Pull To Open: A Random Doctor Who Podcast

Dinosaurs in Doctor Who? Always a risky proposition—especially when they’re on a BBC budget in 1974. Invasion of the Dinosaurs tries to roar, but often just… stands there looking sleepy. Still, there’s more to this six-parter than claymation T-rexes. Sarah Jane gets her best early outing as a journalist, UNIT is (mostly) back together, and Mike Yates makes a shocking heel turn. Add in Operation Go...

Memory, manipulation, and moon landings collide in one of the most audacious season openers in Doctor Who history. In The Impossible Astronaut and Day of the Moon , Steven Moffat unleashes the Silence — a monster so terrifying, you forget them the moment you look away — and dares viewers to keep up with a non-linear plot packed with space-suited children, timey-wimey double Doctors, and a shocking...

We park the Randomizer for a moment of reflection on the Ncuti Gatwa era — an time of goblins, gods, wish worlds, and controversies that may have rewritten more than canon. From reshoots and reality wars to Billie Piper’s surprise return and Disney’s uncertain handshake, we dive deep into what worked (hello, 73 Yards), what didn’t (Robot Revolution , anyone?), and whether Doctor Who got too much s...

When the Twelfth Doctor trades the TARDIS for a mop at Coal Hill School, awkwardness is bound to follow. Join us as we revisit The Caretaker , an episode packed with high-stakes parent-teacher nights, questionable robot threats, and a love triangle that quickly goes off the rails. Can Clara balance dating Danny Pink and running down corridors with the Doctor? And is Peter Capaldi’s cantankerous ca...

Terry Nation returns! But not with Daleks — this time it’s androids, clones, and possibly the most ill-advised eyepatch in Who history. The Randomizer has pulled us into The Android Invasion , a UNIT-adjacent tale with a suspiciously quiet pub, some surprisingly trigger-happy fingers, and a plan so convoluted, it makes a Moffat finale look grounded. Join us as we unravel a story where the twist is...

Is it a medieval space opera or a green-skinned fever dream? The Curse of Peladon has it both ways, complete with a courtly Pertwee, a princess-posing Jo, and the most phallic alien ever approved for Saturday tea time. Join us as we decode this gothic interstellar allegory about joining galactic federations (or maybe the European Economic Community), uncover who’s behind the spooky beast attacks,...

How do you stick the landing for a story about a fake world that’s made of wishes? You let your villain shine, sprinkle in some glorious cameos, and insert a twist that dials the emotional resonance to 11. Somehow, between all the fourth-wall-breaking and nonsensical plot twists, Russell T. Davies wraps up Ncuti Gatwa’s second season of Doctor Who in a way that does more than satisfy—it slaps. Not...

The Doctor’s stuck in a surreal 1950s fever dream, UNIT’s been rebranded as a life insurance agency, and wish-granting gods are running amok. What is even happening in Wish World ?! Pete and Chris dive headfirst into RTD’s mind-bending, logic-challenged spectacle that dares to connect the Rani, Poppy, Conrad, and possibly Susan through some extremely wishful thinking. Is this the Doctor’s most con...

It turns out our dress rehearsal of The Interstellar Song Contest was missing one extremely important reveal! In this emergency analysis of the post-credits scene, we tackle the surprise regeneration of Mrs. Flood into a new Time Lady villain—Archie Panjabi’s take on the classic Rani . Is this just a nostalgia throwback, or are we in for a legit cosmic power play? And what does this say about bige...

The Interstellar Song Contest is a full-on sensory overload: galactic glam, massive stakes, and more killer hooks than a Skybox full of Hellions. In this hot take, we break down the Doctor’s most bombastic outing yet — complete with AI cameos, shocking twists, and one jaw-dropping moment that might just redefine the Doctor’s moral compass. Has Russell T Davies gone too far, or just far enough? Joi...

In The Story & the Engine , the Doctor finds himself in a Nigerian barbershop… on a spaceship… on the back of a spider… in the realm of living stories. You with us so far? Good — because the story’s just getting started. Join Pete and Chris as they dissect one of the most surreal, ambitious episodes in Doctor Who history, from map headgames to moral metaphysics. Come for the cosmic barbershop,...

It's a Lucky Day … or is it? Is this a bold stand for truth in the age of misinformation, or an unsubtle lecture about trusting the deep state? Can conspiracy theorists exist in a world where UNIT is canon? And what’s the deal with Conrad’s podcast? From shrieks to lip gloss, Mrs. Flood to memory worms, we unpack all the continuity—and the politics. But sorry, we can’t spare a 50p piece. Tell us w...

Doctor Who has plunged into The Well — and trust us, you’ll want to keep your back covered. Pete and Chris tackle the chills, thrills, and high-stakes mystery of Season 2’s most intense episode yet. How does the Doctor face the unknown when it stares right back at him? How is the future of humanity suddenly more fragile than ever? And what clever callbacks to classic sci-fi storytelling are hidden...

RTD just gave us Alan Cumming as a cartoon god named Mr. Ring-a-Ding, and that’s not even the weirdest part of “Lux.” This episode has 2D-animated monsters, film reel body horror, meta commentary on fandom, and the Doctor using regeneration energy to treat a boo-boo. Pete and Chris are here to unwrap it all — from Mrs. Flood’s nuclear foreboding to the Doctor’s best mini-speech in years. Also disc...

It's the future, and your star registry gift just triggered a robotic uprising. Welcome to Doctor Who: The Robot Revolution, where RTD goes hard on visuals, soft on substance, and maybe too far on consent. The Pull To Open crew picks apart everything from glitchy AI metaphors to Belinda Chandra’s underbaked debut — and Pete almost expected a Robots of Death sequel. But hey, at least the Doctor's r...

Say it with us now: it’s not just Slitheen fart jokes. Aliens of London / World War Three is the Ecclestone-Piper powerhouse that firmly established how NuWho would grow beyond the old-school kind of Earth invasion. It would be smart, twisty, full of “real” fake media and political references. It would stuff the Prime Minister in a closet. And it would put the Doctor in new kinds of domestic jeopa...

Sontar-what now? An odd little two-parter squished between two titanic Tom Baker classics, The Sontaran Experiment manages to downgrade its clone army villain — with a flimsy mask that makes him look more like a bald white dude amid a bunch of South African “colonials”, plus evil experiments that … don’t seem very science-y? We had fun concocting this episode in our cave, though. So join us for a...

Adric’s fate, an unexpected "asteroid," and the triumphant return of the Cybermen— Earthshock is the definitive Doctor Who game-changer. From its big-budget action sequences to its brutal emotional gut punches, this Davison classic gave us one of the show’s most shocking cliffhangers and its most heart-wrenching companion exit. But does all the spectacle hold up, or is this the original...

When Doctor Who returned in 2005, timey-wimey twists like Rose saving her dad in Father’s Day had rarely been seen on screen. But one entire Moffat era later, audiences are more sophisticated. So how does this small-scale Tyler tale land 20 years later? Do we still fear the Reapers? Grab your chunky carphone and make it to the church on time as we go all Back to the Future in 1987 — and don’t miss...

Just this once, Leela … everybody dies! Horror of Fang Rock may be a kind of bottle episode (well, a tall bottle with a big electric light on top), but no Doctor Who story has a higher percentage of guest cast killed. And with this bunch of refugees from an Agatha Christie play, who wouldn’t be rooting for a Rutan to off ’em? Join us as we peer into an atmospheric fog of 1970s class war with our n...

How do the Ood serve Doctor Who? Are they more interesting as harbingers of doom, pawns of the literal devil, or rabid victims of capitalist greed? Planet of the Ood takes the latter approach, and the result is a tale so dark even Donna Noble can’t lighten it up. Still, she (and we) can at least get on the Doctor’s case for his heavy-handed analogies. So sit back and take a shot of hair tonic whil...

Time waits for Nimon! Well, time waits for someone to appreciate The Horns of Nimon — the unintended finale to one of the greatest seasons of Doctor Who. With its drunk ballet bulls and a villain on a strict scenery diet, this could be a comedy classic. Or a triumph for Romana and her superior sonic. But is it? Dare to enter the labyrinth with us as we dust off our Greek myths and prepare to be sa...

A London bus, a mysterious wormhole, and a desert planet teeming with metal stingrays — Planet of the Dead boasts a hearty list of tasty Doctor Who plot ingredients even before you mix in a flirty almost-companion. David Tennant’s Doctor teams up with the aristocratic jewel thief Lady Christina de Souza in this slick, blockbuster-style Easter special. But beneath the high-speed chases and flirty b...

Good God, what is happening in Joy to the World , possibly the most time-wimey Doctor Who Christmas special to date. We’d expect nothing less from Steven Moffat, who stuffs a dinosaur, a bootstrap paradox, and a multi-Doctor story all into a holiday meal that’s anything but a turkey. You might want to dress yourself in several layers just to keep up pace with this one, but be sure to curl up in yo...

There's bad Doctor Who that makes you ROFL. There's bad Doctor Who that just leaves you baffled. And sometimes, if you're lucky, you find both in one story. Four to Doomsday , Peter Davison's first dip in the Who pool, was a tale of two reactions for Team PTO. Good thing the political angles (incel Adric, anyone?) were so outnumbered by hilarious/dumb/hallucinatory choices (Tegan can draw like DaV...