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Transcript

Strictly Come Hamster - Flux (featuring Dylan Rees, Lee McMenemy & Frazer Gregory) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

• 0:00
  What about you get your ship behind that?
• 0:04
  Battalion wall doing it now. Is that all right?
• 0:15
  I can't get us out of this book. We.
• 0:17
  Can't outrun it. But we're safe in here, sealed
• 0:22
  in. There must be something you can
• 0:30
  do. One, let's go the dice.
• 0:37
  Take down people takes energy. Not.
• 0:47
  Much by the looks of things, the end of the universe, I
• 1:27
  always wondered. Live from the end of the
• 2:09
  universe no, it's not hitchhikers.
• 2:12
  It's Strictly Come Hamster, The Flux edition.
• 2:15
  Welcome back to Strictly Come Hamster.
• 2:17
  We've assembled A ragtag bunch to take on the end of the
• 2:21
  universe that is Flux. First of all, he's charming,
• 2:25
  he's funny, he's good with a wok, and he never talks about
• 2:28
  his plastering career. It's Lee from the police box.
• 2:32
  I was young and I was trying to make my way in Hollywood.
• 2:34
  That's all you need to open up about.
• 2:35
  My plastic then it's everyone's favorite shaggy dog.
• 2:40
  It's Mr. Fraser, Gregory and. I'm northern, what else do you
• 2:46
  need? And finally, he's not dark, he's
• 2:50
  not mysterious or silent, but he can fit a lot of people inside
• 2:54
  of him, just like passenger. It's Joe Ford.
• 2:58
  Hello there. I did see you people, you know,
• 3:00
  all nodding when Dylan went, you ragtag bunch.
• 3:03
  We all started nodding like, yeah, he's right.
• 3:06
  I feel seen. I feel seen.
• 3:08
  And of course, desk sure to be cancelled before the end of the
• 3:11
  recording. I am this recording's very own
• 3:14
  Kevin McNally. I am Dylan.
• 3:17
  Well, have you been up to just going to make you cancel on
• 3:19
  these recordings? You know, you know.
• 3:21
  Yeah, I mean, who knows what could anything could happen.
• 3:23
  This is all bets are off and we're recording it in COVID
• 3:27
  conditions just to be we're all miles away wearing masks and
• 3:33
  we've all tested beforehand, right?
• 3:35
  Absolutely. And I'm recording in a very
• 3:37
  oppressive, very small room. And that's how everyone felt
• 3:41
  during COVID. Should we just mention Paul very
• 3:43
  quickly and say, well, he was supposed to be here today, Paul
• 3:46
  Quinn, you know, the gutter of Doctor Who fandom.
• 3:51
  And what he's going to do is he's going to record some
• 3:53
  comments on the episodes, and I'm going to insert them in at
• 3:57
  various appropriate points. Exactly.
• 4:00
  We miss you. He can be like, I don't know,
• 4:04
  maybe he's the the, the roof doctor or something like that.
• 4:08
  Just put flashes in here and there.
• 4:10
  He's like the Grand Serpent, you know, stirring up all the red
• 4:13
  ants and the black ants. Exactly.
• 4:15
  And not no one's quite sure why he's there.
• 4:19
  Or he could be the the guy from in between us just cropping up
• 4:23
  for no good reason or. Or we'll get to that later.
• 4:27
  Trust me, we'll get to that. Dan's mum and dad.
• 4:30
  Their choices are endless, really.
• 4:31
  A big Dan's girlfriend who seems to get forgotten between like
• 4:34
  episode 1 and episode 5. You leave her alone.
• 4:38
  Yeah, she's harmless. Oh, die, I mean, Oh dear.
• 4:45
  Wow, wow. We've we've started low.
• 4:51
  So. To kick off or do we want to
• 4:53
  just sort of get a general overall feel of how we all, we
• 4:56
  all feel about it? That's the format, right?
• 4:59
  Yeah, that's right. You've got enough of these now.
• 5:00
  Come on. Yeah, I know, I know.
• 5:02
  But I stopped listening. No, that's what I'm joking.
• 5:05
  Understandable. Why don't we come to Fraser
• 5:08
  first? Oh, right.
• 5:10
  I mean, this is sort of dog shit, isn't it?
• 5:12
  This series It's it's it's the Nadira of the chimney era, you
• 5:16
  know, which itself is the Nadira of modern Doctor Who, as we all
• 5:20
  know. And this series in particular,
• 5:22
  it's just the apotheosis of everything bad that chin balls
• 5:25
  does. And it's got shoddy writing in
• 5:28
  it. You know it's a plotting, piss
• 5:30
  poor, abysmal script and virtually no counter work
• 5:33
  whatsoever and just episode after episode of tedious
• 5:37
  exposition and it's woeful casting.
• 5:39
  The design work looks like it's done by the YTS lads and lasses.
• 5:43
  It's under produced. It's overwrought, overwrought
• 5:46
  walk shyness that should have just been left on the COVID
• 5:49
  floor. Every single one of these
• 5:52
  stories deserves to be scorned and then bend and then scorned
• 5:55
  some more, to be honest. I didn't know Dan Hadley was
• 5:58
  saying, I mean. If you were going to bang on
• 6:07
  like that all night, we would have invited Ian Levine.
• 6:10
  I'm teasing. You this is.
• 6:12
  The. Best series we've had since
• 6:15
  Series 5, and even then that's a very close one thing for me this
• 6:19
  is, you know, as good as modern Doctor Who gets, it's streets
• 6:24
  ahead of of everything else that's been done.
• 6:27
  It's a series that through necessity more than anything
• 6:30
  else, I think really plays into general strengths.
• 6:33
  You know, coming off the back of Broadchurch where he's got, you
• 6:36
  know, 8 episodes of Broadchurch to tell a big long story.
• 6:39
  You know, this is his wheelhouse and you can tell.
• 6:42
  And just telling one story over 6 episodes, he just nails every
• 6:49
  single one of it and every single element of it.
• 6:52
  You know, there's about half a dozen narratives.
• 6:54
  He can just weaves them all together.
• 6:56
  The one absolutely breathtaking story.
• 6:59
  It's it's planet time and genre hopping and it's Doctor Who
• 7:04
  bought bang up to date. I'm really surprised that RTD
• 7:08
  didn't look at this and say this is my template for coming back.
• 7:13
  Because you look at you know, you look at things like the
• 7:15
  Mandalore and you look at things like squid Game, you know, the
• 7:18
  big successes of the streaming era.
• 7:22
  They're all doing what flux is doing here.
• 7:25
  So for Rusty to put the format in the bin was just
• 7:27
  unbelievable. And you know, it's, it's the
• 7:31
  opposite of everything I said. You know, it looks stunning.
• 7:34
  The casting spot on. I think, you know, I would have
• 7:38
  had some criticisms of tribunals right and before this, but you
• 7:43
  know, just week after week after week, he knocked, knocked it out
• 7:47
  the park for me and blew my socks off on on 1st
• 7:50
  transmission. And the the fact that this was
• 7:53
  made during COVID. We will hear that quite a bit
• 7:58
  tonight, yeah. You know, the the the fact that,
• 8:01
  you know, it was made under such really difficult production
• 8:05
  conditions, you know, it's helped it in a way.
• 8:07
  Like I said, it's helped that chippers had to, you know, go
• 8:10
  away from episodic in the long form.
• 8:13
  But you know, other things like, you know, reusing the cast, like
• 8:16
  we're seeing Once Upon a Time and that sort of stuff helps it.
• 8:20
  But at the same time, you know, it was such a difficult time to
• 8:23
  be making television, you know, and the fact that Chibnall
• 8:26
  pushed forward, got it done, you know, it's, it's nothing sort of
• 8:30
  a miracle, but the fact it turned out as well as it has as
• 8:33
  well. So excellent.
• 8:34
  Yeah. It did say briefly, could you
• 8:37
  briefly? Tell us, what do you?
• 8:38
  Think I was brief. Do you want us to go back to the
• 8:40
  100? No, no.
• 8:41
  You're right. Yeah, 55 points.
• 8:43
  Yeah, I've. Kept this brief, Lee, what about
• 8:47
  you? Well, I'm a big fan of the Jodie
• 8:50
  Witaker here. Love series 11 Love series 12
• 8:55
  Series 13. Well, there's good things about
• 8:59
  it. There's bad things about it.
• 9:01
  I'm going to keep my powder dry because it might sink some of my
• 9:04
  arguments if I show my cards now on the whole area broadly
• 9:09
  positive, but flux will could be a mixed bag.
• 9:11
  We'll see. We'll see you.
• 9:12
  Said broadly positive in Series 4.
• 9:15
  And then you came to some big hairs.
• 9:19
  It's his format. So.
• 9:21
  It's the format. Joe, we have done six hours of
• 9:25
  podcasting on Flux before we did a commentary for every episode.
• 9:29
  Are you bored? Of doing this with.
• 9:31
  Me yet? In fact, we should come back and
• 9:34
  do it again in another 18 months or something like that.
• 9:38
  Joe, what? What are your overall thoughts?
• 9:41
  I'm kind of the opposite of Lee I I like 11.
• 9:45
  I think 12 is an improvement. I think 13 is his best year.
• 9:49
  I think it consistently is very confident, and this season is
• 9:53
  just the best. I think it was a great time to
• 9:57
  be a Doctor Who fan when you're in my fan circles because I
• 10:00
  didn't care. All the noise that everybody was
• 10:02
  making on the periphery about how shit this was, everyone I
• 10:05
  knew fucking loved it. We were so excited every week,
• 10:08
  messaging each other after every episode with theories.
• 10:11
  It was wonderful this season. It's unique, it's beautiful,
• 10:15
  it's consistently entertaining and surprising.
• 10:18
  There's dense storytelling in there, fantastic direction,
• 10:21
  unforgettable set pieces and a really great new gang for the
• 10:26
  Doctor to hang out with. I love the characters this year
• 10:28
  too. And the PS, the resistance,
• 10:31
  yeah, is I heard so many people go, Oh, no, chippers is going to
• 10:35
  get the suntarans all wrong. Fuck me.
• 10:39
  He got them right. It's the best the Sontarans have
• 10:43
  ever, ever been in Doctor Who. And we will get into that later.
• 10:46
  But it's the Sontarans season, right?
• 10:48
  They are the best here. I love it.
• 10:50
  I love this season. Excellent.
• 10:52
  Well, I mean, it's a season that it's not perfect.
• 10:56
  There are slight issues I have with it, but they're very minor
• 11:01
  because this is hands down my favorite Doctor Who story of all
• 11:04
  time. Classic and new series.
• 11:07
  I'm not going to say it's the best, but I think it's it's
• 11:11
  certainly the best example of what Doctor Who should be doing
• 11:14
  in the streaming era. Certainly better than anything
• 11:18
  came that came after it. That's my first dig at Ross T
• 11:21
  Davis this evening. Sorry for listening, Russell.
• 11:23
  1st of many. First of many.
• 11:26
  He's not listening to this. Of course he isn't now.
• 11:29
  But yeah, though I love it. This is my favorite Doctor Who
• 11:31
  story and I decided that probably about three or four
• 11:36
  months after it aired when I had to do a Strangers in Space on
• 11:39
  what was the one Doctor Who story I would keep and take to
• 11:42
  me to a desert island or desert planet and it was this.
• 11:46
  I re watch it regularly. Sometimes I watch it as a whole,
• 11:50
  sometimes I just stick on the random episode.
• 11:52
  I think the Halloween Apocalypse is my most watched new series
• 11:55
  episode. I watch it every six weeks.
• 12:00
  Something like that. I'm obsessed.
• 12:02
  Yeah. It's just my go to Doctor Who.
• 12:05
  So bravo. Chris Chibnall, the greatest
• 12:07
  writer Doctor Who has ever known.
• 12:09
  Do you? Know what, right when I went on
• 12:11
  what's in Winston's podcast called the one with the is it
• 12:14
  the the bunker? I went on and you know, you take
• 12:17
  5 things a bit like Jim Allenby's and I took the box set
• 12:20
  of Trial of a Time Lord and the Blu-ray set of flux.
• 12:24
  He thought I was absolutely fucking bonkers.
• 12:27
  Yeah, but if, if you're going to be locked away somewhere you
• 12:30
  want, you want those long running things.
• 12:32
  You're going to fucking take. Blink 45 minutes and everybody
• 12:36
  goes oh it's great, I'm up for 45 minutes, there's nothing
• 12:39
  mate, I'm stuck down there for a lifetime or up there depending
• 12:42
  where I'm stuck. Just to leap onto a point that
• 12:45
  Fraser made before we go into the stories about this being
• 12:48
  done during COVID and that actually benefiting the overall
• 12:52
  result. The other thing as well is
• 12:54
  obviously they couldn't do the overseas shoots.
• 12:56
  So the production value on this thing that the imagination of
• 13:00
  the CGI and the sets that they build because they're they're
• 13:04
  having to go to all those other places without just getting on a
• 13:06
  plane. It looks extraordinary this
• 13:09
  season, but. We'll get there.
• 13:11
  We'll get there. Indeed.
• 13:13
  Are we going to jump into some comments?
• 13:15
  Yes, yes, let's do the first one.
• 13:17
  Well, I'm going to go first because the first one's really
• 13:20
  short. No, not the the mind probe says.
• 13:24
  Bloody loved it. All of it peak.
• 13:27
  Rihanna Evans says. I loved it.
• 13:28
  It wasn't perfect, but it was a return to the style of classic
• 13:31
  Who and Jericho was the type of companion I'd love to see more
• 13:35
  of in the future. I enjoyed Calvinista 2 and a lot
• 13:37
  of people will say that it's it looked expensive.
• 13:40
  Just as good as Disney funded episodes really.
• 13:46
  Charlie Barnes says a season long arc made during a global
• 13:49
  pandemic from a man who has proven twice over that he cannot
• 13:54
  do story arcs. As if the time this child
• 13:57
  bollocks wasn't enough, Chipnall actually gives the doctor mummy
• 14:01
  issues. Brilliant.
• 14:02
  Boo, Charlie Bully. Arms, on the other hand,
• 14:07
  fabulous, Lucy McCall says. I thought it was great.
• 14:11
  I love the excitement of having cliffhangers again.
• 14:13
  And the cast was brilliant. The sporting characters were
• 14:16
  particularly good. Carvinista was probably my
• 14:18
  favorite. I want my space dog back.
• 14:21
  Space Dog and the settings were well realized.
• 14:25
  Chris Hogben. This to me was a Tour de force
• 14:29
  of fun. The Sontarans loving chocolate,
• 14:31
  riding on horseback and still being a threat.
• 14:34
  The high stakes, each cliffhanger, the full TARDIS
• 14:38
  team on fire. On fire, Dan Pinn says.
• 14:43
  I wasn't the biggest fan of the Chibnu era, but on rewatch it
• 14:46
  was much better than I first four and Flux is without a doubt
• 14:49
  the best of the three. Doctor Who has never looked or
• 14:52
  sounded as good as this. It's beautifully heartbreaking
• 14:55
  at Oh sorry. Beautifully breathtaking at
• 14:57
  times. I wish RTD had kept this seasons
• 14:59
  format. Gareth Barley says not a bad
• 15:03
  episode here. A big linking story that allows
• 15:06
  all characters to breathe and we get investment in them for the
• 15:09
  first time in new ho. New who, not new ho.
• 15:14
  Different box set. Would Jericho's death feel so
• 15:18
  gut wrenching in just one episode, for example?
• 15:21
  A shame we never got more like this.
• 15:24
  And finally, Matt Lee Looby says, I absolutely love Flux.
• 15:28
  It was the most exciting and inventive the show had been for
• 15:31
  years. And that's following on from the
• 15:33
  brilliant series 11:00 and 12:00.
• 15:35
  I've watched Flux several times since 2021 and it hasn't lost
• 15:39
  its impact. Some of the best storytelling
• 15:41
  and best production the show has had there are just to warn you
• 15:44
  guys. There are comments where people
• 15:46
  are a bit down on this season later on, but genuinely I had 60
• 15:51
  odd comments overall and maybe 90% of them were positive.
• 15:55
  So if you hate the Chibnu era, maybe now is the time to leave.
• 16:01
  There we go. So should we kick off with our
• 16:04
  foot? I mean, it's a bit of a weird
• 16:05
  one, this one, isn't it? Because we're we're sort of
• 16:07
  pitting episodes against each other that are part of the same
• 16:10
  story. But it must be done because it
• 16:13
  is the format of strictly cum hamster.
• 16:17
  So otherwise I'd just go 1st and put all six through and then
• 16:20
  we'd be done in 10 I. Kind of would do the same.
• 16:22
  Thing as well. I know I said it was going to do
• 16:25
  the exact opposite, but yeah, it's cool on the guys.
• 16:29
  Come on. So should we start with Lee
• 16:33
  first? Oh, OK then, right, quick sip of
• 16:37
  water then I'm good to go, right?
• 16:39
  Swear shall I? Be rubbing his hands.
• 16:44
  Well, I'll tell you Joe, normally when I appear on
• 16:47
  episode of Strictly Come Hands, I like to get proceedings off to
• 16:50
  a rousing start by needlessly and savagely going in two footed
• 16:55
  and stunts up on a sacred coup of whichever series is in the
• 16:58
  ballroom. On a particular occasion, I'll
• 17:01
  come out all arms flailing like a drunk stuck in an internal, so
• 17:07
  even I recognize that's a trick that loses its impact the more
• 17:10
  you do it. So tonight I'm going to throw it
• 17:12
  in the other direction. So come with me as I Don my
• 17:15
  orange robes, shave my head, and ping my finger symbols as I
• 17:19
  present to you, the ham fam, an opportunity to show nothing but
• 17:23
  pure peace and love to an episode that I feel doesn't get
• 17:26
  the praise that it really should.
• 17:28
  So that for that mind, let's go right back to the beginning and
• 17:31
  talk about the Halloween apocalypse.
• 17:36
  So then point number one is entitled.
• 17:39
  Who's a good boy then? You are.
• 17:41
  Yes, you are. You're a good boy.
• 17:43
  Good boy. Garvinista Now throughout this
• 17:47
  60 plus year history of Doctor Who we've been introduced to a
• 17:50
  variety of weird and wonderful creatures.
• 17:52
  Rubber suited perverts, the vood, the child's model of a
• 17:56
  pterodactyl, an invasion of the dinosaurs and of course, my much
• 18:00
  maligned boy, the Murka. Oh.
• 18:03
  Yes, here Chris Chimnell brings us one of the finest examples of
• 18:06
  this genre. Karvan Estaf, soldier of the
• 18:09
  Lipari species, bonded with humanity on a mission to protect
• 18:12
  the human race from a catecholmic space-time event.
• 18:16
  Now with lesser hands, Karvan Esther might have been an
• 18:19
  imagined as a tough, snarling canine marine, styled in much
• 18:23
  the same way that Sutex was inexplicably re imagined in A
• 18:26
  Legend of Ruby Sunday. Not here, though.
• 18:29
  A cross between gruff northern landlord and one of the best in
• 18:32
  show at Crofts, Garvin is the superbly brought to life by the
• 18:37
  performance of Craig elves, perfectly portrayed in the
• 18:40
  weirdness of a space sort of a species duty bound to protect
• 18:43
  the race that they consider art best.
• 18:46
  Profoundly irritating. It's very much the Oliver Hardy
• 18:49
  to John Bishop Stan Laurel in this episode, the two of them
• 18:53
  trading 1 liners in sarcasm, every eye roll and near audible
• 18:57
  sigh coming across despite the limitations of his costume.
• 19:02
  Where else but in Doctor Who could you get away with having a
• 19:04
  massive dog Who was one of your lead characters and still
• 19:07
  haven't come across as likeable and not shoe horned in?
• 19:10
  The character and performance of Carvin Esther is very much
• 19:14
  deserving of a meaty treat and a good old fashioned vigorous
• 19:17
  belly rub. Yay.
• 19:22
  Amazing, I mean, I can't argue with that, cannot argue with
• 19:27
  that at all. He also has the greatest line of
• 19:29
  never talk of my mother. It's an odd thing, isn't it,
• 19:35
  when people say like, oh, Chris Chipnall can't do humour and
• 19:38
  it's like this. This has multiple laughs in it
• 19:42
  throughout and Carvin Esther is is the form of you know, is the
• 19:46
  source of many of them. And indeed, obviously we've
• 19:49
  already talked about I'm teasing you.
• 19:51
  That comes later in the episode, but.
• 19:53
  What about that bit where Jericho gets he falls down into
• 19:57
  the into the pyramid and Jazz just goes oh are you?
• 20:02
  We'll get there. We'll get there, yeah.
• 20:04
  There's tons in water. The Saint Adams as well.
• 20:06
  That's absolutely this. Is funnier though, right?
• 20:09
  This season is funnier than 11. As well.
• 20:11
  Yeah, I think so. I think because they've realized
• 20:15
  the regulars are funnier, you know, like they've realized the
• 20:17
  comedy timing that Jodie has, that Mandub has like, and you
• 20:21
  know, you've got John Bishop there who I believe is funny as
• 20:23
  well, so. Oh, you bitch.
• 20:31
  Oh, OK, but what was point in the morning?
• 20:32
  Yeah, there for point #2 for the Halloween apocalypse.
• 20:35
  OK, point #2 but you're introducing the style of 1 Mr.
• 20:38
  Alan Partridge. Done.
• 20:41
  Dan. Dan.
• 20:44
  Dan. Dan.
• 20:45
  I can keep this going if you want.
• 20:48
  Please. I'll stop.
• 20:49
  Dan. Let's take a moment to celebrate
• 20:51
  the man who, perhaps due to his relatively short time, Netardis
• 20:55
  may be in danger of falling through the cracks and not being
• 20:58
  regarded as highly as he should be.
• 21:00
  That's Mr. One. Sorry.
• 21:02
  That's one Mr. John Bishop. Now more often than not during
• 21:05
  the modern era of Doctor Who, but introduced to new companions
• 21:08
  who go in to have massive influence over events.
• 21:11
  Whether that be saving the universe by absorbing the time
• 21:14
  vortex, saving the day by becoming half Time Lord, half
• 21:18
  human, or being an enigma wrapped up on a mystery in the
• 21:21
  shape of an impossible girl. One of the strengths of the
• 21:24
  Chipmunk era is a normality of its companions standards.
• 21:28
  Everyday people who get swept up in the chaotic world of the
• 21:31
  Doctor but still showcase the best of humanity in times of
• 21:34
  crisis. This partner continues with Dan
• 21:38
  Lewis, an everyday guy from Liverpool who despite his own
• 21:40
  problems, always puts other people first.
• 21:43
  Illustrated when we first meet him working in a food bank,
• 21:46
  making sure that others don't go without, despite him having very
• 21:49
  little himself as he puts himself.
• 21:53
  What's the point of being alive if it's not to make others
• 21:55
  happy? It's a refreshing change from
• 21:58
  the standard companion template. For starters, he's the first
• 22:01
  ever companion to begin his journey in time and space by
• 22:04
  having his back door smashed in during a rough dogging incident.
• 22:11
  From here on in throughout the course of the series is in the
• 22:14
  heart of the action. Well, that'd be staging A1 man
• 22:16
  takedown of a Centauran battle fleet armed with nothing but an
• 22:19
  iPhone on a walk. Or consoling a young girl, or
• 22:23
  consoling a young girl lost the time by performancing.
• 22:26
  It'll get her back to where she belongs.
• 22:28
  Dan Lewis stakes a claim for being one of the most likeable
• 22:31
  companions and not just the modern era of Doctor Who, but an
• 22:34
  olive Doctor Who. Let's just gloss over and
• 22:37
  meeting the type of guy who for some reason arranges to meet his
• 22:40
  date on a seemingly abandoned St. in the middle of the night
• 22:43
  in front of the creepiest fucking house in the
• 22:44
  neighborhood. And.
• 22:46
  Then doesn't turn up and. Then doesn't turn up it's.
• 22:49
  Not his fault, it's not his fault.
• 22:52
  He. Wasn't late.
• 22:53
  It's not his fault. Naysayers wait.
• 22:57
  Wait, she calls him the Light? Dan Lewis, which means he's got
• 23:01
  form. He has, He has.
• 23:06
  Naysayers will say there's not a character portrayed here, it's
• 23:08
  simply John Bishop playing the part of John Bishop and Doctor
• 23:11
  Who. But given the choice, who among
• 23:14
  us would choose to travel with likes of Sea Turn Low?
• 23:17
  Who'd bring you in with a polystyrene rock and a heartbeat
• 23:20
  when you could be travelling the stars with a genuinely good guy
• 23:23
  like Dan Lewis? In summary, Dan Lewis, Hey, it's
• 23:27
  just sounds. And if you've ever met a
• 23:31
  Scouser, I know this has got a global fan base, but they
• 23:34
  fucking love Liverpool so much. So everybody goes, oh what an
• 23:40
  unrealistic character beat that. He's pretending to work in that
• 23:43
  museum. They all fucking do it.
• 23:45
  Scousers love Liverpool more than anybody else loves where
• 23:48
  they're from. That complaint though as well
• 23:51
  about, well, you know, just having John Bishop and what,
• 23:53
  having a very funny, charismatic, confident bloke in
• 23:57
  Doctor Who. Like why is that a problem?
• 24:01
  Bring back Danny Pink. Bring back Danny Pink.
• 24:11
  Listen, that man's saving the planet, one TV license at a
• 24:14
  time. You lay off Danny Pink, his
• 24:16
  finest work since Doctor Who. OK, my first and final point for
• 24:21
  the Halloween Apocalypse is entitled Serial or Toast.
• 24:26
  Now, this last point isn't so much about the Halloween
• 24:28
  Apocalypse as such on its own, but it does sort of factor in.
• 24:32
  There's a strong argument to be made watching Flux as a whole
• 24:34
  that this should be a format that Doctor Who should indulge
• 24:37
  in more often, rather than somewhat overtried and tested
• 24:41
  format of a word or a concept or a villain providing the story
• 24:45
  arc for an entire series tenuously dropped in or hinted
• 24:48
  at here and there. Why not go a little further back
• 24:51
  and revisit the idea of one story told across the series in
• 24:55
  a serialized format? Flux illustrates how well this
• 24:58
  can be executed, and the Halloween apocalypse provides a
• 25:01
  lot of the groundwork for making the series as a whole a success.
• 25:06
  There's a lot of plates spinning in this first instalment, but
• 25:08
  freed from the shackles of a 45 minute format that are given
• 25:12
  room to breathe and develop, each Criss crossing element and
• 25:15
  story thread allowed its own time.
• 25:17
  Never feeling rushed. The building blocks are put in
• 25:20
  place, clearly presented as their own individual strands but
• 25:23
  linked by 1 main event. The Halloween Apocalypse gets a
• 25:27
  whole six part story off to a barnstorming start.
• 25:30
  A strong first step on the journey, packed full of
• 25:32
  intriguing characters, events, visuals all building to a
• 25:37
  cracking hook of a cliffhanger to pull you back in for the next
• 25:40
  instalment. I'm not saying ditch the story
• 25:42
  of the week format entirely, but we can clearly see how well this
• 25:45
  format can work. It seems baffling that is so
• 25:48
  rarely revisited and Doctor Who. Bravo.
• 25:53
  I've got nothing to add really. What?
• 25:56
  Are you for showrunner? Dylan as producer, yes.
• 26:02
  Excellent. We're pitching now.
• 26:04
  I believe they're looking for somebody fantastic.
• 26:06
  My first act is to bring I'd like back as a zombie for some
• 26:09
  reason. I can make that work.
• 26:12
  I'll be the camp villain of the piece, all right?
• 26:14
  Excellent. Well, should we come to Fraser
• 26:17
  next? I think Lee's been picking up my
• 26:20
  notes, to be honest, because I had Dan and I had Covenista as.
• 26:24
  As. Oh dear.
• 26:25
  Naked we can do. Maybe we can both do it.
• 26:27
  Fraser is fine. That's what got John by a minute
• 26:30
  in trouble in the 1st place. Crossing me formats again,
• 26:34
  right? It's.
• 26:35
  What embarrassed John Bishop when he was shown that picture
• 26:38
  of the two of them. Fucking wasn't it?
• 26:40
  Jesus Christ. He put it on his show.
• 26:44
  Didn't he broadcast it on his on his trap show Dan and Canvan?
• 26:48
  Mr. Porn Oh, he was crazy, was I?
• 26:55
  Going to say, so I came this one a little bit different because
• 27:00
  going into what doesn't say this is essentially, you know, 6
• 27:03
  chapters of the same story. So you know, and I have not done
• 27:07
  what I normally do and do like, you know, 55 or 3,000,000
• 27:11
  points, whatever half kept at the three.
• 27:12
  But some of them are very specific for the stories we're
• 27:15
  going to talk about, but some of them are more across the series
• 27:19
  as a whole. So for the Halloween apocalypse,
• 27:23
  I did have Dan as well. You know, I think the thing
• 27:28
  about Dan is he's he's very like Graham.
• 27:31
  And it's like that casting choice.
• 27:33
  You know, we all came to raised an eyebrow when Bradley Walsh
• 27:37
  was announced as a companion. What?
• 27:41
  And John Bishop, when we had that reveal again, it was like,
• 27:44
  what the fuckity fuck are you doing here?
• 27:47
  But, you know, we should have all learned a blessing from
• 27:49
  Catherine, to be honest, because obviously John Bishop comes in
• 27:54
  and there's obviously the similarity between him and Dan
• 27:58
  Graham. Dan and Graham is the the oldest
• 28:01
  sort of companion. But you know, John Bishop plays
• 28:03
  a lot dryer and a lot more northern, and he's a lot funnier
• 28:06
  as a result of that. He's not the best actor in the
• 28:09
  world, but he kind of gets the brief, you know, you give him
• 28:12
  sort of the emotional moments and you can see him kind of
• 28:14
  having to pedal a bit faster. But when he's given the comedy
• 28:18
  like in Halloween Apocalypse to work with him, my God, he kneels
• 28:20
  every single mark on that. And it is that interplay with
• 28:25
  him and Carvanista in this episode.
• 28:26
  Carvanista. I remember seeing the publicity
• 28:29
  for Carvanista and just thinking, well, that's just a
• 28:31
  Farrell, isn't it? It's like, it's like the dog
• 28:34
  version of a Farrell. So it's going to be all RP and
• 28:36
  it's going to be like, thou shalt not do this.
• 28:39
  And, you know, it was it was really set up in my head, at
• 28:42
  least for something a lot more grandiose than, you know,
• 28:46
  booting down the door. And I'm Carvanista, come with
• 28:49
  me. You know, just this gruff
• 28:51
  Northern character, you know, the bubble knows was, you know,
• 28:56
  a complete shock for me. And I just love the fact we go
• 28:59
  on a journey with Carvin and stuff from, you know, he's
• 29:02
  essentially set up as the villain of the piece at the very
• 29:04
  start of this episode that quickly gets eroded.
• 29:08
  But by the time you get to the vanquishes and he's going off
• 29:10
  with Bell and Vinda, he's the hero of the piece.
• 29:14
  You know, he's gone from like conqueror of 1,000,000 worlds
• 29:16
  and some big dictator to, you know, this this actual really
• 29:20
  lovable character that you actually feel for.
• 29:23
  Another thing about Dan, I really like the the way in this
• 29:27
  story that Dan is set up and we find out about Dan.
• 29:34
  You know, everyone says Chip now you should show and not tell.
• 29:38
  And that's exactly what he does in this story.
• 29:39
  You know, you see Dan's day, so you see him starting off at the
• 29:44
  the museum being scoused and loving Liverpool and, you know,
• 29:48
  interacting with people not doing his trade.
• 29:49
  Then he's helping out at the the food bank, even though he's
• 29:53
  cupboards and beans, not even got soup, who like soup.
• 29:56
  So you know, you and then just the width of them, you know,
• 29:59
  like going at the tortoise. All right, my mate's got one of
• 30:01
  these, you know, just every single little line, you know,
• 30:07
  sending the the trick or treat as they were here, just like,
• 30:09
  you know, you're just a bloke. You're not even dressed anyhow,
• 30:14
  let's you know Lee's Dundan and carbon Ester.
• 30:16
  So what I'm going to pick up on is is the first thing is the
• 30:19
  pace of the story, because this is just a barnstorming rocket of
• 30:25
  a opener. It just starts, you know, you
• 30:28
  know, you start in that pre credits with the with them
• 30:32
  hanging over the acid and escaping carbon Ester on the
• 30:34
  broomsticks because it's Halloween, you know, and it just
• 30:36
  does not let up once. It just goes and goes and goes
• 30:40
  and goes and there's so much, so many elements which are
• 30:44
  introduced and just packed into this story.
• 30:46
  So you've got Carvin Ester and you've got Dan who have talked
• 30:48
  about, but you're getting it reduced to Swarm.
• 30:50
  You get introduced to Azure, you get introduced to the TARDIS
• 30:54
  malfunctioning. You get Claire popping up, you
• 30:56
  get the Weeping Angels popping up as well.
• 30:58
  There's the the suntarans coming up at the end.
• 31:00
  You get Vinda, you get Diane, you get the flux itself and you
• 31:04
  get Williamson just all chucked in into this just absolute
• 31:10
  boiling part of a the script and it just goes fit.
• 31:13
  So the first thing I really love is the pace and the second thing
• 31:17
  I'm going to pick on is is Williamson.
• 31:20
  I love he's just such a throwaway character to begin
• 31:22
  with, you know, gets a couple of scenes in this and then it's
• 31:25
  just odd random scenes throughout bar and the lid of
• 31:29
  the angels. He just keeps cropping up and
• 31:30
  cropping up and cropping up for no good reason.
• 31:32
  And just that journey of, you know, what's going on here until
• 31:36
  you get to the resolution at the end, you know, of it's, it's
• 31:39
  survivors of the flux where you find out exactly what's going on
• 31:42
  with these tunnels. And I didn't realize Williamson
• 31:44
  was a real guy at the time. You know, it wasn't pointed out
• 31:48
  till about towards the end of flux actually know this guy is,
• 31:51
  is real. And I've got a book on Michelle
• 31:53
  Bollocks Sultan Towers, it's called, which is like
• 31:54
  alternative, you know, places for you to go and visit in, in
• 32:00
  the UK. And in fact, it's got a section
• 32:01
  of Williamson's tunnels and just the, the Shia madness.
• 32:04
  And he was called the Mademole because he just dug all these
• 32:07
  tunnels underneath Liverpool. You you see this is.
• 32:10
  Why this era needed an unleashed or a confidential there'll be 25
• 32:13
  minutes on the history of him If if that had been going and you'd
• 32:16
  be educated, just go through. Door #9 Fraser, if you do go
• 32:20
  down there, all right, but. The performance as well, it's
• 32:24
  just, it's just a really, you know, it's fantastic.
• 32:28
  I forget the actor's name, but you know, it's just a, a
• 32:30
  brilliant performance of a brilliantly mad, eccentric, but
• 32:34
  real life character. So that is just a real hook that
• 32:36
  goes all the way through the series.
• 32:38
  But that leads into the Third Point which I'm going to make,
• 32:40
  which is the the surprise character, the character that no
• 32:44
  one ever mentions in the story. But we have mentioned it several
• 32:46
  times tonight. It's Liverpool.
• 32:48
  Liverpool itself is a character, is as much of A character in
• 32:52
  this story and the series as anyone else.
• 32:55
  You know, the Williamson thing about, you know, Dan being a
• 32:59
  Scouser, you know, it would get worse on towns.
• 33:02
  And it's you know, we've got the the Liverpool docks with the
• 33:05
  suntan ships above it. You know, you've got Geordie
• 33:07
  landing outside of Anfield and go let's do the Barcelona game.
• 33:11
  I was ball boy for Trent, you know, and and Liverpool is is is
• 33:15
  celebrated, you know, throughout this as as much as any Scouser
• 33:20
  will, to be honest. So those are my 3 points for
• 33:23
  Halloween apocalypse. I agree.
• 33:24
  It's it's brilliant. I think it's a fantastic open
• 33:26
  net or a fantastic series. It's 100% going through.
• 33:31
  Joe Ford, do you want to go next?
• 33:32
  Yeah, I I remember. Watching this and as I was going
• 33:35
  through the episode, loving it, thinking, Oh my God, there's so
• 33:38
  much happening in this. There's so many people in this.
• 33:41
  How the hell is he keeping track of all of this?
• 33:43
  And sort of 2/3 in the episode thinking, oh, this is just all
• 33:47
  going to go off the rails really quickly.
• 33:49
  And then that amazing cliffhanger where he totally
• 33:53
  lets you know where every single character is 1 after another
• 33:57
  with that. Brilliant.
• 33:58
  It's one of the best scenes of the whole era.
• 34:00
  That, and I just remember getting Goosey's narrative.
• 34:03
  Goosey's thinking he knows what he's doing.
• 34:06
  He's structured this really well.
• 34:07
  We're in for a heck of a ride. Everything you guys said.
• 34:11
  Is. True, I mean I love the opening
• 34:12
  as well. A lot of people go after the
• 34:15
  opening of this episode and, as they call it, the shitty CGI.
• 34:18
  But it's funny, it's silly, it's witty, it's high octane, it ends
• 34:22
  with a brilliant gag. And what the fuck is going on
• 34:24
  with that mattress and the TARDIS?
• 34:36
  That's. Why?
• 34:38
  I'm told that we're in my pocket.
• 34:50
  Or maybe I'll stop this when I set them up.
• 35:07
  Stop brass breaking. That's.
• 35:10
  Inconvenient. What a relief.
• 35:44
  Please give me your answers. Now.
• 35:45
  No, no, I'm waiting. Broadcast.
• 35:50
  It's it's it's to break. Your fall when you fall through
• 35:53
  the TARDIS stores when the 90s we perpendicular well weren't
• 35:55
  there when ice. Cape in I but I love as well all
• 36:00
  of them, you know, release, release.
• 36:02
  Oh no, maybe I was Scottish release.
• 36:04
  I found that. Terribly racist.
• 36:06
  Oh. Sorry mate, but it is funny
• 36:09
  isn't it? This is our one little glimpse
• 36:12
  of what just Jodie and Mandy would have been as well for half
• 36:17
  an episode. And I love Dan so much.
• 36:19
  I think they make a great trio. But this is Doctor Who being
• 36:22
  fronted by two women. Amazing.
• 36:25
  And they're just wonderful together.
• 36:27
  Their chemistry is amazing. Is this the only Doctor Who
• 36:30
  story ever where you actually see someone doing their business
• 36:34
  on the toilet? I think so, yes.
• 36:37
  That's a gag, isn't it? Isn't it a great?
• 36:39
  Gag when that and they both go oh, sorry, down.
• 36:45
  I mean just everything you said. It is really packed like Mark,
• 36:48
  my mark is less keen on this one because I think he thinks it's a
• 36:52
  bit sort of top heavy with ingredients.
• 36:54
  But if your opening episode is to, like, throw a load of
• 36:58
  mysteries at you, then this does it in spades.
• 37:01
  And the big mystery of what on earth the flux is and how you
• 37:05
  know that big Lupari shield can stop it but the TARDIS can't.
• 37:10
  What the hell is this thing? It's a it's a brilliant central
• 37:13
  mystery. Yeah, I'm not.
• 37:14
  You didn't. I watch this every now and again
• 37:17
  because one is the lead into this incredible season.
• 37:20
  I'll never stop it. I always do the whole season.
• 37:23
  But 2 is just so fun. I think a lot of season openers
• 37:28
  in the new series are either lightweight or, you know, arc
• 37:33
  heavy in a really sort of miserable way.
• 37:36
  Like I'm going to whisper this because two people on this call
• 37:38
  love it. You know, that's two par at the
• 37:40
  start of series 6. But this remembers to be an arc
• 37:44
  heavy episode. But also it just briskly skips
• 37:48
  through being funny and exciting and introducing a wealth of
• 37:52
  brilliant elements. It's gorgeous, it's arc heavy,
• 37:56
  but your arcs. Are like helium balloons just by
• 38:00
  you enough in every direction. I remember that criticism of
• 38:02
  this at the time of like, Oh well, it's too much set up and
• 38:05
  it's there's not enough resolved at the end.
• 38:06
  And it was like my brother that's.
• 38:10
  You do not realize. This is the opening episode.
• 38:12
  You've got 5 episodes now where all of these things are going to
• 38:16
  be resolved. You know, did you watch
• 38:18
  Broadchurch and want to know who did the move at the end of Part
• 38:22
  1? Is that?
• 38:23
  Is that it? Is this thing?
• 38:25
  Of like. Doctor Who fans, please watch
• 38:27
  something that's on television in the last few years.
• 38:30
  Like what is? Wrong with you all.
• 38:33
  Like, you're not watching that stuff.
• 38:34
  Dylan, they're watching inside. Number fucking 9.
• 38:39
  It's why they all love Jericho. Because he's come straight from
• 38:41
  the classic series, you know, but also.
• 38:44
  At the same time, this is the most classic series the new
• 38:47
  series ever gets in a way, in terms of there's this whole myth
• 38:51
  that Doctor Who was an anthology show.
• 38:53
  Doctor Who wasn't an anthology show.
• 38:55
  It was a set of serials. And for years people go, we need
• 38:59
  longer stories. Oh, we've got a longer story,
• 39:01
  Not like this. You know, It's like too long.
• 39:04
  We need 4. Partners.
• 39:06
  We'll never win. We need to spread.
• 39:08
  The budget we need 6 partners, no.
• 39:11
  No, this one's going to be. 10 No no, we need colour, but 7.
• 39:18
  I. Won't, I won't repeat what
• 39:19
  everybody else is saying, but you know, we've, we're all
• 39:22
  saying the same points. But what I will say is I did go
• 39:25
  into this thinking, oh, they're going to do 6 parts, but it is
• 39:28
  going to be like they're still going to be sort of individual
• 39:30
  stories. So as we said, setting up the
• 39:32
  pieces on the board. And so when a Weeping Angel
• 39:34
  shows up in this episode, when a Sontaran shows up, you're like,
• 39:37
  OK, we're going for something bigger here.
• 39:40
  And this is doing the the season opener as the penultimate
• 39:44
  episode of the season. Any other season, this would
• 39:47
  have been episode 12 or 11 or however number you've got.
• 39:51
  And it just sets it up fantastically.
• 39:54
  And also, Chris Chipnall's a smart man.
• 39:57
  He knows he's filming in COVID and he sets up all these
• 40:00
  stories. So if somebody goes down because
• 40:03
  they're all in their own little bubbles after this, you know,
• 40:06
  Jodie and Mandeep aren't in the same room for a long time.
• 40:09
  If everybody, if somebody goes down, he knows he can put a
• 40:13
  heavier. Emphasis on those.
• 40:14
  Other stories and keep the show going.
• 40:17
  So some when things like the Grand Serpent aren't quite as
• 40:21
  sort of involved, you know that he was going oh, but I can do
• 40:24
  something with the more with the grand servant and Vinda if Jodie
• 40:28
  Amanda Perrell or John Bishop and Jericho Perrell or whatever.
• 40:31
  So that's that's really smart thinking on on his front.
• 40:36
  But yeah, again, Karvan, Ester, Dan, the look of the whole
• 40:40
  thing. 11 out of 10. One more.
• 40:44
  Thing. Just one.
• 40:44
  More thing there's always one more thing, right?
• 40:47
  And that is called the Halloween apocalypse.
• 40:50
  So it should like technically be like the scariest episode of all
• 40:52
  time. And there are really great scary
• 40:54
  bits in it. But I think the best scare set
• 40:57
  piece in this is die outside that house when she's being
• 41:01
  dragged in and it all lights up and then suddenly like she's
• 41:05
  splashing around in that water. And that's as you're going, oh,
• 41:08
  we're going to have so much fun. It's fucking creepy as hell.
• 41:13
  Oh, it's great. More like this, please.
• 41:17
  Excellent. So it's going through, isn't it?
• 41:20
  It's looks like. Yeah, that's 4 for four.
• 41:23
  Yes. That's come on fellas, we.
• 41:27
  Can't be doing. This all.
• 41:28
  Night, right? Fraser, Gregory, do you want to
• 41:32
  pick one next? Right, we'll go.
• 41:35
  From the start and we'll go to the end and I will champion the
• 41:40
  vanquishes because and this is an episode and I remember it at
• 41:46
  the time, you know, we'd had five phenomenally good episodes
• 41:51
  coming up. You know, it had surpassed all
• 41:54
  my expectations about how good this series would be from, you
• 41:57
  know, Halloween apocalypse. You know, it never the the
• 42:00
  quality, a slight little dip at one.
• 42:03
  I'll talk about it. But, you know, it just
• 42:05
  maintained this sort of like, you know, 8910 out of 10 across
• 42:09
  and we were coming into the vanquishes and, you know, you've
• 42:13
  got to the end of survivors of folks and you knew how much
• 42:16
  Chipmel had to wrap up. So I was just kind of sitting
• 42:18
  there going on, please don't stick the landing.
• 42:22
  Stick the landing. Stick now.
• 42:23
  My God, that man stuck the landing like biggles in a
• 42:26
  fucking monsoon. He nails.
• 42:29
  This. One, this is the best season
• 42:32
  finale. I would say it's probably the
• 42:37
  best one this century. I think it's there's there's no
• 42:39
  one else has managed to wrap up a series.
• 42:42
  I think, you know, you go back to Series 5.
• 42:43
  If you look at The Big Bang, which is really clever and
• 42:46
  really well done, that's its only contender really.
• 42:49
  I just love the way that he does manage to wrap everything up
• 42:53
  again. You know, you've got about half
• 42:54
  a dozen strands. You've got so many characters.
• 42:57
  You know, by this point, you know that list I read out at the
• 43:00
  start, you know, you've got the Grand Serpent and you've got
• 43:03
  Belle on top of that and you've got Daleks in it now you've got
• 43:06
  Cybermen in it now. You've got so much that just
• 43:08
  needed wrapping up, but he does it.
• 43:11
  He manages to give every single person enough time and enough
• 43:15
  agency to actually do what they need to do.
• 43:18
  So you've got, you know, little scenes with like Vinda and Diane
• 43:22
  in The Passenger, working out how to get out of that.
• 43:24
  Diane just being absolutely brilliant, you know, just being
• 43:27
  like, yeah, well, I found myself in here and I found out how to
• 43:29
  turn the off switch off and I found out how to turn the stairs
• 43:31
  on. And, you know, she plays a lot
• 43:33
  of computer games. Don't.
• 43:34
  She phrase she must do but and also.
• 43:36
  Rusty Davis, That's how you do representation.
• 43:38
  You cast them in a good role and give them agency, not make it
• 43:42
  some weird fucking plot point. Give him a massive fucking.
• 43:45
  Gun don't. Yeah, I mean, if that was RT.
• 43:48
  Should probably some big gun for our prosthetic.
• 43:51
  Anyhow, we're not yet to slag him off.
• 43:52
  Let's focus on. But you know, it's it's.
• 43:58
  The Really. Clever way that he did it.
• 44:00
  Was he made it a multi doctor story?
• 44:03
  He went right, I've got you know, you know, let's say about
• 44:07
  half a dozen strands. I'm probably going to need more
• 44:10
  than one doctor. So put three doctors in there
• 44:12
  and all the three doctors get to kind of go off and do something
• 44:15
  else. But it had heart as well.
• 44:21
  It's got such massive heart in it.
• 44:23
  You know, there's so many good character beats throughout it.
• 44:27
  You get things like Jericho's death, which no one saw coming,
• 44:31
  but you know, really, because you know, you've spent three
• 44:34
  weeks with a guy, couldn't love him.
• 44:36
  And by the time he he bows out, you're you're absolutely
• 44:39
  heartbroken. You've got Vinda getting his
• 44:41
  revenge on the Grand Serpent. You've got Dai and Diane at the
• 44:46
  end, Dai and Dan sorry at the end.
• 44:50
  You know that you were late when I wasn't late and you know, and
• 44:54
  you expect it to be a big happy reunion and it's not the part on
• 44:59
  on stretch terms by the end. And obviously the big one really
• 45:05
  is is Carvin Ester when the suntans kill off the rest of the
• 45:09
  Luparian. You know, one thing I didn't
• 45:13
  mention about about career girls performance is it's a latex.
• 45:16
  It's all done on a latex, you know, which is really difficult
• 45:18
  to do when you haven't got your normal facial expressions.
• 45:21
  But that stare that he gives the Sontaran, you know, when he's
• 45:25
  like boasting about, you know, killing everyone.
• 45:28
  And it's a stare of pure like, I'm going to fuck you up, big
• 45:31
  boy. You know it would make
• 45:33
  Paddington I sweat. I have Waldo Fraser.
• 45:38
  I have heard people. Criticise that that is skipped
• 45:41
  over. Yeah, you get that moment.
• 45:43
  But then he's like why? Well, I'm off with Belle and
• 45:45
  Vinda now. See you later guys.
• 45:46
  All my people are dead. But never mind, it is it is a
• 45:49
  little. Bit.
• 45:50
  It would have been better if he died.
• 45:53
  Destroying the Sontarans instead of Jericho.
• 45:55
  I do think that is is something that that slightly missed, but
• 45:59
  it's not enough for me to hate the episode.
• 46:02
  I think. Excuse me, I hate your target.
• 46:03
  No, no. No, no, no, no, you know.
• 46:06
  I put out on Twitter and blue Sky, you know, for people, you
• 46:08
  know, come out as why didn't you like this?
• 46:10
  And you know, that was one of the kind of things anyone give
• 46:13
  you a good reason. And a lot.
• 46:16
  Of it was just, you know, it's there's just too many elements
• 46:19
  and they just aren't wrapped up well enough.
• 46:21
  And you know, I really disagree. I think, like I say, everyone
• 46:24
  gets every plot point gets wrapped up.
• 46:28
  That needs to be, I mean, there's some little gaps which
• 46:30
  always get picked up on. So like, well, half the universe
• 46:32
  has been destroyed, but no one mentions that.
• 46:34
  Well, we do. We spend, you know, there's a
• 46:37
  little puppet show in the giggle and you know, it is part of the
• 46:40
  mythology of the store. And nobody battered an eyelid in
• 46:44
  Lagopolis when half the universe sank into some sinkhole That
• 46:49
  doesn't work. And the boring.
• 46:51
  Planets. Yeah, that's that's because Tom.
• 46:52
  Baker was in it and yeah, a proper doctor.
• 46:55
  And Chris bedneed you? Know so so you know the the idea
• 47:01
  of Calvinist you know he shouldn't believe went off with
• 47:05
  each course he should You know that's a perfect thing for him
• 47:08
  to do. You know, he needs someone to
• 47:09
  look after him essentially. You know, you think he's he's
• 47:13
  he's, he's like the 9th Doctor and Vinda has his rules.
• 47:18
  You know so. Look, kind of look at it that
• 47:20
  way, if you will. So that's kind of .1 just the,
• 47:25
  the, the, the way you know, the plot and the story.
• 47:28
  I think the second point is going back to that, the idea of
• 47:33
  a been a multi Doctor story and Judy Whittaker is, is point #2
• 47:37
  because again, this is just for the whole series as well.
• 47:40
  But in this episode, she has to carry everything three times.
• 47:44
  Basically she has got to do 3 times as much work as everyone
• 47:46
  else because she's in, you know, every all three strands.
• 47:49
  And it's just a powerhouse performance from from Jodie.
• 47:52
  I think you just get to see exactly why, you know, the 13th
• 47:57
  Doctor is, is so brilliant. You know, she's just got that
• 48:01
  energy, that pace about other just enthusiasm.
• 48:04
  You know, this this whole season just come straight.
• 48:08
  Out the traps and doesn't. Stop.
• 48:09
  And neither does the doctor. She's just she fancies herself
• 48:12
  as well. Frazer, doesn't she?
• 48:13
  Well, that's great. It's it's a very doctorish.
• 48:16
  Thing to do isn't it because you know, but you know we're I think
• 48:22
  it's it's. Interesting how many people?
• 48:24
  Have said in reality war that Judy's appearance was the best
• 48:27
  thing about you know and the cinema erupts.
• 48:30
  Yeah, yeah, I turned up. I accidentally punched my son
• 48:33
  twice. When?
• 48:36
  It's Jodie. It's like, yes, Dad.
• 48:37
  Stop hitting this. But it's Jodie.
• 48:38
  Yes, Dad, stop hitting this, please.
• 48:42
  So, you know, I think if if that's the same things to come,
• 48:45
  if people are now going to start to appreciate how good she was.
• 48:49
  And, you know, when we've got the big finish coming up with
• 48:52
  her mandate, we're going to really, you know, say, you know,
• 48:55
  just you go, you go back and you think, my God, she was she was
• 48:59
  fantastic in this role. She actually brought something
• 49:02
  completely new, but completely the same as you want a new actor
• 49:06
  playing the role of Doctor Who to do so.
• 49:09
  Do you remember in the mind? Robot when Patrick Trout and all
• 49:13
  that, they had to carry that whole first episode and buy all
• 49:17
  the cows, they were pissed because they're all exhausted
• 49:19
  and we're in every single set. Now go and watch the the behind
• 49:23
  the scenes clips of the Vanquishers where Jodie's there
• 49:27
  on the set bouncing around going, my God, I'm in every
• 49:30
  scene. I'm in all of it.
• 49:32
  Like. She's so happy.
• 49:33
  It's just an excitable little puppy.
• 49:35
  Isn't she? And that really comes across the
• 49:37
  Doctor. Yeah, but she only.
• 49:38
  Has one family to get around in the evening.
• 49:40
  You know that's true. And she couldn't even see them
• 49:44
  due to. Lockdown, yeah, so.
• 49:48
  That's point 2.3 by this point in in talking about the triple
• 49:52
  yeah, it is a contractual obligation that I shout out the
• 49:55
  second I canola. So here's my .3 because again,
• 49:58
  his his score for this season is just you know something else.
• 50:01
  You know, he's he's he's themes for like the Suntarians just
• 50:08
  blaring out and. I can't.
• 50:13
  I Can't Sing. You've heard me sing.
• 50:15
  I'll pipe it over. You're talking.
• 50:16
  All right, that's a good idea, having a government.
• 50:18
  Fraser that he. Can't do an impression of an
• 50:20
  entire orchestra I feel like. You can do it.
• 50:26
  Come on. Oh.
• 50:28
  Together now. Yeah.
• 50:36
  He's. I mean I.
• 50:37
  Still adore he's he's score for series 11.
• 50:40
  I think that's probably his best one.
• 50:42
  Just that how ethereal and everything is.
• 50:44
  But you know, he really does get the brief of, you know, it's
• 50:48
  incidental music. So you should you shouldn't
• 50:50
  really be aware of it too much, but at the same time you should
• 50:52
  know it's there. And I think that's that's
• 50:54
  exactly what he does. Now.
• 50:56
  You came to go back and, you know, listen to what it's you
• 51:00
  know, you can just put it on. Listen to that while you're
• 51:02
  doing some jobs which you own the house, which I may have done
• 51:05
  this, you know, the track, the ultimate betrayal.
• 51:10
  Oh, I couldn't tell you that's. The track in the Vanquisers.
• 51:12
  And I listen to it all the time because it's every he does like
• 51:16
  a medley of every theme in flocks that he's had for every
• 51:20
  different character. Bell and Vinder, Karfen, Esther
• 51:22
  swarming Azure, the Sontarans. And he brings it all in for a
• 51:26
  big six minute. And it it starts slow and it
• 51:29
  builds and it builds and it adds to the bit where the Sontarans
• 51:32
  take out the Daleks and the sidemen.
• 51:35
  It's just the most epic bit of music.
• 51:37
  Sorry, Murray, you don't have a hope.
• 51:39
  Seconds. Amazing.
• 51:42
  Just to wrap that up, his theme arrangement still remains the
• 51:46
  best one since Kev's. Do the key drop go on?
• 51:50
  Is. That.
• 52:01
  You. Is that you?
• 52:03
  You're done. Well, should we?
• 52:04
  Should we see if people agree with you?
• 52:07
  Eric White says 2 and 4 brilliant.
• 52:09
  One on five decent, three messy, 6 painfully bad.
• 52:14
  Oh dear. That's an interesting opinion.
• 52:17
  If wrong I was. Impressed with how very.
• 52:20
  Stressful how the very stressful production during the pandemic
• 52:23
  leads to the most engaging, cheerful season of them all.
• 52:27
  Having an art gave it an extra depth of his craving.
• 52:30
  They finally created some excellent new baddies.
• 52:32
  Unlike Tim Shaw and his tooth fetish, you'd leave him alone.
• 52:36
  Enjoyed the new characters like Carvinista and Vinda, and even
• 52:40
  Kate Stewart wasn't too awful. So well done everybody.
• 52:43
  Oh thanks Dad, well done everybody.
• 52:45
  Sounds like Christopher H bit me, didn't it?
• 52:47
  The second Akanola music was, as always, a joy.
• 52:51
  Big. Orange, Michael.
• 52:56
  It sees them that. Starts strong but stumbles
• 52:59
  towards the finish line. Chipnall goes for an epic story
• 53:02
  and almost succeeds. Like the rest of this era, the
• 53:05
  money is absolutely there on screen.
• 53:08
  I wish the stories have been as amazing as the visuals.
• 53:11
  They were mates they were. I know just.
• 53:13
  For sure, even if you're big. And you're orange.
• 53:15
  You can be big orange. Wrong.
• 53:16
  That's right. I know it's these sort of
• 53:19
  comments I'm about to read only come from people under aliases
• 53:22
  and not their actual names. A real real mess.
• 53:26
  But the Weeping Angels episode was OK when Dan wasn't on
• 53:30
  screen. That's it.
• 53:32
  That's the comment. All smile.
• 53:34
  Or is this a? Typo.
• 53:36
  No, it is Paul. Smy.
• 53:38
  Hi, Paul. SMY Sorry.
• 53:40
  Flux is a strange beast. I love the fact that this was a
• 53:43
  one story spanning season with the return of cliffhangers.
• 53:48
  It's my favorite Jodie season with my two favorite episodes of
• 53:51
  her run. But for me the finale is a big
• 53:54
  let down. The regulars on top form
• 53:56
  throughout though my. Comment was that comment.
• 54:00
  Was doing well and then it was a big let down.
• 54:05
  Much like the season for that. Man, my nemesis, Michael Storm,
• 54:08
  who I know he's having a bit of a tricky time right now.
• 54:10
  So Michael, I just want to say I love you very much.
• 54:13
  He says against the odds and restrictions of COVID, Flux is
• 54:17
  Chipnall's brave attempt at ending his era with an expansive
• 54:19
  epic. And when I don't think he quite
• 54:21
  sticks the landing, it never fails to entertain.
• 54:24
  Oh, at least he enjoyed it, Lasserre.
• 54:27
  Says. Love it.
• 54:28
  A brave attempt at something new.
• 54:31
  And last one for this. Batch Tim Archer.
• 54:33
  Such a triumph not only because it was made in the 1st place
• 54:37
  during COVID, but because of what it tries to achieve.
• 54:40
  It's well written, compelling and attempts to mix traditional
• 54:43
  Doctor Who with a completely new approach.
• 54:46
  Excellent. Well.
• 54:48
  I think I'll go next on this one.
• 54:50
  I did say that like, you know, I thought that perhaps Carvin
• 54:53
  Esther should have been sacrificed.
• 54:56
  I don't think, you know, Kate Stewart necessarily needs to be
• 55:00
  there. I don't think the grand Serpent
• 55:02
  necessarily needs to be there. But I still think this is one of
• 55:04
  the best finales of the modern series.
• 55:06
  Like I as I said before, he's got all these elements he's
• 55:09
  trying to spin in order to just keep the show afloat.
• 55:12
  And I think he does a great job, but nothing more than building
• 55:18
  on the great work he's done in the Timeless Child and building
• 55:22
  a new mythos, a new mystery, putting The Who back into Doctor
• 55:27
  Who. And you know, Doctor Who fans
• 55:30
  going, we don't want to know more about the Doctor's past.
• 55:32
  Why didn't he show us more about the Doctor's past again, like,
• 55:35
  what's wrong with you Doctor Who fans?
• 55:38
  I, I think the Timeless Child is a brilliant story and it handles
• 55:41
  it perfectly here, giving you more glimpses.
• 55:44
  And you know, we'll come to that, probably jump back to
• 55:46
  another episode and timey wimey style.
• 55:49
  This is something, you know, the RTD era is building on it.
• 55:52
  And unless the next version of Doctor Who is a Page 1 rewrite,
• 55:56
  I think the show will continue to build on it and build on it
• 55:58
  and build on it. Jodie's performance.
• 56:02
  I know Fraser, you've mentioned that.
• 56:05
  I mean, she's brilliant throughout the whole thing, but
• 56:07
  forget about the three Doctors. Her performances, time at the
• 56:11
  end where she turns around and gives this sort of sinister
• 56:16
  little performance for a few minutes, that's just, she's a
• 56:19
  completely different character to her Doctor and is absolutely
• 56:23
  brilliant in it. And just in general, when she's
• 56:25
  playing these three Doctors, nobody does exposition and
• 56:29
  techno Babble quite like Jodie Whittaker.
• 56:31
  You know, when Harrison Ford said to George Lucas, you can
• 56:35
  write this shit, but you can't say it.
• 56:37
  Jodie Whittaker can say it. Give her anything and she sounds
• 56:40
  amazing. And this isn't Tom Baker reading
• 56:42
  the telephone book. She is whenever people go.
• 56:46
  Well, Jodie Whittaker didn't really have any Doctorish
• 56:48
  moments. Are you mad?
• 56:50
  I mean what? What you actually mean is she's
• 56:52
  not Peter Capaldi. Because that's what Doctor Who
• 56:55
  fans think Doctor Who should be. Love you, Peter.
• 57:00
  And then finally. Just how you think, Russell Lee
• 57:02
  Davis. And Peter Capaldi are listening,
• 57:05
  everyone. Listens to this frame.
• 57:07
  Why bloody listen to them, surely?
• 57:09
  They should return the favour I've got.
• 57:10
  I'm going to go and see Peter Capaldi.
• 57:11
  At the end of the month, I'll take a copy of this please to
• 57:14
  move the PA to take Dylan's complaint.
• 57:17
  You don't listen to Dylan. And finally, just streets full
• 57:24
  of suntarans like Oh yes, we never.
• 57:27
  Thought we'd see. It you know, every, every season
• 57:30
  of Doctor Who, sort of there's there's some little fan pleasy
• 57:33
  thing that you're like when it was 1992 and Doctor Who was as
• 57:38
  dead as disco. Like the idea you could see an
• 57:42
  army of Daleks that we saw in that first series or an army of
• 57:45
  Cybermen and we've had the Sontarans back.
• 57:47
  But to see Liverpool full of Sontarans, skies full of
• 57:51
  Sontarans ships, the Sontarans outsmarting the Daleks and the
• 57:56
  Cybermen and ultimately getting outsmarted themselves.
• 57:59
  Like it's taking a silly little villain like the Sontarans still
• 58:03
  treating them very funnily, but also making them a palpable
• 58:07
  threat, but going they're clearly not going to win.
• 58:09
  Like what? It's hilarious that at the end
• 58:11
  of the universe it is the Sontarans that are the
• 58:15
  vanquishes. And you know, that's up there
• 58:17
  with making the Zabi the vanquishes or something like
• 58:20
  that. So those, those are my 3 points.
• 58:23
  And I think very much for me, there's a couple of little
• 58:27
  niggles. You know, I could see, I'd love
• 58:29
  to see some more human elements, maybe some cutback to Dan's
• 58:32
  parents and things like that. But they've got a lot to get
• 58:34
  through. We haven't got time for Dan's
• 58:36
  parents. So yeah, this is another belter
• 58:38
  for me, and I think probably it's this and the The Doctor
• 58:43
  Falls that are my two favorite series finales, and you know,
• 58:47
  I'm sticking with them. Should we go for Joe Ford next?
• 58:53
  Don't you love? As well, you know you.
• 58:55
  Said there about the the mystery of the Doctor.
• 58:58
  Don't you love how Chipmel sort of waves it in our faces like a
• 59:02
  delicious fat penis, and then at the end of it sort of slaps it
• 59:06
  away when she throws that watch into the TARDIS and she just
• 59:09
  goes, do you know what? I kind of like who I am now,
• 59:12
  Never mind who I was then. You guys all thought you wanted
• 59:15
  that. But actually, look at the season
• 59:17
  you've just had. I'm pretty amazing.
• 59:18
  Now What? Once again, if we had.
• 59:20
  Confidential. He would have described it as
• 59:22
  like a delicious fat penis. There's.
• 59:27
  A great. Ending to that plot.
• 59:28
  That that's Peter's pray I. Just decided you know what I'm.
• 59:32
  Fabulous. I don't need to know, although a
• 59:34
  lot of people were disappointed with that.
• 59:36
  But I thought it was great. It's the genius.
• 59:38
  Of of the fugitive Dr. and the Timeless child is that chip not
• 59:42
  set it up? And he said this is the setup.
• 59:46
  I am not doing anything else. Yeah, I might have a few little
• 59:49
  flashbacks to the fugitive Dr., but this is someone else's toy,
• 59:54
  you know? Here you've got the sandbox.
• 59:55
  Now I am giving you a bucket and spade.
• 59:58
  You deal with it what you want and just that.
• 1:00:00
  Fabulous. Black and White House that we
• 1:00:02
  keep cutting to. That gorgeous visual of Lung
• 1:00:05
  Barrow coming to pieces in the sky.
• 1:00:08
  That's great. Dylan, you mentioned some
• 1:00:11
  wonderful things about the Suntar and say, I don't know how
• 1:00:13
  you failed to mention that fabulous Suntar.
• 1:00:15
  And in the corner shop stuff in his face full of chocolate.
• 1:00:18
  It's great. I love the fact that technically
• 1:00:20
  they only win because that guy's a fat pig.
• 1:00:24
  Relatable. Relatable.
• 1:00:27
  I'd sell my. Species out for Mars bar.
• 1:00:28
  At times, I'm not going to lie, but I genuinely think the.
• 1:00:31
  Climactic moment. And this is where I think this
• 1:00:34
  is both a strength and a weakness.
• 1:00:36
  The climactic moment of this episode and of the series is the
• 1:00:41
  big trap that the Sontarans, Paul on the Daleks and the
• 1:00:44
  sideman. Oh, my Daleks and Cyberman
• 1:00:46
  comrades, please come over here. We'll, we'll, we'll keep you
• 1:00:50
  safe. And then, you know, literally
• 1:00:52
  turn into flux, sort of. It's a wonderful moment.
• 1:00:54
  It's as epic, I think, as Doctor Who has ever been, as cinematic.
• 1:00:58
  As if, fuck that Disney money. All those spaceships on the
• 1:01:01
  screen. Second, Akinola's music going
• 1:01:04
  crazy. They're all blowing up in like
• 1:01:06
  massive mushrooms of blue smoke, aren't they?
• 1:01:09
  It looks incredible. Cyber fleet trapped in the.
• 1:01:23
  Ball of the flats. What is the meaning of this?
• 1:01:26
  The meaning is victory for Santa.
• 1:01:37
  Santa and then the very. Funny moment where the Santa was
• 1:01:40
  laughing his head off and then realizes, oh fuck, I'm about to
• 1:01:44
  go the same way. It's a brilliant ending, but it
• 1:01:47
  does mean that everything that comes after that feels a little
• 1:01:50
  bit anticlimactic in comparison. And I do think there is too many
• 1:01:57
  elements in this, like you said, Dylan.
• 1:01:59
  And as a result, you really have to keep your wits about you.
• 1:02:02
  And I think that's where people fall short with this episode is
• 1:02:05
  that the Halloween apocalypse had a lot going on in it, but it
• 1:02:08
  had a a stately sort of a pace to it.
• 1:02:11
  Whereas this is just run, run, run, run, run, run, exposition,
• 1:02:14
  exposition, exposition, you know, explanation, climax, move
• 1:02:17
  on to the next thing. Yeah.
• 1:02:18
  And you really do. And you're right.
• 1:02:20
  It does dot all the TS. It does.
• 1:02:22
  No hang on dots all the IS. It has to cross all the TS.
• 1:02:26
  But it does it so fast. You really have to be on it when
• 1:02:30
  you're watching it. But well.
• 1:02:34
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And no, but he does.
• 1:02:36
  End all those plots satisfactory and bravo to him for doing that.
• 1:02:41
  I think the best. The other really great moment is
• 1:02:43
  this is the death of Jericho. I think he gets a wonderful part
• 1:02:46
  in line about you know what a what an awfully what's he
• 1:02:50
  saying? I can't remember the line back.
• 1:02:51
  An awfully big adventure. Awfully big I.
• 1:02:54
  Should have remembered. That for my book, he goes.
• 1:02:57
  And that Suntar has been sucked out in space in the background.
• 1:03:00
  I mean, we've just never seen visuals like this, have we?
• 1:03:03
  And I really like as well that you cut to Yas just having a
• 1:03:06
  quiet moment rather than all like the fanfare you'd get in
• 1:03:09
  RTD. And with Moffett, you know, when
• 1:03:11
  Clara went in slow motion with that bloody bird going through
• 1:03:15
  her, it took her off the episode to fall to the floor.
• 1:03:18
  Whereas we just get Yas just go, oh, Jericho.
• 1:03:21
  And it's a really sad moment, and it's understated and it's
• 1:03:24
  quite beautiful. Yeah, I really like this.
• 1:03:26
  I do. I think it's, I can understand
• 1:03:29
  why people have issues with it. But I think if you're savvy
• 1:03:33
  enough, there's a lot of satisfaction in the vanquishes.
• 1:03:38
  Agreed. So Lee, what about you?
• 1:03:41
  Just before I get. To my points, I'm just going to
• 1:03:43
  do a quick bit of giggling just to make sure that the child line
• 1:03:46
  website covers smacking your kids man, Jodie, but it could
• 1:03:49
  appears on screen. Sorry, you're unclear.
• 1:03:54
  It's. Not on our list.
• 1:03:55
  You're all right. It's fine.
• 1:03:57
  The numbers. Blocked on his phone anyway.
• 1:04:00
  After the last time, you know. You have to be.
• 1:04:02
  Safe and sorry, really, isn't it?
• 1:04:04
  Yeah. OK, well.
• 1:04:07
  Talking of Fraser, I think he's right.
• 1:04:09
  We definitely have been looking at each other's notes tonight,
• 1:04:11
  because quite a lot. But I've got to say about the
• 1:04:14
  Vanquishers pretty much equals what Fraser said.
• 1:04:16
  Before We'll start, I go in a little further back in Series 13
• 1:04:21
  we've got three different flavours of finale across the
• 1:04:24
  Chimney Lira. We've had a quiet, companion
• 1:04:27
  centric end to series 11, examining the impact of death on
• 1:04:30
  Graham and Ryan, avenging the demise of Grace in a sort of non
• 1:04:34
  violent way that helps for the relationship.
• 1:04:37
  Series 12 introduces an entirely new back story for the Doctor,
• 1:04:40
  opening up the potential for new stories to be told further down
• 1:04:43
  the line, giving the Series A vital shot in the arm.
• 1:04:47
  And this series, Chipnull has his shot at a good old
• 1:04:49
  traditional barnstorming Doctor Who finale.
• 1:04:51
  It's got the lot. It's a globe trotting epic.
• 1:04:54
  It's got a bullshit scientific explanation for a convenient
• 1:04:57
  plot device. It's got a noble self sacrifice,
• 1:05:01
  enemy races double crossing each other and a big Barney at the
• 1:05:04
  end with lots of noise, explosions and a conclusion that
• 1:05:08
  satisfies. It's due to the serialized
• 1:05:10
  format that we have room to breathe in this finale.
• 1:05:13
  The puzzle pieces have been manoeuvred into place across
• 1:05:15
  various episodes, so ever if that happens here with the
• 1:05:18
  characters feels like a natural conclusion to their individual
• 1:05:21
  storylines. There's nothing rushed that
• 1:05:23
  happened now, seemingly out of the blue, much like the
• 1:05:26
  resolution to the story, all that's needed is time.
• 1:05:29
  It's a cracking conclusion to a very enjoyable series of Doctor
• 1:05:32
  Who. On that note, I'm going to use
• 1:05:35
  point #2 not so much to talk about the story itself, but to
• 1:05:39
  praise the man who truly deserves it this series, and
• 1:05:42
  that's Chris Cherno, just lost the other Lister.
• 1:05:50
  Lost the T Davis getting the series.
• 1:05:55
  Together a short short style against getting the series
• 1:05:58
  together at such short notice and making it under COVID
• 1:06:01
  conditions has to be applauded as one in the eye for the chip.
• 1:06:04
  No, can't write brigade to have abandoned all previous plans for
• 1:06:08
  the series at 11 power and yet still come up with a story.
• 1:06:12
  That stuff was my place. Sorry.
• 1:06:14
  Still comes up by a story that works as a cohesive whole as
• 1:06:17
  well as this does as a marvel. And let's not forget that at
• 1:06:21
  various stages this was on the point of being cancelled, then
• 1:06:24
  actually was cancelled before being resurrected with very
• 1:06:27
  little time for pre production. The man gets so much in the way
• 1:06:30
  of pelters from certain sections of Doctor Who fandom after this
• 1:06:34
  run. It's time for those people to
• 1:06:35
  lay off them, and except once and for all, the wildest flavour
• 1:06:39
  of Doctor Who might not be to their tastes.
• 1:06:42
  That is deserving of a whole truckload of respect for
• 1:06:44
  ensuring that happened at all. But he didn't act alone.
• 1:06:48
  Which leads me to point #3 and that's our Doctor.
• 1:06:52
  The one and only Jodie Whitaker. What a Doctor.
• 1:06:56
  Exactly what a Doctor she is and was.
• 1:06:59
  It's clear to see the joy and fun she had in her time in the
• 1:07:02
  row as it bleeds through onto the screen and into every single
• 1:07:05
  inch of her performance. Jodie actually turned down
• 1:07:08
  several offers of offers of work to ensure that she's available
• 1:07:11
  for the CDs going into production at a time when she
• 1:07:13
  was very much in demand. A lesser actor might have borne
• 1:07:17
  A grudge over this set of circumstances, but As for the
• 1:07:20
  previous two series, Jodie inhabits the role of the Doctor
• 1:07:23
  with gusto. She's got bags of charm,
• 1:07:26
  clearly, she's every aspect of playing the role brings warmth,
• 1:07:30
  fun and joy to every appearance. There's also the steeliness of
• 1:07:34
  her previous incarnations in there, the ability to drop the
• 1:07:37
  personal demeanour and switch the Don't Mess with Me in a
• 1:07:40
  heartbeat or two, all while maintaining the Doctor's ability
• 1:07:44
  to throw everyone off the scent with lying darkness.
• 1:07:47
  She shines every moment she's on screen and bounces off her Co
• 1:07:50
  stars effortlessly. She burned brightly a light show
• 1:07:54
  on rainbow colours and to this day remains a great ambassador
• 1:07:57
  for and fan of the show. But we're lucky to have her not
• 1:08:01
  only as the first female incarnation of the Doctor, but
• 1:08:04
  to have had her as the Doctor at all.
• 1:08:06
  And the words of our friend Richie Morgan discussing the
• 1:08:09
  13th Doctor on a recent episode of In the Time Lash.
• 1:08:12
  Jodie Whittaker. We miss you, Hen.
• 1:08:15
  For all those reasons above, it's got to be a keeper.
• 1:08:18
  Bravo the. Fact that she.
• 1:08:22
  And I, I don't believe she didn't get to see any of that
• 1:08:24
  backlash against the first female doctor.
• 1:08:27
  What we know you, didn't she? She put out her.
• 1:08:29
  She read some weeks, didn't she? Go in, there's a really great
• 1:08:32
  one. Where it's like, oh, I pet,
• 1:08:34
  you're not my doctor. And she just goes, well, you
• 1:08:36
  ain't seen me yet, love. But the fact that she rode all
• 1:08:41
  of that, I just smiled her smile.
• 1:08:43
  Never thought it, you know, she's amazing.
• 1:08:47
  I mean, is it we're talking about?
• 1:08:48
  COVID, you know, let's never forget the that little clip she
• 1:08:54
  filmed in a wardrobe, races in a costume.
• 1:08:57
  You know, I had a costume in the wardrobe.
• 1:08:59
  So put it on in the wardrobe and filmed, you know, a little few
• 1:09:02
  minutes to the kids, just, you know, this is scary, kids.
• 1:09:05
  I know this is scary, but, you know, we're going to get through
• 1:09:08
  this together. I mean, fucking hell yeah.
• 1:09:11
  She's a wonderful person. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:09:15
  And just to give a. Another shout out to Chris
• 1:09:17
  Chibnall as well. When everybody goes well, of
• 1:09:19
  course Chris Chibnall doesn't do emotion.
• 1:09:21
  You get Carvin Easter, the forgotten companion, you get the
• 1:09:25
  beautiful moment between Yaz and the Doctor reuniting.
• 1:09:29
  You get a very real reaction of Diane going, actually what I've
• 1:09:33
  been through is not OK. I don't think we can just pick
• 1:09:35
  up where we left off and countless other bits.
• 1:09:38
  Bell and Vinda are like, there's lots of emotion within this,
• 1:09:42
  lots of lovely little character bits so but it isn't laboured.
• 1:09:47
  That's what I. Like about Chipnor, it's really
• 1:09:49
  understated and sometimes there's more moving for it.
• 1:09:52
  It's subtle. Yeah, what you better?
• 1:09:54
  In the in the reality war. When everyone was standing
• 1:09:57
  around going, my God, we've all forgotten Poppy, Where's Poppy?
• 1:10:01
  You can't say that was understated.
• 1:10:05
  No one turned around in this and.
• 1:10:06
  Went Sometimes I think we're all your children.
• 1:10:11
  We were thinking it, you know. And just a quick.
• 1:10:14
  Word for Jodie. When she's being interrogated by
• 1:10:17
  the Great Serpent, that whole sequence, she's just so
• 1:10:20
  unimpressed by him as she's niggling at him the whole time.
• 1:10:24
  Oh, it's gorgeous. She's tied up, but she's the
• 1:10:26
  one. Interrogating him.
• 1:10:28
  We'll come to Chibenow's writing a little bit later on in another
• 1:10:31
  episode we're going to talk about.
• 1:10:32
  But, you know, I don't know many people who have met Chris
• 1:10:35
  Chibnow, but I have not heard one single person that has met
• 1:10:39
  him have a single bad thing to say about that experience or the
• 1:10:43
  man himself. I think that speaks volumes.
• 1:10:46
  Excellent. No comments.
• 1:10:50
  I've never met him. Have you met him?
• 1:10:51
  You haven't. OK, I just no, that's for off
• 1:10:56
  Mike Dylan. You go next because.
• 1:11:00
  I want to say I think you're going to kick something out.
• 1:11:05
  OK. OK, that'd be.
• 1:11:11
  Fierce doesn't. It I want to manoeuvre you into
• 1:11:13
  the position. Of kicking something out because
• 1:11:15
  everyone's been so nice. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
• 1:11:18
  no. I have a problem with one
• 1:11:21
  episode of this and it's Village of the Angels, which is a good
• 1:11:27
  episode, that it's got all the elements that classic Doctor Who
• 1:11:32
  fans love in Doctor Who stories. Someone's turned the lights off.
• 1:11:36
  There's a little village. It's.
• 1:11:39
  Gothic. Horror, whatever that means.
• 1:11:41
  It's set in the past. You have against.
• 1:11:44
  Gothic horror I don't have anything against.
• 1:11:46
  Gothic horror. I just think it's a lazy thing
• 1:11:50
  to fall back on within Doctor Who and I like I have a lot of
• 1:11:55
  this with Villa de Andarte as well.
• 1:11:56
  I think it's what everybody thinks Doctor Who's supposed to
• 1:11:59
  be. So everybody looks at this six
• 1:12:01
  parter or the classic series fans and goes this is the best
• 1:12:03
  one. It's not.
• 1:12:05
  It is good, but I'm on the fence about it because I think it
• 1:12:09
  slows the pace of the story down and it does have a cracking
• 1:12:12
  cliffhanger and it's got some brilliant scary moments and some
• 1:12:17
  brilliant interesting stuff. But I'm more interested.
• 1:12:22
  When we cut to division, when we cut to the bell story, when
• 1:12:27
  we're back in, you know, all of time and space, as it were.
• 1:12:31
  So I am on the fence. I'm going to put it through
• 1:12:34
  because. Because it's still really
• 1:12:37
  fucking good. Right, you haven't.
• 1:12:43
  Was it Sarah Jane says. Cond Again, you're a proof I'm
• 1:12:47
  teasing you. I.
• 1:12:50
  Think the use of the angels here, like doing something new
• 1:12:53
  with them. They're possessing someone,
• 1:12:54
  there's an Angel on the run, they're working for Division,
• 1:12:57
  the burning Angel. All these things are really
• 1:12:59
  exciting. Like the even even the CGI wings
• 1:13:03
  are like when I first saw that I was like, OK, that's really
• 1:13:07
  fucking cool. It's not just her turning to
• 1:13:09
  stone a little bit or something like that.
• 1:13:12
  I also think it's really well directed, the visuals in it.
• 1:13:16
  I mean, again, there's all the sort of cliches of a story like
• 1:13:19
  this of sort of, you know, slow moving camera angles and things
• 1:13:22
  like that. But the two moments for me,
• 1:13:25
  well, the three moments really is the army of angels that we
• 1:13:28
  see at the end, especially as they're all escaping.
• 1:13:31
  The hands are coming out the walls, the two tides as the
• 1:13:35
  doctor is confronting the Angel is just so.
• 1:13:38
  And I remember there was a leaked picture of that filming
• 1:13:41
  and everyone said no, no, no, no, no.
• 1:13:43
  That's for one of those VR reality games because the crew
• 1:13:46
  is really small and you know, it just looks a bit cheap and
• 1:13:49
  shoddy while they were wrong and it looks it's a beautiful,
• 1:13:53
  beautiful image. And then just the it's the dark
• 1:13:59
  city thing of the village meeting the edge of the
• 1:14:02
  universe. I just think is is is really
• 1:14:05
  wonderful and we all must surely have this on the list list.
• 1:14:09
  But the cliffhanger is just, I mean, and it doesn't matter how
• 1:14:13
  it's resolved because Doctor Who cliffhangers have to be
• 1:14:16
  resolved. It's the nature of them.
• 1:14:18
  But turning her into an Angel is one of the most iconic images
• 1:14:23
  from this era of the show. How the the whole show explain
• 1:14:28
  the resolution? In this episode, you have been
• 1:14:31
  recalled to division. We know she's going to division
• 1:14:34
  and she goes to division. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:14:38
  So yeah, I, I have certain issues with it, but it is
• 1:14:45
  pushing the story in the right direction and I just, I would.
• 1:14:50
  Prefer them not. To rely on the old cliches and
• 1:14:53
  the old tropes. But perhaps the old cliches and
• 1:14:55
  old tropes are there because they know people want them.
• 1:14:58
  So I am going to put it through, but it is my least favorite of
• 1:15:01
  the season. We've got we've got some
• 1:15:06
  comments to say. Haven't we?
• 1:15:07
  Yeah. Should I go first?
• 1:15:11
  Yeah. Why don't you go first?
• 1:15:13
  I've said enough, I'm not sure how.
• 1:15:15
  You say this. Niranas I'm going to say it that
• 1:15:17
  way. This is the kind of inventive
• 1:15:19
  world building we need more of. There are enough interesting
• 1:15:22
  characters setting ideas here to build a pocket of the universe
• 1:15:26
  unfluxing. The Flux could be an epic audio
• 1:15:29
  or comic series of its own frenetic foundation.
• 1:15:33
  Flux keeps on giving. Gallifrey and Whovian.
• 1:15:37
  I really enjoyed it, the majority of the episodes were
• 1:15:40
  brilliant. I think a flaw is that there was
• 1:15:43
  too many plot threats. I wish it had focused on
• 1:15:45
  division related things and had given Tecton a much bigger role,
• 1:15:50
  Say Barbara Flynn. It's Barbara.
• 1:15:52
  Flynn, right? Let's hope they get her back.
• 1:15:54
  Michael Moslin I loved it from start to finish.
• 1:15:57
  Being made in the pandemic must have been difficult for the crew
• 1:15:59
  and cast that Chipnor wanted to do it to save.
• 1:16:02
  If God, the jobs of the crew makes it that little bit
• 1:16:05
  sweeter. Mini.
• 1:16:07
  Boy mini quoi. I don't know.
• 1:16:11
  It's. So impressive.
• 1:16:13
  To see how a season is beautiful in terms of direction and also
• 1:16:17
  being so entertaining with great characters and villains has been
• 1:16:21
  made during the pandemic. One of the best seasons of all
• 1:16:24
  of Doctor Who for me. I said, you know what I mean?
• 1:16:26
  There's a lot of. Positivity for this year, it was
• 1:16:30
  sort of more mixed with 11 and 12, if you guys remember.
• 1:16:33
  But the Campiness Patrol says credit to Chibnall for getting
• 1:16:37
  the show made probably during the most difficult circumstances
• 1:16:40
  in its history. But the season itself doesn't
• 1:16:42
  cohere at all. Some good individual episodes,
• 1:16:46
  Sontarans, Angels, and I will just say where there were
• 1:16:50
  comments about the individual episodes, those were the two
• 1:16:53
  that were highlighted as the best of the year without fail.
• 1:16:57
  But as they're all part of the same mark, I struggle to enjoy
• 1:17:00
  them as stand alone. Beeble, Pete.
• 1:17:03
  The 13th. Doctor's era is a period of
• 1:17:06
  great craftsmanship. Slinging the word exposition
• 1:17:09
  about is no substitute for simply taking the text spoken in
• 1:17:13
  tandem with many other things happening around the dialogue.
• 1:17:18
  And As for for the Flux, being limited to six parts was such a
• 1:17:21
  gift for Chris Chibnall. I don't know whether that was
• 1:17:24
  positive or negative. I don't know when he was.
• 1:17:26
  Saying nice things about exposition.
• 1:17:28
  I could see Fraser giving me the eye there.
• 1:17:32
  Daniel. Rosley.
• 1:17:33
  Says by far and away Jodie's best season best inhaled as a
• 1:17:37
  breathless anthology mini series visually accomplished.
• 1:17:40
  Hey hey look, hey look, oh hey look.
• 1:17:44
  The show looks weird and unusual again and assembled against
• 1:17:48
  impossible odds, at once exhilarating and exhausting.
• 1:17:52
  This is full on, fast, funny, furious, go for broke, Doctor
• 1:17:56
  Who thy heart? I love it.
• 1:17:58
  It's never heard of them. Yeah, never heard of them.
• 1:18:01
  It's storytelling. On a large scale, in multiple
• 1:18:04
  parts coming to a whole, the scope is huge and it just about
• 1:18:09
  hangs together. Considering when it was in
• 1:18:12
  production, it's a complete miracle it actually exists, let
• 1:18:16
  alone being great. Hugely underrated by fans.
• 1:18:19
  Well, apparently not the. Fans around here.
• 1:18:23
  Excellence. Right.
• 1:18:26
  I'm going to jump in now. If you don't mind, purely
• 1:18:29
  because you know, Lee's been looking at my notes and it turns
• 1:18:31
  out so has Dylan. This is my least.
• 1:18:37
  Favorite one as well. I think this is the weakest
• 1:18:39
  weakest one of the of the run. You know again not just really
• 1:18:43
  goes goes to show how strong this series is if this is the
• 1:18:47
  weakest episode. To be honest, I think the issues
• 1:18:50
  I have with it is this 1 is more obvious than any other.
• 1:18:55
  This is a one that was written before the concept of flux.
• 1:18:59
  So this one feels very much like it was a going to be a
• 1:19:01
  standalone episode and it's just been fluxified with bits added
• 1:19:06
  here and there. So you know you by the time you
• 1:19:11
  get to the end. I think it just kind of stumbles
• 1:19:15
  a little bit with the plot and the plot is is one of my my
• 1:19:18
  points for actually enjoying it because I do enjoy it.
• 1:19:21
  I think is a great, great story. And you know, we'll we'll set
• 1:19:26
  the Nigel Neil Claxon off because it's very Nigel Neil and
• 1:19:31
  as much as you know, it's the full color, it's the you know,
• 1:19:34
  the the the old Manor host and night with the scientists in it
• 1:19:38
  and the spooky goings on and everything.
• 1:19:42
  But you know, it is it's. This central concept.
• 1:19:45
  Of, you know, this whole village disappearing in the middle of
• 1:19:48
  the night and it's the angels have taken the whole village the
• 1:19:52
  way. It's just a fantastic one that I
• 1:19:53
  think is, you know, could have been, you know, played with a
• 1:19:57
  bit better. I think, you know, the idea of
• 1:19:59
  the old spinster in the village going around and telling
• 1:20:03
  everyone to leave now and count the the graveyards turning out
• 1:20:06
  to be the little kid who's missing.
• 1:20:08
  I think that's the element that really stumbles, because that
• 1:20:11
  just doesn't really. Have enough done with it by the
• 1:20:15
  end. But you know, it's, it's a great
• 1:20:16
  idea. It's a great concept.
• 1:20:17
  It's just you haven't really fleshed that out enough.
• 1:20:21
  But everything else about it is, is, is absolutely divine up
• 1:20:25
  until that point. I'm going to shout out for the
• 1:20:28
  director as well, but not the director you imagine.
• 1:20:31
  I'm not going to shout out for Jamie Magnus Stone, although he
• 1:20:33
  has done some exceptional work. I'm going to shout out for the
• 1:20:35
  director of photography. It was Robert Wennery, and I'm
• 1:20:39
  hope I'm pronouncing that right because the visuals in this, the
• 1:20:42
  lighting. The lighting.
• 1:20:45
  Is something else. I mean the, the shot in this of
• 1:20:49
  the field with the, the mist and the light and the scarecrow
• 1:20:53
  silhouetted, you know, the, the shots of the, the churchyard
• 1:20:58
  with the, the light streaming through the stained glass window
• 1:21:02
  and again, all that, all that fog.
• 1:21:04
  It's just something else. It really is.
• 1:21:06
  I thought I was in image of the Fender.
• 1:21:08
  Again, you know, fetch Priory. Yeah, Robert, when we he's.
• 1:21:12
  Also done the Halloween apocalypse.
• 1:21:13
  He's also done one of the Sontarans.
• 1:21:15
  You can tell you know these are pets looking the ones of the.
• 1:21:19
  Year absolutely from here he. Goes on to do Eve of the Daleks
• 1:21:22
  and Power of the Doctor as well, again with Jamie Magnus stones.
• 1:21:25
  So these two are kind of just working.
• 1:21:27
  So in sympatico saying he didn't do Legend of.
• 1:21:30
  The Sea Devils. He didn't do Legend of the Sea.
• 1:21:33
  What happened? He.
• 1:21:34
  Doesn't show. It doesn't.
• 1:21:37
  So yeah, it just. Looks at me and it's I Remember
• 1:21:39
  Me and Mark McManus from track one.
• 1:21:42
  We went to Allendale just before this story came out and we were
• 1:21:47
  talking about, you know, how much we just wanted a sort of
• 1:21:50
  really spooky demons esque story with, you know, you know, we're
• 1:21:55
  looking at the church and Allen and just thinking, no, imagine
• 1:21:56
  that just all, you know, spooky with angels as the tombstones
• 1:22:00
  and everything. And you know, it really
• 1:22:02
  delivered that visually. And so the last thing then is,
• 1:22:06
  is the angels themselves. Like Dylan mentioned.
• 1:22:09
  I think what Chipnall does, and it's done better than any other
• 1:22:14
  show another century is bring the monsters back.
• 1:22:17
  Every time he's brought the monsters back, he has done it
• 1:22:19
  better than any of his predecessors.
• 1:22:22
  And you know, he's done, he does it with the Daleks in
• 1:22:25
  resolution. He does it with the Cybermen in
• 1:22:28
  Ascension of the Cybermen and. You.
• 1:22:31
  Know the Lydia Doughty and Tim's children and he does it here
• 1:22:35
  with angels as well. He does it.
• 1:22:37
  He doesn't just with the sub times as well.
• 1:22:39
  You know, we've talked about the suntans.
• 1:22:41
  What he does with the suntans is really interesting is he keeps
• 1:22:44
  them comical, but he makes them threatening as well.
• 1:22:45
  You know, people either have them comedy or or not.
• 1:22:48
  And you know he he brings a real menace to the suntans.
• 1:22:52
  But with the Angels, what he does is he remembers what makes
• 1:22:57
  them effective to start with. You know, when Moffat brings the
• 1:23:01
  Angels back, he does, he's always trying to add something
• 1:23:04
  new. He's always like, I'm bored of
• 1:23:05
  them. Now he does it with the Daleks
• 1:23:07
  as well. It's almost like, well, I'm the
• 1:23:08
  boring is now I need to add more and I need to add more and I
• 1:23:11
  need to add more. Chibnul celebrates the law
• 1:23:16
  without adding it to it. He enhances it.
• 1:23:18
  So you get things like the image of an Angel is an Angel.
• 1:23:22
  I mean, well, that's bollocks to start with.
• 1:23:23
  But, you know, the idea that you, you know, the Doctor rips
• 1:23:26
  the picture up, puts it in the fire and it comes alive as a
• 1:23:30
  picture, and then he sets on fire.
• 1:23:31
  So you get a flaming Angel. You know, that's brilliant.
• 1:23:34
  The idea of like the Angel in Claire's mind and she's rubbing
• 1:23:37
  her eyes and she's leaving, you know, stone dust everywhere.
• 1:23:42
  The Angel on the polygraph look. Look, look.
• 1:23:44
  Yeah, yeah. And also I know it's not.
• 1:23:46
  Here, but in the previous episode, when they're building
• 1:23:49
  up to this and they're in the PlayStation game, yeah.
• 1:23:53
  Yeah, so. You know, you know, highlight of
• 1:23:57
  this episode, but of the era, the series and the year until is
• 1:24:00
  just how well Chipnall brings back these monsters to the this
• 1:24:03
  is the best the angels have been since Blink, hands down.
• 1:24:06
  And like I say with Dylan, I have a few quibbles with it.
• 1:24:09
  That means it probably goes to the bottom of the list of of the
• 1:24:12
  six chapters. But you know, the bottom of the
• 1:24:14
  list of the six chapters is still an absolute thump and good
• 1:24:18
  story that I would happily watch again and again.
• 1:24:20
  And it's going for kids. Excellent.
• 1:24:23
  Can I go next? You can well.
• 1:24:25
  Because I think. Whilst Fraser's been looking at
• 1:24:28
  Lee's notes and Dylan's been looking at Fraser's notes,
• 1:24:31
  Fraser's been looking at my notes because this is my weakest
• 1:24:34
  one of the season as well. So we're sort of Lee.
• 1:24:38
  It's all down to you now. I'm afraid I am going to bin
• 1:24:41
  this one, despite all of the wonderful things that you've
• 1:24:44
  said that I absolutely agree with, but fucking hell, I can't
• 1:24:47
  put everything through. Come on now, I've got to be
• 1:24:49
  reasonable. Someone's got to bin something.
• 1:24:53
  There's lots of things I love, though.
• 1:24:54
  Kevin McNally makes an instant impression, and the actress who
• 1:24:57
  plays Claire is. OK, silence from everybody.
• 1:25:02
  I'll drop that in we never talk about because she is brilliant.
• 1:25:05
  But nobody ever talks about it. The best sometimes.
• 1:25:08
  You. Just forget because they're just
• 1:25:09
  so good. I think they make a great double
• 1:25:12
  act and they're a wonderful pair for that chase scene through the
• 1:25:16
  house. Finally someone has reminding us
• 1:25:19
  just how fucking weird and creepy children are.
• 1:25:22
  Yeah, after all of those irritating children of the
• 1:25:24
  Damned and the Moffett era, those saccharine, ooey, gooey
• 1:25:28
  lovely. Oh, I hate them all.
• 1:25:31
  This kid is so weird, isn't she? So, I mean, her dad dies and she
• 1:25:36
  just sort of goes, oh, well, never mind.
• 1:25:37
  It was always a bit mean to me. Kids are so weird.
• 1:25:40
  I think she's, she is great. She's, she's scarier than the
• 1:25:43
  angels at times. The set pieces are really great
• 1:25:46
  as well. Huge moment for Amanda Gill when
• 1:25:50
  she literally has tears in her eyes in a moment where the Angel
• 1:25:54
  is behind them and she's trying really hard not to blink.
• 1:25:56
  She does it again with the Daleks in a couple of episodes
• 1:25:58
  time. And she's so good at portraying
• 1:26:01
  fear without, you know, falling to pieces like Elizabeth slavery
• 1:26:06
  or something like that. But I just don't think, I don't
• 1:26:11
  think the two plots, the one in the village where Dan and Yasar
• 1:26:16
  and the one where the doctor is, it doesn't come together.
• 1:26:21
  And I was clock watching when I was watching this and going, do
• 1:26:24
  you know what? This is all really well done,
• 1:26:26
  but I'm a little bit bored. And then I start sort of running
• 1:26:29
  around and the angels were coming after him.
• 1:26:31
  And like you said, Fraser, I was always like impressed with the
• 1:26:35
  look of this, the the lighting with those hands coming out of
• 1:26:39
  the wall coming for that is genuinely nightmarish.
• 1:26:43
  And the cliffhanger is great. But I was clock watching
• 1:26:47
  watching this one. And I think in a season where
• 1:26:51
  all of the ark stuff is so engaging for me, I think sort of
• 1:26:55
  losing all those characters, Carvin, Esther, Belvinda and all
• 1:26:58
  of that. I know they're sort of on the
• 1:26:59
  periphery of this episode, but they're not really involved.
• 1:27:02
  It is a detriment of the season. So I can understand why everyone
• 1:27:05
  loves this because it is proper old school Doctor Who horror,
• 1:27:09
  but for me it's the most boring of the year so I'm going to bin
• 1:27:13
  it well. Our first bin and just going to,
• 1:27:18
  you know, save you a little. Bit of time later on, Joe,
• 1:27:21
  because Annabelle Scully is the actress that plays Claire.
• 1:27:23
  Oh, thank you. Very good.
• 1:27:25
  Excellent, Lee. Do you have things to say about
• 1:27:29
  this? Are you going to get the scorn
• 1:27:32
  and wrath of the Dwas on you like Joe has?
• 1:27:36
  Oh, do you know what I'm? I'm going to start by saying I'm
• 1:27:38
  very surprised at the negativity in the room for Village of the
• 1:27:42
  Angels. I mean, does it have to fall to
• 1:27:44
  me to be the voice of reason tonight?
• 1:27:47
  Because you know what? I'm not going to be The Village
• 1:27:50
  of the Angels can get in the bend.
• 1:27:55
  Police and wild folks point #1. What's better than a base under
• 1:28:00
  siege? That's right, an English village
• 1:28:02
  under siege. Such a shame that Village of the
• 1:28:05
  Angels doesn't deliver on that concept.
• 1:28:08
  As we'll see in this episode, it's a script that's not afraid
• 1:28:10
  to riff on previous episodes of Doctor Who, A professor and a
• 1:28:15
  spooky Old house, putting a seemingly normal woman through a
• 1:28:18
  series of psychometric tests to establish whether she has powers
• 1:28:21
  not of this Earth. This is essentially hide the
• 1:28:24
  next generation. But the real crime here, as far
• 1:28:28
  as the setting goes, is the missed opportunity to create
• 1:28:30
  more threat and tension that we get presented to us.
• 1:28:33
  We're showing the after effects of the flux encroaching on the
• 1:28:36
  edges of the village, ensuring no escape for anyone contained
• 1:28:39
  within represented. By reality.
• 1:28:42
  Literally crumbling at the seams.
• 1:28:44
  A great idea, right? So why then leave it as a big
• 1:28:49
  starry no exit sign? Surely the trick here would have
• 1:28:52
  been to have that force slowly encroached in upon the village,
• 1:28:56
  slowly closing in on the residence afraid enough on its
• 1:28:59
  own, which could then be used much greater effect once the
• 1:29:03
  Angels appear on the scene. That whole set piece with the
• 1:29:06
  Doctor, Claire and Jericho trapped inside the house could
• 1:29:09
  have had the the attention ramped up even more with the
• 1:29:12
  oncoming destruction closing in on them as well as the Angels
• 1:29:16
  themselves. It could have all led to heart
• 1:29:19
  pounding Pacey into the story. But what do we get instead?
• 1:29:23
  Jericho doing his best, even Levine impression by smashing up
• 1:29:26
  a telly followed by a chase down a tunnel.
• 1:29:29
  An episode ending with the Doctor getting stoned, which
• 1:29:32
  quite frankly is a terrible example to be set into kids
• 1:29:35
  watching and would have Mary Whitehouse turning in her grave.
• 1:29:40
  That's not to say Village of the Angels doesn't deliver on
• 1:29:42
  eeriness. The scenes in which Dan and Yaz
• 1:29:45
  investigate the deserted village in 1901 have that air of quiet,
• 1:29:49
  threatening stillness to them, and definitely confirms to us
• 1:29:52
  that Chris Chibnall spent the first phase of the COVID
• 1:29:55
  pandemic playing Everybody's Going to the Rapture on his
• 1:29:58
  brand new PS-5. But we could have.
• 1:30:00
  Had more it. Just all feels like it's just
• 1:30:03
  missing the mark, which is a real shame.
• 1:30:06
  Is there a more sapphire? And steel moment though, than
• 1:30:09
  that bit where the camera swings round from the forest and then
• 1:30:13
  there's that starscape. It's just straight out of
• 1:30:15
  sapphire and steel, isn't it? Do you know what, in any classic
• 1:30:18
  season I would put this through in this season, yeah.
• 1:30:23
  No, I put it through in quite a few.
• 1:30:25
  Of the other modern series ones, I mean absolutely like.
• 1:30:29
  Jesus. In series. 6 Dylan, This would
• 1:30:32
  be top of the list. How dare you?
• 1:30:34
  The second best series of new. Doctor Who series 6 after flux.
• 1:30:39
  So you say so. We've offended.
• 1:30:41
  Ian Levine, now he's turned off as well.
• 1:30:43
  We're not doing very well here, are we?
• 1:30:45
  That was Ian. That was Ian all.
• 1:30:46
  Along tight 40, we've done them all haven't.
• 1:30:48
  We There we go. We're upsetting the right.
• 1:30:51
  People though. Oh wow, quite so.
• 1:30:53
  It must be Joe Ford's turn. Next I've only.
• 1:30:57
  Put the left button so I'm sure. Oh my gosh.
• 1:31:01
  There's a proper. Kicking coming down the line
• 1:31:04
  here let's. Go.
• 1:31:06
  Right. Point #2 The angels themselves,
• 1:31:09
  so notably one of modern who's most effective and chilling
• 1:31:12
  villains, mute, blank faced, silently moving into position,
• 1:31:16
  hunting their prey and pouncing at a moment's notice.
• 1:31:20
  So why then, if they suddenly pulled the ability to speak out
• 1:31:23
  of their Stony arses? Look, I get it.
• 1:31:26
  It's a plot device. It's used to undermine Jericho's
• 1:31:29
  staunch resistance to them by playing on his insecurities and
• 1:31:32
  self doubt, slyly chipping away him and manipulating him into
• 1:31:36
  letting his guard down for the split second that they need to
• 1:31:39
  take control. So why then, instead of
• 1:31:42
  conveying this with a sinister whisper that he instead seemed
• 1:31:45
  like Barry White trapped in a lift shaft?
• 1:31:49
  Surely the more sensible option would have been to hint at his
• 1:31:52
  newly developed power by having the conversation more one way
• 1:31:55
  with Jericho just responding to their taunts.
• 1:31:59
  Surely it'd been worse than this, that only half the
• 1:32:00
  conversation to fill in the gaps ourselves as to what they're
• 1:32:04
  saying to make this man break, what buttons are pushing and
• 1:32:07
  maintaining the mysterious power.
• 1:32:10
  So that's point #2 I don't disagree with that.
• 1:32:14
  Actually, like there's some great visual stuff with the
• 1:32:16
  Angel saver. I don't know if they're that as
• 1:32:18
  interesting as people say in this episode.
• 1:32:22
  I will. Say that.
• 1:32:23
  The Angel speaking was set up in the yeah, where they kind of
• 1:32:28
  like put out someone's larynx and use that for this
• 1:32:31
  communicate. So I think there is something
• 1:32:33
  powerful about, you know, the idea of the angels talking to
• 1:32:37
  you, but, you know, point taking.
• 1:32:38
  They're sort of trying to tease you, aren't they?
• 1:32:40
  They're trying to make you scared.
• 1:32:42
  Yeah, Yeah. So that's the left book going
• 1:32:45
  in, that's the right book going on.
• 1:32:47
  Shall We Stick the Knot and Villains of the Angels and
• 1:32:49
  finish off Let's do it, Let's do it point #3 for Duncan Ferguson.
• 1:32:57
  The next series of the Post Box Live will be brought to you live
• 1:32:59
  from Bardani Prison. Now point #3 the ongoing saga of
• 1:33:05
  Bells hunt for Vendor. There is nothing wrong with this
• 1:33:07
  plot Fred in itself. It needs to be told to establish
• 1:33:10
  the relationship between the two of them.
• 1:33:12
  I don't think this episode is really the place for it though,
• 1:33:15
  as it feels like it's encroaching on the Angel's plot,
• 1:33:18
  providing another barrier to what could have been a Stone
• 1:33:20
  cold a A classic. It's also not helped when we
• 1:33:25
  arrived with Belle on the planet Pizano, where the survivors of
• 1:33:28
  the Flux congregate due to a mysterious stranger offering
• 1:33:31
  them an escape and a sanctuary. Great, nice hook.
• 1:33:35
  Or at least it would be until Blake Harrison turns up, AKA
• 1:33:38
  Space Needle from The Inbetweeners.
• 1:33:41
  Now I'm not having a go at the guy.
• 1:33:42
  It's a shame that his career has become so dominated by one part
• 1:33:46
  he played, but it's difficult to shake off the feeling that he's
• 1:33:49
  less intergalactic space refugee, driven by desperation
• 1:33:53
  and hope of a better future, and more that guy you.
• 1:33:56
  Bump into the. Avalon Field at Glastonbury who
• 1:33:59
  offers you a good price on these holistic treatments and
• 1:34:01
  mindfulness Course who you then see later gunning his face off
• 1:34:05
  in front of Spiritualised at 3:00 in the morning.
• 1:34:08
  These scenes also aren't helped when Azure and Passenger turned
• 1:34:12
  up on the Cliff face. Now, I don't know if it's just
• 1:34:14
  me here, but as the amassed crowds stand there gazing up at
• 1:34:18
  their potential savers, it all seems a little bit of Life of
• 1:34:21
  Brian to me. I was just waiting for the
• 1:34:24
  chorus of yes, we're all individuals from the Assembly
• 1:34:27
  from Beneath, followed by your, followed by his.
• 1:34:30
  You're shrieking. He's not your Messiah.
• 1:34:32
  He's a very naughty boy. So I ask if you, apart from
• 1:34:36
  missing the mark and creating tension, adding plot elements
• 1:34:39
  that distract from and somewhat derail the overall picture, and
• 1:34:42
  unnecessarily giving voice to a creature whose sheer menace
• 1:34:46
  always came from its quiet stillness, what has Village of
• 1:34:49
  the Angels ever done for us? Nothing, that's what.
• 1:34:52
  Get it in the bin. Everyone loves this.
• 1:34:55
  One right everyone? Who fans just need to.
• 1:34:59
  Look outside of like the funny box that they think Doctor Who
• 1:35:03
  is, you know. Well, it's Hinchcliffe, isn't
• 1:35:05
  it? Yeah, it's Hinchcliffe, but
• 1:35:07
  like, I mean. Come on, we talk about episode
• 1:35:10
  like final episodes that go nowhere.
• 1:35:12
  The Hinchcliffe era has got to be full of disappointing
• 1:35:15
  climaxes. Although you talk about space
• 1:35:21
  Neil, I mean, I can't believe we have that amazing cliffhanger
• 1:35:24
  and then there's credits here and then suddenly Space Neil's
• 1:35:27
  there chatting away to Vinda, isn't it?
• 1:35:29
  I'm like, what's going on? Why have we got this scene at
• 1:35:31
  the end? I think Chris Chibnall love the.
• 1:35:33
  Inbetweeners because quite a few of them show up during this this
• 1:35:36
  the this era down all from 55. Yeah, some of them in Friday
• 1:35:41
  night. Dinner.
• 1:35:42
  Is he there? The one.
• 1:35:44
  There's one in the. The woman who fell to Earth
• 1:35:46
  isn't there. Is there, are you thinking about
• 1:35:49
  the guy at the crane? Oh, I don't know the crane
• 1:35:52
  driver because he's a bit kind of Joe.
• 1:35:54
  Thomasy, but it's. Not yeah, maybe it's not.
• 1:35:56
  Anybody can we talk about? Once Upon Time, Please, which is
• 1:36:00
  an episode that everybody seems to hate except me and Luke
• 1:36:06
  Malloy, weirdly, who hates the era but really likes this
• 1:36:08
  episode. Is this the single most unique
• 1:36:12
  episode of the season? I certainly think this is the
• 1:36:14
  one episode that could only be told this year.
• 1:36:18
  It's so wrapped up in this very fresh mythology, and there's not
• 1:36:23
  really much else happening apart from flux stuff.
• 1:36:26
  The Maori, the ravages, the Grand Serpent, the division,
• 1:36:30
  Berwyn, Vinda, the fugitive Dr. All right, she's from last year,
• 1:36:33
  I'll give you that. But it takes time to add back
• 1:36:37
  story, context and detail to all of those things.
• 1:36:41
  It provides answers for how the Doctor knows Swarm and Azure,
• 1:36:44
  why Vinda was exiled, how he knows Bell, showing life in the
• 1:36:49
  wake of the Flux, revealing the missions that the fugitive Dr.
• 1:36:52
  was on, the first really strong indication that Yaz loves the
• 1:36:56
  Doctor. There's scenes inside the
• 1:36:59
  Doctor's head in this that reveals her desperation to find
• 1:37:02
  her missing past. There's so much happening in
• 1:37:05
  this episode, and it really definitely jumps from one thing
• 1:37:09
  to another. It's a bit like the season writ
• 1:37:11
  large. It is like about 15 plots
• 1:37:14
  occurring. But I think he's really clear
• 1:37:17
  with where you are. It's a brilliant chance for the
• 1:37:20
  actors to role play in this. I think the most impressive,
• 1:37:24
  because everybody plays other parts in this.
• 1:37:26
  The most impressive for me is Jodie Whittaker and her take on
• 1:37:30
  the Fugitive Dr. And you hear about it in one of their little
• 1:37:34
  mini documentaries. They do.
• 1:37:35
  She said, you know, with the Doctor, she sort of leans
• 1:37:37
  forward and she's a bit awkward. And with the Fugitive Dr., she
• 1:37:40
  stands straight and she's very clear and she doesn't gabble and
• 1:37:44
  she's a bit threatening, but she's also very good as the
• 1:37:49
  comic policewoman in the one scene when she cackles on next
• 1:37:52
  to Yas. I think she's amazing.
• 1:37:54
  I was like, have you seen what they're charging there?
• 1:37:56
  And they're like no, we don't care.
• 1:37:57
  So I said why would I buy them here for this price when the
• 1:37:59
  half price 3 Doors Down? And she said and she was so
• 1:38:01
  snotty. It's up to you isn't it?
• 1:38:03
  And I said yes it is. And I've never stepped foot in
• 1:38:04
  that shop since and who's losing out?
• 1:38:07
  It's not even like I'm not bothered.
• 1:38:08
  About that soon as Doctor, you all right?
• 1:38:18
  Yeah. I really.
• 1:38:20
  Love that you see how the Daleks and the side men are exploiting
• 1:38:23
  the flux in some visually arresting sequences.
• 1:38:27
  That bit where we're going through the red field with Bell
• 1:38:32
  and then you see the side men all marching.
• 1:38:34
  People say the CGI was bad during those bits.
• 1:38:37
  Like, have we gotten too greedy? Have we gotten too used to how
• 1:38:42
  fucking good Doctor Who can look if you bring up the Star Beast
• 1:38:45
  in a race? I'm all right.
• 1:38:48
  I'm not. Talking about the.
• 1:38:49
  Star Beast, I wouldn't waste time on that.
• 1:38:54
  I just think, I just think in the middle of this season, I,
• 1:38:58
  Chipple said it in an interview. I could only do this story here
• 1:39:02
  and he took the opportunity to tell the most sorry Moffett.
• 1:39:06
  Fuck off. The most tiny whiny story I
• 1:39:09
  could possibly think of. Moffett now.
• 1:39:12
  We're in different. Time.
• 1:39:14
  Zones, we're we're playing different characters, we're
• 1:39:17
  doing different backs like this. It's just crazy.
• 1:39:21
  It's crazy. And if you're not on board for
• 1:39:23
  the flux, you're going to hate this because it's balls deep in
• 1:39:27
  the flux Once Upon a time. I love the flux.
• 1:39:33
  And I'm going back and watching this whole season bar 1 episode.
• 1:39:38
  This was the one that really stood out to me as being unique,
• 1:39:42
  full of really great science fiction ideas, full of wonderful
• 1:39:46
  set pieces, full of great performance pieces and
• 1:39:50
  opportunities to give different types of performances.
• 1:39:54
  Yeah, just wonderful. And we just haven't spoken
• 1:39:56
  enough tonight about how great Swarm and Azure are.
• 1:40:00
  And but also the first Swarm as well, that really the one who
• 1:40:05
  goes. Really scary.
• 1:40:08
  That that the image of the two of them in front of that weird
• 1:40:11
  blue crystal in the Temple of Atropos.
• 1:40:14
  Just amazingly good. Yeah.
• 1:40:16
  So I've sort of got a bit all over the place.
• 1:40:18
  Basically it's it's a big flux wank job and I loved every
• 1:40:26
  second of it. Joe Ford, Fox.
• 1:40:28
  With the flux, that's right. Shall we hear from some of the
• 1:40:34
  listeners, John? Arnold.
• 1:40:36
  Says a bloated mess that goes nowhere, even allowing for COVID
• 1:40:41
  restrictions. I'm teasing you.
• 1:40:44
  I'm not going to do the impression, you know I'm teasing
• 1:40:47
  you. A brilliantly.
• 1:40:49
  Improvised response to the pandemic production restrictions
• 1:40:53
  where everyone feels energized by this different way of
• 1:40:56
  working. Probably my favorite Jodie
• 1:40:58
  season. Johnny Morris says it was a.
• 1:41:02
  Fun ride like everyone else. I thought you could tell.
• 1:41:05
  I thought that you can tell this was original.
• 1:41:09
  Originally a stand alone episode, Instalments with the
• 1:41:11
  Sontaras and the Weeping Angels work best, and the stuff with
• 1:41:14
  the Maori and the Grand Sermon and Tektayun were very confusing
• 1:41:17
  and possibly would not bear close scrutiny.
• 1:41:20
  I completely disagree with that comment.
• 1:41:23
  That's really interesting. That's the new stuff they should
• 1:41:26
  they missed. A trick not calling this episode
• 1:41:28
  that's a more, but anyway, perfect.
• 1:41:32
  Jason. Thompson.
• 1:41:34
  It's honestly boggled my mind that people were still genuine,
• 1:41:37
  genuinely trying to argue that Doctor Who was doomed and the
• 1:41:41
  BBC wanted to kill it off at a time when they would have had
• 1:41:44
  very justified reasons just to not make it at all or delay it a
• 1:41:48
  year or two. Instead they kept it going and
• 1:41:51
  that's brilliant. Flux as a whole is big.
• 1:41:55
  Doing something new and a bold Excuse me and a bold experiment
• 1:42:00
  in the format. Yes.
• 1:42:01
  Telling an explicitly 6 part story in the 21st century run is
• 1:42:07
  new and experimental, no matter how many six part as there were
• 1:42:10
  in the classic series. So there.
• 1:42:12
  It looks gorgeous. It doesn't all come off though.
• 1:42:15
  Can I? Sorry, can.
• 1:42:17
  I just set the background to Jason's first point there
• 1:42:19
  around, you know, the BBC and not having any faith in this
• 1:42:22
  series. I've spoke before, I think I've
• 1:42:24
  been when we didn't let's go have Call us about, you know how
• 1:42:28
  much confidence the BBC did actually haven't shipped on at
• 1:42:31
  this time and you look at the production dates for that.
• 1:42:36
  We have got 3 episodes in this series which are set on the date
• 1:42:42
  they air. We've got the Halloween
• 1:42:44
  Apocalypse, you've got the Village of the Angels which was
• 1:42:46
  set the thing somewhere in November and you've got the
• 1:42:49
  Vanquishers. They are all set on their days,
• 1:42:51
  which means the BBC put this into production knowing exactly
• 1:42:54
  when they were going to air this.
• 1:43:00
  You know these these stories, which don't even correct us if
• 1:43:02
  I'm wrong, but is pretty much unheard of in in television
• 1:43:05
  production to actually it's it's like when the new.
• 1:43:08
  Series finale had made it. Oh, wait.
• 1:43:13
  Also as well though. You know, we've heard all these
• 1:43:16
  stories about cheering Moffitt's time where they were like, no,
• 1:43:19
  you've got to split the seasons over 2 years.
• 1:43:21
  We haven't got enough money for you to do a whole season.
• 1:43:23
  Whatever Chibnall was told. You know, in the last run we won
• 1:43:26
  an extra episode because Eva the Daleks wasn't supposed to exist.
• 1:43:30
  We want more from you. Oh and by the way, we're going
• 1:43:33
  to turn your last episode into the 60th special and throw a
• 1:43:36
  shit ton of money at you for extra CGI.
• 1:43:39
  Go for it, have fun and all that extra.
• 1:43:42
  Money was spent on getting Sophie Eldridge back worth.
• 1:43:46
  Every pen, every penny. Got a first.
• 1:43:49
  Got a first class train ticket. She didn't even have to sit on
• 1:43:51
  the floor. Dave Rennie with the change.
• 1:43:54
  I forgot trying to feel it. She was even more of the.
• 1:44:00
  Money. Fucking hell, I love Flux, says
• 1:44:03
  Dave Rennie. Incredible.
• 1:44:05
  It was made. So yes, the last two episodes
• 1:44:07
  suffer a bit by packing loads in when originally there was going
• 1:44:10
  to be more episodes. I don't know how this would work
• 1:44:12
  as eight, but the bigger picture is we got 6 episodes at all.
• 1:44:16
  And to play to Chipnall's strengths of longer
• 1:44:18
  storytelling. A big fan, Daniel.
• 1:44:21
  Knight says It reminded me of Unforgotten, one of my favorite
• 1:44:25
  crime dramas. There were lots of disparate
• 1:44:27
  elements and you were left to wonder how on earth they would
• 1:44:30
  all fit together. The ending doesn't quite work
• 1:44:32
  mainly due to the final episode that needed to needed more time
• 1:44:36
  to breathe. But bravo for them trying Tom
• 1:44:39
  Newsom. There was a point.
• 1:44:40
  After the brilliant episode 2 where I thought this could be
• 1:44:43
  the best series in years, we've already established Tom that it
• 1:44:46
  is unraveled towards the end but delivered so much huge stakes,
• 1:44:50
  madcap farm and memorable monsters.
• 1:44:52
  The most doctor hooey of Jodies rum Nathan Bottomley.
• 1:44:58
  People. Do realise that?
• 1:45:00
  Other TV productions were also happening during COVID and
• 1:45:03
  managed not to collapse into an incoherent mess, don't they?
• 1:45:07
  It's a miracle this even happened.
• 1:45:08
  Is lazy and is a lazy and stupid way of excusing endless scenes
• 1:45:13
  of people wandering from place to place for no clear reason,
• 1:45:16
  plot threads that go nowhere and huge offence, huge events that
• 1:45:19
  have no impact on anyone. Now, Nathan, classic Doctor Who
• 1:45:24
  is endless scenes of people wondering from place to place
• 1:45:27
  for no clear reason. You're watching the wrong thing.
• 1:45:30
  You must have been watching The Armageddon Factor.
• 1:45:32
  And what I will say, I made a lot of television and films in
• 1:45:37
  the pandemic and they were all creatively and logistically
• 1:45:41
  compromised and did not end up how they were supposed to be and
• 1:45:44
  looked creatively compromised in places because of the global
• 1:45:48
  pandemic. And I think we only had to we
• 1:45:51
  could only cast our minds back to, you know, episodes of
• 1:45:54
  EastEnders where there was visible screens between people
• 1:45:58
  or that episode of The One Show where one of the presenters was
• 1:46:00
  on a giant tablet or WrestleMania when the audience
• 1:46:04
  are on screens. And, and not to mention the
• 1:46:07
  amount of Hollywood films at the time where people are so far
• 1:46:10
  apart. It's like they've had to bring
• 1:46:12
  widescreen back and make the screen even wider because
• 1:46:15
  they're socially distancing or not in the same room and they
• 1:46:18
  can't cross because everyone will realize they're not in the
• 1:46:21
  same room. It's a miracle that this is as
• 1:46:24
  good as it is. That is a fact that I will not
• 1:46:27
  hear anybody say that, that that this is not a well put together
• 1:46:32
  production during a COVID pandemic.
• 1:46:34
  There is maybe I think there's probably 1 moment and it's when
• 1:46:37
  they're all reunited at the beginning of episode 6 where
• 1:46:41
  everyone looks a bit spaced out more than they would normally
• 1:46:44
  be. But the rest of it you like he's
• 1:46:46
  gone balls to the floor or balls to the wall and made this
• 1:46:50
  massive, massive production. They've made Doctor Who bigger
• 1:46:53
  than it's ever been for. You're wrong, Nathan.
• 1:46:55
  I don't think he was quite. Ready for the pylon?
• 1:46:58
  When he posted that and everyone went and going oh you grumpy old
• 1:47:02
  git, we all love it go go go watch RTD 2.
• 1:47:07
  And then he did sort of issue. I mean he doesn't do this sort
• 1:47:10
  of thing, but a public apology go well please, you all enjoyed
• 1:47:13
  it? We've got one more comment.
• 1:47:19
  Is it me? It's you.
• 1:47:23
  Fortunately ends on a pleasing note.
• 1:47:25
  I love Flux on 1st watch. I genuinely thought I was
• 1:47:28
  watching the future of Doctor Who.
• 1:47:29
  So did Dylan. Other genre shows till tell
• 1:47:32
  complete stories over a season so it's only right Doctor Who
• 1:47:35
  does as well. And I was able and it was able
• 1:47:37
  to tell a huge story that took in all of time and space.
• 1:47:41
  What a shame the format didn't stick.
• 1:47:44
  Bravo. So.
• 1:47:47
  We've done one each, haven't we? Oh no, we're still you've got to
• 1:47:51
  do. Once Upon time.
• 1:47:53
  Oh yes. I'm going to jump in with Once
• 1:47:57
  Upon Time fucking find my notes, which I can't.
• 1:48:02
  This is my favorite of the season quite quite easily.
• 1:48:07
  I think it's a wonderful bit of storytelling that plays with the
• 1:48:12
  format of the show, that plays with the characters, that plays
• 1:48:15
  with the COVID constraints, Nathan, all all these things.
• 1:48:19
  And I'll put it through for just a couple like 3 very simple
• 1:48:24
  reasons. This is a Doctor Who story set
• 1:48:27
  largely before Unearthly Child. This should be everybody should
• 1:48:32
  be going Oh my God, we're finally seeing more than that
• 1:48:35
  repair shop in fucking Time of the Doctor or whatever it was
• 1:48:39
  Night of the something of the Doctor, Name of the Doctor, one
• 1:48:42
  of the Doctors, or the the one room we saw of the Division in
• 1:48:48
  The Fugitive of the Jadoon. We get to see the Doctor working
• 1:48:51
  for the Division with her lost companion.
• 1:48:55
  Like what? Like what more can we give you?
• 1:48:58
  What more can Doctor Who give you than something like this?
• 1:49:01
  This is Mythos building stuff. You're all absolutely insane.
• 1:49:06
  Division created. The flux because you're scared
• 1:49:09
  of me. Not scared, worry.
• 1:49:11
  Perhaps. How much power do you imagine I
• 1:49:13
  have? You inspire.
• 1:49:16
  Make people question rise up. You give them hope.
• 1:49:19
  That can be problematic. Who even are you?
• 1:49:25
  You don't remember? Why would you?
• 1:49:32
  I think my eyes are the same. Even across the regenerations.
• 1:49:39
  But you wouldn't know. Count me, I'm the one who found
• 1:49:48
  you. I brought you to Gallifrey.
• 1:49:51
  And. Raised you.
• 1:49:58
  I'm Ted Tail, the woman you used to call Mother.
• 1:50:12
  This is the planet. Time.
• 1:50:14
  Doctor Who is all of time and space.
• 1:50:17
  This is where it comes from. This is like Doctor Who
• 1:50:22
  shattering the universe that it create like that it lives in.
• 1:50:25
  This is this is the. This is a bigger story.
• 1:50:28
  Than Day of the Doctor. You're all absolutely insane.
• 1:50:32
  You're right #2 I just really. Like that bit with Jody in the
• 1:50:37
  police car when she has to be the police officer in it.
• 1:50:40
  That's it. That's.
• 1:50:41
  It. Excuse me, Madam, it's great.
• 1:50:46
  And then the stuff with Belle on the run, I think Belle is a
• 1:50:49
  brilliant sort of Belle and Vinda, to be honest, like a
• 1:50:53
  leveler for this, of just adding the human elements and proving
• 1:50:56
  that your human element doesn't need to be a 21st century young
• 1:51:00
  man or woman, that they can be from further in the future, from
• 1:51:03
  distant parts of space, and you can still have that human thing.
• 1:51:06
  Because Chris Chimble's really good at writing characters.
• 1:51:08
  It's tense when she's hiding from those Daleks.
• 1:51:11
  Like it's really tense stuff. I know people go, oh, the Daleks
• 1:51:14
  look CGI. That's because they were CGI
• 1:51:18
  like like like what do you want they?
• 1:51:21
  Really fly then? Yeah, they really fly.
• 1:51:25
  Why would you bring a bunch more people into the studio that or
• 1:51:29
  onto set than you need to during a global pandemic?
• 1:51:32
  So you get a few CGI Daleks and then the the planet, the the red
• 1:51:37
  fields and the armies and armies of Cybermen.
• 1:51:39
  Are you mad? That's the most amount of
• 1:51:41
  Cybermen we've ever seen. Like what?
• 1:51:44
  It's just, again, another visually expensive thing, but I
• 1:51:47
  just think Bell really sells it. And I am frightened of the
• 1:51:51
  Daleks in this for the first time in a long time, just
• 1:51:53
  because there's like, they're going to get this poor lady.
• 1:51:56
  They're going to get this poor lady.
• 1:51:57
  I feel like I'm watching the opening scenes of a Terminator
• 1:52:00
  film or something like that in the ruins of Skynet's ashes.
• 1:52:05
  So this is she is pregnant. And she takes on a whole
• 1:52:09
  flotilla of Simon men with two guns.
• 1:52:11
  Exactly, exactly and. She didn't need to go, but she
• 1:52:14
  didn't expect that from a pregnant lady or something like
• 1:52:17
  that or whatever that repossible.
• 1:52:19
  From Arthur Darville When a Good Man goes to war.
• 1:52:23
  So those. Are my three points like this?
• 1:52:25
  Is this is one of the best? God bless you Chris Chibnall.
• 1:52:31
  Should we come to Lee next? Why not?
• 1:52:33
  Why not? OK, Once Upon a time.
• 1:52:36
  First point. All killer.
• 1:52:37
  No. Oh, sorry.
• 1:52:38
  All filler. No killer.
• 1:52:41
  But it's. Flowing so much better.
• 1:52:42
  If I hadn't stumbled over that, wouldn't have.
• 1:52:43
  We'll fix it in the edit, no? No, we were.
• 1:52:47
  Thank God it's not live. The first misstep in this
• 1:52:50
  series? Sadly, yeah.
• 1:52:53
  Yeah, I'm. Speaking truth now all has the
• 1:52:56
  head of filler. Now.
• 1:52:57
  The idea of the Doctor propelling everyone back into
• 1:52:59
  their own personal time stream to keep them safe as inferior
• 1:53:02
  sound one. But there's simply too much
• 1:53:05
  going on here. By trying to demonstrate the
• 1:53:07
  instability that the Doctor has created by messing with time, we
• 1:53:10
  end up with just too many of these sort of elements in play.
• 1:53:16
  It would have been far more effective to have them dumped
• 1:53:19
  back where they should be, with strange goings on happening
• 1:53:22
  around them. It suggests that all is not
• 1:53:23
  right. It's eventually done here, but
• 1:53:25
  only after flying around various points in our lives.
• 1:53:29
  It just gives the impression that there's a struggle going on
• 1:53:31
  to fill up the runtime. As it is, it's hard to shake off
• 1:53:35
  the feeling that the majority of this episode is a 40 minute
• 1:53:38
  resolution to War of Saint Aaron's cliffhanger.
• 1:53:42
  We also get the reappearance of the Fugitive Dr., which is fine,
• 1:53:45
  absolutely great, and there's an attempt made to flesh out the
• 1:53:48
  Division back story, but it doesn't really add anything at
• 1:53:51
  all to what we already know. Although, like Carvin, Esther
• 1:53:54
  and the Doctor were colleague stroke companions back in the
• 1:53:57
  Fugitive Doctor's time. The notion that the Doctor is
• 1:54:00
  starting to get glimpses of a past taken away from her is an
• 1:54:03
  exciting one, but as somewhat fumbles it, this particular
• 1:54:07
  story doesn't get moved on. It's all fine, but it's a bit
• 1:54:11
  mere as well, especially in comparison to other episodes in
• 1:54:15
  this series. So here's your point number one
• 1:54:18
  point #2 of simply shocking, shockingly.
• 1:54:22
  You. Don't deserve doctor.
• 1:54:24
  Who I've Lloyd Mccopy book. I'll I'll sort them.
• 1:54:28
  Out don't like. Fraser Point. #2 is.
• 1:54:32
  Entitled Snake Prince, I said at this point in proceedings that
• 1:54:38
  were introduced to the Grand Serpent, in itself played by
• 1:54:41
  Craig Parkinson. Now, while making a reasonably
• 1:54:44
  good attempt to introduce the character as a quietly
• 1:54:46
  threatening contained menace, it's undercut somewhat by the
• 1:54:50
  Grand Serpent's costume, which makes Craig look like the
• 1:54:53
  manager of a mid table League 1 football team winning one of
• 1:54:56
  Barry Venison's cast off suits on a night out in Trump Tower.
• 1:55:00
  I would wear that. Costume enough heartbeat he.
• 1:55:05
  Looks like someone you would meet.
• 1:55:06
  At an all bar one trying to chat up somebody that is like half
• 1:55:10
  his age, yes. Barry Venison, get in.
• 1:55:14
  Just just for you, Fraser. Just for you.
• 1:55:17
  We'll see much more of them as we progress in this series.
• 1:55:20
  And Tibetan effect, but it's a slightly underwhelming intro
• 1:55:23
  here. Which leads into my third and
• 1:55:26
  final point for Once Upon a Time, which is simply titled
• 1:55:29
  Angel Delight. And finally, a small and perhaps
• 1:55:34
  nitpicky point, but the cliffhanger.
• 1:55:36
  Specifically the speed at which it arrives and with next to no
• 1:55:39
  build up whatsoever. For some reason Jazz gets
• 1:55:43
  Facetimed by a weak man, Angel, and before we know it it's got
• 1:55:46
  his hands on the Doctor's motor and is taking the TARDIS for a
• 1:55:49
  joyride. It just feels rushed, a sudden
• 1:55:52
  jolt that doesn't feel like a satisfying cliffhanger and just
• 1:55:56
  adds to the over aware of this episode being padding and set
• 1:56:00
  pieces to fill up on time. Once Upon Time is a misstep
• 1:56:05
  sadly. Get it bent and I disagree with.
• 1:56:08
  The cliffhanger just very quickly, because I think so many
• 1:56:11
  new series cliffhangers are laboured, man.
• 1:56:14
  I mean, I love the cliffhanger in like, Pandorica opens, but it
• 1:56:17
  goes on for like 15 minutes and then it ends all of Rusty
• 1:56:22
  Davis's penultimate episodes. The cliffhangers are massive set
• 1:56:25
  beats. They build and build a bit.
• 1:56:26
  I just like the fact that it's like, bang, they're in the
• 1:56:28
  TARDIS, bang, they've got the TARDIS, Oh my God, before you've
• 1:56:32
  even got time to react, like, what the fuck happened?
• 1:56:34
  Like that's exciting to your point.
• 1:56:38
  That is exciting, but. It's very, very soon.
• 1:56:40
  It's very quick, very quick. If you blinked, you may.
• 1:56:43
  Miss it? Oh.
• 1:56:49
  Razor. Yeah, it's.
• 1:56:53
  We already know that you know which one of these are Miley's
• 1:56:56
  favorite of the year and I've put it through anyway, but I'll
• 1:56:59
  try to. So no surprises, you know, I'm
• 1:57:01
  putting this one through as well.
• 1:57:05
  I I do you have been looking at my notes.
• 1:57:07
  That's that's a full house now everyone's copied my notes.
• 1:57:09
  Thank you for that guys, because I've got tiny whiny written down
• 1:57:12
  as well. It is a very tiny whiny story.
• 1:57:15
  I remember this one watching this one live because I watched
• 1:57:18
  it with my son. It would have been.
• 1:57:21
  Did you have him during it? No, not during this one.
• 1:57:24
  Just. A year afterwards.
• 1:57:27
  He would have been. When?
• 1:57:28
  This quote so he's probably about 8 or 9 when this went out
• 1:57:31
  and you know, it became like the, you know, Sunday night's
• 1:57:36
  tradition again of like, oh, you know what came back from trick
• 1:57:39
  or treating and watch Halloween apocalypse and we just carried
• 1:57:41
  that on and I remember this one we weren't right on time for for
• 1:57:47
  going out live so more on the iPlayer and I accidentally
• 1:57:50
  pressed play live rather than play from the start.
• 1:57:53
  So we went in about with about 20 minutes left to go and I
• 1:57:55
  didn't realize until we got the end.
• 1:57:57
  I was like I was a bit short just.
• 1:58:00
  Kind of like sitting there waiting for like the.
• 1:58:03
  Waiting for the because I think would actually came in on on the
• 1:58:05
  scene in that process. And so I had to go back and
• 1:58:08
  watch the whole thing again. And, you know, so it is it is
• 1:58:11
  one of those sort of like tiny why me moving around stories.
• 1:58:14
  But you know, everything I have said about, you know, seeing
• 1:58:17
  that glimpse of the past, you know, the fugitive Dr. coming
• 1:58:19
  back. I'm never a fan of the fugitive
• 1:58:21
  Dr. but I always celebrate when she comes back.
• 1:58:24
  I'm always really happy to see this Chipmel.
• 1:58:26
  That's why he. Doesn't even use her properly
• 1:58:28
  and then gets Jodie to play the role.
• 1:58:31
  No, it's the reason is. Because she is the toy for the
• 1:58:34
  sandbox for the next kid. Come on.
• 1:58:38
  But ultimately, 3 reasons why I'm going to put this through.
• 1:58:42
  At the risk of repeating yourself from Halloween
• 1:58:44
  apocalypse, I'm going to say the pace again because, you know, we
• 1:58:48
  had two absolute, you know, full throttle stories before this.
• 1:58:54
  This came at the point when we needed a bit of breathing space.
• 1:58:57
  We needed to slow the story down.
• 1:58:59
  We needed to stop, catch my breath a little bit and explore
• 1:59:03
  the characters a bit more. Slow it down, are you?
• 1:59:07
  Mad. Yeah, it's Lynch.
• 1:59:10
  It's. Prince.
• 1:59:11
  The plot you. Know the plot of the the series
• 1:59:14
  stops at this point, so we can, you know, take in take in the
• 1:59:18
  atmosphere. I suppose the bell seems you
• 1:59:20
  know. The bell seems everyone because
• 1:59:23
  you get as. You say you get the vendor
• 1:59:26
  element, you get you get Vinda's back story, you get more back
• 1:59:29
  story from Dan. You get, you know, see him and
• 1:59:33
  you know, Diane again in you know, their relationship
• 1:59:36
  building that we get to see. You get obviously a lot of the
• 1:59:39
  doctor's back story and a kind of, you know, with Carvinisto as
• 1:59:42
  well and Swarm. So we are just getting all of
• 1:59:45
  this, you know, this stuff that shipment never does, which is
• 1:59:47
  character work. Fleshed out so.
• 1:59:51
  It's really nice just to have this opportunity to like I say,
• 1:59:54
  just to go, oh, right, let's let's set a little bit and catch
• 2:00:00
  your breath and go off again. And obviously it is, you know,
• 2:00:04
  taking the opportunity again to introduce some more character.
• 2:00:06
  So obviously we do get the caddy coming back in as as as the
• 2:00:11
  grand Serpent, like the duty fans out there.
• 2:00:13
  I'll get that one. And you know, Belle coming in as
• 2:00:16
  well. You know, you get the Daleks
• 2:00:18
  popping up, you get the Cybermen coming in as well.
• 2:00:20
  So. You know, it's, it's like we've
• 2:00:22
  had so much in Halloween apocalypse.
• 2:00:23
  But hey, spoilers, guys. There's a little bit more we
• 2:00:26
  need to add going forward. Second point, Joe, you touched
• 2:00:30
  on them. It's Swarm.
• 2:00:33
  You know, we need to shout out to Swarm.
• 2:00:34
  Swarm camp. Yeah.
• 2:00:37
  Absolutely. Such a.
• 2:00:40
  Fantastic villain. From the very start and just
• 2:00:44
  there's probably not been a villain quite as powerful and
• 2:00:50
  quite as menacing and quite as deadly, you know, someone that
• 2:00:53
  you actually feed for. He's, you know, camp as fuck.
• 2:00:56
  He is absolute threat to everybody.
• 2:00:59
  And I don't think we've had that probably since Delgado's master
• 2:01:02
  and someone that is quite as as lethal, but at the same time
• 2:01:06
  just oh, just so silky smooth. You know, he's he's lousy suave.
• 2:01:12
  He's just leaning against that post.
• 2:01:13
  He's like, yeah, whatever. You'll click in his click in his
• 2:01:17
  gloves, splitting these glow fingers together.
• 2:01:21
  So you know, hats off to Sam Spruill, you know, performance
• 2:01:24
  as as swarm because again, it's all latex.
• 2:01:28
  You know, there's prosthetic latex heads covered in latex.
• 2:01:31
  He's got those prosthetic teeth in as well.
• 2:01:33
  So you know, he's got to do more to overcome what he's done to
• 2:01:38
  get it through. And obviously Rochelle, Sandra
• 2:01:41
  as well needs a shout out because she's doing something
• 2:01:42
  very different with as as your look in your mind and I.
• 2:01:47
  See what you're most afraid of. Your biggest fear isn't
• 2:01:51
  yourself, it's the destruction of other things.
• 2:01:58
  It's an obsession. You want to keep things alive.
• 2:02:04
  You want creatures to breathe and live.
• 2:02:09
  You want species and races to build.
• 2:02:15
  I look into your mind. And your hearts and I don't
• 2:02:19
  know. Why you want?
• 2:02:20
  It so much. And I don't know why you're so.
• 2:02:25
  Afraid of the opposite? But also just as.
• 2:02:31
  Interesting. Just as compelling.
• 2:02:32
  You know, we've got a bit of chalk and cheese, yin and Yang,
• 2:02:35
  Bachman wise going on there, you know.
• 2:02:38
  Did you see the footage of Bishop?
• 2:02:39
  Talking about the two of them, he knows both the actors and he
• 2:02:43
  goes, What's her name again? Rochelle.
• 2:02:47
  It's not Sam and Rochelle. It's swarming as you.
• 2:02:50
  I know him and they walked in in full makeup and I went bloody.
• 2:02:55
  Oh, it's swarming as you like. He was just bad.
• 2:02:58
  Blown away by their performances.
• 2:03:00
  So blown a wheat and Jamaican. There, well done.
• 2:03:04
  You're lucky I didn't go into him, you know.
• 2:03:08
  Oh, we've still got time together.
• 2:03:09
  Don't forget to that. We'll all get cancelled 3rd and.
• 2:03:13
  Final reason I'm going to put this through is, is that
• 2:03:15
  wonderful line from Bell, the as yet unborn child, which is it?
• 2:03:23
  It's the it's the whip and boy of this episode, isn't it?
• 2:03:25
  And you know, it got this episode got so much stick just
• 2:03:29
  because of that one line, the as yet unborn child.
• 2:03:32
  And you know, it was whipped and whipped and whipped.
• 2:03:34
  And I remember thinking again at the time and I still think and I
• 2:03:37
  was like, that's all you've got. You've got one tiny little thing
• 2:03:42
  to to beat this episode with, and it's a line of dialogue in
• 2:03:46
  War of the Suntarans. It was the Suntarans can't
• 2:03:51
  shoot. Yeah, because many of fuckers
• 2:03:53
  have seen Star Wars. Obvious, but the Suntarans kind
• 2:03:55
  of shoot Doctor Who or the Invasion.
• 2:03:57
  Of time. You know, in Halloween.
• 2:04:00
  Apocalypse. Again, it was like, oh, there's
• 2:04:01
  too much stuff going on. It's not resulted joy at the
• 2:04:04
  start, it's just. Eddie, it just, it just, yeah,
• 2:04:06
  it carried. On it was Village of the Angels.
• 2:04:08
  It was like Jericho Jericho's name on Scrabble.
• 2:04:11
  The trip of birth score wouldn't be 33.
• 2:04:13
  It'd be different than that. The core.
• 2:04:15
  Just what an excuse. To the bridge being a corporal.
• 2:04:18
  In Survivors of the Flux, you know there was all.
• 2:04:22
  You've. Got your nitpick as is 1 little
• 2:04:25
  thing and it, you know, I think that's just that shows the
• 2:04:30
  standard of the series that all you can, all you've got is this
• 2:04:33
  one little thing. You know, that you've you've
• 2:04:35
  took it and you've, you know, milked it for all it's worth.
• 2:04:38
  But it's just one little thing. Leigh.
• 2:04:40
  He had a whole essay. About this episode.
• 2:04:44
  But you know, I've just, we've all just.
• 2:04:45
  Disagreed with all his points, so that's fine.
• 2:04:47
  So yeah, put it through please. It's insane to me actually.
• 2:04:50
  That we've talked so little about Swarman and Azure in this,
• 2:04:54
  and this is really their key episode where, you know, it sets
• 2:04:58
  up what they want. And it's like, what are their
• 2:04:59
  motives? And he just says to reign in
• 2:05:02
  hell. They thrive off chaos.
• 2:05:04
  They want to destroy things, put them back together, destroy them
• 2:05:07
  again and again and again. No wonder they're so fucking
• 2:05:10
  dangerous. Come on, they want to destroy.
• 2:05:12
  The whole universe put it back. It's so.
• 2:05:15
  Great. It's like.
• 2:05:16
  The Joker in Dark Knight, you know, hasn't.
• 2:05:18
  Got the plan, just wants to fuck around using those ancient.
• 2:05:22
  Time hags. The Maori.
• 2:05:23
  Oh, wonderful. Sorry, I didn't mean to call
• 2:05:27
  them hags. So Once Upon time.
• 2:05:30
  Goes through Oh yes so we've. Got 2.
• 2:05:34
  Episodes left 2. Episodes and I.
• 2:05:38
  Think we'll Who did we do Who? Who started?
• 2:05:41
  It was Lee, wasn't it? That was myself.
• 2:05:43
  Yeah, well, let's. Come to you again.
• 2:05:44
  Lee, you've got 22 to pick from. Which one would you like to
• 2:05:49
  pick? OK.
• 2:05:50
  Right. I think it's time to be like the
• 2:05:52
  big boys, don't you? Let's do it.
• 2:05:56
  War of the Son, The Tarans. I'll just cum in my.
• 2:06:00
  Pants. Well, it goes without saying,
• 2:06:05
  doesn't it? War of the Son.
• 2:06:07
  Tarans has keep written all over it.
• 2:06:10
  In fact, it's got keep stamped across it with one of those big
• 2:06:12
  chunky fonts that Chris Chibnall loves to use much.
• 2:06:17
  So let's dive into why that is. Point number one vision on this
• 2:06:22
  episode looks ah, me Zing. There's so many striking visuals
• 2:06:27
  in War of the Saint Tarans from the off.
• 2:06:30
  We've got the rickety memory house that the doctor
• 2:06:33
  experiences shortly after coming to post cliffhanger.
• 2:06:37
  We've got a Sontaran on horseback, we've got 2 vast
• 2:06:40
  armies going head to head on a battlefield, the Doctor sorting
• 2:06:45
  through the mist to have a showdown with Commander Skak.
• 2:06:48
  One or two. Obvious bits the.
• 2:06:50
  CGI you said this is a visually a resting piece of Doctor Who.
• 2:06:54
  Granted, some of that down in circumstance the rain sodden
• 2:06:57
  location work might not have been planned for, but it
• 2:07:00
  undoubtedly adds to the air of bleakness and bleakness and
• 2:07:03
  hopelessness that the British Army and Mary C Cole face
• 2:07:07
  fighting a losing battle against the Sontaran hordes.
• 2:07:11
  In fact, watching this kind of brought home one of my main
• 2:07:14
  problems with the last two series of Doctor Who under
• 2:07:17
  Russell T Davis turning at the Dillon here.
• 2:07:20
  There's there's next in all location work in those two
• 2:07:23
  series. In comparison, what that will
• 2:07:26
  they do seems to be in like a few streets in Cardiff, which it
• 2:07:29
  feels like a bit of a sort of backward step to the earlier
• 2:07:32
  days of modern Doctor Who. The rest of the time is all very
• 2:07:36
  much contained within the environments of Bad Wolf Studios
• 2:07:39
  and it feels very studio bound and indoors.
• 2:07:42
  Now, while that may be born out of necessity of including like
• 2:07:47
  heavy visuals and effects work, you can't deny the importance of
• 2:07:51
  location to Doctor Who. It's one of World of the Saint
• 2:07:55
  Arden's biggest assets, and we'd be half the spectacle it is
• 2:07:58
  without it. I mean, it's like Saving
• 2:08:01
  Private. Ryan at points, you know, when
• 2:08:02
  all that snow's coming down in slow motion, all the dead bodies
• 2:08:06
  around. Oh, God, amazing.
• 2:08:08
  Yes, your man Robin. When?
• 2:08:09
  Are we again? Yeah, Yeah.
• 2:08:11
  You can see with the sort of time and an effort and probably
• 2:08:13
  the money's gone to it. It just looks so, so good this
• 2:08:17
  episode. Point #2 takes a.
• 2:08:20
  Little bit of a different tack, so I'm going to introduce this
• 2:08:22
  next point with a reference that will only mean something to
• 2:08:26
  maybe free. People listening.
• 2:08:28
  And as long as they're Scottish as simply entitled this Hey,
• 2:08:34
  hey, hey, hey, I can exclusively reveal that the next point is
• 2:08:38
  Jonathan Watson. Oh boy.
• 2:08:41
  War. Of the Saint.
• 2:08:42
  Adams give us his debut property, Sorry, give us his
• 2:08:44
  debut proper and Doctor Who of Scottish comedy legend Jonathan
• 2:08:48
  Watson playing the role of Commander Skak.
• 2:08:52
  Now while it's not entirely unfair to suggest that Jonathan
• 2:08:55
  may not be entirely harnessing his full acting range, being he
• 2:08:59
  is a man of a certain age from Glasgow, playing a short, bald,
• 2:09:02
  aggressive man with great skin that's constantly spoiling for a
• 2:09:05
  fight, His turnus Scak gives us a different flavour of Sontaran
• 2:09:10
  as opposed to that delivered by Dan Starkey in years previous.
• 2:09:14
  Now that's not to say that Dan Starkey's portrayal was bad, far
• 2:09:17
  from it. But here we have a more
• 2:09:20
  traditional take on a Sontaran bred for war, unflinching in his
• 2:09:24
  mission, taking no prisoners and suffering no fools matter of
• 2:09:28
  factly executing those who have disgraced their race.
• 2:09:32
  He's making the. Sontaran race.
• 2:09:33
  Proud, Very proud. Take you out of mate.
• 2:09:42
  Oh, second thoughts. Put it back on.
• 2:09:44
  You have information. Regarding the treacherous vermin
• 2:09:47
  known as the Doctor, you're talking to her.
• 2:09:52
  What? You deceive my.
• 2:09:56
  Soldier, It wasn't difficult it. Is regrettable that our.
• 2:10:01
  Flux strategy did not foresee your presence, but we shall not
• 2:10:05
  falter. You knew the flux was coming.
• 2:10:09
  So what caused it? Is it you?
• 2:10:10
  Are there some tyrants behind the flux?
• 2:10:13
  The flux is neither of. Our making or our control.
• 2:10:16
  But our psychic command foresaw it.
• 2:10:18
  We timed our attack in this feeble rock in the fractions
• 2:10:22
  before the Lipari shield took effect.
• 2:10:25
  Well, we were all looking the other.
• 2:10:27
  Way. You must be very proud, this
• 2:10:30
  planet. Has defied us ever since the
• 2:10:32
  great Commander Links first sticked his claim and the ground
• 2:10:36
  of its feeble soil. We now have set the claim.
• 2:10:40
  Earth shall be an outpost of the Centaurian Empire.
• 2:10:46
  No, it won't. But why here?
• 2:10:49
  Why? Sebastopol, the Crimean
• 2:10:52
  skirmish. Seems the perfect place to
• 2:10:54
  start. So much conflict, so much
• 2:10:58
  opportunity, and also I wanted to ride a horse Jonathan is
• 2:11:07
  clearly throwing. Himself into this role-playing
• 2:11:09
  scack with the relish of a man who isn't getting to do this
• 2:11:11
  sort of stuff on 2 doors down, the only block on his copy book.
• 2:11:16
  Taking his eye off the ball later in the series and not
• 2:11:19
  reprimanding one of his charges for succumbing to weakness in
• 2:11:22
  the form of their chocolate addiction.
• 2:11:25
  As we all know, this goes against established Stuntar in
• 2:11:28
  continuity. It's long since been confirmed
• 2:11:30
  in extended media that some tartans prefer custard, so it
• 2:11:34
  really should be a case of, well, less a case of where's the
• 2:11:37
  Mars bars and more a case of where's the birds point #3 This
• 2:11:42
  is a small one, but I thought it was a nice touch.
• 2:11:44
  Anyway. It's 5 little letters WWTDD.
• 2:11:48
  What would the doctor do? It's a nice.
• 2:11:51
  Character moment for you, as it's drawing strength from a
• 2:11:54
  small reminder scrawled on the palm of her hand in Sharpie.
• 2:11:58
  There's no grandstanding speech about why the Doctor wouldn't
• 2:12:01
  allow this sort of thing to happen in the face of his urine,
• 2:12:04
  swords, threats and aggression. It's just a simple cue to take
• 2:12:08
  inspiration from her friend and follow her example.
• 2:12:11
  It builds a character of Yas and follows the notion that she is
• 2:12:14
  someone who can remain calm and in control even when out of her
• 2:12:18
  depth. Well, fantastic.
• 2:12:20
  Points Should we have a? Should we see what our listeners
• 2:12:23
  have got to say? I'll go first.
• 2:12:26
  Ross I Ross loved it. I was impressed how they did all
• 2:12:31
  of this under lockdown. It was fun to have a serialized
• 2:12:35
  story like Old School Doctor Who.
• 2:12:37
  It's actually a first for me. When I was a kid we got the
• 2:12:41
  omnibus versions on PBS. I am a fan of the 13th Doctors
• 2:12:46
  era. Go on, Ross.
• 2:12:48
  That must be Ross. Aitken from Gallifrey's Most
• 2:12:51
  wanted? Absolutely, because it was posts
• 2:12:53
  from Gallifrey's Most wanted and clarifies who he is.
• 2:12:58
  Luke seems Jenkins I. Adore Flux.
• 2:13:00
  Jodi's run always felt like the perfect mixture of old and new
• 2:13:03
  Who to me. And oh Luke, A6 passer.
• 2:13:06
  Some of my favorite Doctor. Whoever knew Who rarely has male
• 2:13:09
  companions and this era has three.
• 2:13:12
  Are you listening to everybody? 3 great ones.
• 2:13:15
  Dan's a legend. The team of Yas and the Doctor
• 2:13:17
  is one of the all time best keep.
• 2:13:20
  I love you, Luke. David Gillespie.
• 2:13:22
  Pratt I've softened to flux recently.
• 2:13:25
  It's overly complicated stuff with almost too many big ideas,
• 2:13:29
  and it doesn't quite stick the landing.
• 2:13:32
  But what it does have is it ambition and scale.
• 2:13:35
  It's taking Doctor Who and doing something different with it, and
• 2:13:38
  just for that alone, it should be applauded.
• 2:13:41
  We're all. Stories in the end, Ian Martin
• 2:13:44
  says. I wasn't convinced at the time,
• 2:13:46
  but repeated viewings and having seen what's to come with RTD 2
• 2:13:52
  showing that this was a great experiment with a couple of
• 2:13:55
  great episodes, some strong arcs and some good comedy too.
• 2:13:58
  Overall, this is my highlight of the 13th Doctor's tenure.
• 2:14:02
  Steph Destroyer. Of worlds, yay a serial ish.
• 2:14:06
  Love the dog village was an absolute cracker.
• 2:14:09
  Failure to pay off the Cliff on hanger of that was where things
• 2:14:13
  started to unravel and the series resolution was just a
• 2:14:16
  mess. Good to see Jodie getting to act
• 2:14:18
  angry but it was too little too late.
• 2:14:21
  A bigotry COVID remark here. Well done Steph.
• 2:14:25
  Simon. Pitman was a fun.
• 2:14:26
  Series, especially at the start and considering they had to film
• 2:14:29
  around the pandemic. My God, what sound effects shall
• 2:14:32
  I put in for every time someone mentions fucking COVID Black
• 2:14:36
  line? Sorry to anybody who lost
• 2:14:41
  anybody. During the Jesus Christ, thank
• 2:14:45
  God. You were right in Joy to the
• 2:14:46
  World. Wish we'd seen more of the
• 2:14:48
  fugitive Dr. in that episode. Ending felt rust.
• 2:14:50
  Techto was built up as a big bad and quickly disappeared.
• 2:14:54
  Looked great visually and liked that Liverpool was actually
• 2:14:57
  Liverpool called Cresser. Oh dear.
• 2:15:00
  Flux. Convoluted, disjointed,
• 2:15:02
  incoherent, and well, a bit of a mess really.
• 2:15:04
  The overuse of randomly teleporting characters to
• 2:15:08
  different time places, basically because that's where the plot
• 2:15:11
  needed them to, really, that's where the plot needed them
• 2:15:16
  really grated with me. Not my favorite season.
• 2:15:18
  The end of the TARDIS mate. Paul don't watch star.
• 2:15:21
  Trek then, if you don't want to see people randomly teleport
• 2:15:24
  into places. Paul Cornish finally says it's
• 2:15:27
  one of only two seasons out. The entire history of Doctor Who
• 2:15:32
  I don't like, I'm afraid, plot. Fred's go nowhere.
• 2:15:35
  People react in odd ways to things, characters are
• 2:15:37
  introduced and then have nothing to do.
• 2:15:39
  But like all of the Chipmunals era, Jodie's great and it looks
• 2:15:42
  amazing and I love Dan where he found something.
• 2:15:47
  Excellent. So Joe Ford, let's come to you.
• 2:15:50
  Yes, my favorite. Episode of the season by a
• 2:15:54
  country mile. I think this is Jodie Whisker's
• 2:15:57
  best performance as the Doctor in her entire run.
• 2:15:59
  Bar Numb I love her panic as she tries to find the door of the
• 2:16:04
  TARDIS like we've never seen her that panic before.
• 2:16:08
  Her warm and respectful relationship with Mary Seacole I
• 2:16:11
  love. I just love it when they One, I
• 2:16:14
  love the fact that they celebrate women in history in
• 2:16:16
  this era, but two, I just love the relationship she has with
• 2:16:19
  those people, How she belittles the general, her fabulous
• 2:16:23
  cutting jibes at the Sontara and take your helmet off.
• 2:16:27
  Oh, no, second fault. Put it back on again.
• 2:16:30
  The catapult scene. I mean, that's the most doctrine
• 2:16:32
  moment I could possibly think of.
• 2:16:34
  I can't remember what she says when she gets a zinger of a
• 2:16:36
  lion, when she gets him in the probing event, that brilliant
• 2:16:40
  tactics scene. You know, when she's telling
• 2:16:42
  them and she goes to the job. Put your hand on your head.
• 2:16:44
  No, I'm just kidding. And he looks a bit awkward.
• 2:16:47
  She's so funny in this, her anger when the ship goes up,
• 2:16:50
  like we, I don't think we've seen her this angry before.
• 2:16:53
  Either way, she's like, you know, I don't know why I'm
• 2:16:55
  paraphrasing here. I don't know why I give a shit
• 2:16:57
  about you. Comes from Earth, you know, like
• 2:17:00
  when you do things like this. She's really, I think that was a
• 2:17:03
  day record. Wasn't it love to hear her?
• 2:17:06
  Say it when you. She's so confident here and I
• 2:17:09
  think Jodie is loving every second and that just beams out
• 2:17:12
  of my screen. I also went with the fellow from
• 2:17:15
  2 Doors Down who is my favorite Sontaran of all time.
• 2:17:19
  Hilarious, ruthless, brutal, silly, charismatic.
• 2:17:24
  When I found out it was the man from 2 Doors Down, I couldn't
• 2:17:27
  believe it. It's just so, so different.
• 2:17:31
  God, his wife in. That's a monster, isn't she?
• 2:17:33
  What's the name? Kathy.
• 2:17:34
  Kathy. That's my God.
• 2:17:37
  And obviously. I'm sorry, Fraser, I'm going to
• 2:17:38
  say it the and I wanted to ride a horse.
• 2:17:41
  It's the best on Tara line. It will never be topped.
• 2:17:44
  And yeah, Lee, I said the same issue.
• 2:17:46
  It's astonishing to look at the muddy battlefield, the snow, the
• 2:17:50
  astonishing Temple of Atropos set, that's an amazing set.
• 2:17:54
  I love the even those cute floating triangles going about
• 2:17:58
  the place. Can you repair?
• 2:17:59
  Can you repair? I love them.
• 2:18:02
  The epic scale of the Sontaran ships dominating over Liverpool.
• 2:18:06
  The fleet blowing up looks amazing.
• 2:18:09
  The incredible CGI battle scenes.
• 2:18:10
  Like, I mean, how has CGI come along for Doctor Who since those
• 2:18:14
  early days of Mickey Smith being stuck to that wheelie bin, you
• 2:18:18
  know, and then regressed again shortly after this?
• 2:18:21
  Behave yourself. Good grief.
• 2:18:24
  But the my real reason is that he gets the best life out of
• 2:18:27
  laugh at me of the whole season. And that is Dan's mum going.
• 2:18:31
  Where the hell have you been every time?
• 2:18:36
  No, this is amazingly good. The idea of Russia being taken
• 2:18:41
  off the map, one of the best ideas ever in Doctor Who.
• 2:18:45
  Yeah. It's just brilliantly
• 2:18:48
  entertaining. But the execution is on another
• 2:18:52
  level. I'm not sure there's many Doctor
• 2:18:54
  Who episodes that look as amazing as this.
• 2:18:56
  Keep, keep, keep. Razor, Gregory.
• 2:19:00
  By all means, after you. OK, fine.
• 2:19:03
  He's doing it for a reason, I mean.
• 2:19:07
  I can only echo the sentiments of everybody else.
• 2:19:11
  That battle when they're charging at each other just
• 2:19:14
  looks absolutely amazing. And it's, I think it's probably
• 2:19:17
  the best on screen battle we've had in Doctor Who, sort of
• 2:19:21
  taking a bit of classic Doctor Who and putting two women at the
• 2:19:25
  forefront of it. And really a criticism of this
• 2:19:29
  era. And one I have levelled myself,
• 2:19:30
  which I'm starting to think I was more wrong about it is we
• 2:19:33
  don't look at the Doctor as a female's place in history
• 2:19:37
  enough. But it's right there in this
• 2:19:39
  episode as it is in the Witch Finders where she is.
• 2:19:42
  She is there and nobody takes her seriously, including the
• 2:19:46
  suntarans because she is not a man.
• 2:19:49
  And then her sort of handing her his ass back to the general when
• 2:19:54
  he comes to her for help is just absolutely wonderful.
• 2:19:58
  And I just love the introduction of the doctor's memories as a
• 2:20:01
  house in that black and white thing.
• 2:20:03
  And we've talked about it before and later on we see swarming as
• 2:20:06
  urine there in colour and things like that.
• 2:20:08
  But when the episode opens and you've got that moment, it's
• 2:20:11
  just, I mean, it's just. Brilliant and one of my favorite
• 2:20:15
  things that Jodie Whitaker ever does is in the trailer and she
• 2:20:18
  goes I'm the doctor. This is Yas, that's dad and just
• 2:20:21
  moves her hands around and that way.
• 2:20:23
  It's just like when we people talk about doctors having doctor
• 2:20:27
  ish moments. Some of them are big speeches,
• 2:20:29
  some of them is just how she introduced her and her her mates
• 2:20:34
  like brilliant fantastic episode.
• 2:20:36
  So yeah, put it through for all the reasons everyone said.
• 2:20:40
  Fraser Gregory, what say you? Well.
• 2:20:43
  The reason I wanted all you guys to go first is because I, I
• 2:20:46
  really couldn't narrow this down to 3.
• 2:20:48
  So I wanted you guys to go first so that you know. 11:00 Fraser.
• 2:20:53
  11:00. Because I mean, there is just so
• 2:20:56
  much love in this. I love the story.
• 2:20:58
  I love this, you know, central concept of, you know, going, you
• 2:21:03
  know, finding yourself in Sebastopol in the Crimean War
• 2:21:07
  and the Russians aren't there. And it's the suntarans, that
• 2:21:10
  whole idea of, you know, history being changed because basically
• 2:21:13
  what's happened is the suntarans have went back in time to pay
• 2:21:16
  risk. It's true.
• 2:21:19
  That's. What's happened there basically?
• 2:21:23
  All the concepts you know. Mary Sequel.
• 2:21:26
  I talked about, you know, the great strength of Chimney, of
• 2:21:29
  how well he brings back the monsters.
• 2:21:31
  But Chibnul does historicals better than anyone else this
• 2:21:35
  century as well. He really understands what he's
• 2:21:39
  doing with this historical. He is there to educate and
• 2:21:42
  inform as well as entertain. And he does that.
• 2:21:44
  And like you said, he more often than not he does it with a
• 2:21:48
  female historical character and more often than not that as a
• 2:21:51
  person of colour as well. So we see that in Spy Fall, we
• 2:21:55
  see it in Rosa, we see it here with Mary Sequel.
• 2:22:00
  I know a lot of people weren't actually as quite as familiar
• 2:22:02
  with Mary Sequel as I was because one, I work for the NHS,
• 2:22:05
  so we have the Mary Sequel program is one of our management
• 2:22:08
  training schemes. And two, I've got a kid who
• 2:22:10
  loves horrible history. So we all know Mary Sequel and
• 2:22:14
  her bottom medicine from all the histories.
• 2:22:16
  We've got a friend who loves it. As well, you know.
• 2:22:20
  So that. You know, the idea we're getting
• 2:22:23
  Mary sequel and she's done probably, you know, you really
• 2:22:26
  get a sense of, you know, them, the British hotel and her as a
• 2:22:30
  character. You know, because the obvious
• 2:22:31
  one is, is Florence Nightingale at that time.
• 2:22:33
  But Mary sequels playing just as an important role, you know,
• 2:22:37
  skipping forward, you know, you've got the the scenes of
• 2:22:40
  Liverpool, like you say, the santons above the docks and the
• 2:22:44
  that shot of Diana Carvin and stuff falling out as everything
• 2:22:49
  blows up. It's just a stunning bit of CGI.
• 2:22:51
  It really is. You know, anyone that thinks
• 2:22:53
  that says the CGI in this is looking cheap can, you know, go
• 2:22:56
  in the bin with the lid of the angels as far as I'm concerned.
• 2:23:00
  So yeah, I really kind of struggled, you know, then the
• 2:23:02
  all the apopod stuff with, you know, Swarm and Binder and, and
• 2:23:05
  he has Williamson popping up again.
• 2:23:08
  I really struggle to narrow it down.
• 2:23:09
  So I did put three things, but I wanted you guys to go first,
• 2:23:11
  right? You just have three daft little
• 2:23:13
  things to say that I love about War of the sontarans #1 and
• 2:23:17
  there's a Sontaran on a horse because.
• 2:23:20
  How did none of us mention that? It's a Sontaran on a horse.
• 2:23:24
  And why is there a Sontaran on a horse?
• 2:23:25
  Because you wanted to ride a horse.
• 2:23:27
  Why not .2 is Dan's pan or walk as it is not not just the fact
• 2:23:37
  that John Bishop is walking around as Dan, you know,
• 2:23:39
  twatting sometimes on public fence.
• 2:23:42
  You know I'm going to walk out of here, No.
• 2:23:45
  Unauthorized human presence. Shall result in immediate and
• 2:23:48
  enjoyably violent execution, not just a tourist.
• 2:23:52
  That's your boss, your commander.
• 2:23:54
  Like there he is. How's it like that?
• 2:24:01
  Pan fried Sonsorin. Now I'm going to walk right out
• 2:24:05
  of here. All right lads, I was just
• 2:24:11
  looking for the pirate. It's the fact that it got.
• 2:24:14
  Made into the marketing material, John.
• 2:24:20
  John Bishop. Wielding a walk to promote the
• 2:24:23
  series where they go down. The tube here in confidence them
• 2:24:27
  wasn't that as well going oh. If this had been 15.
• 2:24:31
  Years. Earlier, you would have been
• 2:24:33
  able to buy that wok and all the Toys-R-Us dance.
• 2:24:42
  What's the line? Fraser.
• 2:24:46
  You're right lads, anyone's seen the PNH?
• 2:24:55
  He's. Beamed in the.
• 2:24:56
  Street. And Carvinist as well to not
• 2:25:00
  Yeah. Anyhow, 3rd and final point,
• 2:25:03
  because you know someone's going to be looking at my notes.
• 2:25:06
  Lee is WTD the fact that Yas is walking around all this time and
• 2:25:15
  on her hand she has got written. What would Terence Dix do?
• 2:25:21
  Make everything green, that's what you do.
• 2:25:24
  We will change. That map.
• 2:25:26
  As well, but we wouldn't like it.
• 2:25:29
  At. All times we.
• 2:25:30
  Should all be thinking, what would Terence Dix do?
• 2:25:33
  The answer is probably go for a big dinner, which I can't argue
• 2:25:36
  with. So yeah, I think this is
• 2:25:40
  probably my my favorite. Probably I'd say the best, maybe
• 2:25:43
  it's not favorite, but definitely the best of of this
• 2:25:47
  series. You're you're it's going
• 2:25:48
  through. Do you remember that bit?
• 2:25:50
  You know the bit where. Azure takes hold of one of those
• 2:25:54
  can you repair things and turns it into dust and she sort of
• 2:25:58
  blows it and then it transitions to the snow on the battlefield.
• 2:26:02
  That direction is just amazing in this.
• 2:26:05
  Just another. Shout out for Jonathan Watson,
• 2:26:07
  not in this episode but in the Halloween apocalypse where the
• 2:26:10
  other Sontaran shows up on this the hologram thing and he goes
• 2:26:14
  you look disgusting. Really.
• 2:26:17
  No. No, really.
• 2:26:19
  Really. Disgusting.
• 2:26:21
  You know he's finally reached the.
• 2:26:22
  Apotheosis of his career when he goes.
• 2:26:28
  But as we. Know.
• 2:26:30
  Chris Chibnall can't do humour, no.
• 2:26:35
  We've we've got one left. Is there anybody who
• 2:26:37
  particularly wants to champion or been?
• 2:26:40
  Oh. Grazers raised his hand.
• 2:26:42
  But yeah, go on. The hero is in this episode.
• 2:26:47
  Yeah. This is the dog shit.
• 2:26:48
  One, I'm teasing you survivors of the flux, yes, I will happily
• 2:26:54
  go in to bat for survivors of the flux because it's just a
• 2:26:59
  such an underrated, underrated story.
• 2:27:01
  You know, we have, you know, we've had Halloween apocalypse,
• 2:27:05
  you know, high octane Bang Bang bang, Bang Bang.
• 2:27:07
  We've had War of the Sontarans, which is history in Sontarans
• 2:27:11
  and backwards and forwards and sideways in time and BA BA,
• 2:27:14
  we've took a breather. We've had Once Upon a Once Upon
• 2:27:18
  a time. We've had the Village of the
• 2:27:20
  Angel. So we've done with classic
• 2:27:21
  Doctor Who. Now we've got another one, which
• 2:27:23
  Lee is probably going to sit down and say is all all fellow
• 2:27:26
  and no killer. But you know, I, I just really
• 2:27:30
  think this is just fun. This is probably the funnest one
• 2:27:34
  of the lot. You know, it is a lot slower
• 2:27:36
  paced. You know, there's only one or
• 2:27:37
  two, two or three storylines run through, but they're just so
• 2:27:41
  entertaining. I love the idea of Dan and
• 2:27:46
  Jericho and Yas being stranded together for three years and
• 2:27:51
  going off on all this stuff and then not write a book.
• 2:27:55
  Yeah. The the the big finish.
• 2:27:58
  Is we had fucking melody. Malone, Detective, for God's
• 2:28:01
  sake, how did they not write that book?
• 2:28:03
  Why? Why Big Finish haven't?
• 2:28:05
  Just been like you, you, you in the booth now I I reckon one of
• 2:28:09
  them. Is a lot more busy and a lot
• 2:28:11
  more expensive than the others. And it's not Kevin McNally.
• 2:28:14
  He's not busy. He's unavailable.
• 2:28:17
  For different reasons, Yeah, I'm sure we would do it.
• 2:28:22
  If you asked them just. There you go, John.
• 2:28:25
  There's the microphone. Just read that out.
• 2:28:28
  It's fine, right? So.
• 2:28:30
  Obviously, 3 reasons why I'm going to put this through and
• 2:28:33
  Dylan, you've already spoiled one of them for us.
• 2:28:35
  It's the thing that Chris Chimel can't do, which is the humor.
• 2:28:39
  You know, he can't. He doesn't do humor.
• 2:28:41
  But this is probably the most laugh out loud series that we've
• 2:28:44
  had since probably Douglas Adams was at the helm.
• 2:28:49
  You know, it really helps having John Bishop there.
• 2:28:52
  I don't know if that is a deliberate thing.
• 2:28:54
  I don't know whether, you know, Chibnall is, you know, speaking
• 2:28:58
  with with John Bishop and he's getting some, you know, passing
• 2:29:01
  them notes and passing them back or whether he's just, you know,
• 2:29:04
  I've got an actual stand up comedian on the show now, not
• 2:29:07
  just a light entertainer. I've got an actual convenience.
• 2:29:09
  So I need up my game, but for whatever reason this from the
• 2:29:12
  start to the finish is just a laugh fest.
• 2:29:15
  Obviously we've got my hero. I'm teasing you, which is.
• 2:29:21
  Fantastic. Bench you're dog.
• 2:29:24
  Dog. And the fact that they do all of
• 2:29:27
  that. And it's like, well, what's the
• 2:29:29
  point of that? I haven't got time travel.
• 2:29:32
  Useless bloody humans. You've got that that scene in
• 2:29:36
  the tomb where which just shows the comic tune and Amanda
• 2:29:39
  Gilbert. Hi.
• 2:29:40
  Yeah. Just up and down, you know, on
• 2:29:42
  the police. It's a physical comet slapstick,
• 2:29:44
  isn't it? You've got good old head.
• 2:29:47
  Hauser Black is the founder of UNIT, Robert Batthurst of Red
• 2:29:52
  Dwarf and Toast of London Film. Obviously, we've both mentioned
• 2:29:57
  the comedy Sontarans as well. So, you know, not just in this
• 2:30:00
  episode, but throughout the series.
• 2:30:01
  This is just hilarious. I can't remember the last time
• 2:30:05
  I've laughed at Doctor Who since, you know, 10 sticks left
• 2:30:08
  and Douglas Adams left as much as this, even when Moffat, the
• 2:30:12
  sitcom maker, was in charge. And point #2 is Yas, because
• 2:30:17
  this is a, you know, a good series for Yas.
• 2:30:19
  But this story in particular is where you really see Yas shine.
• 2:30:23
  You know, she's separated from the Doctor for three years.
• 2:30:26
  And so she really steps into that rule of the Doctor.
• 2:30:29
  She, you know, reads her hand. What would Tevin sticks do?
• 2:30:32
  And off she goes and becomes sort of the doctor herself.
• 2:30:36
  And, you know, she is the one that's, you know, pushing them,
• 2:30:39
  pushing those three, you know, on the boats trying to, you
• 2:30:42
  know, obviously just got a little hologram.
• 2:30:43
  But she is the one that's driving the plot, that
• 2:30:46
  particular strand of the plot forward.
• 2:30:48
  At that point, would you say that the only?
• 2:30:51
  Way is up for Yas at this point, probably, yeah.
• 2:30:54
  I think so. Get out.
• 2:30:56
  People still say. She had nothing to do.
• 2:30:59
  I just don't know what they were watching, no.
• 2:31:02
  No, I mean, sorry, but you know, it's.
• 2:31:04
  Again, it's it's not triple doesn't do characters.
• 2:31:06
  So you look at yours in this series and you look at yours in
• 2:31:08
  series 11 and you see the journey that she's come on and
• 2:31:12
  how she has developed. It's just he doesn't he doesn't
• 2:31:16
  do the character work that Rusty and Moffett do, which is right
• 2:31:20
  there in your face with Murray Gold trumpets inquires, letting
• 2:31:25
  you know exactly what they are doing.
• 2:31:26
  You know, it's he's such a subtle writer that that's why
• 2:31:31
  people don't appreciate us because the the missing, the new
• 2:31:34
  ones, the missing the subtlety in there and .3 then, which you
• 2:31:38
  know, has been mentioned somewhere else.
• 2:31:40
  It's the cliffhangers. I think, you know, Lucy McCall
• 2:31:43
  said, you know, it was so nice to have cliffhangers back in
• 2:31:45
  this series again watching on it.
• 2:31:47
  This is 1 you can binge. This is a totally bingeable
• 2:31:50
  series. You can, you know, it is built
• 2:31:52
  for the modern era of binging and you could do that well.
• 2:31:55
  But to have that excitement of watching week to week and having
• 2:31:59
  those sort of like 7 days in between to go on Twitter and
• 2:32:03
  interact with everyone and come up with these crazy ideas and
• 2:32:06
  crazy theories, but having that cliffhanger driving it forward
• 2:32:10
  every week. So what's the end of this one?
• 2:32:11
  It's the one where he kind of swarm destroys technique and
• 2:32:16
  he's coming for the doctor next, which it's kind of like a repeat
• 2:32:20
  of in the end of one of the sometimes.
• 2:32:22
  But but you know, just every cliffhanger landed.
• 2:32:25
  It did what it's supposed to do. When it gets you coming back the
• 2:32:29
  next week. You might not always like the
• 2:32:31
  resolution. You might not like the way that
• 2:32:32
  it's wrapped up, but you can't deny that the cliffhanger was
• 2:32:37
  brilliant. There's, you know, a lot more I
• 2:32:41
  could say about this this story, but I'm going to leave you guys
• 2:32:44
  to it other than to say put it through excellent.
• 2:32:47
  Should we see what? Matt Barber's got to say about
• 2:32:49
  it. Oh boy.
• 2:32:51
  He's my other. He's my strangest nemesis.
• 2:32:55
  You can wind him up so easy by just saying Muffet's a cunt and
• 2:32:58
  he just loses it. With the caveat that.
• 2:33:01
  That that its existence is a minor miracle.
• 2:33:04
  I was on board with the idea of a mini series rather than an
• 2:33:07
  arc, but Flux didn't quite pull it off.
• 2:33:10
  The ongoing story lack clarity. The conclusion was confusing.
• 2:33:14
  The more independent episodes, Village and Sontarans etc were
• 2:33:18
  amazing though. This is a man that writes.
• 2:33:21
  Joy to the world, though. Let's remember that PJ Gallery
• 2:33:24
  says it really echoes the making of Trial of a Time Lord.
• 2:33:27
  For me, a turbulent period of outside force is a miracle that
• 2:33:30
  the end product made it to the screen at all, and in a much
• 2:33:33
  short and radically different form to what it was probably in
• 2:33:37
  originally envisaged. War of the Sontarans and Village
• 2:33:40
  of the Angels were just awesome though.
• 2:33:43
  Brendan Jones. Praise for war and village is
• 2:33:45
  common, and rightly so. Halloween is Terrific is a
• 2:33:48
  terrific opening app. Vanquishers does an OK job of
• 2:33:51
  summing up. Survivors is a very odd app
• 2:33:55
  occupying the function of X3 and four in an old 4 parter, keeping
• 2:34:01
  the plot idling the long before the big finale.
• 2:34:05
  Gabundi. Says Flux is a great series.
• 2:34:08
  I really enjoy the serialized storytelling format, some
• 2:34:11
  amazing new characters, Belvinder, Carvinista, brilliant
• 2:34:15
  performances, a nice mix of villains.
• 2:34:17
  Like most of 13's tenure, it's sorely underrated.
• 2:34:19
  Some of my favorite Doctor Who Ian.
• 2:34:23
  I like the Angels one otherwise a whole lot of running around
• 2:34:26
  that kept cutting to another big VFX running around scene the
• 2:34:30
  moment it looked like they might actually have to tell a story
• 2:34:32
  with characters I cared about. Just constant introduction and 0
• 2:34:37
  pay off worth a damn. Fuck off, Levine.
• 2:34:42
  Andrew Blair. I like the first four episode.
• 2:34:44
  It's impressive they made anything at all.
• 2:34:47
  Chifnow is good at Sontar and shame about the last two
• 2:34:49
  episodes. It does seem to be that the
• 2:34:51
  people that don't like this are down on those last two.
• 2:34:54
  Exactly. Roy, I love it.
• 2:34:59
  So many highlights, big, bold, frantic, ridiculous but very
• 2:35:04
  much character LED. I don't usually go for the
• 2:35:07
  longer stories but I've watched this a lot.
• 2:35:09
  In an ideal world maybe it would have been 8 episodes but so
• 2:35:13
  grateful it got made it all. And I want more Belle than the
• 2:35:16
  carbonista. I think Paul Kirkley is quite.
• 2:35:19
  Fair, I thought it was terrific until the botched ending, but
• 2:35:22
  you could say that about most Doctor Who.
• 2:35:24
  Michael Mills Chibnall's long, slow climb climb to producing
• 2:35:31
  Doctor Who I can enjoy continues.
• 2:35:33
  I like his idea of what Doctor Who should be, even if the
• 2:35:37
  exciting the execution is often wanting.
• 2:35:40
  The resolution is a mess, but at least he's trying something.
• 2:35:43
  I'm not sure that can be said of the last two seasons.
• 2:35:46
  I think he was trying to put in a.
• 2:35:48
  Compliment there, but the words long slow, climb are cutting,
• 2:35:52
  aren't they? Oh God, how do you say this?
• 2:35:55
  Osseus Rex? Nussquam says.
• 2:35:58
  I loved it, but perfect. Not perfect, but the ratio of
• 2:36:01
  good to bad was very high. Some excellent episodes,
• 2:36:03
  memorable moments and fantastic ideas.
• 2:36:06
  A very ambitious piece of concept TV that had its wings
• 2:36:09
  clipped by lockdown Wings clips. Otherwise it would.
• 2:36:13
  Have been amongst the very best of the new era.
• 2:36:15
  Gary Russell. Six of the best episodes of
• 2:36:18
  Doctor Who ever made? Yes.
• 2:36:21
  Azure Swarm. The The Mori Tectaeun, The
• 2:36:25
  Division, The Grand Serpent versus Kate Sontarans on a
• 2:36:28
  horse, Sontarans, Sontarans a serious villain, villains Dan
• 2:36:32
  Yaz and Jericho's Trip, the Village Rogue Angel and finally.
• 2:36:38
  In The 60 Come In, Scott Gray says turning a shorter season
• 2:36:44
  into the biggest Doctor Who story ever told was a
• 2:36:46
  masterstroke. Swarm and Azure are mesmerizing.
• 2:36:50
  I love their dark elegance. Flux is the most wonderfully
• 2:36:53
  confusing mosaic. I think it has the most
• 2:36:56
  beautiful visuals of any Doctor Who season ever.
• 2:36:59
  And that's a man who's written a lot of fucking comic strips, all
• 2:37:02
  right? Indeed.
• 2:37:05
  I'd like to go next. I will once again echo what has
• 2:37:09
  already been said, but I just want to give a shout out to the
• 2:37:12
  division. Like again, we've got this
• 2:37:15
  beautiful image of the two universes and the division
• 2:37:18
  hanging in between them. We're entering Doctor Who is a
• 2:37:20
  multiverse. We've got that huge tree at the
• 2:37:23
  centre of it. The fact that the Doctor in this
• 2:37:27
  and that a lot of people miss this, they set teams like the
• 2:37:30
  Doctor is a virus, that her very presence has been destroying
• 2:37:35
  that universe and the flux has been sent to wipe it out.
• 2:37:39
  That's a big fucking story. The universe needs to start
• 2:37:42
  start again. I wish it had gone all out, to
• 2:37:45
  be honest, at the end of this season and taken the destroyed
• 2:37:50
  that universe, taken the Doctor and sent her off into a brand
• 2:37:53
  new one for brand new adventures.
• 2:37:55
  But unfortunately we got Legend of the Sea Devils.
• 2:37:59
  So I love all the all all the stuff with the division.
• 2:38:03
  I love Barbara Flynn as Tectaeun.
• 2:38:06
  I think killing her office the right thing to do Whenever he's
• 2:38:09
  like, oh, we want more, we want more, but don't.
• 2:38:10
  Give away the Doctor's back story.
• 2:38:12
  But we want more, we want more, we want more, but don't give
• 2:38:14
  away. It's like you're getting a step
• 2:38:15
  closer and then you get pulled back and there's a nude.
• 2:38:18
  Who doesn't love a nude? Beyond that, The Adventures of
• 2:38:21
  Dan Jericho and Yaz, as everybody says, needs a box set,
• 2:38:25
  needs a book and needs a something.
• 2:38:26
  And just the lovely relationship that Yaz has with the hologram
• 2:38:31
  of the Doctor. And I know Bell has a similar
• 2:38:35
  thing with Binder and people go, it's reusing the same thing.
• 2:38:38
  It's not. It's a theme.
• 2:38:40
  That's what you do if you miss somebody.
• 2:38:42
  There's a lot of it, Dylan. Yeah, yeah, She talks to the
• 2:38:44
  villains via holograms. Daleks, Ashad.
• 2:38:47
  You know, there's a lot of talking to holograms in this
• 2:38:49
  year if you miss somebody. That you can't see anymore.
• 2:38:53
  It has been known for people to reread emails, text messages,
• 2:38:56
  voice messages, watch old video camera clips.
• 2:38:59
  Of course, you can keep revisiting those things.
• 2:39:02
  It's the way pictures are all born.
• 2:39:03
  All the time. You know, when you're not
• 2:39:05
  around. Exactly.
• 2:39:07
  It's about. Keeping the memory alive and
• 2:39:10
  when half the universe has been destroyed, that's what you're
• 2:39:12
  going to do. And you know, it's just more
• 2:39:14
  rumblings of Thasmin too. So the division the adventures
• 2:39:18
  of Dan Jericho and Yaz, and Yaz being a lusty little lesbian.
• 2:39:25
  My reasons for? Putting it through jump in at
• 2:39:30
  this point because I. Did promise Paul Quinn that I
• 2:39:33
  would go feet first in on Tech Dunes hat, which I believe he
• 2:39:37
  doesn't like. But you know, come on Paul,
• 2:39:40
  you've heard me talk about hats on.
• 2:39:42
  I'm stuck with a blunt pen knife before.
• 2:39:43
  That's not happening. I love a hat.
• 2:39:45
  I should like a hat like that. She does look like she's just
• 2:39:48
  come in. From doing some gardening in
• 2:39:50
  between. She's got those little gloves
• 2:39:53
  on, doesn't she? Shears.
• 2:39:55
  In the back pocket. That's the point of she's grown
• 2:39:57
  this. Massive bonsai tree in a
• 2:39:59
  division which is beautiful. All the neon.
• 2:40:03
  The neon light lighting. Down, it's revealed in that.
• 2:40:06
  That's that's that's. You know very much her character
• 2:40:08
  isn't the gardener, the person that is growing and cultivating
• 2:40:13
  this, the pruner of reality. Exactly and now.
• 2:40:16
  The. Doctor and it's infested with
• 2:40:18
  Doctor so she's going to boom the fucking thing down and plant
• 2:40:21
  another one. She should have had that line.
• 2:40:23
  From Gimme Gimme. I'm just pruning my Bush, dear.
• 2:40:26
  The doctor walked in. Should we go for Joe Ford?
• 2:40:30
  Next I was so. Surprised watching this back.
• 2:40:33
  I I do remember enjoying this but I was surprised at just how
• 2:40:38
  much I remember. I messaged you and SI Fraser and
• 2:40:41
  Survivors and Flows is so great and it's different tones each
• 2:40:46
  time. Barbara Flynn gives one of the
• 2:40:48
  most magnificent performances I've ever seen in Doctor Who
• 2:40:52
  because she's chowing down on so much fucking Chris shipping.
• 2:40:55
  No exposition. Watch her hands.
• 2:40:57
  It's like she's sort of bringing up the exposition from the
• 2:41:00
  script because her hands don't stop moving, but boy, she just
• 2:41:04
  chews it up and spits it out like it is the most effortless,
• 2:41:07
  naturalistic dialogue. And trust me, none of it is.
• 2:41:11
  But she aces it and she manages to do that classic who thing.
• 2:41:15
  It's all sort of done with words rather than with pictures.
• 2:41:18
  There's a couple of visuals, but expanding that Doctor Who
• 2:41:22
  universe in the way that sort of Robert Holmes used to do it at
• 2:41:25
  his best, you know, just with ideas and just with dialogue.
• 2:41:29
  Really, really clever. You've all said it.
• 2:41:31
  Yas's adventures. I just think those look amazing
• 2:41:34
  as well. The lighting when they're in the
• 2:41:36
  sort of the souks on the market, the design of the ship is really
• 2:41:40
  great. They're outside this amazing
• 2:41:43
  sort of thing with Roman columns when they're they in the present
• 2:41:47
  time and Jesus, it honestly looks like they have gone to
• 2:41:51
  Tibet or wherever that guru is hanging out, that hermit.
• 2:41:55
  I don't know where they are, but it looks beautiful.
• 2:41:58
  Michael Mills gave me this one. But I just have to say, the idea
• 2:42:01
  that the Grand Serpent formed UNIT in a day for a bit of a
• 2:42:04
  laugh, it's just wonderful. It's just there to piss off the
• 2:42:08
  fans really, isn't it? And this absolutely was going to
• 2:42:11
  be like an episode in his third year, right?
• 2:42:14
  That that whole UNIT thing. I think he'd had that in his
• 2:42:17
  mind because he wrote out UNIT for a reason in resolution and
• 2:42:21
  he was going to bring it back here.
• 2:42:23
  But that leads to, Oh my God, I'm actually pleased to see Kate
• 2:42:28
  Stewart for the first time ever, who gets a wonderful triumphant
• 2:42:32
  speech at the end where she goes, fuck you, Grant Serpent, I
• 2:42:35
  know what you're about. I see you.
• 2:42:39
  Whatever, you are hiding in plain sight for so long, barely
• 2:42:44
  aging, you're gambling that nobody cares, that nobody looks
• 2:42:50
  at unit anymore. But I care.
• 2:42:54
  More than anyone. So I dug deep.
• 2:42:59
  Past the tampered archives and doctored photographs.
• 2:43:01
  Past the deleted incidents, Altered names, changes to
• 2:43:05
  reports from the past five decades.
• 2:43:08
  Altered because it's impossible you were there, and impossible
• 2:43:14
  how so many people quietly, accidentally died.
• 2:43:19
  And it all suggested to me. A non terrestrial life.
• 2:43:23
  Form with hostile intent, possibly one with the ability to
• 2:43:27
  move in time. How long has all this taken?
• 2:43:32
  You a week, a day, you must. Be feeling very.
• 2:43:36
  Tired Kate. Oh, by the way.
• 2:43:39
  You should know I'm wearing a psychic manifest shield, so
• 2:43:43
  whatever you conjure to suffocate the others from the
• 2:43:45
  inside won't work on me. This task force has been many
• 2:43:50
  lifetimes work for me and my family.
• 2:43:53
  I will not let it be sabotaged from within.
• 2:43:56
  You really need to. Calm down Kate, I am the head.
• 2:44:00
  Of unit and if you don't stop this, I will expose you and I
• 2:44:05
  shan't hesitate to call in a favour from someone you really
• 2:44:08
  don't want to argue with. Do we understand each other?
• 2:44:15
  Of course he blows up her. House and all sorts goes on
• 2:44:17
  after that, but I haven't really enjoyed Kate Stewart at all
• 2:44:21
  before this point. And I think her turn in this and
• 2:44:24
  in Power of the Doctor, it's triumphant.
• 2:44:26
  She's great. And I think Gemma Redwave
• 2:44:28
  responds to the script really well as well.
• 2:44:32
  Yeah, just really entertaining and inching all those plots
• 2:44:36
  along in a really skilful way. I don't think this is very
• 2:44:41
  popular this episode, but I think you're all mad.
• 2:44:44
  I don't know what's wrong with you people, but it is great fun
• 2:44:46
  this. Agreed.
• 2:44:49
  Absolutely. So, Lee, the last voice amongst
• 2:44:54
  us. Will you love it?
• 2:44:55
  Will you loathe it? Will you clang it, bang it or
• 2:44:58
  average? Oh no, wrong podcast.
• 2:45:01
  Well, Dylan, unfortunately I'm going to have to be the one that
• 2:45:04
  proclaims us an absolute tacky. Yeah, it's the.
• 2:45:09
  Worst episode of the series by far.
• 2:45:11
  In fact, I would go as far to say that it's down there amongst
• 2:45:15
  the worst offerings that the modern era has served up I'm.
• 2:45:21
  Teasing you? That's great.
• 2:45:25
  I really believed you that. Can I just say I have got the
• 2:45:31
  screenshot of the Guru with I'm teasing you as a safe as one of
• 2:45:35
  the favourites on my feet because it's.
• 2:45:38
  All the time, all the time I get them.
• 2:45:42
  At least once a month, I'm teasing you.
• 2:45:45
  It's because Lee's been the most critical.
• 2:45:47
  I was absolutely sold then. Always smoking metal, just point
• 2:45:54
  number. One then snake.
• 2:45:55
  Rattle and roll, but a start. We have a much better show you
• 2:46:00
  from the Grand Serpent here. He's dropped the game show
• 2:46:03
  jacket for an episode and is now properly slaughtered into the
• 2:46:06
  archetypal role of Doctor Who villain, seething with disdain
• 2:46:10
  and malevolence that only just bubbles under the surface.
• 2:46:13
  As part of his grand plan to destroy all and then somehow
• 2:46:16
  become the ruler of something, the Grand Serpent sets about
• 2:46:20
  infiltrating, sorry, infiltrating UNIT the long way
• 2:46:23
  round, undermining the whole organization over the course of
• 2:46:26
  many years in order to enable a second Centauran invasion.
• 2:46:30
  Parkinson delivers what has to be considered with some of the
• 2:46:33
  most ridiculous lines of the series, but even the hint of a
• 2:46:35
  smirk. But he's also in possession of
• 2:46:39
  one of the most striking ways of dispatching those he considers
• 2:46:42
  beneath him that we've ever seen in Doctor Who, channelling a
• 2:46:45
  giant serpent up through the innards of his intended victims,
• 2:46:48
  blocking their Airways and suffocating them.
• 2:46:51
  A truly gruesome method Sounds quite fun to me.
• 2:46:55
  He. Even goes as far to finish.
• 2:46:58
  Off Millington by these means. But if you know anything about
• 2:47:01
  initiation ceremonies in the British Army, it's not the first
• 2:47:04
  time that a serving officer is choked in or a man's snake.
• 2:47:12
  Point #2. It's the big face off between
• 2:47:15
  Tectuan and the Doctor, which is undoubtedly the scene of the
• 2:47:18
  episode. Tectuan puts the Doctor in an
• 2:47:20
  almost impossible position, playing on our doubts and
• 2:47:23
  insecurities regarding your own past and the memories that were
• 2:47:26
  forcibly taken from her, offering up the ultimate trade
• 2:47:29
  off. Let her condemned universe split
• 2:47:31
  her existence in exchange for regaining herself sense of self.
• 2:47:36
  A history wrenched from her tantalisingly dangled in front
• 2:47:39
  of her in the form of the now familiar FOB.
• 2:47:41
  Watch both. Jodie Whittaker and.
• 2:47:44
  Barbara Flynn play the scene wonderfully.
• 2:47:46
  A pitch perfect set piece of betrayal, temptation and
• 2:47:50
  consequences. Now from my final point, this is
• 2:47:55
  a bit of a long one this but I'll get in.
• 2:47:57
  Well, go with this point #3. More often than not.
• 2:48:00
  Over the course of the recent history of Doctor Who, we're
• 2:48:02
  giving a lead into a finale that takes all the elements and
• 2:48:06
  builds and builds and builds, reaching the Contrendo to take
• 2:48:09
  us into the final stretch, the survivors.
• 2:48:12
  Of the flux is no. Different.
• 2:48:13
  It's a big build up to the finale.
• 2:48:16
  It's all done, though at a measured place rather than the
• 2:48:19
  standard 45 minute runtime, Thanks of course to the
• 2:48:22
  serialized nature of this series.
• 2:48:24
  This allows it room to breathe the benefits with which there
• 2:48:27
  are more time to spend with the team with Dan, Yaz and Jericho
• 2:48:31
  as they traverse the globe in an effort to get themselves back to
• 2:48:34
  the Doctor. We learn many things from them
• 2:48:37
  on their travels that might have otherwise been glossed over.
• 2:48:39
  Like how to somehow survive the slowest evacuation known to man
• 2:48:43
  when Dynamite is discovered, to teaching the kids at home how to
• 2:48:46
  dispose of a body and causing historians and members of UNESCO
• 2:48:51
  to have a fucking fit as they willingly vandalise the Great
• 2:48:54
  Wall of China to get advantage to Carvinista.
• 2:48:58
  But among all these big set pieces, Chipnall still takes the
• 2:49:01
  time to show us that the stakes are high when even seemingly
• 2:49:04
  small scale events have far reaching consequences.
• 2:49:08
  There's the fate of Bell and Vendors as your unborn child
• 2:49:12
  facing the possibility of being born into a barren universe and
• 2:49:16
  perhaps the true victim of the peace.
• 2:49:18
  Kate Stewart's attempt to now get affordable home insurance.
• 2:49:23
  It's a master for build up that spins us headlong into finale 5
• 2:49:27
  weeks in the making. Keep, keep, keep.
• 2:49:32
  Excellent. Well, fantastic.
• 2:49:35
  So survivors of the Flux survives the.
• 2:49:40
  Only one we. Vanquished is Village of the
• 2:49:43
  Angels, and that was a 2. Way split, wasn't it Indeed now?
• 2:49:48
  I've got the surviving episodes lined up on a random generator,
• 2:49:55
  in fact. Can I share my screen?
• 2:49:57
  I've sent you a request. Oh yeah, hang.
• 2:49:59
  On there we go now. Oh my God.
• 2:50:07
  Yeah, hold on, you get your. Own spinning people?
• 2:50:09
  What other tabs? Has he got up?
• 2:50:12
  There how to what? How to adjust what?
• 2:50:17
  No. Peace.
• 2:50:19
  Breaker. What does that mean it?
• 2:50:21
  Just it doesn't matter. There's not.
• 2:50:23
  There's nothing dirty there. They're all on the wanky tab.
• 2:50:28
  Right. Are we ready for Wheel of Flux?
• 2:50:41
  1st. Up is the.
• 2:50:43
  Halloween apocalypse? No.
• 2:50:45
  Oh, now you. You can't.
• 2:50:47
  Hear this, but I'm getting a round of applause in my ears.
• 2:50:52
  So it's the Halloween. Apocalypse versus.
• 2:50:58
  This is thrilling stuff, the suspense survivors of the.
• 2:51:03
  Flux. This is the flux.
• 2:51:06
  Halloween Apocalypse. For me it just does what it
• 2:51:09
  needs to do so well, I'm afraid. It is Halloween apocalypse for
• 2:51:14
  me too. Oh well.
• 2:51:18
  Just to keep things a little bit tasty, then I'm going to say
• 2:51:21
  survivors of the Flux because I think it's it's a bit more fun,
• 2:51:27
  Lee. I'm.
• 2:51:29
  Going to have to stick with my original.
• 2:51:31
  Choice a Halloween apocalypse It just sets out this doll for the
• 2:51:34
  series so well. It's got so many elements, but
• 2:51:36
  they're balanced perfectly and it's a whole load of fun.
• 2:51:39
  So Halloween apocalypse survivors of the.
• 2:51:42
  Flux is removed from the wheel of flux, but we do love the.
• 2:51:46
  Hermit. We do.
• 2:51:48
  We do. Next up, the Vanquishes.
• 2:51:55
  How exciting. I love watching this wheel.
• 2:52:00
  Goes against, oh, Vanquish, Vanquish.
• 2:52:09
  There's a problem. With the format.
• 2:52:10
  There's a problem with the format.
• 2:52:12
  This one's actually quite easy because.
• 2:52:13
  I'm going to go for the vanquishes.
• 2:52:16
  Excellent. We're still on the vanquishes.
• 2:52:20
  Oh please no. Oh my.
• 2:52:21
  God. The vanquishes.
• 2:52:25
  Versus Once Upon Time, Let's Go. To Lee.
• 2:52:30
  First, couldn't be a more straightforward.
• 2:52:32
  Decision Vanquishers. Okie, Dokie.
• 2:52:37
  Joe Ford, Once Upon time. Totally unique, Fraser.
• 2:52:42
  It's it's the vanquishes. For me as well.
• 2:52:45
  Oh, it's Once Upon a. Time, or Once Upon a time for
• 2:52:48
  me. So we got to spin again.
• 2:52:54
  I was surprised. In the languages.
• 2:52:59
  Toby Hairdock is listening to this and he's.
• 2:53:01
  Having a dicky fit at the minute.
• 2:53:04
  Let's make it last for. Ages we may Polish him off I
• 2:53:07
  don't mean like that oh the. Vanquisers versus the Halloween
• 2:53:13
  Apocalypse, the Opener and the. Finale.
• 2:53:16
  Exactly. Let's come to Fraser first.
• 2:53:21
  Oh man, this is. Too hard.
• 2:53:25
  Oh, because the I really like both.
• 2:53:32
  I really like both of them doing exactly what they should do.
• 2:53:35
  I love Halloween apocalypse setting everything up, but I
• 2:53:38
  love the vanquishes wrapping everything up high.
• 2:53:41
  But you do know the? Format right?
• 2:53:42
  You have to use them, yes. The format that can only be 1
• 2:53:46
  like. Highlander, I'm going to see.
• 2:53:48
  The vanquishes, then. The vanquishes.
• 2:53:50
  Interesting. Choice.
• 2:53:52
  Let's come to Joe Ford next Halloween apocalypse.
• 2:53:55
  I'm not lying when I say I long to watch it again that episode,
• 2:54:00
  Lee. Yeah, what Joe said.
• 2:54:03
  Halloween apocalypse for me, for the same reasons that I gave
• 2:54:06
  before. The vanquishes are really,
• 2:54:08
  really good and does a really brilliant job of wrapping
• 2:54:12
  everything up. But yeah, Halloween apocalypse
• 2:54:14
  it's got more pop so I love them both.
• 2:54:17
  But if I've. Got a list of the best finales
• 2:54:19
  and the best opening episodes? I think the Halloween apocalypse
• 2:54:23
  is near the top of the best opening episodes and the
• 2:54:26
  Vanquishes is just a little bit below on that one.
• 2:54:28
  So the vanquishes balls has been vanquished.
• 2:54:32
  I mean, there's no losers here really, is there Just US 4?
• 2:54:38
  Right, spinning again and. Again, whatever wins the season.
• 2:54:42
  'S going through, right? Oh no.
• 2:54:46
  Oh please no. Versus.
• 2:54:52
  Don't worry, you're going to have the.
• 2:54:53
  Fabulous music playing over all of this.
• 2:54:55
  You know it'll be on the edge of their seats.
• 2:54:58
  Oh, war of some torrents against war of some torrents.
• 2:55:03
  That's that's. Too tricky.
• 2:55:04
  You're going to have to spit again.
• 2:55:05
  Yeah, this is exciting stuff. You didn't.
• 2:55:07
  Think it's through too well. Did you last time it was just?
• 2:55:10
  Stuff written on a piece of paper.
• 2:55:13
  Once Upon time. Yeah.
• 2:55:15
  So Once Upon time. Versus War of the Suntarans, I
• 2:55:19
  wanted to ride a. Horse War of the Suntarans
• 2:55:22
  through please let's get rid of Once Upon Time Late.
• 2:55:27
  I'm going to. Celebrate with so many.
• 2:55:28
  Chocolate bars, because Once Upon times getting in the bin.
• 2:55:31
  Did you not hear what I said earlier?
• 2:55:32
  Yeah, it's gone. It's got to.
• 2:55:34
  Go. Razor.
• 2:55:36
  Let me just. Think what would Terrence Dicks
• 2:55:39
  do? Yeah.
• 2:55:41
  Well, let's come on. Yeah, well, I would have gone
• 2:55:44
  Once Upon a time, but I, you know, it's a tough call for me.
• 2:55:48
  So, the Halloween Apocalypse and the War of the Suntarans, Let's
• 2:55:54
  come to Lee first of all, right? This is tricky because these are
• 2:55:59
  genuinely my favorite two from the entire series.
• 2:56:02
  So I am going to come down in the side of War of the Saint
• 2:56:08
  Tyrants because it's a classy piece of Doctor Who.
• 2:56:11
  It's striking visually, but there's lots of great stuff that
• 2:56:15
  Jodie does in it. It's just an, it's just an all
• 2:56:18
  around the old timer. War of the Saint Tyrants has got
• 2:56:20
  to go through Fraser. It's war.
• 2:56:25
  Of the Saint tyrants. For me as well, you know, yes, I
• 2:56:28
  love Halloween apocalypse. I love everything it does.
• 2:56:30
  I think War of the Saint Tyrants, just, you know, every
• 2:56:33
  element is just that little bit better.
• 2:56:34
  So you know, the cinematography is a little bit better the the
• 2:56:38
  story that's a little bit better the scripting.
• 2:56:41
  I mean, you know, Joey's talked about Jody's performance.
• 2:56:45
  The line are we do love is is the one where the.
• 2:56:48
  The officer mentions. You know, I'm I have got Queen
• 2:56:51
  Victoria on my side and she's like, oh, is she?
• 2:56:53
  Is she here? Wish she.
• 2:56:56
  You know, just that that real. Like baiting sarcasm.
• 2:56:58
  You just don't see enough of of that sort of wit from from the
• 2:57:01
  13th doctor. So everything's just a little
• 2:57:04
  bit little slight notch above for Wallace on Taurus.
• 2:57:09
  That's my pick. Joe Ford I I.
• 2:57:13
  Don't. Think.
• 2:57:13
  Anybody mentioned the cliffhangers of Wallace on
• 2:57:16
  Taurus and it's one I love. A cliffhanger with a countdown.
• 2:57:19
  We've got Swarm. They're going Oh no, it's Azure,
• 2:57:22
  isn't it? 5-4?
• 2:57:25
  And he's there and his fingers click and we go straight to the
• 2:57:28
  credits. S4 of the Suntaras that would
• 2:57:31
  be. What would Terry Nation do that?
• 2:57:36
  Although Chippers does love a. Countdown as well.
• 2:57:38
  There will be more radiation. If it was a Terry Nation Cliff,
• 2:57:40
  it is, I think. It's in Swarm May.
• 2:57:42
  Be called talent as well. The best Ontaran story.
• 2:57:45
  Of all time, I agree. I if you'd asked me before this
• 2:57:50
  rewatch, I think I would have said Halloween Apocalypse, but
• 2:57:53
  War of the Sontarans. It's always been great, but I
• 2:57:56
  loved it this time. So 4 for four.
• 2:57:59
  War of the Sontarans wins a victory for all the fans of
• 2:58:03
  classic Doctor Who. I think the.
• 2:58:05
  I think the final. Word and water the.
• 2:58:07
  Sontarans really should go to Dylan Reese of this parish.
• 2:58:10
  You know what's up chat the borough part of a couple of
• 2:58:13
  weeks ago. Sent one simple message and just
• 2:58:15
  went. This is like proper telly.
• 2:58:20
  Can't argue with that. They were retreating.
• 2:58:36
  It was done. That was full of men, I.
• 2:58:38
  Lost today for your guilt, you mean?
• 2:58:41
  Sometimes. Men like you make me.
• 2:58:43
  Wonder why I'm bother with humanity.
• 2:58:45
  Yes, it's. Proper telly, there we go.
• 2:58:49
  Well, a great winner though. Although to be fair, any of them
• 2:58:54
  like I want to say we've. Wasted the last three.
• 2:58:56
  Hours, but yeah. I think I think it is.
• 2:59:00
  Worth noting that from those comments there, from our
• 2:59:04
  reactions to these episodes, which were almost university
• 2:59:08
  positive that this is the point where Chippers who is firing on
• 2:59:13
  all cylinders, right. And I think that's sort of
• 2:59:16
  generally accepted within the people that are willing to give
• 2:59:20
  this era a chance because there are people that just won't.
• 2:59:24
  And I think. People are starting to give it
• 2:59:26
  more of a chance because of that if they perhaps have not enjoyed
• 2:59:30
  pre the current era as much. And I think there's so much to
• 2:59:35
  enjoy there that perhaps people we're very caught up on what we
• 2:59:39
  think Doctor Who should be, that sometimes we don't just let it
• 2:59:42
  be what it is. And I think this era more than
• 2:59:45
  any, if you just go with it, you'll have a great time.
• 2:59:49
  It's not always perfect, but all the things you think it's not
• 2:59:52
  doing, it is doing just not necessarily in the right order.
• 2:59:56
  Do you think we've been too? Positive about this season.
• 2:59:58
  I did this sort of little digging before we came on.
• 3:00:01
  There is like a four hour YouTube video that someone's put
• 3:00:04
  out. Literally terrorists.
• 3:00:08
  So if you'd. Rather go and watch that.
• 3:00:10
  Well then go ahead. We've we've not been too
• 3:00:11
  positive. Because it's earned.
• 3:00:13
  It's such a such a good series of doctors.
• 3:00:16
  I'll admit, I'll openly admit now that the result is out
• 3:00:19
  there. I was lying a bit.
• 3:00:20
  Village of the Angels. I do enjoy that.
• 3:00:22
  I just feel like I do too because it's more fun it.
• 3:00:25
  Is good. Any other season.
• 3:00:26
  Any other season, like I said, it's.
• 3:00:28
  It's it's still like an 8 out of 10 it's just all the rest are
• 3:00:32
  kind of like 8 1/2 nine everything but 4 hour video
• 3:00:37
  Yeah, if. I wanted to watch.
• 3:00:39
  Time to talk about. Doctor Who for four hours if I.
• 3:00:44
  Wanted to watch? 4.
• 3:00:45
  Hours of virgins talking bollocks.
• 3:00:47
  I'd watch the Sarah Jane Adventures.
• 3:00:52
  Excuse me, Fraser. You went up for four hours about
• 3:00:55
  the Ambassadors of Death. All right.
• 3:00:57
  That's earned it, though. That's earned.
• 3:00:58
  It that's different. Yes, I am.
• 3:01:02
  Oh, I. Suppose we should just very
• 3:01:04
  quickly say where we're about, and then we can all go to bed.
• 3:01:08
  Excellent. Well.
• 3:01:10
  Lee, where are you? But I'm a bell.
• 3:01:14
  Nowhere at the moment, because the Polish Box Live has been put
• 3:01:17
  on hiatus by Michael Grades. At the end of this last series
• 3:01:21
  we are in negotiations about we're getting a charity single
• 3:01:24
  together. Daniel Ronsley's providing the
• 3:01:27
  music for that. We're going to petition the BBC,
• 3:01:29
  both letter writing campaign. We're doing everything we can to
• 3:01:33
  change his mind. If all's well, we'll be back in
• 3:01:36
  September of a new series. But we're doing, funnily enough,
• 3:01:39
  Flux do. You know anybody have any?
• 3:01:42
  Opinions on it? What are two?
• 3:01:44
  Dylan one or two. So we'll be back around a.
• 3:01:48
  Bit of mid. September time after a wee
• 3:01:49
  extended break. You can find this on YouTube
• 3:01:52
  with the Polis box live. We're also on Blue Sky as well.
• 3:01:56
  We're very easy to find an impossible to shake off.
• 3:02:00
  I found there a strain in order. We will follow you browser.
• 3:02:06
  Well. When I'm.
• 3:02:07
  Not dogging around the doxidiver pool with a pan in me hand?
• 3:02:11
  Then you'll find me on Twitter. It's at Felix Razor or when word
• 3:02:16
  phrase. I spoke with his head like the
• 3:02:17
  stains also on blue sky, trying to get more, more and more on a
• 3:02:21
  blue sky. But you know, I will remain on
• 3:02:24
  Twitter as long as Nigel Farage is there and someone needs to
• 3:02:26
  call them means I will. I can't really take that.
• 3:02:29
  You're the only one doing it. Well, you know.
• 3:02:33
  Someone's someone's, someone's got to try and take the country
• 3:02:35
  back from my mum. And this one, yeah, you'll find
• 3:02:39
  me on any sort of podcast that will have me.
• 3:02:42
  Thanks to Dylan for having me on Too Hot for TV and the for
• 3:02:46
  getting me on the Polish box. And obviously Joe as well, who
• 3:02:49
  was once or twice asked me to pop along the hamster with a
• 3:02:52
  blue pen knife. So any podcast you'd want to
• 3:02:56
  think I've probably been home by now.
• 3:02:59
  So that hasn't put you off then? Yeah.
• 3:03:00
  Cool thing. Yeah.
• 3:03:02
  Will you just? Shut up, all right?
• 3:03:03
  No, please, please. We love hearing you and ah.
• 3:03:07
  Dylan and. I haven't had to look at my
• 3:03:09
  picture of all born today because you spent three hours
• 3:03:11
  with me tonight. But where are you?
• 3:03:14
  Well, I am. On a place called the Internet
• 3:03:17
  with a podcast called Doctor Who, too hot for TV.
• 3:03:20
  We're in a bit in the middle of a bit of a mammoth run where
• 3:03:23
  I've said yes to far too many people.
• 3:03:26
  And it was only the other day where I realized that I'm on
• 3:03:29
  something like episode 38 of this season and there's 19 more
• 3:03:33
  to go. So I'll be quitting podcasting
• 3:03:36
  shortly after. I won't be, but I'm I'm
• 3:03:38
  determined to get through it all and and then I'll be taking a
• 3:03:42
  break towards the end of the year.
• 3:03:43
  But we, you know, scheduled up until October, November and I I
• 3:03:48
  don't know why I did it to myself.
• 3:03:49
  I'm a stupid fucking idiot Doctor Who isn't even that good.
• 3:03:53
  No, but your podcast. Is cramming.
• 3:03:54
  I still can't believe at one point you were thinking of
• 3:03:57
  throwing the towel in on too hot for TVI mean, Jesus, I've.
• 3:04:01
  Got plans much like Big Finish that take us well into 2029.
• 3:04:05
  I don't know. After the three of us all did.
• 3:04:09
  I've I've I've banked. A bunch of episodes.
• 3:04:12
  So yeah, too hot for TV. We look at anything that isn't
• 3:04:15
  the TV show. I've just had Joe Ford doing The
• 3:04:18
  Stranger audios on there. I've done card games, I'm doing
• 3:04:22
  comedy skits coming up, I've done commercials.
• 3:04:25
  And then all the other stuff like Big Finish and New
• 3:04:27
  Adventures and all those other things.
• 3:04:29
  Unfortunately, I've also done Richard.
• 3:04:31
  Franklin's a killing stone, which I'm still in therapy for.
• 3:04:33
  Franklin excuse. Me, but you're.
• 3:04:36
  Doing the John Levine autobiography on mine I'd.
• 3:04:41
  Like to share the suffering? Rounds.
• 3:04:46
  Everybody on here has been on it and.
• 3:04:47
  Many other people it's a different person every week and
• 3:04:50
  I'm sure they'll all be back to if you want more of this me and
• 3:04:54
  any combination of these people, I'll just very quickly.
• 3:04:57
  Say, obviously you'll find me here because I'm always here and
• 3:05:00
  there's always stuff coming out, but if you want a particular
• 3:05:02
  tree then you can hear me and Dylan on the same sofa watching
• 3:05:07
  lesbian porn on the TV in episodes being brought out this
• 3:05:11
  week. It was quite an experience,
• 3:05:14
  wasn't it, Dylan? It was indeed.
• 3:05:17
  I look forward to revisiting that myself.
• 3:05:19
  We came to the. Conclusion.
• 3:05:21
  That the. Last thing you want when you're
• 3:05:23
  watching lesbian porn is Colin Baker's enormous face to come in
• 3:05:28
  and take your. Mind off it.
• 3:05:30
  I think we've just found out what's on.
• 3:05:31
  Dylan's wanky tab. Colin watching porn.
• 3:05:37
  Good grief. Well, how are we going to help
• 3:05:39
  this? Let's let's just say that by
• 3:05:41
  having a. Prolonged series, period of
• 3:05:43
  silence when nobody says anything.
• 3:05:44
  We'll keep the audience waiting for as long as we can.
• 3:05:48
  I'm teasing. You let's don't.
• 3:05:52
  Do that I could keep the episode going.
• 3:05:53
  For another two hours, you know, All right, Attack in three
• 3:05:56
  seconds, 3/2. 1. Thanks.
• 3:06:04
  Guys. That was worthy of a big.
• 3:06:06
  Finish audio that bug you? Jonathan Watson, Yeah.
• 3:06:58
  The.