The Beatles and Doctor Who: A Shared Timeline, with Ed Chen and James Ryan

This month, two behemoths of British culture crashed into one
another, when the new season of Doctor Who featured a
much-anticipated Beatles episode called “The Devil’s Chord.” Both
fandoms have been hoping for this crossover episode for years,
and we finally got it, complete with an incredible new villain
played by Jinkx Monsoon.


Erika is joined by James Ryan and Ed Chen, who both have one foot
solidly planted in both of these fandoms, giving us an excuse to
nerd out over these worlds colliding. With their love of Doctor
Who, the Beatles, and alternate history stories, there are few
people more qualified to talk about this topic. 


James (Jim) Ryan is the author of the novels Raging Gail and Red
Jenny and the Pirates of Buffalo, as well as the popular history
The Pirates of New York and short stories in numerous
anthologies. He writes the column “Fantasia Obscura” for Forces
of Geek, continuing on from his initial run at REBEAT. A lifelong
Beatles fan, his alternate-history stories of the Beatles have
been published in a collection called Alt Together Now. 


Ed Chen is the co-creator and co-host of the When They Was Fab
and the Toppermost of the Poppermost podcasts. He tells us that
somewhere, buried in his deep dark past is a Beatles/Doctor Who
fanfic, where he “Mary Sue’d” himself and his friends into the
companion roles. 


We’ll be talking about just some of the many connections between
the Beatles and Doctor Who, including their shared timeline,
actors who played both Doctors and Beatles, and the many Beatles
references over Doctor Who’s 60-year history. We’ll also recap
the Beatles-specific parts of the Doctor Who/Beatles episode,
“The Devil’s Chord.”


We’ve kept this episode focused on the Beatles-related elements
of both the history and the episode, and we’ll be discussing
spoilers for “The Devil’s Chord.” 


If you want more Doctor Who, the When They Was Fab podcast has an
extended cut of this conversation with a deeper dive into the
Doctor Who side of things.


 


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