Review: iTunes – the Life on Mars download experience

So downloads are all the rage now. Big Finish, which makes those Doctor Who audio plays, has set up a downloads service (they still haven’t got back to me about those missing extras, BTW, so I’m going to assume you don’t get the CD extras with the downloads, making them even less attractive).

The BBC, after doing ever so nicely with its iPlayer, has leapt onto the Apple bandwagon as well by putting various shows onto iTunes, including Ashes to Ashes, Life on Mars, Torchwood and more. I’ve had little interest in the iTunes TV service until now – cos it’s mostly been shows that are rubbish or aimed at kids. But with Stu_N suggesting I was wearing rose-tinted glasses in my recall of Life on Mars, I decided to give iTunes a try and download the first series.

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UK TV

Review: Torchwood 2×7 – Dead Man Walking

Firstly, a quick word about the Torchwood reviews. Obviously, it’s all getting a bit tricky now that BBC3 is airing the next episode directly after the current BBC2 episode, and BBC America is a couple of weeks behind BBC2. So my general reviewing policy will be to review on Thursdays the episode of Torchwood that aired on BBC2 on Wednesday night. I’ll also keep the spoilers until after the turn.

I figure that people who can only watch the BBC2 episode will then be able to read the review the next day without having to hunt for it with the search engine; people who watched the BBC3 episode will be able to read the review on the front page as well, but the following week; and Americans, well, it’s probably search engine for you guys, but I’ll hopefully not be spoiling you. That’s probably the most equitable arrangement and it does mean I won’t have to stay up late to watch the BBC3 episode, but can watch it at my leisure.

Dead Man Walking then. I believe last week we left the official verdict at: 

Ahahahahah. I’ve seen next week’s. Ahahahahahahaha.

[Pause]

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

And that’s still a pretty robust verdict. All the same, far from the worst episode of Torchwood there’s ever been.

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Audio and radio play reviews

Review: The Companion Chronicles – The Catalyst

The CatalystAm I getting soft or are the Big Finish plays getting better? It just seems like there’s been a fair few of late that have been pretty good rather than tedious and incomprehensible (bar any eighth Doctor story with Lucie in it).

Anyway, we’ve reached the last of the second season of The Companion Chronicles, Big Finish’s audio book range in which old companions read stories because the Doctors in question are MIA. After Steven, Jamie and the Brigadier, we now have Leela as the companion of choice for Tom Baker. Like Romana II before her, you’d have thought the Gallifrey range of stories would have mined Leela’s character pretty thoroughly by now.

But we haven’t, because there’s always the question of what happened to Leela after Gallifrey – both the series and the planet.

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The Wire producers plan ahead

If you watched the latest episode of The Wire on Sunday, you’ll know that something rather important happened.

As you probably know, you have to pay attention with The Wire – we’ve already some characters from season two make a reappearance this season. But here’s when Sunday’s important event was foreshadowed, way back in season three.