Summary
Common sense prevails as fans of Doctor Who engage in lively discussions about the show's evolving narrative and character arcs. The podcast episode delves into various topics, including the recent leaks regarding the tender process for a potential new Doctor Who production, with notable names like Jed Mercurio and the production company STV Studios expressing interest in taking the series in new directions.
The hosts also reflect on the Doctor Who novel "Illegal Alien," published in 1997, which features the Seventh Doctor and Ace in a World War II setting. The narrative explores themes of identity and morality, with the Cybermen serving as formidable antagonists. The discussion highlights the book's structure, which mimics a classic four-part Doctor Who story, and the character dynamics, particularly the interplay between the Doctor, Ace, and various supporting characters.
Listeners share their thoughts on the episode, with some expressing excitement over the exploration of religion in Doctor Who and others suggesting future topics for discussion. The episode concludes with a preview of the next installment, which will focus on the works of Douglas Adams within the Doctor Who universe, promising an engaging exploration of his contributions to the series.
Show Notes
In today’s episode we look at the 1997 BBC Past Doctor Adventure, Illegal Alien. This story began life as an unproduced television script intended for Season 27. Britain is at war. Night after night the Luftwaffe are bombing London. A serial killer dubbed the Limehouse Lurker is stalking the rubble-strewn streets. But a deadlier threat falls from the sky in the shape of a sinister silver sphere... Cody McBride, ex-pat American private eye, sees the sphere crash-land and split open — and glimpses something emerging from within. The military dismiss his account of events. The Doctor and Ace are the only ones who believe him. Before long they find themselves on a trail that leads to hidden Nazi operatives... and some very old enemies. Before that, we kick things off with the usual mix of news and short topics. Then, after the Illegal Alien chat, we open the mailbag for a ton of feedback from our listeners on a number of topics. Enjoy, dear listener. Contact us: Bluesky: @thedwshow.netX / Twitter: @theDWshowEmail: [email protected]: thedwshow.substack.comFacebook: facebook.com/theDWshow
More from The Doctor Who Show
This episode offers a 30-minute full synopsis of the 1997 BBC Books Doctor Who novel, Illegal Alien. Since the book is now nearly 30 years old, we know many listeners may not have read it recently — or perhaps ever. If you don’t want to feel left out of our Illegal Alien discussion on Sunday’s monthly show, this episode is the perfect way to refresh your memory or get up to speed beforehand. Contact us: Bluesky: @thedwshow.netX / Twitter: @theDWshowEmail: [email protected]: thedwshow.substack.comFacebook: facebook.com/theDWshow
Join Dave from the Doctor Who Show, Rob and Mark from 42 to Doomsday, and Richard from Spacefall: A Blakes 7 Podcast, after knocking back a few gin and tonics at Dave’s place and watching Paradise Towers. The story sees the Seventh Doctor and Melanie Bush arrive in search of a swimming pool at the supposedly luxurious 22nd-century high-rise known as Paradise Towers. Instead, they find a crumbling, graffiti-covered concrete jungle divided between rule-obsessed Caretakers, colour-coded girl gangs called the Kangs, and elderly “rezzies” with some rather alarming dietary habits. So pour yourself a G&T and join us as we take the lift up to the pool in the sky and get to grips with one of the Seventh Doctor era’s most idiosyncratic tales. Contact us: Bluesky: @thedwshow.netX / Twitter: @theDWshowEmail: [email protected]: thedwshow.substack.comFacebook: facebook.com/theDWshow
Which Doctor Who stories dig deepest into faith, gods, belief, and the divine? From the black-and-white classics to the modern era, we’ve ranked our favourite episodes that wrestle with religion and unpack where each one takes the topic. Got twenty minutes? Come with us. And while you’re here... what would make your list? Drop us a line and tell us why. Find us: Bluesky: @thedwshow.netX / Twitter: @theDWshowEmail: [email protected]: thedwshow.substack.comFacebook: facebook.com/theDWshow
This month on the podcast, we saddle up and head for Mercy, Nevada, where the Doctor encounters a gunslinger, a disgraced alien doctor, a town full of terrified humans, and one hell of a moral dilemma. We’re talking A Town Called Mercy - the 2012 Eleventh Doctor story that asks some pretty uncomfortable questions about mercy, vengeance, guilt and whether the Doctor gets to decide who deserves to live. Before that, there’s the usual assortment of news and short topics, and afterwards we dig into the mailbag for a heap of listener feedback. So grab your hat, keep an eye out for cyborgs, and ponder what YOU would do with an alien war criminal. Enjoy, dear listener. Contact us: Bluesky: @thedwshow.netX / Twitter: @theDWshowEmail: [email protected]: thedwshow.substack.comFacebook: facebook.com/theDWshow
There are some TV shows that are perfectly suited to Alternate Galaxies. And then there’s The X-Files, a show that Rob has loved since it first hit Australian television in 1994, watched from beginning to end multiple times, and spent his university years discussing with strangers on the early Internet. The problem? It’s over 200 episodes long, and Dave had somehow managed to go through the entire 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s and most of the 2020s without watching it. So, we needed a plan. That plan has been to throw Dave into the deep end - but only six episodes deep to start with. Rob has picked six stories from the first four seasons that don't require you to know the show's mythology, while trying to give Dave a proper taste of the enormous tonal range of The X-Files. There are monsters, Satanists, serial killers, psychic phenomena and alien abductions, but also some extremely funny episodes where the show gleefully takes the piss out of itself. Dave then immediately broke the rules by watching a seventh episode, because apparently six episodes of homework wasn't enough. Our selections take us from the early monster-of-the-week classic Squeeze, through the Satanic weirdness of Die Hand Die Verletzt, the melancholy brilliance of Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose, the genuinely harrowing Oubliette, the gloriously bonkers Jose Chung's From Outer Space and finally the dark serial-killer story Paper Hearts. We'll keep Dave's rougue choice a secret for now. Did you watch the X-Files back in the day? Have you watched it since? What do you think of Rob's episode choices? Which ones would you have given Dave? Contact us: Bluesky: @thedwshow.netX / Twitter: @theDWshowEmail: [email protected]: thedwshow.substack.comFacebook: facebook.com/theDWshow