Tag Archives: Doctor Who

Broadchurch, Episode Two, Television Review. I.T.V.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: David Tennant, Olivia Coleman, Andrew Buchan, Jodie Whittaker, Tracy Childs, Will Mellor, Arthur Darvill, David Bradley, Jonathon Bailey, Vicky McClure, Charlotte Beaumont, Joe Simms, Carolyn Pickles, Pauline Quirke.

With the premise having been set in episode one, the attention of the police and in particular D.I. Hardy, start to focus their attentions on the people of Broadchurch, especially those it seems with secrets, many long held, secrets that may fragment the community they live in.

Broadchurch, Episode Two, Television Review. I.T.V. full post

(512 words, estimated 2:03 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Spaceport Fear. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 170.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Bonnie Langford, Ronald Pickup, Isabel Fay, Gwilym Lee, Beth Chalmers, Adrian MacKinder, John Banks, Barnaby Edwards.

The close confinement and stark corridors are the magical ingredients that gleam through some of the best Doctor Who stories in its 50 years thrilling and scaring viewers and listeners alike. Add in a monster that’s unseen for the best part of the tale, mix in the unfamiliar sound of the alien chasing down the human population and a charismatic leader hell bent on trying to keep two sets people apart with him controlling them and you have the makings of a tantalising story by William Gallager called Spaceport Fear.

Doctor Who, Spaceport Fear. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 170. full post

(522 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Sands Of Life. Big Finish Audio Play 2.02.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, John Leeson, Hayley Atwell, David Warner, Toby Hadoke, Jane Slavin, Duncan Wisbey, Nicholas Briggs, Beth Chalmers, John Dorney.

The Earth is in peril once more and The Doctor and Romana are again caught up between aliens and humanity in what could be the end of all sentient life on the planet. However, the aliens are doing what they need to do to survive, there is a bigger villain at large and it seems they control everything, except for time.

Doctor Who, The Sands Of Life. Big Finish Audio Play 2.02. full post

(531 words, estimated 2:07 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, Dark Eyes. Big Finish Audio. Audio Release Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Paul McGann, Ruth Bradley, Peter Egan, Toby Jones, Tim Treloar, Laura Molyneaux, Natalie Burt, Ian Cullen, Jonathan Forbes, Alex Mallinson, Beth Chalmers, John Banks, Nicholas Briggs.

The eighth incarnation of the Doctor is grieving, perhaps hurting more than he has ever done, or depending on what the makers of the television programme do over the next few months to celebrate the upcoming 50th anniversary, perhaps ever will. Paul McGann’s Doctor has stepped out the canon once more as the makers of the Doctor Who audios, Big Finish, give him another stand-alone series of four one hour productions entitled Dark Eyes.

Doctor Who, Dark Eyes. Big Finish Audio. Audio Release Review. full post

(612 words, estimated 2:27 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Wrong Doctors. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 169

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Bonnie Langford, Tony Gardner, James Joyce, Patricia Leventon, Beth Chalmers, John Banks.

Although The Trail of a Timelord, shown on the B.B.C. in 1986 introduced the future companion Melanie Bush, portrayed by Bonnie Langford, to Colin Baker’s incarnation of the Doctor, there really has never been any reconciliation to answer how they first met. For viewers of the new series, which now strides confidently towards its 50th anniversary, it would be like trying to explain how Rose ended up travelling on the Tardis without ever showing the moment she stepped on board. It is a tricky and puzzling conundrum that has never been revealed…until now and the long sighted people at Big Finish and the new audiobook release of The Wrong Doctors.

Doctor Who, The Wrong Doctors. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 169 full post

(521 words, estimated 2:05 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Auntie Matter. Big Finish Audio Play. 2.01.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Tom Baker, Mary Tamm, Julia McKenzie, Robert Portal, Lucy Griffiths, Alan Cox, Jane Slavin.

 

Even if it just for a collection of stories, the fact that the listeners of the Big Finish Doctor Who range get to hear the one of the most celebrated companions reprise her role again, a role that she played with a sense of elegance that really has never been matched in all the years following her departure, then the second series of Tom Baker’s tales and the appearance of Mary Tamm as Romana is something to be celebrated and enjoyed. However it is an enjoyment that is tempered by the knowledge that Mart Tamm sadly passed on in the last year.

Doctor Who, The Auntie Matter. Big Finish Audio Play. 2.01. full post

(524 words, estimated 2:06 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, 1001 Nights. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 168.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Alexander Siddig, Nadim Sawalha, Malcolm Tierney, Teddy Kemper, Kim Ismay, Debbie Leigh-Simmons, Christopher Luscombe, Oliver Coopersmith.

1001 nights, a little under three years, and in the realm of Doctor Who, a wonderful twist on an old story and the basis of may tales. The thing is with the Doctor, no matter the incarnation, there are a lot of tales to tell about the wandering detective, the man who makes things better. So many stories that can be woven into the fabric of the Big Finish stories that sometimes one writer is not enough, nor it seems is one tale per C.D. release.

Doctor Who, 1001 Nights. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 168. full post

(510 words, 1 image, estimated 2:02 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Shadow Heart. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 167.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * *

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, James Wilby, Kirsty Besterman, Chase Masterton, Eve Karpf, Alex Mallinson, John Banks, Jaimi Barbakoff.

“God, I live a complicated life.” muses the seventh Doctor as the effect of time travel and his position within a story that has criss-crossed a hundred years and three of the classic doctors comes under the scrutiny of a 100 year vengance . The Shadow Heart sees the culmination of a story that started in The Burning Prince with Peter Davison, continued with the superb The Acheron Pulse with Colin Baker and now sees the weirdest but ultimately intriguing part with Sylvester McCoy.

Doctor Who, The Shadow Heart. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish 167. full post

(599 words, 1 image, estimated 2:24 mins reading time)

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Igor Memic.

Igor Memic. Photograph by Ian D. Hall.

For anyone who was fortunate enough to catch Igor Memic’s production of Happy at the Lantern Theatre this year, not only was it a first rate play designed to make audiences think but it was one of the finest moments in surreal escapism that crowd would have been privy to see during 2012.

Igor Memic is an enigma, driven and destined it seems to go on and make the theatre a place where his name will be seen for many years. Igor was born in Mostar, Bosnia to a Bosnian mother and Croatian father. It is this exotic mix, combined with a love of London and Liverpool that makes him an impressive figure to talk to.

Liverpool Sound And Vision: The Saturday Supplement, An Interview With Igor Memic. full post

(2012 words, 1 image, estimated 8:03 mins reading time)