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Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, death is no longer the bar to filling the London Palladium that it once was. Equipped with a technical presentation barely dreamt of when he died in the late 1990s, Sinatra can still own the stage backed by a twenty-five piece orchestra and fourteen dancers. The show is … >
This week’s Doctor Who episode ‘Under the Lake’ hit all the notes of a traditional base-under-siege tale with plenty of running down corridors, as well as some terrific ghostly monsters. While we wait for the concluding part, ‘Before the Flood’, here are five Doctor Who stories we’d recommend checking out if you liked ‘Under the … >
Starting back in 2006 with the episode that reintroduced Sarah Jane Smith, and then returning under Steven Moffat, Toby Whithouse has become a regular fixture in the line-up of modern Doctor Who writers. Often touted by fans as a potential successor, much in the way that Moffat himself was during Russell T Davies’ tenure as … >
A.L. Kennedy’s novel, featuring a lone Fourth Doctor, is an expanded version of ‘The Death Pit’, first published as an eBook in 2013 and then again as part of this year’s ‘Time Trips’ short story collection. To be honest, the original rather failed to grab our attention in a collection alongside rather smart tales from … >
It has been another bumper month on audio for Doctor Who fans, with two main range releases and the return of the Early Adventures, now featuring the Second Doctor. Tony Jones and Ian McArdell review this month’s new Doctor Who plays from Big Finish… Main Range #203: ‘Terror of the Sontarans’ Rounding out their … >
It has been a number of years since Captain Jack Harkness last stood in a flappy greatcoat looking pensive on a Cardiff rooftop, but ‘The Conspiracy’ drags us straight back to the early days of Torchwood. While the television programme could be wildly uneven in tone from week to week, David Llewellyn’s audio tale is … >
The latest audio revival from Big Finish is a series that enjoyed just a single ten-episode run on BBC One in the summer of 1979. The Omega Factor followed the story of journalist Tom Crane, whose psychic abilities brought him into contact with the secretive Department 7. Staffed by a team which included physicist Dr … >
Back for a fifth season, and embracing a zippy new format (as trialled in ‘The Worlds of Big Finish’), the Number 22 to Putney Common has returned. For the uninitiated, her driver is the erstwhile Iris Wildthyme, trans-temporal adventuress, bon viveur and occasional sparring partner of the Doctor. For these stories, she is accompanied by … >
Since Merlin cast his last spell in 2012 and walked off into history, you may have been feeling a little bereft. Atlantis tried to fill a gap but was sadly cut down before it finished telling its tale. At least we can console ourselves that many of the Camelot crew have gone on to other … >
After the explosive events of Season 3’s opener, it is clear that Ripper Street has no intention of taking its foot off the accelerator. While continuing to explore Long Susan’s outwardly philanthropic business Obsidian Estates, this episode grapples with one of the show’s long-standing mysteries. When Obsidian’s repugnant lawyer Capshaw (John Heffernan) visits a defaulting … >