Splendid Chaps is a year-long celebration of Doctor Who‘s fiftieth anniversary: eleven live performances recorded as podcasts in which your brains will be fed, your funny bones tickled, and your hearts opened (yes, both of them!).
Let’s not pretend: there are many more than eleven episodes, and this one – our second last live show for the year – is the main result of our successful Pozible campaign to take a show up north! Thanks to the generous support of our listeners in Sydney and beyond, the Splendid Chaps are hitting the road and materialising in Glebe to stop talking about our heroes and instead think about those not-so-splendid chaps (and, er…things?), the monsters and villains of Doctor Who!
Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen, the Silence, Silurians, Quarks… The Doctor’s monsters sometimes seem to be physical manifestations of humanity’s fears. Is it the creatures we find so terrifying, or what they represent – and what do they represent? We celebrate the baddest of the bad, as well as those whose galactic domination has been less than completely successful.
Then there are the less literal, more human monsters: the Master, Davros, Lady Cassandra… Are they all thoroughly evil, or do they have more subtle motivations? What makes a good Doctor Who villain tick? Are they better than inhuman monsters, or is it best when they work hand in hand? They’re often some of the best fun to be had in a story, so let’s embrace the dark side!
Ben, John and Petra will be joined by writer and comedian Alice Fraser (FBi Radio, NewsLab), broadcaster, social media producer and ex-Rage programmer Maddie Palmer, and actor and presenter Steven “Bajo” O’Donnell (ABC2’s Good Game, ABC3’s Good Game: Spawn Point) to talk about the people and things we love to hate. Plus prizes, surprises, loveliness and a live musical performance of a lost Doctor Who classic tune from Keira “LadyNerd” Daley and Catriona Wimberley!
Space: upstairs, The Roxbury Hotel, 182 St Johns Road, Glebe, Sydney
Time: Saturday, November 30, 5:00 PM
Accessibility: We regret that this venue is not wheelchair accessible.
Tickets: $25
Bookings: via trybooking.com or at the door (if seats available)
Podcast: “The Not-So-Splendid Chaps: Monsters and Villains”, released 11th December, 2013.
A lost Doctor Who classic tune? Please tell me it’s not the song from ‘The Gunfighters’!
Oh, Richard – as if we would ever perform The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon! I’ll give you one hint: it was recorded before the end of the classic series.
And now a serious question for discussion: has there ever been a more poorly-realised monster than WARRIORS OF THE DEEP’s the Myrka?