Across the Whoniverse: A Doctor Who Marathon Podcast
A Doctor Who marathon podcast hosted by Chels & Paige
Across the Whoniverse: A Doctor Who Marathon Podcast
S01E07 "The Long Game" w/ Merrilee O'Neil & Brian Richards
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Time Lords! This week, returning companion Merrilee O'Neil from the Glitterjaw Queer Podcast Collective has helped us kidnap new companion Brian Richards to travel forward 200,000 years to Satellite Five.
The Doctor, Rose, and Adam Mitchell travel to a space station that broadcasts across the entire Fourth Great and Bountiful Human Empire but things aren't quite right. Technology is behind, attitudes towards aliens are off, and somebody is manipulating the media. Plus, our new companion goes on a side quest for his own self-interests.
We compare the state of media now to the disappearing of journalists and manipulations on Satellite Five and discuss how this episode inspired the Doctor and companion-lite episodes in the future. Plus, we ask ourselves, would you have a ten minute surgery to install a USB port into your forehead?
Join us as we travel Across the Whoniverse!
Email us with questions or comments at AcrossTheWhoniversePod@gmail.com
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Across the Whoniverse
Paige
Chels
...Welcome to Across the Hooniverse, a Doctor Who Marathon Podcast. I'm your friendly neighborhood Time Lord Chelsea and I'm your Muppet of a Time Lord Page. And y'all, we're having so much fun. Our very own Rose Tyler. We've kidnapped her before. Marily, welcome.
SPEAKER_01Um, hi. I'm so lucky, honored. I'm I'm I'm out of, I don't have any words. Like being compared to Rose Tyler. Thank you. What a compliment.
SPEAKER_03I know. And luckily, you're not alone. We have kidnapped another human being. My goodness, who do I even compare you to? Because I love all the companions. Brian, you're one in a million. Welcome. Thank you for joining us all in the TARDIS. Thank you for letting us kidnap you today.
SPEAKER_00Chels, you are far too kind as always, and thank you for having me. Glad to be here.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much. So, Marilee, we already know a little bit about your who story. We got that last time with you and Gavin. Brian, tell us all about how you got into Doctor Who and just some of your favorite stories across space and time.
SPEAKER_00I first got into Doctor Who many, many moons ago, back when if you wanted to watch a show or catch up on a show, you would have to watch those TV shows on DVD. And so once I learned about the existence of Doctor Who, I figured, you know what, let me give this a shot. So I rented the first season with uh Christopher Eccleston on uh DVD from the public library and support your public library always. And it got me hook it got me hooked, although it took me a while to continue my binge watch of Doctor Who until my partner, who is a huge fan of the show, convinced me to start watching it from the very beginning, and we've been watching every season since then with the except we still haven't finished watching the season with Shuty Gatwa, and we kind of tapered off watching the uh season with as I'm blanking on I'm blanking Jody Whitaker, am I remembering correctly? Yes, thank you. I was I was this close to saying Jody Comer is like, no, no, no, that's another joke. That's another Jody with a there are three Jodies in entertainment and Jody Comer would be amazing in Doctor Who, though.
SPEAKER_02Jody Comer as the master. Picture this. Yes.
SPEAKER_00I mean, granted, we would have a lot of uh uh random fans going, hmm, you know who would be a really good companion for? Sandra O. For reasons.
SPEAKER_02For reasons, and I would be one of them. For reasons.
SPEAKER_00So would I.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. So they should make out Matardis. Sorry, I've derailed us now.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, it's okay. My I did I clearly haven't didn't help, but I've been enjoying Doctor Who ever ever since in terms of my favorites. It's hard to keep track because there are so there are so many, and I would need a list, but I would definitely say that my top favorites would be um Tenant, Capaldi. And just because they deserve a lot more love than they've been getting just from their own fan base, I have to give it up to Shooty and to Jody.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Love here's the the real answer is all of them are great. We love everybody around, or else we wouldn't be podcasting about it.
SPEAKER_00I mean, when you put it like that, I mean it's hard to argue. So yeah.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Like flawless reasoning. And Marile, we already know your hoostery a little bit, but let me interrogate you. Who are some of your favorite companions? This is the hardest question because, again, they're all great.
SPEAKER_01100%. They are all great, but some companions are more beloved than others, even though you love them all.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_01Um, and to me, the obvious answer is Donna Noble and Rory Williams.
SPEAKER_03Rory is one of my favorites because I love a nurse who wants to fight the doctor.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Yes, you get it. Like, um, like Martha, again, incredible companion. Rose, incredible companion. Um, like there, there are so many other incredible people, especially in the later run, that I don't think get as much love as they deserve to. Uh, even as I am not giving them their flowers in this particular moment. Because again, my favorite all time is Donna Noble, who is just such a fun energy to bounce off of. And Rory Williams Pond, my guy forever. I love that little, he's just like a wet cat who's who will scratch you in the face. And I adore that energy.
SPEAKER_03That is so real. Like, nobody has ever been more done with it over it than Rory. Like, that is an energy I relate to. Like, yes, you should be suspicious of this person in a box kidnapping people in the middle of the night before weddings. Come on.
SPEAKER_01Yes, exactly. And like, the fact of the matter is that he grew up in the shadow of the doctor, and so he knows he knows exactly how important this person is to Amy, the love of his life, and he doesn't like let him go away with anything, and it's perfect.
SPEAKER_03And people should challenge the doctor. Those are like my favorite companions who do that. Yes. But we're gonna we're gonna go way back. We're going all the way back. Series one, baby, to series one, episode seven. The long game, written by Russell T. Davies, directed by Brian Grant. Not no relation to the Brian here. The Brian here is way cooler. This originally aired on the 7th of May, 2005, and it features the ninth doctor, Rose Tyler, and that dumb bitch Adam Mitchell.
SPEAKER_02Hate to see him.
SPEAKER_03Hate to see him. And we're just in the year, oh my gosh, 200,000, which is how old I feel these days. And we're on Satellite 5, which is allegedly orbiting Earth. Who's to say? So here's our little TARDIS fandom synopsis. Uh the Ninth Doctor has a new companion, Adam Mitchell, and he's on his first TARDIS trip, baby. This little boy wonder. Uh, what a dumbass. So the ship materializes on Satellite 5, a space station that broadcasts across the entire fourth great and bountiful human empire. Sure, nothing great about humans. However, something is amiss. The empire's attitude and technology are backwards. Those who are promoted to floor 500 simply disappear. And humanity is possibly being manipulated by the news? That would never happen now. And who exactly is the sinister editor's employer? Y'all, what are your impressions of this episode? I know we a few of us talked a little bit before we started recording, but do you remember the first time you watched it and how does it hold up on rewatch?
SPEAKER_01I watched this in in on May 7th in 2005, and I'm not sure I ever rewatched it. Um but yeah, so I I watched it when it aired. Again, I was I was an early like I watched it on sci-fi channel. I um this this episode kind of haunted me. I always remembered that last shot. Um, and I remember thinking that's maybe one of the most fucked up things that I ever saw in Doctor Who. Like it's a it is a it is a big list, a lot of things, but this one always really stuck with me, especially because it's like so fucked up so early on. Um, and then I never really thought about it again outside of that one factor. So re-watching it for this, wow, wow, we've never changed. We never will change. It's all exactly the same.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. Brian, what about you?
SPEAKER_00Well, I'm going off of the impression of when I recently when I recently watched it to prepare uh for this episode. I don't recall how I felt about it the first couple of times I did watch it, but watching it now it hits uh it definitely hits much harder in its portrayal of the media and how it's controlled and how a lot of participants in the media, particularly journalists, seemingly care more about having access than they do about revealing revealing the truth that people need to know and actually doing their jobs, which of course is somewhat possible to relate to this day and age.
SPEAKER_03It would never happen right now. What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_00No, not no, not at all. Everyone is like everyone is like Lois Lane in the in the media, but it definitely it it's watching the episode definitely brought a lot of influences to mind in terms of what it reminded me of it. There were sections that reminded me of the running man, others reminded me of the fifth element. And all in all, I would definitely say it is a solid episode and definitely gives it definitely works in terms of being the media satire that it's a that it's aiming to be, and Adam as a whole just needs to be thrown in the trash.
SPEAKER_03Right, right in the trash compactor. Star Wars style, just throw them in there.
SPEAKER_00But overall, a very solid and impressive episode, I would say.
SPEAKER_03I would say too. Paige, what about you? Because this episode has like a reputation of being one of the worst of the Ninth Doctor's run.
SPEAKER_02Really? That's interesting to me. I mean, it's definitely not my favorite episode, but I've I've there are worse episodes, I would say. Um, the thing that I mean, it is not the most important part of the episode, but the thing that sticks out the most in my brain about this episode is the guy in the ceiling with the teeth. I was describing this episode to a friend of mine that claims that Doctor Who is too scary, so she can't watch it. And I was like, Yeah, it had a guy coming through the ceiling with like a bunch of teeth and stuff, and she's like, Exactly. You proved my point right there.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like weird alien blob that has to be cold for some reason, but also has like kind of a face and teeth and is gonna eat you up.
SPEAKER_02Right, but no eyes. And I do love our monster of the week situation. Anytime an episode has a monster of the week, I'm on board.
SPEAKER_03I love a monster of the week. Like, as we've said before, and we'll continue to say, there's just something so comforting about knowing the story will wrap up in one or two episodes and being like, yeah, we're on to the next thing. It's great. You can just hop in and out. But yes, this episode, I guess I'll jump from like our little notes towards the end. And most Doctor Who polls, whenever they're asked like best and worst of like the ninth Doctor season, this has ranked last so many times, like dead last as the worst. And learning that and re-watching it today, I'm like, really? Because I got way more out of it this time, as we've all kind of alluded to with the whole media and control and people being puppets and a lot of the things about technology and chips being inserted and knowing everything once it's around us. I mean, it just reminded me of all the cell phones collecting our data and selling it to entities.
SPEAKER_02It was just so much foreshadowing. Like the show was so ahead of its time in some episodes.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like they filmed this 22 years ago, released it 21, and I'm like, oh wow, all of us four-year-olds, we were really young and absorbing all this information when it originally aired. Yeah, that's definitely how old I was. Yeah, we were all four years old.
SPEAKER_00All of us.
SPEAKER_03All of us. But no, let's just jump in the TARDIS and hit the time vortex. We're gonna get into some of this plot because it's actually pretty deep, and as Paige said, really scary. Like they really took Spirit Halloween to the next level. Jump in the TARDIS. The Doctor and Rose exit the TARDIS, and the doctor immediately feeds Rose all the information that it's the year 200,000, and they're on a space station. And then, like, they're looking around, seeing what they should do next. And next thing you know, Rose opens the TARDIS and ushers like a completely bewildered Adam out of it and looks around and relays the information as if she's coming up with it. And I fucking love expert Rose Tyler just trying to impress this dumbass boy. And the doctor is just looking at her, looking all proud. What y'all think of this cute little interaction before we get into the horrors?
SPEAKER_01I thought it was very cute. Like, uh, I love the relationship between Rose and Nine and him just telling her everything to make her seem impressive to the boy that she kind of likes. Cute, cute, we like that.
SPEAKER_03We do. I mean, we've all tried to impress like a cute dumbass in our life who really did not deserve our attention. And you know what, Rose? We get it. We've been there. But she leads them through a gate to an observation deck and kind of just lets the doctor take over at this point because I do love that Rose is always amazed by just an observation deck and looking down at Earth. And he's like, Yeah, this station's orbiting the planet Earth during the fourth great and bountiful human empire. And this is Satellite 5. Earth is clearly covered in mega cities, like from our view, and apparently has a population of 96 billion with millions of planets and species, everybody interacting. And I love that Adam just faints. And the doctor just teases Rose that he's your boyfriend, to which she responds, not anymore. Like, I love that Rose immediately not impressed once this man faints.
SPEAKER_02Over him, just immediately.
SPEAKER_03Over him. It's like, mm, not hot. She got the ick.
unknownMm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00I do appreciate um when Rose is expositing to Adam and lying as it and passing off the information if it's her own that the doctor is looking proudly as if if there's one thing that I would say the doctor prides himself on, other than his genius and his skill at getting stuff done, it's it's showmanship in a way. And Rose is kind of like he's the doctor is kind of like uh old school magician, and Rose is acting as his protege, and Rose following his footsteps and doing the exact same thing and expressing her own knowledge of what's happening and where they are, and just trying to tell Adam what he needs to know. You can just see him standing back, who's like, Yep, that's my girl, that's my Rose.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because like he gives her the information, but she is that showman you're talking about. She's like, based on the architecture and looking around, being real dramatic, like going for the Oscar, she's like, mm, yeah, 200,000. It was so cute.
unknownIt was.
SPEAKER_03And we go from that cute moment, smash right into credits. And I watch these every single time through I will never skip credits. Y'all, if you skip credits on anything, even the Netflix shows, I'm gonna judge you.
SPEAKER_00Shame on y'all.
SPEAKER_03Bring back opening credit sequences. But then our trio wanders around the space station, and the doctor is just like hyping up this period as like the pinnacle of human culture, and there's like great fine cuisine, and people are so well-mannered. We're so cultured, y'all. But then this station just becomes like a county fair with all kinds of junk food, and there's only humans around. And Rose is immediately like questioning a confused doctor's knowledge of history, and the doctor's like, mm-mm, something's wrong. I'm gonna investigate. And he's like, here's some money for you, Adam. And I'm gonna send you two off and I'm gonna go wander around. I like that he's like, no, you go away. I gotta go investigate. I love a suspicious doctor.
SPEAKER_02I would be so interested to see what kind of food is in that market. Because what is the food like in the year 200,000?
SPEAKER_00Seriously, I would be too.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, it's kind of like beef, is what Rose said. Yeah, like is what is kind of weird.
SPEAKER_00I mean, I too would like to know what a Kronk burger is and what it tastes like.
SPEAKER_02Right? I'm curious. Is it like bug protein? Because bugs are the meat of the future, apparently.
SPEAKER_00Do they taste better than steamed hams? I mean, I need to know.
SPEAKER_03We have to get answers. But as the doctor's wandering around, he meets journalists, Kathaka and Suki, and pretends to be a management person and who's just testing them about like their knowledge of the station. And Kathica's like, I need to get promoted. I want to go to floor 500. I have heard the rumors of the walls of gold. I need to get on up. And she gives him the little tour answering all his little questions and explaining that Satellite V is a new station that broadcasts over 600 channels across the empire. Y'all remember when 600 channels was impressive?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I do.
SPEAKER_03How many of those are like really bad music channels that are essentially Spotify and Pandora playlists?
SPEAKER_00Uh you mean the music choice channels? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I mean, I I think the better question would be how many of those channels are just like subway surfers with somebody reading Reddit stories?
SPEAKER_00With the really with the really tiny microphones.
SPEAKER_03You know what? That's my dream job. This is just TikTok at this point. Yeah. And then as she's giving this tour, we see like a camera spying on them and cut to a creepy Simon Pegg, aka the editor, standing in this dark, icy room and orders a security check to be done. And when I say creepy, it is giving like full Mr. Freeze villain in the moment. And I'm like, Simon Pegg, you are aging like milk right now. Um, you're doing a great job as a villain.
SPEAKER_00He's just missing all the really bad puns.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03All of them. You know what? This did need more Mr. Freeze puns. That is my favorite Batman movie.
SPEAKER_01It would be. Oh my god.
SPEAKER_03Well, that and Batman Returns. I'm cultured. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah. Although I do have to give some love to Batman Forever just because it has Nicole Kidman as the hottest psychiatrist in all of film.
unknownDr.
SPEAKER_03That's very incredible.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03Without Batman Forever, we do not get Chase Infinity as we know her.
SPEAKER_01I just, you know, the thing is, I don't know what choices they were making. What they looked at Simon Pegg and decide, hey, let's make his hair bright white so that his face all looks exactly the same color, because that's exactly what was happening here. And it was just such a choice that was made.
SPEAKER_03I mean, this is what Elon Musk would look like in a space station. So they were really ahead of their time. I guess that's fair.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. My apologies to Simon Pegg, but the editor was him as the editor was kind of giving off like evil James Corden energy, which is to say that he was just giving off James Corden energy.
SPEAKER_03Not an energy anyone wants to give off. No. And sadly, we're gonna have to visit that energy in a few seasons. RIP baby.
SPEAKER_00But until then.
SPEAKER_03But until then, we cut to an overwhelmed Adam telling Rose that he just misses his family. And Rose lets him use her little superphone to call his family like 198,000 years ago. And he leaves a message for them on the answering machine. Remember, answering machines.
SPEAKER_00And when you had to order the separate caller ID.
SPEAKER_03You did have to do that. That was really annoying. But you felt like you were fancy once you got it.
SPEAKER_01Very true.
SPEAKER_03Oh, we're old, y'all.
SPEAKER_01I don't know what you're talking about. I was four years old with this episode.
SPEAKER_03You don't know what an answering machine is. You don't know what that is. No, never. But the doctor calls them both to come on over. We're gonna investigate. But Adam clearly gets a bad idea as like he's pocketing Rose's superphone. He's like, hmm, I'm gonna do some evil shit later. He's not subtle, but we cut back to I see Simon Pegg completing his security check, and he says, somebody down there shouldn't be there. And he has the Dr. Rose, Adam Suki, and Kathica followed. And Kathica takes them to this room where the reporters are sitting in this weird circle and it kind of looks like a cult, so yeah, the media. And she's like, we're gonna demonstrate a buy-the-book gathering of the news, which must be open, honest, and beyond bias, you know, just like today. Kathica is hoping that this demonstration will help her get a promotion to floor 500, and she sits in this chair in the middle of the reporter's circle, and we see this weird port thing open in the middle of her forehead. And boy oh boy, is that a sight. But on her queue, the reporters press their hands to the weird panels in front of them, and like an energy beam goes like from them straight to Kathica's little port in her brain. And it turns out she's being used like a computer to process all the news from Satellite 5, and she won't retain any of this information because you know it would make her head explode. So, yeah, these chips in their head, they're just human computers. I wonder where we're getting all that from. Hmm. But then the doctor explains that each reporter has a chip in their head as well, and they receive package information from Kathaca that transmit to their separate channels, and Adam is so impressed, but the doctor clocks the technology is wrong and there must be trouble. And he's right because creepy the way I wrote this. Because creepy Frosty Simon Peg is still watching them. Why did I write this the way I did?
SPEAKER_00I mean, you're not wrong.
SPEAKER_03I mean Frosty Peg is what I'm calling it.
SPEAKER_02That's just that's just his name now. Yeah, I don't even know his character name.
SPEAKER_00He's great.
SPEAKER_03Peg clocks Suki as the liar and stops the transmission before the ceiling growls at him. And you know what? I have the ceiling growling at me too. It just happens. He sends a message to the reporters, and while Kathica prays it's a promotion for her, everyone is shocked when Suki is promoted instead. And Suki says her goodbyes and takes the lift upstairs, and Kathaka says she doesn't expect to see her again because once you go up, you never come back. You know, not creepy, scary at all.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's totally normal. Everybody, you know, once you go up to floor 500 on anything, you're just gone forever, right?
SPEAKER_03That's exactly how it works. Once you disappear, everything's fine. Journalists disappearing, you know, would never happen now. Where is their HR department?
SPEAKER_02Floor five. It's on floor five hundred. I have questions.
SPEAKER_03Uh and then Adam is properly freaked out by that because I would be too. And he's like telling Rose, I need to. I love the way he says acclimatize myself. But but let's go by myself. I need to go to the observation deck and just really look upon Earth and sort out all my thoughts and get freaked out. And she's like, I'm gonna stay with the doctor. You go on, all of you. And she's like, Well, if you get scared, here's my key to the TARDIS. And before he walks off, we all know that bitch is up to something because he's got a phone, he's got a TARDIS key, and he's got unlimited money. I mean, what could go wrong?
SPEAKER_00And unlimited minutes on that Nokia.
SPEAKER_03You know what? We should go back to Nokia's. Those things never died.
SPEAKER_00Those were bricks. You could literally give someone a concussion if you threw them at someone.
SPEAKER_03Like, fun fact, my sister, we accidentally drove over her Nokia phone and it still worked perfectly fine. I mean, we should go back to those times.
SPEAKER_00That's craftsmanship for you.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. But what's not craftsmanship is what happens on this alien space station. Because y'all, Suki goes up the lift to floor 500, and instead of walls of gold that they've been promised, she's shocked to find a deserted, frosty newsroom full of Spirit Halloween's finest skeletons. She follows the snowy path to the control room and is greeted by creepy Simon Pegg, where he reveals that she's actually the last surviving anarchist of the Freedom 15, and Suki immediately pulls a gun on him, as she should, and demands to know who controls Satellite V. And the whole time she's doing this, I'm just flashing back to one battle after another and like the French 75. And I'm like, yes, nothing has changed. But I do love that the Freedom Foundation has been monitoring the broadcast and discovered all the news has been manipulated. What? Who could have been happening today on CBS? Unheard of.
SPEAKER_00Hashtag pretends to be shocked.
SPEAKER_03Like gasp. And creepy frosty peg, he's like, hey, look up. Meet my boss, editor in chief. And this unseen creature just like is from like camera point of view is descending upon her, and she's just like firing that gun at it, and it's useless. Them bullets, no, because that creature, you just hear a growl and it's like bye-bye, girl. And I love an unseen, like just creepy thing that just goes for you. That is so much scarier than like whatever CG bone monster is gonna try to eat shooty later on. Whatever.
SPEAKER_02They did that in the episode with the pig aliens.
SPEAKER_03I do. You know I love that pig alien scary moment. It's so good. But y'all, as this is happening, and we say goodbye to Suki, downstairs, the doctor is just like interrogating Kathica and like questioning her all about the space station. And she like quickly but also finally realizes he's not management, and she immediately does not want to get involved. But the doctor reminds her that, like, you're a journalist, you should be asking questions and not just accepting things as fact. Good thing journalists don't do this today. And he's like, why aren't there other aliens on board? Why is the technology like 90 years behind? And Kathica reveals she's only been on floor 139, which is the floor they're on now, and floor 16, which is the medical one where you have your little forehead chip port thing installed. Do not want one of those. I do not want to be a USB port. But we also learned that satellite 5 is 91 years old, and that's when technology started to slow down. They're really connecting the dots through math. So, Paige, we're gonna have to learn more maths if we're gonna solve crimes.
SPEAKER_02You'll never get me to learn more math.
SPEAKER_03That is fair. We cannot be doing that. We're way too pretty.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03And then, you know, back at the observation deck, dumb bitch Adam is trying to access a station terminal to learn about future technology, and that way he can call back to his home time, leave messages, and like try to like benefit from this somehow. Because if he like sends messages from the future where he is to the past, he's like, I'm gonna get rich, we're gonna have all kinds of fun right now.
SPEAKER_01But he's trying to deny to he's trying to pull pull a Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. Um, except that all of his information is bad. Uh, because the first thing he he like reading off the thing is like, doesn't happen until 91 years later. Um, so so what is that gonna help you with? Like, that's not you're not gonna get money in 91 years.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like he's trying to read back facts that don't work, but immediately like access denied, and magically the lift just appears and takes him down to floor 16. And we've heard of floor 16, that's medical. And nurse Tamson Gregg is there, and I like shouted when I saw her because, like, like legend now, so what a talent. Everyone go watch her new show. It's like Riot Women, so much fun. But she tells him all about the chips, and like it's only a hundred credits to get the one in the back of your skull. And hey, baby, you got like unlimited monies, so for like 10,000, you could become the computer. We'll get one of those forehead ports for you. You're gonna be a USB station, baby. And you know what? He's on a shopping spree. You give a dummy money, they're gonna buy some dumb shit. And he's like, sign me up for surgery. It's painless. Y'all. Do y'all want like a forehead little port that looks like a butthole on your head?
SPEAKER_01No, I don't want anybody to see my brain. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03They don't need to see how tiny it is in here. They don't need to see what's in here.
SPEAKER_00I mean, there was a time when the matrix had me convinced that, you know what, maybe being a USB port and being able to download all the information I want wouldn't be such a bad thing. But then you see someone like Dumb Bitch Adam making it look like the worst thing to experience in the world, and you're just like, of course you gotta ruin something that could be possibly good.
SPEAKER_03That's true, because I feel like if we were to like become little computers, like I know I would just download tons of cat videos and that TikTok account of the guy who guesses what color paint is gonna like come out of the thing. That's what I would want in my brain. I need like smooth thoughts. I would want to be able to be like my own Doctor Who dictionary and just remember everything. I don't, it would not cross my mind to try to manipulate events of the earth to benefit myself that way. I'm not smart enough. I love dumb shit.
SPEAKER_00I would just want to be a bigger nerd and just download more books and movies of TV shows at some point.
SPEAKER_03Think of how many comic books you could have in your head.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Yes.
SPEAKER_03Amazing.
SPEAKER_00I could be an even bigger nerd than I am right now.
SPEAKER_01The dream. I honestly, I just think that we were actually not giving Adam enough shit in this moment, frankly, because the way that that nurse is able to talk him into getting the more expensive surgery is just like, oh, have you never talked, said no to a salesperson before?
SPEAKER_03She is the employee of the month used car salesman. Right. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_00He would immediately stop in the middle of the sidewalk and listen to whichever attractive person with a clipboard in hand, would ask him to sign their name up and their email address for some random ass charity.
SPEAKER_01Oh, for sure. Like, you know that they're giving like the full$10, like commitment.
SPEAKER_03And I know Tamson is beautiful and could probably talk me into a lot of things, but not like a surgery. You could tell me it's painless. I don't trust that. Nope. But no, like again, the doctor and Rose immediately seized by this editor who explains in the most villain monologue possible that hey, Empire is not really human, but we do allow humans to live here. And for the past 90 years, humankind's just been controlled and guided by his boss, that weird scary creature in the ceiling. And my favorite part is that the actual name of this creature, the mighty Jagafess of the Holy, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Simon Pegg was unable to say the name in full, so the creature starts growling over the name because he just could not get a take right. And then that's where you get the joke, I call him Max.
SPEAKER_01That's so funny, though.
SPEAKER_03At that point, just change the name of something if you really want to say it, but Russell would never. But no, and it turns out all of this is just funded by banks. And these days it would just be funded by like three evil billionaires who will then try to hunger games each other. But by manipulating the news and creating a climate of fear, they have controlled the economy, they've kept the borders closed, so none of them fucking aliens are coming through. The human race doesn't even realize they've been enslaved. And I do love that like the doctor immediately pushes back on this because the guy's like, are they really even slaves if they don't know they're enslaved? And he's like, Yes, immediately. And those who suspect the truth are detected because of the chips in their head, and the editor just gets rid of them. Y'all, good thing this is not happening at all right now.
SPEAKER_02This is an episode that could have come out this year. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It could have, and Mr. Beast would use it as a training manual.
SPEAKER_03Oh my god. Dear God.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Time is a flat circle. It's just what it is.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, like villain monologue confirming everything evil that's happening like 21 years later, you know? Who knew? Downstairs, Kathaca, she's a little curious, she's a little suspicious, she's heard everything and said she doesn't want any part of it, but she's easily changed her mind. The doctor, who's already hacked the system a lot, told her about the plumbing and why is it so hot upstairs. Uh, she's curious now because she's like doing some real journalism. And so she hacks the passkey and she takes herself up to floor 500, where nobody's paying attention to her at all because the guy is so occupied and he does not care about his employees. And he's full villain monologuing with the doctor in Rose, and she hears everything. And the doctor knows she's hearing and watching everything. And stupid frosty peg. He's like, Yeah, this my guy Max, the Jaga Fres, his metabolism is off the chain. And he generates a lot of heat, which is why it has to be vented to the upper floors and keeped icy cool here, and that's why it's so hot downstairs. And this station is basically like a life support for his boss, the alien. Y'all, I am very Kathica in this moment, in that I'm a nosy bitch who's taken notes. This is deeply relatable. I really love her.
SPEAKER_01She's great.
SPEAKER_03Exactly. I love a girl who wakes up and becomes a hero. And as all of this villain monologue stuff's happening, Adam's recovering from his surgery, which he learns all he has to do to activate it is snap his fingers, and he uses Rose's superphone to call his parents' house again and leaves them more messages. He's like, hey, this is gonna sound like some white noise right now, but I can translate this later with the little butthole in my head. And he calls, like, he tries to like plug into the system that way he can record the information on the voicemail. Whatever. And suddenly there's an alarm upstairs. The editor realizes Adam's hooked up to the system, and what he's been trying to get information about who the Doctor and Rose are the whole time because there's no record of them. Dumb bitch Adam, because he turned his damn little chip on. Editor knows everything about the Doctor and Rose immediately, knows what a TARDIS is, that he's the last of the time lords. Doctor tries to deny it, but then we cut to the security footage of Adam just full on being zapped. And it looks like he's in pain, and you know what? He deserves it. Y'all, what do you think of all of this first? Because this is like the dumbest of the dumb bitch moments right now is Adam plugging in and ruining everything. Adam Adam ruins everything.
SPEAKER_02Adam ruins everything. God damn. Just the fact that he like did not take a single beat to think about the repercussions of getting all of this done in the first place. But also like anything that could possibly happen with the knowledge he has. Yeah. Didn't even take a beat.
SPEAKER_01Like, you didn't mention it in your little overview chels, but like after he has the surgery, he like goes to vomit, and like the the nurse, the the high pressure salesman nurse is like, oh, by the way, while you were out, we just did this other surgery on you. Don't worry about it. And like, that's the point. Again, not that I would have done this in the first place because I'm not insane, but like that's the point where I would start like losing my mind worrying. Cause like, what do you mean you were just in there and decided to do another surgery on me? What are you talking about? What have you done to my body without my knowledge or consent?
SPEAKER_03Like, he should be able to vomit normal and not vomit little rocks out of his mouth.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's um it's like the equivalent of bringing it in your car just for an oil change, and then you suddenly find out, oh, by the way, we took out your old engine and replaced it with an entirely new one. Fifty thousand dollars, please.
SPEAKER_03I am so sorry, but dumbest fucking man. So stupid.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, it's it's it's not it's not good or smart. And I just I I had to backtrack to that because that's the other thing that I kept thinking about. It's like, yeah, while you were out, we just did this insane thing to your body. Don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_03Um it just reminds me of all the horror stories you hear about women going in for a simple procedure, and either something is left in there or they've done something else, or the women who've been sterilized like that happens too. And I'm just like, no, this is why we are so suspicious of the medical field whenever we should be getting medical care.
SPEAKER_01Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. We don't want to have ice cube vomit. That's that's the real reason.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. The doctor, he's like, I'm not gonna let you get in the TARDIS. You can't go in there, you won't have access. I'm not gonna show you how to do this. You can kill me, whatever. And damn it, Rose. Never trust. He could be a cute boy, he could be seemingly nice. Do not trust anybody with your keys. It's just like, do not trust just anybody with your drink. Because Editor does not need the doctor to control the TARDIS because the key is floating right out of Adam's pocket, and he's like, ooh, I don't need that. I'm gonna take this. I'm gonna go rewrite history and prevent mankind from ever developing anything. Truly, trust no bitches. Trust no bitches. Brian, I would trust you with my keys. That is real trust.
SPEAKER_00Much, much appreciated.
SPEAKER_03But y'all, Kathaca, she ain't no dumb bitch like Adam. She's a cool, bad bitch. We love her because she's been spying and listening to all this because Mr. Capitalism, my boss is an alien that's about to overheat. She goes to floor 500 newsroom. She links herself in, and because she got the override protocols, she's able to sever Adam's connection. And then she reverses all the environmental systems, like all the plumbing, essentially. So the upstairs is heating back up, and things downstairs is gonna cool off. The editor tries to terminate her link, but she fights back, and the entire station and people it just starts a rumble and people are panicking. Rose finally gets free somehow, which we're just gonna overlook that little plot hole of how she gets free. It don't really make any fucking sense. She manages to get the Dr. Sonic screwdriver to free him. Sure. He has to tell her just hit the button for a buzz-buzz. But then Max, the alien in the ceiling, he starts to overheat, and the editor tries to leave, but Suki's corpse somehow grabs hold of his foot and stops him because I think there's just a little bit of human left in her, and she's like, We're gonna kill this guy too. He's going down with the ship. And the editor screams and Jagrafests, Max above. He expands, explodes, and eventually the doctor and Rose find Kathica in the newsroom. He snaps his fingers and closes her little connection port in her head, and he is just so proud of her right now. She took a stand and she just wasn't gonna let this slide. Once she was informed, she made a right decision. And you know what, y'all? It's never too late. Once you learn, you can take action.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, hey, that is all true. And I do all love all of that. I do also uh love and obsessed with her because the fact that, like, right before she like stops talking because she's like um too amassed in the brain business, uh, she says, You should have promoted me years ago, and like I love a petty bitch.
SPEAKER_03I was Yes, thank you for noting that. I should have put that down because uh, you always should promote a bad bitch. She is efficient at her job.
SPEAKER_00We love a petty and ambitious bad bitch who develops a conscience.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Or not, either or.
SPEAKER_01Listen, I do support women's wrongs, but in this in this case, like her, her, she's just so right.
SPEAKER_03I mean, true, because also, like, you can also take it as a threat because had they promoted her years ago, they could have prevented her taking them down. I mean, there's many angles to this. So I love her, she is our hero. And the doctor, like, he's gonna deal with Adam. But I do love that he gives her her flowers and it's just like, hey, you can be in charge of this. You've already like taken the first steps. And she's like, nobody's gonna believe me. And she's like, Yeah, they will, because they've seen the horrors, they know all the bad things, and you expose that, so they're gonna trust and believe in you. Like, that's what the energy he's imparting on her. And I would feel like in good hands with her at that point because she was ready to wake up, she's ambitious. Yeah. Oh, in another life, she would be a great companion, but also I think that actress was really good.
SPEAKER_01So Oh, yeah, her actress is really good. I think it would take again, it took her a minute to like get on board because she was scared at first, but like when she left that place of fear and was like solid in her ambition, like then she we really we were cooking with gas there. But I do think I want to acknowledge the fact that she wasn't ready at the beginning of this adventure.
SPEAKER_03It is because sometimes information can be scary and you don't know what to do with it. But I do love that like there was just like that goodness in her. She's like, I'm curious and I'm gonna figure something out. And I love that she got to be the hero in this. Absolutely. But y'all, let's deal with this dumb bitch. The doctor, like, after like hyping her up, like setting her up, saying you're gonna be great, he's like, I gotta go though. I don't clean up messes. There's so many great big finish audios that talk about how the doctor does not like to clean up messes and things usually go back to shit. But he is pissed off at Adam and like not speaking to him and takes him home in the TARDIS, right to his parents' house, and immediately destroys the answering machine. And Adam is just like begging to stay. It's like, oh, I already know what's going on. You can't just leave me here. You gotta take me with you. And he's like, What about this thing in my head? And the doctor then is just like, no, you're gonna live a quiet, ordinary life because if you say anything or if you show that thing off, they're gonna dissect you. And this is a great fuck around find out episode because this is the first time the doctor has really gotten rid of a companion because they were trying to abuse the laws of time and like take advantage of the situation. And I really love it. Oh, it's so good. The doctor is ruthless. We can't forget that. What'd y'all think of that moment before the doctor just boot scoots?
SPEAKER_00I mean, for one thing, dumb bitch out of makes its makes the doctor's decision so much easier when he pulls the well, using his fuckboy logic to go, well, technically, Doctor, this was your fault since you're the one who put me in charge and gave me the TARDIS key in the first place. I was like, oh, so not only are you a man who basically cares more about himself than he does about everyone el everyone and everything around him, but you refuse to accept responsibility for your fuck-ups. So much better.
SPEAKER_02Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_00Exactly why you need to be thrown in the trash.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, something I really love about the doctor that's a recurring theme, is that he always makes these people have to live with what they do with their actions. And he makes them really sit with it, and it like it's really striking.
SPEAKER_03The doctor doesn't like to kill people or anything because he's already done some genocide, but the doctor will do some fucked up shit that you have to live with, and it's almost worse than death. But I do love that like Adam's just pleading, and the doctor's like, no, I only Take the best. And then he just fucks with Adam a little bit by snapping his fingers and opening the port. And Rose is like, ah, stop it. And Adam is just like being a little bitch still. And then Rose snaps her fingers and she's like, Oh, I couldn't help it. It's fun. I would be Rose in that moment, being like, Don't don't bother him.
SPEAKER_00You would have gone full beatnik in that moment, I'm sure.
SPEAKER_02Oh, yeah. I was gonna say he can never watch West Side Story.
SPEAKER_00No.
SPEAKER_02You never can. What a sacrifice.
SPEAKER_03I'm so glad the noise I made was not recorded. It's tragic.
SPEAKER_01But you know, I as much as the the the port in his forehead and like trying to like sports bet his way into having money or whatever, all of that is bad. I I do I do think we are underestimating how bad of a companion he was in general before that. Like there's no way the doctor was gonna let him hang around after he fainted the first time he saw the earth in space, right? Like, yeah, and then no, he would he was cooked from the beginning.
SPEAKER_00I mean, the fact that he was already talking shit about him fainting and then just basically treating him the way like a parent treats like a little kid, like stop stop hanging on to me. Go play with your toys, go away. I'm trying to watch my stories. That definitely didn't that definitely didn't help Adam out either.
SPEAKER_03Literally that!
SPEAKER_00But I especially like how you were saying before how you know the doctor will make you sit with what you've done and just narrowed it down to Adam trying to lie to him and to himself once again with the I was trying to help, and the doctor's like, no, you're trying to help yourself, and just left it at that.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly. Oh, it is just so good. But the doctor and Rose boots, because they hear Adam's mom walking through the door, and she greets him so excited. It's been six months since she last saw him. Because y'all, this is like around Adam's from like 2011 Earth. He remember how he was introduced in the Dalek episode where he like one of the best episodes of the whole show, and he is like the worst part of the episode because he's just I'm a smart boy genius. Well, this dumb smart boy genius. His mom's just gushing about it, and she's like, time can just pass like that. And when she snaps her fingers and you just hear the port, you don't even see his face, and she just her face, it turns into a horror show. I love that the episode just ends on that. It's so kind of fucked up.
SPEAKER_02It's haunting, it haunted me. It made me think of like a Twilight Zone ending.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you could perhaps hear Rod Serling giggling in the giggling in the corner off screen somewhere.
SPEAKER_03It's fully unwell, insane. And then the next thing you see is a preview for Father's Day, like one of the most emotionally wrenching episodes. Oh, I love it. I love this show. But y'all. That is our episode. Here's some fun facts if people want to explore the expanded universe. Adam does have a big arc in the comics and like all of the extended universe material because he does have like more villainous moments, but then he has a bit of a redemption before his death, and it's actually kind of lovely. And I encourage everyone to go check out the expanded universe. There's so many comics out there, like bajillions of them, but it's fun, it's a nice excursion in the horrors of our real life. And then just some production facts. So this was meant to be an episode fully from Adam's point of view, but and like the Doctor and Rose weren't really supposed to be in it too much. But Russell, he was like, Oh, the dynamic between Christopher and Billy is so good, we have to write more of it in there. But that did inspire just the idea of Doctor Light and Companion Light episodes later on, which were used as like more efficient ways to film the show. And I think that's pretty interesting. It did not happen here, though. And then if you listen to the commentary, the original script actually gave Adam more reasons of why he was doing it and trying to get financial like gain. He was actually looking for information because his dad suffered from arthritis. So he was actually looking for more medical reasons to help his dad, like way back in the past. So there, but I do like that they got rid of that like any reason to sympathize with him and just made it like, nope, humans can be bad and not everybody can travel with the doctor, because we're gonna get more like instances of people doing things to justify down the line. But I do like that this early on in the show, they're like, nope, not everybody is special. And then if you liked the actress who plays Suki, Anna Maxwell Martin, she does some of the Doctor Who big finish audios. She's Maddie Bauer in The Diary of River Song, a few of those audios, which me and Paige are working our way through. We have so many of them together. So good. They're delightful, they're so fun. And then y'all, we take listener questions and the local goblin. She's one of our friends in the Discord. Shout out, um, y'all. I I love the question that we got because it's kind of fucked up. So let me share my screen real quick. Uh, Goblin asks, they sent us an image of Adam with the little butthole port in his head. And y'all, summarize this. What was your thought when you first saw forehead buttholes?
SPEAKER_02It looks like a screenshot from spy kids or something.
SPEAKER_01Oh my god, that's exactly right. Oh my god, you're right.
SPEAKER_02That was my first thought. I don't know.
SPEAKER_01Like the thumbs are like right off screen and they're holding it in place or whatever as he dials.
SPEAKER_03That's the vibe. Because I have brothers who are inappropriate. They watched part of the episode with me, and when they saw this, they said every inappropriate thing, and it's like, you could put a lot of things in there, and I'm like, you should not, though.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I'm looking at that image and I'm already thinking of full metal jacket when Arlie Ermi, the drill sergeant, is threatening to gouge out the recruit's eyes and skullfuck them. And I'm just like, Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Yeah. This is not for the under 18 crowd. Y'all play. Ask your parents before you listen. Thank you, goblin. And they'll be doing some artwork for us later on. I'm very excited about. So, yeah. Companions, thank you for wandering into the TARDIS today. Any final thoughts before we get in the TARDIS and go back in the time vortex?
SPEAKER_01Episode better than I remember it being.
SPEAKER_03Agreed. I watched this a year ago during my like post-election binge and enjoyed it, did not think of it again. But whenever it's like full focus and not second screen, I'm like, oh, good thing none of this is happening right now.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for real. I went ahead and well, like, remember at the the top of this episode and like an hour ago when you said that um this was consistently ranked as the lowest episode in the season? I went ahead and I looked up. I was like, what what other episodes are there this season? What else would people like have be comparing this to? And like I think that just nine is a bangers-only season.
SPEAKER_03Um I don't think there's a bad episode this season. There's no love and monsters, which no episode did technically inspire Love and Monsters.
SPEAKER_01So R I P baby. But like I just even the worst parts of some of the other episodes, like with like the the farting members of of parliament or or the um the horrible CGI plastic scenes in rows, like those are really good episodes with great stuff in them. So like I think that this has to be the worst one by process of elimination because it's not st it doesn't stand out as a part as like part of the myth arc. So I think this has just gotten left behind because of those facts, and I think that we all need to re-examine this episode and appreciate it for the actually frighteningly smart and thoughtful episode that it is.
SPEAKER_03I fully agree, Brian. Any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_00The most that I'll say about it, and it's not really an insult, it's just like comparing it to all of the seasons that followed. It definitely feels very much like a season one episode where you kind of see that it's still it still kind of has its training wheels on, so to speak, in terms of what it of what this version of Doctor Who can and will do with its st with its storytelling, the along with the the acting and the special effects, which aren't which aren't bad at all. It's just it feels very much like okay, we're still trying on this new outfit and seeing how well it fits and how comfortable it is, and how how much it'll boost my confidence once I wear it out in public and such. But you can still, but there's so much potential visible in the in the episode in terms of okay, this is what we're aiming for, and it's very clear that eventually we're gonna start hitting the bullseye so much more often and so much more successfully as the as the show goes on. And what we're doing now, it's despite the ratings that you speak of, is not entirely anything to really scoff at, especially considering how prescient this episode turned out to be, and how after watching it'll make you want to reach over to the next person you see wearing metaglasses and just pull them off their face and snap them in half, if anything.
SPEAKER_03Oh, great idea. You know what? We're gonna bring back bullying for this very reason. Very specific bullying.
SPEAKER_00As we should.
SPEAKER_03Yes. Paige, any final thoughts?
SPEAKER_02I just really agree with everyone else. I think the only thing that makes me not love this episode is the atom of it all. But that's like, you know, a big part of the storyline. And it's still, I still think every episode of this season is strong in its own way. So I enjoyed it.
SPEAKER_03I agree. Like sometimes a dumb bitch can bring something good down.
SPEAKER_05Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_03Ugh, y'all, this was so much fun. We're gonna be doing this again soon. Brian, where can people find you across space and time?
SPEAKER_00All right, you can find me on Blue Sky and Instagram as Hellresident NY. You can find my work at pajiva.com and at uprocks.com, and you can find me in movie theaters all around New York eating lots of licorice and shushing people who don't know how to shut the hell up and pay attention to the movie that they're paid that they paid money to see.
SPEAKER_03Love that. Okay, everybody in an Alamo draft house these days.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for doing that service. People do need to shut the fuck up, and I really appreciate the hobies out there who are stopping that shit where it's where it starts.
SPEAKER_03Amen. Marilee, where can the good people find you across space and time?
SPEAKER_01Well, first of all, I'm not leaving this TARDIS. I am gonna go run in the back here, and you'll hear me cantering around in the back of the life. You're gonna go find episodes of this show.
SPEAKER_03Library 72, the one next to the swimming pool with like the mint green kitchen right below us.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's where I'm going to be living from now on. So again, good luck getting me out of out of this bitch. Um, but other than that, um, I actually do have another podcast. Um, you can find me pretty much every Monday. Uh, Fear Coded drops a new episode. Um, and we talk about um we'll take any piece of media we've covered TV shows, movies, uh narrative podcasts, anything like that. Anything within the horror genre, we'll take a look at it through a queer lens. Me and my two co-hosts, Tyler and David. It's a really good time. You guys should listen to it. I love doing it. Um, and you can find me on, and I I'm mostly the person behind the keys on this. So when I say find me, you uh find Fear Coded on Instagram and Blue Sky at Fear Coded Pod.
SPEAKER_03Beautiful. And maybe somebody who co-hosts this podcast was on a whatever happened to Baby Jane episode and encouraged you to go back and listen to the Pride Month episodes from 2025 where they declared themselves number one diva of the month.
SPEAKER_01And you know what you were right, by the way. Yeah, again, like um we had to at the beginning of this year, like list out what our favorite episode of last year was, and your episode was like up there. It was like I had to do like a whole like ranking tiered system, and you were one of my favorite episodes. And I it wasn't at what it ended up picking, um, but it it was it was hard to do.
SPEAKER_03I know you really loved your elf episode. I get it. No, this is why we're friends.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's that's definitely why. Anyway, Chell's was uh incredible on Diva Month last year. We have to have you back sometime soon. Um, but you'll find me.
SPEAKER_03I'll find something scary, Barry. And thank you for listening to Across the Universe. We can be found wherever you listen to your podcasts, and please make sure to rate and review our show. You can find us on Instagram, Blue Sky, Tumblr, and the links are in the show notes, or you can email us at across the universepod at gmail.com. Paige, remind the Time Lords where they can find you.
SPEAKER_02The Time Lords can find me at Thoughts by Page on Blue Sky. I am Hayes Mithers on Tumblr when I remember to go on there. Um Paige Noel Kaiser on Instagram. I am also um on the podcast, shh, my stories are on, with uh Chelsea and our friends Jesse and Owen talking about all different TV stuff, unscripted and scripted. And then I also have a substack that's called Girlhood and Low Resolution, where I talk about growing up as a girl on the internet in the 2000s and all the pop culture of that time.
SPEAKER_03Yes, and it is wonderful. And I'm Chelse 725 on the Blue Sky serialized and letterbox and Chelse Eichels on Instagram. If you can find my Tumblr, you're stronger than the frosty Simon Pegg. So everyone, attempt to find it. Good luck. And you can listen to me and my fellow agent Gavin, aka our companion from this show, on the Q Division, a James Bond movie marathon podcast where Brian's been a guest and was wonderful. Paige is gonna do a fake James Bond movie. Marilee, do I we have you on the schedule? Are you doing a real James Bond or a fake James Bond?
SPEAKER_01I'm doing a real James Bond. So, like when the the Q Divisions first started doing episodes, I talked with Gavin and and he was like, What what James Bond do you know? And I was like, Well, unfortunately, my my first James Bond was was Piers Brosnan. So I picked one of those movies, which of course meant uh I'm gonna have to wait like two years to be on the podcast. Yeah. Um hope, yeah. So that's just what it is. Hopefully someday I will my time will come. And I I did also mention, just threw it out there, if you ever felt like covering the Alex Ryder series, um, I did read all of those books as a young adult, so there we go.
SPEAKER_03I I'll read a book. Paige is still still teaching me how to read. Everyone, go to your libraries. Thank you. This podcast helps so much. And yes, Paige already said it, but it's shh, my stories are on, where me, Paige, Jesse, and Owen, we talk about everything from RuPaul's Drag Race, which is amazing this year, to soap operas, to the traitors, which is me and Brian's problematic child. We used to love the traitors, and now we're just putting the traitors and time out right now. But everyone go follow. We have some very thoughtful discussions over there, and Brian will be back because I force all my friends just to hang out with me that way. So, yes, be sure to visit us on our next adventure across space and time where we revisit Father's Day with some super special guests. Until next time, we'll see you in the Time Vortex.