Pull To Open: A Random Doctor Who Podcast

Beam us up, Doctor! From T-Mat to the Kerblam Man, Doctor Who has a rich history of playing with teleportation. We lock onto the show’s best and most notorious materializations, examining how instantaneous travel between two points in space can be amazing or infuriating storytelling. Does teleportation make for lazy plotting or does it open up a universe of narrative possibilities? Grab your vorte...

Ho-ho-holy hidden depths, Santa! Last Christmas is the Who holiday special where Steven Moffat bakes an impossible tangerine cake: light and Christmassy on the surface, frosty chills and an arctic expanse of meaning underneath. Plus it changes Capaldi’s Doctor forever. But why has the randomizer, famed for its seasonal programming, served it up to us now? One word: Easter.  Give your own rating fo...

May the Source be with you! Tom Baker’s regeneration eve story The Keeper of Traken starts strong with a Shakespearean wedding on a utopian world of niceness — but soon devolves into a slap fight between drama nerds and science nerds over a strangely buff statue. Even its surprise reveal is far from the most masterful. So can the Doctor and Adric’s double act, plus manic pixie dream Nyssa and too-...

The Toymaker may have made a "jigsaw” of the Doctor’s history, but truthfully it was well jigsawed when he got there. As any fan who has tried to make sense of Doctor Who canon knows (and there have been many), the show’s 60-year run is full of contradictions, retcons, and flat-out nonsense that paying attention to it seems like a waste of… er, time. However, it’s equally true that continuity...

Time for the yarn on Karn that unravels the Doctor’s entire history — while cramming in more cranial puns than you can shake an oversized amygdala at. The Brain of Morbius is like a New Who embryo in a jar: a self-aware homage (to Frankenstein), a feminist fable (sort of) with a serious theme (immortality) that’s laced with laugh-out-loud lines, and bold changes that go beyond even the Timeless Ch...

A clock that ticks down in real time. A fiendishly difficult pub quiz. And a creature that lives in a sun. Chris Chibnall’s first Doctor Who story, 42 , has many intriguing elements — but also a lack of focus that foreshadows his time as showrunner. Does 42 add up to more than the sum of its parts? Phone your friends at Pull To Open and find out!  Give your own rating for 42 on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Ground Control to Gravitron: Take your coffee sweet and put your space suit on…. The Moonbase isn’t just the first Cybermen reboot, it’s the template for every base under siege story since. Undoubtedly, Patrick Troughton grows in the role before our eyes. But what about sick jealous Jamie, chemistry expert Ben, and the rest of this Polly cocktail? Join us as we throw an explosive bottle of 2024 st...

Time and tide may melt the snowman, but it also allows things to sink in. It’s been a few months since we kicked off the new era of Doctor Who, and now that we’ve had time to absorb the 60th anniversary specials, how do we feel about them? More to the point, how do we feel about Russell T. Davies 2.0 — the opening salvo of his second at-bat as showrunner? The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, and The...

The Dream Lord makes the team … work? Amy’s Choice is fondly remembered as a pivotal point for the TARDIS trio of Amy, Rory and the Doctor, elevating the future Mr. Pond from gooseberry to hero. But does it give short shrift to Toby Jones as the Doctor’s alter ego? With Damla from “Come Along Pond,” a Pull To Open trio decides which reality we’re waking up in. Give your own rating for Amy's Ch...

Allons-y into French history! The Reign of Terror is said to be the Doctor’s favorite era *ever* on Earth — so why isn’t “The Reign of Terror” a fan favorite? Is it just that it’s hard to find (boo, BritBox!) or did its plot go the way of the Scarlet Pimpernel? Take a seat in the history corner, citizen, and maybe you’ll survive your encounter with Madame Guillotine …  Give your own rating for The...

When you sit down to watch Classic Doctor Who, you need to have faith — faith that intellect with triumph over violence, faith that poor production values will be made up for by fascinating storylines, and faith that the people making the show actually know what they’re doing. The Curse of Fenric makes you question that faith (for at least 3 episodes anyway), but at least it has the good sense to...

Did someone order a hybrid? The combo of The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar take us on our deepest dive into Dalek territory yet. While Davros auditions for an EGOT, it’s Missy who steals the show. And hey, who turned on the HADS? Join us as we sort the overstuffed Moffat extravaganza from the weighty emotional drama!  Give your own rating for The Magician's Apprentice and The...

Daleks are used to being large and in charge, casually exterminating anything that moves with their ray guns and cruising over slave groups in their flying saucers. Take all that away from them, and what have you got? Basically a bunch of scared children, ready to freak out the moment a native gets a little too close with a spear. You get the sense the Doctor would laugh about his enemies' pre...

Daleks, Dracula and a dancing Doctor, oh my! The Chase is pretty weird and wacky, even if the original idea was even weirder (Beatles in old age makeup, anyone?) Join us live from London, 1965, as we attempt to headcanon everything in this melange of madness — right down to Peter Purves’ Alabama accent.  Give your own rating for The Chase on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Spotify ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠...

Demons of the Punjab is not your average pseudo-historical. It’s a highly effective introduction to one of the biggest 20th century catastrophes that the developed world knows little about — and a showcase for what Who can do. Join us for a very special History Corner: everything you wanted to know about Partition of India, but were too afraid of alien assassins to ask!  Give your own rating for D...

If Ncuti Gatwa didn't win you over as the Fifteenth Doctor in his debut in The Giggle, he has scene after satisfying scene in The Church on Ruby Road to do the job. From his first moments twirling in a kilt in a London club, Gatwa is in full command of the role, talking his way past policemen and ready to do battle with baby-devouring goblins. But it's his connection with Millie Gibson&#39...

Christmas came early for Doctor Who fans this year, with not one, not two, not twenty-seven, but THREE specials to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary. As we look forward to our true Christmas gift in The Church on Ruby Road, now seems like a good time to show some gratitude. Not only has the show fully transitioned to the streaming universe via its partnership with Disney+, but the takeover...

If you remember A Christmas Carol as “Scrooge in space,” remember again — before the Doctor changes your memories for you. Steven Moffat’s first Christmas special for Doctor Who is a seasonally delicious timey-wimey layer cake of Michael Gambon, Matt Smith, and nightmare sharks, with a sonic microphone song on top. Is it a Banger, or will the Bah Humbug corner convince us that Eleven interfered to...

Did you laugh? Did you cry? Did you bigenerate? The Giggle is here, and nothing in Doctor Who will be the same again. Join us as we share our full-throated reactions to Ncuti Gatwa’s debut and David Tennant’s … continuation? Remember, in the wake of the Toymaker, all opinions are now correct, especially ours. Subscribe to our newsletter at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ pulltoopen.net ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ . Please consider ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ beco...

Doctor Who meets God. No, that’s dumb, and besides — Star Trek already did it. But Doctor Who meets the Devil? That could be something, especially if you keep the precise identity of the antagonist opaque, blow up the stakes with a cosmological Rube Goldberg machine, and generally make the whole thing creepy as, uh, hell. The two-parter of The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit ticks all of those...

It's the one we don't know anything about — except now we do! Wild Blue Yonder is here, and it's so, so different from The Star Beast. After a 17th century detour to set up a, uh, weighty running gag, the real event begins: a suspenseful mystery that's rests completely on the shoulders of the cast, which in this case is only David Tennant and Catherine Tate. All's in good hands...

How could Doctor Who get out of the 1970s without doing a story about the perils of drug use? Nightmare of Eden may have its roots in gritty thrillers like The French Connection, but once the lumbering Mandrels enter the picture, things start to look more like Cocaine Bear. Despite the higher-than-average creativity — the ide of physically preserving environments in “laser crystal” storage is insp...

Beep the Meep is back... for the first time! Yes, it's The Star Beast, the first of three specials for the 60th anniversary, and at long last Pull To Open is jamming the Randomizer so we can give our extremely scorching takes on the first brand-new Doctor Who in a year. The Doctor has his old face! Donna is back — with a daughter! And Beep the Meep is here to kick ass and be cute, and it's...

Anniversary episodes are tricky things. You want to make a big, enjoyable show of things to attract an even larger audience than normal, but they’re by definition a celebration of everything that’s come before, so the need to please loyal fans is extreme. Threading that needle can be tough, but Doctor Who figured it out early: bring back previous actors who played the Doctor, get them all on scree...

If cats have nine lives, Beep the Meep must be part cat. The titular character of The Star Beast comic strip and 60th anniversary special has already had at least two lives in Doctor Who: First as a featured player in the comic strip of Doctor Who Magazine, where he (it?) encountered the Fourth Doctor twice — in Beep’s 1980 debut and the 1996 sequel. Then Beep made the jump to audio in The Ratings...