We re-discuss the second of the New Who Xmas specials: "The Runaway Bride". This time with special guest wife-of-the-podcast-Heidi! We pick up from the end of the prior episode where the freshly single Doctor is introduced to Donna, who is mysteriously plucked from her wedding by the Tardis. Whilst attempting to return Donna to the ceremony, the Doctor commits multiple crimes, Donna discovers her betrothed actually loves a giant spider-woman, and then Donna wisely decides to never ever, ever travel with the Doctor. Ever! Will we see her again? Spoilers...

We watch the 7th Doctor serial "Time and the Rani" where the newly regenerated Doctor gets hoodwinked into helping the newly red-headed Rani with her sciencing. Whilst said fooling is going down, the temporarily befuddled Doctor puts on a fashion show for the Rani (who is wearing ‘Mel’ drag), actual Mel proves her companion cred with some truly awesome screaming, and the Rani tries to ctrl-alt-delete the universe with a forced reboot. If she only read the universe’s control manual she would know that is not recommended. Wait? Am I the only one who reads all that stuff? JK! Nobody does that shiz...

We watch "The Mark of the Rani", a 6th Doctor story featuring the titular Rani’s first appearance. Whilst the Rani is making her mark by draining sleep juice from the brains of 19th century miners (because... science?), the Doctor constantly berates and belittles Peri (because... reasons?), the Master shows up to either help or hinder either the Rani or the Doctor (because... ßchaos?), and John is denied seeing said dirty-dirty-miners soaping up in the showers (because... cruelty!). But seriously, #justiceforPeri.

Tim’s link that looks fake but isn’t:

https://www.doctorwho.tv/not-authorised

Welcome to our 15th intervention where we hash out all things season 2... series 15?... perhaps series 41 if you’re being totally pedantic. In addition to those Doctor Who discussions being discussed, friend-of-the-show-Tim presents a match-the-companion-to-the-alcoholic-beverage exercise to your hosts whilst said hosts rank the 19 episodes of Ncuti’s woefully short reign from least awesome to most awesome. Spoilers: Steve’s ranking is wrong and John’s (mine!) is correct. To the writer of the episode’s description go the spoils. Shakespeare said that!

We watch “The Reality War” (Series 15, Episode 8) where the Earth doesn’t get destroyed but resets to begin May 23rd all over again. After the reboot occurs, the Doctor gets rescued by erstwhile companion Anita, UNIT, and its assorted minions get restored to their pre-wish glory, the Rani and Mrs. Flood bring back Omega, Omega eats the Rani, Mrs. Flood f’s off, and the Doctor easily defeats Omega and saves the day. But wait... there’s more! Whilst all this was going down, re-writes made Poppy Belinda’s actual daughter, the Doctor gets a pre-regeneration pep talk from Jodie’s incarnation then we say ‘adieu’ to Ncuti, and ‘bon jour’ to... Billie Piper?!? So is she Rose, Bad Wolf, the Moment or the latest Doctor? Also, how many years until proper new Doctor Who starts explaining? Oh! For! F’s! Sake!

We watch “Wish World” (Series 15, Episode 7) where the Doctor and current companion Miss Belinda Chandra become... married-couple-with-a-child Mr. and Mrs. John Smith?!? Whilst we try to figure just WTF is actually going TF on, recently past companion Ruby shows up on the 'Smith's' doorstep casting doubt on their progeny, distantly past companion Mel shows up to cast doubt on broken coffee mugs, and UNIT shows up to cast doubt on hetero-normality. All this and our lead is about to die on this season’s penultimate episode. Oh dear... what ever will happen...

We watch “The Interstellar Song Contest” (Series 15, Episode 6) where the Doctor takes increasingly-less-reluctant-companion Miss Belinda Chandra to see definitely-not-Eurovision™-in-space. Whilst they await the inevitable camp performances (that’s gay theatricality for those uniformed listeners... scoff... eye-roll), the Doctor Princess Leia’s his way through space, Belinda R2D2’s her way to the control center, and Mrs. Flood Emperor Palpatine’s her way back from near death. All this plus Susan’s and the Rani’s forces awaken!

We watch “The Story and the Engine” (Series 15, Episode 5) where the Bel and the Doc travel to Nigeria so he can get a haircut. Whilst the Doc goes out of his way to save a couple bucks (I mean back in the day I used to drive nearly an hour to get cheap gas and smokes in the next county so I get it), the Bel wreaks havoc in the local bazar and the Bar(ber) extracts payment for service in the form of spider chow. Plus we get multiple cameos including a Playwright, a Fugitive Doctor, and a Space Baby? Points to whomever correctly guesses which of them I was most excited to see. If you guessed Paul McGann... points! You really see me!