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This transcript was created on 2026-05-04 at 14:20:57

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Hello, dear listener, and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety

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the only Doctor Who podcast that remembers how relaxing it was

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back when the doomsday clock was a whole 3 minutes to midnight.

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I'm Nathan.

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I'm Brendan.

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I'm James.

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And I'm Tom.

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Well, the monks are finally here, and like all of us, they really

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just want to be loved.

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So let's see if humanity swipes right in the pyramid at the end of

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the world.

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So we're in the middle episode of this trilogy, and I said last

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week that I thought that the trilogy was quite a good idea, but I

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can't claim with all honesty that I'm on board with literally all

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of the episodes.

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How do you feel about it, Tom?

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Well, I mean, in some ways, this is considering the story that

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began in oxygen, because we're still dealing with the consequences

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of the doctor's blindness and that's going to be a huge feature at

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the end of this episode.

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I think my overall feeling about this is that this is

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serialisation done right.

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You can tune into any of these episodes and they tell a complete

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self-contained story in their own right, whether that story is any

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good or not is something else we can get into.

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But the threads that connect them are more than simply, oh, there's

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that word again, there is an ongoing narrative here, but it

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doesn't absolutely require, in fact, one of the weaknesses of

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extremists, I think, is actually, you didn't need it to set this

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episode up, because the doctor knows the monks are coming because

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a sock and great pyramid appears and somebody calls him.

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So extremist has quite a lot to render itself moot.

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And any rendering moot that hasn't been accomplished by the end of

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extremists is accomplished by the beginning of this episode.

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So, yeah, but there are these narrative threads, like I said, not

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least of which, I really, remember being at the time, quite

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shocked, but nevertheless delighted at how big a narrative swing

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it was to blind the doctor at the end of an episode and then keep

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him blinded for the next 2 episodes.

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I mean, that's strong stuff.

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Yeah, I think, you know, like, I think the one thing that comes

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from extremacy into this episode is the idea that the monks have

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been able to survey all of human history and so they can find its

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weak spot.

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Now, again, that's probably conveyed sufficiently in dialogue in

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this episode in any case.

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Yeah, and they have a big sort of wibbly blue thing, which people

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can fondle.

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Exactly.

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And that's that does the job just as well.

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Yeah, yeah.

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I did say last week that I thought the idea of like a pre-invasion

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stage, you know, Android invasion one to 3 on the planet kraal

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where we sort of experiment with an invasion.

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That's a reasonable thing to steal from.

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And then the beginning of the invasion and then the end of the

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occupation, I think.

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That works incredibly well. doesn't it?

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Like, as it's very different from a 6 part Doctor Who story.

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It really still is 3 stories, but and LinkedIn a satisfying way.

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I think Star Trek aspires these days to that kind of serialisation

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and Doctor Who does it very well here.

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Yeah, like I was I was on extremist last week and so I was

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watching this one with a particular view to how Essential

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Extremist was. and extremist is kind of referred to as, oh, yes

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it's those monks you told me about. and the whole, I do love the

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conceit at the beginning.

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With the previously, it's interspersed with Bill going on a date

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with Penny now with the very helpful text now written underneath

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it.

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That's great, is it?

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Um, and you know, what it what it kind of makes me think of is

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last week was the episode that some shows do, and Nathan, I know

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you're going to cringe at this one. like course oblivion in

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Voyager.

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Where it's like, hate that so much.

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Yeah.

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But it's like, this is our chance to kill everyone off last week

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in extremists without it affecting the ongoing the ongoing

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narrative.

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But yeah, I think there is sometimes a problem with illusory

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stories, virtual stories, where you kind of get to the end of it

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go, well, what was the point of that?

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I still really enjoy extremists.

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But yeah, Tom, I see your point about how essential is it when it

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gives you the monk's backstory and maybe saves about 5 minutes at

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the top of this one.

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I mean, this is not the extremest episode, so we can move off this

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fairly rapidly, but my review at the time just consisted of a

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dialogue between the one of the monks and whoever was leading the

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operation, trying to figure out what had gone wrong and saying

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things like, yeah, mate, it was fairly easy to defeat the doctor.

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I mean, he was blind.

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Yeah, yeah, we made we made it blind in the simulation because

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what the point was to test our invasion plans against the most

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fearsome adversary we could imagine.

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Why did you make him blind?

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I mean, to be honest, the whole thing fell apart once everyone

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read the book that told them they were in a simulation.

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The what?

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and told everyone, sort of like an Easter egg?

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It made it very hard to translate.

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Et cetera.

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Yes.

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Yeah, quite.

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My memory of this one, though, is that it was pretty good. and

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watching it this time, I have to say that I actually enjoyed it a

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whole lot.

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And I think there are some things that it does very well, even

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though there are things that I think a little bit kind of

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undercooked.

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But I really, really enjoyed the stuff with Erica and Douglas a

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lot.

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I thought that was really fun.

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She was really great.

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I thought that the location really worked.

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Like, you know, you could imagine a laboratory in 1970s, Doctor

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Who just being in the studio and having, you know, like a few test

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tubes and a Bunsen burner and stuff.

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But this really looked like, you know, like an industrial

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laboratory.

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You know where this industrial laboratory was originally supposed

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to be?

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Global chemicals.

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I would have been 1st draft.

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And on top of that as well, the compound they were developing was

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DN8, a follow-up to DN6 from Planet of Giants.

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It's sequel.

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I love the cutting back and forth between the 2 of them.

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And I loved the way it was completely baked into the rest of the

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story.

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I don't know if any of you guys were watching House of the Dragon

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but in series 2, we keep cutting back to some like random guys

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doing their own thing, completely disconnected from the main plot

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and in episode 7.

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I think it is.

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It transpires that these are secret dragon riders.

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And so it's a bit of a thing because you had to sit through

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episodes where you're cutting weight of random people and it just

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feels like chess pieces being moved into position as opposed to

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the story organically unfurling.

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But if you don't do that, then these characters who are going to

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be important later on, have no backstory.

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So it's a bit of a bind.

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But here, Moffat and Harness bake the fact that we have to keep

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cutting away right into the concept.

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I think it's incredibly clever and works superbly well.

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It's the, we get to see the monk reflected against a screen.

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So we know quite early on that the monks are watching them, and

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that obviously becomes an important element in the resolution of

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that part of the plot.

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And you've got the doctor's monologue, and the doctor, again, is

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genuinely monologuing in the Tartars.

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He's not delivering his speech about the grandfather paradox or

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whatever at the beginning of before the flood.

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He's actually in the Tartars.

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Like he is in listen, just talking to himself, and you do get Bill

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shouting through the door, you know, a bit later on.

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And he's talking about death and how our death is, in a sense, from

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his point of view, preordained, that at one point will go to a

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place for the last time that we'll ever go to it.

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You know, I think perhaps I've watched The Vanquishers for the

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last time already.

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No, we have to do it.

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And what I think is really good, is the 2 events that actually

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cause this to happen.

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The 2 inciting events, which is Erica's husband or boyfriend

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slamming her reading glasses in the door, and then Douglas getting

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drunk the night before, and he says, oh, you know, there was

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drinking and there were breakages.

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And so both of them are images of glass breaking and we keep

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cutting back to them to remind us that that it's that that has

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sort of set this on the path, just this tiny thing, this tiny

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thing where he can't read the thing.

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Erica can't read it because she hasn't got her glasses.

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He can't read it properly because he's still hung over and he puts

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the decimal point in the wrong place, which I only really properly

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noticed this time round. despite how much effort Netheim puts into

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making sure that we see those numbers.

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I just think all of that stuff is really terrifically good.

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I do think Erica's a bit blasé about Douglas having been gunked

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she's got a lot on her mind subsequently, but she never seems

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particularly upset about it.

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So like, oh, that's the thing that happened.

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He's dead.

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I actually quite liked that reaction because and I'm not quite

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sure why.

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I think, you know, the episode doesn't have time for her to be all

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kind of, you know.

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And she does a kind of, oh, Douglas, what have you done?

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You know, like there's an affection there.

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Do you know what I mean?

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Like an airline pilot.

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She just got to work the problem.

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Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

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It would have been.

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I mean, it would have been terrible to have her too upset by it.

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But yes, yeah.

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It is a thing.

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Capaldi bursting into tears.

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I had a sort of Mandela effect with this because I thought that

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she barely reacted at all, but she actually gives a really good

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initial reaction face to Douglas just fizzing out.

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Where I think the reaction is a little bit undersold is when the

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doctor can't get back through the door at the end.

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And I think it's because, you know, Capaldi's in the foreground.

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And I think Rachel, the actress playing Erica, thinks, oh, I'm

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probably out of focus.

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I won't, you know, go over the top, but it's the literal, have I

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left the iron on?

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Look.

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But it's the only thing that could possibly be construed as a

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criticism of Rachel Denning's performance.

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I think Erica is absolutely a wonderful character and really well

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performed.

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In fact, I think that whole plot is done just incredibly well.

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You know, it's not just the sort of everyday stuff like the

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workplace banter is really sort of fairly convincing, isn't it?

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You know, the lunch thing when Douglas says, I'm going to go and

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have a lie under my desk.

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I say that 2 or 3 times a week, you know, like all of that stuff, I

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think, really, really works really well.

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I think a potential weakness of Moffat's writing is he's so

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facile.

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So he finds that the jokes come so easily that if he isn't very

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careful, everything can kind of rise to this super sophisticated

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sitcom level and it can start to feel a bit synthetic.

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And I can almost feel with that Erica Douglas stuff that he's just

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tamping it down enough.

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This could have been a lot physio a lot funnier, but that would

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throw the whole tone of the episode off, and I can almost feel him

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just kind of putting a little bit of a lid on the banter and

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trying to keep it to like a recognisably human level of wit and

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not something which is too over the top.

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And he does, he does, I mean, like maybe this feeds into it, but

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he is doing rewrites on this story at his mother's deathbed

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basically.

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Yeah, he's writing, he's doing rewrites in hospital with his

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mother.

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God, I didn't know that.

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Like Russell towards the end of his 1st reign.

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He's starting to take co-credit here because it's a Peter Harness

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script, and he's co-writer on it, which I think earlier, he would

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have probably done as extensive a rewrite and not taken the

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credit.

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He does give himself a number of co-credits in series 8, I think

247
00:13:22.740 --> 00:13:26.519
but mostly I think they're the Danny Clara C.

248
00:13:26.580 --> 00:13:27.360
Yes.

249
00:13:27.419 --> 00:13:29.039
Yeah, yeah.

250
00:13:29.100 --> 00:13:30.600
James touched on it there.

251
00:13:30.659 --> 00:13:34.139
It was because due to how Moffatt was working on this.

252
00:13:34.200 --> 00:13:37.080
He didn't have time to brief Peter Harness on further changes

253
00:13:37.080 --> 00:13:40.320
because there was a lot change from the 1st draft of this.

254
00:13:40.379 --> 00:13:44.220
Erica was originally a truck driver disposing of samples from

255
00:13:44.220 --> 00:13:47.220
global chemicals in Ohio.

256
00:13:47.279 --> 00:13:48.059
Yes, that's right.

257
00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:52.019
Kate Lethbridge Stewart was going to be in it, but Gemma Redgrave

258
00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:53.220
was making Holby City.

259
00:13:53.220 --> 00:13:57.419
And then Rebecca Front was supposed to be in it in the next draft

260
00:13:57.419 --> 00:14:00.360
as her character from the Zigon invasion.

261
00:14:00.539 --> 00:14:06.659
And finally, Osgood's absence, or rather, the 2 Osgood's absences

262
00:14:06.659 --> 00:14:10.019
were because they were in America dealing with, quote, a Zigon

263
00:14:10.019 --> 00:14:11.940
who's infiltrated the Republican Party.

264
00:14:12.000 --> 00:14:13.440
Unquote.

265
00:14:13.500 --> 00:14:15.960
Oh, I wish that had been...

266
00:14:15.960 --> 00:14:18.179
We did get a Trump record.

267
00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:19.320
There is one.

268
00:14:19.379 --> 00:14:19.860
Yeah.

269
00:14:19.919 --> 00:14:20.460
Yeah.

270
00:14:20.519 --> 00:14:21.779
So we did get a Trump reference.

271
00:14:21.840 --> 00:14:24.360
We will get another one next week, sort of slightly more oblique

272
00:14:24.360 --> 00:14:24.659
one.

273
00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.320
Although the president who kills himself disappointingly has black

274
00:14:28.320 --> 00:14:31.740
hair in last week's episode.

275
00:14:31.799 --> 00:14:34.200
So they did miss a trick there.

276
00:14:34.259 --> 00:14:38.879
But I doubt that he has quite enough introspection to respond in

277
00:14:38.879 --> 00:14:40.379
that way to any kind of news.

278
00:14:40.440 --> 00:14:42.059
He probably would have just done the deal with them straight

279
00:14:42.059 --> 00:14:42.299
away.

280
00:14:42.419 --> 00:14:43.200
Yeah, that's right.

281
00:14:43.259 --> 00:14:48.419
But initially also in one of the earlier drafts, the 3 military

282
00:14:48.419 --> 00:14:54.240
leaders that killed off by the monks were originally actually, the

283
00:14:54.240 --> 00:15:00.659
various leaders or presidents of, I believe, America, obviously

284
00:15:00.659 --> 00:15:02.340
North Korea and Russia.

285
00:15:02.340 --> 00:15:03.720
Right, right, right.

286
00:15:03.840 --> 00:15:05.700
Let's talk about them.

287
00:15:05.759 --> 00:15:10.799
So we're back in Made Up a stand, which is where those events from

288
00:15:10.799 --> 00:15:13.019
Peter Harness's previous script took place.

289
00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:14.100
What do we call it?

290
00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:17.879
To Mesestan, which I always think sounds to me to me more like a

291
00:15:17.879 --> 00:15:18.840
fungal cream than a country.

292
00:15:19.019 --> 00:15:20.820
It's really funny.

293
00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:23.039
It was kind of, it seemed sort of very Eastern European last

294
00:15:23.039 --> 00:15:23.340
time.

295
00:15:23.399 --> 00:15:27.779
It had, you know, it was sort of, you know, had a little church

296
00:15:27.779 --> 00:15:32.220
and, you know, like it was sort of a bit softer, the light was a

297
00:15:32.220 --> 00:15:34.799
bit softer, but here, we sort of seem to be very much in the

298
00:15:34.799 --> 00:15:35.399
Middle East.

299
00:15:35.460 --> 00:15:37.679
So we have these 3 people.

300
00:15:37.740 --> 00:15:42.299
Apparently there's some kind of thing happening day of the Dalek

301
00:15:42.299 --> 00:15:46.080
style where the 3 armies are all massing in one place because of

302
00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:48.779
some proxy thing and that's a big deal.

303
00:15:48.840 --> 00:15:53.580
And then we have the 3 leaders of the armies or 3 kind of

304
00:15:53.580 --> 00:15:56.639
representatives of the armies there.

305
00:15:56.700 --> 00:16:00.720
How do people feel about that aspect of the episode?

306
00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:04.200
Well, it's all a faint, isn't it?

307
00:16:04.259 --> 00:16:07.500
I mean, my potential criticism of this episode, which I don't

308
00:16:07.500 --> 00:16:11.940
think actually coalesces into an actual criticism, is that there's

309
00:16:11.940 --> 00:16:14.759
a bit of setup at the beginning, and then structurally there's a

310
00:16:14.759 --> 00:16:16.320
lot of what I call narrative vamping.

311
00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:19.740
And then eventually we get the resolution.

312
00:16:19.799 --> 00:16:22.500
And I think there are other episodes that feel more like that.

313
00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:26.159
I think for all its virtues, the stolen earth feels a lot like

314
00:16:26.159 --> 00:16:29.820
that, with everybody just sort of moving into position, so we have

315
00:16:29.820 --> 00:16:32.340
that crackerjack ending, but no one is actually allowed to meet

316
00:16:32.340 --> 00:16:36.000
properly until the next episode, everyone has to be narratively

317
00:16:36.000 --> 00:16:36.539
kept apart.

318
00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:39.539
I think the 2 things that stop it from feeding like that are this

319
00:16:39.539 --> 00:16:42.659
incredible sense of rising tensions throughout that.

320
00:16:42.720 --> 00:16:46.139
Normally if somebody tries a thing and it doesn't work, I think, oh

321
00:16:46.139 --> 00:16:47.940
well, that's because the script was 5 pages too short.

322
00:16:48.000 --> 00:16:51.480
Here, it really does work to ramp up the tension.

323
00:16:51.539 --> 00:16:58.980
And then as we also said, the ongoing, slow moving Rube Goldberg

324
00:16:58.980 --> 00:17:04.440
calamity of what Erica and Douglas are doing really helps to make

325
00:17:04.440 --> 00:17:09.359
everything else feel like not just using up time.

326
00:17:09.420 --> 00:17:11.160
But like in fact, time is running out.

327
00:17:11.819 --> 00:17:17.339
I don't feel that the 3 armies massing feels terribly sort of

328
00:17:17.339 --> 00:17:18.119
tangible.

329
00:17:18.180 --> 00:17:20.940
It feels like a bit of a device, which is fine.

330
00:17:21.000 --> 00:17:22.740
We needed devices to get our stories going.

331
00:17:23.039 --> 00:17:26.099
I mean, it very clearly is a faint.

332
00:17:26.160 --> 00:17:29.339
Like we are meant to think that this is the reason why we're 3

333
00:17:29.339 --> 00:17:33.059
minutes from midnight or 2 minutes from midnight or whatever, but

334
00:17:33.059 --> 00:17:37.920
I never really get the sense that there's any particular conflict

335
00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:39.900
between those people.

336
00:17:39.960 --> 00:17:43.799
They all seem to turn up sort of and start being very nice to one

337
00:17:43.799 --> 00:17:46.200
another and, you know, World War 3, we're against it.

338
00:17:46.259 --> 00:17:49.259
And so they never really seems to be a point at which they're kind

339
00:17:49.259 --> 00:17:52.079
of going, we're kind of teetering on the edge here.

340
00:17:52.140 --> 00:17:53.400
Anything could happen.

341
00:17:53.460 --> 00:17:57.720
One of them could go crazy and decide to, you know, attack.

342
00:17:57.779 --> 00:18:00.240
We very, very quickly all friends.

343
00:18:00.299 --> 00:18:02.940
Yeah, there's no general Buckturgison here.

344
00:18:03.000 --> 00:18:04.200
No, that's right.

345
00:18:04.259 --> 00:18:05.099
That's right.

346
00:18:05.160 --> 00:18:09.660
But it's, I mean, I guess the idea is because it is properly a

347
00:18:09.660 --> 00:18:14.880
feint, and so we're never made to feel cheated, and in fact, what

348
00:18:14.880 --> 00:18:18.299
ends up happening is we get the character beat of the doctor

349
00:18:18.299 --> 00:18:22.559
ordering an attack on the pyramid, which it seems that he does

350
00:18:22.559 --> 00:18:26.039
because he's scared because he's blind, and he feels the situation

351
00:18:26.039 --> 00:18:30.599
is somewhat out of his control, and so they all are involved in

352
00:18:30.599 --> 00:18:31.079
that.

353
00:18:31.140 --> 00:18:34.799
And then we get the moment where they think the doctor's not going

354
00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:38.819
to be able to stop whatever calamity is happening elsewhere in the

355
00:18:38.819 --> 00:18:39.059
world.

356
00:18:39.059 --> 00:18:43.980
And so they all agree again to go in and give their consent to the

357
00:18:43.980 --> 00:18:44.460
monks.

358
00:18:44.759 --> 00:18:49.019
As it unfolds, it all feels very smooth.

359
00:18:49.079 --> 00:18:51.839
It doesn't give me that feeling that I was referring to that I got

360
00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:55.799
watching mid-season episodes of House of the Dragon of these are

361
00:18:55.799 --> 00:18:57.720
just the chess pieces being moved into position.

362
00:18:57.779 --> 00:19:02.519
Everybody does things that seem purposeful and like they are the

363
00:19:02.519 --> 00:19:05.519
things that those people would do if they happen not to massively

364
00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:06.240
advance the plot.

365
00:19:06.299 --> 00:19:07.259
Well, that's life sometimes.

366
00:19:07.319 --> 00:19:10.259
We all do things in our own lives that don't seem to be advancing

367
00:19:10.259 --> 00:19:10.859
the plot.

368
00:19:13.920 --> 00:19:17.640
I think it also foreshadows the doctor's conclusion that there's

369
00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:20.819
misdirection going on because I think we as the audience expect

370
00:19:20.819 --> 00:19:23.039
the soldiers to want to fight each other.

371
00:19:23.039 --> 00:19:27.000
Instead, we kind of get a replay of that moment in the curse of

372
00:19:27.000 --> 00:19:29.400
Fenrick, where the soldiers say war is just a game for

373
00:19:29.400 --> 00:19:29.940
politicians.

374
00:19:30.000 --> 00:19:33.599
And, you know, they see very senior soldiers kind of kind of go

375
00:19:33.599 --> 00:19:36.779
we're the ones who actually make the decisions on battlefields and

376
00:19:36.779 --> 00:19:38.940
we don't want a battlefield today.

377
00:19:39.000 --> 00:19:42.420
I think that's possibly part of part of the reason behind it

378
00:19:42.420 --> 00:19:47.940
because a criticism of the Zygon 2 parter at the time was the sort

379
00:19:47.940 --> 00:19:51.900
of very militaristic attitude in parts of it.

380
00:19:51.960 --> 00:19:55.619
And we've discussed very often that Stephen Moffat always reacts

381
00:19:55.619 --> 00:19:56.279
against himself.

382
00:19:56.339 --> 00:19:58.140
He's always reinventing.

383
00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:01.200
So this might have been him and Peter Harness both going, okay

384
00:20:01.200 --> 00:20:04.920
well, we'll approach a similar idea from a different angle and see

385
00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:05.819
how we go with that.

386
00:20:05.880 --> 00:20:10.680
I have to say my favourite thing about that is remember, you know

387
00:20:10.680 --> 00:20:13.859
calling for an airstrike on the crinoid or something and it

388
00:20:13.859 --> 00:20:17.519
usually just involved a bit of stock footage and, you know, we'd

389
00:20:17.519 --> 00:20:19.440
cut to the planes going past or whatever.

390
00:20:19.500 --> 00:20:24.299
And here we do order the airstrike and we get fabulous shots, like

391
00:20:24.299 --> 00:20:25.799
the monks in the cockpit.

392
00:20:25.859 --> 00:20:29.400
He's just absolutely superb.

393
00:20:29.460 --> 00:20:32.039
You know, because you're not even expecting to see the cockpit at

394
00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:32.220
all.

395
00:20:32.279 --> 00:20:34.380
It's kind of like, oh, the cockpit, that's kind of exciting.

396
00:20:34.440 --> 00:20:35.759
And then the monks are there.

397
00:20:35.819 --> 00:20:38.640
Absolutely where they don't belong, like in absolutely the wrong

398
00:20:38.640 --> 00:20:39.119
place.

399
00:20:39.180 --> 00:20:44.400
And so the scene of the guys being set free as well is kind of

400
00:20:44.400 --> 00:20:45.000
wonderful too.

401
00:20:45.119 --> 00:20:46.619
You know, they're not killed.

402
00:20:46.680 --> 00:20:49.740
They're just sort of transported and so they wander out of the

403
00:20:49.740 --> 00:20:52.559
pyramid looking like super bewilted.

404
00:20:52.619 --> 00:20:54.059
It's really very good.

405
00:20:54.119 --> 00:20:57.119
It's really great followed by a bunch of Russian submariners.

406
00:20:57.180 --> 00:20:59.279
That's so funny as well.

407
00:20:59.400 --> 00:21:03.000
And like for a 2nd I thought, oh, you know, we're trying to save

408
00:21:03.000 --> 00:21:06.240
money because there's a lot of sort of noise and stuff, you know

409
00:21:06.240 --> 00:21:09.480
of something that's happening off camera and then we come back to

410
00:21:09.480 --> 00:21:13.440
like the submarine sticking out of the ground, which is such a

411
00:21:13.440 --> 00:21:14.460
great visual gag.

412
00:21:14.519 --> 00:21:15.240
It's awesome.

413
00:21:17.220 --> 00:21:21.960
Something I'd like to mention about those war room scenes for want

414
00:21:21.960 --> 00:21:22.859
of a better word.

415
00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:27.420
We've got the doctor's sunglasses, heads up display once again, and

416
00:21:27.420 --> 00:21:28.859
that gives stats for everyone.

417
00:21:28.920 --> 00:21:31.319
And I decided to pause it and have a look at some of those stats.

418
00:21:31.380 --> 00:21:33.359
So Bill is 26.

419
00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:34.380
Yep.

420
00:21:34.440 --> 00:21:34.559
Yep.

421
00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:34.920
Yep.

422
00:21:34.980 --> 00:21:35.880
Yep, fair enough.

423
00:21:35.940 --> 00:21:38.220
Nardol is 237.

424
00:21:38.460 --> 00:21:43.319
I'm looking good The thing is, though, he is looking good for it

425
00:21:43.319 --> 00:21:44.339
he's not just sexy.

426
00:21:44.640 --> 00:21:49.380
The thing is, though, ostensibly he's been with the doctor for the

427
00:21:49.380 --> 00:21:51.000
past 1000 years guarding the vault.

428
00:21:51.059 --> 00:21:55.019
No, no, the doctor's only just started guarding the vibes and so

429
00:21:55.019 --> 00:21:57.240
he's only been at it for 70 years.

430
00:21:57.299 --> 00:22:01.680
Yes, I was theorising like not all got annoyed occasionally and

431
00:22:01.680 --> 00:22:05.339
just took the TARDIS off for like 300 years from doctor's

432
00:22:05.339 --> 00:22:05.819
perspective.

433
00:22:06.180 --> 00:22:06.960
Yep, nipped forward.

434
00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:08.039
So we didn't have to wait.

435
00:22:08.099 --> 00:22:10.319
The secretary general is 70.

436
00:22:10.500 --> 00:22:11.279
Yeah.

437
00:22:11.279 --> 00:22:15.660
The Chinese commander, whose name, whose name I'm probably going

438
00:22:15.660 --> 00:22:18.960
to mispronounce, uh, Jalian, is 41.

439
00:22:19.200 --> 00:22:25.259
The American commander, um, Rabbit is 56.

440
00:22:25.500 --> 00:22:29.880
However, I think there's a bit of a mistake when we get to Ilya

441
00:22:29.880 --> 00:22:32.039
the Russian commander, who's apparently 70.

442
00:22:32.400 --> 00:22:34.740
The actor is 46.

443
00:22:35.160 --> 00:22:37.140
And he looks younger.

444
00:22:37.200 --> 00:22:38.640
He's a handsome man.

445
00:22:38.700 --> 00:22:39.900
I like the Russian guy.

446
00:22:39.960 --> 00:22:42.839
And I thought maybe they just copy pasted the secretary generals

447
00:22:42.839 --> 00:22:43.920
but the height is different.

448
00:22:43.980 --> 00:22:44.700
The weight is different.

449
00:22:44.759 --> 00:22:45.779
The temperature's different.

450
00:22:45.839 --> 00:22:49.500
So, yeah, I mean, they probably did just copy paste it and not

451
00:22:49.500 --> 00:22:50.099
change the age.

452
00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:52.619
He almost certainly just moisturises quite a lot.

453
00:22:52.680 --> 00:22:53.700
He's very well preserved.

454
00:22:53.759 --> 00:22:54.599
Yeah, that's right.

455
00:22:54.660 --> 00:22:57.480
He's from part of Russia that doesn't get a lot of direct

456
00:22:57.480 --> 00:22:58.140
sunlight.

457
00:22:58.200 --> 00:22:59.519
That's it. we go.

458
00:22:59.579 --> 00:23:02.880
That's like, it's like the Hitchhiker's Guide, it's the Galaxy on

459
00:23:02.880 --> 00:23:03.539
TV, isn't it?

460
00:23:03.599 --> 00:23:04.980
All this little extra in jokes.

461
00:23:05.039 --> 00:23:09.000
Although the heads up display did annoy me in my review of

462
00:23:09.000 --> 00:23:09.900
extremists as well.

463
00:23:09.960 --> 00:23:11.279
It was fine.

464
00:23:11.339 --> 00:23:12.059
He wasn't that blind.

465
00:23:12.119 --> 00:23:13.740
He had a heads up display in his sunglasses.

466
00:23:13.799 --> 00:23:16.380
What was he using to look at the heads up display?

467
00:23:16.680 --> 00:23:18.059
Sorry?

468
00:23:18.119 --> 00:23:19.920
Oh, it's Sonic.

469
00:23:19.980 --> 00:23:24.240
You see, I think that, yes, his eyes are damaged, but my guess is

470
00:23:24.240 --> 00:23:28.859
that the sound frequencies head cannon are creating the message

471
00:23:28.859 --> 00:23:33.240
and setting it to his brain directly without his eyes.

472
00:23:33.299 --> 00:23:37.740
It's like Joe 90s glasses and Richard Forced, Rod, and I to watch

473
00:23:37.740 --> 00:23:39.480
all of Joe 90s. so I know all about that.

474
00:23:39.900 --> 00:23:44.700
What I do think is odd is that it does show the outlines of hard

475
00:23:44.700 --> 00:23:46.259
surfaces, but not of people.

476
00:23:46.319 --> 00:23:48.900
So I don't quite know how that works.

477
00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:51.119
Maybe the sound goes through people who can say.

478
00:23:51.180 --> 00:23:54.779
It doesn't do organic material, but it does do a It does your

479
00:23:54.779 --> 00:23:56.279
table, your conference table.

480
00:23:56.339 --> 00:23:58.440
Maybe the numbers on that combination lock have been recessed.

481
00:23:58.500 --> 00:23:59.339
Exactly.

482
00:23:59.400 --> 00:24:01.920
Do you know it's established quite early on, isn't it?

483
00:24:01.980 --> 00:24:04.380
Where Colonel Brabbit shows him an iPad, I think?

484
00:24:04.440 --> 00:24:07.799
Or maybe maybe it's the Secretary General, shows him an iPad with

485
00:24:07.799 --> 00:24:10.559
some kind of sit rep on it and he says, oh, just give it to me in

486
00:24:10.559 --> 00:24:11.160
your own words.

487
00:24:11.220 --> 00:24:14.940
So it's established that he can't see the thing on the surfaces

488
00:24:14.940 --> 00:24:16.019
you know, he can't read.

489
00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:19.619
My favourite bit of business around all of the blindness stuff is

490
00:24:19.619 --> 00:24:22.859
not all narrated.

491
00:24:22.859 --> 00:24:25.079
It's like, oh, actually.

492
00:24:25.140 --> 00:24:25.980
That's everybody.

493
00:24:26.279 --> 00:24:30.839
Which you can almost certainly see with a heads up display, except

494
00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:31.680
that that's really funny.

495
00:24:31.740 --> 00:24:33.240
And I do think too.

496
00:24:33.299 --> 00:24:37.079
You know, they make the right decision to not give him some kind

497
00:24:37.079 --> 00:24:40.140
of space thing to not give him a Star Trek communicator.

498
00:24:40.200 --> 00:24:43.259
And so he just talks into one of the wooden buttons on his duffle

499
00:24:43.259 --> 00:24:45.960
coat, which I just think is absolutely perfect.

500
00:24:48.059 --> 00:24:52.920
And there's a moment too, where Bill notices that something is

501
00:24:52.920 --> 00:24:55.500
wrong with a doctor because he's called for the attack.

502
00:24:55.559 --> 00:25:01.559
And I hadn't watched this for a while and I assumed that that was

503
00:25:01.559 --> 00:25:06.299
where the doctor was going to reveal to her, that he was blind and

504
00:25:06.299 --> 00:25:07.319
it doesn't end up happening.

505
00:25:07.380 --> 00:25:11.460
But our doll sends Bill to talk to the doctor on the understanding

506
00:25:11.460 --> 00:25:14.640
that he's going to say that and he's about to, isn't he?

507
00:25:14.700 --> 00:25:18.420
Yeah, but then the thought gives him the idea that he can blind

508
00:25:18.420 --> 00:25:19.079
the monks.

509
00:25:19.140 --> 00:25:20.700
Yes, that's right.

510
00:25:20.759 --> 00:25:22.319
And so he says the word blinded.

511
00:25:22.440 --> 00:25:23.759
He's clearly about to say the word.

512
00:25:23.819 --> 00:25:27.900
It's wandering sort of in his head, but that gives him the idea to

513
00:25:27.900 --> 00:25:28.680
do something else.

514
00:25:28.740 --> 00:25:30.720
And so it never ends up happening.

515
00:25:30.779 --> 00:25:35.640
And I thought all of that was like amazingly good because, you

516
00:25:35.640 --> 00:25:38.640
know, no one says the doctor's scared or the doctor feels

517
00:25:38.640 --> 00:25:41.579
vulnerable or, you know, he's behaving like this because he's

518
00:25:41.579 --> 00:25:42.000
blind.

519
00:25:42.059 --> 00:25:45.900
Like we're just kind of left to kind of theorise about that, but

520
00:25:45.900 --> 00:25:47.819
everyone is clearly behaving that way.

521
00:25:47.880 --> 00:25:51.180
And I thought that was properly interesting, given how little he

522
00:25:51.180 --> 00:25:55.799
gives away about that and how invulnerable he wants to seem.

523
00:25:55.859 --> 00:25:59.099
And I think Capaldi is really, really good here.

524
00:25:59.160 --> 00:26:02.039
He's such a big actor when he wants to be.

525
00:26:02.099 --> 00:26:05.039
And again, there's a slight sense of him tamping his performance

526
00:26:05.039 --> 00:26:05.579
down a bit.

527
00:26:05.579 --> 00:26:11.279
And that really works to sell this idea of this slightly more

528
00:26:11.279 --> 00:26:16.200
cautious, this slightly underpowered doctor who doesn't have the

529
00:26:16.200 --> 00:26:19.799
same kind of blase courage of his convictions that this doctor in

530
00:26:19.799 --> 00:26:23.460
particular very often has, just marching in and announcing to

531
00:26:23.460 --> 00:26:26.339
everybody what's going to happen, heedless of their emotional

532
00:26:26.339 --> 00:26:29.819
state or even sometimes the risks that he's taking.

533
00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:31.859
But here he's much more cautious, much more nervous.

534
00:26:31.920 --> 00:26:34.619
And I just think Capoundi really sells that without, as you say

535
00:26:34.619 --> 00:26:35.759
making it too overt.

536
00:26:35.819 --> 00:26:37.799
It's really good. isn't it?

537
00:26:37.859 --> 00:26:38.519
He is terrific.

538
00:26:38.579 --> 00:26:40.259
We were so lucky to have him.

539
00:26:40.319 --> 00:26:41.640
Yeah, oh absolutely.

540
00:26:41.700 --> 00:26:42.359
Just superb.

541
00:26:42.420 --> 00:26:43.259
That's the other thing.

542
00:26:43.319 --> 00:26:48.480
I think I felt watching this episode again, which was, because, you

543
00:26:48.480 --> 00:26:51.180
know, I was, I'd been reviewing every episode on my blog since

544
00:26:51.180 --> 00:26:55.319
Matt Smith took over and liking some and not liking some and being

545
00:26:55.319 --> 00:26:57.960
delighted some weeks and fulminating at the state of the nation

546
00:26:57.960 --> 00:27:02.579
other weeks, but I never felt that the future of the series was in

547
00:27:02.579 --> 00:27:03.420
any jeopardy.

548
00:27:03.480 --> 00:27:06.240
Even if there was a run of episodes I didn't like.

549
00:27:06.359 --> 00:27:09.180
I never felt that it was hanging by a thread the way I think

550
00:27:09.180 --> 00:27:13.259
anyone watching in the 80s felt because we'd, you know, watching

551
00:27:13.259 --> 00:27:17.579
the McCoy era, we'd been through the hiatus and we sort of knew

552
00:27:17.579 --> 00:27:20.759
that one more set of bad ratings could be the end and low

553
00:27:20.759 --> 00:27:21.539
eventually it was.

554
00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:24.839
And now with all these rumours circulating about whether Disney

555
00:27:24.839 --> 00:27:27.539
are going to re-up that same anxiety as present.

556
00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:28.740
Yeah, yeah.

557
00:27:43.799 --> 00:27:49.440
Something that was in the original draft, uh, which is completely

558
00:27:49.440 --> 00:27:50.460
absent.

559
00:27:50.519 --> 00:27:53.339
You know, it's kind of like, yeah, we lose Kate, but we get

560
00:27:53.339 --> 00:27:56.220
Brabbit, you know, there are, there are analogous characters to

561
00:27:56.220 --> 00:28:01.799
unit in this, but originally the pyramid wasn't just going to

562
00:28:01.799 --> 00:28:02.279
land.

563
00:28:02.339 --> 00:28:07.500
There was this amazing image of a young boy called Hassan in to

564
00:28:07.500 --> 00:28:11.880
Mizhistan, who one night wakes up, takes a sledgehammer to his

565
00:28:11.880 --> 00:28:15.720
wall and starts taking the bricks outside, and then you pull out

566
00:28:15.720 --> 00:28:18.660
to reveal all the children in this town are taking bricks outside

567
00:28:18.660 --> 00:28:20.400
and building a pyramid.

568
00:28:21.000 --> 00:28:25.200
And then when the pyramid is built, a beam of light appears and

569
00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:28.859
Hassan is then the voice of the monks throughout the story.

570
00:28:28.920 --> 00:28:31.200
And it's an interesting idea.

571
00:28:31.259 --> 00:28:34.259
I can see why they got rid of it because it's a lot of work to set

572
00:28:34.259 --> 00:28:39.180
that up when the pre-titles of there's a pyramid that wasn't here

573
00:28:39.180 --> 00:28:41.339
yesterday does all that for you.

574
00:28:41.579 --> 00:28:46.380
And very well, you know, a 5000 year old pyramid that wasn't here

575
00:28:46.380 --> 00:28:48.480
yesterday is perfect, very Doctor Who.

576
00:28:48.539 --> 00:28:53.160
I wonder whether the pyramids age is a hangover from an earlier

577
00:28:53.160 --> 00:28:57.480
version of the script as well, because initially the monks were

578
00:28:57.480 --> 00:29:02.579
time controlling, time sensitive beings, they weren't just, you

579
00:29:02.579 --> 00:29:06.779
know, aliens with really great predictive computer modelling, they

580
00:29:06.779 --> 00:29:11.579
were able to actually foresee various multiversal futures.

581
00:29:11.640 --> 00:29:17.279
And so it was actually them nudging things this way and that to

582
00:29:17.279 --> 00:29:19.920
try and make things happen.

583
00:29:19.980 --> 00:29:24.240
As if they'd resurrected a pyramid from 5000 years ago and put it

584
00:29:24.240 --> 00:29:24.779
there now.

585
00:29:25.019 --> 00:29:32.819
I said last week that I thought that the monks, if they work in

586
00:29:32.819 --> 00:29:36.839
extremists, it's because they are like the Catholic Church, only

587
00:29:36.839 --> 00:29:42.119
older and weirder and more terrifying.

588
00:29:42.180 --> 00:29:44.099
It's more realistic.

589
00:29:44.160 --> 00:29:45.119
And more realistic.

590
00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:45.960
But do you know what I mean?

591
00:29:46.019 --> 00:29:49.500
Like an ancient dead way of knowing.

592
00:29:49.559 --> 00:29:53.940
And certainly next week when we look at what they do when they

593
00:29:53.940 --> 00:30:01.079
take over the world, and even here, where their job is to say, the

594
00:30:01.079 --> 00:30:07.259
world is going to end, and if you love us and do what we say, we

595
00:30:07.259 --> 00:30:08.880
will save you from it.

596
00:30:08.940 --> 00:30:11.220
And they're called monks for a reason.

597
00:30:11.279 --> 00:30:16.440
I think that the pyramid is actually not a great idea.

598
00:30:16.500 --> 00:30:22.680
And next week, they call it the cathedral, and I just wish that it

599
00:30:22.680 --> 00:30:27.900
had been a weird, intricate Gothic looking thing.

600
00:30:27.960 --> 00:30:31.740
Yeah, yeah, like something odd and strange, but absolutely

601
00:30:31.740 --> 00:30:32.519
Gothic.

602
00:30:32.579 --> 00:30:35.940
And going into the pyramid.

603
00:30:36.000 --> 00:30:37.440
It's so cheap.

604
00:30:37.500 --> 00:30:39.599
That set is so terrible.

605
00:30:39.660 --> 00:30:42.599
They have so absolutely run out of money.

606
00:30:42.660 --> 00:30:45.059
And so there's no atmosphere to it either.

607
00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:48.539
And I think if you're kind of selling the idea that they're these

608
00:30:48.539 --> 00:30:54.660
dead ancient monsters that belong in crypts and things, I think

609
00:30:54.660 --> 00:30:59.220
you know, having a very clean spaceship made out of plywood is not

610
00:30:59.220 --> 00:31:00.599
the best way of going about selling that.

611
00:31:00.660 --> 00:31:02.819
I also guess they're mummies and monks.

612
00:31:02.880 --> 00:31:03.960
Yes, I suppose.

613
00:31:04.079 --> 00:31:05.759
Mummies, pyramids.

614
00:31:05.819 --> 00:31:06.720
Yeah.

615
00:31:06.779 --> 00:31:09.900
There's a long tradition of putting together things that don't

616
00:31:09.900 --> 00:31:10.259
match.

617
00:31:10.319 --> 00:31:14.460
Sure, monks don't belong in pyramids, but yetis with webs don't

618
00:31:14.460 --> 00:31:16.259
belong in the London Underground either, and that's interwork

619
00:31:16.259 --> 00:31:16.619
fine.

620
00:31:16.680 --> 00:31:17.819
Sure.

621
00:31:17.880 --> 00:31:20.519
I just thought that if you want to sell what they are.

622
00:31:20.579 --> 00:31:24.059
Like it just seemed, it seemed like the show is nearly there, but

623
00:31:24.059 --> 00:31:28.200
not quite, or it doesn't quite fully want to commit to the monks

624
00:31:28.200 --> 00:31:31.680
are evil kind of religious leaders or something.

625
00:31:31.740 --> 00:31:34.259
Like they don't properly want to sell that.

626
00:31:34.319 --> 00:31:38.400
And so, you know, they tone it down by still making it ancient and

627
00:31:38.400 --> 00:31:41.759
weird, but not ancient and weird in a sort of mediaeval

628
00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:43.259
Catholicism kind of way.

629
00:31:43.319 --> 00:31:46.140
I wonder if they'd get on with Commander Riker.

630
00:31:46.200 --> 00:31:48.059
They are very keen on consent.

631
00:31:48.119 --> 00:31:50.220
Yes, they are making consent.

632
00:31:51.180 --> 00:31:54.240
This is our intimacy coordinator.

633
00:31:56.460 --> 00:31:59.279
But I mean, that's the thing, isn't it?

634
00:31:59.339 --> 00:32:00.839
Like consent is love.

635
00:32:00.900 --> 00:32:04.140
Like love is slavery and that's what they're saying.

636
00:32:04.200 --> 00:32:07.500
They don't want someone to calculate the odds.

637
00:32:07.559 --> 00:32:09.000
They don't want someone to lie to them.

638
00:32:09.059 --> 00:32:10.920
They really, really want to be loved.

639
00:32:10.980 --> 00:32:15.539
And when it opens next week, we have, you know, the film strip, the

640
00:32:15.539 --> 00:32:19.079
information film, explaining to you how you should love the monks

641
00:32:19.079 --> 00:32:19.680
and why.

642
00:32:19.740 --> 00:32:23.880
So all of that, I think, is super interesting, that is different

643
00:32:23.880 --> 00:32:27.960
from why or how aliens normally take over the earth.

644
00:32:27.960 --> 00:32:32.220
And the rules are made very clear, I think, throughout the episode

645
00:32:32.220 --> 00:32:36.180
but it does tie in, I think, thematically to that idea of what the

646
00:32:36.180 --> 00:32:37.019
monks represent.

647
00:32:37.079 --> 00:32:42.299
And it is to that amazing ending where averting the biological

648
00:32:42.299 --> 00:32:46.680
calamity and restoring the doctor's site is the worst thing that

649
00:32:46.680 --> 00:32:47.519
could possibly happen.

650
00:32:47.579 --> 00:32:51.960
And that's some really elegant plotting from Peter Harness and

651
00:32:51.960 --> 00:32:52.799
Stephen Moffatt there.

652
00:32:52.859 --> 00:32:54.000
That's just gorgeous.

653
00:32:54.240 --> 00:33:02.279
What I think is amazing, though, is that we avert the calamity and

654
00:33:02.279 --> 00:33:03.359
the monks are defeated.

655
00:33:03.420 --> 00:33:05.640
Like they're looking at their watch as they're kind of going, oh

656
00:33:05.640 --> 00:33:07.559
no, like we've got it horribly wrong.

657
00:33:07.619 --> 00:33:09.180
This is really bad.

658
00:33:09.240 --> 00:33:11.880
You know, we're all sort of terribly triumphant.

659
00:33:11.940 --> 00:33:17.460
And the only reason is it's that sort of door thing, emergency

660
00:33:17.460 --> 00:33:19.440
protocol, so Erica can't do anything.

661
00:33:19.500 --> 00:33:22.500
Nah, doll's been infected by the thing, so he can't turn the

662
00:33:22.500 --> 00:33:25.500
camera on and see from the Tartars, you know, he's lying on the

663
00:33:25.500 --> 00:33:26.279
throat of the Tartars.

664
00:33:26.339 --> 00:33:28.440
Like all of these dumb little things happen.

665
00:33:28.500 --> 00:33:31.140
The sort of dumb little things that the doctor mentions in his

666
00:33:31.140 --> 00:33:34.920
opening monologue all happen that make the doctor have to die that

667
00:33:34.920 --> 00:33:38.279
make Bill agree, that make her consent.

668
00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:40.680
And I think that's so brilliantly done.

669
00:33:40.799 --> 00:33:43.920
Like it's just in the manner of about 30 seconds where we deal

670
00:33:43.920 --> 00:33:46.259
with sort of possible ways we could have dealt with it and there's

671
00:33:46.259 --> 00:33:48.539
all a silly little dumb reason why it doesn't work.

672
00:33:48.599 --> 00:33:51.660
And in a normal episode that's over, isn't it?

673
00:33:51.720 --> 00:33:54.660
Like at the normal episode, he gets out and suddenly it doesn't

674
00:33:54.660 --> 00:33:54.839
happen.

675
00:33:54.900 --> 00:33:59.460
And I think that that's quite shocking and I can't remember if we

676
00:33:59.460 --> 00:34:02.099
knew going in, whether it was a monk trilogy or not.

677
00:34:02.220 --> 00:34:03.299
I don't remember.

678
00:34:03.779 --> 00:34:04.980
I didn't.

679
00:34:05.099 --> 00:34:08.099
People talk all the time about the banality of evil.

680
00:34:08.159 --> 00:34:10.079
This is like the banality of tragedy.

681
00:34:10.199 --> 00:34:12.659
And I absolutely love that.

682
00:34:12.719 --> 00:34:13.559
That's amazing.

683
00:34:13.619 --> 00:34:17.880
It's really good And the only reason it has to happen is because

684
00:34:17.880 --> 00:34:22.380
she loves him and wants to save him because he's stuck.

685
00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:23.579
He's already saved the day.

686
00:34:23.639 --> 00:34:25.559
She knows he's already saved.

687
00:34:25.619 --> 00:34:26.519
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

688
00:34:26.579 --> 00:34:30.900
And so the only reason she does it is because he's going to die.

689
00:34:30.960 --> 00:34:35.219
And so she dooms the entire world just to save her friend.

690
00:34:35.280 --> 00:34:36.960
It's brilliant, isn't it?

691
00:34:37.019 --> 00:34:40.739
Because we have the faint, the original faint is World War 3 in

692
00:34:40.739 --> 00:34:41.699
made up a stand.

693
00:34:41.820 --> 00:34:45.059
And then we get the biological catastrophe and that doesn't happen

694
00:34:45.059 --> 00:34:45.659
either.

695
00:34:45.719 --> 00:34:46.980
And then we get this.

696
00:34:47.039 --> 00:34:47.880
It's so good.

697
00:34:47.940 --> 00:34:52.260
And I think that that's why this is better than I, than I remember

698
00:34:52.260 --> 00:34:53.039
it being.

699
00:34:53.099 --> 00:34:55.860
I think this is a solidly good Doctor Who episode, even if I think

700
00:34:55.860 --> 00:34:58.920
the, you know, some of the war stuff seems a little bit

701
00:34:58.920 --> 00:35:00.780
undercooked, but it's clear why.

702
00:35:00.840 --> 00:35:04.440
And I assume everyone on this call has seen or read the Andromeda

703
00:35:04.440 --> 00:35:04.739
strain?

704
00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:05.280
No.

705
00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:06.239
Not for years.

706
00:35:06.300 --> 00:35:08.940
Yes, the original 70s film.

707
00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:09.179
Yeah.

708
00:35:09.239 --> 00:35:09.420
Yeah.

709
00:35:09.480 --> 00:35:10.500
Oh, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

710
00:35:10.559 --> 00:35:13.019
Because the gag at the end of that, spoilers for the Andromeda

711
00:35:13.019 --> 00:35:13.440
strain.

712
00:35:13.500 --> 00:35:17.400
It's a really weird book and film, actually, especially weird film

713
00:35:17.400 --> 00:35:22.320
because it is so much about the problem of how to kill this

714
00:35:22.320 --> 00:35:22.980
virus.

715
00:35:23.039 --> 00:35:25.559
And so little about the personalities of anybody involved.

716
00:35:25.619 --> 00:35:32.699
But the thing you take at the end and starts eating rubber gaskets

717
00:35:32.699 --> 00:35:37.019
and so can escape from the lab and that triggers the automatic

718
00:35:37.019 --> 00:35:41.460
detonation of the lab, but they figure out that this will just

719
00:35:41.460 --> 00:35:45.539
cause the virus to be spread over a wide area and mutate further.

720
00:35:45.599 --> 00:35:46.860
So they have to shut it down.

721
00:35:46.920 --> 00:35:49.320
And so then there's this race against time bit at the end.

722
00:35:49.380 --> 00:35:52.500
But there's a line, I end up just sort of quoting in everyday

723
00:35:52.500 --> 00:35:53.159
situations.

724
00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:57.119
I think might be from the novel, not from the movie, where when

725
00:35:57.119 --> 00:36:00.780
they finally managed to turn the key and stop it, and he collapses

726
00:36:00.780 --> 00:36:05.340
because he's been shot by these anaesthetic dance, when he wakes

727
00:36:05.340 --> 00:36:07.139
up, he says, did I get there in time?

728
00:36:07.139 --> 00:36:09.539
and they say, yeah, 30 seconds left, hardly even exciting.

729
00:36:12.239 --> 00:36:18.900
There's a real twilight zone quality to this entire episode, really

730
00:36:18.900 --> 00:36:24.000
because you've got all this wordplay around what consent means and

731
00:36:24.000 --> 00:36:28.440
what pure consent is that ends up being love is consent, love is

732
00:36:28.440 --> 00:36:29.039
slavery.

733
00:36:29.099 --> 00:36:33.480
You've got, um, the fact that the doctor can save the world, but

734
00:36:33.480 --> 00:36:36.239
you know, then he's stopped by a door, which is a thing that

735
00:36:36.239 --> 00:36:39.480
Russell T. Davies said back in 2005.

736
00:36:39.719 --> 00:36:41.880
You don't want a door to stop your story.

737
00:36:41.880 --> 00:36:42.780
Yes.

738
00:36:42.780 --> 00:36:45.300
With the sonic screwdriver being introduced, you know.

739
00:36:45.360 --> 00:36:49.320
But something it really reminds me of, and going back to what you

740
00:36:49.320 --> 00:36:52.019
were saying, James, about the initial conception of the monks

741
00:36:52.019 --> 00:36:53.699
being sort of time sensitives.

742
00:36:53.760 --> 00:36:59.400
First of all, one, this is another time I'm going to say this, over

743
00:36:59.400 --> 00:37:01.980
the course of the new series, there's been 2 times I've said, why

744
00:37:01.980 --> 00:37:03.480
couldn't it be Farrell's?

745
00:37:03.539 --> 00:37:06.960
But the fact it happens in consecutive seasons is kind of

746
00:37:06.960 --> 00:37:07.500
significant.

747
00:37:07.559 --> 00:37:13.619
But two, they also remind me of the Traelfamadorians from the

748
00:37:13.619 --> 00:37:16.619
works of Kurt Voniget, who are a time sensitive species.

749
00:37:16.679 --> 00:37:18.780
They see in 4 dimensions.

750
00:37:18.840 --> 00:37:21.539
So they already know that they're dead.

751
00:37:21.599 --> 00:37:24.719
They already know they're alive, they're incredibly fatalistic, and

752
00:37:24.719 --> 00:37:27.539
the monks here have that line of, you know, we appear as corpses

753
00:37:27.539 --> 00:37:32.400
because all of you are corpses, like all of you exist and you

754
00:37:32.400 --> 00:37:35.400
don't exist and you've lived and you're dead and et cetera, et

755
00:37:35.400 --> 00:37:35.639
cetera.

756
00:37:35.760 --> 00:37:38.039
And you know, it's an excuse for them to look like corpses.

757
00:37:38.099 --> 00:37:41.880
But it does hint to that relationship that they have with time

758
00:37:41.880 --> 00:37:44.760
where they can see all these different time threads.

759
00:37:44.880 --> 00:37:49.500
You know, Sylvester McCoy saying, you know, from various

760
00:37:49.500 --> 00:37:50.280
perspectives of time.

761
00:37:50.340 --> 00:37:51.000
You've already left.

762
00:37:51.059 --> 00:37:53.639
You've been here before, you haven't even arrived yet.

763
00:37:53.940 --> 00:37:58.019
There's a lot going on under the surface of this that perhaps

764
00:37:58.019 --> 00:38:01.260
doesn't get fully explored, but I don't think it really matters

765
00:38:01.260 --> 00:38:06.719
because what we've got is so solid that we can just go, oh, I

766
00:38:06.719 --> 00:38:08.159
wonder if this is what they were going for.

767
00:38:08.219 --> 00:38:10.980
I wonder if that's what they were going for, but it doesn't

768
00:38:10.980 --> 00:38:13.559
detract if it's not fully spelt out.

769
00:38:13.619 --> 00:38:16.739
I think I'm happy that we never see the monks again.

770
00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:21.059
Like, I don't think they're like the silence or the weeping

771
00:38:21.059 --> 00:38:21.539
angels.

772
00:38:21.599 --> 00:38:24.239
They're not, you know, Moffatt's most successful creation.

773
00:38:24.300 --> 00:38:27.840
And I do think, you know, the way that they look like corpses.

774
00:38:27.900 --> 00:38:30.840
Like they look like those corpses that were kind of recovered from

775
00:38:30.840 --> 00:38:34.860
peat bogs or something like that, you know, that you see photos of

776
00:38:34.860 --> 00:38:37.800
in a history lesson or something at school.

777
00:38:37.860 --> 00:38:40.440
Like they look like corpses in a particular way.

778
00:38:40.500 --> 00:38:43.500
They're not just sort of standard issue zombies.

779
00:38:43.559 --> 00:38:47.280
I got the impression, I mean, or maybe I'm misremembering this

780
00:38:47.280 --> 00:38:50.460
that the monks were actually an idea that harness had for this

781
00:38:50.460 --> 00:38:55.739
script, which Moffatt then he saw the potential in them and

782
00:38:55.739 --> 00:38:58.139
decided, oh, we could do a link to 3 parter.

783
00:38:58.199 --> 00:39:02.699
And so wrote extremists with the monks being introduced.

784
00:39:02.760 --> 00:39:06.599
And then it's, you know, followed up, following me by Toby

785
00:39:06.599 --> 00:39:07.920
Woodhouse, yeah.

786
00:39:08.280 --> 00:39:12.000
Also, there were supposed to be kung fu monks.

787
00:39:12.960 --> 00:39:16.860
That could only have improved this 3 partner, I think.

788
00:39:17.400 --> 00:39:19.139
Don't you think?

789
00:39:19.199 --> 00:39:20.579
Kung Fu Monks, awesome.

790
00:39:20.639 --> 00:39:21.960
Kung Fu Corpse Monks.

791
00:39:22.019 --> 00:39:27.599
Even in a very late script at the end after the agreement has been

792
00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:31.559
reached, yeah, the script describes, a monk jumps on Bill's back

793
00:39:31.559 --> 00:39:34.500
and, you know, that that's part of the ending of it.

794
00:39:34.559 --> 00:39:39.780
I don't think that makes them seem like kind of formidable and

795
00:39:39.780 --> 00:39:42.119
austere religious figures that part.

796
00:39:42.179 --> 00:39:43.199
Do you know what I mean?

797
00:39:43.260 --> 00:39:43.920
So, yeah.

798
00:39:43.980 --> 00:39:44.940
Although.

799
00:39:57.599 --> 00:40:00.840
They've been able to save money by having one actor do all the

800
00:40:00.840 --> 00:40:03.659
voices, so they do that 10th planet Cyberman thing of just having

801
00:40:03.659 --> 00:40:07.019
their mouths open and then tones coming out.

802
00:40:07.079 --> 00:40:11.579
I did say last week that I thought that that looked stupid and I

803
00:40:11.579 --> 00:40:12.840
still kind of think it looks stupid.

804
00:40:12.960 --> 00:40:13.920
It's not ideal.

805
00:40:13.980 --> 00:40:17.219
The only other thing I think lets the episode down at all is that

806
00:40:17.219 --> 00:40:22.559
crucial combination lock does not look like any lock on any door

807
00:40:22.559 --> 00:40:23.519
that's ever existed.

808
00:40:23.579 --> 00:40:26.940
It looks like it's made out of duplo.

809
00:40:27.000 --> 00:40:30.300
Yeah, and I think, I mean, maybe this is one of those things where

810
00:40:30.300 --> 00:40:32.940
just efficiency trumps detail.

811
00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:36.059
But I think a keypad would have made much more sense.

812
00:40:36.119 --> 00:40:39.539
And then you get over the fact that he would be able to feel the

813
00:40:39.539 --> 00:40:42.480
combination on the keypad, just by making the combination longer

814
00:40:42.480 --> 00:40:45.900
so Erica doesn't know it and can't call it out to him, I think

815
00:40:45.900 --> 00:40:46.800
that would have worked just as well.

816
00:40:46.920 --> 00:40:50.460
Or, you know, like you're at Elgato stream deck, where it changes

817
00:40:50.460 --> 00:40:53.519
the numbers around for kind of security reasons.

818
00:40:53.579 --> 00:40:56.099
So you don't know which numbers to press or something like that.

819
00:40:56.280 --> 00:40:59.940
I thought that the business with him setting the timer for 2

820
00:40:59.940 --> 00:41:04.440
minutes or something where he, you can tell that he can't see and

821
00:41:04.440 --> 00:41:07.500
he is just sort of tapping twice to make sure that he knows that

822
00:41:07.500 --> 00:41:09.659
the, that the time is 2 minutes.

823
00:41:09.780 --> 00:41:12.719
Can we just talk about Erica again for a 2nd because there's that

824
00:41:12.719 --> 00:41:16.500
moment, that incredible moment where she says, you know that the

825
00:41:16.500 --> 00:41:20.460
bacteria are creating ethanol and you can use the ethanol to

826
00:41:20.460 --> 00:41:23.699
trigger your explosion and he just says, oh, look, I'm going to

827
00:41:23.699 --> 00:41:27.300
come back and, you know, we'll, he says something about like, you

828
00:41:27.300 --> 00:41:28.860
know, inviting her out or...

829
00:41:28.860 --> 00:41:30.239
Yeah, what are you doing?

830
00:41:30.300 --> 00:41:30.719
Yeah, yeah.

831
00:41:30.780 --> 00:41:31.440
What are you doing after?

832
00:41:31.500 --> 00:41:33.360
Basically inviting her to be a companion.

833
00:41:33.420 --> 00:41:34.320
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

834
00:41:34.440 --> 00:41:35.699
Would you like to travel the universe?

835
00:41:35.760 --> 00:41:36.420
Yes.

836
00:41:36.480 --> 00:41:37.800
I mean, she's so good.

837
00:41:37.860 --> 00:41:41.280
And like the 2 of them work really well together and she's so

838
00:41:41.280 --> 00:41:42.659
terrifically enthusiastic.

839
00:41:42.719 --> 00:41:44.579
I just thought that was great.

840
00:41:44.639 --> 00:41:47.280
She's one of the sort of great guest stars of the year, I think.

841
00:41:47.340 --> 00:41:51.059
There's a bit they had to cut because they cut out an earlier

842
00:41:51.059 --> 00:41:52.019
gagline.

843
00:41:52.139 --> 00:41:54.599
Unfortunately, this two-part joke gets cut.

844
00:41:54.659 --> 00:41:57.659
So early on, Erica's like, how could, you know, how can you stand

845
00:41:57.659 --> 00:41:59.280
to go in there and stand the feuds?

846
00:41:59.280 --> 00:42:05.460
And he says, I'm Scottish and Baby Bio wouldn't even phase me, you

847
00:42:05.460 --> 00:42:07.559
know, and it's his old gardening product.

848
00:42:07.619 --> 00:42:10.920
And when he says to her later, what are you doing after this?

849
00:42:10.980 --> 00:42:14.099
There is a follow-up line where he says, anyone else?

850
00:42:14.159 --> 00:42:16.800
And I still would have been explaining that baby bio joke, but you

851
00:42:16.800 --> 00:42:17.159
got it.

852
00:42:20.400 --> 00:42:23.880
I mean, all of that, that business actually is actually quite

853
00:42:23.880 --> 00:42:25.380
effectively done, isn't it?

854
00:42:25.440 --> 00:42:27.239
Because it's done very sort of quickly.

855
00:42:27.300 --> 00:42:30.300
We just assume that the doctor, we get a little bit of

856
00:42:30.300 --> 00:42:32.880
conversation between Nadol and the doctor, Nadol says he's not

857
00:42:32.880 --> 00:42:34.980
human, the doctor says, I got your lungs on the cheap.

858
00:42:35.039 --> 00:42:38.340
You better go inside anyway, and of course, he has to be

859
00:42:38.340 --> 00:42:41.460
incapacitated for the thing to work at the end.

860
00:42:41.519 --> 00:42:44.760
So all of that done very neatly and very quickly without us

861
00:42:44.760 --> 00:42:48.840
feeling like we're having to head cannon anything or we're having

862
00:42:48.840 --> 00:42:50.760
to sit and listen to a boring explanation.

863
00:42:50.880 --> 00:42:54.360
And I think that that's a thing that this episode does very well.

864
00:42:54.360 --> 00:43:00.179
And something that next week's is not going to do very well.

865
00:43:00.239 --> 00:43:03.000
No, next week's I didn't rewatch.

866
00:43:03.059 --> 00:43:05.460
I really wanted to rewatch next week's when I got to the end of

867
00:43:05.460 --> 00:43:08.579
this one, but I didn't have time, but my recollection is it's

868
00:43:08.579 --> 00:43:10.619
entertaining, but it's a bit of a mess.

869
00:43:10.860 --> 00:43:17.639
I do have one other problem with the chemical institute in this

870
00:43:17.639 --> 00:43:18.119
story.

871
00:43:18.179 --> 00:43:19.980
And yes, absolutely.

872
00:43:20.039 --> 00:43:22.559
Like the combination, the combination lock that doesn't even work

873
00:43:22.559 --> 00:43:23.760
like a combination lock.

874
00:43:23.820 --> 00:43:27.059
Like the Tumblers don't stop on any of the numbers, they just keep

875
00:43:27.059 --> 00:43:27.719
tumbling.

876
00:43:29.159 --> 00:43:34.440
But my actual problem is, you know, you have this facility that's

877
00:43:34.440 --> 00:43:37.739
capable of going into lockdown, because you are dealing with

878
00:43:37.739 --> 00:43:42.000
dangerous chemicals, why would it have an option to directly vent

879
00:43:42.000 --> 00:43:43.139
into the atmosphere?

880
00:43:43.380 --> 00:43:49.500
When you're using bacteria, which could be really dangerous to the

881
00:43:49.500 --> 00:43:50.039
human race?

882
00:43:50.099 --> 00:43:51.840
Also, no one else is in the building.

883
00:43:51.900 --> 00:43:52.920
It is just them.

884
00:43:52.980 --> 00:43:53.820
Do you know what I mean?

885
00:43:53.880 --> 00:43:54.900
Like, I think we see some people.

886
00:43:54.960 --> 00:43:56.159
Do we see some people initially?

887
00:43:56.159 --> 00:43:58.559
But when the whole crisis happens, the building's empty.

888
00:43:58.619 --> 00:43:59.159
No one else is there.

889
00:43:59.219 --> 00:44:00.840
They've all gone out to lunch or something.

890
00:44:00.900 --> 00:44:03.960
No one invited Erica and Douglas to the staff Christmas party

891
00:44:03.960 --> 00:44:06.119
because they're weird and annoying.

892
00:44:06.179 --> 00:44:08.579
And so they were always breaking their glasses.

893
00:44:08.639 --> 00:44:09.300
Yeah, that's right.

894
00:44:09.360 --> 00:44:12.659
There's other science fiction trope, the bomb that someone has to

895
00:44:12.659 --> 00:44:15.659
stay behind and detonate because that's how bombs are made.

896
00:44:15.719 --> 00:44:19.559
There's a roaring trade for bombs like that.

897
00:44:19.679 --> 00:44:20.699
That's right.

898
00:44:20.760 --> 00:44:24.420
Okay, no one ever invented a bomb that you can just sit and make

899
00:44:24.420 --> 00:44:30.059
it go to where you want. a bond where you could push a button, then

900
00:44:30.059 --> 00:44:31.260
it would go off a little bit later.

901
00:44:31.380 --> 00:44:31.920
Later.

902
00:44:31.920 --> 00:44:33.179
That's always a good plan.

903
00:44:33.239 --> 00:44:33.840
No, that's broken.

904
00:44:33.900 --> 00:44:38.039
It's like having, it was like a couple of weeks ago where, where

905
00:44:38.039 --> 00:44:40.380
in the middle of where the hell are we?

906
00:44:40.440 --> 00:44:41.340
Where are we?

907
00:44:41.400 --> 00:44:42.000
Are we Bristol?

908
00:44:42.059 --> 00:44:42.480
Where are we?

909
00:44:42.539 --> 00:44:43.739
Bristol, where are we this season?

910
00:44:43.800 --> 00:44:45.780
Right in the middle of resented, by the way.

911
00:44:45.840 --> 00:44:48.059
Ah, we get an Uber.

912
00:44:48.119 --> 00:44:49.199
Okay, Uberline. next week.

913
00:44:49.260 --> 00:44:49.980
Yeah, sorry, this week.

914
00:44:50.039 --> 00:44:50.340
Next week.

915
00:44:50.340 --> 00:44:51.000
This week.

916
00:44:51.000 --> 00:44:51.300
This week.

917
00:44:51.360 --> 00:44:51.539
Yeah.

918
00:44:51.599 --> 00:44:54.780
Yeah, a few weeks ago in Bristol, USA. mobile phone signal.

919
00:44:54.840 --> 00:44:56.219
That house?

920
00:44:56.280 --> 00:44:57.179
Why is that?

921
00:44:57.239 --> 00:44:57.900
That makes sense.

922
00:44:57.960 --> 00:44:58.199
Yeah.

923
00:44:58.199 --> 00:44:59.579
Yeah, just call Bill.

924
00:44:59.579 --> 00:45:01.380
Stop, stop sending popes into her bedroom.

925
00:45:01.739 --> 00:45:03.960
Clearly the other been to Bristol.

926
00:45:04.019 --> 00:45:05.340
Yeah, okay.

927
00:45:05.400 --> 00:45:07.320
Maybe it's a whole 5G dead zone.

928
00:45:07.440 --> 00:45:11.340
The other thing I really liked is the doctor blinding the monks to

929
00:45:11.340 --> 00:45:13.739
figure out which camera they turn back on.

930
00:45:13.800 --> 00:45:15.119
That's very neat.

931
00:45:15.179 --> 00:45:18.780
It did remind me of an old joke that I've actually put in several

932
00:45:18.780 --> 00:45:24.059
scripts now about how do you tell if the government is bugging

933
00:45:24.059 --> 00:45:24.599
your phone?

934
00:45:25.320 --> 00:45:27.300
Stop paying the bill.

935
00:45:30.960 --> 00:45:34.139
I mean, it is really neat, isn't it?

936
00:45:34.199 --> 00:45:35.219
He's really neat.

937
00:45:35.280 --> 00:45:38.159
It's the 1st time for a while that I've just felt, you know

938
00:45:38.159 --> 00:45:41.940
everything is just very neatly done and set up in a good way.

939
00:45:42.000 --> 00:45:47.159
And that, that is brilliant where we go from, there are 200,000 of

940
00:45:47.159 --> 00:45:52.079
these things and we winnow it down and it's still 428 or whatever

941
00:45:52.079 --> 00:45:55.619
but he finds the way of bringing it down from, you know, it's just

942
00:45:55.619 --> 00:45:57.360
like, which ones have reached stage two?

943
00:45:57.420 --> 00:45:59.460
You know, which ones are using bacteria or whatever.

944
00:45:59.519 --> 00:46:02.280
Like it all makes sense and it all really works very well.

945
00:46:02.340 --> 00:46:03.719
It's very clever, I think.

946
00:46:03.780 --> 00:46:06.900
I could have done without the GM Fairmongering, but that's a minor

947
00:46:06.900 --> 00:46:07.260
point.

948
00:46:07.320 --> 00:46:08.039
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

949
00:46:08.099 --> 00:46:09.059
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

950
00:46:09.119 --> 00:46:09.780
Yeah.

951
00:46:09.840 --> 00:46:13.500
Well, funny, you know, like the the doomsday clock is now

952
00:46:13.500 --> 00:46:18.719
currently sitting at a comfortable 45 seconds to midnight. right

953
00:46:18.719 --> 00:46:19.079
now.

954
00:46:19.139 --> 00:46:21.599
So, yeah.

955
00:46:21.659 --> 00:46:25.139
But we didn't mention climate, but obviously climate isn't going

956
00:46:25.139 --> 00:46:28.739
to kill everyone in the next kind of half an hour or whatever.

957
00:46:28.800 --> 00:46:30.599
You know, we're not all going to be dead in a year.

958
00:46:30.719 --> 00:46:34.380
Also, there were a lot of trees in the future, which I thought

959
00:46:34.380 --> 00:46:38.280
there probably shouldn't be if it was all the plants being killed

960
00:46:38.280 --> 00:46:39.000
but like whatever.

961
00:46:39.539 --> 00:46:41.460
Well, they were dead.

962
00:46:41.579 --> 00:46:44.400
Dead palm trees, lovely.

963
00:46:44.460 --> 00:46:49.199
Look, we know from Doctor Who and the Daleks in colour that you

964
00:46:49.199 --> 00:46:51.420
can have trees in a Dead Forest. there you go.

965
00:46:51.480 --> 00:46:51.960
There you go.

966
00:47:01.199 --> 00:47:04.199
I really enjoyed watching this again.

967
00:47:04.260 --> 00:47:05.340
I think that's what I want to say.

968
00:47:05.400 --> 00:47:10.320
This is a really, really good slab of TV, I think, everybody

969
00:47:10.320 --> 00:47:14.519
involved in it is really operating pretty much at the peak of

970
00:47:14.519 --> 00:47:14.940
their powers.

971
00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:18.000
I'd forgotten just how bloody good Pearl Mackie is.

972
00:47:18.059 --> 00:47:22.139
It's really a shame we only got her for one season because she is

973
00:47:22.139 --> 00:47:22.980
fantastic.

974
00:47:23.219 --> 00:47:28.199
And the Dr. Nardal Bill relationship, I think, is great, even if

975
00:47:28.199 --> 00:47:30.960
Nardal's a bit underused this time round.

976
00:47:31.019 --> 00:47:34.619
He sometimes has a reason to be there unlike certain companions in

977
00:47:34.619 --> 00:47:36.000
certain series, I could mention.

978
00:47:36.420 --> 00:47:39.599
And it was just a real pleasure to watch this again.

979
00:47:39.599 --> 00:47:43.739
And to see Stephen Moffat and Peter Harness, finding that balance

980
00:47:43.739 --> 00:47:48.239
that I talked about at the beginning between, on the one hand, a

981
00:47:48.239 --> 00:47:52.019
perfectly structured story can still fail to move you because it

982
00:47:52.019 --> 00:47:56.639
feels artificial as if we are just inserting Tabet into slot B in

983
00:47:56.639 --> 00:47:57.539
order to make things work.

984
00:47:57.599 --> 00:48:02.219
But equally, if the story is a mess and the pieces don't mesh

985
00:48:02.219 --> 00:48:05.039
together, then it can be hard to be moved because you're just like

986
00:48:05.039 --> 00:48:05.880
oh, we're doing that now.

987
00:48:05.940 --> 00:48:06.780
We're going over here now.

988
00:48:06.840 --> 00:48:08.519
It just becomes a jumble.

989
00:48:08.579 --> 00:48:12.480
This, I think, is really accurately located at that sweet spot in

990
00:48:12.480 --> 00:48:12.840
the middle.

991
00:48:12.900 --> 00:48:16.619
Everything's there for a purpose, but nothing feels as if its only

992
00:48:16.619 --> 00:48:19.800
purpose is to be part of the scaffolding that supports the story.

993
00:48:43.860 --> 00:48:46.139
Well, that's all the time we have for this week.

994
00:48:46.199 --> 00:48:49.500
We'll be back next week for a glimpse into our horrifying and

995
00:48:49.500 --> 00:48:53.519
inexorable theocratic future in the lie of the land.

996
00:48:53.880 --> 00:48:57.780
In the meantime, you can find us wherever you get your podcasts

997
00:48:57.780 --> 00:49:01.500
and you can keep up with us on our website, flightthroughentirety

998
00:48:59.460 --> 00:49:03.960
com, where you'll find our social media links as well as links to

999
00:49:03.960 --> 00:49:08.039
all of our other podcasts, including our other Doctor Who podcasts

1000
00:49:08.039 --> 00:49:12.119
500-year diary, and the 2nd great and bountiful Human Empire.

1001
00:49:12.599 --> 00:49:17.159
Until next time, perhaps we should consider making fractions a

1002
00:49:17.159 --> 00:49:17.699
thing again.

1003
00:49:17.760 --> 00:49:20.460
Thank you very much for listening and good night.

1004
00:49:20.579 --> 00:49:21.360
Good night.

1005
00:49:21.420 --> 00:49:22.679
Ta ta.

1006
00:49:22.739 --> 00:49:23.639
Julio.

1007
00:49:30.539 --> 00:49:34.679
That was Flight Through Entirety, starring Nathan Bodley, Brendan

1008
00:49:34.679 --> 00:49:36.659
Jones, Tom Selinski and James Selwood.

1009
00:49:36.780 --> 00:49:38.820
Theme arrangement by Cameron Lamb.

1010
00:49:38.880 --> 00:49:42.059
This episode, narrative vamping, was recorded on the 7th of

1011
00:49:42.059 --> 00:49:45.360
September 2024 and released on the 27th of October.

1012
00:49:46.980 --> 00:49:51.659
Tom Zelinski can also be found between the covers of his new book

1013
00:49:51.659 --> 00:49:55.679
Star Trek, Discovering the TV series, in which he reviews all the

1014
00:49:55.679 --> 00:49:59.159
episodes of the original series, the animated series, and the next

1015
00:49:59.159 --> 00:49:59.519
generation.

1016
00:49:59.579 --> 00:50:01.260
See the show notes for details.

1017
00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:08.039
It's a wrap up, in a way.

1018
00:50:08.099 --> 00:50:10.380
There's some great ideas, isn't it?

1019
00:50:10.440 --> 00:50:11.699
It's got Michelle Gomez.

1020
00:50:11.760 --> 00:50:13.260
So, you know, like I'm there for that.

1021
00:50:13.320 --> 00:50:20.219
I watched them all in one day as a kind of movie length thing and

1022
00:50:20.219 --> 00:50:25.980
as a, it'd be a great omnibus, actually, with some of the golf

1023
00:50:25.980 --> 00:50:26.760
edited out.

1024
00:50:26.820 --> 00:50:32.400
Um, like it holds to them much better as a single story than it

1025
00:50:32.400 --> 00:50:33.300
does.

1026
00:50:33.360 --> 00:50:34.440
Do you mean extremists?

1027
00:50:35.639 --> 00:50:39.840
So yeah, I so here's what I said about extremist this might be the

1028
00:50:39.840 --> 00:50:40.079
tech.

1029
00:50:40.139 --> 00:50:43.440
What I said about extremists was that the central conceit doesn't

1030
00:50:43.440 --> 00:50:47.579
make any sense because if you discover you're in a simulation

1031
00:50:47.579 --> 00:50:49.380
What?

1032
00:50:49.440 --> 00:50:50.760
Do you know what I mean?

1033
00:50:50.820 --> 00:50:51.239
Like what?

1034
00:50:51.300 --> 00:50:55.500
You know, it's like that beat where, you know, at the end of

1035
00:50:55.500 --> 00:51:00.119
journeys end, uh, Billy Piper's left on a beach with a duplicate

1036
00:51:00.119 --> 00:51:03.480
David Tennant, and you kind of think, is this a good thing or a

1037
00:51:03.480 --> 00:51:04.199
bad thing?

1038
00:51:04.199 --> 00:51:07.440
I don't know how, how am I supposed to feel about these, like

1039
00:51:07.440 --> 00:51:07.920
donuts?

1040
00:51:07.980 --> 00:51:08.699
Titan comics.

1041
00:51:10.320 --> 00:51:13.619
I remember Joey Pants and the Matrix. you know the steak tastes

1042
00:51:13.619 --> 00:51:14.039
just as good.

1043
00:51:14.099 --> 00:51:16.019
Yeah, right.

1044
00:51:16.079 --> 00:51:19.980
Well, so it's just it's like, so that doesn't sort of seem to mean

1045
00:51:19.980 --> 00:51:20.340
anything.

1046
00:51:20.400 --> 00:51:22.800
And we said something like, why are we in CERN?

1047
00:51:22.920 --> 00:51:27.840
And we sort of said, like, like if CERN could have blown up the

1048
00:51:27.840 --> 00:51:29.699
simulation or whatever.

1049
00:51:29.760 --> 00:51:30.480
Do you know what I mean?

1050
00:51:30.539 --> 00:51:34.440
sort of just a line away from making it all make sense, but it

1051
00:51:34.440 --> 00:51:36.420
doesn't actually quite land there.

1052
00:51:36.480 --> 00:51:39.719
I don't know why they're killing themselves. at all, you know.

1053
00:51:39.780 --> 00:51:42.480
And of course, the random number thing is just absolute nonsense.

1054
00:51:42.599 --> 00:51:45.000
Yeah, existential crisis doesn't exist.

1055
00:51:45.059 --> 00:51:46.980
Yeah, but you do.

1056
00:51:47.039 --> 00:51:50.039
You can't have an existential crisis if you don't exist, but, you

1057
00:51:50.039 --> 00:51:54.300
know, like, I think therefore I am, you know, like, like they

1058
00:51:54.300 --> 00:51:54.659
exist.

1059
00:51:54.719 --> 00:51:56.880
You can't say to someone, you don't exist.

1060
00:51:56.940 --> 00:51:59.400
I mean, that's why that's a good line because it does, you know

1061
00:51:59.400 --> 00:52:00.179
whatever.

1062
00:52:00.239 --> 00:52:05.880
I do have one other problem with the with the chemical institute

1063
00:52:05.880 --> 00:52:06.420
in this story.