The 42cast is proud to welcome Peter Purves for an interview. Peter played Steven Taylor, one of the Doctor’s earliest companions and joined the show in 1965. He’s since become a mainstay of the British television industry presenting numerous for numerous series and events. In this episode we talk to Peter about his career focusing on his time with Doctor Who in the 1960’s and then his return as Steven Taylor working for Big Finish. We also discuss his thoughts on the character, whether he’d return to television to reprise the role, and what he does to keep busy during lockdown.
As this is an interview episode there is no five-minute controversy.
Show Notes:
Recommended Steven stories from Big Finish.
The Suffering
The Perpetual Bond Part 1
The Cold Equations Part 2
Return of the Rocket Men
The War to End All Wars
The Bounty of Ceres
The Ravelli Conspiracy
The Sontarans
The Dalek Occupation of Winter
The Companion Chronicles Vol. 2 (The Steven story, Across the Darkened City, is one of four stories in this set, but it is fantastic)
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Nathan and Juliette venture into the second through fourth episodes of the first serial of Doctor Who, just in time to watch Susan channel her inner Beevis as we wrap up An Unearthly Child. Along the way we’ll discuss feats of strength with styrofoam, whether these titles were written for the Hardy Boys (or Nancy Drew!), and whether or not Barbara or Susan have ever seen roadkill. We’ll also see Za and Kal avoid going Amok and discuss the merits of gasoline when making a fire. Juliette will also assert her superior survival skills and thus make her the leader of our tribe, which will explain just why fire rules. By the end we’re a little older and a little wiser and Juliette has some Opinions™. 
Nathan and Juliette take their first foray into the world of Doctor Who. First up is an introductory episode where Nathan and Juliette introduce themselves. Then they review both the unaired and aired pilots of the series. Along the way they discuss the challenges of filming, whether there’s more chemistry than just what’s in the classroom between Ian and Barbara, issues with looking straight at the camera, what makes something ‘alive’, and whether the Doctor is just a violent kidnapper. Nathan brings up a lot of behind-the-scenes info and before it ends they’re interrupted by a very special cat. Please note: this recording was plagued by sound issues that we were only partially able to fix in editing. However, we didn’t want to re-record because we wanted our reactions to the discussion to be genuine. The sound issues have been addressed for future episodes.
While many of the main characters in Doctor who are still with us there are several who have sadly passed. Big Finish has kept the memory of those Doctors and companions alive by recasting the parts. In this episode we once again take a step back to Chicago TARDIS 2016 and an opportunity to discuss voice acting, playing an iconic role, and Fraser Hines’ fantasies. 
In this episode we turn to our archive of con panels and pull one of the earliest recordings that we have for the 42cast. The year was 2016, but the content is still relevant today. In this one we discuss how prolific Doctor Who media is and what our strategies are for deciding how much and in what ways we keep up with it. 
This week we release out interview with 
Doctor Who is the longest running science fiction television franchise of all time. With this episode we kick off a series on each Doctor, as we discuss their contributions to the overall story of Doctor Who. In our first installment we discuss William Hartnell. We talk about the first Doctor’s character, Hartnell’s performance, behind-the-scenes details that informed the performance and varied the tone of the first 3 seasons of Doctor Who. We also discuss our favorite companions and favorite stories while Eric tells us to study more history. 
We all know of examples of fandom behaving badly, and in this episode we delve into the question of whether or not fandom is “broken”. It’s a complicated issue as we examine the interaction between fans and creators and how fans relate to other fans. We talk about how things can go South, how to know if you’re the problem, and give some tips on how to avoid things escalating. We define a “broken fandom” and we each give our own opinions on whether or not it’s broken. 
This month, Big Finish is opening the door on a brand new set of adventures featuring the first Doctor and his companions as you’ve never seen them before. Fresh from Twice Upon a Time, David Bradley has stepped back into the role of the first incarnation of everyone’s famous Time Lord, but this time he’s joined by his costars from An Adventure in Space and Time to play Ian, Barbara, and Susan. We had the pleasure of being able to sit with Nick Briggs, co-producer at Big Finish and director of this series to give us some information about this series as well as discussing recasting and “authenticity” in general with us. 
This is it, the fourth Netflix series co-produced with Marvel, which introduced the last of the four characters that they’d promised since 2014. After three amazing series, the public was primed for Iron Fist but for some reason it didn’t hit as well as the other three. In this episode we dive into that. We talk about how well this worked as an adaptation of the character, the importance of taking time to polish a series, the importance of choreography for a martial arts series, the acting, plots, continuity with the other “Defenders” series and so much more.