Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to James H about his choice of Arc of Infinity (2/4)

Transcript

Talks to James H about his choice of Arc of Infinity (2/4) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

• 0:33
  Hamster with a blunt. Pen knife for doing.
• 0:35
  Quicker, quicker, quicker to hamster with a blunt pen knife.
• 0:41
  And this is going to be episode two of Ark of Inanity.
• 0:47
  So Ark of Infinity and I cleaned that up a bit at the last
• 0:50
  minute. Ark of Anarchy?
• 0:54
  No Arse of Infinity. Oh, come on, we've had the gay
• 0:59
  porn scene, you know. I have been called the The Arse
• 1:02
  of Infinity many times. You know, we've had the gay porn
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  scene, we've had the commenting on someone's weapon, you know,
• 1:08
  and we've had three, we've had three chickens in there so far.
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  It's enormous. Don't worry about it.
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  It can all fit. So yes so far the the story so
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  far we'll do that kind of that terribly BBC thing that they did
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  before they previously on Doctor Who the TARDIS has been invaded
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  2 backpackers have invaded A crypt and crept out again when
• 1:36
  something crept in and one cracked himself.
• 1:42
  We've we've had some terribly, terribly informative in
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  Amsterdam scenery, and we've had the most 1980s set for
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  Gallifrey, which is straight out of habitat.
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  Forget IKEA. This was Gallifrey, the chintzy
• 2:00
  habitat Years. Budget, habitat, budget,
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  habitat. The TK Max, as you said, it's
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  the functional council offices and you know how much in
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  reality, you know, we're lucky they didn't decide it was the
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  Gallifrey equivalent of a Porter cabin.
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  That's very true, yeah, because we do get there with some
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  stories. So we've yet to have the
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  surprise returning character, though.
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  Who's that? The bitch on so the mouth on the
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  legs, you know. Oh, of course.
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  Oh, I don't think of her as a returning character because she
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  only left in the last story. The thing is, you know, but that
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  was the thing she left and is she now on the run from the
• 2:50
  police? What does she say?
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  That well, she turns up in Amsterdam, which is of course
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  kind of, you know, a well known place of morality, pureness and
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  everything. Not when I visited it was.
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  But I have a real again something that really I think
• 3:14
  kind of has not really been. I know there's the waters of
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  Amsterdam where we learned about the the affair that.
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  Tegan was fun. I like that one, yeah.
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  But there's one real big question that hangs over Tegan.
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  Why is she not in police custody?
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  What did she do wrong? Her aunt has gone missing.
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  She was the last person seen with her aunt.
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  She was then kind of, you know, involved in, you know, there was
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  a policeman killed. They've forgotten about all of
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  that. Not the police.
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  I mean the scriptwriters. And then she, you know,
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  depending upon when you think the different stories are set.
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  I mean, you know, this, according to Big Finish, is
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  officially 1983. The goalless is 1981 you.
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  Know she's been missing for what, two years?
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  Well, it depends when time flight is.
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  But basically, kind of like, you know, she didn't turn up for
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  work, her aunt went missing, a policeman died, And the last
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  person seen in conjunction with all of these was Tegan Giovanka.
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  And you know she she's very quick to get in that TARDIS at
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  the end of our. Really That's hardest at the
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  end. You know, I'm sorry, but that I
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  lost my job thing. Bullshit.
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  He never had the job. She is on the run from the
• 4:41
  police. She is murder.
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  That would have been our box past story of what we get as
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  well, you know. This is a police.
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  Chasing them around Amsterdam, that would have been great, but
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  I mean, it does raise the question, you know, depending
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  upon when time flight is set, you know, how did she even cope
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  when she got back? Because she would have lost her
• 5:00
  house. She would have been declared
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  missing, presumed dead, possibly because she's disappeared for
• 5:06
  however long. You know how long is it?
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  I can't. I can't remember if I've said
• 5:10
  two tells us how long it is since time flight.
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  But you know she lost her job. Or how did she even get her job
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  back, given that she never started it?
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  You know you never turned up on the first day.
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  Love me, aren't you? Unless you're in the Dean Doris,
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  you can't get away with not doing your job for literally a
• 5:26
  year and still get paid. And it's baffling that they are
• 5:30
  not thinking on this level at all in the 80s.
• 5:34
  They are in the new series when Rose chipped off and they, you
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  know, when she was gone we had all that thing about, you know,
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  Jesse putting dog Monk through Nicky's and all that, all of
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  that. But, and it's ripe to be picked
• 5:49
  as well. Isn't loves soap.
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  Yeah, it's baffling. It really is the fact that we
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  never had the revenge story where both Tegan and Nissa go
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  after the Master who's. Murdered.
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  Let's face it, the Master literally murdered 1/3 of the
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  universe. It was forgotten about within an
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  episode. It's there are no consequences
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  in a TU, is there? They should do a story where
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  basically kind of like the Doctors landed in that third of
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  the universe literally the day before it's due to be destroyed.
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  And it's like, you know, this frantic race against time before
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  every single thing around him is evaporated.
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  But no, that's completely forgotten, you know.
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  And I'm so programmed with this stuff that I never would have
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  thought of that until you brought it up about Dina's on
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  and everything. You know, it's just, again, it's
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  just this weird things as you say, it's kind of like here's a
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  carpet, let's sweep it under it really quickly you.
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  Know or just skipped over so we can get back to the
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  technobabble, You know, right? That was great.
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  We're about to enter criminals. What a great opening to episode
• 6:57
  2. Tegan.
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  We're about to encounter chickens.
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  And Tegan's cousin and his friend.
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  I'm sorry, I am going to try and defend the Ergon when we see him
• 7:13
  in full light. Oh wow.
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  Wow. I'd like to.
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  See you try going to hear it right.
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  Oh, great big rubber. Okay, I can't wait.
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  I can't. What's going to do the
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  countdown? You always.
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  Give me great new angles, you know, five.
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  But enough about Amsterdam anyway.
• 7:34
  Very satisfying angles. 321 let's go.
• 7:41
  This is a surprisingly. Good story to talk.
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  About isn't it all the time? You know, the ones that are sort
• 7:47
  of a bit naff are, yeah, I mean, because.
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  You can talk about the potential, Yeah.
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  And also, this is very much the kind of The Spirit of Mystery
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  Science Theater 3000, whatever it's called, where basically is
• 7:59
  people heckling old science fiction movies?
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  Yeah, like I many, many years ago, I don't.
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  Alex and Richards, if you, Alex Wilcock and Richard Flowers if
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  you listen to this, thank you for all those science fiction
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  nights you held. They were magnificent.
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  And, yes, thank you for giving me opportunity for when Joe
• 8:18
  Grant tells the Brigadier, oh, you can't might me piping up.
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  What did she call him? You'll notice, by the way, that
• 8:28
  the cliffhanger has been reedited.
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  Oh, no. It's kind of like, you know, oh,
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  there he is getting up. Look at Colin Vanco.
• 8:37
  He's just mildly disinterested, isn't it?
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  You can see him in that rehearsal room when J.
• 8:41
  And T when our twin went Look, what are they doing?
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  This isn't all about you, you know, Gallifreyan hairdressers.
• 8:49
  We've had Gallifreyan interior decorators.
• 8:52
  It's just, it's really telling, but actually kind of Even on
• 8:57
  Gallifrey, the women feel the need to have this really
• 9:00
  extravagant hairstyle. Off your hair.
• 9:03
  Yeah, yeah, right. And again, once more, we get
• 9:08
  this JNT determination to make the TARDIS not a safe space.
• 9:13
  He's now actually a prisoner in his TARDIS.
• 9:15
  Yeah, and it kind of works on Gallifrey, doesn't it?
• 9:18
  Because this is where the TARDIS came from, Yeah.
• 9:22
  Oh, he's removed the. Look at those round doors, all
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  lit up orange, and look at and. Actually that is an interesting
• 9:31
  component. Much better than that crap we
• 9:33
  saw behind the round wall. It's got weird, fluidy stuff in
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  it doesn't look like anything. It's that sofa from Time Lash
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  and also from Robots of Death from.
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  Like 7. You name it.
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  Now very important to notice they have actually ditched the
• 9:53
  colors. The colors are obviously their
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  ceremonial stuff. I mean, I meant to check the the
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  Deadly Assassin script because someone did say, and I don't
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  know if they're serious or not, that Robert Holmes envisaged
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  those colors to be kind of like the rarely seen ceremonial kind
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  of occasion stuff. And yet it's not.
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  Really. How they ended up is it?
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  But notice that now we're back to kind of everyday business.
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  They're not walking around in the collars.
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  It's only when they're actually doing the council business and
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  stuff like that. Do you know how they're trying
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  to sort of big up those sets with shitty bits of art on
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  Plimps? Oh.
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  Here she comes. Right.
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  And you can tell that we're running short on this episode
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  because this is now 2020 1/22/23.
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  Many seconds of a airplane landing.
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  I do like that there's not enough of this in the 80s.
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  There's not enough of contemporary Earth, no.
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  And and also say it is very nice that they've actually, you know,
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  it is very obviously properly filmed in Amsterdam.
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  It's not like the kind of the old 60s stuff where it's the
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  back projection and every single building in France overlooks the
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  Eiffel Tower, you know? She comes now, looking a bit
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  shifty. If if the detective is behind
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  her, oh, she's got the holdles she's got, you know, and yeah,
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  actually, I mean, I quite like the the jacket that doesn't have
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  the lapels, you know, I think. That's a terrible It's a much
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  better look than her purple uniform.
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  It's amazing. She feels like a human being
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  now. She, and she's got the, she's
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  got a better hairstyle, you know, basically she's changed
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  her appearance to get away from the police.
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  But irritatingly, she does wear this for the next sort of four
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  or five stories, doesn't she? Only the booby tuby bitch.
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  She doesn't wear the jacket over the top, which probably would
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  have would have prevented the spillage, you know?
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  I mean, you know. The second story on the trot as
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  well, where we've been wandering around an airport, isn't it?
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  I swear J&T is trying to get those Air Miles for free or duty
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  free. I love Colin so much he could
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  enliven any scene and he, you know, he's got the experience of
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  the baddie from the brothers, you know, he plays it as a
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  bastard, you know. That glorious story tells in the
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  commentary about Paul Jericho asking him to go and get get him
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  a drink, and he goes and gets sick because he thinks he's, you
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  know, some lowly member of the production crew.
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  And then when he realizes he's one of the.
• 12:34
  Principal actors in it. And again, you criticize the
• 12:39
  cafe thing, but why shouldn't a cafe look like anything other
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  than a cafe? I just expect more.
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  I I expect more because it's Gallifrey and I've been.
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  I've been led up the garden path.
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  I think this is to think. Of it as this great citadel, you
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  know, impressive technology. I think this is the curse of
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  fandom from the 70s, where we've been told what Gallifrey is,
• 13:04
  where we've been told this, that and the other about the Time
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  Lords without any thought given to the practicality, the
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  reality, the likelihood, you know, basically kind of, you
• 13:16
  know. You say it's champagne tastes
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  and beer money. Yeah, I know.
• 13:22
  But like, weirdly enough, contrasting the Gallifreyan Cafe
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  and the Amsterdam Cafe, I'll know which one looks more
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  believable. And again, we're now back into
• 13:34
  the calls because this is now a formal interrogation.
• 13:37
  Yeah, they they there is a little bit of kind of, you know,
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  logic about when the colors are on and when they're not.
• 13:44
  They're talking about Ramada now.
• 13:45
  Yeah, we're doing a deep dive into continuity, but notice they
• 13:50
  don't mention Lila and her boy toy Rodan.
• 13:58
  Wouldn't that be great if it was Lila?
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  I mind you, I think Andred is pretty cute as well.
• 14:03
  Christopher Lilly? Crap, no.
• 14:04
  Christopher Trancher, rather, yeah.
• 14:06
  Yeah. I when I first watched this,
• 14:10
  yeah, I knew without anyone telling me anything because I
• 14:14
  didn't really know much about the background of this story
• 14:16
  that Michael Goff was the villain just because he was the
• 14:18
  most amiable of the bunch and you just know straight away if
• 14:21
  anyone's over friendly it's it's again it's a cliche you know
• 14:26
  it's kind of like you know anyone who is you know friendly
• 14:31
  right. Important question What the fuck
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  is Barussa doing to get through his regeneration so quickly?
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  This is his third appearance in his third body.
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  It's not talked about that much, is it?
• 14:43
  We get all these iterations of and then there's a fourth, isn't
• 14:46
  there in the Five Doctors, the Five Doctors.
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  And no one seems to kind of question it, comment on it, I
• 14:52
  think. Isn't there a comment on it in
• 14:55
  Invasion of Time where they say your recent regeneration has not
• 15:00
  improved yours? Something like that.
• 15:01
  Yeah, something like that. But basically kind of like, you
• 15:05
  know, given how quickly these those three stories are set and
• 15:08
  five dogs. I mean, we we thought the doctor
• 15:11
  got through. The Doctor lasts longer.
• 15:15
  And he's hearing around the. Having death defying adventures?
• 15:18
  What has Barussa been getting up to?
• 15:21
  I mean, I refuse. I'm surprised that novel hasn't
• 15:23
  been written, you know, or that Big Finish audio, you know?
• 15:26
  I refuse to believe it's all Death Zone related, because at
• 15:30
  this stage I can't even see him as being the Death Zone Barussa,
• 15:34
  you know. And I've heard people say like
• 15:36
  the characterization is inconsistent because in Deadly
• 15:39
  Assassin is like the disapproving mentor in Invasion
• 15:44
  of Time. They've got a really lovely
• 15:47
  relationship in that. And then here I just don't see
• 15:51
  any connection between the two of them at all in this story.
• 15:53
  By the way, interesting. Again proof that time laws can
• 15:58
  grow facial hair, so his shoot he going to kind of be born with
• 16:03
  his Tash. In that case, was Barussa born
• 16:06
  with that Tash? And in that case, why the hell
• 16:09
  didn't he shave it off as soon as he?
• 16:13
  What are we supposed to take from all of this?
• 16:16
  Can bonding occur without the full imprint of bioscan?
• 16:20
  Like, this is so boring. It is the The thing is again
• 16:25
  here they've got 25 minutes and they were allocated 4 episodes.
• 16:29
  They could have done Arc of Infinity as a three episode
• 16:32
  story and tighten these scenes up a lot.
• 16:36
  But they're talking about the Doctors like they're talking
• 16:38
  about murdering the Doctor. How could they possibly boil
• 16:41
  that down to such a mundane level?
• 16:43
  Because this is Gallifrey. Because Gallifrey doesn't do
• 16:46
  exciting. But it's still TV.
• 16:49
  This is why actually going back to Gallifrey is a.
• 16:53
  Bad story is because Salafrey is not by nature an exciting place.
• 17:01
  And this is worth her weight in gold in these things because
• 17:03
  she's the only one injecting any Yeah, when she goes to 1.
• 17:05
  So much for your justice. Like she stepped.
• 17:09
  Out of a period drama, she waves, guns around and yeah.
• 17:12
  That's fat. I love those bits.
• 17:15
  Lovely continuity with the Guards uniforms, by the way.
• 17:19
  Yeah, well, they probably have them in storage.
• 17:21
  I hope so. You know, I I it makes me wonder
• 17:27
  kind of how much for planning they do and they put things into
• 17:30
  storage. I'm sorry, Colin Baker left
• 17:33
  there with a swish of his Cape. He steals everything, yeah.
• 17:41
  What do you think? Of Colin Stocks are He Is
• 17:47
  Magnificent. On Big Finish, I worship his
• 17:50
  comic strips, and I think he is. I think he was the first one
• 17:57
  where they attempted to do a story character arc of him
• 18:02
  gradually humanizing the same way.
• 18:05
  The kind of we saw what happened to the 10th Doctor when he
• 18:08
  didn't have a human around him. And I I really, genuinely think
• 18:13
  that if we had the proper, originally planned Season 23, we
• 18:18
  would have seen the mellowing, we would have seen the
• 18:21
  development. And I think that's the problem
• 18:24
  with Season 22 is it's a character arc that gets cut off
• 18:28
  and changed. You know what's weird is,
• 18:30
  between mind warp and terror, the verve voice, that kind of
• 18:34
  softening entirely takes place and suddenly he's this lovely,
• 18:37
  cuddly, funny Doctor. It's just, you know, he was very
• 18:42
  badly treated. I think he could have been an
• 18:46
  amazing Doctor in terms of character development,
• 18:51
  personality development, eccentricity.
• 18:55
  I mean, you gotta remember that the Doctor is not human, you
• 18:58
  know? He is a Time Lord.
• 18:59
  Why should he be compassionate? Why should he be this, that and
• 19:03
  the other? He embodies that sort of
• 19:05
  alienist, doesn't he? Yeah, he's you gotta.
• 19:09
  Watch this to see that you know, once he plays the Doctor, all
• 19:12
  eyes will be on him, yeah? Because, you know, I mean, I did
• 19:17
  say as well about Davidson, like giving a good performance in
• 19:20
  this, but you put him in a scene with Colin Baker, you ain't
• 19:23
  looking at Davidson. And actually that guard we just
• 19:26
  saw was quite cute. I.
• 19:27
  Noticed that earlier, you know I didn't want I've said so many
• 19:31
  pervy things in this now I just didn't want add another to the
• 19:34
  list. Yeah.
• 19:37
  You know this, this is prototype trial of the time of you can see
• 19:40
  where the the physical layout of the courtroom and everything
• 19:43
  comes in. You know, the Gallifreyans are
• 19:47
  static. They are dull.
• 19:49
  They are. They are not passionate people.
• 19:52
  You know what these scenes are very like?
• 19:55
  Keep her track and people sitting around debating things.
• 19:58
  I believe that was also read written by Johnny Burns.
• 20:00
  Yeah. Would you say they've done a bit
• 20:04
  of a glass shot there? Did you notice that?
• 20:06
  That's just to give the ceiling a bit of height.
• 20:10
  Oh, I like this fellow. What's his name?
• 20:13
  Damon. Yeah, he's nice.
• 20:15
  The one thing that really bugs me is that they've gone with two
• 20:20
  shades of beige for his, for his outfit.
• 20:24
  He's a great, he's a lovely character.
• 20:26
  He's a friendly. You can actually almost see him
• 20:28
  as kind of if Tegan hadn't come back, he could have been a cop.
• 20:31
  In They Keep, you know in the 80s they keep doing this almost
• 20:37
  would be male companions because I think Chayla in Snake Dolls
• 20:40
  would have been a great companion as well.
• 20:43
  It's it's like J&T's auditioning a certain type.
• 20:47
  And you watch Season 22, there's somebody in every single story.
• 20:51
  You know John Darr, Luke Ward and Herbert and if one of Sill's
• 20:56
  muscled leather bound. Please, S&M would.
• 21:01
  If they had joined the TARDIS, I would not have complained.
• 21:04
  Absolutely beautiful. Never stop watching.
• 21:10
  And Hedy was the one person who said, can't we delay the
• 21:12
  execution? Guilty.
• 21:14
  It's him. But as I said, you know, they
• 21:18
  haven't disguised the voice because Hedden wouldn't have
• 21:21
  disguised his voice. So we've kind of, you know,
• 21:23
  we've got those clues. But as you say, the clues are in
• 21:25
  the dialogue, you know, it's not actually, you know, a complete
• 21:30
  completely based on the cliche. There are hints and everything.
• 21:36
  Oh, you can withdraw. If you try and lose yourself in
• 21:41
  the corridors of the Tardis, my men will hunt you down.
• 21:44
  So they're going for a bit of drama.
• 21:46
  Do you know what? We haven't actually talked about
• 21:48
  the direction and it is very static.
• 21:52
  But the trouble is, again, when we're talking about time laws, I
• 21:55
  mean, he's in a bloody skirt. Is it the first gender fluid
• 22:01
  that we've had in? I think Damon.
• 22:03
  Is as well, isn't he? That's what I mean.
• 22:05
  That's Damon. Is is.
• 22:06
  Oh. But so is Michael Goff.
• 22:08
  Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, it's like, yeah, the
• 22:11
  costumes are quite telling, you know?
• 22:15
  They are very enlightened people when it comes to gender,
• 22:18
  actually. Gender and gender roles and
• 22:21
  everything don't necessarily mean what they do to humans, you
• 22:26
  know? Do you see those crystals coming
• 22:28
  out of Michael Goff's head? He looks like a rhinoceros and
• 22:32
  again some lovely touches with the the furniture in the
• 22:35
  background, you know? Did you know it's Missus skirt
• 22:38
  from Black Orchid was on the Yeah J&T.
• 22:43
  When he does continuity, when he does kind of little touches,
• 22:48
  they do them so well. But instead of doing little
• 22:52
  touches like which costumes are on, do big touches like Tegan
• 22:56
  eventually in the death of her own, like I put put your
• 22:59
  attention in the right place. But unfortunately, I think, like
• 23:02
  when you're your old geek, a young geek, it's those little
• 23:08
  details that you probably want more.
• 23:09
  Oh my God, that was from Black Orchid, you know.
• 23:12
  Yeah, I mean when Turlow arrives in Morden and then he takes over
• 23:17
  Adric's room, I mean basically it's almost like you should
• 23:19
  freeze frame that shot and kind of have the pop up video type
• 23:23
  kind of. Here's the star chart from
• 23:25
  Here's the Kinder necklace on here.
• 23:27
  And you know, you can chart those triangular walls going
• 23:31
  right back to the mutants, yes. But I mean, yeah, you say it's
• 23:37
  very static direction, but do. You think the story doesn't
• 23:42
  massively kind of have scenes on Gallifrey where you know, you
• 23:49
  require huge amounts of, kind of.
• 23:51
  It's only an episode 4 where it suddenly turns into the
• 23:54
  runaround that you actually need.
• 23:57
  You know the high, high energy direction.
• 24:01
  I think it's kind of quite static there as well.
• 24:04
  Everyone. If he does a lot of long shots
• 24:06
  running from, that's why I'm justifying it for episodes 1-2
• 24:09
  and three. But you know, but then our
• 24:11
  question why would you put this script at the beginning of a
• 24:15
  season with long wordy? The whole scene, So that doesn't
• 24:18
  require any kind of dynamism. What would have been amazing is
• 24:24
  if they had done say A2 part opening where it was just the
• 24:29
  Doctor and Nissa where they held Tegan back till the second
• 24:34
  story. So you could have a kind of a a
• 24:38
  big high-powered opening which wasn't dominated by Janet
• 24:43
  Fielding who dominates every bloody thing she does.
• 24:45
  Could she please shut her goddamn bloody mouth on behind
• 24:49
  the sofa and let the other two speak for once?
• 24:52
  The only person that could get a word in his Wendy Papri.
• 24:55
  And she's. Insulting her the whole time,
• 24:57
  Sarah Sutton I think could be absolutely amazing on Behind the
• 25:01
  sofa. She has her moments.
• 25:03
  You know, I was watching it with Nathan and he was saying Sarah
• 25:06
  Sutton is making genuine, like critique on what they're
• 25:09
  watching. And that's what I would like to
• 25:11
  hear from her. I don't want Janet Fielding's
• 25:13
  constant bitching. Please Janet, when you do Season
• 25:17
  22, Season 21 or you do Season 20, could you hold back on the
• 25:23
  bitching and let the others speak?
• 25:27
  And the biggest, the biggest problem is she's always got a
• 25:29
  negative bend to what she's saying.
• 25:31
  So she's never sort of coming at this stuff positively.
• 25:34
  What it sadly reminds me of is it reminds me of The X Factor,
• 25:40
  who got it from things like opportunity knocks, where you've
• 25:43
  got the three judges judging the variety act and they've got
• 25:46
  their roles and one of them has to be the bitch.
• 25:49
  One of them has to be the baddie.
• 25:51
  And so, and that particular sofa, Peter, Sarah and Janet,
• 25:56
  they're too playing to their roles.
• 25:59
  But when you get people like Matthew Waterhouse, who is very
• 26:04
  knowledgeable and very literate and seriously, he's.
• 26:09
  Such a small bloke, when I went to my last convention, he was
• 26:13
  the most interesting person to listen to, who do the things
• 26:17
  like the Paradise Towers comics and Omega and stuff like that
• 26:20
  they've done. They do commentaries for Classic
• 26:23
  who as part of their value added packages.
• 26:26
  Matthew Waterhouse has done some and he is brilliant.
• 26:28
  Let Matthew Waterhouse speak. You know, he knows his stuff
• 26:33
  like, OK, interesting lighting effects on the TARDIS.
• 26:36
  We've got green lighting inside the TARDIS house.
• 26:39
  And again, you know, we've actually got an attempt to start
• 26:43
  making things that look like Gallifrey and technology.
• 26:48
  I you know that shot at the start with the wires and
• 26:51
  everything is just so misjudged. But it, I mean attack of the
• 26:55
  sidemen is awful for it. When when Colin is doing things
• 27:00
  with the roundel and it's circuit boards, it's the inside
• 27:03
  of a piece, isn't it? They bought some random circuit
• 27:05
  boards and shoved them behind the roundels.
• 27:08
  I don't know these these vacuum plastic form guns.
• 27:12
  They look so cheap. But again, we're judging it kind
• 27:16
  of, you know, as a visual thing. Why should guns look kind of,
• 27:22
  you know? Or it is called television.
• 27:26
  I'm I'm trying to approach this from kind of you know an in
• 27:30
  story perspective you know we. Why would they need to make
• 27:34
  something showy when it does the job?
• 27:37
  I get what you're saying. This is, this is, this is one of
• 27:39
  the things I think kind of again, science fiction over does
• 27:45
  it over does the glitz, the glamour and the kind of, you
• 27:49
  know. We've come to expect it now as
• 27:51
  well. That's the problem We've been
• 27:52
  with Pavlovian, You know, we we're trying to salivate as soon
• 27:56
  as we see something flashing, flashing lights.
• 28:04
  It's not the real world. I mean you you look at, I mean,
• 28:07
  I'm surrounded by P C's and technology.
• 28:09
  None of them have got big flashing lights on.
• 28:11
  They're just boring screens, you know?
• 28:13
  Okay, there's one. One is showing off Infinity.
• 28:15
  I've got you on one is. I don't think I need the bags of
• 28:20
  whistles. I just need something that sort
• 28:22
  of excites my eyes creatively, but actually.
• 28:26
  Because a lot of Classic who does it doesn't, but a lot of
• 28:29
  classic who does. And again, if you think of, I
• 28:30
  mean approaching it from the the kind of the functionality and
• 28:34
  the science point of view, you just saw Nissa changing the
• 28:37
  setting on the dial. That's a really nice touch.
• 28:40
  Oh, no, because. She changed it from stun to
• 28:44
  kill. I've got the the new special
• 28:47
  effects on and yeah, the guards kind of have a glowy effect
• 28:50
  around them when they're. Shot.
• 28:54
  But again, real pomposity. They still feel the need to have
• 28:58
  parchment. You know, there's actually a
• 29:02
  real effort made to show just how stale and and static
• 29:06
  Gallofran society is. Can I say after watching the
• 29:10
  coronation of King Charles recently, I feel as if we're
• 29:13
  sort of following in their footsteps, stuck in the past.
• 29:18
  The the, the zombie slave, by the way.
• 29:21
  Him standing there with his head slightly to one side.
• 29:24
  Again, this is the era of Day of the Dead and Dawn of the Dead
• 29:29
  and stuff like that. I mean, yeah, he's.
• 29:31
  It is so influenced by the zombie movies.
• 29:34
  It is unbelievable even kind of like that kind of vacant stare
• 29:38
  in the eyes, you know, it's kind of.
• 29:41
  So do you think maybe like the the it's the juxtaposition That
• 29:46
  is awkward here because on the one hand you've got yeah, okay,
• 29:48
  someone being possessed and a monster and Dark Crips, and on
• 29:53
  the other hand you've got politics in conference rooms.
• 29:57
  And we're sort of going back and forth between the two in a very
• 30:00
  awkward way. And I think kind of that's, you
• 30:03
  know, the the problem is because it is Gallifrey, it would be
• 30:10
  unheard of for them to do this to the Doctor without
• 30:13
  pontificating, right? This cliffhanger really upset me
• 30:19
  when I saw it first time around. Omega by the way, actually in
• 30:24
  positive, not in negative. We got again, we got some
• 30:28
  control. OK, I'll save the Ergon comments
• 30:30
  episode 3 when the Ergon is, is more visible because I do want
• 30:34
  to defend the Ergon. OK.
• 30:36
  We've got the the dry eyes we got seen we got some in the new
• 30:39
  effects the kind of the the glowy sort of thing the kind of
• 30:44
  pulse of life and everything. And yeah, they actually kind of
• 30:48
  do go out of their way to make it look like shit.
• 30:50
  They've actually killed the doctor.
• 30:53
  Yeah, I like all the dry ice pumping down.
• 30:55
  Yeah, the the Omegle effect on top of the ice is really active
• 31:01
  and actually look at that, you know, it's pumping it down.
• 31:06
  Quite a big set as well, yeah. You know, they've gone out of
• 31:05
  their way to make. And I love Nissa's reaction.
• 31:10
  He's crying. He's going to cry.
• 31:12
  Yeah, that's really great. This.
• 31:14
  That is a good cliffhanger, yeah.
• 31:17
  And I think, you know, again, in Season 19, they made Nissa too
• 31:23
  much of a bit of a cold, compassionate scientist because
• 31:27
  you got Tegan domineering everything.
• 31:29
  I think if Tegan hadn't been so all powerful, if they hadn't
• 31:34
  made the season 19 arc of the Tegan arc, Nissa would have been
• 31:39
  a much more kind of valued companion.
• 31:42
  Watch her in snake dance cuz Tegan's out the way in Snake
• 31:46
  Dance and it's a great script for Nissa.
• 31:49
  Look at how strong she is in those final scenes where she
• 31:51
  comes in. She waves the gunner.
• 31:53
  She knows who to point to that she's got spirit.
• 31:56
  Do you know what I always say as well?
• 31:57
  You know the bit in the minute where she's?
• 31:59
  I hope you know what you've done.
• 32:01
  I always think to myself, why the hell didn't they do a period
• 32:04
  drama with Nisa in it? I don't.
• 32:06
  Not talking about Black Orchid, because she would have been.
• 32:08
  Sarah Sutton was made to do that sort of story.
• 32:11
  And when they do historicals, the Big Finish, like the
• 32:13
  Peterloo Massacre. I don't know if you heard that
• 32:16
  one. I've heard them all, yeah.
• 32:17
  She has a cliffhanger where. Somebody dies and she reacts to
• 32:21
  somebody's death in a very sort of period drama.
• 32:24
  Why is her acting is fantastic. I know Sarah Sutton gave up
• 32:29
  acting for all kinds of reasons. I wish she hadn't.
• 32:33
  I think Sarah Sutton could have gone on to have been a much
• 32:36
  bigger star. I maintain she's the strongest
• 32:39
  regular in terms of acting in the gave us an era, yeah.
• 32:44
  People think I'm mad when I'll say that because because I think
• 32:46
  all anyone sees is Janet Fielding and this, this is the
• 32:49
  real problem with. And I don't, I don't know if
• 32:52
  it's Janet Fielding or if it's Tegan.
• 32:55
  I mean my my problem is when Janet came back to do the audios
• 33:00
  on a more regular basis and she did that.
• 33:02
  She did Joe list as one, as a one off.
• 33:05
  And then, of course, a few years later, she came back for the
• 33:07
  kind of the olderness of Arc and everything you can tell that the
• 33:12
  writers have been told to make Janet the lead companion.
• 33:18
  Because yes. But I do think there's a shift.
• 33:21
  She's written with a lot of humor and yeah.
• 33:24
  And that's what I really quite joy her on the way.
• 33:26
  That's what's missing from Season 19 and why.
• 33:30
  She's funny in any of and it in some ways it's why that mini
• 33:36
  season the Big finish jars because suddenly you know it's
• 33:43
  really weird and I mean the whole I mean don't get me
• 33:48
  started on kind of what they do and don't and undo and maybe due
• 33:53
  to the death of Adric stuff. I mean that's just such a
• 33:56
  classified. The Scorpion King, yeah.
• 34:00
  And then suddenly he is actually dead after all, in The Lost
• 34:05
  Resort, which takes place after the boy that time forgotten.
• 34:10
  Yeah, I'd. I've not forgiven Big Finish for
• 34:12
  that. I think that was a big mistake.
• 34:15
  But I think where like Janet Fielding shines is in stories
• 34:19
  like Time in Office, where she's like the power behind the throne
• 34:23
  of Gallifrey after the Doctor takes up the presidency after
• 34:26
  $5. And she's so funny.
• 34:28
  I didn't say it's in some ways it's a shame that kind of Janet
• 34:31
  hasn't been on Gallifrey yet. But in other ways, yeah, he's
• 34:35
  giving Sarah Sutton the the chance to shine.
• 34:42
  Yeah. I mean, I don't.
• 34:45
  I would like to think that occasionally people like Janet
• 34:49
  or Colin will ever listen to various fan podcasts.
• 34:54
  If you are listening, Colin, you are magnificent.
• 34:57
  Janet, if you are listening, just let the others speak.
• 35:01
  If this makes its way to you, you are magnificent.
• 35:04
  Please come back to acting.