Episode 53

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In the longest episode of Bigger on the Inside yet, Dan and Mike speak about two excellent stories! In "The Robots of Death," The Doctor, Leela, and the robotic D84 put a stop to a murderous scheme to end all human life. And in "The Talons of Weng-Chiang," a crazed time traveler who's stuck in Victorian London seeks his lost vessel, but activating it could destroy everything! From there, the two hosts discuss the spectacular 14th season, which just might be the best ever. (During which, Mike has one more chance to pronounce "Mandragora." Does he get it right?) And on top of all that, the hour-long podcasting panel from Chicago TARDIS 2010, which Mike took part in, is presented! That's one hefty show! [ 2:31:49 || 69.5 MB ]

The above is from: http://www.earth-2.net/podcasts/biggerontheinside/episodes/bigger_053.mp3

[Missy]

I don't think either of us drew an on-air comparison between these robots and The Host from "Voyage of the Damned."

[Delete]

(During which, Mike has one more chance to pronounce "Mandragora." Does he get it right?)

Would it be cruel to point out that a villain coming up on JLU reviews is named Madragora?

[Dan]

I don't think either of us drew an on-air comparison between these robots and The Host from "Voyage of the Damned."

Hmmm. No, sir, we did not. However, I think we managed to get across what a shower of awesome Henry Gordon Jago is, and that makes everything better.

[jakob1978]

a great show..i'll post some deeper thoughts later, but I was intrigued by the discussion about how the look of the show starts to look cheaper, because they were trying to be like star wars but couldn't afford it.

The other problem facing Graham Williams, was that throughout Tom Baker's first half era, Britain entered a period of incredibly high inflation. in 1975 inflation was 25% (so everything that had to be bought for the show cost so much more, something that was 100 pound in 1974, cost 125 pound in 1975. a basket of shopping that cost £25 in 1970, cost £125 in 1980. And of course the budget never increased by much (the perils of long running series i suppose).

It is true also that Graham Williams was more interested in producing space based stories. In the Hinchcliffe series, a lot of stories were on earth (present day or past, or sometimes future), in Williams era, it's the reverse, most stories are set away from Earth, on space ships and space colonies (i'm trying to think, and in the next 3 years there are only 4 stories set on Earth, 2 next year, and 1 in each of the following seasons). And of course, with the BBC having produced a lot of period television, they were always more able to produce convincing sets and costumes for stories set in the past, where they could use stock items.

[DTS]

When I first watched this as a teen, it really didn't stick with me. It was in more recent memory after making a video trade, that I rediscovered the wow factor of this story. It's very "Ten Little Indians" in the fact that we have an isolated group being killed off one-by-one. Talons has long been my favorite despite the sterotypes and Anglos cast as Asians. I usually used this to introduce people to the series

[Stavros]

Really liking the Who podcasting panel, its a good cross-section of approaches and backgrounds all put together at once. There's some great advice in there for any aspiring podcaster, not just Who fans. Good job Mike.

[Mr Mockery]

Great show. I'm glad it isn't just me who pines for D84 as a companion. You really summed up my own feelings on that story.

An interesting fact that connects Blake's 7 to this episode. The Face of Evil and The Robots of Death were both written by Chris Boucher who went on to become script editor of Blake's 7 and wrote a ton of episodes including the very last one. Boucher was recommended for the script editing job by a certain Mr Robert Holmes who also ended up writing several episodes of the show including one of my favourites "Gambit"

[omnidragon]

I love both these stories too. I just have one line from Talons I never understood. That being when Mr. Sin goes mad and starts shooting at everbody Greel yells "This is mutetany" (I know it's spelled wrong but i can't remember how it is spelled and the spell check doesn't work) I thought muteany happened on ships at sea. This is treson i could see. No big thing I know but it always bugged me.

[ShaunKL]

Mutiny:

1. revolt or rebellion against constituted authority, esp. by sailors against their officers.

2. rebellion against any authority.

[Erin B.]

I'm surprised that no one brought up that not only does Talons have references to Sherlock Holmes, but The Phantom of The Opera as well. A crazed, deformed psychopath living beneath a theatre and killing people? Connections? I think so.

[Dan]

Oh, yeah, definitely. There's a HUGE Phantom homage happening here.

[slothian]

I'm surprised that no one brought up that not only does Talons have references to Sherlock Holmes, but The Phantom of The Opera as well. A crazed, deformed psychopath living beneath a theatre and killing people? Connections? I think so.

In fairness Erin, once you're as old as the hosts of BOTI, some things will start to slip from the mind....