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Episode 167

The Big Busby Berkeley Number

This week, we learn that the mortal enemy of showtunes is capitalism, that the mortal enemy of some Doctor Who fans is fun, and that the mortal enemy of the Doctor has descended upon Depression-Era New York in an exciting new thematic guise. The show must go on, in spite of the Daleks in Manhattan.

The idea of the City as a hostile, inhuman place is found in Fritz Lang’s masterpiece of German expressionist cinema Metropolis (1927) and the terrifying version of 1980 depicted in Just Imagine (1930). Both of these are inspired by the looming monuments of architect Hugh Ferriss’s cityscapes.

On a lighter note, Busby Berkeley choreographed lavish dance number for both Broadway and Hollywood during the era of the earliest move musical. Take a look at some examples here.

Andrew Garfield’s big break wasn’t that superhero film at all: it was his film début, Boy A (2007).

It’s been some time since we did this, so here’s a link to El Sandifer’s discussion of this entire story on TARDIS Eruditorum.

Follow us

Nathan is on Twitter as @nathanbottomley, James is @ohjamessellwood, Richard is @RichardLStone and Peter is nowhere to be found. The Flight Through Entirety theme was arranged by Cameron Lam, and the strings performance was by Jane Aubourg. You can follow the podcast on Twitter at @FTEpodcast.

We’re also on Facebook, and you can check out our website at flightthroughentirety.com. Please consider rating or reviewing us on iTunes, or we’ll wander on stage during your big musical number and knock over several of your less talented dancing girls.

And more

You can find Jodie into Terror, our flashcast on Doctor Who’s most recent season, at jodieintoterror.com, at @JodieIntoTerror on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and wherever podcasts can be found.

Our James Bond commentary podcast is called Bondfinger, and you can find that at bondfinger.com, at @bondfingercast on Twitter, on Apple Podcasts, and everywhere else as well. We’ve run out of Bond films, but somehow that hasn’t stopped us.

Episode 167: The Big Busby Berkeley Number · Recorded on Sunday, 11 August 2019 · Duration 0:46:09 · Download · Open in new window

Series 3The Tenth Doctor