Nathan Bottomley Podcasts

This week, Nathan, James, Todd and Richard find themselves becalmed on board the Fancy, under threat from medical hologram that has gone rogue and imagines itself to be a terrifying and murderous Doctor Who monster. There’s rum, sodomy and some very low-effort space corridors, in The Curse of the Black Spot. Notes and links Richard and Todd both co…

It’s July 1969, and we find ourselves sitting around with our new friend Maxwell Coviello, stroking guns and watching the moon landing on telly. It’s time for the end of the Swinging Sixties and the start of the Shooting-our-alien-overlords-in-the-face Seventies, in Day of the Moon. Notes and links Early in this episode, Brendan alludes to the titl…

When a mysterious astronaut completely ruins their picnic, the Doctor, Amy, Rory and River head back to 1969 in search of something, probably. Meanwhile, Nathan, Brendan and Todd are joined behind the Oval Office curtains by their new friend Maxwell Coviello and his trusty tape recorder. Hilarity ensues as they try to remember what little they can …

– You’re not the first person to pass through my hands, Stirling. – I never thought I was. – They all broke eventually. – I’ll try and spoil your record. This month, James finds himself drugged, sweaty and trapped in a prison cell with a wastepaper basket and no visible means of escape, while Richard insistently questions him about the identity of …

Dashing through the snow, in a one-shark open sleigh, past some pants we go, laughing all the way. (Ha-ha-ha.) Max and Peter sing, making spirits bright, and James and Nathan do their thing in Sardicktown tonight! Notes and links A Christmas Carol is the story where Michael Pickwoad takes over from Ed Thomas as Doctor Who’s Production Designer. Her…

– I might try singing an antidote note. – Then do it! – Oh, but that’s three octaves above high C! Nobody’s ever done it before! My voice would be gone! I’d rather die! Holy Peripheral Relevance, Batman! This month, the Dynamic — er — Four have pursued patron-saint-of-the podcast Joan Collins to Gotham City, where she makes a surprising guest appea…

In the last episode of this series of Flight Through Entirety, we fly through the first year of Matt Smith’s time as the Doctor, snogging, marrying and avoiding things, and responding to some of our listeners’ most pressing questions. More New Paradigm Daleks? Fewer Silurians? More Richard Curtis episodes? More series of Doctor Who just as good as …

This week, we celebrate the triumphant return of the entire universe with a quick snog in the bushes after Amy’s wedding, followed by a discussion of the final episode of Series 5, The Big Bang. Notes and links Here’s the tweet that started it all, a question from Nick H asking us what the hell this two-part story is all about. According to The Hit…

There was a goblin, or a trickster, or a warrior. A nameless, terrible thing, soaked in the blood of a billion galaxies. The most feared being in all the cosmos. And nothing could stop it, or hold it, or reason with it. One day it would just drop out of the sky and tear down your world. This week, we’re back in time having a jolly adventure when su…

– Do I look like a burglar? – No. You look rather ch— Don’t move, stay where you are, put your hands over your head and lean against the wall. – Nor am I a contortionist. This month, it’s a queasy mixture of the Swinging Sixties and the Punching-People-in-the-Face Seventies, as Steed, Purdey and Gambit try to discover who is encouraging so many swe…

This week, we’re joined by Jack Shanahan and Joe Ford to dicuss an episode where we discover that not only is the Doctor good at saving the world, he’s a useful striker, a reliable employee and a skilled matchmaker. And someone who looks good in a skimpy towel. It’s The Lodger. Notes and links Daisy Haggard created, co-wrote and starred in Back to …

This week, James, Nathan and Richard are joined by friend-of-the podcast Fiona Tomney for a few days mooning around in the south of France, staring into the gaping maw of isolation and depression and trying to prevent Vincent from inadvertently destroying some very pretty paintings. It’s Vincent and the Doctor. Notes and links Richard is right — Ri…

This week, our hopes and dreams crumble to dust in the face of centrist realpolitik and an inability to imagine a true, multracial utopia. And, of course, we’re also talking with Erik Stadnik about a Doctor Who episode called Cold Blood. Notes and links Brendan mentions an eerie parallel with on one the cheesiest moments ever committed to film: the…

This week we’re joined by Erik Stadnik for a whole day of taping cameras to things while we wait for something — oh, okay, the Silurians — to emerge from The Hungry Earth. Notes and links Nathan incorrectly says that the Silurians in Doctor Who and the Silurians were voiced by Peter Hawkins (which was a good guess), but — delightfully — they were a…

Then he’s blessed. I’m forever plucking stray hairs from my comb and brush. Positively demoralizing, but an inescapable part of the human condition. Hmm? Does any of this say anything to you Miss Holt? It does to me. It fairly shouts Remington Steele is an elaborate ruse. He does not exist. You invented him. This week, we answer the eternal questio…

This week, we’re joined by Johnny Spandrell for an hour of love, self-loathing and psychic pollen from the candle meadows of Karass don Slava, as we discuss Amy’s Choice. Notes and links Steven Moffat’s first attempt at self-loathing sex comedy was Joking Apart (1993–1995), in which he rummages through the ruins of an old long-term relationship. It…

“Remember us. Dream of us.” Rosanna Calvierri This week, James is getting excited about being accepted into a new finishing school, Todd is being complacent about the size of his torch, Nathan is huddling in a corner repeatedly saying the word fish, and friend-of-the-podcast Karen Carpenter is lying in the courtyard and rehydrating. It’s The Vampir…

This week, Nathan, James, Peter and Simon are all huddling terrified in a dark forest, waiting for the image of an angel to materialise and kill us all, but not before we finish our discussion of Flesh and Stone. Notes and links Peter mentions writing for Doctor Who Magazine, in particular “The First Fifty Years Poll”, published in Issue 474, July …

This week, we spend 45 minutes climbing a staircase in search of 2007’s most celebrated Doctor Who monster. Peter’s dreaming about the Aplan, James is wishing he hadn’t worn these heels, Nathan is wondering if he left the mortars in the nave or the vestry, and friend-of-the-podcast Simon Moore is admiring the low lighting and the sombre vaulted cei…

This week, we’re hunkering down in the Cabinet War Rooms with Col Sillitto from New to Who, surrounded by increasing numbers of suspicious-looking miniature tanks. Nathan is finding the Prime Minister increasingly intolerable, James is gagging for a cup of tea, Richard is admiring the Group Captain’s Spitfire, and Col is reminiscing about that nigh…

This week, Nathan, Brendan, Steven from New to Who and Kevin Burnard join Amy and the Doctor as they head off to a version of Britain in the distant future which is exactly like the Britain that they just left — crumbling, nostalgic and in deep denial about the giant alien whale in the basement. Or as we like to call him, The Beast Below. Notes and…

– Oh well, sir, in that case, some of the credit must go to Drake here. I mean the men in the field. — Rubbish, the glamour boys always get all the credit. I hope you don’t mind my saying this, Drake. – On the contrary Mr. Ambassador, it is the man behind the desk who does all the planning, all the real thinking. We just carry out orders. This mont…

We’re back. It’s the first episode of a whole new era, and Matt Smith has 20 minutes to save the world and an hour to convince the audience that there’s life after David Tennant. Pull up a fire engine and delete your browser history — it’s time for The Eleventh Hour. Notes and links Richard mentions Pretend It’s a City, a seven-part documentary ser…

– You wouldn’t trust your mother, would you? – Her least of all. She used to spy for the Egyptians. This month, we resume last year’s abortive Kate O’Marathon with an episode of The Persuaders! from 1972, in which Tony Curtis and Roger Moore join forces to fail to recover a retired spy’s sensational memoirs, while Marla and Melania conceal a dark s…

This week, we answer the most important questions about the latest leg of our flight — the Russell T Davies Era. What happened to Nerys during the Year of Hell? Which monsters would we most like to party with? Who is the best guest character, and why is it Ida Scott? And, finally, is this the best era in the show’s history? Notes and links Thank yo…

What better way to kick off 2021 than watching Donald Trump and Theresa May unleashing a sexy new breed of Dalek upon the British voting public? It’s a good day for squid, explosions and farewells on Revolution of the Daleks. Many thanks to Johnny Spandrell for his sudden guest appearance on this episode. You can find all his writings on Doctor Who…

This week, we’ve hastily convened an emergency meeting in our darkest conference room: Todd’s itching to try out his new glove, Nathan has some serious objections to make, James is here mostly for the exposition and Peter is hunched over the desk doing his best Dalek Caan impersonation. It’s the end of the David Tennant era — The End of Time, Part …

This Christmas, everyone’s incredibly hungry, but we’re not allowed to start on dinner until the Doctor’s embarrassing relatives arrive. It’s the episode with the most oxymoronic title in the entire series — The End of Time, Part One. Notes and links Prisoner — or Prisoner: Cell Block H — was a classic Australian soap opera before such things even …

Oh, I discovered then, nothing beats a good lashing. (Mind your head.) Take India. You can have a good ten inches overnight there. You know, one should never fear being wet. This month, we commemorate the death of Sean Connery by revisiting the first nail in the coffin of his movie career, the 1998 film The Avengers, starring Ralph Fiennes and Uma …

This month, Brendan’s got his hand stuck up a robot, and Nathan is preparing a roast dinner made entirely of carrots and prions, when they are unexpectedly joined by those travellers in space and time known only as Pete Lambert and Conrad Westmaas. The conversation soon turns to accents, zombies and specious moral dilemmas: this is, after all, The …

– I’ve come here to appeal to you, Mister Cartney. – You certainly do that! This month, we all don our flattest Regency trousers and head underground for an evening of wrestling, wassailing and wenching to support the admirable cause of bringing down the British Government. And Peter Wyngarde is here too, looking as devilishly handsome as ever. It’…

– You’re not feeling the part, Mrs Peel. – I have a feeling I will be feeling it. This month, we celebrate the life of the late Dame Diana Rigg, who left us earlier this month. And we do this by watching one of the most beloved — and one of the most disliked — episodes of The Avengers. It’s Epic, in which Mrs Peel is kidnapped by three washed-up ac…

It’s Easter 2009, and here we are, huddling in a bus with Michelle Ryan and friend-of-the-podcast Simon Moore on the desert planet San Helios, with the sun in our eyes, hope in our hearts and a hundred billion dead people in our hair. It’s the first special episode of David Tennant’s final year: welcome to the Planet of the Dead. Notes and links Pl…

– You know the Chinese have a marvellous way of releasing tensions. Better than any tranquilliser. – Hm. – You just hold it, fondle it, stroke it. You’d be surprised how quickly the tensions drain away. This month, our Kate O’Marathon continues with an episode from the final series of The Avengers, in which Steed gets repeatedly punched in the face…

This week, Thatcherism, marshmallows and contractual obligation collide as we fulfil a promise made late in 2017 to record a commentary on one of Doctor Who’s angriest and most revolutionary stories, The Happiness Patrol. Buy the story! The Happiness Patrol was released on DVD in 2012. In the US, it was released on its own (Amazon US), while in the…

– Well, it’s going to be a lovely day. – Why not, it was a lousy night. Where were you? I left a message for you at midnight. – Chasing a bag of peanuts. This month, our Kate O’Marathon commences with a 1968 episode of The Champions, in which Miss O’Mara does some light shoplifting in the hope of scoring some deadly crack for the weekend, and the f…

It’s Christmas in July, and an amnesiac Todd is cosplaying as Colin Baker while his missing son Brendan is slaving away in a workhouse somewhere. Meanwhile, Richard is frocked up and ready to take over the British Empire, as usual, while Nathan is wearing a brass N95 mask and a gorilla suit and dreaming of summer days spent frolicking in the forest…

– We shall be gone from here in a few hours. You back to your own country in triumph, me to the foothills of South America. They say there is gold there. – It didn’t do Humphrey Bogart much good. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Most people think Walter Huston directed it. It was John. This month, we head back to the gritty and hardbitten 1970s to…

This week, we look back on Series 4 and consider some of the unanswered questions from the last thirteen weeks of Flight Through Entirety. Is Series 4 the best ever series of New Who? Sylvia Noble: threat or menace? What is the best story of the season, and why is it Midnight? And, as always, who or what should we snog, marry and avoid? Notes and l…

This week, all four of us gather in the Console Room to tow the podcast home after a particularly trying week. It’s time for our journey to end, in — er — Journey’s End. Notes and links Perennial FTE punching bag Dodo Chaplet contracts syphilis — or at least an alien sex virus — in Daniel O’Mahony’s Virgin Missing Adventure The Man in the Velvet Ma…

This week, Nathan, James, Todd and Peter sit in our separate homes, longing for an invasion where the aliens order us all to congregate in the street together. Which is what happens, of course, in The Stolen Earth. Notes and links We’ve mentioned this over and over again, but for an account of how this season and its finale came to be, there’s no b…

– A journalist? I hope you haven’t come to write lies about us. – Well, that’s a difficult question, Colonel, because what is truth to me could be lies to you. This month, our guard of honour continues with an episode of Danger Man from 1960, in which the glorious Honor Blackman stars as the wife of a journalist falsely accused of espionage. Will t…

This week, we’re joined by TV’s Joe Lidster, to discuss one of our favourite Doctor Who episodes while the world around us devolves into fascism and the universe collapses into nothingness. I guess that’s what happens when you fail to Turn Left. Notes and links We spend a lot of time talking about Years and Years, which is Russell’s latest iteratio…

Remember tourism? Sure, you would always end up on a crappy bus full of middle-class English holidaymakers who wanted to kill you, and there was always the imminent threat of alien attack, but at least it got you out of the house. Which is why this week we decided to catch up with Doctor Who YouTuber Josh Snares for a weekend getaway on the planet …

This week, we’re joined again by rockstar Doctor Who blogger Johnny Spandrell, for just under an hour of conversation and fruitless dieting in a VR environment. It’s the start — and the end — of a beautiful friendship, in Forest of the Dead. Notes and links Richard mentions the fact that Donna arrives at the virtual sanatorium in a Judeo-Christian …

This week, Nathan, Peter and Richard are joined by renowned Doctor Who blogger Johnny Spandrell, but we spend most of our time lurking among the bookshelves frightened by our own shadows. And despite the customary non-stop chattering, it’s all about Silence in the Library. Notes and links Fans of the Vashta Nerada will also enjoy the episode of Sco…

– Well, well. The Saint, no less. I know a great deal about you. – I’m flattered. – Don’t be. I follow your exploits with extreme distaste. That article about you in The Times last Sunday was the most nauseating thing I’ve seen in print. – Tried reading your own columns? This month, our tribute to Honor Blackman continues as we revisit the earliest…

This week, Peter’s having a quiet drink, Brendan’s spending a suspicious amount of time in the toilet, Max has gone for a walk in the woods with Sacha Dhawan, and Nathan is looking at dirty postcards and reminiscing about the days when he still used to get out of this chair. Plus, Agatha Christie’s here for cocktails. So be sure to watch out for Th…

This week, we basically stand around gloomily watching a fish drown until Todd cheers us up with some surprisingly athletic backflips. It’s The Doctor’s Daughter. Notes and links During the recording of our episode on 42 last year (Episode 170: I Believe Beryl Reid as a Freighter Captain), Brendan and Todd enter an unholy pact to reunite on this we…

This week, Nathan is crushing on that nice Colonel, James is crushing on a cloned replica of himself, and Peter is crushing on that nice young man who runs the local startup cult academy. And all the time, Adam Richard is roaming this suburban street with an axe, looking for cars to attack. It’s the end of the world, as usual: it’s The Poison Sky. …