lystn

New episode out now! We have a slightly different encounter with the figure of Agatha Christie in the Doctor Who episode “The Unicorn and the Wasp”. We talk about the Doctor and his relationship with Donna, truly enjoy the actor’s chemistry throughout the show, and uncover how much this episode utilized tropes that came directly from both Christie’s books and the adaptations of her stories. We discuss the way Doctor Who depicts real people throughout history, and how well this depiction of Agatha Christie may have compared to the real person and her real-life struggles. We also debate insect anatomy when the insect is also an alien, have a discussion about the limitations and ability of the TARDIS for language translation, and discover we all stopped watching the show around the same time without realizing. Katy mixes up her Shakespeare plays, Carrie makes a Transformers reference, Maddy flashes back to her 2009 fashion choices, and Mack shares a fairly gross detail about facial hair. We experience in real time the drawbacks to using AI, ponder the goals of pants, have some light debates about what constitutes a monster for certain romance novels, and dislike how mysteries involving sci-fi or the supernatural put the viewer at a disadvantage as we lack the usual tools to follow along. We also touch on the Ghoul Boys, charming CGI, symmetrical white males, and TARDIS impersonations. Enjoy! PS there are some Doctor Who spoilers concerning more recent iterations so be warned! 

TW: Racism, insects, unexpected loss of pregnancy 

NOTES: 

• The podcast Katy mentioned is called The Swinging Christies, Spotify link here.
• Katy meant Much Ado About Nothing, not The Taming of the Shrew. David Tennant and Catherine Tate starred in a production of Much Ado About Nothing at the Wyndham's Theatre in 2011. 
• The house filming location was Llansannor Court in Wales but does not seem to have been used for any Jane Austen adaptations.