Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to Flight through Entirety
the only Doctor Who podcast, who are lords of such a small
domain.
Today it's Meadowbank.
I'm Brendan.
I'm Nathan.
I'm Todd, and we are discussing listener Stephen Busanovsky's
favourite Peter Davidson story, possibly his favourite Doctor Who
story of all time, Enlightenment.
Well, this is terrible, isn't it?
I had to do that.
Worst story. shockingly bad.
This is really pretty good, isn't it?
It is so lovely.
I love this in the same way I love the Androids of Tara.
You know, I love it just because of the atmosphere and the
performances.
And it is it's another example that it's very atypical for Doctor
Who to have a story like this.
But to say typical in that it's directed by a woman, our favourite
Fiona coming, and written by a woman.
Is this the 1st Doctor 2 written by a woman?
Barbara Clegg?
Certainly written solo.
The arc was credited to Paul Erickson and Leslie Scott, although
both said in later years that Leslie's name was on it, but she
didn't actually have a hand in writing it.
But yeah, this is the 1st time a woman has written solo for the
program.
Last week we complained about the high concept last week.
Terminus was set on a spaceship in the centre of the universe that
had caused the universe to be created and threatened its very
existence at the end.
And that was just used to provide some word peril.
And it was something that we couldn't see.
I mean, there was a map of the universe with a dot in the centre
but there was nothing visual about that concept, and that concept
didn't really seem to have a big impact on the story.
Here we have a fantastic high concept, which is eternal beings
sailing ships in order to win a race.
The prize for which is enlightenment.
It's and it's in every frame of the story.
It's so good and it's so interesting.
And the eternals, which could have been just powerful space aliens
tremendously well realised.
And the idea of what they're like, that they're parasitic, they're
empty, they're bored.
Do you remember Lady Tarnha from Snake Dance?
Yes.
So she and her son were bored because they were kind of
aristocrat.
And that's how the Eternals are.
They're really aristocratic.
They're completely dependent on normal people.
They don't have to worry about work.
Their chief enemy is boredom.
They don't care when their crews are destroyed.
I mean, they completely read as aristocrats.
And they also read like Homeric gods as well.
So in the Iliad, the gods do appear on the battlefield and take
part in the battle.
But the big difference is they don't get killed.
And a huge theme of the Iliad is about mortality and the misery of
death in battle that the gods are just playing with, they don't
suffer from it at all.
And so there are real resonances to the way that the eternals are
conceived.
I just think they're tremendously good.
And I love their word for us.
So ephemeral comes from a Greek word that means just lasting one
day.
And I think it's a great word for them to describe us with.
Absolutely.
I was saying a few weeks ago, I think with Modern Undead. that a
theme of this season seems to be disillusionment and the loss of
dreams and what have you.
And there are so many. stagnated characters in this and characters
who are bored.
And that doesn't always necessarily then translate into being very
interesting for viewers.
Like last week, the veneer are bored with what they do.
It's kind of like they only do it because they do it and they've
always done it.
And plus the drugs.
The drugs.
Yeah.
Yeah, we got bored.
And we got exactly.
And we got bored as viewers.
Modern undead as much as I like it. episode 3 drags on a bit with
all the mutants going on about how bored they are.
Arc of Infinity, the Time Lords are bored and boring.
But here, these bored people are fascinating.
You know, it's a study in Border.
I think because these bored people are trying to find ways to
overcome their boredom.
They're absolutely fascinated in Tegan.
Like a lot of them.
Mariner is so rapey, isn't he?
really creepy.
It's bizarre though, because yes, he is. absolutely.
But he's also compelling.
And you do develop sympathy for his character and you do develop
sympathy for the character, relationship he has with Tegan.
I think the turning point really is in episode 3 or possibly
episode 4 when they're at the party on Rack's ship and he starts
telling her that he missed her, et cetera, et cetera.
And she is just rebuffing him, rebuffing him, rebuffing him, and
rightly so, until she suddenly kind of thinks I'm applying human
standards here.
And she just says, well, are you in love?
And he says, I don't want love, I want existence.
He doesn't even know what love is.
But that's a sucker punch because it's kind of like, well, actually
when you're in love with someone, that's what love is like.
I'm sure all of our listeners out there have been in a
relationship that has broken up and you do feel like a part of you
doesn't exist anymore.
It's bittersweet and the way he acts at the beginning of the story
is horrible, et cetera, et cetera.
I'm, you know, I'm not saying this isn't like, um, the sort of
novels of the Bronte sisters, where it's like, oh, you're so
horrible.
I'm going to throw myself at your feet.
And it's like that's not a good lesson to learn.
But this is an uncomfortable relationship, but one that a non
human, non-feeling character manages to raise within us an
emotional reaction.
I just love Janet in this story.
She's, she, her performance is wonderful and navigating that
relationship with the danger that exists on the ship and seeing in
a, in a dress, you know, and the big hair and and it changes again
her performance.
And it's, I think it's a tour de force for her this entire show.
That scene where she reacts to the 1st ship exploding, the Cretan
ship.
And then she confronts Mariner for not caring about any of the
crew.
I think she does really terrifically well.
And then she goes back to her cabin and there's the picture of
Auntie Vanessa there and she just looks at it.
And so the deaths of the crew and just how short and temporary our
lives are, makes her think about what happened to Auntie Vanessa.
And poor Auntie Vanessa is never, ever mentioned again.
And it is kind of blink and you'll miss it, but I thought that
that was really particularly nice.
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, and you know, Auntie Vanessa's not mentioned by name in
this, but they, they, they got Delore Whiteman back to take that
photograph.
They actually called her in and paid her for a half day to do this
photo shoot.
So it wasn't a stock photo or anything.
So they did go to great care to tie that link in.
And it's the kind of subtlety we don't always see in Doctor Who in
general.
Yeah, you know.
But that's the thing.
Instead of it being a, as you well know, doctor, my aunt died for
when we 1st met a, blah, blah, blah, it's just Tegan handing him
the photo.
I'm sure she says aunt Vanessa at some point.
Does she?
Okay, maybe it slipped my mind, but you know, it's not it's not
sort of hammered into you, you know.
But it's this, you know, every story the season has to have an
element from the past.
So it's stuff from her room in the Tartars and the picture of Aunt
Vanessa, as well as the garden.ians.
I think, and this has just occurred to me, the way we've been
talking.
Janet Fielding is the surprise factor of us rewatching this season
for me at least anyway.
You know, I've always enjoyed Tegan. enjoyed Janet's performance
but she brings so much subtlety and nuance to it this year that
wasn't there last year, except, you know, maybe a little bit
towards the end.
It's that thing I was talking about last week.
She's able to play 2 emotions at once.
Like, you know, with Mariner.
She's incredibly irritated and enraged by him.
But at the same time, she's constantly asking him questions about
his experience and trying to understand him as well.
Whereas Tegan last year would have, you know, just screamed at him
and stormed off.
It's been a bloody impressive year from Janet.
Yeah, yeah.
I like a great deal.
Yeah, I don't think I can fault a single one of her performance
decisions this year.
No she's very good.
Besides Mr. Mariner, we also have Captain Striker.
Oh, yes.
And he wasn't originally cast in that role.
He got that role after they had to move the studio dates for the
recording.
I think he's great.
And there is a scene in episode 2 where the doctor actually has a
discussion with him about what's going on.
And the passionate Peter Davis injects into that scene is
amazing.
Now, I am always very measured when it comes to this doctor and
what he does.
But I honestly think if you watch episode two, you go to that
scene.
That performance by Peter Davidson is so much better than, you
know, the Earthshop thing.
They keep churning out, you know, his little speech to the Simon
inertshock.
I actually think this is better.
What's happening in that scene exactly?
Well, the doctor is discussing with him.
Why are they using ephemerals, why the Eternals are having this
race?
It's sort of analogous to the well-prepared meal speech that
everyone quotes, but as you discussed about 2 months ago, Nathan
there are reasons that that speech is not actually as powerful
because the cyber leader just goes, right, well, I'll kill your
mate then.
Whereas here, the doctor lands some really good points and some
really good outrage, much like the previous one, nothing is really
resolved in the doctor's favour from that, but he does land some
really good points, but it also hits home. how we as the audience
can react to these characters if we choose to, because as you say
it's a big concept.
But it boils it down to the doctor saying, these are all the
qualities that these beings do not have.
And not only do not have, because if it was just a matter of these
beings don't feel emotion, we should hate them, that's that's
bigotry.
But it's a matter of these people don't feel emotion and so they
treat others as less than themselves.
That becomes a moral point.
It's just the passion.
It's just like Peter has found something at this and he's going to
deliver it next year in his performances and the scripts.
And this is the 1st, well, besides Snake Dance, which I've
commented before, like in the 1st 2 episodes where there is this
you know, energy that he has and the way it's written, this is, it
comes back here.
It's nice that that scene's played opposite Stryker, who is almost
completely emotionless and doesn't seem to be upset as a result of
what Pete says.
Yeah, yeah.
And of course, as you said earlier, Todd, Keith Barron wasn't the
original choice for Striker.
It was actually Peter Salis of Last of the Summer Wine, and
Wallace and Gromit, and Penley and the Ice Warriors.
Okay excellent.
And yeah, recording dates got moved around as a result of the
industrial action, which affected Terminus and Will Scupper, the
season finale, which we'll get to next week.
And so they lost Peter Salis.
And what Fiona coming and said, someone said to her, look, you
know, what's the difference between Keith Barron's performance and
Peter Salis's performance and she said, well, when Peter Salis
came in to rehearsal.
First thing he said was, right, where do I sit?
And she said, no, no, no.
You're a captain of the ship.
You're standing.
There no seats.
Oh darling, no, no.
My agent didn't say this was a standing job.
I don't do standing jobs.
And she's like, he sent us up rotten.
He was absolutely lovely.
But she did say, when I cast him, I had a particular way the role
was going to be performed in mind.
And then we lost him.
So when Keith Barron came in, I threw out everything I was going
to do with Peter because I thought that was Peter's performance in
my mind, Peter Salis's performance.
It's not fair for me to say to Keith Barron play it like Peter
Salis because now I've got Keith Barron, Keith Barron plays it
like Keith Barron.
So she didn't actually say what his performance would have been
like, but looking at some of his other stuff.
I imagine his performance wouldn't have been so piercing as Keith
Barron, because Keith Barron has that stillness and that still
stare.
He was regularly playing villains in the 70s and 80s, you know, and
he always has that stillness about him and that quietness.
What these days we might call an Alan Rickman kind of quality.
Whereas Peter Sallis kind of has that more ruminative, muttery
guttural kind of voice.
So yeah, I imagine they would have been very different, but Peter
Sales still would have been a fine choice.
And I think really good opposite Peter, because Peter is that very
upright actor, whereas Peter Salis is this very languid sort of
actor.
So that could have worked.
I think those 2 are my favourite things in this.
I mean, obviously it gotten into Baron as the other baron.
And, you know, she's only into episodes.
I think I was talking a few weeks ago about not even remembering
Colin Baker, you know, of Infinity, but she's one of those
characters, Captain Rack, you just remember.
And she's only in that few episodes of the show.
She has been in Doctor Who before, of course.
Vocally, singing the Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon, and she'll
come back in closing time.
She'll be brought back by Gareth Roberts, but she was, of course
terribly famous for open all hours playing Ronnie Barker's sword
of love interest, nurse Gladys Emmanuel.
And she was hefty, Nurse Gladys, wasn't she?
She was a larger woman.
Whereas Linda Baron here is, she just looks fantastic, particularly
the dress that she wears for the ball in episode three.
She's really sexy and sexual.
She's got sort of great breast.
She's got a really sort of striking look to her.
And in fact, I think the reason that Tegan wears a white dress and
not much makeup to the great big party in episode 3 is to make a
contrast with the overt sexuality of Linda Barron's character.
Absolutely.
And, yeah, in 1980s, Doctor Who.
John Nathan Turner had quite a strict policy of not depicting sex
and sexuality in any way in the shows.
You know, he was constantly famous for saying no hanky-panky and
the TARDIS and that sort of thing.
And so we don't see much romance from guest characters as well or
sexuality during the 1980s.
And yeah, but Linda Barron as Captain Rack is just oozing
sexuality and sensuality, I think it's important to point out.
And she is physically, she is a perfect casting choice for that
period of history.
A lot of people use the description Rubinesque as an insult, but
she is a Rubinesque model.
You can imagine her in a Renaissance painting, except she's really
skinny.
You actually look at her in that dress.
She's really thin.
She's sort of... she's great.
She looks terrific.
You know, she has what might be described as a classic hourglass
figure.
Yeah, yeah, you know.
Yeah, she is amazing.
She looks amazing.
And I think if you're going to have a character play that sort of
flirtatious role.
You need someone who is a big screen presence and all eyes are
drawn to her.
You know, Keith Barron as striker.
The most captivating thing about him is his voice.
But, you know, if he's standing in the scene, like a few of the
bridge scenes he's standing in the background, you may not notice
him until he speaks.
It's impossible not to notice Linda Baron in any scene she's in.
There's bits of the party where she's in the background, but you
can just hear her occasionally laugh and oh, Fiona coming really
doesn't put a foot wrong with casting, does she?
Well, she does.
Okay, Cardinals or accent?
Sorry.
No, no, no.
Baruso.
No, no, no, in this story.
I don't like...
I don't like the guy who's playing her number two.
Lee John from Imagination.
No, sometimes he's okay, and other times he's too...
I think it's too much.
And I just kind of think it's a bit too, I don't know if it's camp
or whatever, but there's sometimes when I kind of think, oh, no
pull it back, pull it back.
I like that she's got like a little gay side, though.
He is incredibly...
He is terribly happy.
Are there publicity shots of them threatening the doctor on the
Tartar set?
Yeah, because just because that set was set up, that's where
people were filming that day when the radio times photographer
came in.
I think it may have also been a matter of not showing off the
buccaneer set before telecast.
But yeah, there's no deleted scenes of them getting access to
targets.
That would have been awful.
I mean, if the Tartar set had been in their, you know, a big space
set amongst all of those lovely wooden corridors, that would have
been a terrible mistake and they don't make it.
I think the sets look amazing.
With maybe the exception of the whatever room with the eye thing.
Oh, the vacuum shield room.
I love that I hate it.
And I think it's really poorly shot at times when they're on the
floor.
You can't tell, is there a force field there, what's going on?
I just think the whole perspective and angle is wrong.
The whole in the floor, isn't there?
That it looks like people could defizer, yeah.
There's no way Linda Baron is falling through that hole.
She's not fitting through it.
It's just not going to happen.
I don't think Peter Davis could fit through that hole to be honest
with you.
But I just think it's really Paul, that whole set and like, what
are the big sort of vacuum shield?
You know, she's got 10,000 locks.
I'm now sort of beginning to criticise a few aspects here.
I think I did myself in coming into this because I used to really
just adore this completely.
And so I had really high expectations.
And so like all of that sort of stuff just began to annoy me.
The performance that you're talking about, her gay sidekick.
I just thought, just pull it back a little.
I just wanted, you know, and not to say that he's, in some scenes
I think he's really great.
And he's got great look.
Yeah, but in other things, I'm thinking, oh, you know, at the
beginning, the white guardian is fading in and out.
Why?
I don't understand.
If the black and white guardians are equal, then I don't see why
one has control over the other.
I don't get it.
I think that the Guardians are horrifically bad in this story and
I think Cyril Luckam as the White Guardian is terrible.
And I think the whole conception of the Guardians for this story
is completely wrong.
When we 1st see the White Guardian at the beginning of the rebos
operation, He is a colonial plantation guy.
You know, he's in a wicker chair.
He's having a lovely drink.
He's on an unconvincing set.
He is in absolute control, and the doctor defers to him by calling
him sir as if he's like an angry headmaster.
And he is not nice.
The associations he's given make him aristocratic and colonial and
dismissive and kind of nasty.
And I think that conception of the Guardians is Bob Holmes doing
that to undermine the idea that there are, you know, these 2 equal
manichee and good and evil forces running the universe because
that's a horrible, stupid idea.
But here he's just a sort of pathetic, good guy with a bird poking
out of his hand.
And he's struggling to communicate as if he's just some space
person. makes no sense to me.
It makes no sense.
And then in episode three, when the Black Guardian is threatening
Turlow, I'm going to criticise the direction and the performance
here, he actually walks around and goes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
yeah.
I'm going, what the hell is that?
Like, no.
And also, he grabs Turlo and tries to strangle it.
Isn't the whole point, the Black Guardian.
Not that it's been stated, but isn't the whole point that he can't
interfere with the physical universe, which is why he needs Turlo
to pick up a rock and why he needs Turlo to operate the blue
switches.
Really?
The Black Guardian can't appear and do that?
But more than that, okay?
Why are they in charge of enlightenment or there?
How often do these eternals actually have this race?
What are they going to do when they get enlightenment?
Like, there's just, there's just things that I want answers to
these questions.
Like, does this race happen yearly annually?
The Eternals don't die and all their little people don't die when
they, you know, they just go back to the void.
There's, yes, we get the death of the cruise.
But again, okay, that's awful.
We have one man overboard who goes bop and disappears.
Is he an eternal or is he?
So he's an eternal.
We get Linda Baron and her psychic put out into space.
Now, isn't that a scene with the doctor and Turlow?
We're meant to think it's the doctrine?
Of course we're not.
But it is, Tegan thinks it's the doctrine, Turlo.
No, no, no, but who's in there with them at the time?
Yeah, it's a doctor in Turlo.
Yeah, they push them out.
And it's like, I just find that a real cop out.
It's like, I have been waiting for, you talked about the fact that
the doctor was suspicious of Turlow, right?
Yes, he's suspicious of Turnlope, but it's one of the things...
Yeah, there's a resolution at the end, but I want to see the
conversation between the doctor and Turlow.
Do you know where I'm going with this?
Like, I just think it's a big cop out by not seeing them getting
pushed out.
There's a big cop out by the fact that I don't get.
I don't want a confrontation scene per se, but I just want
something more set.
See, I'm sorry, but I am going to disagree.
And this is something I've discussed with Stephen Busanovski, who
we mentioned earlier.
He loves his story.
Where the doctor says Enlightenment wasn't the Diamond
Enlightenment was the choice.
Yeah.
When he's standing there just watching Turlow, that to me is the
moment Peter Davidson arrives as the doctor, he's the doctor who
gives you everything you need to make the right decision, but
making that decision is up to you.
It's bizarre because the doctor does nothing in that scene, but
it's one of Peter Davidson's most powerful scenes so far, just
because of the expression on his face.
He's not looking at Turlow.
He's not looking at him expectantly.
He's not looking at him pleadingly.
He's not looking at him threateningly.
He is standing back and saying, I trust you.
And I trust my fate in your hands.
But the thing is, he's not doing that blindly, you know, he has
experienced the last 3 stories and he's been suspecting Turlo
since Morden undead, and quite a few times in this story.
He questions Turlo's motivations, not about being in the TARDIS
but about coming out onto the ship with him about whether it'll be
all right with the crew, about, you know, if he's comfortable on
the ship.
Does he need to go back to the TARDIS.
There's that lovely scene where Turlo gives up the key to the rum
locker and the look on the doctor's face.
Both the doctor and Turlo are hugely disappointed with him for
doing that.
Yeah, he betrays Jackson.
Remember, Jackson is the teetotaller.
So he's not drinking the stuff for the blade. the rum that makes
everyone else happy to don spaceships and go above decks.
And Turmo betrays him to the Eternals, and both the doctor and
Turlo are hugely disappointed in him.
And I like that that moral decision, that wrong moral decision.
Look, I don't think we believe that Turlow really wants to be
friends with Captain Rack and gain enlightenment in the later
episodes.
I think the doctor's assessment of what's going on is the one that
we believe.
But just because we've had his character called into question.
I think that's really interesting.
And I also think there's another thing that bears on his final
choice, and that's when he's trapped in that stupid room.
He calls out to the Black Guardian who's really mean and horrible
to him.
And then he immediately calls out to the doctor who comes in and
rescues him.
Yeah, and it's ambiguous as to whether he's heard Turlo calling
out to the Black Guardian verse.
Oh, that hadn't occurred to me.
Because when the doctor comes through the door, there's a surprise
look on his face.
It can't be surprised that, oh, that's Turlo's voice.
You know, he's gone looking for Turlo.
He knows he's gonna find him.
You know, I think maybe the doctor expects to get clobber and it's
a bit of a trap because he doesn't kind of relax until until he
sees that Turlow is genuinely in distress and I was going to be
sucked out into space.
Why did the stars spin, you know?
I think that's some subjective view point?
Yeah.
It does take a very, very long time for the air to evacuate from
that room thing, does it?
Yeah, it does.
Although, mind you, I think, uh, what's it, in event horizon, you
can survive about 30 seconds.
No, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
You can survive about 30 seconds in the absolute 0 vacuum space.
Yeah, no, but it's about half an episode.
It's also like the man overboard thing in the beginning of episode
three.
Could they be slower?
Like, you know?
Oh, it's not tied down.
I really, really like the music in that scene.
And I don't like Malcolm Clark very much.
I dislike his music mostly for earth shock.
I think it's horrible.
He's got a sort of tendency to go back and do the same thing over
and over again.
He's a big fan of bangs and crashes and stuff.
Does he do the twin dilemma score?
I think he does and it's...
No, I think it's Roger Lim, I thought.
I thought it was Attack of the Sidemen.
Yeah, he does attack.
But he does some great work for the Eternals here.
Their theme is really great.
And the scene where Turlo drifts from one ship to another across
space is really good as well, rather than making it urgent.
It makes it, you know, like a little bit mystical and a little bit
sort of strange.
It's really good.
Well, I'm glad it's really good because that's juxtaposed with the
stupid music as the crew get into their space gear and get their
rum rations, which I just think is appalling.
Oh, it's a horn pipe or something, isn't it?
That's a little sailor theme.
I will say, though, that cliffhanger, there's your re-edited
Doctor Who cop out to that cliffhanger because episode 2 ends with
the doctor shouting, no.
And episode 3 starts with Turlo, I'll never serve you again.
And then you cut back to Davis and say, oh, don't be an idiot.
Which is actually better.
That would have been a great cliffhanger.
If it had been Pete, don't be an idiot.
Then resting cliffhanger face and then closing credits would have
been really good.
Oh, dude, it's a season 22 Australia cliffhanger all over again.
Above decks is beautiful and beautifully lit.
Yeah, we're evenly shot.
It is, you know, 4 1983, 82.
I think they're doing a pretty good job.
One of the shots I don't like is, you know, when they cut to that
the captain on the other ship, the Greek captain, I think it is
and it just looks so cheap.
And then he's got that, the jewel and the doctor looked just very
observant about that jewel.
Something that annoyed me as a kid was the fact that when he
actually crushes the jewel and they're trying to get it outside.
There's still bits on the floor and they're going, ah.
When we were watching that, Rod said, why didn't they just pick up
the rug?
They can get you on the hug.
Why didn't they do that?
But I don't think that happens in these stories, the doctor
manages to switch his celery.
Yes.
Fake celery for fake celery.
That's why it wilts very slowly.
I was actually a little bit worried that he might put the celery
that he'd had on his lapel back into the container with the other
celery and that someone might eat it because it would be really
kind of rank and horrible by now, but he very thoughtfully puts it
in a little scabbard.
I think there's a sword on the wall and he puts it in the scabbard
so that no one's going to eat it.
Something just occurred to me that should have occurred to me ages
ago, reading the celery.
Because the original celery was created in cast valva, right?
So the original celery was created by Adric.
Wouldn't have been amazing in Earthshock if in the last scene, the
doctor's celery crumbles to dust because it's dead.
Sustained by block transfer computation all this time.
Yeah, and, you know, Adric has been sustaining the doctor's salary
all this, you know, just with a little sum in the back of his head
all this time.
You know, that's the kind of thing modern Doctor Who might do.
I'm not blaming the production team for not thinking of that.
You know, that's very esoteric, but that would have been cute.
I don't know why he wears the celery. so dumb.
No one does until... until Robert Holmes says, oh, fine.
Oh, make something up.
Why does the Black Guardian burn with the Enlightenment thing?
Because the light destroys the dark. tells us.
I think with a story like this where you do have sort of all
powerful gods sailing around the solar system in ships, that maybe
it's not such a terrible thing that we don't get explanations of a
lot of stuff that's going on.
I think there's just something sort of poetic and lyrical.
It's a little bit like warrior's gate where it doesn't really work
on a sort of scientific level or sort of sapphire and steel.
You know, if you ever discovered that sapphire and steel were
really from the planet Bloz, you know, and that they had space
names and stuff.
That would kind of undermine it.
And I like that this is just a random thing that doesn't really
play into the mythology of the show.
I think Russell has the doctor name, check the Eternals at some
point.
Yeah, yeah.
David Tennant does.
But they're not a big part of the program.
And I like that.
I think there's something just sweet about it and the visuals.
You know, there's a special edition on the... on the DVD.
And it's, I don't like special editions very much, and I'm not
sure that I like this one.
It does it in widescreen and that doesn't work with the source. 6
material. minute cut, I think, yeah.
But they are able to a really truly breathtaking shot of all of
those ships in space.
Yeah, yeah.
In a special edition.
Yeah.
So it's it's on a separate disk, a 66 minute car, and it was on
off the cuff remark Peter Davidson made, I think on the Castro
Valver commentary because Fiona Cumming was on that as well.
And he said something lines up, you know, I'd be very interested
to see one of our stories cut like one of the new series with that
kind of pacing and that kind of storytelling.
So for Enlightenment and for Planet of Fire, these separate
editions were prepared.
I think the Enlightenment Special Edition is far more successful
than the Planet of Firewall.
Which is terrible.
We'll talk about that.
Shockingly bad.
But this one does have something that the new series has, which is
a simple, straightforward, understandable plot, despite the crazy
insane high concept.
It's a race and Captain Rack is killing her competitors and that
eventually puts the doctor and Tegan in jeopardy.
And I like that.
And it's maybe just slightly too thin for 4 episodes.
And certainly episode one has a lot of marking time because you
want the episode one Cliffhanger revealed to be nowhere in space.
So not quite enough, I think, happens in episode one, but I really
appreciate after Arc of Infinity, where the threats were
incomprehensible and the whole thing was just kind of stupid or
terminus where there was a high concept that was just talked about
I like the fact that the plot is straightforward and it makes it
so much more enjoyable.
They're really good points that you've made there.
I mean, as I said, not a few minutes ago.
I went into this as really high expectations and so things weren't
as good for me because I was picking apart these things.
You know, the doctor doesn't explain who the black and white
guardians are at the beginning, you know, at the end, this 3rd
encounter.
Those are the little things that I've mentioned.
Yeah, a good point, actually. 3rd encounter is that the...
There will be a 3rd encounter, something like that.
And those other little things that I picked up, sort of, maybe I
need to go back and just watch a few of those things.
I still I still would have liked something more in terms of the
doctor and Turo having some conversation.
That's just me.
I just need that for me.
No, no, I think it's a flaw.
I do think it's a flaw in the sense that we've been leading up to
this big decision where Turlo is going to have to make a
decision.
And although it's alluded to, as we said, I agree that I don't
think that that quite comes off.
And I will say one of Eric Sey would strengths as a writer is that
when characters have disagreements in his scripts, you are under
no illusions that they are having a disagreement, you know what
they're having a disagreement about, and there is usually some
kind of resolution to it in the course of the story.
So, yeah, I do agree.
They could have put that in very easily.
Regarding episode one, it is marking time until the cliffhanger
but something I really like about it is, you know, it starts out
with a strange situation, you've got the dimly lit tartist, which
looks fantastic.
I just wish they'd light it orange like that all the time.
Yeah.
So you've got a strange thing happening, but then they land on a
sailing ship.
Okay, that's a bit normal.
Oh, then they meet the crew.
That a bit normal.
Oh, the crew don't know how they got here.
That's a bit weird.
You've kind of got these peaks and troughs.
You've got rising action and falling action all the way through
the episode and then you get that reveal at the end.
So it's it's very 60s.
You know, if you look at, say, the 1st episode of the Sensorites
that is kind of strange, normal, strange, normal, strange, normal
strange, normal, alien outside the window.
Yeah.
You know, it's very slow paced like that.
So I definitely see what you're saying.
I don't think anyone's compared the 1st episode of Enlightenment
to the 1st episode of the Sense rights, but it's absolutely
irresistible as a comparison.
They're really similar You heard it here first.
Analoda Rogers has fantastic hair.
What does that mango R on the screen in episode one?
Like, you know how they look on the screen?
Ah.
Oh, when Mariner falls off.
Well, Fiona Cummings' impression of the TARDIS scanner was that
the camera was mounted in the light on the top, but also that it
was 360 degrees.
So the reason you see his hands is his hands are actually meant to
be round the back of the screen. while his face is in front of
it.
Now it doesn't quite come off because he's put his hands up in the
wrong way.
But that was some Fiona's concept.
So he falls off.
Yeah, pretty much.
He falls off the top of the Tartars.
It's hard to imagine him actually doing that, and I am glad that
we don't get to see it.
The camera being in the light is in Legopolis.
Yes, very clear.
That doesn't worry me.
I'm always confused when I'm watching that once.
Yes, exactly.
Yeah, it does. doesn't quite work.
Something I just thought of in terms of Linda Barron.
First of all, Linda Baron and Mark Strickson works so well
together.
And you can see what Mark Strickson's doing in those scenes is as
Turlo, he's going, I'm going to act the same way Captain Rack does
and hopefully she'll trust me.
And I just think it's so wonderful about 3 or 4 times.
She's like, I can read your mind.
I know you're deceiving me.
And he's like, well, of course I'm deceiving.
They're really fun together.
But I love the bit of when she's talking about her winning
enlightenment.
She says, I'll be able to create and destroy as I wish.
I'll never be bored again.
So that introduces the concept that enlightenment is what you do
with it.
So I think for Mariner, his enlightenment isn't the crystal.
His enlightenment comes over the course of the story when he
starts to understand what emotions are.
And, you know, he doesn't get there at the end.
And, oh, that bit at the end is heartbreaking. when he's saying to
Tegan, I need you.
And Tegan looks to the doctor for reassurance that there's nothing
she could have done.
You know, and again, it's Janet being fabulous and complex and
multi-layered.
It, like, Tegan shouldn't have to apologise.
You know, Tegan has really been treated quite shortly by Mariner
but as a human being, she can't help but feel for him.
So do you think his enlightenment would be becoming a real
person?
Yeah, yeah.
You know, for a comparison a few years later.
You know, he's data, he's Spock.
Yeah, actually, a bit racist saying that about Spock.
There's nothing wrong with Spock being emotionless, but data
actually wants to become more human.
But Captain Rax alignment is destroying things.
She doesn't actually understand what it is she wants because she
already creates and destroys it will.
But she thinks she needs this thing in order to do that.
And that, that's not what maybe, okay, maybe that is what
enlightenment is for her, the illusion of that free will that she
already has.
But it's the line from Carnival of Monsters.
You know, you give them a hygiene chamber, they'll store fossil
fuel in it.
You give her the power to create and she'll just destroy.
I've really enjoyed this discussion.
I think the points that both of you have made have made me
reevaluate this because I was going to call Snake Dance my
favourite of the season.
Like this had dropped, but I think I need to go back and rewatch
this because the visuals are stunning and the performances are
great.
And just some of the points you've had to say, I want to go back
and watch it again, and I think it's gone up in my opinion.
I like, I think both snake dance and enlightenment are good
stories.
And like you, I'm not a big fan of the Davis and era stories
generally.
But these are really good.
And I think they're probably better than anything that we had last
year.
Oh, definitely.
Yeah, absolutely.
The thing is, Todd, I see completely where you're coming from.
I think because a lot of this season doesn't quite reach its
potential.
Enlightenment is held up as appropriately enough, this Shining
Jewel.
But that does mean we get to the point where we expect it to be
even better than it already is.
And I certainly get that with some other Doctor Who stories. you
know, if I go back to watch them.
It's like, I've said it before and I'll say it in 2 months when we
get there, I don't rate Caves of Andrazani that highly.
But I understand why people do.
Maybe it's because I came to it with all these impressions already
formed.
Don't worry, Brendan. on the same page as you.
Well, dear listeners, we hoist our moon rankers as we speed away
from Enlightenment, and, uh, towards this year's two part story
Terence Dudley is back with the king's demons.
Hurrah.
Hooray.
And a blue engine.
Until next week, you can find us online at flightthroughentirety
sexy.
Flight through entirety on Facebook and iTunes and at FTE podcast
on Twitter over on Bondfinger.
We have our Moonraaker commentary up appropriately enough for this
story.
You can find that at bondfinger.com, bondfinger on Facebook and
iTunes, and bondfinger cast on Twitter, and all things being even
you may just find a new episode of Doctor Who in 10 seconds up on
our YouTube channel, the link for which you can find in the
description below.
Until next week, may none of your rum be spiced with hallucinogens
that make you think you're actually sailing on the ocean when
you're in the middle of space.
I hate when that happens.
Thank you very much for listening, good night.
Good night.
See you soon.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
That was Flight through Entirety, starring Todd Bealby, Nathan
Bottomley, and Brendan Jones, theme arrangement by Cameron Lath.
This episode, the other baron, was recorded on 31st of July 2016.
The next episode will be released in 2 weeks time on 2nd of
October.
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I think it's one of the reasons why Tegan wears that white dress
and not very much makeup to the... why she wears that white dress
and not very much makeup to the...
I can't think what it's called.
Could you use Tegan's name in that because you haven't mentioned
her before?
Oh, sorry.
Yep.
I think that that's the reason that my name is T. This is what
it's like recording Doctor Who in 10 seconds.
I think the reason that Tegan wears a white dress and not much
mate.