Category Archives: Reviews

Eh not bad, one of the better ‘historical’ Doctor Whos of the early days. Set in 12th century Palestine, we have intrigues and fights involving King Richard and his knights, Saladin and his moors, with the Doctor and his companions … Continue reading →

Regeneration 1 Series 014 The Crusade Eh not bad, one of the better ‘historical’ Doctor Whos of the early days.  Set in 12th century Palestine, we have intrigues and fights involving King Richard and his knights, Saladin and his moors, … Continue reading →

True Grit by Charles Portis Written in 1968 but feeling like it comes from us from a writer maybe 80 years earlier, this is a fine first-person account from the perspective of a 14 year old girl, Mattie Ross, about … Continue reading →

This one was not good.  There were actors dressed up as giant ants, weird woodlouse-type creatures and giant butterflies. The actors were trying to do weird actions and intonations, I guess to appear otherworldly, but it came across as pretty … Continue reading →

A fun one, with the Doctor and companions up to shenanigans in Ancient Rome, and managing to fit in slave auctions, galley slaves rowing in a storm, gladiatorial fights, and the Emperor Nero deciding to burn down Rome.  The Doctor … Continue reading →

Rather poor two-parter involving an alien holding some humans in fear, but turns into a routine murder-mystery.  Only really notable for the introduction of a new companion, Vicki, Rating: Bad 2/10

The Tardis makes it to Earth, but a future earth – the year 2164AD.  They land in a deserted, damaged London, and find evidence of strange happenings (there is a sign prohibiting the dumping of bodies in the Thames).  It … Continue reading →

The Tardis has a malfunction whilst trying to get the travellers back to their own time and country, and the travellers find themselves in contemporary times, but shrunken to the size of an inch.  They do not realize their location, … Continue reading →

The Tardis appears to land in the English countryside, as the Doctor is mad at Ian and Barbara, and wants to return them to their own time.  It turns out they are in the France of Robespierre, and indeed we … Continue reading →

Here the crew land on a spaceship and think everyone is dead.  It turns out they’re not, they’ve been incapacitated, and keep getting incapacitated whenever they try to leave orbit of the planet they’re close to, called The Sense-Sphere.  It … Continue reading →

Some nice touches in this one, with the Doctor and companions landing right in the middle of the Aztec civilization. Barbara gets taken for a reincarnation of a revered high preistess, and starts to declare human sacrifice is unpleasing for … Continue reading →

Rather good story where the Doctor and his companions land on the world Marinus, where a supercomputer once ran everything, but went wrong and was shut down.  A  scientist has fixed it, but needs the assistance of the visitors to … Continue reading →

Book Review: A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Borroughs Written by the man who would later go on to create Tarzan, this is the first book in the ‘Barsoom’ set of books (Barsoom being a name for the planet … Continue reading →

Red Dwarf Series 4 A great outing for the crew of Red Dwarf, maintaining the feet they found in series 3, and containing some wonderful sci-fi ideas as well as excellent gags. It consists of 6 episodes: ‘Camille’, ’DNA’, ’Justice’,  … Continue reading →

An Idiot Abroad – Series 1 and 2 This show is about the travels of Karl Pilkington, a long-time colleague of the comedy writers/performers Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant.  Karl is rather close-minded, glum and always seems to find the … Continue reading →

Game of Thrones This is an excellent 10-part drama about the intrigues, violence and everything else you’d expect in a clearly adult drama series set in fictional kingdoms that bear than more than a passing resemblance to Tolkein’s middle earth … Continue reading →

The Grinch (2000) Made in 2000 and directed by Ron Howard but mostly dismissed somewhat by critics and held up in many circles to be a bit of a Christmas turkey, this is, in my opinion, a most excellent and … Continue reading →

I am Spock by Leonard Nimoy This is a memoir by Nimoy which zooms through his involvement with the TV series (but gives enough to be interesting) and then more exhaustively covers his involvement with the 6 star trek movies … Continue reading →

Ronin An interesting work by Miller predating his more famous works (such as The Dark Knight Returns, Sin City and 300), and hailed by some as his first masterpiece, I was definitely engaged for the first half of book one … Continue reading →

Rather over-extended story (spanning 7 episodes) about Marco Polo encountering the Tardis crew and taking their ‘flying caravan’ as a gift for the Kublai Khan.  This was a really-drawn-out, wordy story, that meandered about for much of its running time, … Continue reading →

Beneath the Planet of the Apes Okay, this starts with 5 minutes from the end of the first movie, after which we see Charlton Heston as Taylor disappear into a landscape, leaving his non-talking companion Nova alone on a horse … Continue reading →

Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett This is the third book by Pratchett about Discworld, and involves no characters from the previous books – and as such the reader can read this one as a standalone without being disadvantaged. It involves … Continue reading →

The 40 year-old virgin The film wasn’t that funny or particularly engaging for the first 10 or so minutes, the characters seemed flat, and there weren’t many laughs. It warmed up a bit during a poker game, where a little … Continue reading →

Batman: Year One This 2011 animated movie is adapted quite directly from a graphic novel of the same name.  It’s a rather good origin story, plotting the course of two men arriving in Gotham – Bruce Wayne after years of … Continue reading →

Trilogy of Terror (1975) This is a made-for-TV anthology horror movie consists of three stories.  Each story is about a specific woman or women, and each central character is played by the same actress, Karen Black.  She’s actually quite a … Continue reading →