As we hit the halfway point of the series, The Smoke has explored its characters, but left more than enough room to grow. Focus on undeveloped characters and a subtle awareness of continuing plot threads provides some fantastic drama in this fourth episode, albeit one arguably littered with a little too much unnecessary humour. Technically, … >
Set after Ian and Barbara have returned to Earth and given up their travels with the Doctor, ‘The Sleeping City’ finds the couple arrested by the Security services. Under suspicion as Russian spies, their captors are very keen to learn all they can about the Doctor and Vicki. Ian is initially reticent, seeking to preserve … >
Be careful what you wish for. Ever since the first episode of Inside No. 9, the latest comedy series from one half of The League Of Gentlemen, there has been an unholy chorus of voices demanding a return to the darker, more gothic tones that were scattered across Royston Vasey. You know, the early, scary … >
Last year 3D TVs were all the rage. This year it’s concave 4K OLEDs. Next year your TV will probably be so advanced it’ll be too busy cooking your dinner for you to watch it. But still TV manufacturers are behind the times, because they haven’t yet managed to construct a set that can fully … >
If you thought The Lego Movie was going to be the most fun you’d have in the cinema this year then you’re sorely and rather gratifying mistaken as the sequel to 2011’s The Muppets arrives. Jason Segel and Amy Adams may well be absent from Muppets Most Wanted but the talented director James Bobin and … >
The second part of this Sixth Doctor and Flip Jackson trilogy begins with the Time Lord planning to do some recalibration of the TARDIS systems. Dropping into random space, in a star system declared off-limits to all traffic, he soon draws the attention of a band of imp like creatures called the Drachee. Hailing from … >
Adapting Michel Faber’s curious novel Under the Skin was always going to be a Herculean task. An alien comes down to Earth, roams the Scottish highways for bulky men and lures them away to be farmed for the home planet – and that’s only the half of it. Hardly Richard Curtis stocking-filler. Instead of trying … >
Feelings still run high after Leela’s explosive actions at the conclusion of ‘The King of Sontar’, but as we return to the TARDIS we find the Doctor in a reflective mood. Wondering about the quality of his mentoring, he discovers the savage attempting to educate herself by reading. Her choice of material, a book of … >
This week’s Silk episode dealt with the highly sensitive subject of assisted suicide. A mother was accused of murdering her severely disabled daughter in a case that pitted friends/lovers Martha and Clive against each other. Despite the tragic case, there was the sense that this was more about Martha and Clive’s rivalry than anything else. … >
Some Wiccan followers believe in what is known as the Rule of Three, in which whatever action a person puts out into the world is then returned back to them threefold. If we take this to be true, with the release of a third Hatchet film on DVD, it seems more and more likely that … >