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I reckon 13 incarnations and Peter Pratt is the same body decaying as he desperately tries to cling onto life.

I hope we never find out the Master's name in the series. I think it should remain a mystery like the Doctor's real name.

Same as the Delgado Master? Yeah, that's how I see it too. And then Geoffrey Beevers is a 'nearly' regeneration where he's quite obviously different but hasn't fully healed.

I think that's right. I quite like Koschei actually. It's one of the better offerings from the books and it's funny to think of Patrick Troughton's Doctor telling him he's lost all his marbles in The Dark Path.

Yeah, it makes the most sense to me if he is.

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Suspect's Reviews

The most I've received from Sony is a few of my tweets liked by the director Paul Feig!

Oh, that's nice of him .

It is, actually. I really like it when celebrities take the time to read their fans' tweets.

The Five Obstructions

It can be annoying sometimes when you get self-congratulatory films like The Five Obstructions. Unlike some, however, The Five Obstructions is at least bearable. Its subject - the short film 'The Perfect Human' - came out in 1967 and this documentary was released in 2003, meaning it acts more as a retrospective for The Perfect Human than a piece of factual filmmaking.

The original short is below:



The Five Obstructions sees danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier set the director of The Perfect Human Jorgan Leth the task of remaking The Perfect Human under a series of 'obstructions' (rules that he must abide by whilst remaking the piece). There are five obstructions making up a total of five experimental remakes of the original short - the first is that he must film it in Cuba without a set, lasting no longer than twelve frames and answering the questions raised in the original short. The second dictates that he must set it in the worst place in the world but not show the setting and that he must star in it himself; the meal from the original short must be included but no woman. The third is that he must choose to either remake the film the way he chooses to remake it or repeat obstruction two. The fourth is to remake it as a cartoon. The fifth is that he must read a voice-over narration for Von Trier's version of The Perfect Human and that his take must be credited to him (Jorgan Leth).

The documentary starts off fun but it quickly becomes annoying the more you see of Jorgan Leth. Jorgan often appears smug and over-bearing in most of the documentary, with only the scene where he remakes The Perfect Human in a poor part of Mumbai showing a more likeable side of his character. Whilst I do believe filmmakers need to show confidence in what they produce it can become a bit much if they start to show signs of arrogance. Jorgan Leth is a good director with some interesting ideas but I doubt this film did much for his popularity.

The scene he films in front of a translucent screen of Mumbai doesn't work for me either. It feels a bit too uncomfortable and awkward to watch but then I guess that was the intention. To me it seemed like the juxtaposition with Jorgan in the dinner jacket and the poor people in Mumbai was supposed to be funny but it comes across as borderline offensive. These people are living in tough times; should they really be laughed at? I would have preferred to have seen Jorgan pick somewhere else as the worst place in the world: perhaps something for comedy value like a Whetherspoon's.

It is commendable how The Five Obstructions encourages creativity however. By placing restrictions on the remaking of the short, it means Jorgan has to be more creative to find a way around them and when he does his own thing in the third obstruction it results in a less imaginative piece. The Five Obstructions is a perfect demonstration of the power of the imagination and shows that often you need rules in place in order to reach its full advantage. Freedom can be a limit to your creativity and is not always the best option. Rules are there to be broken and if there's no rules, then what do you break?

The chemistry between Jorgan and Van Trier is fun too. These are two people who clearly have a strong rapport with one another and it is entertaining to see what rules are opposed on Jorgan Leth. Van Trier makes an imposing figure for Jorgan in a way that you feel slightly scared for him when he doesn't quite fulfil the obstruction (such as the second obstruction, which forms the decision for the third one). It would be nice to see them doing something as friends creating a film together rather than Jorgan Leth creating a number of films on his own.

The cartoon obstruction still confuses me as I have no idea what any of it means. It seems too bizarre for somebody to just make it off the cuff; why is there a tortoise, for example? What does that have to do with anything? The original Perfect Human was a strange piece but at least you could make sense of the footage. The cartoon is just too out-there and I would have preferred there to have been more of a narrative to what takes place in it. None of the obstructions feel as strong as the original piece; it ultimately feels like a waste of time for both director and production crew.

Overall, The Five Obstructions is a decent documentary about filmmaking and it is meritable how it encourages creativity. However Jorgan Leith can sometimes appear smug throughout the film and the second obstruction feels a little ill-fitting in the way it is executed. The chemistry between Jorgan and Van Trier is amusing however and nearly makes up for the confusing cartoon created as part of the fourth obstruction. I couldn't really recommend this film to anyone however if you are interested in the short film 'The Perfect Human' then it may be worth your time.

The End of Time

There has never been a harder regeneration story than The End of Time. Whilst every regeneration story has to provide a fitting send-off for its departing Doctor, not only did this one have to write out one of the most popular Doctors of all time but it also had the job of creating a fond farewell for what was considered by many as a golden era of the show. Russell T Davies had a gigantic job ahead of him and it is testament to his writing ability that he managed to write something that seems like a strong send-off for both David Tennant's Doctor and his era of the show.

The End of Time's two episodes may resemble one full story but it can be argued both tell completely different narratives. Whilst The End of Time Part One is more focused on Joshua Naismith's (David Harewood) plan to give his daughter Abigail (Tracy Ifeachor) the 'gift' of immortality with help from the Master (John Simm) and stolen Torchwood technology called 'the Immortality Gate', The End of Time Part Two shifts the focus onto the Time Lords' (lead by Timothy Dalton's Rassilon) return and their plan to achieve it via the drums in the Master's head and the Three-Point Star. It is clever the way Russell T Davies splits the narrative up in this way as it prevents a problem that can occur in some two-part stories, where the first part is nothing more than a prequel to the events of part two.

There are some obvious plot holes in the story, such as how the Master gains his weird blue beam powers, but who cares when it's this much fun? The End of Time is basically like your Summer movie blockbuster: it's made to be entertaining and not to be a story that's picked apart. As much as those of us in the Whovian fandom like to think otherwise, Doctor Who isn't Shakespeare or Dickens. It isn't going to be analysed by English professors years into the future. It's just intended to be Saturday primetime fun around the sofa. And The End of Time IS fun. Who cares why the Master's powers aren't explained? Do we need an explanation for anything? Why can't we just enjoy Doctor Who like we enjoy a movie blockbuster at the cinema? Picking apart the plot holes is sometimes what spoils the fun of simply relaxing and watching a piece of television.

Russell T Davies was clearly having a lively time writing this story and it is clear that he has taken inspiration from the Marvel films. The 10th Doctor's initial confrontation with the Master in the wasteland could easily have been something from Thor: in this case, with the Doctor (David Tennant) as Thor and the Master being the nearest equivalent to Loki. It is an extremely well-directed and choreographed stand-off that has a certain gravitas to it. There really couldn't have been a better choice to direct David Tennant's final story than Euros Lyn. He has directed some of the show's best episodes including Silence In The Library (which he won the BAFTA Cymru award for) and The Girl In The Fireplace. Euros Lyn clearly knows exactly how to direct Doctor Who and the combination of Russell T Davies and Euros works perfectly.

Talking of well-directed scenes, the scene where the Doctor confronts Rassilon with a gun is in my opinion one of Doctor Who's most iconic scenes. It is full of drama and tension; it is so expertly written by Russell T Davies that as the audience you literally question whether the Doctor will shoot either the Master or Rassilon dead despite this incarnation's hatred of guns. It is definitely one of the show's most powerful scenes and a great example of one where the Doctor's morality is questioned: as Rassilon puts it, will the 10th Doctor's last act before 'death' be murder? Will he really go that far? Russell T Davies doesn't stray from asking powerful questions like this during a show kids will be watching and Doctor Who is all the better for it.

Many complain about the 'farewell tour' (a scene where the Doctor visits his companions and the great-granddaughter of past love interest Joan Redfern (Jessica Hynes) during his time in the TARDIS) but personally I didn't mind it. It felt like a nice way to celebrate the end of Doctor Who's golden era and the 10th Doctor's regeneration story wouldn't have felt right without Captain Jack (John Barrowman) appearing, given how prominent he had been during David Tennant's run. Nothing in the farewell tour detracts in any shape or form from the narrative anyway; it doesn't leave any kind of impact on the story and I am glad for its inclusion. The Russell T Davies era deserved this kind of celebration; the show may never return to the excellent ratings the RTD era produced, especially with catch-up services becoming the way many now watch television.

Without a doubt The End of Time for me features the best regeneration scene Doctor Who has ever seen. The way David Tennant utters the line 'I don't want to go' is utterly heart-breaking and I dare anyone to try and watch it without shedding a few tears. If this were a movie, David Tennant would have been nominated for a 'Best Actor' Oscar purely for this moment; it is comparable, if not better than Anne Hathaway's I Dreamed A Dream or Jack Nicholson in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. David Tennant without a doubt gives his best performance as the 10th Doctor in this story and you feel the pain this incarnation is going through when he wants to stick with his current incarnation a bit longer.

The emotion is only heightened with Murray Gold's brilliant score. Vale Decem is the best piece of music beside the theme tune that has ever been composed for Doctor Who and again, had this been a film I suspect it would have been nominated for an Oscar. It would certainly have deserved an Oscar anyway. 'Vale Decem' literally translates in latin to 'Farewell Ten' and that's exactly what it feels like: a fond farewell. A sad goodbye. This is the end but the moment has been prepared for. I enjoyed this piece of music so much that I bought the television soundtrack and the Specials soundtrack still remains the only Doctor Who orchestra music I own.

I can't talk about the regeneration without mentioning Matt Smith. Matt Smith was so great in his first appearance at the end of the regeneration sequence that he sold me from the word 'legs'. He oozes a natural eccentricity that feels suitably Doctor-ish and helps to establish just who this Doctor is. Unlike Peter Capaldi's (who I think is a great Doctor) debut in Time of the Doctor, you feel like you know this Doctor right from the off and suddenly he no longer seems too young (as many had complained at the time). Sure, he has a youthful energy about him but he seems like the same ancient Time Lord we know and love. It's definitely the best regeneration introduction of a new Doctor the show has ever and will ever see. Matt Smith simply was the Doctor right from the start.

One person who threatens to steal the show is Bernard Cribbins. Bernard Cribbins is extremely loveable as Donna's grandfather Wilfred Mott and it is a shame he never got a complete series in the TARDIS alongside the 10th Doctor. I love his grandfatherly relationship with this incarnation of the Doctor and could easily watch thirteen episodes of it. It's a shame that the show seems to think it always needs to introduce a young female companion; why can't we have an old gentleman for a change? If Big Finish could feature Maggie Stables as Evelyn Smythe as a companion before her untimely death, then why can't the TV series have Bernard Cribbins join the Doctor in the TARDIS? It feels like a massive missed opportunity that Russell T Davies never thought to include Wilf as companion for an entire series; hopefully one day he can come back and travel with a future Doctor.

The End of Time also features some of the best special effects from the VFX production company of the time 'The Mill'. The Master's blue skeleton skull and the Immortality Gate for example would not look out of place in a Hollywood movie. They are spectacular special effects and add to the feeling that The End of Time was perhaps made on a bigger budget than usual. For me it took until 2013's Day of the Doctor to top the special effects in this story, which is a testament to the production crew of 2009 that they made something with effects that look better than those in stories ranging from 2010-2013.

Overall, The End of Time is a fantastic send-off for both David Tennant and Russell T Davies. It feels like a big-budget Hollywood movie and is therefore great fun to watch, even if some would point out various plot holes present in the story. David Tennant gives a performance that would be worthy of an Oscar had this story been a big Hollywood production and Euros Lyn does an amazing job of directing one of the show's most epic and action-packed finales. This story is also notable for featuring some of Doctor Who's best special effects. If you've never watched Doctor Who but like the Marvel movies, then this would likely be a good starting point for you. Otherwise I would probably start from an earlier episode in the RTD Era like Rose or The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. The End of Time is definitely more than worth your time though; who cares about plot holes when the story is this much fun?

Norbit

Picture this: you're at Secondary School, t's the end of the Summer term - the time when all the teachers abandon their jobs to shut you up for an hour by putting on a film - and when you reach your next class, you find a supply teacher waiting for you with a horrible taste in films. That has to be every student's worst nightmare at the end of the school year and as you might have guessed, it's something that happened to me during my time at Graham Secondary School.

It was the supply teacher's terrible taste in movies that was the only reason why I watched the awful comedy Norbit. Norbit (Eddie Murphy), the adopted son of Mr. Wong (Eddie Murphy), is married to his wife Rasputia (Eddie Murphy) however he doesn't really want to be with her because she is a terrible woman (and not just because of Eddie Murphy's horrendous acting). His childhood crush Kate Thomas (Thandie Newton) arrives back in Norbit's home town to buy an orphanage and he discovers he would rather be with her. However she is engaged to businessman Deion Hughes (Cuba Gooding Jr.). This doesn't stop Norbit from trying to win Kate Thomas's affections...but it would have been better for the audience's sanity had that been the end of the movie.

The problem with Norbit is that it's called a 'comedy'...yet there isn't one moment in the entire movie that's funny. It's just pathetic, like the kind of stories you write during at primary school with fart jokes which you think are funny. A quick search on Google shows that Eddie Murphy wrote Norbit with a writing team of four. Four people wrote this movie and between them they couldn't even come up with one funny joke. You would think by laws of probability one of them would at least contribute something worthy of a laugh. But nope, none of them do. Not even a star talent like Eddie Murphy. Clearly if this was the best he could manage in 2007 he should have stuck to voicing a talking donkey.

It's not even like this movie works as a romance either. The central protagonist Norbit possesses no likeable qualities: he pursues in trying to win over the affections of a woman WHO'S ABOUT TO GET MARRIED. He wants her to cheat on her FUTURE HUSBAND. Why would you make a guy who wants a woman to cheat on her husband with him a central protagonist? Why would you even think that makes him likeable? It is made even worse by the fact that he is married himself. Does Eddie Murphy think it is appropriate for a married man to chase an about-to-be-married woman? Because if he does, his current wife Paige Butcher (who married him in 2012) must be really worried.

If anything, the very fact that Norbit thinks it is right to cheat on his wife with another man's fiancee makes him more unlikeable than his awful wife Rasputia. We are clearly supposed to hate Rasputia and Kate's fiancee Deoin Hughes but you find yourself sympathising with them. Rasputia may threaten violence on Kate and Deoin Hughes may only be in Kate's relationship for her money but that still doesn't make Norbit's wanting to commit adultery right in any sense of the word given he clearly wants to do it before he even finds out Deoin's plan. Rasputia wouldn't have even threatened Kate if Norbit wasn't showing interest in her. If anybody's the antagonist of Norbit, it is Norbit himself. The writers have failed to make us care for a character we are clearly supposed to root for.

What makes this film even worse is Eddie Murphy's terrible performance. He plays three characters in this film and all three just appear as Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy and Eddie Murphy rather than characters in their own right. In fact, I'm surprised Eddie Murphy doesn't play every character in this movie; he may as well have done given there is literally no reason for him to play Norbitt, Rasputia AND Mr. Wong. I can only assume they couldn't find anyone else to play the roles because the script is terrible. By the way he is dressed, it seems like Norbit is supposed to be a geek but there is no hint of this whatsoever in Eddie Murphy's performance. Mr. Wong is probably the most forgettable and one-dimensional character you can ever find in a movie. Rasputia has to be the worst 'comedy' performance in a movie that's not the equally dreadful Little Fockers. She is the most stereotypical man-in-drag performance I have ever had the misfortune to see; loud, abrasive and squeaky voice with a strong dash of 'pathetic'. I can't even remember Thandie Newton as Kate or Cuba Gooding Jr. as Deoin Hughes; they have about as much presence in the movie as a paper clip.

I would like to say you can tell the production cast and crew put effort into this movie but I can't. This is one of the most lazy, sexist and downright awful 'comedies' I have ever seen. The director Brian Robbins would probably be better-suited to directing CBBC shows rather than Hollywood movies; it is lazy and uninspired. Unsurprisingly he hasn't directed much since Norbit: another Eddie Murphy comedy called Meet Dave and some show called 'Supah Ninjas', which sounds about as cringeworthy as this 'effort'. The last thing he directed was 2012's A Thousand Words: another Eddie Murphy comedy. I guess Eddie Murphy couldn't afford anyone else after the awfulness of Norbit to direct his films.

Overall, Norbit is a terrible 'comedy' that puts the word 'comedy' to shame. It is awful, uninspired and most importantly not funny. It doesn't even work as a romance, as the main character Norbit is an unlikeable protagonist who you quite simply want to be stabbed to death by his wife Rasputia. The film fails so much at establishing Norbit as a likeable protagonist that you end up sympathising with a man who's only marrying a woman for her money and a woman who threatens violence on other girls she spots hanging out with her husband. To top it all off, Eddie Murphy's triple performance is terrible and verging on sexism with his stereotypical man in drag routine. Norbit is the film that quite possibly destroyed Eddie Murphy's reputation as a mildly amusing comedy actor and he should be ashamed for inadvertently putting Secondary School students through a traumatically unfunny experience. Watching Norbit was definitely worse for fourteen year old me than learning algebra.

The Twin Dilemma

The Twin Dilemma has an unfair reputation for being a bad Doctor debut story. People tend to forget that it followed the excellent The Caves of Androzani, so disappointment was inevitable. They could have pulled out a Spearhead From Space and people would still have claimed it wasn't very good. That being said, The Twin Dilemma definitely has flaws and it's not a story that will ever be considered a highlight of the classic series.

The Twin Dilemma finds the Doctor (Colin Baker) struggling to cope with post-regeneration trauma. He decides to become a hermit and lands the TARDIS on Titan III. Meanwhile, Romulus (Gavin Conrad) and Remus (Andrew Conrad) - two of the most intelligent twins in the universe - are kidnapped from their father Archie Sylvest (Dennis Chinnery) by the Doctor's old mentor from Gallifrey Azmael (Maurice Denham). He needs their help to save the people of Jaconda from famine and is working with Gastropod (alien slugs) leader Mestor (Edwin Richfield) in order to achieve that goal. Officer Hugo Lang (Kevin McNally) is sent out to search for the twins by the Earth defence force the Interplanetary Pursuit but is shot down and crashes on Titan III. He decides to team up with the Doctor and Peri (Nicola Bryant) to find the twins' captive and stop Mestor's real plan from coming to fruition.

It's applaudable how The Twin Dilemma takes a basic story and makes it the plot of the Doctor's debut. The story should never be overly complicated for a Doctor's introduction; it feels right for the focus to be on exploring who the new Doctor is (or rather what he has become). It's definitely one of the easiest Doctor Who stories to follow; the plot is pretty low-key and is more about the kidnap of the twins than the supposed destruction their mathematical knowledge could cause.

It's that mathematical knowledge, however, that's one of the hindrances of The Twin Dilemma's stories. I spoke in my Logopolis review on how the idea of Mathematicians having control over the universe is boring and the same thought for me applies here. The twins are dull and watching them write mathematical equations is not very exciting. A fair bit of time is devoted to it too; they try to make it appear exciting with the production design (the swivel-y chairs bizarrely make it look like some sort of game show) but it doesn't quite work. Doctor Who's current producer of the time John Nathan Turner seems obsessed by the idea of mathematics changing the universe given this is his second story to feature it and I don't quite know why. The twins have this annoying way of speaking also that makes them sound posh and too polite to be true. Their dialogue is literally all a 'father wouldn't approve' way of speaking that I'm sure made many viewers at the time feel like chucking their remote control at the screen.

Many complain about the Doctor cowering away from aliens in this story but to me this works within the context of the story. We know the Doctor is suffering from post-regeneration trauma so what better way to emphasise this than to show him being something that goes against the kind of person he is? The audience are aware he's not quite himself because he's hiding from the very things he defends the universe from, so by the time he confronts Mestor it seems like the Doctor we know and love is back. It's a good decision by writer Anthony Steven and something that to his credit I doubt any other Doctor Who writer would dare to attempt.

Talking of the Doctor, if anything helps carry The Twin Dilemma it is Colin Baker's performance. Colin Baker is fantastic as the Doctor in his first story; his theatrical delivery is very engaging to watch and despite the displays of cowardice he has flashes of a certain demeanour that bode well for his future serials for the show. If nothing else, this story is worth watching for Colin Baker - even if it is rather mediocre and not the best example of classic series Doctor Who. It's nice that he got an opportunity to play the Doctor as he wanted through Big Finish as his acting helps overcome some of the lame dialogue he is given.

It's a shame that the scenes in the TARDIS tend to drag in episode one. They take up majority of the first episode and it feels like we spend too much time in the TARDIS and not enough of the serial's running time devoted to the twin kidnap plot. The moment where the Doctor strangles his companion Peri also feels uncomfortable to watch, even if it makes sense because of the post-regeneration trauma. It's well acted by both Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant but it doesn't quite work in the story. It unwisely makes the new Doctor to appear violent and unlikeable, which I am sure was the intention but doesn't make for the most likeable protagonist.

The serial is full of interesting supporting characters, especially Maurice Denham as Azmael and Kevin McNally as Hugo Lang. Azmael is a brilliant character and I wish the more jokey relationship hinted at in dialogue between the Doctor and Azmael had been shown on-screen. He is well-played by Maurice Denham, who offers a certain gravitas that's perfect for a Time Lord from Gallifrey. Azmael would have made a great recurring character and it is a shame he wasn't brought back in future sixth Doctor stories. I hope one day Big Finish decide to bring the character back despite his ; I am sure they could find a way around that. If the Master can return from the dead, then why not Azmael? As for Kevin McNally as Hugo, there's something endearing about his performance that leaves you wanting more. It's not hard to see why he has become a major stable of the Pirates of the Caribbean series. He's an actor who was too good for The Twin Dilemma and I wish there was a chance Big Finish could afford him for a Hugo Lang spinoff series.

Overall, The Twin Dilemma isn't as bad as many make out but it does display a few flaws. The twins are boring for one and the TARDIS scenes take up too much of the first episode. However the story wisely focuses on a simplistic narrative for a Doctor debut story and Colin Baker's performance as well as those of the supporting cast are amazing. It was definitely a misfire though to show the sixth Doctor strangling his companion; it makes him appear violent and unlikeable, with Colin Baker's acting being the only saving grace for the character. The Twin Dilemma can only really be recommended for Colin Baker's performance, even if its un-deserving of a terrible reputation.

The Cat In The Hat

Dr. Seuss had a wonderful imagination. He was one of the world's best childrens' authors and no doubt an inspiration to fellow childrens' author Roald Dahl. Making films based on his work therefore makes sense. There is clearly a built-in audience for it given how much his stories are adored by children and families worldwide. Unfortunately his stories have proven hard to adapt to the big screen and The Cat In The Hat is a good example of that.

The film follows the story of two kids - Sally (Dakota Fanning) and Conrad (Spencer Breslin) - who are being babysitted by Mrs Kwan (Amy Hill) after their mother Joan Walden (Kelly Presten) is called back to her role in the office at Hank Humberfloob of Humberfloob Real Estate. When Mrs Kwan falls alseep, they find the over-sized Cat (Mike Myers) of the title in their house who along with his Things (Danielle Chuchran, Taylor Rice, Brittany Oaks, Talia-Lynn Prairie, Dan Castellana) teach the children how to have fun.

The production of this film accurately displays the fun of a Dr. Seuss title. In fact, it's the production design that's the best thing about this movie. J. André Chaintreuil's set design perfectly evokes the zaniness that many of Dr. Seuss's stories possess. If the movie was as good as the production design, then it would feel more like a faithful adaptation. It's clear that more effort has been put towards how the film looks rather than the style and substance of the film itself.

The main problem with the movie itself is that it feels too geared towards kids. Now Dr. Seuss's books were for children but a good kids movie does not pander towards them but instead aims at a broader family audience. This should be a film that all ages can enjoy, whether you are two or one hundred and two. Instead it is only likely to entertain very young children. And I mean very young. This film feels like it was aimed at idiots; it frequently talks down to kids and doesn't credit them with the intelligence that most children possess.

At the same time, certain dialogue doesn't feel as though it is entirely appropriate for kids. Alec Berg's screenplay features lines such as 'Son of a...' and 'Dirty hoe' alongside others like 'How much is that canine American in the window' and 'Why am I sneezing?',
'That'd be me. BOO!'. The former don't feel as though they were written for another film and a drunk Alec Berg accidentally wrote it in the Cat In The Hat screenplay. Maybe there's a screenplay for an R-rated comedy somewhere that featured a 'knock knock' joke? It wouldn't surprise me because these jokes feel awkward in a kids movie alongside patronising kiddy stuff about 'How much is that dog in the window?'.

The movie is generally well cast however. Mike Myers is a good choice for the Cat. He is suitably eccentric for a Dr. Seuss adaptation and gives a performance that reminds me a lot of Johnny Depp's more recent characters. If this movie were made now, it would probably be Johnny Depp playing the Cat. The kids aren't annoying either; Dakota Fanning and Spencer Breslin are good casting for their characters. They feel like they come from a Dr. Seuss tale, especially Dakota Fanning. Dakota Fanning is a star and I am surprised she hasn't become a more well-known name. Perhaps she would have done had this been a better movie?

The strangest thing about this film is despite its $109 million budget it feels more like a TV Movie than a big budget Hollywood release. The production design is brilliant as previously mentioned but some of the sets look cheap and the mise en scene including Dr Seuss's car look unconvincing. Nothing in this world feels true or believable; it's hard to suspend your belief when everything looks as though it will fall apart with a big gust of wind. Maybe that's the look they wanted to achieve but it doesn't work for me and takes me somewhat out of the film.

Overall, The Cat In The Hat shows just how hard Dr Seuss's work has proven to be adapted to the big screen. The production design is authentic but despite its $109m budget the production values look terrible. The film is aimed too much towards kids and not enough to families in general; any parents watching this with their kids will find themselves bored waiting for it to end. As for Alec Berg's screenplay, it has a weird mix of kiddy jokes and jokes that don't feel entirely appropriate for children. It's almost like he was writing an R-rated comedy at the same time and forgot which one he was writing when he inserted lines like 'Dirty hoe'. The Cat In The Hat would likely have fared better as a Saturday morning cartoon than a Hollywood movie. Hopefully nobody will ever let the cat out of the hat for a film again.

I was quite shocked to see that it's 9 years ago since I did my own review of this story — and I was watching it on video . That makes me feel old.



I think it gets a bad press too. This is how I concluded my review:





I found it very interesting trying to determine how much of a success Baker's performance had been:





My favourite bit in the review was about the "depressingly bad" Pursuit Squadron set, where Hugo Lang "keeps a picture of Earth on his desk as if it’s a relative" .

I remember watching Creature Comforts on VHS. That was a brilliant show.

The Fourth Wall

Sometimes the word 'gimmick' is thrown around too often as a negative thing. 'Oh, it's just a gimmick', people say. 'It doesn't matter'. Personally, I don't mind gimmicks. Gimmicks are fun - and what's wrong with that? You don't hear people complain about watching films or television shows because they're 'fun' so why should a gimmick be seen as a bad thing? You may wonder how this relates to the review I am writing. Well, the latest Twelfth Doctor strip published in the UK - The Fourth Wall - is one of those gimmicks.

The Fourth Wall sees the Doctor and Clara arrive at a comic book shop, to find that customers to the comic store have been trapped in the very comics they have been reading. The Doctor's attention is drawn towards a comic book series baring remarkable similarities to his adventures - 'Time Surgeon' - and starts to skip through the pages when he is trapped inside the book. It's up to Clara and one of the comic store staff to team up to save the Doctor and the customers who have been trapped in the comic books.

The gimmick I refer to here is the Doctor's interactions with the comic strip environment. Not only does he communicate with the reader through the panels of the strip but he also interacts with the white bars that separate the panels. The way the narrative plays with the comic strip and the interaction with the environment is extremely clever and helps to enhance the story; at one point, for example, the Doctor breaks one of the white bars with his Sonic Screwdriver in order to escape a comic panel. It's fun to see a comic book story have its characters interact with the comic strip and display a Deadpool-esque awareness that they are inside one. I wouldn't want to see this done with every Doctor Who strip but as a one-off it shows real imagination and innovation from the writers.

The notion of people trapped inside comic books is also something that feels appropriately like a Steven Moffat story. Writer Robbie Morrison does a great job of taking an everyday object like a comic book and turning it into a credible threat. He also shows a clear love and dedication for the comic strip medium; at its most basic, the story is a love letter to comic books told by somebody who is clearly a comic book fan. This is the kind of story that I wouldn't just recommend to Whovians but also those who love the comic book medium.

You can also tell Robbie Morrison is a keen watcher of the show. The characterisations of the Doctor and Clara are perfect. I heard Jenna Coleman's voice when reading Clara's speech bubbles more than I did when reading any other Titan Comics Doctor Who strip and the twelfth Doctor feels like he was actually written by one of Doctor Who's current writers. The Fourth Wall is a comic that you could easily imagine being told on-screen; I don't know if it would have worked as well as a television episode but it does seem like an adventure that fits into the current era of the show.

The Fourth Wall also contains some of the best comic book art of the Twelfth Doctor series. Some of the panels are extremely vibrant and really bump off the page, especially the comic panel where the Doctor and his new friend Natalie have broken from the comic panels and travelling through dimensions of comic history (featuring some nice floating panels of the previous twelfth Doctor year two story). It's visually pleasing to look at and captures nice likenesses of the Doctor and Clara.

If I had one complaint of The Fourth Wall, it's the decision to make the monsters of the strip be the Boneless. Whilst the Boneless make sense as monsters yet again breaking out of the two dimension plane of comic book pages and in turn trapping readers within the panels, it just feels too soon for a returning monster after the Sea Devils returned only a monster before. I would have liked to have seen a new monster for a change or perhaps this story later in the run, with new twelfth Doctor and Clara stories between Clara Oswald and the School of Death and The Fourth Wall. I hope the twelfth Doctor comics don't start to make a habit of bringing back returning monsters as whilst it is nice to see them in the comics medium if they do it too often it will become expected rather than a good surprise.

Overall, The Fourth Wall is a fantastic comic book story that uses the medium to its full advantage. The way the Doctor interacts with the comic strip environment is clever and well thought-out by writer Robbie Morrison and the story feels like it belongs in the Moffat era of the show. The Fourth Wall does what the best Doctor Who stories do: it takes an everyday object like comic books and turns them into a credible threat. The characterisations and likenesses of the twelfth Doctor and Clara are at their best here; you won't find a more accurate version of the twelfth Doctor and Clara's adventures together in the Titan Comics range than this one. My only complaint is that the story features yet another returning monster so soon after the Sea Devils in Clara Oswald and the School of Death but it doesn't stop The Fourth Wall from being one of the twelfth Doctor's greatest comic adventures so far.

Agent Carter - Season One

If there's one show that has had a tough time, it's Marvel's Agent Carter. Agent Carter has a big and dedicated fanbase yet for this show it hasn't been enough to secure it the viewership it needed. First it got poor viewing figures in America, then Channel 4 refused to show it and the rights went to Fox UK (which is accessible to a smaller number of people). When Season Two aired in America, the viewing figures fell further and ABC cancelled the show. So why haven't audiences taken to Agent Carter? Well, I'm not quite sure.

Agent Carter tells the story of Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell), who works at the SSR (Strategic Scientific Reserve) as a secret agent in 1940s New York. Since the end of World War 2 and the events of Captain America: The First Avenger, her 'assignments' have become nothing more than those of a secretary: sorting out the filing system, taking the lunch orders, answering phone calls... Peggy is sick of being treated as an admin woman. Meanwhile, Howard Stark's (Dominic Cooper) weapons have been stolen and the SSR blame him for it. Howard hires Peggy to help clear his name and with the help of his butler Jarvis (James D'Arcy), she becomes a double agent in order to find out the culprit behind the theft of Howard's weapons.

Annoyingly Season Two of Agent Carter hasn't been put up for pre-order yet; I hope it is eventually as I really enjoyed Season One. You can tell Agent Carter was made by Disney and Marvel as it has real heart and charm that we have all come to expect from Disney and Marvel productions. Peggy makes for a captivating lead protagonist: one with a lot of character development and whom you immediately find yourself rooting for throughout the story. A lot of that is down to the excellent portrayal by Hayley Atwell but it is also because of the wonderful script, that helps to highlight the blatant sexism of the time. Peggy is no underdog and the fact she is treated as one despite being the SSR's best agent shows how little respect men of the 1940s had for women doing their jobs.

The main antagonist of the piece, Dottie Underwood (Bridget Regan), is also one of the MCU's best villains to date. She is the perfect foil for Peggy and is nicely written as the direct shadow of her. Like all best villains, she is Peggy's dark side. Dottie is the Moriarty to Peggy Carter's Sherlock or the Master to Peggy Carter's Doctor. Bridget Regan plays her well too; the way she feigns sweetness and innocence one minute and suddenly turns into a cold, hard exterior is convincing and somewhat unsettling at the same time. Whilst the Marvel films have the best heroes, the Marvel TV Shows definitely have the best villains and James Gun et al need to take tips on the way Marvel television deal with their villains.

Agent Carter has a great sense of humour in many of its scenes, such as the irony displayed when they show the recording of the Captain America radio show. It's fun seeing the stereotypical 1940s woman version of Peggy Carter being acted out whilst the real Peggy Carter is more than capable of handling herself. Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark provides a lot of brilliant comedic moments too, such as in the episode 'The Blitzkrieg Button', where Peggy has to smuggle him into the Griffith Hotel; a place where men aren't allowed. Writer Brant Englestein demonstrates a talent in comedy writing, providing one of the first season's best episodes.

One of the main strengths of Agent Carter is the way it accurately conveys the period it is set, through the mise-en-scene, production design and most notably in the music. It feels like the production crew have actually travelled back in time to the 1940s, rather than simply recreating the era. One scene sees Peggy and Jarvis fighting SSR agents when they find out she has been working for Howard Stark; the fight sequence is done to the song It's A Good Day. This really helps add authenticity to the setting and is a strong way to establish the time where it is set; the fight works surprisingly well with the song and is definitely one of the season's strongest moments.

Agent Carter is a quality show and I really can't work out why it hasn't been successful. My best guess is maybe that people were put off by the notion of a Marvel period drama set during the 1940s. The season doesn't feature any Marvel superheroes apart from flashbacks of Captain America, it doesn't have the SHIELD connection to the MCU (it has not been established yet and it is likely had Season Three been announced that this would have seen SHIELD come to fruition) and unlike Agents of SHIELD there was never any chance of them bringing any minor superheroes in. Agent Carter doesn't need any of these things to be a fun watch though; it is engaging from the off and those who haven't seen it do not know what they are missing out on.

One of my only complaints is that one or two of the episodes can drag a little when there's not much action going on. This is most notable in the penultimate episode Snafu, which sees majority of its running time taken up with Peggy Carter being questioned by the SSR. It suffers from being too much off a set-up to the last episode. Episode eight sees the season returning to its inner strength however and is a strong conclusion to a great series.

Another problem is that sometimes the SSR agents seem a bit too stupid. It takes them a surprisingly long time to figure out Peggy was undergoing her own investigation behind their backs. For spies, they seem more than a little dim. They are outwitted by a simple sick leave; why aren't they asking questions why Peggy suddenly says she is ill in the first episode? The SSR must be the easiest place to work as a double agent; Peggy Carter gets away with it easily and had these agents shown the slightest bit of intelligence they would have figured out what she was up to in the first episode.

Overall, Agent Carter is a top quality period drama that deserved more viewers than it got. It displays real heart and warmth in its premise of a female agent working in a sexist New York, with a great sense of humour presented in episodes such as The Blitzkrieg Button. The main antagonist Dottie Underwood is one of the MCU's best villains and is a suitable foil for Peggy Carter. She is basically Peggy's dark side and puts villains such as Ronan the Accuser to shame. Agent Carter does a great job of conveying the 1940s period through the music and excellent production and costume design. My only complaints about Agent Carter is that a couple of episodes have a tendency to drag (such as the penultimate episode Snafu) and the SSR agents are a bit dim. Agent Carter is well-worth your time though and more than worth the cost of the Bluray. You don't want to miss out on a quality American drama like this.

Remembrance of the Daleks

Doctor Who's 25th anniversary season did something different to what was usually expected during a Doctor Who anniversary. Rather than bringing back past Doctors to interact with the current one, producer John Nathan Turner decided to go in another direction: celebrating the Doctor's most famous enemies in the Daleks and the Cybermen. The Cybermen's story Silver Nemesis was the show's twenty-fifth anniversary episode but before that there was Remembrance of the Daleks: the story many Whovians consider to be the real twenty fifth anniversary special.

In Remembrance of the Daleks, the Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) returns to 1960s London with Ace (Sophie Aldred), where two opposing Dalek factions are at war with one another and searching for the Hand of Omega: a device created by Stellar Engineer Omega to turn stars into supernovas as fuel for Gallifreyan time travel. Davros (Terry Molloy) and the Daleks want it to improve their ability to time travel. The Doctor plans on giving it to them...but why?

The way Remembrance of the Daleks celebrates Doctor Who's longevity is remarkable. It does something that the recent film Jurassic World did very well: slots in nostalgic nods and references into the story without it distracting the main story. The majority of the narrative takes place at Coal Hill School (the same school that the Doctor's granddaughter Susan Foreman was at). You get to see IM Foreman's scrapyard and the book about the French Revolution Susan borrowed from Barbara in An Unearthly Child. There is even a scene where Ace walks out of a room just as the BBC continuity announcer on the television announces the start of a brand new sci-fi television series 'Doc-'. This is the reason why many consider Remembrance of the Daleks to be the show's 25th anniversary special: it feels so much like one that it's hard to believe Silver Nemesis was the special and not this.

And the nods to the very first serial An Unearthly Child don't stop there. The story even features a mysterious child of its own. A character so mysterious she doesn't even have a name: she's simply called 'The Girl' in the end credits. The Girl is a deliberate echo of Susan Foreman: only this time, instead of being the Doctor's granddaughter she is the Dalek's 'battle computer'. Young actor Jasmine Breaks plays her brilliantly; she gives a certain menace to her performance that is surprisingly creepy for a young girl. It's also a nice idea for a story twenty five years later to take inspiration from the serial that started it all; the Girl never feels like a copy of Susan but a different mysterious child, even as a deliberate call-back to the character of Susan.

There's something I mentioned in my Agent Carter review that really applies here and that's the use of music to create the era. The music in this serial featured in the cafe scenes is nicely authentic towards the sixties' era and it feels like the seventh Doctor and Ace are actually in the 60s rather than the reality of the time it was filmed. There's never any doubt that this story takes place shortly after the first Doctor and Susan leave IM Foreman's junkyard and you can tell real research has been put into the era by sound man Scott Talbott. It's a terrific sound mix and works well for a story with call-backs to the 60s era of the show.

But this isn't just a serial that looks backwards. Like the best Doctor Who celebrations, it looks forwards. The special effects by Stuart Brisdon are ahead of their time; these are effects that are so impressive that the new series of Doctor Who borrows from them a lot. The skeleton effect that surrounds a character fired at by a Dalek looks a lot like the skeleton effect of the 2005 revival and the beam of light that emits from the Daleks' egg whisks here bears a strong resemblance to the effects used for the RTD era Daleks.

It's not only the special effects that look to the show's future either. The narrative also looks forward when it needs to. Writer Ben Aaronovitch is a genius at juggling the forwards and backwards look of the serial and crafts one of the show's all-time best cliffhangers: the moment when a Dalek levitates up the stairs. This is a moment so iconic that it is replicated in the 2005 episode Dalek, when the Dalek follows Rose and Adam up some stairs at billionaire collector Henry van Statten's museum. Yet rather unfairly, it is forgotten. People tend to think of Robert Shearman as the first person to do it, when actually it came from the mind of Ben Aaronovitch. I imagine it must have been a surprise for the audience of 1988, without the knowledge that Daleks could climb stairs: it is a chilling moment and one of the highlights of this serial.

Remembrance of the Daleks is notable to the Whovian fanbase for introducing the Counter Measures team, consisting of Captain Gilmore (Simon Williams), Rachel Jensen (Pamela Salem) and Allison Williams (Karen Gledhill). It is not surprising that these characters got their own Big Finish spinoff as they feel like the sixties' equivalent of UNIT. Captain Gilmore in particular feels like a nice alternative to Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, played with the same level of charm and authority by Simon Williams. You could believe had the classic series run of Doctor Who had continued that the seventh Doctor and Captain Gilmore would have developed a similar friendship to the Brigadier. Karen Gledhill and Pamela Salem are good in their roles too but don't quite shine as much as Simon Williams does as Gilmore. What's great about Pamela Salem's character Rachel Jensen is she is a fun callback to the third Doctor's time with UNIT. Just like the Doctor, she is a scientific advisor to a military organisation and it is always great to see how a different character deals with the job when the Doctor's around with considerably more knowledge. Allison Williams doesn't really do a great deal although I imagine her character is expanded upon in the Big Finish releases.

Overall, Remembrance of the Daleks is an amazing celebration of twenty five years of Doctor Who. It didn't need more than one Doctor to celebrate the longevity of the show; instead it does something that the more recent Jurassic World did with nostalgic nods and references to the history of the franchise. Yet despite the references, it still manages to look forward through the outstanding special effects and chilling cliffhanger where the Dalek glides up the stairs. The 60s sound mix convincingly recreates the sixties era and the Counter Measures team are a fun sixties version of UNIT. This serial has made me tempted to try out Big Finish's Counter Measures audios at some point and I am sure it will do the same to anybody who decides to give this Doctor Who serial a go. And you should give it a go: you don't need prior knowledge of Doctor Who to enjoy it. It's an excellent story in its own right and I would recommend it to anyone who likes recent movies such as Jurassic World.

I'm pretty sure what became Resurrection of the Daleks was planned for the season that ended with The King's Demons, but it fell through probably in part because they couldn't get Michael Wisher. So even in that season you had the Black Guardian, the Mara, Omega and the Master before past Doctors came along in The Five Doctors.

Yeah, I liked that character a lot. Any fan would think it was Davros in the 'chair' and it's a big surprise to find out where he actually is.

It's a shame that the levitations in Revelation of the Daleks weren't achieved well enough to stick in the viewers' imaginations. The see-through Dalek is supposed to be levitating when it opens fire; and Davros also levitates but unfortunately the effect is poor. Thankfully, Remembrance really made it clear that the Dalek was hovering with the proper perspective.

Actually it's interesting that there is always another Doctor present – the First, who haunts the story. I love that line from the undertaker about expecting "an old geezer with white hair".

True. John Nathan Turner seemed to be a fan of bringing past enemies back.


I initially thought it was Davros and was surprised when it wasn't.



I haven't seen Revelation of the Daleks yet. It is on the to-watch list.

Yeah, that's one of the best lines in the serial. Even people unfamiliar with the show who have a basic knowledge of the incarnations will know who he is referring to.

Yeah, and I think he did it well too.

Yeah it was a great bit of misdirection and it also allowed the Daleks to take centre stage.

It's really good – it's a special story for me because it was the first Colin Baker story I watched. Growing up I wasn't familiar with his Doctor at all, so he always interested me, especially as he was the one before mine. All I can say is, he didn't disappoint .