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Rob Valentine - Top 10 Doctor Who · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

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Welcome back to Hamster Top Ten. Another way to celebrate a
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fantastic Hamster contributor, Mr. Robert Valentine that you
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might know Rob from his work from Big Finish.
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He has written and script edited and I believe produced some
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fantastic work from Big Finish. But you probably have heard him
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on Hamster doing fantastic work talking about the gunfighters
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which has already gone out to Hamster extra members.
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But also he did a mammoth commentary on Shada, which was 3
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hours long and it rocketed into my top 10 Most listened to
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episodes and began with the great show in the Galaxy where I
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forgot to remember that you cannot share a Brit box viewing
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experience whilst you're doing a commentary.
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And Rob gamely did a commentary without seeing any of the
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visuals. So if you go back and listen to
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that, just go listen to how good he is and he couldn't see a
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single thing. So yeah, fantastic, fantastic
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fella. Charming, funny, smart.
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That's not just me saying words like he is just such a such an
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engaging man. And very handsome too, which me
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and my behalf both think. Incidentally, we will be
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interviewing him today for Finish Big, and we'll be talking
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to him about his work on Bambera series for Big Finish, The Young
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War Master, his work on the Purity sets with the Sick Doctor
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and Mel and Hebe and on other stories that he's done as well.
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So we're really, really excited about that.
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And he will be doing a commentary on The Abominable
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Snowman, where we'll be watching the fantastic new animation very
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soon. So you've got a lot more to come
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from Rob, but for now, let's take a look at Rob's.
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I said top ten stories or stories that he loves, and he
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sent me 10 zingers. He says that himself.
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They are. It's a slightly predictable
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list. So I think some of these are,
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some of them are. So let's get going.
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He's done them in order and there's only one new series
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story. The rest are all classics.
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So we're going to start with we are the masses of the Earth, the
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Dalek invasion of Earth, which is an intriguing choice.
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I mean obvious in some ways because it's it is such a big
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bold, probably the the first sort of movie of the week,
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Doctor Who. And you know, we have a huge
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shift for the show with Susan leaving.
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And in terms of production, everything is going up a notch
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in that, isn't it? You've got a fantastic location,
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work a ton of sets, you know terrelations, telling his story
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on a big old scale. Only prefer the movie version of
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this, but that's only because they had more money so they
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could make this look more spectacular.
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But there is a darkness and A and a sorry, great grit to the
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televised version of the Dalek Invasion of Earth.
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There's a nastiness to it. Remember this scene between Ian
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and Craddock? Sorry no.
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Craddock and his brother. Sorry that he is watching where
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you've got one character has been robotized and one character
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who hasn't brothers, and they basically murder each other.
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And there is that sort of level of faith.
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Listen to all of this Paul Dortmund, who tries his bombs on
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the Daleks and wounds up being killed.
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Yeah, it's a really, really dark story.
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But of course it's got lots of action.
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It's that sort of termination. Dan dare excitement to it.
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So we skip from one set piece to another.
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I need to talk to Rob Moore about this because I'm very
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intrigued to know why he rates that so high above a lot of
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other Dalek stories. Although spoiler, there are one
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two other Dalek stories in this list.
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Next up. OK, so we had this story in the
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previous top ten list and it is Da da da da da da da da da da
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da, the demons, Daughter of Light.
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Would you kindly extradite me from this sacrificial rapping?
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So clearly a lot of people love the demons, so maybe I'm wrong.
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Maybe, You know, I've said in many commentaries all the
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contributors to the demons or the actors, the director, the
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writers all saw this as their favorite story.
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And there's me going, yeah, but is it really all that good?
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I've asked for two top ten lists so far, and this has appeared on
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both of them. So maybe it's me who's wrong.
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So what did I not mention? In the first one we talked about
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Delgado and Miss Hawthorne and Benton.
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Should we talk about Joe Q as a button Joe?
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Oh no. She's patronized terribly in
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this, isn't she? Bless her heart a bit, where she
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leaves the bedroom and then all the Ivy, it just attacks her on
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the wall. That's a much more explicit in
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the book. You know, it's fabulous.
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Target pictures they put in the books and you've got The Ivy
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literally going around her neck. They couldn't quite realize that
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on TV. I will say I think episode four
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of the Demons is 1. Can you hear those seagulls?
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Wait, I'm doing a Toppling 10 list.
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Shut up. I live by the coast.
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The episode four of the demons is one of I said in the last
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list. The episode six of The Invasion
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was one of the best episodes ever as an individual episode, I
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think Episode 4. So that's the IT starts with
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it's all the scenes on the green, with the Doctor being
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tied up by the Morris dancers, the Master being a sinister
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swine in the church, Miss Hawthorn smacking the fellow
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over the head with a crystal ball.
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It's very funny. It's very dark.
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It's sort of leaning a little bit into that sort of Wicker Man
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sinister community feel. Yeah, I think it's really,
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really fantastic. So good choice, Rob, Good
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choice. Next up we have got the total
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annihilation of the fouls. It's Genesis of the Daleks,
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which is a great choice. What I love about Genesis of the
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Daleks and Sign I Fraser talked about this a lot with the
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commentary is how it stars as a very open stories and lots of
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open, expansive location work. And as the story progresses, it
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gets smaller and smaller and more claustrophobic until we're
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just down into in the bunker. And even the people that were
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working with Davros, most of them have been murdered and then
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even Davros was murdered. So basically, if we watch this
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planet, the people that are left, the survivors of this war,
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everybody is killed. It's an absolute fucking
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massacre. But you know, it starts off with
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the Khalid Dome being hit and then being knocked out.
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And as I say, we just, the story just shrinks and shrinks and
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shrinks until it's just the Daleks and Davros in a room and
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Davros is begging them, you know, not to kill him.
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Have pity that shot of his hand going for the bottom.
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It's one of the most dramatic moments in Doctor Who, maybe one
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of the most melodramatic moments in Doctor Who.
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It's just glorious, isn't it? It's not beyond fault.
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It's got enormous clams in it trying to eat Harry Sullivan.
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But in terms of making a dramatic statement in Doctor
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Who, and it's sort of giving it a moral core, it's rarely been
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bettered. Ah, Okay.
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Rob's next choice is City of Death, which is utterly glorious
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in every single way. We know Rob is a huge fan of
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Douglas Adams. And do you know why you always
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say this is a handshake between Douglas Adams and Graham
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Williams? Because I think you've got the
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wit and the high concept ideas and the gorgeous take, the
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Babble and the funny lines of Douglas Adams.
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But I think you've got the sharp plotting of Graham Williams in
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there as well. We know they sort of hammered
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this one out together. And I think I'm going to focus
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on Michael Hayes's gorgeous direction of this.
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He, you know, he films Paris like the most romantic travel
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log we've ever had. He knows the opportunity he's
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got there and he takes it and flies with it.
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But as well, like he's not afraid to to really pull back
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and show off the sets as well because there's a lot of detail
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in the design of this story, even like the prehistoric set.
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And don't forget, this is the same designer that designed
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prehistory in Time Flight as well.
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So it just goes to show we can all have an off day, the City of
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death. Like on every single level you
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can score. A Doctor Who's story is
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phenomenal. I'm not sure there's much I can
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add, so I wonder if it's going to turn up on a lot of lists.
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What in? Oh, there we go.
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There's somebody walking past the window for posterity.
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The next choice is Shada, which as I say, Rob did a commentary
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for on Hamster. And actually I prefer this to
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City of Death, and I know it's Flavia, but there is something
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so cozy about this story. I think the first two episodes
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are two of my favorite episodes. All the stuff around Cambridge,
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Chris Clare, Chronotis Skagra mincing around in his crazy
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tinfoil haute couture, the Bicycle chase, the Choir boys
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up. And I think they did such a
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phenomenal job with the animation for the DVD release.
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And Mark has beautiful score for it.
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Although you know what, at certain points I still hear
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Kevin Mccullough's music. Yeah, I think somewhere sort of
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around episodes four and five. This does run on the spot a lot,
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but it's still Douglas Adams, so it's still witty as hell, still
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full of ideas and all. The cast responds so well to it,
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it just has a charm to it that is difficult to ignore.
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Next up is Case of Androzani, which I imagine again will turn
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up on a lot of people's lists, about as different from City of
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Death and Sharder as you can get.
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So it's nice to see. Rob likes a diverse series of
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tones and fuck me, it's brutal, isn't it?
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Case of Androsani. I've got on record recently
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saying that. It's the sort of story I don't
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like to go back to a lot because it isn't really a good time, but
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it is a fantastic piece of television.
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It is a director taking hold of a very good script and saying
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I'm not just going to churn, I'm just going to point and shoot my
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cameras and churn out, you know, the usual competency.
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I'm going to aspire to be a bit more stylish and dynamic and
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exciting than that. And Graham Harper really put his
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name on the map. I think if he hadn't done
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Andrazani and Revelation of the Daleks, we may not have had him
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back for all those classics in the new series.
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So yeah, bravo on every account. Davis is not my favorite Doctor,
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but this is probably my favorite Doctor finale aside from the war
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games. Maybe it just again, absolutely
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amazing top drama and I really want to highlight one scene
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which truly terrified me when I first saw it when I was younger.
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And that is, and it's weird. It's a scene that Harper doesn't
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write. It's the bit where Chillac sees
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the mud burst coming towards him and screams his head off.
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Because adults in scenes of severe anxiety used to really
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scare me as a kid. They still scare me a bit now,
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but that bit where he screams and then the mud flies over the
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rock and we know that he's just been basically burnt to death.
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It's absolutely terrifying. Next up is probably like, in
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terms of action set pieces, the best classic Doctor Who story,
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and that is the Andrew Morgan directed Remembrance of the
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Daleks. What is it?
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She said. They're blobs, not pure in their
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blobbiness. It's the racism that's expressed
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in Genesis of the Daleks in an extremely melodramatic way, done
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a lot more thoughtfully in remembrance of the Daleks.
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And yeah, it's it's the no colored scene that they wanted
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to excise. That's such an important moment
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in that story. You know, Doctor Who's gone
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woke, But also the conversation between the Doctor and Ace about
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racial purity. Boiling that down, that
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scientific concept of the two Dalek races going against each
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other and racism and boiling it down for kids, it was Andrew
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Carmel was doing something very, very different from Eric Saywood
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and a lot more responsible. Sometimes it it they didn't get
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it right. Sometimes it was a little too in
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your face and a little too angsty.
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But at times they really, really he he managed to make Doctor Who
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very thoughtful. Yeah.
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It was such a responsible take. And just this is just explosive
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full of grey characters. Well, Rachel Jensen, you know
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I'm not having do you think I enjoy having oh, good grief.
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I can't remember the line. How embarrassing.
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While I'm recording, the painstaking life research I've
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devoted my life to has been superseded by a bunch of
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templated pepper pots. There you go.
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Got it. Space vagrant.
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That's it. Move on quick.
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Remember. So the Daleks?
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Massive thumbs up. Next up is my personal favorite,
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Sylvester Mccoy's story, which is Ghost Light, the cream of
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Scotland Yard. It is deliciously dark and
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funny. You know, Rob Sherman, he writes
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a lot of Big Finish stories that marry very dark comedy and very
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dark drama in a really, really uncomfortable way.
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And Ghost likes one of the very few Doctor Who stories on
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television that does exactly the same thing.
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I think it's a really impressive piece of work.
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It's literate. I mean, it's full of literary
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references. It's a brilliant historical
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because it's so well realized. It's got one of the most stellar
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costs you're ever going to see in Doctor Who's story.
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Look at Ian Hogg, Sylvia Sims, you know, Michael Cochran.
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It is such a shame that just as the plug was pulled, Doctor Who
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was right back at the top of his game, which it hadn't been this
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consistently since probably in the mid 70s.
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So yeah, it is a crying crying shame that this is where it all
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ended, but I'm glad it went out with a sort of finals story to
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be recorded on such a high. It's a it's an amazing piece of
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work and I'm about to record a commentary on it soon, so I am
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looking forward to that. Second to last is Curse of
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Fenrick, which is a massively popular story.
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A lot of people like this and again I think it's got one of
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those stories where you've got a single episode that you can pull
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out and say that is one of the best single episodes of Doctor
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Who Knows episode 4 where the pace is relentless, the death
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count is extraordinary. And I think Nick Mallett's
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direction you think he did Mysterious Planet, which is kind
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of lie and very amiably directed, but I wouldn't say
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grippingly directed Paradise Towers where the direction is
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very much fighting with the tone of the script And finally you
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got it bang on with cursor Fenrig.
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And in that last episode honestly the when you watch the
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extended edition, the editing and the direction is full of
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time, very accomplished. It's doing complex things with
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the Doctor and Ace's relationship.
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It's allowing Sylvester McCoy and Sophie Aldred to it pushes
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them probably beyond their acting limit, but I would rather
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they were doing that than than going in the other direction.
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It's a dark, scary, characterful story with tons to say.
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It's a hugely impressive piece of work.
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And finally we have the Empty Child and the Doctor.
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Darls is so our only entry in the new series Are You My Mommy?
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And probably my third favorite Stephen Moffett story.
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I won't tell you what one or two I'll say that for another time,
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but this is I feel Stephen Moffett under Rusty Davis.
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Regardless as to whether Russell says he changed the scripts or
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not, I think Moffett is writing for Russell's vision and not his
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own vision. And that means the work is very,
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very different from what he was doing later on.
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This slows down. It has time for its characters.
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It has huge heart to it, huge heart in Nancy's character, but
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just in general as well. It has incredible wit between
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the Doctor, Jack and Rose. Those sequences are rarely
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better. The production value on this
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thing is night shoes, for goodness sakes, Some of the
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scariest horror scenes you're going to see in Doctor Who.
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I mean it. You can see why we got halfway
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through this season this year, and suddenly this Doctor Who was
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on everybody's lips. Everybody was watching it,
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everybody was talking about it and I don't think.
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The Empty charm, the Doctor offices had nothing to do with
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that. I think it's a big part of that.
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Yeah. It's the most classic Who season
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one or Series 1 adventure. I think it might be the most
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classic Who knew series as well, but it's certainly the new
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series as well. I mean, it's got John Barrowman
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straddling a bomb and it's some very, very impressive camera
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work and special effects. So yeah, just all round,
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absolute classic. That is Robert Valentine's top
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ten or most loved or very loved Doctor Who stories.
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It's a hell of a list. Rob, thank you very much for
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continuing to support and to deliver such fantastic
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commentaries on Hamster. And thank you for sharing your
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list as well. What an amazing list of stories.
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You're a top bloke. Thank you.