Transcript for 1.11 The Series One Wrap Up Episode

Talia Franks: Hello and welcome to the Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey podcast!

Lucia Kelly: I’m Lucia Kelly, expert at applied analysis and big ball of emotion.

Talia Franks: And I’m Talia Franks, media critic, fan fic enthusiast, and Christopher Eccleston Stan.

Talia Franks: Oh, God.

Lucia Kelly: And we’re—

Talia Franks: I’m sorry.

Lucia Kelly: Oh aww.

Talia Franks: I’m gonna miss him so much.

Lucia Kelly: I’m going to miss him so much too. This is—we’re still in the intro Talia! How dare you interrupt the sacredness of the intro!

Talia Franks: I am a Christopher Eccleston Stan! (Talia cries out through tears and Lucia laughs) Fuck the intro!

Lucia Kelly: So we’re here today to talk about Series One of Doctor Who, as a whole. It’s the wrap-up!

Talia Franks: IT’S THE WRAP UP!!

Talia Franks: Remember that time isn’t a straight line. It can twist into any shape and as such, this is a fully spoiled podcast. We might bring things in from later in the show, the comics, the books, audio dramas, or even fan theories and articles

Lucia Kelly: With that out of the way, it’s the end of the season! So let’s get in the TARDIS!

(Transition wobbles)

Lucia Kelly: Oh my gosh.

Talia Franks: I really am gonna miss Nine so much.

Lucia Kelly: I’m going to miss Nine. I didn’t know how much it would affect me. This is the first time, this watch through, is the first time that I’ve truly, really appreciated Nine as the Doctor. It’s honestly such a tragedy, that because everyone’s like, “No, David Tennant is my Doctor, David Tennant’s the real Doctor,” that Eccleston gets, kind of, skipped over, in more ways than like, literally skipping him over, but people don’t tend to count him, or are dismissive towards him, when really he’s the first!

Lucia Kelly: He was the one who brought it back. He laid the foundation. He is essential to the success of why we’re now in the double digits of seasons, right? Like, he laid the groundwork. It was him and Billie Piper, and the lack of respect!

Talia Franks: Yeah. I think it’s because, and I’m fully open about the fact that I didn’t become a fan of Doctor Who until David Tennant’s run was over. Like, I’ve said, I started watching Doctor Who, when it was on Netflix already, right after Matt Smith wrapped his first season, so I wasn’t watching it live when the reboot first started, but from what I’ve learned, that Eccleston’s departure from the series was something that became known almost as soon as Doctor Who started airing. I think it was only a couple episodes into his season when it was announced that he wasn’t going to be returning as the Doctor and that David Tennant was going to be replacing him. (Lucia hmmms in contemplation)

Talia Franks: So I think that’s a lot of why David Tennant has overshadowed so much of the Ninth Doctor, you know, we never got to see the Ninth Doctor do so many things, and honestly, that’s actually why I appreciate The Unquiet Dead, cause we sort of did get to see Christopher Eccleston do his Christmas episode.

Lucia Kelly: Honestly yeah! He wouldn’t have got it otherwise. (Lucia laughs)

Talia Franks: We were saying that, “Oh, is this a Christmas episode?” Well, we did get to see him do his Christmas special!

Lucia Kelly: Yeah!

Talia Franks: But you know, it really sucks, but I, I do understand because he left so soon after he started, why David Tennant became everybody’s Doctor and became the face of New Who.

Lucia Kelly: There’s definitely also more of a kind of, cult following around David Tennant than there is Christopher Eccleston. I think that’s a big part of it.

Talia Franks: Yeah, there is such a cult following around David Tennant.

Lucia Kelly: I think that’s ahhh—really indicative of a lot of fandom culture, in terms of how, particularly when it’s primarily run and perpetuated by people who spend a lot of time on the internet and maybe don’t spend a lot of time socializing outside of that, it can get really echo chambery, and really sort of, heightened? Like, everything’s—like, when we take a step back, it’s a television show. They’re actors. It’s a job. It’s something that we enjoy. Yes. Story’s incredibly important. Yes. Entertainment is incredibly important. Yes, of course, fiction and reality have an incredibly strong bond and is one of the important tenants of humanity and civilization.

Lucia Kelly: Like, the way we tell stories is incredibly important. At the same time, let’s keep it all in perspective. (Talia laughs)

Talia Franks: Yeah.

Lucia Kelly: And I think that also definitely has had an impact, the fact that Christopher Eccleston, despite the fact that he deserves it! Does not have that same intensely loyal fan base. (Talia mhmms in agreement)

(Transition Wobbles) 

Talia Franks: We were talking before we started the recording, how we are listening to the audio dramas, and they’re so, so good. And I know that the audio dramas are—they’re a little bit hard to follow without visual cues, but just his voice and hearing him in the role of the Doctor again, was so amazing for me.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. It was surprisingly emotional. I was like, “Oh wait, there’s more Nine. I’m so excited.”

Talia Franks: I’ve read comics with Nine. I’ve read books with Nine, but like, hearing his voice and hearing him reprise the role really got me emotional again, and I really appreciated it, and you know, it made me think about, in relation to our podcast actually, because I was reading an interview with him in Doctor Who magazine, and he was talking in the interview about the strengths of the writing in the show and about how an actor is really nothing without the writing.

Talia Franks: And it was making me think about how we’ve been really hard on the writing this season. (Lucia wheezes with laughter) And I was thinking like, “Why have we been so hard on the writing this season?” Cause I was looking at our past grading and I was like, “We’ve been really hard on the writing.”

Talia Franks: And it made me think, you know, when we talk about writing, a lot of the times, we’re not precisely judging the flow of the story. We’re not always judging the strength of the dialogue. We’re not even always judging whether or not things make narrative sense. For me, it’s more about the content of the script, because I feel like something can be really well written, but for me, when I’ve been judging the writing, I’ve not been judging it on whether or not the syntax of the story works or whatever, basically, I think that something can look really good on paper and can be acted out well, but it’s still really bad.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. Yeah.

Talia Franks: For example, you can have actors saying things and acting them out well and having them make narrative sense, but have them be shitty things to say and do that don’t feel authentic to the character or don’t feel like they make sense outside of the bubble in which they are written.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. I feel like a lot of our harshness on the writing—I think definitely there’s a part of it where it’s like, we’re judging it from 20 years on, but there’s also been this kind of… this watch through is definitely the first time, like I always knew the Doctor was morally gray, I understood that kind of fundamentally, that he’s never been this pure, like that’s the companion’s role. The companion’s role is to be the good person. The Doctor’s role is to be morally gray.

Lucia Kelly: But this is the first time that I’m like, “Oh wait, the Doctor is morally gray and the narrative doesn’t hold him accountable for that.” And that’s what really bothered me, is that it’s fine, it’s great to have a morally gray protagonist, as long as that’s kept in perspective, and that doesn’t mean spoonfeeding the audience and telling them everything.

Lucia Kelly: But it does mean keeping your character accountable, have Rose call him out more often, have other people call it out more often, have things that he’s done affect him, like have him second guess himself, or talk about the sort of moral issues that he’s been having, and we have had some of that, but, I don’t know, it hasn’t felt nearly equal to the actions.

Talia Franks: Yeah. I think probably the issue with the writing, as I see it, isn’t a fault of the writers per se, as individuals, it’s more that the writing sometimes lacks consistency across episodes, because the episodes are written by different writers, sometimes produced by different directors.

Talia Franks: It feels sometimes like it’s not as cohesive as it could be. Some episodes feel very different from other episodes, which can be a real strength, but when it comes to holding the Doctor accountable, it’s something that doesn’t work out as well.

Lucia Kelly: Hmm. And also this is year one for the writing team.

Lucia Kelly: This is the first time they’ve all been together. This is the first season. And it’s also very common for the first season of any TV show to be much more kind of, especially in this format, kind of monster of the week. You tend to not get over arching season arcs or character development happening over multiple episodes with multiple different writers until the writing team is a bit more used to each other and knows how to work together better. And you have a bigger audience so that you can sort of, justify having these multi episodes arcs where you can be like, “Well, of course they understand this because they’ve watched the previous episode.”

Talia Franks: Yeah, no, that makes a lot of sense.

Talia Franks: And I think it’s also really unfair for Nine to only have this one season, because we only have one season to judge him on.

Lucia Kelly: Exactly, yeah.

Talia Franks: It puts a lot of pressure on Nine to only have one—like, we have one season to set up all of this, all of everything, and for better or for worse, that’s all we have of him.

Lucia Kelly: And also I’m just going to double check this before I say it with authority. (Lucia laughs)

Talia Franks: One thing I am going to say with authority is that the first mention of Torchwood is not in The Christmas Invasion. It’s in Bad Wolf.

Lucia Kelly: Is it?

Talia Franks: Yes.

Lucia Kelly: Hang on.

Talia Franks: The Anne-droid says to Broff “The great cobalt pyramid is built on the remains of which famous Old Earth Institute?” Broff says “Er, Touchdown?” and Android says “No Torchwood.”

Lucia Kelly: Which is just, I want—Oh! I want to know where, like at what point in the writing room were things like “This is the reality, this is real.”

Lucia Kelly: Like, “This is what this is. This is what this is,” like, at what point is it like, “This is what Torchwood is.” At what point is it “This is what Torchwood is originally. This is what Jack will make it.” At what point is it, “Do you know who The Face of Boe is? It’s Jack!” Like, at what point do people decide these things?

Lucia Kelly: And at what point do you start threading them in? Like, is it “I’m going to sort everything out before I even think about putting it in an episode,” or is it “I’m just going to sprinkle something in here and then, along the line, I’ll figure out what it means.”

Lucia Kelly: I want to know the intricacies of the writing room. (Talia starts singing)

Talia Franks: I wanna know if he really loves me.

(Transition wobbles)

Lucia Kelly: So, in terms of writing, the character work was really strong. I don’t think there was an episode where I was like, “That feels out of character.” It all felt like building layers, which was really good. So you have Rose as this, compassionate, very sort of, lawful good, character.

Lucia Kelly: And then as you get to know her more, it turns that, “Oh, wait, it actually goes further than that. She’s actually got a bit of a complex. She’s a bit of a Knight in Shining Armor. She doesn’t examine her privilege,” and all of this stuff makes her a more complicated character. I don’t think that’s very examined by the narrative, but I think those layers are there and you can read them.

Talia Franks: Yeah, but I just can’t reconcile that version of Rose with how she treats Mickey.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah.

Talia Franks: I can’t do it. And honestly, you say character work, but Mickey is so one dimensional.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. That is one of the sore points and weak points of this season, is the unexamined racist treatment of Mickey.

Lucia Kelly: It’s just not—like, if we want to talk about “products of the time”, the fact that all of the treatment of Mickey is so unexamined is really telling.

Talia Franks: Mm Hmm.

Talia Franks: There’s the teensiest bit of it in Boom Town. (Lucia mhmms in agreement) When he acknowledges that she treats him like shit, but then he still goes on to stan her and—(Talia trails off)

Lucia Kelly: And spoiler! That doesn’t stop in Season Two. It just keeps going.

Talia Franks: But we’re talking about Eccleston right now.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah.

Talia Franks: Eccleston!

Lucia Kelly: Eccleston! Yeah. So, New Who definitely set out to be darker than the original. We’ve talked a bit before about how Classic Who—it absolutely had deeper themes running through it and, you know, was the family show in the sense of everyone could watch it and be entertained, right?

Talia Franks: I mean, wasn’t it also kind of dark.

Talia Franks: I feel like Old Who was, I don’t know. I didn’t really watch a lot of Old Who, but I’ve seen some pretty dark episodes.

Talia Franks: I dunno, maybe kids’ television is just dark.

Lucia Kelly: Hmm, I mean, honestly? Yeah. But I think it was the gritty remake before gritty remakes became a thing. (Talia and Lucia laugh)

Lucia Kelly: Like, New Who has a very definitive, different flavor to Old Who, and it’s a lot more explicit about the fact that it’s dealing with darker subjects, and Eccleston really met that, really just stood up to the plate and met that, in a way that is so admirable.

Lucia Kelly: This whole setting up of the Doctor as someone with deep, unresolved trauma is down to Eccleston’s performance. I’m thinking particularly of Dalek. I’m thinking particularly of the few shining moments in The End of the World. (Lucia starts laughing but quickly sobers) I’m thinking about the finale.

Lucia Kelly: All of these episodes show the real depth of his performance. It’s not just larking about in a blue box, there are incredible emotional beats.

Talia Franks: Definitely, definitely.

Lucia Kelly: Which I think would bring us around to themes, which—I was so … surprised, I guess, by the strength of the themes in this first season? I kind of remember Season One being, yeah, a lark, sort of jumping about, just getting used to the idea, having fun, and the fact that these episodes have such strong resonance in terms of talking about things like trauma, like personhood, like family, like what constitutes family and what does it mean, and all of these things were so much stronger than I remembered them being.

Talia Franks: Yeah. I mean, when I rewatched Doctor Who, I mostly tend to rewatch the really fun episodes, the uplifting episodes, the romps or whatever.

Talia Franks: So rewatching the season made me realize how much Doctor Who makes me cry?

Talia Franks: Because I had to watch a whole bunch of emotional shit. And I was like, “Oh yeah, Doctor Who makes me cry a lot.”

Lucia Kelly: (Lucia mhmms in delight) Wait, how could it possibly be one of my favorite shows if it didn’t have deep emotional (Lucia breaks off and starts laughing)—if it didn’t make you cry?

Talia Franks: You and your big ball of emotion self.

Talia Franks: Yeah, but Doctor Who just whacked me in the feels with this season and—

Talia Franks: Yeah. The thing that I wish more than anything is that we could see a season with Eccleston without Rose. (Lucia snorts) No! Okay! Like, (Talia sighs) I’m just so fucking sick of Rose. I’m so sick of her. Just really sick of her. I had to go watch some episodes with other companions, because I was getting Rose overload. She’s so annoying. She’s so annoying.

Lucia Kelly: I don’t find her as annoying. I know Rose is a divisive companion. People either tend to really like her or really hate her.

Talia Franks: I don’t hate her. I just think she’s really immature, and full of herself, and she makes goo goo eyes, the Doctor all the time, and it’s annoying.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah.

Talia Franks: Where Martha is really competent, sure in herself, and she makes goo goo eyes at the Doctor, but accepts that it’s not going to happen, so moves on. (Lucia hmmms in contemplation)

Lucia Kelly: And this is where we get into this idea of the Doctor as a viable romantic partner, which—No. No. And the fact that that is also unexamined. (Talia and Lucia start laughing)

Lucia Kelly: It’s that, that is also unexamined, which is the real issue for me.

Lucia Kelly: And that it’s even called out, but then nothing is done! The fact that Jackie slaps the Doctor, because this is wrong. The fact that literally everyone around them is like, “Wait … you’re dating this older man.” And they don’t even know the full context of it, and they’re like, “This is wrong.” And then Rose on the roof is like “You’re 900 years old. That’s a hell of an age gap, lol lol lol lol lol.” And then keeps on going!

Talia Franks: You know, I would say Cassandra is actually in his age range. (Lucia laughs)

Lucia Kelly: Oh my gosh. Yes.

Talia Franks: She says he’s a little bit Foxy, like, they could work.

Lucia Kelly: We got Rose instead, which, and I think I said this on our very first episode, but Rose’s character is deeply compromised by her relationship with the Doctor. And I’m not talking morally, I’m talking about on a fundamental level, the character of Rose, the audience’s view of her, how she works within the narrative, is compromised because of this all consuming, all she can think about, overwhelming relationship, and pedestal, that she’s put the Doctor on.

Talia Franks: Yeah. And I think the main issue with it is that Billie Piper and David Tennant have too much chemistry. I was watching those episodes, and I had to keep reminding myself “Ten and Rose have a toxic relationship. This is bad. Their dynamic is bad,” but I was watching it, and I was like, “But they’re so cute!” (Talia laughs)

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. We’ve also got to keep reminding ourselves that Rose’s 19, right? Because Billie doesn’t look 19.

Talia Franks: I think she’s probably 20 at this point, she’s been traveling with the Doctor for a while. But what it’s time?

Lucia Kelly: What is time? And also her writing as a 19 year old is really inconsistent as well, like, sometimes she acts like a 24 year old, sometimes she acts like a 16 year old. It’s never really on the money. There’s glimpses of it, but it’s never consistent.

Talia Franks: It is never consistent. And I would want to say actually, because we were talking about the fact that neither of us are British, and we were talking about how we didn’t know much about the British school system.

Talia Franks: So I looked into it, and actually people can just leave school when they’re 16, they can just stop, and then like the last two years of school are optional. So, Rose leaving school when she was 15 is actually only leaving school a year early, but it’s still, I don’t know, I still get slightly mystified by the way the UK school system works.

 (Transition wobbles)

Lucia Kelly: So I think we’ve talked, have we talked out all our problems with Rose, or are there more? (Lucia laughs)

Talia Franks: I could make an entire episode just about my problems with Rose, but as I said, I’m sick about talking about her.

Lucia Kelly: Alright. What would you say, having seen the whole season, having analyzed it to the depth that we have, what are some really standout moments for you?

Talia Franks: The ones that are standing out to me most are “Stitch this mate,” “Only a killer would know that,” and “I bet you were never kissed in school.” (Talia laughs)

Lucia Kelly: I love that. I love that combo.

Talia Franks: Which are three different things that women said to the Doctor, or did the Doctor when he pissed them off.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. Putting him in his place. Like “Uh uh. Let’s take a minute.” (Lucia laughs)

Talia Franks: And also “It’s not your decision, Doctor. It’s mine.” (Lucia Mmms in agreement)

Lucia Kelly: Yeah.

Talia Franks: Putting the doctor in his place.

Lucia Kelly: Oh, oh Harriet. We’ll get there. (Lucia groans and laughs in nervous anticipation)

Lucia Kelly: Okay, to me, stand out moments would probably be—

Lucia Kelly: (Lucia sighs) They’re all sad. (Lucia laughs) On brand.

Lucia Kelly: Definitely one of the moments, like, when I think of Nine, the moment that I think of the most is, the cage scene in Dalek, is just phenomenal. It’s such a good introduction to the Daleks. It’s such a good introduction to the Doctor’s capacity, and the palpable danger that you feel in that episode is insane. (Talia mhmms in agreement)

Lucia Kelly: So there’s that scene.

Lucia Kelly: I feel like pulling something out of Father’s Day just to make you cry. But, (Lucia dissolves into giggles) uh, what are some other stand out moments?

Lucia Kelly: “Everybody lives” is always good, and, yeah, the scene between Blon Fel-Fotch and the Doctor in Boom Town, the diner scene, is just (Lucia makes chef’s kiss kissing noises) chef’s kiss. Perfect. No notes.

Talia Franks: Everything you just picked is stuff I made into Instagram posts.

Lucia Kelly: Is it? There you go. I have excellent taste. (Lucia laughs)

Talia Franks: I made an Instagram post about “Only a killer would know that.” I made an Instagram post about “Everybody lives.” I made an Instagram post about the scene from Father’s Day where he’s like, “Yes, I’ll try and save you,” that whole quote.

Lucia Kelly: Oh, I thought you were going to talk about when Peter talks to Rose about the reason that he’s got to sacrifice himself.

Talia Franks: No, no.

Talia Franks: The Instagram post I made is when the Doctor says, “Who said, you’re not important, I’ve traveled all sorts of places, done things you couldn’t imagine, but you two, street corner, two in the morning, getting a taxi home. I’ve never had a life like that. Yes. I’ll try and save you,”

Lucia Kelly: And that quote, which is something I think gets missed outside of the Russell T Davies era, is grounding the episodes in everyday humanity. (Talia mhmms in agreement)

Lucia Kelly: We’re going to talk about this a little more. I’ve got a whole speech planned for Christmas Invasion where they really ground the scale, and the emotional scale, of that episode by making it about everyday, ordinary people. (Talia mhmms in agreement)

Lucia Kelly: And it’s something I missed. It’s something that’s not really present past Russell T Davies’ stewardship of the show.

Talia Franks: I mean, you kind of get it a little bit in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe.

Talia Franks: Little bit, not quite, and also there’s that creepy scene where she’s like, “He followed me home every day until I said I would marry him,” which I hate that. I hate that so much.

Lucia Kelly: That’s not a reason to marry him, girl. Get out of there!

Talia Franks:—to marry him, girl. That’s not a reason.

Talia Franks: I don’t actually like The Doctor, The Widow, and the Wardrobe. I’m just saying that’s a little bit of an example of the Doctor dropping in on someone’s domestic everyday life. (Lucia hmmms in agreement)

Talia Franks: And also The Lodger! The Lodger and Closing Time are my favorite episodes with Eleven.

(Transition wobbles)

Lucia Kelly: All right. So we’ve talked about stand out moments. I think it might be time to talk about the final grade. Are we ready? (Lucia laughs)

Talia Franks: The final grade. So are we going to give it a final grade or are we gonna just talk about what the grading rubric says?

Lucia Kelly: I think we should give it a final grade. I mean, you’ve made those beautiful, beautiful report cards, which I can’t wait for the listeners to see. They’re so good. (Lucia laughs)

Talia Franks: I’m going to post pictures on our social media, but you can also download the PDFs from our website. (Talia laughs)

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. So Talia has convinced me to be kind. And to—(Talia and Lucia laugh) So we are going to be scaling the final grade for this season.

Talia Franks: What we’re gonna do is we’re going to drop the lowest grade in every category. So it won’t matter for acting because every episode got a five out of five, but there were a few episodes who, let’s say did not perform as well as they could have, in certain categories like, uh, science.

Lucia Kelly: Like science! Like the science in some was lacking!

Talia Franks: The science in a few episodes could have been a little better, but you know, there’s always room for growth.

Lucia Kelly: Apart from, and I do think we should address this, I find it hysterical that The Empty Child and The Doctor Dances got full marks, particularly because of our marked dislike for Steven Moffat and what he did to the Canon as a whole. (Talia and Lucia laugh)

Talia Franks: Cause honestly, he broke Canon.

Lucia Kelly: He broke Canon. So many times.

Talia Franks: Doctor Who canonically doesn’t have Canon, but—

Lucia Kelly: Except that it does.

Talia Franks: The Sonic Screwdriver is a magic wand, Lucia. (Lucia makes unaccepting noises) Accept it.

Talia Franks: It can blow up a Christmas tree. It can reconstitute barbed wire. It’s a magic wand.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. Oh. I’ve talked before about how I used to love Steven Moffat and I’d look forward to each of his episodes cause they were always great. And I think it’s a real case study for—how should I put this—knowing your capacity. (Lucia and Talia laugh)

Lucia Kelly: Like Steven Moffat is actually, genuinely, brilliant at writing one episode, two episode arcs. They are some of the best episodes of Doctor Who. There’s simply no getting around that. He is very good at that. The problem is when you give him power. (Lucia laughs)

Lucia Kelly: The problem is when you say you’re really good at this skill, let’s give you control of the whole season. And that’s where it falls apart. Long—term arcs? Never heard of her! (Talia and Lucia laugh)

Lucia Kelly: And that’s unfortunate and it’s sad. And it also gave room for a lot of the sort of, really just blatantly misogynistic language and characterization of a lot of the female characters in Doctor Who. (Talia mhmms in agreement)

Lucia Kelly: That flattened out absolutely everyone. Made them all two dimensional. Made them all objects for male gaze. It’s a bad time.

Talia Franks: Not a good time. Seriously, like in The Robot of Sherwood, there’s only two female characters and they do not talk to each other.

Talia Franks: Maid Marian is literally left as a present for Robin Hood at the end of the episode. Literally that’s the language that they use. The Doctor says that he’s “leaving him a present” and the present is that Marian is left for Robin Hood to find.

Talia Franks: It’s not that the Doctor brings Marian and is like, “Hey, Marian was with me and I rescued her or whatever. No, she’s just hanging out in the TARDIS alone until they leave, and then the TARDIS disappears, and then Marian is just standing there, cause she was hanging out in the TARDIS the whole time that they were saying goodbye to Robin Hood and his men.

Talia Franks: And so then at the end of the episode, Robin Hood goes and he’s like, “Marian, it’s you,” or whatever, and then he kisses her, and he’s really excited. So he kisses her and they embrace or whatever, and then he lets go of her, runs away, and shoots an arrow into the air, shouting, “Thank you, Doctor!” It’s the most ridiculous ending to an episode I’ve ever seen in my life.

Lucia Kelly: Oh, I cannot wait to talk about that episode.

Talia Franks: But that’s like, Season Eight. So we’ll get there. (Lucia groans in uneasy expectation)

Lucia Kelly: Not him having creative control over one of the first three dimensional, interesting, female characters in English folklore. Surely not.

Talia Franks: She literally has the personality of a dead fish in that episode.

Lucia Kelly: It’s fine. I’m fine. We’ll get there.

Talia Franks: I rewatched it recently and that’s actually one of the better episodes in that season.

Lucia Kelly: I’m telling you if listeners like hearing me rant about science, wait until they hear me rant about feminism. (Talia and Lucia laugh)

Lucia Kelly: All right. The grading.

Talia Franks: Yes. Let’s talk about the grading. We just know the acting’s a five out of five because Christopher Eccleston was the Doctor in this season. So—(Lucia mhmms in agreement)

Talia Franks: I keep saying, I want to give it a six, but Lucia won’t let me. (Lucia mhmms in agreement again)

Lucia Kelly: Not allowed. No 101% out of anything.

Lucia Kelly: So, production also did really well. I was consistently impressed by how … how pretty everything was. Not necessarily in terms of roses and flowers or whatever, pretty, but everything was so cohesive, everything really worked. There was a real sense of place and location. The lighting? Always gorgeous. The way that the cameras moved, and the way the shots were framed. Everything was pretty, it was really nice. Especially considering—

Talia Franks: That they spent all their money on aliens?

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. The budget? There was none. And yet this is what they produced.

Lucia Kelly: And actually I think that the quality of production actually drops when they get more of a budget in later seasons, which is interesting, like in terms of sometimes making things shiny isn’t better.

Lucia Kelly: I actually really super enjoyed the sort of everyday-ness of a lot of the sets. (Talia mhmms in agreement) I’m thinking of, when we talk about the original Star Wars movies, one of the things that George Lucas was really insistent on was that all of the sets looked lived in. That nothing could be shiny. Nothing could be new. It had to look like a lived in world, which was really abnormal for sci-fi at the time.

Lucia Kelly: It was not the norm to do that. Everything was shiny, everything was perfect. And so that led to a really different visual language for the Star Wars movies that made them stand out a lot more. And I felt that in this first season of Doctor Who. Everything felt lived in, in a way that just showed that extra care to detail in terms of the production team and the kind of effort they put into it.

Lucia Kelly: And I really appreciated it.

Talia Franks: Production five?

Lucia Kelly: Uh, Production was not quite a perfect five.

Talia Franks: Fine, 4.5.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. 4.5. So still an A grade. What was next, writing?

Lucia Kelly: We’ve already talked about writing. Patchy, at most. Really good in some areas, really terrible in others, and again, I feel like a lot of that is down to just cohesiveness.

Lucia Kelly: But yeah, no. It’s got an average of—

Talia Franks: It’s current average is 3.7. I was going to give writing a four.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah. I’m good with rounding up for this.

Talia Franks: All right. And then science?

Lucia Kelly: Oh, science.

Talia Franks: I was going to say, I thought the science for the season, as a whole, wasn’t that bad. I was going to be generous and give it a 3.5.

Lucia Kelly: Okay. All right. I’m giving it a three. Solidly in the middle.

Talia Franks: So I think for Rewatchability, we should give it a five. Cause I would definitely watch this season again.

Talia Franks: Even Father’s Day, which we gave the Rewatchability a two, just because it’s sad. I would still rewatch it sometimes, when I want to cry. But only if I really, really wanted to cry.

Lucia Kelly: Yeah, no. Not gonna lie. Father’s Day was rough. But it’s so good! I love it so much.

Talia Franks: Anyway, the point is, this season is a 100% rewatchable. If you’re going to rewatch a whole season of Doctor Who. This is the one I’d want to rewatch.

Talia Franks: Season Two is going to get to zero because I hate rewatching Season Two.

Lucia Kelly: I have really fond memories of Season Two. I think next season is going to be really interesting, cause I think we’re going to have a lot of differing opinions.

Talia Franks: I hate it. I hate it so much.

Lucia Kelly: I’ve got fond memories of this season. I’ve got fond, fond memories of this season, and I cannot wait to talk to you about it, but before we do that, what is the final grade for season one?

Talia Franks: Let’s see. That is a B plus. And because we dropped the lowest grade of the season, the final grade is worth 10% of the grade.

Talia Franks: So, final grade is a B.

Lucia Kelly: Lovely.

Lucia Kelly: Well, we’ve come to an end of an era. A short era, but a very significant one. (Talia mhmms in agreement) Time to say goodbye to Christopher Eccleston. He will be missed. He was a brilliant first Doctor for New Who. A brilliant Ninth doctor.

Lucia Kelly: And now we’re moving on. We will be discussing next episode, The Christmas Invasion, the first official Christmas episode of Doctor Who, and the very first full episode with David Tennant as the Doctor.

Lucia Kelly: And I’m very excited to talk about it,

Talia Franks: Why? It’s boring as fuck. (Lucia bursts out laughing)

Lucia Kelly: But there are so many items of discussion.

Talia Franks: And on that note,

Talia Franks: Bye.

Lucia Kelly: Bye.

Talia Franks: This has been the Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Podcast.

Lucia Kelly: We hope you enjoyed this adventure with us through space and time.

Talia Franks: You can find us elsewhere on the internet, on Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram as @WibblyPod. Follow us for more wibbly, wobbly content.

Lucia Kelly: You can find out more information about us and our content on wibblywobblytimeywimey.net And full transcripts for episodes at wibblywobblytimeywimey.net/transcripts

Talia Franks: If you’d like to get in touch, you can send us an email at wibblywobblytimeywimeypod@gmail.com.

Lucia Kelly: Please rate and review us on apple podcasts and other platforms as it helps other people find us and our content.

Talia Franks: Special thanks to our editor Owen Elphick, who has been a vital member of the Wibbly Wobbly team

Lucia Kelly: That’s all for now. Catch you in the time vortex!