The Diddly Dum Podcast returns after a break with some bombshell news. Then The Whoseum is opened up again to welcome Hayden Gribble and Matt Charlton who have found the coveted copperplate invitations to The Whoseum in their Wonka Bars. Listen in as they present for exhibition items which speak to their hearts of what Doctor Who means.
Is that silver sphere a garden ornament or a Yeti control unit? What did Hayden find in his great grandmother’s Radio Times to set him off on a lifetime of Doctor Who fandom? How can Matt’s Ninth Doctor action figure be simultaneously groovy and bolshy? And where did Hayden get that shooting script from?
Along the way, the conversation leaps from Thals in ripped jeans to Pinky and Perky via the prospect of Doctor Who taking its soap opera elements to unheard of heights. Doc even reveals his guiltiest of secrets when it comes to TV viewing pleasure.
Doc has been racking his brain trying to think who the caretakers left behind in the Whoseum remind him of. They sounded suspiciously like a pair of characters, Crun and Bannister, from The Goon Show. And their conversation bears a remarkable resemblance to The Goon Show’s “The Case of Vanishing Room”.
The Three Who Drool enter the New Year by inviting Andrew Smith into The Diddly Dum Whoseum. Originally famous as the teenage writer of Fourth Doctor story “Full Circle”, Andrew is once more writing Doctor Who and Blakes Seven plays for Big Finish.
The exhibits presented by Andrew to The Whoseum are the Radio Times Doctor Who Tenth Anniversary Special and Toby Hadoke’s “Who’s Round” podcast series. They provoke lots of chat.
Along the way, conversation turns inter alia to Police Box keys, how Norman Wisdom has informed The Rev’s image of the Police, dinosaurs at Crystal Palace and the UK’s first crematorium.
The podcast ends with a tribute to our Whoseum guest in the form of a Blockbusters Gold Run. If you’d like to follow along with Al and The Rev as they attempt to go from Gold to Gold before the two of them lose interest, here’s a screenshot of the Gold Run screen.
The first exhibit presented to The Whoseum by Andrew is The Radio Times Doctor Who Tenth Anniversary Special from 1973. Among the delights contained within this 68-page treasure were a new short story, “We are the Daleks!”, by Terry Nation, double-page spreads on each season, detailed plans for constructing a life-size Dalek and behind-the-scenes profiles. This 1973 Special famously inspired a 15 year old Peter Capaldi to write to Radio Times. Scans of many of the pages can be found here on the sfaction Tumbler page. A video clip of the pages can be found here on Youtube.
The Crystal Palace Dinosaurs, also known as Dinosaur Court, are a series of sculptures of extinct animals (including dinosaurs) in Crystal Palace Park. Commissioned in 1852 to accompany the Crystal Palace after its move from the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park, they were the first dinosaur sculptures in the world. They were used as a backdrop for Carole Ann Ford’s photoshoot for The Radio Times Doctor Who Tenth Anniversary Special.
The second exhibit presented to The Whoseum by Andrew is Toby Hadoke’s “Who’s Round” series of podcasts. This series follows Toby’s quest to mark Doctor Whos’s 50th anniversary year by interviewing someone who had worked on every Doctor Who story. Notable interviews include Andrew “for it is he” Smith (#02), Waris Hussein (#06), Russell T Davies (#50 & #54 & #59 & #99), Uncle Terrance Dicks (#55), Richard Martin (#80), Lynda Belingham (#71 & #85), a Rev-pleasing Chris Jury (#86), Frazer Hines (#91), Mark Gatiss (#98) and Steven Moffat (#100).
Join The Three Who Drool at The Diddly Dum Whoseum for a festive podcast as, watched by an elite squad of firefighters, they light the first candle on their Advent Crown. If you listen very carefully, in the distance behind the giant Whoseum blast doors, you may just make out the faint notes of the Salvation Army band approaching up the snowy slopes of cruel Caradhras (which is played in a cameo appearance by Waltons Mountain).
This week, the Diddly Dumbers present exhibits of their own for display in The Whoseum. Each one is an item redolent for them of a part of their lives with Doctor Who – the podcasting community, Douglas Adams and The Golden Emperor himself.
The podcast ends with a tribute to mark both Diddly Dum’s first year and Doc finally fixing the glitch in the software on the Blockbusters Gold Run screen. If you’d like to follow along with Al and The Rev as they attempt to go from Gold to Gold before the three of them lose interest, here’s a screenshot of the Gold Run screen.
(01:53:30) This December Titan Comics is teaming up with The WHO Shop to celebrate the store’s 30th Birthday with a special Doctor Who Comics Christmas triptych cover variant! These variants will only be available to purchase at The WHO Shop. This special image featuring the Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Doctors was created by artist Lee Sullivan (Doctor Who Magazine, Transformers, Thundercats, 2000AD) and runs across three Doctor Who comic issues this December: Tenth Doctor #5, Eleventh Doctor #5 and Twelfth Doctor #3. (Thanks to the Kasterborous website for the link and the text – their splendid podcast should have been included in our list above – but we couldn’t remember everyone).
Happy Doctor Who Day to one and all. To celebrate The Glorious 23rd, The Three Who Drool have invited into the marble halls of the Diddly Dum Whoseum the man who first suggested that they do a podcast together – J R Southall of the Blue Box Podcast (for it is he).
The spiritual absent father of the Diddly Dum Podcast presents the following to the Whoseum as significant milestones in his Doctor Who life: “The Doctor Who Monster Book” (1975), his complete collection of both sets of both Doctor Who Weetabix cards (not in the original packaging alas) and “You and Who” – the collection of Doctor Who essays compiled by JR himself. Listen in as the four Fine Doubters (and dogs) discuss the Whoseum’s new exhibits before the thrilling climax when JR wheels in his final exhibit and installs Steven Moffat permanently in the cryogenic display case.
Along the way, the podcasters discuss the role played by Cairn Terriers in their Doctor Who lives, whether phoenixes and unicorns count as real creatures, the struggle involved in writing to order, the significance of the capital letter Y in moral philosophy and whether it is obligatory to hate Doctor Who.
And of course it wouldn’t be a Whoseum podcast without JR putting himself on the hot spot for a Blockbusters Gold Run. What grand prize awaits him if he manages to go from gold to gold in 360 seconds or less?
“You and Who” is a book of Doctor Who fan reminiscences, edited by J.R. Southall, which was published in 2012. The following year the two-volume set “Contact Has Been Made” was released, in which fans discussed their memories of and connections with specific stories. Both are currently out of print, but that situation should be rectified soon…
For this double review of “Dark Water” and “Death in Heaven”, the Diddly Dumbers pay tribute to the theory developed by The Him (Al’s éminence grise) that Steven Moffat’s source material for Doctor Who is stolen entirely from Danger Mouse episodes. So they leap once again into the Molecular Nanoscaler and shrink themselves small enough to enter the secret agent’s pillar box base.
Nestled safely among the uncollected post, the Diddly Dumbers start with Doc’s mammoth rambling review of his recent trip to the British Film Institute to see the premiere of “Future Shock – The Story of 2000AD”. Eventually, the Three Who Drool remember that this is primarily a Doctor Who related podcast and turn to the Series 8 finale double-bill.
Along the way, The Rev reveals how Steven Moffat is cooking pasta with guess who’s spice rack, Doc gets so deeply mired in an elaborate “Friends” analogy that he forgets why he started it, Al hams it up with hamartia, we cover how “The Happiness Patrol” never came near 2000AD’s “Invasion” in attacking Margaret Thatcher, why it’s illegal to produce horror comics in the UK, Australia’s joint-second top contributions to world culture, how watching Steven Moffat’s finale was like those scouts on a roller-coaster in “J**’** F** I*”, and we discover why the campest character in sci-fi history could well have been Admiral Ackbar.
The more gullible among you may have fallen for the that Missy’s true identity is The Master. The Diddly Dumbers, however, remain convinced that their original theory of her being Mrs McClusky from Grange Hill still holds water.
“Doctor Who: Thirty Years in the TARDIS” is a one-off, 50-minute television documentary, broadcast to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the science-fiction series Doctor Who. It was originally transmitted on Monday 29 November 1993. This was followed by a release on VHS, titled “More Than… Thirty Years in the TARDIS”.
For this double review of “Flatline” and “In the Forest of the Night”, the Diddly Dumbers have repaired to a sylvan glade. But the peaceful location belies a lurking menace. Which of us hasn’t shivered at the idea of growling in the bushes?
Each new podcast seems to reveal another shocking example of shameless thievery on Steven Moffat’s part. You know that “how can I have been so blind?” feeling when the penny drops and something is laid bare which has been staring you in the face for years? That’s how our podcasters felt this week when The Him (Al’s eminence grise) pointed out what now seems so obvious – that the idea behind every Series 8 episode of Doctor Who can be traced back to an original episode of “Danger Mouse”. The Three Who Drool discuss this outrage.
Along the way, we cover the role of the Three Day Week in The Rev’s conception, Doc having to wait over 40-odd years for his scariest ever experience in Doctor Who, ten foots and snickleways, The Rev finding that the day can be as scary as the night, has normally lovely Sigourney Weaver ever been a more of a total bitch than her character in “Working Girl”, comics as a form of literacy, Al finding Judge Dredd standing next to him at the urinal, the best way not to be killed by tigers and “Peppa Pig” as a prequel to “Animal Farm”.
As an erotic climax, Al finally explains his theory of Doctor Who as Greek tragedy.
The Diddly Dum Podcast would like at this point to declare an interest. We hold no interests in Ted Baker. However, since Friend of the Show Tariq has suggested that Doc’s visit to the HQ might have been explained by his being on acid at the time, we would like to provide evidence that their front door is indeed in the middle of a giant lobster, visitors to their Reception are indeed greeted by a barking animatronic Golden Retriever, and their lifts are indeed just like Roald Dahl’s Great Glass Elevator in having fun buttons all over their walls.
“Danger Mouse” is a British children’s animated television series which was produced by Cosgrove Hall Films for Thames Television. It features the eponymous Danger Mouse, an English mouse who works as a secret agent. It is also clearly the inspiration for Series 8 of Doctor Who. Take a look at episode 5 of “Day of the Suds” where Nelson’s Column has been toppled. In “Time Slip”, Danger Mouse goes back in time to meet Robin Hood. Are you listening, Mr Gatiss? And do we need to say any more about “Danger Mouse on the Orient Express“?
For this double review of “Kill the Moon” and “Mummy on the Orient Express”, the Diddly Dumbers have bought Third Class tickets and donned dinner jacket T-shirts to sneak into the First Class dining car. Will they manage to complete the whole podcast before anyone checks their tickets?
Along the way: The Three Who Drool are christened “the 1970s sitcom of Doctor Who podcasting” by a rival podcast. We reminisce about our past encounters with Sylvester McCoy. We discover that famous people are sometimes more lovely than you think. A slow printer replaces the water-cooler as the office gathering place. We reveal the original source from which Peter Harness shamelessly stole the “dragon living in a moon” plot. Al unfolds his insane theory about Perkins’ secret identity. We discover the film against which The Rev measures all other films. We touch briefly on working class situations in British porn. We decide which soap Doctor Who ought to resemble, and Doc away explains his body (10% human, 90% cardboard) by revealing his true comic book identity. Even Strontium Dog and his sidekicks Wulf and the Gronk get a mention.
Newest and cruelest (sob) friends of Diddly Dum are the denizens of the “Binro Was Right Podcast”. Their eponymous hero is, of course, Binro the Heretic, a character from Key to Time season story “The Ribos Operation” who was persecuted for his beliefs. Their caricature of the Diddly Dumbers as the 1970s sitcom of Doctor Who podcasting, painting Doc and Al as a “Terry and June” couple and The Rev presumably as the child they never had, is uncomfortably near the mark.
The Diddly Dum Podcast rocks the foundations of Doctor Who writing this week by revealing that the space creature so improbably hatching from The Moon was based on The Soup Dragon from Oliver Postgate masterpiece “The Clangers”.
“Strontium Dog” is a long-running comics series featuring in the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD, starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter with an array of imaginative gadgets and weapons.
This double review of “Time Heist” and “The Caretaker” opens with the Diddly Dumbers being pursued through the vaults of the Karabraxos Bank by fiendish monsters from their childhood nightmares. At the last minute, our heroes manage to escape by Transmat and land in the empty staff room of Coal Hill School.
Along the way, the Three Who Drool discuss the late Dr Evelyn Smythe and identify why the design of the Skovox Blitzer reminded them of Christmas morning 1980. They debate why different vocal stresses are given to street and road names and explore Steven Moffat’s push to reboot the new Doctor as the Peter Cushing incarnation.
For their double review of “Robot of Sherwood” and “Listen”, the Diddly Dumbers travel to Sherwood Forest itself to record the podcast.
Along the way, the Three Who Drool discuss the best incarnations of Robin Hood down the years on the big and small screen, a new form of chocolate scampi with mysterious centres and hanky panky with Arthur Lowe. They analyse the evidence linking Terrance Dicks to Star Wars’ Admiral Ackbar and debate the sexual propriety of the TARDIS console now incorporating moist, squelchy slits.
Just below the embedded media player, you’ll find that we’ve finally included the facility to download the MP3 directly from the blog. This has been added to all previous podcasts too.
In the course of our discussion, we blow wide open Steven Moffat’s secret plan to use the first Doctor of the new regeneration cycle to reboot the series back to the era of the First Doctor. But not the First Doctor you may be thinking of.
We also look at the significance of the female thorax in Sontaran lore. The Rev tells us about a friend of his who once had a date with a gibbon. Al explores a possible narrative link between the Meddling Monk and the Mondasian Cybermen. Doc advocates punches in retaliation for slaps.
