Night Of The Living Geeks

John is back! And we're reviewing The Girl in the Fireplace! The Doctor, Rose, and (well…) that other guy, arrive on a spaceship in the 51st Century. No time agents about, but the power of the spaceship is being used to punch holes back to 18th Century France and the life of Madame de Pompadour. Rather snazzy looking clockwork droids are terrorizing Reinette until she’s "ready." Can The Doctor, Rose, and the horse figure out when Reinette will be ready and possibly stop the droids from going all “off with her head”? They’ll have to if they want to save The Girl in the Fireplace! Also, please don’t ever place actual girls in actual fireplaces. That’s not a safe place for them. This Public Service Announcement brought to you by your friends at Podcastica!

This time Taylor is join by friend of the show Dan van der Werf who's chosen The Aztecs for them to watch. The Aztecs is an incredible story that shows just how powerful early Classic Who can be. Frankly, they both see much of the Modern Who template in this story! Join them for a discussion about the merits of this adventure along with some heartfelt stories of just how much Doctor Who is an anchor during these troubled times!

As the legend goes, 2.5 miles under the Archuleta Mesa outside Dulce, New Mexico exists a seven-level base that is a joint operation between the US military and extraterrestrials. The legend of the Dulce Base is also something of a nexus point for various other legends that permeate modern UFOlogy: cattle mutilations, the MJ-12 documents, the whole Eisenhower agreement with the greys, battles between humans and aliens, large-scale government infrastructure connecting various alleged underground bases, breakaway civilizations, and so much more. Some of these legends may not have had their start in the late 1970s when Paul Bennewitz was contacted by Richard Doty for the first time, but Doty’s ability to manipulate Bennewitz along with the continued proliferation of ufologists sharing information before the information superhighway came along served as something of an interstate cloverleaf for both information and, unsurprisingly, disinformation that proceeded to spread through a network of people whose names ar

This time Taylor is joined by friend of the show Terry Manley as they discuss the 5th Doctor story (and Season 19 finale) Time-Flight! It's a bonkers adventure with next to no budget that was all inspired by Peter Grimwade's hope that he could score a ride on the Concorde! But Time-Flight is a generally panned adventure that possibly would have worked better in the middle of the season. Regardless, Taylor and Terry find the elements that work best (Kalid's accent definitely not amongst that list) and celebrate the craziness that is Time-Flight!

Effective immediately there is a tax of five Talmars for listening to this podcast! Just kidding, but this time we watched the 4th Doctor story The Sun Makers! This is a bonkers tale and quickly becomes one of our favorites. From set design to costume to the dialogue, it was very clear Robert Holmes was miffed with the tax board and, well, sometimes an artist's frustration produces some of their best work. So sit back, save the Talmars for a nice cold beverage, and let's talk about The Sun Makers!

On the evening of August 21, 1955 in the tiny town of Kelly, just above Hopkinsville in western Kentucky, the Sutton family had an encounter that would radically shape their lives and the field of ufology for generations to come. Diminutive creatures (the number varies based on who you ask) approached the small Sutton farm house. The Suttons, like many living in remote areas, were quick to defend themselves from these visitors. But what played out next defies physics in many ways and leads those of us who study this event to continue questioning the nature of the phenomenon as we try to determine exactly what happened during the Kelly-Hopkinsville incident. Goblins? Spacemen? Fairies? Ultraterrestrials? We’re still not sure. So grab your thinking cap, your .22, and maybe a tin can and let’s get into it! Plus, as we explore this encounter, Taylor stumbles across an interesting theory that may work some way toward explaining this incident. And (!!) Seb's Descent into the Archives makes a possibly new connection

The Doctor, Ian, and Barbara land on Dido...not the singer, don’t worry, she’s fine...only to be instantly separated after discovering a crashed rocket ship on the planet’s surface. But a slightly menacing figure named Koquillion is keeping crash survivors Vicki and Bennett confined to the rocket. The Doctor, however, having been to Dido before, finds things aren’t as they ought to be. Can he uncover the rather delightful twist at the end of the story? Can Barbara manage to not point the flare gun at herself? And can we get a moment of silence for Sandy? It’s time for The Rescue! Oh! And today just happens to be Maureen O'Brien's birthday! How's that for timing?

In the sixth episode of Soundtracks on the Sticks, hosts Chris Damasceno and Jordan Young return and with some help from another long time friend Phil Nau (@shinryuucos), they go over the history behind Mega Man X being the series' first leap into 16- bit, how that affected its soundtrack on a technical level, their favorite tracks over the years and the overall impact that it made on the gaming scene plus discussing their own experiences with the game itself as a whole.

We're back after a slight delay! This time around Taylor is joined by Michael Nixon (of The Game of Rassilon fame) to discuss Christopher Eccleston's return to the role of the Ninth Doctor (this time in audio form for Big Finish)! Despite being quite happy to have new 9th Doctor adventures, we're both left wanting a little bit more from what Ravagers offers. As always, we discuss what worked, what didn't, and where we've heard something like that gruff guard's voice before!

The story goes that on March 16th 1957, a Venusian named Valiant Thor landed on Earth and was taken to Washington DC. He met the president, vice-president, and a host of higher ups. He scored himself a three-year lease on an apartment at the Pentagon while trying to sell Eisenhower on his fairly Christian message of peace and galactic brotherhood. Sadly, Eisenhower was more worried about the American economy and rebuffed Val’s offer. But this wasn’t the last we’d hear of Val Thor. In fact, we only know about Val because of a man named Frank Stranges: a reverend-doctor-maybe-FBI-guy-maybe-conman. We’re not really sure. And when we set out to start researching this topic, Seb found possibly the stranges...t thing of all: what appeared to be a reference to Valiant Thor from 1939! Nearly a full 20 years before Stranges claims Thor first came to Earth! What unfolded was our most researched episode to date. So settle in, grab a drink, and get ready for one weird trip!

The Doctor, eager to impress his new friend, launches them not 100, not 10,000, but 5-ish billion years into the future! Because nothing impresses a shop girl more than seeing her home planet blasted to pieces by the expansion of the sun as it approaches its next phase of life. But not all is hunky dory as glorified skin pancake, Cassandra, is plotting some shenanigans of her own as a way to maybe sort of extort money out of the delegations present. Can The Doctor save the day, save Rose, and flip the script on Cassandra all while spending the whole season’s CGI budget? Welcome to The End of the World!

A broken family. Secluded forests. A demon watching from the shadows... On the latest episode of IKWYPLS, we head deep into the woods for Jordan Graham's Sator. Our hosts tell you what they liked, what they didn't, and ponder the nature of 'artsy' horror. So, give yourself over to this episode, IKWYPLS is calling... Music used in this podcast: 'An Abandoned Ballroom' by Lyndon Scarfe. 'An Abandoned Ballroom' by Lyndon Scarfe is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License, via Creative Commons [creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/].

Cold War is a tight, well-directed base-under-siege story in which the base is a claustrophobic submarine trapped 700m underwater and they're under siege from the inside by an Ice Warrior! Grand Marshall Skaldak has just awoken from a 5000 year slumber and no one's offered him any coffee yet. Can The Doctor and Clara head off both an international and intergalactic incident?! Join us as we review Cold War!

13 years ago, the Doctor welcomed a daughter into his life. She was a...full-grown adult woman who could speak, handle a rifle, and was a clone of his hand (while there was already an extra hand of his floating around in the TARDIS!). Not your typical birth, to say the least! This time around, we review The Doctor's Daughter! It's a fun story with great looking creatures, well-crafted arcs, and some memorable moments! We also look at the first block of guests for the next Gallifrey One, so join us!

This month we talk about GHOSTS! While possibly the most subjective of all experiences with the Phenomenon, we definitely have some weird experiences while recording this episode! We take a high-level look at what ghosts could be and definitely hit on some topics we'll come back around to in greater depth in future episodes.

Nobody loves birthdays like the folks at Willy's Wonderland, the titular children's entertainment center featured in this month's movie. Closer to Five Nights at Freddy's than Chuck E Cheese, Willy's Wonderland has been shut down for years while the joint's band of animatronic animals gathers dust on the stage. A nameless, silent drifter might be able to revive Willy's if he can stay overnight and clean up behind the building's locked doors. At the same time, a gang of stock teens led by a kerosene-wielding delinquent named Liv are hoping to put a stop to Willy's shenanigans for good. There's plenty of satanic panic, robot spines, and terrible dialogue to discuss on the latest episode of I Know What You Podcasted Last Summer! Don't forget to take plenty of breaks, stay hydrated, and don't eat anything you find in the Super Happy Fun Room. Music used in this podcast: 'An Abandoned Ballroom' by Lyndon Scarfe. 'An Abandoned Ballroom' by Lyndon Scarfe is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives

A quarter million years in the future (not that we're explicitly told that), The Doctor, Clara, and her two wards (remember Clara's nanny phase?) land on a theme park planet that's certainly seen better days! Things quickly go south as Cybermites kickstart the long-dead Cybermen on display and a high-paced, high-stakes story ensues! We discuss Nightmare in Silver...did this 2013 episode improve with age? What did we think of these more Borg-like Cybermen? And has the psychic paper become as much of a story-telling crutch as the sonic sometimes is? Join us as we talk about all that and more!

It's a classic tale of xenophobic astronaut turned general using alien ambassadors to kill, steal, and do his dirty work! Sound like a lot to take in? It is! Because we're reviewing the 7-part 3rd Doctor serial The Ambassadors of Death as we round out all the Doctor Who stories that end in "of Death!" While there's lots to follow in the story, there's also lots of action, lots of shooting, and even a bit of humor. So steer clear of the static touch, strap in, and let's get into The Ambassadors of Death!

In the long-overdue fifth episode of Soundtracks on the Sticks, hosts Chris Damasceno and Jordan Young return and with some help from Chris' long time friend Jamaal Graves (@Ryyudo), they go over the history behind what brought Dance Dance Revolution to the cultural forefront in the 2000s, stories of old of all three men's involvement with the game itself, favorite tracks over the years to play and the overall impact that it made on the gaming scene with its direct and indirect successors.

Nearly 50 years ago at a hunting cabin deep in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Ron Morehead and Al Berry recorded some of the most unusual and compelling vocalizations. Mere years after the Patterson-Gimlin film shocked the Bigfoot community, the Sierra Sounds (as they’re known) brought a whole new dimension to the legend of Sasquatch: the possibility of language. While few would argue that Morehead and Berry definitely recorded something in the forests of the Sierra Nevadas in the early 1970s, many have debated what actually created the sounds. Without corroborating evidence, scientists are quick to claim they recorded bears or mountain lions. Cryptozoologists and even some linguists point to these recordings as evidence that multiple bigfoots were communicating with each other, as well as Morehead and Berry, outside a hunting cabin eight miles from civilization.