Sapphireandsteel Podcasts

This month, Kyle and Erik dive headlong into Doctor Who series two with a look at two episodes written by showrunners of other shows. "School Reunion" written by Toby Whithouse (Being Human) is a fan-favorite, giving the new series its first real taste of the classic with the return of Sarah Jane Smith. "Fear Her" written by Matthew Graham (Life on…

And so it begins! Erik and Kyle have wrapped up Series 1 of updated Doctor Who, and now they commence the saga of the Tenth Doctor. Where to start? Why with "The Christmas Invasion" and "New Earth," of course! But it's not all just fun and games. Already they can sense the darkness inherent to Doctor number 10...and Kyle's kind of not into it.…

Way too fast. We're already bidding a very fond farewell to the Christopher Eccleston year of Doctor Who by discussing his swansong, "Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways." It may be his last onscreen hurrah but it was only RTD's opening salvo. How'd he do for his first season as showrunner?By Erik Stadnik & Kyle Anderson

It's the penultimate month in our look at Series 1 of rebooted Doctor Who, and we have two stories showrunner Russell T Davies wrote to fill time, but, one of them at least, has transcending its limitations to become something of a classic. And the other one is "The Long Game."By Erik Stadnik and Kyle Anderson

Erik and Kyle dip our toes in the pool of Steven Moffat with his addition to Doctor Who series 1, "The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances." You know, there's a lot to talk about in it. So, join us, won't you? Are you my mummy?By Erik Stadnik and Kyle Anderson

This month, Erik and Kyle are discussing the series 1 episode "Father's Day," an emotional experience for both of them. But before that, the 2003 web-exclusive animated serial "Scream of the Shalka," which was to be Doctor Who. Until it wasn't. Two Paul Cornell stories? Why yes!By Erik Stadnik and Kyle Anderson

This month, Erik and Kyle continue their jaunt into Series 1 of rebooted Doctor Who with the first two stories not written by showrunner Russell T Davies. Those of course are Mark Gatiss' ode to Victorian ghost stories, "The Unquiet Dead," and Robert Shearman's indelible reintroduction of a classic villain, "Dalek." But do they hold up the way our …

This month, Kyle and Erik revisit the "farting aliens" two-parter, "Aliens of London/World War III." While the humor doesn't age well, the fellas are surprised that the story is more interesting, the character drama much deeper, than memory said. And Mickey maybe isn't as big an idiot as we thought? WHAT?!…

Doctor Who: The Writers' Room is back, baby! After two years away from the TARDIS, Erik and Kyle have returned to tackle Doctor Who from 2005-2017. Much different than before, the fellas are going fairly chronological and what better place to start than showrunner Russell T Davies' first two episodes, "Rose" and "The End of the World?"…

We did it! Yes, another season of The Writers' Room comes to a close, and it's a good one. Sapphire & Steel's final story, "Assignment Six," gives us a lot to chew on, and some really fascinating implications. We also talk about the show as a whole, and prepare you all for the return of Doctor Who: The Writers' Room!…

This penultimate episode of The Writers' Room's look at Sapphire & Steel is a bit different. Creator P.J. Hammond did not write Assignment 5, aka the one that's a murder mystery---and it shows. Instead, Kyle and Erik talk about what an S&S serial looks like interpreted through the pen of former Doctor Who scribes Don Houghton and Anthony Read. The …

We're nearing the ending of the year and we're also starting down the road to the end of Sapphire & Steel. Assignment 4 affords Erik and Kyle opportunities to discuss poetry, spooky photography, the poetry of prose, and whether P.J. Hammond is a pessimist. Fun!By Erik Stadnik & Kyle Anderson

Erik and Kyle take on Assignment 3 of Sapphire & Steel, in which the elemental time menders contend with, not things from the past, but beings from the dystopian future. Is it as good as ghosty ancient things? Well, it does have the first appearance of Silver...and a creepy baby man monster things. Neat!…

This month, Erik and Kyle are going into an old dilapidated railway station full of war ghosts and stuff for Sapphire & Steel Assignment 2. We talk about the morality of fighting time ghosts, the sadness of war, and the pain of lost love. But, like, it's fun!By Erik Stadnik & Kyle Anderson

It's a new month, but it's also a new season! A very short new season, but a new season just the same. Erik and Kyle are looking at time fissures, ghost houses, and ambulatory alien element metal things. It's Sapphire & Steel! P.J. Hammond's landmark in weird sci-fi. We begin, sensibly, with Assignment 1.…

Once again, Erik and Kyle have gotten to the end of a series! This month marks the final episode discussing The Outer Limits and they're thankfully ending with a bang. Story editor Seelag Lester is the subject, who wrote "Wolf 359," the amazing two-parter "The Inheritors" and the final episode ever, "The Probe." Next month, a new show has been assi…

It's our penultimate episode about The Outer Limits, so why not talk about a bunch of crap? It's another of our now-ubiquitous episodes about writers who wrote only one episode. This time out it's "Cold Hands, Warm Heart," "Behold! Eck," "Expanding Human," and "The Premonition." Also, we've got announcements about our next two shows we're going to …

This month it's some episodes of The Outer Limits season 2. We cannot say fairer than that. It's a trio of stories more or less by two writers; Jerry Sohl adapted his own short story for "The Invisible Enemy," Milton Krims rewrote a Stephen Lord treatment into "Keeper of the Purple Twilight," and then Krims rewrote Sohl for "Counterweight." And tha…

Friends! Because we're all having a rough go of it socially distancing, we thought we'd give you a little extra treat. The commentary we normally do once a month for our Patreon patrons is free for all to hear! And it's a good one. We talked about the Doctor Who episode "Oxygen" for our Who for Schools raffle winner, and for the commentary, Erik an…

This month, Kyle and Erik are back talking about The Outer Limits season two, and with it...a writer! It's Robert C. Dennis, a very prolific TV writer who here is adapting three short stories and re-writing another writer's story for a fourth. They are "Cry of Silence," "I, Robot" (no, not that one), "The Duplicate Man," and "The Brain of Colonel B…

What's this now?! Why yes! Erik and Kyle have given The Outer Limits a break for a month in order to talk about Doctor Who again! As part of the Who For Schools initiative, a lucky raffle winner got to decide what New Who episode we discussed. The winner has chosen "Oxygen" by Jamie Mathieson. We're talking Capaldi, Nardole, Bill, and dystopian cap…

Happy New Year! And what could be happier than covering one of sci-fi's most famous writers? That's right, for episode one of our look at The Outer Limits season 2, we're talking about the great Harlan Ellison and his two scripts, "Soldier" and the immortal "Demon with a Glass Hand." Next month, it's more Doctor Who...for a bit.…

Can you believe it's been a year already? Kyle and Erik finish up their 12 months of discussing the first season of The Outer Limits with a countdown of their top 10 and bottom 5 episodes! Next year we begin season 2, with the two episodes written by the great Harlan Ellison! If you have a suggestion for a classic genre show to discuss after The Ou…

This month, Erik and Kyle only have two episodes left in season one of The Outer Limits. Fittingly, they're both would-be spin-offs from each of the show's two driving creative forces. First up is "Controlled Experiment," a comedy take on sci-fi from series creator Leslie Stevens. Second is the bat-poop crazy "The Forms of Things Unknown" from head…

In this month's penultimate look at the first season of The Outer Limits, Kyle and Erik discuss four stories by four different writers, to varying degrees of interest. Those episodes are: "Specimen: Unknown" "The Guests" "Fun and Games" "The Special One" Two of them are really quite good!By Erik Stadnik and Kyle Anderson