You're listening to a podcast of spurious morality.
Hello and welcome to a podcast of Spurious Morality.
I'm Johnston and hello Greg. Hello. And we're
going to talk about The Well, which is the latest
episode of Doctor Who, which seems to be going
down quite well. I've seen sort of generally
positive things about it across the board and
quite right too. It was an awful lot of fun.
For my money, I'd say definitely the best of
this series so far. And it's a strong series
so far, I think. We seem to be doing quite well.
So let's dive straight in. Greg, talk to us about
The Well. What did you think of it? I agree with
you. It does seem to have gone down quite well.
I really enjoyed that. Sorry. I really enjoyed
that episode. As you said, that's my favorite
of the season so far out of the three. It's been
a really good season for me so far. I think there's
a lot going on under the surface with The Well.
There's a lot of, of course, right off the top,
I mean, it's a sequel to Midnight. But there's
a lot of other references going on there, too.
I mean, the pit itself is a pretty clear visual
reference to the impossible planet, two -parter.
And then the idea of something being just behind
you is very similar to turn left. There's something
on your back. Of course, like I said, it's a
sequel to Midnight. There's also, it's a clear...
Visual reference to the film Aliens, you know,
where you've got a squad of what are effectively
space marines visiting a planet, finding everyone
there either missing or dead. Someone saying
you should nuke the place from orbit. It's the
only way to be sure. I mean, these are not subtle
references. And I think... That all works. I
think it's nice to see Doctor Who paying homage
both to itself and to other big sci -fi productions
and finally having the budget and the visual
appeal to get away with that. I think, yeah,
so right off the top, enjoy the references, enjoy
the... enjoy the visuals like it's a beautiful
looking episode like i think they did an excellent
job with those little shots where they showed
the midnight creature um because you'd never
i know in the behind the scenes thing you'd get
an actual look at it which i haven't seen but
you just get these brief deep in shadow you know
fraction of a second looks and it it really adds
to the the tension in the atmosphere um yeah
so you know i Just to start there, I think there's
a lot going on here. I think it functions well
as a sequel, which I'll get to in a second. I
enjoy seeing Doctor Who with a budget that's
comparable to other sci -fi TV is still impressive
to me. It's quite interesting how Midnight was
obviously done as a very budgety episode. Midnight
was possibly the cheapest New Who episode there's
been. I don't know that for sure, but it's a
reasonable guess. And then obviously, like you
say, this is money on screen. This is big budget.
This looks absolutely fantastic. So I quite like
the idea that we've gone back to Midnight, but
we've got a budget. I also picked up on particularly
the aliens stuff. Absolutely, when they first
arrived on the colony and everything, that was
very, very aliens, which it's a good thing to
be taking inspiration from. I'm surprised Doctor
Who hasn't quite done aliens, I should say, in
particular, so well. before so yeah that was
good and yeah you're right there are all these
other little references as well and it's it sort
of is a little bit of a RTD's greatest hits episode
but it works and it all sort of comes together
quite nicely and you know when you take all of
the good bits from something that's good you're
probably going to get something good and that's
exactly what this did so yeah great episode and
it's It's sort of interesting to see how we've
had three very, very different episodes this
series as well. I think there's sort of been
quite a big contrast. And, you know, we know
that RTD likes to do the sort of the first three
episodes should be all very different things
and let you see completely different parts of
the Hooniverse and all that sort of thing. And
I think it's probably actually being done more
effectively here than it was in the last series.
And I think it's sort of rough general consensus
that we're preferring season two over season
one so far, which is good. It's good to see.
Oh, 100%. And you're right. I mean, he has a
very consistent format that he does when he starts
a new season or series or whatever they're calling
it now. There's the first episode, which is set
in the present day, where if there's a new companion,
we meet the new companion, get a sense of them.
And then in some order, we have an episode where
we go into the future, and then we have an episode
where we go into Earth's past. And of course,
we've done that again here. And in this case,
the episode going into the future is episode
three. But there's another reference there. I
mean, during the very quick wardrobe sequence,
they play Toxic, which has to be a callback to
The End of the World, which was the very first
space story of the revived series back in 2005.
So again, this is an episode that very much wears
its history and its influences on its sleeve,
which I also think is interesting because...
Much like Midnight itself, this is an episode
that the classic series could have attempted
to do. I mean, there's obviously the appearance
of it and the budget of it is way in excess of
anything the classic series could have dreamed
of. Just the simple concept of, you know, having
a character in a room and you can't have, you
know, two people on opposite sides of it. I mean,
that's, you don't need any kind of budget to
portray that, honestly. So it kind of has that,
you know, tense horror feeling that, you know,
that the classic series sometimes shot for. And
I think because of everything else that, you
know, Disney can throw at this, it ends up working
so well. You know, talking about the season as
a whole, I think, well, first of all, we're continuing
what we had in the last season, which is like
RTD very much trying to bring high concept ideas
of, you know, superstition. you know, magic and
religion in a way, you know, a pantheon of gods
and kind of, you know, melding that with the
more traditional science fiction bent of Doctor
Who. And, I mean, obviously you see that in both
the scripting and in the visuals. I mean, Robot
Revolution isn't really, you know, doing the
fantastic with the sci -fi thing. in the themes
but it is doing it visually because it's very
much a a 1950s future sci -fi sort of thing um
compared to the technology doesn't seem nearly
as advanced as it should basically it's it's
got that sort of retro feel to it lux of course
is very much just about the difference between
fiction and reality or if there is a difference
because of course it very much examines doctor
who just as a concept as a program and then here
in the well um we have the you know this this
midnight creature which has unexplained powers
unexplained abilities um what essentially seem
like magical powers and we put it up against
this very hard sci -fi you know, surrounding
this hard science fiction frame. And I think
those things kind of, you know, they bounce off
of each other a little bit. But I think that's
something that he's been very obviously interested
in exploring for both of these seasons. And it's
very much evident in all three of these episodes.
And it's a good thing to explore as well. And
I am particularly enjoying the idea of. the pantheon
um you know in last week's episode i'd sort of
talked about how it's it could very easily get
old very quickly um just in terms of oh look
it's another god that the doctor's going to beat
at the end of 45 minutes uh but it's having now
had this having had the well which is nothing
to do with the pantheon obviously um it's It
sort of reminded me that, well, actually, no,
we do have this variety and the Doctor is still
going off and doing what he's doing and just
the Pantheon are kind of interfering on the periphery,
as is Mrs Flood, who's obviously sort of linked
to the whole thing in some way, shape or form.
But, yeah, it's good that we're still getting
episodes like this and it was episodes like this.
that I was sort of concerned we'd maybe lose
when we got the shorter episode count. But this
seems to have restored my faith in eight episode
series a little bit. Yeah, I mean, I think this
is very much the, this is the wild blue yonder
of the 60th specials, right? Where we had very
traditional, you know, Russell T. Davis. opening
and very traditional RTD finale but then in the
middle we had this just completely dissimilar
scary sort of thing and so it's good to see that
he's still interested in going back to that well
and again there's the pun but yeah I mean it's
good to see that he's willing to do that because
you don't want anything in Doctor Who any season
of Doctor Who with exceptions to be you know,
relentlessly the same style, the same tone, like
especially with the modern show, like the variety
within the seasons is one of the most appealing
things about it. And it's good to see they're
keeping that up. Yeah, absolutely. So while I've
got you, because obviously you haven't joined
us for one of these episodes yet, talk us through
what you thought of The Robot Revolution and
looks. So I liked the Robot Revolution. I think
it's a really good opener. I think Belinda is
a great companion. You know, I have absolutely
nothing against Ruby. I just kind of, and even
though, I mean, she was fleshed out, you know,
she was given a family and a backstory. Honestly,
she had more of a backstory than what we've seen
with Belinda, even through three episodes. But
it almost felt like she just kind of... Just
slotted in like, oh, well, this person was pretty
much born to be a companion. Here she is. Whereas
Belinda's much more, she's reluctant. She's not
sure she wants to be there. She's stuck with
the doctor. She wants to get home. And I think
she's, you know, she's not, she doesn't view
all of this as just a great and awesome adventure.
Constantly, she's taken aback by some of it.
She's scared. And I think that's a more naturalistic
reaction. That's part of why I like her so far.
Robot Love Revolution's fun. I mean, it does
a lot of the season premiere stuff of shorthanding
the one character. whose name I forget, ironically
enough, is killed. And then we see how deeply
that affects the doctor. You know, we see the
traditional tear run down his face. That's, you
know, shorthanding to a new audience, like this
is how deeply this doctor cares, blah, blah,
blah. So, you know, it's doing a lot of that
stuff where it's reintroducing the show again.
It's got this very, like I said before, future,
retro future aesthetic. It's the robot voices.
I am convinced that Nick Briggs is doing an homage
to Michael Kilgareff, the giant robot voice,
because they sound exactly the same. And yeah,
I mean, I think it's an enjoyable episode. It's
light on its feet. It sets up the conflict for
the season. It sets up the new companion. It
really feels like it's laying the groundwork
in a way that previous RTD openers did not. I
think one thing we're seeing from him this time
around is a lot more willingness to explicitly
seed a season -long plot arc, which is not something
that he did in his... First tenure as showrunner.
Yes, of course, there was Bad Wolf and there
was Torchwood and there was Mr. Saxon, but literally
those are just words. Whereas here we've established
the earth has been blown up. We don't know why.
We don't know what happens on May 24th, 2025.
We've got a character who explicitly wants to
get home, but can't. So we've set up these 10.
And now in the well, we see that. People in the
future don't know what Earth is. So we've set
up these ongoing tensions. And that's not something
that the show has done before under RTD. So I
wonder if this is, you know, kind of him being
influenced retroactively by Stephen Moffat, Chris
Chibnall, etc. So, yeah, I mean, Robot Revolution,
good. You know, I don't know, seven out of ten,
probably. Like, you know, good, good, solid opener.
Enjoyed it. And then Lux, I loved. I thought
it worked really well because A, the setting's
great. B, it involves the Pantheon in an effective
and surprising way. I mean, I don't know how
everyone else felt, but like when his, you know,
the don't make me laugh, don't make me laugh.
And then when he finally laughs, it's the giggle.
I did not see that coming at all. That was shocking
to me. And I love the way that it ends. I love
like this God becoming even more of a, I don't
know how you describe it, more of a true God,
I suppose, like actually becoming one with the
universe and all of its light and I am everything
and I am nothing. That's a beautiful and haunting
ending for the... for the character. I thought
the animation was spectacular. I thought the
visuals were as good as anything we've ever seen
in Doctor Who. Alan Cumming was fantastic doing
the voice. Yeah, I mean, it's a very strong episode.
And I think it's not... What I've also liked
about this season, too, and we'll get to this
in a second, but I think there's been a... great
deal of social commentary going on which i which
i'm very interested in as well yeah it's um i
actually think it's doing a far better job of
handling that than the last season did it's it's
slightly less on the nose i'm all for social
commentary there should be more of it in fact
but it perhaps doesn't always need to be as heavy
-handed as it has been at some points. I get
the need for heavy -hand with that kind of thing,
but there's also room for subtlety, and I think
we're handling that quite well in this series.
Yeah, I mean, Robot Revolution gets a little
bit on the nose with the Planet of the Incels
line, but that's fine. We can mock those individuals
to their face. It doesn't bother me. But, you
know... Lux is, it shows, I mean, it doesn't
shy away from the racism of being in Florida
in the 1950s at all. But it doesn't do it in
a way that's, you know, over the top or that
overshadows, you know, the actual story that's
going on, which, you know, I think that's really
the, you know, the line you have to be careful
with is like, if the story is going to be about...
you know, some sort of social commentary that,
yeah, make it as overt and talk about it as much
as you want. But if the story in this case is
about, you know, the doctor and Belinda encountering
one of the pantheon, you know, in an abandoned
movie theater, then you can absolutely have the
social elements there, but they shouldn't take
over the story and they don't. But, you know,
RTD makes an obvious effort to. you know, give
them the spotlight from time to time. And I think
that's the best and the smartest way to go about
it. And honestly, the well, I think, has a lot
of that going on. It doesn't, and it's the most
subtle out of all of it. But, you know, I think
the fact that we know he changed the, you know,
Alice from being a hearing person to a deaf person.
yes that you know changes the the tension of
the scene it changes how it's filmed but it also
makes it also in in making her a person with
a disability it um it makes the stuff about don't
turn your back on me more poignant right i mean
it's Now we're not just talking about, you know,
turning your back on just a person, which is
bad enough. We're talking about turning your
back on, you know, a member of a more vulnerable
community. And, you know, that's the kind of
thing that the doctor would never do. So, you
know, I think that makes the episode a lot more
effective in that way. And I think, you know,
a... Victim character in Doctor Who just begging,
please don't turn your back on me is more emblematic
of the series morality as a whole. So I thought
the well was incredibly well done. And probably
it's that or Dot and Bubble for my favorite RTD2
episode. Yeah, it's definitely a contender for
the strongest we've had in the last few years.
It was an excellent episode. Any last thoughts,
anything you want to add before you escape? Not
really. I mean, I think I'm very interested to
see where this goes because we've got Mrs. Flood
back. We've had her appear in a few episodes
now, all of the episodes. And so we know that
some of the stuff from the previous season still
has to be picked up on. I think some of the complaints
that we heard about the previous season were
in the vein of like, well, we introduced all
this stuff and we didn't resolve it, but I'm
curious to see how much is still out there to
be resolved. And in addition to seeing, you know,
what each of the individual episodes is going
to be, I'm very interested in both the seasons
arc and what could potentially be the two season
arc as well. So very much looking forward to
it. Yeah, it's certainly interesting to see where
it's all going. And yeah, it's ticking along
nicely. It's got me interested. It's got me hooked.
So yeah, excellent stuff. Well, thanks very much
for joining me, Greg. And we'll have you back
on soon. Hopefully so. We'll see you in the future.
Brilliant. Thank you.