‘Ultraviolet’: Collector’s Edition DVD review
With sombre opening music and shots slowly panning over a body we are introduced to writer/director Joe Aherne’s rather serious take on vampires.
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With sombre opening music and shots slowly panning over a body we are introduced to writer/director Joe Aherne’s rather serious take on vampires.
It is fair to say that the Doctor is usually a subscriber to Clarke’s 3rd law, which asserts, “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic”.
On television ‘The Rescue’ was a rather modest affair. A two-parter set after the drama of ‘The Dalek Invasion of Earth’, its primary role was to provide an introduction Vicki (Maureen O’Brien) who was cast in the wake of Susan’s departure.
In this on demand digital age, we can stream Hollywood movies to our mobile phones and pre-order the DVD boxset of a television show before it has even aired. As Doctor Who approaches its 50th anniversary, the show is reaching ever-greater heights of popularity and international exposure. Amid all this, it somehow seems impossible to comprehend that there is a large swathe of the programme’s early episodes now lost to posterity.
Doctor Who’s ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ series reaches its fourth instalment with ‘Babblesphere’, a tale for Tom Baker’s Doctor and Lalla Ward’s Romana. Written by Jonathan Morris, the play is performed by Ward with Roger Parrott.
Arriving on the Earth colony of Hephastos, the time travellers come across a replica of the palace of Versailles encased in a geodesic dome and set amid a harsh volcanic landscape. Within, they find an artistic commune where the perils of social media are writ large.
From Androzani Minor to Zolfa Thura, from the dawn of the universe to barren worlds at the end of time, the TARDIS has seen it all. With the Doctor showboating to his new friend Clara on a trip to ‘The Rings of Akhaten’ in this weekend’s Doctor Who episode, CultBox takes a look at our five favourite alien worlds from the show’s modern era.
‘The Bells of Saint John’ was a rip-roaring series (re)opener from the pen of showrunner Steven Moffat. In fact, when you consider the up and downloading of souls into a computer system, the repeated (catch)phrase, the direct addressing of the audience, the ringing TARDIS telephone and the slow rotating reveal, the episode could not have been more Moffat-ish if it tried.
This is pretty gruesome stuff in places and certainly the kind of broader territory that Doctor Who could only tackle in expanded media.
While for some Dancing on the Edge has been too slow, we have really enjoyed this drama stretching over a longer, unhurried format.
‘Shadow of Death’ is the second Doctor entry in this year-long ‘Destiny of the Doctor’ celebratory series.