Ketina here. Intro, blah blah blah. Last episode of the story, blah blah blah. One kid this week.
Anyway: This episode first aired on 12 October, 1968.
<very funny, Ketina. – The Historian>
H = Historian
K = Ketina
R = Ronelyn
Sp = Spoo
EG = ElfGrrl
P = Photobug
A = Altair
E = Ezio
Cz = Cz
EG: So the TARDIS had been made again? Right after it got destroyed.
R: No. The destruction of the TARDIS kind of got unhappened.
EG: Well, that’s sort of the same thing.
R: Prosthetic technology sure has progressed a lot since the early days of the BBC.
P: Are you suggesting that they didn’t get the nose right?
R: Maybe. It just looked like Cyrano and the Karkus had some kind of a silly putty fight and the Karkus lost badly.
EG: So… the computer had a mind of its own?
P: What do you think the computer had?
EG: I think the computer… could have been like… unstable and they couldn’t control the computer and put it in some space and forgot about it.
R: It’s possible. I’ve done that with a computer.
EG: You’ve thrown it out into space?! Wow, that computer must have been really busted. Or just using you instead of you using it.
K: I think she meant that she’d forgotten about a computer, not thrown it into space.
EG: Well… that could sort of be the same thing. If you really forget stuff a lot.
<we digress for a bit about very random things… and Tom Cruise or something>
H: So, speaking of Cyrano, as we were a while back, did y’all note that three of the people involved in that final fight were real people, as well as fictional characters? One of which, Black Beard, wasn’t really a fictional character at all?
P: But he is a character who has been portrayed in fiction.
K: By John Malkovich, no less. But they are all in stories where they are portrayed fictionally.
H: But it’s been pointed out that Blackbeard is an anomaly.
Sp: I rather enjoyed Brian Blessed’s performance.
P: Who?
Sp: Blackbeard.
H: It was NOT Brian Blessed. He was making Z-Cars money at this point. He wasn’t going to take a bit part in Doctor Who.
K: Not until the 1980’s, anyway.
<Bad Brian Blessed jokes that they didn’t even let me type. He married Peri, and that’s all we need to know about Brian Blessed in Doctor Who.>
Sp: So the Master Brain didn’t really think it through.
P: Not Masterfully.
R: Do they ever? Does anything called “The Master Brain” ever come up with a carefully considered…
EG: Wrapped up nice warm present.
R: And… <quietly> sure, go with that.
P: Okay, so… like… maybe the Master Brain did come up with something like that and succeeded so well, and therefore…
A: Maybe we’re all fiction right now.
Sp: <points to Ketina> And in her head!
K: <hehehehe>
H: Yeah.
Sp: I mean, the Master Brain’s whole plan was to get the Doctor to accidentally refer to himself once, in the third person, thereby putting himself in the story. The Master Brain’s whole continued existence hinged on a trick that is about at the same level as…
K: Getting Mxyplyzyk…
Sp: Yes, in the Superman stories, getting Mxyplyzyk to say his name backwards.
R: So, the trick would be to get a giant egoist to talk about himself.
Cz: Doesn’t sound very hard.
H: So, if it had been the sixth Doctor…
<laughter>
P: One of my problems with that plot is that the Doctor, once given control, could, in some way, write a trap around the guy who was the Master.
K: The computer brain was the Master. The guy was just the writer.
R: <Master Brain voice> Ridiculous, nothing can override the Master Brain. Don’t you see, I have the word “Master” right in my name! You have no chance, make your time.”
K: So, one theory, could be that the writer guy, who clearly wanted out, convinced the Master Brain to do all this with the Doctor in hopes that the Doctor would be clever enough to defeat it.
EG: So, why did the Doctor want to write down that he finally defeated…
P: If he refered to himself in the third person then he would become part of the story.
Cz: That’s not how it works. It wouldn’t work like that in real life. I didn’t see the episode <note, she was sitting in the ROOM> so I’m trying to figure it out by what you’re talking about. Other people in the story were talking about him in the story, so why would him talking about himself get him into the story.
K: They were trying to make him fictional.
Cz: Oh, they were trying to make him fictional. Okay… it’s not that they needed him to refer to himself, they needed him to become fictional. So someone else could have referred to him doing something…
H: In the future. Predictive.
<Ketina write for Cz> Ah…
Cz: Ah… You wrote the thing I was going to say and then I said it.
K: And now you’re fictional.
Cz: But I said it because you wrote it.
Sp: Historian?
H: Yes???
Sp: Am I real?
Cz: <laughs> No.
H: Yes…. Maybe.
R: It’s dark in here, and we may die.
H: What does reality mean? We can only go by our senses until someone tells us… okay, someone punch me now.
P: You are eaten by a Grue.
E: What are you doing to my brain?
R: Meanwhile, in the episode I really loved the part where the Keeper did the Mr. Burns fingers.
<laughter>
H: I love the ink stained fingers.
K & A: Yeah!
H: It took me a second… oh that’s right, they’re ink stains. Cool.
EG: So the computer, for some reason, wanted… to destroy… to have Doctor Who’s brain.. and then become a genius? For literally no entire reason. And just does it automatically? That makes no sense.
Sp: Remember in an earlier episode, the “writer” told the Doctor that he wanted the Doctor to replace him because the Doctor had a fantastic mind, and the Doctor would live an awfully long time…
EG: So he’s the perfect subject?
Sp: Exactly.
K: So that the “write” could get away. And not have to write for the Master Brain anymore.
P: Okay. <thinks> I’m trying to formulate my point here. There was a good stretch where the Doctor was creating his own fiction, after having Karkus break into the Master Log. And I don’t understand why this didn’t eventually work. That said, the same exact plan was employed in the finale.
H: Not the same, exact plan. When he was trying to manipulate the Master Log he was almost tricked into including himself into the story. In the finale he used other characters, but specifically not himself.
K: I liked the goofy bit at the end when they brought everybody back from earlier in the story.
H: Expensive episode.
R: The BBC had tons of drunks in period costumes.
H: But guest cast were paid per episode. So they had to pay them all for this final episode as well.
R: Yeah. But they paid them in liquor.
K: Not the kids. I hope.
R: Of course the kids.
Sp: I wish Mister Mother was here for this one.
R: Why is that?
Sp: Well, with his drama background, the final fight between the Doctor and the Writer was basically one long, extended improv session between two really frustrated passive aggressive non-cooperative actors. Or two nine year olds who just couldn’t play together well.
<EG seems to have missed that dig>
R: “Ah huh!” “Nah uh!” “Ah huh times infinity!”
Sp: “I shoot you with my gun. Kapuing” “No you don’t!”
P: A wizard battle. A Disney wizard battle.
H: So yeah. Are we at final thoughts? And a reminder that we can talk about the episode and the story as a whole, if possible.
E: <punches fist in air> Can I just say that the improv writing scene felt absolutely brilliant, but also ridiculous.
H: Anymore?
E: Overall the story really screwed with my head. Even when I finally figured out what was going on. I was very confused, and I felt lost a lot. AND I LOVED EVERY SECOND OF IT!!
A: I enjoyed this story. It made a nice change from base under siege or historical thingy.
R: Yeah. It definitely ended better than it beginned or middled.
H: I liked the beginning. I thought the first episode was pretty awesome, especially given that it was written very quickly with no budget and they had to make due with pre-made props.
P: I really liked the story. I think, as a story concept for the entire arc, it was a good concept that held up. But I think that parts of the story did not. Too often the resolution to being in trouble was to run away.
K: Welcome to the Patrick Troughton era.
P: So, I think the cliff hangers represented the only times they didn’t just run away. Or climb away.
Sp: The constantly run away thing actually works, now that I think about it. And I hadn’t noticed it before, so thank you for pointing it out. But, the tone of the story was somewhere between children’s fairy story and something of a dream. And in either of those it is perfectly common and makes “story sense” to simply run. You know, the running dream.
P: If the intent of this children’s show was to explore through history, and perhaps educate children…
H: <laugh> That fell by the wayside a while ago.
P: …then a better explanation of each character would have been brought up.
H: A better explanation in what way?
P: Of each character. In one way, simply exposing the children to “there is a guy named Blackbeard”…
H: Well, the big thing that’s missing from our context of viewing the story is that this wouldn’t be the introduction to these characters to the vast majority of the children of the time. Children back then did this thing that they don’t do so much today that they call read. And they’d be familiar, at least by name, with D’Artagnan and Gulliver, and the kids from Edith Nesbit books.
K: I disagree. Not that children read less now… I don’t know. But I disagree that the writers would make the assumption that children should be familiar with those characters.
EG: I read.
K: Very good. But my point… a lot of TV shows today for families or kids, make reference to things that only the parents would get.
H: No, no. These were part of regular school curriculum. Just like children would know who the heros of the Trojan War were, or what happened in 1066 when we were dealing the Time Meddler. Or, for that matter, the joke about the Doctor burning cakes in the first Dalek movie. It’s a different cultural context is what I’m saying.
K: But what I’m saying is, does it matter?
H: But if you were going to educate the children wouldn’t you have a real introduction of the character. But then you wouldn’t need to because the children would be at least familiar with the character.
K: But, my point is, even if the kids didn’t get it write [right] away, other people in the family likely will and be able to explain it. And because this was a family show, mostly watched by families, introducing characters like this can lead to a family discussion after the show. So I don’t think it’s as important that the kids already know so much as it’s important that it leads to the family talking about it.
H: Okay. Do you have more Photobug?
P: During part of the show the scene was literally made of the words. When they were in the forest of letters. In that particular scene I was very impressed by the implementation of the idea, and the idea itself. I can see how it would be impossible, but it would have been cool to have seen that played all throughout the show. I think it would have take technology of today to pull that off. I liked the story. I’d recommend seeing it again. And that’s it. No music.
EG: Um…
H: What did you think of the story? Of the episode?
EG: I thought that… why on earth would there be different characters, totally different, nothing that would involve anything to make them together, nothing that would compare them together, in staying in the exact at the time story. That makes no sense.
H: No, it didn’t.
EG: I know. I didn’t make any sense.
A: You thought the choice of characters was too random.
EG: Basically. Who gets a super hero with a gun? That’s super random!
<explanation of Karkus for ElfGrrl who missed it last week.>
H: Do you have anything else you want to say?
EG: I think that… Zoe and Jamie should know more than just to play with a book. Books and their words can be totally dangerous for totally different reasons. You do not know what I mean. I’m sorry.
E: That makes me feel very powerful to be a writer.
K: What do you mean?
H: ElfGrrl giggled.
EG: <giggles>
H: Oh no, she’s fiction now!
EG: What? Does that mean? <laughter> No no… <laughter> Does that mean… <laughter> I can be a super hero I thought of? Because I totally would like that! Superhero Elfgrrl! Yay! Kitty kitty kitty <kitty stuff just continues… it just goes on>
H: I think she’s done. Spoo?
Sp: I liked the Doctor’s oblique reference to Daleks and robots in general when he climbed the ladder to escape the robot.
K: Why didn’t he make the Daleks show up to defeat everybody?
R: Yeah, because that would have ended so well. I think you just answered your own question.
Sp: Having all of the characters show up again to have a part in the finale also contributed to the story book fairy story dream sort of feel.
K: It was specially Zoe’s like “And all our friends!”
Sp: Yes! And, of course, because of the nature of the story, and specially how it seemed to end, it has the same vibe as some Star Trek Next Gen holodeck episodes or any story where you don’t know whether they’re in a dream or not, in that we can never be certain again, for the rest of the entire run of Doctor Who, up to this present day, whether they ever really escaped, or they’re just playing out one long extended dream sequence, and they’re still actually in the land of fiction.
<dramatic music!>
H: Ronelyn?
R: <Master Brain voice> “Emergency… Emergency… There is… an emergency… going… on. If only… I could… talk… faster… I… might… get… help… before… the… Doctor… does… well.. anything.”
H: Is that all you got? Do you want to talk about the story?
P: Wait! No fantastic pun? No fantastic song? No epic pose? Where’s the real Ronelyn?
R: Don’t try to impose your patriarchal fictification on me.
Sp: Fictification? We can’t just make up words here!
P: Okay. That word alone does it.
R: Overall… The story had some really big soft spots in it. But the overall idea was kind of interesting. And it had some really great moments to it. I find it a lot more forgivable than some of the other weaker stories. And I really loved the Karkus and his “fantastic Liefeld shoulders” <reference to comic artist Rob Liefeld>
A: We really didn’t see his feet.
H: We didn’t see his feet, and not enough pouches.
R: Actually we did see his feet, and he’s wearing tiny tights. And you’re right about the pouches.
EG: I have one more comment. This… <gestures a line on the left> is a line to separate Doctor Who, Jamie, and Zoe from the <gestures a line on the right> fiction and the Master Brain. I do not even know.
H: So, what does that mean?
EG: I means that we should totally separate the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe from fiction things that is going to make their minds blow up. Like I saw on science. Don’t ask.
H: Okay.
EG: Just please don’t ask. Well, you can ask if you want to. That’s okay. <laughter>
R: I can’t top that.
K: I do not understand the gibberish I am following…
H: Why is this night different from all others?
Sp: <whispers in Ketina’s ear> You don’t live with her.
K: Anyway. I agree with Ronelyn that this story had some “soft spots” but overall I enjoyed it very much. It’s hard to watch it without thinking about “the rest”
H: We can bring it up now. It just will make more sense after we watch the next episode.
K: But independent of that… yeah. I really liked this story. It’s fun. It’s unpredictable. I’d seen it before, but didn’t recall the specifics, so it was really fun to be surprised by the details when seeing it again. I loved Gulliver and Karkus and Rapunzel. It was so fun. I think I only felt that the robots were a little annoying. And Jamie and Zoe were TOTALLY free of the book long before they kept push it open – come on.
H: This is the Troughton story I’ve seen the most times. And every time I am struck by how clever it is, and how much it shows how good the production team was. They kept running into problems, all of which they solved in fun and interesting ways. They had minimal budget. They had underrunning scripts, which led to very short episodes, but it was still a fun and satisfying story. And, in a further context, the fictional or dream logic of the story really makes it even better, especially when seen in the context of the rest of the season. I just love the story. Until Enemy of the World and The Web of Fear were found, it might have been my favorite surviving Troughton. Maybe Tomb of the Cybermen, but this definitely gives it a run for it’s money.
Sp: Ahem. And then Ketina wrote – “And there you go! We’ll see you again in 2 weeks! Ketina. NEXT TIME: THE INVASION EPISODE 1”
–
And there you go! We’ll see you again in 2 weeks!
Ketina
NEXT TIME: THE INVASION EPISODE 1
K: Oh no!
