The Scorchies is a Doctor Who audio drama from Bog Finish Productions and is another episode from The Companion Chronicles range. James Goss is the writer with Ken Bentley serving as director. Katy Manning reprises her role as Jo Grant with Melvyn Hayes pitching in his vocal talents as a malevolent race known as the Scorchies. The Scorchies have infiltrated Earth through children’s programming since they resemble puppets, and Jo is left on her own without the aid of the Doctor for most of that time. This is supposed to be in the era of the Third Doctor, who was played by the late Jon Pertwee.

This episode is certainly one of the more comedic and absurd tales from Big Finish. There are a few catchy musical numbers as well. Manning is known as quite the voice actor over in the UK and she gets to show off her formidable talents in this one. Hayes certainly knows what he is doing as well.

Doctor Who is no stranger to absurdity. Indeed, the whole concept of the series is outlandish, which makes it enjoyable. This episode sort of tested my tolerance for camp though. It is an interesting idea, but I am relieved that stories such as these are somewhat few and far between. There are some fans that will likely find this installment hilarious. I won’t one of them…well, at least not right away.

The Further Adventures of Lucie Miller Volume One is a Doctor Who audio anthology from Big Finish Productions in there are four new stories reuniting Paul McGann and Sheridan Smith as the Eighth Doctor and Lucie Miller, respectively. Nicholas Briggs has directed this set. There is a bit of an arc, but the stories mostly appear to be standalone. Lucie Smith joined the Doctor through Big Finish over a decade ago. She met a tragic end some time ago, but the Big Finish writers and producers made the decision to reveal some adventures that had yet to be heard. Basically, they all missed with Sheridan and decided to bring her back to the fold, and I don’t mind that one bit. So how do these stories hold up? Well, let’s get into that, shall we?

The man himself, Nicholas Briggs, kicks off the set with The Dalek Trap. He also voices the Daleks, so he is a busy fellow in this one. Matt Lloyd Davies and Amanda Hurwitz join in as the guest cast. The Doctor and Lucie have collided with a black hole where they find an amnesiac couple and Daleks. The Daleks may not be the perpetrators of this disaster, but the Doctor finds himself having to make a hard choice to save everyone. This is a good start. The cast is interesting, and Sheridan and McGann have no trouble reigniting their chemistry. Briggs is consistently an interesting writer. It was a fun story to start off with even with the sometimes overly familiar Daleks.

Alice Cavender is next up with the The Revolution Game. The guest cast is comprised of Jonathan Keeble, Madeline Duggan, Tom Alexander, and Alicia Ambrose-Bayly. The Doctor’s plan to give Lucie a surprise destination for her birthday backfires a bit when they find a human colony in the group of a mega corporation where the game to watch is roller derby. This is a pretty humorous addition, but any story with Lucie Miller is going to not be short of that. There is nothing too extraordinary about this entry, but it’s solidly entertaining. Once again, the performances make this a worthwhile distraction.

The House on the Edge of Chaos by Eddie Robson is probably my favorite in this set because of the claustrophobic setting and the tinge of horror. Carla Mandonca, Rupert Vansittart, Emily Woodward, Joe Jameson, and Alicia Ambrose-Bayly lend their voices in this one. The Doctor and Lucie are trapped in a house where creatures made of static are breaching the walls. There is a mysterious death in the past at the heart of this story. The guest characters are pretty compelling. I am probably a bit biased since I love a good haunted house yarn.

And the story with a thread through it all is Island of the Fendahl by Alan Barnes. The Doctor finds an opponent he had thought was destroyed long ago has been manipulating his journeys with Lucie. Carlyss Peer, Atilla Akinci, Paul Panting, Lauren Cornelius, and Bethan Dixon Bate make up the guest cast in the final story of this collection. This brought on a surprising enough twist that pays off nicely for this listener.

Although my enjoyment of each story was not equal, I am pleased to find that I had no real disappointment in any of them. The idea of bringing in Sheridan Smith again stoked up the proper nostalgia as I remember first hearing her. Smith has forgotten none of the sass and spirit of Lucie Miller. Of course, Paul McGann has lost none of his energy in his performance either. There is a bit of a shadow over the enjoyment because I already know how Lucie’s travels in the TARDIS come to an end, but it’s a very small shadow.

Tenet is a science fiction spy thriller written and directed by Christopher Nolan. John David Washington is in the lead as some super agent identified only as the Protagonist. His cast mates include Robert Pattinson, Michael Caine, Kenneth Branagh, Elizabeth Debicki, and Martin Donovan.

So, Tenet is some organization that is studying ammunition that can move backward through time or something like that. The Protagonist is charged with finding some kind of stolen artwork that is somehow tied to technology that causes some sort of temporal inversion where people move backward through time or something. This thing is very hard to summarize. One can watch the movie and still struggle with articulating what went on.

The cast was great. John David Washington is the son of one Denzel Washington and certainly has inherited the old man’s presence and talent but without being an imitation. Pattinson was pretty compelling himself. I have no real issue with the performances, the visual effects, or the stunt choreography. Visually, the movie is stunning which is a usual hallmark of a Nolan film.

I didn’t really hate this film, but I was a little disappointed in it. It felt too long and slow sometimes. Sometimes the dialogue was hard to understand. It was confusing to follow due to the chaotic timeline aspect to it. Nolan’s initial story idea and his direction is compelling but I sometimes get frustrated with his convoluted windy roads I find myself on trying to comprehend some of the riddles and clues littering the experience.

If I were to recommend this film to anyone, I might also include a request to explain some of its facets if they seem to have an easier following it. The movie is well over two hours and it really felt like it. Obviously, I can’t really accuse Nolan of not having any originality but he may need to simplifying that originality just a little. I guess he needs to find that balance of making it simple enough to still keep up and yet complicated enough to keep an audience’s attention, which isn’t easy in today’s culture.

Okay, there isn’t really an umbrella title for this particular release, so I will just describe it and review the pair of stories contained within/  This is a limited edition Doctor Who audio set featuring two episodes that were adapted from original novels written by Gareth Roberts.  John Dorney adapted both novels for the audio play format. Nicholas Briggs directed both stories as well.  Tom Baker stars in both stories alongside Lalla Ward and John Leeson, who reprise their roles as Romana and K9.  Of course, this release is from those well known lovers of stories, Big Finish Productions.

The Romance of Crime is the first story here with a guest cast that includes Miranda Raison, Michael Troughton, James Joyce, and Jane Slavin.  The TARDIS brings the Doctor and his friends to an inhabited asteroid known as the Rock of Judgment.  A dangerous criminal who was thought executed has made a startling return in which not everyone can remain in control of their mind and body.  This is a pretty good romp with solid performances.  Tom Baker sounds great, and none of the chemistry seems to be lacking in the main cast members.  I wish there was something that stood out in this episode for me, but it was a serviceable presentation from Big Finish.

The English Way of Death has a solid enough guest cast which includes Terrence Hardiman, Derek Carlyle, Abigail McKern, and again Jane Slavin.  The Doctor is needing to return some overdue books to t.  a library in 1930’s London, but a distress call from the future and a dangerous green mist means the library needs to wait a little longer to shelve their missing volumes.  This episode was a little better than its companion piece, but still there was not a whole lot that stood out.  It’s always a delight to hear Tom Baker in these audio plays, but I was once again not exactly enthralled by this piece.  I wasn’t repelled either, so I guess Roberts and Dorney accomplished that.

The sound effects were well realized, and the it did sound very much like the era in the television series it was supposed to represent.  I enjoyed the set well enough, but it’s another one not likely to leave a lasting memory on me until I decide to give it another whirl.

The Crooked Staircase is the third novel by Dean Koontz to feature vengeful widow, Jane Hawk.  It was first published in 2018.

Jane Hawk is a former FBI agent who is stunned by the sudden suicide of her beloved husband but finds that the idea did not occur to him on its own.  She finds a deeply buried government program involving mind control.  Two malevolent operatives are on her trail.  Her young son is in the care of two dedicated allies, but her efforts there may not be enough to keep him from danger.  Jane is on the trail of more leaders of this group known as Arcadians and finds herself having to employ some ugly tactics to get the answers she needs.

In recent years, Koontz seems to continue his fascination with rogue government operatives and strange conspiracies involving subtle domination by the state, so this series seems to be more of the same.  Although Jane Hawk is compelling enough for me to not mind following her.  Koontz still has a unique prose style to keep the sometimes overly familiar plot somewhat fresh.  The killer duo known as Dubose and Jergen are eccentric yet evil enough for me to relish the final confrontation with Jane Hawk whenever that happens.  There isn’t much I would consider extraordinary about this novel, but the good news is that it does not stand out as anything terribly obnoxious either.

It was at least good enough for me to be willing to read the fourth installment. But before that, I will try out The Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi as my next literary indulgence.

Murder By Contract is a film noir thriller that was released in 1958.  Irving Lerner is the director with Ben Simcoe listed as writer.  Vince Edwards plays a somewhat philosophical hit man named Claude saving up to buy a house.  Phillip Pine, Herschel Bernadi, and Caprice Toriel are also part of the cast.

Claude is a contract killer who doesn’t use a gun but dispatches his victims in a variety of ways.  After proving his efficiency at the beginning of the film, two men hire him to kill a witness set to testify in a high profile trial.  Claude is somewhat hesitant when he learns his latest target is a woman.  Claude is an interesting character in that he would be described as am existentialist.  He has a somewhat perplexing moment where he snaps at a hotel server for an apparently lack of ambition or something and still gives him a fairly generous gratuity.

Claude is a somewhat interesting character.  The movie is acclaimed for being somewhat stripped down to basic movie making or something.  The soundtrack is pretty simple with a repetitive guitar riff throughout the film. The film has moments where it drags a bit though.  There are some interesting moments, but the ending didn’t really satisfy all that much.  I do appreciate the effort to see what could be done with the most basic elements of film making.  I am not sure if I need to see this movie again in order to appreciate something that I missed, but the first viewing didn’t exactly leave me in a rush to make another attempt.

The Silencing is a thriller directed by Robin Pront from a screenplay written by Micah Ranum.  The cast includes Nikolaj Coster-Waldeau, Annabelle Wallis, and Hero Feinnes-Tiffin.

The film starts off with the corpse of a young woman drifting down a river which flows through an impressive forest background.  Coster-Waldeau  plays a drunken former hunter who now runs a sanctuary for wildlife in honor of his young daughter, who had gone missing five years earlier.  Wallis plays a young, pretty sheriff who starts an investigation into the murder of the young woman who was fished out of the river.  Anyway, it doesn’t take long to figure out that some lunatic is out in the woods hunting young women.  One is rescued by the drunken protagonist.  The sheriff has a troubled brother who she feels overly protective toward.  Everyone is a bit of a mess.  One or two people discover a bit of nobility within themselves.

So when this movie started, it seemed to hold some promise.  I started to be intrigued. When the aspect of someone hunting people for sport became apparent, my interest started to wane somewhat.  The performances were not bad, and some of the action scenes sort of jolted my attention back, but I ended up dissatisfied with the final revelations.  It’s one of those movies I should have enjoyed more, and it’s a little hard to articulate why it fell short.  I think the basic premise was not terrible, but the motivation behind some of the characters’ decisions just seemed absurd.  People are absurd anyway, but this movie goes in directions that really stretch the credulity.  Anyway, it’s fine if one really needs to see something new during this whole pandemic business, but it’s not worth any real effort beyond that.

The Mirror Crack’d is a British mystery film released in 1980.  Guy Hamilton is the director while Jonathan Hales and Brent Sandler adapts the screenplay from a novel written by Agatha Christie.  Angela Lansbury is in the lead as Jame Marple, one of Christie’s best known sleuths.  The cast has some pretty heavy hitters of the cinema for that time.  Notable cast members are Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, and Tony Curtis.  A very young Pierce Brosnan is in this in an uncredited appearance before his fame hit full stride.

A Hollywood studio has chosen St. Mary Mead for the location of shooting a historical piece about Mary, Queen of Scots, and Elizabeth I.  The two leading ladies have a long standing rivalry.  A fan is poisoned at the reception, which piques the interest of the ever curious Jane Marple.  Miss Marple is the best known of fictional elderly spinster detectives.  The detective inspector investigating the case happens to be a nephew of Miss Marple, so an injury to her foot does not keep her sidelined too long.

I liked Lansbury’s performance of Miss Marple, but the make-up was pretty ghastly.  She is wearing either a white wig or had her hair dyed.  The production team would have done better to just let her keep her natural reddish hair color at that time, even if it didn’t quite match Christie’s description of Miss Marple.  This adaptation was pretty mediocre overall though.  It’s a talented enough cast, but something about the writing just didn’t work for me.  I may have just been too distracted by Lanbury’s appearance.  Of course, I am used to her presentation in Murder, She Wrote, so I just think the performance in this film didn’t need to be too dissimilar from that.  I actually have the upmost respect for Angela Lansbury, and whatever downfall there may be in her performance is likely not her fault.  I found that some of the other actors were overacting a bit, but the setting sort of lends itself to that.  The basic story itself was fine, but it has been a long time since  read that particular novel.  Anyway, I was expecting better since there were so many Hollywood legends involved, but I just couldn’t stay connected to it.  I think the writing and direction is more to blame than the actors though.

Shadow of the Sun is a Doctor Who audio play written by Robert Valentine and directed by Nicholas Briggs.  Tom Baker returns as the Fourth Doctor as is joined by Louise Jameson as Leela and John Leeson voicing K9.  The guest cast is comprised of Paul Herberg, Fenella Woolgar, Glen McCready, and Barnaby Edwards.

Big Finish Productions has moved this story ahead of schedule by a few years since it was recorded while at height of the lockdown in the United Kingdom due to the coronavirus pandemic.  The cast was able to perform from their various residences with the sound techs putting it all together for a pretty satisfying story.

The TARDIS materializes aboard a star-liner in the middle of a party.  The Doctor, Leela, and K9 find that equipment has been breaking down and guests have been disappearing.  The Doctor makes a more alarming discovery in that the ship is on a direct course to collide with a sun.  He is even more alarmed when no one else seems to share his concern.

The story sort of explores the notion of cults and dangerous beliefs that could lead to some self-destructive tendencies.  Not much is more self-destructive than deliberately heading into a sun.  There is also a problematic autopilot that does not want to cooperate.

Overall, the episode is satisfying but not much new ground is broken here.  The post production work is top-notch as always though.  The sound effects were convincing, which is also expected.  The performances were all solid.  Tom Baker still sounds great for a man of his age, which is 86 now, in case anyone didn’t know.  Sometimes, I can hear it in his voice, but not enough to dampen my enthusiasm whenever a new Fourth Doctor adventure is on the horizon.

This is still quite a triumph for Big Finish regardless in that it is a testament to their determined ingenuity to provide new entertainment during the most difficult of times.  The story itself may not be a standout, but it’s quite good.  All of the cast seemed competent and enthusiastic in the effort put forth.  Because Big Finish did manage to find a way around some serious roadblocks brought on by the Bug,  this still is a very special episode and worthy of more than one listen.

Lake Artifact is a film with some horror, some science fiction, and according to IMDb, some comedy, although that last descriptor is a little hard to identify.  Bruce Wemple is the writer and director of this obvious B movie.  The cast includes Sheila Ball, Thomas Brazzle, Adrian Burke, and Catharine Daddario.  A few other actors were there as well, but they weren’t any more recognizable than those already mentioned.

A group of friends decide to spend a weekend at a place curiously named Paradox Lake where they are joined by a mysterious stranger with a case of beer and an intriguing, dour demeanor.  As they arrive at this cabin near the lake, it doesn’t take long to notice strange discrepancies such as photos of themselves that no one remembers taking.  There is a strange old man lurking in the woods, and no one seems to be able to leave easily.  The story is interrupted by interviews that supposedly help explain the history and legends of Paradox Lake.

This is a low budget offering, but I have to say, I have seen worse.  I got a little more interested in it than I anticipated.  The performances weren’t terrible.  The characters were somewhat interesting.  There were a few hints dropped about the background and dynamics between some of the characters that were predictable.  I thought there was some real effort to come up with something original and much of the effort is almost successful.  There is still plenty of room with some level of exasperation with this film. Too many loose threads are left dangling for my preference.  It’s not a straight-forward tale since parallel realities and time loops enter the fray, but Wemple could have still put more effort into a cleaner ending, unless he is angling for a sequel or something.

Anyway, I wouldn’t necessarily make a viewing of this a major priority, but it had just enough surprises and suspenseful moments where I wouldn’t label it a complete waste of time.