Episode 161: A Public Service Announcement About LARPing (The Awakening)

About this episode

The episode discusses the Doctor Who two-parter 'The Awakening' and its themes related to LARPing and pagan rituals.

We’re off to rural England, where a giant stone head is driving a group of English Civil War LARPers to a new level of intensity, while Tegan gets ready to be sacrificed as the village’s May Queen. That’s right – we’re discussing Season 21’s two-parter, The Awakening! Join us as we discuss the dangers of LARPing taken to an extreme, the first instance of a very-familiar looking crack in a wall (even though it’s not that one!), pagan sacrifices, whether Will Chandler is nothing more than a 17th Century Adric, and the problem with Andrew Varney (Tegan’s grandfather), and the show’s continued obsession with goo . Finally, Reilly confesses to having Master-related PTSD… we would ask “who hurt you!?” but the answer is clearly “Anthony Ainley!” If you would like to watch along with us, you can find this entire season available for streaming on Britbox in the USA (http://www.britbox.com) and BBC iPlayer in the UK (https://bbc.in/48GSaCB). If you’re a little old fashioned and prefer physical media (like our very own Anthony), you can also find it on the Doctor Who Season 21 Blu Ray box set available for pre-order from Amazon UK (https://amzn.to/4aLrt3v) Other media mentioned in this…

People in this episode

Host: Reilly

Topics covered

• LARPing
• pagan sacrifices
• Doctor Who
• The Awakening
• English Civil War
• media discussion
• character analysis

Keywords

• Doctor Who
• The Awakening
• LARPing
• pagan sacrifices
• English Civil War
• Tegan
• Will Chandler
• Andrew Varney
• Anthony Ainley

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Doctor Who, A Christmas Carol, Open All Hours, Pirates of the Caribbean – Complete Collection

Places: rural England

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