Doctor Who: the World Enough and Time podcast

This month Andy and Alex review the nostalgia-fest that is the classic Pertwee tale The Daemons. Andy has prepared a devilishly difficult Daemons-themed quiz and some highly-relevant info on satanist Aleister Crowley, while Alex has Quatermass in mind and her time as a young Maypole-dancer at Alnwick Fair. The patriarchy rears its ugly head and the Brigadier apparently plays fast and loose with his knickers, but more importantly it is definitively established whether this story is pronounced Day-mons or Dee-mons!

All this and the usual pop culture bites: Treasure Hunt with Anneka Rice, Topic and Boost chocolate bars, Meloids, and Lucky Ladders with Lennie Bennett.

Now don't you go believing that Farage chap that he can give you whatever you need just because he doesn't have a pet gargoyle!

Next Time: The Underwater Menace

After reviewing a few disappointing stories, Andy and Alex are back on firmer ground with an adventure which Alex describes as part of the fabric of her childhood: Terror of the Zygons! While Andy draws links with Robert Banks Stewart's 60s spy thriller Undermind, Alex battles with ChatGPT which hallucinates more than a hippy at Woodstock.

They find much to praise here including: Tom Baker's performance, the Zygon spaceship, The Fox Inn's Angus MacRanald, and Sarah's hair-length, but they have lots of questions too: Do the Zygons milk the Skarasen?; Why are they actually destroying the oil rigs? And how does one spell Tulloch Moor?

Along the way they also wonder if the Logopolitans saved the universe by watching MAFS, whether it was the small yellow Minions who found the P7E, and if Maren was Ohica's mother.

All this and ragrolling too. What more could you ask for?

Next Time: The Daemons

Hoist your moonrakers and splice the mainbrace! It's Enlightenment. Now, Andy and Alex love the bones of Doctor Who, really they do, but Enlightenment sorely tests them. The things they struggle with are many and varied: the pantomime nature of its villains; the lack of conviction of most of the actors; the Doctor's constant bullying and gaslighting of Tegan; the bizarre amount of attention afforded to tiny unimportant details; Marriner being rapey; Striker being deliberately boring; the dullness of the race. The list is pretty endless...

But, fear not, as ever, the opportunity to talk about Doctor Who brings the pair much joy and laughter. Listen along as they: rail against a ChatGPT Tegan-themed quiz that believes her exit line is linked to the Falklands War; debate if Nigel Havers was 'never out of a naval uniform'; fail to remember Roy's surname in Eastenders; and discuss how one always 'sleep dead uncomfortable in a fake bed.'

Finally, don't fall for the revival of the bamboo furniture craze and, if you were still in any doubt, the Vacuum Shield is most definitely OFF.

Next Time: Terror of the Zygons

Andy and Alex are finally back reviewing classic Doctor Who. They love Who so much but the Troughton tale The Wheel in Space certainly tests their patience with its convoluted plot, questionable ethnic characters and pacing. However, they still find a lot to enjoy here and, as ever laugh a great deal about topics as diverse as ping pong, unbridled fury at Kit Pedler, Jamie's overreaction to fruit salad, and the fiendish nature of Nigel Robinson's quiz books.

Yes it's an all new series of World Enough and Time: the classic Doctor Who podcast that unites Andy and Alex despite the world that exists between them!

Next Time: Enlightenment

Photo colourisation: the wondrous Clayton Hickman

Andy and Alex are in tangential mood as they enter The Space Museum and end up discussing everything between Leek Shows, pop socks, the name Sue, the former Chairman of Tyne Tees Television and Elnett hairspray.

Alex suspects South African apartheid overtones and is excited to discover that the writer Glyn Jones is from Durban as it fits her white supremacists Moroks versus the black-clothed Xerons reading. Elsewhere she gives some much needed marketing advice to the Moroks while Andy is disappointed that the Xeron base is not a cool laid-back Beatnik Cafe.

All this, Lananeeneenoonoo, Miss Flood and more.

Are you teaming today? Its the new thing!

We love you - Andy & Alex xxx

Artwork by Will Brooks

Next Time: Robot

This episode sees Andy make a hugely nostalgic trip back to 1983 and his memories of the events that surrounded the first broadcast of this anniversary special.

Elsewhere Alex professes her love for the gold transmat device and learns all about the UNIT dating and Series 6b controversies, while Andy reveals his long-term confusion over the relationship between the Game of Rassilon and The War Games.

The pair also ask and attempt to answer many big questions:

- Why is Tegan so skilled at fruit platters?

- What is the application of pi to the chessboard floor?

- Who built the TimeScoop?

- Why is the 1st Doctor so disinterested in the Master?

- And couldn't Borusa have just transmatted to the Dark Tower and swiped the ring in the first place?

There's also a quiz and much more besides. Enjoy!

Next Time: The Space Museum

This month Andy and Alex tackle the former's 'birth story' The Sea Devils. As usual, the pair find much to enjoy here but have lots of questions too...

How can one take a motorbike or walk ten miles over open country between an island and the mainland?

What are the ingredients of kai?

Is is easy to drive a hovercraft without any training?

and

What is in Jo's aubergine handbag?

They both struggle with Pertwee at his most pompous, and how here the Doctor is not so very different from the stories other privileged establishment white male characters: Trenchard and Walker. They are also disappointed that more is not made of the obvious parallels with colonialism and the eradication of indigenous people. However, they both 'love a Sea Devil' and appreciate Jo when she gets the chance to be intrepid, even if her cream outfit must have been a nightmare for the continuity people.

All this and 'sexing a Sea Devil', capes to wear 'about town', and a detailed analysis of 'Sandwich-Gate'.

The episode is peppered with reflections from director Michael E. Briant whose autobiography Andy edited and published back in the day and is still available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Who-Michael-Briant-Memoir-Director/dp/0956100066/

Next Time: The Five Doctors

As Alex and Andy hit 60 episodes they review possibly one of the most bonkers stories in Doctor Who history! The TARDIS is stolen by Leatherman, the Daleks are selling antique victoriana in the 1960s, people keep getting knocked out for no reason and the Daleks are playing trains and making the Doctor dizzy. Yes its Evil of the Daleks!

The pair are still at Athelhampton House as they talk about the Daleks denying Victoria her Disney princess moment, problematic Kemel, the incredibly convoluted Dalek-plot to trap the Doctor, and the most unnecessary characters in all of Doctor Who: Arthur Terrall and Ruth Maxtible.

Do not feed the flying pests!

Next Time: The Sea Devils

No touch pod! Andy & Alex are actually on location at Athelhampton House - Harrison Chase's mansion - for this their review of the Tom Baker classic The Seeds of Doom. Specifically this episode of the podcast was recorded at River Cottage, THE 'cottage under siege' where Keeler also transformed into a Krynoid.

They find much to enjoy here including the Doctor's anti-establishment behaviour, his wonderful relationship with Sarah - a Doctor and companion team at the very height of their powers, and a wondrous supporting cast including, of course, Tony Beckley, John Challis and Sylvia Coleridge.

Along the way they question whether Harrison Chase hates plant-eaters more than meat-eaters, whether its inimical or inimicable (it's both if you look at the script), and whether Chase actually has sexual communion with the big Krynoid?

Although like the Doctor they do so hate guided tours, they finish the episode ahead of a private guided tour of Athelhampton sadly without any Floriana requiem.

Next Time: Evil of the Daleks

In this month's episode Andy & Alex stick with the 3rd Doctor era and review another story that they know incredibly well due to its early release on VHS: Terry Nation's Death to the Daleks.

As well as highlighting their favourite moments, they consider how they felt about the story back in the late Eighties compared to now. As usual they also find themselves asking a lot of questions:

- Who compiles the 700 Wonders of the Universe?

- Why does Julian Fox (Hamilton) have such huge eyebags?

- How would you go about synthesising parrinium?

- Does 10 million people really constitute a galaxy-wide plague (its only the population of Sweden!)?

- and What did Michael E. Briant do immediately after recording the BBC DVD audio commentary for this story?

Alex also contemplates writing a spin-off called 'Space Chums!' and worries if World Enough and Time has gone a bit South Bank Show, while Andy argues that this story is a template for Hinchcliffe Who and foxes Alex with a quiz called UNIT or UNOT.

Along the way they also re-examine the relationship between the 3rd Doctor and Sarah, have a Bellal love-in, and contemplate how prescient the story is to due to its out-of-control AI city.

All this and sitting on Cy Town's lap too!

We love you!

Andy & Alex xxx

Next Time: The Seeds of Doom