Debating Doctor Who

Kate Kulzick, the officially recognized Captain Jack Harkness of this podcast, returns to help Alasdair answer a listener's question about how to get into classic Doctor Who! While she admits her advice of "Just watch everything!" might not be the most helpful, we work to break down some of the different strengths and weaknesses of the show's various eras, as well as how to approach watching something that's so completely a product of a different era. We offer some specific story recommendations to get you started, even if there's fierce (if brief) disagreement over the quality of "Carnival Of Monsters." Plus we discuss our favorite classic Doctors, discuss how much showrunners made a difference on the old show, and what stories might be improved by swapping Doctors.

We finish up our picks for the best episode of every season by picking one for each year of the Capaldi era, as well as our favorite from all the specials, Christmas or otherwise. Then we do a deep, deep dive into why "Midnight" is so ludicrously good. We've got a lot of thoughts on this! We have somewhat less to say about "Nightmare In Silver," beyond a begrudging, "Eh, this is fine, basically, but it could have been so, so, so much better." Which, as Allison points out, is somehow worse than it just being outright terrible. And next week the debating continues with a look at "Turn Left" and "Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS"!

As promised last week, Allison and Alasdair offer our picks for the best episode of each season... well, we get through the first seven seasons, at any rate. Better than we expected, honestly! Alasdair manages to pull off the seemingly impossible (especially for him) by picking pretty much entirely non-Moffat stories as his favorites from the 9th, 10th, and 11th Doctors' eras. Will he and Allison agree on their various picks? What do we look for in series-best episodes? All will be revealed!

Allison has her computer back, so she takes control of this episode! And after she and Alasdair discuss just how the Doctor remembered Clara at the end of "The Doctor Falls," she turns the tables on her co-host by asking Alasdair the same questions he asked her when she first came aboard. It's a reintroduction for those who don't want to dive all the way back into the show's earliest archives, and an opportunity for longtime listeners to see how Alasdair's thoughts have changed. And then, just to keep the theme alive, our final would-be discussion topic gets curtailed when Alasdair runs into his own technical difficulties.

We take a quick moment to discuss our ever more ridiculous raft of technical difficulties, then consider the trailer for the 12th Doctor's swansong, "Twice Upon A Time." After that, we're onto our very first debate of this new era with a pair of celebrity historicals. Spoiler alert: One of these absolutely trounces the other. Allison nerds out over how "The Shakespeare Code" could be so much more Shakespearean than it actually is, and we discuss the episode's glib handling of being a person of color in Elizabethan England. "Vincent And The Doctor," by contrast, is one that speaks to us on a deep level, as we praise its empathy and nuance while opening up a little bit about how personally this episode affects us.

We table our story debate for a week as Allison continues to deal with two (2!) broken computers, but there's still plenty to talk about as we foolishly record a couple hours before Doctor Who's Comic Con panel. We talk about how the endless Kris Marshall casting rumors may just be coming from Kris Marshall himself at this point. We wonder who Mark Gatiss might be playing in the Christmas special. And then we devote most of the episode to reading an amazing email from listener Sam, who discusses her reactions as a woman of color to the casting of the 13th Doctor and people's reaction to it. As ever, these are complicated issues that are okay to have complicated feelings about, and we try our best to sift through it all. Thanks to Sam and all our amazing listeners for continuing to make our show so much more awesome than it has any right to be!

We just couldn't wait to give our thoughts on today's big announcement. Allison recounts exactly how she found out Jodie Whittaker is the first female Doctor, then she and Alasdair discuss why this is exciting and what this could mean for the future of the show. We got a whole bunch of emails from listeners with their overwhelmingly positive takes, and it guides us through a discussion of what we might expect from the 13th Doctor's stories, costume, companion(s), and more!

Original cohost Caroline Siede joins Alasdair to offer her takes on series 10! She didn't connect with this series as strongly as we did, and we try to tease out why. This is a broad, wide-ranging conversation that looks at what exactly is the current Doctor's arc, how he compares with his new series predecessors, how to think about representation in terms of the 13th Doctor's casting (which we didn't know was imminent when we recorded this episode), and a whole bunch of other things!

That’s right everyone, Caroline is back, as we unlock another premium bonus episode! Alasdair exploited a loophole when she said she was done debating Doctor Who by bringing her in to debate Class instead. We’re mostly agreed on the big takeaways: The cast is great! The show’s approach to diversity and representation is a major strength! My goodness are the Shadow Kin the worst monsters in the entire history of all Doctor Who shows, no seriously they’re bad! While we do spoil some kinda major stuff, this is worth listening to even if you haven’t seen Class yet. After all, just this once, Caroline is back!

We built up a big backlog in our inbox, so it’s high time to sort through them. We wonder whether the first Doctor will want to regenerate any more than the incumbent does in the Christmas special. What could the future hold for Peter Capaldi, assuming he really truly is leaving and this isn’t all a big fakeout? (It isn’t, but it’s quite a thought.) We read an email with some sharp critiques of Steven Moffat’s treatment of women characters, especially companions. All that and more as Alasdair and Allison made a doomed effort to get back to inbox zero.