Doctor Who: Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels

End of an era folks. William Hartnell takes his final bow, but before he shuffles off he gets time to make an entrance and say a few legendary lines (some of them kindly preserved by a canny camera-wielder Down Under). There are so many landmarks in this story, welcome guest Martin Holmes is spoilt for choice - will you, and indeed your host - be in sync with Martin, or will the whole thing overlo...

The Doctor falls over so for one week only it's Dr Barclay and his plucky assistants Ben and Polly who have to try to stop besieged base commander General Cutler from mucking everything up because his son has decided to go into space. What will podcaster Martin Holmes home in on as his favourite thing of this, the last live action Hartnell episode we have (even though Hartnell isn't in it). #docto...

It's delightful how many listeners have said how conforting they find this story - and episode two is definitely comfiort viewing for the sci-fi aficionado. The introduction of a classic monster, pretty much the last hurrah of a Classic Doctor and much to recommend it in terms of action, design and production. Whatever will guest Martin Holmes choose as the episode's best biot though? Will you agr...

Well, as winter gets its icy grip around us it seems appropriate to negotiate the showy wastes of the South Pole for a story that is a landmark in so many ways. Guest Martin Holmes is a podcast veteran who knows his classic TV, but what does he love about this story that has all sorts to recommend it, and yet has slipped in popularity somewhat since the early days of fandom? #doctorwho #doctorwhor...

Returning guest Steve Hatcher takes us on a trip to the Red Planet with some old favourites - but will his favourite things be easy to guess (he thinks they are) or will a certain someone make a mess of things and end up seeing Red...?   #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho  Please support these podcasts on Patreon, wh...

And so things come to an end on Traken. Or do they? Do they, in fact, come to a cadence? Ask our illustrious guest Dr Tom as he is full of observations like that in what has been a very rewarding trip to a planet which revels in its own theatricality. When the final curtain is taken, will host and guest be in sync?   #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke...

Blow winds and crack your cheeks! Or come on baby light my fire? The elements cause a keefuffle in this instalment of The Keeper of Traken, and something gets right up the Doctor's nose. And there's a real debate about what should be chosen as your host's highlight. Will he choose the right thing, or will he make a choice that will lead to the destruction of the whole planet?   #doctorwho #doctorw...

Dr Tom (Attah) casts an eye on Dr Tom (Baker) as events of Traken take a chilling turn. Will Tom and Toby find themselves in rapport? But never mind Tom A, Tom B actually has more rapport wioth Matthew W than history tells us... #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho #classicdoctorwho Please support these podcasts on Pat...

All round good and smart guy Dr Tom Attah casts an adoring eye over The Keeper of Traken in this podcast which goes about its day simply by featuring people being terribly nice about Doctor Who stories. But what is the aspect of this story that Dr Tom will be especially terribly nice about? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positived...

To tie in with the Happy Times and Places release of The Woman Who Lived here is an interview with Gareth Berliner, who plays the coachman in the opening scene. Gareth and Toby go back a long way, so it's a lovely old chat. Since this was recorded, Gareth's wife has ALSO been in Doctor Who (she's in The Interstellar Song Contest): so it's a family affair. #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhoco...

Your host got up close and personal with this episode, and he's up close and personal with someone in it as well. Does this insight mean that he'll have any advantage over guest, Joel Aarons? Listeners will have to bear with this episode as alas it is slightly glitchy, with the odd skipped syllable or two due to a wrtehced cable. Apparently you'll get used to it is test listeners are to be believb...

And so one of Terry Nation's few Dalek-less stories comes to an end, but this tricky production has a few more things to trip people (or Voords) up before it finally goes out with a bang. There are still script changes to be made, and typos to overcome, but two of its personnel went on to have very different but equally illustrious careers, and they are both profiled herein: and both kindly lent t...

Many  interviews recorded for the 50th Anniversary Who's Round project were released in edited form for various reasons. Recently there's been a chance to revisit some of them and present them in their full form. The edition with Michael Allaby, actor from the Keys of Marinus and fascinating voice in the world of environmentalism, was once such, and this new edit has coincided with the recent sad...

The second - and final - bonus episode to tie in with the launch of your host's book The Quatermass Experiment - The Making of TV's First Sci-Fi Classic, which has just been published by Ten Acre Films. Jon Dear, host of BERGCast, the Nigel Kneale/Quatermass podcast, chooses his five favourite things about the last existing episode of this six-part landmark. A treat for newcomers and Quatermass af...

Normal service will be resumed in a couple of weeks (apologies to those of you waiting for the Girl Who Died to turn into the Woman Who Lived) but we make no apologies for interrupting the flow of Whocasts to broadcast a special couple of commentaries of something very important.  Happy Times... host Toby Hadoke has spent the past many decades researching Nigel Kneale's seminal Quatermass serials...

So, a new episode ... so new it was on 9 years ago. Good Lord! Where does the time go? Joel Aarons has not done a podcast before but makes for an illuminating and self-effacing guest as he extols the virtues of an episode that has never been high on your host's list of favourites. Will this exercise change things and create a podcast in which this episode gets the gooo-gooo-gagag-ga (that's baby f...

Guest John Higgs has a splendid book out - Exterminate! Regenerate! is a brilliantly written and extremely insightful biography of Doctor Who (the character and the show). And so he comes onto Happy Times and Places to discuss a favorite episode of his, Amy's Choice, and to tell us all about his splendid new tome (available now!). Will choosing five favorute things be dreamy - or will he have a ni...

It's time for a celebration - the tenth anniversary story that wasn't actually broadcast anywhere near the tenth anniversary. A three Doctor story in which one Doctor barely features. And a big old event that is rendered on what seems like a budget of fourpence. But it's The Three Doctors: a landmark event, chosen by voice artiste, podcaster and long term fan Siobhan Gallichan. This has never been...

An undisputed classic, The Caves of Androzani finds an enthusiastic advocate in the form of a legend of the Liverpool fan scene, Erica Lear. Oh let me not be mad about what she chooses as her favourite thing from each episode, one of which is bound to be Peter Davison on whom she has a massive crush. In fact, knowing Erica he might be her favourite thing for every episode and the bonus! #doctorwho...

Everyone seems to have had a good time with this one, but the general feeling is that it goes off the boil a bit towards the end. Will experience make a liar of rumour, or will Toby and guest Dom Woodward go round and round in circles trying to solve simple puzzles? And there are two things to choose of course - so has your host shot his bolt with Bellal too soon, and blown up his chances in a foo...

Oy Exxillon city, I can see your roots! There's destruction aplenty, a pleasing amount of fire and a trip inside one of the 700 wonders of the universe and yet none of them pack as much heat as a funny little alien played by Doctor Who's longest lived actor (who was still alive when this podcast was recorded but has since, alas, passed away). Surely the best thing about this episode is agreed by e...

A sneak Preview of Happy Times and Places 100 which will feature a bevy of guests (and listener correspondence) about the rebirth of Doctor Who and its opening episode Rose. But it seemed only right to mark the occasion of its 20 anniversary (upon which this commentary was recorded) to release this slimmed down version as a preview. So this contains the whole commentary of Rose and a very special...

Exploding Daleks, volleys of arrows, drugs : this episode has it all. The episode ends with the Doctor getting to the root of the problem but before that we have two deaths, a bit of betrayal and some funky camerawork. What will comedian Dominic Woodward chose as his favourite thing ? And as for his least favourite - does he have a little mini model of it to shoot? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #d...

Comedian and entertainer Dominic Woodward chooses his entry based on his watch, re-watch and watch again of the VHS omnibus of this adventure from the latter end of Jon Pertwee's tenure. Pertwee famously disliked the Daleks, and this story never seems to top many polls, so can Dominic inject a bit of magic into proceedings (oh yeah, he is a comedian, entertainer AND magician!) or will he... ahem ....

Back in the Days of RTD1 as it shall now be known this was, incredibly, just the third episode to be aired of this amazing new series that might have only lasted one season - that's what many of us feared anyway. It seems amazing to think of now. It was all fantastic then but the passage of time can make us more circumspect so does this Christmas Carol (from April) stand the test of the time ... a...