The Smugglers episode 2 discussion:
R: Once again we see the adventures of the dreaded captain Glaive-guisarme-glaive, scourge of the seven cheeses.
M: So the Doctor was clever, huh?
Sp: For the four minutes he was on screen.
H: I think we’ll see his real cleverness when we see his plan next week.
Sp: Whatever his plan is, it is going to have to be a damn site better than a straw voodoo doll.
R: Hey, it worked.
K: I thought it was cool.
M: Tom is a few bricks short of a pallet.
Sp: A couple of turkey legs short of a festival.
Sc: I think this was just a pretty good episode. Not much snarky to say about it.
SG: I thought it was just a scifi show. Little did I know this one would be a historical. I don’t like those as much. But I was amused by the captioning saying “Ben continues to bind man” I read as “continues to BLIND man.”
P: Me too!
M: Purely an artifact of the re-con, but we are now familiar with the clumping sound of straw being tied.
R: I thought the interplay between Ben and Polly was really fun. “Oh, a rat! A rat!” And “What’s going on in here?” “Nothing, we’re really happy.” “I’ll get some straw… no, there’s a rat, you get some straw!”
H: We haven’t really seen this kind of repartee or feeling between companions since Viki left.
K: Or a “couple” like this since Ian and Barbara.
H: And they’re the first set of companions since Ian and Barbara to show up at the same time, so they’re on the same level.
Sc: And from the same time.
M: And from the same bar.
Sp: So the bit with the Doctor coming on to Captain Pike was a little bit overdone. I got the whole flattery thing like 3 lines in and it went on for 5 minutes. So, Jamaica huh?
R: Not very creative with nicknames.
K: They’re pirates. That’s typical.
Sp: Still vaguely offensive.
Sc: Why is it offensive, the guy is from Jamaica. Unless he’s not from Jamaica and from Trinidad or something…
M: I guess because he doesn’t deserve an actual name.
H: We don’t know if it isn’t his actual name.
H: It was just a middle of the story kind of episode. We did get the Revenue Man introduced.
M: And the costuming was fabulous. Pike looked really good and the Revenue Man’s costume they did a really good job with. And the sets and location – just in general the quality of the production was really good.
<long pause with no other comments>
K: Final thoughts?
P: The thing about this show is, it wasn’t Doctor Who. There wasn’t the moment that the Doctor is awesome in this show. There wasn’t the moment when there’s a switch in the plot that really stuck out. It just wasn’t science at all.
H: Yeah, but the Historicals don’t tend to be. They’re a very different kind of story.
P: Sure, the viewer is taken there to that time but we’re used to the story turning in a way that wouldn’t normally occur in that time frame because the Doctor is present and that hasn’t happened.
K: Didn’t happen in Marco Polo either, or many of the other Historicals.
Sp: This story doesn’t need the Doctor, Ben, Polly, or the TARDIS specifically. You could swap out any of the supporting characters and pretty much tell the same story.
H: You arguably say the same thing about the Reign of Terror, the Massacre, or several of the other Historicals. The Myth Makers was like what you describe, but at this point that was the exception, not the norm for Historicals.
P: But this story just didn’t move.
Sp: No, it’s a re-con. They don’t move.
P: Nice.
H: We’re still on the second episode, and still setting up the conflict. A new character was introduced, the Revenue Man, so there’s still setup going on.
P: But, if you’re watching the show weekly…
M: We are.
P: You would say “meh, it was okay.” So, it was okay. However, when they showed the pike <on Captain Pike’s hand> at one point it showed a little key thing instead of a hook.
R: It’s a pike.
Sc: It’s some kind of pole-arm. We haven’t exactly determined what it can do…
Sp: What’s it’s bonus against medium or large creatures?
P: It’s a one handed weapon.
H: That’s true.
M: It’s a NO handed weapon.
<Laughter>
R: No, it’s an OFF handed weapon.
<Applause>
SG: I’m waiting for this to get better. It’s just very slow and plodding. I couldn’t get into it because it was all setup, setup, setup. And it seemed like Ben and Polly were making really dumb choices. When you’re a stranger to an area, and you busted out of jail, why would you go back to the Squire? What?
R: This is your first time meeting Doctor Who companions. They ran off with a creepy old man in a little blue box. Good life decisions aren’t necessarily their core skill set.
Cz: There’s nothing to say because there wasn’t anything bad, so there’s nothing to say.
Sp: So there was lots of people threatening other people, so there was nothing bad so…
Cz: No, I mean there wasn’t a bad script or anything so there’s nothing to say. Stuff happened, rather than stuff to mock.
M: Don’t worry, the Doctor has a plan!
Sc: I wanted to know what was going to happen this episode, even though I have to take the long way home, and I was not disappointed.
P: This was actually a fluff free episode?
M: There’s was a Hartnell mini-fluff.
H: That actually could be why the Doctor wasn’t in it as much. It might have been because they were trying to minimize his role in this episode because of his health issues, and because of the constant fights between him and the producers.
R: I think the hidden secret is that the Squire has swallowed captain Avery.
K: I did actually enjoy the voodoo bit. Silly as it was, I thought it was clever of them.
H: It reminded me a little bit of the “Cave of Skulls” when they tricked their way out of the cave by tricking the cavemen.
SG: First murder and now witchcraft? You guys are swinging!
H: I feel like this continues to be a pretty strong historical story, and is developing in a way that interests me. I’m looking forward to next week. There wasn’t a lot to talk about this week. It was solidly written and acted. Even crazy Tom wasn’t bad in his bumpkin way.
Sp: For story, plot, acting, it was all well put together. But for pure Doctor Who I’m still rooting for low tide.
R: You always side with the sea.
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