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Talks to Steven B & Jack Coyer about The Time Monster (5/6) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

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Hamster with a blunt pen knife for doing quicker quicker.
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Welcome back to a hamster with a blunt pen real knife, the best
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Doctor Who commentary podcast out there.
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You're back with us for part 5, episode 5 of the time Monster,
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joining me to discuss this masterpiece or otherwise our
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host Joe Ford. Say hello, Joe, I'm.
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Sorry, Stephen, I took you for somebody I loved once, but
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clearly you're no longer that person anymore.
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Hello. And Jack.
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Jack. Crosses Hippius.
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Hippius. I'm going to do this in tomorrow
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episode in the style of Hippius. No, please don't.
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People start switching off and and with this is Jack.
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Jack Koya say hello, Jack. Hello, I am Jack and I come as
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an emissary of the gods. We don't call it a hamster with
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a blunt pen, knife or nothing, you know.
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Really be done lads. Well, we are about to start the
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the I guess the third part in your reckoning Jack, which where
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we are move into finally Atlantis.
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Yeah, yeah, this is part 4. The Time Monster, AKA episode 5,
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I suppose is what this instalment will be titled.
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It's, you know, it's funny watching this story, you watch
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it with the subtitles and the info text and that sort of thing
2:10
to time helps to liberify what what your opinions are about, I
2:15
suppose, and why. And I was all thinking about the
2:19
general unit, John Pert for the unit era and what sort of
2:24
separates it from a Doctor Who that that we've had before.
2:28
And I suppose to some extent the Doctor Who that we've had since.
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And the info text decided to supply me with a couple of very
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academic, intelligent terms to use to describe the feelings I
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was having about the story and the the the structure of the
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narrative. It describes as being either a
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mum going to get them up because they're like nice words.
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It's sent for feugal, the narrative versus it's sent for
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people as in so sent to feugal force is a force that's, you
3:10
know, going away from the actress from the centre.
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And that's old Doctor Who sort of in particular black and
3:17
white. So if you take a story like Keys
3:22
of Marinus, for example, where you know, everyone's going off
3:26
on their own individual side quests, you know, the doctor
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does this bit over here, you know, Barbara, Susan, you know,
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and Paul should be that for the filming production schedule.
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So you know, William Hartmill can have a week off, Jacqueline
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Hill can have a week off or something like the Romans where
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obviously all, again, all four of them, you know, spread out
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from the centre of the narrative.
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And Karen had their own subplots.
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Well, with the unit era, particularly in this story,
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we're seeing what's called the centrifugal narrative where
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everything is going towards the centre because the production
4:02
team, and they attribute this to Paul Bernhard on the on the
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Blu-ray, the production team in general realise what this
4:12
version of Doctor Who is. And it's put simply, people want
4:16
to watch Rod Delgado, Katie Manning and John Perth with
4:21
doing stuff and they're not that bothered where it is or what it
4:25
is. So that is sort of a central
4:28
people narrative, the narrative being entirely, you know, these
4:33
characters and these actors playing off against one another.
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And to an extent, I don't really think Doctor Who ever quite goes
4:42
back to again. I mean, we've obviously
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discussed earlier in the commentary black orchids and I
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think season 19 is very much back to sense of funeral
4:52
narrative. You know, Pete Davidson goes off
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and does one thing and you know, Mr. falls asleep or Matthew Ward
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has been captured by the master, you know, to to remove people
5:03
from the episodes. And that's why I think we spoke
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earlier about how it's so strange to see Katie Manning
5:11
take a back seat in those first couple of episodes because there
5:16
aren't really side characters in the perks we era in quite the
5:22
same distinctive way as they would be in in the hot newer,
5:25
for example. And yeah, this is delivering
5:30
what the people are asking for, which is we want these actors to
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all be getting into into scrapes.
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So yeah, that that's my opinion on one where this is going and
5:44
where the ultimate heart of this era rise.
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No, Jack, I know the fellow who does the Black Archives.
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I'm going to get him in touch with you.
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You've got such a brilliant reading on Doctor Who stories.
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Oh no, I'm just filling out the time.
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We've got to get to 25 minutes somehow.
6:00
We haven't. Started it yet?
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I'm scared you know that if in new series terms if I think the
6:09
first 4 episodes might be the equivalent of a new series
6:13
teaser. You know, pre title sequence.
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But just for two fucking hours been lots of hints and whispers
6:19
about what the actual story is going to be.
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And now that's all starting here.
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We're finally going to get to Atlantis I.
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Said because it's taken 4 weeks, it's next month on Doctor Who.
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Yeah, you've got to be very patient.
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Well look, shall we head to Atlantis guys and see some ripe
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old acting from British fests? We must.
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If we must, do you say if we must or we must?
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I think we must. Well, I'll count this in.
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No, no, actually, Jack, you count us in.
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OK in episode 5, episode 4, episode 3, episode 2, episode 1
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and back to episode 4. I fear though the amount of
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numbers you've just counted is how many episodes we could lose
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still tell the same story. You know what?
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I have a theory about this. I was going to get into it
7:14
later, but I might as well get into it now.
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If we were to reimagine this serial for a modern audience and
7:21
I don't know who would take on such a ridiculous task.
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The first thing you would do is to remove it from the Canon.
7:28
The second thing that you would do if you were to have to go
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ahead with it is actually what you were saying before.
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Joe, I think you have a pre title sequence where the Doctor
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has a dream and the the next thing that you need to do is
7:40
just start with the Master and that sets up the whole thing
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about him getting access to to Kronos.
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And then, well, actually skip past this TARDIS bit.
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We land in Atlantis and that's effectively the start of the
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story. So much of the Jay Paris, so
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much of the nonsense, so much of the assholery that we've seen so
8:00
far is absolutely inconsequential.
8:03
Having said that, I still absolutely adore it because I
8:06
just think it's so much fun though.
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Yeah, exactly. You do.
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Because. The chat or what Jack was
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talking about just hanging out with these.
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Wonderful. Characters.
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Yeah, it's. What Nathan calls hang time on
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Star Trek. Those episodes where?
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We're just. We're just on the station or
8:19
we're just on the ship and nothing really is going on.
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But you just love being around those people.
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So seeing their data, we're basically doing a day in the
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life of unit, aren't we? Do you think there's a risk that
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it would just make this the Atlantis stuff?
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It's a bit too when they're missing the curse of Peloton,
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maybe. Oh, that's not a bad chat,
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actually, Yeah. Just with none of the
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atmosphere. Oh no, look, I can see the the
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power wire for the. Console.
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Yes, which? Which buttons shall I press,
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Doctor? Press the ones on the console
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that don't look like any of the other buttons.
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No, I do have to say rubs to Paul Bernard, because if Peter
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Moffett ever shot the TARDIS from an intriguing angle like
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that, I'll be very happy. How do you like this idea of all
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the whispering voices? Is she?
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What is it? He's communicating with Joe
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through his mind or something. Yeah, and some of the voices are
9:11
female, which I think is wonderful.
9:13
Press the genius. Yeah.
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I mean, thank goodness we're not listening to Richard Franklin.
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Subconscious sports. I mean, we're not.
9:21
Don't think it'll be broadcast. I think hang on, if you really
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focus, I think I can hear Joe Martin in there somewhere.
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There she is. Right.
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That's Joe. Come on, pull it.
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Get us to Atlantis. Here we go.
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Hit the big red button. Yes.
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That's John. It's on the centre of the
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Tarvis. Yeah, second mention in this
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commentary. Oh, here we go, blowing up the
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horns. So both the depiction of
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Atlantis in this story. What do you think, Stephen?
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I think he loses a lot for not keeping the film footage that we
10:04
saw in previous episodes. So that's probably the first
10:07
thing. The other thing is that it's
10:08
sort of stereotypical perhaps in some regards of those BBC
10:11
productions. You know, this could be Anthony
10:13
and Cleopatra, this could be Merchant of Venice, this could
10:15
be any one of those Shakespeare historicals.
10:18
I guess the, the sense of scale. Look, I've given credit like
10:25
it's a, it's a large set, but it, it's, it just doesn't look
10:31
particularly enticing or welcoming.
10:34
I don't know whether that's Paul Bernard or I don't, I mean,
10:37
they've obviously rated the BBC wardrobe, so there's clearly
10:42
sort of a mishmash of styles from antiquity as well.
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I, I don't think it's a great success, but I also know that
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this is as close as that they could have got given the the
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time and the budget. I think weirdly it looks more
11:00
impressive when Bernard is shooting through things.
11:05
When he does a long shot it, it exposes all of the floors and it
11:10
is a studio. But there's scenes later on in
11:13
quarters and things like that where he's shooting through
11:15
grills and through flowers and things like that where actually
11:18
it's it's probably about as visually sumptuous as the story
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gets. Well, what about you then, Jack?
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Are you enjoying the BBC Shakespeare on the screen?
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Yes, I mean, you know, it's if it makes a change from obviously
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episode 1's just sort of black void, you know, we'll just put
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the curtains up and, you know, we'll move Atlantis.
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There's actual extras. There's so many people on the
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screen. This is arguably about the most
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people who have ever been on the screen in one time up to this
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point in the whole nine seasons of the show.
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And I think it's just quite impressive.
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But bear in mind, this story has so much on its mind.
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And if we have so many sets to work through that they are, but
12:04
all of them look relatively impressive.
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I mean, if you've got half the number of sets and double the
12:11
budget you gave for the remaining sets, then I'm sure
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it'll be a much more, you know, sumptuous story.
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But then for what they've achieved, it looks pretty good.
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And here is Ingrid Pitt, who in a wonderful special feature on
12:29
the Blu-ray set, she's interviewed at Panopticon and
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she doesn't really remember too much about the time also, but
12:37
she's busy mates with Jon Pertwee, or Jon Pertwee as she
12:40
calls him. And so she's basically saying
12:43
she thinks he's the best doctor. He's got wonderful presence on
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her. What struck me was one, just how
12:49
smart she was. She she absolutely understands
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the TV and the film industry, which is why she and her husband
12:56
created their own company to make films for better roles for
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women. Because of what she'd
13:04
experienced on TV, which I just thought, but just about how much
13:08
good humour she had about it all as well.
13:10
She'd done more prestige things than this, and she just said I
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had a wonderful time making it. So, you know, if we're not
13:17
enjoying it, Ingrid Pitt is all right.
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And if at least the best Doctor Who's story, Ingrid Pitt, was
13:23
ever excuse. Me.
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Do you not remember that fabulous 2 parter in season 22?
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The macros. I remember her attempting a
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Roundhouse pic on a giant Halloween costume.
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Have any of you heard the macros?
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No, but it's this the script that she wrote?
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Was it for the abandoned season 23?
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Yeah, it. Was, but she wrote the script,
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yeah. And and.
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I think. I think she wanted to play the
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villain as well, and it was all about the Philadelphia
13:57
Experiment, which is a really interesting concept.
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Unfortunately the script is a little undercooked and yeah,
14:05
those are some odd places, but props on Earth are trying.
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Oh, don't you love how? What's the King's name again?
14:14
He's. So unimpressed by the Master,
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isn't he? Whereas.
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Queen Galia is absolutely beguiled by him.
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Yeah, I think the the king is again, quite different character
14:28
from what you expect. I think you sort of expect him
14:31
to be an old fogey who the Masters is going to walk over
14:36
and, you know, instantly propose him.
14:38
And, you know, But yeah, he's got a lot more of his wits about
14:42
him. And obviously, you know, Inwood
14:45
Pitt, an actual, you know, star of the time is, you know, quite
14:51
a presence herself, let's say. It's the wonderful scene between
14:56
her and the king when you know, he reveals to her that he knows
15:00
of her infidelity. And it's excised from the story
15:04
because Terrace Dick says, look, I know this is a great character
15:07
moment and it's a brilliant scene for him to repeat, but it
15:10
isn't pertinent to the plot. And we're overrunning, which
15:13
shows you where they're focused, right?
15:16
And Barry let's us go and well, I'm not telling her that's her
15:19
best scene in the whole thing. So he gets Paul Bernard and Paul
15:23
Bernard goes, I'm not telling her.
15:25
So Barry, let's eventually sort of tip toes over to her and
15:28
tells her and if she goes, it's fine, don't worry about it, you
15:31
know, still being paid love, you know?
15:33
Although I like that by episode 5 we're going do you know what?
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I think this bit might be in permanent to the plot.
15:40
Oh, you talk about the Daisy, Daisy.
15:44
I mean, they're still in the Tortoise, they've not actually
15:48
joined the Atlantis bit yet, which is quite strange.
15:52
You don't. See, they're arriving now.
15:54
Those seats, those sets are huge, aren't they?
15:58
But Doctor Who? Yeah.
16:03
And again, it's because this is just lying around in in some
16:06
storage area at the back of, you know, BBC studios.
16:09
So they're able to, you know, pay a nominal fee to hire it
16:12
out. But yeah, I mean, why wouldn't
16:16
you? I just, I just don't think
16:18
whether it's the lighting as well.
16:20
Like it just seems to be just a bit too flat.
16:25
Get back. To the curse of Pelodon.
16:29
Because you said though, because there's a lot more about it on
16:31
film as well, so. Yeah, I do like all the power
16:36
games. So, you know, the master, the
16:38
King and the Queen. I think that's quite fun.
16:41
That's a beautiful shot. There are.
16:44
You talking about well. In part, but also just genuinely
16:49
how it's been framed. She's over, you know,
16:51
eavesdropping on the conversation between the king
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and the master. And there's just a a nice bit of
16:57
A framing there and and movement too.
17:00
But this bit here is great. Like as you say, the king is not
17:04
having any of it. He can see right through the
17:06
master. He tries to hypnotize him and he
17:09
just laughs at his face. Doesn't he?
17:11
Yeah, I'm too old a fish to be caught by such a man.
17:14
Which is a nicer? But this is the only time as
17:18
well where for whatever motive, you see Roger Delgado's master
17:24
seduce somebody. But I think that's really nice
17:27
as well. I think it's really interesting.
17:29
I, I wonder let's, I mean, I came to this story probably as
17:34
an 11 year old reading the target globalization and had to
17:38
look up what seduced meant in the dictionary and was perplexed
17:41
to some degree because there was, there's two meanings,
17:43
right? There's obviously the, the
17:44
sexual connotation and aspect to it, but there's also seduced in
17:47
terms of being seduced by someone's promises or, you know,
17:51
the allure of power, etcetera. And I just wonder which of those
17:56
to apply here. And it's interesting to hear you
17:58
say, Joey, that that scene was cut because obviously it it sort
18:02
of provides greater perhaps sort of ammunition to sort of suggest
18:09
that the master may well physically have seduced Queen
18:13
Gillian. Who could?
18:14
Well, who could blame him? I mean, will you take one look
18:17
at Roger Delgado, please, and see why Cream Glare might have
18:20
been seduced? And then can you take a look at
18:22
Ingrid Peer and see why the Master might his priorities
18:25
might have shifted just for these two episodes?
18:27
Yeah, yeah. But.
18:29
So I was just going to say that's obviously a story beat
18:32
that. As we mentioned before, bits for
18:34
a piece of the John SIM master. He rises to political power bits
18:39
himself a nice you know why? So we can parade around with
18:41
some of the best ones. So it's, you know, there's no
18:44
new ideas. No, but I, I do wonder whether
18:48
we're at the edge of dangerous territory with this one.
18:51
Because it is 1972, I want to say it is 1972.
18:56
It is a children's television for the most part, but obviously
18:59
for a family audience. And is that to adult?
19:04
Is that to perhaps even blatant to sort of suggest that and and
19:10
excising it was probably the right thing to do?
19:14
Yeah, I think as you say, the sort of general seducing to to
19:19
power is probably not only the more family trembling room, but
19:24
I guess also just the more interesting room.
19:26
I don't know if children are necessarily watching Doctor Who
19:32
fallacious stuff. I mean, maybe I'll lift him.
19:35
Maybe when we start getting into, you know, Tom Baker with
19:38
with Cheryl or with the Romanas, then maybe the the focus changes
19:42
somewhat. But I don't think he miss you.
19:45
Cliff Jones and Joe Grant, but I think I think it the readings
19:52
there if you want it to be. There, I agree.
19:55
Yeah. And, and a lot of the best
19:58
stories do work on those two levels.
19:59
Do you know what right? Paul Bernard might like his
20:02
crash zooms and moving that camera about, but the one thing
20:04
he does give a lot of focus to is Ingrid Pitt.
20:08
Very aware. She's very centre, centre stage
20:11
all the time, isn't she? There's a great story that Barry
20:13
Lentz tells that he got this incensed letter from a parent
20:18
going. On.
20:19
How dare you put Ingrid tits tits all over the screen.
20:25
My child was watching that and Barry Lentz, who, you know,
20:29
brought it back when you wanted to, wrote when he let her back
20:32
and said, well, what do you want us to do with them?
20:35
Like they're there? She wrote back.
20:41
I will never, ever watch the BBC again.
20:44
Well, Tara love. Yeah, I mean, we've had John,
20:49
We've had Nicholas Courtney and John Levine on screen.
20:52
You know, we've been used to massive boobs and.
20:58
You can't please all the people all the time, but you're
21:00
certainly pleasing me at this moment.
21:02
Well, there's a lot of male cleavage on on the screen as
21:05
well, though. What else?
21:05
I normally would approve of that sort of thing, but the people
21:09
they've chosen. Oh, this scene now where he has
21:13
to talk to her as a spurned lover, not.
21:17
It's not a great performance. She is great in it, but he is.
21:20
He's been acted off the stage. It's crazy.
21:24
What a mismatch. You see how she's looking at
21:26
everybody, Queen Galera, as if they're utterly beneath her.
21:30
That's exactly how Ingrid Pitt looks at the convention when
21:34
she's talking to Oh, I Love Joe's look.
21:41
In a minute, though, when she gets in the air.
21:43
Atlantean gear. I think that's gorgeous.
21:50
You can say that again. Why would I say it again?
21:58
There's. Three really beautiful women in
22:01
this scene and. I just.
22:04
Like what was happening in the 70s to men.
22:06
Obviously James weren't invented yet.
22:09
Diet would have been awful, yeah.
22:14
I think it's the late 80s, you know, into Sylvester McCoy era.
22:18
There's so many hot men on display, I can't even, I don't
22:21
know where to look for one. But in the 70s, I'm sorry, I
22:25
wouldn't be looking at all. What's all the heavy eye makeup
22:30
all about as well? I wonder whether there isn't
22:35
some kind of like, textbook about ancient Greece or Rome
22:39
around makeup. Perhaps it Yeah, perhaps it just
22:43
comes from Cleopatra. You know, the the eyeliner.
22:46
Oh, my God. I hadn't been invented by
22:48
Cleopatra. She said.
22:50
So you have a care and she still strokes his face anyway, You
22:53
know, just keep him on that string.
22:57
I think I think Pierre Ingrid Pick is a great turn in this.
23:00
It's masterful. So such a sort of slight amount
23:05
of screen time. Yeah, I think she does a lot
23:07
with, you know, what is really a particularly prominent part.
23:10
I mean, there there's no indication that she's going to
23:14
be anywhere nearest or, you know, we're, we know we're going
23:17
to Atlantis, but we don't know what's going to be there.
23:20
So I think they have very little time to establish themselves.
23:26
And she's not in any of the sort of teaser Atlantis bits that we
23:29
get in the first four parts either.
23:32
You think of any other TV show that was on at the time that
23:35
could put out, you know, the first 3 episodes on contemporary
23:39
Earth, then the and then this like like within the same story.
23:45
Like TV is so formulated, right? Every show has a tone.
23:48
They usually run through the same hoops.
23:52
But I've said this before, this is the The Great Wanderer and
23:55
Magic Doctor Who. And even in this instance where
23:59
as an experiment it fails, it's still wonderfully inventive and
24:03
great fun to to to watch, I think.
24:06
I don't think you hang around too long.
24:08
It's like he's a mariner that's still old to chase.
24:10
You don't hang around anywhere long enough to be bored.
24:14
You could be bored watching the chase.
24:16
Wow. To preserve, to live a little,
24:20
to live. A little indeed.
24:24
You know, I was in a chase. Did you notice that back cloth a
24:28
second ago? It was doing a sort of William
24:30
Hartner era thing of suggesting this great Atlantean Vista.
24:34
Unfortunately I don't think it's one of the better examples
24:37
because for ages I was going is that a painting or is that
24:40
supposed to be the scenery it was?
24:43
Yeah, yeah. It's better than what they've
24:45
done up here. But give me a pistol and you
24:47
sort of stick up still. Photographs of like, you know,
24:51
grease play in the background. Oh, look at Delgado now.
24:56
He's smooth. Yes, I think the masters,
25:02
obviously the hypnosis them as we've said the whole seduction
25:05
element. I think the hypnosis are and
25:09
it's very I don't know, I think it could be framed as quite sort
25:14
of romantic and you know, that kind of power that the master is
25:21
sort of a few, then it's a wonder that they don't do it
25:25
more often. I mean, obviously, you know,
25:27
like we said to John SIM master and I suppose Eric Roberts in
25:31
the TV movie, they obviously make me joke out of, you know,
25:34
come back to their master. You know, I think I think that
25:38
they definitely people do recognise this element of the
25:41
character as opposed to the doctors, you know, equally sort
25:46
of capable and powerful, but if not framed as a sort of romantic
25:51
or sexual being, I. I think there's two reasons why
25:55
you couldn't do that too often. The 1st is it is Doctor Who and
26:00
and having that sort of break the format is probably too
26:05
jarring. But the second thing is it's
26:07
just too nasty. Like how many?
26:09
How many strings of, you know, like there would just be this
26:13
endless string of broken women who've been broken by the
26:16
master, and that's just too awful a a thought.
26:22
I'm going to say as well, ever since we've transferred from
26:25
that main Atlantis set to bedrooms and now we're at night
26:28
so the lights are down, all of this looks so much, so much
26:32
better. The the biggest problem is later
26:37
when they try and stage the downfall of Atlantis and Bernard
26:41
for some bizarre reason decided to do it all in one shot in
26:44
Longshore where he just gets all these stage hands to throw bits
26:49
of fake polystyrene about them. And it's like, it's so confused
26:53
and messy. It's like Richard Martin's back
26:55
on the scene. But yeah, I mean, as you're
27:00
saying these sort of things, if that's, you know, ancient
27:04
societies, you know, people trying to climb up the ladders
27:07
of power in ancient societies, all the sort of bread and butter
27:11
stock and trade of of British television.
27:16
And I mean, this is going to in its own way, predate something
27:20
like, no, I, Claudius is going, you know, on the way.
27:25
That tone is something that obviously the curse of Peloton,
27:30
you know, kind of the similar things.
27:33
But yeah, I think there's definitely a place for that
27:35
within Doctor Who. It just might not be in the same
27:38
place as, you know, John Marine being thrown into a, you know,
27:41
computer. Desk I look, I'm a massive soap
27:45
opera fan, right? Which is why I love Rusty
27:47
Davis's Doctor Who. So I'm far more invested in all
27:50
this spurned lovers, people back into, you know, stabbing each
27:54
other in the back than I am about, you know, the
27:56
Crystallocronos and the great white budgery Guard of death.
27:59
I'd far rather watch this. My my interest is it's peak now.
28:05
Yeah, it's it's the odd tension of an era that's very character
28:10
based, suddenly leaping the high concept, which I suppose it's
28:16
not done as much in the past or in the recent past.
28:20
It's just we've laid out his characters now watch him get
28:25
into scrapes, you know, an observatory or a, you know,
28:29
munitions factory or whether it happened to be that week or a
28:33
prison. And now we've suddenly come into
28:37
what is the nature of time, you know, which is quite a grand
28:41
leap forward, but. Going back to the SOAP staff,
28:45
what hits for me in the climax and a lot about the climax
28:49
doesn't work for me, isn't the downfall of Atlantis, because I
28:52
never had a hope in hell of being able to realise that it's
28:57
Galaya realising she's been fooled and sitting there amongst
29:00
all the wreckage. Absolutely.
29:02
She's brought down this massive tragedy.
29:04
You know, it's it's it's the people rather than the concept.
29:10
Oh, I do like Joe getting a busy mate here as well.
29:12
They do. It's it's like Polly and Ara in
29:16
Underwater Menace or Ace and Xiao Yung in Battlefield.
29:20
You know, I like it when when the female companion gets her
29:23
best mate. Yes, yeah, it's nice because
29:27
obviously they are younger people and I think there's
29:31
obviously the doctor is much older than Joe, so I think he
29:34
can't quite get into the same scripts with her.
29:36
So it's nice to this is again, an element that the kids
29:40
probably want to see is young people getting into, you know,
29:44
so. But it has that weird shorthand
29:47
where they seem to, you know, be able to work together despite
29:50
the fact that they've only known each other two seconds, you
29:53
know, And, you know, the second they mentioned the miners, all,
29:58
we're in a bit of trouble, Like, oh, no, are we going to do it?
30:01
Really? Do you remember the mine robber?
30:06
They didn't learn the lesson either when you think about 9/1.
30:09
Look at all this lighting. I think this is really nice.
30:12
I think this is some of the more lush, lush material in the
30:15
story. Yeah, and the background was
30:17
pretty much. That's sort of, yeah.
30:20
Look at that on different levels, the steps, the columns.
30:24
So much better when you turn the lights down, yeah.
30:28
Unfortunately, it's not night forever on Atlantis.
30:34
Oh, Hippius. No, no.
30:36
Oh my God, we're on film. Hurrah, we're on film.
30:39
Yes. Yeah, it looks such a short.
30:42
Suddenly, every artificial set bizarrely looks like it's
30:46
outside. Yeah, Oh, Oh no, The camera.
30:51
What happened? The camera that was did.
30:55
We see the monster though. No, we didn't.
30:59
What a bizarre cliffhanger. Was it just like a great growl?
31:07
Yeah, yeah. So it's we, we hear it, but we
31:10
don't see it. Probably for the best.
31:13
Wow. I mean, do you find the skip
31:17
into this location quite refreshing or is this not really
31:22
to your tastes? Stupid.
31:25
Oh, look, we'll, we'll talk about more in the next episode,
31:28
I'm sure, but something needs to happen.
31:30
We've had a fifth episode which is probably, probably the
31:33
strongest of the of the six, right, I think.
31:36
So too, yeah. In the sense that we've got
31:38
great characterization, but very little in the way of action,
31:40
which which kind of runs counter to what we've seen particularly
31:45
in those first 3 episodes, I guess, and particularly that
31:47
third episode. So it's really about, again,
31:49
because this doesn't have a traditional narrative structure,
31:53
it's got to start throwing different beats and play almost
31:56
like asyncopated, you know, plot beats to try and keep things
32:00
fresh. So, you know, we go into the,
32:03
the, the maze of Deedalists underneath the Temple of
32:06
Colossus on, on, on Crete in the next episode.
32:10
And yeah, probably about time we did so.
32:12
You know those those three people in the audience in
32:16
greatest show in the Galaxy, you know, the family eating their
32:19
crisps and the woman goes, something has to happen soon and
32:24
eats her crisp. We basically said that at the
32:26
end of every single episode. We well Jack, are you?
32:34
Are you? But which by the Atlantis
32:36
setting are you enjoying this? Oh, yeah, yeah.
32:39
Well, well, I wish we'd have a bit more of it ourselves because
32:42
it's like I said, like I said, you know, it's we are, I think
32:48
differentiating it from Curse of Paragon, which is probably what
32:52
they were worried about at the time.
32:54
You know, they're going to do to sort of sort of handle political
32:59
machinations stories, which is why they tried to sort of mix in
33:05
the modern day and the, you know, top globetrotting sort of
33:10
elements. But yeah, I'm intrigued to see,
33:15
intrigued to see what happens and what what creature Joe's
33:20
going to be memorized by temporarily.
33:22
Well, given the tonal whiplash that we've suffered so far, I
33:26
fully expect us to be on some alien planet in episode 6 at
33:29
some point. Let's let's find.
33:32
Let's find out where we head.