Just Gives Great Frock

[00:30]

Hello, dear listeners, and welcome back to Flight Through Entirety.

The only Doctor Who podcast who very happily be adopted by Howard Foster.

I'm Brendan.

I'm Nathan I'm an interstellar signalling, possibly Greek relic of a very shiny and potentially platinum-based material, but it's certainly looking rude.

It's Planet of Fire.

Well, we've all been branding each other for this podcast, and with my God, doesn't it hurt?

Really?

How long did it take you to get through this one?

In fact, I watched it all last night in one sitting.

Me too.

[01:30]

And I had to do the director's cut because I was assured it was shorter.

I'm very excited to be back on the planet Khan.

Oh, hang on, son.

Hang on, Khan.

Isn't this a remake of Spa Bath of Morpius?

I mean, you know, we've got a lovely big licking flame.

We've got Anthony Ainley doing his Edward Woodwood, wouldn't you?

Got Peter Wingard as the leader of the sisterhood?

Oh, we actually do, and this is the point.

I believe he was the mother all the time.

Now, we're never allowed to have Kenneth Williams and Doctor Who, but it almost doesn't matter because we have Peter Wingard.

I think he's actually one of the best actors to ever appear.

He gives great gravitas to this performance, and my goodness, doesn't he?

Doesn't he languor and savour his lines?

smell con.

Do you know he?

You're right.

You are the chosen one.

You know that.

He reminds me of Jackie Hill's character from Megloss.

Oh, Alexa.

Yeah, because she's like the intransigent religious leader. playing the same thing.

Yeah, I think it's simply because he looked at that and he said, right.

[02:31]

Jackie can do it.

Yeah, yeah.

I remember at the time saying that I thought...

Interchangeable, aren't they?

Jacqueline Hillen.

Peter Wingard, can you imagine if Billy had had Peter Wingard in the Barbara role right from the start?

We may not have been doing this podcast with alternative reality.

We've seen his hair in Jason King.

It's not that far.

No that is true.

That is really cool.

Do you know what I watched last night?

I took over Jason King.

Do the do the dear listeners know who Peter Wingard where Peter Wingard comes from?

Should we just quickly gloss over that now?

Because, again, we've gone back to our usual state after it. having dealt with Eric Saywood in the last one?

So we're onto this lovely Peter Grimwade written script that was actually all about counterreligious diatride and say we'd cut most of it out so that it would be palatable.

Which is why Grim Wade refused to write for the show again.

So he was banned from directing and then banned himself from writing.

But we still get flavours of it with Timonoff.

Yeah.

I mean, it's a fairly tired trope, and it's not like we haven't seen it before, as I said, Meglos in Meglos.

[03:37]

Lex's character is the same.

She's a religious leader.

She wants to sacrifice people.

There are more rational people on her planet who kind of patronise her and don't really listen to her and she's sort of very fervent.

Timonov's kind of the same.

He's manipulable and gullible in the eyes of the other characters because they're all just able to say, you know, Loga is expressing his disapproval or whatever.

But he has such truthiness in his performance and really hurdles his air.

Well, both Lexa and Timonov have a kind of nobility, which is, I think, brought to the characters by the actors rather than being in the script.

He does it without a Diana Dawes wig and, you know, I think he probably has a Diana Dawes wig under that headdress.

John does give great all-round performances.

The press at the time said he was underused in this and that it was a welcome return, which should just say Pittowing Guard started in shows like The Avengers, in one of our favourite episodes, A Touch of Brimstone.

He then appeared in shows like The Champions.

[04:40]

He then got his own feature in a 3 character riding department S, which was a sort of like strange things investigated by a writer and agent and a Gil called Annabelle with a phoney French accent.

It's one of my favourite ITC shows.

He then went on to Jason King, which was apparently Ronnie Corbett's favourite show to Lampoon.

He did it several times.

We watched Jason King last night in preparation for this podcast myself and some friends.

And I have to say that the 70s really is the Roman Empire, it's a 1000 years ago.

It makes no sense.

But Wingard, Wingard is point perfect in everything he does.

And it's really old school.

He was the pert we all the time in the bigger medium.

And when he came to Australia.

He had the same amount of mobbing that the Beatles had in 72.

Is his look the basis for the look of Mike Myers character?

Yes, yes.

Yes, and Davos's mask.

Yeah.

Now, a misconception that I had coming into this story, but I looked into it, as I understood it.

[05:40]

This was his 1st role on TV in a while.

Yeah, since his archeological interest in British cottages ended his career, yeah.

Well, nowadays you just get a whole album covers.

You've got a recording contract for doing it, George Michael.

He actually went over to Europe to work in theatre for about 7 years and...

Well, the thing is, he only came back because he got this job offer.

He said in a later interview.

Oh, no, I was perfectly happy over there.

If they didn't want me, I don't care.

I got work over here, but I got an offer to work on Doctor Who, and it was in Lanzarote, who's going to say no to that.

And then he saw Highgrove and thought, oh, it's not just a house what royals live in. could move in there as well.

These days he actually looks a lot like Ben Kingsley.

Is he still?

No, no.

I was talking about Malcong.

Peter Wing.

I think that is still with us.

He is quite wondrous and does commentary. and he's truly fruity.

Yes, yes, very.

He was Alan Bates's partner for over 20 years.

[06:40]

Alan Bates and the go-between all those other things.

Yeah, yeah.

And it was a very open secret in the UK.

So I'm really shocked that his career was ended.

But again, if you're the number one lady swoon. and you're then caught, you know, taking inside legs in gentlemen's conveniences without warming your tape first.

I think we're having go to have a lot more fun on this podcast here, listener, than we had on last week's Resurrection, which was anything but, wasn't it?

It was really an internment, entombment of the Diaks.

Well, I think the...

It should have been in that though.

Why isn't he playing Deveros?

Well, why wasn't he playing Beryl Reed in that story?

I mean, you know, Midway story?

does, doesn't he?

That story could have used a barrel reed.

Oh, while we were on senior women who are perhaps not quite well as treated as they should have been.

Barbara Shelley.

We've got Barbara, we've got Venus, as in from Venus with love, this season opener for the colour rig.

Totally underused in this.

And she's the only woman on the entire planet.

Exactly.

She's like Smurfett. isn't she?

Smurf.

She's lady wallpaper smurfette.

[07:41]

Thank you.

Yes.

What does she do, Brendan?

Well, she seems to be the sort of den mother of the unbelievers.

Now that's a t-shirt.

She's good.

I think I want that on my CV.

I'd like to say about the sort of anti-religious element.

I think Eric Saywood was right to turn it down because I think it's just balanced enough because if you had made it an extreme anti-religious polemic, you would have painted Timon off as the villain.

And I don't think Timinoff is a villain.

Timonoff is...

Yeah, he's played too well.

But yeah, it's also Eric Seyward's utter reluctance to say anything substantial or political in any of his stories.

And so he's uncomfortable with anyone else doing anything thematic at all.

The thing is, I think in downplaying it, it's actually more powerful, especially skipping to the end.

Timonov's last scene.

Armyand, who's played by James Bate, has been saying all the way along, Logar's a myth, and he actually has proof, and he comes in the guise of Logar, and...

[08:48]

In a lovely tinfoil turkey wrap just in time for the season.

Timonov sort of has a bit of a chuckle about it.

But then Armyand, who's been fighting with him all the time.

Timon sentenced him to death at least 3 times over the course of the story.

Amion says, look, come with us.

We still need you.

Yes, and there's that lovely line of maybe logo wanted you to be saved.

Yeah, I like that too.

It's gorgeous.

He believes right until the end.

And instead of tearing down that belief, Armyand allows him definitely.

Yeah.

I mean, it's kind of relevant in today's political climate.

I was just going to say, it's a great way for the left to learn how to address the opposition, whatever colour that they choose to take, because we can be a little bit self-righteous, can't we?

Yeah, and you can be right without tearing down the dignity of the other person.

But at the same time, Timonov's opinion does not and should not carry the same weight as Amian science.

And this is this is something that is in the political sphere a lot.

[09:48]

People saying, well, I've got a right to an opinion.

And I read a great meme on it the other day, which is, okay, an opinion is whether you like coffee or tea.

An opinion is not, I don't think black people are people.

And that's the thing.

Timonov here is kind of like unbelievers deserve to burn.

Well, that doesn't quite have the same validity of opinion as, I think that what you think is a god is actually a technological thing.

And the story doesn't bash us over the head with an answer for that saying, well, it kind of says, look, Timonov's wrong, but it presents it in such a way that you kind of go, well, you can understand why Timonov thought what he thought.

The issue is there's no arbiter between the 2 of them that can force Timonov to only accept rational beliefs.

And so Turlo in particular, I think, reaches out to Timonoff, they all speak in terms of loga, and they all speak in terms of what Timonoff can contribute to the community.

[10:49]

And I think all of that conciliation stuff isn't being spineless or it's not refusing to stand up for the truth.

It's something pragmatic and something kind of kindly and something a bit empathetic.

And, you know, like, I think maybe this, we're kind of overinterpreting. what is slightly crapper than than we're making it sound.

But I think there is something nice about the way that Timonoff is reintegrated into the community.

Even though his belief system at the end has been largely defanged and defeated.

Well, he did want to set fire to people.

Yeah, and that's wrong, Richard.

Yeah, we do want to make that clear to our listeners at home.

Don't burn people.

We did cover that in the Awakening, didn't we?

We're kind of like Willow should have been beheaded, but now we're being really nice about Tim and off because, I don't know, he's an archbishop in a rock.

Yeah, he's great frog.

Well, you know, and he's far too ill to attend any inquiries or something.

Anyway.

[11:49]

I mean, on the topic of religion on a personal note, I grew up Roman Catholic, like Fulham baptised...

Confirmed.

I was an altar boy.

I sort of look back on that now and in my mind, with any religion, you have 2 groups in that religion.

You have the people who live that religion day to day and they live the messages of it.

They don't necessarily refer back to their holy book and say, oh well, you know, I can only eat fish on this day.

Instead, they say, oh, this person is hungry.

I will give them food. whatever it is.

And then you've got the people who say, oh, well, you can only eat fish on this day.

Oh, but I'm allowed to have tattoos.

No, we ignore that bit.

And what I think this story is missing slightly is we have Timonov who is the high up in this religion, but we don't really see people living within the religion in a day-to-day life.

All we know about this religion is if you don't believe in the religion, you get burned.

But we don't know what the religion is.

[12:49]

Well, you know, there's a sense in which, and we've been talking for a while, and we've been talking about this is if it's the main plot, but in fact, this is very clearly not the focus of the story.

Yeah, actually this is just world building.

Yeah, we spoke last week about the fact that we're about to have this big cast change.

All 3 of the regular cast members are leaving one story at a time and that they've decided to stagger it.

And so this is the story that writes out Turlow and Chameleon and Anthony Ainley's master, probably, it introduces Perry, and it puts into place a new show for Colin Baker to regenerate into at the end of the next story.

Exactly. it's a soap.

Come on.

And with Uncle Howard and with Perry arguing on the beach.

That's Dynasty or Dallas.

Yeah, yeah. doing the accents, yeah.

So it's much looser, you know.

It looked very gorgeous.

[13:50]

We need to say, okay.

Most of it does look like a very exotic quarry, but at least we know it's not a quarry in the south of England.

But it looks fantastic.

It's really lovely And the performance is a great Dallas Adams.

I think it's just a breath of fresh everything.

He's, I really like him.

Is they much younger than we expected?

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I love married to Dallas.

Well, can I just say, this is the most sexually exploited introduction of a woman in Doctor Who in the history of everything, let alone an introduction, and it's directed by Fiona Cumming.

Yes.

This is my, you know, more curious creative thought of so far this season.

How does it sit with you that she, it's just artual libidness representation.

I've touched on Dallas and Dynasty because I know that's where it's coming from.

And it's also they're wanting to do now. you know, you know how Pete talked about wanting to do a bond send up and that he and Nicola would frock up for that.

And he was actually a really big bond fan.

He says.

So maybe that's as close as he gets, was that, I don't know if the waistcoat actually contributes to that effect at all, but it really sits uncomfortably with me.

[14:56]

I think the problem is this. that they're replacing a female lead who is independent and mouthy and clever and slightly obnoxious, and pretty, you know, like Tegan is very gorgeous, with someone who is constantly manhandled and pushed around by men.

In this story, the master is constantly like actually physically grabbing her and dragging her around the place.

Someone who is really sexualised and it doesn't start here because she's on the planet San where all the men are gay.

And so she's and then spending time with her gay stepfather in Lanzarote.

So she's not particularly sexualised here, except by the camera in that one shot where she's, and I had...

There's not a lot left.

Turo at least gets a chance.

I mean, he could have actually just pumped her lungs on the beach, so to speak, he drags her back into the blue cupboard, doesn't he?

[15:58]

Yeah.

You see, my memory was that that was actually the 1st shot we see of Nicola, but it isn't.

The 1st shot is her arguing with Howard.

She's wearing more clothes than him.

If anyone in that scene is being sexualised. is.

And if he's not, can he be?

But Vance Schott, where she's got the plastic bag full of staff, and she's wearing that bikini and the camera sort of starts on her crotch and then just kind of rapely, like as if Vasor is operating the camera. you know, crawls up her body.

I think that's yucky.

And I think it is, it's something that the show is has now decided to do, is to turn the proactive, independent, mouthy female companion into someone just a little bit more of a victim and a little bit more passive and a little bit more subject to the male game.

We've gone back to 1970.

It's exactly how women are treated.

But in Doctor Who, they were.

No, they were.

[16:58]

Liz and Joe and Sarah weren't treated in that way in the 70s.

But you could argue that they do put Turlo in shorts.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But what I'm saying is Turlo's about to go and the way that Perry's portrayed and the way she's going to be treated continues in the program for another year.

Just because just because they stretch it to include both genders in the libidinizing of the companion doesn't actually make it any better.

No, but Turlo's not going to be in it anymore.

And this is the 1st time he's been sexualised.

And, you know, we've talked about Fiona coming.

There's no good way of saying that.

We've talked about Fiona coming, putting men in dresses in all of her stories.

But here, she puts them in tiny, tiny shorts or lovely lacy curtains.

She's just gone around that holiday inn on Lanzarote and just pulled down and pulled down the curtains.

There you go, wardrobe.

I'm quite uncomfortable with that 1st peri shot.

And judging from Nicola's face.

I think Nicola's a bit uncomfortable with that.

And she has gone on to say that Perry's wardrobe was never as she envisioned.

[17:59]

You know, she...

She's not from Essex.

Nicola Bryant.

Well, Nicola Bryant wrote like a 5 page backstory for Perry.

Before she realised that Peter Davidson was leaving.

So it was all based around how the doctor looked like her dead father and et cetera, et cetera.

And she's like, and then we get Colin, who looks nothing like my dead car.

Unless she was in octopussy and he was one of the clowns.

Maldi clown.

She also talked about, you know, how in movies set in American colleges back then, you know, slasher movies, the girls weren't generally running around in bikini.

She's like, they were running around in sweatshirts and that's what I thought I'd be wearing.

You know, she might wear an overlong sweatshirt with just tights underneath, but they're putting me in these leotards and that doesn't really, you know, you do it because wardrobe tells you to.

I really, I like her blouse and shorts combo that she wears for this and Andrazani because it's practical in the hot climate of Lanzarotti.

But, yeah, but...

It's continues to do it too, the Leotard.

[19:00]

Yeah exactly.

And it's not...

There's nothing wrong with the bikini itself.

It is that shot.

That Benny Hill, you know, it's the beginning of a Benny Hill sketch that shot.

And the look on Nicola's face is almost like, really?

Really?

This is a shot we're actually doing.

Is it that we're uncomfortable with sexualising Doctor Who in this period?

No, no.

I mean, I think that JNT is obviously, do you know what I mean?

There's very little kind of sexuality.

No, I think that came from...

I think that shot was pushed by coming.

But to speak.

But I think that it's the politics of it that I don't like, it's taking an independent character and replacing her with someone designed to be a victim.

You see, I agree with that up to a point because I think in this story more than any other and we're getting ahead of ourselves.

But Perry is incredibly independent, incredibly resourceful in this.

She masters a chameleon.

Yeah, yeah.

And they never explained that, but who the hell cares?

Because it's an excellent concept that a companion can outdo the master's control in some way.

[20:04]

She gets that wonderful line, like when he shouts at her, I'm the master.

She says, I'm perfectly proud and I can shout just as loud as you can. which is what you want any companion to say to the master.

Her best bit in the story is when the shrunken master is wandering around the tartars.

And she's got her shoe.

She's got a shoe and she's going to smack him.

What they should have done in the bother bothers.

You know, I love the bit where she's running to help the doctor, but then runs back to Turlo and says, oh, he'll need this.

You know she doesn't know anything that's going on.

But I think it is another case, a lot like ages ago, I said with Dodo, I think the actress is putting a lot more in it than what's on the page.

And it's what an actor's job is.

Yeah, yeah.

And she's really charming.

I mean she is very appealing.

She's greatly charming.

She even covers up the black holes in the plot by being so charming.

Yeah.

Where did that thing come from?

Why the hell is it on earth?

Yeah, and was it was it actually Turlo's or was it part of his dad's hoard?

[21:06]

Because no, because his dad's on Khan, son, and...

Maybe the solicitor went on holidays.

Yeah, and left his barbell slash...

Whatever.

Back massage out there.

I'd like to say someone who's unexpectedly excellent in this.

Anthony Ainley.

No, it's terrible.

I agree.

He good.

He's at his very, very best, and we'll get to that because we haven't seen that on screen yet, and we don't see it for a while, but he's, I agree.

I think he's at his best in this one too.

And he does subtly differentiate between the chameleon master and the mastermaster.

The chameleon master.

It's kind of weird, is a lot more in line with the worst bits of his earlier self.

But the thing is, you know from the beginning he's chameleon as the master.

Whereas the mini master is really entertaining.

I mean, there's another plot hole there where the doctor says, oh, were you experimenting with a tissue compression eliminator and the master's like, I was working on an even more deadly version.

[22:07]

One, it kills you instantly.

So how is it even more deadly?

Two, it shrinks you and kills you instantly.

This shrinks you and keeps you alive.

You've literally done the opposite of what you were setting out to.

Unless he wants tiny little friends to put in his little playhouse is just made his little.

What is he saying when he dies?

How can you do this to him?

What's the line?

To your own, yes, to your own species, your own ex?

Sister brothers, cousins, former roommate.

Ex-mother.

It's your sister.

I think piano tutor.

I think I think the master's doctor's ex-wife.

Some people have tried to post-rationalize it is.

Would you show no mercy to one of your own, which he clearly does not say?

No, he actually says, won't you show mercy to your own?

Yeah.

That is a little bit horrible that he sort of, and because it's a bit of a video effect.

It sort of fake and so it doesn't matter, right, so much?

step out of it.

Chameleon does.

The TARDIS is three. his TARDIS is 3 feet behind him.

Chameleon just steps out.

You're standing in a tea chest.

[23:08]

That's right.

Pete sells that scene. like Pete doesn't intervene.

But he's clearly, really distressed.

Yeah, yeah, he's really good. and really conflicted.

It's like, I should do something, but I don't want to.

When I watched this, because I remember seeing it at the time, Richard, did you think that that was the master being killed?

Yes, I did.

And it was a shock.

And then I also remember how very even-handed he was with popping chameleon off.

It's like, no, kill me, it's all right, if you insist.

And I thought I remember at the time having completely forgotten about Chameleon.

So that was something of a surprises.

Everyone's really horrible to chameleon in this story.

Like when he starts screaming, they just kind of run in and look at them and when Chameleon says, oh, I'm really sorry about that.

Peter just looks at him like he's whizzed on the carpet.

No, it's like those people who got an iPhone 7 and that was it was hissing.

Did you hear that story?

So Chameleon was very much like that, I think.

And then when Turlo intercepts the signal.

[24:10]

And says to Chameleon, you'll receive no more signals from Tryon.

Your Finnish comedian.

Chameleon.

He gives him an electric shock and then Perry pushes him around and mentally manipulates him.

And then the master's obviously treating him like crap and then the doctor shoots him.

Like chameleon's having a really bad day.

So they've, I've been through this with canine and I'm not doing it all.

No, well, I think they do at least try in the dialogue to suggest that Chameleon is kind of inextricably linked to the master and is the master sleeper agent, and that's why when Chameleon's rational, he wants to be destroyed.

And again, I wish they didn't write scenes where the doctor shot people with guns.

But, like, that's not so bad.

And they do go out of their way, to say, is an appliance and stuff and he's terrible, so let him die.

But, you know, does he not just have an off switch?

Yeah.

Genius.

Just like they reboot it.

So it charge him overnight, for God's sake.

It's a positronic brain, can that be rewritten?

I think you can rewire a human brain, so.

[25:12]

Data in Star Trek Linux Generation has an off switch.

Yeah.

Which Beverly Crusher can bloody use for God's sake.

And as Gates McFadden says herself, everyone Beverly Crusher looks at it the 1st season dies.

She's like, that's why I wasn't in the 2nd season.

Everyone dies on my operating table.

When Denise Crosby was being written out.

She said, no, don't give me her.

Oh dear.

Turmo is depicted very early on in this story, sabotaging the TARDIS and lying to the doctor about it.

Old times.

I think it's brilliant.

And I think Tegan's departure scene is really affecting and really well done, but Turlo gets the most spectacular arc in this story.

He starts the way he began, you know, sabotaging the TARDIS and lying to the doctor about it.

But he ends doing what Patrick Troughton's doctor did, which is in a situation where there's a whole heap of people who need to be saved.

[26:12]

He's not able to deal with it.

He calls in the people he's on the run from and gets them to rescue those people at the risk of losing his own freedom.

And I just think that's terrific.

I don't know if it was intentional if Grimwade intended the parallel, but he becomes the doctor at the end.

I think it is intentional.

And the beautiful moment I love in this story, and it's also, it's quite hard to watch, but we discussed in season 20 that the doctor knows something's up with Turlo from the beginning, but he kind of gives him enough rope, as it were, not to hang himself, but to do tricks with, because he finds the crystal in the 1st story.

And then in Enlightenment, he doesn't try to persuade Turlow, he leaves the choice up to Turlow.

The same thing happens here.

Like the doctor comes in and finds that Turlow's been fiddling with the TARDIS console.

And then when Turlow is saying, I know this equipment, I know the scriptment, again, the doctor just leaves him to go, doesn't ask for an explanation.

It's only when the doctor thinks that Turlo might be working for the master as well, but he finally snaps and says, if you're working with the master, no, if you're concealing anything that may help the master, our friendship is over and it's like, right, that shows the strength of that friendship, that the doctor's like, I will always give you your freedom and I will always trust you until you are no longer worthy of that trust.

[27:31]

And that's when Turlo steps up and becomes a doctor.

And again, we talked about last week, how the doctor and Tua were so emotionally reserved compared to Tegan, all the emotions on the surface.

Here, the doctor and Turlo have to say goodbye to each other and they just don't have the emotional toolkit to handle it.

You know, it's just this very perfunctory thing, but that is so right for both characters and they just get very quiet and very down low and it's all very understated.

Oh, I've learned a lot from you.

Yes, I'll miss you.

Yeah, look after him.

He gets into trouble.

And I love that line.

Look after him.

He does get into the most terrible trouble.

It's so great.

It's really good.

And again, Perry's just kind of there going, hold on, what?

Like, I just met you guys and you're obviously good mates.

What the hell's going on?

Or you'll find out, dear.

But yeah, it's kind of weird because Mark Strickson has had the whole thing of being locked in a cupboard for most of this season, but whenever he's given something to do, he excels.

[28:33]

Yeah.

It's a shame I can never do those spreadsheets, but...

I think it's a shame that like during this period of Doctor Who.

There's so much missed opportunity with just the sort of portrayal of relationships between the regulars, and I guess Doctor Who hasn't really done that properly.

But, you know, we talk about the doctor and Turlo being friends.

But there's not really much time for us to actually see evidence of that, is there?

You know, they travel together and stuff.

But look, even the old series at its best compared to the new series at its worst.

The new series has an interest in trying to depict relationships in a way that the old series really rarely managers.

And it's a shame in the 80s when they're going for more serialised storytelling and a bigger, regular cast and maybe higher concept characters and stuff.

I'd be fascinated to see a version of like season 21 that cared a bit more about the relationships between the regular cast.

[29:36]

Yeah, it's another case of, it's not on paper. all in the performance.

I would have talked about this before.

I would have loved a season of Peter and Nicola, and I think Nicola would have loved that as well, or at least one story.

Big Finish picked it up and did some really nice ideas with it.

I think it would have been great.

I mean, truly well.

And he needs that.

That one on one thing, the stuff that even Russell realised, you know, it's the way to go is just the doctor and De Gill.

Yeah.

Although I like the doctor, a man and a woman as well.

And I think when Moffatt does that in the new series, like, I'm not a massive fan of Amy, but Rory's fantastic.

And I love that dynamic and you've got a bunch of relationships to play with, and I think it's really interesting.

I think whenever there's a boy that comes along, Mickey is charming.

Captain Jack works so much better in this artist for me than he does in Torchworks..

On a big finish side note.

We jokingly referred to what is Perry's mother up to?

In Big Finish, they do bring in Perry's mother, played by the fabulous Claudia Christian, best known to science fiction fans as Commander Ivanova from Babylon 5, and she is wonderful.

[30:47]

And a good tweeterer as well.

Yes, very much so.

Is she doing the accent?

She's doing the accent.

The story is called The Reaping by Joe Lidster.

And it actually deals with what happened to Perry's mother and Howard after Perry disappeared because that's the thing in this story.

Yeah, who to blame.

And also, it's a particularly good story in its own right, but it led to Nicola Bryant and Claudia Christian becoming firm friends and doing lots of charity work together, which is lovely. yeah.

In the wigs and the outfits and their accents.

And I believe we brought this up on the podcast before Nicola Bryant was on the short list to play Captain Catherine Janeway. she was 3rd choice.

Kate Mulgrew was second.

Can you imagine what that would have been like?

Would she have done the accent?

No, apparently.

Apparently, much like Genevieve Bujol wasn't putting on an American accent.

She used her inference Canadian.

She thing.

[31:47]

She would have just done it as an English person.

Yeah.

She, you know, when Nicholas said, it is an actual accent and I diddler in it at a place in real time.

And yeah, she was married to an American young actor and writer, wasn't she?

And she had lived in New York and she very quickly got coached by.

But yeah, she said, you know, she was getting it actually off her boyfriend, so to speak.

As such, that's why her accent improves dramatically as she goes along because it's a bit weak here, but already next week in Andrazani, it's going to be a lot stronger.

But that being said, it's a lot better than a lot of other American accents we've had on the show.

We've done the gunfighters, yes.

The Gunfighters.

Bill Filer from CIAHQ, Washington HQ, rather.

Leslie Schofield in the war games.

It's still a bad idea though, isn't it?

Don't you think, to have the regular putting on an accent?

Well, at the time, you're putting an American in because the show's becoming popular in America.

And no American's going to be fooled by that.

They watched it for Englishness anyway.

It's like it's as successful as putting an Australian in to get better ratings in Australia.

[32:51]

We saw how that worked.

Actually, it did, though.

Really?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, it's a shame in a way, but I think with some actors, you know, they can do an accent or they can act.

But I think Nicola Bryant is someone who can act through the accent.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You see it all the time.

Remember, um, remember Press gang and Dexter Fletcher get saddled with that American accent and it really interferes with his acting.

Yeah, it really can kill a performance.

And she's still really super charming all the way through.

Like I've got no problem with Nicola Bryant's performance.

I really, really don't like the way her character's conceived and where it goes.

But she's so charming and so sweet, even despite the occasional sort of lapse in the way she speaks American.

There's a great moment in this where she's looking for the doctor and Turlo and she slides down a hill and she was just told, okay, slide down this hill and then walk off camera saying, uh, calling out to the doctor and she's like, oh, okay, I'll do that.

[33:57]

And she runs to the top of the hill, Nicola.

And then thinks, oh, hold on.

Do I go off left or right?

Because it's got to match up with the other footage.

Oh, well, directors behind the camera so she'll wave.

And so she slides down the hill and cuts her legs off.

It looked like it really hurts.

It did.

And the thing is, she's then stumbling towards the camera saying, doctor, doctor, and no one is giving her any direction.

So she just goes off to the left and I think Fiona coming said, why did you go off to left?

Well, why didn't you tell me to go off to the right?

They didn't reshoot it.

Okay, Richard, you said last night you watched the chasing gig.

But also you watch the... the shortened cut of this.

Yes, it was shorter.

What did you think?

Well, I actually have to admit, I haven't watched Planet of Fire 4 episodes since, well, the 90s.

I think it's very nicely done.

I think it works because of Timonoff, and it works because of the supporting cast.

The scripts sort of so, so, if you had a Cummings had some really bad fan, you know, it's drumming for this story.

[35:03]

She's called everything from lacklustre to phoning it in and far more negative, but she gave us snake dance and she gave us...

I don't have a problem with it, but it also doesn't go anywhere.

It is a little bit untidy.

It's sort of like, what is this doing?

The script, I mean, the script, there's just a bunch of stuff that happens while we move the characters around.

And I think we can blame so hard for that.

I'd like to think, although we've seen Grim Wade's efforts before.

There is never a primitive planet where a spaceship hasn't crashed on.

Yeah, I mean, Peter Grimwade does great concept.

But his structure isn't great.

Like, we've got time flight, and we've got Modron undead, and we got this, all of which have great ideas.

I believe this is the most successful of his scripts, but I agree with you.

There are certainly structural and pacing issues.

But it's a lot like Modern Undead, where Modern Undead's job is to bring the brigadier back, you know, show us Turlow.

And so there is a smoggish Bjord of impossible tasks.

Yeah, no, no, I don't think so.

I think what he ends up doing is concentrating on shifting the characters around stuff, which is really successful and entertaining.

[36:08]

And then you get a rather kind of underwritten kind of central Doctor Who story in the middle of all of that.

But I don't mind that balance at all.

I think the alternative, which is what Doctor Who would do at this time, is to kind of sideline the character stuff at the expense of, you know, the Doctor Who story.

And I think it's refreshing to spend so much time concentrating on all of these new people and old people and stuff like that.

And let the story be a bit underwritten.

I think the new series does that quite a lot.

You know what it reminds me of in the new series?

Love and monsters.

Because Love and Monsters is all about these 5 people and just the plot kind of comes in in the last 10 minutes and kills everyone.

Yeah, that's very true, but again, that's not exactly a favourite story, isn't it?

That, I mean, that's a real Marmite story.

Personally, I love it, but I know a lot of people hate it.

I love it and I totally understand why a lot of people hate it.

Oh, yeah, yeah.

I get why people hate it.

I don't particularly understand why people hate fear her.

[37:08]

I don't think it's great, but yeah, it's just not good.

A couple of minor things I noticed.

Howard's assistant, Kurt, at one point when he's berating his crew for setting up the Ute wrong, says, must I do everything myself and grabs a topless Greek bloke?

I really liked that.

What he was to her.

And a particular relationship I loved in this story that even though they're in the same story again later, it's never really picked up on it in the same way.

Anthony Anley and Nicola Bryant are really enjoyable together.

Like when they're in the cave together at his lecture and she is just rolling her eyes and I'm supposed to be impressed, kind of acting.

But she's doing the Sarah Jane thing.

She's being defiant, but being scared as well.

And it's like, I kind of look at that and go, oh, so we have an antagonistic relationship that's still enjoyable to watch.

Take note, dear listeners.

This may not continue in a few weeks.

I actually quite like how it gives Ainley's master the opportunity to call her Miss Brown and stuff.

[38:11]

Miss Brown and my dear.

I think that stuff's really wonderful.

I think I'm sorry that I only came back up. after this actually.

Yeah, it was a really nice point for him to finish, but then I say his best story is yet to come.

Yeah, no, that is true.

We would have lost that thing that we haven't even watched it.

I haven't I haven't seen a lot of these stories since the 90s.

It'll be interesting for me to see just how much fun this series is going to get in a few weeks.

Probably.

In the end, I don't think this is quite as good as, say, Frontios, but it's a big improvement on last week, and it's certainly better than the other 2 stories we've had in the season so far.

It's a Christmas romp and even and the deaths aren't exactly deathy, are they?

Yeah, no, we needed this holiday.

I found it surprisingly enjoyable.

Oh, and I like Pete without his jacket eye. he looks great.

I want to punch in the head, whoever put all those question marks all over his braces, but otherwise he looks really terrific.

Quite like the brass.

I quite like turbo short.

I'm wearing them now.

[39:33]

Well, dear listeners, we're leaving Sarn for a sequence of long and happy adventures with the fifth doctor in Perry.

So do come back next week.

I hope it really works out for these two.

Until then, you can find us online at flightthroughentirety.com, flight through entirety on Facebook and iTunes and FTE podcast on Twitter over on Bondfinger.

We still haven't released View to a kill, but there's lots of other bond commentaries for you to enjoy starring Sean Connery, David Niven, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, kind of, and Roger Moore.

And Ursula Andras.

Twice.

Yes.

You can find that at Bondfinger.com, Bondfinger on Facebook and iTunes and Bondfingercast on Twitter.

Until next time, may none of your flaming religious leaders put you to the fire.

Thank you very much for listening and good night.

Good night.

Good night.

That was flight for entirety, starring Nathan Bottomley, Brendan Jones, and Richard Stone.

Theme arrangement by Cameron Lamb.

This episode just gives Great Frock was recorded on 19th of November 2016.

The next episode will be released on the 7th of January.

[40:38]

Here at Flight Through Entirety, we'd like to wish all of our listeners a very happy holiday and a thrilling, tremendous, and in no way, tiresome 2017.

I was just checking that everything Todd mentioned that we've also mentioned.

Yeah, I don't think I've got much else to say.

It's so it's a bit thin, isn't it?

But it is it is enjoyable.

I was really surprised by how much I liked it.

It's so nice that it completely reflects the scripts of so many other volcano stories such as, you know, King Solomon's mines or Blake 7's volcano.

You can really see the antecedents because I know we always like to talk about them.

Inferno.

The underwater menace.

Yes.

Underworld with the suits.

Underworld.

Yes.

Yes.

Honestly, it's like the entire cast was on helium because the whole thing's evaporated.

Did we watch this show?

I remember watching it.

It's got rocks, hasn't it?

It's got burning rocks and blokes in shorts, yeah.

[41:38]

Okay, no, we did see this.

That's probably the tag scene, isn't it?

We'll see.