Doctor Who: Podshock
Encyclopedia
Doctor Who: Podshock is a weekly podcast
about the British
science fiction television series Doctor Who
. The podcast is produced by the Gallifreyan Embassy, a Doctor Who fan group
originally based in Long Island
, New York
.
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.
in Rockville Centre on or about 18 June 1985. 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 drive
s, 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
.
, Louis Trapani and James Naughton . It also has several correspondents from around the world who occasionally contribute to the show:
Various others have become regular call-in listeners on the Podshock: LIVE! format, discussed below.
. 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.
. 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 DoctorWho-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
.
, 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. 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. 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.
: 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 hyperlink
s. Initial episodes of the TalkShoe roundtables also were availabable in both enhanced and non-enhanced versions, but this practice was abandoned when post-production on that type of episode stopped.
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."
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."
, he was "still a Podshock boy at heart," although later that year he actually appeared on DWO Whocast
.
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
about the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
science fiction television series Doctor Who
Doctor Who
Doctor Who is a British science fiction television programme produced by the BBC. The programme depicts the adventures of a time-travelling humanoid alien known as the Doctor who explores the universe in a sentient time machine called the TARDIS that flies through time and space, whose exterior...
. The podcast is produced by the Gallifreyan Embassy, a Doctor Who fan group
Doctor Who fandom
The long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who has developed a large fan base over the years.Doctor Who fans are sometimes referred to as Whovians, most often by the American press. The usage was more common among fans in the United States during the 1980s, when the Doctor...
originally based in Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
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
Outpost Gallifrey
Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website for the British science fiction television series Doctor Who. It was active as a complete fan site from 1995 until 2007, then existing solely as a portal to the still-active parts of the site, including its news page and forums Outpost Gallifrey was a fan website...
. Further, it was the first Doctor Who podcast to feature both British and American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
hosts, along with regular contributors from other parts of the English-speaking world.
History
Podshock has its origins in Long Island, New York. The first meeting of the fan club which would eventually spawn Podshock was held in a Holiday InnHoliday Inn
Holiday Inn is a brand of hotels, formally a economy motel chain, forming part of the British InterContinental Hotels Group . It is one of the world's largest hotel chains with 238,440 bedrooms and 1,301 hotels globally. There are currently 5 hotels in the pipeline...
in Rockville Centre on or about 18 June 1985. 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 drive
Pledge drive
A pledge drive is an extended period of fundraising activities, generally used by public broadcasting stations to increase contributions. The term "pledge" originates from the promise a contributor makes to send in funding at regular intervals for a certain amount of time...
s, but it also formed a support network for those wishing to attend conventions
Science fiction convention
Science fiction conventions are gatherings of fans of various forms of speculative fiction including science fiction and fantasy. Historically, science fiction conventions had focused primarily on literature, but the purview of many extends to such other avenues of expression as movies and...
, 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
Podcasting
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
and to the 1982 Doctor Who serial, Earthshock
Earthshock
Earthshock is a serial in the British science fiction television series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast in four twice-weekly parts from 8 March to 16 March 1982...
.
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. 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.Hosts
The show has three main hosts: Ken Deep , Louis Trapani and James Naughton . It also has several correspondents from around the world who occasionally contribute to the show:
- Chris Rattray
- Mike Doran
- Russel Hale
- Colin Bordley
- Dave Cooper
- Taras Hnatyshyn
- Billy Davis
- Joshua Lou Friedman
Various others have become regular call-in listeners on the Podshock: LIVE! format, discussed below.
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 LiveSaturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
. 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.
Podshock "proper"
The bulk of the episodes of Podshock involve at least two of the three main hosts connected via SkypeSkype
Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice and video calls and chat over the Internet. Calls to other users within the Skype service are free, while calls to both traditional landline telephones and mobile phones can be made for a fee using a debit-based user account system...
. These episodes tend to have a great deal of post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
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
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and audio plays based, primarily, on cult British science fiction properties...
, books, merchandise
Doctor Who merchandise
The long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who has since its beginnings in the 1960s generated many hundreds of products related to the show, from toys and games to picture cards and postage stamps. This article is not an exhaustive list of merchandise but attempts to present...
, 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 DoctorWho-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
Colin Baker
Colin Baker is a British actor who is known for playing Paul Merroney in The Brothers from 1974 to 1976 and as the sixth incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who, from 1984 to 1986.- Background:Colin Baker was born in London, but moved north to...
, Deborah Watling
Deborah Watling
Deborah Watling is a British actress best known for her role as Victoria Waterfield, a companion of the Second Doctor in the BBC television series Doctor Who....
, Jules Burt and Eugene Washington
Eugene Washington
Eugene Washington is a British actor of stage and screen born in Hammersmith, London, England, UK.He was last seen on stage in 2010 playing the title role in Shakespeare's Othello in a 9 month world tour in a joint venture for American Drama Group Europe and TNT Theatre, which saw him perform to...
, music composers Murray Gold
Murray Gold
Murray Gold is an English composer for stage, film, and television and a dramatist for both theatre and radio.-Television:Gold has been nominated for a BAFTA four times in the category Best Original Television Music, for Vanity Fair , Queer as Folk , Casanova and Doctor Who...
and Mark Ayres
Mark Ayres
Mark Ayres is a television composer who is best known for his work on Doctor Who.Ayres's work on broadcast Doctor Who was during Sylvester McCoy's era as the Seventh Doctor, comprising The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, Ghost Light, and The Curse of Fenric.Ayres was hired after he sent producer John...
and writers John Peel
John Peel (writer)
John Peel is a British writer, best known for his books connected to several television series. He has written under several pseudonyms, including John Vincent and Nicholas Adams. He lives in Long Island, New York and his wife is a U.S...
, Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat
Steven Moffat is a Scottish television writer and producer.Moffat's first television work was the teen drama series Press Gang. His first sitcom, Joking Apart, was inspired by the breakdown of his first marriage; conversely, his later sitcom Coupling was based upon the development of his...
, Tom MacRae
Tom MacRae
Tom MacRae is a British television writer. He is the creator of Sky One’s Mile High. He has also written for Channel 4's No Angels and As If....
and Paul Cornell
Paul Cornell
Paul 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....
. 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
Jon Pertwee
John Devon Roland Pertwee , was an English actor. Pertwee is best known for his role in the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, in which he played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970 to 1974, and as the title character in the series Worzel Gummidge...
, Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy
Sylvester McCoy is a Scottish actor. As a comic act and busker he appeared regularly on stage and on BBC Children's television in the 1970s and 80s, but is best known for playing the seventh incarnation of the Doctor in the long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who from 1987 to...
, Sophie Aldred
Sophie Aldred
Sophie Aldred is an English actress and television presenter, best known for her portrayal of The Doctor's companion Ace in the television series Doctor Who during the late 1980s.-Early life:...
, John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner
John Nathan-Turner was the ninth producer of the long-running BBC science fiction series Doctor Who, from 1980 until it was effectively cancelled in 1989...
and Peter Davison
Peter Davison
Peter Davison is a British actor, best known for his roles as Tristan Farnon in the television version of James Herriot's All Creatures Great and Small and the fifth incarnation of the Doctor in Doctor Who, which he played from 1982 to 1984.-Early life:Davison was born Peter Moffett in Streatham,...
.
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.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, TalkShoeTalkShoe
TalkShoe is a Web 2.0 Internet radio/podcasting site that uses a Java chat client in conjunction with a conference call bridge to allow users to host or participate in live on-line talk radio shows called "community calls" or simply a "call" for short. A call can be syndicated and downloaded after...
, 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. 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. 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
RSS
-Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
, and are considered a separate podcast by the hosts.
Production
Since September 2005 the show has been produced in two audio formatsAudio file format
An audio file format is a file format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. This data can be stored uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the file size. It can be a raw bitstream, but it is usually a container format or an audio data format with defined storage layer.-Types of...
: an enhanced version, encoded in AAC
Advanced Audio Coding
Advanced Audio Coding is a standardized, lossy compression and encoding scheme for digital audio. Designed to be the successor of the MP3 format, AAC generally achieves better sound quality than MP3 at similar bit rates....
, and an MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
version. Both have the same audio content, but the enhanced version also includes embedded chapter markers, images and hyperlink
Hyperlink
In computing, a hyperlink is a reference to data that the reader can directly follow, or that is followed automatically. A hyperlink points to a whole document or to a specific element within a document. Hypertext is text with hyperlinks...
s. Initial episodes of the TalkShoe roundtables also were availabable in both enhanced and non-enhanced versions, but this practice was abandoned when post-production on that type of episode stopped.
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."
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."
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 WhocastDoctor Who: DWO Whocast
Doctor Who: DWO WhoCast is a weekly podcast which discusses the British science fiction series Doctor Who. This podcast is notable because it is the most popular Doctor Who Podcast worldwide as shown within the independent iTunes...
, he was "still a Podshock boy at heart," although later that year he actually appeared on DWO Whocast
Doctor Who: DWO Whocast
Doctor Who: DWO WhoCast is a weekly podcast which discusses the British science fiction series Doctor Who. This podcast is notable because it is the most popular Doctor Who Podcast worldwide as shown within the independent iTunes...
.
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