Latest / Mythmakers / The Dr Who Episode: Steve Cole and MG Harris - Part 2

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The Dr Who Episode: Steve Cole and MG Harris - Part 2 · Mythmakers

• 0:00
  So the night's structure only did one series, didn't he? Is that right?
• 0:09
  He did.
• 0:10
  And that was partly because he felt he had an acting career to get back to.
• 0:14
  I understand, you know, that he was a dangerous like being James Bond.
• 0:17
  You get kind of stuck.
• 0:19
  And so, am I right in thinking that's the reason he left?
• 0:23
  Yes, I mean, it just decided that he would, you know,
• 0:26
  it was in a way he came in and he did what was needed.
• 0:29
  He got locked back up.
• 0:31
  He made it that much more modern and exciting.
• 0:35
  And yeah, and had other things, you know, he wanted to do it for him.
• 0:38
  It was I think it was a very big change.
• 0:39
  He hadn't played that kind of family friendly, more straightforward hero.
• 0:45
  And although he had to portray a lot of dark elements because he's a survivor of the great time war in this situation of the program.
• 0:55
  And yeah, I think he was, it was decided that it would be good for them to reestablish the format and then widen it up further.
• 1:04
  And then somewhere in the casting room, I don't know who he's charged of casting, you might know somebody had the absolutely brilliant idea of replacing him with David Tennant who before this had been known.
• 1:17
  He'd been in a program called Casanova, I think, just prior.
• 1:22
  David's road, so that's the answer to the question of the casting culture.
• 1:26
  Right.
• 1:28
  And he seemed to solidify that success.
• 1:34
  And I think if the modern era, he's most often thought of as everybody's favorite doctor.
• 1:39
  I think it on a poll of the public that picked him.
• 1:43
  So what would you say MG was your feeling about the David Tennant doctor? What did you think he was like?
• 1:50
  He's not my favorite to be honest, but he's, you know, he's one of the favorites.
• 1:56
  But paradoxically, I think most of my favorite episodes are in his era.
• 2:02
  He was just a bit too cocky for me.
• 2:06
  There's an episode that I really like where his cockiness just goes and he's actually in fear of his life and he doesn't save the day in that episode.
• 2:16
  And I really like him then.
• 2:18
  You know, I like him when he's when he's not so cocky anymore when he's actually having to kind of be completely sincere.
• 2:25
  That's that's an episode called Midnight.
• 2:29
  So I really, really like him in that episode.
• 2:31
  And there's some other episodes where I really, really like him.
• 2:33
  But his kind of little, it's just personally to me.
• 2:36
  I don't, I don't love his kind of cocky sides all the time.
• 2:39
  It gets a bit much.
• 2:40
  He's a bit cheeky chap.
• 2:42
  But even, even saying that he's still like in my top five, I would say.
• 2:49
  For me, I think what worked and I didn't think it would work is a doctor actually having a romantic relationship with the Billy Piper character.
• 3:02
  And seeing that side of him, I think, was, was new.
• 3:07
  And I think it meant that when they get parted, there was a genuinely emotional parting of the companion then.
• 3:15
  He's always emotional.
• 3:16
  He's always sad, you know, to leave him right.
• 3:19
  But that one had much more, well, in my view, the way I read that is I felt it had less of a melancholy and more of a sacrifice.
• 3:28
  Yeah, yeah.
• 3:29
  And that's one of the things I least liked, to be honest, was that kind of where he'd regeneration episode where he just can't let go.
• 3:35
  That's personal though, but you know, I wasn't used to seeing the doctor like that.
• 3:40
  Just so kind of emotional.
• 3:42
  I'm like, I don't want to die.
• 3:45
  It's just tough isn't she?
• 3:47
  I know, I think I've got this great.
• 3:48
  Yeah, that's a, that's a huge episode.
• 3:50
  That one because it's got, we've got Dalek's fighting cyber men, which is keeping all the.
• 3:54
  It's a bit of everything, but the kitchen sink that one isn't.
• 3:57
  It's all going on in it.
• 3:58
  But yeah, somehow the all hit home with that final sacrifice, you just say that, you know, you have to have to let go of the person you love to save the universe.
• 4:06
  And then, yeah, I think I was, I was in floods watching watching that one after that.
• 4:11
  Then I was used to doctor who make him in crime.
• 4:14
  And then I've tried to think of the name of the next companion with him.
• 4:18
  It was Martha.
• 4:19
  Martha, that's right.
• 4:20
  I'm coming across as such and know it all on this.
• 4:22
  I'm very sorry.
• 4:23
  This is why you're here.
• 4:24
  This is why you're here.
• 4:25
  You're triggering.
• 4:26
  I've been saying to you, I'm not such an incredible effort.
• 4:28
  You know, I've kind of watched almost all the doctor who really liked it and particularly noted out about some episodes and some areas.
• 4:35
  But I do not have the insecurity that I know you have.
• 4:38
  Oh, I sometimes I just hear myself.
• 4:42
  This is when your knowledge is, is wanted.
• 4:47
  So feel, feel good.
• 4:49
  And the Martha companion I felt was less successful because she had a kind of unrequited element to her.
• 4:55
  But she does get to be in one of my favorite of all time episodes, which is the Shakespeare one.
• 5:01
  I love the Shakespeare one.
• 5:03
  It was silly, but also huge fun.
• 5:05
  I just really enjoyed that because it brought together all sort of wonderful.
• 5:10
  If you know your Shakespeare, but also if you know your Harry Potter, there's all sorts of little Easter eggs in there for you.
• 5:16
  Great fun.
• 5:17
  And then is it after that we get Donna.
• 5:19
  That's right.
• 5:20
  Yeah.
• 5:21
  So Donna, pay by Catherine Tate.
• 5:23
  That was a, I think they did a successful thing there because.
• 5:29
  Having the older woman who basically tells him.
• 5:32
  It is the answer.
• 5:33
  She's the answer to his cockiness.
• 5:35
  Because she basically sort of says that all, you know, stop being so silly a lot of the time.
• 5:41
  So that was great fun.
• 5:43
  It really came across as being really great friends.
• 5:45
  And I think that that was really loving at that point because it felt like the immense thing needed to be put on the back burner after the rose in the market.
• 5:53
  As you say, fancying in but not getting anything back, I think having the two of them.
• 5:57
  Just as a couple of mates running through time and space and you know it didn't stop the emotional stuff because you know there's a very affecting story and in Donna's run called turn left where we find out what would happen if she.
• 6:08
  She hadn't got the doctor and it gets very dark and you know it's.
• 6:12
  It's burnt a crib and that makes me cry.
• 6:14
  You know, I mean it's like it's a wonderful, wonderful story.
• 6:18
  And yeah, Donna is hilarious, but of course it was a very tragic when when she has to.
• 6:25
  Has to leave the program because she has to forget the doctor and.
• 6:30
  If she does remember him.
• 6:32
  Yeah, exactly so it feels like there's some conclusion coming with the other stories coming up so that's good.
• 6:39
  We'll discover just how.
• 6:42
  She and the doctor get back together and and what's in store.
• 6:46
  And then we moved to the Matt Smith era and I mentioned to like the Peter Davidson choice they've got they went young.
• 6:52
  With Matt Smith.
• 6:54
  I think it was helped by the fact that Matt Smith has.
• 6:57
  A bit like Benedict Cumberbatch has got a very distinctive different kind of face.
• 7:01
  So even though he's young, he felt as though he could be Doctor who.
• 7:04
  Yes, there's something really little alien about him.
• 7:07
  Yeah, and the old man and the young man's body.
• 7:09
  I mean, this is the thing is obviously there's a doctor's going with the casting.
• 7:12
  The actual character himself is getting older and older and.
• 7:15
  I think Matt Smith's doctor eventually dies of.
• 7:18
  Regenerates from old age, you know, he's been around for so long ironically.
• 7:21
  But yes, he's, you know, I think you had that wonderful ungainly alien sense you say and.
• 7:27
  And a really interesting energy that he brought.
• 7:30
  To the character also see quickly increases in confidence as he goes along because it was a huge.
• 7:36
  Huge as part on TV really and to go to.
• 7:39
  Someone relatively unknown and young like that.
• 7:42
  It was a genius piece of casting.
• 7:44
  And there was a great.
• 7:48
  His regeneration episode, I think it's called the hour.
• 7:51
  It's wonderful, certainly wonderful.
• 7:53
  Yes, introduction of a new companion as well.
• 7:57
  I think one of my favorite ones in that is the one with James Corden.
• 8:00
  The one where he's the.
• 8:01
  The larger.
• 8:02
  The larger.
• 8:03
  I think it's just such a wonderful.
• 8:06
  Yeah, that was really very, very funny.
• 8:08
  Yes, turning a little craigs life upside down.
• 8:12
  And we got Amy.
• 8:14
  And I forget the name of her husband.
• 8:18
  Roy.
• 8:19
  So that was nice.
• 8:21
  I'm a married couple and sort of follow that arc.
• 8:23
  It was a bit different.
• 8:24
  And then we've got.
• 8:26
  Who comes next?
• 8:28
  Clara.
• 8:29
  Clara.
• 8:30
  I'll start around for quite a long time.
• 8:32
  I mean, my dog will get excited because her name is Clara.
• 8:35
  And because my my children named her after after the companion.
• 8:38
  That's.
• 8:39
  Up and down.
• 8:40
  I think one of the things which I had a problem with with Clara is they kind of try to make her
• 8:47
  the most important thing in the universe.
• 8:50
  I.
• 8:51
  I struggled with that bit.
• 8:53
  But anyway, with Rose as well, right?
• 8:55
  Because Rose was.
• 8:56
  Yeah, they did.
• 8:57
  You're right.
• 8:58
  So that, you know, they had formed that.
• 8:59
  And I think to be honest that that.
• 9:01
  That was probably an important evolution in Doctor Who that, you know.
• 9:07
  That you don't.
• 9:08
  Just have.
• 9:09
  These randos who get picked up and travel around with the doctor.
• 9:12
  But there's a reason that they're picked, if you like.
• 9:14
  Right.
• 9:15
  There is there is a inherent, you know, kind of.
• 9:17
  It's not just random who he is, who he is hooking up with.
• 9:21
  You know, in a platonic sense, obviously.
• 9:24
  And what.
• 9:25
  And what's river song that character introduced already?
• 9:28
  Or was this a match?
• 9:29
  It was introduced in an episode with David Tennant, which is one of my favourites as well.
• 9:33
  I think silence in the library.
• 9:35
  This is where they're doing the time travel's wife storyline.
• 9:38
  And they so they have.
• 9:39
  Have you read the time travel's lines about this kind of a time travel.
• 9:42
  Who.
• 9:43
  Who meets his good wife on different order.
• 9:45
  So they do that.
• 9:46
  They have river song.
• 9:47
  The first.
• 9:48
  She meets David Tennant.
• 9:49
  And so he's like, oh, you're very young.
• 9:51
  Let's do diaries.
• 9:52
  And she realized he's never met her before.
• 9:54
  And then she realizes that she's coming to the end of her life.
• 9:57
  Because she knew that, you know.
• 9:58
  The last time she meets him is the first time he meets her.
• 10:01
  It's amazing.
• 10:03
  It's amazing episode on my favourites.
• 10:05
  So lovely to have you.
• 10:06
  His reaction.
• 10:07
  His reaction to her is just wonderful to be watched that performance by Tennant.
• 10:10
  He's, you know, the beginning.
• 10:11
  He's a bit like shrieked out because of what she's touching him and looking at him.
• 10:14
  And then he begins to become more comfortable with it, you know,
• 10:17
  especially after he shares some information with her.
• 10:20
  But he, you know.
• 10:22
  So she shares some information with him that proves how much he trusts her in the future.
• 10:26
  And Donna is amazing in that episode too, because she sees this dynamic.
• 10:30
  And she's watching, but not like a jealous, not like she's jealous,
• 10:33
  but like she's like she's his sister or his mom or something like.
• 10:36
  Who is this woman?
• 10:37
  Who is she to you?
• 10:38
  And then, of course, she realizes, hang on, you know him in the future.
• 10:41
  But you don't know me.
• 10:42
  Why?
• 10:43
  There's any sort of, yeah, lovely, lovely touches.
• 10:47
  Oh, no.
• 10:48
  Because the character was created by Stephen Moffett.
• 10:50
  And then Stephen Moffett takes over show running duties from Rosalty Davis at the start of the Mats Mithiro.
• 10:55
  So she kind of comes back because obviously he's, you know,
• 10:58
  and he felt that she had a lot of potential to see those,
• 11:01
  uh, what for her earlier experiences meeting the doctor,
• 11:05
  which will the doctor, I'm obviously a currently.
• 11:08
  And you also feel like it's promised to you at the end of the episodes,
• 11:11
  you know, you've got all this great stuff to look forward to this and that and the other.
• 11:15
  She gives all these details and you're like, oh, we're going to see this.
• 11:18
  And sure enough.
• 11:20
  I'm sure in the next several years it happens.
• 11:23
  And is it at this time we've also just so we're keeping our,
• 11:26
  our timeline in, in, in, in, in step that some of the spin off series start being made,
• 11:32
  like, Torchwood and eventually the Sarah Jane adventures.
• 11:37
  That was way back.
• 11:38
  I was telling it was doing it.
• 11:40
  Yeah.
• 11:41
  So it's the 2000s.
• 11:42
  Okay.
• 11:43
  So just people know that we're aware of these other things going on.
• 11:46
  So Mats Mith has quite another long, fairly long time as Doctor who.
• 11:50
  And he hands over to Peter Capaldi.
• 11:53
  And I remember that Peter Capaldi.
• 11:56
  So that's again, a bit like.
• 11:58
  The shift to going old again, older.
• 12:01
  Peter Capaldi was also a huge Doctor who fan.
• 12:06
  A real.
• 12:07
  And he's also an amazing actor.
• 12:10
  But there is an element of the, the, the high lesson days in the 2000s seem to be passing quite quickly.
• 12:17
  And so his time at the Doctor.
• 12:21
  Was shorter and probably a bit less successful in terms of audience numbers.
• 12:28
  But though he does get a very brilliant episode as well.
• 12:31
  Isn't he the one with the.
• 12:33
  The groundhog day one.
• 12:35
  Where.
• 12:36
  Do you know the name of that episode?
• 12:38
  It's called Heaven sent.
• 12:40
  Heaven sent, which I thought was.
• 12:43
  It's been him by himself has been stalked by that mysterious thing.
• 12:47
  Yeah, it's a very unusual.
• 12:49
  I mean, this is what Doctor who does so nicely is it changes what it does within its own rules.
• 12:54
  And as you say, it's pretty much him on his own.
• 12:56
  Just as another really good episode is.
• 12:59
  When the weeping angels are introduced under David tenant, they were tenant hardly appears in it.
• 13:05
  They changed the rules on that one.
• 13:07
  And again, it's a totally brilliant episode.
• 13:09
  And so we've got Peter Capaldi who played a.
• 13:14
  I suppose it was a bit Colin Bakerish in that it's a bit more angry.
• 13:18
  Yes, he's going to be doing more of a Bill Hartner actually.
• 13:22
  He was kind of.
• 13:23
  Yeah, that sort of like.
• 13:25
  But they kind of cranked up to 11 because at least you know, Hartner had the cheeky twinkle in his eyes.
• 13:30
  Hard to imagine Hartner or.
• 13:31
  Ranting at.
• 13:32
  Robin Hood, they want to chop his head off and kick it around like a football.
• 13:37
  Kind of more extreme.
• 13:38
  I think part of the, I don't part of the audience popularity issue there might be that.
• 13:43
  I think kids are very used.
• 13:45
  Matt Smith was young and heroic, David tenant, young and heroic and the kid in the playground can run around pretend to be the doctor, but when.
• 13:51
  The doctor is more a grandfather figure.
• 13:54
  Well, no one really wants to go around pretending to be their own granddad, you know, it's.
• 13:58
  And so I think maybe a kind of a shift in how accessible the storylines were combined with.
• 14:05
  A brilliant actor, but a very different sort of a doctor.
• 14:09
  Maybe maybe did impact on how essential family viewing doctor, he became at that point.
• 14:15
  And then of course, Peter Kabaldi, hands over to number 13, who is Jodie Whitaker.
• 14:20
  Surprise, surprise, she's a woman.
• 14:23
  Get over it world, you know.
• 14:25
  It's a wonderful moment.
• 14:26
  That really.
• 14:27
  Yeah, which, which.
• 14:30
  We get all the other comparable role where you get this of course is James Bond.
• 14:35
  It's always should we have a black James Bond should we have a female James Bond and so on.
• 14:39
  And filmmakers for certain extent do have to provide us with this eventually just so they don't.
• 14:45
  So the choice of another white guy isn't such a retrograde step, but they did pick on a.
• 14:53
  Another lovely actor.
• 14:56
  But the problem she had, I feel, is that her character, the way she, her doctor was characterized was very.
• 15:06
  It's kind of it.
• 15:08
  Oh, didn't have authority.
• 15:10
  She felt a bit like a slightly other enthusiastic primary school teacher sometimes.
• 15:18
  And it's not her fault, because I've seen her do other roles where she's not at all like that.
• 15:22
  But there was very much.
• 15:24
  The clowny aspect had come in with her character.
• 15:28
  I think again with Doctor who it's often about reacting against what's gone before.
• 15:34
  Yeah.
• 15:35
  Oh, he was very serious and grumpy.
• 15:37
  They wanted to get someone who again was very.
• 15:41
  It was the reverse and the darkness was taken away and she's having the best time exploring the universe and she's got a whole bunch of friends with her, I think.
• 15:50
  Problems perhaps weren't with her own character, but the fact that she.
• 15:54
  Because you've got to find screen time for a time screw or in a 45 minute episode.
• 15:59
  I mean, that's that's a real challenge.
• 16:02
  And I think that it was better when I mean, she goes down to having two companions, which is a bit more.
• 16:10
  It gives a bit more room, but I think yeah, it's a shame.
• 16:13
  I'd love to have seen her having a.
• 16:16
  You know, just her and a single companion having that dynamic, I think would have been really cool.
• 16:21
  But I think also we have to accept that the doctor who's shifting to a Sunday was was pretty difficult in terms of.
• 16:29
  Getting viewers in on a Saturday night is perfect for kids to be brought to a program like that because it's one of the right time.
• 16:36
  You know, the next day as a Sunday was, you know, this came our doctor who was coming off to country file on a Sunday night when it's bath time, you know, when it's school the next day and.
• 16:45
  And so you I don't think you ever got enough.
• 16:49
  Children watching in enough numbers to really kind of like, you know, maintain all the tie-in staff or the merchandise and the excitement and the buzz and the playground, which keeps people kind of coming back to it.
• 16:59
  I think that was partly the problem and it dropped from the Christmas stage schedule and turned up on New Year's Day when everyone's feeling a little bit exhausted and hungover and sort of like ratty.
• 17:07
  So it doesn't quite have the same sort of like feel good factor about it, perhaps during that time.
• 17:13
  Because I think I think JD was was a lovely doctor. I thought she was really good.
• 17:17
  Yeah, I think.
• 17:19
  I think she could have been I think there's so for example, there's a couple of episodes, which I think stand up among the best.
• 17:27
  So there's a one about the division of the Punjab.
• 17:30
  Yes, yeah.
• 17:32
  And then there's one about Rosa Parks.
• 17:36
  That's pretty good.
• 17:38
  Only Black Monroe, of course.
• 17:40
  Yeah, and I love the fact that the companions were in the role of being having to be on the wrong side of history in that confrontation.
• 17:50
  So it's not to change history.
• 17:52
  Wonderful.
• 17:53
  And I loved that.
• 17:54
  It was great.
• 17:55
  And I also enjoyed her last episode.
• 17:56
  I thought.
• 17:58
  When she counted it.
• 17:59
  Yeah.
• 18:00
  So she did have some good moments.
• 18:02
  Okay, we've taken a while, but to get through, but it is 60 years we've been talking about.
• 18:07
  So well done, ask for getting through.
• 18:10
  So clearly there are things which are inseparable from the doctor.
• 18:16
  So we've got the TARDIS.
• 18:19
  We've got the doctor being able to regenerate.
• 18:22
  We've got the doctor with his companions or her companions.
• 18:25
  We've got the traveling in time, the traveling in space.
• 18:29
  I was talking to an American science fiction writer, just yesterday.
• 18:35
  A guy called David Levine.
• 18:37
  And when I mentioned Doctor Who, he said, oh, yes, that's a British.
• 18:43
  What do you think it is?
• 18:44
  Can you identify within the Doctor Who world what it is the cultural aspect of it, which makes it feel.
• 18:52
  It's distinctly British as opposed to the Star Trek and the Star Wars and the rest of them.
• 19:00
  Well, it's different.
• 19:01
  I mean, it's a very different kind of show.
• 19:03
  I would say that the Americans don't, you know, there is nothing quite like Doctor Who, which is about a soul, you know, heroic traveler.
• 19:10
  The other things are much more ensemble and then much more.
• 19:13
  If you think about it, they're quite militaristic really.
• 19:15
  All of the Star Trek franchise is militaristic.
• 19:18
  Even if it's a friendly military, even if later they realize that, you know, the federation is basically NATO or whatever.
• 19:24
  And there's problems with it.
• 19:25
  It's still basically a military show.
• 19:29
  And Doctor Who's nothing like that.
• 19:31
  How is it British?
• 19:33
  I mean, the Doctor espouses, I think, what would be thought of as the best of British values, you know, sort of tolerance.
• 19:43
  And, you know, good humour and fairness and justice and all of that kind of things.
• 19:48
  They probably think Doctor Who has incredibly woke in America.
• 19:52
  Whereas, you know, some people say that here too, but actually it's always been that way.
• 19:56
  It's always been, you know, it's always been interested in things like, you know, the environment and science, getting out of hand and doing destructive things.
• 20:04
  And, you know, there have always been female companions right from the beginning.
• 20:09
  So, you know, and they've always been taken notice of and the Doctor's always been, you know, not at all.
• 20:14
  So, all of those things existed from the beginning.
• 20:16
  So, when people say, oh, it's work, it's, it's always been like that.
• 20:20
  And I think that's a good thing.
• 20:22
  But you wouldn't see that in America, but I don't think.
• 20:25
  Yes, and I think that it's.
• 20:27
  It's a product as well of the British television system, which, you know, basically you get a producer and a script editor in 80 years.
• 20:36
  Showrunner and some exact producers, but basically making it to their own vision and not having to satisfy the various demands of a network, perhaps, which makes it a.
• 20:46
  There was a great simplicity to the BBC commissioning process, you know, was they didn't have to.
• 20:53
  They didn't allow sponsors or, you know, a production company pitching to a network.
• 20:58
  So, there were probably fewer compromises when it was originally brought along.
• 21:02
  So, it's, it's Britishness is also a kind of a function of the way British television was made, particularly on the BBC.
• 21:10
  It remains, along with Tokyo, the only show that BBC owns all rights in, for example.
• 21:17
  And I think that yes, it's, you know, I do the doctors always, you know, being British and enjoy the cup of tea and, you know, notions of, you know, play.
• 21:26
  He also sends up the establishment as well.
• 21:28
  I mean, some people say, you know, jump her to his doctor is, you know, much more of a Tory in many ways, because he's there.
• 21:33
  It is, you know, we've been talking about fine wines and everything, but also he's scathingly anti-small minded attitudes.
• 21:41
  He's sort of blan poons politicians with ideas of, you know, Britain for the England for the English or things like that.
• 21:48
  He's always preaching coexistence with aliens, you know, the humans can be better than they are.
• 21:53
  And I think that that that appealing to this essential British soul of, you know, fair play and doing rights and fighting, fighting evil without weapons.
• 22:06
  With a, with a sonic screwdriver for heaven's sake, you know, which is excellent.
• 22:11
  And indeed, by the time Peter Davison comes along, he's lost the sonic screwdriver.
• 22:15
  And it's interesting that it gets brought back in the reboot because it's, it's a kind of a, it's a way of bypassing what in the old days when you had four or six episodes to tell a story.
• 22:27
  You'd have a five, ten minute sequence to get out of and the sonic can basically do all sorts of things it never used to be able to do, which help you tell the story faster.
• 22:35
  So it helps the pace keep up.
• 22:37
  Um, likewise the psychic paper, which the doctor has in the reboot.
• 22:42
  It lets him into situations and be accepted as an authority figure in a way that might take one or two episodes in the old series.
• 22:49
  You can see that they're going to, you know, they're very cleverly short-circuiting some of the classic Doctor who's destroyed lives, but they're all still there as, as he says, they're all.
• 22:59
  It's always been there.
• 23:01
  The concerns for the environment, the, the need for coexistence and the, you know, basically good people coming together to overthrow evil.
• 23:13
  I mean, the sonic screwdriver is basically a wand, isn't it?
• 23:16
  Let's expect.
• 23:17
  It's becoming increasingly awkward, yes.
• 23:19
  It can't, it can't destroy somebody.
• 23:21
  It can't. It's not a gun.
• 23:22
  No, exactly.
• 23:23
  It's a tool, even if it's a tool for opening a computer in the same way with open the door and allowing information out, as you say.
• 23:30
  Which is great because you have children running around the playground with what is basically, you know, a Swiss Army knife of intergalactic proportions.
• 23:38
  You know, it's not a ray gun or a antimatter blaster, you know, so it's, it requires ingenuity to use, which is, you know, very key to the Doctor's character.
• 23:49
  He is the cleverest person in the room on the planet, quite often.
• 23:54
  And, and he also makes mistakes, so he don't ever feel he's this aloof super being because he's grumpy sometimes or he's cocky as we were discussing earlier.
• 24:04
  But, you know, he'll normally be brought up short on one of these shortcomings at some point in the same way that every, every child, every person of the country is brought up short on their own fault sometimes.
• 24:14
  So I think it's another reason why we can relate to that and learn from it and grow through it.
• 24:19
  I think again, that's quite a, that's quite British in its, in its sense.
• 24:24
  I think one of the areas is, so the science fiction in America grew out of westerns, you know, westerns were the big dominant cultural force and then it became science fiction.
• 24:36
  And so things like Star Trek are there searching the final frontier is like a web going into the Wild West.
• 24:42
  I think the method of exploration wasn't in the British conscience wasn't, you know, pushing forward a frontier was the gentleman explorers going off into, you know, Africa somewhere.
• 24:57
  That's sort of an in HD Wells, you've got the experiment to going off into the future and so on.
• 25:03
  I think it's much more of that solitary exploration.
• 25:07
  Possibly is feeding into that.
• 25:10
  So a final question, where do you think Doctor who is going to go next?
• 25:16
  What's going to, we've got Russell T Davis back for a bit.
• 25:21
  I don't know how long, but we're going back for a bit.
• 25:23
  He's going to be around for a while.
• 25:25
  I can't answer this because of course, I know the answer.
• 25:29
  Oh, that's really exciting.
• 25:31
  Yes, because I work it on the.
• 25:34
  There is a characteristic style to RTD and I just think we're going to get back to that.
• 25:41
  And I'm happy with that.
• 25:43
  I think he's written basically most of the best Doctor who that there ever has been or either he's written it or produced it himself.
• 25:51
  So I'm very happy that he's coming back.
• 25:54
  I think the show will be in fantastic hands.
• 25:57
  It's incredible. He's a great writer.
• 26:00
  People who learn to write on soap operas.
• 26:03
  You know, on Holly Oaks or like Frank Watt will always learn to write on Holly Oaks.
• 26:08
  He's a great writer and RTD learned on Coronation Street.
• 26:12
  There's another really good writer who came out of Coronation Street.
• 26:16
  But they are Adele right.
• 26:18
  They're fantastic writers and they can write dialogue and characters just so well.
• 26:24
  That's what made RTD's Doctor who's so fantastic.
• 26:27
  So like Philip Hinchcliffe's ear, I think, and the Tom Baker.
• 26:30
  They kind of grabbed a lot of the best science fiction tropes that were going.
• 26:35
  And they kind of made monster episodes and sort of, you know, they basically took all of the ideas they were in science fiction and made them into episodes.
• 26:43
  And so that kind of laid down a lot of the law of Doctor who.
• 26:47
  And now we're not really getting.
• 26:49
  I mean, we're getting stuff that's, you know, made them based on like AI.
• 26:52
  And actually the kind of big science fiction concepts were explored a long time ago.
• 26:56
  So where RTD went was he said, well, where haven't we gone?
• 26:59
  We haven't gone into people.
• 27:00
  We haven't gone into the human dynamics into families, into relationships.
• 27:04
  So we're going to take all of that and put that into the existing Doctor who.
• 27:08
  And that was the great development.
• 27:11
  And you know, it's still working.
• 27:13
  I think there were some issues with the last, you know, a few couple of seasons.
• 27:16
  We've discussed why not not seasons, but you know, the last couple of doctors, why they didn't work as well.
• 27:21
  I think RTD knows what he's doing.
• 27:24
  And I'm sure shooting will be a fantastic Doctor who is fantastic in sex education.
• 27:28
  He's a great person.
• 27:29
  Yes.
• 27:30
  I mean, I think it is all very true and it's, you know, it's basically RTD.
• 27:34
  Yes, it's is back in and prepped up to 11.
• 27:37
  I mean, it's there's some genuinely, genuinely jaw dropping stuff coming up.
• 27:42
  It's wonderful.
• 27:44
  And you know, it's also, it's a celebratory year 60th anniversary.
• 27:49
  So the first episode is, is based on a comic strip from Doctor who weekly in 1980.
• 27:56
  That's the starting point for the episode.
• 27:58
  So it's like, you know, it's this joyful embrace of not just Doctor who, but also, you know, not the horrors as well.
• 28:07
  Not the Stockbridge horrors.
• 28:08
  That's the best.
• 28:09
  That is a fantastic.
• 28:11
  I saw that the best one.
• 28:12
  Yeah.
• 28:13
  I wish I had not that.
• 28:14
  This is, but this one goes back to when I was like, you know, eight or nine or something.
• 28:17
  You know, so it's really funny that that's become, you know, the starting point.
• 28:21
  But yeah, huge drama.
• 28:22
  And it's, you know, it's never looked better either.
• 28:24
  Now it's, it's, you know, Disney channel.
• 28:27
  I've got involved as well.
• 28:29
  I mean, as we can see from the trailer on, on YouTube.
• 28:35
  And online, the effects are just absolutely through the roof.
• 28:38
  It's, it's on par with the best of anything Hollywood can get out there.
• 28:43
  So there was always that kind of conception of all the sets wobble and they do this and do that.
• 28:48
  And, you know, that's it's like the idea that Dalits can't climb stairs.
• 28:52
  Those ideas are kind of like dusty and clunky and sitting the, the psyche of those who don't believe.
• 29:00
  But I think Doctor who doesn't give you any option now but to believe and it's going to be big and bold and fantastic.
• 29:09
  That's brilliant.
• 29:10
  So two final things.
• 29:11
  One is I want you to give us the episode we should watch if we haven't done a complete watch or a doctor who,
• 29:19
  which is the one episode that we should watch.
• 29:22
  And then the final thing is about if Doctor who was going to visit another fantasy world,
• 29:29
  wearing all the fantasy world should be sent him.
• 29:32
  So let's start off with your must see episode.
• 29:36
  It could be from any of the 60 years.
• 29:40
  Oh, Steve got an answer.
• 29:44
  I would say from the classic series.
• 29:47
  I would say city of death, which was written by a time in Douglas Adams was script editing the show when he co-wrote that one under a pseudonym.
• 29:57
  It's wonderful.
• 29:58
  Witty. It's Tom Baker and Lana Ward, who again, their, their romance was off screen, but they actually got married.
• 30:05
  So it's the Doctor and Romana in Paris and filmed in Paris as well.
• 30:10
  With this incredible adventure.
• 30:13
  Where an alien squinted into 12 parts is basically using the fact he's back in time to get artists to knock up, you know,
• 30:21
  extra Gutenberg Bibles or Mona Lisa, so you can sell them to fund his time travel experiments.
• 30:25
  I mean, it's bonkers, but it's brilliant.
• 30:28
  And from the new series, I would say blink the first weeping angels episode that you mentioned earlier.
• 30:33
  I think that's a wonderful one to start anyone off on Doctor who.
• 30:36
  Yeah, that'd be my one as well.
• 30:38
  What do you have at you?
• 30:40
  From classic, who I would say genesis of the Daleks, which is also a Tom Baker episode.
• 30:47
  And it's, you know, basically you find out what happened, what, what, where the Daleks came from.
• 30:52
  And it has a really amazing moment where Doctor has an opportunity to kill the Daleks with, you know,
• 30:58
  to destroy the kind of, you know, the, the baby Daleks so that they'll never exist because it's a whole experiment by this guy, Davros.
• 31:06
  And he's, you know, he's got the wires there and he's going, can I do it?
• 31:09
  You know, do I have that right? It's wonderful.
• 31:11
  And it's like very serious science fiction as well.
• 31:14
  And you also see kind of Nazi origins being out of the Daleks.
• 31:19
  From you who I would say, I would have said blink, but you've already said blink.
• 31:24
  I'd say the silence in the library, which is the one where he meets River Song at the end of her, at the end of her life.
• 31:31
  And it's also a really good science fiction episode as well, you know.
• 31:34
  It's amazing big library, but it's empty why, why is it empty?
• 31:37
  And there's a really good, scary alien.
• 31:40
  And it's got Donna, who's the best companion.
• 31:43
  And that's saying a lot because Sarah could Sarah James Smith, who's in the Daleks.
• 31:47
  She would have been my favorite companion before that.
• 31:49
  Yeah.
• 31:50
  Donna, it's amazing, you know, a couple of different, amazing, amazing comic timing that you can just say two words in just a certain way.
• 31:57
  And then the episode that is kind of paired with also is fantastic.
• 32:00
  And these are really good science fiction concepts as well.
• 32:03
  So, and there's written by Stephen Moffat, who may not have been the best producer of it, or showrunner, but he certainly was the best writer apart from RTD Arrowsome.
• 32:12
  And Robert Holmes back in the olden days.
• 32:15
  Thank you.
• 32:17
  And then where are we going to go off in a fantasy world if we were taking the doctor's just not that we'd actually make this, but just what would be fun to imagine the the chemistry.
• 32:27
  It's probably Doctor who is kind of, he's already been to a lot of these places, I mean, especially like I, for example, I would take him to
• 32:36
  Wonderland, like Alice in Wonderland, Wonderland, just to sort of have the mine, he'd probably get on really well with Lewis Carroll.
• 32:46
  I'd like to see the episode, you know, he sometimes goes back and meets the writer.
• 32:49
  That's the one I'd like to see is the one where he meets Lewis Carroll.
• 32:52
  And they had, and in fact, Wonderland is generated by an encounter with Doctor who.
• 32:58
  It does.
• 33:01
  Give me a call if you want that one written I'll come and I'll come and do it.
• 33:06
  I'd quite like to see him in the world of Star Wars actually, like, you know, some of the TV and or something like that.
• 33:15
  Because I actually have to say I really do like the more serious Doctor who episodes where he's in.
• 33:20
  A kind of existential battle, you know, in a war or something like that with the, with the Daleks or something and.
• 33:28
  I think you'd be quite interesting now.
• 33:30
  If you want to him sort of just in the background of a scene in a bar where there he is sort of sipping a.
• 33:36
  A multicolored drink just watching the the the goings on.
• 33:41
  He's got there. Have I used to would you like to crash him into any other universes?
• 33:48
  Yeah, I'd like I'd probably like him to go somewhere, you know, marvel wise, you know, sort of turning out if, you know during the battle for the Infinity Gauntlet or something would be great fun to have Doctor sort of like squaring up to Thanos and the midst of all this superhero may have.
• 34:02
  The doctors are like running about there as well would be a does he does fit strangely well, doesn't he?
• 34:07
  Because he is a kind of British superhero.
• 34:09
  Yes, as well as you maybe a Doctor who Doctor Strange team up would be quite fun.
• 34:13
  And you don't benefit a couple of that playing alongside that would genuinely work.
• 34:17
  Mine, you know, our ideas are just more like mischief making, whereas that's because I think the American concept of what a British superhero would be like.
• 34:26
  He's a captain. I can't even remember the name of the British.
• 34:32
  He's a British superhero. Well, you think that's not really, that's not really us.
• 34:37
  Whereas the who turning up. I'm there.
• 34:40
  Well, let me say what will happen?
• 34:43
  Who lock has a British captain? He's one of the new Guardians of the Galaxy.
• 34:48
  Actually, don't guide what's his name. Will Poulter.
• 34:50
  If they have a cast a white man as a Doctor who again, I think Will Poulter would be good.
• 34:56
  Oh, he's such a fave.
• 34:58
  Represent he was used to send the boy to the Dawn Trader.
• 35:01
  Walking around saying, I want to speak to the British console.
• 35:05
  I have a ductive ever since that.
• 35:08
  Anyway, thank you very much for traveling through time and space with me.
• 35:13
  And we all look forward to tuning in to see the next round of Doctor Who.
• 35:18
  Thank you very much. Thank you.
• 35:20
  Thank you.
• 35:26
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• 35:29
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• 35:32
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• 35:37
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• 35:44
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