Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Paul Arthur about his choice of Carnival of Monsters (3/4)
Transcript
- 0:28A hamster with a blunt pen knife for doing quicker, quicker.
- 0:38Welcome back to A Hamster with a Blunt Pen Knife, the Drashing
- 0:43Commentary podcast. I'm here today with drashing
- 0:48expert Paul Arthur. Hello, Paul.
- 0:51Hello, Joe, I. Believe you've been spending
- 0:53most much of your career studying the anthropomorphism of
- 0:57the drashings in their natural habitat.
- 1:00Well, yes, I'm glad. I'm glad the listener is back
- 1:02again for the Ferdinand Christmas lectures on the caves
- 1:07or Caves, the Carnival of Monsters.
- 1:11I believe them. I believe you brought along some
- 1:13footage today showing us the drashings in their natural
- 1:17habitats. Oh yes, yes I will.
- 1:20You will delight at their gnashing and the wailing and
- 1:22their tongue action as they get together in their groups of
- 1:26three. Yes.
- 1:27I believe you've also brought along some material of the
- 1:31jurassics in an unnatural habitat.
- 1:33Are you the Miniscope? Indeed, you will marvel at the
- 1:39the oh, do we have to keep this up?
- 1:43I could keep going forever. So what all basically all that I
- 1:47need to know before the end of this episode, because this is
- 1:50the most drastic, heavy episode indeed.
- 1:52Easily one of the best monsters of all time of Doctor Who, I
- 1:55think is, you know, if you could please just tell me, you know,
- 1:59in sort of David Attenborough style as we go through sort of
- 2:02little documentary excerpts on their behaviours.
- 2:06Are there sexual politics, you know, gender balance, that sort
- 2:09of thing? Oh, we could try.
- 2:11I mean, do do you think that, do you think they've got, I don't
- 2:14know, how do you think they reproduce?
- 2:15This is an interesting question, isn't it?
- 2:17Well. I imagine it's something to do
- 2:18with these stalks on top of the head here, do you think?
- 2:20Yeah. Well, I think the sort of the
- 2:22stalks are inserted somewhere and they pump their sort of.
- 2:25That's got an eye in it. Well, you wouldn't stick, stick,
- 2:28stick your eye in something, would you?
- 2:29I don't know. How do you notice the eyes?
- 2:32Well, I mean, I've to be fair, I don't know.
- 2:34I've just always assumed that's, I mean they're on the top of the
- 2:36head so I could see. Six sexual organs on their
- 2:38heads. For all you know, he's an.
- 2:40Alien. He could.
- 2:42I mean, they hump by sense, so maybe that that's true.
- 2:44They do hump by sense. So they don't need six eyes on
- 2:47their head, do they? Don't.
- 2:48Know if you notice this, you know?
- 2:49But when Vorg sticks his hand in those sort of strokes, the
- 2:52feelings, oh, the smile gets wider.
- 2:56That's how he's able to get his fingers out.
- 2:58They were getting. Bit all right.
- 2:59You've got a gently, gently caressed the.
- 3:03I like to think as well, you know, that the lady drashings,
- 3:06you know, the females, they're the dominant species here.
- 3:09You know they managed to lure in the male drashings by quivering
- 3:15their hairy backsides or whatever it is they've got do.
- 3:19You think it's like other animals where the man is
- 3:21actually the male is actually really really small and the the
- 3:24females like 10 times bigger. Is it like a really big?
- 3:27Spider. Right, Yeah.
- 3:30Or like a or what's that? Is it like an animal the way
- 3:32like the bloke is just like a parasitic tick on the on the
- 3:36belly of a woman. I can't think of what animal.
- 3:38You think this is all women then these drashings that we.
- 3:40Or maybe maybe they're the maybe they're the women.
- 3:42This is the like, this is the thing we've done.
- 3:44Tick monsters is they're always male, aren't they?
- 3:47So what? They always present as male.
- 3:49You don't know where do you? Not really confirmed, just that
- 3:53they're carnivores. This is true.
- 3:55We don't know. We don't.
- 3:56We don't even know if they have sex at all.
- 3:57Maybe they kind of like sexually reproduce.
- 4:00I don't know. Just realise something.
- 4:01We've got Shona and Joe and Claire, yeah, and three
- 4:08drashiks, but the female representation in Carnival of
- 4:11Monsters is. Well done, Robert Holmes.
- 4:13You've got there in the end. Yeah.
- 4:15Yeah. It's weird, isn't it?
- 4:17Because Holmes always gets, like, pillared for this,
- 4:20certainly these days for the lack of female characters.
- 4:23But in this one, we have got strong female characters who?
- 4:27Well, certainly with Joe, certainly with Shona, they're
- 4:31shown to be that kind of maybe not the power behind the throne,
- 4:34but certainly the the one. They've got plenty of agency and
- 4:37like Shona actually knows what's going on with the scope.
- 4:40But like we talked about this before, but Shona knows what's
- 4:42going on for just kind of the showman and just trying to.
- 4:45She sort of saves the day, didn't she, Shona?
- 4:47Yeah, yeah. And she gets that last.
- 4:49In Part 4, we're not there yet, but in Part 4 she gets the
- 4:51little. Well, you mean you want to see
- 4:56powerful women? The female drashigs can eat a
- 4:59spaceship. Or indeed.
- 5:03Nothing get more powerful. Than that right?
- 5:05Well. I.
- 5:06Fancy seeing some of these fabulous lady slimy reptiles in?
- 5:11Action. What do you think?
- 5:12That's yeah, I think that's a fantastic idea.
- 5:15Let's go for it. That's been the most insane open
- 5:17to an episode I've done for a while.
- 5:20Well, would you care to count this in then?
- 5:21OK then, right. So on your marks 321, let's go.
- 5:28I'm serious, you know, I'll want those documentary excerpts.
- 5:32All my drashings are on the screen now.
- 5:34All we've got to do is get your voice down.
- 5:35Logo. See now how the drashings bubble
- 5:38down into the slime and they're mating call?
- 5:42But you, you're so much better this than I would be, Joe.
- 5:45So I think I'd love you to. But I mean, I'll give it a give
- 5:49it a try. Well, that's you.
- 5:50Want me to do? I mean, I've realised we've been
- 5:52flowing, but really this is moving too fast.
- 5:57Yeah, I was going to say I want to see your your Dicky
- 5:59Attenborough, but yeah. You want to see me?
- 6:04Probably thrashing, right? Let's go.
- 6:06Oh, look at them. In fact, the background is
- 6:09pretty great, isn't it, with the clouds?
- 6:11Yeah, yeah. I mean that where they're mixing
- 6:14it with the, you know, the, the, the film of the model with the
- 6:17film of the location. I think it all works really
- 6:19well. Shot on film and shot on film.
- 6:22Well done Barry. Let's.
- 6:23Yeah, and I love, I love the way you can see it move.
- 6:25It feels like a real crunchy because.
- 6:27Look at that. Now notice the provocative
- 6:29wiggle of the drashing's backside now as it moves away,
- 6:34luring the male dressings into the swamp.
- 6:39They find her cool, irresistible, you know, drawn to
- 6:44her big hairy behind. Her quivering mandibles now
- 6:50suggests that she is ripe for ovulation.
- 6:55Please read out some of your facts on the page please.
- 6:58Oh, what we got. Oh, and of course the whole
- 7:04thing about them watching the Doctor and Joe on TV just like
- 7:07we are, and comments on it or when they're escaping.
- 7:11Yeah. Yeah, Yeah.
- 7:14We said this all along. I mean, obviously this is all
- 7:16about TV and we talk about naturalism.
- 7:21Homes touches on on that kind of topic again with the two doctors
- 7:25and you know that obviously was of interest in.
- 7:31They ate a spaceship. There was only a few frosters
- 7:38left. Of course they prefer flesh when
- 7:41they can get it. Yeah.
- 7:44I mean, I'm glad we didn't see that.
- 7:45I'm not sure the model work was up for it.
- 7:49Yeah, no, maybe. Maybe that would have been a
- 7:50step too far. Oh, in a minute, right?
- 7:53He starts letting off petrol explosions all over this marsh.
- 7:56It looks so impressive. Yeah.
- 7:58As we were saying before about how let's get, I think he is
- 8:02able to. He knows what works for Pertwee
- 8:04and I think he's able to filming really well.
- 8:07So he gets this massive grand hero moment where you're
- 8:09standing there setting off the marsh gas thing looks.
- 8:12Like, you know, out of smooth Pearl.
- 8:14He's brown, didn't it? Oh my God, look, now notice the
- 8:17trashings mating now, clashing their jaws against each other,
- 8:22salivating and preparing their ovulating mandibles.
- 8:26And we? See one try to slip the tongue
- 8:28in. Oh, and here we have the marsh
- 8:32explosions. That's right, the exchange from
- 8:35exchange of saliva between jurassics is another foodstuff
- 8:39for them. Poor Katie Manning.
- 8:43Look at her. She's literally going under.
- 8:47Oh, they're coming back. She.
- 8:50Can't you help them? Can you imagine being a six year
- 8:53old in the 70s watching this? I mean it would just be the best
- 8:55telly ever. Yeah, you can see why he was,
- 8:59you know, a ratings king at the time and and firmly established
- 9:03on the TV in the TV schedule. I mean, and people still like
- 9:08older people, the people in my parents generation still talk
- 9:10about per we super affectionately as the the
- 9:13doctor. Here we go.
- 9:15One with the maggots. Oh.
- 9:17Exactly have. To put my hand inside.
- 9:19OK. Oh boy.
- 9:25And it is. So it is like a rollic
- 9:27intervention. They're running away.
- 9:29There's monsters, right? All of that sort of savvy
- 9:31commentary on it. Yeah, and as you say this, this
- 9:35episode really taken up with the jurassics a lot.
- 9:37But you. Think now?
- 9:39Well, fine, they're safe. Yeah, but he's already told us
- 9:42they will hunt you until they get you, even if that means
- 9:46smashing through that wall coming into the works.
- 9:50The bit where they burst through, I don't know, on the on
- 9:53the DVD and on the on the Blu rays as well, where there's a
- 9:57lot of, you know, test footage of that Jurassic going through.
- 10:01And I must have watched that a dozen times because it never
- 10:04gets boring. They put the sound effect of the
- 10:06roar on the top and you just see them bursting through the paper.
- 10:09It's like, yeah, love, love that.
- 10:11It's such an iconic. Got the money shot though right?
- 10:14I think they the bit where it does burst.
- 10:16Through. Is just great.
- 10:21Oh, here we go, right? We're talking about the Peep
- 10:23Show now. Indeed.
- 10:24Yeah, yeah. You mean Paul?
- 10:28People are just listening to us on this podcast for kicks.
- 10:32But we're in some sort of Peep Show.
- 10:34They must be absolutely horrible.
- 10:38Paul, you and I are a bit more sophisticated than the hamster
- 10:42community. And, well, yes.
- 10:46They must be evil and horrible, They.
- 10:49Must be sorry, I blanked on the dialogue there.
- 10:53Haven't you ever kept goldfish in a bowl?
- 10:54I mean this is quite pointed this dialogue about.
- 10:57Who's now? Yeah, absolutely.
- 10:59Given, remember Tara, the Altons, you know, had a zoo in
- 11:02it. Yes and yeah, yeah, I think it
- 11:05definitely was a pro, you know, something that a theme that I'm
- 11:07just, I'm just enjoyed writing about.
- 11:09Definitely. That's something that Perly
- 11:11doesn't get to do often enough because Pertly obviously was a
- 11:14showman and a man of 1000 voices.
- 11:16So when he just went with a stick, watch him go, yeah, you
- 11:19know, he doesn't get to do that. I mean, by the time we get to
- 11:22the green death, he's dragging up, for God's sakes.
- 11:24And yeah, yeah, absolutely. What's this dialogue there?
- 11:29I like your handbag. Cool.
- 11:31Make sure I don't slush you with it.
- 11:36Yeah, here we go. Imagine Pertway going in front
- 11:38of the height. Now listen here garishly, Rd.
- 11:42Monsters. It's it's I don't know.
- 11:46This would be that he's getting involved in the banning of the
- 11:49mini scopes. And it's like that kind of, I
- 11:53don't know if that sits well with what we know of the Time
- 11:55Lords by this point. Or I mean, I don't know if it's
- 11:58implying that maybe the mini scope is Time Lord technology
- 12:00even maybe I'm not sure, but. I think Robert Holmes doesn't
- 12:06care if he's marrying up with this is true.
- 12:09He's going to tell his story out of the time.
- 12:11Laws are a useful tool to comment on something.
- 12:14He'll do it. And I guess it fits with what we
- 12:16know of of the 3rd Doctor by this point.
- 12:18I talked in previous episodes about how this is kind of like
- 12:21by season 10, this is ultimate per wee if you like.
- 12:24And it's kind of distilled into the kind of perfect version of
- 12:27the character. So you're right, it wouldn't.
- 12:29I guess it makes sense that he's campaigning against these
- 12:32things, but I know it just. But then yeah, I'm not a huge
- 12:36one for Ball worrying about Canon or worrying about how
- 12:39things fit in, I suppose. But we talked.
- 12:42We just talked over the drastic bursting through.
- 12:45Bursting straight through the wall.
- 12:48Great stuff. And then cut to what is the
- 12:50legal position, Carly? It's like we're watching two
- 12:54different shows. Pretty much so.
- 12:56That's doctor in a nutshell though, right?
- 12:58That that discrepancy of tone. Yeah, yeah.
- 13:02I mean, but that's often said, isn't it?
- 13:04It's the the juxtaposition of like, weird, the end.
- 13:07But there's nothing. I don't think any other story
- 13:09does it quite like this one where you've got these elements
- 13:14that are completely different but also rhyme with each other.
- 13:16So the characters are similar in one location to the next, but
- 13:20they're completely different. Yeah.
- 13:23So yeah, actually, my thoughts run away with it.
- 13:26Sorry, Joe. I don't know.
- 13:26What happens to me all the time? You're right though, there is a
- 13:31lot of mirroring. I know.
- 13:32It's just it's smart. I think that's.
- 13:34What you're saying very much so, yeah.
- 13:39Oh, look, Carlick is plotting secretly.
- 13:43Do you know what? I'm going to get one of those
- 13:45dressings, right? I'm going to get them out
- 13:47through that hole, grow it up to massive size and eradicate it
- 13:51and embarrass my brother. I mean, I've made, I just told
- 13:55you. Now, if you're going to try any
- 13:57sort of political uprising, yeah, don't use an enormous
- 14:00bloody great reptile, right? He's been told how dangerous
- 14:03they are. You know, he's he's seen them
- 14:07hunting down the doctor and Joe, but he's still thinking he's
- 14:11like he's so he's really so super focused in on on his need
- 14:16for power. He's just seeing how he can use
- 14:19anything to his advantage. I am staggered that Robert
- 14:22Holmes thought like when writing this script, because he's
- 14:25usually pretty savvy about what they can realize on screen.
- 14:30That he fought, one, that they could create these miniature
- 14:32environments, 2, that he could have the human characters go
- 14:36from one to another, and then three, that he could have the
- 14:39thrashing from a swamp through the workings into the ship.
- 14:45But he wrote it in and thought they had a good go.
- 14:48It's a bit like the Pirate Planet where it's so ambitious,
- 14:53the script and they just go. That is so good.
- 14:56We've just got to try. Right, yeah.
- 14:59And, and I think that's when Doctor Who I think is being as
- 15:03that is absolute best. I mean, many people don't like
- 15:07something like the Web planet, but like you look at the
- 15:10ambition of the story like that and it's like, should we make
- 15:12this? No, probably not, but we'll give
- 15:15it a go anyway. I think that's when Doctor Who's
- 15:18probably at his most interesting when it's it's finding ways to
- 15:23tell stories that really realistically shouldn't do.
- 15:27I'm always fascinated when the when you hear about stories that
- 15:30weren't made and and you, you know, the reasons for that, like
- 15:34the the what's it called? The cat people one where they
- 15:38were supposed to be like a. Stadium the killer Cats of YEAH
- 15:42season 15. Right, right.
- 15:43And it's like, well, I mean, it's supposed to have like
- 15:46Wembley Stadium full of cab people.
- 15:49OK, well, wouldn't you couldn't do that.
- 15:50But surely you could do something like this.
- 15:52I would love to have seen that. You know, you just, it just
- 15:55takes somebody to go, OK, this is this script is so good that
- 15:58we'll find a way to make it work.
- 16:01The Six Doctor 1, the Thiophon, which they said they didn't want
- 16:03to do. It's a great script because they
- 16:05did it as a lost story for Big Finish and they said no, we
- 16:07can't do it because we can't do a forest in the middle of the
- 16:10spaceship. You can.
- 16:11You just do location work and just have a door and go from one
- 16:14to the other. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
- 16:17And how many, how many forests and jungles have we seen in
- 16:19studios? Right?
- 16:22That's that's stapled Dr. I mean, some of those scripts that
- 16:26are in the lost stories, I'm like, OK, yeah, they're terrible
- 16:28scripts. I can see why you didn't make
- 16:30them. Yeah, yeah, 100%.
- 16:32I've got soft spot for the prisoner space.
- 16:34I would have laundress in that. Oh boy.
- 16:36But I think, yeah, you're right. It would have been terrible.
- 16:38Where Jamie slapped Zoe's ass. Stop the hypnotic control.
- 16:44I'm like, yeah, I mean, it wouldn't age well though, would
- 16:47it? Oh, 100% no.
- 16:49But I mean, it would have made it interesting for those kind of
- 16:51reasons really. But but yeah, anyway, right,
- 16:54Saline, some miners here look, Kellican and Orum, I love the
- 16:57staging of this, be it like looming down over a room the the
- 17:01way that they film all these bits where they're kind of in
- 17:03their little conferences and they're kind of like crowded
- 17:05together like that. Yeah, I think works really,
- 17:07really well. Look, he's using the studio
- 17:09light in their barrage. So yeah, literally the top of
- 17:12the studio and. You can do that because you're
- 17:15inside the. Working.
- 17:17Yeah, it makes perfect sense. Did.
- 17:18You hear what Carlick was saying there as well.
- 17:20We need a war to stir people up. Yeah, yeah.
- 17:24Yes, this is aged very well. Yeah, he's scheming politician
- 17:28out for himself, Definitely. Yeah, we.
- 17:30Can go strike them, you know, with, with a war, we could get
- 17:34up to all sorts, right? That's it, we're done for, she
- 17:39says. Here's the here's the scene of
- 17:41the literal lateral thinking. Yeah, yeah.
- 17:45She goes, oh, doctor, I just didn't think we were getting
- 17:48anywhere. Yeah, Katie, man, you've, you've
- 17:54she really has perfected this at this point that that whole thing
- 17:59that Barry let's says about the regulars have to be engaging
- 18:02enough to watch, even if what's on the screen is pretty dull.
- 18:06Yeah, well, this isn't dull. And the regulars are great.
- 18:09It's a win, win. And, and I think we said before,
- 18:13she gets so many good moments here.
- 18:15She gets a lot of agency. Like a little bit later in this
- 18:18episode, she's back on the Bernice and this scene here
- 18:22where she's like, you know, she is her.
- 18:25She comes up with a solution to thinking laterally that's not
- 18:27thinking naturally at all. So yeah, yeah.
- 18:31No, I think yeah, she's fantastic in this.
- 18:33How? Do you think laterally?
- 18:34I mean, I think I only think in black and white really.
- 18:37Well, I mean, wasn't there the, the, the Super forecasters?
- 18:42That was a thing of the, the, the last Tory, Tory government,
- 18:47wasn't it? Those those people that were
- 18:49employed just to come up with off the off the wall ideas and
- 18:52solutions to things. Yeah, they could have employed
- 18:56me for that. None of them would have been
- 18:58actionable. No, right.
- 19:01I mean, it's all bollocks, isn't it?
- 19:02I mean, yeah, I mean, if you're thinking that far outside of the
- 19:06box, I don't know, but. We go to this lost moon, get a
- 19:10couple of trash eggs, right? Bring them back.
- 19:14You fondle their their head knobs and yeah.
- 19:18Head knobs, yeah. That's what I'm calling you.
- 19:21You said they were knobs, so. Head knobs and broomsticks.
- 19:23That's right. Walt Disney's head knobs and
- 19:26broomsticks. Now, this is the one part of the
- 19:28story, and it's still great, but it's one part of the story where
- 19:31there's a bit of running around that because basically what we
- 19:34need to happen is for the doctor to trip his way out of the mini
- 19:36scope. And yeah, but there's a lot of
- 19:39sort of to in and fro in hiding behind crates, yeah, sort of
- 19:43bombs going off, that sort of thing.
- 19:45And it's also bringing the the Bernice gang back in it because
- 19:48they haven't, you know, that story is more or less kind of
- 19:51wrapped up in a way. So they don't have a hell of a
- 19:53lot to do for the for the rest of this.
- 19:56So in. Part 4 They're basically we just
- 19:58cut back to them going Oh my God, sunspots, you know, because
- 20:02it's so. Kind of flake out, flake out on
- 20:05it and then major daily kind of finishes.
- 20:07But his book at the end and that's kind of it.
- 20:09So yeah, there is a there is a bit of that, but you do get some
- 20:11really great stuff. And we talked about Let's's
- 20:14direction. And I think when we get to the
- 20:16end of this episode where the drashing is kind of burst into
- 20:19the the hold here, the way that he's pulling in and pushing in
- 20:24on on Pokie's face, I think it's just terrific.
- 20:27I think it looks really really good.
- 20:29I remember what I don't know if it's in three or four, there's a
- 20:32really vivid shot with a lot of depth perspective where you get
- 20:37to see Joe in one set, CSO D in through a hole in the talking to
- 20:43the doctor in this set, and it's all in one shot, but it's really
- 20:47well done. Yeah, that's brilliant.
- 20:48That's the, I think, the beginning of the next episode.
- 20:51Oh. Here we go, Cowlick's sort of
- 20:54talking for his plans now. Yeah.
- 20:56And Terence lodging the the way that he's just.
- 20:59Yeah, even when he's not, he hasn't got dialogue.
- 21:02He's so watchable. I think he's fantastic.
- 21:05Who will be blamed? Paul.
- 21:06Yeah. Look, it's the way he moves, the
- 21:09way he moves here. He's so like fidgety and nervous
- 21:11and he's just, yeah, he's, he's my absolute favorite.
- 21:15And you know, Blessed Barry, he hasn't got a big set there, but
- 21:18he is trying to move them around it as much.
- 21:20As right and you've got that shot.
- 21:21We they're looking down on them, yeah.
- 21:23And that's basically sort of a sandy plane, isn't it, As you
- 21:26see through the window at one point and you see these sort of
- 21:28weird silver. Kind of outside, inside, yeah,
- 21:31yeah. And do you ever hear the story
- 21:35that Jenny McCracken says about when she lost her agent?
- 21:41It doesn't ring a bell. So sweet.
- 21:44So basically, she owed a lot of money because the agent was
- 21:49fiddling her. And so she left the agent and
- 21:53was in all of this debt and she just couldn't afford to live.
- 21:57And so she picked up the phone to Barry Letts and said, do you
- 21:59have anything like I just need to work, I need to earn some
- 22:02money. And he went, just leave it with
- 22:04me. I'll come back to you.
- 22:05And she was like, OK, I won't hear from him again.
- 22:07We're fine. And then Barry let's Mr.
- 22:09Integrity himself rang about the next day and he says, I, I am
- 22:14putting on a six part historical drama and I want you to be the
- 22:20lead and gave her a massive part well paid and she cleared her
- 22:25debt and she goes he she goes, he said, she said, you saved me.
- 22:28It was a lovely story. He's yeah, he was a proper gem,
- 22:32wasn't he? Buried?
- 22:33It's amazing. But this is the bit I was
- 22:35talking about where you see Pertwee backing up, trashing,
- 22:39bursting through the whole, the hull of the ship and the way
- 22:42that, yeah, he just, he's back against the the whole.
- 22:46I think this looks fantastic here.
- 22:48Always very awkward, you know, Paul, when you're trashing, just
- 22:51bursts out well. Exactly.
- 22:53Yeah. And you?
- 22:54They're uncontrollable, aren't they?
- 22:57It starts roaring. Oh, it's all over the place.
- 23:00We've Yeah. Yeah, now that isn't such a
- 23:04great show. Maybe not, but when the cameras
- 23:07on Perry looks brilliant. They don't.
- 23:09Yeah, they don't put the drashing of them in the same
- 23:11shot here. Oh, they do.
- 23:12Yeah, they do. Yeah.
- 23:14You just get that shot. Yeah.
- 23:15Yeah. That is wonderful.
- 23:20That was the point when I was watching by myself.
- 23:22I wish the my family didn't come in the room and thankfully they
- 23:25didn't. So yeah.
- 23:27Even in the best stories, where there.
- 23:29Are moments exactly. I mean, it's you know, but it's
- 23:33as a kid of that super exciting still.
- 23:35So like, you see, you see past all that stuff when you're
- 23:37watching as a youngster. I I never forget that time when
- 23:41my sister fucking walked in the room and I'm watching that
- 23:44bloody scene in Underworld where there's slow motion going down
- 23:47in that lift. Oh, I never heard the end of it.
- 23:50She's going oh God, this is the bit where the trash and bursts
- 23:56out the ship. Yeah, yeah.
- 23:59Now, all right, the effect doesn't convince, but fuck me,
- 24:02they're going for it, are they? Absolutely, Yeah.
- 24:04I mean, you're right. There's a lot of running around
- 24:06in this, in this particular episode, but it's all great
- 24:09stuff. And if you're a youngster
- 24:10watching, I mean, what, what more do you want?
- 24:12I think. The tone is sort of
- 24:15entertainment rather than scares, right?
- 24:17You can, you can pass by a pony effect, I think.
- 24:21But in Terror of the Saigon, you know, when that ridiculous Loch
- 24:25Les monster pops his head out the tenants, Yeah, they're going
- 24:28for scares there, aren't they? They're trying to make it, like,
- 24:30really frightening. Or is this is just ridiculous,
- 24:33This great dinosaur popping his head out of a ship being shot at
- 24:38by a machine gun? I guess though, if you've
- 24:40already, if you've already bumped into the kind of panto
- 24:43vibe and aesthetics of it, you're probably going to still
- 24:47see that as as a bad effect because you've already thinking
- 24:51this, you're thinking along those lines that this isn't a
- 24:53great production, but if you're enjoying it, then you're going
- 24:56to go with it on you so. You know, Halo says that a lot,
- 25:00and I do agree with that. You make allowances if you're
- 25:03enjoying it and 100% don't if you're not.
- 25:06And I definitely have stories where I don't make allowances
- 25:09because I just don't like the stories.
- 25:11Yeah, yeah. And that's where like all you
- 25:14know, we we talked about kablam in my first episode.
- 25:17That's where if you are hating the era, era, you are going to
- 25:22fixate on those small production issues because that's more fuel
- 25:26for your argument that this isn't a great production.
- 25:30So yeah, I think it's just natural.
- 25:32Don't like seeing that. I would have cut that scene, but
- 25:34it was probably acceptable in the 70s where he's patronizing
- 25:38that Indian man. Yes, he's like give.
- 25:40Me that gun quiet bad you. Know again, it's, it's
- 25:43consistent with his, his, yeah, his attitudes through the story.
- 25:49With a fucking. Machine gun.
- 25:52The actor must have been love. This is the best day of my
- 25:55career. Where's the monster?
- 25:57Where am I shooting? I'm not really super familiar
- 26:03with Tenure Evans, but I know that he suggested Pet We for the
- 26:07role of the Doctor. Yeah, it's the reason we got
- 26:08him, yeah. Yeah, so we have him to thank
- 26:11for that. We could all do if I've chucked
- 26:14a peg, what's strange waters these, you know, And then, I
- 26:20don't know, just snap back into the loop again.
- 26:22Right. We take a turn around the deck.
- 26:28Joe grants. Like do we get all again?
- 26:31Yeah, yeah. But it's sort of saying, like
- 26:33Katie's, you know, she gets a lot to do in in this episode
- 26:36because she's like, she's the one who's trying to convince
- 26:38them. And actually, interestingly, is
- 26:40the is the female character of the three Bernie's crew, who's
- 26:44Claire? Who's the one who's like, maybe
- 26:47something is a little bit off here.
- 26:48She's the only one who kind of twigs.
- 26:50I fucking love that bit where she goes.
- 26:52Daddy what? Nothing.
- 26:54It's. So good.
- 26:59Do you know Barry Lewis Must have been reading this script?
- 27:02You want me to? What?
- 27:03You want a bloody dinosaur crawling through the hole of the
- 27:05ship? Then he's going to grab some
- 27:07dynamite, blow a hole in the wall.
- 27:09But what the fuck? What's our budget You think
- 27:12we've got? Oh, dear, Oh, dear.
- 27:19Oh, that. Doesn't a TARDIS just fit in
- 27:21everywhere? Yeah.
- 27:23Well, absolutely, yeah. That designed to last forever.
- 27:27That's why they went bankrupt. That's.
- 27:29A crazy Oh my. God, I love this.
- 27:35Now I think we're coming up to the cliffhanger, aren't we?
- 27:37I think. We more or less are.
- 27:38Yeah, we're John popping out at the bottom.
- 27:41So excuse me, it's so. It's the.
- 27:43Implication there Are we sort of going down the Tory path now?
- 27:47Is the implication that Oh my God, that disease ridden Lerman
- 27:51has just fallen out of the ship? Back everybody Cliff?
- 27:55Well, there we, yeah, very much hadn't picked up on that very is
- 27:58stop the boats, isn't it? I mean, we obviously that we
- 28:00talked about the bigotry and and the isolationism and not wanting
- 28:04to accept anybody into your society, but it's literally stop
- 28:08the boats, isn't it? Well, turn it out on its head.
- 28:10Is it Doctor Who is finally entering the story, IE the
- 28:14reality of the story? Oh, that.
- 28:16Yeah, yeah, there's that too. He Yeah, exactly.
- 28:19Yeah. At the end of episode 3.
- 28:21Right. He's no longer on TV.
- 28:22He's actually, he's actually on. Yeah, Yeah, you're right.
- 28:26That's that's true. Yeah.
- 28:27Because interminer is the reality of it, isn't it?
- 28:30Or flipping that on his head, could it be that so many layers
- 28:33here that Oh my God, Doctor Who's just tripped out of the
- 28:36machine and we know how they deal with outsiders and he's in
- 28:39terrible danger? Well, exactly that.
- 28:42I mean, we needed cliffhanger. So we, you know, he's going to
- 28:45arrive and they're going to want to kill him.
- 28:47You've just said exactly that to all three of my interpretations
- 28:50there. But it's all of that, isn't it?
- 28:52It's like it's, it's talking around those themes.
- 28:55So it's this is where where a Doctor Who can get clever or any
- 29:01or anything clever is like when it when it's talking about
- 29:04themes and ideas rather than just plot.
- 29:08So when it all of those readings, all of that is valid,
- 29:12right? And it is all three of those
- 29:14things. And it's, it's more besides, you
- 29:16know, there's more going on here.
- 29:18Dudley's doing his music there as Jenny Mccracken's going.
- 29:21I think I do. Remember.
- 29:25Doing this one before. Oh my God, it's so.
- 29:29But again, tracking cliffhanger mini perk we popping out the
- 29:32bottom. Do you mean did you think the
- 29:34merchandise has been like, Oh my God, a John Perry action figure?
- 29:37Why haven't we thought about that?
- 29:39Yeah. And we there was quite a lot of
- 29:41merchandise in the per year, but they definitely ever did a
- 29:44figure did there's no per we don't.
- 29:45And you think you think they definitely would have done that?
- 29:48That's crazy. Yeah, well, Tara Sticks always
- 29:51says on the commentaries enterprising was the last thing
- 29:54that BBC enterprises actually were.
- 29:58OK, I've got another top three for you.
- 30:01Another list because this is the episode of the Thrashics.
- 30:05Yeah, we'll have the top 3 oversized Dr. Who monsters.
- 30:10Oh. OK.
- 30:11So many to choose from. Number one.
- 30:17Oh Yep, com. Was gonna say crawl.
- 30:19Ah, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump, bump.
- 30:22Yeah. Yeah.
- 30:26I mean he is the most oversized monster.
- 30:28Indeed, Yeah, I mean, and, yeah. And works brilliantly.
- 30:33Well, I think again, it's Robert Holmes.
- 30:35Get exactly what you're saying, like Robert Holmes delivering a
- 30:37script with a colossal giant octopus and and the production
- 30:42team going, yeah, OK, yeah, we'll do that.
- 30:45I mean, I think they asked for it, didn't they?
- 30:47They wanted the biggest monster. Ever.
- 30:48Yeah, that's true. Yeah.
- 30:49Yeah. OK, so Crow's number one, OK.
- 30:54Blimey, there are other than many big ones.
- 30:57Excuse me? You've got the Merka, the
- 31:00Scarasan, you've got the Ratnos, You've got, oh, the entire moon
- 31:08in Kill the Moon. That was a creature.
- 31:11Are we are we calling that a monster?
- 31:13Well, that's, I mean, you've got the spiders there, OK.
- 31:15Desperate now, right? Right, right.
- 31:20And the drashings, obviously. Well, obviously the drashings,
- 31:22let's put the dresses in two. I think they are super
- 31:25successful. You've got the pussy in a planet
- 31:29of giants. Yeah, who doesn't like a giant
- 31:33pussy? I've got giant tentacles, you
- 31:37got giant pussy. What's right with the world?
- 31:41Right, exactly. I mean, you mentioned him
- 31:45earlier, so I'm going to give place to the planet of the
- 31:50Ogron's bollock monster. Big, big blobby.
- 31:54Big blobby boy. Yeah, that's my.
- 31:58How did we forget Creature from the pit?
- 32:01Oh, that's enormous. Let's take it back.
- 32:04I'll take it back. Let's put her Alto in three.
- 32:06Imagine if that phallus met the pussy.
- 32:09Oh no. OK.
- 32:10And I'll cut it there.