Doctor Who: Watchers in the Fourth Dimension

In this penultimate episode of the Davison era, we continue to clear house of the Fifth Doctor’s TARDIS by finally saying goodbye to Turlough (and there was much rejoicing by Julie and Reilly). That’s right dear listeners, we are covering Planet of Fire!

Join us as Reilly gives us his unexpected opinions on the Master’s return for the umpteenth time, Julie and Diana get supremely frustrated with our returning lady director due to her gratuitous shots of Peri, Anthony gives us some insight on how this story impacted his formative years, and everyon...

It’s time to once again say “hello!” to everyone’s favourite pepper pots – the Daleks – as they return to their creator Davros, in Resurrection of the Daleks. But do the creatures and their creator have the same agenda? We’re about to find out as we tackle this action-packed and violence-filled adventure!

Join us as we talk about high body counts (no, not that type!), the weakness of the Daleks as they come out of their war, the increasingly shouty nature of Davros (and his choking noises), the Doctor using a handgun, cats in Doctor Who, the...

Warm up your pan flutes and brace yourself for meteorites, listeners. We really hope none of you get sucked into the ground just to be used by our favorite giant pill bugs. That’s right, everyone. We’ve made it to Frontios. 

Over the course of the episode, we notice too many references to previous and future Doctor Who stories (talking about you, Moffat), the Watchers note how heavy handed they are in their naming of characters (and none of us care), Reilly comments on who the Gravis reminds him of (and it’s likely not what...

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 wit...

We kick off Season 21 with a story that has ranked as the 15th worst Doctor Who story of all time in TWO separate Doctor Who Magazine polls – Warriors of the Deep! We all collectively say “there should have been another way!” as we dissect this and try to figure out what went wrong and why.

Join us as we let out a collective sigh at what is easily one of the worst Season openers that we’ve had so far in our odyssey through the show. Naturally, we have to touch on the bad lighting, the extre...

As we have all foreseen, Julie has taken over the show again for our 2025 Holiday special and has done her best to find something actually Christmas-y this year. Digging into the depths of the strange children shows of the UK, we came across the wonder that is Worzel Gummidge. We tried to make due by just watching the pilot from series 1 and the Christmas special from series 3, with very mixed results. 

Join us as we discuss the likelihood of both Worzel and the Crowman murdering children, Anthony wondering if this could be where Adam Sandler got some i...

In today’s episode we get not one, not two, not three, not four, but five Doctors. You heard right, everyone, we are covering the amazing story that is The Five Doctors, featuring Richard Hurndall as our replacement Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, a light sprinkling of Tom Baker, AND Peter Davison. Join us as we try and determine just how many things “of Rassilon” we can name (hint, it’s definitely more than ten).

Over the course of the episode, Diana waxes poetic about her new favorite boy (the Raston Warrior Robot), though we all wonde...

Oh boy, it’s that time again... and this time, it is NOT pretty! We look back on the entirety of Season 20 with our usual combination of awards, a recap of our various metrics, and questions from our friends on social media. But how effective was this anniversary season? If you’ve been listening as we go along, you already know the answer to that extremely loaded question!

Join us as we unleash a torrent of Turlough-hate, Julie gets disinvited from Anthony’s future wedding, we discuss how the aristocracy was once again the real villain...

Is everyone ready for another musical number?!?! That’s right, Julie brings out her songwriting skills and rusty vocal chords in order to cover the final story for Season 20, The King’s Demons. We are so sorry for everyone who chose to rewatch these two episodes, but hopefully we give you a better time.

Join us as Anthony, Reilly, AND Diana all have a marvelous time in overpronouncing their vowels, Julie continues to bemoan the fact that the BBC was even more cheap than usual, we all argue about the importance of the Magna Carta, and h...

It’s time for one of our many bonus episodes this season! We are joined by our good friend and official/unofficial fifth Watcher in the Fourth Dimension, Alan Siler, as we watch the not-so-recently animated story in Doctor Who, The Savages.

Join us as we spend way too much time discussing how we watched this and what other things we listened to prepare for this episode, commenting on the fact that we don’t, in fact, hate Dodo as much as we all remember, Julie and Reilly waxing poetic about what a wonderful score we go...

The Black Guardian Trilogy comes to an end in Enlightenment with a space race on Edwardian-inspired ships, where a dominatrix threatens Turlough, a creepy Eternal hits on Tegan, and the Black and White Guardians end as they started this three-story run: disappointingly. Still, it gives Anthony an opportunity to utter: “step on me, Mommy!” Just wow.

Unsurprisingly, we discuss the sartorial choices of the two Guardians (and which ones Reilly and Anthony will respectively cosplay), how “Officer Creepy” made Julie want to take a shower, the joys of sailing ships in space, the correct pronunciation of “buoy...

Welcome, once again, to our annual house of horror special!! This year, we kickoff with, yet again, another Hammer Film. This time, we’re covering The Gorgon, featuring Peter Cushing and the wonderful treasure that is Patrick Troughton. We then move onto The Blood on Satan’s Claw, featuring the lovely Wendy Padbury and a somewhat subdued Anthony Ainley. 

Join us as we discuss Diana’s inability to recognize actors when they either sport crazy mustaches or wear spectacularly poor wigs, Julie’s inability to recognize famous rock stars, Anthony’s best one-word review of “Meh”, and Reil...

Join us this episode as we ask the big question: How does the Big Bang happen because of something that happens after the Big Bang? See if we ever find out as we discuss the second story of the Black Guardian trilogy, Terminus.

It should come as no surprise that this story garnered some strong feelings from our crew. Did Anthony really want to rewrite almost all interactions and plot regarding the Doctor and his companions? Absolutely. And did Reilly have lots of thoughts regarding redheads in this story? Seems so. But nothing beats Diana a...

We kick off the Black Guardian trilogy with a new companion joining the TARDIS, the return of the Brigadier, and the return of the Black Guardian (on whose head they’ve inexplicably put a dead bird!), as we discuss Mawdryn Undead (or, to translate it from the Welsh “Dead Man Undead”!)

Join us as we make immediate judgements on Turlough, discuss how the story plays with time in a way that pre-dates Moffat by 20-odd years, question the Black Guardian’s sartorial choices, ponder why the Brigadier remembers Harry Sullivan but not Liz, Jo, or Sarah Jan...

It’s Kinda 2: Electric Boogaloo – or as it’s better known to most people… Snakedance! Beyond the return of the Mara, we get the return of good ol’ themes of colonialism, complete with a spoiled brat heir, a difficult and ignorant historian, and a snake-oil salesman who gets his comeuppance (ironically, at the hands of snake-being!)!

Join us as we discuss what the Mara are (and how RTD has corrupted that idea), to what extent Lon was actually possessed by the Mara, how Elisabeth Sladen’s husband (Brian Miller) bears a striking resemblance to Jared Harris, how J...

We're kicking-off Season 20 with Arc of Infinity! This story features Time Lords doing what Time Lords do best, the return of Omega and introduction of his mutant turkey/pterodactyl thing, and some traipsing around Amsterdam. It sounds like it should be quite good. But will the Watchers think that it’s the sort of bang that the season should start with – one that caused by anti-matter and matter colliding?

Join us as we discuss our total disdain for the planet Gallifrey and Time Lord society, our love of Action Hero Nyssa, the brain slugs from Futur...

We have finally made our way through the entirety of Season 19, the first run of Peter Davison as the Doctor. You all know what that means!!! It’s time for our customary season retrospective, in which we look back at the entire season, using a blend of awards, metrics, and questions from our friends on social media to make our thoughts known… And man, do we make our thoughts known this time around. As always, this was a lot of fun for us to do so we hope that you enjoy listening to this as much as we did maki...

This episode, bear with us as we meander our way through our discussion of Spare Parts. Who knew we needed to discuss fake commercials and who may secretly be Hitler while commenting on such a good Big Finish story.

Join us as we discuss our understanding of jaded scientists drinking wine to get through the day and our annoyance of a whiny teenage boy who was so susceptible to propaganda, wishing to become a cyberman. Diana and Julie both bemoan the fact that there is no closed captioning, making it impossible to understand some of t...

Don’t you just love an insane scheme by the Master? Especially when it involves disguising himself as a horrendous racial stereotype when he has no reason to be in disguise at all? Oh, and we have some wonderful product placement for Heathrow Airport and Concorde. And this story is *somehow* the Season 19 finale. That’s right -we’re talking about Time-Flight!

Join us as we discuss the brown-ness of the 1980s, whether the episode takes place in the Jurassic or Pleistocene era (it’s the former – Reilly’s right, Anthony’s wrong), why the Master feels th...

In potentially the biggest story of the Season (somehow even bigger than the Fifth Doctor’s debut in Castrovalva), we have Cybermen! Androids! Gritty troopers and gritty freighter crew! Oh, and we say goodbye to a much loved (lol) companion in what is quite possibly the most dramatic way since… well… the 1960s? Yup, it’s Earthshock!

Join us as we discuss how the designers on Starship Troopers must’ve been huge Doctor Who fans, how the Cybermen seem to have recruited Daft Punk to do their dirty work, their completely bonkers plan, how Captain Briggs is s...

In this episode, we dial in our love for Agatha Christie and Charlotte Brontë, as we discuss Black Orchid. How they were able to pack so much character intertaction AND a self-indulgent cricked match into only two episodes, we will never know.

Join us as we discuss the introduction of our new favourite hero (or villain) in Gurgle Man, Sarah Sutton finally being able to show off her acting chops, the Watchers’ new unit of measure: units of Adrics, and Anthony absolutely having a childhood moment with time spent around trains. Yes, in another life, he m...

After the last episode where we all let out many exasperated sighs, the Watchers now let out a great sigh of relief as we discuss The Visitation!! We have finally gotten the companion interaction we deserve, even with Adric remaining a complete waste of carbon.

Join us as we discuss our return back to basics: a simple, grounded story, check. An alien race set to take over Earth, check. And an android, though we’ve never had one so bedazzled before, check. We also get one of the best supporting characters to grace the small scr...

SILENCE!! while we dive into yet another story touching on our dislike for colonialism, but engaging us, however briefly, in our appreciation for fever dreams. That’s right, dear listeners, we’re discussing Kinda this week and hopefully you all have remembered that sleeping near windchimes by yourself can have dire consequences, such as snake tattoos and lipstick teeth.

Join us as we discuss Tegan’s initial relaxed demeanor (including her hair) before all the companions disappear from the plot, create new headcanon for why Hindle becomes completely unhinged, spend way too much time discussing what’s...

This episode, we tackle a story that has been in the bottom quartile in both DWM’s Mighty 200 and 50th Anniversary polls – it’s Four to Doomsday! But, what will the Watchers think? This one goes probably as well as you’d expect…

Join us as we discuss how this story is built like a Hartnell story, Adric turning into an incel, what the guts of the androids are made from, how Monarch is the most affable fascist dictator ever (even being reminiscent of Stephen Fry!), and Julie shows her ignorance of Greek city states (for shame...

This episode, we finally get ourselves started on the Fifth Doctor era as the Master returns (again) to taunt our new Doctor in Castrovalva… heh heh heh…

Join us as we discuss just how young Peter Davison was when this was made, whether or not Adric was a little TOO excited at being tied up in the Master’s web (or if it’s just the harness), Tegan’s need for “enormous thrust,” Bidmead’s myriad weaknesses, and how the Master THINKS that he’s a dom, but is clearly just a brat and all he wants is kisses...

This episode, we discuss Doctor Who’s very first attempt at a spin-off with the rather questionable K9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend! It was certainly a wild ride watching this one, with plenty of witches and honking along the way…

Join us as we discuss THAT theme tune, whether K9 and Sarah Jane are actually a good pairing, whether K9 is put to good use, Brendan being put in a dress, how Simon Pegg clearly saw this story at some point, and why there are apparently so many covens of witches in rural E...

As we’ve finally made it to the end of the Tom Baker era (a feat that has taken us close to two-and-a-half years!), we are once again joined by the 5th Watcher, R. Alan Siler, who guides us through our era-spanning retrospective for the longest-running (and arguably most popular) Doctor of all time!

Join us as we discuss the best stories to sum up each Producer during the era, whether RTD and Moffatt are right about non-contemporary/non-human companions (they’re not), whether Tom stayed too long, whether we’d want an eighth season with To...

Another season in the can! Season 18 done and dusted, and you know what that means… it’s time for our customary season retrospective, in which we take a look back at the entirety of the season with our blend of awards, metrics, and questions from our friends on social media. These are always a lot of fun for us to do, and we really hope that you enjoy listening to this as much as we did recording it!

Join us as we discuss how one of the new companions gets the best entrance ever through invol...

It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for… (were we ever going to start out this blurb with anything else!?) We finally reach the end of Tom Baker’s seven year tenure on the show with the Master embarking on a bonkers scheme that threatens the entire universe. But one question remains – is Logopolis actually any good!?

Join us as we discuss dressing for job that you want, why Tegan is magnificently annoying in the best way possible, how this story plays into the history of the podcast, the stupidity of some of the Do...

Back in N-Space, we find ourselves in the very odd (but apparently extremely harmonious) society of Traken, ruled over by an apparently all-powerful Keeper in The Keeper of Traken! All is not as it seems, as an old, kinda crispy enemy lurks in the background, ready to steal all of our bodies in his quest to keep living…

Join us as we discuss the clear influences of Shakespeare, how the Trakenites were able to procure weapons so quickly, the rampant use of ring tropes, how Adric calls the Doctor out on his nonsense, the issues wit...

It’s time to BRING THE WEIRD as we wrap up the E-Space trilogy with a white void, slavers, lion-man slaves (who used to be slavers), magic mirrors, and more questions than answers. Oh, and Adric spends most of the time flipping coins. It can only be Warriors’ Gate!

Join us as we discuss how the Tharils look at time (or how they think they’re better than everyone else), how K9 continues to be done dirty (even up to her last story), the return of the bad boss trope, whether Romana was put in danger...

It’s Doctor Who-does-Vampires as we encounter everyone’s favourite bloodsuckers in E-Space (well, everyone except Diana, who apparently thoroughly dislikes vampires!) Throw in some absolutely unnecessary Time Lord lore, and we have State of Decay.

Join us as we discuss whether this would feel more natural with Dudley Simpson’s organic music over the synth, the merits and issues of Adric, whether Wil Wheaton and Matthew Waterhouse have ever met, how an old script can somehow feel like a rush-job, the amazing beards in this story, and whether or not Time Lords have a race me...

For our 2024 Holiday special, Julie’s taking over the show, and we’re joined by our favourite regular guest R. Alan Siler, as choose not do something seasonal, but to do something very much related to Doctor Who that we’ve really wanted to do for a while now… and so, we’re heading into the world of Douglas Adams, as we discuss the 1981 TV version of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!

Join us as we learn about Julie’s bedtime, discuss the animation style, the comparison between this in different media, the unexpected simi...

We’re off into E-Space this episode, as we encounter a group of people who’ve come full circle in… uh… Full Circle! We are also introduced to our newest companion, Adric. What will the Watchers think of him!? Will it be love at first sight? (Let’s be honest… probably not. Everyone knows his reputation!)

Join us as we discuss unexpected semi-nudity (butts!), the mathematical nature of the Starliner’s society (and how they evolved to it), how Dungeons & Dragons keeps coming into this Season, the names of the Starliner dwellers, how the Deciders must have rehea...

Moving further into this brave new era of Doctor Who, Jacqueline Hill returns in nobody’s favourite story, Meglos! In addition to Barbara-but-not-actually-Barbara showing up, we also get a genocidal cactus. It’s an absolutely bonkers one, that's for sure…

Join us as we discuss balancing out your gut bacteria (lest you suffer from chronic hysteresis!), the colour-coding of society and how it impacts dry cleaning, somewhat decent CSO, styling like the Village People, the desire to understand more of the socio-religious background of the peoples in the story, and we ponder the disgustingness of sea cuc...

It’s all change as we kick off Season 18 with The Leisure Hive! New title sequence, new arrangement of the theme, new incidental music, and a new costume for the Doctor! Meanwhile, we welcome our new co-host Diana for her first regular episode with us. We couldn’t be more excited to talk about nuclear war and tachyonics…

Join us as we discuss how awful this story makes Brighton Beach look, the continued bad treatment of K9, what GOOD synth sounds like, whether you can defeat an Argolin by picking off their berries, long recaps and nee...

Anthony, Reilly, and Julie bring some exciting news about the future of the podcast!

We’re at the end of Season 17, and could we really get there without a Big Finish bonus episode!? This time around, we’re talking about The Romance of Crime, which was adapted from a Virgin New Adventures novel by RTD/Moffatt-era writer (and now cancelled) Gareth Roberts, and adapted by Big Finish legend John Dorney!

Join us as we discuss horrendous squish sounds, the conversion of the novel to audio and the absurd amount exposition and large cast that it comes with, the attempts at Noir, the pastiche of the Kray Twins, how all four...

Another season in the can, bringing the 1970s era of the show to a close. Of course, that means that it’s time for our customary season retrospective, where we’ll look back at the entirety of Season 17 with our usual blend of end-of-season awards, a look back at our scores and metric counts, and answer a few questions from our friends on our social media platforms. These are always a lot of fun to do, so don’t miss out!

Join us as we discuss whether the glee club in Shada was necessary or not, bu...

Welcome, once again, to our annual house of horror! As usual, we discuss two horror movies featuring the stars of television’s Doctor Who. This year, we kick off proceedings with Hammer Films’ The Vampire Lovers (featuring Ingrid Pitt, Peter Cushing, and Kate O’Mara), before moving on to Amicus Production’s first anthology film, Dr Terror’s House of Horrors (featuring Peter Cushing, Roy Castle, and Michael Gough). This year, our good friend Diana Birney joins us for the ride!

Join us as we discuss classist lesbianism (dammit, Carmilla/Marcilla!), gratuitous nudity, the best place for b...