The Creeping Death is a Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Productions and is written by Roy Gill.  Ken Bentley directs this episode which stars David Tennant and Catherine Tate.  The guest cast includes Helen Goldwyn, Lauren Cornelius, and Stephen Critchlow.

The Doctor and Donna Noble are brought to 1952 London in which the fog is a bit more oppressive than usual.  An alien threat lurks among the mist as well.  Apparently, there actually was an event known as the Great Smog of London which caused many severe illnesses among the populace at that time.  The part about the alien is artistic license of course.

The story is quite a bit better than what the title suggests.  The Doctor and Donna fall in with a small group of people trying to survive the encroaching smog and whatever is hidden within.

Tennant and Tate recapture their familiar chemistry and banter without much difficulty. The story isn’t bad but not entirely unique/  I did appreciate learning an interesting piece of London history that I had never come across before.

It’s an enjoyable enough tale taking place in a well-loved era of the series.  Hopefully Tennant will return to the Big Finish studio quite soon.  Catherine Tate can come along too.

Blood On Santa’s Claw And Other Stories is a Doctor Who audio play from Big Finish Productions.  It’s an anthology consisting of four stories, or is it?  What we do know for sure is that is directed by John Ainsworth and that it stars Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant.  Peri has a boyfriend named Joe in this release.  Luke Allen-Gale joins the TARDIS crew, and the Doctor is a little put out.  That’s okay though, the Sixth Doctor is usually put out by something, but that’s what makes him so fun to listen to.

Blood On Santa’s Claw is apparently written by Alan Terigo and has the Doctor, Peri, and Joe find themselves in the 59th century where they find a murdered creature in a Santa suit and talking animals in Shakespearian garb.

Allegedly, Susan Dennom wrote The Baby Awakens Peri has a chance to see what parenting could be like when she, the Doctor, and Joe investigate a clinic that can create “designer babies”.  Of course, there is something a little more menacing lurking under the potential for a Christmas family gathering.

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day is rumored to be written by Andrew Lias in which the Doctor and his companions land again in the 59th century in the middle of the longest Christmas party ever held.  But a trap is waiting underneath the festivities.

All is revealed in Nev Fountain’s Brightly Shone The Moon That Night, and it’s not a bad twist.

Colin Baker’s version of the Doctor continues to dominate in the Big Finish stories much better than in his television era.  He and Bryant still show a formidable chemistry even after all these years.  There ends up being more to Joe than I anticipated.

The guest cast includes Heather Bleasdale, Dawn Murphy, and Cliff Chapman.  Everyone is well chosen, which is typical of Big Finish.

There is quite a few clever surprises and red herrings in this release which ends up with a decent payoff.

Praxeus is the latest Doctor Who episode aired this past weekend on BBC.  Jodie Whittaker is still in the lead role alongside Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole, and Mandip Gill.  Jamie Magnus Stone directed this episode which was penned by Pete McTighe and Chris Chibnall.

The Doctor and her companions have to divide and conquer as they investigate a potential threat that has emerged on three continents throughout the world.  In Peru, Ryan Sinclair, played by Tosin Cole, meets a travel blogger who has just lost her partner while camping near a polluted coastline.  The birds have been behaving unusually aggressively.

The Doctor meets an American naval officer who has been overcome by a disturbing new infection.  She also picks up assistance from two medical researchers.  Yasmin and Graham are on the trail of an astronaut who has gone missing with the help of an ex-cop who has a personal stake in this venture.

A strange new bacterium has gotten out of control and ends up disintegrating those who have been infected.  It seems to be attracted by microplastics that have polluted this fair planet.  Anyway, this turns out to be an anti-pollution episode, which isn’t bad by itself.

It has an intriguing beginning, and then it sort of loses its way as the answers are revealed.  I think there were too many characters to follow.  I just started losing interest about halfway through.

Guest cast includes Warren Brown, Matthew McNulty, Molly Harris, and Joana Borja.  I liked Borja’s role of Gabriela as the sassy and intrepid travel blogger who first meets Ryan and gets pulled into the adventure.  I wouldn’t mind seeing her again.

As mentioned before, the episode started off on an intriguing note, however it ended up being merely an average addition to this current series.  I didn’t actually hate this one, but it just failed to make a lasting impression.  I already throw my trash away though.

Collateral Damage is the latest addition from David Mack to the range of Star Trek: The Next Generation novels.

There are a couple of threads going on here that delve into the notion of unintended consequences and responsibility.  First of all, Captain Jean-Luc Picard returns to Earth to answer for his part for the murder of a deposed Federation President.  The covert section of the Federation known as Section 31 has been dismantled, but the secrets are coming out.  The captain, of course, was not privy to the murder, but he was included in the plan to remove the previous crooked leader.  He encounters an old adversary and meets a new ally in the form of a formidable attorney.

Commander Worf, meanwhile is in the big chair on the USS Enterprise as he tracks a group of pirates in possession of a horrific weapon.  The pirates though may have a legitimate ax to grind.

There is also return of another mischievous character seen only once in the television series.  I won’t spoil that one for any potential readers, but I had to double-check the episode to remind myself of this guy’s demeanor.

There are some jarring shifts in perspective throughout the novel.  I am not usually fond of shifting viewpoints, but Mack kind of makes it work here.

‘This novel concludes the fall out of the latest Borg invasion and the exposure of Section 31 to the general public, and it wraps up these stories pretty effectively.

Now, I am not sure if the current course in these novels is going to continue after more episodes from Star Trek: Picard are aired on CBS: All Access, but I hope so.

I ended up enjoying this entry quite a bit.  It was intriguing to see Picard face a serious enough situation which could tarnish his reputation if not have him imprisoned.

Next up, I will be delving into something I am not sure how to describe in the next literary venture.  It seems to be a series of collected thoughts and vignettes for The Book of Disquiet by Francisco Pessoa.

The Gentlemen is an action comedy written and directed by Guy Ritchie.  The story idea is conceived by Ritchie alongside Ivan Atkinson and Marn Davies. The formidable cast includes Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, Henry Golding, Hugh Grant, and Colin Farrell.  Eddie Marsan and Michelle Dockery also get to join in the mayhem.

There’s a lot going on in this film. It’s also one of those that doesn’t unfold in the most linear of paths,  McConaughey plays a marijuana baron living in England who has quite an impressive empire under his thumb.  The film starts off with a story told by a private investigator played by Hugh Grant to Charlie Hunnam’s lead henchman Raymond.  Mickey Pearson is the clever marijuana distributor who is looking to sell off his venture to retire with this tough, beautiful wife, played by Michelle Dockery.  There is a string of double-crosses and mishaps standing in his way.

This actually turned out to be pretty clever piece with all kinds of colorful characters.  I was impressed with the range demonstrated by Grant.  I generally like Hugh Grant, but I often find him to limited to a couple of basic characters.  He was actually quite convincingly sleazy in this one.

Most of the dialogue was pretty snappy and engaging.  There were some interesting twists that were sometimes hard to predict.  The cast was very effective pretty all the way around.

Keeping track of who was betraying whom was a little bit of a challenge at times, but it does come together pretty neatly when it is all said and done.  It does get a little raunchier than necessary at times, so it isn’t for the most delicate of audiences.

There are elements of the film such as the the liberal spewing of some pretty foul language and some implausibility in the plot, however there is some originality in the characters and how the events unfold.

Ritchie could have made a few different choices for a broader appeal, but it is still one of the better offerings from Hollywood in the past few weeks.

Intruder in the Dust is a drama film released in 1949 and was directed and produced by Clarence Brown.  Ben Maddow is the writer who adapted it to the screen from a William Faulkner novel.  The cast includes David Brian, Claude Jarman Jr., Juano Hernandez, and Elizabeth Patterson.

It’s not exactly a new story idea.  A black man stands accused of a murder he didn’t commit in a small Southern town.  A white kid who befriended him enlists his uncle, the town attorney, to help find the truth.  What is somewhat different is that the accused black man, played by Hernandez, is actually someone of some means.  He has property and a modest fortune.  Juano Hernandez does have a commanding presence in this film.

This is a pretty interesting movie, even if it has had a few iterations over the years.  It’s an interesting to see that a few white residents do actually come to his aid.  In one scene, the spinster played by Elizabeth Patterson faces down a mob that shows up at the jail to exact their version of justice.

The sets were quite impressive.  For a film of that time, it appeared that some money was spent on the production designs.  The town looked convincing.  The performances were pretty solid throughout.

The relationships had some depth among various characters.  Sometimes, films of this sort often make the racist characters seem rather campy and over the top.  This one makes it a bit more believable in this setting.

The movie sounds like a story that has been overdone, and it has.  However, this one was well made.  Most of the main characters were interesting.  It delved into the matter of racism with a more subtle and layered portrayal than other films of this sort.

The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is a 1953 science fiction film from Warner Brothers Studios.  It was directed by Eugene Lourie and was co-written by him and remarkably three other people.  Fred Freiberger, Louis Morheim, and Robert Smith all share the blame here.  It is interesting to note that the script is based on some short story by Ray Bradbury.  The film stars Paul Christian, Paula Raymond, and Cecil Kellaway.  It used the stop motion animation techniques that were popular during the era of film making.

It’s kind of a silly diversion.  It’s one of the early monster movies where some creature is roused by atomic blasts and starts to rampage across civilization.

The background and history of this genre of film is a bit more interesting than the actual story.  Although I suspect I would enjoy Bradbury’s original idea.  The performances didn’t really stand out. although I probably wasn’t all that captivated since I was not familiar with anyone in the cast.

It’s not that most memorable of cinematic efforts other than its place in the history of the genre.  I didn’t hate it, but I struggled to keep my attention on it.

Fugitive of the Judoon is the latest Doctor Who episode with Jodie Whittaker in the lead role and her faithful companions played by Bradley Walsh, Mandip Gill, and Tosin Cole.  Chris Chibnall and Vinay Patel write this script with Nida Manzoor in the director’s chair.  Guest stars include John Barrowman, Jo Martin, Neil Stuke, and Ritu Arya,

There are a lot of twists in this episodes that are unexpected.  I try to be mindful of spoilers, but there are aspects I want to discuss which will require the spilling of some beans.  This episode sort of intrigued and infuriated me at the same time.

I actually have decided that I sort of like the Judoon, the alien mercenary police force who resemble rhinos.  The Judoon were first introduced in the era of Russell T. Davies in an episode entitled Smith and Jones, which starred David Tennant as the Doctor.

The Judoon have arrived in the town of Gloucester looking for a mysterious fugitive.  The Doctor and her companions have arrived to stop the Judoon from traipsing through the town leaving a wake of casualties.  A couple seem to be at the center of this hunt.  The companions are whisked away to some other ship and meet none other than Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman.

The Doctor discovers that a woman named Ruth Clayton has a much deeper secret than she realizes.  Ruth is able to regain her memories and proper biological make-up. The big shock is when she claims to the Doctor which is backed up by Whittaker’s Doctor checking on this development herself.

The suggestion has been out there that Chibnall intended to have it suggested that there was a female Doctor or Doctors before the time of who what the fans know as the First Doctor, played by the late William Hartnell.  This is what he has done.  Jo Martin, who is a black British actress, is cast in this rather dubious role.

I have to ask, what is Chibnall’s problem here?  He may not be about wreck the established, canonical history of the character since the Doctor has no recollection of ever looking like Jo Martin.  Jo Martin’s Doctor is also not claiming recognition of Whittaker’s incarnation.  There may be an alternate universe explanation, but we didn’t get a resolution to this at this time.

I try not to be too vitriolic when it comes to criticizing this particular era of what is my favorite series, but some of these decisions are making the temptation to join some of my fellow skeptics in their more strident objections a little too great.

Captain Jack’s return sort of smacks of a desperate effort to lure back viewers.  The ratings have been sinking for some time, and Chibnall’s efforts to bring back elements common in the eras of Russell T. Davies and Steven Moffat do not seem to be helping.

There are some questions to be answered here, and I hope they will be resolved in such a way that does not trash the history that is already established.

I know this is merely a science fiction show, and writers can d whatever they want.  Doctor Who is certainly more durable in its format than other long-running shows. That is part of the genius of its development over the past fifty-six years.  Doctor Who does have some problems in its canon and continuity, so die hard fans already have to forgive a lot in its very long history.  I do think it would be asking too much to accept that Jo Martin is supposed to be some other secret incarnation who existed before the First Doctor we know and love.

A couple of things worked in this episode.  The Judoon looked fantastic.  Whittaker’s Doctor seems to be developing a bit of gravitas. She is not going to be a favorite of mine, however her astonishment and bafflement a some of these revelations seemed believable enough.  I guess we have not seen the last of Captain Jack.  Captain Jack turning up again is not something I really cared about.

Maybe Chibnall is just having some fun here.  Some would say that he has no real respect for the long time fans who grew up on this show and want to have some aspects preserved.  In the past couple of years, I have to wonder if the the more cynical voices are entirely wrong.

 

The Turning is a horror film directed by Floria Sigismondi.  It is written by Carey and Chad Hayes who adapted it from a ghost story written 1898 by Henry James.  Mackenzie Davis, Finn Wolfhard, Brooklynn Prince, and Joely Richardson are included in the cast.

Davis plays a former teacher who accepts a position as a live-in tutor and nanny for a couple of orphans in a large mansion.  She also has to contend with a rather and rigid housekeeper who is also a guardian of the rather strange and reclusive children.  Of course, there are secrets and strange manifestations to make the job more interesting.

My usual problem with horror films of this sort is often a breakdown when it comes to explanations and resolutions toward the end.  CGI and much improved visual effects in the film industry do make it likely that the scares will be fairly effective and raise some  goosebumps regardless of the quality of the script.  This film does have some of those effective moments of genuine spooks and scares.  The performances were reasonably good considering the many weaknesses in the actual plot and dialogue.

The design of the house and property where all of these ghostly shenanigans occurred was intriguing.

The story just didn’t seem all that well thought out.  There was this roommate that seemed rather unnecessary.  I wasn’t sure how some crazy mother played by Joely Richardson fit into all of this.  This film was just determined to make me work harder than I wanted to when it came piecing together background of these poltergeists and whatever evil events transpired before the heroine’s arrival.  Whatever may have started to impress me about this film was undercut by a weak resolution.

The Outsider is a recent novel from Stephen King first published in 2018.  King starts off with a very brutal murder which has taken place in Flint City, Oklahoma.  Detective Ralph Anderson has arrested a popular Little League coach in front of much of the populace after an eleven year old boy is found butchered horrifically.  The coach has an apparently solid alibi out of town, however reliable witnesses also place him in the vicinity and in the company of the young victim.  It seems that the suspect, Terry Maitland, was in two places at once, however that is impossible.  On the other hand, this is a Stephen King novel.

I may just be getting too used to Stephen King novels, but I was not exactly riveted by this one.  There were some interesting twists and turns, but I am getting to me one of those readers more impressed by King’s earlier works.  The setting is fictional, which isn’t a bad idea, but I can sense that King doesn’t really know Oklahoma all that well, which he kind of acknowledges in the afterword.  There is a character named Holly Gibney who shows up to lend a hand when the almost inevitable group of intrepid citizens gather to discover the truth and face an evil darker than they could ever imagine.  Holly was introduced alongside of retired detective Bill Hodges in the trilogy which began with Mr. Mercedes.  Her nervous, eccentric, and determined presence in this story was the most compelling facet to this story.

There’s no question that Stephen King is a talented storyteller, but there are better examples of that talent than this particular novel.  I didn’t dislike the novel though.  Die hard Stephen King fans will still find this one worth reading, but I am not sure it’s going to be considered one of his most treasured offerings.

As 2020 begins, my bottomless appetite for literary indulgence continues with a new Star Trek: The Next Generation entitled Collateral Damage by David Mack.