Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – Exotron

ExotronThat’s odd. Two Big Finish plays in a row, I.D. and Exotron, and they’re both about robots that have human personalities uploaded into them. Did we really need two of them? Certainly, if it were a choice between I.D. or Exotron, Exotron would win hands down, and not just because it’s got Peri in it.

Exotron is, for one thing, a far more interesting play. It’s not outstanding, you’ll guess what’s going on before the end of part one, and the whole idea of giant hyenas fighting a bunch of Transformers really doesn’t work as an audio play. But it’s still more entertaining than the load of computer code that was I.D.

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UK TV

Review: Doctor Who – 3×10 – Blink

Blink

Steven Moffat’s always game for a good script. Even on his worst days, he writes at a level Chris Chibnall can only dream of. Now Blink, this year’s Doctor-lite episode, was a very good script. It was scary, funny, cleverly plotted, with some good characterisation and dialogue served as the metaphorical icing on the cake.

But was Blink great? Not quiet.

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US TV

24 – Day zero

24 - Day Zero

Anyone else watching 24 – Day Zero, the highly amusing Flash prequel to everyone’s favourite preposterous Fox thriller? It’s worth tuning into an episode just to see the slightly rubbish looking animation. But it also does a relatively good job of recreating the feel of 24 in a short amount of time; they even got Kiefer Sutherland to voice Jack. It’s also filling in various gaps about how Nina and Jack got together before Day One.

I feel a little shortchanged they couldn’t get Sarah Clarke and Xander Berkeley to voice Nina Myers and George Mason, but I imagine that all that deodorant advertising sponsorship money can only stretch to one of the original actors.

Give it a whirl if you need to divert your attention for a while.

Monday morning news

Doctor Who

Film

Commercial

  • Darth Vader makes beans on toast for Woolworths [free registration required]

British TV

US TV

  • Jericho‘s coming back, maybe as early as the end of the year if anything gets cancelled, with a lower budget and another cliffhanger. But don’t watch it on PVR, watch it as it airs if you want that tiny hamster to live
  • David Anders (Sark) from Alias might join Heroes next season
  • Bradley Whitford on the demise of Studio 60
  • Reactions to Fox’s forthcoming Anchorwoman from the town where it’s shot
  • Isaiah Washington’s a bit annoyed that he’s not in Grey’s Anatomy any more
  • David Eick would like a BSG movie

Cult TV: The Golden Age of ITC

Cult TV: The Golden Age of ITC

Anyone interested in the history of British television will be aware of Lew Grade’s company, ITC. Dominating the 50s, 60s and 70s with shows such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Danger Man, The Saint, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, The Prisoner, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Jesus of Nazareth, and Sapphire and Steel, ITC was a production powerhouse, the likes of which we’ll probably never see again.

Robert Sellers book, Cult TV: The Golden Age of ITC, attempts to chronicle at least some of that history. With a foreword by Sir Roger Moore and an afterword by Gerry Anderson, the book includes interviews with many of the shows’ surviving stars and production staff and provides some insight into their continuing success as cult television, even if it’s not the perfect .

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