Hello and welcome back to the 1st episode of the new improved
weekly Flightthrough Entirety, the only Doctor Who podcast who
knows why a mouse is when it spins.
I'm Brendan.
I'm Nathan.
I'm a lovely bucket of squidgy CSO glamour.
So, Richard.
Hello.
And I'm back from Ketterwell hairdressers.
One style fits all.
And don't I look a treat?
Yes, that's, that's, that's certainly a word.
No need for any of us to floss at this time.
No, indeed, because we're about to see the 4th doctor in action
for the 1st time in robot.
So, this is the first story for the new doctor, and, indeed, the
doctor who, for many people, This is their doctor.
When you talk to people who aren't huge Doctor Who fans.
Mostly the one they remember is Tom Baker.
And yeah, so we pick up right from the end of Planet of the
Spiders.
We have a reprise of the regeneration scene, which is the 1st time
this has happened.
There was no reprise in Power of the Daleks.
There was no reprise in Spearhead, obviously, because it would
have been black and white to film.
It's like a cliffhanger between seasons with the same kind of with
the same kind of carryover.
And straight away, Tom shows himself to be a very different
character with sort of his random outbursts of dialogue.
It's like the opposite of an exposition coma.
The sort of nonsense and nonsense.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's a it's a non-sequitoc coma.
And we did the ATHD drug of choice.
This is a very odd story, isn't it?
Because watching them all again, and having seen them as a wee
time tot, It's not a Tom story.
It's a pertly story with a pertly crowd written by Pertly's own
Terence Dix and doesn't Tom go in like a mistimed cog in a spring
in a wheel that doesn't click and makes the whole works shebang
and fall apart just by his mere presence and they can never go
back.
It's proof positive.
They can never do it the old way again.
This doctor does not fit in the old form and he won't allow it.
At the same time, though, Robert Holmes had essentially been
scripted for the last 3 stories.
That's true, Death to the Daleks.
It's very strongly Bob stories.
He doesn't fix this story, though.
I mean, it is still stupid.
Well, it's still a Terrence story.
I'll come back to that in the moment.
But Robert Holmes describes the situation as he was shadowing in
inverted commas, Terrence Dix, which meant he was sitting in
Terrence Dix's office working on the last 3 stories and twice a
week, Terrence Dix would poke his head around the door and say
everything all right?
Aspirin's in the top drawer.
You're fine.
But where this story, I think, really starts to show straight away
that there's a new production team coming in.
Of course it's still produced by Barry.
It's still written by Terrence, is the filmic influence of the
story, because Bob Holmes said to Terrence, when Terrence said, oh
I'll white your 1st story, Bob.
Bob Holmes said, I want a King Kong style story.
And as we'll discover over the next 3 years, something that's
really big for the Holmes Hinchcliffe combination, naked, naked
stuff from films.
And that happens.
Didn't they also say they wanted a sentimental provocateur, a
sentimental monster.
So it wasn't just that they were also looking at Shelley's true
Frankenstein, and that there's intimacy, and therefore, between
the Pearl White character, who is, you know, now we know
definitely, you know, Sarah Jane was cast as Pearl White, with a
veneer, with a character.
Pearl White.
Okay.
Because McAe Ray's character in Pearl White is the girl always
getting tied to the train tracks in all those silent.
Penelope Pit Stop crying.
That was definitely ripped off on the pearl white character.
So if we go back to the sign of the era, She was the girl who was
always being tied in her bloomers to the railway tracks.
Because, I mean, if it was from the original King Kong, which is
already kind of really problematic racially.
The fact that they raise character as well.
And Hitler's favourite film.
I'm not at all surprised.
Allegedly.
Because he really loved it.
This is more than just King Kong, though, isn't it, if we look at
it?
I mean, okay, we all get it that there's the protagonist that has
a soul.
But this is actually, and we're looking over at Brendan's lovely
credenza at the moment. gentle listener to Gort.
The fabulous score.
From the day the earth stood still, 1950, George Pells.
And really it's just Super Jesus 911, isn't it?
Apologies to American listeners.
But every damn Superman film we've seen.
Every superfilm we've seen now is the world covered in pumice and
a superhero really just playing.
Michael Rennie was ill the day of the earth stood still.
And he played Mr. Carpenter.
Did you get it?
And Gorge is definitely the K1 robot, but without a soul.
So we're really just looking at, ooh.
Are we getting a bit Nietzschean here?
We're allowed to use terms like that.
Certainly with the character of Hilda Winters.
Yes, we can even.
I think this story is the Nietzsche one because we'll get to a lot
of Jacques La Khan later in the season and Mr. Hinchcliffe himself
as referenced Jacques La Khan in several times in interviews.
And that's the dissonance and the delay of the fear, the object of
horror, and the actual death, or the object of horror witnessed
lived with before the resolution, is the elongation of terror, and
elongation of fear.
Do you mean to that later?
Not seeing the monster until the end of episode one.
Everyone's glazing over us.
We'll get you at another point.
Yeah, to clarify that.
I have no idea what you were talking about.
Well, the point the point with this one is that you've got the
larger than, um, antagonist who's the kind of a super ego, who's
kind of the man at his worst, but also revealing underneath that
there's the transition, there's the chance for, for redemption in
that he's not actually, just like Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, who
was the 1st one to do it, is that there is actually opportunity
for redemption.
Yes.
And the tragedy is that that is generally not conceived.
The narrative doesn't allow that to happen.
What I found so interesting about watching this story was that, as
you mentioned earlier, Richard, it's clearly still a unit story
it's clearly playing with the John Pertley toy box, if you like, of
having unit and having this homegrown threat and what have you.
But I think that's such a good idea.
Because it gives the audience something familiar for the new
doctor to be different against.
So it immediately defines his character.
I agree completely with you, Brendan.
I think, at this point in time, Doctor Who has a solid audience of
8 to 9.5 million viewers every week.
You know, for big events, they're getting an extra 100000000 and a
half.
Here, you've got, in this regeneration story, you've got the
familiar elements of the brigadier Benton.
Sarah's been in the show for a year and she's the main protagonist
to the whole story.
You've got all of these elements supporting a new doctor and
allowing him to put his own sort of mark on things and how they
react to his differences.
What I really like about this is the fact that the brigadier and
Benton are actually so accepting, right?
Which is actually very warm and lovely.
And Sarah, she's not angsty or anything like that.
But it's really interesting watching Elizabeth Staten's
reactions.
She's very positive, but she's sort of watching Tom and how, what
he's going to say and you think that Sarah's about to jump in like
she would with per tweet.
Like we do on this podcast.
But then you sort of see her then relax and sort of smile and joke
and sort of you go along with it.
So you're accepting of it.
It's actually her reactions and how Sarah reacts to the new doctor
which I really loved in this.
Do you know, one of the things, though, that I think is odd is
that really no one says anything very much, you know, beyond
episode one and beyond just when he gets up and gets in his new
outfit and that he's just the doctor and no one really remarks
ever again on the fact that he's sort of changed his appearance
and no one sort of feels odd about it.
You see, I would disagree with that.
Certainly, okay, they don't say it, but Nick's performance against
Tom is so different compared to his performance against Pertwee.
There is a distrust there.
I can see it too.
Yeah, and I actually thought that in a number of scenes, Nick's
reactions here are very different.
He looks very uncomfortable at times with what the doctor is
doing.
So I can see my contract ending.
Can I bring up Sandra for the 1st time in the podcast?
I think you go have a drink, boys?
Sandoval just says that what's happening is you bring back the
unit people as a kind of transition thing, but the effect of it is
Tom just acts them all off the screen is literally what he says.
And so suddenly it becomes clear that we don't need unit.
As Richard said, the contract is about to end. in fact, this
recording block, which ends with terror of the Zygons.
You know, we don't get unit ever really again in that sort of same
role.
No, indeed.
Indeed.
We don't get the brigadier again, do we?
Not, not, yeah, no, it's mysteriously unavailable.
I never blame him.
Yeah, no, he's engineering.
He's sulking away with Doris in that mock Tudor get up somewhere
in them.
Well, you know, I, I, I do, I do wonder about the Brigandoris, this
is just the 1st of several stupid observations of mine this
season.
When the doctor is trying to remember who the brigady is, he
compares him 1st to Hannibal and then Alexander the Great.
And of course, what he's actually doing is comparing him to great
military leaders.
It's a really good step in their relationship because he's
flattering him in a way.
Great generals who slept with other warriors.
Well, exactly.
They're both history's famous bisexuals.
In the scene right after Sarah Jane has called a drink?
The brigadier, a swinger.
Yes.
Something very clear in 1974, boys and girls.
Where is your car keys?
Wasn't the brigadier very keen to stifle any talk of Doris a few
weeks ago?
Inplanet of the spiders?
Yeah, I, you know, I think he and Doris have a very stable...
They have a very stable...
They're usually working down the docks as a stevedore, which is 6
foot three with a big massive beard, much like Todd's hair.
That's no way.
That's no way to talk about Angela Douglas.
Do we remember Angela Douglas from the carry-ons?
Wasn't she miraculous in that?
And of course, one of our old... of our old picks of the week
Daleks versus Meekon, the trailer.
She's been co-opted into that.
And you know what?
We're getting ahead of ourselves.
When she finally appears in Doctor Who.
She's hardly bloody age in 20 years.
She looks magnificent.
Much like everyone in this thing too.
Don't you love Benton?
Don't you look at them and think, this is this lovely Indian
summer purple twilit thing of saying goodbye to old friends and
you do love them, don't you?
Well, he gets a promotion, doesn't he?
get to be Mr. Benton. from now.
Yes, Mr. Benton.
RSM.
The thing that we've completely not mentioned at all is, you know
what I mean?
Harry Sullivan.
We kept the best to last, didn't we?
Todd, well, how do you reckon Harry fits in?
He's so immediate.
He's so immediate, and he's Tom's new buddy, and that's evident in
this run of stories.
Do you think it would have worked as well without Harry?
I really don't.
No, no.
And I know that Harry was brought in because I think about casting
an older actor, that famous story about Richard Hearn thinking
they wanted him to play it like Mr. Pastry.
And we had Mr. Moody, the lovely Ron Moody, which are late.
Yeah.
Just past this week.
And well, he could have been, I believe, 3 doctors.
I think he was in the running for...
He could have done his own 3 and four. special.
Imagine the money they would have sold.
Yeah exactly.
Ian Martyr was brought in to be the man of action against the
older doctor, much like the same reason that Richard Franklin was
brought in before they suddenly realised, hold on, busting
something.
One is not really a man of action.
Two, you don't need a man of action with pert wig.
No, you don't.
I actually think Richard Franklin was perfect casting because
there's lots of boys who went to Sandist, who are the younger sons
of clergy.
He is an officer.
Yeah, well, he's, you know, he's you as Nancy Mitchell would have
said, not non-you.
Look, he's one of the posh boys who really wasn't supposed to be
there, but a lot of them come out of that military school and
they're quite fain.
They'd much rather just do etchings with other chaps.
But it ended up.
Did you know?
And I think it's actually okay to reveal this now that, you know
we've gone on.
Ian Marner was, according to, according to the studio nights. have
you come across this, actually was cast, but was unavailable.
Yeah, no, we mentioned it.
Richard Franklin was always available.
So, I mean, that to all his mates.
I mean, he was always available to his mates.
And yeah, yeah, it was kind of like, okay, well, I actually think
it's Sterling casting.
Oh, yeah. of Dickie Franklin.
Yeah, you know what?
I, as I, as I, as I've detailed, nearly no one we've mentioned.
Look, when we last saw him, he was resting in Kevin Lindsay's lap
and really, what else do we need?
They've passed away very soon after with no reference to the a
heart attack.
Well, what a way to go.
What else do you want to say about that?
We talked about Harry.
Yeah, Harry.
We're still on...
As you were saying, Todd, you know, he's so immediate in that.
And to compare him to Captain Yates.
Yeah, you know, not necessarily do Richard Franklin, but when
Captain Yates arrives, there's several lines of dialogue to
intimate he's only been there for a few weeks.
No, no, that's not true.
I'll actually say you've been around since the other autumn
thing.
Yeah, well, he said, I'll clean up.
I'm not cleaned up.
But there's lots of dialogue to establish him to say, oh, Mike is
this, and Mike is that.
Whereas Harry just walks into the room and the brigadier is like
oh, thank you, Sullivan.
No, he phoned him in the previous story.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But that's what I mean.
These are the swinger lines they used to have.
Mikey Yates is established as having been there through people
saying, oh, you've been here for a while, whereas Harry Sullivan
is established as having been there just because people treat
him.
Do you think it's also that Ian just has such a strong screen
presence and actually matches Tom and beguilingly does the Sotto
Vocce to Tom's forte forte forte, but it's actually a really
lovely duality.
Yeah, well, that Sarah is just the triumvirate that makes it stand
up.
That amazing skipping rope scene.
I mean, compare that to the fetcher tin of cocoa scene.
You know, you've got 2 actors as equals in the skipping rope scene
whereas in the fetch tan of cocoa scene, Richard Franklin is very
subservient to John Purley, because that was just the performance
style.
How it's liked it.
But it's so obvious in so many scenes that Tom and Ian are acting
their socks off. compared to Wick.
And Elizabeth rises to the occasion.
You can see it.
It's a ketterwell scene like in his office.
And honestly, you know, the 3 of them are fantastic and Nick in
the background, I'm just there going, you are struggling, Maggie.
And I'm not trying to be horrible or anything like that.
Well, you know what?
They've got a lot to deal with.
We haven't mentioned the theme song in the room. wrote this theme
song, saying the thing.
Miss Winters.
We haven't mentioned this one.
I think it's very difficult for the male supporting cast to
actually do anything, but gays in mute admiration at the stoic
presence that is Patricia Maynard.
Writer of the Mindor thing. and girlfriend of Dennis Waterman at
the time.
Is that true?
That is absolutely true.
Mother of Hannah Waterman.
In fact.
Yes, yeah.
I'm gonna go out there.
This is possibly Doctor Who's strongest feminist story to date.
And also probably its most reviling in that everyone who's a
feminist is a horrible, horrible villain monster who's humourous
and cold.
And although they do have nice cloak, nice boots.
Well, I think you can also construe as feminist, that none of the
men treat Miss Winters negatively because she is a woman.
Only Sarah does.
Only, only Sarah does.
I think she gets pulled up on that one.
Yeah, she gets pulled up bullion.
And the thing is, you sort of look at Sarah and Sarah is a strong
independent woman in a man's world, which is why she assumes a man
is in charge.
She doesn't really meet many women.
I mean, this.
There will be 3 speaking women in the entire...
The last one she met was Queen the Nera.
Oh, I've just realised you're right. terrible. really, really
terrible.
And so she's actually met one of these women things that she's
hardly at the times across.
She got on well with Queen Filira.
She did.
She taught she taught her to bite her enemies.
Which is funny when you think of her successor in the companion
role.
But it's so worth commenting on the strong women in this storyline
because of its basis in King Kong, where Fey Ray's role was as a
mother and a nurturing figure to Kong and to be captured and to be
used as a commodity and what have you, whereas.
And Tricia Neal in Day the Earth stood still.
And Patricia Neal.
But she played it, again, that's a lovely role, if you haven't
seen the film, because she plays it as a highly intelligent
woman.
Well, see, that's exactly what Sarah and Miss Winters are
especially with Sarah's sympathy for the robot.
Now, that's also very mothering, but it goes from being a
mothering and nurturing idea, to being a discussion about the
nature of intelligence and sentience.
And it's Sarah and Miss Winters leading that discussion in the
storyline.
It's not really curtable.
It's Miss Winters, who is the Dr. Frankenstein in Frankenstein.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
In this one.
Exactly.
Young Frankenstein had been out.
Kevin Well is Igor.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And who's Jellicoe?
Jellicoe was almost Colin Baker.
He was, Will, yes.
Can you imagine?
In an Ian Marto and Richard Franklin kind of way.
Colin Baker was picked for the pub, but wasn't available.
So we got we got Alec Lindstead Insted.
I like that he's got that lovely thing when gingers were terribly
rare in the 70s because they didn't have the penicillas that we
have now, so they didn't live very long.
You didn't get it from me.
Oh, it's true.
It's true.
They were all expiring.
That anaphylactic shock.
In those days.
You couldn't open a jar of peanut butter without seeing it.
A ginger collapse.
I could have crushed biscuits.
Are you confusing?
Are you confusing gingers with ginger nuts?
Same difference, really?
and stop that.
It's a family.
No, you gonna say something?
I just wanted to say that Jellicoe, of course, is coded as gay in
the novelisation by Terrence.
A bit like Professor Whittaker.
His musical theatre?
No, his overly trendy and fashionable in his dress for someone of
his age.
So he takes a little bit too much care in his appearance.
And I can't think why else Terrence would mention that detail
except to try and code him as gay.
And because he has to die.
No, no, well, he doesn't he doesn't die. he doesn't die
interestingly.
He just disappears off the narrative.
You have to explain why he's subordinate to a woman, you see.
Oh, and he can only be subordinate to a woman if he's a homosexual
woman.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Thanks, Terence.
I knew he'd get that in somewhere. yeah.
We still love him.
Well, it's just been announced this week that Sam Smith is singing
the new bond theme.
Oh, it's got to be Bassy.
But Sam's Sam Smith is an homosexual.
Oh, okay.
So you're doing it as Dame Shirley, baby. as Dame Shirley
Bassing.
And also, I doubt he'll be whistling in the theme, of course, for
the new...
No, Squiz can't whistle.
Ian, who said that?
Ian Fleming, but it was actually a great open myth at the time
that if you were homotexual, you couldn't whistle, which is why
there's that scene between... amazing when you consider Quentin
Chris Duckface. whistle It's actually so weird.
No, I just don't get it.
Do you know they actually put it down to the oblation of the
palate?
I have a confession to make is that when I came to watch this, I
had to actually unwrap it out of its plastic.
In fact, every single season that I'd actually watched thus far
I've had to actually unwrap at least 2 or 3 stories.
Oh, goodness.
Like that many.
I just couldn't believe it Todgers refresh.
Except for season seven.
That's probably why I like season seven, so...
I actually put the DVD in and then I pushed play.
And I had absolute chills.
Like as that 2 side bars go into the TARDIS block, I was just like
you know, literally shaking.
I just couldn't believe the sort of response I was having to
watching this story again and.
It's like when the show came back in 96 when you heard the theme
again, you just goosebumps that you got, and I just have had it
watching this entire run of stories.
You guys have all talked about the 1st stories that you have
watched and you can remember.
And I can't really remember what my 1st story was.
As I watched that, I started trying to think about it.
And there's this moment, a few minutes into the episode, the point
of view of the robot, when it's trying to break into the research
establishment with the wire mesh and the green grass.
And as a kid, I had a recurring nightmare, that we lived in a
train tunnel, and we had our front door, and there were these 2
panels next to the door, and it was like what the robot was, you
know, there was something outside, and we couldn't see what it
was.
As I watched it, I saw that, and then all these flashes just
started going into my mind, like, Sarah crawling through the pipe
with the weir and outside, Sarah falling off the scaffolding in
Genesis.
Sarah being attacked by the cyberman.
There's a theme emerging here.
And I don't know whether or not robot is the 1st story I am saw
right?
I kind of knew that John Pertwee was the doctor, so I must have
caught something of spies, but, you know, it's racking my brain
even in the Santarian experiment when Sarah talks about links, like
I don't remember that.
Like I don't, I never got that.
I can't remember if I knew that she knew the Daleks or not.
I do remember as a kid watching episode one of The Time Warrior
expecting old perchwee titles, getting the new ones and going, oh
and then going, oh, they're like Tom's.
So I didn't really know that.
No, about 77, 77.
So, I'm just sort of there going like, you know, is robot the 1st
story that I ever saw?
I just adored watching this from beginning to end.
It was just fresh.
He was vibrant.
There were just things and the robot and the sympathy I felt for
the robot and it's and how conflicted it was.
Like I'd forgotten all of that stuff.
Doesn't it look beautiful too?
Oh, even it may not move quite as beautiful.
So, you know, I actually think Jim Mattressson, is it?
Yeah, 0 yes.
Yeah, it's gym mattress.
It is, yes, Oscar Award winning.
And Jenny Laird award-winning.
Oh, Jim, actress.
But on the other hand, Todd, I actually think that this story is
kind of terrible as well.
And part of the reason for it, and maybe the biggest reason for it
is Kettlewell, because you remember when Kettlewell last appeared
when the actor last appeared on the show?
Yes, Edward Burnham as Professor Watkins in the invasion.
And do you remember that scene where Tobias Vaughan kind of tries
to provoke Watkins into killing him?
And there's some actual proper acting and all of that sort of
thing.
But in the intervening time, he's just turned into just an absurd
caricature.
And he's so important to the plot.
And I think his role in the plot is absolutely unbelievably
muddled as well.
Like, I can't tell what's going on.
He looks really distressed when the robot turns up at his house
and he's surprised and all of that sort of thing and when the
robot explains to him what's been being done to him at think tank
he goes, oh, no, you know, all of that sort of thing.
But then it turns out that scene's an a complete cheat because he
was actually in on it the entire time.
And the only way that we can work that out, you know, the audience
can't possibly work that out.
We've got no way of knowing.
Tom works it out in his sleep.
Do you know what I mean?
And then, and then comes to and says, oh, you know, no one else
could possibly have reprogrammed the robot, even though we saw
inner scene Hilda and Jellicoe doing just that.
So the story is a mess.
Do you know what I mean?
It is a giant holdover from the Pertury area.
Which is not, you know, not suggesting that it's wrong to have
affection for it because, of course, it's place in the history of
the show.
It's got Tom who is just, you know, an absolute revelation and
it's got homes, you know, fixing the dialogue.
Look, I don't disagree with you.
I mean, Jellico's acting sometimes, his calculator acting is
appalling, but he's trying to do those calculations.
He's not fooling anybody.
He's not pulling me for a 2nd and he's got that wonderful bit
where he's hiding behind the robot, helping him down the steps
hiding acting.
But I was just surprised at how much I actually did enjoy this
when I had dismissed it offhand previously.
And so I actually did have great affection when I was watching
this and was quite surprised, but there are problems with his
character and motivation, you know, and Tom is, as you said
Richard, it just doesn't quite fit and it becomes quite obvious
but at the same time, I like that it doesn't quite fit because I
think it gives Tom the chance to shine and stamp a different
approach to everything.
It really was perfect in that, wasn't it?
Walsh watch.
So Terry Walsh isn't credited in this story at all, but there is a
hilarious scene where the doctor's trying to persuade a guard to
let him into the scientific reform society.
Yes.
And he does that thing. you know, where he gets out his wallet and
he's got the freedom of the city of Skaro.
Who gave him that, the darlet?
And, you know, the he's a member of the Alpha Centauri table
tennis club, and it's been observed before that if they have 6
arms, why do they get 6 table tennis bats?
Because 2 armed people only get one.
Why don't they have 3 table tennis spots?
But whatever.
And but the person that he's trying to bamboozle into allowing him
in is Terry Walsh.
And Terry Walsh is the recipient of the very 1st Tom Baker scarf
trick, so where he accidentally freds on Tom Scarf and Todd yanks
it out of the way.
And the falls and her, which is why it's Terry Walsh.
And he also does this excellent dive over the top of Tom.
While Tom is standing on a higher level to him bending over, then
turns around and gets Tom in an arm lock.
You know, it's really a very, very good stunt, considering it also
looks like it was done in one take with no cuts whatsoever.
It would have been too.
Walsh was great with all of them.
The last thing I want to mention is actually related to that, that
scene at the Scientific Reform Society meeting, with, of course
their wonderful emblem that is not only designed to look like the
robot's head, but also to sort of resemble a reflected
swashticker.
Terence Dix had been writing with Mac Hulk long before they turned
in the war games together.
And in fact, in the 196263 season of The Avengers, when it was
Patrick McNee and Honour Blackman in the starring roles.
They wrote a story together called The Mauritius Penny, which is
about a group called New Rule, who wanted to overtake the UK and
Europe, and run it along scientific principles.
The 3rd episode of Robot, the scenes in that, the way they are
written, the way they are shot, is so close to the Mauritius Penny
which is also one of the best black and white videotape Avengers.
Both episodes.
Top fan favourite of that.
I mean, when I used to run my Avengers blog, I think I put it
either 1st or 2nd for that season.
It's so strong.
Do track it down if you can, if you can, folks.
It's not available on DVD in Australia, but is available in the UK
and the US is part of the complete 2nd season and often on YouTube
or Vimeo.
Should we mention do we have time?
All those things actually came from a regal organisation called
technocracy, which developed in the US straight after the war, and
a lot of 2nd rate scientists, as they were viewed by everybody
else.
And they wanted to streamlined logical lifestyle based on
pseudoscientific rational principles.
They wore gray suits.
It's really just craft work without the great tune.
They drove a model of gray car, all the same.
But there is actually a C.S. Lewis novel called that hideous
strength, which was written during the war, that said immediately
after it, which has the National Institute of Coordinated
experiments, which is a cross between think tank and the
scientific reform society.
So it is a thing that was in the air.
It's not quite as crazy as it seems to have seen.
He loves suicide.
Yeah, he's top of my enemies list at the moment. enemies.
There's 2 things that we need really to talk about, I think, before
we wrap it up.
One is the tank.
I love the tank.
I don't really have a problem with it.
I don't I think it looks a lot better than a lot of the model work
in the Pertwee era.
And the shot is quite clever.
The shot is on the robot.
The shot is a boy...
I accepted as a kid.
As a boy, I thought fantastic.
We were a bit of Thunderbirds moments.
We do need to talk about the Tories.
What did you think of that?
terrible.
And then there's the end, and I think the end is really, really
just lovely.
So you get the scene with Tom and Sarah.
And Sarah is genuinely upset.
Is Sarah still as the 6 inch dolly?
No, okay.
Okay, that's that's a jingly jingly leg.
And she's then placed on that matte painting of the chimney
like...
She's granted the photo. was a reshoot as well.
They weren't happy with the original version.
Jenny Lader award nominated.
Todd is the only one here who's spent some reasonable amount of
time with Liz Sladden.
But Liz did say, and I'm quoting this now, they did very rude
things with that Sarah Dolly after that, nothing to do with me, of
course, and she does include Terry Walsh in that.
Do you remember her telling that story to the conventions anyway?
So I just, I had no idea.
This is why it's never worked turned up at any of the auctions.
Oh my god.
Anyway, I want to...
That last heartwarming...
Thank you, Richard.
I mean, on top of the head of red coon.
No, no, we passed that.
We passed her right bucket off.
She's genuinely upset. by the destruction of the robot and it's
terribly sweet and Tom doesn't, you know, for all his sort of
alien quirkiness, he really takes it on board and tries to comfort
her.
And he does say, you know, it was a great invention or something
capable of great good or great evil.
You know, I guess you could say.
It was human.
And I think that's that's terrifically nice.
It's great isn't it?
Yeah, what we were trying to say.
And then, you know, you've got Harry coming in.
And would you like a jelly baby?
The 1st time he ever says it.
Yeah, you know?
And the ticket to the TARDIS is the jelly baby.
They trick him into going.
They're having a little more show.
That's why that coat was definitely worn by the 2nd doctor.
Yeah, because there's something else that comes up later in the
season to indicate that.
For his costume.
I do think, though, that the alternate costume is he tries on the
clown and the barbarian and the king of hearts.
He's already chosen what he wants to wear.
He's just doing the pattern.
I'm suggesting something completely outrageous. a little bit of
Tootie, Tootie Flying Dutchman when he comes out in the Wagner
hat.
It's great The space that space helmet for a cow.
Space helmet for a cat.
It's already in the opening titles, but nobody's going to.
That's true, isn't it?
Well spotted, Todd.
Well, that's all the time we have for Robot, but just before we go
I do have to issue a correction for something one of the said last
episode.
It was Richard.
Yeah, it was me probably.
It was me, actually.
For my jet...
For my Jenny Laird award, I gave it to the creative team behind
the mutants because I was asking why Christopher Barry was invited
back after such a long time away to direct such a problematic
story. completely overlooking the fact that he'd done a bloody
great job on the Damons 3 stories before that.
So, you know, I was saying he hadn't been directing since Power of
the Daleks, he hasn't done a colour Doctor Who.
He hasn't worked for Barry Letts.
Of course he has, and he's produced one of the most critically
acclaimed ones.
So we can finally accept the mutants as in the top 5 per week.
We've never we've never issued a correction before.
Is that because we've never said anything wrong before?
That's correct.
It's because it would take up an entire episode.
In 31 episodes, I think that's quite a great achievement.
So, folks, as I said, that's the end of today's episode.
Please come back next week where we'll be discussing where we will
be discussing packaging materials as alien threats in the arcade
space.
In the meantime, don't forget, you can find us online at
flightthroughentirety.com, flight through entirety on Facebook and
iTunes and FTE podcast on Twitter.
We're also still after reviews on our iTunes, because I put out a
call for it about 2 episodes ago and I don't think any new reviews
have appeared.
Not being needy.
I'm being incredibly needy, please review us.
Please, please, please review us.
There might be something in it for you.
Thank you.
Thank you very much and good night.
Good night.
See you soon.
You're listening to Flight Your Entirety.
Todd Burby, Nathan Buffy, Brendan Jones, and Richard Stone.
This episode, Quentin Chris Duckface, was recorded on Sunday, the
14th of June.
The next episode will be released on June 29th.
The Doctor's Sporting Prowess does rather raise the question, how
many ping pong balls are in play in a game without the Centurion
table tennis.
Hello and welcome back to the 1st episode of the weekly Flight
Through Entirety.
I excited myself just then.
Okay.