I teased it, he teased it, and now here it is. This is the crossover episode of Samuel's Thoughts with Samuel Lewis and Call Me Donovan with me, Donovan. Sam and I share our thoughts on this season's Doctor Who, my likes and dislikes, his likes and dislikes (shockingly he actually has one or two!). Sam is the one I refer to as a walking Doctor Who encyclopedia.

SPOILERS!!!

If you haven't watched all of this season's Doctor Who, then do so before listening to this episode if you don't want anything spoiled! You have been warned! LOL

CONTACT INFORMATION

Samuel Lewis

Samuel's Thoughts

https://tscn.tv

Donovan Adkisson

Call Me Donovan

https://callmedonovan.com

Music generated by Mubert https://mubert.com/render

This is episode 38 of Call Me Donovan, recorded Friday, June 28th, 2024.

Welcome to another episode of Call Me Donovan.

I have a special treat for you this time.

You know how I've been dissecting and rating this season's Doctor Who with our new Doctor

Ncuti Gatwa

Well, I've often mentioned my friend, fellow podcaster, and walking Doctor Who encyclopedia

without naming him out of respect and courtesy.

We've teased this on both of our shows, and now we've finally made it happen.

This episode is the crossover of Call Me Donovan and Samuel's Thoughts with Samuel Lewis, who

I call Sam, of course.

Now I've known Sam for over a decade.

We've been guests on each other's shows over the years, even though some of those shows

are no longer in production.

Life has a way of keeping us busy and taking us in unexpected directions.

It was so much fun to catch up with Sam and talk about Doctor Who.

So without further ado, here's Sam from Samuel's Thoughts and myself discussing our likes and

dislikes from Ncuti Gatwa's first season as the Doctor.

Enjoy!

[intro music]

>> SAMUEL LEWIS Well, hello, both audiences of both combined

podcasts.

It's been a while since I've done something like this.

For those of you on Donovan's end of the spectrum, I am Samuel Lewis.

I am the host of Samuel's Thoughts over here at TSCN.TV, and I am the mysterious figure

that he's been talking about in his podcast episodes over on his show, which is Donovan.

I'll let you take the floor for this.

>> DONOVAN ADKISSON Hey, and also to both audiences, I am Donovan.

I'm the friend, if you will, that Sam has been talking kind of around whenever talking

about Doctor Who and what have you.

And I do a podcast called Call Me Donovan, which is basically kind of a – well, it

started out as an alcohol retirement podcast, but now it's basically giving Sam updates

on what's going on in my life.

>> SAMUEL LEWIS You're not wrong.

>> DONOVAN ADKISSON But the two of us have come together for a

very specific reason.

We referred to each other multiple times in our different episodes about talking about

Doctor Who.

Also to give Donovan's audience a bit of a background, I guess, I also do a Doctor Who

podcast called Going Through Who, which means that I have to kind of have part of my brand

be Doctor Who and everything like that.

So I look at this stuff from kind of the encyclopedic Who knowledge side of things.

And I always love to have fascinating conversations with Donovan about, now I get this, but what

about a normal person like Donovan and like a weirdo like me?

Does he get this?

You know, it's sort of like sometimes the show can very much go down paths of canon,

which is weird because we'll get to that in the conversation in a bit.

But that sometimes I just take for granted as someone that knows this stuff, to be honest.

>> DONOVAN ADKISSON Yeah, and one thing that I wanted to mention

too is I'm not – I always refer to you as the walking Doctor Who encyclopedia because

you do have the knowledge.

I was watching the classic Doctor Who when it was basically airing a few years beyond

that.

I used to watch it with my dad on Georgia Public Television down here in Georgia.

So I started off with number four, Tom Baker.

And so I was there during – I watched all the way through to – I kind of lost it when

Sylvester McCoy became the Doctor and really stopped watching it so much.

So most of the canon for me is forgotten because I'm old.

And it's been 30 years since I watched it.

>> SAMUEL LEWIS I mean, the running gag of going through Who

is that I'm encyclopedic, and yet I forgot stuff even in New Who that now we're in the

David Tennant 10th Doctor era.

And there's things that I'm finding and going, wait a minute, I totally forgot about this.

So that is perfectly valid, Donovan.

Don't feel bad about it.

If I can't even remember it, I don't think anyone has a chance.

>> DONOVAN ADKISSON Fair point.

>> SAMUEL LEWIS But anyway, so essentially the setup of this

conversation is as we went through this era, this season, not an era, I still got more

to go, thank goodness.

>> DONOVAN ADKISSON Well, it's the beginning of an era.

That's the reason why they literally started back over.

I don't know if you've looked it up on IMDB.

It is considered season one, which threw me.

>> SAMUEL LEWIS It is.

Well, we could have a whole 30 minutes about that one.

It's like, I'm trying to get people into this show and you're going to make this even more

complicated for me.

Okay, fine.

>> DONOVAN ADKISSON It's what I do.

>> SAMUEL LEWIS Yeah, exactly.

It's what Russell does.

But anyway, regardless, essentially, it was an interesting path where we were listening

to each other's podcast episodes and occasionally sending messages over Discord to each other

going, well, okay, so you didn't like that one, but I liked that one and this is interesting,

you know, and stuff like that.

We kind of went back and forth.

And in the middle of the season, me and Donovan were kind of on the same page.

We liked these episodes, all of that stuff.

But the beginning of the season and the ending of the season, we were on totally different

areas of the spectrum where Donovan hated them with a white hot passion that I have

not heard from him in quite a while.

And I was not saying they were the best thing ever.

I don't like going with best thing ever.

One of my pet peeves, and we won't go into it unless you want to, but one of my pet peeves

on the internet nowadays, and I'm not saying this is you, but I'm just, it reminds me of

it, is that people have this little A or B switch that they seem to have created where

it's either something is the best thing in the world or it's the worst thing that's ever

happened to television.

And there's no middle ground.

And I'm like, middle grounds exist.

Don't do that.

But yeah, for me, if things become favorite episodes, then I'll tell you guys about it.

But otherwise, the way that I've always done with like Doctor Who and stuff, with like

the going through Who stuff is I will go, even if I don't like an episode, I will find

a positive in it.

And I won't tear an episode to shreds unless I think it absolutely deserves it.

You got to work dang hard in the day for me to tear something to pieces, essentially.

And it's always been sort of our philosophy and stuff.

And that kind of also came over these episodes.

There wasn't really something I disliked enough to go, ah, or anything like that.

There were little things.

And one specific thing that was near the end of the season we'll talk about because it

was fascinating for you.

We had a little bit of a talk off air, so we'll roll that into the conversation itself.

But Donovan, you were not so thrilled about certain aspects of Doctor Who.

And I want you to say your piece before I then place my theory upon you.

That way, both of our audiences will have the framework for what I'm going to do, because

I have a theory about why you didn't like this.

And I want to frame this properly.

I'm not being disrespectful to him.

He's allowed to have his opinion, all of this stuff.

It's just I have a curiosity that has popped into my skull.

And Donovan is the person that holds this theory that I've seen or holds this opinion

that I've seen from several people across the Internet.

But he's the safe guy that isn't going to scream at me so I can talk to him about it

and have a decent human being conversation instead of a random person on the Internet

that's probably going to melt me to pieces.

So that's essentially what we've got going here.

But yeah, Donovan, so present your opinion and then I will ask you some questions.

Okay, so first off, I went into this season, I guess, with some preconceived notions based

on history of Russell's, I won't say reboot, but continuation of the 2005 Doctor Who.

And during his tenure, other than the first season, because, well, you know me, I've got

an axe to pick and grind and all of that with the very, you know, Doctor Who number nine,

if you will.

Shaking head for so furiously, yes, go on.

Yeah.

It's petty.

I know it, but I don't like what I don't like.

So I guess I had these, like I said, I had these preconceived notions of, okay, this

was going to be this was going to be interesting.

And it's not that the showrunners and writers of the previous seasons were terrible.

I mean, you know, I love Moffat's writing.

My favorite Doctor of the 2005 Doctor Who era is Matt Smith.

You know, I do love David Tennant, but Matt is the one that I just kind of connect with

more.

Peter Capaldi was good.

I thought I was going to hate him.

You know, he was very curmudgeonly.

But then I found that I related to that.

So anyway, so so then, of course, then we had Jodie Whittaker and there was something

about that that I just didn't like to begin with.

But I went back and gave it a second a second try.

And overall, that was not terrible.

It's not it's not as good as it I felt like it could have been.

But it did introduce some interesting aspects of Doctor Who, you know, the origins and things

like that.

So anyway, knowing that we were looking at this potential curve of how things started

and they were they were just trying to kind of curve downward, I was like, OK, we've got

Russell back.

This is going to be some really good Doctor Who.

You know, we've got this new actor, Shudi Gatwa, who is just a spectacle himself.

You know, I think I like him.

I really do.

He's a phenomenal actor.

He brings a lot to the role, sometimes a bit too much to the role, but otherwise it's still

really, really good.

And then we get space babies.

And I am literally sitting there on the couch watching the show.

And I pause it about 20 minutes in and turn around and look at my wife and says, what

the is this?

And we make it through.

And so the point being is I looked at all the episodes that were written by Russell.

And so, of course, my first thing was the first two were written by him.

Then the third one was written by Moffat.

And it was almost like suddenly the first two were terrible, in my opinion.

Then suddenly we had this phenomenal episode that was written by Moffat.

And I was like, is it the writer?

Can Russell no longer write?

And then we had the fourth one and things just kind of got on an even keel.

And I was like, OK, all right.

I don't know what the hell was going on with episodes one and two.

He's written a couple of more.

Then there was a duo that wrote, was it the one?

I cannot remember now.

It was the one that basically was about the social media.

Is that the one that was written by the duo or is that the roguish one?

Oh, give me a second.

I'm going to pull up the TARDIS wiki.

Carry on while I'm doing this.

Why did I not have this pulled up already?

That's all right.

I normally pull up IMDB, but that's because I'm not concentrated on just Doctor Who.

I have to look up all kinds of things because, you know, I'm that guy that, you know, when

we're and there's memes about this, you will be watching a television show and I'll see

an actor and I'll go, hey, you know, they played on so and so.

Such and such show.

And my wife's like, I don't care.

I want to know him as the character.

Yeah, that is your superpower, though, which is great.

So I had I had high expectations for the last two episodes.

And I made a rogue was the duo.

OK, rogues to do it, which was a very good episode as well.

Yeah.

So I had I had high hopes for the last two episodes.

And I made a comment in one of my episodes where I felt like, see, this entire time we've

had this through line about who is Ruby Sunday and who is her mother.

And it is characterized in such a way it is it is shown on screen in such a way to make

it look epic, to make it look surreal, to make it look otherworldly.

So we're given we're given these breadcrumbs.

It's like, oh, something epic, something just out of this world.

Who is she?

You know, who is her mother?

What kind of powers does she have?

What kind of powers does Ruby have?

There were all these little little nuances and nuggets and what have you.

And then we get to the last two episodes.

And I felt like I had been raid.

Now, if you have never watched the last three Star Wars movies, you will not have a reference

to what I'm talking about.

The main character in those movies is a girl or a woman named Ray.

And she is this mysterious person who has the force.

She's learning about the force.

She has this connection with Kylo Ren, who, spoiler if you haven't watched any of this,

Kylo Ren is Ben Solo, who is Han Solo's son.

And there's this mystery of, well, who is Ray?

Because she's she takes to the force very well.

She's very powerful.

She's a quick study.

Only for us to find out in the I want to say the second of the of the three ending trilogies.

Her parents were nobodies.

They literally sold her when she was very young, basically into slavery.

And there was nothing special about her.

Now, you do eventually find out what did make her special.

So it was kind of a misdirect.

But a lot of us, when we saw that, were like, come the f on.

Really?

You have this build up.

And then it's just like, no, there's nothing special.

So when we get into these last two episodes, you know, and of course, we'll talk about

the big bad and all of that.

But we were hoping to get and we did some resolution to where who is Ruby Sunday and

who is her mother.

And of course, in these episodes, you've got that scene where they're there in the time

window and they finally see her in the cloak and she turns around and she's pointing.

Now the way they did that scene was a misdirect, in my opinion.

Now I understand that she was pointing to the sign, please name my child Ruby, basically.

I get that.

But that was not obvious.

And they could have done it in a different way so that it didn't make you feel like there

was more to it than there actually was.

Because as we discover, her mom was nothing special.

She was just a 15 year old that got pregnant, really couldn't take care of the child and

dropped it off at a church.

But here's the thing.

Who was she pointing to when she pointed at the sign?

Who was she?

Who was the mother?

Who did she?

There was nobody there.

I mean, the doctor shows up, but she wasn't necessarily pointing at him.

Or was she?

That's a question I have.

I don't know the answer to.

But if you stop and consider, well, nobody was there, nobody watched her drop Ruby off

as an infant.

And then as she's walking away, turn around and point at this road sign.

Who was that for?

Who was the beneficiary of her pointing at that sign?

So overall, I was really let down by that.

I felt, I mean, I was getting really invested.

I loved the character of Ruby and Millie, the actress, phenomenal.

But the payoff wasn't there.

It was just, it was horrible.

So that's where I come from.

And that's interesting because the way you break that down means that my brain's having

to go to try to, because it's almost like one of those moments where you go, well, think

about all the perspectives we've seen that specific scene from.

I almost think that the person inside the church that finds the kid is on the stoop

by the time the doctor's there.

So you think the mother was pointing at the sign and she was looking at the person at

the church?

I'll have to go back to church on Ruby Road in order to look at it.

But if we're talking about the same thing, like the same period, because the doctor shows

up, that's whenever the baby has been taken inside.

So theoretically, it could be an explanation for it.

That's not me immediately parrying you, but it's more like I'm genuinely saying I think

that that might be a possibility.

Okay.

Yeah, because to be fair, as I was explaining all of this, that thought actually had just

occurred to me.

Who was that the benefit?

Who was benefiting from her pointing at the sign?

Because who was she looking at?

Who was she telling?

Name my child Ruby.

So you may be right.

She may have been looking at the person in the church, but it's hard to tell, especially

from the last episode where we're in the time window and the way they shot that and the

way they made it look.

And also, why so ominous?

That cloak she's wearing, come on, you can't see her face.

I mean, I understand for plot point reasons why it's to keep the mystery, but sometimes

mystery for the sake of mystery just winds up being poor writing.

You feel like you didn't get enough proper clues, essentially.

Yes.

Okay.

This is actually going to a different place.

My theory will come later.

There is an interesting thing amongst us mystery nerds that we get ticked off at mystery writers

if they don't give us the opportunity to solve a mystery.

Weirdly enough, a lot of the times, like Arthur Conan Doyle got away with it.

And the reason why he had the excuse that he got away with it was because Sherlock Holmes

was the uber genius that of course noticed so many things that no normal human being

would ever notice that even though he used inductive reasoning, not deductive reasoning,

but we will not go down that path.

He got it wrong every time.

But regardless, that's why a lot of people like adore Agatha Christie, for instance,

because she always gave you the clues.

There were very few times where Perrault ever kept something in his pocket, essentially.

If he kept it in his pocket, you still had the opportunity to notice what he kept in

his pocket, technically.

But it's just one of those situations where you had the opportunity to solve that dang

mystery before it finished.

So sometimes it was a stretch.

I'll give you that.

But you know, you usually had the opportunity to solve the mystery.

And that's, yeah, I think you may be right because it's almost like the reveal.

It's like how did we get to the reveal without any of the clues?

That's kind of the way I look at it.

I mean, it's like when someone comes up out of left field and said, "Oh, well, so and

so is the bad guy," where during the entire episode of something, he's been the best friend,

and there were no context clues whatsoever.

Suddenly you have a character that does a complete 180.

There's no reason for them to do the 180.

There's no clues to even say, "Hey, this guy may not be on the up and up."

And yeah, that's kind of the way I felt about this, too, was all of the mystery around the

mother really built it up to where the clues I was getting was, "Okay, this is going to

be somebody that the doctor knows from his past, only for that to be a redirect to somebody

else being somebody he knows from his past."

Yeah.

You know, that's, yeah, so that's a very, that's a big irritant for me is the way we

got there and it just, the payoff was just not there.

I felt cheated.

I really, I just felt cheated.

And I think this is where I'm going to now go into my theory because it is interesting.

I'm going to give him credit, although I don't think he does the two-minute time lord anymore,

but Chip Sutter, regardless, I'll give him a name shout out anyway, one of my fellow

Doctor Who podcasters, I think he's still in the game, just not doing the two-minute

time lord anymore.

But he once said something that the TARDIS is not a time machine, it's a genre machine.

So essentially, Doctor Who is a television show that changes genres all the time.

And not necessarily eras that change genres, but more episode to episode, it changes genres.

Like we had a episode that was a Victorian soap opera for Pete's sakes this season.

It was Bridgerton.

It was, it was Bridgerton.

I've never watched Bridgerton.

I might actually watch it if it's like that.

But yeah, it was, it was very interesting.

But that's just like a really extreme example of what Doctor Who tends to do.

But there is one thing that is interesting to me.

I know for you, you are a very avid Star Trek fan.

Like you like Star Trek, you like how Star Trek does things.

Yes.

It's hardcore science fiction.

I'm a Trekkie over a Star Wars person, though I like Star Wars.

Because there's a difference.

Star Trek is science fiction.

Star Wars is science fantasy.

Thank you for giving me the next line before I said it.

Yes, it is.

So Star Wars is science fantasy, and Star Trek is science fiction.

My argument that I've made for a lot of people because of what Doctor Who does on a frequent

basis is Doctor Who isn't science fiction.

It's science fantasy.

I could see it.

And the reason is because this is, so I had to get more of the context of the doctors

that you've seen.

So essentially, my doctor, the fifth doctor, which came after your first doctor, Tom Baker,

had a lot of interesting things inside of them that I'd almost want to do an experiment

with you if you're willing to see if certain stories annoy you like this season did, if

you would be willing to do that.

But that's something we can talk about off air.

Like just as a concept, plus I get BritBox some money that way.

But anyway, regardless, Doctor Who occasionally goes into what I will call uber science fantasy.

As to where, forget the scientific explanation, you're not going to get it.

Some supernatural thing has occurred.

Accept it.

And that's essentially what it is.

Because there were a lot of supernatural things that happened this season that kind of tweet

to you.

You talked about the main thing with like Ruby and stuff like that.

But we had the Toymaker come back, which was from the first Doctor's era for Pete.

I love the fact that he brought the Toymaker back, but that wasn't part of the season technically.

Which I loved the Toymaker, if for no reason than Neil Patrick Harris being the one that

played him.

Oh, when they announced it was going to be him, I went, I have no notes.

Because I knew what the Toymaker required.

And sure enough, Neil Patrick Harris had every single talent in that to where I went perfection.

And sure enough, he pulled it off, even like the little scene with him doing card slights

and everything with his hands.

And I was like, yes!

So it all came out.

The King of Games required someone that could do that.

And sure enough, he did.

But the Doctor Who universe does have a pantheon.

It has a pantheon of supernatural beings in which we kind of throw the rule book out the

window and just accept it.

And whenever those episodes happen, you kind of have to check out your logic and just go

for it.

Otherwise, if you start thinking too hard, problems emerge.

Like let's see, I shouted out a couple of them on my episodes, but like you had the

Guardians, the Black and the White Guardian, where they are essentially the guardians of

order and chaos.

And I always loved how Doctor Who did it because you would think that they automatically

would see the White Guardian as the good guy.

The Black Guardian was always the bad guy, obviously, because he was chaos.

But they also kind of went with, you're a bit too organized, though, whenever it came

to the White Guardian at times, especially given the fourth Doctor dealt with the White

Guardian at some point.

Like the Key to Time, if you remember that, that was the White Guardian sending him on

a mission to get the parts of the Key to Time.

And then he kind of blew it up in the Guardian's face at the end because he realized, no, none

of this needs to happen and totally stopped it.

Yeah, you're requiring me to pull back, pull the cobwebs off of the vault on that one.

Yeah, it's a whole season that was an arc, even.

It was like one of those rare moments where Doctor Who did an entire season as an arc,

right, sort of thing.

In Classic Who, anyway.

We do it all the time now in Modern Who.

But in Classic Who, that was a rarity and it was a pretty sweet one.

But so you've got the Guardians, which show up multiple times in Classic Doctor Who.

One of my favorites, the Mara.

It is a being that infects your mind.

Not your brain, your mind.

Like the metaphysicalness of your mind.

Draws on your darkest desires and focuses, and as it feeds off of them, makes you an

extremely horrible person.

But the way that it infects you is not some scientifically explained thing.

It's literally, you grab someone's hand and a snake tattoo that shows that you are an

infected being slithers off your hand, slithers onto the arm of the other person, and they've

got the tattoo.

And that's it.

It's infected.

The mark of Cain from Supernatural.

Yeah, Mara does have, its name is derived from, I think, Greek mythology.

It's one of the mythologies, essentially, that it's pulled from.

It made me think of that because there was a season where they actually introduced Cain

in Supernatural.

Which, you know, don't get me wrong.

Of course.

But it's a lot of Supernatural type stuff.

So yeah, he had the tattoo, and it was called the Mark of Cain.

And so at one point, Dean winds up taking the Mark of Cain.

And of course, it turns you into a, you're not a bad person, but you're easily upset.

And when something doesn't go your way, and you've got the jawbone, and you just can start

killing people before you realize what you're doing.

So yeah, that's what it made me think of.

Yeah, totally.

And it's essentially the same concept.

So it's amazing how different shows come up with these things, and they line up and everything.

And these were different things that got called out in the episodes, even.

The Mara got a shout out.

They're going, "Woo!"

I think while they were talking about the Pantheon of Discord, I believe they called

it.

I think it was already established before that episode, but it was like an expanded

media thing.

And like the Trickster, which is a modern day Who creation that only showed up in Sarah

Jane Adventures, and that one beetle that showed up on Donna's back, that was part of

the Trickster's brigade.

So the Trickster will always bend reality for his amusement, essentially.

And again, we have no scientific reasoning as to what the Trickster actually is or anything

like that.

It's just, "Okay, this thing exists.

Go for it."

You know what you're describing, though?

And I'm not saying that your theory is wrong, because I'll – just let me say a couple

of things.

Number one, I don't have a problem with having "gods," uber-beings that are outside the

realm of the normal scientific explanation in Doctor Who, because Star Trek also has

those.

They're called Q.

The Q.

Yes.

Yes.

So it's not uncommon for even the science fiction show to kind of bleed over into the

science fantasy, because they've never – unless it's been in some like comic books or something

that may or may not be canon – they've never fully explained where the Q came from.

You know?

And even with Stargate, you've got the ancients.

They're portrayed as these godlike beings, but even though there's sort of a scientific

explanation, they "ascended," which means they turned into pure energy and they ascended

to another plane.

Well, ascension to another plane is almost science fantasy in itself, because we have

no scientific basis unless we want to get into quantum theory and all that kind of nonsense.

Neil deGrasse Tyson, where's he at?

Anyway –

Thank God he's not here.

Anyway, both of our opinions showed up.

Well, that's it for the episode.

See you guys later.

Nah.

But –

Too snarky, man.

Too snarky.

But anyway.

So, you know, I don't necessarily have a problem with them introducing the gods, because

I even realized – it was back last year when they did the three episodes where they

brought David Tennant back, and they were at like the edge of the universe.

And he points out that there's something else beyond the edge of the universe, you

know?

And that also gets into the realm of how do you scientifically prove that there's something

beyond the edge of the universe, because we even have trouble finding the edge of the

universe.

I don't think we ever have, you know?

It's a concept that if you think about it too much, your brain will melt.

Or at least mine.

Even though he's visited it several times.

Big finish.

Yeah, yeah.

See, and I understand there's a lot of other properties that have a lot to do with this

stuff as far as Doctor Who and what is canon and what have you.

So I mean, that's the way I feel about it.

The introduction of having a pantheon of godlike beings, I'm okay with that.

Now, it is definitely genre-bending from the way everything's been going from basically

2005 until now.

And here's where my theory actually kicks in.

If a person doesn't realize that Doctor Who has done this in the past or doesn't remember,

this was a massive shift that made people go, "What the heck is going on?"

But if you were like the nerds like me and mom sitting on the couch, we're going, "Oh,

we're doing this again!"

And we're all excited about it.

But if you don't remember/weren't in those particular eras, then you're like, "What

the heck is this?"

And I think that's where my theory comes in, is me going, "I think it was, and again, you

guys aren't wrong, you're allowed to have your opinion, I think you got blindsided."

Right, for the hardcore Who nerds, it was like, "Oh, we're doing this again."

But for the standard watcher, which I think we need to keep an eye on, science fiction

shows sometimes screw up and forget you got normal people watching them too, instead of

the people that know everything about this dang show.

And it may have been a misstep a little bit, even though it totally played to me and made

me happy, for them to go, "Let's pull this genre of Doctor Who off the shelf again and

just go full bore and put the maestro in and have this drag queen play the maestro so it's

the most 'whoa' character."

Although, played it beautifully.

The concept of maestro was amazing to me, right?

I know that kind of threw you a little bit, I think.

I didn't like the actor/actress, whatever, that played it.

The characterization was over the top.

And you'll hear that from me a lot.

Again, I love Shudi Gatwa, I love his version of the Doctor, but I wish that they would

tone it down just a little bit in the grandioseness of the character.

It almost gets to the point where it's starting to edge over into absurdity.

For me, anyway.

And I am the person that loves it with Doctor Who gets absurd, so there's where our two

different areas go, right?

The way Shudi's been doing it, I've been like, "More!"

You've been going, "No, don't listen to him, not more!"

Tone it down!

Tone it down!

Exactly.

But you know, I think you're probably right, because I think I may have even said this

in one of our messages on Discord, but I'm pretty sure I did mention it in one of my

episodes that this felt like a tonal shift.

The entire tone was wrong to me.

And maybe wrong is not the right word.

Different is the more apt word.

It was so out of what I - even with Jodie Whittaker's tenure as the Doctor, this was

a complete shift away from that.

And even there, they introduced the - what was it?

It's not the lost child, it's the -

Timeless child.

Timeless child, thank you.

We introduced that, which I absolutely love that concept.

I know there's a lot of people that were all bent out of shape about the fact that - kind

of like what they did with - I know I keep bringing up Star Wars - but kind of like what

they did with Star Wars, except I agree with the people that are ticked off about it in

Star Wars, but I don't agree with it in Doctor Who, where in Star Wars, again, it being science

fantasy, the Force was always this mysterious, non-tangible thing.

You know, it can't be connected.

And then suddenly we have the prequels, and they try to science - they tried to do a - what

is it?

Watney?

They tried to science the - out of this.

And you wind up with the Metachlorians.

And it's like, wait a minute, did we really need to explain why someone is Force sensitive?

There's a thing in their blood?

Couldn't we just keep it abstract and obscure?

I can't remember who the script editor was, but in my Doctor's era, in the Fifth Doctor

era, there was a script editor that wanted to turn Doctor Who into more hardcore sci-fi,

and I think for like a season they did it?

And they're not bad episodes.

You kind of have a different feel to them and stuff like that.

I like them.

But then they swapped right back.

They were like, "Uh, no.

We learned our lesson because some fans did not like it."

Yeah, I mean, I love the concept of the timeless child because it gives you more of an explanation

of, okay, how did we not - you know, because we had a certain number of regenerations,

and then suddenly, well, that number went out the window, and then you start getting

all this backstory of, oh, Doctor Who, the actual character of the Doctor, the person,

is not from, quote, "here."

You know?

And an entire society is built off of the genetic material of this one person.

You know?

So there was definitely a tonal shift from Capaldi - well, Matt Smith.

Talk about goofy.

You know, Matt Smith's Doctor was the appropriate level of goofy to me.

That's the reason why I say - I compare him and Ncuti's Doctor, and I'm like, "Ncuti is

Matt Smith if he's taking meth."

So, you know, that's the way I look at it.

You may have nailed why Mom likes him so much, because Matt Smith took Patrick Troughton

as influence.

So Patrick Troughton's second Doctor was what Matt Smith got his most influence from.

So if you're making that comparison, it's hilarious.

I don't think Mom would mind me saying this.

The only thing that threw her off about Ncuti to begin with was the accent, and she wasn't

sure why, and she even hated that it was doing it to her.

But she was like, "For some reason, that accent, I don't know why, it's throwing me off."

And then eventually, she got over it.

Right?

You know, it's just one of those things.

I even looked at her and went, "You've dealt with two Scottish Doctors.

How can you have that problem with it?"

She's like, "I don't know!"

But yeah, so eventually, it's like, and she loves it.

And if you're thinking that that would theoretically be Matt Smith hyped up, it's probably why

she's fine with him, too, because of that setup.

But yeah, it's interesting.

So yeah.

Yeah, so I think you're probably right about your theory.

And I don't know if this being open to what I would consider a much wider audience by

it being on Disney+, it being an Americanized version, if this was the right thing for them

to do, or is this the way they wanted to introduce it to a larger audience and say, "Moving

forward, this is kind of the tone or genre that we're going to do."

Because we know how they've already screwed up one property that they tried to Americanize

or bring to an American audience.

And Torchwood, when they brought it in and had an entire season on Showtime and completely

and utterly destroyed it.

That scene in that basement haunts me to this day.

The scene where they had Jack chained up, they were drawing blood from him.

I had to run to the bathroom.

I almost threw up.

Oh yeah.

Like, that's how bad.

I was like, "No!

Give me something where the BBC goes.

You can't go that far.

Please, for God's sake, give it back to them."

Yeah.

"Showtime, baby, you can do practically anything."

Mom and dad, anyway, were big fans of Torchwood.

I wasn't as much.

I preferred Doctor Who.

I love Torchwood.

Yeah, but by the end of that...

I think mom was happy with that one.

I was thinking of Children of Earth for a second instead of that one.

But yeah, mom was not happy at the end of Children of Earth.

But yeah, I think any parent would not be happy at the end of Children of Earth.

And remember a little callback there.

Who was in Children of Earth that wound up becoming a doctor?

Uh-huh.

Peter Capaldi.

It's a tradition.

Yeah, apparently.

I mean, he was also in Fires of Pompeii, and so was Karen Gillan.

That's right.

That's right.

So your feelings, I don't know.

Do you think they got off to a good start by this being the first season that it was

really introduced with the bigger budget, Disney's behind it?

Because I've already told you, basically, in my episode, I gave the entire season a

five out of ten.

I'm waiting for season two, which I think is technically going to be season 15?

15, yes.

To see if it's going to move from "I got to watch it every weekend" to "I'll watch it

if there's nothing else to watch."

But I mean, what do you think about the entire season?

This is interesting because I go into analyst mode now.

This was another reason why I wanted to have this conversation with you, because I think

I have two answers for you.

As the person that knows all of that stuff, I loved this season.

It was a fantastic season for the person that knows that stuff.

However, as someone that would - this is not the season I would introduce someone to Doctor

Who with, because there's too much for you to know.

Yeah, and I can think of one particular reason that we didn't bring up.

But I'll let you finish, and then we can get back to that.

Yeah, because especially us as Americans, there is a very specific thing we haven't

talked about that annoyed the daylights out of me about this season that we will get to,

so your audience will know the annoyance and share in the wealth.

Of course.

We all need our pain.

Yes.

So, yes, I have my grievances too in case people think I'm just positive.

But if you're someone like me, this was an amazing season of Doctor Who.

However, I do have to think of the audience as a whole, and a lot of people were being

introduced to Doctor Who with this, and as a result - like, Sutek.

Okay, for me, mind-freaking-blowing that we bring back a character that the Doctor barely

beat last time.

How the heck is he going to do it again this time?

And it was, to me, well-handled and everything like that.

But for me, right, the second that that anagram moved into place, I went, "No!"

Because it didn't move flat into place yet, so mom didn't click yet.

And she was like, "What?"

I said, "I'm letting you catch up.

I'm not going to ruin this."

"No, I can't be right."

And then sure enough, it was Sutek, and I went, "Dang it!"

And I mean, shout-out to them for, by the way, getting the save voice actor, which he

played the Beast in The Impossible Planet and the Satan Pit, by the way.

So it's not like he hadn't worked with modern Who at this point.

But getting the original voice of Sutek to again be Sutek was just like, "Mwah!

Chef's kiss!" on that whole thing.

But that's a side note.

I loved that aspect.

And the thing about her mom being normal, actually, I liked because it was one of those,

it was almost like a Greek myth of God becomes obsessed with tiny little thing, and it can't

understand tiny little thing because it's a tiny little thing.

And that is its downfall.

You can see Zeus getting upset about something, because Zeus was an a-hole anyway.

I'm never gonna call one of them out.

I mean, fair.

Fair.

I mean, tell me I'm wrong.

Tell me I'm wrong.

I bet you can't.

No, no.

My daughter would definitely tell you, she loves all of the mythologies, and she'll flat-out

tell you that he's a, yes, he was definitely an a-hole.

Yep.

But I could just see Zeus going, "Why?

I don't understand.

Why can I not?"

You know, becoming obsessed with it, like Sutek did with Ruby's mom.

I love the idea that he was just holding onto the TARDIS the whole time.

So every time we've seen the TARDIS go through, Sutek's just, "Oh, God," the whole time.

It's like a funny idea if you expand it to different situations they've been in and things

the TARDIS has gone through, and then you go, "Oh my God, Sutek was holding on the whole

time during that."

You know, it's like, it just becomes hilarious if you think about it too much.

That imagery, though, honestly gave me, I almost giggled thinking about it now simply

because he reminded me of a bat holding onto the TARDIS like that, which I've seen memes

like that.

You know, there's little memes of the black bats, and it's like, you know, "I am the darkness.

I am the night.

Also, cuddle me."

Yes, right.

And to a point, because there was a point there where I was like, if they'd have made

him an actual embodiment of a man, I think it would have been scarier for me to begin

with.

But I can also understand how they were trying to represent the fact that he'd been hanging

onto the TARDIS for how many years?

Yeah, and if you go through the vortex, that'll do some stuff to you.

I've got some expanded lore about what that vortex is, and there's a reason people with

vortex manipulators flinch whenever they come out of it.

Let's put it that way.

It's not pleasant at all.

Now, to your point about him getting so obsessed because he couldn't figure out who Ruby's

mother was, that's also part of my issue.

It's never explained.

For a common person to be out of the purview of a godlike being, but then there's no

explanation as to why.

What made her so special?

And I do not buy the doctor's comment of "she's not special."

That was the whole point.

I don't buy that.

And I loved it.

That's the weird thing, right?

It depends on how these things hit people, and this is this fugue state where both of

us are right.

It just depends on how it hits you, right?

That's neat.

Schrodinger's Doctor Who.

Exactly.

See, this is how we have conversations, should be having conversations on the internet, people.

Now I'll kick the soapbox out of the way.

But no, it's...

Yeah, that was interesting and everything.

But to go back to the answer to your question, as the encyclopedic one, fantastic season.

No notes.

Except one that we'll get to.

But no, I would not introduce someone to Doctor Who with this season.

There is too much you need to know, and as a result, I would go back to other seasons

in which there's like three or four at this point, hopping on points, that I would choose

over this season.

Because while I think it's a good season, I think you need to know some stuff.

So I can't.

I couldn't in good conscience go, "This is what you need to start the show off."

Even the David Tennant specials, if you count them as part of the season and start from

there, you have to know stuff.

You have to know a lot of stuff about the 10th Doctor and Donna before you're going

to get any of that stuff.

This is Chris Chibnall's first season with the 13th Doctor.

He made a statement where he said, "We will be making this season to where you don't have

to know anything about Doctor Who in order to jump on."

And he stuck to that.

And sure enough, if you go to that season, you don't have to know diddly squat in order

to do that.

It's like Russell T. Davis took his first season back and went, "That, we're doing the

exact opposite.

You have to know everything about Doctor Who in order to do this season.

It would be grand."

You know, again, I always love doing a Russell impression for some reason.

It makes you think I hate him when I don't.

I don't know why I do it.

But yeah, it's just wild that that's what they decided to do.

So while I enjoyed it, yeah, I totally see the thing of going, "No, this is not a good

intro series."

It's a good series, but not a good intro series.

So yeah.

Yeah, like I said, I don't absolutely hate it.

But I don't think it was a good start for an American audience.

And to your point that we've been dancing around, you explained something that I literally

had been scratching my head, like, where the heck did that come from?

It was almost like plot armor.

Because when it showed up, me and mom already had the context because I had literally excitedly

brought my phone over to her when someone on TikTok put these up.

So in Britain, there is a thing called Tales from the TARDIS.

There's also a thing called the Whoniverse, essentially.

It is the Doctor Who cinematic universe sort of thing that Russell T. Davis is building.

But right now it's just Doctor Who and it's special things.

So like they've got a version of Doctor Who confidential back again, if you remember that.

So there's a, you know, behind the scenes show.

They give them commentaries that we don't get, by the way.

Every episode currently already has a commentary that you could have listened to if you're

in Britain.

Or you have a good VPN.

Yeah.

Or if you're like Tom Merritt and takes random trips to Britain.

Of course.

He's got a VPN.

Let's all be like Tom.

Yes, let's be like Tom.

Anyway.

But yes, on iPlayer, they have things like commentaries, that behind the scenes thing.

But then there was an also special thing, which whenever it first came out, I didn't

have too much of a problem with because one, I also got to see the intros and outros.

So I was like, that's the only part of it I want to see anyway.

So I'm delighted.

But it was a thing called Tales from the TARDIS.

And the setup of it is that you had classic series actors playing their characters again,

showing up inside of a thing that they had been drawn into called a remembered TARDIS.

It's essentially a TARDIS that I love when I get to explain stuff like this.

It's essentially a TARDIS that is constructed from memories.

And for some reason, this TARDIS had been constructed from the memories of the Doctor's

Adventures as a result.

It's got a beautiful interior, like regardless of how people felt about the MacGuffin or

anything as it suddenly came into the actual show, which we'll get to in a second.

Ten out of ten for set design.

Like you you could pause any frame inside of that at any time and go, I can sit here

for two hours and pick every single little thing that's amazing about these things.

Like there's the coral from the 10th Doctor's Console.

The 5th Doctor's Console is on the ceiling.

You know, all of this stuff.

It's just amazing.

Totally.

And like all of the little props, like the hat stand has like a fez, the 7th Doctor's

cardigan, the 4th Doctor's scarf.

There's like all of these things inside of it that you could just spend hours just picking

apart this set.

It's amazing.

They did a lot of work for that.

Yeah.

And what the really hilarious one is that the representation of Jodie's console is that

there is like a it's clearly supposed to be like a fire pit in the middle of the console

room, but it's a miniature of Jodie's crystalline structure that was above her TARDIS.

So it's like that is like them warming their hands by that.

It's hilarious to me that that's the aspect of hers.

But the essential concept was we're going to take a classic series episode, but we're

going to have these characters drawn into this memory TARDIS.

And the idea is they are talking about one of their adventures.

So it's nostalgia out the wazoo.

Plus the amazing thing about it is the Tales from the TARDIS was considered canon.

They did market to where, oh no.

Yeah.

All of this happened essentially.

So this memory TARDIS was a thing out in the universe that wasn't connecting with normal

Doctor Who, but essentially all of the updates we got from Zoe, Jamie, all of them, like

we got even some closure on some characters that we hadn't gotten before.

It was like candy for someone like me.

That was classic series.

But again, one of the great things about it was that essentially the only new content

on it was the intro and the outro with the classic series story in the middle.

Like they were telling the story.

And then before the last episode of Doctor Who this season, suddenly we got another episode

of Tales from the TARDIS popping up and we were like, what the heck is this?

And everyone had noticed that there wasn't a fourth Doctor episode.

Like all the other doctors got to, well, why are we not getting a fourth Doctor episode?

And then all of a sudden we have Ruby and the 15th Doctor inside of the memory TARDIS.

And the episode was Pyramids of Mars.

The first time that Sutex showed up.

So it was essentially giving people everything they would know to know about Sutex.

Little problem in America, we don't get them.

Right.

So people had to rely on people like me to go, who the heck is this Sutex guy?

I had to answer it several times because they didn't know, you know, and then other people

like Jacob, I was going Sutex, stuff like that.

But but the people that didn't know, because not everyone's going to know that was going

to let them in on it.

So all of us were on the same playing field.

The problem is America was not on that same playing field.

I mean, sure, you could watch Pyramids of Mars on BritBox, but you didn't get the 15th

Doctor and Ruby talking about it.

You didn't get the doctor going, no, this story doesn't start in Victorian England.

It starts in Egypt.

Like it's shooting, giving an amazing beginning to the story and stuff like that, like giving

an amazing performance, because I've seen the clips at this point.

And you just didn't get that.

And I was like, OK, that's kind of annoying me a little bit, but we'll let it go.

Yeah, because I knew who he I knew who he I knew who the bad guy was.

So, Tech, I knew that because you had seen it.

Yeah, I'd seen it.

And then I got a I got kind of a memory jog because I actually came across a post that

had pointed that out.

And I was like, that's right.

That's right.

Boy, that's been a while.

Oh, yeah.

But the other thing, the the remembered TARDIS.

Yeah, that I had no idea in this in the show what the heck that was.

I was like, what is it?

I was just like, OK, so it's something to do with the time window.

I was at a complete loss.

Yeah.

And I looked over at mom and I was like, Donovan's losing.

Donovan has no idea what's going on right now.

And it wasn't an insult at you.

I think of you because you are essentially my grounding.

You you don't know.

I don't know if you realize that you do this for me, but because of all the doctor who

knowledge swimming in my head, you are the normal guy that I'm allowed to bounce off

and go, OK, am I just thinking about this a certain way because I know all of these

things, you know, and that's kind of what we're doing.

Glad to be of service.

I looked over at mom and went, we know it because we've seen the thing.

Yeah.

What about the people that haven't seen those or don't even know they exist?

I was like, I guarantee Donovan doesn't know they exist.

And I guarantee you, he's going, what is this McGuffin right now that you've come up with

out of nowhere?

Because it feels like that if you don't know.

Yeah, it did.

It really did.

It was like where it was like it was shoehorned in.

It was like, oh, so I guess this is here for plot reasons.

That's all I could figure out.

That's what it feels like instead of it being, oh, no, that's pretty freaking cool that they

took the memory TARDIS from Tales of the TARDIS, since those things are canon anyway, and put

it in the main show.

You know, it was just a little thing like I mean, technically, it doesn't ruin things.

But at the same time, again, a lot of feeling like it came out of nowhere.

And it annoyed me so much because I was sitting there going there are literally people that

cannot have the joy of what I'm feeling right now, only because we don't get it here.

It's like we're second class whovians, which is not the first time an American has said

that phrase.

I am not new with this, but it does.

The Hooniverse thing is starting to get on my nerves a little bit because it's like,

oh, so I don't get to enjoy everything that this episode comes to.

Like, hopefully they put them all on a Blu-ray.

Like, please do not like if you give us the season on Blu-ray, give us all the extras.

Like give us the behind the scenes episode things.

Give us the commentaries.

Give us all of those things.

And then maybe I'll be fine with it.

But if we get no version of that at all, I'm going to be perturbed because it means that

you're saying, oh, no, we get just because these people pay their license.

And I get it.

I really get it.

They pay the license so they get more stuff.

But that feels bad to me.

Well, that's like that's what we grab a pitchfork.

But yeah, I mean, that's what we get for rebelling against the king.

So yeah, we dump we dump to the T in the harbor.

We're paying for it.

We don't get a who.

I can imagine King George.

And yes, for some reason, I am going to use the Hamilton version because that's the only

version of fictional King George I have in my skull now.

Like they did what to the T. In the future, there will be a show called Doctor Who, and

we will make sure the showrunner does not give them all of the content of it.

No, I don't know what a television is.

Get out of my sight.

Exactly.

With a bit of spittle coming out because Joff was amazing.

And by the way, Connection is the guy that played Rogue.

So it is actually it's a connection.

That's where I saw.

OK, thank you for that connection.

I had I kept looking at the guy going, where have I seen him before?

Yes, he's King George from Hamilton.

OK, there you go.

There you go.

One of my favorite parts of that musical.

Anytime King George shows up, I'm like, yeah, I hate musicals.

That one is my all time favorite musical that I have ever seen.

I mean, I literally wept in places where that that and so did Lee.

And I was like, you know, this is I don't think anybody can ever create anything as

good as Hamilton was ever again.

It's definitely in the musical.

That's one of those that that has to break your this is the best thing ever.

I have friends that don't disagree with you on that.

But yeah, is there anything else we need to talk about?

I feel like we've we've had a good therapy session.

No, yes.

For both of us.

Yeah, I need to pull a couch in here and re rig the studio for the next session.

All right.

I don't know.

I'll start billing you and.

Yeah, let's see.

Here's my PayPal.

No, I think we hit a lot of the points.

You know, I understand why you you like it.

And I'm actually very encouraged that you would say, no, this is not this is not what

I would start people who have never watched Doctor Who off on.

OK, that that OK, that that clicks in my in my head and going back, you know, I'm trying

to give the the first two episodes a little bit more leeway.

I I got to be perfectly honest.

I don't think I can on the very first one because because talking babies just don't

don't do it for me.

I'm sorry.

It's just so yeah, that's it.

That's totally fine.

Chris, sometimes doctor who goes to places like that.

And I'm usually the one in the background going to any time that it happens.

Like, like, there's literally a running gag on going through who where I'm like, this

was a freaky episode.

You know how happy I was during this entire thing.

So yeah, it's it's my thing.

I admit I have a bias.

That's fair.

That's fair.

I am the old curmudgeon.

So, you know, I am to get off my lawn.

I want my doctor who back.

Oh, but no, this has been fun.

It's been very informative.

And I've I've enjoyed having this conversation with you about something that you and I both

enjoy.

So, yeah, totally.

We want to plug each other's shows.

That way we can sign off with both audiences.

Sure, sure.

I guess I'll go first.

You can find me at Call Me Donovan dot com.

I've had a little issue with my podcast hosting and all, but everything seems to be settled

on that.

Oh, my God.

That really ticked me off.

But anyway, I'm looking forward to that episode.

I have not listened to it, but I want I saw I saw the title this morning and went, oh,

yeah, yeah.

But yeah, listen to it.

You'll understand.

I made it.

I tried to make it short.

I think it's only like 17 or 18 minutes.

Yeah, around that.

But yeah, Call Me Donovan dot com.

You can find me on Twitter because I refuse to call it the other thing.

Insta and threads.

Don Adkisson.

That's D.O.N.

A.D.K.I.S.S.O.N.

The only correct proper way to spell the last name.

Adkisson.

And then if you want to find me out there on the Internet to do the other side of this

conversation, I host the show Samuel's Thoughts along with several other various things on

the Internet, including TSC and wrestling, by the way, which the day that we are recording

this Donovan and his tag team partner are trying to still carry on in the men's tag

team tournament.

Let's see if they can take me and Jacob down because they're those are their opponents.

You go down.

I am genuinely frightened.

I've got to give you a behind the scenes like I'm like, oh, God, it's it's it's a big voice.

Jay and Donovan against me and Jacob.

I don't know about my chances.

You guys are beasts.

But anyway, all of those various things, because I am like Tom Merritt and have a disease when

it comes to coming up with too many things that I do.

And it just continues on head out over to TSC and TV, where I host all my things, including

Samuel's Thoughts.

If you want to continue on with my side of things, I guess I do have the disease, too,

because I literally created a completely separate company.

Tifton Media Works LLC.

I have two companies now.

I have the I have the IT company and then I have the other one that is I created specifically

for content creation.

It's podcast, the radio station, which if you love Gen X 80s, 90s and what have you,

radio music, go to Radio Tift dot com 24/7.

Matter of fact, on Friday nights, I do a thing called Friday Night 80s at 8, where I take

a year.

This tonight will be 1989 and I play the top 10 Billboard year in 100 songs of a particular

year.

But I take the top 10 and I count them down and I give you I give you a little behind

the scenes, a little information about each one of the songs before it's played.

So now I am not going to lie and tell you I do it live.

This thing is completely pre-recorded.

It's a playlist.

It's voice tracked out the yin yang.

But it honestly, I'm I'm I'm impressed not with myself, but with the way these things

turn out.

It sounds like I'm live.

So if you thought Casey Kasem was live, then you'll you'll think this is live, too.

Exactly.

And we will make one dedication to a dog anyway.

But if you want to find me on all of the other places on the Internet, Twitter and Instagram,

Tik Tok and Twitch at TSC and Sam.

Awesome.

So with that, Donovan, it's been a great conversation.

Yes.

Yes.

Samuel.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes.

Awkward ending.

We're going to keep it.

We'll do it live.

I hope you enjoyed this crossover episode with me and Sam discussing season one or technically

season 14 of Doctor Who.

It's the first season to air on Disney Plus and to have the budget of Disney backing it.

Be sure to check out all the things that Sam has going on over at TSCN dot TV.

I also celebrated day 398 of alcohol retirement the day we recorded this episode.

As always, you can find me on Twitter, Insta and threads at Don Adkisson or email me Don

at CallMeDonovan.com.

You can call me anything you like, but I prefer you call me Donovan.

Until next time, take care.

I'll only give you one highlight of my day.

I got slimed today.

So that was slime.

Oh, I did that out of context just so I would get the standard Donovan.

Excuse me.

So you know, I work with kids now and all that stuff.

Right.

I'm a big Donovan.

You've heard my lawnmower saga.

Yeah.

Okay.

So today was the day to cut the yards.

So I pulled a lawnmower.

Now keep in mind when the guy pulled it off the other day, he cranked the lawnmower up.

I mean, it was beautiful.

All right.

I pull it out today.

I crank it up and it's running like T total shit.

I'm like, oh my God.

And I'm like, what is this thing?

And I'm like, oh, oh my, my level, my anger level.

Because I just dropped, you know, $365 on this thing.

And my anger level is just rising and rising.

I'm like, okay, all right.

I'm gonna let it sit here.

Let it run.

So it ran.

I stood there.

It probably ran about two minutes and all of a sudden it goes.

I'm like, did you just have bad gas?

I mean, what's going on here?

You know, because I did, I filled it back up, but it still had gas in it.

And I'm like, okay, well maybe this is not, not an omen.

And so, you know, cutting the grass, 20, 30 minutes in I'm rounding and I'm listening

to your podcast, by the way, because I waited until today to listen to your last two episodes

back to back.

So I have them fresh in my mind.

Turn around.

What the fuck?

You have got to be kidding me.

So I pressed down the brake.

I turned the key.

It doesn't turn.

I get really heavy on it.

It doesn't turn.

And then it hit me.

I know what this is.

This is a safety switch.

So the way my lawnmower deck is designed, you know, it's got the chute on the right

hand side and I've got two different, um, Oh God, what do you call them?

Basically, uh, chute covers.

So I have the regular one that lets you just shoot the grass out, a non mulching.

Okay.

The standard.

Then I have the mulching.

The mulching basically just covers it up because I've got a mulching blade and you know, it

doesn't, it doesn't exhaust the grass out onto the ground.

Well, I probably need to buy a new one, but, um, I've had to put a washer where it actually

does its thing.

Anyway, the, there's a sensor, it's a little push sensor.

And when you tighten it, it's got these two, uh, these two wing, basically wing nuts, but

they're big and you tighten down one side and you tighten down the other.

And as you're tightening down the other side, that shroud pushes in to that safety switch.

What'll happen is your friend in mind, pine straw, we'll get up under there and start

pushing the shroud out just enough that the switch disengages.

Wow.

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Gotcha.

Yeah.

So I, I got, uh, I got off the lawnmower.

I looked down there.

I went, ah, so I, I loosened it up.

I pulled all that stuff out.

I pressed it down, tightened it back up, got back up on the lawnmower.

I'm like, if it cuts off one more time, I'm going in and getting the nine millimeter.

But no, it, it, uh, it ran well for the rest of the, the cut.

Um, I think I started somewhere around about nine 45, close to 10 o'clock getting on the

actual mower.

And I finished up with the weed eating cause I have to cut the grass.

Then I do the weed eating.

Then I edge my driveway.

Then I blow my driveway off.

And I also blow the road, all the excess grass and pine straw back off the road, back into

my yard because two reasons.

One, it looks better than just having grass and pine straw that you can see.

You can just, there's no way to avoid to see that somebody just cut the grass.

Complete evidence, right?

Right.

Second is, is dangerous for motorcycles.

Not that we get a lot of motorcycles around here, but that is a common courtesy and safety

that you need to keep in mind that if you, if you're, if you live close to a major highway

and you cut the grass, A, if you're not going to mulch, don't shoot the grass all over the

road.

And B, do, do what you can to get the excess grass off the road because it is, it's a slick

hazard for the tires of the, of the motorcycles.

So yeah, I finished up about quarter, quarter till around 12 o'clock, got a shower at eight

and then died.