Big Finish Productions has a new collection of Twelfth Doctor audio dramas in the set entitled You Only Die Twice, and it’s okay. Jacob Dudman returns to mic doing his impression of Peter Capaldi’s version of the Time Lord. Lisa Bowerman serves as the director of this trilogy of episodes. Bhavnisha Parmer returns as Big Finish companion known as Keira Sanstrom. Nicholas Asbury is the main villain known as Belias, who apparently resembles the traditional depiction of Satan. Other guest cast members include Maggie Bain, Georgina Beedle, Robert Daws, Richard Braine, and Clare Corbett.
The Doctor gets whisked away by Time Agent Keira Sanstrom to help her find some stolen time weapons. The Doctor is an unwilling recruit of the Time Agency, but he manages to get a good adventure out of it.
Sunstrike by Georgia Cook is the first episode in this collection. The Doctor is sent to an auction among the galaxy’s worst villains at a resort. He meets someone known as the Quartermaster, played by Robert Daws.
This is apparently a riff on James Bond movies, and it is fairly amusing. Parmer ends up being a welcome return since her banter with the Doctor is rather charming.
Dudman does pretty well with capturing the gist of Capaldi’s interpretation of the role, but his impressions of David Tennant and Matt Smith are better.
The second episode is Never the End Is by Ben Tedds. The Doctor and Keira arrive in seventeenth century Austria where they meet a painter who has impossible visions, and they are not the only ones from the Time Agency on site.
The episode is not terrible due largely to the performances and sound engineering. It’s not all that memorable except for the cliffhanger which suggests a rather shocking betrayal.
Finally, Fio Trethewey brings this set to a close with You Only Die Twice where the Doctor goes head-to-head against Belias and is uncertain who are really is allies.
The set was pretty interesting, but I had a hard time seeing or hearing how it stands out all that much. Big Finish often has some real triumphs in its storytelling, but this one just ends up not being disastrous.
Still, Dudman’s performance is quite good, and the release is still worth trying out. I will likely give this one another listen, so I may end up enjoying it more once I understand the action sequences a little better. The boxset is not without its charm, but it is mildly disappointing.
The Broken Place is a fairly decent thriller by Ace Atkins and features Sheriff Quinn Colson of Tibbehah County Mississippi.
Colson is a former United States Army Ranger who returns home and finds that corruption and murder has taken root in the town of Jericho. Colson is elected sheriff and attempts to bring some actual order to his home county. He is the right man for the job, but a lot of wrong people still find their way into his town.
This novel starts off with a couple of dangerous convicts escaping and heading to Colson’s county to find a former prison mate who claims to have been reformed. Quinn’s sister has fallen for a local preacher who was recently pardoned after a murder conviction. The two fugitives believe that this preacher, Jamey Dixon, has stolen money hid away from a previous robbery they committed. The sheriff her to protect his family as well as the community from the murderous havoc these fugitives are willing to bring. Not only that, but a storm is also brewing which will bring a tornado tearing through the county. Colson also finds that he may not be able to rely on the integrity of some of the other law enforcement agents getting in on the manhunt.
Ace Atkins is probably best known for taking over the continuation of the Spenser series of novels after the death of Robert B. Parker. He has this Quinn Colson series out there which does have an interesting set-up. Quinn Colson is not that unusual of a protagonist in these tough guy thrillers. Colson is predictably stoic and practical but also strangely reassuring in the midst of chaos. He manages to not totally lose his edge even when his sister is threatened.
Other than the setting, Atkins is not really breaking new ground, but the novel is still interesting. The main villain is a killer named Esau Davis, and he carries a complicated moral compass at times which does make him interesting most of the time.
I do like Colson’s style when interacting with some of the shifty local political figures in the story. There’s a pretty loathsome creature named Johnny Stagg, who makes a pretty engaging foil for Colson. Stagg is the local crime lord with political clout who has a sort of strange, sly courage when he has to contend with Esau as well.
There were a few interesting twists and turns, and Colson is definitely a guy one wants during a crisis. Too bad he’s a fictional character. I also liked the open question as whether or not Jamey Dixon was truly redeemed man or not. Not every question the story raises has an easy resolution, and it’s good that Atkins is willing to take that approach in this particular series.
London has no shortage of crime and corruption, but Sherlock Holmes is there as usual to root that out. This time, author Sam Siciliano has assigned him to look into the matter of Deathly Relics.
Alien: Romulus is a science fiction horror film that could have been another disastrous sequel to a possibly overdone franchise, but it actually is a pretty solid entry into the series that began all the way back in 1979 with Sigourney Weaver in the starring role. Fede Alvarez directed the film, which he also co-wrote with Rodo Sayagues. I actually just learned that the aliens are actually referred to Xenomorphs. I guess I didn’t pay close enough attention to remember that.
The film’s cast includes Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Feam, and Aileen Wu. An interesting addition to the cast is a little difficult to explain. The image of the late Ian Holm is back as a synthetic named Rook, who resembles the character known as Ash from the first film. Daniel Betts provides the voice, but I thought it was interesting to have that connection in this film, which I read was approved by Holm’s family.
Spaeny plays the lead character, Rain Carradine, who is trying to leave a colony known as Jackson’s Star. She cares for an adopted brother, who is actually a synthetic human named Andy, who apparently suffers from some kind of brain damage. Rain meets with friends who have learned that they could get to a derelict space craft with cryostasis chambers that could help them get to a much better colony. The group manages to board what turns out to be a space station that is divided into two parts. Of course, the Xenomorphs have escaped and are waiting for fresh prey. The synthetic human known as Andy also finds that a corruption to his system is in store for him as well. As the kids try to survive, they are also victim of a corrupt company that are planning to weaponize the Xenomorphs.
This film doesn’t pack the same punch as the first two films in the franchise, but it’s effective enough. The cast was quite good. Spaeny does not appear as formidable as Weaver’s character Ripley, but that seems to work in the film’s favor. The cast is pretty young, but they were good. I enjoyed David Jonsson’s performance because Andy has a dramatic character change in the story, and he carries it off quite convincingly.
The special effects were pretty impressive. There is also a new version of the Xenomorph that shows up, and that was an interesting twist near the end.’
Alvarez is a pretty solid director and knows how to make the most of an opportunity to creep out the audience.
I understand this film is supposed to take place between Alien and Aliens, and it does pretty well with making that connection to the other installments.
I was a little concerned this would be a waste of time, but I was pleasantly surprised and impressed. I still wish Hollywood would do more to create more original content instead of revisiting these ancient franchises, but every now and then a solid release hits the screen.
The Seventh Doctor returns for a couple of new audio adventures with Harry Sullivan and Naomi Cross in this boxset of Doctor Who audio plays entitled Far From Home from Big Finish Productions. The set also includes a short audiobook entitled Frozen Worlds performed by Sophie Aldred. Sylvester McCoy reprises his role as the Doctor’s seventh incarnation and is joined again by Christopher Naylor as Harry Sullivan and Eleanor Crooks as Naomi Cross. Samuel Clemens is the tapped to direct this set. There are two full-cast episodes and an audiobook.
The first story is Operation Dusk by Alfie Shaw and has the Doctor and his two friends facing off with those shadowy creatures known as the Vashta Nerada during the London Blitz during the Second World War in 1940. The story begins with the Doctor being requested to help investigate the death of a female British agent. The Doctor finds that the Vashta Nerada have been weaponized by another extraterrestrial presence, and a Nazi invasion may be the least of the threats facing Britain.
The guest cast is made up of Pepter Lunkuse, Leon Parris, Emily Raymond, and Nicholas Rowe. Rowe is best known for a long-ago role in Young Sherlock Holmes and is fantastic as the duplicitous Sebastian Hardcastle.
It’s a solid story, but the Second World War is getting a little overused in this range. The Seventh Doctor has spent a lot of time in that era, and it’s getting hard to see episodes as particularly special when he visits the war and the Blitz yet again. The story is interesting enough, and I am enjoying the banter between this Doctor, Harry, and Eleanor.
Naylor has been playing Harry Sullivan for some time now, but the part was originated by the late Ian Marter during the first season of Tom Baker’s era. Naylor does a pretty good job of capturing Sullivan’s awkward charm as well as his steadfast courage even when he yearns for a quieter life. Crooks continues to become more captivating as Naomi Cross, who is more willing to face the challenges and dangers of traveling with the Doctor. Cross shares a lot of similarity with many of the Doctor’s more recent female companions in that she is spunky and liberal-minded. There is kind of a deadpan humor to her demeanor that does make her stand out a bit more. The more time I spend with Naomi, the more I come to appreciate her and her relationship with Harry.
The Vashta Nerada being Earth is bound to happen, and it’s kind of a fun idea to have an earlier Doctor face adversaries that the audience first met in the rebooted television series. There are some interesting twists and reveals, but the episode was of fairly average quality in spite of the best efforts of the cast. I think the overuse of the World War II setting sort of soured my enjoyment of this episode, but Shaw is still a thoughtful and imaginative writer and will hopefully remain a consistent contributor to the range.
The second story is Naomi’s Ark by Alison Winter and takes the TARDIS crew far out into space and well into the future. The guest cast is made up of Bethany Antonia, Nino Furuhata, Indra Ove, and Bridgitta Roy.
Naomi gets separated from the Doctor and Harry during an evacuation of a space station during a supernova. A traveling group of colonists rescue the Doctor and Harry while Naomi is picked up by what is apparently the galactic equivalent of teen-agers taking the parents’ car out for a joyride.
Naomi gets a well-deserved moment to shine as she tries to take responsibility for her rescuers and reunite with her companions. Crooks’ performance as Naomi starts to understand the situation her hapless, immature saviors are in is quite well executed. It was done with some of the typically quirky Doctor Who humor, and Crooks delivers masterfully.
The Doctor has his own hands full trying to convince the leader of the colonists to turn back to retrieve his TARDIS and he uses some powers of persuasion that does not sit well with him. McCoy remains in top form as well.
I think the second story is better overall. Operation Dusk isn’t really bad, but I just connected better with the second one. The set overall is still worth the time.
Finally, we have this little audiobook written by Katharine Armitage called Frozen Worlds. Sophie Aldred puts in a compelling performance, but the story was not that interesting to me. Ace has fallen into some portal where she is in different dimensions and trying to get back to the Doctor. Armitage is a competent writer, but I had some trouble staying all that interested in the story despite Aldred’s obvious vocal talent. I may just need to revisit the story to see if I can understand it better.
Far From Home as a whole has a few cracks in the overall experience, but there are some powerful moments. The main cast work together well. McCoy still maintains a commanding presence with his version of the Doctor.
The quality of the soundscape is still top tier from Big Finish. Even is this set does not quite hit it out of the park for me, it’s still a worthy addition to the Big Finish collection.
Lost to Eternity is the latest Star Trek novel by Greg Cox and is definitely one of the better releases in some time. The novel is a little complicated because there are three story threads interwoven throughout the pages until the common threat comes to light. It serves as a sequel to the film Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, but it’s more of a treat than just that.
It begins in the present year of 2024 with a true podcaster named Melinda Silver who has decided to examine the peculiar circumstance surrounding the disappearance of marine biologist Gillian Taylor, who disappeared almost four decades earlier. Of course, the aforementioned film reveals that Dr. Taylor joined Captain James Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise who had hijacked a Klingon warship, traveled through time to retrieve a couple of humpback whales to communicate with a probe that was tearing Earth apart in the twenty-third century. None of that is known to Melinda as she interviews several witnesses that tell her of a strange man who jumped into the whale tank, a Russian who was captured on a United States naval vessel that same day, and an old woman who grew a new kidney while at the hospital.
In the year 2268, Captain Kirk and his crew are sent to find an apparently abducted Federation scientist who is also being sought by the Klingons as well. The search takes them to a primitive world where a mysterious man is ruthlessly trying to achieve immortality.
The next mission takes place in 2292 and has Captain Kirk and his crew to participate in an effort to convince an ancient race known as the Osari who have decided to come out of isolation and interact with its galactic neighbors. The Osari are also interested in meeting the Romulans and the Klingons. The diplomatic mission seems to have a promising start until one of the Osari is apparently killed and a familiar Starfleet officer and Romulan subcommander are missing and presumed dead. Yet again, a secret adversary is manipulating the crisis, and the quest for eternal life has continued but at a fatal price.
I can sometimes be critical of Star Trek novelists spending too much dredging up sequels of old episodes or films, but Cox actually does it pretty uniquely here. He turns some of the extra bystanders into real characters here. I was actually motivated to rewatch the film a few days ago to identify the potential characters who Melida interviewed. Of course, it’s a fun movie overall.
The adversary is a new threat to the crew and their missions, so that was most welcome.
Cox does get a little overindulgent on referencing prior episodes at times, but for the most part, this contribution hits all the right marks. The main characters are depicted pretty accurately. There is an appropriate number of space battles and phaser fights.
Books that are tied to television or film franchises are often hit or miss, but Cox hits what could be a metaphorical bullseye here.
After my brief return to the twenty-third century, my next read will bring me to Tibbehah County, Mississippi where Sheriff Quinn Colson has some fixing up to do in The Broken Places by Ace Atkins.
Cuckoo is a science fiction horror film, written and directed by Tilman Singer, that happens to be one of the more fairly interesting additions to the genre in recent cinematic history.
The cast includes Hunter Schafer, Dan Stevens, Jessica Henwick, Marton Csokas, and Greta Fernandez.
The film begins with a young girl stepping outside into the night to escape the disturbing sounds of her arguing parents. A peculiar shriek emanating from the woods triggers a seizure in the girl, and she suddenly sprints off into the night.
Most of the film centers on a teenager named Gretchen who is moving with her father and his family to the German Alps because he has accepted a job to construct an updated resort. Gretchen meets the owner who has employed her father and is offered a job at the front desk of the current hotel. It does not take her long to notice women vomiting suddenly in her lobby. She also has a younger sister who also suddenly becomes prone to seizures especially when an unusual shriek is blaring out of the woods. A strange, hooded woman has started stalking her. Time loops start occurring around people when the shriek cuts loose. Gretchen is not happy to be away from her home, especially since her mother had recently died. These mysterious occurrences and troubling cries do little to reassure her.
The film has some interesting twists that are unexpected. This isn’t really a ghost or monster story. There is an unexpected science fiction element that comes to light
The performances are pretty good. Hunter Schafer does well in the lead role of Gretchen. The cast is not that well-known, which I think helps with immersing yourself into the story.
The film is a little overhyped in the advertisements. I don’t think it’s the latest horror masterpiece, but it does have some uniqueness to the story. It does well with exhibiting that distinctive European favor, and it does have a bit more originality than what has been released in the past few years.
Fans of the more macabre corners of the cinematic scene will likely find some welcome chills here. Although I doubt that this will be a film I will sit through multiple times over the next few years, it is one that has a pretty engaging premise and is one of the better cinematic experiences of this past year.
Borderlands is a science fiction action-comedy film based on a video game that does not quite reach mediocre status. Yeah, I should have researched this one a bit more before wasting my time.
The film is directed by Eli Roth who also co-wrote the screenplay with Joe Crombie. It’s based on a video game released by Gearbox Software. The cast is not without talent, but it would be fair to question their judgment for their participation. Cate Blanchett, Kevin Hart, Ariana Greenblatt, Edgar Ramirez, Florian Munteanu, and Jamie Lee Curtis are included in the cast.
On some planet in the far future or something like that, Lillith, a cynical and effective bounty hunter, is contracted to retrieve some rich guy’s daughter who was apparently kidnapped by one of his own mercenaries. She reluctantly returns to her home planet known as Pandora because that is where the trail leads. She meets the rogue soldier known as Roland, who is played by Kevin Hart. Apparently, the precocious and bomb-lobbing girl, Tiny Tina, is actually not all that keen to return to her father’s clutches. Lillith decides to ally herself to Roland and Tina in their efforts to open something known as Pandora’s Vault. It becomes more evident that Lillith’s past is the key to this ragtag group of treasure seekers and renegades staying alive and unlocking the Vault.
There are a couple of merits to this film. I enjoyed Greenblatt’s antics as Tiny Tina. I wouldn’t mind seeing her in something else that has a better script. The special effects and action scenes were kind of fun. The casting itself wasn’t too bad. Even Kevin Hart managed to carry some credibility in his fight scenes. Hart gets ribbed a bit for being rather short, but he is a pretty fit guy and can pull off a fairly convincing fight scene.
The problem is that most of the wisecracks did not land all that solidly. The story is rather stale. This is another circumstance where a video game just fails to translate all that smoothly to the cinema.
I did notice that the Rotten Tomatoes score is extreme low, and the film does deserve most of the hate. I did not find the film to be all that terrible. Greenblatt and Jack Black, who is the voice of the obnoxious robot almost make it watchable at times.
I actually didn’t find the film to be the most terrible one I have endured, but the mediocrity and wasted potential was quite evident and rather exasperating.
Big Finish Productions returns to the travels of the Eighth Doctor, starring Paul McCann, with an eclectic and entertaining set of Doctor Who audio dramas entitled Echoes. Nicola Walker and Hattie Morahan are also accompanying this Doctor as Liv Chenka and Helen Sinclair. Ken Bentley directs this trilogy of adventures and continues to prove himself more than capable of continuing in that capacity for future releases. The guest cast includes Derek Griffiths, Jane Asher, Fiona Button, and Dan Starkey.
Tim Foley starts off the set with his story, Birdsong. The TARDIS arrives on a world where there are apparently two women who were scouting it out for an arriving colony. There are peculiar birds in the distance but coming closer. One of the women the TARDIS encounters is strangely ill. Something in the woods appears to be watching.
Foley has become one of Big Finish’s more prolific and reliable scriptwriters, and this story is a pretty good example as to why. It’s a pretty spooky story with an interesting twist toward the end. The main cast is once again in top form with their performances. Fiona Button and Jane Asher are the only two guest actors, and they are more than capable foils for the well-tuned main cast of this particular TARDIS crew.
Lost Hearts is the second story and is written by Lauren Mooney and Stewart Pringle. The Doctor, Liv, and Helen have been investigating strange disturbances emanating from an ancient university. Phantoms have been seen, and something odd seems to have an important message for the Doctor. They are assisted by a nervous undergraduate and a writer of supernatural phenomenon. The student has a profound connection to Helen Sinclair, and the writer has an important destiny on the world’s literary stage.
Timothy Bentinck and Steve Brody are two of the guest actors and, as expected, well chosen. Bentinck goes a little over the top with his performance in the climax, but the whole episode is still quite enjoyable. The revealing of the full identity of the Brody’s character, Montague, is kind of a nice treat. The story takes place in a university containing a lot of shadows and dark corners, which is almost always a great place to begin a Doctor Who episode.
Dan Rebellato is the writer tasked with bringing this set to a close with Slow Beasts. The Doctor and his companions arrive on a planet with an amazing sight to behold. A settlement is watched over a group of enormous alien figures standing in the plains. The Renn gain some benefit from the tourism arriving in their midst to see this strange arrangement. It does not take long for the Doctor, Liv and Helen to discover there is a dark secret behind the majestic view. When the secret comes to life, the Renn find themselves facing a retribution that may be well deserved.
The final story is also quite compelling, although there is not a lot of detail about how the Slow Beasts look other than their immense size. Derek Griffiths, Maya Saroya, and Dan Starkey are part of this guest cast. Rebellato is a pretty new writer to me, but this story is a promising introduction. He is not a new writer overall, but he seems to be a pretty recent addition to the Big Finish stable. The story raises some engaging moral dilemmas and questions. I thought Griffiths take on the settlement leader, Mathryn, was very interesting. Mathryn does have some undoubtedly selfish and immoral motivations, but the audience is left with a sense of possible redemption.
I have to say that Echoes pretty much gets high marks from me all the way down the line. It’s hard to say which episode is my favorite because I was pretty impressed with all three of the stories, which is a rarity as much as I love Big Finish and Doctor Who. There was not reliance of old adversaries. Yes, Big Finish has visited its fair share of shady universities in its long catalogue before, but the second episode is still imaginative enough for me to forgive that trope. McGann remains as compelling as ever as his version of the Doctor. The chemistry and banter between Morahan and Walker remain on point, which is particularly impressive since this group of writers haven’t written much in this range. Although this TARDIS team have been around a good number of years for the Big Finish consumers, this collection of stories seems to have found a way to ensure that audiences want more of this particular TARDIS team.
Karin Smirnoff is the latest Swedish author who has taken the baton of continuing the Millenium series started by the late Stieg Larsson, and she may be running off a pier with it if The Girl in the Eagle’s Talons is anything to go by.
Just to recap a bit, Steig Larsson wrote the first trilogy featuring the dangerous and unusual Lisbeth Salander beginning with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. He passed away not long after publication, so he never really got to enjoy the acclaim that was displayed. David Lagercrantz was commissioned by the estate to produce another trilogy starting with The Girl in the Spider’s Web. His contribution was not as good as the original author’s obviously, but it was pretty good.
Now, we have this Smirnoff woman taking a crack at it, and the first effort is not that encouraging.
Crusading journalist Mikael Blomkvist is heading north to see his daughter get married. He is in crisis because his beloved newspaper is getting into the digital age and dumping the print edition. His daughter’s fiancée seems to be in cahoots with some rather dubious power brokers. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander has been prospering as a partner in the security firm for which she had worked when introduced. Salander is made aware of a niece who is the daughter of an unsavory sibling who tried to kill her some years ago, and she has been named guardian to this young girl. Svala has some unique gifts of her own and is a little cleverer and more precocious than most thirteen-year-olds. There is no question that she is family. A shocking kidnapping occurs, and Lisbeth and Mikael find themselves working together because both of them have family in danger from some powerful and corrupt people.
I had a hard time being drawn to Smirnoff’s version of Lisbeth. Lisbeth did not seem quite as intriguing as she was presented by Larsson. Even Lagercrantz was able to retain some of the mystique and dark humor that was unique to Lisbeth.
Svala was supposedly just as strange and perceptive as Lisbeth, but she didn’t hold my interest. When the big kidnapping occurs, things pick up a bit, but I found most of the story just sort of dragged up until that point.
Smirnoff isn’t necessarily an awful writer, but she just didn’t replicate the spark provided by the deceased Stieg Larssen. I am curious enough to see if she can redeem herself once the second novel comes out. That has yet to be announced, but it is known that she is contracted to do a trilogy. Anyway, maybe others found more to enjoy than I did, but it seems Salander was in better hands with the two dudes who preceded this current author.
I think it’s time to return to the Starship Enterprise under the command of James T. Kirk with Greg Cox’s latest contribution to the Star Trek range, Lost to Eternity.
Trap is the latest thriller written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and it requires a massive amount of suspension of disbelief to get any measure of enjoyment. Josh Hartness is in the lead as Cooper, a seemingly doting and average father who is taking his daughter to a concert put on by the pop star portrayed by Saleka Night Shyamalan. The cast also includes Ariel Donoghue, Alison Pill, Hayley Mills, and Jonathan Langdon.
Cooper is a loving father and is accompanying his daughter to a major concert and notices an unusual amount of security. An indiscreet booth worker informs Cooper that the whole venue has been turned into a trap for a notorious serial killer who is believed to be attending the concert. It’s not a major spoiler to reveal that Cooper is indeed the target of all of this attention. The problem is that the police and FBI agents really have no information regarding his identity. Cooper begins an effort to engineer his escape without ruining his daughter’s night. He also has to outwit a supposed master profiler played by Mills. This sounds like a pretty intense plot and should be kind of fun to watch.
The problem is that the basic premise is more ridiculous that most of Shyamalan’s ideas. This is the guy who did a movie about invading aliens who attacked a planet this is made mostly of water, which was their kryptonite. Anyway, the whole concept was kind of silly and seemed to be lacking any effort to discover what police would actually do in this situation.
In spite of the distraction of a very weak plot, there was a couple of bright spots. M. Night’s daughter actually is a pretty decent actress. There was quite a bit of her musical talents on display, and the concert scenes were fine. She apparently wrote the songs that were performed, and she is not noticeably terrible as a pop performer. The performances from the cast overall were actually pretty good. I guess they were making the best of a pretty bad story premise. It was cool to see Hartnett in a major film role. The chemistry between him and the daughter played by Donoghue seemed pretty genuine. The casting is something to which I have no real objection.
I guess I can buy Hartnett in the part of a serial killer, who is the master of wearing the mask of normalcy, but the whole concept of the FBI trying to track him in an audience made up of about 20,000 people just seemed so ludicrous. Although there may be some good reasons to question the competence of our federal law enforcement agencies these days, I am doubtful that they would engage in a maneuver like the one depicted in this film.
Shyamalan often has some interesting ideas, but this is one of those films that misfires too noticeably to be forgiven easily.
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