Last year, I attended my very first science fiction convention! And they say you never forget your first time… I decided to go firstly because I’m a reader and fan: to meet authors whose books I’ve enjoyed, such as Philip Reeve, Alastair Reynolds and Ben Jeapes, among others; to discover new authors and titles that I will enjoy. The second reason I…

Happy birthday to us!!! It’s been five long years since our very first Doctor Who commentary and, to mark the occasion, here’s our latest – ‘The Bells of Saint John’. Caleb and P.G. find plenty to talk about as Clara finally joins the Doctor full-time. Has her (re-)introduction been too long coming? How does she compare to her previous incarnations…

Happy birthday to us!!! It’s been five long years since our very first Doctor Who commentary and, to mark the occasion, here’s our latest – ‘The Bells of Saint John’. Caleb and P.G. find plenty to talk about as Clara finally joins the Doctor full-time. Has her (re-)introduction been too long coming? How does she compare to her previous incarnations…

We’re pleased to announce that Psuedopod – ‘the world’s premier horror fiction podcast’ – have published The Trinket, a short, dark fantasy tale penned by our very own P.G. Bell. And it’s yours to download FREE, right here or listen in the player below. When a young legionary finds himself caught between cowardice and friendship on the harsh fronti…

We start counting down to Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary in November by looking back over the history of Doctor Who, from 1963 down to the present! In this episode, Caleb and Swithun go right back to the very beginning, to discuss An Unearthly Child, (or if you prefer, 100,000BC or The Tribe of Gum, Hartnell overall story titles being what they are……

We start counting down to Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary in November by looking back over the history of Doctor Who, from 1963 down to the present! In this episode, Caleb and Swithun go right back to the very beginning, to discuss An Unearthly Child, (or if you prefer, 100,000BC or The Tribe of Gum, Hartnell overall story titles being what they are……

After something of an extended break, Caleb and Sarah are back with our verdict on The Snowmen, the 2012 Doctor Who Christmas special! With a new title sequence, new TARDIS and above all new companion, the feisty Clara, ably played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, there’s plenty for us to talk about… not to mention abominable snowmen, Victorian values, les…

After something of an extended break, Caleb and Sarah are back with our verdict on The Snowmen, the 2012 Doctor Who Christmas special! With a new title sequence, new TARDIS and above all new companion, the feisty Clara, ably played by Jenna-Louise Coleman, there’s plenty for us to talk about… not to mention abominable snowmen, Victorian values, les…

It’s the end of the world… again. Whether it’s a zombie outbreak, nuclear war, alien invasion or just some unspecified Terrible Event, it seems that many of us love a good apocalypse. But why the obsession with the destruction of human civilization? What’s the appeal of seeing society collapse, and is it a healthy thing to dwell on? What do our fea…

Join us for a spirited discussion of one of our favourite fantasy authors – the late, great Diana Wynne Jones! Author of Howl’s Moving Castle, Archer’s Goon and the Chrestomanci series, among many others, Diana was described by Neil Gaiman as “…the best writer of magic there is, for readers of any age.” But, after so much success, why isn’t she a h…

James and Olivia return to the world of comics in the second edition of The Cape and the Cowl! With the much-publicised death in Avengers vs X-Men, we stop to ask – wait, you mean Xavier was still around?! We also consider DC’s 0 Issues, look back at Marvel’s Secret War in Hazy Recollection, and make our recommendations for the best of indie comics…

Time runs out for Amy and Rory Pond, as The Angels Take Manhattan! Caleb, Sarah and Suzie try not to blink as we discuss Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill’s exit from Doctor Who, as well as the return of the Weeping Angels and River Song. With Amy and Rory being the longest serving companions since the series returned in 2005, is this a fitting end t…

Time runs out for Amy and Rory Pond, as The Angels Take Manhattan! Caleb, Sarah and Suzie try not to blink as we discuss Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill’s exit from Doctor Who, as well as the return of the Weeping Angels and River Song. With Amy and Rory being the longest serving companions since the series returned in 2005, is this a fitting end t…

The Weeping Angels are back! No episode preview this week so Caleb and Sarah discuss what they think The Angels Take Manhattan may mean for The Doctor and the departure of Amy and Rory. They also discuss some of your comments on The Power Of Three – don’t forget to download our commentary and read James’ review too! Come along Pond! Are you looking…

The Weeping Angels are back! No episode preview this week so Caleb and Sarah discuss what they think The Angels Take Manhattan may mean for The Doctor and the departure of Amy and Rory. They also discuss some of your comments on The Power Of Three – don’t forget to download our commentary and read James’ review too! Come along Pond! Are you looking…

Caleb, Sarah and Nat are back on earth for the year of the slow invasion…that’s new! The Doctor moves in with the Ponds as small black cubes appear all over the world. We discuss UNIT: The Next Generation, musical deadly cubes and the return of Brian! Did the Ponds make the right decision? Were the Shakri a genuine threat? And was this episode bett…

Caleb, Sarah and Nat preview The Power Of Three by Chris Chibnall. They also discuss some of your comments on A Town Called Mercy – don’t forget to download our commentary and read James’ review too! This week The Doctor moves in with the Ponds during the year of the slow invasion! The human race wakes up to find the world littered with small black…

Caleb, Sarah and new contributor Nat Slow don their stetsons and ignore the keep out sign as they explore ‘A Town Called Mercy’. Daleks, dinosaurs and now a cyborg gunslinger. As Doctor Who meets a western we discuss guns, tic-tac spaceships, moral complexities and The Doctor’s mercy. Did The Doctor make the right decision with Kahler Jex? Would Th…

Caleb and Sarah preview A Town Called Mercy by Toby Whithouse with brand new contributor Nat Slow. They also discuss some of your comments on Dinosaurs on a Spaceship – don’t forget to download our commentary and read James’ review too! This week The Doctor gets a gun, a Stetson and a cyborg! The Doctor ignores the keep out sign on a visit to A Tow…

Caleb, Sarah and Emma sink their critical teeth into Dinosaurs on a Spaceship in true velociraptor fashion! But will the friendly triceratops of entertainment survive the attacks of the bounty hunter of dodgy gender politics? Tortured metaphors aside, we discuss the importance of characterisation, the almost-return of the Silurians, and the alarmin…

Caleb and Sarah preview Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, episode 2 of the new series of Doctor Who, written by Chris Chibnall, as our series 7 coverage continues – don’t forget to download our Asylum of the Daleks commentary and read our review! With a great guest cast including Arthur Weasley, Argus Filch, Inspector Lestrade and Mitchell & Webb (also kno…

So Doctor Who is back on our televisions at last! Caleb Woodbridge and Sarah Burrow bring you their thoughts on episode one of series 7 along with brand new guest contributor Emma Sandrey. Are the Daleks still an effective villain? What happened to all the different Daleks we were promised? Just how did Amy and Rory get to the point of divorce? We …

In a special edition of our monthly news-and-views roundup (recorded before the sad death of Mary Tamm), we look forward to some of the exciting changes in store for Impossible Podcasts. New website! New content! Whether you come to us for our Doctor Who commentaries, our discussions on sci-fi and fantasy TV, films and books, our interviews or our …

It’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for. Sarah Burrow and P.G. Bell draw our Series 5 commentaries to a close. Where can a show turn when it’s just wiped out the whole of existence? Why, the National Museum of Wales, of course! We discuss whether the show over-uses its most regular locations and wonder when the polar bears joined the all…

Join Sarah and Peter as they plough headlong into the first part of Doctor Who’s Series 5 finale! It’s been a long journey since ‘The Eleventh Hour‘ and, as Moffat moves his pieces into position for the final confrontation, we chart his progress through the series so far. Did he deliver on his early promises? Has he beaten Russell T Davies at his o…

A little later than usual, Caleb and Sarah continue our run of Series 5 commentaries. Comedy masterpiece or a joke too far? We take a long hard look at Gareth Roberts’ light-hearted fish-out-of-water tale and ask some serious questions. Did this story forever change the tone of Matt Smith’s portrayal of the Doctor? Could the show ever work with a p…

Caleb and Sarah discuss Scottish accents, art and death, rom-coms and more in our fan commentary on series 5 Doctor Who episode, ‘Vincent and the Doctor’! The Doctor and Amy meet famous painter Vincent van Gogh in this episode penned by none other than Richard Curtis. But is Saturday teatime sci-fi the right slot for exploring themes of depression …

Caroline John, 1940 – 2012 Welcome to our monthly round-up of Doctor Who news, views and rumours. We reflect on the sad death of Caroline John and examine her role as Dr Liz Shaw, one of the most distinctive companions of the Classic Series. Was she dropped for being too strong a character, or did the show’s new Earth-bound format simply work again…

Your intrepid hosts, Sarah Burrow and P.G. Bell conclude their commentary on the return of the Silurians. Frankly, it could have done with a few dinosaurs… As the humans and Silurians teeter on the brink of war, we discuss the thorny issue of gender politics in crisis situations, wonder why the new Silurians act more like Cybermen than reptiles, an…

There’s something amiss in the Welsh valleys (isn’t there always?) but fear not – your commentators Sarah Burrow and P.G. Bell are here to talk you through it. As Moffat redesigns his second classic monster of the series, we ask whether the new-look Silurians are really such a failure. There’s also a brief discussion of POV Monstervision, the logis…

Join Swithun Dobson, Sarah Burrow and Caleb Woodbridge as Doctor Who goes all wibbly-wobbly, dreamy-weamy. As the TARDIS crew are forced to choose between two competing realities, we ask why the show doesn’t do more of these “format breaker” episodes. Plus, we assess the emotional see-saw that is Amy’s love life, the dark side of the Doctor and re-…

Caleb Woodbridge, P G Bell and Sarah Burrow face the Vampires of Venice in our latest Doctor Who commentary! We discuss vital questions such as, what is the Doctor thinking with his matchmaking techniques? How much does this story fall prey to “time tourism” syndrome? Are alien fish creatures an acceptable substitute for real vampires? All this and…

Caleb Woodbridge and P.G. Bell bring you our monthly roundup of news, views and chatter. It’s a short and sweet one this month – just enough time to congratulate Steven Moffat on his new BAFTA, wave goodbye to the Ponds and hello to Jenna-Louise Coleman, and ponder the demise of the SFX Weekender convention. Plus, a look ahead to next month’s podca…

We’ve been promising you this for ages, and here it is at last – an in-depth discussion of the boy wizard. Our resident expert Sarah Burrow is joined by special guest Suzie Nockles (last heard in our Hunger Games episode) to assess the sprawling universe that is the Harry Potter phenomenon. Just what made J.K. Rowling’s books so successful and did …

Caleb Woodbridge and Sarah Burrow go back to commentate on The Time of Angels, the story which reintroduced River Song and the Weeping Angels for the Steven Moffat era. With the Angels returning for Amy and Rory’s departure from the show in the autumn, does it hold any clues to the future? You can read what our very own James Willetts thought of th…

“I have been asked if I want to do a 2013 multi-Doctor special…” The sixth Doctor speaks! One of the stars at this year’s SFX Weekender convention, Colin took the opportunity to hold forth on his four decades in show business and spill the beans on his greatest televisual triumph… Come Dine With Me. He also gives a frank assessment of Doctor Who pa…

Join Caleb Woodbridge, Sarah Burrow and P.G. Bell as they deliver our monthly round-up of news, rumours and feedback. It’s been another busy month. With Doctor Who filming on both sides of the Atlantic, we discuss the on-set pics and wonder how long we can avoid the major spoiler that leaked out this week. (Don’t worry – we give nothing away). JK R…

Join Caleb Woodbridge, Sarah Burrow and – making his debut on the podcast – Kieran Mathers as they tackle George RR Martin’s epic fantasy sequence. After an in-depth discussion of the books, including their use of history and magic, the team turns a ciritcal eye on the smash hit HBO series. Where did it succeed? Where did it fail? And how should Se…

“I didn’t stab anybody in the throat…” Eve Myles is a local girl at heart. She may have swapped Cardiff for Los Angeles, but she was thrilled to be back in Wales for an in-depth Q&A at February’s SFX Weekender convention. In a pretty candid interview, she reveals the story behind her pivotal role in The Unquiet Dead, how she unwittingly set a new t…

We’re four years old today! And to celebrate, we’re challenging David Yates to his own game and coming up with our very own Doctor Who movie. High concept ideas. Multi million dollar budgets. A cast of thousands. These are just some of the things we’ll never be trusted with and, on the strength of this podcast, that’s probably a wise move. But we l…

Your Impossible Podcasts team in Eddie’s Diner Welcome back to Points of Who, our monthly roundup of news, views and general waffle. And what a month it’s been! The Doctor’s new companion for Series 7 was confirmed, in the form of the lovely Jenna-Louise Coleman. We discuss her casting and float a tantalising (if unlikely) theory about the sort of …

Sarah Burrow and special guests Suzie Nockles, Charlotte Marchant-Jones and Alex Gatherer discuss the new film adaptation of Suzanne Collins’ book The Hunger Games! Join us as we compare the book and the film, and give you our thoughts on the casting choices and how the film was shot. We also discuss our favourite characters and how they’ve transla…

Caleb Woodbridge, Swithun Dobson, Sarah Burrow and P. G. Bell return to The Beast Below, the second episode of the Smith/Moffat era! Join us as we discuss Star Wars references, political allegory, sparkly space whales, Paragon versus Renegade actions, and whether the Doctor is pro- or anti-monarchy! But watching the episode again, will the team cho…

“They went and cast a 12 year old as the Doctor…” It’s time for some words of wisdom from the Seventh Doctor himself, Sylvester McCoy – recorded live at last February’s SFX Weekender. Sylvester was on typically lively form, swapping the safety of the stage for a roving microphone and getting up close and personal with his public. And what a show he…

It’s time to ride to Camelot in our second podcast of the day… Caleb Woodbridge, Sarah Burrow and Olivia Cottrell discuss the fourth series of the BBC’s other big telefantasy success – Merlin. Does it pay to play fast and loose with Arthurian myth? What direction could the show take next? These and other searching questions are answered in our late…

The dust has settled, the hangovers faded and the cosplay has been packed away for another year. But was this year’s SFX Weekender – one of Britain’s biggest sci-fi and fantasy conventions – worth the trip? It’s safe to say that not everything went according to plan, but did the stellar guest list make up for the freezing temperatures and intermina…

The dust has settled, the hangovers faded and the cosplay has been packed away for another year. But was this year’s SFX Weekender – one of Britain’s biggest sci-fi and fantasy conventions – worth the trip? It’s safe to say that not everything went according to plan, but did the stellar guest list make up for the freezing temperatures and intermina…

“The greatest danger in life is not taking the adventure…” The loudest man in sci-fi (or any other genre, for that matter) was guest of honour at last week’s SFX Weekender in North Wales. P.G. Bell was there to record the action and we’re very pleased to bring you Brian’s complete Q&A session, conducted on Saturday 4th February, in front of a capac…

In the third episode of Points of Who, we take a wide-ranging discussion of the latest news about Doctor Who and the wider worlds of science fiction and fantasy: Caleb and Swithun discuss: (from 1 min) The recovery of missing episodes of Doctor Who from Galaxy 4 and The Underwater Menace: celebration or disappointment? (from 19 min) How should the …

Remember all those commentaries we never got round to in Series 5? Well, here they come! The team take advantage of Doctor Who’s extended leave of absence to fill in some of the gaps in their back catalogue, starting with Matt Smith’s debut adventure. Click below to find out what Caleb Woodbridge, Swithun Dobson, Sarah Burrow and P.G. Bell make of …