Tread Perilously

Tread Perilously concludes its current tour of Doctor Who with its first Peter Capaldi era story, "Dark Water/Death in Heaven."

When Clara's boyfriend gets owned by a bus, Clara threatens to destroy all the keys to the TARDIS unless The Doctor agrees to save him. The Doctor decides to help her out anyway and they make their way to 3W, a strange mortuary service led by the equally odd Missy. But the whole thing turns out to be the work of the Master as she implements Plan 9 from Outer Space. And as Cybermen begin to cover the Earth in a storm of Cyber-pollen, Clara and her dead boyfriend argue.

Fanbase Press' Drew Siragusa joins Erik and Justin as Justin finally meets the Cybermen! The group discusses the Master at length while Erik recalls the days of Mondas. They also find the Doctor's casual negging of Clara appearance really off-putting. Justin considers the possibility of Augustus Gloop running the Chocolate Factory and "Death in Heaven" never stops ending.

Steven Moffatt ends up an unpopular fellow in this one.

Answering listener requests, Tread Perilously takes a look at "The Beast Below," the second Doctor Who episode to feature Matt Smith in the title role ... and it turns out to be a pretty good one.

The Doctor and Amy land on Starship UK, where children and adults alike fear the omnipresent Smilers. But no one knows their true purpose, not even Queen Elizabeth X. As Amy digs deeper into the problem, she finds a message from herself telling her to get the Doctor off the ship. And when the Doctor determines what really powers Starship UK, he is faced with nothing but terrible choices.

Erik and Justin end up liking the episode a great deal and end up wondering why more than one listener suggested it. They also identify the obvious influence of Douglas Adams on the story and the visual cues lifted from Bioshock. Erik takes the opportunity to decry nationalism and the tendency of American schools to de-emphasize World War I. Justin decides the episode might be one of the best he's seen so far.

Tread Perilously makes it way to another David Tennant era Doctor Who story. Unfortunately, it's "Love & Monsters," the other Doctor-Lite episode from 2006.

When a group of people who have all had run-ins with the Doctor form a group to find him, they quickly get distracted as they all become friends. But their small band, LINDA, has attracted the attention of a Mr. Kennedy. He refocuses them on locating the Time Lord and one of their group manages to befriend Jackie Tyler. Then it goes a bit pear-shaped with the appearance of the Abzorbaloff.

Erik and Justin get lost trying to describe the episode and end up discussing Neil Gaiman, Stephen King and a number of other topics, but manage to discuss the episode's odd structure, curious change in tone and the origin of the Abzorbaloff. Though Erik completely fails to describe Blue Peter correctly. He also shares his memories of Manchester pizza and the great Chinese restaurant that opened near his place in 2004.

Tread Perilously returns to the modern era of Doctor Who with the Christopher Eccelston story "Boom Town" and find a member of the family Slitheen waiting for them.

As the TARDIS makes a stop-off to refuel in Cardiff, Mickey comes to visit Rose and feel inadequate in the presence of Captain Jack Harkness. But the frivolity is dampened when the Doctor discovers Margaret, the lone Slitheen to escape destruction in London, is now the Lord Mayor. The group apprehend her and plan to take her to Raxacoricofallapatorius to face her sentence. With the engines still recharging, the group spend a long night facing certain truths.

Except for Captain Jack. He's too busy connecting the TARDIS to a surf board.

Justin tried to overcome his hatred of Billie Piper and fails. Erik finds he can almost pronounce Raxacoricofallapatorius without a lot of effort. The pair discuss Eccelston's progress as the Doctor from the lows of "Aliens of London" and the damn shame that he didn't stay on another year. Justin suggests he needed a different companion. The pair also go on tangents about Ant-Man, Sam Wilson's suitability as Captain America's boyfriend and the entitlement of Kylo Ren. Erik also recalls the time John Barrowman wouldn't stop touching him.

Erik and Justin's Doctor Who excursion brings them to 1988 and "The Happiness Patrol," a Sylvester McCoy episode featuring the infamous Kandy Man.

The Doctor and Ace land on Terra Alpha, an Earth colony in the grip of the Thatcher-esque Helen A. With her Happiness Patrol, she intends to enforce cheer and happiness across the planet. She also seems to be in the sugar business, but that part of the story is less precise. When the Doctor decides to get involved, he is sent to the Kandy Kitchen, where he confronts a being that is part robot and part marzipan.

Justin discovers he likes the Kandy Man and wishes the story was more about him while Erik tries to wrap himself around the story's odd editing choices and the correct pronunciation of director Chris Clough's name. Will this story end up Justin's favorite of the John Nathan-Turner era?

Tread Perilously returns to the Colin Baker era with "The Twin Dilemma."

The Doctor's recent regeneration seems to be failing and he decides to meditate in a cave on Titan III. But at the same time, his old mentor Azmael is also using Titan III for a different purpose. An evil purpose. He's kidnapped a pair of genius twins to aid in the master plan of Mestor, a giant gastropod with designs on the galaxy.

Erik and Justin try their best not to blame producer John Nathan-Turner for the excesses in the story, C. Baker's performance and the Sixth Doctor's clothes. Erik theorizes why some Timelords take on titles and other just use their names. Justin ranks Peri on the newly dubbed "Padbury Scale" and finds he likes the production design. Erik tries to explain his like for the Sixth Doctor while the character's first meeting with Peri inspires a visit from Sean Connery.

Erik and Justin return to Doctor Who with the Peter Davison era episode "Snakedance" and wonder how the show survived with John Nathan-Turner in the producer's chair.

When the TARDIS arrives on Manussa, Tegan dreams of the Mara. Meanwhile a bored Joffrey Baratheon type gets ready for the local festival of the snake. When the Doctor analyzes the situation, he realizes the Mara survived their last encounter in Tegan's dreams and will use the snake festival to regenerate itself and rule the Manussan corner of the galaxy. Or something. There are caves. There are crystals. There is also a mystery man in the desert.

Justin and Erik find themselves critiquing the fashion choices of Davison's second season as both Tegan and Nyssa get new outfits. One is definitely more hideous than the other. Erik recalls the commercials for the 1980s Southern California electronics chain The Federated Group. Justin reconsiders his ranking of Davison and compares him to non-flavored ice milk.

Tread Perilously opens the case files of the Special Review Unit to take a look at the "Rescue," a twelfth season episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in which Olivia Benson once again destroys a life. What begins as a case of revenge, leaked files and handsy paramedics turns into a personal situation for Benson as the mother of her foster-son returns. And while she might be something of a trainwreck, she is the boy's mother, something Benson expressly is not.

But it all works out as Benson adopts an infant a few seasons later.

Erik, Justin and special guest Louis Allred discuss the problems of the more character-focused SVU episodes, their preference for more episodic and insane episodes and actress Mariska Hargitay's ultimate victory over producer Dick Wolf. They also touch on what happens when a long-running network drama has to pivot and what SVU looks like in season 17.

Tread Perilously returns to Starfleet with a look at the infamous Star Trek: Voyager episode "Threshold." Scumbag Tom Paris crosses the Warp 10 threshold and returns as a rapidly evolving lifeform who decides the infinite warp state needs women. But not before he grouses about his upbringing and his hope to leave a mark on the galaxy.

Then he mates with Captain Janeway while they're both super-evolved salamanders.

Erik reveals a long forgotten hatred of Tom Paris while Justin revels in the lunacy of the episode. It leads to a discussion about how much Star Trek needs serialization, Erik's tendency to crack jokes about Worf and Justin's recent look at the Original Series. They also suggest an alternate version of Voyager and their hopes for the 2017 series. And they promise to take a look at Enterprise.

Tread Perilously makes a trip to 1980s Los Angeles as Erik

You can see the flaw in his plan.

Justin and Erik discuss the strange format of 80s cop shows,