Lilian Baron, known professionally as Lynda Baron, best known for having played Auntie Mabel in the award-winning children’s series Come Outside (1993–1997), Nurse Gladys Emmanuel in the BBC comedy series Open All Hours (1976–1985) and its sequel, Still Open All Hours (2013–2016) has died at the age of 82.
Chucky Season 1 comes to Blu-ray in the UK in a special “Good Guys Edition” which includes a lenticular slipcase, art cards, and a 32-page booklet. The special features on the disc however are the same as the US release, including Deleted Scenes and a “Legacy of Chucky” featurette.
“Futurama” voice actor John DiMaggio has officially signed on to the Hulu revival of the beloved animated sci-fi comedy series, bringing the long and bitter saga known as #Bendergate to a close.
British actor Stewart Bevan, best known for his performances in both film and television has died aged 73.
His extensive career include the films Brannigan (1975), The Ghoul (1975), House of Mortal Sin (1976), Ivanhoe (1982), Chromophobia (2005) and The Scouting Book for Boys (2009) while on television, he is best known for playing Clifford Jones in Doctor Who (1973) and Ray Oswell in Emmerdale (1977).
Review by Ian McArdell
Survivors: New Dawn sees three further adventures for Abby Grant and Jenny Richards. Some twenty years on from the initial outbreak of ‘The Death’, this sequel series has caught us up with the two remaining central characters from the show.
Review by Jacob Licklider
This has been a review that I’ve let percolate in my mind for a few days. The first season of The Ninth Doctor Adventures has come to a close in a perfect parallel to Series 1 and building from genuinely humble beginnings. It is also quite difficult to discuss as it’s serving as a prequel to Series 1, ending with Old Friends implying a lead into Rose. This along with Lost Warriors, and to a lesser extent Respond to All Calls, have been an examination of the Ninth Doctor’s trauma along with other characters he meets on his lonely travels. Old Friends is a contemplative box set with two stories, a single hour long episode and one two episode serial, both parallels to Boom Town and Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways. This has been a long time coming and is honestly an odd box set to review, because it’s a box set that almost blind sided me with what it was doing and how things ended up the way they were. The covers of the sets have been mimicking the four individual releases of Series 1, from blue to red to green to purple for the finale. This ended up being an interesting example of priming listeners for what exactly to expect with these sets.
Review by Jacob Licklider
Mild spoilers…..
The Lone Centurion was kind of a dark horse for Big Finish Productions, coming in under the radar with a premise of being a spin-off set in between The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang, in Roman times with Rory trying to survive while guarding the Pandorica and Amy inside of it. Because of an already vague premise it meant that the writers could really do anything with the premise, the first volume being a three part miniseries in the Roman empire while The Lone Centurion: Camelot does what it says on the tin, a three part miniseries in Camelot. There is one overall issue with the set, it follows the same formula as the first set to the letter with the first story being mostly set up of the world ending with Rory in a position of power that he doesn’t quite want, the second being an interlude leading to an ending with Rory at a low point, and the third being the finale ending with a large set piece as a conclusion before Rory moves on to pastures new. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, formulas work for a reason and there are plenty of amazing stories that follow established formulas, but for a spin-off it isn’t something that can always be relied upon to the letter. Going forward Big Finish will have to mix things up if the want this spin-off to stay interesting. That isn’t to say the formula can’t be followed, it just needs to be mixed up a bit, especially if there is going to be a third box set. The Lone Centurion: Camelot also has an interesting setting, being mostly fictional and not really based on anything in history while doing three stories in a pure historical mood. There aren’t any science fiction elements outside of the Pandorica being a McGuffin that the villain of the set is after, the fact that Rory is an Auton. Some of the science seems a bit too advanced for the era, but there are no instances of magic or sorcery that you would expect from a King Arthur legend. 
Five years after Denis Villeneuve‘s feature film Blade Runner 2049, Blade Runner is now headed to the small screen with live action series Blade Runner 2099 from Amazon Studios.
Review by Jacob Licklider
2022 is a year of change for Big Finish. We are already a month into the year and the switch to box sets has meant that there is a new format for every range, with a majority of the previous box sets decreasing to three CDs instead of four. To bring the Third Doctor into the new box set era, Nicholas Briggs pens and directs ‘The Annihilators’, Big Finish’s first seven-part story and Briggs’ tribute to Season 7. This is how it was initially announced complete with dummy cover, until it was revealed that Michael Troughton, son of Patrick Troughton, would appear as the Second Doctor with Frazer Hines reprising his role as Jamie McCrimmon. This, while understandable as to why it is integrated into the story, does mean that the second half of the story where Briggs admirably pulls off a story style switch which makes it feel like a completely different story instead of just a different direction. Jamie and the Doctor end up on a mission although it’s not quite clear if it’s for the Time Lords, but considering how Doctor Who expanded universe material likes to make it for the Time Lords that’s probably what’s being done here. There wasn’t an intention to cross the timelines, and it is explicit that the Third Doctor has had his memories altered in some way, and the story ends in a way that we are dealing with timelines in flux, but the sheer different nature makes this more akin to The Daleks where the second half could be a completely different story.
The future is looking bright for Fry, Leela and Bender at Hulu.
20th Television Animation and Hulu announced today the return of Matt Groening and David X. Cohen‘s brilliantly subversive animated sci-fi comedy, Futurama. The announcement was made today by Craig Erwich, President, Hulu Originals and ABC Entertainment and 20th Television Animation Head Marci Proietto. The order is for 20 new episodes and the series will go into production in February, with a 2023 premiere.
