Doctor Who: Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels

For August and September Toby Hadoke's Time Travels will be released once a week. The twice weekly releases will resume in October. Thanks for your patience.  Here we go chums. What a rewarding experience this has been. But can The Ambassdors of Death contnue to surprise, and to break the mould, and have host Toby pull off a rare victory? Or will the ending be a damp squib? Well, for one last time...

The fortnightly releases of Toby Hadoke's Time Travels will recommence in October. Thanks for indulging the current battery recharge which is well needed x The Third Doctor's first trip into space (eat that Colony!) enables us to see the faces behind the masks and the ... whatever it is behind the Venetian (or maybe Martian) blinds. We have something gassy in decontamination and the cloning of Max...

Toby Hadoke's Time Travels will be weekly during August and September- the twice weekly releases will return in October. So, the story steps up a pace: beginnning, as it does, with the death of another major character and having Liz held hostage and the Doctor jetting off into space. Will his journey be as wayward as the story itself is often written off as being, or will it hit the target? And wi...

Toby Hadoke's Time Travels is reducing its release rate to once a week during August and September because it is very tired and overworked and needs a holiday (it won't get one, but at least this'll take the pressure off a bit). The plot gets thicker and thicker, but not as thick as Taltalian's accent... and thereby hangs a tale (but perhaps one that is slightly too long). Anyway, there is much to...

Just a reminder that Happy Times and Places will be released once a week (rather than the usual twice) during August and September. Holidays innit? Let's hope there are no technical problems with this episode (there were for part two, sorry) but it wouldn't be a surprise if there were. This story seems compelled to make itself somehow unreachable, intagible, opaque. Peering through the gloom to di...

There is much to love about this story, but the majority of fandom has never quite got to grips with it. This episode might help to explain why - it's a tricky one to watch because of the diffciulties restoring the pictures, and there are a couple of elements which sit awkwardly amonst the show's canon (the vanishing of the tape, Bessie's forcefield). But there's also a fantastic hi-jacking, a com...

Now then, this is one of your host's favourite stories - one he thinks is  probably the most underrated story in the whole canon. It was always rather apologetically dealt with in write-ups and fan word-of-mouth was that it was a bit of a mess. So Toby came to it quite late and with low expectations - and was bowled over by it. And it is a love that has never died. Does writer, editor and all-roun...

Endings are hard aren't they? So hard that it's taken a while to get this one out. It is all explained (which is more than can be said for some elements of the latest series) and, hopefully, not too disappointing. Resolving story arcs is very much a modern series thing... but can Doctor Who ever really satisfy as it does, after all... never end?   This is a bonus release (partially because it's la...

Robin Bunce, Cambridge academic and writer, whose father Roger was a legnedary BBC cameraman who worked with most of the classic Doctors, has chosen Attack of the Cybermen to celebrate in this positively inclined podcast series. What will he choose to celebrate about this contiunuity rich and somewhat violent story? And will host Toby Hadoke choose the same things... or will he be left out in the...

One of the longest Doctor Who stories - both episodes-wise and in terms of real time within the fiction - gets one of the longest podcasts. This really is a trek - and one without a compass because there are no moving pictures at all from Marco Polo. But we have a reliable guide : J Jeremy Bentham, surely the elder stateman of Doctor Who fandom. He brings erudition and wit to his observations abou...

The TARDIS team embark upon their quest for the Keys of Marinus and land in a place where everything seems to be perfect. An inventive, if slight, episode, this one features some interesting techniques employed by the prodcution team to pull off the unusual demands of the script. It is also notable because we never actually saw the original, 1964 version of this episode until the DVD release in 20...

And so we get stoned for one last time. So stoned we go on a trip to hyperspace for a complete change in style and content from the Hammer Horror of the early instalmnents. Often seen as the weaker part of the story, what will Steve Cranford like about it, and will he be able to convince host Toby Hadoke (and indeed, you)? Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where you will get advance releas...

It's cold outside but there's plenty of atmosphere as The Stones of Blood enters what is commonly known as its hyperspace phase. The story takes an odd turn but there's much to talk about - from matador hi-jinks to imprisoned Wirrn via, of course, the doomed campers. Will Steve Cranford and your host go for the obvious choice of favorite thing here? Well, pitch your tent and find out.    Please su...

Pack your sausage sandwiches and your thermos - but don't forget your truncheon as we might need it if we want to get to Plymouth. Photo ID? Well, there are a load of pictures to choose from in the priest hole - that's if we don't end up getting stoned before we start. It's all go in this skull smashing instalment : but will Steve Cranford choose the same thing as your host as the highlight of thi...

The 100th Doctor Who story - maybe we should have held out and had it as the 100th Happy Times and Places! Gah - there's always clarity after the event! Anyway, this has been one that has never quite done it for yoiur host, Toby Hadoke: and he is open about this at the start... but of course, the whole point of the podcast is to get a special guest (in this case presenter and beefcake Stephen Cran...

So, after the epic journey through Marco Polo let's fire the starting pistol on Doctor Who's next quest. We've gone from historical back to science-fiction, with the return of the writer who has proved himself a boon to the prodcution team. But it's fair to say it's an episode during which quite a lot goes wrong, and there were a few hiccups on the way to it too. But there are new monsters, a well...

Not much about the episode (The Legend of Ruby Sunday) in this one really - as is Indefinable Magic's wont, it wanders of on a tangeant all of its own. This time the inspiration comes from that joy we feel when an element from the show's past comes back to reconnect us to our childhoods. It also takes in some of the convoluted ways these returns have been disguised and what it must be like for the...

Ed Stradling revels in the many deaths that Eric Saward serves up in this very gruesome but highly entertaining story. Or is it a violent aberration that is too grim for a family fantasy show? Food for thought and for chat in the second part of this feature length adventure that is actually the same length as normal but doesn't seem like it is.  Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where you...

So, what to we do when we don't like an aspect of a Doctor Who story? Well, we are Doctor Who fans, so we behave utterly rationally of course. For this episode of Indefinable Magic, the way in which we are drawn to criticise the thing we love comes into the spotlight. Is there such a thing as objectively good and bad, and who has the monopoly on saying what "true" Doctor Who is? As ever, these are...

This one has been done as originally broadcast - as a pair of feature length episodes. So it's two things per instlalment that have to be chosen by special guest Ed Stradling. It's a story controversial for its tone and content, and one that would have an impact and influence on the future of the show. And for your host and Ed, it's one that they both made a documentary about, so there's a little...

Remember - these podcasts are not intended as reviews or value judgements on the latest episodes of Doctor Who. They are audio essays based upon some aspect of the story and weaved into a - hopefully - thoughtful and sometimes humourous monolgue.    Dot and Bubble could provoke discussions about all sorts of different subjects, but for this edition of Indefinable Magic we will stick our heads into...

That fantastic documentary maker Chris Chapman only happens to have chosen one you host Toby Hadoke's favourite stories : so this is very much a love-in as the two of them get green fingered - pulling out the weeds, nurturing the precious components and displaying the glrouius blooms of The Seeds of Doom for all you listeners. But will they agree on what the best things are about this story: well,...

The past and the future both catch up with us quicker than we'd like. Toby's response to 73 Yards is a contemplation of fear and just how Doctor Who is scary. It also examines the nature of the unexplained and has some personal recollections of childhood fears that reflect the themes and methods of this sparse and spine-chillling instalment. As ever: this is not a review as such, just a way of loo...

Good Lord. Look at the size of this one Doctor. Jonn Elledge - who has a book out right now - has chosen Peter Capaldi's pre-regeneration story which says goodbye to Bill and Nardole (well, for a bit), has two Masters vying for our attention (not to mention three different kinds of Cybermen) and arms its humans with exploding apples. Laughter, tears and explosions in this tense climax (of sorts) t...

He's not the Messiah, Steven Moffat, and sometimes he is a very naughty boy. But he's definitely a writer whose work deserves a closer look - an explosive (ahem) talent whose scripts can be mined (ahem, ahem) for subtext and jokes (boom boom!). But what did Boom have to say about faith? And should it be taken at face value? Or is there actually more in common with religiosity and Moffat's scripts...