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Episode 126

Gog and Magog

This week, Nathan’s outraged by Richard’s blasphemous theories, while Brendan just wants to be a real ladylike. Don’t tell your probation officer — it’s Ghost Light.

Buy the story!

Ghost Light was released on DVD in 2004/2005. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Control asks the Doctor to “spare a farthing, guvnor” — her climb up the evolutionary ladder is based upon the 1913 play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.

Gwedonline calls Ace Alice, which is the most obvious reference to Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, but Nathan points out that this story owes much more to Alice than that.

After Adam and Eve are expelled from the Garden of Eden, God places an angel with a flaming sword at the entrance to the Garden to prevent them from returning.

Fans of the song That’s the Way to the Zoo will enjoy this rendition by the hosts of the Splendid Chaps podcast, one of the inspirations for Flight Through Entirety. If you have never followed a link from our shownotes, break your habit, and follow this link immediately.

Douglas Adams’s Doctor Who movie script, Doctor Who and the Krikkitmen will be released as a novel by James Goss some time in January. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (Amazon AU)

Fans of FTE outside of Australia might not be aware of the non-binding non-compulsory postal survey which our wretched government is using to determine whether LGBTI people get to enjoy legal equality with every bogan arsehole who enjoyed threatening to beat us up in the playground when we were children.

And, finally, here’s a list of the amazing contributions Marc Platt has made to Doctor Who over the years since this story was first written.

Doctor Who in Ten Seconds

Brendan’s accelerated recaps of Classic Doctor Who are finally back, with some speedy ten-second summaries of all of the stories from Season 8.

Fans of Brendan’s video output will find his YouTube page here; they will also subscribe to Doctor Who in Ten Seconds here. Season 9 will be released in the next few weeks.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or next Monday we will come and bring you quite a lot of nuts.

Bondfinger

We’ve now got a bunch of James Bond commentaries banked and ready to release. While you’re waiting for us to get our act together, you can enjoy our previous commentaries on the Pierce Brosnan films, and our commentaries on the Timothy Dalton Era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. Even fake ones.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 126: Gog and Magog · Duration 0:52:46 · Download · Open in new window

Season 26The Seventh Doctor

Episode 125

Why Is It up Everything?

It’s the final season of the Classic Series of Doctor Who, and to celebrate, Brendan, Nathan and Richard are blowing up either an archaelogical site or the entire world. Let this be our last Battlefield!

Buy the story!

Battlefield was released on DVD in 2008/2009. Included in the release is a re-edited special feature-length version. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

The Brigadier’s wife Doris is played by Angela Douglas, who played a major role in a four Carry On films: Carry on Cowboy (1965), Carry on Screaming! (1966) Carry On… Follow That Camel (1967) and Carry On… Up the Khyber (1968).

Richard Franklin’s novel Operation H.A.T.E tells a the weird story of Captain M, whose narrative has been completely stripped of all overt Doctor Who references for intellectual property reasons.

Fans of serious scholarly treatments of Arthurian Mythology will enjoy Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975) and John Boorman’s Excalibur (1981).

Michael Kerrigan’s direction of the final battle was clearly based on the Batley Townswomen’s Guild recreation of the Battle of Pearl Harbour.

This story’s writer, Ben Aaronovitch, is now an accomplished novelist. But, back in the day, he had terrible difficulties meeting publication deadlines. Marc Platt ended up writing the novelisation of Battlefield, and Kate Orman had to step in to finish a crucial New Adventures novel, So Vile a Sin, when Aaronovitch couldn’t meet the deadline (he claimed his hard drive had failed).

Doctor Who in Ten Seconds

Brendan’s accelerated recaps of Classic Doctor Who are finally back, with some speedy ten-second summaries of all of the stories from Season 8.

Fans of Brendan’s video output will find his YouTube page here; they will also subscribe to Doctor Who in Ten Seconds here. Season 9 will be released in the next few weeks.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

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 tell everyone about that time we had sex with you in the woods of Celadon.

Bondfinger

Our long-awaited commentary on Die Another Day will be recorded next Friday, probably. While you’re waiting for that — and who wouldn’t be? — you can enjoy our previous commentaries on the Pierce Brosnan films, and our commentaries on the Timothy Dalton Era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. Even fake ones.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 125: Why Is It up Everything? · Duration 0:56:44 · Download · Open in new window

Season 26The Seventh Doctor

Episode 124

Jazz Hands

Remember the 1960s, when this podcast first began? We had such high ideals, and we enjoyed making people happy. Well, it’s 2017 now, so welcome to our bitter, jaded and utterly mercenary take on The Greatest Show in the Galaxy.

The pebble drowning in his lake

Campaigning for our postal plebiscite has turned predictably nasty, but it’s very important for everyone to have their say on this issue: which Colin Baker story should be the subject of our upcoming commentary podcast? Head over to the show notes for Episode 121 to cast your vote.

Buy the story!

The Greatest Show in the Galaxy was released on DVD in 2012. (That was easy.) (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Brendan’s “surprise mirror” remark is totally incomprehensible unless you’ve seen this literal music video of Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart. Watch it now.

The first episode of Australian comedy series Outland featured a gay Doctor Who fan who briefly considered abandoning his date when he made a crack about Daleks being unable to climb the stairs.

In Richard Marsden’s biography of John Nathan-Turner, it is revealed that JNT and his partner used to refer to hard-core fans as “barkers”, and the attractive ones as “doable barkers”.

Chris Chibnall will be taking the reins of Doctor Who any day now. Here he is on the BBC’s Open Air programme in 1986, criticising The Trial of a Time Lord.

The Pakleds from the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode Samaritan Snare were intended to be a parody of Star Trek fans.

This sketch from A Bit of Fry and Laurie depicts Stephen Fry’s reaction to increasing choice in the media landscape. Watch it all the way through — there’s a lovely surprise in there for fans of Doctor Who.

Richard identifies 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964) as one of the inspirations for this story. The eponymous Doctor is played by Tony Randall in some appalling yellowface. Check out the trailer here.

Picks of the week

Brendan

Take a deep breath. Brendan’s first pick is Doctor Who on Holiday a remix by Dean Gray of The KLF’s Doctorin’ the TARDIS, featuring Green Day. It’s good.

His second pick is The X-Men: The Animated Series Podcast, a podcast in which two American fans discuss, well, X-Men: The Animated Series.

Nathan

Evelyn Waugh’s Vile Bodies, read by Robert Hardy. It’s not available on Audible in the US. Write to your Congressman. (Audible UK) (Audible AU)

Richard

Richard (bless him) just wants you to watch Season 25 again. And eat some fruit.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

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 descend on your fruit cart like a pack of hippie weirdos.

Bondfinger

Richard is off on a top-secret mission to Piz Gloria right now, so our coverage of the Brosnan era will resume in a few weeks’ time. While you’re waiting, you can enjoy our previous commentaries on the Pierce Brosnan films, and our commentaries on the Timothy Dalton Era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. Even fake ones.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 124: Jazz Hands · Duration 1:06:37 · Download · Open in new window

Season 25The Seventh Doctor

Episode 123

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

This week, Brendan’s listening to some meaningless jazz, and Nathan’s hanging from a tree in his underwear, while Richard rides — to destiny. All things shall soon be ours: it’s Silver Nemesis.

Ungrateful wretch

The cost of our plebiscite has blown out enormously, and we reserve the right to completely ignore the result, but it’s almost certainly still worth casting your vote for the Colin Baker story that will be the subject of our upcoming commentary podcast. Head over to the show notes for Episode 121 to make your views known.

Buy the story!

Silver Nemesis was released on DVD in 2010. As usual, it was released on its own in the US (Amazon US), but in the UK and Australia, it released strapped to Revenge of the Cybermen in the unimaginatively titled Cybermen box set. (Amazon UK).

This episode’s title is taken from Shakespeare’s most improbable stage direction, in The Winter’s Tale, Act III, Scene 3, alluded to by Lady Peinforte in Part 2.

In a cut scene from Part 1, the Doctor and Ace come across a portrait of Ace painted by Gainsborough.

The jury is still out on the theory that the sun has an invisible brown dwarf companion called Nemesis, which occasionally wanders past to cause mass extinctions on Earth. Fans of this idea will also enjoy the theory that a giant planet is patrolling the borders of our solar system with the intention of one day killing us all.

Death Comes to Time was an animated webcast on the BBC website in 2001, starring Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, Jacqueline Pearce, John Sessions and Stephen Fry. It’s terrible, but you can still hear it as an audiobook in the US (Audible US), or as a CD in the UK (Amazon UK).

Here’s Brendan cosplaying as the Doctor in Death Comes to Time.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

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 pretend to be completely indifferent when you tell us your most intimate personal secrets.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we’ve stalled in the middle of the Brosnan Era, and so our commentary on The World is Not Enough (1999) has been delayed. In the meantime, you can enjoy our previous commentaries on the Pierce Brosnan films, and our commentaries on the Timothy Dalton Era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. Even fake ones.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 123: Exit, Pursued by a Bear · Duration 0:47:29 · Download · Open in new window

Season 25The Seventh Doctor

Episode 122

This Neocon World

This week, we’re manic, reactive and endogenous, as we contemplate fondant, marshmallow, and the practical problem with leaving someone alive. Make sure you’ve paid your poll tax — it’s time for an outing with The Happiness Patrol.

On with the Motley

In our ongoing postal plebiscite, you’ll be voting on which Colin Baker story will be the subject of our next commentary podcast. Take your mind off the horrors of democracy, head over to the shownotes for Episode 121, and cast your vote.

Buy the story!

The Happiness Patrol was released on DVD in 2012. In the US, it was released on its own (Amazon US), while in the UK and Australia, it was inexplicably released as part of the Ace Adventures box set, along with Dragonfire (Amazon UK).

Richard continues to feud with the hosts of the New To Who podcast. They’re all very attractive.

Dog lovers will find today’s upsetting media landscape impossible to navigate without referring to doesthedogdie.com.

The sound, look and feel of this story owes a lot to noirish thriller The Third Man (1949).

Section 28 of the Local Government Act (1988) was a dogshit piece of legislation enacted by the viciously homophobic Thatcher Government that banned the “promotion” of homosexuality. It remained in force in the UK until 2003.

And here’s the Monty Python sketch about Happy Valley, in which anyone unhappy was immediately put to death. Hilariously.

And here’s Nathan’s personal take on the idea of Frocks and Guns in Doctor Who.

Horrifically enough, Richard is right about the term Joy Division being used to refer to the practice of sexual slavery in Nazi labour camps.

Lady Land is the official TV Tropes name for the Planet of Women trope.

Neither Richard nor Nathan have ever even heard of T-Bag, a British TV programme about a weird witch who travelled around time and space collecting weird objects. For the last few years of the show, T-Bag was played by Georgina Hale, our very own Priscilla P. (It’s horrifically bad. Take a look at one of the episodes from Season 3 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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

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 run off with your husband in your personal escape shuttle. We’re done it before.

Bondfinger

Our commentary on The World is Not Enough (1999) will be released this weekend, probably, but while you’re waiting you can enjoy our previous commentaries on the Pierce Brosnan films, and our commentaries on the Timothy Dalton Era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. Even the fake ones that weren’t included in the official box set.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 122: This Neocon World · Duration 0:50:15 · Download · Open in new window

Season 25The Seventh Doctor

Episode 121

Daleks Are Forever

Flight Through Entirety roars back into the feed with one of its best episodes ever, in which we go back to the very beginning of the history of the show and subtly reference tons of things we’ve done before. Except for Shirley Bassey as Davros. We’ve never done that, I think. It’s Remembrance of the Daleks, of course.

A web of mayhem and intrigue

Once again, it’s time for you to vote for another story for our next commentary podcast — a Colin Baker commentary, which is currently scheduled for release in a few months’ time.

The voting for our Colin Baker commentary podcast has now closed. In this poll, our listeners were given the choice between The Mark of the Rani, Revelation of the Daleks, The Mysterious Planet and Terror of the Vervoids. The winner, with 45% of the vote, was Richard’s choice Revelation of the Daleks.

Buy the story!

Are you sitting comfortably? After its original DVD release in 2001/2002, Remembrance of the Daleks: Special Edition was released in the UK and Australia as part of The Davros Collection in 2007 (Amazon UK). It was later released on its own in 2009 in the UK (Amazon UK), and in 2010 in the US (Amazon US).

Jodie Whittaker is the Doctor!

And here’s what Brian Blessed said when he first met the Dalai Lama.

The last time Moffat oversaw the Twelfth Doctor’s regeneration into a woman was in his very first Doctor Who story, The Curse of Fatal Death.

Ben Aaronovitch is now a well-regarded author, famous for his six-book Rivers of London series, which deals with a young policemen who works in a divison of the Metropolitan Police that deals with the supernatural. The first novel was inexplicably called Midnight Riot in the US.

The novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks is excellent, and is actually available on Amazon. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK) (Amazon AU)

Counter-Measures is a series of Big Finish audios featuring Rachel Jensen, Allison Williams and Group Captain Ian “Chunky” Gillmore battling various alienesque threats in 1960s London.

The Profumo affair refers to a scandal in which the Secretary of State, John Profumo was forced to resign as a result of his 1961 affair with Christine Keeler, who may have been in a relationship with Yevgey Ivanov, a Soviet naval attaché; it contributed to the resignation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in October 1963, just weeks before the first episode of Doctor Who aired. It was dramatised in the film, Scandal (1989), starring our very own Ian McKellen and John Hurt.

Scottish comedian Susan Calman, from Radio 4’s The News Quiz talks about how she plans to dress when she’s cast as Doctor Who.

Doctor Who’s first script editor David “Jodie” Whitaker was involved in the production of three Dalek Annuals featuring original stories and articles: The Dalek Book (1964), The Dalek World (1965) and The Dalek Outer Space Book (1966).

David Banks wrote a coffee-table book called Cybermen, which explains everything you never wanted to know about why the Cybermen changed their costumes all the time.

Fans of Australian podcast episodes about Remembrance of the Daleks will enjoy the latest episode of New to Who, a podcast in which Colin, Daniel and Steven discuss Doctor Who stories you might actually want to watch.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

Brendan recounts his experiences reading his way through the Doctor Who novels on his blog, The Doctor Who Reader.

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 round to your local high school and draw anachronistic graffiti all over the walls.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we have now released twocommentaries on the Pierce Brosnan films, to match our twocommentaries on the Timothy Dalton Era.

WealsohaveplentyofRodgecastsonline, and thereareotherBondsavailable, aswell. Even fakeones.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 121: Daleks Are Forever · Duration 0:57:01 · Download · Open in new window

Season 25The Seventh Doctor

Episode 120

Carrying an Offensive Commentary

This week, we give Sylvester McCoy a brief holiday while we revisit a Doctor Who story with some actual women in it. Which seems like the right thing to do nowadays. Sausage sandwiches at the ready, everyone: it’s our commentary on 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)

You can find a much more concise and sensible discussion of this story in our regular episode about The Stones of BloodEpisode 58: The Fool Idwal Morgan, recorded in December 2015. Makes you think.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

Brendan recounts his experiences reading his way through the Doctor Who novels on his blog, The Doctor Who Reader.

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 write a monograph about something and make you look a fool.

Bondfinger

Next week on Bondfinger, we’re planning to record our commentary on Pierce Brosnan’s good Bond film, The World is Not Enough (1999), which was released just months after The Phantom Menace. While you’re waiting for that, you can listen to our two previous Brosnan commentaries, as well as our commentaries on the Timothy Dalton films.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 120: Carrying an Offensive Commentary · Duration 1:38:07 · Download · Open in new window

CommentariesSeason 16The Fourth Doctor

Episode 119

A Really, Really Good Length

After acquiring a mysterious treasure map from a German Expressionist filmmaker, Richard goes off to discover a fabulous treasure hidden deep in the bowels of a space mall, while Brendan and Nathan stay behind pouring milkshakes on each other. It’s Dragonfire.

Well, that’s democracy for you

You now have less than a week to vote for a Peter Davison story to be the subject of yet another FTE commentary podcast; we’ll be announcing the result at the end of our Tom Baker commentary episode next week.

To cast your vote, just visit the shownotes for Episode 116.

Buy the story!

Dragonfire was released on DVD in 2012. It was released on its own in the US (Amazon US), of course, but in Australia and the UK, it was released as part of the Ace Adventures box set, along with The Happiness Patrol, for some reason (Amazon UK).

Tony Osoba plays Kracauer, one of Kane’s followers. This is the second of three Doctor Who appearances: he was previously a Movellan in Destiny of the Daleks, and will go on to play an astronaut in Kill the Moon. He was also in Charles Chilton’s Space Force 2, a BBC science fiction radio series which served as a sequel to Chilton’s Journey into Space. He also appeared in Porridge, starring Ronnie Barker, in which he played a black Scotsman, which was apparently a hilarious thing in the 1970s.

Australia’s answer to Martha Stewart (without the criminal record) was called Tonia Todman, and who expected her to turn up in this episode? She’s still with us, apparently, and seems to have outlived her fame, such as it was.

Big Finish have staged a reunion between the Seventh Doctor, Mel and Ace in A Life of Crime, Fiesta of the Damned and Maker of Demons.

Coincidentally, many of this story’s characters share names with famous figures in the history of film criticism, including Pudovkin, Kracauer, Belazs (nearly) and Eisenstein.

The guard’s line about “the semiotic thickness of a performed text”, which we are all terribly fond of, is a direct quote from Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text, which was an early attempt at academic criticism of Doctor Who.

Nathan mentions a version of the Sylvester McCoy title sequence created in 2016 by Cloister Productions using modern CGI in less than 24 hours.

Dominic Glynn did a full stereo remix of his version of the Doctor Who theme for The Trial of a Time Lord box set in 2008.

Picks of the week

Brendan

Brendan recommends a Big Finish audio starring Sylvester McCoy and Bonnie Langford: Flip Flop, which consists of two discs that can be played in either order. Big Finish calls it “a unique innovation in storytelling”, which is sweet of them.

Nathan

Nathan recommends getting a subscription to Audible (US) (UK) (AU), where you can buy audiobook versions of many of the Doctor Who Target novelisations, particularly Delta and the Bannermen read by Bonnie Langford.

Richard

Richard goes all highbrow on us this week, recommending the films of Japanese screenwriter and director Akira Kurosawa, including Ran (1985), Yojimbo (1961), and The Hidden Fortress (1958.

He also recommends the films of Josef von Sternberg, particularly those starring William Hartnell–lookalike Marlene Dietrich, including The Scarlet Empress (1934), Morocco (1930) and Shanghai Express (1932).

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

Brendan recounts his experiences reading his way through the Doctor Who novels on his blog, The Doctor Who Reader.

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 lounge around in the emergency services tea room ignoring your increasingly urgent messages about that ice jam in the upper docking bay.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we’re halfway through our flight through the Pierce Brosnan era, with commentaries on GoldenEye and Tomorrow Never Dies. Fans of things much better than those films will enjoy our commentaries on the Timothy Dalton films. Or will they?

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

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Episode 119: A Really, Really Good Length · Duration 1:10:30 · Download · Open in new window

Season 24The Seventh Doctor

Episode 118

Bitter and Painful

It’s 1950s night at Flight Through Entirety, which means putting on bobby socks, combing Brylcreem through our remaining hair (if any), and leaving our copies of The Doctor Who Monster Book at home. It’s Delta and the Bannermen.

Er, just remind me. What day is it again?

As a valued listener of FTE, it is your democratic right to inflict a particular Peter Davison story on us, which we can inflict, in turn, upon your fellow listeners.

To cast your vote in our Peter Davison commentary poll, just go to the shownotes for Episode 116.

Buy the story!

Delta and the Bannermen was released on DVD in 2009. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Well, the ur-source of this story is the long-running 1980s sitcom Hi-de-Hi!, set in a 1950s holiday camp, starring Ruth Madoc, former wife of our very own Philip Madoc (in fishnets).

The Tollmaster was played by Ken Dodd, who earned a place in The Guinness Book of Records for the longest joke-telling session ever — 1,500 jokes in three and a half hours. (Not four days, sadly.) Other actors considered for the role included comedian and stand-up comic Bob Monkhouse, and Doctor Who-impersonator and part-time Roman Emperor Christopher Biggins.

Weissmuller is played by Stubby Kaye, who is best known for his role as Nicely-Nicely Johnson in Guys and Dolls.

The music in this story is provided by Keff McCulloch, apart from one track during the Doctor and Ray’s hunt for Delta and Billy — The Devil’s Galop by Charles Williams. Fans of Keff’s work will also enjoy the Doctor Who 25th Anniversary Album, particularly the track “8891 Royale”.

Goronwy was played by Hugh Lloyd, who had a massively long career. You can see him here as lonely pensioner Billy in Victoria Wood as Seen on TV. He also appeared in Hancock’s Half Hour and starred alongside Terry Scott in his own show Hugh and I.

Bannerman costume designs by Akira Kurosawa.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

Brendan recounts his experiences reading his way through the Doctor Who novels on his blog, The Doctor Who Reader.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or all three of us will wander around after you, making goo-goo eyes and occasionally swiping your medication.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we have now released two commentaries on the Pierce Brosnan films, to match our two commentaries on the mercilessly (or mercifully) short Timothy Dalton Era. (We own him, remember?)

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 118: Bitter and Painful · Duration 0:50:27 · Download · Open in new window

Season 24The Seventh Doctor

Episode 117

Thatcher’s Britain

This week, Richard’s admiring the architecture, Brendan wants to say how-you-do, and Nathan has had a disappointingly small meal and is still feeling a little peckish. We’re all trapped in an excitingly hopeful modernist dystopia, so what else could it be but Paradise Towers?

Attendance is compulsory

Once again, we’re asking you to shape the future of this podcast by nominating a Peter Davison story to cover in our next commentary episode. But beware: this time the choice comes with potentially complex interpersonal repercussions.

To cast your vote, just go to the shownotes for Episode 116.

Buy the story!

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

Le Corbusier was a French architect who was massively fond of steel, concrete and plate glass, and who would probably have enjoyed more than a few astringent beverages with Kroagnon in Space Architect School.

High-Rise tells the story of “a class war…inside a luxurious apartment block”. It was written by J G Ballard, about whom Richard has some surprising things to say.

David Snell was originally commissioned to write the incidental music for this story, but his score was rejected by JNT, and Keff McCulloch ended up hastily writing a replacement score instead. Snell’s score is available as a DVD extra.

Deputy Chief Caretaker Clive Merrison played Sherlock Holmes alongside Michael Williams as Watson for BBC Radio 4, covering every canonical Sherlock Holmes story. They’re all available from Audible, so go out and buy them immediately.

In Understanding Media, Marshall McLuhan talked about the differences between hot and cold media, which are concepts dear to the heart of any Doctor Who fan who has ever attempted to watch the Loose Cannon reconstruction of The Space Pirates.

Big Finish tackles some of this story’s themes in Spaceport Fear by William Gallagher, starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford.

Steven Wyatt had got the job partly on the basis of Claws, a TV play starring Brenda Blethyn and Todd’s beloved Mary Morris. It’s about cat people. Like Survival, I imagine.

And, as always, we come back to Totally Tasteless: The Life of John Nathan Turner by Richard Marson. JNT was a gay, you know.

And going slightly more highbrow, Richard alludes to The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, which discusses the implications of our newfound technological ability to experience works of art whenever and wherever we like.

Brendan mentions the fraught political history of Yooka-Laylee, which actually looks like a lot of fun.

The Pruitt-Igoe public housing project seems like it was a massive conglomeration of dozens of Paradise Towers in St Louis, Missouri. Read about it here.

Doctor Who creator Sydney Newman offered Michael Grade some surprising advice about how to fix Doctor Who in the 1980s. More information about this is available as a DVD extra on the Time and the Rani DVD.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

Brendan recounts his experiences reading his way through the Doctor Who novels on his blog, The Doctor Who Reader.

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 chase you down carrydors and catch you where we can.

Bondfinger

Yesterday we released a new commentary on the second Pierce Brosnan film, Tomorrow Never Dies. If we put that side by side with our commentary on GoldenEye, we’ll have a pair.

Of course, you can still catch our commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well.

You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 117: Thatcher’s Britain · Duration 0:54:12 · Download · Open in new window

Season 24The Seventh Doctor

Episode 116

Terrified of Tinsel

Richard makes a triumphant return to the podcast just in time for the start of the Sylvester McCoy era. And the Rani’s back too, cosplaying as Brendan for some reason. It’s Time and the Rani.

So free will is not an illusion after all

Every time we turn around it’s election season, and here at Flight Through Entirety, things are no different. This time we want you to vote for a Peter Davison story for our upcoming commentary podcast, scheduled for release after we finish Season 25.

Voting in the FTE Peter Davison commentary poll has now closed. In this poll, our listeners made a choice between Four to Doomsday, Arc of Infinity, Enlightenment and Resurrection of the Daleks. The winner, with 40% of the vote, was Enlightenment.

Buy the story!

Time and the Rani was released on DVD in 2010/2011. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Elizabeth Sandifer has posted a video blog in which she explains why she thinks the visual style of this story is a vast improvement. Scroll to the bottom of her discussion of this story, or, better still, read the whole thing.

Fans of terrible dialogue and refreshingly simplistic plots will also enjoy Pip and Jane’s episode of Space: 1999, which is called A Matter of Balance. (That’s a link to the actual episode, by the way, so click carefully.)

The story of King Solomon’s wisdom can be found in 1 Kings 3:16–28.

Mrs Malaprop was a hilarious comedy aunt from Sheridan’s play The Rivals (1775), famous for continually choosing the wrong word; despite that, she was the very pineapple of politeness.

Brendan’s quixotic quest to read every original Doctor Who novel is insightfully and entertainingly chronicled on his blog, The Doctor Who Reader.

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, and the logo was designed by Anthony Wells. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or before you know it Brendan will be cosplaying as you and trying to deceive all your closest friends.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we’ve just recorded a new commentary on the second Pierce Brosnan film, Tomorrow Never Dies (1997). We’ll be releasing that this week. In the meantime, feel free to enjoy more of Pierce in our commentary on GoldenEye (1995).

Of course, you can still catch our commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 116: Terrified of Tinsel · Duration 1:01:10 · Download · Open in new window

Season 24The Seventh Doctor

Episode 115

The London Commentary Quartet

Another commentary podcast: this week, it’s Jon Pertwee in Death to the Daleks!

When their holiday to Florana is unexpectedly cancelled, Brendan, Nathan, Todd and Richard all find themselves stranded in a freezing alien quarry wearing nothing but skimpy bikinis and water wings. And none of their iPhones are working, for some reason.

Buy the story!

Death to the Daleks was released on DVD in 2012. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

For a less lengthy and much more tightly edited take on this story, you should listen to Episode 29: Sand in Your Parrinium. In that episode, we discuss the the first three stories of Pertwee’s final season — The Time Warrior, Invasion of the Dinosaurs and Death to the Daleks.

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. And more surprising and completely reliable information about the show can be found at @FTEwhofacts.

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 unexpectedly spin around screeching and then explode for no reason.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we’ll be recording a new Pierce Brosnan commentary in the next week or so, probably, so while you’re waiting for that, you can enjoy more of Pierce in our latest commentary — GoldenEye (1995).

Of course, you can still catch our commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 115: The London Commentary Quartet · Duration 1:41:21 · Download · Open in new window

CommentariesSeason 11The Third Doctor

Episode 114

Never Going to Win

We’ve reached the end of Doctor Who’s longest era: an era in which every single story was a 14-episode epic about cannibalism and Gallifreyan jurisprudence. But, despite Eric Saward, there are still nice things to say.

Those of you not from Australia won’t understand our references to the only sitcom in Australian television history, Mother and Son, starring Garry McDonald as highly-strung botanist Arthur Bruchner.

Despite the much-criticised loveliness of his era of Doctor Who, even Russell T Davies can go horribly dark and cynical: fans of harrowing things will be deeply upset by Cucumber episode 6.

People who hate Colin’s coat, which is basically everyone, might be slightly less annoyed by this footage of Colin wearing a blue version of his costume.

Brendan nearly recommends Colin’s Doctor and Evelyn in the Big Finish audio Arrangements for War. But, you know, spoiler alert: you need to know a bit about Evelyn’s character to appreciate it. You might want to start with her first story The Marian Conspiracy.

Do you mind not standing on my chest? My hat’s on fire

Don’t forget to vote for the story you want us to cover in our upcoming Tom Baker commentary podcast. Click over to the shownotes for Episode 109 and make your choice. Voting will be closing soon.

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 we’ll damn with faint praise your entire era as the star of Doctor Who.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we’ve now released our first commentary of the Pierce Brosnan’s era, the highly-regarded GoldenEye (1995).

Of course, you can still catch our commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 114: Never Going to Win · Duration 1:28:09 · Download · Open in new window

RetrospectivesThe Sixth Doctor

Episode 113

Rehabilitation

This week, we look at a medium where Colin’s reputation as the Doctor is second to none. To that end, Nathan is only pretending to be evil, Brendan has two peglegs, Todd is having a hard time assembling some shelving, and Richard is just a shadow of his former self. It’s Colin Baker, in the Big Finish audio adventures!

Buy the stories!

The stories we discuss this week are all available for download from the Big Finish website.

Jubilee

Rob Shearman has written a number of Big Finish audios, and some books, including Love Songs for the Shy and Cynical and Everyone’s Just So Special. These are all available from his page on the Big Finish website.

Fans of upsetting and occasionally funny near-future dystopias will enjoy Black Mirror, which is available on Netflix.

As usual, Elizabeth Sandifer has an insighful take on this story, which Nathan is impressed by. Shearman himself comments on the article.

If you’re in the mood for a much more harrowing patriarchal dystopia, Hulu has recently made a brilliant TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

Doctor Who and the Pirates

This story was written by Jac Rayner, who has written a number of Doctor Who plays and novels. She also maintains a blog. [Or she did in 2017. Here in the distant future of 2024 the blog is but a memory and her hosting provider would love her to drop them a line.]

The One Doctor

Richard and Nathan both remember watching The Maths Show in primary school, which occasional featured a segment called Doctor Where, in which the Doctor and Sally-Anne explained concepts like scale and probability.

The hapless Fry drinks the emperor of the planet Trisol in the Futurama episode My Three Suns.

The Brink of Death

Michael Jayston starred in a dramatisation of Geoffrey Household’s 1939 novel, Rogue Male, in which a British ex-serviceman travels to Europe to assassinate the unnamed dictator of a major power. (Oh, okay, it’s probably Hitler.)

Those eyes

Don’t forget to vote for the story you want us to cover in our upcoming Tom Baker commentary podcast. Click over to the shownotes for Episode 109 and make your choice. Voting will be closing soon.

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 we’ll release our next episode in the form of a sung-through musical.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we’ve just released our first commentary of the Pierce Brosnan’s era, the highly-regarded GoldenEye (1995).

Of course, you can still catch our commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

We also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 113: Rehabilitation · Duration 1:03:00 · Download · Open in new window

Big FinishThe Sixth Doctor

Episode 112

Time Inc.

Transported to a nightmarish world of the Valeyard’s creation, the Doctor finds himself unable to escape, because Eric Saward has stormed off, taking his script for Episode 14 with him.

This week, we bring you that script, performed by a troupe of talented and attractive young actors. What was the original ending for The Trial of a Time Lord? Tune in to Flight Through Entirety’s production of Time Inc. to find out.

Credits

The DoctorTodd Beilby
MelanieBrendan Jones
The ValeyardNathan Bottomley
The InquisitorRichard Stone
GlitzRichard Stone
The MasterJames Sellwood
PopplewickBrendan Jones
Keeper of the MatrixTodd Beilby

Special thanks to Dominic Glynn, who graciously permitted the use of his original soundtrack for The Ultimate Foe.

What are you, a comedian?

Normal service will be resumed next week with our Colin Baker Big Finish special, our second-last episode on the Colin Baker Era.

If you want to prepare for this episode, you should listen to these stories.

Vaguely bohemian

Don’t forget to vote for the story you want us to cover in our upcoming Tom Baker commentary podcast. Click over to last week’s shownotes and make your choice.

Follow us!

Fans of true facts about Doctor Who will enjoy our new Doctor Who Facts account on Twitter, which you can find at @FTEwhofacts.

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 we’ll end every episode from now on with a series-destroying cliffhanger.

Bondfinger

At the end of the week, we’ll be releasing our first Bondfinger commentary of the Pierce Brosnan era, on the videogame-inspiring GoldenEye (1995). You can still catch up on our recent commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

Of course, we also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 112: Time Inc. · Duration 0:30:33 · Download · Open in new window

Audio dramasSeason 23The Sixth Doctor

Episode 111

Gallifreyan Duck and Cover

And now it’s time for the Trial storyline to implode completely. Nathan turns out to be a distillation of all that is evil in Todd, and Brendan has just stormed out with the only copy of this episode’s script. It’s the last two episodes of The Trial of a Time Lord — The Ultimate Foe.

Buy the story!

For the last time, The Ultimate Foe was released as part of the Trial of a Time Lord box set in 2008/2009. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

So, here’s our weekly link to Eric Saward’s tell-all interview in Starburst.

Picks of the week

Brendan

Brendan recommends Matrix, by Robert Perry & Mike Tucker, a BBC Past Doctor Adventure which answers the seldom-asked question, So what’s the Valeyard up to these days?

Peri’s ultimate fate is explored by Nev Fountain in Big Finish audio Peri and the Piscon Paradox.

(Brendan also mentions in passing the New Adventures novel Bad Therapy, which features the Seventh Doctor and Peri, weirdly.)

Nathan

Nathan goes embarrassingly highbrow again, recommending the BBC1 comedy frock drama Decline and Fall, based on the novel by Evelyn Waugh.

Todd

Todd comes up with a couple of excitingly silly recommendations this week: the film Beauty and the Beast, and the CW teen drama Riverdale. More sensibly, he recommends any Big Finish audio starring Colin Baker and Bonnie Langford. And a final shout-out to Big Finish audio Wirrn Isle.

Carrot juice, carrot juice, carrot juice

This week, we say farewell to Colin on television, but here on the podcast we’re not willing to say goodbye yet. In two weeks’ time, we’ll be doing a very special episode on some of our favourite Colin Baker Big Finish audios.

If you want to prepare for this episode, here are the stories you should listen to.

All teeth and curls

Don’t forget to vote for the story you want us to cover in our upcoming Tom Baker commentary podcast. Click over to last week’s shownotes and make your choice.

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 we’ll string you along for fourteen weeks only to deliver something completely incoherent with a megabyte modem in it.

Bondfinger

We’re gearing up for another Bondfinger commentary podcast in the next couple of weeks: this time, it’s Pierce Brosnan’s first film as Bond, perennial fan favourite GoldenEye (1995) In the meantime, you can still catch up on our commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

Of course, we also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 111: Gallifreyan Duck and Cover · Duration 1:07:28 · Download · Open in new window

Season 23The Sixth Doctor

Episode 110

The Demeter Seed Game

After the stressful events of last week, we’ve decided to treat ourselves to a luxury cruise. Brendan’s working out in a pink tracksuit, Todd’s playing Galaxian and terrorising the waitress, and Nathan’s hanging around the communications room with an axe. And, in order to protect a secret hidden on the space liner, one of us will become a murderer. And there are Vervoids, of course.

Buy the story!

Terror of the Vervoids was (again) released as part of the Trial of a Time Lord box set in 2008/2009. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Originally considered for this slot in the Trial was a story called Paradise 5, by P J Hammond. It has since been adapted for audio by Big Finish as part of its Lost Stories range.

Michael Craig, who is this story’s Beryl Reid, later went on to star as Dr William Sharp in the ABC drama series GP, set in a medical practice in inner-city Sydney.

This story has no Script Editor credit at all, because Eric Saward has ragequit the show. So let’s link to his pungent Starburst interview one more time.

Here’s are some future Colin Baker stories that the Doctor probably should have chosen to present as evidence instead: The Marian Conspiracy, Arrangements for War and The One Doctor. (More of which later.)

Bonnie Langford brings a dark past to her time on the show. She played Violet Elizabeth Bott in the Just William television series in 1976 and 1977. You can see some of her very early work here. (Don’t skip this one. You really need to click on that link.)

You can find a detailed account of Noël Coward’s cruel remarks about Bonnie Langford here, including another quip that we didn’t mention.

Sciencey murderer Doland is played by Malcolm Tierney, who played horrific northern Tory Patrick Woolton in the original British House of Cards (1990).

The Brink of Death

The Colin Baker Era is about to meet an untimely end, but Colin’s Sixth Doctor lives on very successfully in the Big Finish audios. So to round out our appreciation of the era, we’re planning a Very Special Episode in which we discuss some of Colin’s audio highlights.

If you want to prepare for this episode, here are the stories you should listen to.

He just likes to irritate people

There’s still time for you to vote for a Tom Baker story for the four of us to talk all over for our next commentary episode. Just pop over to last week’s shownotes and cast your vote.

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 we’ll break into your hotel bathroom while you’re out and fart copiously in the shower.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we’ve already dusted off the Nintendo 64 in preparation for the Pierce Brosnan era. In the meantime, you can still catch up on our commentaries on both films of the Timothy Dalton era.

Of course, we also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 110: The Demeter Seed Game · Duration 0:50:45 · Download · Open in new window

Season 23The Sixth Doctor

Episode 109

Dark Colours

It’s been a few years now, so it’s time to cynically murder another one of the Doctor’s companions. Which is why we spend a lot of time talking about what’s great about this story. It’s episodes 5 to 8 of The Trial of a Time LordMindwarp.

There’s Always a Choice

You’ve waited long enough: it’s time for you to vote for a Tom Baker story for our next commentary podcast. It’s just like the British General Election, only not horrendous.

Voting in the FTE Tom Baker commentary poll has now closed. In this poll, our listeners made a choice between The Hand of Fear , The Sun Makers, The Stones of Blood and The Horns of Nimon. The winner will be announced in Episode 115.

Buy the story!

Mindwarp was (unsurprisingly) released as part of the Trial of a Time Lord box set in 2008/2009. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Not much to say here, but Nathan makes a reference to Peri being “fridged”. You can find the TV Tropes entry on fridging here.

Moments later, he namechecks another trope when he talks about “lampshading” the convenient arrival of a new companion. It’s just tropes tropes tropes tropes tropes this week.

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 we’ll do something so horrifically cynical that it completely ruins the best TV show of your entire childhood.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we’ve finally reached the end of the entire Timothy Dalton era, with our recently-released commentary on Licence to Kill. Fans of Timothy Dalton will also enjoy our commentary on The Living Daylights.

Of course, we also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 109: Dark Colours · Duration 0:53:03 · Download · Open in new window

Season 23The Sixth Doctor

Episode 108

I’m Supposed to Be Cross

This week, Brendan, Nathan and Todd go for a lovely walk in a rain-drenched forest, only to find themselves dragged halfway across the galaxy by the Time Lords and placed on trial to answer for their crimes. It’s Parts 1 to 4 of the longest Doctor Who story ever — The Trial of a Time Lord: The Mysterious Planet.

Buy the story!

The Mysterious Planet was released as part of the Trial of a Time Lord box set in 2008/2009. (Amazon US) (Amazon UK)

Trials and Tribulations is a 55-minute documentary covering the production problems that plagued the Colin Baker era, and the 1985 cancellation in particular. Do not miss this.

After leaving the show in 1986, Eric Saward gave an interview to Starburst magazine, in which he mounted an attack on John Nathan-Turner. It’s an eyewatering read.

In 1989, Jon Pertwee starred in a Doctor Who stage play called The Ultimate Adventure. During the run, Colin Baker took over in a somewhat less horrific version of his TV costume.

Fans of Mollie Sugden as Mrs Slocombe will undoubtedly enjoy watching her trapped on a spaceship in the year 2050 in BBC sitcom Come Back Mrs Noah (1977).

In this story, whiskerless youth Balazar is played by Adam Blackwood. Blackwood can also be seen playing Tok in Season 4 Blakes 7 episode Assassin, in which he is bidding on slaves at the behest of Natratof of Gourimpest. He also plays Barmy Fotheringay Phipps in various episodes of Jeeves and Wooster. Most surprisingly, he is the voice of James Bond himself in the 2001 videogame 007: Agent Under Fire. You can get an idea of what he’s like in this video on YouTube.

In a nearby parallel universe, Glitz and Dibber were played by French and Saunders. Which is as good an excuse as any to link to this video of the two of them playing extras on the set of Trial of a Time Lord. You can also see them in the BBC sitcom Girls on Top (1985).

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 we’ll keep interrupting your day to comment irritatingly on everything you’ve just been doing.

Bondfinger

Over on Bondfinger, we just released the first of a series of commentaries on the Timothy Dalton Bond film, in which we discuss The Living Daylights. We’ll be releasing our commentary on Licence to Kill next weekend.

Of course, we also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available, as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 108: I’m Supposed to Be Cross · Duration 0:56:35 · Download · Open in new window

Season 23The Sixth Doctor

Episode 107

Don’t Do It Again, Todd

The walls between realities were fairly porous back in 1986, which is why we find ourselves this week in a terrifying parallel universe where the Hiatus never happened, and the original plans for Season 23 actually came to fruition. Beware.

Buy the stories!

Here are the four stories that we spend most of our time discussing:

We also mention these Big Finish lost story adaptations:

Todd’s dream Season 23

If you’re willing to let Todd into your head, why not try listening to his dream Season 23, the stories he wishes had been produced had the Hiatus never happened?

Fans of genuinely funny and brilliant radio comedy featuring wacky computers and morose robots will enjoy The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, particularly the first radio series. (Audible US) (Audible UK) (Audible AU)

Slipback’s two computer voices are played by Jane Carr, who plays bald Centauri alien Timov Moralli in a number of Babylon 5 episodes, including Soul Mates. She also plays Malcolm Reed’s mother on Enterprise. In that role, she actually has hair, which just goes to show how impressive her range is.

One of Slipback’s computer voices is hideously reminiscent of the presenter of the 1990s Australian children’s programme, Mulligrubs. Take a look here, if you dare.

Fans of the Planet of Women trope will enjoy the reference to the planet Cygnet XIV in the Star Trek episode Tomorrow is Yesterday, in which Captain Kirk is annoyed to find the Enterprise computer flirting with him after its overhaul at the hands of that planet’s engineers.

Whether you like it or not

We have only one (or four) stories left to cover in the Colin Baker era. And because we can’t bear to say goodbye to him so soon, we’re planning a Very Special Episode about some of Colin’s best Big Finish audios. To prepare for that episode, you might like to listen to these audio stories:

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 we’ll release a horrifying charity single berating you for failing to do so.

Bondfinger

Meanwhile, over at Bondfinger, we have finally arrived at the Rassilon Era, with Timothy Dalton’s first film as Bond, The Living Daylights.

Of course, we also have plenty of Rodgecasts online, and there are other Bonds available as well. You can keep up with all the Bondfinger news on Twitter and Facebook.

Episode 107: Don’t Do It Again, Todd · Duration 1:04:07 · Download · Open in new window

Big FinishSeason 23The Sixth Doctor