Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to those naughty boys Luke Molloy & Dylan Rees about their choice of The Impossible Astronaut
Transcript
- 0:33Hamster with a blunt pen knife for doing.
- 0:35Quicker, quicker, quicker. Hello and welcome back to
- 0:43Hamster with a Blunt pen Knife, the Doctor Who Coventry Podcast.
- 0:47I'm here today with the fabulous host of Doctor Who Too Hot TV,
- 0:53Dylan Reese. Hello.
- 0:56And myself. And we'll be going through The
- 1:00Impossible Astronaut, Dave. Oh, and of course we've got the
- 1:05man himself, Joe Ford, dot Coho. Was that supposed to be an
- 1:08impression of me at the beginning of this it?
- 1:11Was a spot on. It was absolutely spawn, yeah.
- 1:15I've been practicing this is a. Very important, this recording.
- 1:21Three of us talking about Stephen Moffett story.
- 1:24Yeah, well, it's going to be very horny if Moffett's
- 1:26involved, isn't it? Yes, this is the greatest reason
- 1:30of all time. Can I ask you something here?
- 1:34Cuz I don't object to a bit of the Are you being served?
- 1:37Carry on. Sort of smart, you know, going
- 1:40on? No, it has been known to happen.
- 1:42You know what do I object to it so much into name of muffins?
- 1:46Doctor Who? You know, I don't object to it.
- 1:49I quite enjoy it. But it was weird.
- 1:51I haven't been back to a Matt Smith episode for a while, and
- 1:54coming off the back of Jody's era and having just rewatched
- 1:57Flux with you, I'm rewatching this.
- 1:59I was like, he is a horny bugger that.
- 2:03Stephen laughing about a lot isn't?
- 2:06It I I like that's my type of humor if I'm honest.
- 2:10I think how can how can horny this never.
- 2:13Not be funny. Yeah, no, it's true.
- 2:16Maybe that's what the Chibnell era was missing for you.
- 2:19It just needed to be Chibnell's. Just not a he seems quite like
- 2:25quite an asexual showrunner, you know?
- 2:28Whereas RTD and Moffett are all very sex, sex, Sex.
- 2:33Whereas Chibnell, but. A modern TV thing as well, and I
- 2:38think that made the whisker feel slightly step back.
- 2:43That mattress in the console room in the Halloween
- 2:46apocalypse, which led you didn't raise to tell me.
- 2:49The Jodi Whisker. Amanda, go Sorry, the doctor in
- 2:51Yaz. We're getting down to some heavy
- 2:53scissoring action. But it's too subtle.
- 2:57We need lines like subtle scissoring.
- 3:01On a complete side note, I did have to go online afterwards to
- 3:04find out what scissoring was and I wish I had it.
- 3:07We need the Doctor being hidden under a corset that way.
- 3:12Yes. What better way to open your
- 3:16your season when? This open with Matt Smith naked
- 3:20under a woman's skirt, I was like Jesus Christ.
- 3:23I let myself in for. That's.
- 3:26Great. Can I ask you guys a question
- 3:28before we go into the episode? Yeah, yeah.
- 3:31What kind of know the answer to this for you, Luke, but
- 3:34obviously people may not have listened to this episode.
- 3:37What do you guys think of series 6?
- 3:40Do you think it was a success? And why the hell did they never
- 3:44really do this again? Do you want to go first to?
- 3:49Me, I love series six. I think.
- 3:51If anything, the weaker episodes are things sort of the
- 3:56standalones. I think it pays off as well as
- 4:00any Doctor Who season. Long story slash arc is going to
- 4:05there's always going to be a reset, you know.
- 4:08No one's not. Everyone will be satisfied by
- 4:12the resolution. I've got to say, at the time I
- 4:15was jumping for joy by the end of it.
- 4:16I thought at the end of the season I thought the wedding of
- 4:20River Song. At the time I thought it was the
- 4:21best thing I'd ever seen. And I called my brother Jack to
- 4:26discuss it and he was like, no, I didn't like it and I.
- 4:28Was like, I love your brother. He's so smart.
- 4:34And. It was also the the only one of
- 4:37the one of two times that my peers that are around my age,
- 4:42like my friends from uni and work and things like that, who
- 4:45didn't like Doctor Who. This was the only season that
- 4:47they all sat down to watch and came back to and came back to.
- 4:51And then the next season when it was standalone stories again,
- 4:54they weren't interested. So it was the only one that I
- 4:57watched with groups of not fans who became invested in the show.
- 5:02That is interesting. I think the point you said there
- 5:05about at the time, I think that's the biggest thing about
- 5:11Series 6. It's very easy to look at it
- 5:12now. I think that, Oh yeah, it
- 5:14doesn't quite hold up and it's a bunch of like good episodes and
- 5:16bad episodes. But at the time, the actual
- 5:19journey was really exciting. I thought, I know you sort of
- 5:23sense that, but I didn't have that sort of the people around
- 5:27me did seem to tune out. After A Good Man Goes to War,
- 5:30which is I think we brought up on that podcast, that did seem
- 5:33to be the point where like whether it's just people growing
- 5:37up or just getting bored with a series that have been running
- 5:40for six seasons, which happens. And a lot of people seem to jump
- 5:45ship after that with a song revealing a Good Man Goes to
- 5:48War. Yeah, it seems that for people
- 5:51my age anyway. I think for because I was at uni
- 5:55at the time. And I think or just left uni, I
- 5:58want to say it was around that age and it was very much the era
- 6:01of DVD box sets. So your weekends and your
- 6:04evenings, you'd sit and you'd watch 24 or something like that
- 6:07and you'd watched 7 or 8 episodes or something.
- 6:10So all of a sudden it felt like Doctor Who was being made for.
- 6:16That audience I guess you would say and I think there's there's
- 6:18a lot of that in terms of this is the year that got quite big
- 6:20in America as well. It's only aimed at a slightly
- 6:23older audience. It's still accessible for kids,
- 6:25but I think it's like, you know, Stephen Moffatt said didn't he
- 6:28said we need to pretend that the people aren't what that we know
- 6:32the people are watching Doctor Who.
- 6:34It's not like they go away so we can do ongoing arcs and stories.
- 6:38Yeah. Do you think this is a format
- 6:41that works for Doctor Who? Because it is very telling that
- 6:45he immediately pushed against this in series 7 and went for
- 6:48like movie of the week standalones and and really
- 6:51didn't attempt a dense arc like this again.
- 6:55Just his run despite the fact he had another Four Seasons to go
- 6:58I. Don't know if that was just due
- 7:00to he seems quite stressed at the time in interviews from what
- 7:04I remember. Of people attacking him for
- 7:06being too complicated and too complex.
- 7:07Paralyzed Skinner, attacking him for, you know, being terrible in
- 7:11bed. I don't know if it was just a
- 7:13reaction to that, like, oh, just make it easier for myself.
- 7:18I imagine it was quite complicated to do.
- 7:22And I think that the the main failure of Series 6 isn't really
- 7:26what Moffett's ideas were. It's just TV production, if it,
- 7:29you know, if it. If he had more time, maybe the
- 7:33amount of time he had to plan series five, I think Series 6
- 7:36would be absolutely immense and elite.
- 7:38You could have slipped Mel's into Amy's wedding and things
- 7:42like that. The idea is that you'd only get
- 7:45sort of further into production when it's too late to sort of do
- 7:47it. It's sort of hampered by the
- 7:49fact that it's TV. But yeah, I hate the criticism
- 7:54over all the that criticism people say, Oh well.
- 7:58If someone turned this on, they wouldn't know what was going on
- 8:00when It's like episode 10 of series.
- 8:03Six. Every show now.
- 8:04Yeah, that's That shouldn't be a criticism of Doctor Who, because
- 8:08yeah, it's fairly anthology. But if you're tuning into any
- 8:12show, episode 10 of Series 6 or whatever, you can't expect to
- 8:16know everything that's going on. At this point, there was enough.
- 8:23Standalones happening that actually you could watch the
- 8:26majority of this season and very easily just watch that one
- 8:29episode and not be lost. There's maybe 2-2 or three.
- 8:33I don't think you can watch The Wedding of River Song.
- 8:35And yet maybe you don't know how all the arc elements fit
- 8:38together, but it perfectly. Not if you want your IQ intact.
- 8:41By the end of it, you don't. But it works as a as a 45
- 8:45minute. Watchable thing?
- 8:46You might not agree, but. That is, honestly, that is the
- 8:52idea of the new series for me, the Wedding River Song.
- 8:54That's my least favorite episode.
- 8:57There's enough going on in it for it to not be down the
- 9:00bottom. No, not in a series that has
- 9:03deep breath in it. So much.
- 9:07In the forest of the night in it.
- 9:09I prefer in the forest of the night.
- 9:12But by the time I get to deep breath a few seasons later, I'm
- 9:16ready to give up. But you know, it strikes me and
- 9:21surprises me quite a lot how Doctor Who showrunners not don't
- 9:26have a plan. But you think like Moffett had
- 9:30these big ideas of what he wanted to do.
- 9:33But things like the Mels thing, as you say, if it was seeded
- 9:36through. It would have been more
- 9:37interesting. It's like nobody seems to think
- 9:40more than about a season ahead. And I know it's very difficult
- 9:43to make a show like Doctor Who, but it's like all the shows
- 9:47managed to have like okay, We've got an idea and this arc's going
- 9:50to run for five series. Doctor Who seems obsessed with,
- 9:53like we've got to get the series made and that's when the arc
- 9:56finishes. We can't have any dangling
- 9:58threads. Whereas, you know, I just want,
- 10:00I just want it to be bigger and more cohesive.
- 10:02This is my main. Come time with the Doctor, he
- 10:05had a whole shopping list of block points that he had to tick
- 10:08off. So they popped back from the
- 10:10planet Christmas to sit around the table.
- 10:13Right. Check.
- 10:14The Silence. It was a different chapter of
- 10:15the silence. Madam Kvarian, Check.
- 10:17Well, that's because he had to get it.
- 10:19He had to get it all done in, in one episode because that's left
- 10:22a year early. I think I heard.
- 10:24I think it was on the time that actually that said that Napoleon
- 10:29didn't want any overhanging. Great.
- 10:32He wanted to start afresh, so that's why MUFI had to have that
- 10:35scene tying everything up so he could start a new.
- 10:38Yeah, which makes sense, isn't it, for a new Doctor?
- 10:41But yeah, I think he tries. But you are right, whatever it
- 10:45is, just because it's Doctor Who.
- 10:46I know, like I know all the shows are all so hard to make
- 10:50and there's obviously it's like a bit of bias in it, but.
- 10:53Maybe if you just like the amount of behind the scenes
- 10:55things that you just absorb as a fun, you're like, this sounds
- 10:58like the hardest fucking thing to.
- 11:00Work salmon in the method that Doctor Who is.
- 11:02I mean, every frame is slavished over by Dogs Who fans, isn't it?
- 11:06Yeah, looking for the problems rather than the strengths.
- 11:10Yeah, but you're right. Like there was a well, it all
- 11:14depends on money and who's available and stuff like that.
- 11:16I'm sure them American series has had so many more people in
- 11:19the writers room and. Things going on rather than just
- 11:22one man taking. All the fly chain smoking and
- 11:25wanking and. You know, you mentioned America
- 11:30there and we'll definitely talk about that in this two-part,
- 11:32which is now how it's Doctor Who's sort of getting big or is
- 11:35big in America and the influence is clearly there.
- 11:39They're throwing money at the show.
- 11:40The visuals look amazing. I remember when the trailer
- 11:45dropped for this series. And I think I remember thinking
- 11:49it looked like the most amazing bit of like Doctor Who I'd ever
- 11:53seen in my life. And I was kind of like, right,
- 11:55this is it. This is the Doctor Who I've
- 11:56always wanted until a large. It was it.
- 11:59Was, Yeah. I.
- 12:02Think the black spot, but you know.
- 12:04It's quite telling though. I think up until this point we
- 12:07call it Series one, Series 2, Series 3, but everyone calls
- 12:09this season six. It's season that American thing
- 12:13just feeds through. No, it just, I don't think just
- 12:17naturally like when you say you call it seasons.
- 12:19Well, I do, even though I call the rest of it series.
- 12:24It's a subconscious thing, cuz it's American.
- 12:27Yeah. Well, before we go into the
- 12:29episode, can I make a very small statement?
- 12:31All right, because. I've decided, you know, I don't
- 12:34like this season at all and I'm not sure I'm that keen on this
- 12:38two-part up, but you 2 like this a lot and I don't want to spend
- 12:41the next two hours shitting on something you love from a great
- 12:45height go through. It and I want to.
- 12:47Do that because I know it'll be fun to listen.
- 12:49So you're not going to say it, I think?
- 12:52There's a lot I like in this as well, and there's certainly a
- 12:54lot to celebrate because I was watching this going OK.
- 12:57This is ambitious. This is epic.
- 13:00This has interesting characters in it.
- 13:02This looks amazing. You know, there's the old, the
- 13:05old whizzy line. There's some terrible lines as
- 13:07well, but that's the old whizzy line.
- 13:10Why don't I like this? Like what?
- 13:12This. This should be my bag, and I
- 13:15think I managed to put my finger on it this morning.
- 13:19I think. It was just this moment.
- 13:23Yeah, I was a. Very happy man.
- 13:25Before I went to work. And I think it's because I'm so
- 13:31aware of, because this is Stephen Moffett's stories are so
- 13:37calculated and so constructed. Yeah, because the plotting is so
- 13:41dense and precise. I'm just always aware of the
- 13:46artifice of the story. All the time.
- 13:49And so from scene to scene, I'm not following an adventure of
- 13:53the Doctor. I am aware that I am watching a
- 13:56piece of constructed television, and I know in the back of my
- 13:59head I know I'm watching a piece of constructed television.
- 14:03But I can see the wheels going with everything.
- 14:06I can see the cogs turning and I can feel the plot in in a way
- 14:11that I just don't with Rusty Davis, Doctor Who.
- 14:13With Rusty I I just get swept up in the characters.
- 14:16And in the moment and in the set pieces and in the humor.
- 14:20But here I'm just so aware that he's working so hard to tell a
- 14:24story to impress me, and it takes me right out of it.
- 14:29That's so interesting because I do sort of, to an extent know
- 14:32what you mean about the feeling. But that to me was always quite
- 14:36a reassuring feeling because you knew it was going somewhere and
- 14:39it was going to be quite impressive.
- 14:41But I think that's where I struggled with JBNALL to an
- 14:44extent, is that. It just all feels a bit
- 14:47slapdash. And have no faith that
- 14:49anything's actually going to happen towards the end.
- 14:52Was there any Moffett's? I was so excited when I see
- 14:55Moffett's name on a on an episode you knew you were in
- 14:59most of the time for something special or at the very least,
- 15:03interesting. Yeah, and it's it's also Rusty
- 15:08Davis's doctor, who in many ways played it safe in terms of he
- 15:12was worried it's on a Saturday night.
- 15:14Will audience what will and won't audiences accept whereas
- 15:17this is Doctor that's been on for six seasons and it's
- 15:20confident as hell. So it it it just has a bravado I
- 15:23think that's perhaps is lacking from the Rusty Davies era not
- 15:28and that's in no way sort of criticism of that era because
- 15:31it's fantastic but I just think it's like the it's amped up to
- 15:3411 here and ton of what the show can and tries to do you.
- 15:39Got me here, RCD would make me feel.
- 15:42In every episode, you know, I'd feel strong emotions.
- 15:44Whereas I was watching the Doctor die in this and all I was
- 15:47thinking was, well, Yang did OK, it's he'd be yeah.
- 15:50This ain't gonna happen. That's sort of what you meant to
- 15:52think though, isn't it? It's it's less, it's less.
- 15:56Know shit. The Doctor's dead.
- 15:58It's more like what happens now, yeah?
- 16:01Well, the other problem is, is the second you start pulling
- 16:04threads, right? The whole fucking thing
- 16:07collapses in on itself in a series of logic where you're
- 16:10going. Well, hang on a minute.
- 16:11Why didn't you just send them letters after this was all over
- 16:14going, you know, by the way, you know I'm going to send you back
- 16:16to my death, but it's not my death, all right?
- 16:19Tesla, Lexan, that did it all along And and I'm like, why put
- 16:23them through all this? You're a bad.
- 16:24They can't know their future. Especially Amy.
- 16:28She's a fixed point, probably or something.
- 16:32That's true. She might have popped early.
- 16:34OK, I just wanted to get that out of the way before we go and
- 16:38have a nice, happy loving about Series 6.
- 16:40Now before we get started, I also want please shout if when
- 16:46you figure out what the moment is where she suddenly turned
- 16:49into come like because it's the real Amy up until the simple
- 16:53point. I know when that be is, I'll
- 16:55shout, I'll shout. I've.
- 16:59Always been between two minds before this eventually even
- 17:04starts or well, I'll shout come at.
- 17:07The other point he says he doesn't the Doctor say it later
- 17:12on in the series. You haven't been used since Utah
- 17:15or something like that. It says you would take.
- 17:17I think it says you were taking some time before America.
- 17:21Before America. I think he says before.
- 17:24She's in the orphanage. And suddenly she screams like
- 17:28it's a top horror moment. That would make.
- 17:31And then the door slams shut on her and I was like, that's it,
- 17:34She's gone. Great.
- 17:36OK, well, we've solved that. Oh, so I forget.
- 17:41What are you to shut? Come, I.
- 17:45Think that's guarantee I'm quite this.
- 17:48This might be a bit of a backhanded compliment because I
- 17:50don't really like where it ends up with Amy in that tube and the
- 17:53come baby. All into dripping around and all
- 17:56of that stuff. I don't like any of it, but how
- 17:58audacious to have her taken out the first half of the bloody
- 18:01series and it's a copy of her. It's it's it's a great pot
- 18:06twist. I've got the Doctor Who
- 18:08transcripts if you're good, man goes to war here and he says
- 18:11they must have taken you quite a while back just before America.
- 18:17It's it's crazy. She's like she's come.
- 18:19Come. Come.
- 18:22Immediate come. We finished early.
- 18:31Shall we? Yeah, yes, let's.
- 18:33Crack it on. Shall I count us in?
- 18:36Yeah. Okay press play in 54321.
- 18:45We've all gone quiet. We are.
- 18:48Are we all rolling? I'm.
- 18:49Rolling. Rolling.
- 18:51Fantastic. It's quite it's quite an
- 18:55interesting intro. Moffett's quite good at these
- 18:57sort of little cold opens that always feel very James Bond in
- 19:02style, if not actually sort of execution.
- 19:05Just like I love the Doctor being caught up in another
- 19:08little adventure, and indeed in someone's undergarments.
- 19:12I'll start with the criticism. Stay off the bat.
- 19:14Matt Smith's Dr. is caught between this weird thing if.
- 19:19Being an absolute lad, lady killer and also not knowing
- 19:23anything about women because in series five he is the total lad
- 19:28and I much prefer that, yeah. And then by you know at the end
- 19:33of series 7 he's he's definitely putting guitar.
- 19:37He's looking at horror skirt in series, he knows about girls but
- 19:41he's he's saying he. Doesn't I think he's playing the
- 19:44innocent. Yes, I do as well.
- 19:47He's avoiding cuffs. Yeah.
- 19:51It's like we said did it When we watched Halloween Apocalypse.
- 19:54They were hanging over that. You know, the acid planet, all
- 19:58of this unseen adventure stuff is great, isn't it?
- 20:00Yeah, it's brilliant. But there's also that fantastic
- 20:04moment coming up with with the Doctor in this old, long and
- 20:08harder movie, which is done better than inserting Clara into
- 20:12old episodes of Doctor Who. What went on on that page with
- 20:17Patrick Trout and yeah. Why is he in California?
- 20:20We'll never know. In a woolly coat with the 8
- 20:23doctors chasing behind him. I'm.
- 20:26Having her hanging out in the Matrix for Peter Davison.
- 20:30Yeah, I'm surprised Big Finish haven't done that.
- 20:33I do think this is a bit callous.
- 20:34So, you know, inviting them all to watch his death, it's.
- 20:38A bit odds. It's a bit odds, I think.
- 20:40The 11th Doctor. You know, he might wave his hand
- 20:42and be a bit cute, but he's a quite a bad.
- 20:44Man, yeah, he's one of the, like, most sinister inside.
- 20:49Yeah. Did you remember this?
- 20:51Do you remember the the trailer for 36 had a shot of Alex
- 20:56Kingston with a top off giving that Smith a wink.
- 20:59And it it never made it into the final cut.
- 21:01Oh yeah, go back and watch the Series 6 trailer.
- 21:04Oh. It sounds like you've been back
- 21:05and watch that. Look.
- 21:08At this shot. Will you look at this shot?
- 21:13It's beautiful. These episodes are all very well
- 21:15shot and I didn't realize this until today.
- 21:18I've got a name drop here, but Stefan Pearson, who is the DOP
- 21:21on this I've just been working with and he's a very lovely man
- 21:24and very talented. He's gone from Doctor Who to a
- 21:29Christmas film. Which is?
- 21:32Immediately, Yeah. Matt Smith in a Stepson.
- 21:36He looks about 10 years older than Series 5.
- 21:39Matt Smith. I don't know what happened.
- 21:42One year of working on Doctor. He parted hard, didn't he?
- 21:49Wasn't there a story of? Matt Smith and Karen Gillan
- 21:53partying too hard in America and Karen Gillan being told off
- 21:57because she was walking naked down a hotel corridor.
- 22:00I was just about to say hotel corridor.
- 22:04John Barrowman could get away with it, could he?
- 22:09But there is something like it screams expensive by America
- 22:13shooting, doesn't it? And and what's it called?
- 22:14Is it Death Valley? Yeah, yeah.
- 22:19And I know what it is, is a drone shot of somewhere
- 22:21different. I don't think they were there
- 22:23for more than three or four days in terms of what they get, but
- 22:25it just sells the world and it just makes it look like a
- 22:29bigger, bigger show. Reassuringly to reminders, we're
- 22:32still in Doctor Who. We're in some shoddy cafe in
- 22:35Cardiff now. Did you ever go?
- 22:38Me. I've never been to Cardiff.
- 22:41What? That's that's a doctorate rite
- 22:43of passage. I'll drag my bra from Cardiff.
- 22:49Yeah, too gay. Yeah, you've got to go and see
- 22:51Yamto Shrine. Oh no, I did.
- 22:55I went to the experience I've been to.
- 22:57There you go. This that Eddie's Diner was on
- 23:01the Bay. I've been it's been called a few
- 23:02times. We entered Eddie's Diner.
- 23:05Well, a lot to answer for, you know, because it turned up on
- 23:07the front cover of Doctor Who magazine with Clara in a
- 23:10waitress dress right after Face the Raven.
- 23:13I'm like, well, she's back then, didn't she?
- 23:14Because. We ain't seen that yet, but.
- 23:16Everybody thought Clara wasn't appearing in the last episode of
- 23:19the scene. They made Doctor Hayes.
- 23:20For shame, she. Thought she was dead shortly
- 23:22because we'd all seen them waitress pitches, yeah.
- 23:26You know. What?
- 23:27This title sequence is a bit of a mistake until I saw the capody
- 23:31one and then I went. Back and.
- 23:32I've got much fond feelings about that Matt Smith title
- 23:35sequence now. I remember not liking the title
- 23:38sequence or the theme at the time, but going back to it now
- 23:41I'm a bit like oh, this is. Yeah, I wasn't big on this
- 23:44title. Nostalgic.
- 23:46But yeah, it's nostalgic now. That's the Series 5 Matt Smith.
- 23:49You see him spitting out the wine, Yeah.
- 23:52You know, it's like, he's wicked.
- 23:54It's weird. He does.
- 23:56Play it different in each season and I do.
- 24:00I really bump into the Series 7 one, but here I think he's sort
- 24:04of a nice balance. But.
- 24:05This there's a few F 737. It's really not for me.
- 24:08And then other episodes. I just think it's perfect.
- 24:10Rings of I have this. Yeah.
- 24:12Rings of Architect. I just.
- 24:15You know what though? There's something about this.
- 24:17I notice a shot on location that it feels like a special effects
- 24:20shot, although. Yeah, it's that nice.
- 24:22Yeah, you you do get that sometimes though.
- 24:25You will. When we went to Austria, the job
- 24:29just did and run these beautiful mountains and you're stood on
- 24:31the side of a like a mountain with a huge Vista.
- 24:35And you look at it on camera and you go, oh, that looks like a
- 24:37green screen in the studio. I'm there.
- 24:42This is the best Doctor Who's ever looked.
- 24:44Yeah. Oh, and I think the 5 minutes
- 24:47that opens the day of the moon, that long time sequence on the
- 24:50Weir and all of that. I think that might be as
- 24:53cinematic as Doctor Who. Even the is as cinematic as it
- 24:57ever. Goes it is cinematic.
- 24:59It is almost bond like as you as you said before.
- 25:02Now there's there is, I think there are a couple of little
- 25:06plate shots in it because they shoot, they shoot a plate of
- 25:09this for when they flash back to it in episode 12, don't they?
- 25:15And it's quite obviously green screen and.
- 25:16I think there is. There is one or two shots here
- 25:19where it looks like maybe it was picked up in a.
- 25:22In a studio later on because they've got the image.
- 25:27Do you remember Doctor? He magazine at the time had four
- 25:29different covers and. One of.
- 25:32These will die, and it never, ever occurred to me that it
- 25:35would be the Doctor. They do that with the.
- 25:37Stolen Earth and Journey's end as well.
- 25:40Somebody's going to die. Yeah, I mean, I I assumed it was
- 25:44going to be Rory because that's what he does, right?
- 25:48Well, he does the day of the. Movie, Of course.
- 25:53Now I'll say this, they play this beautifully.
- 25:56I don't believe it for a second, but they play it beautifully.
- 25:59It does grip you in there, like you got no idea what's going on.
- 26:04And it's all been beautifully smooth shops up until this
- 26:07point. And then the moment the doctor
- 26:09gets shot, it all goes handheld and wobbly.
- 26:11It's. Great story.
- 26:15Yeah, good sport. And the incongruity of the
- 26:21spacesuit coming out of the Wolf Star?
- 26:23That's that's so Moffett. That's Moffett a nutshell.
- 26:25In it bringing 2 disparate elements together and saying
- 26:28what accepts it all right? This before this we'd never seen
- 26:32or heard about. It's like the Doctor all the
- 26:36time, or the fake being shot mid regeneration and then that she
- 26:40did so like this suddenly adds a threat to regeneration.
- 26:44Yeah, yeah, it's. I mean, Moffett does build on
- 26:48the law. I I I do love the, I just think
- 26:54that space suit's so cool in the water.
- 26:56But also have you seen the Big Finish cover where they've got
- 26:59that space suit that would catch it try to do that, it just.
- 27:04It's also it's it's one of his famous publicity photos you've
- 27:08seen 1000 times and then just in that spacesuit and I.
- 27:12Refuse to believe that Big Finish would be that cheap.
- 27:15Oh wait I. Was just going to say that
- 27:18spaceship that the fella in it, like was having a bit of trouble
- 27:20getting back in the wall there? We're even shooting at herself
- 27:25as well, this. Is my problem right?
- 27:27Yeah. Is this fellow comes out the car
- 27:29after this happens. Yeah.
- 27:31It's my like we we're just constantly setting stuff up.
- 27:33I'm just. I don't know.
- 27:35But it's oh, yeah. Sorry.
- 27:37Good. I just gonna say he is the
- 27:39father of the God of the the guy who's playing the younger which.
- 27:44Yeah. Mark Chef both yeah.
- 27:45They're both actors. And that that's Mark Shepherd's
- 27:48real dad did. You ever see Mark Shepherd in
- 27:49Battlestar Glaxica? They did.
- 27:51It was bloody brilliant in it. Excellent.
- 27:53Wasn't he in that? Yeah.
- 27:55I mean, he's good in this. He's very charming in this.
- 27:57I'm I'm a bit sad that his character never comes back,
- 27:59actually. Yeah, I am.
- 28:01He is the the exact sort of character that should be coming
- 28:04back. Yeah, you know, we revisit the.
- 28:07Lesbian lizards Enough and unit. Fucking captain.
- 28:11Avery comes back. Oh my God.
- 28:14Do you remember we watched that? I was like, why are they
- 28:20reminding us of all the shit episodes?
- 28:21What's going on? But you know, I'm going to say
- 28:25something very nice about Karen Gillan now, but it's also a bit
- 28:27of a problem because she's so good.
- 28:30She's such a good actress. She's so good at portraying pain
- 28:33that sometimes it's very raw and a bit uncomfortable.
- 28:38I think she's amazing, yeah. She's brilliant.
- 28:40She's the best companion of Hands down.
- 28:43She's you are in. Pain.
- 28:45What is wrong with you? She's in my top five.
- 28:49Definitely she's in my bomb 5 somewhere, no?
- 28:52No. I'm sorry, good man.
- 28:56Yeah, Do you know what, Weirdly as well, this feels like
- 28:59yesterday, but I'm looking at her and even the way she's
- 29:02dressed, I'm like, oh, you wouldn't see, you wouldn't see
- 29:04people dressed like that now. And I know it's only like 10
- 29:06years ago, but the way her hair is and the way maybe I've just
- 29:10got used to seeing Hollywood's Karen Gillen, but you just
- 29:14think. That is not how she would dress
- 29:17now or a. Companion would be terribly,
- 29:19doesn't it? Do you remember?
- 29:20Like leather coats? Everyone was wearing the series.
- 29:22Yes, Do you know? What I think when you see that
- 29:26sort of. Play She's got one on, hasn't
- 29:28it, Star? Wars Famous John Williams music
- 29:30playing in the background. It does have a bit of a Star
- 29:35Wars edge to it. I'll tell you what now, because
- 29:37Naughty's fashions come. Back I keep seeing young, like
- 29:40teenage girls dressed like Rose Tyler again.
- 29:42It's really weird. It's just like in the Funky Fish
- 29:46and like, back in. Belt bottom.
- 29:48Got some hope then. I haven't bought any new clothes
- 29:50since then. Just.
- 29:53Now it's back around again. Thank God.
- 29:55To to get to the beautiful subject of Time Lord law, the
- 30:01Doctor regenerated the regeneration energy.
- 30:03Coming out is a is an interesting beast, isn't it?
- 30:06Because he is meant to be the the last one.
- 30:09But then, is it explained because of the Tess elector?
- 30:11Or is it explained because he's the timeless child we've got?
- 30:15We've got so many explanations. Take your pick.
- 30:19Because he gives rivers some generation and angels take
- 30:22Manhattan as well, which he shouldn't really be able to do.
- 30:24No, if he's the last. I hate it.
- 30:26That's one of the many things I hate about Angels Take.
- 30:28Manhattan that that scene on the stairs is the worst part of
- 30:31Angels Take Manhattan where she slaps him and he and he gives
- 30:34this a minute and it's just. Embarrass me, River.
- 30:36You know there's some. People never see you get.
- 30:43Your knock into a Stephen Moffier episode?
- 30:45It would be absolute heresy, you know.
- 30:47Well done, Luke. You've just lost us up, our
- 30:49audience there already. No, it's it's not the time of
- 30:53judge. I thought this was the best part
- 30:57of the whole episode, where you realize he's invited himself to
- 31:01his own day. It's just popped out to get his
- 31:04fizzy straw. No, he's brilliant.
- 31:09This is the fizzy straw. Reminds me so much of the
- 31:12lemonade taps and all that nonsense from Widow and the
- 31:14Wardrobe. Now something that struck me re
- 31:21watching this as well is. I thought this was super
- 31:26fast-paced Doctor Who at the time it felt like it was moving
- 31:29at a speed. Having just watched Flux, this
- 31:32feels more like classic Doctor Who than like because television
- 31:36in general just got faster and faster and faster.
- 31:39But so has Doctor Who and it is suddenly a lot more chilled than
- 31:45I remember it. Being which makes it more?
- 31:48Does it make it more palatable? What do you think?
- 31:53The thing I thought, the weird thing I thought about the pacing
- 31:55in this was the dramatic high point in this episode comes 10
- 32:00minutes in. So everything after that is a
- 32:02bit anticlimactic. Like, I know they try and they
- 32:05bring the drama at the end with a shooting the kids and more on
- 32:08that later. But I, I, I, I think the climax
- 32:13of this story is basically the doctor dying.
- 32:16And then it's just a load of mystery, sort of after that.
- 32:19It's really oddly pacing. You've got scary monsters,
- 32:22you've got all sorts of stuff. You get to meet a less popular
- 32:26president for the US. There's loads of stuff going on.
- 32:29I mean, I'll question if they are actually that scary, you
- 32:31know, but we'll get what? No, they're terrifying.
- 32:35I'm not particularly scared to talk to anyone.
- 32:37I never particularly was. But they're a good monster,
- 32:40aren't? They, I think in the second
- 32:41episode where they glisten them up and have them in the dark and
- 32:44they're being picked out by a torch light.
- 32:45That's really when that one's standing there, brightly lit
- 32:48toilet and it looks like a man in a rubber mask.
- 32:50I'm going, well, you know. When you get a monster that can
- 32:53do something a bit different, which they've got.
- 32:56I think don't blink, don't walk into the shadows.
- 32:59Yeah, but it doesn't matter if that's is like, yeah, you can,
- 33:03you can really make that the derivative of his ideas, but.
- 33:07Hideous console. The best console.
- 33:10That is a terrible console. This is my favorite console.
- 33:15What's wrong with you? Know what this console is?
- 33:19This console is the 11th Doctor. It's trying so fucking hard to
- 33:22be quirky. Not.
- 33:24Being eccentric. It's it's so big.
- 33:27It's so many places to go. It really feels like it goes on
- 33:30and on and on and. Underneath it, Underneath.
- 33:34It is pretty cool. They they built it into the
- 33:38Torchwood set because they've blown the Torchwood set up.
- 33:41And is it the beginning of the mirror?
- 33:45Yeah. I'm about I've just bought a
- 33:49Miracle Day on Blu-ray and I'm about to revisit for a.
- 33:52Revisit do you know, I think and I've I'm patient and I've tried
- 33:57to do Miracle Day two or three times in the past five years and
- 34:00they always just seem to stop around episode 6 or 7.
- 34:03So I just don't really have this.
- 34:05Memory of how it ends, no, apart from a massive vagina.
- 34:09But I find it vastly underrated Miracle Day.
- 34:13I don't remember finding it bad and then I just stopped watching
- 34:17it. It's got the most shocking
- 34:19twist, so I can never remember. And I'm not gonna say cuz you
- 34:21ain't seen it yet, Dylan, but the end of episode 5.
- 34:24Formed three to this day, yeah. I haven't seen it since original
- 34:27transmission and I cannot remember.
- 34:29All I remember about it is there's a paedophile that
- 34:31doesn't drive. It's that Celib on Spaceballs,
- 34:35isn't it? But.
- 34:43Console room, you know, reminds me, Maggie Facture designed the
- 34:46console room. It would be very like grass,
- 34:47Chrome, sort of 80s lighty. Thatcher Yeah, So you you screw
- 34:52up with the the classic stage maybe.
- 34:55Really So like. You saw you saying.
- 34:58No. So you sort of used to the tar
- 35:00that's being a bit more spaceshippy, like buttons and
- 35:03consoles. There was I I seen the the Chris
- 35:06Reckless and David said it one and this just felt like a
- 35:08natural evolution, but bigger and better in quirkier.
- 35:12So you must love the Jodie Whittaker bomb then, because.
- 35:15Yes, not the dildo anything. Favorite console?
- 35:18I'll have you know Luke Malloy? Is the TV Movie 1 the most
- 35:21impressive of all? It's good, but it's not.
- 35:25It's it's more of a church than it's all this console, isn't it?
- 35:28Just of a conference room than a console.
- 35:32Yeah, I mean, it does look like a weird exhibition center
- 35:35somewhere, doesn't it? Convince my phantoms signing.
- 35:42Yeah, I. The the weird thing about the TV
- 35:45movie one, which I You're right, I love.
- 35:47But I sit there and I look at those shelves full of books and
- 35:50stuff like that and I get a bit with the the Capaldi one as
- 35:53well. It's like the Tardis is always
- 35:55spinning around and being hit by stuff.
- 35:56I don't want anything on shelves in those rooms.
- 36:01Like you know, when you like on boating holidays and things like
- 36:04that, and you have to strap everything down.
- 36:05That's what it should be like one thing time Lash had, right,
- 36:08you know? It's bigger on the inside than
- 36:10now. It must have stabilizers in
- 36:12there somewhere. Yeah, true.
- 36:13Really true. But you know, it's always
- 36:16shaking it. Can we address River Song,
- 36:19please? And just how ghastly that
- 36:21character is? You want to undress River Song?
- 36:24Address. Because that's in the Series 6
- 36:28trade there. I don't mean that.
- 36:30I don't think she's ghastly. I think she started really
- 36:33strong. I think she ended really strong.
- 36:35I think we got a bit of River Song fatigue somewhere in the
- 36:38middle. You know, one of these people
- 36:40that think. She's crapped on TV, but she's
- 36:43brilliant and big Finnish. Are you?
- 36:44You're not one of those. No.
- 36:47Well, she's just a generic strong fever.
- 36:50Very boring, actually. A big Finnish story.
- 36:52Yeah, she's just the Doctor, but with a different voice.
- 36:57I just think maybe the show was a little bit obsessed with her
- 36:59for a couple of seasons and it got a bit wearying.
- 37:02Do you know what? I don't mind her being there.
- 37:04I think she's a great character. I love the chemistry she has
- 37:07with Matt Smith. It's slightly uncomfortable in a
- 37:09fantastic way, but I I think the thing that pisses me off is
- 37:15about her constantly going, oh, I've got a secret.
- 37:18It's like just fucking tell her. Yeah, it just gets a bit tired.
- 37:22Yeah, I think she's really. River Song spends half her time
- 37:26talking in inscrutables. Talks like that, Do they?
- 37:30But it's a bit like, what were you saying about this service as
- 37:34a whole? As soon as you starts answers
- 37:35about her, as soon as you get to the Let's Kill Hitler in the
- 37:38window of songs, it just becomes a little bit insufferable.
- 37:41And then when you go back to it, just being in a story like The
- 37:44Angels Take Manhattan, I know what we've just said.
- 37:47The dynamic name just take my hand, it's so much better.
- 37:50Because I know someone did it on YouTube.
- 37:51Has anyone ever tried to watch her stories in?
- 37:53Yeah, I've done it. Me and Chris did it in a day.
- 37:58I've got, I've got it on my WordPress.
- 38:00The order. Yeah, we had to.
- 38:03We had to watch A good Man Goes to War or bits of it three
- 38:06different times because she. Because she's the.
- 38:10Baby. And then she's at the fair, and
- 38:12then she turns up at the end. How did it fare?
- 38:16Chris was like like oh this is a revelation.
- 38:19This is you can really see a characters about.
- 38:21I don't think it's quite that. I think it's a bit garbled, but
- 38:25it's an interesting thing. You don't want to.
- 38:27I found it just about. It almost is like watching a new
- 38:30series of Doctor Who because you've got a new series opener,
- 38:33a new finale and that it's that in itself is interesting.
- 38:38It's like season 6B hidden within season six, 5-6 and
- 38:43seven. Where do we end with her then?
- 38:45Is it? Name of the Doctor.
- 38:49Yeah. Is that our final?
- 38:50Is that after she's dead? Yeah.
- 38:53Because I was never sure about that.
- 38:54It's when they've all gone in that weird space, isn't it?
- 38:56It's all a bit trippy. Yeah, she's been like dream
- 38:59lunch from the from the library computer.
- 39:02Right. I don't think I ever picked up
- 39:04on that. Just me saying she's
- 39:06intolerable. I do like this bit though, you
- 39:08know, when she can pilot and do everything with the TARDIS and
- 39:10he's really shit. Yeah, he goes.
- 39:12Did you do something? She's like, no, I was just
- 39:14watching you, sweetie. I was one of the fans.
- 39:19It was furious about being in time of angels.
- 39:23The brakes line, the brakes on, It's furious.
- 39:28It's a great line, but you cannot reconcile it with.
- 39:32You know, the history of the thing and all other targets.
- 39:35It's the sort of thing, John, they can turn in and put in the
- 39:37newspaper in 86 and just get that's.
- 39:40Right. He just had to say, look, I was
- 39:43doing it on purpose all this time, all right?
- 39:45Now I love this, this moment where he sneaks into the Oval
- 39:49Office. Yeah, and I love that we we're
- 39:51seeing a lesser talks about U.S. President as well, you know?
- 39:56Is there a reason for that? It was a bit of he did some
- 40:00dodgy things, but then most of them did.
- 40:01Right. Isn't it just because it's set
- 40:03in 1969? Exactly.
- 40:06But you didn't have to include the president.
- 40:10That's true. Our biggest issue with Nixon in
- 40:12this is that I'll keep seeing Adam clouds from Jonathan Creek
- 40:16every time. Yes, he's really good though.
- 40:21What is Adam Klaus or? Is it?
- 40:22No. Well, it's both, but I think
- 40:23he's really good as Nixon. I do like it, but I don't like
- 40:27Murray Cole. So every time he plays that,
- 40:28every time he walks in the room because you know what?
- 40:34There's a bitting day on the moon where you've got Amy being
- 40:37menaced in the orphanage and then it goes to Nixon and his
- 40:40comedy music, and then it's Amy. I'm like, this is a bit jarring
- 40:45there. Comedy, horror.
- 40:47What am I watching? So I got a minor grind here.
- 40:52I hate the tallest being invisible.
- 40:54I just. I think it's brilliant.
- 40:55I hate it. I think I hate invisibility in
- 40:59general. When when Capaldi gets out
- 41:01watching The Caretaker, I'm like, what the fuck?
- 41:04Why have you not used this in every other adventure?
- 41:07It just winds me up. I guess it does beg the
- 41:10question, why not just always materialize invisible, yes?
- 41:16Why have a chameleon circuit if it's invisible?
- 41:19Yeah, I know we've seen it in the.
- 41:20Invasion. About in the invasion, And
- 41:22that's. It.
- 41:23I know we've seen it in The Invasion, but that's fine.
- 41:25It's a gag, isn't it? But it's actually being used.
- 41:29For what reasons? It.
- 41:30What I don't like is his lines here about the phase and the
- 41:33charge. Brilliant.
- 41:37I get it. You're quirky.
- 41:38Move on. Street maps to Florida.
- 41:41It's the sort of thing people point out Chibnel and say.
- 41:45Oh, he's making Jody Whitaker say quirky things all the time,
- 41:47whereas it's 10 times. I thought this before when when
- 41:51I put that comment on the chat, I hate that bit in Spy for when
- 41:57she says snap. I think it's the worst joke.
- 42:00It's just it's not funny and it's just it sums up all the
- 42:04cringe that I have with her and the character.
- 42:08And I realized that this is the identical of that and I love it.
- 42:14I like that. You know, sometimes you just get
- 42:16to accept it. You're a hypocrite.
- 42:17I think we're both Chibnil and Moffett, right?
- 42:19And I think Moffett's a funnier writer than Chibnil.
- 42:22Oh, he's a comedy writer, isn't he?
- 42:25Essentially. Chibnil's comedy is based around
- 42:28like the smallest bits of a human language I.
- 42:32If you come in one more time, all right, no, I'll get my best
- 42:39laugh ever when she goes. How Long's a rail?
- 42:42I love that so much. You're all mooming beings in the
- 42:48Ghost. Come on, it's not good.
- 42:53It's. Just not told him.
- 42:55Oh no, but that is awful. It's nothing to do with me.
- 43:02I didn't write it right. I think Canton fancies the dog,
- 43:09so you know. It's going up.
- 43:11He's getting married. You can still fancy other
- 43:14people. Oh, good point.
- 43:16What do you think? I'm here to know it cause.
- 43:18The Moffett characters. When they fancy people, they
- 43:21want to fuck them the night before the marriage.
- 43:22So you. Have to do this.
- 43:26It's like you're trying to annoy me.
- 43:29What? She could do no wrong.
- 43:31I hate that scene so much and I love that too far.
- 43:35Also, maybe that maybe they've got an open relationship, or
- 43:38maybe they've got a deal that she could go and have one last
- 43:41fling with her imaginary. Friend some sort of open
- 43:44relationship if she was a kisstogram and they were
- 43:46together. Yeah, she wasn't a kissogram.
- 43:48She was a prostitute, that's what.
- 43:51I'm just saying I'm just on the Doctor Who Transcript website
- 43:55and it doesn't say prostitute. No, but it's inferred kissograms
- 43:59don't exist anymore. You're paying someone to come
- 44:02around to your house and give you a kiss.
- 44:03They're doing a lot more than giving you a kiss.
- 44:08In lead word. In a.
- 44:12Very small village. Our.
- 44:17First glimpse of the silence there.
- 44:19Oh no, it wasn't. That was back on the beach,
- 44:21wasn't it? The worst thing about the
- 44:23Silence, and I'm glad none of us have done it yet, is the joke
- 44:26everyone makes about the Silence, about forgetting that
- 44:29they've seen them. You know, just like generally
- 44:31the BBC Twitter account makes them and stuff like that.
- 44:33Oh, did you see that? I can't remember what we did
- 44:36there. Sorry.
- 44:40Much can say the biggest issue I have with the silences, how do
- 44:42they do with the little buttons with those massive fat?
- 44:45Fingers. And they're always wearing
- 44:48perfectly buttoned suits. But I guess they just influence
- 44:52humans to put their their shirts on, pull them.
- 44:57I think the biggest issue I have with The Silence is how they
- 44:59completely rewrite them in time with the Doctor and suddenly
- 45:02they're all priests. And now that was just an evil
- 45:06faction of the Silence of doing their own quirky.
- 45:08I don't mind that. That's something Moffett does,
- 45:10isn't it? He retools monsters so that
- 45:13they're interested again, even if it if you start comparing it
- 45:18to the original appearance, it might be to the detriment.
- 45:22I I thought this thing here, though, right where the woman
- 45:25walks in. And sees it and then says the
- 45:29same lines again. It's so economically gets across
- 45:33what they're about, and Moffett does that brilliantly.
- 45:36This whole script I think is the most economical Moffett script.
- 45:40It might not be the best or my most favorite, but in what
- 45:43respect? In the respect that is balanced
- 45:46in the beginning of the story arc, these brand new monsters?
- 45:50The whole America thing, A main cast of 4/5?
- 45:56Well, you're full like and they're all equal and they've
- 45:59all got their own stories going on.
- 46:02It's there's so much going on. It's very clear what's going on
- 46:07and it's it's a ride. It's absolutely hoop the whole
- 46:10way. I think you're right.
- 46:11Like one of the things we say a lot about the Chipmel era is
- 46:15inevitably when there's four people in the TARDIS to another
- 46:17doing fuck all. And the you never really get a
- 46:21sense of that during this season when you've got the four
- 46:24companions. Yeah, but that there's something
- 46:28to be said about because River Song pops in and out that is
- 46:33that's how you balance it because you then then it's like
- 46:36oh River songs back. And I think someone said years
- 46:39ago if Yaz had like maybe not come aboard instantly and then
- 46:45come aboard in the records in the UK, you would have had like
- 46:48then three episodes for Ryan and Graham to build.
- 46:50And they like oh Yaz is joined now and that's the new thing and
- 46:53it's just it would have been just a better balance.
- 46:56Yeah. No, I think you're right.
- 46:58I mean to be facetious, but you know when those silent scream,
- 47:02their mouths do look like an old man's asshole.
- 47:04Didn't. They.
- 47:05They. Do fuck her up, lads, Yeah.
- 47:11See, I think I thought that looked like a lot of latex
- 47:14there. Whereas I think in the next
- 47:15episode when they bring the lights down and they glisten
- 47:18them up a bit and you know, when they're sort of or is it the end
- 47:21of this episode when Rivers exploring?
- 47:24Yeah, they they do the same with the Slatheen, don't they?
- 47:27And boom, town, you're suddenly like, oh, they that's a.
- 47:29Lot of Latex, Dylan. It's a lot of latex, but they
- 47:33just they're wet, aren't they? Or I was about to say she's wet,
- 47:36but. Don't think of a net bad line
- 47:40wet. We won't sleep tonight.
- 47:46That's up, baby. That episode, so much.
- 47:51Wow, we're talking about that. And, you know, props to them.
- 47:58Like, let's remember the first time Doctor Who went to America,
- 48:02and the second The Chase and the Gunfighters, where there was
- 48:04nary an American actor in it. Dreadful accents where you can't
- 48:09really get away with that now it it feels authentically America,
- 48:12even though this is all shot hard if.
- 48:14Yeah, I mean, look what they did in Daleks in Manhattan like.
- 48:18It just. Yells on an H sweetie.
- 48:23It's. No funny business.
- 48:27What do you? Mean creatures?
- 48:32Please make your point if. You were going to invade
- 48:35someone. My God, it has to be New York.
- 48:43It's why they'll never bring Perry back in the new series,
- 48:45cuz you can't put that accent on BBC One.
- 48:51We live in a time they brought. Ace back.
- 48:53They brought Tegan back, They bought Mel.
- 48:54Jesus, it's gonna. At least Bonnie Langford.
- 48:58Has gotten an acting credit in the last 10 years.
- 49:02She's going to be a revelation. I can't.
- 49:04She's going to be amazing. Everyone's been a bloody lover.
- 49:07The thing about the thing that makes sense about metal is that
- 49:11she's effectively a blank slate, isn't she?
- 49:13You can you can create a character there whilst making
- 49:16fans happy. Yeah, we can.
- 49:18We can frochet a Big Finish and boy do I, despite the fact I've
- 49:21got a podcast about it. But she's effectively honed that
- 49:24role in Big Finish. Yeah.
- 49:27Sorry, nothing at all to do with the impossible Astro.
- 49:30But I mean melting the zeitgeist right now, which is weird things
- 49:34to. Say I've beaten the MEEP.
- 49:38I thought Doctor Who was going to die at the service.
- 49:41Rusty Davis plays it safe. Beat the Meep.
- 49:45No, I do agree though, RTD had to play it safe, didn't it, in
- 49:48the first couple of years to get it.
- 49:50And it wasn't just a case of getting the zeitgeist.
- 49:53I think it was just a case of money and budget and getting it
- 49:55done. Whereas now it doesn't have that
- 49:58problem, so it. Really interesting.
- 50:00Just bring back Bonnie Lang. And beat the V.
- 50:06Justice for Sarah. And Kate, let's not forget.
- 50:09Oh God, I mean. I don't have Catherine Tate and
- 50:11Bonnie Langford in one scene and have some fabulous ginger joke.
- 50:14You know, I'm surrounded by gingers and I've never been a
- 50:17ginger or something like that. Yeah.
- 50:18It's coming. I don't know what you can see in
- 50:20the background, but I've got my Mel Dapple figure just there.
- 50:24Is it the blue one or the pink one?
- 50:26It's the blue one, but I'm going to get the pink one as well
- 50:30because apparently I collect figures from the 1980s now.
- 50:34A pink one, you know. Used to have fabulous adventures
- 50:36out in my garden. You know, the daisies of death
- 50:38and things like that. She's.
- 50:41Also, mine lost her wig when I was a kid so I had a bold Mel,
- 50:47but you know she could double for mindwarp.
- 50:51That is scarier than the Silents could ever be.
- 50:56Now what do we think of this whole child in a spacesuit,
- 51:02which sounds like a Smith song? Because there's no context to
- 51:09any of it, I'll just I'm not quite sure what to feel about
- 51:11any of it. I I it's another random element
- 51:15in a. Yeah, I am.
- 51:17So it's it's cool as an image in a concept I think, but like.
- 51:22Yeah, she said at the beginning. Just don't think about it any
- 51:25longer than that. But I think it's, I think it's
- 51:29the cliffhangers really well teed up because this spacesuit
- 51:33shows up at the end with this child in it.
- 51:36And Amy's so distraught. She's just like, she's not
- 51:38thinking it's a kid. She's just like, that's going to
- 51:40kill the Doctor on the. I think it's it's it's it's a
- 51:43really good setup. It's made funnier in time, yeah,
- 51:47when you realize she's shooting her baby.
- 51:51I think Stephen Moffett's kids watching this season, with all
- 51:54these kids being killed off, should be a bit scared.
- 51:58He has. He does have a bit of a habit of
- 52:01doing it this year, don't he? Is it exactly.
- 52:04There's a habit of just parents and children, isn't there?
- 52:08You've got Avery and and his son and you've got like, night
- 52:11terrors and we don't. Talk about night terrors, those.
- 52:19Peg dolls in the trailers and stuff.
- 52:21I was like, oh, that's going to be a good.
- 52:23And then you know it's a night terrors and you're like, what's
- 52:26this about love saves the day again.
- 52:29So I. Yeah, it's it's shy.
- 52:35Sharp terrors as it's more common than.
- 52:40So I wonder if you gentlemen could care to maybe explain the
- 52:44plot of series 6 to me then? So effectively River Song, yeah,
- 52:48as a child. Is taken by Madam Kavarian.
- 52:54Is that right? Yeah.
- 52:55And trained to be an assassin to murder the Doctor.
- 52:59She's like, brainwashed, yeah. Yeah.
- 53:02And she she put in that astronaut suit.
- 53:04Well, the brainwashing fails and let's kill it there and she
- 53:09becomes like normal again. Then she goes to Luna
- 53:12University, but then. It's still in there anyway.
- 53:16Yeah, because because there's a fixed point or something, they
- 53:20shove her in the space seat. But the space, it's automatic.
- 53:25So they don't particularly need an assassin, but we forget that
- 53:27bit. The child's in there is life
- 53:29support, right? Yes.
- 53:33And it's like to use your per Time Lord energy as it were, I
- 53:36think. Oh, this is all the doing of
- 53:38Madame Cavarian and the Silence, yeah.
- 53:40Yeah, to stop the doctor reaching Chancellor.
- 53:44Yeah. Yes.
- 53:46I don't know if they ever really talk about that much in the
- 53:48season. No, I don't see.
- 53:51No, but he did. He did.
- 53:54Moffitt did say that the plan was always the 11th Doctor is
- 53:58fighting a battle. That's all that he he's been
- 54:02blamed for a battle that he he fought fights in the future,
- 54:06essentially. That's very confused.
- 54:10You want to see my male action figure again?
- 54:14With detachable. Hurt.
- 54:18You wouldn't be the first man to offer me his male action figure,
- 54:20you. Know did we miss we've missed
- 54:24the river saying I'm quite the screamer.
- 54:26There's a spoiler for you, which even for a Moffett line, is
- 54:29quite on on the like edge of the watershed, surely.
- 54:34Yeah. Do you remember what you said in
- 54:37So I'll go completely away from this now but in Let's Kill
- 54:40Hitler if only set up males as a character earlier that that
- 54:44would all make sense if she'd appeared at the wedding and.
- 54:47I think people would remember it better.
- 54:48But he did do that in serious life, because you remember in
- 54:51Tyler Angels and Flesh and Stone when he had Matt Smith turn up
- 54:54the older Matt the end of the season.
- 54:56So we can't do that sort of thing.
- 54:58Yeah, But that's. Two 2-3 years.
- 55:00Yeah, I think that's the difference.
- 55:02And I think with each successive season he's got less time and in
- 55:05Series 7 he's doing this and Sherlock he's got no time at
- 55:09all. And I mean, it's not too
- 55:14dissimilar from Bernard Cribbins not being in The Runaway Bride.
- 55:19No it's not. It's more just those thing of
- 55:22like. If she had been there.
- 55:24It does feel so random and let's go here now.
- 55:27Yeah, it it does feel a bit more.
- 55:30I think it's because you get, you don't get like a 5 minute
- 55:33scene at the beginning of part that's in Crime of Wolf growing
- 55:36up establishing himself as the paperman from Voyage at the
- 55:40time. Do you?
- 55:42Know where, when Let's Go Hitler started.
- 55:47I wasn't thinking, oh, Mels is going to turn out to be River
- 55:50Song at all. No.
- 55:53Or me. It was just when it was revealed
- 55:56I had more questions than I did satisfactory answers, Which is
- 56:00series 6IN general, yeah, if only we, we could sort of divert
- 56:04that post van from delivering the Time Traveller's Wife to
- 56:07Stephen Moffett's house that day.
- 56:09He could have done without any of this, couldn't we?
- 56:12I wonder what he'd write about. A Doctor Who would be so much
- 56:15worse for it, if that. You, you open my eyes to that.
- 56:19Whereas I've always sort of have been quite hard in all of this.
- 56:22But you're right. If he hadn't gone down and maybe
- 56:26some of it didn't work, you know?
- 56:28But he tried and he was ambitious and I really admire
- 56:31him for that and that some of those episodes in there, it's as
- 56:34bold as Doctor Who's ever been. Yeah, I mean, you know, he had
- 56:38to do something different to Russell T Davis as well.
- 56:41And I think Series 5, especially with the format and stuff, is
- 56:44still sort of quite like an RTD series.
- 56:47This is the first one where it's like, right, I've got the
- 56:50confidence now. I've got the backing now here's
- 56:53Moffett. See.
- 56:54I think they just all the the trade off is and I don't think
- 56:57it was detrimental to the survival of the show is he did
- 57:01lose a portion of his audience because of it.
- 57:04Yeah, but whether that's just the audience getting bored with
- 57:07a show that's been on for so long.
- 57:09Well, we'll see when the 60th hits if those numbers can come
- 57:12up again. I don't.
- 57:13They will come up for that. They will, but I don't think by
- 57:16much. I think they'll go up by a
- 57:17million and if there's if there's a really big like climax
- 57:21to those specials, you might see a couple more.
- 57:23But I don't. I don't see Doctor Who's ratings
- 57:26game back to over sort of 6 or 7,000,000 again.
- 57:29Oh no. And I think, like, I don't
- 57:31think, yeah, they think that'll happen with the 60th and then
- 57:34the sheet is going to be lower than the 60th, I would imagine.
- 57:38It depends on what metric we're then rating it by, because who
- 57:41knows. I mean we're we're rating it by
- 57:43whether Disney Plus cancel it and write it off against taxes.
- 57:46I think at the moment if we if we can't get a DVD box out of it
- 57:51and it's not on any streamers, you'll know the.
- 57:54Churches and my. Grade Whatever happens, those
- 57:58people will be there, pressing refresh on the Sunday moment
- 58:01when the ratings are coming in, ready to bash their keyboards
- 58:04and go. Doctor Who is doomed.
- 58:08Thing about the spaceship in the lodger in this.
- 58:12It's all tied up together. Yeah, because they get because
- 58:16they. You remember that, though?
- 58:21Does it matter? It's just a random spaceship
- 58:24that you don't know. And if you do know, it's a cool
- 58:26connection. The signs get booted off the
- 58:30planet here, and then there's just one leftover above James
- 58:33Corden's flag. People, stop being logical,
- 58:34please. I like them.
- 58:38And it's a cool design, you know?
- 58:39It's a bit hard to see it's. I saw some concept designs of a
- 58:43TARDIS that would have been in the 90s that looks a bit like
- 58:45that console. Yeah, yeah, I know what you
- 58:47mean. And one with the thing coming
- 58:49down from the ceiling. Yeah, Mike Tucker's design.
- 58:53Will we ever get Spider Daleks one day?
- 58:56I reckon. I reckon it's inevitable.
- 58:58Even though they're shit, it's inevitable.
- 59:01I mean, can I do spoilers for what they're filming at the
- 59:04moment? Of course.
- 59:06There's this whole thing. I mean, it was trending on
- 59:08Twitter the other day that they were saying, and this is where
- 59:10the Daleks are going to come in. So they're obviously CGI Daleks.
- 59:13So I'm going, if it's not the props, what is it?
- 59:16CGI. Spider Daleks.
- 59:19Nail and shooty on a moped running away from I mean.
- 59:23I did see that, yeah. Yeah.
- 59:25Oh well, lastly, they put it up. Didn't.
- 59:27They of course. It's an orange moped as well,
- 59:29right? I do think it's a cool.
- 59:35Thing I know we're like this is 10 minutes ago, but the phone
- 59:39call with it being Jefferson Hamilton and you think that's
- 59:44the the kids name but it's actually the only place in
- 59:47Florida we see that's clever. That's typical moffet
- 59:50cleverness. Yeah.
- 59:52But somewhat less cool, I thought, was the kid on the
- 59:55phone, because I was just getting echoes of the empty
- 59:58child and then going well. I wish I was watching that.
- 1:00:03It's not. It's not similar though, is it?
- 1:00:05It's just a kid. On the phone, the idea is
- 1:00:07exactly the same. You got a kid on the end of the
- 1:00:08phone. It's just a kid on a phone,
- 1:00:10though. Yeah, kids use phones.
- 1:00:15You know what? I don't think they do anymore.
- 1:00:17They use mobile phones, but I don't think they make cool.
- 1:00:19But this is 1969. Oh, OK, fair enough.
- 1:00:22Fair enough. I do like I'm melodramatic, This
- 1:00:26cliffhanger. It's like this brilliant, this
- 1:00:28slow mode. Everything is your life.
- 1:00:33I think this is very well shot because I when I first watched
- 1:00:36it, I was it ended and I went what happened?
- 1:00:42Then I realized what happened and I went, oh, that's ghastly.
- 1:00:45She just murdered a child do. You think the episode was
- 1:00:48overrunning. So they were just like, we need
- 1:00:50to under running, we just need to slow down this bit.
- 1:00:55Possibly Very. Yeah.
- 1:00:58Look, here we go. He's slightly.
- 1:01:05Confused, I mean. In fact, the music was great in
- 1:01:07this hot. Oh God, yeah.
- 1:01:09I mean, you've got that, obviously.
- 1:01:11You've got the, the theme of the 11th Doctor, that the.
- 1:01:16American one that. That was great.
- 1:01:21It's. I mean, it's prime time, BBC One
- 1:01:24of the Murdering kids as a finger.
- 1:01:27What? What do you want from your
- 1:01:28doctor? Her.
- 1:01:28And he does it again in Series 9, and actually one of the
- 1:01:31favorite series. Yeah, it's true.
- 1:01:34I just like to see kids get murdered and Doctor.
- 1:01:36Very, very. Good, guys.
- 1:01:38Our question if we should be going there, but maybe that's a
- 1:01:41conversation. Do you just like, do you like
- 1:01:44serieses that start with finales?
- 1:01:46Because that's basically what, 69 and 13 all day?
- 1:01:50I I I think I like big openers, and I like big openers, not
- 1:01:57openings. Come on.
- 1:02:01Oh, you say it last week, all right.
- 1:02:04And I like interconnected plots. I'd really I'm bored of Doctor
- 1:02:09Who as an anthology series, and I know we're not going that way,
- 1:02:13but I just. I just don't want Doctor Who to
- 1:02:15be a monster of the week. I'm not into it.
- 1:02:19But this is still like season six is still anthology, isn't
- 1:02:22it? Yeah, but it's it's there's
- 1:02:26enough running through it to keep me going, basically.
- 1:02:30Is there some sort of middle ground that would just you just
- 1:02:33prefer it to be? I want it to be Flux, but Flux
- 1:02:37is still slightly anthology. Yeah, I mean, you can do.
- 1:02:41I'm not saying that it should all be set in one place at one
- 1:02:44time. But no, no, I just want.
- 1:02:47I just want a continuing story. But flux like you've got the two
- 1:02:50ends of the spectrum of like War of the Sun torrents, which I
- 1:02:53think it's the balance, right and Once Upon time which is?
- 1:02:58Water flux like an influx. Survivors in the Flux and the
- 1:03:03Vanquishers. That's all flux.
- 1:03:05Yeah, yeah. But that's the finality.
- 1:03:07So it's sort of like. I'm not in charge of Doctor Who,
- 1:03:11so you don't have to worry. He's got some bold ideas if he
- 1:03:14is, though. I take the agree with the one
- 1:03:17about like if we were to DEFLUX we might as well have made it
- 1:03:20worth something. So a raise in the original
- 1:03:23universe would have solved every fans like.
- 1:03:27Nightmare every time something, anything, happens in the dark,
- 1:03:32the universe. If you goes back and see
- 1:03:34Shakespeare, you don't have to think about the Shakespeare code
- 1:03:37or all the other Big Finish plays or anything, because it
- 1:03:40would have been a new universe. This is the new.
- 1:03:41Universe where things are just a bit off.
- 1:03:43So yeah, I would have. Much preferred.
- 1:03:45That. I also just can't take.
- 1:03:49Like with any credibility, earth being invaded and people being
- 1:03:52surprised anymore because it gets invaded about once a month.
- 1:03:56And this time they were like, you remember that, you know, the
- 1:03:58spaceship over in Big Bend and all.
- 1:04:00Of this. I did one thing, you know, you
- 1:04:03said about you like a condensed star.
- 1:04:05So I started thinking, like, how will this play out if it was the
- 1:04:08Impossible Astronaut Day of the Moon?
- 1:04:10A good man goes to war. Let's kill Hitler.
- 1:04:13And the wedding of River Sol. And that was the season.
- 1:04:17You have to have the gang or two parter in there.
- 1:04:21Condensed into one part. We'll make it 6 episodes, like
- 1:04:26the flat or seven. I love that.
- 1:04:29And I remembered what I thought of all those episodes and I just
- 1:04:31thought, no, that sounds absolutely ghastly.
- 1:04:34I like it. It's not.
- 1:04:35It's not as bad or as as boring as people say It's it's
- 1:04:39perfectly watchable. Nice Doctor Who.
- 1:04:42Yeah, the gang is the great, the gang the one.
- 1:04:44The two-part are the almost people.
- 1:04:46Oh, you're mad, the pair. Great.
- 1:04:49Great TV series. There's one thing that's
- 1:04:51extremely refreshing about this two-part though is that they
- 1:04:54actually, there's a bit of light in it because you watch the rest
- 1:04:57of this half of the season. No, no, I mean but in terms.
- 1:05:00No. It's so dark.
- 1:05:03So it puts me off getting the DVD off the shelf or putting an
- 1:05:06episode on because I just think it's so dark apart from, yeah, I
- 1:05:09should say this one. Which is the opposite.
- 1:05:12Sorry got it I. Was just going to say that's why
- 1:05:13they moved Night Terrors. It was supposed to be in an
- 1:05:16earlier slot and they moved it to the second part of the season
- 1:05:19because they were like, there's too much darkness and.
- 1:05:21Yeah, but these short certificates and black.
- 1:05:24Spots. That's annoying.
- 1:05:25That's all set annoying. It is, isn't it?
- 1:05:28I suppose that's weird. That's very weird.
- 1:05:32Oh well. Terrible choice anyway.
- 1:05:35A bad episode with a bad episode.
- 1:05:37I always think I've always thought, well, no, in my
- 1:05:40teenagers, if I was to do a story, I could do like him.
- 1:05:44He loses the TARDIS at the beginning and he, you know, he
- 1:05:47has to go find it. And then I realized that that's
- 1:05:49all the Divergent universes and it's very hokey.
- 1:05:53And actually there's a place in Doctor Who for just having a
- 1:05:56little seed in the TARDIS every episode.
- 1:06:00I I've always thought what they did in the the BBC books where
- 1:06:03the Doctor has to the the Tarbis is out of play or whatever, and
- 1:06:07the Doctor has to live through hundreds and hundreds of years
- 1:06:10in a linear fashion and you just pop in every sort of 100 years
- 1:06:14to work. That sounds great.
- 1:06:16It was 6 books set throughout the 20th century and it worked
- 1:06:21amazingly well. I've always had the idea of
- 1:06:24jumper we have in a cottage. I'll teach, yeah.
- 1:06:32Cottaging was all the rage in the 70s.
- 1:06:35I can't think of Annette Badland wet and John Pertley cottaging
- 1:06:38in my past. All right, Jesus Christ.
- 1:06:43And on that note, shall we skipping today at the moon.
- 1:06:47Let's do it. Let me get it.
- 1:06:49We're ready. Before we do that, can I go grab
- 1:06:52another? Drink.
- 1:06:53Yes, I'm doing the same. Thing.
- 1:06:55Exactly. All right, I'll see you in a
- 1:06:56second. Back in the.
- 1:06:58Moment that was so much fun. Thanks guys.