Debating Doctor Who

We're a simple podcast, folks: If Big Finish announces that Christopher Eccleston is coming back to record a bunch of new audios as the Ninth Doctor, we're dropping everything several hours later to record an emergency podcast. We talk about our general, off-the-charts levels of excitement, wonder a little bit about what the stories might be like, and just generally praise Christopher Eccleston both as an actor and as a person.

We finish our look at the companions of the Chibnall era with a look at a pair of episodes that show some unexpected sides to our friend Graham. The use of "our friend" there lets you know we're not hiding our biases that as Graham fans, but we see him tested in consecutive episodes to finish off series 11: "It Takes You Away" and "The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos." We loved the former and had little use for the latter the first time we talked about them, but how have things changed? And is there an actual, honest-to-goodness character arc to pull out of all this? Listen to find out, then join us next time for a look at also our friend -- seriously, Pearl Mackie sent Alasdair a birthday message and everything -- Bill Potts, with "Thin Ice" and "The Lie Of The Land." (Yep, Alasdair chose the second one. Yep, still trolling.)

We're going to level with you, friends: "Resolution" is the best Ryan episode. If you want to hear about what an episode that does right by Ryan looks like, go back and give that one a listen. But do check this out too, as we take a look at two series 11 episodes that feature Ryan prominently: "The Woman Who Fell To Earth" and "Rosa." For the first, we reflect on just how galling it is that the show sacrificed Grace for the sake of other characters' development, and then for "Rosa" we wrestle with the fact that a lot of this episode doesn't stand up that well to a repeat viewing, especially in light of recent events. We also spend some time on why it's important to own it when we're wrong, drop some quick thoughts on "The Tsuranga Conundrum" and "Orphan 55" -- those two episodes we all love to remember -- and struggle through a mountain of technical difficulties, none of which should make this less fun to listen to, thankfully, just more time-consuming to edit.

We kick off a new recurring feature in which we devote an episode to a particular companion and what stories are their best. After some preliminary discussion of what, technically, even is a companion, we get to the main topic of discussion this week, namely Yaz. That's right, we started with about as tricky a companion as we could, given how unevenly she's been developed. Also given the fact that she's, well, a cop, which is a creative decision that wasn't great at the time it was first made and looks even worse in the context of the past couple months. We address all that, and we also look at stories that put a spotlight on her, including the still baffling "Can You Hear Me?" and the low-key really good "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror." But the main attraction here is "Demons of the Punjab," which at least one co-host is prepared to declare the best of the Chibnall era.

We kinda felt like the world didn't especially need two nerds rambling about Doctor Who the past few weeks, but now, well, the world still probably doesn't need it, but we missed doing this too much to stay away forever. Alasdair tells Allison about the latest Big Finish New Series stuff, which eventually segues into us discussing various British public figures -- J.K. Rowling chief among them -- revealing themselves as transphobes. We tried to keep it light, but 2020 isn't doing us any favors. Also, fair warning: We swear a decent amount in discussing said transphobes. Nothing too bad, but if you or any younger listeners you know would rather not hear people being called pieces of [redacted] several times, or just generally stick with lighter topics, might want to skip ahead from about 38:00 to 53:00.

We finally did it! We've talked about every new series Doctor Who episode! After a couple cameos (or maybe that's Cameos) to open the episode, Alasdair and Allison discuss the 13th Doctor's New Year's Day clash with a lone Dalek. We felt deeply meh about this episode when it first aired back in 2019, but coming back to it now? Dang, we actually kind of love it. We discuss how this might be the best story Chris Chibnall has written during his tenure as showrunner, and how it feels different from really anything in either series 11 or series 12. We were so pleasantly surprised by this one, folks. Better late than never, we guess.

We're back for another live show, and we might even have a surprise visit from the podcast's best friend. Which is to say, we totally do! The Captain Jack of the podcast is on hand, in the form of the great Kate Kulzick. She pops by for a spell to help discuss how the different showrunners approach the lives of the companions, and why one thing the Chibnall era has going for it is how real the companions' situations feel relative to, well, definitely the Moffat era companions. But what of the RTD companions? Then Allison and Alasdair discuss whether the Master could, in fact, be the Timeless Child, which leads to one hell of a lore dump about the Master. Then Alasdair cracks a listener riddle, and we offer a whole bunch of recommendations of other shows and movies featuring Doctors, companions, and more!

That's right, we're doing another live show! It's 1 p.m. Eastern this Saturday, May 9, and it will be at https://www.crowdcast.io/e/ddw-liveshow. We hope you'll come join us for it! After sharing those details, Alasdair does some more solo riffing about something that's been on their mind recently, which is performances by actors who played the Doctor that show hints of the Time Lord to come. There are some general thoughts about David Tennant's work on Blackpool and Casanova, the time Rufus Hound kinda sorta spoiled Peter Capaldi's casting as the Doctor, and where one might look for hints of the War Doctor in John Hurt's legendary filmography. More to come on this, probably!

Announcement! We have a live show this Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern! We hope you'll come join us! As for what we have this week, yep, we *finally* got round to this episode. Only took us three and a half years! But first, we read a little excerpt from Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat interviewing each other in Doctor Who Magazine, and pay a little tribute to Davies's brilliance in reimagining the show back in 2005. Then, we launch into our discussion of the 12th Doctor's penultimate Christmas special. We generally like this one a lot, though we do look at some pretty basic ways the story doesn't do right by its sole female character, which, yeah, that sounds familiar. Beyond that, we find a lot to praise, especially in the plotting and the performances and the general warm feelings it elicits. You'll be shocked--shocked!--to hear we say a lot of really nice things about Peter Capaldi. Some things never change...

No two ways about it: This is one of our loosest, silliest episodes in a while. We start out with some vaguely structured discussion of some Doctor Who current events, but pretty soon we go into an extended discussion of David Tennant's work on DuckTales, and more specifically his work with the rest of the cast in singing the DuckTales theme song. (Look it up on YouTube if you haven't seen it, it's a real delight.) We talk about David Tennant for long enough in this one I'm declaring this an impromptu appreciation week for him, even if we don't actually have much to say about the 10th Doctor in all this! We also take an old but excellent email about watching the show with a child, which leads to us sharing the very specific nightmare fuel of our youth, among other things. Also! Next week, it's finally happening: We're talking "The Return Of Doctor Mysterio"!