April 16, 2025 • 61 mins
Hey, Who fans and welcome to Episode 420.
Today, we dive right into the "Robot Revolution," the season two opener of Doctor Who!
Spoiler alert: The episode was a mixed bag, landing somewhere between decent and just okay, which is kinda how we felt about it. We discuss the new companion, Belinda, and the new vibes she brings, along with the usual Doctor antics. Speaking of which, there’s a bit of a head-scratcher moment where the Doctor celebrates a villain’s demise, and we’re not sure how we feel about that.
Overall, we enjoyed some of the visuals and the robot design, but the story felt a bit thin and predictable. So grab your sonic screwdrivers and join us as we dissect this one and look ahead to next week's adventures!
This is The Big Blue Box Podcast
Join us each week for a new episode every Friday from your hosts Garry and Adam. We talk news, reviews, commentaries and general chat on everything Doctor Who PLUS listen to our monthly Round Table episodes with the whole team. Check out our website where you can also listen to all of our episodes for free along with the amazing reviews and articles from our writing team.
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Have a fantastic week and until next time remember... Aaaaaaaaaaallons-y!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:19):
Hey, hey, hey who fans andwelcome to the big Blue Box podcast.
My name's Garry.
My name's Adam.
And welcome back this isepisode 420.
Yeah.
(00:47):
Welcome back, Who fans, foranother episode. We hope you have
had a cracking few weeks sincethe last episode. We hope you've
kept safe and well and they'veall managed to do something. Doctor
Who. I won that. That's onlybecause I rolled it into one kind
of stupid word there.
Yeah, you and you and yourcheating tactics.
(01:09):
You and your. Yeah, you andyour bloody.
You've been practicing that. I know.
We were saying before werecorded, we have to get our heads
back into Doctor Who mode.Don't know if you know, listener,
but we did a. We did a Blake's7 podcast over the last couple of
months. Little shameless plug.
Yes.
(01:29):
Come check it out. It's calledFederation Strike the journey through
Blake's 7. You can find it onall the podcast apps. We'll stick
a link in the show note aswell, but if you've not heard about
it or whatever, we've been onthe socials with it as well. All
the links will be in all thatstuff. Be in the show notes, but
it's very, very cool. Andagain, those of you that don't know,
Adam is a lifelong Blake's 7fan. He's been bugging me for years
(01:51):
to do a podcast about Blake's7 and we finally. We finally did
it. Now that the Blu Ray setshave started to roll for those. For
that show and I fell in lovewith that show, mate, it's been brilliant.
So if you want to get my viewsas a newcomer to that and Adam's
views, re watching it for themillionth time as a. As a lifelong
fan, then check it out. It's agood one that.
Yeah, we've had a great timereviewing that. I've loved doing
(02:14):
the Blake's 7 pod.
It's been very cool. So we areback in Doctor Who mode now that
season two is upon us withNcuti's new stuff, new companion
and all that jazz. We'll getonto that in a second, but very quickly,
dude, because I know you.We've had a few messages on socials
already. When are we going tohear your thoughts on it? When we're
going to get your review?We'll get to that in just a second.
(02:35):
But Adam and I haven't caughtup in a. In a. In a minute. So as
Adam's in the US at the momenton different time zones and all that
stuff. So, dude, how have youbeen since we last spoke? How's things
out in the U.S. yeah.
Yeah, I'm having a great time.I'm back out in Texas for a couple
of months and yeah, we're ondifferent time zones which suits
me better because I'm so badat getting up in the mornings normally
(02:58):
when we record I'm all sleepyeyed and I'm always late and just
Garry's like, oh, where is he?And now it's like it's only two.
It's 2pm my time, 7pm no, it's1pm my time,7pm your time and I'm
all fresh as a daisy, mate.I'm all up and finished, full of
energy and it suits me muchbetter. But for you, you're probably
(03:19):
tired, just had your dinnerand ready to go to bed so I don't
know. But yeah, otherwisemate, all good here. Thanks.
Yeah, good, good, good. Yeah,not tired yet. Not at that age yet
where not quite there. 7pm haswiped me out and well, hopefully
not. We'll see how this reviewof the episode goes. Might be tied
at the end of it.
I am very much looking forwardto hearing what you think of this
(03:39):
episode, mate, because Ithink, yeah, this is one of those
I can't gauge, you know, And Ilike it when we get an episode where
I don't really know whatyou're going to think of it because
sometimes I watch it. I think,yeah, Garry won't have liked that
or Garry will have loved thatone or whatever. This one could go
either way. And I don't knowif you have any inkling if I liked
it or not.
I am also finding it difficultto gauge what your reaction is going
(04:03):
to be to this one. I'll behonest with you.
Ah, good.
Yes. So okay, cool. We willkick off then with our review. Before
we get into that, as always,make sure you are following or subscribing
to the big Blue Box in yourpreferred podcast app of choice.
That way you won't miss anepisode when they land at the moment,
they'll be weekly as we gothrough season two and as we're on
(04:25):
a seasonal format with theBlue Bibb Box now, we'll finish our
reviews and then we'll have abreak. And then whenever the next
thing comes along, we willreview that which I believe is going
to be the spin off hopefullythis year and rinse and repeat. We'll
come back with like bonusepisodes and bits in between of course.
But you're with us now for thenext eight weeks as we go through
(04:48):
season two. So if you hit TheFollow or subscribe button. You get
a notification in your podcastapp when a new Big Blue Box episode
lands. You can also listenonline over at the website bigblueboxpodcast.co.uk
and you can check out thereviews and articles from all the
writing teams over there aswell. And also, don't forget to remember
to check out Adam's YouTubechannel. It's the Geeks Handbag.
(05:12):
The Geeks Handbag. I was justworking on a new vid before we started
recording as well. I'm doingsome stuff while I'm out here in
the U.S. so check out mychannel, the Geeks Handbag on YouTube.
YouTube, good old YouTube.
Not tick tock. But he's on theother socials.
I did do one. I did my firstTick Tock in like months yesterday.
Yeah, I felt like I shouldkeep that going so my account don't
(05:33):
get shut. Well, I nearly didout here in the US anyway, mate.
Trump banned it for like fivehours, I think, and then it came
back. So, yeah, good old Tick Tock.
Oh dear. Yeah, so he's underthe same name, the Geek's Handbag.
Go and nag him about Dr. WHOor other geeky stuff. So, bud, let's
crack straight on them what wegot this week.
(05:54):
Yeah, so we're starting abrand new season and this episode,
episode one is called theRobot Revolution.
Transmat initiated. Melinda,Belinda. Can someone tell me what
(06:17):
the hell is going on? Sowhat's your name?
Just a doctor.
All right then I'm called theNurse Rebels. You will surrender.
What have you done? I'm sorry.The Robot Revolution. It was released
(06:50):
of course, very recently, 12April 2025. It was had a runtime
of roughly 43 minutes. Ishwhen you take off the titles and
stuff. It was written byRussell T. Davis, directed by Peter
Hoare and was overseen byJulie Gardner, Phil Collinson, Joel
(07:11):
Collins, the usual people whoare back on. Doctor Who stars Ncuti
Gatwa, of course, as thefifteenth Doctor, new companion Belinda
Varadu Sethu and about half adozen supporting cast members on
it whose names.
I'm not going to remember.Just listener. Just nothing. Some
(07:31):
things never change.
Yeah, as always, we'll gothrough and get that all wrong, of
course. But the synopsis forthis one is. When robots from outer
space kidnap nurse BelindaChandra, the Doctor embarks on an
epic intergalactic quest toget his new friend back home to Earth.
(07:52):
So short and sweet there. Andas usual, we will go over to you,
my good buddy, what yourthoughts out the gate for this season
two kickoff episode.
Well, mate, I must admit I, Ihad to put a bit of baggage aside
before I watched this. Iwasn't really in the mood, to be
honest. I've seen the trailersand I thought they looked exciting,
(08:13):
but I wasn't feeling that buzzthat I normally get of a new series
of Doctor Who. So I plonked iton. Obviously I'm over in the US
so it's Disney plus. I plonkedit on when I got in on Saturday night.
And yeah, what I'm basicallytrying to say is my expectations
were very low. I think I'mstill scarred by space babies, to
(08:33):
be absolutely honest with you,because I what I mean by that and
I kind of being serious aboutit, I felt so in dejected after watching
space babies. I was sodeflated. But you know, that I didn't
want that feeling again. Andknowing that this series was filmed
sort of back to back withseason one, I thought, oh God, it's
not going to be another. Youknow, I'd seen like a few preview
(08:56):
clips. It's not going to beanother space babies, is it really?
So silly and awful and I justdidn't want that feeling, mate. So
I sort of had to kind of putall that to one side before I was
ready to watch this. I thoughtthere's no point going into it with
a negative attitude. You'vegot to just clear your mind, right?
So I come in, sit down me overhalf. I said, come on then, let's,
let's get Doctor Who on. Let'ssee, see what it's like. And I wouldn't
(09:21):
say I loved it, but I did getto the end of it and say, yeah, I
kind of shrugged when, yeah,that was okay. And I know that's
a bit on the fence, but I'mjust almost relieved that I didn't
have that space babies feelingand that I didn't not enjoy it, if
you know what I mean. Don'tget me wrong, there are lots there.
I have lots of issues with itas an episode, so I'm sorry to be
(09:43):
a bit on the fence and say itwas okay, but that's exactly how
I feel about it. It fin we hada couple of little smiles throughout
it. I thought it was a sort ofalmost typical RTD opening episode.
It was fluffy with a verypaper thin story. It had some fun
moments, some good ro, youknow, some fun robots. It was, it
(10:03):
looked great production wise,you know, and it was just an introduction
really to the new companion,which I think it did a fairly good
job doing so. Yeah, I knowit's not exactly the. The sort of
most critical thing to say,you know, but I'm just saying it
was okay. I thought I enjoyedit for the most part, but I do have
(10:25):
issues with it and there isone thing I really, really didn't
like, which I will get to. AndI know a lot of people have picked
up on this, so you probablyknow what I'm gonna say. But overall,
mate, I'm just gonna sum up bysaying I mostly enjoyed it. I didn't
think it was great, but Ididn't think it was bad. It's very
much a mid episode for me andas a season opener I would have liked
(10:48):
for more but because myexpectations were low, it kind of
just sat where I thought itwas going to sit and at least it
didn't sink any lower. So itwas okay. It was just fun. I thought
for the most part it was okay.It was okay. I know I don't really.
I wish I could think of abetter way to sum up my feelings
because that sounds so rubbishas a review, you know, you can't
(11:09):
imagine that on the season twobox set, can you? It was okay. The
Geek's Handbag, you know, itjust. But that's exactly how I feel
about it. So I'm just sort ofsaying it how it is, mate. It was
okay.
Cool. Gotcha.
Over to you. What do you thinkof it?
Yeah, I'm. I'm along the same.Same kind of lines as you on that
(11:29):
one.
Okay.
On that. On the thoughtprocess, I think. As a season opener.
Did it blow my socks off? No.
No.
Was it a great episode? No.Was it a bad episode? No, it was
just an.
Okay, it's exactly where I am.Exactly where I am. Yeah.
(11:50):
And the reason why I say thatis because it felt a little bit.
And I've watched it twice now.I watched. When was. When was the
12th? It was on Saturday,wasn't it?
Saturday?
Yes. I just. Gone. So Iwatched it on iplayer, I think around
lunchtime on Saturday. And.And then I watched it again. Me and.
(12:11):
Me and wifey watched it awhile ago, Mrs. Blue Box. We. We
watched through it just beforewe. We started recording actually.
So on the second time round, Iwould probably say I didn't mind
it as much. I think it'd bewrong to say that I enjoyed it more
than the first viewing. Ithink I just didn't mind it as much.
(12:32):
There wasn't as much headscratching on that second one, of
course. Because you, your mindhas already, you know, decided that,
yep, I get those bits and Iget that bit. So you're concentrating
a little bit more on the bitsthat you were confused around the
first time. So, yeah, I thinkit was all right. It was all right.
I think like you and a lot ofWHO fans, we were kind of a bit burnt
(12:55):
out with some of therepetitive stuff from season one.
And what I mean by that isthe, you know, shoot his doctor crying
all the time and. Yeah, andall these sorts of. The quality of
the writing and for someepisodes and just that predictability
of like. Unfortunately, Ithink for a lot of WHO fans, not
(13:17):
all WHO fans, of course, butfor, for some WHO fans, I think,
and us are included in this.We kind of got to that point where
it was like halfway throughseason one. It was like, yeah, we
need to have a good episodehere instead of thinking, well, coming
off the back of last week, Ican't wait to watch the next episode.
(13:38):
I don't think we felt likethat. I think it was just, you know,
let's. Let's watch Doctor Who.Hopefully it will be good. Fingers
crossed. It will be great. SoI feel like this episode is kind
of. It would have sat verynicely within season one. This could
have been like, see episodefour of season one. It didn't. It
(13:58):
didn't have that big, epicopening feel that you would. I don't
know, not that it needs to besort of huge and epic in every sense
of the word, but I didn't getthat feeling like, wow, like, we're
off in a slightly differentdirection. We're off in a different
vibe here than season one.Season two is off with a bang. I
didn't feel that. I just feltlike it was an okay bit of a mid
(14:20):
season episode.
Exactly, mate. And that's thething. When I said I was slightly
relieved. One of the thingsI've been worried about with this
season is that I, in terms ofrecording reviews and the podcast
is I was really worried thatthis season is gonna not hit the
mark for me and I don't wantto be coming on here every week and
being negative or saying, Idon't enjoy it. Now, unfortunately,
(14:42):
that could still happen. Butat least with the first episode,
I thought, when I say relief,I thought, ah, good. Oh, at least
I'll be able to go on and say,you know, I enjoyed that one for
the most part. And, you know,because I worried about that. I think
that's unfortunately where Iam personally with Dr. At the minute
is I. I Don't go into it withexcitement because we've got new
series almost. Well, I do, butI. It's sort of overshadowed, with
(15:06):
a bit of sort of trepidation.You know, I go in thinking, oh, God,
am I going to be moaning aboutit? And I don't want to be moaning
about a show that I love. Sothat's what I meant when I said I
had relief. Just quickly, bud,I like the fact you watched it with
your partner because I alwayslove to get like the. In brackets
casual viewer, you know,perspective, because I watched it
with my partner as well. Andagain, that can go two ways because
(15:31):
when we watch space babiestogether, we don't watch Doctor together
that much anymore, but it'snice when we do. And with Space Babies,
I was cringing the whole time.This time we were sort of laughing
and smiling at the samemoment, which is quite nice because
it enhances your viewingexperience. So I was quite pleased
that he was enjoying it asmuch as I was at the moments we enjoyed,
(15:53):
if you know what I mean. So Idon' I don't know. Did you get the
same from. From Nat, yourpartner? Did she enjoy it? What.
What sort of vibe did you getfrom her about it? Because I love
to get the casual viewers opinion.
Yeah. So it's always like whenI watch it with Nat, it's always.
It's a good yardstick becauseshe's the. She's the quintessential
(16:13):
kind of enjoyed Doctor Who atits peak. And I'm. What I mean by
that, it's like David Tennantsome, you know, series three and
four and the specials andstuff. That's her. That's her sort
of go to, like, if you saidto. If you, if you gave her a shelf
with all the DVDs or Blu Raysfrom 2005 to now and said, right,
pick a couple off the shelfthat you really like. She would reach
(16:36):
for David Tennant. Yeah,Series three and four, that sort
of thing and everything elseafter that, she fell off very quickly,
I would say. Yeah. As. As MattSmith's era started to. She. She
dropped off. She's not really.She likes Matt Smith in other things,
but she's not too fond of himin Doctor Who. She sort of takes
(16:58):
it or leave it. And thencertainly 100 with Capaldi, she's
gone. She's had enough of allthat. Yeah. So. So she's a good yardstick,
like you said, for sort of thecasual fan. And I have to say, because
I sat down, I said, right, I'mjust Gonna, I'm just gonna quickly
zip through this. I wasn't, Iwasn't even planning to watch it
from start to finish incompletion. I was just going to just
(17:20):
zip through some of the scenesthat I wanted to recap on specifically.
So I sat down, said, I'm justgoing to zip through this because
I'm reviewing it. And Istarted watching it and she was hooked.
Like, you know, she was. Shestarted to, to, to watch it because
I reached for the remoteinside to fast forward it and she
gave me that look like, whatare you doing? You sort of go back
(17:42):
and so I said, okay, we'llwatch it. So she actually watched
this one from start to finish.She commented on a few things. You
know, she was, she was quiteinto it. So for the casual fan, from
her point of view, I thinkshe, I think she mostly enjoyed it.
I don't think, I don't thinkshe's itching like we are to watch
(18:03):
the next episode. If shemissed it on Saturday, she wouldn't
really lose sleep over that.But she was reasonably engaged.
Yeah, that's the reason Iasked, mate. Because casual, the
reason I like to get casualviewers thoughts is because they
don't go into it and analyzeit like as Doctor Who fans do. So
I just always find itinteresting for someone that does
(18:24):
just sit down and findthemselves watching the episode,
does it engage with them? Youknow, does it, does it still do that?
You know, this is a 60 plusyear old show. So that's why I always
like to, to talk to otherpeople that perhaps are not so, you
know, looking at every sort ofaspect of it, like us Doctor Who
fans do, to just get an almostlike clean slate. Like I said, put
the baggage aside, opinion ofthe episode to see where, where it's
(18:47):
hitting.
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, you'reabsolutely right. I think it's because
we, we said this many times,you know, we will. What's the best
way to put it? It's like abusman's holiday for us in a way
because we're always watchingit with like two sets of eyeballs.
Yeah.
You know, we've got that. It'sa blessing and a curse in a way as
(19:10):
well, because we're watchingit, trying to enjoy it as a fan.
But then at the same time, Idon't know about you, but I always
have this thing like, right, Imust remember that because we talk
about it on the review and Imust remember that. So which is why,
I think, which is why we'venever done those like a Lot of other
podcasters and YouTubechannels. They will put a review
(19:30):
out like, 10 minutes after the episode.
Yeah.
And there's nothing wrong withthat, but from our point of view,
it's it. It's it. Well, in myopinion, it's never a. A true representation
of how you feel because, youknow, you're coming off of just watching
it and there's a little bit ofa high because you've just watched
it, and regardless of how youfeel about it, whether you loved
(19:51):
it or hated it or whatever,your emotions are sort of cranked
up a little bit because you'rejust coming off the back of watching
it. So we've always gone downthe train of thought of, you just
let the dust settle just alittle bit. Sort of collect your
thoughts, do you know what Imean? And. And reflect on it. And.
And so. Which is why multipleviewings and getting points of view
(20:12):
from other people that we livewith and stuff is really important.
So. So how did your other halftake it then?
Yeah, that's what I mean. I. Iwas. I think that made me relax when
I sort of heard littlechuckles and, you know, moments,
you know, like some of the. Imean, because some of the dialogue
was pretty terrible in this,but some of that dialogue made him
laugh and I thought, oh, youknow, so it's. It's. That's what
(20:35):
I mean. It appears if it wasappealing to him, which it seemed
to be, I thought, that's good.I like the fact he's enjoying it.
And it made me enjoy it a bitmore, I think, as I said, compared
to Space Babies, where we'reboth sat there like, this is terrible.
We both look at each othershaking our head. It was nice to
sort of be, you know, sort ofsmiling and laughing at certain moments
during the episode.
So, yeah, no reader, before weget on to any sort of little hiccups,
(20:59):
perhaps in the episode,anything we weren't so fond of, I
just want to rattle off a fewthings that I felt were very good.
The first one, again, I don'tknow how it's possible, but they
do this every single season.And that the visual quality of it,
the cinematic feel and thevisual effects, that seems to ramp
up every season in very smallincrements since. Since shooty. Well,
(21:24):
since probably. I mean, every.It's. I started to gauge with, like,
the Eccleston and Tenantstuff, because that all looks very,
very similar. But, you know,when you've jumped into Matt Smith's
era, you can see that there'sa little bit of a Jump up.
Absolutely.
You know, in. Yeah. In visualquality. And then the same thing
happened very slightly, butyou can see it sort of creeping up
(21:47):
again into Capaldi. But youdefinitely saw it into Jodie's stuff.
Yeah.
And then now we're in thisseason, it's gone up again. And so
some of the scenes, some ofthe. The visual qualities, it just
amazing. Like you can tellthat the cinematographers and the
production people, all those.It's just so good. And so I. A visual
(22:07):
treat for the eyes on thisone. And I really like the visual
style as well. I'm a bit of a.I really love that old sort of 50s
sci fi stuff, you know, like.
Well, like Flash Gordon.
Flash Corner. Yes.
Not the film, the old TV show.
The old stuff. Yeah. So theset designers and some of the producers,
(22:31):
they took inspiration from thefilm Forbidden Planets.
Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Yep. And also. And also thisIsland Earth, which is a very old,
again, sci fi sort of thingfrom the 50s. And it also had, you
know, like the yellow rocketship that came and, and took Belinda
off and, and the designerrobots and stuff. It had a very,
(22:53):
you know, Pixar's theIncredibles film.
Yes. Oh, yeah.
You know, had that really.Yeah. That sort of retro sci fi,
50s feel. So I love that partof it. Very, very cool. And I loved
most of the performances. Ithink Verada Sethu is. I'm really
(23:16):
enjoying her kind of. It's anice change of pace. I have a companion
that's not just swept up inthe Doctor's sort of energy and stuff
like that, you know, this islike the opposite to Rose, you know,
it's. Rose was just desperateto travel with the Doctor and for
(23:38):
more reason than one that wefound, we find out a bit later. But
she was like, you know, noquestions, you know. Yeah. I mean,
I'm in for the ride, you know,let's do it. So it's refreshing to
have a companion. It's a bitmore like Donna, stand up to the
Doctor, not take his rubbish.You know, not just. Yeah. We'll come
on to a scene where those twoare like, you know, towards the end
(23:59):
where it feels like it's goingfairly chummy and it's pretty cool.
But then she has a moment ofrealization and, yeah, just want
to be taken home and stuff. Sothat was cool. We'll get onto her
in a second. And also, reallylike the, the. The little. The little
Polish robot. Polish, Polish,Polish, Polish, Yeah.
(24:21):
I know why you like thatrobot, because he sounds like a droid.
From Star wars, doesn't he?
He does have it. He does,actually. I know you mention. Also,
I also really liked the, the,the effect that, you know, when they
had the two certificates andthey sort of put them together in
(24:45):
the same space. The Doctorwarned her earlier that, you know,
if you put them in the sameplace, atoms just say no and kaboom
and stuff like that. There wasa really cool effect when that happened.
Yeah.
Went off into a big sort oftrippy thing. That was amazing. That
was really well done. So,yeah, there was a few things I really
did like about it and thosethings. But what about you, mate?
Anything that stood out thatyou really enjoyed before we got
(25:07):
onto anything that wasn't so good?
Well, yeah, I agree about theproduction. I thought as an episode
it looked great, you know, Imean, it was quite CG heavy at times,
but it looked very good. Onething that's particularly stood out
to me was when, you know, theowl was revealed as the cyborg owl.
Quite Iron Maiden, like, it'sa bit like Eddie. I just thought
(25:30):
the mask, you know, theprosthetics on his face were fantastic.
You know, he looked reallycreepy and. Yeah. So production wise,
I thought it looked reallygood, mate. And I know we'll talk
about Belinda, so I'll waittill we get onto her, but yeah, I
just thought overall it lookedgood. I, I also enjoyed the, the
(25:51):
style of, you know, the designof the robots and spaceship, which
actually surprises myself alittle because I remember like in
the Husband's A River Songsaying how awful the UFO looked and
I think they were going forthat sort of retro look and it didn't
work for me in that story. ButI don't know, something about this
suited the sort of world andthe planet that they, you know, he
created. So I, I thought itreally suited the style of the episode
(26:14):
and the sort of. I've heardpeople compare it to Sarah Janes
and saying it was a bit goofyand a bit silly and I absolutely
get why people are sayingthat. I think there is a big element
of that to this episode, butfor me it kind of, it did work. I
thought it really suited thestory. So, yeah, I just thought overall,
production wise, it was good.Very good.
(26:35):
Yeah. That was a productiondesigner, Phil Sims, who was working
with Russell and, and saidthey, it would be cool to take inspiration
from those old, really old scifi. You say you can tell them I love
them.
When you said you planet mate,I was like, yeah, absolutely, I can
see that now. The oldForbidden Planet film. Yeah, Bang.
On. Yep. It's actually a goodfilm. You know, the old Forbidden
(26:58):
Planet film.
I've not watched it for years.
Yeah, it's bit cheesy, butit's. Yeah, it's good.
I don't want a bit of cheesysci fi.
Yeah, you mentioned the. The.It was visual effects heavy. That
was one thing that wasapparent all the way through, other
than the hospital stuff thatthey filmed at the beginning.
(27:18):
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah.
You know, when the Doctor'schasing after her and can't quite
find her, it's. Other thanthat, you can tell that pretty much
everything else was in frontof a green screen. It was very, very
green screen heavy. Other thanthe TARDIS sets at the end and. Which
is obviously a physical thingthat used to be. Yeah, used to be
(27:42):
up at Wolf Studios.
I think it still is. I thinksomeone. I don't know. We just don't
know.
I'm kidding. Yeah, but, yeah,it was. That was very green screeny.
You could tell that prettymuch every. Every scene for after
that. After the bit where shegets taken up into the rocket up
(28:02):
until the end when they're onthe tardis. I think most of it was
some kind of green screenstuff, but that's not a bad thing.
But it just felt a little bit.Yeah, a little bit like a. You know,
they were one step away fromjust. You might as well just animate
Doctor Who.
I. I kind of get what youmean, mate, because there's someone
who hate. I hate CGI when it'sused a lot, especially in Marvel
films, because to me, I thinkmy brain's got so used to it that
(28:25):
I'm just sat there thinking,it's not real, it's not, you know,
so I'm not a big fan of heavycgi, but it didn't bother me for
some reason during this. Ithink it was well done for the most
part. So, yeah. Yeah, I justgot. Well, I remember, mate, as being
as. We are both. We are bothcat owners and we love our feline
(28:46):
friends, because I'm bound toforget this later on. Did you nearly
switch off when that cat gotobliterated? Within the first five
minutes, I was a bit shocked.I was like, what the heck? You know
what that cat do.
Sad times, eh?
I know, because we bothlisteners, we both have our cats
and they are like our bestfriends. We love cats, me and Garry,
very much. Cat people. So,yeah, I was horrified by that. But,
(29:10):
yeah, I didn't switch off, obviously.
No, no, it was. I think it Wasthe first fatality, wasn't it? The
cat. The first one to bite thedust. Yeah.
It made me want to hit RussellT. Davies over the head of an umbrella.
It's like, how dare you?
Very sad. Yeah, I'm sure that.Yeah, I'm sure. I think I saw somebody
on Twitter say, of course theywere joking, of course. But they
(29:33):
put a screenshot of the exactmoment when the cat sort of turned,
was obliterated and they saidsomething like, this is it the straw
that's broke the camel's back.Not watching Doctor Who anymore.
I did think that about. Ithought this could be it. This could
be Garry switching off. That'sthe. Yeah, the final straw, Russ.
Yeah, no reader, story wisefelt a little bit classic rtd, this
(29:59):
one in terms of story. It wasjust a good old throw in some timey
wimey stuff, if you know whatI mean. You know, with the whole.
The Doctor even says that,doesn't he? He says timey, why me?
And. And Belinda's like, whatam I, six? Those little biting comments,
mate, they, they were verycool. And so I think it tries to
(30:20):
play on. It tries to play onsort of old tropes from. From us,
from Russell back in the dayand because he repeats a few things
that we've heard a few timesbefore. Obviously the whole. It's
bigger on the inside than itis on the outside and, and a.
Timey wimey and the long wayround and all that.
(30:41):
Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of,you know, a little, a little gentle
nudge, a little reminder that,you know, Russell's still the Russell
of old in some respects. Andso story wise. Yeah, a little bit
timey wimey with the whole,you know, how did the certificate
get there before they did?Yeah, you know, and it all comes
down to this time fracture.Essentially. The Doctor and Belinda
(31:03):
travel through a timefracture. They comically in the episode
say, I think it was a schwup,you know, it schwooped, which is
kind of cool. So that was, youknow, a little bit seeing. But I
think the twist, there'salways a twist, always the end, isn't
it? Always? I think the twistwas the character of Alan back as
(31:23):
the, you know, he had beenbrought to the planet, you know,
long before they got thereand, and has caused this revolution
with the robots to, to. To beat war with the humans and all that
stuff. So he's basically a badegg is Alan, Alan Budd. And, and
that leads on to a scene,mate, that I assume that you picked
(31:47):
up on. Lots of people pickedup on this with Alan's demise.
Yeah.
And the Doctor's bigcelebration of. Of his death, which
is an interesting. Alwaysinteresting when they do this in
Doctor Who, because youremember, we had it with, I'm sure,
in Matt Smith's, you know,with. What's his name? Bradley.
(32:11):
Yeah. David Bradley's character.
Yeah.
Dinosaurs on a spaceship.
That's the one. Yeah. When hewas reasonably okay with sending
him to his death, didn't seemtoo bothered, even though he was
a bad egg. Another one, ofcourse. But this is always a thing
when this happens where theDoctor is. Because we've been. We
(32:31):
were so conditioned for theDoctor to be, for the most part,
very compassionate, even inthe face of someone being a bit of
a baddie, always giving them asecond chance or a chance to redeem.
And in all that stuff withthis, though, you know, Alan was
done and then the Doctor'sdancing around and cheering and.
(32:54):
So what's your take on this dude?
Yeah, no, it's the bit Italked about earlier where I said,
it's the one bit I didn'tlike. I know a lot of people have
picked up on it, so itprobably seems like I'm jumping on
the bandwagon, but I really.It was the fact he seemed to be.
They both were sort oflaughing and celebrating it that
just thought. It just didn'tsit right with me, mate. But I will
admit, for half a second, youknow, when the robot cleaned up the
(33:18):
sperm, you know, when itcleaned up Alan, initially, for that
second, me and my partner bothlaughed. He said, oh, God, there
goes Alan. And we sort ofchuckled. And then I stopped and
thought about it because theDoctor then did a high kick. It was
like, yes, and startedlaughing. And I. I kind of went from
laughing at the scene tothinking, oh, no, that's actually.
No, I don't think I like that.And I don't like the Doctor celebrating
(33:41):
it because he may have been abaddie, but, yeah, he was kind of
taken there and, you know, hewasn't. He wasn't really evil and
horrible. Well, I suppose hewas. You know what I mean? Yeah,
yeah. But I still thought itdidn't justify a high kick and a
yes queen from the Doctor. Idon't know. It. Yeah, it just didn't
sit right with me. I do agreewith people who found that a bit
(34:03):
undoctorish. It. I. I knowwe've had it a few times, similar
sort of stuff. Like you justmentioned that about the David Bradley
character. I Also think backto a scene with Matt smith, doctor,
where Mr. Sweet. Remember Mr.Sweet, that little creature when
he was bludgeoned to death andthe Doctor just kind of didn't do
anything about it? Thatannoyed me at the time and still
does now. So, yeah, I'm neververy happy when I see the Doctor,
(34:27):
just. Not necessarily justletting people go to death, but actually
laughing and celebrating aboutit. Yeah, I didn't like that bit,
mate. I'm afraid it wasprobably the. The low point in the
episode for me, in a prettymuch mostly enjoyable episode. It
just. Yeah, I'm not going todwell on it, just. It just. Just
a bit I didn't like.
Yeah, yeah, no, I see why. Isee why people are not too keen on
(34:53):
that bit. I've got twothoughts on it. The first one is,
I think at this point, Alanwas so far gone from his human state
and his human form, they'renot really celebrating the death
or the destruction of a personat that point. You know, he's more
(35:14):
sort of machine and an Androidor whatever you want to call him
at that point. So I thinkthat's why they weren't too fast,
you know, because if we rewindto the beginning of near the beginning,
where the Doctor is talking toBelinda for the first time and they
(35:35):
did this, that was what. Thisis one scene that I really loved,
actually. It's really clever,where the Doctor had figured out
that there was a fault withthe. With the robots, that they couldn't
hear every ninth word.
Yeah, yeah, I like that idea.
Yeah, really cool, that. Andso in that scene there, when that
(35:55):
leads up to the first kind ofrebellion shootout with the robots
and stuff, his reaction whenSasha55 gets killed, he's in pieces,
you know, he's really nothappy. And so I think that that's
(36:17):
the Doctor obviously beingvery Doctor ish, that we know, you
know, with that compassion andwanting to save everybody. So I think
when you go to near the end, Ithink. I think Alan's just not viewed
as a. As a person anymore.He's more machine and robot than
anything. So maybe that sortof links into why they're not too.
(36:38):
Too bothered. Obviously, thefact that he's a right beep, you
know, probably played into ita little bit. But I get what you're
saying and what other peoplesaying is that even if that's the
case, which is the Doctors arebit uncomfortable for him to be like
that. And then the other thingis that I think they have to be quite
(36:59):
careful with the writing here.Because for the most part it was
all very sort of sciencefictiony fun adventure. Pew, pew,
pew. You know, rebellionagainst robots and all that stuff.
On paper it sounds wonderful,but the underlying sort of darkness,
the episode is essentiallyAlan's character being, you know,
(37:21):
this kind of incel.Controlling sort of character. And
when we've had, you know, the,the TV show on Netflix recently,
adolescence, which sort ofgripped. Gripped everybody as being
this amazing show. Very hardwatch. But you know, is very much
(37:43):
around that subject. I thinkit would be very. They have to be
very careful with how theyhandle the. The end result for a
character like that. So you. Idon't think you could have like with
the, the world's consciousnessat the moment about the devastating
effects of people like thatand their influence in the world.
(38:06):
I think you couldn't then havethe Doctor trying his hardest to
save somebody like thatbecause then you would just have,
you know, social media wouldjust be flooded with like, you know,
Doctor saves incel.
Yeah.
Monster kind of thing and allthat stuff. So they have to be careful
about that side of things. SoI think revolving, sort of involving
(38:31):
that scene and, and theDoctor's reaction stuff, I think
it's just a bit more layeredthan he. You know, the Doctor's a
bit of a dick for celebratingsomebody being killed. I think there's
just more to it.
Yeah, essentially.
Yeah. But yeah, I've seen iton Socials, dude. It's a lot of people
have picked up on that onething with the Doctor and Belinda
(38:53):
having a good old, a good oldlaugh and stuff. And what rubs salt
in the wound. Yeah. Is thelittle Polish robot that comes. And
that's the end of improperly.
Yeah. It's like Gadget Gadget,isn't it? Same.
Oh, yeah.
It's another one of sort ofRussell's little sort of tropes that's
come in. In this one which.There are a few.
There are a few, yeah. Thenthe other, the other scene that I
(39:18):
just want to pick up on, whichI didn't think was bad. It was so
terrible, but I just felt alittle bit like, oh, here we go again.
Why. Why do we do. Why do wedo this Doctor Who? Because it's
almost like one step forward,two steps back where we have this
refreshing character in thecompanion of Belinda. Right?
(39:39):
Yeah.
Where she's very strong mindedand not a pushover and we. That's
evident right from the get go.It's very cool. But then we have
the Doctor saying, oh, I can'ttell you. I can't tell you because,
you know, he. There's thatquote unquote, this mysterious. He.
He told me that, you know, Iwould. I would bump into you, whatever.
(40:03):
Yeah, but I have to be carefulwith timelines and stuff like that.
As soon as he said that, I'mlike, oh, here we go. Here we bloody
go. Like, why do we have to.Yeah, why do we have to have this
thing where the companion hasto be either the most important thing
in the universe or, you know,connected to this big plan in some
(40:25):
way and all the rest of it?Why can't they just be them? Why
can't that be enough anymore?Do you know what I mean?
Like, I do.
I don't mean. I don't mean tobe a grumpy old sod, but we think
back to the classic who days,you know, when the Doctor's kicking
around with Sarah Jane and,and, and, or Dodo or Nissa Tegan,
(40:45):
whoever. You know, they're notpart of this massive important cog
that the entire seriesrevolves around and stuff. They're
just there, like, being cool,you know, being with the Doctor and
everything. And we don't havethat anymore. The companion has to
be this mega big, importantthing, you know?
Yeah. I mean, I just hope ithas a decent payoff, mate. I know
(41:09):
exactly what you mean, becauseit's all. It's starting to feel a
little bit tired, this wholesort of mystery companion thing again.
But, yeah, and I guess I don'tknow if it's just that they feel
they have to explain itbecause she was in another episode
and I believe she was castafter Russell saw in Boom and thought
she'd be a good companion. Ithink that's the way it went. It
was never like the initialplan. So, yeah, it's like, oh, well,
(41:32):
she was an episode, so Ibetter explain it. And. But, you
know, back in classic who,yeah, we used to have actors appear
every other week. I mean,Jeffrey Palmer was in loads and,
you know, we didn't. Question.Hang on. He looks like such and such
from two seasons back. Youknow, we just went with it. I think
they worry too much about theaudience, you know, wanting an explanation,
where, like you said, I thinkwe just want them to get in the tardis,
(41:54):
go on some adventures. We'renot too bothered about that sort
of thing. Well, maybe somepeople are, I don't know, but I agree
with you. But I just hopethere's a good, a good resolution
to this whole Mundy Flynn and,you know, Belinda Chandra.
Yeah.
Question. Yeah.
What do you think to a newcompanion and to Varard. Do you think
(42:14):
she's. Think she's off to agood start?
I. I like. I agree with you. Ilike the fact it's something a bit
different. I mean, I do getlike that strong Donna vibes of she's
not gonna, you know, she'sgonna hold her own. Right. So, yes,
I. My initial impressions are.I think I like her. My court. The
court is still a little bitout with me, mate, because she is
a bit stroppy and, you know,I've heard say, people say she's
(42:37):
grumpy and whatever, but I. Iliked what I saw so far. That's what
I will say. She. And like yousaid, I like the fact she's something
a bit new in terms of thedynamic with the Doctor that we haven't
seen for a while, let's put itthat way. So, yeah, my initial first
impressions of her is that Ithink she's got great potential.
I'm hoping we see some goodchemistry between her and. And the
(42:59):
Doctor going forward. I saw alittle bit of that, particularly
the end scene that you talkedabout. I thought, yeah, they're starting
to get to know each other andthe way, you know, starting to figure
out the way each other works.So I hope going forward they, you
know, have some goodchemistry. So, yeah, I like her so
far, but I just don't know. Ineed to see a little bit more to
make up my mind, I think. Bitlike with Tegan, you know, she came
(43:22):
in and she was moaning andgoodness knows what, and it took
a while to get to love Tegan,so I feel like there could be a little
bit of that with Belinda.We'll see.
We'll see. Yeah. Yeah. Samethoughts as you on that, bud.
Yeah.
And what about Ncuti'sperformance then? I thought he had
a. I thought it was one of thethings that a lot of people said
(43:42):
in the run up to season two,excuse me, was especially if you
weren't a fan of season one,was that they were concerned that
it wouldn't be differentenough and wouldn't push the boundary
or go in a different directionenough, because they were filmed
pretty much back to back,weren't they? Seasons one and two.
And I think that is reallyevident in shoot his performance.
(44:05):
I think it's literally like wejust saw season one last week. So
not that I. Not. I'm sayingthat he has to change up his performance
or. But if you think aboutsome of the shifts that we had with
some previous doctors thatworked Pretty well. Like, you know,
when David Tennant's Doctorsort of morphed into this sort of
(44:29):
Doctor that didn't really givea crap for a while. You know, this
Time Lord Victorious thing.Yeah, you know, he was a slightly
different sort of taped andbit darker and. And obviously McCoy's
doctor. We saw that towardsthe end of his run a little bit.
And Capaldi's Doctor as wellchanged from season. From. Yeah,
(44:50):
so that was a bit. So I'm notsaying that that has to happen, but
it would have been cool forNcuti just to sort of, you know,
look at what worked and whatdidn't work from season one and,
you know, adapt a little bitand change it up just a little bit.
But it just felt like a. Justexactly like season one. And of course,
(45:11):
we had the teary cryingscenes. That's becoming a bit of
a. Unfortunately, mate, that'sbecoming a bit of a meme now, isn't
it? It is for his Doctor. Sowhat do you reckon to Ncuti in this
one?
Yeah, I mean that. I thinkthat is one of the downfalls of Syrian,
of filming series one and twoso close together. Yeah. It hasn't
given him time to sit back,reflect, look at what worked, what
(45:33):
doesn't work. Where do theywant to take the series? And that
applies to shoot hisperformance as well. Nothing to.
Not to say I didn't think hewas good in it. I thought he was
absolutely fine. But, yeah, Iagree with you. He didn't make much
of a lasting impression. And Iguess you could say this episode
was designed to introduce thenew companion, so she was very much
(45:54):
at the forefront the episode.Absolutely fine with that. But I
did think that shoot hisDoctor got a bit lost. I could almost.
I can't really think of muchhe did in it, to be honest with you,
so nothing really wrong withhis performance. I absolutely agree
with you, mate. I'd love tosee him go a little bit, surprise
us a bit. That's what I like.I like it when the Doctor sort of
surprises us. And I don't meanby laughing at someone dying, I mean
(46:17):
by, you know, by being a bitdarker and stuff. So, yeah, I hear
that could be happening. Idon't know. I've heard rumblings
that they're taking. Theymight take his Doctor down the sort
of McCoy route. I've justheard rumblings of that, but I don't
know if that's this series orif that was something they planned
going forward. If it carrieson, I have no idea, mate. But I'D
like to see a little bit ofsomething slightly different from
(46:39):
his doctor going into seriestwo. Yeah, yeah, agreed.
Yeah. Defo. Any otherperformances that stood out? I think
just a couple of people topick up on. We had a guy called Manny,
played by Max Parker. He wasthe guy with the. He was the blond
dude with the muscles that.When I saw him, I thought, oh, no,
(47:00):
not for that reason, but Ithought, is the Doctor going to be,
you know, leeching all overhim and.
Oh, I see. Oh, I thought youmeant because Pex Mark II was back.
I thought that's what you'regonna say.
No, I thought Pex lives. Pexlives. Yeah. And so he was sort of
a moody character, wasn't he?Blames Belinda for all this stuff
(47:22):
and he was. He was okay. Wehad old Nick Briggs. He was the voice
of the robots.
Oh, was he? I didn't even know that.
Yeah, old Briggsy and. Yeah,and that was about it, really. We
had Sasha, 55, played byEvelyn Miller. At the beginning.
She was. She was really cool,actually, where she comes across
(47:43):
as smiley and welcoming toBelinda, but then on the down low,
she's like, you know, please help.
Yeah.
Untimely death. She was okay.And. And that's pretty much it. Anita
Dobson, just for 30 seconds atthe beginning as Mrs. Flood.
I liked her little cameo,mate, I have to say. It's just. I
(48:06):
like the look she gives theDoctor when she sees him. It's a
really horrible, like, oh,you're here. Like an annoyance. And
the way she backs away. Whatdo you. What do you think of the
Talking to the camera that youain't seen me, you know, very far
show, wouldn't it? Youwouldn't see me.
Right. I'm saying me,normally, I wouldn't like.
That sort of thing, but it didmake me smile.
Oh, I really like it. It'sjust. It's just something that changes
(48:29):
up.
Yeah.
You know, something a bit morespice to them, to what's going on.
But just very quick interludehere, mate. Me and the rest of the
big blue box team were inLondon a couple of weekends ago for
the Capital Cutaway event runby the DWAs, and Anita Dobson was
there. She was.
She.
Yeah, we get. We got to see aninterview with her on stage, which
(48:53):
is really cool. And alas, shedidn't reveal anything.
No.
About who her characteractually was. But in a different
interview, she did say thatwhen she found out from Russell who
her character is, she saidthat her eyes have just popped out
of her head.
Really.
And she was in. Oh, yeah. So Ithink. I think it's leading to somebody
(49:14):
that we've absolutely seenbefore. 100 cool.
I am looking forward to that.Does she now live next door to Belinda?
That was the other thing I wasthinking. Is she moved house or is
she just. She just popped byto borrow some sugar. What was she
doing there? Like, why was shenext door? So, yeah, the mystery
of Mrs. Flood is. Isdefinitely starting to engage with
(49:34):
me more than it did before. Ithink so. I absolutely love a Nia
Dobson and it was. Even thoughshe was only in it for a minute,
I just thought it was fun tosee her actually. I'm definitely
getting more engaged with that.
Yes. Yeah. And then Alan Budd,played by Johnny Green. Those of
(49:55):
you that know Johnny Green'sname, he's done quite a few big finish
stories.
Okay.
He's played quite a fewcharacters for big finish and he's
now on screen but a reallyuncomfortable character right from
the get go. And you could seethat sort of controlling nature.
And Belinda pushes back onthat towards the end, you know, when
(50:16):
she starts to recap their sortof moments together. You know, earlier
on like I think it was 17years prior to the events of we were
witnessing and she was like,you're always correcting me. You
always do, you know, all thatsort of thing. So a bad dude for
sure and an uncomfortablewatch. But I think that's due to
(50:37):
Johnny Green's performance. Ithink if he didn't play it well enough,
you wouldn't feeluncomfortable and he would have missed
the point. So I thought. Ithought he was pretty good.
Yeah, he was fine, mate. And Iabsolutely. I was. I didn't see the
twist coming of him in but Iknew we were going to see him again.
I thought this. They'redefinitely going to play into that.
That storyline and bring, youknow, I felt like he was going to
(50:57):
be a villain. I just didn'tsee him coming back as, you know,
Iron Maiden, Eddie trapped inthat thing. But that was cool. That
looked great, didn't it? Thatnot just his prosthetics but the
thing that he was in, youknow, that big face. It was great,
you know. So.
Yeah.
Good.
Yeah. I just want to mentionMurray's music as well as we.
Yeah.
(51:17):
As we start another seasonagain. I think this is not enough
time between seasons, mate,for them to just have a bit of a
pause and a breather to dostuff because it wasn't bad. And
there was a couple of coolscenes where it felt like a bit of
A horror film that you werewatching. He, you know, there's a
(51:38):
brass section that sort of didthis weird noise and sort of got
you in the spirit, I guess. Itwas pretty cool. But then during
the shootout scenes and someof the action scenes, it was just
stuff that I'd heard athousand times in other action films
or stuff like that. So itdoesn't sound like quintessential
Murray Gold that I think wewere spoiled for so many years with
(52:00):
back in the day. But it'sstill not. It's not bad. It's just.
I feel like he's not. He's notbeing as. I don't know what the word
is. He's not sort of taking itby the bull by the horns and making
it his own. He's kind ofmixing in little bits here and there,
(52:20):
but then the rest of it, he'sjust going down the more sort of
generic path with things, butnot terrible. But I just feel like,
yeah, he could also havebenefited from having a breather,
I think.
Absolutely, mate. I agree,because it's. I wouldn't say he's
on autopilot, but there arebits of music, like when they're
in the hospital that, like yousaid, could be from, you know, any
series. It's all jolly andsweet, which in some ways is nice
(52:44):
because it makes it feelfamiliar. He almost sort of takes
you back to, you know, youknow, like you said, the tenant days
or whatever. It's kind ofthat. But again, it's a bit too samey.
And then other times he reallymixes it up and throws in some weird
sounds like when they weredoing all the tripping out stuff.
So, yeah, it's a bit of amixed bag with Murray, to be honest
with you. I feel like he needsto take a few more risks in terms
(53:07):
of trying something new.
Yes.
Really. But, yeah, so I knowwhat you mean. Not. Nothing wrong
with it, but. Yeah, I mean,the stuff in the hospital, it kind
of grated on me a little bit,to be honest with you. I just thought,
yeah, we've heard this kind ofjingly. Everything's jolly. I don't
know, a little bit autopilot,if you know what I mean.
Yeah. Felt a little bit like,you know, partners in crime, where.
(53:29):
Yes, that's it. Yeah.
Yeah. When they play thatlittle, very cool little jingle as
they're sort of searching foreach other and have those near misses.
Yeah, that kind. Yeah, I knowwhat you mean, mate.
Yeah.
Yeah. Is there anything else,dude, that. That caught your eye
in terms of you loved or youdidn't like so much anything else
before we put a score on this?
(53:49):
No, I do. I mean, I justreally sort of sum up. I thought,
like you said, the storylinein itself, it was pretty thin. But
Russell was throwing in somenice ideas, almost, perhaps too much,
you know, I mean, like yousaid, I like the whole. The robots
not being out here, everyninth word. That's a nice idea. I
don't think he handled theactual underlying tone of the whole,
(54:12):
you know, toxic masculinityincel thing that well. But it kind
of worked as a story. It justfelt like there was lots of ideas
being thrown at the screenthat perhaps didn't stick as well
as they could. But overall Ithought it was okay. The only other
thing I've got on my list is Ididn't, in terms of writing, a little
bit lazy. You know, the Dr.Power shorts out, the power in the
(54:33):
hospital, probably killingloads of people that are on life
support. I mean, again, all itneeded was a scene of the lights
coming back on and perhapssomeone jumping up like the master,
you know, going as if they'vejust regenerated or Captain Jack,
you know, so there were, therewere little niggles like that in
terms of the writing where Ifelt like the episode was most enjoyable,
but it was also quite clunkyin terms of the writing in places,
(54:55):
so. But other than that, mate,I'm just looking down my list. No,
I mean the crying thing, wementioned that. That's just becoming
a thing now, isn't it? Youjust expect shooter to cry and it's.
They need to lay off that oredit that out because that is just
becoming laughable.Unfortunately, it has absolutely
zero impact. I mean, we hadn'teven got to know Sasha to. To be
(55:18):
honest, to even care that shehad died. So seeing him blubbing
his eyes out, it was just aneye roll moment. So things like that,
definitely, like you said,they need to be sort of sitting back
and you know, adjusting thesethings to make the series better,
I think. Because that isbecoming a bit of a joke, the whole
crying thing. But yeah, apartfrom that, mate, I don't think I've
got anything else on my list.
(55:39):
Yeah, I echo your thoughts onthat, dude. A little bit clunky with
the editing and the writingand some places I think we've got
used to this sort of breakneckspeed running through some parts
of the story now where it'sedited so tightly together. It's
just that you feel like it'sa. That's not a bad thing. You know,
if you're trying to createenergy and you want things to feel
(56:02):
like you're at a quick paceand stuff, of course it's good, but
in some parts of store youfeel like I would have been cool
just to slow that down just atad, let it breathe. Yeah, yeah.
So I totally get that, man.Yeah. And the doctor crying thing.
Yeah. I don't know why theykeep. I don't know. I don't know
(56:23):
who keeps saying to them.Actually. No, do you know what? I
know why. It's because thiswas all done before we all saw season
one.
Yeah.
So they haven't got. Yeah.They haven't got time to go back
and, and, and fix that becausenow they probably filmed another
seven weeks worth of cryingscenes we can't do anything about.
(56:46):
So anyway, just one last thing.
Did you like the cleanerrobot? Because that was one of the
things I did like. And again,it's some. Sometimes that doesn't
work for me when they go toosilly with it, but I kind of liked
that little robot. And also Idid like the little throwback to
gadget. Gadget, you know,polish, Polish. It don't know. For
me it worked. I don't know ifit will have worked for everyone,
(57:09):
but I liked it.
I loved it, mate.
You did okay.
Really cool. Yeah. And again,that sort of old 50s style. Yeah,
really, really cool. Yeah,very cute. Right, scores on the old
doors. Who's going to gofirst? Is this one where you're sort
of um. And ah, and. Or haveyou got a different score?
(57:31):
No, it's not. I know sometimesI'm like, oh, oh, I can't decide.
No, this was easy. I wrotethis down without even hesitation,
mate. 6.5 out of 10.
6.5. Yeah, nice. Similar tome. I'm gonna give it a six, mate.
Six. Okay.
Yeah. I don't know what the.Even on the second watch, I just
(57:53):
thought, yeah, this is not. Noway. This is a seven. But it's not
middle of the road. There weresome nice things to enjoy and it
wasn't too bad. So six, mate.
Yeah, yeah. No, it's just. Ihate to use the term so frequently
but it's very mid and I justthought, yeah, 6.5. Enjoyable. I'm
just glad it wasn't a five orbelow. You know, that that would
(58:13):
have been very disappointing.Yeah, this was okay. 6.5.
Yeah. And what your thoughtson next week then? Because we got
a little snippet at the endfor the old. The cinema. The crazy
cartoon cinema villain. Whatare Your thoughts on that? You looking
forward to that or.
Yeah, very much so, mate. Ithink this is the episode a lot of
(58:33):
people are looking forward to.And I said earlier as we started
that I wasn't feeling muchbuzz by the trailers and stuff, but
I have to say, I do have. I amtrying not to get carried away and
get too excited for it, but I.I do have a buzz for this week's
episode, which is nice. Ihaven't felt that for a while, but
the trailers have actuallyworked in terms of getting excited
(58:53):
for next week. So this week's,I mean, so, yeah, I hope it's good.
It looks. It looks promising.Yeah. Really does. So I hope it.
I hope they pull it off andit's a good episode.
Yeah, yeah. It looks very creative.
It does, yeah. It looksvisually brilliant. Yeah.
Alrighty then. So that was a6.5 from him, a 6 from me, and I
(59:16):
think we'll close it outthere, dude. For episode 420. Thank
(59:47):
you, thank you. Thank you somuch for listening to another episode
of the Big Blue box. That was420. And our review of the Robot
Revolution to kick off seasontwo. We'll be back next week, as
Adam said, for the secondepisode. Actually back this week.
No, next week. The episode'sout this week.
It's confusing.
(01:00:07):
The episodes out this week onSaturday. We'll be back next week
with our review view of saidepisode. Yeah. In the meantime, make
sure you're following orsubscribing to Big Blue Box in your
fave podcast app of choice.That way you won't miss an episode
when it lands. At this point,probably every Tuesday or Wednesday
(01:00:28):
as we go through season two.And also head over to the website
bigblueboxpodcast.co.uk. youcan link off to all the socials.
We're on Twitter, Facebook,Instagram, all that stuff. Blue sky,
come and chat with us overthere. And we also have a very cool
free Discord server. There's alink on the website. Hop over there.
Chat. Doctor Who Season two,Ncuti, crying. Anything you want
(01:00:48):
to talk about, it's allhappening over there on the Discord
server. And you can also checkout more geekery on my co host channel's
YouTube stuff. The geeks Handbag.
The Geeks Handbag. Also on allthe socials under the same name,
the Geeks Handbag. That is is me.
That is him indeedy. Somereally cool unboxings, reviews of
(01:01:10):
products, Blu Rays, cinematrips, the whole lot. It's all on
there. Go and check them out.Until next week, then, Bud. Take
care of yourselves, everybody,and remember it.
Hey, hey, hey who fans andwelcome to the big Blue Box podcast.
My name's Garry.
My name's Adam.
And welcome back this isepisode 420.
Yeah.
(00:47):
Welcome back, Who fans, foranother episode. We hope you have
had a cracking few weeks sincethe last episode. We hope you've
kept safe and well and they'veall managed to do something. Doctor
Who. I won that. That's onlybecause I rolled it into one kind
of stupid word there.
Yeah, you and you and yourcheating tactics.
(01:09):
You and your. Yeah, you andyour bloody.
You've been practicing that. I know.
We were saying before werecorded, we have to get our heads
back into Doctor Who mode.Don't know if you know, listener,
but we did a. We did a Blake's7 podcast over the last couple of
months. Little shameless plug.
Yes.
(01:29):
Come check it out. It's calledFederation Strike the journey through
Blake's 7. You can find it onall the podcast apps. We'll stick
a link in the show note aswell, but if you've not heard about
it or whatever, we've been onthe socials with it as well. All
the links will be in all thatstuff. Be in the show notes, but
it's very, very cool. Andagain, those of you that don't know,
Adam is a lifelong Blake's 7fan. He's been bugging me for years
(01:51):
to do a podcast about Blake's7 and we finally. We finally did
it. Now that the Blu Ray setshave started to roll for those. For
that show and I fell in lovewith that show, mate, it's been brilliant.
So if you want to get my viewsas a newcomer to that and Adam's
views, re watching it for themillionth time as a. As a lifelong
fan, then check it out. It's agood one that.
Yeah, we've had a great timereviewing that. I've loved doing
(02:14):
the Blake's 7 pod.
It's been very cool. So we areback in Doctor Who mode now that
season two is upon us withNcuti's new stuff, new companion
and all that jazz. We'll getonto that in a second, but very quickly,
dude, because I know you.We've had a few messages on socials
already. When are we going tohear your thoughts on it? When we're
going to get your review?We'll get to that in just a second.
(02:35):
But Adam and I haven't caughtup in a. In a. In a minute. So as
Adam's in the US at the momenton different time zones and all that
stuff. So, dude, how have youbeen since we last spoke? How's things
out in the U.S. yeah.
Yeah, I'm having a great time.I'm back out in Texas for a couple
of months and yeah, we're ondifferent time zones which suits
me better because I'm so badat getting up in the mornings normally
(02:58):
when we record I'm all sleepyeyed and I'm always late and just
Garry's like, oh, where is he?And now it's like it's only two.
It's 2pm my time, 7pm no, it's1pm my time,7pm your time and I'm
all fresh as a daisy, mate.I'm all up and finished, full of
energy and it suits me muchbetter. But for you, you're probably
(03:19):
tired, just had your dinnerand ready to go to bed so I don't
know. But yeah, otherwisemate, all good here. Thanks.
Yeah, good, good, good. Yeah,not tired yet. Not at that age yet
where not quite there. 7pm haswiped me out and well, hopefully
not. We'll see how this reviewof the episode goes. Might be tied
at the end of it.
I am very much looking forwardto hearing what you think of this
(03:39):
episode, mate, because Ithink, yeah, this is one of those
I can't gauge, you know, And Ilike it when we get an episode where
I don't really know whatyou're going to think of it because
sometimes I watch it. I think,yeah, Garry won't have liked that
or Garry will have loved thatone or whatever. This one could go
either way. And I don't knowif you have any inkling if I liked
it or not.
I am also finding it difficultto gauge what your reaction is going
(04:03):
to be to this one. I'll behonest with you.
Ah, good.
Yes. So okay, cool. We willkick off then with our review. Before
we get into that, as always,make sure you are following or subscribing
to the big Blue Box in yourpreferred podcast app of choice.
That way you won't miss anepisode when they land at the moment,
they'll be weekly as we gothrough season two and as we're on
(04:25):
a seasonal format with theBlue Bibb Box now, we'll finish our
reviews and then we'll have abreak. And then whenever the next
thing comes along, we willreview that which I believe is going
to be the spin off hopefullythis year and rinse and repeat. We'll
come back with like bonusepisodes and bits in between of course.
But you're with us now for thenext eight weeks as we go through
(04:48):
season two. So if you hit TheFollow or subscribe button. You get
a notification in your podcastapp when a new Big Blue Box episode
lands. You can also listenonline over at the website bigblueboxpodcast.co.uk
and you can check out thereviews and articles from all the
writing teams over there aswell. And also, don't forget to remember
to check out Adam's YouTubechannel. It's the Geeks Handbag.
(05:12):
The Geeks Handbag. I was justworking on a new vid before we started
recording as well. I'm doingsome stuff while I'm out here in
the U.S. so check out mychannel, the Geeks Handbag on YouTube.
YouTube, good old YouTube.
Not tick tock. But he's on theother socials.
I did do one. I did my firstTick Tock in like months yesterday.
Yeah, I felt like I shouldkeep that going so my account don't
(05:33):
get shut. Well, I nearly didout here in the US anyway, mate.
Trump banned it for like fivehours, I think, and then it came
back. So, yeah, good old Tick Tock.
Oh dear. Yeah, so he's underthe same name, the Geek's Handbag.
Go and nag him about Dr. WHOor other geeky stuff. So, bud, let's
crack straight on them what wegot this week.
(05:54):
Yeah, so we're starting abrand new season and this episode,
episode one is called theRobot Revolution.
Transmat initiated. Melinda,Belinda. Can someone tell me what
(06:17):
the hell is going on? Sowhat's your name?
Just a doctor.
All right then I'm called theNurse Rebels. You will surrender.
What have you done? I'm sorry.The Robot Revolution. It was released
(06:50):
of course, very recently, 12April 2025. It was had a runtime
of roughly 43 minutes. Ishwhen you take off the titles and
stuff. It was written byRussell T. Davis, directed by Peter
Hoare and was overseen byJulie Gardner, Phil Collinson, Joel
(07:11):
Collins, the usual people whoare back on. Doctor Who stars Ncuti
Gatwa, of course, as thefifteenth Doctor, new companion Belinda
Varadu Sethu and about half adozen supporting cast members on
it whose names.
I'm not going to remember.Just listener. Just nothing. Some
(07:31):
things never change.
Yeah, as always, we'll gothrough and get that all wrong, of
course. But the synopsis forthis one is. When robots from outer
space kidnap nurse BelindaChandra, the Doctor embarks on an
epic intergalactic quest toget his new friend back home to Earth.
(07:52):
So short and sweet there. Andas usual, we will go over to you,
my good buddy, what yourthoughts out the gate for this season
two kickoff episode.
Well, mate, I must admit I, Ihad to put a bit of baggage aside
before I watched this. Iwasn't really in the mood, to be
honest. I've seen the trailersand I thought they looked exciting,
(08:13):
but I wasn't feeling that buzzthat I normally get of a new series
of Doctor Who. So I plonked iton. Obviously I'm over in the US
so it's Disney plus. I plonkedit on when I got in on Saturday night.
And yeah, what I'm basicallytrying to say is my expectations
were very low. I think I'mstill scarred by space babies, to
(08:33):
be absolutely honest with you,because I what I mean by that and
I kind of being serious aboutit, I felt so in dejected after watching
space babies. I was sodeflated. But you know, that I didn't
want that feeling again. Andknowing that this series was filmed
sort of back to back withseason one, I thought, oh God, it's
not going to be another. Youknow, I'd seen like a few preview
(08:56):
clips. It's not going to beanother space babies, is it really?
So silly and awful and I justdidn't want that feeling, mate. So
I sort of had to kind of putall that to one side before I was
ready to watch this. I thoughtthere's no point going into it with
a negative attitude. You'vegot to just clear your mind, right?
So I come in, sit down me overhalf. I said, come on then, let's,
let's get Doctor Who on. Let'ssee, see what it's like. And I wouldn't
(09:21):
say I loved it, but I did getto the end of it and say, yeah, I
kind of shrugged when, yeah,that was okay. And I know that's
a bit on the fence, but I'mjust almost relieved that I didn't
have that space babies feelingand that I didn't not enjoy it, if
you know what I mean. Don'tget me wrong, there are lots there.
I have lots of issues with itas an episode, so I'm sorry to be
(09:43):
a bit on the fence and say itwas okay, but that's exactly how
I feel about it. It fin we hada couple of little smiles throughout
it. I thought it was a sort ofalmost typical RTD opening episode.
It was fluffy with a verypaper thin story. It had some fun
moments, some good ro, youknow, some fun robots. It was, it
(10:03):
looked great production wise,you know, and it was just an introduction
really to the new companion,which I think it did a fairly good
job doing so. Yeah, I knowit's not exactly the. The sort of
most critical thing to say,you know, but I'm just saying it
was okay. I thought I enjoyedit for the most part, but I do have
(10:25):
issues with it and there isone thing I really, really didn't
like, which I will get to. AndI know a lot of people have picked
up on this, so you probablyknow what I'm gonna say. But overall,
mate, I'm just gonna sum up bysaying I mostly enjoyed it. I didn't
think it was great, but Ididn't think it was bad. It's very
much a mid episode for me andas a season opener I would have liked
(10:48):
for more but because myexpectations were low, it kind of
just sat where I thought itwas going to sit and at least it
didn't sink any lower. So itwas okay. It was just fun. I thought
for the most part it was okay.It was okay. I know I don't really.
I wish I could think of abetter way to sum up my feelings
because that sounds so rubbishas a review, you know, you can't
(11:09):
imagine that on the season twobox set, can you? It was okay. The
Geek's Handbag, you know, itjust. But that's exactly how I feel
about it. So I'm just sort ofsaying it how it is, mate. It was
okay.
Cool. Gotcha.
Over to you. What do you thinkof it?
Yeah, I'm. I'm along the same.Same kind of lines as you on that
(11:29):
one.
Okay.
On that. On the thoughtprocess, I think. As a season opener.
Did it blow my socks off? No.
No.
Was it a great episode? No.Was it a bad episode? No, it was
just an.
Okay, it's exactly where I am.Exactly where I am. Yeah.
(11:50):
And the reason why I say thatis because it felt a little bit.
And I've watched it twice now.I watched. When was. When was the
12th? It was on Saturday,wasn't it?
Saturday?
Yes. I just. Gone. So Iwatched it on iplayer, I think around
lunchtime on Saturday. And.And then I watched it again. Me and.
(12:11):
Me and wifey watched it awhile ago, Mrs. Blue Box. We. We
watched through it just beforewe. We started recording actually.
So on the second time round, Iwould probably say I didn't mind
it as much. I think it'd bewrong to say that I enjoyed it more
than the first viewing. Ithink I just didn't mind it as much.
(12:32):
There wasn't as much headscratching on that second one, of
course. Because you, your mindhas already, you know, decided that,
yep, I get those bits and Iget that bit. So you're concentrating
a little bit more on the bitsthat you were confused around the
first time. So, yeah, I thinkit was all right. It was all right.
I think like you and a lot ofWHO fans, we were kind of a bit burnt
(12:55):
out with some of therepetitive stuff from season one.
And what I mean by that isthe, you know, shoot his doctor crying
all the time and. Yeah, andall these sorts of. The quality of
the writing and for someepisodes and just that predictability
of like. Unfortunately, Ithink for a lot of WHO fans, not
(13:17):
all WHO fans, of course, butfor, for some WHO fans, I think,
and us are included in this.We kind of got to that point where
it was like halfway throughseason one. It was like, yeah, we
need to have a good episodehere instead of thinking, well, coming
off the back of last week, Ican't wait to watch the next episode.
(13:38):
I don't think we felt likethat. I think it was just, you know,
let's. Let's watch Doctor Who.Hopefully it will be good. Fingers
crossed. It will be great. SoI feel like this episode is kind
of. It would have sat verynicely within season one. This could
have been like, see episodefour of season one. It didn't. It
(13:58):
didn't have that big, epicopening feel that you would. I don't
know, not that it needs to besort of huge and epic in every sense
of the word, but I didn't getthat feeling like, wow, like, we're
off in a slightly differentdirection. We're off in a different
vibe here than season one.Season two is off with a bang. I
didn't feel that. I just feltlike it was an okay bit of a mid
(14:20):
season episode.
Exactly, mate. And that's thething. When I said I was slightly
relieved. One of the thingsI've been worried about with this
season is that I, in terms ofrecording reviews and the podcast
is I was really worried thatthis season is gonna not hit the
mark for me and I don't wantto be coming on here every week and
being negative or saying, Idon't enjoy it. Now, unfortunately,
(14:42):
that could still happen. Butat least with the first episode,
I thought, when I say relief,I thought, ah, good. Oh, at least
I'll be able to go on and say,you know, I enjoyed that one for
the most part. And, you know,because I worried about that. I think
that's unfortunately where Iam personally with Dr. At the minute
is I. I Don't go into it withexcitement because we've got new
series almost. Well, I do, butI. It's sort of overshadowed, with
(15:06):
a bit of sort of trepidation.You know, I go in thinking, oh, God,
am I going to be moaning aboutit? And I don't want to be moaning
about a show that I love. Sothat's what I meant when I said I
had relief. Just quickly, bud,I like the fact you watched it with
your partner because I alwayslove to get like the. In brackets
casual viewer, you know,perspective, because I watched it
with my partner as well. Andagain, that can go two ways because
(15:31):
when we watch space babiestogether, we don't watch Doctor together
that much anymore, but it'snice when we do. And with Space Babies,
I was cringing the whole time.This time we were sort of laughing
and smiling at the samemoment, which is quite nice because
it enhances your viewingexperience. So I was quite pleased
that he was enjoying it asmuch as I was at the moments we enjoyed,
(15:53):
if you know what I mean. So Idon' I don't know. Did you get the
same from. From Nat, yourpartner? Did she enjoy it? What.
What sort of vibe did you getfrom her about it? Because I love
to get the casual viewers opinion.
Yeah. So it's always like whenI watch it with Nat, it's always.
It's a good yardstick becauseshe's the. She's the quintessential
(16:13):
kind of enjoyed Doctor Who atits peak. And I'm. What I mean by
that, it's like David Tennantsome, you know, series three and
four and the specials andstuff. That's her. That's her sort
of go to, like, if you saidto. If you, if you gave her a shelf
with all the DVDs or Blu Raysfrom 2005 to now and said, right,
pick a couple off the shelfthat you really like. She would reach
(16:36):
for David Tennant. Yeah,Series three and four, that sort
of thing and everything elseafter that, she fell off very quickly,
I would say. Yeah. As. As MattSmith's era started to. She. She
dropped off. She's not really.She likes Matt Smith in other things,
but she's not too fond of himin Doctor Who. She sort of takes
(16:58):
it or leave it. And thencertainly 100 with Capaldi, she's
gone. She's had enough of allthat. Yeah. So. So she's a good yardstick,
like you said, for sort of thecasual fan. And I have to say, because
I sat down, I said, right, I'mjust Gonna, I'm just gonna quickly
zip through this. I wasn't, Iwasn't even planning to watch it
from start to finish incompletion. I was just going to just
(17:20):
zip through some of the scenesthat I wanted to recap on specifically.
So I sat down, said, I'm justgoing to zip through this because
I'm reviewing it. And Istarted watching it and she was hooked.
Like, you know, she was. Shestarted to, to, to watch it because
I reached for the remoteinside to fast forward it and she
gave me that look like, whatare you doing? You sort of go back
(17:42):
and so I said, okay, we'llwatch it. So she actually watched
this one from start to finish.She commented on a few things. You
know, she was, she was quiteinto it. So for the casual fan, from
her point of view, I thinkshe, I think she mostly enjoyed it.
I don't think, I don't thinkshe's itching like we are to watch
(18:03):
the next episode. If shemissed it on Saturday, she wouldn't
really lose sleep over that.But she was reasonably engaged.
Yeah, that's the reason Iasked, mate. Because casual, the
reason I like to get casualviewers thoughts is because they
don't go into it and analyzeit like as Doctor Who fans do. So
I just always find itinteresting for someone that does
(18:24):
just sit down and findthemselves watching the episode,
does it engage with them? Youknow, does it, does it still do that?
You know, this is a 60 plusyear old show. So that's why I always
like to, to talk to otherpeople that perhaps are not so, you
know, looking at every sort ofaspect of it, like us Doctor Who
fans do, to just get an almostlike clean slate. Like I said, put
the baggage aside, opinion ofthe episode to see where, where it's
(18:47):
hitting.
Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, you'reabsolutely right. I think it's because
we, we said this many times,you know, we will. What's the best
way to put it? It's like abusman's holiday for us in a way
because we're always watchingit with like two sets of eyeballs.
Yeah.
You know, we've got that. It'sa blessing and a curse in a way as
(19:10):
well, because we're watchingit, trying to enjoy it as a fan.
But then at the same time, Idon't know about you, but I always
have this thing like, right, Imust remember that because we talk
about it on the review and Imust remember that. So which is why,
I think, which is why we'venever done those like a Lot of other
podcasters and YouTubechannels. They will put a review
(19:30):
out like, 10 minutes after the episode.
Yeah.
And there's nothing wrong withthat, but from our point of view,
it's it. It's it. Well, in myopinion, it's never a. A true representation
of how you feel because, youknow, you're coming off of just watching
it and there's a little bit ofa high because you've just watched
it, and regardless of how youfeel about it, whether you loved
(19:51):
it or hated it or whatever,your emotions are sort of cranked
up a little bit because you'rejust coming off the back of watching
it. So we've always gone downthe train of thought of, you just
let the dust settle just alittle bit. Sort of collect your
thoughts, do you know what Imean? And. And reflect on it. And.
And so. Which is why multipleviewings and getting points of view
(20:12):
from other people that we livewith and stuff is really important.
So. So how did your other halftake it then?
Yeah, that's what I mean. I. Iwas. I think that made me relax when
I sort of heard littlechuckles and, you know, moments,
you know, like some of the. Imean, because some of the dialogue
was pretty terrible in this,but some of that dialogue made him
laugh and I thought, oh, youknow, so it's. It's. That's what
(20:35):
I mean. It appears if it wasappealing to him, which it seemed
to be, I thought, that's good.I like the fact he's enjoying it.
And it made me enjoy it a bitmore, I think, as I said, compared
to Space Babies, where we'reboth sat there like, this is terrible.
We both look at each othershaking our head. It was nice to
sort of be, you know, sort ofsmiling and laughing at certain moments
during the episode.
So, yeah, no reader, before weget on to any sort of little hiccups,
(20:59):
perhaps in the episode,anything we weren't so fond of, I
just want to rattle off a fewthings that I felt were very good.
The first one, again, I don'tknow how it's possible, but they
do this every single season.And that the visual quality of it,
the cinematic feel and thevisual effects, that seems to ramp
up every season in very smallincrements since. Since shooty. Well,
(21:24):
since probably. I mean, every.It's. I started to gauge with, like,
the Eccleston and Tenantstuff, because that all looks very,
very similar. But, you know,when you've jumped into Matt Smith's
era, you can see that there'sa little bit of a Jump up.
Absolutely.
You know, in. Yeah. In visualquality. And then the same thing
happened very slightly, butyou can see it sort of creeping up
(21:47):
again into Capaldi. But youdefinitely saw it into Jodie's stuff.
Yeah.
And then now we're in thisseason, it's gone up again. And so
some of the scenes, some ofthe. The visual qualities, it just
amazing. Like you can tellthat the cinematographers and the
production people, all those.It's just so good. And so I. A visual
(22:07):
treat for the eyes on thisone. And I really like the visual
style as well. I'm a bit of a.I really love that old sort of 50s
sci fi stuff, you know, like.
Well, like Flash Gordon.
Flash Corner. Yes.
Not the film, the old TV show.
The old stuff. Yeah. So theset designers and some of the producers,
(22:31):
they took inspiration from thefilm Forbidden Planets.
Oh, yeah, that makes sense.
Yep. And also. And also thisIsland Earth, which is a very old,
again, sci fi sort of thingfrom the 50s. And it also had, you
know, like the yellow rocketship that came and, and took Belinda
off and, and the designerrobots and stuff. It had a very,
(22:53):
you know, Pixar's theIncredibles film.
Yes. Oh, yeah.
You know, had that really.Yeah. That sort of retro sci fi,
50s feel. So I love that partof it. Very, very cool. And I loved
most of the performances. Ithink Verada Sethu is. I'm really
(23:16):
enjoying her kind of. It's anice change of pace. I have a companion
that's not just swept up inthe Doctor's sort of energy and stuff
like that, you know, this islike the opposite to Rose, you know,
it's. Rose was just desperateto travel with the Doctor and for
(23:38):
more reason than one that wefound, we find out a bit later. But
she was like, you know, noquestions, you know. Yeah. I mean,
I'm in for the ride, you know,let's do it. So it's refreshing to
have a companion. It's a bitmore like Donna, stand up to the
Doctor, not take his rubbish.You know, not just. Yeah. We'll come
on to a scene where those twoare like, you know, towards the end
(23:59):
where it feels like it's goingfairly chummy and it's pretty cool.
But then she has a moment ofrealization and, yeah, just want
to be taken home and stuff. Sothat was cool. We'll get onto her
in a second. And also, reallylike the, the. The little. The little
Polish robot. Polish, Polish,Polish, Polish, Yeah.
(24:21):
I know why you like thatrobot, because he sounds like a droid.
From Star wars, doesn't he?
He does have it. He does,actually. I know you mention. Also,
I also really liked the, the,the effect that, you know, when they
had the two certificates andthey sort of put them together in
(24:45):
the same space. The Doctorwarned her earlier that, you know,
if you put them in the sameplace, atoms just say no and kaboom
and stuff like that. There wasa really cool effect when that happened.
Yeah.
Went off into a big sort oftrippy thing. That was amazing. That
was really well done. So,yeah, there was a few things I really
did like about it and thosethings. But what about you, mate?
Anything that stood out thatyou really enjoyed before we got
(25:07):
onto anything that wasn't so good?
Well, yeah, I agree about theproduction. I thought as an episode
it looked great, you know, Imean, it was quite CG heavy at times,
but it looked very good. Onething that's particularly stood out
to me was when, you know, theowl was revealed as the cyborg owl.
Quite Iron Maiden, like, it'sa bit like Eddie. I just thought
(25:30):
the mask, you know, theprosthetics on his face were fantastic.
You know, he looked reallycreepy and. Yeah. So production wise,
I thought it looked reallygood, mate. And I know we'll talk
about Belinda, so I'll waittill we get onto her, but yeah, I
just thought overall it lookedgood. I, I also enjoyed the, the
(25:51):
style of, you know, the designof the robots and spaceship, which
actually surprises myself alittle because I remember like in
the Husband's A River Songsaying how awful the UFO looked and
I think they were going forthat sort of retro look and it didn't
work for me in that story. ButI don't know, something about this
suited the sort of world andthe planet that they, you know, he
created. So I, I thought itreally suited the style of the episode
(26:14):
and the sort of. I've heardpeople compare it to Sarah Janes
and saying it was a bit goofyand a bit silly and I absolutely
get why people are sayingthat. I think there is a big element
of that to this episode, butfor me it kind of, it did work. I
thought it really suited thestory. So, yeah, I just thought overall,
production wise, it was good.Very good.
(26:35):
Yeah. That was a productiondesigner, Phil Sims, who was working
with Russell and, and saidthey, it would be cool to take inspiration
from those old, really old scifi. You say you can tell them I love
them.
When you said you planet mate,I was like, yeah, absolutely, I can
see that now. The oldForbidden Planet film. Yeah, Bang.
On. Yep. It's actually a goodfilm. You know, the old Forbidden
(26:58):
Planet film.
I've not watched it for years.
Yeah, it's bit cheesy, butit's. Yeah, it's good.
I don't want a bit of cheesysci fi.
Yeah, you mentioned the. The.It was visual effects heavy. That
was one thing that wasapparent all the way through, other
than the hospital stuff thatthey filmed at the beginning.
(27:18):
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. Yeah.
You know, when the Doctor'schasing after her and can't quite
find her, it's. Other thanthat, you can tell that pretty much
everything else was in frontof a green screen. It was very, very
green screen heavy. Other thanthe TARDIS sets at the end and. Which
is obviously a physical thingthat used to be. Yeah, used to be
(27:42):
up at Wolf Studios.
I think it still is. I thinksomeone. I don't know. We just don't
know.
I'm kidding. Yeah, but, yeah,it was. That was very green screeny.
You could tell that prettymuch every. Every scene for after
that. After the bit where shegets taken up into the rocket up
(28:02):
until the end when they're onthe tardis. I think most of it was
some kind of green screenstuff, but that's not a bad thing.
But it just felt a little bit.Yeah, a little bit like a. You know,
they were one step away fromjust. You might as well just animate
Doctor Who.
I. I kind of get what youmean, mate, because there's someone
who hate. I hate CGI when it'sused a lot, especially in Marvel
films, because to me, I thinkmy brain's got so used to it that
(28:25):
I'm just sat there thinking,it's not real, it's not, you know,
so I'm not a big fan of heavycgi, but it didn't bother me for
some reason during this. Ithink it was well done for the most
part. So, yeah. Yeah, I justgot. Well, I remember, mate, as being
as. We are both. We are bothcat owners and we love our feline
(28:46):
friends, because I'm bound toforget this later on. Did you nearly
switch off when that cat gotobliterated? Within the first five
minutes, I was a bit shocked.I was like, what the heck? You know
what that cat do.
Sad times, eh?
I know, because we bothlisteners, we both have our cats
and they are like our bestfriends. We love cats, me and Garry,
very much. Cat people. So,yeah, I was horrified by that. But,
(29:10):
yeah, I didn't switch off, obviously.
No, no, it was. I think it Wasthe first fatality, wasn't it? The
cat. The first one to bite thedust. Yeah.
It made me want to hit RussellT. Davies over the head of an umbrella.
It's like, how dare you?
Very sad. Yeah, I'm sure that.Yeah, I'm sure. I think I saw somebody
on Twitter say, of course theywere joking, of course. But they
(29:33):
put a screenshot of the exactmoment when the cat sort of turned,
was obliterated and they saidsomething like, this is it the straw
that's broke the camel's back.Not watching Doctor Who anymore.
I did think that about. Ithought this could be it. This could
be Garry switching off. That'sthe. Yeah, the final straw, Russ.
Yeah, no reader, story wisefelt a little bit classic rtd, this
(29:59):
one in terms of story. It wasjust a good old throw in some timey
wimey stuff, if you know whatI mean. You know, with the whole.
The Doctor even says that,doesn't he? He says timey, why me?
And. And Belinda's like, whatam I, six? Those little biting comments,
mate, they, they were verycool. And so I think it tries to
(30:20):
play on. It tries to play onsort of old tropes from. From us,
from Russell back in the dayand because he repeats a few things
that we've heard a few timesbefore. Obviously the whole. It's
bigger on the inside than itis on the outside and, and a.
Timey wimey and the long wayround and all that.
(30:41):
Yeah, yeah. So it's kind of,you know, a little, a little gentle
nudge, a little reminder that,you know, Russell's still the Russell
of old in some respects. Andso story wise. Yeah, a little bit
timey wimey with the whole,you know, how did the certificate
get there before they did?Yeah, you know, and it all comes
down to this time fracture.Essentially. The Doctor and Belinda
(31:03):
travel through a timefracture. They comically in the episode
say, I think it was a schwup,you know, it schwooped, which is
kind of cool. So that was, youknow, a little bit seeing. But I
think the twist, there'salways a twist, always the end, isn't
it? Always? I think the twistwas the character of Alan back as
(31:23):
the, you know, he had beenbrought to the planet, you know,
long before they got thereand, and has caused this revolution
with the robots to, to. To beat war with the humans and all that
stuff. So he's basically a badegg is Alan, Alan Budd. And, and
that leads on to a scene,mate, that I assume that you picked
(31:47):
up on. Lots of people pickedup on this with Alan's demise.
Yeah.
And the Doctor's bigcelebration of. Of his death, which
is an interesting. Alwaysinteresting when they do this in
Doctor Who, because youremember, we had it with, I'm sure,
in Matt Smith's, you know,with. What's his name? Bradley.
(32:11):
Yeah. David Bradley's character.
Yeah.
Dinosaurs on a spaceship.
That's the one. Yeah. When hewas reasonably okay with sending
him to his death, didn't seemtoo bothered, even though he was
a bad egg. Another one, ofcourse. But this is always a thing
when this happens where theDoctor is. Because we've been. We
(32:31):
were so conditioned for theDoctor to be, for the most part,
very compassionate, even inthe face of someone being a bit of
a baddie, always giving them asecond chance or a chance to redeem.
And in all that stuff withthis, though, you know, Alan was
done and then the Doctor'sdancing around and cheering and.
(32:54):
So what's your take on this dude?
Yeah, no, it's the bit Italked about earlier where I said,
it's the one bit I didn'tlike. I know a lot of people have
picked up on it, so itprobably seems like I'm jumping on
the bandwagon, but I really.It was the fact he seemed to be.
They both were sort oflaughing and celebrating it that
just thought. It just didn'tsit right with me, mate. But I will
admit, for half a second, youknow, when the robot cleaned up the
(33:18):
sperm, you know, when itcleaned up Alan, initially, for that
second, me and my partner bothlaughed. He said, oh, God, there
goes Alan. And we sort ofchuckled. And then I stopped and
thought about it because theDoctor then did a high kick. It was
like, yes, and startedlaughing. And I. I kind of went from
laughing at the scene tothinking, oh, no, that's actually.
No, I don't think I like that.And I don't like the Doctor celebrating
(33:41):
it because he may have been abaddie, but, yeah, he was kind of
taken there and, you know, hewasn't. He wasn't really evil and
horrible. Well, I suppose hewas. You know what I mean? Yeah,
yeah. But I still thought itdidn't justify a high kick and a
yes queen from the Doctor. Idon't know. It. Yeah, it just didn't
sit right with me. I do agreewith people who found that a bit
(34:03):
undoctorish. It. I. I knowwe've had it a few times, similar
sort of stuff. Like you justmentioned that about the David Bradley
character. I Also think backto a scene with Matt smith, doctor,
where Mr. Sweet. Remember Mr.Sweet, that little creature when
he was bludgeoned to death andthe Doctor just kind of didn't do
anything about it? Thatannoyed me at the time and still
does now. So, yeah, I'm neververy happy when I see the Doctor,
(34:27):
just. Not necessarily justletting people go to death, but actually
laughing and celebrating aboutit. Yeah, I didn't like that bit,
mate. I'm afraid it wasprobably the. The low point in the
episode for me, in a prettymuch mostly enjoyable episode. It
just. Yeah, I'm not going todwell on it, just. It just. Just
a bit I didn't like.
Yeah, yeah, no, I see why. Isee why people are not too keen on
(34:53):
that bit. I've got twothoughts on it. The first one is,
I think at this point, Alanwas so far gone from his human state
and his human form, they'renot really celebrating the death
or the destruction of a personat that point. You know, he's more
(35:14):
sort of machine and an Androidor whatever you want to call him
at that point. So I thinkthat's why they weren't too fast,
you know, because if we rewindto the beginning of near the beginning,
where the Doctor is talking toBelinda for the first time and they
(35:35):
did this, that was what. Thisis one scene that I really loved,
actually. It's really clever,where the Doctor had figured out
that there was a fault withthe. With the robots, that they couldn't
hear every ninth word.
Yeah, yeah, I like that idea.
Yeah, really cool, that. Andso in that scene there, when that
(35:55):
leads up to the first kind ofrebellion shootout with the robots
and stuff, his reaction whenSasha55 gets killed, he's in pieces,
you know, he's really nothappy. And so I think that that's
(36:17):
the Doctor obviously beingvery Doctor ish, that we know, you
know, with that compassion andwanting to save everybody. So I think
when you go to near the end, Ithink. I think Alan's just not viewed
as a. As a person anymore.He's more machine and robot than
anything. So maybe that sortof links into why they're not too.
(36:38):
Too bothered. Obviously, thefact that he's a right beep, you
know, probably played into ita little bit. But I get what you're
saying and what other peoplesaying is that even if that's the
case, which is the Doctors arebit uncomfortable for him to be like
that. And then the other thingis that I think they have to be quite
(36:59):
careful with the writing here.Because for the most part it was
all very sort of sciencefictiony fun adventure. Pew, pew,
pew. You know, rebellionagainst robots and all that stuff.
On paper it sounds wonderful,but the underlying sort of darkness,
the episode is essentiallyAlan's character being, you know,
(37:21):
this kind of incel.Controlling sort of character. And
when we've had, you know, the,the TV show on Netflix recently,
adolescence, which sort ofgripped. Gripped everybody as being
this amazing show. Very hardwatch. But you know, is very much
(37:43):
around that subject. I thinkit would be very. They have to be
very careful with how theyhandle the. The end result for a
character like that. So you. Idon't think you could have like with
the, the world's consciousnessat the moment about the devastating
effects of people like thatand their influence in the world.
(38:06):
I think you couldn't then havethe Doctor trying his hardest to
save somebody like thatbecause then you would just have,
you know, social media wouldjust be flooded with like, you know,
Doctor saves incel.
Yeah.
Monster kind of thing and allthat stuff. So they have to be careful
about that side of things. SoI think revolving, sort of involving
(38:31):
that scene and, and theDoctor's reaction stuff, I think
it's just a bit more layeredthan he. You know, the Doctor's a
bit of a dick for celebratingsomebody being killed. I think there's
just more to it.
Yeah, essentially.
Yeah. But yeah, I've seen iton Socials, dude. It's a lot of people
have picked up on that onething with the Doctor and Belinda
(38:53):
having a good old, a good oldlaugh and stuff. And what rubs salt
in the wound. Yeah. Is thelittle Polish robot that comes. And
that's the end of improperly.
Yeah. It's like Gadget Gadget,isn't it? Same.
Oh, yeah.
It's another one of sort ofRussell's little sort of tropes that's
come in. In this one which.There are a few.
There are a few, yeah. Thenthe other, the other scene that I
(39:18):
just want to pick up on, whichI didn't think was bad. It was so
terrible, but I just felt alittle bit like, oh, here we go again.
Why. Why do we do. Why do wedo this Doctor Who? Because it's
almost like one step forward,two steps back where we have this
refreshing character in thecompanion of Belinda. Right?
(39:39):
Yeah.
Where she's very strong mindedand not a pushover and we. That's
evident right from the get go.It's very cool. But then we have
the Doctor saying, oh, I can'ttell you. I can't tell you because,
you know, he. There's thatquote unquote, this mysterious. He.
He told me that, you know, Iwould. I would bump into you, whatever.
(40:03):
Yeah, but I have to be carefulwith timelines and stuff like that.
As soon as he said that, I'mlike, oh, here we go. Here we bloody
go. Like, why do we have to.Yeah, why do we have to have this
thing where the companion hasto be either the most important thing
in the universe or, you know,connected to this big plan in some
(40:25):
way and all the rest of it?Why can't they just be them? Why
can't that be enough anymore?Do you know what I mean?
Like, I do.
I don't mean. I don't mean tobe a grumpy old sod, but we think
back to the classic who days,you know, when the Doctor's kicking
around with Sarah Jane and,and, and, or Dodo or Nissa Tegan,
(40:45):
whoever. You know, they're notpart of this massive important cog
that the entire seriesrevolves around and stuff. They're
just there, like, being cool,you know, being with the Doctor and
everything. And we don't havethat anymore. The companion has to
be this mega big, importantthing, you know?
Yeah. I mean, I just hope ithas a decent payoff, mate. I know
(41:09):
exactly what you mean, becauseit's all. It's starting to feel a
little bit tired, this wholesort of mystery companion thing again.
But, yeah, and I guess I don'tknow if it's just that they feel
they have to explain itbecause she was in another episode
and I believe she was castafter Russell saw in Boom and thought
she'd be a good companion. Ithink that's the way it went. It
was never like the initialplan. So, yeah, it's like, oh, well,
(41:32):
she was an episode, so Ibetter explain it. And. But, you
know, back in classic who,yeah, we used to have actors appear
every other week. I mean,Jeffrey Palmer was in loads and,
you know, we didn't. Question.Hang on. He looks like such and such
from two seasons back. Youknow, we just went with it. I think
they worry too much about theaudience, you know, wanting an explanation,
where, like you said, I thinkwe just want them to get in the tardis,
(41:54):
go on some adventures. We'renot too bothered about that sort
of thing. Well, maybe somepeople are, I don't know, but I agree
with you. But I just hopethere's a good, a good resolution
to this whole Mundy Flynn and,you know, Belinda Chandra.
Yeah.
Question. Yeah.
What do you think to a newcompanion and to Varard. Do you think
(42:14):
she's. Think she's off to agood start?
I. I like. I agree with you. Ilike the fact it's something a bit
different. I mean, I do getlike that strong Donna vibes of she's
not gonna, you know, she'sgonna hold her own. Right. So, yes,
I. My initial impressions are.I think I like her. My court. The
court is still a little bitout with me, mate, because she is
a bit stroppy and, you know,I've heard say, people say she's
(42:37):
grumpy and whatever, but I. Iliked what I saw so far. That's what
I will say. She. And like yousaid, I like the fact she's something
a bit new in terms of thedynamic with the Doctor that we haven't
seen for a while, let's put itthat way. So, yeah, my initial first
impressions of her is that Ithink she's got great potential.
I'm hoping we see some goodchemistry between her and. And the
(42:59):
Doctor going forward. I saw alittle bit of that, particularly
the end scene that you talkedabout. I thought, yeah, they're starting
to get to know each other andthe way, you know, starting to figure
out the way each other works.So I hope going forward they, you
know, have some goodchemistry. So, yeah, I like her so
far, but I just don't know. Ineed to see a little bit more to
make up my mind, I think. Bitlike with Tegan, you know, she came
(43:22):
in and she was moaning andgoodness knows what, and it took
a while to get to love Tegan,so I feel like there could be a little
bit of that with Belinda.We'll see.
We'll see. Yeah. Yeah. Samethoughts as you on that, bud.
Yeah.
And what about Ncuti'sperformance then? I thought he had
a. I thought it was one of thethings that a lot of people said
(43:42):
in the run up to season two,excuse me, was especially if you
weren't a fan of season one,was that they were concerned that
it wouldn't be differentenough and wouldn't push the boundary
or go in a different directionenough, because they were filmed
pretty much back to back,weren't they? Seasons one and two.
And I think that is reallyevident in shoot his performance.
(44:05):
I think it's literally like wejust saw season one last week. So
not that I. Not. I'm sayingthat he has to change up his performance
or. But if you think aboutsome of the shifts that we had with
some previous doctors thatworked Pretty well. Like, you know,
when David Tennant's Doctorsort of morphed into this sort of
(44:29):
Doctor that didn't really givea crap for a while. You know, this
Time Lord Victorious thing.Yeah, you know, he was a slightly
different sort of taped andbit darker and. And obviously McCoy's
doctor. We saw that towardsthe end of his run a little bit.
And Capaldi's Doctor as wellchanged from season. From. Yeah,
(44:50):
so that was a bit. So I'm notsaying that that has to happen, but
it would have been cool forNcuti just to sort of, you know,
look at what worked and whatdidn't work from season one and,
you know, adapt a little bitand change it up just a little bit.
But it just felt like a. Justexactly like season one. And of course,
(45:11):
we had the teary cryingscenes. That's becoming a bit of
a. Unfortunately, mate, that'sbecoming a bit of a meme now, isn't
it? It is for his Doctor. Sowhat do you reckon to Ncuti in this
one?
Yeah, I mean that. I thinkthat is one of the downfalls of Syrian,
of filming series one and twoso close together. Yeah. It hasn't
given him time to sit back,reflect, look at what worked, what
(45:33):
doesn't work. Where do theywant to take the series? And that
applies to shoot hisperformance as well. Nothing to.
Not to say I didn't think hewas good in it. I thought he was
absolutely fine. But, yeah, Iagree with you. He didn't make much
of a lasting impression. And Iguess you could say this episode
was designed to introduce thenew companion, so she was very much
(45:54):
at the forefront the episode.Absolutely fine with that. But I
did think that shoot hisDoctor got a bit lost. I could almost.
I can't really think of muchhe did in it, to be honest with you,
so nothing really wrong withhis performance. I absolutely agree
with you, mate. I'd love tosee him go a little bit, surprise
us a bit. That's what I like.I like it when the Doctor sort of
surprises us. And I don't meanby laughing at someone dying, I mean
(46:17):
by, you know, by being a bitdarker and stuff. So, yeah, I hear
that could be happening. Idon't know. I've heard rumblings
that they're taking. Theymight take his Doctor down the sort
of McCoy route. I've justheard rumblings of that, but I don't
know if that's this series orif that was something they planned
going forward. If it carrieson, I have no idea, mate. But I'D
like to see a little bit ofsomething slightly different from
(46:39):
his doctor going into seriestwo. Yeah, yeah, agreed.
Yeah. Defo. Any otherperformances that stood out? I think
just a couple of people topick up on. We had a guy called Manny,
played by Max Parker. He wasthe guy with the. He was the blond
dude with the muscles that.When I saw him, I thought, oh, no,
(47:00):
not for that reason, but Ithought, is the Doctor going to be,
you know, leeching all overhim and.
Oh, I see. Oh, I thought youmeant because Pex Mark II was back.
I thought that's what you'regonna say.
No, I thought Pex lives. Pexlives. Yeah. And so he was sort of
a moody character, wasn't he?Blames Belinda for all this stuff
(47:22):
and he was. He was okay. Wehad old Nick Briggs. He was the voice
of the robots.
Oh, was he? I didn't even know that.
Yeah, old Briggsy and. Yeah,and that was about it, really. We
had Sasha, 55, played byEvelyn Miller. At the beginning.
She was. She was really cool,actually, where she comes across
(47:43):
as smiley and welcoming toBelinda, but then on the down low,
she's like, you know, please help.
Yeah.
Untimely death. She was okay.And. And that's pretty much it. Anita
Dobson, just for 30 seconds atthe beginning as Mrs. Flood.
I liked her little cameo,mate, I have to say. It's just. I
(48:06):
like the look she gives theDoctor when she sees him. It's a
really horrible, like, oh,you're here. Like an annoyance. And
the way she backs away. Whatdo you. What do you think of the
Talking to the camera that youain't seen me, you know, very far
show, wouldn't it? Youwouldn't see me.
Right. I'm saying me,normally, I wouldn't like.
That sort of thing, but it didmake me smile.
Oh, I really like it. It'sjust. It's just something that changes
(48:29):
up.
Yeah.
You know, something a bit morespice to them, to what's going on.
But just very quick interludehere, mate. Me and the rest of the
big blue box team were inLondon a couple of weekends ago for
the Capital Cutaway event runby the DWAs, and Anita Dobson was
there. She was.
She.
Yeah, we get. We got to see aninterview with her on stage, which
(48:53):
is really cool. And alas, shedidn't reveal anything.
No.
About who her characteractually was. But in a different
interview, she did say thatwhen she found out from Russell who
her character is, she saidthat her eyes have just popped out
of her head.
Really.
And she was in. Oh, yeah. So Ithink. I think it's leading to somebody
(49:14):
that we've absolutely seenbefore. 100 cool.
I am looking forward to that.Does she now live next door to Belinda?
That was the other thing I wasthinking. Is she moved house or is
she just. She just popped byto borrow some sugar. What was she
doing there? Like, why was shenext door? So, yeah, the mystery
of Mrs. Flood is. Isdefinitely starting to engage with
(49:34):
me more than it did before. Ithink so. I absolutely love a Nia
Dobson and it was. Even thoughshe was only in it for a minute,
I just thought it was fun tosee her actually. I'm definitely
getting more engaged with that.
Yes. Yeah. And then Alan Budd,played by Johnny Green. Those of
(49:55):
you that know Johnny Green'sname, he's done quite a few big finish
stories.
Okay.
He's played quite a fewcharacters for big finish and he's
now on screen but a reallyuncomfortable character right from
the get go. And you could seethat sort of controlling nature.
And Belinda pushes back onthat towards the end, you know, when
(50:16):
she starts to recap their sortof moments together. You know, earlier
on like I think it was 17years prior to the events of we were
witnessing and she was like,you're always correcting me. You
always do, you know, all thatsort of thing. So a bad dude for
sure and an uncomfortablewatch. But I think that's due to
(50:37):
Johnny Green's performance. Ithink if he didn't play it well enough,
you wouldn't feeluncomfortable and he would have missed
the point. So I thought. Ithought he was pretty good.
Yeah, he was fine, mate. And Iabsolutely. I was. I didn't see the
twist coming of him in but Iknew we were going to see him again.
I thought this. They'redefinitely going to play into that.
That storyline and bring, youknow, I felt like he was going to
(50:57):
be a villain. I just didn'tsee him coming back as, you know,
Iron Maiden, Eddie trapped inthat thing. But that was cool. That
looked great, didn't it? Thatnot just his prosthetics but the
thing that he was in, youknow, that big face. It was great,
you know. So.
Yeah.
Good.
Yeah. I just want to mentionMurray's music as well as we.
Yeah.
(51:17):
As we start another seasonagain. I think this is not enough
time between seasons, mate,for them to just have a bit of a
pause and a breather to dostuff because it wasn't bad. And
there was a couple of coolscenes where it felt like a bit of
A horror film that you werewatching. He, you know, there's a
(51:38):
brass section that sort of didthis weird noise and sort of got
you in the spirit, I guess. Itwas pretty cool. But then during
the shootout scenes and someof the action scenes, it was just
stuff that I'd heard athousand times in other action films
or stuff like that. So itdoesn't sound like quintessential
Murray Gold that I think wewere spoiled for so many years with
(52:00):
back in the day. But it'sstill not. It's not bad. It's just.
I feel like he's not. He's notbeing as. I don't know what the word
is. He's not sort of taking itby the bull by the horns and making
it his own. He's kind ofmixing in little bits here and there,
(52:20):
but then the rest of it, he'sjust going down the more sort of
generic path with things, butnot terrible. But I just feel like,
yeah, he could also havebenefited from having a breather,
I think.
Absolutely, mate. I agree,because it's. I wouldn't say he's
on autopilot, but there arebits of music, like when they're
in the hospital that, like yousaid, could be from, you know, any
series. It's all jolly andsweet, which in some ways is nice
(52:44):
because it makes it feelfamiliar. He almost sort of takes
you back to, you know, youknow, like you said, the tenant days
or whatever. It's kind ofthat. But again, it's a bit too samey.
And then other times he reallymixes it up and throws in some weird
sounds like when they weredoing all the tripping out stuff.
So, yeah, it's a bit of amixed bag with Murray, to be honest
with you. I feel like he needsto take a few more risks in terms
(53:07):
of trying something new.
Yes.
Really. But, yeah, so I knowwhat you mean. Not. Nothing wrong
with it, but. Yeah, I mean,the stuff in the hospital, it kind
of grated on me a little bit,to be honest with you. I just thought,
yeah, we've heard this kind ofjingly. Everything's jolly. I don't
know, a little bit autopilot,if you know what I mean.
Yeah. Felt a little bit like,you know, partners in crime, where.
(53:29):
Yes, that's it. Yeah.
Yeah. When they play thatlittle, very cool little jingle as
they're sort of searching foreach other and have those near misses.
Yeah, that kind. Yeah, I knowwhat you mean, mate.
Yeah.
Yeah. Is there anything else,dude, that. That caught your eye
in terms of you loved or youdidn't like so much anything else
before we put a score on this?
(53:49):
No, I do. I mean, I justreally sort of sum up. I thought,
like you said, the storylinein itself, it was pretty thin. But
Russell was throwing in somenice ideas, almost, perhaps too much,
you know, I mean, like yousaid, I like the whole. The robots
not being out here, everyninth word. That's a nice idea. I
don't think he handled theactual underlying tone of the whole,
(54:12):
you know, toxic masculinityincel thing that well. But it kind
of worked as a story. It justfelt like there was lots of ideas
being thrown at the screenthat perhaps didn't stick as well
as they could. But overall Ithought it was okay. The only other
thing I've got on my list is Ididn't, in terms of writing, a little
bit lazy. You know, the Dr.Power shorts out, the power in the
(54:33):
hospital, probably killingloads of people that are on life
support. I mean, again, all itneeded was a scene of the lights
coming back on and perhapssomeone jumping up like the master,
you know, going as if they'vejust regenerated or Captain Jack,
you know, so there were, therewere little niggles like that in
terms of the writing where Ifelt like the episode was most enjoyable,
but it was also quite clunkyin terms of the writing in places,
(54:55):
so. But other than that, mate,I'm just looking down my list. No,
I mean the crying thing, wementioned that. That's just becoming
a thing now, isn't it? Youjust expect shooter to cry and it's.
They need to lay off that oredit that out because that is just
becoming laughable.Unfortunately, it has absolutely
zero impact. I mean, we hadn'teven got to know Sasha to. To be
(55:18):
honest, to even care that shehad died. So seeing him blubbing
his eyes out, it was just aneye roll moment. So things like that,
definitely, like you said,they need to be sort of sitting back
and you know, adjusting thesethings to make the series better,
I think. Because that isbecoming a bit of a joke, the whole
crying thing. But yeah, apartfrom that, mate, I don't think I've
got anything else on my list.
(55:39):
Yeah, I echo your thoughts onthat, dude. A little bit clunky with
the editing and the writingand some places I think we've got
used to this sort of breakneckspeed running through some parts
of the story now where it'sedited so tightly together. It's
just that you feel like it'sa. That's not a bad thing. You know,
if you're trying to createenergy and you want things to feel
(56:02):
like you're at a quick paceand stuff, of course it's good, but
in some parts of store youfeel like I would have been cool
just to slow that down just atad, let it breathe. Yeah, yeah.
So I totally get that, man.Yeah. And the doctor crying thing.
Yeah. I don't know why theykeep. I don't know. I don't know
(56:23):
who keeps saying to them.Actually. No, do you know what? I
know why. It's because thiswas all done before we all saw season
one.
Yeah.
So they haven't got. Yeah.They haven't got time to go back
and, and, and fix that becausenow they probably filmed another
seven weeks worth of cryingscenes we can't do anything about.
(56:46):
So anyway, just one last thing.
Did you like the cleanerrobot? Because that was one of the
things I did like. And again,it's some. Sometimes that doesn't
work for me when they go toosilly with it, but I kind of liked
that little robot. And also Idid like the little throwback to
gadget. Gadget, you know,polish, Polish. It don't know. For
me it worked. I don't know ifit will have worked for everyone,
(57:09):
but I liked it.
I loved it, mate.
You did okay.
Really cool. Yeah. And again,that sort of old 50s style. Yeah,
really, really cool. Yeah,very cute. Right, scores on the old
doors. Who's going to gofirst? Is this one where you're sort
of um. And ah, and. Or haveyou got a different score?
(57:31):
No, it's not. I know sometimesI'm like, oh, oh, I can't decide.
No, this was easy. I wrotethis down without even hesitation,
mate. 6.5 out of 10.
6.5. Yeah, nice. Similar tome. I'm gonna give it a six, mate.
Six. Okay.
Yeah. I don't know what the.Even on the second watch, I just
(57:53):
thought, yeah, this is not. Noway. This is a seven. But it's not
middle of the road. There weresome nice things to enjoy and it
wasn't too bad. So six, mate.
Yeah, yeah. No, it's just. Ihate to use the term so frequently
but it's very mid and I justthought, yeah, 6.5. Enjoyable. I'm
just glad it wasn't a five orbelow. You know, that that would
(58:13):
have been very disappointing.Yeah, this was okay. 6.5.
Yeah. And what your thoughtson next week then? Because we got
a little snippet at the endfor the old. The cinema. The crazy
cartoon cinema villain. Whatare Your thoughts on that? You looking
forward to that or.
Yeah, very much so, mate. Ithink this is the episode a lot of
(58:33):
people are looking forward to.And I said earlier as we started
that I wasn't feeling muchbuzz by the trailers and stuff, but
I have to say, I do have. I amtrying not to get carried away and
get too excited for it, but I.I do have a buzz for this week's
episode, which is nice. Ihaven't felt that for a while, but
the trailers have actuallyworked in terms of getting excited
(58:53):
for next week. So this week's,I mean, so, yeah, I hope it's good.
It looks. It looks promising.Yeah. Really does. So I hope it.
I hope they pull it off andit's a good episode.
Yeah, yeah. It looks very creative.
It does, yeah. It looksvisually brilliant. Yeah.
Alrighty then. So that was a6.5 from him, a 6 from me, and I
(59:16):
think we'll close it outthere, dude. For episode 420. Thank
(59:47):
you, thank you. Thank you somuch for listening to another episode
of the Big Blue box. That was420. And our review of the Robot
Revolution to kick off seasontwo. We'll be back next week, as
Adam said, for the secondepisode. Actually back this week.
No, next week. The episode'sout this week.
It's confusing.
(01:00:07):
The episodes out this week onSaturday. We'll be back next week
with our review view of saidepisode. Yeah. In the meantime, make
sure you're following orsubscribing to Big Blue Box in your
fave podcast app of choice.That way you won't miss an episode
when it lands. At this point,probably every Tuesday or Wednesday
(01:00:28):
as we go through season two.And also head over to the website
bigblueboxpodcast.co.uk. youcan link off to all the socials.
We're on Twitter, Facebook,Instagram, all that stuff. Blue sky,
come and chat with us overthere. And we also have a very cool
free Discord server. There's alink on the website. Hop over there.
Chat. Doctor Who Season two,Ncuti, crying. Anything you want
(01:00:48):
to talk about, it's allhappening over there on the Discord
server. And you can also checkout more geekery on my co host channel's
YouTube stuff. The geeks Handbag.
The Geeks Handbag. Also on allthe socials under the same name,
the Geeks Handbag. That is is me.
That is him indeedy. Somereally cool unboxings, reviews of
(01:01:10):
products, Blu Rays, cinematrips, the whole lot. It's all on
there. Go and check them out.Until next week, then, Bud. Take
care of yourselves, everybody,and remember it.
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