The Metebelis Two - a Doctor Who podcast Ben and David

Ben is in England where he had the opportunity to visit the "Adventures in Time and Space - 60 Years of Doctor Who Art" exhibition at the Weston Museum in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset. This impressive collection spans the show's history and features original art from novelisations, VHS covers, annuals, and other visual treasures, including works from Chris Achilléos, Andrew Skilleter, Roy Knipe, and Colin Howard. Ben has shared some pictures he took of the overall exhibit and artwork on his Instagram, including Knipe's "Death to the Daleks" Target cover and Achilléos' "Loch Ness Monster", "Kklak", and "Seeds of Doom" covers. Plus the portait of Ace from 'Silver Nemesis' done in the style of Thomas Gainsborough. In addition to being agog as a fan, Ben also shares his curatorial view of the exhibit's strengths and weaknesses. Opening and closing music is by Dudley Simpson from his score to The Android Invasion. We recorded this episode on 1 April 2024.

Ben checks in before heading back to the UK to give our listener and David the scoop on what happened this year at the GallifreyOne Convention. Opening music is "Dancing Across Space and Time" and closing music is "Nothing Is Forever", both composed by Segun Akinola. We recorded this episode on 10 March 2024.

Ben chats with Lena Barkin and Jess Jurkovic about the upcoming GallifreyOne convention this week in Los Angeles. Lena recently contributed to Adventures Across Space and Time: A Doctor Who Reader a chapter about fandom and Tumblr and will be presenting and signing autographs, plus celebrating Blake's 7. Jess wrapped up the second season of his Dudley Simpson is Doctor Who Project this past year and will be interviewing composers, including Segun Akinola and Dominic Glynn, on the main stage in Program A. Opening music is "You Shall Not Disrupt Our Mission" and closing music is "We Have Everything We Need", both composed by Segun Akinola. We recorded this episode on 6 February 2024.

We wrap our mini-series looking at production design in Doctor Who with our own top-five design picks from stories broadcast from 2011 through to 2020. Listen in to hear which stories design work overseen by Michael Pickwoad, Arwel Wyn Jones, or Dafydd Shurmer will make our cut and why we picked them. Opening music is "Up the Shard" and closing music is "A Fly on a Painting", both composed by Murray Gold. We recorded this episode on 14 January 2024.

We discuss The Church on Ruby Road, Ncuti Gatwa's first solo-starring story as the Doctor. It was great watching Doctor Who once again on Christmas Day and think it was a fun story with a strong cast. We also like the science-fantasy direction that RTD appears to be taking with this first series and think Disney's input has been so far positive. Ben likes the Goblins and wonders if one might become a companion of the Doctor. David's is enjoying the delight and joy Davis appears to be having writing for the show once again. Opening music is the fifteenth Doctor's theme and closing music is the Goblin Song, both composed by Murray Gold. We recorded this episode on 29 December 2023.

We discuss The Giggle, the closing chapter of Doctor Who's 60th anniversary specials. High marks for Neil Patrick Harris as the Toymaker who nearly stole every scene he was in until the arrival of Ncuti Gatwa as the bi-generated Doctor. But, thumbs down on the Vlinx, and thought Mr. Smith, Mel Bush, or even BOSS would have been a better narrative choice. We're cautiously optimistic about the future, but we wonder if Disney is stealthily aiming for a total reboot of Doctor Who in a similar way that they created an alternate continuity for Star Wars to give the current creative team a clean slate (and to make it easier to market), and thus Gatwa's Who is to be series/season 1. Opening music is composed by Murray Gold from The Giggle soundtrack, and the closing music is an excerpt from "Two of Us" by The Beatles. We recorded this episode on 11 December 2023.