Daleks, Dracula and a dancing Doctor, oh my! The Chase is pretty weird and wacky, even if the original idea was even weirder (Beatles in old age makeup, anyone?) Join us live from London, 1965, as we attempt to headcanon everything in this melange of madness — right down to Peter Purves’ Alabama accent. Give your own rating for The Chase on Spotify ! Subscribe to our newsletter at pulltoopen.net for extended ...
Jan 06, 2024•1 hr 35 min•Season 5Ep. 1
Demons of the Punjab is not your average pseudo-historical. It’s a highly effective introduction to one of the biggest 20th century catastrophes that the developed world knows little about — and a showcase for what Who can do. Join us for a very special History Corner: everything you wanted to know about Partition of India, but were too afraid of alien assassins to ask! Give your own rating for Demons of the Punjab on Spotify ! ...
Dec 30, 2023•1 hr 40 min•Season 4Ep. 56
If Ncuti Gatwa didn't win you over as the Fifteenth Doctor in his debut in The Giggle, he has scene after satisfying scene in The Church on Ruby Road to do the job. From his first moments twirling in a kilt in a London club, Gatwa is in full command of the role, talking his way past policemen and ready to do battle with baby-devouring goblins. But it's his connection with Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday, a fellow "foundling," where the story really shines — maybe even brightly enough to get us to ov...
Dec 26, 2023•38 min•Season 4Ep. 55
Christmas came early for Doctor Who fans this year, with not one, not two, not twenty-seven, but THREE specials to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary. As we look forward to our true Christmas gift in The Church on Ruby Road, now seems like a good time to show some gratitude. Not only has the show fully transitioned to the streaming universe via its partnership with Disney+, but the takeover of new-old showrunner Russell T. Davies has bestowed hardcore fans with a not-so-secret gift: a single ...
Dec 23, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Season 4Ep. 54
If you remember A Christmas Carol as “Scrooge in space,” remember again — before the Doctor changes your memories for you. Steven Moffat’s first Christmas special for Doctor Who is a seasonally delicious timey-wimey layer cake of Michael Gambon, Matt Smith, and nightmare sharks, with a sonic microphone song on top. Is it a Banger, or will the Bah Humbug corner convince us that Eleven interfered too much? Let’s head down the chimney and find out! Give your own rating for A Christmas Carol on ...
Dec 16, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Season 4Ep. 53
Did you laugh? Did you cry? Did you bigenerate? The Giggle is here, and nothing in Doctor Who will be the same again. Join us as we share our full-throated reactions to Ncuti Gatwa’s debut and David Tennant’s … continuation? Remember, in the wake of the Toymaker, all opinions are now correct, especially ours. Subscribe to our newsletter at pulltoopen.net . Please consider becoming a patron of Pull To Open on Patreon. Please review Pull To Open on ...
Dec 10, 2023•44 min•Season 4Ep. 52
Doctor Who meets God. No, that’s dumb, and besides — Star Trek already did it. But Doctor Who meets the Devil? That could be something, especially if you keep the precise identity of the antagonist opaque, blow up the stakes with a cosmological Rube Goldberg machine, and generally make the whole thing creepy as, uh, hell. The two-parter of The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit ticks all of those boxes and includes a bonus: the Ood, one of NuWho’s most indomitable monsters in more ways than one...
Dec 09, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Season 5Ep. 51
It's the one we don't know anything about — except now we do! Wild Blue Yonder is here, and it's so, so different from The Star Beast. After a 17th century detour to set up a, uh, weighty running gag, the real event begins: a suspenseful mystery that's rests completely on the shoulders of the cast, which in this case is only David Tennant and Catherine Tate. All's in good hands, then. Subscribe to our newsletter at pulltoopen.net . Please consider becoming a patron of Pul...
Dec 03, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 50
How could Doctor Who get out of the 1970s without doing a story about the perils of drug use? Nightmare of Eden may have its roots in gritty thrillers like The French Connection, but once the lumbering Mandrels enter the picture, things start to look more like Cocaine Bear. Despite the higher-than-average creativity — the ide of physically preserving environments in “laser crystal” storage is inspired — absolutely no one in the cast looks like they’re having any fun, which, if you think about it...
Dec 02, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Season 4Ep. 49
Beep the Meep is back... for the first time! Yes, it's The Star Beast, the first of three specials for the 60th anniversary, and at long last Pull To Open is jamming the Randomizer so we can give our extremely scorching takes on the first brand-new Doctor Who in a year. The Doctor has his old face! Donna is back — with a daughter! And Beep the Meep is here to kick ass and be cute, and it's pretty much done with being cute. Let's engage our dagger drives and dig in. Subscribe to our newsletter at...
Nov 26, 2023•39 min•Season 4Ep. 48
Anniversary episodes are tricky things. You want to make a big, enjoyable show of things to attract an even larger audience than normal, but they’re by definition a celebration of everything that’s come before, so the need to please loyal fans is extreme. Threading that needle can be tough, but Doctor Who figured it out early: bring back previous actors who played the Doctor, get them all on screen together, and see what happens. You can see that throughline all the way to last year’s The Power ...
Nov 25, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Season 4Ep. 47
If cats have nine lives, Beep the Meep must be part cat. The titular character of The Star Beast comic strip and 60th anniversary special has already had at least two lives in Doctor Who: First as a featured player in the comic strip of Doctor Who Magazine, where he (it?) encountered the Fourth Doctor twice — in Beep’s 1980 debut and the 1996 sequel. Then Beep made the jump to audio in The Ratings War for Big Finish, meeting the Sixth Doctor where we finally got to hear the creature’s catchphras...
Nov 18, 2023•45 min•Season 4Ep. 46
In Doctor Who’s early years, there were many episodes where the Doctor was noticeably absent, usually because William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton needed a holiday from the grueling shooting schedule. But Human Nature is the only episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor doesn’t appear at all outside of flashbacks. Of course, David Tennant is front and center, giving a performance for the ages, literally, in John Smith. There are many reasons this episode, along with the conclusion, The Family of ...
Nov 11, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Season 4Ep. 45
Perhaps no classic episode has benefited more from a “special edition” than Day of the Daleks . Although it tells a solid timey-wimey paradox story, the original version didn’t do justice to Doctor Who’s No. 1 monsters. They only made three rather diminutive props for the story, and the voices made Lumbergh from Office Space sound good. But when you add some convincing disintegration effects and dub new cries of “Exterminate!” from the incomparable Nicholas Briggs, it really levels up this adven...
Nov 04, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Season 4Ep. 44
OK, you've got us — not all 100 stories were randomly picked. That's because when we were but a wee newborn Doctor Who podcast, we weren't random. Series 12 was underway and, after reviewing every single Christmas episode, we zeroed in on the current season. But that was predictable, common, perhaps even a little basic. Pull To Open needed something more. So in 2021, we wired in the Randomizer into our podcast and haven't looked back. Since then we've done 100 different stories from almost every...
Oct 29, 2023•54 min•Season 4Ep. 43
Instantaneous teleportation between any two points on Earth? Sounds pretty convenient — so convenient that it might lead to a stagnant society ripe for conquest by the next passing alien force. Yes, The Seeds of Death tees up the planet quite nicely for the Ice Warriors, but it’s hard to close the deal when your troops faint when they get close to a radiator, your diabolical bioweapon fizzles the moment it starts to rain, and your space fleet is being steered by Mr. Magoo. Sure, it doesn’t take ...
Oct 21, 2023•1 hr 46 min•Season 4Ep. 42
Plenty of casual viewers of Doctor Who have been hooked into becoming fans because of the cold opens. Well, we don’t have stats or anything, but that feels true — because there are just so damn many great ones in the show that have gotten viewers to cancel plans, skip trips to the bathroom, or leave something burning on the stove because you just have to watch. A good cold open doesn’t necessarily mean a good episode will result, but it doesn’t hurt. So what makes a good cold open? It should be ...
Oct 14, 2023•1 hr 30 min•Season 4Ep. 41
What exactly is the Doctor’s attitude towards changing history? With all the pure historicals of the era, William Hartnell’s Doctor actually has a lot to say about this. While The Aztecs makes clear his reluctance to interfere in history, The Myth Makers shows his bemusement at becoming a part of it — and his regret at seeing the consequences of that participation. It’s a surprisingly mature takeaway from an otherwise lighter take on the Trojan War, one that at times rivals The Romans for moment...
Oct 07, 2023•1 hr 55 min•Season 4Ep. 40
If you want hard evidence that the UNIT era — when Jon Pertwee’s Doctor was exiled to Earth after being put on trial by the Time Lords — was set in the “near future,” look no further than The Ambassadors of Death . With routine missions to Mars, nuclear fuel available in factories on the British countryside, and space capsules that can land on solid ground no less, this is a version of the future that the 20th century never delivered on, and much of the advances are still stubbornly out of reach...
Sep 30, 2023•1 hr 51 min•Season 4Ep. 39
An intelligent cactus? A society that worships a giant 12-sided shape? Barbara, but not Barbara? You don’t have to get very far into Meglos to begin to feel this story is the result of a drunken session of Doctor Who mad libs, complete with its own game show segment: How Do Time Lords Get Out of a Time Loop? One thing you can’t take away from Megos — it thoroughly and completely goes for it, and Tom Baker’s double act as both the Doctor and his prickly doppelganger provides a nice throughline fo...
Sep 23, 2023•1 hr 33 min•Season 4Ep. 38
Doctor Who has its share of metaphors, but perhaps none so naked as the eponymous company featured in Kerblam! (the only TV story so excited to feature an exclamation point in the title). With its motivational corporatespeak, closely monitored warehouse workers, and super-efficient delivery robots (that may or may not be homicidal), Kerblam is an obvious stand-in for Amazon — just projected out several thousand years. As you’d expect, Kerblam! certainly has some things to say about Bit Tech, aut...
Sep 16, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Season 4Ep. 37
It’s not a good idea to bet against the Doctor. There are lots of lessons learned in Doctor Who’s second “pure” historical, The Aztecs , but the folly going against the instructions of the curmudgeon with the time ship is probably the biggest. Of course, Barbara’s attempts to rewrite history by softening the more barbaric instincts of the eponymous civilization are what gives this particular story its weighty drama, so we’ll forgive her for not getting the memo. But the true lesson of this seria...
Sep 09, 2023•1 hr 41 min•Season 4Ep. 36
Two full seasons in, Doctor Who finally gave viewers a hint of where its mysterious main character came from in The Time Meddler , a story that introduced the Doctor’s first time-traveling rival, the Monk. If the War Chief was a Master prototype, the Monk is the concept phase — the Doctor’s ideological opposite at a time long before the character became a righter of wrongs on a cosmological scale. Sure, the Monk is simply mischievous, but the fact that he’s morally closer to the Doctor than late...
Sep 02, 2023•1 hr 39 min•Season 4Ep. 35
When your show goes on hiatus for 15 years, the result is a literal generation gap of fandom. If you happen to be one of the many fans who have grown up on the series “Doctor Who” that began in 2005, you’re certainly aware of the Classic series but you may also be intimidated by just how much of it there is. Twenty-six seasons comprises a whole hell of a lot of television, so it’s difficult to know where to start. Well, we’ve got you covered: Chris and Pete have picked out the five stories from ...
Aug 26, 2023•27 min•Season 4Ep. 34
Doctor Who rarely did season-long arcs in the Classic series, but sprinkled here and there are mini storylines like the E-Space trilogy. After all, what better way to raise the stakes a bit AND introduce a new companion than to maroon your regulars in a pocket universe for a few episodes? Well, if you’re going to use cliche marsh creatures and sad plastic spiders as your chief antagonists, that might be a sign your mini arc isn’t starting on the right foot. Yes, there’s a bit too much nonsense g...
Aug 19, 2023•1 hr 51 min•Season 4Ep. 33
Doctors come and go, and each leaves their mark on the role — one as iconic as Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. But outside of their undeniable impact on Doctor Who, some of the actors who have played the Doctor go on to impress and find audiences in other roles. Even if those parts may not match the level of notoriety a franchise like Doctor Who bestows, those performances sometimes demonstrate a range and expertise in their craft few can match. Who are the actors who best fit that description? I...
Aug 12, 2023•42 min•Season 4Ep. 32
Returning to Gallifrey to fight an old enemy sounds like a surefire formula for a Doctor Who epic. So why then is Arc of Infinity so bland? Kicking off the show’s 20th anniversary season, this story seems determined to undermine the memories of classics like The Deadly Assassin and The Three Doctors, turning the formidable Omega into a cowering refugee and completing the Time Lords’ reduction from gods to members of a squabbling afterschool club with ostentatious collars. Even the refreshing Ams...
Aug 05, 2023•1 hr 58 min•Season 4Ep. 31
We don't always live up to our own ideals. Doctor Who's main character is no exception: The Doctor's mantra is "never be cruel or cowardly" — created by writer Terrance Dicks as an off-screen guideline during the classic series until it became official in the new series, with Peter Capaldi's Doctor going so far as to remind Jodie Whittaker's of the catchphrase in his dying moments. But there have been numerous times in the Doctor's adventures that he's acted in ways that contravene this philosop...
Jul 29, 2023•53 min•Season 4Ep. 30
Being the Doctor is a tough job, but when he’s unavailable, few are better qualified to fill in for him than Clara Oswald. Flatline ’s clever script thrusts her into the position after the Doctor is trapped in the TARDIS by one of the most ingenious monsters of the series, a group of silent two-dimensional invaders the Doctor names the Boneless. Building on its intriguing role reversal, Flatline is a suspenseful thriller packed full of smart visual gags, an excellent guest cast, and pertinent th...
Jul 22, 2023•1 hr 53 min•Season 4Ep. 29
Is it possible for Doctor Who to have too much time and money? Judging by Legend of the Sea Devils — one of just three stories made since 2021 — the answer is, “Aye!” Boasting some of the biggest sets Doctor Who has ever had and the return of a mostly well-remembered classic monster, this pirate adventure seemed destined to be a treasure. But nobody’s heart seems in this outing — not the inept villain, nor the creatively dressed Team TARDIS, nor the diverse and capable guest cast ready to dive d...
Jul 15, 2023•1 hr 49 min•Season 4Ep. 28
