Seven Doctors in seven unforgettable adventures join the Doctor Who Target book range, all publishing on 11th March 2021, each with newly commissioned cover artwork by Anthony Dry.
These latest novelisations, almost all written by the original writers of the TV episodes, will help Target fans finally complete their classic-era collection, and take the Target range into its next incarnation.
Review by Jacob Licklider
Over the past two years, Big Finish Productions have been rereleasing their out of print Bernice Summerfield books as audiobook readings for the low price of $10 a book with the first five full length novels already being released (interestingly they haven’t done any of the anthologies or novella collections yet). A surprise December 2020 announcement gave listeners the opportunity to add three new Benny books to their audiobook collections: The Big Hunt, The Tree of Life, and The Two Jasons, all set for release in 2021 and 2022. The Big Hunt by Lance Parkin leads these audiobooks, released this month and available for download right now. Now, it is important to note that this is not a new release, nothing has been changed from the text of the 2005 book release, just put into an audiobook reading with Benny herself, Lisa Bowerman. Perhaps listeners were spoiled by Terror of the Master in Masterful, but going from that right into The Big Hunt, the lack of music and sound effects in the audiobook may detract. Potential listeners shouldn’t go in expecting them in any way as this is a release. The Big Finish website shows this as being recorded completely remotely in November and December which is confirmed by the included Q&A. Bowerman, as always, is an excellent narrator using her impressive range to bring to life several characters, only one of which actually appeared previously (that being Benny).
The official synopsis for Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings television series has been revealed. From the synopsis we now know the series will be a prequel to both The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings; with the events taking place thousands of years before the events of those books. The series is headed by showrunners/exec producers J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay with film-maker J.A. Bayona directing the first two episodes and serving as executive producer, alongside his creative partner Belén Atienza; with executive producers Lindsey Weber, Bruce Richmond, Callum Greene, Gennifer Hutchison, Jason Cahill, Justin Doble and Sharon Tal Yguado. It will be released exclusively on Amazon Prime.
Review by Michael Goleniewski
Near Cardiff Bay, there exists a lone cafe that has been there for quite a long while and headed by a man named David who has been deeply affected by the odd goings-on in the area. One morning, a young man named Ianto Jones wanders in looking for a good Americano whose life is about to change forever. Over time, relationships begin to be formed and with people going missing regularly along with rumours of a secret organisation being spread, things are about to get even weirder for David and the Baps café……
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Joe Barton is heading to Gotham to take over showrunning duties on HBO Max’s upcoming The Batman TV series.
The British writer has joined the series as showrunner and exec producer following the departure of Terence Winter in November.
Showtime has set the cast of the upcoming Dexter revival.
Julia Jones, Alano Miller, Johnny Sequoyah, and Jack Alcott have joined Michael C. Hall and Clancy Brown in the 10-episode limited series, which begins production next month in Massachusetts.
CBS has released a trailer Silence of the Lambs sequel series titled Clarice The series was given a full series order and will debut on CBS & CBS All Access on February 11th 2021. taking The show is set in 1993, a year after the events of The Silence of the Lambs.
Cover artwork and story titles for the first volume of Big Finish Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures starring Christopher Eccleston has been unveiled today.
Due for release in May 2021, Doctor Who – The Ninth Doctor Adventures: Ravagers is a full-cast audio drama box set comprising three fantastic stories all written by Big Finish’s Creative Director, Nicholas Briggs.
Review by Jacob Licklider
Terror of the Master is a bonus audiobook included in the limited edition of Masterful written by Trevor Baxendale and narrated by Jon Culshaw. Unlike other releases from Big Finish Productions, this is not an audio drama, but an audiobook with the occasional sound effects and as such it can only rely on the actual prose of the storytelling and the narration. Culshaw is an excellent narrator, using his impressive vocal range and variety of impressions to bring to life the Jon Pertwee era. While Masterful was a celebration of the Master, the incarnation played by Roger Delgado was not included due to Delgado’s tragic passing in 1973, so for the limited edition only Trevor Baxendale was commissioned to write a three and a half hour story featuring the Third Doctor, UNIT, and the Master; set right after The Green Death. Like many of the Pertwee serials, ‘Terror of the Master’ has a political bent, once again tackling pollution and the increasing global temperatures with a kindly scientist promising to fix Earth’s problems with a revolutionary new process that only he can know the exact details of and behind him is the Master. The Master has plans to take over the world using an alien creature in a story that most closely resembles that of The Claws of Axos with Dr. Drake in place of Axos and the Axons, without the Tory MP. On that front Terror of the Master is a fairly standard affair from Baxendale, with a prose style (and runtime) that intentionally feels like that of a Target Novel of a standard serial that would have been released during that time period.
We are sad to report that British actress Barbara Shelley has passed away aged 88. She had recently spent time in hospital with Covid-19 and appeared to have recovered, however she seems to have succumbed to related complications.
Indie Mac User 