Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Robert Valentine about his choice of Pyramids of Mars (3/4)

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Talks to Robert Valentine about his choice of Pyramids of Mars (3/4) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

• 0:33
  Hamster with a blunt. Pen knife for doing quicker.
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  I bring hamsters gift of idiotic opinions to all humanity.
• 0:46
  Welcome back to a Hamster with a Blunt pen Knife, The Doctor Who
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  Commentary podcast. Now we are extremely lucky today
• 0:54
  to be talking our way through one of Doctor Who's greats, the
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  Pyramids of Mars. And I am extremely lucky to be
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  here with the gorgeous Mr. Rob Valentine.
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  Hello, Rob. Hello, Joe, How are you?
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  Is it a burden, you know, being as pretty as you are and, you
• 1:13
  know, talented and charismatic well?
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  I'll tell you, Joe, it's it's a struggle.
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  It's a struggle. Somehow, somehow, I, I do
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  manage. I do manage.
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  You navigate life all right. Yeah, yeah, I know it it, it.
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  Well, life is a bit. It really does help if you just
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  considered life to be a Bale of tears and that, you know, every
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  day above ground is a good day. So if, if, you know, I don't
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  necessarily believe this, but if you do conduct yourself on the
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  basic premise that life is a dreadful thing, then I'm not
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  sure I'm going with this. But yeah, no, I'm, I do right.
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  I do right. Yeah.
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  I think it's a veil of tears. You know, he's a writer, right?
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  When he's going out with stuff like that, a poet, more like.
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  Yeah, I thought, go the other way.
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  You know, I thought a figure that I've always been a bit of
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  an optimist at heart. I figure that if you sort of
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  greet everybody as if they're going to be your mate until they
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  give you a reason not to be, that's quite a nice way to go
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  through life, I thought. Oh absolutely, yes, yeah, I do
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  too. I do too.
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  But there there is more to life than other people, and just life
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  has a habit of just being life. Well, life is the totality and
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  that's that's it. It's everything, the good and
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  the bad. Just like, take a look at the
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  schedules, all right, those people that have only done one
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  of these and you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.
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  Where I said they let you down eventually.
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  You're like, oh, no, I didn't mean that.
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  We're here today to talk about episode 3 of Pyramids of Mars.
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  Yes, we are. The murders have begun, and
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  they've been comical, gruesome, terrifying.
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  The atmosphere's been thick. We've been enjoying sort of
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  historical period detail, fine characterisation, exceptional
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  British character acting. I mean, it's all been pretty
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  amazing so far. Yeah, now imagine if there were
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  some women in the guest cast. Oh, rough.
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  You oh, too much, honestly, with Robert Holmes.
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  Now, look, remember his excuse, all right?
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  He doesn't like murdering off women.
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  That's why he doesn't include them in his Doctor Who stories.
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  What a terrible excuse that is. It's to God.
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  I mean, do you remember when I think terrorist Dicks is having
• 3:24
  a dig at him? You know, when he puts Adelaide
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  in horror Fang Rock and he's like, this is how you murder
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  women. Kills her off horribly.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I was going to say here's
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  a revolutionary idea. Maybe, maybe you don't have to
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  kill them. But anyway, that's I have think
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  I have suggestions to make about episode 4 when we get there
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  maybe. But let's talk about episode 3
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  before we get to that. I mean, this is the only story
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  right where that's relevant because he does basically kill
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  everybody in this. Yes, well, actually Ahmed and
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  the other Egyptian diggers survive.
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  Oh, of course I did. Yeah.
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  Accepted the novelisation where no means men kill them,
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  apparently. Oh, they split their throats,
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  don't they? Yeah, obviously.
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  Yeah, they they, Yeah. So they die in the novelisation.
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  So Terence is even more bloodthirsty than Robert Holmes.
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  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, you know, everybody dies
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  in this one. Even the rabbit that the poacher
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  was after, you know? Some of this stuff right in
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  Hinchcliffe's time, it is erring on the side of adult in its
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  violence. You know, it's stuff in this
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  brain. And Morbius maybe sees the doom
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  stories like that deadly assassin.
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  It's certainly a lot of stuff that they would never dream of
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  putting on the screen now. Yeah.
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  Does. Does this, does it get away with
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  it or do we let it get away with it?
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  I don't know. I don't know.
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  I mean, I don't think we could be objective.
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  I watched all this stuff as a kid and lapped it up.
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  You know, oh, me too. Me too.
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  I'm not criticizing it. It's a it's a feature, not a
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  flaw, but it but it is a feature and therefore it's worthy of of
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  discussion and Hitchcock. Who?
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  It's the only reason I'm a serial killer, you know, right?
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  It's entirely. Responsible.
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  The only reason. Wow.
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  OK, that's. Well, you know, a deadly
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  assassin alone just gave me so many different methods.
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  Well, look, let's go into episode 3 and watch the murder
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  spree continue. Let's do it.
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  Let's hear your beautiful voice. Count those numbers down.
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  I'm not now I'm self-conscious. OK, we're going to count down
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  from 5 just to for anyone, for anyone who's struggling to find
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  the the mouse or the Hoofa doofa order, however you press play,
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  I'm giving you I'm giving you some chance to find it.
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  So anyway, here we go 54321. There we.
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  Go. Oh, hang on, I didn't press
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  play. You didn't have your.
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  Who's everyone? Go back, go back, everyone go
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  back, go back, go back. OK, OK, for reals this time.
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  Oh, are we really going back? Oh God, I.
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  Think press play. Otherwise, I'll be I'll be
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  talking about I'm. Searching for my hoofa doofa.
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  Wait. OK, I've got it.
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  I've got it in my. Gang, sorry everyone OK back
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  rewind, rewind. OK, 54321 there we go.
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  I just have this image of everyone grabbing hold of their
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  hoofa doofas now and. I was I, I was too efficient on
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  the 1st 2 episodes. I knew this would happen.
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  OK, here we go. You gave yourself more time as
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  well. Joe, giving yourself more time
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  is the is the kicker. I think that's the something to
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  learn from. You're not an 11th hour
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  deadliner, are you? I never I never used to be until
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  I discovered that missing deadlines were more malleable
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  and plastic than I. It depends if it's if if
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  production needs one soon, I'll do it.
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  But otherwise, if it's yeah, I it's as far as the contract
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  goes, deadlines just it's just words on paper.
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  But anyway, back to the here, back to the Chris cliffhanger
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  reprise. So the cliffhanger reprise is
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  all you saw in the original VHS with the cliffhangers taken out.
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  So that sort of long shot of Sarah looking panicked with the
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  mummy's hand around the throat, that was new to me when the DVD
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  came out. So before I thought it was a
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  extremely tightly edited piece because it cuts straight to the
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  mummy going poof from the Marconi scope blowing up.
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  Wonderful stuff. And no, it has blown up, hasn't
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  it? He's.
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  Vicious here, the Doctor, isn't he?
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  An animated human cadaver, Yes. Yeah.
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  What's walking around there is no longer your brother.
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  And look at Lawrence. He's crestfallen.
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  I think Sarah's running after him as well.
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  And then, look, it just sort of folds his.
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  Oh no, he puts his hands in his pockets, doesn't he?
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  A bit uselessly. It's well judged, I think,
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  because I think Lawrence could have been irritating.
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  Yes, yeah, he well it it, it. It really helps to have a
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  beautiful performance by Michael sheared for it.
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  But yeah, yeah, all these parts are really made by the actors.
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  It's yeah, it's, I think what's on paper is possibly a little
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  bit, not thin, but so lightly drawn that if you miscast it,
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  you've damaged the production, I think.
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  Fortunately, there was this just wave of great character actors
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  in the ether at the time to take all of these parts in these
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  various stories. Yeah, Now that was the first
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  shot of Suitek's mask. I have no idea if that is a
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  convincing representation of like a mask, an Egyptology mask.
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  Is it? Oh, I don't really know.
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  It looks convincing enough to me.
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  It looks like sort of like Suitek is supposed to look,
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  because Suitek is sort of jackals get referenced a lot or,
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  you know, but really, though, I looked I was Wikipedia during
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  this. I'm not I don't really know this
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  stuff. Well, I know, but let's think of
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  the the suit, the the Suitek animal, which is they're not
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  really sure what the animal represented him was, but it's
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  sort of a black Jackal like animal, but could be other
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  things too. On here's is Lawrence looking at
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  the photographs of him and his brother with the story never
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  allows us to forget the fraternal bond between Marcus
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  and Lawrence. I think it's what separates a
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  massacre like this from a massacre like Resurrection of
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  the Daleks, where I just don't know who any of those people
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  are, what their relationships are.
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  Yeah, this is what? The consequences of people dying
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  are like, it's just death there. This is a tragedy.
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  This is a tragedy. It's a Lawrence Scarman fails to
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  understand the doctor's warnings.
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  But also the tragedy is to the degree the doctor is wrong and
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  some of Marcus Scarman is still there.
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  So to a degree, Lawrence is right.
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  But whether he can save what's still there, it is impossible to
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  know. It's beyond just power to
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  achieve. I know he's distracted, but
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  fuck, he's Moody, isn't he? Wouldn't it be better if no it
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  wouldn't. He goes to Lawrence, you know,
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  like he's really off hand with him.
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  Yeah, I mean, we, we, I mean the third Doctor is just generally
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  rude in a, in regular social situations.
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  But you kind of wonder. We do wonder because the way
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  they leave him, they leave Lawrence Scarman here to, to
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  sort stuff out. They they, they essentially
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  leave him to die, You know, they.
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  Don't know that's going to happen though, do they?
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  Well, the, the doctors lack the doctor's level of care in this
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  because his, his eye is on. So his eye is so much on the big
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  picture every everyone, every human being who is.
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  And he does, he does take note of the exact number of people
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  who've been killed, etcetera, etcetera.
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  But because he's so focused on the big picture, everyone
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  actually present is collateral, potential collateral damage in
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  order to prevent Suitek from coming back.
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  This image right the doctrine is companioned in the midst of an
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  emerald green forest. It was favorite scenes when I
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  was younger Android invasion. Think of some other great
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  examples, Silver Nemesis, you know, when they were out, out in
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  the in the forest stuff that I could do and mimic and pretend I
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  was in these stories. So.
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  It's a it's a landscape. We know.
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  That's the thing. If you, if you're, if you're
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  English, this is, you know, you're never far away from scrap
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  of woodland like this. That's the.
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  Thing and the difference between this and the demons, I guess is
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  in the demons, obviously they make that bubble and there's all
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  the talk about, you know, them being trapped inside.
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  But in this they deliberately created an invisible cell so
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  everybody within it can be murdered.
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  Yes, yeah, yeah. It also means that you can be
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  chased in the woods and there is no escape because there is no
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  escape. I just think Holmes has a good
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  idea of what is going to chill, like scare a child.
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  Oh yes, yeah. I mean the man, the man was
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  absolutely brilliant. I I'd say the only person that
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  rivals him is probably Steven Moffett in the for just big
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  ideas that are very scary. Oh, yeah, I mean, I would
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  maintain. And still, I think Steven
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  Moffett is arguably the most gifted writer to ever written
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  for the Doctor Who. Oh.
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  God, excuse me, I just choked on my coffee there on form.
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  I would agree with you. You'll let she goes.
• 13:04
  You'll hear me breaking the sound barrier.
• 13:09
  I think with Steven Moffett, though, I do think it's it's
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  inarguable that he is a great writer.
• 13:14
  If there is a discussion to be had, it's it's to what ends does
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  he put his vast talent. That's where that's where people
• 13:20
  might. People's mileage varies.
• 13:22
  I think it's inarguable that he is a very, very fine writer, but
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  perhaps at times he was juggling too much which meant he couldn't
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  be. Oh, yeah.
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  To be to be honest, that's yeah, he, yeah.
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  He I think to have achieved what he achieved under quite frankly,
• 13:41
  too many plates spinning at one time was incredible.
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  But should, should he have had that many plates spinning it?
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  But the fact is he did so. But again, here we have the
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  marriage of Egyptian artefacts and alien technology.
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  This is Eric von Daniken's stuff.
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  This is, this is absolutely everything Egyptian.
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  It's actually alien. This so really Chariots of the
• 14:09
  Gods, Eric von Daniken's 1968 book is another massive
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  influence on this, but Ditto a lot a whole stranded Dr.
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  including the demons. That's another one.
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  You know, it's taking sort of Dennis Wheatley in that case,
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  and I say no, no, it's aliens. I thought you were going to say
• 14:29
  the marriage of Tom and Liz then, because this story
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  absolutely leans into that whole that quote of Barry Letts's of
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  you know, even if someone they're just walking around a
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  forest, Yeah, undoing bits of gadgetry that they find lying
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  around the forest, who cares? Because you've got 2 very
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  charismatic leads that have powerful chemistry on the
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  screen. And also what really helps is
• 14:52
  that the story has gone to huge lengths to let us know what the
• 14:57
  stakes are of this. Oh, in terms of Sutex helmet,
• 15:03
  now I'm seeing this again. No, I I think this is just a,
• 15:07
  it, it's a, it's a space helmet with Egyptian features.
• 15:11
  It looks, it looks like it could be authentically Egyptian, but
• 15:14
  it also looks like it's authentically alien too.
• 15:17
  So I think it's a very clever bit of design work, Luke.
• 15:20
  Miller made a wonderful point in the Strictly come hamster we did
• 15:25
  on series one shoot his first year.
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  That suitek with that mask on, yeah, would have looked amazing
• 15:34
  walking through the snow on Ruby Rd.
• 15:37
  But the silhouette of him with that terrifying mask and he was
• 15:41
  like, why didn't they do that instead of the dog?
• 15:43
  It would have been great. It's a it's a brilliant bit of
• 15:46
  design, that mask. We'll discuss that when we do
• 15:49
  the Empire of Death podcast and not before.
• 15:54
  It's going to be a long podcast. Oh, see, there, that whole scene
• 15:58
  there, it's just them in that heart, right?
• 16:02
  Yeah. With the great pay off, perhaps
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  he sneezed. Well, that's 'cause the the, the
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  real, the true drama in this episode is between the brothers.
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  It's the brothers story. Oh, that's the, I mean, look at
• 16:15
  that design there. He's taken all the bandages off.
• 16:18
  Yeah. And you've got the exoskeleton
• 16:20
  and then actual sort of metallic bones.
• 16:22
  Yes, yeah, because of the Chrome, the the silver on brass.
• 16:27
  Sarah, that was sweaty Gerd night you.
• 16:30
  Highly unstable. Yes, like me.
• 16:34
  Yes, one good sneeze could set Tom Baker off, so I hear.
• 16:42
  But of course, that sweaty Gerd night is going to be very, very
• 16:45
  important, because it's a good chunk of the rest of the plot.
• 16:50
  It's quite, I've heard a lot of people ask me when I talk about
• 16:54
  series, series season 12 stories is do you think it's sad that
• 16:58
  Harry was written out? Yes, I do, because I think he's
• 17:00
  a great character, well played, and the chemistry between the
• 17:03
  three is brilliant. No, because I really think
• 17:06
  there's something with Tom and Liz for the rest of this run
• 17:10
  that they have together and they would be diluted if it wasn't
• 17:14
  just the two of them. I agree.
• 17:16
  I agree. I think it's weird.
• 17:19
  I agree with both points of view.
• 17:22
  The downside is that Sarah has to go through an awful lot for
• 17:26
  one person. But Sarah and the Doctor
• 17:30
  together, Sarah and Tom, sorry, Leslie and Tom Baker, Sarah and
• 17:34
  the Doctor work beautifully together.
• 17:36
  But what they ask of Bernard Archer in this scene where he,
• 17:40
  you know, Lawrence breaks through Suitex control enough to
• 17:44
  see Marcus emerging a little bit and, and recognising that he's
• 17:48
  his brother and recognising memories and then having to sort
• 17:53
  of pull back from that. Yeah, be that the the vicious
• 17:57
  zombie. Killer.
• 17:58
  But let's let's let's watch this scene because is is Marcus
• 18:03
  Scarman still in there? I would contend that he is, and
• 18:07
  that Lawrence is therefore right and the doctor is wrong.
• 18:11
  But the doctor might be right in that there's nothing that
• 18:14
  Lawrence can do about it. Or if he's just an animated
• 18:17
  cadaver with an evil intelligence controlling him,
• 18:20
  then you wouldn't remember any of these things.
• 18:21
  No, no, but but look. You and me.
• 18:26
  So, yeah, so Lawrence. Lawrence is desperate to remind
• 18:29
  him. So he shows him the photo and he
• 18:39
  look and see. Look, Marcus.
• 18:44
  And then he's confused, he's conflicted, and then he just
• 18:47
  violently smashes the picture. Out of his hands, there's a
• 18:50
  conflict and a resistance and a reaffirmation that he is SU
• 18:56
  tech. What Dudley does here as well is
• 18:59
  he waits until he smashes that picture out of his hands and
• 19:02
  then he suddenly comes in with music that starts building and
• 19:06
  you think, oh shit. Yeah, but the the violence with
• 19:10
  which he's responded in that moment tells me that Marcus
• 19:13
  Scarman, the man, is still in there regardless.
• 19:17
  And I find the Marcus, your hands, you know, it's just so
• 19:24
  beautifully played, isn't it? Yeah.
• 19:28
  And the fact that his death is off screen.
• 19:30
  Yeah. And this is the this, this is
• 19:33
  the the great tragedy in this story played out.
• 19:40
  And also we're now we're halfway through episode 3 and the the
• 19:44
  greatest bit of drama in the stories.
• 19:47
  Now I was going to say that is that has this come too early?
• 19:50
  Yeah, I think it has. This is this is episode 4
• 19:53
  material, if you yeah, if you're doing this, I this is episode,
• 19:57
  this is episode 4 stuff that's happening right now.
• 20:00
  I mean I would say a common complaint I have of hench
• 20:02
  Clovera stories is the episode 4's often do go off the rails or
• 20:06
  they're anticlimactic. But the flip side is the usual
• 20:10
  week episode in a Doctor Who 4 parter.
• 20:12
  Episode 3 is often the best episode of the storm, weirdly
• 20:18
  enough. I do love look isn't star gross
• 20:21
  this shot, although it's framed with the rhododendron leaves in
• 20:24
  the immediate foreground and just the the the way it's framed
• 20:27
  with the roof around the square, the whole image of the the
• 20:31
  pyramid in the courtyard with the mummies play that whole that
• 20:35
  whole tableau is just a beautiful image.
• 20:39
  Again, this this looks incredible.
• 20:40
  I don't use the word lightly. It's an iconic shot, that.
• 20:44
  Isn't it? Oh, yes.
• 20:44
  Yeah, yeah. Oh.
• 20:45
  My God. Look, he's rocking in the chair,
• 20:47
  dead. Yeah, Lawrence.
• 20:49
  And then Sarah shakes him and goes, come on, wake up.
• 20:54
  Oh shit. In hell.
• 20:55
  And this is a great conversation about morality.
• 20:59
  Yeah. Like Sarah, there are more
• 21:03
  important things going on here than one dead person.
• 21:08
  And that's the thing that the doctor has to take this step
• 21:12
  back and look at the the untold billions who will never be if if
• 21:17
  he doesn't stop this. Sometimes I think people forget
• 21:20
  the Doctor's an alien and they expect him to behave with human
• 21:23
  morality all the time and I just don't get it.
• 21:27
  Yeah, well, I I get it. It's just that they forget he's
• 21:30
  not human because he's not human.
• 21:32
  You can do stuff like this. I kind of like the idea of the
• 21:34
  doctor not being human is actually it doesn't mean he's
• 21:40
  not, he can't he's he's not wiser than any person.
• 21:44
  And sometimes you can have the not just being the smartest
• 21:47
  person in the room, but the not wanting to be the smartest
• 21:50
  person in the room, The sadness of being the smartest person in
• 21:53
  the room. I think the sadness of that
• 21:55
  weighted experience. The real conflict in that scene
• 21:57
  is that they're both right. She's right to be angry and say
• 22:01
  a man's just been murdered, and he's right to say no four men
• 22:05
  have been murdered already. You know, that's what we're
• 22:08
  dealing with here. Yeah, I I still think there
• 22:11
  would have been. There could have been with a
• 22:12
  different doctor with a different temperament doing this
• 22:17
  story. Could have defeated Sutec and
• 22:20
  managed to not have a total party wipe for for the entire
• 22:24
  supporting cast. You know, I mean, if it was
• 22:26
  Colin and you know, I love Colin, I mean, he would have
• 22:29
  murdered half the guest cast along the way, which would have
• 22:33
  been fun. Did you see that enormous Biro?
• 22:36
  They just. Yeah, I did.
• 22:37
  Yeah. Yeah, it's the the the pen of
• 22:39
  Sutek. What do you imagine that does?
• 22:41
  Oh God, here we go in the. Well, here's another influence.
• 22:45
  See, a main character dressing up as a mummy is something that
• 22:49
  does happen in a Universal movie.
• 22:51
  Not the mummy though, not the hammer one.
• 22:54
  No, not the Hammer one, no, but one of the a universal
• 22:57
  predecessor. But it's Abbott and Costello.
• 23:00
  Meet the mummy. But Abbott gets dressed up as a
• 23:04
  mummy and one of the baggy one of the crooks gets dressed up as
• 23:07
  a mummy. But also there's the actual
• 23:10
  mummy, Claris. So you have three guy, you have
• 23:12
  the three guys dressed as a in a mummy routine and with Lou
• 23:16
  Costello kind of running around between them.
• 23:19
  So yeah. I mean, that does sound rather
• 23:21
  wonderful. It might have livened up the
• 23:22
  mummy had someone had dressed up as.
• 23:25
  The mum, yeah, yeah, well, I would say it it, but yeah,
• 23:27
  Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy is more fun than Hammers.
• 23:30
  The Mummy and it's. Alliance, as fun as they are
• 23:33
  here where he goes, how do I look?
• 23:35
  She goes. It must have been a nasty
• 23:37
  accident. Yeah, it's I mean it as a as
• 23:39
  films go, it's it's no Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein,
• 23:43
  which is that the pinnacle that's their masterpiece.
• 23:45
  But in this, this is actually doing something from Abbott and
• 23:49
  Costello which I am quite tickled by.
• 23:52
  That looks extremely hot. That's silly.
• 23:54
  Yeah, but yeah, that's why if you're if you're an undead human
• 23:58
  cadaver, you can pick up pick up hot stuff better than a pair of
• 24:04
  oven gloves. Now I would say it's not an
• 24:07
  original observation but SU Tech is first the he's possibly the
• 24:11
  first of several 4th Doctor Who, 4th Doctor Doctor Who villains.
• 24:17
  Who is returning like Morbius is returning.
• 24:20
  Eldrad wants to come back. That's because evil since the
• 24:24
  dawn of time that's got a myth behind it is properly scary.
• 24:28
  Yeah. But yeah.
• 24:28
  But really that doesn't come until 7, does it?
• 24:32
  Or actually as we sort of maybe that could, maybe that's more of
• 24:36
  what that does kind of happen with the great intelligence in a
• 24:39
  bomber of snowmen perhaps. But also, Magnus Grill is
• 24:43
  another one. So you know, villain, villain
• 24:45
  who's had, who's had got, who's got form, who's like been hit
• 24:49
  low by his contemporaries, is trying to come back.
• 24:53
  Ditto the master of the deadly assassin.
• 24:55
  He's another one. I mean, when you look at him
• 24:57
  from that point of view, from the ancient evil's point of
• 24:59
  view, it's less scary when you look at it from the victims
• 25:02
  point of view, and ancient evil is unearthing from the distant
• 25:06
  past, that's terrifying. Absolutely.
• 25:11
  Here we have Sarah who is very, very competent with rifles now,
• 25:15
  which is. Elizabeth Slayden was not happy
• 25:17
  about this scene either. She goes, no, she goes why would
• 25:19
  Sarah have ever fired a gun? So she said to Paddy Russell, I
• 25:23
  want to miss. She goes, oh, I want to get it
• 25:26
  wrong the first time and then get it right the 2nd.
• 25:27
  And Paddy Russell was like, no, we want a huge, we want a
• 25:31
  competent woman with a pistol that takes it out first time.
• 25:35
  And again, I think Caddy Russell might be right.
• 25:41
  Yeah, yeah. I don't have a massive problem
• 25:43
  with this. It's just I don't know.
• 25:48
  I've you know those fairgrounds. That.
• 25:50
  You that you do. I do those all the time.
• 25:52
  I think I could just about hit. Yeah, but they, they, they, they
• 25:56
  bend the sights with a pair of pliers, don't they?
• 25:58
  To make them slightly off. Well, I'll still do they not.
• 26:01
  I must be slightly off then. You don't.
• 26:06
  Surprise this part where where Evil Dead Marcus Scarman is
• 26:12
  talking to what he thinks is a faulty mummy.
• 26:14
  Does that make does that make Scarman seem a bit incompetent
• 26:17
  all of a sudden? It's a bit strange, isn't it?
• 26:20
  Plus, you think Scarman would put that in there himself?
• 26:23
  Obviously he'd be out of the story then.
• 26:24
  We can lose a mummy, but we can't.
• 26:27
  Yeah, it's a I'll. Forgive it, I'll forgive it, but
• 26:30
  I I think now that the drama between the brothers is over,
• 26:36
  the wheels might be in danger of starting to spin a bit.
• 26:40
  I don't think they do until we go to Mars I because I think the
• 26:45
  great confrontation between the Doctor and Sue Tech is still to
• 26:48
  come. Oh, that's.
• 26:50
  True, and honestly the stakes have never felt Oh my God that
• 26:55
  with the flame coming out of the Jellicoe and then going back in
• 26:58
  again. Oh yeah, yeah, they yes, yeah,
• 27:00
  yeah. That they keep playing it.
• 27:04
  Poor old Tom. Did not want to.
• 27:06
  Get dressed up as a mummy and Paddy Russell went No people
• 27:09
  know how you walk, they'll know it's you.
• 27:12
  I'm not sure you can tell. Yeah, but she'd probably thought
• 27:15
  you getting that you sod been pissing me off, mate.
• 27:19
  That's probably why, yeah, we came back for Horror Fang Rock
• 27:21
  because she directed and he was a beast in that one, wouldn't
• 27:24
  he? What the hell she going to get
• 27:26
  me to do this time? All of this?
• 27:30
  I love the Doctor sort of sliding around the room, hiding
• 27:33
  behind the drapes. Yeah, I mean, he does a
• 27:36
  fantastic job of sneaking all the way in in this one.
• 27:41
  Wow, they haven't. I think another reason why it
• 27:43
  worked, the sets the indoor outdoor thing works so well is
• 27:47
  the backdrop outside the window looks so damn convinced.
• 27:50
  Very good, yeah. I've just convinced her in a
• 27:52
  house. I think as a kid of you just
• 27:54
  told me they shot this in a house, I would have believed
• 27:56
  you. Yeah, again, the Lodge set, this
• 28:00
  set, they're all magnificent. Even, I mean, the floor doesn't
• 28:04
  look like Studio Four. That floor that looks like
• 28:07
  that's parquet. That's beautiful.
• 28:09
  When we go into the future, that's when there's trouble,
• 28:12
  when we go to Mars. Yes.
• 28:17
  Although I will still mention some triumphant moments taken
• 28:23
  from silent comedy. Oh the the portal is opening
• 28:27
  again. This can't be good.
• 28:29
  And the Doctor now is going to drift slowly into Suitex 2.
• 28:38
  I mean, that's Silhouette. It couldn't be any other Doctor,
• 28:40
  right? With that scarf.
• 28:41
  Oh, no. Yeah, Precisely.
• 28:42
  Precisely. Also, you know, I, I, I just, I
• 28:45
  believe that this is what an Osiran rocket looks like.
• 28:48
  It looks like a pyramid tent. It just does.
• 28:50
  That's. I mean, I'm fine with that.
• 28:51
  I do love the fact that the Doctor's plan here is to
• 28:54
  basically go zoo tech over here and then blow up the rocket.
• 28:58
  Yeah, yeah. But it felt epic when I was
• 29:04
  younger. Like Doctor Who confronts a God
• 29:09
  to stop him from escaping from his prison.
• 29:11
  It's really well structured as well though.
• 29:15
  So we're back here in the set from Episode 1.
• 29:17
  Yeah, I kind of think if we'll get to episode 4 and get to
• 29:22
  episode 4, but keeping up the the Egyptian theme throughout
• 29:27
  because it this is riffing on the Mummy, remember?
• 29:29
  So I think if you oh, here we go.
• 29:30
  Here is their confrontation. Confrontation.
• 29:34
  Nice bit of model work. That's a nice model of the
• 29:36
  house. It looks really good, the flame
• 29:38
  flames never do, but I don't mind because because I like
• 29:41
  seeing models explode. I get the same satisfaction as I
• 29:44
  would for. Anything.
• 29:45
  I mean, they did it in Invasion of the Dinosaurs.
• 29:47
  Those little diorama, as they made of places were just
• 29:50
  wonderful. Oh yeah, But yeah.
• 29:51
  We delighted models though, don't we?
• 29:53
  Oh, agony. He does pain.
• 29:57
  Yeah, he does. He does.
• 29:58
  And ending on the eyes glowing green.
• 30:01
  Yeah, I do think one thing the cliffhanger lacks is a line of
• 30:07
  dialogue from Sutec, I think ending on a lot, ending on that
• 30:11
  shot, and a line gives to end on.
• 30:14
  You're a writer. Come on, give us a line.
• 30:16
  What can Sutec say in that moment?
• 30:19
  Suck this bitch. I don't know something.
• 30:21
  I don't know anything. Yeah, just something, something
• 30:25
  to stick in your head for seven days.