Dr. Pod

Tim Worthington joins Emma Burnell and Steve Fielding for a chat about Doctor Who in the wake of Jodie Whittaker's first appearance as the show's first female lead, not to mention Doctor Who's tussles with real-life political issues, both good and bad, over the years...

Doctor Who and politics – both with a capital and a lower case ‘p’ – comes under the Tardis Electron Microscope in Dr. Pod – an edition of The Zeitgeist Tapes, a podcast looking at where politics and popular culture collide, hosted by Emma Burnell and Steve Fielding and joined this time special Doctor Who-fixated guest Tim Worthington. Who may well have been campaigning for a female Doctor for quite some time.

In between chatting about our favourite Doctors and favourite companions – for ‘personal’ as well as dramatic reasons – there’s also plenty of discussion about the cultural implications of Jodie Whittaker’s casting, whether Doctor Who has ever had an actual quantifiable political bias and not just one made up by the professionally offended, what really inspired the characters and story arcs of Harold Saxon and Harriet Jones, if Starship UK was a warning ahead of its time in more ways than one, and the difficult question of whether the original run of Doctor Who was ever really as ‘problematic’ as people seem to think. I also get to explore my opinions on a number of politically charged and culturally weighted Doctor Who stories from The Happiness Patrol to Marco Polo, and what’s more I think I managed to do so whilst somehow avoiding mentioning Karen Gillan. Probably. Also, while Steve and Emma are the political experts, I’m fairly certain that I know more about Meglos than either of them. Which is something I don’t really get the opportunity to show off about that often.

You can download The Zeitgeist Tapes: Dr. Pod here or listen to it below.

Buy A Book!

You can find many more of my ‘opinions’ on Doctor Who past and present in Keep Left, Swipe Right, available in paperback here or from the Kindle Store here.

Alternately, if you’re just feeling generous, you can buy me a coffee here. Hopefully The Doctor will activate that biscuit making thing in the Tardis console to go with it.

Further Listening

You can hear Emma on Tim’s nostalgia podcast Looks Unfamiliar talking about Whose Side Are You On?, Sweet Valley High, Scoubidou, The Patchwork Monkey, Split Second, and the Ever Ready ‘Power To The People’ advert here , The Royal Potwasher, Melody Radio, Channel 4’s Accidental Death Of An Anarchist, A Woman In Your Own Right, The Lords Of Midnight and Herman’s Head here, the Christmas Specials of The West Wing here and an ill-fated stage adaptation of When Harry Met Sally here.

Emma has also appeared on Tim’s Marvel Cinematic Universe podcast It’s Good, Except It Sucks talking about Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 here and Deadpool here.

You can find more of Tim’s thoughts on the Jodie Whittaker era of Doctor Who in Looks Unfamiliar here. You can also find Tim on The Zeitgeist Tapes talking about Vote For Froglet – the long-forgotten Clangers Election Special – here, and Free For All, the election-themed episode of The Prisoner, here.