Hello, and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety, the only
Doctor Who podcast who would actually rather have a dance than go
for a pint.
I'm Brendan.
I'm Nathan.
I'm exactly who you'd expect me to be.
Well, that's some good news, because you know what, chaps, I think
we've been on Earth for far too long.
So I think it's time to head off into space, maybe even find a
nice little planet to settle down and build a colony in space.
Now That's awful.
I thought that was bad.
Here's my other joke for colony in space.
And that's so that I, well, I really enjoy John Ringham's
performance in this, I actually wish that the William Hartnell era
act that they'd gotten back was Leonard Sachs, so I could say this
was the Admiral de Coligny in space.
Oh, dear.
There we are, massacre joke for you, man.
Can you cut all that?
I'm a big fan.
I'm a I'm an enormous fan of in space episodes.
Do you know what I mean?
I think frontier in space?
It does promise a level of excitement, like the wheel in space.
Wheeling space, frontier in space.
And I always think it's a great disappointment.
We used to sort of say, wouldn't it be great if there'd been a
Doctor Who story called The Planets in Space.
This is almost that.
This would be fun.
Yeah, yeah, it is.
And look, I am just gonna broach my problem with this story
because, as was hinted at last episode...
And the episode before, you've been going on about it.
It's getting tiresome.
Yeah, yeah.
It's almost as if, you know, a story from 1966 that someone
happened not to like very much and never stops talking about.
Well, only someone crazy with it.
Yeah, I know, I know.
But also yesterday at your housewarming party, Nathan, we were
talking to friends of the podcast, Brian and Simon.
And when they spoke to me, they said, now you said you didn't like
colony in space.
And we take issue with that because we really like it.
And I said, well, there's one major problem with it.
I'm going to get that out of the way now because there's still a
lot.
There's still a lot I like about this story.
But this is our 1st Doctor Who story, since the show has been to
colour, that the TARDIS has travelled off earth to another
planet.
We had a brief bit of travel at the end of Cause of Axos, but
nothing major.
So, you know, this is the 1st time we're returning to the formula
of the 60s, if doctor goes to an alien planet and gets embroiled
in the local problems there.
After that year and a half .
Our 1st ball colour planet is this beige sand quarry filled with
people in tie, almost tie-dye green jumpsuits, 70s, pick a
moustache, and stick it on disguises, what have you.
It's so disappointing.
We've already discussed.
This is like the year of the 2nd reboot of Doctor Who.
Last year was a dress rehearsal for this reboot.
And there's so much they've got rights this year or more right, I
suppose. in that, you know, Katie Manning's Joe Grant is a more
effective companion.
I've said it before and I said it again, I love Liz, but Joe fits
this mould on the show.
Exactly.
We've expanded the military roster.
So the brigadier has sort of a trusted central team and then lots
of people around him.
We have a charismatic villain who, of course, you don't want to
win, but really you rather like him.
And it's just a shame that when Doctor Who finally steps out into
space again.
They don't use the same amount of aplomb, if you like.
There isn't the joy de vivre that we've had with the last few
stories of reinvention.
But you know, the thing is this.
We've been on Earth for so long in this production team, I feel, is
used to, if they haven't really done anything away from Earth
before.
So they're finding their feet.
So I think, you know, that is the one aspect of this production
that might be lacking and that they might make up for in the
future.
Because it is, I mean, it's a throwback to the my old show, the
one that they cancelled at the early 1969.
There's even a little shout out to the dialects, I think, because
Joe picks up a flower soon after arriving on our 1st alien
planet.
Yeah, which is exactly what Susan did.
So yeah, there is that sort of respect to the past.
But do you want to know what the radio times write-up that this
episode was, this 1st episode of Comedy in space?
Oh, God.
So the 1st time Doctor Who's going back out into space in almost 2
years.
And the way the production team at the radio times choose to
announce that is...
The doctor faces unknown danger on an alien planet.
Well, Statney of Idols isn't that exciting.
Well, he hasn't done it for a long time.
He really hasn't faced on no danger in an alien planet for ages.
You know, something like this happened to Russell T. Davis and he
wrote a very funny column about it in Doctor Who magazine.
He was flicking through his electronic program guide and he came
across Doctor Who.
There was no story title, and it was, the write-up was Doctor Who
Defends the Humans from Alien Attack..
It's just so generic and it's such a shame.
But that's not to say I hate this story.
It's just that's a big bugware, and it is a hard thing to get over
because we're going to spend a lot of time on this planet.
Look, I actually think that that's a pretty reasonable criticism.
This is my favourite story of the season.
But the setting is drab and it is that is disappointing and it's
particularly just that that gray quarry where it's been raining
and there's all that gray mart and stuff that is boring to look
at.
They do go out of their way to be a bit more sort of visual and
interesting inside the city.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, that's one thing that's going for it.
The internal sets, the um, the city, the colonists areas, the IMC
spaceship, even the master's TARDIS are all very visually
interesting.
Yeah.
The 3rd doctor's new TARDIS.
Unfortunately, you still have that those 60s photographic blow
ups.
Yeah, that's terrible.
They get worse and worse in colour.
There's some lovely new pieces.
We have my favourite version of the classic series console.
The refurbished old version.
It's still a bit pale green because a lot of people were watching
in colour, but you've got that lovely central column.
Well, you can't quite see what's going on because there's so many
layers of perspective.
I really like that.
It was always green, wasn't it?
So that it looked wise.
Exactly.
Exactly, exactly.
But this, gentleman, is a 1st for another reason.
It's something involved in this artist, and I don't mean the
popping effect, which just happened because the director, Michael
E. Bryant, wasn't sure how the TARDIS fade in and out worked, so
he just popped it.
This is the 1st use of the phrase, coined by Mac Hook
dimensionally transcendental.
Oh, really?
Wasn't it always, though?
No, no.
This is the 1st story that implies that the TARDIS interior is
different dimension to the exterior.
Because, of course, we saw in Patrick Tran's last story, for
instance, they land under the sea and water starts dripping onto
the console.
Right, yeah. you know, whereas this, it's dimensionally transended
we have transcended dimensions and that's it, speaker.
And that becomes a big part of the story.
The interior is not a different dimension.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
That's amazing.
I didn't realise it was as late as that.
It's part of his legacy of Doctor Who, that Terrence Dix and
Baronets in their master plan have come up with this season.
Or it's just a happy accident. accident, I think.
It is actually a lot I like about the story.
For me, it is a solid 6 out of 10.
Because we have Matt Hawkes' great writing and great
characterisation.
It is really, really terrific.
And Mac Hulk, we've talked about him before.
He was a member of the Communicipality, and so this is a story
that is suspicious of corporate behaviour.
And so this is set in 500 years time, no, a 1000 years time. 500
years time. set in the 25th century.
Okay, so it's set in 500 years time.
And the Earth is a sort of terrible dystopia where the whole place
is sort of massively overcrowded.
I think there's 100000000000 people on earth.
Yeah, he says 100,000 million, doesn't he?
That's a great number, isn't it?
100,000 gigs.
It sounds are much bigger than one billion.
It's a 100 billion.
So there's a 100 people, a 100000000000 people living on Earth.
There's nowhere for them to live, like they're building floating
cities in the middle of the ocean.
The whole place is sort of polluted and terrible and it's an
oppressive totalitarian sort of political government where you
can't dissent and all of that sort of thing.
So these people are refugees from that, uh, and they all wear sort
of vaguely hippie-ish.
You know, like people talk of as if they were dressed in, um, like
little house on the prairie or something, you know, Mary
particular.
But it's a sort of vague hippie sort of thing and they've all got
sort of longer share and moustaches and stuff.
Except the rather odd one who's dressed in one of the ambassador's
spacesuits from last season.
Not really.
It's like everyone else has kind of gone, oh, we're on a planet
you know, we'll get into our day quotes now. he's like, I'm not
getting out of my space.
We could have to leave at any time.
It's rather amusing to see them wander around the background, like
stay puff the marshmallow, man.
But it's quite nice to see in the background there are other
female columnists.
There's not more men.
Yeah, she's actually nice in that 1st episode.
And I actually like the leisurely pace of this story.
I think the 1st episode sets things up really well.
Again, they talk about the mask, they talk about the time on its
exile.
This has been reinforced to the audience.
Joe's 1st time in the time.
She's so tentative about going outside and the doctor is coaxing
her out there and allaying her fears.
I think that there's some really nice stuff in this 1st half of
the episode.
And I actually think there's a change in the 3rd doctor in this
story.
He's not as obnoxious.
Thank you. for the word, Nathan.
He's not he's not as nararchy.
And certainly when it comes to the commerce at first, there is
this bristling effect.
I was thinking, oh, no, not again.
But then he decides to work with Ash and he's really helpful.
And he's really helpful. this is the 1st time we're really seeing
this come through.
Look, he does he does get to do some blustering outrage, but he
does it against IMC.
And even before he's landed, IMC have been sort of menacing.
That's all right.
There's the clink of glasses all the way through this podcast.
It's one of our things.
Sorry, it's okay.
Oh, I've done it again.
IMC have been being evil and they will kill someone, 2 people
during the course of episode one.
And so by the time the doctor meets them, we know that they're
evil and so he does yell at them and accuse them of just being
motivated by profit and all of that sort of thing.
And so here having a proper target, not just someone who's come in
and tried to help someone who is just evil and self-serving.
The blustering outrage really works.
I think.
Yeah.
I mean, there's so much that's great in the setup of this story
the way the way it's all, the way the world is created, the way
this universe of the future of humanity is created.
I think sort of in terms of definable years, this is the furthest
we've been into the future.
Of course, the arc is very, very far into the future.
But typically when we've been given a date in the black and white
Doctor Who eras.
We've sort of looked at 22nd and 23rd century.
But now we're really, really far into the future and there's been
that huge population explosion.
So coming back to something you were saying, Todd, about the way
that Joe and the doctor's relationship is presented and how she's
not quite sure she wants to go out.
I think it's such a great development to the doctor's character
that he's not just coaxing her.
He's saying, please come with me, you know, I trust you with
this.
And she's the audience identification figure because, like, you
know, we hadn't been.
There might be members of the audience who haven't been outside
the times, you know, outside of Earth, you know, if they've come.
Almost all of them have never been outside of Earth.
Oh, dear.
It's one of those afternoons. encountered an adventure.
You know, the show has been on life support in terms of ratings
for a while.
You know, it's certainly been making inroads over the last year
and a half .
Has it?
Yes, it's actually holding its own between about 7 and 8000000 in
fact, the story averaged about 9000000 viewers.
This one was incredibly popular.
Episode 3, it's 9.500000 viewers, right?
Which is last season there was a 9.3.
And the previous high over 9000000 was What, gentlemen?
Was it the Web Planet?
Is it something like 13?
No, no, no, in terms of over 9000000 viewers.
The last time we got over 9000000 viewers was...
Space Pirates, episode four.
Episode three, of the Celestial Troy Maker.
Goodness.
Pat got to 9000000 for Croton's episode one, but that's the
highest he got to.
This story does something else.
And actually in terms of chant position, there's got 2 to the top
25 in episode 5 for the 1st time since the Daleks master plan.
Wow.
But I think what was happening, like, you know, in terms of what's
happening this season and momentum that they're gaining and what
they're doing, it goes through this story into the next as well.
And you know, I mean, just as a bit of an aside, the demons, the
last episode of the demons come 17th for the week, the 1st time
Doctor Who has been in the top 20 since Galaxy 4.
I love the Galaxy 4, always in the top 20.
Episode 2 or 3 or something like that.
But at the end of last season, the last 10 episodes fell away, the
last 10 episodes or 15 episodes of Trout also fell away down to
like, you know, under 5 million.
Here it doesn't.
Here it holds around 8000000 for the 1st time and the show is
moving up the chart.
So this is crucial, this story, I guess, for the future of the
show.
Yeah, I mean, I suppose this is the 1st season since season 5
where Doctor Who's future is assured, because we've discussed that
Doctor Who was almost cancelled after season 6, but Derek Sherwin
said, look, we can, we can change the format, we can make a more
exciting, lots of lovely colour, a fewer episodes, that sort of
thing.
We ring the budget in.
It was almost cancelled at the end of season 7 and the only reason
it wasn't was they couldn't develop a good enough idea to replace
it.
So it kind of got renewed by default.
But I think this is the 1st time where Doctor Who is secure for
another season.
It's actually secure for much longer than that because it secures
itself here.
They come back with the Daleks the following season.
That gives it boost, then it's the 10th anniversary, then it's, you
know, Katie's leading and it's the new companion.
So you dropped her, you suddenly got this flow and effect that
just keeps on flowing for the next 4 or 5 years.
So everything that happens at the beginning of this season and
want their big building to in these stories.
I think secures the future of Doctor Who.
It's not just this 8 season one day. suddenly going to run after
this season for about 12 or 13 years.
It's so it is so good because I love this season in context
whereas I always used to like season 7 better.
And so it's nice to think that this reboot did the job.
It was a success.
It's working And the BBC was starting to get quite canny with
their programming because each episode of Colony in Space, I think
with one exception was followed by an old Western movie.
Very often picking up on the same kind of land claim ideas or um
the ideas of there's great wealth in this area.
We just need to find it and having someone coming in and trying to
take the wealth from the people who, quote unquote, rightfully
owned it.
There's also one other thing.
This story is broadcast an hour later at 6.15.
Yes, they did push it back because of the violence in earlier
stories, which, you know, worked, obviously, in favour of Doctor
Who.
Now, of course, one thing the story is really heavily about is
mining as well, which is still quite relevant, especially for us
in Australia, because we've recently had a mining boom, which, a
lot of balance, say, is coming to an end just this week.
A house is sold in Port Headland, which is, of course, a big
mining community, but it was also a place where they had to get a
lot of fly in, fly out workers because it was too expensive to
live there.
There was a house sold in Port Headland 4 years ago, a little 3
bedroom fibro home sold for $130000 at the peak of the mining
boom.
It was resold this week.
Any any guesses as to what it was sold for?
300,000?
360,000.
It's lost $1000000 in 4 years.
So, you know, this, this idea of, no, you can't have this land to
live on.
We need to get the rocks out of it.
It's far more valuable than as living space.
It's still very topical.
And at this point in the 70s. of course, we later saw in the
decade the incredibly popular, the good life, which was all about
self-sufficiency.
So going back to self-sufficiency, getting away from big business
was a big theme of the 70s.
And it's a theme that Matt Cork will come back to time and time
again.
Along with a theme of giant lizards.
Along with...
So you can I just say that. about the giant lizards in this
story.
I think Mac Hawk is also having a little bit of fun with the
format of the show because the giant lizards look like a crap
special effect because...
They're supposed to be, actually.
It's a wonderful twist.
Best twist since Coquillian, who you were very rude about last
episode.
But I like the fact that you actually, I actually get involved
with the columns and this fight against the minors and Captain
Dent, who apparently Richmond was supposed to be a woman.
Not Captain Dent.
Morgan was supposed to be the number two.
Yeah, who ends up being played by Tony Cornter, not particularly
well, but he was brought in the last minute. you can kind of
forget.
Do you know who that woman was?
No, tell me.
Susan Jameson?
who went on to play Mrs. Widzed in the Hornet's Nest, Demon's
Crest, Serpent, Serpent, Crest, Serpent.
No, it's your, in the Paul Mars next cottage audios.
Right.
Alongside Tom Baker.
And she's absolutely wonderful in those.
You know what?
I have to say, I actually quite like Morgan, the evil number two.
Just a sidekick, isn't he?
He's murderous.
It's murderous.
He's actually quite sort of...
I don't know, there's something about him.
Oh, please cut back.
You fancy him.
I must, I must.
It's really quite interesting how like, it's really quite
interesting how all the columnists have like, you know, the beards
and all the beards.
And then you've got everybody on the spaceship. all clean shaven
but they're evil, except for the one guy who's good, who actually
has the moustache.
Yeah, it's a great thing of shorthand.
Little behind the scenes story because they were wearing all this
false hair.
For the for the 1st for the 1st producer's rump, they collaborated
with the makeup designer who sort of put extra moustaches on
people's chins and whatnot, et cetera, et cetera.
And then the moustaches on their chins, that would be very odd.
Yeah, exactly.
But that's the thing.
They were having a bit of a joke.
And Barry Letts came down and gave them all the bollocking for
wasting studio resources.
And then Maurice Perry walked in his page boy week, and Barry
turned around and bollocked him.
And Maurice said, but this is...
This is the week I'm meant to be wearing.
And the backup to the one was like, yeah, that's his actual, that's
his character's hair and Barry's like, oh, God, I'm so sorry.
But you know what?
It is ridiculous.
I just got I just caught up.
I got caught up in the whole story of them and then what's going
on in the planet with these aliens.
Like, I just got engrossed by it, and I forgot that the master was
going to appear at some point.
That's brilliant, actually, because it's, it's, it's established
right at the beginning of episode one in that scene, with the time
lords, that, um, that the master is going to be in it.
He's stolen the files, and then the brigadier comes in, he's
talking about looking for the master, it was the Spanish
ambassador.
Yes, yeah, that's a quotation where it's like, yeah, he all these
Spanish people look alike to me.
Yeah, a little bit ruby, Mac.
Or Terence, but that's probably Terence.
So, um, we will, there is actually some weird racial politics in
this which we'll get to.
But we know that the master's coming along.
But by the time he turns up and he turns up, I think, in episode
four, we've actually forgotten about him.
And it is really funny, isn't it?
Santa for theorises that we expect the master to be to be behind
the giant lizards.
And then we discover it's IMC.
And so we then kind of forget about the master.
And so even though we've been explicitly told he's going to be in
it, it's a surprise when he turns out.
And even when the adjudicator actually replies because it's so
distorted, you know, unless you're really listening for it the 1st
time through.
You know, it doesn't click.
And then there's this wonderful shop where he walks in, but I
think the back is to the camera, so you don't actually see it.
And then, you know, if he turns around and you just think.
And you get his music.
Do you get his music here?
But he's just there and just kind of think, oh, great.
I just go, yes, you know, this is getting more and more, you know
there's layers on this.
This is great, you know?
I do think this leads us, though, to another slight problem in the
plot, but it's hard to criticise because not every story can be
the same.
So we have this story about the colonists and the fact that the
planet has been classified for both mining and for colonisation.
The colonists, of course, are not having much work planting their
crops.
And we think, for instance, oh, well, that must be the IMC
people.
You know, they're doing something, but it turns out to be the
radiation from this super weapon, which is what the masters come
to find.
But that's the only crossover that we have between the 2 plots.
You know what I mean?
For instance, the colonists could have used the weapon to defend
themselves, but no, it's destroyed at the end.
It just feels like the 2 stories are a bit too disparate.
But that being said, it does mean there's a lot of variety within
the plot. a small, there's a small plot, if you like, because the
stake of who gets the planet is quite small.
We care about these characters because they're Mount Cole
characters, you know?
But you then got this bigger plot of the master has something, has
found a weapon which can destroy hot stars. interestingly enough.
He says it was tested on the crabhead nebula.
I did a little bit of research and that would mean that it was
tested in Earth's history in the 11th century.
Yeah, they've seen the supernova that caused.
It's the crab nebula, right?
The crab nebula.
Oh, sorry, I was I was conflating...
But yeah, no, that happened like in in the last millennium.
Yeah.
Look, I was just so surprised by this as I was watching it.
Like, I mean, I came into this thinking that this would be my
least favourite story of the season.
In fact, it's my favourite of this season.
I just enjoyed the whole thing all the way through.
Yeah, there's some gunfights in that confined space between IMC
and the colonists, which at times you're thinking, this is
ridiculous.
People should be dropping dead every 5 seconds, you know?
They've obviously been trained by the same school as
Stormtroopers.
But, you know, besides that, you know, it's a bit slower paced
because it's a 6 parter, so you see the doctor travelling on the
buggy here and there and that sort of thing.
Those buggies are amazing.
I really like them.
I do like want one.
Yeah, they're great.
And you know, then you've got the whole Joe's going to be tied to
the bomb business.
You know, I love tying Joe to a bomb.
I think that is an awesome thing.
If you can possibly do that in a story.
And I actually think that does slightly undermine the political
sort of allegory, not quite an allegory, but political commentary
he's doing in that, the corporate villains are so, so terribly
evil that they tie Joe to a bomb.
You know, like that's how evil they are.
Like, Katie's so wonderful just throughout, throughout the whole
thing, like this.
She has her own little subplot going on with the colonists and
then she's got, you know, she's got the whole thing.
And then the only reason she gets captured is because she's been
proactive and she's like, let's get the dirt on them.
Whereas, you know, quite often, um, Liz only really got her own
plot in, say, ambassadors of death because she was just minding
our own business and got kidnapped, you know, or she walked into a
trap.
Whereas Joe does get to be a lot more proactive in that regard.
I mean, I do love the sequence where her and the doctor wriggle
into the master's TARDIS.
Like crawling on their on their back.
On their backs it.
It's another thing where I think Terrence Dix has gone, Okay, you
know, this is my little joke for the week.
Let's see John and Katie do this this week, you know?
So I have a race problem again.
Okay, explain.
So it's with the premises, right?
I think it's for a story that is so clearly left wing, clearly
anti-capitalist.
I think the primitives are a blind spot.
Their call primitives, you know, in the 1st place, which is
slightly problematic.
And we never really once seem concerned that the colonists are
occupying someone else's planet.
And so the colonists are seen as the rightful owners of this
planet, not the miners.
It's the colonists who properly belong here.
So it's this sort of like, you know, British imperialism?
Yeah, and it just seems it, like, and I don't think he properly
sort of justifies it.
I think the story, it's just a blind spot in the story.
And there's scenes where the handyman guy, the electrical guy who
gets killed by Norton, where he's with his primitive helper.
Yeah, and the primitive is basically his servant, like his hand
against things.
And, you know, like I, they do try and make it as if it's kind of
the primitive people's fault because they develop this weapon and
their culture degenerated and stuff like that.
But I still, it's just, it's an unfortunate note in what I think
is a pretty, is a pretty good story.
And I don't think it's helped by how the primitives look.
And like, are they naked?
Is that meant to be their skin?
Because it has lots of, like, wrinkles in it.
They're wearing long cloths.
So I think that's meant to be their skin and it just looks
terrible.
And they've got these sort of lumpy heads.
The masks, you know?
Oh, yeah, and they are bad.
And then you've got like their masks, then you've got the next
step up masks, those big plan heads or whatever.
And then you've got that little creep.
It doesn't seem to work properly and his mouth doesn't work.
And it jumps to a lot of conclusions very quickly.
This will happen now.
You will need or die.
It's very... knows what it's want.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's a Muppet with a mind of its own.
No, it really doesn't because so it says you will be put to death
because you came to our city.
Well, we didn't know coming to us if you would maybe get put to
death.
That is not an excuse.
Oh, and pretty much the doctor says, oh, well, I thought you were
a civilised man, but if you're not fine, you can go free.
Yeah, yeah.
Okay, so... does change its mind.
It does, but it changes its mind so capriciously.
Pretty much the doctor does the reverse of if you think you're so
strong.
No, I don't think you could move this boulder that's trapping me.
Yeah, it's that sort of old biblical Aesop's fable kind of kind of
logic.
I like the idea of the 3 tiered alien society because so often
when we see aliens in Doctor Who, there doesn't seem to be any
social structure to speak of.
What if they kind of had about the, um, sensorized?
Yes, I'm sorry. trying to get that out before you said it.
I looked at you.
You knew exactly what.
That is an example of how Doctor Who has denuded social structures
in alien cultures before by very simple signifiers.
It's sort of been a sash, a sash.
It's sort of been expanded upon with slur and his ice warriors who
look very different.
But this is the 1st time we get it.
And it's not only denuding by clothing or social order.
It's also denuding by we are the same species, but we are
different permutations of that species.
It's not explored that much, but I actually think that's a good
thing because it's just sort of presented and not demystified.
It raises some questions and even though those questions aren't
answered.
How did this splitting off happen?
Yeah, it's vaguely referred to by the doctor and the master, but
just a supposition.
They're sort of looking at the mosaic and going, well, it could
mean this and it could mean that and da da da.
It's nice.
Both of them there together, sort of, you know, working this out
you're talking about things and they have a great relationship
because despite everything else, they respect one another's
intellect.
I think they're a little bit in love.
Marry me and together, we can rule the universe.
Yeah, yeah.
Do you know what I mean?
They do work terrifically well together.
And I've said so far this season that the master's much nicer and
seems to be much better company than perch, where he's much less
obnoxious.
It kills people from time to time, but who doesn't have a bad day
you know, so often.
But the 2 of them work terrifically well together and there is a
mutual respect.
I think all of that.
I think it actually brings out some of the best in John Po twin
just his whole presence and that sort of thing.
There's just something when he's in those scenes with Roger. that
I really like.
Is there a thematic parallel between that scene and the story
which you said was too far separate from it, the story of the
colonists and the, and the minors.
So the doctor wants to see the universe and the master wants to
own it.
Do you know what I mean?
And so, um, That's a good point.
Like, you know, IMC, these people, the reason that they've become
colonists is they want to go outside.
Do you know what I mean?
They want to grow things.
They want to experience life in a way that's denied to them by
their overcrowded, polluted world.
And there's IMC that just profits from their being an overcrowded
world.
The whole, the whole point of mining the planet is to create more
houses for, you know, the increasingly and unsustainably
overpopulated earth.
Maybe there is a little parallel there.
And certainly pertly helping the colonists is really lovely.
I mean it really is so good.
And he just sort of jumps in.
He's like, you know, he's really missed helping people out in
space.
It could have been called helping in space.
Helping in there.
He uses a sonic screwdriver in this story, doesn't he?
In episode five. something to do with them getting into the
Master's Titus, is it?
Um, I think it's, I think it's to do with like the master's filing
cabinets and whatnot because he's still got the key to the
master's TARDIS that he stole in terror of the autops. other
little..
But this is the 1st appearance of the Sonic Screwdriver, as we
mostly know it in the classic series, the little silver tube in
this case with the yellow swirl alongside and the conical head
inside the circle.
Previous to this, it's just been a pen torch, you know, under
Patrick.
So, yeah, we didn't have this one screwed over at all in series
7.
We had the door handle.
It does get mentioned.
The Sonic screwdriver. in Solurians.
Yes, yeah.
He says, oh, I forgot.
Yeah, so it does get mentioned, but it doesn't appear at that
point.
Bernard Kay, who died quite recently and he played Saladin and he
played.
Who else did he play?
Oh, Inspector, slightly Scottish guy from the face faceless ones.
Yeah.
And of course, um, Tyler in Darlic Invasion of Earth?
Of course.
And he plays Cordwell.
Caldwell.
And Caldwell is the moral centre of this story.
I guess we alluded to it before.
He's the only miner with a moustache.
Because he's the engineer, isn't he?
Yeah, so he's a mining engineer.
He has to do what IMC says because IMC owns the world.
Dent also tells him that he knows how in debt he is.
He's up to his he is in debt.
And so he kind of has to do what Dent says.
But Dent is really pretty openly murdering a whole bunch of
people.
He's so terrific, by the way.
Just a quick parathetic. he's great.
Great voice, just underplays it to the point of fabulous
camposity.
You know, he really is terribly good.
And so Caldwell sort of goes along with this, but then eventually
you know, like he helps Winton to escape from being gunned down by
the guards and then eventually just jump ship.
And so the story is...
Yeah, it's a story of his redemption.
He's kind of at the moral centre of it. makes the right choice.
Yeah, I think it's really interesting that on the other side of
that, you have Winton, who starts off, yeah, all Winton wants to
do is punch people in the face.
Yes.
And again, and he does sort of save everyone at the end by
punching Terry Walsh in the face a lot.
It's a really, it's Terry Walsh with a rare sort of...
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. like front and sanitarium, well, take it
out.
But Winton also comes around to be more thoughtful because, of
course, by the end of the story, he's the leader of the colony, so
he has to be a more thoughtful character.
Also, a little mentioned for the actor Nicholas Fennel.
In rod score for their story, which was 6 out of 10. 5 of those
points, Arthur Nicholas Fennel's bottom.
And if you want to go back and watch the three.
It's quite a nice bottom.
He's also played very well.
And even he is such a strong and proactive part of the plot
because it's him saying, we need to go into INT and take their
weapons and then he finds the evidence, but stops up and the
evidence is destroyed and what have you.
It does lead to a bit of a loop story here, which is, of course, a
favourite of Malcolm Thorke and Terroristics in that face steal
the INC's weapons and have a shootout.
And then INC weapon takes weapons back one episode later and has a
shootout.
And I think in both instances, at least a cliffhanger, just like
the 1st 2 cliffhaggers of the story are the same.
It's the doctor being menaced by the robot.
He gets to gurn again, you know?
Yeah, another girl. added to the list.
Interesting story that shows how much John Pertwee sort of put
consideration into his character.
There are photos from the story, which are quite famous, which is
John Pertwee sort of lying on that broken table with the robot
above him. photographer was giving him directional. can you look
like this?
Can you look like that?
And John Kirby was asked, can you look terrified?
said, no.
The Doctor Who cannot look terrified because of Doctor Who looks
terrified, it's too scary for children.
The doctor has to look confident.
I can look worried, I can look scared.
I won't look terrified because Doctor Who should never be
terrified.
And yeah, it's kind of like, don't necessarily agree, I think, if
the doctor looks terrified that shows how bad things are, but
certainly it shouldn't be terrified by that robot.
In fact, it is part of the problem with Perjury's character, isn't
it?
And we've said it before, he just never really seems like he's in
danger.
And, you know, where he was terrified in Inferno, that was really
effective.
But he just kind of strides through the thing without being
particularly affected by it.
And, you know, as I've said before, when he retires from acting
quite soon.
Um, that will make him, that will make him even more difficult to
us.
I think you are cool.
I think he's actually had quite a lot of stuff in this season
that's forcing to be arrogant.
He's had comedy moments.
He's had to be sympathetic.
He's had a whole range of things.
There's another comedy ending to this story where they come back
in the brigadier moves out of the way of the time.
Last episode we had a last story, we had a comedy ending, I think
with his TARDIS not being able to get away, and so he's stuck
there on earth in terribly autons, you know, he turns, turns
around, I'm stuck here on the earth with you, Brigadier, and it's
ho, ho, ho.
Terrence loves his little comedy endings at the end of each of the
stories.
I will talk about this more next story, but in this one it really
cements that Doctor Who is becoming about, in a way, the evolution
of Joe Grant.
Because, you know, Joe starts off literally bumbling in and
wrecking experiments, in terror of the autopsy, in just a few
short stories.
She's proven herself capable of joining in with a revolution and
going from, I don't want to go outside.
I've got complete cock to shock.
I'm terrified to when she comes back.
The doctor puts his arm around her and says, oh, don't tell him.
He'll never believe you.
And it's like, suddenly again, we've got that special heart of
Doctor Who, which is, this is a special thing and it takes a
special person to understand or do.
It takes a special person to be this adventurous, and it's sort of
saying to fans, that means you're a special person too, to me, that
you know, that means you're a special person to Doctor Who.
And it's been building to this moment.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it will continue in the next story as well.
Before we go on, can I talk about the novelisation?
Can you talk about the plot where suddenly everything ends because
they've got that self-destruct button switched then that just
happens to be sitting there for this weapon that's been sitting
there the whole time and then we just get to push it.
Yeah, it is a bit crummy.
But the thing is, when you think about it, the primitives are very
stupid.
So they wouldn't know how to use it.
The priests are blind, so they wouldn't know how to use it.
And poor little, you know, squidgy puppet man.
His arms are too short, so he can't use it.
They have to have someone else to do. brilliant.
Okay.
Okay, no, that makes that makes sense.
So the normalisation solves a lot of the problems that the
production has.
So the primitives look less stupid in the novel, like they're 6
fingered and they just have sort of curly hair and they kind of
read like, you know, like native populations.
I think they've got green hair or blue hair or something.
They look a bit more like the swampies.
Yeah, so they look a bit better.
The priests have otter heads, you know, they look like otters.
So rather than looking like clan heads, do you know what I mean?
Don't actually say that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And the puppet, the stupid puppet, is a glowing child size figure
you know, that appears in flames.
Oh, which is what Matt, Matt Hawk originally wanted in the
script.
And Terry said, we come.
We achieve that bad.
What are you talking about?
puppet instead.
But more than that, and it's what Hulk does all the time in his
novelisations is it gives just stacks and stacks of interesting
backstory.
The Leasons who are the 1st couple to be killed by giant lizards.
Yeah, they have that one line in the story about on earth we
didn't even have a room and now we have our own room and we have
land and that's expanded into it, I think, almost a whole chat.
We find out how they 1st met.
We learn all about what conditions are like on Earth.
You know, it's really, really, really good.
And he changes the beginning of the story too.
Do you remember this?
Joe arrives and joins unit and is bored for ages and ages.
The other 3 stories don't happen.
And this is the 1st time.
Because this was the 1st one that was written and published.
Yeah, Mac was told, okay, we need the introduction for Joe in the
same way.
Dr. Had an exciting adventure in the dark.
So does he give her any parents?
No, no, I don't think so.
I don't remember her parents, but oh, that's not true.
There are stories of her as a little girl and she wanted to be a
secret agent or something.
Yes, yes.
But it's so good.
It really is so good and you get, you get a chapter from dense
point of view.
We learn that the company sort of pimps, you know, like picks you
a wife and you come home and there's a wife there for you and, you
know, that's...
And he's like, you know, we hit along very well.
There's no romance, but she's a nice woman and understands what a
career is.
Yeah, it's really, it's, it's really terrific.
And and the best bit, do you remember Ash, Ash has a book, and
it's the story about someone called God, who he's never heard of.
And the 2nd half of the book has 4 stories about a man who gives
up his life to save other people.
And so clearly religion and the Bible and things don't exist in
this sort of future 500 years from now.
But it's that book that prompts Ash to sacrifice himself in order
to save the colony.
And it's, it's so, so well done and so much more interesting, uh
than what we get on screen.
And like I'm a huge fan of this story.
But I love the novelisation.
So did that enhance your enjoyment of this story?
Yeah, yeah, because you've got that backstory.
I mean, there's enough in the actual story on screen.
You do get enough of an impression from the dialogue of what the
world was like, but it's kind of nice to be able to see it in the
novel.
And the way I recently read it was some Jeffrey Beaver's audio
reading on it, which is wonderful.
I especially like both the moment in the doll and the way that
Jeffrey Beavers reads it in the TV version, when the Leasons are
killed, incidentally, Mrs. Leason, Sheila Grant, the infamous
voice of the Quox.
But...
But when that happens in the TV version, the sort of winter comes
back in and says to Ash, and you know, I buried the bodies up on
their land and that's the only thing we hear about it.
In the book, there is a beautiful service.
So if everyone's doing it on automatic pilot because, of course, in
this highly compartmentalised world they've come from, they've
never had to bury anyone.
You know, and they don't know what to do.
And so the doctor is just very gently saying to Ash, okay, what
you need to do is you need to dig a hole in the ground.
Maybe, maybe their land and put them in there and fill them in
with that.
And once that's done, you just talk about them. describe what they
were like to know.
And it's, it's this lovely moment.
And the way that Jeffrey Bieber's read it because he's got such a
beautiful voice just enhances it.
And I think that is even tied in later with the fact that Ash has
this book about goad.
And Jesus.
It is that is beautiful, that scene.
And the doctor just underplays it.
He tells Ash.
And, you know, they have a wake afterwards and they all meet and
they have tea and they laugh and they're enjoying themselves
doctor pretty much says now you have a party. and in the book
that's when Ash finally turns around and says, what?
It's so good.
It's kind of undermined, I think, in the thing because, you know, a
bunch of people have been killed already, in fact, discovered.
But that funeral scene is breathtakingly good.
Look, I'm just very impressed with this entire story and I've just
I really enjoyed it.
And it is, and as I've just said, he's my favourite of the season
and I was really surprised that this would be the one that would
be.
Yeah, I had exactly the same experience.
I didn't think this would be my favourite story.
Cornell Day and Hopping describe it as like watching socially
aware paints dry.
But if you watch it as 6 episodes in one hit. going to have that
call?
I mean, I think terror of the autons maybe.
Maybe that's my favourite, but certainly this is vying for top
place.
It's still my least favourite story of the season.
But I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would.
It's due to good performances.
I can't really fault the performance of anyone.
I don't think Tony Korn was that great, but at the same time, he
doesn't have a huge part, so that's fine.
But I think it's pretty much down to Matt Hawk's script.
Yeah.
Yeah, Mac Hook cannot write a bad script, in my opinion.
Ooh.
Well, playing with that.
We'll see about that.
But we're going on to a script writer who may be mad or myth in
the demons.
So, um, Nathan, this is yours, Teresa.
I'm just going to go up on, uh, up on Devil's Hump.
Like you do.
So, this is John Pertee's favourite story.
Yes.
Yeah, and it's a story that the production team really liked.
It's written by Barry Letts and Robert Sloman, and I think they
do...
Do they do the season finale, like every year for the next four
years?
Yeah, I do indeed.
I think the next two, though, are Time Monster and Green Death are
just credited to Robert Sloan, and I think he wrote them and Barry
Ree Wrote them, whereas this one they did.
Put it out under the name Guy Leopold.
Yeah, which I think is like a middle name and a child's name or
something like that.
And it's directed by Lets or am I mad?
No, it's directed by Christopher Barry.
Oh, okay.
All right.
He will go on to direct, though, won't he?
Let's direct...
Terror of the Autrons.
Yeah, he directed the Autons this year, and next year, he will
direct the time.
Yeah, he does start directing the finales, doesn't he?
He'd explain that to the spiders and stuff.
So this is going to be an annual kind of event.
It's going to be the big lets moment.
It's his story and Robert Sloman working together.
So you can see that it's very much what Lets wants to do with the
program and that's kind of been the story of this year, you know.
He only got He only got to really plan half a season last time
this time he's got the proper season.
But I have to say that I think that the reason that this is per to
his favourite story is that everyone had such a lovely time, you
know, on location for 2 weeks.
Kurt, we got a ride around on a motorbike.
Yeah, you know, they just seem to really terrifically enjoy, you
know, hanging out of that village and all of that sort of thing.
But what really ends up on screen is actually not that great.
And it does have fun moments, and it does introduce a pretty
significant new element to the show, but it's a giant mess plot
wise, and it makes many, many puzzling creative choices, I think.
So let's start positive.
Okay.
It starts with, you know, that fun sequence with the doctor
patronising Joe and being terribly obnoxious to her, which is
always fun.
And she's talking about the age of Aquarius and stuff like that.
And so the Age of Aquarius is obviously just a reference to the
musical hair.
Yes.
Yeah.
You know, because she says the dawning of the age of Aquarius.
I mean that's the, but it really is.
Yeah, I think she's talking about hair and how it's actually
happening.
Yeah, yes.
So and it's about magic.
There hadn't been magic in Doctor Who before, and the doctor is
staunchly opposed to magic and, you know, tells Joe that she
should be a scientist and all of that sort of thing and then does
the magic thing with the car and stuff.
That's very true.
And the doctor's identified as a scientist, sort of quite a lot.
And then they're even sort of wearing a lab coat, isn't it?
It's science versus magic.
Then, of course, they're watching the dig on television, which is
terrific.
I love BBC 3 everything.
Oh, 1970s.
They're great. so funny.
It is, and this is a kind of lazy exposition thing that they've
done before where they've had, you know, like a reporter short
into camera like they did in Ambassadors of Dare.
It's a big favourite of Malcolm Hook.
If you look at each of his stories for pert week, he uses
television or some kind of televised thing to summarise what's
happened.
He does it in solar ends.
He did it in colony and he'll do it again.
Yeah, so Colony in Space, the doctor was in that room watching the
you know, what earth looks like these days on television.
It's like the reminder room in the invasion of the dark.
Yes, the Solurians look at the development of Apes, the finishing
with Major Baker, yeah.
Yeah.
So, but the reporter talking to camera for exposition, you know
that's ambassadors of death.
And that is kind of lazy here, but they do kind of manage to make
it fun.
But the surprising thing is that crazy old Olive Hawthorne, bless
her.
Don't we love her?
She's great.
She is awesome.
Damaris Damon.
And so she's clearly mad and going on about the devil and all of
that sort of thing.
And the doctor immediately goes, that woman's completely right.
We must go down and stop.
And so we've had all this anti-magic thing, but suddenly the
doctor suddenly believes in magic all of a sudden and is off to
stop it.
And so for a long time in those 1st 2 episodes.
You don't quite know why the doctor's behaving in this way.
And it does take a while for the other shoe to drop, I think.
Yeah.
And I think it's quite interesting as the 1st episode because
Every other episode this season, by the end of the 1st episode, the
doctor is well and truly entrenched in the plot.
If we look back at episode one cliffhangers, terribly autumns, he's
about to get blown up by a bomb, the mind of evil, he's in the
room when the killer machine activates.
Claws of Axos, he's inside the Axe on spaceship and Joe's being
menaced, Colony in space, he's being attacked by the robot.
But in this, he is directly threatened in the Cliffhanger.
You know, roof comes down on him, but he's only arrived on the
scene about 2 minutes before that, and the rest of the plot has
happened without him there.
And we haven't seen that kind of plot development without the
doctor since the days of, you know, William on Patrick Trouton
going off on a holiday.
But I think to have that once in a while is okay.
The world's being built up.
And part of the tension is the doctor can't get there in time to
stop it.
And one of the reasons, can I say, that he can't get there in time
to stop it, is he goes into the palm, asks for directions to the
dig, is instantly obnoxious and appalling to everyone.
And so no one wants to tell him.
Yes.
And in that local park, like, they talk about, Oh, we love the
costume and the wig.
You know, it's very funny, you know.
Terence Dix is having a dig or 2 at this.
How nice to see you, Miss Arthur.
But then of course, then you've got Joe in there and that sort of
thing.
And I do think that that is an indication of, perhaps, Barry
that's the way he writes the doctor and doesn't let the doctor
evolve when he gets his hand on and things like this.
We'll see it again in a year's time in the time monster.
He's going to be obnoxious.
As opposed to the rest of the season where I think he's less so
but that's another story.
Right.
We also see it at the moment with Peter Capaldi, and it was even
explicitly pointed out in into the Dalek.
She's my carer.
She cares, so I don't have to.
And whilst, you know, I think that's very good characterisation.
I always felt that line was really clunky because I'm like, oh
John Poe and Katie Manning just did it with acting.
That whole 1st episode is about getting there and I think it's
quite hilarious.
You know, they have to use maps.
There's no sat, NAV, there's no little, the science spin around
and that sort of thing.
When they're running through the field, they abandon the car and
because a branch falls on that thing.
Stop that dick. not that dick.
And in the background, Katie just goes, whoa.
It falls over.
It's hilarious.
Pizza stop up.
Keeps on going.
I used to say, our old friend Peter McTire used to say that she
tripped over a sleeping cow.
Sleeping cow.
Yeah, yeah, that's what that was. was appalled.
Can I just say there's one thing I don't like about this story?
And it's when Miss Hawthorne meets Mr. Magister, and it's the
most.
I audibly groaned when I was watching this.
I had no problem with the master being in any other story this
year and I know, you know, the whole story about, you know
Terrence Dixon Baronets say they overdid the master during this
season and up to this point.
I didn't agree with that.
But I just went, oh, no, not him again.
Like, I mean, Roger's fine, you know, he's great.
But it's sort of like, I already know the outcome.
You're not going to win.
He's really incompetent.
Shockingly bad.
And in this story too, he actually begins to get more and more
agitated with people who do not fall underneath his spell, like, I
think the squire gets it from him.
Like, you know, normally he's quite controlled, you know, he can
deal with these primitive apes.
But in this story, he's beginning to lose his patience.
I think he's just been on earth for far too long.
Something that is great about the story, though, are those minor
characters.
So the BBC 3 presenter, Alistair Ferguson, Alistair Ferguson.
Fergie, yeah.
I think someone actually calls him Fergie at one point.
Like, he's he's got his slightly camp.
He's producer?
It's like the camp producer.
This is to Professor Horner.
If you could do, if you could break through the wall just on the
street for me, that will be absolutely, well, I'll try my best to
be absolutely super mad.
I like him where he goes.
Quiet everybody.
Lots of lovely hush.
Yeah.
But it's nice like the way that both with that happening and then
you've got Mike and Benson back in base, you know, going to
football, needing to turn over the brigs off, doing whatever.
In fact, I was quite surprised how much the brigadier is actually
sidelined in this story up until the last episode.
He doesn't really get him, like, you know, he's on the outer, plot
wise or whatever.
And a lot of the action stuff is left to Mike Yates and Sergeant
Benton, you know, in the chopper and then hideous jacket that
might be out.
What the hell is that?
Look, I actually think that this is where the story's problems
come in and they are things like sidelining the brigadier for a
long time.
Joe gets very little to do.
Both Joe and the doctor spend a week in bed.
Yes, you know, 2 hearts.
They get back to that too.
That's that's mentioned.
I do have less of a problem with that, though, because it goes
back to something I was saying last podcast, which is you now have
a main cast of six.
And as with any ensemble show, this is the year that Doctor Who is
an ensemble show, you emphasise and D emphasise different
characters in different places.
And this story particularly emphasises Captain Yates, but I think
even more so, it emphasises Sergeant Benton, because it constantly
pairs him up with Ollie Hawthorne, which is hilarious.
They're having tea.
So then they get to go and investigate underneath in the crypton
and he steps on that the square and has a bit of a condition.
But it's also to the point that this was meant to be the story
where the brigadier's wife would appear.
On paper, he had a wife called Fiona, Fiona Lethbridge Stewart, and
she was just going to appear briefly, pretty much when he's woken
up on the phone and he's saying, right, bring around my car.
Right, well, bring around my other car.
Well, wake up the doctor.
Where is everyone?
Apparently, there was just going to be this slinky female arm come
across and try and pull him back into bed, but the BBC had a
serial and said, no, you can't pull that out instead.
And you have to have him in pyjamas.
No, Nick can't show up his medallions, et cetera, et cetera.
Yeah, I don't think it's a problem, but it de-emphasizes the
brigadier and he literally gets stuck outside the action because
he's stuck on the other side of the thing.
I'd like the action man stuff for Bentamin Yates.
I actually really like that.
They do come up 2nd best at times.
I mean, Mike is a fist fight.
You know, then he has the motorcycle, you know, chase.
I'm going, 0 yeah, right, great.
Mike Yates, man of mystery or whatever.
I mean, he's an idiot.
He leaves the keys to the chop...
Yeah, in the chopper.
So that evil villager can go and, you know, menace the doctor.
And we can have some lovely stock footage from Russia with love
when the helicopter explodes.
Really?
Yes.
Yeah, they didn't explode an actual...
I actually was about to take it.
The proper explosion was great.
It's here in my nose.
It's because I'm in Russia with love.
Just the light one in Enemy of the World.
Both chosen by Barry Letts.
You'll have to wait until Battlefield before they blow up a
practical helicopter, I'm afraid.
Okay, it's quite my way.
I like the whole heap barrier thing, the way they try and charring
the ground and that sort of thing.
The heat haze thing.
Yeah, I think that works quite well and there's a pretty effective
sound effect that accompanies it.
But it is another opportunity for her tweet to be obnoxious.
So you've got Sergeant Osgood, who seems to be quite sweet, um, and
he's trying desperately to...
He's having a very bad day, the poor man.
I think he does escape.
He escapes.
He blows up, but he has sort of the comedy black, maybe. sort.
And so he's trying to understand from the doctor how to create
this machine and pertry is sort of shouting instructions through
the heat barrier at him and he's really dismissive and unpleasant
to someone who is trying to help him as usual.
Uh, and it, Pertwee's arrogant so often punches down.
You know, he's often rude to people who, he is in a higher social
position, man, and that's what makes him obnoxious.
When he's angry at IMC.
Do you know what I mean?
That's okay.
That seems to be well-directed, righteous anger.
But just being dismissive and unpleasant to Sergeant Osgood.
It just makes him look mean.
I think.
Do you think that he's more so quite dismissive of people who are
actually trying to help him and that also gets you back up at
sometimes?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Look, I mean, I can I take your point and I can see that in the
character, but when I went into this season and watching it, I was
actively looking for positive things and I actually saw a journey
that the character began to mellow, and although at times I was
irritated, through Joe and through the team and through what was
happening, At the end of the season, I was far happier with where
the character was as opposed to the beginning.
I do think there's some step backs in this story and I think that
comes from the writer from Let's.
But I, you know, certainly as we head into season nine, I think
the character is, you know, if you look back at the beginning of
season seven, the character is in a very different place, I think
anyway.
It's improved.
It's still not ever going to be perfect or what perhaps you want.
But I'm pleasantly surprised that I'm actually liking him a lot
more than what I thought.
Okay.
He gets, you know, some moments in here to be the great wizard, the
qui, qui, quad.
Oh, which is Latin.
Yes, for what is it Latin for?
It's such a mystery.
Who?
Yeah.
Is it?
No, no what?
Well, it's actually who, then feminine who, then what?
It's the way that the word for who would have presented itself in
like a kid's vocabulary book, Latin, vocabulary book or a
dictionary.
So at least masculine, feminine, and neuter. off the word for
who?
So he's a great wizard, Qui, Qui, Qui, which really brings us to
another problem with the story, which is the villagers are just
terrible and kind of stupid.
And the qui quad things being used to get him out of being burned
alive by a mob of angry villagers.
And it's been observed over and over again that they are the most
bored looking mob of angry villagers that's ever been committed to
film.
They're all just standing around, looking listless and sort of
only vaguely interested.
You know what I think it is, except really for Bert McKillop and a
couple of these cronies.
No one actually knows what's going on.
They're just like, oh, this year's made procession is a bit out of
control.
You know, you even get a moment where there's a child standing out
on a doorstep watching and mum sort of drags the child back in
very disapproving.
Yes, yes.
What is it?
Is that the, is it because the Maypole thing is kind of a...
It's a little bit pagan a little bit.
Yeah, okay. versatility.
Yeah, I think most people are just going, this is a bit weird.
Why are they tying someone up?
I mean, why are they so stupid?
Why are the villagers so stupid?
It is a big shame.
And, and, Can I just say, on the villages, those Morris dances and
all that May dancing?
Oh, I just wanted to like, I just, oh, I was just thinking, this
is padding.
Well, it is, but it's also just sort of strange stereotonic
things.
So this is actually our 1st English village.
And the English village, the sleepy English village becomes kind
of one of the staples of the program, and we will see it sort of
over and over again.
And I think that the Maypole thing and credulous, uh, you know
gangs of witch burning hayseed hicks, is actually just sort of
more unpleasant stereotyping, but that's how, you know
sophisticated BBC people out, you know, like in the villages.
It is sort of somewhat unpleasable.
So it's not an attempt to put something into the program that is
familiar, like here are the villages, and you live in a village
and you're watching our program and this is you and you can
identify.
You're really stupid.
And let's see the ratings positive. like 2 million viewers.
But also the BBC do send themselves up in the character.
Oh, yeah, yeah. in the character of Fergie and his and his...
Harry.
One of the things I do like about this is that the master gets a
cliffhanger in episode three.
He's under threat.
It's not only that, he gets pretty much 2 unedable pleafangers, one
after the other.
So Azal arrives, the master's in peril, Azal goes away and has a
bit of a sleep.
Then Azar arrives at the end of episode 4 and the Masters...
Well, the master's actually doing quite well by then.
But as I arrived.
So we actually literally go back to the same position and we have
25 minutes of just sort of marking time.
So it is a sort of giant plot.
Mess, pacing wise, you know.
Maybe they were struggling with the fact that it was 5 episodes
and not 6 or four.
Why is it 5 episodes?
Because they've still got 25 from the previous season and they
haven't been given any budget.
And now that they've proved themselves, they can be successful.
They get 26.
Yeah, exactly.
That's precisely why.
Just to talk about where the story might have come from a little.
The idea of the sleepy yet sinister English village had actually
been explored quite a bit in the previous five years.
First of all, you had the publication of the novel Ritual, which 2
years later would be used as a basis for the Wickerman.
You also had the novel The Owl Service, published in 1967, I
believe, which in 1969 was adapted for television on ITV.
And that was about an English village where a tragic debt that it
had occurred and 3 teenage characters were starting to act out.
So that had a magical element to it as well.
And finally, one of the most popular episodes of The Avengers
which we can still come up to, take a drink, dear listener
Murdersville.
I've seen that, actually. is all about a sleepy English village in
which you can pay the villagers a £10000, lure your business enemy
there and kill them, and they'll dispose of the body for you.
So that sounds great.
So in the years leading up to this, we had quite a few stories
quite a few popular stories, which, yeah, we're kind of saying, um
village, village life.
Oh, it's mysterious and it's odd because of the rise of
populations in cities and that's where people were watching
television and that's where people were buying lots of books.
The Doctor Who seems to have sort of jumped on the bandwagon
there.
Can I tell you another band by that it's jumped on?
Yes.
So, um, in 1968, Eric von Denniken published chariots of the gods
which is a very famous book in which he suggested that aliens had
helped, you know, to construct the pyramids in Stonehenge and that
it wasn't Peter Butterworth who did that after all.
And that elements of the Old Testament and other human belief
systems were influenced by aliens.
And that is directly in this story, isn't it?
It turns out that magic isn't real, and the doctor explains it
using a lovely slideshow presentation with horns. brilliant.
So, so, um, the doctor explains that what is magic is an alien
kind of uh, that feeds on sort of scionic energy or, or human
emotion or something like that, and that the rituals being used in
the master ceremony are part of the sort of demons, you know
ancient magic technology.
And Olive Hawthorne very sensibly says that, well, that is magic
then, isn't it?
And because we like Olive Hawthorne and we're now inclined to
believe what she says.
So I think this is the moment where the where Doctor Who gets to
have magic now.
And all it has to do is say some sort of stupid hand wavy things
about it being science and it can essentially do whatever it
wants.
And now that's um, that's something that will, you know, continue
into the present day.
And the other thing that this story does for the 1st time, which
is a staple of Doctor Who, is the sleeping evil from the dawn of
time that influences, you know, the world's mythology or human
evolution or something.
And so we get, you know, Kronos next year, pyramids of Mars, image
of the Fendal, state of decay, curse of Fendrick, the impossible
planet.
Like it happens over and over again.
And so that's something that this story introduces.
So that broadens the scope.
And I guess this is Santa for that broadens the scope of what this
show can actually now do.
And it also gives the the 2nd sinking of Atlantis.
You just can't keep a good city down.
No.
So really, it's not all that bad, if that's what it does.
It's seminal. you know what I mean?
It introduces some elements to the show that haven't happened
before.
It's a train wreck as far as pacing's concerned.
You know, like we did talk about the village, but maybe it's
really only Olive Hawthorne, who's of any interest.
I love the fact that what she carries in her handbag.
That's so funny.
Hitch, he hits that guy with her reticule.
She should be killed.
I mean, really?
And she says, on these occasions, the outcome is a certain.
She's terrific.
There is in this in this season.
These little comic characters and comic elements much more so than
what happened, I think, the previous year.
I think there's a lot more comedy.
And maybe than before.
Yeah, yeah.
And I think I think it's a lot better balanced than the comedy
that came before as well.
Because, you know, if we look at, say, the space pirates, that had
comic characters in it.
Exactly.
You know, that had Milo Clancy and Domacy Gree.
Two...
I'm not going to watch that. 2 unintelligible old men possibly
making jokes at each other who can say they could have been
reading recipes.
But, you know, this is comedy that anyone can understand because
it's coming from recognisable characters.
You've got the whole team there who can make these little jokes
because they've got a bond and that sort of thing.
And then you've got the characters like, oh, Hawthorne who come in
and because Mikey, it's Mikey, it's some officer to dance with the
brigadier at the end.
Oh, see, another little comedy ending to the season.
But before we get there, God.
What resolution, the climax of the whole story.
Oh, the wonderful Joe is going to sacrifice herself for the
doctor.
Is that what we talking about?
Yeah, so the doctor's doing a really crummy job of convincing
himself to destroy the earth.
And one of the ways that he tries to convince us all is by saying
how bad humanity is, how we're polluting everything, how we could
blow up the world, we probably will.
It's like a really poorly written speech as well, and it's poorly
delivered by poetry news kind of thing.
What the hell are you doing?
Say nice things about us.
You know, do you want him to destroy us?
It's like that Monty Python sketch.
I'm sorry about my wife.
She's horrid, short, and she doesn't conduct very good
conversation, but on the other hand, Sorry, I forgot where I was
going, you know, that's exactly that kind of speech. terrible.
And so Joe leaps in to sacrifice yourself a friend of the doctor.
Yeah, don't kill him, kill me.
And, you know, the logical pop thing would have been for us all to
go, you see, that's what I was looking for. humanity's capable of
this, right?
I'll bugger off.
But instead of like...
It's like Zoe has spoken to him in our goal.
And so he's going to explode.
It's like you're exactly right.
It would have been so simple for that that act of self-sacrifice
to convince us all.
But do we have to kill a monster and blow up the church.
You know, it'd have been no good if the monster had just gone, all
right, well, I'm off then.
I'm the devil, but I'm going.
The thing is, see, that'd be quite nice, but...
You could have blown up the church.
I mean, it's like in the previous story, is that dent.
Yes, and killed.
No, he isn't killed.
But he, there will be consequences, but you don't see it here.
Here, as no one could say, right, well, you've proven your worth
as a species, I shall now depart.
It's like a Star Trek ending.
Well, the thing is, how awesome would it have been for a result to
then go, yes, I will know the part.
The thing is, he doesn't shrink.
He just grows and destroys the church and we have a Godzilla
ending where he stomps across back to devil's hump to the
spaceship and goes home.
Never too.
Yeah, we could have actually had giant sizes are stomping on
buildings as he goes and everyone go, ah, we're terrible
scarcity.
That could have been great.
He has a few moments of CSO problem, doesn't he?
And he's another one that chest hair, I think.
With horses, though.
But he's got he's got skin on his legs.
So he's clearly wearing stockings that probably he shops in the
same place as the primitives, I think.
Sorry.
I think that might be the problem.
And it is Stephen Thorne shouting.
Okay, it adds the 1st appearance of Stephen Thorne. who will
become a regular guest star over the next 3 years.
He keeps coming back.
So he's the only guy who else is in?
wearing masks.
He's Omega.
He's an Ogrom.
Oh, really?
He is also Eldred.
Oh yes, of course he is.
Although you'd be forgiven for thinking he's Elder has played by
Brian Blessett.
Stephen Thorn doing a very good Brian Blessed impersonation.
He is rational, but we're getting ahead of that.
That's spoil.
Yes.
I actually think the Damens is my favourite story of this season.
Okay.
Just because it's almost mind of evil, but I think Damon's really
balances drama and comedy and character quite well.
I know the brigadier doesn't get very much to do, but really, a
brigadier is a brigadier general.
He shouldn't always be in the field.
He's got his 2 guys in the field.
They're running around in sippies.
So having a fabulous time.
I know it's very sort of big in spectacle, but yeah, I can't help
but like it.
Yeah, and you've got the whole team there having fun and that sort
of thing.
You know I like it.
I can see, Nathan, what you're saying, there are problems with
it.
But again, you know, I've come away from this season, enjoying all
the stories, some a little bit more than others.
But really discovering something new and feeling quite positive
about the journey that is ahead.
I think all 5 stories are pretty fun and they're all watchable.
And I think, you know, Pertwee, you know, is always, you know, like
he's never sort of, he's never bad to watch and it is nice having
all those regular people around and hanging out with those
people.
You know, even if they're not particularly spectacularly
characterised.
But I would have to say that I, my opinion, is completely the
opposite of yours, and my least favourite ones were mine of evil.
And um, and, and this one.
Um, just before we move on to our awards for the season.
I just want to say that I think part of the reason I love this
story so much is it wraps itself up and it wraps the whole season
up so well.
I mean, I don't just mean the master being captured, but I mean
that beautiful last line.
I mean, everyone quotes, fancier dance, brigadier.
No thanks, Captain.
I'd rather have a pint, which is very sweet.
The closing line just sort of sums up that Doctor Who is back and
it's finished reinventing itself when the doctor says to Joe, you
know, Joe, perhaps there is magic in the world.
And everyone's just having great time. peace has been restored to
this village.
The world's been saved, the master's under lock and key, and the
doctor, I think, in that moment, that's his final acceptance of
Joe. That's lovely.
Yeah, I think that's...
So, um, from that sort of a loveliness.
Let's move on to our Jenny Laird awards and I've been having a
look at some dates and Terror of the Autons was recorded 9 months
after Ambassadors of Death. roughly.
Now, we know from Carolyn John that she was about 3 months
pregnant during Ambassador's death, which means she would have had
her child 3 months before terror of the auton started location
filming.
So my Jenny Laird award from those puzzling creative choice is
Could we not have had some way to have a leaving scene for this?
Some brief appearance in some way, shape, or form?
Now, Barry Letzer said, I didn't record a leaving scene for her
because I felt that the character hadn't been in the show long
enough to need a leaving scene.
They'd already decided that she was leaving before they finished
recording Inferno.
She knew that was me.
She knew that was her last story.
I believe that's true.
She was actually on the contract for the 1st 2 stories of season 7
then was contracted separately for the last 2 and Barry already
had misgivings about the character at that point.
Right.
I understand that it was mutual, and of course, that 3 month old
baby, you're probably not going to want to work.
You want to spend time with your child.
But if she wasn't important enough, if you like, to warrant a
leaving scene, why is she important enough to mention in the
script, it's either one way or the other.
So I think if they couldn't get her back, it might have even been
preferable not to say anything at all.
It's that, it is that terrible 60s thing, isn't it, that they just
almost never get it right with getting rid of the characters, and
the 2 exceptions are, obviously, Ian and Barbara, and, um, Debbie
Watling's character who might've completely forgotten, what was
she called?
Victoria?
Yeah, I've heard that.
Oh, and obviously Jamie and Zoe as well, you know, but the whole
show's...
Yeah, actually, but mind you, Ben and Polly are written out
halfway through their leaving story.
They get a decent enough scene saying goodbye to the doctor.
But the final story is for me.
Yeah, yeah, it's a shame.
So it's a real problem, I think, because we're going to invest in
these characters and they're just going to throw them away.
But the thing is, you know, they are setting up a whole new
premise at the beginning of the season.
And I think to have her there is just, would have been a jarring
moment.
And they just needed to just to have the new faces.
And you know, I'm glad she's at least mentioned.
In fact, it's really interesting because they introduce Joe before
they tell us that Liz is leaving.
And so you are kind of sitting there going, where's Liz?
Is she coming?
Where is she?
You know, and then, you know, this woman comes in and, you know
hand fisted bum vendor, which again, gosh, Pertu is obnoxious.
Um, uh, and then only then do we, like we start, I think, to
suspect maybe Lizzie's and coming back. then we get it confirmed.
I think that's when Sue, and the wife in space, says something
winds up, oh, this isn't going to like this.
But yeah, I mean, and the thing is, this is a minor nickel because
I don't have a problem with much in this season.
I was tempted to make my journey later war, you know, why is our
1st alien planet in 2 years, so crap.
But I've already harped on about that.
So I'm just going to say, Don't try and hit the middle ground with
a companion leaving scene, either have one or don't.
They won't learn from this lesson, will they?
It will happen very badly again and again.
I don't think it ever happens quite this badly.
This production team will learn from this.
Oh, yeah, with Joe's leaving seems beautiful.
Spoiler alert.
Yeah, maybe this is the worst.
We've had this conversation, haven't we?
We did decide it was Liz, that her leaving is worse than dodo.
It's worse.
Because we care about it more.
Yeah I think that's it.
My Jenny Laird award goes to Michael Burtle.
Who is that?
He is responsible for the costumes in colony in space.
And it is that just the massively unflattering look of the
costumes that the IMC people wear that just make them all look
paunchy and have big bums.
And then and then there's Dent, you know, who we've said is really
really good.
Like, I think he must be one of the best Doctor Who villains ever
who is just absolutely hamstrung by that wig.
The wig is so bad.
And you can see that it's like trying to be, you know, like
Commander Straker from UFO or something.
It's like he's got future hair.
You know, but it is he's more gay Ellis from UFO.
It's really, really bad.
So everyone looks sort of pigeon chested and so on.
So, uh, so Michael uh, gets my Jenny Laird award, uh, and he's
well and truly uh, in the running because he does come back in
season 16 and do the costumes for the Armageddon factor.
Oh, damn.
Not a great track record.
No.
Well, I guess my Jenny Laird Award.
Oh, this is Todd's 1st Jenny Laird award.
Savour the moment.
Oh, save at the moment.
Gee, don't build it up too much.
I've been fishing around in my head all sorts of options, but I
think it has to go to puff the magic dragon.
I mean, what were they thinking, you know, and showing the whole
thing was a mistake.
A mistake, a mistake.
Terrific?
Yeah, well done.
For my pick of the month. going back to my old stalwart big finish
and it kind of ties in with my Jenny Laird Award 2.
Set between terror of the autons and the mind of evil.
We have The Sentinels of the New Dawn, which is performed by Carol
and John.
Oh wow.
What this is.
This is a story during season 8 where Liz has encountered
something sinister at Cambridge and calls the doctor for help.
And as it's told in the story, rather than being a reunion of 2
people saying, bitterly saying, why did you, why did you leave?
you know, da.
It's actually 2 colleagues meeting and it's written as a great
mutual respect and it's so wonderful to see you, you're doing so
well.
And the thing is, though, she gets a more season eight-ish alien
invasion, sinister organisation, trip on a speedboat kind of
plot.
So it's really, really good.
It's also a prequel to a later Doctor Who missing story Leviathan
which is very good.
But my recommendation is Doctor Who, the Companion Chronicles, the
Sentinels of the New Dawn, because I haven't had enough Liz Shaw
yet.
Who has?
Indeed.
So my pick of the week is a completely self-serving one.
Hooray!
Yeah, yeah, yeah. randomiser again?
It's not the randomiser, although go and visit the randomiser.net
if you want to not know what Doctor Who story you're going to
watch next.
No, my pick of the week is a new website, which has just only been
up for a few weeks.
It's called Crater of Needles.
Oh, yes.
And it's created, I think, by Stephen Wood.
So there are a few articles so far.
He's talked about heart, all he's talked about and compared it to
the beginning of the new season.
He's talked about Doctor Who marathons.
And in that context, he was kind enough to mention the podcast
favourably and talk about how we were chronicling the experience
of watching Doctor Who all the way through in order.
And it was very sweet.
It was, uh, it was uh, very nice to have such nice things set of
bounces.
So, uh, it's crater of needles.com, uh, and you can follow the
author, Stephen Wood.
He's Stephen with a PH, Stephen Wood underscore UK on Twitter.
Yeah, well, I hope he's enjoyed season 8. interesting.
My pick of the...
I call it pick of the week, but that's crazy talk.
Okay, because the week is the big finish audio, The Feast of
Axels.
Axel's climate, fuel system exhausted.
Request immediate assistance.
We don't fall for that again, do we?
Well, you'll have to listen to it and find out what the 6th doctor
Evelyn Smythe, and Bernard Holy, who was the voice of Axelos is
back.
Get up to.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's worth it just to hear him say those immortal minds.
So it's strange that again, it was like having the zombie big
finish one.
Do you know what I mean?
kind of thing.
This is so visual and so TV-ish that it would be a strange choice
to kind of try and create a sequel to on audio.
Does it work?
I think it does, and I think it's because it's the voice of
Axels.
Yeah, yeah.
And it just works.
I really like that one too.
And dear listener, if you do track down that story and listen to
it.
I highly recommend the Cliffhanger to episode three.
I'm not gonna say anything more about it, but very, very
effective.
Ooh, I'm intrigued.
Now, next time, it will be, uh, myself, Nathan, and Richard Todd
you will join us again for season 10, I believe.
NT.
However, the story allocations are as follows.
Nathan, for Season 9, you will be discussing the Mutants, and the
Time Monster.
I actually don't mind the time also, that'll be fun.
I will again be on the Planet of Mac Hulk with the sea devils.
More giant lizards, more giant lizards.
And Richard, if you're listening, and I hope you are.
You have got Day of the Daleks.
And the curse of Paladin.
Now, Todd, the next time you join us for season 10, you will be
mainlining the classic carnival of monsters.
Oh, no.
That's her to his best story.
I love it.
Time to rewatch it.
As already proven, there are things that I've watched that I
thought I didn't like that I really like, so, you know?
He's hoping.
Well, it's bound to be a very interesting next 2 months.
But until we see you again in 2 weeks, dear listener.
Thank you very much for listening and good night.
Good night.
That was Flight 2 Entirety, with Todd Building, Nathan Bottomley
and Brandon New Jones.
This episode, punching Terry Walsh in the face, was reported on
February the 1st, 2015.
The next episode will be released on March 15th.
You can find us online at flight toentires.com, flight to entirety
on Facebook and iTunes and FTE podcast on Twitter.
We dedicate this episode to memory of Bernard K, who played
Caldwell in Colony and Space.
Try and truly.
No, that's okay.
I just pressed record so I could just sit down.
So what should we talk about?
Blake seven.
Oh, I want to get more notes.
We've got so many fascinating things to say about this.
Hmm, I'm a fascinating fellow.
You got a fascinator.
Sorry.
That's what I'm wearing now.