Review: Doctor Who Third Doctor Adventures – The Annihilators

Posted on February 11, 2022 by indiemacuser

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.

Continue reading →

‘Futurama’ Revived at Hulu

Posted on February 9, 2022February 9, 2022 by indiemacuser

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.

Continue reading →

Review: Bernice Summerfield – The Slender-Fingered Cats of Bubastis

Posted on February 9, 2022 by indiemacuser

Review by Jacob Licklider

The Slender-Fingered Cats of Bubastis is the second Bernice Summerfield audiobook to be released this year, as well as the final audiobook to be announced this year for the range. It is the debut novel of Xanna Eve Chown who would go on to be the editor and producer of the Big Finish books and many of the audiobooks, including all of the Bernice Summerfield audiobooks. Her first effort is a near perfect example of Big Finish recruiting new talent, despite some short stories, this novel is an utter delight. Chown doesn’t quite cross the line into farce, but integrates farcical elements incredibly well with a setting going back to Benny’s archeological roots while integrating a plot by her companion Jack who promises a publisher a book of poetry which has already been featured in a library which includes books from the future projected back into the past. The planet Bubastis has several categories of religious thought on the stone cats, each with eleven fingers on their hands while new age archeologist Prof. Neon Tsara has a fanatical devotion to the number 23, and the “fact” that one of the cats has twenty three fingers (23 rules this woman’s life).

Continue reading →

Audio Review: The Worlds of Blake’s 7 – The Terra Nostra

Posted on February 6, 2022 by indiemacuser

Review by Ian McArdell

The Terra Nostra returns us to the criminal organisation first glimpsed in the Blake’s 7 episode Shadow, for a set of stories in the shady underworld of the Federation. Taking their inspiration from the Mafia, the Terra Nostra seemingly stretched throughout the galaxy and it was heavily implied that they existed as a form of Federation soft power within the criminal classes. This boxset also draws together strands from the previous two in The Worlds of Blake’s 7, The Clone Masters and Bayban the Butcher – notably the story of the psycho-strategist Hinton. Continue reading →

Review: Doctor Who – Peladon

Posted on January 29, 2022 by indiemacuser

Review by Jacob Licklider

The 1963-1989 run of Doctor Who is fascinating in the fact that in the 160 serials (including The TV Movie in 1996), there are few stories that are direct sequels to previous stories, much less sequels within the same production team. Generally the closest you would get are stories like Attack of the Cybermen doing a sequel to The Tenth Planet and Attack of the Cybermen over a decade after the prequel’s release or Snakedance to Kinda and Mindwarp to Vengeance on Varos essentially being extensions of the themes of the previous story, but doing its own thing. The Curse of Peladon and The Monster of Peladon are an oddity as they both share the same setting, several of the characters, and feel like a natural extension of the same story. Peladon being the setting of both is a big factor in why the two stories feel so connected, the sets are the same and it feels like the planet is evolving and changing. The Curse of Peladon aired as the second story from Season 9 beginning at the end of January 1972, so as it is the 50th anniversary of Episode One while I am writing this, Big Finish Productions are celebrating with Peladon, a four story box set revisiting the planet throughout its history as well as continue the spirit of Peladon stories in reflecting the politics of the real world using allegory for a stark contrast of the good and bad of today’s world.

Continue reading →

Doctor Who actor Valentine Palmer passes away aged 86

Posted on January 25, 2022 by indiemacuser

On January 10th, Valentine Palmer, best known for his role as Monia in the Doctor Who serial, Day of the Daleks, passed away aged 86, after a short illness.Valentine, born in 1935, was from London but grew up in Buckinghamshire, then moved to Malta and recently lived in Grantham. He leaves five children and six grandchildren. Continue reading →

Audio Review: The Worlds of Blake’s 7 – Bayban the Butcher

Posted on January 25, 2022 by indiemacuser

Review by Ian McArdell

Bayban the Butcher grants Colin Baker’s famously off-the-hook villain centre stage. Although best known for playing the colourful Sixth Doctor, he gave an entertainingly big guest performance years earlier in Blake’s 7; Bayban, a self-aggrandising baddie with a penchant for alliteration, came up against Vila in Series C’s City at the Edge of the World.

This self-titled boxset follows an appearance in the recent Avalon series and there’s an audiobook origin story, Bayban Ascending, due in February too. While Bayban apparently died at the end of his only onscreen appearance, it seems you can’t keep a good berserker down. Continue reading →

BAFTA reviewing special awards following Noel Clarke scandal

Posted on January 24, 2022 by indiemacuser

Following the criticism BAFTA received extensive criticism for presenting Noel Clarke with its Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award during its televised ceremony in April 2021, just weeks before he faced numerous allegations by multiple women as part of an investigation by The Guardian newspaper (He has denied all allegations). The outlet reported that BAFTA, which named Clarke as the recipient of the award in late March, knew about the allegations almost two weeks prior to the film awards; however, BAFTA has maintained that it wasn’t presented with sufficient evidence to investigate the anonymous emails and claims it had received about the actor. Following the article BAFTA suspended the membership of Clarke and stripped him of his award.