Tom Tom Tom Baker-ker-ker-ker-BOOM!!!!
Yes we were here all ready for Tom's début story Robot. Well, except for Leigh who couldn't make it! Don't worry his catch-up will come at the end - but the rest of us gathered around Mark's for this little four-parter. We also had a Gavin in tow! So this is what did happen...
MJ: "OMJ! (I have no idea why I used "OMJ"? Oh My Jason, maybe?) Here we are around Mark's and we're watching effing Tom Baker, who's effing in it for effing years! And we're all here.... except for Leigh. So we're NOT all here! That was a lie. And we've got Gavin here."
Gavin: "Hello."
Alex: (Mark's wife) "And me."
MJ: "Alex is loitering with in-a-tent!" *Laughs at own joke* "Get out that tent!! Oh and Mark's just started it! So let's go!!" *Laughs* "But yes I'm wearing my Tom Baker scarf which I'm taking off now - I'll just keep for the photos as it's VERY hot!"
Shaun: "I'm wearing my Tom Baker face-mask." *MJ laughs* "It's very creepy."
Jason: "I'm wearing Tom Baker."
*Mark laughs*
Shaun: "Buffalo Bill style!"
MJ: *Laughs* "That DOES sound like a sex move, Buffalo Bill style.... PART ONE!!!" *Laughs*
*EPISODE ONE STARTS*
Jason: "Are these new credits?"
Shaun: "They are!"
Mark: "No."
Jason: "They're the SAME credits."
MJ: "No, they are new! 'Cos we didn't have the TARDIS." (or Tom Baker's face which comes up on screen) "He looks miserable! I don't know what I'll think of this new guy. I shouldn't think he'll last long... I hear he was in the Sinbad movie or something (He was! The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad in 1973). I've not heard of him since."
Shaun: " I heard he was a Brickie!"
*The regeneration replays on screen*
MJ: "Ooo a recap."
*I KEPT THE RECORDING GOING BY ACCIDENT I WON'T RECALL ALL THAT!*
MJ: "I liked Harry's matter-of-fact manner! The Brigadier's all 'Oh yes, he's changed. Oh well let's go!'"
Shaun: "Off to a cracking start."
Mark: *Laughs* "Two passers-by killed."
MJ: "Yes I also laugh when I see people getting killed, Mark!! You MONSTER!"
Mark: "I really hate people!"
MJ: "Oh not hurt the dogs!! I can see the letters: 'Dear BBC...'"
Photo 1: At Mark's house.
MJ and Mark share a long scarf.
Jason (with The Book),
MJ and Mark share a long scarf.
Jason (with The Book),
Shaun (with DVD case) and Gavin with the sign!
*EPISODE ONE GETS WATCHED*
MJ: "Oh sh*t I've been recording all that time!!"
Jason: "Type it all up!"
MJ: "So yes, end of Part One and Sarah Jane was menaced by a giant robot."
Jason: "Well to be fair, all he said was 'Who are you?' and 'Why are you here?' That's not menacing - that's like a Receptionist."
MJ: "Fair enough then!"
Jason: "He killed everyone else!"
MJ: *Reading credits* "Oh, Robert Holmes script edited."
Jason: "Yeah, so we met a new Doctor, he's chosen his clothes. He's got a scarf, he's made use of his scarf." *We hear some children screaming from next door* "Mark's killing some kid!"
*Laughter*
*EPISODE TWO STARTS*
MJ: "We seem to be on Part Two."
Jason: "We are on Part Two."
Photo 2: At Mark's house.
Mark (with DVD case).
Next to him Jason and Shaun do Robot hands!
MJ: "End of Part Two and The Doctor's being menaced by the robot ad he's going to get killed! Err Mark and Jason have been having their own Mother's meeting - nattering away all the way through it!" *Laughter* "I don't know what you were talking about, I couldn't hear!"
Jason: "We were talking about the cliff-hanger that was about to happen!"
Mark: "MJ appears jealous that he couldn't hear what was going on!"
MJ: "It's alright, I've seen it before!" *Mark laughs*
Jason: "What did you think of that, MJ? Was it everything you expected of a Doctor you've never seen before!?"
MJ: *Laughs* "That's not for me to say!" *Mark giggles* "It's for me to find out!" *Laughs* "So they're very much going along with Isaac Asimov's Laws of Robotics."
Jason: "Good use of scarf. The Doctor's used, with a magnet in it, to pick up things. He's used it as a sort of rope to catch things."
Mark: "He's used it as a measuring thing!"
Jason: "Yes, to see how deep a hole went."
Shaun: "He tried to trip up the Robot with it."
Gavin "Yes."
Jason: "Yes. He's worn it!"
MJ: "Yep!"
Shaun: *Laughs* "To brace him against the cold!"
MJ: "Professor Kettlewell, who designed the Robot, he's got great hair!!"
Jason: "Awww! He's my favourite! He's the ultimate stereotypical scientist!"
MJ: "I'm sure I recognise him! I think he was in a Troughton episode (he was! He had been in The Invasion)."
Jason: "When he first came up I thought he looked familiar but then it might just be that it's the same make-up they do for EVERY scientist they have on there."
MJ: "He was still alive when they released this on DVD, 'cos he's on the extras and he still looks a bit mad haired now. (The actor, Edward Burnham, was alive when they did the DVD. He died in 2015. Before that he was the second-oldest-living actor to have appeared in Doctor Who, behind centenarian Olaf Pooley. Olaf had been in Inferno and ALSO died in 2015!). He looked old then!!"
Jason: "That's his normal look?"
MJ: "I think so, but not AS big as that I'm pretty sure."Jason: "If I was hiring, for a scientist, I'd hire him on the spot! If he walked in like that!"
*MJ laughs*
Mark: "You wouldn't even need to see qualifications."
Jason: "No. 'Can you say words'? 'Yeah'."
Mark: "Yes." *Laughs*
Jason: "Can you NOT cut your hair before you come in to do this part?"
Mark: "He just hangs around, at the BBC, waiting for Mad Scientist roles!"
MJ: "What happened in that cliffhanger? Tom Baker got menaced?"
Jason: "Tom Baker was lying on the floor with the robot over him."
MJ: "Saying he's going to kill him. Destroy him. Even though it's against his prime directive."
Jason: "It's 'cos he's confused!"
MJ: "As I say, very Isaac Asimov."
Jason: "Well maybe they've taken the inhibitor out, but his brain waves, that also say 'You can't kill', are going 'Oooo, well I shouldn't really, but....' - Three Bird Roast flavour?!"
Mark: "Yep!"
Jason: "How do you do that with a crisp? I need to try it with three birds!"
MJ: "I'm going to go outside with Shaun, because it's very..."
*From outside comes a HIDEOUS screaming noise from the next door neighbours. Jason and Mark laugh* "Yeah I'm not going out there because there are children being killed!" *Mark laughs* "Do they usually scream like that or are they just possessed by Satan?"
Jason: *Back on the crisps* "I can only taste two birds."
MJ: "How are you finding Baker so far? Rubbish!" *Laughs to self*
Jason: "Well, I've seen him before."
MJ: "No we haven't!"
Jason: "I think we all have..." *Laughs*
MJ: "No, how are you finding him so far, after watching all of Pertwee."
Jason: "You should ask Mark this question as he loved Pertwee so much."
Mark: *Deadpan* "I did love Pertwee. It's true..."
MJ: "Is it already an improvement?"
Mark: "It's already an improvement! I hope he stops being, you know, whacky, just to be whacky... "
Jason: "No, I think he'll be fine when they take out the comedy music."
*Mark laughs*
MJ: "Yeah there is comedy music."
Mark: "No but it's 'Ah I'm sleeping on a table because I'm whacky!'"
Jason: "He's still new Doctor, so he's still getting used to his body and stuff."
Mark: "Yeah, yeah... So that's what I'm figuring's happening."
MJ: "And he's gurning a lot!"
Mark: "Yeah I'm figuring that calms down a bit."
*Shaun re-enters the room*
Gavin: "And staring off into space."
Mark: "I like the staring off into space. That's fine."
Shaun: "I was quite enjoying that!"
MJ: "How are you finding the new Doctor, Shaun? Mark was saying that he, erm, hopes he doesn't do so much of the gurning. The double-takey sort of thing."
Mark: "Well not that, more the 'I sleep on a table because I'm whacky!'"
Jason: "No that's fine. I like a whacky Doctor that does out of the ordinary kind of things."
MJ: "I like that he's so different to Pertwee already! It's a joy."
Mark: "Yeah I like that."
Shaun: *Laughing* "Of course Mark likes that!"
Jason: *Laughing* "It's a joy he's not Pertwee!"
MJ: "He's got the playfulness of Troughton about him."
Jason: "Yeah."
MJ: "How are you finding this so far, Shauny?"
Shaun: "It's alright!"
MJ: "The giant robot. It's quite cool! I like the design of the giant robot! I know his arms are crap but..."
Shaun: "From the perspective of looking at it, I like the design of the robot. From ANY kind of functionality: it's terrible!"
MJ: "Oh yeah, yeah."
Jason: "It's designed for mining. That's what a mining robot WOULD look like. Every time!"
Shaun: "No it wouldn't. Mining robots look like giant drills!"
Jason: "They have a big, pink, glittery brain." *Shaun laughs* "They have big shoulder-pads to protect them from rock-falls. Tiny arms to get into little crevices! And big robot hands so you couldn't get into tiny crevices!" *Shaun laughs*
Gavin: "So where's the mining bit then?"
Jason: "Well he's probably got an adaptable screw-on drill thing!"
Shaun: "Yep."
Jason: "Yeah. Or maybe that's the penis that we don't know about yet."
Shaun: "But it's also got the immediate design flaw of, erm, it needs the humans to attach one thing to it's arm before it leaves. I mean that's fine for the mining thing."
Gavin: "Or store it somewhere. Like an accessory."
Jason: "It's in it's shoulder pads! It's got a whole rack and array of things."
Shaun: "But how's it going to attach them when it can only do that:" *Moves arm up and down* "And flail."
Jason: *Smiling* "Again, it's got a multi-angle poised penis, that comes out and grabs something -"
Shaun: "It's made from Adamantium!"
Jason: "Maybe it's like the Daleks, when they re-did the Daleks in the future."
Gavin: "I'm just thinking about those tunnel-boring machines for Cross-Rail and stuff like that."
Shaun: "Erm, it is fine I mean it's not designed for killing humans, therefore it's quite bad at it!" *Laughing* "Unless they walk into it's pincer!!"
Jason: "It's quite good at it really!"
MJ: "But you say they used it for mining. It may not have done any mining. It's a prototype, so they made it to this point and found out-"
Jason: "- Oh yeah, that's a good excuse actually!"
Shaun: "Mining and stuff."
Jason: "It's only Mark One or Mark Two."
MJ: "Mark One and they found out they couldn't control it and so they decided 'No we won't bother'."
Gavin: "But it was used for stealing that secret box thing?"
Shaun: "Yes, but it wasn't INTENDED to be used for that."
MJ: "No."
Shaun: "The baddies at the institute are just, erm, utilising it in a way for which it was not intended. I wanna know how this links to those horrible people who are all like, well, you know, 'You have to think as we tell you to think'-"
Mark: "The UKIP-ers!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "Plus there's a thing with this, it always annoys me with guys like that, where they are like - well, he was implying that Sarah Jane would have to wear a skirt and stuff, but if you're going to be logical like that then you're just going to go for some kind of zoot suit, or coverall, and everyone wears the same."
Mark: "Not if your intentions are a bit rapey. That's a very impractical outfit she's wearing."
Jason: "If she's not riding horses, a robe is best."
Shaun: *Smiling* "Right!"
Jason: "Like a Monk-y robe. Not a Monkey-Robe. A Monk's Robe!"
*Shaun laughs*
MJ: "That WAS a Ukip meeting Sarah Jane went to, wasn't it?"
Jason: "'SRS'."
MJ: "Sudbury Roofing Services?"
Shaun: *Laughing* "I'm pretty sure they're not Sudbury Roofing Services!" (Apparently it's 'Scientific Reform Society')
Gavin: "Sudbury Racist Society."
Shaun: "They were supposed to be a small society based on logical, rational thinking to see the world through to a better future."
Jason: "I really liked the guy in charge. I thought he was a superb character."
Shaun: *Incredulous* "Really!?"
Jason: "Yeah! I believed him - the main guy from SRS."
MJ: "Oh yeah."
Jason: "I believed in his character."
Mark: *Laughing* "Really?"
Jason: "Yeah!"
Mark: *Laughing* "I believed he was a bit creepy! I think I have seen him in everything else, he's ever appeared in, in a Nazi outfit!"
*Shaun laughs*
Jason: "Terry & June - he was in that."
Mark, Shaun & MJ: "As a Nazi!"
Jason: "So, when they did the fast typing (The Doctor typed a note for the Brigadier and the film makers speeded it up) was that meant to be 'Oh comedy'? He's actually typing at normal speed but it's a comedy showing it (speeded up)? Or was it just him typing it fast?"
MJ: "I think it's just The Doctor typing fast. He's an alien and he's got super intelligence and he can just go 'dalladala'!" *Mimics fast typing*
Gavin: "So the film was speeded up?"
MJ: "Yes the film was speeded up and there was lots of comedy music, wasn't there? To say 'Oh this is a bit whacky'!"
Shaun: *Unimpressed* "Yes." *Mark giggles* "Which you're finding more delightful than I think me and Mark are."
Mark:*Laughing* "Yeah, I think so! I can't get on with it with the comedy music."
MJ: "Well I'm taking it as: it's a bit light and fluffy - it's his first one we're seeing. It's a bit of a romp, after the last one with the serious spiders." *Laughs*
Shaun: "Yeah, which is fine, but you know, if you're going to go for comedy, you need to be funny! It's like I understand Rule Of Three, right? Them turning around and him wearing the full Barbarian outfit - that was funny! The costumes should have got funnier from there. Not less funny and more, just, 'We're trying to be over the top'!"
Jason: "You didn't think the novelty playing card King was funnier than a Barbarian?!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "No! Just panning around and he was dressed as a Barbarian - THAT was funny! That was your joke! You didn't NEED to do it again! You'd got your laugh."
MJ: "A shame they cut the scene where he actually had black-face and sang 'Mameee'!"
*Mark laughs*
Shaun: "No!"
Mark: "No, that's not a shame!"
Jason: "And white gloves!"
MJ: "And white gloves!" *Singing* "Down by the Swanee!!"
*Laughter*
Jason: "Is there an out-take where he has twenty-five different costumes?"
MJ: *Laughing* "Twenty-five racist moments the BBC never wanted you to see!"
Jason: "This episode originally ran for an hour and a half!"
MJ: "Yes, a bit like this recording!"
Gavin: "I suppose it would have been perfectly acceptable for 1975."
Shaun & MJ: "Yeah."
MJ: "Anyway shall we go onto Part Three?"
Gavin: "Speaking of which my friend Chris remembers this first episode being shown."
Shaun: "Wow."
Gavin: "Yeah, back in 1975 he was nine at the time. He said it was preceded by the wrestling."
Shaun: *A wrestling fan* "Sweet!"
Gavin: "Wrestling was on first, on a Saturday night, and then Doctor Who."
MJ: "Yeah that makes sense. Wrestling used to be Saturday afternoons or early evenings. Oh happier times! Giant Haystacks."
Gavin: "Big Daddy."
Mark: "Big Daddy. Shirley Crabtree."
Gavin: *Laughing* "Shirley Crabtree?"
Jason: "Shirley Bassey."
MJ: "Shirley Manson. All the Shirleys! Shirley You Can't Be Serious?" *The next episode starts and MJ starts singing along to the theme* "Yes new titles with Tom Baker in. Just his face looking glum."
Shaun: "Wait! That's not the same credits we had for Episode One and Two!"
MJ: *Confused* "Is it not?"
Jason: "Are you sure?"
Shaun: "Yeah."
Jason: "Let's watch them again!"
MJ: "Okay!"
Shaun: "No!"
MJ: "Part Three..."
Photo 3: At Mark's house.
MJ, Mark, Jason (with The Book),
MJ, Mark, Jason (with The Book),
& Shaun (with DVD case) all share a long scarf.
Gavin has the sign!
Gavin has the sign!
*EPISODE THREE GETS WATCHED*
MJ: "End of Part Three and UNIT are all attacking the Robot. And the Robot has just destroyed a VERY real looking tank!"
Shaun: *Laughing* "The world's MOST real tank!"
MJ: "Not just a model they've pushed in front of the camera!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "No."
Mark: "This is small - but they are far away!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "And it's holding it's gun really camply - the Robot and is going:" *Puts on deep voice* "Go now or I shall destroy you all!"
Shaun: "I can't understand, having made so many of these Doctor Who's before, why they'd put the actual clamp on that small strut that they have (on the Robot)? Why not just attach it to the arm!?"
Mark: "That's what I said earlier! I don't get it!"
Shaun: "Yeah! 'Cos they MUST have realised it wasn't going to work!?"
*Mark chuckles*
Jason: "No, not until the day of shooting!"
Shaun: "Well even so just" *Laughs* "you know, between Parts One and Two, fix it!"
*Mark laughs*
Jason: "It's a design choice!"
MJ: "A bad -"
Shaun: "- It's a terrible design choice!"
*The next episode titles starts*
MJ: "Tom Baker. Didn't use his scarf so much that time."
Shaun: "But he did use it again!"
MJ: "Harry's been locked up by the baddies. Did we all say that? No, anyway..."
Jason: "No, but we don't care about Harry! Who's Harry?"
Shaun: "Harry's the doctor."
MJ: "The doctor!"
Shaun: "Well, not THE Doctor, A doctor!"
MJ: "And Part Four. Oh, I forgot to say, when the Robot shoots he also turns the guys into Ready Brek as they disappear! They get a warm glow over them. So there we go. Oh there's the toy tank again! Anyway Part Four..."
Photo 4: At Mark's house.
MJ, Mark, Jason (with The Book),
MJ, Mark, Jason (with The Book),
& Shaun (with DVD case) all share a long scarf.
Gavin has the sign!
Gavin has the sign!
*EPISODE FOUR GETS WATCHED*
Jason: "Yep!"
Gavin: "A sentient being."
MJ: "A sentient being, yes. Ahh yes, very sad for him. And at the end The Doctor, Harry and Sarah Jane went off in the TARDIS and The Brigadier was there going 'Oh well! Not going to the palace for a slap-up meal'! Which I assume would have mashed potatoes with sausages sticking out." *Mark and MJ laugh* "That's what we usually have!"
Jason: "Yeah."
Gavin: "Not swan then?"
MJ: *Sniggering* "Not swan no. She doesn't eat any. She doesn't want any one else to, but she doesn't like it herself! She's so mean!"
Jason: "She hates them!"
MJ: "Yeah. Did you enjoy Robot?" *Laughs*
Mark: "I did. There was a giant robot in it! What wasn't there to like?!" *Chuckles*
Shaun: "Yeah."
Jason: "I did enjoy it."
Gavin: "And it got even bigger!"
MJ: "Shaun did say 'I hope we get a giant robot' and he wasn't disappointed - well, he may have been but...!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "I was not! I was very enthusiastically excited!"
MJ: "It grew at the end."
Shaun: "It was pretty much exactly what I wanted!"
Gavin: "Especially the Godzilla-moment when he picked her (Sarah Jane) up!"
MJ: "Yeah he picked her up, well not Godzilla - more like King Kong."
Gavin: "Sorry, King Kong."
MJ: "So yeah I thought that was quite a nice introduction really. There was lots of fun and it seemed to zip along."
Mark: "It was just very quick. Seemed to get a lot done very quickly."
MJ: "Yeah!"
Jason: "That's not a bad thing though."
Mark: "Yeah I know, that's a good thing! I was impressed with the first episode."
MJ: "I don't know what the next story is? I don't think I've bought it yet! But they're setting it up like they're not always going to use UNIT - I fear that's where they're going... 'Cos why would ya!?"
Jason: "Well, budgets mainly!"
MJ: "I think it's Ark In Space next, which I need to buy (since recording I now own it!). So you enjoyed that then, Marky?"
Mark: "I did, yeah. It went along at a good pace. And the first episode, traditionally that would have taken six episodes of Doctor Who -"
Shaun *Laughs* "Yeah!"
Mark: "- to do that first episode. But no - it's all in there. Get on with it!"
MJ: "Yep!"
Alex (Mark's wife): *As a disembodied voice from another room* "I thought it was fantastic!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "Did you? Said Alex..."
Jason: "What would you give it out of ten!?"
Alex: "Eight and a half!" *She never saw it!*
Jason: "Wow!"
MJ: *Laughing* "High praise indeed! And did you like the Nazi woman, the evil (Miss Winters)? Or did you think she was ridiculous?"
Jason: "I don't know, I think I'm going to give it a relatively low mark for me but it was...err, I can't really pick out what I didn't like about it but it was alright."
Shaun: "Well the bad guys plot was, once again, incredibly stupid."
Jason: "Yes but no it was... everybody questions everything!"
Shaun: "Yeah."
Jason: "So it wasn't STUPID stupid. It made sense how stupid it was - if you get what I mean?"
Mark: "They were crazy Nazi's and they were crazy enough to go through with it."
Jason: "Yes but the point is 'Yes we're going to blow-up the world to prove a point'!"
Mark: "Yeah."
Shaun: "Well no they wanted to blackmail the world?"
Jason: "She still wanted to go through with it!"
Shaun: "Yeah."
Jason: "Even though she hadn't done a survey of what food they had got and made sure the door was shut!" *Mark laughs* "But at least they questioned her on it saying 'Are you mad for doing this? You shouldn't actually be going through with it, you fool! It's about blackmail'!"
Shaun: "Yeah but only Professor Kettlwell did that? And then he got shot by the Robot for his actions!"
Mark: "You would have no problem if that Professor was The Master and he was inevitably betrayed."
Shaun: "We're talking about a very different circumstance to what happened in that episode!"
*Mark laughs*
Jason: "The more I think about it, the more I enjoyed it. But for some reason I was casually watching it going 'Meh, stuff's happened'."
Shaun: "I need to say I had my mark worked out by the end of the second episode and have added two for how much I enjoyed the Robot getting bigger and everything!"
Mark: "Yeah! You've got to add at least five I say."
Shaun: "I'm thinking:
'Yeah this is pretty average.
It's fine, it's going along.
That giant Robot is awesome AND terrible at the same time!
I'm having loads of fun now!
This is awesome!"
*Mark giggles*
Shaun: "Well, I mean I would have liked that if they'd done it well!" *Laughs* "But they didn't! So..."
Jason: "Yeah they did! It went 'I'm con-fused'!!"
Mark: "It's the way I expected seventies Doctor Who to do it!"
Shaun: "Yeah."
Mark: *Laughing* "With an over-the-top Shakespearean actor in a cardboard costume!"
MJ: *Puts on Robot voice* "OHHH NO!!! I'VE KILLED THE CREATOR!!"
*Mark laughs*
Shaun: "Yes!"
MJ: "Which he did, he killed his big-haired creator."
Jason: "Dad's dead."
MJ: *Laughs* "Dad's dead! And now I want to sleep with my Mum!"
Jason: "It's not his Mum!!"
Mark: "And then he went crazy and wanted to kill everyone!"
Shaun: "Yeah and he did go from 'Nought' to:" *Robot voice* 'You are the enemy you must die' to 'ALL of Humanity must die'!"
MJ: "Yeah he was over-reacting!"
Shaun: *Robot voice* "You have taught me the concept of lie!"
MJ: "Yeah well he's a petulant child - that's what he is really. He's not been taught properly."
Jason: "Yeah that's what happens when your Dad leaves you. Acting out!"
Shaun: "His Dad didn't leave!! He disintegrated him!"
Jason: "Well that makes it even worse! If I accidentally killed my Dad I probably would have reacted badly!" (Only probably Jason??!)
Shaun: "While we are on the disintegrator -"
Jason: "- Get off it!"
Shaun: "- I would like to point out that not at any point did they say 'The Robot's made of living metal that can take in other metal, which will make it grow'! So unless the disintegrator fired out nails - there's no way it should have grown! It doesn't make any logical sense!"
Mark: "Yeah, I don't know. It hit something, that did a thing and MacGuffin!"
MJ: "MacGuffin? That's right, yeah. I think we should take this now as Year One. So don't worry about how you scored Pertwee. You're probably going to find it better than Pertwee anyway if you didn't like Pertwee - Mark. So say this is your first story!"
Shaun: "No I'm going to do as I always do. I'm going to mark it based on the merits of it as its own piece."
MJ: "Well done."
Shaun: "And, as I will do in future and as I have always done, I'm going to give it bonus marks for having a giant monster! A giant robot in this case."
MJ: *Laughs* "So what are you giving that Shaun?"
Shaun: "I'm going to give it a seven!"
MJ: "Seven?"
Shaun: "Again, two marks for the giant Robot. That was amazing! Otherwise, perfectly functional."
MJ: "I enjoyed it. Yeah, practically the Robot was a bit stupid, but I did enjoy it and the design. I thought it looked really quite smart."
Shaun: "Yeah and the five overall was: it was fine. It was pretty good, it had it's positives and negatives. But giant robots are awesome! and terribly done giant robots are even more awesome!"
MJ: "And we had Nazis!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "Nazis aren't awesome. Not to me."
MJ: "You liked Tom Baker so far?"
Shaun: "He's alright."
MJ: "Yeah. I like his costume as well. Pretty good for this one. So what about you Mark?"
Mark: "Erm -"
Alex (Mark's wife): *As a disembodied voice from another room* "Don't ask him!"
MJ: "I have to!? That's part of the..."
Jason: "Don't stop now!"
Mark: "Yeah that's how this works! She's trying to participate now!"
*MJ laughs*
Jason: "You're not part of the group anymore."
*Mark laughs*
Shaun: "Get out!"
*Laughter*
Mark: "I was already going to give it a seven."
Jason: "No you're wife clearly gave it eight and a half! Or whatever it was."
MJ: "Jason?"
Jason: "Seven."
Shaun: *Smiling "Wait! How many of your seven are bonus marks for the Robot being huge!?"
Mark: "Seven!"
*Shaun laughs*
MJ: "Gav?"
Gavin: "Seven and a half."
MJ: "Seven and a half?"
Gavin: "Seven and a half. Yeah I enjoyed it!"
MJ: "Yeah it was a good one - he's upped it half a point! What made you up it a bit more? What did you enjoy, was it the robot?"
Gavin: "Tom Baker!"
MJ: "Tom Baker!" *Laughs*
Gavin: "And the addition of the robot - yeah!"
Shaun: "I'll say one thing. Tom Baker, unlike the first three Doctors, Tom Baker is an ugly man!" *Laughs* "And does not look great on screen! And that put me off once in a while - a close shot of his face."
MJ: "It's unusual looking, yes... (not sure I would say ugly! More striking!)
I suppose I will bow down to peer pressure and go seven as well! Yes I think there are going to be better stories and I think there are going to be worse. I enjoyed it as the first one."
Jason: "I was going to go five just to give myself a medium point to go to but I decided it IS better than that!"
Shaun: "Giant robot."
Jason: "No, but we had a Giant Robot, Nazis, comedy err hymn, errr, limp-wristed thing - enough to laugh at and find funny."
MJ: "Adrian Edmondson!" (one of the characters, the bad henchman Jellicoe (played by Alex Linstead), looked a bit like the comedian Adrian Edmondson!)
Jason: "Yep! The Brigadier getting exasperated all the time - I like that."
MJ: "Arse WHAT!!??"
Jason: "Exasperated!"
MJ: "Oh EXASPERATED! I misheard it as 'his arse sprayed'!! I thought 'I missed THAT thing'!" *Laughs*
Shaun: "That's exactly what I heard as well."
Jason: *Smiling* "Maybe that's what made the Robot grow!"
MJ: "That intense gay porn scene with The Doctor, that's..." *Laughs* "Here we go again!"
*Laughs* "What does The Book say?
Jason: "It was good!"
MJ: "The Book says it was good?!"
Shaun: *Laughing* "That's what The Book says!"
Jason: "It's good, in general. Leigh! What do you think!??" *Puts on high-pitched Alpha Centuri voice* "I think it was very good in general!!"
*Laughter*
MJ: "That is brilliant."
Jason: *Reads from The Book* "'A peaceful Robot is reprogrammed to steal codes for the world's nuclear weapons.... Mirroring Jon Pertwee's introductory story in locations, this time recorded on OB video' -"
MJ: "- Yes I thought it looked different to film."
Jason: "That's Outside Broadcast Video." *Reads from The Book* "'- were centred around the BBC training centre at Wood Norton. Bernard Lodge designed new-' oh! Sorry I thought that was a place - it's a man!" *Laughs & reads from The Book* "Bernard Lodge designed a new simplified title sequence. Jim Acheson created Tom Baker's new costume influenced by the French artist Toulouse Lautrec'-"
MJ: "- Oh yeah, yeah. I've seen that."
Jason: *Reads from The Book* "'- Baker's flat mate Chris Trunchell'." *Laughs* "What? He also created Baker's flat mate!!?"
*MJ and Mark laugh*
Shaun: *Confused* "Yeah, how does that sentence work out?"
Jason: "Oh! 'Influenced BY Toulouse Lautrec and his flat mate'."
MJ: "Oh okay."
Jason: "So he lived with some who looked like Toulouse Lautrec." *Reads from The Book* "'Stylishly put together, this action-packed adventure still works brilliantly. The Robot is a wonderful creation and there are some stunning moments. Nine out of ten'."
MJ: *Surprised* "Oh nine out of ten!? Jason did a limp-wrist there - for the audio! He was copying the Robot which did have quite limp wrists. Well there we go, join us next time for the Ark In Space?"
MJ: "Arkwright In Space. And we saw Tom Baker at the end leaving in the TARDIS with Sarah Jane and Harry Sullivan."
Jason: "And Harry Sullivan said 'Oh my'! Or something like that!"
MJ: *In the style of the Star Wars character C3PO* "Oh my!"
Mark: *Sarcastically* "Harry Sullivan - he's a big, famous companion... I'm sure he'll last long..." *Laughs*
MJ: "We shall see... oh here's an interesting thing - well, maybe not interesting, but Harry Sullivan wrote a lot of the novelisations of these stories - because back then the videos didn't get released because they were one-offs. So what they did was write novels of the stories and he used to write a few of those. Harry Sullivan - the guy who wrote it. Well, Ian Marter... So that's a boring fact to finish of with!" *Laughs* "Bye!"
Jason: "Bye!"
MJ: "That was dull. I dunno why I said that!"
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MJ: "Right this is an extra. It won't be a full one as the last one was stupidly long!" *Both laugh* "But yeah we're around Leigh's, catching up on Robot - which he missed. And it's a Wednesday night - oh my word. Isn't it Wednesday?"
Leigh: "It is a Wednesday."
MJ: "Yeah. I don't know the day!" *Laughs* "Does it matter!?"
Leigh: "It's the twelfth of April."
MJ: "Thank you very much, Leigh. And we're going to watch, err, Tom Baker's debut story Robot. Leigh's actually met some of the stars (Not of this story) - he's met Peter Purves - does he? And Frazer Hines but Wendy Padbury wasn't there because she had scurvy!" *Both laugh* (By 'There' I mean at a Sci-Fi convention in North Wales which a few of the guys had gone to) "So that's nice! Anyhow, Leigh's going to watch this... I would say 'Have you seen any Tom Baker?' but I'm presuming you have."
Leigh: "Yeah."
MJ: "Most people have. Well let's see his first story ever!"
Leigh: "Debut!"
MJ: "Debut! Tom Baker - Robot. Let's watch this AGAIN MJ!"
Photo 5: At Leigh's house.
Leigh (with DVD case and sign)
Leigh (with DVD case and sign)
around his house for a catch-up!
*ALL FOUR EPISODES GET WATCHED*
Leigh: "I quite liked it! It was erm.... Tom Baker makes a nice change."
MJ: "He DOES doesn't he?"
Leigh: "A breath of fresh air compared to the previous Doctor."
MJ: "I think so too. They need to do something different each time. Just like Troughton was completely different to Hartnell."
Leigh: "Yeah."
MJ: "He was a lot more fun - not as proper."
Leigh: "Yes."
MJ: "I could see the first bits he was REALLY wacky. But then again that's the old regeneration thing, your mind's a bit fuzzy."
Leigh: "Mm."
Leigh: *Smiling* "I didn't think the Robot was too bad actually! I thought it was going to be a lot worse than it was!"
MJ: "Yeah he was a bit clumpy - not able to move too much - but I thought he looked quite good!"
Leigh: "Yes!"
MJ: "I really enjoyed that. And I liked how he got stressed about things: 'Oh no!! I've killed the Creator!'" *Laughs*
Leigh: "And I didn't see the twist where his creator was actually a bad guy!"
MJ: "Yeahhhhh - I don't know if his creator was BAD. I think he just -"
Leigh: "- Well he worked with bad guys!"
MJ: "Yeah and he was duped into by thinking they were going to make the world a better place."
Leigh: "Mm."
MJ: "But really, no, they're just like Nazis."
Leigh: "Science Nazis."
MJ: "Hah! 'Science Nazis'! How about her in charge (of the Science Nazis - Miss Winters)?"
Leigh: "Yeah, no I thought she was quite a good camp-over-the-top villainess! It was just camp over-the-top silliness!"
MJ: "Yeah. This story's a nice little starter. You don't get too involved in it - it's a short little one."
Leigh: "Yeah."
MJ: "Lots of fun moments with the Brig and Benton and, err, obviously The Doctor. There's a lot of comedy in it."
Leigh: "You don't want anything too heavy for the first story, do you?"
MJ: "No, certainly not. And, err, The Doctor's still riding Bessie. Which is nice."
Leigh: "Not the Whomobile though..." *Chuckles*
MJ: "No, not the Whomobile. No, I think Jon Pertwee took that with him!" *Laughs*
"Oh and you liked Harry, you said?"
Leigh: "Yeah, no I thought he was quite good as well. Him and The Doctor played off each other quite well I thought."
MJ: "Certainly, yeah I think they'll be a good three in the TARDIS - obviously, at the end, they go off together. I don't know what the next story is? I think it might be The Ark In Space? Arkwright In Space!"
Leigh: "Arkwright In Space." *Both laugh*
MJ: "With Nurse Gladys! So that's errr... someone who was never in Doctor Who was Ronnie Barker! Ronnie Corbett was in a Children In Need sketch."
Leigh: "Oh right?"
MJ: "I'm sure, for something but there you go..." *I lost interest in myself! I think the sketch was actually for The Sarah Jane Adventures for Children In Need* "So you're marking that out of ten?"
Leigh: "Errrr, I'd give that a solid seven."
MJ: "A solid seven."
Leigh: "Yeah."
MJ: "Well I can't read what The Book says about it because I don't HAVE The Book!"
*Leigh laughs*
Leigh: "I will get Jason to re-cap next time!" (Or he could just read this!!)
MJ: "Yes!" *Laughs* "But yeah that's pretty good! Anyway that's just a short recording! A little addendum at the end - and I've got about eight hundred minutes before to type up!"
*Leigh laughs* " So five minutes there will do me nicely. So goodbye until next time when we all should be together again! Yay!" *Leigh laughs*
Photo 6: At Leigh's house.
MJ & Leigh (with DVD case and sign)
MJ & Leigh (with DVD case and sign)
around his house for a catch-up!
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Well I think I spoke too early about us all meeting up next time! None of us can synch our dates up to watch the next one! Causing me a huge headache at the moment! Anyhow here are the scores for Tom's debut!
Shaun: 7
MJ: 7
Mark: 7
Jason: 7
Gavin: 7.5
Leigh:7
So that gives us an average of 7.083333 out of 10. Well that is it, Land-lubbers. Until next time Arrr me hearties and I shall return, yes, I shall return....
MJ - 26/04/2017
