Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to Flightthrough Entirety
the only Doctor Who podcast who will make life intolerable for
those who remain.
I'm Brendan.
I'm Nathan.
And I guess I should take this plastic bag off my head now.
It could be advisable because we're about to get a shock of earth
shattering proportions.
Well, is historical Sentinel or something like that?
I don't know.
Well, there was an artistic Clark short story called Central Along
which Stanley Kubrick made a certain film based upon him in 1968.
I wasn't Arthur C.
Clarke not actually that happy with how much the film changed?
It kind of, you know, he wrote it.
He wrote it.
Let's do a Kubrick podcast.
I've been to Clark's house. stood in his little room and
everything and it's a lot more interesting than what we're about.
No, that's not fair, is it?
Listen, it's Malcolm Clark.
Listen, listen, listen.
Can we talk about the music?
No, it's not.
It's Malcolm Cluck.
We haven't had this since the sea devils.
So we remember the sea devil's music because that was Malcolm
Clark playing a synthesiser with his face.
Bill Ody string vests.
Well, in the same way that this is lovely, genuine instruments.
We have a bass clarinet, a space clarinet.
And this one, and we have, oh, golly, samples.
You know, when the clanging noises is actually BBC film cans being
banged together and then put through the DX 70.
Yeah, I think that's a metaphor.
I love this music. really do.
Did you always put slightly clever things.
There's something called a gamelon.
I don't actually, do you know what that is?
Gamelin?
Gamble in that sort.
No, I think they had guns oozing out of their noses, didn't they?
That's the next story.
I think a Gamelon is, it's very nice shirt.
So with prosciutto.
Yes, I was just going to say, oh, boom, tish, boom, tish.
And there are, you know, there are little bits.
There's Saint Sons carnival of the monsters.
Carnival of the monsters.
When Nissa discovers the bones.
And then there's a bit of Mala's third.
You know, the bit where it gets really nature-esque.
That also thrown in here.
He was told, he was told by the directors to do space adventures.
We want another 60s thing that worked so considerably well every
time we saw a cyber person or indeed a yeti person.
And indeed, this will become a motif for the cybermen over the
next few appearances, the kind of the banging and the clanging.
I think Malcolm Clark said that his kind of motivation or idea
behind the cyber theme with the clanging.
Was his pay at the end of the week.
But also he thought of girders being struck together.
And of course, you know, the BBC can't literally don't have enough
to rub 2 girders together.
So they hired Janet Field.
Oh, that's tough.
Dear listener, as we speak this week, there's been a rather
amusing Twitter spat.
Oh, yeah.
Is that the, is that the correct, correct?
It's like a minor collision, isn't it?
What?
I don't know.
But yeah, Janet Fielding took to Twitter to say that she was a bit
confused by the next run of big finished scripts because Adrix
being very brave in them, to which Matthew Waterhouse responded.
I'm never confused by big British scripts except for when Tegan's
intelligent.
But wait, that never happens.
I had to step in, actually, and do Niss's line from a scene in
Earthshock episode one and I told them, oh dear, this is all
getting rather silly, isn't it?
Which everybody got.
Everyone did.
You were the Sarah Sutton all the time.
Yes.
Oh dear.
And again, We're not talking about the show.
Much like last week we're avoiding talking about the actual show.
This is the one where things happen in a surprisy way when you
very 1st watch it.
Yes.
And everyone remembers it being stylish and clever and fresh and
good.
Don't we?
I actually think the 1st episode is good.
I kind of hate Earth shock.
I think...
It's really a harbinger of terrible things to come.
Yeah, but it's the 1st off the rank, isn't it?
This is a season of glorious 1st of glorious overtures and then
fizzing out, you know, TS Elliott. endings, yeah.
So we haven't really had Space Marines before.
And the show is going to go back to it.
But this sort of, this version of the future is quite new for the
program, I think.
And the 1st episode is genuinely terrifying, I think.
So you've got Walters in front of his little microfiche screen
thing, you know, on the surface on location for no particular
reason, which makes it great.
That looks good.
That looks tremendous.
And, you know, he's completely powerless to help as, you know, the
lights go out on the screen to indicate that that various people
are being killed.
There's stacks of women, like heaps of the characters are women
for no reason.
To get killed.
Oh, they get killed.
And do you remember, I remember seeing for the 1st time that sort
of pizza that Snyder turns into?
And that's that's genuinely terrifying.
Something the new series does very well is when aliens come along
and they kill people, but they kill people in a particular way.
You know, the way that the Zygons turn people into tumbleweeds or
you know, that kind of thing.
And here, you know, the cyberman turning the Androids turning
these people into pizzas is really scary.
It's a great visual.
You know, you get Snyder's name plate sort of embedded in this
sort of terrible snot gunk that she's turned into.
It's pretty nicely done. predicating both the episode 4 and and um
the next series, the next serial to come up.
Indeed.
Something I really like about episode one, as something we
complained about, I certainly will complain about in the future
but I actually think the argument between the doctor and Adric is
reasonably well written and well performed.
You know, it's not Shakespeare, but it's actually...
No one's ever accused of that. works, doesn't it?
Obviously, Davis, when he gives a good performance, but I really
think that Matthew Waterhouse rises to it and presents it.
Not for the 1st time.
But presents his limes not in a sort of whinge, whiny way.
This isn't a teenage temper tent from like in like 4 to doomsday.
This is this is actually someone realising how far they are from
home and how distant they are and the fact, you know, their best
friend really died a few weeks ago and they've been trying to come
to terms with that.
It's kind of a, it's a culmination of themes that haven't really
been explored anywhere near as successfully as themes were
explored last year in Doctor Who.
So they're kind of drawing together disparate threads that we have
to make up ourselves.
But I do think the argument is really good.
And it kind of highlights the difference between Tom and Pete in
that if that argument had happened in a Tom story.
And I'm not laying this at Tom, but the writers just would have
gone, oh, no, the doctor would have just shut that down straight
away.
Whereas the Pete doctor.
No, the Pete doctor actually gets involved in the argument and, you
know, that's his emotions getting better.
I'm going to go over to you now, Nathan, because you are wincing
in pain.
Well, I actually have, I listened to my notes on the way here and
they have the word teenage temper tantrum in them.
I think it's the weakest part of the episode.
I think everything else is really good.
I hate the fight between them.
And I think it's because it comes out of nowhere.
It's full of these sort of ludicrous continuity references to last
year, which no one was watching.
And it's just, it's just not fun.
They do a bad job of characterising everyone.
You know, whenever they try and do this soap opera stuff, it's
always just ham fisted and shockingly bad.
I don't think the instinct to have that sort of soap opera stuff.
Um, you know, comes from a bad place.
I think it's a really good thing and um, and when Russell does it
you know, in the revival, I think it's spectacular.
But these characters are all, they're so kind of plot driven, they
don't have identifiable characteristics.
I mean, who's been teasing Adric.
We haven't even seen it.
You know, he's, he refers to all these grudges and grievances he
has about things that we've never seen on screen.
Well, for for to Doomsday.
The doctor kind of leaves him behind at the beginning to go off
exploring with Tegan.
And Matthew Waterhouse does have a jealous reaction to that.
Certainly Kinder as well.
Like, the doctor throughout the story, saying, no, Adrik, don't do
it, no, don't touch that.
Don't take your own.
No, don't do it.
And certainly we didn't have it in Black Orchid.
Visitation.
Adric does express frustration that he's looking.
Why is the doctor never around when you want him?
Do you get the impression this entire season is the 5th doctor
trying to lose his companions?
under plastic mobiles, at airports, and caves, wandering around
spaceship decks that look like they should be holding 4
trancassettes all up the walls, that kind of, you know, this
is...
And he'll get there in the end, won't he?
Is that the Delta Wavorg mentor?
No, it's the Uintan Asia machine.
I mean, the Delta, yeah, the Waggle, mental. that's right More of
this to come.
So what is this story?
Let's play with narrative the way that this doesn't.
I like its linearity.
I like that it does, what we now see as stock SF, but back then
was reasonably fresh.
It's Starship Troopers, if you like, in the way the Doctor Who
does it.
We haven't even got to the whole...
This is performed, James Cameron's 2nd aliens.
Yeah, yeah.
It really kind and it really kind of presages it in a way, but of
course we have our own Sigourney Weaver, don't we?
Now, this is the best thing...
In the history in the history of thing.
Yes, it's all getting wrong.
So it's Beryl Reed.
It's Beryl.
And Reed. let's have a moment I have a little, I have a little
warm, happy mental image in my personal happy place where I go
back and sit down and imagine to myself Eric Saywood's reaction
when he learns that Beryl Reed has been cast as the cap perplexed
quasi, but not entirely faded, redied.
X soap star.
But of course, the principal in the killing of Sister George, which
she played a maniacal and predatory lesbian character.
And here she is repraising that role.
Do you know who she was 1st cast in this?
You might think it was Dennis Hopper or it was Pat Phoenix.
Now, who amongst us?
Okay.
This is this is the law 101 or Gaylord 101.
Pat Phoenix is, apart from if you're a Morrissey fan, you know
exactly who she is. because she's been on a cover.
She played Elsie Turner in Coronation Street, pretty much from
when it started, the Matriarch, the, on her own life, was
miserable enough to create, you know, an entire Tammy when it's
song cycle, but her, her own, um, her, you know, meteoric fag hag
level, we're talking here to the bone.
And her stepdaughter was married to the ex-prime minister of Great
Britain because that's what happens to soap stars.
Not to them, but only to their families.
So they can sit there and be miserable and watch other people's
happiness just one generation away and then act it out on the
telly.
So it was always meant to be some really, really clever postmodern
lampooning of the, um, of the, the blokey bloke in the
leatherette.
She wears gloves a lot, doesn't she?
She does.
I remember her in the goodies.
Remember, she's dessire a car.
She is.
Thank you.
Nicely segued to letters.
She is Desiree SC.
Tartos.
How to make babies by doing dirty things.
She had a wonderful, they were saying that she was kind of not
quite as, as with it as she had been the 10, 15 years before.
But yeah, Beryl Reed was known for having a fantastic sense of
humour.
Joe Orton adored her.
And the story goes that in entertaining Mr. Sloan, the character
of Kathy, was written for her.
So that's one worth looking up as well.
What's not to love in this story?
Everything else apart from Beryl Reed.
I have no problem with Beryl Reed's casting at all.
People say, oh, you know, no, she's small and she's got a tango
wig and she's a woman.
It's like, you know what?
She is a freighter captain.
She is a space trucker.
There is no reason this character cannot be a small, yet
formidable woman when she is.
And how often we know that to be the case.
It's very podcast, yes.
But when she's chewing out the doctor and ad dragon telling them
off.
I find her completely believable.
Yeah, so I. She's really, really fun.
And her 2nd in command is a woman as well.
June Bland. person, yeah. who will be back in Battlefield.
Have you noticed that June Bland has an eye for the boys?
When they're about to leave the space station.
Oh, dear.
When they're about to leave the space station.
So Briggs and Berger are sitting at Sulu's navigation console at
the front of the bridge.
And a male member of the crew, let's call him a steward brings
them both a drink.
June Bland as Berger. checks him out as he walks away.
And I know she sort of notices him put down the drink and sort of
half turns to check out his, oh, so he walks away.
And it's whether it's the actress saying, oh, hello, like doing
the Leland Chin, who was that beautiful?
Anyway, or she's channelling Peter Grimwade's direction.
Yes, indeed.
Or, you know, it could be a character thing.
And especially, this is made in 1981 slash 82, certainly broadcast
in 82.
I think the actresses would have been aware that this is a
traditionally, I use the word in inverted commas, traditionally
male role.
So I think she's actually deciding, I'm going to engage in some
traditionally male behaviour of ogling the bright young thing next
to me as the object of desire.
And it's just a very subtle touch.
I think I only noticed it or by the 2nd or 3rd time watching
because this is another one I came to later, but I think it's a
lovely character moment.
Literally the only casting change I would make in the story is I
would actually swap them round.
I've got no problem with Beryl.
But I love June Bland.
Is she Robin's wife?
Yes, she is also invented by the BBC script department.
Brilliant.
She's modelled by Richard Gregory.
She built her head, yeah.
I like the interaction between Ringway and Beryl Reed.
So Ringway is clearly gay, isn't he?
Yeah, and clearly no good, therefore.
And so she's sort of like an angry old woman who's kind of
contemptuous of his homosexuality, which is why she's always
riding him.
I just think it's really terrific.
And I love his delivery of that stupid cliffhanger line.
On this ship we execute murderers, you know, it's very
threatening.
He's going to scratch their eyes out the moment the reprise starts
I think.
This feels like it was entirely formulated simply to be a
wellspring for slash fiction, doesn't it?
I do.
Moving straight along.
I do love he's finished some kind of report.
He says something like, I find the disappearance of 2 crew members
rather more important.
And there's like a 102nd pause and Beryl Reid says, you're
beginning to ball.
I love the way she delivers, you know, when they discover Ringway
is still alive and she says a pity.
I just composed a particularly nasty epitaph for it.
Actually, you know what?
Beryl Reed is terrible casting in this role.
Why isn't she a villain somewhere?
Cheers.
Just on our side.
Davison maybe has driven this, but everyone else has then jumped
on because this is how rumours start, that Ms. Reid had no idea
what she was doing and no idea what the lines meant. and was
apparently terribly befuddled on set.
I don't really get that impression watching it on screen.
Well, the thing is, I think perhaps she didn't understand the
scientific obbledy-gook, but you don't have to.
Patrick Troughton didn't understand the scientific gobbledy-gook
didn't even bother.
LaVar Burton on Star Trek the Next Generation famously says, you
know, I would get the script, and the original script just
features the word tech, and I knew I'd get the techno babbling
explanation on the day.
It would just be a matter of me saying, so what emphasis does this
word have?
Okay, good.
I'll read it.
That's the thing with acting actors don't need to understand what
they're saying.
They need to pretend to understand what they're saying, just like
they don't really need to be a timelord with 2 hearts from the
planet Gallifrey and the constellation, custerberus.
They need to pretend they're a time lord with 2 hearts from...
And highlights... compilation of...
Yeah, blah, blah, blah.
I'm not correcting that, dear listener.
You can have that one for free.
It's funny that because is Peter the 1st method doctor, is Peter
the 1st Stanislovsky, Krasner, doctor.
But I finding, if everyone around him, he's actually the one
coming off the blandest and the most two-dimensional in this.
And yet, he's always, you know, we have the receive law that he's
the finest actor so far to have shared Doctor Who as a proper
professional actor.
I'm not getting it.
No.
You don't need to be an, well, you do need to be an actor.
The new series has good actors and good acting moments, but this
is not the kind of script, really, that requires acting.
And some of the acting is pretty lamentable.
Like, I don't think Kyle is very good.
There's a scene towards the end where the cybermen are heating up
the doors and everyone has to do, oh, this metal is terribly hot
acting, and Matthew Waterhouse looks ridiculous, and so does Beryl
Reed trying to do it.
You know, like both ends of the experience and talent spectrum
fail at what the script is getting them to do.
You know, I think that the big problem here is that it's massively
clunky and unimaginative, and the space Marines are just
terrible.
So the doctor picks up all the space Marines, transports them in
the TARDIS, and they all sort of wander up.
Yeah, Kyle actually goes off and gets a hair done.
She's fabulous.
So she gives Tegan her cover also that she can be Ripley in this
week's episode.
Because you can't hold a gun if you're dressed in a skirt
apparently.
No, or those heels, those purple heels.
Yeah, I would have actually liked...
That would be great.
But the whole thing is just really terrifically dull and
unimaginative and it is just a lot of people with guns shooting a
lot of other people with guns.
It's the beginning of what will become a problem with Eric
Saywood.
And it becomes all the more evident with his next, really his next
3 scripts and his final script for the program, will take it to a
ridiculous conclusion, for reasons not entirely his own fault, but
I'm getting ahead of myself.
It's that Eric Saywood doesn't actually like having the doctor in
his stories.
Yeah, yeah.
He does everything he can to introduce other characters.
And literally the doctor turns up in episode one.
Yes, he diffuses the bomb and tells the soldiers how to defeat the
androids, but his main purpose is to get Scott and his Marines to
the ship.
Now, I really like James Warwick's performance.
I think he's very good.
And he's also really good with Peter Davidson.
And Tommy and Tuppence.
That's right.
When Davidson played Francesca Anis, that was a great pairing.
And it's lovely they reprised it here, but with stick on
moustaches.
James Warwick, though, gets the unenviable thing, which often
happens in Doctor Who stories, where at the end of episode one
he's holding a gun to the doctor's head, saying, do it or dine.
At the top of episode two, he has to treat the doctor like an old
friend.
But James Warwick actually kind of makes it work because he
doesn't really lose that suspicion.
Just the accent.
He just loses the blokey accent and goes all RP and suddenly
suddenly he suddenly goes from Dougie Campfield to Murray Watson
from episode one to episode two.
He gets a few pips and goes to Santa.
Are you sure you want to go down?
It could be rough. do hope so.
Check on notes on that one.
I love the supporting cast.
I love there's a lot of lady people.
Lady actors.
Including the Androids have breasts.
Androids from episode. and female android.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that was specified by Eric Saywood to kind of add to the
mystery of who are these people.
He wanted to give people the impression that they could they could
be human.
Yeah.
And then there's a really exciting reveal around the Mecano phoney
TARDIS consoles prop and it's the 3 blokes in silver suits and
then, wow, look what that did to the ratings.
Yes, they dropped a whole 1000000 for episode two.
Sorry, famously, John Nathan Turner was asked by the radio times
do you want to have a cover for the return of the cybermen, which
is what Richard was referring to just there?
And John Nathan Turner for... his own reasons.
But possibly the 1st and now I think he understands the reason why
the last time said, no, I want it to be a surprise.
It's like Christopher Pine in education funding.
It's such a dumb surprise.
It really is.
We haven't seen them for 8 years.
Most people aren't going to know what they are.
Do you think the younger or the casual viewer won't remember?
No, and it's like a Doctor Who Monster book thing.
Ooh, you know, the cybermen.
They were always really terribly disappointed in that.
Here they are. once again.
And I think they look terrible.
I love them. when I 1st saw them.
I was going to say as a kid.
I think we should have as a kid as one of our drinking games.
I love them as a kid, but I now think they're terrible.
And the reason that I think they're terrible is they're clearly
made of aluminium these days...
They've got details on their face.
And the cybermen, the great thing about the cybermen was how blank
and sort of terrifyingly featureless they were.
And all of that is thrown away.
They struck. you know, David Banks has his hands on his hips.
You've got his camp, left tenant, with the terribly posh voice
which will become a thing.
I think the cybermen are terrible from here on in until Russell
reinvents them.
Isn't it just the Christopher Robbie acting school?
Established itself and we now have carcass slash cyber leader in
every single...
I think they're wondrous.
What do you think?
I absolutely agree.
And I think part of the reason, and it's also the reason that they
work best with Pete's doctor is...
They have emotions, whereas he doesn't.
Well, the criticism we've raised with Anthony Ainley, of course
and it comes back to something you always say, Nathan, the master
should be the opposite of the doctor.
Yeah, yeah.
Now, Pete's doctor is this slightly uh, retiring introverted
introspective character who values um, who values friendship and
emotion and affection.
And a well-prepared man.
And me, alikeness and aloofness, and the casual losing of
companions, hither and yon.
Yeah, and viewers.
Whereas, whereas the cybermen, now, are these Bolshy and
extravagant in the way they present themselves and yet are
manipulative and horrible, and they become the opposite of
Davison's doctor.
And those scenes with Davison and David Banks as a cyber leader
face to face.
I'm critical of Peter Davidson's acting.
I am critical of Peter Davidson's performance, but in that, it's
like he's looking into the eyes of a human opponent, he is
treating this with utter sincerity and seriousness.
Yeah, Peter rises when he's actually got someone to work against
doesn't he?
Yeah, yeah.
Sylvester McCoy would later say he didn't really feel like the
doctor until he did his Dalek story.
I think this is where Peter Davidson starts to, Oh yeah, I feel
like the doctor now.
And unfortunately then next year puts him to sleep.
But for those moments when he is toe to toe with the cyberleader
that is electric and that's his best moment so far.
Can we get back to the world prepared meal thing?
Can we go back to Mark Gadas's famous line of the 1st 2 moments in
that speech?
What else does he say that, you know, smeller, some flower and...
Yeah, and, you know, walk hand in hand with your with your
portrait of Picasso down the scene.
But seeing them sitting down in a nice charming bistro in outer
suburbs of London with melted candles on a Chianti bowl just
doesn't quite chill, does it?
Clunk.
I think that's a really terrible speech.
And I also think the terrible thing where he threatens to kill
Tegan and the doctor says no.
Well, maybe no.
But do you remember in the 10th planet?
And everyone, you know, mocks the sidemen from the town.
I don't think we do, but people love them.
Yeah, yeah.
Peter loved them, actually.
I think they're terrific, but they have an argument with Polly.
Do you remember where Polly says something about people dying and
you don't care?
And the cyberleader says, care.
The cyber leader says, well, there's people dying all over your
world right now and you don't care about them.
And the cyber, the cyber leader, he shouldn't, I shouldn't call
him that.
He's crang.
Yes.
He's in Archer too, isn't he?
But he wins that argument.
He does it really well and he shuts up and Billy goes, yeah, well
this argument isn't a patch on that.
No.
No, no.
No, because no one's taking the moral high ground here, are they?
Yeah, because the cyberman's response to, you know, you have no
emotions and you don't appreciate life is right.
Well I'm going to kill your friend.
But at the same time, that is, that is the way that entertainment
is going.
Of course, you know, we're shortly about to have the A team.
We've had Buck Rogers, you know, where everyone's got a ray gun.
We've had Battlestar Galactica, which is about killer robots.
And yeah, so the problem again is Doctor Who is starting to be
made to match other science fiction rather than to sometimes
borrow from other science fiction, but never seek to match it.
And I was very cautious there because I don't think it's fair yet
to blame that on Eric Saywood, even though he's the writer.
It will become a problem now that he's script editor.
And it was kind of a weird situation here where Anthony Root had
been the script editor for the 1st 3 stories of the season.
Then Eric Saywood took over for a 3 month probationary period
after which he was commissioned as a freelancer to write earth
shock, and Anthony Root came back and just read it and went, oh
yeah, you've missed an apostrophe there, right?
Where's my paycheque?
And... can't spell, say it.
Have you ever seen letters that he sends?
He just can't spell.
They're almost written in green ink, can't they?
He's creeping down the Yeah.
Well, I think I think it's worth noting that...
For any listeners who do have trouble with spelling, that
shouldn't be a barrier to you becoming a writer.
Because there are some very famous writers out there who are...
There's always Microsoft Word with it's a green squiggly
underlines.
You be fine.
And a talent app.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, yeah, it's more important that you have talent that you
are able to spell.
Eric Saywood can't do that.
This is prescient.
He's actually getting what the 80s is going to be.
You're just saying it.
And I think, look, on the slim way, the Doctor Who works, this was
fresh, exciting paste, and it is paste, and this Clark music is, I
can still hear in my head.
It's gorgeous.
Yes, it is.
Grimweight hated it for the listeners.
Grimweight hated this so much.
The score hated the score, but of course, when the BBC reissued
the music of the 80s, the subtitles earth shock, in case anyone
missed the point.
It's the best thing we've done this, I feel it's the best thing
that score they've had this season for at least.
I want Patty Kingsland or Peter Howell back the entire time.
Okay, okay.
Peter Howe might have done this story.
Patty Kingsland's kind of bouncy rock synth just wouldn't have
fitted.
Getting back to something you were saying to some Richard about
pace.
The camera script for the final episode, for those of you don't
know, dear listeners, the dialogue script would go to the director
who would then write their camera script, which detailed all the
shots.
Generally speaking, an episode of Doctor Who would have between 20
and 30 scenes.
So changing, setting, changing location.
The final episode of Earthshock ran to 89 scenes.
All of them terrible.
That's the final episode, Nathan.
Something kind of significant happens there.
Try and reprogram an alien computer that's actually just a couple
of diodes on an old cassette deck.
It's really difficult.
It's about to explode.
Why does it send the ship back in time?
It's a thing.
Because they really want the episode one ratings again.
You know, I actually think that all of that stuff is quite good.
And I've heard the complaint that Adrik dies just Adrik dies, by
the way.
Spoiler alert.
He's Luke's father as well.
You know, I've heard it said that he kind of throws his life away
and, you know, that it doesn't work.
But I actually think that is one thing about the writing that
works really well, that we know from the Tartar scene, that the
ship has slipped back in time, but I don't think Adrick does know
that.
No, no, he does.
He does, it gets better.
Because Adrick says we're travelling in time.
And Briggs says that's impossible.
And Matthew Waterhouse is given the unenviable line, which I think
he delivers quite well of, it is possible when you have an alien
computer strapped to your ship.
And it's...
It's one of those occasions where the line doesn't actually
explain anything, but Matthew Waterhouse says it like it explains
everything.
That's something I find so, so beautiful and so tragic about
this.
For the last episode, Adrick is actually being the doctor.
And he's good, you know, but the best thing about...
He's the Ramana all the time.
He's the noblest Romana of them all, apparently.
We know that since his travel back in time, he actually mustn't
stop the ship from crashing because it's been established in
episode one that that's what wiped out the dinosaurs.
And Pete has said something like that to Nissa and Tegan.
And so his attempts to diffuse the whole situation and save their
lives are wrongheaded and so he's trying to do something really
heroic that we know is the wrong thing to do.
And it's so adric.
You know, it is really kind of lovely.
And the fact that he really, really wants to solve the puzzle.
It's the 1st time his sort of mathematics has actually played a
role and he's about to save himself and he rushes off the ship.
And the fact that it's really telegraphed.
It's not a shock that Andrik's going to die because Pete says
goodbye to him and it's really kind of funereal, you know, and he
smiles and says, you know, I'm sure I'm going to be okay or
something, you know, I'll see you soon.
And I think from that point, you know, that Adrick's going to
die.
So I actually, you know, like it is kind of stupid.
It never pays off and we'll talk about that next week.
But I actually think that's probably the best bit about the
writing of the story.
You say it doesn't pay off.
Am I?
This is a revelation for I haven't shared for many years.
Am I the only one that made a black armband and wore it to school
next week?
Because I really did.
Everybody knew what I was on about.
My brother was my brother was 12 when this went out and he tells
me he was inconsolable.
Yes, a lot of the boys.
I remember one of the year 7 boys coming up and going, wasn't it
terrible?
And I don't think he meant it in the way that the podcast makes
it.
I missed it. really hit the us kids.
I did.
I missed it.
And I went to school the next day and everyone told me Adric had
died and it was years before I actually saw her.
No, what were you doing?
I don't know washing my hair.
I'll tell you who else this hit really hard.
Rod.
Really?
He was really, really upset.
Back then, even now...
He remembers it back then.
And the thing is, he moved to the UK shortly after this and he's
like...
You know, I kind of said to him, because he said that he never
really watched Colin and Silv.
I said, was that because you were living in the UK?
said, that was part of it, but also I kind of, I started to stop
watching after Adrick died.
I just thought it was so mean and horrible.
But the thing is, you know, we watch it again now and he's able
he's able to look at it a bit older and say, you know, I can see
that's groundbreaking on a really great piece of storytelling, but
it's it's so mean and unfair.
You know, we don't really get a departure as unfair as this.
Debatably Perry, but really until Catherine Tate, as Donna, I'd
argue.
I think that it's wrong to kill the companions generally.
I think it's a bad idea and it's it's terrible for the child
audience and it's it's a bit crummy.
I think this is well done.
I think the death of Katerina was just horrific.
That actually was still the most monstrous death on Doctor Who for
me for all time.
I think it was exactly the right thing to do for Matthew
Waterhouse's character and I like that they took him from whiny
companion and elevate him, simply elevated him simply through
intellect and some emotional engagement, which, damn it, he really
does only get, as you said, in this story to the point that you
actually feel, oh, this is someone I could have actually cared for
as a character.
And I think he's worked throughout this season. been building to
this.
And yeah, I'm, as I said, I've never been a waterhouse basher, so
to speak.
I think it's say, but is nasty.
You know, like his story...
He really does.
And if you read his novelisations, you can really, really see it.
They're unpleasant, I think.
The novelisation of this one, however, was it.
But number Ian Mata.
And isn't quite fantastic.
Only back in the day, the cover of Peter Davidson doing a Bolsho
ballet light splits with a gun pointing at a door is not really
the highlight of Target cover arts.
They really were appalling, but yes, within what's inside is a
hell of a lot better.
Yeah, I think I think those covers were the fault of an artist.
I've seen it.
Have you seen the original black and white?
He was lampooning, I can't really say homage in Chris Achilles
work from the target novel.
So he did a black and white dot drawing of Pete over a dinosaur, a
police box and a Dalek, you know, because that's what you do.
Whatever.
But he did actually look more like Reggie Perrin.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
And John Nathan Turner took it seriously and said, right, this is
why we can't have artwork covers.
We going to have photographic covers, which would be the next 2
years of target novelisations, season 19 and 20.
Almost all of them, I think, Black Orchid had an artwork cover.
But yeah, we would start getting artwork covers again in season
21.
And it's simply because in the same way that now film franchises
and TV franchises do it.
You have the photos of the stars to propel the media offshoots.
It was the right thing to ask, but it just didn't come off
visually.
Whoever was in the art department. whoever's kid who was on, you
know, school leave.
The visitation is shockingly bad.
I think it was Clayton Hickman at 4 years of age, wasn't it?
Ooh.
Well, he was only four.
I think that's rather harsh to Clayton to be honest.
This story, of course, was not the original story in the slot. much
like, um, much like Castravalva.
There was a different story in this slot by Christopher Priest.
He's one of my favourite SF writers of all time, apart from the
horrible things he did to Space 1979, not really his fault.
Does anyone here read the glamour of his things?
He did the prestige, didn't he?
Anyway, there's a few things he's done.
They're all really good and they've, in the, in the way that some
of the best Doctor Who stories do the play with narrative and
characters and twist time around.
Their high concept SF.
And I, Brendan, I really want to hear why why it didn't come off.
And is there a big Finnish version?
Well, the enemy within did actually reach a full script.
Did actually reach a full script stage.
And then the order came down that Adrik would be killed off in
this story because if we think back to Fort of Doomsday, when
either Tegan or Nissa were going to be written out at the end of
it, it was never intended to have 3 companions for ages.
Right.
So, yeah, the order came back that we're going to write our
address.
And Christopher Priest actually said, oh, okay, I can do it
because of X, Y, Z. What the enemy...
Oh, much darker one if he's...
What enemy within dealt with was it was going to be set entirely
inside the TARDIS?
And it was going to deal with a monster at the heart of the TARDIS
which embodies the doctor's deepest fears.
So it, you know, it's kind of some of the stuff we've got in the
most recent series finale, Heaven Sent and Hell Bent.
And I don't know whether the intention is that the doctor's fears
would kill Adric, which would be quite poetic.
But something happened and JNT asked for more rewrites.
At the time, it was sort of between...
There's not enough robots and soldiers shooting each other. in
this in this?
Where's Beryl?
But apparently, I would imagine the script was kind of between
Anthony Root and Eric Saywood, which is why JNT was dealing
directly with Christopher Priest, and there was a screaming match
between them on the phone, and Christopher Priest withdrew the
right for the script to be used entirely.
You know, didn't even say right, you can still use it, but you do
the rewrites yourself.
So I don't know exactly what went down there.
There isn't a big Finnish version.
Because the script's not available.
But you know what?
That being said...
Janet Fielding did say this week, she's confused by a script she
just received where Adric is very brave.
Ooh, maybe that's it.
Maybe they're doing a 5th doctor missing stories box there.
Project Z to Sigma.
And, you know what I mean?
The turn of Barry Jackson.
Where's my credit card?
We've just bought flight through entirely.
It got sexy.
We don't have any funds left at all.
And since Desiree Carthorse is in control of the ship.
I'm so glad you mentioned just a red car horse.
Have we also mentioned her Avatar, Mrs. Mary Whitehouse yet?
Because I don't know.
Maybe a gentle listener can remind us, was Mary Whitehouse still
actively opposed to Doctor Who?
Because there were so many letters in the radio times about this
story, mostly about the plastic bags over the cyberpersons
bonsers.
Why are they there?
Is it to prevent like dust getting in their sprockets while
they're being stored in these grain silos or something?
I think it was just visually, something they could pull off their
face and evoke tomb of the side men and the invasion.
And it's scary because it's something you're not allowed to do.
It shows you that they, you know, haven't even have to breathe.
They don't have to breathe the way that we do.
There was only one letter, I should add, complaining about Edric's
death from a Mrs. Mary Waterhouse.
Of North Wales.
John Nathan Turner did actually respond to that criticism about
the plastic bag, plastic and said, you know what?
Yes, we should have thought of that and we didn't.
Mia Koppel, we're very sorry.
It's genius.
Well, you see, that's the thing.
I wonder if it's a very clever, if it's a very clever what we
might call Patrick Trout and play, because remember how Patrick
and Fraser, if they wanted to insert a bit of comedy into the
script, they would say half a page of dialogue before they wanted
to put in their funny thing, they'd put in something completely
outrageous.
So that way while everyone was noting down, oh no, don't let them
do that.
The funny thing would slip through unnoticed.
And I do wonder if to kind of take off some of the heat of
children being inconsolable with Andrew's death.
JNT was not necessarily said, oh yeah, we'll put plastic bags on
people's heads, but kind of went, well, if we're getting
criticised for this, we won't get criticised as much for that.
And it is the way he played it, isn't it?
Because, you know, he put his hands, he put his hands up and say
actually, no, that's a very good, that's a very good point.
I'm going to take that.
And you know, didn't we have lovely drama and wasn't it a horrible
thing that Hadrick died?
Oh, yes, well, that was horrible too.
Yes, yes, but the plastic bag thing.
I mean, the plastic bags are just no one has seen at this point
apart from the original transmission, no one can watch Tomb of the
Cyberman.
Yes.
Yeah, because is there a Mormon in a Hong Kong basement?
Yeah, that's right.
So it doesn't it doesn't exist.
And that's a terrible kind of Doctor Who monster book, Ian Levine
kind of thing.
Sorry, anything.
But yet, it just makes my little fanboy heart squee.
No, but it's awful.
The Cybermen, the Cybermen have their BBC video collection, you
know, they do, don't they, best of it?
We just they just have their own monster reel and they just watch
bits of paddy from Wheel in Space and dub tomb over that because
they're just so yes.
Awful.
Yes, but they've got nothing of pertwee.
So there's no external.
I was hoping they'd throw a little bit of pertly in them.
The story we never saw.
No, but that would violate the entire fanboy point of this stupid
scene.
And now the now the cybermen know that the doctor's a timelord
and...
Oh, no, that object and all of that.
It's awful, awful, and it's going to wreck the program.
Does it, Brendan, wreck the program?
Well, I love how it gives rise eventually to, and, you know, this
does my fan wank.
Can we say that?
The world of good.
Not sexy.
David Banks book Cybermen.
Oh, isn't it the best worst thing ever?
For those of you who don't know, dear listener.
And I'm sure we'll invoke it later on.
David Banks, who played the cyberleader in every story in the
1980s. later wrote a book knitting and in sometimes hammering
together the various classic series side of men's stories into
some semblance of continuity. kind of clever.
But he's the one who came up with the idea that the cyber leader
is a computer program that can be downloaded into any cyber body
which becomes canon in doomsday.
Yes.
When a cyber leader is killed, one side man turns to, in other
words, says, I will be upgraded as cyber leader downloading
information.
And that's how the cyber leader knows that abstract.
It's beau- I love it.
Tennessee, Christopher Robbie, then.
Is that what we're to understand?
Yes, he's been downloaded into a new...
Yeah, he's Christopher Robbie and later he'll be Nicholas Briggs.
Won't we all?
This just works.
It shouldn't and it just does.
Yeah absolutely.
Certainly there is something to be said for the fact that it works
best on 1st viewing and repeated viewings you get less and less
out of it.
That's true of any action adventure, where you've got plot points
that are supposed to be unexpected, yeah.
Absolutely.
And this was during the advent of horror sci-fi and slasher films
which, by definition, become weakened the more you watch them
because you don't get the surprises.
Like, if you watch Friday the 13th twice.
You know exactly when Pamela Vorhees is going to stab Kevin Bacon
through the neck with an arrow through a bed. just know.
Spoiler alert.
Most of us wake up feeling like that.
Kevin Bacon.
But that's the thing.
When I watch Earthshock, I remember I remember watching it for the
1st time more than I sort of analyse whether the plot works.
And, you know, we haven't really discussed the plot very much
because the plot is secondary to the action, and it's not
something I want Doctor Who to do all the time, and it's certainly
something that becomes more of a problem.
But this is the 1st time Doctor Who's done an action movie
really.
And, you know, considering John Pert, we used to ride around on
motorcycles and karate top people, and this is the 1st proper
action movie we get, that's worth commending, I think. all in a
BBC television studio.
I mean, it's kind of a terrible, cheap, shoddy action movie with
an assistant floor manager standing under the stairs making marks
on a clipboard.
I mean, it's just not good.
Not to mention the cybermen who have a very chatty hand gesture
conversation.
I love those two.
I want to dedicate this to Matthew Waterhouse this entire
podcast.
I think he wins the day on this one.
Well, dear listener, as we're punctuated by the sound of a
crashing freighter destroying the dinosaurs and Matthew Waterhouse
we move on, and next week, we will return with time flight, a
story.
I was incredibly excited to see in 1993 during the repeat season.
Let's see if my excitement holds up.
In the meantime, you can find us online at our new website
flightthroughentirety.sexy, and also flight through entirety on
Facebook and iTunes at FTE podcast on Twitter, over on
Bondfinger.
We have a variety of James Bond commentaries where I'm currently
halfway through Roger Moore.
That's Bondfinger.com, Bondfinger on Facebook and iTunes and
Bondfinger cast on Twitter.
Maybe I've uploaded something new to Doctor Who in 10 seconds by
now.
I have no idea.
I suspect this isn't going to be a pick of the week next week, but
I will just throw out again.
Do track yourself down a copy of Blue Box Boy, Matthew
Waterhouse's autobiography because this is the last time we're
going to be discussing Matthew Waterhouse or is it?
Until next week.
Thank you very much for listening, and may you never love a
character who is horribly murdered by TV producers in request for
ratings.
Hodor.
Thank you very much for listening and good night.
Good night.
That was Flight through Entirety with Nathan Bottomley, Brendan
Jones and Richard Stone, theme arrangement by Cameron Lamb.
This episode, contemptuous of his homosexuality, was recorded on
the 10th of June 2016.
The next episode will be released on the 24th of July.
Thanks for Adrick, Matthew.
You'll always get a gold star from us.
I want to see the cyberleaders and the cyberlieutenant do their
own archer pastiche with Cheryl and Pam with a cybernet dolphin
pop.
It's almost happening on screen as we watch isn't it?
That's a band of trust.
And when you're a blues, that trust.
Oh, the suburb.