Dear old Doctor Who has been in the doldrums. The pesky pandemic caused production delays, panicked rewrites and truncated series. Ratings have slumped, buzz has been badly lacking, and critical kickings have been administered. But all is not lost for the BBC franchise. Apart from the imminent return of showrunner Russell T Davies, there’s another ray of light – and it comes in the form of a transgender-led podcast.
Written by Juno Dawson, Doctor Who: Redacted was launched alongside the Easter TV special, Legend of the Sea Devils, and has been described by the producer/director Ella Watts as “very gay, very trans”, and sitting “to the left” of the main show. The 10-part BBC Sounds audio drama follows three best mates who make “the Blue Box Files”, a paranormal conspiracy podcast about a certain police box popping up throughout history. Their tongue-in-cheek theorising suddenly gets all too real when they’re sucked into an action-packed alien adventure of their own.
