Pull To Open: Recent Episodes
Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
To many, Doctor Who looks like an ordinary TV show. But just like the show's famous time machine, the TARDIS, if you enter, you'll quickly find it's much bigger on the inside. Longtime Whovians and journalists Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor invite you to explore the Whoniverse alongside them, one picked-at-random episode at a time.
It’s official: The One Who Waits has been waiting since 1913 (or 1975, depending on the dating protocol). Everything’s gone a bit pyramid-shaped in “The Legend of Ruby Sunday,” as RTD’s multiple twists kept us mostly distracted from the return of this classic villain. So what has he been up to for the last 7,000 years, and how exactly did he seduce the TARDIS into giving itself indigestion? Join us as we drop a few canon bombs, defuse others, and consider which other ‘Doctor Who’ gods might be in RTD’s Disney-money spreadsheet.
MORE SUTEKH: Listen to our podcast on Pyramids of Mars
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Pull To Open: The Legend of Ruby Sunday HOT TAKE
- Season 5
- Episode 25
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Feeling Rogue-ish? This proud Regency romcom takes Who to places old and new, with enough charm and confidence to fill a shed. It’s a meta love letter to all kinds of fandoms, and cheekily drops in a mystery Doctor (and/or villain?!) like we wouldn’t notice. Join us as we cosplay a couple of podcasters and pour one out for another charming companion — the original, you might say.
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Pull To Open: Rogue HOT TAKE
- Season 5
- Episode 24
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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A trip to 1950s Earth to visit Disneyland? Ranking by stories that got our hopes up, Delta and the Bannermen is near top of the charts. But this is actually a bait-and-switch we don’t mind, because the detour to rural Wales sets off a nostalgic romp filled with period music, motorcycle chases, and hostile bees that are most definitely not disappearing. And boy, if you ever wondered why do fools fall in love, this one is going to be an absolute head-scratcher. Best not to think too hard. Oh, and be sure to blink in key places so any genocides or mass murders don’t bother you too much.
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Timeline:
- Intro 00:00:00
- Previously… 00:04:23
- Whomoji Challenge 00:08:06
- POLL To Open 00:19:29
- TL;DW 00:26:10
- Commentary: Delta and the Bannermen 00:29:07
- Four Questions to Doomsday 01:06:28
- What If the Evil Plot Had Succeeded? 01:11:42
- Where Is the Clara Splinter? 01:14:41
- Final Judgment 01:18:50
- Randomizer! 01:25:10
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Story Essentials
- Season 24, Serial 3
- Story number: 149, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Malcolm Kohll
- Directors: Chris Clough
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 2–16 November 1987
Pull To Open: Delta and the Bannermen
- Season 5
- Episode 23
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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It’s been subtle in the past, but Dot and Bubble is Doctor Who’s first overt homage to Black Mirror, the groundbreaking series that satirizes our relationship with technology in the darkest of ways. It’s ironic, then, that this story has one of the subtlest pieces of subtext in the show’s history, with a moral message lurking just beneath the skin of a biting script full of references to social media, popular culture, and gadgets that lull us into separating ourselves from the real world. This might be Doctor Who allegory at its finest.
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Pull To Open: Dot and Bubble HOT TAKE
- Season 5
- Episode 22
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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It might sound like a really spectacular field goal, but 73 Yards is one of the most unusual episodes of Doctor Who to date. With the Doctor missing, Ruby Sunday must stand alone against… whatever seems to be stalking her. Simple enough, but thanks in large part to a tour de force performance by Millie Gibson, what results is a terrifying story — one that will leave you thinking about it long past the credits roll. We honestly can't think of a better analogy than "spectacular field goal."
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Pull To Open: 73 Yards HOT TAKE
- Season 5
- Episode 21
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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How much fun time travel is can often depend on the amount of melanin in your skin. That’s one of the lessons Bill Potts learns in Thin Ice when she and the Doctor take a quick detour to Regency London. At first it looks to be a lively visit to one of the Frost Fairs on the river, but mysterious lights beckon the pair, and soon they’re up to their tophats in street urchins and circus performers. Sure, we knew there had to be a monster involved, but color us surprised that it’s not the enormous serpent lurking under the Thames.
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Timeline:
- Intro 00:00:00
- Previously… 00:01:16
- Whomoji Challenge 00:05:46
- POLL To Open 00:10:11
- TL;DW 00:16:33
- Commentary: Thin Ice 00:18:22
- History Corner 00:40:21
- Four Questions to Doomsday 01:02:26
- What If the Evil Plot Had Succeeded? 01:04:29
- Where Is the Clara Splinter? 01:08:21
- Final Judgment 01:12:56
- Randomizer! 01:19:02
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Story Essentials
- Series 10, Episode 3
- Story number: 270, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Sarah Dollard
- Directors: Bill Anderson
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 29 April 2017
Pull To Open: Thin Ice
- Season 5
- Episode 19
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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When Doctor Who veterans Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies get together, the results can be … explosive. In Boom, Moffat manages to mine classic Who history (hello, Genesis of the Daleks!) while referencing many of his own post-2005 Who scripts. But how will it land with new fans? Stand still with us as we try to defuse this situation with a hot take that definitely won’t raise your blood pressure.
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Pull To Open: Boom HOT TAKE
- Season 5
- Episode 19
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Beatles and butterflies, oh my! ‘Doctor Who’ is back, babes, and we’re cautiously optimistic about it. The first two episodes of the new season, ‘Space Babies’ and ‘The Devil’s Chord,’ show off the range of the show for newbies, but still manage to intrigue, please and irritate the old folks all at once. Join us as we reveal what RTD has to say about all that winking — and about the Susan reference! Bum notes not included.
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Pull To Open: Space Babies and The Devil's Chord HOT TAKE
- Season 5
- Episode 18
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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The first two episodes of Ncuti Gatwa's first season as the Doctor — Space Babies and The Devil's Chord — are just days away. And here at Pull To Open, we've already seen them. And we say "we," we mean Chris. There's only so much he can say about the stories, however, so it's up to Pete to carefully probe the limits of his forbidden knowledge without revealing too much. Did The Church on Ruby Road properly prepare us for what's to come? Does the Disney money stick? And just how many nappy jokes are in Space Babies? We dive into all of it**Note: There are no major spoilers in this preview, although we do discuss elements of each story that haven't been reported until now.
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Pull To Open: Doctor Who "Season 1" Preview
- Season 5
- Episode 17
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Coincidence is how goblins surf time, according to The Church on Ruby Road. So when the Randomizer took us to Ncuti Gatwa’s Christmas special mere days before his first season, you can forgive us for being a little freaked out. Join us as we argue over literally everything in this light-hearted romp, from Ncuti’s narration at the start to Mrs. Flood’s wink at the end. But the moment has been prepared for: who is the Watcher, and why is he pointing silently at episodes that are still in the future?
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Timeline:
- Intro 00:00:00
- Previously… 00:03:16
- Whomoji Challenge 00:07:10
- POLL To Open 00:12:22
- TL;DW 00:17:06
- Commentary: The Church on Ruby Road 00:19:00
- Four Questions to Doomsday 01:11:34
- What If the Evil Plot Had Succeeded? 01:14:33
- Where Is the Clara Splinter? 01:18:12
- Final Judgment 01:20:54
- Randomizer! 01:27:07
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Story Essentials
- 2023 Christmas Special
- Story number: 306, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Russell T. Davies
- Directors: Mark Tonderai
- Showrunner: Russell T. Davies
- Aired 25 December 2023
Pull To Open: The Church on Ruby Road
- Season 5
- Episode 16
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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What the Flux? No, seriously, what was the actual Flux that happened in Series 13, and why has the Randomizer brought us here now? Can Chris Chibnall’s sprawling Time vs. Space opera even be explained? And did anyone notice the 7 billion dead dogs? Join your totally professional tour guides to Liverpool — er, Doctor Who — as we journey down the time tunnels to the ancient world of 2021 and summarize the whole story in our longest TL;DW yet. Like Evil Dan, we’re good at this!
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Timeline:
- Intro 00:00:00
- Previously… 00:01:44
- Whomoji Challenge 00:09:33
- POLL To Open 00:14:55
- TL;DW 00:17:28
- Commentary: Last Christmas 00:21:27
- Four Questions to Doomsday 00:54:37
- What If the Evil Plot Had Succeeded? 00:57:51
- Where Is the Clara Splinter? 01:03:56
- Final Judgment 01:08:26
- Randomizer! 01:14:36
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Story Essentials:
- Series 13
- Story number: 299, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Chris Chibnall, Maxine Alderton (Village of the Angels)
- Directors: Jamie Magnus Stone (The Halloween Apocalypse, War of the Sontarans, Village of the Angels), Azhur Saleem (Once, Upon Time; Survivors of the Flux; The Vanquishers)
- Showrunner: Chris Chibnall
- Aired 31 October – 5 December 2021
Pull To Open: Flux
- Season 5
- Episode 15
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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We interrupt this podcast for an important message.
The Media Copilot podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/the-media-copilot
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Beam us up, Doctor! From T-Mat to the Kerblam Man, Doctor Who has a rich history of playing with teleportation. We lock onto the show’s best and most notorious materializations, examining how instantaneous travel between two points in space can be amazing or infuriating storytelling. Does teleportation make for lazy plotting or does it open up a universe of narrative possibilities? Grab your vortex manipulator and join us as we also tackle the ultimate question about transmats: Aren’t they killing you every time you use them?
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Pull To Open: Teleportation in Doctor Who
- Season 5
- Episode 14
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Ho-ho-holy hidden depths, Santa! Last Christmas is the Who holiday special where Steven Moffat bakes an impossible tangerine cake: light and Christmassy on the surface, frosty chills and an arctic expanse of meaning underneath. Plus it changes Capaldi’s Doctor forever. But why has the randomizer, famed for its seasonal programming, served it up to us now? One word: Easter.
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Timeline:
- Intro 00:00:00
- Previously… 00:01:44
- Whomoji Challenge 00:09:33
- POLL To Open 00:14:55
- TL;DW 00:17:28
- Commentary: Last Christmas 00:21:27
- Four Questions to Doomsday 00:54:37
- What If the Evil Plot Had Succeeded? 00:57:51
- Where Is the Clara Splinter? 01:03:56
- Final Judgment 01:08:26
- Randomizer! 01:14:36
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Story Essentials
- 2014 Christmas Special
- Story number: 256, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Steven Moffat
- Director: Paul Wilmshurst
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 25 December 2014
Pull To Open: Last Christmas
- Season 5
- Episode 13
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
--- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/pull-to-open/support
May the Source be with you! Tom Baker’s regeneration eve story The Keeper of Traken starts strong with a Shakespearean wedding on a utopian world of niceness — but soon devolves into a slap fight between drama nerds and science nerds over a strangely buff statue. Even its surprise reveal is far from the most masterful. So can the Doctor and Adric’s double act, plus manic pixie dream Nyssa and too-good-to-be-true Tremas, deliver this nostalgia fest from evil? Grab an eggplant and claim consular privilege with us while we investigate.
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Timeline:
- Intro 00:00:00
- Previously… 00:01:41
- True Companions Unite! 00:04:44
- Whomoji Challenge 00:06:49
- POLL To Open 00:12:19
- TL;DW 00:17:38
- Commentary 00:22:23
- Four Questions to Doomsday 00:53:44
- What If the Evil Plot Had Succeeded? 00:58:14
- Where Is the Clara Splinter? 01:01:12
- Final Judgment 01:04:59
- Randomizer! 01:11:34
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Story Essentials
- Season 18, Serial 6
- Story number: 114, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Johnny Byrne
- Director: John Black
- Script Editor: Christopher H. Bidmead
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 31 January–21 February 1981
Pull To Open: The Keeper of Traken
- Season 5
- Episode 12
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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The Toymaker may have made a "jigsaw” of the Doctor’s history, but truthfully it was well jigsawed when he got there. As any fan who has tried to make sense of Doctor Who canon knows (and there have been many), the show’s 60-year run is full of contradictions, retcons, and flat-out nonsense that paying attention to it seems like a waste of… er, time.
However, it’s equally true that continuity, when done well, bestows greater weight to stories. Ongoing storylines give us a reason to tune week after week and season after season — deepening our connection to the show and its characters. Surely there’s a way to balance these scales without simply shrugging and pointing to the NuWho mantra to “the Doctor lies?” Come with us into the vortex to settle the debate: Does canon even matter in Doctor Who?
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Pull To Open: Does Canon Even Matter?
- Season 5
- Episode 11
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Time for the yarn on Karn that unravels the Doctor’s entire history — while cramming in more cranial puns than you can shake an oversized amygdala at. The Brain of Morbius is like a New Who embryo in a jar: a self-aware homage (to Frankenstein), a feminist fable (sort of) with a serious theme (immortality) that’s laced with laugh-out-loud lines, and bold changes that go beyond even the Timeless Child. Grab an elixir, don’t touch the wine, and let’s all stare at the magnificent headcanon.
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Timeline:
- Intro 00:00:00
- Previously… 00:01:53
- Whomoji Challenge 00:06:03
- POLL To Open 00:11:17
- TL;DW 00:14:04
- Commentary: The Brain of Morbius 00:18:20
- Four Questions to Doomsday 01:04:19
- What If the Evil Plot Had Succeeded? 01:09:01
- Where Is the Clara Splinter? 01:13:36
- Final Judgment 01:16:15
- Randomizer! 01:22:06
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Story Essentials
- Season 13, Serial 5
- Story number: 83, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Robin Bland (Terrance Dicks, with Robert Holmes rewrites)
- Director: Christopher Barry
- Script Editor: Robert Holmes
- Producer: Philip Hinchcliffe
- Aired 3 – 24 January 1976
Pull To Open: The Brain of Morbius
- Season 5
- Episode 10
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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A clock that ticks down in real time. A fiendishly difficult pub quiz. And a creature that lives in a sun. Chris Chibnall’s first Doctor Who story, 42, has many intriguing elements — but also a lack of focus that foreshadows his time as showrunner. Does 42 add up to more than the sum of its parts? Phone your friends at Pull To Open and find out!
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Story Essentials
- Series 3, Episode 7
- Story number: 187, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Chris Chibnall
- Director: Graeme Harper
- Showrunner: Russell T. Davies
- Aired 19 May 2007
Pull To Open: 42
- Season 5
- Episode 9
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Ground Control to Gravitron: Take your coffee sweet and put your space suit on…. The Moonbase isn’t just the first Cybermen reboot, it’s the template for every base under siege story since. Undoubtedly, Patrick Troughton grows in the role before our eyes. But what about sick jealous Jamie, chemistry expert Ben, and the rest of this Polly cocktail? Join us as we throw an explosive bottle of 2024 straight at the Cybermen of 2070!
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Story Essentials
- Season 4, Serial 6
- Story number: 32, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Kit Pedler
- Director: Morris Barry
- Producer: Innes Lloyd
- Aired 11 February – 4 March 1967
Pull To Open: The Moonbase
- Season 5
- Episode 8
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Time and tide may melt the snowman, but it also allows things to sink in. It’s been a few months since we kicked off the new era of Doctor Who, and now that we’ve had time to absorb the 60th anniversary specials, how do we feel about them? More to the point, how do we feel about Russell T. Davies 2.0 — the opening salvo of his second at-bat as showrunner? The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, and The Giggle have set the tone, and it’s definitely a very new Who. But does it also evoke another word that starts with “w?” That’s a bigeneration we can do without.
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Pull To Open: Lukewarm Take on the 60th Anniversary Specials
- Season 5
- Episode 7
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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The Dream Lord makes the team … work? Amy’s Choice is fondly remembered as a pivotal point for the TARDIS trio of Amy, Rory and the Doctor, elevating the future Mr. Pond from gooseberry to hero. But does it give short shrift to Toby Jones as the Doctor’s alter ego? With Damla from “Come Along Pond,” a Pull To Open trio decides which reality we’re waking up in.
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Story Essentials
- Series 5, Episode 7
- Story number: 211, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Simon Nye
- Director: Catherine Morshead
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 15 May 2010
Pull To Open: Amy’s Choice
- Season 5
- Episode 6
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Allons-y into French history! The Reign of Terror is said to be the Doctor’s favorite era ever on Earth — so why isn’t “The Reign of Terror” a fan favorite? Is it just that it’s hard to find (boo, BritBox!) or did its plot go the way of the Scarlet Pimpernel? Take a seat in the history corner, citizen, and maybe you’ll survive your encounter with Madame Guillotine …
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Story Essentials
- Season 1, Serial 8
- Story number: 8, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Dennis Spooner
- Director: Henric Hirsch
- Producer: Verity Lambert
- Aired 8 August – 12 September 1964
Pull To Open: The Reign of Terror
- Season 5
- Episode 5
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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When you sit down to watch Classic Doctor Who, you need to have faith — faith that intellect with triumph over violence, faith that poor production values will be made up for by fascinating storylines, and faith that the people making the show actually know what they’re doing. The Curse of Fenric makes you question that faith (for at least 3 episodes anyway), but at least it has the good sense to distract you with layers of plot about WWII code breaking, ancient Viking curses, and a bloodsucking creature from the far future. But it would be Ace's emotional journey that steals the spotlight… if only the show could afford one.
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Story Essentials
- Season 26, Serial 3
- Story number: 157, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Ian Briggs
- Director: Nicholas Mallett (John Nathan-Turner - uncredited)
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 25 October – 15 November 1989
Pull To Open: The Curse of Fenric
- Season 5
- Episode 4
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Did someone order a hybrid? The combo of The Magician’s Apprentice and The Witch’s Familiar take us on our deepest dive into Dalek territory yet. While Davros auditions for an EGOT, it’s Missy who steals the show. And hey, who turned on the HADS? Join us as we sort the overstuffed Moffat extravaganza from the weighty emotional drama!
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Story Essentials
- Series 9, Episodes 1 and 2
- Story number: 257, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Steven Moffat
- Director: Hettie MacDonald
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 19–26 September 2015
Pull To Open: The Magician’s Apprentice | The Witch’s Familiar
- Season 5
- Episode 3
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Daleks are used to being large and in charge, casually exterminating anything that moves with their ray guns and cruising over slave groups in their flying saucers. Take all that away from them, and what have you got? Basically a bunch of scared children, ready to freak out the moment a native gets a little too close with a spear. You get the sense the Doctor would laugh about his enemies' predicament in Death to the Daleks except he's too busy doing a little exterminating of his own, throwing the sentient, malevolent Exxilon city into meltdown, a final act of revenge for putting him through all those lame puzzles on the way in. We're right there with him.
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Story Essentials
- Season 11, Serial 3
- Story number: 71, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Terry Nation
- Director: Michael E. Briant
- Producer: Barry Letts
- Aired 23 February–16 March 1974
Pull To Open: Death to the Daleks
- Season 5
- Episode 2
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Daleks, Dracula and a dancing Doctor, oh my! The Chase is pretty weird and wacky, even if the original idea was even weirder (Beatles in old age makeup, anyone?) Join us live from London, 1965, as we attempt to headcanon everything in this melange of madness — right down to Peter Purves’ Alabama accent.
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Story Essentials
- Season 1, Serial 8
- Story number: 16, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Terry Nation
- Director: Richard Martin
- Producer: Verity Lambert
- Aired 22 May-26 June 1965
Pull To Open: The Chase
- Season 5
- Episode 1
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
©️AnyWho Media LLC 2024
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Demons of the Punjab is not your average pseudo-historical. It’s a highly effective introduction to one of the biggest 20th century catastrophes that the developed world knows little about — and a showcase for what Who can do. Join us for a very special History Corner: everything you wanted to know about Partition of India, but were too afraid of alien assassins to ask!
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Commentary for Demons of the Punjab begins at 23:01.
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Story Essentials
- Series 11, Episode 6
- Story number: 284, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Vinay Patel
- Director: Jamie Childs
- Showrunner: Chris Chibnall
- Aired 11 November 2018
Pull To Open: Demons of the Punjab
- Season 4
- Episode 56
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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If Ncuti Gatwa didn't win you over as the Fifteenth Doctor in his debut in The Giggle, he has scene after satisfying scene in The Church on Ruby Road to do the job. From his first moments twirling in a kilt in a London club, Gatwa is in full command of the role, talking his way past policemen and ready to do battle with baby-devouring goblins. But it's his connection with Millie Gibson's Ruby Sunday, a fellow "foundling," where the story really shines — maybe even brightly enough to get us to overlook the breaking of the fourth wall. Let's unwrap this gift...
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Pull To Open: The Church on Ruby Road HOT TAKE
- Season 4
- Episode 55
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Christmas came early for Doctor Who fans this year, with not one, not two, not twenty-seven, but THREE specials to celebrate the show's 60th anniversary. As we look forward to our true Christmas gift in The Church on Ruby Road, now seems like a good time to show some gratitude. Not only has the show fully transitioned to the streaming universe via its partnership with Disney+, but the takeover of new-old showrunner Russell T. Davies has bestowed hardcore fans with a not-so-secret gift: a single line from the third special, The Giggle, is the stocking stuffer hardcore Doctor Who fans didn't know they wanted. We dare to unwrap it, but not before we inventory the many times the Doctor played Santa. Let's ho-ho-ho for it.
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Pull To Open: What Doctor Who Got Us for Christmas
- Season 4
- Episode 54
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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If you remember A Christmas Carol as “Scrooge in space,” remember again — before the Doctor changes your memories for you. Steven Moffat’s first Christmas special for Doctor Who is a seasonally delicious timey-wimey layer cake of Michael Gambon, Matt Smith, and nightmare sharks, with a sonic microphone song on top. Is it a Banger, or will the Bah Humbug corner convince us that Eleven interfered too much? Let’s head down the chimney and find out!
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Commentary for A Christmas Carol begins at 13:39.
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Story Essentials
- 2010 Christmas Special
- Story number: 216, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Steven Moffat
- Director: Toby Haynes
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 25 December 2010
Pull To Open: A Christmas Carol
- Season 4
- Episode 53
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Did you laugh? Did you cry? Did you bigenerate? The Giggle is here, and nothing in Doctor Who will be the same again. Join us as we share our full-throated reactions to Ncuti Gatwa’s debut and David Tennant’s … continuation? Remember, in the wake of the Toymaker, all opinions are now correct, especially ours.
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Pull To Open: The Giggle HOT TAKE
- Season 4
- Episode 52
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Doctor Who meets God. No, that’s dumb, and besides — Star Trek already did it. But Doctor Who meets the Devil? That could be something, especially if you keep the precise identity of the antagonist opaque, blow up the stakes with a cosmological Rube Goldberg machine, and generally make the whole thing creepy as, uh, hell. The two-parter of The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit ticks all of those boxes and includes a bonus: the Ood, one of NuWho’s most indomitable monsters in more ways than one. But what really makes this outing memorable is the deep sense of isolation, helped by plopping our characters across the street from a black hole. But how “impossible” is that exactly, and does what’s happening on screen have anything to do with the real universe? Good thing we’ve got a guest astrophysics expert to help us come to grips with the mavity of the situation.
Pull To Open welcomes Ellie Blackwood (@looseleafellie on TikTok) to the podcast!
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Commentary for The Impossible Planet and The Satan Pit begins at 16:27.
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Story Essentials
- Series 2, Episodes 8 and 9
- Story number: 177, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Matt Jones
- Director: James Strong
- Showrunner: Russell T. Davies
- Aired 3–10 June 2006
Pull To Open: The Impossible Planet | The Satan Pit
- Season 4
- Episode 51
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Guest: Ellie Blackwood
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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It's the one we don't know anything about — except now we do! Wild Blue Yonder is here, and it's so, so different from The Star Beast. After a 17th century detour to set up a, uh, weighty running gag, the real event begins: a suspenseful mystery that's rests completely on the shoulders of the cast, which in this case is only David Tennant and Catherine Tate. All's in good hands, then.
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Pull To Open: Wild Blue Yonder HOT TAKE
- Season 4
- Episode 50
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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How could Doctor Who get out of the 1970s without doing a story about the perils of drug use? Nightmare of Eden may have its roots in gritty thrillers like The French Connection, but once the lumbering Mandrels enter the picture, things start to look more like Cocaine Bear. Despite the higher-than-average creativity — the ide of physically preserving environments in “laser crystal” storage is inspired — absolutely no one in the cast looks like they’re having any fun, which, if you think about it, makes Nightmare an apt meta-comment about drug culture. You might even call it a trip.
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Commentary for Nightmare of Eden begins at 16:27.
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Story Essentials: Nightmare of Eden
- Season 17, Serial 4
- Story number: 106, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Bob Baker
- Director: Alan Bromly, Graham Williams
- Producer: Graham Williams
- Aired 24 November – 15 December 1979
Pull To Open: Nightmare of Eden
- Season 4
- Episode 49
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Beep the Meep is back... for the first time! Yes, it's The Star Beast, the first of three specials for the 60th anniversary, and at long last Pull To Open is jamming the Randomizer so we can give our extremely scorching takes on the first brand-new Doctor Who in a year. The Doctor has his old face! Donna is back — with a daughter! And Beep the Meep is here to kick ass and be cute, and it's pretty much done with being cute. Let's engage our dagger drives and dig in.
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Pull To Open: The Star Beast HOT TAKE
- Season 4
- Episode 48
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Anniversary episodes are tricky things. You want to make a big, enjoyable show of things to attract an even larger audience than normal, but they’re by definition a celebration of everything that’s come before, so the need to please loyal fans is extreme. Threading that needle can be tough, but Doctor Who figured it out early: bring back previous actors who played the Doctor, get them all on screen together, and see what happens. You can see that throughline all the way to last year’s The Power of the Doctor, and certainly bringing David Tennant back for the 60th anniversary of the show counts on some level.
As a gimmick to bring in eyeballs, a multi-Doctor story works, and it’s worked since the very first time they did it. The Three Doctors is memorable not for its universe-spanning stakes or Omega’s sinister mask, but for the delightful mixing of Jon Pertwee’s and Patrick Troughton’s acting styles to explosive effect. Sadly William Hartnell could only be present on a TV screen, which levels-down the whole affair. Is that enough to ruin it, though? And does the threadbare story even matter at all? Put down your claws, gel creatures — we need to enter the black hole before we can judge.
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Commentary for The Three Doctors begins at 19:50.
Omega on Big Finish
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Story Essentials: The Three Doctors
- Season 10, Serial 1
- Story number: 64, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Bob Baker and Dave Martin
- Director: Lennie Mayne
- Producer: Barry Letts
- Aired 30 December 1972 - 20 January 1973
Pull To Open: The Three Doctors
- Season 4
- Episode 47
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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If cats have nine lives, Beep the Meep must be part cat. The titular character of The Star Beast comic strip and 60th anniversary special has already had at least two lives in Doctor Who: First as a featured player in the comic strip of Doctor Who Magazine, where he (it?) encountered the Fourth Doctor twice — in Beep’s 1980 debut and the 1996 sequel. Then Beep made the jump to audio in The Ratings War for Big Finish, meeting the Sixth Doctor where we finally got to hear the creature’s catchphrase, “Meep Meep!”
Now Beep is graduating to the TV series, and in celebration of that we’ve put the Randomizer on standby and have steered the podcast to Beep the Meep’s first adventure, The Star Beast — the original, you might say. Follow along with us as we go back to 1980 Blackcastle, where a cute alien was on the run, lead was plentiful on rooftops, and the Fourth Doctor picked up a new companion named Sharon…
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Story Essentials:
- Writer: Pat Mills, John Wagner
- Artist: Dave Gibbons
- First appeared: Doctor Who Weekly No. 19-26, 1980
- Reprinted as Doctor Who from Marvel Comics, Nos. 1 and 2
Pull To Open: The Star Beast Comic Strip
- Season 4
- Episode 46
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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In Doctor Who’s early years, there were many episodes where the Doctor was noticeably absent, usually because William Hartnell or Patrick Troughton needed a holiday from the grueling shooting schedule. But Human Nature is the only episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor doesn’t appear at all outside of flashbacks. Of course, David Tennant is front and center, giving a performance for the ages, literally, in John Smith. There are many reasons this episode, along with the conclusion, The Family of Blood, is so well remembered: Its central plot device tees up the climax the Series 3, it showcases some brilliant guest performances in the villainous Family, and it might even explain why the Eighth Doctor said he was “half-human.” But it’s the love story between Doctor’s alternate identity and a human woman that the story lives or dies upon. Let’s get at the heart of this thing…
This time there's THREE of us! We welcome Steven Schapansky from Radio Free Skaro for this special episode.
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Commentary for Human Nature | The Family of Blood begins at 24:03.
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Story Essentials
- Series 3, Episodes 8+9
- Story number: 188, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Paul Cornell
- Director: Charles Palmer
- Showrunner: Russell T. Davies
- Aired 26 May – 2 June 2007
Pull To Open: Human Nature / The Family of Blood
- Season 4
- Episode 45
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Guest: Steven Schapansky from Radio Free Skaro
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Perhaps no classic episode has benefited more from a “special edition” than Day of the Daleks. Although it tells a solid timey-wimey paradox story, the original version didn’t do justice to Doctor Who’s No. 1 monsters. They only made three rather diminutive props for the story, and the voices made Lumbergh from Office Space sound good. But when you add some convincing disintegration effects and dub new cries of “Exterminate!” from the incomparable Nicholas Briggs, it really levels up this adventure to the compelling return of the mechanical crowd-pleasers that it always should have been. What does that say about the material, though, that relatively superficial enhancements make such a difference? This bears close examination, so Blinovitch limitation effect be damned — let’s go back again to 1972.
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Commentary for Day of the Daleks begins at 27:12.
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Story Essentials
- Season 9, Serial 1
- Story number: 59, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Louis Marks
- Director: Paul Bernard
- Producer: Barry Letts
- Aired 1 January – 22 January 1972
Pull To Open: Day of the Daleks
- Season 4
- Episode 44
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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OK, you've got us — not all 100 stories were randomly picked. That's because when we were but a wee newborn Doctor Who podcast, we weren't random. Series 12 was underway and, after reviewing every single Christmas episode, we zeroed in on the current season. But that was predictable, common, perhaps even a little basic. Pull To Open needed something more.
So in 2021, we wired in the Randomizer into our podcast and haven't looked back. Since then we've done 100 different stories from almost every era of Doctor Who (we'll get you someday, Paul McGann), giving each one a rating from the Pull To Open Rating System™️. While that provides a good guide for where everything stands, it also results in numerous ties.
Which brings us to this episode. We've ranked the first 100 stories that Pull To Open has reviewed, and added a dash of Top of the Pops (complete with sizzling new music from Martin West!) for that zazz factor. And it wouldn't be Pull To Open if we didn't stop to comment on how things shook out.
Now... join us for the Pull To Open Hot 100! 🎙️🎶⏳🪐The Pull To Open CodexSubscribe to our newsletter at pulltoopen.net.
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The Pull To Open Hot 100
- Season 4
- Episode 43
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Instantaneous teleportation between any two points on Earth? Sounds pretty convenient — so convenient that it might lead to a stagnant society ripe for conquest by the next passing alien force. Yes, The Seeds of Death tees up the planet quite nicely for the Ice Warriors, but it’s hard to close the deal when your troops faint when they get close to a radiator, your diabolical bioweapon fizzles the moment it starts to rain, and your space fleet is being steered by Mr. Magoo. Sure, it doesn’t take a genius to see that Earth got way too complacent, but what’s your excuse, Mars?
Commentary for The Seeds of Death begins at 28:30.
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Story Essentials
- Season 6, Serial 5
- Story number: 47, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Brian Hayles (Terrance Dicks, episodes 3–6)
- Director: Michael Ferguson
- Producer: Peter Bryant
- Aired 25 January – 1 March 1969
Pull To Open: The Seeds of Death
- Season 4
- Episode 42
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Plenty of casual viewers of Doctor Who have been hooked into becoming fans because of the cold opens. Well, we don’t have stats or anything, but that feels true — because there are just so damn many great ones in the show that have gotten viewers to cancel plans, skip trips to the bathroom, or leave something burning on the stove because you just have to watch. A good cold open doesn’t necessarily mean a good episode will result, but it doesn’t hurt.
So what makes a good cold open? It should be short, for starters. Brevity counts for a lot. Like any good scene, it should tell a little story, introducing interesting characters in unusual situations. Then, something unexpected should happen, which of course leads to the key ingredient: the hook. The thing that wraps your attention around the episode like a string around a finger.
Although cold opens didn’t originate with the new series, they’ve become a staple of it, and it’s fair to say NuWho has perfected the format. There have been so many memorable ones, but there is one Doctor who has a disproportionate number of the best. Join us on our countdown of the 10 best cold opens in Doctor Who — with a few honorable mentions — to find out… Doctor Who?
The Top 10 list begins at 38:19.
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Pull To Open: The 10 Best Cold Opens in Doctor Who
- Season 4
- Episode 41
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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What exactly is the Doctor’s attitude towards changing history? With all the pure historicals of the era, William Hartnell’s Doctor actually has a lot to say about this. While The Aztecs makes clear his reluctance to interfere in history, The Myth Makers shows his bemusement at becoming a part of it — and his regret at seeing the consequences of that participation. It’s a surprisingly mature takeaway from an otherwise lighter take on the Trojan War, one that at times rivals The Romans for moments of comedy. Even when they’re being tortured, everyone looks like they’re having fun — so much so that Vicki stays behind. That’s really committing to the bit.
Commentary for The Myth Makers begins at 28:42.
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Story Essentials
- Season 3, Serial 3
- Story number: 19, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Donald Cotton
- Director: Michael Leeston-Smith
- Producer: John Wiles
- Aired 16 October – 6 November 1965
Pull To Open: The Myth Makers
- Season 4
- Episode 40
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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If you want hard evidence that the UNIT era — when Jon Pertwee’s Doctor was exiled to Earth after being put on trial by the Time Lords — was set in the “near future,” look no further than The Ambassadors of Death. With routine missions to Mars, nuclear fuel available in factories on the British countryside, and space capsules that can land on solid ground no less, this is a version of the future that the 20th century never delivered on, and much of the advances are still stubbornly out of reach. That doesn’t mean Ambassadors fails, of course. On the contrary, by putting its ’60s spy movie plot in a backdrop “the day after tomorrow,” you get the thrills of an action yarn with all the more reason to comfortably suspend your disbelief. For a few episodes, anyway.
Commentary for The Ambassadors of Death begins at 28:33.
Hold on a second. You mean you haven't reviewed Pull To Open on Apple Podcasts? What are you waiting for?
The Big Finish Pete was rambling about: Dust Breeding https://www.bigfinish.com/releases/v/doctor-who-dust-breeding-646
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Story Essentials
- Season 7, Serial 3
- Story number: 52, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: David Whitaker
- Director: Michael Ferguson
- Producer: Bary Letts
- Aired 21 March – 2 May 1970
Pull To Open: The Ambassadors of Death
- Season 4
- Episode 39
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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An intelligent cactus? A society that worships a giant 12-sided shape? Barbara, but not Barbara? You don’t have to get very far into Meglos to begin to feel this story is the result of a drunken session of Doctor Who mad libs, complete with its own game show segment: How Do Time Lords Get Out of a Time Loop? One thing you can’t take away from Megos — it thoroughly and completely goes for it, and Tom Baker’s double act as both the Doctor and his prickly doppelganger provides a nice throughline for the whole affair. It’s all great fun… until someone loses a dodecahedron.
Special guest Mark Cockram from the All of Time and Space podcast joins! Follow them on X at @MarkCockram (AKA The Human Palindrome) and @TimeNSpacePod.
Commentary for Meglos begins at 19:29.
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Story Essentials
- Season 18, Serial 2
- Story number: 110, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: John Flanagan and Andrew McCulloch
- Director: Terence Dudley
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 27 September – 18 October 1980
Pull To Open: Meglos
- Season 4
- Episode 38
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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Doctor Who has its share of metaphors, but perhaps none so naked as the eponymous company featured in Kerblam! (the only TV story so excited to feature an exclamation point in the title). With its motivational corporatespeak, closely monitored warehouse workers, and super-efficient delivery robots (that may or may not be homicidal), Kerblam is an obvious stand-in for Amazon — just projected out several thousand years. As you’d expect, Kerblam! certainly has some things to say about Bit Tech, automation, and the future of work, though how those themes land probably depends greatly on your existing opinions of those things. But do the smart characters and whodunnit plot rise above the debatable morality play? At the end of the day, does Kerblam!... deliver?
Commentary for Kerblam! begins at 23:58.
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Story Essentials
- Series 11, Episode 7
- Story number: 285, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Pete McTighe
- Director: Jennifer Perrott
- Showrunner: Chris Chibnall
- Aired 18 November 2018
Pull To Open: Kerblam!
- Season 4
- Episode 37
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
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It’s not a good idea to bet against the Doctor. There are lots of lessons learned in Doctor Who’s second “pure” historical, The Aztecs, but the folly going against the instructions of the curmudgeon with the time ship is probably the biggest. Of course, Barbara’s attempts to rewrite history by softening the more barbaric instincts of the eponymous civilization are what gives this particular story its weighty drama, so we’ll forgive her for not getting the memo. But the true lesson of this serial is up for debate: Is it the best historical of the entire series? And if so, what does that say about the other 59 years of the franchise?
Commentary for The Aztecs begins at 20:34.
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Story Essentials
- Season 1, Serial 6
- Story number: 6, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: John Lucarotti
- Director: John Crockett
- Producer: Verity Lambert
- Aired 23 May – 13 June 1964
Pull To Open: The Aztecs
- Season 4
- Episode 36
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Two full seasons in, Doctor Who finally gave viewers a hint of where its mysterious main character came from in The Time Meddler, a story that introduced the Doctor’s first time-traveling rival, the Monk. If the War Chief was a Master prototype, the Monk is the concept phase — the Doctor’s ideological opposite at a time long before the character became a righter of wrongs on a cosmological scale. Sure, the Monk is simply mischievous, but the fact that he’s morally closer to the Doctor than later villains helps define the lines around the Doctor himself. That’s a sign the show is full of confidence, so why not flaunt it by painting the faces of the regular cast among the stars?
Commentary for The Time Meddler begins at 17:08.
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Story Essentials
- Season 2, Serial 9
- Story number: 17, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Dennis Spooner
- Director: Douglas Camfield
- Producer: Verity Lambert
- Aired 3 July – 24 July 1965
Pull To Open: The Time Meddler
- Season 4
- Episode 35
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
When your show goes on hiatus for 15 years, the result is a literal generation gap of fandom. If you happen to be one of the many fans who have grown up on the series “Doctor Who” that began in 2005, you’re certainly aware of the Classic series but you may also be intimidated by just how much of it there is. Twenty-six seasons comprises a whole hell of a lot of television, so it’s difficult to know where to start. Well, we’ve got you covered: Chris and Pete have picked out the five stories from the Classic era that are essential for NuWho fans.
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Pull To Open: The 5 Best Classic Doctor Who Stories for NuWho Fans
- Season 4
- Episode 34
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Doctor Who rarely did season-long arcs in the Classic series, but sprinkled here and there are mini storylines like the E-Space trilogy. After all, what better way to raise the stakes a bit AND introduce a new companion than to maroon your regulars in a pocket universe for a few episodes? Well, if you’re going to use cliche marsh creatures and sad plastic spiders as your chief antagonists, that might be a sign your mini arc isn’t starting on the right foot. Yes, there’s a bit too much nonsense going on in Full Circle, although Tom Baker might be on his game just enough to still earn this adventure a badge for sci-fi-trope excellence. That said, we may have had a little too much riverfruit to properly judge.
Commentary for Full Circle begins at 23:28.
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Story Essentials
- Season 18, Serial 3
- Story number: 111, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Andrew Smith
- Director: Peter Grimwade
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 25 October – 15 November 1980
Pull To Open: Full Circle
- Season 4
- Episode 33
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Doctors come and go, and each leaves their mark on the role — one as iconic as Sherlock Holmes or James Bond. But outside of their undeniable impact on Doctor Who, some of the actors who have played the Doctor go on to impress and find audiences in other roles. Even if those parts may not match the level of notoriety a franchise like Doctor Who bestows, those performances sometimes demonstrate a range and expertise in their craft few can match.
Who are the actors who best fit that description? It's a hard question to answer even if you adhere to the "orthodox" view, sticking to the actors who played the lead in the series on an ongoing basis. However, the nature of the show — in particular the way it both reboots and revisits its central character — means there are plenty of wild cards.
Everyone knows the major players: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker, and, soon, Ncuti Gatwa. But if the criteria is "actors who played the Doctor," we're also forced to consider David Bradley, Richard Hurndall, Peter Cushing, and John Hurt, among others.
In this Pull To Open Side Trip, we set out to answer — or at least address — the potentially unanswerable question: Who is the best actor to ever play the role of the Doctor?
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Pull To Open: Who Is the Best Actor to Play the Doctor?
- Season 4
- Episode 32
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Returning to Gallifrey to fight an old enemy sounds like a surefire formula for a Doctor Who epic. So why then is Arc of Infinity so bland? Kicking off the show’s 20th anniversary season, this story seems determined to undermine the memories of classics like The Deadly Assassin and The Three Doctors, turning the formidable Omega into a cowering refugee and completing the Time Lords’ reduction from gods to members of a squabbling afterschool club with ostentatious collars. Even the refreshing Amsterdam location shoot is ruined in series of interminable scenes with the TARDIS team chasing Peter Davison’s stunt double. Are there any signs of life in this lonely anti-drama universe? Well, perhaps one — or rather, Six.
Commentary for Arc of Infinity begins at 23:45 .
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Story Essentials
- Season 20, Serial 1
- Story number: 123, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Johnny Byrne
- Director: Ron Jones
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 3 January – 12 January 1983
Pull To Open: Arc of Infinity
- Season 4
- Episode 31
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
We don't always live up to our own ideals. Doctor Who's main character is no exception: The Doctor's mantra is "never be cruel or cowardly" — created by writer Terrance Dicks as an off-screen guideline during the classic series until it became official in the new series, with Peter Capaldi's Doctor going so far as to remind Jodie Whittaker's of the catchphrase in his dying moments.
But there have been numerous times in the Doctor's adventures that he's acted in ways that contravene this philosophy — sometimes coldly unattentive to his companions' feelings or even committing what could (and possibly should) be considered serious crimes. While all that is arguably good for the show — complicated heroes are better for drama, after all — it's worth calling out the character on his (or her) occasional hypocrisy, if only to point out the exceptions that prove the rule. And boy are there a lot of exceptions.
Here are 10 times the Doctor was cruel or cowardly (or both!):
- Calling Danny Pink "PE" 08:06
- Shouting at the Sensorites 12:37
- Not saying goodbye 16:01
- Crushing Yaz 20:40
- Ditching Clara in Kill the Moon 23:11
- Letting others "take the hit" 28:25
- Torturing a helpless Dalek 31:13
- Imprisoning the Family of Blood 34:09
- Murdering a Time Lord 38:38 Honorable mentions 41:14
- Not killing the Master 46:28
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Pull To Open: 10 Times the Doctor Was Cruel or Cowardly
- Season 4
- Episode 30
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Being the Doctor is a tough job, but when he’s unavailable, few are better qualified to fill in for him than Clara Oswald. Flatline’s clever script thrusts her into the position after the Doctor is trapped in the TARDIS by one of the most ingenious monsters of the series, a group of silent two-dimensional invaders the Doctor names the Boneless. Building on its intriguing role reversal, Flatline is a suspenseful thriller packed full of smart visual gags, an excellent guest cast, and pertinent themes of urban art. Plus it delivers one of the most spine-tingling climaxes in the show’s history. How come no one talks about it?
Commentary for Flatline begins at 36:51.
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Story Essentials
- Series 8, Episode 9
- Story number: 253, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Jamie Mathieson
- Director: Douglas Mackinnon
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 18 October 2014
Pull To Open: Flatline
- Season 4
- Episode 29
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Is it possible for Doctor Who to have too much time and money? Judging by Legend of the Sea Devils — one of just three stories made since 2021 — the answer is, “Aye!” Boasting some of the biggest sets Doctor Who has ever had and the return of a mostly well-remembered classic monster, this pirate adventure seemed destined to be a treasure. But nobody’s heart seems in this outing — not the inept villain, nor the creatively dressed Team TARDIS, nor the diverse and capable guest cast ready to dive deep into China’s rich pirate history. But ahoy, what’s this? We’re finally addressing the burgeoning romance between Yaz and the Doctor? That could be the lifeline this Legend needs.
Commentary for Legend of the Sea Devils begins at 27:52.
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Story Essentials
- “Easter” 2022 Special
- Story number: 301, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Ella Road and Chris Chibnall
- Director: Haolu Wang
- Producer: Chris Chibnall
- Aired 17 April 2022
Pull To Open: Legend of the Sea Devils
- Season 4
- Episode 28
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Finding a new place to live takes a lot out of you. Between the lease, the hassle of moving, and the endless viewings, you hardly have any time left to comb the flat for glowing bugs from space that might want to absorb you into the walls. Luckily for Bill, she’s got a… uh, “granddad” to do that, and Knock Knock nicely sets up its tale by starting with the pleasant banality of college life before sucking us into a Doctor Who mystery about a creepy landlord, even creepier insects, and something that out-creeps them both living high above Bill’s new apartment. Did we mention it’s creepy? At least that’s what the story is really trying to make us to feel — but you know what they say about trying too hard.
Commentary for Knock Knock begins at 22:57.
Guest Bryan Young joins from the Full of Sith podcast!
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Story Essentials
- Series 10, Episode 4
- Story number: 271, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Mike Bartlett
- Director: Bill Anderson
- Producer: Steven Moffat
- Aired 6 May 2017
Pull To Open: Knock Knock
- Season 4
- Episode 27 (Episode 100 overall!)
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
There are struggling planets, there are troubled planets, and then there’s Solos: a world so uniquely unlucky in the cosmos as to inherit a ruler like the Marshall, one of the most uniformly evil dictators to ever appear in Doctor Who. Set in a bleak future where Earth has seen better days, The Mutants is in no way subtle in its criticism of colonization and the racist policies that often result. But it wouldn’t be a Doctor Who story if there wasn’t a bug-eyed monster, a mystery involving ancient artifacts and a lost scientist, and a marathon of running through brightly lit corridors. WARNING: Some cliffhangers may cause extreme confusion and shortness of breath (and patience), so keep your oxymask handy.
Commentary for The Mutants begins at 18:49.
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Story Essentials
- Season 9, Serial 4
- Story number: 62, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Bob Baker and Dave Martin
- Director: Christopher Barry
- Producer: Barry Letts
- Aired 8 April – 13 May 1972
Pull To Open: The Mutants
- Season 4
- Episode 26
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
If you have two enormous, powerful entities, sure as hell someone will think it’s a great idea to have them fight. If they’re galactic space empires, so much the better for raising the stakes — at least on paper. But what Frontier in Space is really about is fear: fear of the unknown, the unfamiliar, the notion you might be wrong, and how that fear can lead people (and Draconians) to do terrible things. Oh, it’s also about getting captured repeatedly, and the varying ways one can escape from prison cells, particularly if you happen to have the combined skills of a Time Lord and a special agent from a global peacekeeping force. Yep, you can learn a lot from this very Star Trek-inspired story, although what Ogrons do for fun will forever remain a mystery.
Commentary for Frontier in Space begins at 15:44.
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Story Essentials:
- Season 10, Serial 3
- Story number: 66, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Malcolm Hulke
- Director: Paul Bernard
- Producer: Barry Letts
- Aired 24 February – 31 March 1973
Pull To Open: Frontier in Space
- Season 4
- Episode 25
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
We’ve all been there: After waking up from a long sleep, you open your eyes only to witness a buzzing insect that’s invaded your bedroom. So we can all relate to the human refugees on Nerva Station, although when the pest is a man-sized space parasite that wants to consume you and absorb your memories PLUS you and your friends are the last of the human race — well, the stakes get a bit raised. There’s no question The Ark in Space sets up a suspenseful tale for the ages, and even functions as a prototype for the Alien series. But the thing about prototypes is their main purpose is to work out the, uh, bugs.
Commentary for The Ark in Space begins at 20:37.
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Story Essentials
- Season 12, Serial 2
- Story number: 75, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writers: Robert Holmes, John Lucarotti
- Director: Rodney BennettProducer: Philip Hinchcliffe
- Aired 25 January – 15 February 1975
Pull To Open: The Ark in Space
- Season 4
- Episode 24
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
The hottest sci-fi writer on the planet in 1978 was Douglas Adams. Not only was he about to bestow upon the world the original radio plays of The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, he also wrote his first Doctor Who adventure, The Pirate Planet. There are so many similarities — in tone, plotting, and effortlessly clever dialogue — that it’s easy to tell this story came out of the same creative spigot as Hitch Hiker’s, but the recycling doesn’t detract from this incredibly ambitious story about a planet-size genocide machine commanded by a cybernetic pirate captain. But is it still as good as its author’s reputation? By the cavity-ridden teeth of the sky demon, we’re going to find out.
Commentary for The Pirate Planet begins at 27:01.
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Story Essentials
- Season 16, Serial 2
- Story number: 98, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Douglas Adams
- Director: Pennant Roberts
- Producer: Graham Williams
- Aired 30 September - 21 October 1978
Pull To Open: The Pirate Planet
- Season 4
- Episode 23
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
How does a family show like Doctor Who do a zombie horror story? You start by subtracting (most of) the gore, then add a sci-fi twist. That’s good, but what would really make it stand out is if you take a real person from history and cast the best possible actor to play the role. The Unquiet Dead ticks all those eerie boxes, deftly telling a tale of walking corpses, teasing the show’s (then) new mythology of the Time War, and showcasing the show’s central premise of time travel by involving Charles Dickens himself. It’s all thanks to a promising writer named Mark Gatiss — whatever happened to him?
Commentary for The Unquiet Dead begins at 29:53.
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Story Essentials
- Series 1, Episode 3
- Story number: 162, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Mark Gatiss
- Director: Euros Lyn
- Showrunner: Russell T. Davies
- Aired 9 April 2005
Pull To Open: The Unquiet Dead
- Season 4
- Episode 22
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Often when Doctor Who visits Earth’s past, a lot is made of whether the characters can “change” history or not. Outcomes vary, but it’s oddly refreshing to look back on the series’ first historical, Marco Polo, where the question never comes up. Instead, the story creates stakes by thrusting the TARDIS team smack in the middle of the rivalries, duplicity and politics of quasi-real events in history, and letting the drama naturally unfold. At seven episodes, it’s a gradual unfolding — and some accounting for the time it was made is a given — but even if you don’t grade on a curve, Marco Polo sets a strong standard for Doctor Who historicals, missing or not.
Commentary for Marco Polo begins at 21:21.
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Story Essentials
- Season 1, Serial 4
- Story number: 4, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: John Lucarotti
- Director: Waris Hussein (1–3, 5–7), John Crockett (4)
- Producer: Verity Lambert
- Aired 22 February – 4 April 1964
Pull To Open: Marco Polo
- Season 4
- Episode 21
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
The Doctor tends to find himself thrust in the middle of many battles throughout history, but what if he landed in the middle of all of them? That may well have been the inspiration for The War Games, the epic-length finale of the Patrick Troughton era of Doctor Who. By taking the idea of multiple wars — each a live-action board game played for the amusement of powerful aliens — with the soldiers eventually realizing the deception and resisting, the story puts forward one of the most powerful anti-war messages of the series. To top it off, The War Games concludes with the revelation that the Doctor is a member of a race of beings called the Time Lords: frighteningly god-like in their first appearance, ending all the wars with a wave of their perfect hands. But the end of the fight is just the beginning.
Commentary for The War Games begins at 31:35.
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Story Essentials
- Season 6, Serial 7
- Story number: 49, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Terrance Dicks and Malcolm Hulke
- Director: David Maloney
- Producer: Derrick Sherwin
- Aired 19 April – 21 June 1969
Pull To Open: The War Games
- Season 4
- Episode 20
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
The original revelation of the Doctor’s origins was a slow burn: It took Doctor Who six seasons to finally give concrete answers to who he was and where he came from. But after the landmark reveal at the end of The War Games, going back to Gallifrey seemed to be an exercise in diminishing returns for the show. True, The Deadly Assassin gave a compelling new perspective on Time Lord society, though if you look at what came after — Arc of Infinity, The Trial of a Time Lord, and even Hell Bent — the Time Lords get blander and weirder, with shifting motivations that are forgotten about when it’s inconvenient.
The greater point is that Doctor Who seemed oddly unsure of what to do with the most important planet in the cosmos, and one could make a solid case that it was at its best when it was simply gone — destroyed in the Time War but remembered for everything it represented to the show and its central character. Now that it’s gone again in the post-Chibnall era, is that necessarily a bad thing? Is Doctor Who stronger or weaker with an active Gallifrey, full of Time Lords watching the universe to ensure it plays by their rules? And should the show bring it back — again?
Let’s enter the Matrix and talk.
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Pull To Open: The Trouble With Gallifrey
- Season 4
- Episode 19
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Whether you’re a fan of a TV show, movie series or comic book, it’s almost guaranteed your fandom will be tested at some point. As creative teams come and go, as changes in direction stack up, as the medium evolves, the flavor of something can change radically. And if you don’t like the taste, it can be a rapid progression from disappointment to hate-watching to quitting in disgust.
Doctor Who is no exception to this, and it probably goes double given its built-in reboot device of regeneration. Beyond the normal creative churn, there have been specific moments in the show’s history that are (in)famously controversial and certainly inspired many fans to walk away and never come back — the moments that made us rage-quit. At the same time, sometimes interest in the show simply peters out, leading the related but different phenomenon of the “meh” quit.
In this special episode, we discuss those rage- and meh-quitting moments in our own lives as well the more notorious ones among Doctor Who fandom.
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Pull To Open: Rage-Quitting Doctor Who: A History
- Season 4
- Episode 18
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
If you’re going to attempt a tense thriller in Doctor Who, sometimes the horror can get really intense, such as in The Waters of Mars. And sometimes it can go 100% in the other direction and serve up an unexpected monster in the form of a baby-faced cartoon character, such as here, in The Tsuranga Conundrum. Is one approach superior to the other? We’re here to say, definitively, yes. Yep, the Pting’s bad — there’s no way around it — but as long as we have Brett Goldstein’s eyebrows to lose ourselves in, we should be fine.
Commentary for The Tsuranga Conundrum begins at 27:13.
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Story Essentials
- Series 11, Episode 5
- Story number: 283, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Chris Chibnall
- Director: Jennifer Perrott
- Showrunner: Chris Chibnall
- Aired 4 November 2018
Pull To Open: The Tsuranga Conundrum
- Season 4
- Episode 17
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
When is a TARDIS not a TARDIS? When it’s a bitey mad lady, of course. Yes, The Doctor's Wife shows a side of the show’s signature blue box that we’ve never seen before, personifying the Doctor’s “ship” in a way that’s unexpected, insanely quirky and… well, sexy. That’s thanks in large part to Suranne Jones’ pitch-perfect performance as Idris, a woman possessed with the essence of the TARDIS, the Doctor’s longest-running companion. Neil Gamian’s clever script wisely gives her a lot of time opposite Matt Smith — at his madcap best — and fans will delight in seeing the Doctor and his time machine finally say the things they’ve always wanted to say to each other. But does that make the story a classic or just a really satisfying interlude? Dave Kitchen from The Doctor Who Show joins Pete and Chris on this journey outside of our universe to answer that very question.
Commentary for The Doctor's Wife begins at 25:06.
Guest Dave Kitchen joins from The Doctor Who Show!
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Story Essentials
- Series 6, Episode 4
- Story number: 219, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Neil Gaiman
- Director: Richard Clark
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 14 May 2011
Pull To Open: The Doctor’s Wife
- Season 4
- Episode 16
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor and guest co-host Dave Kitchen
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
You’ve got to hand it to the Doctor — he’s single-handedly saved Gallifrey almost as many times as the Earth, and The Invasion of Time even lets him double dip! Rescuing the Time Lords from the Vardans was just a warm-up, with the Sontarans laying in wait to have their crack at the planet once the production runs out of tinfoil. The story is a bizarro Russian doll of invasions, seemingly orchestrated by a borderline-megalomaniacal Doctor, set against the backdrop of Robert Holmes’ delightfully dysfunctional Gallifrey. Thank Rassilon there’s a robot dog here to make sense of it all.
Commentary for The Invasion of Time begins at 29:00.
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Story Essentials
- Season 15, Serial 6
- Story number: 96, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: David Agnew (Anthony Read, Graham Williams)
- Director: Gerald Blake
- Producer: Graham Williams
- Aired 4 February – 11 March 1978
Pull To Open: The Invasion of Time
- Season 4
- Episode 15
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
It’s a long-debated subject among Doctor Who fans: Who counts as a companion? It used to be that traveling in the TARDS, typically across different stories, meant you made the list — and might even end up in a support group years later with Kate Stewart et al. But a mere TARDIS ride is too low a bar: Does that mean the policemen in Black Orchid are companions? You could say you need to be in more than one story, but then Astrid and Sara Kingdom are out. And what about “bad” TARDIS passengers like Turlough and Adam Mitchell?
What’s clearly called for is a new system for deciding who is an official companion and who isn’t. Luckily, we’ve got one! Inspired by a recent trip to the DMV, where certain types of personal identification count for more than others, the Pull To Open Companion System awards a character a Companion badge only if they earn a certain number of points. They can earn points by achieving specific goals as they adventure with the Doctor, but only once per goal — think of each as an “achievement unlocked.” Once you get 10 points, you get the label.
Here are the goals, and the points earned for each:
a) Explicit invitation accepted (e.g. Rose, Turlough): 10 points
b) Companion invitation: 5 points
c) Take a trip in the TARDIS: 4 points
d) In more than 1 story: 4 points
e) Travel in time: 2 points
f) Name in opening credits (new series): 2 points
g) Face or eyes in opening credits: 8 points
h) Evil/working against the Doctor: –6 points
And here’s where various characters land:
TURLOUGH: 10(a)+4(c)+4(d)+2(e)-6(h) = 14 ✅
BRIGADIER: 4(c)+4(d)+2(e) = 10 ✅
KATE STEWART: 4(d) = 4 ❌
BRIAN: 4(c)+4(d)+2(e) = 10 ✅
ADAM MITCHELL: 5(b)+4(c)+4(d)+2(e)-6(h) = 9 ❌
SARA KINGDOM: 4(c)+2(e) = 6 ❌
POLICE FROM BLACK ORCHID: 4(c) = 4 ❌
ASTRID: 10(a)+2(f) = 12 ✅
LADY CHRISTINA: 2(f) = 2 ❌
MISSY: 10(a)+4(b)+4(d)+2(e)-6(h) = 14 ✅
Who makes the cut might not be what you expect, and there are arguably some bold exclusions and inclusions, but generally this feels in the right direction, if not right. What do you think of our system? Where does it need refinement? Please reach out via a review or on social media (links below), and let’s perfect the system!
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Pull To Open: Who Is a Companion?
- Season 4
- Episode 14
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
In the new series, it’s customary to offer freshly onboarded TARDIS crewmembers a choice: Would you like to go to the future or the past? Back in the ’60s, there was no choice involved — the Doctor didn’t have the first clue how to steer his time machine, something he states explicitly in The Smugglers to accidental companions Ben and Polly. But if he had the goal of showing them just how brutally violent traveling through time can be, he couldn’t do much better than this mostly forgotten “pure historical” about pirates plotting to ransack large parts of Cornwall while making off with a secret treasure. So why not just have another go at popping into the future, and leave them to it? It’s all about “moral obligation,” the Doctor says, which isn’t as catchy as not being cruel or cowardly, but it's a rarely mentioned moment that captures his philosophy nonetheless. There are surprising treasures you can find when you’re not even looking.
Commentary on The Smugglers begins at 17:15.
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Story Essentials
- Season 4, Serial 1
- Story number: 27, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Brian Hayles
- Director: Julia Smith
- Producer: Innes Lloyd
- Aired 10 September - 1 October 1966
Pull To Open: The Smugglers
- Season 4
- Episode 13
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
“Fearlessly bonkers” is how director Paul Wilmshurst described Kill the Moon, a — shall we say ambitious? — episode of Doctor Who that presumes the moon we see shining in the sky every night is actually an enormous egg. Yes. Hold on… how did we not notice it’s made of eggshell? How does the moon “put on weight” so quickly that it has the same gravity of Earth? Why would the “bacteria” protecting it look and behave exactly like giant spiders? Best not to ask such questions and simply run down the needlessly exploding moonbase corridor with everybody else. If you can get past the bizarro premise, Kill the Moon actually has some of the more definitive moments between the 12th Doctor and Clara. But is that amniotic juice worth the lunar squeeze? Let’s hitch a ride on a rickety space shuttle to find out.
Commentary on Kill the Moon begins at 15:38.
Reference material:
- A whole new moon
- 'I'm the first space pirate!' How tardigrades were secretly smuggled to the moon
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Story Essentials
- Series 8, Episode 7
- Story number: 251, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Peter Harness
- Director: Paul Wilmshurst
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 4 October 2014
Pull To Open: Kill the Moon
- Season 4
- Episode 12
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
The question of what constitutes a complete story in Doctor Who isn't a straightforward as it may seem. The issue actually first reared its rubber-masked head fairly early on, when, in the third season, the show decided to "tease" its most epic adventure yet, The Daleks' Masterplan, with a single one-off episode called Mission to the Unknown. It even gave Mission a unique production code that tied it to that 12-part(!) adventure. So... is it its own story, or what? Years later, The Trial of a Time Lord scrambled things even more, giving its four sort-of-separate stories individual production codes, but labeling and marketing the entire 14-episode season as a single story. And don't get us started on Extremis or Flux.
Or rather — do! In this Pull To Open Short Trip, we examine the most difficult decisions we made to create our absolutely authoritative, definitive, take-it-to-the-Shadow-Proclamation record of all the Doctor Who televised adventures: the Pull To Open Codex! Fire up your spreadsheets and start honing your head canon — this one's going to be... educational.
The Pull To Open Codex
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Pull To Open: Decoding the Codex
- Season 4
- Episode 11
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Orphan 55 stands apart from the rest of Doctor Who canon in two key ways: First, its idea of an indeterminate always-in-flux future is at odds with virtually every other adventure set in the future. And second, probably no other episode has ever dared to spell out its message so explicitly, ending with an ominous speech from Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor about the terrible consequences of neglecting our planet. To be fair, the story is much more fun than that sounds, with jokes about speedos and bats, a three-layer cake of mysteries, and plenty of creepy monsters with big teeth. This one has more twists than a Blackpool roller coaster, although when it’s done you might question where you ended up.
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Story Essentials
- Series 12, Episode 3
- Story number: 291, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Ed Hime
- Director: Lee Haven Jones
- Showrunner: Chris Chibnall
- Aired 12 January 2020
Pull To Open: Orphan 55
- Season 4
- Episode 10
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Is there a story that gets the Daleks wrong more than Destiny of the Daleks? While Douglas Adams’ run on Doctor Who as script editor is revered for many reasons (mostly the story immediately following this one), his first outing is arguably a misstep. Bringing back the Daleks after a five-year absence isn’t a bad idea, but shoehorning the show’s most crowd-pleasing monsters into a story about two rival races of “robots” in a galactic military stalemate robs them of the essence of their terror. You can’t deny the story is memorable — Davros awakes! Romana regenerates! The Movellans dance! — but Adams’ unique humor laced throughout the script challenges you to take any of it seriously. You have to admire K-9’s good sense to sit this one out.
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Story Essentials
- Season 17, Serial 1
- Story number: 103, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Terry Nation
- Director: Ken Grieve
- Producer: Graham Williams
- Aired 1 – 22 September 1979
Pull To Open: Destiny of the Daleks
- Season 4
- Episode 9
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
If you tuned into Doctor Who in the early ’70s, chances are you saw Jon Pertwee in a colorful tuxedo arguing with the Brigadier and UNIT on the best way to take down some inhuman menace whose strings are being pulled by Roger Delgado’s Master. You get that in spades in The Mind of Evil, which makes it a 100% proof 1970s Who adventure, though at times the bloated story feels like they decided to coast almost entirely on the formula, without much attention given to whether any of the multiplying plot threads made sense on their own. Pay no mind — because you wouldn’t want to get stuck with the bill for this one anyway.
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Story Essentials
- Season 8, Serial 2
- Story number: 55, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Don Houghton
- Director: Timothy Combe
- Producer: Barry Letts
- Aired 30 January - 6 March 1971
Pull To Open: The Mind of Evil
- Season 4
- Episode 8
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Time travel and dinosaurs — they go together like teeth and curls. Strange, then, that Doctor Who has only ventured on a rousing adventure with these colossal prehistoric monsters twice, in stories about 40 years apart. At least in the latter outing, Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, the special effects are leveled-up from stop motion to CGI. The TARDIS crew also gets enhanced, recruiting a pair of fish-out-of-water historical figures to help the Doctor solve the immediate problem: a Canada-size space ark is hurtling toward Earth with an evil black marketeer in tow. Plus Rory’s dad comes along. Throw in some funny robots, David Bradley, and a Silurian reference, and you’ve got yourself a Doctor Who potluck party. One thing’s for sure: This one’s going to taste… different.
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Story Essentials
- Series 7, Episode 2
- Story number: 230, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Chris Chibnall
- Director: Saul Metzstein
- Showrunner: Steven Moffat
- Aired 8 September 2012
Pull To Open: Dinosaurs on a Spaceship
- Season 4
- Episode 7
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Guests: Rob and Liam from The Cloister Bell Podcast
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
When the Doctor travels to the past he obviously has a great deal of foreknowledge about what’s taken place and, moreover, what must take place in order for history as we know it to be preserved. It’s refreshing, then, to see that same idea applied to future history in The Waters of Mars, a thrilling story that uses that device to amplify its impact by an order of magnitude above your typical base-under-siege adventure. When you add a healthy helping of zombie horror and a dark twist at the end, the result is one of the most adult Doctor Who episodes ever made — one that might even be considered a modern classic. Best put in a silly robot then.
Rob and Liam from The Cloister Bell Podcast join! Give them a follow, won't you?
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Story Essentials
- Autumn Special 2009
- Story number: 204, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Russell T Davies and Phil Ford
- Director: Graeme Harper
- Showrunner: Davies
- Aired 15 November 2011
Pull To Open: The Waters of Mars
- Season 4
- Episode 6
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Guests: Rob and Liam from The Cloister Bell Podcast
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Matt Smith’s Doctor is known for being a few notches higher on the Bonkers Scale than his predecessors, a measure that arguably reaches its peak in The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. His captivating antics early in this story — where he takes a London family on a tour of a country manor that he’s upgraded with with playrooms, hammocks and taps that spout lemonade — underscore the 11th Doctor’s “mad man in a box” appeal, and set the stage for a emotional story with surprising weight. The script almost blows it, though, but, as we discuss, showrunner Steven Moffat adds a key ingredient to perfect this pleasing Christmas treat. Hint: It’s not the wood.
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Story Essentials
- Christmas Special 2011
- Story number: 228, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Steven Moffat
- Showrunner: Moffat
- Aired 25 December 2011
Pull To Open: The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe
- Season 4
- Episode 5
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
As Doctor Who’s ultimate monsters, the Daleks have been rebooted more times than a MacBook doing a janky system update. The most recent revamp came via Revolution of the Daleks, where the children of Davros got a new look inspired by the previous holiday special, Resolution, complete with sleek black casing and his and hers colored LEDs. But Dalek design isn’t the only thing up for revision here: we also get new takes on a pair of Jacks — Harkness and Robertson — who both try on something different as they return to the familiar. That’s basically the new Daleks’ plan here, too, and though it may not have worked out great for them, you can’t question what this story did for Doctor Who’ production values. VICTORY! VICTORY!
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Story Essentials
- New Year’s Special 2021
- Story number: 298, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Writer: Chris Chibnall
- Showrunner: Chibnall
- Aired 1 January 2021
Pull To Open: Revolution of the Daleks
- Season 4
- Episode 4
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
The Fifth Doctor’s cricket outfit seemed a bit random at first, but Black Orchid is the story that shows it’s more than just a signature look. In an unusual twist, the Doctor isn’t the mysterious stranger seemingly come to save the day — he’s completely expected, and the thing he’s expected to do is play cricket. Of course, he does so like a boss who’s had centuries to hone his bowling skills, and then serves up an encore by solving a double murder at the estate of an aristocratic English family right out of Downton Abbey. No, this isn’t your typical Doctor Who. Thank goodness.
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Story Essentials:
- Season 19, Serial 5
- Story number: 120, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 6A
- Writer: Terence Dudley
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 1 - 2 March 1982
Pull To Open: Black Orchid
- Season 4
- Episode 3
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Entering the pocket reality of a powerful entity that loves to play games isn’t something that happens every day, but if you’re a character on Doctor Who, it’s an occupational hazard. The Celestial Toymaker is the first realization of that idea onscreen, made more interesting by the revelation that it’s not the first time the Doctor has met this potentially problematic villain. In Who canon, the story is well-remembered if not revered — for the implied history between the two characters, for the clever morphing of kids’ games into deathtraps, and, if we’re being honest, the tumultuous goings-on behind the scenes. Is it really a classic, though, or is its reputation pure nostalgia, amplified by the unfortunate fact that most of the story is missing? Let’s play the re-evaluation game.
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Story Essentials
- Season 3, Serial 6
- Story number: 23, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: Y
- Writer: Brian Hayles (with Donald Tosh and Gerry Davis)
- Producer: Innes Lloyd
- Aired 2 April - 23 April 1966
Pull To Open: The Celestial Toymaker
- Season 4
- Episode 2
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
When Pull To Open debuted three years ago, we didn’t even have a rating system — just a sound of drums in our heads, convincing us to bring thoughtful commentary about Doctor Who stories from the perspective of longtime fans who are also journalists. As we went deeper into the show and installed the key component in our journey — the Pull To Open Randomizer — we developed a shorthand for signaling if we considered an episode good (a Dalek) or not so good (an Ogron). Eventually we created ratings for unsuccessful stories that were instructive (a Professor Hayter) and the absolute best of the best (the coveted Viscount Banger). Completists that we are, we felt the need to go back and retcon our old ratings with our current system to ensure our newly upgraded Pull To Open Codex stays fully armed and operational. Come with us as we cross our own timeline to fix the past. Because that’s always a good idea.
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Pull To Open: The Retcon Episode
- Season 4
- Episode 1
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
If you’re a time-traveling alien with a toothache, obviously your first stop is going to be the Old West. It’s not just because of the oddly easy-to-find dentistry services, but the chance of getting mixed up in a farcical case of mistaken identity with lots of gunplay is quite high. Doctor Who’s first (and for a long time, only) attempt at a western is arguably a bold experiment and unquestionably a high-quality production, but like the gunslinging Clantons themselves, The Gunfighters has become infamous over the years. Is it really as bad as its reputation? Or could it be the irritating “Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon” that’s tainting an otherwise passable story? Saddle up, pardners — this one’s going to be a ride.
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Story Essentials
- Season 3, Serial 7
- Story number: 24, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: Z
- Writer: Donald Cotton
- Producer: Innes Lloyd
- Aired 30 April – 21 May 1966
Pull To Open: The Gunfighters
- Season 3
- Episode 42
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
By Series 3 of NuWho, showrunner Russell T. Davies was two-for-two at successfully re-introducing classic bad guys in the Daleks and the Cybermen. To complete the trifecta, Davies naturally turned to the Doctor’s ideological opposite, the Master, and he raised the stakes with the new series’ first three-parter in Utopia, The Sound of Drums and Last of the Time Lords — a story that sees the Earth not just threatened, but conquered and subjugated. That’s a lot to work with when your job is to craft some epic Doctor Who, but did Davies give himself too much rope? We dare to climb up that rope to pass judgment from on high… which looks a lot like a flying aircraft carrier.
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Story Essentials
- Series 3, Episodes 11, 12 and 13
- Story number: 261, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 3.11, 3.12, 3.13
- Writer: Russell T. Davies
- Showrunner: Davies
- Aired 16 – 30 June 2007
Pull To Open: Utopia | The Sound of Drums | Last of the Time Lords
- Season 3
- Episode 41
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
As alien baddies go, the Zygons are one of the more nuanced races that have tried to take over the Earth. Turns out they want to just live in peace and chill, man — just like the rest of us. That’s some nice background for The Zygon Invasion/Inversion, a story that focuses on the extremists among us who are determined to stir up animosity to further their own idealized vision of how society should be. Kinda sounds relevant, but it’s going to take a speech for the ages, delivered by a leading actor in top form, to really get us to fully absorb it. Something tells us it’s gonna be OK.
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Story Essentials
- Series 9, Episodes 7 and 8
- Story number: 261, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 9.07, 9.08
- Writer: Peter Harness (Invasion and Inversion), Steven Moffat (Inversion)
- Showrunner: Moffat
- Aired 31 October - 7 November 2015
Pull To Open: The Zygon Invasion | The Zygon Inversion
- Season 3
- Episode 40
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Is there a better episode to introduce new viewers to Doctor Who than Blink? Sure, it’s a little unrepresentative of the show considering the Doctor is barely in it, but the essential elements are there: a fantastical world, a normal person pulled slowly into it, and a monster for the ages. Blink had both hardcore Whovians and casual fans buzzing when it debuted in 2007, but has it been long enough that cracks are starting to show in the stone facade? We dare to climb the pedestal where Blink stands to look closely at whether it’s just as epic as it ever was. We’ll try not to… close our eyes briefly.
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Story Essentials
- Series 3, Episode 10
- Story number: 189, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 3.10
- Writer: Steven Moffat
- Showrunner: Russell T. Davies
- Aired 9 June 2007
Pull To Open: Blink
- Season 3
- Episode 39
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
What is so fascinating about the micro world that almost every sci-fi franchise has been inspired to include an episode where the characters shrink to the size of insects? The Doctor’s first foray into diminished circumstances came pretty early: William Hartnell’s second-season opener, Planet of Giants, sees the original TARDIS crew taking on giant bugs, deadly water faucets, and a ruthless killer indifferent to a looming environmental catastrophe. Seen through a magnifying glass, Doctor Who feels like an entirely different show. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s hard to see that “less is more” in this case. Maybe we just need to squint.
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Story Essentials
- Season 2, Serial 1
- Story number: 9, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: J
- Writer: Louis Marks
- Producer: Verity Lambert
- Aired 31 October – 14 November 1964
Pull To Open: Planet of Giants
- Season 3
- Episode 38
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Jodie Whittaker’s regeneration wasn’t just unusual for — spoiler alert — marking the first “repeat” Doctor when she morphed into David Tennant at the end of “The Power of the Doctor.” It was also one of the only regenerations to also regenerate the Doctor’s clothes. The in-show reason for this will likely be revealed in next year’s 60th anniversary special, but incoming showrunner Russell T. Davies discussed in the latest issue of Doctor Who Magazine why he was “absolutely certain” the clothes would regenerate. Was it the right call? Pete and Chris take a break from their random journey to debate why this was a good call or bad call, and what precedent it sets for the series.
Plus: Mille Gibson is Ruby Sunday! The comic strip tie-in! The 2023 schedule! And more!
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Pull To Open Short Trip: Why Did “The Power of the Doctor” Regenerate the Doctor’s Clothes?
- Season 3
- Episode 37
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Why did it take Doctor Who so long to do the “star whale” concept? If the show was waiting for a particularly strong script, it probably should have sailed right on by The Beast Below, which doesn’t exactly bestow the idea with a lot of dignity: it could be the only time Doctor Who has introduced a creature by showing it barfing. Even though the show is mostly using this cosmic cetacean as a metaphor for an ancient semi-god who just wants to be nice to children and help out when they’re crying, you can’t help but feel like the odds are against the Beast. If this story succeeds, it’ll be a major fluke.
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Story Essentials:
- Series 5, Episode 2
- Story number: 207, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 5.2
- Writer: Steven Moffat
- Showrunner: Moffat
- Aired 10 April 2010
Pull To Open: The Beast Below
- Season 3
- Episode 36
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Regeneration. It's been a pivotal part of Doctor Who for almost 60 years, but let's face it: Some regenerations have been better than others. When a new Doctor takes over, it's always dramatic, but there are several more boxes to tick to make the episode a classic. The story should be epic in impact if not in stakes, the incumbent Doctor should have apt and memorable final lines, and the regeneration itself should tickle both the eyes and the mind. So where does The Power of the Doctor — the series' most recent addition to the Doctor's (infinite?) regeneration cycle — rank? We take a quick break from our random journey to find out.
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Pull To Open Short Trip: Is The Power of the Doctor the Best Regeneration Episode?
- Season 3
- Episode 35
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
The simple, straightforward title of Dalek belies so much: This story doesn’t just re-introduce the Daleks for a new generation of Doctor Who viewers — it makes them interesting, upgraded, and scary in ways they always deserved to be but never quite achieved in the classic series. Stellar performances from the cast — including an arguably best-of-his-run showstopper from Christopher Eccleston as the Doctor overcome by his hatred for these machine-creatures — certainly hep to make Dalek both an unexpected epic as well as the beginning of an incredible run in the back half of Series 1 of NuWho. I think maybe we liked it? Here’s what it feels like to experience Dalek, almost two decades after it fell through time…
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Story Essentials
- Series 1, Episode 6
- Story number: 164, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 1.6
- Writer: Robert Shearman
- Showrunner: Russell T Davies
- Aired 30 April 2005
Pull To Open: Dalek
- Season 3
- Episode 34
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
When companions go, sometimes it’s sad (brave heart, Tegan), sometimes it’s bittersweet (London, 1965!), and sometimes it’s a nonevent (Dodo who?). But the heartbreaking departure of Rose in Doomsday is on another level altogether, and it simply requires repercussions. Those shockwaves are front and center in The Runaway Bride, yet somehow the story ends up being one of the most fun in the entire series. That’s thanks in no small part to the brilliant comedic banter between David Tennant and Catherine Tate — a pairing that works so well that the duo will return as series leads full time in 2023. Seeing the genesis of that relationship makes a rewatch of Bride feel like Christmas morning all over again, and you also get some great stocking stuffers: a visually breathtaking giant spider lady and some never-before-seen TARDIS maneuvering. Set coordinates for December 25, 2006, and pass the eggnog.
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Story Essentials:
- 2006 Christmas Special
- Story number: 181, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 3.X
- Writer: Russell T Davies
- Showrunner: Russell T Davies
- Aired 25 December 2006
Pull To Open: The Runaway Bride
- Season 3
- Episode 33
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
When you hear “a Doctor Who story set in the Jurassic period,” the picture you conjure in your head probably looks quite a bit different from Time-Flight. That’s not necessarily a strike against it: The finale of Season 19 is notorious for being light on budget, so it’s probably a blessing that they didn’t even try to show a single allosaurus stomping around the barren plains of prehistoric London. Instead we get the Xeraphin, a telepathic race of morally conflicted humanoids that are almost interesting — at least until the Master uses them as the winner-take-all prize in his technobabble rap battle with the Doctor. Plus: A time-travel mystery! Cringey disguises! Not one, but TWO Concordes! That more than makes up for some absent dinosaurs, doesn’t it? Doesn’t it?
Special guest Christopher Burgess (@dubbayoo) from Radio Free Skaro joins!
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Story Essentials
- Season 19, Serial 7
- Story number: 122, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 6C
- Writer: Peter Grimwade
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 22 – 30 March 1982
Pull To Open: Time-Flight
- Season 3
- Episode 32
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback loop and interlude music: Martin West/Thinking Fish
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Is there any Doctor Who format as reliable as the base under siege? You can see why: All you need is one set, an excuse to keep the TARDIS out of reach, and one illogically obstinate person in charge, and you’re about 90% there. The key ingredient, of course, is a convincing and creepy monster, and though mutant seaweed might not be your first choice to fill that role, it’s what Fury From the Deep has to work with. Nonetheless, even in animation, “the weed” produces more scares than any hostile plantlife has a right to, so we don’t blame Victoria for giving her lungs a workout in this one. Just please don’t blame us for wanting to break the tension by snickering at all the references to “weed.”
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Story Essentials:
- Season 5, Serial 6
- Story number: 41, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: RR
- Writer: Victor Pemberton
- Producer: Peter Bryant
- Aired 16 March - 20 April 1968
Pull To Open: Fury From the Deep
- Season 3
- Episode 31
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback Loop music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Jodie Whittaker’s first season as the Doctor took the show in a new direction, but The Witchfinders is almost a return to a very old format: the pure historical. True, this outing to the witch-obsessed England of the 17th century doesn’t quite qualify — what with alien mud creatures reanimating left and right in the final act — but the most interesting thing about this story is certainly the dramatization of the horrific witch trials of the era. An excellent guest cast helps, made all the more entertaining when Alan Cumming arrives playing King James I. Could someone chop down that Morax tree over there? It’s blocking our view of all this fabulous history.
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Story Essentials:
- Series 11, Episode 8
- Story number: 286, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 1DW 11.08
- Writers: Joy Wilkinson
- Showrunner: Chris Chibnall
- Aired 25 November 2018
Pull To Open: The Witchfinders
- Season 3
- Episode 30
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback Loop music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Often Doctor Who travels to the past to showcase historical events, but it rarely shows what life in those eras was like for the less privileged. Rosa is a jarring exception to the rule, with its lens pointed directly at the racist past of the American South. While there is an antagonist from the future present, the real evil force here is state-sanctioned segregation. And the hero who must confront it isn’t the title character we tune in to see from week to week, but Rosa Parks, the black woman who changed history by refusing to give up her seat on a bus. The drama that results is undeniable, but does that make it a classic?
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Story Essentials
- Series 11, Episode 3
- Story number: 281, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 1DW 11.03
- Writers: Malorie Blackman, Chris Chibnall
- Showrunner: Chris Chibnall
- Aired 21 October 2018
Pull To Open: Rosa
- Season 3
- Episode 29
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback Loop music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
If you lack emotions, can you seek revenge? It’s the burden of Doctor Who fans to ponder questions like this, since Revenge of the Cybermen attributes emotion to the show’s notoriously unfeeling monsters right there in the title. More likely, we suspect some future historian did their best to characterize the Cybermen’s incursion on Nerva Beacon in the 29th century with some fanciful language to give the whole episode some gravitas. Heaven knows the story could use it — unless you’re talking about the single biggest plot hole in Doctor Who history, one so massive it threatens to overshadow Tom Baker’s performance, the unique musical score and everything else good about this story. Absent a beacon to highlight them, the galaxy turns to a lonely podcast broadcasting into the depths of space…
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Story Essentials
- Season 12, Serial 5
- Story number: 78, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 4D
- Writers: Gerry Davis (and Robert Holmes)
- Producer: Philip Hinchcliffe
- Aired 19 April - 10 May 1975
Pull To Open: Revenge of the Cybermen
- Season 3
- Episode 28
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback Loop music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
When more than one Doctor is present, you know something’s gone disastrously wrong. While that usually applies to something within the show, in the case of The Two Doctors, you might be talking about the show itself. In some ways, it’s not the story’s fault — the production was famously plagued with problems behind the scenes — but a misfired location shoot can’t explain away the script’s icky obsession with carnivorism or those utterly extraneous Sontarans. At least we can all agree that we’d watch Patrick Troughton do anything, including wolf down an insanely huge meal in a top hat… just as long as he didn’t do it wearing bright red eyebrows.
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Story Essentials
- Season 22, Serial 4
- Story number: 140, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 6W
- Writers: Robert Holmes
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 16 February - 2 March 1985
Pull To Open: The Two Doctors
- Season 3
- Episode 27
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Feedback Loop music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Summer is peak season for action romps, we’re told, so that must be why the Randomzier plopped us in the middle of Battlefield, the opening story of Classic Doctor Who’s final year, and one that seems to continuously feature guns shooting, swords clashing, and all manner of things blowing up. I mean, you’d expect nothing less from the last official appearance of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, but is it all just smokescreen to keep us from realizing the story — ostensibly about transdimensional Arthurian knights fighting over a magic sword at the bottom of a lake — is complete nonsense? Probably, though did we mention lots of stuff blows up?
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Story Essentials
- Season 26, Serial 1
- Story number: 155, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: 7N
- Writers: Ben Aaronovitch
- Producer: John Nathan-Turner
- Aired 6 September - 27 September 1989
Pull To Open: Battlefield
- Season 3
- Episode 26
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Interlude music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Rebooting Doctor Who is a feature of the show, not a bug, but it was still uncertain territory when Jon Pertwee took over in 1970. Sure, Patrick Troughton had taken over from William Hartnell a few years before, but it was very much the same show, following the adventures of a mysterious traveler and his human companions throughout all of time and space. Spearhead From Space boldly tosses out that formula, centers the show on contemporary Earth, and recasts the Doctor as a flamboyant action hero. OK, yes, those choices were made more out of budget necessity than bold storytelling, but the welcome return of the Brigadier reminds us this is still the same show, and it doesn’t hurt that store-window mannequins make for a hella creepy monster. Doctor Who is renewed again, for the first time.
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Story Essentials
- Season 7, Serial 1
- Story number: 50, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: AAA
- Writers: Robert Holmes
- Producer: Derrick Sherwin
- Aired 3 January - 24 January 1970
Pull To Open: Spearhead From Space
- Season 3
- Episode 25
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Interlude music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Doctor Who can be dramatic, captivating, and even epic, but some of the most memorable episodes are just plain fun! Carnival of Monsters definitely qualifies as one of the fun ones, made all the more interesting with an intriguing first-episode mystery and some subversive messaging in Robert Holmes’s almost-too-clever script. Come for the fearsome drashigs, stay for the brilliant political satire on Inter Minor. And, as ever, don’t blink, lest you miss the surprising backstory about the Doctor’s past as a Gallifreyan activist. Grab your popcorn — this one’s definitely a crowd-pleaser.
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Story Essentials * Season 10, Serial 2 * Story number: 65, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code: PPP * Writers: Robert Holmes * Producer: Barry Letts * Aired 27 January – 17 February 1973
Pull To Open: Carnival of Monsters
- Season 3
- Episode 24
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
If a regeneration story means the end of an era in Doctor Who, Logopolis is an extinction-level event. It bears the extra weight of being the final story in the epic run of Tom Baker, who, to many, was the definitive actor to play the Doctor. Christopher H. Bidmead’s script doesn’t shy away from this impossible task, with the premise, the villain, and the stakes all appropriately elevated. You’d be forgiven for thinking this might not have been the best time to stuff the TARDIS full of new companions, but somehow Logopolis still holds up (yes, even the flood-the-TARDIS business). Somewhere, Anthony Ainley is deservedly having the last laugh.
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Story Essentials * Season 18, Serial 7 * Story number: 114, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code: 5V * Writers: Christopher H. Bidmead * Producer: John Nathan-Turner * Aired 28 February – 21 March 1981
Pull To Open: Logopolis
- Season 3
- Episode 23
Hosts: Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor
Time Lords come and Time Lords go, but what about Time Ladies? The Rani is a peculiar case among Gallifrey’s ruling class: an amoral cosmic elitist who just wants to be left alone and occasionally perform horrible experiments on various folks — and isn’t the slightest bit interested in the Doctor. That’s a refreshing change, made even more memorable by holding it right up against the status-quo opposite: the Master himself. Before Missy, before Time Lord gender-flops, and before the Master stopped needlessly messing around with Earth history, The Mark of the Rani is one of the more creative experiments around Time Lord villainy in Classic Who. Just don’t tell the High Council… and stay out of Red Fern Dell.
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Story Essentials * Season 22, Serial 3 * Story number: 138, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code: 6X * Writers: Pip and Jane Baker * Producer: John Nathan-Turner * Aired 2 February - 9 February 1985
Pull To Open: The Mark of the Rani
- Season 3
- Episode 22
Longtime Pull To Open listeners have heard his name again and again, but exactly who is this mysterious “Jack?” It’s time for a surprise reveal: Pete’s son Jack takes a little time off from being a kid to visit the podcast and share his thoughts on Doctor Who, including what he thinks of the classic series after growing up on NuWho, how the show is sometimes too scary, and of course who his favorite Doctor is. We might be biased, but the future of fandom is in good hands.
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Pull To Open Short Trip: The Real Captain Jack
- Season 3
- Episode 21
Some say Doctor Who’s The Romans is just a romp, a bit of silliness, and not that consequential. Don’t you believe it. It’s arguably the story where the Doctor has the most sweeping and destructive effect on history as we know it. We might all be living in the “bad” timeline right now — one where Rome burned and Nero’s expensive reconstruction hastened the weakening of the empire. Consider the outcome if a certain Time Lord’s spectacles didn’t incinerate the emperor’s plans: a stronger Rome, one that might have withstood the test of time and led to even greater progress for all mankind. We’ll never know, though, and all because the Doctor felt like making a house call to an emperor. Now who’s the time meddler, hmm?
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Story Essentials * Season 2, Serial 4 * Story number: 12, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code: M * Writer: Dennis Spooner * Producer: Verity Lambert * Aired 16 January - 6 February 1965
Pull To Open: The Romans
- Season 3
- Episode 20
Invading the Earth used to be so simple: Either land or crash your spaceship in Britain, wait for the local Time Lord to show up, then coerce them into helping you by threatening the people they care about. But it gets a little complicated when two Time Lords show up, which was oddly the norm back in the UNIT days, what with the Master constantly trying to both one-up the Doctor and do some invading/conquering/destroying of his own. It’s enough to confuse even the most determined alien menace, but you’re probably particularly vulnerable if you’re a gestalt entity with a penchant for psychological attacks that resemble a bad acid trip. We’re looking at you, Axons. The Claws of Axos might be deeply embedded in the Earth’s crust, but we get the feeling its heart just isn’t in this.
Special guest Nathan Bottomley (@nathanbottomley) from Flight Through Entirety podcast and creator of therandomiser.net joins!
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Story Essentials
- Season 8, Serial 3
- Story number: 56, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code: GGG
- Writers: Bob Baker and Dave Martin
- Producer: Barry Letts
- Aired 13 March – 3 April 1971
Pull To Open: The Claws of Axos
- Season 3
- Episode 19
It’s official: Ncuti Gatwa is the Doctor. Sometime soon, Jodie Whittaker will bid farewell to the role and a handsome actor of Netflix’s Sex Education fame will take over — or so we think. All we know now is Gatwa will play the Doctor in Russell T. Davies’ renewed run as showrunner, but is he the 14th incarnation (which is incorrect numbering anyway) or something else? What is the deal with David Tennant returning — in a different coat — with Catherine Tate in tow, even though Donna had her memory wiped? And what about the new “Rose,” played by newcomer Yasmin Finney? We’ve got theories, and it’s never too early to think about the future.
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Outro music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Pull To Open: Who Is Ncuti Gatwa?
- Season 3
- Episode 18
When Doctor Who takes us to the far future, it’s often with a dystopian view. That’s certainly the case with Frontios, which isn’t content to simply plunge a scrappy group of refugees from a doomed Earth into a harrowing fight for survival. It also adds to the mix the twin horrors of giant insects bent on recreating the ugliest parts of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre and some of the worst spiked hair the universe has ever seen. (One of those things was powerful enough to destroy the TARDIS, but the jury's still out on which.) Let’s not leave any stone unturned as we excavate the true meaning of this one, if only to make sure we don’t lose our hat rack.
Plus: A new theory on TARDIS translation, an update on whether Chris has seen Legend of the Sea Devils, and — oh yeah! — there's a new Doctor. Welcome to the family, Ncuti Gatwa! We talk about it all.
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Story Essentials * Season 21, Serial 3 * Story number: 131, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 6N * Writer: Christopher H. Bidmead * Producer: Nathan-Turner * Aired 26 January - 3 February 1984
Pull To Open: Frontios
- Season 3
- Episode 17
Quick, what’s the best way to mount an insurrection in your remote Earth colony? Right, exactly — befriend the mechanical creatures you’ve just revived from hibernation within a long-dormant capsule that crashed centuries ago and enlist them to be your muscle. Really, if you’re a marooned Dalek attack force, it’s good work if you can get it, especially if the annoying humans who think they’re in charge are hopelessly factionalized like they usually are. Feels like there’s some kind of lesson to be learned in The Power of the Daleks, but we’re in a bit of a regeneration stupor, so we might have missed it while we were reading everyone’s name tag. Let’s grab some coiled jumper cables, attach them to our commentary machine, and throw the switch…
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Story Essentials * Season 4, Serial 3 * Story number: 29, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code EE * Writer: David Whitaker (with Dennis Spooner) * Producer: Innes Lloyd * Aired 5 November - 10 December 1966
Pull To Open: The Power of the Daleks
- Season 3
- Episode 16
Ever been to Scotland? Doctor Who sure has, and if you’re ever looking for the ultimate proof of that look no further than The Eaters of Light, an episode that seems designed entirely to showcase bad weather, Pict history, and very cross people. Of course, it doesn’t get much more cross than the 12th Doctor, but just how effective will a pair of epic eyebrows be against a squad of Roman centurions, a pack of star-eating transdimensional creatures, and Nardole’s constant scolding? More than you’d think, obviously, though it’s hard to tell with all the incomprehensible yelling. Did we mention we’re in Scotland?
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Story Essentials * Series 10, Episode 10 * Story number: 275, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 1DW 10.10 * Writer: Rona Munro * Producer: Moffat * Aired 17 June 2017
Pull To Open: The Eaters of Light
- Season 3
- Episode 15
Doctor Who explains the Big Bang! That’s an ambitious idea, and not one you’d expect to be shoehorned into an episode about space lepers journeying to a vast space station that promises not just a cure for their disease but also the opportunity to play with the biggest dog you’ve ever seen. Still, Terminus goes for it, soldiering on through plot holes the size of a supercluster to explain how all of creation came into existence, plus how Tegan and Turlough can somehow command tons of screen time yet do absolutely nothing. Other conundrums include: Why does Nyssa want to stay here? And where can I write to Terminus HR about their "murder people on sight" policy? Hang onto your skirts, Lazars, this is going to be a bumpy one.
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Story Essentials * Season 20, Serial 4 * Story number: 125, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 6G * Writer: Stephen Gallagher * Producer: Nathan-Turner * Aired 15-23 February 1983
Pull To Open: Terminus
- Season 3
- Episode 14
We’re worried. In the two-and-a-bit years since we started Pull To Open, we’ve done commentaries on 42(!) individual Doctor Who stories. That constitutes only 14% of the entire onscreen canon, but we appear to have exhausted a much greater portion of the series’ most revered episodes: The Girl in the Fireplace, Inferno, The Day of the Doctor, and even Genesis of the Daleks. In this special podcast, Chris and Pete look back at PTO’ run so far, cracking open the official Pull To Open Codex to determine: Are there enough (Viscount) banger episodes left for the Randomizer to keep our doors… open? At least without some cosmic rationing?
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Pull To Open: Into the Codex
- Season 3
- Episode 13
In the entire run of Doctor Who, there has never been a villain quite like Davros. Half-Dalek, half-somewhat crispy person, the character of Davros set a new bar for the "evil genius" archetype in his debut story, Genesis of the Daleks. His many speeches in that story produced some of the show's best scenes, creating so much great drama that no one minds that the story completely retcons huge swaths of Dalek history. There's so much reverence for Genesis, it's hard to watch it with a critical eye... but that's never stopped us before! While this classic among classics undeniably holds up, is there still room for improvement somewhere within the on-point war allegories and fascist allusions? We mean, besides those giant clams.
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Story Essentials
- Season 12, Serial 4
- Story number: 77, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production Code 4E
- Writer: Terry Nation
- Producer: Hinchcliffe
- Aired 8 March - 12 April 1975
Pull To Open: Genesis of the Daleks
- Season 3
- Episode 12
When you're looking to literally change history to save your race, it's smart to stay focused. This really isn't the time for convoluted plans, extraneous plot threads that go nowhere, and long conversations with captured prisoners. But the Cybermen can't help themselves, it seems, and neither can Attack of the Cybermen, which seems utterly confused about which previous story it's a sequel to. It's almost inevitable that things get messy pretty quickly in Colin Baker's second adventure, but the script still manages to keep the pace up, the body count high, and the fan service at maximum. Could at least some parts of Attack be… excellent?
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Story Essentials * Season 22, Serial 1 * Story number: 136, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 6T * Writer: Paula Moore, alias for Paula Woolsey (Eric Saward, story elements by Ian Levine) * Producer: Nathan-Turner * Aired 5 - 12 January 1985
Pull To Open: Attack of the Cybermen
- Season 3
- Episode 11
If you’re a powerful vampire running from the Time Lords, it’s easy to see why you’d pick E-space for your hideout. It’s small, it's full of delicious humanoids, it's hidden behind a CVE — not to mention bat-populated planets are seemingly a dime a dozen in this green-hued pocket universe. It's really just bad luck that the Doctor wandered in, but all the better for us since we get to see a traditional vampire horror story done through the lens of Doctor Who. The result is State of Decay, and it delivers on blending gothic fantasy with Who's quasi-scientific reality. Can we also toss in a potentially duplicitous new companion, a healthy amount of K-9 action, and a spectacular final reveal of the monster? Enh, two out of three ain’t bad.
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Story Essentials * Season 18, Serial 4 * Story number: 111, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 5P * Writer: Terrance Dicks * Producer: Nathan-Turner * Aired 22 November – 13 December 1980
Pull To Open: State of Decay
- Season 3
- Episode 10
Hard to believe, but it took Doctor Who more than 50 years to get around to doing a TV adventure centered on Robin Hood. And like a speeding arrow splitting the shaft of another, Robot of Sherwood cracks your usual story assumptions: Instead of presenting an alien explanation for a mythical historical figure, the myth is offered up as historical fact. That raises a couple of notable eyebrows, leading the Doctor to take on a persona that's more cantankerous antihero than otherworldly savior, and his bickering with Robin creates some of the biggest laughs of the series. It's all fun and games, of course, until a robot reveals its cross-shaped eye.
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Story Essentials * Series 8, Episode 3 * Story number: 246, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 1DW 8.03 * Writer: Mark Gatiss * Showrunner: Moffat * Aired 6 September 2014
Pull To Open: Robot of Sherwood
- Season 3
- Episode 9
When you first start traveling with the Doctor, you've got to get your basics down, and a key item to tick off the list is traveling to the far future. Bill Potts got her future-events cred via a visit to the troubled human colony depicted in Smile, one of the most gorgeous episodes of the Capaldi era. Besides a wide-eyed new companion, the story features one of Doctor Who's most reliable antagonists: servant robots that have for some reason gone homicidal. Throw in a massive colony ship and some end-of-the-world vibes and we might really have something — just as long as the social commentary on emoji is really thoughtful and not just something tossed in because it's trendy 🙂
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Story Essentials * Series 10 * Story number: 268, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 1DW 10.02 * Writer: Frank Cottrell-Boyce * Showrunner: Moffat * Aired 22 April 2017
Pull To Open: Smile
- Season 3
- Episode 8
Some Doctor Who episodes are good. Some are great. Some are pretty forgettable. And some are epics — not just riveting in their characterization and storytelling, but also in the way that they established or rewrote the fundamentals of the show. The Deadly Assassin is such an epic, completely up-ending everything we knew about the Time Lords at the time. The sheer amount of Gallifreyan lore on display is what the episode is mostly remembered for, but there's also that whole "plot to kill the Lord President" thing, not to mention the return of the Master, who's arguably in his most evil (and gross) incarnation. But could our memories have been corrupted by the passage of time? Let's hook up to the Matrix and find out.
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Story Essentials * Season 14 * Story number: 87, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 4P * Writer: Robert Holmes * Producer: Hinchcliffe * Aired 30 October – 20 November 1976
Pull To Open: The Deadly Assassin
- Season 3
- Episode 7
When Doctor Who returned after a forced hiatus in the mid '80s, the show had big plans for its return: The entire season would be a single arc that would see the Time Lords subject the Doctor to an epic trial for his meddling. The Trial of a Time Lord was an ambitious and compelling idea, and years before its time considering how serialized modern franchises have become. Trial's first story has a lot going for it — an interesting mystery, a rebooted Sixth Doctor, and the delight of Tony Selby as Sabalom Glitz — plus it sets the table for a looming showdown between the Doctor and the big baddie for the season, the Valeyard. Could The Mysterious Planet be a forgotten gem? Let's reopen this case.
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Story Essentials * Season 23 * Story number: 142, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production Code 7A * Writer: Robert Holmes * Showrunner: Nathan-Turner * Aired 6 - 27 September 1986
Pull To Open: The Trial of a Time Lord - The Mysterious Planet
- Season 3
- Episode 6
We know the Doctor has a family, but does he date? That's a bit inconclusive. Putting aside the numerous individuals he's invited into his, uh… box to explore the universe, some of the strongest evidence that the Doctor might have those feelings about someone is The Girl in the Fireplace. It's a mystery, it's a horror story, and it's a history lesson, but most of all this episode is a romance. It's rightfully remembered as a classic, but is it because it dared to touch on the question of the Doctor's sexuality, or is it the expertly crafted timey-wimey plot? Be sure that clock on the mantle is working — this one might take a while.
Story Essentials * Series 2 * Story number: 173, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production 1DW 2.04 * Writer: Steven Moffat * Showrunner: Davies * Aired 6 May 2006
Pull To Open: The Girl in the Fireplace
- Season 3
- Episode 5
When is a shadow not a shadow? When it's in a Doctor Who story determined to reimagine a feature of ordinary life as a homicidal creature, of course. The team of Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat created their fair share of everyday monsters, and the Vashta Nerada are one of the most memorable: Sentient shadows that consume the flesh of the living. That alone makes the one-two punch of Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead memorable, and when you add in the first appearance of River Song, you have all the ingredients of a NuWho classic. Does it hold up now that we know River's entire journey? And are those shadows as scary as we remember? Let's check into the Library once again...
Story Essentials * Series 4 * Story number: 197, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production 1DW 4.09/4.10 * Writer: Steven Moffat * Showrunner: Davies * Aired 31 May 2008/7 June 2008
Pull To Open: Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead
- Season 3
- Episode 4
What do trees, the end of human civilization, and the psychological trauma of losing a family member all have in common? They're all ostensibly what In the Forest of the Night is about — one of the more epic-in-scale episodes of Peter Capaldi's first series as the Doctor. It's not well remembered, a pretty clear case study of a story's reach exceeding its grasp. But it does grasp something, and with some compelling ideas and the series regulars giving it their all, it may be time to re-examine its place in Who canon. Let's venture back into the forest, and maybe this time we'll close our eyes if we encounter any CGI wolves.
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Story Essentials
- Series 8
- Story number: 253, per the The Pull To Open Codex
- Production 1DW 08.10
- Writer: Frank Cottrell Boyce
- Showrunner: Moffat
- Aired 25 October 2014
Pull To Open: In the Forest of the Night
- Season 3
- Episode 3
If there was ever a companion who wasn't a companion, it's Craig. He might not have ever traveled in the TARDIS, but he still somehow made his way into the Doctor's hearts — thanks in large part to the against-type performance of James Corden. Seeing him played against Matt Smith's Doctor at his most bonkers is one of the huge treats of Closing Time, the other being the return of a classic monster, the Cybermen... though that one doesn't go over nearly so well. Is the double act enough to hold this one together, or does it ultimately collapse into a pile of spare parts?
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Story Essentials * Series 6 * Story number: 225, per the The Pull To Open Codex * Production 1DW 06.12 * Writer: Gareth Roberts * Showrunner: Moffat * Aired 24 September 2011
Pull To Open: Closing Time
- Season 3
- Episode 2
An ancient evil. Misguided scientists. If you're thinking, "Oh, we simply have to get these guys together," you might be a Doctor Who writer from the '70s. But if you're going to go ahead and mix this pair of volatile ingredients, it's probably best to throw in at least one wisecracking supporting character, a few paper-mâché monsters, and some ambitious ideas about the true nature of human evolution. Put it all into a delightfully sinister horror-movie backdrop on the English countryside, and you've got Image of the Fendahl, the last stab of Tom Baker's "scary" era. It's well-remembered, but can it still frighten? Or make sense? Pour some extra salt on your pretzels, and set coordinates for the Fifth Planet…
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Story Essentials Season 15
Story number: 93, per the The Pull To Open Codex
Production code 4X
Writer: Chris Boucher
Showrunner: Williams
Aired 29 October - 19 November 1977
Pull To Open: Image of the Fendahl
- Season 3
- Episode 1
When either the Doctor or his companion takes a break for an episode, you know you're in for something unusual. That's what you get with Midnight, an outing of Doctor Who that feels more like an Agatha Christie tale than the one with Agatha Christie. But beyond the mystery, what makes the episode so unexpected is the Doctor's usual toolbox of cleverness and a little bit of sonic doesn't help him one bit. It's a compelling premise, but does it work as anything other than a thought exercise? Let's just put this one on repeat…
Essentials * Series 4 * Story number: 196 (198 according to The Pull To Open Codex) * Production code 1DW 04.10 * Writer: Russell T. Davies * Showrunner: Davies * Aired 14 June 2008
Pull To Open: Midnight
- Season 2
- Episode 26
If you were looking for a single Doctor Who serial that encapsulates virtually all of the sci-fi tropes of the '70s — giant bugs, an evil sentient computer, mind-altering crystals — it'd be hard to find one that filled the bingo card as well as The Green Death. Of course, these are the tropes before they were tropes, and you can't help but admire how the story leans into them all with satisfying confidence, even when it's grossing us out with slimy maggots. But is it a worthy send-off for Jo Grant? Better check with the BOSS…
Essentials Season 10
Story number: 69 (68 according to The Pull To Open Codex)
Production code TTT
Writer: Robert Sloman
Showrunner: Letts
Aired 19 May - 23 June 1973 (6 episodes)
Pull To Open: The Green Death
- Season 2
- Episode 25
Doctor Who has a reputation for frightening its audience, but is it just as good if it creeps the hell out of them instead? That might be the most apt take on The God Complex: It's Doctor Who, but something about it is a little off, and we're not sure if we like it. An '80s hotel that seems strangely smaller on the inside, a guest cast curated to deadly perfection, and a monster that seems familiar, yet… not. The time has come for us to check into this very odd Matt Smith episode. We're sure we'll have no trouble leaving.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Essentials
- Series 6
- Story number: 222 (224 according to The Pull To Open Codex)
- Production code 1DW 06.11
- Writer: Toby Whithouse
- Showrunner: Moffat
- Aired 17 September 2011
Pull To Open: The God Complex
- Season 2
- Episode 24
When a show like Doctor Who starts talking about a hybrid, you can bet it's not talking about the latest Prius. Peter Capaldi's second season cooked up a perplexing mystery around this vaguely defined being with a bifurcated background, which came to a head in the series finale, "Hell Bent." The episode pays off a lot of plotlines — the return of Gallifrey and Clara's journey, primarily — but it also throws in a bunch of extras for… fun, I guess? In any case, it's nice to see Ashildr, Ohlia and the General of the War Council of Gallifrey again, not to mention the classic TARDIS console room. But about that hybrid, uh, we have questions….
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Story Essentials: Hell Bent
Series 9 finale
Story number: 262 (264 according to The Pull to Open Codex)
Production code 1DW 09.12
Writer: Steven Moffat
Showrunner: Moffat
Originally aired 5 December 2015
Pull To Open: Hell Bent
- Season 2
- Episode 23
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Is "The Day of the Doctor" a great Doctor Who episode or the greatest Doctor Who episode? It sounds like a tongue-in-cheek question, but in the case of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special, we're as serious as UNIT nuclear protocols in the event of a Zygon invasion. Luckily, Pete and Chris have some help to find the answer: Alisa Stern, creator of Doctor Puppet, joins the podcast as we build toward a final verdict on the timeline-altering world-record-setting special. The Whoniverse may have changed since those time-locked events of 2013, but we're revisiting them not a Moment too soon.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Essentials
50th Anniversary Special
Story number: 240 (242 according to The Pull to Open Codex)
Production code 1DW 07.2/001
Writer: Steven Moffat
Showrunner: Moffat
Aired 23 November 2013
Pull To Open: The Day of the Doctor
Season 2
Episode 22
Must Flee TV (Binging "The Idiot's Lantern")
A TV show that turns television itself into a monster? That's got potential. But if you're waiting for "The Idiot's Lantern" to deliver on that potential, you should probably just switch the damn thing off already. Or... dial back your expectations! This may not be the ultraclever send-up of TV culture you wanted, but as a period piece set against the backdrop of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, it convinces you to have some fun cruising on mopeds and pursuing faceless people through 1953 London. Is that enough to mark it as an overlooked gem, or is this outing pure filler? Adjust your rabbit ears, make sure you're sitting comfortably, and we'll begin.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Essentials Series 2
Story number: 173 (175 according to The Pull to Open Codex)
Production code 2.7
Writer: Mark Gatiss
Showrunner: Davies
Aired 27 May 2006
Pull To Open
- Season 2
- Episode 21
Companions come and companions go, but very few companions die. At least, death tends not to be the preferred exit from traveling with the Doctor, but it does happen, and Face the Raven is maybe the most dramatic companion death on record. It's perhaps a fitting end (but not really) to the arc of Clara Oswald, who was always more than your typical wayward-girl-who-stumbled-on-board-the-TARDIS. But does the story support the emotional weight of such an impactful moment? And what does "remember 82" mean? Let's get this bird on our brains — just as soon as we get of our chests our first reactions to the news that Russell T. Davies is returning to Doctor Who.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Doctor Who is sometimes notable for the wrong reasons, and sometimes it's legendary for the right ones. But what about when it's both, and in the same story? That's the case for The Talons of Weng-Chiang, which is rightly praised as a true classic Doctor Who story in every sense of the word, the culmination of producer Philip Hinchcliffe's ambitious era and the peak of Tom Baker's run of gothic horror stories. It's also an example of casually racist attitudes — not just of the Victorian era where the story's set, but also of 1977, when the story was made. Given Talons' many facets, what's a 21st century Whovian to make of it? Don your headphones and grab your deerstalker — the game's afoot in this pod.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
If you're going to make an anticapitalist statement through a Doctor Who story, you've got your work cut out for you in making it distinct enough from all the previous stories that made the same statement. Good thing, then, that Oxygen subverts the show's entire sci-fi canvas by showing us a grittily realistic outer-space scenario where the title molecule is in short supply. Add elements of zombie horror and a compelling mystery, and you almost have a Who classic in the making. Just don't get too blinded by your clever premise.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Even Time Lords need time off. After you've saved all of reality for the 117th time, it's refreshing to kick back and simply make sure the politics of a remote colony don't go off the rails, especially if you can do it with robots. But if a baddie should rise to resist you, at least make sure he's delightfully entertaining, with oodles of scenery to chew on. If you think about it, you couldn't order up a better holiday for the Doctor, Romana and K-9 in The Androids of Tara, but is this mid-Key to Time romp through the countryside a little too "lite" to be memorable? We'll decide after we've filled our goblets one more time.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Got antimatter? If you don't, swing by Zeta Minor on the outskirts of the known universe, and Professor Sorenson can hook you up. Never mind the invisible monster that will stalk you until you return any and all of the (oddly stable) particles that you remove from the planet — that's just the cost of doing business. It's not how this stuff is supposed to work, but if the Doctor and Sarah are going with it, why can't you? Let's book a one-way trip to the misnamed Planet of Evil to see if there's anything redeeming about this literal edge case of the universe. That is, beyond the outstandingly creepy jungle set.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
When you hear the words, "a Doctor Who monster created to succeed the Daleks," you know the chances of a train wreck are high. Sometimes you get something so bad it's good (hello, Mechanoids!), and sometimes you get The Krotons. The Krotons don't always attempt to influence primitive civilizations, but when they do, they're obsessed with finding high brains — which makes them a lot like today's Big Tech CEOs, just made of crystal and with a propensity to "disperse" those who don't meet the bar. They might be hard to take seriously, but at least Patrick Troughton is here to reassure us that it's OK to laugh.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
The Cybermen have more looks than a rack full of fashion magazines, but... why? As of the 12th Doctor era, the show finally recognized that the Cybermen look different, and not just to the viewers. But it took a long time to get there, and what do the different "types" really mean? Pete and Chris explore the Cybermen's ever-changing appearance in this special mini episode, inspired by our amazing TikTok followers — which now number more than 1,000. Thank you all for listening, watching, engaging, and just plain nerding out with us. It is... excellent.
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The Tenth Planet is a big deal in the Doctor Who universe — remembered for the first appearance of the Cybermen and William Hartnell's Doctor regenerating into Patrick Troughton. What it's not remembered for is its depiction of 1986, a world where space exploration is managed internationally, American generals are walking stereotypes, and the South Pole is considered a good place to store a world-destroying bomb. It's still a promising plot, but perhaps it could do with… an upgrade? Chris and Pete are here with some spare parts to help.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
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We all know there's a great future in plastics, but what about the past? The Randomizer brings us back to 1970s(-ish) Britain, where the Doctor is still in exile and those pesky store-window dummies are coming to life again. But retreading the same monster as last season's premiere isn't why we remember Terror of the Autons — it's the introduction of the Master that makes the story such a landmark. Roger Delgado nails the character's casual, murderous evil from minute one, which almost makes you forgive his inability to fully think through his diabolical plans. (Who knew summoning a plastic-controlling giant octopus from space might be a bad idea?) While Terror is notable for its many firsts, including the debuts of Katy Manning as Jo Grant and Richard Franklin as Mike Yates, does the story measure up to its ambition? Toss your troll doll by the fire, straighten your plastic daffodils, and come listen to find out.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
To many, Sarah Jane Smith is the best Doctor Who companion of all time — smart, feisty, kind, and loyal to the Doctor, almost to a fault. Kind of weird, then, that the guy kicked her out of the TARDIS and left her on Earth years ago, never visiting her again. At least that's what School Reunion says happened (presumably erasing The Five Doctors with some kind of memory wipe). We'll go with it because it finally lets the series zero in on the Doctor's relationships with his closest companions, inevitably leading to a lot of feels: longing, regret, happiness, jealousy — this episode would make the Cybermen's heads explode. If you want to learn what makes Doctor Who tick, class is in session...
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
The very first season of Doctor Who is a landmark for many reasons — the introduction of the mysterious Doctor and his granddaughter, the original story to feature the Daleks, and historical adventures involving the Aztecs and the French Revolution. The Sensorites, not so much. Still, there must be a reason the Randomizer sent Pete and Chris here — could this story about a race of telepathic weirdos with dad bods actually be a hidden gem? With some of the first references to Gallifrey's orange sky and silver trees and Ian's odd choice of turtleneck, The Sensorites can't be ignored, and might it actually have some points to make about class and violence? Put the TARDIS lock on ice, we might be here a while...
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Audio clip from Big Finish adventure Human Resources, Part 2.
A crashed ship. An innocent girl. And an insectoid alien with its own hidden agenda. Naps. Yep, The Rescue packs a lot into two short episodes, not the least of which is the first "new" companion of the classic series. When William Hartnell's Doctor invites Vicki to join the TARDIS as the ostensible replacement for Susan, it's hard not to draw a parallel with where the Randomizer last took the podcast, since Mawdryn Undead had similar vibes with Turlough succeeding Adric. In this case, though, there's genuine evil afoot as well as some literally eye-popping costumes. Somebody save Pete and Chris before they find too much to talk about. (Too late!)
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
It has the Brigadier, a mysterious new companion, and a lot to say about regeneration — if Mawdryn Undead is anything, it's first-class fan service that's meant to appeal to longtime fans of Doctor Who. Strange, then, it's episode that long ago sparked one of our host's decades-long journey through time and space, ultimately leading to the podcast you're listening to now. Maybe that's why the randomizer took Pete and Chris here: to look at our own origins, a metaphorical "meeting of ourselves" that shorts out the time differential, leading to a massive burst of creativity and growth. Or maybe it just really likes Turlough. In any case, it's time to set our transmat capsules for 1983 and hope we don't undershoot by six years!
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Background music: Freestylah by Alexander Nakarada
Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Another pyramid? Another fascist Earth? How could the same podcast happen to the same guys twice? Turns out it's not Osiran mummies or jackbooted thugs from someplace "sideways in time" — it's the Monks, and their plot to rule Earth naturally involves applying some corpse makeup just after they've parked their pyramid-shaped spaceship in a Central Asian country so remote it defies geography. But you could see how Chris and Pete could make that mistake, seeing as the Capaldi two-parter, The Pyramid at the End of the World and The Lie of the Land, revisits some well-trodden territory (and the presence of Walkmans had us wondering if it was an '80s episode). But is this reinvention or repetition? And does the answer even mean anything when history is malleable?
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Any science-fiction show that runs long enough will inevitably have its "parallel Earth" episode. Doctor Who hit that milestone in 1970 with Inferno, an action thriller that sees the Doctor "slip sideways in time" to an Earth with a taste for fascism and clean-shaven blokes. The series' last seven-part story is fondly remembered, but does it still hold up? And more important: Is it better than Pyramids of Mars? Ignoring all safety protocols, Chris and Pete accelerate the drilling into this episode to find out.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Doctor Who doesn't reference ancient Egypt often. But when it does, the result is Pyramids of Mars, cited as classic by many for its chilling villain and additions to the show's lore (like the Doctor's age and the coordinates of Gallifrey). With brutish robots disguised as mummies, a powerful evil mastermind, and Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen at the top of their game, there's much to like. But does the story really stand on its own merits, or does it over-rely on its creepy Egyptian motif, something that probably resonated more with a 1970s audience primed by "Chariots of the Gods?" Chris and Pete take a peek into alternative time to take a position on whether Pyramids deserves a spot in the Top 10 Doctor Who Stories of All Time and Space. The stage is Set… (See what we did there?)
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
You've been warned. We're still trying to make sense of the discussion that ensued when Chris and Pete revisited Sleep No More, the only episode in Doctor Who history that tosses out the opening credits and relies entirely on "found footage" to tell the story. We searched for rational explanations for how eye boogers could turn into carnivorous monsters or sleep dust could shoot in 4K, but instead found parallels to early '90s sci-fi literature and some of the best (and only) Peter Capaldi turn-to-camera moments ever filmed. Perhaps this is all just the twisted fantasy of a madman, determined to make you listen closely for a Plasmatons reference hidden in the transmission. Is Who's most unusual story still watchable despite all this weirdness? The only way to know is to listen...
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
We didn't want to go dark, but the TARDIS Randomizer forced our hand, bringing us to the two-part finale of Peter Capaldi's first season, Dark Water and Death in Heaven. With the return of the Cybermen and UNIT, the story already sets a high bar for itself, but the ambition keeps ticking up as the episode offers up the show's in-universe explanation for the afterlife(!) as well as the absolute best Master reveal ever. It's all quite epic, but is this really too much for family viewing? Join Pete and Chris in the box as we obsess over those three chilling words...
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
After "Planet of Fire," the show bounces back to Kamelion's first and only other appearance in Doctor Who, "The King's Demons." What is it about this shapchanging robot from Xeriphas that's inspired the TARDIS Randomizer to make us take stock of Kamelion's onscreen life, but in reverse order? Regardless, Chris and Pete pull out their history books (as well as their Ahistory books) to decode drunk British history and epic hits from the Crusades, not to mention Anthony Ainley's beard. Also: Because you demanded it — we provide the definitive review of the Fifth Doctor's celery in the 13th century.
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Outro music: Chronos by Alexander Nakarada
Like a glorious bird on fire (there should really be a word for that), Pull To Open rises from the ashes of 2020 and swoops into 2021 with a new episode and a new mission: to revisit any and all episodes of Doctor Who — in random order. In our first podcast on this journey, the TARDIS Randomizer takes us to "Planet of Fire," the penultimate story of the Peter Davison era. With companions arriving, leaving, and just plain imploding, the adventure is more notable than most, particularly if you like your Master portions small and your eye candy constant. There's a good chance Logar frowns on all of this, but whatever the fire god's judgment, it's good to be back.
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What does Doctor Who have to say about disease? In the classic series, it was with a outbreak from space that overwhelms a base on Titan, infecting even the Doctor himself. In an time where coronavirus has made facemasks and social distancing the new normal, "The Invisible Enemy" might have new relevance. Or maybe it's just a brilliantly fun sci-fi yarn about an intelligent fast-spreading space bug, notabe for putting the hero literally face-to-face with the virus inside him as well as the first appearance of a very special robot dog. In the words of the Nucleus itself, "contact has been made," but we probably should have worn rubber gloves.
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Pull To Open: The Invisible Enemy
- Season 1
- Episode 5
Everything about Doctor Who has been changed, but was the three-part Season 12 finale truly epic? We got to experience ghosts, Cybermen, almost-Cybermen, and massively ambitious retcons, and they all added up to... something, anyway. Chris and Pete navigate the misguided character arcs of "The Haunting of Villa Diodati" and the painfully predictable plot of "Ascension of the Cybermen" to arrive at the mysterious door of "The Timeless Children." Now that the show has pulled, opened, and walked through that door, what's the view on the other side? Is everything old new again, or are Doctor Who's best days behind it?
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Pull To Open: The Timeless Child Arc
- Season 1
- Episode 4
Chris Chibnall's Doctor Who gets even more ambitious, and it... works? "Fugitive of the Judoon" marks a big turning point for the show and Jodie Whittaker's Doctor — plus we get to see (a noticeably older) Captain Jack again. Is this it? Has the 13th Doctor finally hit her stride? Or is it just more big promises with next to no hope of a satisfying payoff? Beware the lone Cyberman commentary that smashes into this episode at the last minute, but not a moment too... fast.
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Pull To Open: Fugitive of the Judoon
- Season 1
- Episode 3
Doctor Who is back! And so is an old enemy, which happens to smash a certain big reset button. Chris and Pete take apart Spyfall, the two-parter that opens Series 12 of new Who, but is it truly as epic as showrunner Chris Chibnall clearly thinks it is? And what does "epic" even mean when universe-threatening stakes are the norm? Will the ambitious seeds Spyfall has planted grow into something great, or is this all just wasted effort?And what did the episode get exactly right? We should talk about it — and we do!
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Pull To Open: Spyfall Parts 1 and 2
- Season 1
- Episode 2
Episode art by Alexander Andrews, Unsplash
In the debut episode of the Doctor Who podcast Pull to Open, hosts Pete Pachal and Chris Taylor come home for Christmas. That is, the Doctor Who Christmas specials — all 13 of them. Which were delightful holiday presents, and which were Christmas turkeys? And is it a good thing the show ditched Christmas for New Year's? Grab some eggnog and gingerbread (assuming fish fingers and custard aren't available), cue up your BritBox or Amazon Prime app, and get ready to explore the Whos of Christmas past.
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Pull To Open: All the Christmas Specials
- Season 1
- Episode 1