Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Ken Moss about his choice of Robot (1/4)
Transcript
- 0:33Hamster with a Blum pen knife for doing quicker.
- 0:37Quicker. Quicker.
- 0:37Welcome back to A Hamster with a Blum Pen Knife, the Doctor Who
- 0:40Commentary Podcast. I'm here today with the man that
- 0:45I consider has the sexiest voice in all of podcasting, Mr. Ken
- 0:51Moss from The Extra Moss Experiment.
- 0:53Hello, Ken. Hello Joe.
- 0:55It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you.
- 0:57You know what I did earlier? Can I confess something to you?
- 1:00Go on. Oh, there's nothing about
- 1:01masturbation. Don't worry, I went online and I
- 1:04found some audio clips of you on YouTube.
- 1:08You know, reading poetry. Oh my God, I do do that.
- 1:12It does happen. I started sending it around to
- 1:15friends and saying listen to this voice.
- 1:18This fellow's coming on my podcast tonight as he got the
- 1:20sexiest voice you've ever heard. I'll tell you what, there's a
- 1:23load of men out there right now. I've been raging hard ONS
- 1:26listening to you on YouTube. Well, yes, Speechless you.
- 1:33Speechless already. Yeah, that's going to be an
- 1:36interesting podcast, isn't it? I have actually done that.
- 1:40One of the proudest things I've done.
- 1:41This was a lockdown thing. Have written the rest of
- 1:44thoughts on a clock. OK.
- 1:47And it's been on BBC Radio, Lancashire and all.
- 1:49I watched one where you were doing about the adventures of a
- 1:52carrot. Oh, Kevin the carrot.
- 1:54I did that for my partner's daughter.
- 1:56Yeah, it was really, really lovely.
- 1:59First of all, how are you tonight?
- 2:00I am tickety Boo and a half. I've got gin in front of me.
- 2:03I'm presuming you've got some sort of beverage.
- 2:06Yeah, well, I've actually got a gin in honor of the X Moss
- 2:10experiment. I can't remember what it's
- 2:12called there. You know, I've got 5 bottles of
- 2:13gin as leaving presents from when I left my last job
- 2:17unopened. So I thought, right, I'll crack
- 2:18one open today. What are you drinking?
- 2:20I'm on Whitley Neil Connoisseur's Court.
- 2:23It was a gift from Paul Isles Rush.
- 2:26Well, he's my oldest mate. We've way, way back 30 odd
- 2:29years. We went to school together and
- 2:31we pod together. Now we do an LGBT podcast called
- 2:349 Bob Note. Well, I can't believe I'm going
- 2:37to go and seek that out now. Thank you very much.
- 2:40Even more of me. It's never enough and.
- 2:46How would you rate the gin that you've got come on while turning
- 2:48us into Exton Moss now? What in Bernards we must rate in
- 2:51burners, because you've had Simon Exton on before, haven't
- 2:53you? And he must have mentioned the
- 2:55Bernard scale. Dr. Simon Exon, He did fantastic
- 2:58marketing for your podcast and also a phenomenal 6 episode
- 3:03commentary on the web planet talking about its many
- 3:06strengths. I listened to that over a week,
- 3:09that series of pods, and I hate the web planet so much I just
- 3:14detest it. And Simon.
- 3:16And adores it. And we haven't got around to
- 3:19podcasting about that one yet. Yeah, I'm not looking forward to
- 3:22it. I'll probably completely change
- 3:24my view of it, because every time we've we've randomized a
- 3:26Doctor Who, it's actually, even though we've got memories of it
- 3:30being a bit shit, they're usually pretty good.
- 3:33What the gin helps as well, you know, especially when it's
- 3:35something like the Tomorrow People's A Man for Emily.
- 3:40Well, look, before we go into the story we're going to talk
- 3:43about today, can you just tell everybody if they haven't and
- 3:47shame on you if you haven't heard Exter Moss experiment what
- 3:51it's all about? The Exter Moss experiment is
- 3:54myself and Dr. Simon Exton. We're two mates from We Met at
- 3:57the screening of Roles in a pub in Liverpool in 2005.
- 4:02There was a fellow Martian moment.
- 4:03We hit it off and we've been having occasional weekends
- 4:06meeting up, watching archive TV that no one else would ever go
- 4:10anywhere near. And about 4-5 years ago he said
- 4:14to me one day said you were into this audio lock.
- 4:16Is there any way we can record our conversations for posterity?
- 4:20And I said, well, if we're going to do that, we might as well do
- 4:22a podcast. And so that's how it started,
- 4:24and we release one whenever I can get around to editing it,
- 4:29which is. Less and less frequent.
- 4:32You you say it's obscure television that nobody's ever
- 4:35going to watch, but as a result of listening to your podcast, I
- 4:39have now watched a number of highly idiosyncratic programs.
- 4:43So thank you very much for that because it's enriched my life no
- 4:46end. We educate, entertain and enjoy
- 4:49and. Get pissed.
- 4:52It's a brilliant podcast you haven't sorted out already.
- 4:56Go and listen to it, there's a great back catalogue.
- 4:59If we did well that will Simon be happy?
- 5:01I think Simon will be happy. I'm going to turn the tables on
- 5:04this and plug one of your of the podcasts.
- 5:06No, don't compliment me. Please, no.
- 5:08I'm going to you Wonderful Man Finish big.
- 5:12I have discovered this recently because I'm a big Big Finish
- 5:15fan. But you and your partner do
- 5:19every Big Finish recording ever released from the beginning.
- 5:23That's a task. And 1/2.
- 5:25But I bloody love your insights and it's also a trip for me down
- 5:29memory lane because you were going through a period at the
- 5:31minute where they were just starting and I've got very, very
- 5:35warm glows about that period. Remember that teen bop band
- 5:39Busted? They did that song the year
- 5:413000. Yeah, that's where Mark and I
- 5:44are going to finish Finish big. If we're covering every single
- 5:47thing they've ever released because there's a back catalogue
- 5:50now. So vast.
- 5:51I mean, I'm not sure we'll ever be done otherwise.
- 5:53Well, they're releasing spin offs by the day.
- 5:56I'm waiting for the Adventures of Pig being Josh the Ligopolis
- 6:01security guards. And they're.
- 6:05I'll buy it though. Do you know that's usually
- 6:07that's the trouble They know will buy this shit you know
- 6:10about what they bring out? The marvelous mechanical magma
- 6:13beast. It's only a matter of time.
- 6:18Well, look, thank you very much. It's my pleasure.
- 6:21What are we here to talk about today?
- 6:22What story have we chosen Between us to do a commentary
- 6:25on? Between us, we sort of
- 6:27randomized it because I did suggest that we should pick one
- 6:29completely at random. And it's come out as Doctor Who
- 6:33robot. That's Mr. Benton is the Doctor.
- 6:37You may be a doctor, but I'm the Doctor.
- 6:40What are we looking for? Something intelligent, whatever
- 6:43it may be, has stolen the plans for the new disintegrated gun.
- 6:46You want a better world then true?
- 6:48John gave it without some circumstances.
- 6:51The robot killed Chambers, lasted the safe open with a
- 6:54disintegrated gun and took the codes.
- 6:57So what can they do with them now that they've got they could
- 6:59set off every atomic missile in the world.
- 7:03They want to start an atomic war, Kill millions of people,
- 7:07cancel the refractor codes. When that reaches 0, the
- 7:12missiles can be fired, they're just once.
- 7:14I'd like to meet an alien menace that wasn't immune to bullets.
- 7:18I can't bring about the destruction of humanity.
- 7:25Before we go into episode one, what are your initial thoughts
- 7:29or what do you remember about Robot?
- 7:31I haven't seen Robot for years. I first actually saw it on DVD.
- 7:35I missed it on VHS. I don't remember being terribly
- 7:38impressed. It wasn't bad, it was just a
- 7:41little bit dull compared with pretty much everything else in
- 7:45Tom Baker's Wrong. I don't remember being too
- 7:48unimpressed by the tank that everyone goes on about, but I
- 7:51think that had actually been doctored for the DVD.
- 7:55But beyond that I can't remember a bloody thing.
- 7:57It's. Sort of like a hangover, isn't
- 7:59it? It's a pert wee hangover that
- 8:01just happens to start Tom Baker. Because Barry Letts is still the
- 8:04producer for this last story, Karen Sticks is writing it.
- 8:08It features Unit and sort of the team from the previous era.
- 8:12Tom Baker's era really starts in Ark, in space.
- 8:15Well, I watched Ark in Space recently and it's magnificent.
- 8:18I'm not sure you're going to be saying that about this at the
- 8:20end of Forest. You never know.
- 8:23Should we run Vt and find out? You know what?
- 8:25I'm raring to go Rev my engine. Oh, you.
- 8:29Dirty bitch that's. What I'm known for.
- 8:32You know what shall I count within two episode one?
- 8:34Go on then. All right, let's go then.
- 8:36In 54321. So I know very little about how
- 8:45you came to Doctor Who, and that's what I'm going to ask you
- 8:47about first. Doctor Who I was.
- 8:52Oh, a wee little baby. My very first memory of Doctor
- 8:56Who is, I think the five faces of Doctor Who, because I
- 9:01remember watching as a kid. The tard is falling off a Cliff
- 9:06with John Persweet and Katie Manning standing on a Cliff.
- 9:09Now I was only born in 1978, so it's got to have been a repeat,
- 9:12but my first memory of Doctor Who actually on telly was
- 9:17putting lane burning the very last shot of the visitation.
- 9:21And did you, like, watch every week?
- 9:22Were you? Were you a regular watcher?
- 9:24Oh yeah, all the time. Davison's what I grew up with,
- 9:27and I can remember pretty much chapter and verse.
- 9:30All of his episodes I remember. I remember seeing them, even if
- 9:33I don't remember specific details.
- 9:35Remember being terrified by Terminus?
- 9:39I did determine this Coventry last week.
- 9:41You know, I'm not sure you find it so terrifying these days.
- 9:44The very first one I bought on VHS, and I suppose it was the
- 9:48whole intention. It was after the 1992 repeat
- 9:51season. So I went out and I scoured and
- 9:54I said, right, I'm only going to buy Peter Davison's.
- 9:56And then I thought, well, I need to obviously buy the stories
- 10:00either side of the regeneration so that I've got it bookended.
- 10:04And then I bought Lagopolis and well.
- 10:07An ekeeper of tracking to understand this.
- 10:09And then it just spiraled from there.
- 10:10Oh fuck it. Never know where.
- 10:12This is going again. Did you buy the lot?
- 10:14I might have done, yeah. The only ones I did, I think the
- 10:17only ones I didn't manage to get hold of were Robot and Mask of
- 10:21Man Draggera, which I didn't see quite deliberately actually,
- 10:25until it came out on Bluray. And it's brilliant.
- 10:29What? The mask of man Draggera.
- 10:31Yeah, it's really good, isn't it?
- 10:33You ever been to Port Marion? No, although I feel that that's
- 10:36got to be on the list of places to visit.
- 10:40Meet in Portmerion and we'll remake the mask of Mandragra.
- 10:43There's a fabulous gay couple in that, You know, honestly, we can
- 10:45play those parts. That's just a modern reading
- 10:48into it. They're definitely not gay.
- 10:50And May God strike me down. Yeah, that was very Homo erotic.
- 10:56That was, it was OK. What is occurring in robot?
- 10:59We're getting some fabulous POV shots here.
- 11:02Oh, we are and. I don't know how they've
- 11:05achieved that shot, that point of view shot from the robot.
- 11:08Why you would build a robot that can't actually see, I don't
- 11:11know. That's not a weird frosted glass
- 11:13that you get. I mean, I just shoved that in
- 11:15front of the camera has it out though.
- 11:16He's. Got Pac-Man fingers.
- 11:22So I love the fact that they're doing the usual that kind of
- 11:25reveal of the monster throughout episode one.
- 11:27You know, sort of arms and claws and shadows and things like that
- 11:31to build up the suspense and even though it.
- 11:34Fairly impressively designed for the time.
- 11:37I don't know. I'm not sure if I would have
- 11:38just come straight in showing the robot doing this thing.
- 11:42We're better than the two Doctors where they introduced
- 11:44the monsters in Long Shot, yeah? That's Peter Moffett for you,
- 11:47though. Do you think Elizabeth Sladen
- 11:50would make a good Miss Marble? I can see it in that hat she.
- 11:53Flattering. Again from the 1992 repeat
- 11:56season, I've always had a bit of a thing for Elizabeth Sladen and
- 11:58she only got more attractive the older she got.
- 12:01How the fuck did the Brigadier get away with that haircut in
- 12:04the Army? Oh, he said.
- 12:05Very important at this stage, you know, He said.
- 12:07I'll be a hippie if I want to do anything.
- 12:12You are right there, you know. Did Elizabeth Sweden drink from
- 12:13the fountain of youth? Because I swear she just looked
- 12:17more stunning with every passing year.
- 12:19Well, by the time she got Sarah Jane Adventures, she was one
- 12:22stunning woman and very beautiful here, and she peeked
- 12:25on screen in the Hand of Fear. She was really gorgeous by that
- 12:30point. I think she just conclusive as
- 12:32well that the character had legs, you know, to go on and
- 12:35jump to her own show. Well, yeah.
- 12:37And it's a bit of a shame because Canine and company, I
- 12:40adore. I love that I watch it every
- 12:43Christmas Eve. I just think it's great.
- 12:45It's perfect Christmas viewing. If you listen to the commentary
- 12:48on that, though, everybody that worked on it absolutely tested.
- 12:51Oh, she's scathing about it, isn't she?
- 12:53Anything I can remember about canine and company is people
- 12:56going in and out of drawing rooms and being on the phone.
- 12:59You remember that fabulous woman, Juno Baker?
- 13:01Hello, my dear. Yes, come over if you're not too
- 13:04tired. She'll come and get she will.
- 13:10I've seen so many people use that for memes, you know?
- 13:14I'm fairly sure she was in an episode of 1 Foot in the Grave
- 13:17where they were running a hotel or something in the middle of
- 13:21nowhere that was actually they lured in strangers and said, oh,
- 13:24you can have the honeymoon suite for a special rate.
- 13:28And then there's this glass mirror in it, and everyone was
- 13:31behind it, just watching them romp away as she was playing
- 13:34very much the Juno Baker, but everything we've always thought
- 13:38about her. I'm wondering if that's her
- 13:40default setting, You know, that's that's all she ever
- 13:43played. Oh, can I just say, I think the
- 13:46chemistry between Tom Baker and Ian Martha in these early
- 13:50scenes, these sort of the manic energy between them when they're
- 13:53doing the skipping and singing and easily gets tied up by the
- 13:57Doctor. This is just gold.
- 14:00See, Tom Baker does hit the ground running, and I've always
- 14:04had the same view on actors who played Doctor Who.
- 14:07Colleen Baker's said that it's actor proof.
- 14:09I'm not entirely sure. I agree.
- 14:12Nobody's been bad at it, but some have been better than
- 14:15others. And I don't think you can just
- 14:17walk on screen and be Doctor Who.
- 14:20You have to have something about it.
- 14:22Some have had it more than others, but it's got to be said.
- 14:25Really. Tom Baker, I.
- 14:27Mean. I mean, he basically is the
- 14:29Doctor, isn't he? Or at least after he played it
- 14:32every time he's interviewed. I saw him a convention once.
- 14:35And he was on another planet. He was doing a panel where he's
- 14:39like, you know, would anyone like to ask me any questions?
- 14:42And people are saying, you know, oh, you know, who's your
- 14:44favorite companion actress to work with?
- 14:47And he's going, yes. Well, the thing about death is,
- 14:49you know, and he just didn't answer a single.
- 14:51He just went off into some weird fan.
- 14:53I mean, he's fucking barking, isn't he?
- 14:56Well, I remember seeing him on Have I Got News for you a long
- 14:59time ago, probably about 20 years ago.
- 15:01It was when Angus Deaton was still presenting and he he said
- 15:04that Tom Baker was the funniest guest they've ever had because
- 15:08he sat there just rattling on about his life.
- 15:11And he said, I went to her The Body Shop the other day and I
- 15:15asked for an air freshener. I said I live in the country,
- 15:19love, you know. Do you do new bread?
- 15:21No, you don't. You don't do new bread.
- 15:23What about freshly mowned grass? Oh, do you know what?
- 15:28He lives up the road from me. He lives in Rye.
- 15:30I'm in Eastbourne, So he's just down the train line from me.
- 15:33And he always goes on about hanging out in Waitrose and
- 15:36charming the people that work there.
- 15:38Oh, yes. On the day off, you know, I have
- 15:40been known to go down to Waitrose and hang around in the
- 15:42hope that he might turn up, but it hasn't happened yet.
- 15:44Why? Not because he is looking now
- 15:46very frail. He's in his 90s.
- 15:50No, he's 89 now. He's only 80. 9.
- 15:53OK, but if you look back ten years today of the Doctor, he
- 15:56was still this great. Big ball of a man because a big
- 15:59finish aren't recording with him anymore, are they?
- 16:01No, I've I've been reliably informed that he was making a
- 16:05lot of demands. He wanted the scripts to be
- 16:07simpler, but apparently they've got enough in the can to last
- 16:11until 2030, so you know their retirement fund is is willing
- 16:15there. I think once they got hold of
- 16:19him they thought right record these before he changes his
- 16:22mind. Or loses his mind one or the
- 16:24other. But you know what's interesting?
- 16:26On the DVD, there's a this weird documentary they did at the time
- 16:31of the read through of Robot, and they've got the footage of
- 16:34it, but they haven't got the sound right.
- 16:36And you can see everybody's having a laugh around the table
- 16:38and Tom Baker's there examining his script, not really talking
- 16:41to anybody. And clearly because, you know,
- 16:44this is where it started and he wanted to make an impact.
- 16:46But you sort of skip forward two or three years, You know, he's
- 16:49walking into the rehearsal room. He's going, who wrote this
- 16:52wicked shit, you know, And he's completely owns the show.
- 16:56But I think at this point, before you know, he knew he was
- 17:00popular because he could have bombed for a way.
- 17:02Oh yeah. And clearly put it in a bit of
- 17:04work. Because he was arguably the
- 17:07least known of the Doctors at this point, John Scott Martin.
- 17:13Demonstrating why for most of his acting career, he was not
- 17:17seen on screen. One of the complaints that Peter
- 17:20Davidson makes all the time in the behind the sofas is how
- 17:23actors have to manoeuvre themselves into the death grips
- 17:26of monsters and I think we've just seen that done beautifully
- 17:30by John Scott Martin. So what's he after?
- 17:33Oh, that's right, he's after the secret papers, isn't he?
- 17:35And the components to make the destructor gun, which sounds
- 17:39pretty apocalyptic. Yes.
- 17:41What should we call our massive weapon?
- 17:44Easy now. Easy.
- 17:46Get me started. I've never called it a
- 17:48destructor gun. Oh, so apparently this wasn't
- 17:51scripted. All of this with Tom Baker in
- 17:53the various costumes. I do love it.
- 17:56I mean, this is just pure comedy.
- 17:59Do you think I might attract attention?
- 18:01It's just possible. When we did time Meddler not say
- 18:05not long ago, it's probably about three years ago I did that
- 18:07now. There are some brilliant lines
- 18:10from Hartnell in that. One of them my favorite.
- 18:12What do you think this is? A space helmet for a cow.
- 18:15And it's just that dry delivery that anything with horns on.
- 18:19Now I can't look at it without hearing space helmet for a cow.
- 18:24Actually, I think that's a really great point.
- 18:25I think in the new series, you know they kill a lot of gags by
- 18:29playing up sort of that's sort of the style of acting now,
- 18:31isn't it? Is you put on a crazy voice or
- 18:34high energy, whereas back in the day they sort of downplay a
- 18:38comedy line and it's all the funnier for it.
- 18:40Yeah, I've been talking about this a lot lately.
- 18:44Stars of acting and how they've changed overtime.
- 18:47It's like an old fart going, you know, all the good old days, you
- 18:50know, when everything was just a bit melodramatic.
- 18:53But I do like this style of acting.
- 18:54I brought this up when we watched Power of the Doctor and
- 18:59you had Janet Fielding chewing the scenery with her 80 style of
- 19:03acting up against 21st century acting, which is a completely
- 19:08different discipline. And I said at the time that you
- 19:10watch any of the 70s or 80s Doctor Who's, there's a lot of
- 19:15quite overblown acting in it and it's just exaggerated to a
- 19:18point. It's not naturalistic at all.
- 19:20But it all fit because everybody's acting in that
- 19:23style. You sort of accept it now, but
- 19:25you take an actor out of that, put him in a modern program.
- 19:29All of a sudden that style jaws horribly, it's.
- 19:31That big way. Do you remember where she goes?
- 19:33And yes, I would like to go into the TARDIS.
- 19:36That's just Tony Whitaker. I love my head off for that.
- 19:40But I was like, oh, one thing I loved about that was Chibnall
- 19:43refused to make Tegan likeable. She's still a total cowbag, even
- 19:47in the future. I'm really not the best person
- 19:50to talk to. For a balanced appraisal of
- 19:52Chris Chibnall's era. I'm aware of this.
- 19:54Don't. Worry Have I mentioned it once
- 19:57or twice in podcast form? Well, I think the first time you
- 20:00heard my name, Simon said oh, you know, yeah, yeah, he's got
- 20:04this podcast, How to a Blunt Pen Knife.
- 20:07You know, it's really funny. They really celebrating the show
- 20:10and he really likes Jodie Whitsker's doctor and Chris
- 20:12Chibnall. And you went ah.
- 20:17I think you're interested in this podcast Died there.
- 20:22You see, I've really tried to like Jodie Whitaker's Doctor
- 20:25Who. She's just been written for so
- 20:27terribly. There's so few moments where she
- 20:31is really shown off screen. She's been giving some terrible
- 20:34dialogue. It's been 3 Series and a couple
- 20:38of specials of what is going on. Tell me, tell me what's going on
- 20:44and then end credits and make things resolved.
- 20:47I'm going to call Big Finish up now.
- 20:50Get them to have you do the Jody Whitker adventures.
- 20:52They've already got somebody to do Jodie Whisker, although she's
- 20:55playing Dodo. Oh, she does sound like her,
- 20:58doesn't she? She is this audio spit of Jodie
- 21:00Whisker. Who?
- 21:01The forecaster, Lauren Cornelius.
- 21:04Yeah, that does ring a bell. Yeah.
- 21:06A bit of direction required there.
- 21:08Man. You.
- 21:08It's entirely in keeping with Dodo as a character.
- 21:12She got a voice on shop demonstration mode.
- 21:14Whose accent is it anyway? But, you know, I think it's
- 21:17interesting. I think if people don't like
- 21:20Chip Nil's stuff, I think then they're marred with the fact
- 21:24that, oh, you don't want a female doctor.
- 21:26You know, you can't handle any of that.
- 21:27And and I don't think that's true.
- 21:30You know, sometimes you can. Just not like the creative
- 21:33approach. I'll be quite honest, My heart
- 21:35sank when I saw the trailer and it was a woman playing Doctor.
- 21:39I'll be quite honest, that was my initial reaction.
- 21:42I really wanted to go into it with an open mind, but
- 21:45everything about that first episode was just dumb to piss
- 21:49people off. There was No title sequence the
- 21:53characters of. I mean, why would you have a
- 21:56title sequence that good and a title theme arrangement that
- 22:00marvelous and not use it on your first episode?
- 22:05Yeah, that is baffling. Because it's a cracking
- 22:07rendition of the theme. So there was that, but I just
- 22:11don't think she was very well written for.
- 22:13The very best scene she did was actually the regeneration.
- 22:17That was fantastic. Wasn't it great?
- 22:19Yeah, I love that thing. I mean, that's up there with the
- 22:21best regenerations at all. She got the better.
- 22:24I think she's got possibly the best ever exit line for a
- 22:28doctor. I just loved how optimistic it
- 22:30was as well. Gloom Man pain that we've had
- 22:33for the last couple of regenerations.
- 22:36Oh Christ almighty, Tenants was the worst of all.
- 22:38We had half an hour before. Come on guys, I already.
- 22:44Even Capaldi, when he fell on the floor in the TARDIS, I
- 22:47thought, this is it, this is it. He's knackered, he's worn out.
- 22:50He's going to regenerate on the floor.
- 22:52Nope. We've got another half hour of
- 22:54spiel without pears and yogurts. And Smith.
- 22:57Matt Smith had a long old speech as well, but then I did like the
- 23:00fact that he sort of sneezed and became Peter Porky very quickly.
- 23:06Ken, have you seen The Sarah Jane Adventures?
- 23:08I'll just because watching this episode, basically the Doctor's
- 23:11not doing a lot, is he? He's suffering from his post
- 23:13regeneration trauma and he's having a bit of a laugh.
- 23:16Sarah is the one doing all the investigating and I think she's
- 23:18doing rather well. Yeah, I have seen The Sarah Jane
- 23:21Adventures of all these spinoffs they've done.
- 23:24That was to me the most consistent.
- 23:27Not necessarily the best, but it was the most consistent.
- 23:29And it's such a shame that well, on many levels that you know
- 23:35what? The day that I read, I remember
- 23:36vividly the moment I read that she died and you hear people die
- 23:42and it's oh, he was, he was on screen when I was a kid.
- 23:46Oh, that's sad. That was a real sucker punch.
- 23:49I was. I can remember for some reason.
- 23:51I don't know why, because I I don't watch the news.
- 23:54My partner rang me and told me just before I had a group of
- 23:58friends coming over who were Doctor Who fans, and I was
- 24:02gutted like beyond. I actually ever experienced
- 24:06proper grief before because no one in my family had died or
- 24:08anything like that, but this was like a part of my childhood that
- 24:10had died. I was.
- 24:12So I was inconsolable and it was pretty miserable evening as well
- 24:15as you can imagine. But I think she's doing a bit of
- 24:20that here. But in the transition between
- 24:23John and Tom, you very often need the companions to step up a
- 24:26little bit. I think it happens with Ben and
- 24:28Polly and the power of the Daleks, with the Brigadier and
- 24:32Liz Shaw and Spirit and space. You know, the docs are sort of
- 24:35finding himself and the companions have to pick up the
- 24:37slack. Yeah.
- 24:39I mean, I'm just watching this now and realizing the Doctor
- 24:42isn't front and center in this. It's probably why it's not
- 24:45great. I think the same can be level at
- 24:48the first episode or so of Spearhead from Space.
- 24:50He's not. I actually, however beautiful it
- 24:53looks, the Doctors not front and center.
- 24:55It's actually a bit dull. You need that.
- 24:57Then Do you need the doctor? Sort of.
- 25:00I think I need them to be more involved than they are.
- 25:03The Christmas Invasion is one that I very rarely rewatch
- 25:07because it's. I've never particularly.
- 25:09It's certainly the early Christmas specials I never
- 25:12thought were particularly interesting.
- 25:13They were all a bit fluffy and tenants hardly in the Christmas
- 25:17special. I mean, when he does appear,
- 25:18he's magnificent, but I can't really pin down what I'm trying
- 25:23to say here, apart from I think I'm distracted by that
- 25:25magnificent hair. Look at the state of that He
- 25:28needs some real cream. Badly doesn't.
- 25:31He we used to wear his hair like that in real life because I've
- 25:34seen him in interviews and it's not styled.
- 25:36That is how he wears his hair or wore it.
- 25:39In fact, he's got like a massive bold spot on the top.
- 25:42Hair is so beautiful. You're fooling no one, mate.
- 25:45That's why I shaved my head. I started balding at 25 and I
- 25:49found out in a horrible way by that rare thing seeing the back
- 25:53of my own head. It was on a security monitor in
- 25:56the bank. And I thought, well, that's the
- 25:58end of that. That's gotta go rather than
- 26:01trying to disguise it, which men do, and they always fail.
- 26:04So was that it? He showed it all off then.
- 26:06It went down to sort of a #2, and then one day I started
- 26:10shaving and forgot to put the guard on.
- 26:12I thought, Oh well, you've done it now.
- 26:14And then I shaved with a wet razor and I do ever.
- 26:17I just start shaving in the morning and don't stop, you
- 26:20know. Alright, sorry, nothing to do
- 26:22with robot, but anyway, I think it's absolute difference between
- 26:27men who own baldness and it's sexy as hell and men who are
- 26:33still lamenting the loss of their hair.
- 26:35And you can absolutely see those two types of men out all the
- 26:38time. You know you are in the former
- 26:41camp, my friend. Oh, you're a darling man.
- 26:44You're full of compliments. Yeah, I've never once looked
- 26:48back and thought, oh, I wish I had hair.
- 26:50It just never breed me at all. It's just a case of Just accept
- 26:54it so. Oh, I thought that was Milton
- 26:55Johns for a minute. Johns.
- 26:59He raises the profile of any story.
- 27:01Yeah, even Android. He's in the Android.
- 27:04Imagine. Yeah, he is, Yeah.
- 27:06A man who didn't wash under his eye patch for a couple of years.
- 27:10Yeah, it's a bizarre twist, isn't it?
- 27:13Yeah. This is definitely all Sarah
- 27:15here. She's doing everything.
- 27:17There's a wonderful bit in a minute.
- 27:18I don't know if you remember, she goes in and she finds the
- 27:21robot and she says, well, you know, what?
- 27:23If people use that robot as a, you know, terrifying weapon and
- 27:27Miss Winters goes, what, you mean like this?
- 27:30This woman is an enemy of the, you know, kill her.
- 27:33It's a great moment. We've got a female villain in
- 27:36this, and that's pretty unusual at this point.
- 27:39Well, yes, it is. Actually I can't think of
- 27:43another one recently before it. After this I can think of tons
- 27:47around me the later sort. Of galaya marvelous bosoms,
- 27:53It's. Not the Dark door effect I think
- 27:57it might be, you know. What do you think of that robot
- 28:00design? Now it's just appeared.
- 28:03I don't actually think it's that bad.
- 28:05They could have worked on the hands a little more.
- 28:07They do look like. Oh, actually, I can't say it.
- 28:10But then they're a little bit limp wristed.
- 28:12They're not very. I don't know what you're talking
- 28:16about. But what?
- 28:18One good shake and they would have come off.
- 28:24No, if Simon was also no, I was. Going to say if Simon was here,
- 28:30he would now at this point, as he does on every commentary we
- 28:33do be eulogizing about the title sequence what this particular
- 28:38one? Oh, any but he does.
- 28:41We all love the Bernard Lodge one.
- 28:43I mean, have you seen the making of how he made this thing?
- 28:47No. Mark was telling me about this
- 28:49the other day. I've never seen it, but
- 28:51apparently it was a laborious task.
- 28:54I don't think anything's as laborious as the one that they
- 28:57did for. The Sid Sutton title sequence.
- 29:02Oh my God, every frame was exposed about 3 million times.
- 29:07To get that effect on it, the number of stars.
- 29:09And they had to focus and refocus on every frame.
- 29:14That's 30 seconds one of those stars comes right out of Peter
- 29:19Davison's highlights. That's a deliberate, creative
- 29:22choice. Well, I think someone's hand
- 29:24shook when they were doing. This is there's a definite
- 29:28ripple in the Davidson stars that isn't there with Colin
- 29:32Baker. Having listened to your entire
- 29:35back catalogue of the XML Experiment, I know that.
- 29:39Oh, it's marvelous. I know that you guys are
- 29:41generally quite favorable towards title sequences in
- 29:45general. I think like The Stones, The
- 29:48Tomorrow People, whatever. You fought the episodes, the
- 29:50titles were memorable. The only one I ever heard you
- 29:54truly criticize was the 90s. More people.
- 29:58Terrible, cold sort of poppy music.
- 30:03Well, I think the problem with The Tomorrow People of the 90s
- 30:06was it was just nothing in itself.
- 30:09It wasn't bad, but you're comparing it to that.
- 30:12If you're going to buy the license to something and remake
- 30:15it and it's got a really good theme tune, keep the fucking
- 30:18theme tune. I know, Ken, but Blimey, I would
- 30:23lick Chrisman Schmidt's ass. I mean, oh, I mean, you know,
- 30:29I'd suffer the show just to watch him.
- 30:33On that note, shall you? And I skip into episode 2.
- 30:37We should probably sign off. Till next time, Yes, let's go
- 30:40and watch Episode 2. Let's go.
- 30:45I'm still with a plump pen knife for doing quicker, quicker.