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Jo Short - Top 10 Doctor Who · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome back to a hamster with a.
• 0:03
  Blum Pen Knife, The Doctor Who Commentary Podcast.
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  Which today won't be a commentary podcast, but a
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  celebration of one of the, I'm going to say, greatest
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  contributors and supporters of Hamster over the last couple of
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  years. You know, we've tipped 100,000
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  listens now, which is incredible.
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  And right back there at the start was the wonderful,
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  wonderful Joe Short, who came on and did a fabulous commentary on
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  Sleep No More, which I had some terrific feedback about.
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  You know, she's not afraid of a challenge.
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  She took hold of one of the least celebrated episodes of
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  Doctor Who and just went to town on telling me why it was great,
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  which hot guys were in it, and why everybody that doesn't like
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  Peter Capody can just fuck off. She's at the brain of Spock on
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  Twitter, so please go and check her out.
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  And she has compiled a top ten list of her favorite stories.
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  And so we're going to spread the love for Joe's favorite stories
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  now. And I'm doing this because Joe
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  isn't having a great day today. And she reached out and said
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  that on Twitter. And one of the joys of being
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  able to do this is that you can talk directly to the people that
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  are listening and hopefully, hopefully make a little bit of a
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  difference to that day. So Joe, let's see what your top
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  ten or two stories are. She did say she made this up on
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  the fly, and they're in no particular order.
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  There's a lot of love for poetry here, so I expect some terrible
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  impressions. Here we go.
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  We have got, Oh my God, the demons.
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  Joe, since the Brigadier is your senior officer, you could show
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  him a little bit of respect. The Demons is wonderful, isn't
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  it? I think episode one, you know,
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  might be one of the best ever. Certainly one of the most
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  atmospheric episode ones. The sides are there for all the
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  sea. I cast the rooms only this
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  morning. This is only the beginning.
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  It's got some terrific location work.
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  I think it might be Chris Barry's best direction in the
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  show as well. I mean, it's got Roger Delgado
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  as a vicar, yo AOA, all the Devil's Malt, malt of tenure.
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  Grab me. And yeah, anyway, you get it.
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  I mean, it's pure Barry less, isn't it?
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  But I don't think we can forget Christopher Barry's
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  contributions as well. And what a wonderful turn for
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  all the unit regulars as well. And I was just bitching about
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  Benson and Yates. The other day, but actually
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  seeing them in cities in this and sort of men of action,
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  they're pretty good in this. They are pretty damn good in
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  this, especially like Benton and Miss Hawthorne.
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  I know Lucy Mccoll's a big fan too, especially when miss.
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  Oh my God, I haven't even mentioned Miss Hawthorne.
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  When she goes what? Is it?
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  I hit him with my reticule On these occasions.
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  The outcomes are certainty. The Demons is fantastic.
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  Onto the Sea Devils. Now, how about a little bit of
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  rough Cutter marmalade? I always think about Walker.
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  You know, when I think about the Sea Devils.
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  Oh, he's vile, isn't he? Especially vile to Jane Blyth,
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  who's a very nice female character.
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  And there are two female. Characters in this story.
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  Yay, the 70s is. This an inferior version of
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  Doctor Who and the Silerians. I mean, Silerians ain't on Joe's
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  list, so I'm guessing she thinks this is the better.
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  I mean, it's full on Roger Delgado, watching the clangers
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  and running rings around just about everybody.
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  Doesn't he look hot in that admiral's costume?
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  Oh my God, he looks amazing. I think it's probably the most
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  robust production of the 70s because they had all of that
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  help from the Navy. You've got not only all the
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  hardware you need to sell this, but you've also got all that
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  stock footage as well, which you can tell the stock footage, but
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  still makes this feel like, in classic Doctor Who terms,
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  cinematic high action cow. Great.
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  Fun Monsters. Yeah, it's a really, really
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  fantastic story. Quintessential John Perry, I
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  would say. Oh my God, her next choice.
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  Boom. Boom, boom, boom.
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  That's the side Man going down the sewers.
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  It's the eight episodes of Spyfy.
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  Goodness the invasion. Featuring oh man, she likes a
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  good villain, didn't she? Because you got Tobias Vaughn in
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  this one park. Their relationship?
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  My God. It sustains the eight episodes
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  on its own, let alone having the Q as a button team of the
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  Doctor, Jamie and Zoe in there too.
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  Oh God, it's fabulous, isn't it? And Douglas Canfield's direction
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  is a car above anything that is going on there at the moment.
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  He can even make a chase and a lift shaft seem dynamic, but I.
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  Think the episode where that ends.
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  I think it's. Six that ends with the
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  Hypnobeam, you know, coming out and the sideman coming down the
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  stairs. And that episode starts with the
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  sideman sort of going Rd. down the sewers.
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  That psychotic sideman that might be, you know, when you
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  choose out sort of single episodes of Doctor Who that are
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  incredible, that is one of the that's like a top ten of all
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  time Doctor Who single episodes. Next up we have The Invasion of
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  the Dinosaurs, a story that Saiha and I reevaluated
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  recently, well actually about two years ago.
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  And I think it's one of the best part ways by far.
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  And yes, including the model dinosaurs.
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  I absolutely love the little diorama sets that they put them
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  in. They are so cute.
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  But you you know you've got a a story full of suspense and
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  mystery and intrigue which is extremely well directed by Paddy
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  Russell and impeccably cast anyone who says pert we late,
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  pert we isn't great. His performance and this is
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  brilliant as well. He gets to do comedy and drama.
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  You know the moral message at the end.
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  But best of all, you've got Elizabeth Sladen, who is driving
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  this plot, and you know she can make sequences like that.
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  Tyrannosaurus Rex coming alive in the warehouse.
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  It seemed like the most suspendful moment in Doctor Who.
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  That's how good her acting is. She can make those models look
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  as if they're really impressive. Invasion of that, I think it's
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  pretty pious. I mean you've.
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  Even got Renee. What are you doing with your
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  arms around that servant girl Edith in that episode?
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  Next up. The Time Monster.
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  Oh, Joe, I love you. I mean, there's a couple of
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  great points to say about the Time Monster.
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  And I'm not just talking about Ingrid Pitt's cleavage.
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  I mean. It's an everything but the
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  kitchen sink story. There's a hell of a lot thrown
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  at it. You've got those sequences in
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  the Institute with Tom Tit. You've got the sequences in the
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  TARDIS, which is TARDIS is we've been TARDIS is long before
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  Logopolis did it. And you have got the the
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  Shakespearean in inverted commas, Atlantis scenes at the
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  end of the story, which are unforgettable for many reasons.
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  I think you're very bold to put that in your top ten and I love
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  you for it. I mean, it's per way.
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  So it's effortlessly watchable and you know it's full of
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  fabulous pool. Bernard Crash zooms into
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  everything. Okay on to something that not a
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  lot of people would disagree with.
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  Terror of the Zigons with the evil and sinister Sister Lamont,
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  who gave me terrible nightmares as a child.
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  Don't worry Doctor Sullivan, you're going to be very well.
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  Taken care of. You know the bit where he goes?
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  No, no, no. Or even worse, that bit where he
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  chases Sarah Jane down the street into the barn.
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  We're in fucking psycho territory.
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  He's going out there. She's attacking her with a
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  pitchfork, and I was. Watching this at about 8 years
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  old, my mother was very irresponsible.
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  How how many good things can you say about Terror of the Xygons?
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  There's so many good things you can have the Sussex, which looks
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  absolutely atmospheric and gorgeous and does double
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  brilliantly for Scotland, and the gorgeous, atmospheric score
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  by Jeffrey Berg, Bergen Bergen. Something like that.
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  You've got the, the, I mean, these are all brilliantly
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  directed stories. Time monster.
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  We'll let it pass. These are all brilliantly, but
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  this is Douglas coming for that is absolute.
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  But he's been away for a while and he's just on form.
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  I don't even mind the stop motion scares.
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  And, you know, I mean, he's a bit funny when he pops his head
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  up the Thames at the end of the story.
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  But, you know, that's just to remind us that we are still
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  watching Doctor Who. Oh.
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  And Liz Slaton's brilliant in this as well, isn't she?
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  You know, the bit where she pokes her tongue out or blows
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  the dust off the shelves. Or say Harry, is it you?
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  Is it really you? That's very, very funny.
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  Oh, she's gone. From Zygons to Zygons, here's an
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  interesting choice. It's the Zygon Inversion and the
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  Zygon Invasion from I couldn't have got that wrong is.
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  It the Zygon Invasion and then the Zygon Inversion look, it's
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  too Zygon episodes back-to-back. Very dark.
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  Quite. A little too adult, I'd say in
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  places, but again, really strikingly well directed.
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  You've got a fabulously sinister performance from Jenna Coleman,
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  who effectively is written out of the story and gets to play
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  the villain Bonnie. I think mostly she probably
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  loves this because Capote is so excellent in it and has one of
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  his standout moments from his era, which is him at the end
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  giving that incredible speech about.
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  Sitting down, and which is something we can all learn a lot
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  from. Yeah, I these are probably my
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  favorites from Series 9, which is a season I don't like.
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  I don't know if it pulls everything off and I do think it
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  says some dodgy things politically, but there's so much
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  to talk about in that two parter.
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  There's a lot of potential in there and it's doing interesting
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  things. So I'll always salute Doctor Who
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  doing that. Joe, you're going to have to
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  tell me why you love that one so much.
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  I'm really intrigued. And O K2 more we've got here.
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  Terror of the Autumns. Amazing.
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  The Master. He's an unimaginative plotter.
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  You've ruined at your hand. Festive bumbender pert Way is so
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  spectacularly rude in this he's hilarious.
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  I know people don't like him in Season 8, but I think he's.
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  Fucking hilarious and terribly autisms.
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  Rob Schumann is right. It is like Barry.
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  Let's has he in a massive, massive packet of skills and
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  gone to town with the the color aspect of Doctor Who.
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  I mean this is big bold comic book Doctor Who.
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  You could do like comic panels from the various madness that
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  occurs during Terry deals, but it's also Robert Holmes that is
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  naughtiest as well. And he's like yeah, I'm going to
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  fucking scare life out of these kids.
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  We're going to have evil blank faced policeman, psychotic
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  killer dolls, you know, telephone calls that come to
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  life and strangle people, plastic daffodils that spray
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  cellophane over people's mouths. I mean, that's very adult.
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  The bit where she's got the cellophane over her mouth, that
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  is properly, properly scary. That bit that scares me the
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  most. So is that autumn that gets
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  knocked? Down that hill and then gets up
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  again straight away and comes back after him.
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  Really scary stuff. It might be Barry, Let's his
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  best direction, you know, because he is was his second
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  story, isn't it? Technically Inferno he did as
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  well, but I think he's really looking to impress with that
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  one. So he's going to town with CSO.
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  You know, this fabulous new invention that allows Doctor Who
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  to go anywhere and everywhere. He's packs it full of action.
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  It's just got some really striking colorful imagery in it
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  and and scenes in it that people just never forgot and we're
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  still talking about them now. So yeah, that's a great pick.
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  I haven't done that for Hamster yet.
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  I should do that one. And finally, the story that I'm
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  doing right this second, and I understand that's Mind of Evil.
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  Oh no, sorry. It's Dana.
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  Dana as Craig Williams and I are discovering at the moment, it
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  is. Just packed full of goodness,
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  Nicholas Courtney is twinkly best John Pertway with two
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  enormous problems to solve. Joe Grant.
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  Massively competent taking on a bunch of prisoners that are
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  rising, you know, far. Pointing guns about Tim Coons
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  incredible direction of the action sequences, which is as
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  probably as polished as action ever got in Dobsa Who And yeah,
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  just just. Does it sustain 6 episodes?
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  I think it does, but only because it has got those two
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  tenuously linked pretty Chinese girl indeed plot lines.
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  But yeah, God this is fabulous. It's bit of a call back to the
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  previous season, and nothing at all like Terror in the Autumns,
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  but just for partly spectacular, spectacular rudeness.
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  I love it. I know people hate that stuff.
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  But there's something about his his earnestness, and how he
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  doesn't realize just how awful he's being.
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  If I was a scientist, what does he say in that?
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  In that meeting, people that talk about infallibility, jail
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  are usually on very shaky grounds.
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  Is wonderful. And Joe Short, you are wonderful
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  as well. And I hope this is sort of 15 to
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  20 minutes that has made you smile today, that we've been
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  able to celebrate Doctor Who that you love, and I hope
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  everyone else has enjoyed listening to it too.
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  If anybody else wants to send me their top ten favorite stories,
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  I'd love to do more mini episodes like this celebrating
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  the stuff that you love. So please send them in.
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  But for now, Joe Short, you are fabulous.
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  And thank you for being a supporter of this podcast.