No Not the Mind Probe
We begin with 2005’s Rose, the episode that started it all… again. Was Porter entranced? Was John enraged? Was the AV Club linked to bring more people to the page?
We then go back in time to the story that actually started it all… um… An Unearthly Child... or possibly The Tribe of Gum. Or maybe 100,000 BC. It’s possible that no one knows for sure. It’s definite that Porter has no idea.
Weddings! Could they be a more awkward social affair? The answer is, it turns out, yes – especially when one of the guests’ daughter travels back in time and causes a time paradox that leads to other guests being eaten by time monsters. Get your hankies at the ready as Porter and John get in touch with their emotions for Father’s Day.
Funerals! Isn’t it typical that you get entombed with all your possessions and then some history teacher from the 1960s wanders in and starts looting your corpse? But Porter and John forgive Barbara as she wreaks (moderate) havoc in The Aztecs and in doing so we learn an ironclad rule of time travel that the past can never be changed… unless it can be changed when that would make a better story.
We begin with a swing through modern-day Cardiff for the TARDIS crew. But what evil presence lurks in wait for our heroes… MICKEY! Also, a Slitheen. Will Porter’s love for Mickey continue to grow even as Rose’s wanes? Will John be able to shake his suspicion that the title might be a subtle fart joke? All will be answered in our visit to Boom Town.
We then activate the Fast Return switch and materialize once more in Season 1 where we find the Doctor, Barbara, Ian, and Susan acting angry, confused, zombie-like, and psychotic respectively. Does Doctor Who’s first ever “bottle” episode deliver for Porter and John or will they find themselves as confused as the cast apparently did as they teetered on The Edge of Destruction?
Sometimes in life – as in podcasting – you gotta just keep doing a whole series of things in sequence and you reach your goal. It’s these sorts of life hacks that bring fans back to NNTMP week after week, and – by the transitive property of podcasting – to Doctor Who! Yes, the relationship between Martha and the Doctor really heats up this week, although sadly not in the romantic-y way that Martha is hoping for but more in a ship-into-a-sun plunge-y way as they find themselves trapped on the seemingly doomed SS Pentallian. There’s space mining, power reroutin’, bar trivia, and Martha trapped in vehicles with auxiliary characters as Porter and John discuss Doctor Who’s own take on 24 only 18 better at 42.
We then rocket back to 1964 and Doctor Who’s first season for another quest that moves at a… slightly slower pace. We join the First Doctor, Barbara, Ian, and Susan as they are good-naturedly extorted to embark on a quest through the jungle-y/icy/brains-in-jar-y planet of Marinus. Porter and John join them on their series of light-hearted jolly japes (with only the occasional attempted rape and/or spousal abuse) as they attempt to recover the scattered Keys of Marinus, which do… something important (according to a guy who was in Citizen Kane, so we believe him).
