Who Back When | A Doctor Who Podcast

This episode should have been called “6 o’clock”* * *Doc and Belinda are still struggling to get back to Earth in 2025 because, maybe, there’s no Earth to go back to! Cue immediate action to solve that really rather large problem? Nope, let’s jump forward 500,000 years and dress up as soldiers instead. Yes, Doc needs to drop the Vindicator somewhere to get a new reading but that’s not before he and Bell have been blasted down to an unknown planet as part of some future army’s troop deployment. A quick wave of the psychic paper though and Doc gets a briefing on what’s going on and a front-row seat for the events that follow.You see there was a colony base on this planet but no one’s heard from them for a while. It soon becomes pretty obvious why: they’re all dead. Well not quite all of them. There’s one survivor, Aliss, but it’s not clear if she got lucky or if she’s really a cold hearted killer beneath the surface. While Doc goes to find out just what the colonists dug up, Bell goes into full nurse mode to patch Aliss up and help her cope with the whole shitstorm of a situation. But when Bell spots something behind Aliss’s back the scene is set for violent deaths, jump scares and the return of a forgotten foe.

We get a brand new companion, and meet a chap named Manny who wears his character arcs on his sleeves* * *17 years ago, new companion Belinda was on a date with a chap called Alan and he bought her a star. Well, he bought her a bit of paper that says the star is hers. Young Belinda unfortunately doesn’t have world experience yet and thinks it’s kind of sweet. In fact, Alan is obviously a negging control freak who probably needs a swift kick in the nads to understand the word “no”. But they’re young and he doesn’t seem to fit into the picture back in the present day.Unfortunately, the thing that is crashing into the picture of Belinda’s life is a spaceship full of robots! They come, smash some walls, kill a cat, and then demand that Belinda comes to a planet with a very familiar name. It seems that star naming was worth a bit more than the paper it was written on because these Robby Robots are pretty set on bringing Bel back to be the rightful Queen of the planet named after her.It’s a good thing Doc was also looking for Bel. He’s just a little bit too late and has to take the long way round because of a timey-wimey rift thing between Earth and the planet currently known as Missbelindachandra. Six months later in Doc’s timeline and he’s nestled in nicely with the humanoid rebels trying to revolt against the robots. Bel might be a competent nurse, but a revolution on an alien planet is a pretty tough first day on the job for any companion. Especially when your shitty ex turns up to try and mind-meld with you!

Myriad single tears later, an old man takes credit for the women doing all the work in this season finale* * *Let’s pick up where we left off, shall we? Susan Triad has turned into Sutekh’s puppet, along with Harriet Arbinger, and they’re threatening everyone with some death dust. Before you know it Sue is blowing kisses to the TV crew and they fall to the floor like grains of sand. Doc and Mel manage to escape the recording studio but UNIT’s approach of “fire first, run away later” doesn’t go to plan and their HQ now needs a good old spring clean after Ms Arbinger dusts the lot of them.While Doc and Mel outrun a dust cloud on a surprisingly speedy scooter, the rest of the planet is getting engulfed, including Ruby’s mum, grandma, and Mrs We’ll-Totally-Find-Out-All-About-Her-This-Week Flood. No time to care about that though, as Doc and Mel meet up with Ruby in the Time Window. There’s a handy memory of a TARDIS there that enigma Ruby can patch up a bit just by thinking about it, so they use it to escape into space.Sutekh’s dust of death touches every world and every time that Doc has ever visited. You see Sutekh’s been having a piggy-back ride on the TARDIS all this time and left little Susan Triad-like presents everywhere. Things look hopeless for Doc and co, but there’s one thing that might help them stop Sutekh: solve the riddle of who Ruby’s mum is. A riddle that’s so important it’s the last concern of Sutekh before wiping out all life in the universe. Surely only a time-wimey, ingeniously planned out explanation can be waiting for us as the conclusion to this whole season, right? Right?

Doc cranks the flirting up to Fifteen while some posh birds hatch a plan for homicidal Bridgerton cosplay* * *Oh, my Bridgerton, doesn’t 1813 Bath seem a wee bit familiar? With the dances, scandals and old-timey modern music, you might be mistaken for thinking you’ve fired up the wrong subscription service. But that’s our Doc on the dancefloor, about to cut a rug with that handsome chap from Mindhunter. So put the remote down, grab your hand-embroidered 13th Doc and Yaz cushion, and get ready for the most flirtatious ride of Doc’s life!You see, Doc and Ruby aren’t the only people out of place in this setting. First up, there’s the roguishly charming bounty hunter called, well, Rogue. 1 out of 10 for name choice but 10 out of 10 for looks, wit, and fancy spaceships. This debonair chap oozes such confidence you could cut the sexual tension twixt him and Doc with an ermine glove. And wait, he’s a nerd, too? Someone please change my seat cushion because I just wet myself in with excitement! Obviously, Rogue quickly turns Doc’s head, and their flirtatious banter is flying so fast you’ll have to duck to avoid getting caught in the crossfire.Rogue’s bounty is some cosplaying birds, aka the Chuldur, who haven’t so much crashed this party as crashed a handful of the unwitting attendees. Once the drama of this soiree has run its course, these shapeshifters intend to take their body-snatching show to London, Europe, and the rest of the British-hating world. So, the question on everyone’s lips is, can Doc and Rogue tear their eyes away from each other long enough to stop them?

White-power walkers are too busy influencing to notice the epic slugfest around them* * *In the immaculate city of Finetime, Lindy hops out of bed for another day of two hours’ work on substack processing, before spending the rest of the time hanging out with her Close Friends in her head-orbiting bubble, an arrangement she might call piss-easy if she ever had to urinate.But the peppy Ms Pepper-Bean has been peppered with unsolicited requests from first a moustachioed rando, then some offensive Finetime Enterprises apparatchik asking her the most stupid and obvious questions, oh my gasp. It’s enough to make a bean-counter dyspeptic!Turns out that Finetime’s gardeners have been slack about putting down pellets, because an invasion of giant slugs is slowly munching through Lindy’s friends list. And Doc can’t perform his trick of dropping a line of salt in front of the bad guys because of a pesky mono-sealed door.Can Lindy direct her own legs without the aid of her personalised support drone, or will this orphan die in Plaza 55? Will Ricky September live to see October? Where were these slugs when Earth faced the Seeds of Doom? And will Ruby have to stand up at any point this week?

The military industrial complex doesn't stand a chance against the power of dad in this bottle episode* * *“Have you done your teeth?” asks literally named father John Fancis Vater as he blindly walks through a war-torn planet. No, he’s not just paying little attention, he’s a casualty of war and has been blinded in combat. So why would he be asking about dental hygiene? Because it’s bring your daughter to work week and what kind of father would forget his duties while he’s dying out on a battlefield?Of course, death isn’t certain for all warriors blinded by the atrocities of war, so why do things seem so bleak for John and the other soldier guiding him? Because this war is all about the “bang for your buck” rather than “bang, bang you’re dead” and the capitalist forces at work don’t take kindly to soldiers that are slacking in the killing machine department. And there are Ambulances on the prowl.Ambulances, you say, surely they’ll patch ol’ Johnny boy up and he’ll be fine and dandy from now on? Well, no, they’ll run the numbers and decide he’s not worth the resources and turn him into a death canister. War’s a bitch, am I right? Also Doc is there and he’s just stepped on a mine, so that’s the rest of this nail biting, tear squirting bottle episode. Unless you count all the anti-religious sentiment, the repetitive dialog, the repetitive dialog and the repetitive dialog.

Babies, boogers and fart jokes remain an unexpected way to inaugurate a new era of Doctor Who* * *Ruby Sunday is in for a fun day, a she-gon’-have-to-run-day, as the marvellous Fifteenth Doctor with his pearly whites full-beaming gives her a whistle-stop TARDIS orientation, a quick chaos effecting and un-effecting tour of the past, then whisks her into Babystationary orbit above the planet Pacifico del Rio. And she likes the jukebox.However, turn this baby around and Doc is showing his new-found friend a stinking corridor and a bunch of inexplicably stunted infants who are kind of CGI but not nearly enough. They’re piloting the ship with a little help from Nan-E, and—Soiler alert!—all that, a howler of a Bogeyman and a steaming pile combine to kick off this new year with a literal gas leak.

Inter-temporal infanticide and a divisive song-and-dance number? We spend more than twice its runtime dissecting The Fifteenth Doctor's first big adventure.* * *A mysterious cloaked figure enigmatically leaves a newborn baby behind on the collection doorstep of St. Building Atmosphere’s Church one snowy Christmas Eve, departing without so much as a “Goodbye, Ruby Sunday”. Who could hang that name on her?Flash forward 18 years and the foundling has grown up to become another wide-eyed portion of grist for Davina McCall’s sentimentality mill. But just when Ruby hopes to find out about her family, her foster mum Carla gets a new baby with the same birthday to care for over Christmas.Enter the Fifteenth Doctor, catching Ruby’s gin and tonic here, sprinting down roof ridges there. Turns out her accidents were no accident, this series of coincidences indeed no coincidence, as every adopted character ever fostered in the show has become fair game for the gobblin’.

The Toymaker temporarily relinquishes his confounding mock-German accent while lip-syncing to Spice Girls in Stark Tower for the conclusion of the 60th Anniversary Specials* * *It’s 1925 and John Logie Baird would have invented television already if only it weren’t for the tragic lack of a televisual crash test dummy. Fortunately, just across the road, the affable Mr Emporium’s Toy Shop stands ready and waiting. A few cuts later, a chap we’ve known was the Toymaker for at least a year now furnishes his assistant with a puppet whose noiseless, manipulative giggle will be emblazoned upon all types of screens forever. Fast-forward to 2023 and London—and by extension the world—is in turmoil.South Korea has just launched a new television satellite into orbit and suddenly everyone in the world thinks they’re all right then about everything. Anarchy is the only logical consequence and thus Doc und Donna join the UN-gers at Stark Tower to piece it all together. Cut back to 1925, and DnD have instantly tracked down the Toymaker, enjoyed front-row seats to a scaled-back NuWho recap for the Disney+ subscribers, lost a game, and whizzed back to 2023 again, where a second-rate third act and a hopefully first-class 15th Doctor await.

Happy New Year! Here's a glimpse at some of the bits that didn’t go quite as planned* * *What-Ho, Podcastland! Hope you’re enjoying a sensational holiday season and looking forward to the most decadent of New Year’s celebrations! It’s been an eventful and momentous year. We FINALLY caught up with famous-TV-show-we-all-really-really-like Doctor Who, after over 10 years of podcasting about it. Yep, indeed, we haven’t uploaded reviews of the latest three episodes yet, but fret not, Who Back When Phase 2 is well underway, and we’ll return very soon with reviews of the remaining 60th Anniversary Specials as well as of Ncuti’s first Christmas adventure. Can’t wait! :) Phase 2 also promises a tonne of other stuff. There may be the odd review here and there, and we have at least two audio adventures, possibly three, coming up soonish.But in the meantime, here are some of our traditional New Year’s bloopers, along with an enormous Hug to say thanks, Podcastland, for being some of the best people in all of Time and Space. Happy New Year!! Catch you in 2024.Ciao-Ciao,WBW

We're joined by legendary Whovian, jD, as we continue our trip down that temporal road* * *We continue our trip down the temporal road that is memory lane in Part 2 of our Who Back When Retrospective.(If you haven't listened to Part 1 yet, what are you waiting for?!)This time, Drew and Leon were joined by former co-host and perpetual legend, jD, to talk some of the best and worst of 60 years of Doctor Who, share podcast/docpast memories and generally just catch up.Fret not, while this is the end of Who Back When as we know it, it's not quite the end of Who Back When overall. We will continue to drop ad hoc episodes, starting with reviews of the imminent 60th anniversary specials, and there is plenty of Bonus content in the pipeline.Thank you again, Podcastland, for being your fabulous selves!WBW

A deep-dive into the successes (and failures) of a Doctor, a show runner and an era of Doctor Who.* * *If you haven't already, then listen to our reviews of the 31 13th Doctor episodes!Jodie Whittaker's and Chris Chibnall's Thirteenth Doctor Era came to an end on TV just a year before we wrapped it up on Who Back When. We've reviewed every single Thirteenth Doctor episode — some of them twice! — and as we are wont to do, we are taking a step back and reflecting on what we've just experienced.It was, in so many ways, a game changer: we finally had our first-ever female Doctor; it became an altogether more cinematic production; and Doc's backstory was rewritten, for better or worse. For only the second time in Doctor Who history we even got a single-arc, standalone-story season in Flux (the first time since Trial of a Time Lord)!Ipso facto, there was a lot to unpack here. In this bonus episode, we obviously touch upon the standard categories of our Doctor Retros (companions, villains, best/worst episodes...), but more than that we reflect on a Doctor and show runner who tried to do things a little differently, dissect what worked and what didn't, and look ahead at what their legacy will mean for future incarnations. You won't want to miss this one, Podcastland!

Two wildly different milestone stories, neither canonical, one rather pants, the other quite amazing. All right, here we go!* * *We sit down to discuss two bits of Whovian lore that coincided with milestone anniversaries. Dimensions in Time, about which truthfully there isn't much to say, and Scream of the Shalka which Stars Withnail and Claudius and is pretty terrific.Dimensions in Time (30th Anniversary)The Rani has kidnapped one specimen of every species in the universe, except for the Time Lords, of whom she has two disembodied Doctor heads, and plans to clone those specimens and fashion a time tunnel along the Greenwich meridian, and thereby trap The Doctor in a so-called "20 year loop" that doesn't quite loop so much as have every living Doctor and companion play swapsies on the set of EastEnders while all the aliens in the BBC wardrobe department make an appearance as the Rani's army of ineffectual baddies that threaten but never attack The Doctors because why would they, The Rani has a laser cannon, and do we ever find out what happens to the disembodied heads or Leela's clone, no, ok then, never mind.Scream of the Shalka (40th Anniversary)Shaggy and Logan-5-in-a-suit stumble upon a fresh meteorite, out of which springs a Shalka, a bio-plasmic, lava-based creature intent on subjugating enough of mankind in order to use them to crank up climate change to the max, end the World, and thereby make it comfortably habitable for itself. But a brand new one-of-a-kind Ninth Doctor (no, not that one) has just been summoned to Earth by the Time Lords to deal with the situation. He's grumpy and sardonic, sarcastic, witty and debonair. He's ostensibly a sober, twin-hearted, regenerating Withnail, although he's working on remedying that pesky sobriety, and you'll not want to miss him, Podcastland!