Doctor Who: Podshock

Last updated

Doctor Who: Podshock
Doctor Who Podshock Podcast Cover.png
Presentation
Hosted by
  • Louis Trapani
  • Dave Cooper
  • Ian Bissett
  • Lee Shackleford
  • Kyle Jones
Genre Science fiction
UpdatesWeekly (irregular)
Length80–110 minutes
Production
Audio format AAC, MP3
Publication
Original releaseAugust 9, 2005 (2005-08-09) –
present
Related
Website podshock.net

Doctor Who: Podshock (commonly referred to as Podshock, but officially titled Outpost Gallifrey Presents... Doctor Who: Podshock) is a weekly podcast about the British science fiction television series Doctor Who . The podcast, which originated in 2005, is produced by the Gallifreyan Embassy, a Doctor Who fan group originally based in Long Island, New York.

Contents

Doctor Who: Podshock is also significant for being the first podcast to be officially attached to the world's largest Doctor Who online community, Outpost Gallifrey. Further, it was the first Doctor Who podcast to feature both British and American hosts, along with regular contributors from other parts of the English-speaking world.

History

Podshock has its origins on Long Island, New York. The first meeting of the fan club which would eventually spawn Podshock was held in a Holiday Inn in Rockville Centre [1] on or about 18 June 1985. [2] It was one of many local clubs being formed around the US during the early 1980s heyday of the PBS broadcast of so-called "classic" Doctor Who. Principally, the group existed to mobilize support for PBS pledge drives, but it also formed a support network for those wishing to attend conventions, watch the programme in a social environment, and to generally help promote the programme in their area. One of the membership benefits was a printed newsletter, which, over time, was supplanted by a website. When the new series of Doctor Who began in 2005, the Gallifreyan Embassy decided on a new means by which to deliver their content. On August 9, 2005, the first episode of the club's then-new podcast was released. The name they chose for this new audio publication — Podshock — was a reference both to podcasting and to the 1982 Doctor Who serial, Earthshock .

June 2015 marked the 10th Anniversary of Podshock. The occasion was acknowledged by special episodes.

Affiliation with Outpost Gallifrey

On January 21, 2007, the podcast became affiliated with the Doctor Who fan website, Outpost Gallifrey. It was after this alliance that the name of the podcast was changed to include a reference to Outpost Gallifrey. It was the only podcast officially associated with the popular Doctor Who website. [3] However, on December 1, 2007, the Outpost was reduced to a gateway to other sites, and an archive of the site's final incarnation; Podshock continued to be released until the summer of 2009 under a logo bearing the words, "Outpost Gallifrey Presents," until removing that nomenclature after the site officially shut down.

Format

All episodes of Podshock, regardless of their content, have something things in common. All episodes of Podshock, regardless of type, begin with a stylized intro. Generally, but not always, a clip from the classic or current series is played. Then, spoken either by one of the hosts, or via a pre-recorded insert, the same phrase begins every episode: "Live! From ___________! It's Doctor Who: Podshock!", in a fashion similar to the opening skits in Saturday Night Live . The blank is filled in by a different place relative to the Doctor Who universe. It has become a popular pastime amongst listeners to offer hints on how to fill in the blank. [4]

Podshock "proper"

The bulk of the episodes of Podshock involve at least two of the three main hosts connected via Skype. These episodes tend to have a great deal of post-production work added to them, resulting in a product that approximates studio recording.

A typical episode will run for 80–110 minutes, and contains discussion on all things related to Doctor Who, including the television series (both old and new), audio plays by Big Finish, books, merchandise, and the various spin-off series. The show typically starts off with a news section which presents Doctor Who-related news from the previous week. The features segment usually follows the news. This generally consists of discussion and reviews of various Doctor Who-related topics. Often, the featured material is pre-recorded in the form of an interview or a review. Feedback from listeners is also included towards the end of the episode, facilitated in part by a call-in line maintained by the Gallifreyan Embassy.

The occasional interviews on the main show have included the actors Colin Baker, Deborah Watling, Jules Burt and Eugene Washington, music composers Murray Gold and Mark Ayres and writers John Peel, Steven Moffat, Tom MacRae and Paul Cornell. Interviews from archive sources, mostly with people who were involved in the original series of Doctor Who, also feature from time to time. These have included Jon Pertwee, Sylvester McCoy, Sophie Aldred, John Nathan-Turner and Peter Davison.

Aftershocks

On occasion, a much shorter version of the podcast will be published. This type of show debuted on 5 February 2006 and received the name "Aftershock", in deference to the fact that it usually gave a bit more information about a topic that had been covered in the previous week's podcast. Generally they are hosted by only one of the three hosts and aim to give greater context to a story previously reported, impart some late-breaking news, or explain why a forthcoming episode is being delayed.

TalkShoe roundtables

Podshock: LIVE!

Roundtable discussions were occasionally attempted on the show prior to 2007. However, with the coming of the third series of Doctor Who in March 2007, Podshock adopted a new technology, TalkShoe, to facilitate much larger numbers of participants at one time. Starting with Episode 73, an uninterrupted run of 16 weekly episodes began wherein anyone could call in and be placed on the air. However, the recording technology of TalkShoe proved problematic. [5] Initially, host and editor Louis Trapani attempted to clean up each episode through post-production. By episode 80, though, that practice was abandoned entirely, with Trapani noting on air that the post-production wasn't helping to improve the audio. The decision to stop post-production on the TalkShoe episodes was also motivated by the fact that they were almost immediately available to listeners in their raw form on the TalkShoe website itself. Thus, these episodes developed the secondary name, Podshock LIVE!, used primarily on the TalkShoe website.

This type of Podshock has become dominant since they were introduced. From 14 April 2007, until 26 May 2008, the ratio of Podshock: Live! to Podshock was about 4:1. [6] In May 2008, the decision was taken to more formally separate the live roundtables from the studio recordings. Hence, for the fourth series of Doctor Who, roundtable discussions of individual episodes were no longer part of the main subscription feed, and are considered a separate podcast by the hosts. [7]

Production

Since September 2005 the show has been produced in two audio formats: an enhanced version, encoded in AAC, and an MP3 version. Both have the same audio content, but the enhanced version also includes embedded chapter markers, images and hyperlinks. Initial episodes of the TalkShoe roundtables also were available in both enhanced and non-enhanced versions, but this practice was abandoned when post-production on that type of episode stopped.

Reception

By critics and general audiences

Podshock is, according to iTunes, the most popular Doctor Who podcast.

A review in a 2007 issue of SciFi Now gave the show four out of five stars, describing it as "seriously meaty" analysis of Doctor Who and "the perfect accompaniment to the television series", while at the same time noting that the presenters were "massive Dr. Who aficionados" whose personalities were obscured behind a "voiceover [that] is slow, dull and very hard work." [8]

The show is sometimes taken to task for its length. For instance, commentators at the Tachyon TV podcast website noted that the 24 June 2007 episode of Tachyon TV was "as funny as one would expect and at half an hour, a good 12 hours shorter than your average Podshock." [9]

By production team

At least one Doctor Who writer, Paul Cornell, was at one time a devoted listener of Podshock. Writing on his own blog in February 2007, he noted that, even though a colleague of his had appeared on the DWO Whocast, he was "still a Podshock boy at heart," although later that year he actually appeared on DWO Whocast. [10]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallifrey</span> Fictional planet in the British television series "Doctor Who"

Gallifrey is a fictional planet in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It is the original home world of the Time Lords, the civilisation to which the protagonist, the Doctor belongs. It is located in a binary star system 250 million light years from Earth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul McGann</span> English actor

Paul John McGann is an English actor. He came to prominence for portraying Percy Toplis in the television serial The Monocled Mutineer (1986), then starred in the dark comedy Withnail and I (1987), which was a critical success and developed a cult following. McGann later became more widely known for portraying the eighth incarnation of the Doctor in the 1996 television film Doctor Who. He is also known for playing Lieutenant William Bush in the TV series Hornblower.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Cornell</span> British writer

Paul Douglas Cornell is a British writer best known for his work in television drama as well as Doctor Who fiction, and as the creator of one of the Doctor's spin-off companions, Bernice Summerfield.

Doctor Who in Canada and the United States refers to the broadcast history of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who in those countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rassilon</span> UK sci-fi character, created 1983

Rassilon is a fictional character in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. In the backstory of the programme, he was the founder of Time Lord society on the planet Gallifrey and its first leader, as Lord High President. After the original television series ended in 1989, Rassilon's character and history were developed in books and other media.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Podcast</span> Type of audio digital media

A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing. Podcasts are primarily an audio medium, with some programs offering a supplemental video component. Streaming applications and podcasting services provide a convenient and integrated way to manage a personal consumption queue across many podcast sources and playback devices. There are also podcast search engines, which help users find and share podcast episodes.

K9 (<i>Doctor Who</i>) British sci-fi character, created 1977

K9, occasionally written K-9, is the name of several fictional robotic canines in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who, first appearing in 1977. K9 has also been a central character in three of the series' television spin-offs: the one-off K-9 and Company (1981), The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007–2011) and K-9 (2009–2010). Although not originally intended to be a recurring character in the series, K9 was kept in the show following his first appearance because he was expected to be popular with younger audiences. There have been at least four separate K9 units in the series, with the first two being companions of the Fourth Doctor. Voice actor John Leeson has provided the character's voice in most of his appearances, except during season 17 of Doctor Who, in which David Brierley temporarily did so. The character was created by Bob Baker and Dave Martin, to whom rights to the character still belong; consequently, Baker's spin-off series K9, which is not BBC-produced, could not directly reference events or characters from Doctor Who, though it attempted to be a part of that continuity.

Leela (<i>Doctor Who</i>) Fictional character in the TV series Doctor Who

Leela is a fictional character played by Louise Jameson in the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. She was a companion of the Fourth Doctor and a regular in the programme from 1977 to 1978. Leela appeared in nine stories.

"Aliens of London" is the fourth episode of the first series of the British science fiction television show Doctor Who after its revival in 2005. First broadcast on 16 April 2005 on BBC One, it was written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak. It is the first in a two-part story, concluding with "World War Three".

"Dalek" is the sixth episode of the revived first series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. It was first broadcast on BBC One on 30 April 2005. This episode is the first appearance of the Daleks in the 21st-century revival of Doctor Who; it also marks the first appearance of Bruno Langley as companion Adam Mitchell.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">India Fisher</span> British actress, narrator and presenter

India Fisher is a British actress, narrator and presenter. Her father is the ex-MP Mark Fisher. She is also the stepsister of musician Crispin Hunt and of actress Francesca Hunt, who appears with her in the play Other Lives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Attack of the Graske</span> 2005 Doctor Who interactive episode

"Attack of the Graske" is an interactive mini-episode of the British science fiction television series Doctor Who that was first broadcast on the BBC Red Button service on 25 December 2005. It was then made available as an online game on the official Doctor Who website.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outpost Gallifrey</span> Former Doctor Who Fan Website

Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fansite from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums until 31 July 2009.

"The Runaway Bride" is a special episode of the long-running British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, starring David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor. It was produced as the Doctor Who Christmas special for 2006, broadcast on 25 December, and aired between the second and third series of the relaunched show.

The Time Lords are a fictional humanoid species originating on the planet Gallifrey, seen in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. Time Lords are so called because they are able to travel in and manipulate time through prolonged exposure to the time vortex.

TalkShoe is a community-based podcast hosting, recording, and storage platform that allows users to host or participate in live podcasts that were once called "community calls", or simply a "call" for short. Participants can phone in or join via the Web and are able to have a two-way dialogue with the podcast host and listeners. A call can be syndicated and downloaded after the live show ends as a podcast.

Voyage of the Damned (<i>Doctor Who</i>) 2007 Doctor Who episode

"Voyage of the Damned" is an episode of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. First broadcast on BBC One on 25 December 2007, it is the third Doctor Who Christmas special since the show's revival in 2005. The episode was written by Russell T Davies and directed by James Strong.

Doctor Who Online has, since 1996, been a UK-based news, information, and forum site dedicated to the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who. A regular feature on the website is the Doctor Who: DWO Whocast Podcast, started in April 2006.

Christopher David Johnson is a British television presenter and actor. He began presenting on the CBBC Channel in January 2010, and continued until April 2016. His first television appearance was for BBC Three, introducing Family Guy. Chris also makes content on YouTube under the user name OfficialCDJ.

<i>Kermode and Mayos Film Review</i> Radio programme

Kermode and Mayo's Film Review was a radio programme with Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo, broadcast on BBC Radio 5 Live on Friday afternoons. The show was self-described as the BBC's "flagship film programme" and featured film reviews from Kermode, interviews with actors and other guests, and listeners' emails. The programme's Twitter handle, "Wittertainment", was a nickname for the programme itself.

References

  1. ↑ "The Gallifreyan Embassy - 20 Years Ago". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007. Louis Trapani comments on the 20th anniversary of the Gallifreyan Embassy.
  2. ↑ "The Gallifreyan Embassy - 22 Years Today - Happy Anniversary". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007. Louis Trapani comments on the 22d anniversary of the Gallifreyan Embassy.
  3. ↑ Outpost Gallifrey announces the rebranding of Podshock. Archived May 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ↑ "The Gallifreyan Embassy - Home of the podcast Doctor Who: Podshock". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007. Suggestions on how to complete the sentence, "Live from ________"
  5. ↑ "The Gallifreyan Embassy - Home of the podcast Doctor Who: Podshock". Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 2 July 2007. A thread on the Gallifreyan Embassy forum which documents the problems in getting the TalkShoe shows published
  6. ↑ Podcast Alley listing of all Podshock releases Archived October 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ↑ Trapani explains changes in how Podshock: LIVE! will be distributed Archived July 26, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ↑ "Round Up - Podcasts". SciFi Now (1): 69. 2007.
  9. ↑ "Behind the Sofa - the Collaborative Doctor Who Blog: Tachyon TV Podcast 1.1". Archived from the original on 29 June 2007. Retrieved 3 July 2007. Comments of Iain Hepburn at behindthesofa.org.uk
  10. ↑ http://paulcornell.blogspot.com/2007/02/canonicity-in-doctor-who.html Archived 2008-05-23 at the Wayback Machine Paul Cornell's blog in February 2007.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.