Strangers in Space

Another week, another trip to the past - and this time, we're visiting the recent past. It's 2011, and it's the turn of Matt Smith's second series to come under the microphone.

Our host Matt chooses films in ten categories, that have made a significant impression upon him. Opening theme: Unilever

Is Tom Baker's second series as Doctor Who the best season ever? It certainly has a huge claim on being the most popular. Time, then, for us to head back to the autumn of 1975 and rediscover what it has to offer for ourselves. With apologies to herbarianband (aka Andy Walker) for borrowing the art.

With most of the rest of the Best Picture nominees - and some other interesting titles - turning up on home media platforms of late, and after we turned the spotlight on Joker a few months ago, we thought it was time to give our thoughts on the likes of Jojo Rabbit, Once Upon a Time .,.. in Hollywood, and of course Parasite.

Join the Strangers in Space team as they head back to early 1985, in order to re-examine Doctor Who's first attempt at moving to 45-minute episodes, as producer JN-T nears the end of his Eric Saward experiment. It's our re-review of Season 22 folks! With apologies to FunnyNWittyReferenc for borrowing the art...

Having quizzed quite plenty about Doctor Who, we thought it was time to try out some questions on our other big love: the movies. 

The last few years of modern Doctor Who have proposed the question, Do the Cybermen only really 'work' if they're the henchmen of one iteration of the Master or another? We decided to ask our listeners a different question entirely: What's your favourite Cyberman story? Here be the answers.

Our host J.R. chooses films in ten categories, that have made a significant impression upon him. Opening theme: Unilever

Our season by season wander back through the meanderings of (mostly) original run Doctor Who fetches up in 1965/6; it's time for William Hartnell's final full season as the eponymous character to go under the Strangers in Space microphone.

With Lee, Simon and Matt having each won a heat, it's time to find out which of the three knows their Doctor Who the best. So join us for the grand final of our coronavirus quiz, in which lockdown starts getting to Simon, Lee takes it all in his stride and CyberMatt's will to win almost sees him breaking a sweat.

A special lockdown episode chewing the lean over some mini-topics as suggested by our listeners. Well, we say "special", you'll have to determine that for yourselves.

Matt is joined by JR this week to compare the French romantic thriller L'Appartement, with its American remake Wicker Park, a film that Steven Spielberg was at one point attached to, and that ultimately ended up being made by the director who went on to create the visual style for Moffat and Gatiss' Sherlock

The first (and possibly only genuine) companion death, a whodunit without a "who" (although it does feature two Doctors, one of which doesn't even bother to show up) and an alien world that was only conjured into being just in time to turn up on the telly; it's back to 1982 this week as the Strangers in Space podcast revisits the rudderless season that was Peter Davison's first.

With everybody else having won a quiz (except for JR, who sets the quiz), you'd think Matt would have an easy time of it in this last of the three preliminary heats. But oh no, it's not as simple as that; Matt still has competition, even if only of the virtual variety - so can he beat everybody else off and emerge triumphant?

Can Season One and Series Three live together in perfect harmony? Or: which is reallest, the original run or Nu Who? We don't know, but we thought it would be fun to find out.

The 'Other Three' chat about writing in this bonus podcast

After Lee's unexpected victory in the first quiz, Simon and Matt battle it out to see who will be the worthiest challenger in the next round. Surely it's got to be Matt this time, right?

It's back to Jon Pertwee's first series of Doctor Who this time around, as we invite our listeners to vote the four stories into order of preference and work our way through the results. (with apologies to Douglas Sommerville for borrowing his Blu-ray-inspired artwork)

It's eight years since Lee and J.R. first published a podcast together, so it's only right that for our anniversary, J.R. should set the Strangers a quiz for Lee to make a right hash of. Can Simon make up the ground, or will it be Matt's academic training that sees him triumph?

Seven years on from the Blue Box Podcast's dissection of The Key to Time, the Strangers in Space head back to 1978 for another look at Season 16 - this time with input from our listeners!

Looking back over the highs and low of Series 12, now that we're able to see the whole thing in context

A short bonus podcast before we get back on track next week, with a solo J.R. reading out the listeners' feedback and revealing the Series 12 poll results

A look at the films of Alfred Hitchcock, with particular emphasis of The 39 Steps and Psycho as examples of the two genre types he was most associated with

There's a lot to talk about this week, so as you'll probably expect, we take a lot of time to talk about it... It's our review of the Series 12 finale episode, The Timeless Children.

Actors' agent and audio producer Clare Eden chooses the eight items she would take with her, if she was about to be marooned on a desert planet Clare's website The John Thaw Foundation Clare on Twitter Clare on Facebook Opening theme: Jesus Couldn't Drum