Hilarious banner content

Episode 72

Petulant Teenage Moment

Our flight through E-Space crashes into a mysterious white void inhabited only by crazy alchemist Christopher Hamilton Bidmead and some hirsute slaves on the run from a Jean Cocteau film. It’s Warriors’ Gate.

Buy the story!

Warriors’ Gate was released on DVD in 2009 as part of the E-Space Trilogy box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Fans of the weird magical way that time works in this story will enjoy the ITV series Sapphire and Steel, so long as they’re blessed with a lot of patience for glacial pacing. And Joanna Lumley, obviously.

This story reminds Brendan of two stories of Star Trek: The Next Generation: Contagion, in which the mysterious Iconians have constructed gateways that allow them to plunder planet after planet, and Remember Me, in which the fabulous Beverly Crusher discovers that the universe is “a spherical region 705 metres in diameter”.

Despite Nathan’s best attempt, The Practical Problem with Leaving Someone Alive is not the title of this episode. Instead, it’s the title of Episode 50 of Flight Through Entirety, in which we discuss the utterly superb Horror of Fang Rock.

Kenneth Cope, who played Packard in this story, was well known for his role in Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), where he played the eponymous Hopkirk, a fabulous crime-solving ghost. Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) was created by Dennis Spooner, the best Dennis to contribute to the creation of the William Hartnell era.

Richard’s not here this week, but we still have a list of films and things that influnced the visual style of this story: Jean Cocteau’s Orphée (1950), Roots (1977), Kiss Me Deadly (1955), and Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête (1955).

Fans of people being horrible to Matthew Waterhouse will enjoy his superb autobiography, Blue Box Boy. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. The Flight Through Entirety theme was arranged by Cameron Lam. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or, I don’t know, we’ll knock over a goblet of wine and confront you with a totally inexplicable (but utterly beautiful) cliffhanger.

Doctor Who in 10 Seconds

As usual, all three of us find ourselves able to drone on about a single Doctor Who story for more than half an hour. But what if we only had 10 seconds?

By the time you read this, the third episode of Doctor Who in Ten Seconds might even be up, covering the glorious car crash that is Doctor Who’s third season. You can see the entire series on YouTube. You might even get to see Brendan dancing. Shut up. He’ll be totally wearing clothes, you deviant.

Bondfinger

Over the weekend, we released our commentary podcast on Roger Moore’s first Bond film, the casually racist classic Live and Let Die. Our eight previous commentaries cover the Connery films, George Lazenby’s classic outing and the inexplicable Casino Royale (1967), starring David Niven. You can find all these commentaries on our website, and you can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 72: Petulant Teenage Moment · Duration 0:46:47 · Download · Open in new window

Season 18The Fourth Doctor

Episode 71

Why Is E-Space Green?

Our flight through the vast green void of the E-Space Trilogy continues, as we land on an unnamed planet inhabited only by playing-card monarchs, unconvincing plastic bats and press-on BBC beards. But we still have a pretty good time. Welcome to State of Decay.

Buy the story!

State of Decay was released on DVD in 2009. Unlike last week’s Full Circle, I can’t find it on sale by itself on Amazon in the US, but it’s available as part of the E-Space Trilogy box set from either of the Amazons. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

As is now well known, State of Decay started life as the Season 15 opener The Vampire Mutations, which was nixed by the BBC so that it wouldn’t steal the thunder from BBC’s own version of Dracula scheduled for broadcast that same year. The Wikipedia article on this lavish production links to several fairly positive reviews, despite Nathan’s tiresome and predictable insistence that it would have been simply terrible.

Terrance Dicks will revisit this unnamed planet in his Virgin New Adventures book Blood Harvest, published in July 1994, which is before some of you young people were even born, for God’s sake.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. The Flight Through Entirety theme was arranged by Cameron Lam. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or Nathan will come round to your house to explain the etymology of the word technocotheca at intolerably tedious length.

Doctor Who in 10 Seconds

These days, the Flight Through Entirety team can usually keep going on about a Doctor Who story for upwards of 40 minutes. But what if we only had 10 seconds?

In the latest (well, only) video project from Flight Through Entirety (well, just Brendan, really), Brendan summarises Doctor Who season by season, spending no more than 10 seconds on each story. Season 1 is up already; by the time you see these shownotes, Season 2 will probably be up too. You can see Brendan’s fabulous work here.

Bondfinger

Next week, we hope, we’ll be releasing our commentary podcast on Roger Moore’s Bond début, Live and Let Die, so you’ve got about a week to enjoy it one last time before we ruin it for you forever, probably. Our most recent commentary is on Diamonds Are Forever (1971). You can find our other commentaries on our website, and you can keep up with the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 71: Why Is E-Space Green? · Duration 0:40:20 · Download · Open in new window

Season 18The Fourth Doctor

Episode 70

He Swims in a Very Special Way

This week, our trip to Gallifrey is unexpectedly diverted when we fall headlong into Doctor Who’s first ever trilogy, set in a bubble universe weirdly intersecting with the Newtown Branch of The Sofa of Reasonable Comfort. While there, we discuss polar vs Cartesian coordinates, the laws governing space evolution and skimpy transparent underwear. Tell Dexeter we’ve come full circle!

Buy the story!

Full Circle was released on DVD in 2009. It’s available by itself in the US (Amazon US), and also as part of the E-Space Trilogy box set (Amazon US). In the UK and Australia, it is only available as part of the E-Space Trilogy box set. (Amazon UK)

If you’re planning a career as a Doctor Who villain, you will obviously need to familiarise yourself with the Internet’s Evil Overload Checklist.

Brendan’s Tom Baker and K9 action figures recreate key scenes from Full Circle on location in Black Park, Buckinghamshire in our occasional series Toys on Tour.

Perhaps we’re unnecessarily cruel about Matthew Waterhouse’s performance in this story. To hear his side of the story, you must read the excellent Blue Box Boy, Waterhouse’s own account of his childhood as a Doctor Who fan, his time on the show, and his subsequent life on the convention circuit. You won’t regret it. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (Amazon AU)

Although the Marshchild paid a terrible price for trusting the Doctor, we think you’ll enjoy listening to Trust Your Doctor, a podcast by our internet pals Dylan and Kiyan. They’ve only just overtaken us, so, you know, spoiler alert.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. The Flight Through Entirety theme was arranged by Cameron Lam. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll violently trash your laboratory and then electrocute ourselves by punching a hole in your television.

Bondfinger

Before we start our flight through Rodge’s glorious series of Bond films, there’s still time to catch up on our commentaries on Sean and George’s entries, including Sean’s final film (for now), Diamonds Are Forever (1971). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 70: He Swims in a Very Special Way · Duration 0:50:57 · Download · Open in new window

Season 18The Fourth Doctor

Episode 69

By the Power of Bad Acting

The Season 18 fun continues this week as we head off to the planet Tigella to confront megalomaniacal pot plant Meglos. On the way, we discuss another important trope, hating the Doctor’s old friends, and, of course, the awesome wonder of Jacqueline Hill.

Buy the story!

Meglos was released on DVD in 2011. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

The horrific helmet hair on the Savants has its roots (ha!) in the Gerry Anderson TV series UFO (1980). Check out the sexy purple version of the Savants’ wigs in this blog post on the first episode of the series.

Here is a list of all of the old friends of John Steed who are killed in episodes of The New Avengers.

Fans of The Avengers will have nodded sagely at Brendan’s mentions of the episodes Murdersville and The Man-Eater of Surrey Green. We discuss Man-Eater in one of our favourite episodes of this podcast, Episode 43: Sexiest Exposition Trope.

On the subject of tropes, Brendan mentions the delivery of exposition by having characters explain to each other things they clearly already know. According to TV Tropes, this trope is officially called As you know. Please take note.

According to Brendan, who is very young, you know, Tigella’s lush, aggressive vegetation looks very much like the Pokémon Victreebel. You can compare them yourself here.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. The Flight Through Entirety theme was arranged by Cameron Lam. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or you’ll be caught in a fold of time and forced to listen to this episode round and round for all eternity. Not even you can escape a chronic hysteretic loop, as you well know.

Bondfinger

In our most recent commentary, we respectfully discuss the first James Bond film of the 1970s, Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Other commentaries are also available, covering all of the Bond films from the 1960s. You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 69: By the Power of Bad Acting · Duration 0:38:00 · Download · Open in new window

Season 18The Fourth Doctor

Episode 68

Giant Squashy Bottoms

Exhausted by a two-hour tracking shot along Brighton Beach, Brendan, Nathan and Todd head off to the leisure planet Argolis, a beautifully-directed planet under attack from an army of David Haigs. Welcome to the 1980s, everyone!

Buy the story!

The Leisure Hive was released on DVD in 2004. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Fans of obsessing over the minutiae of things that are completely unimportant, will enjoy, well, Flight Through Entirety, to be honest, but they will also enjoy the website broadwcast.org, which enumerates every single time a Classic Doctor Who episode has aired on terrestrial television in over 80 countries around the world. Nathan loves it.

Here’s an article from The Telegraph in which Christopher Hamilton Bidmead, starved for relevance, explains exactly what’s wrong with the new series.

And now, some really terrible TV science fiction for your enjoyment: eleven episodes of the 1979 series Buck Rogers in the Twenty-Fifth Century, and Chapter 1 of Jason of Star Command (1978), intriguingly titled Attack of the Dragonship.

Here is Elizabeth Sandifer’s video blog discussing this season’s new approach to visual storytelling.

And here’s Bablyon 5, which is apparently a television series of some kind, shamelessly ripping off the composition of one of the many beautiful shots in this story.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can find Cameron Lam, who so beautifully arranged our theme music, at cameronlam.com. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we will open the airlocks and together we will walk out onto the surface of our planet for the last time.

Bondfinger

This morning, we released our commentary on Connery’s last (?) Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever (1971). It’s the eighth in our series, which now includes commentaries on all of the 60s Bond films. You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 68: Giant Squashy Bottoms · Duration 0:57:38 · Download · Open in new window

Season 18The Fourth Doctor

Episode 67

Chaotic Intent

We’ve reached the end of the Graham Williams Era, and before we go off to have a relaxing one-month break in a nearby parallel universe, we have just enough time to discuss Shada, the sadly uncompleted keystone of the last three years of Doctor Who. Tea, anyone?

Buy the story!

Odd and unsatisfactory versions of this story were released on DVD in 2013. In the US, as usual, it was released on its own (Amazon US), whereas in the UK it was one of two discs in the Legacy Collection box set, along with the 1993 documentary More than Thirty Years in the TARDIS. (Amazon UK)

However, it doesn’t end there. In 2012, a novelisation of Shada was released, written by Doctor Who writer and Season 17 fan Gareth Roberts. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (Amazon AU). There’s also an audiobook, read by Lalla Ward. (Audible US) (Audible UK) (Audible AU)

Gödel Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter was published in 1979, and was wildly loved by just the sort of people who might stumble upon an ancient book of Gallifreyan lore in the study of some old Cambridge professor. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

The Star Wars Holiday Special first screened around Christmas 1978, and is perhaps the most horrific thing ever to screen on television. Despite George Lucas’s relentless attempts to suppress it, it can be viewed in its entirety on YouTube. But, really, just don’t.

The Somebody Else’s Problem field is “a cheap, easy, and staggeringly useful way of safely protecting something from unwanted eyes”, by exploiting our natural tendency to ignore things that we just don’t want to think about.

And here’s a video of the destruction of a washing machine by putting a brick in it. Turn down your sound before watching this.

Fans of ruthlessly mocking pompous homophobic lackwits will enjoy these Amazon reviews of Cory Bernardi’s absurdly jejune magnum opus The Conservative Revolution.

Picks of the Week

Nathan

Nathan just picked a whole heap of stuff that we’ve mentioned in the last few episodes of the podcast. There are links to Gareth Roberts’s novelisation of Shada above; James Goss’s novelisation of City of Death was released by BBC Books in 2015. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Paul Cornell’s collection of fanzine articles, Licence Denied, is out of print.

Richard

The Mortdecai Trilogy by Kyril Bonfiglioli is a series of comic novels recounting the adventures of a dissolute art dealer.

Brendan

Douglas Adams’s novel Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency shamelessly recycles many of the ideas in both City of Death and Shada. It’s great. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll unexpectedly go on strike over lunch and cancel the pinnacle of your entire era.

Bondfinger

While you’re waiting for our upcoming commentary on On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1968), please enjoy our commentaries on (the other) Casino Royale (1967), You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 67: Chaotic Intent · Duration 0:55:59 · Download · Open in new window

Season 17The Fourth Doctor

Episode 66

Falling on Cory Bernardi

Our flight finally reaches the end of the 1970s, only to run out of hymetusite and crash ignominiously into The Horns of Nimon.

Buy the story!

The Horns of Nimon was released on DVD in 2010. It was released by itself in the US (Amazon US), but in the UK it was released along with The Time Monster and Underworld in the rightfully unloved Myths and Legends box set (Amazon UK).

Here’s South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi drawing an irrefutable link between marriage equality and marrying your dog.

Fans of the Nimon (and who isn’t?) will enjoy the Big Finish Eighth Doctor audio Seasons of Fear by Paul Cornell.

Once again, we mention Licence Denied, which was a collection of fan writing edited by Paul Cornell first published in 1997. Notable essays include Tom the Second, Gareth Roberts’s defence of the Williams Era, and Why the Nimon Should Be Our Friends, by Phillip J. Gray.

And here’s is Shaun Micallef interviewing Jack Tiger Adams, for some reason.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll come round to your house and dig a black hole on your doorstep.

Bondfinger

Our Casino Royale (1967) commentary is now out, and it’s mental, but nowhere near as mental as the film itself. Once the acid flashbacks have subsided, you might enjoy our other Bond commentaries: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 66: Falling on Cory Bernardi · Duration 0:44:19 · Download · Open in new window

Season 17The Fourth Doctor

Episode 65

I Don’t Want Nancy Reagan

So, we’ve all taken several hits of vraxoin, which means that we really enjoyed this week’s story, in spite of the sets, the script, most of the performances and the ham-fisted anti-drugs message. It’s Nightmare of Eden!

Buy the story!

Nightmare of Eden was released on DVD as recently as 2012. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

In 1983, First Lady Nancy Reagan was in the throes of her Just Say No campaign, in which she made numerous television appearances warning the American people about the dangers of drugs. Horrifically, she guested on an episode of Diff’rent Strokes in order to patronise Gary Coleman’s entire class.

Fans of the fabulous model work in this story, along with everyone else, will enjoy the Blakes 7 episode Gold. (It’s worth mentioning at this point that Blakes 7 is now available on YouTube in its entirety. So why are you wasting your time on this podcast, for God’s sake?)

Amii Stewart’s 1979 music video for her hit single Knock On Wood has nearly many psychedelic video effects as this story’s Episode 3 cliffhanger.

In 1980, Lalla Ward played Ophelia in the BBC Season of Shakespeare’s version of Hamlet. Hamlet himself was played by Derek Jacobi, Doctor Who’s very own Professor Yana. (We love Lalla, but she’s really terrible in this.)

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll get horribly out of it for some reason and crash a spaceliner through your car.

Bondfinger

Bondfinger has just released its Casino Royale (1967) commentary, but, to be honest, you’ll need to take a lot of vraxoin in order to get through that film. Still, we also have more sensible commentaries on You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 65: I Don’t Want Nancy Reagan · Duration 0:40:19 · Download · Open in new window

Season 17The Fourth Doctor

Episode 64

There Shall Be No Fire

This week, Brendan, Richard and Nathan are just simply too mature to make fun of the ludicrously phallic monster in The Creature from the Pit. Aren’t we? Aren’t we?

Buy the story!

The Creature from the Pit was released on DVD in 2010. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Orac is, of course, the computer in TV’s Blakes 7.

Fagin is the appalling Jewish stereotype from Charles Dickens’s Oliver Twist. We own Charles Dickens! He’s in Doctor Who.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll tip you into a pit and throw astrologers at you. Obviously.

Bondfinger

Fans of people staring open-mouthed at psychedelic 60s films will enjoy our commentary track for Casino Royale (1967)

Fans of something much more sensible will enjoy our first five commentary tracks: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 64: There Shall Be No Fire · Duration 0:38:23 · Download · Open in new window

Season 17The Fourth Doctor

Episode 63

Crushed with Disappointment

This week, Brendan, Richard and Nathan tackle City of Death, by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams. How many superlatives can fit in a single 40-minute podcast episode?

Buy the story!

City of Death was released on DVD in 2005. Seriously, if you don’t have a copy, just buy it. At once. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

We’ve uploaded some photos from Brendan’s Facebook album Toys on Tour, which is the best place to go to see a plastic Tom Baker crawling up the gate to the Galerie Denise René in Paris.

After Hitch Hiker’s and Doctor Who, Douglas Adams wrote two novels featuring holistic detective Dirk Gently, which reused elements from City of Death and Shada. Those novels were Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency (1987) and The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul (1988). They’re very good.

Ken Grieve, with whom Douglas Adams went to Paris for lunch that one time, was the director of Destiny of the Daleks.

We talked about Cornell, Day and Topping’s The Discontinuity Guide a couple of weeks ago. Here’s their take on City of Death.

Peter Cook and Dudley Moore’s weird spoof version of The Hound of the Baskervilles was released in 1978. It just sounds amazing!

When she wasn’t busy helping her husband to steal the Mona Lisa, Catherine Schell appeared in the second season of Space: 1999 as Maya, a shape-changing alien from the planet Psychon. It’s really much worse than you could possibly imagine.

Fans of erudite discussions of art, scarcity and authenticity will enjoy Elizabeth Sandifer’s take on this story from TARDIS Eruditorum.

For two years, from 1911 to 1913, the Mona Lisa was no longer in the Louvre: it was hidden in a trunk in Vincenzo Peruggia’s apartment after he entered the Louvre, hid it under his smock and made off with it. See, we’re educational as well as entertaining.

Captain Tancredi’s bodyguard is played by Peter Halliday, who won our hearts in his role as Packer in The Invasion.

Romana’s naughty schoolgirl outfit seems to be inspired by the St Trinian’s film series in the 50s and 60s. Another inspiration might be Madeline, the heroine of a series of children’s books written by Austrian author Ludwig Bemelmans in the 1950s and 60s.

Licence Denied was a collection of fan writing edited by Paul Cornell and first published in 1997. It is, sadly, out of print. Notable essays include Tom the Second, Gareth Roberts’s defence of the Williams Era, and Why the Nimon Should Be Our Friends, by Phillip J. Gray. And no, you can’t borrow my copy.

James Goss’s novelisation of City of Death was released by BBC Books in 2015. It’s good. Buy it. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Comic Book Guy kidnaps Lucy Lawless in The Simpsons Halloween episode Treehouse of Horror X. Hilariously, the Simpsons Wikia page warns that “this episode is considered non-canon and the events featured do not relate to the series and therefore may not have actually happened/existed”. Which is nice to know.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll cancel the wine and bring the vitamin pill. Continue with your work, professor. Enjoy it, or you will die.

Bondfinger

Our Casino Royale (1967) commentary will be released early in February. With hilarious results. Until then, you can enjoy our first five commentary tracks: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 63: Crushed with Disappointment · Duration 0:41:33 · Download · Open in new window

Season 17The Fourth Doctor

Episode 62

Circuit Boards Glued to a Piece of Wood

It’s the start of an exciting new season of Doctor Who. Terry Nation’s back and Mary Tamm isn’t, but we still manage to pull ourselves together long enough to discuss Destiny of the Daleks.

Buy the story!

Destiny of the Daleks was released on DVD in 2007/2008. That was simple. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

In 1980, Tom and Lalla recorded a series of Australian ads for minicomputer company Prime Computer. These are available as a DVD extra on the Destiny DVD, but you can also see them on YouTube.

In 1979, Tom recorded a series of three ads for conservation group Keep Australia Beautiful. You can see a terrible videotape copy of two of these on YouTube as well.

The nightmarish scenario of wars run by computer will later be taken up by Matthew Broderick in War Games (1983), which you are all too young to remember. Damn you.

Star Trek’s Wil Wheaton interviews Doctor Who’s Jenna Coleman and Peter Capaldi on the Series 9 DVD and Blu-ray releases. You can watch some short excerpts from that interview here and here.

Nowadays, the word meme tends to refer to photographs of cats with hilarious writing superimposed on them. However, it was originally coined by Lalla Ward’s husband Richard Dawkins to refer to a unit of culture which spreads through imitation.

Chaos on the Bridge is a 2014 documentary written and produced by William Shatner, chronicling the first few difficult years of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s available on Netflix. (Not any longer, apparently.)

Mark Michalowski’s short story The Lying Old Witch in the Wardrobe was published in 2003 as part of Big Finish’s anthology Short Trips: Companions. It explains — whimsically — why Romana regenerates at the start of this story, and suggests that the Romana we see here is not exactly who we expect her to be.

The impasse faced by two perfectly logical computer opponents is an outworking of game theory, used by mathematician John von Neumann to model, among other things, the interactions between the US and the USSR in the Cold War.

The same impasse is also the basis of the short story Fool’s Mate, first published in Astounding Science Fiction in March 1953. In this story, two computerised battle fleets are frozen, unable to attack one another, until one decides to put its attack strategy under the control of a complete madman. Which just goes to show, really.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll ineptly recast one of your favourite Doctor Who villains and completely ruin your childhood.

Bondfinger

It seems such a long time since there was a new episode of Bondfinger, but don’t worry, we’ll be releasing a commentary track on Casino Royale (1967) early in February. Until then, you can enjoy our first five commentary tracks: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 62: Circuit Boards Glued to a Piece of Wood · Duration 0:50:22 · Download · Open in new window

Season 17The Fourth Doctor

Episode 61

Holden Astra

It’s the final story of the Key to Time season, whose story wheezes and groans to a halt in The Armageddon Factor. Meanwhile, Brendan, Nathan and Todd have a lovely time praising Mary, dissing everything else, and answering that pressing question: what did we think of Doctor Who’s first ever season-long arc?

Buy the story!

And now, for the last time: In the US, you can buy The Armageddon Factor by itself (Amazon US), or as part of the Key to Time box set (Amazon US). In the UK, it’s only available as part of the Key to Time box set. (Amazon UK)

We’ve referred to Cornell, Day and Topping’s The Discontinuity Guide before. It’s out of print, buy you can still buy for your Kindle (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (Amazon AU). The text of the book is reproduced on the old BBC Cult Doctor Who website, which is pretty hard to get to these days, but I have at least managed to find their take on The Armageddon Factor (“the whole thing is very uninvolving”).

Charmingly, Brendan thinks that K9 sounds like Lambert the Sheepish Lion (1952).

Davyd Harries, who plays posh idiot sidekick Shapp, is also fairly horrifying as Vila’s hilarious bluebeard pal Doran in the horrifying Blakes 7 episode Moloch, written by Blakes 7’s resident horrifying misogynist Ben Steed.

Fans of the entire contents of the Bristol Boys’ kitchen drawers will enjoy Dave Martin’s entry in the Make Your Own Adventure series, Search for the Doctor, which features the Sixth Doctor, K9, Drax and Omega.

Picks of the Week

Brendan

This week, Brendan has decided not to pick the Big Finish The Key 2 Time series, which consists of The Judgement of Isskar, The Destroyer of Delights and The Chaos Pool, and stars Peter Davison as the Doctor. He has also decided not to pick Graceless, an entire Big Finish series which serves as a sequel to The Key 2 Time, and which has now run for three whole series.

Instead, he’s picked The Auntie Matter, a Big Finish full-cast audio drama starring Tom Baker and Mary Tamm.

Todd

Todd has picked one of the Big Finish Companion Chronicles, The Stealers from Saiph, which is read by Mary Tamm.

Nathan

Nathan has picked The AV Club, which is a sister site to satirical newspaper The Onion, and is the home of some of the best writing on pop culture on the internet. He particularly recommends the reviews of the Classic Series written by Christopher Bahn.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, because if you’re not rating or reviewing us on iTunes, we can make you rate or review us on iTunes, because we can do anything! As from this moment there’s no such thing as free will in the entire universe! For we possess the Key to Time!

Bondfinger

Bondfinger will return in Casino Royale (1967). Until then, you can enjoy our first five commentary tracks: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 61: Holden Astra · Duration 1:00:30 · Download · Open in new window

Season 16The Fourth Doctor

Episode 60

Another Holmes Colonialism Thing

In this fart-astic episode of Flight Through Entirety, our search for the fifth segment of the Key to Time takes us to the third moon of Delta Magna where we confront The Power of Kroll.

Buy the story!

Same as last time, really: In the US, you can buy The Power of Kroll by itself (Amazon US), or as part of the Key to Time box set (Amazon US). In the UK, it’s only available as part of the Key to Time box set. (Amazon UK)

Not many links this week. (There’s an appalling dearth of references to German Expressionism in our discussion.) So to pass the time while listening to this episode, why not read a review of The Power of Kroll from the AV Club website? And for once, there’s no need to avoid the comments thread.

This is Philip Madoc’s last performance in Doctor Who. He passed away in 2012. You can read his obituary in The Guardian.

Todd is puzzled by the idea of feeding Krollfarts to the hapless population of Delta Magna. What he didn’t know was that bacteria actually can be used to convert methane to proteins. Fact fans will enjoy this article on the topic.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll send you a hundred tons of compressed protein a day — a fifth of your protein requirements. And you know were we’ll be getting it from!

Bondfinger

Nathan is currently spending a few weeks in Tokyo, re-enacting key scenes from You Only Live Twice. As a result, Bondfinger is taking a break in January, so our commentary track on Casino Royale (1967) will be delayed until the start of February. In the meantime, please enjoy our first five commentary tracks: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 60: Another Holmes Colonialism Thing · Duration 0:37:24 · Download · Open in new window

Season 16The Fourth Doctor

Episode 59

Joan Crawford with a Little Pencil Moustache

If there was ever any doubt that Brendan is a young man of exceptional taste and discernment, this episode finally lays it to rest with the revelation that his favourite Doctor Who story ever is The Androids of Tara!

Buy the story!

You know the drill by now: In the US, you can buy The Androids of Tara by itself (Amazon US), or as part of the Key to Time box set (Amazon US). In the UK, it’s only available as part of the Key to Time box set. (Amazon UK)

Famously, The Androids of Tara is shamelessly ripped off a loving tribute to Anthony Hope’s popular 1894 novel The Prisoner of Zenda. You can read it here.

We’ve mentioned the fanzine Cottage Under Siege before: it was edited by Neil Corry and Gareth Roberts and published in 1993–1994. Again, please, please, please contact us if you know where we can get copies of it.

You can read the summery and charming discussion of The Androids of Tara from Cornell, Day and Topping’s The Discontinuity Guide at the old BBC Cult website.

Cousins to the Taran wood beast, the Links in the Blakes 7 episode Terminal held a terrible secret to the future of all of mankind. While looking amazingly silly.

Fans of Peter Jeffrey’s Count Grendel of Gracht will also enjoy his turn as a villain in the Avengers episode, Game.

Declan Mulholland, who plays Till in The Androids of Tara played a humanoid Jabba the Hutt in a deleted scene from the original Star Wars (1977).

The Bechdel Test was originally proposed in this comic strip in 1985. But how often does Doctor Who pass the Bechdel test?

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or, all together now, next time we shall not be so lenient!

Bondfinger

Bondfinger is taking a January holiday in the Bahamas, as usual, but we plan to be back in February with a new commentary track on Casino Royale (1967). In the meantime, please enjoy our first five commentary tracks: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 59: Joan Crawford with a Little Pencil Moustache · Duration 0:38:53 · Download · Open in new window

Season 16The Fourth Doctor

Episode 58

The Fool Idwal Morgan

This week, we’re back on Earth, being menaced by giant glowing fibreglass rocks. Incidentally, we’re also discussing the third story in the Key to Time season, The Stones of Blood.

Buy the story!

In the US, you can buy The Stones of Blood by itself (Amazon US), or as part of the Key to Time box set (Amazon US). In the UK, it’s only available as part of the Key to Time box set. (Amazon UK)

For the first time ever, Brendan was wrong about something. When auditioning to replace the divine Miss Rigg in The Avengers, Susan Engel didn’t act against Moray Laing, the current editor of Doctor Who Adventures magazine. It was actually Moray Watson, who played Sir Robert Muir in Black Orchid.

Fortunately, Nathan was also wrong about Beatrix Lehmann — she went on to appear twice more on screen, in the film The Cat and the Canary (1978) and the miniseries Crime and Punishment (1979).

Evelyn Smythe was one of the Sixth Doctor’s companions in the main Big Finish series of Doctor Who audios.

And in other things that Nathan is wrong about, Gareth Roberts’s comic strip about sentient sand that attacks people was actually written by Paul Cornell and called Seaside Rendezvous, published in DWM’s 1991 Summer Special.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or, like typical males, we’ll strand you here in the middle of nowhere with two complete strangers while we go off somewhere enjoying ourselves.

Bondfinger

We now have five James Bond commentary podcasts: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 58: The Fool Idwal Morgan · Duration 0:35:00 · Download · Open in new window

Season 16The Fourth Doctor

Episode 57

Bucks Fizz

By the left frontal lobe of the Sky Demon, it’s a new golden age, and we’re off to Calufrax to confront The Pirate Planet.

Buy the story!

In the US, you can buy The Pirate Planet by itself (Amazon US), or as part of a box set (Amazon US). In the UK, it’s only available as part of the Key to Time box set. (Amazon UK)

Those young people on Todd’s lawn who don’t know who Leo Sayer is should totally watch this video.

Daphne Zuniga, well known for her role in Melrose Place, gets terribly cross about some guy shooting her hair in Spaceballs (1987).

Rotating knives are an important element of any modern architectural design, as this Monty Python sketch demonstrates.

If you’ve never heard Douglas Adams’s Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy radio series, then you should have a word with yourself immediately. (Audible US) (Audible UK) (Audible AU)

Unlike Nathan and Todd, Brendan had a spectacular career as an extra on the Australian TV series, Rescue Special Ops in 2009.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll never be cruel to an electron in a particle accelerator again.

Bondfinger

We now have five James Bond commentary podcasts: You Only Live Twice (1967), Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 57: Bucks Fizz · Duration 0:34:23 · Download · Open in new window

Season 16The Fourth Doctor

Episode 56

He Positioned the Sausage Wrongly

It’s the start of a new season, and Brendan, Nathan and Todd are sent on a mission from God to find six hidden podcast episodes, that, when assembled, form hours and hours of tiresome commentary on Season 16 of Doctor Who. First stop: The Ribos Operation.

Buy the story!

Okay, this one’s complicated. In 2002, The Ribos Operation was released on DVD exclusively in the US both individually and as part of a Key to Time box set. In 2007, there was a limited edition box set released in the UK and Australia, which was then released more generally in 2009. You can read all about that on the Wikipedia page, if you’re interested. The upshot of all this is that in the US you can buy The Ribos Operation by itself (Amazon US) or as part of a box set (Amazon US). In the UK, it’s only available as part of a box set. (Amazon UK)

Ian Marter’s novelisation of this story is available as an audiobook read by John Leeson. (Audible US) (Audible UK) (Audible AU)

Here is a Season 16 publicity photo of Mary and Tom with a giant sticking plaster on his lip after Paul Seed’s dog bit his face.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or nothing at all will happen to you. Ever.

Bondfinger

We’ve just released our fifth James Bond commentary, on You Only Live Twice (1967). Our previous commentaries are still available: Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 56: He Positioned the Sausage Wrongly · Duration 0:38:53 · Download · Open in new window

Season 16The Fourth Doctor

Episode 55

Timothy Dalton’s Pyjamas

As Season 15 limps towards its inevitable conclusion, we discover a new trope, reflect on the possibilities of Sevateem–Gallifreyan romance, and deplore the indefensible cruelty of horse racing: it’s The Invasion of Time!

Buy the story!

The Invasion of Time was released on DVD in 2008. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK). It was also released in Australia and the UK as part of the Bred for War box set, along with the other Classic Series Sontaran stories. (Amazon UK)

The Vardans appear to share a stylist with the Ultraman Science Patrol. No, I don’t know who they are either.

Gallifreyan hippy Presta is played by Gai Waterhouse, a famously wealthy Sydney horse trainer.

Fabulous posh air-traffic controller Rodan moonlights as a giant red pterodactyl thing who attacks Godzilla in various Japanese movies, while Castellan Spandrell moonlights as a supporting architectural feature in various Gothic cathedrals.

In the Sarah Jane Adventures story The Last Sontaran, Chrissie Jackson fabulously disables a Sontaran by hitting its probic vent with her high-heeled shoe.

Picks of the Week

Brendan

Tom Baker stars in a series of Big Finish adventures, featuring Louise Jameson and Mary Tamm (and Lalla Ward in early 2016). Brendan mentions Foe from the Future and Phillip Hinchcliffe’s Valley of Death from the Fourth Doctor Lost Stories box set.

Candy Bar Books is publishing a series of four novels by Andy Frankham, featuring Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, including The Beast of Fang Rock, featuring Ann Travers. The prequel short story is called Cult of the Grinning Man.

Richard

Gallifrey is a Big Finish audio series chronicling political intrigue on the Doctor’s home planet, featuring Mary Tamm, Lalla Ward and Louise Jameson, among others.

Green Wing was a Channel 4 comedy series set in a hospital, starring Doctor Who’s very own Tamsin Grieg and Michelle Gomez.

Here’s Michelle Gomez playing Margaret Thatcher in the Sky Arts TV series Psychobitches.

And here’s a photo of Michelle Gomez with two Missy action figures on her shoulders. God, she’s fantastic!

Nathan

Maureen O’Brien reads Ian Marter’s novelisation of her debut story, The Rescue. (Audible US) (Audible UK) (Audible AU)

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll come round to your house and make acidly snarky remarks about your pedestrian infrastructure.

Bondfinger

Next weekend, we’ll be releasing our commentary on You Only Live Twice (1967), but in the meantime, you can enjoy our commentaries on Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 55: Timothy Dalton’s Pyjamas · Duration 1:03:51 · Download · Open in new window

Season 15The Fourth Doctor

Episode 54

Sophisticated Psychological Realism

Underworld just might be the worst Doctor Who story of the 1970s, which is why we spend this episode discussing Hellenistic epic, orgies in Diana Dors’s house, and the reason why you might choose to wear a bag on your head. Enjoy!

Buy the story!

Underworld was released on DVD in 2010. In the US, it was released on its own (Amazon US), while in the UK and Australia it was part of the rightfully unloved Myths and Legends box set. (Amazon UK)

Fans of things with real literary merit — unlike Underworld — will enjoy the Argonautica by Apollonius of Rhodes, which tells the story of the quest for the Golden Fleece and the romance between Jason and Medea.

Fans of things that are interesting — unlike Underworld — will enjoy this lurid account in the Daily Mail of the orgies that went on in the home of British film star Diana Dors, as told by her son Jason Dors-Lake.

Fans of things that are crap but enjoyable — unlike Underworld — will enjoy these high-concept traditional SF series: the Foundation series by Isaac Asimov, and the Lensman series by E. E. “Doc” Smith. (The Foundation series is discussed in a recent episode of the brilliant nerd-culture podcast The Incomparable.)

Fans of amusing and inventive science fiction — you know what I’m going to say next — will enjoy Bea Arthur as the fem-puter in the 2001 Futurama episode Amazon Women in the Mood.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll completely run out of money and ruin your favourite TV show for four weeks.

Bondfinger

We’ve recorded our commentary on You Only Live Twice (1967), and it will be released in two weeks’ time. In the meantime, you can listen to our commentaries on Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 54: Sophisticated Psychological Realism · Duration 0:35:56 · Download · Open in new window

Season 15The Fourth Doctor

Episode 53

Don’t You Feel Every Single Centimetre?

This week, we head off into the far future of the distant planet Pluto (yes, we know, shut up), to liberate humanity from the Company, in The Sun Makers. Hey Cordo, don’t bogart the pentocyleinicmethylhydrane, man.

Buy the story!

The Sun Makers was released on DVD in 2009. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

William Simons, who plays sub-Blakean rebel leader Mandrell in this story, is more famous for his role in ITV period police drama series Heartbeat, playing Alf Ventress.

The Company takes Marx’s phrase “opiate of the masses” quite literally, drugging its oppressed population to keep them compliant. The Federation will adopt a similar tactic in Season 4 of Blakes 7, using the drug Pylene 50.

Hooray! It’s the long-awaited return of German Expressionism.

Richard points out the similarities between this story and The Space Merchants, a 1952 novel by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth. It’s still in print. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Richard also points out the story’s many visual references to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis (1927).

How long since we last referenced Susan Sontag’s 1964 essay Notes on Camp? Far too long, if you ask me.

Henry Woolf, the Collector in this story, had already appeared in Eric Idle’s sketch comedy show Rutland Weekend Television. You can see him with Idle in this sketch, called Gibberish. He also appeared in BBC children’s programme Words and Pictures. Watch him here, he’s delightful.

After the credits, we chat briefly about the Big Finish Blakes 7 audio series, The Liberator Chronicles.

Follow us!

Brendan is on Twitter as @brandybongos, Nathan is @nathanbottomley, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Richard is @RichardLStone. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. And please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll feed an index-linked two percent growth tax into your computers and blow the economy.

Bondfinger

The Bondfinger team are off to watch SPECTRE this afternoon, in preparation for our commentary track on it, expected some time in late 2017. In the meantime, you can enjoy our previous commentaries: Thunderball (1965), Goldfinger (1964), From Russia With Love (1963), and Dr. No (1962). You can keep up with the Bondfinger news on our website, as well as on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 53: Don’t You Feel Every Single Centimetre? · Duration 0:34:27 · Download · Open in new window

Season 15The Fourth Doctor