Gia Coppola’s debut film is ambient, almost indolent teen drama that features sparks of wit, but ultimately is too laidback for its own good, and fails to distinguish itself. Based on James Franco’s short stories, it’s also going to suffer from the stigma of Franco’s appearance in the film as ‘a handsome soccer coach’ (to … >
My life was sad, and distinctly lacking Honour. My Bat’leth had grown dull and rusted after many years without shedding an enemy’s blood. And I was pretty sure that the Romulans were laughing at me behind my back whenever I went to the toilet. Then I read The Klingon Art of War and now my … >
The latest boxset from Big Finish might at first seem somewhat of a departure from their regular sci-fi staples of Doctor Who and Blake’s 7. Based on the post-apocalyptic television show from the mid-1970s, Survivors actually has plenty of connections to both, coming from the pen of Dalek creator Terry Nation and sharing plenty of … >
When John Hurt was cast as the War Doctor, a hitherto unseen incarnation who forsook his principles to take up arms against the Daleks in the Time War, it was inevitable that we would be left wanting more. While we have only ever caught snatches of that impossible conflict on screen, which might well be … >
Each of the Doctors each received an outing with 2013’s 50th Anniversary collection of Doctor Who reprints, so this year it is the turn of his foes. Casting the net wider than before, this collection holds examples from both the Virgin Publishing’s ‘New Adventures’ and ‘Missing Adventures’ ranges from the early 1990s, as well as … >
When Paul McGann joined Big Finish in 2000, their first task was to devise him a companion. Charlotte Espleth Pollard, Charley to her friends, joined the TARDIS as a self-styled Edwardian adventuress with a joie de vivre to match the Doctor’s own. Played by India Fisher, familiar to many for her voice over work on … >
Now that’s how you do a surprising death. In this episode, Dr Leekie goes from being potentially Sarah’s greatest enemy, to threatened by Rachel after she learns the truth, and then to… murdered, accidentally, by Donnie. You don’t get much more unpredictable than that. Last week it seemed natural to theorise that Rachel’s reaction to … >
Most episodes of 24 feature their share of action – it is, after all, an action show – but every now and then you get one that steps things up a notch, and this is certainly one of them. After quickly establishing that her daughter is in custody, Margot coldly decides to turn on her … >
Doctor Who has a proud tradition of taking classic monster stories and doing its own spin on them. This was especially prevalent in the early gothic influenced Tom Baker era and ‘Last of the Colophon’ is a tale consciously cut from that cloth. Continuing his adventures with Leela, the story begins with the Doctor looking … >
For the penultimate Companion Chronicles story, we return to an old favourite. Continuing from where 2010’s ‘Find and Replace’ left off, Jo Jones (née Grant) is off on an adventure with the irrepressible Iris Wildthyme. For those not acquainted with Ms Wildthyme, the trans-temporal adventuress, suffice to say that she is a sometime ally, sometime … >