PODCAST · tv
Debating Doctor Who
by Allison Shoemaker and Alasdair Wilkins
We're back—and it's about time! Doctor Who reviewer at The A.V. Club and generally incorrigible fan Alasdair Wilkins is joined by new cohost and fellow A.V. Club contributor Allison Shoemaker to talk all things Doctor Who. Listen along as your new podcasting team prove it's still possible to have fun debating Doctor Who, even after the departure of original cohost Caroline Siede!
Episodes
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Episode 171: A Classic Series Fan’s Take On “The Power Of The Doctor”
It's just Alasdair on this one, offering an hour-plus worth of solo thoughts on something he's particularly qualified to discuss: how "The Power Of The Doctor" incorporates the classic series. As Allison and Alasdair won't both be available to record together until next month, the latter jumps on...
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Episode 170: New Doctor announced, Tennant and Tate returning, and more!
We're back from one of our customary unexpected hiatuses because, well, frankly Russell T. Davies simply demanded it. But first, we talk about what we've been up to in 2022 (some lovely stuff, some distinctly less than lovely stuff) to explain just why the podcast was on hold for a bit, as well…
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Episode 169: “The Vanquishers”…Part Two!
We had plenty more to say about the finale, as it turns out there was A LOT going on in this one. Allison has some more praise for Jodie Whittaker's performance, while Alasdair reports on their rewatch of "The Wedding Of River Song" for what we're sure were good and useful reasons. Then we look...
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Episode 168: “The Vanquishers”…Part One!
After five weeks of being more or less on the same page about Flux, Alasdair and Allison are split on the finale. Alasdair dug it! Allison very much did not! We discuss how the episode really does seem to ignore the whole destruction of the universe thing, but then Alasdair submits... what if...
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Episode 167: “Survivors Of The Flux”…Part Two!
We're back and possibly even sillier than we were in our last discussion of this episode. We discuss what works -- the performances, mainly -- and what really doesn't about all the business with the Doctor and Tecteun. We look at this in comparison with "The Timeless Children", and we're not...
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Episode 166: “Survivors Of The Flux”…Part One!
We keep not planning to make these two-part conversations, and then we hit the hour mark and realize we haven't even started talking about all the Barbara Flynn stuff (for the second time in two weeks!). In the meantime, we discuss a bunch of other parts of an episode we both enjoyed but also…
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Episode 165: “Village Of The Angels”…Part Two!
We're back for more Angel chat! Topics this time around include how this episode stands up on a rewatch, Jamie Magnus Stone's generally excellent direction, Annabel Scholey and her wonderfully unselfish performance, just how awesome Segun Akinola's score is for this episode (even if we're not...
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Episode 164: “Village Of The Angels”…Part One!
Yep, once again, we're making this a two-parter. We weren't sure heading in, as you can hear from Alasdair's uncertain intro, but by the hour mark it was pretty clear that, yeah, we have just about as much to say on this episode as we did "Once, Upon Time." So, in this first part of our…
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Episode 163: “Once, Upon Time”…Part Two!
We're back as promised to continue our discussion of our an episode we dug the first time around and dug even harder on the rewatch. We discuss some more about just why this episode is such a breath of fresh air, then start discussing specific things we love about it, starting with Barbara…
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Episode 162: “Once, Upon Time”…Part One!
We had so much to say about this one that we couldn't fit it into a single episode! So here's what turned out to be the first part of our discussion of this frankly stunning episode. We talk about how this feels ambitious in a way even this era's best stories generally haven't. We look at how…
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Episode 161: “War Of The Sontarans” with Kate Kulzick
Friend of the show Kate Kulzick stops by to help Alasdair offer our long-awaited (hopefully, otherwise they're just late) thoughts on the second chapter of Flux. We discuss how well the episode dusts off the Sontarans for their first significant non-Strax appearance since 2008. We consider what…
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Episode 160.5: A short solo promise that “War of the Sontarans” is coming soon
Hi friends! Sorry we haven't had a chance to get you an episode on "War of the Sontarans", even though it's a week later and, uh, slightly after the next episode aired in the UK. As Alasdair hops on briefly to explain, we had some scheduling issues this week, but a full episode on "War of the...
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Episode 160: “Chapter One: The Halloween Apocalypse” [Reuploaded with right episode]
We give our thoughts on the first episode of "Flux" -- sorry, sorry, the first *chapter* -- and, honestly? We kinda dug it. Allison opens with discussion of a character Alasdair wasn't entirely expecting. We go surprisingly long on the internal logic of the episode's goofy sci-fi thing. Alasdair...
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Episode 159: Getting ready for Series 13
We talk about the upcoming premiere of series 13, which Allison is very upset to hear is starting with an episode called "The Halloween Apocalypse." We get into what we're hoping for from this six-episode season, which honestly turns into a therapy session for our frustrations with the Chris...
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Episode 158: What? What? WHAT!? Russell T. Davies is back!
Fire up the emergency podcast klaxons, because we've got some absolutely wild news to talk about! Russell T. Davies is coming back as showrunner on Doctor Who, and we give our thoughts on just what that means. Like... what, if anything, might he bring back from previous eras, including his own?...
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Episode 157: Series 13! Whittaker and Chibnall leaving! Also, hi!
We're back from yet another of our trademark hiatuses to discuss the recent news about the show's future. Series 13 is set to be the last for both Jodie Whittaker and Chris Chibnall -- though, as we discuss, nobody has said anything yet about Mandip Gill, who we can only assume is going to take...
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Episode 156: “Revolution Of The Daleks”
Alasdair and Allison take a look at a very eventful New Year's special, as we see big returns, big departures, and a tease of a big new addition. All that and, oh, right, the Daleks! We both enjoyed this one a lot, especially for various character moments that made us think maybe, just maybe…
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Episode 155: Live Discussion of Timeless Child Continuity Snarls, Our Very Own Story Pitches, and More!
We're back for our third live show of 2020! Here's the recording of our Crowdcast hangout with a couple dozen of our lovely listeners, in which we field all manner of intriguing questions, including: What is the best episode of series 8, and why is it "Mummy On The Orient Express"? (Taken…
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Episode 154: RTD and David Tennant’s “Casanova” with Kev Koeser
Reminder: We have a live show this Saturday, December 12, at 6:30 p.m. Eastern! Go to https://www.crowdcast.io/e/ddw-live to sign up or just join us on the day. As for today, here's the first installment of a new occasional series in which Alasdair and a rotating team of cohosts look at works…
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Episode 153: The News You Can Use Episode
There's just so much news to talk about! Enough to lure Allison back on for another episode during what is increasingly inaccurately being called a "hiatus", even! We break down the newly released trailer for the upcoming special, "Revolution Of The Daleks", and for some reason the newly revealed...
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Episode 152: Captain Jack Harkness Returns Emergency Pod
Fire up the news klaxons, we've got a big return to discuss! Doctor Who turned 57 on Monday, and it was kind enough to get us a birthday present: a tiny teaser for the upcoming festive special, "Revolution Of The Daleks", revealing that Captain Jack will once again be back. We somehow manage to...
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Episode 151: Series 13 begins filming, plus show updates!
The world got busy around us once again, but Doctor Who is coming back, which means Debating Doctor Who must as well. Except, in both cases, we're improvising through the circumstances around us. For us, that means Allison is taking a little break through the holidays, meaning Rorypalooza must…
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Episode 150: Clarastravaganza and/or Clarathon Part III
We wrap up our trilogy of Clara episodes with a look at some stories from her final season aboard the TARDIS. We examine what "Under The Lake"/"Before The Flood" has to say about her willingness to do what needs to be done to save the day, and then how "Face The Raven" reveals just how dangerous...
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Episode 149: Clarastravaganza and/or Clarathon Part II
Our deep dive into all things Clara Oswald somehow gets even deeper in the second edition, as we look at no less than four of the episodes from series eight. That's a third of the entire season! We look at her re-beginnings in "Deep Breath", then Alasdair mounts a spirited defense of "In The…
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Episode 148: Clarastravaganza and/or Clarathon Part I
Our long-awaited (by us, anyway) deep dive into Clara Oswald begins! We take a look at a pair of stories from Series 7B, when Clara was more a mystery than a character and the 11th Doctor was kind of... is awful too strong a word? In "Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS," at least, 'awful'…
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Episode 147: The Best Of… Danny Pink
We get back (after an unexpected but at this point probably not surprising delay) to our regularly scheduled programming with a look at a pair of Danny Pink stories, "Listen" and "The Caretaker." The former still stands as one hell of an episode, with plenty to say about all sorts of things…
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Episode 146: Remembering Diana Rigg With “The Crimson Horror”
We'll be back soon with our regularly scheduled look at companion showcase episodes -- Danny Pink is next! -- but first, we wanted to take an episode to remember a legend of film and television. Diana Rigg died last week at 82, so we revisit her absolute delight of a performance as Mrs.…
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Episode 145: Mailbag Time!
First thing's first: Allison has a book out! It's called "How TV Can Make You Smarter", available now at Bookshop.org and elsewhere! Plus she has a special offer for our listeners who get the book! As for the episode, well, before we return to the Capaldi era with our Danny Pink episode next week...
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Episode 144: The Best Of… Nardole
Going to be honest with you, friends: We really didn't expect being able to fill an entire hour with nothing but Nardole discussion. We... we apparently aren't familiar with our own show as we should be, because yeah, we talked at length about how Nardole grew from his initial performance, and…
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Episode 143: The Best Of… Bill Potts
We're back, and after a perfectly normal intro that is completely like all the others we've done, we get into discussing Bill Potts in a pair of episodes the proved very Bill-centric indeed. So, well done us. First up is "Thin Ice", one of our favorite entries from series 10. Will it still stand...
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Episode 142: Christopher Eccleston Returns Emergency Pod
We're a simple podcast, folks: If Big Finish announces that Christopher Eccleston is coming back to record a bunch of new audios as the Ninth Doctor, we're dropping everything several hours later to record an emergency podcast. We talk about our general, off-the-charts levels of excitement…
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Episode 141: The Best Of… Graham O’Brien
We finish our look at the companions of the Chibnall era with a look at a pair of episodes that show some unexpected sides to our friend Graham. The use of "our friend" there lets you know we're not hiding our biases that as Graham fans, but we see him tested in consecutive episodes to finish off...
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Episode 140: The Best Of… Ryan Sinclair
We're going to level with you, friends: "Resolution" is the best Ryan episode. If you want to hear about what an episode that does right by Ryan looks like, go back and give that one a listen. But do check this out too, as we take a look at two series 11 episodes that feature Ryan prominently…
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Episode 139: The Best of… Yasmin Khan
We kick off a new recurring feature in which we devote an episode to a particular companion and what stories are their best. After some preliminary discussion of what, technically, even is a companion, we get to the main topic of discussion this week, namely Yaz. That's right, we started with…
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Episode 138: We’re back! (Once again)
We kinda felt like the world didn't especially need two nerds rambling about Doctor Who the past few weeks, but now, well, the world still probably doesn't need it, but we missed doing this too much to stay away forever. Alasdair tells Allison about the latest Big Finish New Series stuff, which...
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Episode 137: “Resolution”
We finally did it! We've talked about every new series Doctor Who episode! After a couple cameos (or maybe that's Cameos) to open the episode, Alasdair and Allison discuss the 13th Doctor's New Year's Day clash with a lone Dalek. We felt deeply meh about this episode when it first aired back in...
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Episode 136: Live Discussion of Companions, the Master, and More!
We're back for another live show, and we might even have a surprise visit from the podcast's best friend. Which is to say, we totally do! The Captain Jack of the podcast is on hand, in the form of the great Kate Kulzick. She pops by for a spell to help discuss how the different showrunners…
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Episode 135: Live show this Saturday! Plus Doctors’ other performances…
That's right, we're doing another live show! It's 1 p.m. Eastern this Saturday, May 9, and it will be at https://www.crowdcast.io/e/ddw-liveshow. We hope you'll come join us for it! After sharing those details, Alasdair does some more solo riffing about something that's been on their mind…
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Episode 134: “The Return Of Doctor Mysterio”
Announcement! We have a live show this Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern! We hope you'll come join us! As for what we have this week, yep, we *finally* got round to this episode. Only took us three and a half years! But first, we read a little excerpt from Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat…
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Episode 133: Impromptu David Tennant Appreciation Week!
No two ways about it: This is one of our loosest, silliest episodes in a while. We start out with some vaguely structured discussion of some Doctor Who current events, but pretty soon we go into an extended discussion of David Tennant's work on DuckTales, and more specifically his work with the...
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Episode 132: “Farewell, Sarah Jane” and Mailbag Questions
We start by discussing the latest Doctor Who: Lockdown production, a moving epilogue to The Sarah Jane Adventures and tribute to Elisabeth Sladen, who died nine years ago today. Then we tackle a pair of emails from listeners. First up, do the Cybermen work as monsters without a mouthpiece, and…
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Episode 131: Live Discussion of Doctor Who: Lockdown!, the 11th Doctor, and more
We went live on Crowdcast for this one, with 30 of our listeners there live to chat and ask questions. We start by looking at the various little goodies that have come out as part of the Doctor Who: Lockdown! series, including the just-released video message with Arthur Darvill as Rory. We then...
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Episode 130: Live episode this Saturday! Plus a 10th Anniversary tribute to “The Beast Below”
Yes, we're going to attempt a live episode this Saturday! It's at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time and will be hosted at https://www.crowdcast.io/e/debating-doctor-who-live -- checkout the link for some early signup information. We'll be discussing whatever we want, honestly, but our theoretical topic is…
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Episode 129: “The Timeless Children” Redux
Last time, we never really got into a proper discussion of a pretty key aspect of "The Timeless Children": Namely, the whole timeless child thing. Well, this episode is nothing but a big discussion of just what that revelation means, what it says, and what it ought to say. We didn't expect to…
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Episode 128: “The Timeless Children”
So, yeah... it's been a few weeks, huh? Better late than never, we hope, as Alasdair and Allison finally get round to discussing the most recent season finale. We didn't love this one, and we try to get into some detail about why... so much so that after an hour and 45 minutes of discussion we...
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Episode 127: “Ascension Of The Cybermen”
You know, it's kinda funny: We liked this episode quite a bit overall, but also we had a lot to say about what didn't work. The middle bit, mostly. Also, the guest characters were pretty thin. And hey, what do you think is going on with Brendan? Or the Cybermen, for that matter? We honestly have…
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Episode 126: “The Haunting Of Villa Diodati”
It's a big historical episode with Romantics galore and Cybermen aplenty... well, one Cyberman, but trust us, he's a lot. This episode was frequently all Allison could ever possibly want, and Alasdair generally liked it a lot too. Well, except one bit. There's a very low-key kinda rant coming…
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Standalone Minisode: Some Thoughts on Gender Identity
The final 20 or so minutes of today's episode are devoted to an introspective, still somehow Doctor Who-related commentary on gender identity from Alasdair, who recently updated their pronouns to publicly acknowledge that either "he" or "they" are correct. While this segment is also available on...
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Episode 125: “Can You Hear Me?”
Content Warning: This episode discusses topics around self-harm and suicidal ideation in the context of this week's story. For those sensitive to those topics, we recommend skipping the section from 1:04:45 to 1:19:45. In today's epic-length episode, we look at "Can You Hear Me?" in all its...
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Episode 124: “Praxeus”
We meet back up to discuss "Praxeus"... by first talking some more about "Fugitive Of The Judoon", and how it reminds us of "Utopia." You know, the way one does. Anyway, we do spend a lot of time discussing how "Praxeus" is a solid episode with some significant shortcomings. We look at how the…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
We're back—and it's about time! Doctor Who reviewer at The A.V. Club and generally incorrigible fan Alasdair Wilkins is joined by new cohost and fellow A.V. Club contributor Allison Shoemaker to talk all things Doctor Who. Listen along as your new podcasting team prove it's still possible to have fun debating Doctor Who, even after the departure of original cohost Caroline Siede!
HOSTED BY
Allison Shoemaker and Alasdair Wilkins
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Debating Doctor Who have?
Debating Doctor Who currently has 194 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Debating Doctor Who about?
We're back—and it's about time! Doctor Who reviewer at The A.V. Club and generally incorrigible fan Alasdair Wilkins is joined by new cohost and fellow A.V. Club contributor Allison Shoemaker to talk all things Doctor Who. Listen along as your new podcasting team prove it's still possible to have...
How often does Debating Doctor Who release new episodes?
Debating Doctor Who publishes regularly with 194 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Debating Doctor Who?
You can listen to Debating Doctor Who on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Debating Doctor Who?
Debating Doctor Who is created and hosted by Allison Shoemaker and Alasdair Wilkins.
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