The Doctor Who Companion‘s own Christian Cawley has unearthed a long-lost interview with the Fourth Doctor producer, Philip Hinchcliffe.

Recorded in 2018 at the VworpCon event in Manchester, the interview provides valuable insights into Hinchcliffe’s tenure as showrunner from 1974 to 1977, with Tom Baker’s Fourth Doctor and a range of popular companions, a period often considered the golden age of Doctor Who. Hinchcliffe is credited with introducing a darker, more sophisticated tone to the series — serials under his tenure include The Ark in Space, Genesis of the Daleks, Terror of the Zygons, The Seeds of Doom, and The Robots of Death.

The interview, initially discarded as a failed recording, has been revived thanks to an AI tool called Podcastle, largely removing the audience noise, resulting in material usable for the latest edition of the Kasterborous podcast. Yes, Kasterborous — originally “The podKast with a K” — is still going, 17 years after its first episode way back in 2007.

In the interview, Hinchcliffe discusses the challenges and triumphs of producing Doctor Who during that era, including the importance of set design, the creative process behind the TARDIS, and his vision for the show’s future. “I wanted to get into my stories a little bit more sort of narrative thrust or narrative impetus, if you know what I mean,” Hinchcliffe says, and later suggests, “I think there are enormous story possibilities with the TARDIS, which probably haven’t really been fully explored.”

The interview is now available to listen to on Patreon, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify.