Tag: Listening list

The Eight/Science viewing/listening list

As revealed at the recording of our last live episode, Seven/Religion, here is your homework viewing for Eight/Science, which will be recorded on August 11th at Bar Open in Melbourne (full show details here).

Your homework viewing for the Eighth Doctor is:

  • Doctor Who: The Movie

…okay, no surprises there. While we’ll mostly be sticking with discussion of Grace: 1999, you might enjoy listening to some Eighth Doctor Big Finish audio adventures. We suggest:

  • The Chimes of Midnight
  • The Silver Turk
  • Shada
  • the BBC7 series beginning with Blood of the Daleks

We’re talking about science in Doctor Who; here are some good (or bad) examples of science and scientists in the show:

  • The Daleks (William Hartnell, 1963; seven episodes)
  • Terror of the Autons (Jon Pertwee, 1971; four episodes)
  • The Masque of Mandragora (Tom Baker, 1976; four episodes)
  • Four to Doomsday (Peter Davison, 1982; four episodes)
  • The Lazarus Experiment (David Tennant, 2007; one episode)

There’s so much “science” in Doctor Who, though, that we could easily list dozens of other relevant stories; if you’re feeling enthusiastic, you might also want to watch The Daemons, Creature from the Pit, Logopolis, Aliens of London/World War Three, New Earth or The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky. Please share your own suggestions in the comments below!

The Seven/Religion viewing/listening list

As revealed at the recording of our last live episode, Six/Clothes, here is your homework viewing for Seven/Religion, which will be recorded on July 14th at The Public Bar in Melbourne (full show details can be found here).

To discover the secrets of the Seventh Doctor, we recommend the following three television stories:

  • Remembrance of the Daleks
  • Ghost Light
  • Survival

We realise we’ve already recommended Ghost Light, for fear…but it’s so good! We had to double up. You may also like to watch Delta and the Bannermen to get the measure of Mel.

Since many of us feel that Sylv and Sophie were cut off in their prime, we’d also like to recommend some Seventh Doctor Big Finish audio adventures:

  • Colditz
  • A Thousand Tiny Wings
  • Magic Mousetrap
  • Live 34
  • Bang-Bang-a-Boom

We’re also exploring the theme of religion in Doctor Who, on which topic we reckon the following stories probably have the most interesting things to say:

  • The Aztecs (William Hartnell, 1963; four episodes)
  • The Daemons (Jon Pertwee, 1971; five episodes)
  • The Face of Evil (Tom Baker, 1977; four episodes)
  • Planet of Fire (Peter Davison, 1984; four episodes)
  • The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (David Tennant, 2006; two episodes)

We’ve revised this list a little since the podcast, to avoid doubling up too much; other relevant stories include The Crusades and The Myth Makers (well, what you can find of them), and the previously recommended stories The Curse of Fenric (Sylvester McCoy, 1989; four episodes), and Gridlock (David Tennant, 2007; one episode). If you have any other suggestions, please share them in the comments below!

The Six/Clothes viewing (and listening) list

As revealed at the recording of our last live episode, Five/Fear, here is your homework viewing for Six/Clothes, which will be recorded on June 15th at Agent 284 in Melbourne (full show details can be found here).

If the Sixth Doctor is new to you, we recommend the following three television stories to see him in his prime:

  • Revelation of the Daleks
  • Vengeance on Varos
  • The Mysterious Planet (aka Trial of a Time Lord episodes 1-4) 

Fan wisdom, of course, suggests that Colin Baker really hits his stride off television – in his extraordinarily popular run of Big Finish audio adventures, where he has found a new legion of fans. We’d like to suggest a few of those, too:

  • The Holy Terror
  • The One Doctor
  • Jubilee
  • Doctor Who and The Pirates
  • Davros

And there’s some thought that the Sixth Doctor’s greatest adventure is actually in print: the comic Voyager from 1984, collected and reprinted in 1989 and 2007.

We’re also exploring the wonderful world of clothes – costumes, fashion and design – and while it’s hard to really pick just a few stories, here’s what we’ve come up with as a sampler of the show’s rich history of sartorial elegance and variety in design:

  • The Chase (William Hartnell, 1965; six episodes)
  • Robots of Death (Tom Baker, 1977; four episodes)
  • The Talons of Weng-Chiang (Tom Baker, 1977; four episodes)
  • Black Orchid (Peter Davison, 1982; two episodes)
  • Gridlock (David Tennant, 2007; one episode)

We freely admit to including The Chase entirely for Barbara’s cardigan. We wanted something from the new series, but nothing particularly stood out to us that wasn’t just a more recent example of something from the classic series (e.g. historical costumes, space outfits etc.). So we picked Gridlock for its variety – the Cats, the occupants of the cars, etc.  We welcome your suggestions! (The End of the World is good for the same reasons, but we’re saving it for Nine.)

A few stories we’ve already listed as homework for previous episodes also fit this theme rather nicely, including Snakedance and Ghost Light. Can you think of any others? Share your suggestions in the comments below!