Hard to believe, but it took Doctor Who more than 50 years to get around to doing a TV adventure centered on Robin Hood. And like a speeding arrow splitting the shaft of another, Robot of Sherwood cracks your usual story assumptions: Instead of presenting an alien explanation for a mythical historical figure, the myth is offered up as historical fact. That raises a couple of notable eyebrows, leading the Doctor to take on a persona that's more cantankerous antihero than otherworldly savior, and ...
Mar 12, 2022•1 hr 30 min•Season 3Ep. 9
When you first start traveling with the Doctor, you've got to get your basics down, and a key item to tick off the list is traveling to the far future. Bill Potts got her future-events cred via a visit to the troubled human colony depicted in Smile , one of the most gorgeous episodes of the Capaldi era. Besides a wide-eyed new companion, the story features one of Doctor Who's most reliable antagonists: servant robots that have for some reason gone homicidal. Throw in a massive colony ship and so...
Mar 05, 2022•1 hr 34 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Some Doctor Who episodes are good. Some are great. Some are pretty forgettable. And some are epics — not just riveting in their characterization and storytelling, but also in the way that they established or rewrote the fundamentals of the show. The Deadly Assassin is such an epic, completely up-ending everything we knew about the Time Lords at the time. The sheer amount of Gallifreyan lore on display is what the episode is mostly remembered for, but there's also that whole "plot to kill the Lor...
Feb 26, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Season 3Ep. 7
When Doctor Who returned after a forced hiatus in the mid '80s, the show had big plans for its return: The entire season would be a single arc that would see the Time Lords subject the Doctor to an epic trial for his meddling. The Trial of a Time Lord was an ambitious and compelling idea, and years before its time considering how serialized modern franchises have become. Trial's first story has a lot going for it — an interesting mystery, a rebooted Sixth Doctor, and the delight of Tony Selby as...
Feb 19, 2022•1 hr 43 min•Season 2Ep. 6
We know the Doctor has a family, but does he date? That's a bit inconclusive. Putting aside the numerous individuals he's invited into his, uh… box to explore the universe, some of the strongest evidence that the Doctor might have those feelings about someone is The Girl in the Fireplace . It's a mystery, it's a horror story, and it's a history lesson, but most of all this episode is a romance. It's rightfully remembered as a classic, but is it because it dared to touch on the question of the Do...
Feb 05, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Season 3Ep. 5
When is a shadow not a shadow? When it's in a Doctor Who story determined to reimagine a feature of ordinary life as a homicidal creature, of course. The team of Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat created their fair share of everyday monsters, and the Vashta Nerada are one of the most memorable: Sentient shadows that consume the flesh of the living. That alone makes the one-two punch of Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead memorable, and when you add in the first appearance of River So...
Jan 29, 2022•1 hr 31 min•Season 3Ep. 4
What do trees, the end of human civilization, and the psychological trauma of losing a family member all have in common? They're all ostensibly what In the Forest of the Night is about — one of the more epic-in-scale episodes of Peter Capaldi's first series as the Doctor. It's not well remembered, a pretty clear case study of a story's reach exceeding its grasp. But it does grasp something , and with some compelling ideas and the series regulars giving it their all, it may be time to re-examine ...
Jan 22, 2022•1 hr 33 min•Season 3Ep. 3
If there was ever a companion who wasn't a companion, it's Craig. He might not have ever traveled in the TARDIS, but he still somehow made his way into the Doctor's hearts — thanks in large part to the against-type performance of James Corden. Seeing him played against Matt Smith's Doctor at his most bonkers is one of the huge treats of Closing Time , the other being the return of a classic monster, the Cybermen... though that one doesn't go over nearly so well. Is the double act enough to hold ...
Jan 15, 2022•1 hr 23 min
An ancient evil. Misguided scientists. If you're thinking, "Oh, we simply have to get these guys together," you might be a Doctor Who writer from the '70s. But if you're going to go ahead and mix this pair of volatile ingredients, it's probably best to throw in at least one wisecracking supporting character, a few paper-mâché monsters, and some ambitious ideas about the true nature of human evolution. Put it all into a delightfully sinister horror-movie backdrop on the English countryside, and y...
Jan 08, 2022•1 hr 18 min•Season 3Ep. 2
When either the Doctor or his companion takes a break for an episode, you know you're in for something unusual. That's what you get with Midnight , an outing of Doctor Who that feels more like an Agatha Christie tale than the one with Agatha Christie. But beyond the mystery, what makes the episode so unexpected is the Doctor's usual toolbox of cleverness and a little bit of sonic doesn't help him one bit. It's a compelling premise, but does it work as anything other than a thought exercise? Let'...
Dec 25, 2021•1 hr 9 min•Season 2Ep. 26
If you were looking for a single Doctor Who serial that encapsulates virtually all of the sci-fi tropes of the '70s — giant bugs, an evil sentient computer, mind-altering crystals — it'd be hard to find one that filled the bingo card as well as The Green Death . Of course, these are the tropes before they were tropes, and you can't help but admire how the story leans into them all with satisfying confidence, even when it's grossing us out with slimy maggots. But is it a worthy send-off for Jo Gr...
Dec 11, 2021•1 hr 44 min•Season 2Ep. 25
Doctor Who has a reputation for frightening its audience, but is it just as good if it creeps the hell out of them instead? That might be the most apt take on The God Complex : It's Doctor Who, but something about it is a little off, and we're not sure if we like it. An '80s hotel that seems strangely smaller on the inside, a guest cast curated to deadly perfection, and a monster that seems familiar, yet… not. The time has come for us to check into this very odd Matt Smith episode. We're sure we...
Nov 28, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Season 2Ep. 24
When a show like Doctor Who starts talking about a hybrid, you can bet it's not talking about the latest Prius. Peter Capaldi's second season cooked up a perplexing mystery around this vaguely defined being with a bifurcated background, which came to a head in the series finale, "Hell Bent." The episode pays off a lot of plotlines — the return of Gallifrey and Clara's journey, primarily — but it also throws in a bunch of extras for… fun, I guess? In any case, it's nice to see Ashildr, Ohlia and ...
Nov 13, 2021•1 hr 24 min•Season 2Ep. 23
Is "The Day of the Doctor" a great Doctor Who episode or the greatest Doctor Who episode? It sounds like a tongue-in-cheek question, but in the case of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special, we're as serious as UNIT nuclear protocols in the event of a Zygon invasion. Luckily, Pete and Chris have some help to find the answer: Alisa Stern, creator of Doctor Puppet , joins the podcast as we build toward a final verdict on the timeline-altering world-record-setting special. The Whoniverse may have c...
Oct 30, 2021•1 hr 58 min•Season 2Ep. 22
A TV show that turns television itself into a monster? That's got potential. But if you're waiting for "The Idiot's Lantern" to deliver on that potential, you should probably just switch the damn thing off already. Or... dial back your expectations! This may not be the ultraclever send-up of TV culture you wanted, but as a period piece set against the backdrop of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, it convinces you to have some fun cruising on mopeds and pursuing faceless people through 1953 London. I...
Oct 16, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 21
Companions come and companions go, but very few companions die. At least, death tends not to be the preferred exit from traveling with the Doctor, but it does happen, and Face the Raven is maybe the most dramatic companion death on record. It's perhaps a fitting end (but not really) to the arc of Clara Oswald, who was always more than your typical wayward-girl-who-stumbled-on-board-the-TARDIS. But does the story support the emotional weight of such an impactful moment? And what does "remember 82...
Oct 04, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 20
Doctor Who is sometimes notable for the wrong reasons, and sometimes it's legendary for the right ones. But what about when it's both, and in the same story? That's the case for The Talons of Weng-Chiang , which is rightly praised as a true classic Doctor Who story in every sense of the word, the culmination of producer Philip Hinchcliffe's ambitious era and the peak of Tom Baker's run of gothic horror stories. It's also an example of casually racist attitudes — not just of the Victorian era whe...
Sep 19, 2021•1 hr 14 min•Season 2Ep. 19
If you're going to make an anticapitalist statement through a Doctor Who story, you've got your work cut out for you in making it distinct enough from all the previous stories that made the same statement. Good thing, then, that Oxygen subverts the show's entire sci-fi canvas by showing us a grittily realistic outer-space scenario where the title molecule is in short supply. Add elements of zombie horror and a compelling mystery, and you almost have a Who classic in the making. Just don't get to...
Sep 05, 2021•1 hr 8 min•Season 2Ep. 18
Even Time Lords need time off. After you've saved all of reality for the 117th time, it's refreshing to kick back and simply make sure the politics of a remote colony don't go off the rails, especially if you can do it with robots. But if a baddie should rise to resist you, at least make sure he's delightfully entertaining, with oodles of scenery to chew on. If you think about it, you couldn't order up a better holiday for the Doctor, Romana and K-9 in The Androids of Tara , but is this mid- Key...
Aug 21, 2021•1 hr 11 min•Season 2Ep. 17
Got antimatter? If you don't, swing by Zeta Minor on the outskirts of the known universe, and Professor Sorenson can hook you up. Never mind the invisible monster that will stalk you until you return any and all of the (oddly stable) particles that you remove from the planet — that's just the cost of doing business. It's not how this stuff is supposed to work, but if the Doctor and Sarah are going with it, why can't you? Let's book a one-way trip to the misnamed Planet of Evil to see if there's ...
Aug 10, 2021•1 hr 27 min•Season 2Ep. 16
When you hear the words, "a Doctor Who monster created to succeed the Daleks," you know the chances of a train wreck are high. Sometimes you get something so bad it's good (hello, Mechanoids!), and sometimes you get The Krotons . The Krotons don't always attempt to influence primitive civilizations, but when they do, they're obsessed with finding high brains — which makes them a lot like today's Big Tech CEOs, just made of crystal and with a propensity to "disperse" those who don't meet the bar....
Jul 30, 2021•1 hr 22 min•Season 2Ep. 15
The Cybermen have more looks than a rack full of fashion magazines, but... why? As of the 12th Doctor era, the show finally recognized that the Cybermen look different, and not just to the viewers. But it took a long time to get there, and what do the different "types" really mean? Pete and Chris explore the Cybermen's ever-changing appearance in this special mini episode, inspired by our amazing TikTok followers — which now number more than 1,000. Thank you all for listening, watching, engaging...
Jul 25, 2021•18 min•Season 2Ep. 14
The Tenth Planet is a big deal in the Doctor Who universe — remembered for the first appearance of the Cybermen and William Hartnell's Doctor regenerating into Patrick Troughton. What it's not remembered for is its depiction of 1986, a world where space exploration is managed internationally, American generals are walking stereotypes, and the South Pole is considered a good place to store a world-destroying bomb. It's still a promising plot, but perhaps it could do with… an upgrade? Chris and Pe...
Jul 11, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Season 2Ep. 13
Be sure to follow us on TikTok at @pulltoopen , and listen to this week's podcast to find out the prize for being our 1,000th follower! We all know there's a great future in plastics, but what about the past? The Randomizer brings us back to 1970s(-ish) Britain, where the Doctor is still in exile and those pesky store-window dummies are coming to life again. But retreading the same monster as last season's premiere isn't why we remember Terror of the Autons — it's the introduction of the Master ...
Jun 27, 2021•1 hr 32 min•Season 2Ep. 12
To many, Sarah Jane Smith is the best Doctor Who companion of all time — smart, feisty, kind, and loyal to the Doctor, almost to a fault. Kind of weird, then, that the guy kicked her out of the TARDIS and left her on Earth years ago, never visiting her again. At least that's what School Reunion says happened (presumably erasing The Five Doctors with some kind of memory wipe). We'll go with it because it finally lets the series zero in on the Doctor's relationships with his closest companions, in...
Jun 12, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Season 2Ep. 11
The very first season of Doctor Who is a landmark for many reasons — the introduction of the mysterious Doctor and his granddaughter, the original story to feature the Daleks, and historical adventures involving the Aztecs and the French Revolution. The Sensorites , not so much. Still, there must be a reason the Randomizer sent Pete and Chris here — could this story about a race of telepathic weirdos with dad bods actually be a hidden gem? With some of the first references to Gallifrey's orange ...
May 30, 2021•1 hr 29 min•Season 2Ep. 10
A crashed ship. An innocent girl. And an insectoid alien with its own hidden agenda. Naps. Yep, The Rescue packs a lot into two short episodes, not the least of which is the first "new" companion of the classic series. When William Hartnell's Doctor invites Vicki to join the TARDIS as the ostensible replacement for Susan, it's hard not to draw a parallel with where the Randomizer last took the podcast, since Mawdryn Undead had similar vibes with Turlough succeeding Adric. In this case, though, t...
May 10, 2021•1 hr 17 min•Season 2Ep. 9
It has the Brigadier, a mysterious new companion, and a lot to say about regeneration — if Mawdryn Undead is anything, it's first-class fan service that's meant to appeal to longtime fans of Doctor Who. Strange, then, it's episode that long ago sparked one of our host's decades-long journey through time and space, ultimately leading to the podcast you're listening to now. Maybe that's why the randomizer took Pete and Chris here: to look at our own origins, a metaphorical "meeting of ourselves" t...
Apr 26, 2021•1 hr 34 min•Season 2Ep. 8
Another pyramid? Another fascist Earth? How could the same podcast happen to the same guys twice? Turns out it's not Osiran mummies or jackbooted thugs from someplace "sideways in time" — it's the Monks, and their plot to rule Earth naturally involves applying some corpse makeup just after they've parked their pyramid-shaped spaceship in a Central Asian country so remote it defies geography. But you could see how Chris and Pete could make that mistake, seeing as the Capaldi two-parter, The Pyram...
Apr 14, 2021•1 hr 48 min•Season 2Ep. 7
Any science-fiction show that runs long enough will inevitably have its "parallel Earth" episode. Doctor Who hit that milestone in 1970 with Inferno , an action thriller that sees the Doctor "slip sideways in time" to an Earth with a taste for fascism and clean-shaven blokes. The series' last seven-part story is fondly remembered, but does it still hold up? And more important: Is it better than Pyramids of Mars ? Ignoring all safety protocols, Chris and Pete accelerate the drilling into this epi...
Apr 02, 2021•1 hr 37 min•Season 2Ep. 6
