Doctor Who: Watchers in the Fourth Dimension

It’s time to say goodbye to the Fifth Doctor as Robert Holmes triumphantly returns to the show with The Caves of Androzani – a story that is so often lauded in fandom as one of the greatest Doctor Who stories OF ALL TIME! But will the Watchers agree?   Join us as we discuss the consequences of unbridled oligarchy, the brilliance of the cast of utterly awful characters, how much better the Fifth Do...

We’re joined by legendary friend-of-the-podcast R. Alan Siler as we let out a collective “WHY!?!?” at The War Games in Colour. Naturally, we look at both the colourisation itself, as well as the re-cut of the story from 10 episodes into a 90 minute TV movie – especially the highs and lows of the new material added. Join us as Julie reignites her love for Jamie, while we discuss such important matt...

Anthony brings an update with the reason for our ongoing hiatus and when you can (probably) expect more episodes of Watchers in the Fourth Dimension again.

In this penultimate episode of the Davison era, we continue to clear house of the Fifth Doctor’s TARDIS by finally saying goodbye to Turlough (and there was much rejoicing by Julie and Reilly). That’s right dear listeners, we are covering Planet of Fire!   Join us as Reilly gives us his unexpected opinions on the Master’s return for the umpteenth time, Julie and Diana get supremely frustrated with...

It’s time to once again say “hello!” to everyone’s favourite pepper pots – the Daleks – as they return to their creator Davros, in Resurrection of the Daleks. But do the creatures and their creator have the same agenda? We’re about to find out as we tackle this action-packed and violence-filled adventure!   Join us as we talk about high body counts (no, not that type!), the weakness of the Daleks...

Warm up your pan flutes and brace yourself for meteorites, listeners. We really hope none of you get sucked into the ground just to be used by our favorite giant pill bugs. That’s right, everyone. We’ve made it to Frontios.    Over the course of the episode, we notice too many references to previous and future Doctor Who stories (talking about you, Moffat), the Watchers note how heavy handed they...

We’re off to rural England, where a giant stone head is driving a group of English Civil War LARPers to a new level of intensity, while Tegan gets ready to be sacrificed as the village’s May Queen. That’s right – we’re discussing Season 21’s two-parter, The Awakening!   Join us as we discuss the dangers of LARPing taken to an extreme, the first instance of a very-familiar looking crack in a wall (...

We kick off Season 21 with a story that has ranked as the 15th worst Doctor Who story of all time in TWO separate Doctor Who Magazine polls – Warriors of the Deep! We all collectively say “there should have been another way!” as we dissect this and try to figure out what went wrong and why.   Join us as we let out a collective sigh at what is easily one of the worst Season openers that we’ve had s...

As we have all foreseen, Julie has taken over the show again for our 2025 Holiday special and has done her best to find something actually Christmas-y this year. Digging into the depths of the strange children shows of the UK, we came across the wonder that is Worzel Gummidge. We tried to make due by just watching the pilot from series 1 and the Christmas special from series 3, with very mixed res...

In today’s episode we get not one, not two, not three, not four, but five Doctors. You heard right, everyone, we are covering the amazing story that is The Five Doctors, featuring Richard Hurndall as our replacement Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, a light sprinkling of Tom Baker, AND Peter Davison. Join us as we try and determine just how many things “of Rassilon” we can name (hint, it’s...

Oh boy, it’s that time again... and this time, it is NOT pretty! We look back on the entirety of Season 20 with our usual combination of awards, a recap of our various metrics, and questions from our friends on social media. But how effective was this anniversary season? If you’ve been listening as we go along, you already know the answer to that extremely loaded question!   Join us as we unleash...

Is everyone ready for another musical number?!?! That’s right, Julie brings out her songwriting skills and rusty vocal chords in order to cover the final story for Season 20, The King’s Demons. We are so sorry for everyone who chose to rewatch these two episodes, but hopefully we give you a better time.   Join us as Anthony, Reilly, AND Diana all have a marvelous time in overpronouncing their vowe...

It’s time for one of our many bonus episodes this season! We are joined by our good friend and official/unofficial fifth Watcher in the Fourth Dimension, Alan Siler, as we watch the not-so-recently animated story in Doctor Who, The Savages.   Join us as we spend way too much time discussing how we watched this and what other things we listened to prepare for this episode, commenting on the fact th...

The Black Guardian Trilogy comes to an end in Enlightenment with a space race on Edwardian-inspired ships, where a dominatrix threatens Turlough, a creepy Eternal hits on Tegan, and the Black and White Guardians end as they started this three-story run: disappointingly. Still, it gives Anthony an opportunity to utter: “step on me, Mommy!” Just wow.   Unsurprisingly, we discuss the sartorial choice...

Welcome, once again, to our annual house of horror special!! This year, we kickoff with, yet again, another Hammer Film. This time, we’re covering The Gorgon, featuring Peter Cushing and the wonderful treasure that is Patrick Troughton. We then move onto The Blood on Satan’s Claw, featuring the lovely Wendy Padbury and a somewhat subdued Anthony Ainley.    Join us as we discuss Diana’s inability t...

Join us this episode as we ask the big question: How does the Big Bang happen because of something that happens after the Big Bang? See if we ever find out as we discuss the second story of the Black Guardian trilogy, Terminus.   It should come as no surprise that this story garnered some strong feelings from our crew. Did Anthony really want to rewrite almost all interactions and plot regarding t...

We kick off the Black Guardian trilogy with a new companion joining the TARDIS, the return of the Brigadier, and the return of the Black Guardian (on whose head they’ve inexplicably put a dead bird!), as we discuss Mawdryn Undead (or, to translate it from the Welsh “Dead Man Undead”!)   Join us as we make immediate judgements on Turlough, discuss how the story plays with time in a way that pre-dat...

It’s Kinda 2: Electric Boogaloo – or as it’s better known to most people… Snakedance! Beyond the return of the Mara, we get the return of good ol’ themes of colonialism, complete with a spoiled brat heir, a difficult and ignorant historian, and a snake-oil salesman who gets his comeuppance (ironically, at the hands of snake-being!)!   Join us as we discuss what the Mara are (and how RTD has corrup...

We're kicking-off Season 20 with Arc of Infinity! This story features Time Lords doing what Time Lords do best, the return of Omega and introduction of his mutant turkey/pterodactyl thing, and some traipsing around Amsterdam. It sounds like it should be quite good. But will the Watchers think that it’s the sort of bang that the season should start with – one that caused by anti-matter and matter c...

We have finally made our way through the entirety of Season 19, the first run of Peter Davison as the Doctor. You all know what that means!!! It’s time for our customary season retrospective, in which we look back at the entire season, using a blend of awards, metrics, and questions from our friends on social media to make our thoughts known… And man, do we make our thoughts known this time around...

This episode, bear with us as we meander our way through our discussion of Spare Parts. Who knew we needed to discuss fake commercials and who may secretly be Hitler while commenting on such a good Big Finish story.   Join us as we discuss our understanding of jaded scientists drinking wine to get through the day and our annoyance of a whiny teenage boy who was so susceptible to propaganda, wishin...

Don’t you just love an insane scheme by the Master? Especially when it involves disguising himself as a horrendous racial stereotype when he has no reason to be in disguise at all? Oh, and we have some wonderful product placement for Heathrow Airport and Concorde. And this story is *somehow* the Season 19 finale. That’s right -we’re talking about Time-Flight!   Join us as we discuss the brown-ness...

In potentially the biggest story of the Season (somehow even bigger than the Fifth Doctor’s debut in Castrovalva), we have Cybermen! Androids! Gritty troopers and gritty freighter crew! Oh, and we say goodbye to a much loved (lol) companion in what is quite possibly the most dramatic way since… well… the 1960s? Yup, it’s Earthshock!   Join us as we discuss how the designers on Starship Troopers mu...

In this episode, we dial in our love for Agatha Christie and Charlotte Brontë, as we discuss Black Orchid. How they were able to pack so much character intertaction AND a self-indulgent cricked match into only two episodes, we will never know.   Join us as we discuss the introduction of our new favourite hero (or villain) in Gurgle Man, Sarah Sutton finally being able to show off her acting chops,...

After the last episode where we all let out many exasperated sighs, the Watchers now let out a great sigh of relief as we discuss The Visitation!! We have finally gotten the companion interaction we deserve, even with Adric remaining a complete waste of carbon.   Join us as we discuss our return back to basics: a simple, grounded story, check. An alien race set to take over Earth, check. And an an...