Episode 167 · Daleks in Manhattan · Sunday 6 October 2019
This week, we learn that the mortal enemy of showtunes is capitalism, that the mortal enemy of some Doctor Who fans is fun, and that the mortal enemy of the Doctor has descended upon Depression-Era New York in an exciting new thematic guise. The show must go on, in spite of the Daleks in Manhattan.
Notes and links
The idea of the City as a hostile, inhuman place is found in Fritz Lang’s masterpiece of German expressionist cinema Metropolis (1927) and the terrifying version of 1980 depicted in Just Imagine (1930). Both of these are inspired by the looming monuments of architect Hugh Ferriss’s cityscapes.
On a lighter note, Busby Berkeley choreographed lavish dance number for both Broadway and Hollywood during the era of the earliest move musical. Take a look at some examples here.
Andrew Garfield’s big break wasn’t that superhero film at all: it was his film début, Boy A (2007).
It’s been some time since we did this, so here’s a link to El Sandifer’s discussion of this entire story on TARDIS Eruditorum.
This week, Brendan’s high on Honesty, James is driving naked, and Nathan can’t stop scratching himself for some reason, while special guest star Erik Stadnik brings some philosophy and literary criticism to our discussion of Gridlock.
Notes and links
Fans of David Tennant massively overplaying the Doctor’s enthusiasm will also enjoy his audiobook reading of The Stone Rose by Jacqueline Rayner. (Audible US) (Audible UK) (Audible AU)
The actor who plays Valerie in Gridlock and Bill’s foster mother Moira in Series 10 also had a small part in RTD’s series The Second Coming, which stars Christoper Eccleston in the title role and which is very definitely worth watching.
Episode 165 · The Shakespeare Code · Sunday 22 September 2019
This week, we’re joined by Pete Lambert and Conrad Westmaas for a social history of Elizabethan England, a whirlwind tour of the life and works of Shakespeare, and some serious criticism of Martha’s taste in men. It’s Tuesday, so this must be Hamlet — it’s The Shakespeare Code.
Notes and links
Conrad has two recommendations for you. For a straightforward guide to Shakespeare’s life and works, see Emma Smith’s This is Shakespeare.
Episode 164 · Smith and Jones · Sunday 15 September 2019
And we’re back! It’s a new year for Doctor Who, and there’s a new companion, with a new mother who will at some point slap him in the face. But until then, it’s all about a bunch of rhinos menacing a hospital on the moon, which is just the kind of premise literally any TV show would come up with. Welcome aboard, Smith and Jones.
Notes and links
It’s a scientific fact that San Junipero is the only episode of Black Mirror in existence which won’t reinforce your hatred of humanity in general and everyone in the world in particular. And Gugu Mbatha-Raw is spectacular in it. Watch it.
We will be mentioning Years and Years every week until we finally get to The Eleventh Hour. Anne Reid stars.
(Our Australian listeners should keep an eye on SBS, which has reportedly bought the series. Maybe.)
An exhaustive search has unearthed a copy of one of the Zovirax ads referenced in this episode.
The Judoon will return in The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 3 story Prisoner of the Judoon. They fit right in. (I miss that show. It’s great.)
We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or you’ll never see your daughter in Florida again. Unless you actually have a daughter in Florida, in which case please give her our love.
Episode 163 · The Runaway Bride · Sunday 28 July 2019
It’s Christmas in July and an apocalyptically hot day in London. Still, Nathan, James, Todd and Peter have been cordially invited to attend the wedding of that guy off EastEnders and the incomparable Catherine Tate. Things don’t go quite according to plan. It’s The Runaway Bride.
Follow us
Nathan is on Twitter as @nathanbottomley, James is @ohjamessellwood, Todd is @toddbeilby, and Peter still can’t be persuaded to open a Twitter account. Very wise. The Flight Through Entirety theme was arranged by Cameron Lam, and the strings performance was by Jane Aubourg. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.
Our James Bond commentary podcast is called Bondfinger, and you can find that at bondfinger.com, at @bondfingercast on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else as well.
Episode 163: That’s Not Even a Proper Commentary
· Recorded on Sunday 28 July 2019 · Download (63.3 MB)
Episode 162 · Revelation of the Daleks · Sunday 7 July 2019
This week, we head back to the planet Necros to revisit Doctor Who’s most entertaining funeral: we’re joined by healers, cosmeticians, mercenaries and a great, big bomb — but you should definitely avoid the canapés at the wake. This one’s certainly a revelation, a Revelation of the Daleks.
Buy the story!
Revelation of the Daleks was released on DVD in 2005/2006. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Our James Bond commentary podcast is called Bondfinger, and you can find that at bondfinger.com, at @bondfingercast on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else as well.
Episode 162: Past Master at the Double Commentary
· Recorded on Sunday 9 June 2019 · Download (90.2 MB)
Episode 161 · Series 2 Retrospective · Sunday 16 June 2019
It’s the end of twenty-first century Doctor Who’s difficult second album, and the end of the entirety of the Piper Era, so we’ve decided to do this whole episode in our best fake London accents. Will we find more to talk about than just the Battle of the Teeth?
Notes and links
Late last year, Nathan and Todd were generously invited by David and Rob to appear on an episode of The Doctor Who Show called The Podcast of Decision, for some reason. Check it out.
Nathan mentions Johnny Spandrell’s reservations about School Reunion, but you can read about them yourself in his blog post on the episode. And while you’re on his blog Randomwhoness, you can also read his take on just about every other Doctor Who story as well.
Nathan appears with JR Southall on Starburst’s now-defunct podcast The Blue Box Podcast, which you can still find on Apple Podcasts. In that particular episode, Steven Moffat Versus the Antipodes, JR and his guests fail to talk about their favourite era of Doctor Who, and talk instead about the pros and cons of the Stephen Moffat era.
And for the second week in a row, James gushes about Big Finish’s Torchwood One series, starring Tracy-Ann Oberman and Gareth David-Lloyd.
We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll storm into your favourite show and become more sexy and popular than anyone has ever been before. That’ll teach you.
Our James Bond commentary podcast is called Bondfinger, and you can find that at bondfinger.com, at @bondfingercast on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else as well.
Episode 161: Probably in a Better Place Than When She Started
· Recorded on Sunday 19 May 2019 · Download (62.0 MB)
This week, the whole world will soon end in a fiery cataclysm, which has nothing much to do with the podcast, but is probably worth mentioning at this point. Meanwhile, robots from the 1960s are wrangling about something, while an iconic love story comes to a final end. For now. Welcome to Doomsday.
Notes and links
You can find Tracy-Ann Oberman on Twitter at @TracyAnnO. She’s fabulous.
We’ve mentioned Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials before: Russell borrows from it liberally for this season’s arc. It’s an incredible series of books, soon to become a BBC television series, starring James McAvoy and Lin-Manuel Miranda. There’s even a trailer for you to enjoy.
And, of course, our regular reminder that you should read RTD’s The Writer’s Tale, which is Russell’s own account of his time running Doctor Who. Amazingly honest and insightful. A must read.
Todd is firing up his Blu-Ray player to remind himself of his childhood fear of the Cybermen. It’s Revenge of the Cybermen, which we cover in Episode 36: A Sociopathic Child.
Richard
Richard’s characteristically highbrow suggestion is The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), directed by Michael Powell and starring Roger Livesey and Deborah Kerr, who plays no less than three separate love interests throughout the film. Winston Churchill hated it, so it is definitely well worth a look.
James
James suggests the two Big Finish box sets in the Torchwood One series — Before the Fall and Machines, starring Tracy-Ann Oberman and Gareth David-Lloyd.
Nathan
Nathan wants you to spend a few hours catching up on Randomwhoness — a blog in which our friend Johnny Spandrell watches the entirety of Doctor Who in a random order, managing to find exciting new takes on each story.
We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll snatch you from your everyday life, whisk you around time and space, fall in love with you, and abandon you in a parallel universe with no one to care for you apart from a vastly improved version of your entire family. We’re kind of bastards really.
Our James Bond commentary podcast is called Bondfinger, and you can find that at bondfinger.com, at @bondfingercast on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else as well.
Episode 160: That Which Is Missing
· Recorded on Sunday 28 April 2019 · Download (57.5 MB)
This week, Nathan’s hiding in a sarcophagus, James is transfixed by a giant ball, Todd keeps trying to lure his workmates into the next office, and Richard just wishes Tracy-Ann Oberman would do a better job with her hair — while all around them, Cybermen are busily pressing themselves into the skin of the universe. Our flight through Series 2 is nearly at an end, so it’s time to face an entire Army of Ghosts.
Notes and links
As often happens, Nathan mentions El Sandifer’s blog, so it’s probably time we linked to it again. It’s at Eruditorum Press, where you can find her takes on the history of Doctor Who from the very beginning — she’s currently working her way through Series 10.
Doctor Who Meets Scratchman was a Doctor Who movie idea developed in the 1970s by Tom Baker: it would have guest starred Vincent Price and Twiggy. Last year it was released as a novelisation written by James Goss.
This will undoubtedly come up again, but Big Finish has released a series of stories set in the London branch of Torchwood before it was destroyed by the Cybermen. The first box set is called Torchwood One: Before the Fall.
Russell T Davies’s new series is currently screening on BBC One. It’s called Years and Years, it’s funny and heartwarming, and it deftly captures the daily feelings of impending catastrophe experienced by anyone unfortunate enough to have survived this far into late capitalism. Highly recommended.
Richard makes reference to the alarming fact that in Colony in Space, the head of IMC was originally going to be a leather-clad Susan Jameson, before this idea was vetoed by the BBC Head of Serials.
We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll come around to your workplace and applaud condescendingly at you while your trying to catch a quick mid-afternoon nap.
Our James Bond commentary podcast is called Bondfinger, and you can find that at bondfinger.com, at @bondfingercast on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else. We’re now out of James Bond films to comment on, we’re planning to keep going with other stuff, for some reason.
Episode 159: Granddad Prentis Hancock
· Recorded on Sunday 28 April 2019 · Download (46.1 MB)
This week, children are disappearing from the streets, while the people at number 20 are taking delivery of huge numbers of Derwent Lakeland pencils. It’s no wonder, really, that everyone around here seems to Fear Her.
Ghostwatch was a mockumentary about a haunted suburban house which was screened on Halloween 1992 to 11 million credulous BBC viewers. It led to thousands of complaints, and was blamed for the death of a teenage viewer. You can watch screenwriter Stephen Volk’s TEDx talk about it.
While we were recording this episode, Doctor Who fans were angry that the creators of the animated version of The Macra Terror had omitted a hilarious scene where the Doctor (Patrick Troughton) was neated up and re-shevelled by one of the Colony’s refreshment machines. For the record, we are now angry about a Judoon with a mohawk, and we plan to move on to something new next week.
Nathan mentions a film about a fevered child who finds herself trapped in fever dreams created by her own drawings. That film is Paperhouse (1988), and it’s available in HD on YouTube. So go and watch it — it’s terrifying. (It’s based on a somewhat less terrifying book called Marianne Dreams (1958) by Catherine Storr.
Daniel is one of the hosts of the New to Who podcast, which discusses Classic Doctor Who stories and introduces the Classic series to new fans. You can follow New to Who on Twitter at @NewToWhoPodcast.
Our James Bond commentary podcast is called Bondfinger, and you can find that at bondfinger.com, at @bondfingercast on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else. We’re now out of James Bond films to comment on, we’re planning to keep going with other stuff: in fact, there will definitely be a new episode in the next day or two.
Episode 158: Most Punchable Moment
· Recorded on Sunday 10 March 2019 · Download (57.7 MB)
