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 hi...

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 perfo...

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 afford...

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...

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 Xeron...

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 Game...

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 w...

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 th...

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 wo...

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 compi...

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 di...

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...

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...

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 ta...

Andy and Alex are still together in Auckland so in a 'High Cockalorum' mood. Will 1983's Frontios prove to be downer? After sharing their new Myers-Briggs types and a story titles quiz that quite frankly stumps them, the pair get into it. They find much to enjoy here, especially Janet's pleather mini and the opening TARDIS scene, but it's not long before gender inequality, script and direction and...

In this first episode of 2023 - Happy New Year! - Andy and Alex are reunited in Auckland, New Zealand and finally sit side-by-side again while watching and podding about Who. They choose a cosy favourite - Elisabeth Sladen’s swansong The Hand of Fear. But will the story live up to the pressure of being the first they’ve watched together since 2019? Alex is quick to question whether Watson should b...

Is it hot in here or are we just in a parallel universe? Andy & Alex uncover sexual metaphor aplenty as they grab Greg’s huge pipe, experience a dodgy flange, and get all angry (and hairy) as they reach Penetration Zero. To say nothing of Benton drilling his troops. Yes, its Inferno, that highly-regarded Season 7 story which warns of the dangers of fracking, patriarchal arrogance, and of smearing...

It's our 50th episode! To celebrate our golden jubilee we have a quick look back through our podcast archives to dig out some of our favourite and silly moments from the past 4 years. Surprise guests include: @hannahbeeblogs, Kieran Hodgson off Two Doors Down, and the Cailleach! Elsewhere, Nightmare of Eden and Invasion of the Dinosaurs are in the Time-Space Visualiser and the quiz focuses on the...

It's hard not to be disappointed by The Armageddon Factor, but Andy and Alex do their very best to find the good in it. While Andy is intrigued by the original script Alex remembers the wonder of convention video rooms. The bottom line though is that if you're counting the number of transmats or finding joy in the squeak of a supporting character then there's something wrong with the story at hand...

Andy & Alex return from their summer break on Florana and join the Doctor and Romana holidaying in Brighton ahead of their visit to The Leisure Hive. Along the way they discuss why the Argolin should wear hats, the blatant scarfography in the story and the embarrassment that was Andy's mid-90s email signature. Elsewhere Andy explains the 'Tachnyonic Creative Moment', which begat Pangol, chiefly to...

Andy and Alex explore what has been called the most missing of Hartnells, The Savages, and find plenty to talk about. Why does Steven perpetually gaslight Dodo and why do Who fans not talk about it? What exactly are the Elders actually extracting from their victims and what is left behind? And, most importantly of all, who would have been a far better candidate to lead the troubled people of this...

Andy and Alex celebrate the very first Doctor Who anniversary special and as usual pose many burning questions: What would Omega wear during lockdown? What is an alternative name for a horse blanket? And Where does Jon Pertwee end and the Third Doctor begin? While Andy notes just how much of the story Terrance of Dicks nicked for The Five Doctors, Alex is thrilled to see black goose neck taps in t...

Andy and Alex stumble on a galax-ident (that's a galaxy accident to the uninitiated) waiting to happen - the William Hartnell tale The Ark. They find much to enjoy in this H G Wells inspired story and it prompts them to discuss racism, slavery and even long-COVID. Along the way they ask ALL the important questions: Why are the Refusians so keen to be colonised? Is miniaturisation fair punishment f...

This month's story prompts Alex to remember what can only be described as 'a day of nicking' back in 1993. And having bravely shoplifted the story she can't help but feel a greater investment in this particular Davison adventure. There is much talk of Liza Goddard (and Lionel Blair), the blond one from Kajagoogoo, and what Nyssa had for breakfast. All in all its so 1983 it hurts. There's 2 tracks...

Andy and Alex find Paradise Towers in a state of disarray. Despite their best intentions to build high for happiness, they are confronted by inconsistent world-building, over-acting, and, worst of all, toxic masculinity. Has anything changed for the pair since their first watch of this early McCoy at the ages of 15 and 9 respectively? Did it prompt Andy to regret the decision he took a few short w...