Articles by Rob Buckley

About Rob Buckley
I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.
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Thursday’s “I have a cold” news

26 April 2007 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

  • 101 things you didn’t know (or care?) about Doctor Who

Film

Radio/British TV

  • Normally it goes the other way: Radio 4 is making a show based on BBC2’s QI [free registration required]

US TV

Third-episode verdict: Drive

25 April 2007 Rob Buckley 4 Comments

Drive is proving somewhat erratic. After a not terribly great start, it perked right up with a cracking second episode that completely flipped Nathan Fillion’s character. It’s third episode, though, was pretty rubbish, despite a couple of interesting moments. The poor old Carusometer doesn’t know which way to look (does it ever?), so we’re going to hold out for a fifth-episode verdict this time.

The theme tune, incidentally, is growing on me. I’m not sure it’s a great choice for the show itself – I’m petitioning Fox to acquire the rights to ‘Drive!‘, the theme tune to 80s tatt Hardcastle and McCormick – but it’s quite nice in itself.

Wednesday’s news

25 April 2007 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Film/Books

  • Julia Stiles to star in a Sylvia Plath adaptation. And I really mean adaptation. Says an exec, “We don’t want to do a depressing descent into the world of suicide”. Hmm…

US TV

TV reviews

Review: Doctor Who – 3×4 – Daleks in Manhattan

23 April 2007 Rob Buckley 29 Comments

Daleks In Manhattan

There’s something about Helen Raynor’s writing. It’s always nicely put together, doesn’t insult your intelligence too much and has a certain sensibility about it that makes you think she’s trying to write proper drama. But it’s absolutely dull to watch. Witness the third episode of Torchwood for a similar phenomenon.

So it was with Daleks in Manhattan. With a tiny group of Daleks trying to destroy life as we know it with an insidious plan, it evoked memories of classic Who stories, such as Power of the Daleks. It certainly tried to notch up similar amounts of tension and there was the old-school move of making sure all sets, including sewers, had ultra-smooth floors for the Daleks to glide over.

But coupled with a rather spoilerish edition of the Radio Times that removed all traces of surprise from the story, all it managed to do was get yawns out of me. Yawn, yawn, yawn: that was me doing an impression of myself watching the episode.

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