Christmas Review #11 of 12

A double header of Torchwood on New Year’s Day saw the first season reach its tumltuous conclusion on BBC3.� The first half was the episode “Captain Jack Harkness”, which saw Jack and Tosh diverted through the rift back to a 1940’s dance hall only to come face-to-face with another Captain Jack Harkness, who, it turned out, was the original.� It was in the 1940’s that we first met the Captain back in the first season of Doctor Who in the ‘fantastic’ episode, “The Empty Child”,

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BBC3, Billis, Captain-Jack, Charlie-Brooker, Doctor Who, End-Of-Days, Gwen-Cooper, Ianto-Jones, Jack-Harkness, Owen-Harper, Sci Fi, The-Empty-Child, The-Satan-Pit, Torchwood, Toshiko-Sato

Christmas Review #8 of 12

“A spin-off too far!”, that’s what you told me (you know who you are!) and I almost believed you.� I approached the Sarah Jane Adventures with trepidation and the remnants of a mild hangover accordingly.� Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be rather good.� A bubbly storyline (pun intended) and some suitably OTT, scenery chewing acting (take a bow, Ms Bond) were further enhanced by the introduction of a somewhat melancholy and anti-social Sarah Jane.� Liz Sladen is

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BBC1, Bubbleshock, Doctor Who, Elisabeth-Sladen, Invasion-Of-The-Bane, Liz-sladen, Sarah-Jane, Sarah-Jane-Adventures, Sci Fi, SJA

Christmas Review #2 of 12

To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time that any of Terry Pratchett’s work has been turned into a visual medium.� I’ve always thought that the Discworld books were perfect fodder for an animated series of some description but anyone who has been within the vague vicinity of a Sky TV channel over the festive period cannot have failed to have noticed that Sky TV (not exactly renowned for making original dramas) have produced a real life version of The Hogfather.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Comedy, Death, Discworld, Hodswatch, Hogfather, Marc-Warren, Sci Fi, Sky-One, Terry-Pratchett

How To Be Sci Fi

Over on the lovely BBC4 for the last few weeks there has been a season of programmes being shown under the umbrella title of Science Fiction Brittanica and what a treasure trove of goodness it’s turning out to be. I must confess to be a little remiss when it comes to tuning in to absolutely everything that I’ve wanted to watch but there have been plenty of little gems on offer that I have managed to sit down and enjoy. Highlights have been a couple of interviews by Mark Lawson with

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: bbc2, BBC4, Blakes--7, Iain-Banks, Mark-Lawson, Nicholas-Craig, Nigel-Planer, Sci Fi, Science-Fiction-Brittanica, Star-Trek, Star-Trek-TNG, Terry-Pratchett

Bloody Hell

We’re eight episodes into the first series of Torchwood and, if nothing else, it’s divided the opinion amongst, well, everyone. I have to confess that I’m in the “loving it” camp, even though I acknowledge that it can be a little hit and miss at times. The plots are tending to be a little derivative of other genre shows with the best/worst example being the “Countrycide” episode. In fact, Russell T Davies stated as much in the installment of Torchwood: De-Classified, which

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BBC3, Captain-Jack, Countrycide, DeClassified, Doctor Who, Gwen-Cooper, Owen-Harper, Russel-T-Davies, Sci Fi, Suzie, Torchwood

Quick On The Draw

Going a little off piste this time by not writing about the things I’ve been watching on broadcast telly but instead something I’ve seen on DVD (hmmm… may be this could turn into an irregular feature).� I recently purchased a copy the Doctor Who story, The Invasion, which has just been released on shiny disc.� It’s an old 1968 story set during Patrick Troughton’s tenure in the TARDIS and features the Doctor’s 4th (?) encounter with the Cybermen.� The interesting thing

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Archives, Cosgrove-Hall, Count-Duckula, Cybermen, Dangermouse, Doctor Who, DVD, Patrick-Troughton, Sci Fi, TARDIS, The-Invasion