⭐ RoDate! | Happy New Year (28/12/2023) (Patreon)

And just like that, it's the end of another year. 

I hope 2023 has been kind to you RoDers. It has been a massive year for both Matt and myself - lots of changes, lots of things to adapt to and lots of things to be proud of. 

In March, we made the decision to continue the podcast in spite of Billy moving 11,400+ miles away from Bristol. Matt, Annie and Johnny moved in together, Billy and his long-suffering better-half made the daft call to be on a home renovation show and plenty of other happy and challenging moments have defined the past 12 months.

One constant though has been this Patreon community - a source of genuine positivity and creativity. We love spending time with you guys each and every week, discussing, speculating, pontificating and generally having a laugh.

We started the year with 170 of you and we're seeing out our biggest year for the pod with over 300 passionate, funny and generous RoDers. It's humbling, heartening and downright joyous to watch this community flourish from Twitter comments to Discord chatter and everything in-between. So, before we turn to what's to come next year, thank you all for your feedback, kind words, constructive criticism and overall support. RoD would not be in the state it is in currently without you.

Right, dry your eyes and let's get down to brass tacks.

Our final review of the year will go out later today (December 28th) - our chat about Ncuti Gatwa's debut as Doctor Who in 'The Church on Ruby Road'. It will be our 29th mainline episode of the year and 70th overall. Cool to have wrapped up 2023 on such a satisfyingly round number (if you ignore the .5 or .1 episodes...).

We don't have firm plans for January as of yet, but it's possible we'll take a few weeks off just to think ahead for the rest of the year. But here are some provisional ideas.

By the end of Jan, we'll have put out our first Double-0-RoD review, which will be...

NEVER SAY NEVER AGAIN (1983)

Oh good Jesus, yes. This movie is a clusterfuck before you even stick the disc in the player. A horrible cocktail borne out of spite, legal predicaments and bitterness. Absolute gold for us and a perfect way to start our foray into the world of 007.

RoD Dwarf is still in the pipeline but we don't want to overwhelm you with non-Who related things because we figure you're all still here mainly to hear/watch us waffle about the Blue Box Show, first and foremost.

On the Who front, here's a list of what you can expect in the first half of 2024...

• 'The Daleks'
• 'Under the Lake'/'Before the Flood'
• 'The Underwater Menace'
• 'The Happiness Patrol'
• 'The Impossible Astronaut'/'Day of the Moon'
• 'Death to the Daleks'

On the Patreon exclusive front, besides the torrid NSNA kicking off our James Bond output, we also have more DW-adjacent commentaries coming down the pipeline (looking at you, the over-promised/delayed Bidding Adieu feat. Johnny, as well as daft things like Search Out Space, The Few Doctors and The Airzone Solution), more Tier Lists and a chat about the Secrets & Scandals documentary and how that was put together (mainly from a TV production standpoint rather than the content, because we've all heard those stories 1000 times!).

And then before we know it, May will appear and it will be time to talk about Season One/Series 14 and a whole new slew of adventures will be upon us! Very exciting times.

Whatever 2023 brought you, we hope 2024 tops it for all the right reasons.

Happy New Year RoDers - ONWARDS!

- RoD 💜💚