On the Time Lash

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark take a before and after look at solar flare damage in Doctor Who - pairing 'In the Forest of the Night' with 'The Ark in Space'.Is 'In the Forest of the Night' really all that bad? Is 'The Ark in Space' really one of the all time classics? Under discussion: Doomed relationships, challenging children, childishness, body horror, b...

Send us Fan Mail As the Doctor and Clara visit Bristol in 'Flatline', Mark advocates toppling 'The Celestial Toymaker' off a harbour in an oddly topical, yet mostly trivial new episode of On the Time Lash. Under discussion: Artistic expression, class and race in 1960s Doctor Who, child-unfriendly childishness, the evolution of the Doctor-lite episode and how a prestige Saturday...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark turn their attention to the teachers of Coal Hill School as they look at 'The Caretaker' and 'The Rescue'. One story features two kindly teachers specialised in history and chemistry whilst the other focuses on two teachers who, whilst romantically involved, have neither. Under discussion: A whistle stop history of portrayals of the military in Doc...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark take to Zoom for the first On the Time Lash video podcast - discussing 'Time Heist' and 'The Ribos Operation' so apologies in advance for the occasionally tinny audio. Mark discovers that 'Time Heist' has less in common with 'Ocean's 11' and more in common with something else entirely and Ben's left cold by the wintry...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark discuss 'Listen' and 'The Mind of Evil' in two classic Doctor Who stories that deal with fear. Under discussion: The comforting message of one of the show's creepiest episodes, talking to yourself in isolation, military brutality, the origins of the Black Mariah, the simplicity of one of the show's most memorable monsters and the pointles...

Send us Fan Mail It's medieval madness as Ben and Mark discuss ROBOT OF SHERWOOD and THE KING'S DEMONS. As they wander through Sherwood forest, the Lash Lads chat about grumpiness, comedy in Doctor Who and take a little detour to look at the rise of internet criticism and clickbait snark. After that, they wander around an old castle whilst singing songs of the Crusades, discussing histor...

Send us Fan Mail Or: The Incredible Shrinking Doctors SpecialBen and Mark discuss miniaturisation, prawns, robot dogs, soldiers and viruses as they tackle both 'Into the Dalek' and 'The Invisible Enemy'.Is 'Into the Dalek' just a rehash of old ideas? Is 'The Invisible Enemy' really as rubbish as everyone remembers? ALSO: The return of Degsey's Where Did...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark go back to where it all began, with the very first multi-Doctor story 'The Three Doctors'. After a very special edition of Degsey's Where Did it Come Game, they try to define the indefinable magic of Doctor Who by looking at this most comforting slice of nostalgia. Under discussion: Trying to understand the reverance with which each later Doctor holds t...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark reach the end of Series 7b with 'The Name of the Doctor' and pair it up with another story of myth, legend and future Doctors; 'Battlefield'. Is 'Name of the Doctor' a suitably exciting pre-cursor to the anniversary special, and does it still hold up today? And is 'Battlefield' a fitting farewell to one of Doctor Who's long...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark return from their festive hibernation to discuss the mythical Cybermen. In Nightmare in Silver, the fantastical worlds of Neil Gaiman clash with the sci-fi action movie, whilst Tomb of the Cybermen updates Egyptian tomb raiding for the cybernetic age. But are they any good? Under discussion: Brazilian stew, Mark's proposed Tomb of the Cybermen stage production wi...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark celebrate the 100th On the Time Lash upload by discussing 21st Century Doctor Who's 100th episode 'The Crimson Horror'. It's Ben's favourite story of the post 2005 run, will Mark and our listeners share his enthusiasm? Also this episode: Vile Victorian villainesses as we discuss 'The Mark of the Rani'. Ben meets a descendant of Major...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark take two very different journeys to the centre of the TARDIS as they discuss 'Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS' and 'The Invasion of Time'.Just what is it about the Doctor's TARDIS that fascinates people so much? And similarly, what's the obsession with Gallifrey? We don't have the answers, but they're questions worth positin...

Send us Fan Mail In a very special episode of On the Time Lash to celebrate the release of 'Sil & the Devil Seeds of Arodor': Mark interviews the director and producer Keith Barnfather about how the project came about, and how he brought Philip Martin's world to life. He reviews the serial for the benefit of Ben, which leads to a brief discussion about serialisation in the age o...

Send us Fan Mail Ben returns to the podcast for a Halloween special as we discuss the spooky goings on in Hide and Image of the Fendahl. Two stories, it soon turns out, that are quite evenly matched. (About time, 77 episodes in)Under discussion: The perils of dropping the T-Bomb, reaching the age where 'totty for the dads' is directed at you, the flaws of the show's sci-fi format, t...

Send us Fan Mail It's a Ben-lite episode, but will it be Love & Monsters or Blink? Mark is joined by friends of the podcast Lee McMenemy (The Polis Box) and Richie Morgan (I Hate Doctor Who) to discuss 'Cold War' and 'The Ice Warriors'. Under discussion: Mammoths on submarines, Ultravox, planning your whole story around a title, everyday sexism, design marvels and scav...

Send us Fan Mail In the last episode before a summer break, Ben and Mark rather aptly confront an evil sun and an evil arts project that attracts a cavalcade of freaks and riffraff. Is 'The Rings of Akhaten' as bad as its reputation suggests? Is there any real merit in asking an old Doctor to do a new speech? Does arc-building have casualties? And whilst we're at it, what is 'T...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark dodder down the stairs to present another episode of the hottest podcast in town! This Week: WiFi and WOTAN as we discuss 'The Bells of St. John' and 'The War Machines'. Two brand new London landmarks hide terrible secrets, can the Doctor stop them? And can Mark navigate his way through London construction works to have a little nose around himself...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark ponder the intangible, nebulous threat of the Great Intelligence as they discuss 'The Snowmen' and 'The Abominable Snowmen'.Under discussion: The Doctor's weird characterisation in 'The Snowmen', grittily reimagining Christmas classics, Mark's dating history, and a tightrope walk through issues of representation. Dedicated to Pa...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark bid farewell to three Doctor Who companions and ponder the differing approaches to the farewell story. In 'The Angels Take Manhattan', they discuss just how sad and tragic an ostensibly happy ending can be, suggest that Dudley Simpson is better than Sting, compare Alex Kingston to a frog and wonder just how practical sending a Weeping Angel out for your groc...

Send us Fan Mail As we prepare to say goodbye to the Ponds, Ben and Mark talk about friendship via THE POWER OF THREE and THE SEEDS OF DOOM. In a podcast first, Ben views a bona-fide Doctor Who classic for the very first time, whilst both hosts try to read between the lines to figure out exactly what the hell was going on with Steven Berkoff. Also: Yet another Big Finish pitch, rampant consumerism...

Send us Fan Mail To celebrate 70 podcasts, Ben and Mark discuss the Doctor Who westerns 'A Town Called Mercy' and 'The Gunfighters' over a magnificent 70(ish) minutes of drinks and chat. Under discussion this month: Toby Whithouse's Wild West shopping list, the Western genre, comedy in Doctor Who, William Hartnell's comic chops, singing, childrens TV and a long overdu...

Send us Fan Mail Delayed like your Season 18 BluRays and not nearly as rewarding, Ben and Mark return to discuss 'Dinosaurs on a Spaceship' and 'Invasion of the Dinosaurs'.Under discussion: Heavy moral decisions, other less successful Saturday tea time sci-fi shows, dinosaurs, the poignancy of a Burger King and a rug shop, starting again, an appreciation of both Richard Frankli...

Send us Fan Mail Returning after a series break, Ben and Mark return to cast their eyes towards Doctor Who's 50th anniversary series as they discuss Asylum of the Daleks and Resurrection of the Daleks. Along the way, they'll play relationship therapist to Amy and Rory, ponder Daleks as set dressing, discuss big movie concepts, busy plotting, bad acting, the brutality of Eric Saward and t...

Send us Fan Mail Time is against them as Ben and Mark battle sickness and a naughty dog to bring you their discussion about 'The Wedding of River Song' and 'The Time Monster'. Two season finales as Steven Moffat brings his tangled web of plotlines together to close out Series 6 and Robert Sloman does whatever it is he's doing to close Series 10. Why does the Doctor have a...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark discuss sub-par Cyber sequels as they debate the relative merits of 'Closing Time' and 'Attack of the Cybermen'. Are they each as bad as fan wisdom will have you believe? If you've been listening to this podcast for a while you'll probably know the answer to that. Under discussion: Parenthood, the fear of children, psycho-analysing Steven...