Lead writer Rob Hoegee returns to scripting duties this week, with his first script for the series since Thunderbirds Are Go’s two-part premiere. Like in those episodes, there’s a slight sense of classic series déjà vu to proceedings. Fans of the original series will spot the similarities between ‘Slingshot’ and ‘Sun Probe’ immediately, but unlike … >
Fifteen minutes into this week’s Critical two fire engines with police escorts, all lights flashing and sirens blaring, came screaming into view and I found myself regretting my claim last week that, “big-screen action isn’t Critical’s bag”. The season final of Sky1’s Critical seems determined to pull out all the stops. Rather than starting with … >
It’s another week of The Game, so it’s another round of Commie-catching cat and mouse. That is, it would be if the cat and his colleagues had to wear trench coats and keep a discreet distance as the mouse went about its secret mouse business of selling cheese secrets or blueprints of mouse-traps. Can Arkady, … >
Big Finish has released The Worlds of Big Finish, because it can. Over the many years since their first ever audio, many ranges have come and gone, and even if some of them come from the universe of Doctor Who, they don’t rely upon it for their vitality. With The Worlds of Big Finish, writer … >
Blake’s Heaven, edited by John Davies, is a book written for and by Blake’s 7 fans. It is the latest in a sequence started with You and Who which was the brainchild of JR Southall. Any profits from its release are donated to the BBC’s Children in Need. The idea is simple, have a book … >
In our fifth visit to Game of Thrones this year, Dany made some questionable decisions, Aemon Targaryen advised Jon to ‘kill the boy and let the man be born’, Brienne refused to abandon her oath and Stannis appointed himself Westeros’ official guardian of grammar. Elsewhere, Sansa struggled to cope in her old home of Winterfell. … >
Sometimes it’s easier to tag Doctor Who as science-fantasy rather than science-fiction. After all, there’s not a lot of lab-coat methodology you can apply to ‘remembering’ someone back into the universe, or using lightning to transmit your DNA into hybrid Dalek-People. And we won’t mention the words ‘moon’ and ‘egg’. But it’s a show that … >
A twist ending can pay off beautifully, but it’s always a gamble. As for Tatau’s conclusion… Well, that certainly got extra-fantastical, didn’t it? If Calcott’s is the only church on the island, I feel especially bad for the random parishioners that probably just want to show up in their nice hats, sing hymns, and then … >
As we find ourselves crawling towards Tatau’s conclusion, it has become increasingly unsettling viewing. The thing is, I’m not completely convinced I’m unsettled for the right or intended reasons. I’m finding myself increasingly uncomfortable with the way the female characters are placed in this show. Each one’s motivations are placed squarely in relation to a … >
When it comes to occupying our various entertainment rectangles, the BBC is practiced to the point of ease at two things: period dramas and adaptations of novels. Often both at once, as we’ve seen most recently with Wolf Hall and Poldark. But there’s being very good at something, and then there’s just showing off, because … >