On the Time Lash

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark talk a load of bull in their fruity Scottish accents as they reach The God Complex and pair it up with 1979's The Horns of Nimon. Expect Brexit metaphors, an impassioned defence of a much maligned classic, an embarrassing defeat in Degsey's Where Did it Come Game, the differing approaches to the comedy of Douglas Adams and appreciation for an animatronic min...

Send us Fan Mail Discussing generic walking paradoxes, dual companions, Ben and Mark discuss 'The Girl Who Waited' and 'Mawdryn Undead'. Along the way there's discussion of lost loves, missed opportunities, and the Macarena. Is Mawdryn Undead horrible? Was Wilfred Mott in the employ of the Black Guardian? Shouldn't Handbot Rory get a credit for such a brilliant perfor...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark discuss Doctor Who's relationship with realism as they watch "Night Terrors" and "Survival".Is Night Terrors' main issue a lack of grounding in a particular time or place? Is Survival the perfect end for Doctor Who? Along the way, Mark goes a bit Noel Edmonds and ponders Doctor Who's cosmic coincidences, Ben discovers the inherent sa...

Send us Fan Mail Or: The Caves of Andro-ZanyThree men go to war against sobriety as Ben, Mark and Derek tackle "A Good Man Goes to War" and "The Caves of Androzani" in a special 61st episode, recorded live at the Edinburgh Geek and Nerd Festival's WhoFest weekend. Competing with both an incoming pub quiz and the hottest day of the year, they discuss hubris, consequences, t...

Send us Fan Mail Free tickets for On the Time Lash LIVE are available from tinyurl.com/OTTLLIVEBen and Mark discuss evil doubles as they reach The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People and pair it up with Enemy of the World. Along the way they discuss pregnancy horror, David Cronenberg, Malcolm Hulke, Donald Trump, Brexit, fictional Mexicans and rapey Captain Kirk. ALSO: Ben sings, Mark rounds up some of...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark crack open a can of TARDIS Special as they discuss The Doctor's Wife and The Edge of Destruction/Brink of Disaster/Inside the Spaceship/Or What You Will....Along the way, they discuss the muted effect mythology episodes of long-running shows can have in retrospect, have a brief but spoileriffic chat about Steven Moffat's Day of the Doctor novelisation and pl...

Send us Fan Mail Wednesday is the new FridayBen and Mark visit some of Edinburgh's less busy taverns on an uncharacteristically busy Wednesday evening to discuss The Curse of the Black Spot and The Smugglers. Apologies for the slightly noisy soundscape, just imagine you're in a pirate tavern, a pirate tavern pumping out Lionel Ritchie. The Curse of the Black SpotBen and Mark discuss fath...

Send us Fan Mail After a slightly longer break than planned, the boys are back! We open Series 6 with late 60's set conspiracy thriller The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon and pair it up with 1970's conspiracy thriller The Ambassadors.........................of Death! Under discussion: How many ideas are too many in a Doctor Who story? Mark defends the controversial 'genocide&a...

Send us Fan Mail "All the baddie podcasts have got together to lock us in a big box" Ben and Mark FINALLY reach the end of Series 5 with a discussion about The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang and Castrovalva. Along the way, they ponder how a Dalek would read an Usborne guide to the Romans, pitch a potential Big Finish boxed set, sing Alanis Morissette, sing Morrissey and just generally have...

Send us Fan Mail Travel back in time with Ben and Mark to a snatched conversation that took place during the May bank holiday 2017.Under discussion: Two spooky houses as we turn our focus towards The Lodger and Ghost Light. Ben reappraises a story he long thought that he hated and Mark tries to explain just what on Earth is going on at Gabriel Chase, which would be easy enough if he could even rem...

Send us Fan Mail After nearly a (very eventful) year away, Ben and Mark resume their "New=Who Watchthrough" with 2010's Vincent and the Doctor, pairing it up with 1964's Marco Polo. Along the way, the pair get refused booze, discuss the weird world of Doctor Who themed ASMR, try to tactfully navigate discussions about mental health, gender and race before delving into some miss...

Send us Fan Mail *Not Episode 54, as we keep saying it is. The Reverends I.M Jolly of Doctor Who podcasting, Ben (riddled with a cold and thankfully not the Silurian virus) and Mark return to discuss The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood and Doctor Who and the Silurians. Unavoidably, they speculate what this Chris Chibnall penned, modern Silurian two parter could mean for the future of Doctor Who. Also: Cha...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark welcome host of the I Hate Doctor Who podcast, Richie Morgan into an echoey Edinburgh basement to discuss our darker selves, death and unconvincing realities via Amy's Choice/Mindwarp/The Ultimate Foe. They also dole out some really uninteresting trivia that everyone already knows. Under discussion: Sex with Brian Blessed, a fate worse than death? The best BBC si...

Send us Fan Mail Renaissance men Ben and Mark visit Italy via the middle of the road through Croatia and Wales as they discuss The Vampires of Venice and The Masque of Mandragora. Under discussion: Authentic Italian flavour. Vampires. Throat cutting. The Doctor's inability to understand simple human relationships. Some mildly inappropriate giggling at a very particular date. But the big quest...

Send us Fan Mail In their 50th episode, Ben and Mark address their changing opinions on the Peter Davison serial Earthshock, which has been paired up with Matt Smith Weeping Angels two parter, The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone. Under discussion: Alien/Aliens, the difference between characters you care about and cannon fodder, Beryl Reid: Space Pirate. Ben relates the story of how his enjoyment of...

Send us Fan Mail Oddly topical for a podcast recorded back in August, Ben, Mark and their good friend Derek discuss poor decisions made in the interests of marketing as they cover Victory of the Daleks and The Claws of Axos. Over the course of 100 minutes, they cover everything from the ill-judged colourful Daleks, the perfectly judged Ironside Daleks, the magic of Bill Paterson, bureaucratic slug...

Send us Fan Mail Or "Worse than Tom Baker blowing off a big green cock"Ben and Mark discuss two of Doctor Who's lesser loved stories; The Beast Below and Dragonfire in a discussion of benevolent creatures, good/bad monster design, the BBC's sitcom season, the introduction of Ace, the hastily written departure for Mel and that cliffhanger. Support the show Follow us on Bluesky L...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark return to usher in the Smith/Moffat era with a discussion about The Eleventh Hour and Spearhead from Space. Also; Mark interviews The Eleventh Hour's director, Adam Smith about his experiences directing one of the most scrutinised hours of TV ever. But before all that, there's the small matter of Mark becoming part of established Doctor Who continuity. Suppo...

Send us Fan Mail It's the 46th episode and time to bid farewell to David Tennant and Russell T Davies with a discussion about the (criminally underrated?) End of Time, pairing it with the (criminally overrated?) The War Games. Topics covered include: Fans "tweaking" established history, differing portrayals of the Timelords, why the Tenth Doctor's regeneration isn't long a...

Send us Fan Mail Communicating via video link like the inhabitants of Bowie Base One, Ben and Mark discuss The Waters of Mars; a story Ben feels is one of the very best pieces of Doctor Who there is. But what is it that disappoints Mark? After that, as chosen by the listeners; The Seeds of Death, a story that in many ways predicted the current state of space travel in the 21st century. Also under...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark begin looking at the specials with Planet of the Dead, pairing it up with another foreign location set tale Planet of Fire. Do the stories warrant the extensive location work? Is Peri the most overtly sexualised companion ever? Did the 80's production team ruin a golden opportunity for interesting storytelling and character development? And can Planet of the Dead...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark visit the Cybermen’s favourite pub to discuss The Next Doctor before wandering over to Soho to celebrate Tom Baker’s debut in Robot. But before all that, there’s the small matters of a new companion and an exhibition of Target artwork to discuss! Apologies if some of the background noise is distracting, but who knows? Maybe those people chatting in the background have...

Send us Fan Mail PREVIOUSLY: One bottle of cava, the Stolen Earth and Journey's End. NOW: The Five Doctors, another bottle of cava, some whisky and the sound of a podcast screeching it's way off the rails. In this episode: Ben attempts to slaughter a sacred cow, can Mark salvage The Five Doctors and present all the good that it has to offer? Also this week: Why Christopher Eccleston and...

Send us Fan Mail In part 1 of an epic 2 part finale Ben and Mark (with a little help from their friends) discuss The Stolen Earth and Journey's End. Does nostalgia, fun and goodwill trump logic, reason and plot coherence? Is Rose and the Meta-Crisis Doctor a satire on human relationships? Has an attraction to Ian McShane as Lovejoy made Sylvia Noble the woman she is today? And just how much w...

Send us Fan Mail Ben and Mark discuss worlds without the Doctor; the current drought, which forces the Lash Lads to pick over the scraps of news items from the past few weeks. After that, a visit to the alternate worlds of Turn Left and Inferno. Does Turn Left really actually make any sense? Is Inferno the most important piece of the Third Doctor era? Support the show Follow us on Bluesky Like us...