Rambling Through Eternity - Sarah and David's Doctor Who journey

The Gunfighters

Howdy Ramblers. In the lead-up to the famous fight at the OK Corral our Doc gets his tooth pulled by Doc Holliday in Tombstone while Dodo and Steven sing for their lives. Consider yourself warned; there’s more singing in this podcast than ever before but I’d argue less wearing than The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon sung by Lynda Baron aka Nurse Gladys Emmanuel from Open All Hours - knowing this makes us like the song slightly more. We are thoroughly entertained by the costumes, the attempt at accents and the saloon sing-along, less so by the story. And we are in love with Holliday’s fabulous girlfriend Miss Kate, the incredible genre direction & camerawork and the Doctor having a miserable time in the dentist’s chair. Would you wear denim or silk in the Wild West? And if you look like Doc Holliday would you continue to do so for four full episodes? It’s time to choose! Firsts: deliberate parody of another genre, first musical framing device, new lowest audience index so far!

The Celestial Toymaker

The TARDIS lands in the domain of the Toymaker, who forces the Doctor, Dodo and Steven to play a series of childish games, with deadly consequences if they lose. Do you want to play a game? No thanks! Please, pull up a chair! Absolutely no way buddy. Sarah gets excited about a classic camp baddie and wonders why The Toymaker, The Master and The Doctor can’t be pals. And apparently it’s ok to not turn up to your own ultimate showdown? Where is the verbal sparring and general bitchiness? David loves the companion’s outfits and, against his better nature, has nice things to say about the lovely animation details. But like Steven he’s run out of patience with Dodo. And we both love to hate Billy Bunter. It’s pantomime meets Strictly and we can’t wait for it to be over! First: appearance of the Toymaker, first use of flashbacks from previous episodes, first use of slurs, lowest audience index so far.

The Ark

David briefly guides us through the gaps as we navigate missing episodes. Sarah is fine with missing The Massacre as it sounds terrifying. We catch up with the gang some ten million years into the future, on board a generation starship carrying the last of humanity away from an Earth that is about to fall into the Sun. Everything is fine other than Dodo’s caught a cold. Aichoo! Nothing to worry about! Let’s make some chicken soup in the security kitchen! We are hugely entertained by Monica the elephant, the outrageous outfits and interiors of the humans and the Monoids with their Beatles haircuts. It takes Sarah much longer than you’d think to work out why they’re called Monoids but spots Dodo’s accent immediately. David really enjoys the first two episodes, the less said about the last two the better! Firsts: we meet Dodo our first teenage companion from contemporary Earth, huge gap created by missing episodes, first time Doctor Who drops out of the week’s top 100 TV shows

Bonus episode: from Missing to the Unknown to The Massacre

In this bonus episode David provides a map to the many missing episodes we hit at this part of our ramble. The story lines aren't even the most dramatic part of this tale - the behind-the-scenes tension and personnel changes are remarkable. So if you've not heard it before, get ready for David to spill the tea. And if you know how it goes, enjoy the retelling and let us know if you have any further scandalous detail!

Galaxy 4

The crew arrive on an arid planet where they meet the beautiful Drahvins and the hideous Rills and we try to get animated for yet another dead planet.  David is confused by the title and learning to accept it’s ok to enjoy the colourised animations. He also delivers some Radio 4-worthy political satire.  Sarah is annoyed by the silly roombas but loves the Stepford soldiers and admits to mainly watching for the novelty of colour - ooh the opening credits have been Tangoed! Make America Great Again versus The Good Life? Don’t be so silly Jerry. Anyway, we’re off to Stockport for a curry. Byeeee! Firsts: majority animated story, first time iPayer is actively trying to confuse us