Sunday 20 December 2015

DOCTOR WHO MARATHON 48th MEET-UP - THE WAR GAMES (PARTS 6-10)

Saturday 12th December 2015


Ooooo well here we are for the LAST EVER black and white serial and this time we met on a Saturday night around Shaun's house.  It wasn't quite the booze and pills fest that we ended Hartnell on (sadly all that's lies).  But it was still good to achieve it!  Well done guys - here's how the evening went down....

****************************************************************************************************
MJ: "Well here we are at Shaun's house for the last EVER Trout-Man EVER.  Maybe.  Who knows, something could happen.."
Shaun: "It's not"
MJ: "Snot - lots of snot.  Yes we're here for the final 5 episodes of 'The Game of War'!"
Mark & Shaun: "'The War Games'!"
MJ: "War Games - Game of War - you know, either or.  Potato, tomato."
Mark: Yeah but one's the name of the thing and the other has the words involved within the name of the thing, but isn't the thing."
MJ: "I'm confused!"
Mark: "Good!"
Shaun: "Well you see it's called 'The War Games' but you called it 'The Game of War' - which is a different arrangement of the words and more words - it just isn't the name of what we're watching!"
MJ: "I'm sure there's an App or something called 'Game of War' - I've seen it advertised on the telly!  This isn't THAT!"
Shaun: "There's also one called 'World of Warcraft' which isn't what we're about to watch now."
MJ: "And 'World of Warcraft'sounds a bit like 'World of Witchcraft'. "
Shaun: "There's also War - huh!  What is it good for?  Absolutely nothing!"
MJ: "Say it again!"
Shaun: "Which again is ALSO not what we are about to watch!"
Mark: "Good we've established what we're NOT watching!"
Shaun: "And 'War and Peace' was a wonderful novel but again.... not what we're watching!"
MJ: "Did Gavin watch this last time?"
MArk: "Yes."
MJ: "So Gavin, sorry you're missing this.  But there's a cat here to replace you - lots of cats to make up one Gavin!"
Shaun: "But we love you Gav - just not as much as a cat!"
MJ: *Puts on Announcer-type voice* "So on last time's Doctor Who we left him  -  I can't remember what he was doing now actually!?"
Shaun: "He'd been captured!  He was in the Future Zone!"
*One of Shaun's cats falls off a pile of stuff, loudly knocking it to the floor*
MJ: "Hooray!  An idiotic cat tried to climb up lots of things balancing on the fridge and just knocked it off and fell down himself!  Now he probably feels foolish and the other cats are going after him going 'Arrrrr'!"
Shaun: "The cat's taken NO responsibility for what he's done - he's just f**ked right off!  Leaving carnage in his wake!"
MJ: "KAAAHHHHHHNNNNNN-age.  So hey let's press play then and do this shite."
Shaun: "I have really high hopes for this now - the man who's watched it already called it 'shite'!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "I think it's brilliant actually - so there we go."
Shaun: "We gave the other parts quite high marks I think."
MJ: "We did.  I believe.  Mark gave good Marks.  Shaun gave good Shauns.  Jason gave good Jasons.  So here we go!  I hope they give a recap!  Ooo they're coming out with a gun - oh no!  They've shot Jamie!  Let's leave it there..."



Photo 1:
Leigh (holding the sign), Shaun, Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
and Jason around Shaun's house

EPISODE SIX GETS WATCHED...

Shaun: "Jason wants to see if James Brie (the security chief in this story) was a Merman in 'The Underwater Menace'."
MJ: "James Brie?  I'll bet he's cheesy..."
Mark: "Arrrrr!"
MJ: "Well that was a very good episode - lots happening.  The Doctor trying to escape from the main alien base in gas masks and God knows what.  Then they end up being crushed in a TARDIS-thing-machine.  Will they get out?  Yeah."
Mark: *laughs* "Yes by stepping slightly to the left."
*MJ laughs*
Shaun: "Clearly we saw there were massive holes in that scenery, so..."
MJ: "That's true."
Shaun: "They were pretty large - easily large enough for a man!"
MJ: *putting on TV voice* "Are you large enough for a man?  Call 0891..."
Anyway on to opisode - tut!  'Opisode'??!  Episode Six - or Seven....Seven!!"
Shaun: "They've shrunk!"
Mark: "The holes have got smaller - your plan did not work!
MJ: "So the Doctor and co have to give up or they get crushed - episode seven..."



Photo 2:
Leigh, MJ (holding the sign), Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
and Jason around Shaun's house

EPISODE SEVEN GETS WATCHED...

Shaun: *Partway through a conversation* "...that's not been validated 'cos they were all the resistance anyway!
MJ: "Welcome back we've just seen episode seven."
Leigh: "Yeah but they're in a different time zone now!  What happens in the experiment when you set up a bizarre different time zone in a thing that you're attacking?!"
Shaun: "That's not part of the experiment!"
MJ: "The experiment is the thing we've decided at the end of whatever episode this was?!"
Jason: "Seven"
MJ: "Four."
Shaun: "Twelve!"
*Leigh laughs*

 MJ: "The War LORD has come now who's got the same creepy glasses and a very tidy beard!"
Jason: "He reminds me of of Steve Jobs."
MJ: "Steve Jobs!" *Laughs*
Leigh: "I thought he looked a bit like Simon Pegg."
MJ: "He does a bit, yeah!  I think that too!"
Shaun: "The most interesting thing is that Time Lords have now been mentioned and we've discovered that Beardy McBeardison - "
MJ: -"the War Chief."
Shaun: "Is one of them."
MJ: "Yes!"
Shaun: "Which does slightly question why are they not just in charge of everything, 'cos they're obviously building towards THAT, and that reveal."
MJ: "Yeah, yeah."
Shaun: "That the Doctor is a Time Lord."
Jason: "They don't interfere."
Shaun: "Hmm?"
Jason: "The Time Lord don't interfere."
Shaun: "Well he's running a f**king experiment and has given them time and space bending technologies! That's ENTIRELY interfering!!"
Jason: "He's doing it in a contained environment!"
MJ: "We don't know whether the Time Lords know yet!  You know like the Doctor does all this stuff without their knowledge!"
Leigh: "We don't even know who THEY are!  So you've got the Time Lords, then you've got the people - who ARE those other people??"
Mark: "They were the people who hired the other Time Lord."
Leigh: "Yeah."
MJ: "I don't know what they're called."
Leigh: "Are they aliens?"
MJ: "Yeah they are aliens."
Leigh: "Or are are they from our future?"
MJ: "I assume they are aliens as they talk about 'The Earth-lings' don't they?
Shaun: "They've not actually explained - "
Leigh: "ANYTHING!"
Mark: "They described the others as 'Humans' and also at some point said 'That guy's an alien.' - "
Leigh: "Yes."
MJ: "So's my Step-Mother..."
Shaun: "Ali-on!"
Leigh: *Laughs* "Ali-on!"
MJ: "I like the very smarmy, who gets angry, War Lord." *Puts on smarmy voice* " 'I see you've done nothing yet!' - Slight smirk."
Shaun: "I'm just bitterly disappointed that it's another bald-headed... admittedly we've FINALLY gotten to the top of the hierarchy of management!  For the first time in a Doctor Who serial it's not frickin' Middle Management!  This is the head!"
Jason: "There's bound to be someone above him - we've got a few episodes to go!"
Leigh: "The War Emperor!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "The War God!"
Leigh: "We've got the War Master and the War Lord.."
Jason: "We've got someone coming from HR saying 'You can't do this!'"
Leigh: "The WAR HR!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "Lower down we'll have The War Caretaker!" *Puts on boring voice* "'Make sure you put the chairs away after you - 'cos i'm not here to do all that for you as well!' "
Shaun: "The War Chairs!"
MJ: "We've got another War Group here in the morning so..."
Jason: "Tell you what we've got a shit load of shovels!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "War shovels!"
MJ: "Oh yeah we're still clueless about the shovels!"
Jason: "The hundred shovels."
Mark: "I assume Steven Moffatt used them in the newest Doctor Who 'cos there was a shovel in that episode."
(We're talking about a new episode that had just played called "Heaven Sent".)
MJ: "There was yeah!"
Mark: "So that was him seeding it from 50 years back..."
MJ: "Wasn't it one of us who said 'Why didn't he use the shovel instead of his fists to chip at the diamond?' "
Jason: "I definitely said it - in fact when we was at home we said 'Why didn't he just kick it?  At least he'll get it done in half the time.' "
MJ: "Yeah, instead of shagging up his hand - that's a proper term.  The official term for it.  So are you enjoying this, what you've not seen Jason?"
Jason: "I am!  I like the fact that I'm a bit confused."
Shaun: "Are you WAR enjoying it?"

*MJ does a BIG Laugh!*
Jason: "Yes, I'm not SPACE enjoying it."
MJ: "Are you WAR enjoying it Shaun?"
Shaun: "I WARRING well am!"
MJ: "This is like Smurfs when they always say 'Smurf' at everything - 'I'm Smurfing enjoying this, I Smurfing am!  It's got some real good Smurf in it.' "
Jason: "Smurf me."
Shaun: "I fairly sure that was a fan joke and that wasn't in the original animated series."
MJ: "I think it was.  I definitely remember them saying 'Smurf' a lot!"
Jason: "Oh they did say 'Smurf' all the time!"
MJ: "Yeah but not swear words - they just used 'Smurf' to replace random words."
Shaun: "Oh right I see, I thought you were being specific that they replaced 'F**king' 
with 'Smurfing'!"
MJ: "No, no.  'Hey I gave Smurfette a damn good Smurfing the other night - Smurfed all over her Smurfing face.' "
Shaun: "She's the size of your thumb!!"
MJ: "NO NOT ME!!!  I was being one of the Smurfs when I was saying that!!"
Shaun: "I did not hear that clarification!"
MJ: "Well I don't go around saying 'Smurfing this and Smurfing that!' "
Jason: "You're doing it now!"
MJ: "Yes, but in an impression of a frickin' - sorry SMURFING Smurf! THE WAR LORD IS NOT HAPPY!"
Jason: "The War Smurf!"
Leigh: "I'm just going to shut the WAR door!"
Shaun: "Thank you War Leigh!"
MJ: "I've had it up War HERE with you War lot!"
Shaun: "I had a War Haircut earlier, I'm quite happy with it!"
MJ: "It looks very War neat!"
*Leigh laughs*
MJ: "We're just randomly War saying it now, War Leigh!"
Jason: "So, back to the episode, we're enjoying it then?"
Shaun: "Yes a lot happened in that one.  Yeah it was them getting captured and escaping a bit, but they actually pushed the plot forward."
Leigh "Whatever the plot may be!"
Shaun: "The escaping seemed to lead to something - even if it was undone at the end of the episode - literally ALL of it was undone at the end of the episode!"
Jason: "No they said 'We've got this barrier against Processed people BUT not everyone's been processed so...' "
MJ: "That why Kraft Cheese Slices can't go through."
Leigh: "What 'cos they're made of processed people?"
MJ: "No, processed CHEESE!"

Shaun: "Processed WAR CHEESE!"
*Laugher*
MJ: "So finally the guy who payed the Red Dwarf Cat Priest is dead - the World War One General."
Shaun: "And the German and Southern general!"
Leigh: "And Patrick Trueman (from Eastenders) died last week."
MJ: "So still good for you Leigh?  Even though you're ill!"
Leigh: " And I don't know what's going on!"
Jason: "I don't mind that, so long as it's resolved!"
Leigh: "But it's not, I bet we'll never find what the bloody experiment was...is....whatever!  It's bloody ruined now anyway!"
Jason: "We'll find out in the Christmas special!"
MJ: "They're going to redo 'The Feast of Steven' again which we ALL enjoyed...."
Shaun: "Which one was that?"
MJ: "That was 'The Daleks' Master Plan' one where - "
Shaun: "Oh God the comedy one!"
Jason: "I didn't mind that."
Shaun: "I very MUCH minded that!"
Jason: "That endeared me to Katarina - no the one AFTER Katarina?"
MJ: "Sara Kingdom!"
Jason: "Yes Sara Kingdom!  It endeared me to HER so that when she died it made a greater impact - she was quite good in that, before that she was quite 'Errr I'm just going to shoot everyone!' "
Shaun: "I just quite liked that character, I thought she was going to learn from her mistakes - but no she just learned nothing and just died!"
MJ: "No she learnt to be quite nice and then she got killed!"
Shaun: "No she killed her brother and showed no remorse for it throughout the entire thing!"
Leigh: "Her brother was a dick!"
Shaun: "Her brother was NOT a dick!  He was in fact helping the Doctor!"
Jason: "He was the Brigadier wasn't he?"
Leigh: "No the Brigadier's still alive!"
MJ: "Well he was the same actor!  I'm going to have to RE-go back into our notes now to add in this new stuff about what we thought about the previous Doctor's long story!!"
Shaun: "We discussed all this at the time!"
MJ: "Probably but then I don't remember what we all said!  I just sort of typed a review.."
Jason: "Dear reader please skip back to a previous entry."
Shaun: "You mean you don't even read these on a daily basis, MJ!??  I'm very disappointed!"
MJ: "No I meant I don't remember people's opinions as I didn't record it!"
Shaun: "You mean WAR opinions!"
MJ: "Sorry, WAR opinions!"
Leigh: "You're just not interested in other people's opinions!"
MJ: "True!  But now I've got the recording I can take it all down!"
Shaun: "I like the WAR recordings, they're good!"
MJ: "The WAR recordings are excellent!  I like your WAR cat!"
Leigh: "I've got to use the WAR toilet!"
MJ: "Mark did you have a nice WAR piss?"
Mark: "I DID have a nice WAR piss.  My urine invaded Poland."
*Laughter*
MJ: "Wow."
*after a load of Bat Man talk*
MJ: "The fight we saw in the episode - the way they were punching and fighting was staged a bit like a 60's Batman fight.  We just needed a Ka-pow!"
Shaun: "I did enjoy that guy randomly falling off the stairs onto a comfy bench!  For apparently NO reason!
MJ: "I can't recall that now!"
Mark: "Yeah he did a nice back flip onto the sofa."
MJ: "Didn't he get shot?"
Jason: "No!  The guy next to him was probably supposed to throw a punch...but he didn't throw a punch so he just went 'Woooahhh!'"
Mark: "There was a nice moment at the start when he was trying to get his gun out and he realised 'Oh, it's stuck - well I'm just going to stand here for a minute while the other one stands in front of me and... right NOW it's time to punch!' "
*MJ Laughs*
Jason: "You'd think if something went wrong they'd call cut!"
Mark: "You'd think so!  But it doesn't appear so - it's like one take only!"
Jason: "Or at least cut to a different angle - but no."
Leigh: *pointing at recording device* "It's a good job you're not recording 40 minutes of absolute drivel this week, MJ!"
*Laughter*MJ: "Clearly not!  What say you, grey cat?  Meoww?"
Jason: "WAR Grey cat."
*Laughter*
MJ: "War Grey cat Well before we start the next part I'm going to WAR pause you and then we're going to WAR carry on!  Bye!"



Photo 3:
Face-pulling from Leigh (holding the sign), Shaun, Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
and Jason around Shaun's house

EPISODE EIGHT GETS WATCHED...

MJ: "Well it's the end of the next part and the Doctor has brought all the Resistance to the War, er, place and he's betrayed them!  He's said 'Don't move!' and they're all caught up!"
Mark: "I think you'll find he's WAR betrayed them!"
Shaun: "He's seemingly betrayed them."
Leigh: "No he's DEFINITELY betrayed them!"
Shaun: "Almost certainly not definitely betrayed them!"
Leigh: "Doctor 'The Bastard' Who, is what he's known as!"
Shaun: "Doctor 'The War Bastard' Who."
*Mark Laughs*
MJ: "And people are saying they like Carstairs - they'd like him to be the next companion!"
Shaun: "Yeah we like Carstairs - he's probably going to die!"
Jason: "I like Russell.  I think Russell's great."
MJ: "Which one's Russell?"
Jason: "I think Russell, and I might have gotten this wrong, but I think Russell is the guy I said looks like Oliver Reed."
Shaun: "Oh yes that is Russell!"
Jason: "But I also think he reminds me of- "
Leigh: "- Someone from 'It 'Aint Half Hot Mum'!"
Jason: "No, Gareth Hale."
Shaun: "I'd quite like War Chief to be the new companion.  I like that guy!"
MJ: "Anyway we're going to carry on watching..."
Jason: *Watching the start of Episode 9* "No I want that guy at the back to be the new companion - who's now covered up."
*Laughter*
Shaun: "I want Security Guard number 3!"
*After some on-screen talk about the War Lord*
 Shaun: "Yeah but the War Lord's not there!"
Leigh: "He's in the War Room!"
Jason: "There's no fighting in the War Room, though.  That's why he's there."
Leigh: "It's turned into Doctor Strangelove now!"
*Laughter*
Jason: "We never know his surname!"
Shaun: "To be fair with THOSE glasses and THAT hair!"
Leigh: "Ja wohl mein Fuhrer - I can valk!!!!"



Photo 4:
Leigh (holding the sign), MJ, Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
and Jason around Shaun's house

EPISODE NINE GETS WATCHED...

Shaun: "To be fair - with all the changes they've made to the whole dynamic of what's going, I'm a lot happier that this story is a few episodes longer."
MJ: "Mmmm."
Shaun: "Well this story seems to be really wrapping up - I liked the slowed down Blackadder ending!"
MJ: "With pipe organ music!  Well exciting stuff!  The Doctor's trying to get away from the place as he's called The Time Lords!  The first time we've heard of The Time Lords in the whole of Doctor Who - except in this serial!  So he's had to call them to send EVERYBODY back from ALL of The War Games.  Which I think they are doing.  And the War Chief's been killed."
Shaun: "Quote/unquote killed!"
MJ: "Yes quote/unquote killed -"
Jason: "- Badly stunned."
MJ: "Yes or badly stunned - he may regenerate we shall never know....(he doesn't)!"
*Laughter*Leigh: "There's still time!"
MJ: "There is, yeah. Perhaps MoffATT will bring him back!"
Leigh: "It's getting so ridiculously up it's own arse now that I've now doubt they will start referring to episodes back in the Second Doctor's time and expecting everybody to understand!"
MJ: "Spoilers!  So we've got a whole episode left and they seemed to have wrapped up that - people are disappearing from the War Zones back to their own times.  The War Chief's been killed - the War Lord hasn't. Lots of the Gimp Men in their rubber suits are always being killed."
Jason: "I predict we shall have the trial of a Time Lord."
MJ: "Ahhhh!  That would be a good idea for a serial!"
Leigh: "Sounds like an episode!"
Jason: "Maybe one day!"
MJ: "Yes maybe one day - maybe around the Sixth Doctor, maybe?..."
Mark: "I think there should be an episode called 'The Trial of Terror'!"
Leigh: "No the WAR Trial'!
MJ: "THE WAR TRIAL!  Damn good stuff so far though!"
Jason: "I'm enjoying it!  I like the bickering - I like the fact that no-one ever seems to get on!"
MJ: *Laughs* "We all like that!"
Jason: "It's more real - not like Star Trek!"
MJ: "Okay I'll pause it and we'll have final thoughts at the end - we can have our final Jerry Springer thoughts at the end!  WE'RE DOING THIS SHIZZLE!  THIS IS THE LAST PATRICK TROUGHTON EPISODE OF DOCTOR WHO EVER!"
Jason: "On his own."


*MJ SINGS THE DOCTOR WHO THEME MUSIC AS WE WATCH EPISODE 10*



Photo 5:
Leigh (holding the sign), Shaun PRAISING JAYSUS,
part of 
Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
and Jason around Shaun's house

EPISODE TEN GETS WATCHED...

MJ: *In Geordie accent* "And there we go - the end of Doctor Who!  At eight-fifty-eight!" *Drops accent* "Actually it's 9.52pm.  So that's probably one of the creepiest endings I've seen - it's quite eerie.  The Doctor's just spinning off into space."
Leigh: "I thought it was quite tidy."
MJ: "Bang tidy?"
Leigh: "Tidy as in it sorted out all the missing bits that needed to be tidied up."
*General murmurs of agreement*
Jason: "It didn't confuse everyone."
MJ: "Well yes that's true -"
Shaun: "- We finally got to see the Doctor's race"
MJ: "Yes we got to meet his race - "
Jason: "- Didn't say Gallifrey though."
Leigh: "It didn't say Gallifrey."
Shaun: "It didn't say Gallifrey - just his home planet!"
MJ: "Yeah we finally got to meet his race - and it was the end of Patrick Troughton."
Shaun: "So they'd obviously not re-cast by this point?"
MJ: "Erm, no clearly not - well I assume not!  Maybe Jason's book will tell us when we have a look but erm...
So did you enjoy 'The War Games' overall?"
Jason: "Overall yes."
Shaun: "Yes, very much so."
Mark: "I did."
MJ: "I think that even though it's a ten-parter, which is madness, it's one of the better Patrick Troughton stories."
Shaun: "Well to be fair I am well on the record as saying 'How the Hell are they going to stretch that out to another five episodes'!"
MJ: "That's right!"
Shaun: "And I think they did an absolutely excellent job!"
MJ: "Yes, yes they did!"
Shaun: "They just completely changed what the premise was, flipped the whole thing on it's head and the last episode was just completely out of the blue!"
MJ: "That's right, yes!"
Shaun: "It was completely different to what they'd been doing."
MJ: "I really enjoyed that - the first time we'd seen the Time Lords."
Shaun: "I suppose Part Five was actually a great place to stop as well, 'cos Part Six was when they really started nailing down... you know they mentioned the Time Lords for the first time, that's when they started dropping the hints that the Doctor knew what this technology was and stuff like that so..."
MJ: "Yes."
Mark: "I'm still disappointed Matthew Broderick didn't turn up!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "Oh f**k Matthew Broderick!  With the exceptions as noted at our previous meeting."
*Laughter*



Photo 6:

Leigh (holding the sign), Shaun,Mark (holding the DVD Cover),
and Jason around Shaun's house

MJ: "So if we were to give it marks out of ten - well do we?  What did we do last time?"
Shaun: "Well last time we did it as marks out of five."
*Agreement*
 Shaun: "So this time we should give it WAR marks out of five!
MJ: "Hah!  'WAR marks' out of five!"
Leigh: "I marked it out of ten last time!"
Jason: "Well you gave it seven out of five!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "Which we downed to five out of five because you were being silly!"
Jason: "You can't change his vote!"
Shaun: "I think the seven should stand!"
Leigh: "It was seven out of ten though!"
MJ: "But you hadn't seen this rest!"
Shaun: "That's even better, so if you mark it out of ten we're only giving you a lee-way of three to mark it this time!  So you're going to be even more wildly out of scope!"

*Laughter*
MJ: "It's the Leigh-way!  So marks out of five Mark?"
Mark: "I'd give that five WAR marks."
MJ: "Wow, FIVE WAR marks?  That's pretty good - I don't know what you said last time..."

Mark: "That's nine in total."
Jason: "Err I'll give it four and a half out of five - WAR marks."

Shaun: "Now as WAR Mark has just given it five WAR marks out of five WAR marks, I, WAR Shaun, shall too give it five WAR marks out of five - I think that was absolutely fantastic."
MJ: "Yup I agree I think I gave it five last time and you lot we like 'What?!  THIS is the best thing you've EVER seen?!' and I continue to say YES!  I really enjoyed it and I'll give it five again."
Shaun: "That gives me a cumulative nine - so that gives me a small amount of room for improvement but of everything I've seen so far THAT is one of my favourites!"
Jason: "Oh well if that's the case I'm upping mine to five then."
MJ: "Oh right yeah?"
Jason: "I was like 'I can't give it a perfect five' - but after I've already given it four and a half last time, that's alright."
MJ: "Ahh right, well I shall give it five - which makes mine a ten!"
Leigh: "Well on the basis that I gave it seven last time - "

*Laughter*
Leigh: "- then I'm going to have to give THIS part ONE!"
MJ: "Ahh so we get eight!"
Leigh: "Even THOUGH I preferred THIS half of it to the previous half!"
MJ: "Yes!"
Mark: "That's what happens when you wildly over-rate things!"
Leigh: "A cumulative eight!"
MJ: "This part WAS better - but not that I'm taking anything from the first part which obviously I really enjoyed as well - as I gave it a five - yeah as we said last time - "
Shaun: "- I expected the Time Lords to be a LOT camper - did anyone else?"
Mark: "Yeah actually I kind of thought so as well."
Jason: "One of them was a bit..."

Mark: " 'Cos now they run around with big things - "
MJ: "Yeah, yeah!"
Shaun: "They were actually quite like what I imagined Time Lords to be - just very kind of, you know, very emotionless.  They've basically conquered pretty much everything so now they just kind of sit back and control... when I was a kid and watching it... 'cos in the new Doctor Who they've gone pretty much mad and died with the Daleks in the Time War or didn't towards the end of Matt Smith's run - but they were still mad."
MJ: "Here we've got - well in this one they're almost like religious characters.  You know they're calm with the long robes and you've got that pipe organ music in the background when they're there - like the stuff they used in Blackadder One."


Shaun: "They're like all kinds of classic Sci-Fi races that are so far evolved that they see themselves above everything so they don't want to interact - they just want to observe - they want to be the great elders."
MJ: "Which is quite fun that the Doctor -"
Shaun: "- Like I said when I was a kid that's how I saw the Time Lords."
MJ: "That's why the Doctor said he left - 'cos he got bored!" *Laughs* "He said it was all very nice and very pleasant and very ordered and very boring!  That was good!  So what did you feel about the banishing of Jamie and Zoe?"
Shaun: "That was harsh!"
MJ: "I think so!"
Shaun: "I think within the context of them being the kind of beings they are it makes absolute perfect sense.  But for the Doctor that's f**king brutal!"
MJ: "It is!"
Shaun: " 'Yeah I don't even remember you, so...' - "
MJ: "- Well except for their first - I mean it's not like in the newer series when (Tenth Doctor companion) Donna completely forgot everything about the Doctor - they remember their first episode but then - "
Shaun: "- Yes but Donna kind of HAD to as she took on Time Lord DNA and was able to access some of their powers and it would have killed her to have remembered as she would have accessed those powers and burned out her body
MJ: "But Jamie certainly grew as a person!  He learnt more and more stuff as he -"
*Laughter* 

MJ: "- Yeah you may joke but he did!" 
Mark: "Yeah but you can't send him back to then knowing what a box is?!"
*Laughter*
 
Shaun: "By this point was Jamie the longest standing companion?"
MJ: "I think so."
Shaun: "He was there a Hell of a long time."
Leigh: "He can't have been there as long as Ian and Barbara?"
Jason: "Ian and Barbara was, what?  Two seasons?"
Shaun: "They were there for only two seasons though and he was there for most of Trout-Man's."
MJ: "He was, he joined about four stories in?  Maybe it was the second serial actually?  We can check in the book - actually THAT'S a point - we need to know what the book thinks!"

Mark: "The book surely hated it."
Shaun: "Yeah 'Overblown and repetitive 'The War Games' was the weaker of all the serials and while it DID give us the Time Lords - two out of ten'!"
*Jason reads from the book - but we basically learnt that the finally episode was left open ended as they didn't know if Doctor Who would continue into the new decade!  They do mention it was a shame we got no regeneration - but do give it nine out of ten!*
MJ: "Ahh!  So that's pretty much with us!"
Mark: "Yeah but even when the book gives high marks it still sounds really negative about the entire thing!  It's like 'Ahh it's all rubbish - but Nine!"
*Laughter*
Jason: "Yeah but he was upset about no regeneration so it was a fair point."
Mark: "Oh fair enough."
Shaun: "But it's NOT a fair point!  This guys writing this book in recent times and sitting there going 'Oh they SHOULD have known it would carry in!' - basically he's just whinging that at the time they didn't know they would keep on regenerating.  They didn't know if they were getting a new series and hadn't actually booked a new Doctor, and - oh my God!  The book is starting to glow - no, no NOOOOOO!  It's shot me with a laser!!!"
Jason: "I'm not saying the book is ALWAYS right."
Shaun: "No!  The book is ALWAYS right!"
Leigh: "But does this count as one of his regenerations as he hasn't actually died?  He's just had plastic surgery done by the Time Lords - against his will."
Jason: "Forced regeneration."
MJ: "I did like their technology where the Time Lords could show still drawings on a television screen!"
Shaun: "That was astounding!"
MJ: "No photos!"
Leigh: "It's from the past but...!"
Mark: "Actually I think it's just THAT screen that made it look that way!  'Cos they were showing images from the actual wars they said they were having - and it was just paintings."
Leigh: "Oh I was referring to what his future selves look like."
Mark: "Yes I think that screen makes them just look like paintings, that's the thing."
Leigh: "What?  No!  I'd like it if one of them was a stick man with a happy face!  'Look you could look like THIS!' "
Shaun: "There is something that I would like to say at this point and that is going into this I'd seen a couple of Trout-Man's serials and he was always my least favourite Doctor - but I've actually really grown to like him!  So I'm going to have to go with Colin Baker then!"
MJ: "To be honest I think he's probably my favourite Doctor."
Leigh: "What Colin Baker?!"
MJ: "Colin Baker's one of my favourite Doctors! I really rate him!"
Shaun: "I really thought you were joking about Colin Baker!"
MJ: "But no, it's Trout-Man!  As soon as I saw his stuff, and I only saw bits and pieces, but he's such a good actor and there's so much going on in his face.  So really we should do what we did last time and say what's the best out of this season - and it's probably THIS one, I don't know..."
Shaun: "No we got 10 out of 10 didn't we?  For the 'Dalek Invasion of Earth'?"
MJ: "Huh?"
Shaun: "No not Dalek, I mean the Cybermen one."
Leigh: "The Cyberman Invasion of Earth."
MJ: "Ohh - 'The Invasion'!"
Leigh: "Yes.  That scored highly."
MJ: "Oh yeah I DO like that one!"
Shaun: "Didn't that get 10 out of 10?"
MJ: "What from us?  I can't remember what we scored it."

(as a side note we scored 'The Invasion' 7.83 out of 10)
Mark: "No I can't either."
Shaun: "No!  We're talking about the book!"
MJ: "Oh no that was 5 out of 10!"
Leigh: "I'm pretty sure WE thought it was quite good."
MJ: "Oh yes we did, I did.  I think it's my favourite story although this one comes quite close - we had the 'Packer'!"
Shaun: "So what is the WORST of Trout-Man?"
Leigh: "I didn't warm to him at all when it began.  I thought he was a bit odd.  So the earlier ones, I think, were the worst ones."
Mark: "I think it hurt that there were a few missing though."
MJ: "Re-cons, yeah."
Shaun: "Yeah."
Mark: "'Cos when you can't see what Troughton's up to, it just doesn't quite work when you can't see his face."
Shaun: "I would say one of my LEAST favourite ones was - what was the one with the South African, erm?..."
MJ: " 'The Krotons'."
Shaun: "Yeah 'The Krotons', that's pretty bad."
MJ: "I remember us not enjoying 'The Wheel In Space' much."
Shaun: "Which one was 
'The Wheel In Space'?"
MJ: "It was about the wheel...in space!  It had the Cybermen in."
Shaun: "Oh the Cybermen again."
Leigh: "Oh the Cybermen that come in through bubbles!"
Shaun: "It was the same as the previous Cybermen ones."
MJ: "And 'The Space Pirates' of course!"
Leigh: "Oh God yeah!  I didn't like 'The Space Pirates'!"
Mark: "Actually I hate that even more 'cos it had 'Space' and 'Pirates' and I STILL didn't like it!"
MJ: "So out of THIS season we had 'The Dominators', 'The Mind Robber', 'The Invasion', 'The Krotons', 'The Seeds of Death', 'The Space Pirates' and 'The War Games' - what do you reckon was the best?"
Leigh: "There were two with foam in weren't there?  There clearly going to be on the list of best ones!"
*Mark laughs*
Shaun: "Yes!  We all enjoyed the foam!"
Leigh: "I think the one with the oil rigs and the foam.  Where the foam kept taking over like houses and stuff."
MJ: "That was a previous season - that was 'Fury From The Deep'."
Leigh: "Yeah."
Mark: "Yeah that one!"
MJ: "Yeah that was a previous series I'm on about THIS one."
Shaun: "Why don't we just do ALL of Trout-Man?"
MJ: "But this is what we did last time with Hartnell.  We voted for the best of each season and THEN we had an overall one."
Mark: "Yeah, that's true, yeah."
MJ: "So I think it's going to be between 'The Invasion' and 'The War Games' in this season."
Shaun: "Well I'm going to give 'The War Games' as my favourite for this season."
MJ: "Okay."
Jason: "Yes I preferred 'The War Games' to 'The Invasion'."
Shaun: "'The Invasion' was a little bit slower but I really enjoyed that."
Mark: "What was 'The Mind Robber'?"
MJ: "That was the fantasy one with the soldiers and the super-hero who went Ka-pow.  And the Master with the beard."
Shaun: "Oh I did like that one."
MJ: "That was good yeah - oh I don't know what to choose!  I always have said 'The Invasion' but I REALLY enjoyed THIS one!  So...I think I'll stick with 'The Invasion' as I like" *does impression of Tobias Vaughn* " 'Packer!' "
Shaun: " 'Packer!'  Yes that was the return of Mavic Chen - or the actor!"
MJ: "Yes, so in the previous, in series Five we had 'Tomb Of The Cybermen' - which was like the Mummy curse - "
Mark:"- I like that one -"
MJ: "- 'The Abominable Snowmen', 'The Ice Warriorssss', 'The Enemy of The World' - which was Salamander - "
Jason: "That was quite good!"
Shaun: "I quite liked that one."
MJ: "- 'The Web of Fear', 'Fury From The Deep' - which was the foam - and then 'The Wheel In Space' - which I think we all hated!"
Shaun: "I'm definitely going for the foam one!"
Leigh: " 'Fury From The Deep' - yep!"
Shaun: "Yeah!  That was bloody entertaining!  We had a good laugh watching it.  It was long enough without being ridiculous."
Jason: "I can't remember anything about it!"
Mark: "I'm going for 'Tomb of The Cybermen'."
MJ: "Yeah that is a good one."
Shaun: "I enjoyed 'The Web of Fear' a Hell of a lot more than the first one with the Yeti."
MJ: "And I'm going to go for 'Enemy of The World' as I enjoyed seeing Troughton as Salamander, even though I've only seen it the once.  Salamander with the three nipples..."
*Mark laughs*
MJ: "And then of course from the first season - thinking back all that time - we had 'The Power Of The Daleks', 'The Highlanders', 'The Underwater Menace' - 'Nuzzink in ze Vorld can stop me now!!!!', 'The Moonbase', 'The Macra Terror'- "
Leigh: "The Mackerel of Terror!!
*Marks laughs*
Shaun: "I did like 'The Mackerel of Terror' with the pointlessly circuitous plot!"
MJ: " 'The Faceless Ones' - which was the guys in the aeroplanes."
Jason: "Oh yeah."
MJ: "And 'The Evil Of The Daleks' finished it off - where they were in Victorian England with that time machine."
Leigh: "Oh yeah - that was stupid!"
Shaun: "What was 
'The Power Of The Daleks' one then?"
MJ: "That was Troughton's first story where they went to the planet Vulcan - which was right next to the sun.  And the Daleks pretended to be good 'WE-ARE-YOUR-SERVANTS!' "
Shaun: "Oh yeah I DID like that one - exploding the recorder!"
Mark: "They had the Dalek Waiter."
Leigh: "It's got to be - was it 'The Underwater Menace' that was in the underwater seabase with the evil villain that was just a PROPER evil villain?"
MJ: "Oh yeah, yeah!"
Leigh: "A psychopathic plot that made no sense and you knew he was going to destroy the world!"
Shaun: "Oh I LOVED that one!"
Mark: "He's my favourite bad guy out of all of them!  I was going to go for 'The Moonbase' but now..."
Shaun: "YES!  The crazy scientist one - that was great!"  
MJ: "I'm glad you went for that one because generally it gets a right slagging off!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "Of course it does!"
MJ: "So what did you choose Jason?"
Jason: "Ermmm - a lot of them are disappearing from my mind - I remember I liked 'The Highlanders' at the time.  I remember 'The Underwater Menace' was good.  I liked the villain - he was alright."
MJ: "Yes, I liked him too."
Jason: "The two Dalek ones, I'm not so bothered about."
Shaun: "I liked 'The Power of the Daleks'.  I quite liked the scientist bringing about his own doom!"
Mark: "I don't remember that Victorian Dalek one?"
MJ: "I do!  I really thought it was good."
Shaun: "It's not good - that's when the Victorian guy had a bunch of mirrors in a cupboard and he makes a time machine from it!"
MJ: "Well this might upset you but I think that might be my favourite one.  I really liked that one - with the Dalek Emperor. 'DO-NOT-SHOOT-IN HERE!' "
Shaun: "That was when he got a companion from that one, wasn't it?"
MJ: "Yeah Victoria was the companion.  I like that - AND we got Windsor Davies in it!"
Shaun: "Ohhh!"
Mark: "Yeah that's true!"
Shaun: "Wait Victoria's different to Vicki - 'cos I hated Vicki!"
MJ: "You hated Vicki??  She was alright!?"
Mark: "I don't know why you hated Vicki so much!?"
MJ: "Surely you'd hate Dodo more?"
Shaun: "I just thought she was the worst actress doing the worst job ever."
Mark: "You liked Dodo as she wore a top that looked like Orko from He-Man!"
MJ: "In one serial."
Shaun: "Yes that is definitely my sexual kink!"
Mark: "That isn't what I'm saying!  I'm just saying it reminded you of a beloved childhood cartoon."
Shaun: "And I'm just admitting to my sexual kink!"
Mark: "Ahh you've took this in a weird direction!"
MJ: "If you're reading this, dear listener, he wants to f**k Orko!  But then who doesn't?!"
Leigh: "Is this Orko from He-Man?"
MJ: "Yes!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "As MJ doesn't put the recording of this up allow me to state that 'Shaun spoke sarcastically on all Orko-related matters'."
*MJ Laughs*
Shaun: "He said sarcastically - oh that's just made it worse!!!"
MJ: "He said - raising an eyebrow!  Jason's still looking at 'THE BOOK'!"
Jason: "They've all been relatively good!  Or at least of equal standing!"
*Laughter*
Mark: "They've all been equally good and bad?"
Jason: "They've all been a bit silly - they varied it up a bit.  I remember I quite liked 'The Macra Terror' -"
Leigh: "- 'The Mackerel Of Terror'!!"
MJ: "That was good - with the holiday camp - a bit like a Sylvestor McCoy story."
Jason: "I liked the plot of 'The Faceless Ones' - It reminded me of a Twilight Zone story.  And I believe that was the one with the stock footage of an aeroplane taking off."
MJ: "That's right!"
Leigh: "Ahhh - I did love the stock footage of the aeroplane!"
MJ: "Yes you DID love the stock footage of the aeroplane, Leigh!"
Mark: "That was your favourite thing!"
Jason: "I dunno - none of them stand out as amazing to me and none of them stood out as bad!  So I'm going to go for 'The Underwater Menace' then because of the crazy bloke!"
MJ: "Yeah he was good - so there we go, Who-people at large!"
Jason: "I liked 'The Highlanders' when Polly got a bit menacing with a knife!"
MJ: "Ahhhh yes!"
Mark: "I forgot about Polly."
Leigh: "I couldn't forget about Polly."
MJ: "What you didn't like Polly?"
Leigh: "No I preferred Polly to your favourite, Wendy."
Mark: "Yeah I preferred Polly."
Jason: "Wendy's her real name!  It's Zoe!"
MJ: "For me the best companion is Jamie!  I like him all the way through."
Jason: "Oh yeah."
Leigh: "I don't, he annoys me."
Jason: "You just don't like his 'I don't know what that is/I know exactly what that is'."
Leigh: "Yes that's exactly what I don't like about him!"
Jason: "I know people like that.  I have this conversation with MJ every day!"
*Laughter*
Jason: "Like, for example, 'I didn't even know there was a back door (into Shaun's house)' 'Well we've come in it several times together!' "
*Laughter*
Leigh: "What sort of house doesn't have a back door!?  But no, Carstairs was my favourite companion, 
he was great."
Jason: "Aww he was amazing."
Leigh: "Just because he reminded me of Ian!"
Mark: "Because he just goes around striking people!"
MJ: "Your favourite companion of this story, Shaun?"
Shaun: "I liked Jamie a lot."
Jason: "I liked Victoria a lot more than I thought I would, 'cos I only knew her from a couple of photos from an old annual I had."
Shaun: "Oh I quite liked Victoria as I totally called, like, in the first episode that she was leaving in THAT serial 'cos she showed a SLIGHT romantic interest in someone - that's the end of her!"
MJ: "No she didn't!  You're thinking of Vicki, probably!  Victoria didn't show a romantic interest."
Mark: "Yeah she was chatting to somebody in an airport and that was that!"
Shaun: "Yep!"
Jason: "No, no, no."
MJ: "No Victoria left in 'Fury From The Deep' where she got fed up of travelling 'cos she was always scared."
Mark: "Wasn't she in the airport?  Oh I got confused."
Shaun: "Oh I AM thinking of Vicky."
MJ: "Vicky got a romantic interest in the Myth Makers, with that guy back in Greek/Roman times."
Shaun: "Oh well f**k her then - I'm back to Jamie!"
Jason: "Jamie was chatting to the girl in the airport - she didn't come."
Mark: "Right."
MJ: "She could've done but she decided -"
Mark: "So I've mixed them all up together!"
Jason: "We almost had Pauline Collins (I nearly said Pauline Quirke!) at one point!"
Shaun: "I'm very much looking forward to the start of the NEXT Doctor 'cos Mark has gone on record as saying he doesn't like Pertwee."
Mark: "I'm not keen on Pertwee."
MJ: "Well let's hope that we turn you around."
Mark: "I hope so too as he's one of the longest serving."
Jason: "I'm not keen on colour!"
*Laughter* 

Shaun: "Nor is Mark!"
Leigh: "Are you colour racist as well!?"
Jason: "Colour puts me off."
MJ: "ALL colour puts him off!"
Mark: "You're more of a racist than me!"
Jason: "I don't like Earth - Earth's boring!  Particularly 70's/80's Earth."
Leigh: "How many seasons are there, of Pertwee?"
MJ: "Three."
Leigh: "And they're all on Earth?"
Shaun: "I was going to say..."
MJ: "No, no they're not!  Or maybe...Ooooo..."
*Laughter*
Jason: "He may NEVER time travel again..."
Shaun: "Somebody said 'Pertwee had a really long run' - and I was like 'No you're thinking of Tom Baker.  If you're thinking of a long run it can ONLY be Tom Baker!'  Pertwee had quite a few serials but he wasn't there THAT long."
MJ: "Yeah he was!  He was there the longest out of the first three and then Tom Baker said 'Well I can do better than THAT....AND some!!'  And then Colin Baker then said 'Well I hope to be the longest serving Doctor' in an interview at the time -"
Mark: "- Unfortunately he got cut-off halfway through that interview - then he was no longer the Doctor!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "Well, Fair Listener stroke Reader.  You shouldn't be stroking Readers - that's wrong."
Leigh: "Does ANYONE ever actually read this??!"
MJ: "I don't know - I hope so!"
*Laughter*
Shaun: "I read it and find it very enjoyable!"
Jason: "What was that - your mate the other day who commented the other day and said we should do it as a podcast?"
Shaun: "That was Jake Rivett."
Mark: "Yeah."
MJ: "Anyway we're going now - bye!"
Shaun: "Jake - you got a shout-out!"
MJ: "Jake got a shout-out!  Hello Jake!"



Photo 7:

MJ - holding THE BOOK!!
around Shaun's house

*******************************************************************************************************

So that was the end of Troughton and we scored well with points:

Jason - 9.5/10
Leigh - 8/10
Mark - 9/10
MJ - 10/10
Shaun - 9/10

So it gave us an average of 9.1 out of 10!  One of the more sucessful tales I think you'll agree!

Okay then - take this away with you and join us (probably in the new year) when we tackle colour AND Worzel Gummidge - aka Jon and his Pert Wee!

Hoozah!

So until next time I shall return, yes I shall return!


MJ
20/12/15