The Ood Cast

Anyone go to the Doctor Who prom? We didn’t unfortunately but have caught up with it on BBC iPlayer. It was great, eh, and wasn’t Matt Smith brilliant in that sketch?!

I particularly enjoyed Mathew Sweet’s piece in the interval regarding the history of incidental music in Doctor Who. Back in the early 80s I bought the cassette Doctor Who: The Music. In those days this was as near as it got to BBC video releases. . .  Goodness, how things have changed. The cassette consisted of two sides (hang on, remember those? You actually had to turn the tape over halfway to hear the whole thing and spool through using guesswork to get to a particular track. Life was clunky in those days) of Doctor Who incidental music from the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. To my ears it was the sound of other worlds, strange situations, terrible events, awesome resolutions.

At about the same time some schoolmates started lending me audio copies of actual stories. Anyone else remember that? This was a pre-video age, unless you lived in the posh part of town or went to the grammar school (note for non-UK readers - it really was like that here in the early 80s). Listening to Doctor Who adventures on audio was good and bad. It was bad that you couldn’t see Tom Baker’s grin, or Lalla Ward. It was good that the sense of scale was left unrestrained. When there was incidental music all sorts of visual possibilities appeared before you, all with the most astonishing production values.

So the incidental music was key to the audio experience. Dudley Simpson. Ahhh, Deadly Dudley (as he was quite unaccountably called). His music was part of the soundscape of my teenage years – mock me, I shan’t care … If for some reason you need reminding of the man’s genius, I need only mention this entirely random selection: the original Master theme, the Wirrn theme in The Ark in Space, the jungle scenes and the Sorensen transformation in Planet of Evil, the mummies chasing Ernie Clements in Pyramids of Mars, The Deadly Assassin part three, and all of City of Death. Rather like Matthew Sweet I still hum the City of Death Paris theme, generally whenever I arrive somewhere on holiday (including on the Paris metro, haha), it’s so joyous. Dudley Simpson’s sense of drama and humour and his endless inventiveness with a piano, a cello and some carsprings gave the endless variety of Doctor Who a coherence and identity.

Malcolm Clarke, though. Unsung hero. His Sea Devils music was the first track on Doctor Who: The Music and I played it over and over. It’s amazing and beautiful. Apparently some people don’t like it and I can’t work out why might that be. It’s an astonishing example of a genius at their creative best. A soundscape, which often consists of recognisable tunes but is also often pure sound. That and his Earthshock music, his eerie cybermen theme seemingly emerging out of the sounds of a dripping cave, building in structure until it reaches a corporeal form marching along with the metal meanies themselves.

Try this. Play a Doctor Who DVD and nip to another room and listen to it.

In the last few months, we’ve seen not just the new series of Who, but plenty of views expressed about the series.  I talked about Stephen Fry’s comments in my last post, but there was also Sir Terry Pratchett, saying that the show wasn’t so much as science fiction, but fantasy.  To be honest, I’m sort of with him there.  Neil Gaiman, for what it’s worth, pointed out (quite rightly) that the show has never pretended to be hard sci-fi – and I’m rather proud that it’s not.

When other shows like Star Trek have a writing team dedicated to making up mumbo-jumbo fake science language, it’s nice to have a traditionally British kind of show.  One that cannot be bothered to get up and switch the TV over, it’ll just wait on the sofa till someone else comes in.

But it’s not as if it matters a great deal – it’s still all wonderful escapism, right?

Or is it?  I’m not sure there’s ever been a time when this “children’s show” has ever reflected society so astutely and with such brilliant timing.  I mean, this year, we’ve had riffs on elections and decision-making the weekend before a general election.  And spitfires – albeit in space – the same year as the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.  And a football connection on the opening weekend of the world cup.  A finale planned and shot using specific dates.

That’s pretty impressive planning on behalf of Mr Moffatt, I would say.  It’s almost unbelievable to think that he’s been doing that while also teaching

Guy Ritchie how you update Sherlock Holmes without including Jude Law…

When RTD ran the show, I always got the feeling it just sort of, you know, rambled on – like it didn’t really belong in the same world.  Nothing real was allowed in and nothing out.  But I love the little connections.

I love watching things like Survival and remembering that Hale and Pace were once famous in this country.  I love seeing Stephen and Jamie on the screen and remembering that one was a Blue Peter presenter, the other spent years as a farmer on Emmerdale Farm (because it was still a farm then.  Oh how the reality hurts these days…).

But these days, we’re in the hands of someone taking us away from the soap opera in space style and back towards the show’s roots, finding writers who are able to grasp this, no matter how far removed they normally seem.  If Richard Curtis’ episode proved anything, it’s that the unexpected source is often the richest.  And if Chibnall’s proves anything, it’s that we should really try and avoid that again…

But I’m thrilled…  THRILLED that filming on Neil Gaiman’s episode is starting filming next month.  Gaiman’s writing has always been consistently great, he has an amazing ability to draw spectacle from something normal, unobtrusive  as well as the unknown and fantastical (very Who), and I think he’s always been counted as the dream writer fans would like to see working on the series.

I was convinced it was a cruel joke when it was announced he’d be writing for the next series, but it’s real, and there was apparently a photo on his twitter feed last week showing him, the Moff and Richard Curtis at a read-through.  I can’t find it on there, but then asking me to find something on Twitter is a bit like putting someone in a round room and telling them to stand in the corner…

(To one side, what was Curtis doing there?  Is he writing more?  I’ll be delighted if he is.)

But what excites me more than anything, is that Gaiman GETS Who.  Properly.  And this proves it beyond even the most unreasonable doubts:

“At best Doctor Who is a fairytale, with fairytale logic about this wonderful man in this big blue box who at the beginning of every story lands somewhere where there is a problem…”

Roll on next April!

Pocket explanations

If you’ve ever wondered why we’re almost always universally positive about whatever Who throws at us, I think I have a shortened way of explaining it.

Last week, I watched the 1982 story, Time Flight.

How can you complain about the effects or storyline of the new series when you’ve seen things like that?

Incidentally, despite its obvious (and brightly coloured) flaws, I really enjoyed watching it…  I know I have a natural bias towards the vegetable-wearing Edwardian cricketer, but I expected it to be awful.  And it was, I suppose, but nowhere near as bad as I was expecting.  I’ll be more than happy to watch it again.  Anyone else?

Why I don’t hate what Stephen Fry said

We didn’t talk about this on the podcast at the time, so I want to just have a go at tackling this.

Not very long after my birthday (it was very nice, thank you), the hulking great genius Mr Fry said this:

“The only drama the BBC will boast about are Merlin and Doctor Who, which are fine, but they’re children’s programmes. They’re not for adults.  And they’re very good children’s programmes, don’t get me wrong, they’re wonderfully written … but they are not for adults.”

I think he’s kind of right, although I think his comments are slightly tongue-in-cheek and pointing to a completely separate issue which then got almost lost behind the overblown storm that followed him mentioning Doctor Who…

If it is a proper complaint, however, it doesn’t quite follow.  I say that for 2 reasons.

First, Doctor Who and Merlin are not children’s programmes – these days the term for it is “family entertainment” – there’d never be children’s stuff on BBC One that time of day…they have their own channels, and so on that basis I disagree with him respectfully.

But I also think what he’s saying is not a terrible thing.  If it means I’m a fan of a children’s programme, I can live with that.  Especially seeing as how “adult drama” appears to mean Eastenders, Casualty and the like.

Second, his speech complained about two things – too much family entertainment, and also that scheduling is too polarised into specialist areas.  Which is a bit too much of a contradiction to make sense to me…  You want something with more general appeal, but you’re also convinced that we already have too much of that?  Head.  Hurts.

And even besides all that, he’s complaining while desperately ignoring “Kingdom” – the nice, but marvellously mediocre series he starred in on Sunday nights.  Hardly your obvious example of a “grown-up” drama which is made to “…surprise us, to outrage us.”

People in glass houses, Stephen, people in glass houses…

Ever since we recorded the review of The Big Bang, slightly influenced by fermented grape juice, I’ve been thinking about the finale. Not in an obsessive way, you understand… I do have a job, and a small dependant-type person. But it sort of comes with the territory that as my friends know me as a fan, I get into conversations with people who can watch the show with other people talking throughout, or while they nip in and out of the room being busy with real life things.

The thing is, I can’t do that. It annoys me intensely if someone talks through something I’ve been waiting to see, and when Doctor Who is on, the only thing I do is watch it. There isn’t much that can’t wait 45 minutes, after all.

But neither do I sit there and drink in every detail and process every misplaced shoelace or wrongly-positioned object. I get caught up in the story and I’m far from ashamed to admit that.

So when it comes to a Steven Moffatt finale… I got lost in it. I don’t mean that I didn’t understand it, just that I went into the world and didn’t come out again until the end theme music started. Having watched it again, yes, I think it was a bit over-complex and could possibly have been stretched over 3 episodes to make the little arc work (let’s face it, amusing as it was, I’d not miss “The Lodger”). But, frankly, I don’t care.

There were holes in the plot – I know. I see them too. But the Doctor is a Timelord. They’re as real as Daleks… it really doesn’t matter that there’s a couple of confusing paradoxes in there.

There are things unresolved – I know. Have you never watched a Steven Moffatt story before? That’s par for the course… Unresolved probably means it will be part of the next season. This is, after all, the chap who brought us River Song 2 YEARS AGO and we still don’t know who the chuffing whatsit she is.

Inconsistencies and contradictions? Hmm. I don’t know. The Moff seems to write scripts where you’re left thinking these are inconsistent or blatant contradictions, but a while down the line, we’re shown the significance. I don’t really see that grumbling about them is of any use. But then, I grew up in the 80s, so this is Doctor Who’s Golden Age of Hollywood compared with some of my childhood memories of bubble perms and talking green slugs. When things contradicted then, it was because they cut the episode together wrong – like that time when the 3rd, 4th, 5th 6th and 7th Doctors all appeared in Albert Square…

What do you mean, that wasn’t a continuity error?   Well, it was definitely some kind of error…

All in all, I don’t care about the problems. I don’t even care that Amy is a character that seems unnaturally cold and unemotional and that nothing has made me really like her except that she’s funny.

I think the sketch we did in Episood 16 (“Childish Things”) highlighted the one that actually bothered me – that the Pandorica plan hatched by the Big Book of Doctor Who Baddies was absolutely rubbish. But then, so is every evil plan hatched by balding master criminals in every James Bond film, and it’s still very easy to enjoy them without worrying about it. Which is exactly what I did.

My point being that is doesn’t really matter in any significant way…  I know we on the Ood Cast are usually ridiculously enthusiastic about the show, and it doesn’t matter whether the episodes are top-notch or middling rubbish – we still love it.  But being a bit more level-headed about it here – the episodes that people will undoubtedly judge the Moff’s first season on – it did what everyone wanted: it surprised, entertained, scared (the stone dalek was brilliant – finally there seems to be an end to the ridiculous flying swarms of them) and tied a few things up.  Not everything, but that’s a reason to keep watching rather than whine about it, surely?

And apart from anything else…  Egyptian godesses?  Orient Express?  In Space?  Anyone fancy opening a book on whether we’re about to see “Pyramids of Mars II: Mastaba and Commander”?! (*FULL credit and huge thanks to Mr Ian Smith for that title*)

As long as the time tunnels in this one aren’t London Underground tunnels, sounds like it’ll be great!

Oh, and did we mention I predicted the Fez….?  OK, OK, I’ll stop now.

While the Ood Cast takes a summer break, we are getting back to our roots.

In other words, I’m going to blog… and I hope the others will find the time to as well… which is how this all started.

I’m not going to bore you with all sorts of rubbish about why this all started though. If you really want a history, you’ll have to meet us and buy us dinner. This post is just a plea… We’re not podcasting for a while, but it’ll seem like just a few weeks, I promise. So PLEASE stick around. Check the site every few days. Keep talking to us and commenting on what goes on here.

After all, you want to hear how the Littlest Doctor gets on at school, right?! And I’ll be announcing a competition for the summer break in the next few days, so keep coming back!

Well, it’s finally here. Because you demanded it. All the songs from the second series of The Ood Cast in one place and ready to be downloaded. Now you can hear the evolving melodic genius of Laura’s songs without all the distracting geekery and tom-foolery that normally surrounds them. Stick them on your iPod, sing along to them in your car, pump them out of a crackling, sparking loudspeaker as you pilot your exploding attack craft into the choking atmosphere of another grim alien world.

Have fun basically.

This will be the first in a succession of “goodies” we’ve got lined up for you to keep the Ood fires burning during our long summer Off Season. We’re also working on the much asked for Ood Cast Theme Tune Ringtone and there’ll be a few more songs around the corner too.

Obviously we’re not going to charge you to download the album, but if you did feel the songs were worth a few quid then we’d encourage you to use the new Donate button on the right of the screen. It turns out running a podcast isn’t as cheap as you might imagine. We’d appreciate anything you feel able to give.

The album’s yours either way.

Okay, enjoy. See you on the flipside.

Entire Album - 59.11 MB
01 Martha's Lament - 2.78 MB
02 Amelia Waits - 4.95 MB
03 Beast Below - 3.62 MB
04 White Cliffs Of Skaro - 3.11 MB
05 Wipe Your Lips, Mate - 2.4 MB
06 Don't Wanna Blink - 4.8 MB
07 Let's Get It On, Doctor - 3.44 MB
08 O Mio Babbino Caro - 2.1 MB
09 Under Venice - 3.28 MB
10 El TARDIS - 1.1 MB
11 Amy's Choice - 4.26 MB
12 Going Underground - 2.99 MB
13 Sound Of The Underground - 3.7 MB
14 I Will Remember You - 4.7 MB
15 Vincent - 3.96 MB
16 The Fall Of Silence - 3.1 MB
17 Under The Starless Sky - 4.38 MB
18 Pond Dreaming - 2.75 MB

“I’m going to sex it right up … like a sexy bent shoe.”

That’s what happens when you leave two recently engaged Who fans alone with a microphone …

This week, Chris Sigma and Laura present a whole hodge podge of tidbits scattered from the final two episodes, present the winner of the lyrics competition, discover just how tantalising a cup of tea can be and listen to the existential crisis of a Star Whale. It’s a bit schitzophrenic- but with a person who’s had ten other personalities being our starting point, who can blame us?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 24:57 — 23.1MB)

“It’s like dissecting a kitten. It’s just not as cute when it’s all in bits everywhere …”

On this week’s bumper and rather euphoric Ood Cast, the reverie of a season finale goes to our heads … or is that the wine?

Either way, we have loads of fun, and its probably unintelligible to anyone who wasn’t there. Sorry about that. Well, we’re not – you don’t have to pay for this …

As well as our late discussion of whether Steven Moffat pulled off his first attempt at a finale, we have a bit of a nose around a museum gallery of unusual fossils, find out how Rory gets on at a job interview, drop in on the results of the fire safety investigation into the TARDIS explosion and see how many of us it takes to stop Andy talking his way through the entire show.

We’re almost at the end of our season, with the finale just around the corner … but are we threatened by how good The Big Bang was?

You bet we are…

(This episode also features guest artwork by the extremely talented Mr Jonathan Monkhouse)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 38:10 — 35.3MB)