Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Rod Brown about his choice of The Pirate Planet (2/4)

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Talks to Rod Brown about his choice of The Pirate Planet (2/4) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

0:23
None hamster with a blunt penknife
0:35
for. Doing quicker, quicker.
0:39
And welcome back to Hamster with a Blunt Penknife, the Doctor Who
0:44
Commentary Podcast. My name is Jo Ford and I'm here
0:48
with my lovely Co host of Strictly Come Hamster, Mr. Rod
0:52
Brown. Is that right Joe?
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Did I get it right? Please don't compliment me.
0:56
Please. I don't know.
0:59
You were sort of like when Peter asked people to do these hamster
1:02
introductions. Yeah, sometimes it verges on
1:04
parody, but other times they're very respectful.
1:08
You know, you were sort of somewhere in the middle.
1:09
Somewhere in the middle. Yeah.
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You elongated a few of those words.
1:13
Yeah, there's the odd one. The Doctor Whoop.
1:15
Yep. It's my great joy of that, but
1:17
to get everybody in the podcast community to say those
1:19
ridiculous words at least once. Well, that's why you're supposed
1:23
to say the Doctor Who Championship podcast on
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Strictly, and I don't think you've said it once.
1:27
That's it. You wait on the next one now,
1:29
right? All right, I'm going to say it
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like every. Time I say strictly.
1:32
I shall say the Championship podcast.
1:35
Thank you. Are you listening out there,
1:37
everybody? It was done to mirror the
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commentary podcast. You say everything's done for.
1:46
Everything's done for a reason. Can I ask you a question about,
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I was going to say scheduling me?
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Not really. No.
1:57
How long have you got? Can I ask you a question please
2:01
about the Pirate Planet episode 2?
2:04
Please do. Well, how do you feel, Douglas
2:09
Adams, as a structuralist? Because, you know, Hitchhiker's
2:15
Guide to the Galaxy, it don't have much structure to it.
2:17
That's it. No, it really doesn't.
2:19
I don't. I think he reverses a lot of the
2:23
trends. I was going to say when we come
2:24
to three, which is usually the plodding run around episode, I
2:28
think 3 is absolutely superb. I think 2 treads a little bit of
2:33
water here in the position that three usually would do.
2:37
So I think for me, I think 2 is probably the weaker of the
2:40
episodes that we get into here. There's far too much reliance on
2:44
CSO, whether they're airships or corridors in Episode 2, and
2:48
there's a lot of moving about to put pieces in place.
2:51
But then when we get to three, my God, it's on fire in three.
2:54
There is an exposition scene in episode 3 and I once highlighted
3:02
it as the best exposition scene ever in Doctor Who.
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It's a a crowded room and everyone gets a line and the
3:10
Doctor bounces it from one person to another and it's just
3:14
delivering a tonne of information that we need for
3:16
this story to make place. But it's done with so much
3:19
energy. I think there are a lot of
3:20
exposition scenes in this story in three and four, but they all
3:23
do that. You're absolutely right.
3:25
You, you talked. About two runners on the first
3:27
episode. I think that was such such a a
3:29
clever insight because you're right, there's a there's a
3:32
interchange in episode 4 that's exactly like that.
3:35
And they the time is the doctor with the nurse.
3:38
Their timing and delivery is absolutely spot on.
3:41
Well, and you know, in that one, in the one in three for out,
3:45
you've got K and I going. Master, Master, will you please
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listen to him at the end? It's like, where's Rubana?
3:53
Oh, it's wonderful, but we're not at episode 3 yet.
3:57
No, we're at. Episode 2 We need to discover
3:59
what appalling thing has happened to the Doctor after
4:02
he's slid down the wall. Joe, do you think he might be
4:05
dead? Is this the end of the series as
4:07
we know it? Oh fucking hope not.
4:11
It would be a little anticlimactic, wouldn't it?
4:14
I think possibly so. Yeah, grabbed by the mentiads.
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Shall I count us into Episode 20?
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Please do, Joe. OK, well then let's go in 321.
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Here we go. This title music must, you know,
4:28
give you the ultimate stiffy it. It absolutely does.
4:31
It's just this was my childhood, this music.
4:35
Oh, God, yeah, this was. I lived.
4:37
I. Promised 5.
4:38
Minutes, everything, Joe. It just promised me imagination.
4:43
I just completely took me away. My life literally was on hold
4:47
for seven days, waiting from the end of one episode to the
4:50
beginning of the next. It was.
4:52
Yeah, it absolutely ruled my world.
4:54
Sad. As though that is to.
4:55
Say I haven't had sad at all. What do you think it was about
4:59
this show then that so captured you?
5:02
I have. Absolutely no idea because it
5:03
captured me before I could, before I can remember and
5:08
certainly, but I think before I could walk and talk, I was
5:10
captured by a, my mum told me I was absolutely obsessed with
5:13
Patrick Droughts and I was what, two or three?
5:16
But it absolutely grabbed me and it's just.
5:18
Never, never let me go. Exactly the kid himself.
5:21
Well, absolutely, but it just never let go.
5:23
It's just absolutely, I, I don't know, I hit, you know, I'd
5:27
listen to other podcasts and people come and go over the
5:29
years. No, it's never happened for me.
5:31
It it grabbed me at 2:00 and it's never a lot let go yet.
5:34
I thought I had a little period in the late 90s right where I
5:37
found The X-Files and dig Space 9 and all this stuff, but I
5:40
never could let it go ever. No.
5:43
I mean, there's other things I've enjoyed along the way, but
5:45
never anything I've enjoyed as much as Doctor.
5:49
Failure is something I find hard.
5:51
It's very hard to terms with, right, Mr. Fibula here.
5:56
Now these costumes here, they're very Star Wars.
5:58
They all look like Moth Tarkin. Yeah, they do.
6:02
They do well. And, you know, I don't blame
6:05
them for trying to reference that very successful movie
6:08
that's just come out. And we just got in the
6:11
background there, our very first shot of the nurse.
6:15
Subtle. Do you know who the nurse was
6:17
going to be, Joe? No.
6:18
Oh. OK, so.
6:20
Miriam Margolies. No, no, not the actress, the
6:23
character. The character was originally
6:25
going to be the daughter of the master.
6:29
And then in the and then in the next draft, she was actually
6:32
going to be the master. She was going to be the first
6:35
female incarnation. So all the all the storylines to
6:39
do with the time dams and extending life that was all to
6:43
bring back the master that. Makes perfect sense, doesn't it?
6:46
Just. I mean, I'm very pleased how it
6:48
is, you know, because we get that fabulous old I'll groan in
6:52
the time dams later on, don't you?
6:53
And I'm not sure bringing back the master in this particular
6:56
story would have worked. It's, it's sort of an ingenious
7:00
way of doing it though, isn't it?
7:01
Isn't. It just I'm not.
7:02
Putting him right at the heart of it straight away, Yeah.
7:06
Oh, he's a clever man. Having a female master that will
7:10
never work. Cancel the show.
7:12
Come on. It's gone far too woke in the
7:14
70s. Oh, these women, they think they
7:16
know things. It's a disgrace.
7:19
Oh there, Tom Baker, just breaking the 4th wall.
7:21
Yeah, well, he does that quite a bit.
7:23
He does that a couple of times in this story.
7:25
Yeah, he he's so pushing the boundaries, isn't he?
7:29
They do. Now look, now we're going to
7:31
have to go up, go after Prelix now, aren't we?
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So Mueller goes off with canine, is that right?
7:37
Yep, canine goes. He gets his own little mission,
7:40
doesn't he? The doctor goes off with.
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Kemus. Thank you very much, Kemus space
7:45
name. Go and steal a space.
7:48
Oh, funny you should mention space names.
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What chipnall? Well, we're going to come to Mr.
7:54
Chipnall shortly, aren't we? What in this?
7:56
Oh, yeah. Hello.
7:59
We'll we'll say that next episode.
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Oh, I've forgotten all of that. You've just realised.
8:03
Yeah. The other classic that it's got
8:08
in the In the Broken Down Planets box set.
8:12
Exactly the double bill of the Pirate Planet and the button of
8:16
Ratzko Ravcodor. And which would I rather watch?
8:20
Well, after we all know the alsat one, the one that's got
8:23
Jodie Whisker in it. Try again.
8:28
Yeah, we'll, we'll come to. That now that shows you how you
8:30
do this story with a huge budget and a prestige cast and no
8:35
humour whatsoever, no wits. We've got that yet to come and
8:41
we've got the first sighting of the air car.
8:44
So these were put in because Douglas Adams hated writing for
8:46
corridors. So instead of having a
8:49
traditional corridor, so how can we get from A to B?
8:52
Oh, we'll have an air car. Yes, it's a very cute model shop
8:56
with a little air car sort of wobbling on a string across.
8:59
Pretty bad, isn't it? Well, it reminds me of the title
9:02
sequence of Button Moon. You know when the when the
9:05
rocket goes but. The troubles that was from the
9:10
Fives, I don't think the CS don't think the CSO has improved
9:14
that much since Barry LED this time.
9:15
It's very in fact, it's worse than Homo Bill in some ways.
9:19
Can't under 5 Watch this. Oh, absolutely I did.
9:22
OK, you realise every time now there's a air car going up to
9:25
the bridge, I'm going to sing that theme tune.
9:27
Please. Do so you know.
9:29
Yeah, that'll lose us. Oh, he's doing that trick with a
9:31
with a coin with he's. Got the same headed coin
9:33
actually. I like the fact that Mueller's
9:37
knows her own mind, you know? Yeah, and I love the fact that
9:40
Canine kind of almost goes off on his own separate storyline.
9:43
So Douglas Adams is writing well for Canine.
9:45
Well, it gives him this best scene in this absolutely canine
9:49
versus the polyphase Avatron. Oh dear, so we're with Ramana
9:53
and a gift card. We're off to the bridge.
10:01
Hello, Mr. Pipi Lee. Oh CSI, that CSO is so bad
10:07
isn't? It CSI.
10:11
But then you cut to the shot of the bridge and that's beautiful.
10:15
You do go from 1 extreme to tough and.
10:16
Again, like I said, that he's a portable director, so he shot up
10:19
at the bridge and then he shot down on the doctor to give the
10:22
idea that they're looking at the two things.
10:23
Absolutely do it. He can't.
10:26
I just don't think he can do action is the trouble.
10:29
He can't stage things. Very.
10:30
Well, no, he doesn't know how to stage or frame things very well,
10:33
but. He I love this.
10:34
That's his best thing. So Tom has just got his his bag
10:37
of Jelly babe is out to distract the guard and he pulls the Jelly
10:41
baby out the bag with his teeth like he's throwing his.
10:44
Cream. And how many times did they have
10:47
to do that shot of the bag with the one liquorice, all salt
10:50
falling out on the floor? And this very, very stupid
10:53
Federation. Sorry, not Federation guard,
10:56
GIMP guard do. You notice how the term Janet
10:59
Fielding was in the behind the sofas on season 15 every time
11:02
the doctor said Jelly babies that they were reliquish Also,
11:05
did you notice? I did.
11:07
She was getting very angry. Now look, I can get behind that
11:11
CSO. That's that CSO is fine, it's
11:13
when it's in the sky that it subtly falls to.
11:16
Shake The thing that that that worked for me with Romana was
11:18
just how cool she looked in that car.
11:20
She's just like, oh. You know, and the dialogue is
11:23
beautiful. You can listen to the dialogue.
11:24
Unfortunately, the visuals are a bit distracting.
11:27
By the Horns of the Prophet blogs.
11:33
And the nurses, now the nurse is a little bit more prominent now
11:36
she's taking his temperature. So yeah, we're starting to see a
11:39
little bit more of she's very, very subtly introduced.
11:42
The lighting in the bridge set, do you see that wall which is
11:45
lit from below? Yes.
11:47
It's just such a visually interesting set.
11:49
There's panels everywhere. It's got 2 levels.
11:53
I think it's one of the most interesting sets of the entire
11:55
season and it's. Incredibly busy, which is.
11:58
Great people, sort of millions of pounds.
12:00
The idea, it's got to marry with those really impressive location
12:06
sequences in the power station, yes, and I think it does.
12:09
I agree with you, I think it's AI think it's a fantastic set.
12:14
God Bruce purchases doing some brilliant eye acting.
12:16
He's rolling that one eye. He's only got his eye to work
12:20
with, his mouth's full and the other half of his face is
12:24
covered. I didn't know anyone could, you
12:26
know, manoeuvre that one eye, that skill for like.
12:31
By the mouth of the sky demon, I say no.
12:34
You see that shot? So Romana's just come onto the
12:37
bridge and her first shot of the captain is through all the smoke
12:40
that he's just created by exploding his arm onto the onto
12:44
the console. That is a great shot.
12:46
He seems like a very powerful sort of chaotic figure, yes.
12:49
Yeah, and we go from a great shot like this to, Oh dear,
12:52
we're in another acre. At least they are blowing a a
12:55
modicum of wind upon our lead actor, so their hair is moving a
13:00
little bit and Tom manoeuvres. The steering wheel with some
13:03
dexterity, doesn't he? But yeah, it's just, I mean, it
13:07
would be very difficult to pull off anyway.
13:09
But yeah, it's just it. I don't.
13:11
Care though, do you care? Not really, no.
13:15
Not now like, but when I was a kid I cared about this stuff if
13:19
my mum walked in the room. Now I don't care.
13:22
The story's great. It's so.
13:23
Fun. Well, I, I knew as soon as I
13:25
turned my tape recorder off at the end of this, my father would
13:28
just start and not shut up about how dreadful it was.
13:31
So whilst I was totally absorbed in it, there was, you know, 10%
13:35
of my brain was preoccupied with, oh God, he's going to
13:38
complain about that, He's going to criticize that.
13:40
So it yeah, it was, it's kind of 90 absorbed 10% and they came.
13:46
Well, let's hope this conversation we're having now is
13:49
kicking the shit out of that experience a little bit, you
13:52
know? You know.
13:52
What I still lives with you all those years?
13:55
Later it does it doesn't I there's certain scenes where my
13:57
mum ripped and and I still feel the the cringe.
14:01
I know it's. Like, weird, isn't it?
14:03
Because it feels like, you know, it's insulting you because it,
14:06
you know, both of us held this programme so close to our
14:09
hearts. It's like, it's like you're
14:11
being criticized. I started watching in my room.
14:14
I had a video recorder in my room, so I was watching
14:16
obviously in the mid 90s. And so I just started watching
14:19
it on my own. And that was the best way.
14:21
And I've got, I do wonder somehow if if that's why I
14:26
didn't connect with the fan community for a long time.
14:28
It was just something I did on my own.
14:30
Yeah, no, I gather. Speak and putting it very
14:38
simply, says Ramada. You keep materialise.
14:41
This is one location. The last is where the space-time
14:43
vortex and rematerialises again in a new location.
14:46
She's figured the whole thing out, yeah.
14:49
And and the nurses framed behind a slightly blurred behind a
14:52
listening intent like and we're now on Monmouthshire golf course
14:56
with Mueller and canine. Lisa Sunshine in Now you know,
14:59
we've got a bit of colour in the screen.
15:03
I like the fact that the nurses lines get steadily, yes, they
15:08
they increase as we go along. She gets one little line here
15:12
and there and then all of a sudden you're aware she's she's
15:16
getting a bit of presence here. What's going on?
15:18
And then it's not until then she sort.
15:20
You realise she's directing things just before the twist
15:23
hits. Yeah, it's very cleverly done.
15:25
So we're back on location. We're with Tom and Keemus, and
15:30
we're outside a entrance to an old disused train tunnel which
15:34
has been covered up by some lovely props.
15:36
Yeah. That's clearly BBC door there,
15:39
isn't it? We'll see that door later on.
15:41
Actually it's used in on the internal scenes as.
15:43
Well, Roger, you know what's coming, don't you?
15:45
That had no corridor. I love that the now actually.
15:52
But that's that's pure Douglas Adams.
15:53
I think there is some really good direction in that scene and
15:56
not so much a special effect, but the way it cut instantly to
15:59
the two guards smacking into the wall.
16:02
And the wall wobbling a bit but that's fine.
16:04
But. I have to work.
16:05
It has. To yeah, it does it does.
16:07
I think like like Corridor generally works quite well, but
16:10
it's so Douglas Adams the. Lie.
16:12
What is it? Newton's revenge?
16:14
It's just great. I mean, is this the sort of
16:19
Douglas Adams, Graham Williams era of Doctor Who?
16:23
Is this of the classic series? Because I know you'll probably
16:27
bring up Moffett. Is this the cleverest Dr.
16:30
Whoever was? Cleverest, that's a good
16:34
question. I just think it's really quite
16:36
sophisticated, despite the fact that it can be very funny.
16:40
I think there are moments in the 80s that are equally clever.
16:45
Unfortunately they're a bit more few and far between, so it
16:48
depends on your writer. So things like Indra and Snake
16:52
Dance, for example, are very clever.
16:55
Go slide. I was going to go to Carmel.
16:57
Carmel is probably the other one that I would say he's very
17:00
clever. So yeah, I'd probably say
17:03
Douglas Adams and Andrew Carmel, the two ears that are the
17:06
cleverest in Classico. Well, I think this, this and
17:10
season 17, it's more smartly plotted than some of the Carmel
17:16
stuff. Like, you know, we talked about
17:18
this on the strictly. Sometimes that that can be.
17:21
It doesn't always work with how long they should be, you know.
17:25
And it's, yeah. And the point you made earlier,
17:27
actually, Joe, which is a good point about how cleverly all the
17:30
plot points raised at the beginning of this are
17:33
satisfactorily answered by the end of it.
17:35
Again, with Carmel, probably largely down to time, but you
17:38
don't always get that. So yeah.
17:41
So there's stories like Fenrick that there are mysteries that
17:45
aren't not every what single one is paid off.
17:47
Whereas here everything does get paid off.
17:49
But I still have huge love for the Carmel.
17:51
No, you still think it's very. Clever.
17:53
Oh yeah, Yeah, I. Often think the pay off in the
17:54
Carmel era is an emotional pay off.
17:57
Yes, come. Back whereas like, there are
17:59
degrees of of cleverness here. It's in the structure of the
18:03
story, it's in the plotting of the story, it's in the ideas
18:07
itself, it's in the wit, in the dialogue.
18:10
You know, I just, I just think it the people cruelly will say,
18:15
you know, that sort of undergraduate approach, but it's
18:20
just. It's such a lazy insult though,
18:22
isn't? It it just screams of being very
18:25
smart to me though. Yeah, I don't, I don't I, I see
18:28
that very often as well. This undergraduate humour in in
18:31
Douglas Adams work, why do we have to sneer at it in that way?
18:35
It's just I, I just think it's a very lazy, cheap way of.
18:38
What does that even mean? Because it's very clever humour.
18:41
It is very clever humour. It's yeah, it's.
18:43
You know, he just sit there, go and find the doctor, get him at
18:47
all costs. And then walk straight in.
18:49
Hello, I'm the doctor, I said. What a splendid place you've got
18:53
here. Such hospitality.
18:55
I'm underwhelmed. And the first big confrontation
19:00
between the captain and the Doctor we've been.
19:02
Working last though. They are great actors with each
19:05
other, aren't they? The two of them together.
19:07
You can always tell when Tom really loves working with
19:11
another actor. I don't.
19:12
I don't think you can really tell when he can't.
19:14
No, but you can't tell when he does.
19:16
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think his his already
19:20
impressive game raises Weed with a great actor.
19:23
And they just feed off each other.
19:24
It's just something in Tom's eyes when he's playing a
19:27
one-on-one scene with a good actor that he respects and
19:30
admires. Yeah, he he lifts his game and
19:33
not lift his game. That's unfair.
19:35
But you're right. You can see that he's having a
19:37
ball and then we do as well. I I love that scene in the city
19:42
of Death where the doctor bowls into the room and behaves like a
19:46
complete buffoon in front of the count and counting.
19:49
I. Say, what a wonderful Butler.
19:50
He's so violent. And yet, you know, we're very
19:54
aware that he's playing that room and just how clever he is.
19:57
A lot of that happens in the Williams era, but it definitely
20:00
happens in this story. But he is literally facetious
20:04
and silly in a lot of scenes. And then when he needs to be,
20:08
like in this scene now where he's literally saying Romana, we
20:11
have stumbled across one of the worst crimes I've ever seen.
20:16
You absolutely take him deadly seriously.
20:19
But Joe throwing, just think what you just said.
20:22
The same applies exactly to the captain as well, because he's
20:25
exactly the same with the captain.
20:26
The captain's full of bluster and larger than life bonamy and
20:31
lines and witticisms, but it's all hiding something and then he
20:34
brings it right the way down. So that's the two sides of the
20:37
same coin. That's why that scene in episode
20:39
three, Yeah. What's it for?
20:41
Because suddenly all of the masks are dropped.
20:44
Yes, all the blusters pushed aside are they're just very
20:48
serious. We'll.
20:50
We'll come to the next. Just one of the best.
20:53
We are now in Barclay Power Station.
20:56
This is a nuclear power station. How do they get access to all
20:59
these nuclear power stations in these days?
21:01
But it does it like blade 7. Went to power stations a couple
21:04
of times. I didn't handle fit.
21:05
It gives it scale, doesn't it? Oh.
21:07
It absolutely does because this was supposed to be shot in
21:09
studio. And I think it was Anthony Reed
21:12
that said, no, we've got to go on location because if you're
21:14
trying to say that these engines are pulling a planet across
21:17
space, we've got to show size and scale.
21:20
And only by going on location can we get that.
21:22
And I think that absolutely good call, great call, because it
21:25
does, it does work. You need to see that this is a
21:28
big room. Imagine this was just in a broom
21:30
cupboard. You wouldn't get that.
21:32
You wouldn't get that sense. See, that's great.
21:35
She goes, oh, he's just a big bully.
21:36
And he goes, no, he's a very clever and very dangerous man.
21:42
So like that whole time when they were just being stupid with
21:45
each other, they were sussing each other out, yes.
21:48
And it's also good for a Mama because she knows a lot of
21:51
things, but she's not world wise at this stage, so she's
21:54
learning. Her apprenticeship is continues.
21:57
Absolutely she's absolutely I. Love all this dialogue.
22:03
We stumble across one of the most heinous crimes in the
22:05
Galaxy. Like suddenly, suddenly this
22:09
really counts. Absolutely.
22:13
But in the same breath, he can also go 4.
22:18
And those numbers do add up to four.
22:20
And oh, it's so interesting watching the documentary.
22:23
I saw it earlier and Bruce Purchase goes, yeah, these seems
22:26
on locations. You can say I'm still under
22:28
playing it a bit because I'm not quite sure how far I can go.
22:31
And then we got to the studio and I just went mad.
22:34
He's even having to hide his costume a little bit because the
22:37
full arm wasn't built at the stage, so that's why he's turned
22:40
up an odd angle. They look Doesn't Tom and Mary
22:43
look great together? Brilliant, brilliant.
22:45
And it shouldn't be that Tom and Lala also look well together,
22:49
great together. But they do, you know, do.
22:51
You know what Tom, with all it well, I'll leave season or the
22:55
well I'll leave most of season 18, no.
22:57
I'll leave Patrick Tegan and Nissan because he clearly he's
23:01
just scowling at them. His other companions, my God,
23:04
they hit gold every time, didn't they?
23:06
Yes. And you know what?
23:08
He may not have always been generous as an actor like Peter
23:13
Davidson was, but I do think he always had great chemistry with
23:19
them. Oh, completely.
23:21
But like, Davidson was very generous as an actor, and look
23:23
what you get in 19. It's a very awkward mix.
23:27
Yes, dare we use the word bland? We dare Yes.
23:33
Long hours, violence, No intellectual stimulation.
23:36
I. Believe that.
23:36
Become hamster. For you, maybe definitely the
23:42
long hours. What I was going to say was
23:45
that's hitchhikers. It is.
23:48
I mean, he's doing the two at the same time, so there's going
23:51
to be some overlap. Oh God, Pennant Roberts, please
23:54
don't film another guard shootout.
23:57
He cannot direct people shooting at each other to save his and he
24:01
gets one after the next. After the trouble is he gets a
24:04
story which is basically 14 part shootout and Morris of the Deep.
24:08
We've yet to tackle that one. I can't wait I.
24:13
Cannot wait. Do you know us?
24:15
I went on the Polish box and said that was directly
24:17
responsible for Doctor Who being cancelled.
24:19
Well, do you know what it kind of?
24:20
Was. I think there's an argument
24:22
there. I think the lights have gone
24:24
down all of a sudden because we're in the Mentias lair.
24:27
And we're still to believe that they are the big bad.
24:30
It's a great set. It's another great well, think
24:34
of how many sets we've seen as well.
24:36
You know this lair, the bridge, the street, inside the houses?
24:41
I've questioned the wallpaper but and again, it's a demo.
24:47
There will be blood. Oh, and we sorry if we as my
24:51
machine gone wrong, we're suddenly in the green death
24:53
mines and. Is it the same place?
24:56
No, it's not. It would be great if it wasn't.
24:58
No, but I think because you see them go inside the lift and the
25:02
lift go down again, it's really. And then we're in the caves.
25:06
Yeah, there's some scale to this there.
25:08
Really is scale to this. I don't know why this doesn't
25:10
get higher up for Tom charts. Oh, such a clever.
25:14
Story because it's silly I think I think that's that's the
25:17
problem people have with this you know, it's so much easier to
25:21
take the mask of Mandragora seriously give.
25:25
Me the sova mask mandragora any day though, even with salami
25:29
sandwiches. And the last line of this
25:33
episode is very ruse is. There, I never thought of it.
25:38
As big doctor, we have come for you.
25:43
Oh, Joe Ford. So sorry but this location is
25:47
shooting now. I mean, I want to give him props
25:49
where he deserves it. Oh yeah, yeah.
25:51
He gets the scale of that underground that that cavern
25:54
that they're in, and I love the fact that there's all sort of
25:57
water on the floor isn't. It it's dripping, Yeah.
26:00
God, imagine we'd had Underworld in those caves.
26:03
So in that point there, they're standing on Caliafax inside the
26:07
Pirate Planet, all right? Which is why it's wet and cold
26:10
and icy. Which is the line she used in
26:11
part one to describe Colourful. It's beautiful, isn't it?
26:14
And it's dark and it's Moody. They put dry ice in the water,
26:17
yes. Apparently some of the crew were
26:19
having hallucinations in these caves because it was so
26:22
oppressive, the atmosphere in there.
26:24
But they're just that idea that they're standing on a planet.
26:28
Inside. A planet.
26:31
And now we start to get the revelations.
26:33
You can understand why the producer sorry the you know, the
26:36
head of drama when we can't do this.
26:39
Can't do this, yeah, but they pull this off completely.
26:44
I question the bit of the resolution doesn't work
26:48
particularly because we rely on a bit of technical gizzardry.
26:52
But at the moment, yeah, this absolutely self.
26:55
But the as well the the lighting on Tom's face in a minute when
26:59
he's talking about what's going on.
27:03
The reason the stars in the sky change is because they don't
27:06
know your entire planet jumps through space.
27:09
Those engines. It's the pirate planet.
27:13
Sorry Fraser. The I think the name of the
27:15
episode was just referenced in the dialogue.
27:19
I think that only happens once or twice, you know?
27:25
But. Again, you're paying off the
27:27
engines that we saw earlier in this episode.
27:29
So we're. Starting to tie it together and
27:31
you. Also pay offs.
27:32
Yes, and you're paying off now what happened at the beginning
27:34
of episode one when the TARDIS were trying to materialize at
27:37
the same time as Zanuck. Buried, it goes buried inside
27:40
the Zanuck, the pirate planet and having its goodness sucked
27:44
out. Ah, wonderful.
27:46
And that. Lighting is beautiful.
27:47
Here as well. But Tom can deliver us all the
27:50
seriousness of it yes and now that explains how Band Dragons 5
27:58
comes into this, because that's one of the previous planets
28:01
that's been eaten up a. Plant of 1000 million souls,
28:05
Captain fodder. I mean, really raising the
28:07
stakes here at this point, aren't we?
28:09
I mean, is this the biggest story we've had to this point?
28:14
Probably one of them. It's epic, isn't it?
28:16
I mean really, if you stand back it is epic.
28:19
They are destroying whole planets just to keep that hag
28:23
alive that we will come to later on.
28:25
But. And we haven't even talked about
28:27
the key to time because no, no. We need.
28:29
To do that, the fact that the that the segment is a whole
28:33
world. But it's buried, buried, if
28:36
you'll excuse the pun, all the way through this story.
28:38
It's very clever. So Douglas Adams, he's not just
28:41
saying, oh God, I've got Mcguffin to squeeze in.
28:44
You know, we'll make some vague reference to it.
28:45
It's not an Android guitar where we'll deal with it in the 1st
28:48
30. Seconds.
28:49
I love that as well, though David Fisher's going, I'm not
28:52
doing this nonsense right. There's your segment.
28:54
Let's have some. That's you off?
28:56
Yeah. And for Romana, so competent,
28:59
she just does it straight away. We have come for you close up on
29:04
top. Buggly eyes.
29:05
Yep, that's a better cliffhanger, I think.
29:07
Oh. By far, you know, because the
29:09
mood and the atmosphere and the filming, the lighting.
29:12
Yeah, everything. Works.
29:13
I actually think that last five minutes is really well directed.
29:16
I would agree. I would.
29:17
Agree. I I think when he's doing
29:19
performance pieces and you look at his work on what's it called
29:24
Singapore, the, the women in the prison.
29:26
Oh, Tenko, Tenko. Look at his work in Tenko.
29:28
It's yeah, yeah, yeah. Sublime it's special effects.
29:31
Special effects and action scenes He cannot.
29:34
Do. But when he's just got actors in
29:36
a room, yes, Yeah. He frames them really well, he
29:38
positions them really well. I remember that scene in
29:41
Warriors of the Deep. Don't throw your career away,
29:46
cry drama. Karate kicking.
29:51
Oh my God. Well, that was another great,
29:54
great episode. Yeah, I, I mean, I know and I
29:57
know we're throwing a lot of superlative at it, but I think
29:59
it's aren't it. I would agree.
30:01
I I wouldn't, I don't throw them around lightly.
30:04
I think this was a great story. I mean, I don't want to say this
30:06
the best of this season because obviously we haven't done
30:09
strictly on this yet. So I'm going to keep that going
30:12
to keep that powder dry. Oh.
30:14
Do you know it would be hard for me to make that call because
30:17
after this, there are four stories I think I could happily
30:20
call the best of this season. Yeah.
30:23
There's only six in it. Yeah, I think what do you say
30:26
tails off towards the end. I think Paraco and Armageddon
30:30
Factor are both underrated, so yeah.
30:33
Yeah, I don't think that out and out duds.
30:35
For sure, I have said many times on a hamster lumpen knife 16 is
30:39
my favorite classic season, and this exemplifies why.
30:42
Yeah. Yeah, it's a great story.
30:45
It's very clever, well acted. Yeah.
30:47
Loving it. Well, would you care to hold my
30:50
hand now as we dive straight into a pool of exposition?
30:55
I wonder what we were going to dive into.
30:57
Absolutely. Let's go for it.
30:59
I don't want to wait a week. Let's crack on.