Doctor Who: the World Enough and Time podcast

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

We've been on a bit more than a summer break, but we're back and its about (World Enough and) Time...

This month we go back to our roots and the very first story we covered on the podcast way back in 2017: Spearhead from Space. We archived that episode as the sound quality was terrible, but also because we didn't really do this seminal Pertwee classic justice.

This time around its a proper deep dive as we talk about stuff we've not thought about before, despite knowing this story inside out:

- The geography of the story: where is Oxley Woods in relation to Ashbridge Cottage Hospital and indeed AutoPlastics? And are any of those near Epping?

- How automated is the Plastics Factory and why is Ransome's doll so special?

- Is the 'Doctors Only' sign sexist?

- Is this the worst ever exhibition at Madame Tussauds?

- Does the Doctor drop calling Liz Doctor as a power move?

- And our own twist on 'Gay or European?': 'Auton or sweaty?'

All this, Louise Jameson, an argument about better stories than Spearhead, and a Companions quiz. What else could you possibly need?

We love you (and we're very glad to be back)!

Andy & Alex xxx

Next Time: Death to the Daleks

It’s a far worse thing we do now than we have ever done on the podcast… yes, that’s right, we’re going to review The Ultimate Foe. Revisionist agendas and the recent release of the season on Blu-Ray has done little to persuade Andy & Alex of the value of this pantomime-esque runaround which receives their lowest score yet.

Andy is incandescent with rage at the Inquisitor who he argues is the most insane person in the history of the series, while Alex’s fury is reserved for the script by good ol’ Pip n’ Jane.

Treasure chests of plastic gold, legs waving in the air, megabyte modems, things that are declared to be real and not real at whim, lots of sitting down. All this and the catharsis of spurious morality makes Roland Rat: The Series (which immediately preceded it on BBC1 broadcast) look like high art.

Enter the Fantasy Factory at your peril!

Next Time: (after a summer break) Spearhead from Space.

It’s time to go back to the heady days of 1982 when Cybermen were cool, death was shocking and the Fifth Doctor was serving as a proxy father to three children. Yes it’s Eric Saward’s game-changing blockbuster Earthshock. There’s no denying that it blew Andy away as a kid but how does he feel about it now? And what does Alex make of this ‘Davison classic’?

As usual, many questions abound: ‘Are all of Barbara’s clothes still in the TARDIS?’; ‘Why do some death screams sound like choir practice?’; And most importantly ‘Is Beryl Reid good casting as Briggs?’.

All this and much more… Andy recounts going to the funeral of ‘Anne Funeral’ where he met an Earthshock trooper; Alex makes the joyful discovery that she is wearing ‘thermal lance’ coloured toe-nail polish; and the pair both share their knowledge of conference room stationery and chair dresses. It’s quite a ride!

In respectful homage to Adric we don’t play any end credit music. It’s not a glitch.

Next Time: The Ultimate Foe

[Artwork: Alister Pearson]

Hellooooooo! (as an Earth high minister might say to the survivors of an apocalypse). This month Andy & Alex are sat back on tranquiller couches taking condign action as they marvel at the glory that is The Ark in Space. As well as uncovering information that is new to them, such as the fact that Vira was originally meant to be a POC and Nerva's menfolk were intended to be in short shorts, they take a nostalgic sojourn through moments from a story they have known and loved for the past 30 plus years.

Andy traces his 90's chauvinism to the phrase 'Good girl Sarah!', while Alex just loves Harry's talk of 'Pompey barracks'. As she sagely declares: 'Every line is part of who we've become.'

Other topics of discussion include both Vira's trolley and her medkit, the colour flashes on the Nerva trousersuits, Wirrn pubes, that infamous missing scene, and the perfect storm that is this TARDIS team.

Elsewhere, Lou is decoupaging everything in sight, the quiz involves working titles, Alex is watching Bones, and Andy wants 3 hours of his life back for watching half of The Rig.

No. Do not move. It is dangerous to move from the tranquiller couch.

Next Time: Earthshock