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Top Ten - Daniel Rawnsley · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

• 0:01
  Good morning. And welcome to Hamster Top Ten.
• 0:05
  You'll notice I've been bringing out more material than usual
• 0:09
  lately, and that is because we are.
• 0:10
  Approaching the Doctor, Who's 60th?
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  And if there was ever a time to be celebrating Doctor Who?
• 0:17
  Now is the time. There's too.
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  Much coming out. Don't you worry, I'm going to
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  slow things down a bit after the 60th.
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  But for now, between the top 10s and the book clubs and the
• 0:29
  regular Hamster episodes, there's going.
• 0:31
  To be plenty to enjoy over the coming.
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  Weeks. Today my top ten list comes from
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  Daniel Rawnsley. Now Daniel is somebody who
• 0:41
  hasn't done a hamster commentary before.
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  But he is somebody who has been supporting the podcast for well.
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  Over a year now, I think, and I think it does all of us podcast
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  hosts good to remind ourselves and to celebrate the audiences
• 1:00
  out there, that, that. The people that listen sort of
• 1:02
  week in, week out, that contribute on social media, that
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  pop into the live chats, that basically form the communities
• 1:12
  that are built around these podcasts.
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  Daniel has been such a positive presence.
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  He's always got smart things to say.
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  When he when he jumps in, oh, smart or wissy, he.
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  Jumped in on the police box time in the Ronnie that I did the
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  other day and made us all crack up.
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  He's just a solid, solid bloke and he is coming on to do a
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  commentary soon, but this is just a big shout out, a hug and
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  a kiss. To you, Daniel, for just
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  continuing to support Hamster and for just being a wonderful
• 1:46
  part of this community, so thank you very.
• 1:48
  Much and what I love is he hasn't given me his top ten.
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  He's gone down the nostalgia slash re watchability angle.
• 1:59
  And it's a list with some very obvious choices and some not
• 2:05
  obvious choices at all, which isn't entirely what.
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  I would have expected from you, Daniel so.
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  Let's start with the first one, then, shall we, which is one of
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  my. Other half favourites and nobody
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  else's. And that is the Chase from 1965.
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  Oh my God, what can we say about the chase?
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  Oh Archie, it is 6 episodes of. Utter, utter madness.
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  I think it's Doctor Who going for comedy, occasionally going
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  for drama. It is utterly indulgent.
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  I mean, that entire first episode is completely indulgent,
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  almost set entirely within the the TARDIS as they sit there
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  and. Watch a time.
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  Television. It features one of the best ever
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  TARDIS teams in the first stop to Ian.
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  Barbara and Vicky and. For the last time, Ian and
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  Barbara, it's just deliriously. Fun I've been having this
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  conversation with a lot of people lately about what is.
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  Objectively good television and. What is a fun piece of
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  television? And I've come to the conclusion
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  that in this sort of post classic era, sometimes a fun
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  piece of television which. Probably could not be considered
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  a good piece of television. A fun piece of television is the
• 3:35
  preference. Like you could.
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  Either watch something incredibly worthy and serious
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  and rather dull like, oh, take your choice and you.
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  Could probably pull a historical out of thin air there from
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  somewhere. Or you could watch something
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  that is. Utterly confident, ridiculous
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  camp as hell and indulgent as the chase.
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  And just have a blast with it, like.
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  What do you want? Do you want to be bored or do
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  you? Want to have fun?
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  And the chase is so much fun, so I can see why Mark and Daniel.
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  Both love the chase. I think it's a solid choice.
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  It might not be on my top 10 list, but I always have fun with
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  it when I watch it. Jesus Christ.
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  I mean William Hartnell bearing his teeth as he tries to attack
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  Edwin Warwick. How?
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  Dare you try and take my role? It's absolutely hilarious.
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  And for the ending where Ian and Barbara leave which?
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  Is some of the most poignant material in the classic series.
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  And my God, wait, and you've got that fabulous film sequence of
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  the Daleks versus the Meccanoids.
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  How could I possibly forget that?
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  Oh the. More I think.
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  About it, the more I think this is a grand old choice.
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  We go from a classic Dalek story to a new series Dalek Story.
• 4:51
  Probably the most celebrated new series Dalek story Dalek in.
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  Through the window, I've recently read the target
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  novelization of this, which is a lot.
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  Darker with some really chilling back stories for the characters,
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  which I'm hoping was in Rob Schumer's mind.
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  When he wrote this. But Dalek is an.
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  A non-stop thrill ride. It really leans into the.
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  Time War that Rusty Davis has set up.
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  But in a very emotional way, it drags out one of the rawest
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  performances we see from Christopher Eccleston, one of
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  the most emotional performances we see from.
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  Billy Piper. And just an extraordinary vocal
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  performance from Nicholas Briggs all.
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  Wrapped up in Joahan's dynamic direction.
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  It's funny, it's scary. It's really exciting that when
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  the Dalek escapes and starts. You know, sucking in all the
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  Internet. And you know, there's the
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  suggestion that one Dalek could kill every single person on the.
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  Planet. It's about as powerful as the
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  Daleks have ever seen, and given that Dalek starts battered and
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  bruised and tortured in a cell at the beginning of the story.
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  Bravo, Rob Sherman. We've got a two way third choice
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  here. And it's two Doctor
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  introductions, two very different ones as well, we've.
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  Got the 11th hour from with Matt Smith and The Woman Who Fell to
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  Earth with Jodie Whittaker. The 11th hour.
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  Like, that's another very confident story.
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  It's Steven Moffat saying we've got to impress with this, so
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  let's really throw everything we've got at it.
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  And you can see in the finished result, it is an hour of
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  absolutely magical bewitching Doctor Who with more great lines
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  than you can shake a stick. At I think it's one of Moffat's
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  most emotive scripts as well. It offers a brilliant new take
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  on the Doctor, this sort of madman in a.
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  Box Childhood fantasy Doctor, which works like gangbusters in
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  series five. Yeah, that's a brilliant dress.
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  The Woman Who Fell to Earth is very confident.
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  But in a different way suddenly. After Moffat's sort of
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  indulgence Fan pleasing. And sort of overcomplication of
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  the series, whether you like that or not, this is stripping
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  this show back to something a bit more naturalistic it.
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  Plays out for the most part like a a normal drama that just
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  happens to have an alien jumped into it.
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  But with a fabulous first performance from Jodie Whittaker
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  who? Falls into that train and just
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  the the character that is fully forms, which is a bit of a.
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  Problem I think because where do you go with that?
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  You rewrite. The past.
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  That's where you go with it. But like she.
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  Is just so funny, so enjoyable to watch in this story.
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  Where she's at the bottom of that ladder and she starts going
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  up. Because I haven't got a plan,
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  but I will have a plan by the time I get to the top of this.
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  Marry her with three regulars are just.
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  Ordinary people, But again, so well drawn, so well cast.
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  It's the closest Doctor Who, I think comes in the new series to
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  being like a Sunday night Normal, sort of.
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  Character drama. And it really, really works.
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  It shouldn't, but it really works.
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  And I think as the story ends, we lose grace.
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  And sort of Graham's giving his speech in the funeral.
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  The Doctor's watching rhyme on the.
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  Bike. And they're all saying goodbye.
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  In the warehouse you just see this show.
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  Fully formed, you absolutely see Chris Chipnall's approach for
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  Series 11 there. And it works beautifully.
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  So yeah, Brilliant choice, Daniel.
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  OK. So we've had the next 1A.
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  Couple of times before it's the five doctors which seems.
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  To be everybody's favorite. Yeah, OK, That's the horn of
• 9:00
  wrestle on that. I could.
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  I could do better than that. What is there to say about this?
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  Let's choose a moment from each doctor then.
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  As easy as pie. As easy as pie.
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  Age has not mellowed you, has it, Brigadier?
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  Great bars of fire. Oh, that's right.
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  There's no there's no limit to Isaac 's genius.
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  Sorry, Mustache. There I saw.
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  You getting from me? But I think I said before,
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  there's more great lines than you can shake a stick at.
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  This could be the most quotable Doctor Who story, I think.
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  And in terms of rewatchability, which is what Daniel has
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  assembled his list through, I think this might be one of the
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  most rewatchable Doctor Who stories.
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  Next up all It's a divisive episode because I've heard
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  people say they think the comedy really.
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  Works in this and other people say it bombs.
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  The Husbands of River Song, which oh thank.
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  God, this show was starting to have fun again after the dreary
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  season 9. Which was full of dark stories
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  and people. Dying and being depressed and I
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  was like, oh, what has happened to the fun in Doctor?
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  Who then along? Came the Husbands of River Song
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  and suddenly the Doctors. Laughing in the.
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  Snow having great fun pretending to walk into the.
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  Tardis the 1st. Time concealing his identity and
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  waiting. For the absolute.
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  Golden moment when he reveals to River who he is.
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  They make a. Brilliant pair Alex Kingston and
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  Christopher Christopher Peter Capaldi.
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  I think their chemistry is extraordinary.
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  I think the chemistry between those.
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  Two far. Exceeds the chemistry between
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  Matt Smith and Alex. Kingston and it ends on one of
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  my all time favourite endings of a Doctor Who episode.
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  Lest we not forget, this could have been the very last episode
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  of the new series. Oh sorry, of the Peter Capaldi
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  series. So to give him that happily ever
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  after on Dorillion with that beautiful Mario Gold score.
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  Excellent choice, Daniel I I have a few issues with the first
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  half of the episode where the comedy is extremely broad.
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  But the second they sort of step foot on the spaceship, I think
• 11:17
  it works like gangbusters. This episode, it's one of
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  Moffett's best Christmas specials, and that's saying
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  something because I think he wrote some of the best Christmas
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  specials. So great choice.
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  Oh my. Good grief, midnight.
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  Utterly chilling. Lindsay Coulson's character in
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  Midnight is the scariest character.
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  In Doctor Whoever that. Bit where she looks at the
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  camera and goes. It'll be you next.
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  How this? How this explores that sort of
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  mob mentality. When people are scared and how
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  far they're willing to go when they're scared, it's one of the
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  scariest Doctor Who stories that I know.
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  People that can't watch this because of that where they've
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  been in situations. You know they've not been on,
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  you know, shuttles on an alien planet, but they've been in
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  extreme situations where people have behaved appallingly.
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  And they won't watch this episode because of it.
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  It's nestled in the latter half of series four of the new
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  series. Which I still think is by far
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  the best and the most confident series of new Who?
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  It's. It's Russell T Davis basically
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  stripping away all the things he usually relies on, which is very
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  broad humour, political commentary, you know, mad ideas.
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  And he strips it down and tells a really intense character
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  story. By the end of it you're utterly
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  breathless as the Doctors being dragged out of the shuttle and
• 12:54
  about to be killed by these people.
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  It is an extraordinary piece of work and it would absolutely
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  wind up on my top ten. I don't go back to it too often
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  because I find it disturbing, but it is a.
• 13:06
  Superb piece of television. Not something I.
• 13:10
  Would probably point at the next episode that Daniel recommends.
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  And that is New Earth, Daniel. I may have.
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  To ask you to come on and do, I'll have done a comment on New
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  Earth, but let's do another one because I'm intrigued to know
• 13:24
  why this is so high up on your list.
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  For me, I adore the final scene. It's coming, after all, the sort
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  of pantomime identity swapping, gender swapping and all this
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  that the episode's doing. If that gorgeous scene with
• 13:41
  Cassandra being Chip at the end of the story, or rather
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  Cassandra meeting Cassandra, absolutely phenomenal.
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  Yeah, I don't have too many nice things to say about that one.
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  So Daniel, I want to hear from you.
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  Why? Why New Earth?
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  I'm intrigued. The next.
• 14:01
  One I'm. Popular with most people, but
• 14:05
  very popular. With me.
• 14:07
  Rest now, my warrior. Yes, I know you've all heard me
• 14:15
  sing that too many times. I really love the rings of Axe
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  10. I know it is overly emotional,
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  like it really stresses the emotion at the end.
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  But I'm an overly emotional sort of chap, and I just.
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  Love the fact we go to this crazy sort of alien location
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  which. Feels very much like classic
• 14:37
  Doctor Who. And it's so, so much so that we
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  learned that the 1st Doctor and Susan visited.
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  Acting in the past. With lots of funky aliens like a
• 14:48
  a, a marketplace, things to explore.
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  It's got loads of monsters in it and it's got a bloody planet,
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  which is an alien monster or a God.
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  Monster. It elicits one of the best
• 15:03
  performances from Matt Smith in series 7, where he gets to be
• 15:05
  cute and funny as he sort of dazzling Clara by showing off
• 15:09
  the universe, and then where you really see the weight of the
• 15:12
  centuries as he delivers that extraordinary speech in the
• 15:16
  climax. And yeah, I think he's under car
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  because Jenna Coleman then comes in after Matt Smith's displayed
• 15:23
  that all of that sort of firework of emotions.
• 15:27
  And she comes in with understated emotion and says,
• 15:30
  doesn't she? This is the most important leaf
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  in human history, which I think is probably my favorite moment
• 15:42
  that she got in the entire series.
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  Yeah, it's a it's a great choice, Daniel.
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  Much maligned, much underrated, and I'll fight anyone who says
• 15:51
  so. Next up we've got Tooth and
• 15:55
  Claw, which when I first watched this I was perfectly convinced
• 15:59
  it was the. Best piece of Doctor Who I'd
• 16:01
  ever seen. Kung Fu Monks, Werewolves, and
• 16:05
  Queen Victoria. How exciting.
• 16:09
  What it actually boils down to is a very cleverly plotted piece
• 16:13
  of work where the plot is basically the house and the
• 16:18
  different levels of the house and how the.
• 16:20
  House is used to. Trap the creature and to dispose
• 16:25
  of it. It's a story that is criticised
• 16:30
  for. The 10th Doctor and Rose.
• 16:33
  The more I go back to this season, the more.
• 16:35
  I'm just like, well, they're having fun.
• 16:37
  Why do you object? To 10th Doctor and Rose having.
• 16:39
  Fun. What?
• 16:40
  They're having too much fun. I don't understand.
• 16:44
  I guess it's the same sort of criticism that's levelled at 4
• 16:48
  and Romana 2, that sort of knowing we're having a great
• 16:52
  adventure and we don't really mind his dying around us.
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  Maybe that's the problem? Pauline Collins comes in with a
• 16:59
  great performance as Queen Victoria.
• 17:02
  And Russell is savvy enough to give her some very good
• 17:07
  character moments as well. Where she's talking about Albert
• 17:10
  and missing him and Loving ghost stories and all of this.
• 17:14
  It kicks off the arc for the season by introducing Torch.
• 17:17
  Within the last scene, there's a lot going on here.
• 17:20
  But what impresses me most of all about tooth and claw is the
• 17:22
  direction it's. Lynn and he directed some of the
• 17:26
  finest in those first couple of years.
• 17:29
  And this needed to be truly dynamic because it is
• 17:32
  essentially a big chase around the house and he really succeeds
• 17:36
  at that. And God bless them for putting
• 17:40
  the money where it was needed. That CGI werewolf still holds up
• 17:44
  today. I've seen many a werewolf in
• 17:46
  many. A cult TV program and that
• 17:49
  werewolf looks amazing. Great choice, Daniel.
• 17:55
  And finally, recently discovered, although it shocked
• 18:00
  me the other day to realise it was five years ago now.
• 18:03
  The Web of Fear still has one of the finest episode ones I think
• 18:09
  I've ever seen and. Upon discovery and being able to
• 18:14
  watch. It one of the finest episode
• 18:16
  fours I've ever seen. That entire sequence in Covent.
• 18:20
  Garden that the desperation of the unit soldiers.
• 18:24
  And and sort of how tightly that is directed by Douglas Canfield.
• 18:27
  As they're effectively slaughtered.
• 18:29
  By a load of oversized teddy bears, it has no right to be as
• 18:35
  tense as it is. And do you remember that
• 18:37
  sequence where the doctors in the electronic spares place and
• 18:40
  that yet he comes in like quietly behind him?
• 18:43
  I have never screamed so much. At my television, as I did in
• 18:47
  that moment. Absolutely terrifying.
• 18:50
  And the bit where do you remember where they they walk
• 18:53
  into the web and all you hear is the soldiers?
• 18:56
  Screaming and then the carts pulled out and they're all
• 19:00
  covered in the web like this. Is Doctor Who going for proper
• 19:04
  horror? I'm surprised the kids weren't
• 19:07
  traumatised at the time. I preferred, weirdly enough, I
• 19:13
  already preferred Enemy of the World as an audio.
• 19:16
  And I preferred it when I could see the episodes to the web of
• 19:20
  fear. Just because it is the sort of
• 19:23
  the political. Wrangling, the character drama,
• 19:25
  the crazy comedy of Griffith, all of that stuff, Trout and
• 19:29
  dual performance. But I was I.
• 19:33
  Was less impressed by the soundtrack of The Web of Fear,
• 19:35
  because so much of it is. Action and just sort of music
• 19:38
  playing. When I could see the visuals,
• 19:41
  this went out hugely in my estimation.
• 19:44
  Douglas Canfield's direction is exemplary, as they say in the
• 19:48
  discontinuity guide. It's a it's an extraordinary
• 19:52
  piece of work, I think season. Five does have issues with being
• 19:56
  a bit repetitive in its format, but in its.
• 19:59
  Execution I think. It's one of the strongest Doctor
• 20:03
  Who seasons. I think each story in its own
• 20:06
  way, is beautifully executed, and the most beautifully
• 20:10
  executed is the web affair. Great choice, Daniel, That is.
• 20:15
  A. A.
• 20:16
  An eclectic top 10 list. There again to just say thank
• 20:21
  you so much for being a. Listener for being a member of
• 20:25
  the audience, and for. Just being a top bloke and for
• 20:28
  for really getting involved and being a part of this community.
• 20:31
  I think you're a wonderful man and I look forward to our first
• 20:34
  commentary together. Thanks, Daniel.