Latest / A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast / Talks to Robert Valentine about his choice of The Brain of Morbius (2/4)

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Talks to Robert Valentine about his choice of The Brain of Morbius (2/4) · A Hamster With a Blunt Penknife - a Doctor Who Commentary podcast

0:33
Hamster with a blunt pen knife for doing.
0:35
Quicker welcome back to a hamster with a blunt pen knife.
0:39
My name is Robert Valentine and I'm here with Mr. Joe Ford.
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He's so am I, and together we are watching Doctor Who, The
0:48
Brain of Morbius. Yes, Rob, I've got something to
0:51
tell you. I've been spending the day off
0:54
today assembling various body parts of the Ham fam and I have
1:00
created a. Horrific creature.
1:05
Out of side heart. Fraser, Gregory, James, Lark,
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Nathan, possibly, and various others, but it's the.
1:11
Smartest, funniest, most charismatic monster you're ever
1:14
going to see. All right.
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So I thought there's going to be a difficult question for me at
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the end of that. Just that, you know, I just
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thought I'd let everybody know that, you know, it'll be
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debuting. And devoid.
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How about that? It's not yet Jesus.
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Well, because Frasers. And they'll be.
1:35
Asking you that anyway. Oh my God, what a hideous idea.
1:39
How are you enjoying the Brain of Morpheus so far?
1:43
Oh, I I really am. It's a formative Doctor Who for
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me, at least in the form of the the target book.
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That's because really, for me, that's the oldest, deepest,
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darkest version in the the recesses of my childhood memory
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before I saw the TV version. That the opening, especially
2:06
from Chris's point of view, is particularly memorable.
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Have you heard the Tom Baker reading of that?
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I don't know. So I have no, no, I'm the one
2:21
that passed me going. I suggested you last time that
2:24
you go and listen to it. I'm now going to say no, not
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because Tom Baker gives a bad reading, because Tom Baker can't
2:29
give a bad reading. You know, he's a he's a
2:32
wonderful reader of stories and teller of stories, but he makes
2:35
a couple of strange choices. He chooses to play Marin like a
2:40
wise and old woman. And for some reason he seems to
2:45
have mistaken so long for Tryst from Nightmare of Eden, so he's
2:50
given him a very strange sort of Germanic accent that he talks
2:55
with from the entire story. I already got into about 3
3:00
chapters. I was like, yeah, turn this off.
3:01
This is very distracting. Now you know.
3:04
For once. To be honest, that's kind of a,
3:07
you know, a warning. Solom could have gone quite
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differently had he not been played so wonderfully by Philip
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Maddox. So you know.
3:16
Never before has that been. Grateful to we've we've been
3:21
gifted one of the great performances in this story.
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So that's something I'm looking forward to unfolding as we we go
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into this one. Would you be one of the greatest
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performances in Doctor Who history?
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The greatest intellect that has ever.
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Lived. Destroyed by a mindless brute.
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It's so cool. What?
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You can dice. Oh, it's wonderful.
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Yeah. Yeah.
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I mean. I'm not.
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I'm not arguing with you. It's no one.
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Well, look. Like, do you want to go and see
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what on earth that horrifying assemblage was at the end of
3:58
Part 1 I. Think we need to find out?
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Shall I count us in, please? Do.
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OK, I'll do. I don't know.
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You give me a look like you don't trust me to do this.
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But anyway, I've done it before, so here we go.
4:14
No, I do. Well, well, we've got a little
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bit of a delay now because I'm saying something and then
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there's about two seconds before you're responding.
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You're either thinking very hard about what I'm asking you.
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Or well, I do, I do, I do. I think about these things very
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deeply and then, yeah, there is also a lag.
4:36
But do you know what I, I think? I think we have the chops to
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muddle through somehow, lag or not.
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I think it's probably the, the sisterhood is, is weaving their
4:44
magic on us. I think that's the problem.
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But anyway, I, I, I will count us in, but we're very lucky.
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I'm ready. I'm ready.
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OK, good. Right, I'll do it.
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OK, and if you're already at home listener, then I then I
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shall begin. OK 54 actually, I forget.
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I forget ready too, because that'd be if I didn't press
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play. That would be I did that last
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time anyway. 54321 Go. Here we go.
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If you were counted and you didn't press play, I'll.
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I do love these opening, I do love the opening 4th Doctor
5:23
credits, but I do find the closing ones a bit ear waxy,
5:25
like we're we're looking into someone's ear canal.
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But anyway, anyway, Doctor Who here we have one of the best
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logos, the brain of Morbius. Now no, but you know, I don't
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imagine, I imagine it looking that different.
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But yeah, the brain of Morbius, it was Pyramids of Mars, but now
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it's the brain of Morbius. And what I do agonise over where
5:45
to put the V on these things. And this is the brain.
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Where's the logic? I don't know.
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Is it the right call? Yeah, yeah, the brain of Morbius
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wouldn't be really annoying, wouldn't it?
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It's the brain of Morbius. What about?
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The pyramids of Mars. That would be, I think that I'd
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be happy with the personally. Anyway, back into the Cliff.
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Hank, how is this? Oh, good grief now.
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Speaking as speaking as someone who writes and directs and
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produces things, you know, I'm, I'm not unfamiliar with the the
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concept of working really hard and obsessively on something for
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months and months. You assemble it, put it all
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together, give it life. And then once you actually look
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upon your handiwork, you recall from it in horror.
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So I I do know what it's like in some ways to be Frankenstein
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when it's like, Oh my God, what a piece of shit.
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But I do want to do so long look upon his work and think I'm I'm
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totally fine with the the the quality of this thing.
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You know, I think you I think you have to kind of you chicken
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brains biological disaster. He's got he's, he's a wonderful
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villain for insults and although there's an argument.
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Always puts. Yeah, yeah.
7:01
What is it you have Misty Bum vendor, you spineless cold
7:05
prune? Yeah, but somehow I think
7:07
Maddock kind of manages to do it without resorting to camp.
7:14
I mean, you could, it is camp. But there is a, there is an
7:20
emotional honesty to his performance, even though it's
7:24
operatic that I, I totally believe every detail of him.
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I, I, I can tell. I can believe the life that's
7:30
lived there. Do you know what I mean?
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He just said that a curse is to hag Marron.
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I mean, how do you underplay that line?
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Yeah, yeah. But I but I believe him, you
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know, he he is a man of extremes.
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He's a zealous follower of a brain in a jar, essentially.
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I mean, what must you have to go through to reach that conclusion
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that, you know, this great warlord that I've devoted my
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life to? Well, as long as I save his
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brain, I can build an entire body for him and then just shove
8:06
the brain in a glass case at the top.
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I mean, he was supposed to be a clever scientist, wasn't he?
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Yeah, I, I, I think, I think we do gradually see the, the he's
8:18
going to rue it essentially. You know, that is what happens.
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We see his or so his villainous decay, basically.
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Now here's the scene. I, I, I kind of think Tom is a
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little bit unsure, Baker that is, is a little bit unsure how
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to play the scene. I don't know, Like, I, I, he's
8:38
great, but I definitely feel like he's winging it to a
8:40
degree. I don't know.
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He's surrounded by all these beautiful ladies.
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He's probably a bit overcome. Yeah, actually, George,
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actually, they did what? God, my speaking is.
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Yeah, reminds me of the the actually, I'm including.
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Yeah. Anyway, my brain is now gone.
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My brain has followed my brain. My brain is failing and it's not
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in a glass jar. Would you like me to take it
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from your head and surgically insert one from the ham fam?
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Yeah, well, I, I do. I do think my brain needs taking
9:14
out and scrubbing and putting back in again at the moment.
9:17
Oh yeah, it's it's not quite behaving itself right now.
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I wouldn't trust me to do that if I was you, Rob.
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Well, you know. I, I, I.
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Have you seen someone as a surgeon, right?
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How many times have you seen him wash his hands in this story?
9:31
Yeah. No, exactly.
9:32
You haven't. That's the point.
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Yeah. Oh, here we are.
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Here we have the doctor suddenly intuiting.
9:40
Really. He said he felt the mind of
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Morbius, and this is not unlike Pyramids of Mars when he
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realizes that Sutec is coming back.
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This is a really big deal. Morbius is almost up there with
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Sutec in terms of threat level. Well, it's doing the same thing,
9:57
isn't it? With like, the myth of some
10:00
great horror from the past. Is Yeah, who who was was a real
10:05
big deal back in the day, is threatening to come back and is
10:09
currently in a reduced and pitiable state, depending on his
10:14
useless underlings. Yeah.
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It's, it's that that's a definite, that that's a Doctor
10:20
Who thing of this era, definitely.
10:22
I, I rather think Sue Tech, you know, who's just stuck to a
10:24
chair, would look at Morbius, who's made out of bits of you.
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Lucky, lucky. 10,000 years sat in this chair.
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Dream. Of being a brain in the jar.
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Dream of it. Imagine the bitch off between
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the pair of them. You know you've got a bloody
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great claw for a hand though, have you?
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Do you know what? OK, I'm going to I I do want to
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talk about these sets again briefly.
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Yeah, no, go ahead. I just love the levels.
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It means you can shoot up and down and.
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It's so dramatic, yeah. In in really interesting ways.
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And we had, we had a lovely sort of a tracking shot there in on
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Solon and Cordo condo, condo. There's only one thing I
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wouldn't have done. I would.
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There's things set during the day.
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And then it's so. Clearly artificial.
11:15
There's no dry ice anymore and you've got a terrible sort of
11:18
sky backdrop. But at night I'm.
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I'm sold. Look.
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That's look, that is just what Khan looks like.
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We we just have to accept this. Oh, you've been, have you?
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Well, no, but neither of you. So I'm just, you know, just
11:32
being charitable. You know, they might be right.
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They might be right. I was getting a sense then.
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Of a writer you know that's created.
11:39
Worlds for Doctor Who. And had people going, well, it's
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not very convincing, is it really?
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Well, you know, that's the thing when you write for audio drama,
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you can write exterior night and you haven't adversely affected
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the budget. That's the thing.
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Excuse me, You've yet to not convince me, Rob Valentine.
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All right. Well, thank you very.
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What one does try, one does try, but yeah, it's really, you get
12:03
to leave that to other people. That's the thing.
12:05
Although you do get to, you do get to script the.
12:08
You tell them what to create, but you say that.
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There's There is a strong element of the atmosphere coming
12:13
in from the special sound in this story as well.
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There's the. Oh, no, absolutely.
12:18
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's, yeah.
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It's it's it's the wind. It's not, it's not Thunder and
12:22
lightning particularly much. It's this, it's the wind and
12:25
then the crash of the lightning, which is Thunder.
12:27
But you get my point. But you've got.
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Like the weird creaking in Solon's laboratory and the.
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Bubbling vats. There's sound for all of it.
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Oh no, it's. Incredible.
12:35
But The thing is we we're currently with the doctor in the
12:37
sisterhood and we are out of Frankenstein utterly.
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We're into something else. I'm fine with that.
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I'm just observing that it's, you know, it, it's not 100%.
12:48
We're doing, you know, it's a mad side, the mad scientist
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genre, which admittedly is bigger than Frankenstein.
12:55
And we and we will get into another influence in a bit.
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We're not quite there yet, but we'll get there.
13:01
Do you like this? Sort of stuff.
13:02
Do you like Time Lord mythology? I, I kind of, I, I find it
13:08
fascinating, especially at this point where it's kind of just
13:10
the, some of the earliest stuff. But I kind of feel you start
13:14
getting away from pure Doctor Who.
13:16
Pure Doctor Who being a mysterious character who takes
13:22
recognizable, relatable people on adventures through space-time
13:25
and everything else in his magic box, the TARDIS.
13:28
You know, once you get into the, the back story and lore of the
13:32
Doctor, it's it's interesting, but you're getting very kind of
13:37
specific and you're getting away from the pure core format and
13:41
you're kind of luxuriating in the kind of the, the, the nerdy
13:47
lore of it. And that's fine.
13:49
I lose. It's a choice.
13:51
Could not care less about time or mythology because you know
13:54
what? I think the the conclusion that
13:56
we reach when we start exploring this stuff is that we end up in
14:00
that cut price Costa Cafe from Arc of Infinity, you know?
14:03
Well, exactly. Yeah, and it just.
14:05
Loses all of his mistake. However, I think he does a good
14:08
job here of suggesting, you know, huge mythic events.
14:13
Yeah, well. Here's the thing, you know, we
14:15
hear about the Time Lords in this one, we don't see the Time
14:17
Lords in this one. It's, I think, you know, the
14:20
Time Lords are better off stage, you know?
14:24
Well, yeah. Ultimately you end up with cod
14:27
Shakespearean actors, one of actual Shakespearean actors in
14:30
cod doing cod Shakespeare roles in togas.
14:33
And that's the problem, you know, But I I personally, I'd
14:39
want to kind of be more all in with the the weird science and I
14:44
if I wanted to kind of honour she and stuff like that, I'd do
14:48
an entire story based on that. I think it.
14:51
Gets there though, doesn't it? With the Frankenstein stuff,
14:54
certainly. Oh, it does it.
14:55
Does, but I kind of feel you could do 2, you could do two
14:57
different doctor stories out of this 1A sisterhood story and you
15:02
could do the salon stuff. Well, we're taking.
15:04
This full experiment to its natural conclusion, then.
15:07
So we're removing the Sisterhood from the story.
15:10
How do we pad this out for another episode?
15:12
Because it's basically an episode of the Sisterhood, but
15:15
you've got three now. You don't.
15:17
Pad out, you go deeper, but you also you take more.
15:19
Excuse me? You go.
15:22
Yeah, you go more for the source materials instead of the
15:24
sisterhood you'd have. Well, you need your pitchfork
15:28
wielding mob. So I think you need you need the
15:30
village, you need your kind of space, middle European villages
15:36
and the burger master. You, you you take more from and
15:40
also we go we do go into other weird science stuff.
15:42
You can take stuff, you know, if all your influences because she
15:46
is an adventure story in Africa. But if you're going to do
15:51
Frankenstein later on, we do get we will talk about Donovan's
15:53
brain when we get to it. But you've got doctor Jake or
15:56
Mr. Hyde, you've got you've got weird science influences.
15:59
You could pull it instead of she, but they but they choose to
16:03
do she. It's a completely different
16:06
thing coming in. Again, it's just an observation.
16:09
It's a thought experiment. I'm certainly not right, but
16:11
it's the way I would instinctively go.
16:14
I, I, I keep all my influences. There'd be more of a overlap in
16:19
the Venn diagram of the stuff I'd be drawing on, I think.
16:22
As as a homage, yeah, to what is going for.
16:26
I think you're absolutely right. As a piece of Doctor Who.
16:31
Yes, this is perfect. Like it could because it's got a
16:34
bit of mythology and back story and a bit of science fiction in
16:37
there for those geeks that love that sort of thing.
16:40
That may be on as a nude with Hammer Horror or the other
16:44
things this is trying to do, yeah.
16:47
Well, to be honest, you know, I think most of the most of us, I
16:50
say that, but generational differences are a thing.
16:54
But most of our introductions to a lot of kind of genre sources
17:00
tend to be by other things like, you know, via the medium of
17:04
danger mouse or scooby-doo or whatever else.
17:07
You know, we we get the OR Henry.
17:10
I remember 11 brilliant episode of Henry's cat where he holds
17:14
onto a balloon and then gets dropped down in Transylvania.
17:17
I need to find that's from YouTube somewhere, but
17:19
Scooby-doo was. Definitely my first ghost
17:21
stories. Oh hell.
17:22
Yeah, yeah. So I think I'm not really we we
17:25
get the the children's TV versions of all these things
17:28
before we discover the originals.
17:30
Well, I've been my. First detective dramas as well.
17:32
Really. scooby-doo, you know, that's all.
17:35
Yeah, No. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
17:36
Good villain. Yeah, exactly.
17:38
Exactly. Now the.
17:40
Doctor is about to be burnt alive like a Salem witch.
17:46
Yes, and and Sarah again is being Sarah has gone undercover
17:49
in the sisterhood. She is she is doing so many
17:53
brilliant things in this. She's like.
17:55
Finally, there's some women where we've gone in the universe
17:59
and. I can blend in.
18:01
Yeah, I mean. I think this is a great sequence
18:05
though, because look at these flames.
18:07
That looks so dangerous, doesn't it?
18:09
I mean is. That is that an overlay or is
18:13
that just told me I get surrounded by flames?
18:16
That isn't. But if that isn't over, it's a
18:19
it's an impeccable one if it I think it must have been.
18:23
I do love that shot of Marin zapping with her ring towards
18:27
the camera. Is that incredible?
18:29
Because it's it's. Blinding ours, right?
18:31
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
18:33
And you know, going back to my old thing of me, you know, you
18:36
know, not look not being too bothered about the direction in
18:39
Doctor Who, I think a lot of that boils down to where I came
18:42
in without, you know, without pointing in a particular
18:47
direction to or blame anyone in particular.
18:50
When I came in, it wasn't distracted as well as it was 10
18:53
years earlier and maintained a lot of it was not directed this
18:57
well later on, you know with. A few exceptions with a few.
19:01
Exceptions but for for chunks as it felt like people had
19:05
forgotten how to direct Doctor Who.
19:06
I think we. 1st. Look on how to.
19:08
To to inject atmosphere. Yeah.
19:12
And John, I'm delighted you suggested this story and I'm
19:14
delighted that all the ones you are suggesting we do and the
19:17
ones I've suggested we do, atmosphere is so I really,
19:19
atmosphere is location. Location, location is so
19:22
important to me in a story, whether it's up the Himalayas or
19:26
ancient Egypt and English country houses or here on planet
19:30
Transylvania, which is essentially sort of or planet
19:33
gold stat, if we're kind of being more strictly
19:35
Frankenstein. Atmosphere is so vital.
19:38
Spoiler. For the future, we're going down
19:40
into devilish crypts later on church yards I.
19:45
I think you'll find it's not a crypt, it's a cavern.
19:48
But anyway, we yeah, that's prelimination continues.
19:51
Probably enough for. Now, yes.
19:53
Oh look, I love do you know this?
19:54
Whole bit with condo and so you know used take hook give good
19:58
arm see. I love condos A fascinating
20:02
character because he is He is your Igor archetype because in
20:05
the 1st 2, James Wales, Frankenstein's assistant is
20:11
played by Dwight Frey and he's Fritz.
20:14
He's Fritz in the first one and he's a different Dwight for a
20:17
different character in the second one.
20:19
But but when we think of what Igor looks like, we think of
20:21
Fritz. But the but the character Igor
20:23
and the name Igor is from son of Frankenstein Stein, played by
20:26
Bella Lugosi. He's a guy who was hanged, but
20:29
he survived hanging. They didn't have an.
20:31
Igor in The Horror of Frankenstein, No.
20:34
No, that person is going to be Eagle.
20:36
That, but they kept introducing like the cook and people like
20:39
this and I was like, yeah, he's going to be the eagle nobody
20:41
apparently, but. Igor is a stock character, but
20:43
what what what makes Condo unique is his very simple plot
20:47
thing of he wants his arm back. That's so good, Rob.
20:51
Later on there is a sequence I love the power games between
20:54
cause Kondo is stronger than so and he pins him down with his
20:59
hook hand that later on and he's gonna kill him.
21:01
He's got a knife right to his throat and so.
21:04
Long's. Desperately improvising, going.
21:07
You want your arm? I'll give.
21:08
You your arm so. He's he's wonderfully pathetic
21:11
and wheedling, as well as being an obsessive fanatic genius.
21:17
He's all those things. So that makes that's what makes
21:19
Solon so good. And I want to say just as an
21:22
aside, Mahendri Solon is just a brilliant character name.
21:26
It really evokes an idea of a culture and everything else.
21:29
Anyway, story carry on this. Scene where we find out that
21:34
Sarah is blind. Oh how Liz fate and plays this
21:36
because she does do the sort of self pity but very, you know
21:40
where she's going. I could always sell flowers.
21:41
Good night, you know, lovely fresh violets and he's like,
21:44
look, if you're going to sit there being self piteous, I'll
21:46
bite your ear. All right.
21:48
Yeah, but she she, she's brave, frightened, vulnerable, angry at
21:54
the doctor, angry at herself. It's why she got the job.
21:58
That's what Barry let's said. She was the only person that
22:01
could be brave and terrified at the same time in all the
22:04
auditions they did. Yeah, but.
22:06
It's just, you know, but they keep making a brave and
22:07
terrified all the time. That's the only I.
22:10
Love these scenes shot out in the corridor of him and you
22:14
don't know who he's talking to but it's that weird sort of
22:17
electronic, a bit like a Dalek. Yeah, it's it's brilliantly
22:21
directed look at just as an image.
22:23
Look at that. It's so dramatic with the the
22:25
stairs going up Into Darkness, the the double framing of the
22:29
the curved arch in the immediate foreground, the doorway to the
22:33
back. But in the Frankenstein stories,
22:36
there's never a point, is there? In any of those stories where
22:40
the Frankenstein character is that it's not the same power
22:46
dynamics as Solon and Morbius. He's just creating the creature
22:49
because he's, you know, mad. If you go back to the Shelley he
22:53
creates the creature recoils from in horror from what he's
22:57
done and runs away, leaving it essentially a child on its own.
23:00
And then it begins a vendetta against his family and he starts
23:05
murdering his family in the framing he's made for murder and
23:08
he to to extort help out of Frankenstein.
23:11
But it's a, it's a very different relationship to this
23:14
because because we, this is kind of don't know if we're quite
23:20
there yet. No, no, we are there yet.
23:21
He's talking to Morbius. So we can kind of get into the
23:23
Donovan's brain influence. And Donovan's Brain was a short,
23:26
I think it was a short story first of all.
23:29
But they made at least one film of it.
23:31
And there's a radio adaptation of it with Orson Welles.
23:34
Basically, Donovan is a really powerful financier, gangster
23:37
type figure who I think he gets killed, killed in a car crash,
23:42
but his brain gets saved and his brain is in a jar and is
23:45
exerting psychic power over a surgeon.
23:48
So it's basically there's a villain, A villainous brain in a
23:51
jar. And that's not Frankenstein.
23:54
That's not the Frankenstein story.
23:55
So when more obvious of the 1930s, I think, oh wow.
24:00
OK. The Orson Welles radio version I
24:03
think is from the probably from the 40s, maybe the 50s.
24:06
There's a there's a 50s film of Donovan's brain, but there's a
24:09
whole brain brain in the genre which is not Frankenstein.
24:12
However, Frankenstein in the James Wales because he they
24:15
don't do this in the Mary Shelley.
24:16
But from the James Wales onwards, there is the must must
24:20
find the perfect brain and don't drop it.
24:23
Don't get broken glass in it. In the case of Young
24:28
Frankenstein, don't take the brain labeled Abby normal.
24:35
Yeah. So the whole, so the whole kind
24:37
of getting the finding the right brain is from Frankenstein.
24:40
Is it? Played as cheekily as this Rob?
24:42
Or is it played? For real?
24:43
Oh yeah. Or even in the James whale when
24:45
Fritz gets scared by the lightning and drops drops.
24:49
Oh. Boy, oh brain.
24:51
Jar, you know, we, I mean, we get that scene in this, you
24:55
know. Just in case.
24:56
Just in case. For whatever reason, I mean, I
24:59
hadn't, no one's seen it. He picks up the brain.
25:02
That says normal brain he gets he jumps and smashes.
25:06
Out on the floor and then just picks up the one that goes
25:09
abnormal brain that goes, oh, that'll do.
25:12
Takes it away. Oh, it was so.
25:14
Funny, yeah. And.
25:15
We get the equivalent here, but the brain giving orders from the
25:19
jar, that's Donovan's brain. And again, that goes back to my
25:22
finger. If you are going to take have
25:24
smash ideas together, I I think it's it's possibly more
25:29
effective to stay, I don't know. And then again, there's too
25:34
much. In this, then, is it too rich a
25:36
case? No, no.
25:37
No, no, no. I just think maybe take your
25:40
ingredients from the same aisle a bit more.
25:42
But then as I say that, I start disagreeing with myself.
25:44
So you know. Hi, Rob.
25:46
Sometimes, you know, when you've got all those random things left
25:48
in the freezer and you wuss it all up together, you get a
25:51
fabulous brain. Amorphous, you know?
25:53
Yeah. Well, you know, or you know, the
25:54
omelette, the omelette Amorbius, well, you know, that's, that's
25:58
you can make anything. Awful and brain and all sorts of
26:02
it. I don't want.
26:02
Well, I do. Think that as long as it's you
26:04
know, the eggs all fluffy it's you know, but but a bit of sea
26:07
salt, you're good to go. Maybe that's the maybe that's
26:09
one of the the strengths of Doctor Who is that you can just
26:11
smash random stuff together, but.
26:14
She's so subtly playing the blindness.
26:17
I've seen people playing the. Blindness.
26:19
And usually it's kind of agonising.
26:22
There's a lot of eye work going on and feeling around and she's
26:26
just not aware of her circumstances, that she plays
26:29
that brilliantly. Yeah, but.
26:30
But also, it's an awful, awful thing she's gone through.
26:34
And of course, here we find out that it's interesting how the
26:39
doctor and Solomon at times will sort of work together for their
26:43
own purposes. And here, here I think Solon has
26:46
led the Doctor to believe that the elixir of life will will
26:51
allow her to get her eyesight back.
26:54
And then the door closes and then Solon smirks.
26:57
He. Writes the lens way back,
26:58
Sisterhood of Khan. Please retain his head.
27:03
You do whatever you. Want with the rest of it.
27:07
Him and him and Condo. There is a kind of a Black Adam
27:10
Baldrick thing going on too. You know, this could be comedy.
27:15
There actually some of these. Times it is, yeah.
27:18
I I mean, I think it is just is so confidently presented that
27:22
the comedy and the horror, it's just really it's both sick and
27:26
faithful. It's Oh well done, especially in
27:29
three and four when that. Brain is falling on.
27:32
The floor, it's fucking. Operatic at that point now.
27:36
One thing we do have, again, a thing in Frankenstein, the
27:41
films, because Frankenstein is, you know, the maid.
27:44
The maid finding her way into the laboratory is a recurring
27:47
thing, but also blind characters.
27:51
In Frankenstein there is a thing of the monster being taken in by
27:58
a kindly blind woodsman and so blindness in the monster, So
28:03
having blindness in a Frankenstein's story has
28:07
precedent. Before this, the tone was.
28:09
Very different because Frankenstein.
28:11
'S monster and the blind man. We're having a wonderful time in
28:14
his house. Have some tea.
28:15
You know, sit down on Beachy manners, no?
28:18
Spoilers, but watch Young Frankenstein because Gene
28:21
Hackman plays the blind guy. Yeah.
28:26
Oh, Rob, this cliffhanger is so amazing.
28:29
Yeah, so the. Last cliffhanger we had the
28:31
body. This cliffhanger we have the
28:35
brain. Just the fact.
28:36
That obviously she can't see it and we can, and it's kind of
28:40
horrible. And then do you know what?
28:44
The bubbles. The bubbles and then the.
28:48
Music. The closing 4th Doctor credits
28:51
here. Ear canal, that's kind of mine
28:54
or or or colonoscopy, but that's what.
28:57
I usually say on these, yeah. Yeah, it's a bit.
29:00
It's just a bit yellowy brown for my life.
29:02
Making you. Know.
29:04
Sort of. Appropriate for the story, I'd
29:06
say. Sort of.
29:07
Yeah, it is. But I think make it blue,
29:09
blue-green, it'd be kind of a bit more less quick.
29:13
But what do you think happens? To all the other parts that they
29:18
don't use for the monster where. Oh, is it?
29:23
Like a parts room? And the condo probably has them
29:28
with milk, you know, trap and onions, you know?
29:30
Oh, Rob, we're straight. Into two doctors territory now.
29:36
I mean where? Where did the other claw go?
29:38
You know, but a bit of lemon, but a butter lemon, you know?
29:43
Now I'm allergic to crustaceans so it would kill.
29:45
Oh, really? OK Oh, I can't have.
29:47
Prawns or anything? No, when I watch the invisible
29:52
enemy, I come out in hives when that prone comes out of the end.
29:57
Oh boy, can I. Just say we are two for two for
30:00
incredible cliffhangers. Yeah, isn't.
30:03
This the era for cliffhangers, the Hinch Cliff era.
30:07
Yeah, quite possible, you know. Well, you know, since the
30:09
invention of the Sting in the 3rd Doctor era, cliffhangers
30:12
became easier or not easier. But you could, you could, you
30:17
could, you could kind of jazz up a Duff one.
30:19
But yeah, but basically, you can't beat a monster revelation.
30:23
And this story's cliffhangers are three.
30:27
They they reveal different things.
30:29
We, we get the body of the monster, the brain of the
30:30
monster, and then we get the combination of the two next
30:34
time. But you know, there's a, there's
30:35
a, there's a very elegant progression.
30:37
It's always. A variation of a theme.
30:39
Isn't it the first one? It's like Sarah has no idea
30:42
what's behind that thing. But she's going to have a look.
30:43
Oh my God, it's a load of horrible body parts together.
30:47
The second one is she can't see it, but we can.
30:50
Oh my. God, it's an enormous rain in a
30:52
jar. And then the third one is, oh,
30:54
she can finally see again, but she doesn't realize that that
30:57
great master's coming up behind them.
31:00
Paul, Sarah, Paul, do you know, I very quickly before we out
31:04
this episode, I just wanted to say I do think I think making
31:08
her blind was vital to this story because it did need her to
31:13
be the damsel in distress. And I don't think that's a
31:17
natural fit for Sarah if she isn't sort of impaired in that
31:21
way. Otherwise, you know, she too
31:24
easily find her way out of room. She's she's been seen this
31:27
season to be hugely competent, you know, pyramism, Mars, planet
31:31
of the year in this. Story in this story, yeah, so.
31:34
I think she has pouring away. The Wine, playing Possum, going
31:37
undercover at the Sisterhood, She's doing incredible stuff,
31:39
even even blind. She's still exploring, she's
31:43
still trying to achieve. That's not.
31:46
Me saying obviously that people who are blind on extremely
31:52
competent people, but she's freshly blind, she's.
31:55
She doesn't. She's she's had it thrust upon
31:59
her. You know her.
32:00
Sight rips away from her. I think it's really, really
32:03
effective. Well, look, I mean, I'm just
32:06
absolutely riveted to find out what on earth that great sponge,
32:10
you know, VAT of green goose all about, aren't you?
32:14
Yeah, I. Know, actually I know it
32:15
shouldn't do, but the mention of crab claws, oh, you're allergic.
32:18
But it's made me kind of hungry, so I think we should.
32:22
I've got some extraneous body parts of the hand farm here,
32:26
don't worry. Oh well, you.
32:28
Know I do I do I do like you know I like tribe like my
32:31
kidneys and liver and you know I do I'm I'm what can I say I like
32:35
awful I do like awful I wasn't the.
32:37
Body part I was going to offer and I'll cut it there.