Posts tagged Dr Who
The Ood Cast S02E01 – Four Doctors & a Funeral
Mar 10th
“There’s texture to it, there’s weirdness to it, there’s a Hinchcliffe Doctor Who-ness about it.”
And so with the grinding and wheezing of millennia-old engines, the second season of the Ood Cast pulls itself into corporeal existence. This week on the show we get a bit over-excited about the new series, wave aside petty disputes about season numbers and bow ties, reaffirm our mission statement to be a force for optimism and enthusiasm in Doctor Who fandom and then spoil it all by talking about James Corden. We then descend into a heated discussion about things that are pink and deadly. Plus, in an Ood Cast exclusive, we present an audio trailer for Richard Curtis’ episode of the new series. All this and a jingle about geeky pedantry.
Classic Ood Cast!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:36 — 27.3MB)
The Ood Cast: Episood Six – The End of Time (Part 2)
Feb 22nd
“Perhaps it’s time. This is only the furthest edge of the Time War. But at its heart, millions die every second. Lost in bloodlust and insanity. With Time itself then resurrecting them, to find new ways of dying, over and over again. We have become a travesty of life. Isn’t it better to end it? At last?”
The end of an era, the passing of a baton. Another man saunters off.
This week, the intrepid crew of the Ood Cast tackle the final episode of the Tenth Doctor’s reign.
We took advice from Tom Baker’s final words as the Doctor (“It is the end. But the moment has been prepared for”) and made sure we all had drinks and snacks to take our minds off the upsetting events that unfolded on the screen.
It was the end. And we had certainly prepared for it. So well, in fact, that we were able to record a podcast afterwards.
So, listen in to see which of us was teary-eyed, which was just a bit ticked off that he took so long to actually shuffle off his tenth mortal coil, and just how much of that last sentence I invented…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:46 — 28.2MB)
The Ood Cast: Episood Five – The End of Time (Part 1)
Feb 15th
It is said that in the final days of Planet Earth, everyone had bad dreams…
To the west of the north of that world, the human race did gather in celebration of a pagan rite. To banish the cold and the dark.
Each and every one of those people had dreamt of the terrible things to come. But they forgot, because they must. They forgot their nightmares, of fire, and war, and insanity.
They forgot. Except for four…
Legends tell that these four intrepid humans used their rememberances only for good. To guard against evil, protect against invasion.
But the legends are wrong.
They used it to record a podcast.
And this week, in Episood 5, we look at the End of Time (Part 1).
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:28 — 29.8MB)
The Ood Cast: Episood Four – The Waters of Mars
Feb 8th
Tap tap tap tap.
Tap tap tap tap.
Do you remember the old days of “Classic Who”? You know, the days when budgets were the size of your mum’s weekly housekeeping allowance which meant that stories were claustrophobic and terrifying, even when the monsters occasionally seemed to be constructed from items you saw her making a cake with the week before?
No? Well, it doesn’t matter… Not all of us do either. But we’ve seen a lot of it on VHS…
But Who and isolated bases on the surface of a foreign planet is a marriage made in heaven, right?
Download the newest episood to find out what happened after we watched The Waters of Mars in a darkened room, complete with a few glasses of liquid handy, which members of our happy band then refused to touch a drink for considerable time afterwards.
Oh, and to find out what exactly caused an argument that might yet cause the premature end of the podcast …
Save your tissues though, because we’ve almost got to the final of the 5 death rattles Mssrs Tennant and Davies served up for our viewing pleasure. And those were where the real tear-jerking moments were… (well, that’s what it said in the Radio Times…)
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 36:57 — 33.9MB)
The Ood Cast: Episood Three – Planet of the Dead
Feb 1st
It’s episode three of The Ood Cast and this week we’re talking about the first installment in the ‘He will knock 4 times’ saga that ends the Tenth Doctor’s life – the aptly named Planet of the Dead.
Flies in boiler suits, dodgy CGI, a wrecked double decker bus, Lara Croft and fires of iniquity all feature in our rambling review of the story. Allies are made, old enemies revealed and friendships tested – and that’s just during the podcast. The story itself is even more exciting.
Join us as we discuss cinematography, production logistics, morality, travel cards and Laura’s huge crush on David Tennant.
Next week: The Waters of Mars and one almighty bust up that threatens to destroy the Ood Cast.
Forever.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:43 — 27.3MB)
The Ood Cast: Episood Two – The Next Doctor
Jan 25th
A hearty, and slightly world-weary welcome to you.
Think back to Christmas Day 2008. The evening.
There you are – on the sofa – feeling a bit bloated because your nan insisted that you had that third helping of turkey and at least two goes at the Christmas pud. You’re becoming steadily more pickled as the afternoon draws on, and your eyes are feeling a bit heavy.
Then something lovely hits your screen. You hear some familiar music. You haven’t been paying attention to the first couple of minutes because you saw that a few weeks before on Children In Need night. But now you’re a bit more interested.
You start searching your mind for what it is like a brain surgeon wearing boxing gloves…
And then you see him. A skinny man with an unmistakable pin-stripe suit, spiky hair and glasses. You know what this is…
You yawn. Then your eyes start to flutter as you desperately try not to fall asleep. But you can’t combat such a force… Just before you do, you see a blurry thing that looks a little like a creature made from a milk bottle top and strips of crepe paper (a la early 1980s Blue Peter).
And the rest is darkness.
Wonder what you missed? Well, let us discuss it in your ear. For in this installment of the podcast, The Ood Cast Episode Two, we will be discussing The Next Doctor… because it started off the year of specials.
So come and join us.
Please.
We miss you when you don’t let us talk at you.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:49 — 26.5MB)
The Ood Cast: Episood One – Beginnings
Jan 19th
Chris Fosten writes:
It’s here. The Ood Cast: Episood 1. (That’s right, we’re busting out puns right from the get go – that’s just how we roll.)
The most important thing we want everyone to know before we start (and we say it on the podcast too) is that we love the show. Utterly. Even when we are disappointed by what we see, we love it.
Even, it seems, when we have quite large, uber-geeky reasons for never wanting to see that hour of TV again, we still do. And we still go and buy the DVDs.
Because, to us, Doctor Who isn’t something we can take or leave. It’s almost the thing that has been with us since we were wee bairns in the highlands. Or small children from the south of England (delete according to the way you wish to think of us).
In the words of countless Mitchell characters in Eastenders (so I’m told), “It’s family”. And it is.
Chris has said on this very blog that the Doctor has had a massive effect on the way he chose to do things (I’m still a little unsure about the blazer and the celery in the lapel, although I’m sure we’ll all get used to it), but for the three of us who make up the male contingent of the podcast, it’s something that rings a – cloister – bell. (Ha! See what I did there?! Oh, never mind)
Laura brings a fresh and sharp view to proceedings to prove that we are just old school idiots sometimes. And that sometimes we do have a point. But not all the time.
We would readily admit that we are sometimes critical. But it’s simply, and only, because we love the show and like to sit around daydreaming about what we’d like to see happen next, or how something should be done.
That could be just me.
And sometimes, life really doesn’t come to any harm if you ask a few questions about things.
Join us for our little journeys through (limited) Time and (cramped) Space. We’d all love you to.
This song is ending, but the story never ends … I’m kidding, that was a terrible line.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 37:29 — 34.4MB)
A nice man
Jan 18th
David Tennant has left Dr Who. He was a brilliant Doctor and this piece he wrote for the 2009 Specials Box Set has warmed me to him even more.
In a suburban house in Paisley a wee boy was sticky-taping the leg of his oft-snapped spectacles back together. He couldn’t remember a time when they hadn’t been augmented with at least one area of peeling sellotape. Suddenly and quite without warning there was a rupture in the fabric of space and time and a tall, skinny man tumbled through a wormhole in the middle of the living room and landed in a puddle of brown coat at the boy’s feet.
“Who are you?” asked the boy. Confused and a little scared, but mostly loving it.
“Oh- ah, hello. It’s you! I’m you…You’re ..me”
“Eh? the boy asked. (Try as she might the boy’s mother could not get him to say “Pardon”)
“I’m you. In the future. I’m thirty-eight years old”
Because he was eight the boy accepted this quite quickly. “Is that my coat then? Can I try it on?”
“No, no, no -” Interrupted the skinny man slightly disappointed his time travelling was being greeted with so little wonderment. “This is my costume. These clothes are The Doctor’s. In thirty years time you get to play The Doctor. What do you think of that?!”
“Tom Baker leaves!” the boy boggled.
“Well.. Yes, eventually..”
“And then I take over?”
“Not quite, no, there’s a bit of time in between but..”
“And that’s what The Doctor wears?”
“Yes. Yes it is”
The boy took a moment to give his full attention. “I prefer the scarf”
The skinny man looked a little crushed. “But this is really cool. People write about this outfit in newspapers and style magazines. This is geek chic!.. But actually you’re right; people never really get over the scarf.”
“Are the monsters good?” The boy asked.
“Oh there are some great ones. And you get to fight the Daleks, and the Cyberman -”
“- and the Zygons?!!”
“Erm, no, no not the Zygons. But loads of other ones that you’ll love. And guess what.. Sarah comes back! and K-9!”
“K-9 leaves too!! ” the boy groaned.
“Well, yes but he comes back – with you. And there are loads of great companions. Some of them aren’t even born yet – but they’re just brilliant! And you won’t belive this, but you know Bernard Cribbins from ‘The Wombles?”
“- and ‘Jackanory’ -”
“- and ‘Jackanory’, yes. Well he’s in it too. You get to do all sorts of scenes with him.”
“That’s amazing!”
“It is.”
“Why do I have to wait so long?” asked the boy.
“Eh? I mean, pardon?”
“You’re really old.”
“I don’t think — well – not so – it’s all relative.” The skinny man protested.
“And how come your hair’s all dark?” the wee boy asked.
“That just happens..round about twelve I think.”
The skinny man regarded his younger self. “Look there’s quite a bit of stuff to get through first but hang in there. It’s worth it. I promise. I can’t tell you how much you’ll love it.”
“Really? Do I really get to be The Doctor?”
“You do. And listen – you are going to have: the best time of your life”
And with that the skinny man disappeared in a swirl of pulsing temporal vortex. The wee boy held his damaged glasses in front of his face as the wormhole blinked out of existence. That was unexpected, he thought. And pretty unlikely. Then he turned his attention back to the sellotape and the glasses. “The Creature from the Pit” Part Two was on later. He needed to be ready.
- David John McDonald, 3rd November 1979/2009
Bless him!
But onwards and upwards to the new series, which looks awesome.
(also watch out for the first episode of The Oodcast in the next few days)
The Ood Cast
Jan 11th
Let me put this bluntly. There’s no way to sugar coat it, I’m a geek. A card carrying, statistic spouting, pedant spluttering member of the cultural elite. In fact I’m not just one kind of geek, I’m legion. I’m a computer geek and a theatre geek and a movie buff geek and a comics geek but more than anything else, oh so very much more, I’m a Doctor Who geek.
Yes, from 1989 onwards I’ve been in the thrall of the timelord and I can’t think of a programme that’s had a more positive effect on my life. While other young boys had heroes who kicked balls into far off nets or slaughtered hundreds of enemy soldiers with a belt-fed machine gun, my hero defeated evil with little more than a bag of jelly babies and an off the wall sense of humour. No behind the sofa for me, I had my face pressed up against the screen.
This may sound silly but I can actually remember making the decision to be more like the Doctor, to clown around and let people underestimate me, to attack any new situation with a mixture of childish enthusiasm and deep thought. I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to say that the man I am today owes a lot to the values instilled in me then. I still abhor violence, I still love traveling and meeting people, I even sometimes still walk with my hands clasped behind my back (although admittedly this did look very odd when I was 9 years old, I kept overbalancing and falling on my head).
I mention this because myself and a couple of equally eccentric pals will shortly be unleashing a new Dr Who podcast on the world, hosted from this very website. We’ve called it ‘The Ood Cast‘ – see what we did there? The first series of six episodes will consist of an introductory show followed by a programme on each of the five 2009 specials, up to and including the end of David Tennant’s 10th Doctor.
So … exciting for everyone who likes either a) Dr Who, b) my podcasts or c) both.
Extremely dull for everyone else. But then I guess we can’t all like the same things …
‘I can’t stand burnt toast. I loathe bus stations – terrible places, full of lost luggage and lost souls. And then there’s unrequited love, and tyranny, and cruelty. We all have a world of our own terrors to face.’ – The Doctor
PS – Check out the Ood Cast Blog while you’re waiting for the audio adventures to begin.
