Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to David Gillespie-Pratt about his choice of Spearhead from Space (3/4)

Transcript

Talks to David Gillespie-Pratt about his choice of Spearhead from Space (3/4) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

• 0:33
  Hamster with a blunt pen light for doing quicker.
• 0:37
  Quicker. Welcome back to a hamster with a
• 0:39
  blunt pen light. The Doctor Who Commentary
• 0:42
  podcast went so fast and I only tripped over my own words.
• 0:46
  I go on. Oh.
• 0:48
  I was going to, I was going to say, you know, I can't.
• 0:50
  I was going to say no. I interrupted you and forgot
• 0:52
  what I was going to say. We're not amateurs.
• 0:56
  You know what we're doing. I am here today with the
• 1:01
  magnificent David Gillespie Pratt.
• 1:03
  Hello, David. Hello.
• 1:05
  We have no notes at all. No, we're just two fanboys
• 1:08
  watching Spearhead from space together.
• 1:11
  Yeah, usually coming into these, I might, you know, do a little
• 1:13
  prep, do some and have a little bit of research.
• 1:16
  But usually I'd watch the episodes, make some notes, have
• 1:18
  an idea of what I'm going to say.
• 1:21
  So if I can't sit down, if we couldn't sit down and watch me
• 1:24
  ahead from space and find something to talk about, it
• 1:28
  would end well. We'd risk sounding like the
• 1:30
  original DVD commentary with Liz, Caroline, John and Nick
• 1:33
  Courtney, which is. Nothing at all.
• 1:35
  They've got nothing to say. They've got nothing to say.
• 1:38
  It is it is a good example of why a moderator was needed
• 1:42
  because it's like, yes, this is good, isn't it?
• 1:44
  Oh yes. Yeah, the Derek show in
• 1:46
  Terroristics 1 is much better. They clearly hate each other's.
• 1:49
  Guts and that's that's a good enough reason to listen to it
• 1:54
  because they are they are coming at this for a very different
• 1:57
  direction because it's like, how dare you saddle us with this
• 2:00
  concept and this format and this structure.
• 2:02
  I was like, but Terence, you've made it work.
• 2:05
  Look what you did. You really?
• 2:06
  Did and and I don't know what did he ever really appreciate
• 2:09
  how loved this particular season is.
• 2:12
  It's so highly regarded. I think he knew, yeah, sort of
• 2:16
  later on, but I think this was so not what he really wanted to
• 2:20
  be doing because, you know, slow, but sure, they wanted to
• 2:23
  get back out into space, didn't they?
• 2:24
  And do you know, he says this isn't really Doctor Who, but he
• 2:28
  kind of made it Doctor Who. It it's, it isn't, isn't Doctor
• 2:33
  Who. It's it's, it's kind of it's own
• 2:35
  thing and it's probably one of the few years that's really got
• 2:40
  feels very distinct. It's a unique season, isn't it,
• 2:42
  with no TARDIS travel at all. No travel grounded.
• 2:46
  It's got basically, you know, the alien invasion.
• 2:50
  They were already here, man made destruction and inferno and
• 2:56
  ambassadors of death, which is a morality plan.
• 2:58
  You've got some in as much as Terence always said.
• 3:01
  Oh, there's only a couple of stories you can do going well,
• 3:04
  there are more that you can do if you if you thought about it.
• 3:07
  And he he sort of proved that was wrong by doing lots of.
• 3:10
  And it's not until what colony in space?
• 3:12
  So yeah, halfway through the next season.
• 3:14
  So there's no sign at all that this format is ever going to
• 3:17
  change. And.
• 3:19
  Colony in space was kind of this is the, this is the different
• 3:23
  from the norm. It's a guess we're going to trip
• 3:24
  into space, but we're back at. We're back in.
• 3:26
  Back in the demons, aren't we in the next episode?
• 3:28
  Yeah, and in in colony space even ends with them going back
• 3:31
  home to the lab and then in the mutants, they're in the lab and
• 3:36
  they go on the mission. So it's still very rooted in
• 3:39
  it's not until I think Carnival of Monsters or no or cursor
• 3:45
  Paladin. Sorry, Cursor Paladin is
• 3:47
  probably the first time they go off without having a without a
• 3:50
  unit scene beginning or end. It's very telling in this
• 3:54
  episode, I think is, is this the episode where he drives to get
• 3:57
  Liz Shaw, to get him the TARDIS key and he tries to escape.
• 4:01
  So he's he's desperate to get away.
• 4:02
  And and you know, there's that running joke that he is trying
• 4:05
  to get away from Earth. But in Planet Earth Spiders, you
• 4:08
  know, he's totally fallen in love.
• 4:10
  And at the end of that, he says the TARDIS brought me home and
• 4:13
  it's back to Earth, back to UNIT and.
• 4:17
  That's the kind of the the storyline through this Doctor as
• 4:21
  well, that he wants to flee. He wants to, but as soon as he,
• 4:23
  you know, he's got his UD materialisation circuit and
• 4:27
  three Doctors, he's got his knowledge back, but he keeps
• 4:29
  coming back, can't quite, can't quite let go.
• 4:33
  He's like the child who's left home but keeps popping back.
• 4:35
  You know Brigadier is doing his washing for him.
• 4:38
  Goes from calling him pompous military at the end of this
• 4:42
  season and he's in at the theatre on a date with him in
• 4:45
  planet the Spiders calling him Alastair.
• 4:48
  They're having a nice night out, you know that's not they're not.
• 4:51
  By that point they're yes. Say, Doctor, should we go to the
• 4:55
  theatre? Is that what's a good idea?
• 4:58
  He's getting him revved up with that belly dancer.
• 5:00
  I don't know where that night's going to end.
• 5:02
  I don't think I want. To know if I want to what, what
• 5:04
  was, you know, what, what did they do after that?
• 5:06
  Did they go, you know, did they go to the pub?
• 5:07
  Did they go for, you know, go for a few drinks?
• 5:09
  Did they go for dinner together? You know?
• 5:12
  I booked a room out of there. You know, maybe you know, if big
• 5:16
  finisher looking for some ideas, you know, they could, you know,
• 5:18
  do a whole box set, a box set based around, you know, what
• 5:21
  happened on that night at. How different sort of unit
• 5:24
  dating though, isn't it? Let's be honest.
• 5:27
  Oh, there's there's a few fanboys probably listening to
• 5:29
  this kind of heads exploding at the idea, suggesting that the
• 5:33
  the Doctor of the Brigadier, we're having it off.
• 5:35
  Good. That means we're doing something
• 5:36
  right there. Well, I'm going to press
• 5:38
  episode, press play on the episode, but I've got a big
• 5:41
  question for you. But let's go in and I'll fire
• 5:44
  the question at you if you would do us the honours of countless
• 5:47
  in Episode 3. In 321.
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  Go. So this is where they truly come
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  to the fore. So I want to ask you, you won
• 5:57
  your opinion of the Autons 2. Why is this an enduring monster?
• 6:06
  Well, I think. The autons are a great idea
• 6:11
  because it's now I think the it's a social commentary on
• 6:16
  plastic doesn't really come in until terror.
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  The autons and and I'm not sure how much for social commentary
• 6:22
  it is. I think it's just they inhabit
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  plastic. But the idea of taking something
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  like because I wonder if what's the end point?
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  The dummies, we've got a monster.
• 6:31
  If we make shop window dummies the monster, how do we then make
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  that happen? Well, then they it's plastic
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  animated by an Indian intelligence.
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  And I think it's such a simple idea that they've come to Earth
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  and they've built themselves bodies and they've taken over
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  the plastics factories. It works.
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  It's really economical. It's something so recognisable
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  as well. Isn't it a shop window dummy?
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  So it's like kids will see the next time I go into a shop.
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  And that's the other thing I know people will say about
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  Moffat saying taking the familiar, making it scary.
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  I think is this because obviously Doctor Who got into
• 7:06
  trouble more than a few times for making familiar things
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  scary. Is this the first time that they
• 7:13
  did that? So I can't think of anything
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  prior to this. There was scary moments, there
• 7:17
  were scary moments, there were monsters and Cybermen.
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  But actually taking something recognisably of the real world
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  and going what if it was a monster?
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  Well, he does the police, doesn't he in.
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  Terror and got his knuckles rapped for that one as well.
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  And there was the the the doll and the the plastic flowers and
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  all those things that you would see in real life.
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  And then obviously the take, you know, Doctor Who does a lot of
• 7:41
  that now of taking something every day and mundane and
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  saying, well, what if it's a monster or what if it's scary
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  right right down to cracks in bedroom walls being whatever the
• 7:52
  hell that was. So I think that's another
• 7:55
  element of this story that this could have seeped into the
• 7:59
  consciousness of Doctor Who. And I think because the autumn
• 8:02
  the the Nestings and Autumns only appeared in the classic
• 8:06
  series here and Terror of the Autumns it was.
• 8:10
  Going to be in season 23, wasn't it?
• 8:13
  There was going to be an autumn story in Singapore.
• 8:15
  I mean, I think we probably got quite lucky there because God
• 8:20
  knows how that would have turned out.
• 8:21
  The master of the Ronnie and the Autumns.
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  That was just. It was going to be Holmes
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  though, wasn't it? It was going to be Holmes.
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  I mean, whether or not Holmes had kind of was not at his peak
• 8:32
  because two doctors, 2 doctors has got some great bits, but it
• 8:35
  is it's not his best because he doesn't work with when he's
• 8:38
  doing shopping lists type of writing.
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  It's flabby. It's flabby.
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  It's got bits that he's trying. He's been told he's got to make
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  work. But here the the the list he's
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  given is introduce the doctor, introduce unit.
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  The rest of it, you know, it's probably mostly him and you've
• 8:58
  got and Nigel Neil and Kratomasu is when he's ripping it off.
• 9:02
  But. I think this is the first time
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  they do the like the parody of the human face.
• 9:11
  It's the sort of thing they get right in Robots Death as well,
• 9:14
  you know, and and the clowns in Greatest Show in the Galaxy.
• 9:19
  Every time they go through that well, it's just chilling, I
• 9:23
  think. And I think they work, yeah.
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  And it's such a simple effect on the not the proper Autons, but
• 9:28
  the the more human ones where they've just got that Sheen, the
• 9:32
  face and I saw. That weird glue over the?
• 9:36
  Face Yeah, it and it works. It's it's it's a good example of
• 9:41
  Doctor Who just finding a simple way of doing that effect and all
• 9:45
  you know, when you see there's the orderlies before you see
• 9:48
  Channing and they've just got that little bit of a glisten to
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  them. And it's like now you, now we
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  know the plastic factories involved.
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  It's like, are people starting to make the dots of are these
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  plastic? People.
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  Well, and of course, then he takes the idea to its natural
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  conclusion of Madame Tussauds dummies and shop window dummies.
• 10:09
  So we have, you know, all of those.
• 10:11
  Oh, bless Ransom. He's getting that tea
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  everywhere. That did scare me as a kid
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  though, because I always say this one episode is what really
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  scared me as a kid was adults that were scared.
• 10:23
  That scared me more than the monsters.
• 10:25
  I think that that's genuine terror and I think he's selling
• 10:29
  it and just just the dribbling of the tea and that that just
• 10:32
  adds that little bit of extra kind of, oh, it's not, oh, I'm
• 10:36
  terrified. It's he's properly disturbed by
• 10:40
  what's going on and that that really makes you think there's
• 10:44
  something serious going on here. And oh, Liz is getting uppity
• 10:51
  with him because he's been condescending.
• 10:54
  What we need is a lateral molecular rectifier.
• 10:57
  What on Earthslayer? I've got one in the Tardis, I've
• 11:00
  got a whole laboratory in there. Why don't you just go and get me
• 11:03
  the key and I'll go in there and get it and I promise I won't
• 11:07
  leave. And I think the Brigadier is
• 11:11
  certainly, when he gets to a chance to point out how an idiot
• 11:14
  she's been for being duped so easily, he enjoys that because.
• 11:18
  Never see him again. Listen.
• 11:20
  And then you get that one when he comes out with all the smoke
• 11:25
  and that kind of sheepish look. And that's the thing that, you
• 11:29
  know, he wants to be a straight actor.
• 11:30
  But there is comedy, there is lightness.
• 11:32
  So, you know, take that jet fielding.
• 11:35
  But I do like the fact that he tries as well.
• 11:37
  He's selfish, you know, He, he's just happy to go and leave that
• 11:42
  to the old ones. So I think there would be that,
• 11:44
  you know, it's dealing with that question.
• 11:46
  It's it's it's also a good example of Holmes's writing
• 11:50
  where it's like, well, we have to establish, we have to make it
• 11:52
  clear that he's exiled. So instead of just doing it
• 11:55
  through I've been exiled here, they could, it helps to really
• 11:59
  make clear to the audience that TARDIS is grounded.
• 12:02
  Plus he gets to act like a spoilt child.
• 12:04
  He goes the mean underhanded lot, you know, if they try to do
• 12:09
  it, say at the end of the story where he's like, thank you
• 12:11
  Brigadier, I'm off, goodbye. It would just probably be just a
• 12:15
  bit too much at the end. So it's like, stick it here.
• 12:17
  It's a little bit of character development for him.
• 12:18
  It's a bit for Liz as well. And it it doesn't feel like it's
• 12:23
  something that's inserted. It's something we have to make
• 12:25
  clear to the audience at this point.
• 12:28
  He's stuck. And he's this, this bit now.
• 12:33
  So Sam Seeley is with the soldiers and he's not saying
• 12:38
  nothing until he finds out about a reward and then he goes, no,
• 12:42
  it's at my house. And then we suddenly realise
• 12:45
  Meg's in danger. And and it's not done too
• 12:49
  laboured as well because I think other eras, later eras would
• 12:54
  make a much more of a Oh my goodness, it's at the house.
• 12:57
  But my wife is there musical sting.
• 13:00
  You know, it's just that little bit more subtle.
• 13:03
  There is a sort of more restrained atmosphere at times
• 13:07
  with this story as well. It's, it's not just how it's
• 13:10
  filmed. I think it's played a little bit
• 13:13
  more realistically and that could be what.
• 13:17
  Sherwin's going for though, isn't it?
• 13:18
  And that's possibly. Because of Sherwin, it's because
• 13:21
  it's probably on film as well. So it's it's all leading into
• 13:24
  this. This is a this story has such a
• 13:26
  different feel as much. As we love it for at the end of
• 13:29
  the season, we're doing evil doppelgangers, you know, we're
• 13:32
  back doing very hardened performances again.
• 13:36
  And I think when the DVD came out, Doctor Who Magazine,
• 13:40
  whoever was doing the reviews in Doctor Who magazine at the time
• 13:43
  gave this a really scaling review.
• 13:46
  Well, the few times I've read like a proper negative review
• 13:49
  and they said, you know, this is meant to be Doctor Who dark and,
• 13:53
  you know, pretty and serious and grounded.
• 13:56
  And it's like it ends with a giant rubber octopus and John
• 13:59
  Putt. We're good.
• 14:00
  That is Doctor. Who?
• 14:01
  And it's like. That is Doctor Who.
• 14:02
  But it's like when people try to claim this is grounded and
• 14:05
  serious going. It's not really, is it?
• 14:08
  And it's like, and that bit of the end does feel a little bit
• 14:12
  jarring with the tone of the rest of the story, but it's also
• 14:15
  quite glorious as well because it's a silly monster.
• 14:19
  And put it this way, they did 2 versions of that final thing
• 14:24
  because they had to refilm it because the first version
• 14:26
  apparently was so bad. So I love the.
• 14:29
  Fact that those tentacles someone's glued on hair to every
• 14:32
  single one of those tentacles it's.
• 14:35
  It's, it's a weird thing. It looks bizarre.
• 14:39
  It looks. Better than the special effect
• 14:41
  they do in Terror of the Autons with the octopus in the sky.
• 14:45
  And I've got a good clever bit of economy there because you've
• 14:48
  got, she comes in the key and we're hearing Ransom turn the
• 14:51
  bridge in and then we stay with them to finish their
• 14:54
  conversation. So it's, I've never really paid
• 14:58
  as much attention to clinically to the structure of it anything.
• 15:02
  In terms of nuts and bolts storytelling, especially given
• 15:05
  the space parts, was his last story and that's so laborious.
• 15:10
  It's an interesting thing because Can you imagine how
• 15:15
  fandom would have reacted in if it existed in 1969 as it does
• 15:19
  now? So who's your new Doctor?
• 15:21
  Well, it's the man from the radio who does the silly voices
• 15:25
  as your new Doctor and who's writing the debut script of the
• 15:30
  new season, The guy behind the Space Pirates.
• 15:33
  I say if you did something equivalent now, there'd be a
• 15:37
  number of YouTube videos pouring scorn on Derek Sherwin must go
• 15:42
  and all of that. So it just goes to show that.
• 15:47
  A female scientist Doctor Who's gone woke It's.
• 15:51
  Woke, you know, we, we had Zoe. Zoe was good enough.
• 15:55
  Bring Zoe back, please. Social media wasn't a thing back
• 15:59
  then, if I'm honest. But to be fair, that point you
• 16:02
  just made there about I wouldn't have chosen Robert Holmes to to
• 16:07
  start this new season. I think this is where he's
• 16:10
  learned to write Doctor Who and I.
• 16:12
  Think he's writing? He's setting a bit of the
• 16:14
  template as well, because this is a bit of a blank slate.
• 16:18
  So it's, it's like he's not writing to go do a space opera
• 16:21
  or do whatever the hell the Crotons is.
• 16:23
  It's like you're doing an earthbound story.
• 16:26
  Doctor Who inspired by Queenie Mass, although apparently he'd
• 16:29
  never seen it or he was only just aware of it.
• 16:33
  And he comes up with, I think, his story, he really.
• 16:37
  Learns he really learns to make it scary because the autos are
• 16:41
  so scary and then in terror of the autons he takes that even
• 16:45
  further Wendy by the time he's script editor he's just going to
• 16:49
  town with the scares we're. Seeing we're seeing a writer
• 16:52
  here who's honing. Yeah, he's sort of.
• 16:54
  Realising the possibilities of the show and I.
• 16:57
  Wonder if how much Terrance Dix is also responsible there in
• 17:00
  terms of nurturing. I mean, I know Holmes was older
• 17:04
  than, I think he was older than Dick.
• 17:05
  So he said he looks it. So, you know, but he's
• 17:07
  nurturing. This writer saying he must
• 17:08
  reckon he must have recognised some talent or something and
• 17:13
  going he just probably needs a bit of nudging in the right
• 17:17
  direction because eventually this is the man who takes over.
• 17:19
  I love, I love how that situation reverses that Dicks is
• 17:24
  the script editor and Holmes is the writer.
• 17:27
  And then Holmes is the the script editor and Dicks is the
• 17:30
  writer. And in both directions that
• 17:33
  yields great results. And Dicks getting rewritten by
• 17:38
  Holmes and then having a bit of a Strop and taking his name off
• 17:40
  of it. And it's like, Terence, you know
• 17:43
  how this works. But then look.
• 17:44
  He did horror fan rock, didn't he, with Robert Holmes?
• 17:48
  And that, that was brilliant. I think you've got in Terence
• 17:52
  and in homes you've got 2 writers.
• 17:55
  And once once they've got the knack of it, of Doctor Who, they
• 17:59
  can just make it sing. And now the doctors in here.
• 18:03
  And again, it's moving on to the next.
• 18:06
  The economy here. So we've gone through all that
• 18:08
  rigmarole with him in Episode 2 of coming back from America and
• 18:11
  all of that. So he can deliver all the news
• 18:14
  here in Episode 3. So they're all up to speed.
• 18:17
  So then they go to the factory. It, it's all just to push it
• 18:21
  along. It's really well done.
• 18:23
  I think it's very, very clever and and.
• 18:26
  Again, back back with Sam Seeley and the captain and, you know,
• 18:31
  thunderballs, that was that was a terrible attempt at whatever
• 18:34
  accent he's meant to be because it meant.
• 18:36
  So Dick says in the comet tree goes I can't understand a word
• 18:39
  you say it that man. I mean, I don't actually know
• 18:42
  where this is supposed to be or what his accent's supposed to
• 18:44
  be. It's just country, rural.
• 18:47
  Mama set, I think. Rural Mama.
• 18:48
  Set and oh, we've got another hapless unit, another hapless
• 18:52
  unit and oh, she's got but she's got some great heroic moments
• 18:57
  coming up. You know, I'll blow an hole in
• 18:58
  you. But the the, the the really
• 19:03
  tragic moment of this story, you know, one of the first deaths of
• 19:06
  the story is that the series poor dog.
• 19:09
  Yeah, Marvel don't like that he's a massive dog lover.
• 19:13
  That's. That and that is actually
• 19:14
  another point, a bit like the windscreen bit in the last
• 19:16
  episode where it's they've never done anything quite like that
• 19:19
  before and they don't really do anything well, not until like
• 19:22
  Mark, it's clearly. A man though, going woof woof
• 19:25
  woof, isn't it? That is a bit unfortunate.
• 19:28
  It's called acting. It's just so I don't think we.
• 19:35
  Actually, do we ever actually see the dog?
• 19:37
  But it's still for a kids show as well.
• 19:40
  That's that's pushing it just a little bit.
• 19:42
  I don't know. Why?
• 19:43
  But that auton in the woods scared me more than anything.
• 19:47
  Because it's. Anything in this story, it's
• 19:49
  just so incongruous. Because it's just comes out of
• 19:52
  the, it's the way it's shot, it's coming out of the bushes.
• 19:54
  So if you're, you know, you're saying you're, you know, playing
• 19:57
  in the woods or something like that.
• 19:58
  If this fame can just come out at you, it must be 7. 10
• 20:06
  because. I think judging by the plant
• 20:09
  that's behind Pertwee there, I don't think we're on location
• 20:12
  necessarily in the woods because there's some very fake looking
• 20:15
  trees there. They've put.
• 20:17
  The entrance to the tent. For some reason they didn't have
• 20:20
  any. Studios did they?
• 20:21
  So I don't know where. They filmed that maybe in the
• 20:23
  ground somewhere, but if you look at how they've set that
• 20:25
  out, they've put the trees there to kind of make it look like the
• 20:26
  forest, but when they're walking out, they're having to brush
• 20:29
  past the trees. So in in universe whoever set
• 20:33
  that they can't see her. Arse, look at that.
• 20:37
  OK, so that's the one thing that this has in common with UFO is
• 20:41
  incongruous sharks of women's asses.
• 20:44
  But I think there's a slight difference between 20 something
• 20:47
  model that they use in UFO and Meg Sealy.
• 20:51
  But you know, everyone's got different tastes, will you?
• 20:54
  Take a look at her clothes, please.
• 20:56
  That penny. She's a fashion icon, I'm
• 20:58
  telling you. We don't talk enough about, you
• 21:00
  know, the the ladies of Doctor Who, you've got, you've got Meg
• 21:04
  here. We've got oh missus.
• 21:08
  Farrell, yeah, in in his Shona. You know, and oh.
• 21:15
  That's horrible, that. That when it turns round and the
• 21:18
  way that the light is hitting it as well, yeah.
• 21:21
  Imagine, I mean just imagine coming home and finding that in
• 21:24
  your house, I mean. I think the idea of just finding
• 21:27
  somebody in your house is terrifying enough, but finding
• 21:31
  this It is for a month because, you know, people laugh at Duck 2
• 21:36
  monsters and how cheap they look.
• 21:37
  These look great, but what's? Great about this scene is is
• 21:41
  that Ultron doesn't even come towards her fast.
• 21:45
  He very slowly, threateningly walks towards her and.
• 21:50
  And she's going to blow it all in him.
• 21:52
  And it does not. It doesn't even flinch.
• 21:55
  Look at that. Massive hole in his chest.
• 21:59
  Jesus Christ this is scary stuff.
• 22:01
  It's why why does the Autons work?
• 22:04
  Because they just an intimidating presence that she
• 22:08
  shut it with both barrels and it didn't move and it sounds I
• 22:15
  think. It's a bit of a shame when you
• 22:17
  see it running. I prefer it when they're just
• 22:20
  like when they come out the windows and they all just walk
• 22:22
  really slowly and murder people. I thought there was some quite
• 22:26
  good to see it running because you don't see doctor monsters
• 22:28
  run very often. Well, they most.
• 22:30
  Of them can't, can they? To be fair.
• 22:33
  And oh, do you notice how he. Gets a bit of comedy music here
• 22:35
  when he goes in the shed. But what I quite like as well is
• 22:39
  that it's moving like a doll, the way it's kind of just
• 22:42
  holding its arms and everything like that.
• 22:44
  It's kind of and wherever they filmed this.
• 22:47
  So I think this is obviously location as well they've
• 22:49
  trashed. This.
• 22:50
  It's someone's cottage, isn't it?
• 22:52
  It's a lovely piano Forte there. Well, they didn't smash that.
• 22:56
  That's obviously been like smashed everything else.
• 22:57
  But don't touch the piano forces piano.
• 22:59
  Oh, look at that lamb shade. Hideous.
• 23:02
  And it this is great because you'd expect the Auton to be
• 23:04
  gone with the globe, and no, he's there.
• 23:08
  And it means they get a chance to sit.
• 23:09
  And that's also good economy because then it's a case of,
• 23:11
  well, what did you see? And it's like, they've seen it.
• 23:14
  Yeah, we've seen. We've seen the creature.
• 23:16
  We've seen the Auton. We know what it is.
• 23:18
  We move on. Because one of my pet hates in
• 23:21
  any sort of science fiction is when either characters don't see
• 23:25
  what goes on or you start going there.
• 23:26
  Did you? What did you see?
• 23:27
  Tell us what you see. Oh, no, you're making it up.
• 23:29
  And it's like they've seen it. They know what it is.
• 23:32
  They know that they're powerful. Yes.
• 23:36
  Again, economy of storytelling. And now, oh, look at, look at
• 23:41
  Hugh Burden actually given it something straight to camera
• 23:44
  here, recall. See, he just, he does sinister
• 23:48
  here really well and Hibbett could have been just a bit
• 23:53
  useless and a bit wet, he said. It's too soon for a major
• 23:56
  battle, so we know something's coming and and.
• 23:59
  Again, that just sowing the seed of like we're not ready yet and
• 24:03
  see they're not ready yet, but it's completely impervious to
• 24:08
  their their weapons. Oh, I'm.
• 24:09
  Pleased Missus Seeley made it, you know.
• 24:12
  Yes, she, she, she's going to lay on an ambulance, that was.
• 24:16
  On the back of the VHS when it came out, this shot here of Liz
• 24:19
  looking at him holding the globe.
• 24:21
  Yes, it was that and the picture of him in the hat.
• 24:23
  I mean, I think possibly a picture of the Auton as well.
• 24:26
  Yeah, that was a great. It's a great.
• 24:28
  It's a great effect that just very simple the globe and they
• 24:32
  use it again in the Auton BBV videos.
• 24:35
  Oh, there were some of the better ones, yeah.
• 24:39
  Oh Barbara's favourites. I only watched the first two.
• 24:42
  I never got around to watching the last one.
• 24:44
  Oh, the last. One was terrible.
• 24:45
  Oh, this where he goes straight down, cuts open the tent, comes
• 24:50
  in, murders him and. He's gone and it's and this is
• 24:54
  actually quite vindictive of them as well because like they
• 24:58
  know that unit's seen the autumns, they know they suspect
• 25:00
  the factory and everything, but it's like just go and destroy
• 25:03
  him and they. Already know he's he's talked to
• 25:06
  them. But there's almost like a slight
• 25:08
  pettiness. But the the cutting of that as
• 25:12
  well, it's just so quick. He's, he's got no time to react
• 25:15
  or anything. He's just dead.
• 25:16
  And it's, it's a brutal way to, it's almost like, well, we, you
• 25:20
  know, he's not needing the story anymore.
• 25:21
  We could just ship him off somewhere.
• 25:23
  It's like, you know what? Let's let the Autons get him
• 25:26
  because that again, Eric. 'S award came in and script
• 25:28
  edited that bit. Oh, if he did, it would have
• 25:31
  been a lot. There would have been a lot more
• 25:33
  blood and proven to shot a few soldiers and all.
• 25:36
  You know that soldier there would have been killed.
• 25:39
  He looked totally taking it here.
• 25:42
  He didn't cut his way out, but somebody cut their way in and.
• 25:45
  The Brigadier would have been like, they must think as fools.
• 25:48
  You know, the the classic, you know, same with dialogue that
• 25:52
  you get. But oh, now they're at the
• 25:56
  factory. We're going to get that great
• 25:58
  shot. That's amazing.
• 26:01
  And that's what. I think was really good with
• 26:02
  some of these directors. They get on these locations and
• 26:04
  they just like what can we do with this every?
• 26:08
  Single director in season 7 gets it spot on.
• 26:13
  They are so imaginative. I think probably Michael
• 26:16
  Ferguson comes off best in Ambassadors of Death in terms of
• 26:22
  style, but I think who does doctor in the following?
• 26:26
  Tim Coom. Tim Coom?
• 26:28
  Yeah, like all of his stuff over the Morlands.
• 26:30
  Great. Douglas Canfield's location work
• 26:33
  in Inferno before he fell I'll is so dynamic.
• 26:37
  I think this is 1. Of the most dynamic and it feels
• 26:39
  expensive because if you think about some of the the location
• 26:43
  filming in Silurians where they're doing all the
• 26:45
  helicopters, all those shots, it's like this for a show that's
• 26:50
  on the apparent in the verge of cancellation, they seem to have
• 26:52
  really given it. Barry let's says, doesn't he?
• 26:55
  For once they're not having to realise alien sets and alien
• 26:58
  planets and and you know, spaceships and things.
• 27:02
  They're just doing it on Earth so all the money can go on that
• 27:05
  and it. Looks so much better for it and
• 27:07
  one of the reasons why my husband loves the perp era
• 27:11
  specifically is that it's just say it just Doctor Who looks so
• 27:15
  much better when it's out on location because you know,
• 27:18
  especially in this year it's like it's what they do.
• 27:20
  So this is a point I think there's only 2/3 doctor stories
• 27:24
  that don't go on location, which is the 2 paladin stories and
• 27:28
  from there. There's a ton of film work, so
• 27:29
  it looks like they're on location half the time.
• 27:32
  So this. Is a very outdoorsy season and
• 27:35
  it's interesting that when you get to season 12 that you get to
• 27:39
  the first Hinchcliffe story and it is an entirely studio bound.
• 27:43
  Sorry, I know you know, they did the location sometime, but it's
• 27:46
  like if that's another mission statement in itself in terms of
• 27:49
  there's no film, we're all indoors with a handful of sets.
• 27:52
  And again that's it's a reboot again.
• 27:55
  Oppressive sets, but all the same, I think that's
• 27:58
  deliberately claustrophobic, that one isn't it?
• 28:01
  And it's got and it it sets up that really different tone.
• 28:04
  And. Atmosphere.
• 28:05
  But it's less action, more atmosphere, yeah.
• 28:08
  And but this has atmosphere, this has and we're now we're now
• 28:12
  moving away from tension and set up into more action.
• 28:16
  And I mean we. Forgot about this character and
• 28:19
  all of a sudden he gets a an absolutely terrifying
• 28:22
  cliffhanger and it's. Been really well done.
• 28:25
  So I think I think it's split screen or if it's if it's
• 28:29
  double, it's a bloody good one. This.
• 28:30
  Scene is stolen wholesale from season 6 from The X-Files. 2
• 28:37
  fathers and one son. The cliffhanger is a character
• 28:40
  going to the door and a doppelganger is there at the
• 28:43
  door and comes in and kills him. It's.
• 28:45
  Really well done and they did something similar in The
• 28:48
  Avengers as well when one of the other black men episodes where a
• 28:51
  character goes to their wardrobe and they open the wardrobe door
• 28:55
  and their doppelganger is inside and it is really well shut and
• 29:01
  cut shot. But this is I'm sure that looks.
• 29:05
  Really great, isn't it? Like, I mean, he's behind the
• 29:08
  door so you they can, they can split it, but they can do.
• 29:11
  The split screen but it's and there he looks so fake as well.
• 29:16
  He looks more plastic there than he does later on although.
• 29:20
  I've got again, the cut into the music is so jarring.
• 29:24
  It isn't quite it's, it's not quite there yet, but the idea
• 29:29
  that you know. He goes, he opens the door and
• 29:32
  he's there. And the disappointment I felt as
• 29:36
  a 1213 year old because I'd seen the clips, I'd seen the shop
• 29:39
  window dummy scene and I was like, when are we going to get
• 29:43
  that scene? Because I thought, is it going
• 29:45
  to be the cliffhanger episode 1? No.
• 29:47
  Is it cliffhanger episode 2? No.
• 29:48
  Is it episode 3? No.
• 29:49
  It's this old blog. It's like, where's that bit that
• 29:52
  I've seen? And actually I mean that.
• 29:53
  Would be a great cliffhanger. It would, but the fact that they
• 29:57
  didn't need to use it, we've had that's two cliffhangers.
• 30:00
  Episode 2, episode 3, ignore how it goes into the end credits.
• 30:05
  Those cliffhangers are really at really atmospheric as well.
• 30:10
  And you know, and it it kind of does encourage you to go well,
• 30:14
  what what's going to happen next?
• 30:15
  What's going on? And it's not fake peril as well.
• 30:19
  It's not unlike the episode one one which feels like it's like,
• 30:23
  oh, he's put a cliffhanger in. They are cliffhangers that are
• 30:26
  moving the plot or the movie, The story on they.
• 30:29
  Eventually do catch up with Ransom, which was the end of
• 30:32
  episode 2 and General Scobie being taken over by his Auton
• 30:38
  duplicate is a vital part of Episode 4, so it.
• 30:41
  It the clear fingers are moving the story on because I think
• 30:44
  there's a point where is the doctor going to survive this
• 30:47
  time? It's like, or sometimes it can
• 30:50
  be very exciting, but sometimes it's like, yeah, you know, try
• 30:55
  harder because you we all know, but the.
• 30:57
  Visitation, he just goes. Not again.
• 31:00
  Yeah, it's like drawing attention to the fact that
• 31:03
  you're repeating the same cliffhanger from a few weeks ago
• 31:05
  is not the best movie. Maybe if.
• 31:07
  You won't die at this point, you know, saying.
• 31:10
  That I mean, obviously there are ways of doing those non
• 31:13
  threatening cliffhangers badly because the visitation episode 1
• 31:16
  where it's Tegan walks down some stairs, it's like that's
• 31:20
  probably, you know, OK, no, there's no mortal peril, but
• 31:22
  it's like is that. It whereas we don't really give
• 31:27
  a shit about this character, but it's still a great moment, but
• 31:30
  it's. Like, what the hell is going on?
• 31:32
  Yeah, what's the plan? We still don't know what the
• 31:35
  plan is. All we know.
• 31:36
  Is that there's a major confrontation coming.
• 31:38
  There's something coming. It's.
• 31:40
  The rarest of things actually this off because I think very
• 31:43
  often dot classic dot who stories start brilliantly and
• 31:47
  end with a damp squib. This started well, but I think
• 31:50
  the fourth episode is the best of the four.
• 31:53
  I, I think maybe we'll come into this in episode 4.
• 31:57
  Doctor Who's stories and old and new don't always stick the
• 32:01
  landing. I think sometimes a lot of
• 32:04
  stories, a lot of classic stories how to end it.
• 32:08
  And I think this is one that gets it better, even though it's
• 32:12
  Gurney with a giant rubber prop, but it builds and it works, and
• 32:16
  I think it's still a very satisfying ending between.
• 32:19
  The Madame Tussauds sequences, which are really eerie, then
• 32:22
  bursting out of the windows in in the High Street and the huge
• 32:27
  action sequence in the factory, you know, with all the unit
• 32:30
  soldiers. I think they're spectacle.
• 32:32
  Well, as I can't wait talking about it now let's go.
• 32:35
  Let's get into it. I'll get it there.