The Halloween Apocalypse

[0:00]

Hello, Deliter, and welcome back to Jody Interterterra, the only Doctor Who flash cast that's starting to think we need to move into somewhere a little bit roomier.

I'm Nathan.

I'm James.

I'm Brendan.

I'm Todd.

And I don't want to be in a pie.

I don't even like gravy.

So we are here maybe just over a day after watching the 1st episode of series 13 for the 1st time.

Since Jane Horrocks doing well as the doctor.

Jane Morrison.

I don't know why she's getting the press that she gets.

I think she's marvellous.

No, she's wonderful.

So this is the Halloween Apocalypse by Chris Chibnall.

And so I thought that I would go around the panel and ask people how they thought the episode went.

So let's start with professional ray of sunshine, Brendan Jones.

[01:00]

Um, well, look, I'm going to astound everyone by saying I really enjoyed this.

Look, it had a breakneck pace.

I need to watch it again because I am sure there are things I missed.

Um, but, you know, 11 problem there has been with the Chibnell era, which I don't think we get accused this episode of is a lack of things going on.

You know, you couldn't possibly say there's not enough happening in this episode.

A lot of people are saying there's too much.

Um, but I loved Jody in it.

I love Mandip.

Um, John Bishop made a very favourable debut.

Jacob Anderson is not the character I was expecting based on the pre-publicity and that's a good thing.

Um, Yeah, but just all around an intriguing and exciting open up.

Excellent.

All right.

What did you think, Todd?

Seven out of 10, Nathan.

So we'll see you in 2025 with a 9 out of 10.

[02:03]

I'm shocked at Paul.

It could be an eight.

Look, I really liked it.

I certainly think I agree with Brendan, it moves.

There was a lot going on.

I think the shows looked, never looked better, you know, possibly the best it's ever looked.

Some of those special effects were absolutely stunning.

Um, and, uh, you know, I liked various plot points, you know, from the Centaurans to Claire with the, uh, the angels.

I wanted to know what was going on there and the whole Tartars with all its doors and the leaking and that had me intrigued and and so there was a lot of positives, you know?

I certainly, um, well, you know, someone who's not a great fan of this era, you know, and certainly thought a number of episodes last year were very dull.

I really did enjoy this.

Yeah, cool.

Richard, I'm going to ask you a question that was asked to me by a friend of the podcast, Felix Parker.

[03:04]

Did you enjoy Chrissy Chibbs exposition hour?

He did honestly feel like we were touring with, with more common wise and the rest of the great troops of Northern comics, I watched it with friend of the podcast, Kevin Bragg. whom we've quoted before.

He wanted to say that he very much enjoyed the Liverpool Museum of Silla Black.

I want you to say.

I thought it was a great testament.

A great testament to Ivere.

Um, the nice thing about it was that it was pitched as good old 70s northern comics, um, TV was and that it was done quite straight, but the jokes were, not in the delivery, but, you know, in the text of the show, if you like, or just in, you know, in what was said.

But I'm just looking at this thinking, there is no one in America who is going to come away.

[04:07]

Oh, what?

It's, it's, it's very English centric.

I mean, it's actually very northern centric, and that could be terrific, but um, yes, I enjoyed it because it was so odd.

And it wasn't what I expected, but I'm really interested to know how Todd is going to see this in 2025 and what his stake's going to be because I've only watched it the once.

Maybe I'll get some of Mother Stephen's headaches.

Funny headaches that Jody seems to be getting all the time.

So I watched it without, you know, sorry, I watched it with our Francorin because he hasn't watched Doctor Who since Tennant.

Oh wow. and caught a bit, caught a bit of Matt, but really, no, stopped watching then.

And I said, what do you think?

And he said, well, I loved Rose, and I loved Runaway Bride, and I was immediately caught up.

And I said, yes, this is a cold entry.

I think you're supposed to be allowed to just come into this and he says, I don't care about anyone.

[05:11]

They're called to ignore them.

That might not be the reason.

Probably, yeah, be harsh.

So James, do you have an opinion?

Yeah, no I thought it was great.

It was a bit expository.

I think I think, you know, I'm sorry.

It's, it was very, the dialogue.

Well, something about a suppository.

Yeah, I'm not, are you sitting comfortable?

It looked beautiful and it had pace.

It had started, it had flare, it was there.

But it just, the dialogue was, oh my god.

We've always commented that his dialogue does have that problem.

And, you know, the people in the 1820s or when Jodie had her headaches to meet the swarm or whatever, there was a lot of that, wasn't there, Nathan?

Yeah, I actually think that Jacob Anderson deserves some kind of award for his services to exposition.

[06:16]

Perhaps we can call it the Sasha Dawan annual award.

I think Jody, Jody's migraines, the Chris Chibble exposition migraine.

Yeah, an exposition migraine.

We've had an exposition coma.

Why?

Yeah, that was a bit of a thankless part, I think.

Sorry, for the for the casual viewer, who is Jacob Anderson?

So that was Vinta.

Vinder.

Vinder, whatever he's called.

Space name.

In the space name.

Yes.

Throw in the space station watching the space station.

Yeah.

The red dwarf bit.

Yeah that was fun.

That's right.

Do you think there's a hint, there's a hint there?

PlayStation Rose, yeah.

So Nathan, what did you think?

Overall?

I had fun and I thought that there were a surprisingly large number of very good lines, and I'm prepared to give it something of a pass for exposition because it is episode one, but it worries me that Chibnell sets up all of these things that require so much exposition or that he thinks requires so much exposition.

[07:28]

So, yeah.

No, I had fun.

I laughed out loud a couple of times.

I thought that, you know, the Siri joke about, you know, her not understanding the word, understanding the word relief, release, and then finally releasing them when it heard the word relief.

Uh, you know, Dan saying, I can't live in that when he's presented by with his little house.

Like all of those things were actually properly funny jokes, I thought.

And I thought that Carvanista space name or whatever his name is.

He's a great character.

Like I thought that was really fun.

Even if, you know, he wants to kill Dan at the beginning and then doesn't really want to kill Dan at the end or whatever or he was bluffing or whatever.

But didn't he want to kill Jodie and and Yaz at the beginning?

Was it work, yeah?

for no reason.

And then suddenly we're here to help, you know?

I found, yeah.

The thing I, some of the accents, you know, after a while, I was going, yeah, this is very northern and, and, and the dog, it's a dog creature.

[08:32]

It's also racist.

Every podcast has a north top.

The dog creature did annoy me after a while.

And I thought the sound mix at times.

I really struggled to hear what people were saying.

That was my one criticism.

Well, the secret is that we're all really old except for Brendan and the trick is to turn the subtitles on.

So I have to do that with literally everything.

And so I had no trouble understanding.

I will even say there were 2 points where I didn't understand what Dan was saying and it was at the end of his conversation with is it Alice, the woman he was asking out on a date?

Diane.

Sorry.

Diane. and and the end of his conversation with the with the with the non-trick or treater, which I just thought that whole thing was hilarious.

You not even wearing a costume.

Neither are you.

Yeah, yeah.

That was pretty good.

I've got, um, I'm going to channel another uh, bull Australian podcaster here.

[09:37]

I've got a theory about the release thing.

So she's like, oh, maybe I was Scottish.

So she starts doing the 12th doctor's voice and she rolls an R and the, but when, you know, the word that gets it is relief and it's like, oh, it's almost like whoever programmed these had a lisp.

So it's now canon that the 3rd doctor had voice activated handcuffs.

Well, they would have come in useful, wouldn't they?

Don't ask Joe. I just think it's a sort of Siri joke, you know, like it's sort of hilarious.

Can we talk around the around the panel now about the regular cast?

Brenda, you started to touch on this?

Um, look, this addressed 2 things for me that I wanted to see more of from Jody and one of those is um, she is very proactive in this plot.

She is going out looking for things.

And the, and the other one is she's a bit grumpy.

Like I was a bit taken aback where she tries to fob Yaz off by basically saying, well, don't I take you to all sorts of lovely places and this is how you thank me?

[10:40]

And Yaz, to the character's credit, basically turns around and says, if you're saying we know each other really well, why don't you trust me?

And it's like, yes, thank you.

Give me some spikiness.

I like it.

So yeah, I was, I was totally play, and the thing is, though, it doesn't become sort of mean bickering.

You can tell the reason they're tense with each other is because something is wrong and they actually care.

Yeah.

There is a gaslighting scene, though, that we were commenting on just between Yaz and and the doctor and, and, and it might be the one you're talking about there, and she just turns very quickly, and I thought, no, no, no, you're actually lampshading what your companions just said.

And this is getting, this is actually getting like a lot of relationships that probably should have ended a while ago.

Yeah.

No, Jody's doctor keeps throwing a whole lot of stuff up that I'm just thinking, is this deliberately making the character flawed and, you know, and therefore relative or is it actually just bum writing?

[11:41]

Yeah, you see, I'm a big fan of making the doctor flawed and grumpy and stuff and that's why I like both of Moffatt's doctors, for instance.

But I'm not sure, I think that there is an attempt to make her a little bit less genial here, like a deliberate attempt.

Do we get some queer baiting in there?

They end up in bed together?

Bouncing on...

Yeah, yeah.

The fazies are very happy.

Todd, I did think it worked.

I think it worked much better just having the one companion with the doctor.

And then, you know, Dan is getting introduced.

It's a separate plot point that's coming together and so that's sort of all worked and giving that space for Yaz.

Um, you know, a bit like Nissa in Arc of Infinity, you know, without Tinken there or other people, that really did work.

I mean, I thought Jodie was decent.

She's never going to be, as people know, my favourite, but I thought she did an adequate job, no better, no worse.

Well, certainly, actually better than, than, than in the past.

[12:43]

So I enjoyed her performance.

Yeah, but I was certainly more intrigued by what else was going on generally.

What about you, James?

Um, On 2nd viewing, I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more.

When I when I was watching it yesterday morning at 6.30 AM because I had insomnia.

Yeah, I was a little underwhelmed watching it this afternoon.

I found it a lot more enjoyable.

I'm just being an irascible bitch.

I really believe that there's some time that's passed, they've become closer.

There's a bit more trust there and that's why she's able to question the doctor and she knows that there's something wrong and that she's not letting her pull all over her eyes.

[13:44]

I, I, I'm waiting for the 2000 big finish box sets.

Yeah, there'll be a lot of them.

And what about you, Richard?

That was my take, that everything, every scene that Yaz is in is absolutely heightened and gorgeous, and I just think she's the 21st century Jackie Hill.

She's I'm not even a fan.

Well, Justin because she, she, she, she makes me enjoy it and want to watch it.

I honestly really don't, which is why I've not been much involved, but Bob does.

I really don't otherwise, but I just find her so good.

She also elevates.

I actually think she's a better actor than Jody.

Oh, I need to know.

I don't get cancelled that take.

It's just very difficult because everything's every scene is high stakes without exposition and no for play.

So we do go, we do jump in very hard and rather roughly.

And it doesn't leave a lot of room for nuance.

And that's one ages as a fan.

We like a little bit of setup.

[14:47]

We like a bit of ice in our drink, yes.

I think we can hear it, Nathan.

Yeah, I thought that it was actually kind of nice.

Given that we're never going to have a regular cast that just consists of 2 women or at the moment we're not going to.

Just as we've never had a regular cast, even in the classic series that has 2 men.

There, you know, there's always going to be someone.

I thought it was kind of nice and a nice nod to the people who really wanted to see the doctor and Yaz together pairing them up like that.

And that has always worked.

And, you know, I think the Saranga conundrum where they're given us some plot.

They work very well together.

So that was kind of nice, I think.

All right.

No one's mentioned Mr. Flux.

I just thought it was lovely to see John Galliana getting work again after all these years.

He's really he's really coping with the meth, isn't he?

I think it looks incredible It looks amazing.

[15:48]

It's gorgeous.

Yeah, a lot of us thought the cryons were coming back.

When the image leaked.

Yeah.

But isn't it interesting how he finds his sister and her the companion gives destroyed and she doesn't know who she is until she's revealed a bit like the roof doctor?

Yeah, yeah, that again.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yes, I imagine that we'll find out there's something very boring in real life. that's yet to come.

Speaking of which, our hopes, fears and predictions for the future, Brendan.

Um, I'm going to look immediately toward uh, next week, the Santarian episode, and I am anticipating some very funny and dangerous Santarians.

I absolutely love the Santar in general telling his subordinate.

My god, you look old, which is, you know, that's a big insult for a Santara.

You don't get old.

As a soft up.

Because he's been off on an espionage mission. you know, no wonder he looks terrible.

Dan Starkey's still there, so everyone should be happy.

[16:50]

And you know what?

I didn't have a problem with the photos of the Santarans that were released, but a lot of people did, but in motion, I think they look amazing.

You know, this is it.

Since Kevin Lindsey, they're my favourite.

I love the little Kevin Lindsay tongue.

So, they did the tongue thing.

Can I ask, Brendan, you say that next week's episode is the Santaran episode?

So this is a thing that I feared.

Were these all just the 1st acts of a bunch of episodes that are going to happen over the course of the thing?

Well, I think it might be a matter of sort of each of the, each of the scenarios will take precedence in an episode, but I think we will dip in and out.

I think it'll be a bit like Game of Thrones.

Yeah, okay.

All right.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

What about you, Todd?

Well, it's interesting.

Like you say, I didn't think about the fact that they would have difference scenarios each week and we've just seen a glimpse of them.

[17:54]

I'm not going to try and predict that.

I think my biggest fear is, you know, we've got all this set up.

Can we have payoff at the end, you know, and last year that didn't happen and that sort of then tarnished for me, the previous episodes or the whole thing that was going on.

So that's my greatest fear.

Um, But, you know, I'm looking forward to to what's ahead and if it's visually stunning and it moves along, I can forgive other aspects.

Yeah, I think that's fair enough.

Richard?

I'm actually really excited to see what it's doing.

I think 6 episode format may well work really well for Chibmore.

Yeah, I think that's fair.

Let's find it out.

He's good at serialised drama.

Well, he's okay at seriously.

He's better at serialised drama.

He's better at serialised drama than Doctor Who.

Yeah, okay, maybe that.

He's experienced.

He's done some serialised drama.

James, what do you think?

[18:54]

I think he's done some cerealized.

Thank you, James.

All right, thanks.

I, yeah, I was, I was more on board with this than I was, I think, his last 2 season premiers by, by the 2nd viewing.

Um, there was certainly a lot happening in it.

I agreed there's lots set up.

There's some really intriguing kind of clues dropped and things set up for the rest of the season, but I do worry, like Todd, are we going to get payoff?

Yeah.

Or satisfying payoff.

Yeah, I mean, my feeling is that it is actually okay for Doctor Who just to be about exciting space things for 6 episodes and that looks like what we have.

So, you know, I think it could well be fun.

[19:54]

And certainly I enjoyed this.

I mean, I enjoyed SpyFall, the previous season, episode one at least.

And, you know, like I thought this was more fun than that.

So I'm cautiously optimistic, but we'll see if he sticks the landing.

All right.

We have some things to plug.

Uh, Brendan.

Watch people be watching on YouTube.

Oh, right, yeah.

Okay.

Yes, I'm back.

Yeah.

You can't do that on YouTube.

Or on this podcast.

And back with a walk to work with Whitaker, so that will be going out.

That will be going out sort of very late Monday night in the UK sort of midday Mondays in Australia after I watch the episode in the morning and walk to the bus stop to head to work.

That's lovely news.

Roger Whittaker.

So you'll be whistling the whole way. saved it.

I can't I can't whistle.

I'm homosexual.

Did you get run over this morning?

[20:57]

I did I did not.

I did not get I did not I did not get run over.

I was very careful and took quiet, quiet streets and I also did not trip over a dock.

I could.

I could.

I almost got run over around the way to Nathan's this evening.

Yeah, it's a thing.

Yeah.

No, it's just that every time I watch, Richard, every time I watch a work, I walk to work with Whittaker. trying try saying that when you're drunk.

Every time I watch it, I just live in terror that Brendan will get run over because he's like crossing the street, talking into his phone, you know.

In other news, flight through entirety is back, this Sunday with our continuing coverage of series 6 with Let's Kill Hitler, and current plan suggests that Joe Ford and I will be appearing in untitled Star Trek Project, episode one.

So keep an eye out for that. should be out on Friday, we think.

All right.

[21:57]

Anyway.

Okay, any closing statements?

We also have to plug a maximum power.

Well, it's not our.

That's right.

We just finished recording it.

I thought it was done.

Yeah, that's on.

Don't listen to maximum on Sunday.

We're halfway through the season.

We are. that's right That's exciting So, until next time.

Remember that in Lupari society, if you see Carvanista next to you on the couch licking his testicles, the polite thing is to pretend not to notice.

Thank you very much for listening and good night.

But what if he wants to kidnap me?

Let him.

He a good boy.

See you soon.

See you soon.