Doctor Who: Radio Free Skaro

We end our retrospective with the denouement of Eccleston's TARDIS tenure, and wax lyrical on the highlights (Father's Day, Boom Town, Parting of the Ways) and lowlights Bad Wolf...maybe?), as well as covering a bit of news, the building tension over the impending premiere of Season 3 this Saturday, and making you all suffer through sporadic coughing by Warren. Next up: Smith and Jones!

After a week's delay due to illness on the part of both myself and Steven, we're back in fighting form with the first part of a retrospective of Christopher Eccleston's lone season as the good Doctor. His reign was the beginning of Who's new era, and we ponder our anticipation prior to the premiere of "Rose," how things have changed for the series as we hurtle towards the premiere of Season 3 (12 days, w00t w00t!, and the usual digressions and balderdash, including a taunting of Podshock and flaunting of our (quite) tenuous connection to the writer of "Dalek."

It was inevitable that we would have to cover the ill-fated (and not very good) Doctor Who TV movie from the mid '90's, but Steven and Warren plunged forward with remarkable aplomb and even cheeky jauntiness as we examined the good, bad and...well, who are we kidding here, mostly bad aspects of the film. We also branch off into many a tangent, which I'm sure will provoke much debate, scolding and commentary on freyburg.com.

My erstwhile co-host Steven will disagree with me, but I think Sylvester McCoy's era was the low ebb of the classic series before it triumpantly retuned decades later. Join us as we argue, cajole, and fail to convince each other that the seventh Doctor's adventures were a bold new step for the show, or a pile of unwatchable junk.

Colin Baker's era goes under the microscope, with Steven and Warren pontificating on the highlights and lowlights of his time in the blue box. Also notable is the fact that I set up a new way of recording the podcast, resulting in much better sound quality. That is, until the end, when "Doctor in Distress" will scar both your ears and your soul.

Our retro-rama continues with Peter Davison's era. It may have started with a whimper (Castrovalva) but it ended with a certifiable masterpiece (Caves of Androzani). Magnificent! An hour and more of ranting by Steven and Warren, further proving we really are total and complete nerds.

The second half of our Tom Baker retrospective clocks in at over an hour and a bit of jaunty ramblings about The Scarf's (like how I invented that new nickname for him? Clever....) further adventures in the Vortex. It took a little Garageband noodlng to get this epic tome onto the Internets, but anything for you, dear listeners.

Part the first of our retrospective on the Tom Baker years, and we wax lyrical on the early seasons of his tenure. Genesis of the Daleks! Pyramids of Mars! Deadly Assassin! Talons of Weng-Chiang! Wall to wall brilliance, I tells ya.

Our retrospective on Doctor Number Three, Jon Pertwee, rings in at an astounding 53-odd minutes of jib-jabber on his tenure. And what an era it was! By far the most suave cat ever to pilot the TARDIS, we pay tribute to the many and various adventures of Pertwee's Time Lord. Next week, part one of our look back at the Tom Baker Years.

In the second of our retrospective series (also entitled "killing time before Season 3 begins"), we look back at the Patrick Troughton era, with the usual digressions and trenchant bon mot for which we have become notorious.

With sod all on the horizon in the way of new Who (or spinoffs) for the next couple of months, Steven and I have decided to cast our jaundiced eyes way back to the distant past, and we're examining one of the Doctor's eras each week. To start with we naturally picked the first Doctor, William Hartnell, and we managed to squeeze (amazingly) 45 minutes of discussion out of his pioneering tenure in the role. The usual meanderings, including a tale of drunken quote-yelling debauchery, round out the podcast.

It was a banner day for Doctor Who spinoffs on the first rotation of the Earth 'round the sun of 2007, with the Torchwood finale and the first episode of the Sarah Jane Adventures hitting English shores (and, shortly thereafter, everyone's computer). We've got reviews of both episodes, plus a look back at Torchwood as a whole and the usual meandering about stuff and nonsense.

The drought is over, with not only a new episode of Torchwood but the long-awaited Dr. Who Christmas special gracing the screens of Britain and the computer monitors of the Internet. We also discuss upcoming shows like the Torchwood finale and the premiere of the Sarah Jane Adventures (in a few short days!), speculate on the preview of the upcoming season shown at the end of the Runaway Bride, and veer off into completely off-topic nonsense, as per usual.

In what is either the penultimate or last Radio Free Skaro of 2006, steven and Warren review the two most recent episodes of Torchwood, then delve into some new clips from the Runaway Bride that have recently surfaced. We also discuss the veritable tsunami of Who on its way at the end of the year, with the aforementioned Bride, the two-part season finale of Torchwood, and the premiere of the Sarah Jane Adventures. And we round out the podcast with some terrible Dalek-themed Xmas music from the '60's. W00t!

Delayed, but inevitable, Radio Free Skaro #14 is out and causing trouble as only a nerdy podcast about Doctor Who can. In this episode, we discuss the two latest episodes of Torchwood, the depths of madness we sank to in order to celebrate the Doctor's 43rd birthday last week, and bits and pieces of news about the upcoming series, the Christmas special (mere weeks away), and the Sarah Jane spinoff. Ah, shenanigans.

We broke the one hour mark on the latest podcast, what with our review of the Children in Need concert, the latest Torchwood episode, and extended notstalgic reminisences of Who gone by, and our many and varied experiences growing up with the show. And we included some of our favorite selections from the concert to liven things up a bit. Ah, good times. And and AND...it's the good Doctor's 43rd birthday. He's looking good for someone sidling into middle age. But enough of my idle talk, go get the show!

After a couple of false starts and some flaky VOIP, Radio Free Skaro #12 is out in the wild. We discuss "Small Worlds," easily the best Torchwood yet, introduce our news theme (the Torchwood theme, heh...) and....wander off-topic as usual.

Our 11th episode, a review of "Cyber-Woman," the unimaginatively named but nonetheless quite decent episode of Torchwood featuring a sexy cyberlady smashing things and generally causing strife and havoc. We also once again verr wildly off course, discussing my night job taking pictures of celebrities, the weather, Monty Python, and a plethroa of other trivia, some of it even Who-related. Steven also relays how he'll be spending his Novermber 23rd, the 43rd anniversary of Classic Who. (Hint: it will be somewhat nerdy.)

Episode 10 is up, and we discuss "Ghost Machine," the latest episode of Torchwood, which features not only a star of the old series masterpiece "The Caves of Androzani," but also a nearly unrecognizable Gareth Thomas from Blake's 7. We also veer wildly off-topic and discuss the CBC, Zed, and the questionable usefulness of HDTVs.

And...we're back! Or rather, we never left, but we've got a semi-new theme song, new album art, and most importantly, a new show to talk about! Steven and I delve into the mystery that is Torchwood episodes 1 and 2, and then ramble on about the show's stellar ratings, the demise of Outpost Gallifrey, and the less than amazing numbers for Season Two's debut on the CBC. Whee!