On Sunday 15th December 2013 was the final Splendid Chaps podcast;

The Splendid Chaps Christmas Special. I didn’t want them to go, but I'll keep warm, there may be a tear, it'll hurt, but the moment has been prepared for.

It all began with a girl in a red dress. Except she wasn't inside a Dalek, she was singing next to one. And her dress was more Christmas party than junior entertainment manager. There was a 1960s Dalek movie Dalek on stage and Petra Elliot singing the "ill-conceived" hit from 1964 by The Go-Go’s; "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek". I happen to know the words to this song quite well, as I listened to it many times to write the lyrics our for the Tardis Wiki, it's for the same reason I also know the lyrics to “Who is the Doctor?" a spoken word song by Jon Pertwee.

Following on from the song John and Ben came out on stage. John in a fetching Barbara-wear inspired cardigan and Ben in a Tenth Doctor-influenced dressing gown.

Each of the guests brought a 'gift' of a Doctor/main character to the podcast, with information and observations.

The people / shows that were covered were; Peter Cushing and the 1960s Dalek movies, Trevor Martin and the Seven Keys to Doomsday, The Curse of Fatal Death, Big Finish's Doctor Who Unbound series, Scream of the Shalka, K9 & Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures, plus Torchwood.

Alexandra Tynan who designed the Cybermen also made a return appearance, and mentioned of 'An Adventure in Space and Time' that the scene at the start with her Cyberman design and the bloke smoking in the suit didn't happen and wouldn't've happened back then, but the theme and style was spot on. And also the look of all the people in it they got spot on. She also said in the regeneration scene, where Patrick Troughton is standing there with William Hartnell, she was there, but in '

An Adventure in Space and Time' there were "two blokes there!". Of Scream of the Shalka it was mentioned by Fee Plumley that technology and where the BBC saw it going played a part in it. Both in its production and being at the forefront of media on the net at a time before YouTube and everything, at the moment the site needs Flash 4.0 to run the webcast which is still up on the site.

But in 2003 when it was released most people were still on dial-up. Though like Ben McKenzie, I was excited to be able to watch Doctor Who at the same time as everyone else, something that wouldn't really happen again until The Day of the Doctor. Yes there are broadcasts practically after the UK ones, but that's only been happening in the past year or three. It was, I seem to recall painfully slow on dial-up. I remember letting it load and just waiting, a bar very slowly moving along the screen as it loaded up on my 56k modem. But it was amazing to be able to see that story.

You can still relive the experience of watching it now, follow this link and click play all on any of the episodes. You’ll get a box that says “You will need Flash to see the animations. Get help here”, don’t do that, instead click Full Screen, and after a particularly long loading screen it will play. Or follow this link to episode one. It also had interesting bits of technology, as was pointed out in the live show by Fee Plumley. The mobile phone in the TARDIS, replacing the phone inside the panel of the exterior police box shell, and the Doctor being able to use it to escape falling into a blackhole by "reminding it that it's part of the TARDIS". In the webcast it unfolds in spectacular fashion and he escapes.

Adam Richards who presented the K9 & Company and The Sarah Jane Adventures

portion made an interesting observation, or relayed the observation that when The Sarah Jane Adventures was on TV, it allowed Doctor Who to be a bit more dramatic and gritty. Because The Sarah Jane Adventures could have farting aliens and useless Sontarans and, basically do the light hearted and occasionally comical stories that Doctor Who couldn't or didn't want to do. It did get me thinking though, why don't we have alternate series anymore for Doctor Who. It has if anything gotten darker and more complex, but has held its audience.

But back in the 2007-11 we had 3 Doctor Who-based series going at once; Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures. Elisabeth Sladen passed away and Torchwood reached a few crescendos. With series 3 of Torchwood it reached epic levels of grittiness. With as Djoymi Baker saying they're left with 2 very bad choices, give 10% of children to the aliens to use as drugs or say goodbye to the human race. The American Torchwood still had that grittiness but as Djoymi Baker pointed out, taking it away from Wales and bringing it to sunny beaches and whatever just doesn't work. The grittiness, the cold, grim Welsh landscape is what made Torchwood different and unique.The BBC could easily generate another spin-off series using what people have been introduced thus far, to create other marketable programmes. There's the Eighth Doctor series that everyone's now clamouring to have, now that they've seen him in The Night of the Doctor and seen what great acting chops Paul McGann has. He's been doing great work in Big Finish audios. Actually that reminds me when Myke Bartlett was talking about the Big Finish Doctor Who Unbounds he mentioned something I'd not thought about before.

When Big Finish got Paul McGann in originally to do the audios, they defaulted to the 25 minute and episode format, something his Doctor never did as he debuted in the 85 minute TV movie and he debuted with a fairly "classical" companion an character with an RP sort of accent (Charley Pollard), an Edwardian companion for Paul McGann's Byronic Eighth Doctor.

It was only much later that they went for single episode stories that fit onto 1 CD.

Back to The Night of the Doctor, those 7 minutes really showed to everyone the potential for an Eighth Doctor series, but I'm not sure if the BBC would green light a series like that considering they're launching a new Doctor with Capaldi's 12 or 13th Doctor depending on who you ask (Moffat lies). Having two properties like that on the same time for similar audiences is something they'd probably want to avoid. There's the potential for a "science leads" UNIT, with Jemma Redgrave's Kate Lethbridge-Stewart. UNIT could be the new Torchwood, and as Torchwood's been destroyed (or maybe living on in America), it'd be the perfect sort of thing to create. There's always the alien hunter route with Mickey and Martha. Except both actors are off doing other things.

Maybe they could just do a spin off series with the Curator introducing tales from the Under-Gallery and then stories leading off from that. I’m sure Tom Baker would love to do some acting straight to camera. Returning back to the Splendid Chaps Christmas Special live podcast recording. There were songs. Several. There was the aforementioned “I’m Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek” at the start of the show, then Ben McKenzie sang a very solemn version of “Song for Ten” from The Christmas Invasion just before the interval.

Then at the start of the second segment after the interval was the whole song with its many verses from Ghost Light “That’s The Way To The Zoo”. Then finally from The Gunfighters “The Ballad of the Last Chance Saloon (Splendid Chaps Edit)", all five verses, with a lyric sheet provided to the audience (although many had to share, but I was on the end of the isle with no one next to me so I have one, which I shall cherish, or more likely lose). According to John Richards he got the sheet music and lyrics for “That’s The Way To the Zoo” from Mark Ayers and there were many more verses than appeared in Ghost Light. All up it was a great end to the podcast series. I was there for the first episode, and well due to life getting in the way had missed a few here and there. I am sad that it’s finished, and wish there was more, it was great to actually be able to go to a live podcast recording, monthly about Doctor Who. Although it won’t be the end, it can’t be, this is Doctor Who. They’ve already announced a spin-off web series.

Plus, it can always come back, maybe for a special show in November next year...or something. Doctor Who doesn’t die, it just changes formats, is kept alive in different formats, it endures the wilderness, it lives on, being reinterpreted and rewritten. So I hope the podcast will return in the same incarnation but a new outfit and new venue. Or maybe return in a new, different incarnation, with vague descriptions of where it’s been, it’ll have odd ears and a modern jacket, but one day... One day it will come back, until there must be no tears, no carrot juice, just go forward and make the spin-off of your desires.

Thank you. It’s good. Keep warm.