The Ood Cast

“Chris was representing. I was repre-snoozing…”

It’s the final part of our Gallifrey coverage. The dream is ending.

(Alph & Andy will be back next episode, we promise)

But what have we got in store for you until then?

A familiar voice in a La-la-land sketch with a twist, last day memories and analysis, quiz battles, personal highlights, podcest, pretty words and a geek anthem to blow your socks off.

So long LA, it’s been emotional.

Epic & emotional.

And fairly calorific.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 20:38 — 19.1MB)

“Oh… it’s made out of raffia. Yaaaaaay?”

Welcome, brave audio travellers.

It’s Day Three of our Gallifrey coverage and Laura & Sigma are bouncing off the walls pepped up on a sugar rush delivered straight to the heart by America’s finest cuisine.

Stuffed with subs, porked out on pancakes and filled with Philly cheese steaks our podcasting pair bring you a round-up of Saturday’s experiences including their respective panel highlights, a discussion about the Masquerade of Mandragora and why they don’t get the whole Tikki thing.

Plus a typical American daytime commercial and a song where Laura takes the three most recent incarnations of the Doctor to task for their various foibles.

That’s right, we said ‘foibles’, we’re not playing around here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 15:17 — 14.3MB)

“It’s like looking in a dark wood and finding all the squirrels have the faces of friends.”

Welcome back.

The first full day of Gallifrey has been and gone & the two globe-trotting Oods have been stunned by the sheer generosity and warmth of welcome they’ve received on the West coast of the Americas.

Join them now for a short recap of the day, an explanation that sheds some light on Laura’s childhood, a daring escape in a dimensionally-transcendental suitcase and a song about convention badge ribbons.

Feistier than an entire lagoon of Amy Ponds.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:41 — 13.7MB)

“In a special treat for listeners in the UK, Andrew & Chris will be recording themselves crying gently into their tea.”

In the first of a proposed series of five mini-episodes, Sigma & Laura set off for the Gallifrey convention in Los Angeles, leaving poor old Andy & Alpha behind to fend for themselves in the chilly gloom of London Town.

Listen as our heroes share their hopes & fears for the coming week before a special song at the end rubs it in, Denver-style.

Then keep listening every day this week for updates on the convention, interviews (if we pluck up the courage to talk to guests) & other stuff that we’ll no doubt think is funny at 2 in the morning when we’re three sheets to the wind.

You can also follow us through the lens of the Twitterverse at @theoodcast and #gally.

Happy trails.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 13:32 — 12.7MB)

Click on image to see full size.

Remember the one when the Doctor had just regenerated, had a nap, then woke up just in time to have a sword fight with the Big Skeleton from the Funnybones books? I do, it was called The Christmas Invasion, and introduced us to one of the boniest enemies the Doctor has ever faced: the Sycorax.

Angry, gruff and generally quite grumpy, the Sycorax have had more of a presence in the travels of the Doctor than maybe some initially realise. Sure, there’s the big appearances: the Christmas Invasion of 2005, and a certain bony hand in the trapping of the Doctor in the Pandorica… but there’s also an inspirational literary encounter and a congenial bar-dwelling moment to explore.

As far as origins go, we can glean very little from their visual appearances. We know their language is “Sycoraxic”, and that they frequently suffered at the hands of cartoon dogs and Disney characters in desperate need of something to play their xylophones with. This might go some way to explaining their rage towards the human race.

So, the invasion attempt. It was perhaps technically crude, using a human blood sample to control a large number of people down below. But it was also astonishingly clever – witness the badass brass band of Santas (this is now the accepted collective noun for a group of Santas) and the circular-saw-cum-christmas-tree. Maybe not subtle, but certainly effective and with a degree of sophistication. And the tree wouldn’t have dropped any needles. Just the errant limbs of people getting too close.

Having been beaten in a swordfight by an illegal citrus-fruit-based manoeuvre, the Sycorax invasion rock was blown up by Harriet Jones (Prime Minister) – as if the humiliation couldn’t be complete. Somewhat mysteriously, they subsequently (or previously… or possibly both… hard to tell, it’s all a bit wibbly wobbly) joined the Alliance which imprisoned the 11th Doctor in the Pandorica.

The Sycorax is also one of an elite number of the Doctor’s enemies to have a showbusiness background, appearing in William Shakespeare’s 1611 explosive blockbuster, The Tempest – thanks to the Doctor’s name-dropping on a visit to Elizabethan London.

A well-known race of skeletal lushes, a Sycorax was spotted in the bar where the 10th Doctor used some of his last moments to pair everyone’s favourite intergalactic floozy, Captain Jack Harkness, with the chap off of Being Human for some inter-species naughtiness.

The Essentials

First Appearance: The Christmas Invasion (2005)

Best appearance they can’t remember due to being drunk in a bar: The End of Time pt2 (2010)

Strengths: Asteroid hijacking, Swordplay, similarity to very tall trick-or-treaters on Halloween.

Weaknesses: Men in dressing gowns, airborne satsumas, hungry dogs and falling several hundred thousand feel off an asteroid.

“True or False? A Sontaran’s favourite food is potato waffle?”

Strap yourself in for an entirely new podcasting experience as The Ood Cast present The Regeneration Game. Yes, no one has ever tried it before, it’s a quiz show based on Doctor Who.

Genius.

No, wait, come back, this is different, honest – this is a new kind of quiz. A quiz where intelligence, an agile brain and an exhaustive knowledge of the subject will have no bearing whatsoever on whether you end up winning.

Maybe it’s because the questions are mostly made up? Maybe it’s because Chris Sigma hasn’t brought a pen and paper to write down the scores? Maybe it’s because truth is an abstract concept which can only be explored and never known?

Whatever the reason you can be sure of an adrenalin-filled question-based thrill ride of an episode including title mash ups, mime, Dalek co-hosts, over 9 flavours of jingle and an appearance by “The Moth”.

Let’s get QUIZZICAL!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:53 — 28.5MB)