The Emporium is bustling this week. There are plans afoot, projects underway, and the faint smell of soldering iron and old videotape hanging somewhere in the air.

Before the boxes are opened, conversation turns to future endeavours. Gavin is preparing a video celebrating the work of the great Michael Ferguson, one of Doctor Who's most accomplished directors. This leads naturally to a discussion of The Seeds of Death, and the curious way in which that story was filmed. Somehow grander, somehow more cinematic, and somehow unlike almost anything else the programme was producing at the time.

But the shelves are restless, and the boxes are eager to be opened.

The Memory Box is first to reveal its contents, transporting us back to 1989 and an evening at Liverpool Empire Theatre. There, before packed audiences, Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure brought the Time Lord to the stage, with Jon Pertwee taking his final bow as the Doctor. The memories remain vivid: dazzling laser effects, theatrical spectacle, and the sheer excitement of seeing Doctor Who performed live. Other recollections are perhaps a little less glowing. In particular, certain musical numbers have not improved with age, despite the best efforts of memory and nostalgia.

Next comes a newcomer to the Emporium's collection of curiosities.

The Toy Box creaks open for the very first time and immediately reveals treasure. Mike recalls the joy of acquiring a Louis Marx Dalek from Woolworths in 1965. Never mind that the head wasn't quite the right shape. To a young Doctor Who fan it was perfection. From there, the discussion wanders into the extraordinary influence that toys can have upon imagination. Plastic Daleks became film stars, cardboard sets became alien worlds, and childhood play evolved into lifelong creativity. Along the way we hear how Paul very nearly electrocuted himself attempting to construct a "spark generator" from the pages of Doctor Who Magazine, while Gavin's own youthful experiments with electronics culminated in a feat of engineering so ambitious that it succeeded only in plunging the entire house into darkness. To Mike's enduring horror, this appears to have been considered a successful experiment.

And so the Emporium acquires yet another box, another collection of stories, and another route back to childhood. The toys may have been made of plastic, the special effects fashioned from cardboard and optimism, but the memories remain remarkably real.

After all, every adventure has to begin somewhere.

Sometimes it begins with a toy Dalek from Woolworths.

You can get in touch with us on all sorts of social media.

Gavin's Twitter and Bluesky: @themindrobber

Gavin's Instagram: gav_themindrobber

Paul's Twitter: @paulcarmichaelv / Paul's Bluesky: @paulcarmichaeluk

Music by Graeme Allan

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Emporium is a little quieter this week. The wine bottle remains firmly corked, which is probably for the best. One of our number appears to have enjoyed rather too much celebration the previous evening, though, in fairness, they had an excellent reason.

Naturally, this leads to an unexpected discussion about the theme tune to Give Us A Clue, before a tale emerges involving a member of the team, a television gameshow, and the Granada Men & Motors channel. It is, by any reasonable measure, the least suitable programme imaginable for the unfortunate participant involved.

Eventually, and with some effort, the conversation finds its way back to Doctor Who.

After greeting our ever-expanding audience around the world, the first box of the evening is opened.

The Post Box contains a question from regular contributor Gary Gillatt, whose correspondence is rapidly becoming part of the Emporium's fixtures and fittings. His question is a deceptively simple one: what makes a great cliffhanger? From the unforgettable to the ridiculous, the trio explore the art of leaving an audience desperate for next week's instalment. Along the way, Mike reaches deep into the vaults of memory in search of a particularly effective example from a story that no longer entirely exists.

The Travel Trunk takes us to Manchester, where Rymill & Son recently attended screenings of the recovered episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan. Gavin finds himself in conversation with the daughter of a genuine Doctor Who legend, while discussion turns to the men behind the Daleks themselves. Which famous operator became so indispensable that others found opportunities disappearing? How different were the Dalek props from one another? And is it possible that the creatures' long history of extermination once extended to one of our team via a suspiciously timed bout of Covid?

The Memory Box transports us to a time before online shopping, same-day delivery and digital convenience. Back to catalogues, postal orders and eagerly awaited parcels arriving through the letterbox. "John Fitton Books and Magazines" remains a phrase capable of triggering instant nostalgia among Doctor Who fans of a certain vintage. Was there something magical about waiting weeks for an item to arrive? Something that modern fandom has perhaps lost? The discussion also takes an unexpected diversion through a famous Liverpool comic shop and into an unlikely obsession with a television soap opera.

Finally, The Tool Box opens to reveal a single note bearing the words: "Saying yes to Gary." The consequences of this decision soon become apparent. Could Gary Gillatt be quietly evolving into the Emporium's unofficial fourth member? Why is Mike suddenly facing a mountain of work? And thanks to Margaret Rymill's diary entries from the early 1990s, we gain a fascinating glimpse into the earliest days of Father Rymill's prop-building adventures. Some long-forgotten projects, ambitious schemes and curious creations emerge from the pages.

And so another evening passes in the Emporium, where one question invariably leads to three more, where memories remain wonderfully unreliable, and where even the simplest conversation can unexpectedly open a door into the past.

Just don't ask who drank all the wine.

Someone is still denying responsibility.

You can get in touch with us on all sorts of social media.

Gavin's Twitter and Bluesky: @themindrobber

Gavin's Instagram: gav_themindrobber

Paul's Twitter: @paulcarmichaelv / Paul's Bluesky: @paulcarmichaeluk

Music by Graeme Allan

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a slightly celebratory atmosphere inside the Emporium this week. The glasses have been polished, the cork has been persuaded from the bottle, and somewhere between the shelves and the boxes comes the unmistakable sound of three men raising a toast to listeners scattered across the globe.

The shop, it seems, is busier than ever.

And with that, the boxes begin to stir once more…

The Post Box arrives laden with questions both deceptively simple and surprisingly dangerous. Is a love of Doctor Who something inherited… or something encountered at precisely the right moment in childhood? With both father and son seated behind the counter, the Emporium may be uniquely qualified to investigate. But matters grow rather more complicated when allegiances begin to shift. What, for example, is a parent supposed to do when a child wanders away from Gallifrey and pledges loyalty to Star Wars instead? Paul considers the possibility with all the concern of a man who knows only too well.

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The Props Box clangs ominously open to reveal the cold metallic history of the Cybermen. But behind the silver masks and electronic voices lies something rather more unsettling: genuine scientific and philosophical anxiety. The trio explore the reality of these marvellous monsters and the influence of Kit Pedler, whose fascination with cybernetics and the relationship between humanity and technology helped shape one of the programme’s most enduring creations. The result is a conversation that drifts from television monsters into the distinctly uncomfortable question of how much of ourselves we might willingly surrender in the name of progress.

The Travel Trunk transports the Emporium to Cardiff, where modern Doctor Who found a second home among the streets, bays, alleyways, and hidden corners of the city. There are memories of location hunting, unexpected discoveries, and standing in places suddenly made magical by television. But among the travellers sits one member of the trio who went a little further than the others, stepping aboard the TARDIS itself and emerging with whispers of closely guarded script secrets still rattling around in their head.

And as the evening draws on and the bottle grows lighter, conversation inevitably turns toward the future. What shape will Doctor Who take in the years ahead? Who might stand beside the BBC now the Disney arrangement has reached its conclusion? And perhaps most intriguingly of all… does the programme truly need a co-producer in the first place?

The Emporium offers no definitive answers, of course.

Only more doors to open.

You can get in touch with us on all sorts of social media.

Gavin's Twitter and Bluesky: @themindrobber

Paul's Twitter: @paulcarmichaelv / Paul's Bluesky: @paulcarmichaeluk

Music by Graeme Allan

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.