The Doctor Who Show is Rob Irwin and David Kitchen, two old-school Australian Doctor Who fans steeped in the fandom of the 80s, 90s, and 00s. From fanzines printed on old photocopiers, to running conventions and state-based fan clubs, the guys have ‘been there, done that, and got the t-shirt’ when it comes to expressing their love for the series in the past and podcasting is how they express their love now. Vitally, that means they still maintain an open mind and passion for new Doctor Who material, interested in where the series goes next as much as how the new material fits into the narrative that began in 1963. This isn’t a podcast where everything old is great and “the new stuff” is sniffed at. And it goes without saying it’s not a podcast where the wobbly sets of the past are looked down upon. Rob and Dave strive to be in “the sensible centre” when it comes to the series and judge everything on its merits, not on ideology, “received fan wisdom”, or any other filters that often come into play in mainstream fandom.
PS: If you want to hear a lo-fi hotel room recording of the guys talking about their fandom and some of their favourite exploits in the olden days, can we recommend the acclaimed Fandom in the 80s, 90s and Beyond episode?
PPS: For some additional information on the actual evolution of the podcast, including the pre-Dave days when it was 50% Star Wars content (yes, there was such a time, dear listener!), do keep reading. It’s been a wild ride.
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Once upon a time, there was a podcast called The Comic Book Show. It ran for around 30 episodes before its creator, Rob Irwin, decided to change gear and make a podcast featuring two of his passions; Star Wars and Doctor Who. The resulting podcast was called Who Wars and, yea, it was good.
Over time, Who Wars grew to feature a small team of regular contributors, creating a weekly show (initially, before shifting to a fortnightly format), that would toss up an eclectic array of features, reviews, and interviews.
[You can hear all of the Who Wars episodes via this very website. As they feature a lot of Doctor Who content, we figure that some listeners who are new to our work might still be interested in hearing them sometime…]
As Who Wars approached its first anniversary, however, Rob wasn’t feeling at ease with Star Wars fandom and its podcasting landscape and was no longer motivated to be talking Star Wars to a wide audience. He telegraphed this to the Who Wars team and spoke about it at length in Episode #41 of the show, before ending the show completely with a grand finale in Episode #42.
Maintaining a strong desire to still talk widely about Doctor Who, however, Rob created the concept of The Doctor Who Show. The show has gone through some format changes over the years, but is now settled on being a monthly podcast (on the final Sunday of each month), augmented with additional episodes as required. For example, during a series of Doctor Who, there will also be weekly ‘hot take’ review episodes, followed by a wrap-up episode.