Who Back When | A Doctor Who Podcast

Doc ditches the fam at the end of the Cyber Wars and Irish Moses grows up to be the village super cop * * * The Cyberwars have taken quite a toll on mankind and only seven humans remain on this side of the universe. Those who haven’t already been killed or assimilated, so legend says, have escaped by portaling from a distant MacGuffin planet to an even more distant utopian galaxy. The no-longer-Lo...

Doc and Mel B dodge senior citizen cannibals and team up with colour-coded girl gangs against the fascists standing in their way of a swimming pool * * * In a desperate bid to finally witness something of interest in the universe and enable her character arc to culminate in something even remotely meaningful, Mel B compels The Seventh Doctor to take her to a block of flats with a rooftop pool. The...

A chilling new nemesis in search of a firmware upgrade terrorises a literary coterie at the absolute zenith of its creativity * * * Doc and the fam have reached the ‘let’s dress up and meet some famous authors’ stage of deliberately avoiding dealing with your mysterious backstory, and with Shakespeare's labours lost to a previous series, it’s the turn of Mary Shelley and Frankenstein to waste...

The Rani implements a convoluted stratagem and the Seventh Doctor skips over plot holes in his debut serial * * * Taking off his Colin Baker wig, Sylvester McCoy arises as the Seeeeeeeventh Doctor in a debut serial, and where better to kick off than in a quarry? The Rani has returned to wreak havoc upon the universe through the most simplistic of plots. She’s simply going to kidnap geniuses from a...

Well, we would if you’d stop fingering our ears, buddy. * * * When the Thirteenth Doctor drops off her three companions you had better believe she’s just waiting for an excuse to pop off and pick up another one. One instantaneous excuse later, she finds herself in medieval Aleppo recruiting an emotionally vulnerable local woman who’s about to freak out when she sees the inside of the TARDIS. Meanw...

A heartfelt look back at the highs and lows of the fabulous Colin Baker’s run as The Sixth Doctor * * * Wow, that went by quickly! We spent last year watching, reviewing and enjoying The Sixth Doctor, so in keeping with tradition we are kicking off this year with a look back at his run. Colin Baker, in addition to being an utterly spiffing chap, is a fantastic actor and we would have loved more of...

Happy New Year, Podcastland! OMG, it’s 2023, the year we catch up! * * * Thanks for a fabulous 2022, dearest Podcastland!  Here’s wishing you a mesmerisingly happy 2023, awash with good health, good fortune, fun, laughs, smooches, pooches, mittens, kittens, tonnes of giggles, sunshine, peace and love!  Lots of hugs, WBW

Vloggers neither mourn nor vlog in this well-intentioned eco-piece. Also, why would you camp in a tip?! * * * An astronaut returning to Earth is kidnapped by aliens inexplicably hiding out in Hong Kong, but manages to text his unlikely husband and spare-time child-tackler to come rescue him, using a mobile phone he probably doesn’t have. Meanwhile in Peru, the travel blogging duo of Gabriella and...

The Valeyard's true identity revealed, a surprise Master appearance, and a trial finale that would not hold up in court * * * The trial of, and our time with, the Sixth Doctor are coming to an end. Doc sticks to his guns, and yet again insists that the Matrix has been tampered with, calling into question the validity of the so-called evidence against him. Extra Time Lord character of the week,...

A WHO-dunnit with provocative space plants that flounders a little in the mystery department * * * After a small recess in the trial, we’re treated to another piece of evidence, i.e. another regular Doctor Who serial played out on Time Lord TV. This time, however, it’s Doc who’s using some material from the Matrix, as he’s finally got a chance to defend himself. Weirdly, he’s chosen a piece from t...

Apparently there's just one place in all of Gloucester that sells coffee * * * Ruth Clayton is a thoroughly average married woman and unappreciated tour guide to the dribbling dimwits visiting the cathedral city of Gloucester, where if the jealousy and hostility from the failed barman-cum-barista are to be believed, there’s only one place anyone can buy coffee. Although to his credit he does r...

Entirely different mind transplant technologies and Chekhov's waisted stinger * * * As the trial of our favourite Time Lord continues, the court is MST3K’d to the Doctor’s most recent adventure on the planet of Thoros Beta, a planet so mesmerizingly and distractingly coloured that he and Peri soon venture below ground instead. There, they encounter a sharp-toothed monster, but the first of man...

An incomprehensible train sequence and, erm... So, Tesla has a working death ray now? * * * The Thirteenth Doctor and Fam fall Through The Mists of Time into the domain of a chap who’s absolutely obsessed with High Voltage. It’s only that Live Wire Nikola Tesla, don’t you know! And a floating sci-fi orb has caught his attention, as has a band of electric zombie creatures who are out to get him. He...

The Doctor, The Valeyard and The Inquisitor sit down to MST3K a great episode of Doctor Who * * * Doc is on trial! It would seem that the Time Lords have been monitoring his exploits and aren’t too happy with the way he’s interfered with other life forms and civilizations. The prosecution, trying to hold Doc to account, is in the form of a Gallifreyan called the Valeyard (or Scrapyard as Doc would...

We did our very best not to get upset with this episode, but do sincerely wish that you’d recycle nonetheless. * * * Graham’s in his Speedos, so like it or not, that giant post-coital squid tentacle will have to remain rotting on the TARDIS floor until the fam get back from holiday at the Tranquillity Spa, an off-world fake-cation resort where the sentient squirrel staff don’t look askance no matt...

What? What?! WHAT?! We sat down to discuss Jodie Whittaker's final adventure as The Thirteenth Doctor mere moments after watching it unfold on TV * * * Wow! Jodie Whittaker's Thirteenth Doctor regenerated only  yesterday (!) into The Tenth Doctor (?!)  and Drew and Leon sat down to watch the adventure unfold in realtime, only to stand up, mix a fresh drink and sit right back down again to...

Half an hour of uninformed, exuberant rambling about what The Power of The Doctor MIGHT be about * * * Holy Moly, as this episode drops into your earballs, The Power of The Doctor , the Whittaker and Chibnall Doctor Who finale, is a mere two days away from airing. And while we will of course be providing an Instant(ish) Reaction Review of it the day after the premiere, we thought we'd have som...

A trilogy of cybertronic audio adventures meanders towards a decline and we can't help but object to the fate of two legendary Classic companions * * * After the traumatic events of The Reaping, Kathy Chambers has found a new drive, sailed through medical school, and flown down to Brisbane, Australia to escape the law and keep her nearly-catatonic nearly-cybertronic brother Nate in half-conver...

It's the long-awaited continuation of Whovian bants with Steven of New To Who Fame! * * * It's been over two months since B082 NewToWhoBackWhen, Part 1  dropped—apologies for the long delay—but here it is, finally, the continuation of NewToWhoBackWhen, aka New Two WhoBackWhen! Imagine it, Podcastland. Steven of New To Who  fame had popped round Oxford for a couple of days to do some sights...

The Master doles out diminutive deaths and, wow, those laser shoes really paid off in the end! * * * Opening on Part 1’s epic cliffhanger, Doc is stuck in a brainforest, Team TARDIS is plummeting to Earth in a cockpit-less plane, “O” was in fact The Master all along, and mankind is about to be reformatted. Oh, yes, didn’t we mention that before? Extra-dimensional space aliens, the Cassavin, are mo...

Davros soufflés the venerable dead and Soylent-Greens the rest while an annoying DJ provides the narration * * * There’s no preamble to this one, Doc and Peri arrive slap-bang on the planet-of-the-week, Necros, to pay their respects to the recently deceased professor, Arthur Stengos (one of the finest agronomists in the galaxy, don’t you know). As they head to the Tranquil Repose funeral home we g...

The Doctor's nemesis returns as a chap with mommy issues conspires with extra-dimensional beings to turn humankind into wifi hard drives! * * * As secret agents all over the world are having their DNA reformatted, “C”, head of MI6, has The Thirteenth Doctor and Team TARDIS brought in to investigate. Doc, after all, is the only person who knows anything about any of this! Alas, Doc can’t really...

An alien demi-lizard in the future dispatches Blue Man Group androids to kidnap Peri, while exiling non-conformist subjects to 19th century Scotland * * * On the planet Karfel, the despotic Borad rules the population of roughly 500 with an iron fist, forcing them to obey his every whim or face excommunication by way of the titular Timelash, a corridor through space and time that leads to almost ce...

Dalek Rec doesn't stand a chance against Chekhov's combination oven * * * NB: This is the second time we've discussed this Doctor Who episode on the podcast. For our tipsy instant-reaction-review, check out B052 Resolution ! It’s New Year’s Day and office romance is algal-blooming in the sewers beneath Sheffield Town Hall, where an archaeological dig that couldn’t possibly be undertake...

The Second Doctor is back and teaming up with The Sixth against alien gluttons and bearded Sontarans in Seville * * * The Second Doctor and his trusted companion, not-so-wee-anymore Jamie, are tasked by Galifrey to go to a scientific research station in the Third Zone where a pair of scientists are getting a little too close to figuring out time travel and might cause a temporal paradox in the pro...