DwarfCast 7 – Dimension Jump Commentary DwarfCasts Posted by Jonathan Capps on 21st January 2007, 00:29 Subscribe to DwarfCasts: RSS • iTunes Well, it’s been a while since we last sexually aroused you with our thundering, knee-tremblingly wonderful voices, so here’s another one of them there ‘DwarfCasts’ all the kids aren’t talking about. DwarfCast 7 – Dimension Jump Commentary (6.7MB) It’s the fourth commentary released, but in fact the second we ever recorded, featuring the undisputed KINGS OF EALING (LONDON, ENGLAND), Seb Patrick and me. I am the better king, though. In it we discuss such issues as race and homosexuality, whilst wearing naught but a pair of rubber gloves and an amusing hat between us. It really is an un-missible edition of DWARFCASTS.
It’s gonna be about 4 years before you’ve put all these online. Why not put up all the ones you’ve recorded so far, record some more, put those up, and so on? Why wait for ages with each one?
Well, the original intention was to release a DwarfCast every two weeks, giving us 2 years worth of commentaries and plenty of material from elsewhere. I took longer than normal to publish this one cos I’m a fool. Casts are the sort of thing that people tend to download and listen to whenever they have time, so putting one out every week could get on people’s wicks quite quickly. Having said that, to keep the experience a little more interactive, everyone feel free to list what episodes they’d most like to see done next and we’ll see what we can do!
Cappsy, I’d love to hear the previously mentioned The Last Day commentary, but you must, must please do a commentary to a VII episode, possibly Beyond A Joke. Come to think of it, Meltdown would also be pretty good! I also loved the ‘Krytie TV’ commentary (For some reason, I’m a sick individual who loves hearing blazing controversy), so Beyond A Joke would presumably be in a similar vein. Note to self: use paragraphs more
Well, we have Meltdown ready recorded, so I’ll stick that up next. Just for you. We’ll definitely be doing some VII, soon, and there’s a weekend coming up where pretty much the entire G&T team will be in one house, so there’ll be plenty coming out of that. As for The Last Day… I fear I’ve bigged it up more than it deserves. From what I remember, it’s faintly unremarkable until the last 5 minutes, anyway!
> Well, we have Meltdown ready recorded, so I?ll stick that up next. Just for you. Aw, thank you! > We?ll definitely be doing some VII, soon, and there?s a weekend coming up where pretty much the entire G&T team will be in one house, so there?ll be plenty coming out of that. Someone take a video camera!
> Well, the original intention was to release a DwarfCast every two weeks, giving us 2 years worth of commentaries and plenty of material from elsewhere. I took longer than normal to publish this one … boring. jus post them all, why wait? if the movies gonna happen then ya gonnarav more to talk about arent you, s not like you gotta drag this out overages jus so you got some thing to keep you goin.
> everyone feel free to list what episodes they?d most like to see done next and we?ll see what we can do! Please post some series VII commentaries, plus more series VIII ones. Especially ones where you don’t all agree.
So the consensus is, people like to hear us arguing? In that case, maybe we should do a special non-Dwarf recording of me, Ian and Cappsy arguing about Revelation of the Daleks…
That would just turn into a slagging off of Colin Baker (despite Revelation being his best episodes by all accounts).
> That would just turn into a slagging off of Colin Baker (despite Revelation being his best episodes by all accounts). Well said.
> That would just turn into a slagging off of Colin Baker (despite Revelation being his best episodes by all accounts). Except we all really like Colin Baker. It’s just Revelation I hate, but he, without fail, puts in a great performance in all his stories.
> That would just turn into a slagging off of Colin Baker (despite Revelation being his best episodes by all accounts). Well said. YOU’VE GOT THE SAME IP ADDRESS. But you’re right about Revelation. You can see on which sides of the debate – I say debate, I mean fight – Cappsy and I fall; Ian is, regrettably, on the other side. The WRONG side.
I think Colin Baker was really let down by that costume. It was way too bright and garish. And he had the same problem facing all the 80s Doctors – FUCKING QUESTION MARKS. “Guess who I am – you can’t, can you? I’m an enigma, aren’t I? Go on, spread the word – who is that person, who is he?” I think Revelation is brilliant, however. The most spooky of the Dalek stories, genuinely chilling; a great way of presenting Davros, with a fantastic twist; the daleks look GREAT – cleaned up for the occasion, shot from decent angles, etc; good music. The only thing that lets it down somewhat is the curious special effects work that leaves uncertainty as to precisely what has happened sometimes. Especially concerning the scenes where a dalek and Davros are seen to hover. These have been tidied up for the alternative viewing angle on the DVD release, however. All in all Revelation comes second only to Genesis as Top Dalek Episode Evur. Oh, and I’d like to say I think the overall surreal atmosphere of this story did it great favours and its something the producers should have pushed forward with. Give me that over the soap opera elaborations of the New Series any day.
> So the consensus is, people like to hear us arguing? There is something in this, but disagreement alone isn’t enough. John Hoare, for example: decide what it is you quite like about series VIII and tell us, please, in a commentary. You always seem to be saying (ie in the Krytie TV episode and various essays you’ve posted here) that you can’t quite put a finger on it, and that in the end it comes down to different people finding different things funny. It’s an argument I don’t agree with – I just don’t think you’ve thought about it enough! You don’t sell your side very well when you say “I like it, but I have to admit you need to pretend it’s not Red Dwarf”, and then something like “it doesn’t compare well with any other good comedy series, at all”. In the end you just seem to be happy to be the one who “likes the shit bits”, and surely you have something to say about that? Formulate it boy!!!!!!!1
All in all Revelation comes second only to Genesis as Top Dalek Episode Evur. I was with you up until this point – but I think it’s comprehensively beaten by a fair number of others. Chief among them Remembrance, which is stonking. Also, with the (notable) exception of the daft-sounding woman from Upstairs Downstairs, Revelation has one of the best support casts.
> Also, with the (notable) exception of the daft-sounding woman from Upstairs Downstairs, Revelation has one of the best support casts. But Alexi Sayle is really, REALLY, fucking rubbish in this. Really.
> Chief among them Remembrance, which is stonking. Well, it certainly beats Resurrection. It has wonderful references to An Unearthly Child, and one of the best Sylvester McCoy performances. Plus while it’s familiar “shoot/run away” dalek story territory, one could argue this is territory that dalek stories should use, and it really works in the way the episodes are structured in terms of tension etc. It’s a close call, I’ll admit, but the weirdness of Revelation clinches it for me. > But Alexi Sayle is really, REALLY, fucking rubbish in this. Really. Could you be more specific? Are you talking about that spaced-out slow American speaking? Because I find that really appropriate, and good! It suits the mood of the episodes, in that it’s hard to place in relation to the events and other characters for quite some time. And him switching from being “this character” to the english bloke looking after Peri takes place exactly as we’re discovering how the rest of the story fits together and therefore his place in it. It works perfectly.
> it?s comprehensively beaten by a fair number of others. I’ll have to admit that my awareness of Dalek episodes is generally limited to the ones post-Genesis, as these are the ones on the Davros VHS box set that was released in the mid 90s. I am therefore only comparing Genesis with the abysmal 1979 follow up (was it called Destiny of the Daleks? – it was annoying not only because Davros looked and sounded SHIT but because it cemented a trend for him to appear in every dalek story thereafter, at least until the new series), the 80s three, plus the occasional other also released on VHS which my brother owned or I borrowed, eg ones with William Hartnell (the first one they appeared in, and the rather peculiar Chase). I have to confess to not having seen ANY dalek stories with Troughton or Pertwee. Which are the others which constitute this fair number? I’d like to have some opinions.
I also love Alexei’s performance in Revelation. It’s possibly the oddest performance I’ve ever seen in Who, which I think puts a lot of people off – but if you can get past that, there’s a lot to enjoy. But Jesus, Jenny Tomasin’s performance is fucking dreadful. A wonderful serial, that she manages to drag down every time she’s on-screen. And the fact she’s acting opposite the fantastic Clive Swift a lot of the time makes it even worse.
Exactly. She comes close to ruining it, but when you’ve got Clive Swift, Alexei Sayle and William fucking Gaunt around, it’s salvagable. I don’t think it’s perfect, by any means. But I think it’s the best Baker C story by miles, it farts all over Davison’s Resurrection, and is all in all an intriguing and well played-out twist on the usual Dalek stories. In fact, it’s not even really a Dalek story at all – it’s a Davros story. And because it’s a Davros story (rather than a Dalek story that has Davros messing it up) it’s perhaps the only post-Genesis appearance of his that isn’t hokey and embarrassing.
> Could you be more specific? Well, it’s just what John said, really, it’s very odd… it just feels off-key and grating to me, and above all intensel annoying and stupid. I sound like a twat when I say that, but he just really pisses me off when he’s on screen. Still, Peri’s tits, eh?
At least some effort seems to have been put into Revelation (perhaps Graeme Harper had something to do with that), unlike Resurrection, although apart from stuff like that you can’t really compare it with Resurrection as they’re so different. Alexei Sayle being in it will always take me out of the episode though, it just makes me think of The Young Ones and the Comic Strip stuff and just ’80s comedy in general. I suppose it’s one of those appearances. Much like Peter Kay’s role in ‘Love & Monsters’.
MUST… RESIST… TO TALK… ABOUT… DOCTOR WHO! Oh bugger it. Mentioning Dr Who to me is like going up to an annoying nerd at a party and going “what do you want to talk about?” Three hours later, I’ll still be dissecting An Unearthly Child, and four years later will get on to Survival. All I’m going to say on this subject is this: Colin Baker is an extremely good Doctor that got badly let down, his costume is a major handicap but it slightly grows on you, Revelation of the Daleks is by far and away the best Sixth Doctor TV story, yes Remembrance of the Daleks is fab, Resurrection of the Daleks is FUCKING TERRIBLE and the new series is very good.
My vote (if we’re voting :) ) would be to not necessarily put up commentaries in series and or episode order. I don’t see the need for a linear approach, particularly since you aren’t recording them in order. But, instead of totally random, how about in thematic groupings, or by character focus even– Kryten, then Camille, then DNA, then Krytie TV, for example?
You wouldn’t want to be SPOILED now, would you? More seriously, it helps keep the site reguarly updated if we stick them up when there’s nothing else going on. Also, it gives us chance to review them with a bit of hindsight before sticking them up. I wouldn’t be surprised if we rerecord some of them.
Exactly. Plus, despite what a few of you want, I can hardly imagine most of the G&T users really appreciating a massive DUMP (heh, dump) of Casts thrust onto their lap. This way is far more digestible for the modern day G&T reader on the move, who wants both dryness AND protection. Or something.
> I can hardly imagine most of the G&T users really appreciating a massive DUMP (heh, dump) of Casts thrust onto their lap. But people can then download them all and listen to them when they want. They’re not forced to listen to them all in a row in one evening. It’s not like it’s on television and they’ll have missed the chance if they’re not here the day they’re uploaded. > Also, it gives us chance to review them with a bit of hindsight before sticking them up. I wouldn?t be surprised if we rerecord some of them. Yeah, exactly. You’ll be sick of them at this rate by the time you get around to posting them. Why don’t you post them, then if you feel you want to do another one due to hindsight, create a new commentary and post that? You also won’t have a problem with keeping the site updated if you take this approach. You’ve not been doing it every two weeks anyway – averaged out it’s been more like every three or four. > You wouldn?t want to be SPOILED now, would you? This is the problem as well. It’s not like they’re all so extraordinary they’re worth waiting three weeks for. If you post a few more at a time, or at least more regularly, you’ll cater for more tastes with the kind of commentaries you put up. Personally, I’m more in the “preferring VII-VIII where you don’t all agree” camp, and find the others quite tedious. But I can imagine other people will get frustrated listening to this kind and having to wait over a month before a series III commentary crops up.
So, to clarify – they’re not interesting enough to hang around for, they’re mostly tedious, and we demand them all immediately. :-)
Your rephrasing makes Sandles sound more aggressive than he’s being, but doesn’t generate any internal contradiction which I’m presuming was your point?
It generates plenty of internal contradiction – people are calling the DwarfCasts “tedious” and yet at the same time saying that we should put them all up at once. Personally, I think Andrew’s bang on. I mean, if they’re tedious, then surely it doesn’t matter whether we put them all up or not, because you’re not going to be that bothered about hearing them? And if you’re desperate to hear them all at once, you can’t think they’re that tedious. See what we mean?
He said *some* of them are tedious! Posting either more at once or more frequently surely gives people more choice to listen to the ones they don’t find tedious! You seem to be deliberately misreading the following line just to make Sandles sound like he’s saying “I hate them all, post them all more rapidly though”: > Personally, I?m more in the ?preferring VII-VIII where you don?t all agree? camp, and find the others quite tedious He continues by saying it’s a bit frustrating to wait three weeks for a commentary that ends up being not to his tastes. By all means say he’s being ridiculous by demanding something you don’t think he has a right to, but don’t justify your position by rewriting his argument into something nonsensical.
Once we get the feed working properly, how do you think people subscribing to it think when they suddently get 10 DwarfCasts flagged to download? It makes no fucking sense. The whole point of a PodCast is to release content at a near constant rate. I agree we’re sometimes a little late with them, but it makes no sense at all to release them all in one block. Ya bastids.
Which commentary are you hoping to upload next, anyway? Last one was 14 days ago so it can’t be long to wait now…
Well, we recorded an extended Tikka to Ride one last night, but I’m not sure if that one’ll be going up next as there’s editing to be done on it. Remember, of course, that not all the DwarfCasts will be – nor indeed have they been – episode commentaries. We’ve got a few other ideas in the pipeline as well…
> but don?t justify your position by rewriting his argument into something nonsensical. Hmm, clearly the smiley face is no longer the international indicator of a ‘joke’. I must have missed a memo. > we recorded an extended Tikka to Ride one last night Xtended and Remastered, or just Xtended?
But by “extended”, I also mean “we didn’t just stop talking once the episode ended”. Hence why it needs some editing, because I don’t think anyone’s going to listen to an hour and a half-long Cast…
>> but don?t justify your position by rewriting his argument into something nonsensical. >Hmm, clearly the smiley face is no longer the international indicator of a ?joke?. I must have missed a memo. It was perceived as a joke, but unless you were deliberately posting gobbledegook, your humour was stemming from an attempt to underline some kind of inherent contradiction within Sandles’ post. Seb also presumed this is what you were doing and decided to agree that Sandles’ post was indeed contradictory. Somebody had to show that the two of you had misread Sandles, at least to wipe the smugness off that smiley’s face of yours. :) Anyway, looking forward to the commentary for Tikka. Who contributes?
> Somebody had to show that the two of you had misread Sandles *sigh* No, we didn’t. It’s possible to understand his points, disagree AND see certain inherent tonal contradictions. Which there were. Perhaps ‘Mark’ hasn’t weighed in again because he has a sense of humour? Still, if you want to get tedious about it: I SAID: they?re not interesting enough to hang around for MARK SAID: It?s not like they?re all so extraordinary they?re worth waiting three weeks for I SAID: they?re mostly tedious MARK SAID: Personally, I?m more in the ?preferring VII-VIII where you don?t all agree? camp, and find the others quite tedious. (‘The others’ would come to a total of 36 episodes, series I to VI. VII-VIII episodes total 16 epsiodes. Thus ‘mostly’ indicates a majority.) I SAID: and we demand them all immediately. MARK SAID: How about just posting all the ones that have already been recorded? After all, why wait? But hey, you can prove anything with facts. :-)
> Last one was 14 days ago so it can?t be long to wait now? Yeah, next one will be tomorrow. Ironically, whenever most of the G&T crew gather for a weekend, absolutely fuck all gets done. The Tikka commentary features Seb, John, Tanya and me. It really gets very long winded, so no doubt you’ll all hate it.
> But hey, you can prove anything with facts. :-) It’s called simplifying something to the point where the original meaning is lost. It’s what Hitler did with Nietzsche but never mind.
The problem with Hitler is he was ahead of his time, by about sixty years. If he’d have done it today, he would have made millions from selling little dolls of himself, and been allowed to write an episode of The Simpsons.
I may watch Revelation of the Daleks this Saturday, as there’s no new episode showing. I may watch it with the new effects as well, as I’ve not seen it with those yet. Anyone else watching a classic ep this weekend to make up for the CRUSHING DISAPPOINTMENT?
I’ve recently bought City of Death, so I’ll likely foist that on my household on Sunday. It really is a fucking, FUCKING brilliant story.
Fantastic! I love CoD. I’ve only got the video, but I desperately want the DVD. TEH RHUSHES. I’ve also got the The Space Museum here on VHS, which I haven’t watched yet…
> I may watch Revelation of the Daleks this Saturday, as there?s no new episode showing. I may watch it with the new effects as well, as I?ve not seen it with those yet. This actually helps, even though the purist in me wouldn’t normally say such a thing. Problem with the original is mainly the hovering/exploding dalek scene where it’s really hard to tell what’s going on. I’m sure the direction wasn’t BIG PIXELLATION HAPPENS, but it does, and it’s ambiguous in an unhelpful way. The new effects in general are good, but for the hovering dalek scene a new scale dalek was built for the purpose, and it’s smashing.
Well, in the end I watched The Space Museum instead. It’s… pffft. Not bad. Not great. Nowhere near as good as The Aztecs, but rather better than sitting through the last three episode of An Unearthly Child. At least it was only four episodes.
I watched The Silurians and Megalos and a recreation of episode 1 of the power of the daleks. Megalos had a bit a white hole style time loop thing going on.
The reason we only put out two DwarfCasts last year is specifically to annoy everybody complaining in this thread.
Can’t you just upload them all in one go including the ones you haven’t done yet and only record ones where you diasgree because I only like those ones and they’re all really tedious but I want them all now. PS. Hitler
