3 Responses to "Staggering Stories Podcast #30: Sweeping the Clanger"

1. Nathan B says:

   6 October 2008 at 11:10

   Sweep v Clangers – genius! Absolute genius! It really cheered up my crappy Sunday night!

   My favourite TARDIS moment – The whole first segment of Castrovalva. It showed that, no matter how great the TARDIS is, if something goes wrong you are in deep dodo. The cloister bell was downright creepy.

   Least favourite companion moment – Deadly Assassin – there was no companion and I think the story suffered as a result. An interesting experiment but the format that works is Doctor + Companion = Success. Dropping the companion was a bad idea and was one of the reasons I didn’t enjoy the one last season where the Doc was stuck on a tour bus without Donna.

   Sorry you didn’t like Batman – I loved it – and I HATED Wall-E (had to take my nephew and couldn’t wait for it to end)
   I agree with Adam – I’m fed up of knowing how films will end. We need some new writers with imagination, flair and new ideas or the film industry will stagnate.

   By the way, loved Fake Keith’s ‘Incline of Moderate Inconvenience’ story – sounds like you guys were lucky to make it past 30 let alone 40!!!

   Peace

   Nathan

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2. Adam J Purcell says:

   8 October 2008 at 08:57

   Hi Nathan!

   Sweep vs. the Clangers. Entirely Fake Keith’s idea and one that, I suspect, will be hard to top! Very glad to hear that people enjoyed it, I’d have hated to buy that swanee whistle for nothing! Seriously tempted to buy a kazoo to go along with it. Anyone for a round of swanee kazoo?!

   Yes, Castrovalva (sounds painful!). Don’t think I’ve seen more than clips of that since it originally aired. I really should rewatch it fully sometime. I remember really liking the idea of the zero room and the zero cabinet. I’m not so sure I like the idea so much now, particularly the bit about separating a part of the TARDIS’s internal dimensions and putting it in a box. I suppose it’s not too bad when I think about it. Seems odd, though. I should rewatch it!

   As for the companionless Doctor… Yes, I tend to agree, it doesn’t work. Perversely that’s one of the things I did like about Midnight – it really (and deliberately) highlighted the fact that it doesn’t work very well without a companion. Though, having said that, some of the Doctor’s magic (for want of a better word) is robbed by the companion. Look at some the the iconic ‘lonely god’ Doctor moments recently – the vengeful Doctor of The Family of Blood, the mysterious Doctor of Blink (mostly Martha free) and even Love and Monsters (the flash backs to Elton’s childhood I’m really thinking of). The there’s the moments from the Christmas specials The Runaway Bride (that shot of him surrounded by water and fire) and Voyage of the Damned (clicking his fingers to summon the robots to ‘ascend’ him to the bridge). He seems to be at his most powerful and dangerous when there’s no one there to reign him in. Hmm, so maybe the format of the programme doesn’t work without a companion but the Doctor certainly could.

   Anyway, The Dark Knight (Batman, not the Doctor!) Yes, I will certainly watch it again, at home. Perhaps it’s one that works better for me the second time around. Perhaps not being shattered might help my impression of it too. My views on it are certainly tentative right now! Haven’t seen WALL-E but I’ve enjoyed some of Pixars stuff (Toy Story, The Incredibles but not Monsters Inc or Cars) so I’ll certainly give it a go. I’m hoping it will be a thumbs up from me but could go either way.

   As for Hollywood’s formulaic nature, glad to hear someone else agrees with me. It’s probably particularly bad in the ‘blockbuster’ genre (or perhaps group would be a better word). Lowest common denominator stuff. It doesn’t all suffer from that, or if it does then some films manage to transcend the limitations in some way. Recent(ish) films I’ve come away from the cinema really impressed with are Batman Begins (yep – I really enjoyed the first one of this new series) and Casino Royale. Perhaps because they both subverted my expectations from previous films with those characters. Iron Man was pretty high up there too – that’s definitely one that _just_ managed to transcend its very formulaic plot.
   It takes quite a film to impress me nowadays. TV is where all the ideas are now, it seems. The serial nature (or, at least, rapid serial nature as compared to film series) probably helps a great deal. It’s hard for a 2 hour film (or even 2 hour films every other year) to compete with the complex stories that can be done with the likes of Heroes, Babylon 5 or even the new Doctor Who.

   Only two of us have hit 40 (two of them, perhaps I should say!) but the other two aren’t far behind! Sadly, probably luckily, I wasn’t present for that not-so ‘slight incline of moderate inconvenience’ escapade! We really should do more conventions but we are probably all far too old for that sort of thing now! A gentler sort of convention, with comfy arm chairs, those little tartan blankets and a warm fire might be more our style now!

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3. Tin Dog Bloke says:

   10 October 2008 at 16:14

   Fially I get my MP3 player back from the repair shop so I can listen to you all properly.

   Great show as always

   I fear I could be the only one that found WALL-E a bit long. But still very enjoyable. Im looking forward to Chocky (found the 1967 radio adaptation) and fell for it once more. There are some great bits in the book. (Chocky laughing at a new car is a great moment) XXX XXX XXX. shame we forgot what it means…..

   Sweep Vs Clangers was inspired!

   If I can get my recorder functional soon. Ill send some more feedback.

   ttfn

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