchstone to be, to make it
the real world.
Yeah, that makes sense. that we're in.
And so there's that.
And I think that cliffhanger is visually superb and it's got John
Sim being as fun as he ever is.
It's really silly and funny, but also really quite threatening and
terrifying.
And then you get the 2nd cliffhanger, which is the narrator has
been wrestle on all along.
But before we get to that, we're also getting Donna having all of
her flashbacks, which is intercut with the John Sims stuff
happening.
And so you've actually got 3 different things happening at once, is
Donna going to die?
Everybody's turning into the master race.
I still want that.
And then we get, I get chills with that narration when he says, you
know, this was the day, the time lords returned, and then for
galafre, for victory, for the end of time itself, I just, I'm
getting chills now.
I, I, it's just incredible that, it's, they, you look at me
complete just staying.
Listeners, it's like, you know, Nathan's in one corner, like, you
know, Jolly, Jolene, Peter's looking at me like, really, really.
I do think that dialogue's a bit rubbish.
Oh, it's super ripe, but of course it is.
But it sells it.
I just think it is, it's stunning.
It gets to me every single time.
I've got problems with the episode.
You'll notice in my special book here.
I've said, look at your special book.
Not bad.
I'm not in love with it. 7 out of 10 because I really, there are
these moments that just get to me, which currently the current
writing of Doctor Who doesn't do.
Not bad, 7 out of 10.
I am not in love with it.
Is this your story notes or is this your little black book?
Go away.
I invited you.
So I loved you in your race.
Can I just say as well, that's taking Russell back to the start.
That's that three-tiered cliffhanger, which was the 1st one he
ever did for aliens of London.
But admittedly, that cliffhanger was 3 instances of people
unzipping themselves and threatening someone.
Do you know what I mean?
Like it, wow, that sounded...
Yeah, that's right.
So that didn't quite work.
I mean, it worked in the sense that it lent on Jackie Tyler and
how much we love her already, and it was Jackie Tyler in peril.
So this has everyone turning into the master, Donna, who we also
love in peril, with some exciting little flashback moments, which
is sort of pretty cool.
And then you've got James Bond himself in his richest kind of
voice, in profile, spitting as he delivers this sort of terrifying
speech because he's virtually rabid.
Not the James Bond.
Anyone cares about, no, but one of the best ones ever, though.
Oh, don't you dare.
You know that they actually initially asked Patrick Stewart.
I don't think he's as good an actor as Timothy Doctor.
I'm glad it's Timothy Dalton and he's got that craggy face and
everything.
I think he looks, he absolutely looks the bar.
The only thing I don't particularly like at this point in all this
is I do think the cutting to all the different masters around the
world and all the paners ups and zones out does go on too long.
I do sit there going, oh, just please, just quickly.
Yeah.
Like it's just a little bit.
I think it helps having one of the scenes, the reason that we're
in the council estate is because that's where Winston lives, which
is Wilf's friend.
And so that's why we get to be there and we get to see that
happening.
But yeah, I wanted it to be June Whitfield.
I love that zoom out.
You get that zoom out where everybody on the balcony is the
master.
No, but don't we zoom out even further and we zoom out over London
and all you can hear is the master laughing.
And it's not moaha laughing.
You know, I now control the world.
He's laughing because he's just delighted to see himself, you
know?
I really feel for John Sim having to keep laughing and laughing.
John, we need another laugh.
We need another laugh.
Can you get dressed into this?
But also, again, it is the audience because they've just finished
watching this episode, like the master.
They're full of Christmas turkey and whatever else is stuffed. he's
face with.
And they're having a good old laugh because they've just had a
good time as well.
Well, that's all we have time for this Christmas.
We'll be back next week to clean up the mess and say au revoir to
David Tennant's doctor in the end of time, part two.
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 FDE Podcast on Twitter, and on our website, flight
throughentirety.com, where you'll find links to our other podcasts
Bondfinger, and Jody into Terror.
Until next time, have a very merry Christmas.
Enjoy your pork and beef and fat, and we'll see you again in
2021.
Thank you very much for listening and good night.
Ta-ta.
Good night.
See you soon.
That was Flight 3 Entirety, starring Harold Saxon, Harold Saxon
Harold Saxon, Harold Saxon.
Theme arrangement by Harold Saxon, String's performance by Harold
Saxon.
This episode, Do Something Big, was recorded on the 13th of
December 2020 and released on Christmas Day.
Of course, if Georgia Tennant is listening, we would like to
apologise for any negative comments this episode about David
Tennant's bum.
Please don't be mean to us on Twitter, Mrs. Tennant.
It's Christmas.
I think we'd probably end it there.
Don't you think?
Yeah.
All right, let me just read.
Maybe I should redo that in my end of episode, sort of voice.
Don't spit on the certain hate.
And so we pull out and the audience has had a great time and so
they're laughing along as well.
The end of time.
For Gallifrey, for victory, for June Whitfield herself.
So good.
It's got to be it's asking a tissue.
It's got to be, it has to be that big, I reckon.
It just has to be.
It's so good It's so good.
It's got such gramitous.
But you know, this 3 tier cliffhanger has Eros Lynn directing it.
The 1st one had Keith Bowack directing it.
Can I just say, I hate the way he says the word master. because
he's no master.
He's Welsh.
He doesn't know any better.
Oh, I thought it sounded American.
I just kind of thought, oh, can you just say Mars?
That's a Welsh thing.
Yeah, okay.
Okay.