Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety
the only Doctor Who podcast forced aboveground by lush, aggressive
vegetation.
I'm Brendan.
I'm Nathan.
Thanks, be to Todd.
It's Megalos, ladies and gentlemen.
So, we are in the second story of 1980 season, or, in terms of
production, the third, because production order went the leisure
hive, state of decay, then Meglos.
And the reason for this was leisure hive, the script was already
in development when John Nathan Turner and Christopher Bid being
started.
State of decay, of course, was adapted from the Abandoned the
Vampire Mutations by Terence Dix, which became horror fang rock.
Which became horror fang rock.
They had these two scripts ready to go.
And then Christopher Bid meet, much like John Nathan Turner wanted
to bring new writers in.
And in this case, the writers were John Flanagan and Andrew
McCulloch.
Or the Bob Baker and Dave Martin of season 18, as I like to think
of them.
I think that's very unfair, because there's only one story going
on here.
And despite the fact they have a great, big, shiny object in my
story.
Don't get distracted by shiny objects and runoff.
It was a cheap shot, but it's not a good script, though, is it?
They had to run with it.
And I think one of the things watching the documentary is how much
fun they had actually putting this together and how well they get
on with Christopher Hamilton bit me.
Yeah.
It's very different from the other documentaries for the rest of
the season.
Yeah, because we'll talk next week about how Terrence Dix reacted
to Christopher Pitt means her original rewrite of State of Decay.
This script perhaps sticks out as not as good as the others around
it, simply because this of the whole season is the most typical
Doctor Who story.
It's doctor and companion land on a planet and get embroiled in
local politics.
But I also think that Bidmead has not done as much work on this as
the other scripts.
Obviously in episode one, you've got the whole chronic historesis
thing, which I think is just golden.
I mean, one of my all time favourite things ever in the history of
Doctor Who.
It's really fun, isn't it?
It screams padding though, doesn't it?
Oh, yes, it does, but I remember being in the playground at school
and we were reenacting, had to break the chronic history.
I mean is that insane or what?
Everything is strictly scientific this year because of CH bid
needs a commitment to having real science in the program.
And so there would never be such a thing as a time loop that you
can break out of just through the power of bad acting.
Yeah, Christopher Bidmead's approach to science seems to be this
weird sort of science plus metaphysics approach, but I would argue
it's a lot more successful than anything in space 1999 year one.
Well, I mean, the science plus metaphysics approach is essentially
magic, isn't it?
I mean that's exactly what it is.
They get out of it by aping the thing that they're trying to
affect.
You know, just like a voodoo doll looks like, the person that
you're trying to harm.
It's sympathetic magic is how they get out of it.
But didn't you just say that last week that Christopher said that
he wanted to get rid of the magic, but he's actually perpetrating
the magic.
Yeah, well, I think he's, as I said last week.
He's a terrible critic of himself.
His account of what he's doing is worse than useless.
He really doesn't know what he's doing.
He doesn't know why he's good, for instance, I think.
He's a bit like the 3rd doctor in the Damons, who spends 5 weeks
telling us that magic doesn't exist, but then ends up going, oh
there is magic in the world off.
And it's kind of the thing, oh, saying, you don't believe in magic
and everything for a reason, but then just enjoying something
simpler, not being able to define why you enjoy eating chocolate
or why you enjoy a terrible movie.
Bidmead saying everything he's saying everything needs to be
defined.
But his evidence is there is so much that's good about this season
that is indefinable.
I think there is a very strong kind of magic, a very strong kind
of metaphysics all the way through, and it's going to be huge in
Warrior's Gate.
But, you know, the way evolution works is nothing like the way it
actually works, you know, in the world.
Lots of things are representative or symbolic of other things.
You know, it is, it's magic.
I think here with this script too, the problems with it are much
more obvious because I think the production values are as good as
the other stories and so I think it falls apart a lot more.
I don't like the whole where the scientists and where to read.
Oh, that's terrible.
I mean, that is just truly shockingly bad.
And not even in a Hartnell script.
Would they be as unsubtle as that?
And then you've got those horrible blonde wigs and fortunes, but
don't even work.
Don't even fit, you know?
The wings are kind of like stuck on them or something.
Like they don't look like hair for a second.
The sort of helmet hair.
Yeah, someone's been watching UFO.
Yeah, yeah.
And then, of course, we've got problems with the space pirates who
are, oh, surprise, surprise, look like pirates.
I think they're great.
And I think their costumes are fantastic.
And the 2 leads.
So terrible.
They're really funny.
General Grugger is fantastically funny. and I love Lieutenant
Brotadak in his obsession with his jacket being torn and then his
desire to get hold of Tom's coat and stuff.
I think they're terrific.
Did you notice one of the space pirates is wearing only gazole
glittery road?
Yeah, they're just sort of crappy costumes from stock.
But they look really good.
And I think they're really fun.
And I think, you know, we do talk about the production values
being not quite so high on this one.
And certainly it's not as visually striking.
It's not as well directed as last week, but you know, what is.
Yeah.
So this is a bit flatter, but I think there are some great touches
and there's some great ambition.
So in episode one when we 1st see the screens of Zolpha Furore.
We're also treated to the view of the fishing wire that's holding
the moon up in the sky.
But and some, you know, terrible CSO fringing and all of that sort
of thing, you know, but the camera moves and the CSO, the keyed in
model moves at exactly the same rate, that's flawless.
There's real ambition about it.
The model shot, you know, last week's model we pointed out was a
bit rudimentary, but, you know, completely rescued by being
incredibly beautifully direct..
This week the model is, you know, has moving parts and, you know
he shot from quite low down.
I think it looks pretty good.
You know, the scenes, you know, they don't work in any real way.
The gas tax ship taking off is, you know, laughably poor, but
there's an ambition to it and a kind of visual style that I really
like.
You're rolling your eyes hard.
You hate those scenes?
No, no, no.
I'm not as enraptured with this as you.
I wouldn't say enraptured.
Well, after that, look, for me, this is the weakest story of the
season, but I still like it, and I actually found that I liked a
lot more of it than I actually thought.
I didn't expect to like it as much as I did watching it through
this time.
I guess one of the things I have problems with is the fact that
certainly in the 2nd half of the story, a lot of the relationships
I feel aren't earned.
People go from hating each other, just suddenly within like a
moment, then they're sort of allies and then throwing themselves
you know, in front of guns and things.
Do you mean like Carus or Alexa?
But the whole the whole...
Yeah, all of that.
It just sort of goes, boom, boom, boom. like, we've done a draft
scene here of the dialogue of where we want to go, but the
relationships just aren't earned and I just, and I'm just sit
there going, not.
It's just not quite getting there.
I can see the intent, but it's just too quick.
It just doesn't sit.
Yeah, we have the bones of a really excellent story, but it just
comes off being enjoyable and watchable and a 6 or 7 out of 10.
And when you consider that episode 2 and 3 are 3 minutes under, and
then episode 4 is 5 minutes under, you know, there could have been
those character development scenes written.
Massive reprises, too. like they're really long.
One episode is like 15 minutes of new material at one point.
Yeah, it comes in under 20 minutes, one of them?
Yeah, episode 4 is 19.5 minutes with titles.
One performance I do want to single out for praise is beside the
obvious.
We'll come to her.
Is Colette Gleason as Caris, the young female technician who
encounters Megloss and gets to look at Tom Baker's crotch and say
no, that's impossible.
She's great.
Watch it again.
But yeah, she is she is really good.
And the other people on her side, Edward, Edward Underdown, a
Zaster.
Oh, that's terrible.
And thing is, he's a good actor, but he's terrible.
He looks like he's reading his lines off the back of some extras
head or something.
He's really cool.
Crawford Logan as Diderich's is basically just there playing, you
know, he's there playing a kind of Jamie role of, you know, I get
to be impulsive and shout out things.
Edward Underdown is given a beautiful line about the doctor.
He sees the strings that bind the universe together, and mends
them when they break, and delivers it like he's saying, I'm going
to catch the number 23 Buster Putney Common.
Yeah, no, shockingly bad.
Who directed this?
This was Terence Dudley, who would go on to write, who would go on
to write, canine and company, for to Doomsday.
Yep, and Black Orchid.
Thanks, Terrence.
Back to what you're saying about Zestel.
The fact that Zestra is so wooden.
You can't believe him to be this uniting force within his people.
No, no.
You can't believe that the doctor has met him before and he is a
friend.
I mean, this is one of the things that I think a lot of the
cliches of the 1980s where, but where I feel that the Doctor Who
universe is suddenly getting much smaller is the doctor has been
here before, people are talking about, they know about time
lords.
Suddenly Neglos can invade the Tartars to see what's going on.
There's this encroaching in space that seems to be shrinking to
me.
Once I felt even back in season 17, like the universe was vast.
All of a sudden, even with the last story, the doctor wants to go
on a holiday, this is a recurring theme that's going to keep on
going.
Everything just seems to be shrinking.
Do you know, I think that there's a positive side to that, because
I know what you mean, and I don't like that stuff either, where
suddenly everyone knows about time lords, that's terrible or the
doctor's famous.
But we complained, I think, during the kind of Hingecliff era, and
to a lesser extent, under Williams, that when you have just the
doctor and one companion, there's no world building.
You know, we just, we don't even, we go on a four-part adventure.
We never mention it again and we're off on the next adventure, we
don't remember last week's adventure.
Whereas what we do have here is a kind of world building.
Um, and it's something that's introduced in this, where the world
has kind of characteristics, there, things that happen last week
carry on into this week.
So, you know, Romana opens it in her sailor suit repairing the
damage canine had last story.
And so it becomes a bit of a continuous story that has a shape
that takes place in an identifiable world.
And I like that a lot.
I like that.
I actually wrote down on my notes here. about the fact that she's
in the same costume.
We're seeing the repercussions of last week.
I like that.
It's just that when the doctor suddenly goes to his, he's met
Zester before and all that sort of stuff, and I just think it's a
really, a really weak way of getting into the story without
actually landing and discovering people and that sort of thing.
And I think, you know, maybe it's a quicker way to get into things
but it makes it feel like you, if you're a casual viewer, am I
supposed to have seen this before?
And it is a tiresome trope, which will come as some trope of that
this entire era, the JNT era.
But the world building thing, I think, is the flip side of it.
It is associated with it.
We're now in a universe that has CVEs and has a shape and a story
an overall story.
And it's something, it's done okay in season 18.
It's done very poorly for the rest of the show's run until they
abandon it as an idea when Sylvester McCoy comes in, essentially.
And it's the thing that Russell really gets right, I think, is
giving the universe, which could just be utterly boundless, given
all of time and space, giving it a shape and a feel and a story, a
continuous story.
Yeah, I do agree with you though, Todd.
I think it's a real problem.
When the doctor turns up and says, oh, it's my old friend such and
such.
And that's something that Russell and Stephen Moffatt don't bring
back and another series that was really bad for it, which we bring
up on the podcast a lot is the Avengers and particularly the new
Avengers.
And someone actually did a spreadsheet for all the old friends of
John Steed who turn up in the new Avengers and are usually dead by
the time of the 2nd commercial.
And it's a lazy writing trick.
Our hero knows these people, so you should care about them as
well.
It's like, no, make us care about the movie, because we haven't
needed that for 17 years.
You know, we care about the rebels in the sun makers because of
Cordo.
You know, we meet Cordo, and that's just a little 102nd scene
where Leila stops him from jumping off a roof, and that creates
the relationship.
That being said, you can do, it can have an effect occasionally, to
use the Avengers as an example again, once they flip it on its
head, and it's an old friend of Emma Peel who turns up.
And he ends up dead.
But what that means is because she's so sort of Mary Tam like and
unflappable and never shows emotion.
When she finds out her friend is dead, she goes berserk.
She seems a bit unconcerned about that woman in the man eater from
Surrey Green, though.
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
Well, but you know, that's the thing.
It means in this scene in Murdersville, which was the 2nd last
episode, Diana Rick recorded. she got to do some real acting
instead of just looking aloof.
And we don't really get that here because Edward Underdown is so
terrible.
Most of his scenes with the doctor, spoiler alert, aren't actually
with the doctor.
So there's no emotional connection there whatsoever.
Where there is an emotional connection.
Oh.
So, this is a huge moment.
And it's kind of thrown away, a huge moment in the history of
Doctor Who, because we have Jackie returning to play Lexa, the
high priestess of the Dion.
So it's Barbara.
She doesn't have a cardigan, sadly, and she has like a giant long
gray braids and things, and she's back.
And I actually thought the last time I watched it, not the most
recent time when I watched it in preparation for the podcast.
The last time I watched it, was probably the 1st time I'd watched
Megloss after really properly falling in love with Jackie and
having seen it all of her episodes.
And I was really heartbroken by it.
You know, I thought she was thrown away.
But in fact, this time I think that she really lifts what is a
terrible part.
And I would agree with you.
Yeah, even as a kid, I watched this story and I didn't realise it
was her.
But I remembered her.
Yeah, right?
And when she was on the screen, I, you know, something that just
flicks through your mind is she's good.
There's something about her.
There's something, right?
And that, even though I thought she was being horrible to the
doctor, forcing him to be lying on a slab for what seems like 5
minutes as they're going to burn through some ropes to kill him at
the end of the episode, which is appalling people.
But she is just great in this.
Like her performance lifts it as she was saying.
It's a really thankless part.
She's sort of an intransigent base commander in a way.
So, like the whole society, the savants and the Dions, which is
just stupid. you know, like a sub Star Trek message story society
that we don't really get that much of in Doctor Who, maybe the
dominators.
But Nathan, it's so dumb because awful.
They would have to build the things around the doe decahedron to
begin with.
So they would have been working together and then the society
would have had to generate into these 2 groups, which is just...
And what are we learning?
Like, what are we learning about science and religion?
Like that religious people are stupid?
Is that what is that our take home message?
Because that's just dumb.
That's not interesting.
Like I'm not, you know, religious myself at all.
But, you know, like scientists are very smart and the scientists
are all just sort of horribly smug and rude.
Dietrich's particularly, is that his name?
Yeah, yeah.
He's an idiot.
Yep.
And it, well, even the doctor's a bit sort of snide about it, you
know?
And so, and so the idea is that Lex is the villain, really, in a
way, and she's stupid.
You know, she wants to sacrifice people.
But Jackie imbues her with so much intelligence and actually
manages to get her to convey a bit of warmth as well.
There's a great bit where they're arguing about where the
dodecahedron comes from.
And, you know, it's one of my most hated kind of scenes because
it's the sort of, as you well know. scene.
Is that what the trope's called?
As you well know.
TV tropes.
But we get that bit where she proclaims it descended from the
heavens, which in any other actor actor or actress's hands would
be awfully hammy, but it's Jackie, so it's wonderful.
And Deidrik says, no, not the heavens and she just says, like, she
brings it right back down.
Well, where?
And we cut to Zulfithura.
Leonard, I'm not going to leave you.
Sorry, I need to sign.
I didn't want to derail the Jackie thing, but I wanted to talk
about the scene, that scene with the sacrifice.
And I actually think that scenes of sacrifices now need to be
completely forbidden now and forever.
They're always terrible.
It's always a foregone conclusion.
The last scene with the sacrifice we had was that really terrible
one in underworld where it was not even the doctor, it was just
some guy's dad who we didn't care about.
Or the power of Kroll.
Oh, the power of crolls, sacrificing.
They're really terrible.
But the worst thing would be, can you imagine being the guy who
has to clean up after a sacrifice?
Because that rock was very clean.
Yeah, they drop a big rock on you and then someone has to come in
with a mop and bucket afterwards and sort of...
It's interminable.
Like that flame or whatever goes on and on.
It's like, it should be like falling.
It should be falling.
And Tom's kind of bored in that scene.
He does make a little bit of a play at sort of trying to shrink
down as if that will get him out of the way of the giant rock, but
it is terrible and so I'm declaring a complete and eternal
moratorium on scenes in which characters are going to be
sacrificed. never to happen again.
As would Barbara, you know, that's the thing.
Barbara's most famous thing in Doctor Who, isn't it?
She says there will be no sacrifice here.
And then she turns up again, dropping rocks on people.
And then she sacrifices herself literally out of nowhere.
When she screams Romana.
It's like where has that relationship been?
You have not earned that.
We need another scene to see a change.
Yeah, it would have been good as a way of emphasising that she was
a good person, you know, that she's not an evil person, even
though that she's the villain.
And, you know, maybe there's something about religion and self
sacrifice being linked and something could have been said about
religion having some value.
What it needed was a scene like that scene in Horror Fang Rock
where Leila talks to Adelaide, about superstition versus science
and how superstition has value, and, you know, you must trust the
old people of your tribe, but there are better ways in science.
And that, imagine that scene between Lala Ward and Jacqueline
Hill.
That makes me angry, just thinking about that, the waste. of her
in this role.
Yeah.
And the death, the death thing is poorly done as well because we
are not actually aware that those people are on the floor, I think
are we?
Like, is there an establishment?
No, no, they like if you saw... says Romana, then you see the guy
then the gunfires, then Jacqueline Hill dies almost out of shot.
Imagine if that scene had opened with us aware that there was a
Gaztak who was still kind of alive and had a loaded gun in his
hand and then the scene plays out with us aware that the death of
one of the characters is a possibility.
It still would have been terrible.
I mean, they just kill her to get her out of the way so they don't
have to deal with her in the plot.
Or imagine if she'd stayed alive and she had to learn those people
had to learn to live together.
Couldn't Vastor have been killed instead?
Yes.
That game's over.
Oh, Romana dead.
And then she stepped and said, well, we have to unite our people.
The 2 women characters could have done that.
In the original script, she doesn't die, but she just doesn't
appear again.
You know, they go back up to the surface, she stays underground.
It was actually Bidmead who said, you know what, this character is
starting to change her mind and she's played by an old companion.
How about we have her sacrifice herself?
So, the sacrificing herself thing isn't necessarily a bad idea.
But as you say, Todd, there's no buildup to it.
It doesn't mean anything.
I just feel that Christopher HPM is done work on episode one. to
set you up, but he has not had time to do very much to the next.
Right.
I mean, might have done some, but just, you know, he's had to
concentrate on full circle and Warriors Gate and that sort of
thing.
And also, as we'll discuss, in 2 weeks time, he does 2 rewrites of
state of decay.
But I'll come back to why he does that.
Meglos.
The Megalomaniac.
That's why it's called Megloss.
I do have a problem that it's a cactus type creature.
And no, no, no, it's fun in that sense like that absorbs into
other people, but the whole, this is where I get a bit of problem
with some of Christopher H.
Bidmean stuff is that when I start to think about it and go, okay
so his whole society managed to then create the dojecahedron and
all this technology where they can do time bending things, but
he's still a cactus.
He still needs to have the body of a 1980 human that the pirates
have obviously had to go to earth to get.
So where how long has that taken them to get him?
There's little things like that in the plot where I'm just there
going... have the cactuses build the screens.
It does seem like a difficult thing for them.
And so it's when that logic fails for me.
That's when I have problems with stories. as we've heard in the
past.
But obviously, it does give Tom Baker, in this case, the
opportunity to act.
Yeah, again, take 2 stories in a row.
It a record.
And his performance, the stillness in his performance as Meg Loss
and then when he has to have that all that makeup on, I just think
again, I hate the costume.
I still hate the costume.
I hate Ramana's costume is doing this, but it's given him this
opportunity, you know?
Yeah, it's so different.
And I think that's why I'm struggling with the costume is because
in these 2 stories, Tom is actually acting and it's not what I'm
used to.
And it's good.
Like, he's really still, he's really awkward.
He's kind of cold, but he does still do whimsical doctory things
in a kind of off-putting way.
It's not, you know, evil chatter performance.
It is quite restrained.
Yeah, and that restraint is most obvious in the scene where he
says, I swear allegiance to time.
Of course, I was, we're allegiance.
But he and he does that so well.
And there's also that wonderful nonsense line, which is having
lived in the future, I cannot die in the past.
And you get this little look on Caris's face of, no, that doesn't
make sense.
And it's right that it doesn't make sense because this is the clue
that he doesn't actually know what he's talking about, and that's
what makes Cara suspicious of him.
And again, that's not spelled out in the plot, but I think it's
there in the performances.
I also think that Christopher Owen, the human he takes over, does
a very good job because he gets to be the scared human who is
basically after dent.
He gets to be Meglos.
He does the voices.
He does the voice of the cactus and also there's Megalos hymn at
the end of episode one and that great bit where he tries to
escape.
And for Doctor Who.
That looks really good, and it's really well performed by him and
Tom.
It's also interesting at the end of the story, like he's on board
the TARS, and maybe reference that in the very next story against
this whole world building thing there with a bit of continuity
through it.
I don't like Romana's costume in this.
I think it's too thrilly and she gets to run through yet another
fake forest with a band of captains.
That's the 2nd time loop of the story.
She's taking them round and round and round in circles just so
that she can stay out of the plot.
I mean, they don't bring the doctor and Romana into the plot until
episode two.
Romana doesn't get to be in the plot because she's wandering
around in, like, it's not even a B plot.
It is just wasting precious time in the shortest 4 part story in
Doctor Who history.
That's terrible.
There's all sorts of pacing and script problems here.
I think the forest is all right.
I think it's better.
I think the, yeah, I think the plants and that are quite good, but
it's over there in the corner of Studio 3.
That's how Forrest and we just have to keep using that little...
In fact, she has to run really, really slowly away from the gas
tax because she's only got like 3 metres of forest to run in.
It's just running forever.
That shockingly bad cliffhanger to episode two.
And my 2nd moratorium of the episode is no more cliffhangers
please, where the last line is kill him or her.
Yeah, that's right.
She seemed too much kill her.
Yeah, no more cliffhangers where the last line is kill her or kill
him.
You know what's better than you've seen too much.
I'm gonna kill you, is probably, oh, this probably looks really
strange.
Let me explain.
We're setting up a factory.
You know, try to, 1st of all, try to convince the person that
actually looked, what you thought you saw was bodies.
They weren't bodies.
Come and have a look, like Tobias Vaughn does.
Nathan is looking at a picture I have up on my iPad, because the
giant, lush, aggressive vegetation seems to have been co opted for
Pokémon.
This is victory bells. the Pokémon.
It looks exactly like it.
It looks lush and aggressious.
So we'll put up a picture of victory bell on the website.
I look forward to it.
Going back to a positive of this story, and you mentioned it
earlier, is the fact that this is the 1st use in the BBC of scene
sync, emotion control technology.
Tom can move and it can move with you as they're walking out of
the ship.
So again, in this story, despite the failings of the script and
certain actors.
We've got a team that are trying to push technology forward and
use new technologies.
Yeah, yeah.
Because John Nathan Turner was reluctant to make the story because
he said to Christopher and me.
But yeah, you know, it's so typical and there's nothing new about
it and bid me very wisely say, John, we have no scripts.
You know, let's do something kind of ordinary.
And I think that's why they try and push it visually so much.
And, you know, even though it's an in studio forest, it's much
better than Eden, in my opinion.
Oh, yeah, easily.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
The writers did want it to be on location, but John Nathan
Turner.
And I think with the stories we have coming, very wisely decided
to put it all in the studio, because we have some wonderful
location work coming up in the next 2 stories, and of course, the
final story of the season, because we do have 3 studio bound
stories this season.
But I would argue that they're far more effective than the Studio
Bound stories we had under Graham Williams, and I love Graham
Williams.
But I also think that they're writing to say, well, we need a
studio now.
How can we do it?
And the directors are thinking about how to do it.
And we'll talk about that when we get into those particular
stories.
I do think it's funny at the end of this story. like reminds me a
bit of underworld where that stupid computer gets her bombs back
and then she doesn't know what to do with them.
And so here at the end, Meglos is desperate because everything's
going to explode.
I just laugh every single time that it's all going to go horribly
wrong.
I actually think that the character of Meglos is kind of
interesting.
And I think that this story, it is a bit of a throwback to the
Graham Williams era, but it is sort of thematically a throwback as
well.
I joked earlier that he's called Megloss because he's a
megalomaniac and he's a megalomaniac cactus, which is even more
hilarious.
And the doctor and Meglos both played by TV's Tom Baker, in
episode 4, have a conversation, where Meglos makes it clear that
he wants to rule the universe, and the doctor expresses his
opinion that that's a stupid idea that that's a ridiculous
ambition.
And that's the theme, isn't it?
of the Graham Williams era, that the people who want to rule the
universe are dull and unimaginative and stupid, and it's much
better to explore the universe and to be witty and fun and enjoy
yourself.
I actually think that that, this is kind of the last hurrah of
that theme until, you know, earth shock turns up with its talk of
a well-prepared meal.
And that's one of my favourite things about the Graham Williams
era, I think, is that humour is humour and wit. and fun are the
most valuable thing in the universe.
Jethric after all.
This story is the lowest rated.
Tom Baker, the only one under 5 million, 4.65.
So, you know, if you're the powers that be, we're 2 stories into
this very long season and Time to cancel it, I think.
Yeah.
You know what?
I do think Doctor Who may have ended this year, if not for Barry
Letts, because there was exactly that kind of criticism from BBC
management, and it was actually Barry Letts, who wrote to BBC
management, and said, no, John Nathan Turner's doing a wonderful
job.
Barry, let's essentially said, every day my duties are getting
less and less because he is completely capable.
I understand you put me in as an oversight role because he hadn't
produced before.
Pretty much the problems are the television environment.
We have big competition from elsewhere, but the quality of stories
we have.
We are really, really back on track.
It was around this time that Tom started thinking about leaving.
So that was mentioned as well.
But in later years, Barry Lett said that, you know, kind of by the
time of production of full circle, his only real role was looking
over the final camera scripts and suggesting, oh, no, this would
be a better idea, or that would be a better idea.
John Nathan Dono very quickly took control, as we'll discuss later
on, I think what actually saved the series was Tom Baker's
departure.
I would agree with you But not blaming Tom for that, just the
injection of new blood.
But we still have a long way to go before that.
I'm sure you've probably both heard the story, but I don't know
how much truth there is to it either, given the originator.
But apparently, at the end of The Lodger in season five.
I know where you're going.
Gareth Gareth Roberts has said that one of his original drafts, the
occupier of the ship above the Aikman Road flat was actually
Meglos.
How was that possible Megalos was destroyed?
Well, he met the facted himself on a wavelength of light.
He was indestructible.
Yeah, and Megloth does get back in his little cabinet at the end
before the thing goes down.
So, you know, maybe maybe he Harriet Jones did out of there.
But the script that Gareth Roberts provided to Doctor Who magazine
was essentially saying, oh.
And the doctor says, who?
Um, oh, Alexa rings a bell.
Um, look, that was a long time ago.
You know, I don't really remember, and the whole joke of the
episode would have been that the Megloss has been tracking the
doctor and the doctor has no idea who Megloss is.
He's just forgotten.
I think it would have been very easy for him to slip in that extra
page into the script just so that Russell can have a bit of a
chuckle.
No, I don't.
The thing that makes me wonder, if there's any truth to it is, of
course, we later find out that it's a spaceship of the silence
because when the doctor 1st goes up there, he sees a body of a
silence, but then when Amy says to him later, you know, who was in
the ship, he says there was no one there.
And, you know, you don't realise why that is until a few episodes
later.
But I like to think that maybe at some point that crossed Stephen
Moffatt's desk and Moffatt just said, really, Gareth, really?
But...
It's bizarre.
For someone, for an era, often accused of removing the fun.
This story is remarkably fun, and Brotadak is really funny, and of
course we get that we get the whole thing of his, his name is an
anagram of bad actor.
Oh is it really?
Yeah, he's terrifically good though.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
It was written before he was cast.
And, of course, we have Bill Fraser as General Grugger, who is the
story that he only took the role if he got to kick canine, which
is correct.
Yep.
See, I don't really warmed his performance.
Like, I think it's fine, but...
But I really like Roger Zak.
Yeah.
But something I really like about General Gregory is, he could
have easily been another Torpen.
You know, he could have easily been some kind of stereotype, but
instead, you know, he's not incredibly clever, but he's quite
shrewd.
He's cleverer than Brottadak.
He feels like a character rather than a caricature.
It's funny how similar this is to creature from the pit, isn't
it?
It's really, really similar.
And in some respects, it's better, like visually, it's better
although the creature from the pit had that great film work.
Yes.
But script wise and thematically, we had so much to say about what
creature from the pit said about, you know, capitalism and
scarcity and stuff, it had real ideas in it.
This one had scientists are smart and religious people are stupid
as its central conceit, and that's just, you know, A, hackneyed
and B, horrible.
Yeah, you know, if it had been, I was going to say, if it had been
derived by more experienced writers, but the idea, the idea came
from the writers, it wasn't Christopher Bid me saying, I'd like a
story about science versus a religion, guys.
It's just a matter of, you know, if they'd had more time.
And no one's really to blame for that because Graham Williams
actually left the new production team.
Far more than what Philip Hinchcliffe had left him.
And again, that wasn't Hinchcliffe's fault that the vampire
mutations had to be gotten rid of.
But the thing Graham Williams essentially left them with two
scripts in development.
And, yeah, so this is the first one commissioned by the new
production team.
And, you know, the 1st one commissioned by the new production team
is usually a bit ropey.
You know, we had the Invisible Enemy was the 1st one commissioned
by...
Yeah, it's just, if they had have had an extra week to work on the
scripts, I think this one would be a lot more fondly remembered
but as it is, it's ironing Doctor Who.
It's an ironing movie.
As we rocket away from an explosion on Zolphithura, we're heading
into far deeper danger next week in full circle, until then, you
can find us a flight through entirety.com, flight through entirety
on Facebook, and iTunes and FTE podcast on Twitter, over on Bond
Finger, we have a variety of bond commentaries available, and Bond
Finger cast on Twitter, Bond Finger on Facebook and iTunes.
Until we see you next week, may none of your cactuses try to
possess you and take over Krego, and thank you very much for
listening and good night.
Good night.
See you soon.
That was Flatthrough Entirety with Todd Bealby, Nathan Bottomry
and Brendan Jones.
Theme arrangement by Cameron Lamb.
This episode, by the power of bad acting, was recorded on February
20th.
The next episode will be released on April 17th.
If shrinking a D12 is the ultimate impossibility, you should see
what I can do with a D20.
Can we talk about Megloss?
Well, I haven't finished with Jackie.
Yes, we can talk about Jackie somewhere.
So I want to talk about that.