Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety
the only Doctor Who podcast with a ponchant for television made in
the style of early quasar 5 with a touch of Rigour and the merest
hint of Second Dynasty Simeon Empire.
I'm Brendan.
I'm Nathan.
I'm a well oiled cog and a Flakati throw for this episode, so
you'll be hearing nothing through me.
And we've returned to the Planet of the Time, Lords, for the
Graham Williams season finale, the invasion of time.
So this is my responsibility, this one.
And something I have wanted to save the last few weeks is, quite
unconsciously, we've actually been building towards this season
finale, in a way, Doctor Who really hasn't built towards a season
finale since the Damons.
In more than half the stories this season, we've found out a
little bit more about Time Lord Society.
So, an image of the Fendal, we find out they can destroy and time
loop a whole planet.
In the Sunmakers, of course, we find out that other races are
aware of them but don't consider them financially viable.
In underworld, of course, we get their policy of non-interference
which is a bit weird, considering, in the war games, they time
Looper Planet, in image of the Fendal, they time Looper Planet, in
terror of the autons, they send a man in a bowler hat to tell the
doctor that the master's going to show up.
And in Genesis of Daleks, they kick off the whole time war, but
they don't interfere.
They don't interfere.
But I don't actually see a big problem with that because when you
look at this story, they're a bunch of bloody hypocrites anyway
and it's wonderful.
Can I just say, I hate the time loss.
I think Gallifrey as well.
And I think the whole show goes to hell the moment that it's
revealed.
A, that the doctor's a time, Lord, and then B, that he comes from
the planet Gallifrey and the constellation.
No offence to Gary Russell and his and the beautiful big finish
series, Gala, which is my pick of the week, as it turns out.
Oh, no, there is.
And like last year, right, we went to Gallifrey.
And it was, it was a huge event.
We'd lost Sarah.
The whole show's changing its focus.
You know, we're heading away from the time lords.
We've got the master and he's sort of reimagined as this sort of
gothic returning Hinchcliffian villain and all of that.
And it was a big event.
A big world shanky event.
Here we just sort of come back for a bit of running around while
we get chased by some tin foil.
You know what I mean?
And then, you know, every subsequent galafray story will be just
appallingly terrible without exception.
And just think it's a bad idea.
I was so glad when Russell blew it up.
Oh, I'm not going to go to the pick of the week yet, but we've
seen with Gary and his terrific team that the story is set on
Gallifrey, the big finish I think have done for 6 series now, are
really interesting and, you know, you get to that cod Shakespeare
level of intrigue.
It works so well, a closed environment with a lot of complex
characters at loggerheads with each other is what Doctor Who does
best.
So it's a sort of eye, Claudius, political.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
And it should be doing that.
And the reason in the future, well, not to preempt too much, but
there are other reasons that those stories in the future won't be
working and I don't think it's necessarily the base concept.
What this is not, however, to say that this is not a workable or a
functional story, I think, is not necessarily true.
I love the time lords in this.
I don't think it's not a functional story, but I do...
I want a Barousa t-shirt.
I want an Arnott, John Arnott t-shirt.
You know, Angus McKay was always my barusa.
Why are they always just that little bit camp?
Yeah, actually, I want a t-shirt.
Not a t-shirt.
I just want to walk around at work and when people ask me for my
advice, I just want to say things like, there is nothing more
useless than a lock with a voice imprint.
They can't slap you, you've got your personal force field.
Haddling medallion on and the batteries are still fine.
Yeah.
You know, Nathan, when you're talking about Gallifrey being a
place for political intrigue, I think of the Gallifrey stories in
the classic series, this is the one that gets the right level of
political intrigue to lightness of touch.
Because when we discussed Deadly Assassin, something we said was
you know, it was too nasty. it was too mean.
Whereas this, Kelna, Barusa, Andred, they all have a sense of
humour, even Chief Surgeon Goma, who doesn't get much lines.
They've all got a bit of a sense of humour, but it doesn't mean we
laugh at the characters.
Their sources of comedy rub, the figures of comedy.
And I think that's one of the areas where this story succeeds.
We don't need the time lords to be the sources of comedy because
we have Derek Deadman.
Well, really unfortunate choice for an actor's name to, you know
if he was going to change his name to something, Probably not
dead.
Let's not get ahead of ourselves, however.
Going to someone else in this, is there?
Going back to the beginning, some people out there may not know
this, this was not originally the story for this.
Not at all.
Anthony Reid had worked with a writer on, I think, The Persuaders
called Philip Weir.
And so, knew that we could write, well, that he could write
interesting stuff.
The production team had already been up against it with
Underworld.
So they thought, no, we need someone who's reliable.
We've got a very short lead in for this.
And they devised this idea.
The central starting idea was, what if not everyone on Gallifree's
time are time wards?
Yes.
You know, because we've got one dominant species on Earth.
It doesn't mean that everywhere else in the galaxy you've got only
one dominant species.
So the idea was that there was going to be a race of cat people
living on Galaxy.
Presaging the internet.
That's right And so the story was provisionally entitled Killers
in the Dark, or Killers of the Dark.
In the 1980s, Graham Williams couldn't remember what it was called
and jokingly referred to it as the killers of Jinseng, which
people actually took seriously.
It was at a convention.
Yeah, and Anthony Reid and David Weir sat down and wrote a
storyline, and David Weir went away to writing scripts, and he
only had 4 weeks to write 6 scripts, which even for Doctor Who was
considered a type turnaround.
Optimistic, yes.
Now, the 1st 5 scripts arrived exactly on the due date.
And for Doctor Who, that was unusual.
That's the reason that such a short date was set because they said
to him, look, we know you're probably going to take another two. 2
weeks.
It's fine.
Don't worry about it, but this is the date we put on the
paperwork.
So the 1st 5 scripts comes in, Anthony Reid goes, oh, this is
great.
You know, we've already got the director working on it.
We've already got our costume designer designing cat people, and
those design documents exist, and you can see them on the DVD.
I started reading the scripts and realised that the narrative was
completely incomprehensible and also David Weir had severely
overestimated the Doctor Who budget in that one episode
Cliffhanger involved the Doctor and Leila in gladiatorial combat
in the middle of something the size of Wembley Stadium filled with
cat people.
Yeah.
So...
Or just cats.
Yeah.
So the situation they were in was this.
They had an unworkable script for the season finale.
A scene shifters strike meant that half their studio time was
given over to the yearly Christmas specials.
They were offered to truncate the series and to be able to carry
the money over.
So when they were offered to truncate underworld, they were told
you won't get the money, they were actually told, you can carry
the money over till next year.
Now, Graham Williams didn't trust that because he knew what the
BBC was.
And precedents would have been, yes, you'd have just lost that
budget next year round.
Yeah, and it would have been, well, you know, if you can only make
20 episodes at a time.
We'll only give you 20 episodes next year.
We'll never see that happening in the future, will we?
No.
Not only that, but they also had a director who'd already started
working on it.
They were reliant on it being on Gallifray and reusing sets and
pieces from the Deadly Assassin.
So were they on in storage?
They make the design so great?
Because they looked remarkably close to...
The walls were the same flat. in storage. thought the flats were
yeah.
Pretty much the area that's reused is like where the TARDIS lands
and the coronation area, that was the president's area, where the
president comes down and gets shot from deadly assassin.
Yeah, so that just looks more slightly more spacious.
Yeah, it does because the Deadly Assassin had that really dark
Gothic thing.
Like, it didn't matter...
It didn't manage to be stone or anything.
It was still sort of tacky plastic.
Well, you know, it's meant to look like it's made of glass.
The whole of Galifre, the Capitol is meant to be carved in and
cast in glass, which is why you've got those shiny green disco
edges on everything.
But until you know that, it just looks like Lulu set from top of
the pot.
I like it in Deadly Assassin.
Yeah, it's it's amazing that in all the galafray stories we get in
the classic series, isn't it?
half dozen or less, that we never see the capital from the
outside.
Well, we just can't afford it, can we?
Well, they made the city of Mechanus with matchsticks and wax.
That looked great.
Yeah, exactly.
A model would have been very nice, thank you.
And finally, they had very little budget for new costume. because
half the costume designers' time was already taken up designing
killer cats, which they then realised they couldn't afford to
make.
So...
Anthony Reid went home and wrote... and wrote the script, and
instead of sending it in episode by episode, he sent it in, scene
by scene, to Gerald Blake, the director.
And so Gerald Blake would read through them while Gerald Blake was
reading through them, Graham Williams was rewriting them and
script editing them.
So Graham Williams took over a script editor.
Graham Williams then went home one Monday night and stayed up 3
days straight until Friday morning giving the final script
rewrite.
So that is the situation we head into with this story.
You know, I think this might be the worst season of the 1970s, but
it is a miracle that it got made at all under these
circumstances.
And there are great moments in this season, aren't there?
Absolutely.
And you know what?
I think this is very comfortably the 2nd or 3rd best of this
season.
It's actually a terrific story, Doctor Who story.
Because of John Arnott and Tom Baker, and bloke who plays Guy
Crayford.
Oh, Milton John.
I just want to call him a guy from everything.
Gee, it's got lovely casting.
Six parters never really worked.
Not since Keys of Mariners, which is cracking.
Fantastic.
And I think I think this has a good chance of working in some
degrees because it does the thing that keys of mariners does.
It's 3 stories.
Yeah, absolutely.
That 1st two-parter does something that we have never, ever seen
before.
Tom Baker behaving himself on acting?
No, Tom Baker acting, yeah.
No, it is that thing where the very 1st scene, isn't it?
is the doctor, the doctor being furtive and but he's already met
the aliens.
He's already never phoned out now.
So it plunges right in medias rays in a way that we've never, ever
seen. par for the course for the new series, isn't it?
You know, but it's never happened in the classic series before.
We're all standing around the Tartars faffing around and talking
about, you know, like our last adventure or whatever and then we
turn up or or, you know, we get to meet some other characters and
stuff and then the Tartars arise.
We've never had this thing where we arrive in the middle of
something where the doctor's already met the aliens.
He's made some deal with them.
We don't know what it is.
You know, Leila is being suspicious and we're suspicious of him as
well.
And it's not resolved until, like, episode three.
I mean, essentially, the first two episodes are what the hell is
the doctor doing?
Then you get 2 episodes of sort of running around, away from the
Vardens, and then you've got another 2 episodes of running away
from this on tarns.
And they're not that successful, but at least the show goes
somewhere.
Yeah, I think that Graham Williams and Anthony Reed here are co
writing together under the BBC approved pseudonym of David Agnew
which was a sort of BBC general pseudonym for, if a writer wants
to take their name off a script or a writer can't be credited
because, let's say, they're the script editor and producer.
I think they've been very clever in that, in order to get the plot
moving along.
They are constantly changing it.
But at the same time, they rely on two very specific cliffhanger
devices.
The cliffhanger endings for episodes one, three, and five are all
the doctor being threatened, ending for episode one is the doctor
being attacked by the crown, which, according to the script, is
meant to imply that the Vardens are accessing the Matrix and have
possibly discovered, but they couldn't convey that without
spoiling episode 3 where he explains what's going on.
The end of episode 3 is Andred about to shoot the doctor.
And the end of episode 5 is Kelner attacking the TARDIS.
The end of episode 2 is the reveal of the Vardens.
The end of episode 4 is the reveal of the Santarans, and the end
of episode 6 is the reveal of canine Mark 2.
Yeah, it's...
It's terrible tombstone teeth.
No, this story comes in for some flack, particularly, not even the
Sonic screwdriver will get me out of this one.
Oh, break that 4th wall straight to camera.
And it's 2 story.
Yeah, so do I. So do I. And it's 2 stories running where he breaks
the 4th wall, because of course, in Underworld. where it all
went.
Wonder the blurs can be sucked. of his future career. 4 points to
Gerald Blake, the director of this.
He did Abominable Snowman, which I really love as an audio.
And yeah, also the, I think it's the Abbot from the Abominable
Snowman is back, who was also Hogg in an unearthly child.
His name is Charles Morgan.
Gold.
No, he...
He's the Abbott in...
In the outrageous hat.
Oh, the Abbot, not Padma Sam.
Not Pamba Samba.
He's the abbot.
I had an opportunity to say Padmis Abba.
You're very happy so long.
And of course, he was Hog way back in an unearthly child.
He was hers mother.
Sorry, he was her's father, I should say.
Quite liked her. couldn't stand here.
Yeah, and he's, you know, he's quite good.
And we get that intrigue in episode two, you know.
And he's got that wonderful fruity voice.
He is part of the Matrix.
It cannot reject him.
There's no one in this I don't like.
I've actually warmed to Andrew now.
I find him charming and I can see.
I thank you, Louise Jamison.
Thank you, Chris, for getting those beats that they all just could
do in rehearsal so rushed, and sadly, there was no script time, but
just trying to build a relationship between these two.
Yeah.
I think Leela leaves.
I'm sorry to jump in because, you know, this is what we do
timeywami.
Leila leaves on an excuse.
She fancies this boy, the character writing for this has received
a lot of flack, not least from Louise Jamieson herself.
But it makes perfect sense to me.
To me, Leila's really no older than 1819.
I don't know how the character's age, but she's a young person in
the 17.
This is her first crush.
And you think about how that was for you.
This is the entire world when you first fall for someone.
Yeah, and also, Tom has been a complete arse.
And I didn't say the doctor.
Tom has been awful.
She really is perfunctory with her to the point of then open
dismissal and denigration of her against the Vardens.
And instead of sulking as she did in underworld, She says, no, I
have my micro values.
I know this is a decent man.
I will defend him even though I don't understand what's going on.
But she must be miffed by it.
I think this is actually, you know what?
I'm going to sort all of these folk out as well and you.
Yeah, you know what?
I've never seen her leaving as a huge problem, and I think it's
entirely because of Chris Tranchall and Louise Jameson's
performances.
They've obviously looked at this script and they would have known
it was done in a hurry.
They would have known the situation at the very least, Louise
would have because the producers of Doctor Who always seemed to be
very open and honest with their stuff. you know, there are some
exceptions like what happened to Maureen O'Brien and Jackie Lane.
But by this stage, it seems like people work together in quite a
tight-knit team.
So yeah, absolutely.
They go, you know what?
By this point, we have to get to a point where it's kind of
believable that we get together and actors love that kind of
thing.
Some actors much prefer not having a clearly defined character
that they can then inject character into themselves.
And it's right.
That's very modernest theatre way.
Well, you know what happened?
So just before, because I know there'll probably be a counter
opinion to this amongst us, but just to press you that, Gerald
Blake deliberately knew what had been going on with Louise and
Tom.
And that's why he said, Tom, what was working with John Arnott and
doing gorgeous things together on their Con Shakespeare Roby
Frocky thing over in the corner.
And also said to Tom on the 1st day, oh, I remember when you were
Patrick Troughton and Charming. you know that?
And really put him in his place because it actually, unless you're
an older statesman.
You couldn't control Tom by this stage.
And unfortunately, Williams, as has later come out, was, you know
having his own private difficulties and just really not keeping
the reins on Tom the way Hinchcliffe did.
So I just love I love the scenes with Tom and John Arnott.
I love that they're entirely separate from the Leila saints.
Go on.
So then, see, I think that the Leila Andrew thing, we all
desperately would like for it to work, but it just doesn't.
And there's one scene early on, which is sort of a rom-com, you
know, where they're being antagonists.
And I think that in the wardrobe, he keeps calling him madam and
then correcting himself.
Call me madam, a lovely community. musical of it. 50s, yes.
Um, uh, you know, she wants to bring a knife into the doctor's
investiture, all of that sort of thing.
It's in episode.
She don't sit by now.
And it's quite a good scene.
Do you know what I mean?
And the 2 of them weren't quite well together.
And I remember watching it this time through and feeling a bit of
relief.
Or maybe they do properly sell this.
But basically, like they hold hands once in the subsequent 5
episodes, maybe they glance at each other.
I think there's no way of seeing it other than as the worst
companion departure of the 1970s apart from Liz.
The 60s was cruel to companions.
Do you know what I mean?
It would throw them out, you know, and all of that sort of thing.
Vicky, I'm still heartbroken about Vicky.
The 70s, they've learned to do a better job and both Joe and Sarah
got great leaving scenes.
Here, it's just utterly perfunctory.
And I have to say, much as I love the Williams years.
It's something that he's shockingly bad at.
Yeah, yeah.
Inasmuch as his successor, John Nathan Turner, who comes in for a
lot of criticism, some of it justified.
John Nathan Turner, always does good companion departures.
He's very sensitive to the same thing that Russell is with the, you
know, the sitcom way or the soap way of writing in that there's a
continuity.
I think maybe we're just all seeing this relationship through a
heteronormative projection.
Who's to say that, really, that's, I think the relationship is
perfectly working as a subdom. paradigm.
I just think you know who gets to wear the feather boa in that
relationship.
It's not Lima.
Well, consider consider commander Maxwell's hat later on.
Yeah, I just think there's just too little to it.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, it's not given it enough screen time.
It is an afterthought.
It's like Mel.
Remember Mel's departure where she goes off with sablong glitz for
no readily apparent reason?
And it is that...
It shoots down the GMT argument, doesn't it?
Because it's the only time who gets lovely dialogue.
It's the only time that JNT gets it wrong.
And it is these days you would just nip back to earth for a final
32nd scene and say goodbye to them.
Do you know what I mean?
But we're on Gallifrey, but we've somehow got to get rid of Louise
what the hell do we do?
Do you know what I mean?
We'll marry her off.
Now, I think it's Paul.
As a boy, I wanted her to be disintegrated by the D-Mat gun and
then and the doctor losing his memory over that.
Yeah, and that's what Louise Jameson wanted as well.
She wanted to see Leila killed off.
The whole problem came from the fact that Graham Williams was
under so much pressure that when Louis Jameson kept saying, no
really, I don't want to do another year.
He kept thinking, oh, I'll bring around.
She'll come around.
It's exactly what will happen next year with Mary Tam.
So the problem is at the 11th hour, she's like, no, really, you
need to write me a leaving scene.
And so he writes that in and I think on the DVD or in an interview
I've seen Louise give reaction was just kind of, oh, what?
I specifically said, kill me or something. don't marry me off I'm
very grateful they didn't kill off Leila.
Yeah, I was a child viewer.
I would have been, you don't do that to children.
No, absolutely.
I mean, big finish have sort of spoiler alert killed off Leila.
I say sort of.
You'll need to listen to it, folks.
But in a way, that's okay because that's not children watching
it.
It's us now.
And yeah, again, that's it. for fat 40 something.
Thank you.
You're all right.
I have no problem with it because as again, I then saw it.
And even as a young man, I saw it as, no, no, this is Leila's
excuse to get away from a really agitating doctor that she's kind
of fallen out with.
It's just not fun anymore, doctor.
Yeah.
But I mean, even do that.
Do you know what I mean?
Like, do something.
Oh, he's perfunctory.
First crush, though.
First crush.
No, I believe it works within the confines of the story.
And did we say, John Arnott?
John Arnott.
Oh, he is wonderful.
He's our Gelgood.
Hermione Gilgood yes.
Todd said when we were doing the deadly assassin, that the deadly
assassin was never really on his radar as a kid.
This was his barusa.
And you know what?
I have to agree.
I think he's...
He's the only one I like, actually.
It was that weird thing.
And we probably talked about it when we did Deadly Assassin.
We didn't see Deadly Assassin.
No, we didn't.
We read the novel before we saw the episode.
Yeah, but I think I saw this before I read the novel of Deadly
Assassin or saw Deadly Assassin.
So this is my 1st introduction to Gallifrey.
And it is a sequel you are kind of expected to know what the
Matrix is, and all of that sort of thing, and the sash, that
hilarious sash that the master tried to hit the doctor with.
Yeah, yeah. broken it because if you look at it, the join is
terrible where it joins up.
But there is actually a little nice piece of dialogue in the 1st
episode that attempts to re-explain the Matrix in very simple
dialogue that's not just characters telling each other things they
already know.
It's Peruso kind of saying to doctor, you don't know this because
you don't pay attention to anything.
So I'm going to tell you once more and any teacher can sympathise
with that.
It is, it's actually the Matrix for the 1st time that really, I
mean, they call, use the word Matrix, I think, in Deadly Assassin
but it is the APC net, and so they turn, this is the kind of
creation of the Matrix.
Yes, that's true.
It's also the creation of Rassalon, really.
You know, Rastlon gets a mention in deadly assassin, but I think
the doctor has to have him explained, doesn't he?
Like they, no one really knows who he is.
Here now in the investitures scene. you know what I mean?
It's the sash of Rassalon and the robe of Rassalon and the
breeches of Rassalon. polka dotted pyjamas of wrestle.
Yeah, he's got everything.
You know what I mean?
I'm just thinking of Timothy Dalton's pyjamas now.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I know, right?
Are we at the Vardens yet?
Yeah, let's get the vans.
Yeah.
Now I want to say...
The Bardens look amazing.
They do.
How many milk bars did you go in while you were at school that had
Myla fringe curtains, fly screen curtains, just like that?
It's so realistic.
There's a 2nd half to that sentence.
On the special edition, new effects of the DVD.
Oh, you're kidding.
Is there a special issue?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm going home now and watching it.
What do they look like?
They look like energy beings in Star Trek, the next generation.
They look like bipedal features.
I think they're done by John Kelly. and he... just look like these
things.
They look like transporter victims before they melt down.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It looks like the Star Trek Transporter effect. electricity
crackling along them.
They're actually bipedal figures and John Kelly either filmed
himself or filmed someone else and then rotoscope the shape onto
them to make them look better.
They're nowhere near as good as the original one.
It's got to be soon.
Yeah, yeah, the original shimmeries.
And the cone heads.
We think the cone heads in the 1st scene.
I love Redship.
It works in some scenes and doesn't work in others, the original
shimmeriness.
You know, as a kid, it worked for me.
I was perfectly happy that as a child.
It's truly terrible.
And then when they arrive, Tom says disappointing, aren't they?
Like, actually, lampshades the fact that they're in the worst
science fiction outfits.
But that's the point.
They're dressed as Dan Dare.
They've even got the little fin on their helmets that you see in
the buck Rogers and the greatest Frank Hampson, science fiction
British science fiction of all time, which is the Dan Dare Eagle
comic from 51 to...
Oh, so they're just guys.
No, but they're 50s British Empire SF.
Yeah, unfortunately, they've got, what is it, west country accents
or Midlands accents?
Their voices are not very threatening, which is...
What you're saying?
Scots aren't threatening.
Not sure about that.
We've got Tom Kelly back again.
In the one story where he doesn't get stuck in a wall.
But aside from that, you know, danger, danger.
There is danger here.
Yeah, he's got awful, but it's just a very odd choice, possibly a
puzzling choice.
We'll see.
But that being said, I don't mind their humanoid form with the
uniforms.
It is a bit silly.
It is a bit Dan dare.
But.
Actually, you know who they look like?
They look like the science force in Ultraman, the original
Ultraman with the silly helmets of what have you.
We need a silver wetsuit with some tea strainers on the eyes, don't
we?
Yeah, yes.
Again, I don't have too much of a problem with them looking crap
because they're not the main threat of the story, which is the
great double gambit.
So can we talk about the end of part 4 then?
Yes, yes.
So part four. would be this superb fake out.
Okay?
Imagine a cliffhanger where we'd had a huge climax we'd fought and
defeated the Vardens.
They were gone forever.
We were hugely excited, and then at the very end, the Santarin's
turn up.
But what we get instead is canine faffing about, a bit of dialogue
and then we're told the Vardens are defeated.
And Leila kind of goes, have we defeated the Vardens?
All we did was fight a few guards, and Tom says, yeah, you know, it
can't always be like the relief of Mafeking.
And so it is the most dull and anticlimactic defeat of the
bardens.
That is just achieved by standing around in a studio talking.
And no action at all, nothing that involves the bargains.
They're not tricked, you know, they're not outwitted.
They just kind of all go away.
So it's almost impossible to believe that part 4 would have been a
satisfying ending to the story.
But in my alternative universe ending version of part four, where
something exciting dispatches the bargains, it would have been
spectacular.
Yeah, yeah.
And it would have been a very smug ending, because the doctor
would have gone, you see, I was right to treat you all like crap.
But some people that the doctor doesn't treat like crap in this
story.
Of course, we haven't mentioned them yet.
The Outlanders.
Now, we're not sure if they're Shaboogans or not or Shaboo.
No, they're not.
They're not.
But of course, one of them is Max Faulkner.
It's not Terry Walsh.
Of course, another one.
Our very own...
That is correct.
Okay, Smith.
Then Gay Smith.
And you know what?
When I was Vince manager for the Doctor Club of Australia, we
approached her several times to be a convention guest, and we
always got the most polite refusals.
No, seriously.
She should be up for it.
But I still have one of her letters or rather one of the letters
from a member of staff.
We should add for the overseas.
Yeah, yeah, there are a lot.
Yes, of course.
Gay Waterhouse was, of course, an actress in this time.
And a model, I think.
Bumming around in London with her mates before she married Mr
Waterhouse, and she's now one of the wealthiest women in Australia
and a horse race trainer.
Yes, trainer race person thing.
That's correct.
So for any of you out there interested in horse racing, it may not
be in Australia for...
Don't be because it's horribly cruel.
It is horribly cruel.
But if you've ever heard of the Melbourne Cup, that is Australia's
big horse race every year.
It is horrible.
Gaywaterhouse sits in an enormous big acrylic martini glass, like
Deedavonte's, and puts on one of Leela's leather red outfits and
does horrible things to a horse.
They shoot them on the track under a green CSO base cloth.
But, um, her letter of refusal, which I still have somewhere, says
something along the lines of, um, also very fondly remember my
acting career and it was so much fun to work on Doctor Who with
Tom Baker and Louise Jackson.
My current career, working in horse racing, demands so much of my
attention that I'm afraid that even if I were to commit, I may
have to cancel at a late stage and I would not want to disappoint
any of your attendees.
But she could pre-record something.
Could you suggest that?
No, I didn't.
In costume.
Yeah, yeah, we'll go over.
I think regardless of anything else she does, and certainly horse
racing is very, very cruel.
That is a very nice way to treat something that obviously she has
no interest in recreating.
I'm too rich.
Which is kind of how Diana Rigg reacts when you ask her along to
event.
Well, at least she's obvious about it.
At least she's honest about it.
I'm not hanging out with you ming mongs. she says in a quasi
northern accent.
I've got I've got a sandpaper in me face, whatever it is that
diner rigs doing this week.
Let's talk about her an invasion of time, though.
She is the poshest a dropout you've ever heard of because these
people are dropout.
They literally drop the side.
They use the word.
They're just kind of hippies, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
She's the poshest hippie ever.
What you gonna eat?
I've got smarties.
Actually, are smarties.
Yeah, Rodan Smarties.
Oh, we haven't talked about...
We have time lady people.
We do.
There's two ladies.
Time ladies, but we know she's actually just Anthony Ainley before
it's regenerated.
She's fabulously posh.
She is like a young woman who has just, she's working in a shop
you know, just after she's graduated from her posh private
school.
Like a member of your staff, really.
But she is specifically, and this is both in the script and
according to Graham Williams, she's specifically not a timelord.
What?
No, but hear me out because...
Collective groom, listener, what?
And Graham Williams and Anthony Reed both had copies of the deadly
assassin for reference next to them when they were writing their
scripts.
They looked at the deadly assassin and noticed that there were no
women.
Because it's a Hinchcliffe story by Rob Holmes.
But they thought, you know what?
This plays into our theme of we want to explore the people on this
planet who are not time lords.
And obviously this is sexist.
So it's like, let's highlight that sex with them, and that's why
Rodan, when we 1st meet her, says, that barrier's there to keep me
apart from me from the time lords from everyone.
So they're acknowledging in the script, this gender, imbalance, and
inequality.
Now, of course, you know, it's 1970s Doctor Who, so they don't
really hammer at home.
But Rodin does identify that she is not on everyone else's level
and then what does she do?
She builds the gun that kills the invaders.
She rewives the Tartars better than the doctor can.
Yeah, and that's a gorgeous scene, isn't it?
It's a screwdriver.
And she's so good at it.
I was hoping as a child.
I thought that she was going to be the next companion.
And is there anything in the show notes that this was the Ramana?
She's clearly a dry run for a moment.
Yeah, yeah, but more than...
I think they did consider her before going for a completely new
character.
Certainly, she's definitely the dry run for Romana.
I have heard some criticism of her performance that she's sort of
too stoical at times, but no, I think she's got a fine line in
irony.
And when she gets outside the city, well, she sort of has her mini
breakdown, which also, I think, is very in character, because
until then, she's getting more and more stressed with the idea of
having to lead the city.
She's very, very brave, but at that point, she is just at the end
of her tether, and she's been running.
She's, you know, she's a girl friend.
We don't have to run from anything.
No one will dare invade us.
In half an hour.
I have a century, it's myself.
She's half an hour.
Her whole world's falling apart.
Yeah, she certainly does more acting in that scene than Mary does
for the entire following year.
Fighting words, Mr. I reckon.
I reckon that's totally fair.
I'm very glad we have both Hillary, who is actually very beautiful
despite what her hair and costume is doing for her and we have
Mary as well.
I'm glad that we have both of them.
I love it.
I agree.
Yeah, and she's not named after a Godzilla monster for no reason
I'm sure.
Yeah, I always thought that was weird.
Even the same colour, Rhodano Radon, in the original Japanese, is
always this scarlet heliotrope colour.
At the end of episode four, of course, we have mentioned that the
Santarians are coming in and Todd has a few words, you'd like to
say about them.
Well, here we are at the invasion of time. you know what?
This is my gala frame.
My Castellan, my Barusa, my Andred.
The last time I watched this, out of context, I gave it zero out
of 10.
Now, I actually think there are four and a half pretty decent
episodes, and it actually has quite an entertaining story, and I
actually love most of the performances.
Bringing in this on Tarans at the end is a good way to elevate
things.
Although I don't think it's successful in terms of their
performances, I do find some of it quite funny, but the last
episode and a half does sort of collapse in upon itself.
Does that ruin the entire story?
I mean, I certainly think this is no worse than some of the
wonderful Barriolettes Robert Sloman finales back in the Pertuy
era.
The president of the Supreme Council is asked to see me.
He's told me to dress in white and come up with some sort of
alias.
Perhaps Fred will do.
Derek Devin's come in for a lot of criticism as well.
I actually really quite like his portrayal, 'cause, as Todd says
the Santarans here are funny.
And this son Toran's quite funny, because the voice makes him very
stupid.
And, you know, it...
Just say, working class London is...
Well, the thing is, it's not really, because you've got the
working class outlanders as well, who are very resourceful and
help the doctor and what happened.
But have posh accent.
But have, well, Max Faulkner.
Yeah, I'm not sure he really has posh accents.
I quite like the Santarans in this because they're back to being
brute force warriors again.
You know, they're not planners and they're not strategists.
They're not pole vultures either. if jumping over a bit of
poolside furniture is anything to go by.
You want to know who was playing that?
George Santaran, Stewart, Fowl.
Yeah. drink the name.
So this is the 1st time we've ever had more than one Santara.
Yeah, that's true.
Well, more than once on Tara and play by, would play by more than
one actor.
Yeah, yeah, stand up on the screen.
Kevin Lindsay, of course, was sadly no longer with us at this
point.
Robert Holmes, despite not writing the script, had a big hand in
it because he was he was offered to write the script 1st and he
said, no, look, I just quit.
I really want to move away, but you can use any of my creations.
You can use Barusa.
You can use, um, and they didn't end up, but you, you know, you
can use spandrel, you can use Engen.
What happened to Spanish?
I know, I miss...
Oh, you know what?
I think it was just a matter of actor availability.
Nothing's going to hold the windows up without a sponge.
That's a very funny building reference if any of you get that
one.
Gosh, that was terrific.
Come on.
An architectural conference would be rolling in the aisle.
Yeah, that probably would just why I never go to them.
But yeah, also he gave permission for the Santarans to be used.
And I think they're written very, very finely here.
They're written better here than Robert Holmes himself will write
them later in the 2 doctors, where he tries to put in jokes about
the loneliness of command.
But here, I think you really capture the fact that Santarans are a
bit thick.
Oh, well, I mean, it's that thing where people say, oh, you know
the Santarans have been ruined forever because Strax is such a
comedy character.
Do you know what I mean?
But we don't need this on Torrance. are terrible.
Lynx is a great character.
I think Styre is an okay character, but I can't think of a single
time apart from that where they've really worked.
At all.
Do you know what I mean?
So we don't need them.
Like they've got this sort of, they're in the pantheon of Doctor
Who as the 5th most, you know, loved returning monster.
I think that's down to Kevin Lindsay's performances.
I just don't think there's any need for them, you know?
It's actually, it's actually down to um, to Doc Cotton.
It's actually down to June Brown. the reason they're so good.
It's everyone remembers Alan Roe and June Brown.
I like Chrissy and Sarah Jane Adventures getting one in the
probing vent with her high heels.
I think that's it.
And the probic bent has been redesigned here so that it can snugly
accommodate Leila's nine.
Yes, that's what it was all full of them.
I miss Leila.
Yeah, I miss her already.
We're not even at, you know, we're not even at the point.
Well, we talked about where she leaves, but we're not properly
there yet.
No, I have no problems with the Santarans in this story.
This is one I very fondly remember as a child watching it on
tape.
And it was the omnibus version from the mid 80s, and it had some
kind of Eastern European stop motion animation thing on the tape
before and about a circus with no dialogue, so I had no idea
what's going on. slightly nightmarish, and then that faded into
the documentary. funny you say that, because this is not, as we've
been talking about Shakespeare and I, Claudius, and it's
definitely informed by the success of BBC, like Claudius, the
Robert Groves series, just before it, certainly with the scenes
with, did I mention John Arnott and Tom Baker?
But it's actually more Soviet brusher?
It's more Soviet era anyway, even with the names of the
Constructive Gallifry.
It's very much Cold War.
Can we talk about the resolution of this story?
But what, but they've found the K1 robots gone and suddenly it's
the most destructive weapon in the universe?
It's got really terrible.
It's making no sense to me.
We've had DMac guns many times in Doctor.
This one would enable him to take over the galaxy.
That's in the dialogue.
And how do we resolve this terrible problem of Gallifre being
invaded?
We make a big gun and shoot someone.
I mean, it's terrible.
Well, yeah, you know, it is pretty terrible.
But also, it seems that what it does is, whoever wields it, whoever
actually uses it to destroy, then doesn't remember the destructive
act, hello the moment.
Hmm.
Yeah, it's galifrian technology.
And as Barusa says at the end, it's the wisdom of wrestle.
And so I was like, you know what?
Yes, you can use it to take a life.
Yes, you can use it to be a destroyer, but you won't be able to
use it forever.
So you'd be hard pressed to take over the galaxy if the 1st time
you shot someone, you forgot where you were and what had been
going on.
Is that why it's played by Billy Piper?
Because the all the previous career is just forgotten as soon as
you move on.
Yeah.
But just to match things up a bit, we get Derek Deadman a store
and he suddenly whips out a grenade that will destroy what the
entire galaxy or something.
Well, are you standing over the eye of harmony?
Oh, maybe that's it.
Yeah, yeah.
But it could blow up the whole galaxy.
And so the stakes are suddenly massively increased for no reason
and with no effort at all.
We just get told that we could take over the universe with this
gun or we could blow up the galaxy with this small bomb.
You know, and it's attempt to update. 330 in the morning and
they've had a lot of coffee.
Clearly.
I can just about believe it, though, because they've made a lot of
fuss about the key of wrestling and how important it is, how much
Barusa doesn't want to give it up, and you know, you would entrust
the key to an alien.
I mean, you should shoot someone with just a gun gun.
You don't need a D-Mat gun that's pan on barbeque.
It shouldn't have been a gun.
It's just, I think it's it doesn't work.
So both the episode 4 and episode 6 climaxes are poor.
Which should have been Billy Piper, shouldn't it?
Instead of a gardener.
She would have been, what, one?
No, not a foetus.
Do you know what I actually did also think, again, as a boy
because, and Nathan had mentioned before.
Well, this is one of the ones that was shown pretty much
continuously.
And even during the Davidson era in the 80s, This was one of the
ones you'd get to see as fillers in between.
Doctor Who was almost year round.
I thought at the time, why are you building a gun when it should
be the most precious thing that the doctor could lose or the most
precious thing that the person themselves, if you're going to
which again presages the moment.
But no, as a child, I thought, it should have been Leila.
Leila is the weapon.
And now I'm thinking maybe Leila is a child.
But no, as a boy, I thought, what it gives you is that it actually
turns the thing you most, but of course, for Tom, it would have
been his own ego.
Or a talking cabbage.
Yeah, talking cabbage.
But how interesting if the weapon of choice would have to have
been, and to use it would have been, in this case, it would have
been Leela and integrating kind of in the way we might be seeing
with Armageddon Factor, because I know that's going to go off
well.
The idea of the, of the, of that which you most love is actually
the weapon you must use to.
And instead of just destroying the Sontarin, what I assumed at the
time, we're 1st seeing it, is that it actually completely
obliterates that whole period of time that's just come before it.
So they never actually did invade, they never had a presence on
gallifry.
The gun actually makes a bubble of time and removes it from the
continuum.
Yeah, it's a bit weird.
It's just the doctor who doesn't remember.
I mean, I know I praised that a couple of minutes ago and I still
praised that.
But yeah, it would have been a lot more interesting if just
everyone had forgotten.
But I thought that was the price of using the weapon as well, is
that you lose your love, that whom you most love, and you also
forget you ever knew him or her.
I really would have.
Did you think anything like that as a boy when you were older?
No, it's just watching it this time.
I just thought it was really pedestrian and like those suggestions
that you come up with a bit more poetic and interesting.
There's something that the show doesn't really do that much during
the period.
But the solutions that they came up with.
You know, there's that thing in episode 5 where Calum is pulling
some leavers and we're told we're in danger.
You know, they are very good.
They are very good at creating stakes visually or organically
within the plot.
We just have to be told that we're in danger or told that we've
defeated Vardens.
That becomes a meta in itself that Douglas Adams really exploits
and that everyone now said, well, you know, writers now see it as
what a terrific thing that they did so cleverly and wittily, making
something very ordinary.
It's an ashtray.
No, it's not. the key to the universe.
Yeah, yeah, but they're not, well, that's like the key, the
restaurant's key in the death drawer. bloody drawing. next to the
desk.
No one has ever found it in the history of the timeline.
It's my hair.
No, I think that's so terrible.
Tremendous.
But what they're not doing is lampshading the kind of the, the
there must be a word for this trope.
It's like danger that you get told about that you don't see.
Tell don't show.
Yeah, yeah.
It goes back to Lecant's theory mentioning tropes, again, of the
dissonance of the ostensible threat before it actually occurs.
So you've got the cadaver in the room before the death.
No, but I don't think we ever get the death.
I want to call it word peril where you're just told we're in peril
and everyone goes, oh, goodness, that's terrible.
It's standabout on the Faccardi rug and the cog room set and all
look worried together.
It's a terrible scene.
I'll come up with something better the next time it occurs.
I did what would that be in Latin?
No, nothing very good.
You know what I mean?
That's gorgeous.
I'd buy that if it was a wine.
That's very Scottish.
I once saw a stage show, which was a drawing room mystery.
And at one point, someone has to get killed on the veranda.
So all the characters run out and you hear the gunshot and people
say, oh, no, he's been shot.
And I'm like, really?
You're doing this off stage?
Oh, you know, it's meant to build suspense.
It was like, no, they carry the body on straight away.
It's like, what's the point?
There's not even any blood on the body.
I don't understand.
So yeah, word peril is very annoying.
Can I talk about some of the things I like about the story?
Yeah, I do.
I do like it.
Yeah, we do. we do, don't we?
Yeah, generally.
I think we've talked about things we like in the 1st 2 episodes
and the 2nd 2 episodes.
And really in that last 2 episodes, I love the travelog around the
TARDIS.
I love using industrial spaces.
Did you at the time?
Did you as a lad?
Yeah, yeah, I really did.
It's something Rod picked up on when we watched it through, again
in that, yes, if the TARDIS can be anything.
Why can't this area look like an industrial swimming pool?
Why can't that area look like a hospital?
And I love the fact...
Because it's depressing?
I don't find it.
Is the TARDIS in a fug this season?
Is it just in a bad mood?
I think there's a lot of just, again, playing out the running
time.
Do you know what I mean?
There is that. it's done so stylishly.
That's the thing.
You know, you get that conversation about deja vu.
David, David.
Same thing again.
I know the starter's like the back of my hand, Doctor. front of
your eyes.
That's a very Tom and Louise thing, yeah.
Well, it is something that they eventually becomes the kind of
default mode for the Williams era.
We can't afford to not have a lot of time just walking around
these brick corridors, so we'll at least be fun about it.
I just wish they'd gone to Oxford and film somewhere around
actually in some sandstone corridors in September.
I just, it just doesn't feel tart.
It is an old mental hospital and it feels as miserable as that
really was.
But I don't find it miserable, but I do find it unsettling.
And they've already commented that, you know, Kelner's been
interfering with the interior dimensions and the doctor has to
take something offline.
So, you know, even though it's very interesting, you do kind of go
oh, I see.
I think something's wrong with the TARDIS and you get that feeling
of wrongness.
So, yeah, it's taking the word peril of, we'll be thrown into a
black star and giving us a subtle visual effect on it.
And, you know, yeah, the doctor can't find his way around.
Is that because the doctor's being absent-minded or is that
because there's something wrong with the TARDIS?
And then you get that crappy art gallery with the Venus de Milo
with the...
We know they're the real ones.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
With the with the plaster join down the side.
But yeah, is the button to activate the Venus to Milo?
Is it in her backside?
I think it is.
It's kind of on her flank.
In Jabalite.
In Jabalite. right.
She was actually the excellent city in previous life.
She's just been transposed.
There is life after death and doctor.
And you know, with all the stairs and whatnot, you actually get a
feeling of going up and down and in different dimensions as well.
Could it have been achieved better?
Yes.
Visually, I think so.
Is it achieved very well?
Yes, I think so.
And I think it marries very well then with admittedly the padding
in the dialogue, but it's padding performed by actors you're
really enjoying.
The highlight of it is Barusa, having a cocktail with a crazy
straw, and reading the report that the Titanic sunk, and the
doctor looking really, really guilty.
It had nothing to do with that.
I love the bathroom.
I think it's spectacular.
It certainly puts the swimming pool in the sky in Paradise Towers
in proper perspective.
It's lovely.
And the other thing that really gets me about it.
I think we may have watched Invasion in Time around the time that
Journey to the centre of the Tartars went out.
And it's like, you know what?
In 1977, we can have this really fun, okay, not perfect trip
around the Tartars, achieved by going to these disused buildings
and making it look a bit rundown, making it look lived in.
In journey to the centre of the Tatus, we get a bunch of corridors
that look the same in a few books on a shelf.
It looks very Star Trek next gen and the budget difficult years of
next gen too.
Yeah, no, the journey to the centre of time.
It's journey to centre the TARDIS is, again.
I mean, that's the thing.
This story has great acting, fun dialogue.
A plot that works, which we haven't always had this year.
Surprisingly.
Does it?
Or is it just that we love the bits and pieces and forgive the
plot overall?
Well, the thing is, even when we've had criticisms of the plot
like, it has to end with a gun, it's still like, that is a logical
conclusion.
It's just a bit disappointing.
It's not like underworld where we're like, what are these gold rod
things and why should we care and why are you a giant gold penis
and...
Yeah, why are those guys?
I mean, yeah, is this a Sean Connery bondfinger.com film gone
wrong?
I don't know.
It's got interesting visuals.
It's got a plot that whips along at a fair pace because you're
constantly changing up the threat.
And for better or for worse, it's got a memorable ending with a
companion departure scene, which, even if it's not written very
well, is performed very well.
And that bit at the end when Leila asks canine, will he be
lonely?
insufficient data mistress, and they both bow their heads
simultaneously.
That could have been mawkish, but instead it's very sweet.
There's a lot going for this story.
You know, it's not a perfect season ender.
It's not Planet of the Spiders.
It's not the Green Death, certainly.
But I think it's better than the Damons and the Time Monster.
It gives me as much as it takes away.
So in the end, I'm left with a slight surfeit of joy, which is
that which are the principal players, as much as I think that
Chris Tranchill did his best.
He doesn't really win me.
Isn't he exactly the same person who turns up in Shada, also
playing cruise, or does it just feel as if?
Daniel Hill.
Yeah, it's just bookending.
It's the same blandness in beige corduroy. has been in it before.
Yes, he was in the faceless ones where he was possibly admired by
Joe Orton.
Ah...
Weren't we all...
Just.
So Jenny Laird awards.
I might go first.
Uh, and my journey later waters for Dick Coles.
I don't know who that is Dick Coles was the designer of
underworld.
And my question for him, as I shouted last week, why brown?
Why is everything brown?
Was there a sale on brown paint or something, Dick?
Well, they did call it Mission Brown in the 70s and yes, everything
was dark brown in the 70s. was there.
Yeah, the thing is, this story isn't in the 70s.
It was also the orange, and it was also a lime green.
We didn't get any of those other accent notes, did we?
Exactly.
Lime green caves.
There you go.
Nathan, the ice cream.
Okay.
You know, I want to shrink away from being too obvious, but I'm
not going to.
I don't think this is a good season, and I think I said before
that it's probably the worst season of the 1970s.
Things start to go really wrong on the design front and that
starts with invisible enemy, but, you know, is really, really
obvious in underworld.
But I do think that probably the most puzzling creative choice is
choosing to give a paycheque to Bob Baker and Dave Martin, who
wrote two good per twee stories, and since then have been just
turning in absolute rubbish.
And I can't think of a single good thing to say about any of their
stories for Tom Baker.
They're terrible.
Get rid of them.
It's interesting to hear you talk about design like that.
I thought I was the only one that really, you know, took it as my
first point of contact with a story, but it is interesting to hear
you say that because it's obviously it is that important. certainly
in this season.
I don't think story wise, it's that bad, and I think Louise does a
terrific job as a companion and with Tom, and even the conflict
between Dr. and Leila, which is largely driven by, as we've said
by Tom.
Didn't really notice so much as a child watching this, but I
certainly didn't feel great love for it in the way that I did
between Sarah Jane and the doctor.
So it does have an effect on the viewer watching it and the child
viewer watching it.
Sarah and the doctor aren't particularly affectionate towards each
other, either.
But there's a warmth between the 2 actors, especially when you're
thinking an Android invasion when they're running about on the
base. and there's just that little moment where they just touches
her on the shoulder or is that that little closeness of contact.
There's a rapport.
Yes, it's not a table wine.
It's a rapport.
And it's lovely.
And I just don't get that this time.
And you do pick up on that.
Yeah, I think my puzzling creative choice, though, in the end
isn't actually design based.
I've done this to do this kind of thing with, with, you know
running projects and time and just having nothing left and having
to wing it.
And the results that go out, there's something about 11th hour
which can produce moments of great genius, such as the barusa
doctor dialogue scenes, innovasion of time.
On the whole, does it leave a satisfying?
I don't know that the eggs quite were beaten well enough and I
don't think it's quite risen to purloin MacArthur Park.
And it doesn't quite get there.
My person and creative choice actually has to go back to
Hinchcliffe.
I actually don't think it's Williamsport because we get to see
later on what Williams does when he gets a whole season to
himself.
And even though there may be curious choices, which we'll hear
about amongst the 3 of you for season 16.
I do think it comes back to Hinchcliffe just taking so much of the
budget that they were really left, and it's not really William's
fault he didn't have enough time to get this together.
So maybe the BBC as well.
So yeah, my choice is.
Inchcliff, you did a lovely job, but look what you left for your
successor.
There's a couple of things I'm just going to mention briefly.
There is big finishes, Dr. and Leila Audio Adventures, which are
wonderful.
Are they in the same studio?
Yes, yeah, they work together. they work together great now.
Yeah, it's beautiful.
Louise Jensen has said, look, you know, we've discussed everything
that happened back then.
I told Tom he was a Pratt and he's wearing it.
Yeah, pretty much he.
Yeah, is.
One I'm going to single out in particular because it's quite
interesting, given regards to what you just said, Richard.
In the 4th Dr. Lost Stories box set, there is the foe from the
future.
Yes, I just listened to this one too, which, of course, was meant
to be Talons of Wing Chang. it's Robert Banks Stewart original
script adapted by, I think, John Dorney.
And there is also a story called The Valley of Fear by Philip
Hinchcliffe, which was in consideration for either the Sunmakers
or Underworld slot, and that's been adapted by Jonathan Morris.
But what Jonathan Morris has tried to do in that script is write
it in such a way that it's a Philip Hinchcliffe idea as produced
by Graham Williams.
But my actual pick, you know, I was just mentioning those.
My actual pick is a new series of novels called Lethbridge
Stewart.
These are spearheaded by Andy Frankermelon, who is the author of
the Doctor Who, the Legacy series, and also the author of the
Seeker series, and one of the creators and editors of the Space
1889 series, which is a steampunk sci-fi series.
This is a series of 4 novels, which are in the process of being
released, and they are set for Lethbridge Stewart between the web
of fear and the invasion.
So it's about the formation of the unit and what have you.
So there is The Forgotten Sun by Andy Frankomallan.
There is the schizoid Earth by David A. McKinty, which...
I liked his, I liked his virgin.
New adventures. yeah Yeah.
There is, and this is the reason I mentioning it for season 17
Beast of Fang Rock.
Oh, no.
By Andy Franko Allen and Terence Dix.
Wow.
And legend says that the Beast of Fang Rock will return.
And Travers is out to discover the truth.
And there is a final novel in the series called Mutually Assured
Domination by Nick Walters.
We're back to Andrew and Leila, aren't we?
Yep that's right.
You can buy each of those novels online and we will include a link
for those.
You can buy them individually or in a bundle.
Cool.
That's excellent.
Well, I've scored the bleeding obvious taro card, Miss Taro.
Again, I've already prefaced it.
It's thank you, Gary Russell.
I really, really like the big finish Gallifry series.
And I know we keep going back to Big Finish and there's a whole
lot of other things going on.
So thank you, Brendan, for mentioning those because there's things
we probably don't discover.
I really didn't want to listen to them.
I just happened to have them and I bought them and downloaded them
you know, and all the rest of it and thought, oh, you know, I'm as
much like Nathan as Gallifree was a one idea thing that didn't
really work in the original series, except in a few moments.
But no, it really does.
And it works because it's got fantastic performers being really
well written for by clever people, whom, you know, we're lucky
enough, some of them, that we've met and some of them are our
friends, and we're fortunate being this age and having grown up
with this stuff.
But if you're a new listener or you haven't had the, you know, the
luck of being able to go to conventions and meet these guys.
But Gary does a beautiful job on it as editor.
Linda Bellingham is terrific as the inquisitor and she's just
awful and venal and fantastic.
And Louise, is in them.
Lala is superb as Romana.
And of course, I won't spoil how, but they have Mary Tam is also
returns, but we were lucky enough to get her, and there's also a
recasting of Romana that comes up, and I won't say anymore if you
haven't heard it, but it's, they really are good fun, and they're
darkly done.
They do feel very much in the spirit of Chris Boucher.
They also feel quite period.
There's lots of it that's kind of BBC Shakespeare, I Claudius
Blake 7 era writing.
Would you agree, Brendan, if you've listened to it.
Oh, yeah, I think they're absolutely wonderful.
It's a little bit Doctor Who, but it's also a little bit Babylon
5.
Yeah, bad B5.
Thank you.
It's very JMS, isn't it?
Really, in his style of writing.
Huge arcing.
A little bit west wing in terms of the political intrigue.
Green wing, yes, a little bit green wing, if you've ever watched
that, yes.
That would also be my pick of the week.
That's got Michelle Gomez, Boys and Girls, as...
Playing really the same part, yeah.
Have you seen Greenwing?
No, I have a friend who keeps telling me, friendly.
We put a link on.
Yeah, we can.
Fred of the podcast.
James Farrow keeps telling me to watch Green Wing.
I've seen Michelle Gomez quite recently playing Martin Thatcher in
Psycho Bitches.
Is he available?
It's very hard to get.
I only seen it with Jones.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's it is really good.
And Michelle Gomez is in it a fair amount.
Just playing really herself.
Well, I've only ever seen her playing the same part.
You saw the photo of her with the 2 action figures on her
shoulders.
She's really cool.
I'm a huge fan I have a pick of the week, but it's really
unspectacular compared to yours.
I've been walking in the morning and listening to Doctor Who
novelisations.
I recommended this as a part...
This great cottage in the park.
No, that's not what I'm going to recommend.
So it's like, no, it's asking to this.
Oh, okay.
I'm going to recommend a novel that I never read when I was a kid
a novelisation that I never had.
I think it was released reasonably late.
It's the rescue by Ian Martha, who it's his last novelisation and
it's dedicated to him and it's read by Maureen O'Brien.
And we said at the time that the rescue was really just a great
vehicle to introduce Maureen O'Brien as an actor.
It was the 1st time we ever had a new companion since the series
began.
And so it was a little story crafted by David Whittaker to give
her, you know, a chance to really show her Chops as an actor.
And Maureen hasn't lost it at all.
It's a wonderful reading.
She does a great Barbara.
She does a great Vicky.
It's Ian Marta, so the pros is more sort of interesting and
sophisticated than Terrence Dix.
And the whole thing was just really, really great fun.
I really enjoyed it, so I can recommend it.
A lot of these books are on Audible.com, So that's where I get
them, but you can get them on iTunes and things as well.
Well, dear listener, that is all the time we have for the invasion
of time and for season 15 as a whole.
Nathan and I will be back next week, along with Todd, to talk
about the Grybos operation, or rebos operation, depending on
whether you're from the south or the north, and begin the key to
time season.
Richard will rejoin us for Destiny of the Daleks in six weeks
time.
I'm knitting a very long white scarf as we spin.
My image on the on our who we are things is the scarf I made for
myself when I was 14 in my homemade scarf.
So I'll do a white one for Destiny of the Darlings.
Oh, excellent.
You can find us online at flightthroughentirety.com, flight
through entirety on Facebook and iTunes and FTE podcast on Twitter
over on bondfinger.com.
We have variety of Sean Connery commentaries available.
You can also find that Bond Finger on Facebook and iTunes and Bond
Finger cast on Twitter.
Until we see you next time.
May all your transduction barriers keep out all alien invaders.
Thank you very much and good night.
Good night.
Thank you, everyone.
That was Flight Your Entirety with Nathan Bottomley, Brendan Jones
and Richard Stone.
This episode, Timothy Dalton's pyjamas, was recorded on October
the 11th, 2015.
The next episode will be released on December the 6th.
We respectfully dedicate this episode to Anthony Reid, script
editor of Doctor Who and writer of several stories, including the
invasion of time.
Oh, that is not staying there.
You need to you need to uncleanse.
There you go.
Tag of the season.
Oh please.
Okay.