Month: March 2007

Thank crunchy

9 March 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who's coming back with a bang

It’s Friday!

Doctor Who

  • David Tennant promotes Red Nose Day sweets

Film

  • Goran Visnjic may be the villain in the next Bond film. Meanwhile, the Daily Express reckons there’s going to be less Craigy nudity next round
  • Sex and the City movie back on?
  • Shooting on Anthony Minghella’s The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency begins in May
  • Three Men Seeking Monsters might get adapted with John, Doug and Dan Heder
  • Star Trek XI is going to be a ‘re-imagining’, not a prequel
  • 2010 for Toy Story 3
  • Rorschach from The Watchmen hiding in 300 trailer?
  • Jeff Bridges will be Obidiah Stane in the Iron Man movie
  • Eddie Murphy to star in a remake of Fantasy Island?

British TV

  • John Inman has died
  • ‘Allo, ‘Allo is coming back for a one-off special. Allegedly
  • It’s got Sting. It’s got Hywel Bennet. It’s got Daniel Day Lewis. It must be Artemis ’81, out on DVD on April 23rd
  • The Thick of It is out on DVD April 2nd
  • Five’s suspended its premium rate phone numbers, as well

US TV

  • Future events in Jericho discussed
  • A great big article on Babylon 5: The Lost Tales
  • A Prison Break star is in the Grey’s Anatomy spin-off with a former co-waiter
  • So much pilot-casting, including Jeffrey Tambor, Kal Penn, Mia Maestro, Adam Goldberg, Michelle Trachtenberg and Hector Elizondo
  • Kristin talks to Dexter‘s cast and crew
  • Former Heroes stars get pilots
  • Grande Heroes spoilers

One more day to go news

8 March 2007 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

It’s Thursday. Not long now.

Doctor Who

Film

Comics

British TV

US TV

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: The Companion Chronicles – The Beautiful People

7 March 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

The Companion Chronicles - The Beautiful PeopleWe’re now at the last and least explicable of The Companion Chronicles range, with Lalla Ward (aka Romana II) the final companion to fill the dimensionally transcendental Jackanory armchair. With the previous entries, there’s been a semi-reasonable excuse for the story’s existence – the actor who played the companion’s Doctor being dead and therefore no tasteful or faithful way to have a play featuring the companion alongside her Doctor. Here, we have a simple disagreement between the actor (Tom Baker) and Big Finish that’s resulted in Tombo not appearing in any Big Finish plays, leaving the companions to fend for themselves.

This would still be a good enough reason for the play if Tombo’s companions had had no other opportunities to appear in stories. But of the surviving fourth Doctor companions, Sarah Jane has had two series of Sarah Jane Smith adventures and now has her own TV show; Leela, Romanas I & II and K9 have had three series of Gallifrey to mess about with; Tegan and Nyssa have both had fifth Doctor stories; and the less said about Adric the better. They’ve all been well-mined for dramatic nuggets.

So I think it’s pretty clear that the Big Finish luvvies really just wanted another excuse to work with lovely, lovely Lalla again.

Putting that to one side though, in the form of The Beautiful People, we do have a perfectly acceptable piece of season 17 hokum to while the hour away, and a reasonable enough conclusion to the series.

Continue reading “Review: The Companion Chronicles – The Beautiful People”

The by-jingo it’s early Wednesday news

7 March 2007 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Do you know you have to be at the US embassy at 8am for your i-visa interview? Bah.

Doctor Who

  • Troughton story The Web of Fear gets its first episode aired on BBC4 on Sunday 18th March as part of a London Underground season.

Film

  • Just when you thought there was no way for cinema to get crasser, now come plans to adapt John Milton’s Paradise Lost, getting rid of the dull bits, Adam and Eve being nude, etc.
  • M Night Hasbeen’s new film has been greenlit by Fox

Music

  • As though we cared, The Wurzels reveal who the mystery guest vocalist is on the re-release of “I Am A Cider Drinker” (it’s for charity though)



British TV

  • The DVD of Life on Mars, series two, is out on 16th April. It’ll feature a documentary about the Camberwick Green moment from episode 5.

US TV

  • The Black Donnellys gets okay ratings for its second episode, although others argue it’s a worrying slide.
  • Heroes will be back on April 23rd. Here’s the promo with clips from the next episode.
  • Zach Braff’s sorted himself a good deal to stay with Scrubs
  • An interview with Ronald Moore, exec producer of Battlestar Galactica
  • More pilot casting news. Anyone remember Party of Five?
  • Steve Coogan is to appear in Curb Your Enthusiasm as a psychiatrist
  • Create your own BSG video using SciFi’s BSG videomaker toolkit. You could win a prize
  • He may had jury duty, but he still has spoilers. Michael Ausiello lets us know useful things about Lost. Plus he seems to think a certain thing wasn’t permanent after all on BSG. Was RDM conning us?
  • Kristin talks to the producer of House about what’s to come and what’s past
  • Tim Robbins has a pharma-related drama planned for Showtime
  • Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver’s The Riches is going to premiere online this week
US TV

Review: The Winner 1×01-1×02

6 March 2007 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

The Winner

In the US: Sundays, 8:30/7:30c & 9:30/8:30c, Fox

In the UK: No one yet, but Paramount looks a fair bet

Fox does like its comedy broad, doesn’t it? Broad, male-oriented and just a little bit stupid. But, hey, for once, here’s a show that’s actually quite funny. Starring The Daily Show‘s Rob Corddry as a man in his mid-30s who hasn’t quite hit adolescence yet, The Winner picks easy targets, makes no innovations in plot or style, yet mysteriously manages to raise laughs.

Continue reading “Review: The Winner 1×01-1×02”