Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Robert Valentine about his choice of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (4/4)

Transcript

Talks to Robert Valentine about his choice of The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (4/4) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

• 0:33
  I'm so drunk. Hello, and welcome back to a
• 0:42
  hamster with a blunt penknife. I've dried up and sorry, Joe,
• 0:47
  help me, throw me around now. It's fine.
• 0:49
  It's fine. Yeah, yeah.
• 0:50
  Welcome back. We're talking about Doctor Who
• 0:53
  and my name's Rob. He's Joe and it's it's the
• 0:58
  greatest show in the galaxy. And yeah, does that one in the
• 1:03
  world for the worst intro? Oh my head.
• 1:06
  It could, it could, it could it? You should have heard me when I
• 1:12
  when I first started trying to say a hamster with a blunt
• 1:15
  penknife, I had a few mishaps. I'm gonna say is get on.
• 1:19
  When you when you appear on my my personal podcast app of
• 1:22
  choice. It just says hamster with a
• 1:24
  blunt which I just fighting to, hey, Leslie, hilarious.
• 1:28
  You got people may say this ridiculous bloody title to as
• 1:31
  well as it's very it's a great title.
• 1:34
  It's he's all yours. Why do I try to think it's like
• 1:37
  memorable and then to have a song about it as well is just
• 1:40
  Alice. Yes, but sorry dilys.
• 1:42
  This is happens with want a knife.
• 1:43
  He's Joe, I'm Rob as a terrible introduction but just so, you
• 1:46
  know where we are. That's oh yeah, we're having a
• 1:49
  marvelous time talking about this.
• 1:51
  Most just were they were confused because I feel the
• 1:54
  wheels are coming off now and it's my fault.
• 1:56
  So, not at all. Do you know, I have a point to
• 2:01
  make about Sylvester McCoy. And I've often said, I disagree
• 2:07
  with myself now, but I've said a few times that I McCoy is a
• 2:11
  stronger performer than he is actor.
• 2:16
  Both right? You're both right.
• 2:18
  I think he's more comfortable when he's performing, then when
• 2:22
  he is acting because I think sometimes he he's a, I'll call
• 2:26
  him, a dangerous actor because you never quite know what you're
• 2:29
  gonna get with it. And sometimes he can go over a
• 2:32
  cliff and sometimes he delivers magnificently, that's what he
• 2:37
  is. I think I can't I can't take my
• 2:42
  eyes off him. Yeah, he's my doctor, he is my
• 2:46
  doctor. But I do, I think in episode 4
• 2:50
  of the greatest show in the Galaxy.
• 2:51
  I think he is, it's his most comfortable performers in his
• 2:55
  entire run and that is because he gets to do what he does best.
• 2:59
  He goes out in that ring and he gets to perform and I think he's
• 3:04
  just incredible. He is phenomenal.
• 3:05
  And the this is I know you'll ask me later because I've heard
• 3:08
  this podcast before. Why people should go out and
• 3:10
  listen, I'll save it for then I'll save it for them because
• 3:14
  otherwise I'll have run out. Anyway, yes, I'd be out of it.
• 3:18
  I haven't touched a drop by the way.
• 3:19
  This is just me at 9:10 of an evening every evening.
• 3:23
  So you said to me there's something you object to in this
• 3:26
  episode as well. I'll there is when we well
• 3:28
  that's going to be okay, it's not object to.
• 3:31
  I just kind of think it needs a bit of fine-tuning but we will
• 3:35
  get will get to it. Okay.
• 3:36
  Well, let's go then, shall we? I'm going to count as in in
• 3:40
  five. Four, three, two one, I'll
• 3:45
  flash, I love this. I love this body, actually
• 3:49
  watches them along with listening to us.
• 3:51
  I think they just listen to them.
• 3:52
  I live in as anyone out there that I couldn't, yeah, because
• 3:55
  we're doing that thing. We're not talking about the
• 3:57
  episode properly, which is this is a I've turned this into a
• 4:00
  terrible commentary, but it's a fun chat.
• 4:03
  So yeah, sure. They're ever proper common
• 4:07
  trees, you know? And they accept it.
• 4:09
  When you, if you listen to any of the the actors doing the
• 4:11
  commentaries on these things, they just go off on Mad,
• 4:13
  reminisces, Tom Waits. The show doesn't stop for these
• 4:19
  little do versions and something.
• 4:21
  On the diversions are what it's all about.
• 4:24
  I think as well just taking in the context of the show as a
• 4:27
  whole it makes the conversation more interesting, too.
• 4:33
  Okay, Max is turning into a werewolf.
• 4:36
  She is, it's not just reading. I was just trying to special to
• 4:41
  me reading the captions. I told you she was an unusual
• 4:45
  child. This is where that cloud is
• 4:47
  earning his fee. And there's a, you know, there's
• 4:51
  a shot in a minute that puts the wind up me every time I see it.
• 4:55
  It's a whacking. Great zoom in on the little girl
• 4:59
  and she looks up and her eyes are green?
• 5:02
  Yes. Yes.
• 5:04
  With the fact, the family we haven't really talked about it.
• 5:08
  It's kind of easy to forget them in a way but the family just a
• 5:10
  really great conception What is that you sparing me as well?
• 5:18
  Yeah. And it's them because there are
• 5:20
  there are 1950s family, aren't they?
• 5:22
  So they like the visually they are the original BBC demographic
• 5:29
  can that's kind of the vibe. They give off even if the
• 5:34
  metaphor of them being the general public doesn't hold up.
• 5:37
  I still I still think the fact that the gods are fans makes
• 5:41
  more sense to me. Here, then again is reading too
• 5:45
  much into these metaphors, a good idea.
• 5:47
  Or should you just now listen, have you ever read the book
• 5:49
  running through corridors know, okay.
• 5:53
  Was written by Robert Schumann and Toby, hey, do cry time.
• 5:55
  I'm aware of it is, I do not know it.
• 5:57
  Yes. Yes, I'm a man.
• 5:58
  Now, they go back and they review Doctor Who with an eye
• 6:04
  for detail and reading things into things.
• 6:06
  Now, Toby, how you don't says the terrorists sticks in one of
• 6:10
  these, one of the commentaries, you know, Was this, you know,
• 6:15
  the three stories you wrote here was this, you know, like a
• 6:17
  detailing, the Earth Empire in the future and all this, all
• 6:20
  this stuff that fans read into things and terroristic stones
• 6:23
  from goes, no, we were just put in a show out fans.
• 6:27
  They can read anything into anything.
• 6:29
  It's what we love doing. You know what?
• 6:31
  Exactly isn't it to us? You know, reading stuff into
• 6:33
  stuff is half the fun of watching anything.
• 6:36
  It's, you know, it's the were visit.
• 6:37
  And also I do think that that Stephen White is very Very good
• 6:42
  at creating a sense of a wider World beyond the confines of the
• 6:46
  actual story is if he's very he is he's he's kind of, you know,
• 6:51
  he's got that honestly, I don't see if he's got that Robert
• 6:55
  Holmes thing because it's not it's like people to make homes
• 6:58
  in double axe. I kind of like they'll fuck.
• 7:00
  He didn't invent the fuck Jesus, did it before anyway.
• 7:08
  So it's not homes in thing. But that's the other thing
• 7:10
  Doctor Who fans do is write as me.
• 7:12
  Cap cliches like that. Yeah but it's Steven why it's
• 7:14
  very good at building a universe beyond the story and I think his
• 7:20
  style of doing it's not too dissimilar from the Russell T
• 7:23
  Davies style either but there's a lot of a lot of early new who
• 7:28
  in the late in the McCoy period that just I really like him.
• 7:33
  Both great showing the Galaxy and in Paradise Towers he
• 7:36
  details a lot of what's happened before.
• 7:40
  We enter the story. And then at the end in both
• 7:44
  stories he offers an optimistic future of what's to come.
• 7:47
  You know, that's why I kind of think if I could change just one
• 7:51
  thing about this story, it's that Wizkid should live.
• 7:57
  I'm reason she said in the last one.
• 7:59
  Yeah. But whiz kids should survive and
• 8:03
  this, but with the scales fallen, from his eyes about
• 8:06
  circus. So he should have a, you know,
• 8:08
  he should come out to the story. No longer no longer with stars
• 8:14
  in his eyes. But with amateur sober,
• 8:18
  understanding, some kind of some kind of loss of loss of
• 8:22
  Innocence. But but a gaining of wisdom and
• 8:25
  I think it's a really good in more optimistic for fans as well
• 8:29
  because it had no killing Wizkid.
• 8:31
  Yes, it might have been an exorcism at the time.
• 8:33
  If it's very cynical though, doesn't it feels what it feels
• 8:39
  like. The beginning of feels like a
• 8:44
  show that knows it's on the way out rather than a show with a
• 8:47
  future that's kind of wishing with you.
• 8:50
  Because like this could have been a great springboard for
• 8:53
  things to come. It was a shot of mags there in
• 8:57
  her, like fluorescent paint in stock lighting.
• 9:00
  I think some of those like you said, sign up blocking is
• 9:03
  really, but I was watching that as he was kind of jumping about
• 9:06
  the setting that and is clear that they just don't have the
• 9:09
  space to Shoot this, how they will perhaps Tuesday, I think
• 9:13
  actually. Yeah, you're right.
• 9:14
  I think it's the lack of set it having it in a big ring is the
• 9:19
  way spatially to prevent mags from just killing the doctor
• 9:23
  outright. But the ring is too small and so
• 9:26
  that therefore the see no longer makes sense that she wouldn't
• 9:30
  just take three steps and kill him.
• 9:32
  If they were, if they were 15 20 feet apart, Here we are on
• 9:37
  location. I see struggling with the bus
• 9:39
  conductor. This looks amazing.
• 9:40
  It looks incredible. Yeah, this is this.
• 9:42
  This is the stuff that really sells the production.
• 9:46
  The bus conductor, we haven't, we haven't, discussed is a
• 9:49
  fantastic monster. So memorable.
• 9:53
  The way, the way he blows up in a second in slow motion is
• 9:56
  incredible. Yeah, you kind of think God,
• 9:58
  goodbye, a say goodbye to your eardrums because that would be
• 10:01
  yeah. Yeah, I've got that.
• 10:05
  That Ace Book Rishi Red Room right with Mike Tucker about the
• 10:08
  special effects that they talked about in length about this
• 10:11
  sequence. Apparently debris from that bus
• 10:14
  Patrol bus conductor will spread far and wide.
• 10:18
  This is, this is a great era for it.
• 10:20
  This is this the era for explosions in must who is and,
• 10:23
  you know what, go and watch the Babel color McCoy era tribute,
• 10:28
  or he plays it to the music of oh good grief, what is that film
• 10:33
  called? It's the film Great Outdoors,
• 10:38
  know when it comes to Washington where the mothers taking drugs
• 10:41
  and she's having all this room is really dark film yours.
• 10:47
  No, no, we're gonna very controversial for anyway, it's
• 10:51
  Place immediate from this film that, I can't remember the name
• 10:54
  of and it's he does one explosion after another, in this
• 10:59
  trailer. That's great.
• 11:02
  And they just go like, remembrance alone.
• 11:04
  Is Full of explosions on that. What the hell?
• 11:10
  This is what, this one will get, will get the explosion in this
• 11:12
  one and a bit. What's that?
• 11:15
  The oviatt, the explosion. Oh, yes, he will guess?
• 11:20
  Yeah, this is creepy with these deep voices, we want more.
• 11:28
  That's a fan talking. That's not a general audience,
• 11:30
  talking in my head and notice how the chief Cloud just slips
• 11:34
  away from them. They know they're on their way
• 11:36
  out now. Yeah, that's thing.
• 11:38
  He is totally. Ligaw na.
• 11:39
  I'm just one of the robots. That's kind of where, you know,
• 11:42
  if I if I can If I can divest myself of my Humanity as much as
• 11:50
  possible and just become a meat or Thomason, I might survive.
• 11:55
  She said the way you did the hand movement there as well as
• 11:57
  yeah. It's going to take them but he
• 11:59
  looked a bit shocked and now he's smiling.
• 12:02
  Yeah. Aye sir.
• 12:04
  He's so good. He really he really conveys the
• 12:07
  interiority of a character who could other who could in the
• 12:10
  wrong hands. Just be evil clown can you ask
• 12:15
  her a question for me because on one plot point that I'm just not
• 12:18
  too sure about so that I it was on the bus.
• 12:21
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 12:24
  Did be. It's like the pupil doesn't he?
• 12:27
  Yeah, knees. It's Minds cleared.
• 12:30
  Yeah, well, what's going on there?
• 12:32
  I don't know. But how is this?
• 12:36
  Get their hip either? A hippie circus back in the day.
• 12:39
  Yeah this is this is all like this is what I get from the TV.
• 12:42
  This will give me. I'm so your hippie circus back
• 12:44
  in the day. You know you collect anc's and
• 12:47
  you know different other new agey paraphernalia he comes
• 12:50
  across some kind of Medallion or symbol some kind of All-Seeing
• 12:54
  Eye thing. It's just A bit of a bit of it's
• 12:56
  just a fun hippie knick-knack, but it's got some kind of
• 12:59
  significance. He's curious about where it
• 13:01
  comes from. He comes to the second acts
• 13:02
  where there are monuments to the Gaza Ragnarok.
• 13:06
  He comes across the dark circus, as he calls it went, once his
• 13:11
  mind is restored. He meets the gods of Ragnarok.
• 13:14
  He's entertainment, craved deity's.
• 13:17
  And that's the end of the circus.
• 13:18
  Hmm. And that's it.
• 13:22
  If you want to ask me how, the end makes sense, I can't because
• 13:25
  I don't think it. I don't think it makes sense in
• 13:27
  a traditional logical, sci-fi story sense.
• 13:31
  It makes sense on a symbolic fantasy magical Adventure sense.
• 13:36
  I think, I think in story terms with this is this is something
• 13:40
  that would be completely anathema for the sixth doctor.
• 13:43
  And even the fifth doctor, even though bid meet stuff is Magic,
• 13:46
  it's not Science Fiction, it's magic.
• 13:48
  Yeah. But this just Overtly
• 13:50
  mythological stuff is brand new for the Seventh Doctor.
• 13:56
  I'm again, that's another reason.
• 13:58
  Why, it's awesome. And I live for this stuff.
• 14:01
  Look at him, it this is a man who has commanded audience.
• 14:05
  Yeah, audiences in his time. Yes, you're overweight is just
• 14:09
  in his element here and this, it's so nice.
• 14:12
  Again, the production design is great.
• 14:15
  They look amazing. I love how they improvise in a
• 14:18
  minute because it actually started raining on location to
• 14:21
  somewhere, quite just gets his Broly out and just laugh.
• 14:24
  Always that, where that comes from Yeah.
• 14:27
  Yeah he's pick him out again. Well so you know since episode
• 14:32
  one? Yes she's completely.
• 14:33
  So she seems insulated from the danger because she's in no she's
• 14:38
  not interested either way. So and she seems to have been
• 14:41
  totally left alone. She's just a local, she's kind
• 14:43
  of like totally underneath their radar.
• 14:46
  It's just an interesting thing. Thats not commented on, it's
• 14:49
  just seems to be some kind of fact.
• 14:51
  I think the gods of Ragnarok look.
• 14:54
  Are we gonna clean out my? I started Okay, look, great.
• 14:58
  They look amazing. But I think we and yeah, and now
• 15:01
  we find out. He's fought them all through
• 15:02
  time and they, he's now in their true space-time.
• 15:08
  Is there one story this season? Where I would, I have this
• 15:11
  Patrol way? We don't allude to the doctor,
• 15:14
  you know, doing something back in time.
• 15:17
  Remember that? Yeah, this this is the yeah,
• 15:20
  yeah, this is. That's the exception.
• 15:22
  But you're so entertainers or die.
• 15:24
  Now here's my, we're coming up to my problem here.
• 15:26
  It's a very subtle one, but he entertains them.
• 15:30
  He's been practicing magic and they're not entertained, and
• 15:35
  they're bored and irritated, and they shoot Bolt.
• 15:38
  Hot, but they don't kill him. I kind of think it would and
• 15:42
  that that a bit like mags in the ring like and wondering why you
• 15:46
  should just kill the doctor this dramatically.
• 15:49
  I kind of feel that there's some there's no reason for them not
• 15:52
  to. I think the way it might have
• 15:53
  been might have played better. Is if they want to kill the
• 15:57
  doctor, I'm going to come and they're going to, we're going to
• 15:59
  fucking kill you. But then he starts entertaining
• 16:02
  them and they just can't not enjoy.
• 16:06
  They want the attainment more than they want to kill him, and
• 16:09
  he's actually entertaining them. I kind of think that the scenes
• 16:12
  would have played a bit better if him entertaining them is the
• 16:17
  thing, stopping them from killing him.
• 16:21
  I think. Yeah.
• 16:22
  I think just that little subtle adjustment would have just yeah,
• 16:27
  maybe if like the first bolt they fired.
• 16:30
  That's what he's got. You know, the eye and he can
• 16:33
  reflect them then that absolutely makes us.
• 16:34
  But yeah you're right. They fire one just over his
• 16:36
  shoulder, don't they? As if to say you know do better
• 16:38
  than that or you're going to die.
• 16:40
  Yeah, but yes I just I do kind of think it feels.
• 16:45
  It's like padding it just feels like there's a little emphasis
• 16:50
  Willing to bet as well, you know, Christian better tricks in
• 16:53
  this in this time some of these tricks are a little bit like if
• 16:57
  you seen his kind of his Ken Campbell Road Show era stuff
• 17:01
  where he's staying a few clips on YouTube.
• 17:03
  Yeah. Sylvester McCoy that you know,
• 17:05
  the human bomb and like yeah, but like you're tapping at the
• 17:08
  secret policeman's ball. He's like tapping Nails into his
• 17:13
  into his nose and stuff like that.
• 17:14
  It's great. Yeah, you should have done
• 17:16
  searched our houses. I wouldn't ya doing that?
• 17:20
  Honest. They are this things marvelous,
• 17:22
  the, when he dies, doesn't he like screams.
• 17:28
  Oh yes it is. Flat-out killed him.
• 17:31
  Yeah, yeah. What your marks they Works,
• 17:36
  doesn't it? I love that robot.
• 17:39
  There's so many parts of this story that normally don't work
• 17:42
  at all windows. You shit robots in our time.
• 17:44
  You know. But a robot family.
• 17:45
  Yeah. I think I think it's a brilliant
• 17:48
  script by Steven wire and it's and the production values bring
• 17:53
  it to the screen. I just I think it's a really
• 17:56
  great great example of and like the first episode I think this
• 18:03
  last episode has a real flow and Pace to it as well.
• 18:09
  I hope to get more than music. You know, the bit where he says
• 18:13
  here this piece of metal and it belongs to a sword, and that's
• 18:17
  what the hell was that all about again.
• 18:19
  Don't I think the thing is, don't look for any kind of B
• 18:24
  median sense to it. It's not it's not that kind of
• 18:28
  story. It's the doctors come here
• 18:30
  expecting to find them. He knows like with, you know,
• 18:35
  fent later on with fenric. He's, you know, he's met them
• 18:37
  before. It's just in just in its it's
• 18:42
  symbolic and it's magical and it's a Merlin E-Type situation.
• 18:48
  It's not that kind of story, it's not science.
• 18:50
  Fiction, this is this isn't science fiction, this is
• 18:52
  fantasy. Is terrible but I've never seen
• 18:55
  him. Look a United when he's doing a
• 18:57
  little jig to the classical music.
• 19:01
  Yeah, yeah well that's the thing.
• 19:03
  What they don't realize is not, he is fucking with you, he is
• 19:05
  going to. He's yeah, you're Immortal, but
• 19:08
  he's going to kill you, you know.
• 19:09
  He's not trowel thing. Isn't it a lot?
• 19:11
  He's actually a dog bugger but he's playing the clown, you
• 19:14
  know. Oh yeah.
• 19:15
  Yeah, yeah, exactly. You can't take your eyes off
• 19:19
  him. That's the thing about this
• 19:20
  doctor. He's so Full of energy and he's
• 19:25
  unpredictable and he and he's anarchic the character as played
• 19:29
  by the Seventh Doctor is an anarchist and he's played
• 19:32
  anarkalis, wonderful. As I do think as well, they're
• 19:35
  saying a little bit too neat about the fact that the second
• 19:39
  inning is that I to deflect the Rays, that's when they get it to
• 19:42
  him, you know. Oh, yeah.
• 19:44
  Yeah. Again it's it's you have to kind
• 19:47
  of receive it in a cut. It Smith is fairytale, it's not
• 19:53
  it doesn't quite happen in our sort of reality, but only just
• 19:59
  in terms of with its many similarities with Paradise
• 20:02
  Towers because you know, they're both these wonderful Places that
• 20:10
  have fallen to ruin because of some evil in the basement,
• 20:15
  literally or metaphorically and everyone who was part of it has
• 20:19
  become corrupted. And in both stories you have
• 20:23
  with the chief caretaker and with Captain Cook, they both
• 20:25
  returned from the dead to perish in part 4.
• 20:29
  And yeah, it's just, it's, he's got a, he's got a little formula
• 20:34
  going on as Stephen White and I do think, I think My stylist has
• 20:39
  a neater in script terms and neater and more satisfying
• 20:46
  climax though. Yes.
• 20:48
  Yeah. Basically, the all those
• 20:49
  individual elements coming together, their individual
• 20:52
  strengths, then being used bring down the village.
• 20:55
  Absolutely. And it's just about one thing.
• 20:58
  This, this story is about, arguably, it's about two or
• 21:01
  three different things. Paradise Towers is about the
• 21:04
  effect of brutalist architecture social housing on Deities, the
• 21:09
  weight destroys it. That's what it's about, because,
• 21:12
  because it's just about one thing, it feels it's cleaner and
• 21:15
  tidier, okay? Hang in there, and it's like
• 21:19
  this in terms of the production is just, it's a better, be
• 21:24
  serving. Yeah, but this is one of those
• 21:27
  ones that doesn't always bring him back to imagining what
• 21:30
  Paradise Towers might have been like if a been executed like
• 21:34
  this, you know, but this really shows how how Find the new idea
• 21:40
  of the show. The production has become.
• 21:45
  Yeah. Crackling.
• 21:48
  Do I have your full attention? You're right?
• 21:52
  They could literally killed him at him.
• 21:54
  Yeah. And that.
• 21:55
  But that's why I think him entertaining should him and
• 21:57
  saying them should be the thing that stops them from killing
• 21:59
  him. But like fenric.
• 22:03
  I just imagine these, you know, great epic bowels through time,
• 22:07
  you know, I think, I think they get the mythology part, right.
• 22:10
  You know, they they make it feel big.
• 22:13
  Exactly. Yeah.
• 22:14
  And it's interesting, but never explored that there the gods of
• 22:17
  Ragnarok Ragnarok being the Norse Twilight of the Gods.
• 22:23
  Nord is based on Thor. The the Marvel for Norden, this
• 22:28
  is based on him and obviously in the curse of fenric, Frederick
• 22:31
  was the wolf. Ooh, secretive Devour yggdrasil.
• 22:36
  The world tree in Norse mythology.
• 22:37
  So, there seems to be kind of a Norse mythological thing,
• 22:41
  running through the Seventh Doctor era.
• 22:43
  It's just we, you know, dogs who is best.
• 22:46
  Always pulls in, doesn't it from other sources?
• 22:49
  Yeah, I think I think it was Richard Stone over on them fight
• 22:53
  through entirety. So that doctors always at its
• 22:55
  most interesting when it's about other things and he's right.
• 22:59
  Yeah, it's and that in that. Totally the case here.
• 23:02
  And it's it's always most fun when it's drawing.
• 23:06
  It sources from other things rather, than from itself.
• 23:08
  That's when it kind of disappears.
• 23:10
  Episode backside, Richard stone is a staggeringly intelligent,
• 23:14
  man, you know, he really I'll, yeah, I love, I love listening
• 23:19
  to him. There's another moment there
• 23:22
  that when I was younger watching, this really frightens
• 23:25
  me and that is when Captain Cook goes.
• 23:27
  Oh, I am I dear? I am when she says he'll You
• 23:31
  were dead. There's just something.
• 23:33
  So it's yeah. It's actually it's just in these
• 23:35
  scenes here where we get, we get the kit we get the backstory
• 23:40
  from Kingpin and Captain Cook to various degrees sarcophagus face
• 23:46
  but yeah there. Yeah, you know this was 7:30 But
• 23:54
  that whole kind of bringing him back from the dead.
• 23:57
  So that feels like a bit of a weird extra as well.
• 24:01
  Yeah, I I'm always loaf. I do wonder if it's just that
• 24:07
  kind of one of those things that you do or what I did supposing.
• 24:11
  I did it in Paradise Towers. But that make more sense then.
• 24:15
  But yeah, I mean, it's another parallel, wasn't it?
• 24:18
  Yeah. But I don't quite get, why
• 24:22
  Captain Cook. Why Captain Cook comes back at
• 24:26
  whose agency? It said, I do think that I can't
• 24:31
  point at any part of TPP McKenna's Performance and
• 24:35
  criticize. I think he has to be mcalary's
• 24:37
  in history. Brian.
• 24:40
  I were you but it's an absurd part, isn't it?
• 24:42
  But yeah. Oh yeah yeah buddy please.
• 24:45
  But he's having a mess fun with it whilst at the tech same time,
• 24:49
  delivering a proper nuanced, well-thought-out performance, do
• 24:54
  you know, there's a very interesting parallel, you can
• 24:56
  make it where you talkin about how Are committed to the
• 24:58
  production cause at the end of Frontiers.
• 25:02
  Do you remember? When, like there's all the stone
• 25:04
  in the Tardis and the graph is starts having a bit of a
• 25:07
  breakdown? Yeah, and it just all sort of
• 25:09
  vanishes and it looks a bit terrible in comparison.
• 25:13
  This, which is kind of similar what was going on.
• 25:16
  This is like it's all done in slow motion.
• 25:19
  It genuinely feels like the place is falling apart.
• 25:22
  Yeah, it does. And also it's really helped by
• 25:25
  Marquez again yeah. It's Yeah, Marquette Marques is
• 25:30
  really holding a lot of this together.
• 25:35
  I mean this is this is a model work is it?
• 25:36
  This is all practical effects that's but that's but that's I
• 25:39
  think that's them collapsing the set.
• 25:41
  I think. Amazing.
• 25:44
  And it, look at that shot with the moon behind the, the 10, and
• 25:47
  the explosion, your explosions there.
• 25:50
  And that, yeah, that one shot is, that's the Seventh Doctor in
• 25:54
  one image or just walking calmly away from chaos.
• 25:58
  Yeah, the of his. Yeah.
• 25:59
  Job job done. Business concluded, ass handed.
• 26:05
  Yeah, with a Swagger with his stick unflinching.
• 26:09
  It's just, yeah, that's, that's him in one shot.
• 26:12
  And for my money, this is one of those moments was like yeah this
• 26:16
  is this is as good as the show got This ends say yeah, I like
• 26:22
  it very much. I love.
• 26:24
  How kind of optimistic it is. I think it just ends on a
• 26:27
  terrible joke. It's not quite the wicked
• 26:33
  moment. At the end of ghost light.
• 26:35
  Is it? It's it feels like it.
• 26:37
  Caught something wrong but I don't know.
• 26:39
  It just feels a bit awkward. Yeah, yeah, it's it happens.
• 26:44
  Sometimes though when you try to render script but it doesn't
• 26:47
  quite have the grace note. It could have done some, I mean
• 26:52
  Paradise Towers ends with pecks lives, you know which is just
• 26:55
  yeah. Yeah this is maybe just lacking
• 26:58
  that I can think the ending. Imagine just descending had had
• 27:03
  Wizkid. Been also been there and had
• 27:05
  somehow played a part and then come out the other side.
• 27:09
  No longer idolizing the psychic circuit.
• 27:11
  However understanding it for what it was.
• 27:14
  Yeah yeah. I think that would have worked
• 27:16
  really really well. Well, Rob attentive, it's not.
• 27:21
  Um, well, listen who know how this works.
• 27:25
  I'm not going to have to tell you, but I basically need, we're
• 27:27
  going to have three apiece reasons, why somebody should go
• 27:31
  and watch, great showing the Galaxy at moment.
• 27:32
  We've talked about in depth, but let's summarize our thoughts.
• 27:36
  You first, then me and we'll go back and forth, okay?
• 27:39
  Number one, it's a perfect, it's an exemplary piece of
• 27:43
  stand-alone Seventh Doctor. That is a great reason.
• 27:49
  I've got this small now I've and I know you don't I'm gonna I
• 27:53
  know, I'm going to be a bit more obvious.
• 27:55
  I'm going to say the direction of Alan wearing which is pacy,
• 28:01
  it's full of memorable, set-pieces it improvised.
• 28:06
  So that makes it even more impressive.
• 28:09
  I think this is one of the there are some awkward moments but in
• 28:14
  terms of memorable image, it memorable images.
• 28:17
  A try saying that drunk. It's one of the best top toes
• 28:22
  back to you. It's one of the best Doctor
• 28:24
  Who's with one of the best ever scores by Marquez.
• 28:31
  What did I just say? What are yours is a fantastic
• 28:36
  score. Okay then I am going to praise
• 28:40
  the best of McCoy to the High Heavens because I can be quite
• 28:42
  critical sometimes and say this is one of his most confident for
• 28:46
  mercy. Has in his realm of.
• 28:48
  So yeah, yeah, he owns it in this one completely.
• 28:52
  It's me now, isn't it? Ian, Reddington is one of the
• 28:57
  great villains in Doctor Who even though it's not the biggest
• 29:00
  of Parts. What it is, is absolutely
• 29:03
  perfect. In the piece, in which it takes
• 29:07
  place. There we go.
• 29:08
  Yeah, and I, for my very last one, I am going to say, I want
• 29:16
  to make it a goodie. Oh yeah, it's like you talked
• 29:19
  about in episode one is. I think it's a it's a perfectly
• 29:24
  chosen Doctor Who Quarry but like for once it just feels
• 29:30
  genuinely like an alien planet exotic and and vast yes warm
• 29:36
  well Quarry Dorset really contributing to the production
• 29:41
  as one of the great alien landscapes in classic who is in
• 29:44
  the same Quarry, survival. I think it might be Be.
• 29:47
  It looks so different in survival.
• 29:49
  Yeah, it does. Doesn't it?
• 29:51
  It looks like a different planet.
• 29:53
  Yeah. Wow.
• 29:55
  I've got one more. Have I got one more.
• 29:56
  Is that if you go? No, no.
• 29:58
  Do I have a mortgage? So I'm just running as many as
• 30:00
  you want. You can keep going or no, I
• 30:02
  said, well, it's got that. Wow, what do we have?
• 30:05
  It's got the same bus as Delta and the bannermen 8.
• 30:09
  That's a lot tickly to seeing this a bus used twice as as much
• 30:14
  of a draw, but it's a fact. Okay, well and I'm going to say
• 30:18
  the this is so Random the extraneous robotic characters
• 30:23
  that are Parker for out this story or to know what.
• 30:26
  Yeah, you're absolutely right. Yeah.
• 30:27
  This is actually the robot that comes out the sand and my
• 30:31
  favorite of all the most expressive robotic, clown ever
• 30:34
  committed to film, he is amazing.
• 30:38
  It's a good. It's a good.
• 30:39
  Robot story, great, robots, or and you got to remember in the
• 30:43
  80s. They gave us that Dreadful
• 30:45
  Terminus robot, but we're not too far away from that.
• 30:48
  Awful Federation, security. Robot, that was in Blake's 7.
• 30:51
  I don't you ever watch that. I I'm up to, I was called the
• 30:56
  randomly on UK goal blood and working my way through
• 30:58
  studiously. Since I wrote One, the big
• 31:01
  finish. So I start I'm on, I'm on
• 31:04
  season. See the moment?
• 31:07
  Yeah, there it is. Gonna piss, definitely jump the
• 31:09
  shark. But I'm still.
• 31:10
  I'm still on persevering still you get rumors of deaf.
• 31:14
  Hear that period rooms a deaf children of our on.
• 31:17
  Yes I have yes, yes. Yeah, it's great.
• 31:20
  They're all good, it's good stuff.
• 31:22
  It's good stuff, although we are not doing the Blake's 7 podcast
• 31:25
  so I'm going to get us back on track.
• 31:28
  Okay, well Rob I can ask you this question because it's
• 31:30
  pretty determined where we go next which see what we see next
• 31:35
  time. Do I feel really really lucky in
• 31:37
  that With the choices you put before me we having we're
• 31:42
  leaving second acts and we're off to do some time in Sharda
• 31:50
  and I can't I can't believe I'm getting to do a shot of with
• 31:52
  you. That's I'm so looking forward to
• 31:55
  that one. Why don't you tell it was
• 31:56
  secret? And people don't ever believe me
• 31:58
  when I say this, but I will explain this in more depth.
• 32:01
  When we talk about it, shorter is my favorite of the three,
• 32:05
  Douglas Adams stories. That's an interesting one will
• 32:08
  discussed at the time because I often think it's mine until I
• 32:13
  get to about episode 5 anyway. Welcome my powder dry.
• 32:16
  I'll keep my powder dry. So I think, yes, well, I just
• 32:19
  leaves me to say. Thank you very much for your
• 32:22
  time that this has been a fantastic commentary art.
• 32:26
  It's been so much fun. Thank you for asking me on man.
• 32:29
  It's been really good and I'll just say until next time.
• 32:32
  TTFN