With the wait between THE REALITY WAR and the 2026 DOCTOR WHO CHRISTMAS SPECIAL lasting longer that the 1985 hiatus did (1 year 6 months and 24 days versus 1 year, 5 months, and 24 days), the only logical thing to do was make a pop record. Friend of the show (and sometime co-host) Mike Solko really shouldn't have put this idea in my head. Enjoy - Rob

DOCTOR IN RECESS

(Intro) Eighteen months is too long to wait, BBC please, don’t aggravate.

(Verse 1) The TARDIS doors are shuttered, The filming lights are dim, We’re left with endless theories, And one half-regenerated him.

They promised worlds of wonder, And merch from here to Mars, But when the numbers wobbled, They crash-landed the TARDIS hard.

(Chorus) Doctor in recess, Let’s all answer this time stress, Doctor in recess, Our fandom’s under real duress!

(Verse 2) There’s Daleks feeling restless, The Cybermen look bored, The Weeping Angels whisper, “You can blink if we’re ignored!”

The Master’s doing TikToks, The Ood are serving tea, And somewhere in Cardiff, Time stands still on the BBC.

(Bridge) Bring him back now, we’ll take no less, The fandom’s losing its consciousness, The universe is stuck once more, And waiting till ‘26 is such a chore.

(Verse 3) We’ve learned to love each Doctor, Each face that comes and goes, From Eccleston to Gatwa, And whoever the next one shows.

The monsters are all waiting, The Daleks need their cue, Without a weekly scream to stream, What’s a poor fan meant to do?

(Final Chorus) Doctor in recess, Let’s all answer this time stress, Doctor in recess, Our fandom’s under real duress! Doctor in recess... The long wait’s causing time distress!

The Doctor Who partnership between Disney and the BBC has officially ended, with Disney stepping away from the co-production deal after two seasons. Although Disney will still air the upcoming spin-off The War Between the Land and the Sea, the BBC has affirmed that Doctor Who will continue “with or without Disney,” and has confirmed a Christmas special penned by Russell T Davies for 25 December 2026.

Rob has thoughts.

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There's a LOT to get through this month - from missing episodes on the verge of being found, to Bad Wolf being quite annoyed at a high-profile Doctor Who writer saying what everyone else was thinking... and that's just the news, folks.

After some short topics, we get to the meat of this episode - a deep dive into the Missing Adventure, Cold Fusion, the twenty-ninth novel in that series. It was written by Lance Parkin and was the only multi-Doctor story involving televised Doctors ever told by Virgin Books, pairing the 5th Doctor of Season 19 with the 7th Doctor from near the end of the Virgin New Adventures line.

If you're unfamiliar with the story but want to make sense of our review, we dropped a 10-minute synopsis of the novel on our podcast feed yesterday. Look it up!

To close, we open the mailbag for a ton of feedback from our listeners on a number of topics related to past podcasts and Doctor Who in general.

Enjoy, dear listener.

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This episode offers a 10-minute full synopsis of the 1996 Virgin Books Doctor Who novel Cold Fusion.

Since the book is now almost 30 years old, we know many listeners may not have read it recently — or perhaps ever.

If you don’t want to feel left out of our Cold Fusion discussion on tomorrow’s monthly show, this episode is the perfect way to refresh your memory or get up to speed beforehand.

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In a 32nd outing for the irregular ALTERNATE GALAXIES mini-podcast on our feed, we’ve sat down with Star Trek: First Contact - as voted for by YOU - and give our thoughts on it.

What did we make of it?

Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard Jonathan Frakes as William Riker Brent Spiner as Data LeVar Burton as Geordi La Forge Michael Dorn as Worf Gates McFadden as Beverly Crusher Marina Sirtis as Deanna Troi Alfre Woodard as Lily Sloane James Cromwell as Zefram Cochrane Alice Krige as Borg Queen Neal McDonough as Lieutenant Hawk Dwight Schultz as Reginald Barclay Robert Picardo as The EMH Doctor

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For the 55th episode of THE LIST MAKERS, listener Justin Falkus has challenged us to come up with the top classic era stories that are under 4 episodes in length. Will there be snaps? Will Rob find a cheat? Will Dave pull out a surprise?

What would your picks be? Why not write in and let us know?

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This month Mark Cockram (All of Time and Space; Nerdology UK), joins the podcast as a guest host in Dave's absence to talk about The Caves of Androzani with Rob.

Before that, the usual mix of news and short topics. Then, after the chat about Davo's swansong, we open the mailbag for a ton of feedback from our listeners on a number of topics.

Enjoy, dear listener.

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In a 31st outing for the irregular ALTERNATE GALAXIES mini-podcast on our feed, we’ve sat down with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, and give our thoughts on it.

What did we make of it?

William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk Leonard Nimoy as Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy James Doohan as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott George Takei as Hikaru Sulu Nichelle Nichols as Uhura Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov Kim Cattrall as Valeris Christopher Plummer as Chang David Warner as Gorkon Rosanna DeSoto as Azetbur Iman as Martia Brock Peters as Admiral Cartwright Kurtwood Smith as the Federation President René Auberjonois as Colonel West Michael Dorn as Colonel Worf

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