A Journey of Hope: Doctor Who, Karate Kid, Andor, and More

Joshua Noel: 00:01:15

What can our favorite fandoms help us remember about hope and what it looks like in the darkest of times? Guys, today we're going to be discussing the new season of Doctor who and or season two, as well as the one and only Karate Kid Legacy.

Not really one. Maybe you would say it's two branches but one tree. I'm not sure. But I'm really excited to be here today. I am Joshua Nolan, one of your hosts.

I am here with the one and only the beautiful. Because bald is beautiful. Christian Ashley, love having our other host on the show. We're hopeful to discuss some of Judy Godwas legacy as the Doctor.

There's going to be plenty of spoilers for everything we talk about today, so hang on for that. And of course, we have a guest who the host of the Kung Fu Pizza Party, one of the original hosts of our show, Sensei Pastor Brandon Knight.

How's it going?

Brandon Knight: 00:02:10

That's Mr. Dr. Professor Brandon to you. Just always going to launch into that now.

Joshua Noel: 00:02:15

Yeah, yeah. And with him is of course, Fred the beard.

If you don't get that joke you probably weren't watching on YouTube and you should go over to our YouTube page to see my silliness of what we did before the show. Yeah, yeah. That's our interesting lore now. So we're really excited.

Again, if you are watching live, please shout out below where you're coming from, something that you've been watching or getting into lately. And we'll shout that out here in just a second. If you're on a laptop, please consider rating or viewing our show on podchaser or goodpod.

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Apple Podcast, Captivate or Patreon, do we have. No, we don't have any live comments to shout out yet. So we're gonna jump right into our lightning round.

We're actually gonna hold off on some stuff that might be lightning round of like, what's coming out soon because there's a few big things and that's not lightning enough. So I'm gonna shout out some stuff a little bit later. For now though, just lightning around. What I have been into. Righteous gemstones.

Just wrapped up trying to think of like, what new geeky stuff I've been into because a lot of the stuff I've been geeking out on really isn't that new. Christian, what about you?

Christian Ashley: 00:04:08

The newest Mobile Suit Gundam series. Mobile Suit Gundam Tequacks. That's how you're supposed to pronounce all those different U's. Is out.

Yeah, it's wild, it's wacky, but it's also, as is typical for Gundam, about how war is bad and war is hell. And I am really enjoying it. It's been a ton of fun far. We're about eight episodes in and about four more episodes.

I really hope they're going to announce the season two because there's a lot that needs to be addressed and I would really hate if they ended it within four episodes. So. Yeah, that's my first part of the lightning round.

Joshua Noel: 00:04:38

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I finally starting to remember some of mine. But Brandon, what about you, man?

Brandon Knight: 00:04:43

Okay, okay, so these are not new shows, but they're new to me. So I recently started Blue Eye Samurai on Netflix. Also the Jeffrey Dahmer tapes because that's how diverse my watching is and not.

Yeah, I'll go ahead and talk about this too. I recently went to the. It's called the hall of Heroes Comic Con. It's about an hour and a half away from me. Had a really good time.

Kind of a small convention. So I don't know if it would necessarily be one I would go back to like casually maybe if they had some like big name people there.

Maybe again, because the tickets were pretty cheap at least. And I found some cool stuff. Got to meet Dean Cain, got to meet Jim Starlin and. And picked up Venom, the lethal protector issue one.

So that was one I've been looking for for a while. Was that lightning enough?

Joshua Noel: 00:05:37

Yeah, I have been getting into some of these what if books that Marvel's been putting out and right now there are plans for me and TJ to be reviewing one of the books of. It's what if Mark Scepter had the Venom. So that's. That's a be a fun one to be looking for that on the show later.

As far as other lightning stuff, trying to think of what I've been listening. Mostly it's been comics for me. We finally. The dawn in the Dusk has finally picked back up after a really long hiatus from the wonderful G. Wilson.

Yeah, okay. I was like. I thought it was G. Willow Wilson. It was like the letter is usually the initial, the middle name. That's weird. Anyway, G.

Willow Wilson finally is picking back up. Excited for that. We have Sonic and DC Sonic XDC happening. Godzilla and Versus. Marvel is finally wrapping up.

So a lot of fun stuff in comic land if you like the cheesy little crossovers like I do. Been a lot of fun over there. I think that's about it for the Lightning round for me until I get to some of the stuff we're going to talk about after.

So, Christian, what about you? What's next?

Christian Ashley: 00:06:46

Yeah, last thing I just have is Last of Us Season 2 wrapped up and it was a bit of a whimper, shall we say, like the game that it's based on. So if you want to hear more about us, talk about that. Kevin and I will be recording fairly soon.

So you will hear my Kevin loves it and Kevin is far more positive than I and I think TJ is more positive than I. So we'll see. In fact, my positivity is going to be all over the place this episode.

Joshua Noel: 00:07:15

Yeah. Yeah. Well, and the good news is right now, our theme for the year on systematic ecology is polarization. And our Captain series is finding the good.

So we're always finding stuff, trying to find the good and the stuff that maybe we're like a little contentious feeling about. So maybe you'll see Christian trying to find the good. Maybe Brandon. Anything else for the lightning round?

Brandon Knight: 00:07:35

Also, it's not an H. I did want to say. Also, it's not an HBO show if the finale is disappointing. Right. Like, that's just par for the course at this point.

They have a legacy of really bad, really bad finales, so.

Joshua Noel: 00:07:50

Oh, actually, I will say Newsroom, though I still love the finale. I think it did really well. That whole series was fantastic. But that's not new. Or lightning. Brandon, what about you? Anything else?

Are we good to jumping?

Brandon Knight: 00:08:06

I think we're good to jump. If we're going to talk about Karate Kid Legends over there, then yeah, well, I'll just Save that.

Joshua Noel: 00:08:12

All right, Lightning over. Before we get to the main three, I told you guys, we're going to talk about is andor. Andor Season 2 Karate Kid Legacy, Doctor who.

There has been a lot of new stuff that's been being announced that we're looking forward to. So. So this being a what's news episode, always good to talk about some news.

Of course, you guys know I'm not going to fail to mention we finally get images of Kingdom Hearts 4. Finally.

Christian Ashley: 00:08:41

Yes.

Joshua Noel: 00:08:42

That means nothing. For those of us who sat through waiting for Kingdom Hearts 3. We know that it means nothing, but we're excited anyway.

Christian Ashley: 00:08:51

It means the thing. We knew what they were doing that they're working on the game. It's continuing to happen.

Joshua Noel: 00:08:56

Listen, they're way further along than I thought. For some reason, I was like, I probably got at least five years.

Christian Ashley: 00:09:01

Yes. Casual fan speak.

Brandon Knight: 00:09:05

Question from the casual fan. Have you been waiting longer for the next Kingdom Hearts installment?

Have you been waiting longer than people waiting for the next installment of Grand Theft Auto? Because I know there's always huge gaps for those as well.

Joshua Noel: 00:09:21

That's a wonderful question, Christian.

Christian Ashley: 00:09:24

Yeah, I never got into Grand Theft Auto. I wasn't allowed to growing up, so I couldn't have cared less.

Joshua Noel: 00:09:30

Yeah, I. I played one. It was one of those where, like, I was really excited to play it because I wasn't allowed to play it.

And I played it and was like, oh, this is what the excitement was about. Why? Just never. Never clicked for me. No. They would have been waiting longer than.

Christian Ashley: 00:09:47

My first taste of alcohol ever. It's like, this is what I waited all this time to drink. Well, I could have drank this years ago and said, this sucks.

Joshua Noel: 00:09:54

So they've been waiting since: 2013

But for context, that gap for Kingdom Hearts 3 to Kingdom Hearts 2 was longer than that.

Christian Ashley: 00:10:13

And there were also games released in between.

Joshua Noel: 00:10:16

Yeah. Which made it not feel not as. And we're just. We're cool with it at this point.

I am excited, though, because it does look like we're gonna get some gameplay time as Mickey, and that's really cool. None of the pictures really seem to suggest what worlds we might see, but some of the.

The one image of Sora does look like we're gonna get some interesting new game mechanics. So I'm excited for that.

But I don't think there's much else we can tell from the images other Than it's probably further along than I thought it was, which is cool. Yeah.

Brandon Knight: 00:10:43

All right.

Joshua Noel: 00:10:44

The other big thing for me, we got images of what Chopper is gonna look like in the live action one piece. We have finally get a trailer for Peacemaker Season 2, which looks like it's going to be in August. There was something else.

Ironheart's about to come out. I'm excited for that.

I feel like I've been having a little drought in the geek stuff that I care about, and it's picking back up, so that's kind of exciting. Oh, and we got a teaser for the Mandalorian and Grogu, and we got a potential release date with it. Release month, I guess we should say.

It said May: 2026

But as far as those stuff that's coming up new, like the images of Chopper, I don't know if Christian has any opinions on that or any of the other stuff. I know Brandon likes some of the D.C. stuff, so maybe you have some thoughts with Peacemaker.

Christian Ashley: 00:11:37

I'm hyped for Peacemaker. I love season one. As you can hear, in the episode we did forever ago. Gosh, that is forever ago. Like two years ago. Then Chopper image.

I mean, it's going to be cgi. They're going to have to do it. He looks fine.

Joshua Noel: 00:11:52

Yeah. Yeah. I was afraid it was going to be one of those, like, the original Sonic that they tried to do that we were all like, no, stop. Bad.

I was afraid it's going to be like that. So at least it looks passable. Like, I think he looks pretty good about how I would have imagined him looking in live action. Yeah.

All right, Brandon, any thoughts for Peacemaker or anything else that's coming up?

Brandon Knight: 00:12:16

I have not seen anything for Peacemaker 2 yet, but I'm sure it's gonna be good. There better be a big dance number again at the beginning.

I hope the choreography is different for the big dance number at the beginning of the episode. There is a. I haven't seen it yet, but apparently there is some.

I think it's stills out for the upcoming Spider man noir series on Amazon Prime Video starring Nicholas Cage. So I'm very much excited for that.

Joshua Noel: 00:12:46

Some of those.

Brandon Knight: 00:12:47

And I'm trying to think. I trying to think. What else? Future. I'm trying to think what else is coming out. Future wise. Mortal Kombat 2. I think the trailer dropped for that.

There's a really fun Poster out as well for MK2 that has Carl Urban as Johnny Cage on it advertising for one of his movies because in the game he's an actor because he's based off of Jean Claude Van Damme, who should be the guy playing the character. But, you know, whatever. So. So yeah, I think that's a few things coming out on the horizon that I'm looking forward to. Oh, totally forgot.

This week is when Predator Killer of Killers is coming out. And definitely excited for that.

Joshua Noel: 00:13:26

What's that?

Brandon Knight: 00:13:27

Yes.

Joshua Noel: 00:13:27

Hey, what is that? Someone tell me.

Christian Ashley: 00:13:30

It's the. The newest film in the Predator series.

Joshua Noel: 00:13:34

Oh, a new film. So like a series?

Christian Ashley: 00:13:37

Yeah, it's. It's animated. Is. Yeah, it's an anthology film from different time periods with the Predator encountering different people across.

You know, like they did with Prey. They're gonna do is an entire movie over different segments.

Joshua Noel: 00:13:50

Yeah, yeah, that's okay. That's cool. Prey was cool. Sweet. Sweet. Yeah.

The other thing I was thinking about, I mentioned Ironheart, but I do want to say, since I finally watched Thunderbolts and it was a huge disappointment for me, but weird. No, listen, story wise, it's just incongruent. It's pointless. There's no point. Like, it's just. It's a dumb, dumb movie with no consequences.

But that aside, the fact that they did try to tell something meaningful there instead of just put out. Hey, look, cool. Action. Still has me a little bit more hopeful for Ironheart than I was before.

So even though the film was a disappointment to me, I am positive on Ironheart, hoping that it's going to be better than I expected it because I don't care for the comics and anything. With Iron Man, I'm like, oh, this is just going to be special effects. But seeing them put effort into trying to make a story has me hopeful.

So that's where I'm at. Yeah. Because I choose hope. Speaking of hope, here's a show that we have no hope of me watching and. Or season two. Christian, tell us about.

Brandon Knight: 00:14:51

No thoughts on Ironheart. So cool.

Christian Ashley: 00:14:54

Okay. Yeah. As revealed on an episode that should have been released earlier today, I don't much care for Ironheart. But yeah, I am hoping the show is good.

As far as Andor is concerned though, I really love this show. This is. I have said it earlier, this is a show. I said, why does this exist? Why would I ever waste my time watching it? I want nothing to do with this.

Disney is stupid. Well, guess what? Disney was good for the idea. Tony Gilroy comes in and he actually makes it good.

He makes me care about a character that I was like, okay, that's fine. In Rogue One and gives background to the Rebellion how not everything is neat and clean.

That sometimes you got to get a little dirty when you're fighting in the trenches to get things done, to fight against oppression, to fight against evil.

Joshua Noel: 00:16:29

You had a perfect opportunity to say simple and clean, and you screwed up.

Christian Ashley: 00:16:34

Well, I would never equate Andor with Kingdom Hearts unless that's the secret bonus level.

Joshua Noel: 00:16:39

Wait till it's in Kingdom Hearts door.

Christian Ashley: 00:16:43

And you will be so disappointed that they chose Andor instead of one of the movies.

Joshua Noel: 00:16:47

Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:16:47

That actually happened.

Joshua Noel: 00:16:48

Yeah. It would be like when they chose Tangled for Kingdom Hearts 3. And I was like, well, now I got to make myself like Tangled.

And I still haven't done it. I still just don't care for Tangled. It's sad. I want to, though.

Christian Ashley: 00:16:59

So this season is our final season. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Building off of what happened before, we have Andor continue to work with the Rebellion.

Working with Luthen, who, by the way, is one of the best new characters introduced in Star Wars. Bring some moral complexity in here. That does an extremely good job.

He steals a new TIE Avenger and ends up in some trouble with rebellious forces who are like, in the Rebellion, but they're not actually organized yet. And it's showing the problems of starting a group like this. While Mon Moth. Right.

Still being the public face of peaceful resistance against the Empire while being a senator, while also worrying about her daughter and how she's going into things she's not too happy in.

Then eventually Andor was able to escape from those confines, rescues Byx and his people from the Empire, goes back and we go through all the machinations of Cyril and Deidre on the Imperial side of things and Imperial Security Bureau as they're trying to get people to hate the planet of Gorman because there's a special thing that they need for the Death Star there that if they mine it, they can create the super weapon and the shielding and everything there.

So they're doing all this propaganda to make people think that the Gormans are worthless so that when they come in and kill them later on, which do eventually in the show, they look like they're the good guys. But it has the opposite effect. Like many things here. And you have a bunch of things where people like Luthen end up dying to protect the Rebellion.

Having. What is his assistant daughter's name? Gosh, I want to say it starts with a kid. I can't remember off top of my head.

But she has to kill him in order to protect the secret because really great stuff there with them. And then it all comes to a head where everything the Empire has planned has failed utterly.

People are starting to rebel more often and the Rebel alliance has become stronger and now they know what the Death Star is and leading up perfectly into the events of Rogue One. I love what they did here. We've got some tight characterization, some wonderful plotting, wonderful world building like this.

If you are a Star wars fan and you don't like and or like someone allegedly on the show does like, I really question your ability to be a Star wars fan.

Joshua Noel: 00:19:12

Yeah, yeah. Oh, did Brandon have something to say about this or are we good to move on to anything else?

Brandon Knight: 00:19:18

I'm with Josh. Season one was the most boring Star wars thing I have ever watched and I'm including Episode two in that.

The only thing I remember is that Andy Serkis showed up at one point, which was the best part. And so I'm going to watch it at some point. And hearing Christian eloquently walk us through it sounds like there could be some good stuff in there.

But I dislike Andor more than what are some of the other ones. Book of Boba Fett. I know everybody did not like Book of Boba Fett and it's not good.

I would still rank that 1 above season one of Easy of andor bad batch I would put above season one of Andor. Like, yeah, it's not cooking for me, for other people. Okay? But it's not. It ain't working for me.

Joshua Noel: 00:20:12

The problem is I can tell objectively there's so much good in it and the story they tell is good. It's just so boring that it's like. I would probably place it above Revenge of the Sith in Rise of Skywalker. Those are my two least favorites.

But I'm still more likely to watch those than I am to watch Andor because at least it's exciting, even if I think the story's dumb, you know?

Brandon Knight: 00:20:37

So here's the thing. I don't think. I don't think this is a waste of time. I don't think this was a bad idea from the get go.

When I initially heard that Cassian Andor was going to get his own show, I was like, cool, let's expand upon the Rogue One people a little bit. Would I have preferred Donnie Yen's blind character? Of course. Of course I would rather have had that one. But I.

I'm sure there's a Lot of good in there, but it's just like. It's just like white noise to me.

And I think the worst of it all is that I saw a reel the other day making the claim that this show is better than Kenobi, and that's just factually incorrect.

Joshua Noel: 00:21:18

Oof. Ooh.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:20

Oh. That is factually correct. Kenobi is not an abomination. It's kind of middling.

Joshua Noel: 00:21:25

It's so good.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:26

Yeah. And that's how I know it's middling.

Joshua Noel: 00:21:27

Kenobi was underranked and or is highly overblown. I just don't understand it's. Yeah. But I appreciate why other people like it, and I understand why some people enjoy this series. Not for me, though.

Do you have any other takeaways or anything you want to say about the show before we move on?

Christian Ashley: 00:21:47

Like I said, I think this builds off of what came before.

Brandon Knight: 00:21:50

Really.

Christian Ashley: 00:21:50

Well, we get some solid characterization here on the imperial side of things, showing, like, why did they believe what they believe? Like, they're not just, you know, cackling in the background. Bad guys who just want evil to spread in the world.

No, they legitimately think that this is what's going to bring peace and security in the galaxy.

Obviously, they're wrong, but this shows why they think the way to do why they are wrong and then doesn't just make them caricatures, as opposed to a certain other series we're going to be talking about later on, but actually makes them villains who believe in what they're doing.

And yet, at the end of the day, I can still say, even though you characterize them well, they're in the wr, and if I take them the wrong way, then I'm in the wrong.

Joshua Noel: 00:22:31

All right, well, good. Final note on to Karate Kid, something. I can understand what we're talking about. Unfortunately.

I was planning to watch this yesterday, the Karate Kid Legends. I thought it was Legacy for some reason, but that's my fault.

Christian Ashley: 00:22:45

Okay, let me correct that. Thanks, buddy.

Joshua Noel: 00:22:49

But, yeah, I was planning on watching this yesterday. I had problems with my car's tire that I have to fix before I can make it to work, and I'm unsure how I'm going to do that.

So you guys pray for me, and then if it happens, somehow I get a tire, I'll. I'll make that my God moment on whole church. Still figuring that one out. But, Brandon, have you had the.

Were you able to watch the Karate Kid Legends this weekend?

Brandon Knight: 00:23:12

Oh, yes. Friday. Friday night, part of the opening weekend box office. I am talking A lot about this show, so. Or about this movie.

So Kung Fu Pizza Party will do a review of it. My buddy has a podcast called this Se Taken, which the episode just came out yesterday.

You can hear some more thoughts about that and the first movie in that episode as well. It's good. It is a solid installment in the Karate Kid franchise.

It does, it does a really, it, it's really easy how they make the Jackie Chan movie fit in. They. There's no, like, it's not that complicated as a lot of us maybe thought it was going to be. It's not that complicated. I would say even given Mr.

Miyagi's amazing one liners. This is probably the funniest. This is probably the funniest installment in the Karate Kid franchise. I was laughing a lot in it.

ie Chan and maybe you saw his: 2010

He's still Mr. Han. So that's part of the retconning that they're doing here. But overall it is good.

My biggest, my biggest issue with the movie is that I don't want to give too much away because this is a fairly new film still. If you want all of the spoilers, listen to this seats taken or my show. I'll give more details.

In Listen to Kung Fu Pizza Party, I'll give more details. The movie centers around a plot that takes up basically the first 2/3 of the movie that has nothing to do entirely with the main plot.

So like, the B plot is the central focus of the first 2/3 of the movie. And then you get to the final third where the new Karate Kid, Lee Fong is going into training mode to compete at the big tournament. And it's.

The movie then goes away from like linear focus to more like set set pieces. Just. It's almost like the final third is one big montage.

And for those of you who are really excited to see Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchi on screen together, the good news is there is a lot of that. You're gonna get a lot of that. The bad news is Ralph Macchio is barely in this movie. He is the, like gonna show up later on final third character.

But once he is in the movie, he's in it for like, he has a lot of screen time. Once he does finally show up in the movie, but trying to think standard Karate Kid stuff.

are some. Like, In Karate Kid: 2010

Maybe one example of that, just to kind of tease it out for some people, is that, for the first time in this franchise, the mom is not on board with anything going on. Usually the mom is either written off really quickly or just, like, accepts what's going on, is totally fine with it.

The mom has very good reasons to not be happy with anything that's going on in this movie. And as always, the tournament scene, the tournament part of the movie is when the wheels absolutely come off.

But that's just, like, a standard point at this. This. You know, we're six movies in, and that always happens.

So maybe for an example, just to again, tease it out a little bit, the championship fight takes place on top of a skyscraper in New York.

Joshua Noel: 00:27:13

I. One of those fights. It might have been a dream, though.

Christian Ashley: 00:27:19

That sounds cool. That sounds more like the thought this is cool than it actually means anything. So that's. I'm fine with that.

Joshua Noel: 00:27:26

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. Cool.

Brandon Knight: 00:27:28

Yeah.

Joshua Noel: 00:27:28

So I've. I heard a couple things.

I don't know too much about the film since I failed to watch it because of my car, but the couple things I want to know about that I heard that was kind of interesting. So I hear the lines used a lot. One tree, two branches.

And from my understanding, that mostly has to do with, like, this idea of, like, kung fu and karate both kind of working together. What's with the one tree, two branches? Since I haven't seen it, could you maybe pull that string a little bit?

Brandon Knight: 00:27:58

So there's, like, a real life historical thing here and also a purpose in the movie. So two branches, one tree. Basically within the movie is that this movie is showing how Mr. Han's family and Mr.

Miyagi's family are actually not related, but are friends. They're very close. Mr. Han and Mr. Miyagi were friends.

that he visited Mr. Miyagi in: 1985

Miyagi was just, you know, he was talking so much about you and how proud he is. So there is this aspect of, like, even though. Again, part of the.

g, even though The Karate Kid: 2010

I'm not necessarily an expert on martial arts history, but generally speaking, Kung fu migrated from China to Japan, and when it got to Japan, it was modified for their specific needs, and that's the birth of karate, specifically in Okinawa.

Joshua Noel: 00:29:27

Okay.

Brandon Knight: 00:29:27

And this is actually something that happens within the movie. Actually, that's part of the big retconning is that Mr. Miyagi's great, great great grandfather or whatever learned kung fu from Mr.

Han's great, great, great, great grandfather in China and then brought it back to Japan and from there created what we know as Miyagi Do Karate. So, yeah, yeah. But this is also like a historical thing. Josh, you would probably be a big fan of. There's a channel One Dojo, which is.

It's called the Art of One Dojo, and it's basically the whole church podcast bus for martial artists of like, trying to show how the common history that a lot of martial arts actually share and how a lot of our systems of fighting are because people migrated, people moved and changed things over time. So. So, yeah, this is a big part of martial art history.

Martial art history is a little hard to, like, get into, only because there' so much like, history mixed with folklore and legend that sometime sussing out the two is a little difficult. But broadly speaking, this is how Kung fu moved to karate.

Joshua Noel: 00:30:48

Oh, sweet, sweet. You know, that's really interesting. I. One of the things that made me think of actually has. Oh, wait, do a shout out real quick. Dr. Mad Studio.

Hello, hammerheads. Greetings from Britain. Glad to have you with us, man. Glad to have you with us. One of the things that made me think of.

So it has nothing to do with the point or the history or what's happening in the film at all, but one of my favorite parts of the Bible. I'm going to be annoying and shoehorn the Bible in, but just because I don't know. I think there is something to this that.

That's interesting when I think of the film. So Zechariah, I think it's chapter three, might be. It's chapter four. I'm bad at chapters. They're not real.

But anyway, the vision that this prophet has is of two olive branches that are pouring oil into these lampstands that are pouring oil into the candles that eventually cause the lights to be burned for Israel. Right? And what the angel tells the prophet, the point of this prophecy is that, hey, you have the high priest and you have this king of Israel.

You need to be grateful for both in their leadership. And this leadership kind of trickles down. And then that same image comes up again in Revelation with those same lampstand and olive branches.

So what we kind of see throughout the Bible is this importance of understanding leadership and discipleship and letting things pour into you and then pouring back out. So that's one thing that was interesting to me. So I hear the two branches, one tree, and my little Bible nerd brain went to that.

And then I'm like, even though it's not what's in the film directly, we do see Mr. Han, Mr. Miyagi, and how both of their ways of teaching is pouring into, you know, now we have second generation teachers, third generation teachers.

That is going down the line there. And I think that that imagery is really interesting.

So even though they're not making that biblical point, I saw it and I was like, oh, that's actually really interesting. How. I don't know, what do you do with that as a martial artist, Brandon?

Because you know more about the martial arts world, you probably also know more about the Bible. But. But I knew that, so I wanted to say it so I could feel smart for a minute.

Brandon Knight: 00:32:55

So in the, during that training montage, when Ralph Macchio is finally there, a lot of the training is, even though they have this common root element of kung fu and karate sharing this common history, how they do it is still different.

You know, karate is very much, especially within Japanese martial arts is very much a be strong, hit hard kind of thing, whereas kung fu fu is more of a fluidity of movement and multiple strikes. So when they are training Lee Fong, who, by the way, the actor's name is Ben Wong, I believe, great performance. He hasn't had very many gigs and I.

r him than Jaden Smith in the: 2010

Anyway, so when they're doing this training montage, you know, they'll be trying to work out different strategies. He's already met. You know, there's a bully. Of course there is. He's already gotten beaten up by him. Of course he has.

Probably he's going to be the one who he faces off in the finals, of course. And so they're learning how to counteract a lot of this guy's techniques. And so Jackie Chan will say, you should do it this way.

And Ralph Macchio will say, no, do it this way. And Jackie Chan Will go, no, you should do it this way. And there's. It's never like they're mad at each other or arguing.

There is still this clash of styles.

And in, in the middle, literally in the middle, shot wise, it's Jackie Chan on one side, Ralph Macchio on the other, and the new Karate Kid in the middle. And usually he's like, what about. He does say at one point what happened to two, two branches, one tree?

And Jackie Chan goes, well, Kung Fu is better like, but as a joke, not like, as a toxic. Like, he's like, kung Fu has been around longer or something. You do get this really great.

Like, you see the different ways that these styles are done. And then here in the middle is the new kid taking both in and trying to incorporate them into his, like, his way, his framework of fighting.

So it's this really cool, like blending melting pot moment. And I think it, it is one of the stronger points of this film.

Joshua Noel: 00:35:20

Yeah, cool stuff, cool stuff. I do think we're getting ready to move on the next thing. Shout Out. We had a few more comments from Dr. Matt Studio.

Let's let know he's getting to see Bruce Springsteen and Liverpool, which is nowhere near London.

Christian Ashley: 00:35:32

Nice.

Joshua Noel: 00:35:34

And he's what loves watching the Jackie Chan Adventures cartoon. I think I mentioned that on another show, probably on Kung Fu Pizza Party when we were talking about Jackie Chan. Great.

I actually want to do an episode about that cartoon on SG at some point. But for now, can I make, can.

Brandon Knight: 00:35:52

I make one last comment? Because this movie is so new. One last comment. Okay, one last comment.

For those of you who are on the fence about this one, you do not have to watch Cobra Kai to go into it.

You're probably going to have to watch the Jackie Chan movie just so you're a little bit more familiar with it, but you don't have to watch Cobra Kai going into it. And number two, this movie currently has a 59% on Rotten Tomatoes. That's too low. That is too low.

This is the audience score I thought was pretty high. If you're like, the audience score is really good. It's a 91%. And I would say that's probably the better gauge. The critic score is very low.

But you know what? The critics score for the karate kid part 2 is very low as well. It might actually be like a 59, 60%. And that movie is amazing.

So, like, yes, pay more attention to the audience score of 91 than the critic 59. So that's it.

Joshua Noel: 00:36:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We, we are doing this summer, we're doing a drive in series of rotten films.

And behind the scenes, we struggled to figure out what counts as a rotten film. We were like, 30%. There's like, wait, is that critic score, audience score? And we're like, yeah, well, sometimes either one get it very wrong.

You know, like, sometimes the audience score is really low and you watch it and you're like, okay, the. The audience just didn't know. Like, weren't expecting the movie that they got.

And then sometimes you're like, yeah, like, critics just don't like Godzilla. Like, that's just a thing. Like, they don't want big monsters hitting things. That's what most of us want, big monsters hitting things.

Christian Ashley: 00:37:30

Roger Ebert hated horror films. Like, you know, it's. It's up to personal taste at times.

Joshua Noel: 00:37:35

Yeah. So, yeah, for our drive in series, we had to do, like, a vote on, like, what counts. So we're putting everything. And, like, we have a group chat.

We're like, it's got to be below 30% on one of those two, and the other one can't be too high. Otherwise we just know that once I got it wrong and it's not really a bad film, and we only want to talk about bad films this summer.

So no Karate Kids will be into the room. I hope so. I do hope so. I think someone should pick.

Christian Ashley: 00:38:00

That one is not on my list, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone picked it.

Joshua Noel: 00:38:04

If no one does, we might go back and do it just. Just for the. Just for the hell of a it. But we'll see. For now, though, we're going to jump into some. Some Doctor who. Not a rotten film. I will say.

It is a series that has recently a lot of ups and downs where we're. There's some stuff that I love that I'm really hype about, and there's some stuff that I'm like. I'm not sure about that decision.

Are we really, really sure about that one? But I do. I want to say, how dare they.

Christian Ashley: 00:39:47

Dislike Muppet Treasure island. You're absolutely right. Dr. Matt Studio. 10 out of 10 film.

Joshua Noel: 00:39:53

Yeah. TJ says it's the best or second best Treasure island film other than Treasure Planet, I think. But anyway, I love this Dr. Trudy Godwa.

We told you guys we're gonna have spoilers here. This was his last season, it turns out, which is. I feel like it's a crime. We should have had him longer. The season should have been longer.

A lot of characters should have been around longer. My biggest Complaint really is like, we just didn't have enough time to flesh out a lot of the stuff I wanted fleshed out.

And some characters feel wasted because of that. But my biggest hype on this is gonna be hope. I'm going back to hope. You know, a lot of the point of Andor was hope. A lot of this.

You know, we saw where Jodie Whittaker's doctor left. We saw David Tennant being David Tennant and the doctor being sad because the Doctor has to be sad about things. And then he got that.

That moment in one of the specials where David went off to heal. And this is the Doctor after he healed. And what I've loved about Chudi Gawa in the two seasons, we have a few moments that I'm like, ah, are we sure?

Is that this was like, hope. This was a beacon of light. Which is also why I'm like, why is he leaving, man?

Like, this betrayal of the Doctor has been so much more fun, so much more inspiring than what we've had in so long that I'm like, this is a shame not to say anything about who's going to be the Doctor next. It's just I wanted more time with him. I really did.

Christian Ashley: 00:41:16

He's leaving. He's leaving because they're going to be over a year before they start recording again, and an actor can't wait that long to get paid.

So rather than be mistreated financially, he decided to go and get work.

Joshua Noel: 00:41:30

Yeah, that's fair. I still blame the studio for that, but. But that's fair.

Christian Ashley: 00:41:34

It is the studio's fault.

Joshua Noel: 00:41:38

I am sad that he's leaving. That is a thing. I'm still excited for what we have next. I've been hype. We've gotten a lot of good stories. Russell T. Davies is still the king.

He still has a lot of stuff where I'm like, man, I didn't see that coming. A lot of stories, and I'm like, wow, that's phenomenal. The Barber episode in this season, one of the best episodes of Doctor who.

Even though I do have a little bit of a, why did that happen at the end? But, you know, a lot of the episodes has been happening. Like, these are awesome.

And as always, you have a few of those episodes that you're like, why'd you do this? And then you remember, oh, wait, this is still a kid show. Of course there's babies on the ship episode that was last season, but still. Yeah.

So we had a lot of ups and downs as this season. As a Whole what's going on is he meets new character. Is it Belinda Berinda? Why am I struggling here?

Brandon Knight: 00:42:29

Yeah, Belinda.

Joshua Noel: 00:42:30

Right.

Christian Ashley: 00:42:31

Okay, I can summarize.

Joshua Noel: 00:42:32

Christian wanted to do the summary. I forgot. Go ahead, give it to us.

Christian Ashley: 00:42:36

All right, so we start off with a Christmas special. You will get what I give you. We start with a Christmas special.

The Doctor has left Ruby behind, and he ends up at his time hotel that goes all across history. It's a really cool idea.

He meets this woman named Anita, ends up becoming friends with her, gets her a job there, and a woman he meets also at the hotel ends up becoming Star Bethlehem. It's kind of interesting. It's its own thing.

The actual start of the season, we get the robot revolution where there is a nurse named Belinda Chandra who years ago had a boyfriend. And because Russell T.

Davies likes, you know, any bit of what sort of look for subtlety, has a line where he says, you know, you're pretty good at maths or whatever, even though you're a girl. It's like, oh, well, I know this character I'm not supposed to like from the very beginning. Thank you, buddy. So it turns out he bought her a star.

And you know what? That. That is already not a summary.

Joshua Noel: 00:43:28

You're not even at the actual season. You should be done with the summary by now. This.

Christian Ashley: 00:43:32

This is just. No, no, no, no. I don't do your way. So, yeah, so turns out because of that, her buying.

That him buying the star for her, she is actually the ruler of this planet. They go there, they call it the Planet of the Incels, even though there's only one Incel there. And they.

t that they can't get back to: 2025

They go to Miami. They end up in the theater. There's one of the new gods of the pantheon there, Lux, in a very good episode. So there's your positivity.

And turns out they can just make him a good guy and he gets to be part of the universe. And there's that as they're trying to figure out how can they get back to her time.

Then they go to the next episode, the well, where 500,000 years in the future, we see the return of the Midnight Entity, even though it doesn't really act like the Midnight Entity, but, you know, evolved or something. We can hand wave it away. And they have shenanigans there where they learned that Earth isn't real anymore. Oh, sorry, not real.

No one remembers what Earth is. Then we go to Lucky Day where we have a little 8 year old kid, Conrad Clark finds the doctor.

He gives him, say, a 50 pence coin or whatever and says, it's going to be a lucky day. Go to the future. Conrad has been abused by his mother and is dealing with all that mess.

And he ends up seeing, in the previous season, Doctor and Ruby Sunday fighting a creature called the Shriek.

Joshua Noel: 00:44:56

You start adding timers to summaries.

Christian Ashley: 00:44:59

Absolutely not. You did. And I refuse to do so because things need to be said.

So in the process of all that, she ends up in a relationship with Conrad and goes on his podcast. And what do you do when you're on the podcast? You never research what they're about or anything like that?

Joshua Noel: 00:45:13

Because to be fair, I usually don't. To be fair.

Christian Ashley: 00:45:16

I see.

Brandon Knight: 00:45:17

Okay.

Christian Ashley: 00:45:18

Yeah. Well, my statement remains the same.

And instead of learning that he's a conspiracy theorist who doesn't like Unit because they refuse his application, Chi falls in love with him and he turns out to be a bad guy because all straight white men in this show in this season are bad. And I think that's an exaggeration. Yeah. So it gets to the point where Conrad is attacked by Kate through the creature. It's its own thing.

And the doctor visits him in prison and instead of like empathizing with him saying, yeah, I don't agree with what you did, he says, you're nothing. You're always going to be nothing. And that leaves him open to Mrs. Flood, who comes in and makes him part of her plan, one of her pawns.

And they go to Lagos in Nigeria in a fun episode where the doctor goes there to go to the specific barbershop so they can tell stories to each other. It's a rich story about, you know, how we communicate to people about storytelling and meeting each other and figuring out where we come from.

And then it gets a little loopy around the way where it turns out this guy is actually a guy who makes stories for the gods and because of that has gained some power. And he wants to destroy the gods because they took credit for his stories.

And it's his own thing with the barber betraying the Doctor in the dated episode. They're fine together, even though they should have hit more. What the season suffers from is not enough episodes, not enough time in the episode.

So they end up being friends again. That's correct. Then we have the interstellar song contest, where the Doctor and Belinda are once again trying to find a way back to their world. Yeah.

And they find that Eurovision has gone. Even though Earth is gone, they still got it in the stars.

Joshua Noel: 00:46:49

And.

Christian Ashley: 00:46:49

And unfortunately, there's a terrorist attack by this group of aliens called the Hellions. Very, very subtle name where turns out that they were oppressed by this.

This corporation and they want to get back by killing all these people who had nothing to do with them being hurt. Interesting. So in the process, the Doctor thinks that Belinda has died. Actually, she hasn't.

He has barely saved everyone and he goes a little angry, but then he's able to save the day, she's able to help him out. And instead of once again empathizing with the person who had been suffering, the Doctor calls him evil.

And, well, we don't do anything about the corporation to cause other problems. But in process, we learn that Mrs. Flood was there and she died for a bit, causing her to b. Generate into Mrs.

Flood and the Ronnie, who is going to be our ultimate villain, allegedly for this season. Even though it looked pretty cool at the time.

Joshua Noel: 00:47:43

It was pretty cool, yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:47:44

Next up, Wish World, we have the moment where it turns out nothing, the most evil thing in the world that can happen is that you can end up in a world where heterosexual marriage is the norm, and that is not the Doctor and Belinda.

Joshua Noel: 00:47:55

To be fair, Christian's very wrong about that.

Christian Ashley: 00:47:58

Russell T. Davies would say differently.

And then they are now the proud parents of Poppy, who you will remember from space babies, and suddenly their daughter somehow. And it's all over the place and we find out that the Ronnie did this intentionally and in a masterful stroke of genius. This is really good.

I do like this.

The idea is that the world has been changed through this baby called Goodness Gracious Desiderium or something like that, who was the seventh son of a seventh son, becoming one of the new gods to become a part of this process. And Ronnie is using him via Conrad as well as an outlet to create the perfect world in their image, which they know is not the perfect world.

The Ronnie is just using that for her own ends, causing the Doctor to realize it's imperfect. And that was the point. They were supposed to notice it was imperfect.

And the doubt is actually fueling their creation here to get to the realm where Omega, the founder of the Time Lords, is, even though that's been retconned.

Joshua Noel: 00:48:51

Get too much on that, just for the record.

Christian Ashley: 00:48:52

Yeah, okay, yeah, sure.

Joshua Noel: 00:48:54

No, no, no. Like it's actually explained differently than you explained it.

Christian Ashley: 00:48:58

Yeah, it's explained correctly now. And turns out that the Earth is about to die. The Doctor falls down. How is he? Saved by Anita in the Time Hotel and something I didn't see coming.

And I was very grateful to see her come back. Yes. Turns out that once again, they're looking for Omega to try and figure out maybe he can revitalize the Time Lords.

Because now, as a result of what the Master did in 13's time, they're all sterile. So the BI generation is a product of that, of trying to create more Time Lords at the same time, even though they can't make children.

So in the process of all this, they fight against it. Ruby ends up talking to Conrad, trying to get him to calm down.

He's able to empathize with him, which is surprisingly effective considering everything else in this season. And in the process of all this, they learn that Poppy is made up. So. Gosh.

So because she's made up as a wish, she's not going to survive everything that's changed here unless they do something. Very specific things. Things. And the process of seeming to do that, Thirteen ends up showing up on the TARDIS and gives her a very nice moment.

I was very appreciative of to actually, you know, give her written somewhat competently, where she and 15 kind of talk to each other and they're able to save Poppy and accept that retcons everything to where she was always Belinda's daughter, which makes no sense and makes Belinda go to a point where she's all lovey dovey mommy now, that that was never a part of her character.

Joshua Noel: 00:50:18

Also incorrect, the document. It made really good sense. It was good writing. Continue.

Christian Ashley: 00:50:22

Absolutely not.

Joshua Noel: 00:50:23

Also wasn't right.

Christian Ashley: 00:50:24

And because of what he does, the Doctor has used up his regeneration energy and is now regenerating. And it looks like someone who looks like Billy Piper, but I'm saying that's a misdirect.

It's probably either the moment or the TARDIS itself taking on her form. And we haven't actually seen the 16th doctor yet. That is where we end. Thank you for coming. My TED Talk.

Joshua Noel: 00:50:44

Yeah. So, like Christian said, we're not going to have enough time to talk about each individual episode.

So I'm glad you said a very general explanation what the season was about. Instead. We are over time, so just know most of what Christian said was wrong and I hope you guys have a great day.

No, but really, a lot of what he said was wrong. I do hope Everybody does take the time to watch the season, but the. A lot of the episodes are really good.

Brandon Knight: 00:51:09

Two quick comments. Okay, I have.

I haven't seen any of this New Doctors, this current Doctor, but I am disappointed to hear that he's already passing along because it sounds like he's been doing. He himself has been doing a really good job. The fact. I know this was like an hour ago, but the fact that they.

They bought this person a star is so 90s. I know it probably wasn't that like in the 90s when you could buy someone a star.

Joshua Noel: 00:51:38

Oh, it happened in the 90s.

Brandon Knight: 00:51:40

Sounds very 90s. And then Christian. Oh, perfect. And then Christian, just for clarity's sake, did you enjoy this season?

Christian Ashley: 00:51:49

Six out of 10.

Joshua Noel: 00:51:50

So, yes, I'd probably give it more like a nine or eight out of 10. It was really good.

Christian Ashley: 00:51:56

I have many complaints.

I think Davies has gotten to the point where he's gone very George Lucas, very Dan slot, where he doesn't have enough people saying, no, don't do that. You think it's a good idea, but you need someone to tell you no. And he doesn't listen to people.

Joshua Noel: 00:52:09

Yeah. Which Christian's also wrong about that, for the record. So. So no. One of the things that he got wrong.

I did want to clarify for everybody too, because this is more of like a factual part of the show. The world was not fueled. Wish World was not fueled by people's disbelief. It was fueled by them believing what it was.

Her mission to get to the underworld required a disbelief because it would fragment. It actually did the opposite of fueling Wish World. Yeah, I thought you just misspoke. That's why I was like, I know you know that that's wrong.

Christian Ashley: 00:52:42

I swear that's not what I said.

Joshua Noel: 00:52:43

But sure, maybe I misheard you. It was a very long summary. Almost as long as one of the episodes. They were very short episodes for some reason. Overall, it is. You know, as Dr.

Matt Studio mentioned, you know, a lot of people have stopped watching the show in the last 10 years. I think you should start watching it again now that Russell T. Davies is back. It is good again.

We have complaints, but it is far better than it was for. For me. Far better than any of Matt Smith's years. Far better than all of Jodie Whitaker's turn. I do enjoy this a lot more compared to Flux.

Dear God, this is amazing. This is so good compared to that. This Doctor is incredible. There are some issues with the story.

I certainly agree that we needed more time per episode and a lot More episodes to flesh out these things. They wasted one of the actresses for the Ranni. Just outright. They wasted Omega. I'm like, these characters should have had a whole episode each.

But they were like, we're only gonna do a nine episode season. And I'm like, but, okay, but Omega needs at least a full episode. Like, the legacy behind that character is insane.

You had such a good actor for the Ranni and you're like, yeah, we'll give her an episode and a half. And I'm like, no, this should have.

Christian Ashley: 00:53:53

Been like the Master all over again in my summary. I guess I was just that angry is that the Ranni dies for good. Being killed by Omega, who isn't there.

Joshua Noel: 00:54:03

Is kind of out there. I'll get there. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 00:54:09

Whether or not that's actually Omega or like, since this, one of the themes of these past two seasons has been like the creations that we make based off of mind. So this may be the mythologized Tulpa ish of Omega and not the actual Omega that killed her because it looks like generic, evil, bony bad guy.

So there's no, like, real character to Omega and he is taken off screen after a bit. It's very disappointing.

Joshua Noel: 00:54:34

The other thing, I kind of disagree with Christian about the thing about it being like a retcon for the whole season because, oh, she had a kid this whole time.

It just didn't feel like a full on retcon because they do go back and show you all these different lines she said throughout the series and then add its own something about the kid and you realized, wait a minute.

Yeah, I did feel like something was off this whole time about her wanting to get back to this really specific date at a specific time and having that extra little bit of line that the Doctor forgot because he shifted out of the correct reality. Made a lot of sense where you were like, oh, he wasn't in actual reality. We were seeing it through the Doctor's eyes.

And that's why this character kept being obsessed with this date. And we were all like, that's really weird. And it was explained very well through good writing. At the end, you're like, wow, Russell T.

Davies did it again. Phenomenal. Really well done.

Christian Ashley: 00:55:27

Because what actually happened is that there was the original reality and through all the time travel shenanigans that shifted to where Poppy always existed there, but had never existed in the original timeline.

Joshua Noel: 00:55:40

No, no, I think you're off there. But. But that's okay. That's just what geeks do.

We disagree about some weird lore in the show and whether or not this was reality or that was reality or what time was which. And Doctor who is all timey wimey and now reality wality for some reason. But that's just how it is.

Christian Ashley: 00:56:01

If anyone's wondering, like, why I complain and why I interrupted Joshua there.

Joshua Noel: 00:56:04

Sorry.

Christian Ashley: 00:56:06

It's because I love the show and I want better for it. So when something does disappoint me, it's like, no, be better. I want you to do better because I love you. I want to see you.

I don't want to see you fail. I don't want to say, I'm not one of those people. Dr.

Who's just gone, woke and it's the end of the world and, you know, my feelings are being taken away. It's like, no, I want you to do better. So even though, yes, this is a 6 out of 10, that doesn't mean I hate this season.

I just despise parts of it that could have been done so much better.

Joshua Noel: 00:56:33

Yeah, I would give it an eight and a half out of ten. Really well done. The things that do bother me, Christian's mentioned a lot of them already.

I don't want to harp on that because I really do feel like people need to give the current Doctor who a chance. A lot of people just aren't. And this is where I'm of two minds. They do this thing that.

I've complained to Christian about this before, where every character is diverse or is a different, you know, ethnicity, race, whatever. There's a pregnant man. So much so that it dilutes the point of why diversity is important.

Like, when everyone's diverse, nothing actually feels diverse.

And I feel like we could have gotten more cool stories about the doctor's experience in a black man's body if they wouldn't have done that, if they wouldn't have just made everybody different, you know? So that's one thing I was a little disappointed by. There are a few other things here and there, but overall, I'm really hype on it.

The one thing I wanted to pin down that I think is important for us to discuss, this character Conrad, that you mentioned, it's basically, what if a MAGA guy lived in England and perpetuated fake news and all that stuff that they do. Right? And what I loved that the show did is they have MAGA guy who you're clearly supposed to hate because he's a straight white male. Right?

And they show when he created Wish World in this fake reality where, you know, everyone's living These little suburban lives. And I think that's what he's saying is terrible.

Not the straight, you know, having a regular nuclear family, living a suburban life where you're not really doing anything with your life. I think that's what was supposed to be terrifying. And especially for the doctor. We all looked at that and was sad about that, I think. Think.

Anyway, what was interesting is it revealed that even still he wanted someone to have everyone, to have something good. What he thought of as good wasn't necessarily what I would think of as good or you thought of as good, but he envisioned everyone with a good life.

In wish World, he wasn't just creating torment for everyone. Maga Guy still wanted good for people. He just. His vision was off.

Then when Ruby, who was betrayed by this man and all this terrible stuff happened to her, had the chance to get his revenge. And we could have really had that moment of we're punching Maga Guy and showing everyone why he's the bad guy. Instead said, I wish him to be happy.

And we see a reality where he is happy and there is good in him and we can wish well for others even when we disagree on such a fundamental level on what a wish world would look like and what is good. And that message, that's more powerful than any of the stuff that I have gripes about in the show.

Like, I think that message alone made everything worth it. And people should watch the show and also we should talk about it more. Christian, how do you feel about that?

Christian Ashley: 00:59:09

I think I would feel better about that. I agree with the message. I would feel we're only talking about the message.

Joshua Noel: 00:59:13

You already complained about the show.

Christian Ashley: 00:59:15

And I'd feel good if he wasn't a caricature. I think the caricature, rather than a.

Joshua Noel: 00:59:19

Person that makes it better, it is that person that we all think of as bad. And without it being a caricature, you wouldn't have had that the same way.

Christian Ashley: 00:59:28

Now you can start off with caricature. Caricature, really good as gracious, those traits, and then move on to actually give them a little more depth. But he tried by his mom.

Yeah, that would. I would have liked that.

Instead, they did what people do is like, oh, I have to do to make you hate a character is I just make him a Nazi or I just make him a communist. And then at the end of the day, I don't have to care about that character anymore because now I just have to hate them.

And if they had built him up more war, sure, I'd agree. 100 with you. Because I love the message.

Joshua Noel: 00:59:59

Still agree with the message. Yeah. That's all I wanted to talk about.

Christian Ashley: 01:00:03

Stop craving. It's hindered.

Joshua Noel: 01:00:05

It's finding the good end. Even the good parts.

Christian Ashley: 01:00:09

You've got to take the totality of it all.

Joshua Noel: 01:00:11

We're just finding the good right now. We're focusing on that good part right now. Just focus on.

Christian Ashley: 01:00:16

Find the totality. And the good part would have been much better.

Joshua Noel: 01:00:19

If you want to be better than Christian, you can find the good here. There is good.

There is a really strong message there of finding what is good about others and finding a way to wish well for others and to love others.

Even when you disagree on a fundamental level on what is good, which many Christians do these days, we don't even agree what is good within our own tradition, it seems, and even our own fandoms, we disagree on what is good. Right. And Christian is wishing for a better Doctor who world. Right. And I'm probably wishing for a different Doctor who. Thank you, Christian.

But we can come together, wish well for each other and hope to have more stories and hope that the show continues to be great in the future, maybe even better than this series and stuff that we had gripes with will stop being there. And you just wish for a better world, have hope.

Even in the darkest of times, when maga's ruling the world maybe, and realizing that even when MAGA rules the world, a lot of the times it's not because they hate everybody. It's actually because this is genuinely what they think is good.

They might be wrong, but we have to address them as people who are genuinely human, who are trying to do what they think is good even if they're wrong.

Brandon, any thoughts on wishing well for others or how we see those who maybe view good as something different than we do and how we should treat these other people?

Brandon Knight: 01:01:35

Well. Well, Christian brought up how you know. Well, in simple terms, if you need to make a bad guy, you make him a Nazi in pro wrestling.

If you need to make a bad guy, just have them trash the sports team. There's just. Yeah, sometimes you just have to take the. Sometimes there are just easy roads. And it does really sound like the big.

The biggest thing for this season or one of them at least. As somebody who is just kind of being fly on the wall here. Is that not enough episodes? Are the episodes shorter, too?

Because it used to be like 45 minutes an hour.

Joshua Noel: 01:02:11

Yeah, 40 minutes.

Christian Ashley: 01:02:13

They never be able to at least, least.

Joshua Noel: 01:02:15

Especially if you're only gonna do nine.

Brandon Knight: 01:02:16

Okay.

Christian Ashley: 01:02:17

Yeah, yeah.

Brandon Knight: 01:02:19

Only nine. Holy cow. Yes. Goodness. Yeah. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 01:02:27

Really?

Brandon Knight: 01:02:28

Look, I'm not the most up to date person on Doctor who. I was the Eccleson, David Tennant, Mass Smith group. So I'm used to that like longer seasons kind of thing.

And you could tell if you were watching this on YouTube, you could tell that I am a. I am of that era. Because when Christian Ashley said Billy Piper, I popped up immediately.

Like if you watch this on YouTube when he says Billy Piper, I'm like, wait, she's back.

Joshua Noel: 01:02:57

Yeah.

Brandon Knight: 01:02:57

ot even the old school as the: 2010

Davies because he was obviously better than Stephen Moffat.

Joshua Noel: 01:03:15

That's just Christian.

Brandon Knight: 01:03:18

But you know, I haven't seen the season for myself, but it does sound like at a core it just needs more episodes and it needs more episodes and longer as well.

Christian Ashley: 01:03:30

Yeah. Yes.

Joshua Noel: 01:03:32

One thing I do find interesting though, and we don't try to pick things to match usually on what's news, but it is interesting and or season two, it ends with this whole message about hope. Right. Doctor who, the whole thing with Chawa's doctor is hope.

And then even finding good in other people in the darkest of times, we know that there is still good even in the MAGA guy, who for some reason is England. And one thing that the Karate Kid film, it sounds like had to do with this idea of like we're, we're looking to the future for a better future.

And I don't know, I feel like we can learn from what is good and find a way to move forward.

And I think, think that's what I like that some of our films and shows are showing us because a lot of people do feel dark right now and it's easy to capitalize on hate.

Brandon Knight: 01:04:16

Now.

Joshua Noel: 01:04:16

I know a lot of podcasts are doing really well because they're talking about how terrible the Trump administration is and people saying the same thing, that hey, that's bad over and over is what gets clicks. And to see shows and movies that are actually trying to say, hey, wait, there's a better way forward, I don't know, for me is really encouraging.

Brandon Knight: 01:04:30

Yeah, I'll weigh in here since I'm not an expert on the Karate Kid on the Doctor who stuff, but I could talk about the Karate Kid thing. The Karate Kid movies are just collectively a story about how fear is crippling and fear is Crippling and anger is destructive.

And you do get a little bit more. You do get that here with the newest one as well.

And I feel like, although that's not explicitly about, like, hope for a better tomorrow kind of thing, like, those are definitely things that, like, right now, I think a lot of people feel the opposite. They are being crippled by fear. They are seeing the destructiveness of anger. But, like, this movie does show that you can overcome those things.

Joshua Noel: 01:05:18

Yeah, no, I love it. I love it. Christian, any final notes?

Christian Ashley: 01:05:22

I agree with. I agree with the premise.

Joshua Noel: 01:05:23

Positive notes only.

Christian Ashley: 01:05:25

Yeah, yeah. No, this is part of it. They've done that with every character. Character. Because he doesn't do it to Conrad. He doesn't do it to Belinda's boyfriend.

He doesn't do it to the Ronnie or Omega. He is very dismissive to them. No, no, he doesn't do it. He calls him a nobody and he's always going to be a nobody.

If he had not done that, I'd feel like that was actually the message that was throughout the whole season. But it's hindered by those things. Even though I agree with the ultimate message, it's just delivered poorly.

It'd be like, hey, man, I'm praying for you. I love you. And you know, the guy I'm praying for is needs food. And I can give him the food, and I don't give him any food.

Have I really done anything for him? Yes, sure, I prayed for him.

Joshua Noel: 01:06:03

That's good.

Christian Ashley: 01:06:04

But if I had the capability to help and I don't, that's on me.

Joshua Noel: 01:06:06

Yeah, well, we don't want to end on a bad note. So does anybody have any other movies we can talk about? I guess, and we just won't let Christian talk anymore.

But no, the thing is, I really did not like when the doctor just called Conrad a nobody point blank. That did bother me.

But the fact that that the show was written before that and he knew that Conrad's ending was going to be such that the way we got forward wasn't punching him in the face, but was going to be by wishing him well is still meaningful. It's still good. Probably could have been done better. Sounds like maybe Karate Kid did better by showing us, hey, fear and anger aren't the way.

And maybe just watch that. I still think you should watch Doctor who. Apparently Christian does not.

Not really sure, but we're gonna go ahead and wrap this one up because can't afford Christian to keep going on rants on how things he doesn't like. Christian is an angry, upset old man.

But with that, if you had to recommend one of the three things or any of the things we mentioned, even from the lightning round, just one IP for people to check out, what are you gonna be recommending? Mine is super duper easy. Kingdom Hearts 4. I said it.

So technically, I think everyone should be waiting with me in anticipation, replaying all the games, waiting for Kingdom Hearts 4, because I guarantee that I will like it more than any of the other things we mentioned. Even the things I love. Yeah.

Christian Ashley: 01:07:26

Christian Andor.

If you want something that's actually very well done and how it delivers its message on hope and its message on how people are more than just caricatures, you go to andor or if you.

Joshua Noel: 01:07:38

Want a good or if you want a good nap andor is great for that. Brandon, you got to pick any of the things that we talked about for. For to recommend just one of them. What's your top recommendation?

Everything mentioned today. We're gonna assume Brandon said Karate Kid and we'll go ahead and wrap this one up. Guys.

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