Tag Archives: Dan Starkey

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Ashes Of Roses. Audio Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Anthony Howell, Julian Wadham, Lucy Briggs-Owen, Terry Malloy, Rachel Atkins, Emily Woodward, Nicholas Briggs, Derek Carlyle, Anna Lukis, Penelope Rawlins, Richard Hope, Dan Starkey, Cameron Stewart, Francesca Hunt, Martin Hudson.

 

Who could ever foresee that hairdressing was such a risky business?  The shampoo set that could go wrong, the gossip that turns to grudges being held, the heated dryer rigged to give a nasty surprise, arson! All these are par for the course as John Steed and Dr. David Keel return for the second set of classic The Avengers stories to be adapted by John Dorney and Big Finish starting with the tale, Ashes Of Roses.

The Avengers: The Lost Episodes Volume 2. Ashes Of Roses. Audio Review. Big Finish. full post

(620 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Deep Breath. Television Review, B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Neve McIntosh, Dan Starkey, Catrin Stewart, Peter Ferdinando, Paul Hickey, Tony Way, Maggie Service, Mark Kempner, Brian Miller, Graham Duff, Ellis George, Peter Hannah, Paul Kasey.

The Doctor is in, he just might not see you just yet.

The thirteenth man to take on the titular role of the long lasting and very popular series of Doctor Who might take some getting used to for some. After nearly a decade of having arguably a more youthful outlook but for many, surely the more than capable, erudite and wonderfully strange Peter Capaldi is a return to what bought success for the programme in its 1970s heyday.

Doctor Who: Deep Breath. Television Review, B.B.C. full post

(661 words, estimated 2:39 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Starlight Robbery, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 176.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Christian Edwards, Stuart Milligan, Dan Starkey, Jo Woodcock, Lizzie Roper.

There are just so many excellent elements to Starlight Robbery that it is surely impossible to dislike. Aside from the sublime writing of Matt Fitton, who makes a welcome return after a few months away, you have the erstwhile Elizabeth Klein, portrayed as usual with great assurance and ease by Tracey Childs, the sublime Stuart Milligan reprising his role as Garundel and the inclusion of the great Dan Starkey playing every Sontaran under the sun, what more could you ever want in an audio C.D.?

Doctor Who: Starlight Robbery, Audio Drama Review, Big Finish 176. full post

(635 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Name Of The Doctor. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, John Hurt, Alex Kingston, Richard E. Grant, Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart, Dan Starkey, Eve de Leon, Kassius Carey Johnson, Nasi Voustsas, David Avery, Michael Jenn, Rab Affleck, Samuel Irvine, Sophie Downham, Paul Kasey.

 

Doctor Who, The Name Of The Doctor. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(556 words, estimated 2:13 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Crimson Horror. Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Dame Diana Rigg, Rachael Stirling, Neve McIntosh, Cartrin Stewart, Dan Starkey, Eve de Leon Allen, Kassius Carey Johnson, Brendan Patricks, Graham Turner, Olivia Vinall, Michelle Tate, Scott Stevenson, Jack Oliver Hudson.

The Crimson Horror, the type of tale that would make readers of Victorian melodrama and penny dreadful salivates with the expectation of a reader enjoying Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde for the first time, transpose this expectation to the type of Doctor Who-lite story, add a splash of immense acting royalty from Dame Diana Rigg and her superb daughter, the incredible Rachael Stirling and it becomes not just Doctor-lite but extra-lite, no additives, no fat, just a wonderful story that was edging on the macabre  that writer Mark Gatiss obviously enjoys.

Doctor Who, The Crimson Horror. Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(549 words, estimated 2:12 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Snowmen. B.B.C. Television. Christmas 2012. Television Review.

Picture courtesy of B.B.C. Television.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Matt Smith, Jenna-Louise Coleman, Richard E. Grant, Dan Starkey, Neve McIntosh, Catrin Stewart, Tom Ward, Liz White, Sir Ian McKellen, Juliet Cadzow, Joseph Dacey-Alden, Ellie Darcey-Alden, Annabelle Dowler.

What do you do when the girl you meet twice keeps dying? It’s enough to make a good man come out of retirement and regain that boyish inquisitiveness once more.

Doctor Who, The Snowmen. B.B.C. Television. Christmas 2012. Television Review. full post

(464 words, 1 image, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Wirrn Isle. Big Finish 158 Review.

Originally published by L.S. Media. March 28th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Colin Baker, Lisa Greenwood, Tim Bentinck, Jenny Funnell, Tessa Nicholson, Rikki Lawton, Dan Starkey, Helen Goldwyn, Glynn Sweet.

There must be something about the Wirrn that can give dedicated listeners of Doctor Who delicious and nerve wracking nightmares. Add in the almost lonely, desolate feel that you get in William Gallagher’s script for Wirrn Isle and the creeping music that overlays the action and the play becomes a near pinnacle of Colin Baker’s time as the Doctor.

Doctor Who, Wirrn Isle. Big Finish 158 Review. full post

(587 words, 1 image, estimated 2:21 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Energy Of The Daleks. Big Finish Audio Play 1.04.

Originally published by L.S. Media. April 22nd 2012

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Alex Lowe, Mark Benton, Caroline Keiff, Dan Starkey, John Dorney, Nicholas Briggs.

Tom Baker’s incarnation and time as the fourth Doctor was never better than when he faced off against the scourge of Skaro, The Daleks. In Nicholas Briggs’ latest story for Big Finish, Energy Of The Daleks, Tom Baker is once more pitted against one of his greatest enemies and even though it was the first story that was recorded for the return of Tom Baker, there is much to admire in the delivery and the script.

Doctor Who, Energy Of The Daleks. Big Finish Audio Play 1.04. full post

(446 words, 1 image, estimated 1:47 mins reading time)

Doctor Who,The Oseidon Adventure, Big Finish Audio Play 1.06.

Originally published by L.S. Media. July 8th 2012.

L.S. Media Rating ****

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, Geoffrey Beevers, Michael Cochrane, Dan Starkey, John Banks.

Just who do you trust when you cannot even tell your enemies from those that look and act like your deadliest foes!

The second part of Alan Barnes’ story involving the Doctor’s adversary and fellow Time lord, The Master has one of those wonderful plays on words that ingratiates you into the story long before the end credits. Titled The Oseidon Adventure, (think of the 1970’s disaster film The Poseidon Adventure) the action follows on The Trail of the White Worm and the pace, the tempo and overall enjoyment of the writing picks up a notch from the semi lacklustre affair of the previous episode.

Doctor Who,The Oseidon Adventure, Big Finish Audio Play 1.06. full post

(503 words, 1 image, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)