Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Frazer Gregory about his choice of Black Orchid (1/2)
Transcript
- 0:33Hamster with a blunt. Pen knife and do it quicker,
- 0:35quicker Looking back to a hamster with a blunt pen knife.
- 0:41The Doctor Who Commentary's podcast What a ripping time
- 0:44we're going to be having today with me, Fraser Gregory and my
- 0:48host Joe Ford. Say hi, Joe.
- 0:54Come over to the house and meet the Mater.
- 0:56It'll be dropping. Oh God, you are smutty as well,
- 1:02aren't you? I will be smutty.
- 1:08What? There was a fellow here.
- 1:10First class battle of Demon Bola.
- 1:15What could we be talking about? It can only be one thing.
- 1:21It can only be season nineteens 2 part epics tale of cricket,
- 1:30doppeldangers, screwdrivers and the Buffy.
- 1:36Blackhawk. I love a buffet.
- 1:39I'm so jealous of Patrick. He's just sitting there picking
- 1:42out for the entire story. Yeah.
- 1:45Can I ask you a couple of questions before we start?
- 1:48Because you and I have only touched.
- 1:49No, we don't do that on the show.
- 1:51Oh, do we not? No.
- 1:53How are we going to learn anything then?
- 1:54It's it's not the format of the show asking questions.
- 1:57No, it's just people coming on and giving their obscene
- 2:00opinions. That's what we're aiming for.
- 2:02Go on then. I'll let you on this occasion
- 2:04ask 2 questions. Well, we've done.
- 2:06We only ever touched Davidson once before haven't we?
- 2:08We've Mordren and this, haven't we?
- 2:14So I don't. I haven't really explored what
- 2:18you think about. The overall era, and certainly I
- 2:22know nothing at all about what you think about this season.
- 2:25And that's unusual because I've been talking to you for a long
- 2:28time now and I know a lot of what you think about Doctor Who.
- 2:31So where does 19 fall for you? How do you think they did?
- 2:36I think 19 is is very similar to season four in that, you know,
- 2:45it takes a while for them to get going.
- 2:47I think, you know, you look at season four, it takes Patrick
- 2:50Trouten a little while to figure out what he's doing with the
- 2:53rule. He knows what he's doing.
- 2:54He's an actor and it takes him a little while to figure out what
- 2:57his doctor's going to look like and how he's going to behave.
- 2:59And I think Peter Davidson is the same, You know, you know,
- 3:05this is this season's famous for being filmed out of order.
- 3:07So, you know, by you watch Castro Valva, it's a lot more
- 3:10formed what his doctor's looking like.
- 3:14You look at the ones that he's phone first, so you look at the
- 3:17visitation, you know, doomsday, you know it's you can say he's
- 3:22very much finding his feet, he's sketching out what he's going to
- 3:26do. I think the visitation is lifted
- 3:29immensely by his performance. You know, he's he's got an air
- 3:33of about two inches away from losing his shit through.
- 3:39About I know Janet Thurman is always saying you're horrible to
- 3:42your companions. You know when they're watching
- 3:43these things on behind the sofa, yeah.
- 3:46So it takes him a little while to find his sweet things on.
- 3:50When we get to black organ, I think he's got it.
- 3:51I think he knows pretty much where he's going, but it's kind
- 3:55of like the back end of the season, so he hasn't got really
- 3:58that much to do. I think you know you you're
- 4:01going to season 20 and he's got a lot, you know, lock clear,
- 4:05right. This is, this is my doctor.
- 4:06My doctor is very compassionate. He's very naturalistic.
- 4:10He's very he's. Quite subtle, isn't he?
- 4:13Yeah, but he's sarcastic as well.
- 4:16There's a very, you know, sardonic line through the Doctor
- 4:21into season 20 and that goes into season 21 as well.
- 4:25By season 21, he's remember, he's decided he's leaving.
- 4:28He's, you know, he's done his three years he's he's off.
- 4:32So he kind of takes the gloves off a little bit and he really
- 4:34plays into what he wants to do with the role.
- 4:37He's like, yeah, I'm going to play it that sod on its side
- 4:40massively. I will say he's got zero folks
- 4:44to give attitude. I've just put them up Well,
- 4:47jolly good. Now you can take them down and
- 4:49down again. Yeah, I want a finely tuned
- 4:51response to the situation and nothing's going to stop me.
- 4:54Now starts so. Much darker in 21.
- 4:59Yeah, yeah. I always feel like he's like the
- 5:01one force of positivity in the universe, pushing against all
- 5:04the death. Yeah, absolutely.
- 5:05He's he's given a lot more stuff to get his teeth into when it's
- 5:09you know I think it's been said many times before that you know
- 5:12if he'd if he'd had the material in season 20 that he has in
- 5:16season 21 he would make it like around he would have stuck
- 5:19around and said no this is actually worth his doing and.
- 5:22Then I wouldn't have had Mark Collin though, so I can't
- 5:24possibly approve of that. Well, there you go.
- 5:29That's always the problem with what if and who isn't it?
- 5:31Because you, you change something.
- 5:32It's a butterfly effect, isn't it?
- 5:33You change something in Season 2 and it not, you know, it would
- 5:36change. Yeah, because now I do the rest
- 5:39of McCoy. I never used to, but now I love
- 5:41him and I so I always used to be like, well, what would it have
- 5:43been like if Carmel had scripted it to Con in Baker?
- 5:45But then we lose McCoy and so maybe everything's just good how
- 5:50it is. But the in contrast to 21,
- 5:55there's a lightness and. A sort of a optimism I find in
- 6:00season 19. There is until something
- 6:03happens. I was going to say that and
- 6:06that's, but it's almost as if that's like a palate cleanser to
- 6:12lower you into a full sense of security and then that hears and
- 6:15it's like the biggest knife frost we've had in in some time,
- 6:20yes. And then that knife thrust we
- 6:22are talking about is I would. That's right.
- 6:28Certainly not Matthew Warhouse's departure from the series.
- 6:32Yeah, we'll talk about Adric as we go.
- 6:35What's weird is, well though I find with 19 is it is going back
- 6:39to basics and there there are some complex stories in there,
- 6:43but there are some very simple stories in there as well like
- 6:45this. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 6:47And even though it goes through bid Meade and Anthony Roux and
- 6:51Eric's award, it doesn't feel like it's a design season.
- 6:54And I know it wasn't. In that you've got the three
- 6:57companions. They're also getting to know
- 6:59each other. We've got a bit of history.
- 7:01We've got a sort of weird sideways adventure.
- 7:03With Kinder. It's doing all the things that
- 7:05Doctor Who can do. I feel like.
- 7:08I just feel like Davidson era starts on the right track of of,
- 7:12like, total optimism. The future's going to be Grant.
- 7:17This is a great part of that because it's a weird it's like a
- 7:20little interlude between the most traditional of Doctor Who's
- 7:24stories. And then the probably the most
- 7:27dynamic of classic Doctor Who stories, and certainly the most
- 7:30shocking. And in between that you have
- 7:35this very cute period piece, the first pure historical since.
- 7:39Help me out, Highlanders. A long time.
- 7:44Yeah. So why did you choose this one?
- 7:47It's it's a little bit undervalued, I feel.
- 7:51I think, you know, it's one of these ones where you look at the
- 7:55stories around it and people have a lot more to say about the
- 7:58other stories in in season 19. So you have you have obviously
- 8:04Earth shock, which is the big one that everyone loves, because
- 8:07it's it's Cybermen and it's grim, which directing isn't it?
- 8:14Yeah, it's seawood, you know, doing what people like, say what
- 8:19to do and after it gets blown up at the end.
- 8:21So that's not the big one that people like, you know, got
- 8:23Castro valve at the start, which is another.
- 8:27You know, it's a bit meat story. So you know, a bit meat fan.
- 8:30You've got that one there for you to enjoy.
- 8:31So that gets talked about a lot time Flight obviously gets
- 8:35talked about for the wrong reasons because it's very good.
- 8:41You've got the visitation as well, which has its fans.
- 8:43You know it has its fans. It's 22 episodes too long, to be
- 8:47honest. Or it has its detractors as
- 8:49well, though I think sort of coming out of the woodwork more
- 8:52and more, I think, you know, there's nothing, you know,
- 8:54fundamentally wrong with the visitation, but there's just
- 8:57nothing. There's this things that could
- 8:58have been, could have been a lot more right about it.
- 9:01It's very slight that the location work pops on the
- 9:04Blu-ray, though it's gorgeous. The middle two episodes are just
- 9:08Patrick and Nessa building vibrate.
- 9:12I don't object. There's lots of running around
- 9:14as well, you know. I think you know with a bit of
- 9:17better script than the Visitation.
- 9:20You know if you move this story to London in episode 3.
- 9:26In London, yeah, you've got an absolute classic on your hands
- 9:30there. And Fort the Doomsday is scrappy
- 9:33and you know, it is what it is. It's just a, you know, a product
- 9:39of a production team and cast all finding a way of working
- 9:47together, so. I think we can probably say with
- 9:49some confidence that Terrace Dudley was a lot more
- 9:52comfortable right in this little period piece than he was right
- 9:55in a piece of science fiction. Absolutely.
- 9:58You know, your Kinder, which is, you know, really quite, quite
- 10:01out there. So you know, all these other
- 10:03stories get talked about either, you know, for being really good
- 10:06or really, really bad and black walk.
- 10:08It just kind of gets left in the middle of it, just left to its
- 10:11own devices. But I mean that that's the store
- 10:15in a nutshell though, isn't it? The Doctor and the TARDIS team
- 10:18just got left in the middle of nowhere, left of the own devices
- 10:20and get the crack on and have a bit of fun.
- 10:24There's a phrase that Nathan bosomly coined when we do the
- 10:27Star Trek podcast, and that is hang time.
- 10:30And he loves it when we just hang with the regular characters
- 10:32in a Star Trek show. And this episode one of Black
- 10:36Orchid is the epitome of Doctor Who hangs.
- 10:39We don't do it very often. There's always a plot getting in
- 10:42the way, isn't there? That's a very good phrase.
- 10:44That isn't it. Well, it's a smart cookie.
- 10:46It's very clever that Nathan isn't.
- 10:50The last thing I wanted to just ask you about before we go in is
- 10:54how do you feel about the regular cast minor Sarah Sutton,
- 11:00and how horrid they are about this story?
- 11:04Because Davidson and Fielding rip this story to shreds at any
- 11:09opportunity they possibly can and they genuinely mean it as
- 11:13well. They do it on the behind the
- 11:14sofa. They do it on the commentary.
- 11:17And I do think it's a bit wearying.
- 11:20Yeah. I mean, to be honest, I haven't
- 11:21listened to the commentary. Have I watched the behind the
- 11:26sofa? I'm not entirely sure.
- 11:27But, you know, I mean, we do, you know, me and you were
- 11:30talking about this off make before we start recording.
- 11:34You know, I don't have time for negativity in my life, Joe.
- 11:38You know, I've, I've got a full time job.
- 11:40I work 12 hour shifts. I've got two kids at school.
- 11:44I've got the one with additional leads.
- 11:46I've got two rabbits, three rabbits in me shed.
- 11:48I've got two dogs to look after. You've got two needy best
- 11:51friends. Oh, God, yeah.
- 11:53But, you know, look after them the best I can.
- 11:56And, you know, I don't have time to be sitting and listening and
- 12:01watching people kind of tearing things that I like.
- 12:05It can be fun, but I feel like they tip.
- 12:08They tip the edge too often. It can be.
- 12:11Like we bought this because we find it enjoyable.
- 12:13Exactly. Why are you just ripping it to
- 12:15pieces? I think, I think Janet Fielden
- 12:17and Peter Davison have that sort of relationship together, you
- 12:21know, where they do sort of spark off each other.
- 12:23And, you know, I've met Janet Fielden earlier this year and
- 12:26she's a delight. You know, she was an absolute
- 12:28highlight of me trip to to Leicester and she's just got
- 12:31such a positive energy about her that's really quite infectious.
- 12:35You know if anyone gets the opportunity to meet Janet
- 12:36Fielden, I would take it because it's just it was just a so you
- 12:43know what part of that is is a sort of like I don't know if
- 12:46it's like a death self deprecating sort of things.
- 12:48You put her and Peter Davison together in the both.
- 12:51You know there's there's a lot of that sardonic side in Peter
- 12:53Davison. And you know you see those those
- 12:56wonderful pictures of where he's you know in a convention with
- 12:59his his Soninlaw holding up a sign saying he's not that you
- 13:04know you get that edge you get a sight woman you think you know.
- 13:07Yeah. So if I am going to listen to
- 13:09the the company, if I'm going to watch the and they're going to
- 13:11be ripping into it, then you know how much of it is is
- 13:15genuine and how much of it is just sort.
- 13:17Of putting it on dry, dry wit, really.
- 13:20What's annoying is on the behind the sofa you got Sarah Sutton
- 13:23there who loves his story because finally she's given
- 13:25something to do and she's doing a dual role and she's having fun
- 13:28with it and she likes period pieces and they're basically
- 13:30just sitting there saying, no, you're wrong, this is shit and
- 13:34that's just not fun. That ain't fun.
- 13:37So yeah, it's a it's a very bizarre thing.
- 13:40Whereas Daveson loves the visitation.
- 13:42So I'm like, well, are you as yeah, I mean, I say.
- 13:45Creatively savvy is all suspected.
- 13:48He doesn't go turning the visitation.
- 13:49I really like that. That side of his doctor that is
- 13:51just sort of like, you know, being pushed and he's like just
- 13:56one minute away from, you know, there's an edge to him in there.
- 14:01It's a different type of edge than what you get, so so I like
- 14:04his performance in the visitation.
- 14:06Like I said, just needs a bit of a tweak with the plot.
- 14:10Well, let's go and try and unearth a plot in black hole
- 14:14hit, shall we? Oh, it's that easy.
- 14:16And have some fun on the cricket lawn while we're there.
- 14:23Whose count is it? Oh, you signed.
- 14:24I'll do it. And 5432?
- 14:30One let's go chaps. How's that?
- 14:37There's devil coming out the store field that were all fresh
- 14:40faced. Listen.
- 14:41So delight about this is all these characters that are
- 14:44usually each other's throats. They're so chill.
- 14:47That's why I love Tegan's having a great time.
- 14:49Flirting, dancing, drinking. Yeah, that's because she's got a
- 14:53couple of screwdrivers, isn't it?
- 14:56I'm not saying a word. I'll certainly hope she didn't
- 15:00end up sleeping with that old gitch she's dancing with.
- 15:04Wow, they're not dancing. Man is choking.
- 15:08So there you go. That's right.
- 15:09Death and destruction straight from the start.
- 15:11Hi, Eric. Oh, actually, I'm.
- 15:14Going to start with a complaint, is that right?
- 15:16Oh, go on then. Well, I just feel like the score
- 15:19for this, it needed to ditch. The Radio Phonic workshop and
- 15:22just have the piano score. There's some like scifi music in
- 15:25this and I'm like, no, no, this is a historical, just do
- 15:29instruments, Yeah, I think the, the heavy breathing and the
- 15:33gurglings a bit that goes on is a little bit.
- 15:38Like I said, I'm not saying a word.
- 15:42Who is this sinister man tied up on the bed?
- 15:47Stop it. Oh, I love story set on trains.
- 15:52We missed a bit of a trick here. The TARDIS should have landed on
- 15:55the train. Which one does it do?
- 15:57It's like tests last night, the towers and it went on the train.
- 16:02Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.
- 16:04There's a book 8 is a Wasps. You know where the Doctor fights
- 16:07a WASP man on top of a train? What about power?
- 16:10The Doctor as well, yeah. I love it all, baby.
- 16:14Oh, look, that's Tegan. Just change your mind.
- 16:15She wants to stay with them now. She doesn't want to go back to.
- 16:18I did say Fraser, I wanted to stay with the crew for a while.
- 16:25They do feel very relaxed with each other.
- 16:26Now this is, this is the result of having done five or six
- 16:29stories together. But I just like, like, it's
- 16:34almost like Dudley is responding to his treatment of Tegan in
- 16:37fourth doomsday, where she's so abrasive, it's somewhere
- 16:40ridiculous. And here he just writes her like
- 16:43a person. They're all written as as people
- 16:48in this. I mean I'd Rick is is you know
- 16:51probably more insufferable in Fort of Doomsdale in anyone
- 16:54else? Could you pass the Sergeant
- 16:56chloride please It's you know it's you know maybe maybe he's
- 17:02with Anita. Thanks Eric.
- 17:03Say with a little bit, then for. Toning it down a bit yeah.
- 17:06Or killing off. Well, for maybe he's you know
- 17:09smoothing out some of the dialogue in in this and you know
- 17:13not making you know smoothing those characters out and making
- 17:17them a bit more likeable rather than what would what had gone
- 17:19before. You know what's a joy is how
- 17:22we're suddenly remembering these alien characters on Earth so
- 17:25they don't understand anything. And this goes what a very silly
- 17:30activity. Or when they're watching the
- 17:32cricket, they look at it, you know, absolutely bewildered.
- 17:36But you know the doctor with these hats and he's oh, I want
- 17:39always wanted to drive a train as it was when I was a boy.
- 17:43And the cheek of this line in a minute about the Master.
- 17:47You are the Master, aren't you? Oh, look, J and T's finally got
- 17:54his wish. And the Tegan is catching on
- 17:55that fabulous haircut that she's got.
- 17:57The Do you know what? How refreshing is it for
- 18:01Sarasota? This.
- 18:03This too far. I mean it's it's, it's one of
- 18:07the cute things about the season is because no one knows what to
- 18:09do with with the characters and it's, I mean, it is the fault of
- 18:15the producer, John Nathan Tuna, because he has.
- 18:16Actually he has just went. No, we haven't, Tegan.
- 18:20No we haven't this, no we haven't.
- 18:21Everyone and I drink and. Oh no, Is that.
- 18:25Didn't he say he didn't quite trust the transition, So he
- 18:27wanted like a team to help smooth that over.
- 18:30I put the team brand new. You know, it's not like if it
- 18:33was Romano and K9 and Adric and yeah, and, you know, you could
- 18:37understand that. But he's essentially right.
- 18:38I'm bringing in a new team to bringing a new companion in the
- 18:42regeneration story and I'm bringing back, you know, your
- 18:46other companion is someone that was just in the one before that
- 18:48you didn't think was going to be a companion but is now after two
- 18:50episodes, it's. Like, they are utterly disparate
- 18:54characters. They belong in completely
- 18:56different shows. And yet somehow come this story,
- 19:00I'm totally on board with the regulars.
- 19:02Yeah. And it's it's the current as
- 19:05that GNT once you know he wants the the child genius you know he
- 19:10was places It's funny because he kind of like replaces K9 with
- 19:14Adric you know. But you know Adric doesn't work
- 19:19so he gets rid of him and he replaces him with Turlo.
- 19:22Yeah. Another ball genius really.
- 19:25You know you've got Nissa who gets replaced for you know
- 19:27eventually is you know Nissan, Adric are sort of merged in the
- 19:30turtle. You've got that that character
- 19:34who is the the alien child genius.
- 19:38Replacing a dark haired bloke with a redhead?
- 19:41Yeah, I can't see that catching on somehow.
- 19:43Do you know it's a private joke between me and Fraser?
- 19:48No one else will get. That all depends on the redhead,
- 19:51to be honest. As long as he's got a beer and a
- 19:54podcast called Too Much, you were fine, Smutty said.
- 19:59He'd send a useful, but Michael Cochran is giving a great
- 20:02performance in this. I mean, I don't think it's
- 20:04challenging for him to sort of rise up to this upper class
- 20:08toff, but it is great. But it's, I mean, what I like
- 20:12is, you know, the, the went out from the start and the doctor is
- 20:15a cricketer, you know, Castro of Oliver, he spots the cricket
- 20:19changing room, spots the bat, you know, he's dressed as a
- 20:22cricketer throughout his entire time, you know.
- 20:26So yeah, make him, let him play cricket.
- 20:29Actually let him, you know, give him a match.
- 20:31And of course, he's the best man there.
- 20:35Look here, in fact, I always say that Davidson is not a very
- 20:38commanding Dr. This might be the most commanding he ever is.
- 20:42He's a first class bat and a demon bowler apparently, as
- 20:47well. Davidson's so happy.
- 20:48The one nice thing he says in the commentary is the bit where
- 20:52he how do you say it gets something, You know, when he
- 20:55gets the ball, the ball into the wicket, he strucks him out or
- 20:59whatever it is that was. That would thank you.
- 21:01Oh my God, I'm so gay That that was genuine.
- 21:06That like you can see it's genuine because the camera
- 21:08swings around, but he's so happy that he actually got somebody
- 21:11out. Oh God, Barbara Murray as well.
- 21:17Lady Cranley. What a bitch.
- 21:19Worcestersha Fraser, you must be a Worcestersha frickery.
- 21:25Worcestersha sauce maybes, but not Oh no, The hunt isn't good
- 21:28enough, I believe. Oh, I love all this stuff.
- 21:33She ain't got a clue. Look at yourself.
- 21:34She ain't got a clue what she's talking about.
- 21:37Yeah, no one's actually, like, stopping us here, by the way.
- 21:40You look just like his missus. You know when me, you and Sy met
- 21:45for the first time, 3P's in a pod?
- 21:49Positively, 3P's in a pod. Do you like hang time then?
- 21:57Yeah, absolutely. You know, because that that's
- 22:00the beauty of the story is you know there's a there's not, you
- 22:06know, earth shattering invasion. You know, the timeline's not
- 22:10getting messed up or anything. You know, there's the only
- 22:13danger is to a couple of toffs in the house basically.
- 22:16You know, if that just lets the the the cast, that's the
- 22:23characters just enjoy themselves.
- 22:26And you say there's there's a lot of kind of bitter in this is
- 22:30someone posted a screenshot of the Terminus Hi sy info text
- 22:37from the the recent box set. You know, when he says you know
- 22:40Eric Saywood's idea of Padden was just to get, you know, two
- 22:43regular cast members to argue about something inconsequential.
- 22:47So there's a lot of that that goes on, but you know, so it's
- 22:50just so refreshing to actually see everyone enjoying themselves
- 22:54because everyone gets. It's a bit of time.
- 22:56It's sure leave, isn't it? The wall.
- 22:58Shore leave. Yeah, quiet.
- 23:00One of them didn't die. There's so much jeopardy in this
- 23:05era, sometimes false jeopardy. But there's so much like it's we
- 23:08always skip from one set piece to another in the Davidson era
- 23:11of you know, he's going to have his head cut off or something
- 23:14like that. There's just no time for this to
- 23:17to just chill out and have a breather.
- 23:20And I think maybe they should have done this once a year.
- 23:26Drink. Yeah, I would have liked to say
- 23:28a bit more of it. I don't.
- 23:29I don't think maybe stick the whole episode, but the whole
- 23:32story of them just chilling maybes, you know, just more, you
- 23:37know rather than you know, padding with arguments.
- 23:40Why not pad? If you need a pad, why don't you
- 23:42pad with them having a lovely time.
- 23:43Take Five Doctors for example. The start of the Five Doctors
- 23:48where what are Turtle? Tegan and the Doctor do with the
- 23:53eye of Horizon? You know I have Ryan.
- 23:58The horizon of the eye of Ryan, you know, chilling out.
- 24:01So there's room in just annual stores.
- 24:04Maybe there's more of that than I think if I go looking.
- 24:07Oh yeah, they pop off to Lanzarote, didn't they, in
- 24:11Planet of Fire. Yeah, yeah, sit in a cafe and
- 24:15have a drink. Yeah, so the the more of that
- 24:19rather than just you know, squabbling over where where
- 24:23we've landed or. Maybe we haven't landed or
- 24:27something like that would would hold yourself a Time Lord
- 24:30Fraser. A broken book.
- 24:31It's time. Better than you.
- 24:33I won't do the whole thing but yeah I get.
- 24:35I get the idea. But I also like small scale
- 24:38stories as well. I like it when like you said,
- 24:41the only thing that really is in danger is this small family.
- 24:44It's the same reason I like something like Androids and
- 24:46Tara. It feels sort of small scale.
- 24:48It's not a universe destroying for it and that's the same
- 24:51reason I like something like Unicorn and the Wasp because
- 24:54it's just that group of characters that are in.
- 24:56So yeah, I like that. So.
- 24:59With the alien menace, it's it's a bit more like Unicorn.
- 25:01The wasp is like if the Waspy creature thing gets out, it's
- 25:04going to. This feels very Unicorn, the
- 25:06wasp to me. Do you know look at Barbara
- 25:09Murray and then look at Felicity Kendall I.
- 25:12Got that, Christie? Isn't it?
- 25:14It's but it's appeared that the BBC does very well.
- 25:18You know, I, I TV probably do it better nowadays.
- 25:22Now they've got Downtown Abbey. Well, tell me if I'm mad, right?
- 25:26But something, thank you. Something about Season 19.
- 25:30The sets feel vast. This house feels enormous.
- 25:35The sets in four to Doomsday feel massive, and they're in no
- 25:38bigger studio than the sets in Season 20 and season 18.
- 25:43I just feel like there's a designer in there somewhere
- 25:46that's really capitalizing on the space that they've got.
- 25:50Absolutely. I mean cast of Vulva.
- 25:53As well you know, Formula Doomsday, they've got levels.
- 25:56You know, you've got characters going up and down stairs.
- 25:59You know what it is. I think it's JNC.
- 26:01Before the complacency kicked in, you think that he was
- 26:04determined that the show is going to look as good as
- 26:07possible. Yeah, I think maybe come time
- 26:08flight is like. I think it's it's probably a
- 26:13little bit. I mean jnt gets.
- 26:20It's kind of Lord doesn't he for being the man that could get the
- 26:23most value for money. So he could get you could
- 26:26squeeze his budget and he could rinse an extra you know bit here
- 26:29and a bit there out of it to and put it all on the screen.
- 26:32But it kind of falls down when you kind of think he's he's
- 26:35management. His budget management is clearly
- 26:37not not the best when you do get the time flight.
- 26:39And it's certain stories, isn't it?
- 26:42He can find money for certain stories, but then the the the
- 26:44purse is empty. Yeah, yeah, You know, it's it's
- 26:47the kind of thing that's that Graham Williams gets.
- 26:51You know, pulled up on, you know, the start of his.
- 26:54He didn't have a purse. No.
- 26:56Well, he did. It was just it's got smaller and
- 26:58smaller as the months went on. You could have some black drapes
- 27:01and that's it. Can I ask you about the the
- 27:05exposition that was just dumped there, quite subtly awful.
- 27:08But I want to see what you think where they're talking about the
- 27:11Black Hole kid, about the brother, and about how he was
- 27:14engaged to an it feels like just sort of natural conversation.
- 27:17It does, and I think no one. You know, The funny thing is
- 27:21that no one actually stops to question it and go hang on, hang
- 27:24on. It's not a bit weird.
- 27:27It's your brother's fiance. Is now your fiance?
- 27:33OK, that's that's how the upper classes rule.
- 27:36It means we've gone off 2, technically, we've got two sort
- 27:38of Michael Cochran's, and we've got 2 Sarah Suttons in this
- 27:41story, don't we? And we've got Davis and bending
- 27:44down to look into a mirror where you come with that.
- 27:49Does that in Castro. Volvo as well.
- 27:51Thank God for that. Jesus Christ, Davis is very
- 27:57pretty. You know I love this I.
- 27:59Just look in the mirror. Is that dancing, Fraser?
- 28:08Where I come from, it's much more formalized.
- 28:11Joe, I've had a ripping idea. What's that?
- 28:14Me and you should dress as butterflies together.
- 28:17I'm there for it now. Nobody, but nobody will be able
- 28:22to tell us a time to. I've never noticed that made
- 28:27before. You can still notice new things.
- 28:32Tegan is having a Tegan. Sorry, Tegan is having a grand
- 28:35old time in this story. Look at her, smiling her red
- 28:37off. Well, she's got out that bloody
- 28:39uniform and she's had it on for. Hang on, because Mark worked
- 28:43this out and it's like 2 weeks in the timeline of Tegan this
- 28:46whole series, so she's had it on for about whether she's like a
- 28:49week in a hall, she must Hulk. Wasn't she?
- 28:51I mean, she's had a bath, She's had a cocktail, actually,
- 28:54Fraser, what do you do with a cocktail in a bath?
- 28:56How do you drink it? Of course.
- 29:04Right. Sorry.
- 29:08Would you keep cutting back to the sinister man, though?
- 29:10So just his legs going about the house.
- 29:16Yeah, I do want to talk to you about that actually, in episode
- 29:182, because I know somebody you, we have a mutual friend who this
- 29:22is his least favorite Doctor Who story because of a certain
- 29:27representation that's going on here.
- 29:28So we'll address that in Part 2. There's too much fun in Part 1
- 29:31to get too serious. Yeah, Davidson's got his kid off
- 29:34now. He's a dressing gown.
- 29:36The Doctor is in a dressing gown.
- 29:39The only other time I can remember that happening is the
- 29:43Christmas Invasion. Yeah, maybe we did put we wear a
- 29:47dressing gown once. Oh yeah, you did.
- 29:50We had a shower. Oh, that's right.
- 29:52Yeah, you always see his ass in that story.
- 29:55Put we had a shower, Capaldi put his nightie on, didn't he?
- 30:02In deep breath. Look at that side of salmon,
- 30:04Fraser. It's a good spring.
- 30:08I know, I know. This cuts between the very windy
- 30:12day and the very sunny day that they had.
- 30:15Oh, I think it's the morning in the afternoon.
- 30:17The weather's atrocious, isn't it?
- 30:19It does look cold. Look.
- 30:22Even our drinks managed to get out of these jammies, but he's
- 30:25still got his badge pinned to his new tunic.
- 30:29I think Sarah Sutton looks beautiful in that busfly
- 30:31costume. Yeah, both of her.
- 30:35It actually. It irritates me a little bit
- 30:37because I know from the Big Finish audios that Sarah Sutton
- 30:40had a huge amount to offer as an actress and I think they tapped
- 30:44into it maybe 15% of what she had to offer.
- 30:48Well, this is, this is the problem.
- 30:50You know, she's coming in, you know, as a last minute edition.
- 30:54Obviously she's she's written out of kinder because they
- 30:58couldn't figure out the way right now in in time.
- 31:01So she's literally. You know, put to sleep.
- 31:04Not like a pet, but put to sleep in in kinder.
- 31:07This is missing from there. She just there's not enough room
- 31:11for her Earth shock. She gets bumped in the TARDIS
- 31:15and she with lines like, I want things to settle down before we
- 31:19go out. That's taken care of her for
- 31:21another 10 minutes. You know she and it's only a
- 31:25couple of couple of stories in the season 20 before she's off.
- 31:31Often our jolly's in Terminus, but you know, I'm going to say
- 31:33something crazy because Anne is such a fun character because
- 31:37she's so hysterical. She's the opposite of Nissa.
- 31:39And this is so sort of unemotional and and sort of
- 31:43subtle and Anne is melodramatic. And I have to know if I wouldn't
- 31:48have minded, you know, if it had been Anne instead of Nissa.
- 31:51So Sarah Sutton could have just gone to town.
- 31:53Oh, a ghastly frog in, you know, in 4th of.
- 31:56Tuesday and stuff like this. The Victoria of the Davis in
- 32:01here? I wouldn't you.
- 32:01Have you ever heard the Peter Lou massacre, the Big Finish
- 32:04story? So that's it's a bit like the
- 32:06mass, the massacre. There's a huge massacre.
- 32:08She's got very close to a woman who is pregnant and that woman
- 32:14dies in the massacre. And one of the cliffhangers is
- 32:16Sarah Sutton expressing to the person who started the massacre
- 32:20that that woman has died and she's lost her baby.
- 32:23It's so powerful. And I'm like we could have, I've
- 32:27been utilizing this, you know? Yeah, but you, you get what kind
- 32:32of playing, You know, talk to him.
- 32:33What if you'd have to realistically get rid of
- 32:36someone? And fair enough, it probably
- 32:39would be Adric. Because let's be honest, what
- 32:42does Adric bring into the story? Oh, nothing at all.
- 32:45I mean, it's cute, it's a button and it's sort of pirate costume,
- 32:48but nothing at all. Now he has about 10 lines in the
- 32:51whole thing. Half of them are about the
- 32:53buffet. I mean, I get it.
- 32:56I do get it. I love a buffet.
- 32:57I do love a buffet, and that is a good buffet.
- 33:00Now can you tell me what those lips are all about?
- 33:02You know that thing and then fellow's mouth.
- 33:04It's. It's something to do with.
- 33:07It's tribal, isn't it? Yeah.
- 33:08South of the moment in tribal. I'd love to learn.
- 33:11Can someone ask us please and tell us?
- 33:14Educate us please. I shall Google in the break and
- 33:17see if we can find that out. And the trouble is Paul Peter
- 33:20Davison's house just running around the corridors going, oh
- 33:23why do I let my curiosity get the better of me?
- 33:26But we kind of need all this to show how the fella is going from
- 33:31place to place, murdering people to Nick in the costumes.
- 33:37I actually think it's that quite a neat bit of writing this.
- 33:41I mean it's it's, it's the perfect length, you know?
- 33:43Couldn't be any longer than two. I mean, there's a few moments in
- 33:48two where I think logic goes out the window and we'll get there.
- 33:51But I mean, I don't think Logic's ever been in the window
- 33:54in the story to be honest. But that's the upper classes for
- 33:56you or in this series. I don't mean this season, I mean
- 34:00the series. Oh, I do love a country house.
- 34:04So you know, this is a Doctor Who's staple, isn't it?
- 34:06Like star Groves in image of the Fendal and Pyramus and Mars.
- 34:12We love a country manner. Here she goes.
- 34:16Ba ba ba ba. She's not bad, is she?
- 34:21She's quite light on her feet. Oh, it's so nice to see Janet
- 34:27Field and having fun. Isn't it though?
- 34:31Yeah, I watched King Stevens the other day as I'm working my way
- 34:33through the Blu-ray set. Chameleon comes in as hard as
- 34:35this fabulous robot and she just goes, oh, you can have my room
- 34:39for all our care. Why are you having fun?
- 34:42He's a big robot who walks. He doesn't need a roomie that
- 34:45just put me in the cupboard. He just sort of plugs himself in
- 34:48the wall, didn't. He cupboard with the Hoover.
- 34:52No, I'm bored. He can go in there, but again,
- 34:54in what if territory, They write Tegan with so much humor in the
- 34:58Big Finish stories. And I'll tell you what, Fraser,
- 35:01she's the best of the bunch. She's so fun.
- 35:04I mean, she's the best of the bunch on the telly as well, you
- 35:07know? In my opinion, you know, we're
- 35:09kind of talk about this when we're covered more than undead.
- 35:12And you know, Tegan brings something to the dynamic of the
- 35:17team. That's Adric, Nissan, Tirlo,
- 35:19don't, because you know, if you take Nissan out or you're left
- 35:26with Nissan, Adric, you know, space kids, you know, geniuses
- 35:29know what they're doing. You know, bringing Taylor as
- 35:32well, another space kid, another you know, knows how to fly the
- 35:34Tardis, all this sort of jazz. You know, where there's there's
- 35:38no one to kind of you know, for us to relate to from that to
- 35:46vend their frustration. So I do think they they take us
- 35:49too far a lot of the time. But again, you kind of need that
- 35:52because otherwise it is, it is, It goes very Star Trekkie of,
- 35:56you know, when she's really hysterical.
- 35:58I just go, I just shout the scream, oh, shut up, You know,
- 36:01if you don't enjoy it, go home. I was.
- 36:04Just trying to yeah. That's true.
- 36:08When she eventually does go home, she goes, I'm not having
- 36:11fun anymore. I'm leaving.
- 36:13Yeah, I think, I think you need that dynamic.
- 36:17You need someone to kind of, you know, have the old proposed view
- 36:20of actually this this isn't, you know, this isn't normal, this
- 36:23isn't right, this isn't good and kind of push back it.
- 36:27But you know, when Teegan goes and it's Nissar in Arkham
- 36:30Infinity, she is pushing back. She goes, no, Doctor, you're
- 36:33going to do all these repairs to the TARDIS.
- 36:35You've been putting this off long enough.
- 36:36And then she has some great moments in snake dance, you
- 36:39know, when they're trying to help her down from the rocks and
- 36:41she's like, thank you, that wasn't necessary and all it.
- 36:44So I think they could have done it with this.
- 36:46They just chose not to. I do think Sarah's a better
- 36:49actress, though. I think she's more accomplished.
- 36:55I'm going to argue too badly with that, but.
- 36:57Like I said, I was, you know, dynamically wise I would if you
- 37:00said you've got to lose one of these three and it wouldn't be
- 37:04Tegan, Tegan be the one. Well they did talk about this, I
- 37:08didn't they they chose Andrew, but it was going to be one of
- 37:11those two. So they're in shock with you,
- 37:12the production team at the time? The obvious choice because you
- 37:17know there's there's very few if any stories where I'd Rick
- 37:22actually gets used properly. Look how big that's it.
- 37:25Look, So Lucky got on about it. It feels like they're in a
- 37:28house. They're in Studio One of BBC
- 37:30Television Center. It feels like they're in a
- 37:32house. Oh, do you know what?
- 37:34There's something about that mask, that twisted parody of the
- 37:37human face, that really scares me.
- 37:42Masks must spook you to start with, and that's Fraser.
- 37:48Let me go, whoever you are. Oh, this poor fellow who comes
- 37:55in watch gets strangled. It's not supposed to be funny.
- 38:01It's very funny when she Oh yeah, look, oh.
- 38:06Flashing a bit of chest there. I think this is a great
- 38:09cliffhanger though, the the hands going for her throat.
- 38:12What we don't realize is, is this is her exfiance and he
- 38:17doesn't want to kill her, he just wants to pick her up.
- 38:20Well, it's not really a cheat then, is it?
- 38:24Well, it is because you know, at this point we don't know that.
- 38:28You know we don't, we don't know who who the man in the mask is,
- 38:32You know, we know it's not the Doctor because we've seen the
- 38:35Doctor and he's in his jam. He's walking around the house.
- 38:39We know it's not him, even though everyone else thinks it
- 38:42is so. But we don't know who it is at
- 38:43this point. We don't, you know, it's just
- 38:45some some man with heavy breathing that's been tied up in
- 38:50a bedroom buying Amazon. Importantly is we don't know if
- 38:53that's Ann or Nissa. Yes.
- 38:56Well, I mean, we assume, yeah, No, Nissa wouldn't be faking all
- 38:59over the place like that. Exactly.
- 39:01Exactly. You've got a kind of thing
- 39:03that's that's going to be because Nissa wouldn't.
- 39:07Nissa's a space bitch, according to Josh Schneez.
- 39:09Going around with a gun. You know so much for your
- 39:12justice and all of this. She certainly wouldn't be a a
- 39:15wilting flower in this, in this sort of position.
- 39:19That was delightful. It was good fun, wasn't it?
- 39:21It was like you say it's just hang time, just chilling with
- 39:25the crew. It's like a small What is it you
- 39:27have before you start a meal? What's that little appetizer?
- 39:31Moose Boosh, isn't it? You could have Moose Marbouche
- 39:35any day. I'm sorry.
- 39:36It's because you haven't done it yet.
- 39:41Sorry, sorry but no as like a starter before the main course
- 39:48the Azar shock. Unfortunately, the dessert is
- 39:51time flight and it's not very sweet.
- 39:55Should we skip dessert? Yeah, let's go straight to the
- 39:59coffee.