Wish World

Season 2, Episode 7. First broadcast on Saturday 24 May 2025.

Episode 19 · Monday 26 May 2025.

This week, we find ourselves living in an unconvincing parallel reality where gender norms are rigidly enforced and disabled people are openly despised. Maybe this week’s Doctor Who episode will help take our minds off all that.

Recorded on Monday 26 May 2025 · Download (33.3 MB)
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Transcript

Hello, dear listener, and welcome back to the 2nd great and bountiful Human Empire, the only Doctor Who Flashcast, really looking forward to just giving up work and having Colonel Ibrahim's babies. I'm Nathan. I'm Brendan. I'm James and I'm Todd. So we are here to talk about Wishworld, which is episode 7 of the current series. I have completely failed to look up who the director is, but that's perfectly fine, and it is written, of course, by Russell T Davies. And we are going to start this week by talking about the woman of the hour, Archie Punjabi as the Rani, and frankly, also Anita Dobson as the Rani. How do we think the Rani or Ranis acquitted themselves this week? Todd. They were just superb. But Nathan? Would I lie? No, I wouldn't. Oh god, she was so glamorous and Anita had just such wonderful lines. I was just enthralled with them both in every scene they were in. I think it was really great. I was expecting it needed to be a little bit more Renfield-y, but she was actually really sort of rather glamorous in that pantsuit. I thought she looked pretty great. What did you think, James? I really loved um, her bitching to herself as though she goes about her business in the, in the bone palace, you know, oh, do this, cut my toenails. Make a sandwich. rah, rah, rah, rah. So it is implied, I think, that Mrs. Flaty is cutting the Randy's toenails. Is that right? That's what we're supposed to understand. Snip bloody sniff, she says. What did you think, Brendan? Yes, I thought they were both wonderful. I was worried after last week that the Anita Dobson Rani would become sort of weirdly obsequious the way she appears to be last week. But in fact, it's just kind of continuing her character of, oh well, I'm just a sweet little old lady, but I will actually mess you up. I'll cut you. I'll cut you. I pretend to be really nice to you because you get a bit of that steel when she's like, well, actually, in a way, you're my child. Uh, which is glorious and um, Archie also absolutely amazing. My concern for the Rani, and we all know that Rani is near and dear to my heart. My concern for the Rani was it was just going to be Missy 2.0. Yeah. And I was worried it was going in that direction, but I think importantly, Russell has remembered that the Rani is perfectly happy to tell the doctor her plan, but not because she wants to be friends again or she wants to impress him or whatever. It's, I'm going to tell you my plan and then kill you just so you know how clever I am and that is spot on. Yeah, I agree with Brendan. Like, I think on both counts, I think Anita, it was really good that she kept that character. I wish she, I still wish she'd spoken to the camera once or twice that I'm missing that. I'm missing that. But yeah, Serani seemed to still, like, she's got a plan. She's got she's something going on. It's not, she's just out to kill the doctor, like so many other people are, you know, there was a big complex thing happening there. So, yeah. In fact, her plan seems to be very similar to what her plan is in time in the Rani, which is she converts to Planet in order to create this sort of big cosmic cataclysm of some kind. And, you know, there's sort of power involved and stuff. And I think it's very clear what she's doing and why. And we'll talk a little bit more about that later. But, you know, she's in what looks like laboratory. You know, it has those seeker people and all of that. She's monitoring the levels of doubt that are occurring on the planet. And so it is very similar, I think, to time in the Rani. And I also think too, she doesn't do what Kate does in time in the Rani, and I love what Kate does in time in the Rani. She doesn't really overplay it. She's arch and funny, but she's not scenery chewing in quite the way that Kate is there. And, you know, we didn't need another missy. I think that that was it. Once, you know, you kind of wonder, well, we've had Missy, do we really need the Rani? And I think that I think that Archie makes this Rani different enough for her to be worth having. I'm really enjoying it. I really like her a lot. I'd just like to know how many time brains she has on her computer. They're probably all still left over from dimensions in time. I did love that little snippet of dimensions in time. Yes, in the flashback. Yes. It's canon. Everything's canon, but it's canon. And let's talk about the world that she's created. What I thought was really clever was that the Rani doesn't want to take over the world. Like, that's very much not her deal. And so if the world's going to be taken over, she gets Conrad to do it. And so we've got Wishworld, and I think the whole season's been kind of heading towards this where Wishworld is an alternative far right reality, and here it is a place where gender roles are really heavily policed and enforced, and a place where disability is shunned and disabled people are overlooked. The interesting thing is that this seems really timely for both England and the UK, even though this episode was finished a year ago. How do we think about this? I like the look, that 50s look that they've gone for. I kind of wish they would keep that look for the unit set going forward. With the wood panels. Oh my god. It's so, you know, it makes it feel like traditional unit. If they'd had the money back in, back in the 70s, they would have had a vaulted wood panelled hangar of a building. I think it looks very much like Pleasantville or WandaVision, one of those sort of, you know, movies or shows. And so I actually like the aesthetic of it very much. Gemma Redgrave described it as kind of like unit meets Madman. Oh, yeah, fair enough. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I particularly like that we've got Verada back in that lovely sort of golden rod like she was wearing in Lux. And of course, that was said in the 1950s. So I think that's deliberate choice, you know, given that that story also talked about segregation and the people on the edges of polite society. It's interesting because I love the idea that the world is so superficial that doubting it makes it start to disappear. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's very deliberate, isn't it? And, you know, the Rani doesn't want the world to be taken over by al-right fascists. That's not what she's interested in. That's Conrad's bag. What she wants is to create the doubt that overthrows the world. And I think the way that that's depicted is really kind of amazing. So, like, it's not super clear from the 1st time you watch it, but the fact that they start to use the word slip for that phenomenon where things fall through the table where the coffee cup falls through the table onto the ground. And then the 2nd time I watch it, I notice that the bins outside all have the word slip on them and that Mel's one is entirely just full of those carbs. So despite the fact that everyone looks like they're on board and everyone loves Conrad and everyone trusts Conrad, everyone has a bin full of these broken cups. And that's what the women are tracking what those strange people are tracking. And then, of course, when the world is destroyed by doubt, what do we see is we see buildings falling through the surface of the earth. So it's the same visual thing. I mean it's so well done. It's such an inventive way to destroy the world, but it's just consistent with this idea that your doubt makes your coffee cup fall through a solid table. It's pretty amazing. You know, I like the fact that they said like the world couldn't sustain itself. So there's all these inconsistencies, and you know, Ruby can remember the doctor and Shirley can remember things and she's got the iPad or the tech or whatever, you know, all these things just don't make quite sense and, and, The 1st time I was watching it. I missed a lot of that stuff. Like I had a lot of doubts about the episode and I felt quite disconnected from it and it was a 2nd time through. I picked up so much more and I could actually see what was really going on and I actually thought was very clever. Yeah, I mean, I really like that, and it's not at all what you expect. like ordinarily. I mean, think about kind of the last time that Doctor Who did this was really the lie of the land, don't you think? where we arrive in a world that's been taken over by the monks, but that's much more straightforwardly about the monks' desire for control, and the Rani is doing something completely different here. And although Varada wasn't front and centre per se. My goodness, that scene with her running into the forest and just screaming was just incredible. Like, it's kind of the 1st hint that the doubts are kind of universal, you know, like she goes out and screams after she experiences the thing where she can't remember Poppy being born and she has that conversation with her mother and her auntie. But it just seems like the buildup that everyone is kind of living like this, that Mel has a bin full of broken coffee cups, that the inconsistencies of the world are bothering Belinda so much that she has to run into the forest and scream. Like it's pretty well told and kind of, um, it doesn't beat you over the head with it, you know? Like, so the reason that Ruby remembers is because, of course she's experienced the future before in 73 yards, even though that's a future that never ended up happening or whatever, but we see those little flashes of her through the future, which is pretty great. Which is very good. And so that's why she remembers. And then she meets Shirley, and that scene there with all of those people with disabilities that are living in that sort of tent city that little camp. And it's just terrifically well done, I think, and it really kind of pays off having Shirley, and there's a bit of fun banter and stuff, like it's not treated too seriously. You know, Ruby makes a joke about not being disabled, but she could be taller. And then just like, Shirley tells her off for being ablest as a joke a little bit later. And like, it's, it's, but it makes a proper point about disability because disability is kind of like that in our world. You know, it doesn't take a wish world for people to walk past disable people or try not to think about them. And I thought that that was, that was interesting. Given that we have a wish world that isn't primarily focussed on racism, which I think is the most kind of visible feature of the various right wing fascisms that we're currently enjoying. I believe you just mispronounced the word enduring. Yeah. What surprised me, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that one of Conrad's friends in episode 4 was a lesbian? And, and now, like, the, like, the ginger one wasn't, didn't she have a girlfriend in that scene or am I misreading or misremembering that scene? And so that's pretty, if that's the case, I could be wrong. But I thought I picked that up at the 1st time I watched it. It's kind of insidious that what did he think of those friends if the world he has created is homophobic. So I didn't pick that up the 1st time really in that episode, so I'd have to go back and watch it. I mean, I could, I could be Miss Mirambury. Maybe they were just friends having chat, but I thought they were more intimate. And look, much like turfs don't seem to understand that trans men exist. A lot of homophobes don't have a problem with lesbians. Well this is true. Or rather, they have certain thoughts about lesbians that are incredibly problematic and thus think, yes, more of this, please but for the wrong reasons. Yeah. That moment was something that we could never have seen in Doctor Who before because we have a Doctor Who is just so clearly queer. And, you know, just that moment where he says that Colonel Ibrahim is a beautiful man, which is absolutely something that you would say without a 2nd's thought, even to a straight guy who you are friends with. Like, and then just that terrifying response where not only, it's not that homosexuality is illegal, it's unthinkable in this context. It's impossible to even name in this world. And I think too, having Conrad reading from a book that looks like a 1st edition Harry Potter book, um, written by IM formerly. Did you notice? Which, you know, like again, you know, it's a beloved children's storyteller telling this story about the strict enforcement of gender norms. What I also kind of found really quite challenging about that scene is that the relationship between the doctrine Colonel Ibrahim has been set up to be quite flirty, for the entire run so far. They have a kind of, you know, cheeky little sort of flirty banter thing going on. So when he does that, you're like, oh, that's normal and then when he turns, it's like, oh, this character is not who we think he is anymore. There's even the hint that what prompts Belinda to report the doctor is when the doctor says he saw the guy on the television and he liked him and then we smash to her calling the authorities. And that's Rogue, of course, Jonathan Groff is back. And I think, you know, it looks like this era is coming towards its end and so we aren't going to get the chance to revisit him and so that might be a final farewell. I did love that video that was shared on social media of um, they'd recorded him during rogue and then played live his green screen into the read-through of, of this episode. And and so, yeah, the script is just written as a man appears on the television. And then Russell goes, huge, Jonathan Graff. everybody just squeals. And Millie just kind of gasps and starts kind of tearing up. It's so sweet. That's nice. I thought he looked terrible. He did really look... I mean... It was filmed like last thing at night on a night shoot. Yeah, he did. He didn't really get I love you out properly either at the end. Look, it looks terrible, but Barry Letts would have been very pleased with it. He would. Exactly. He would have died to get it looking that good. I did notice some fringing. Where's my CSO kitchen? All right. Well, speaking of Barry Letts, I guess the next thing to talk about is, of course, next episode's possibly returning, villain and that is Omega. What do we think of the plan to resurrect Omega at this point Todd? Oh my god. My initial reaction was, are you kidding me? Like, I mean, you just keep mining and mining the history of the show. It's the 1st time I was true. I just kind of thought, people are just going to go, what hell is this? We've got the last of the timelines. Now we've got the 1st time lord, whatever. Look, I'm actually all in. Bring it on. I think this is the thing, right? So Doctor Who, 20 years ago when it's brought back, was very clearly and very specifically made to be as broad and as successful as possible. It is now turned into a similar kind of thing in the IP space as Star Wars or Star Trek or, you know, the Marvel movies, like to use another Disney related example, and they are so heavy on continuity. So I don't, I mean, I, I can forgive it that because it has been made for that sort of audience. Now, it's being made for the fan audience. As long as they bring back that original mask and not the one, the marketing kid. Not Ian Collier's rubber mask. But I mean, Russell has always done this and we've observed this lots of times. Season one is the Dalek season 2 is the Cyberman season 3 is the master. Season 4 is the Son Tarans and Davros. You know, he brings things back from the old show. But now he's bringing them back into a world where everything is visible on iPlayer and nearly everything. And so Omega, I think, is right for it. And I do think that just description of him as the 1st time, Lord the 1st and most terrible time, Lord. That's really enough, isn't it? Absolutely. You know, I think for any new viewer, the Rani who has that wonderful loan of, and this isn't dust exposition. Um, but, you know, she, she gives us Omega's crib sheet without having to go into, you know, you saved Gallifrey from him twice and here he is in the red corner. You know, she actually sets him up as this awesome figure. I find it very interesting that it's only used archival audio. So if they if they cast a new actor, they haven't revealed that yet. So it uses it does use Stephen Thorne. It doesn't use Ian Collier, apparently, according to Tartus Wikia but it uses Daniel Brocklebank, who has played him for Big Finish. Um, and it's using a big finish, which apparently is the 1st time that's happened. I think we've set him up well for next week, whether he appears or whether he is just a McGuffin. I am wondering if he's just going to be a McGuffin. Brendan, I do agree with you. Like, I mean, maybe she won't find what she's looking for. Maybe it'll just be the hand of Omega. We all know what that is. Yep, yep. I think it's very clear why she's doing it and it's basically narrated in Conrad's telling of the story. Uh, you know, it's explained why it is that she's calling on Omega. And I'm not going to kind of make it explicit in case people haven't picked it up and don't want to hear, you know, me blurting it out. But I think the question won't be, are we going to find Omega at all? I don't think we could do this setup and then discover that Omega wasn't important. I think the question is, does the doctor successfully prevent him from appearing? And so we may see him or we may not. The doctor might be successful in preventing his kind of arrival. I kind of want to see him as some sort of astral being made up of bits of the broken earth. Like, remake that mask out of the shard in the Eiffel Tower. like that a lot. I do think that we do have to see that mask, though, don't you? I think that if he is going to appear and then we're going to dismiss him before he finally manifests himself or whatever. I think we do definitely want to see the original mask and that the weird thing that they chose to go with for Arc of Infinity. We can just forget that ever happened, I think. Maybe maybe they get Peter Davison in and put Rice Crispies on his face and he, he tears the mask off. So long as we don't see what's underneath the original mask. Like nothing. Stephen Thorn with a blue cloth bag over his head. I've actually been thinking, Russell is just mad enough. to cast Peter Davidson as Omega, right? Because in the 3 doctors Omega's body is destroyed, the last time we see him, he's mostly played by Peter Davidson and a little bit by Ian Collier with Rice Krispies on his face, but Peter Davidson's still with us, Ian Collier isn't. And I reckon Davison would be up to it. Like Davidson plays a good villain. Oh yeah, he'd be awesome. He's terrific. Well, if next week is the last roll of the die, then you know why not be all in, you know? Yes. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't think there's any point going out on a half measure. Make it huge. I mean, when he left the 1st time, you know, we had that cliffhanger where everyone on earth becomes the master in the most just absurdly bonkers cliffhanger in the show's history, and then we have, you know, the time lords appear and Gallifrey rolling into our sky and all of this sort of huge stuff that we never expected we would ever see again. Like I do think that his instinct will be to just go completely mad and given that he killed just about the entire universe last year. He's got to kind of top that in some way. So I'm expecting big and loud and wonderfully fun. I'm wondering on the returning doctor's front with a having 2 Ranis is an excuse to bring back tenant. And where is he during all? It's a possibility. He's probably making a sandwich. cutting Shooty's toenails. He's just a doctor. And finally, we have the cliffhanger. And I've only made one Zelda reference on one of our podcast before. But I was getting very definite divine beast, Varna Boras, vibes from that balcony, and particularly at plummeting towards Earth. We didn't talk about those bone monsters or anything. They were amazing. Yeah, they were so great. The ones doing all the data stuff. I thought they were. No, no, the giant bone creatures. Who were there for no reason. You know, hopefully they're there for a reason next week. No, because they fall through the earth with the buildings. they're gone I think they're just there because they look cool. And because they're unbelievable and it'll make people doubt more. Yep, that's a good point. Like the world is bonkers to make people doubt. Yes, that's brilliant. Clearly, right. Clearly what's happening. I also have the perspective that the Rani loves dinosaurs. So she wants to have dinosaurs, but dinosaurs eat a lot, but bone dinosaurs don't. She gets the dinosaurs and she doesn't have to beat them. Well, I mean, sometimes sores. Not baby T- rexes that have been knocked over by the doctor fiddling with the tartars. So the doctor plummets to his apparent death saying that poppy is real. That was interesting that he kept on fixating on that line. like that was so emphasised. And I couldn't quite work out what was going on. I think at that point, we just had Archie doing the biggest info jump ever in the history of the show about air frame and Tartuses and 2 hearts and everything, and I was just all in for all of that. But yes, I just didn't know what that actually meant. Pop is real. Also, how did she get there? Like from from a, from baby station far, far in the future. Well, I'm guessing the one of the Rani's kidnapped her for some reason. But she isn't the kind of baby that that we saw on in space babies like she is a proper baby and like she's really great. I think she's really funny in this, so she keeps saying no and stuff and and like I think she's kind of adorable. But we do see her reaction, like for some reason we see her lying in bed at some point as the world's collapsing and then later we see her in her grandmother's arms as the building sinks into the earth. And so the fact that she's real. She's not a result of the wishes and the wish world can't see her you know, or something, you know, she's not the doctor's daughter. I've got a theory. It's Jenny. That's Richard's theory. Jenny Ladd. Yes. Jenny from Dalek Invasion of Earth. All the jennies. And this theory just came to me this afternoon. In the 3 doctors. We fall into an unreal world where wishes can come true, and the only thing that is unaffected, and is thus real, is the doctor's recorder. What if Poppy hasn't been properly processed into this world? And so she'll explode at the end. I don't I don't really want that to happen. The unknown, I don't want that to happen either, even though I dislike space, baby. I dislike those babies, but I draw the line at blowing them up. Yeah. An exploding space space. How did we get here? Brendan, what's your theory? Like an income on. Like, you're up to what, the space museum on the series too? So I haven't I haven't done every story this season. So the connection to the space museum. 1st of all, we have creatures wandering through this world, but not being a part of it and importantly, not leaving footprints. So there's that. And we also have a gang of rebels who by their own admission aren't probably the best people to do this, but they're all we've got, damn it, until a Doctor Who companion comes along to help them. They have a normal number of eyebrows, though. I want next episode for Ruby to scream. Revolution. I want the next episode, Susan Foreman, Mel to have a showdown with the Rani, because if that doesn't happen, I'm going to be really irritated. And just more fabulous from both the Ranis, really. What if Mrs. Fard and Mel turn up in a scene and they're both wearing the same outfit? That would be very funny. And I'd also like Belinda to get a bit more proper time too because I think, you know, this could be her last goal of the time. And I think that the one big weakness of this episode is we don't really get to see the doctor and Belinda playing their normal roles and that's kind of what we want and we don't see the doctor confronting the Rani really properly. We are marking time in this alternative world that we know isn't real. So I did kind of miss the doctor and Belinda a bit. This is sort of really ominous bit at the very end, of course where they push her out over the threshold and she disappears from reality. Yeah. I'm not wanting to criticise something that hasn't happened yet and that is the upcoming war between the land and the sea spinoff. And I'm don't get me wrong. I looking forward to it. But I realised today that if those 5 episodes had gone to Doctor Who, we could have had another Christmas special definitely for this year and another 2 episodes for each of shooty seasons, you know, and but at the same time, I'm really looking forward to the war between the land and the sea, because I like this unit team. I like Raffle Toby. I like Goo Goo and Bartha Raw. But it was just a thought that occurred to me today. So, you know, if that had been the case, given Shushi's schedule in the making of these 2 seasons, they would have been Dr. Light episodes, probably. True. And you know, and you know what? Building on what you just said, James, maybe that's the reason we got this spinoff, that it's like, we have 26 slots, but we only have shooting for this many episodes. Yeah, right. Yeah, possibly. And that explains why despite having a much bigger budget and, you know, Disney involved, why they're short seasons. Does anyone have anything else? I want to see Mel dressed in leather with studs? Yes, fair, fair. And just to go back to that idea of, like, the runny dressing up as companions. Mrs. Flood has been doing that all along and people picked up on it, like she's dressed as Clara. She's dressed as Rory. She's dressed as the 1st Romana. This is just something the Rani does now. Thank you, Kate. I guess I've already touched on what I want to see, but I wouldn't mind Mrs. Flood escaping to see another day. Or the Rani, either one of them, depending on what happens. I just hope that it can wrap things up in a satisfactory way. I'm not giving a score to this week because I kind of find that really hard because this is all set up and where is it going from here and we'll see what happens, you know? Yeah. Yeah. All right, in that case, I've got some things to plug. 500-year diary series 2 just released its episode on Snake Dance on Sunday and this Sunday it's going to be the 2nd coming of the Silurians and the Sea Devils in Warriors of the Deep. And there is a possibility of some further Rani related content sometime in the near future. So you can keep up with us on flightthroughentirety.com on Blue Sky, or at FDE podcast on Mastodon. Brendan, do you have anything to plan? So this coming weekend, we'll be releasing the next episode of the three-handed game on the Tara King classic spoof of the prisoner. Wish you were here. Which is thematically absolutely on point. And of course, finally, untitled Star Trek project. We just watched the series finale of Lower Decks, which is called the New Next Generation, and there is a terrible Voyager episode sometime in our future. So head over to untitled Star Trek project.com to find that. And so I guess all that remains is for me to say, until next time it's good night from me, and it's good night from her. Thank you very much for listening and good night. Good night. Ta-ta. See you soon.