Tag: John Richards

What I Learned From Doctor Who

Well, here it is: the last released episode of Splendid Chaps. And what a suitable topic to go out on! John, Ben and Petra discuss what they’ve learned from Doctor Who over the years with guests comedian, actor and teacher Rob Lloyd (Who, Me.) and writer and editor Liz Barr (Chicks Unravel Time) in an episode recorded for the Stonnington Library Service’s [untitled] festival at Toorak/South Yarra Library on Saturday, November 16 2013. There were prizes, surprises, all the usual Splendid Stuff – and a wonderful spoken word performance from the one and only Emile Zoey Baker! (You can find her piece, “Dr Who’s Tom Baker is My Real Dad”, on her web site.)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:30 — 25.0MB)

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We’re not gonna see you again. Not like this. Not with this daft old podcast. And before we go, we just want to say you were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic.

And you know what?

So were we!

The Other Splendid Chaps: The Companions

Time for a bit of time travel: on Tuesday, November 19 2013, as part of Melbourne City Library’s week-long Doctor Who Festival, Ben, John and Petra were joined by writer, director and podcaster Lucas Testro  and broadcaster, documentary maker and podcaster Marian Blythe to talk about those other splendid chaps: the companions! Plus a live musical performance of a lost Doctor Who classic tune by Emma Heeney.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:04:28 — 29.6MB)

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Splendid Chaps By Request

Six topics, one hour, four chaps. Yes, it’s our bonus “By Request” episode in which Ben, John, Petra and fourth chap David Ashton discuss topics requested by our Pozible backers! And we go back, back to our very beginning, to the place where we recorded our very first episode: Penny Farthing Espresso in Northcote, Melbourne.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:09:38 — 31.9MB)

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A big thanks to all our listeners, our live audiences throughout 2013, and of course tremendous thanks to all our Pozible supporters, without whom this episode and our live Sydney show would never have happened.

It’s not entirely goodbye, though; while this is our last recorded episode, there are a couple of extras from November we’ll be releasing in January and February next year. And you watch out for more info about our 2014 project, Night Terrace, in the coming months.

By the way, we recorded this on Christmas Eve, and look: Santa Capaldi visited us!

David Ashton, Petra Elliott and Ben McKenzie with presents from "Santa Capaldi" on Christmas Eve.
The Splendid Chaps are visited by Santa Capaldi on Christmas Eve, at the recording of Splendid Chaps by Request. Oddly, we never saw John and Santa Capaldi at the same time…

 

The Splendid Chaps Christmas Special

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! Yes, it’s our last live (and lively) show, recorded on December 15th back where we started this mad journey, at the Bella Union in Melbourne. It’s also a Christmas party to bid a a fond farewell, and you’re invited – along with guests Thomas Caldwell, Lee Zachariah, Adam Richard, Janet A McLeod, Myke Bartlett, Alexandra Tynan, Fee Plumley and Dr Djoymi Baker. Plus there’s a Dalek, the magic of theatre, music from the Time Lads, songs sung by the chaps themselves…and perhaps even a Christmas miracle. It’s an emotional time, Christmas, and we’ll miss you all, so let’s go out with a bang!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:28:20 — 40.5MB)

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It’s not quite the end, though…watch out for our last new episode, Splendid Chaps By Request, on December 31, and we also have a couple of extras from November up our sleeve we’ll put out next year. Oh, and we might be working on a little something new…

The Not-So-Splendid Chaps: Monsters and Villains

We went to Sydney! Thanks to all our wonderful Pozible backers, on Saturday, November 30 the chaps travelled north to the Roxbury Hotel in Glebe to record this episode with guests Alice Fraser, Maddie Palmer and Steven “Bajo” O’Donnell, all about the villains and monsters of Doctor Who. Join us as we try to work out what the difference is between villain and monster, what various monsters represent, and which ones scare us the most and why. And of course we wrap it all up with a song: Keira Daley, backed by Alice, Peter Lead and Catriona Wimberley, cover a Doctor Who related track, 1980’s “(I Wanna Be) Doctor Who”, originally by Adelaide band Jackson Zumdish.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:31:39 — 42.0MB)

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A collage of images from our Sydney show
A collage of images from our Sydney show; photos by Carrie Hardie.

Eleven/Future

It’s the big one! Our actually-released-on-the-anniversary spectacular features hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott discussing Matt Smith, the future, and plenty of other Doctor Who goodness with guests Stella Young and Justin Hamilton, plus music by house band The Time Lads and an original song by guest musical superstar, Casey Bennetto. Yes, our year nears its end with this, the final Doctor/Theme episode of Splendid Chaps, recorded at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne on November 21, 2013.

Big thanks to John, Petra and David for all the hard work they’ve done on post-production getting this massive episode ready in just two days!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:12 — 38.6MB)

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Don’t forget you can go into the draw to win the complete box set of season seven of Doctor Who (Matt Smith’s last! *sob*) on DVD, courtesy of our friends at BBC on DVD! To enter the draw, just comment on this episode at splendidchaps.com. How do you feel about Matt Smith? Does he make a good introductory Doctor? Do you love him but dislike his era, or do you think the Grand Moffat is the best thing to happen to Doctor Who in years? And what about the future in – and of – Doctor Who? Comment by December 14 to be in the running, and we’ll announce the winner at the recording of our Christmas Special on December 15.

The Splendid Chaps Christmas Special (live show)

Yes, it’s the end…but the moment has been prepared for!

All right, we know we’ve said that before. But now, after eleventy episodes of Doctor Who discussion covering the Doctor, his friends and enemies, and topics ranging from clothes to evil to comedy, it’s time to bid farewell to hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliot (and our invisible fourth chap, sound engineer David Ashton). To see out this year of Doctor Who, the chaps look at all the Time Lord goodness that didn’t fit into the rest of the year, including not-quite-Doctors Peter Cushing and Richard E Grant, spin-offs The Sarah Jane Adventures and K9 & Company, and much much more.

There’ll be special guests both new and old, including Cyberman designer Alexandra Tynan, comedian Adam Richard, technoevangelist Fee Plumley, academic Dr Djoymi Baker, comedian and quiz master Janet A McLeod, writer and Bazura Project guy Lee Zachariah, journalist Myke Bartlett, film reviewer Thomas Caldwell and maybe even one or two more! Plus songs from house band The Time Lads, a Christmas Dalek, and a special Christmas lucky dip of Doctor Who prizes, with all lucky dip proceeds donated to two very Doctorish charities: the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC) and Medecins San Frontières (MSF).

We’d love to see you one last time!

Space: The Bella Union, upstairs, Melbourne Trades Hall, corner of Lygon and Victoria Streets, Melbourne
Time: Sunday, December 15; doors open from 4:30 PM
Accessibility: This venue is wheelchair accessible; please contact the venue for lift access.
Tickets: $20 (including booking fee)
Bookings: via bellaunion.com.au online, or at the ACMI box office (subject to availability)
Podcast: “The Splendid Chaps Christmas Special” released 23rd of December, 2013.

The month of the Doctor

Our main series show for November, Eleven/Future, sold out last week! But don’t despair, Melbourne fans – in this month of the Doctor (in this year of Luigi) there are still two shows coming your way before Splendid Chaps is done – plus our farewell Christmas show, and the Pozible-funded Sydney show as well!

Here’s where you can find us in Melbourne this month and next:

  • At Toorak/South Yarra Library on Saturday, November 16, we discuss What I Learned From Doctor Who with comedian Rob Lloyd (Who, Me.) and writer Liz Barr (Chicks Dig Time Lords), plus we’ll have a live poetry performance from Emilie Zoey Baker! Show starts at 4 PM; all tickets $10. Book here.
  • At the Melbourne City Library on Tuesday, November 19, we give the Doctor’s friends their time to shine for The Other Splendid Chaps: The Companions! We’ll be joined by TV director and comic book writer Lucas Testro, and 3RRR broadcaster and podcaster Marian Blythe, plus have a musical performance from Emma Heeney! Show starts at 6:30 PM; this show is free! But book here to make sure you get a seat.
  • Finally, at the Bella Union on Sunday, December 15, we say farewell with the Splendid Chaps Christmas Special! It’ll be a cavalcade of guests, songs and even a Christmas lucky dip, with a discussion of the Doctors and spin-offs we just couldn’t fit in otherwise: Peter Cushing, Richard E Grant, John Hurt, K-9 and Company… Show starts at 5 PM; all tickets $20, and on sale soon (we’ll announce more details when tickets are available).

Spoilers and Surprises

Surprise! It’s a bonus episode of Splendid Chaps all about spoilers and surprises in Doctor Who! (We bet you thought we’d forgotten about this one! But with the surprise early release of the Day of the Doctor trailer, it seemed like the right time.) It was recorded on Sunday, June 8, 2013 at Continuum 9: Contraindicators, the ninth annual Melbourne speculative fiction and pop culture fan convention.

John, Ben and Petra are joined by special guests, author and blogger George Ivanoff (the Gamers series, Life, Death and Detention) and author and podcaster Kirstyn McDermott (Madigan Mine, Perfections, Caution: Contains Small Parts, The Writer and the Critic). Plus a special performance of LINDA’s favourite ELO song from Petra and Caleb Garfinkel!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 59:34 — 27.3MB)

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The Not-So-Splendid Chaps: Monsters and Villains (live show)

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.