Scavengers, the sixth episode in Star Trek: Discovery season 3 looked fabulous (again) and was an easy watch piece of entertainment, but failed to disguise the flaws prevalent in many recent episodes. Already we have a pattern, it seems. As Scavengers opens, we see the crew of Discovery getting to grips with the tech upgrades a thousand years of … >
Shadow of the Daleks 2 is comprised of four single-episode stories, concluding the Fifth Doctor’s puzzling encounter with the Time War; the temporal conflict between the Time Lords and the Daleks of which he should have no knowledge. Seemingly compelled to meet the same faces over and over, the Doctor leans more and more of … >
Die Trying. Star Trek: Discovery has an ability to burn though plot at a remarkable rate. After finding the location, we imagined a journey to the new heart of the Federation might consume a few weeks. Instead, Discovery arrived at the new covert Starfleet Headquarters before this episode’s opening credits. Once the thrill subsided, the … >
The Enemy of My Enemy is Big Finish’s second full-cast Time Lord Victorious (TLV) drama, part of their contribution to the Doctor Who multi-platform crossover event. Picking up on the cliffhanger of He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not, the Eighth Doctor finds himself ambushed by a unusual bunch of Daleks. Forced into an unholy … >
Russian pandemic thriller To The Lake, currently streaming on Netflix is proving to be something of a ‘sleeper hit’, amongst discerning genre critics at least. It’s not the easiest sell to the casual viewer, especially in the midst of a real-world viral catastrophe. It is a show infused with recognisable eastern European dramatic motifs: it’s … >
Blue Boxes is the latest Doctor Who Short Trip, set in Season Seven, with the Third Doctor still adjusting to his Earthbound exile. With UNIT’s telephones under attack, and some mysterious deaths, the Doctor and Liz Shaw dive into the world of ‘Phreaking’. Like early hackers, the ingenious phreakers used homemade generators to replicate the … >
The War Master: Hearts of Darkness is the fifth boxset to chronicle the exploits of Derek Jacobi’s Master. Set amid the Time War, the storyline here steers clear of the Daleks in favour of a battle of wits between the Eighth Doctor and the Master. As with most of the sets in this range, the … >
Shadow of the Daleks 1 is the first of two volumes, which together make up an eight-part story. It sees the Fifth Doctor sucked into the Time War; the devastating temporal conflict between his people and the Daleks which belongs in his own personal future. Compelling the Doctor to repeatedly encounter the same faces, Shadow … >
Forget Me Not takes a necessary detour on Discovery‘s journey to find Starfleet. In many ways it’s a consideration of identity played out on two levels; it’s also a rather beautiful, if inward looking, episode. First let’s talk about beauty. Many times while watching Star Trek (both Discovery and Picard) we’ve stopped to admire the fabulous cinematography … >
After starting to build an overall idea in The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 3, the current set of stories brings this sequence of boxsets to what feels an abrupt close. The three stories in set each fails to contribute to a coherent whole, and feels like a series of missed opportunities. The stories aren’t necessarily bad, they … >