Hello everyone, the Historian here, with a slightly more subdued team this week (no Spoo, no kids). We’ve reached the penultimate episode in our journey into this strange “land of fiction,” so let’s get to the episode! This episode first aired 5 October, 1968.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
H = Historian
\nK = Ketina
\nR = Ronelyn
\nP = Photobug
\nA = Altair
\nE = Ezio<\/p>\n
E: They say you\u2019re supposed to really get into a book. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what they mean.<\/p>\n
R: This is the weirdest episode of Reading Rainbow I have ever seen.<\/p>\n
H: Take a look. They\u2019re in a book.<\/p>\n
E: Historian wins. Project over.<\/p>\n
P: Hard to think it\u2019s \u201cReading Rainbow\u201d when it\u2019s all black and white.<\/p>\n
H: So did you all catch the little continuity error in there.<\/p>\n
K: There were a lot of costume changes with Zoe wearing Jamie\u2019s jacket.<\/p>\n
H: She took it off when she fought the Karkus.<\/p>\n
K: So that\u2019s not the continuity issue then.<\/p>\n
R: Zoe ran really hot and really cold in this episode.<\/p>\n
E: That was awesome. I think she\u2019s starting to compete with Victoria for my favorite companion.<\/p>\n
K: No, not as good as Barbara.<\/p>\n
E: Oh yeah.<\/p>\n
H: And I always liked Vicki, but that\u2019s just me.<\/p>\n
K: But beating up the Karkus and then walking through the door sensor\u2026<\/p>\n
E: Really? Just had your moment of awesome and then\u2026 why? Totally blew it.<\/p>\n
R: Because plot.<\/p>\n
E: She did get a really witty one liner though. That was great. When the Doctor said he didn\u2019t follow the cartoon characters and she said \u201cWell you better follow that one, because he\u2019s half way up the cliff.\u201d<\/p>\n
K: So what was the continuity error?<\/p>\n
H: Oh yeah! How did Jamie know Gulliver\u2019s name.<\/p>\n
P & K: He read it!<\/p>\n
H: Where?<\/p>\n
P: On the little ticker tape thing.<\/p>\n
H: He started to read the ticket tape thing when they were in the cave with the medusa.<\/p>\n
R: Yeah. That was the weirdest \u201cClash of the Titans\u201d remake I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
H: Let me say again, I\u2019m really impressed with the animation. Especially given the lack of resources that they had.<\/p>\n
R: Yeah, it was impressive.<\/p>\n
<discussion about stop motion quality\u2026 it\u2019s really hard to follow these live, sorry.><\/p>\n
P: I found the snake sounds to be too annoying. They used a mirror to see medusa, but in the actual book it\u2019s a polished shield.<\/p>\n
H: Yeah, the Doctor mentioned that.<\/p>\n
P: It was after that they got the \u201ctest result failure\u201d<\/p>\n
H: Yeah, because the Doctor was supposed to use the sword to defeat the medusa.<\/p>\n
K: So the Doctor did the unexpected, likely because the \u201cbad guys\u201d didn\u2019t know he had a mirror in his pocket.<\/p>\n
H: So he did not become fiction.<\/p>\n
P: This is the earliest use of a muscle shirt that I\u2019ve seen\u2026 on Karkus.<\/p>\n
R: Yeah, that is the weirdest Schwarzenegger film I\u2019ve ever seen.<\/p>\n
H: The whole deal with the Karkus, which is one of the way\u2019s Peter Lane go the idea for the story is the Batman had a resurgence because of the TV show and he wanted to satirize it.<\/p>\n
R: He wanted to satirize a satire.<\/p>\n
H: Well, we can talk about Batman \u201966 another time. I wouldn\u2019t classify it as a satire.<\/p>\n
K: I\u2019d classify it as a kid\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
R: So, are we going to see the Doctor doing the Doc-Tusi?<\/p>\n
H: No.<\/p>\n
K: So I know we already touched on it, but I loved, as silly as it was, Zoe beating up the Karkus. That was terrible fight choreography, but it was still awesome.<\/p>\n
P: Well, at least they were doing real throws.<\/p>\n
K: He was doing real somersaults.<\/p>\n
H: Like I said, she\u2019s Zoe Peel. Or Emma Heriot. Or something. She\u2019s even got the cat suit. And what a cat suit!<\/p>\n
R: Yeah. This was the weirdest Batman \u201966 episode ever!<\/p>\n
P: I don\u2019t know, they\u2019re all pretty weird. I liked the snap the finger bit <when Zoe snapped her finger to control the Karkus>. It seemed like it might have even been invented by the actor, because nothing else was supported in the dialog.<\/p>\n
K: To note, that I\u2019m sure Ezio also noticed\u2026 that 1 million words in 25 years\u2026 <laugh><\/p>\n
<discussion of record of writing\u2026 and Ezio and I agree that the sheer number has been exceed by Andrew Hussie. But the determination is made that the length of 25 years every week is what is impressive\u2026 not the necessarily the specific number of words.><\/p>\n
P: I thought the lure of a library with all of the works of fiction would be a pretty powerful one to me.<\/p>\n
K: Except that the library was made out of pictures.<\/p>\n
<agreement><\/p>\n
K: Are we ready for final thoughts? Things tend to go a bit quicker when Spoo & gang aren\u2019t here.<\/p>\n
E: <thinks> This was a really good episode. Not quite as mind screwy as the last one. Probably because we know a little bit more about what is going on. Although I am significantly worried for Jamie and Zoe.<\/p>\n
P: I liked the episode. Liked the staging. There was a lot of activity and not much downtime in this episode, which was actually pretty good. I\u2019m wondering if the Master would have a better title like \u201cthe Editor\u201d in this world.<\/p>\n
H: Would have given a little too much away, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
P: Okay. That seems fair. We fall into the classic \u201cgood guy\u201d trap where you must save your friends by doing what I insist. And remarkably we only had a single story plot involving the Master by title being controlled by something else \u2013 which in this case was a noisy ball of light. I was also fascinated to see that Gulliver was not aware that he met the robots, or he perceived them different.<\/p>\n
H: That happened in an earlier episode with the tin soldiers too.<\/p>\n
P: That\u2019s it.<\/p>\n
H: Ronelyn?<\/p>\n
R: That was the weirdest Daft Punk video I have ever seen.<\/p>\n
H: You\u2019re really up with weirdest this week.<\/p>\n
R: Hey. If the theme works it works. I got more\u2026 \u201cThat was the weirdest Jonathan Swift novel I have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
<laughter><\/p>\n
H: You got more?<\/p>\n
R: You can\u2019t seriously be enjoying this?<\/p>\n
E: I am<\/p>\n
R: \u201cThis was the weirdest episode of The Prisoner I have ever seen.\u201d<\/p>\n
A: No it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
<applause><\/p>\n
R: See Photobug \u2013 that is how you do it.<\/p>\n
P: Do what?<\/p>\n
R: Touche madam, touch\u00e9.<\/p>\n
K: My turn? I agree with Photobug that this episode clipped right along. I think it flowed well because it was made up of several small encounters\u2026<\/p>\n
H: First they fought the Owlbears.<\/p>\n
K: Kinda. Anyway, I think that helped a lot. Nothing felt extraneous. I guess they didn\u2019t NEED the Karkus \u2013 he didn\u2019t particularly add anything \u2013 but he helped them get from point A to point B and added a nice fun scene to the middle of the episode.<\/p>\n
H: Action sequence.<\/p>\n
K: Yes. Also once we saw the \u201cwriter\u201d I realized what was up with the thing on his head. I remembered who he was last week, but I didn\u2019t remember the thing on his head. So the hat and horns looking thing from last week was just a mind control device on his head. That I\u2019d forgotten about. And there was this thing on his face that was bothering me the whole time.<\/p>\n
H: Yeah. A little wart.<\/p>\n
K: Wish they\u2019d done something about that\u2026 but oh well. Overall his character was interesting, anyway. I enjoyed this one.<\/p>\n
H: The only bad thing I can say about this episode is the only bad thing I can say about every episode in this story \u2013 it was too darn short. These episodes are some of the shortest in Doctor Who history. Which might be why you think they clip along at a good pace.<\/p>\n
P: Because they have to.<\/p>\n
R: Tune in next week for\u2026 basically this episode.<\/p>\n