Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Jim Allenby about his choice of Can You Hear Me?
Transcript
- 0:33Hamster with a blunt. Pen knife for doing.
- 0:35Quicker, Quicker. Welcome back to a Hamster with a
- 0:43Blunt pen Knife, the Doctor Who Commentary Podcast.
- 0:47I'm here today with Joe and he's here with me as well.
- 0:53How? How are you today, Joe?
- 0:57I don't know. I just a guy who happened to log
- 1:01in on your. Podcast.
- 1:04We don't know who that man was at the beginning of that
- 1:06episode, but he had a really sexy voice.
- 1:10Celebrity haven't detached any fingers today.
- 1:15No. Oh dear.
- 1:17Do you know what? Right?
- 1:18Imagine waking up in the middle of the night and seeing Ian
- 1:20Gelder at the end of your bed in the half dark.
- 1:25Absolutely terrifying. Fingers are a bit comical.
- 1:32Just his face is enough to scare me.
- 1:35Yeah, he's terrifying. He's absolutely terrifying.
- 1:39And he was terrifying in Torchwood as well when he was in
- 1:42that. Who was he in?
- 1:43Torchwood? Mr. What's his name?
- 1:47Mr. Decker? Was it Mr. Decker?
- 1:49Oh, in Children of Earth, Yeah. Children of Earth, yeah.
- 1:52He was in, yeah. He had that sort of smile on his
- 1:54face when terrible things were happening.
- 1:57Yeah, I haven't watched children there for a long time actually
- 2:02need to kind of one of those things that you need to saver, I
- 2:06think, but not want to Overwatch.
- 2:09The end of torture? Because I couldn't imagine them
- 2:11going to a darker place than Jack murdering his own grandson
- 2:14to save today. No, that show is sick on another
- 2:18level. So what are we?
- 2:21What are we talking about today? Today we are talking about the,
- 2:26and I can confirm this due to the Twitter explosion, that
- 2:29we've had a very divisive episode of Jodie Whittaker's
- 2:33second season. Can you hear me?
- 2:37Can you hear me? We should have maybe called this
- 2:40episode a hamster with a divisive pen knife.
- 2:42Yeah. Well, but it seems to be like
- 2:47there seems to be a kind of positive sway towards the
- 2:49episode as a whole, and a very divisive opinion on one of the
- 2:55final scenes. Yeah.
- 2:58And I Wait, we'll get there. Yeah, we will and I do.
- 3:01I do wonder if if that divisive scene at the end of it sometimes
- 3:08overshadows what a fantastic story that we do have leading up
- 3:14to up to that point. Because, you know, looking
- 3:19through the Twitter comments and questions, which we'll get to
- 3:24later on and we will get to them.
- 3:28There is very little. There is a little discussed
- 3:32about what takes place during the episode, but there's a lot
- 3:38about what takes place at the end of the episode.
- 3:41And it's a shame because, I mean, it's great, but it's a
- 3:44shame because it feels like a lot of it's got lost.
- 3:49There's not a lot of discussion over that.
- 3:52What do you know what? I think in the first season,
- 3:55Jody, which is first season, yeah, there wasn't a lot of
- 3:58this. There wasn't a lot of debate.
- 4:00And I think Chibber's is more savvy than people.
- 4:03Give him credit. I think he knew this, this final
- 4:06scene was going to be divisive and suddenly people were talking
- 4:10about the show in the positive and the negative and the issues
- 4:15that the episode brings up in a very passionate way.
- 4:18I can confirm that's annoying. Had a very passionate debate
- 4:23with somebody and it kind of Harkins back to some of the
- 4:29stuff that was going on in the Stephen Moffett era where there
- 4:31was just debate all the time because he was doing quite
- 4:33radical things with the show and experimental things with the
- 4:36show and people were talking on. I don't think that's healthy.
- 4:40It is healthy. It is healthy.
- 4:42I think. I think people need to have a an
- 4:45open, healthy debate about things.
- 4:47And I think people need to respect people's opinions.
- 4:53And I'm pleased to say I'm the sort of person, I hope I'm the
- 4:58sort of person who can listen to other people and who can take on
- 5:03board their argument without dismissing it or insulting.
- 5:11Yeah, it's kind of like, you know, I would, I was thinking
- 5:14about this before we before we started.
- 5:16And it's like sometimes being a Doctor Who fan is being a fan of
- 5:21ice creams or desserts or something like that.
- 5:23It's like I prefer mint ice cream to strawberry ice cream,
- 5:26but it doesn't mean I'm going to go and attack the person who's
- 5:29buying a strawberry ice cream. You know, I'm.
- 5:31And there is no right or wrong in that debate as well.
- 5:34It's so subjective. Like you cannot definitively say
- 5:37mint chop chick ice cream is the best ice cream just because
- 5:40that's the one that you like. But there does seem to be a
- 5:43certain corner of fandom that think because that's their
- 5:46opinion. It is the opinion.
- 5:47Yeah. And it's not.
- 5:49There's so many I I can't. I I used to.
- 5:53I used to go to a a scifi shop in my town and this, this the
- 5:59guy who owns it is a nice guy. But he used to say to me he was
- 6:04a massive fan of Doctor Who from the 70s.
- 6:08He grew up watching. I think probably season 17 was
- 6:11his first season and he got into the 80s stuff and he loved it
- 6:18when he was a huge fan and when RTD brought it back, he just
- 6:23hated it. He hated it.
- 6:25And with each different. Doctor, no, don't like it.
- 6:27It's not Doctor Who, it's not Doctor Who, this isn't Doctor
- 6:30Who. This isn't Doctor Who.
- 6:31And I would say to him, but Doctor Who, the whole one of the
- 6:36wonderful things about the series is that it changes
- 6:38constantly. It will always have that feeling
- 6:42of Doctor Who in it, but it doesn't always have to be the
- 6:44same because if it was always the same, it would be so dull,
- 6:49you know? I mean I the the Sylvester McCoy
- 6:51era is nothing like the Hartnell era.
- 6:54The Pertry era is nothing like the Colin Baker era.
- 6:58It changes all the time. And to just suddenly dismiss, to
- 7:03dismiss it because it doesn't feel like what you grew up with
- 7:08is just so narrow minded I think.
- 7:11But the sort of the big difference there is that's fair
- 7:14enough to have that opinion? Absolutely, yeah.
- 7:17But that doesn't mean it's not Doctor Who.
- 7:19Just because it's not Doctor Who for you, For you is the
- 7:23important thing there. Yeah, exactly.
- 7:26Exactly. Do you know what else is really
- 7:28healthy? What's that?
- 7:31Talking about mental health? Yes.
- 7:34And I think both this and Vincent and the Doctor less so.
- 7:41Because I think that's a more popular episode, but they do
- 7:45come in for a bit of criticism for bringing these sort of, I'm
- 7:49going to say in inverted commas, woke issues into into the show.
- 7:56I'm somebody that struggled with my mental health for many, many
- 8:00years and I have really good periods and I have really bad
- 8:03periods and I've learned how to handle my mental health
- 8:05extremely well, but in my worst periods.
- 8:10It was pretty bad. I'm talking about this stuff
- 8:14really, really helps. And I think any episode of
- 8:17Doctor Who that is encouraging people to talk about mental
- 8:22health is doing something massively positive.
- 8:26Absolutely. It isn't, you know?
- 8:28And I think more people need to know that it's okay to talk
- 8:32about it. You know, I suffered with my,
- 8:35with my mental health, you know, it was a couple of years ago now
- 8:40and I got myself into such a place where I just couldn't.
- 8:45I just felt like I couldn't talk to anybody anymore.
- 8:48I felt like I was lost and and then I realized that there
- 8:53would, I could talk to people and there were people out there
- 8:55that I that I could talk to. And you know you I think this
- 9:03whole kind of the thing that you hear people you know saying all
- 9:07you know people people being called snowflakes and things
- 9:10like that because they because they're because they're the
- 9:14because of the mental health. I don't think that's you know
- 9:17that's not fair on people because people need to talk and
- 9:22I don't think there's anything wrong with with being able to
- 9:25talk about things. I don't I've never understood
- 9:28that kind of stiff up a lip kind of attitude that you have to
- 9:32have. You know it's.
- 9:34I do wonder if we're a couple of generations away from that not
- 9:36being a problem anymore. You know, I think there'll
- 9:39always be people that, you know, think you're a bit of a wimp for
- 9:44having your heart on your sleeve.
- 9:46But I think I think in the future that would be less.
- 9:48And in this episode in particular, they take such a
- 9:51clever approach to mental health because there's three separate
- 9:54storylines. There's Yaz and her past with
- 9:57depression, and I think there's a strong suggestion that she's
- 10:01suicidal. Then you've got Ryan's friend
- 10:06who is extremely depressed and insular and has cut himself off
- 10:09from everybody. And then you've got Graham who's
- 10:12dealt with something massive in his life and has huge sort of
- 10:16worries that that may reoccur. And I think as you sort of watch
- 10:21this episode you could potentially be any one of those
- 10:25three and and any one of those 3 is that is sort of you're in to
- 10:28this episode. I don't think so.
- 10:31And you know I've I've Ryan's friend Thibo he's I didn't quite
- 10:37get to that extreme point because I have people around me
- 10:41who didn't allow me to get to that point.
- 10:43You know people who eventually realized that you know that they
- 10:47could help me. So I never got myself to that,
- 10:50to that stage. But you can see it.
- 10:52You can see is that I see myself in him of of what I potentially
- 10:57could have become if I hadn't opened up.
- 11:00And you know, I think I said to you last night when we were
- 11:03messaging that, you know, I actually had a tear in my eye
- 11:05when I was watching that, that that scene.
- 11:08Because it just reminded me of the the the very black hole that
- 11:13I was. I had inside me at the time
- 11:18because I, you know, because I I didn't want to talk about it.
- 11:21I just felt I could carry on, carry on and.
- 11:25Yeah, the storyline that moved me the most and the 1:00 I could
- 11:29relate to was Yassis. That's not because of, well,
- 11:32actually during my doctors, I did head up to the I live on the
- 11:35South Downs and I did head up to the hills.
- 11:37Not to commit suicide, I would add, but just because it was
- 11:42sort of an open space to think. But I had somebody who in my
- 11:46life was extremely kind to me when I was in that dark place,
- 11:50and who was so kind and funny and patient and listened.
- 11:56And would just listen to me and I would ball into tears and and
- 12:01just advise me and and just sort of be normal with me when I was
- 12:05in the dark place and I got the chance.
- 12:08Just like Yaz does when she gives her the 50 P to go to that
- 12:11person when I felt better and thank them for it.
- 12:14And I think that's a really responsible approach as well.
- 12:20You you're basically saying you can go through stuff and still
- 12:23have worries. You can go through stuff and
- 12:26feel better and you can have ongoing mental health issues.
- 12:31It it actually tackles all three of those things it does because
- 12:34you know it doesn't go away. You know I think when I had my
- 12:40issues and and you know I I won't go into too much detail
- 12:43about it all. But when I, you know when I had
- 12:45my issues I I was like I I went to see a counselor for six
- 12:51weeks. I think it was a council for six
- 12:52weeks and you kind of you just think I'm fine now.
- 12:56So what I did is I stopped using the building blocks that I'd put
- 13:00into place to help me because I thought I'm all right now and
- 13:05that wasn't the case and and you know to this day I have to I
- 13:10still slip back sometimes and you have to put you have to kind
- 13:13of build yourself back up again and and go back to those those
- 13:17building blocks that you were taught to to to use.
- 13:21And because it doesn't it it doesn't go away.
- 13:23And I think it's also it's important that you know this
- 13:26this story also like you say it doesn't doesn't tell you that
- 13:30everything's magically better. You know it leaves you with you
- 13:36know things are not things that things are not always going to
- 13:39be better. There's no click of the fingers
- 13:42and things things are perfect. It doesn't.
- 13:44That's, you know, that's not how life works.
- 13:46Because Graham's oh, I'm Sort of better now is probably going off
- 13:50in the TARDIS and having these wonderful adventures.
- 13:53And this just goes to show even that's not enough to keep the
- 13:56fears away. Yeah.
- 13:58Yeah. And it's actually it's it's
- 14:00really interesting because it's, you know you've got Ryan who's
- 14:04kind of at the end of the episode saying, you know we're
- 14:08we're we're moving on and we're not with we know we're leaving
- 14:11our lives behind and and that kind of starts feeding into him
- 14:15eventually leaving. Whereas you've got Yaz who's
- 14:20quite excited. It's the it's the excitement of
- 14:24the adventure that you know she realizes she's found herself
- 14:28this this exciting life. So for you know those characters
- 14:32are going in totally opposite directions by by the end of this
- 14:35episode. What's interesting with Yazis is
- 14:38come revolution of the Daleks. She's in a dark place again.
- 14:42She's lost the Doctor and she's obsessed with getting her back
- 14:45and getting back to that lifestyle to the point where
- 14:47she's totally withdrawn to that TARDIS And what's brought up
- 14:51there and what's brought up here makes me wonder as he post Power
- 14:54of the Doctor. Where she's had to leave that
- 14:56life behind is she can have another moment again.
- 14:59Maybe it looks like she's got all that support of the other
- 15:02companions, but if she has got sort of an aptitude for this
- 15:06sort of mental state, then then maybe she's got tricky times
- 15:09ahead. Yeah, it's an interesting, it's
- 15:12an interesting idea, and I do hope we revisit YAZ one day in
- 15:16the future. I think anybody that says that
- 15:19these regulars aren't defined and are developed within this
- 15:23episode, they're watching us like very different for me,
- 15:26yeah, they are. They are.
- 15:28This is like this is the most developed of the companions I
- 15:33think I've ever, I've ever seen. You know, it's you know, they
- 15:38might not be my favorite companions, but they are
- 15:42definitely the most developed companions that I've ever seen.
- 15:45Well, I want to say something about how subtly done it all is
- 15:50as well. I've often made this comparison
- 15:52that the characterization in the sort of series one to 10 can be
- 15:58very heightened and a bit hysterical.
- 16:01And we love it because it's hugely melodramatic, you know,
- 16:04together or not at all, you know, don't know how many
- 16:08memories ripped away from her. And it's all and it's amazing
- 16:10drama. And this is so much subtler than
- 16:14that. Graham's confession to the
- 16:17doctor and Yas's moment on the hill and Ryan's quiet scenes
- 16:21with his friend. But actually, I'll say one to
- 16:2510, is TV drama. This feels far more like real
- 16:32drama to me. You know what actually happens
- 16:35in people's lives. And I think it's really
- 16:37interesting for the show to sort of touch on that.
- 16:40Yeah. And and it's and I think you
- 16:42know that's probably why there was so much of AI don't want to
- 16:47say there was a there was a that people weren't really enjoying
- 16:51series 11. But it was such a change.
- 16:54It was such a gear change from you know the the the wild
- 16:58adventures and you know you know the Capaldi finale and twice
- 17:04upon a time and and all of a sudden were dropped into this
- 17:08kind of someday evening drama with people that we probably
- 17:16know and we talk to and we we're friends with and we we work
- 17:20with. And I think I think that's
- 17:25probably I think he probably pulled the rug out from
- 17:27underneath a few people's feet and and what I what I've noticed
- 17:32over the last few years is that people are those that maybe
- 17:35didn't like it to start with a kind of coming around to coming
- 17:39around to it now. And I I absolutely from from to
- 17:43get go as soon as Jody came onto onto the screen as soon as that
- 17:47first episode was on I was like wow this is this is good.
- 17:51This is different. This is this you know the show
- 17:53needed shaking up a little bit and that's not that's not to say
- 17:57that I wasn't enjoying it but it was kind of a bit like each year
- 18:01Doctor Who came out it's another series load of exciting
- 18:04adventures and then we move on get another series and it kind
- 18:09of every now and again Doctor Who just needs fresh you know
- 18:11and he's freshening up and and Chibnam came along and whether
- 18:16you you know whether you enjoy all of his writing or whether
- 18:19you enjoy the characterization of the Doctor or what it needed.
- 18:23It needed something something else and I think it didn't.
- 18:26I think it pulled the rug under, pulled the rug out from under a
- 18:30lot of people. And whilst I love that sort of
- 18:34melodrama. Of those first ten seasons, you
- 18:37know, you know me over the top bloke and I love all of that
- 18:41sort of madly expressed emotion. I'm really surprised very often
- 18:48in TV how much subtle drama moves me and and not going for
- 18:56the sort of soap opera hysterics.
- 18:58Instead going for something a bit more naturalistic, which I
- 19:01think this era does as well. And we ain't even touched on any
- 19:05of the Doctor Who stuff in this episode yet.
- 19:07You know, you should press play, you know, because we should have
- 19:10a few tweets to get through at the end.
- 19:13I think it's going to be a. It's going to be a task
- 19:18navigating the more you've got. You've got comments within
- 19:23comments and tweets within. They'll do it, don't you?
- 19:26Why? We'll untangle that web and I
- 19:29shall tell everyone how they're wrong.
- 19:31No, sorry. How?
- 19:32Their opinions are very valid. Do you want to count this in?
- 19:37I will, yes. And we'll go in 54321 Go.
- 19:44I mean, you're saying, so, you know, we've been able to have
- 19:461/2 an hour discussion before we even started the episode and we
- 19:49barely touched upon, you know, a fraction of the episode.
- 19:53Yeah. And I like these.
- 19:56What I what I've noticed is is one thing that's improved so
- 20:02much over the years in Doctor Who is the kind of CG landscapes
- 20:06that we that we see now. Yeah, You feel like you feel
- 20:12like you're looking at actually looking at it and it's not, you
- 20:16know, it's not CG creation. This weird enough to start with
- 20:22a criticism perhaps would have just got rid of all the Aleppo
- 20:25scenes. Now I think they're incredibly
- 20:27well realized. Sets are great, the light is
- 20:30great, the CGI is great, the monster is great, and I even
- 20:33think the characters are fun. But I think it's, as usual in
- 20:36Season 12, maybe one element too much.
- 20:40I think so. I mean, I think, you know, one
- 20:43of one of the criticisms of of the chip malarias of too many
- 20:46people. And I think that what you're
- 20:50doing here is you're introducing another character here, Tahira
- 20:55and Tahira. I don't know if it's Tahira or
- 20:57Tahira, she goes. Tahira, yeah.
- 21:01And so you're introducing, you're introducing her and
- 21:08perhaps it could have been retooled for it to have been.
- 21:10One of the one of the companions instead.
- 21:13Say this about Jody Whisker episodes.
- 21:15You know where they bring in all these guest stars.
- 21:17Perhaps this could have been a more substantial role for one of
- 21:20the companions. Well, the perfect example of
- 21:23that is in is in resolution with the policewoman, I can't
- 21:28remember name now what they could have been.
- 21:30Yes, you know you've got a ready made police policewoman there.
- 21:36That would have been great as well.
- 21:38Do you know this is one of the very few Doctor Who stories that
- 21:41is both written and directed by a woman.
- 21:46Yes, and it's it's also the is she the second, the only the 2nd
- 21:55black woman to have written an episode as well?
- 21:58Really. Yeah, Charlotte are into Doctor
- 22:01Who. That is shocking.
- 22:04No, I'm wondering if the reason these things are included is
- 22:11because they didn't think people would get on board with this
- 22:14without a monster, like an actual monster.
- 22:17Whereas you've got two gods, you've got mental health issues
- 22:20which could be a monster all on its own, and then you've got
- 22:23this bloody great creature which looks great, yeah, but I think
- 22:27it's the weakest of the free. I think so.
- 22:30And you know, it's, I think is it.
- 22:36Yeah, I think. You could have you could have
- 22:38easily have brought that into into the into the kind of the
- 22:43modern era and had that even even perhaps he has his sister
- 22:47could have been you know the one that was being terrorized by
- 22:51these by these creatures. But yeah it's and also cold
- 22:58opening as well before the theme tune.
- 23:00So we don't. We don't.
- 23:01We didn't get a lot of them in the chimney.
- 23:03Ever did one? No.
- 23:04And they're usually pretty good when they do.
- 23:07Is that the right? Is that the right word, Cold
- 23:08opening? Or is it a cold opening when it
- 23:10goes straight into the titles I'll just call it a pre title
- 23:12sequence. Well I've been I've been sort of
- 23:15programmed by Americans call it that as they did it long before
- 23:20we did. Now this was great though this
- 23:23and this reminded me remember in Spy for when we caught up with
- 23:25all of them at home and then we're doing it again here.
- 23:30Yes, it's going home to assist to commemorate.
- 23:33We don't know what. Yeah, Ryan's off to see his
- 23:36friend, and Graham is there with his mates, and I like that, sort
- 23:42of. It annoys me less than sort of
- 23:45the Clara Roswell thing of her constantly being at home and
- 23:49traveling and sort of having one foot in the door.
- 23:51Yeah, it works better. You know, you kind of.
- 23:55It's the sort of thing you would do if you were genuinely
- 23:58traveling. You know you would go back home
- 24:00every now and again. You just you wouldn't go back
- 24:02home at the end of each day. Well, you might do it depends on
- 24:04where you go. But you know, and I love the
- 24:07kind of the this color scheme in the TARDIS when it goes red and
- 24:11creepy, Oh my. Word.
- 24:12I'm not sure you could have it all the time because we couldn't
- 24:15have the TARDIS that can act creepy all the time.
- 24:16No, no, but it's it's definitely lit better in series 12, I think
- 24:22from how it was lit in when it goes all red in Timeless
- 24:28Children as well before the you do come in, every time they lie,
- 24:31another color is automatically more atmospheric.
- 24:34It is, It is. It makes you wonder why they
- 24:37settled on the color scheme to the original color scheme to
- 24:40start with. I'm still baffled by those
- 24:42penises that come down to the time she touches the controls,
- 24:45but you know. That's the one thing there's a
- 24:49lot of hate for the. The interior of her TARDIS.
- 24:55But the only thing I didn't, the only thing I wasn't keen on was
- 24:59the penises. So, you know, I mean, I can
- 25:02understand that given, you know, you are a heterosexual man.
- 25:05I get it. Oh my God, this line of rhymes.
- 25:11I don't often like Ryan's line readings, but when he goes.
- 25:14But I've got chips though that line.
- 25:19It sounds like such a dork. Isn't it lovely to see Yazzie's
- 25:23sister again as well? Yeah, yeah, it's nice because
- 25:27and sadly, we don't really get to see.
- 25:29We don't get to see kind of her parents and sister we never get.
- 25:37I think we could, we should have seen, we should have seen more
- 25:39of them, or at least seen them towards the end of the era
- 25:46maybe. And look, these two characters
- 25:49here are playing cards with Graham.
- 25:50They are one scene characters. We never ever seen them again
- 25:54before or since. Yeah, and yet, because Bradley
- 25:57Walsh has got such an effortless way with people, I just feel
- 26:00like they've been friends for years.
- 26:04He's just so natural and and he's kind of the way he delivers
- 26:08his dialogue as well. There's a few, there's a few
- 26:12things that he does which I picked up over, picked up on.
- 26:15He'll kind of be saying something and then he'll put
- 26:18himself up saying it and and say something else.
- 26:22And it happens a few times in in this, and it's just it's just a
- 26:25very naturalistic way of playing a character.
- 26:31And I think he's the best actor on the ensemble.
- 26:36Yes, I think he is. Actually, I do.
- 26:39No, I think Jody's the best actor in the ensemble.
- 26:41But I don't. I love Jody Whitaker's Dr. I
- 26:45don't think we saw her entire potential realized.
- 26:49No, I think she she she definitely develops and she gets
- 26:54better as each series goes on. I think when they then they
- 26:58allow her to play, you know, things a little bit darker from
- 27:03time to time and it kind of shows you her range.
- 27:08You know this sometimes she does it with just a look as well.
- 27:12You know, even in even you know in the very first episode of the
- 27:17the woman who fell to earth and the the scene where she's
- 27:20watching Ryan on his bike on the distance and it's just just that
- 27:25she's not saying anything. It's just the look that she that
- 27:28she gives, the look she just gives to that creature, then
- 27:33what the hell is that terrible bit of CGI?
- 27:37Jesus Christ. It's not.
- 27:39It's not. It's not perfect is it?
- 27:41I think she's characterized super well in this.
- 27:43I really love the fact that she can't just wait around the
- 27:46TARDIS for them, what we're going to do whilst everyone's
- 27:49actually guys, I could always skip forward to the next day
- 27:51when they're back. But no, she finds her own
- 27:55mysteries to solve. It's it's it's, you know, it's
- 27:58one of the things I like about her.
- 27:59She's she's all for wanting to have an adventure and get out
- 28:02there. And she's not.
- 28:03She's not brooding and she's not.
- 28:05You know she doesn't. She doesn't tend to be want to
- 28:09be kind of on her own and you know that that that kind of
- 28:13comes across a little bit. You know without the that
- 28:16divisive scene at the end as well where she's kind of
- 28:20everybody's discussing the feelings and she just quickly
- 28:23wants to get on to the next adventure.
- 28:25You know almost as if and we will get to it.
- 28:27You know, we won't be able to avoid that, but it's it's almost
- 28:30like she's she masks her. Anxiety as you know, a social
- 28:38anxiety with let's just get back into it, let's get back into it.
- 28:42You know, I don't want to talk about this.
- 28:43Let's let's get out there and have some fun, you know, and
- 28:47there are other occasions of her sort of stepping back from
- 28:51moments where she could have gone all in, like tenant would
- 28:54have all passed at Smith. You know, I think she keeps a
- 28:57deliberate distance from her companions to an extent.
- 29:01She does, yeah. Yeah, I don't think anyone
- 29:04expected of the first female Doctor.
- 29:06No, I quite like. Yeah, I like it.
- 29:09I can't remember which episode it is.
- 29:11I don't know if it's after Fugitive, Fugitive of the Doom,
- 29:17when Yaz is asking her what's wrong and she's just kind of
- 29:20like nothing. Nothing's wrong.
- 29:22And it's kind of, she's very much, she doesn't want to talk
- 29:24about it. She just wants to.
- 29:26She just wants to sweep that away, you know?
- 29:29And I like that in the last season you get a lot of things
- 29:32of yaz saying no. You're going to tell me what's
- 29:36going on and why you're so bothered and what bloody mystery
- 29:40is you're trying to solve. And eventually she just breaks
- 29:42down that wall to only to Yaz and they get incredibly close in
- 29:47those last couple of episodes. What makes that part at the end
- 29:50so touching? This is really great because
- 29:53when I did my SO when I walked out of my depression at its
- 29:59lowest point, I then decided to give back a little bit.
- 30:01So I joined mine as a volunteer and I went on the befriending
- 30:06program to help other people that were going through that.
- 30:08And one of like there was lots of great stuff in the training
- 30:12about signs that people could be depressed or could be feeling
- 30:16low. And the messy house like this
- 30:20was one of those signs that people sort of not and personal
- 30:22hygiene and things like that. So I think all the details here
- 30:26are absolutely spot on. I don't know if they probably
- 30:29got some advice from outside. It does make me wonder.
- 30:34I mean, I don't know the background of the writer really.
- 30:38I tried to do a bit of research onto her, but.
- 30:43She doesn't really come up with much, so I don't know if this is
- 30:46kind of written from anything that she's experienced or not.
- 30:49I know it's written with Chibnil though as well as it's kind of
- 30:51Co written with him. I'm wondering if he's pushing
- 30:54some of the regulars character development.
- 30:58Yeah, I think so, Yeah. Or he was like, no, I'm just
- 31:02gonna get a mention of the toy maker in there and the Eternals
- 31:05as well. We're doing Gods, but what I
- 31:10love about her sister in this is that she was a bit she was sort
- 31:14of like the comic foil in Iraq is in the UK.
- 31:16Was she the annoying sister? And I really like the fact that
- 31:19they show a different shade to their relationship here, where
- 31:22she wants to celebrate enough here that Yaz is alive.
- 31:26Yeah, it's very real, isn't it? It's it's a very real
- 31:30relationship, you know? It's like when she says that
- 31:34she's she lost a job and she's just.
- 31:37It's just normal dialogue, isn't it?
- 31:41Between people. There's no reason other than it
- 31:47to be. It's just natural dialogue
- 31:49between people. That's why I enjoy it so much.
- 31:52It feels real. Another thing I really like
- 31:57about this is how for a while it feels a bit like one of those,
- 32:02you know, what I used to have in the heart of era, The part
- 32:04historical stories, the future stories, and then the sort of
- 32:07sideways adventures, Space Museum, episode one Planet the
- 32:11Giants. You know, stories that didn't
- 32:13quite fit into the passing. And for quite a while this feels
- 32:17like one of those. It is a contemporary story and
- 32:20it's this sort of fantasy story or dark fantasy story with
- 32:24having these chilling dreams and Graham having these weird
- 32:28visions. Do you think this is great, the
- 32:32way they film this? It is and it's so creepy the the
- 32:36way they they filmed the the police the police officer.
- 32:39She's just, it's proper. You know, that desolate road,
- 32:45and that feels sort of nightmareish, doesn't it?
- 32:48That's all being all on your own.
- 32:50Yeah, it's proper and just glimpses of a nightmare as well.
- 32:56And here he is. I've said it before, and I've
- 32:59said it again. If I woke up and Ian Gelda was
- 33:02there in the shadows, staring at me, I would shit the bed.
- 33:08There was a lot of talk at the time.
- 33:10Well, say there was a lot of talk.
- 33:12It's just reading, reading comments that people thought he
- 33:15might have been that to be the Black Guardian at the time.
- 33:18But that never obviously came to be.
- 33:21I mean, they're all supposed to be in that sort of group, aren't
- 33:23they? This pair?
- 33:26Why this pair called Zelin and? I've written a name down.
- 33:32Remember it? Fabulous woman with the white
- 33:34hair. Oh yeah.
- 33:35She's beautiful as well, isn't she?
- 33:40I can't find. I can't remember.
- 33:41Her name is now. It's not Zakia, is it?
- 33:44No, Sure. Well, we'll see when she comes
- 33:47along. Like those fingertips are going
- 33:52into his ear. I do think that's quite funny.
- 33:55Like he he could have done it with a look.
- 33:57Gelder is good enough that he could do it with a look, you
- 33:59know. Yeah, but again, it's it's, you
- 34:02know, it's doing something that will terrify the kids as well,
- 34:06you know? Or or all the kids will find
- 34:08that fun. And you know, you know, the
- 34:11man's fingers will come off and stick in your ear, and the kids
- 34:14can do that. You know, it's like a wet Willy,
- 34:16isn't it? Wet Willy, you know, No.
- 34:23You suck your finger and stick it in someone's ear and it was
- 34:26called a wet Willy. I wasn't going around sitting in
- 34:28the playground. Did you?
- 34:33No, nothing in Crawley, but we were a bit electric.
- 34:36So you have to forgive us. Jodie's hair is a bit longer in
- 34:42this as well. It's nice.
- 34:46I like it. It's a good look on it.
- 34:47See, these are I love all these sets in Aleppo.
- 34:50Yeah. Although it does feel a little
- 34:54bit like a studio, yeah, but it doesn't feel like they've gone
- 35:04to a location to film it, because they obviously haven't
- 35:06had they. But they're sort of vast, aren't
- 35:09they? They're big MM HM, good
- 35:13lighting. Yeah, this cool merge thing.
- 35:17It's great. Yeah, yeah.
- 35:20Did you ever see that? Somebody put together a I don't
- 35:24know if it was the Doctor Poop Twitter account put together
- 35:29this scene, but she was on the phone to so many different
- 35:31people. She was on the phone to Rose, on
- 35:33the phone to Donna and Martha, and it was just hilarious.
- 35:39Cool. Merge.
- 35:39I'm bringing you all together. Then you get the three of them
- 35:43in split screen. You know who my friend Tahira?
- 35:49Well, that is 1. Old thing is because then they
- 35:51take to here in the TARDIS and then to the future, to this
- 35:53weird space station, and she takes it all in her stride.
- 35:58But again, I mean Chipnel Chipnel's kind of, he does that
- 36:01quite often. I mean he did it in in dinosaur
- 36:04on the spaceship as well didn't he's he he takes in the the
- 36:07Hunter. I can't remember the the
- 36:09Hunter's name. He's got Rory's dad's, and yeah,
- 36:12yeah, he's he just, he seems to like gathering a lot of people
- 36:16in into the TARDIS. You know these telepathic
- 36:21circuits or whatever is she uses on Graham in a minute to take
- 36:25them to the other place. You know where the woman's being
- 36:28held prisoner is that the same ones that is used in dark water?
- 36:33I think it's the same idea, but it's the the ones in dark water
- 36:37and it's is it in Listen as well.
- 36:40It's like they stick the fingers in the in the console, like it's
- 36:44some kind of Jelly. It's been upgraded to a helmet.
- 36:52Her face there. Was.
- 36:55She's like, ooh, oh, Jesus Christ, Jim Ryan is so
- 36:59beautiful. I don't care that he's a bit
- 37:01boring. He's so pretty.
- 37:04And it's such a shame that he didn't.
- 37:06He didn't get to come back for a brief scene with with Graham and
- 37:10the Power of the Doctor. The only thing I think that's
- 37:13missing from that well, I'm Chris Knopf and John Barrowman,
- 37:18but we know why they weren't there.
- 37:19Yeah, yeah, they're gone. This, this with with Graham, he
- 37:27starts saying about, yeah, if you get me an A-Z for the
- 37:30universe, I can point my finger on the planet and it's like, no,
- 37:33I can't, I don't know. And it's that kind of natural
- 37:36kind of. He stops himself talking.
- 37:41You know, yeah, it almost. It's almost like Bradley Walsh
- 37:45wit rather than Graham Wit, you know?
- 37:47And I like that. Yeah, I think he's sort of
- 37:50really merged into the part now where you can see Bradley Walsh,
- 37:53the entertainer, coming out as well.
- 37:54Yeah, and they do him up quite they they age him up a little
- 37:59bit, don't they, as Graham? Because I don't think he is kind
- 38:03of, he don't think he looks that.
- 38:05He doesn't look old as Graham, but I think they age him up
- 38:08slightly with the makeup. Now these again, are very
- 38:11obviously sets. This space station where, boy,
- 38:14could you imagine if the Graham Williams era, which had a lot of
- 38:16these sort of space stations and corridors, looked as good as
- 38:19this. I like all the weird crisscros,
- 38:24sort of girders, the way she plays a violin or something.
- 38:28It's strings, isn't it? To get the.
- 38:30Yeah, yeah, we'd be. We'd be having beige corridors
- 38:34and the people in. Silver suits.
- 38:36Suddenly I I really watched The Nightmare of Eden the other
- 38:38night. So yeah, it's very fresh in my
- 38:41mind. It's very well lit, isn't it?
- 38:44But I feel like designs come on in leaps and bounds in the new
- 38:47series, even from Moffett's era. Yeah, we we're no longer using.
- 38:51Well, we may still be using it at some point, but we're no
- 38:54longer using the, you know, the Temple of Peace or corridors
- 38:57under the Millennium Stadium. Is it the Millennium Stadium or
- 39:00kind of Marble Wolves again? Or the same, the same lift shot.
- 39:08This is the second time today I've got to compliment Second
- 39:12iconola's music, but he's playing heavy bass instruments
- 39:16in this and he's doing string work which goes up and down your
- 39:20spine. It's really great school.
- 39:24Well, what I noticed the other day when I was re watching it,
- 39:30there's pretty much. A very low ambient music
- 39:34throughout the entire episode. It's always kind of there, just
- 39:37it's not too loud. It's not overpowering until it
- 39:41needs to be overpowering, but it's always there.
- 39:44There's always a little bit of music just playing under each
- 39:47scene. And I think that kind of rap
- 39:49that kind of ramps up the tension and the kind of, yeah,
- 39:53the the tension of it all. I love it when every time he
- 39:58appears in someone's room and that bass goes by oh God.
- 40:03Each time they tell you the bit that gets me is when when he's
- 40:07when Zelen stood in, stood in the child's bedroom.
- 40:11And the camera. The camera pans and you get the
- 40:15each time I see it, I jump. Each time.
- 40:17She goes there's no such fingers to Boogeyman, and he goes that's
- 40:20not true. This is really nice as well.
- 40:26I like the the smoke effect that goes across where you see the
- 40:29the picture going across as Smokey pattern.
- 40:34It's good. It's really good direction.
- 40:36It is it's really good direction.
- 40:38And I also, you know you you kind of I like the fact that and
- 40:45I feel bad that I cannot remember the the other actresses
- 40:49the other character's name but she that that she's calling out
- 40:53to Graham you know save me, can you hear me?
- 40:56Help me. And later on he has that
- 40:59nightmare of grace saying why didn't you save me, you know.
- 41:04So she's kind of playing on that on his guilt of it all.
- 41:08You know, come and save me. And Speaking of somebody you
- 41:11know, who's been having some pretty lucid, like, I don't
- 41:15really remember my dreams, but for some reason in the last
- 41:18couple of months I've been sort of drifting lightly.
- 41:21In the mornings and having some pretty potent, scary dreams
- 41:26about people I know behaving in ways that frighten me.
- 41:32Yeah, I used to. I don't remember my dreams
- 41:34anymore. I used to when I was a kid.
- 41:36I still remember the dreams I was when I was a kid.
- 41:38They were terrified, but I don't tend to remember them anymore.
- 41:42So the one thing I don't like is that there's an awful lot of
- 41:46tick the Babble in these scenes. Yeah, and.
- 41:48Star Trek. I'll just switch off
- 41:49immediately. Yeah, this and.
- 41:51And I think this is where it sags a little bit.
- 41:54You know, you've got there was a there was a line which Jody
- 41:59said, which the doctor said just a little bit ago, where she says
- 42:05it just felt so unnaturalistic. Where she says this place has so
- 42:10much, so many secrets to yield. And I was just like, that
- 42:13doesn't sound like a natural line.
- 42:15It just feels like it's forced in.
- 42:16It's not techno bubble, but it does this this kind of middle
- 42:20bit sags a little bit, I think, because it's just too much.
- 42:23I get the impression this setting is supposed to be like a
- 42:27really scary, nightmarish setting.
- 42:29And what it feels like to me is just a particularly well
- 42:32designed and lit sort of space station, You know, because it's
- 42:36got the fingers hanging and all of that, isn't it?
- 42:38Yeah. Now this is where it picks up
- 42:42again. Yeah, yeah, we're suddenly back
- 42:45to. To where?
- 42:49Interesting stuff. Well, it's it's basically their
- 42:54fears taken to the nth degree, isn't it?
- 42:56So in this version, is it the sister that's going through what
- 43:00Yaz went through or is it this is just saying to where no one's
- 43:03coming for you, I think. I think, I think the sister was
- 43:09the one who called the police to go and help Yaz.
- 43:15And I think he has his fear here is possibly that this time Sonia
- 43:21is not going to do that. And she's saying to her, you
- 43:24know, you know go and you're alone in the dark and you know I
- 43:28got that's the that's what I got from it.
- 43:31That that she's now worried that the one that actually helped to
- 43:35to kind of, you know, put her back onto this path of being
- 43:39helped is now not there. That that's that's what I got
- 43:43from it. That pullback from Yaz there, I
- 43:47think that's one of the best shots in the whole episode.
- 43:49That really feels like a nightmare.
- 43:51You are completely alone in this desperate landscape.
- 43:54Yeah, there's nothing there. And then you get Ryan's friend
- 43:58basically saying you weren't there for me, Yeah.
- 44:04Sure. The Flames are a bit much, Yeah.
- 44:06I'm not quite. And I wasn't quite sure that
- 44:09they needed to have the kind of they put the dregs in it, don't
- 44:12they, From or from 55. I'm not quite sure that they
- 44:15needed that. They could have.
- 44:18I mean, I'm not a TV producer or a director, but I would have, I
- 44:21would have had Ryan's nightmare of him finding his friend in his
- 44:26flat, old and still there, you know, on his own.
- 44:30That's how maybe I would have done it.
- 44:32I think I would have been braver and gone further because we've
- 44:35done the suicide in Doctor Who before we we did Vincent and the
- 44:39Doctor, we did Adelaide in the waters of Mars, so I would have
- 44:42implied it rather than showed it.
- 44:46This is the killer, though. Him being worked on by grace say
- 44:52the cancer's back. And you know, I've, I've never
- 44:59been through this, so I can't speak for anybody who is going
- 45:06through this. Well, I can only imagine the
- 45:11kind of fear that people would go through was being diagnosed
- 45:16with cancer. I mean, I lost my mother to
- 45:19cancer about four years ago. And it was, it was very much
- 45:23this of we're going to fight this, we're going to fight this.
- 45:26No, the fight's over. So these fears are compelling,
- 45:31you know? Yeah.
- 45:33And just to have grace there doing it, as you know, that's
- 45:36just twisted and cold as well, you know, she's not, you know,
- 45:39there's nothing warm about her there.
- 45:42It's, you know, she's it's the person that he loves telling him
- 45:48this. And Sharon Park is in five
- 45:52episodes and I don't think she puts a foot wrong.
- 45:54You know she doesn't. In fact, to the point where when
- 45:58she was in when we first saw The Woman Who Fell to Earth, sorry,
- 46:04we I almost forgot that she wasn't going to be part of the
- 46:09the regular. She does.
- 46:12She does it. She really does.
- 46:16Yeah. But yeah, it's a shame that, I
- 46:19mean, it would have been way too many people in the Targets then,
- 46:21but. I don't know why I booted out
- 46:24Ryan, you know, and had Grace instead.
- 46:26That would have been interesting.
- 46:27Husband and wife on board the. Yeah, amazing.
- 46:29We've done it before, yeah. Yeah, of course we have.
- 46:31Yeah. People said, you know, I was so
- 46:33predictable because she went off with that cable going, you know,
- 46:36is it wrong that I'm enjoying this?
- 46:38But that's exactly the line that Amy said to the doctor in Asylum
- 46:41of the Daleks. You know she was going to die on
- 46:43that. Zillion.
- 46:47Oh, chibbers are such a space name.
- 46:50Yeah, at the front, Yeah, if there is.
- 46:54If there is one thing I will say about Chibbers, I don't like his
- 46:59space names. There's a hell of a lot of them
- 47:02in essentially the Cybermen. Yed Lami and I can't remember
- 47:08the rest of them. Yed Lami is the one that always
- 47:11sticks out, but. On the keyboard and whatever
- 47:14came up on Microsoft Word is like yeah, that's the one it's
- 47:19it reminds me of you kind of yet you some of the space names that
- 47:24you would get in the virgin new adventures names that you just
- 47:30they're just not easy to whereas Russell is got you know Linda
- 47:34and you know just natural sounding names.
- 47:39Well, just like, I don't know, like Linda with a Y as a person
- 47:42from the future, I said then You just never forget what you get.
- 47:45You never forget Linda A. Rendus way.
- 47:49He's a bad man. But with these sort of these
- 47:56gods that we're we're fighting against in this.
- 48:00Yeah, I really like how they're established.
- 48:03So they're turning up in the bedrooms and her in Graham's
- 48:06head. I really like.
- 48:09How their back story is presented in a minute, something
- 48:13completely new. The animation and I really love
- 48:16the sequences where they're walking down the streets and
- 48:19they're about to take. The only thing that it ruins it
- 48:22for me is that's just so easily defeated.
- 48:25Yes, yes, it's. Really annoying.
- 48:28It's so quick and it's so easy and it's like, let's just Chuck
- 48:33them away quickly, you know, so we can move on to to the kind of
- 48:37character bits instead, that's. Exactly what's happening, isn't
- 48:40it? Yeah, hurry in that plot so they
- 48:43can get to the meat of the episode.
- 48:45Yeah. And that's where it fails
- 48:47sometimes. And it's not the only story
- 48:49that's guilty of doing that across the entire run of Doctor
- 48:54Who, but it's such a shame because.
- 48:57In the new series they rush a lot of they do yeah it just it
- 49:01just kind of cheapens it because I would have, I would have liked
- 49:05to have seen more of of the of these two characters.
- 49:09I think somebody even mentioned on the Twitter comments which we
- 49:12get to later that somebody mentioned that you know this
- 49:14kind of could this have been swarming as your from flux you
- 49:19know or could these have become swarming as your as a recurring
- 49:23character that kind of moved into into flux, you know, so
- 49:28it's a shame that we don't get to see any more of them.
- 49:31I mean, I know it might have felt a little anticlimactic, but
- 49:34I would have liked them to have gotten free and then just got on
- 49:37the way. And then there was a promise
- 49:39that we were going to see them again.
- 49:40Yeah, and then we did the character stuff, cuz it's just
- 49:43cheapen them. Yeah, just a line, just a line
- 49:46with Jody. It's called Jody the Doctor
- 49:49saying they're out there somewhere.
- 49:51Every time they defeat these gods, the Eternals and
- 49:53Enlightenment, or the Black Guardian in the Armageddon
- 49:56facts, you're like, well, they weren't all that, were they?
- 50:00That's all it took, Linda Baron. Just get thrown overboard or
- 50:04something, yeah, yeah. Oh, there she comes.
- 50:13And that's the idea of the prison as well.
- 50:15That's a that's a huge concept of two planets with her trap
- 50:19there in the middle. It's all good stuff.
- 50:24It is. And I think, I think as well
- 50:28it's it's a sort of story that you kind of, I've said about
- 50:31this before. Usually when you watch an
- 50:33episode for the first time it's you're so like you're so on edge
- 50:38because you want it to be the best thing ever And you you you
- 50:41don't always take in what you're watching.
- 50:43And so I think probably the first time I watched this, I
- 50:46didn't quite get the whole the the plot line of what was going
- 50:50on here. But the more you watch it, the
- 50:52more you allowed to sink in, the more it makes sense, you know?
- 50:56Whether or not that filters through to the general public, I
- 51:01don't know, but this scene is. I mean that we could do it a
- 51:08little more of this sort of visual.
- 51:11It's so good. I remember they did something
- 51:15similar in. Was it the first Black Panther
- 51:19film or am I misremembering? Was that like an animated
- 51:23sequence? Did it with Shadow Puppets and
- 51:28series seven. It was really good there as
- 51:31well. It works, it's nice.
- 51:32I mean, I wouldn't want it all the time, but it just it it's so
- 51:37stylized. It's so it's something so
- 51:39different. The thing is, is with and I've
- 51:42had this argument with Fraser Gregory too many times, is with.
- 51:46Chip Chipnall Exposition. This is my greatest failing of
- 51:49Chipnall for me. Is that the I can't even say it
- 51:53now, how did you say exposition? Exposition is so clunky,
- 51:57sometimes people just turn up, it's like an essential sum.
- 52:00They turn up, say who they are, what they used to do, what
- 52:03they're doing there. And you know and it's just a lot
- 52:06to be to have to be delivered in one sort of lump when they do
- 52:09something like this, which is. So it's such a creative way of
- 52:13filling in all the blanks very quickly.
- 52:16Or like in I remember in Dear Darcy, when they have the dance
- 52:19scene and everyone's gossiping about everyone else and it just
- 52:23feels such a natural way to explain who everybody is and
- 52:26what their relationships are. Yeah, it's it's much more
- 52:30interesting than just being told, isn't it?
- 52:33And that that animated sequence, it gets it across straight away.
- 52:36You, you, you, you know, you, you get everything from that.
- 52:39You don't need, you don't need anything else.
- 52:42So they could get us in a lot of the techno bubble.
- 52:45I just have that, you know? But.
- 52:48Don't they make a visually interesting couple as well?
- 52:53I like the idea of him being, you know, he's kind of feeding
- 52:59her these nightmares. You know, she's the one who's,
- 53:02you know, she's feeding off these nightmares and he's
- 53:04providing them for her like that.
- 53:07Yeah, look at this with her going down the sort of dark
- 53:10fooky St. It reminds me a bit of the
- 53:12nightmare man from Sarah Janoventures.
- 53:14Remember when he was on the street sucking in everyone's
- 53:17nightmare? What I find scary about these
- 53:19two is they kind of say it's not people's fears that we're after
- 53:23is we want. It is literally people's failing
- 53:28mental health that they're attacking.
- 53:31That's really scary. It is.
- 53:33Because I'll tell you what time where there's a lot of mental
- 53:36health that's going down the train.
- 53:38Yeah, and this was shown during lockdown, wasn't it?
- 53:43When the during the pandemic, this, this, this whole series?
- 53:47Yeah, they also did practice, which was about, you know, a
- 53:50pandemic, a virus sweeping across.
- 53:55I sure knew what to pick for topics in that season.
- 54:00They did. Oh, the Timeless Child in the
- 54:05time, In the time before we really knew what it was as well.
- 54:09And it's probably the wrong episode to discuss it.
- 54:12But I I never had an issue with the Timeless Child arc.
- 54:15I really didn't. I think actually, as we're going
- 54:18along, a lot of people saying it was a nice shot of innovation.
- 54:22There's always going to be hardcore people that don't like
- 54:24it. And fair enough.
- 54:26If you don't like the the history of the the show
- 54:28rewritten for a modern audience, fair enough.
- 54:34But in a time when so much had been explained, it was suddenly
- 54:38an element of mystery again. Yeah, it was.
- 54:43I felt it opened the door. It blew the doors wide open and
- 54:47just injected something different into it, whether or
- 54:51not we will ever revisit it again.
- 54:55I think Russell T is contrary enough to bring it up, I think
- 55:00if he's going to celebrate everything in those 60th
- 55:03anniversary specials. He will celebrate everything.
- 55:06He certainly won't exclude the first female Doctor.
- 55:08No no, no cuz he you know he's. Good dog.
- 55:18How does she make that Sonic zip out of her pocket like that?
- 55:21I don't know. I don't know.
- 55:23It's a bit like a. It's a bit like a lightsaber
- 55:26moment, isn't it? Just lies into her hand.
- 55:29I don't know. I mean how does the Doctor make
- 55:31a a bunch of flowers appear from out of thin air You know in The
- 55:36Three Doctors you know it's it's just.
- 55:38The magic trick? Yeah.
- 55:41When he makes that tape reel disappear in The Ambassadors of
- 55:47Death, that's magic. Yeah, it's just the way it is.
- 55:50It's daft. It's silly.
- 55:53Doesn't always have to have a reason to it.
- 55:58Yes. Thank you, Doctor.
- 55:59You created the Chakaska from your nightmares.
- 56:02We had figured that out. Sometimes I forget that this is
- 56:07aimed at younger children. Some need a little bit of things
- 56:10explained to them. It's interesting because do you
- 56:13think at this stage a lot of children were watching it?
- 56:18I mean, we obviously know this there was a whole new generation
- 56:22of fans that were born out of the, you know, the the tenant
- 56:26stuff really Do you think there's A and that's that's not
- 56:32to kind of, you know be be a downer on on the Chipnall era,
- 56:35but do we think there's a new generation that were born
- 56:39through the Chipnall era? I think it was enough because
- 56:42there were 5 to 6 million people watching series 12 sort of the
- 56:46final figures, but it's somewhere 5 to 6 million and I
- 56:49know for Rusty Davis won a record saying.
- 56:52Is only like a couple of 100,000 that are the hardcore thoughts
- 56:57who fans? So those other 5 million, I've
- 57:01got to be someone, you know? Yeah.
- 57:03They have to be, yeah. Who knows?
- 57:06Well, you know, without the breakdown, we'll never know.
- 57:08We'll never know. I mean, my, my, the 1st doctor
- 57:12that my son ever saw was Jody. So it was, I think he was six
- 57:16months old at the time and just plonked him in front of the TV
- 57:20and said they go watch the woman who fell to work on
- 57:22broadcasting. Anyone who says that the
- 57:24children who can't do scares like Moffett needs to watch this
- 57:27scene in this kids bedroom. And he's almost out Moffett in
- 57:31Moffett, because he loves doing stuff with kids, doesn't he?
- 57:33Like that, that thing on the bed with the sheet over it?
- 57:36Yeah. And you don't get to see the
- 57:40results of this, you know, there's no sudden, you know, the
- 57:42kid doesn't run out the room and escape.
- 57:44The Doctor doesn't appear to save the child.
- 57:47That's all you get the fingers flying at the.
- 57:49Train a lot To have a kid terrified in bed and terrifying
- 57:53Ian Gilda coming at you. That's not true.
- 58:03I used to be scared like that in the dark, you know?
- 58:06Seriously, my my dad used to turn the light out, and I used
- 58:09to beg him not to. So, yeah, So the thought of
- 58:13this, it's the same with me. I'm not, I wouldn't say I wasn't
- 58:17terrified of the dark, but I do, You know, the other night I was,
- 58:21the dog sleeps up here on the bed, on the end of the bed.
- 58:23And I woke up at 2:00 in the morning.
- 58:25The dog sat at the end of the bed just staring at the wall.
- 58:28I was like, OK. I've got.
- 58:32I've got a lovely warm Doctor Who found in bed next to me now.
- 58:34So I'm all right. No, actually, I'm not.
- 58:36The other day we had a Creek downstairs and he went, oh, you
- 58:39go downstairs and see what I oh. He's twice as firm as I.
- 58:44How about that? Oh, I do like this though.
- 58:48They live with their fears, doubts, guilt.
- 58:50Now some might say this is a bit on the nose.
- 58:52It's a good statement to make but we are magnificent because
- 58:55we do have mental health problems and we still get for
- 58:58each day. She's kind of almost looking
- 59:03straight at the camera there telling us and and yeah so yeah
- 59:12I just think it's a bit weak. I mean you know, he's, you know,
- 59:15how do you control, how did you control them And it's it's kind
- 59:19of like, I know we're kind of meant to be showing them how
- 59:25strong people can be, but just the fact that they're defeated
- 59:29so easily, it's just so it's disappointing.
- 59:35But like I said, like ultimately, this isn't what the
- 59:38episode's about, is it? It's about the regulars and what
- 59:42they what they're going through, yeah.
- 59:45But yeah, I could understand if people were very unsatisfied
- 59:47with this, because I was. Yeah, it's so sudden that you've
- 59:53not actually finished processing what's happened.
- 59:58You know when once the next scene comes up.
- 1:00:00I think you had a comment on Twitter about that shot of the
- 1:00:03two of them inside the ball, and whoever made that comment,
- 1:00:07You're right, it's a terrible, terrible shot.
- 1:00:12It sort of weakens them even more, but this is what's
- 1:00:17important. And he still Ryan is still there
- 1:00:22for him. He still stayed the night for
- 1:00:24him and like you said, this gives him the impetus.
- 1:00:27Yet there are people that need me and I'm not having these
- 1:00:30jollies. And do you think that's such a
- 1:00:33responsible thing for a young man to do, to say they give up
- 1:00:38all the time in space because they need me?
- 1:00:40To actually make that choice as well to leave, which we don't
- 1:00:45often get in knew who we get. Martha, do it.
- 1:00:49But. Most of the time people are
- 1:00:52forced to leave the doctor rather than the make that choice
- 1:00:57to go. It's the mature choice.
- 1:00:59It's the boring choice. Yeah, Brian, you are boring to
- 1:01:02the end. Well done.
- 1:01:05But you were still pretty. If we see that fellow in Spyful,
- 1:01:11is he the way to play basketball with?
- 1:01:13Yeah, it's nicely set up. Yeah, it's a shame we don't kind
- 1:01:16of get to visit him again, but then I suppose.
- 1:01:20You know, life goes on and people's lives go on even when
- 1:01:23you're not not around them. I suppose it's a hell of a lot
- 1:01:26going on in the flux, you know, we can't have any more elements.
- 1:01:32And I love this, is that this sort of group therapist where he
- 1:01:36talks about sort of going out to the shop just to have some human
- 1:01:40interaction, Just that I've done that, you know?
- 1:01:44And I considered it a win when I got out of my house and went to
- 1:01:48a supermarket and just engaged with the cashier.
- 1:01:51Yeah, and it's the guy who says to it it's not just you, it's
- 1:01:56not just you. And that sometimes what you
- 1:01:59need, you need somebody to say, you know, on your own there, you
- 1:02:03know, yeah, it's really great stuff.
- 1:02:08And then the look on his face. Yeah, it's not just me.
- 1:02:13And then, yes, here, like, even the way she's positioned in this
- 1:02:18scene on the sofa with the blanket around her, it kind of
- 1:02:21leads me to say, you know, you're still vulnerable.
- 1:02:30And what I like about this, this scene here, the police officer
- 1:02:36is when she's dreaming. You've had this amazing
- 1:02:24experience. But you could.
- 1:02:26Yeah, still. I think she could still have
- 1:02:28Dark. She's kind of she's set up to be
- 1:02:40this kind of ominous figure on the road.
- 1:02:43And you know it's leading you to think well what has actually
- 1:02:49gone on here. But the actual fact, you know
- 1:02:51the ominous figure in the road is the one that that's there and
- 1:02:56gives you that drive to to continue.
- 1:02:59I like that turns it on. I think they have to say you
- 1:03:03know they're scared your suicidal as well.
- 1:03:04I think you can imply enough from the dialogue.
- 1:03:08Yeah, and she's so warm, the police officers suddenly.
- 1:03:14I like her line when she says about getting a new job and she
- 1:03:18she says about the paving not very good and she says get
- 1:03:22another job and she says I can't, I love it too much.
- 1:03:24And it's like, yeah, sometimes this sort of naturalistic
- 1:03:28dialogue really hits, doesn't it?
- 1:03:30Does, Yeah. I don't think it's as memorable
- 1:03:33as the sort of witty quips that you had every 5 minutes in the
- 1:03:36Moffett era. No, sometimes it really hits
- 1:03:39home. It's what surrounds it that
- 1:03:43makes it, I believe, and the intention behind it.
- 1:03:47But it's like, you know what? You can have all that noise and
- 1:03:50nonsense in their Moffett era, but you can have a moment where
- 1:03:53two people just sit down and talk like.
- 1:03:55This. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:03:58And it's as engaging as attention grabbing.
- 1:04:01I can't imagine it, if ever. Like this in the mock era.
- 1:04:07You know I can't. It never slowed down enough.
- 1:04:09No, I can't remember a scene where anybody really sits down
- 1:04:14and and just relaxes and talks. I think there's there's one
- 1:04:19example, but it's a Chignel script and it's the power of
- 1:04:21free where the doctor in front of that.
- 1:04:24But even that's a bit overblown, you know?
- 1:04:28Yeah, it's beautiful. But it is, Yeah, items.
- 1:04:32Yeah, And sometimes, I don't know, sometimes it just takes
- 1:04:37one person to make a difference like this.
- 1:04:40It does. Sometimes it's, you know, it's
- 1:04:45what you need or you know, an event I think to cut forward to
- 1:04:50her, then going with the 50P and giving it to her and her saying
- 1:04:54God, of course I remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 1:04:57I think I tiered put that bit as well yesterday.
- 1:05:00She's in like 2 scenes, I think two or three scenes.
- 1:05:03That character I would not forget.
- 1:05:05You know, there's many a secondary character in a new
- 1:05:09whose story that I'll never remember.
- 1:05:14And it's it's yes is kind of. She steps back from that door,
- 1:05:18as it said. Should I really be here?
- 1:05:20Should I really be doing this and to be asked to reward her
- 1:05:23kindness? I really like that.
- 1:05:26But you were there for me. Yeah.
- 1:05:28And another fact, she goes, can you, do you want to come in?
- 1:05:31She's like, Oh yeah, And then that's enough, you know?
- 1:05:33Yeah, you. Don't need to see anymore.
- 1:05:36Oh man, it kills. Smile.
- 1:05:40Gosh, she's gorgeous. You know, she all saw her the
- 1:05:42other week at Comic Con. She gave me the biggest hug and
- 1:05:45the biggest. She is beautiful.
- 1:05:49I'm telling you, Jim, the people think the things people say
- 1:05:52about these people not being popular, these characters, she
- 1:05:56had the longest cue by 10 times. I can imagine I've never seen
- 1:06:02such a such a kind of explosion as there was for the love for
- 1:06:07Jody. I've never seen that in in in
- 1:06:10for any of the other doctors you know you got the popular popular
- 1:06:14doctor with tenant, but I've never seen such an outpouring of
- 1:06:17love sections of banned them. Here we go.
- 1:06:23OK, this is the scene. Do we talk about this later or
- 1:06:30do we talk about this? There's a lot of people that got
- 1:06:32a lot of things to say about this scene later.
- 1:06:34Yeah. How do you think it's played?
- 1:06:40It's a hard one because I've ever since I saw the scene, I've
- 1:06:43been kind of dancing on the fence about how I feel about it
- 1:06:48and I think. I will always dance on the fence
- 1:06:51about how I feel about it because I think it is absolutely
- 1:06:55right to show that some people don't do not know how to react.
- 1:07:03They do not know what to say and.
- 1:07:07I think it's absolutely right to show that because people.
- 1:07:10There are people like that. There are people like that.
- 1:07:12I'm like it. I I may have mentioned before,
- 1:07:14you know when we, when we recorded Utopia, the commentary
- 1:07:17for Utopia, when we originally talked about this, that I had a
- 1:07:21friend who told me the other year that she had cancer and I
- 1:07:26didn't know how to react to that.
- 1:07:29I didn't know and all I could, you know, say was.
- 1:07:35You know, I'll. I'll be there for you if you
- 1:07:37need me. I didn't know what to say other
- 1:07:41than that. And I am a socially awkward
- 1:07:45person. I I overthink things.
- 1:07:49I, you know, I and I was saying to you off mic earlier on about
- 1:07:53being stuck at a party. You know, I didn't know what to
- 1:07:56do. I didn't know how to react.
- 1:07:58You know, I just want to shrink away.
- 1:08:00So I I know that kind of that kind of.
- 1:08:04Thing of you don't know what to do.
- 1:08:05You don't, you really don't know what to do in that situation,
- 1:08:08how to speak to somebody. I can also see the argument of
- 1:08:14people who say that the doctor should know what to say and that
- 1:08:20the doctor should be able to comfort somebody when they need
- 1:08:25that. But then on the flip side of
- 1:08:27that, is Graham wanting that from the doctor?
- 1:08:31Is is Graham just wanting to? To talk Is he really wanting the
- 1:08:35Doctor to give him a big speech about how you know everything's
- 1:08:39going to be okay? You know, there's so many
- 1:08:41different variables. You know you can't.
- 1:08:47It's hard because, you know, do we want the Doctor to be a
- 1:08:49superhero who know who has all the answers?
- 1:08:51Or do we want the Doctor to be like us, who doesn't have all
- 1:08:55the answers? This.
- 1:08:56That's my take on it. This is exactly the same person,
- 1:09:00yeah, who is celebrated in Pyramids of Mars for saying to
- 1:09:04Sarah Jane. Well, I told him not to be.
- 1:09:07I told him not to go after his brother.
- 1:09:09It's his own place. He's dead.
- 1:09:11And she goes. Sometimes.
- 1:09:12You don't seem human. No, I'm not.
- 1:09:16Different morality, like the Doctor can be a callous boss.
- 1:09:20She's not callous. There, She listens.
- 1:09:23She acknowledges she doesn't know the right things to say,
- 1:09:27and she goes, look, I'm gonna try and be better.
- 1:09:29I'm gonna go over here and I'm gonna try and be better.
- 1:09:32Yeah, she she acknowledges. She acknowledges that she should
- 1:09:37probably say something. She just doesn't know what to
- 1:09:41say at that point. And Graham, by the look of it,
- 1:09:44also understands that as well, which is why he goes away.
- 1:09:48You know, just listening is enough.
- 1:09:52Exactly. Yeah.
- 1:09:53And and I will always dance on the fence over it because, you
- 1:09:57know, you just, it's what it is. You know, it's I I really love
- 1:10:04the speech the doctor makes in Vincent and the Doctor when he
- 1:10:06says there's a part of good stuff and there's a part of bad
- 1:10:09stuff in life and you know, trying to make sure that the
- 1:10:12good stuff is bigger than the bad stuff.
- 1:10:14I really think that's a beautiful speech, but it rather
- 1:10:19takes the edge of the nastiness of like, mental health issues
- 1:10:25that the episode. It makes it a little more easier
- 1:10:28to digest and maybe actually just keeping it a bit cold and a
- 1:10:32bit awkward and uncomfortable because that's what it is.
- 1:10:36That's what it is. You tell your friends.
- 1:10:39I told my friends that I had mental health issues.
- 1:10:42Yeah, I told them I was really struggling.
- 1:10:44Some of them stopped talking to me because I was always the life
- 1:10:47and soul of the party. They just didn't know how to
- 1:10:49handle me as somebody who was completely lost.
- 1:10:52And that's why I was ever so grateful to that one friend who
- 1:10:56totally normalized it and said, let's go out for a coffee.
- 1:10:59You don't have to talk or you can talk about whatever you
- 1:11:02want, but let's just go out and have a drink, you know?
- 1:11:06Yeah. And and you know and I've often
- 1:11:08said to you know to to my close friends, you know if there's
- 1:11:11ever anything wrong with me, just talk to me act act normal
- 1:11:16around me. I don't want you know it's scary
- 1:11:20enough without having people trying to.
- 1:11:26I don't, I don't want it to come across wrong because it's you
- 1:11:28know again it's it's just my it's my opinion that you know
- 1:11:32you kind of need to just try and.
- 1:11:35Get by as best you can. Sometimes I think and and not
- 1:11:39only that but how many people identified with with the doctor
- 1:11:44in that moment. You know for as many people who
- 1:11:46said, who said this is not how the doctor should be, there was
- 1:11:51that section of people who also said Oh my word, this is how I
- 1:11:55am. The Doctor is the same as me.
- 1:11:58You know, and why should we exclude, and why should we
- 1:12:01exclude any of those people? You know, just because we think
- 1:12:04that the doctor should be a certain way, like like those
- 1:12:08people that really dismiss the error, I do just wonder
- 1:12:10sometimes if the people that don't like it are louder than
- 1:12:13the people that do, which is why they get heard more.
- 1:12:17But I will say as well, I think both readings are perfectly
- 1:12:21valid. I think the second you start
- 1:12:23saying that's not a valid, the point you're making, my point
- 1:12:28about is that's that's when the debate ends, you know, and there
- 1:12:33is no discussion, there's just opinion.
- 1:12:35And it turns into, it turns into the, you know, what the sort of
- 1:12:39thing that we've witnessed on on Twitter tonight, you know, of of
- 1:12:43people just, you know, people just shouting.
- 1:12:47Well, not people shouting, but certain people shouting.
- 1:12:50You know, about about things. Well, this as the haunting of
- 1:12:54Villa Diadati has started on the iPlayer and what marvelous
- 1:12:58episode that is. Shall we engage with some people
- 1:13:03on Twitter then and see what they have to say?
- 1:13:05I think we shall. How brave are you feeling?
- 1:13:10Well, let's see, shall we? Because I'm gonna have to see if
- 1:13:15we can navigate it all anyway, so.
- 1:13:17Let's have a look. As you're looking at that, I'll
- 1:13:20just comment that the period dress that all the regulars are
- 1:13:23wearing in Dear Darcy is very beautiful.
- 1:13:26Sadly, as I'm only watching the Blu-ray, I've gone straight to
- 1:13:31the scene selection scene and I've just got a static image of
- 1:13:34Ryan looking at me. Well, I mean as well.
- 1:13:39You know how we did Utopia as our first one.
- 1:13:42This is the utopia of series 12, isn't it?
- 1:13:45It's the sort of single episode that leads into the two-part
- 1:13:48finale. It is.
- 1:13:51It is, yeah. But anyway, we're not here to
- 1:13:53talk about it, I'll say. No, that's guy with the
- 1:13:56comments. OK, so we're gonna get, I'm
- 1:13:59gonna try and navigate this as best as I can because each tweet
- 1:14:02opens up another thread. So we've got.
- 1:14:05So we'll go with the first question that we've got on here,
- 1:14:08which is from Fraser, Fraser, Gregory.
- 1:14:12And which tells us how many questions do you think you'd
- 1:14:14have you'd have if Elon hadn't broken Twitter, I think.
- 1:14:20Don't worry, Fraser, I think the restriction on views is now over
- 1:14:23only last for the day. I was going to say a fair few
- 1:14:27less than what we actually did get.
- 1:14:31OK, so we've got Tom Newson. Do you think Yaz's and Graham's
- 1:14:36backstories are the most real companions have been?
- 1:14:41Yeah, it might not be showy, but it's authentic.
- 1:14:45Yeah, I think, I think we did. We had a we had a little bit
- 1:14:51with with Rose, I think with her, with her father.
- 1:14:55But I think we kind of jettisoned a lot of a lot of
- 1:14:58back stories of companions. But we didn't jettison it.
- 1:15:02But it didn't feel as real, I don't think.
- 1:15:04I think I enjoyed this stuff with Rose.
- 1:15:07Back back in series one with her father dying.
- 1:15:11That felt very real and something that people you know
- 1:15:14could relate to. But I do think that this the and
- 1:15:18you know Yaz and Graham is, yeah, I think.
- 1:15:21I think that people genuinely people don't generally strive
- 1:15:25universes or you know reunite their dead fathers with their
- 1:15:29mothers or have their memories wives or become puddles.
- 1:15:34No in lesbian relationships or go flying off in diners or any
- 1:15:38of this stuff. Yeah.
- 1:15:39People do genuinely have depressive moments and deal with
- 1:15:41cancer. So definitely told me
- 1:15:43definitely. And then we've got Rod Who,
- 1:15:49while staying enjoying this. Who's Rod?
- 1:15:52He's Rod. Rod.
- 1:15:57Rod. Good old Rod.
- 1:16:01He's he says. Whilst I really enjoy the story,
- 1:16:05is there just too much going on to focus on the core themes?
- 1:16:08What if we only had What if only one of the fam had their dreams
- 1:16:11invaded? Would this have allowed us time
- 1:16:13to explore things in more depth and therefore ultimately make
- 1:16:16this more successful? Oh, interesting, because I think
- 1:16:19that's the part of this that works really well and it's the
- 1:16:22rest of the story that suffers. I think so, I think.
- 1:16:27You know as we we were talking earlier in the episode about you
- 1:16:31know ditching the Aleppo stuff with Sahira and it would have
- 1:16:36been better to focus more on on the three and but I don't think
- 1:16:44we're shortchanged in no regulars and what we're.
- 1:16:48No, I don't think so. Everybody, everybody gets there.
- 1:16:52Everybody gets there. Run gets their time to shine.
- 1:16:55I think to shine. Maybe not the right word, but
- 1:17:00yeah, I think, yeah, I think I wouldn't change it.
- 1:17:04I wouldn't change it to focus on just one.
- 1:17:10Right, Okay. So this one possibly opens us
- 1:17:16up. To the All opinions are welcome
- 1:17:21here. Okay.
- 1:17:22So we got it's Fraser who triggered it.
- 1:17:26I don't, I don't I don't think it's I don't think it's the the
- 1:17:34the full extent of what we got later on so there might be
- 1:17:36something further down so we got, Fraser said.
- 1:17:39Would it. Would people be as bothered
- 1:17:40about the final scene of it where one of the male doctors
- 1:17:44who responded to Graham in that way?
- 1:17:47Well, someone actually did say that later down through it.
- 1:17:50Yeah, so there is more to come from that.
- 1:17:53We we have, we have some gentleman called James Broff.
- 1:17:58I pronounced that right. He said no.
- 1:18:00I really don't think they would. Compare that scene with 12
- 1:18:03needing prompt cards to remind him to sound concerned about
- 1:18:06other people. 12 is such a callous bastard.
- 1:18:10He says it into the Dalek. Look, you want to have a chat
- 1:18:13with your mate who's just died. He's that top layer is every
- 1:18:17that's more heartless than this. Oh, absolutely.
- 1:18:20I was talking. I was talking to somebody the
- 1:18:25other day about the way he just abandons Clara.
- 1:18:27It didn't kill the moon, you know.
- 1:18:29You know, at that point, I don't know what we're talking about.
- 1:18:33Can you hear me? But at that point, watching 12,
- 1:18:35I was like, as much as I enjoy serious, I was like, do I like
- 1:18:39this, this Doctor? Yeah.
- 1:18:43It does challenge you. Yeah.
- 1:18:46I think where it probably stands out a little bit more with Jody
- 1:18:48is because she usually comes across as across as quite quite
- 1:18:53kind. But again, as we've discussed
- 1:18:56already, I don't think she's been callous.
- 1:18:59I don't think there's anything, any part of that comes across as
- 1:19:02being callous at all. I think they are starting to
- 1:19:05give her a bit more sort of challenging characterization.
- 1:19:07I love the bit. I mean, I'm coming out about
- 1:19:09dear Dalcy again, where she goes.
- 1:19:10Do you know what? Sometimes this flat team
- 1:19:13structure isn't so flat after all, you know.
- 1:19:16Yeah, yeah, Okay. And then we do have okay.
- 1:19:26So do we. Wow.
- 1:19:27This is like proper opening up. This is.
- 1:19:31So this is, this is John the White who he said sadly.
- 1:19:37He's been living with terminal cancer for over six months.
- 1:19:40Not once. You.
- 1:19:41Not once. Human beings told me they're too
- 1:19:43socially awkward to be able to talk about it.
- 1:19:45The Doctor never acted that way. Most people don't act that way,
- 1:19:48and it was a bad idea for 13 to act that way.
- 1:19:52Don't challenge his experiences, but I do challenge his opinion
- 1:19:56that most people don't act that way.
- 1:19:58Because I'm telling you, nobody could face the fact that my
- 1:20:02mother was dying of terminal cancer and they couldn't have
- 1:20:05that conversation with her. And that's not a fault of this.
- 1:20:09It's just they did not have the the language and the emotional
- 1:20:13capacity to have those conversations.
- 1:20:16What this is really interesting. I want to talk about John the
- 1:20:20White and the conversation we ended up having.
- 1:20:22What happened was he got very angry that I wouldn't
- 1:20:26acknowledge his opinion. And ultimately I just started
- 1:20:31throwing affection at him because I thought, he's trying
- 1:20:35to really roll me up to the point where he, like, made a
- 1:20:39comparison between me and a rapist.
- 1:20:43So to a point where I wasn't reacting to very strong
- 1:20:47statements that he was making, I just kept saying all the best
- 1:20:50love and hugs, you know. And then eventually he blocked
- 1:20:55me because he couldn't make me angry.
- 1:20:58And there is this element of fandom on Twitter that hases era
- 1:21:03so much and they desperately want to fight with people about
- 1:21:05it. And the best way to react to
- 1:21:08these people is just to to fight back with kindness.
- 1:21:11You have to. You have to.
- 1:21:12Generally speaking, they just go away.
- 1:21:14As example I budge on the white. Yeah, and you can't because you
- 1:21:18know he. And he he does go, he, he does,
- 1:21:22you know, add more to it, you know, I don't know.
- 1:21:25Shall we go through the the rest of the things?
- 1:21:27He says. I mean, I think that's very
- 1:21:32heated that discussion. Yeah it is.
- 1:21:34It's A1 sided heated discussion unfortunately.
- 1:21:37What I will say is I think he makes a valid point that his
- 1:21:42reading is valid or him. Yeah, he couldn't accept that my
- 1:21:48reading was valid for me, and that is a problem when you're
- 1:21:52having a discussion. Yeah, it is a problem.
- 1:21:55The thing is, we're all different.
- 1:21:57Every single one of us in in this universe, on this planet is
- 1:22:02is a different person. And we are all different in so
- 1:22:06many ways. We all have to respect each
- 1:22:10other. We have to respect what each of
- 1:22:13us feel and think. And not attack each other
- 1:22:17because of it. You know it's not.
- 1:22:21I don't understand how people cannot understand that.
- 1:22:25How people cannot be okay with other people having different
- 1:22:29opinions. You know, if we were all the
- 1:22:32same, how boring would life be? Well, podcasts be the same for a
- 1:22:36style. Everyone would be saying the
- 1:22:37same thing. Yeah, exactly.
- 1:22:40I spent most of the last couple of weeks challenging my opinion
- 1:22:43on the Stephen Muffett era, with a load of people coming on and
- 1:22:47telling me how amazing it is and actually making me question my
- 1:22:51opinion on a lot of that stuff. You know, that's the best
- 1:22:53conversation to have. It is, yeah.
- 1:22:56It's not to be sort of dogged in a corner and say this is right,
- 1:22:59it's all right. Well, tell me what you think and
- 1:23:01let's talk about it. Yeah, it's, you know, it's like,
- 1:23:04you know, Delta in the Bannerman.
- 1:23:06It wasn't a very loved story. But over the over time, so many
- 1:23:11people's opinions, you know, you listen to people's opinions and
- 1:23:14more people love that story now because because they form their
- 1:23:17own opinion on it rather than listen to the, to the, you know,
- 1:23:20the kind of received wisdom of of fandom.
- 1:23:24So yeah, it's people just need to accept that there's other
- 1:23:27opinions. There's no need to attack
- 1:23:29people. I still think the Wedding River
- 1:23:32Song is the right dog of an episode just out there.
- 1:23:35Yeah, okay. Come on in.
- 1:23:38Let's hear from somebody else. Okay okay, so let's get back to
- 1:23:42the original tweet. So Dave Rennie, Dave from the
- 1:23:48Cattle, says he says Ian Gelda plays Creepy Bug as well.
- 1:23:55He was also unsettling in Torchwood, too.
- 1:23:57Yes, he was, absolutely. Right.
- 1:24:01And if you blow that Dave, ready.
- 1:24:02Yeah, and if you ever get a chance, I'm just going to plug
- 1:24:05this because I like plugging this series every now and again.
- 1:24:10Ian Gilda, I believe, is I think he might be married to Ben
- 1:24:14Daniels, who is a star of a fantastic series called The
- 1:24:20Exorcist. Which is a spinoff or sequel to
- 1:24:24the film and it's amazing. Got cancelled after two series,
- 1:24:27but he's amazing and he plays an alcoholic exorcist.
- 1:24:31Check it out everybody. Yeah, I don't think you can get
- 1:24:34it on DVD, but let's do something that still recommends.
- 1:24:39Always. Any chance I get to plug that
- 1:24:41series, I will do. I loved it.
- 1:24:45We got Brendan. Brendan A Jones.
- 1:24:47It's one of my faves of series 12, Ryan.
- 1:24:50Support of Tibo is really well handled.
- 1:24:53The villains plan really connects well with childhood
- 1:24:55fears. Love.
- 1:24:56The Doctor flying off to get into trouble because she's
- 1:24:58bored? Yes.
- 1:25:01And he also continues with while I think the off criticized
- 1:25:05Doctor Graham bit at the end could have.
- 1:25:07A better dialogue. I don't do wonder if it's more
- 1:25:10vocal critics always if it if it's more vocal critics always
- 1:25:14have the right words to say when their friends ask for support.
- 1:25:19And in a response to that, Jeff, the lovely Jeff Goddard.
- 1:25:26But he's been on both sides of the conversation at various
- 1:25:28points. I'm sure many have.
- 1:25:30Sometimes just vocalizing is all that's needed.
- 1:25:33You don't need, want or expect an answer, just a pair of ears
- 1:25:36to hear, and sometimes there are no words to offer in return,
- 1:25:40only empty platitudes and Andy Parkinson added.
- 1:25:46I do wish they hadn't put that scene in if they weren't going,
- 1:25:50If they weren't going to, at least.
- 1:25:51Get her to empathize. It does seem a bit clunky, but
- 1:25:54Bradley Walsh knocks it out of the park with his performance.
- 1:25:57I question that. I think she does empathize by
- 1:26:01listening by saying she wished she did better.
- 1:26:04I mean, she kind of makes it about herself rather than about
- 1:26:06what he's going through. But I think the act of listening
- 1:26:10is an act of empathy. Yeah, absolutely it is, Andy
- 1:26:15also says. This is one of the best shipment
- 1:26:18episodes for companion development, which we kind of
- 1:26:22touched on that. Yeah, definitely, and somebody
- 1:26:27called the British Alien said. For me, the companions loom
- 1:26:30large, but their characters aren't developed.
- 1:26:34It's so interesting, isn't it? It is in every direction.
- 1:26:38And not one point. Are we sitting here criticizing
- 1:26:42the opinions of these people? You know, because it is, Yeah,
- 1:26:49you can. Sometimes you can choose to see
- 1:26:51the development or you can choose to say there's no
- 1:26:53development there. You know, it's for me.
- 1:26:56I watch it and I see Ryan developing into somebody who
- 1:26:59actually maybe doesn't want to continue this life traveling in
- 1:27:02the TARDIS and wants to actually stay at home and support his
- 1:27:05friends and everything. That's the development I see for
- 1:27:07Ryan, acknowledging that she's come from a dark place and
- 1:27:13thanking the person that helped her do that.
- 1:27:16And then I'll see Graham acknowledging the facts out loud
- 1:27:21that he still has fears about his physical health.
- 1:27:24Yeah, I mean, I do, I do, I do. You know, kind of, I would have
- 1:27:28loved to have seen it hinted at from the start perhaps that
- 1:27:33there was, that there was these issues going on, you know, say
- 1:27:36there was something. In the background that we
- 1:27:38weren't quite aware of with Yaz from from right at the start of
- 1:27:42the series. But that's how television is
- 1:27:45made, isn't it? Sometimes things don't come into
- 1:27:49it until it's done that as well though, you know, Cuz I think
- 1:27:52that scene in Spiteful where she breaks down in tears after she
- 1:27:56goes off to that dark space, it does show her to be quite
- 1:27:59vulnerable. Yeah, yeah.
- 1:28:01So yeah, I think I've read a comment about that earlier on,
- 1:28:03actually. And Andy also puts also a Zelin
- 1:28:08Rekaya that was the name of the female, the prototypes for Swarm
- 1:28:13and Azure. So it was Andy who mentioned
- 1:28:15that you can feel some similarities between this and
- 1:28:18the Flux. You can.
- 1:28:20I think Swarm and Azure are more melodramatic in camp and far
- 1:28:25more entertaining to watch as a result.
- 1:28:29Yeah, Fraser. So Fraser's lightning the mood a
- 1:28:35little bit. Snog marry or poke to death with
- 1:28:38detachable fingers and your options are Tibo Tahira and
- 1:28:42Yazis police officer Tibo Tahira and Yazis police officer Okay.
- 1:28:48So I'll obviously snog Tibo cuz he had massive gorgeous full
- 1:28:54lips and he looked very kissable.
- 1:28:57I'm going to marry the police officer because she seems like a
- 1:29:00lovely person. What am I doing?
- 1:29:04I'm shoving fingers here. To death with detachable
- 1:29:07fingers. Yeah, because I want her out of
- 1:29:09the episode. So sorry to hear her.
- 1:29:10You're out. What?
- 1:29:11About you, I think I'd say Snog. He has his police officer
- 1:29:19because I think she's absolutely bloody wonderful for what she
- 1:29:22does in that in that story. I would say marry TiVo because
- 1:29:28it just feels like you need some some love, some comfort.
- 1:29:35And yeah, poke to death with detachable fingers to hear her,
- 1:29:37unfortunately. And we like to hear her as well,
- 1:29:40but I love the bit when she comes along at the beginning.
- 1:29:42She's a terrible old gossip with her mate, yeah.
- 1:29:46Oh, hang on off. Just come off it.
- 1:29:48Bear with me. Oh, no.
- 1:29:49Here we go. Steve Alexandra Alexander.
- 1:29:53Sorry, sorry. Steve says it's it's fingers in
- 1:29:57your ears time. I'm sure that was a bit in Wacky
- 1:30:00Day where they used to do that. I can't.
- 1:30:03I remember Wacky Day, but I can't remember that.
- 1:30:05It's good to know you're ready and.
- 1:30:08You're walking awake. So on your Marks and gets it go
- 1:30:11oh boom boom boom swacky day. No school today.
- 1:30:15What? You gonna do that?
- 1:30:17Oh my God. You remember Maris Malia?
- 1:30:19Yeah, No repetition or deviations, or you get a bash on
- 1:30:21the head like this, but on boom, that is all coming, yeah.
- 1:30:28That's it. Come on, Steven, you're
- 1:30:30challenging me a bit. Daniel Knight, Could this have
- 1:30:35been better? We have a moment for Daniel
- 1:30:37Knight, please. We do like Daniel that oh, he's
- 1:30:39gorgeous. Got to do.
- 1:30:40Like we do like Daniel. Could this have been better if
- 1:30:44it had focused solely on the doctor and the farm and no
- 1:30:46pointless trips back to 14th century Syria?
- 1:30:49But it does also add when I say better.
- 1:30:52I don't think it's bad, but it could have utilized the regulars
- 1:30:55far better. It seemed to be going for a
- 1:30:57Bussy, Buffy style vibe and focusing purely on the doctor.
- 1:31:01Graham, Yaz and Ryan would have streamlined it and made it more
- 1:31:04coherent, in my opinion. Very smart as well.
- 1:31:08That's exactly what we said earlier.
- 1:31:09Yeah, get rid of Aleppo and more of the regulars.
- 1:31:13Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'd have to agree.
- 1:31:15I'd have to agree as much as I enjoy it, like you said before,
- 1:31:19ditch it and kind of free the space up a little bit in the
- 1:31:22story to explore it a little bit further.
- 1:31:25Simon, Simon Hart. Which of the stories would
- 1:31:30benefit from having animated exposition scenes?
- 1:31:33Do you think it works? Oh, yes.
- 1:31:36Just Chris Chibnall's script, the timeless children would have
- 1:31:39benefited, so we didn't have to put up with that long slide 15
- 1:31:43minutes. The Masters PowerPoint
- 1:31:45presentation if it was just a 2 minute animation.
- 1:31:49I do like that I do like his PowerPoint presentation.
- 1:31:52However, I do agree. Reading reading that comment
- 1:31:55from Simon, I do think that that would have worked better with a
- 1:31:59with an animated sequence. That's been really nice because
- 1:32:03it annoys Fraser Crickery so much.
- 1:32:06That sequence in Thomas Children.
- 1:32:08I think it's interminable. I, I, I, I enjoy it.
- 1:32:11I enjoy it. For it's again.
- 1:32:14Again, I respect other people's opinions on that.
- 1:32:17They might not like that, you know that can happen, isn't.
- 1:32:20It I was sat there on the edge of my seat watching that, you
- 1:32:23know, and it just goes to show how different people can be.
- 1:32:28We've got Daniel Rawnsley. Oh, so I think he's he's
- 1:32:34commented on something he might have already commented on, but I
- 1:32:36can only see the second part, so he's just put ooh.
- 1:32:39Also, they're more creepy than camp, but Zelin and Rekaya,
- 1:32:43again, an early inspiration for swarming Azure for the question
- 1:32:46mark. So whatever insightful comment
- 1:32:50you made, Daniel, thank you very much.
- 1:32:53We've got to say we agree with it wholeheartedly.
- 1:32:56We do. Hopefully we might find the
- 1:32:58first part of the comment somewhere further down.
- 1:32:59We'll have a look though. Eric White, which I'm assuming
- 1:33:02is not related to John. I liked a lot of the story, but
- 1:33:06the resolution was awful and Jarred with the rest of it.
- 1:33:10Fair enough. Jack Koyer, Who?
- 1:33:17Jack, you've had on your podcast before, haven't you?
- 1:33:19It's so he's so smart. Listening to what I need to get
- 1:33:28that she's been asking. I need to make it happen.
- 1:33:31Getting back in Well, he's got an interesting question.
- 1:33:33I think the character development of this story would
- 1:33:35have been better served in series 11.
- 1:33:38Which series 11 story would you put into series 12 if they
- 1:33:41exchanged places? I think some of that series 11
- 1:33:47sort of more sedate pace would have worked in series 12 just
- 1:33:50for one episode. It's so fast-paced, so serious.
- 1:33:5312 stories maybe I would have put in.
- 1:33:59It takes you away. Yeah, I was thinking more along
- 1:34:03the lines of something like arachnids in the UK still, you
- 1:34:07can still, you know you're still taking them back-to-back home,
- 1:34:11but. We kind of, it's a little bit
- 1:34:13more lightweight. At lightweight we just annoy
- 1:34:15everybody and make Ratnes in the UK, the sequel in 612, we have
- 1:34:20two lots of it, those spiders that the thing that people
- 1:34:24object to. So those spiders being, you
- 1:34:25know, crushed to death with no, some of them got out and they
- 1:34:30multiplied and they're all over the world now.
- 1:34:35The rack needs in the world. There you go.
- 1:34:36There's a sequel. There you go.
- 1:34:38Cuz I love. I do like.
- 1:34:39I like arachnids. I do and I hate spiders.
- 1:34:42But I love arachnids. Hannah.
- 1:34:45I'm not sure of no Hannah, no Hannah.
- 1:34:51She's coming on to do Ghost Light you.
- 1:34:53Know. Wow.
- 1:34:54Wow. All the stories to choose is
- 1:34:56your first one. Such an interesting one.
- 1:34:58Wow. Yeah, I would not even attempt
- 1:35:01it, so I can't wait to hear that, she says.
- 1:35:04I love how unsettling and creepy it is.
- 1:35:08Mr. Tom says. There was some very dodgy
- 1:35:11direction going on when the Doctor managed to get the Sonic
- 1:35:14out of a pocket by wiggling a bit, and it suddenly managed to
- 1:35:17leap out of a pocket into her hand.
- 1:35:23Yeah. Well, funny.
- 1:35:27What the Kragas saw says, I think it suffers from the fact
- 1:35:31which blighted most of the chip malaria.
- 1:35:33It doesn't actually have a cohesive end, It just sort of
- 1:35:36stops and there's no evidence of a plan to revisit the dangling
- 1:35:39threads ever again. I think that's entirely wrong.
- 1:35:44They think those endings do suffer a bit.
- 1:35:47They do. They do, except when she blows
- 1:35:50the kiss to the frog. I love that.
- 1:35:53It kind of. Sometimes it reminds me of.
- 1:35:56I was watching a Deep Space 9 Star Trek Space Nine episode the
- 1:35:59other day or the other week with O'Brien where he lives 20 years
- 1:36:06hard time. Is it a hard time and you never
- 1:36:09see any consequences of it ever again?
- 1:36:11It's a fantastic episode, particularly troubling aspect of
- 1:36:15Star Trek. You know, I watched Genesis the
- 1:36:18other day where the TNG crew got de evolved into monsters.
- 1:36:23Between the scenes they were re evolved into their normal selves
- 1:36:26with no signs that they had any issues at.
- 1:36:29All wow. Wow.
- 1:36:30And it's. Yeah, it did remind me of that
- 1:36:34kind of Star Trek thing and Deep Space 9 and they were going
- 1:36:39totally up on the tangent now. But Deep Space Nine was always
- 1:36:41very good at weaving in the. Recurring things.
- 1:36:44So to abandon something like that, Yeah, it was a short size.
- 1:36:47It doesn't escape the fact that that is a brilliant episode
- 1:36:50though. The performances are brilliant.
- 1:36:52Yeah, that affected me when I was a when I I think I saw it
- 1:36:56when I was about about 14 and it it it upset me, you know, to see
- 1:37:02the character that I loved putting into that do health as
- 1:37:05well, wasn't it? Exactly.
- 1:37:06Yeah, it is, Yeah. Yeah, we made a link at least.
- 1:37:10Good. These questions are still
- 1:37:13coming. Well, I say questions, but we've
- 1:37:15got we've got the continuation of the arguments going on as
- 1:37:19well this. It's slowly updating as we're
- 1:37:21going through it. But you know we have to get to
- 1:37:25everything. Are we, Max?
- 1:37:27Blake says this episode has the worst SFX I've I had seen in
- 1:37:31Doctor Who based on the year it was made.
- 1:37:33After the two villains get trapped, there's a shot of them
- 1:37:35screaming trapped and it is terrible.
- 1:37:37Poorly active and shot. The rest is fine, but the
- 1:37:40depression subplot was underutilized.
- 1:37:42Max, you are so right. It's terrible and in an era
- 1:37:47where the special effects are amazing.
- 1:37:49Yeah, yeah, something went wrong there.
- 1:37:53Matt Price says. I think it's it's a truly solid,
- 1:37:56solid story that deserves credit for wanting to talk mental
- 1:37:58health. And once the ending is divisive,
- 1:38:00I think it fits well with the character of Jody's Doctor and
- 1:38:03represents me in a way I don't often have the words for a
- 1:38:06situation as delicate as that there.
- 1:38:09You go. Liz on hiatus says it's a good
- 1:38:15episode, but I absolutely hate debating it.
- 1:38:17Most of the time it isn't pleasant and just makes me end
- 1:38:20up feeling worse. It never turns out to be a fun
- 1:38:22conversation, so I will say that I like it and leave it at that.
- 1:38:26That's nice for the last two hours of podcasting.
- 1:38:31Then see what are you on hiatus from?
- 1:38:34Can you come back at us and let us know?
- 1:38:36Except for A/C content. That's what's in her name.
- 1:38:38Liz on hiatus, except for A/C content.
- 1:38:42Come back, Liz. We apologize.
- 1:38:45We have had fun debating it, though.
- 1:38:47Yeah. And then quite clearly, it does
- 1:38:49throw up debate. So.
- 1:38:52Carrie says, much like the rest of series 12, I rather enjoy it.
- 1:38:55It's not most it's not the most groundbreaking Doctor Who has
- 1:38:58ever been. The idea of the Immortals is
- 1:39:00captivating. One thing I wanted from Jody's
- 1:39:02run was to pit her against evils from the dawn of time, and this
- 1:39:05episode was the closest we got very satisfied with this thing.
- 1:39:10I I'm a huge fan of series 12 as well.
- 1:39:13You know, that's not really opinion.
- 1:39:14You could. Oh, I I don't know if it's
- 1:39:16because we're in the middle of a pandemic at the time, but it was
- 1:39:19like my comfort comfort. Thing at the time you know
- 1:39:23knowing that Doctor Who was still there and the doctor was
- 1:39:25still out there in the world saving it.
- 1:39:27You know I loved it and okay so Lord reverend call hulan igneous
- 1:39:38mo. I think this is the, this is
- 1:39:41the. This is what triggered the
- 1:39:43rather heated. Read the 1st doctor would have
- 1:39:48would have ignored Graham's words.
- 1:39:50The third would have listened while tinkering with something,
- 1:39:53then changed the subject. 6 would have been at a loss and 12
- 1:39:56would have been rude. People make a fuss because it's
- 1:39:5813 and then he don't. Entirely disagree with that.
- 1:40:03No, and he added. I think, in fact I think only
- 1:40:06two, five and 11 would have had much empathy, he posted.
- 1:40:11Question if two would have actually who struggled to talk
- 1:40:14about his feelings? Maybe 5-5 and 11:00.
- 1:40:21Possibly, And but that that then triggered A gentleman called
- 1:40:28this assume is a gentleman called Problem being you slash
- 1:40:30what? I don't know what you've been
- 1:40:33watching, but it isn't Doctor Who.
- 1:40:35There is absolutely no justification for supporting
- 1:40:37that scene. It was an absolute betrayal of
- 1:40:39the character. I will.
- 1:40:42I will. I won't read everything out, but
- 1:40:45he says the error was not maybe awful or sort of bad or
- 1:40:49semidecent. It was absolutely turgid, and it
- 1:40:54did set off a bit of a bit of a debate.
- 1:41:00It's still going on because the guy replied 2 minutes ago about
- 1:41:04ratings. That's very much a I I
- 1:41:08completely respect that he hates this period of Doctor Who.
- 1:41:11You know, I feel sorry for you because there was three years of
- 1:41:14Doctor Who that you didn't enjoy.
- 1:41:15That's very much a closed tweet. That's not inviting any kind of
- 1:41:21discussion. It's just an opinion basically
- 1:41:23saying this is a fact and that's that.
- 1:41:26So it's not really a conversation you should have.
- 1:41:28It's not. It's not, and it's.
- 1:41:30You're jumping in with an opinion like that.
- 1:41:33It does turn rather vicious. It's a shame, isn't it?
- 1:41:38It's a shame cuz wouldn't it be lovely if we could get all these
- 1:41:41people with differing opinions onto a podcast and get everybody
- 1:41:45together and discuss it face? To face I had Luke Malloy and
- 1:41:50Dylan Reeves on the other day to do The Impossible Astronaut and
- 1:41:54Day of the Moon 80 past. I have extreme issues with and
- 1:41:57they love. Yeah.
- 1:41:58And we laughed and discussed and flirted our way through those
- 1:42:03two episodes in the most amiable way, whilst we had completely
- 1:42:08differing opinions about just about everything it can be.
- 1:42:12It can be done. It can be done.
- 1:42:13You just have to, again, allow yourself to.
- 1:42:17I think both approaches have to be open to the challenge of
- 1:42:20their opinion. Yeah, and I mean that on both
- 1:42:23sides of the coin. Even the pro Jody lovers need to
- 1:42:26be open to the challenge that it's not perfect, it is flawed,
- 1:42:32and those flaws should be discussed.
- 1:42:34Yeah, exactly. So I will kind of, yeah, I will
- 1:42:39kind of come away from that. And go on to a few more
- 1:42:44questions here. So not questions, comments, but
- 1:42:46Alan, who says in my head Cannon, Zellin and Rakia are the
- 1:42:50same characters as Mansell and Rack, We, we call them.
- 1:42:55Made a bit of a comparison earlier, didn't we?
- 1:42:57Yeah, yeah, I like that Michael Russell, he says.
- 1:43:00I love it. Including the ending.
- 1:43:02Jody Whitaker. Zero was brilliant and I think
- 1:43:04years from now it will be reevaluated the way Sylvester
- 1:43:06Mccoy's has been. A gentleman did.
- 1:43:15I can't pronounce his username maybe Kim in time he he he said
- 1:43:21there's something about blocking people but he also made the
- 1:43:23point of Chipmel was writing from personal experience and the
- 1:43:27people saying this. I've not not had the first clue
- 1:43:29what it's like to go through having cancer.
- 1:43:33I do. I I do recognize that a lot of
- 1:43:37the the writing has has got a bit of a personal twist on it
- 1:43:40from. You know, Chip not, I believe
- 1:43:44he, he was also, did Chip not say he was also adopted?
- 1:43:48And he, he kind of wrote with that idea in mind with the
- 1:43:53Timeless child. And so, yeah, he was doing his
- 1:43:57own personal experiences within Doctor Who, and that's his
- 1:44:01subjective take on Doctor Who as well.
- 1:44:03He needs to be open to the challenge of people saying,
- 1:44:06well, I didn't really work for me, sorry.
- 1:44:08Yeah. Exactly.
- 1:44:11James H says OK, so the flip in the Sonic scene isn't really
- 1:44:14possible, but I never bothered who previously.
- 1:44:17Other than that, it's great, the great tribute to
- 1:44:19extradimensional continuity. And gods, John says.
- 1:44:25I know I'm in a minority on this, but as someone who
- 1:44:28struggles with empathy and is a bit socially awkward in
- 1:44:30situations like that, it was nice to see someone on screen
- 1:44:33reacting as as I fear I would Cliff any voice work going.
- 1:44:39It says incredibly dull for the most part.
- 1:44:41Frequently quite stupid and with jaw droppingly ill thought.
- 1:44:44With a jaw droppingly ill thought ending that doesn't even
- 1:44:47need to be there. Terrible waste of a great guest
- 1:44:50star. Just disastrous.
- 1:44:53I I love how it divides people, that it's literally all over the
- 1:45:01place, isn't it? Some people hate it, some people
- 1:45:04love it, and most people are somewhere in the middle saying I
- 1:45:06like it, but I'll. Yeah, and some people didn't
- 1:45:10talk about it and to be honest, what's something called WA, but
- 1:45:19to be honest, what's what 13 says incredibly out of pocket.
- 1:45:23It's also kind of accurate to what some people say in that
- 1:45:25situation. Hence why Chipman says he wrote
- 1:45:27it based off his experience. But I wish he would maybe would
- 1:45:31have said it more earlier on, so it aged somewhat better.
- 1:45:37I think we're kind of there. I think you know that's we've
- 1:45:45done 15 minutes of tweets there. So I think that's a fair
- 1:45:48coverage. If we didn't get to your
- 1:45:50comment, I apologize. Yeah, because it is also not
- 1:45:55because we didn't want to read it, but because it's bloody hard
- 1:45:58to to find because we've got discussions now about ratings.
- 1:46:05And Moffett era ratings and stuff like that.
- 1:46:07So I'm just going to assume that your opinion, those that we
- 1:46:10didn't get to is somewhere between height, love and like in
- 1:46:15the middle. Yeah, I I would.
- 1:46:18I would close the tweet, but I'm not.
- 1:46:21I'm going to leave it open because I think it'll
- 1:46:22eventually, it'll eventually burn out and people need to get
- 1:46:25their opinions off the chest like that.
- 1:46:27So that's certainly one of the these sort of the hottest takes
- 1:46:32on an episode that I've you put it out to Twitter but hand
- 1:46:37stuff. I opened.
- 1:46:40I opened the floodgates there. I opened the kind of worms,
- 1:46:42yeah, not to do with me or I come through it.
- 1:46:45I'm joking. I'm joking.
- 1:46:48On this podcast. Jesus, what we do have to do
- 1:46:51now, though, we do have to still name the three things that we
- 1:46:55would recommend. We do, don't we, About this
- 1:46:57episode and start with you? Okay.
- 1:47:00Well, I would say my first one, it would be it.
- 1:47:04It's tackling of mental health issues and you know we've talked
- 1:47:08about it in great depth tonight. It's it's very brave to go
- 1:47:15there. It's very it's very brave to go
- 1:47:19there with your regulars as well and to show that the size of
- 1:47:23them, that you know, you may or may not always agree with and
- 1:47:28that you know. There is, there is those things
- 1:47:32going on in the world and people need to be aware of them.
- 1:47:37So yeah, I would say the mental, the tackling mental health
- 1:47:39subjects. I'm gonna say I really love the
- 1:47:42weirdness in this episode. I really like how it refuses to
- 1:47:47conform to what we kind of accepted.
- 1:47:50This is something very dreamy. We're going into nightmares.
- 1:47:53We're going into some weird other space between planet
- 1:47:56prisons, you know? I like all of that.
- 1:48:00And I think there's some really terrific imagery in this
- 1:48:03episode. I probably would say the music.
- 1:48:09God damn it, my second one. Because second a canola, you
- 1:48:16know I love Murray Gold to bits. But second A Canola's music is
- 1:48:20just it's been one of the highlights of the chip and Alera
- 1:48:25and just that I mentioned it earlier the kind of on constant
- 1:48:31ambient music in the background just kind of ramping up that
- 1:48:36kind of the. It's there and it gives you the
- 1:48:41stings when you need it and it's just there bubbling under the
- 1:48:44surface, and I really like that. It's not.
- 1:48:48It's just fantastic. It means when he punctuates with
- 1:48:51those dramatic stings, you're sort of really taken aback,
- 1:48:54aren't you? Yeah, yeah, it's fantastic.
- 1:48:58I am going to say the performances of all four of the
- 1:49:03leads, they're all given quite challenging material to play in
- 1:49:06this. But I really want to highlight
- 1:49:09Amanda Gill who as her time goes on, gets more and more to do.
- 1:49:15And I think the so 11 she's a little bit wasted 12 the tide is
- 1:49:19turning and at 13 she's on fire and we're at that sort of
- 1:49:23turning point now. She plays those sequences where
- 1:49:28Yaz is depressed and where she's come to terms with that and is
- 1:49:33she's just she's just brilliant. I I've been both the person
- 1:49:38depressed and the person on the other side of it, and I see
- 1:49:42myself in how she plays the character, and I can't.
- 1:49:45For me, subjectively, I cannot, you know, say anything more
- 1:49:49positive than that about performance is I see myself in a
- 1:49:52companion. I say my last one would be
- 1:49:56probably the the the lighting and the color of the episode
- 1:50:01that you know from the from the Reds and the Blues and the
- 1:50:04blacks of the TARDIS to the the complete lack of color when
- 1:50:10Zelin and Rakai are walking down the street in the fog to the the
- 1:50:16the Blues in Aleppo where the you know the the cold and the
- 1:50:19claw. Grabbing the the, the lady's
- 1:50:23face and just that kind of the lighting.
- 1:50:26I just think the lighting really helps, especially in a in a set
- 1:50:30as difficult as as the Jody's console room.
- 1:50:34I keep Jody's, Jody's console room, the doctor's console room
- 1:50:38I always say Jody is. Jody yeah.
- 1:50:41Whittaker's console room. She's so synonymous with the
- 1:50:45power, right? Yeah, she is.
- 1:50:47Her stamps all over it. Yeah.
- 1:50:50But yeah, I would say the lighting and the coloring.
- 1:50:53And my last thing is going to be that last scene between the
- 1:50:58Doctor and Graham. Partly because I personally like
- 1:51:04how it's portrayed and have seen that awkward reaction to tough
- 1:51:09conversations, but mostly because it provokes it
- 1:51:13stimulates so much discussion around that idea.
- 1:51:18And whether that is people jumping in with very sort of
- 1:51:22stubborn opinions or toxic opinions or reasonable criticism
- 1:51:28or being very positive about it, it people are talking about it.
- 1:51:34I think he knew that was going to happen.
- 1:51:36I don't think it's an accident that that scene is there and I
- 1:51:40think it got the result that he wanted as well.
- 1:51:43Yeah, I agree with you. I agree.
- 1:51:46I don't think I've ever seen anything so.
- 1:51:49Advisive. Well, they'll probably have
- 1:51:51timeless. Timeless child.
- 1:51:53Arc is love and monsters. Yeah, Yeah.
- 1:52:00I would agree with you there. Yeah, I can't.
- 1:52:02You know, I can't remember the last time a new series episode
- 1:52:06has brought up such a varied number of voices, you know?
- 1:52:14Yes, it's been a real treat to talk about this one, and it
- 1:52:17surprised me because you might think this is a bit of an
- 1:52:20inoffensive mid season episode. Not at all, Not at all.
- 1:52:25It's there and it's, I mean we've been talking for what,
- 1:52:28nearly two hours? Yeah, two hours.
- 1:52:32Yeah. It's absolutely it's a very
- 1:52:35important story and. That's what I want Doctor Who to
- 1:52:41be. Maybe not all the time.
- 1:52:42Maybe sometimes you just want to sit back and watch some daft,
- 1:52:45like Iraqis in the UK or, I don't know, dinosaurs on a
- 1:52:49spaceship or, you know, sometimes that's that's what you
- 1:52:51want. You know, if I wouldn't watch
- 1:52:54this as a comfort episode, you know, I've got my comfort
- 1:52:57episodes. This wouldn't be a comfort
- 1:52:59episode. But I think it's a very
- 1:53:02important episode, despite its, you know, some of the
- 1:53:06shortcomings. I think it's.
- 1:53:09It needed to be done. Anyone that suggests that this
- 1:53:12era isn't pushing boundaries, like I accuse the Moffett era
- 1:53:17being very ambitious, not often getting it right, but being
- 1:53:21extremely brave and ambitious. Why, This is doing exactly the
- 1:53:24same thing. Yeah, you know, almost
- 1:53:27encouraging people to be uncomfortable with it.
- 1:53:31Yeah, and I think as well, you know, you know, for as much as
- 1:53:34we pour love onto this era as well.
- 1:53:37And it is. Sometimes I think this is my
- 1:53:41favorite era of New Who, and it's one of the only years that
- 1:53:45I regularly go back to to watch. But as much as I love it, I also
- 1:53:50appreciate that there are some parts of it I don't always love.
- 1:53:54You know, there's, you know, because I don't.
- 1:53:55I don't want people to sit there at home thinking, oh, it's just
- 1:53:58a loving for the Chignel era because it's, you know, it's
- 1:54:01not. I think.
- 1:54:02I think there are some parts of it where it fails, you know, I
- 1:54:05think. And I think there was a lot of
- 1:54:08wasted opportunities in in series 11.
- 1:54:10I think, you know, I'm not keen on the Sinangre conundrum, the
- 1:54:15the finale, the battle of runs, Karoff Coal loss.
- 1:54:18It's not. It's not.
- 1:54:19Perfect Companions was frequently one too many.
- 1:54:23Yeah, exactly. And there's sometimes where I
- 1:54:27feel sometimes, especially in series 11, where sometimes
- 1:54:29Jody's performance feels a little bit forced and it's a
- 1:54:32little bit too, you know, happy, happy.
- 1:54:36And Legends of the Sea Devils? It's not bloody tedious, yeah.
- 1:54:42You know, it's not, it's not all perfect, but that's me and
- 1:54:45Doctor Who, and that is how I will always be with Doctor Who.
- 1:54:48I will love bits, and I will not love bits as much, but I will
- 1:54:53always love it as a whole. And that is Doctor Who for me.
- 1:54:58Yeah. Well, I think that's a wonderful
- 1:55:01place to end this discussion. Boy, what a discussion, Jim.
- 1:55:07Where are we going next? I don't know.
- 1:55:10We've not determined that, have we?
- 1:55:11We did at some point a while ago consider doing the the No.
- 1:55:20What was it? I forgot the name of it because
- 1:55:22it's so dull. Eaters of Light from series 10
- 1:55:26Oh God, this is well, I don't think we ever set anything in
- 1:55:30stone. Or do you love that one?
- 1:55:34No. I want, I want to find a cheek
- 1:55:37of chink of light in the eases of light.
- 1:55:39But well, actually, no, I did watch you recently remark, you
- 1:55:43know, and I did come away thinking it was better than I
- 1:55:45remembered it being. All right, well, look, it's
- 1:55:49going to happen. I've got to cover every episode.
- 1:55:52So we'll we'll reengage in Roman Britain, or is it Roman
- 1:55:57Scotland? I can't even remember.
- 1:56:01I think I watched it twice. We'll sit around a campfire and
- 1:56:04discuss how fabulous it is to be bisexual and face a very obscure
- 1:56:10monster made of light. Cannot wait.
- 1:56:15I mean, I can't wait with that one, but I cannot wait to talk
- 1:56:18to you again. Thank you very much.
- 1:56:20Thank you for your time. It's been wonderful it.
- 1:56:22Has. Thank you very much, Joe.