Surprise! It’s a new episode of Splendid Chaps!
This year – on the 26th of March – the modern era of Doctor Who had its tenth anniversary. We were hoping to put together a live show to celebrate this milestone, but alas that wasn’t to be. Instead, chaps Ben, John, Petra and Lee gathered on Sunday, April 12 – ten years and a bit since the original broadcast of The Unquiet Dead – to have a tea party with a few of our listeners and look back on the last ten years, driven by questions and comments from you! Plus there’s a musical surprise at the end…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:10:06 — 48.2MB)
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So join us for a cup of tea, a few special biscuits (thanks Claudia’s Mum!) and a chat about the Who of the last decade. We promise to stay mostly on topic…even though Night Terrace, our sci-fi audio comedy, had just won an award the night before – and the Kickstarter campaign for the second season is currently in its last days! So we might mention that once or twice.
Also we’re giving away a prize – thanks to our friends at BBC on DVD, we’re giving away a DVD of Matt Smith’s swansong Time of the Doctor, which also includes his previous Christmas specials A Christmas Carol, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and The Snowmen! Just put a comment in by the 23rd of May! We’ll pick a winner and announce it…somehow.
It’s interesting looking back on the run as someone who almost literally grew up with the show. I was 10 when it came back on air, and although I had seen Classic Who repeated on public television late at night, the Eccleston run was played on Sundays on CBC and my entire family would watch it together. My adolescent distaste with ‘kid stuff’ happened to coincide with Matt Smith’s second series– arguably one of the weaker runs on NuWho, and although I kept watching, it was more out of a begrudging desire to bond with my 10 year old brother than out of any real desire to follow the story. I should do a rewatch of the whole thing, I suppose– I wonder if the first series will be as dated for me as it was for you guys, or if I will just be so overcome with nostalgia that any analysis will become very difficult.
Anyway, great episode, guys. It was nice to hear you all back in the same room as yourselves, and not as various fictional characters. Unless, of course, this podcast was actually all part of the Night Terrace extended universe– I wouldn’t put it past you!
Massive cognitive dissonance time…
I was listening to a Phyne Fisher audiobook & browsing Twitter when I saw that this new episode was available. After rapidly downloading & listening to it, John’s remark about the Doctor being Phryne Fisher derailed my train of thought (much like what that new tunnel’s going to do to trains between Richmond & South Yarra, apparently*).
Come to think of it, the Doctor is as good an explanation as any for the inconsistencies in Bert & Cec’s war experiences from book to book 🙂
Oh but wait, you were talking about new Who, not Miss Fisher. John, do you like the Capaldi season in spite of the last two episodes? Although I found the Capaldi season quite strong (certainly stronger than any of Matt Smith’s seasons), the last two episodes were unmitigated garbage. Did Moffat *forget* that the events of “Into the Dalek” took place in the future, so for Gretchen to wake in “Heaven” meant that Missy & the sphere were still collecting “souls” years after Missy’s plot & the sphere were destroyed?
There’s also no way that barn was on Gallifrey, not matter what Moffat has since said. Not only was the sky over the desert not full of Dalek ships, the 10th & 11th Doctors had no way of getting to the barn since Gallifrey was time-locked. The barn may have been on another planet in the same system, but it wasn’t on Gallifrey.
Also seem to have forgotten there’s also still one live dream crab on Earth…
*Blatant RTD-like attempt at placing this comment in the now, so it will date quickly 🙂
* SPOILERS AHEAD. OBVIOUSLY *
I LOVE the last two episodes, Steve! This is the first season of Doctor Who to ever do a Mad-Men-style exploration of a theme as its arc (“am I a good man?”) and the final was the perfect end to that. All the earlier stuff about soldiers and armies comes to a head, and the Master’s typically over-the-top-ridiculous-plan boils down to one moment, which I love. Missy has done a huge heap of insanity just to create a moment of choice for the Doctor, to put him in a position where he takes power and proves he’s just as bad as she is (or, at the very least, the same). The Master says that no, the Doctor isn’t a good man and she’ll give him the power to destroy all evil just to prove it.
The other points I can justify to myself (Missy is using Time Lord technology so I’m not fussed about her nabbing people from the future, and I had the feeling those bits were more “research” than her major plan) and there’s the nerdiest Doctor Who joke ever in there (Chaplet Funeral Home – see Splendid Chaps episode one for more on that name!).
It has flaws, obviously – Danny Pink’s resolution doesn’t quite come off as it should, but I can see what they were trying to do (and I loved Danny Pink, which seems to put me in a minority). In some ways I think the series is even stronger if you consider Last Christmas to be the final episode.
Poor Danny (a character I liked) was ill-served throughout by the plot line (& by Clara); Last Christmas gave him a much better (& bitter) resolution than Missy goes mad in Dorset. Still wondering *whose* dream he was, though; although he could be the product of both the Doctor & Clara’s joint guilty feelings.
Orson’s still a problem, though; I wonder if it turns out he’s Danny’s clone…
Dodo Chaplet’s as dead as a McCartney? 🙂
Such a good episode, I’ve missed this 🙂
Hooray for the Chaps being totally splendid again!
I think it is interesting that John loved Series 8 so much. John is much more of a Classic Who fan than I am, and I frequently disagreed with his (always eloquently argued) opinions on the new series. But in Series 8 we may have some common ground! I found it patchy but amazing – in that I certainly did NOT love every single episode, but I completely and utterly loved what they were trying with the series as a whole. And frankly I think that I would probably watch Capaldi do just about anything… He’s my new favourite Doctor. (And to illustrate how every bit of Doctor Who is someone’s favourite bit and least favourite bit: my husband remains unconvinced by Capaldi and did not enjoy Series 8 at all, with the possible exception of Flatline).
I would like to thank you chaps for getting me in to Doctor Who fandom. Yours was the first Who podcast I listened to (now my iPhone is full of Who podcasts!), and the start of my (still developing) fandom, after years of being more of a casual viewer of the show. Last year I saw Deep Breath as part of the world tour, and it was completely amazing to watch Doctor Who in a theatre full of fans. And I’ve recently joined the Doctor Who Club of Australia and started meeting up with local Who fans. And it all started with Splendid Chaps. Thanks!
I was so excited to hear you had another Splendid Chaps podcast because I love you guys so much and I MISSED you! It was fantastic to hear your award-winning voices again, and I hope you will surprise us again in the future 🙂
Hey, we forgot to give a date to enter our competition by! So anyone who comments by the 23rd of May (for old-time sake) will go into the draw to win the DVD of Time Of The Doctor, which also includes A Christmas Carol, The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe and The Snowmen plus extras! Thanks for listening, everyone!
Awww… it’s great to hear the gang back together.
Good episode. It was nice to hear a somewhat more positive spin on nuWho than in the initial 12 (57?) episode “monthly” run. Congrats on the Kickstarter success!
hmm crunchy munchy Cybermen gingerbread 🙂
I grew up with old Who, i have vague memories of Jamie, but really started with Pertwee. I have been watching the new stuff with our children. I enjoyed the old and enjoy the new as well. having a lot of fun with Capaldi except the stupid golden arrow bit!
I am looking forward to more Splendid Chaps and/or Night Terrace
Hey guys. Nice to hear your lovely voices again. Probably my least favourite show unfortunately. You guys seemed a lot more objective about Nu Who during the 2013 Splendid Chaps run. Oh well, I get it this was a celebration of Nu Who so to the fans of this era, enjoy.
Have to say that the regeneration resolution and the renumbering of the Doctors, including the 10th Doctor’s aborted regeneration as canon was super disappointing. This has been a part of Who lore for such a long time, with bits of information sprinkled evenly throughout 26 years of classic Who. Moffat in his ham fisted arrogance resolves the issue in the laziest way I could possibly imagine. If not for the unnecessary inclusion of the War Doctor being a different never before mentioned incarnation, we would have had 2 more Doctor’s to exist before the mortality/ end of regeneration story would be dealt with. Capaldi’s replacement could have had mortality forcing him to look at the world and his place in it differently for the first time. Such wasted opportunity. This would have given another producer the chance to tell that compelling story, something Moffat apparently was unwilling to allow. All resolved with some cgi in the sky…..
The War Doctor should have been the 8th Doctor. This would have respected the previous story tellers of the show as well as allowing a classic Doctor to actually be respectfully represented in the anniversary special (I’m sorry but those snippets on those little screens of the Doctors was Moffat throwing crumbs at classic Who fans, I recognized all the stories they were from including the fact that the 7th Doctor was represented by the season 25 story The Greatest Show in The Galaxy AND the Doctor Who 1996 TV Movie). Wasted opportunity because Moffat had his whizz bang ideas which are apparently better than what has come before. 50th Anniversary special, not Nu Who anniversary special.
Oh well, a new iteration of my favourite show is on the horizon (if Moffat ever leaves).
Thanks, guys.