Year: 2009

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – 124 – Patient Zero

5 October 2009 Rob Buckley 5 Comments
Patient Zero cover

Look at that. Look at that cover. The best cliffhanger in the whole bloody thing and it’s on the front bloody cover.

Sigh.

Anyway, moving on, this play marks the return of lots of things. It marks the return of the Sixth Doctor and Charley after months of Sylvester McCoy. It’s important to note this is the beginning of the end for Charley since she’ll be off soon which is a bit of a shame.

It’s also the return of the Viyrans. What do you mean you don’t remember the Viyrans? But Big Finish has been promising for simply ages that they were going to be a big series and they were going to tack Viyran stories on the end of all the plays in the run up to the release of this story. Don’t you remember? Well, no, because they didn’t and all we got was that one-parter tacked on the end of Mind’s Eye about two years ago.

It’s also the return of Nick Briggs as the voice of the Daleks, something that again is so important it deserves to be a “with NICHOLAS BRIGGS as THE DALEKS” on the front cover.

More than that, it’s also the return of Nick Briggs as a writer and as a director. So writer/director and voice artiste on this one – anyone want to guess whether it’s going to be a rigorously edited story that’s been revised multiple times to make it the best play possible?

To take a leaf from Big Finish’s book, I’m going to ruin the guessing for you and stick the answer on the front cover: no, it’s rubbish.

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – 124 – Patient Zero”

Sitting Tennant

Monday’s Tiny Sitting Tennants (from Rullsenberg and Sister Chastity)

5 October 2009 Rob Buckley Post a comment


Sister Chastity's Sitting Tennant

Today’s Sitting Tennants are from Sister Chastity and Ms Rullsenberg. Like Karen Gillan’s skirt (spoilers), they got shrunk in the wash.

  1. Sister Chastity, Rullsenberg: 60.5
  2. Jaradel: 35.5
  3. Toby: 5
  4. Amy, Lauren: 4
  5. Rosby: 2.5
  6. Persephone, Sabine: 1

Don’t forget Friday’s caption competition.

Got a picture of David Tennant sitting, lying down or in some indeterminate state in between? Then leave a link to it below or email me and if it’s judged suitable, it will appear in the “Sitting Tennant” gallery.

Every photo displayed on Monday (one per person who sends one in) gets a point, with a bonus point if it’s from the latest DT production; the best pic in the stash each week will appear on Friday and get three points.

You can also enter the witty and amusing captions league table by commenting on Friday’s Sitting Tennant photo, the best caption getting 10 points, everyone who contributes getting five points.

The CarusometerA Carusometer rating of 1

Third-episode verdict: Community

5 October 2009 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

In the US: Thursdays, 9.30/8.30c, NBC

Well, of all the new shows so far this season, we have an undisputed winner in the quality stakes: Community, NBC’s Thursday night comedy about a bunch of disparate losers who join a community-college study group and learn something about life in a Breakfast Club stylee.

After three episodes, we’re getting to see the show’s colours: a love of the bizarre and outrageous crossed with one-liners. The first episode was a whirlwind of jokes and character moments that were really very clever and funny, but the second and third episodes have steered slightly away from one-liners in favour of the downright bizarre. We still get the character moments, but what moments.

Episode two, in particular, built through the episode towards a denoument that was extraordinarily odd yet also heart-waming; however the show cynically undercut that heart-warming moment, but still managed to keep it heart-warming, leaving you admiring its cleverness.

Episode three was even more bizarre, with Jeff having to go on movie course run by someone who’d taken Dead Poets’ Society way too much to heart, and Abed the Palestinian with Asperger’s producing a student movie about his life that was awe-inspiring in its oddness. And let’s not forget the raps and the krumping during the credits.

It’s interesting to see that each episode involves a different class, with Spanish and film-making getting the first couple of outings, and social psychology being the pick of the week next episode. This should give it a flexibility of format to prevent it outstaying its welcome. 

It’s funny, it’s clever, it’s got a great cast – it’s almost as good as 30 Rock. Give it a try.

Carusometer rating: 1
Rob’s prediction: I fear cancellation, but if there’s any justice in the world, it’ll keep going.

No third-episode verdicts for….

5 October 2009 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Well, there’s so much new stuff on tele right now, I simply can’t fit all the shoes into my viewing schedule. So I’ve dropped a few already.

  1. Smallville: Yes, I’ve been watching for nine seasons now, but I’m bored and the show’s ludicrous now.
  2. Eastwick: We started watching episode two, and both the scripts and the acting had gotten worse. Bored, bored, bored. And FFS, we know he’s the devil. Stop stringing it out
  3. The Forgotten: Again, boring: the characters were uninvolving and the scripts bad. Worse, were the relentless voiceovers from the victims "Oh the most terrible part about my being killed was never been able to return home." No, it bloody wasn’t. It was getting killed and you’re dead so shut up.
  4. Mercy: a relentlessly derivative opening to episode two meant that I turned off after two minutes. And Kate Mulgrew from Star Trek: Voyager pretending to be white trash? I don’t think so.

Still, Modern Family‘s second episode was very good, and Cougar Town‘s was all right, if a bit more dramatic than funny. That’s got to be a plus, right?