Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – No More Lies

Immortal BelovedYou know a play is going to start off badly when the station announcer warns you not to be confused that it starts in the middle of a story. Don’t worry, you won’t haven’t missed anything, she promises, clearly worried the audience isn’t used to difficult concepts or standard Big Finish plot techniques.

She was right, though. It was confusing.

Surprisingly, despite already starting with the second half of an adventure, No More Lies is still a play of two halves. The first one is very stupid and very science-fictiony; the second is a far more emotional, far less stupid affair. In fact, if they’d lopped off that first half (which, of course, was also a second half), it would have been a very good play indeed.

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News

Friday’s glorious news

Hot Fuzz


Doctor Who

Commercials

  • Orange has decided to continue with its Film Board cinema ads. First up: Michael Madsen.

Film

British TV

  • Apparently, we needed another The Bill. Details of the long-promised HolbyBlue are emerging. It’s got Zoe Lucker and Tim Piggott-Smith, for one thing. Oh Tim. You were so good in The Chief. Why ruin the memory?

US TV

Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Doctor Who – Phobos

Immortal BelovedSo we’ve had something Dalek, something silly, something thought-provoking and now, something traditional. Blah, blah, blah, blah, Doctor and companion arrive, Doctor and companion find people being killed off one by one, Doctor and companion get put in peril and discover monster is behind it all.

Ring any bells with anyone?

Yes, it’s standard Doctor Who plot #3. It worked for countless episodes of the old series (Image of the Fendahl, Curse of Peladon, The Dominators and just about anything else you care to name) and it’s readily deployable to the halfway house between old and new Who that is the Big Finish universe.

The question is, did you feel the fear?

Continue reading “Review: Doctor Who – Phobos”

News

Wednesday’s mellow-out cool news

Runaway Bride

Or maybe overly geeky news. Which do you think?

Doctor Who

  • Lots of Runaway Bride pictures.
  • An interview with Verity Lambert, first producer of Who (originally published in Dreamwatch in 2004, but they’re reviving their archive of material online)

Film

Music

US TV

  • Genre pilot pick-ups, including the US version of Life on Mars.
  • Futurama: Those new Comedy Central episodes are going to be re-edits of some Futurama movies coming to DVD.
  • Heroes: Masses of spoilers from E!’s Kristin.
  • From Ask Auriello:
    • Heroes: Malcolm McDowell might have a part.
    • Prison Break: What sort of things will happen in season three.
    • Studio 60: There’s going to be a flashback episode soon.
News

News to end the week by

Doc girls

I’m off again today. Stu_N knows where. Stu_N knows why.

Doctor Who

  • A cracking bit of art, illustrating the various female companions down the ages. Isn’t Liz Shaw cute, although the David Tennant is pretty cute, too. [via Behind the Sofa]
  • Talking of cartoons, an 13-part animated version of the show is to appear as part of Totally Doctor Who, according to the Mirror (scroll down). Anthony Head will guest-voice.
  • Confirmation of what Paul Cornell’s story will be about in series three.
  • PJ Hammond talks about Sapphire and Steel and Torchwood. He touches in passing on the fact he’s writing an episode for series two and that the ITV revival of Sapphire and Steel has fallen through.

Film

Music

British TV

US TV