Are we still trying to get back to unit HQ?
Hello and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety, the only Doctor
Who podcast coming to you live from the Disorientation Centre.
I'm Brendan.
I'm Nathan.
And I'm that thing that Tom Baker pulled out of the console that
he left in the priory because I have no idea where we are.
Where are we?
We are in some sort of mysterious forest, not designed by Roger
Murray Leach on this occasion.
It's the Android Invasion.
Oh, it'll be terrible.
So this one's mine as well.
And it's Terry Nation. is your favourite...
Bring out the avocado mousse.
I feel somebody's going to die.
I always thought that was, you know, special sauce from a Mac.
You didn't use canned avocado.
Was there such a thing?
So I had my checklists when we were doing the 70s Harry Nation
Dalek story.
I love your checklist.
Can we do one again?
I don't really have a checklist here, although there isn't a
radiated planet, so I might mention.
I made a few notes of some Terry tropes and he's like, oh, I do
want to say one thing about Terry.
And that is that is reliable.
I really liked his stuff in the 1960s.
I, like, a huge fan of Keys of Marinace?
Yep.
Even we have come round to He's America.
Oh, I always like his...
I like his 3 Dalek stories, 4 Dalek stories, which have like...
Well, 3.5, really, all right.
But they have they're different from each other.
They have increasing stakes.
He does, you know, rely on the same tropes, but he can keep he can
keep the story going.
I don't feel comfortable without a plague.
We get a plague in this one.
So since Keith of Marinus, this is his only non-dalek story.
And it's the 2nd last story that he will ever write for the
program.
He'll come back in 1979 to do Destiny of the Daleks, which is just
you know, terrible.
Dusting off the Daleks, yeah.
But, you know, like I think his stories have been quite enjoyable
at times and sometimes sort of terribly camp, but this one's a bit
terrible. really, isn't it?
I really like it.
This is another example of something I mentioned last week where
the Holmes Hingecliff stories will often have one NAF episode
followed by 3 really good ones or 3 really good episodes followed
by a NAF one.
I think this one is in the latter.
The last episode really lets it down.
I'm going to start off, um, just by mentioning some terry, you
give us the terry tropes?
Surprisingly few.
Okay.
Compared to, say, Planet of the Daleks, or even Genesis of the
Daleks had a lot more terry tropes.
Of course, we've got the plague, the virus, check, check.
We have an opening where there is someone acting mysterious who
then dies.
Check.
We have an examination of that body kickstarting mystery about the
plot.
And we have a companion who twists their ankle.
That's him but tailoring.
Almost twister.
So plague and radiation?
Oh, yeah.
Sorry, we do have the radiation as well, which is a terry thing.
But he tries to do something a little differently with it because
as opposed to the Daleks or Destiny of the Daleks, where the
radiation is debilitating and slowly wears down the crew.
Here, it doesn't really do anything.
No, no.
The doctor mentions, oh, there is a higher level of radiation.
It's not too much to worry about if we're not in it too long.
It's, I think it's a clue that he overlooks and I think it also
kind of motivates what the kraals are going to do.
So this is Terry Nation.
It's also Barry Letts directing, as you can tell, from the sort of
appalling CSO that gets used, for instance, in a...
He loves to see also. too bad.
What about Guy Craford's CSO cockpit?
I'm sorry, that's pretty terrible.
That is pretty good of pain.
They could have stuck him against a flat in the cargo hold.
For the listener at home.
When is a cockpit not a cockpit?
It's when Barry Lance is directing?
So when Patrick McNee was forced to stand in front of the sign
saying cock in during the new Avengers title sequence, which
premiered this year.
He did do.
We're looking forward to the podcast.
Put up a screen grab of that.
Genesis, I think, is heavily written by Bob Holmes, rewritten by
Bob Holmes.
How much is that?
Well, I never touched on that because it is the best Dialect story
ever because they're hardly in it.
Well, I was trying to think of it, actually, because it did have a
big list of Terry tropes.
I did look back, you know, trying to find some interviews and
stuff that suggested that this was the case.
But all I could get was just a report where Holmes and maybe
Terrence Dix is Terrence Dix's commissioning stories for season 12
or he's somehow involved.
Yeah, Terence Dixon Barry Letts came up with the concept of going
back to the Dalek's origin.
And didn't they complain to Terry that he'd just done the same
thing?
you know, like we bought this script twice.
I think they kind of did the thing that Ian Hendry did to writers
on the Avengers, where he would call them all hacks, which got
them terribly wild on, so they wrote better stuff.
And so does Bob Holmes expect Harry now to have learned his lesson
and do a good job?
And he expects Barry Letts, who's a very experienced director and
who's done this a lot.
Does he expect them, and this is what Sandra says.
It's like, Holmes and Hinchcliffe leave those 2 alone to do the
Android invasion.
And as a result, it's a bit of a disaster.
And, you know, like the person that Holmes chooses to rewrite.
Like he chooses to rewrite Pyramids of Mars on one side and he
chooses to rewrite Brain of Morbius, which is Terence Dix, who's
pretty reliable inside of robot.
But so, but he doesn't rewrite Nation.
He mustn't have time.
And so it's not very good.
I think it's very much that.
It's also because Brain of Morbius will talk more about this next
week.
Brain Morb has had to be rewritten by an edict from Philip
Hinchcliffe.
So, for instance, with Pyramids of Mars by Lewis Griefer, both
Holmes and Hingcliffe were in agreement that the script wouldn't
really work for Doctor Who.
Right.
Whereas for Brain of Morbius, Holmes and Dix had worked very
closely on the script and they both really liked it, but it was
Philip Hinchcliffe, who came along and said, oh, no, we're not
doing that.
Now we're doing this, but we'll talk about this more next time.
But yeah, I think certainly how busy Holmes was with those 2
surrounding stories, and possibly with Planet of Evil as well
might have influenced this, but Holmes did do a fair amount of
rewriting on the story.
He actually rewrote a lot of episode 2 and three.
See, what you don't get, you get such sort of banal terry dialogue
you know, like I really miss the incredible, uh, witticisms that
you get in pyramids of Mars.
And again, even more so embracing.
And we haven't even touched on the trouble with Harry.
Now a bit worried, gentlemen.
I hope this is Todd on the way in, but who knows?
It may be a stigrin duplicate.
I think we should put some air back in that octahedron. floating
terrariums looking, you know, a bit sealed.
Hi, Todd, how you feeling?
The involvement of unit in this story is quite peripheral.
And I think it's a shame that we get to see evil, Benton, and
Harry. for the most part in this their last appearance.
And there's no real goodbye.
Also to that.
Colonel Faraday is a bit of a idiot.
And I can see why Nick Courtney was not involved with this for
whatever reasons.
Are you pleased that Nick didn't come back just to deliver those
lines?
What do you think of this unit's final outing?
I need a new lease of life.
I must go and try the Planet of Khan.
I hear they've got some elixir there.
I hope I don't lose my head over it.
This is why I loathe this story because of the wasting.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Not just the wasting of a martyr, but the wasting of John Levine
at this point as well.
That's last ever, and it's...
It's the waste of an entire idea.
No wonder.
No wonder Nick Courtney's...
I think so.
Well, the most...
The most bizarre thing about that is...
Terry Nation, his scripts were a lot more heavily focussed on the
Android element, the Android duplicates.
In Terry Nation's original script, Android Harry actually actively
hunted Sarah and they had lots of interaction and what have you.
Do you know who was responsible for pulling that out?
Robert Holmes.
No, it was Hinchcliffe.
Hinchcliffe said, don't push Harry so much.
Don't push Ian.
Oh, because we're DM emphasising him.
Yeah, he wanted to push more of Sarah.
It's such a terrible thing.
What the hell was wrong with Inchcleiff thinking that in Marty's
character was not, I know I'm personalised.
He did make him.
He admits that he's made a mistake.
Yeah, I'm being unfair.
But, oh, it's my, it's my one thing for this season.
I really want Harry Simon, but...
So here you've got Harry completely wasted and we've seen evil...
And he doesn't mean drunk like this podcast.
We've seen evil duplicate Harry before.
Yeah, we have with the pitchfork. spectacular.
Yeah, he was so good in Zygons as Evil Harry that he was cut out
for the video release.
Does any of the gentlestness remember the not the DVD, but the VHS
release of Terror of Zycons.
That whole scene with Sarah and Harry in the barn was cut to
pieces because it was considered too terrifying simply because of
Ian Martis' performance.
And watch again the DVD release where it's there in full. is the
best thing.
It's beautifully done, of course, but he's good.
He's really, really good.
And hot.
Did we mention that?
kind of.
But he's really wasted here.
Never say no to a pitchfork list.
Like, there's no point.
There's no point to him being here.
There's no point...
No, that's exactly yeah, yeah.
It's also awesome.
But what we don't get is any real fun with the Androids, and we
get it in episode four.
There's a huge structural problem with the story, which is the 1st
2 episodes set up this, Earth looks like it's been invaded and
it's undermined control, and there are scary androids with
gunfingers, which are pay because they're fantastic.
Like a bond finger bang.
They're really, really good.
They're perfect for imitating the playground.
I think they're really funny And so that's what that's what it
looks like is happening.
And Tom goes along with that.
That's what his theory is.
And he comes up with a whole bunch of theories that turn out to be
completely wrong.
Like, oh, they could have been a radiation league. they could have
been...
He's nearly omniscient last year.
Yeah, and the doctor gets it so wrong.
Because it's Terry and he's kind of being retro and he's forgotten
that the doctor knows everything sort of nowadays. he's not
writing for pertwee either because he knew everything.
Yeah, but you know, I quite I quite like that when the doctor
brings up these theories, he doesn't he doesn't marry himself to
any of them, you know, he kind of goes, oh, well, this could be
happening.
I'm not sure it is but it could be.
And so what that means is for the 1st 2 episodes, everyone that we
see is an Android.
And so there are no chances of people meeting their Android
duplicates.
Then in episode 3, we're baffing around, wasting time in the crime
base, and so we don't have any Android people meeting there.
I want to call them robot replicas.
Do you remember that episode?
There's an episode of Press Gang by Stephen Moffatt called
Unexpected, which is about a TV show called Professor X, which was
really ropey that all of...
Which actually started in these new adventures.
I think it predates them.
Oh, wow.
Yeah.
No, it's Colonel X. Okay.
He was playing...
Professor X is the new...
He's played by Michael Jason, who is who is...
And he talks about robot replicas of things.
So I want to call these the robot replicas.
So no one meets their robot replica because we're still faffing
about on the planet aside.
And then we go to Earth and we spend a while getting to Earth and
really then it only happens just a couple of times.
Yes.
And the one big moment, which I thought was just fantastic and is
kind of underplayed, it's there on the space freighter, somehow in
19.
What year is this, Brandon?
This is now set in 1976.
So in 1976.
We're building Britain is building space freighters to take
freight into space for some reason, but whatever.
Well, now in this new timeline in 1970.
We had missions to Mars.
So, you know.
So they're probably taking freight to Mars or so.
Still seemed.
Anyway, it's all right.
Don't make any sudden noises, Richard.
1975.
I know what I was doing in 1975.
What were you doing?
Watching Molly Meldrum on Countdown and being embarrassed.
I do apologise.
It is now set in 1975.
Previously, it was said in 1980 with Crayford having gone missing
in 1978.
It is now set in 1975 with Crayford having gone missing in 1973.
The reason we know this is that the calendar the doctor finds has
a 1973 date structure.
Do you know the bridge...
It does actually only have one day repeated over and over again.
Friday, July the 6th.
Only happens in 1973.
But we need to say that if we just look at the real world for a
moment.
British telemetry, because I am a nerd, was leading the world.
NASA was not thought to be the 1st people in space.
We haven't even got to the whole fact that the Nazis were running
NASA because Verner von Brown was, in fact, a major in the SS, and
they were a blood cult, and there is a whole conspiracy theory
that is backed up by people who are actually working in NASA. that
Von Brown's team were deliberately delaying the space program for
the Americans because they've all had the same uniforms and they
were all doing the same stuff.
It's very much like the Masons.
My great great great grandfather was one of the triumvirate of the
Australian Freemasons.
So it was one of the top 3 which is pretty terrifying in itself.
And so I've seen a little bit of literature on it, and the stuff
that I've seen in the family archives is that it's a blood cult
just like the SS.
They're all based on the book of Zion, the books of Zion.
And indeed, and I'm digressing, however, where I'm coming from is
that?
This stuff is not...
This theory is crazier than...
No, it's actually true.
And if you really, yeah, there's some firsthand stuff of the, yeah
the Nazis were running the early American rocket program.
However, the British space program itself, the Brits were far more
ahead in rocket telemetry than the Yanks before all of this was
happening.
Um, it was thought in the 50s and early 60s that Britain would, in
fact, be the 1st people to land a man on the moon, and that was a
genuine thought, that was not something in the popular press that
was actually thought by the government and by the, the, the, the
hit boys that beat.
No, it's true.
It's actually only Kennedy's speech that we will land a man and
then his deaf in 63, that made, for all you want to say against
Lyndon Bane Johnson.
For all you want to say against Nixon and LBJ, they thought, no, no
if we want to keep the American dream alive, we need to be 1st on
the moon.
But Britain was looking very likely, they were able to far more
accurately power their engines and power, telemetry, of course, is
the science of getting a rocket to where you want it to be, far
more ahead than the US.
Um, there could have been a British space program.
And okay, we're already in the twilight of that.
But in the 60s, it was very much a real thing.
And there were viewers who were watching this who would have
remembered that British aeronautics and British space program
was.
It was a possibility.
Absolutely, way back when, in Doctor Who, in an exciting adventure
with the Daleks, instead of being a school teacher.
Ian Chesterton was on his way to be interviewed for a job making
rockets. right.
I have a copy of it right.
I got him reading it.
Well, so the point that I was about to make.
We never segue now.
Before we headed off somewhere.
There were Nazis, it was really good.
It was like back in the college bunker. right.
This whole season, no, last season was just full of Nazis.
It's very present.
What I was about to say is there is a moment when we're in the
space freight, and this is where we jumped off from, isn't it?
Where, you know, those sort of terrible pod things that look like
dogs' noses, you know, the pod.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
They look like fronts of really crushed up e-type jags.
Yes, yes, it must have been a nasty accident.
And the doctor gets up and looks out, but the other doctor is in
the foreground.
You sort of think, oh, great.
We're actually going to have people meeting their robot replicas
but it doesn't actually happen until episode four.
And there are some good scenes where it happens.
There's that scene where the doctor's in the office with Colonel
Faraday and Harry, and he brings out the robot detector and it
detects both of them as well as the doctor, the robot doctor who
comes in to confront them.
That's terribly fun and funny.
And the doctor, you know, finally defeating and sort of trying to
beat up his robot replica is all very fun.
But even when the robot replicas turn up, Basically, before we
even get to see it happen, they knock out their counterparts and
substitute for them.
So there's no people confronting their robot replicas at all and
the whole thing is sort of terribly dumb.
It is a wasted opportunity.
And yeah, it's especially, it's disappointing again for Harry and
Benton that they're so easily subdued, you know.
And, of course, um, Nick Courtney is not available, so we get
Colonel Faraday plays by...
Who's terrible?
Plays by... played by Patrick Neal, who played Mother.
This is the mother, but it's a...
Yeah, this is the thin stage of his career.
Yeah, because he used to be very, very big.
At this stage, he's, I think, in his late 30s or early 40s, he's
actually quite young.
Is he only that young?
Yeah, I thought he was much older, but no, for his health, he was
told after the Avengers team.
He really am.
Yeah, slimmed out.
In the 1968 69 series with the Avengers with Linda Force, and he
played their boss in a wheelchair.
Fat bloke in a wheelchair.
Or Ironside, really.
It was actually a reflection.
It was a trigger on.
It was bloody terry nation because he thought that they don't have
a boss.
How does this series make any sense?
It was more interesting than we didn't know.
That being said, he's very good as mother.
Yeah, he's lovely.
He doesn't get a chance to do anything here.
I have a feeling, you know, it was meant to be Nick.
It's Barry Lett's directing.
Barry just probably pointed and said, you know, walk that way, walk
that way.
It's quite tragic with Patrick Neal, really, because he was mother
in the Avengers and that really...
Yeah, and it really sent his start rising and he started to get
lots of work.
But he had to lose the weight for his health.
So he lost the weight.
But people were casting him because in the frame, he's the fat
bloke. you know, you notice him.
People weren't noticing him when he lost weight all through the
70s.
He was only getting sporadic work.
So towards the end of the 70s, he said, bugger it. put the weight
back on.
In 1984, I think it was.
He did one of the Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes, and it was one of
his last productions after he'd put even more weight back on.
And he died of a heart attack.
You know, it's it's quite several.
But he's not good in this at all.
Ian McNee, you're listening.
Yes, we can.
He's sadly not good in this at all.
It's not his fault, though.
No, do you know why it's not, that's not good because this story, I
wonder if there's a little bit of underhand poker playing, a
little bit, a little bit of poker face.
Do you think barriers deliberately sabotaged?
No, I think Hinchcliffe and Holmes are?
I think they're saying if you really miss this early 70s viewer, if
you think it was better back in the pertweed day, we're going to
show you why it wasn't.
We're going to let Barry have his hand.
And we're going to give you a 70 story so much so that we're
actually going to give you Stepford Wives and Westworld and all
those other stories, including the Avengers stories when every 2nd
episode was about a village deserted and the hour that never was.
Is that the story, Brendan?
Yeah, it's really this, I think this is actually the worst of the
season.
I think it is too, but can we mention, we're contractually obliged
to mention Sandafar.
And what Santa says about terror, the Zygons, is that it is
actually a pastiche of the pertwy era, but it's really done well.
What they don't do is do a crummy story and say, look at that
that's what the purty year is like, that's why it doesn't work.
What they do is a really good, enjoyable story, which nevertheless
shows that the show has sort of progressed beyond the person.
Yeah, like, this is how we do this story now.
So now, what happens, therefore, is that this comes across as a
really just a pale imitation of terror of the zygons.
Can I do a checklist?
Yeah.
We're set in a small village.
There's a hidden camera for the aliens to monitor the villages
located in the park.
There's a hidden alien base nearby.
The aliens are mostly represented by a single male character who's
a villain in a rubber mask.
The aliens created duplicate Harry and some other duplicate
people.
The aliens home planet is gone or becoming uninhabitable and they
want to invade the earth.
So this is a sort of crummy version of Zygons, and it just doesn't
have any of the wit and charm that Zygons had.
But what it does have.
And I think this is worth saying in all fairness is what it does
have is some pretty spectacular moments.
Yeah, it's it's great for Tom and Liz wandering around the
countryside.
Mind the bramble.
Oh, I said mind the bramble.
Which was a throw in line.
Yeah.
Oh, you know, all their really good stuff is throwing lines.
I watched the DVD with the production subtitles on and practically
every location scene with the 2 of them.
There was a subtitle to the effect of Tom Baker and Elizabeth
Sladen. reworked a lot of their scenes with a shoot, which is a
polite way of saying, and we actually had a sample of some terri
nation dialogue, the doctor going, eeny, meeny, miny, mo, replaces
the doctor saying, let's see where we are.
Scintillating, Terry.
Well done.
Yeah, it's it's not good.
And I'm gonna raise something else.
Maybe you were going to race that's a terrible thing.
But what?
What are unit doing at the research centre?
The brigadier has an office there.
They knew they didn't have the brigadier.
Why keep that in?
Why not have Colonel Faraday as the commanding officer there?
And Benton and Harry were just there for 2 weeks to see off the
space program because unit were there the last time we sent a
rocket up.
And that's how Crayford knows where they are.
But to have Crayford know the brigadier, but not well enough to
create Nander a duplicate of him, but he can know Colonel Faraday
who's presumably only there occasionally to fill in for the
brigadier while the brigadier in Geneva, where if we were in the
original timeline, he would have been retired by now. anyway, I do
not know.
And that's my that's actually my main problem with this story.
I'm easily pleased.
I mean, there are fun things that I've already mentioned the
finger guns in the Androids, but I think, you know, the
Cliffhanger to episode 2 is really like it's crummy.
It's stupid.
Like their face is full off the Androids when they roll over.
Slayden sells it It's the exact scene from step for wives, yeah.
And I'm not talking about the truly ontological threat that is
Nicole Kidman.
If you look at the original, it's really...
Oh, this is the children.
Oh, I didn't know they did a rematch.
Yeah, it's pretty bad.
It's great.
It's just John Windham in apotheosis.
But the $6000000 man does Day of the Robot and there was a doll
figure of called Maskatron, which I have in a box here.
That is very much a Guy Crayford type Androidy.
Oh, they never made a copy of Guy Crayford.
They didn't really need to.
Why the hell does he think he can't see?
And again, Nicholas Courtney?
Why the eye patch?
Yeah, so that's, I actually found some video and if I can find it
I'll put a link to it in the show notes.
They actually interview Milton Johns himself, and I think some
other people are...
He's the best thing in this.
Yeah, well, like, he was great as Bennett.
Remember him in Enemy of the World, where he was like evil
sadistic?
Monster.
He was wonderful, really terrific.
I think he's I think he's really good as Crayford, despite the eye
patch thing.
You know, that's, that's, that's a script slaw. rub than an actor
flaw.
For instance, very early on when Stigren wants the doctor alive
and Crayford argues with him.
I was thinking to myself why does he do that?
And it's Stockholm Syndrome.
He has become so indebted to his captors that he doesn't want
competition.
Well, in fact, we get that, you know, the scene is it in episode 3
where Crayford comes into the doctor and Sarah's cell to deliver
some exposition. good in that scene.
You know, the nervousness and the twitchiness of a character.
He's so good.
And they will get him back in a couple of years time to basically
reprise the role of someone under control of sort of potato-headed
aliens.
I mean, he is really funny.
We haven't exhausted that yet, have we?
No, there's still 2 doctors to talk about.
So, yeah, look, I mean, he is he is okay, I guess.
So but what about the eye patch?
Well, I mean, that's the stupidest thing that ever happened, isn't
it?
Is it the stupidest thing?
I think it actually is.
It's even...
Like, you know, it's even stupider than Horace's policy for
furnishing suited, prison sales.
Because, you know, you could even kind...
You could even kind of hang a lantern on that of, you know, in
Egyptian culture.
You bury people with things they need in the afterlife.
Like bomb.
Missiles, robots.
This was his favourite explosive device.
That's it.
Brilliant.
He loves that, actually.
He loved that a siren war missile.
Used to take it to the park on picnic.
Speaking of Su Tech, she's jumping around us at the moment.
She's feeling much better off. after she threw up this morning.
Yes, all over Sitics too.
That's right.
I actually think the Kral's plan is pretty stupid as well.
Oh, yeah.
When do we start?
I quite like the stupid villains.
We have a plague that affects kraals as well as human beings, so
maybe their technology doesn't stretch to a plague that only
affects human beings.
Or indeed immunisation.
Yeah, that's right.
So they're having a giant panic about it.
They're all going to Harry.
Harry robot replica is pouring the water and he has a giant pan.
Out of the Vaseline jar.
Yeah, it is a Vaseline, doesn't it?
And Zari let's put it in a crinoid pod.
Which looks fine from a distance, and Barry lets decides to give
her a close-up, where you can very clearly see it's a Vaseline
job.
So we've got that. then it's not airborne or anything.
No, you've got it's got to be contact.
Yeah, contact or injure water.
Yeah, do you think they were going to put it in the water?
It's a monster, they put it into a doctor's water.
It's a monstrous thing when Sarah almost drinks the water.
It's too close, Philip Hinchcliffe.
But that's okay.
She gives a guard a good stiff jolt.
She really does.
In fact, she rescues the doctor no less than 3 times in this story
and it is a bit of a departure for Terry.
You know, he does include, at least include one ankle twist, you
know, but she is actually pretty proactive.
And in fact, I think it's a pattern.
I think that Sarah, this season rescues the doctor vastly more
times than he rescues her.
You do.
She does.
You can say it now, Richard.
What's this show becoming?
The event.
It's becoming the event.
But don't forget, this is a very much Avengers Terry Nation
story.
This has more filmed outside broadcasting than any other story
this season.
It really chewed the budget. paired down.
It's 9 minutes into the 1st episode before we're on videotape. do
like that.
It does look good.
I love...
I love that opening.
Yes, when the doctor comes in.
The locations are lovely.
You think we're finally going to get a holiday for them?
There is 31 minutes of film in this episode.
Is that why she takes a while?
to come back.
Yeah, I think you know what?
I think it is because Philip Hinchcliffe made him take a lot out
and that's the paired down version.
And that is why we will see next week.
Brian of Morbius is entirely in the studio.
That's the only way Philip could rationalise it in the budget.
But it works so well, not that I'm going to predicate Brandon
Morbius, but Brandon Morbius is BBC Shakespeare.
And it's performed exactly the same way as the Shakespeare's we
had to watch.
You know, I'm going to say something in praise of this story.
And it's because it's not because we'd particularly criticise this
story because this story deserves a lot of the criticism it
receives.
I still enjoy it because it's got Tom and Liz running about now.
Yeah, fabulous.
They're really good in this.
But I do think that the twist that we're not on an earth that's
been invaded by aliens, we're on a training ground for a species
that's going to invade us.
I think it's possibly Terry Nations cleverest plot twist.
However, it's Danger Man's episode Colony 3.
It's also every scene of the prisoner.
It's the invasion.
Invasion of the Earthmen.
Invasion of the Earthmen, which was the 1st script Terry Nation
wrote for the Avengers.
However, it doesn't have a terrible rubber snake.
It is, the other problem with it is it just goes to show that
basically everything that's happened for 2 episodes doesn't
matter.
And I think that's a problem.
And also episode 4 is really, really heavily compromised in terms
of quality, you know.
By the end of the story.
You're like, why are Harry and Benton in this story?
Why did we mention?
Why did we?
Really, it's a tease for the 1st episode where we see the
Brigadier's office. is a tease that Nicholas is going to be there
and he's not.
It's it's in...
I not going to say it's insulting to the viewer, but it's very
rude.
It's like it's like saying, please come to my house for a party.
I'm going to have delicious pizza.
I've been serving everyone kale salad.
Can I?
Hey, kale salad's fine on its own, but not when you're expecting
pizza.
No, it's monstrous.
Can I say something about part four?
Part 4 is after 11 episodes.
The 1st time a woman speaks on camera apart from Sarah.
Yep, so there are no women uh in, there are no women guest cast in
Planet of Evil.
Gosh, that Liz Slatin was a greedy book.
There are no female guest cast in, there's no female guest cast in
Pyramids of Mars.
In episode one, a truck pulls up and no less than 6 women, I
think.
Well, maybe 5 or 6 we don't get out of it.
But they don't really say anything.
And then we get Tessa, who might actually be like Indian, I think
and she does do a slight accent.
And she is played by the wonderfully named Heather Emmanuel.
Yeah, she's fan.
So I thought possibly she may be New Caledonian also.
Oh, okay, I don't know, to be honest.
Well, whatever, but it's a woman who's speaking on camera.
She's got no discernable personality traits.
She's really there just to read off the computer like Sigourney
Weaver and Galaxy Quest, but she's at least there and they don't
make her make the coffee.
And yet, she's clearly educated.
You know, she's working as a radio astronomer or tracking a
spacecraft landing.
It actually kind of throws back to ambassadors of death.
When we had...
We had that one, we had that wonderful woman in Ambassadors of
Death, who, even when like the Recovery 7 was about to crash
Recovery 7 approaching reentry.
I loved her.
Yeah, she was great.
I'd just like to mention before we move on, you know, this is a
story that is far less than the sum of its parts.
There are lots of great little moments.
The doctor's gadget that he uses to scan for radiation at the
beginning. the same gadget that Patrick uses to test the
electrified rails in the web of fear.
The doctor says 300 years ago I would have recognised this pod.
It's a Kraal invention, 300 years ago, he was Patrick.
Yeah.
Patrick could have met the Kraals.
That's kind of nice.
I like the design of the kraals.
The masks are a bit too restrictive, but oh, well.
They're obviously wine weed, though.
I love the latex.
Mark, and when someone gets tied to a bomb.
I mean, I like that.
Yeah, it's good when someone gets thrown to a bomb.
Did you know this this Divsham?
It really is.
In reality, the BBC's training ground for directors and cruise?
It was where they went and sent them and yeah, they did little
fake shoots around the woods and then they vaporised it.
Yeah, they did in general, they've April. yes.
It's also in robot, the same, the same area is used as, as OB for
robot.
Harry has an iPad in episode two.
He's got this sort of iPad shaped thing that he's tapping away
on.
I mean, that's evil, Harry.
I like that Crayford is Stigren's pet.
It kind of evokes Plan of the Apes without directly ripping it
off.
Crayford is Stigren's pet.
Yes, too.
Did I say Stigran?
or Soutet.
I want to be Stigran's pet.
No, you really don't.
It is the most SM relationship we've seen in Doctor Who for, oh, at
least a month.
But yeah, it all...
Actually, actually, since Scarman and Sue Tech.
I'm the only Sutex bitch around here.
You won't get a chance.
I'll steam those shoulder pads straight off your jacket.
And he does.
I'm very glad that Julian, or was it?
Sandy came back then, Richard, because Kenneth Williams mentions
the Android invasion in his diary.
In one night of television, he calls the Good Life terrible.
Porridge disgusting. and declares that Doctor Who gets more and
more silly.
I have nothing to say against that. fair enough.
It's a travesty.
Why Sarah wearing a scarf again?
Yeah, would that just say?
Yeah, that's right.
She's thinking about the scar and how nice it is and how much she
needs... when she's being replicated.
Yeah, it's that moment.
Is that our is that our tag?
It's that moment from Star Trek, what are little girls made of
when Kirk being duplicated?
So he decides to think really racist thoughts, which will give the
duplicate away. right.
He starts reciting himself.
Mr. Spock, I'm sick of your half-blooded interference.
And on that note, we've come to the end of our journey from...
Oh, it's Sidon to Devesham.
We're heading back off into space now, soon to be drawn off course
and brought down by the combined power of more women that you can
shake a stick at, plastic small, silver sprayed necklaces for the
next episode.
And teapots on their heads.
It's all fabulous.
Are you doing the eye goggle right now?
I'm doing it.
I'm wearing them now, dear listener.
Until then, please check us out online at FTE podcast on Twitter
flight through entirety.com or flight through entirety on Facebook
and iTunes.
That's Soutec saying, please leave us a review.
But until then, I'm off to powder my face, so I'll just take it
off now and good night.
Good night.
Good everything.
You have been missing.
It's so too embarrassing.
Nathan Budley, Brendan Jones and Richard Stone.
This episode, just full of Nazis, we were recording on Sunday, the
5th of June.
The next episode to be released on August 23rd, before you
activate your hostility circuits, checking bondfinger.com.
Then you'll really be annoyed.
People generally think that No, let me try this again.
People generally think.
Do they?
Generally.