Three for the price of One

Three for the price of One

I know I shouldn't fixate on numbers, but when you don't get much in the way of fan mail, it's the only way you can get an idea of whether something you've done has gone down well.

The Doctor Who On BBC America Twitter account asked yesterday "What Doctor Who podcast is your favourite?" and I was half-hoping someone would mention our name in passing. No joy on that front, of course, as we're technically not a 'Doctor Who' podcast. But I'd like to think we are an honourary one, given that we've covered the show quite a bit and our pool of writers and contributors draws from 'Doctor Who' fandom.

Of course, there is still time to answer their question! Nudge, nudge!

But sometimes I wonder if people simply pass over us because of our wider remit, not guessing that they'd recognise the style of articles if not the actual subject matter. I sometimes wonder how people stumbled across us in the first place - was it a particular show that we covered that excited their interest?

All this pondering is a result at looking at the numbers for Episode 24, which has racked up 75 listens in four days, something it's taken Episode 23 a month to do. Have the magic words 'Juliet Bravo' proven to be more of a draw than 'The Gentle Touch'?

Maybe we should set up a 'Round The Archives' Audience Research Unit? Hmm, given the bonkers things people said in these reports about 'Doctor Who' in the 20th century, maybe that way madness lies?

As an aside, the other day we were waving at Spain for upping our listenership, and now we've had a flurry of interest from Germany, too! Hopefully that's someone new enjoying our back catalogue, but for all I know it might be a regular from the UK on holiday!

Whatever, I've been brave enough to upload Episodes Two and Three to YouTube in the last couple of days, where they can join Episode One and keep it company.

The process is simple as I've already got the files rendered as .mp3 files. Although we've got bog all in the way of video editing software, I've been content to use the Photos app to make a video based on the original soundtrack plus a picture chosen from the variations that Martin has been clever enough to provide in recent months.

All you have to do is work out how many seconds it runs for, which isn't that difficult given that Windows also has a Calculator knocking around, even if I don't use it much.

As always, extra seconds of amusement may be found by activating the YouTube subtitles, which are surreal when they get it wrong. Nigel Plaskitt and Unstoffe provided a real challenge...

But then, given some of the strange stuff we talk about, even when the subtitles are 100% accurate, they still look mildly eccentric. But that's 'Pipkins' for you...

The YouTube version of Episode One is here.

Episode Two is here.

And Episode Three is here.

(By Andrew Trowbridge)