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| What: | Remembrance of the Daleks (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 31 March 2011 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
This is the best of the white/black dalek faction tales, in that the characters are extremely well rounded, even the cameo roles are all highly memorable and imprsionable. And Sylvester McCoy is excellent throughout the tale, really a most excellent Doctor. Sophie Aldred's Ace is already developing into one of the best companions ever, as she always has been a favourite of mine. I love her interpretation of the role, its so engaging and sympathetic. Her dalek bashing seqeunce is highly brilliant. And Terry Molloy is back on brilliant form as Davros. The action is pretty unrelenting too, and the Daleks go up stairs at last! The end of this tale too is poignant and understated, and embued with genuine feeling. The seventh Doctors three seasons were all exceptionally good, and Remembrance of the Daleks is one of the very best dalek tales Ive seen or heard. Highly recommended. Good to see Michael Sheard and Peter Halliday too again, they both make their presences felt even in the short amount of scenes theyre both in. I like the racial theme to this story, and Aces disgust at that sign on the window i heartily agree with! This is Doctor Who at its most engaging and thoughtful. Those explosions too are rollicking!
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 | Back when Doctor Who had morals..... |
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| What: | The Mutants (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 31 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The new series has become a hive of dischord and total incompehensin. The Doctor is no longer really that heroic or interesting, and his moral standards seem to be slipping.
I am just grateful for the classic series. Back when Doctor Who had major points to make with intelligent and moral points. I am a person who loves and has a high regard for moral points.
Doctor Who always used to have character, the cheapness of it was part of its appeal for me.
The Mutants is a highly interesting tale. And the mutants are an excellent design, they do actually for once look like they could be real. And the moral core to this tale cannot be denied.
The Marshall is another great over the top villain, and the natives are all real and actually have a lot of character for once. The pace is never strained, even if some of the visual effects are not quite that good. But ive never cared about effects. Its the story I look at the most.
The transformation of Ky though is excellently achieved, and his angel like appearance is very striking.
The location filming is highly atmosheric. And Rick James acting is far better than many seem to think. The Mutants is an excellent piece of drama. The Jon Pertwee stories had many of the strongest moral points, and this tale of planetary and population abuse is gripping and one of the finest stories of its season.
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| Far more enjoyable than any new series! |
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| What: | Meglos (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 31 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Meglos as always seemed to be given the mantle of one of the worst Dotor Who stories ever. And yet yet again this is total rubbish. This story alone offers, for me anyway, far more interesting points than any story of Matt Smith's run. Tom Baker may look pretty ill here, especially in the scenes set in the TARDIS, but he still is that same brilliant Doctor who thwarts evil plans of aliens without all the kissy huggy stupid moronic stuff of the new series and without the the mind warping stupid plots either. I love the days when Doctor Who was a innocent programme, I lament the new series of Doctor Who, for it is too expensive, and now the character of the Doctor seems to have gone from universal hero to honestly universal weirdo. Where have all the plain and simple adventures gone?
Meglos presents an interesting religious dispute on an alien world, murderous plants, evil cactus and comical space mrcenaries. The Gaztaks ll make me laugh, and yet the story ploughs along at a good pace and the plot isnt mind melting either. The acting is solid and theres a really strong comedy edge to the scripting. And it is special in that we get to see the wonderful Jac Hill back in a new role as Lexa, who is just as good as her old companion of Barbara. She was a wonderful actress. The sets may not be hugely expensive, but that is good. These were the days when mone was tight, and yet more often than not the BBC presented something special with a lot of character. Tom Baker's Meglos is terrifically done too, and the mke up is not at all bad. Yeah, this classic series had so much going for it, a shame its all gone down the loo with this new modern series overall. Meglos is a better buy than any of the new series stuff.
| What: | Delta and the Bannermen (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 30 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
This is very different form of Doctor Who. I cant actually really point afinger to what makes it so good for me, the whole thing just comes together so very nicely indeed. So Im not sure if its Ken Dodd in his memorable cameo as the Toll Master, or the original ending where the young princess disables the Bannermen with her vocal performance. Or whether its those brilliant american guys...they add such comedy and light relief to the harder moments of the script, such as the shock murder of all on the space bus. Sylvester McCoy is really making himself at home in the role of the Doctor. And I still love Bonnie Langford to this day. And Sara Griffiths is totally brilliant and camp as Ray, and she would have made a brilliant companion. This is nearer to the best Doctor Who story than the worst as Ive found is often the case with mny wrongly maligned stories in the history of Doctor Who. And that first shot of the baby Chimmeron is excellently done. Don Henderson just completes the story with his totally nasty Gavrok. This really is a welcome relief as its such a different kind of Doctor Who tale. The effects are all rather good, with only the
blobby navarino letting the side down, but that can be forgiven as its only shown for seconds. (And maybe that washing up liduid bottle space satellite! But aside from this this stoy is very strikingly different and is a welcome addition to the series on dvd.
| What: | Fury from the Deep (TV episode audio soundtracks) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Wednesday 30 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
What is particularly good about this story is, like the earlier Tomb of the Cybermen, there are some excellent Doctor/ Companion moments which add rather a lot of humanity to the otherwise largely thankless roles of the Doctor's companions. Deborah gives an excellent performance as Victoria, perhaps her best performance. Her conversation with Jamie in part four is really a very strong moment. And the final scenes of the story are not in anyway a letdown, in fact it is another excellent goodbye to a companion who should have been able to develop even further.
The horror moments of this story come thick and fast too. Mr Oak and Mr Quill are excellently realised, and the foam is a brilliant idea. And the final scenes where the Doctor enhances Victoria's screams to drive off the weed creature is highly original and very well directed too. It really is so sad that this story is a casualty of the BBCs clearance all those years ago. It really is shortsighted. The characters here are all well rounded and well acted, and the whole story moves along at a brisk and engaging pace, which is good considering its a six parter. This is Doctor Who at its best. Patrick Troughton is my favourite Doctor. And yet his era is the most affected by the actions of the BBC clearance. This is extremely irritating for a fan of the black and white era such as me. Just grateful that the audio tracks still exit, thats something at least
Adventuress is definitely a very controversial book- some fans love it, some fans hate it, and some fans get caught in between. Since the point of a review is to tell a prospective reader to read the book or not, any readers will be extremely confused about whether Adventuress is a masterpiece or not worth their time.
My personal feelings on Adventuress is that it was okay, because most of my complaints are intermingled with compliments.
The narrative is slow and monotonous, meandering around vaguely when interesting things start to happen, but it paints a mystical, broad picture which would be otherwise unattainable. The beginning gets a bit grueling, but the ending is distressing and epic. The side-characters are a bit boring, but the enemies are extremely original.
Still, this is definitely a book that every person will feel differently about, as is evidenced by the opinions expressed here.
| What: | Atom Bomb Blues (BBC Past Doctor novels) |
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| By: | Will Barber, Hull, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Tuesday 22 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
What a brillaint book! A mad book yes, but a fantastic book! The whole flying through dimensions is a bit......Weird but still it is a great book! An awesome book! Now you may think I'm an excitable 20 ish old but truelly this is a great book. Fantastic even!
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| Could See the Plot A Mile Away |
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| What: | The Claws of Axos (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Paul Williams, New Brighton, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 22 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 4 |
One of the most contrived stories in the Pertwee era. It seems like everyone phoned in the acting.
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| So Close To Being An Absolute Classic |
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| What: | The Dæmons (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Paul Williams, New Brighton, United States |
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| Date: | Tuesday 22 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Excellent movie, only negatives is that the sound quality is annoying and the ending is a bit abrupt and trite.
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| Episode Falls On Its Face |
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| What: | The Web Planet (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Paul Williams, New Brighton, United States |
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| Date: | Monday 21 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 2 |
Episode Falls On Its Face
Having been a fan of Moorcock for years, I grabbed this book from the supermarket shelf as soon as I first saw it. I was really interested to see how Moorcock handled the Doctor Who genre, and couldn't wait to get home and start reading.
When I had finished, I lent the book to another Moorcock fan and when he had read it, discussed it with him.
We both agreed that it could have been better. It seems that Moorcock has attempted to merge two different universes, the Doctor Who universe and his own. This leads me to suspect that Moorcock is not thoroughly versed in the intricacies of the Whoniverse. It feels wrong that Judoon should play games, and Frank/Freddie Force and his Antimatter Men sound like something from a kids cartoon, not Doctor Who. The whole thing just didn't feel right.
This book also has Matt Smith's 11th doctor and his companion Amy Pond, which unfortunately wasn't captured satisfactorily by the author. Having read many Doctor Who books, I often find that the book captures the mannerisms of the characters so well that you can really imagine the actors
saying those lines. It seems that this book didn't quite manage that, and in most cases, it could have been any Doctor and any companion.
Having said that, for anyone who doesn't know Doctor Who very well, this is a gripping read, in which the whole universe is at stake and seconds from annihilation, a scenario that works for The Doctor.
I don't think there is any Doctor Who book that should be avoided, but if you are a die-hard fan who knows everything there is to know about Doctor Who, then you will find this book hard to swallow.
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| The good, the bad, and Time and the Rani |
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| What: | Time and the Rani (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Huw Davies, Taunton, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 10 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
'Time and the Rani' is quite frankly god-awful. The story is boring and ridiculous, the dialogue is unrealistic and over-long, and the production values are not anything to shout about, either.
As an introductory story, this is like 'The Twin Dilemma' on steroids. 'TTD' had an old Time Lord friend of the Doctor, 'TATR' throws in a Time Lord, but oh wait she's the Doctor's enemy, and she's female! 'TTD' had child geniuses, 'TATR' also has geniuses, but oh look there's Albert Einstein! And 'TTD' had a rubbish effect in Mestor - need I mention the giant (paper) brain.
Pip and Jane Baker's story is utter madness and doesn't really make a lot of sense most of the time. The characters are also poorly acted at times, Mel especially!
Overall, a very weak story, my least favourite ever!
| What: | Lost in Time (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 10 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The BBC had no brains at all, when it came to scrapping so many of the early Doctor Who episodes. Especially when so many casualties were some of the very best Doctor Who stories ever in the history of Whodom.
The Crusade has some incredibly strong moments, and this is more character driven than action packed, and tis the better for it. Jean Marsh and Julian Glover and Bernard Kay are all cast perfectly in their respective roles, and William Hartnell is on top form indeed. The tension of the scnes between Joanna and her brother are palpable and very well directed indeed. A pain in the neck that so much of this story is lost to us these days. Really is a backsife pain.
The Daleks Masterplan is an epic, and these are special and engaging and climatic episodes, that go along at such a good pace and are never lagging for anything along the whole ride. Three episodes survive of this tale and again this is such an annoying thing. Kevin Stoney is excellent as Mavic Chen,and the Daleks are at the height of their powers, with plenty of menace and lack of humanity from the word go. Nick Courntey gives a brilliant first performance as Bret Vyon. And Jean Marsh is again incredible as Sara Kingdom. Such a sad twist with her death at the end of the story, which makes this story so memorable.
The Celestial Toymaker is a delight. Michael Gough is tremendous as the charming and crepy Toymaker, and Cyril is an excellent school boy mischief maker. Its good to have this on audio even if only one episode remains to be seen.
The Pat Troughton stories all possess such charm and endless brilliance. Even the unfairly maligned Underwater Menace is memorable for Joseph Fursts totally over the top portrayal of Zaroff, surely trhe most dippy idiot to ever appear in the series up to this point. The Moonbase has many good moments and the cybermen are brilliant. The Evil of The Daleks is a classy tale, one can see that just from the remaining episode two. Good to have this story on audio too. The Yeti are brilliant creations, although they are rather cuddly in The Abominable Snowmen.
The Wheel in Space has always been maligned, but I love it. Its one of my best Pat stories. It has such good character parts, and one really gets to know all the characters well along the way. And the cybermen are really emotionless here, one set tone of voice which is perfect!
The Space Pirates is a classic Who story. Aahh, flipping heck BBC! Whatw ere you thinking getting rid of all these amazing stories? I love the chracter of Milo Clancey, a brilliant character one expects from the pen of Robert Holmes.
All the extra clips from many other stories are a lovely treat and great to watch. This is definitely an excelllent release, just so sad these stories all suffer from being incomplete on TV. Lamentable...And an insult to the memory of two very fine Doctors.
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| A very interesting intro... |
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| What: | The Leisure Hive (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 10 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Its a lie that John Nathan Turner brought about the slow death of the classiuc Doctor Who. He actually injected some vital life back into the series. it is true that for the most part Tom was pretty funny for season 17. But now we have the intelligent, brooding fourth Doctor from his first three seasons, and its a nice return. This actually begins what I consider Tom's finest season as the Doctor. The comedy isnt totally lost, but iuts toned down rather a lot.
I love Lalla Ward here too. Shes given a decent chunk of script to get her teeth into and she goes with it so well. And I love her school girl outfit, which suits her so well indeed!
Pangol is a really brilliant character, a real psycho. And the foamasi look rather impressive. And the cliffhanger to part one is another David Fisher triumph, by giving us something totally unexpected. I love the fact that the Doctor is aged to 1000 here. Tom acts so brilliantly. And the resolution of this story is one of the best climaxes to any Doctor Who.
K9 is rather sidelined, flipping his lid in the sea. Sad. I love K9! I love the fact that the Foamasi hide in restricting skin suits, and its done better here than in that moronic slitheen episode. So, John Nathan Turner made his presence felt, as did all the new production members involved with this season. This is a great start to a highly interesting season. There is more real science in this season I feel.
| What: | The Visitation (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 10 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
Doctor Who pseudo-historicals are always very entertaining. It helps too if the setting feels the era in which its meant to be set. And The Visitation achieves this very well. It looks for all the story like this is Victorian times or earlier.
The terileptils are a very interesting race. In the fact they are actually given a decent back story, which comes across rather sympathetically all in all. And they dont look too bad either. The final face metling climax is excellently achieved,and looks frankly skanky in the extreme. And the android when its disguised as The Reaper is really quite creepy, shame about the cricket gloves though! Not that I really care about that sort of thing.
The only big uugh of this story is the TARDISized Nyssa. I love Sarah Sutton, her character is far more likeable than most of the Doctor's companions, with her high moral tone and kindness, she makes a change. And having her relgated is really bad. But even in the scenes she is in shes excellent and charming.
One slight flaw too: what happened to all those poisoned rats left back at house at the end? No plot tie up there. But aside from these minor completes, this is yet another great Peter Davison story. I love the character of Richard Mace too, he's as witty and funny as Jago in The Talons of Weng Chiang. This is overall a very strong scripting debut from Eric, who gives us a classic old fashioned great Who storyw ith pace and plenty of good actions bits and even a little bit of horror too.
What I like about Petewr's time is his doctor was not so perfect all the time. He made mistakes, even if they were accidental, and this makes his Doctor all the more likeable. One last niggle is he seems to go totally against character at the climax of this story, by just brushing off ther fact that he's started the great fire of London even if this too was an accident. Just a little odd.
But like I said, this story is lkargely very good and engaging and a worthy story to add to your collection.
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| Patrick Troughton makes this.... |
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| What: | The Three Doctors (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 10 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Its such good stuff to see Pat Troughton back again after he left the role. And here in this tale Bob and Dave get his character totally right. He has all that endearing bumbling that has made him definitely my favourite Doctor of all time. "And this horrible great jelly..." makes me reel with laughter every time. I love the fact that his recorder holds the key to defeating the slightly very deranged Omega. Mind you I think Id be mental after spending 10000 years in a black hole!
Its sad that William Hartnell really is in poor health here, but the fact that even he still is written very well indeed and makes his presence really felt is a credit to the fine actor. "Now stop dilly dallying, and cross it!" is another brilliantlhy delivered order from the grumpy original first Doctor.
But what is a little jarring here is that for me is that Jon isnt as good as his two previous selves here. I dont know if its just me, but he just seems a little lost for the most part of the story. And that fight scene at the climax of part three really is rather poor as well. Gladly he gets better after part two, and I particularly like his anger of "Take it!"
Nick Courtney really was written brilliantly here too. "Im pretty sure thats Cromer" made me wet myself. I love Bob and Dave's writing here! And even Benton gets to be a laugh. So for on the most part, this celebratory story is very good indeed. And the Gellguards arent that bad at all actually, they actually look organic and realer than a lot of Who villains.
Stephen Thorne is cast so well as Omega!! The right choice indeed! Steals the show with his total insane performance!
And the other weak point is Katy as Jo, given nothing at all to do for the whole story. Sad, she was a great companion and its bad seeing her wasted so totally as she is here. But the good points still greatly outweigh the bad in this story and it is nevertheless memorable and achieves most of what it sets out to do!
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| Not all that much to write home about... |
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| What: | Earthshock (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Matthew David Rabjohns, Bridgend, United Kingdom |
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| Date: | Thursday 10 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 5 |
One of the things I hate about this story is the totally background slot given to Nyssa. She always has been my favourite companion of the fifth doctor, along with Tegan. And I hate seeing Sarah Sutton reduced to staying in the TARDIS for most of a story, it happened in the Visitation and here too. Kinda was only pardonable on this score for the story was excellent. But Earthshock doesnt live up to expectation. And to be quite honest, I prefer the Cybermen of Revenge, even with the wobbly heads!
There are a few good moments in this story, such as Adric's very poignant demise, and its a bold step to have the final credits run in silence, which has never happened before in the shows history. And the Doctor's sunset speech is a good piece of dialogue, but otherwise this story is really forgettable and BORING. The cybermen look really good but this isnt a patch on Attack of the Cybermen. And the episode endings arent all that much to write home about, except maybe the third episode.
And I dont like the fact that such a cool character as Kyle is killed off so soon. Doctor Who always had a penchant for doing this. So for these reasons this story really doesnt hold any magic for me. It is probably the least interesting story to feature the Cybermen: and add to that the fact that the plot is almost identical to Revenge of The Cybermen: Using a bomb, then using a flying object to try to destroy a planet! That is rather similar isnt it? And this story doesnt have the wry humour of Revenge either. So nah, I dont really like this one. (Even the strong performance of David Banks cant save this, its just so bad)
| What: | Oblivion (Panini graphic novels) |
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| By: | joe dredd, san pablo, ca., United States |
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| Date: | Thursday 10 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
Buy this book for children of the revolution featuring the Daleks (a sequel of a 2nd doctor adventure, power of the daleks) thats it. in the future i will endeavor to supply a more descriptive review
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| Love the Hardcover Graphic Novels!!! |
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| What: | The Only Good Dalek (Miscellaneous graphic novels) |
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| By: | Adam Regula, Horseheads, NY, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 9 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Aesthetically speaking this book is above and beyond. The hardcover format is great, and the dust jacket is very sharp looking. The colors and paper quality are also top notch.
The story itself is also very good, and the artwork has a great style (although you can notice the computer generated Daleks sometimes). The plot is very fast paced with plenty of old series references. If you look close in the very beginning you can see a chart on the office wall with the evolution of the Daleks, including the special weapons Dalek!
More BBC hardcover format Graphic Novels please!!!
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| The Doctor in Another Museum... |
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| What: | The Forgotten (IDW graphic novels) |
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| By: | Adam Regula, Horseheads, NY, United States |
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| Date: | Wednesday 9 March 2011 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
I actually picked this up in individual issues as I found them very cheap. This is a great series! The only problem with the collected paperback is you don't get all the wonderful covers of the 10th doctor with all his other selves (Please feel free to correct me if the trade has all the covers- haven't ever seen it). This series has a great plot line and the whole thing is packed to the gills with old series references.
I also noticed in pictures of the new Doctor Who Experience in London, that the room in the book and the room in the Experience of all the doctors clothes on stands was very close, which is great.
I especially love when all the Doctors are together at the end and they are picking on Colin Bakers Doctor.
Great read; Highly recommend!
