Arachnids in the UK

[0:00]

Hello, dear listener, and welcome back to Jody and Terra, the only Doctor Who flash cast that really misses the lovely way that those boys from global chemicals used to behave.

We're all here after having watched this week's episode, which, of course, was the long anticipated arachnids in the UK.

And I'm going to throw it to Todd, if that's all right, and see what you thought of it.

Todd.

Thanks, Nathan.

Hi everyone.

Hi listeners.

Look, I enjoyed this.

I mean, I'd give it 7 out of 10.

Like, I thought it had heart, you know, I think all of Teen TARDIS had their moments of of lovely, you know, character growth.

Even the doctor, you know, warning her whole team about coming with her.

I mean, I think that's the 1st time I've had like real character growth for the doctor in, in, you know, forever.

And Bradley Walsh hitted out at the ballpark again and I thought that his relationship with Ryan was beautiful.

[01:03]

Yaz had some lovely moments at the beginning and end.

She did get a bit lost, I thought, because of the with the mother and the other spider woman and Mr. Big.

I thought she got a bit lost in the mix.

Yet again, I think there was some great humour in it.

Like I was laughing about the mother's attempt to pair her off with whoever and the doctor's joke about Ed Sheeran just, oh, I was cracking up about that.

And, you know, it had scary moments and the music was fantastic.

And, um, I wasn't quite, you know, there was a few little things where I thought, oh, you know, trapping all the spiders in that panic room at the end and well, they're all dead, aren't they?

It was very humane, Todd.

Well, yeah, yes, it was very humane.

And I guess the other thing I really loved was the fact that when the TARDIS travelled through the inside of a gel guard, you know?

Which I thought was utterly beautiful.

And, and, yeah, so I enjoyed it.

And, you know, I got my, I got my, you know, my, my, my, my shocks and and uh, and the humour and everything and yeah, and I had a bit of political stuff and there was a family and, you know, good.

[02:05]

There you go.

Brilliant. brilliant.

Richard, you're a big fan of the Green Death.

What did you think?

Well, I'm an even bigger fan of the work of, as you've honestly, as we've often said, that descendant of German filmmaking Stanley Kubrick.

Um, and I'm thinking back to Stephen King's novel that became a really quite extraordinary 1980 film called The Shining.

Um, and right from the tracking shots over the carpet.

I know this establishing shot.

I know this film.

You're doing Kubrick.

So it was a lovely melange.

Everyone's been saying yes, yes, there's maggots and the thing, but I think that's kind of, that's the obvious castback, which is a lovely thing that Chipmull seems to be throwing a lot.

But I also like that he does Molly Grubblers or Molly Grubbers, I should say as well.

And he's he's bowling under arm a lot and he's throwing lots of things to us that I really like a lot.

Um, I remember that the little boy who was psychic in that film's name was also called Jack and I'd like to think that Chris Knoth's character is just the little boy in the shining grown up.

[03:11]

Grown up and dark and horrible things.

I want to talk.

I want to talk politics because I do that.

We know Chrisnoff's personal position on American politics and it's kind of obvious he's an actor.

He's lived in New York.

They all think the same way.

So, from what I've been hearing, he kind of begged for this role.

What would you like?

Or he pitches, you know, you want to be on the show.

He said, well, you know what would you want to do?

And he said, well, we'd like to play you as a play you as the sort of anti-Trump trump.

He went, oh, oh, I would, I would so love that.

And there was no shoes.

No, no, we don't talk about shoes once.

So that's fine.

Get me away from that horse faced woman.

That's a reference to the Stormy Daniels line.

That Trump spoke spoke of.

I think the best thing in this is beautiful cinematography.

The realisation, this series, and the art direction is just gorgeous.

I don't think we've seen anything so good since episode one of the sensor rights, and no, I'm not...

[04:13]

I'm only being half naughty there because I'm thinking back to the sounds of the web planet and, you know, and our own Rosalind De Winter, who is, you know, one of the patron saints of the podcast.

And just how bloody frightening was this?

How did you all feel?

Jumping around.

Yeah, I thought it was scary.

I thought there was one particularly disgusting moment when, is it Stormzy?

I'm really old, so I don't know what that musician was called, but when his track was luring them all into the panic room, and there was some particularly disgusting spider leg movement things at that moment, which I just thought were really super horrifying.

And I think that this is, you know, that for a generation of children.

This could well be their green death because those spiders, like they weren't super convincing all the time, but they were great.

I mean, and they were super scary.

Oh, they were beautiful.

And they were so fluffy. those 1st moments in the house.

Just so gorgeous and so many nods to um, to films of German filmmakers.

[05:20]

So just really lovely.

Okay, excellent.

Brendan, you hate it.

Is that right?

Hello?

Yeah, no, absolutely hated it. 0 out of 10.

No, I loved it.

I thought it was absolutely brilliant.

It's an 8 out of 10 from me.

I very much appreciated that they weren't the spiders of Metabilus 3.

Yeah, because...

I didn't...

I had a moustache would not have gone astray.

Gareth on look alike.

No, no, but...

Yeah.

Actually, well, there was a moustache.

Um, Yeah, yeah, his dad had a beard.

Hakeem had a beard.

I loved her. we talk about the family?

They are fantastic.

So it's Hakeem, Sonya, and Nadia.

Yeah, the family.

Just delightful.

And that sister, we've got a neiress.

Yes, we do.

Or an Annalise.

Exactly. thinking that as well.

So, well, the thing is, I think not only do we have a neris, but continuing Todd's analogy from the last few weeks, if you don't mind me stealing this, Todd, um, Nadja, I think, is a bit like, you know, this is absent mother, whereas Hakeem is a bit more like tree masks.

[06:34]

You know, he's, he's capable and loving, but he's a bit dodtery.

Um, and, um, you know, Sonya always sort of sniping at, um, at Yaz and bringing her down.

Well, she's Cassia quite clearly. glowing eyes by the end of the season, painted on naturally.

But yeah, I thought this was perfectly pitched.

Um, just the right level of scares and laughs.

The scene where it seems like Ryan is about to say to Graham, my dad's not really family that you are, and of course they suddenly realise we're in a room full of spiders, is brilliant.

And my only, my only sort of real disappointment is, okay, arachnid's in the UK.

I get it, it's another music reference.

But maybe spiders of Sheffield might have been a better time.

I agree with you, Brandon.

Yeah, Spiders of Sheffield.

Isn't it a play on anarchy in the UK?

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[07:35]

It's not a very good one. reference.

I was thinking small northern town of the spiders, you know.

Sheffield's more of a medium-sized town of the spiders.

I was getting a bit of a Tish Jones vibe from Natcha, actually, because she happens to be employed by this week's villain for, you know, no particular reason.

I kind of thought.

I wonder if that's her mother.

Yes it is.

Oh, that didn't occur to me.

I have to say that that did come as a surprise.

I wonder if she worked, didn't it?

Yes, yes.

I, well, I, based on the pre-publicity, I thought Jade, the scientist, was going to be Yaz's sister, but I quite, I quite like that Yaz is the older sister and Sonya's sort of uh, like typical late teen young adult. character.

But Richard, I think, well, anyone might know this, but I think if anyone does, it's going to be Richard.

Richard, did you recognise Nadia?

Nadia, Nadia.

[08:36]

Oh, oh, oh, oh.

Yes, I did.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

And now bugger it.

I can't think who she is.

Come, tell.

Dinner ladies.

Oh, right.

She is with Celia Imry, whom we own.

Golly, that's a while ago.

Yeah, and...

She's looking great.

That's why I didn't spot her.

Gee, I didn't know that chip fat could be that good for you.

Billy Piper is right.

I'm certainly inviting her to Mumcon, which is my fantasy convention.

Amy's mother's not invited.

She doesn't exist.

But yeah, this mother definitely is.

She was superb.

Look, for me, this was absolutely everything that I want out of Doctor Who.

And it was what I was hoping Chibnell would do after seeing all of Broadchurch because I spent the last 3 weeks thinking Broadchurch was often really funny, despite being about murdering children mostly.

It actually manages that's hilarious.

[09:37]

It actually manages to be funny all the time.

And I was thinking maybe it's just Olivia and David that are making it funny.

But there was super, super funny dialogue all the way through this.

There was heart, there was a family, you know, um, All of these people online who were sort of saying, oh, it all wrapped up too quickly.

I mean, we had a lot of exposition.

I think we had as much exposition as we needed for this, and I was glad that it finished early enough to give us proper time.

That's what I hope from these 50 minute episodes, that we get proper time to spend with the characters and do the character stuff, and we're not just running from place to place, and this absolutely delivered.

I feel very bad saying this because I think Rosa is a much more important episode, but this is my favourite episode of the series so far.

I just adored it.

I thought it was so fantastic.

I watched it twice last night and I was just laughing like a giant idiot both times.

[10:37]

It was so good.

It was so good.

And the politics of it.

You know, you've got Donald Trump's entire business empire is built on a festering pile of toxic garbage.

That's right.

You know, and he's got all these Trump things he's obsessed with his phone.

You know, he's a germaphobe, so he's constantly wiping his hands.

You know, his hotel's in the middle of a golf course.

James was saying before.

And that fabulous bit.

You know how Trump was saying that he would have rushed into Parkland and single-handedly fought off the gunman because of course he's a giant idiot.

He, he, you know, pushes poor Kevin into the bathroom and locks the door behind him.

Lock the door.

Hello?

Oh, boy.

Look, I was sitting there and you wanted to die.

You like you want this character too.

Yeah, yeah. such an asshole.

And then, and then he doesn't, which is it's perfect.

It works with.

Oh, I think I think you're missing a little bit more of this one, don't you?

[11:39]

Is the A Harriet Jones?

I hope we'll be seeing more of it.

But I mean, we all said that about Krasco last week.

I actually think that, um, you know, people have been complaining that Jody doesn't manage to do a good killing a villain thing.

They've been she hasn't killed any villain.

She's 0 for four.

And I just kind of think that's clearly not what she's going to be doing.

And also, speaking of which... of the nature of the program.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

I'm a little bit uncomfortable with the with the extreme position that the show has taken because I have never met a woman, let alone anyone in my York who wouldn't want to take a big swat to that massive major spider.

Well, David Tennant flushed all those ones down the sink, remember?

Yeah, this was special.

It's the only bit that didn't quite hold within its own reality for me.

I think I think that she was sort of sending the other spiders to the panic room to basically eat each other while...

[12:45]

That went that went through my mind.

I did.

I did think, though, that that was actually it actually managed to be a bit moving.

You know, that that spider was sort of struggling to breathe and the doctor was kind to it.

And that scene ends with her kneeling down by the spider as it dies.

And I thought that that was good and that was proper weirdly doctor-ish, you know.

She's a Buddhist now.

She's proper Buddhist doctor.

That's it.

Back to the, you know, like Todd's analogy that this is basically the 5th doctor.

It is.

Yeah, like the character... values life above all else.

Yeah, I'm giving it a seven, the 7th doctor, because he's the one who very, very definitely says we're not going to kill.

And I like that.

I think that's...

Yeah, that's good.

But I do think, you know, this is very much our centuries green death, and I think they did a really, really terrific job of it.

[13:46]

Yeah, it does wear its politics on its sleeve.

Well, so does the Green Death, though.

So did Rosa.

I kind of like that with the, with the ethics of this series so far, when we've seen them, they are really, you know, like they're proud of them.

They're saying, we are against...

Yeah, bigotry and racism.

We value life.

We, you know, like we believe that these sort of, you know, like these rampant capitalism that's destroying the planet is wrong.

Yeah.

It's something I loved about Pertwee is the Pertwee sort of Baronet stories as well.

I have to say that, I think the biggest surprise for me in this season is the heart, the heart of this team TARDIS, and it's a real strength that Jim was playing to and the visuals are just stunning and I think the music's wonderful and and now we're getting more humour as we get to know these characters and hopefully we'll continue to build from here.

[14:51]

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that's, I think that's good.

All right.

Is our, how is our time going?

Oh, you've got it on silent.

I paid for a sound effect last week, James, you're just not going to any effort at all.

Oh, there we go.

There we go.

Look, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Are there any, are there any sort of closing remarks?

I've got one.

I think Yaz was outed by her mother as bisexual this week.

I have actually...

Although, there's also a play on every Asian mother, just, I just want you to be married.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I don't...

Oh, she's a doctor.

I mean, the fact that she was a doctor.

I actually think that was a fluff.

That's actually my only flaw apart from the spider thing of this episode.

Thank you for bringing it up.

I think the actor herself. through that line.

I don't believe that that was written to be such a throwaway in in a kind of judgy tone.

[15:51]

I think it was meant to be.

So are you 2 going out?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I've reached doctor, you say.

A little a little more gita of blooming lovely than...

Yeah, yeah.

And it would have been kind of beautiful if that had happened.

I'm bit sad about that.

I think there was a Sarah Jane vibe to it.

And anyone who complains that Doctor Who is too much like Sarah Jane adventures can go and watch something else, I think, yeah.

Well, they've already had their fun ectony, haven't they?

They can go and look at panic bro.

Look, I did, I did think that the, um, the exposition in front of the toxic waste dump, like both Rod and I looked at each other about 3 quarters of the way through that, were like, yes, okay, we get it. now.

Did you notice Ryan during the exposition in the lamp where there's this exposition scene?

Yes.

Do the rabbit, yes. projector.

So brilliant.

[16:51]

So brilliant.

Was it deliberate?

I think so.

Oh, do you think maybe it was something a toasten thought of?

It was just pretty cheeky.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think also we're starting to get a little a little thing in these episodes where there's something in each episode which Ryan just starts enjoying himself and turns on that brilliant smile, like when he's the one who comes up with the music idea and he's just sitting there rocking out to it.

It was so great.

That was so enjoyable.

Yeah.

All right.

Well, I think we'll wind it up.

Todd, did you have anything more to add?

No, I think we've said it all.

Okay, look, this is a quick one.

I think we've done very well.

All right.

So before we go, yes.

Just before we go.

Can I spook something completely unrelated?

Oh, yes.

Uh, next week on the ABC, next Tuesday night, uh, November the 6th at 9.30 PM is a documentary I worked on called Nolan.

Ooh, about the Nolan sisters.

[17:52]

Yes, yes, right.

Sydney, their long lost brother, who was a famous Australian artist.

Now I didn't have anything creative to do on this.

I was in an administrative support role, but it's a fantastic documentary, so that is next Tuesday night at 930 on ABC TV.

Excellent.

That's brilliant.

Thank you very much.

It is exciting.

Yeah.

All right.

So well, we'll wind it up there.

Thanks, everyone, for joining us on the call tonight, and thank you, everyone at home for listening.

Don't forget, our main podcast is rocketing towards the end of series one of Doctor Who, um, and you'll find that at flightthroughentirety.com and at uh, FTE podcast on Twitter and at Flightthroughentirety at Apple Podcast.

That's the wrong order, but it doesn't matter. staying with it.

And on Bondfinger, we have finally reached the end of the Bond franchise with the release this week of Spectre, our commentary on Spectre.

[18:54]

And so we would like to promise you with our hands and our hearts right now that there will never, ever be another episode.

No, that's not true.

We are going to continue the podcast and say stay tuned to bondfinger.com and at bondfingercast on Twitter for more news on that.

So it really remains for me to say just one more thing.

Thank you very much for listening a good night.

Me too.

Bye.

Get off the line.