Who-casts

The TV show is almost 50 years old, and geeks love it, so of course there are tons of podcasts dedicated to Doctor Who. I have barely made a dent in the huge list of Who-casts, but of the ones I have listened to, these are a few that stand out.

The Doctor's Companion. Two Americans, one of whom is actually named Matt Smith (but he's not that Matt Smith), produce mostly-weekly episodes that each cover one story. When the show is airing new episodes on BBC America, the duo covers those shows. But when the show is not airing new episodes (which is most of the time), they cover shows from prior incarnations of the Doctor. They are super-fans of the show, but never fall into the "fanboy" mistake of defending the show when it doesn't deserve to be defended. One of their strongest episodes was #71, which covered the end of New Who series 6, They titled this show "Loss of Faith." I thoroughly enjoyed a recent episode, #96, covering Tom Baker's first adventure. The title of the podcast episode was (of course) "The Scarf Man Cometh."

The Doctor Who Book Club. When I was a young person, I remember reading Doctor Who paperback novels. My memory is a bit fuzzy of those years, but this may have been before I ever saw an episode of the television show. I have no specific memories of the particular books, except that I remember enjoying them. Novels have always been a part of the Doctor Who expanded universe, and Sean and Erik dig into one novel per month, covering it in detail. Their coverage is very detailed, and their reviews are very evenhanded.

Radio Free Skarro. One of the longest-running Doctor-related podcasts, the RFS team has put out over 300 episodes since they hit the Web in the middle of 2006. The generally cover Who-related news in a loose magazine format, covering production events, conventions, and new products. They have had numerous interviews over the years, and have also put out some delightful episode commentaries. They also have the coolest Who-related podcast name ever.