Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Glenn Fitzgerald about his choice of The Stones of Blood (3/4)
Transcript
- 0:33Hamster with a. Blunt pen knife for doing
- 0:35quicker. Welcome to a hamster with a
- 0:38blunt pen knife, The Doctor Who Commentary Podcast.
- 0:43My name is Glenn Fitzgerald. It's my absolute pleasure to be
- 0:48invited on by our lovely host and fearless leader who is
- 0:52popping my proverbial hamster cherry over a sausage sandwich
- 0:58whilst we celebrate Doctor Who's 100th story and the 15th
- 1:03anniversary. I believe the stones of blood.
- 1:07Yeah, I was going to bring a cake, Glenn, but unfortunately
- 1:11the producer told me I wasn't allowed to celebrate.
- 1:14This. 100th episode, so unfortunately I'm just going to
- 1:17have to have a boring conversation with you about the
- 1:19Key to Time instead. And play around with some
- 1:22plastic bits. That's right.
- 1:24Wow. I say, though, you said that so
- 1:26well, it's like you've been doing this for years.
- 1:29Well, you know. It's my you.
- 1:34Say the nicest things, Joe My. Mission in life to get every
- 1:39person in this ham fam to say that fucking ridiculous podcast
- 1:44title at least once. You.
- 1:46Know, yeah. Even even people.
- 1:49Like bloody Toby Ado, Gary Russell or people like that,
- 1:53said it. I'm like, yes, good.
- 1:56Well, where are we at? Oh, episode 3 episode.
- 2:00Three, we're about to go to a rave that is hyperspace.
- 2:04Yes, I hear you were a bit of a raver back in the day.
- 2:08Bit of a raver, yeah? Well, you weren't under the
- 2:10influence, so were you at the raves?
- 2:13I couldn't possibly divulge any information on that.
- 2:16That means yes, then. OK, good.
- 2:18All right, Well, look, should I count us in and we'll see just
- 2:23how many Doctor Who costumes from the past that we see on the
- 2:28prison ship that Daryl Blake wanted to fill the spaceship
- 2:31with? Let's see how many we actually
- 2:33see. Yeah.
- 2:35OK, shall I count us in? Let's yes go yeah all.
- 2:39Right in 3/2 one. So there's a lot less blood in
- 2:46this episode, isn't there? There's, there's a lot, yeah.
- 2:49I think there's a lot less from now on and there.
- 2:52Oh. No, this is the episode with the
- 2:54campers. Oh the how could I forget the
- 2:57campers? You know, now I'll give you 500
- 3:02points that you can't spend them on anything, but you'll have the
- 3:05points if you can tell me the other Doctor Who story that the
- 3:10female camper is in. And we've already talked about
- 3:13it on this story. Do you know, every time I see
- 3:18her, I think, where have I seen her before?
- 3:21You told me you haven't watched it for 30 years.
- 3:25Oh. That'd be dragon fire then.
- 3:30It's the girl's mother in that. It's her so I so every time I
- 3:36see her and think where the hell have I seen her before?
- 3:38That's a 30 year old. Yeah, a 30 year old memory,
- 3:42yeah, but it stays there, doesn't it?
- 3:44It does, in fact. Do you ever have that with
- 3:46Doctor Who where you watch stories and then you suddenly
- 3:51realise that an actor's in another Doctor Who story?
- 3:55Oh yeah, yeah, you like, make a mental note of it.
- 3:58What was I doing the other day? Oh, it was Revenge of a Sideman,
- 4:01and everyone in that was in Something else.
- 4:04Stevenson was in Seeds of Death and William Marlowe was in Mind
- 4:09of Evil and Kevin Stoney was in The Invasion and I was like,
- 4:13bloody hell. It's very incestuous, this
- 4:14actor, Paul. Yeah, I don't know if I'm still
- 4:21one of the very few people left alive on the planet that keeps a
- 4:25A Diary of the Doctor Who episodes I've watched.
- 4:29Really. Yeah, mine goes back to about
- 4:321990 something. What the same diary?
- 4:36Yeah, it's, it's just just the pad like that, nearly full up of
- 4:43all. Every time I watch Doctor, I
- 4:46write it down, put the date down so I know when, when and where I
- 4:49watched it. Including the new series.
- 4:52Yeah. Wowzers, that is a hell of a
- 4:55keepsake. Don't know that's your journey
- 4:58there though. That is my journey, yeah.
- 5:02Gosh. Oh boy, Glenn, these are my
- 5:04favorite bits she goes. It's our duty to capture that
- 5:09creature. We can track it to its lair.
- 5:12And Tom just goes, come on. Oh, and this one was it.
- 5:21She goes, it's impossible. He goes, No, it's not.
- 5:24We're standing still. Oh, it's so funny.
- 5:31Here she goes trunching out now. What do you think?
- 5:36Of the you know, the sort of. Ball fighting on the Cliff face.
- 5:41You know when he's got his. Cone yeah, brilliant.
- 5:44I don't know if he did he do that himself or was that
- 5:47scripted do you think? It sounds very Tom.
- 5:50To me, yeah. I mean you, so you don't strike
- 5:54me. Right.
- 5:54So most Doctor Who fans of the era, yeah, that like the horror
- 5:59generally. One, they object to canine
- 6:01because it it makes the show a bit childish, and two, they
- 6:04object to the comedy. You don't seem to mind either of
- 6:07those things. That's all part of Doctor Who,
- 6:11isn't it? Bless you, we need.
- 6:13More fans like you. You couldn't have Doctor Who
- 6:17without a bit of campness, a bit of comedy.
- 6:21Look at this doctor, please keep a grip on yourself.
- 6:28I mean, look, this is Doctor Who being menaced by an enormous
- 6:31walking stone, and he's. Enticing it over a Cliff face, I
- 6:36mean, it's just glorious. And I think in this episode,
- 6:43because you get all those wonderful scenes between the
- 6:46Doctor and Amelia Rumford in the cottage, yeah, where they're
- 6:48building the hyperspace thing, you get a peek into what the
- 6:52show could have been like, actually, with those two as the
- 6:55regulars. Yeah, definitely.
- 6:59It would have been so good. Well, it's sort of a warm
- 7:02relationship, isn't it? And have you heard, have you
- 7:07heard the story, the behind the scenes stories where Daryl Blake
- 7:10says, and this is the one story where Tom said his lines because
- 7:17the actress playing Amelia Rumford went no, no, no, no,
- 7:19what are you doing? You didn't do that yesterday.
- 7:22Behave yourself on the. Set he did what he was told with
- 7:26her about, yeah. So they basically needed to.
- 7:29Bring an old. Movie star every week.
- 7:33And then he'd do his job. I mean, she could have been
- 7:37there every week and I wouldn't have minded.
- 7:39No, me neither. Imagine the lions.
- 7:42Glenn, are you from outer space? More inner space.
- 7:53Excuse me, that's filthy. I dare you.
- 7:55This is APG 13 podcast. Thank you very.
- 7:59Much. Really.
- 8:02That's that's fucked, isn't it? Fucking hell yeah.
- 8:09Oh, here we go. She's being.
- 8:10A bit. Camp now count the stones,
- 8:12Doctor. Beware the ogre.
- 8:18Isn't it great, the way she. Says that extraordinary.
- 8:26Glenn, I don't wish to alarm you, but three of the stones are
- 8:30missing. I've just seen a shadow go
- 8:34across your window. Oh my God.
- 8:37Boom boom boom. Boom, I'm out of here.
- 8:43How do you How do you kill a stone?
- 8:48How do you kill a stone? Yeah.
- 8:54I actually I wouldn't have a clue.
- 8:56No, they're. Pretty permanent.
- 8:58Aren't they? I mean, did did we establish
- 9:01that once he pushed it off a Cliff, was it actually dead
- 9:04because it was still glowing? Yeah, Oh my God, the sequel,
- 9:09Glenn. Lucy.
- 9:13Voyage, Voyage to the bottom of the Ocry.
- 9:17Yeah, that sounds a bit dodgy, but yeah, Which?
- 9:21Doctor heard and companion could be in that you know they
- 9:23discover the ocry at the bottom of the ocean.
- 9:28Oh, are we talking new Who companion?
- 9:34Come on, you tell me. I think.
- 9:42I can't imagine the ogre in any other any other story bar Tom
- 9:46for some reason. Oh.
- 9:47No, I've got it. How about this then?
- 9:49Yeah. So Amelia Rumford, Yeah, is
- 9:54doing a survey on the Cornish coast, and the Ogrey has been
- 9:59washed up. And she's like, I know that
- 10:03creature you. Do that too well.
- 10:07Well, I'm basically an old woman, you know, So yeah, fair
- 10:10enough. It's it's much practice.
- 10:15You know, Glen, I still don't understand about hyperspace.
- 10:20Can you explain it to me please? In a word, this is where we need
- 10:27K9 to explain it. What they sort of say, don't
- 10:31they, that it's it's the same, the same space as the circle,
- 10:36the stone circle, but like a different universe.
- 10:40Is that right? Or something like that.
- 10:42Yeah, it's, it's, is it on a different plane maybe?
- 10:49Well, they're all the same, these physicists, aren't they?
- 10:55You know, in a minute. She started scratching her head
- 10:58with the screwdriver. Oh yeah.
- 11:01I mean, I mean, like, some people are just naturally
- 11:04eccentric, aren't they? She's very comfortable in front
- 11:08of the camera as well, isn't she?
- 11:10She's very. And what's so funny is he has to
- 11:14deliver his lines sort astray because he's got no hope of
- 11:18besting her in the eccentric stakes, hasn't he?
- 11:21It's like when Patrick Trouter met Professor Zarrov.
- 11:24You know, Trout was quite sort of over the top at the start.
- 11:26And then he met Zarrov and he's like, well.
- 11:28I can never be as over the top as that.
- 11:30I'm going to have to just. Play it straight.
- 11:33Look. There she goes, scratching her
- 11:34head. Yes, although she did, you know,
- 11:40she got all the lines out about Einstein's theory of relativity
- 11:45says you can't travel faster than the speed of light.
- 11:51Oh, that's why she had the screwdriver.
- 11:53You said pass me the screwdriver.
- 11:56So comfortable together. Yeah, it would have been great,
- 12:00wouldn't it? Yeah.
- 12:02Like she might have tempered him a bit in season 17 as well.
- 12:06You know, they're sort of more over the top performances.
- 12:11Yeah, I I can't imagine her sort of running around Paris or
- 12:17anything like that. Are you saying they couldn't
- 12:22have a romance this too? Well, who knows?
- 12:27She'd be like, Doctor, you're not my type.
- 12:31Yeah, she'd reject him, wouldn't they?
- 12:33I don't go for men or aliens. Thank you.
- 12:39I couldn't imagine her Imagine. Her on scar on though facing
- 12:41down Davros. Oh yeah.
- 12:44Oh boy. Davros would be running scared.
- 12:49Oh, yeah, absolutely. He would.
- 12:50Yeah. Oh, imagine her against Lady
- 12:52Adjustra. You know, you don't impress me,
- 12:57you know, you old witch. Yeah.
- 13:02What about? What the doctor says.
- 13:04In a minute he goes. Now look, run as if something
- 13:07very nasty was coming after you, because something very nasty
- 13:10will be coming after you. Where did you get all these bits
- 13:17from to make this device? Well, he sort of cobbled them up
- 13:21out of the kitchen drawer, you know.
- 13:22Do you not remember the Thai monster when he made a sniffer
- 13:27outer with a cup of tea? Oh, the Thai monster.
- 13:31Yeah. Oh, banger.
- 13:33Oh, sorry. Is that a clanger for you?
- 13:34No. No.
- 13:36I love it. What's very funny about this
- 13:40scene is he does this whole thing about right.
- 13:44You press the button when it gets to OO37, There we go,
- 13:48switch it on. And it just blows up, doesn't
- 13:50it? That's yeah, that's proper
- 13:54comedy moment. Glenn, I understand that pow is
- 13:59a technical term. It means there's sort of great
- 14:02big molten. Yeah.
- 14:11Now you said the 1st 2 episodes were your favourites, so when we
- 14:15go into high space I know you said you find them fun, but does
- 14:20your interest weigh in a little bit or are you still on board?
- 14:24I'm still on board, but it does feel like a little bit you're in
- 14:29a different story. That makes sense.
- 14:33I know it's still the same story, but if it, it totally
- 14:36switches. But that, that is the beauty of
- 14:41this particular story as well. But it can do that and it's a
- 14:45smooth as well. It's a smooth transition.
- 14:48I just think it covers all the bases for an anniversary.
- 14:50It covers all the bases, every part of Doctor Who.
- 14:55Oh. Did you hear that line?
- 14:57He goes so you know. What they say about hyperspace,
- 15:00it's a theoretical absurdity, and that's something I've always
- 15:02wanted to be trapped in. David Fisher, this is his first
- 15:09script, let's not forget. I think he just gets Doctor Who.
- 15:15He he's nailed it and he absolutely nailed it.
- 15:20What? Do you think?
- 15:22What do you think of his scripts for Androids of Tara and
- 15:25Creature from the Pit and the Leisure Hive?
- 15:30Androids Tara I absolutely love. Creature from the Pit was never
- 15:37one of my favourites and that's nothing to do with David Fisher.
- 15:42It's just not for me, that one. But Leisure Hive is brilliant.
- 15:46I love the leisure hive. You can hear Cy Heart punching
- 15:50the air right now as we. Yeah, I wonder what that noise
- 15:53was. Yeah, yeah, Leisure Hive
- 15:57actually was going to be the one I watch this coming weekend 0.
- 16:02Really. OK, yeah, That time I watched
- 16:05that again. Yeah, that is a, that is a good
- 16:07story. Yeah, David Fisher, certainly.
- 16:12He must have been a kind of fan, I reckon, because he, he, he's
- 16:16got it and he's got Tom to a tee.
- 16:20I think he's well read as well. I think he he he has read and
- 16:25watched a lot of things that aren't Doctor Who because you
- 16:28can feel the influences in his work.
- 16:30Hammer, the Prisoner of Zender, you know, the science and the
- 16:34leisure hive. I just think he's a good all
- 16:37rounder. He is and I don't.
- 16:42I don't know what other things apart from Doctor Who he did, if
- 16:47I'm on it. Now I'm going to give you a
- 16:50chance to suggest Doctor Who monsters.
- 16:54Top three, of course. Doctor Who monsters that could
- 16:57be next to Romana in that cell rather than that stupid robot
- 17:03with the red rugby. Lips was there, there was meant
- 17:09to bear sea devil. Oh, OK, there's one.
- 17:14The Wiran. No, no, no, the Wiran is
- 17:17actually there. Is it?
- 17:19It's there. Yes.
- 17:20Sorry. Come on.
- 17:21There's not there. Dead, Dead robot.
- 17:27Oh, I can't think. What else?
- 17:33I would put, I know it's in the future, but can I, can I tie up
- 17:36a tetrap? I think that would be quite
- 17:37funny. Oh.
- 17:38Pet trap would work, yeah. Or a vervoid.
- 17:42A vervoid good choice, yeah. Or do you know?
- 17:47Imagine a Yeti. Tied up or an ice?
- 17:50Warrior Yeah, I was thinking maybe like something like,
- 17:58should we call it a Mark 1 Cyberman, maybe one of the the.
- 18:03Mordacian ones, yeah. Mordacian.
- 18:06That's the word I was looking for in there.
- 18:08What? About a battered Dalek.
- 18:11A battered Daleks always good. I mean, I mean battered as in
- 18:15beaten up rather than in a fat. Fryer.
- 18:18Fat fried. What the Hell's happened to that
- 18:22Dalek? He's spent too long in Scotland.
- 18:25He's been battered. That's always a good in Dalek
- 18:33with Christopher Eggleston, when you go down into Statens Staten,
- 18:38into his collection of stuff, his things, and he's got that
- 18:42Cyberman head and all that in there.
- 18:45Stuffed Slovene hand. Stuffed Slovene?
- 18:49Oh yeah. I hear that, you know, no,
- 18:51that's quite that's considered gourmet food, you know, in alien
- 18:55restaurants of the Galaxy. Well, I will let you be the
- 18:59Guinea pig on that one. Sort of like stuffed Peppers,
- 19:01you know? But for aliens.
- 19:04Shock Eye recommends it greatly. Shock Eye.
- 19:11Where's that Dunkirk? Spirit never say die.
- 19:17Go on, canine. Oh, no.
- 19:19What is this Vivian Faye coming now?
- 19:21Oh, no. She's doing the portals because
- 19:23she thinks the doctor's going to come back, doesn't she?
- 19:26That's right. Yeah.
- 19:29Now what do you think about canine having a gun?
- 19:32Because it is for the doctor having a gun, isn't it?
- 19:35Well, it never really bothered me.
- 19:38I think it was a way of giving the doctor a gun without
- 19:43physically giving him a gun. Making it sort of cute, you
- 19:46know, it's a dog, so we don't mind.
- 19:49I mean it, I suppose he, he, he would have been just as good
- 19:56without it, but he doesn't really use it that.
- 20:02It's mostly stunt. I don't think he killed it's.
- 20:04Not really. It, it doesn't, I don't know.
- 20:06It's like it doesn't really come across aggressively.
- 20:09It's not like he's he's a psychopath.
- 20:10Is it psychopathic robot dog? I'm.
- 20:15Dead. That would be wonderful.
- 20:16Do you remember that being in Android Zatara where he takes
- 20:19out like a whole line of guards in one go?
- 20:22They're all oh God, here we go. Oh.
- 20:25Here we are. Oh.
- 20:26Excuse me, why is he coming out of that tin and doing up his
- 20:29zipper? Well, I mean, this is something
- 20:34you know, I was walking off my. Family Entertainment, Glen.
- 20:39It is. It's disgusting.
- 20:40Oh. I don't know though, look at
- 20:42him. Hello, salty goodness.
- 20:48I mean, if you come out of your tent and there was 2 dirty great
- 20:52monoliths standing there, yes, what would your reaction be?
- 20:57What, are you using dirty great monoliths as a euphemism there?
- 21:01As in big silicon based life. Forms.
- 21:04Oh, thank you. You do need to be explicit with
- 21:05the details, sorry. That's fine.
- 21:07I think I'd be quite perturbed actually.
- 21:10You would be perturbed, but would you just like go here,
- 21:13pack come and have a look at this or would you run around
- 21:16like a madman going what the what the fuck Where did these
- 21:18come from? I mean, I probably.
- 21:20Don't know, think it was a joke like they do.
- 21:23But then at this point, you know, I wouldn't grab hold of
- 21:26her. I'd go, well it's been fun, love
- 21:28and run into the forest. Yeah.
- 21:34See that? That scene there that was
- 21:36imprinted on my brain for weeks after this was broadcast.
- 21:41Russell T Davis as well, says that was one of the most
- 21:43formative moments of television when he was a child.
- 21:46The horror of that scene, I think because it sort of
- 21:49bleaches red and they're just screaming you like you're like
- 21:54it's left to your imagination. Yeah, that's, well, that's the
- 21:59best kind of storytelling, isn't it?
- 22:03Quite often with horror films. This is why I like scary horror
- 22:06films as opposed to slasher horror films, because what you
- 22:08can't see is more scary, I always think.
- 22:12I always say, and tell me if I'm wrong because I think you've
- 22:15watched more horror than me, that usually when the horror is
- 22:19revealed at the end of the movie, it sort of makes it quite
- 22:23safe. But when you don't know what the
- 22:24horror is. Yeah, that's when it when it
- 22:29stays with you. For example, inside this room
- 22:33could be any horror. Look at this black room.
- 22:35The second these twinkle bell lights start coming out, well
- 22:38then all your horrors gone. Yeah.
- 22:43They are great though, aren't they?
- 22:45They are. They're very camp as well.
- 22:47We are the Magara judge, jury and executioner justice machines
- 22:57now. This is so Douglas Adams though,
- 22:59isn't it? All of this, like it's that sort
- 23:02of humour. Yeah, and it it's a bit red
- 23:06dwarfish as well. Would you like a bit of Red
- 23:10Dwarf? I love a bit of Red Dwarf.
- 23:13Oh, why would you tell me that, Glenn?
- 23:14What are your top three Red Dwarf episodes?
- 23:19Oh definitely, the first one would be backwards.
- 23:23Oh I love backwards so much. Remember when she uneats the
- 23:26Eclair? Yeah.
- 23:28Oh, it's oh, I love backwards. Yeah, Legion, my name.
- 23:34I love Legion. Oh my God no.
- 23:37I call it the light switch I. Was going to say that.
- 23:41Pray tell, what do you call this?
- 23:45It's the light switch. That's too.
- 23:49Yeah, guys, so many. So, so many.
- 23:56You know what my all time favorite one is?
- 23:58Queeg I've. Oh yeah, get down on the floor
- 24:03suckers. I love queeg.
- 24:05I've only got one thing. To say to you.
- 24:08What's? Happening, dudes.
- 24:12Although the best. Line is is I reckon, the best
- 24:14line in. All of Red Dwarf is still.
- 24:16Are you sure Sir? It does mean changing the bulb.
- 24:19Oh yeah. That show.
- 24:25What's the one? What's the one where I get
- 24:28marooned on that icy planet in Starbuck?
- 24:31Is that marooned? That's called marooned, yeah.
- 24:34That is marooned. Yeah, yeah, I love that one.
- 24:36And your your guitar was made at a Javanese camp forward.
- 24:41Oh. It's so wonderful.
- 24:46But you know what? Actually, I think you can make a
- 24:48comparison between Graham Williams, Doctor Who, and Red
- 24:52Dwarf, in that they're both very, very funny.
- 24:56The jokes are thick and fast, yeah, but they can be
- 24:59surprisingly touching at times as well.
- 25:02And they're generally great character pieces.
- 25:05Yeah, and they're. Both extremely cheap at times
- 25:08too. Yeah, I think we can all relate
- 25:12with Dave Lister sometimes. Well, I think you can relate
- 25:17with any of them really. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know,
- 25:21you're either in Doctor Who fandom, you're either sort of
- 25:24the Rimmer end of the scale, aren't you?
- 25:26Or you're the Crichton end of the scale, which is that's when
- 25:30you're really finickety about all the details.
- 25:32Or you're the Lister end of the scale, which I think is probably
- 25:34where I am, where you're just very cash about it all.
- 25:37Yeah, about. I've never been sort of, how can
- 25:44I put it? I've never been knowledgeable
- 25:46about producers, directors, running times, this, that and
- 25:50the other. I just love Doctor Who and I
- 25:51just love watching it. I think I just appreciate it for
- 25:56that. That's why you're winning at
- 25:57life, all right? And the rest of us?
- 25:59Are. All.
- 26:01Arguing away. There's too much in my head to
- 26:06store, like information about what type of film this was
- 26:11filmed on or. No, you need to save up some of
- 26:13that memory for Star Wars and models and all this other shit
- 26:17that you get up to. Exactly too much.
- 26:20I'll look at this ship. Yes, it does look a bit like a
- 26:23couple of microphones stuck together, doesn't it?
- 26:27Yeah, it's definitely one from the BBC local DIY shop that one.
- 26:34Which is a shame, really. I'm going to misquote Vivian
- 26:38Faye at the end of this episode, you know, and say to you Glenn,
- 26:42you will be trapped in a hamster with a blunt pen knife forever.
- 26:51Well, what a lovely place to be trapped do.
- 26:55You know what I want out the episode there.