Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks solo (with the Fam) about his choice of the The Star Beast

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Talks solo (with the Fam) about his choice of the The Star Beast · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

0:23
None Hamster with a blump pen knife
0:35
for doing quicker, quicker, quicker.
0:40
Hello and welcome back to our Hamster with a Blumping Knife
0:44
the Doctor Who Commentary Podcast.
0:48
Here we are at the start of a bold new dawn for Doctor Who
0:53
with Russell T Davis back in charge.
0:56
We have David Tennant back as the Doctor, Catherine Tate as
1:00
Dom Donna Noble, and of all things beat the Meep from the
1:07
Star Beast comic from the 1980s. What a time to be alive.
1:14
I'll be honest straight away, I really enjoyed the episode on
1:17
Saturday. And I want to say this isn't
1:21
going to be a Ripper Chris Chidnall's era, which I
1:25
absolutely loved as everybody knows, or Steven Moffat's era,
1:30
which I didn't enjoy as much. But I would like to say that my
1:36
personal favorite era of Doctor Who is 2005 to 2009.
1:43
When Russell was in charge, something just chimed with me.
1:48
It could have been that that was my very first ever period of
1:50
Doctor Who that I watched live because I came in obviously in
1:55
1989 originally when the show came off air.
2:00
So that was my first proper full season of Doctor Who.
2:04
Or it could have just been that. The writing, the direction, the
2:07
performances, everything just clicked with me.
2:11
I really love Russell's approach to Doctor Who.
2:14
I love the character first, he writes good plots, but it's
2:19
character first, plot second. It's a form of Doctor Who that
2:24
goes for the heart and gives you the feels.
2:27
And yeah, something about that I just love watching.
2:32
He makes me laugh, he makes me cry and he makes me think, as I
2:37
will discuss in this episode as well, there, there was something
2:40
here that really got me thinking and talking with friends and and
2:44
really sort of properly thinking about real world issues.
2:47
So I think he's a a staggeringly clever man and I think he
2:53
understands television better than any other person really
2:56
that's ever worked on Doctor Who.
2:58
You know, he's worked his way up, He's written one success
3:04
after another, he's produced now he he knows every aspect of
3:09
television. He sort of conquered it.
3:11
So for Russell to come back to Doctor Who at a point where Bad
3:16
Wolf Studios, you know, they've got their own money and they're
3:20
doing incredible things for they can pour resources into it, But
3:24
just also his his knowledge of the industry, I think it's an
3:28
incredibly safe pair of hands. But I don't mean that
3:32
derogatory, I don't mean that in a derogatory way.
3:36
I think the show couldn't be in safer hands.
3:40
But he will not be safe, which is a word I won't use to
3:45
describe the Star Beast. I think this is a a gentle
3:50
easing in of the audience to the sort of 2008 way of thinking
3:56
before all the really experimental stuff comes along.
4:02
And I think that was a smart move, you know, to remind people
4:04
of the show when it was at its zenith and then to sort of, you
4:11
know, get them comfortable before shocking the asses off
4:14
them. So today, yes, we will be
4:16
talking about the Star Beast, which was on the Saturday.
4:19
I enjoyed it so much. I watched it twice and it's just
4:23
me talking. Today.
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I'm going to do this for three specials, but I have invited the
4:28
Hand fan to give their instant reactions for the story on
4:35
Twitter. And so I've got a lot of things
4:37
to read out and I'm going to pepper it throughout the episode
4:41
whilst talking about what's on the screen as we do the
4:43
commentary. But I'm going to start with two
4:46
or three now, so I'll say the names of the person, their
4:50
Twitter handle, just in case you wish to follow them on the back
4:53
of there staggeringly insightful comments and then their
4:57
comments. So we've got James H Fitgeek UK
5:02
dot BSKY dot social. James is at Fitgeek under Score
5:08
UK and says thankfully they dropped the worst parts of the
5:13
comic strip, focused on the core story and gave plenty of time to
5:16
Donna. And doing the Meep as an actual
5:19
physical creation, not CGI, was the perfect decision.
5:24
Didn't like most of the screwdriver use, so ah, I love
5:27
the screwdriver chains. But I kind of agree with you on
5:31
pretty much everything else. I really love the comic too on
5:35
the whole, but it is a lot more sort of kid friendly.
5:38
Done this. I just sent James a GIF of the
5:42
Meep grabbing Donna's leg. Next up we've got Brendan A
5:47
Jones Fabulous Brendan at Brandy Bongos who says what a joyful,
5:53
emotive return. I love that while Donna has a
5:57
hole in her mind, she is by and large happy with great
6:01
relationships with her family. As the Doctor hinted in The End
6:04
of Time, Donna fights the good fight innately, which she does
6:08
hear too. Fabulous.
6:12
Ah, one of my favourites, Lucy McCall at Lucy McCall says I
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love the meets transformation from apparently cute victim to
6:22
needle toothed horror. The end was suspiciously close
6:26
to magic. Women can let things go.
6:28
I'm still replaying things I did 40 years ago, but it resolved
6:33
the problem of the meta crisis neatly.
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Well, said Lucy, and we'll talk about that later.
6:41
Simon Hart at Sci under score Hart, one of my bestest friends
6:45
in the whole world, says I enjoyed it.
6:48
It felt like artd season opener to me, like partners in crime.
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Something fun to get us started, Joe.
6:56
Whichever comic streaks would you love to see adaptive for TV.
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Oh boy, Any of the Colin Baker ones, because they were just
7:03
visually staggering. And Iron Legion as well, which
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Big Finish did alongside the Star Beasts when they did their
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chemistry adaptations. Man, I would love that.
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How about one more before we go in?
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Dave Rennie at Hemavoor, Russ Capital R says I loved it.
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Tennant and Tate just have such good chemistry.
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At last, Miriam Margulies is in Doctor Who and she is excellent
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as the Meep. And has Jacqueline King been
7:35
using Spectrox? She looks exactly the same and
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he finishes it off with Meep Meep.
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You'll be hearing that a lot in this commentary.
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Thank you, Dave. Yeah.
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Jacqueline King, man. Doesn't she look good?
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She looks exactly the same as she did when she walked down the
7:51
island. Runaway bride.
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OK, so everybody, fingers on buttons.
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We're going to count into the episode.
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Then in 543, 21, off we go, Oh God, this started us somewhere
8:10
halfway through. Now here we go.
8:13
Ah, yes. So I'm guessing we're going to
8:15
be seeing this Huniverse logo at the beginning of every story.
8:19
Now, does anyone think that, oh, looks like a DVD?
8:24
Am I old fashioned if I say DVD now?
8:27
Oh my good grief. OK, so here's my one of my very
8:30
few complaints about the episode.
8:32
How cheap does this look? I've been watching Star Trek
8:36
Voyager recently for untitled Star Trek project and David
8:39
Tennant Super Post on that special effect looks worse than
8:42
the Voyager effects from the 90s.
8:45
And my other small complaint is this is a lot of exposition at
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the start of the story. Now, I know we've got to catch
8:52
people up on sort of where we were in 2008, the metacrysis,
8:58
Donner and the Doctor's relationship, the binary line,
9:01
which comes important later on. We do have to do all of this,
9:05
but at the start of a bold new series of Doctor Who, it's a bit
9:11
of an odd choice. It reminds me of the TV movie,
9:13
you know, a long time ago on the planet of Gallifrey.
9:18
We listed to the evil crimes of the Master.
9:21
You know, it's a bit like that. But then Russell does like the
9:24
TV movie, so maybe what he's doing there.
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But oh, what a joy it is to have Catherine Tate and David Tennant
9:31
back. Yes, I choose that order
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precisely. Now this face has come back.
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Why the David Tennant's portraying the camera.
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Donna Noble's looking off camera looking a bit sad.
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Oh, we're back, baby. No, we're about to kick into the
9:50
credits and the new music. Now, I do have a friend who
9:55
thinks this looks very cheap, but I can't help but disagree.
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I'm afraid Dylan, I think this looks fabulous.
10:02
I especially love all the purple smoke trailing off the TARDIS.
10:07
But the music Man Murray does the Doctor Who theme brilliantly
10:11
and this has got like a bombast to it.
10:14
Although what the hell is going on with that heavy breathing at
10:18
the end? You know, the end music, where
10:19
it's like, what's going on there?
10:23
Very odd. Oh, I'm not sure London's ever
10:26
looked this beautiful in Doctor Who and I think we're going to
10:30
be seeing a lot more of it in the Giggle.
10:34
Oh, doesn't this just take you back?
10:35
Look, he's landing TARDIS in London.
10:38
He walks around sort of a familiar London landmark and you
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got very upbeat Murray Gold music playing.
10:46
Oh fabulous. And this music's lovely.
10:51
You know, I remember going to Cam the lock and seeing those
10:56
enormous robots there up against that wall and just screaming
11:00
cyber men. I think that's what they're
11:04
hoping you'll do here. Oh, this was genius, Donna.
11:08
Carry in the boxes. And then after taking the boxes
11:12
off. And then going, Oh no, I'm
11:14
putting them back on again now. I really love the fact that
11:18
Russell gets straight to the point with this.
11:21
You know, like, I think other writers might have waited to get
11:26
the Doctor and Donna back together again.
11:28
But no, he's straight in there bringing this album together
11:31
because it's what we want. It's what we've been promised.
11:36
So here is the biggest talking point of the episode.
11:40
Rose Noble as played by the very, very beautiful Yasmin
11:45
Finney. I'll message somebody you know.
11:50
And I went gorgeous, gorgeous. What's happening to me?
11:54
I'm hanging out with these straight podcasters too much.
11:57
It's the Polish box, Dylan and Luke.
12:00
And who calling to call when they're doing this to me.
12:06
Oh, see, Well, Russell remembers his gags, you know.
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So there's the running gag of Donna forgetting about sorry,
12:13
not forgetting, missing every alien invasion that comes along.
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And of course she misses the spaceship crashing right behind
12:22
her as everybody else is watching it through their camera
12:25
phones. Who will see it as if that's how
12:29
the end of the universe will come at the end of an iPhone.
12:31
Was it Matt Smith in the 11th hour?
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It was a very good point. That's exactly what will happen.
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We'll all be filming stuff on our fucking phones whilst the
12:40
world's ending around us. Oh dear.
12:44
And saying goodbye to our loved ones, which is what we probably
12:46
should be doing. Oh, I love this line.
12:50
You can wear a tie suit up to the age of 35 and no further.
12:57
Donna's like the bitch with a heart.
12:59
I I kind of agree with Toby Hado.
13:01
You know, The thing is about the fact if you knew Donna in real
13:04
life, you'd probably hate her. You know, she's in your face.
13:07
She's loud, she's obnoxious, she's a bit stupid.
13:13
But on television, I just think she's absolutely glorious.
13:17
She's so funny. And Catherine Tate just aces the
13:20
comic lines. I laugh more in this story than
13:23
I have done in Doctor Who for about 15 years, if I'm honest.
13:28
I didn't really chime too well in Moffitt's snappy dialogue in
13:32
his era and I think Chippers could be very hit or miss with
13:35
his comedy. But Russell has a way of tapping
13:41
into the sort of lower classes in his programs and gives them
13:47
lines like, oh, we could sell Mad Paddington here for
13:50
£1,000,000. That's just really, really
13:53
funny. Oh, Sean's lovely, isn't he?
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Isn't Sean nice? It's good that Donna did all
13:59
right for herself. Like Brendan said, Donna did all
14:01
right for herself. Oh, it's fabulous.
14:06
All right, let me read out another comment then.
14:08
Whilst whilst they're talking in the taxi, Andy Parkinson at
14:14
Caffrey's 71 says Joy's Every time I think they can't make it
14:19
look any better, they do. I thought Yasmin smashed it as
14:22
Rose. Catherine Tate had so many
14:24
fantastic one liners, especially loved the suit one and we just
14:28
had it. Loved when David Tennant helped
14:30
Donna with the presents and then put them back on when he saw it
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was her. Yeah, me too.
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And he goes on to say not so good things.
14:39
Some of the exposition was clunky, the Sonic making
14:42
Shields, etcetera. I can't decide if I love it or
14:45
hate it. All in all it felt good, as Rose
14:48
did in 2005. It looks fabulous.
14:51
The characters were all fantastic.
14:53
I really hope we get to see more of Yasmin Finney.
14:56
I can't wait for the next one too.
14:58
Oh, and then he quickly charmed in with more joys.
15:01
The TARDIS interior beat the leaves.
15:03
So cute until it's not I Yeah, I agree, Andy.
15:09
I agree. Melvin Pena says is at
15:14
Kittenary. Carl Collins as Shawn Temple was
15:17
a revelation. Truly the most unexpected thing
15:20
about the Starbeast was how warm, gentle, kind and gracious
15:24
a father he played. He was so charming, took the
15:28
chaos in his stride, and now I want so much more of that
15:31
character, Kev Blower at Kev Blower says.
15:37
RTD opening romp with a lot more hearts, as though David Tennant
15:41
and Catherine Tate had never been away.
15:43
And finally, a bright control room.
15:48
OK, the Doctor has discovered the spaceship and it looks
15:52
fabulous. I watched the Doctor Who
15:54
unleashed. They built half that fucking
15:57
spaceship in the studio. I mean, it was enormous.
16:01
That's the sort of money we're commanding now.
16:03
We can build a spaceship. It's crazy.
16:08
Absolutely crazy. This is a lovely location.
16:11
I sort of compare this to the, you know, when we went down
16:15
underneath the London Eye in Rose, that sort of location
16:22
there, which looked great at the time.
16:25
But now we're doing this on a really epic scale.
16:28
You know, we're building a spaceship.
16:30
There's dry ice everywhere, There's flames everywhere.
16:34
It looks, it looks like something you see in the cinema.
16:37
I say it a lot, but it's true. Doctor Who is cinematic now.
16:41
Yeah. Oh, and here's Ruth Madly.
16:45
If you have the time and the money, I'll suggest you check
16:49
out Ruth in the purity sets from Big Finish.
16:53
Absolutely Fabulous. She was, she's with Colin Baker
16:56
and Bonnie Langford, the 6th Doctor and now and it is a four
17:02
set storyline like the Starbase dealing with some pretty serious
17:08
issues sort of underneath all the cute storytelling.
17:14
I learnt a word today actually, as I was sort of exploring what
17:18
people were saying about this on Twitter.
17:20
Dead naming. So that's when you give some
17:25
somebody that is transitioning or has transitioned their old
17:29
name from their previous gender. Yeah, it's an appalling thing to
17:37
do. Absolutely appalling.
17:39
And the worst thing you can do for somebody that's claiming
17:41
their identity. Oh, wasn't this lovely?
17:45
I really thought Russell did this so well, so he wanted to
17:48
show that even people that want to, you know, get the reaction
17:56
right for the people they love that are transitioning.
18:00
It can be awkward and you can make mistakes.
18:03
And Sylvia exemplifies that. She really wants, She absolutely
18:07
loves Rose and wants to get it right.
18:10
And she still says he in this scene, mistakenly.
18:16
And what I love about Donna in this scene as well, Donna's sort
18:20
of, I think people think Donna's very black and white and I don't
18:23
think that's the case because she's got too many depths for
18:25
that. But what I think she is, she has
18:28
a very firm sense of right and wrong.
18:31
And the right that she shows in this scene is that she loves her
18:36
daughter. And you know, whatever her
18:41
daughter chooses, she will love her.
18:46
Where the hell did she? Come from?
18:47
Oh, it's great as well. Where the hell does she come
18:49
from? How lucky am I?
18:51
Don't your mum remind Sylvia, please, that that that she's
18:56
fabulous too? Oh, I love the idea that
19:02
Sylvia's been trying to hide every alien invasion that has
19:07
occurred since. What?
19:09
Journey's End from Donna. She's had her work cut out for
19:13
her. I tell you, the universe has
19:14
ended, isn't it? There's been all sorts going on.
19:17
Daleks hovering about up on the north of the country.
19:24
That's right, actually, Jacqueline King.
19:26
Honest to God, she looks so young still.
19:29
And she's just. I'll tell you what, she goes to
19:31
the phantom conventions and a finer champion for the show.
19:36
And just for being a fabulous, a warm, lovely person you couldn't
19:40
meet. She's so nice.
19:41
Jacqueline King. It's completely different from
19:45
Sylvia, although this is a massive reinvention of Sylvia,
19:49
sort of 15 years on, who has learnt to love her daughter and,
19:55
you know, to to show her kindness.
20:00
Oh, this really reminded me of Partners in Crime, where you've
20:04
got Donna talking about the loss of something that she's feeling.
20:10
It's really, really, This is precisely what Catherine Tate
20:13
does really, really well when in Partners in Crime.
20:15
You know, when she's lamenting the loss of the Doctor in the in
20:20
the allotment with Wilf, all of his fudge from the original Star
20:24
Beast. It was a bit of a shame that he
20:28
didn't have a bigger role in this, I thought, because he did
20:30
have a bigger role in the comic. But then I suppose Fudge's role
20:35
in this is taken up by Rose. Oh no, I suppose Rose is Sharon,
20:40
isn't she? Aye, that's a trouble with an
20:44
adaptation. You're making comparisons all
20:46
the time. But like, it takes the best
20:49
ideas from the star beast, as James said.
20:53
But it's it's definitely it's own thing.
20:56
By marrying it with the Donna plot, it is it's own unique
20:59
thing. Oh my God, here comes Beep the
21:04
meep, meep, meep. I love beep the meep.
21:14
So. Much I love Beep the Meep in the
21:17
comic. I loved Beep the Meep as played
21:20
by Toby Longworth in the Big Finish audio.
21:24
Oh Jesus Christ and I absolutely love Beep the Meep here.
21:28
I've played by Miriam Margulies. I mean she's having the best
21:30
time in her life and the the very savvy choice they made to
21:37
to give to not just render beep as CGI like the poutine or I
21:43
love the poutine, but to have it as a as a physical object that
21:47
the actors could interact with, I think it really makes a
21:50
difference, Ben Browder said. In Filescape series one, you
21:54
know, there's really expensive puppets, Rigel and Pilot, and
21:57
that that they were saying don't touch the puppets, you'll break
22:01
them. And Ben Browner was like, no,
22:03
you want me to show that I'm having a relationship with a
22:08
fucking puppet. I'm going to touch it like I
22:11
would touch a person and I'm going to treat it like a person.
22:16
So the fact that they could touch the Meep and that they
22:18
could, you know, they literally had something in the in the room
22:21
that they could talk to, it makes the world a difference, I
22:24
think. I think you can tell when actors
22:27
are acting to CGI, as David Tennant is right now with the
22:30
Sonic screen in front of him. He's obviously staring at
22:35
absolutely nothing. Yeah, back to Ruth Madly the the
22:42
new scientific advice. We've gone through a few now,
22:44
didn't we? We've gone through Osgoods.
22:47
We had, oh God, fabulous Ross Henderson from Bugs In the
22:51
Zygons 2 Parter, who was dispatched off far too quickly
22:55
for my liking, but has recently shown up on Big Finish Paul
22:59
McGann audios as Audacity. She's amazing.
23:04
But Ruth Madly? Yeah, amazingly good as Hebe
23:07
Harrison in the Purity sets, but just so impressive here.
23:13
Like, I know Ruth's done a ton of TV work, so it doesn't
23:17
surprise me that she captures you as quickly as she does.
23:22
But I just know I love her familiarity with the Doctor.
23:26
I love her sassiness. I love how smart she is.
23:30
I love how she refuses to be a victim.
23:35
She says in a minute, don't make me the problem when they have to
23:38
go upstairs and she cannot go upstairs, but she's just like,
23:42
you know, it's not a problem. Go sort the problem out.
23:45
I'll be fine. And yet she proved herself to be
23:48
very capable. She's got weapons in her
23:50
wheelchair. Yeah, I think she's wonderful.
23:55
I I'd like to see a lot more of her, please.
23:57
More Ruth madly. Oh, here we go.
24:01
We're being reminded again. Had to wipe her memory to save
24:04
our lives. If she remembers me, she'll die.
24:07
See. Now look, we didn't need those
24:09
clips at the beginning. He just told her in the in the
24:11
episode or two of those clips at the beginning were a last minute
24:14
thing. Oh, he likes doing this,
24:18
Russell, doesn't he? Suggesting that there is fate,
24:22
you know, at work with Donna. OK, let's go back to the
24:30
comments then. Ah, wonderful, James Lark at
24:34
James Lark says. I thought it was terrific, fun,
24:38
look fantastic and felt uniquely.
24:40
Doctor Who. Tenant and Tate were wonderful.
24:43
I'm hearing that a lot, which may sound like stating the
24:47
office, but I wasn't a fan back in the day.
24:50
I found 10 insufferable and Donner abrasive so I was
24:53
delighted to enjoy their company so much.
24:57
I wasn't going to tweet negatives as it was so joyous,
25:00
but you did ask. I did.
25:02
I did James. I did.
25:04
One thing on which I find myself out of step with the general
25:07
consensus is the tireless interior white walkways and hue
25:11
bulbs. Don't say alien to me, they say
25:13
shopping centre and the console design is a mess.
25:18
Scale does not always equate wonder, and the reason the
25:22
original high concept works to some extent is its intimacy.
25:26
We have a sense of vigour on the inside than the outside because
25:29
we're still in a box. The TV movie got this wrong as
25:33
well. I think there's some more, yes,
25:36
James says. I love the diversity of casting
25:39
in all of the ways and incredible to see trans
25:42
affirmation in a prime time family slot.
25:45
The generations of mother daughter interaction on this
25:48
were beautifully written and will resonate as much with
25:50
parents and grandparents as with children.
25:54
Not so sure I needed it written into the finale in the way it
25:57
was like Ryan and Yas discussing racism in Rosa.
26:01
I thought it was unnecessarily on the nose repeat of a point
26:04
that had already been very well made.
26:06
Show don't Tell. Also it did take it into quite
26:10
mawkish territory. Not really my thing.
26:13
So thank goodness for Catherine Tate chucking a cup of tea.
26:17
Sorry, a cup of coffee into the TARDIS to bring everything back
26:20
of it back to earth. Niggles aside, it's a great
26:24
piece of telly and I can't wait for the next one.
26:28
James, he's such a small bloke, do you know?
26:31
I found him in my book club and I just want him to record more.
26:35
He's such a clever bloke. Joe Lalin at Joker, BC 67 says
26:42
not perfect, but perfectly enjoyable.
26:44
Oh, that's a good job. I like that.
26:46
Seeing David Tennant and Catherine Tate was like seeing
26:48
old friends after a long absence.
26:50
Good use of Disney Dollar. Kids liked it.
26:54
I'm assuming he means his kids liked it.
26:56
Love the new TARDIS. Retro but new much.
26:59
Looking forward to next week. Love seeing it at the same time
27:02
as the UK. No spoilers.
27:06
Well done. Oh the gorgeous Mark Cockrum All
27:10
of Time and Space Podcast says it was a fun big budget Saturday
27:14
night blockbuster. Love the new TARDIS And the Meep
27:18
was super cute. Oh, talking of the meep, he's
27:22
here on the screen. Why don't you speak to the
27:24
little Meep? Be my friend.
27:27
Be my friend. Oh, you tore his tummy out.
27:32
Miriam Markley is having so much fun.
27:34
You can see her in that studio being really cheeky, can't you?
27:37
You know, in between, you know, talking about Fanny and, you
27:40
know, the things that she likes to do?
27:45
Yeah. Do you notice how we don't
27:46
actually see the toys, do we? In any great detail?
27:49
Because they're an important plot point for later, as Kev
27:54
Blower at Kev Blower says here, who is the Meeps boss?
27:58
Not the toy maker. As David Tennant says in the
28:00
commentary, he doesn't know the toys in the shed.
28:04
Ood, Jaddoon, Cyberman, Calvinista, I think anymore.
28:09
Yeah, so Calvinista. That was fab.
28:13
So we're doing a connection here, aren't we?
28:15
The Meep is a a lonely alien that's lost and Rose is a lonely
28:20
little girl who feels lost in the world.
28:24
Oh this is so funny. No, look the.
28:28
Meep still amongst all the toys, that was the publicity picture
28:32
we kept seamlessly. Oh, it's so funny.
28:37
That woman from Abu Dhabi who bars your stuff.
28:39
She'd love that 10 grown woman obsessed with Gonks.
28:44
That's the sort of line I'm talking about.
28:48
Oh dear. And you're just waiting for the
28:50
moment where Donna loses her call, because that's where she's
28:53
her funniest. What the hell?
28:56
Oh, then. I mean, why the hell do you poke
29:05
a toy in the eye anyway? What is the matter, you Donna?
29:07
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. I might have a lot of time to
29:11
talk about this while it's happening, so I just want to say
29:15
Rachel Talele's direction of the action that takes place in the
29:19
road around Donna's house is absolutely stunning.
29:25
You know, you've got physical action, pyrotechnics, cars
29:29
jumping about the place, CGI RAF warriors.
29:33
You've got the meat which is animatronic crawling through the
29:36
attic and she does it all in like 1 sweeping shot at one
29:39
point. You see, all of that is
29:42
extraordinary. Oh, this is great, you, says
29:46
Sylvia. We've got her bloody Martian in
29:55
the shed. Oh, Donna's back, baby.
29:59
Get off me, you space rat. Even the doctor's drawn in.
30:03
Look, he goes, Oh my God, it's so cute.
30:11
That's it. That's the triple whammy now.
30:13
The doctor's now been slapped by Jackie, by Martha's mum, whose
30:18
name would lose me right now, Francine.
30:21
And now by Sylvia. Oh, this is great.
30:25
This is how you do fast. You build it up to a massive
30:28
crescendo. Everyone's screaming and
30:31
shouting the memes, you know, all anxious.
30:35
And then Sean walks in and everything cuts dead.
30:38
There's your joke. It's very funny.
30:44
Oh excuse me, it's hard work than I thought talking to
30:47
myself. Or at least it's harder on my
30:51
voice. Here we go.
30:55
Now the arm is coming in. Yeah, Rachel Talelli's direction
31:00
of those St. scenes. Oh, doesn't the possession look
31:02
fabulous in the soldiers eyes as well?
31:08
Oh, this could only be Doctor Who.
31:11
Now look this bloody great furry creature.
31:14
The Doctor's binding his hand. And then you got comedian
31:18
Catherine Tate behind throwing out one gag after another about
31:21
Mad Paddington. There's something about, There's
31:25
something about. The the cuteness of the Meep,
31:29
you know, but makes this pure Doctor Who.
31:32
I think any other show, they wouldn't go to town like they do
31:35
here, aren't you? It's very faithful to the
31:38
original. Oh, Donna's starting to figure
31:43
it all out. It's great because they really
31:47
make you wait for the point where the doctor tells her that
31:52
we used to be friends. Oh my God.
31:57
What is it? She says about Nerys?
31:59
Who are you again? Nerys the Viper in the Nest.
32:09
Oh, that was a nice gag, wasn't it?
32:10
We all thought, I think that Will was dead because Burner
32:15
Cribbins has has passed, so it would have been perfectly
32:19
understandable had they edited out it seems if they didn't have
32:22
everything that they needed and they actually make something of
32:25
that. I wonder if that was in the
32:26
script originally. Meet me, meet me.
32:35
So here we go. Right, so we've got a discussion
32:39
of pronouns here, which is very important.
32:41
I think Miriam Margulies said it perfectly on Graham Norton
32:45
recently, where she was like, Oh yeah, I don't understand a fuss
32:48
about pronouns and why should I have to get my head around non
32:52
binary and all of this? And then she had a proper
32:56
conversation with somebody who had transitioned and she
33:00
realised that she just had to be kind and understand.
33:07
She goes and that cost me nothing.
33:09
It cost me nothing to be kind and to give that gift to
33:13
somebody of acceptance. She goes like, it cost me
33:17
nothing and and so if we have the ability to do this without
33:21
losing anything, why don't we do it?
33:24
Why aren't we kind? So I think I had troubles
33:29
initially when, you know, I was hearing about the different
33:33
sexualities and the the pronoun things like that.
33:36
And then you know, I came to the same conclusion a long time ago
33:39
that actually, yeah, no, I'm, I am a gay male.
33:45
But however anyone chooses to identify themselves, however you
33:50
know they that is their choice. That is somebody's choice.
33:56
That's how they feel. And what the fuck right do I
34:00
have to tell anybody else that is not me?
34:05
One has to live their life 2. How to identify themselves.
34:09
So yeah, I made that call. All you have to do is be kind
34:13
and accepting, and it baffles me to this day that people, not
34:20
everybody, but some people, too many people have a problem with
34:25
that, with being kind and letting people make choices
34:30
about their own identity. It baffles me.
34:35
That reaction baffles me anyway. But the fact that Russell got me
34:41
thinking and talking to friends about this subject, I haven't
34:46
done that for a long time in Doctor Who for a long, long
34:49
time, probably since the maybe the depression aspects, the
34:55
mental health access in Can You Hear Me?
34:57
And then before that in Vincent and the Doctor, So I was like,
35:02
yeah, he's doing a, he's, he's stimulating conversation,
35:05
whether that's, you know, the left or the right or the far
35:09
left or the far right, people are talking and that's exactly
35:16
what. And he's normalising the
35:18
language and the visibility on mainstream television, you know,
35:24
and and promoting kindness towards it.
35:28
I just don't see how that could be anything but a good thing.
35:32
So I'm not going to label the point and that I knew I was
35:34
going to get on to it. But that's, that's what I wanted
35:38
to say. Be kind.
35:41
It's not hard to be kind. Oh, now here we go.
35:45
All the action. Oh man, when that you have that
35:50
slow motion of the wall blowing him and then the RAF Warrior
35:54
flying up into the hole in the Wall, Gorgeous.
35:59
Oh, it is what I was talking about.
36:00
Guns firing back and forth. There's a sweeping shot as the
36:05
camera goes up over a car and you see the RAF Warriors
36:09
storming down the street. Oh, it's fabulous.
36:16
The Sonic screwdrivers finally doing concrete again.
36:24
This feels very Doctor Who, doesn't it?
36:26
The escape is to literally resonate concrete, which is so
36:30
mundane and crawl very slowly through a load of attics.
36:35
Resonate concrete again and go for another one.
36:39
But the the pay off is another great visual gag of the camera
36:44
sweeping around from the battlefield to see the Meep
36:47
crawling through an attic going Meep Meep.
36:51
I mean, it's just absurd, isn't it?
36:54
Fuck me. This looks great.
36:56
That car's on fire and in a minute one other car leaps up in
37:02
the air, honestly, in slow motion.
37:06
And I just think the design for those RAF warriors is fabulous.
37:11
I mean, Dave Gibbons, man, you are a genius.
37:15
They look so great. That big claw for the hand, the
37:18
the red eyes. Marvellous.
37:24
Oh, where's that shot? Literally.
37:25
The camera sweeps across the road.
37:27
The RAF warriors fly down. I'm assuming that's CG.
37:30
And then we go in through the window, the skylight in the
37:34
thing. Meet me.
37:38
Oh, in a minute as well. I think you have the best visual
37:42
gag I have seen in Doctor Who since Partners in Crime when
37:47
they did that silent mime sequence.
37:50
It's like. Tiptoe past this man sleeping in
37:53
his living room with his headphones on.
37:56
Just what I do. Donna looks in the living room
37:59
and says, oh, she's been a bit judgy and poor juggling King has
38:05
to wait for the Meep toy. To shuffle past and she just
38:09
looks in and goes, oh God, I mean it's all done without
38:13
dialogue aside from the Meep Meep which is very funny I think
38:19
this is so funny. Oh dear.
38:22
Right. OK.
38:23
We've talked about the action a bit so let's get back to the
38:25
comments. Fabulous Meltham Rob at Meltham
38:30
Rob one says. I do hope we get to see Wilf in
38:33
one of the remaining specials. Gavin who was at Gavin WI
38:40
79234383. What the hell is that number all
38:45
about, Gavin? Simply perfect, he says.
38:49
Looks amazing. David and Catherine were as good
38:51
as ever. The tight suit line, Sylvia
38:54
slapping the Doctor. The TARDIS interior.
38:57
Plus love the titles and theme complete with middle a oh hail
39:03
beep meep meep, it says with a picture of the meep.
39:08
Oh, handsome, Daniel Knight at Daniel Knight, 73, says.
39:13
I enjoyed it a lot but get fed up when Tenant goes all shouting
39:16
and petulant I get. That I don't agree.
39:20
But I do understand why you might feel that way.
39:23
Love the new TARDIS interior, Sylvia and that scene in the
39:26
kitchen resonated in what she wants to get it right with roses
39:30
pronouns. Hope we see Shirley again as
39:33
Ruth Madeley's fab doctor Nigel Fletcher at Nigel Fletcher says.
39:40
Everyone seems to be saying that me being evil was an obvious
39:43
twist, but I generally didn't. I genuinely didn't clock it
39:46
until it happened, having avoided researching the comic.
39:50
Well done, Nigel, and almost everything else was just joyous.
39:55
Tennant and Donna are just perfect together, Ian Winston at
40:01
Ian Winston says. Best testament to the Star
40:05
Beast? Yes.
40:06
Yet my kids, not me, just put the on iPlayer for a rewatch.
40:12
There you go. They're rewatching it.
40:14
Star Wars MCU fans, they have never done that for Doctor Who
40:18
before. Doctor Who as a popular family
40:22
show is back. I've got to say there were
40:25
people at work talking about Doctor Who and I haven't heard
40:28
that since. Probably stolen urban Journey's
40:34
end, if I'm honest. Not a work.
40:39
Oh, so now the doctors put on his wig.
40:41
Allah, the stones of Blood. Has that been in his pocket ever
40:45
since? Well, they are dimensionally
40:48
transcendental pockets, you know.
40:51
Oh, isn't it glorious how the Wrath Warriors talk with such
40:54
upper class accents? The story of the Meeps is a
40:58
tragic 1. The sun went mar.
41:01
The psychedelic sun. It's radiation mutated all of
41:04
meepkind into cruel beasts who live for conquest.
41:08
Solar Psychedelia, I mean, come on Pat Mills, you're a genius as
41:13
well. The Meep Army captured the
41:16
Galactic Council and beheaded them.
41:21
It was a shame though, as you don't see a flashback in the
41:23
comic. You can see all the beat, all
41:26
the the meeps. Dancing around like little
41:29
children. It's so funny.
41:35
Oh, this is it now. Miriam Markley.
41:36
It just goes for it, doesn't she?
41:40
She just gets to that point. You know what?
41:42
We've always feel like this sometimes, don't we?
41:43
We're all been put on an act of like being lovely.
41:46
And then you just go, oh to hell with this and this line.
41:51
Now, now, stun guns for me. Just die.
41:56
Who hasn't wanted to say that to people on the odd occasion?
42:00
So pretty much now. I mean, Meek's been a cute,
42:03
gorgeous little alien. Pretty much everything now is
42:06
Gremlins, isn't it? He's an absolute psychotic
42:09
despot fabulous. Oh, tell me about Catherine Tate
42:16
giving empathy to aliens remembering Planet of the Ood.
42:20
And she does it here with Zogrov.
42:24
She could somehow really humanize aliens.
42:29
Oh, she's such a talent. Oh, that's a hell of a line with
42:34
your weird child. It brings out the fire.
42:37
And Donna, the protective mother.
42:46
This just feels like we're in 2008.
42:48
Now you got Donna. You know, reacting with fire.
42:51
The doctor's trying to piece everything together by asking a
42:54
ton of smart questions. Very camp villain.
42:57
Allah. What was her name?
43:00
Miss Foster in Partners in Crime.
43:03
There's a lot about this that reminds me of Partners in Crime.
43:06
And interestingly, my friends who did not like this to an
43:11
extreme did not like Partners in Crime to an extreme.
43:14
And you know what? Not all.
43:16
Doctor Who is for everybody. And that is OK folks.
43:22
Mind you, was I saying that about Chip Mills era?
43:25
I think I was. I just don't know those people
43:28
that were being personal about it or if you did like it.
43:34
Anyway, I said I wasn't going to do that, didn't I?
43:39
Oh, Donna's still figuring it out.
43:43
OK, let's go back to the comments then.
43:44
Daniel Rawnsley at Daniel Rawnsley says the family dog
43:49
grudgingly agreed to endure my beep the Meep impersonation.
43:53
She had a busy schedule, Wanted to get back to chewing
43:56
cardboard. I'll get it.
43:58
But really I had such a good laugh, Great family viewing.
44:01
Not too sure about those titles. But then that's an age-old
44:05
Doctor Who chestnut, The very Pete Lambert at Professor.
44:10
Quite a mess, says. I know it's a daft thing to
44:14
complain about, but it drives me nuts that the start of the
44:17
melody and the theme is back to not aligning with anything
44:20
happening. Something should burst onto the
44:23
screen at that moment. It's like gold and the animators
44:26
weren't speaking. Interesting.
44:30
Yeah, it doesn't bother me so much that you know, but I get
44:33
it. I get it.
44:33
If you are sort of musically inclined, you know, to have the
44:40
pictures and the music. Not married?
44:42
Yeah, I get it. Kev Blower at Kev Blower says.
44:46
Oh, and there was a Rat Nos toy. Chris Hogbin.
44:51
Lovely Chris Hogbin at Chris PHNX says.
44:56
I enjoyed it from start to finish, from finally giving me
45:00
the resolution to Journey's end I've been dying for with the
45:04
vibe of School Reunion. The only odd thing to me was the
45:07
Doctor wanted to see Wilf again, the man who single handedly
45:11
ended this face last time. That's a good point.
45:15
That is a very good point, Palin.
45:18
But the beep's gone wild at Palindrome.
45:21
At Palindrome, Rose says the MEEP is an instant meme.
45:27
The Doctor should probably remove the TARDIS coffee
45:29
machine. Thank God it wasn't a fondue
45:31
set. And also this is the greatest.
45:34
Image of all time. And he put in a picture of David
45:39
when he very excitedly shares the moment with Donna at the
45:43
TARDIS interior. Oh God, isn't it wonderful that
45:50
a show show that got 5.8 million and has been revered as the
45:58
highest rated drama of 2023 has a lion brandish?
46:06
Oh, I've lost forgotten it. Now it's the techno.
46:08
Babble brandish the energy stanchions.
46:14
Doctor Who techno Babble has taken over the world.
46:17
Hurrah. Oh dear, So can't this now
46:21
you've got beep the meep who ends up inside this little
46:25
window in the top of this very phallic looking rocket declaring
46:30
he's going to, you know, destroy the entirety of London and then
46:35
his whole army are there going hail to the meep, Hail to the
46:39
meep. I mean, it's campus Christmas,
46:42
isn't it? Fortunately, I love me a bit of
46:45
camp. Oh, here we go.
46:50
I can't want to call her heebie, but Shirley isn't it.
46:54
Shirley's wheelchair has got darts in it and what appears to
46:57
be a rocket launcher as well. Well, of course UNIT has
47:01
weaponized her wheelchair. How dare you people suggest
47:04
otherwise? Donna has to make a choice to be
47:11
with her family now or to help the doctor.
47:14
So I love the fact that she's got these instincts, one to
47:17
protect her family, especially her daughter.
47:21
She says take her, take her 10 miles away.
47:24
And I love you, Sean, but her instinct is to go and help the
47:30
doctor to save the world. Of course it is.
47:33
She's done a noble, glorious. So now we're in the sequence
47:39
where they are in the computer system of the spaceship.
47:45
And whilst I think the firefight between the RAF warriors and the
47:50
soldiers is the sort of visual highlight of the episode, this
47:54
by far is the emotional highlight of the episode.
47:57
And for anybody that is invested in the Doctor Donna
48:01
relationship, which I think is a lot of people, this is amazing.
48:06
Pay off this scene like David Tennant and Catherine Tay once
48:14
all the sort of hyperbole once all of the the visual splendors
48:19
stripped away and it's just the two of them in a room.
48:23
And you know Russell, who's a very naughty man, obviously
48:27
hinges the plot on the Doctor having to murder Donna, IE give
48:35
her her memories back in order to save the world.
48:38
And so David Tennant gets to do some serious acting as he as he
48:43
has. Oh, look, it's on either side of
48:45
a door as well, which very much reminds me of Star Trek 2, The
48:50
Wrath of Khan, the bit between Shatner and and Spock.
48:54
There's something about it, isn't it?
48:58
I love the bit where Donna goes, you know, I'm not special.
49:03
And he literally gets so angry with her.
49:06
And he's like, yes, you are. You know, don't say that.
49:11
But he's regretted having to take away our memories all these
49:15
years. And finally, you know, she's
49:18
starting to remember everything. And she still thinks she's
49:21
worthless. And she's lived this incredible
49:23
life, a charitable life, you know, looking after her family,
49:28
even when she isn't saving Wells.
49:30
She's the most wonderful person. And he, you know, he really
49:33
wants to stress that it's gorgeous.
49:35
And Tennant plays it with his voice, sort of breaking in a
49:38
way. It's a different sort of
49:42
performative maturity than we had back in the day.
49:45
I think he's learnt a lot of lessons since the last time we
49:48
played the Doctor and he was incredible then.
49:52
But Catherine Tay, who, you know, I've seen her go on to do
49:57
lots of sort of some comedy films and and lots of TV and
50:03
things like this, but I've never really seen her do a ton of
50:06
really sort of emotional acting like she does in Doctor Who.
50:10
It's a shame. It's such a waste because she's
50:11
so good at it. And this sequence here where the
50:15
doctor says you know you'll die if if I do this and she says do
50:19
it like I don't care, OK, She has my daughters down there.
50:25
Like, just just if if it takes my death, just do it.
50:35
She says it's not a million people.
50:37
And she's almost in tears. Like she can't comprehend that
50:40
many people dying. Oh, she's so wonderful.
50:45
There it is. No, you are not.
50:47
He goes. Of course he's shouting now.
50:49
Sorry, Daniel. You're probably about other sex.
50:51
He's. Shouting now.
50:53
But I love it. I love the melodrama of it.
50:58
Oh man. There were so many, so many sort
51:01
of dramatic things I loved about Chibnall's time, but I did miss
51:04
the melodrama a little bit. It's just because it's very over
51:07
the top, like me, Someone said to me there was nothing at all
51:10
subtle about this episode, but some of the acting here is very
51:13
subtle. Oh, here we go.
51:19
Fingerprint, Mexico. Binary.
51:23
Binary, Binary, the look on Catherine Tate's face when she
51:33
starts to realize, and I think look the way she says binary
51:39
here. I think she's learned a lot of
51:42
acting. Lessons since before as well,
51:44
because it was quite comical when she said that in Journey's
51:47
End. Or maybe that was the idea.
51:51
So crazy you can go through go from such an emotional scene
51:56
like that to the the meep his hands up in the air like that
52:04
you know and Burr see I got the pronouns wrong there.
52:07
It's an it isn't it. I said, hey, nobody is perfect,
52:13
but I do. Try.
52:16
Oh, this is great. Oh, I gave way more money.
52:20
Call Stodda's back. Of course She's more selfish
52:23
than ever. Oh, she gave it away to be like
52:30
him. Like, come on, like, I think all
52:35
the showrunners had their strength.
52:36
They all brought amazing things. But Russell's biggest strength
52:40
is he just brings so much heart to the show.
52:43
This makes my heart ache watching this sequence.
52:47
It's it's the relationships between people that he gets
52:50
right. You know, the feeling.
52:52
I never thought Doctor Who could make me feel the way Russell
52:56
makes me feel when he's writing Doctor Who.
52:59
Ah, it's just incredible. Incredible.
53:01
Oh, let me go. Donna gets to be It's the same
53:05
sort of sequence she got in Journey's head, wasn't she, when
53:07
she was the meta crisis? Donna, we've got Doctor Donna
53:13
back, baby. Donna Noble is descending.
53:23
I'll tell you what, right when they have her and Bonnie
53:25
Langford in the episode together, The Giggle.
53:27
I better have a line about the two gingers or the ginger
53:30
Queens. OK, let's go back to the
53:36
comments, David M at Mrs. Remington Fan says.
53:41
I enjoyed it mostly. I found the pacing a little off
53:44
at times. The resolution came a bit too
53:46
quick, however. Standouts for me were Catherine
53:49
Tate and Jacqueline King. Both of them were wonderful.
53:53
Well, I've got another comment here for me.
53:55
In Winston. I watched it with a crowd of
53:57
Hoovians plus my two kids who were the only two people in the
54:01
room who didn't know the truth about the meep.
54:03
When the twist came, they leapt out of their seats.
54:06
Brilliant. Episode best for me since the
54:08
Doctor Falls. Or maybe Punjab 0 complaints.
54:13
Do you know what my mate Ali didn't realise that beat the
54:18
meat was evil either And. Said she was just as shocked.
54:24
Michael Storm at Sam and Jazz says mostly typical RTD opening
54:29
episode. Some nice character pieces with
54:32
the regulars, the Meep and the RAF Warriors were well realised.
54:36
As with a lot of RTD episodes, the resolution was a little
54:39
convenient, but I suspect the meta crisis is not yet fully
54:42
resolved, Mark Donaldson at Old Man Krondas says.
54:49
I think I would have been happier with the solution to the
54:52
Doctor Donna conundrum if it had been a new showrunner.
54:55
Just going men, eh? So dramatic.
54:58
But because it's Russell, I felt 13 years and that's the best you
55:03
can come up with. Yeah.
55:04
I don't know if Mark had the best reaction to this episode.
55:07
And that's OK That's absolutely OK Dan Hollingsworth at D under
55:15
score Hollingsworth, hello. Dan says a great mini season
55:20
opener in the traditional in the tradition of an RTD season, like
55:24
catching up with old friends. But with all the emotional beats
55:26
we love in an RTD episode, the way they fixed Donna was a bit
55:30
clunky, but I still loved her as how could I not the meep?
55:35
Having a separate control panel outside the ship was standard
55:38
speed Up resolution nonsense, but it's that kind of tradition.
55:42
Yeah, I like that. Love Rose and the horrible kids
55:46
on bikes gave me flashbacks, which was fine as it's good to
55:50
remind viewers not to be nasty little shits success, he says.
56:01
Here we go, The shed was the TARDIS, the toys were the
56:04
monsters. I thought this was a really
56:07
clever resolution. The fact that the meta crisis
56:11
didn't kill Donna because she handed half of that to Rose.
56:15
It's it's really, it's a clever way of resolving that 15 year
56:21
dilemma of Donna potentially dying because of the meta
56:25
crisis. I loved the reference to the
56:28
fact that the doctor could be male or female because I think a
56:32
lot of people thought that Russell was going to dismiss the
56:35
Jodi Whittaker era and of course that was never going to happen.
56:39
And I just love all of the positivity surrounding the trans
56:48
community. I just, it just beams out of
56:50
this episode the love for the trans community and the
56:53
acceptance. You know, it means that Doctor
56:56
Who's inclusive and it should always be inclusive.
57:00
Now, regardless of what dreadful people on social media might
57:05
think, You know, people just try and weaponize the word woke,
57:10
don't they? I think woke is one of those
57:13
positive words that you can actually say.
57:16
I'm very pleased to be woke myself because, you know, the
57:21
alternative is chilling. And those people that weaponize
57:25
it, they're pretty chilling too. OK, let's go back to the
57:33
comments. I'm getting very serious again.
57:35
LSJ at Grumpy Two. EB says.
57:39
I want a Tera lectal to destroy the magic Sonic Shields.
57:43
Come on. Other than that, I thought it
57:46
was light, fluffy fun. That's fair.
57:49
Johnny Morris. Lovely, talented Johnny Morris
57:53
at Johnny Morris 1973 says. I loved it.
57:57
My criticisms are so trivial I can't be bothered to express
58:01
them. Was the Red Dawn poster a
58:03
reference or just a coincidence? I'd like to think it was a nod
58:06
to Justin Richards, but yes, a great example of turning story
58:10
problems into story solutions. Absolute delight.
58:14
Go on, Johnny. Spot on wonderful Rod.
58:19
Who at Who under score Rod says it delivered on every level.
58:24
Big, bold, adventurous, traumatic, tear jerking and
58:27
hilariously funny. Tenant gave us a more mature
58:31
doctor. Donna was wonderfully real and
58:33
the Rose storyline was pitched perfectly.
58:36
All this plus the Meep, a fantastic start to a brave new
58:40
era Ripper metal God. Rich at Ian Ian.
58:47
Rob Rich. Sorry, at Ian, Ian.
58:51
Rob Rich Yeah, I got it right. A really fun watch and seeing
58:55
the meet so brilliantly transferred to TV was a delight
58:58
for me. Enjoyed the new characters
59:00
introducing the show and still at odds as to who is scarier?
59:04
Beat the meep, oh Sylvia Noble looking forward to the next
59:08
special. Now Muffly on tour at Muffly on
59:12
tour. Cracked along at a pace.
59:14
The twist was a bit obvious, but hey my OHOH what's that mean?
59:22
My OH is ADT and was happy to see him back.
59:28
OK, that means I'm not down with the the acronyms.
59:36
I need a Bible. Matty Bate at Michael Lee,
59:41
Doctor Who Says No Trinity. Wells, 0 out of 10, Well, I
59:46
think that's a perfectly reasonable response.
59:50
Good grief, Beat the meat's been defeated, and we're now back in
59:54
Old Camden Town. Fred Roche at Frochet says the
1:00:07
nerd in me love that the resolution was a semantic pun.
1:00:11
The Doctor Donna was a binary problem with two unsatisfactory
1:00:15
solutions. Forget and live, remember and
1:00:19
die. The only way to solve it was to
1:00:22
introduce a third element option, by definition breaking
1:00:26
the binary by moving past it. Gosh, that is a smart reading.
1:00:33
Oh, I love the fact that Sean's happy for them to go and that
1:00:37
Donna says that. You know what, Doctor?
1:00:39
I've got adventures to have of my own with my daughter and my
1:00:42
family. But you know, let's have one
1:00:45
more trip anyway. Oh, this gorgeous TARDIS
1:00:50
console. Oh my God, absolutely gorgeous.
1:00:56
I sorry, James. I love the scale of it.
1:00:59
There's just something so fucking tried about the White
1:01:03
and the Roundels. It just feels, it feels like a
1:01:06
classic control room, just with an enormous Hollywood budget.
1:01:13
It's massive. Yeah, it's gorgeous. 10 out of
1:01:19
10 for me, you know? And I was speaking to somebody
1:01:22
who loved the Jodie Whittaker Tyler, so I loved how dark and
1:01:25
Moody it was, you know, and atmospheric.
1:01:27
But it just goes to show, you can have dark consoles.
1:01:30
You can have light consoles, you can have ugly glass and Chrome
1:01:34
consoles like the Series 51. You know, you can have all these
1:01:38
different consoles. It's all the TARDIS and she
1:01:41
keeps them all safe. So if you want to see him again,
1:01:46
I don't know, It's gorgeous. To bounce it around like an
1:01:51
idiot. Oh, so fun.
1:01:55
There's just something so right about having these two in the
1:01:58
TARDIS. Isn't there my favorite Doctor
1:02:01
and companion in this hardness? Again?
1:02:04
Like, how fucking lucky am I? You know, I think Shooty Get
1:02:09
White is already just on that wink Alone in adventure in Space
1:02:12
and Time shows the most incredible promise.
1:02:15
I think he's going to be amazing.
1:02:18
But Tennant and Tait, that's where my heart is.
1:02:22
It's there's something special about these two.
1:02:27
I don't know. The comedy, the emotion.
1:02:29
The camaraderie. Throwing coffees on the console.
1:02:33
Just all of it. The way she.
1:02:37
So casually does it. Oh, Dylan, I know you was
1:02:40
appalled, but I thought it was hilarious.
1:02:46
He is a lot more open with his emotions now, isn't it?
1:02:48
He says. What I did to you before, it
1:02:49
killed me. It killed me.
1:02:51
It killed me. So we're heading off now, aren't
1:02:57
we? To the wild blue Yonder,
1:03:01
whatever. That is the most redacted Doctor
1:03:03
Who story of all time. And the the preview in DWM
1:03:08
promises lots of tenant and tape and visual weirdness.
1:03:12
I'm there for that. I'm wondering if it's going to
1:03:15
be a bit like Rob Schumer Skuzzo, you know, just the two
1:03:19
of them. Although we know it's going to
1:03:21
have that robot in it as well, don't we?
1:03:23
Oh, here we go. She's about to flick that coffee
1:03:28
now. I've seen it, and now you know
1:03:29
it's coming. It's very tense the whole time
1:03:31
she's holding that coffee. And Phil Collinson's response to
1:03:38
the script where they've built this fabulous new TARDIS and
1:03:41
Russell Davis wants them to blow it up immediately.
1:03:44
He's like Russell. No, we can't do that.
1:03:47
And you can just see Russell sitting there, can't you?
1:03:49
Typing away his computer. Going fuck that budget, you
1:03:54
know, Dragging on a cigarette with an evil cackle about his
1:03:57
lips. Oh my, that's absolutely flown
1:04:03
by it. Do you know dear dear.
1:04:06
And you know what? Like watching?
1:04:07
I've got the sound on a little bit but just watching the
1:04:10
visuals to Lele's direction is out of this world.
1:04:15
But the idea of bringing in the Director of Heaven sent to
1:04:20
effectively direct the the fluffy opening salvo to this new
1:04:26
era, it's a stroke of genius. Because she, you know, she
1:04:30
absolutely, she can put the money on the screen, but she
1:04:32
works brilliantly with the actors as well.
1:04:36
I can see why, you know, I think generally speaking the reaction
1:04:39
to this has been massively strong.
1:04:43
I think there's there's been, you know, a handful of fandom
1:04:47
that found it unsubtle and the message was a bit too pointed.
1:04:56
And I think there's an element of anti trans wankers that just
1:05:01
aren't going to like this because it fundamentally goes
1:05:04
against their ridiculous prejudices.
1:05:08
But on the whole what I'm seeing is both in the media and in
1:05:14
fandom, just a sort of welcome back Doctor Who, I think Doctor
1:05:20
Who went anywhere. I think it was perfectly
1:05:22
wonderful, you know, in the last two iterations.
1:05:26
But I can understand why this sort of brand of Doctor Who is
1:05:32
being welcomed so wholeheartedly.
1:05:36
It's like being given a massive hug.
1:05:38
And I don't know if you've looked around you recently, how
1:05:41
miserable the world can be sometimes, but when Doctor Who
1:05:44
comes at you like this with a silly, fluffy alien that turns
1:05:47
out to be a psychotic furball, you know, war criminal.
1:05:51
Yeah, And you know, leaning into the warmth and love of a family
1:05:58
and a gorgeous doctor, companion relationships and action and
1:06:02
comedy and great one liners. I mean, it's gorgeous.
1:06:09
I can see why people have absolutely taken to it again.
1:06:13
And I do think this is just our opening story.
1:06:18
I don't think this is the pattern for what's coming.
1:06:21
I think Russell's like, let's remind people where we were and
1:06:26
how good we were. And I think Wild Blue Yonder is
1:06:29
going to be weird and experimental and all those
1:06:32
lovely things. I love, you know, the midnight
1:06:34
of the specials. And I think the giggle might
1:06:38
turn out to be the most expensive of the free.
1:06:41
I think that's where a lot of the money is going to go, which
1:06:43
is, you know, astonishing given how good this looks.
1:06:45
And I think it's going to be the scariest as well.
1:06:49
So I think tonally all three specials are going to be really
1:06:51
different. We're going to have three
1:06:54
exciting final adventures with the Doctor and Donna are going
1:06:59
to be diverse and brilliant and wonderful.
1:07:03
Anyway, thank you so much for listening to this.
1:07:05
It's a bit indulgent me doing this on my own, but I had 35 of
1:07:10
the hand found there with me giving their opinions on this.
1:07:13
Thank you so much everybody, for giving your opinion.
1:07:17
I'm going to do this again next week For what?
1:07:19
Blue Yonder? So please do give your opinions
1:07:21
there too. I love to hear them and I love
1:07:24
to share them with other people. Yeah, I hope you're enjoying it
1:07:28
guys. It's it's back on.
1:07:31
And that's a wonderful feeling. I'm really excited for next
1:07:35
week. Thanks for listening.
1:07:38
Hi there everybody. What make of the Star Beast
1:07:42
then? So it was a good episode.
1:07:44
I enjoyed it. Good.
1:07:46
Maybe he's not great though. It felt like a very classic RTD
1:07:51
type story. Full of adventure and full of
1:07:54
excitement and full of drama and character work and everything
1:08:00
else you'd expect from an RTD. Sure, it felt very much like
1:08:05
sort of the Let's era of Doctor Who through the lens of modern
1:08:10
television. So yeah, funny, exciting, full
1:08:16
of adventure. But there's still a bit of a
1:08:18
message there, and there's a bit of heart involved in it as well.
1:08:23
Lots and lots of things to enjoy.
1:08:25
Obviously the Meep Meep Meep was triumph, both in design and
1:08:31
execution. Animatronic CGI and obviously
1:08:35
Miriam Margulies voicing it to perfection.
1:08:39
Really enjoyed the Meep. Having done a noble back was a
1:08:43
lot more fun than I thought it was going to be, again tying
1:08:47
with the Meep. So things like Space Rat
1:08:51
favorite from Mars, Matt Paddington were just hilarious.
1:08:56
Bits of scripted for the script was very good, very funny in
1:09:00
parts. I enjoyed the.
1:09:03
The scene with Sean and the Doctor in the Taxi where they're
1:09:07
talking about nervous, that sort of back and forth was really
1:09:10
quite entertaining. So it's probably a funnier
1:09:14
script that I'm used to from from RTD in it.
1:09:19
It had lots of character moments and not hard, but perhaps it
1:09:22
didn't quite hit the points that you would expect from from
1:09:27
muscle. You know, you might think the
1:09:29
drama was going to be higher and the.
1:09:35
This sort of drama stuff, the bit where the Doctor has to
1:09:40
sacrifice Donna. I think he's going to sacrifice
1:09:42
Donna. You expect that to be a bit more
1:09:44
overwrought, I think. I don't know if he's turned it
1:09:47
down a little bit after seeing what Chris Jibril has done, but
1:09:51
elements like that, certainly I was expecting more from.
1:09:54
I didn't have a few quibbles with with this one, I'm not
1:09:58
going to lie. I think.
1:10:01
One of the quibbles was obviously the reset switch at
1:10:03
the end where you know, pavements opening up across
1:10:07
London and then all of a sudden, you know, you turn the ship off
1:10:11
and that gets undone. And I think some of the dialogue
1:10:15
was a little bit clunky in parts.
1:10:19
Obviously there was there was a big message in this episode
1:10:22
about trans rights and transgender people.
1:10:29
And I think sometimes the dialogue was a little bit clunky
1:10:31
and heavy-handed in that area. I think again, that might just
1:10:35
be, you know, I'm used to Chris Chip not being a bit more soul,
1:10:39
so maybe he's that was that. But I think there was a
1:10:43
beautiful scene with Sylvia and Donna in the kitchen when
1:10:48
they're discussing, you know, Rose, and should they be calling
1:10:54
Rose gorgeous or not. I think that was beautifully
1:10:56
done. Very relatable.
1:10:59
And then you have the things with like the meeps pronouns,
1:11:03
which felt quite heavy-handed. Having said that though, 5
1:11:10
million people watched that message about equality and
1:11:15
diversity go out. 5 million people, You know, trans rights
1:11:22
is a bit of a hot topic at the minute, and it's the sort of
1:11:25
thing that on Twitter. You get mentioned, you mentioned
1:11:30
trans people and there's a certain section of Twitter that
1:11:36
will erupt. They are very loud, very vocal,
1:11:39
very wrong in their views, but they will make their presence
1:11:46
known. And I think they have 5 million
1:11:48
people to help us, six on a Saturday afternoon get a message
1:11:53
that, you know, trans people are beautiful.
1:11:57
And we should celebrate them and welcome that diversity into our
1:12:03
society is nothing short of fantastic.
1:12:07
So well done RTD for doing that. Likewise, there was some good
1:12:13
disability representation as well and the character of
1:12:17
Shirley Bingham was was fantastic.
1:12:19
And so you know, great to see a wheelchair user in there, but
1:12:23
please. I don't know any else feels like
1:12:26
this, but I just feel we need to move away from this idea of
1:12:29
giving people with disability superpowers.
1:12:32
So I think there was a lot of other ways that that character
1:12:38
could have saved the day or stop the mad Shiny Eye soldiers
1:12:43
without having to have missiles in a wheelchair.
1:12:47
I just think that was a little bit over the top for me.
1:12:49
But again, I don't want to take away from the the representation
1:12:53
that was on there. And the straightforward that RTD
1:12:58
is making in this series. So quibbles but minor quibbles
1:13:02
really I think for me it just it was really you know a good a
1:13:09
good episode. I think the, you know having to
1:13:13
have a tenant back is is fantastic.
1:13:17
I think more needed to be made of that.
1:13:19
I think we needed it felt very much like.
1:13:23
There was just nothing between the power of the doctor, the end
1:13:28
of power of the doctor and and this.
1:13:31
There was no sort of run on. He just kind of stepped up the
1:13:35
tortoise as if, you know, it was just any other, any other
1:13:38
series. So it didn't feel very much like
1:13:40
the first episode, the first story of a new Doctor.
1:13:45
And if I let you know, there could be well be, you know, half
1:13:48
a dozen Big Finish box sets in between those two scenes.
1:13:53
So I would have wanted that leaned into mourn.
1:13:56
Obviously the the arc. I think it's no shakes to say
1:14:00
that it's the toy maker that's responsible for the 14th Doctor
1:14:05
having the same faces, the 10th and that all element was
1:14:09
mentioned, but it wasn't quite soon into the story well enough
1:14:14
for me. And ultimately, this felt like a
1:14:17
special, but not really an anniversary special.
1:14:22
Yes, it's the Darby spot, a pretty deep dive for for a lot
1:14:26
of fans. So you know, I would just sort
1:14:29
of like something a bit more anniversary ish.
1:14:31
But having said that, I did notice that Murray Gold was
1:14:34
dropping quite a few cues from his old scores throughout.
1:14:38
You know, when Donna got a memory back and was saving
1:14:41
London, you know, there was a very strong I Am the Doctor
1:14:46
theme to the music that was going on there.
1:14:49
So I really enjoyed those sort of throwbacks.
1:14:53
Is a new theme itself is a bit kitchen sink.
1:14:56
It's a bit like yeah, just because you've got access to all
1:15:00
the instruments under the sun movie doesn't necessarily mean
1:15:03
you have to use them all at once and then put a choir over it.
1:15:09
I'm sure I'll go on as but the credits, the opening credits and
1:15:13
the closing credits with the the Purple Rings for the Time Vortex
1:15:19
and the TARDIS doing. And all sorts of Star Trek
1:15:23
Voyager stuff of coming out of clouds was absolutely stunning.
1:15:28
Love that new interior of the tortoise wasn't too impressed to
1:15:33
start with, but as soon as it started changing colors and
1:15:36
lighting up, Oh my God, that was just divine.
1:15:41
Look at that. We've got a coffee machine much
1:15:44
like Judy's Cream custard custard cream dispenser.
1:15:49
What's the betting whenever I get to see that getting used
1:15:51
again? But that was a fantastic moment
1:15:54
of of Donna. Oh my God, I've done it again.
1:15:58
So, yeah, lots to enjoy in here. Like I said, it did feel like it
1:16:04
was missing some of the highs that we know that that was so
1:16:07
capable of. And there was no real surprises.
1:16:10
It felt very much like what I'd expect from a season opener from
1:16:14
him. But that's not a bad thing, you
1:16:17
know, It's entertaining. It's Saturday night, Doctor
1:16:20
Who's back on the telly. The Doctor Who's back on the
1:16:22
telly, different really exciting things.
1:16:25
And you know it's he's got a new Sonic that puts force fields up,
1:16:30
which is going to annoy lots of people.
1:16:31
And you can do touch screens with it as well and that's going
1:16:36
to annoy a lot of people. But the the whole fight in the
1:16:40
street with the Wrath Warriors and UNIT soldiers was was really
1:16:44
well, well directed and put together with lots of different,
1:16:48
you know, camera angles which I really enjoyed so.
1:16:52
If that's, you know, the the standard of things to come, then
1:16:56
I think we're in in very safe hands and in in for, you know,
1:17:00
lots more enjoyable episodes. So there you go.
1:17:03
That's my thoughts. Thank you and goodbye.