Doctor Who: The Coal Hill A/v Club

Hoppin' Whovians! This week, we're joined by Jennifer Adams Kelly, Steven Hill, Jan Fennick, John Lavalie, Nicholas Seidler, and Robert Warnock - the brains behind the book "Red, White, and Who: The Story of Doctor Who in America." We discuss the good ol' days of fandom, the importance of supporting your local PBS station, and Clay's chance encounter with a beloved member of the Doctor Who family at a Waffle House in 1987. Also: convention news and more. (Note: near the end of the interview, there are a few moments where the audio gets a bit spotty due to technical whatsits, which I'm blaming on my cat. No, seriously. She knows what she did.) For more info on the book, and to purchase your own copy: http://www.atbpublishing.com/product/red-white-and-who-the-story-of-doctor-who-in-america/ End Music: "America" by Razorlight

The Doctor Who Awards show to end all Doctor Who Awards shows* has finally arrived. Who's gonna win Best Episode? Or Best Writer? How about Most Likely To Become An Awesomely Ironic Cosplay? Or Best Non-Villain Who Was Still Terrible? You voted, and now you're gonna sit there and listen if you know what's good for you because dagnabbit, this one took a long time to produce, because we decided we wanted to create an actual awards show in audio. Also, it has a cornucopia of Whovian stars from around the podcast-ish world. *Assuming said Doctor Who Awards shows is produced by us. We're the best of us! Like... Cat Smith (https://missnerdstiles.bandcamp.com/releases) Katrina Griffiths from Verity! (http://veritypodcast.wordpress.com) and Start The Music! ((http://stmpodcast.com/) Kim and Sage from Head Over Feels (http://headoverfeels.com) Graeme Burk (http://realitybomb.libsyn.com) Keir Hansen (http://gallifreypublicradio.com) Dan Toland (http://earth-2.net) Amanda Cole from The Doctor Who Match Machine (htt

We here at the Coal Hill AV Club are behind our new 13th Doctor 100%, but we understand that others might feel differently. And that's okay - even if you're one of those folks who thinks casting a woman as the Doctor is "political correctness run amok," or evidence that "the social justice brigade has taken over Doctor Who!" Because, well, you're right; Doctor Who has never been a "social justice warrior" show... well, except for that one time. And that other time. And then there was... (Hosted by Stephen Webb and Andy Hicks) Feedback/comments/suggestions: podcast@coalhill.com Twitter: #coalhillcon (oh, and be sure to vote in our Series 10 awards poll: the 2017 Jarvies - http://www.coalhill.com/thejarvies.html)

The smoke has risen above the BBC, which means we have ourselves a new Doctor, folks - number 13 to be exact. And this time, it's Jodie Whittaker, the first woman to ever play the part. So, we cobbled together an emergency meeting of the Coal Hill minds, from the darkest forests of North Carolina (Clay) to the cotton-candy beaches of Coney Island (Christine) to the banana aisle at the local Stop and Shop (Andy), with Emma and, of course, our lovable mascot Stephen. We're pretty damn excited, naturally. Music: yep, that's a new remix of our theme tune, plus "Kashmir" covered by Lez Zeppelin. Contact us: podcast@coalhill.com Twitter: @geeklectic or @coalhillcon Join our Facebook group... AND DON'T FORGET to vote in our "best of the season" poll, The 2017 Jarvies. You have just 9 days left - voting ends on July 25th. Tune in to this podcast feed for our special Awards show edition on July 27th. http://coalhill.com/thejarvies

So, you know that meme that's been going around fandom where we all list our favorite stories per Doctor? Well, that's precisely what Stephen and Andy are doing this week, because there's no new Doctor Who episodes to talk about and we don't really have much of anything else going on in our life. It's very sad. However! In a couple of weeks, we're throwing our awards show "end of season 10" extravaganza, and now's your chance to vote for your faves! (Here's the link. It'll take like 2 minutes. Honestly, you'll regret not doing it.) https://goo.gl/forms/dlYpLAaMKzfqyUG63 Various Who newsy things for the first 20 minutes or so, then we launch into our faves. Which one of us gets "the feelz" from The Robots Of Death? Which one of us picked a story they never even got around to producing on television? Is a taco a sandwich? These are all good questions. And - like Coop says - "I have a question, but the problem is I don't know the answer." (this week's song: "My Favorite Song" by Lifestyle)

Folks, we got a big one for ya. We analyze the Series 10 finale "The Doctor Falls" from every angle - from its themes of empathy and kindness and light in the darkness, its strong anti-prejudice message, and that glorious scene where the Doctor blasts away an army of Cybermen like he's a six year old in his back yard... to darker, more troubling themes like whether or not the show practices what it preaches when it comes to violence, and Nardole's sex life. We wrap up the DELIA arc, which is either gonna win us a Hugo, or go down as one of the most self-indulgent stunts in podcast history. And once again, we're joined by Cooper for Kids Talk Who, and there's a lot of Amanda Palmer music in this one for some reason. Twitter: @CoalHillCon Email: podcast@coalhill.com (music: "High And Dry" - Amanda Palmer, "Delilah" - The Dresden Dolls, "Sing", The Dresden Dolls, "Sorry Bunch", The Dresden Dolls.)

Meddlin' Mondasians! It's the second half of our epic exploration of the origin of the Moffassian Cybermen. Amanda Rae talks tropes and Cyberbills, our robotic announcer DELIA continues hatching her evil plans, we talk about "That Scene, You Know, The One About Gender," experience some pretty deep feels, and both good tea, and bad tea. Plus, Emma drops by, and Andy loses a lot of friends, probably. Oh, and our ongoing Les Mis parody looks to the "Stars." Song of the week: Caspian - "Hymn For The Greatest Generation"

Bleepin' Black Holes! It's the first half of our two-part discussion of the first half of Peter Capaldi's epic three-part swansong*. And if that's not confusing enough for you, just wait until we find out that our robotic announcer has gone rogue once again! Meanwhile, Clay, Stephen, Christine, and Andy discuss sonic parasols, Mondas, the death of companions, Capaldi's epic hair, and so forth. Also there's a Kids Talk Who segment. And, if that weren't enough... later this very week, you get the second half of the episode, which features a few more people, a discussion about feminism in the Moffat era, and at least 10 minutes of Andy sitting alone in a room and gushing about how completely awesome the Mondasian Cybermen are. Because I KNOW RIGHT? (This week's song: "Kemosabe" by Everything Everything.) *-If you include the Christmas special.

Stone the crows! It's another episode of the Coal Hill A/V Club - and this time, we're following the Doctor, Bill, and Nardole to Scotland in the 2nd Century, as they encounter talking birds, angry Picts, missing Romans, astonishingly good special effects, and all manner of other mad things in the rolling hills of Aberdeen. Plus: Kids Talk Who, and our weekly song parody stares deep into the eye of the tiger.

Leapin' Lizards, it's the return of the Ice Warriors, as Stephen, Clay, and Andy define the term "Gatissy", discuss bootstrap paradoxes, the awesomeness of Alpha Centauri, and why this episode might be one of the season's best. Plus: Amanda Rae returns with TWO "This Week In Bill" segments, a Gilbert and Sullivan parody, a Kids Talk Who segment, and much much more on this episode where, like the Ice Empress, you'll find yourself surrounded by noisy males. Oh, and the first twenty minutes or so are basically us hashing out our feelings about the Monk trilogy, with help from Amanda Rae and a big ol' shout out to our friends at Head Over Feels. Kim's review of "The Lie Of The Land": http://www.headoverfeels.com/2017/06/10/doctor-who-recap-the-lie-of-the-land/ Mark Gatiss and Matt Lucas on The Fan Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG1iTe1tniw Feedback, comments, etc.: podcast@coalhill.com Twitter: @coalhillcon

Surprise! It's an extra Coal Hill AV Club for yer troubles! Our own Clay Dockery, it turns out, is a theologian and a political activist, so the fact that he wasn't around for the religion story ("Extremis") and the politics story ("The Pyramid...") was kind of a shame. So, here's his expert take on the various themes these stories brought up. I think it's a fascinating listen, though I'm biased. Enjoy! (and please send feedback to podcast@coalhill.com)

The "Monk" Trilogy wraps up with a - shall-we-say - controversial episode, at least among our intrepid Coal Hill regulars. Some of us sort of liked it, one of us... eh, not so much... but at least we had a *lot* to talk about. Incidentally, Cooper - of Kids Talk Who fame - *loved* it - so that's good. We start talking about the episode itself 12 minutes in. Before that, it's mostly Hufflepuffs and cars, though there is a lovely new parody song to kick things off.

This week, we discuss the second part of "the Monk trilogy" - The Pyramid At The End Of The World. Clay comes back to discuss Gallifrey One guests, and then vanishes like a thief in the night so he can avoid spoilers. Speaking of spoilers, this episode includes discussion about the Care Bears, professional wrestling in the 1990s, and why nitpicking is okay when *we* do it. 0:00 - 1:12 - Opening song parody 1:12 - 1:32 - Intro 1:32 - 12:00 - Gallifrey One discussion 12:00 - 14:40 - Synopsis and opening thoughts 14:40 - 35:49 - Discussion part one 35:50 - 39:32 - "Kids Talk Who" 39:33 - 1:04:32 - Discussion part two 1:04:32 - 1:05:57 - Outro All clips (c) BBC *except* for the one near the end, but that's still covered under fair use, so there.

Stephen and Andy explore the metaphysical properties of the universe, the eternal debate between science and faith, and the ethics of virtual suicide. Or *do* they? Is it all an illusion? Does any of this matter? Is Nardole the Meddling Monk? Are the Monks the Cybermen? Are the Cybermen my real Dad? I have no idea what's happening in this one, folks, but there's a parody of that song from Portal and a new edition of Kids Talk Who, so that's nice.

Stephen and Andy get the jokes out of the way early on, take their protein pills and put their helmets on as they embark on a two-man mission to seek out new life and new civilizations, in an episode of the Coal Hill podcast choc-a-bloc full of speculation and a ridiculous amount of comedy for such a grim and scary episode. Amanda Rae Prescott drops by with another edition of "This Week In Bill", and our mysterious robot emcee gets some bad, bad ideas from this week's Doctor Who. All that, plus Andy Rooney on this week's breathless episode of The Coal Hill A/V Club. (Andy Rooney does not make an appearance.) (No, not even as a spacesuit zombie.) (Seriously, too soon, dude.)

Prepare for a swarm of horrible, hideous wood puns as Clay, Andy, and Christine dare to knock "Knock Knock." Order up some Mexican takeaway and cue up some Little Mix on the stereo, because this is a good one, folks. Also: Kids Talk Who heads to Whofest DFW, and there's a deleted scene where Christine turns out to be Mel's niece or something.

This week Stephen, Andy, & Clay discuss series 10, episode 3 - Thin Ice! We also have "Kids Talk Who" and the debut of a new segment called "This Week In Bill" by Amanda-Rae Prescott.

We discuss the properties of kelp Jell-o and the design aesthetics of the distant future with two, count 'em, two guest panelists - Christine and Emma - standing in for Stephen. Meanwhile, Stephen and his son Cooper discuss the new season in a segment of "Kids Talk Who", Andy tries in vain to tie everything back to LOST, and Clay isn't having it.

The Geeklectic on Gallifrey brand has regenerated into The Coal Hill A/V Club. A bit of a reboot for our podcast ties in directly with a bit of a reboot for Doctor Who as well! Join Stephen & Clay as we introduce our new co-host Andy and then discuss what we thought about Bill, the new dynamics with the Doctor, Nardole and everything else about the season premiere of Series 10!

We sum up the multi year journey we took with Hartnell, Ian, Barbara, Susan, Vicki, Steven, Dodo, Ben and Polly and the short but important moments with Sara and Katarina.