A Geek History of Time - Episode 123 - Dr Who vs Loki Variant Part I

Episode Date: September 5, 2021

I'm not here to poke holes and suspended this belief. Anyway, they see some weird shit. They decide to make a baby. Now, Muckin' Merchant. Who gives a fuck? Oh, Muckin' which is a trickle, you know, baby. You know what it's called. Well, you know, uh, you really like it here. It's kind of nice and uh, it's not as cold as Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or Muckin' or M So yeah sure I think we're gonna settle. If I'm a peasant boy who grabs sword out of a stone,

yeah, I'm able to open people up. You will, yeah. Anytime I hit them with it, right? Yeah. So my cleave landing will make me a cavalier. Good day, Sphere. If Sphere thought it was empty-headed, plumbian trash, it trash is really good a groove.

Because cannibalism and murder pull back just a little bit, build walls to keep out the radiance. A thrill and tent doesn't exist. Some people stand up quite a bit, some people stay seeing white spots, but it just... This is a geek history of time. Where we connect Nurtory to the real world. My name is Ed Blalock.

I am a world history and English teacher, now mostly teaching sixth graders here in Northern California. And as far as recent news, it's actually hot off the presses as it were, my son has officially entered the imaginary friends phase of development. When my wife went to pick him up today, he mentioned to her that at school,

he had found four baby dinosaurs, and he showed them to her that at school, he had found four baby dinosaurs and he showed them to her in his hands and they were about as visible as you would expect them to be and they followed him home and I got to hear about them this evening. And so that is a whole new phase in his psychological development. My wife actually got a little bit concerned

because at the same time as that, tonight he was really manic. This evening, wired, couldn't sit still. And what I pointed out to her was that he has now just this week gone back to daycare. And because, and in addition to that, his daycare teacher went on vacation after he had only been there two days.

And so for the last two days, he hasn't had the same teacher all day. So he is now dealing with most ability at all during the day, nothing predictable. And so he's freaking out. So that's, that's, that's what I have going on at home right now. Kind of wonderful, kind of a little scary. Who are you?

What do you got going on? I'm Damien Harmony. I'm a Latin and drama teacher up here in Northern California. And I have a few theories about that. Okay. And I'll be to the minute second. Right. Right.

As far as what's new around here, my children have started clicker training their cats. Really? Yeah. Okay, you've talked about them being interested in doing this. All they're doing right now. All they're doing right now is loading up the clicker. And what that means is the cat needs to be trained that a clicker means a treat, and a clicker means that you've done the right thing.

Okay. So it's behavioral and so it's been really fun to watch them do that. Now, on to my theory about your boy. Okay, the one thing I do want to say about clicker trading your cats, I have heard that something you need to be careful about After you have loaded up the clicker. Uh-huh. Make sure the clicker is kept somewhere where the cats cannot get to them Because cats being smart enough predatory animals will figure out I hear a clicker. I get a treat That's the clicker click click click click, click, click, click.

Treat mother fucker, click, click, click, click, click. So just a tip here. Yeah, no problem, but I've got a cabinet. They don't have thumbs. Okay, well, there you go. So here's my theory on your boy. Yeah. The imaginary stuff.

First off, right in line with the age. Okay. Second off, perfect timing in a time where he's been destabilized in two different ways going to daycare and then the daycare teacher going away. Yeah. He's created stability and literally brought it home with him in the form of four imaginary dinosaurs. Yes. So, uh, while he's spinning out, get him to engage those, those dinosaurs and tend to them. Okay. And in calming them down. Call them himself down.

Exactly. Okay. It gives that made sense. Now does that raise a future codependent? I don't know. But, you know, it'll be nice. Yeah, but it's okay. Now, I also would like to ask you a question about this.

Okay. As you know, you and I have very different cosmological beliefs. You have some. Yes. Well, no, you believe in about this. Okay. As you know, you and I have very different cosmological beliefs. You have some. Yes. Well, no, you you believe in the cosmos. You don't you don't disbelieve the cosmos. Okay. Yeah. Alright. Okay. Point. Alright. There you go. But I've told you the story of when my daughter asked us to explore down the road and We pulled up and she's like, what's that building? I'm like, well, that's the bounce house.

Oh, okay, what's that building? Well, that's an ammunition store. What's ammunition? Oh, it's the thing that goes in a gun so you can fire it out. Oh, okay, what's that? It's a church. What's a church? Have I told you this?

No, no, okay. I don't think I've done this one. I have done it. At this moment, newly single dad, what's a church? I have to make sure that I get this right because in order to, I've done it right already because she doesn't know what a church is.

That's the point. That's for me. But I don't want her, she's gonna be going to school with people who go to churches. So I don't want to be an asshole. And who are hard over about it. Especially around here. I don't want her to be an asshole school with people who go to churches. So I don't want to be an asshole. And you are hard over about it, especially around here. Yeah. I don't want to be an asshole about it. Therefore, yeah, what I did was I said, okay, you know how we pretend that we're werewolves and we pretend that we're gargoyles and we go rescue people. She

said, yes, I said, these people get together and they dress up nicely on Sundays and they pretend that there's somebody in the sky who's looking out for them and guiding their behaviors. And, you know, it helps them and stuff like that. She's like, oh, okay. And I know everybody cringes at this, but in my household, the word pretend is actually a legitimate thing. And it is a sacred thing. There were a few sacred things in this.

Yeah, it will, yeah. Because a kid will ask me, and this is where it comes to maybe helping you. Yeah. There will be times where he hits you with shit. You're like, wait, who? And William did this. Like he got assaulted at school, according to the babysitter. And then I asked him, he's like, no, he was just playing.

As because I was in the code word. Okay. So was this pretend or was this real? Oh, this was pretend and then we did this and this. Oh, cool, that sounds wonderful. So when my kids would be engaged with their imaginary this side or the other and imaginary shit would be happening, yeah, I would ask, you know,

because they would try to engage me and be like, wait, just real quick, is this pretend or is this real? Okay. And they said, oh, this is pretend. Okay, cool. And then I would dive in fully with them. Okay. And so it was just a, are you asking me to come along with you or is this shit I need to

worry about kind of check for? Yeah. So maybe start getting into his vocabulary that pretend is a wonderful thing and we will 100% pretend right there with you. You already slay dragons with them. Yeah, you already do this. These things, Dear Boy are all pretend and they are wonderful.

So now that you brought this thing into our pretend, let's pretend. Okay. And that's, and that's the thing. All right. And that's how I was able to get her to understand that there are other religions out there. Okay. And that's, and that's thing. Okay. All right. And that's how I was able to get her to understand that there are other religions out there. Okay.

And after that, I bought the mythology books and that really helped. Okay. Because they know Greek and the Egyptian and the North Pantheon. Okay. And now they can understand that there's a lot of people.

They're ready for the real weird shit. You can introduce them to Catholicism. You will, yeah. So like, Of course, as the Catholic in the room for our regular viewers, I'm just saying, like there's, you know, there's a iteration of the sacred heart is like, dude, what? Right.

But anyway, there's a lot of people who believe in the gods, and therefore it makes now, it makes sense that there would be some people who believe in one God, yeah, who does all these other things that these other gods did. And so they were people too. That works. Pretend as a sacred thing.

Is the key. Is the cornerstone of that for me. Now you're obviously raising him as a Catholic. We are at three. Yeah. I mean, the language, the. The language that we use the paradigm that he's being raised in is one of belief because we are believers.

Right. He's because of his age and COVID and everything else. We have not been attending services in person or actually I got admitted, I've been a very bad Catholic. We've not been attending virtually either for a while. But pretty good. So the text about praying in your home.

Yeah, yeah. But the language that we use, the paradigm that things follow is that way. But. So he has those terms. He has those terms. He has those terms. So you won't need to use pretend as an opening into. Yeah.

Yeah. We're not, we're not, we're not spending a lot of time talking explicitly to him about Jesus. It's actually kind of funny the way he most often hears the name of Christ. Is, yeah, well, when he was when he was littler at one point, Lee and he were over it and our neighbor's apartment, they were hanging out with our neighbor talking with him, helped, I think, helping him with groceries. And our neighbors, one of our neighbor had a female friend there. And Robert dropped something.

Okay. And in his little two-year-old voice said, oh, Jesus. In exactly the way that his mother says, oh, Jesus, when something doesn't go right and Lee laughs about it now, but at the time she was horrified. Oh, I bet. And our neighbor's female friend, like totally poker faced, and I don't know, my wife

is convinced that she was totally serious. I don't know if she was or if she was just trying to be like, it's okay, don't freak out about your kids saying that. I understand. But she said, that's right, baby. You keep Jesus with you all the time. Well done, well done. And Lee came home and told me that story.

And we both went, ha ha ha ha. That's funny. You better have scripts in your head. Yeah, yo, yeah, no, but we better. But yeah, you better have scripts in your head. Yo, yeah, no, no, no. I know, like, your advantage is as a standup comic is you have, you have training at, you know, when I dive in verbally, when my daughter is singing along with DMXX gonna give it to you.

And she says, what the fuck you gonna do? Screaming it. Yeah, you know, at the top of her lungs, because it's good to be able to like, oh, honey, I know that sounds like that's what he's saying, but actually saying, what the what you're gonna do. Nice. Because he's asking you twice as hard.

Nice, I like that. And so I was just able to, yeah. Yeah, just, yeah, shuck it in, jive it. How many levels did we say you had in Bard? I'm trying to remember. Because remember, like, you kept me mostly cleric. I did, I did, just to get to work. Just to give you to get to work, yeah.

But, but, but, I may have to revisit that. But you can use pretend as a wonderful thing that gives him the trustability and permission to be able to engage it in any time with you. Okay. And that's a pretty cool thing now. Yeah.

Anyway, that does make sense. Having said that, has you watched Dinosaucers with him yet? No. Okay. Dinosaucers, no. You know, listeners, you know, I've recommended this like three times. Yeah, I know. Alright.

I know. Okay. So you've got stuff in front of you, which is due because I prepared. I know. I know. Okay, so you're you've got stuff in front of you. I do I prepared nothing. Okay So what what you got well, okay? What the what what the what you gonna do? What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna ask you How familiar are you with Doctor who? So it came up as a pun topic a couple times in our live show. Okay. I was familiar enough to barely hang in there.

Okay. Clearly the losing end of it. Okay. Like you could see. It's kind of one of those like I had a health bar of like one fifth. Yeah. And my opponent, we handicapped it to 140%. I had one of those, I had a health bar of one-fifth, and my opponent, we handicapped it to 140%. And I was just like, God, I hope that timer comes soon. And got it. Yeah, so you were saved, you were literally saved by the bell.

Yeah, that's one of the few occasions on which I have heard of you being stuck in that circumstance. Yes, so I know enough of the words stuck in that in that circumstance. Yes. So I know Enough of the words to know how to pronounce them. Okay. That's it. So Tartus Tartus a Sonic screwdriver Sonic screwdriver Daylec Dolec Daylec There is

There's the doctor the doctor. The doctor. And I think there's a whole panoply of companions. Oh, yeah, I didn't know. Although that makes sense, because I think one of the doctors from ER ended up being one of his companions at one point. Really a pair of British women. Oh, yes. Okay, yes.

River Song. Oh, okay. An amazing character. Cool. Yeah, but anyway. And then I think exterminate is a thing. Yes, that's the battle cry of the dollar. Fixed motion in time or fixed point in time. Fixed point in time. And I think that's roughly it. Wow. Yeah, I know that you love it. You didn't play it. Yes. Okay. Yes. There we go.

And that. And that. And that's probably my favorite doctor. And there was a scarf on one of them. Yep. Tom Baker. Okay. And like this.

Okay. This is cool. This is how bad the D-cat that really was. Okay. Battered Hat Big Long Scars. Yeah. And I know that there have been multiple doctors. Okay.

That's it. You lucky, dude. Yeah. You get to learn there have been multiple doctors. Okay. That's it. You lucky, dude. Yeah. You get to learn about this all new tonight. Because the thing is, and I'm going to throw this out here right now. Uh-huh. I don't know if it's going to come up in this episode or if it'll take for us to get to an next episode in our usual fashion for this to come up.

I don't know if that many puns that will let you in. Okay. Well, all right, we'll see. But what actually got me started thinking about this is Loki. Okay. And because now you've seen... I've seen all of them.

The Disney Plus series Loki. Okay, I'm gonna throw out a general spoiler warning for Loki right here. Okay, so what I'm gonna throw out a general spoiler warning for Loki right here. Okay, so what I'm gonna tell people is if you want to scrub forward by 30 seconds, you should do so starting now. So I'm gonna tell just a couple quick things. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, first off, I don't know if you know this, but I said I have seen all the Loki because

that is actually the collective plural because if you take a look at the Loki as a Pantheon Turns out having just one of them is a locus which makes a lot of sense given that There's a TVA yeah, and there's some traveling through time. Okay, locus a point in time from which the entire compass Can radiate around. And now we're back. So we've warned about spoilers. Go ahead.

Holy crap. Okay. So anyway, because I don't know for sure in the flow of conversation, talking about this, when stuff is gonna come up. But what I noticed, starting with, I wanna say about the third episode in in so once he's met the variant. Yeah, yeah, lamentia lamentus lamentus the planet They they won yeah, yeah, yeah, lamentus the planet. It's literally means planet of tears. Yes. Yes, yes, which is meaningful

But from from Lamentus on, the Doctor Who vibes from the show were like absolutely inescapable for me. And the conclusion that I came to is Loki is the closest thing we as Americans are ever going to see made by an American production company to Dr. Who. Okay, so he's not as Dr. Who as Dr. Who would be, but he's kind of a low-key Dr. Who. Very good. I nicely done. Yeah, the thing is, and so the way I want to start with is by kind of giving you an explanation of what exactly Doctor Who is. Sure. And kind of, you know, how the character operates, how the whole world is. I like this.

I'm going to learn the history of Doctor Who. So well, I mean, this is going to be the Clifft notes version. Sure, sure. Because, yeah, nice, nice. Because, I reserve the right to come back to do a really deep dive on Dr. Who, as its own thing later, but as- I've done the same thing with the NWO. And yeah, so it's the same deal.

So Dr. Who started in 1963 on BBC One, which was the main British broadcasting company channel. Yeah, there's BBC One, two, three, and four, as I know. Now, right. There are. Okay. Back then, there were BBC One, BBC Two,

and I think BBC Three might have been, like, that was in a Beatles song. Yeah, yeah. So, so and and each channel has its own kind of its own character. Yeah. Yeah. And BBC one was obviously the first one main channel. The main channel. And BBC one was kind of the I guess the flagship would be the way you could say it. And so lots of British, kind of cultural touchstones came out of BBC one. Okay. I'm pretty sure East Enders, which is one of the longest running soap operas in the world. Is I think it's a BBC one show. And Dr. Who started in 1963 as an educational show

that they would have alternating episodes. The doctor got introduced in the first episode and he had the TARDIS, which was his time machine. Yeah, time and relative dimensions in space, T-A-R-D-I-S. It's an acronym. It's bigger on the inside. Yeah, in fact, you canA-R-D-I-S, it's an acronym. It's bigger on the inside. Yeah, in fact, you can look on Google Earth, and you can go in front of, I forget where,

but it's an underground station. And if you look to the left, there's a police box there. And if you go to the review, you click there, it actually opens up into the Tartus, and it's enormous. Oh, that's awesome. It is, that is pretty cool. I'll show you what it looks like. So, but so he got introduced as there was the doctor

and there was his granddaughter who was traveling with him. Yeah, very much Sherman and Peabody and what they did at the very beginning of the series, they would do one episode that was time travel. And we're going back to Roman Britain. And we have an adventure in Roman Britain. And we've got a story, we've got to, you know, solve and whatever.

And then the next episode would be science-based. It would be some kind of science fiction adventure they were in where they had to use some kind of scientific principle they would talk about in order to solve whatever the problem was. Well, as a history nerd, this makes me laugh. The history episodes were a lot more popular. Oh.

And the science episodes and science adventures got dropped pretty quickly. I think there was probably also a budgetary issue involved because the BBC did all kinds of, like the BBC has been known forever for doing costume dramas from you know forever. So it's probably easier for them to find you know the budgeting for costumes and find stuff for that at least early on rather than the other stuff. And so very quickly and the other stuff.

And so, very quickly, the series became focused on time travel. The character of the doctor got developed a little bit. The very first doctor was very enigmatic. He was very erasible. At first, he almost seemed kind of malevolent, but they softened the character a little bit. And- Sounds so British. Like, you're at a boarding school

and you have masters of dick. Yeah, kind of. Yeah. And so it's important to note that when the series started, we're talking about early 60s, United Kingdom. And so the country was still recovering from World War II. Yeah. The NEA or NIA, the their health service, uh, NHS, how do they not just national health service? I don't know.

But anyway, anyway, their national health services had just come online. Yes. Yeah. And so we're at, we're at the foundation of, well, not quite the fact, we're at, we're at the beginning of the crest of the wave of the post-war consensus. Right. You know, the, well, not quite the fact, we're at the beginning of the crest of the wave of the post-war consensus. Right. You know, the real construction of the welfare state in Britain. And this is also the point at which the dissolution of the empire is essentially complete. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. India has been gone by this time for more than a decade. Yeah. Okay. India has been gone by this time for more than a decade. Right. And, you know, the nations in Africa, as we talked about, it's started breaking over a minute. You're talking about the whole thing. Yeah.

All the, all, you know, the Mammow Apparizans and Rhodesia and all that stuff, you know, has happened. And so, Britain and the people of the United Kingdom were in this position of experiencing the twilight of the Empire But it wasn't also just like everything was falling apart. It was it was yes This is crumbling, but there's some really wonderful stuff happening. Oh, yeah, like the ECSC had gotten started like 10 years early Oh, yeah, and it's going well. Oh yeah. No, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not saying it was necessarily entirely a time of negativity, but it was a

time it was a post-imperial period. Yeah, yeah, the point that I'm trying to make is it was it was a, a we are no longer the hegemon period. And so kind of as the, as the, and the US is, is with Russia, threatening our very existence. Yes, yes. Which it's interesting that you bring that point up because the kind of capstone cherry on top for that point that I was going to make was in 1963, the United Kingdom and the United States reached an agreement on the UK getting Polaris missiles. Oh.

And part of that agreement was the United States building a nuclear submarine base in Scotland. Okay. Which then led to massive protests in the streets of London, like a month after that happened. And so with that in mind, the doctor, as we find out as time goes on, we don't find this out in 1963, but over the course of the character's development and over the course of multiple doctors times in the role, we find out very early on, we find out the doctor

is a Gallifreyin, he's from the planet Gallifrey, the people of Gallifrey are called the time lords, and they are. This incredibly powerful empire that Holds sway over time and space itself or themselves. Okay. I mean some type of space time space time itself and the doctor we find out ran away From home. He stole the Tartus. Oh the reason it makes that No, he's every Tartus. The reason it makes that, woo, woo, woo, woo, woo,

no, as every time it appears and disappears, we find out is because it's kind of busted. It is supposed to blend into its surroundings, but it always appears as a blue police box because its camouflage circuit is broken. Oh, okay. Okay, that's a good way to write in, like, I mean, that's Star Trek writing and beaming down.

Transport or so. Yeah, it is the same thing. And so the doctor stole the tardis to run away from the responsibility of being a time lord to go galvan't across time and space. Okay. Okay. Okay. Um, and so over the course of everywhere he goes, he inevitably winds up finding trouble. Mm-hmm. He and his companions wind up finding trouble

and they wind up fighting against powerful aliens who are bent on conquest, subjugation of other groups, all this kind of stuff. Now, this is being written in the 60s, let me give you two of the most iconic villains that he faces in the series, and just listen to kind of how they work, and tell me what you think. So, the first one is the doll X. Okay.

Now, the doll X look kind of like, I don't know how to describe it. They don't have legs, they're big, they're comfortable. They're comfortable. They got doll's on top of their heads. Yeah. And one arm very famously looks like a toilet plunger and the other arm looks kind of like a blender arm.

Wow. Wow. The blender arm, as it turns out, is a disintegration ray. And they are inside that mechanical box is a biological organism. They are cyber, they are cybernetic. They are cyborgs. And they are absolutely convinced of their own genetic superiority to every other species in the universe and they are bent on exterminating everybody who is not Dalek

in the universe. And that by the way includes not only biological life, but artificial intelligence's robot. And if you're not a Dalic, if you are sentient and you are not a dollic, they're going to wipe you out. Right. Okay. And, and they are ruled with an iron fist by the supreme dollic. Okay. Okay. So I'll give you that example right there. That's, that's the first big villain they have. Now, the other villain are the Cybermen, who are humanoid, silvery, they're covered in, essentially,

depending on which generation of the doctor you're looking at, the costumes evolves over time and change, but what is universally the thing about the Cybermen is they are brainwashed cyborgs who are who have no emotion, who are intent on assimilating all other sentient life into their collective emotionless intelligence. Intelligent. It's kind of like the two things that give Winston Churchill the biggest heart on. All right. I mean he hated Conn. He hated. And then along came the Nazis. Yeah. Yeah. So the Daleks very clearly are a response to the war. Right.

And the Cybermen are very clearly a response to the looming Soviet threat and post. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so that gives you an idea of, you know, the time period that the series came out of. And so now the doctor runs into the cyber man, he runs into the dollex, he always foils them at every turn,

but it's not until several generations down the line, the storyline gets introduced where there's ever an effort to wipe out the dollex. It's always, oh shit, we've run into the doll X. We've got to defeat this group of doll X and get the fuck away. So it was just a plot device to give urgency to what he's doing.

Well, to give him a bad guy that he's got to try to overcome for the episode. Okay. And then during Tom Baker's time period in the role, then all of a sudden, there is a storyline in which the Tartus gets lost. He gets given a different time travel device by the time lords who basically tell him,

okay, no, you've been a bad time lords. We're giving, you are also however, oddly good at dealing with problems. So we're going to give you the job of solving the problem of the doll X. Okay. And so your job is to go back in time. We have programmed this one to take you

to where the doll X were created. And your job is to make sure it doesn't happen. And he goes back in time and finds out that the creator of the doll X was a, obviously racist, ratio supremacist crippled scientist in a hover wheelchair that looks an awful lot like the base of a dollyx body who took his own people and tortured them and genetically altered them into the pathetic looking biological entities that he then stuck into tanks and turned into the dollocks. And the doctor at one point is left crouched in a hallway with two ends of wire in his hands. If he touches the wires together,

he's gonna set off a bomb that destroys the entire first generation of the dollocks. And he spends five minutes agonizing over his decision. Because it will also kill him or because it's genocide. Because it's genocide. Interesting. And he goes down the list and he's talking to his companion as he does this and he says,

if I touch these wires together, I will prevent and he lists like a series of genocidal attacks by the Daleks, long way than your arm, he lists like a series of genocidal attacks by the Daleks, long-lived in your arm, he says, I will prevent all of that from ever happening, but I will have committed genocide. And he has a, he has blue screen of death over it. Like he, it's one of the few times we ever see the doctor actually completely stuck.

So just let me understand this. This is still that same doctor who used to take his needs to cool places and show her stuff. This is several generations down the line. Oh, okay. This is Tom Baker. Okay. So hold on, first doctor.

This is, I want to say this is the either fourth or fifth. Right, the dad from Happy Days. Yeah, nice. Yeah, no. Tom Baker. Tom Baker. Tom Baker. Oh yeah, okay.

No, currently here I was like a madman, big long scarf, hat like Paddington Bear. That doesn't know. Okay, yeah. All right, anyway. He, interestingly, for an awful lot of fans our age, Tom Baker is a lot of people's first doctor. Okay. Uh, largely because the series got got exported via, uh, PBS, right here in the States. And so on public television, it

would, it would be on depending on your public television station to be on Saturday night at 11.30 at night right you know so a specific type of nerd would would gravitate to it and so and so Tom Baker was was my first so I was gonna say that's a really jacked up episode of Mr. Rogers yeah I want to see that now a little bit don't want to see that now. A little bit, don't you? Yeah. He changed his shoes because he's gonna kick some ass. Because he's gonna kick some ass. Yeah. And so, but his core character is built around the idea that he's a hero who didn't want the responsibility.

Oh, okay. Who, who, like, no, I want to go out and I want to see cool shit like right I have There's a reason I'm a time lord. Yeah, I'm a time lord. I can go literally anywhere literally any when and You want me to sit here and wear a big pompous robe and And and and and and soon and and be the man. Yeah, like no. Right. Yeah. But then he gets out into the universe and he runs into these situations where he's faced with

fascistic overlords, you know, choose which genocide you're going to allow or create. Yeah, ugly tyrants trying to take over different planets. There are some wonderful like kind of pocket episodes that don't have like a connection to an overarching storyline, where he spends what to an American is the equivalent of three episodes. Because each story and doctor who is a serial It's usually about three episodes long

Each episode being being about an hour and so there'll be you know Yeah, so it's very it's very British model of putting a show together. Okay, and so he and his companion in One episode that just scared the wits out of me as a kid, because it was late 70s, early 80s visual effects that just freaked me out. He and his companion show up on a train on an alien planet someplace in the far future. And there are a very few humans on board the train and a whole bunch of robots. And the robots start murdering people seemingly at random. And right before the robot is going to kill somebody their eyes go from glowing kind

of eerily green to glowing bright demonic looking red. And and and they do this. They do this really effective eighties effect of zooming in on the robot space. As the pulling back. As the, as the, as the robot marches forward, whoever they're going to kill with their robotic hands outstretched. Yeah, yeah. And like, I mean, messed me up for, for a couple of days afterward. And so it is a huge cultural touchstone in the UK. Dr. Who everybody in the UK has seen Dr. Who, they know what the series is. And lots and lots and lots of them have childhood memories of hiding behind the sofa during the scary parts of Dr. Who, which is important to mention because Dr.

Who is specifically a pre-water shed TV show. As much as it's scared the bejesus out of me repeatedly and has scared the bejesus out of multiple generations of British kids, it has never been overtly violent or bloody. Stuff has blown up. People have been injured. Right, right. You know, people have been killed, but the deaths always happen, you know, cut away as somebody screams.

They're always plot devices. They're not plot like touchstones. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, the monsters are scary, but they're all kind of rubber face aliens or clunky looking robot costumes. And so just for an explanation of anybody who's not aware of what pre watershed means, it's a phrase we don't hear very often here in the United States, but in the UK, when

they're talking about TV shows, they frequently critics and everybody will use it. Watershed is the time after which, okay, this is post watershed, you could have the nudity and the gratuitous violence and the adult. You do all swear you want. Yeah, all swear you want. In the UK, that's 9 p.m.

on the... Okay, back then. On the beab. Because, yeah. I believe, and feel free to correct me, geek timers, but I believe that it's now 10. In the US it is. Oh, we have a watershed too.

We have a watershed too. The FCC enforces a watershed. I mean, I get it, because that's why I get it. On your own case. Which is always after 10. But I'm saying that my friend over in Scotland, he told me recently,

that it was 10. Oh, it's 10. I think it's a shop. It could have earned. I could be wrong, but yeah. So. But our watershed is not nearly as noticeable? Clear cut.

Yeah, because like, they still have to warn you that Dr. Green is gonna say the word shit when he's dying of cancer. And like, they have to warn you with a paragraph as to why it's okay. Whereas in Britain, it's, look, fucker, it's after that. Like, we use you. You signed up for this.

You knew, you're sitting in front of the TV set. Hell, you're watching Sky Network. Come on, like, you know, yeah. Actually, you know, you shouldn't even expect to water shit. This is BBC four, what the fuck? Anyway, you know, now they think about it too, wrestling. So WWE or WWE F at the time, they had a show called RAW. RAW is war.

Yes. And that was from nine to 10. And then from 10 to 11, it was technically a separate show called Warzone. Yeah. Raw is war. This is just backwards and then warzone. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And then now that I think about it, a lot of the valvina stuff a lot of the More adult time stuff a lot of the titillation. Yep the DX storyline with what's his name getting his tallywacker Come off with Katana. Yeah, okay valve. Yeah, that's okay You said the name and I thought of a female wrestler, but sure, okay. Yeah, that's my Auntie member, but yeah, which is interesting because WCW had Nitro, which started at eight and went until 11 as well, but it was on TNT and they had standards and practices.

And you didn't get to do this where he's at. Yeah, so. See, yeah. Basic cable, difference that are rules. In the UK, that's a difference between, well, we're on the B, or we're's a difference between well we're on the beab or we're on a cable service we're on what we're right right else we got going on. So this show is like you said it's a

pre-water shed show. Yeah yeah. So there's there's no swearing themes are tamped down. tamped down. You know you don't you don't really get really serious you don't really get really serious. You don't get grim and gritty, although under, well, I'll get into some of the development that it went through over time. But so it is, it is, and it has remained a show aimed primarily at kids and their parents.

Like it is a family show. Okay. And I think that's one of the things that makes it something we are not ever going to see in the States. Because of the sci-fi ghetto. Oh, see, I was going in a different direction at nowadays with streaming services being what they are with cable kind of falling away with still having networks but they have

their own streaming services now. It used to be you were trying to get the biggest audience you could. Yes. And so reaching kids, hitting all four quadrants was really important. Yeah. Um, and now they've realized there's plenty good money in going as niche as you can. Yeah. Hitting the interstitial points. So, so I thought that it was just more an economic model, like why we won't get something that appeals to grandma and grandson is because we don't need to appeal to them because at the same time

anymore yeah because it's so fructitious as a statement on the marketplace today you're totally right that is that is also that is one more reason that is all why why that's not going to happen yeah that's not where I was going with it yeah um are gonna happen. That's not where I was going with it. Yeah. Um, because if you look at what we have, what we have generated here in the States as our science fiction juggernauts.

Right. They're much more post-stretchable. They're significantly more, but we have Star Trek right and Star Wars. Our two big, like as the cultural touchstones, you don't need to be a nerd to know about this, but I'm talking about pre-marble cinematic universe, but Star Trek was not aimed at an audience of kids in the way that

Dr. Who is. It was not designed to be get the whole family sitting around the couch. And we're all going to have them watch this. The themes that were involved in it were and volicious, like directly, we're gonna drop social anvils from day one. Uh-huh. We're gonna be contentious. Right. Uh, you know, it's, you know,

Shakespeare meets Ray Gunn's, you know, meets Wagon Train, you know, and I don't think the spirit and the tone of Star Trek And I don't think the spirit and the tone of Star Trek is anything like the tone of Dr. Who. And I think it's because of our ideas as a culture about how we talk to kids, really, thinking about it. Sure. Our media kind of tend for a very long time, lately in the last couple of decades, this has changed, but certainly back in the 60s,

the people who were writing stuff for kids, kind of treated kids like they weren't very bright. They didn't give them credit for having insight. They didn't give them credit for having insight. They didn't give them credit for wanting or valuing complex stories or issues or or deeply emotionally meaningful stories or issues. If you look at kids entertainment from the 1960s, it was recycling cartoons from the 30s and 40s, and it was how do you duty? Yeah, it was bright colors, happy noises, keep the kids entertained, and there wasn't a lot of depth. Do you think also there's a...

It feels like there would be a different pattern of watching TV in America and the UK. And I can't speak to it too terribly much, but it seems like in the 60s, go away, kid, don't bother me. But I'm thinking in the UK, there's plenty of go away, kid, don't bother me, but go away, kid, don't bother me. It was go outside, don't bother me. But I'm thinking in the UK there's plenty of go away could don't bother me, but go away kid don't bother me was go outside don't bother me. Whereas in America, yes you absolutely go outside don't bother me, but we were so driven by a new advertising drive. Yeah, that go away kid don't bother me was acceptable on the TV, especially on Saturdays. Yeah. Because you could advertise to the kids all the cool toys and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. It was the BBC. I mean, that's run by the government. Yeah. Well, on TV, to advertise. On TV, did have much more strict regulations about, you know, that

kind of stuff was from the very get go. And I think that'll change your watching patterns. It totally will. And I think it totally did. And I think there was more of an effort in the UK by the BBC to try to elevate the medium. Oh, okay. Whereas we were doing very much not that. We were doing very much not, and I don't mean to take anything away from the efforts

that were made by people to do, there were some Tennessee Williams on TV doing, and doing that kind of stuff. But it was the cold gate comedy hour. Like, the original Twilight Zones were brought to you by. And it was mentioned, like, I have the DVDs of all the original, you know. The cigarette ads.

Yes, you know, and it was brought to you by advertisers. And it was clearly brought to you by advertisers. That seems to have left a different stamp on entertainment. Immensely. Here, then it was over there. And that would make sense for the not offering kids an enriching experience. It was offering kids an advertising, something, numbing experience. Yeah, and keep them in front of the screen, people looking.

And back then, we got to hold their eyeballs above all else, but it was not as dialed in as it is now. Like now it's much more scientific. Oh yeah. Well, the whole the sciences developed. Right. There's been time to they were still throwing shitties against the wall to see if it sticks. Yeah. Whereas the BBC wasn't heading down that path anyway. And so I'm just wondering if in fact, because TV was still a communal thing in the evening for families. But during the daytime, you know, was TV watching where the habits that different in the US versus the UK.

And it sounds like it maybe was. I think in daylight, I think in daylight hours, you probably would see more similarity than an evening between Between the UK and the US simply because of what demographics looked like during that time period in both countries Okay, because during the day of course soap operas are daytime TV because they were originally pointed at housewives Right who had the TV going while they were working around the house, which is why they're soap operas because Advertising advertising laundry detergent and you know working around the house, which is why they're soap operas because advertising, advertising, laundry detergent, pot scrubbing tools. And in the UK, that would have been very much the same. Sure. I can't speak as a historian with any great level of expertise on that.

But it makes sense to me. I mean, it's a lot of things logically. More toward what would have been aimed at kids during the two, versus the families. So, I think that's a lot that night of us know. Yeah, I don't, I think that would be something worthy of looking into when I actually go into a deep dive on who that might be that will be that will be one of the branches of camera what I want to take a look at. But the hallmarks of Dr. Who as a series are it is its cheesiness is part of its charm.

Throughout its lifespan, especially during its first run from 63 until 89, so for the first 26 years. Oh yeah, oh yeah, it is, it is the longest running science fiction TV series in the world. Yeah. And by a number of different measures, it is the most successful one. Right. Um, it is, it is, it is in fact bigger than Star Wars. Um, it is in fact bigger than Star Trek.

Mm-hmm. Um, now some trekkers might want to try to be like, well, okay, but like, no, Star Trek was on, you know, for these seasons and then, you know, next generation, was this many in the previous nine? And like we're catching up, well, no, because based on the wave series work in the United States, each one of those is a separate series. Yes. And that is in the same universe. In the same universe, but that's a separate series

with a separate set of characters, with a separate set of issues, that, you know, had a finite run. Dr. Who ran on the BBC from 1963 until 1989. Continuously. Right, right. Then, essentially, the writing could,

as I remember the history, the writing could, as I remember the history, the writing kind of fell apart. There were issues within the BBC about budgets and who wanted to be doing stuff. And essentially the series got dropped, which is real shame because they, like in 1989 with, oh God, I've been thinking about his name all day and now I've forgotten it, but with the doctor,

who was the doctor at the time, I'll look him up in a minute, Alex Silvestre McCoy, what was his name? Okay. And absolutely, he did an amazing run as the doctor. He played the first really, the first really deeply, how to put it, the first, the first time that, how to put it, the first time that you actually looked at the doctor and could tell he's playing three dimensional chess. Oh, okay.

He really played the first, no, no, no. I know the bad guys I'm up against have a plan, and I have a plan to counter their plan, and every time they make a move, I'm gonna recalculate and I'm gonna still stay a move ahead of them. Okay. Sometimes I'll get two moves ahead of them, but I'm always jocking to be one move ahead of them.

Okay. And you knew things were bad when you could see in his face that I'm not a move ahead of him anymore. Okay. His acting was absolutely amazing in the role. Cool. And there was a really great storyline about the gods of Ragnarok that who were these malevolent, you know, pan-dimensional entities from across time who were trying to bring

about the end of the universe. Okay. This is an amazing storyline. Anyway, and then the series got dropped and we kind of didn't really get a payoff. Oh. And then in the 90s, there was an attempt to reboot it. Okay.

Actually, and an American production company actually got involved because they were like, this thing ran for 26 years. It has rabid fans all over the world. A whole bunch of those rabid fans are here in the United States. We can do something with this and they made a movie that sucked. Okay.

Just my opinion, anybody in the audience who wants to argue with me, feel free to add me on Twitter. You're wrong, but feel free to add me at Twitter. We can have that fight. I will fight you on that mountain. There were a number of comic book movies that got made in the 90s that were also hot garbage. There were so.

So not just hot flaming gum. Yeah, burning. So radioactive garbage. Yes. The Doctor Who movie was not quite burning radioactive garbage, but it's dank. It but it, it, it's tank. It was, it was, it was, they, they made, they tried to make some fundamental changes to the character's lore, like they tried to make him a half human.

Right. They tried to introduce a romantic subplot, which they flubbed. Mm. I kind of want to say that's not part of the character, but then, then the series started up again in 2005, and he had a romantic subplot with his companion Rose, which like there are fans of who are still heartbroken about the way that story arc ended. And like, yeah, so story arc ended and like yeah so it was done it was in the end I have to admit done pretty well even though it wasn't my cup of tea entirely sure I mean Rose was really nice to look at but I never quite liked the character that

much but so anyway they tried to do this movie where they they they Americanized it too much they said well you know we gotta have we gotta have a Romantic subplot we gotta do this thing and they, they, they, they, they, they Americanized it too much. They said, well, you know, we gotta have a, we gotta have a Romantic subplot. We got to do this thing. And we got to, we got to make him like an action hero. And like the doctor is not an action hero. This is another reason we're never going to have this show in the United States as what it is is because the doctor doesn't

win with a gun. See, this is always the doctor doesn't win with a lightsaber. Right. He doesn't, he doesn't use magical force powers. He has a sonic screwdriver, which is a screwdriver that also conveniently can be used to do a lot of other stuff, but it's not a weapon. Right. And it never has been. And he solves his problems with his wits and by being clever and creative and thinking on his feet. This is why there's no good Star Trek movies besides a few when it comes to next-generation movies.

Well, I'm quite frankly when it comes to the original series movies too. Because, especially with next generation, the whole point of it was, you know, warfare is the last possible option. It's always a shitty one. And so every time they made a Star Trek movie, especially TNG, Star Trek movie, they ran into this problem of how do we make this not just a two-hour episode. How do we make it more galactic and scope, and the answer was always more action. And that worked with the first contact one because Jonathan Frakes is a really good director. Yeah. But it didn't work very well with generations.

No. Sadly. Which, I mean, there are good parts in it. Oh yeah. No, there's some parts in that movie that are amazing, but there's a lot of parts in that movie that are just, Oh, you've been actually a big dammit. And same thing, true with insurrection,

which I still maintain would be a really good one-hour episode. But there's no reason to have the fire fights that they did. Yeah. And then you get to the one where it's, you know, the one where data dies. Yeah. The same problem. Oh yeah, no, yeah.

So all of them are, yeah. So, yeah, the American way of sci-fi is is a swashbuckly sci-fi. Yeah. And I think I think when it's swashbuckly sci-fi, that's, that's the, the good lazy American writing. Right. Because the alternative is the bad lazy American writing, which is it's not even swat, there's not even the romance and charisma of swashbuckling. It's just, I've got a ray gun. And it's going to be Jason Bourne with lasers.

If I want to see a Jason Bourne movie, I'm going to go watch a Jason Bourne movie. Right. I mean, if I, and sometimes if you pitch me a science fiction movie that is, I mean, if I, if I, and sometimes if you, if you pitch me a science fiction movie that is, I mean, this is basically the bass Jason Bourne with a laser gun, but you can also find a way to make the science fiction element of it meaningful. Yeah, I think they did that in the Matrix.

Okay. All right. But that was more about a world. That was more about a world and that. With that really cool camera angles. Yeah. Really cool, really cool kinetic camera angles. Yeah, really good, really good effect.

And there was a really mind fucking philosophical question at the root of it, which is how do we know the very Cartesian question of how do we know what's real, what counts as real, you know, because we have, you know, the one character in the series is like, no, no, put me back in. Right. I don't wanna deal with this shit. Ignorance really is bliss.

Send me the fuck back. Right. Like, you know, what is the value in the truth of reality? You know, I mean, like, like there was, there was all this really deep stuff going on in that movie and it was also Kinetic and and mind-bendingly amazing. Yeah, that's an example of really good American sci-fi. Bad American sci-fi Doesn't do that right and but but again as an American science fiction movie

You still, you know, you have to have the Kung Fu movie elements, you have the gunplay and the, you know, all of that. They did a thing where they basically front loaded it with enough science or enough philosophical questions that they didn't necessarily pay off, but they meditated on. Yeah. I'm a squirrel from what you talk about June. And then they hit you with all the Kung Fu. Yeah. For the rest of the movie.

And the gun fu. And the gun fu too. Yeah. But yeah. And yeah, that's a legitimate criticism. Do they pay off on any of that philosophy? Yeah. But yeah.

But there was something else going on besides just a series of laser gun fights. You know, bad American science fiction is just a series of laser gun fights. And you can't get away with resorting to a laser gun fight in a doctor who's story. Now during the 70s and into the 80s, there was a period of time where the doctor was stuck on Earth. It's a long story.

And he worked with the elite British military group called Unit, which is also an acronym I don't remember what it stands for. And so in those episodes, you had soldiers running around with guns because they were fighting off alien invasions and all that kind of stuff, but they were in the background. And the stuff the doctor was doing was sneaking around to try to get into the enemy headquarters to solve a problem with his wits. And I have the scientific key to solving this issue. You know, I'm going to be able to expose their weakness.

This is a way to space nine approach. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. There is a war that is a background. You have a station there for the plot has to come to you. There is a war that is a background. This is actually psychologically very interesting. And then you've got this moral conundrum in the foreground. Yeah. Or you've got this technological riddle in the foreground.

Or you've got reality shattering riddle in the foreground, or you've got reality shattering psychological abuse in the foreground. In the foreground. You have, we've got to break the Irishman in the foreground. Actually, I was thinking about the area 43, or whatever it was, with Bashir and the guy who, he's that guy in that movie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, every movie.

Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. So, but you can't do that with the, you can't rely on an action movie to blow as the thing that you do in Doctor Who, because that's just fundamentally not who the character is. Right.

And it doesn't stick with lore. who the character is. Right. And it doesn't stick with lore. Like notably you can't truly defeat the Cybermen with guns. You have to find their weaknesses. One of the things I remember vividly from an episode of Tom, yeah, kind of. What I remember from a Tom Baker episode is, we have to get everything we can that contains any gold anywhere on the station. And we have to essentially sneak up on Cyberman patrols and slap whatever it is we got gold against their breath intakes on their chest because

the osmotic kills they're using to breathe will get clogged up by that and they'll be incapacitated and we can get away. Sure. Okay. So there's an explanation and this comes a go find the thing and then sneak thing onto the gutter. Yeah. And there is the threat of, okay, we're gonna get killed if we don't figure out how

to overcome these enemies, but it isn't, well, we need to get to the weapons locker. Right. You know, we need to find some other solution. Okay. And so, then when the series was reintroduced in 2005, it has continued since then, with some breaks in some places in the middle, there was, I'm trying to remember,

there's been a couple of years where there's been kind of a hiatus, whatever. But it has continued to run, and the core facets of what makes the doctor of the doctor have remained the same, even as the show has moved with both for companions and for the role of the doctor themselves has importantly become more diverse. Multiple companions have been people of color. The doctor had their first female regeneration most recently. The most recent doctor was a woman. Right, right.

This caused no end of neckbeard whining amongst a certain subset of the fan population. The bits I've seen of Jody Whitaker playing the role. I really like her take on the character. I should probably take a moment to explain regeneration. Yeah. When we're talking about this, so if you're gonna have a really long running TV series, one of the problems you're gonna run into is your main character is your lead actor is gonna get hold.

Right. Yeah, yeah. Well, so very early on in the run of Dr. Who, the first actor who played the doctor was not a young man. Right. And they did plan for it to go for point three point. They weren't planning on it. Yeah, they weren't planning on it going forever. But eventually he, I'm trying to remember what he,

I believe he became ill. I don't remember whether he died or he retired, but they had to figure out, they had to, what are we gonna do? How do we replace the character? How do we replace the main character? Uh-huh. And they said, we don't replace the main character, he's still the doctor, but we get another actor to play him,

and the way we explain it is, he's not human. Right. So instead of dying, when he gets too old, when he suffers some critical injury that would normally kill him, right. He instead undergoes regeneration. Okay, so he comes back as he comes back as, yeah, that's a different essentially. Like, we're just going to do what they've done with the James Bond movies. And we're actually going to, we're going to lampshade it. We're going to say, no, no, here you go. Right. Look at this thing. Yeah. We're gonna say, no, no, here you go.

Right. Look at this thing. We're explaining this thing. Yeah, but it's one sentence explanation. Yeah, it's a simple, it's a one sentence straight up explanation that has become, it has wound up getting very deeply intertwined with a whole bunch of other parts of the lore of the show.

It created a whole host of writing possibilities for them. Because we never actually find out the doctor's name, we never actually find out who were the doctor's parents, we never actually find out like what was this childhood, we never find any of that stuff out. And so this idea of regeneration then led to the revelation at one point in the character's development that no, the Galliforans have advanced to the point that babies are not born

on Galliforade the way they are on earth. You are generated on a genetic loom from the genetic material of multiple other time lords and you are then raised in a crash effectively with other people your own age. And so then there's become this thing within the lore about, well, okay, wait a minute, was the doctor's genetic material taken from these other legendary time lords? Is he the reincarnation via the genetic loom of this other character who, by the way, is a villain. Okay.

Yeah. Which just sounds like good fun writing quite often. Oh, yeah. No, I mean, it is amazing. It's amazing how all these characters are. But yeah. And so one of the doctors recurring villains is another time lord who goes by the moniker, the master.

Okay. Who at least up until the Tom Baker era, one of the rules that was set forward was after you hit 12 regenerations your time is up. Okay. You hit 12. Game over. They've since over written that because you know we're getting very close to number two. Yeah. And so, instead of, well, and so during that time period, part of the master's motivation was he was several regenerations ahead of the doctor. He's getting close to the limit. And so he's doing anything he can to try to find his way to actual immortality.

Okay. So that's his megalomaniacol. I like it. I like it. I like it. And I have a couple of really amazing, one of the things about the BBC that's just amazing to me is throughout their history, they've had this wonderful stable of Shakespearean actors

who they've used in everything. And so you have, you know, these guys who would have been, and women, men and women, who would have been, you know, these, these guys who would have been and women, men and women, who would have been, you know, on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Company playing a mustache twirling villain like the master on Doctor Who and hamming it the fuck up. But doing it the way only a classically trained Shakespearean actor can really do it. I mean, it's amazing. So anyway, I'm getting off the subject. So through regeneration, we've now had a female doctor.

We have not yet had a non-white doctor. I had a DOC. Yeah, that's the next thing that a lot of people are calling for. Sure. And a lot of other people are saying, no, no, no, don't do it, don't politicize my sci-fi. But anyway, we talk about that enough already.

You got people doing that with 007. Yeah, so yeah. Seriously, no kidding. I want to see Idris Elba play 007. Yeah, well, just do it. Like, oh my god. Anyway, as a matter of fact, I want to see Idris Elba play the doctor,

but that's just me. It would be a remarkable departure in a number of ways. But anyway, and so Loki, and I'm going to leave it on this note at this point, the thing is, all of those traits that I just described about the doctor are there in Loki. But there are some very important differences. Okay. And I think, and Loki is not Doctor Who, but it is, it is in many ways, I think,

the closest thing we're going to get from an American production company. And so that's where I'm going to kick off our next episode. Now that we've gotten to this point, what is your midpoint kind of takeaway? What are you ruminating on as we get ready to, you know, discover just how much bigger things are on the inside. So many of the things that you, well done, so many of the things that you pointed out already, I, having watched Loki, I'm like,

oh, there's a that, there's a that, there's a that, there's a that, so I'm really looking forward to that. I wanna point out a similarity, well, I don't wanna steal your thunder. There, I don't want to steal your thunder. There are some similarities between their choice of how they structured their stories according to what you said, a re-doctor who, and the choice of how they structured their stories with Loki with the TVA.

You notice that it's mostly just one set. Oh, yeah. In Loki, you noticed that it's it's mostly just one set. Oh, yeah, in Loki, you know, low budge. Yeah, but, but then, and in that space, it's, you know, I'm sensitive to frame rates. Yeah, 40 FPS, screwing up, but 32 is just fine. Yeah, Loki isn't at a higher frame rate, but it's filmed in such a way that it's washed out that it feels like it's a slightly higher frame rate.

And I love that because it's about time, literally about time. And so, In reality, and all that kind of stuff. So I'm really looking forward to seeing those comparisons kind of stack up more and more and more, not just that. So yeah, I think that also the idea of variance is obviously very tied, you know, very, very close parallel to what you're saying with regeneration.

They're, yeah, you know, because we can, we can talk about that a little bit. You have this character being expressed in all these different ways. And with all these different actors doing really good jobs. Yeah. And there are different aspects of the Loki. And I just, yeah, I love the series of Loki

because he showed so much growth because that was my biggest concern was that like, oh, the Loki that we're about to watch is the Loki who hasn't gone through all of this growth. And how they figured it out to give it to you all in that first episode was just brilliant. Oh, yeah. And I love that. And then he does get to have the same depth and the same humanity that you saw him grow through the movies. Yeah.

And now he's got it again, which is good for Tom Hiddleston. Yeah. You know, but actually, I want to see Tom Hiddleston play the doctor. Oh, that would be lovely. Oh my God. But I also love that, I mean, you also have very similar dynamics in that he is the partner to the main variant that we're yeah, yeah, he's the sidekick Yeah, you know, and she's taking him through times. Yeah, you know, yeah, so yeah, I mean, there's a lot of wonderful parallels

I can't wait to get it to yeah, so as far as the doctor stuff goes I Can't wait for your super deep dive into it. Yeah, but I think you've done a good job of just kind of skimming across the surface so that we can see all of the different expressions of it. OK. That's cool. So yeah.

All right. Well, what do you want us to read or watch? I very strongly recommend if you have not done it yet before our next episode, please, please take the time, watch Loki. Oh, I think I got it wrong. Find a way. The Captain America movie from 1990. Okay, well, don't.

No. No. They fury movie. Hot and radiant. No. Oh, God. Has it gone off? No.

No. Fantastic form movie from the 90s. No. Well, better the movie from the 90s than the one from just a couple of years ago. I don't know. But, but no. No. But neither one.

A hot radioactive garbage. Like, will turn you into a stunted Hulk garbage. Like, no. So you want us to watch the Hulk, the trial of the Hulk movie, the made for TV movie, where he meets, uh, Daredevil and Thor. Oh God. No. Like, you, you just opened something up on me.

I didn't even, I, now I, I will not be able to live with that haunted knowledge. Like, that is, holy shit that it exists. Yeah, I know. Oh, Lordy, yeah. I, I, I, I, I, I will not be able to live with that haunted knowledge. Like holy shit that it exists. Yeah, I know. Oh, Lordy, yeah, I see. I will show you some of it. I'm so sorry. No, I thought you were gonna go to the Ang Lee Holt from. No, no.

No, no. That at least was an attempt at something. Ah, it was bad. But yeah, okay. It was still on the town. No, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna very strongly recommend Lowkey between now and the next episode you go watch Loki because

Number one, it's an amazing series. Yes number two if you are not familiar with Doctor who yet? Watching the series Loki will get you there will get you and understand you will know what the vibe is that I'm talking about when we get into Okay, the the next episode talking about it. So how about you? I'm going to say Oh Lordy I had the book in mind and then I lost it So I'm just gonna say yeah binge Loki. Yeah, binge Loki. There's only six episodes. Yeah.

Oh, I know what I'll say. There is a series of comic books wherein Loki turns Thor into a frog. Yes. And I can probably find the issue numbers of that. But let me just explain to you, when Loki turns Thor into a frog. Thor is in Central Park, and I think it's, it's, okay, so it is the mighty Thor issues 360-4 through 360-7 or so. Okay.

Okay. Loki turns to a frog. Thor, he's in Central Park. He meets up with other frogs. He becomes their leader in a war against the mice. Now, what I love about this is there is a epic poem written by Homer called the War of the Frogs and the Mice. Is the Baton Momakia.

Wow, okay. And so our Marvel writers letting us know sub-roses, that no, no no I'm educated yes okay and so you have the battle between the frogs and the mice and Thor ends up going off to an Owl spoil it for a Thor goes back to Ask Garden Beats Shit Out Locans like defrogify me and he does but at one point for his hammer me all near tiny little shard flakes off, and there is actually a frog who is worthy,

and he picks it up and becomes frog. Nice. And I'm not gonna say anything about the TV series Loki, vis-a-vis this, but I do think that you should read. While you're binging Loki, read the story. Okay. So there you go. That's, that's what I will. All right. If you don't want to read that, then go read the Batcha, Momakia. Okay.

So, all right, you know, cool. The four comics are probably easier for most of most of our, our flisters to, to get a hold of. Yeah, yeah, because I have one of the Bachelor of Momakia here in Greek. And the printing plates for the Latin of it are so faded that they're just off in this like little corner of each page of Greek. Nice. And it is a bitch to read.

It's fine, but it's a bitch. All right, so we're're gonna find you on the social meds. You can find me at Mr. Blalock on TikTok and on Instagram. You can find me at EH Blalock on Twitter and where can you be found? You can find me at Daharmony, Two H's in the middle on Twitter and Instagram. And you can also find me every Tuesday night at 8.30 PM, Pacific Daylight time doing capital punishment on twitch.tv, four slash capital puns. Very cool pun tournament.

And then let's see, by the time this airs, I will have already done Edinburgh Fringe Festival and I will have done this show that I'm booked for called Who Wrote This Shit? Nice. With Chelsea Beers. So I've already done those, you'll miss them, sorry. But that's how it goes.

So yeah, that's reconfined. Where can they find us collectively? Collectively, we can be found at geekhistorytime.com and a geek history of time on Twitter. I think you reversed those. I think I did. They'll find it. Yeah.

All right, cool. Well, for a geek history of time, I'm Damien Hermany. And I'm Ed Blaylock. And until next time, Alonzi.