Doctor Who: Watchers in the Fourth Dimension

We’re back to stretch out the Pertwee era for just one more episode, as our good friend R. Alan Siler joins the show to interview our regular cast about the entirety of the Pertwee era – the good, the bad, and the outright Masterful! Join us as we meander through a conversation about the joys of Delgado and UNIT, the best supporting characters, the pitfalls of bad CSO and overuse of synthesizers,...

Anthony and Julie get together for our Season 11 Big Finish bonus episode, as they are off to Hong Kong in an alternative universe to discuss Sympathy for the Devil from the Doctor Who: Unbound range! This episode was recorded before the news broke of the sad passing of David Warner, and is dedicated to his memory. He was an amazing actor, and will be missed by so, so many people. Our thoughts con...

Once again, we have reached the end of another season, so join us as we look back on the entirety of Season 11. From the highs of Benton punching a General in Invasion of the Dinosaurs, to the lows of… well, the entirety of The Monster of Peladon, we talk about it all with our usual blend of awards, a look back on our metrics and scores from the season, and questions from our social media follower...

This episode, the Watchers return to Metebelis III as they exasperatedly take on the final Pertwee serial with Planet of the Spiders. Complete with a former salesman plotting revenge through the accumulation of power while at a Buddhist retreat (wut?) and a mindlessly self-indulgent chase scene, is this the story that will finally break the Watchers (or just Reilly)?   Along the way, Anthony strug...

We’re heading back to Peladon for the penultimate serial of the Pertwee era, where a new painfully unassertive monarch has to deal with an uppity religious advisor, rumours of their God being unhappy, difficulty with members of the Galactic Federation, and a minor miner rebellion thrown in for good effect. All stretched out to six episodes, rather than four! Dear god. At least it’ll make for an en...

Terry Nation is BACK with Death to the Daleks, so we have to discuss it in our latest podcast episode, The C-Team Daleks, in which we attempt to answer the ultimate question – “Is Terry Nation taking the piss?” Additional questions asked include “why can’t he write for women?” and “is this bad, or is this good?” Listen in to hear us fail to definitively answer any of these questions!   During the...

Kklak! It’s the Annual Malcolm Hulke Lizard Extravaganza®, as we bang-a-gong for the children of the revolution as we take on T. Rexes in Invasion of the Dinosaurs! The Doctor and Sarah return to London, only to be confronted by a conspiracy to which almost everyone is involved, and some of Ray Harryhausen’s cast-offs. Ah well, you can’t win ‘em all.   Over the course of the episode, Reilly explai...

It’s a fresh start as we kick off Season 11 with Robert Holmes’ excellent The Time Warrior, in which we say “hello!” to both the legendary Sarah Jane Smith and the iconic monsters known as the Sontarans! Add into the mix some comedy Saxons, some pathetic Normans, and plenty of sci-fi elements, and we’re onto a winner. Maybe. You’ll have to listen to find out what we actually think of this one!   O...

It’s time for another season retrospective, as we look back on the entirety of Season 10! And what a season it’s been – all three Doctors, an attempt at a 12-part Dalek epic, giant maggots in an abandoned mine in South Wales, and some dishrags. Well, that last one shows that you can’t win ‘em all! Still, the Pertwee era is absolutely flying by – we can’t believe that we’ve only got one more season...

It’s time for a bonus episode, in which all four of us are joined by our good friend Naomi (aka @thewhovian_gal on Instagram), as we discuss the Season 10-adjacent Big Finish adventure The Scorchies! Join us as we talk about one of the most weird and bonkers stories to date! Oh, and did we mention that this is Don’s first Big Finish experience? Because it’s Don’s first Big Finish experience!   Alo...

This episode, we’re off to the valleys to fight against greedy corporations, green slime, and giant maggots, for the most Welsh Doctor Who story of all time, as we discuss the one and only The Green Death! Join us as we talk stereotypes, hippies, and charismatic computers, and (with sorrow) say goodbye to a companion that we have really grown to love.   Over the course of the episode, Anthony brin...

It’s Terry Nation’s Greatest Hits as we discuss Planet of the Daleks – a story where he appears to have put all of his favourite past plot points in a hat, drawn them out at random, and attempted to make a coherent story out of the results! Join us as we keep track of the TerryTropes and discuss, among other things, whether or not this makes for a good story.   Over the course of the episode, Reil...

This episode, we go on a tour of the galaxy’s finest jail cells, featuring appearances from the Master! Ogrons! A few Daleks! Draconians! And future humanity’s most dictatorial regime to date! It’s a rather grim vision of the future in Frontier in Space! Join us as we keep track of the number of times that the Doctor and Jo are incarcerated, and generally despair at how so many people *on both sid...

It’s an unusually low-key story for the Pertwee era, as we handle the classic dual menace of bureaucracy and sock puppets in Carnival of Monsters! Join us as we talk budget serials, grey worlds, Holmesian double acts, monster cameos, and the Doctor’s long-awaited return to regular space-and-time adventuring!   Over the course of the episode, Anthony finds himself alone in appreciating the bureaucr...

We’re kicking off Season 10 of Doctor Who in style as our two past stars of the show, Patrick Troughton and William Hartnell, team up with Jon Pertwee’s Third Doctor to defeat a truly galactic threat in The Three Doctors! Join us as we talk about this truly special union, the impact it has on our current cast, and whether or not the Brigadier goes a bit bonkers as a result of this serial…   Over t...

It’s the Watchers in the Fourth Dimension Season 9 Retrospective Extravaganza! Join us as we look back on the entirety of Jon Pertwee’s third season, with our usual blend of qualitative awards, quantitative measures, and questions from social media!   Over the course of the episode, Julie finds herself longing for the day that Doctor Who gives us a good pirate story, Don talks about Dudley getting...

It’s our Season 9 Big Finish bonus episode, as Anthony and Julie are joined by Reilly for his first Big Finish experience with a tale featuring spycraft, Nazis, and the occult as we discuss Operation: Hellfire, from The Third Doctor Adventures, Volume 6.   Along the way, Julie gets frustrated at Jo’s inability to adequately go undercover, Reilly realizes that he’s a prime candidate for occult sacr...

It’s another season finale as everyone’s favourite moustache-twirling renegade Time Lord returns to unleash the power of Kronos on the universe. Oh, and cause a headache for everyone across the fandom the destruction of Atlantis for the third(?) time. Join us as we discuss what is possibly the thirstiest Doctor Who story to date in The Time Monster!   Over the course of the episode, Julie apprecia...

We’re heading off-world for the second time in a season... What is this, the Troughton era!? Actually, no! The Doctor’s just off on another bizarre mission for the Time Lords to help a poor, oppressed species evolve into superbeings because… reasons? Well, whatever the reasons may be, we’ll be talking about them, as we discuss The Mutants!   Over the course of the episode, Anthony plays historian...

The Silurians are back, but in aquatic form! And disappointingly called Sea Devils and not Sealurians, because someone decided that they wanted to avoid further scientific inaccuracies. Disappointment over the name of the creatures aside, we spend the episode discussing The Sea Devils - a rollicking adventure that also includes everyone's favourite bearded Time Lord renegade, as well as some jaunt...

We’re off to an alien planet for the first time in Season 9, in The Curse of Peladon, as we head to Peladon, where there’s a bit of a kerfuffle on whether or not the planet should join the Galactic Federation. We talk politics, giant green phalluses, obvious villains not being that villainous, and the continually evolving kinder, gentler Third Doctor!   Over the course of the episode, Don expresse...

For a very special bonus episode, we are joined by our friends Diana and Jenn from the Doctor Who: On the Rocks podcast as we jump back to the Hartnell-era to discuss the recent animation of Galaxy 4! Taking a best of both worlds approach from our two shows, we kick off the episode by discussing the Penderyn “Celt” whisky, Anthony talks about the story’s journey from being lost to animation, we la...

It’s guerillas, gorillas, and Daleks, as we kick off Season 9 with Day of the Daleks - a tale of peace conferences, dystopian futures, and bootstrap paradoxes. Will this be the season where the Third Doctor finally comes into his own, or will we continue to struggle with his bad attitude? And will the Production Team finally give poor Jo something to do again!?   Over the course of the episode, Ju...

Following the precedent set last year, the Watchers once again gather for a special holiday episode in which they discuss a few Doctor Who-related musical “classics.” Once again guided by our very own Don, we kick things off with Jon Pertwee’s spoken word masterpiece “Who is the Doctor?” Next, we follow that up with “Who’s Who?” by Roberta Tovey (aka Suzie Who from the Dalek movies), before wrappi...

We’re finding it tough to believe that we’re already done with another season! And what a Masterful one Season 8 has been. Literally full of the Master! With that in mind, it’s time for our customary season retrospective, as we look back on the height of the UNIT Family™, Roger Delgado’s superb turn as everyone’s favourite villainous Time Lord, and even a long-awaited jaunt away from Earth!   Duri...