For those perhaps not in the know, back in the Sixties two Dalek movies were produced featuring all-new Daleks (in all-new colour!) and an all-new Doctor, Peter Cushing (also in colour). In these outings, Cushing was an Earth-based scientist called, wait for it, “Dr. Who”. Don’t worry though, the TARDIS is still bigger on the inside (just) and the Daleks are as mean as ever.
The fifth tale in this anniversary sequence of stories, ‘Smoke and Mirrors’, is quite definitely grounded in Peter Davison’s first series with the Doctor again failing arrive at Heathrow Airport in favour of answering the summons of an old friend. In fact, there are enough in-story continuity references to site the tale firmly between ‘Kinda’ and ‘Earthshock’.
The Cloister Bell will chime once more; The Doctor’s off to Trenzalore… Often, being a fan of Doctor Who, you have to park your fanboy gene somewhere the other side of Kasterborous. True, there’s no point loving the bones of a show if you’re not prepared to dissect it to death sometimes. But the critical … >
What with the lingering prospect of an extended winter in place of the British summer and ever-more media coverage of UKIP gremlin Nigel Farage’s awful visage, things are getting decidedly dark. Still, in this wretched modern world, we can be thankful for the simple things in life.
As we’re starting to learn, these are invariably provided by Arrow DVD, who this month continue their glorious project of restoring and re-releasing the back catalogue of Italian hero Mario Bava.
It’s almost cruelly emblematic really. That the most closely-guarded Doctor Who finale ever, one which concerns a great secret being discovered, should have its own secrets compromised. And by the ‘Great Intelligence’ that is the collective mind of the Internet no less, rather than the breathy malevolence of Richard E. Grant.
We’ll make this quick. Faster than a speeding bullet, even. DK’s Superman: The Ultimate Guide to the Man of Steel doesn’t pull its punches in covering the 75 years of heroics by arguably the most famous superhero on and above the Earth. The result is a gorgeous and thoroughly comprehensive history of the Big Blue Boy Scout.
The pre-publicity for ‘Nightmare in Silver’ indicated that this episode was going to do for the Cybermen what 2005’s ‘Dalek’ had done for their metallic rivals: restore them to scary eminence after a period when they had lost their robo mojo.
The titular climb is unquestionably the centre-piece of this episode, but there’s plenty else going on in the world of Westeros.
Even before the massive and graphic werewolf-led terrorist attack that occurs in the early pages of Benjamin Percy’s Red Moon, there’s a palpable sense that something terrible is about to happen. A concrete slab of dread that weighs on top of your imagination, and it remains there long after you’ve drifted beyond the epilogue and relaxed your grip on the cover.
Authors Tara Bennett and Paul Terry deserve a great deal of credit for simply coming up with the idea of a book that exists within the reality of Fringe.