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Page 1:

Genesis of the Daleks -
The Watch -
Dimensions In Time -
Guardians of the Galaxy -
Dreamland -

Page 2:

Wreck-It Ralph -
The Three Doctors -

Page 3:

Ted -
Terror of the Zygons -
Iron Man 2
Time Crash
The Infinite Quest
The Lost World: Jurassic Park -
Love & Monsters -
Jurassic Park 3 -
The Edge of Destruction

Page 4:

Jurassic World -
Doctor Who: The Movie -
Little Fockers -
Day of the Doctor -

Page 5:

Ratatouille -
Deep Breath -
The Blair Witch Project -
Dalek -
Journey To The Center of the Earth-

Page 6:

School Reunion -
Thunderbirds -
The Invisible Enemy -
Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal - The Movie -

Page 7:

Russian Ark -
Britain's Got Talent: Episode One -

Page 8:

Enemy of the World -
Bedtime Stories -
Time And The Rani -

Page 9:

The Two Doctors -
The Eleventh Hour -
The Curse of Clyde Langer -
Samsara -
The Stolen Earth/Journey's End -

Page 10:

The Big Chill -
Britain's Got Talent: Episode Two -
Michael McIntyre's Big Show: Episode One -
The Sontaran Experiment -
The War Games -

Page 11:

The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot -
The Intouchables -
Earthshock -
StreetDance 3D -
Aliens of London/World War Three -

Page 12:

Dr. Dolittle 3 -
Friend From The Future -
Britain's Got Talent Episode Three -
Michael McIntyre's Big Show: Episode Two -

Page 13:

The Jungle Book (1967) -
The Jungle Book (2016) -
Life In A Day -
A Fix With Sontarans -
Britain's Got Talent: Episode Four -
Michael McIntyre's Big Show: Episode Three -
Night of the Doctor -

Page 14:

Let's Kill Hitler -
42 -
Britain's Got Talent: Episode Five -
Britain's Got Talent: Episode Six -
Michael McIntyre's Big Show: Episode Four -
Technophobia -
Britain's Got Talent: Episode Seven -

Page 15:

Michael McIntyre's Big Show: Episode Five -
Britain's Got Talent: Semi Final 1 -
Britain's Got Talent: Semi Final 2 -
Time Reaver -
Britain's Got Talent: Semi Final 3 -
Britain's Got Talent - Semi Final 4 -
Death and the Queen -
Britain's Got Talent: Semi Final 5 -
The Stockbridge Showdown -
The Fantastic Four (1994) -

Page 16:

Britain's Got Talent Final 2016 -
Michael McIntyre's Big Show: Episode Six -
Sleep No More -
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -

Page 17:

Logopolis -
The Time Meddler -
Little Miss Sunshine -

Page 18:

Agents of SHIELD Season One -
Spearhead From Space -
Agents of SHIELD Season Two -
The Invasion -
Agents of SHIELD: Season Three -
The Mutant Phase -
Underdog -

Page 19:

The Dalek Extermination of Earth -
LEGO Harry Potter: Years 1-4 -

Planet of the Dead -

Grey Gardens -
The Ark In Space -

Mamma Mia -
Gotham: Season One -

Page 20:

Gotham: Rise of the Villains -
Journey To The Centre of the TARDIS -
Psycho -
The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith -

Page 21:

The Magic Roundabout (2005) -
The End of the World -
Scooby-Doo -
The Beginning -
Wall.E -

Page 22:

The Web of Fear -
Independence Day -
The Iron Legion -
Flushed Away -
Doctor Who: Evacuation Earth -
Les Miserables -
Planet of the Spiders -

Page 23:

SpaceCamp -
The Ribos Operation -
The Pirate Planet -
The Stones of Blood -
The Androids of Tara -

Page 24:

The Power of Kroll -
The Armageddon Factor -
Maggie Simpson In The Longest Daycare -
Shaun of the Dead -
The Flintstones -
Cats & Dogs -

Page 25:

Ghostbusters (1984) -
Ghostbusters 2 -
Ghostbusters (2016) -
Terror of the Autons -

Page 26:

The Five Obstructions -
The End of Time -
Norbit -
The Twin Dilemma -
The Cat In The Hat -
The Fourth Wall -
Agent Carter: Season One -
Remembrance of the Daleks -

Page 27:

G-Force -
The Blame Game -
Speed Racer -
Paradise Towers -
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa -
The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky -

Page 28:

Mr Bean's Holiday -
The Wrong Doctors -
Hot Fuzz -
Fallen Angels -
Die Hard -
Judoon In Chains -

Page 29:

Dr Who And The Daleks -
Harvest of the Sycorax -
Thor: The Dark World -
The Sontaran Ordeal -
Singin' In The Rain -

Page 30:

The Caretaker -
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory -
The Invasion - Animation of Episodes One and Two -
Alvin And The Chipmunks -
The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances -

Page 31:

Wallace and Gromit’s World of Invention -
2012 -
Marco Polo (Telesnap Reconstruction) - Telesnap reconstruction: , Doctor Who Classic Series Serial Potential -
Grease Live -
The Unicorn and the Wasp -
Juno -

Page 32:

Toy Story 3D -
Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel -
Gravity -
Super Cafe: Who's A Hero -

Page 33:

Two & Two -
Moving In -
Class: For Tonight We Might Die -
The Coach With The Dragon Tattoo -
Nightvisiting -
Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them -
The Dying Light -


Page 34:

La La Land -
The LEGO Batman Movie -
The Greatest Show In The Galaxy -
The Pilot -
Smile -
Thin Ice (TV) -
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 -
Knock Knock -
Extremis/The Pyramid At The End Of The World/The Lie Of The Land -


Page 35:

Oxygen -
[color="blue"]Extremis/The Pyramid At The End Of The World/Lie Of The Land -
Empress of Mars -
The Eaters of Light -

Page 36:

World Enough And Time/The Doctor Falls -
Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie -
Spider-Man: Homecoming -
The Year After I Died -

Page 37:

Wednesdays For Beginners -

Trust Me -
Soul -
Wonder Woman -
School Of Rock -
Captain America: The First Avenger -
Captain America: The Winter Soldier -
Captain America: Civil War -
Enola Holmes -
The Mitchells vs. The Machines -
Bear Grylls: You Vs. Wild: Animals On The Loose -

Blue - Doctor Who
Green - Doctor Who spinoffs/fanmade content
Red - LEGO

Genesis of the Daleks review

Genesis of the Daleks is often thought of as a classic among us Whovians; so golden, in fact, that it would probably destroy an entire Cyberman fleet. It's obvious why, for Genesis of the Daleks is an excellent tale of morality that even manages to surpass the excellence of the very first Dalek serial 'The Daleks'.

One thing that's very clever about Genesis is how Terry Nation scatters hints throughout at what the Kaleds will become. The Kaleds already believe in purity. They already want to exterminate those whom they see as inferior. It's not hard to see that these Kaleds will become the machines of hatred we love to hate. Terry Nation was, of course, inspired by the Nazis when he created the Daleks; the Kaleds are already essentially Nazis here.

If the Kaleds are Nazis, then that makes the primary antagonist of this six parter, Davros, as their Hitler. And what a great Hitler he makes. Michael Wisher is brilliant; at all times, he seems every bit as intimidating as you would naturally expect for a scientist dictator desperate to see his new creation the Daleks succeed.

What truly sets this serial among the true greats of Doctor Who, however, is the gripping exploration of the Doctor's morality. The 'Do I have the right?' speech is an iconic and defining moment for the show, and for good reason too. The classic series isn't particularly known for its writing but the famous speech is as good as, if not better than the superior writing and dialogue of the new series.

Simply put: Genesis of the Daleks is a masterpiece and if you don't like it, you should be exterminated.

Genesis of the Daleks -

Yes:cool:.

He is, and it is a shame for various reasons he was never able to play the role again.

I must strongly disagree with you here. The classic series had some exceptionally well written stories. Actually, one thing you didn't mention was the acting – would you class the new series as superior in that respect too?

Michael Wisher and Julian Bleach will always be the best versions of Davros.

Obviously it largely depends on the story but overall I think the new series definitely sees a vast improvement in acting over the classic. The low point in the classic series is Marcus Hammond as Antodus in The Daleks. The way he delivers the line 'I can't hold on' always makes me cringe to the point where I'm glad when he falls to his death.

Even if you compare that to the low point in the new series, Peter Kay as Victor Kennedy, at least he is somewhat convincing as Victor even if he is laughably bad as the Abzorbaloff.

As for the high points: Tom Baker in Genesis of the Daleks VS probably David Tennant in The Water of Mars, it's definitely David Tennant's performance that comes out on top for me. I just think it's a shame Russell T Davies didn't follow up the Time Lord Victorious in The End of Time until (arguably) the 'So much more!' scene before the farewell tour.

I didn't see all of his last appearance but I liked Bleach because he seems to be doing an homage to all his predecessors really. In his first story what I didn't like was that he was too physical in the chair. Davros shouldn't be Doctor Strangelove, you know? Terry Molloy was great too, and in his audios – Davros especially I think. And David Gooderson had a difficult job and a terrible mask to work under – it looks like they just cut Wisher's old one about a bit to make it fit:).

"We'll all be done for" in The Mutants is also a terrible howler isn't it:p.

What got me about the Abzorbaloff is that Russell T Davies approached it too much as a writer, trying to turn the winning kid's competition drawing into a character. The Abzorbaloff needed to be a huge, sumo-like rampaging monster that absorbed its victims. No more, no less. Kay was very funny with what they did create – I particularly like the faces trying to warn Elton and the one on the Abzorbaloff's backside is muffled because he's sat on a chair:D!

I thought The Waters of Mars was really impressive – the set design was incredible – and the zombie-like victims of the Flood really scary. I hated the ending though and it did colour my attitude to the Tenth Doctor for a while afterwards. I thought he should have gone back to save the crew because he saw it as the right thing to do, not because of his own arrogance. That way it would have been much more shocking and heartbreaking when his good intentions ended in disaster.

I very much liked Matt Smith's performance in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship. I think it's one of the best Doctor stories in the new series because everything that makes the character great is there for Smith to play.

Julian Bleach was definitely a lot better in The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar. I think much like the Master Davros works better with a creepier, more sinister performance than a raving lunatic (although I did like Julian Bleach's portrayal in The Stolen Earth/Journey's End too).

As bad as Marcus Hammond's 'I can't hold on', though? :D


Peter Kay needed a different role in my opinion. He'd have been great as Malcolm in Planet of the Dead.



I disagree, I thought it was a great place to take the 10th Doctor considering earlier episodes had treated him like a mythical God (see Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords). It felt like series 2,3 and 4 had all been leading up to this moment, like we'd been prepared ever since the 10th Doctor said 'Barcelona'. It was without a doubt a natural development for this Doctor and allowed David Tennant to give arguably his best performance as 10 before he regenerated.

Personally, I prefer Matt Smith in The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang. I can't imagine any other Doctor pulling off the Pandorica speech quite like he did.

The Watch


I want to start off this review by saying The Watch is nowhere near as bad as people make out. Yes, it's not the funniest film and some of the jokes fall flat but I've seen far worse (I'm looking at you, Little Fockers) and it's still a decent enough comedy.

The main problem though is one of the things I mentioned in the first paragraph: some of the jokes are painfully unfunny. Vince Vaughn's lines raised little more than a chuckle from me and surprisingly the same can be said for Ben Stiller's. I don't think this is either actors' fault, it's just that they deserved better material because when they're on form in the film they're funny. It's a shame then that they're not often as funny as you'd like.

Another problem is that Richard Ayoade is badly miscast. He seems completely out of place throughout the film and it's like he was supposed to be filming The IT Crowd but got lost and accidentally ended up on the set of The Watch instead. Matt Smith would have probably been a better choice for the role; he has the 'odd' appearance to pull the character's surprise twist off.

Also, the film just feels like the writers took Ghostbusters and replaced the ghosts with aliens. You've got a local gang taking calls from people in the neighbourhood about strange goings-on, green slime, even an adult version of Peter Venkman. The only thing is it's not as funny as Ghostbusters. And it was never going to be.

So overall, The Watch isn't a bad film but it's not a particularly good comedy either. It's essentially a carbon-copy of Ghostbusters only without Bill Murray; the all-male reboot of Ghostbusters that unlike the mooted Russo Brothers version actually got made.

I can't remember, probably worse:).

Yeah, that could have worked.

Looking back I think The Girl in the Fireplace is still my favourite of his stories.

I love The Girl In The Fireplace and was glad to see the Clockwork Droids return in Deep Breath. Hopefully they'll make another return appearance at some point because it's a great monster concept.

Dimensions In Time review

Dimensions In Time is how NOT to do a multi-Doctor adventure. It has everything that could possibly go wrong with a multi-Doctor story: some of the Doctors don't get enough screentime, the narrative is confusing and almost non-existent, the acting often treads into camp territory and the companions may as well not be there.

It also inexplicably crosses over into EastEnders.

Who the hell wants to see Doctor Who in the same universe as EastEnders?

There's a reason why Tony Stark doesn't pop into The Woolpack or Bruce Wayne doesn't eat a Betty's hotpot in the Rover's. And that reason is because it would look ridiculous.

If there's one good thing about Dimensions In Time, it's that it only lasts fifteen minutes.

Were they supposed to be the same type of clockwork droids? I hadn't realised that. I thought Peter Capaldi was at his best in Into the Dalek – I loved that one. Unfortunately I haven't seen him at that high level since, in the few episodes of his I have seen.

If you remember they did exactly the same thing with Red Dwarf and Coronation Street. The strange thing is that even in a comedy scenario it was awful and unwanted, because Red Dwarf itself had gone beyond a situation comedy, attaining a developed fictional universe with its own integrity. I feel the same way when an excess of comedy or tongue-in-cheek aspects encroach into Doctor Who, as it did toward the end of Tom Baker's era and at odd times during the new series. If you don't keep that slightly at bay, it's never going to be as effective as it can be when it's taken seriously.

They were from the Madame De Pompadour's sister ship the SS Marie Antoinette. Same make, different casing.
I think his speech from Flatline will always be Peter Capaldi's defining moment personally. It felt like the equivalent of 10's Voyage of the Damned speech or 4's 'Do I Have The Right?'.

Guardians of the Galaxy review

Rather fittingly given the main character has never had a chance to move on from the 80s, this movie feels like an 80s film. And like the best films from the 1980s, it has a wonderful feel-good aesthetic. This is largely influenced by the inspired choice to feature 80s music throughout in a neat framing device that the music is being played on Peter Quill's Walkman.

Speaking of Peter Quill, Chris Pratt is brilliant in that role (as expected). Like a hybrid of Marty McFly and Indiana Jones, Pratt's Quill is a cheeky young adventurer with lots of wit and charm. Bradley Cooper's Rocket Racoon is also great, giving an entertaining and often humorous performance.

Oh, and Karen Gillan. Karen Gillan was amazing. I wish she had been the main villain of the film because she was far more convincing as Nebula than Ronan the Accuser. I am so glad Karen Gillan is returning in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 because she is one of my favourite things about the movie.

The film is extremely well-paced throughout. Never a dull moment; no scene too long, no scene too short. Just right. My only criticism of the film is that the dialogue can be pretty quiet in places. Make sure, then, that you're not in a loud place where you may miss parts of the dialogue.

Guardians of the Galaxy is like a brilliant film adaptation of the Fantastic Four if it had been made in the 80s. It may not be Fantastic Four but it feels like what a Fantastic Four film should be.

Ah, got you. They were good in Deep Breath.

You see I find the Voyage speech one of the nadirs of the writing – maybe it's because to me it just sounds like a writer trying to sell us the programme rather than a character's natural rhythms?

I love the scene with the Doctor rescuing Journey Blue. That's my favourite Capaldi moment. I also loved Flatline. The Boneless were great (bit like the Nomes in Return to Oz) but having the Doctor give that speech and finish with "And I name you the Boneless" was ridiculous:). It's interesting when they give these pages of dialogue to other Doctors at conventions and they dutifully read them out. Paul McGann was interesting with the Flatline speech because his tone of voice, even cold, lent itself to bringing out the horror of what the Boneless were and what they were doing.

Occasionally you can tell they weren't written for that Doctor though, which occasionally can spoil the thrill of seeing other Doctors give their take.

I think Sylvester McCoy doing the Pandorica speech was pretty good, and in fact it probably suited him more than Smith. I like the fact that Steven Moffat's tendency towards making the Doctor arrogant and self-publicizing was often undercut by Matt Smith so that his Eleventh Doctor never seemed that way. Paul McGann underplayed those areas of dialogue even more successfully in Night of the Doctor.

I was very disappointed in The Watch after thinking the trailer was hilarious.

Night of the Doctor has to be without a doubt the best minisode for the show so far. Paul McGann's regeneration couldn't have possibly been any better.

Yeah, I thought it would have been better than it was. It still wasn't a terrible movie though like many would lead you to believe.

Dreamland review

Dreamland has a great premise for a Doctor Who story. So why the three stars?

Well, the animation sucks. It's so bad it makes 60s Scooby Doo cartoons look like they were made in the present day. Cartoon Doctor bears no resemblance to real life David Tennant whatsoever and he walks around as if he's a puppet in a Gerry Anderson show.

I mean, compare David Tennant's look here...:

http://www.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/wp...d/overview.jpg

...to David Tennant's real life appearance:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/staticarchive/e...65a621c28a.jpg

How the animators could think it even bears a close resemblance to David Tennant beats me.

Fortunately, it is saved from being a disaster by the excellent voice acting and brilliant narrative. David Tennant is on top form as usual and Georgia Moffett is brilliant as Cassie Rice. Writer Phil Ford has also done a brilliant job, with some great pieces of dialogue throughout. I'd love to know the decision to use a American setting though.

You've got absolutely no limitations with locations for animation...and they opt for America?

Why not a distant planet that would be difficult to realise on-screen? Or a time period that would require lots of expensive SFX such as the prehistoric era?

Dreamland is a big missed opportunity and it's a shame the animation wasn't better to support a great narrative and voice-acting by those involved.

For me there were only a few things wrong with it: the actress playing Cass could have been better; the mention that the Doctor could choose to change sex; and, that the Doctor name checked all of the audio companions only, which I thought was a shame for fans of the novels.

I agree about the animation on Dreamland. I liked The Infinite Quest a lot more.

I think Emma Campbell-Jones did a good job with what she had but to be fair to her, whilst Night of the Doctor was extremely well-written there wasn't really a lot to Cass.

As for the Doctor being able to choose sex, it didn't really bother me because personally I'm in the 'I wouldn't mind a female Doctor' camp. I think if done well it has the potential of being a workable concept. The problem would be if the Doctor is written as a stereotype of a female Doctor. And yeah, it is a real shame they chose to make Big Finish canonical and not the comics also.

I thought it was a shame they didn't use the animation style of The Infinite Quest because I thought it worked extremely well. It was done by Cosgrove Hall (who also made Danger Mouse) whereas Dreamland was made pretty much on the cheap with an unknown animation company.

Cosgrove Hall have always been great:). I liked what they did with The Invasion, and Scream of the Shalka was good too.

My thinking was as follows: he's been given the choice of what to be in order to best fight a war – would changing sex be high on his list? Not only that, if they're saying it doesn't matter whether he's male or female, why mention it at all:)!?

When Tilda Swinton is mentioned I tend to think that aside from her striking appearance she has played androgynous characters in the past: Orlando; Gabriel in Constantine. I think it's best to avoid that association.

Yeah, the animation for The Invasion was great. I wish they hadn't gone bust because it's interesting to think what we could have had if they'd been able to produce more of the animated missing episodes. I imagine their version of The Reign of Terror would look a lot different.

I think a better female Doctor would be somebody more like Miranda Hart. Not from a comic relief side but more in terms of a conventionally unattractive appearance with a certain 'odd' look similar to Matt Smith or Tom Baker.

Oh my God, I didn't realize they'd gone bust. How awful.

Yeah I know what you mean. Vicky McClure has that look. If they'd cast a woman when it came back in 2005 Tamsin Greig would have been my choice.

Unfortunately, a lot of great companies seem to go bust. I miss Woolworths.

Although I have a feeling they'd probably try to cast a really big name actor for the first female Doctor to ease people into the change.

Wreck-It Ralph review

If there's never a movie based on Mario Kart, then this will be the closest we'll come to one. It was a surprise when watching this today to find so much of the screen time devoted to the fictional kart-racing game Candy Rush (I expected from what I'd read about the film that it would be mainly set in Hero's Duty) but the Candy Rush part of the film captures the essence and feel of a Mario Kart film better than any other racing spectacle in a movie. Even better than Speed Racer does.

And what about the rest of the film?

Well, the game world of Wreck It Ralph is so unfair before the end of the film that you actually find yourself feeling sorry for the arcade game's villain Ralph. I never thought I'd find a film where I'm rooting for someone portrayed as a stereotypical villain to win but here you really root for Ralph given that pretty much everyone is an absolute dick to him. Usually you'd expect that to be a criticism for a film but of course here it's not given that Ralph is also our protagonist of the film.

Hero's Duty is interesting in the small amount of screen time it takes up. It's fun to see how the hectic world of a HD first-person shooter compares to the more Donkey Kong-esque rinse and repeat routine of Fix It Felix Jr. The great thing is that there's so many little touches in this film that there's an immediate difference in the way Sergeant Calhoun moves in comparison to a Fix It Felix Jnr or Candy Rush character. The characters in Hero's Duty move more slick, whereas in Fix It Felix the characters have more stop-motion movements similar to those in The LEGO Movie and Candy Rush characters all skipping around as you would expect from child-friendly games.

The film is like an amazing hybrid of Toy Story, Monsters' Inc and Mario Kart. It has Toy Story's intriguing question of 'What happens once you've stopped playing?' applied to videogame characters, the quirky monster society of Monsters' Inc only with Q*Bert and co instead and the craziness of Mario Kart. None of this makes the film feel unoriginal but instead it helps create the kind of masterpiece you expect to find in a brilliant animated film. You really care and feel for the characters in the film, you really feel a sense of peril when something goes wrong, you really laugh when something funny happens (I loved Fix It Felix's 'I'm hopless, it's hopeless!"). It's like all the best animated masterpieces and that's because it draws inspiration from them. From Ralph going through a similar life lesson to Buzz Lightyear to villain King Candy being like an evil version of Woody due to his jealousy towards a more successful kart-racing game than the one he stars in, Wreck It Ralph is a brilliant animated film that learns from the very best of animated movies and kart games.

Re: Now Showing - DalekbusterScreen5's reviews
 

Wreck It Ralph is awesome. It looks great, and is a really nice heart felt movie. My little boy loves it.

It's funny though, when Christopher Eccleston was chosen it was more for his TV roles I think. Certainly I would say he was a household name because of Our Friends in the North and Cracker, amongst other things.

I like unknowns, I really do. That was the big draw with Matt Smith. Never seen him, never heard of him. Instantly liked him:).

Your little boy has good taste. Hopefully the sequel will manage to maintain the quality.

The Three Doctors review

This being the multi-Doctor adventure which started the tradition, it's hard not to see why multi-Doctor stories became as popular as they are today. Whilst it's a shame William Hartnell couldn't have a bigger role due to illness, Patrick Troughton and Jon Pertwee are hilarious together and form a entertaining double act.

The plot also adds some interesting details to Time Lord mythos; here, we meet the stellar engineer of time travel technology Omega (who was trapped in a anti-matter universe by the Time Lords). Omega is one of the best villains ever to be introduced in the show; he has a certain presence that makes you instantly fear him whenever he appears in shot. It's also a rare instance where the classic series look almost rivals the look of the monsters and villains in the new series; Omega's costume would not look out of place in the 2005 reboot of the show.

If you love Doctor Who and haven't seen The Three Doctors, then I urge you to watch it. For it showcases exactly what makes the traditional multi-Doctor adventure so great.

The Two Doctors is my favourite multi-Doctor story, I think because the scenario is almost secondary to the characters.

Yeah it's great. Completely different acting styles as well – Troughton would give the gist of the dialogue whereas Pertwee was word-perfect and needed the right cues (creating a little tension;)). I always wonder what it would have been like if William Hartnell had been able to interact with them fully.

He has a lot of potential as a villain I think, and the original mask here is good because it's like those from Greek theatre.

My thinking is that the best ever monsters appeared in the Sixties, if not always in terms of realisation but in terms of ideas.

I was a little disappointed with The Two Doctors. Patrick Troughton deserved more screen time alongside Colin Baker than he got.

I could imagine him being like the angry father trying to get his two sons to behave. You can see shades of that in the little screen appearances he did have on the scanner in the TARDIS.


Thankfully, we will also get to see him make his long overdue return soon also - in K9: Timequake, due for release sometime next year.



Of course, it's how we got the Daleks and the Cybermen. Who knows what would have happened to the series without the Daleks?

That would have been good but they tried something a bit different – i.e. just having the two incarnations run into each other – and I think that was better than it being over some massive crisis.

That's right and I loved the fact that that was done with John Hurt in Day of the Doctor as well. In fact if you look at the audio The Sirens of Time, Peter Davison's Doctor pretty much takes on the same role while the Sixth and Seventh Doctors squabble:).

Have you read the script of The Masters of Luxor? It's brilliant. Big Finish turned it into an audio story but I haven't listened to it as yet.

I think they could have still done that with having more 2nd and 6th Doctor interaction. I'm not saying they should have had a bigger-scale plot but I think having hardly any scenes with 2 and 6 together defeats the point of a Multi-Doctor adventure.

It's a formula that works with Multi-Doctors; you can almost see it with the 5th Doctor in Time Crash too before he realises who the 10th Doctor is.

I haven't. I'll have to listen to Big Finish's version at some point.

Ted review

I don't know what to say about this movie other than it's completely barking mad. It's like Seth MacFarlane was drunk when he wrote it. Maybe he was drunk. But one thing's for sure, Ted is the most insane film I've ever seen.

Sometimes this can be a hinder. Occasionally it can become a bit too silly (usually scenes involving violence) but overall it's pretty funny to watch. Seth MacFarlane is brilliant as Ted; the voice just suits the character and adds to the manic feel of the film.

Talking of the film's manic feel, a particular highlight is the cameo from Flash Gordon actor Sam Jones; a fun appearance that tests where John's (Mark Whalberg) loyalties truly lie: with Ted and their shared love for the film Flash Gordon or with his girlfriend Lori Collins (played by Mila Kunis).

Ted is a brilliant film with some brilliant jokes but if you don't like things to be a bit silly, I'd give this one a miss.

I tell you what though, I think only seeing one or the other for long periods does reinforce the fact that they're the same person:).

Terror of the Zygons review - WARNING: Possible spoilers

It's easy to see why 10th Doctor David Tennant is such a big fan of Terror of the Zygons: there's lots of running and plenty of behind-the-sofa moments which will truly send shivers down your spine. In fact, if you're not a big fan of Terror of the Zygons then you must be a Zygon yourself. For it's unquestionably a golden moment for Doctor Who and one that even new series fans who don't like the classic series will enjoy.

The first thing that strikes you is that the pace more closely resembles the RTD Era of the show than the classic series. Sure, the first episode may be a little slow compared to the other three but it wouldn't work otherwise. It needs those little teases of the enemy before you see a Zygon come after Sarah Jane. But the other three episodes are literally on-stop with lots of scares and action sequences comparable to the pace of Silence of the Library/Forest of the Dead (to use one RTD Era example).

That's not what makes Terror of the Zygons work, though. What really makes it work is the general sense of distrust surrounding the serial. You can't trust anyone for those you would usually trust may be in actual fact a Zygon using their body print as a disguise. Never is this more obvious with the fact that a Zygon takes on the form of a nurse. You would usually trust a nurse but the nurse isn't trustworthy here.

The Zygon doubles also offer many of the serial's scares and some of the show's greatest ever scenes. Harry Sullivan's attempt to kill Sarah Jane with a pitchfork is a terrifying visual image (and no doubt caused a heart attack for Mary Whitehouse), for example.

It's not just the Zygon doubles that create this distrust, though. There's a real sense of unsettlement through how the Zygons are spying on the Doctor, Sarah Jane and the Brigadier. It's unnerving and complements the serial's atmosphere of distrust.

My only complaint about this serial is that it feels more like a Jon Pertwee serial. But overall, Terror of the Zygons is a terrifying and gripping 70s Tom Baker story and one any Whovian should watch whether you're only a fan of the new series, classic series or both.

Iron Man 2 review

Iron Man 2 is known as a superhero film but really at its core it's a survival movie. Which is surprising, given that it's a sequel to arguably one of the best superhero movies of all time.

You see, Iron Man 2 largely focuses on Tony Stark's attempts to save his life after he finds out the arc reactor in his body is slowly killing him. Not only does it succeed in its brave and bold attempt at focusing on the human element of the superhero genre but it does so in trademark Stark Style with many of the quips and eccentricities we have come to expect from Robert Downey Jnr as Stark.

Of course, you still get the typical superhero movie elements. It's still good VS evil. It's still a super-powered good guy taking on a super-villain. It still ends in a climatic battle between the opposing forces and it still ends with the hero saving the girl. But it's the human elements that allow Iron Man 2 to succeed.

Whiplash makes for a great alter-ego for Tony Stark/Iron Man too. He's basically like the dark reflection of Tony; the path that Mr Stark could have taken if he hadn't chosen to use his weapons technology for good intentions as opposed to evil ones. Essentially, Whiplash is like a 'evil' Tony Stark only without the wealth or money. He's certainly not a forgettable villain as some would lead you to believe but one that deserves to return to the MCU sooner rather than later.

Oh, and you can't do a review of Iron Man 2 without mentioning Scarlett Johannsen as Black Widow. She is simply awesome and more than deserves her own movie. May I suggest a buddy cop movie teaming up Black Widow with Agent May from Agents of SHIELD?

As for the rest of the supporting cast, Clark Gregg is brilliant as Coulson (it's easy to see why Marvel decided to give him his own TV spinoff), Samuel L Jackson is badass as usual as Nick Fury and Gwyneth Paltrow is just as good as she was in the first Iron Man as Pepper Potts.

My only criticism is that Whiplash's hatred for the Stark family could have been explored more and there's not quite enough scenes of Iron Man VS Whiplash. But overall, Iron Man 2 is a fun and enjoyable superhero survival movie.

I think it is a very good story but I don't remember it ever being lauded in the way of Genesis of the Daleks or similar, and maybe it should be. Another important thing to mention is that Geoffrey Burgon did the music and it was a complete departure from Dudley Simpson's usual scoring. It's a bit like the effect of a Bond film without John Barry! Burgon's music really makes the Zygons that extra bit frightening I think.

And that has to be one of the very best cliffhangers – it's terrifying.

Yeah, and in a barn, too. Barns are always disturbing:).

I tell you what is weird, when I watched The Mutants, which was one of the last Pertwee stories I saw, I thought it was like a Tom Baker story:p.

Just out of interest by the way, how would you compare these Zygons with those of the new series? I haven't seen them in action but I feel like they look too much like prosthetic suits. They're too dry and inorganic-looking to me, whereas the original ones I think had a sheen to them that made them more convincing as living creatures.

It's curious how fandom seems to have certain favourites that transcend other similarly golden examples of the show. I can't see there ever being a new series story regarded as highly as Blink, for example.

Agreed. The whole serial feels like something Alfred Hitchcock would direct; I think it's one of those classic series stories that would even send the most cynical of current kid viewers behind the sofa.


Apart from when they see the birth of baby Stigs (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywJdWNRwQBg). :p



I find a few Peter Capaldi stories feel like Tom Baker ones, especially Mummy on the Orient Express.

I like the new series Zygons and I think it's great that they chose to use prosthetic suits like the original ones as opposed to opting for CGI. I think they are possibly the most faithful updated monsters to the classic series design, although in terms of narrative it feels as though they may be at risk of making them too similar to the Silurians whereas the classic series Zygons had a more original feel to their motives.

Time Crash review

Time Crash may be only 15 minutes long but in that 15 minutes it establishes itself as one of the show's very best TV stories (even if it can't be called an episode as such).

Peter Davison and David Tennant bounce off each other brilliantly, with the banter between them consistently being snappy and funny to watch. It's always interesting to see how different incarnations of the Doctor interact with each other and 10's fanboyish enthusiasm for the 5th Doctor is refreshing among the multi-Doctor tendency to not have the incarnations get along.

Time Crash does everything right that Dimensions In Time got wrong. It offers a strong, simplistic narrative and plenty of screen time for the incarnations of the Doctor involved.



The Infinite Quest review

The Infinite Quest is exactly how to do a animated Doctor Who episode. The animation is by the legendary Cosgrove Hall studios (the animation company behind Danger Mouse) and as you would expect, it's as great as any of their other animations.

It just feels like what it is: a animated Doctor Who adventure.

The narrative is wonderfully Doctor Who, zipping across various interplanetary locations everywhere and anywhere on their journey to find the spaceship 'The Infinite' before evil space pirate Balthazar with his pet parrot Squark find it first. Alan Barnes has done a great job; this feels like it could take place within the live-action series of the show if it wasn't constrained by budget. The animation is therefore used well to show a scenario on-screen that would never have been possible within the series.

Simply put: this was too good for CBBC and Totally Doctor Who. A great Doctor Who adventure.

I haven't seen all of Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi's episodes but all the others from the new series and Blink is still my favourite.

Do the new Zygons still whisper as well?

I'm not sure I'd call it a whisper but they don't sound too different IMO.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park review

The Lost World is a good sequel to Jurassic Park. But is it as good as the first film?

No.

Nowhere near.

What it does do, however, is provide neat character progression for Ian Malcolm (he seems much more confident here than in the first Jurassic Park) and some tense action sequences (the most notable being Ian's girlfriend Sarah Harding trapped on the back window of the research van that's just about to crack). Steven Spielberg offers some brilliant cinematography (particularly with the scene mentioned above) and Richard Attenborough is once again great as John Hammond.

The film takes a while to get going but when it does, it's great. Occasionally it's let down by a few silly moments, though, such as the kid taking a picture of the T-Rex and Kelly using gymnastics to fight the raptor (why didn't John Hammond send Beth Tweddle to Isla Sorna?) but the other action sequences more than make up for it. Many will be surprised to see Jeff Goldblum fulfilling an action role but I am glad they made the decision to bring him back in the second movie as he is by far the best character of the original franchise and this film would not have worked as well without him.

I will post my review for Jurassic Park 3 in future but I'll just add that I think Jeff Goldblum makes a better Jurassic Park lead than Sam Neil in the future sequel. Sam Neil's character never really appealed to me in the same way that Ian Malcolm does; I don't mind his character but I don't think he is as interesting or as engaging to watch.

So overall, The Lost World: Jurassic World is a great movie but unfortunately it has too many silly scenes and is let down by bad pacing near the beginning of the film. Let's hope Jeff Goldblum's Ian Malcolm meets Chris Pratt's Owen Grady in Jurassic World 2 because that would be cinematic gold and maybe allow Jurassic World's sequel to be a step above Jurassic Park's.

Right:).

Love & Monsters review

As it's April Fools Day today, I thought I'd review the Doctor Who episode that feels like an April Fools. Yes, that's right: Love & Monsters.

Love & Monsters is quite simply an abomination in every sense of the word. The premise is about a Doctor fan group called L.I.N.D.A. (London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency) led by Elton Pope (Marc Warren) who seek to track down the Doctor and Rose because they're rabid fanboys. If that sounds incredibly meta, that's because it is. The only difference here is that the fans are bland; nothing like the exciting characters you get in real-life fandom.

It only gets worse when Peter Kay comes in as Victor Kennedy. To be fair to him, he's not too bad at first but when he becomes the Abzorbaloff he is laughably terrible in the role. As I said previously, Peter Kay would have been better playing a fan like Malcolm in Planet of the Dead as opposed to a cheesy monster invented by a kid.

Who's idiotic idea was it to let a kid design a monster for the series?

There's a reason why 10 year olds don't work as costume designers!

Yet there's something far, far worse than all this. It's hinted that Elton Pope, the guy who is supposed to be our substitute for the Doctor, has sex with a paving slab.

Overall, Love & Monsters is without a doubt the worst Doctor Who episode of all time.

If you remember, a competition of this kind happened before, during the Hartnell era. The winning entry was manufactured and appeared on Blue Peter but as far as I know never in the actual series. So to do that the second time around was a positive thing I think – I believe they also did something to design a TARDIS console for use in The Doctor's Wife.

In theory to get a kid to design a monster is entirely sensible – as far as Doctor Who monsters are concerned they're the target audience:). In this case I don't think the production team could have been given anything better, but it's where the head writer comes into the creative process that things go wrong:

So if the approach was less fixated on character and more on fun, producing what was on that drawing without all the added elements, you'd have had a much more imposing and successful monster.

I enjoyed Love and Monsters for what it was but this scene irritated me as well. Obviously Elton says "We even have a love life" or words to that effect (note not "sex life") and I suppose it's left to the adults to interpret that in a chaste way. However it is easy to see it as deliberately obtuse and suggestive at the same time (I remember one fan saying that Elton's positioning of the slab when he says it was somewhat unhelpful), and would have been better off rewritten or simply left out.

At least that was just a cobbled together TARDIS console room. I think it was a mistake to get kids to design a monster and actually have it appear in the series. Whilst I would say most kids are intelligent, they can also have a very juvenile thought process compared to professionals in terms of their ideas.


The problem is, I don't think the design itself was that brilliant anyway. It was too cheesy, emphasised by the terrible name ('Absorbaloff'? Really?).



'Coming up on Jeremy Kyle: "I have sex with a paving slab"' :D

Jurassic Park 3 review

Jurassic Park 3 is nowhere near as bad as people make out. Sure, it's not the best sequel in the world. It's not the best movie either. But despite the silly moments such as the talking raptor and the phone still working after being swallowed by the Spinosaurus and coming out the other end, it's a fun movie and that's all you want with a monster movie. Monster movies aren't supposed to be works of art.

Isn't it great to see the return of Doctor Alan Grant too? Sam Neil is as great as the paleontologist as he was in the first movie; it feels like his character has really progressed. Laura Dern was criminally underused as Ellie Slater though and it's a shame not to see her on Isla Sorna alongside Alan. Also: why aren't Alan and Ellie together, despite the romance between them that was heavily hinted in the first Jurassic Park? I am not a part of the Jurassic Park fandom but I can only imagine how many Alan/Ellie shippers must have been annoyed at this movie.

The T-Rex and Spinosaurus fight is nowhere near as bad as some make out either. I found the outcome believable enough. The T-Rex seemed to give a good enough fight and it therefore doesn't detract from the power of the iconic dinosaur. To me, the complaints about the fight are no different to those who were upset at no feathered dinosaurs in Jurassic World. It's just meant to be a fun blockbuster film: it doesn't have to be entirely accurate. The T-Rex may have won in real life and an argument could be made that the previous two films in the original trilogy show the T-Rex to be powerful enough to take down the Spinosaurus as opposed to the other way round but if you over-analyse any movie it is inevitably going to detract from your enjoyment of the film.

The unique thing about the original Jurassic Park trilogy and the Jurassic World film is how each movie arguably centres on a different protagonist. Jurassic Park is John Hammond's story, The Lost World: Jurassic Park is Ian Malcolm's, Jurassic World is Claire Dearing's (Owen Grady is the main protagonist but really it's about Claire's journey becoming less concerned about facts, figures and 'assets' and more about her nephews) and Jurassic Park 3 is the story of Alan Grant. Whereas most franchises tend to focus on one protagonist's story, Jurassic Park's strategy allows for more variety - something that maybe other film companies could take tips from.

Overall, Jurassic Park 3 is a solid movie and not as bad as some claim it to be.

It's fair to say that if you're going to open the doors to kids to design a monster, you can expect that its appearance and or name are unlikely to fit in with a hard sci-fi approach. That said I don't think Russell T Davies was really taking that approach with his version of Doctor Who. The Slitheen are a good example of that.

You can say "juvenile" but that can really only apply to the name of the monster. I thought the Abzorbaloff as an idea was original and frightening and you only got a glimmer of that in how it was handled on screen. Imagine a large creature rampaging through a corridor sucking victims into its flesh – that's what the design was, but for some reason the very people that opened the door to kids perhaps looked at the winning design as juvenile themselves, hence the introduction of "character". At least, if that was the view taken with the competition in the Sixties, the then makers of the programme were up front about seeing kids' ideas as juvenile and unworthy of inclusion.

My abiding memory of Peter Kay by the way is when he was shown dressed from head to toe in the Abzorbaloff outfit. He turns to camera and says "And tomorrow, I get me monster costume".

The Edge of Destruction review

Nowadays we are so used to the 45 minute story format and whilst this story is two 25 minute episodes that together make this running time technically this is Doctor Who's first attempt to tell a narrative in such a short amount of time.

Is it successful?

Well, it partly is and it partly isn't.

The Edge of Destruction sees the TARDIS trying to warn the crew about some impending disaster through various oddities like melting clock hands and influencing the Doctor (William Hartnell), Susan (Carole Anne Ford), Ian (William Russell) and Barbara's (Jaqueline Hill) behaviour.

This is an enjoyable enough story to watch and one that's suitably simplistic for a classic series two-parter. It creates a sense of paranoia well and doesn't feel like filler. It's a shame then that the resolution is such a let down.

Spoilers follow.

Because you see, when it's revealed what the TARDIS was trying to warn the crew about...it turns out it was just that the fast return switch was stuck.

Seriously.

The entire events of the two-parter were all because of one switch.

And that's not the only weird decision because earlier Susan tries to threaten Ian and Barbara with the deadliest item she can find..a pair of scissors. It's a scene that's nothing short of daft and really should have been replaced with something else.

Having said that, there are plenty of good moments. The Doctor's monologue is great and it's nice to see a story set entirely on the TARDIS. The cast all give great performances too. It's just a shame that in conclusion the story is let down by poor decisions by the writer David Whitaker.

Nice to see someone else who still calls it The Edge of Destruction rather than Inside the Spaceship (I like the second title as well and apparently it was how David Whitaker always referred to it).

I think in the case of An Unearthly Child and The Daleks, the titles that are used more often say more about the stories in retrospect. Susan's alienness is more important than the brilliant story about cavemen; and although The Mutants was a great title for the first Dalek story, it's awkward to call it that given the Jon Pertwee story with the same title.

I'm always going to go by the classic series DVD titles rather than how the stories were referred to in production paperwork because the DVD titles are more universally recognised.

Agreed. I'd feel weird calling The Daleks 'The Mutants'.

Yeah, agreed. It was strange when the same problem was reintroduced in the new series – The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances et al.

Fun fact: if you count books as canonical, there are two Human Natures and two End of Times.

What other End of Time is there?

The Darksmith Legacy:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Doctor-Who-T.../dp/1405905220

Jurassic World review

The latest Jurassic World is a surprise but a pleasant one nonetheless. The film is rated 12A, yet it features a number of graphic moments that are disturbing for a grown man, never mind a 12 year old. If this makes it sound similar to Jaws, then that's because it is. Indeed, the scene in which the Mosasaurus bursts out and bites Claire's PA (who was looking after the kids) could easily have come straight out of a Jaws film.

The film is great fun throughout, with Chris Pratt as charming as ever in the role of Owen (although as stated in a previous review, arguably it's Bryce Dallas Howard's Claire Dearing who the film's about). There's loads of nice little nods to the original Jurassic Park, the best in my opinion being the original Jurassic Park theme blaring out as you see the park. It brought a smile to this reviewer's face. The finale as well between a certain T-Rex (not going to spoil it but let's just say she's familiar to Jurassic Park fans), the raptors and the Mosasaurus was brilliant.

However, there is one silly moment involving the kids and a jeep (again, not going to spoil it) but not enough to ruin the film. Even the original Jurassic Park has its odd moments of silliness and it's still not as daft as the talking raptor dream sequence in Jurassic Park 3.

As for the 3D, the 3D effects are absolutely breath-taking especially when the Pterodactyls are flying alongside a jeep. It feels as though you could actually step into the park, making it unnerving whenever the Indominus Rex and the raptors cause trouble.

Is it better than the original? I'm not sure. But it's a bloody great sequel. Let's just hope Jurassic World 2 doesn't feature militarised raptors as hinted at here because nobody wants to watch what would be the Jurassic Park equivalent of a Michael Bay film.

That's a bit ridiculous isn't it:)? A book with the same title as the Tenth Doctor's last story, virtually coinciding with the TV episodes! They hit themselves right in the Krashoks with that one.

It's an unfortunate coincidence. The book will have been written before Russell T Davies had even decided what to call David Tennant's last two episodes.

It's not too late – they should get a novel written called The Time of the Doctor:p.

How about a 11th Doctor book called Mummy On The Orient Express? :D

Why the hell not;)?

Actually you've just reminded me about the phenomenon of the Witch from the Well being used in Hide, when it had only just been the basis of a Big Finish audio, and a pretty good one as I recall.

Doctor Who - The Movie

Doctor Who - The Movie is a curious part of Doctor Who history. Intended to launch a new TV series produced by the BBC, Fox and Universal, instead due to poor viewing figures in America it has become something of a missing link between the classic and new series. So what was at fault?

Well, it feels like it was a mistake to include Sylvester McCoy as the Doctor at the beginning of the movie. This would no doubt have been confusing for new viewers who didn't previously follow the series; the TV movie did, after all, air seven years after the last episode of the classic series. The mistake was later corrected when Russell T Davies brought the show back in 2005, when he opted to start without a regeneration.

It's a shame that executive producer Paul Segal made the decision to include Sylvester McCoy although it's understandable. He is a Whovian after all, so the temptation to include a regeneration sequence was likely too much to resist. Overall, he did make a great movie though with an engaging plot and great actors.

The plot of the Master trying to steal the Doctor's remaining regenerations and nearly causing the end of the world by opening the Eye of Harmony is a good one that feels largely in character for the Master. Paul McGann and Daphne Ashbrook are fantastic as the Doctor and Grace Holloway too; so believable in their roles that many wish to see them reunited in the form of a Big Finish audio. I don't even mind the idea that the Doctor is half human on his mother's side; it makes sense given his fascination with Earth. My only real complaint besides what probably didn't work for new viewers is at times the Master appears more Count Dracula than the Master himself; this is largely down to Eric Roberts' performance, who seems too theatrical and hams it up a little.

Overall, the Doctor Who TV Movie is a great film that should have been successful but is let down by a couple of poor decisions like bringing Sylvester McCoy back as the 7th Doctor for a regeneration scene and Eric Roberts playing the Master too much like Dracula.

Actually Dracula isn't that bad a reference point given that the Master is to all intents and purposes, undead. He can't regenerate and has to steal bodies that quickly decay (as we see at the end).

True, but I don't see him as Dracula in terms of his personality. I see him more as a sort-of evil James Bond: cool and suave.

Little Fockers

With a stellar cast like Ben Stiller, Robert De Niro and Owen Wilson you would think Little Fockers would be a fun comedy. It's not. Little Fockers doesn't even deserve to be called a 'comedy' for it is so devoid of humour, it's like watching Piers Morgan trying to tell a joke.

In Little Fockers, Gaylord and Pam Focker now have kids; however, Jack Byrnes still (STILL) doesn't trust Gaylord especially after seeing him with another woman and automatically suspecting him of cheating on his daughter. No hilarity ensues. Instead, what follows are a number of boring scenes where there there are seemingly no jokes (unless I've missed some that were supposed to be 'funny') and just a lot of talking.

A cast like this deserves a much better script, especially Ben Stiller who has to be one of my favourite American comedy actors at the moment. This has to be Ben Stiller's weakest moment yet and it's entirely the script's fault. I only laughed once during the entire film and that was during the Jack Byrnes remix song that plays through the credits. If the rest of the 'comedy' had been as funny as the line 'Hey Focker, I've got nipples. Can you milk me?', then this movie would without a doubt have been one of my favourite comedies of all time. Instead, you'd find more laughter watching the worst TV sitcom of the 2010s (so far) Vicious and that's saying something.

There are no redeeming qualities in this film other than the song. Even the climax, which is supposed to be funny with Jack and Greg in the ballpool whilst the Jaws theme plays, isn't even mildly amusing. I nearly saw this film at the cinema and I'm glad I didn't for it is nothing compared to the far superior Meet The Fockers.

Overall, Little Fockers is a terrible 'comedy' that's about as funny as walking down the freezer section at a supermarket without a jacket on and subsequently freezing to death. You know something's wrong when the best part of any movie is the end credits.

It will always come back to Roger Delgado who was definitely both of those.

The thing is, every version of the Master since has been designed as "insane" like a millstone round each actor's neck. Delgado's Master wasn't like that at all. Added to which is the snag that the Master never gets to regenerate and be as different with each incarnation as the Doctor does.

Certainly every classic series Master can't regenerate but the new series Masters can. We've seen Professor YANA regenerate into Harold Saxon, we just haven't seen Harold Saxon regenerate into Missy.

Yeah, I wonder what John Simm thought about that:cool:?

I've always taken it that Roger Delgado's Master could still regenerate, but that it was his incarnation that was badly injured offscreen. Also, I've always thought of Delgado as the Twelfth Master, mainly because in The Deadly Assassin the Doctor reasons that the Master was on his last life. So Peter Pratt's Master could be the same incarnation trying to regenerate but failing because of his damaged cells. Of course he gets enough energy to heal himself to a point, and they did a good job of showing that when Geoffrey Beevers took over. There's a more recognisable personality and physical form under the makeup, suggesting a regeneration of sorts.

The interesting thing about John Simm is that he actually wanted to play the part as more sinister and calculating but Russell T Davies insisted he played the Master as a raving lunatic.

Day of the Doctor

How do you celebrate 50 years?

That's the question that Steven Moffat had to answer with this TV movie and boy was he successful. The film begins with the original Delia Derbyshire opening titles and it's amazing how well they hold up today, even on a big screen (this was shown in cinemas as well as on TV). The opening features many homages to the William Hartnell era of the show, including a policeman walking past a familiar junkyard sign and Coal Hill School. My only criticism of this sequence is that they missed a trick in not having William Russell as Ian Chesterton be the one who leaves Clara with the Doctor's current address.

The plot feels like a wonderful blend of the classic and new series. On one hand, you've got Zygons trying to populate the Earth as their new home by taking on the forms of others. On the other, the end of the Time War and debate over whether the Moment is the only option or if there is another way. What is great about both of these elements is how they not only look to the past but also set future elements in motion. The Zygon plot sets up Invasion/Inversion of the Zygons and the Time War segments set up whenever they decide to return to the 12th Doctor's appearance alongside the other Doctors (and isn't that a great sequence? 'All 12 of them', 'No sir, all THIRTEEN').

Talking of the Doctors, all three of the main ones are as great as you would expect from such brilliant actors. John Hurt is incredible as the War Doctor, David Tennant shows why he is truly the greatest Doctor so far (in my opinion, of course) and Matt Smith is on top form as the current Doctor of the time the 11th Doctor. Whilst the other Doctors do appear, it is as archival footage towards the end (apart from the 12th Doctor, who appears in new footage albeit with just his killer eyebrows in shot).

SPOILERS COMING UP.



SPOILERS OVER.

The writing is possibly Steven Moffat's best also. Day of the Doctor features some of the best lines in any film I've seen (not just in Doctor Who, although admittedly I am a bit biased) including 'Great men are forged in fire. It takes the privilege of a lesser man to light the flame' and 'Clara sometimes asks me if I dream. Of course I dream, I say. But what do you dream about, she'll ask. The same thing everybody dreams about, I'll tell her. I dream about where I'm going. She always laughs at that. But you’re not going anywhere, you’re just wandering about.That’s not true. Not anymore. I have a new destination. My journey is the same as yours, the same as anyone’s. It’s taken me so many years, so many lifetimes, but at last I know where I’m going. Where I’ve always been going. Home. The long way around.'.

Overall, Day of the Doctor is a brilliant celebration of 50 years from 1963-2013 and essential viewing for anybody, not just Whovians. My only complaint is no Ian Chesterton.

I really liked him, mainly because his Master was so smug:) – I thought, yeah that's him. I haven't read or seen much in the way of interviews on the subject but if that's how Simm wanted to play him it's a great shame that he wasn't given the opportunity.

Did you see it at the cinema?

Here's my list of favourite Doctors by the way:

Sylvester McCoy
Tom Baker
Paul McGann
Jon Pertwee
Colin Baker
William Hartnell
Peter Davison
Patrick Troughton
Matt Smith
David Tennant
John Hurt
Christopher Eccleston
Peter Capaldi

Agreed.

I've always thought the Master's better when he's an outside influence operating behind the scenes; I suppose you could say Derek Jacobi and Michelle Gomez's Masters were/are like that. Roger Degaldo and Anthony Ainley's certainly were.

Yeah, I was in seat K9 at the cinema I saw it at. :D

K-9 obviously had better things to do:).

Yeah, like in the Pertwee stories when he would often just appear towards the end as the person behind it all. Frontier in Space goes one better of course:p.

Ratatouille

Ratatouille is possibly the most under-rated Pixar film of all time, however it has seen something of a resurgence in recent years with an Albert Hall concert and a 4D ride at Disneyland Paris (which I cannot wait to go on when I return to Disneyland Paris 10 years after my last visit next year). It still doesn't get the appreciation it deserves though.

The film tells the story of a rat called Remy (voiced by Patton Oswalt) who dreams of being a chef. Problem is, rats are not allowed in the kitchen and only humans are chefs. Guided by the ghost of celebrity chef Gusteau (Brad Garrett), Remy pursues his dream with a little help from Linguini's (Lou Romano) hair. It's a very charming tale of 'don't judge a book by its cover' in that just because Remy is a rat and therefore considered vermin doesn't mean he isn't capable of being a chef and as with other Pixar films, it doesn't feel like the message is rammed down our throats as the audience to prove that it 'teaches' kids something (there's nothing more irritating for that - who says animated films have to be purely for kids, after all?).

It is also refreshing to see a film with Paris as a setting instead of the usual UK or U.S. location. As much as I enjoy seeing my country's capital London on the big screen, it is often a location that's over-used in cinema and as for American cities, I can name quite a number of films off the top of my head set somewhere across the pond, whereas France in general is not used very much as a setting (apart from in romantic comedies for an obvious reason). Paris is also a clever thematic choice considering the French are world famous for their quality food, although somehow I doubt they have a rat running their kitchen.

As for the voice acting, I honestly think it is among the finest I have seen in any animated film. Each voice perfectly suits the character, especially Patton Oswalt as Remy (I even know someone who's favourite character in any Disney film is Remy out of all the top characters she could have chosen). This is possibly Pixar's finest casting since the Toy Story movies, although Tom Hanks and Tim Allen as Woody and Buzz still takes a lot of beating.

Overall, Ratatouille is an underrated Pixar gem and one that deserves more recognition. It's a shame that this film was released after the re-emergence of 3D as it would have been perfect for the 3D treatment (although a Ratatouille 3D Bluray is available to buy from Amazon and other outlets).

Re: Now Showing - DalekbusterScreen5's reviews
 

I love Ratatouille. Its one of the best animated movies out there.

Agreed. It's weird how it's not as well-loved as the other Pixar films.

Deep Breath

The third Doctor Who TV movie so far, Deep Breath saw Peter Capaldi's debut as the Doctor in the show and like Day of the Doctor was released in cinemas as well as broadcast on TV. Unlike Day of the Doctor, it also served as the first episode of series 8; a strong series for the show which saw a number of the new series' best episodes.

Deep Breath is the story of Clara struggling to come to terms with this new Doctor as he recovers from post-regeneration trauma. Meanwhile, a group of Clockwork Droids from the SS Madam De Pompadour's sister ship the SS Marie Antoinette are trying to find their way to the 'promised land' and using a restaurant as their base to harvest people so they can use them as spare parts to replace any they are using that are currently rotting. This is arguably one of the darkest episodes of Doctor Who as it sees a ship made out of human skin and the film's main clockwork enemy Half-Face Man impaled on a spire. It is nice to see the show explore such dark themes with the Clockwork Droids even if their return was surprising given their last appearance before Deep Breath was eight years ago in The Girl In The Fireplace. This reviewer hopes to see them return again as they are among the most intriguing of the new series' creations but whether they will or won't is anybody's guess.

The writing is up to Steven Moffat's brilliant standards, however it never reaches the highs of Day of the Doctor. It is also a little too slowly paced and doesn't quite have the same cinematic feel of the TV Movie and Day of the Doctor. Director Ben Wheatley does a great job however (as he does in the next episode Into The Dalek) and we can only hope he returns to direct another episode of the show at some point. Maybe Steven Moffat's final episode?

Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman are brilliant as the Doctor and Clara; Jenna Coleman in particular giving a very believable and engaging performance as someone who no longer knows who her friend is (although it can be argued that her response to regeneration is out of character for Clara because she has seen every regeneration of the Doctor up to 11 and therefore should expect that he changes his face once in a while anyway). The Paternoster Gang are also on top form; I will admit that I wasn't sure on them in their first appearance in A Good Man Goes To War but they have grown on me, especially Dan Starkey, who is absolutely hilarious as Strax. It's a shame that they haven't returned since during Peter Capaldi's era as I think they work well as supporting characters.

Oh, and I can't write a review about any episode of series 8 without mentioning the music. Murray Gold's music here is on par with what he produced for the Specials: absolutely incredible. Every piece is stunning and whilst there's no track to beat Vale Decem, it is easily Murray Gold's best music produced for Steven Moffat's era.

Overall, Deep Breath is a brilliant introductory TV movie for Peter Capaldi's Doctor unfortunately let down by a slow pace and not enough of a cinematic feel for something that was shown in cinemas.

Into the Dalek is my favourite Capaldi episode and it's interesting that it was the same director as Deep Breath. Of the little of Capaldi I've seen, his acting in Into the Dalek was way past anything else he's done in the series.

I love the line 'She's my carer. She cares so I don't have to'. Still maintain that's the best line in any Doctor Who episode ever. :D

The Blair Witch Project

There's no doubting that The Blair Witch Project was a revolutionary film in horror techniques. It is the film that started the 'found-footage' sub-genre used so prominently today and was successful enough to green-light a sequel. But in terms of horror potential, it doesn't offer the best scares people may expect from a horror movie.

The film follows a group of teenagers shooting a documentary about the mythological Blair Witch in the woods. Naturally given its setting, they get lost and someone or something is following them, leaving strange piles of rocks and killing them off one by one until there's only two left. The plot is a solid one and entertaining enough however there aren't many scares to be found; the film relies mainly on the emotions of the characters to sell the fear of being lost than to provide anything likely to send shivers down your spine. It is the found footage aspect to events that provides the most interest.

Once you get to the climax however the film picks up pace. I won't spoil it but it is great how in-keeping with the rest of the film they don't reveal anything leaving it up to individual interpretation what really happened. Was it the Blair Witch or not? Hopefully a question that will never be answered in any future Blair Witch films.

One thing that may be a turn off for some people is the main character Heather Donahue (played by Heather Donahue). She is frequently annoying with her insistence to keep filming the documentary despite the events of the film; it is helpful to remember though that this is likely the intention of the filmmakers. Still, it may put off or divide some viewers. The rest of the cast and characters are likeable enough; the great thing about every character is they all feel real rather than made up in the head of the writer. You could imagine meeting any of these kind of people in real life and this helps the found footage style. This is partly down to the writers and partly to the actors; the writing is extremely naturalistic making it feel like we are watching real people filming a real documentary and the actors all sell this through their chemistry together on-screen.

This is a film definitely worth a watch. Whilst it's likely not going to scare you and it's arguably not the best movie in the world, it's enjoyable enough and the fact that it's such a revolutionary film in that it introduced a whole new sub-genre to horror makes it a must-see for any viewer.

My favourite line was "It's a rollercoaster with you isn't it?" The problem is that every subsequent use of the word "rollercoaster" becomes diminishing returns.

The line that got on my nerves a bit was "This is gun girl: she has a gun and she's a girl" because it sounded like a line for Smith or Tennant. My favourite bit was where he rescues Journey and they have that fractious exchange inside the TARDIS. It's one of the best new series scenes I think.

I can imagine Matt Smith saying it more than David Tennant between the two but yeah, it didn't feel like a Capaldi line. Suppose that's to be expected when Phil Ford won't have seen Peter Capaldi in action when he wrote the script.

Yes, probably. I think it sounds more like Smith, and I suppose the reason for that is that it has a customary arrogance that smacks more of Steven Moffat's writing overall. The thing I loved about Matt Smith was that he always managed to downplay that side of the writing (at least in the stories I've seen).

Dalek

It's weird to think 11 years later that the Daleks nearly didn't return. That instead of 'Dalek', this episode could have been called 'Absence of the Dalek'. Thankfully, they did in a classic episode of the show many rightfully think of first when they think of Christopher Eccleston's series as the Doctor.

In Dalek, the Doctor and Rose arrive in the year 2012 at a museum of alien artefacts owned by Henry VanStatten (Corey Johnson). The Doctor soon discovers that Henry is keeping a Dalek he calls 'Metaltron' prisoner, sending technician Simmons (Nigel Whitmey) to torture it in an attempt to get it to speak. What's brilliant about this episode is we essentially get to see the Doctor become a Dalek himself; he even uses their catchphrase 'exterminate' when pulling the lever to electrocute the Dalek. It's great to see the Doctor just lose it and fires the imagination as to what the character must have seen during the Time War to make him like this. Of course, the Doctor and the Daleks have a lot of history too which obviously counts for a lot of the hatred but let's not forget this is a character that couldn't destroy the Daleks when he had the chance in Genesis of the Daleks. This Doctor would have done it without the flicker of an eyelid.

You also get to see it from Rose's side: someone who hasn't seen the Daleks in action and therefore has no existing hatred for them. Rose feels sorry for it and so touches the Dalek out of compassion, however her exposure to time travel regenerates it meaning she accidentally unleashes it on a killing spree. It's hard to not see Rose's point of view, even knowing that the Dalek's actions were inevitable and it really adds to the story to see a different point of view to the presence of a Dalek and establishes that the show's not just about the Doctor and his companion VS the latest monster/villain but can also be about one, the other or both trying to help the monster in the episode (something important to be established in the new series' first series).

Dalek also sees the introduction of Bruno Langley as Adam Mitchell; unlike many, I actually enjoyed him in the role. Before The Long Game showed his true colours, he seemed a likeable character played superbly by Bruno Langley and one whom I hoped would become a companion at the end. Of course, he did and he wasn't very good at the companion lark. Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper are both on top form here, especially Christopher Eccleston showing the Doctor's built-up Time War rage.

The writing is also impeccable; Robert Shearman is an excellent writer and it's crazy that he has never returned to the show, especially someone who can write lines like 'I can feel so many ideas. So much darkness. Rose, give me orders. Order me to die.'. In fact, I'd even go as far as to say Robert Shearman would make a great showrunner. Basically, if future showrunner Chris Chibnall gets Robert Shearman to write a story for his era then I for one certainly won't be shouting for him to go.

Overall, Dalek is simply a masterpiece expertly written by Robert Shearman and featuring stunning performances from Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and Bruno Langley.

It sounds like if they couldn't use the Daleks the plan was to go for a villain a bit like the Child in Shearman's audio drama The Holy Terror.

From what I can gather it's like Shearman was royally messed about during this process. I don't know how much of the script is his – Russell T Davies seems to have had a large input on every script; and it's sad that such a fantastic writer hasn't been able to write a fully original episode of his own for the series. Anybody who wants to find out what Shearman's Doctor Who work can be should seek out The Chimes of Midnight and Scherzo.

Yeah, exactly. It was frightening to see but there'd been a hint of his new ruthlessness with what happened to Cassandra in The End of the World. The Daleks appear to be the only lifeform that really and truly bring out the Doctor's dark side, and we even had the Fifth Doctor choosing to kill Davros rather than let things continue (he doesn't, naturally).

Yes, the Doctor should be challenged. They've tried the same thing with Peter Capaldi recently.

From what I've read, the plan was to use the Tolcafane but when the rights to the Daleks were secured, Russell T Davies kept them back for Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time lords.

Yeah, we need to see him write an episode entirely on his own at some point under either Steven Moffat or Chris Chibnall. I'd like to see him write a Weeping Angels episode actually.


And we see it again in the following episode The Long Game, where he decides to leave Adam at his mother's house and an inevitable life of government intervention and scientific experiments to find out why he has a door in his head.

Kill The Moon in particular was good at that, with the Doctor leaving Clara and Courtney on the moon to make the decision whether to kill the moon creature on their own.

Journey To The Center of the Earth

There have been many adaptations of Jules Verne books over the years but none quite as clever as Journey To The Center of the Earth (or as I prefer to call it, 'Journey To The Centre of the Earth'). This is a film that uses a unique narrative device to tell arguably Jules' most iconic story.

You see, in this version of Journey To The Center of the Earth the book actually exists as a guide book for professor Trevor (Brendan Fraser), his newphew Sean(Josh Hutchinson) and guide Hannah Ásgeirsson (played by Anita Briem). The film introduces the notion of there being a group of people who believes Jules Vernes' books to be detailing real events, offering a unique and intelligent alternative to the usual straight adaptation of a book. This is a storytelling device that has been seen countless times since the 2008 film in movies such as Inkheart however it has never been as successful as it is here. If they ever decide to reboot the Harry Potter franchise, this is how they should approach it.

The film also boasts brilliant use of 3D; this is without the doubt the best feature-length 3D I have ever seen at the cinema. It is absolutely breath-taking and unlike some examples of 3D (I'm looking at you, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs) helps compliment the film's events. YoYos come out the screen, birds fly out and you get a real sense of depth when they reach the Earth's centre. The mine cart sequence in particular is stunning with that extra three-dimensional depth; it feels like you're also going down the track with them.

If there was one criticism I'd give about the film, it's that it takes a while for the plot to truly get going. There's a little too much set-up; we don't need to see shots of them on the plane or Trevor driving through Iceland. For a family adventure film, it is surprisingly slow. By the time Trevor finally declares 'Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the centre of the Earth' the pace soon picks up however and it's not long before they encounter some vicious plants. Possibly the stand-out action scene in the film is Sean's dinosaur chase; the dinosaur has to be one of the finest examples of CGI in cinema and it's nice that they mixed it with a practical drool effect (at the beginning of the scene Sean feels something wet land on his shoulder and looks up to see a dinosaur looming over him) as opposed to entirely CGI.

Brendan Fraser and Josh Hutchinson are both great as Trevor and Sean, however Anita Briem is a little wooden and her romance with Trevor isn't entirely believable. It is a shame that Brendan Fraser opted not to return for the sequel as it would have been nice to see his character again. It is understandable though as Journey 2 feels like an unnecessary follow-up and one probably more motivated by money than anything else.

Overall, Journey To The Center of the Earth is a clever family adventure film with great use of 3D let down only by too much set-up and a wooden performance from Anita Briem.