Episode 17 · The Dominators, The Mind Robber, The Invasion · Sunday 14 December 2014
All set, Jimmy? It’s time for Flight Through Entirety to enter the final season of the 1960s, as we discuss a rapidly-improving and largely foam-free trio of stories: The Dominators, The Mind Robber and The Invasion.
Buy the episodes!
For once, all three of the stories we discuss in this episode have been released on DVD. So you can actually watch them. (Although, in some cases, you might not want to.)
The Dominators episode 3 was returned to the archives in 1978, so we have all of it. Sigh. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Mind Robber has always existed. It was repeated on ABC-TV in Australia in 1986. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Invasion is still missing episodes 1 and 4, but they were expertly animated by Cosgrove Hall for the story’s DVD release in 2006. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Dominators
Fans of Joan and Jackie Collins won’t want to miss their fabulous biopic by French & Saunders.
Oh, God, what else? Elizabeth Sandifer’s review is a good place to go for a discussion of the horrible politics in this story. (“Not only is it an attack on the entire ethos that underlies the Doctor as a character, it’s an attempt to twist and pervert the show away from what it is and towards something ugly, cruel, and just plain unpleasant.” Yeesh.)
The Mind Robber
George Orwell’s essay on Boys’ Weeklies discusses the politics of the kind of stories written by the Master of Fiction before he was kidnapped by, er, whatever.
According to The Living Handbook of Narratology, metalepsis is “any intrusion by the extradiegetic narrator or narratee into the diegetic universe (or by diegetic characters into a metadiegetic universe, etc.), or the inverse”. And this story has metalepsis in spades. Don’t tell me we’re not educational.
Edith Nesbit’s Five Children and It, which sounds like a terrifying premise for a Stephen King sequel, is actually a famous English children’s book, published in 1902. It’s a part of the tradition of children’s fantasy fiction which will eventually give rise to Doctor Who.
You should also ignore Nathan and read Gulliver’s Travels. It’s really clever and funny and entertaining, particularly the bit where Gulliver puts out a fire in the Lilliputian palace by weeing on it. No really.
The Invasion
Richard identifies the inspiration for the incidental music as The Ipcress File (1965), a brilliant kind of anti-Bond spy film starring Michael Cain. Just watch it.
Fans of Isobel Watkins and her modelling aspirations might enjoy Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up (1996), a groovy film in which a very now young photographer, creeping on a mysterious woman in a park, accidentally photographs a murder.
We have a competition!
If you would like to win one of three 1970s Target novelisations from our personal collection, just post a comment on our website underneath the post for this episode.
Episode 16 · Fury from the Deep, The Wheel in Space · Sunday 7 December 2014
We’ve reached the end of Season 5, so pull up a bernalium rod, switch on the sexual air supply, and get ready to discuss the last two stories of the season, Fury from the Deep and The Wheel in Space. And just you watch your lip or I’ll put you across my knee and larrup you.
Buy the stories!
No full episodes of Fury from the Deep survive. Which is terribly sad, obviously. Still, you can get the soundtrack, narrated, as always, by Frazer Hines. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The two surviving episodes of The Wheel in Space, Episodes 3 and 6, are available on the Lost in Time box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK). An audio version is also available, beautifully narrated by the delightfully pert Wendy Padbury. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
Fury from the Deep
Richard mentions Adult Swim’s Too Many Cooks. I can’t tell you anything about it. Just watch it.
Fury from the Deep is based on ideas from Victor Pemberton’s own 1966 radio drama, The Slide, starring future Time Lords Maurice Denham and Roger Delgado, as well as Pemberton’s long–time partner and one–time Buddhist monk David Spenser. You can read a review of it here. And you can even buy it! (Audible US) (Audible UK)
H. P. Lovecraft is a twentieth-century racist and horror writer, who is a huge influence on Doctor Who, particularly in the Hinchcliffe Era. His most famous short story is The Call of Cthulhu.
Victor Pemberton also wrote The Pescatons, an audio drama starring Tom Baker and Lis Sladen, which was released as an LP in 1976. Here’s Elizabeth Sandifer’s review.
Brendan theorises that Star Trek was a possible influence on Wheel. But, fascinatingly, Richard mentions two possible influences on Star Trek itself. The first is Raumpatrouille Orion, a German science-fiction precursor to Trek from the 1960s. You can watch the entire first episode online. It’s in German. It’s fabulously modernist and spectacular. The second is Conquest of Space (1955).
Victoria Waterfield meets the Doctor again in the crazy multicoloured form of Colin Baker in the Big Finish audio Power Play.
FACT FANS! If there’s anything at all you need to know about Doctor Who in any of its incarnations, consult the TARDIS Data Core. There’s even an app for it on the iOS App Store, and an Android app on Google Play. (Sadly, these apps no longer exist.)
Richard
Victor Pemberton’s novelisation of Fury from the Deep is out of print, and mysteriously unavailable as an e-book on Amazon. However, there is an audio version, read by David Troughton, who does a lovely impression of his father’s Doctor Who. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
Nathan again
An audiobook of Carnival of Monsters has recently been released, read by television’s Katy Manning. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
We have a competition!
If you would like to win one of three 1970s Target novelisations from our personal collection, just post a comment on our website underneath the post for this episode.
Episode 15 · The Enemy of the World, The Web of Fear · Sunday 30 November 2014
Recently unearthed in a Nigerian television station by a former oil company employee, Episode 15 of Flight Through Entirety covers the middle stories of Patrick Troughton’s middle season: The Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear. Crank up the foam machine, boys (as usual)!
Buy the stories!
And, for once (I Love You Philip Morris), eleven out of the twelve episodes we discuss this episode are still in existence. And you can buy them all on DVD.
The Enemy of the World is one of seven Patrick Troughton stories that exist in their entirety. Praise Amdo! (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Web of Fear is missing episode 3, but the DVD contains a brilliant reconstruction which actually works pretty well. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Enemy of the World
For those of you who are hanging out for us to abandon this silly children’s science fiction programme so that we can discuss the Bond films, can I whet your appetite with an incredible trip through the Bond oeuvre by a brilliant film critic? Here’s BlogalongaBond by The Incredible Suit. Read it all.
It wouldn’t be an episode of Flight Through Entirety without numerous references to The Avengers. Fans should check out The Avengers TV website. The episode The Living Dead is available online, probably illegally, here. (Sadly but predictably, this video is no longer available.)
In The Great Dictator (1940), Charlie Chaplin plays the hero, a character only known as A Jewish Barber, as well as the villain, a weird over-the-top version of Adolf Hitler called Adenoid Hynkel. I’ve never seen it, but it sounds incredible.
The Web of Fear
Some rare and wonderful photos of the Yeti, from both The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear were published in The Mirror in 2012. Check them out here.
Elizabeth Sandifer explains her views on the UNIT Dating Controversy in a strange psychogeographic review of The Invasion. She agrees with Nathan. Which is why Nathan has put her in these show notes.
We have a competition!
If you would like to win one of three 1970s Target novelisations from our personal collection, just post a comment on our website underneath the post for this episode. And, as Missy says, say something nice.
Episode 14 · The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen, The Ice Warriors · Sunday 16 November 2014
This week, we’re looking at the first three stories of Season 5: The Tomb of the Cybermen, The Abominable Snowmen and The Ice Warriors. And to celebrate, each of us is wearing a different outfit — vinyl, fur or fibreglass scales. Monster Season, we’re ready for ya!
Buy the stories!
Thanks to those lovely Mormons (or not, actually), The Tomb of the Cybermen exists in its entirety, and is available to purchase on DVD. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK). In Australia and the UK, the Special Edition DVD was released as part of the Revisitations 3 box set.
The Abominable Snowmen is not so lucky. The surviving Episode 2 is available in the Lost in Time box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK). An audio version, narrated by Frazer Hines, is also available. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
Two episodes of The Ice Warriors are missing, but they have been skilfully animated by Qurios Entertainment, which means that we have a DVD release of the entire story. Hooray! (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Tomb of the Cybermen
Oops. Turns out that GarageBand for the iPad is only capable of recording podcasts that are ten minutes long. And so we suddenly had to switch to Brendan’s iMac. Can you spot the difference in sound quality? (If so, sorry. I blame George Pastell.)
Well, we spent ages discussing Victoria’s wardrobe, and said hardly anything about the story itself. But, frankly, we regret nothing!
The Abominable Snowmen
Ooh, Nathan’s Randomiser gets a mention. If you want a computer to choose your next Doctor Who story, then that’s the place to go.
Of course, Buddhism and Psychedelia were inseparable in the 1960s, thanks to Timothy Leary.
The Ice Warriors
Richard’s mention of Zardoz (1974) can’t go without comment. If you’re keen to see Sean Connery in tiny, tiny pants, then just look here. Yeesh.
We have a competition!
If you would like to win a 1970s Target novelisation from our collection, here’s what to do. Like us on Facebook, share the post announcing this episode, and then comment on our website. Or if you prefer Twitter, follow us, retweet the tweet announcing the episode, and then comment on our website. Easy.
Episode 13 · The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones, The Evil of the Daleks · Sunday 2 November 2014
In this week’s episode of Flight out of Gatwick, we discuss Season 4’s last three stories, The Macra Terror, The Faceless Ones and The Evil of the Daleks. Farewell, Ben and Polly. Hello, Victoria. Work hard and happily! (We know you will.)
Buy the stories!
Another season 4 podcast, another three incomplete stories. Sigh.
The surviving three episodes, The Faceless Ones 1 and 3 and The Evil of the Daleks 2, are all available in the Lost of Time box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
However all three stories exist as BBC audios, and can be bought on Audible.
The Macra Terror is, bizarrely, narrated by TV’s Colin Baker. (Audible US) (Audible UK). Even more bizarrely, a second version exists, narrated by the delightfully elfin Anneke Wills. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Goodies episode “Radio Goodies”, to which we all so hilariously refer, has its own Wikipedia entry. Amazing!
More weird 60s mind-control concerns arise in The Ipcress File (1965) (which is amazingly good).
The Faceless Ones
Benedict Cumberbatch stars in the BBC Radio sitcom Cabin Pressure, in which he plays the only pilot of the single-plane airline MJN Air.
So, it was the Refusians from The Ark who lost their identities in a galaxy accident. According to Meadows, the Chameleons lost their identities in “a gigantic explosion”. Which is much stupider, really.
The Evil of the Daleks
Before there was Upstairs, Downstairs, before there was Downton Abbey, we had The Forsyte Saga (1967). Does that account for Victoria Waterfield?
Deborah Watling had starred opposite George Baker (Full Circle) in Dennis Potter’s TV film Alice (1965), which looked at the strange and weirdly suspicious life of Alice in Wonderland’s author Charles Lutwitge Dodson.
Altered Vistas is a website which chronicles the history of Doctor Who in comic strips. They have created CG animated versions of all the TV Century 21 comic strips. Take a look at them here.
Picks of the Week
Brendan
Anneke Wills’s two autobiographies, Naked and Self-portrait, are currently out of print. New and second-hand copies are available from Amazon, however. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK).
Anneke’s In Focus can be preordered for its re-release early in 2015. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Richard
The Orton Diaries are playwright Joe Orton’s hilarious account of the last eight months of his life — candid, funny and outrageous. And he mentions Doctor Who! We own him! (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Nathan
Volume 5 of El Sandifer’s TARDIS Eruditorum contains essays covering Tom Baker’s last four seasons on Doctor Who. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Episode 12 · The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace, The Moonbase · Sunday 26 October 2014
Our flight through Season 4 continues, plunging underwater and crash landing on the moon with The Highlanders, The Underwater Menace and The Moonbase. Nothing in ze vorld can stop us now!
Buy the stories!
Yet again, no episodes of The Highlanders exist. However, the audio survives, of course, and has been released by the BBC with a linking narration by Frazer Hines. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
Things get even more complicated with The Underwater Menace. Episode 3 was included in the Lost in Time box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK). Episode 2 was rediscovered in 2011, and is the only extant episode of the entire show not yet released on DVD [citation needed]. An audio version exists, narrated by the charming Anneke Wills. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Moonbase has been released on DVD, with passable animated versions of the missing episodes 1 and 3. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Other thrilling underwater frolics are also available here: Gerry Anderson’s Stingray and Irwin Allen’s Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, starring Barbara Eden.
David Banks wrote an exhausting history of the Cybermen which was published in the 1990s. (Amazon UK). So there’s that then.
The first episode of The Avengers featuring the Cybernauts is availiable in full, probably illegally, on Dailymotion. (Sadly no longer.)
The delightful Damian Shanahan is responsible for finding many surviving clips from otherwise lost episodes, clips that were cut from the program by the ABC’s censors because they were too violent. You can read about this on Steve Phillips’s Doctor Who Clips List website, where the surviving clips are exhaustively catalogued.
Episode 11 · The Smugglers, The Tenth Planet, The Power of the Daleks · Saturday 18 October 2014
It’s the end of an era. In this episode, Brendan, Richard and Nathan say goodbye to the Doctor and hello to his suspicious new replacement, as we discuss The Smugglers, The Tenth Planet and The Power of the Daleks.
Thank you. It’s good. Keep warm.
Buy the Stories!
The Smugglers is completely missing, but an audio version is available, narrated by the delightful Anneke Wills. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Tenth Planet has been released on DVD, with an animated version of the missing Episode 4. One of the special features is a rare interview with William Hartnell. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
And, heartbreakingly, The Power of the Daleks is also completely missing. As usual, an audio version is available, narrated by the beautiful Anneke Wills. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Smugglers
Did you know that The Smugglers has no music at all? (Awkward silence…)
Imagine two hip young people teaching the older generation about their fab mod ways: it’s not Richard’s longed-for alt-universe Season 4 with Billy, Ben and Polly: it’s It’s Trad, Dad!. To appreciate the full horror of this film, take a look at this. I dare you.
Dr Syn was a retired pirate posing as a clergyman while working as a smuggler in a series of novels by Russell Thorndike, written in the early 20th century.
And no episode’s shownotes would be complete without our obligatory reference to a Carry On film. This week: Carry On Jack (1963), which chronicles the adventures of midshipman Alfred Poop-Decker. Sigh.
The Tenth Planet
Dr Elizabeth Sandifer’s essay on this story is very strange and interesting. Read it.
The Big Finish audio adventure Spare Parts tells the story of the Genesis of the Cybermen. It’s unmissably good.
We’re too impressed by the story itself to spend much time on obscure cultural references. So no strange links for you here. Why not read what the Wife in Space thought about it?
Episode 10 · Dr Who and the Daleks, Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 AD · Saturday 11 October 2014
And we’re back, now on the big screen in glorious Technicolor! This week, Brendan Who, Nathan Who and Richard Who discuss the two 1960s Peter Cushing films, Dr. Who and the Daleks and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. Come with us into that strange new world. We cannot guarantee your safety. But I can promise you unimagined cakes!
Buy the films!
You can get lovely remastered Blu-ray versions of both films. Dr. Who and the Daleks (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) and Daleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK).
Here’s a fabulous trailer from the alternative universe in which there was a third film based on The Chase: Daleks vs Mechons.
Here’s the entry on the TARDIS Wikia about Journey Into Time, the unbroadcast pilot for an unmade 52-episode radio series starring Peter Cushing as Dr. Who. Sadly, we couldn’t find any details about the proposed fan recording of the script, which was re-discovered a couple of years ago.
Brendan’s pick of the week
The Peter Cushing Dr. Who Fannual is now available. What would a 60s–style Doctor Who Annual have looked like if it was based on the world of the Peter Cushing Dr. Who films?
Episode 9 · The Gunfighters, The Savages, The War Machines · Saturday 13 September 2014
We’ve finally reached the end of our flight through Doctor Who’s third season. It’s been a long and controversial journey, but happily it ends with The Gunfighters, The Savages and The War Machines. So have one on the house. It isn’t every day we get the over–twenties in this place. (Oh wait, it is.)
Buy the stories!
The Gunfighters exists in its entirety, and it’s unmissable. If you haven’t seen it yet, you must buy it at once. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (In the UK and Australia, it was inexplicably released along with the Peter Davison story The Awakening in a box set called Earth Story.)
The Savages is completely missing, but the soundtrack still exists, narrated for the last time by the ubiquitous Peter Purves. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The War Machines also exists in full. Which is nice. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
The Gunfighters
Ugh. Peter Haining’s book on Classic Doctor Who again, Doctor Who: A Celebration. Really, don’t bother. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Go on, buy The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloonon iTunes at once. You know you want to.
And if you’ve enjoyed this story, try these classic westerns: The Searchers, starring John Wayne, High Noon, starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly, and True Grit, also starring John Wayne, who seems to be the Peter Purves of film Westerns.
All six episodes of Rex Tucker’s The Three Musketeers, starring Laurence Payne, Roger Delgado, Paul Whitsun-Jones and Adrienne Corri, have been lost. Sigh.
Nathan: Watch this 6-minute video of Jackie Lane in Paris in November 2010, created by her friend Julian Davies, and set to the music of Edith Piaf. (Oh, Jackie. If they find The Savages, would you come back and do the DVD commentary? Please say yes.)
Richard: Donald Cotton’s novelisations of The Gunfighters and The Myth Makers are sadly out of print. (Why aren’t they releasing all the Target novelisations as e-books, at least? What’s going on here?)
Still, all is not lost: Audible has an spoken-word version of The Gunfighters, read by a fantastically rough-sounding Shane Rimmer. (Audible US) (Audible UK). The Myth Makers is read by Mr Shouty himself, Stephen Thorne. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
Episode 8 · The Massacre, The Ark, The Celestial Toymaker · Sunday 7 September 2014
Our endless flight through Doctor Who’s third season chokes, stalls and crashes into The Massacre, The Ark and The Celestial Toymaker. And Nathan’s not at all happy. (Let’s put a cork on that, Nathan!)
These are three controversial stories, and we’d like to know what you think. Do you hate The Massacre, or do you love it as much as all right-thinking Doctor Who commentators? Is The Ark racist? Is The Celestial Toymaker appalling or merely terrible?
None of The Massacre exists (sigh), so it’s just not possible for Nathan to see how great it actually is. But here’s the BBC audio version, narrated by the indefatigable Peter Purves. (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Ark exists, in all of its (possibly) racist glory. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
Only the final episode of The Celestial Toymaker still exists, and it can be found on the Lost in Time box set. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
You can also get the full BBC Audio version of The Celestial Toymaker, narrated by who else but Peter Purves? (Audible US) (Audible UK)
The Massacre (of St Bartholomew’s Eve)
Cornell, Day and Topping’s Discontinuity Guide: “Not only the best historical, but the best Hartnell, and, in its serious handling of dramatic material in a truly dramatic style, arguably the best ever Doctor Who story.”
Olaf Stapledon’s Last and First Men, a novel about the history of humanity in the far, far future, can be found in its entirety on the Gutenberg Australia website.
Peter Haining’s seminal book on Classic Doctor Who, Doctor Who: A Celebration is out of print, of course. But you can still find copies on Amazon. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)
