Tag: reviews

Doctor Who Audio Review: Death And Three Doctors

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Deathworld is a pretty decent Doctor Who audio drama from Big Finish Productions which would have starred William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, and Jon Pertwee if they were not deceased. Instead, we have Stephen Noonan, Michael Troughton, and Tim Treloar lending their formidable vocal talents to sound like the original actors. This episode has an interesting background. It was apparently a precursor to what became the television serial known as The Three Doctors. The original plot for Deathworld was proposed by Dave Martin and Bob Baker but was adapted for this audio format by John Dorney. David O’Mahoney serves as director and takes on some other minor roles within the episode.

Jon Culshaw returns to voice the role of Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, who was originally portrayed by the late Nicholas Courtney. Katy Manning reprises her role of Jo Grant with Frazer Hines returning to his part of Jamie McCrimmon. Ther rest of guest cast includes Joe Shire and Dianne Pilkington.

The story starts off with the President of the Time Lords having a not-so-friendly chess match with Death. It’s an unusual game that brings the first three incarnations of the Doctor into another reality ruled by Death and manifestations of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Jo Grant, Jamie, and the Brigadier are caught up in the abduction as well. The Doctors have to work together again and protect their friends from their most powerful adversary.

I ended up enjoying this one. I actually think I prefer this version over the television iteration.

For one thing, the First Doctor is much more engaged and is teamed up with the Brigadier for much of the story. The Brigadier knew the Doctor in his second incarnation and was present not long after his forced regeneration and subsequent exile to Earth.

The three actors voicing the first three Doctors continue to do well in their efforts to represent those characters. Culshaw, who is known as a talented impressionist, does well with representing the Brigadier.

Some of the scenes portrayed were a little hard to visualize in the mind’s eye, but it was an interesting story. Shire does a great job as Death, War, Pestilence, and Famine. Pilkington plays the Gallifreyan President. and is fine.

Overall, it was a little bit of a confusing story, but I was able to find some enjoyment. Of course, I have found much to enjoy when new stories crop up featuring the earlier Doctors.

Dorney doesn’t always hit it out of the park for me, but he is consistently interesting and manages to not deliver a complete clunker of a story.

Deathworld still had some unique moments such as seeing the First Doctor get more involved with the action, which was lacking in The Three Doctors. Also, it was fun to hear the banter between him and the Brigadier as they complained about their mutual tendency toward gruffness. Michael Troughton taking on the role originated by his father is understandable and poignant, but I still think the better impression is done by Frazer Hines. Treloar is still doing quite well as the Third Doctor.

Once again, the performances are solid enough to make any flaws in the story quite forgivable, and this episode doesn’t even come close to be deserving of being overlooked.

Doctor Who Audio Review: Time Lords And Vampires Still Don’t Mix

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Goth Opera is the latest Doctor Who audio drama adapted from a pretty good novel by Big Finish Productions. Lizbeth Myles is the scriptwriter who adapted this episode from the highly regarded novel written by Paul Cornell. David O’Mahoney serves as director as Peter Davison, Janet Davison, and Sarah Sutton reprise their usual roles as the Doctor, Tegan Jovanka, and Nyssa, respectively. Natalie Gumede, Micah Balfour, Ewan Goddard, and John Schwab are included in the guest cast.

The Doctor is indulging in a game of cricket while another Gallifreyan named Ruath is arranging for the vampires on Earth to encounter their messiah named Yarven. Ruath also has a bone to pick with the Doctor, and Yarven is well aware of the Doctor’s encounters with his species as well. Nyssa is attacked and bitten by a vampire, prompting the Doctor and Tegan to frantically save her from a full transformation. The Doctor finds himself the target of another vendetta for events that reach back to his academy days. Ruath also wants to create a hybrid comprised of Time Lord and Vampire DNA, and the Doctor will have quite a lot to say about that.

The plot is actually kind of interesting because Ruath’s motivations and her resentment of the Doctor’s decision to leave Gallifrey are a bit complicated. The nature of their past relationship is left a little murky, which I liked. The performances from the main cast members are as on par as a long-time listener of this series would expect. Davison still doesn’t sound like he did forty years ago, but it’s still great to listen to him. There is quite a bit of exasperated banter between him and Janet Fielding’s Tegan Jovanka that has yet to get old. Sutton has quite a sizeable part in the story and handles it more than capably.

The story was kind of interesting, but the original novel is a little overrated in my estimation. It took me a bit to warm up to Balfour’s performance as Yarven, but I got there. Schwab plays a Southern evangelist, and his accent is somewhat distracting because of the exaggeration of it.

I am curious of there is a plan for Big Finish to adapt the sequel novel Blood Harvest which would feature Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor. I think that would be a good, if somewhat predictable, decision for the company to make. I would listen to that one too.

I don’t usually comment on the music score on these things, but this release did have a rather distinctive composition which I rather enjoyed throughout the adventure.

The episode is an enjoyable addition to the range but necessarily a standout.

Film Review: There’s Something In The Woods…Or Not

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Never Let Go is a horror survival film that is pretty interesting for something with such a confined setting. The film is written by Kevin Coughlin and Ryan Grassby with Alexandre Aja serving as director. Halle Berry is in the lead role as a mother of two young twin boys living out in the woods in a somewhat delipidated house in fear of some nameless evil that could be just in her head. Her co-stars include Percy Daggs IV, Anthony B. Jenkins, and Stephanie Lavigne.

Halle Berry plays a mother who is uniquely paranoid enough and construct some kind of rope contraption to keep her and her children tethered to the house as they scour the woods for food. She has told them of some evil that led to the deaths of her parents and husband. She has concocted a number of strange rituals for her children. Then, one of the boys starts questioning the purpose of all of this and wonders if his beloved mother could be making a peculiar and dangerous mistake. There are horrific zombie-like figures in the woods which could be the mother’s hallucinations. The world that she has created for her and her sons is starting to unravel, and it’s not immediately clear if it’s because she is going even more insane or there is something truly evil lurking in the trees.

This film actually has some real suspenseful moments. Berry is a pretty good actress and delivers a pretty compelling performance here. The two young actors, Daggs and Jenkins, held their own alongside the Oscar-winning beauty. There were a few moments that were suitably creepy.

There seemed to be a few loose threads left that nagged a little, but the film was engaging enough for me to just go with it. The history of this family was not all that clear, but that could have been intentional. Hopefully, there is not going to be a sequel. The film is solid enough for me to live with any lingering mystery in the story.

Film Review: Matt Walsh Does The Work

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Am I Racist? is an effectively satirical documentary starring Matt Walsh as he goes on a journey to see if the DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) teachers have a point. The film is produced by The Daily Wire and directed by Justin Folk. Walsh and Folk writing credit with Brian Hoffman and Dallas Sonnier.

Walsh is a popular conservative commentator who had some success with a previous documentary entitled What is a Woman? which dealt with the topic of transgenderism.

After being ousted from a support group that discussed “white guilt”, Walsh dons a hilariously flimsy disguise and becomes certified to teach DEI himself. He encounters some rather notorious figures on this topic such as Kate Slater and Robin DiAngelo as he attempts to implement what he is learning during various sessions and interviews. He also interviews regular people of various races to get their reactions to these ideas.

One of Walsh’s gifts is his deadpan stoicism as he subjects himself to some of most absurd group situations and tries to relay these ideas to others. The interview with DiAngelo is awkward and hysterically funny as reported.

The film is careful enough to attack an ideology and not necessarily a race of people. Another fascinating interview is with Wilfred Reilly, author of Hate Crime Hoax. Walsh and Reilly would likely be in more agreement if Walsh still wasn’t in character as a DEI guy.

There are a couple of scenes that sort of fell flat for me. The film’s effort to ridicule the Jussie Smollett hoax could have been handled differently. I don’t disagree with mocking Smollett at every opportunity, but the method employed in this film could have taken a bit more consideration.

There are some scenes that seem to go on a little too long, but that was likely to help drive home the point the film was really trying to make.

Most of the major production decisions made in this film work rather well. There were a couple of moments where Walsh actually did some acting that would be convincing if one didn’t know the premise.

This film is not without a few flaws, but it is entertaining and educational.

Doctor Who Audio Review: The Doctor Goes The Distance

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

All of Time and Space is a pretty compelling trilogy of Doctor Who audio plays that features the Eleventh Doctor. Big Finish Productions has successfully found an actor who can imitate Matt Smith’s distinctive voice and have embarked on a new series of adventures with a new companion. Jacob Dudman continues to portray this version of the Doctor as if Matt Smith was behind the mic. Safiyya Ingar has recently boarded the TARDIS as Valarie Lockwood, a human with some cybernetic enhancements. Nicholas Briggs has returned to the director’s seat.

The first episode of the set is All of Time and Space in which the writer is billed as Ellery Quest. Apparently, Tim Foley is the true author since Ellery Quest is actually featured in the story as a writer pitching a show idea about a mysterious traveler in time and space. However, he finds that the agent he is pitching the idea to has an extraterrestrial history as well. The Doctor and Valarie are trapped in a dimension, and the stories may be their only way to escape.

This is one of those surreal stories that blur the fourth wall a little. It’s confusing and amusing at the same time, but that sort of sums up the whole series.

The Yearn is written by Angus Dunican and has the Doctor meet a group of colonists trapped underground and being hunted by a peculiar entity. People are taken by the Yearn and then reappear. Something appears to be interfering with the Yearn’s efforts to feed, and it may resemble a blue police box.

This second story had a pretty compelling climax. There was a great guest cast. The sudden romance seemed to blossom between Valarie and Mia Tomlinson’s character was a little improbable but handled better than similar moments in the series. Ingar is actually a pretty interesting actor, and Valarie is kind of growing on me.

Finally, James Goss brings this set to a close with Curiosity Shop. Valarie has lost the Doctor and is able to see the TARDIS, which is in the possession of a junkyard proprietor named Mr. Foreman. An alien war is about to break out, and the Doctor has forgotten who he is and what he does.

This actually was a great close. Valarie is losing pieces of herself literally as she hopes that the Doctor remembers her and returns to put things right. There are some great performances, and Dudman’s vocal talents are put to the test. Goss also finds a way to sort honor the legacy of the series as well.

Overall, this set takes the series in some interesting directions. The banter between the Doctor and Valarie is quite compelling. Dudman’s impersonation of Matt Smith seems to improve.

I think the final story is my favorite, but all of the set comes out quite well. I look forward to this particular TARDIS crew continuing their travels.

Book Review: There Is No Getting Away From Murder For Jessica Niemi

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Ghost island is a pretty decent Nordic Noir thriller written by Max Seeck that takes place in Finland. He has returned to the investigations of Detective Jessica Niemi of the Helsinki Police Department.

Jessica has gotten in some trouble when an altercation with a man goes viral. She has some mental health issues anyway. Although she is a very capable investigator, her boss has some concerns and places her on leave. Jessica takes some time off on a remote island. Three elderly friends have shown up for their annual visit. They were one-time residents of an orphanage on the island during the Second Word War. Jessica also learns of a local legend concerning a haunting by a girl who had disappeared from the orphanage decades ago. Jessica is also drawn into the mystique of the island when one of the visitors is drowned at the beach. Jessica then learns of two previous deaths that had some similar elements. She also sees what appears to be the spirit of the long-missing girl with a blue coat. Her grip on reality is somewhat tenuous, but she does know that a killer has found their way onto the island and has to find the connection between her present danger and what happened many decades before.

The setting of an isolated island with a small group of people who has a killer in their midst is well used, but Seeck is talented enough to make it work. Jessica Neimi, the lead protagonist, is pretty interesting. This is apparently the fourth installment in a series. Neimi was introduced in the Seeck’s novel, The Witch Hunter and apparently is repeatedly traumatized over the course of the series so far.

There isn’t much humor to help lighten the mood here, but I guess that’s the way it goes for these Nordic mysteries. Seeck does provide a bit of a roller coaster on the way to the resolution. He’s not a remarkable writer, but he is competent enough. Jessica is one of many very morose and troubled detectives in crime fiction. There is nothing all that extraordinary about her in spite of her apparent mental illness, but she is not without some interesting features.

The novel is pretty good with a unique setting in that it takes place in Finland. Seeck does throw pretty good curveballs at his heroine. Murder on an isolated island is something that always piques my interest even if it is a somewhat well-worn trope. I would still recommend any fellow mystery fan to give this one a try. I ended up liking the novel even if it wasn’t quite a homerun.

The literary journey continues as I decide to accept the invitation from Darcy Coates to visit the House of Shadows.

Doctor Who Audio Review: A Raven, Kippers, And Old Friends

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Michael Troughton returns to the mic at Big Finish Productions to honor his late father’s Doctor Who legacy in Doctor Who: The Second Doctor Adventures: Conspiracy of Raven. He is joined by Wendy Padbury and Frazer Hines, reprising their roles of Zoe and Jamie, respectively. Nicholas Briggs and Mark Wright have collaborated on the three interlinked episodes with Briggs also serving as director.

This series continues on from the saga started in the set entitled Beyond the War Games. Just before his forced regeneration and exile to Earth, the Second Doctor was reunited with Jamie McCrimmon and sent on a series of missions throughout time and space at the direction of a mysterious Time Lady known as Raven. Jamie has been whisked away out of the TARDIS in this chapter, and Zoe Herriot appears to provide valuable assistance to help locate him. Raven has become an unlikely and untrustworthy ally, but she is not in control as much as she initially appeared.

Nicholas Briggs introduces this particular conspiracy with his story Kippers. Emma Noakes returns as the enigmatic Raven. The Doctor and Raven find themselves aboard an abandoned space station, and Jame has disappeared. An alien menace known as Kippers has killed the crew, and the two Time Lords are in their sights. The Doctor finds that Raven may not be working for who she believes. He has to keep them alive and start a search through time and space for his lost friend.

The inclusion of Emma Noakes is actually a pretty good move. Troughton does a decent job of emulating his late father, Patrick Troughton. I still think Hines’ impression was a lot closer, but it seems fitting to have Michael Troughton give his take. He does sound close enough like his dad to not be distracting. Anyway, Briggs provides another intriguing script. The sound effects come off quite well. Overall, a great launch for this particular collection.

Catastrophe Theory is written by Mark Wright. Padbury’s Zoe Herriot has appeared in the TARDIS. Raven has been left behind on the space station, but she is not out of the picture just yet. The Doctor and Zoe trace Jamie a space cruiser on the course to disaster. A savage alien attack is about to commence, and the Doctor is surrounded by catastrophe with time running out on more than one front.

This also is a solid continuation of the journey. There is nothing remarkable about this one, but it’s not bad and serves the purpose of pushing the Doctor and his friends forward into the machinations of a mysterious presence. A few more answers are revealed, and the mystery of who is making alterations to established history and manipulating the Doctor into more dangers continues to build.

Wright and Briggs share writing credit for the concluding episode entitled The Vanishing Point. The Vanishing Point is a mythical place that resides somewhere between science and magic. The Doctor and his friends have arrived to see if questions can be answered and to hopefully confront the threat to all of time and space.

It’s a pretty good set overall. I am a little dubious about this business of shoehorning these series of episodes set between the final television Second Doctor serial and the introduction of the third incarnation. Raven has now become a pretty intriguing addition to the cast. Noakes seems to be pretty inspired casting. The banter between her and the Doctor is quite amusing and compelling. Another notable guest cast member is Jacqueline King, who is best known as Sylvia Noble in the rebooted television series. She plays a different character and does a great job.

Tom Baker is my favorite Doctor, but Patrick Troughton’s performance ranks high up there in my estimation. Michael Troughton speaks about adding some bits of himself in his efforts to honor his father, and he does seem to be getting better as he does more of these episodes. I just like new Second Doctor stories, and I get the emotional significance of adding having Michael to the casting sheet. Even if I think Frazer Hines nails the Patrick Troughton vibe somewhat better, Michael Troughton is still more than capable of satisfying the fans of his father’s era on the program.

Book Review: Negotiations Go Awry Over Bajor

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Pliable Truths is the latest title written by Dayton Ward and is a mediocre addition to the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel range.

Ward takes the reader back to the era of the television series just after Captain Jean-Luc Picard endured captivity and torture at the hands of the Cardassians. Also, the Cardassians subsequently withdraw from their occupation of the planet Bajor. Captain Picard is tasked with overseeing the negotiations between the Cardassians and the Bajorans aboard the space station known as Terok Nor. Of course, Terok Nor is on the verge of being redesignated Deep Space Nine. Picard’s mission is complicated by a bombing and assassination. Also, the Cardassian responsible for his recent torture has arrived, which causes some understandable disconcertion. Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise have several challenges to meet and a few mysteries to solve.

Dayton Ward has written several Star Trek novels for many years, and he is usually reliable. The problem here is that fans have already been through this era of the canon. We know what happens with Bajor after the Cardassians pulled out. There is no real suspense to be had. There were some interesting moments between characters. The reader gets to revisit the earlier days of Odo, Quark, Kira, and Garak just before Commander Benjamin Sisko arrives as the Starfleet representative. Garak’s scenes were kind of fun. He is, of course, the Cardassian tailor with a mysterious past and is much more dangerous than he first appears.

Ward isn’t a bad writer, but I just wasn’t interested in revisiting this portion of the canon. It also seems to take forever before the bombs started detonating, and characters started getting taken off the board.

Hopefully, the next novel in this series takes us into some uncharted territory.

Next up, I will see what author Max Seeck has waiting for me on Ghost Island.

Film Review: The Battle Of The Generations Rage On

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Old Dads is an unsurprisingly raunchy comedy film directed by Bill Burr; however, it is not as funny as his stand-up routine. Burr co-wrote the script with Ben Tishler, who was apparently not much help. Bobby Cannavale and Bokeem Woodbine co-star as his two best friends and business partners.

The premise here is that these three buddies are older that most typical fathers and their struggles to understand the younger generation, which includes their wives and significant others. The three friends had sold their company but were able to remain on as employees with a Gen Z supervisor who doesn’t respect their supposed wisdom or something. Burr’s character has gotten sideways with a progressive daycare principal. He has an erratic temper, which is what Burr relies on for his stand-up routine. All three of these guys have some friction in their relationships. Basically, they have to save their relationships, get their jobs back, and learn how to play nice with others.

There was no one I could bring myself to actually like or root for. I like Burr’s comedy generally, but somehow it didn’t translate all that well for this film. The profanity was a bit much, and I can tolerate a lot. There were times that I could almost sympathize with Burr’s character, Jack, such as when he called out his wife for not standing by him all that much. Just because he has a temper didn’t mean that he was always wrong.

I think there is a goldmine here with the idea of some of these older fathers with young children, but Burr didn’t seem to tap into it very effectively.

I didn’t have very high expectations for this one, but this still turned out to be surprisingly disappointing.

Doctor Who Audio Review: The Doctor Meets Some Kindred Spirits

~ Peter Kanelis ~ Leave a comment

Christopher Eccleston makes another solid return to the microphones of Big Finish Productions as the Ninth Doctor in another set of Doctor Who audio dramas entitled Pioneers. Helen Goldwyn directs this trio of adventures. The guest cast includes Louise Jameson, who is better known as Leela in the series, however she is playing a new character here. Adam Martyn, Harki Bhambra, Ian Conningham, and Andrew James Spooner are some of the other performers lending their vocal talents.

The trilogy of stories begins with Roy Gill’s The Green Gift. The Doctor is accompanied by a bling young man and his talking dog, who were introduced in the previous collection entitled Shades of Fear. Louise Jameson appears as the apparent leader of a colony spacecraft known as the Greenwood. Earth has been all but destroyed, and humanity needs a new home. There is an artificial intelligence aboard which the Doctor may have encountered before.

It is pretty cool when other well-known Doctor Who actors appear as new characters. Jamison is best known as playing the Fourth Doctor’s companion, Leela, but she gets to stretch her range a bit here with Big Finish, and I think it’s a great idea. I can work through the distraction of recognizing her as Leela without much problem. The story is interesting and sort of revisits a very distinctive episode from the classic series. There are some engaging character moments when the Doctor is getting some explanations for the setting. that did quite well with building the intrigue until the revelations of the threat was revealed. Eccleston is unsurprisingly compelling during these more thoughtful scenes. The two new companions of Callen and Doyle, who really aren’t long-term mainstays in the TARDIS, are kind of fun. The dog, played by Harki Bhambra, is able to talk with some fancy, futuristic AI assistance. Anyway, the story is a pretty solid beginning to this particular set.

Next up, Robert Valentine takes the audience to a bit of Norwegian history with his story entitled Northern Lights. The Doctor crashes in the Arctic Circle toward the end of the nineteenth century and encounters Norwegian explorers, Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen. There is another presence within the famous Aurora Borealis, and the Doctor discovers that his current location may not be as isolated as it appears.

This story had a few fairly heartwarming moments that were unexpected. I have not heard of these particular explorers before this audio. Doctor Who does have a way of introducing historical figures and events that are not widely known or appreciated. The science fiction element is nice, but it’s pretty cool that Valentine did some research and brought forth some important historical figures that are not known as well as they probably deserve. Valentine has yet to put out a bad script, and this one is quite good. I think I appreciated the historical background that was rather new to me, but the overall drama was pretty good too.

Finally, Katherine Armitage takes the TARDIS to the early days of a football league formed in the United Kingdom with her script entitled The Beautiful Game. An American would recognize this as soccer. Another rather important historical sports figure in the shape of William Sudell, played by Raymond Coulthard, is brought forth. The Doctor attends to attend the meeting which formed the league, but he arrives a week early and finds himself witnessing another important meeting instead which involves the women’s suffrage movement in the late nineteenth century instead. Since it’s Doctor Who, there is an alien presence lurking around that feeds off others’ obsessions and is able to change size in seconds.

The alien threat is hard to really visualize through an audio play. However, there are some great moments between the characters. Once again, I am exposed to some influential figures from the past that I would not have otherwise known if not for a script. The cast does a great job, as is normal for a Big Finish drama. This episode is not bad, but it didn’t quite impress as the first two. It does have an interesting, little-known setting so that helps.

Overall, Eccleston himself makes the set worthwhile. The episodes are solid contributions, but they don’t really stand out other than some interesting touches on little discussed historical events. It’s still something I would recommend for the fans to collect because Eccleston is still worth the effort, and the stories have plenty of points of interest, and the history aficionados will get a pretty good kick.