Doctor Who: Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels

Seek and you shall find not only a woman with antlers but also a flea bitten fellow with no front teeth. And that's just the host. There's a lot to discuss as playwright Dan Rebellato has to choose his favourite thing from this episode - will he go for the obvious, and if so, will that bring your host Toby Hadoke within sniffing distance of victory? The answer can be found by looking to the stars...

The plots thickens and the the scringe stone strikes as renowned playwright Dan Rebellato articulates, most compellingly, what the best things about this rich and complex Doctor Who story are. Finding positives isn't hard, but the task for your host Toby Hadoke is to see if he can anticipate exactly what it is about this story that Dan likes the most. 

Smart, articulate, intelligent ... no, we haven't got a new host, Toby is still blundering through, but...! We do have a terrific guest, playwright Dan Rebellato, whose pedigree is proved by his choice of story, the mighty The Ribos Operation. What do you mean you've never paid it much heed because there aren't really many memorable monsters and not much happens? Dan and Toby will do their very be...

TV script editor Andrew Ellard (The Detectorists, Red Dwarf) has set Toby the task of identifying the best bits of a Doctor Who story with few sets and a tiny cast so there's not exactly an abundance of things to get his teeth into... or is there? The Doctor fights mass murder on an unprecedented scale, meets some silent angels who definitely aren't weeping, and solves a murder mystery with the fe...

Released exactly 56 years after the episode we are watching was broadcast (well, we've put this out 10 minutes earlier in case you want to line it up for a time busting simulcast) this will be a double hit: episode two will be out later tonight. The TARDIS lands a very sad Doctor on a planet where all the tea has gone cold : Dido. Where everyone is as dead as a Dodo. But not Dodo, she's not the co...

Toby Hadoke continues to try to comb through the murk of still pictures and indistinct soundtracks to see if the gloriousness of an acclaimed lost Dalek classic still shines through. It's been an epic, but now we come to the final end! All hell breaks loose on Skaro. Toby and special guest Simon Guerrier have been pretty close with their guesses, so will our host pull off a final victory and work...

Well here is a first, a commentary that was originally so tedious that Toby decided to do it again. Doctor Who has an illustrious history of getting things wrong on the first attempt and trying again, so hopefully it's the right call. He hasn't cheated though, he goes back to his original recording when it comes to seeing if he and special guest Simon Guerrier like the same thing about this episod...

The story goes from being merely good to touching greatness as the Daleks start to behave in a most peculiar fashion - and giving Toby and his special guest Simon Guerrier plenty to wax lyrical about. But will they agree on the episode's best bit? Its rather an amusing little podcast don't you think so Jamie? 

Writer Simon Guerrier chooses one of the least tangible things about this episode of a second Doctor classic, so enjoy yourselves as Toby tries to guess what it is as Jamie fights Kemel, Victoria's hanky launches a million anecdotes, and Patrick Troughton is on holiday and so represented only on film. Film we can't actually see. 

Back to still pictures for the third episode of this lost classic, selected by writer Simon Guerrier. Your host Toby Hadoke has to see if he can work out what it is that Simon likes best about this particular episode of Doctor Who, as always, trying to accentuate the positive and celebrate the best things that it has to offer. 

Doctor Who : Too Much Information, is an episode-by-episode, blow-by-blow, sometimes day-by-day account of the making of every single episode (yes, episode, not story) of Britain's longest running science-fiction show, shedding light on the Who, What and Where of (Doctor) Who. It's monthly for now but will hopefully pick up speed once Toby knows what he's doing. It's a collation of paperwork, inte...

A moment of respite as the pictures start moving again and we see whether all the fuss about The Evil of the Daleks is justified. Special guest, writer Simon Guerrier, seems to think so, but will your host, Toby Hadoke, succumb to the charms of the story as it spirals us back in time to meet the stories Big, bewhiskered Bad. Is there as much here as legend says there its, to take Toby to one of hi...

Our special guest this time around - Big Finish, BBC Books and Doctor Who Magazine writer Simon Guerrier doesn't make it easy. He has chosen the very first missing story to be selected for Happy Times and Places. It's highly regarded though, the epic The Evil of the Daleks, which begins with the Doctor and Jamie marooned in singing 60s London. 

Omnibus edition fo the previously released commentary of The Sontaran Experiment, to save you having to download the individual episodes one at a time. Special Guest - character comedian Tom Burgess.

Doctor Who fans like nothing more than talking about how rubbish Doctor Who is, so comedian Toby Hadoke has decided to buck the trend by doing a podcast which only concentrates on the things he likes about the show. He has to guess what his special guest's favourite things are about a story that they have nominated. And some stories are easier than others...  Presented by - Toby Hadoke Special gue...

Toby Hadoke has set himself a task to try to be upbeat during lockdown - the world is divided, social media is toxic, and pestilence reigns. But hey-ho, it should be easy enough to find something joyous to say about a Doctor Who should it? And so he asked his friend, comedian and illustrator John Cooper, to nominate one for Toby to wax positive about. John chose Time-Flight. Oh.

Comedian and illustrator John Cooper has chosen one of his favourite stories, Time-Flight, for Toby Hadoke to celebrate, partly because your host once told John that it was rubbish. Toby has to eat his words whilst feasting on the return of Adric, an inexplicable disguise, and the happiest pilots in the world - in order to to choose the best things from the universe of Doctor Who. Presented by - T...

Indefinable Magic is a series of whimsical and sometimes certifiably arcane ramblings about some aspect of Doctor Who - sometimes a personal reminiscence; sometimes a jokey thought; and sometimes an unnecessarily obsessive delve: but always done with a lightness of touch and devotion to the subject. This time, it's carrots. Yep, you read that right, the history of carrots in Doctor Who (I direct m...

Happy Times and Places finds comedian Toby Hadoke watching Doctor Who stories nominated by creative friends of his in order to celebrate the best of the long running series, no matter which story it is. So hop on board Concorde and travel from gorgeous film to unforgiving video tape within a split second and see what Toby can find to eulogise about one of Doctor Who's least celebrated stories. Pre...

An omnibus edition of Happy Times and Places with all four episodes of Toby Hadoke's Day of The Daleks commentary strung together for your listening convenience. A bit like the old days of BBC video, so there and no episode endings and there might even be a spelling mistake in the credits.  Presented by Toby Hadoke  Special Guest - Chris Boyle  Featured story - Day of the Daleks 1-4 

Happy Times and Places is a podcast which seeks to identify the positives -  the best things, the most loved aspects, the finest hat - of a Doctor Who story as nominated by a special guest of your host, comedian Toby Hadoke. So get the episode into your disc drive and settle down - but not too far ... because there's something on your back... Presented by Toby Hadoke   Special Guest Johnny Candon...

Happy Times and Places is an attempt to combat Covid with a bit of cheerful Doctor Who love. Comedian and Doctor Who fan Toby Hadoke has asked a friend to nominate a story and to choose their favourite things about it. Toby then has to watch and see if he can guess what it is they love about it, and to choose his own favourite things too.  Presented by - Toby Hadoke  Special Guest - Tom Burgess  T...

Happy Times and Places is an attempt to combat Covid with a bit of cheerful Doctor Who love. Comedian and Doctor Who fan Toby Hadoke has asked a friend to nominate a story and to choose their favourite things about it. Toby then has to watch and see if he can guess what it is they love about it, and to choose his own favourite things too. (Since the initial upload there has been a minor re-edit to...

Doctor Who : Too Much Information, is an episode-by-episode, blow-by-blow, sometimes day-by-day account of the making of every single episode (yes, episode, not story) of Britain's longest running science-fiction show, shedding light on the Who, What and Where of (Doctor) Who. It's monthly for now but will hopefully pick up speed once Toby knows what he's doing. It's a collation of paperwork, inte...

Indefinable Magic is a series of whimsical essays inspired, sometimes very tangentially, by Doctor Who.    Episode 1.1 - Scouring the Shelves   Just finding Doctor Who stuff was hard in the old days: you had to get lucky at the newsagents, or happen upon an exciting new shop whilst on holiday, and you discovered the show piece by piece, often having to commit facts to memory. You had to be very do...