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Oh yeah, I remember about that. But even earlier there was some talk of a child-like alien that really sounded like The Holy Terror's villain.

I get the impression that the Angels have gone a bit wayward since Matt Smith's first two-parter. I think Shearman could do the business, but I'd rather something completely his own.

It was good that; the only thing I didn't like about it was that Rose didn't show any compassion. That was the beginning of the end for the character for me.

Yes, that was largely a decent adventure. I liked Flatline as well – great new monsters, the Boneless. The movements reminded me of the Nomes in Return to Oz.

Yeah, you would have thought she'd have stood up to the Doctor and told him it was wrong. Donna certainly would have.

The Boneless were great. I hope we see them return at some point.

Donna was my favourite companion in the new series for that reason.

I might even watch that episode. They're so good because they really represent what Doctor Who does best, flipping something everyday and mundane into a nightmare.

Screen 5 movie showings 2016

April: The Jungle Book (2016)
July: Ghostbusters (2016)
November: Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them

(I will be reviewing other films. These are just the 2016 ones I'll definitely be seeing at the cinema.)

Catherine Tate had great chemistry with David Tennant too. I cannot wait for their audio adventures.
Yeah, it's why Spearhead From Space has arguably made a big impact on the way Doctor Who works today.

It was very sensible of Davies to use the Autons to relaunch the show. I must get the Blu-ray of Spearhead as well.

School Reunion

It's always nice to see companions return and School Reunion sees the return of not one but two of them. School Reunion reintroduced Sarah Jane and K9, both reprised by their original actors Elisabeth Sladen and John Leeson and effectively acting as a backdoor pilot to the spinoff The Sarah Jane Adventures.

It's bittersweet to see the return of such beloved companions, especially when the excitement at seeing a familiar face again is played so well by David Tennant. Toby Whithouse writes the reunion so well that you can't help but feel a little disappointed that she decides not to join the Doctor on his adventures again.

But what of the actual plot? Well, School Reunion sees the Doctor and Rose investigate Deffry Vale School after Mickey (Noel Clarke) tells them over the phone about some strange goings-on. There, they find that a race known as the Krillitanes have taken on the form of teachers at the school and the canteen are serving chips in Krillitane oil to increase the kids' intelligence so they can help crack the Skasis Paradigm and control the universe. The story can feel a little contrived considering the Doctor and Sarah Jane just happen to be investigating the same school at the same time but it is forgivable given how great everything else is. The Krillitanes are a fantastic concept for an alien species; these are aliens who take on the features of any species they conquer meaning they could look different each time they return. And they need to return. In fact: why haven't they yet? This is such a strong concept that with return appearances they could arguably become among the most iconic of new series monsters. Anthony Head deserves to return as Mr Finch also; he is scarily cold and menacing as the school headteacher, especially during his tense confrontation with the Doctor at the swimming pool (I've never heard of a school with a swimming pool before!).

It's nice to see Mickey Smith finally become a companion at the end of this story. I always liked Mickey Smith, right from his introduction in Rose up until his and subsequent returns. He should have been a companion sooner and indeed when he is, the chemistry works really well between the Doctor, Rose and Mickey. School Reunion is followed by another great story The Girl In The Fireplace and one which I will review at a later time.

Overall, School Reunion is a fantastic reunion between three characters (the Doctor, Sarah Jane and K9) even if it does feel a little contrived and introduces a new race with a clever concept who really should return.

Thunderbirds

The popular Gerry Anderson series has returned with a new successful revival now (Thunderbirds Are Go) on CITV but many may not know there was an earlier attempt in 2004 when I was about eight or nine in the form of a movie. The film only made $6,880,917 in total and it's easy to see why.

This movie is nothing like the series it is based on. Director Jonathan Frakes bizarrely turned it into a high-school drama relocating one member of the Tracy family Alan (Brady Corbet) into a U.S. school. Thunderbirds was never about school, it was about rescue operations; they were ALL working at International Rescue and beyond school age. The rescue operations are even relegated to one small sequence near the beginning of the film seen in a news report; they don't even form the main plot of the film. Instead, Thunderbirds is turned into a spy movie about an evil meglomaniac (The Hood, played by Ben Kinglsey) planning on infiltrating Tracy Island and taking over the Thunderbirds vehicles. Whilst The Hood was a villain from the series, he was never the main focus as most episodes focused on the Thunderbirds actually rescuing people and so it seems clear Jonathan Frakes doesn't understand what the original series was about, opting for a more mainstream family approach.

If you think that's bad, look what they did to the Thunderbirds costumes:



They just made them generic spacesuits. Gone are the brilliant blue costumes with the little sailor hat and in its place are costumes that could be from any sci-fi movie.



I mean, seriously: to borrow the Angry Video Game Nerd's catchphrase, what were they thinking? Why would you change something so iconic to the original Thunderbirds series? To me, it's like if the BBC decided to change the TARDIS from a police box to an orange wheelbarrow. Nobody wants to see that.

There's also a cringey scene where one of the Thunderbirds shoots slime. Yeah, that's right: slime. There are almost no redeeming features of this film. Almost. Yet the designs of the Thunderbirds are great and accurately reflect how they appeared in the series; Sophia Myles is also fantastic as Lady Penelope and seems to be the only one connected to this film who has seen even an episode of Thunderbirds. This film is worth watching for Lady Penelope but not a lot else.

Overall, this film relates about as much to Thunderbirds as Justin Bieber does to good music: IE it doesn't relate to what it's supposed to be about at all. The only good things that came from this movie are Sophia Myles as Lady Penelope and some great Thunderbird vehicle designs.

The Invisible Enemy

The Invisible Enemy is a curious case. It introduced one of the show's most iconic companions in K9 (so iconic, in fact, that he was even included in the level pack for LEGO Dimensions seven years after his last appearance in the series) yet his introductory serial is very average.

The story sees the Doctor and Leela arriving at Professor Marius's ship where a three-man crew are under the control of the sentient virus the Nucleus The Doctor is also infected and must be cloned so they can be inserted inside his body in order to stop the infection. The special effects are usually not one of the selling points of a classic series serial because they are under a shoestring budget but even taking that into account, they are terrible here. The Nucleus looks unconvincing, like a massive prawn; this is probably the one serial you should avoid showing to any new viewers at any cost. When the special effects are bad, you need your story to help those watching to forget it. Sadly, whilst the story isn't terrible it's not that brilliant either; however it does do something interesting with clones of the Doctor and Leela inside the Doctor's brain and the special effects during this sequence are on the better side for a classic series serial.

With an average serial and a terribly designed monster, thank God then that the acting is on point. I think The Invisible Enemy shows Tom Baker at his best; he is brilliant throughout especially during parts three and four and you cannot detect the awkward relationship offscreen between Tom Baker and Louise Jameson at all (they infamously didn't get on well behind the scenes because Tom Baker didn't like the idea of the Doctor travelling with a violent companion as he believed it to be against the Doctor's moral compass). I also liked Frederick Jaegar; it is a shame he didn't become a recurring character as he is an engaging one.

The serial is also nicely paced at four parts. The Invisible Enemy as a story would never be able sustain any more than that; as a six parter it would have really dragged so four parts feels like its natural length and if it had a lesser number it would arguably have had a bigger impact on the narrative forcing it to be tighter and rushed to a conclusion (something that some had a problem with for some of the new series' series 7 episodes - personally didn't bother me but I can see their point in terms of The Power of Three). It feels like it needed the four parts; no more, no less.

Overall, this is a very average classic series serial let down by a terrible monster design and a forgettable narrative. K9 deserved a better introduction than this but at least it feels like its the right length, featured great acting and a character in Professor Marius who really should have been a recurring one (a trend in the Tom Baker era).

Wow, your really flying through your review thread. I feel bad that you have probably posted more reviews in the last week than i have since i've been here.

__________________

It's because there's no university at the moment. There will probably be less reviews next week when the next uni term starts.

Donald Trump's The Art Of The Deal - The Movie

It didn't take long for America to make a Donald Trump parody movie. Bizarrely, however, the company behind the first parody weren't Universal or 20th Century Fox or Warner Bros. but instead the YouTube channel Funny or Die. Not only that but weirdly they managed to get Johnny Depp to play the titular character. Being produced by a YouTube channel, you would think this film would have a relatively small budget. Clearly not.

The film follows Donald Trump's (Johnny Depp) attempts to buy the Taj Mahal whilst recounting his autobiography The Art of a Deal to a young kid (Emjay Anthony, Albert Tsai, Sayeed Shahidi, Jacob Tremblay). The plot is as silly as it sounds and relatively entertaining, however not all the jokes land and the rapping is annoying rather than funny. The most interesting thing about the film is the great visual aesthetic as opposed to the comedy. The visuals brilliantly and accurately reflect VHS quality (the film has a neat framing device where it is introduced as a lost film made by Donald Trump and recorded onto a VHS tape). It feels exactly like watching an old film and works directly in the film's favour.

Johnny Depp is also amazing as Donald Trump. Somehow he has managed to change his appearance AGAIN. He looks exactly like Donald Trump:





A lot of the jokes come from the way he portrays the role, with his mannerisms and cocky attitude directly reflecting Donald Trump's own reactions. Christopher Lloyd is also another stand-out star with his cameo as Doc Brown, even if the time travel subplot towards the end feels tacked on. Doc Brown really didn't need to be in this film even if he is one of the best examples of movie characters and involves a funny cameo from Christopher Lloyd. The kids are great examples of child casting too; each hilariously parody the stereotypical childlike wonder seen in movie kid characters especially the last child featured whose movie franchising jokes is one of the highlights of the movie.

It has to be admired how a group of amateur filmmakers have managed to make a film as good as this, even if it is a little average and the comedy isn't quite spot-on. They have done extremely well to even manage to get an actor of the calibre of Johnny Depp. It would have benefitted from a stronger script though; one that doesn't throw in an unnecessary time travel subplot just to include a Doc Brown cameo and an irritating example of rap.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I will not be reviewing a Doctor Who story tomorrow. Instead I shall review the first episode of Britain's Got Talent 2016 after it airs. Normal service will resume on Sunday and this will be the same every weekend until BGT finishes.

Dear God in heaven…

Are you joking?.

I guess you're both not fans of BGT somehow.

I'm actually being serious: I love BGT!

(Granted: mainly for Ant, Dec and David Walliams though)

To be honest i don't think anyone will even bother to read them .

I'm not a big fan of received wisdom in relation to the classic series, and it's to be avoided like the plague. I'm sure new viewers would be surprised at how successful some visual effects were with such limited resources. I'd also say that there are some new series examples that I'd be embarrassed to show people.

I haven't seen The Invisible Enemy that much and not for a long time, but one thing I would be fairly confident about is that the miniature work was impeccable, as it often was at this time in the series. Also, I know on The Tom Baker Years, Baker described the Nucleus as "the prawn" but given that it's a microscopic creature the crustacean-like appearance isn't a million miles away from that form of life, so I think it works, although when it becomes human-sized I think things gets less believable.

I liked David Walliams when he was doing those Doctor Who skits with Mark Gatiss. Since then I can't find any reason to carry on.

True. I liked the special effects during the scenes inside the Doctor's brain but I think the Nucleus monster is a bad special effect even for the classic series. It just doesn't look convincing at all to me and it's hard not to be taken out of the story because of it. Usually I am one to admire what they managed to achieve on a shoe-string budget; The Invisible Enemy is the only classic series serial where I take issue with the effects.