Hello and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety, the only Doctor
Who podcast whose main export is tons of methane.
I'm Brendan.
I'm Nathan.
And I was a popular figure in these podcasts about an hour ago.
We're heading down to the 3rd moon of Delta Magna for the power of
Kroll.
So, this is mine, and as you pointed out, so Abley, in your
introduction, Brendan, this is really just the excuse for Bob
Holmes's biggest ever fart joke in the entire program.
So we're on the 3rd moon of Delta Magna.
And somehow there's a huge source of methane under the swamp, which
they're packaging up and shooting back to Delta Magna to feed the
population.
So the entire population of Delta Magna is living off Kroll's
farts.
You didn't realise that before, did you, Todd?
That makes no sense at all.
Yeah, why don't they just have cows on Delta Magna, you know?
Well, I don't think cows farts are any sort of any better than
that.
One of the biggest causes of methane in our atmosphere is cow
farts.
You can't eat them, you know.
Well, if you can't eat cow farm, me thing.
Why can you eat squid fart?
No, I don't understand it.
These are the important questions we ask on flight through
entirety.
Yeah, yeah, and we've got another half an hour to talk about this
topic, I think.
It's Bob Holmes and it's his last story for a while.
And I think, is he getting annoyed with the show a bit or
something like that?
I think he's tired.
You know, he's been writing Doctor Who since 1969.
You know, he's been scripted at it for three, four years.
He left last year, and then he was asked back to do the first show
and you know, I just think he's just tired.
I mean, I think this story has a bad rap.
There's some stuff in it which I quite like.
But it doesn't just have the flair and the, you know, the dialogue
that I would expect from a Bob's home, Bob Holmes.
And I think, you know, Anthony Reeves, obviously, and Graham
Reeves have asked him to, you know, write a story with the biggest
monster ever.
Well, just be careful. what you wish for because Bob doesn't
always, as we know, deliver exactly.
What do you want?
In fact, the more you tell him what to do, the more crotchety he
gets.
Yeah, he hates writing to a shopping list, as we will later find
out in 1985.
But I mean, really, this is the 1st time he has sort of written to
a shopping list in quite a long time.
I think once or twice for Barry Letts, Barry Letts would give him
a starting idea.
But here he was given 2 stipulations, as you say, Todd, to write
the biggest Doctor Who monster ever.
But also, and I found this out during the week, and this kind of
mitigates some of my distaste for the story because as longtime
listeners will know, I'm not a big fan of this one.
Graham McDonald, the head of cereals, had asked Graham Williams
for less comedy in scripts.
No horror and no comedy.
No horror and no comedy, exactly.
Who could leave you with?
Underworld?
Yes, I think.
But yeah, so Bob Holmes is given right the biggest Doctor Who
monster ever.
When Bob Holmes speciality is a humanoid monster.
Well, and also no comedy, and that's his other speciality.
So, yeah, I think a little bit of the script is a bit of an up
yours to Graham McDonald.
In fact, the monster actually doesn't do the story too much harm
because I've said before, I think that Bob Holmes isn't really
that interested in monsters.
He never, you know, writes an alien invasion, you know, if he can
avoid it.
It's not uncommon for him to have just one big monster that sort
of pops out for the episode one cliffhanger and then the climax in
episode four.
We had the Shriven Zaal earlier this year, which is pretty much
that.
We'll have the magma creature.
We've, you know, the giant rats in talent of winning Chiang.
He's not really that interested in monsters and what he's
interested in is people and politics and relationships between
people.
And the monster is not that bad, is it?
No, no.
I mean, a lot of people criticise it, but really, the biggest
problem with it is, and the director, Norman Stewart has admitted
this was a bit of a mistake, and that's the very strict masking he
used.
So for the long shots when Kroll comes over the horizon.
You'll notice there's a very, very straight line.
Yes, I think that's probably one of the worst things.
The actual Kroll, the filming of the Kroll Monster itself, whether
it be on film or as a puppet thing or whatever, like in the seeds
of doom.
It's actually really very good.
It's that stupid straight horizon that makes it look ridiculous.
You know, there is a scene in episode 4 when it's attacking the
refinery and that looks pretty terrible as well.
Like the puppet is good.
And it's got this little claw mouth things and all of that.
I think it looks pretty impressive.
It moves really well.
But when it's perched on top of that tiny toy refinery at the end
flailing its tentacles around, that's pretty terrible.
And there's also that other shot in episode 4 where they've got
that fence and these little tiny tentacles come through it and
then it's pretty.
And you're going, that is like the worst shot ever.
I think one of the most balling things for me is that like this
story contains 2 of the highest rated episodes of the season
episode two, which has got 12.4 and the last episode, which got
9.9 million.
And so people tune in to see this.
They tune in to see these wonderful special effects and that's
what they remember about this show.
And of course, in episode 2, then we have the man dressed up as
Chrome and I'm saying, Mary 10, which is like just, it looks
ridiculous because it was supposed to be ridiculous.
But if you've just tuned in as a casual viewer and you've got Mary
attempting to scream with that guy in the puppet gloves and doing
all that, you'd be thinking, what the hell?
Do you know, I absolutely adore that scene.
I think it is so brilliantly funny.
And it's the same joke that David Whittaker pulls in the rescue
where it turns out that the man in the rubber suit is a man in a
rubber suit.
And so, and the line, the doctor's line, it probably looked more
convincing from the front.
You know how did you know?
I do think, though, that in that moment where Mary Tann's going
what she's actually thinking is, get me my agent.
I think that this is the moment where she's actually decided I'm
not doing another year of this.
Was she?
I mean, having to scream at a monster really kind of works against
the sort of ironic detachment, then she's she's bringing to the
part all year.
And, you know, much like Mrs. Peel, she never really seriously
looks like she's, you know, upset or disturbed by any of the
danger she's in.
But yeah, in the stones of blood, she actually does a really good
scream when she's going down that cliff and it's really, really
harrowing.
No I think...
Really?
No, she pulls a funny face.
She just can't scream.
I love it to death.
I think she looks wonderful in this.
I love the hair and I love the brown mini skirted thing that she's
got on.
If you've ever seen the Kylie Minogue music video keep step back
in time, watch for Kylie wearing a sort of a green version of that
and her hair done very similar.
It's towards the end.
There's a couple of shots.
I just think, you know, somebody's watched this and gone, you know
she looks wonderful.
But I just, I love Romana in this.
I love Neari.
I mean, I alluded to it at the beginning.
One of my favourite lines of hers in the entire show is when I'm
rolled that sort of gets taken away by the Swampies and the doctor
goes, well, who's, who's that?
And she goes, oh, well, data, a popular figure in these parts
about an hour ago.
And just the way she delivers that line.
I just burst out laughing every time.
When she's being threatened and interrogated by Rome Dart too.
She's really sort of ambulously concerned and wisecracking and
stuff.
She really is good.
She kind of exemplifies the Graham Williams era in that she's
smart, she's aware of the genre trope.
She's not too fussed by any of the danger.
And so she very much reflects the, you know, the audience.
You know, it's a slightly older audience.
We're aware that it's all in fun.
And so we're kind of watching it along with her.
And I think that that's something that will only increase next
year, which I'm really looking forward to.
She's also got some great moments in episode 4 when they're on the
rack and the doctor's, you know, going on about, I don't know, rain
and Romana's telling a real goaty amount.
I mean, I'm rather more interested in surviving myself and stuff
like that.
Like, you know, she really, is that Tom?
It's episode 3 and it's they're tied to a rank and...
Oh, this episode is rank.
But my favourite detail is the moment that they get out of it is
she goes, my nose has stopped itching.
Now that she's no longer tied up and she's able to scratch it, she
doesn't want to anymore.
And the doctor's line, this is no time to talk about noses.
I just think all of that stuff is so funny.
But it is, again, you know, they're in mortal peril, but she
doesn't really care or what much.
Yeah.
Can I talk about something I've said about the story for a while?
And that is, it's a reworking of the space pirates.
And it's a precursor to K's.
Yeah, yeah, pretty much.
Do you have a checklist?
I have something of a checklist.
So instead of craven, we have Fenna.
Check.
Instead of Argonite, which was the most valuable substance in the
universe that's made up.
We have methane, which crawl farts, which I think is a meta Robert
Holmes joke.
He's like, if you're going to give me all this shopping list.
I'm going to make the most valuable substance of the world as
farts.
What we don't have, what he's gotten rid of is the sort of space
police who were in the space pirates, led by Jack May at that
point, because I think he figured out they were awful and boring.
Instead of the beacon being broken up, We have the refineery as a
setting.
We do lose a few other things as well.
Of course, we don't have Madeline a Seagree or any animal.
Any best women at all?
right.
Yeah, yeah.
It's poor, isn't it?
It is.
I mean, I would have liked to have seen one of the guys in the
refinery be a woman, but of course, Why aren't any of the Swampies
women?
I mean, I just think that's crazy.
It's a planet of man, again.
What about what's his name?
The gun runner.
That would have been great if...
If that character had been a woman.
Yeah, well, Rome Dutch, who is sort of a slight eccentric.
He's Milo Clancy.
Yeah, but he's also...
Stops as a gun runner as well.
Well, in fact, you've got exactly the same thing.
You've got a planetary system with 2 planets.
In this case, we've got Delta Magna and the 3rd moon of Delta
Magna, and we only ever go to the 3rd moon of Delta Magna, just
like we have Andrazani, Major and Andrazani Minor.
We've got someone paying a gun runner to bring guns to their
enemies in order to prolong a conflict or create a reason to
fight.
We've, you know, again, got the most valuable substance in the
universe in spectrocks.
Like the whole thing is sort of very similar and we've got a big
giant monster as well. you know, just to spice things up and
provide a cliffhanger.
I think also a very telling thing is much like Space Pirates.
Dr and Romana, in this case, don't have a great deal of bearing on
the plot.
They sort of come in at the end and stop the bomb from exploding
and what have you.
That's so perfunctory.
Yeah, yeah. really crazily bad.
It's like Anthony Reid has said to Robert Holmes, oh, the Dr
Romana haven't really done much.
They just run around getting locked up in this room and then they
get locked up in that hut and then they get tied to a rack at what
have you, which is exactly what happened in the space pirates as
well.
It's another example of a rare example, thankfully, of Robert
Holmes, preferring to tell stories about other people.
Well, that sort of thing will become quite prevalent with his
protégé later on.
Are you referring to the fact that the doctor has to stop the
rocket from exploding?
Yeah, that's so dodgy.
That whole, like the whole set to Shakespeare, he's trying to do
that.
That's one of the poorest pieces of directing and the whole
thing.
And the countdown timer has been badly cut out.
If you look at it, the sort of mask around it doesn't have
straight edges and he gets 2 big bundles of wires and says, let's
hope these are the right ones and then joins them together.
Like, it really, we're not bothering to, you know, create a sort
of clever resolution here.
We just create a crap one and then hang a lampshade on it, you
know.
Oh that was lucky.
So, you know, all of that, that is a little bit terrible, I
think.
We're heading towards the end of the season.
I think they're running out of money.
I like a lot of the location work and I think it saves a lot of
it.
The location is beautiful.
It's amazing.
That opening scene where the TARDIS materialises and the reeds
around it all the way up to the roof.
So it's like just the roof materialising in a field of reeds.
And then there's all this, you know, all these waterways and
things and speedboats and stuff.
All of that is really great, and they have a night shoot.
So, you know, the location stuff and there's a lot of it.
I think it's really good.
And what do you think of the swampies in terms of green and their
hair nets and all that sort of thing?
So, look, I mean, they're not wearing many clothes, and there are
those famous stories about the difficulty getting the green makeup
off.
So they were they went to a nearby army base and had to scrub each
other off in the showers.
I wish I hadn't quite put it like that actually.
But so there are all those sort of stories.
Look, this is another Holmes colonialism thing.
And it's pretty progressive.
You know, we always grit our teeth and cross our fingers when home
steals with anything like this.
But, you know, politically it's pretty progressive, but sort of
fairly obvious.
I mean, the moral is murdering a whole bunch of indigenous people
is wrong.
Kicking them off their land is sort of morally dodgy.
It's not, you know, earth shatteringly, you know, inventive moral
insights or anything like that, but it's pretty solid, I think.
The biggest problem with the swamp is, is that Sean Appanieri's
character, who is called Rankin, is so stupid.
Yeah, but I think that also leads to something a bit more
progressive in the script in that a lot of colonial texts.
The natives are seen, natives in inverted colours. are seen as
stupid, superstitious idiots and the white man comes in and
enlightens them by destroying their culture.
Whereas in this, yes, Rankwin is he's superstitious and he's
myopic and what have you.
But the other swampies around him, they are more rational and they
question, well, if this is true, then why is this happening?
They're achieving their own enlightenment without the colonial
influence.
You know, they're coming to their own realisations that perhaps
their religion is not all there is.
Yeah, they're a bit younger, and I think, you know, there's that
realisation that you've just discussed.
And I think they're all well played.
I think that's the thing.
I mean, I even think he is very good.
Oh, he is.
John Avonira. fantastic.
Wasn't he Colonel General Carrington?
General Carrington.
Yes.
And Railton in Death to the Dialects, where he gets an arrow in
his back.
Very early on.
Yeah, yeah. he's he's kind of the big guest star of that story.
He's killed off early, we discussed at the time.
But it carries all of those scenes.
Yeah, he is very good.
In fact, I think most of the car lost, both outside the Rafani
inside the farming generally, I think are fairly competent and
actually sell a lot of the blender dialogue that Robert Holmes
this time has had to deliver.
The Sons of Earth things very interesting, which I kind of equate
a bit to Greenpeast, which I think were becoming more prominent, I
remember as a child.
And certainly the media painted green piece is these wacky loonies
which is sort of painted a bit like this in this story.
Yeah, that's the attitude, you know?
Thorn and Philip Murdoch, yeah.
But you know, thank goodness they were making a stand when they
were in the 1970s.
Otherwise, you know, where would we be today?
Yeah, and also, it's interesting that they're not presented as mad
loonies, you know, we only get one speech from a sons of earth
character who is, of course, Dugin, played by John Leeson because
canine couldn't go on the marshes, but his speech and then death
actually serves to further the idea.
It's interesting that that idea doesn't play more of a role in the
plot.
You know, we don't see the sons of Earth, except for Dugin's last
stand.
But yeah, it's a little bit of world building.
Yeah, and the homes always does do that, I think.
You know, you always get the impression that there's more going on
in the world than we actually get to see, and he'll always
reference, you know, names and places and people that we haven't
heard of.
And Sons Verse, a perfect example.
So they're there.
The swampies originally think that the sons of Earth are providing
them with weapons, but does you gain point that out earlier on
that there's no way they would do that because they're sort of
famously pacifist or something like that?
Yeah, yeah.
And it turns out, of course, Thorn is doing it, just like Morgus
will later on, just to get a conflict going.
Who plays Thorn?
Neil McCarthy, who we previously saw as Barnum in the mind of
evil.
Of course.
I kept a big giant head, doesn't he?
Like one hell of a giant hair.
But between Neil, Philip Maddock, and John Leason, I think they do
a great job of distinguishing those 3 characters within that
really bland set.
Because there's a guy, is it hard?
He wraps himself in a tentacle and climbs into a pipe.
Yeah, that's right.
Terrible.
He's terrible.
I really think he is that bad.
And that's another thing that's quite funny.
Nathan is like, as you said, he climbs into the thing and I think
it's Thorn or somebody who says, oh, yes, you know, it's just been
broken like it's like it's wood because it probably is.
But it's one of those ironic lines that Holmes, or maybe Anthony
Reed has come up with and thrown it in there.
It does sound like a home sign because Holmes is constantly making
fun of the production limitations in the actual script itself.
Inside the refinery, we have Thorn, who's Neil McCarthy, and he's
really terrific actually.
I think he's a he is a great villain.
You know, he's unpleasant, he's not camp.
He's not intentionally funny or anything like that.
He's kind of horrible and low rent, but he is just kind of
horrible.
But he works quite well because he doesn't overdo it.
And he swings, and he swings, he swings back a bit to not being
quite the villain at certain times when he goes outside and sees
Croll and is sort of all shaken up by that.
It's actually quite a nice.
I think it's a really good performance and then you've got Philip
Maddock somewhere in the middle who goes one way and then the
other.
So Philip Maddock, of course, thought that he was going to be the
villain.
And so this is his last story for the program, I think.
And I think it is because he was annoyed that he was playing a bit
part rather than the actual villain.
He is terrific, so he doesn't get to do the shouty blustry thing
he does.
He does that sort of low, deep, contained, menacing thing that he
does so terrifically well.
It does waste him a little bit, but he does get to do some really
good acting.
I particularly like his response when Thorne kills Du Geen.
I think he's he's great.
You know, he's as much of a villain as Thorn in the sense that he
doesn't care, particularly about the swamp.
He's not quite as bad as Thorn, but he, you know, like he's not a
good guy.
Yeah, I mean, it sort of helps to shade in because you've got
Thorn who hates the swampies and wants to see them all wiped out.
You've got Dugin, who believes that as the native people there
they have a right to that land where the humans don't.
And then you've got Fenner in the middle, Philip Maddock, who even
says at one point, I've got no particular love for the swampies
but I don't want to see them wiped out.
Yeah.
You know, and so it gives us middle ground where in these post
colonial stories, we don't always have that.
In terms of the casting.
And this has been reported and contradicted.
So I've tried to make as much sense of it as I can.
Apparently, Maddock was tentatively offered the part of Thorn that
had another production on.
So said, look, I can't do it.
Right.
The guy playing Fenner, Alan Browning, dropped out.
And Philip Maddox, other production, dropped through. got pushed
back or something.
So he got in touch with Norman Stewart and said, oh, look, I'm
available.
And Norman Stewart said, oh, well, I've got a part for you.
And it ends up being...
It ends up being fed.
And because Thorn had since been recast as Neil McCarthy, and
that's why Philip Maddock thought he was getting the role. of
thought.
Because I always thought, you know, it's very weird that he
thought he was being thorn and then turned up to rehearsals and
he's being Fenna, unless, and that's where I did my research and
found out, oh, okay, it seems like he was off of Thorn originally
turned it down, and then he was offered a part and thought, oh
it's the same part.
It wasn't.
Apparently, Martin Jarvis was going to play Dugin.
Uh, yes, yes, that's right.
And he had to pull out and they suddenly realised that John Leeson
was contracted for the 4 episodes anyway, they would have had to
pay him regardless.
And so they just said, do you want to do this?
He's like, oh, great.
You know, I get to spend 4 weeks not on my hands and knees running
around the studio.
They save money, you know, they don't have to pay somebody else.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There's a wonderful moment in one of the commentaries because it's
Tom and John Leeson.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
So, for instance, when everyone comes out of the TARDIS at the
beginning, you get this wonderful bit of, oh, Mary.
Oh, John, I saw Mary the other day.
She's still so beautiful.
And then you get the 1st scene in the refinery and John Lisa says
hold on, that's me.
And then Dugin says, I'm getting an echo track on here.
Oh, tell me about it mate.
So there's no Philip Maddock commentary?
There's no Philip Maddock commentary and this is the only
commentary for the series in the box set that doesn't feature...
There's not a Mary Tam commentary on the disc.
Oh okay.
It's such a shame that John Leeson doesn't get to act in many
scenes with Mary and Tom in this.
Like, I think there's only like one scene virtually with Tom and
then I think Mary and Tom are down the corridor when he gets
shot.
It does show his acting chops a bit.
Because he plays the role very convincingly and very
sympathetically, and there's no 4th wall breaking sense where he
makes a joke about dogs or something, you know?
It's actually a bit of a thankless role.
There's a lot of sitting looking at screens in episode 3 watching
the farts builder.
You know what I mean?
It's not really an acting tour de force.
No.
And Philip Maddock does get the wonderful line at one point of
it.
It hasn't moved in 15 minutes.
I love it when it moves across the screen and like you, as a kid, I
like the fact that, oh, yes, it's a big giant octopus thing in
there going, oh, what's that?
What's that?
And they're absolutely clueless.
I love those things And the graphic itself is quite good for the
time.
Yeah.
Yeah, the sort of vaguely oscilloscope kind of thing.
The 7 rituals of death.
Seven holy rituals.
Holy rituals.
What are they?
No, neither do I. throw into the shriven Zahl.
Watching invisible enemy.
So there's one thing that we haven't mentioned, and it's been
historically a massively important part of our program during the
coverage of the 1970s, and that's Welshwide.
Yes, he's back.
Really?
Yeah, no, Terry Walsh, and he actually has a name.
He actually plays a character.
He's not just donning the Tom Wig and throwing himself around a
swamp or anything.
He plays Mensch, who is the servant, you know, the swampy servant
who's attending them in episode one. and he doesn't get counted.
Remember the Swampies don't count.
So when they count, how many people are living on the refinery
they leave him out.
And isn't he a bit brighter green than the rest of them?
He is. a studio swampy and he doesn't get outside very much, so
he's not quite as tanned as the others.
I do wonder if by the time they got into the studio, maybe they
used a different green paint after what happened on location.
Yes, one that would come off in the shower.
I know I was having the scrub terry for hours after recording.
And so predictably he betrays them because they have such
disregard for him, which I think is pretty good.
Oh, he will be back once more.
We have one more Walsh watch next year.
Does he speak as men?
I't remember.
We see him get out of radio at one point, but do we actually hear
him talk?
I can't remember because he does talk in his next role next year.
Yeah, yeah.
The scene where he has ventures offering drinks around, of course
gives Tom a little bit of a little bit of comedy, but because of
the way the scene is shot. you've got to really look at it.
But have a look at the scene where Mench is offering drinks
around.
And this gives rise to Tom Baker's anecdote about when he was
having arguments with directors about how he was playing the
scene.
And Tom now says, you know, he would say to directors that Time
Lords have this tradition where when you are given a glass or
something, you raise it to your ear so that you can something like
hear the world of the people around you.
And the directors would say, that's a complete load of toss, isn't
it?
And Tom says, yes, it is rather.
But in this, Tom takes a glass of something, raises it to his ear
and then drops it in his pocket.
Really?
Yes.
Have a look at that, have a look at that scene again.
It's his 1st scene in the refinery.
Mench gives him a drink, and it's never referenced again.
Like, you think maybe he's going to pull it out at some point.
Then throw it at the fake Kroll who's menacing Romana.
No, never seen again.
That's better than pertly drinking cups of tea with his eyes.
I can't remember.
Sometime in the 70s, someone hands in the cup of tea.
He looks at it and then he hands it back and he's done.
Oh, yes, that's right. great.
That's in the time monster.
Tom's goloshes change between students and location work.
It's one of those things that just annoys me a little bit.
But then you get other things that I really like.
Like when they walk into the refoning, there's a shot of the rain
outside of a window and it's just, I think it's a brilliant little
shot.
The TARDIS has always had chameleonic footwear, though, because, of
course, the doctor's shoes and indeed entire clothes changed
during his 1st generation.
There are several stories where the 2nd doctor managers to whip
galoshes on and off.
You know, so it's not it's not without precedent, but yeah, Tom
goes from wearing brown brogues to giant green, stripy galoshes.
It's a little bit noticeable.
So how do we feel about the key to time at this point in the
season?
We had a recap, I think, at the, you know, at the beginning of the
3rd story at the beginning of Stones of Blood just to bring us all
up to speed.
Well, this is my 5th favourite story, the key to time.
It's all going downhill for you, is it?
Well, yeah, but I think I think this is slightly weaker than the
1st 4 segments.
But there's still a lot to like in it.
And I do like this.
And the key to time, well, doesn't really figure that much.
I mean, again, Paul Romana has to be turned into an idiot when it
comes to what where the actual segment is and what it actually
is.
They kind of don't even mention it for a while.
Oh, it's all over the swamp, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I quite like that much like in the stones of blood.
The properties of the key to time are explored.
So in the stones of blood, the key to time was helping Sussair, to
change the appearance of herself and the stones and what have
you.
In this, the properties of the key allow Kroll to grow to a
massive size and to expel all that methane.
Just makes no sense.
For a hungry planet.
With me thing, with a gas.
What the hell?
I don't know.
It was probably more convincing from the front.
Did Anthony Reid and Randy Mimmons not understand what methane
actually was?
Bob just put it in there and they just said, oh, yes, yes, yes
it's just a term and they just didn't really understand?
Well, I do, I do wonder if, at the time, energy researchers were
perhaps looking into methane as a substitute for natural gas
because, of course, you can ignite me pain, you can probably cook
with it.
You just may not want to taste the food.
Isn't it natural?
Yes, it's natural.
Lots of things are natural type.
But okay, this is Bob Holmes' last script for a while.
Do we know why?
Why?
Is it because he's tired or did he golf and do other things or he
just didn't want to do Doctor Who?
Well, he certainly went off and did Blake's episodes of Blake 7.
Great episodes of Blake 7, actually.
Yeah, I think he was probably just a bit bored with Doctor Who.
You know, it's a bit like Russell T. Davis was in charge of Doctor
Who for 5 years.
And aside from a two-parter for the Sarah Jane Adventures, he
hasn't written for it again.
And he says, you know, oh, I'm busy working other things.
I love to do at some point, but I'm busy working on other things.
But that's the thing with most writers will say that even if
they've written a series of something, they want to move on to
other things.
Like, you know, J.K. Rowling could still be writing Harry Potter
books now, if it was just about the money, but it's not.
It's about the art.
You know, she had a story and she told it, and that's it.
Agatha Christie famously hated Poirot, and only kept writing him
because the readers wanted to read him.
They're like Conan Doyle and Sherlock Holmes.
Exactly, yeah.
That is why Agatha Christie invented Miss Marple, because she
thought, Okay, yeah, I need to write this priorogue guy, but I'm
going to write someone I actually like.
Actually, Donna Noble invented, Miss Miss Marple.
That's true.
But I think it is interesting that Anthony Reed, a script editor
has to ask Bob Holmes to come in and write another story for this
season.
Like, are there no other writers?
I mean, obviously Chris Boucher's gone on and is now writing for
Blake 7?
He's one of the new writers that they've had over the last 2
years.
And I applaud Anthony Reid because he's obviously worked with
Douglas Adams and with David Fisher on, you know, 3 stories in a
row, you know, new writers to nurture them and get all their
scripts up to speed.
And so obviously he wants a script that can be delivered that he
doesn't have to do a lot of work on.
You know, Bob is an obvious candidate.
Is there no one else?
We could have asked Bob Baker and Dave Martin to do another
story.
They could have asked them to do another story.
In fact, I think they should have asked them to do this story, at
least it would have only been 4 episodes, but I'm getting ahead of
myself here. as quite often happens with Robert Holmes. he was not
the original writer for this slot.
There was nothing in this slot for ages.
And then the writer for the 4th story, which would eventually
become the androids of Tara.
It was a chap called Ted Lewis, who was attempting to write a
story called The Shield of Zarak.
We know very little about it.
Sounds terrible, though.
It does sound tiresome.
But that fell through.
And so Anthony Reed, facing a bit of a script crisis because now
you know, in his mind, it's like, okay, we've got one story, which
isn't sorted, that's not so bad.
Suddenly he's got two, and that's why he turned to David Fisher
and Bob Holmes.
Right.
Because these are 2 people who can turn it around.
David Fisher was a great discovery this year.
I think he wrote 2 pretty good stories, you know, so he's written
a 3rd of the season just about.
He'll be back.
I think he's good.
I think he's good too.
And I think I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, Anthony Reid had
to do a bit of work. on the stones of blood, so that David Fisher
understood the story structure and all that sort of thing.
But I think he's such a competent writer that he probably had to
do very little work on the Android Satara.
So he had Tara going, and then there was this slot, what am I
going to do?
And Bob's your man.
Which one does Fisher do next year?
He does creature from the pit, but he also wrote a gamble with
time, which, of course, is what the city of death got turned
into.
And then leisure hype, obviously, for season 18.
And then no more, which is such a shame.
But anyway, it's JNT's fault. talk about that at the time.
And what about Nelly Melba's party piece?
That's stunning.
Yeah, stupid.
Look, I think there's a lot of, I think there's a lot inmates.
There's a lot of tiny little touches that I really like and find
amusing.
Yeah, it's still homes.
He's still funny.
You know, it's nothing earth shattering, but, you know, it's
competent fun performances, some funny jokes, you know, what
morning one, big giant fart monster.
The working title for this story?
Very tense, fabulous.
Planet of Farts.
The moon of death.
Oh, really?
That's another bum joke from home.
The moon of death.
Didn't we have that last year?
I just came up with a conspiracy theory, which is kind of what I
do on these podcasts.
Is it about unit dating?
It's not about unit dating.
Are you sure it's not about unit data?
It's not about unit dating this time.
It's also not about how the TARDIS knows when to put phone calls
through to the doctor.
Thank you, listener Mike Williams, who raised that the other day
on our Facebook page.
No, I said at the beginning of this, that Graham McDonald had put
down the edict that this script needed to have less comedy.
And yet next year in Doctor Who, we get a lot more comedy.
I wonder if this script was deliberately produced, not only with
less comedy, but with less care, let's say, than the previous four
stories, to prove that you can't do Doctor Who without comedy.
And as such, Graham McDonald relented...
Perhaps, just perhaps doing this now, we might go too far in the
other direction.
Or maybe not, maybe it's actually the next story that is produced
without comedy, to prove the fact that we need to do a lot more
comedy the following season.
Well, we're taking off on a rather smelly rocket sled at the
moment.
From the Moon of Delta Magna.
We will next see you on the planet of Atreos next week for the
Armageddon factor.
Don't eat the food.
Tom.
Don't forget, you can find us online at flightthroughentirety
com.
Flight through entirety on Facebook and iTunes and FTE podcast on
Twitter.
And don't forget, dear listeners, you can now catch bondfinger
commentaries on bondfinger.com.
So that's the 1st 5 Sean Connery films on Bondfinger.com
Bondfinger on Facebook and iTunes and Bond Fingercast on Twitter.
Until we see you on one of those, may none of your farts be sent
off in rockets as a power source.
Thank you very much and good night.
Good night.
See you, Moon.
That was flat through entirety with Todd Booby, Nathan Bottomley
and Brendan Jones.
This episode, another Holmes Colonialism thing, was recorded on
November the 8th, 2015.
The next episode will be released on January 10th, between the
Scarrison's Milk, and Kroll's Mithane, I dread to think what food
we will get from a rajo next year.
We want to take that toy off, Alfie.
Definitely.
What's he going?
Oh, that'll that's a squeeze toy.
It will make a noise.
Oh, well, if he makes a noise, makes a noise.
It's all part of life theatre.
It's part of it.
Should I close the door?
Oh, that might that might help with the airplane noise, yeah.
Yeah, it doesn't actually happen all.
Is it who this?
Little man.
Take that off.
Do you want to take a toy that you've already broken the squeeze
thing for?
Nope, I want that one.
You know he wants them.
You have Dumbo.
Prince is upstairs.
Who is?
Prince, is his favourite boy?
I know he has sex with.
He doesn't sex with him. fixed early in a week, but duh.
And he was popping Prince.
What do you think of this story, Alfie?
Little me?
What do you reckon?
Okay.
He's got no opinion.
He's really Colin Baker fan, actually.
It's all the it's all the bright colours.
The colour of movement.
Okay.