893 – Bedtime for a Runaway Bride | Sleeping With Doctor Who S3 E0

EPISODE 893_Bedtime for A Runaway Bride – Sleeping with Dr. Who S3 E0

 

[START OF RECORDING]

SCOOTER: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and friends beyond the binary, trees and Multi-forms, it’s time for a return to who?  Who or whom are we returning to, or who…or whom is talking?  I could tell you that I don’t know the difference between my who or my whom but I can tell you that one of my favorite doctors, David T, is coming up tonight.  I’m gonna be talking about a episode of…well, anyway, I’ll be meandering…it’ll take me forever to get there.  It’ll feel like it never got started ‘cause I’m really here to take your mind off of stuff and keep you company as you drift off to sleep.  Who I am and that’s…that’s who I am?  Oh, who am I is a good question.  If you’re thinking about that stuff, that’s one of the things I’m here to take your mind off of ‘cause it’s time for Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.

 

INTRO: [INTRO MUSIC] Hey, are you up all night tossing, turning, mind racing, trouble getting to sleep?  Trouble staying asleep?  Well, welcome.  This is Sleep With Me, the podcast that puts you to sleep.  We do it with a bedtime story.  Alls you need to do is get in bed, turn out the lights, and press play.  I’m gonna do the rest.  What I’m going to attempt to do is create a safe place where you could set aside whatever’s keeping you awake, whether it’s thoughts you’re thinking about, thoughts on your mind or I guess it could be other thoughts.  Whatever you’re thinking about; thoughts, feelings, physical sensations, changes in time or temperature.  Whatever’s going on; a second, third shift, you could be on call, stuff could be just stuff; holy stuff.  S-T-U-F-F.  I’d like to read it in reverse.  When I think about some of the stuff that keeps me up at night, I’d spell ‘stuff’ backwards.  But I drop one of the f’s and then whatever comes after the ‘u’, the ‘t’ and the ‘s’, too.  S-T…yeah.

 

But you don’t need to talk…but just sometimes.  But I’m here.  I already got lost.  What am I gonna do?  What am I doing?  Oh, I was saying the stuff that keeps us up at night.  Yeah, I was kind of…no, I’m not really; I’m just being facetious.  I know it’s not your fault you’re keeping me up at night.  It’s just a thing.  But so yeah, I’m here to try to do it with kindness, a little bit of silliness.  What I’m gonna do is I got this safe place carved out, set aside.  It’s palatial.  I don’t know if I’ve used the word ‘palatial’ on this podcast before.  Makes me think of the Palatial Podcast I haven’t started, the podcast about palatial places and things palatial and things interesting to palatialists.  The Palatial Notes; the podcast about palatial…yeah, people…palatial…what about palatial people?  Are those people that live in palaces or palatial-like places?  Are all palaces palatial?  No.  Are all palatial places palaces?  No.  Don’t put the ‘p’ in ‘palace’ though, unless you’re in the right room, okay?  Please.  But what was I talking about?

 

Oh, I’m gonna create this safe place.  I gotta set aside…maybe we’ll go back to…I love saying palatial.  It’s like palladium which I think is like a new thing, not…well, okay, so…or velodrome.  I don’t know why it’s so…velodrome just popped in my head, too.  I’m gonna create a safe place.  I’m gonna send my voice across the deep, dark night.  I’m gonna use lulling, soothing, creaky, dulcet tones, pointless meanders, superfluous tangents.  I’m gonna go off-topic and do those extra words, mumbles…you saw one of those tangents.  Pointless meanders, superfluous tangents, all in an effort to keep you company while you drift off.  If you’re new, a couple things you might want to know right up front; one, this is a podcast to keep you company as you drift off.  I tend to…oh, I think I said that.  I’m extra mixed-up today which is a good thing in this podcast.  But so, if you’re new, here’s a couple things to know; one, this podcast doesn’t work for everybody.  Kind of just see how it goes.

 

It doesn’t necessarily have to work for…just kind of look at it loosely like if you were studying a cloud or if someone was…here’s the thing; if you have more than one palace or if you have a palatial estate and you start talking about it, I’m probably gonna start to tune you out, maybe.  That’s just for my own…since I don’t have a palatial estate, you say well…then we have the picnic area, then we have the picnic zone, then we have the water-play area, then the waterpark.  I say sorry, you have a waterpark at your palatial estate?  Well, it wouldn’t be palatial…you know.  Then we have the water gardens which are really nice.  At some point, I would probably tune you out or you’d see steam coming out my ears and I would be green with envy.  I’d probably be red with envy, not green with envy.  But this podcast is very similar to that.  For some people, there is steam coming out their ears.  Sorry about that.  It’s just not for everybody.  But for a lot of people, you could just start to tune me out.

 

That’s what the regular listeners do.  If you’re new, you might be paying attention.  You say, what is up with all these people that listen to this show?  ‘Cause he doesn’t talk about anything or get to any points.  The regular listeners would giggle along with that and they’d say yep, he doesn’t.  That’s why we love old Scoots.  Oh, so don’t pay attention to this show.  Barely listen to it.  But I will say that most listeners say it takes two or three tries to get used to this show, so give it two or three tries and just kind of see how it goes.  Then see okay, well, this kind of barely worked for me.  That’s one thing to know.  The next thing to know…oh, so consume the podcast loosely.  The other thing is, there’s a lot of podcasts to put people to sleep out there or other sleep solutions and stuff like this.  This is the only podcast that’s kind of here while you fall asleep.  I’m here to keep you company as you drift off.  I’m your bore-friend, your bore-bae, your bore-cuz, your bore-sib, your bore-bestie, whatever you want to call it.  I’m just here to be at your bedside while you fall asleep.

 

That’s it, ‘til you take your mind off of stuff.  That’s two things to know.  The other thing that can throw new listeners off is the structure of the show.  The show is very different and that can mix people up, so let me tell you about the structure of the show.  The show starts off with a few minutes of business.  That’s how we keep the…oh, it starts off with a greeting, then we do the business.  That’s how we’re able to bring you the podcast for free twice a week.  Then there’s an intro and the intro also can throw people off because it’s me talking for about twelve to twenty minutes about what the podcast is, so I’m kind of…I say well, oh, I try to get to the point and explain what the podcast is.  Then I go off on tangents or get mixed-up.  I wish it was totally 100% on purpose.  I do say that sometimes, totally…every meander is a well-planned meander but that is just not the truth.  Sometimes you just gotta do a little bumbling, some natural bumbling.  What was my point?

 

Oh, so the intro, that’s one of the reasons why the intro’s long but the main reason that the intro’s like, twelve to twenty minutes long…when you’d say most intro’s, Scoots, are like two or three minutes; tell us what you’re gonna tell us.  Say something, then tell us what you’re gonna tell us again.  I’d say well, I try to do that but the whole idea of the intro…so, there’s a few ways to consume this show once you become a regular listener.  At first, just kind of consume it first probably skeptically or doubtfully and then after that, you say well, I’m not so sure about this.  Then you say oh, I’m not so sure about this, so I don’t have to listen.  But as you become a regular listener, there’s 2% of listeners who start the show at around twenty minutes and they just listen to whatever starts at twenty minutes.  It might be the end of the intro, might be some business, might be where we talk about…tonight, we’re talking about an episode of Dr. Who or a holiday special.

 

You could see, after you become a regular listener, oh, that’s what works best for me.  But most listeners, they listen to the intro as part of their wind-down.  Some of them start it before they get into bed, some of them start it as part of their bedtime routine; whether they’re journaling or knitting or cross-stitching or doodling or petting pets or brushing their hair.  Whatever it is, stretching…just sitting and staring.  That’s one of my hobbies; out the window or at a wall or at the ceiling.  I do really like…this is something I just got back into.  You say Scoots, what do you…what else do you do for fun?  I had forgotten this one; I do like to look at my…look at things from upside…in the…upside down.  I like to get into a position where I can look at…and pretend that the ceiling’s the floor.  If you haven’t done that in a [00:10:00] while, I highly suggest it.  Make sure you do it in a safe and comfortable way but talk about…I say, how did I forget how…then you pretend you’re walking…you imagine you’re walking around your apartment and it’s upside down.  I love doing that.

 

Those are all reasons the intro’s around twelve to twenty minutes, to kind of give you time to unwind and ease into bedtime.  Then there’ll be some business, then I’ll talk about an episode of Dr. Who from series three, the second series with David Tenant.  This one will be the special before the season started.  If you’ve never seen Dr. Who or you have strong feelings about it, don’t worry.  This will be very meandering.  Everything will be told in a bedtime story way.  I’ll take plenty of long turns around anything that you say well, I’m not so sure about that.  ‘Cause when I was a kid, I wasn’t so sure about the original Dr. Who series.  I’d say, oh boy.  But now I’ve grown to love it and the performances.  We’ll have some fun.  We’ll talk about that for about forty, forty-five minutes, then there’s some thank yous at the end of the show.  That’s the structure of the show and the two pieces of code you could follow; you don’t really need to listen to me or just barely listen.  Don’t take me seriously and no pressure to fall asleep.  The reason the shows are about an hour is I want to give you plenty of time to drift off.

 

I’m here to keep you company as you drift off instead of putting you to sleep.  But then if you can’t sleep, I'm here.  Or if you need a break during the day, I’m here, or if you wake up as I have been doing, you say well, here’s…Scoots…I can just put on Scoots and he’ll take my mind off of stuff.  That’s all the stuff around the structure of the show.  The reason I make this show is because I’ve been there.  I know how it feels in the deep, dark night.  I know how it feels; trouble getting to sleep, trouble staying asleep.  I know how it feels and it’s not great.  That’s one part of it but I also truly believe you deserve a good night’s sleep and you deserve a safe place of respite, so that’s why I make this show, because your world and our world will be a better place if you’re rested.  That’s really it.  I’m really glad you’re here.  I really appreciate you coming by and checking this show out.  I work very hard, I yearn and I strive because I want to help you fall asleep.  Here’s a couple of ways I’m able to bring this show…bring you this show for free twice a week.  Thanks for coming by.

 

Alright everybody, Scoots, we’re talking about Dr. Who.  We’re doing the holiday special, The Runaway Bride which I believe precedes…well, I know it precedes season…series three, the second David Tenant season.  It opens with a wedding and a lot of shots from the wedding.  The organ, the bride, the groom, the guests, even one sneering guest, the wedding music ‘Here Comes the Bride’ or I don’t know what song it is.  There’s candles, there’s lanterns, there’s greenery.  Oh boy; ribbons.  Then the bride turns to gold dust and it ends up it’s gold space dust.  She and her space dust form goes into outer space and straight into the TARDIS.  We get some comedy ‘cause she shows up in the TARDIS and the Doctor says wha…?  What?  Right now, I just rewound it see.  She’s turning to star dust.  Her mom and the groom are gasping.  She flies off of Earth, probably at lightspeed, I guess, if she’s star dust, into the TARDIS.  The Doctor looks up; wha…?  She says, who are you?  What?  Who are you?  What?  Where am I?

 

What in the heck is this place?  The Doctor says, what?  Then we get a short open, I think.  Yeah, what?  What; open…bride something.  Yeah, we see David Tenant, Catherine Tate, and Doctor Who.  I don’t think anything else for the intro.  The TARDIS flies in, Runaway Bride by Russell T. Davies.  We’re still going through the opening.  I’m watching this on BBC America that recorded it.  She says, where am I?  The Doctor says, TARDIS.  She says, what?  TARDIS.  What?  TARDIS.  You ready?  She says, that’s not a proper word, which actually, it is.  It’s capital T-A-R-D…a proper noun.  Yes, it is.  She also calls him Dumbo.  She goes, I have halfway up the aisle, waiting to get married, seconds away.  How’d you get me here?  Also, there’s marble.  This is the first time I saw marble on the TARDIS.  I may have missed that before.  The Doctor’s trying to calculate and fix how even she got there.  She goes to leave the TARDIS, sees space.  He says yeah, that’s outer space.

 

You’re in space, outer space, or something like that.  This is my spaceship, I guess.  She goes, who are you?  He says, I’m the Doctor.  Who are you?  She says, Donna.  He goes, are you human?  She goes, yeah, of course I’m human.  She goes, is that optional?  He goes, well, yeah.  It is for me.  She goes, by the way, space is kind of close…cold with the doors open, so they close it.  Then, the Doctor does fast calculating talk.  He’s trying to figure out everything, trying to figure out who she is, why she’s there.  But she goes, you know what?  I need to get back to the church.  I think it’s in Chiswick, but I’m not sure about that.  Get me to the church.  He goes yeah, you’re not supposed to be here anyway.  St. Mary’s, Hayden Road, Chiswick, Earth, the solar system.  Then she finds Rose’s shirt.  He goes, that’s my friend; she’s gone.  She goes, what do you mean gone?  He goes, I lost her.  Then we get a little touch of back to last season.  She goes, hurry up and lose me, back to my wedding.

 

But the Doctor’s got a scowl, a frown.  He goes, right; Chiswick, St. Mary’s.  Recalibrating.  There’s also something on the wall or one of the ribs of the TARDIS.  They land.  She goes out, looks around.  She goes, St. Mary’s…she goes, what Martian are you?  He goes, there’s something up with the TARDIS.  Oh, this is when he recalibrates.  He goes, something…she’s digesting something.  I don’t get it.  He goes, have you eaten something strange, Donna?  She tries to look around the TARDIS which blows her mind, of course.  That box comes back to the TARDIS.  She goes, oh, that box is weird, man.  He goes, is there something…he goes, are you sure you’re getting married to a human, not a…whatever those were; Slithereens or whatever?  Then she says, I just want to get married.  She goes out to the…oh, she also talks about pockets ‘cause they go…he says, come back.  She goes, the TARDIS is too weird.  No way.  Any phone?  She goes no, I’m in a wedding dress; no pockets.

 

Have you seen a bride with pockets?  The Doctor doesn’t have an answer for that.  She goes, I forgot to ask the one wedding dress with pockets.  She goes, let’s get moving.  He goes, I’m not from Mars, by the way.  Get in the cab.  It’s double rates in the cab ‘cause she says I’m in a hurry.  I don’t know what double rates…today.  She goes, you got any cash, Doctor?  He goes, no.  Don’t you?  She goes, uh, pockets?  He goes, okay.  Then she yells at the cab driver, double for his mother.  We see some Boxing Day signs outside of James Howell & Company.  The Doctor hacks a payphone so she can call her mom but she has to leave a message.  The Doctor hacks an ATM so that she can get in the cab.  She borrows a tenner from somebody without the Doctor…while the Doctor’s trying to get money.  We see three Santas in a band playing Tidings of Comfort and Joy, and some snow-person inflatables in the background.  But those snow-people are not in the business of giving tidings of comfort and joy.

 

They’re clearly trouble, so the Doctor throws a cash party.  But she gets in a cab, Donna, but a Santa’s running the cab.  It’s a Santa; it does say, straight to the North Pole, this cab’s going.  It’s action TARDIS time and this was a cool scene.  I was trying to imagine myself watching this as a holiday special as a kid and thinking this would be really fun.  The Doctor has her on map; it’s a Santa-bot or Roboform.  Then we get another open tag, then the ad.  Then we see Donna in the Santa [00:20:00] Roboform cab.  The TARDIS is flying after her, in pursuit with hero music.  There’s kids in a car; they see it, they love it.  The Doctor uses some twine to control the TARDIS while he tries to help Donna.  She doesn’t want to go to the North Pole.  She wants to go to her wedding.  He kind of works out a method, then we get some James Bond music.  This is when it’s revealed that Santa’s a Roboform.  He says, if Santa’s a Roboform, there’s no way that it’s gonna take her to the wedding.  It’s gotta be going straight to the North Pole.  Donna says, well, but I’m going to my wedding.

 

She won’t go with the Doctor though, either.  Doctor has to use his twine to speed up the TARDIS.  He goes bouncing on some cars, more Bond music.  He tries to cancel the robot.  That doesn’t work that well.  Donna says, no jumping on the motorway.  The Doctor says, come on.  The kids in another car are cheering; jump, jump, jump.  He says, you gotta trust me.  Then she does, and there’s victory music, and the TARDIS is out.  Then we see a watch.  Is that right in some steam?  Let me see what we have here.  ‘Cause the Doctor’s trying to warn her off, they say come on, let’s get going.  They jump back in the TARDIS, everybody’s…kids are happy.  That was a cute moment, of course, and a good moment for Donna to say well, I did it.  The kids, wow, they’re really happy.  One of the kids has a Santa doll.  TARDIS is out, flying high in the sky.  Yeah.  Oh, she looks at her watch ‘cause…oh, and then they’re on a roof.  Smoke’s coming out of the TARDIS.  Doctor says, funny thing for a spaceship.

 

The TARDIS doesn’t do much flying, or she.  They’re looking out over London.  She says, I wish you had a time machine so I could go back and be at my wedding.  He goes yeah, the TARDIS can’t do that.  Even if it could, it would mess up the timelines.  He says that apparently, it does that from his own mayor?  I can’t remember from last season.  The Doctor’s very thoughtful.  He gives Donna his jacket.  She gives him some burn.  He gives her a wedding ring which is a bio-damper.  He goes, I hear thee their bio…I do thee bio-damp, which was funny.  Keeps her hidden.  With this ring, I thee bio-damp, he says.  Then he talks about last Christmas, he didn’t give anything away the very next day.  He said last Christmas, I had to deal with some other thing.  He goes yeah, I dealt with these…a different kind of Santa, Roboform.  He goes, you don’t remember that great, big spaceship last year over London?  She goes, I don’t know what you’re talking about.  I was hungover and I had to sleep in.

 

He goes okay, well…he goes yeah, just over there, in the Powell Estate.  He says anyway, my friend…he goes, I’ll change the subject here, friends.  He has memories, he’s a little down.  She notices.  She changes the subject…or, no, he does.  She says, who was he?  He goes anyway, what is…why do you think those Roboforms want you?  There’s nothing special or powerful about you.  He tries to scan her with the sonic screwdriver.  She goes, stop bleeping me.  Then, we get a flashback of Donna’s and Lance’s love story at H.C. Clements where they both work.  He’s in HR.  They do ID cards, keys, locks.  She started there.  There’s some interesting signs about locks and her desk, and Lance getting her coffee.  It’s a nice little scene.  It unfortunately pays off but not in a…there’s a couple payoffs for it.  But yeah, she talks about this thing with Lance and it paints her viewpoint of it.  Then they show another viewpoint of it, so you get some humor of Donna and Lance and their perspectives or reality.

 

You get to see some of London or sets…I think it’s London.  The Doctor tries to get more information.  She goes, enough of my CV.  The Doctor says…something with keys, maybe.  She goes, come on, let’s get back to the wedding.  It’s not gonna be pretty.  She goes, you can do the explaining, Martian boy.  He goes yeah, I’m not from Mars, by the way.  Then we go right to her wedding reception; it’s party time, there’s disco, there’s dancing, there’s a cake.  Donna rolls in, her Lance is dancing with the woman that was sneering at the wedding and her parents are dancing.  Everybody’s having a good old time even though Donna’s not there.  She’s very cross, I would say, very, very cross.  It’s holiday dancing music playing.  She says, what did you…you having the wedding reception without me?  Then everybody says, well, why not?  It was already paid for.  They kind of give her some ‘tude.  Lance is like, where were you?  It’s a tense moment.  The Doctor says hi, I’m the Doctor, by the way.

 

A very funny episode.  Even Donna’s mama says, what am I supposed to do?  They go, where…what happened?  You just disappeared.  Everybody’s…so, she gets a little sad, but it’s a fake-out.  She kind of plays them.  Then, I think there’s a commercial as Donna plays them and winks at the Doctor that she’s super sad.  Then, we come back.  Let’s see, we come back to…I have to fast-forward through these commercials ‘cause I don’t have it in ad-free.  I can’t find it anywhere.  I guess it’s moving to another service but I do have it on BBC America.  Then we go back to the party.  It’s really kicking off; Donna and Lance are dancing, Neil Hannon’s singing Love Don’t Roll By.  The Doctor borrows somebody’s flip phone, looks up H.C. Clements, puts on his thinking face, goes over to the videographer.  He says, okay, what is up with this disappearing Donna?  He sees that it’s gold that she disappeared by.  He says well, that’s impossible.  That’s like Huon particles, too ancient, so old.  Doesn’t exist anymore; billions of years ago, so old that the bio-damp doesn’t even work.

 

You can’t be bio-damped.  Then we have action-Doctor again.  We see Santa-bots everywhere.  They’re in the Manchester Suite, by the way, where the wedding reception is.  Yeah, Santa-bots are everywhere, then one of the Santa-bots pulls out a Nintendo GameCube controller.  I’m pretty sure that’s the one; it’s the controller of the GameCube.  Could be a 64 but I think it’s a GameCube controller.  It’s a remote control for these flying ornaments.  Everybody does oh dear.  Some people do a cake-dive.  There’s fun music at least, but it’s not good for the wedding ‘cause it ruins the wedding.  The ornaments ruin the wedding reception.  More Santas come in but then the Doctor totally plays them.  He says hey, by the way, don’t let somebody with a sonic screwdriver get to a sonic system.  He gives them a sonic screwdriver sonic blast, short circuits all the Roboform Santas.  He says hey, by the way, there’s two remote controls here.  Donna says, aren’t you gonna do anything?

 

He goes, I gotta look at the big picture; who did this?  Who is that?  Who’s that?  Then he sees Roboforms are coming from up there, in the sky.  Then we see projections and we hear a voice say clever, clever, clever.  Kind of a cat voice or someone doing a cat voice.  They have many screens and they have…oh, then it opens or then it goes to a commercial.  Cat voice kind of from the movie Cats.  I didn’t see that movie but you’ve seen kind of some of what it looks like to have a celebrity dressed up as a cat.  That’s what you could expect coming up here but with wax teeth.  Is that part…?  Yeah.  Then we’re at H.C. Clements’ office.  Doctor’s looking around.  They have nice holiday decorations at H.C. [00:30:00] Clements.  He goes, bought up twenty-three years ago by Torchwood.  You know Torchwood?  No one knows it.  Canary Wharf?  Cyber-people?  No.  Daleks?  She goes, I was in Spain.  He goes, you didn’t see any Daleks in Spain?  She goes, I was SCUBA diving.

 

He goes, well, that was it for Torchwood but H.C. Clements stayed in business.  I didn’t; I said, Torchwood’s gone?  There’s also a sign, Engagement is the Key for Business.  He says, Huon’s ancient.  We gotta figure out…he goes, it’s related to the remnant of the TARDIS, the heart of the TARDIS.  That’s why you connected with the TARDIS.  I activated these things.  He goes, now I’m looking at the building plans and I see that there’s a sub-basement, so we’ll go to…see you later.  She says no chance, Martian.  Lance, get inside here with me.  Then we hear the cat person…they’re a cat person; they say, the bride approaches.  She’s my key.  Then Lance, Donna, and the Doctor in the sub-basement with green lighting.  They ride some segues around.  They have fun.  They get their bearings.  The Doctor says we’re just under the Thames Flood Barrier.  Rhapsody in Blue plays.  It’s a secret base.  Somebody says I know, I know, love.  Oh, they go into a lab; there’s particle extrusion, bubbles.

 

The Doctor says yeah, they’re extruding Huon particles, I don’t know, from the Thames or something.  He says, this is brilliant.  Oh, they’re manufacturing them.  He makes faces behind the bubbles.  Lance is still trying to…who are you?  Doctor says, I’m a freelancer.  They’re using the Thames to extrude stuff into liquid form.  Yeah, that’s what’s in you, Donna.  He uses him to light her up, to show the…that Huon particles resonate.  The Doctor gets really excited, does some fast-talking, says Shazam a few times ‘cause he says well, jeez, your wedding, you would have been all…you would have had all these chemicals inside; endorphins, adrenaline, you’re like a walking microwave.  That’s what makes you go ‘Shazam’.  But the Doctor says don’t worry, I’ll reverse it.  They open up Lab 003 and we see Santa Robo…no, just Roboforms in cloaks.  There’s a big hole in the Earth built by a laser.  It goes all the way to the center of the Earth.  Doctor’s surprised by that.

 

Then the cat is coming in through…let me get some of these.  Says jeez, how far down does it go?  But then they hear this voice.  The Doctor says oh, only a Doctor talks to thin air.  Who are you?  Come on down and see us.  It says I’m a cat, high in the sky on a pillow, floating over Christmas night.  The Doctor goes, I’m not talking on the…he goes come on, kitty cat, I want to see you.  Come on down.  She goes, who are you to command a cat?  He goes, I’m the Doctor.  She goes, prepare your best stuff, Doctor man, ‘cause you’re gonna be in trouble.  Then the cat appears and she’s like, doing meowing and some cat hissing.  Racnoss is the name of the cat and the cat-people.  Yeah, then he says, I can’t believe it.  Empress of the Racnoss is who she is.  She’s not just any cat or Racnoss cat-person.  She’s the Empress of the Racnoss which I guess is important, or at least for our story, it’s important.  Then they say, only you?  She says, only me.  Doctor says, you’re the last of your kind.

 

They also mention the shoes called spats.  Lance and the bride, she calls…she says oh, you’re so feisty, this bride.  ‘Cause they say, the cats take all the milk, these cats of Racnoss, not regular cats.  The Racnoss cats are gonna gobble up all the milk on Earth ‘cause that’s usually where they should go.  Let’s see, Lance does a double-take, Lance and the bride; so feisty.  The cat is just a cat.  Lance sneaks up on her but then she says, Lance is funny.  Lance is on my side.  He loves kitty cats.  Then we kind of learn that Lance is very impolite.  Lance says, Donna’s idea of the height of excitement is a new Pringle, new flavor of Pringle.  Lance says, big picture, like the Doctor said, for me, is seeing all of space.  That’s what I want, to see the size of space.  Then she says, who is this little physician?  The Doctor says well, why’d you build some 4,000 miles down there?  She says anyway, Doctor, you’re toast.  The Doctor starts buying some time in a very typical Doctor fashion.

 

He says, we don’t have to worry because the TARDIS doesn’t need to go to us.  When she’s got Huon particles, TARDIS comes to her.  They are protected by the TARDIS.  The empress is not happy.  Then the Doctor says by the way, I can use this as a time machine, multo-Benny.  Donna’s a little bit sad because Lance was so rude which totally makes sense.  But they go out into space 4.6 billion years ago.  Sun was brand-new, Earth was still dust.  They needed gravity to pull everything together.  Donna says, well this puts my wedding in perspective.  The first rock, the gravity of the first rock, pulled all the other rocks together.  Still don’t understand why.  Donna goes, well, that’s why; the Racnoss cat pillow is the center of the Earth.  That was the first gravity rock that pulled everything else in.  Lance starts to glow.  Is that right?  Oh, there’s trouble.  The TARDIS starts to get pulled back in, yeah, ‘cause Lance is glowing.  He pulls the TARDIS back after the Earth forms around the Racnoss cat pillow.

 

Let’s see, pulls him back.  She goes, okay…she’s close.  Oh, the Doctor and Donna, they come back but they’re in a hall.  Doctor tries to do something.  She says, what will you do?  The Doctor goes, I don’t know, I’ll make it up as I go along.  He’s using a stethoscope extrapolator or something.  He goes, I’ve already dealt with the…what do you call them?  Before.  Here are the key particles; we gotta open it.  Stethoscope…Donna gets it, vanishes.  She chases the cat down and we go to a commercial.  Doctor opens a door and a Roboform’s waiting for him.  Then it cuts to a commercial.  Very interesting.  You say okay, so the cats –these cat beings, they’re not normal cats – are gonna drink all the milk on Earth so the Doctor’s gotta put a stop to it, I guess from the center of the Earth.  Then they are back, Lance and Donna, together at last, the awful wedding.  They’re both…got their particles flowing.  I guess that would…has to do with milk, somehow, which wakes up the…oh, secret heart unlocks and wakes up the kitties on the pillow that will come to drink milk, and unlock…yeah, and wake up space cats and kittens.

 

Her ship comes down towards Earth ‘cause she says, sustenance time.  They’re gonna drink up all your milk.  She says oh, funny little Lance, you’re so impolite.  The empress does not approve.  Even though I laughed at your jokes, I don’t approve of them.  Then, we see her ship and people think it’s a Christmas star with Tesla coils but it’s really a milk-thieving ship.  The Doctor goes in undercover pretending he’s a Roboform but the empress sees right through it.  She says, unmask yourself.  Doctor, I could tell you’re a Roboform.  She says, you’re so clever.  You’re busted.  The Doctor goes, no.  Donna, I got you; swing.  Then there’s more comedy as Donna swings on a rope.  He says oh, sorry.  She goes, thanks for nothing.  Racnoss Empress says, this Doctor man amuses me but we gotta get this cat planet going.  The Doctor’s like, I’ll give you a cat planet if you don’t drink all the milk on this planet.  There’s beings that need milk; mammals, they call them.  He goes, take that offer.

 

I’ll get you your own cat planet.  She goes, I decline.  He goes, well, what happens next is on you, then, your own doing.  She says, I’ll show you what happens [00:40:00] next, meow.  Kitty cat time.  But then she says, but my Roboforms first.  The Doctor goes, guess what?  He puts them all to sleep.  Donna says, how’d you do that?  He goes, pockets.  He pulls out the giant GameCube remote control.  She goes, how’d you fit that in there?  He goes oh, my pockets are bigger on the inside.  By the way, much bigger, ‘cause she says, my children…she calls him a Martian.  He takes out all the Christmas balls and he does a great solution; he gets all the kitty cats wet, like with a little bit of a hose, spraying them.  Then, all the cats don’t like being wet and they don’t smell good.  But mostly, they don’t like being wet, so they go to their mother cat and they say, take us back to the planet, or something, you know?  So, she transports everybody back to their ship.

 

She’s still after the Earth and everything on Earth but they go to…the Doctor says…and the Earth says, wouldn’t it be easier if all you and your cats…we got this great place for you and your cats to go, it’s called The Big Cat House in the Sky.  Go there.  She does, and then…but also, the Doctor and Donna got soaking wet.  They get off the TARDIS back in Donna’s neighborhood.  First, they’re kind of laughing ‘cause they can’t believe it.  Can’t believe we made it back here.  Oh, I forgot, they drained the Thames to get rid of all the cats.  They’re wet and laughing at first.  There’s horns blowing.  They say jeez, we drained the Thames.  Then, they go back to Donna’s.  The Doctor goes, here we go, back home.  Told you it’d be okay.  She goes, I can’t believe it.  I lost my job, my wedding, all that in one day.  What a day to…a number.  She goes, well…the Doctor goes yeah, sorry about that.  She goes, well, Lance was a J-E to the R to the K anyway.  Doctor goes, yeah.  Love and loss.

 

She goes well, I’m soaking wet in a wedding dress.  Better get inside.  My family probably wondering where I’m at.  We see some parents hug in the windows.  He goes, you don’t like Christmas, do you?  She goes, nope.  He goes, what about a white Christmas?  He makes a snow machine…he does this, like, fireworks that are snow, and it starts snowing.  Donna laughs.  Doctor kicks it against the TARDIS and says, atmospheric excitation, baby.  She kind of smiles, looks at him.  Merry Christmas.  He says, Merry Christmas to you.  He gets back in the TARDIS and this episode comes to a close as the TARDIS heads out.  Goodnight.  Oh, actually, I gotta…sorry, not goodnight.  I gotta do the run-through, huh?  Okay, so we’ll run through some facts, here.  Chiswick; C-H-I-S-W-I-C-K, Chiswick is the pronunciation.  West of London, England.  It’s got Hogarth’s House, the residence of William Hogarth.  Chiswick House, one of…neo-Palladian villa known as one of the finest in England.  Fuller’s Brewery, it’s in a meander of Thames known for competitive and recreational rowing with rower’s clubs and the finishing posts for the boat race is downstream of Chiswick Bridge.

 

It’s an ancient parish in Middlesex, agrarian and fishing economy beside the river, had good communication with London so it was a popular country retreat and then part of the suburban growth in the 19th and 20th century.  Became part of greater London in 1965.  Affluent Bedford Park Grove Park Glebe, Strand on the Green, tube stations, Chiswick Park, Turnham Green and Gunnersbury, and Gunnersbury Local…Triangle Local Nature Reserve.  Let’s see, it’s 15,550 square miles or 6,000 square kilometers or kilometers square.  Let’s see if we can see the population.  5.72 kilometers square.  Oh, that’s density.  I don’t understand that.  I don’t see a population list.  That’s a little bit about it.  I’ll link to the Wikipedia article.  But yeah, it has a decent amount of stuff there.  Alright, a couple other things that came up in this episode; one was Howell’s Department Store which is real.  It’s a large department store on St. Mary’s Street in Cardiff, Wales.  This is a little bit different than…Dr. Who is filmed in Wales, or was.

 

You know, kind of the uses…but it’s real and they were in St. Mary’s anyway.  History-wise, James Howell was the son of a farmer.  In 1865, he opened a shop in The Hayes, Cardiff in Stuart Hall.  It was a drapery shop that moved to St. Mary’s Street.  By 1892, he had his shop that extended from Trinity Street in the east to St. Mary’s in the west.  The first part of the current store was built in the late 19th century, ornate façade, visible on St. Mary’s Street.  In the 1920s, it was a Neoclassical expansion.  A unique result of this extension was that Bethany Chapel, built on the site of an earlier chapel in 1865, was absorbed into the fabric of the building.  Its frontage was incorporated into the interior and is still visible in the store today.  That’d be cool.  It was a family-run business managed by the family of James Howell.  Then in the 1900s, they formed James Howell & Company Ltd.  Then yeah, they kept extending the store even into the modernism of the 1960s.

 

They had a car show room across Wharton Street and other businesses.  Today, the store – this is all from Wikipedia – major destinations, second-largest department store in Wales, 150,000 square feet of selling space.  Went under a big refurbishment and brought in new laborers and labels in 2009.  In 2018, oh no, it was announced the clothes store would close.  But they were working on keeping it open in 2018 so we’ll have to see.  It’s been used inside and outside on Dr. Who, in Rose, and other things.  A big part of Dr. Who for us.  Okay, I’m not gonna quote the lyrics from the song Last Christmas but Last Christmas, the Doctor said in this one, so I want to talk about the Paul Feig movie written…Emma Thompson’s one of the writers.  It’s based on the song from…inspired by the music of George Michael.  It stars Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding; talk about superstars.  Michelle Yeoh is also in it.  It was released last holidays.  I haven’t seen it.

 

Got mixed reviews but those two leads, they said the chemistry between them was amazing.  It was successful in the box office and I’ve been told to see the movie and not learn anything more about it, so don’t learn anything more about it.  Trust me; I haven’t seen the movie but I trust Emilia Clarke and Henry Golding, so don’t read about the movie next holiday season.  Just go see it ‘cause I didn’t see it last Christmas.  But this Christmas, I probably will.  Okay, the next person is Neil Hannon.  I know, sometimes it’s Neil Hannon.  A northern Irish singer and songwriter who was the front person of the group The Divine Comedy.  He writes a lot of songs for television; Father Ted, The IT Crowd, and he did at least one song for this Dr. Who episode.  Maybe more.  I’m just trying to find…Dr. Who, Song for Ten, Love Don’t Roam.  That was the one in this one.  Oh, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish.  He does sound a bit like Tom Jones in some of the songs, in a good way.

 

That was just something I wanted to look up.  Nintendo GameCube is up next.  The Nintendo GameCube, also known as just the GameCube, is a console released in 2001.  In 2002, Nintendo’s sixth generation, successor to the Nintendo 64, was around when PlayStation 2 and the original XBox came out.  It was the first Nintendo console to use optical discs and the mini-DVD format.  Couldn’t play full-sized DVDs or CDs.  Could only be used for gaming.  It was limited with online [00:50:00] gaming.  You could connect to Game Boy Advance to it via cable which you could…so you could do special in-game features.  It used composite video cables to display the games, though it did change the digital component in 2004.  It said, GameCube on…I was right about the controller, though I don’t know any previous controllers, but it does look pretty similar to the remote control the Doctor had; not identical.  Reception was positive, controller was praised, it had an extensive library, good games, but it just didn’t sell well.

 

When I say that, I mean it still sold 21 million units.  It was discontinued when the first Wii came out.  Let’s see, graphic hardware design, ARTX, let’s see what development…ATI, seeing what else we got.  Discontinued…there’s a lot on this Wikipedia article; storage, two memory card ports for saving games, it learned from control…its other controllers what worked and what didn’t work.  But it went from Nintendo 64’s 3-handled controller design back to a 2-handled handlebar design.  Maybe it was more like the Nintendo 64 controller.  Let’s see, it had innovative first-party games including for Super Mario and Zelda.  The first Animal Crossing was on here.  Metroid Prime, Legend of Zelda: The Wind Walker, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Smash Bros. Melee.  Also, a re-release of Luigi’s Mansion which Nick Wiger loves that game, I think, or at least he used to talk about it a lot.  Yeah, that’s a little bit about the Nintendo GameCube.

 

Okay, when it comes to pockets, I think you want to check out Articles of Interest, the podcast 99% Invisible podcast spinoff by Avery Trufelman, and Episode 3 is about pockets.  Came out October 2nd, 2018.  You could find that in the 99PI feed in your podcast app or Articles of Interest.  You could find…just listen to it, then you’ll learn way more about pockets than I could tell you.  Plus, it’s an amazing podcast, so check that out.  Thames Flood Barrier; the Thames Flood Barrier is a movable barrier system designed to prevent the floodplain of most of greater London from being flooded by tides and storm surges from the North Sea.  It’s been operational since 1982.  When needed, it’s closed during high tide and at low tide, it can be opened to restore the river’s flow towards…back towards the sea.  Built approximately 1.9 miles due east of the Isle of Dogs.  Its northern bank is in the Silvertown area of Noom and New Charlton and Greenwich.

 

Now, they’ve been dealing with flooding since Roman times.  In ’54, they tried to figure out how to avoid it.  They recommended it as an alternative to raising the banks, erecting a structure across the Thames that could be closed should be investigated.  A large number of designs were put forward including a viaduct with gates or something…flap gates lying on the riverbed that could be floated up by compressed air which we’ve talked about on other shows before.  Then ’66, they took a look at it again, tried to figure out the costs and what could be built but they said, we gotta do something to protect London from a storm surge, especially something north of Scotland and the spring tide.  The concept of the rising sector gates was designed in ’69, rotating cylinders based on the taps on a gas cooker, like your stove things.  It was designed, they tested out the hydraulics, and then they passed the Thames Barrier and Flood Prevention Act to authorize construction in the 70s.

 

They started work in 1974, two phases; southern piers first and then the northern piers.  Yeah, it was a lot of work.  Predictions for operations…yeah, it’s really cool, a really cool piece of design.  The future was supposed to last ‘til 2030 but probably, they didn’t know about it.  By the mid-2000s, it was being used six to seven times a year but even more than that depending on the year.  But they were looking to try to do something to supersede it.  Yeah, so, yeah, that’s interesting, very interesting, and appears in a lot of different fiction and entertainment.  Now, the Doctor says ‘Shazam’ in this episode.  There was a movie Shazam that came out recently but there’s also a TV show that I saw some reruns of.  I just barely remember it.  I more resember Shazam.  It was a live-action TV show based on the superhero Captain Marvel, also known as Shazam.  It starred Michael Gray as Billy Batson, a teenage boy who could be turned into Captain Marvel.

 

Two different actors played it when you would say Shazam.  They traveled the country with a mentor in a Dodge motorhome looking to help people, so this was kind of procedural.  Ran from 1974 to 1976 on CBS’s Saturday Morning lineup.  I wonder when it was…okay, broadcast history.  It was reruns up until 1980 and then it was on TV Land in the 2000s.  Yeah, interesting.  I don’t think I’ve seen it since like, I don’t even remember.  But I don’t know, I just wanted to look it up.  Finally, let’s learn about spats.  I know there’s a place in Berkeley called Spats but I wanted to look this up; spats was footwear that was worn by a character in this show, a shortening of spatterdashes or spatter guards, a classic footwear accessory for outdoor wear covering the instep and the ankle.  Spats are distinct from Gaiters which are worn over the trouser and leg as well as the shoe.  Spats are worn by men and less commonly women in the 19th and 20th century.  They fell out frequent use in the 20s.  They were made from cloth or grey or brown felt and buttoned around the ankles.  Their intended practical purpose was to protect the shoes and socks from mud or rain but were also stylish at some point.

 

Increased formality may have been the reason…oh, increased informality was the decline of spats.  King George V in 1923 opened the Chelsea Flower Show with a frock, coat, grey top hat, and spats.  By 1926 though, the king shocked the public by wearing a black morning coat instead of a frock coat.  That was the demise of the frock coat, then spats were left off the king in 1926, too.  It is said that this moment was observed and commented on by spectators and produced an immediate reaction.  The ground beneath the bushes was littered with discarded spats.  In New York in 1936, The Associated Press observed, in recent years, well-dressed men have been discarding spats because they’ve become the property of rank and file.  The revival of high-top shoes and cloth uppers was forecast.  There’s also an article from the oldie…oh, it’s just quoted in here, ‘Pity the fellow who can’t afford spats.’  That’s in the references on Wikipedia.  That’s it.  Thanks everybody, and goodnight.

[END OF RECORDING]

[www.leahtranscribes.com]