Doctor Who: Toby Hadoke’s Time Travels

This podcast stands out from the Doctor Who crowd because Toby is such a gifted performer, he is always fun to listen to; and also because he is so well prepared that the knowledge he imparts is always illuminating, even to a 46-year fan like me. And on top of that, it’s free of excessive snark, making it a truly humane celebration of this unique and magical show. Recommended!!

What Mr. Hadoke provides are the best Doctor Who podcasts around. Thank you!

Toby is one of the wittiest, funniest, and knowledgeable Whovians out there, and I appreciate how he can even find positives in the stories he doesn’t have the most favorable opinion about.

I was Doctor Who aware in the 80s. A cousin had a wardrobe styled as a TARDIS and there were 25th anniversary adverts for Doctor Who magazine in the pages of the Ghostbusters comic. I was more interested in Red Dwarf and Count Duckula but the Doctor was always in the corner of my eye running around scaffolding. I had two friends who were Doctor Who mad. One of them lent me the double VHS pack of The Sontaran Experiment/Genesis Of The Daleks and must have been put out by my indifference. WhenDimensions In Time aired I recognised all of the Eastenders cast but only a few of the Doctor Who actors. I watched the TV movie with the same friend who had lent me the double VHS and enjoyed many aspects of it but as soon as the credits rolled the Doctor was invisible to me once more. Then 2005 happened and I would have described myself as a casual fan all the way up to David Tennant saying ‘I don’t want to go’ - which sums up how I felt about the end of the naughties and the beginning of the tens. Through my Red Dwarf internet chums at Ganymede and Titan (the blog curiosity in a junkyard especially) and by virtue of being a massive Douglas Adams fan I became more and more intrigued by the blu ray collections and especially Trial of A Time Lord. I’ve always found the year 1986 interesting. Too late for Duran Duran, too early for T’Pau. On that blu ray I hungrily lapped up the extras, particularly the Doctor Who Cookbook. The fellow presenting was clearly charming, cheeky and unafraid of the more ridiculous moments while acknowledging the tragic/dramatic. When I discovered Toby’s podcast it was like signing up for an Open University course in Doctor Who. My main interests are between Tom Baker and Matt Smith but thanks to Toby I’m beginning to appreciate what came before and after. Thank you for all the wonderful work Toby from an child of the 80s living in Texas.

The discussions featured in each episode of the various series show Toby’s love of Doctor Who and are a joy to listen to. He even made my least favorite episode Midnight seem interesting.