We're joined by legendary Whovian, jD, as we continue our trip down that temporal road

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We continue our trip down the temporal road that is memory lane in Part 2 of our Who Back When Retrospective.
(If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, what are you waiting for?!)

This time, Drew and Leon were joined by former co-host and perpetual legend, jD, to talk some of the best and worst of 60 years of Doctor Who, share podcast/docpast memories and generally just catch up.

Fret not, while this is the end of Who Back When as we know it, it's not quite the end of Who Back When overall. We will continue to drop ad hoc episodes, starting with reviews of the imminent 60th anniversary specials, and there is plenty of Bonus content in the pipeline.

Thank you again, Podcastland, for being your fabulous selves!

WBW

Join us as we reflect on a ten-year trip down that temporal road

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We set out, a little over a decade ago, to review all of TV Doctor Who, and now that we've finally accomplished that mission, we figured it was time for a slightly different and more introspective kind of Bonus Retrospective.

This is Part 1, in which Marie, Jim, Drew and Leon sit down to commemorate this momentous occasion and discuss how the show changed over the course of ten years (and how we changed along with it); some of the highs and even lows; how on Earth we all got started on this podcast in the first place; and of course what a joy it's been to befriend Podcastland along the way.

Part 2 will be recorded later this week and feature a slightly different cast, so stay tuned for that.

Thank you, All, for lending us your ears and for travelling down that temporal road with us.

WBW

A deep-dive into the successes (and failures) of a Doctor, a show runner and an era of Doctor Who.

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If you haven't already, then listen to our reviews of the 31 13th Doctor episodes!

Jodie Whittaker's and Chris Chibnall's Thirteenth Doctor Era came to an end on TV just a year before we wrapped it up on Who Back When. We've reviewed every single Thirteenth Doctor episode — some of them twice! — and as we are wont to do, we are taking a step back and reflecting on what we've just experienced.

It was, in so many ways, a game changer: we finally had our first-ever female Doctor; it became an altogether more cinematic production; and Doc's backstory was rewritten, for better or worse. For only the second time in Doctor Who history we even got a single-arc, standalone-story season in Flux (the first time since Trial of a Time Lord)!

Ipso facto, there was a lot to unpack here. In this bonus episode, we obviously touch upon the standard categories of our Doctor Retros (companions, villains, best/worst episodes...), but more than that we reflect on a Doctor and show runner who tried to do things a little differently, dissect what worked and what didn't, and look ahead at what their legacy will mean for future incarnations. You won't want to miss this one, Podcastland!

It's the end of an era as Doc is joined by old friends and selves to save the world one last time before she regenerates

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Kablammo! We’re aboard a spacetime express train and Doc and what remains of the Fam fail to rescue yet another unique, near-mythical, never-seen-before creature we’ll never revisit, substantiate or learn more about. Boom! Rasputin is The Master. Why? Never you mind. Explosion! Famous paintings are being vandalised and seismologists disappearing. Shut up, there’s no time.

Shazam! Cybers have invaded UNIT. But it’s OK because Ace and Tegan are there. Can Tegan act yet? Nope, be quiet. The Master’s calling in to exposit for the third time! Laser sound effect! That snarly Cyber-dude Ashad is back! Pew pew! Master is now Doc, four Docs are now AI! You’d best believe the music says it’s exciting! And if you think this writing was lazy, you should see the episode.

This is the second time we've dissected Jodie Whittaker's and Chris Chibnall's farewell episode on Who Back When. You should definitely check out B085 The Power of The Doctor — Instant(ish) Reaction Review!

Two wildly different milestone stories, neither canonical, one rather pants, the other quite amazing. All right, here we go!

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We sit down to discuss two bits of Whovian lore that coincided with milestone anniversaries. Dimensions in Time, about which truthfully there isn't much to say, and Scream of the Shalka which Stars Withnail and Claudius and is pretty terrific.

Dimensions in Time (30th Anniversary)

The Rani has kidnapped one specimen of every species in the universe, except for the Time Lords, of whom she has two disembodied Doctor heads, and plans to clone those specimens and fashion a time tunnel along the Greenwich meridian, and thereby trap The Doctor in a so-called "20 year loop" that doesn't quite loop so much as have every living Doctor and companion play swapsies on the set of EastEnders while all the aliens in the BBC wardrobe department make an appearance as the Rani's army of ineffectual baddies that threaten but never attack The Doctors because why would they, The Rani has a laser cannon, and do we ever find out what happens to the disembodied heads or Leela's clone, no, ok then, never mind.

Scream of the Shalka (40th Anniversary)

Shaggy and Logan-5-in-a-suit stumble upon a fresh meteorite, out of which springs a Shalka, a bio-plasmic, lava-based creature intent on subjugating enough of mankind in order to use them to crank up climate change to the max, end the World, and thereby make it comfortably habitable for itself. But a brand new one-of-a-kind Ninth Doctor (no, not that one) has just been summoned to Earth by the Time Lords to deal with the situation. He's grumpy and sardonic, sarcastic, witty and debonair. He's ostensibly a sober, twin-hearted, regenerating Withnail, although he's working on remedying that pesky sobriety, and you'll not want to miss him, Podcastland!

We’re thrilled to learn that Doc herself listens to Doctor Who podcasts!

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Abby McPhail, Cleo Proctor, and Shawna Thompson with excellent discernment have embarked upon that most noble of endeavours: a Doctor Who podcast, or increasingly Docpast, as Abby’s carefully curated collection of files on the Doctor begins first to corrupt and then to disappear.

These aren’t the only lacunae opening in the Whoniverse, however; Graham and Ryan also go missing, somehow even more missing than when they’re secretly in Finland, Korea, Patagonia, or a volcano. Could Rani Chandra be right, that the Doctor’s killing her past associates?

Join us for an evening of discussing, debating and flat-out fawning over the utterly sensational Eighth Doctor

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The Eighth Doctor may only have had one movie, but he has undeniably carved out a niche in the time vortex all his own with myriad audio adventures, the odd appearance in NewWho (The Night of The Doctor, The Power of The Doctor), even popping up in The Five(ish) Doctor Reboot, and of course in in every Whovian's heart.

Tune in, as Leon is joined by extra-special guest, Peter Zunitch — The Zunemeister himself! — for a super nerdy and rather boozy soirée of dissecting The Eighth Doctor's continuing era.

Doctor Who regenerates into a one-off on the little big screen and heads across the pond in our very last Classic Who review

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Seven has dispensed with his companions to catch up on some light time travel-themed reading at Home Alone, but little does he know that a Phantom Menace is lurking in his old frenemy The Master’s funeral casket holding a Secret of the Ooze.

Forced to make an emergency landing in San Francisco in 1999, with consummate English naiveté Doc steps through the door without a Bodyguard into the middle of a Chinatown gangland turf war and, Twister, is instantly felled by a hail of Good Ol' American bullets.

Doctor can Dolittle as he’s taken to Hospital where Pretty Woman Grace Holloway, utterly Clueless as to his anatomy, tries to Patch Adams him back up but it’s A Time to Kill, a Mission: Impossible to save him, and sadly he expires in the process.

A new McGanning is upon him, however, and his Sixth Sense tells him the Master, dressed as a Man in Black, is spreading True Lies and plotting Armageddon. With the Eye of Harmony wide open Earth may never see Daylight and Doc and Grace with The Remains of the Day must ensure Tomorrow Never Dies before The Master makes him Die Hard 2: Die Harder.

Countless plot holes, and two wasted historicals land this not-so-Special somewhere in the bottom-two of the Whittaker era

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It was a dark and stormy night in the middle of the day on the road to Mandalay, when Shih Yang rocked up beachside with a writ for mayhem and unleashed an ancient ocean demon, all because keeper of the secret order’s secret secret Ying Wai had a chip off the old blockhead son who didn’t want to fight until he got his dad killed, and then wanted nothing else if it meant he could take revenge on the woman who didn’t do it.

Into this gallimaufry of gibberish stumble Team TARDIS, finally landing on a beach the one time in the Doctor’s history they weren’t aiming for one. Long John Bishop gets hooked into comic sidekicking, while Yaz and Doc must match wits with a Meg-mastering Sea Devil who wants to swirl the stars and flood the Earth. Speaking of seeing stars, changing the pressure and getting super-wet BSCOW over…

Having reviewed all the the Classic TV serials, we sit down with cocktails and a guest expert for a look back on the tragically brief Seeeeventh Doctor Era.

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Sylvester McCoy’s Seventh Doctor only appeared in 12 Classic Doctor Who serials, but boy oh boy did he leave an indelible mark on the show.

Having now reviewed this fabulous dozen, we are joined by perhaps the foremost expert in this particular flavour of Timelord, Michael Ridgway (@bad_movie_club), to debate, rate and/or berate the stories, companions, aliens and baddies.

Which aspects of this era stood out to us? In what ways did the Seventh Doctor differ from his predecessors and how does he compare to his successors? Listen to this bonus chat pronto to find out!