Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey

There are libraries full of books.
There are libraries full of knowledge.
And then, apparently, there are libraries aboard the Nosferatu 2.5 where the books have started becoming rather selective about who gets to exist in them.

This time aboard the ship, Sophie is joined by Dan Starkey, actor, writer, voice artist and one of the most recognisable inhabitants of the Doctor Who universe, despite frequently being hidden beneath several layers of prosthetics.

Dan has played a remarkable variety of characters across Doctor Who, but is perhaps best known to television audiences as Strax, the gloriously literal Sontaran warrior who became an unlikely member of the Paternoster Gang alongside Madame Vastra and Jenny Flint. He has also played numerous other Sontarans, appearing opposite several incarnations of the Doctor.

His relationship with Doctor Who extends well beyond the television screen. Dan has become a major presence in the world of audio, particularly through his extensive work with Big Finish, where he has appeared across Doctor Who and numerous other productions. He has also moved behind the microphone as a writer, co-writing Terror of the Sontarans, proving, perhaps, that having spent enough time playing Sontarans eventually leads to the inevitable conclusion that one must start writing them as well.

But Dan’s arrival aboard the Nosferatu 2.5 comes at a particularly strange moment.

The ship’s Narrative Archive has become a library, although not one that Sophie and Hobbes entirely trust. Books are present, but stories are missing. Information remains, but somehow the things that give that information meaning have begun to disappear.

Meanwhile, Mrs C and the Ffantaface provide their usual means of escaping the immediate problem, taking Sophie somewhere rather unexpected for another conversation with a very special guest.

This time, the Ffantaface brings us Laurence Scott, award-winning author of The Four-Dimensional Human and Picnic Comma Lightning.

Laurence has spent more than a decade writing essays and criticism for publications including The New Yorker, Financial Times, New York Times, The Guardian, WIRED, Boston Globe, New Statesman and the London Review of Books, exploring the increasingly strange relationship between technology, culture, time and the ways in which we experience the world around us.

And, perhaps most importantly for a journey aboard the Nosferatu 2.5, Doctor Who has had a profound influence on Laurence both personally and professionally.

And somewhere aboard the Nosferatu 2.5, the books are waiting.

Just be careful which one you open!

Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey stars Sophie Aldred with James Showers as Hobbes.
Special Guests- Dan Starkey and Laurence Scott.

You can find us all over your social media.
Bluesky/Instagram/X: @aceodyssey63
Facebook: Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey

For listeners who want even more adventure, you can step inside the Ace Odyssey Patreon Community-
*Episodes released early and ad free
*Two exclusive podcasts every month
*Online meet-ups and interactive events
*Direct involvement in the evolving universe of the show
www.patreon.com/aceodyssey

Music by Graeme Allan
Sound Effects & Sound Design by Gavin Rymill
Programme Assistant Liz Whitmore

Based on a short story by Soula Carmichael
Written, Produced and Directed by Paul Carmichael

You can follow Graeme Allan on Bluesky @graemeallan and listen to more of his music at www.youtube.com/brassbandit

You can follow Gavin Rymill on Twitter & Bluesky @themindrobber, and you can watch his superb Dr.Who series Terry Nation Army on www.youtube.com/dalek6388

You can follow Paul Carmichael on Bluesky @paulcarmichaeluk and on Threads @paul.carmichael.1213
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Some stories are about monsters, some are about impossible planets, and some are about the rather more dangerous territory of memory, belonging and the places we still think of as home.

In this episode of Sophie Aldred’s Ace Odyssey, we welcome one of Doctor Who’s most distinctive writers, Rona Munro whose contribution to the programme spans almost thirty years, two television eras and two very different Doctors.

Rona wrote Survival, the final story broadcast during Doctor Who’s original television run in 1989. It was not intended to become the final classic Doctor Who story, but history gave it that distinction, and its closing image of the Doctor and Ace walking away together has acquired an extraordinary emotional resonance.

Nearly three decades later, Rona returned to the programme with The Eaters of Light, written for Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor. Set in Roman-era Scotland, it is another story concerned with lost children, divided communities, ancient memory and the ways in which the past refuses to remain comfortably in the past. Rona became the first writer to contribute to both the twentieth- and twenty-first-century television incarnations of Doctor Who.

Rona’s work beyond Doctor Who is equally remarkable. She is one of Britain’s most celebrated playwrights, with works including Bold Girls, Iron, The Last Witch and the acclaimed James Plays trilogy. Her writing is frequently concerned with people caught between history and the present, between the lives they have inherited and the lives they might yet make for themselves.

And then there is the rose.

Somewhere aboard the Nosferatu 2.5, Sophie encounters a story about a rose. A small, apparently simple thing that becomes rather more difficult to explain the longer one thinks about it. It is a story about memory, homesickness and the peculiar ways in which an object, a place or a recollection can become charged with everything we have lost.
We shall say no more about where that story leads.

Alongside Rona, the Ffantaface introduces Martin Spellacey, whose own relationship with Doctor Who has been both deeply personal and professionally transformative. Martin’s love of the programme has taken him from being a fan to working on the convention circuit, where he now assists some of the stars of the Whoniverse. His story is a reminder that Doctor Who does not simply exist on television or in audio studios: it lives in friendships, communities, careers, memories and the extraordinary connections made between people who might otherwise never have met.

This is an episode about the things stories leave behind, and the things they bring home with them.

Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey stars Sophie Aldred with James Showers as Hobbes.
Special Guests- Rona Munro & Martin Spellacey.

You can find us all over your social media.
Bluesky/Instagram/X: @aceodyssey63
Facebook: Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey

For listeners who want even more adventure, you can step inside the Ace Odyssey Patreon Community-
*Episodes released early and ad free
*Two exclusive podcasts every month
*Online meet-ups and interactive events
*Direct involvement in the evolving universe of the show
www.patreon.com/aceodyssey

Music by Graeme Allan
Sound Effects & Sound Design by Gavin Rymill
Programme Assistant Liz Whitmore

Based on a short story by Soula Carmichael
Written, Produced and Directed by Paul Carmichael

You can follow Graeme Allan on Bluesky @graemeallan and listen to more of his music at www.youtube.com/brassbandit

You can follow Gavin Rymill on Twitter & Bluesky @themindrobber, and you can watch his superb Dr.Who series Terry Nation Army on www.youtube.com/dalek6388

You can follow Paul Carmichael on Bluesky @paulcarmichaeluk and on Threads @paul.carmichael.1213
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Nosferatu 2.5 has a problem.

It is running blind, the controls are behaving strangely and, rather worryingly, the ship has decided that Sophie is no longer its Captain. With the usual systems refusing to cooperate, who better to call upon than the mathematical genius who once found himself at the controls of a spaceship with rather catastrophic consequences?

This week, Sophie is joined by Matthew Waterhouse, best known to Doctor Who fans as Adric, the brilliant but occasionally exasperating mathematical prodigy from Alzarius. Matthew joined Doctor Who in 1980, appearing alongside Tom Baker before continuing with Peter Davison, and Adric's final story, Earthshock, gave the series one of its most memorable companion departures. Having seized control of a Cyberman freighter, Adric managed to send it back in time and save countless lives, although the resulting impact also caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. So, naturally, we thought he would be the ideal person to take the controls of a ship lost in the Neverwhen!

Matthew has returned to Adric several times over the years, including a substantial body of audio work with Big Finish, beginning with The Fifth Doctor Box Set in 2014. He has also worked extensively as a writer, including his novels and memoir Blue Box Boy, and has continued to perform on stage and in audio.

And joining Sophie in the Ffantaface is Emily Cook, writer, script editor and producer, former Doctor Who Magazine writer and editor, Big Finish contributor and now Development Executive with Haunted Barn. Emily was also one of the driving forces behind the extraordinary Doctor Who Lockdown initiative in 2020, bringing fans and Doctor Who performers together online during the pandemic. She is also the author of the 2025 Doctor Who novel Fear Death by Water.

Oh, and there is the small matter of the Quantum Quickfire.
Let us simply say that someone, we are not naming names, develops a somewhat relaxed interpretation of the sixty-second rule. So relaxed, in fact, that Hobbes is eventually incapable of containing himself.

There may be consequences.
There may be indignation.
There may even be mathematics.

And somewhere aboard the Nosferatu 2.5, a spaceship that really ought to know better is about to put its fate in the hands of the boy who once flew a spaceship into Earth.

What could possibly go wrong?

Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey stars Sophie Aldred with James Showers as Hobbes.
Special Guests- Matthew Waterhouse & Emily Cook.

You can find us all over your social media.
Bluesky/Instagram/X: @aceodyssey63
Facebook: Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey

Emily's Twitter: @Emily_Rosina
Emily's Bluesky: @emilyrosina

For listeners who want even more adventure, you can step inside the Ace Odyssey Patreon Community-
*Episodes released early and ad free
*Two exclusive podcasts every month
*Online meet-ups and interactive events
*Direct involvement in the evolving universe of the show
www.patreon.com/aceodyssey

Music by Graeme Allan
Sound Effects & Sound Design by Gavin Rymill
Programme Assistant Liz Whitmore
Written, Produced and Directed by Paul Carmichael

You can follow Graeme Allan on Bluesky @graemeallan and listen to more of his music at www.youtube.com/brassbandit

You can follow Gavin Rymill on Twitter & Bluesky @themindrobber, and you can watch his superb Dr.Who series Terry Nation Army on www.youtube.com/dalek6388

You can follow Paul Carmichael on Bluesky @paulcarmichaeluk and on Threads @paul.carmichael.1213
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome aboard the Nosferatu 2.5 for a rather special journey through the wider world of Sophie Aldred’s Ace Odyssey for August Bank Holiday weekend!

With no Hobbes or Mrs C in sight, Sophie is joined by the show’s writer, director and producer Paul Carmichael, arriving, naturally, via the Time Scoop. Together they take a look behind the scenes at how Ace Odyssey came into being, before opening the doors to some of the material usually reserved for the Ffantafolk over on Patreon.

First comes Signals From Sophie’s Sofa, as Sophie answers questions submitted by followers on Instagram and Bluesky. Nothing is quite off limits, and with questions ranging from the sensible to the unexpected, Sophie finds herself navigating territory rather different from the usual Sofa of Infinite Understanding.

Then it’s time for AceComms. Sophie settles down to watch Doctor Who, this time revisiting Episode One of Remembrance of the Daleks, but she isn't watching alone. Joining her is Dalek expert and Ace Odyssey sound designer Gavin Rymill, offering his own insights and observations as the episode unfolds. You can listen along while watching the episode yourself, turning an old favourite into something rather more like a guided tour through the making, monsters and minutiae of one of Doctor Who's most celebrated adventures.

And finally, we go where the main programme rarely dares to venture...
The Extended Quantum Quickfire!
On the regular show, Sophie has sixty seconds to tackle the questions. On Patreon, the clock is rather less tyrannical. Here, you get the full twenty-five-experience, with Peter Purves facing the complete Quantum Quickfire and, as usual, discovering that sixty seconds was probably never remotely realistic in the first place.

Into The Ffantaface! is a chance to spend a little longer aboard the Nosferatu 2.5, discover more about the people behind the programme, and explore the extra material that has grown around the series.

And if you enjoy what you hear, there is considerably more waiting for you among the Ffantafolk over at www.patreon.com/aceodyssey

Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey stars Sophie Aldred.
Special Guests- Paul Carmichael & Gavin Rymill

You can find us all over your social media.
Bluesky/Instagram/X: @aceodyssey63
Facebook: Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey

For listeners who want even more adventure, you can step inside the Ace Odyssey Patreon Community-
*Episodes released early and ad free
*Two exclusive podcasts every month
*Online meet-ups and interactive events
*Direct involvement in the evolving universe of the show
www.patreon.com/aceodyssey

Music by Graeme Allan
Sound Effects & Sound Design by Gavin Rymill
Programme Assistant Liz Whitmore
Produced by Paul Carmichael

You can follow Graeme Allan on Bluesky @graemeallan and listen to more of his music at www.youtube.com/brassbandit

You can follow Gavin Rymill on Twitter & Bluesky @themindrobber, and you can watch his superb Dr.Who series Terry Nation Army on www.youtube.com/dalek6388

You can follow Paul Carmichael on Bluesky @paulcarmichaeluk and on Threads @paul.carmichael.1213
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Something is shushing aboard the Nosferatu 2.5.
But who is shushing whom? And why has the Time Scoop delivered Sarah Sutton aboard the ship apparently carrying fragments of a story that never existed?

This week, Sarah joins Sophie on the Sofa of Infinite Understanding for a journey through a remarkable career that began when she was just nine years old, playing Baby Roo in Winnie the Pooh, and continued through Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Moon Stallion and, of course, her unforgettable time as Nyssa alongside the Fifth Doctor. Sarah also reflects on her continuing work in audio and her return to the Doctor Who universe through Big Finish.
But there is something decidedly strange about this particular visit. Sarah seems to have arrived from somewhere else entirely, and the boundaries between fact, fiction and memory are becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish. As mysterious shushing sounds echo through the ship, Sophie and Hobbes begin to wonder whether the Neverwhen has started writing a story of its own.

Meanwhile, the Ffantaface welcomes Dr Adam Scovell, writer, filmmaker and author of Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange. A regular contributor to the BFI and Sight & Sound, Adam has made a particular study of the uneasy relationship between landscape, memory, folklore and horror, while his BFI work has taken him in search of the real locations behind some of cinema and television's most haunting stories. But how does Dr.Who figure in his story?

So what happens when a story that never happened starts behaving as though it did?
And, perhaps more importantly...
who is doing the shushing?

Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey stars Sophie Aldred with James Showers as Hobbes.
Special Guests- Sarah Sutton and Adam Scovell

You can find us all over your social media.
Bluesky/Instagram/X: @aceodyssey63
Facebook: Sophie Aldred's Ace Odyssey

You can see Adam's work at www.celluloidwickerman.com

For listeners who want even more adventure, you can step inside the Ace Odyssey Patreon Community-
*Episodes released early and ad free
*Two exclusive podcasts every month
*Online meet-ups and interactive events
*Direct involvement in the evolving universe of the show
www.patreon.com/aceodyssey

Music by Graeme Allan
Sound Effects & Sound Design by Gavin Rymill
Programme Assistant Liz Whitmore
Written, Produced and Directed by Paul Carmichael

You can follow Graeme Allan on Bluesky @graemeallan and listen to more of his music at www.youtube.com/brassbandit

You can follow Gavin Rymill on Twitter & Bluesky @themindrobber, and you can watch his superb Dr.Who series Terry Nation Army on www.youtube.com/dalek6388

You can follow Paul Carmichael on Bluesky @paulcarmichaeluk and on Threads @paul.carmichael.1213
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.