Tag: Lee Zachariah

Ten Years a Who!

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.

Doctor Who biscuits

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 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.

Seven/Religion (part two)

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott, along with guests Paul Callaghan and Dave Bloustien, return for the second half of our seventh live Splendid Chaps episode, recorded at The Public Bar in Melbourne on July 14, 2013. In part two we’re joined by the Reverend Doctor Avril Hannah-Jones, famously of the Church of the Latter Day Geek, to discuss religion and Doctor Who. Plus not one, but two musical numbers: one from guests Lee Zachariah and Adam Rudegeair – aka “Electric Menorah” – and one performed by the Splendid Chaps Seven audience!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 54:53 — 25.2MB)

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To make sure you don’t miss an episode, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or via this Feedburner feed.

As mentioned on the past for part one, you can go into the draw to win the (Region 4) DVD box set Ace Adventures, featuring the stories Dragonfire and The Happiness Patrol, from our good friends at BBC on DVD. Enter by commenting on this episode below (or on part one) with your questions, thoughts or feedback about the episode and religion in Doctor Who. Comment by August 10 to be in the running, and we’ll announce the winner at the recording of Eight/Science on August 11.

Seven/Religion (live show)

Blustering Time Lord meddler the Doctor and his friend Mel are ambushed by fellow Time Lord The Rani, and as his TARDIS crashes he is mortally wounded and forced to regenerate. His new persona starts out highly eccentric, scatter-brained and confused – but as his personality settles, it become unclear how much of this is real, and how much obfuscation of his real agenda. Teaming up with Ace, a teenager from the 1980s who had already become lost in time and has a penchant for high explosives, he soon begins to tie up plans and schemes he’d started lifetimes ago… 

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!). Our seventh episode in our main series discusses the Seventh and final Doctor of what we now call the classic era, played by variety performer and actor Sylvester McCoy. Famous for escapology, spoon playing and putting ferrets down his trousers, McCoy’s casting raised a few eyebrows, but his performance changed many doubters’ minds – especially when combined with Sophie Aldred as Ace, and under the new direction provided by the incoming production team under Andrew Cartmell. Of course, no-one knew that the program’s days were numbered…

We’re also looking at the theme of “religion” in Doctor Who. The Doctor has been all across space and time and encountered zealots, fanatics, kindly priests, and beings who believed themselves to be gods or demons or the devil himself. But what does the program say about religion, faith and belief? Is the Doctor Who universe truly a rational one in which the supernatural is really just advanced science, or is The Beast really the Devil? Is faith worthwhile, and if so, what does the Doctor believe?

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott are joined by guests including writer and game designer Paul Callaghan, comedian and television writer Dave Bloustien, and for our discussion of religion, the Reverend Dr Avril Hannah-Jones, Uniting Church minister and founder of the Church of the Latter Day Geek (as seen on Adam Hills In Gordon Street Tonight)! Plus a very special musical performance from the one and only Lee Zachariah accompanied by the two and only Adam Rudegeair, and all the usual prizes and surprises!

Space: The Public Bar, 238 Victoria Street, North Melbourne (opposite Victoria Markets)
Time: Sunday, July 14; recording starts 5 PM
Accessibility: This venue is wheelchair accessible.
Tickets: $15 (plus booking fee where applicable)
Bookings: via trybooking.com or at the door (subject to availability)
Podcast: “Seven/Religion” released in two parts on the 23rd (part one) and 30th (part two) of July, 2013.

Hosts and guests on stage for the recording of Splendid Chaps: One/Authority.

One/Authority

Hosts Ben McKenzie, John Richards and Petra Elliott discuss William Hartnell and the notion of “Authority” in the first live Splendid Chaps episode, recorded at the Bella Union in Melbourne on Sunday, January 13, 2013. With special guests Lee Zachariah, Nerida Haycock and designer of the original Cybermen, Alexandra Tynan. Plus musical guest Geraldine Quinn performs her original song “Dr Who’s Assistant” – specially updated from the original 2007 version!

To make sure you don’t miss an episode, subscribe to the podcast in iTunes or via this Feedburner feed.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:03:47 — 29.3MB)

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One/Authority (live show)

On the 23rd of November, 1963, something extraordinary began. A strange young woman arouses concern in her teachers, who follow her home to discover she lives in a police box with her Grandfather, an imperious old man known only as “the Doctor” – and in whose Ship, the TARDIS, they are whisked away on adventures throughout time and space.

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!). This very first instalment takes us all the way back to the First Doctor, William “Billy” Hartnell. One[ref]For brevity’s sake, many fans refer to each Doctor by number, instead of the old form “The First Doctor”.[/ref] is a cranky old dude who kidnapped and electrocuted his first companions to protect himself and his Granddaughter, places their lives and his own in danger to satisfy his curiosity, and who delights in putting the boot into conquerors and invaders. It’s this anti-authoritarian sentiment – and the air of authority he projects – that inspired us to take “Authority” as our first theme.

Hosts Ben McKenzie and John Richards and narrator and companion Petra Elliott are joined by our special guest panellists: writer and filmmaker Lee Zachariah (The Bazura Project (ABC2), Hell Is For Hyphenates podcast); broadcaster and host of 3RRR FM’s LiveWire, Nerida Haycock; and costume designer of the original 1966 Cybermen, Alexandra Tynan (aka Sandra Reid). Plus performance guest, comedian and cabaret performer Geraldine Quinn.

Space: The Annexe, Bella Union, Trades Hall, corner of Victoria and Lygon streets, Melbourne
Time: Sunday, January 13; bar and box office open at 4 PM, show starts at 5 PM (no latecomers admitted until intermission)
Tickets: $15 full price, $12 concession (plus booking fee where applicable)
Bookings: bellaunion.com.au or at the door (subject to availability)
Podcast: “One/Authority” released 23rd of January, 2013.