Since its relaunch in 2005, Doctor Who has grown increasingly ambitious. With Steven Moffat at the helm, episodes have felt like mini-movies, with a grand scale, dazzling special effects and a variety of beautiful locales. In the last two seasons, the show has even made its way across the pond to America. The fifth episode of the seventh season, “The Angels Take Manhattan,” which was filmed in New York City, will give a grand sendoff of The Doctor’s two current companions, Amy and Rory. Caroline Skinner is the executive producer of Doctor Who, which means it’s her job to make showrunner Steven Moffat’s visions a reality. We caught up with Skinner at BBC America’s offices before the premiere of “Asylum of the Daleks” at Ziegfeld Theater in New York City to talk about what the first-year executive producer has planned for the future.

Amelia Pond is the girl who waited for years for her “imaginary” friend The Doctor to return. After finally being reunited with him and going on a series of wild adventures and squaring off against Weeping Angels, Daleks and The Silence, it’s time for Amy to say goodbye and to return to her quiet life with her husband, Rory. There are just five episodes left with The Ponds. We caught up with Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond on Doctor Who, at BBC America’s offices before the premiere of “Asylum of the Daleks” at Ziegfeld Theater in New York City to talk about the many on-screen deaths of Rory, her love of Inspector Spacetime and the real life River Song.

He’s faced Daleks, Cybermen and the Silence, but this season The Doctor will face one of his greatest challenges – saying goodbye to Amy and Rory. The eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith, described the five-episode arc beginning this Saturday as “the fall of the Ponds.” We caught up with Smith at BBC America’s offices before the premiere of “Asylum of the Daleks” at Ziegfeld Theater in New York City to talk about the new season, his love of New York City and his secret desire to see The Doctor swinging from trees with Tarzan.

With a pack of enthusiastic fans herded behind barricades, from a distance the Doctor Who Series Seven premiere in New York City looked like a typical big Hollywood event. However, upon closer inspection, it was clear that these weren’t your average fans or Hollywood stars. Instead of arriving in black stretch limos, actors Matt Smith and Karen Gillan pulled up in front the Ziegfeld Theater in matching DeLoreans, a clever play on the British television show’s time travel theme.

Hobo Radio 231 - The silk shirt phase [ 1:12:20 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Lars makes his triumphant return to the show this week … and he is back with a vengeance. And by vengeance, we mean over-analytical thoughts about television and movies.

Lars and Joel Murphy briefly discuss Tony Scott’s career and his tragic apparent suicide. They also share some thoughts on back to school shopping and their many regrettable fashion decisions over the years. But the meat and potatoes of the show comes when the dynamic duo attempt to come up with their top five television shows of all time, an incredibly daunting task for two pop culture nerds like them.

What makes their top five? Will Tony Scott always be remembered first for Top Gun? Did Joel really have a silk shirt phase? The answers to these questions and more are in this week’s podcast.

This week’s music:

• Intro – “Giddy Up” by Tahuna Breaks
• End – “Porno Movie” by AMPSEX

Like many kids, Axel Braun ended up falling into the family business. However, unlike most kids, for Axel that business was porn. Following in his father’s footsteps, Braun has made a name for himself in the porn business as a director of high end superhero parodies. His films like Batman XXX, Superman XXX and Spider-man XXX have won him awards in his industry and attention from mainstream audiences. What sets his films apart is that Braun grew up a comic book fan and thus has an attention to detail that is rarely matched. He makes sure that the look of the costumes and sets are authentic and he adds in little details and flourishes that only someone who spent many hours flipping through the pages of comic books would know to add. His latest film is The Dark Knight XXX, which combines elements from Christopher Nolan’s films with pieces from the comics and from the popular Arkham City video game. We recently sat down with Braun, who was nice enough to talk to us about the family business, his love of comics and his thoughts on Nolan’s trilogy.

Hobo Radio 230 - Axel Braun [ 36:21 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download