The Doctor falls over so for one week only it's Dr Barclay and his plucky assistants Ben and Polly who have to try to stop besieged base commander General Cutler from mucking everything up because his son has decided to go into space. What will podcaster Martin Holmes home in on as his favourite thing of this, the last live action Hartnell episode we have (even though Hartnell isn't in it). #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positiv...
Aug 14, 2025•51 min•Season 1Ep. 385
It's delightful how many listeners have said how conforting they find this story - and episode two is definitely comfiort viewing for the sci-fi aficionado. The introduction of a classic monster, pretty much the last hurrah of a Classic Doctor and much to recommend it in terms of action, design and production. Whatever will guest Martin Holmes choose as the episode's best biot though? Will you agree, or will you be thinking "That was really most unfortunate, he should not have done that." #docto...
Aug 07, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 384
Well, as winter gets its icy grip around us it seems appropriate to negotiate the showy wastes of the South Pole for a story that is a landmark in so many ways. Guest Martin Holmes is a podcast veteran who knows his classic TV, but what does he love about this story that has all sorts to recommend it, and yet has slipped in popularity somewhat since the early days of fandom? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho #clas...
Jul 31, 2025•54 min•Season 1Ep. 383
Returning guest Steve Hatcher takes us on a trip to the Red Planet with some old favourites - but will his favourite things be easy to guess (he thinks they are) or will a certain someone make a mess of things and end up seeing Red...? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where you will get advance releases, exclusive content (including a patron-only podcast - Far Too Much In...
Jul 27, 2025•1 hr 34 min•Season 1Ep. 382
And so things come to an end on Traken. Or do they? Do they, in fact, come to a cadence? Ask our illustrious guest Dr Tom as he is full of observations like that in what has been a very rewarding trip to a planet which revels in its own theatricality. When the final curtain is taken, will host and guest be in sync? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho #classicdoctorwho Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where ...
Jul 24, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Season 1Ep. 381
Blow winds and crack your cheeks! Or come on baby light my fire? The elements cause a keefuffle in this instalment of The Keeper of Traken, and something gets right up the Doctor's nose. And there's a real debate about what should be chosen as your host's highlight. Will he choose the right thing, or will he make a choice that will lead to the destruction of the whole planet? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho #cla...
Jul 17, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 1Ep. 380
Dr Tom (Attah) casts an eye on Dr Tom (Baker) as events of Traken take a chilling turn. Will Tom and Toby find themselves in rapport? But never mind Tom A, Tom B actually has more rapport wioth Matthew W than history tells us... #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho #classicdoctorwho Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where you will get advance releases, exclusive content (including a patron-only podcast - Far ...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Season 1Ep. 379
All round good and smart guy Dr Tom Attah casts an adoring eye over The Keeper of Traken in this podcast which goes about its day simply by featuring people being terribly nice about Doctor Who stories. But what is the aspect of this story that Dr Tom will be especially terribly nice about? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho #classicdoctorwho Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where you will get advance rele...
Jul 03, 2025•54 min•Season 1Ep. 379
To tie in with the Happy Times and Places release of The Woman Who Lived here is an interview with Gareth Berliner, who plays the coachman in the opening scene. Gareth and Toby go back a long way, so it's a lovely old chat. Since this was recorded, Gareth's wife has ALSO been in Doctor Who (she's in The Interstellar Song Contest): so it's a family affair. #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho #classicdoctorwho Please ...
Jun 29, 2025•44 min•Season 1Ep. 378
Your host got up close and personal with this episode, and he's up close and personal with someone in it as well. Does this insight mean that he'll have any advantage over guest, Joel Aarons? Listeners will have to bear with this episode as alas it is slightly glitchy, with the odd skipped syllable or two due to a wrtehced cable. Apparently you'll get used to it is test listeners are to be believbed, but apologies that it isn't up to the usual technical standard. #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #d...
Jun 26, 2025•1 hr 30 min•Season 1Ep. 376
And so one of Terry Nation's few Dalek-less stories comes to an end, but this tricky production has a few more things to trip people (or Voords) up before it finally goes out with a bang. There are still script changes to be made, and typos to overcome, but two of its personnel went on to have very different but equally illustrious careers, and they are both profiled herein: and both kindly lent their assitance to the compiling of this episode. Sadly actor Michael Allaby passed away in between c...
Jun 05, 2025•48 min•Season 2Ep. 26
Many interviews recorded for the 50th Anniversary Who's Round project were released in edited form for various reasons. Recently there's been a chance to revisit some of them and present them in their full form. The edition with Michael Allaby, actor from the Keys of Marinus and fascinating voice in the world of environmentalism, was once such, and this new edit has coincided with the recent sad death of Michael, so it seems appropriate to give this a wider release as a tribute to a fascinating ...
May 31, 2025•39 min•Season 4Ep. 3
The second - and final - bonus episode to tie in with the launch of your host's book The Quatermass Experiment - The Making of TV's First Sci-Fi Classic, which has just been published by Ten Acre Films. Jon Dear, host of BERGCast, the Nigel Kneale/Quatermass podcast, chooses his five favourite things about the last existing episode of this six-part landmark. A treat for newcomers and Quatermass aficionados alike, there's a lot of enthsusism here, and no small amount of hard won knolwedge too. En...
May 22, 2025•1 hr 49 min•Season 1Ep. 376
Normal service will be resumed in a couple of weeks (apologies to those of you waiting for the Girl Who Died to turn into the Woman Who Lived) but we make no apologies for interrupting the flow of Whocasts to broadcast a special couple of commentaries of something very important. Happy Times... host Toby Hadoke has spent the past many decades researching Nigel Kneale's seminal Quatermass serials and on Monday his book covering the fist of them - The Quatermass Experiment - comes out. To coincide...
May 08, 2025•1 hr 24 min•Season 1Ep. 375
So, a new episode ... so new it was on 9 years ago. Good Lord! Where does the time go? Joel Aarons has not done a podcast before but makes for an illuminating and self-effacing guest as he extols the virtues of an episode that has never been high on your host's list of favourites. Will this exercise change things and create a podcast in which this episode gets the gooo-gooo-gagag-ga (that's baby for "thumbs up")? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #...
May 01, 2025•1 hr 25 min•Season 1Ep. 374
Guest John Higgs has a splendid book out - Exterminate! Regenerate! is a brilliantly written and extremely insightful biography of Doctor Who (the character and the show). And so he comes onto Happy Times and Places to discuss a favorite episode of his, Amy's Choice, and to tell us all about his splendid new tome (available now!). Will choosing five favorute things be dreamy - or will he have a nigthmare and lose to host Toby Hadoke (who you'll never catch with a ponytail no matter what state yo...
Apr 24, 2025•1 hr 57 min•Season 1Ep. 373
It's time for a celebration - the tenth anniversary story that wasn't actually broadcast anywhere near the tenth anniversary. A three Doctor story in which one Doctor barely features. And a big old event that is rendered on what seems like a budget of fourpence. But it's The Three Doctors: a landmark event, chosen by voice artiste, podcaster and long term fan Siobhan Gallichan. This has never been one of your host's favourite stories, but can he conjure happiness in what has hitherto been a pret...
Apr 17, 2025•3 hr 20 min•Season 1Ep. 371
An undisputed classic, The Caves of Androzani finds an enthusiastic advocate in the form of a legend of the Liverpool fan scene, Erica Lear. Oh let me not be mad about what she chooses as her favourite thing from each episode, one of which is bound to be Peter Davison on whom she has a massive crush. In fact, knowing Erica he might be her favourite thing for every episode and the bonus! #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoc...
Apr 10, 2025•3 hr 4 min•Season 1Ep. 369
Everyone seems to have had a good time with this one, but the general feeling is that it goes off the boil a bit towards the end. Will experience make a liar of rumour, or will Toby and guest Dom Woodward go round and round in circles trying to solve simple puzzles? And there are two things to choose of course - so has your host shot his bolt with Bellal too soon, and blown up his chances in a foolish act of self sacrifice? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #t...
Apr 03, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Season 1Ep. 368
Oy Exxillon city, I can see your roots! There's destruction aplenty, a pleasing amount of fire and a trip inside one of the 700 wonders of the universe and yet none of them pack as much heat as a funny little alien played by Doctor Who's longest lived actor (who was still alive when this podcast was recorded but has since, alas, passed away). Surely the best thing about this episode is agreed by everyone, or does guest Dominic Woodward have other ideas? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhoco...
Mar 28, 2025•51 min•Season 1Ep. 367
A sneak Preview of Happy Times and Places 100 which will feature a bevy of guests (and listener correspondence) about the rebirth of Doctor Who and its opening episode Rose. But it seemed only right to mark the occasion of its 20 anniversary (upon which this commentary was recorded) to release this slimmed down version as a preview. So this contains the whole commentary of Rose and a very special guest in the shape of showrunner then and now Russell T Davies. Happy Who-day. It's fantastic! #doct...
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 22 min•Season 1Ep. 372
Exploding Daleks, volleys of arrows, drugs : this episode has it all. The episode ends with the Doctor getting to the root of the problem but before that we have two deaths, a bit of betrayal and some funky camerawork. What will comedian Dominic Woodward chose as his favourite thing ? And as for his least favourite - does he have a little mini model of it to shoot? #doctorwho #doctorwhoreaction #doctorwhocommentary #doctorwhocomedian #tobyhadoke #doctorwhofacts #positivedoctorwho #classicdoctorw...
Mar 21, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 1Ep. 366
Comedian and entertainer Dominic Woodward chooses his entry based on his watch, re-watch and watch again of the VHS omnibus of this adventure from the latter end of Jon Pertwee's tenure. Pertwee famously disliked the Daleks, and this story never seems to top many polls, so can Dominic inject a bit of magic into proceedings (oh yeah, he is a comedian, entertainer AND magician!) or will he... ahem ... die a death? It's time to shine a light in the darkness in order to illuminate the good points of...
Mar 14, 2025•59 min•Season 1Ep. 365
Back in the Days of RTD1 as it shall now be known this was, incredibly, just the third episode to be aired of this amazing new series that might have only lasted one season - that's what many of us feared anyway. It seems amazing to think of now. It was all fantastic then but the passage of time can make us more circumspect so does this Christmas Carol (from April) stand the test of the time ... and the scrutiny of our guest, comedian Jack Evans? Let take a look at the past from the present (whi...
Mar 07, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Season 1Ep. 364
Space Precinct actor and Gerry Anderson Podcast host Richard James chooses this Peter Davison story to put under the positive magnifying glass that is Happy Times and Places. Perhaps the most traditional seeming story of the Fifth Doctor's first year, The Visitation seems to have fallen out of favour in recent years. So is it a case of a plague on all four episodes or are the story's good qualities so infectiously good that by the end of it you'll be riddled with positives? #doctorwho #doctorwho...
Feb 28, 2025•2 hr 39 min•Season 1Ep. 363
Host Toby's childhood friend you've never heard of has suddenly entered entered his life and is posing all sorts of problems! She's persuaded him to watch Let's Kill Hitler and see if he can match my taste in favourite things to that of comedian Ashley Frieze, a colleague of many years standing who is also a knowledgeable and skilled musician. Will Toby and Ashley be in harmony? Meet him at your nearest cornfield and he'll let you know... Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where you will ...
Feb 21, 2025•1 hr 28 min•Season 1Ep. 362
Well, it is part 5 if a 6 parter so there's not an awful lot of When because most of the key events and decisions regarding The Keys of Marinus have already happened. There's quite a lot of What though, much of it regarding the returning William Hartnell's apparently shaky grasp of some of his lines - and as is often the case, the evidence that is usually presented about this requires a thorough re-examination. And as for Who: well, we have four contributors who won't be troubling the cast list ...
Feb 14, 2025•55 min•Season 2Ep. 26
So, guest Daren Thomas has the final episode of The Deadly Assassin in his sights. Will he and your host come up with the same account of its merits or will they have to adjust their feedback in order to make it more palatable? And will there be a surfeit of vulgar facetiousness? What fun this one has been - a bit of a Hinchliffe/Holmes/Baker love-in, if that's what you are after. Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where you will get advance releases, exclusive content (including a patron...
Feb 07, 2025•1 hr 37 min•Season 1Ep. 361
Once controversial and derided, then celebrated and important, now ... well, it's a matter of perspective innit? We take a journey into the strange, surreal world of the Matrix, which contains many individual moments that would qualify to be chosen as a Best Bit in any number of other instalments. So will Toby and guest Daren Thomas (former Holby City script editor) choose the same one - or will they deny each other's realities??? Please support these podcasts on Patreon, where you will get adva...
Jan 31, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 1Ep. 360
Well, the Doctor is in trouble, framed (and Earth expression) for a crime we know he didn't commit. As he exercises his legal rights and goes hunting for his nemeisis, what things will he do and say that will take the fancy of our guest, Holby City script editor Daren Thomas? And will host Toby Hadoke have to invoke article 17 in order to win this one? WARNING: this is turning into a bit of a love in. If you don't like The Deadly Assassin you might not have the best of times here. Please support...
Jan 24, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 1Ep. 359
