Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Robert Valentine about his choice of The Brain of Morbius (3/4)

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Talks to Robert Valentine about his choice of The Brain of Morbius (3/4) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

• 0:33
  Hamster with a blunt pen knife for doing quicker.
• 0:37
  Welcome back to a Hamster with a Blunt Pen Knife.
• 0:39
  The hammer Horror Stroke. Universal Stroke.
• 0:44
  What movies are we watching this week, Rob?
• 0:46
  Doctor Who commentary podcast. Oh, you haven't given me the
• 0:50
  word for this one. We've had cryptozoology for the
• 0:54
  Abominable Snowmen we had. Oh, what was that, Egypt 1 you
• 0:58
  said? Oh.
• 1:00
  What was it? Egyptological horror really,
• 1:03
  isn't it? Egyptological horror.
• 1:04
  So Franken Stymian. Yeah, the.
• 1:10
  Frankenstein works, really. It's kind of it's, it's inside
• 1:13
  the very, very big ballpark of weird science really, isn't it?
• 1:18
  That's kind of that's where we are.
• 1:21
  Very big balls, so I'm willing to hang out in that park.
• 1:24
  Well, excellent, excellent. You know what this is?
• 1:26
  This is this is a story about about body parts.
• 1:28
  So you know. It's certainly it's not.
• 1:31
  You know, I realize when watching the second movie, The
• 1:34
  Universal. Oh God, The Bride of
• 1:37
  Frankenstein. Bride of Frankenstein, Yes.
• 1:39
  That that was far closer to the brain of Morbius than the
• 1:44
  original or the Hammer one. Because I, I mentioned, I
• 1:49
  mentioned this earlier, but it just juggled comedy and horror.
• 1:56
  I, I think maybe the brain of Morbis juggles it a bit more
• 1:59
  adeptly. Like there's a, there's a
• 2:00
  consistent tone, a playful tone, sort of brain of Morbis.
• 2:04
  Whereas that film it, it was just throwing weird stuff at you
• 2:07
  every 5 minutes and you sort of just had to go with it.
• 2:10
  One minute it was terrifying, the next minute there were these
• 2:13
  tiny people in jars, you know, like it.
• 2:15
  Was, Oh yes, Doctor Pretorius, his own experiments into
• 2:18
  creating life? Doctor Pretorius.
• 2:22
  Well, that was if there was ever a Doctor Who villain in another
• 2:26
  movie. Oh.
• 2:27
  My God. Yeah, yeah.
• 2:29
  How you? Would.
• 2:30
  Have been this message would have been wonderful in in Doctor
• 2:33
  Who, absolutely. Well, look, let's head into
• 2:37
  Episode 3 and see if we are going to veer more towards
• 2:42
  Frankenstein. We sort of veered away from it
• 2:44
  in Episode 2 as we got bogged down with all of this exposition
• 2:48
  about the Time Lords and the Sisterhood and all of that.
• 2:53
  Well, it's down. Is a is a loaded phrase.
• 2:55
  Some people might find that extremely interesting.
• 2:59
  Very well. We were raised aloft with all
• 3:02
  this exposition about the Time Lords and the sisterhood of Khan
• 3:05
  and all that terribly exciting stuff.
• 3:09
  But by the end of this episode, if you're lucky, yeah, you like
• 3:13
  this sort of thing, Yeah, we may see a completed Frankenstein
• 3:20
  monster on the loose. What do you think?
• 3:23
  It's alive? Oh, good.
• 3:25
  Yes. He said that in the second one,
• 3:27
  didn't he? I was like, come on.
• 3:29
  In the first one, the second one you.
• 3:31
  Guys, it's alive. In the second one, he just sort
• 3:33
  of went it's live. Oh, look, Arnold Schwarzenegger
• 3:36
  says I'll be back in the Terminator.
• 3:39
  And then, you know, he says it in there, he says in commando.
• 3:41
  Because after that you're waiting for him to say I'll be
• 3:44
  back. You're waiting for Colin Clive
• 3:46
  to say it's alive, you know. What does Solom say then?
• 3:52
  Morbius, the greatest scientist. We we might be getting around to
• 3:59
  my favorite so on bit in this episode, but that's a we'll
• 4:02
  mention it when we get to it. Yes.
• 4:04
  Oh, OK. All right, Well, don't
• 4:06
  disappoint me. All right, I might give your
• 4:07
  hair to Nathan as a memento. Let's go in.
• 4:10
  OK, 5432, I'm quite shaken by that threat One.
• 4:19
  Here we go. Yeah.
• 4:20
  I don't make idle threats, you know, Rob.
• 4:21
  Valentine Well, I know. I know.
• 4:23
  I well, I know. No.
• 4:24
  I believed you. I believed you.
• 4:28
  Why'd you beard? Look at mine.
• 4:29
  I've got a fine head of hair at the moment, haven't I?
• 4:32
  You have. Well, I'm, I'm not doing too
• 4:34
  terribly, but I'm starting to, I'm noticing there's a bit,
• 4:37
  there's a bit, there's a bit of salt amongst the pepper these
• 4:39
  days. I'm just starting to.
• 4:41
  It just increases the appeal, I can assure you.
• 4:43
  Oh well. By Robin Bland.
• 4:45
  Robin. Bland.
• 4:47
  What a name. Yes.
• 4:48
  Well, do we believe it? No, we don't.
• 4:51
  So here we go. Back.
• 4:52
  Cliffhanger, Reprise. Reprise.
• 4:55
  Door creaks Bubbles. Did Marin send you to destroy
• 4:59
  me? Yes, she did.
• 5:01
  She knows the curses, Hags or. Here's the thing.
• 5:04
  I mean yes OK fine, the brain gets dropped and there are some
• 5:08
  bits of broken glass in it. Yeah fine, the the head case
• 5:13
  gets a static build up. But if you ask me, Morbius is
• 5:17
  sounding kind of crazy already. Oh, he's fucking fruit Loop
• 5:22
  crazy. And he's voiced by Michael
• 5:27
  Spice. Michael Spice, yes.
• 5:31
  I like the way she just sort of gestured to the VAT there.
• 5:33
  Something's talking to me from that VAT.
• 5:36
  Yeah, but it's a flashy glowy brain in bright green liquid
• 5:43
  armour. Come on.
• 5:44
  If you're, if you're, if you. That's the best what?
• 5:47
  Is that weird sort of chewing gum there hanging from the
• 5:50
  apparatus? Is it like a vocal cord?
• 5:52
  Is that what that's meant to be? That is, I think that's like a.
• 5:55
  Vocal cord vibrate. Vibrate.
• 5:58
  So he speaks because because, because Joe.
• 6:01
  Joe Brains can't speak. No, Rob, that's.
• 6:06
  That is pre Cassandra, that is. That is, yeah.
• 6:10
  That's that's stretched out vocal cord.
• 6:12
  Yeah. And it speaks through that.
• 6:15
  So clever. I like it when he goes.
• 6:18
  Have you lied to me again, Salaam?
• 6:21
  You know he's absolutely in charge despite the fact he's a
• 6:24
  brain in a. Jar kept like this, like a
• 6:26
  sponge beneath the sea. Yet even a sponge has more life
• 6:29
  than I always whinging aren't. You, Rob, can you understand a
• 6:33
  thousandth of my agony? Who?
• 6:35
  Morbius who once led to the high council, The Time Lords?
• 6:39
  That's back story. Wow.
• 6:41
  Yeah. Herod Stix unfortunately fills
• 6:44
  out that back story and warmonger.
• 6:47
  True. OK.
• 6:48
  It's a small book. Look, there is there is an old
• 6:51
  screen writing maxim which is never dramatise your back story
• 6:55
  because the audience will always remember it better.
• 6:57
  I'm only going to say one thing to you.
• 6:59
  Imagine it better, sorry. Yeah, I'm going to say one thing
• 7:01
  to you about the book, and this needs to know, really, is that.
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  Yeah, in order to defeat Morbius and his evil, ruthless rape
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  Hungry. Oh good God.
• 7:11
  Yeah. Oh, there's a lot of right
• 7:13
  references in this book. Terence, what were you thinking?
• 7:17
  In order to defeat this gang of criminals led by Morbius, Yeah,
• 7:21
  The Doctor puts together a crack force of Cybermen, Sontarans,
• 7:27
  humans, Draconians. Yeah, that's right.
• 7:30
  And the Daleks, they all come together with the Doctor as the
• 7:34
  supremo of this warlord. And it's Peter Davidson's
• 7:38
  Doctor, of course, and he defeats them all because by by
• 7:43
  having a bigger army than him. Now, is that the sort of thing
• 7:46
  you was talking about there about Don't dramatize your back
• 7:49
  story? Yeah, well, you know, with
• 7:51
  anything really. I mean, that's why I kind of
• 7:53
  think Star Wars was better before the pre wars were made
• 7:56
  because hey, you, you got to imagine what happened before,
• 7:59
  you know, as an audience will always come up with a better
• 8:02
  thing than you could. I am literally speechless right
• 8:08
  now. Revenge of the Sith is my
• 8:10
  favorite Star Wars movie. That crazy evil emperor with his
• 8:13
  electric hands. Oh well, you know, you know,
• 8:16
  they're good bits of everything, you know, And I look and I say
• 8:19
  that in the knowledge I am someone who makes a a fair chunk
• 8:22
  of their living dramatizing back story.
• 8:27
  Superbly, though, let's say that.
• 8:29
  Well, I well as well as well as I can on the day.
• 8:32
  I'm loosely, you know, with Doctor Who terms.
• 8:36
  I think I'm considered a a critic of you know I'll intent,
• 8:41
  but enough for me to say, oh, dramatisation of Doctor Who back
• 8:45
  story is fabulous. Well, thank you.
• 8:47
  As long as you pay for it and I get my royalty cut, it's all
• 8:50
  good. I don't care.
• 8:52
  You know If someone hates it, fine, but as long as you bought
• 8:55
  it. Are you listening to that?
• 8:57
  Everybody all right, pay for your audios.
• 9:01
  We found out here. Yeah, because, you know, guess
• 9:05
  what? They're expensive to make.
• 9:06
  Anyway, we found out here that that the fire is going out and
• 9:12
  that Marin, there isn't much more elixir of life left and
• 9:16
  she's just got the letter for here's the thing that does I do
• 9:20
  think that we do suffer from because there is a sisterhood of
• 9:24
  Khan that is letter sending distance from Morbius.
• 9:30
  It makes the planet feel really tiny If there had been the.
• 9:33
  Common Doctor Who problem though.
• 9:35
  Isn't it? It is, It is.
• 9:36
  But if there had been a village at the foot of Solon's castle,
• 9:40
  I'd be more down with that. But this is, you know, literally
• 9:43
  he, he kind of, you know, he, he, he, he visits like, he's
• 9:46
  like the local GP. Do you know what I mean?
• 9:49
  At least at least we see Condo now on the way back.
• 9:52
  Yeah, he's delivered the letter and it's now the morning.
• 9:54
  He's. Oh, be quiet.
• 9:55
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, we go. We do get a sense of the passage
• 9:58
  of time at least that's an upside of having this daytime.
• 10:00
  Sure. Condo knows the terrain better
• 10:02
  than the Doctor as well. You know all the back passages
• 10:05
  and things. Well remember condos job at
• 10:07
  night is to stalk the terrain and decapitate people who've
• 10:12
  ended up shipwrecked. There, he's a hunter, Rob.
• 10:15
  Yeah, actually a little thing that this does remind me of a
• 10:18
  bit is the story The most dangerous game, You know, the
• 10:23
  most dangerous game being a man. But it's an island with a
• 10:26
  Russian aristocrat, Count Zarov, and his manservant, Ivan.
• 10:30
  They live there. It's an island prone to
• 10:32
  shipwrecks. And when people get shipwrecked
• 10:35
  up on Count Zaros Island, he hunts the most dangerous game
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  because he's a great hunter and he hunts.
• 10:42
  Zarov. Zarov, yes, Yeah, it's a good
• 10:45
  name. Good name.
• 10:46
  Yeah. But yeah, so the whole idea of a
• 10:48
  planet that's prone to shipwrecks, where the shipwreck
• 10:52
  people get picked off by the local aristo is kind of, there
• 10:58
  is a little bit of that in this and I and I like that fact.
• 11:00
  I. Mean he does it again.
• 11:02
  We have talents, Wayne Cheyenne, doesn't he?
• 11:04
  With all of that, all those different influences of
• 11:07
  Victoriana, like he's, he's here, he's throwing in just a
• 11:09
  load. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 11:10
  Cliches. Yeah, I mean, Wen Chuang is
• 11:13
  largely it's Fu Manchu even down to the English actor in yellow
• 11:16
  Face, which is established by Christopher Lee.
• 11:18
  They are they're they're they're following and repeating of
• 11:21
  racist tradition there. But also, that's also sort of,
• 11:26
  you know, Jack the Ripper and a bunch of other things as well.
• 11:30
  Oh. Look, we could do that, you
• 11:31
  know, with a double bill from hell.
• 11:33
  And one of my dinosaurs is missing equally as probably.
• 11:38
  Yeah, I yeah, I'd actually, I got one of our dinosaurs missing
• 11:41
  on DVD because I used to watch it all the time as a game.
• 11:43
  I love it. It's, you know, there's a lot to
• 11:46
  commend it and there's a lot to make you go, Oh my God, yeah,
• 11:50
  remember. Per WE.
• 11:52
  Yes, it's it's Colonel. Colonel Mortimer, the big game
• 11:56
  hunter Who? Yeah.
• 11:57
  Now you that's. One I watched on Disney plus.
• 11:59
  That Tom looked a little bit uncertain in some of his scenes
• 12:03
  with the season. I think he's utterly in his
• 12:04
  confidence now. A minute ago he walked in that
• 12:07
  cave and he went Ding Dong. I love that moment.
• 12:11
  Yes, Yeah. But now he does, you know, he's
• 12:15
  put up against the wall and he's about to be shot.
• 12:17
  Yeah. But we're getting all the
• 12:19
  Morbius back story here, and we're learning an awful lot
• 12:22
  about the Time Lords and the Sisterhood, their relationship
• 12:26
  and the culture that the Doctor has left behind.
• 12:31
  So I kind of think we're not, we're not not enough Is betrayed
• 12:35
  here that it's too TMI? Yeah, no.
• 12:38
  No, no, it's enticing. Back story this.
• 12:40
  Yeah, yeah. But you can't, you can't do this
• 12:44
  too often. That's the thing, you know,
• 12:45
  politics. Are so boring.
• 12:47
  Yeah. Or courtroom dramas.
• 12:50
  Or yeah, tedious things. Sarah has reached the the dry
• 12:55
  ice level of the planet surface. Oh, thank goodness.
• 12:58
  Yeah. We can't see the studio floor,
• 13:00
  but we can see the terrible backdrop there, the sky.
• 13:03
  I I don't mind it. I don't mind it.
• 13:06
  You know, when you think, you know, of just TV of the period?
• 13:09
  Yeah. Did I, Claudius, look better
• 13:11
  than this? I don't think so.
• 13:12
  Oh. That's so great.
• 13:13
  She's touching the pillar and then she suddenly realised she's
• 13:16
  touching his legs. Yeah, but here we have condo
• 13:20
  he's he's grabbed her by in the hair, by the hair.
• 13:22
  She's blind and in pain and under threat of death.
• 13:25
  This is an awful lot for a companion to be going well she.
• 13:28
  Suddenly starts flailing her arms going convo.
• 13:30
  Please don't kill me. Yeah.
• 13:32
  Strong. Yeah, this is very strong stuff
• 13:36
  that's kind of veering away from family entertainment into
• 13:40
  another arena, really. And I do think there isn't.
• 13:43
  That's one of the arguments for having Harry around is at least
• 13:47
  they could share the suffering. Well, we.
• 13:49
  Didn't in any of those Frank Simon movies I watched, the
• 13:52
  Eagle character was never lusting after, you know, the
• 13:58
  female sex objects of the film. No, no, it's still a thing that
• 14:05
  does kind of rear its ugly head from time to time, though.
• 14:09
  Hammers. In In the Horror of
• 14:11
  Frankenstein, there was a wonderful subplot where Kay
• 14:13
  O'Mara was jealous. She's the housekeeper.
• 14:16
  She was jealous of the woman that moves in, and I thought,
• 14:19
  oh, they can have a total bitch fight.
• 14:21
  But no, she just got shoved in a room with the monster and
• 14:25
  murdered. Yeah, that's that's a recurring
• 14:27
  thing in the ham of Frankenstein's as well as
• 14:29
  Frankenstein having off with a maid who then becomes
• 14:31
  inconvenient. You know, I read Rob.
• 14:34
  Side note here, K Omara was offered a contract after the
• 14:37
  vampire lovers and that one, and she said no thank you.
• 14:40
  I'm not going to be stuck doing these movies for the rest of my
• 14:42
  life. I went off to America and did
• 14:44
  Dynasty and fabulous things, you know, time in the rally, that
• 14:48
  sort of thing. I like oh, sorry, go ahead.
• 14:53
  Well, I was going to say I like the confidence of Tom in a
• 14:56
  minute. So like I said, he's backed
• 14:57
  against the wall. He's going to be murdered by the
• 14:59
  ring and he just goes soot, that's all.
• 15:02
  There'll be no charge. And that's the thing again, this
• 15:04
  is one of those times in Doctor Who where my science beats your
• 15:08
  religion. That's a definite thing here.
• 15:10
  This is. I still think there's an element
• 15:13
  of mysticism here. I don't know.
• 15:16
  It's. All executed at least.
• 15:19
  I what we know is the whole Clark's law of any sufficiently
• 15:24
  advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
• 15:27
  I think really it's the sisterhood.
• 15:30
  Is the the the sisterhood approach some kind of hugely
• 15:34
  advanced OK pseudoscience? Because really it is magic.
• 15:37
  It's it's, it's it's I think within Doctor Who, the Doctor's
• 15:43
  argument, it's more of a pertry thing is that however magical
• 15:47
  this seems, it's just a higher science because it's ultimately
• 15:50
  it's going to be measurable and repeatable in that conditions.
• 15:54
  But I just think within the story, I know I do.
• 15:57
  I think within the story it's presented as a form of magic.
• 16:02
  They can put nightmarish images in people's heads.
• 16:04
  You know, they can drag spaceships down onto the planet.
• 16:07
  Yeah. Transport people in the blink of
• 16:09
  an eye. Like, that's magic in any other
• 16:11
  name. Yeah.
• 16:13
  I think the I think the real true yardstick, even with
• 16:16
  fictional science and fictional magic like this, is that if
• 16:20
  something can be measured and repeated and predicted, however
• 16:24
  magical it seems, it's science because it can be measured
• 16:27
  scientifically. Something to something,
• 16:30
  something to be supernatural. It is a literal going against
• 16:35
  the natural order of things. What do you say the less time we
• 16:38
  spend with the Sisterhood of Calm, the more magical they'll
• 16:41
  seem? Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 16:43
  Because because the Doctor is solving all their problems with
• 16:46
  some Victorian slash Edwardian slash early 20th century
• 16:50
  fireworks here. He'd be stupid.
• 16:53
  I like he could have warmed them.
• 16:54
  Look, it's going to go out for a second.
• 16:55
  I know dramatically that wouldn't be as exciting a scene,
• 16:59
  but he could, you know, if the the flame didn't come up in
• 17:02
  time, he would have killed him. Yeah, well, again, again, this
• 17:05
  is the kind of thing they are pulling from.
• 17:07
  Kind of like the Edwardian and Victorian story, like King
• 17:10
  Solomon's minds where, you know, the the Kenny White colonials
• 17:14
  trick the locals by knowing a solar eclipse is going to occur.
• 17:17
  You know, my science looks like magic and, you know, but it
• 17:20
  isn't really. But, you know, because the
• 17:22
  sisterhood in some way are kind of primitive and they initially
• 17:26
  think the Doctor has fixed it with his magic or something, you
• 17:31
  know? What is going on with Ohika and
• 17:32
  those crazy eyes as well? That is a hell of a performance.
• 17:36
  Isn't it? Oh, yeah, it's great.
• 17:37
  Yeah, yeah. But yeah, the conviction, she
• 17:39
  she's going in with full conviction there.
• 17:41
  The secret flame Rob we are saved high 10 I must mention
• 17:47
  this very quickly as well. Very, very quickly, because I
• 17:49
  won't forgive myself if I don't. But in the wonderful Paul Mars
• 17:53
  novel, The Scarlet Empress, one of the many the back stories we
• 17:57
  find out about Iris tart wild time is that she spent 10 years
• 18:01
  with the sisterhood of Khan. And I think I've identified,
• 18:04
  actually, you can see which ones wearing pearls, which one she
• 18:09
  is, but she's absolutely present in this story.
• 18:13
  Yes. No.
• 18:14
  Lovely. The thing Sarah's tied up here
• 18:17
  and there is a sexual threat. That's the that's the
• 18:20
  uncomfortable thing here. There is a sexual even, you
• 18:22
  know, I'll give Kondo your hair as memento, you know, it's what
• 18:27
  Sarah is being put through here is really, really horrible and
• 18:32
  she plays it really convincingly.
• 18:33
  He. Says that line.
• 18:34
  So off hand it's one of us. She goes, you're insane, sullen,
• 18:37
  you're mad. Like, even though she's in a
• 18:40
  position where she's blind, tied up, you know?
• 18:45
  And she's right, you know, like she's formidable.
• 18:47
  Sarah Jane Smith is formidable, but what the But what she's put
• 18:51
  through is a lot. The monster design is great
• 18:54
  because. It's so great.
• 18:56
  It's a it's a proper asymmetrical horror.
• 19:01
  You know, they had those magazines that came out with
• 19:03
  like, the toys and stuck to the front.
• 19:06
  I can't remember what the toys are called now.
• 19:08
  You know, the little figures. Yeah.
• 19:10
  The only one I bought was the Morbius Monster.
• 19:13
  OK, it's. So accurate.
• 19:15
  It's on the shelf, you know it might be next time near one of
• 19:18
  your CDs, actually. Okey doke.
• 19:20
  She's guarding over it all right?
• 19:22
  Oh, no, Lovely, lovely. Thank you.
• 19:24
  But yeah, so Morbius doesn't know the doctor personally,
• 19:28
  because Morbius is a figure from time old history, like Mussolini
• 19:32
  or something. So you hear that?
• 19:33
  Terence All right, They never met.
• 19:36
  Oh. No, because he's not called the
• 19:38
  Doctor. He's called the Supremo, the
• 19:40
  Warlord in the book. Right.
• 19:41
  OK, OK, I see. But yeah, but but according to
• 19:44
  this, yeah, the the Doctor knows of Morbius because he's a figure
• 19:51
  from the from Time world past, but more or less doesn't know
• 19:54
  the Doctor. Rob, we're establishing the mind
• 19:57
  bending machinery there. We sort of hold.
• 20:00
  We're not, we're not establishing it very well.
• 20:02
  We're just, we're just fiddling with the proper bit.
• 20:05
  But yes, yeah. At least we've seen it, you know
• 20:07
  we can't say. Seen it.
• 20:08
  Yeah, yeah. Dropping in on us.
• 20:10
  They have thought about some. There's a brain in the jar of
• 20:13
  green liquid and there's a sort of a red splashy cylinder with
• 20:17
  the vocal chord heart. It's like a harp with vocal
• 20:21
  chords. It's just like a harp.
• 20:22
  Well, it looks like a harp on top of a lighter.
• 20:25
  A very. Yeah.
• 20:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I look at that tube with the one
• 20:29
  bubble going up here. I don't know what that's all.
• 20:31
  About Yeah, they've put some real thoughts into this.
• 20:34
  Yeah, well, I mean, I just think if that was just a brain in a
• 20:38
  jar, it would look a picked up way, look starved.
• 20:42
  But I just those dramatic bubbles, it's.
• 20:45
  Great. It's just ridiculous.
• 20:49
  Like are we, are we pre programmed to accept these
• 20:53
  absurdities in Doctor Who because anyone else watching it
• 20:57
  would go it's a fucking brain in the jar.
• 20:59
  What are you watching? Oh yeah.
• 21:02
  Well, I, I don't think I've ever minded about what other people
• 21:05
  think because. So I think because because I
• 21:07
  think it's embarrassing and ridiculous.
• 21:12
  But you love it, right? Oh, I wouldn't be here if I
• 21:15
  didn't. But yeah, it's oh.
• 21:18
  Boy, oh boy, and as well, the one thing I noticed the last
• 21:23
  time I watched this well, there isn't a lot of action in this.
• 21:25
  It's a bit in episode 4, but it is mostly protracted dialogue
• 21:29
  scenes in the Sister Who can't hear.
• 21:32
  But it's because there's so much visual interest.
• 21:36
  I don't think it matters. It's because there's so much
• 21:38
  performance interest as. Well, there is a massive degree
• 21:40
  of threat in this one as well from the very beginning.
• 21:43
  And it'll be also because Solon wants your head.
• 21:47
  It's a. Visceral threat.
• 21:51
  Have we missed the bit where he goes now?
• 21:53
  Please just don't hurt his head. Save me his head.
• 21:56
  Please. I also love that Solon is having
• 22:01
  to kind of really be patient with Morbius and Morbius, again,
• 22:07
  Morbius is a brilliant character name.
• 22:09
  I think it comes from the looks Arabic.
• 22:11
  I think it comes from the Greek because originally Morbius.
• 22:15
  There's Morbius in Marvel, Morbius the Living Vampire from
• 22:18
  1971, there's Doctor Morbius in Forbidden Planet for the 50s.
• 22:23
  But I believe it comes as a Greek name meaning dark, dark
• 22:27
  and mysterious. But Morbius is just a really
• 22:30
  great evocative name. The last fact that I'm going to
• 22:33
  give you about Warmonger is this book set on Khan, featuring son
• 22:38
  and the sisterhood of Khan and all of this.
• 22:40
  Yeah. And the evil warlord that's
• 22:42
  building up this army goes under the mysterious name Rombusi.
• 22:49
  That's right. Yeah, see, Morbius does it for
• 22:52
  me, Rombusi does not. Well, yes, but I mean the bit
• 22:57
  where they reveal the anagram. I was like, oh, Terence, try,
• 23:01
  try again. But like, do you know, I bet
• 23:04
  Sidney Newman, you know, if he's still casting an eye on Doctor
• 23:07
  Who at this point, you know, he had a version to bug eyed
• 23:09
  monsters. He must have seen that brain
• 23:11
  case and that a conniption fit. Well, again, even the brain
• 23:15
  case, it's a goldfish bowl with ice storks.
• 23:19
  It's it's fantastic. And it's yeah, it's just
• 23:21
  perspex. It looks so vulnerable.
• 23:23
  There's one thing I'll have to talk about in this scene and it
• 23:26
  isn't just brain splatting on the floor, which is so great.
• 23:30
  It's so disgusting and ridiculous and wonderfully
• 23:33
  gross. It's Dudleys music, right?
• 23:35
  Because I think he punches some of the horror with it's almost
• 23:42
  comic, the music when the brain's on the floor start
• 23:47
  going. But it makes it a bit safer than
• 23:50
  it otherwise would. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 23:52
  And here with a condo who's just found out that his arm has been
• 23:56
  given to Morbius and he's. Insane this thing is.
• 24:01
  And Salon just doesn't consider him a threat.
• 24:03
  He hasn't, you know, and he and he's just shot him.
• 24:06
  Blood spine out of his stomach. I mean this is.
• 24:11
  On the brain. Wrong.
• 24:13
  Oh splat, you stupid animal. He's pumping in full of bullets
• 24:25
  for God's sakes. Oh my God, the.
• 24:28
  Brain is the brain is still on the floor.
• 24:31
  Oh wait, wait till you see it pulsated in his hands.
• 24:34
  Oh, come on, 10 second rule, 10 second rule.
• 24:36
  Come on, pick it up. Oh, look at that gunk.
• 24:40
  Yeah, destroyed. What happened?
• 24:43
  He. Goes, he goes.
• 24:46
  He starts off calm. He goes more.
• 24:47
  Business on his brain on the. Floor.
• 24:50
  I don't know what's damage has been done.
• 24:53
  Oh, that's my little magic. I love you.
• 24:59
  I love you, you just can't underplay this stuff, can you?
• 25:03
  No, you, no, you have to go. You have to go operatic.
• 25:06
  But it's still true. It's still real no matter what
• 25:10
  mode you play it in. There was a bit here as a kid.
• 25:13
  I mean, all of this I found a bit scary.
• 25:14
  She goes, what if I make a mistake and he just grabs her
• 25:17
  head and goes, If he dies, you die.
• 25:21
  It's really quite violent. That's the thing.
• 25:24
  This whole yeah, Sarah is just going through hell.
• 25:26
  Yeah, look. Look.
• 25:27
  At the way. You grab her face.
• 25:30
  Is is it too much? I.
• 25:33
  Would you put this in front of your five niece?
• 25:37
  You have a 5 year old niece. Well, she's 13 now.
• 25:39
  I've got 2-8 year old nephews. I mean, they probably love it,
• 25:43
  but yeah, I think maybe we're aging some kids out of Doctor
• 25:47
  Who at this point. Yeah.
• 25:49
  I just, it's not really who I'd put it in front of.
• 25:51
  I just don't think I'd want to put my main companion through
• 25:57
  it, period. What's it all about?
• 26:01
  Is it just to raise the stakes? Is it just for suspense?
• 26:05
  Yeah, well, it's it. I mean, it's gripping stuff.
• 26:07
  Yeah, but we we find ways of putting female companions in
• 26:11
  danger in the Graham Williams era without torturing them in
• 26:15
  various and spectacular ways like this.
• 26:17
  Yeah, well, she's been blinded, tied up, objectified, threatened
• 26:22
  with death and goodness knows what else from condos do you?
• 26:25
  Mean. And then she gets knocked down a
• 26:26
  flight of stairs. Yeah, yeah.
• 26:29
  I mean, the indignity. Poor Elizabeth Slayden.
• 26:34
  Does she go through much in the Android invasion?
• 26:36
  I can't remember. Oh, no, It was a duplicate,
• 26:38
  wasn't it? Their face fell off.
• 26:42
  Yeah, Actually, no. Yeah.
• 26:43
  Cesar Doom. She's treated really violently.
• 26:46
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Chained up, isn't she to that
• 26:48
  bomb? Yeah, and the, and the threat
• 26:51
  from Scorpy is real, is a real world threat because Scorpy is
• 26:55
  kind of real, is a real world. Will you just do that, monster?
• 27:01
  Fur and crab claws together just is.
• 27:04
  We know that's not right. We know there's something wrong
• 27:07
  or about that. That was a positive response.
• 27:10
  Did you see that? She goes, I can't see anything.
• 27:13
  It's like it's like the twitches ever since I first met it.
• 27:16
  Yeah, he's yeah, someone is gone mentally.
• 27:22
  And even do you know what, even at the cliffhanger, which is any
• 27:26
  minute now when that monster gets up, because it is gross,
• 27:31
  the music's going. It's again trying to soften it a
• 27:36
  bit. Yeah, but you know, he picked
• 27:38
  the brain up off the floor. He had washed his hands once.
• 27:42
  You know, I, you know, it's the surgery the surgeons go.
• 27:47
  He's, he's, he's a pretty, he's a, he's a slovenly 1.
• 27:49
  And I do love that about him, you know?
• 27:51
  All of the horrific things occurring in this story, the
• 27:53
  fact that you're this obsessed with the cleanliness of
• 27:56
  Solomon's hands. When you put yeah, it was my
• 28:00
  brain, it's like, you know. I mean, if you've been knocked
• 28:03
  on the floor, I don't think you'd mind.
• 28:04
  You know, just get me in that jar quick.
• 28:08
  This is great as well. He helped the sisters out and
• 28:11
  then they just sent him back. Here we go.
• 28:14
  Yeah, here, here. Someone says Morbius was wrong,
• 28:17
  and he smiles and he. And that's the thing.
• 28:21
  His own pride, personal pride as a surgeon is greater than his
• 28:26
  loyalty to Morbius. And that's true of a lot of the
• 28:32
  the ego. Yeah, that's true of a lot of
• 28:35
  followers is really. They've just felt they found a
• 28:37
  cause on some level. Morbius.
• 28:41
  Sorry, Solon is. He's all personal ego, personal
• 28:46
  achievement within the context of Morbius Crusade.
• 28:49
  But yeah, that cliffhanger, sorry.
• 28:51
  To laugh, but that enormous claw just heading for the back of her
• 28:54
  head. Yeah, now we'll talk about it
• 28:57
  when we when we get to Episode 4.
• 28:58
  But I kind of think the cliffhanger resolution in
• 29:01
  episode 4 should have been the cliffhanger.
• 29:06
  And listener, you'll it's very rare you'll hear anyone ever,
• 29:10
  ever pronounce it or emphasize it cliffhanger.
• 29:13
  But yeah, the cliffhanger resolution should be the
• 29:15
  cliffhanger in this one, I think.
• 29:17
  But when when we get to episode 4, I'll I'll kind of point this
• 29:22
  out more clearly. I There's only one thing I want
• 29:24
  to say at the end of that episode, because part threes
• 29:28
  very often in Doctor Who are the weak links.
• 29:32
  That's probably the strongest episode that the Brain and
• 29:34
  Morbius I think. OK, OK.
• 29:36
  Yeah. I think that especially all that
• 29:38
  stuff in the lab. It's got the brain dropping, you
• 29:41
  know what I mean? You know?
• 29:42
  Yeah. Wonderful.
• 29:45
  Yeah, but I like all of the power games with Morbius and
• 29:48
  Solon as well. The scene with.
• 29:50
  Condoms. Yeah, yeah, it's.
• 29:52
  Just one burner after another. I have noticed, again, I'm
• 29:56
  watching this so soon after Pyramids of Mars.
• 29:58
  The episode 3 of both are very, very strong in that you've got
• 30:02
  the Lawrence and Marcus Scarman stuff going on and actually
• 30:07
  bringing things back to Pyramids of Mars very briefly.
• 30:10
  Lawrence Scarman's Marconi machine contraption is very,
• 30:17
  very similar to Baron Frankenstein's gadgets in Curse
• 30:22
  of Frankenstein. But anyway that that occurred to
• 30:24
  me whilst watching Curse of Frankenstein and I didn't think
• 30:27
  I'd get a chance to mention it in this one, but there you go.
• 30:29
  It no There was something in the horror of Frankenstein as well,
• 30:33
  with the same sort of twirly, whirly fan going around.
• 30:37
  And I. Did the same thing he went.
• 30:38
  That's just like the thing from Pyramids and Mars.
• 30:41
  Oh yeah, well, they they clearly reused it between the hammers as
• 30:44
  well, yeah. I wonder, But all I'll say to
• 30:47
  our three is, Oh my God, I'm having so much fun with this.
• 30:50
  What a delightful Doctor Who story this is.
• 30:53
  Yeah, with some of the best characters in in.
• 30:57
  In who? Taken away from being an
• 30:59
  intellectual exercise for a second, I'm putting it as purely
• 31:02
  as a piece of entertainment. Which is what it is.
• 31:05
  It's. Gold, right?
• 31:06
  It is gold standard. Oh, yeah, no, yeah, this really
• 31:09
  is. This really is, Yeah.
• 31:11
  Well, let's find out how. I'm not sure how it's possible a
• 31:14
  cliffhanger resolution can be better than a cliffhanger
• 31:18
  itself. That's well, I'm not I I write
• 31:22
  about that, but I'll, I'll do my best.