Doctor Who: Classic 19x2: "Four To Doomsday" Parts 1-4 | Reaction!

[@davidbull7210]

Burt Kwouk was in two Bond films and Philip Locke (Bygon) played the hapless Vargas in Thunderball who ends up on the business end of a harpoon gun: "I think he got the point"

[@RoundTheArchives]

'Four To Doomsday' notes : Part One: Viewing figures = 8.4 million. Chart position = 66. Part Two: Viewing figures = 8.8 million. Chart position = 61. Part Three: Viewing figures = 8.9 million. Chart position = 63. Part Four: Viewing figures = 9.4 million. Chart position = 53. Transmission dates : 18, 19, 25, 26 January 1982. Studio sessions : April 1981. Studio : TC6. Working title : 'Day Of Wrath' With the scripts for 'Project Zeta-Sigma' not working out, 'Four To Doomsday' was brought forward in the production schedule, making it the first story Peter Davison recorded. (Incidentally, Davison's initial contract was for £600 per 25-minute episode) Writer Terence Dudley had previously directed 'Meglos' but in the early 1970s scripted a number of episodes of 'Doomwatch' (which he also produced) as well as writing 'K9 And Company'. Stratford Johns was a well-known name to BBC viewers having played the character of Barlow in 'Z Cars' and its multiple spin-offs in the 60s and 70s. In November 1981 he had appeared in the 'Blake's 7' episode 'Games'. New Script Editor Anthony Root is already preparing to move onto 'Juliet Bravo' and starts to hand over to Eric Saward, whose story in next into production...

[@MrJ.Smith1234]

It's interesting to realise that this is Peters first story that he filmed because he really acts like he's been the doctor for years. Great Doctor and really good story.

[@alexthehunted]

God if adric was with the 9th doctor he'd have been booted off the tardis after this episode

[@conscienceaginBlackadder]

the ninth doctor was evil, for what he said to Adam. Deserves retconning into a theft of one of the Doctor's lives by a rogue time lord. Fifth and ninth the most opposite you can get.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

But you have to remember this was before The Time War and The Fifth Doctor didn't suffer any PTSD like The ninth Doctor has.

[@woodhouse122]

I actually like this story ,it feels like a hartnell or troughton era script (although the dance scenes could have been edited down as they slow the story down a little)

[@BulbasaurRepresent]

The Fifth Doctor is kind of a blank slate in this story. If I recall correctly, Peter Davison said he hadn't fully worked out his character yet, and I think it shows. It doesn't stop this from being a guilty pleasure of mine though! The Fifth Doctor's character really solidifies in 'Kinda' in my opinion, which you've already seen. As soon as I saw that story and the one after it, I fell in love with Five and continue to think he's the most underrated Doctor.

[@allangriffiths]

Stratford johns was famous as inspector Barlow in the police series Z cars in the 60s and 70s

[@sirsamfay99]

And Softly Softly and Task Force and Barlow At Large and Second Verdict!

[@woodhouse122]

​he also did a series called Jack the ripper in which his character Barlow and his colleague John Watt investigated the ripper murders ,someone has uploaded the series to KZbin and its brilliant

[@sirsamfay99]

My only memorable thought of this story is the marvelous Stratford Johns as the Monarch. From 1962 to 1975 he was Detective Chief Inspector Charlie Barlow in Z Cars ,Softly Softly ,Softly Softly Task Force and his own series Barlow At Large as well as Second Verdict with his 2nd in command John Watt played by Frank Windsor. For me he was the best no nonsense ,tough police detective every villain and criminal feared as well the police officers under him that didn't give their best to the job!

[@richardlemin7840]

Sirsam: Although I did watch Z Cars between ‘63 and ‘66, I can’t remember a single thing about it - other than “Z” was pronounced “Zed.” ~ Dad

[@sirsamfay99]

@@richardlemin7840 In many ways I enjoy Stratford Johns as Charlie Barlow as much as Broderick Crawford as Dan Matthews in Highway Patrol.

[@Darren79]

This was the first story that was recorded for season 19 - it was moved up the production order when the original fifth Doctor debut story was rejected. Davison celebrated his 30 birthday on the first studio day (the Doctor exploring the laboratory alone was the first thing he shot).

[@josefschiltz2192]

The Master: "Oh my dear Alex! But the peoples of your planet are so deliciously susceptible to mesmeric influence. That is why Earth! Always looking to the skies for the latest 'sky hook' to haul yourselves from out of the latest piteous state that you've fallen into. A great man once said, "You're so easy!" Oh ho ho ho!" This is why we come here. It's like a supermarket dash!"

[@NaanProphet]

Wait, did I hear you guys say you live in Tavistock? As in Tavistock NJ? Home to all of 5 residents? I don’t know of another one in the US, unless he meant the family is from Tavistock in the UK. Delaware has one too I think? I’m intrigued.

[@7thHourFilms]

No. Dad meant our family traces back to Tavistock, UK so he referred to it as our "hometown" like any good American with European roots. I've never been there but he did when he was young and lived in England.

[@richardlemin7840]

@@7thHourFilms Actually, I *haven’t* been there… yet. It’s on my bucket list. ~Dad

[@stickytapenrust6869]

34:10 - oh, I thought you were going to say Adric was something else beginning with “annoying tur-“

[@davidbull7210]

I thought the mobius strip joke was good enough for me to crack on an extended family WhatsApp group. My dad replied "ha" and further appreciation was conspicuous by its absence. Obviously a dad joke but mobius strip jokes go in cycles...

[@stephenkay4008]

This never seemed to be a particularly well-received story in UK fan circles, but I've always enjoyed it - interesting premise and generally impressive visual effects for 1982. Did your Dad place the Actor playing Monarch? Stratford Johns' most well-known TV role, certainly here n the UK was in the Police drama Z-Cars during the 60's and early 70's and its follow-up Softly, Softly. The writing also in Season 19 gives Tegan some great, salty lines - particularly The Visitation, which you'll have the pleasure of reacting to fairly shortly. Great reaction - I do love that the pair of you don't just react and review, but often do a deep-dive, which is very entertaining!

[@Lynxdoc]

I'm curious was this the same set used for the Vogon Ship on HHGTTG?

[@Darren79]

No. It was all made purely for this story - decorated with the usual stock computer consoles etc.

[@Lynxdoc]

@@Darren79 you’re right but still reminded of the same scene where Ford and Arthur were talking to the Vogon getting ready to hear some poetry -- (I’m talking about the BBC series that came out around the same time as the 5th doctor stories not the fairly recent movie

[@MrPaulMorris]

Not only are languages easier to learn when young but research shows that those brought up bilingually find it easier to learn additional languages later in life. I can give some anecdotal support to this; our son was brought up bilingually (so far as we could while living on England). In addition to English, he speaks fluent Russian (to the extent that, as a 6-7 year old he was happy to play all day with local children when visiting his mother's family and later to work on his Uncle's farm). He is now in High school, studying French, German and Spanish (although he'll need to drop one of those next year) and having no difficulty despite neither my wife nor I being natural linguists by any stretch of the imagination! In his free time he has chosen to learn Latin (of which I recall very little despite 5 years of high school--admittedly a few decades ago) 'for fun'... I still have nightmares about translating Ovid's Metamorphoses at school.

[@kierenevans2521]

13:00 The likelihood that Tegan would know the exact Aboriginal language is quite low, there's several hundred. Also as scripted they weren't using a proper language just gibberish, but Janet Fielding was very against that and insisted that they used a real aboriginal language. I wouldn't say British schools are much better for teaching languages. I did German at GCSE and wouldn't be able to hold a conversation in it at all. I can just get about by reading things, particularly chemistry articles.

[@Tyrconnell]

Just to add that the aboriginals were picked up on Monarchs first trip to Earth, so several thousand years BC. Therefore Tegan not only speaks the correct language, but its one that either died outed or changed vastly over thousands of years. I'd prefer to think that it's the TARDIS translators just messing with them for it's own enjoyment.

[@Senkoau]

@@Tyrconnell Well given in new who Donna speaks Latin and the shop keep thinks she's speaking Celtic its entirely possible the TARDIS translator was translating her modern Aboriginal dialect into the same ancient one by a million to one chance. Which as everyone know's comes up nine times out of ten.

[@Tyrconnell]

@@Senkoau I think we can now blame Sutekh for any times the TARDIS does something weird.....

[@Senkoau]

@@Tyrconnell You can, I'm ignoring this as never happened. Just picture me sticking my fingers n my ears and going "Lalalalala" to deny it. I know it canon but I do not intend to accept it.

[@stephenkay4008]

Good luck with the re-watch of Kinda - one of my genuinely favourite 5th Doctor stories - hopefully the second viewing will help you make a little more sense of everything that happens

[@darachocathain1996]

I have my undergrad degree in French & Irish, then a Masters in Translation and I’m currently doing a traineeship in Brussels working in Irish translation for the European Commission. So your language chat was right up my alley 😂

[@garybryant5946]

I speak fluent Klingon after a couple of triple scotches 😊🥃

[@moreau1755]

In terms of how English developed, I think it's summed up best by the comment: "English does not so much borrow words from other languages as mug them in dark alleys and then goes through their pockets looking for loose vocabulary." Regarding the comments about the differences in Asian languages where words might only be distinguished by their intonations, that's very true. There's an Anime movie that Alex may have seen or at least heard of called A Silent Voice. One of the main characters in the movie is deaf, and (spoilers) at one point she tries to tell someone she loves them, only for him to get confused and ask why she is talking about the moon. A Chinese friend of mine watching the movie with me laughed at this, and then had to explain that in Japanese the words for love and moon sound almost identical. Like many people who are deaf from birth, the character's intonation when speaking was slightly off, hence why the other character had gotten confused.

[@Nebluviona]

14:29 Exactly the same! I'm French and the educational system for learning Spanish focuses too much on its culture rather that learning the language itself, I've had like, 5 years of Spanish and I can barely speak it :')

[@bananasaregood8655]

Underrated forgotten about story from the 5th doctor’s era, even tho it falls flat in the final episode! First episode davison filmed. Davison’s doctor does eventually give an explanation for the celery in his lapel. Story that was filmed next was ‘the visitation’ then ‘kinda’ and then ‘castrovalva’

[@Lynxdoc]

When I first saw Four to Doomsday I had just finished either reading or listening to the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy (it was broadcast on our local Public Radio as well as Star Wars). I thought they had landed on a Vogon Ship.

[@TheZodiacz]

Very reminiscent of The Android Invasion. Bigon's android face like Sarah Jane's. The villain defeated by a bottle of toxin like the Kraals.

[@Jaketherobonrd]

I didn’t mind this story, first viewing wasn’t really invested but on rewatch recently I thought it was ok. Yes hopefully when you rewatch Kinda, it will have the Update effects for the snake

[@MuchWhittering]

So last week I finally bit the bullet on the Classic Blu-Rays and bought Season 19, and I watched Castrovalva, Four to Doomsday and Kinda. I like this story, but it felt 1 episode too long to me. A lot of waiting around for stuff to happen. Kinda was...yeah, I lost any sense of the plot about 3 episodes in. 13:32 For what it's worth, I work in immigration, so I happen to know that New Zealand passports have the Maori language on them. I myself speak German, Italian, (sort of) French and I'm learning Spanish to complete the quintet. That's very rare in Britain though. Hell, even in Wales, Welsh fluency is fairly rare. While I love learning languages, I'm bad at sitting down and studying. My Spanish studies are being delayed by my inability to force myself to sit down and study it. When I'm at a satisfactory level, I'd like to pick Japanese back up, mostly for weeb reasons. I did do some of it at university, which will help. Yes, so Japanese has 3 different "alphabets". Katakana and hiragana are phonetic. They're like our letters, where each symbol makes a sound, but has no inherent meaning. So you look at the letter B and you know how to pronounce it, but that itself has no meaning, you combine letters to make words. There are, I think, 48 of each of them, plus a few more which are just combinations of the existing ones, so you can sit and learn those in a day if you want. Kanji are different. In Japanese there are about 2000 kanji, although I think it's only 1200 or so that are actually in common use, the others are in really archaic words. And with those, individual characters have a meaning, but you can also combine them. So 大人 (otona) means adult, and is the combination of big and person. The problem comes with the fact they usually have more than 1 pronunciation to learn, some of them can have 4 or 5. They're not too scary to write. The more complex ones are basically just lots of little ones combined. I mentioned I speak German fluently, and yes, the basis is similar to English. More like Shakespearian English. A lot of the grammar from Shakespeare's time that's died out in English is still around in German.

[@Tyrconnell]

Don't want to be discouraging if you're just starting out, but there are 2,136 common kanji. Once you know those you'll be about to read any book or newspaper. If you were to include all archaic and religious kanji you'll find a list of around 85,000. I feel there's one ancient priest somewhere who has to learn them all just to keep them going.... Good luck, it's fun once you get going.

[@MuchWhittering]

@@Tyrconnell Oh I'm a long way off. I did it like 5 years ago at uni, and I still watch my fair share of Japanese media, but I've not actively studied it for a while. I'm studying Spanish right now, I'll only go back to Japanese when I get that up to a good level.

[@oldwebshooter]

People from the village in the Province of L'Aquila in the Abruzzo region of Italy called Castrovalva right now 👁👄👁

[@glenmcculla6843]

On the linguistic front: I did German at school for five years and got a commendation for my oral (oo-err!). It's nearly three decades ago, but I feel pretty confident if I was dropped into Germany I'd cope. And being from the North East of England, languages like Flemish and Danish are intelligible because of the influences on the local dialect. I wish I could wrap my head around Scots Gaelic, though. I'm a disgrace to my name. Jamie McCrimmon would be disappointed. I quite like this story, especially Bigon's avocado pear. I hope this ramble helps the algorithm.

[@brucesimmons5517]

That's interesting. I did German in school for six years and don't remember shit.

[@davidbull7210]

Yes, Chinese is a tonal language so you can say one sound in several different ways and theyre different words. A good example is in Cantonese, "sí" (4) and "sî" (death) (the symbol above the i in the second word actually should be a downwards chevron but I can't get one on my phone). For this reason 4 is a highly unlucky number in Chinese culture. Tetraphobia extends to the point where people stay at home on the 4th April and certainly avoid marriage or any other important event. It's a bit like the Scandinavian fear of 13 which I encountered recently on a cruise ship where there was no floor 13 (quite a drop...)

[@josefschiltz2192]

Sadly, although my father was a polyglot, he only ever spoke English to me the entire time out of deference to my mother and the fact that he wanted me to blend in. I didn't blend in anyway! - He died three months after the '69 moon landings. One of those extra languages, German, would probably have been quite useful or, at least, have primed my brain at a early age to be receptive to different languages! He learnt most of his growing up in Sighisoara and Italian and English later, in his thirties. Obviously something clicks. Dad's languages were German, Rumanian, Hungarian, Italian and English!

[@Lynxdoc]

Burt was also in later seasons of Last of the Summer Wine as well. (another one of my favorite shows)

[@TheZodiacz]

Nice to see actual people of the race represented hey? The lead Aboriginal was played by a Nigerian. The Mayan princess was played by an actress of whom very little information exists but she is thought to be of Arabic descent.

[@julianblake3140]

I think he means Bertrand Russell

[@richardlemin7840]

Julian: Most likely. ~Dad

[@Sigurd-r5]

Are you going to do a reaction watch of Blake's 7?

[@Mrazmatmahmood]

I suspect the fact it's a show created by Terry Nation might have put them off ever watching it. I've never watched it myself as a matter of fact and if they did start reacting to it, it would be a good excuse for me start watching it as well. It would be a suitable replacement for classic Who once they're done with it in about a years time.

[@Sigurd-r5]

Isn't the mara in Kinda a real thing the snakes and all? Not sure

[@dennisdevito2829]

I took 4 yrs of Spanish in HS and I don’t remember any of it or speak it although I can read a little bit of it and yes I hated those classes too

[@richardlemin7840]

Dennis: Que lastima!! ~Dad

[@dennisdevito2829]

@@richardlemin7840 si si

[@Mrazmatmahmood]

I watched Four to Doomsday for the first time a couple of days ago and I honestly really enjoyed it. It's not a classic by any means or even a great story, it's just a good and very intriguing story that tackles interesting themes like the exploitation of cultural diversity, class divisions, existentialism and messiah complexes in a really interesting way. I like how this twists the typical Earth invasion story and shows how the invaders are pretending to be benevolent and that what they're doing will benefit humanity. Tbf, Monarch does bring up a lot of good points and it would be great if he could fix some of the problems he talks about, which shows how these fascistic regimes often use the promise of a better future as an enticement to get people to accept them. The twist that Monarch will eventually use up all the Earth's minerals in his crazy attempt to travel faster than the speed of light, so he can go back in time far enough to meet himself because he believes he's God is batshit insane in the best way. We've had a lot of villains with inflated egos on this show, but this guy might just take the cake! He has a literal God complex and it's scary how he's willing to do anything to achieve his petty goals, it's not really about power and dominion over other people to him. It's just to appease and prove his own self belief that he's literally God, kinda terrifying! I also like that this story gives the members of the TARDIS team their own goals and motivations and how the actions they take drive the plot forward. Adric naively falls under Monarch's influence and I like this because it shows he has a logical mind and doesn't really think of things in a more flexible way. I also like Tegan's desperation to get back to her job and when she learns what Monarch intends to do, her frantic attempts to get to Earth and warn them. It creates an interesting dynamic between our lead characters because it shows how some of them are impulsive and emotional and despite having the best of intentions, don't really think through their actions. This is a good contrast with the Doctor, who is obviously much more pragmatic and doesn't take any actions without fully understanding the situation at hand. The Doctor is battling between defeating the bad guys and keeping all his companion in check in this story and it create quite a unique and, imo, enjoyable dynamic that will continue through the rest of this season. I also have to say that considering this is the first story Davison ever filmed, he does an amazing job. He already feels settled and in command of the role. The only real issues I have with this story are the slow pacing at certain points and Adric's random outburst of sexism at the start. With all this mind, it shocks me that this story is not just considered one of the fifth Doctor's worst stories, but one of the worst DW stories of all time. I don't get it, this is a perfectly solid story that is doing some very interesting things. I for one like it a lot. Now on to next week with Kinda... This should be interesting and a lot of fun at least....

[@josefschiltz2192]

I knew that I should have avoided the Kinda reaction. I should have gone with my gut instinct because I ran off with one a bit and I shouldn't have. I really like both Alex and Richard. I guess what's done is done.

[@barriehull7076]

On 7 December 2010, the Welsh Assembly unanimously approved a set of measures to develop the use of the Welsh language within Wales. On 9 February 2011 this measure, the Welsh Language (Wales) Measure 2011, was passed and received Royal Assent, thus making the Welsh language an officially recognised language within Wales. The all-Welsh-language digital station S4C Digidol is available throughout Europe on satellite and online throughout the UK. Since the digital switchover was completed in South Wales on 31 March 2010, S4C Digidol became the main broadcasting channel and fully in Welsh. The main evening television news provided by the BBC in Welsh is available for download. There is also a Welsh-language radio station, BBC Radio Cymru, which was launched in 1977. Welsh is spoken in Patagonia, Argentina, A dialect is Patagonian Welsh, which has developed since the start of Y Wladfa (the Welsh settlement in Argentina) in 1865; it includes Spanish loanwords and terms for local features, but a survey in the 1970s showed that the language in Patagonia is consistent throughout the lower Chubut Valley and in the Andes. Wikipedia.

[@Darren79]

51:40 - Re. The cough. Enlightenment is singing Monarch's praises - it was a bit of actory business to suggest that Monarch is embarrassed by her praise and trying to look humble.

[@whobp8]

Four to Doomsday was the first story recorded for this season. They were having problems with the original scripts for the Fifth Doctor's debut story and ultimately abandoned that story altogether in favor of Castrovalva. Consequently, Doomsday was recorded first and Castrovalva was made later. There are lots of Aboriginal dialects, the production script originally called for Tegan and Kurkutji to fake it, but Janet Fielding (who is legitimately Australian) found that condescending and insisted they use a real Aboriginal language, specifically Tiwi, but the likelihood of Tegan being able to speak that particular language, particularly a version that's thousands of years old, is statistically pretty unlikely. Perhaps the Doctor is letting the TARDIS translation device enable her to understand, but isn't telling her just to mess with her. Stratford Johns was a well known British character actor, best known from Z-Cars and Softly, Softly. He's also in I, Claudius and a few notable films, like A Night to Remember and Cromwell. Burt Kwouk did indeed play Kato in The Pink Panther series of films. He isn't in the original Pink Panther, however, he makes his debut in the second movie, A Shot in the Dark. He and Stratford Johns both appear in The Fiendish Plot of Dr Fu Manchu, Peter Sellers last film, which came out in 1980, and saw Sellers playing a dual role as Fu Manchu (in "yellow face") and his arch enemy Nayland Smith. When John Nathan Turner became producer, he correctly believed that the merchandising possibilities for Doctor Who were not being fully exploited. He incorrectly believed that toy companies would be more interested in producing action figures based on Doctor Who if the Doctor and companions wore the same clothes all the time, creating a readily identifiable image. (Character Options, the company that currently makes Doctor Who toys, actually loves different costumes as it enables them to sell multiple variants of the same toy. David Tennant in a brown suit, David Tennant in a blue suit, with or without his overcoat, with or without glasses, with or without 3-D glasses, in a tuxedo, in a spacesuit, etc) So Tegan isn't getting out of that uniform any time soon, any more than Adric is changing out of his "pajamas". For the next couple of years, the female companions will get essentially one new costume per season. The practice will be abandoned in the Sixth Doctor's era.

[@franohmsford7548]

Adric's clearly on the Spectrum for a start......He's also a mathematical genius by the standards of the Alzarians and by 20th Century Earth standards BUT he's not particularly well-versed in other subjects and still a teenager. Four To Doomsday however does rather do a character assassination on him with the blatant misogyny at the start towards Nyssa and Tegan where he acts more like a 13 year old boy than a 16 year old. Then with the way he falls hook line and sinker for Monarch's lies despite having shown a strong inclination towards playing along with both the Vampires and the Master before this. It's like they didn't realise he was playing double-agent with Aukon and The Master.

[@paulrichards4452]

It’s not a bad story this one. Not the best but good. Visually it’s very impressive. Paul Shelley who plays persuasion I think would have made an excellent Doctor. He has such a formidable screen presence and classy resonant voice. For some reason Adric wasn’t written too well here and it made him come across as gullible and very annoying. Not the actors fault. I believe this was the first story Peter Davison recorded. Tegan’s attempts to control the Tardis are hilarious. Stratford Johns (Monarch) gives a very amusing performance. He was in a great episode of season four of Blake’s 7. Great reactions.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

It's an enjoyable enough serial still not considered one of the greats. I agree with you Richard about the lack of the education of other cultures or kids not learning enough history not only in America but here in Australia too the kids are getting more disruptive and there starting to learn less about history but that's due to the lazy educational system and of course the government i don't know if it's the same problem in the states. I do know some of the languages as i been to europe number of times i know abit of french, spanish, chinese and japanese Hello in French is: Bonjour Goodbye in French: au revoir Thankyou in French: merci Please in French: s'il te plait Hello in spanish: Hola Thankyou in spanish: gracias Hello in japanese: Kon'nichiwa Goodbye in japanese: Sayonara Hello in Chinese: Ni hao I did know abit of Italian when i went to Italy completely forgot it 😂 I'm still learning different languages. As for Adric's mysoginistic atitude towards Nyssa and Tegan that was just of the time unfortunately Matthew Waterhouse at the time was often a problem on set if you go back to some of Tom Baker's latest episodes you'll notice he doesn't look at Adric as Tom Baker did not like working with him because he thought he knew better than Tom and that really irritated him but on screen they seem to have a good chemistry but i don't think he works with Peter Davison that i agree. I always found Tegan and this is coming from an australian while it was nice to have a fellow aussie companion in the show i always found her very annoying. Nyssa was Peter Davison's personal preferred solo companion.

[@bcsr4ever]

But, to be fair, the language is called English, so they had it before the US. lol.

[@monocle_mage9273]

I really wish Adric got more moments to make him a bit more likeable. I want to like him but he keeps making it so difficult. My first language is Swedish (well really it’s a dialect that differs a lot from standard Swedish, but naturally I also speak that). I speak English fluently and Finnish decently. I’ve studied both French and German for around 4-5 years each and while I’ve forgotten a lot I’d say that I at least know a bit more than just the basics.

[@andrewbowman4611]

I do find it interesting that you preferred this story, generally considered to be a bit of a dud, to what many regard as bona fide classic (Kinda). Different strokes and all that, but it's fascinating nonetheless.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

I don't think Jodie Whittaker's 13th Doctor would had been impressed with Adric's mysoginy.

[@7thHourFilms]

Someone would have slapped him. I'd vote for Graham actually.

[@joshuajoshua2732]

@@7thHourFilms Absolutely.

[@flaggerify]

An Australian air hostess (as called then) would probably be expected to know some aboriginal phrases.

[@TheZodiacz]

from which language? there are 250-350 depending if you count closely related tongues as dialects or distinct languages.

[@flaggerify]

@@TheZodiacz I said some phrases. I didn't say fluent in anything in particular.

[@TheZodiacz]

@@flaggerify so just a few thousand phrases, lol.

[@flaggerify]

@@TheZodiacz No a few phrases. Stop putting words in my mouth. And stop thinking you're smarter than everyone else.

[@barriehull7076]

Acclimatise. LOL

[@paulbovey3666]

Burt Kwouk would have been an interesting (and less problematic) choice for Li H'sen Chang in The Talons Of Weng-Chiang.

[@stickytapenrust6869]

They did ask him but he wasn’t available.

[@davidbull7210]

Problematic from our empire-guilt 2023 perspective. No one gave a toss back then, least of all Asians (and they don't give a toss now either).

[@joshuaverran9443]

I disagree.

[@TheZodiacz]

but he wasn't transgender so still not diverse enough, you bigot!

[@davidbull7210]

@@joshuaverran9443 So you think Asians were really upset by this back then and they're still upset? Or is it the case that Anglo-Saxon American-English people are afraid not to publicly state that they're uncomfortable with a decades-old depiction of an Asian man as played by a white actor, for fear that the social media public-shaming machine might lynch them? Governments are racist, not ordinary people. Give yourself a break.

[@Joey15811]

Not a fan of this one