Doctor Who: Radio Free Skaro

We never go into a new RFS wishing to slag the living hell out of the latest episode of what is, after all, our favorite program...but we were left with little choice after "The Doctor's Daughter," which had such potential but fuell far short of the mark. Our anger was tempered by the usual news, diversions, and a shout out to our new friends at Tachyon TV....but ouch, here's hoping for better fare from the BBC next week. Still, our balderdash is as engaging and filled with bon mots as ever.

Part two of the return of the Sontarans to the new series hits the critical eye of Steven, Warren, and Chris, and was found not quite up to snuff, though by no means a complete failure Through much banter and balderdash, your illustrious hosts addressed not only the Sontaran shenanigans in question but the upcoming episode featuring the Doctor's daughter (!) as well as some pretty sparse offerings in the way of news.

The Three Who Rule spent a mind-shattering 40-odd minutes conversing about the "Sontaran Stratagem," a fine return to form for the Doctor's beloved potato-headed enemies (unless you ask Chris, he thought the episode was a bit crap.) And good thing too, since there was very little in the news for your intrepid hosts to ponder, though that didn't stop the usual digressions, tangents and nonsense.

Mystery, pathos, and some seriously freaky looking spaghetti mouthed Oods...not a bad episode this week, according to the RFS crew. The Third Guy's (momentary) visit to Edmonton meant a clear signal not muddled by Transatlantic cables or time zone hijinks, but near the end of the podcast Chris managed to slip into a space-time wormhole and only just survived by hanging onto his wireless connection by the skin of his fingernails. Still, japes all round and a fine time was had by all. And next week, the Sontarans return!

In this gripping episode of Radio Free Skaro, the Three Who Rule discuss The Fires of Pompeii, the latest adventure for the Doctor and his erstwhile assistant Donna Noble....and not much else, really. It was a rather slow week for news, though much jocular speculation on the contents of the rest of the season did manage to fill some of the dead, dead air. Next week, fear the Ood!

Doctor Who's fourth season premiered, Torchwood wrapped up its second season, and the Radio Free Skaro crew was reunited, as once again the Third Guy mixed a potent stew of fact checking and invective with Warren and Steven. Much banter was passed back and forth, as well as heaping spoonfuls of abuse, as the crew hashed over the mysteries of "Partners in Crime" and digressed as ever.

With the Third Guy once again AWOL (this time in France) and not much in the way of news in the week prior to the Series Four premiere, Warren and Steven still threw down nearly an hour of jocularity as they discussed both recent Who-ish goings on and took time to reflect on their favorite story from each Doctor's era. Next week, new Who! Oh yes, and Torchwood finale or something.

The Third Guy was absent for this week's podcast, and he missed a heap of news with the release of not only the Series 4 trailer and various teasers on the interwebs but an honest to goodness announcement of April 5th as the airdate of the Series 4 premiere. Warren and Steven tried to hold down the fort through jocularity and sarcasm, but their constant threats involving the Gun of Spite (and later, the Cannon of Hatred) because of the Third Guy's impending trip to Paris and to a studio audience to view David Tennant in person meant an air of amusing menace permeated the proceedings.

The news landscape this week was as barren as a Welsh quarry, and about as interesting, and yet the RFS malcontents managed to blither out a substantial amount of analysis on the newest episode of Torchwood, as well as wax nostalgically about such classics as the Horns of Nimon and the Nightmare of Eden, as well as denigrate the good name of most of the countries in Europe in the name of comedy.

With much news to discuss and an unwelcome loss of sleep due to Daylight Savings Time for the North American portion of the RFS crew, the grump factor was pretty high in this episode, making for the delightful sniping and back and forth beloved by...well, by the hosts, at any rate. Hopefully our wonderful audience found our snarky comments as amusing as we did. We also found time to "meh" it up about the latest Torchwood between the baleful glances and acidic insults.

At a record-shattering hour and a half, this episode of Radio Free Skaro delves into the recent Invasion 2008 convention held over the weekend in the UK, and attended by our very own Third Guy. Thanks to him, we also have audio of the one, the only Tom Baker holding court with many fans on matters great and trivial. There's also some nonsense about Torchwood and dribbles of news, but it's mostly recountings of madcap adventure amongst the Whovians.

Narrowly avoiding the technical snafus of last week, the RFS crew rose to the occasion and produced an hour of witty banter, insults and of course the eagerly awaited pub rumours that were so cruelly stolen from our audience last week by the vagaries of Skype. Besides covering the latest Torchwood (which aired last week on BBC 2 and this week on BBC 3 and two years previous on stone tablets and oh I give up already...) we talked about the latest news, along with the usual digressions and nonsense we've become so very famous for.

This week's podcast is much shorter than usual, due both to a stunning dearth of news to hash over and a boatload of technical problems yonder England way. Still, the RFS crew made valiant effort to spin gold out of lead, though we quite possibly ended up with zinc.

Besides the usual ruminating over the latest Torchwood episode (verdict: meh), the august Radio Free Skaro crew also chewed over this week's news, literally in Warren's case, as he was eating lunch during the podcast. Steven's rancor was raised by any number of topics, and his indignant manner set the tone for more than an hour's worth of jocular banter. Enjoy!

The BBC threw us a nice softball by releasing a "cinema-exclusive" season 4 trailer on February 1st, which someone promptly uploaded to YouTube. The RFS took delight in analyzing and dissecting this tasty morsel, speculating wildly on what are likely innocuous shots of no real relevance. We also discussed the newest episode of Torchwood, hashed over Russell T Davies declaration that he keeps fans at arm's length, and of course went our trademark off-topic ramblings as per usual.

After scheduling snafus and real life intruded to keep us from recording last week, the RFS crew returned to discuss the first two episodes of Torchwood (verdict: pretty decent), speculate on the latest round of rumours, and digress as always into realms nonsensical. And for once we actually came in at under an hour. Enjoy!

Somehow, despite an almost complete lack of news, the RFS crew managed to pack together almost an hour of action-packed banter, hilarity and mumblesuch into the latest podcast. Enjoy our digressions and debate, and stay tuned for next week when we'll have the premiere of the second season of Torchwood to mull over and...well, another 40-odd minutes of banter.

With next to nothing in the way of news, the RFS crew brings you a full 71 minutes and change of rip-roaring commentary on the Doctor Who Xmas Special, "Voyage of the Damned." Does it stand up after a week and a half? Is Warren's Kylie jihad over and done with? Is Steven actually a computer programmed with nothing but Doctor Who facts? Tune in and find out!

Radio Free Skaro returns after a small holiday break with our thoughts on "Voyage of the Damned," this year's Xmas special, as well as our usual roundup of the latest Who news and various other sundry matters. Thrill to Warren's new "Doctor Who in your Pocket" noisemaker! Cheer as Warren and Steven chastise the Third Guy for not attending a curry dinner featuring many luminaries of the classic series! Grit your teeth as we chew up over an hour of your time and bandwidth with our off-color meanderings!

With a mere ten days until Voyage of the Damned, the Radio Free Skaro crew waxed on about the building media blitz prefiguring the Doctor Who Christmas special, including a great behind the scenes article in the Times of London, and ran through what little other news there was this week, though the power of digression pushed us towards the 43 minute mark. W00t!