516: The Reconstruction of Time

·1 hr 26 min·5 clips

Three lost Doctor Who episodes from 1965 have just been recovered and released on iPlayer.

The cold open is very Power of Three. A mock threat, a Jaron Cacophony tag, and some staircase confusion turn the intro into affectionate nonsense before the episode is even named. Nobody stays on track for long, which is part of the fun. That loose mood carries into the main reaction, where the group compares the three Doctor Who instalments after watching them twice over two days. Episode two comes out ahead. Kenny's point, picked up by another speaker, is that more happens there, though the surrounding material still gets plenty of affection. The best bits are in the detail. They spend time on Hartnell and Purvis, Adrian Hill and Nicholas, and the small pleasure of the story remembering Stephen is meant to be a pilot. The spaceship work gets proper appreciation too. Mavic Chen's ship, especially, is treated as better realised than expected, with shots that seem to catch the room off guard. Then there are the torches. The group jokes about people getting excited over them, but the final verdict is that the excitement makes sense because they really do stand out. Mavic Chen turns nastier as well. His back-and-forth with Zephon and his cold reaction after Zephon is executed give him a harder edge. The cliffhanger still hits. They know where the Captain Marvel material is going, but the setup carries shock and sadness anyway. There is a little frustration under the fun. One speaker admits it may sound ungrateful, but not being able to roll straight into the next instalment clearly hurts. Affection wins out. By the end, the chat has wandered through Hartnell's age, Dalek memories, social handles, and a Pet Shop Boys outro chosen for Mavic Chen and the Daleks.

As heard by us

A warm, detail-rich Doctor Who discussion that finds fresh charge in familiar Dalek territory.

Power of 3 treats these three Doctor Who episodes as a brisk, affectionate close watch. The hosts settle into the details that make the run feel alive: the extra Hartnell material, the staging inside Mavic Chen's spaceship, Stephen's pilot duties, and those wonderfully memorable…

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Why you'd press play

You get a second look at Hartnell, Purvis, the Daleks, and a cliffhanger the hosts still let sting.

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