Hello, dear listener, and welcome back to the 2nd great and
bountiful Human Empire, the only Doctor Who flashcast, which will
be right with you as soon as our Apple Vision Pro has finished
booting up.
I'm Nathan.
I'm Peter September.
I'm Simon October.
And I'm Todd.
Just Todd.
Those things are gonna start eating you all in alphabetical order
can just see it happening.
We deserve it. get me 1st because of my last name.
But if you change your last name, Todd, to like Zod or something
you last Gothic Todd.
All right.
So how are our general opinions of this one?
There seems to have been sort of a bit divisive in fandom, like
basically all of them so far.
I have to say that I had fun, although I also have to admit that
it took me much longer than I think it probably ought to have to
work out what on earth was going on.
But we will get to that a little bit later.
What did you think of it, Simon?
I quite liked it.
I loved the visual style.
I loved the way the whole thing or most of it was told through
basically a series of screens in front of Lindy in total social
media world.
So I was really on board with just doing something differently.
And I know there are other comments which are made in the episode
but I think the commentary about social media and our social media
bubble is, I think, a very, very powerful and relevant one.
What do you think, Peter?
Hmm, Dot and bubble.
Sadly, it wasn't the EastEnders abfab crossover that I've been
waiting for.
I did enjoy it.
The episode was entertaining for the most part.
It had some nice ideas in it.
I like when Doctor Who goes a bit out there without being open
quote bonkers, close quote.
I like the macrterra, I like gridlock.
Um, I love the Sunmakers.
I adore the happiness patrol.
This is very much in their cast, and so I'm genetically
predisposed to like this.
And I did, in some ways, not in all ways.
And Todd.
I didn't think I was going to like it, but as it went along, I
liked it more and more.
And as Simon said, the visual, I love the visuals, like all the
colours, the bright colours, the bright colours, the light blue
and the yellow and that.
Yeah, I like that palette.
I, um, yeah, it's all it's all pastels, isn't it?
It's really very well done because it is kind of funny seeing, like
those sort of weird Doctor Who's are kind of associated with the
60s and maybe gridlock, maybe the end of the world sort of, but
it's kind of the 1st time that we've seen anything quite as weird
as the happiness patrol.
Or I was also thinking Paradise Towers as well.
You know, where characters have their own kind of dialect, their
way of speaking, they have a weird way of being named.
And now seeing that done now with sort of modern production
sensibilities, even just that opening scene in Lindy's flat, where
her flat looks amazing, and then you look out the window and you
see, you know, all of these, like the bubble keeps recurring as
part of a design element, the whole place is in a bubble.
But there's, you know, round portholes round things out the window
all of the windows around.
Like, everything is kind of of a piece, I think.
And it looks really good.
Apparently, a lot of the location stuff was at the University of
Swansea, which is kind of hilarious.
Um, but I just think it looked... just apt.
But I just think it looked amazing.
I mean, it really did look quite extraordinary.
What I what I feared was that it was just going to be a Aunt Gen Z
dumb with their phones and stuff.
And I thought, that would be so boring.
That would be so boring.
And it looks like it's going to be that and then it takes a kind
of sharp turn, which I thought was pretty interesting.
So how do we feel that satire landed?
I thought it was kind of obvious.
It's like a lot of this season.
It's been fairly obvious.
It was low hanging fruits.
I did enjoy it.
It didn't feel that the story was developed.
It was developed one step away from our earth here and what we
live and live in society, which is what talk to has always done.
I felt it could have been taken another step further so that this
satire wasn't quite so on the nose, but I did enjoy it.
Simon?
Yeah, I mean, I'd agree with that sentiment.
I mean, it's subtlety is not generally one of RTD strong points
but then, you know, often it is in the program more broadly anyway
I'll admit to that.
But I suppose because I go in with those expectations, I was able
to enjoy it.
And I think that I think it's able to satire multiple things at
once and comment on multiple things at once.
And I think I think there is a little bit of the gen Z, uh, you
know, don't like to turn up to work because they don't feel like
you know, that kind of whole kind of cliche that, that, that we
have.
I think that's a thing too and why not?
I think it's as much that the satire is as much about having
having people, you know, living in your bubble and not necessarily
even a social media bubble, but like the bubble that we all are
kind of living in.
And I know there are other reasons for the rejection of the doctor
and Millie, but nevertheless, I think it's also about the fact
that you're not part of our tribe, so you don't belong with us.
So I think, I think there are actually, surprisingly, there are
actually a lot more things going on in this than you think there
are when you've, you know, 5 or 10 minutes in.
What I appreciated about it was the commentary on a generational
bubble as well, because more and more, you know, we saw it in
things like the Brexit vote in the UK, we see it in politics all
the time now.
There's an incredible generational gap between how young people
think that they're being served by society and politics and how
older people were and how they think about that together.
And it's creating a lot of friction between generations which
never existed maybe 30 years ago.
So I appreciated that commentary.
Although it's interesting there, Peter, because the political
thing.
I mean, they're not, these guys are not resentful of their
parents.
Their parents have paid for them to be in this place.
It is showing the generational bubble in one regard, but not in a
kind of a divisive way.
We's not actually saying, well, you know, we're on this side, and
the old people don't know what they're talking about, and they're
over that side, which I think probably would have more gone in
that direction. if that's what they were wanting to do.
Well, I was one of the elements of the satire that I actually
thought worked.
I didn't want that addressed on the nosed, but the fact that
they'd kind of segregated the old and the young people and then
the young people lived in their social media bubble while not
being able to afford their own round windowed flats because their
parents had to provide it for them because they had the money.
And then having the older generation actually eaten by slugs just
leaving the younger generation defender for themselves.
That was satire that I was on board with.
Yeah, so I think old people have plagued our fragile earth for far
too long.
Todd.
My husband likes to watch reality television shows, and some of
them are quite good, and others, I've sat through like Paris in
love with Paris Hilton.
And I have to say, like, I mean, did she get eaten by a slug?
Well, no. wishing she would be.
Well, yes, I sat there at times going, this woman is so vacuous.
And then she would show glimpses, actually, of humanity, and you
actually think there's more there.
And then in a 2nd she suddenly would do something which I go, well
no, it's not there at all.
And she's got all these followers for unknown reasons.
So the 1st 10 minutes for me was like, I'm watching some sort of
parody of that happening.
I'm going, I don't want to know these people.
I don't want to know this.
Please just let it end.
So, and rewatching it today.
It was actually quite interesting watching it from that
perspective, really, but I just want to say Paris Hilton is not
racist in case anybody's thinking that she actually isn't, but
that we know of.
It's just, I just thought it was a satire of that he was obviously
watched her show.
Todd, I'm interested.
Did Ash watch it with you and what did he think?
Um, he didn't really like it that much.
No.
Like, um, yeah, it wasn't for him.
He said it wasn't, he didn't like her in particular, but we did
both laugh when she walked into that poll.
Let's just...
Talk about things that are done unsubtly, yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well that's another lift from Moffat, I think.
RTD's doing a lot of that.
I certainly think the discovery that people are being eaten
alphabetically is pure Moffat.
And apparently this will...
Certainly moth at if it's Moth at and Davies in the same program.
Well, I think that's it.
And they are in the same room because I think this is pitched.
This was originally pitched by Davey's tomb Moffat during the
Moffat era and the Moffat was involved in the, you know, talking
conversations, developing it now that it's actually kind of, you
know, just technically possible to actually achieve it in a
satisfactory way.
I was thinking, Todd.
In fact, Ruby notices exactly that thing.
Doesn't she say this is like Planet Love Island or something?
Like she thinks that this is exactly like one of those reality TV
shows where everyone has their followers and everyone's sort of
being lovely and being influencers and talking about their clothes
and all of that sort of thing.
Um, so, so the thing, the thing that I didn't spot straight away
is that everyone's white.
And that is something that obviously other people noticed
immediately.
And I have to, in my defence, say at least on this week's episode
of Untitled Star Trek project, I bitch about how white everyone is
in the car.
So sometimes that's something I notice.
I didn't notice it this time.
I was a little bit distracted, possibly by just how queer everyone
looked.
But nevertheless, you know, there's a way in which the episode
critiques you, because the 2nd watch through.
Obviously, you see that Lindy is mean to both Ruby and the doctor
but she is mean to them in a different way.
When the doctrine and Ruby appear in the group chat.
All of these sort of people who are just, you know, they're just
kind of featured actors.
They're talking, they only get a few lines each episode.
Do you know what I mean?
They'd have been in for a couple of hours just shooting against a
wall sort of thing.
But they're all desperately doing their disgusted acting when the
doctor speaks and, you know, being discussed at being in the same
group, chatters him and all of that's sort of quite clear.
And then, of course, we get Lindy meeting a white version of the
doctor, who she is much nicer to up until the point where she
obviously gets him killed.
But she reacts much better to white Doctor Who than she does to uh
than she does to our doctor.
No, no, but the reason she possibly, but the reason she reacts so
positively to Ricky September is because of the fact that she is
following him, she is a fan of his.
So he is already someone who her group has decided is fabulous and
acceptable.
And just going back on the race thing.
It's funny because I, I, well, sometimes when I'm watching shows
like, well, any show, really, and I noticed something like that
and about halfway through, I realised that, oh, everyone's
actually white in this, and my brain 1st, the 1st thing my brain
goes to is that was a strange mistake that they've made.
Do you know what I mean?
I just immediately think it's a production mistake and they've
suddenly gotten to the editing and going, oh my gosh, we haven't
actually gotten any people of colour in this.
But, and then it's only kind of at the end that I realised, oh
actually, no, it's actually, they're actually making a point.
But as I said before, I don't think it's just about race.
It's also about who part of the disgust that she has with at the
doctor and because it is also with Millie as well, is because they
are not, they haven't been pre-approved effectively to be part of
their group.
I think it works on a racial level and also works on that other
level too.
Sure.
And you're not allowed to be one of us.
You're not allowed to be one of us. yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And she is dismissive of Ruby, but when the doctor appears 1st on
her screen, he's surrounded by like warnings and stuff in a way
that Ruby Sunday isn't.
She blocks him immediately.
When the next black guy turns up.
She just thinks it's another black guy because they all look the
same.
I mean, she says all of this sort of stuff.
It is all very clearly there.
And I do think that the, um, the Ricky September stuff is played
exactly like the doctor meeting a companion for the 1st time with
that handholding, the, I'm going to save you.
I'll get you out of this.
All of that stuff.
He's a doctor.
And she reacts well to this doctor.
And, you know, like, I think, yes, she knows him and fancies him
and stuff like that, but also, I think, you know, within the
story.
There's a very clear reason why he's portrayed like that, I
think.
I also thought there was an interesting commentary there on social
media followers, relationship with the people that they follow, and
that all that they, all that you get when you have the big fandom
who follows a celebrity on TikTok or whatever, is they get what is
given to them to be digested.
And you get this feeling that if ever they met in real life and
they didn't live up to this, um, hopelessly inflated view of what
they were, um, that the fandom could turn on them in an instant.
And I kind of, I got that from this episode that, you know, love
and hate in social media is such a finely balanced thing that it's
very easy to be cancelled for just not being what someone ideally
expects you to be.
Yes, and the judgement is summarial.
It's so fast, it just happens.
Yes, and it's gone from 100% love to 100% hate gone.
But when he turns out to be quite different from what she expected
with all of his, you know, like I can walk and I read books and
you know, I know about history and stuff.
That's not the thing.
I can do all that.
Yeah, I can sometimes do it.
Um, but, but, um, it's, it's when her life is threatened.
You know, the 2nd her life is threatened, she is such a piece of
work, she is such an absolutely appalling person that she just
throws him to the walls immediately.
And so I don't think he's cancelled in any kind of sense.
It's just that she is so awful.
She's so fabulously horrible as a person.
Did you find, though, that when I was waiting for the moment, like
I don't know, 15, 20 minutes in, you're waiting for her to
actually get a grip and start to do what Millie's saying and start
to take the doctor away and not just completely be fulfall to
pieces.
And then it took me a while to realise, oh, actually, no, she's
actually never going to get a grip.
That's the whole point is she's just she's just totally hopeless
at everything and even, you know, can't even walk and that kind of
crap, which is probably a bit over the top, but, you know, I get
the point that's trying to be made.
Having watched Paris in love.
That's not too far from reality.
I mean, she can do I'm out of touch.
Obviously walk, but you know, there's other things which I kind of
think, 0 my goodness, didn't your mother ever teach you how to do
that?
Even her husband says that.
I thought she was, I sucked in because I actually thought every, oh
I'll give her the benefit of the doubt every, every time she did
something hopeless and then, oh no, she's having a rethink, she'll
get there in the end, she'll get there in the end.
I've written off Ricky as one of those foolish people on the in
the bubble.
And so it was very refreshing when he came into it and thought, oh
wonderful.
And now she'll get a grip, but she was just a truly awful person
unbelievable.
That moment where she just says, oh, his last name's Coombs or
something is just so brutal.
She's really, really awful in every way, and she is horrible to
Ruby, but she's really, really quite horrible to the doctor.
Just awful.
Um, and it is that sort of thing where you're kind of one of the
things that the episode does, I think, is that her poor behaviour
is the sort of thing that we could just sort of dismiss.
But I think there were people watching this and I've, you know
gone online and stuff.
People watching this kind of going, oh yeah, she's super racist.
Like almost immediately, because it's that kind of that just the
sort of things that she says are the sort of things that people
kind of encounter on a regular basis.
And so what we regarded as sort of, you know, this is a horrible
person.
And, you know, like I don't think anyone, anyone watching it
wasn't enjoying the spectacle of all of these white people being
eaten by slugs. you know what I mean?
even if we weren't thinking of it in those terms.
But I think that some people had a head start in recognising kind
of what what sort of behaviour was being depicted from Lindy, I
think.
White people being eaten by slugs.
It's like the sequel to Frontios, we know that...
Or potentially Arc in Spain.
I was so hoping they were going to be tractators or whatever the
hell, what's...
What's messed up?
Gastropol, yes.
I thought I bet they're going to be gastropods.
They're really funny too.
Aren't they wonderful?
Like, the thing where she leaps across. at the guy next to her in
the office and he's got the tartan trousers that are kind of
sticking out of this thing.
The production team called the man traps.
Apparently.
Right.
I will say that it is a nod to the classic ear of the program that
you do have these very slow moving things, which people kind of
seem incapable of getting away from.
And in fact, and in fact, when they've been, when they've been
slightly touched by them, they can't even kind of back away, they
kind of, you know, it's like dealing with a monotra or something
like the way they, they kind of...
They kind of allow themselves.
It's that kind of acting where you've got to pretend that you're
actually being overwhelmed by this piece of CGI.
Yes, that telephone cord is wrapping around you, not the other way
around.
Yes, exactly.
By the modern standards.
I don't feel that they're overly successful, I confess.
I thought they were wonderful.
Yeah, yeah.
People can't walk away from them because they can't walk.
Do you know what I mean?
Like they're absolutely paddle to the slaughter when it comes to
this.
I think, you know, they're very perfunctory.
It is that thing, you know, your dot has been watching you all for
so long that it just hates you and it designs to conjure up a
whole bunch of slugs.
So I wonders why the dot doesn't just like pulverise your head
like it goes to me.
Yeah, given that it can fly right into your head.
It's right in front of your head and it's just...
It didn't think of that till later as my aggressive dot.
Well, it's a bit of a red herring, really.
Yeah, it's a red herring.
Yeah, because like I thought, oh, they've invaded and it's the
slow invasion of the slugs or whatever and they don't seem because
they're in the dots.
So it sends you off on a different path, depending on where you're
looking.
Yeah, you're already given the idea that somehow they've breached
the thing and they're from the outside is kind of, I think, you
know, what you're meant to think.
You don't think it's a commentary on, you know, the fact that the
dots, the dots been listening to you and decided that it doesn't
like you.
It's no commentary on Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg or something
deciding that they don't like, everyone who uses their platforms.
Well, do you know, one of the things is, one of the things that I
think about social media is that there's a big kind of social
media, moral panic at the moment about social media being bad for
children and we have, you know, the federal government here
wanting to ban social media for people under 16 instead of perhaps
suggesting that people could do some parenting for a change.
And I think that that is a moral panic, and I think that the
danger posed by social media isn't that you're going to, you know
be contacted by a paedophile.
It isn't that you're going to forget how to walk and you're going
to bump into things because you're so wrapped up in your phone.
The danger is the social media algorithms, that foreground, just
alt right opinions, that you're watching a video about Doctor Who
and the next video that YouTube suggests is, and here's what a
Nazi thing's about, Doctor Who.
And I think that children being radicalised online by that sort of
material is a much more present danger and kind of that's what we
have.
You've got a social bubble that Lindy belongs to, that consists
entirely of white people who get annoyed if a black person turns
up and starts talking to them.
So I think that's there, I think, as an idea, you know, the
particular bubble that's portrayed here is that sort of bubble.
Yeah, I mean, it's not the, it's not the social media per se.
It's the way the algorithms work now, which is, is, is, but also
has made it from, I mean, we're getting off topic here, but from
my point of view, with social media, how much, how less I interact
with it, and partly because people are interacting with me less
because of course, you scroll through Facebook or Twitter, and
it's just all these other stuff, rather than it being what it used
to be, which is just basically a reverse timeline of what
whoever's posted, whatever in, in, from present, back into the
distant past, you know.
And so it's been because the content's being curated for us.
And I don't think it's necessarily because they want to turn us
all into neo-Nazis.
It's because they know that that video of the Nazi reaction, Doctor
Who, whatever it is, is going to get a reaction out of us that's
going to get more engagement.
So it's not an actual ideological thing.
It's actually purely driven by how many clicks, how many
interactions will this get?
Anyway, that's a very long topic for a different time.
Well, for flight through entirety.
It's like when you go onto YouTube and you watch like a travel
video, you know, someone who does plane journeys and reports back
on what the soft product is like and all that kind of thing.
They will always head it up with my my really nasty review of this
terrible product and you'll see that it gets 10 times the views of
anything else.
And so people do it all the time, even when it's not that.
Yeah, yeah.
All right, let's talk about the fact that we have our 2nd Dr. Light
episode in a row.
This is not quite as light as last week, and clearly they did what
they did in blink, which is just have the doctor stand against a
wall and then they could film him at one camera angle and get a
lot of material in in a very short amount of time and then just
give him more.
And he's actually won a scene.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I do think it was unfortunate that 25% of Shooty's 1st season is
Dr. Light.
I understand completely the reasons for this.
It's just a shame that they couldn't scheduled their way out of
it.
Exactly.
I think that's very unfortunate.
But look, I think it works.
Look, any of these episodes are perfectly fine.
It's just a shame that you've got them consecutively.
And I mean, even going back to Boom, which I know is not a Dr
Light episode, obviously, but in another way, it's a, let's just
have shooty in this one set.
And do the whole thing.
And so now looking at that retrospectively, it's quite clearly
part of that broader problem that they had.
Look, I think that, yeah, I totally agree with you.
I do like the fact that as the episode went on, Ruby and the
doctor were there more and more.
So it's sort of built towards the end, which is probably why I
liked it more as it went along as they were really interacting and
being in the space with, with, with Findy.
So, um, yeah, totally understand why they had to do it.
I've heard it said that it wouldn't be such a big deal if this was
like a 13 episode season, but if there's any eight.
That's a little bit unfortunate.
Sorry, Nathan.
No, no, I agree.
I think, Eric, friend of the podcast, Eric Stadnick, said that one
of the features of the previous Russell seasons is that they're
actually very carefully done.
They're carefully organised.
You have, you know, a sort of lighter episode on Earth in the
present day.
You go to the past, you go to the future.
You have a two-parter with a returning monster that's generally
light.
You have one or 2 things.
You have the darker two-parter towards the end.
Do you know what I mean?
Like every season is sort of constructed in a, in a way, uh, that
allows a kind of buildup and variety and all of that sort of
thing.
And this where, um, you know, we've got dialogue suggesting in
episode 2 or 3, depending on how you count it, in the devil's
court, that Ruby's been with a doctor for 6 months, then the
following episode we hear that this is her 1st alien planet.
You know, it looks like boom was originally earlier in the
schedules that something has happened, and now you have 2
consecutive episodes, where I think that perhaps it would have
been less of a problem had those been separated in the running
order in some way.
So something has happened here, I think, and we're not seeing the
episodes in the order, they were originally intended, I think.
I mean, the flavour of Doc 2 always carries you forward.
It always compensates for the absence of the doctor.
And I think they've gotten used to during these doctor light
episodes, casting an actor who's capable of leading the show in
the doctor's absence.
So Elton in love and monsters or, of course, Sally Sparrow in
Blink.
And I think here was another case of that.
It is just, as you say, unfortunate that we've had 2 in a row.
I feel like I was still getting to know this doctor and I don't
want his absence.
I want him on screen front and centre.
And so when he comes back in that last scene and is front and
centre and does a good job.
You think, yeah, this is what I wanted all along.
Everything else was okay, but I want this.
Yeah, I entirely agree.
Yeah.
What do you, what do we think of the final scene?
Look, I think it wraps it up.
Well, it ties up, ties it all up in a good bow, what we think
we've been watching, you know, have we been watching this, right?
And so, but I like the fact that it's not completely explicit.
And I do notice out there that there are some people who haven't
actually picked up on that aspect, the racial aspect of it at
all.
Having said that, I still maintain that it's not just about the
racial aspect and I think the reason why the doctor is crying at
the end is not because his feelings have been hurt.
It's because of the fact that he feels so utterly sorry for these
people who are quite evidently sailing to their deaths, whether
it's in an hour or tomorrow, next week.
The point is, the sense is these people are just refusing to
listen and just sailing off anyway, and he is so he is so
frustrated and sad by that fact that they're letting their
prejudices in all their forms completely throw out means that they
throw away their future.
Torn.
Again, I think should he did a wonderful job in that scene
displaying a huge range of emotions.
But the other person who I was really very impressed with was
Millie.
And I think that builds from last week where I really got to like
her a lot, like really, really like her.
And just her reactions to him in that scene.
And even earlier when with the whole Ricky September thing, which
is the most hilarious thing, when they're, you know, hands off or
whatever they say, or he's hot or whatever, and then she goes very
quiet and the doctor's really engaged and you look at her, she's
like, oh, you know, really into it.
But again, in this scene, there's a real chemistry, I think
between them and her reaction to the doctor and how he's reacting
is wonderful.
So, yeah, I really liked that last thing from both of them.
It's almost like she kind of understands what's going on before he
does and like she knows what his reaction is about.
You know.
Yeah, she's realised, she's realised just before he has, I think.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so she puts her hand on him and stuff and she's crying as
well.
It's really properly good.
I think she's great.
And shooty, of course, you know, just who goes through these range
for motions and there's you, the closer before he does or says
anything where he's quivering, you know, like it's, it's really
terribly good.
I think he's he's great.
The comparison I wanted to make a 2 to that with that end with the
people going off to their death is the kind of mentality you see
in that film, don't look it up.
Um, with Meryl Streep as the president, we're basically there.
I mean, again, it's a farce.
It's ridiculous.
But it's that thing where despite the fact that we know that this
asteroid is coming to obliterate the earth, we've all just agreed
that we're just going to pretend it's not happening.
And we're going to deny the reality of it.
And I think there's almost it's that same commentary, I think.
The other thing that I think Dot and Bubble does actually do quite
well, and I think we've sort of all obliquely suggested it today
was around those, what you might call the sort of the casual
remarks, the casual racism, because it's not, it's not like, you
know, um, it's not like Lindy says, uh, right from the get go, get
out of my feed, you're black.
It's all the other commentaries. she doesn't actually say that.
And it's fascinating and we are all 4 of us white men of a certain
age who aren't used to that sort of just very casual, very, and
sometimes quite subtle ways that things are expressed to you.
And I think actually this episode did actually make some attempt.
Maybe successfully, maybe unsuccessfully, but certainly made an
attempt to demonstrate that to us.
It's also that generational kind of racism that you get where you
might get someone who's 80 years old who says, I'm not a racist
and would declare that and yet they just don't feel comfortable
around people of different racism. they'll cross the they'll cross
to the other side of the street or they'll, you know, et cetera.
Or as long as the person in question is on their best behaviour.
It's all good, but as soon as there's one character floor or
something that they don't like that opens the floodgates to
everything else.
And yet this person would declare that they are not racist and
everything's fine.
Exactly.
Just going back to the social media aspect with the ages because
they're supposed to be, what, between 18 and 27 or something?
17 and 27, right.
I thought it was funny, like, because we've all got their ages
there, but I think the casting agent really needs to kind of think
about this a bit more because if Ricky September is 27, then I'm
then I'm 35.
Actually, 39.
I thought I thought he was actually in that age group.
It was the other guy at the end with the longer hair.
The long hair, the one who's decided he's going to be leader.
Looked older than that.
But I am glad that I'm 10 years younger than MVP Susan Twist.
She's back.
Well, both the weathercaster and Dr. P were older than 27, but
they might have been computer generated.
I think Dr. P is a computer generation, but God, there is
something wrong with that man's face.
The teeth.
I just thought that that had...
He's been artificially enhanced in some form.
It's so great.
So good.
All right, well, we do have season twist.
We have next week to look forward to, which is called Rogue, which
will be exciting, which I don't think is by Russell.
Is that right?
That's right.
Different writers.
In fact, I actually think it's really interesting that before they
do their Bridgerton episode with the strange approach to race that
Bridgerton has that, like, we never knew if they were going to go
there with a black doctor.
They went there with Martha.
They went there with Bill.
Were they ever going to do an episode where the doctor experienced
racism?
And, you know, like if you're going to have a cast, a black actor
you know, that's a thing that you should probably do.
But it's funny that we do it in the future episode before going
back to the past where I think maybe we were wondering how that
would play out.
But has everyone seen the trailer?
Well, I've only seen the next time, if that's what you mean.
Yeah, so the fact that they all appear to be owls, really, probably
means that the racial politics thing takes us. secondary role.
I think the racial politics thing, which is one of the reasons why
I think Rosa is a bit unfortunate is because I think when you do
trying to go back to tackle racism in the past, It is so
horrifically awful with people being lynched, et cetera, that it's
just something the show shouldn't really be touching.
So I think it's better if you are going to do the racism thing to
do it in the context of what we have done in dock and bubble and
do it in this pretend future.
Do you know what I mean?
And when you do go back to the past, when you do go back to the
past, you kind of just pretend it's actually not a thing.
Do you know what I mean?
To be our agree, because if you go back to the past, not equipped
to deal with that.
Yeah, it's just too awful.
You can't do that.
Yeah, I think that there's a limit to what you can do.
I mean, I do think that what we did with Martha and what we did
with Bill, where we just had people expressing racist sentiments
and either being punished for that or not being punished for it
you would be kind of wondering where all that was.
But yes, like the full extent of that.
It's the same reason that when Hitler turns up in the show you
have to put him in a cupboard.
You, you know, the show can't quite deal with that.
Well, it's the reason that Doctor 2 in 1967 wouldn't do Douglas
Canfield's Nazi werewolf scripts because that was within the
extreme living memory of people who were watching the show and you
can't just make that into...
Exactly.
All right, I've got some things to plug.
I think you can listen to 500-year diary, which is our triumphant
1st season of Flight through Entirety's spinoff podcast in which
we discuss various new beginnings throughout the show's history
and that's at 500-yeardiary.com.
Our next episode of Flight through Entirety is still not due until
Christmas in July, July the 25th, when we will return with the
return of Dr. Mysterio.
And there is, of course, untitled Star Trek Project, for those of
you who are fans of Enterprise, and I know that you all are.
Our most recent episode featured a large number of white people
taking over the enterprise and doing some suicide bombing with
hilarious results.
So that's at untitled Star Trek Project.com.
All right.
So all that remains is for me to say, until next time, remember to
be kind to the Gen Z kids in your life.
They've been putting up with you for such a long time.
No, can they be kind to me, please?
Yes, we're old.
We deserve to be nice.
Thank you very much for listening and good night.
Good night.
Bye bye.
See you soon.
And also you, Gen Z, kids, get off my lawn.