And we’re back! Hello everyone, the Historian here, along with a full house to celebrate our return. Ketina is doing much better (thanks for asking), and we’re finally ready to continue with this surreal little story! Without further ado, let’s get to the episode! This episode first aired 21 September, 1968.
H = Historian
K = Ketina
R = Ronelyn
Sp = Spoo
MS = MiniSpoo (10 years old, for those following along)
EG = ElfGrrl (9 years old in just over a week!)
P = Photobug
A = Altair
E = Ezio
Cz = Cz
—
EG: Let me just say one thing… what happened?
MS: Upskirts. Or upkilts, in Jamie’s case.
Sp: <Doctor voice> Well, at least that hasn’t changed.
P: So when Jamie was shot was he actually shot, or did I not understand that. At one point he became a flat character. Was he shot upon first?
MS: I think they just switched out a Jamie character. ”Okay, we’re getting bored of Jamie, so let’s just switch.”
Sp: Although in that case we really were getting board of Jamie.
<groans>
H: So, do you guys want to know the story behind this, or will it just be a mystery.
R & Sp: Budget cuts!
P: I just figured they pulled the very first companion regeneration.
K: I just think the actor who plays Jamie is on vacation.
H: Kind of.
P: Are we talking court duty or injury.
Sp: Actually, given the amount of reverb in the sound effects this week, it’s probably closer to budddgggeettt budddgggeettt budddgggeettt budddgggeettt cuuuuttttssss cuuuuttttssss cuuuuttttssss cuuuuttttssss.
A: I thought the episode was awesome. Seriously, I really enjoyed it. I love puzzles and I love the surrealism.
R: So you mean awesome, not awe-some.
A: Really. I really liked it.
P: I think that’s the first time I’ve heard the Doctor say “where in time and space am I?” As a question. My response was going to be something like Minecraft.
K: Huh?
P: The world is full of square shapes and flat surfaces. Until we find out they’re not actually square.
R: I didn’t think Jamie’s acting was that bad.
P: Jamie’s acting was two dimensional for a little while.
<barely worthy of groans.
A: That Jamie’s face thing was creepy.
Sp: Doesn’t really reflect well on the Doctor’s powers of observation, does it.
A: Well, humans all look alike, really.
R: <Doctor voice> “So, let’s see… I remember he was descended from monkeys.”
H: Okay. So, Frazer Hines absence and recasting in this episode calls to mind something everyone should remember. Be careful when hanging out with young cousins who have chicken pox, because you could catch it.
Sp: Ahhh!
K: So he was out sick.
H: Yes, with chicken pox.
K: I thought the replacement Jamie did extremely well at portraying the character.
A: Yeah.
H: What impresses me the most every time I see this is the fact that this happened. The actor caught chicken pox and the story editor had to come up with a quick, quick way to deal with that.
A: I thought it was pretty clever.
P: Two ways. Thankfully this is an altered reality.
R: So now instead of looking like Ringo he looks like Paul.
K: I said the acting was good, not necessarily the wig.
R: I agree. I thought the acting was definitely good.
EG: I did not know what happened. I was mixed up.
E: That’s okay. I’ve seen episode one of this and I was still lost.
Sp: The mysterious stranger at the control panel, whoever the actor is for that, was giving horrible line readings.
K: I thought he was bouncing between two voices / character like the guy in Tibet that the Great Intelligence was talking through. Is this the Great Intelligence again? (I do know the answer to that).
R: At the very best this is the Mediocre Intelligence.
Sp: If that’s what they were going for, it didn’t come across to me. It didn’t work.
P: Ditto.
H: It’s so hard to talk about this when I know the story so well, and I don’t want to say anything. As I said previously, this is one of the Troughton stories I’ve seen the most times.
R: Speaking of mysterious strangers, that has to be the most loquacious English sailing man I’ve ever heard.
K: There’s a reason. Like the Historian, I’ve seen this story several times as well.
H: It’s really cool.
K: I agree, it’s pretty cool.
H: The one thing I can say about this story is there are limitations, but it’s really clever.
K: I certainly like it better than the Dominators, anyway. And I actually found the Dominators entertaining this time through. But this one, so far, is way more fun.
Sp: The Toy Soldiers looked awesome.
P: And they represented almost all of the music in the show, with the exception of the kids.
Sp: I was worried when we first saw the soldiers that these guys were really doubling down on “budget cuts” because of just how plain everything is from the knee down. But then we saw them full on and I guess this is one of those cases where less is more, because I don’t know how you could make them look any more like toy soldiers, really. It is pretty cool. On a completely separate note, and I’m going to phrase this carefully because there are children present, the fact that the unicorn is charging them doesn’t speak well of the virtue of the Doctor or his companions.
<laughter>
H: Well, the Doctor did have children and grandchildren. And Jamie is a highlander.
Sp: But Zoe!
R: Hum… bad horse dream!
<laughter>
K: The unicorn is after Jamie.
H: Well, he’s the one who had the nightmare.
R: <unicorn voice> “Get over here Scotsman, you’re the closest thing to a princess I can find.”
Sp: “And I can see Zoe from here!”
<laughter>
Sp: Also, points deducted to mysterious control board guy for programming the toy soldiers, but not teaching them how a SEARCH WORKS! “Search every area. Left to right. No, your other left. No, your other right. My right!”
EG: <giggles… a lot>
MS: Stop breaking ElfGrrl!
EG: <still giggling>
R: I thought the sword into a dictionary bit was pretty cool. It was a simple effect done well.
EG: I didn’t understand if it was actually Jamie’s dream or just someone in general.
R: I think each of them are seeing their own visions, actually.
P: But is it a shared experience.
R: And, who in the world walks up to a door and it goes “eeeeeee” <makes opening gesture> and then thinks “I’m sure whatever is inside is safe.
E: Someone is not genre savvy.
P: Someone deaf?
K: Zoe is definitely not genre savvy. She’s from the future.
<discussion of how Jamie and Zoe’s respective times are 100’s of years apart>
H: So are we at final thoughts.
EG: Why did Dr. Seuss have a mirror with him?
Everyone: Doctor Who.
EG: Doctor Who then. <giggles>
K: See, Minispoo has gotten too old. Now we need ElfGrrl’s youthness.
H: Yeah. Now Minispoo is a cynical 10-year-old.
Sp: Stop repeating yourself.
P: Are the words represented the way they are supposed to mean something here? This is a world of words, literally in this case.
H: Well, they’re all proverbs.
P: Yeah, I caught two of them. Slow but sure and look before you leap.
K: I suggesting waiting until next week to find out more… I said trying not to give away the plot.
EG: Why did all the visions come true? And who is who’s?
H: Really, all we’ve seen is Jamie’s unicorn.
EG: But why did Jamie’s vision come alive. Sort of.
H: We don’t know yet.
K: We might find out next week.
EG: I need to watch the next episode!
H: Okay. I think now we’re at final thoughts. What did you think of the episode, Elfgrrl?
EG: The meaning was all about words words… <does 360 on the floor while repeating the word “words” many times>… and words.
Sp: The punchline to all this – she’s reading “The Phantom Toll Booth” right now.
E: So the last episode was kind of a mind screw. This one… no, I think it’s still a mind screw. It was interesting and really cool, but really mind screwy. “What’s going on? Why are their toy soldiers and unicorns, and creepy children coming out of nowhere? And an entire forest shaped like letters and words? I’m scared!”
H: The children are something that would make way more sense to the original audience that it does for most of you. I can talk about that later in the story.
E: It was certainly an interesting addition, but it had me on edge. Although I have to say, throwing a sword up in the air scared me, but having it come back down as a book – very nice. Good magic act. But you really shouldn’t be throwing sharp objects up in the air children. Not recommended.
EG: Why did it all happen in the first place.
H: Ah, that is the question.
K: We’ll probably find out around episode 5.
EG: Well, it could be because someone’s crazy and insane and wants some people to do this crazy quest.
R: <whispers> I think she’s been reading ahead.
EG: I’m not reading ahead! I barely know Doctor Who!
H: We’re going to move on.
A: If Lewis Carroll were writing for Doctor Who it would pretty much be this except for the sea guy would have been like a giant frog or something.
P: Ever since the TARDIS broke up and the Doctor said “huh?” which means they’re not having a shared experience here.
K: The Doctor wasn’t on the console at the beginning of the episode. His eyes were closed – he was with them, but floating several feet away and didn’t see the TARDIS break up.
H: Man, music hasn’t been the same ever since the TARDIS broke up!
Sp: Who’s bright idea was it to have Yoko Ono as a companion in the first place.
R: She would scream less than Zoe.
K: I counted 5 screams from Zoe this week.
EG: Just to say about the whole episode – it is <spins again> not understandable <shakes head>
K: Moving on… you already had your final thought Elfgrrl.
EG: <another giggle fit>
K: Back to Photobug…
P: He’s really bad at giving directions. Evil guy at the control panel. Also, this is the first reference I’ve heard of the Master.
H: There have been other references to “masters” before.
R: No, just A master. Haven’t you heard, I come in six packs.
P: Okay, that’s it.
Sp: <thinks> So, are we going to blame Zoe as damsel in distress all episode on “budget cuts” also?
K: I’d like to blame it on bad writing.
H: I think you need to see the story as a whole before you can put in the proper context.
Sp: And I agree that fill-in Jamie, with slightly less chicken pox, did a fantastic job this week. Completely believable. Yeah… we’re too early in the story to say much else. I think we’ve got it covered.
MS: It was… great. I didn’t really… I could see that they were kind of play “following the puzzles” for the whole thing. It’s just that, I feel like I just watched something that isn’t Doctor Who. I feel that it wasn’t Doctor Who because all it was, was just them finding each other and doing puzzles.
Sp: It needs more Daleks.
MS: Yes. It needs more bad guys.
E: It had the unicorn.
MS: But that wasn’t until the end of the episode.
H: Did you like it?
MS: Yeah. I definitely did.
H: Ronelyn?
R: <Jamie voice> “Right! You lobster back! Get ready for a Scottish sneak attack! Commin’ at ya! Right… about… Naooow!”
H: Do you have anything else?
R: Do you really think it needs anything else?
H: Fair enough.
K: Cz? You coming back in the room? Final thoughts?
Cz: New Jamie makes me uncomfortable.
R: These feelings are perfectly normal for a girl your age.
K: Thanks Cz. My turn?
H: Yes.
K: Let’s see. I like this story. Again, this was the second Troughton story I’d ever seen. Which means it makes even less sense, because the only thing before this was the Dominators. I think they could have done a better job with the evil guy at the controls (the “Mind Robber” perhaps?) and not making Zoe scream and be all distress-y quite so much.
A: She couldn’t get out of a jar with just paper on top?
K: It made sense that she couldn’t get out of the jar until it was a jar – but yes, once it was, she totally should have been able to bust the paper herself. Maybe needs some help climbing out – but jeeze. Where’d tough Zoe go? Where’s the Zoe from the Wheel of Space saving Jamie from asteroids? What the hell? I miss that Zoe.
P: By the way, this episode is further proof that puns are the highest form of entertainment.
EG: I realized today was about words, words, words, and words.
E: And words.
EG: Lots and lots of words. <babbles a bunch. I’m not typing all that.>
EG: <giggles again>
Sp: I’ve decided that until the true identity of evil guy at keyboard is revealed….
P: Her name is Ketina
<oh my god the laughter. Seriously. Everyone goes hysterical but me. They truly are all voices in my head. And I’m just making them laugh more . Muh hu hahaha!>
E: That was beautiful.
H: Alright. Continue.
Sp & K: How can I follow that up?
K: I think I’m done with my final thought.
H: Okay. So I’m really pleased, watching this episode, because it always makes me feel good when I see something I really enjoyed years later, and it holds up just as well as the first time I watched it. I wasn’t sure that you guys were going to get into it as much as you have. Given that the closest story in tone I can think of to this one is a story the Project did not enjoy…
K: That would be the Celestial Toymaker.
Sp: That would partially be because… you see…
H: We couldn’t see it.
Sp: You know… when you use actual British school children as school children for creepy effect that works on a story level. When you use a modestly out of shape 54 year old as a British school child for creepy effect, it’s creepy, but not in a story way.
H: So yeah. I’m looking forward to watching the rest of this story. I love this story. And I hope you guys continue get into it as more is revealed. “Dun dun duuuun!”
——
And that’s it for this week! We’re clearly having a lot of fun (and our new influx of giggling little girl certainly adds something!), and I hope you’re having fun following along. Why not let us know and leave a comment? Please–we’re tired of spam, we want real comments! And, barring accidents, we’ll be back next week. Until then, I remain
THE HISTORIAN
NEXT WEEK: THE MIND ROBBER EPISODE 3
