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| What: | The Horns of Nimon (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Denis LeBlanc, Moncton, Canada |
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| Date: | Wednesday 24 May 2006 |
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| Rating: |   9 |
Alright, it isn't an "Inferno" or a "Seeds of Doom", but it remains, for me, one of the stories I remember most fondly from childhood. What child didn't cringe before the towering Nimon, bad costume or not!
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 | The Doctor is back...for 13 episodes |
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I will begin with a short synopsis of each episode before reviewing the series as a whole, along with the boxset's extras.
ROSE
Shop girl Rose Tyler is saved from shop window dummies that have come to life by an alien traveller with a Northern accent - the Doctor.
Faced with the decision of staying on Earth and living out her humdrum life, or seeing the universe, Rose joins the Doctor.
THE END OF THE WORLD
The Doctor takes Rose to the the year Five Billion, where delegates are gathering to watch the Earth die...
THE UNQUIET DEAD
In 1869, the dead are walking and an alien race made of gas are on the loose, the Doctor and Rose investigate with a curious Charles Dickens in tow.
ALIENS OF LONDON
While the Doctor seriously messes up his dates, farting aliens begin to take over the British Government.
WORLD WAR THREE
Rose, the Doctor, and Harriet Jones (MP for Flydale North) are trapped in Downing Street and the only way to stop the Slitheen family is to aim a missile at themselves...
DALEK
The Doctor comes face to face with a Dalek, which goes on a killing rampage...
THE LONG GAME
The time/space travellers, accompanied by quite rubbish companion Adam go to space station Satellite Five where the earth's news broadcasts are being manipulated by a lump of meat in the ceiling with a ridiculously long name.
FATHER'S DAY
Rose prevents her dad from dying in a car accident therefore condemning hummanity to death by the savage Reapers...
THE EMPTY CHILD
The Doctor searches for a crashed ship while Rose dances with conman Captain Jack on the roof of his spaceship tethered up to Big Ben.
THE DOCTOR DANCES
As the gas masked people draw near, the doctor's going to need more than his dancing skills to save the world...
BOOM TOWN
Margaret Blaine (alien last seen being blown up in Downing Street) attempts to destroy Cardiff in a nuclear explosion in order to ride the shockwave out of the galaxy on a pan-dimensional surfboard.
BAD WOLF
The Doctor's in the Big Brother house, Rose plays The Weakest Link, and Captain Jack gets a makeover.
THE PARTING OF THE WAYS
While the Doctor sends rose home, Jack and a handful of people prepare to battle the Daleks.
The CGI and design work is always fantastic, as are the actors, with special mention to Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper...and of course - Russel T Davies for bringing back the greatest show ever.
BEST EP: The Parting of the Ways
WORST EP: The Long Game
BEST BIT: The Doctor's hologram goodbye to Rose
EXTRAS: the commentaries and featurettes are entertaining, but thee is a distinct lack of extras. The BBC BREAKFAST interview with Chris Eccleston is worth a look however, especially when he is asked about how long he will be playing the role.
The first of the UNIT audios concentrates more on introducing the characters than the time disruption plot, which is probably for the best as the story involving a series of experiments creating shifts in time and space is confused and never properly explained. Despite this, it is an entertaining audio giving a glimpse of what we can expect from the future UNIT productions.
| What: | The Pescatons (Target novelisations) |
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| By: | Denis LeBlanc, Moncton, NB, Canada |
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| Date: | Friday 19 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
As a non-televised adventure, the novel was the first chance I had to experience The Pescatons. I found the story riveting and written in true Doctor Who style. Years after having read the novel, I was finally able to get my hands on an Audio copy of The Pescatons. Although excellent, the Audio format pales in comparison to the wonderful novelisation.
| What: | I am a Dalek (Quick Reads books) |
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| By: | Piers, Lancashire, UK |
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| Date: | Friday 19 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
First off, I was never expecting this to be a masterpiece due to the nature of the book, but I was surprised at how enjoyable it was. The Dalek here is well represented, and it's always fun seeing the good Dalek 'catchphrases' from the old series getting a look in.
The only gripe is that the plot has more than a few similarities to the recent episode 'Dalek': inactive lone Dalek from the Time War found in an underground bunker; reawoken by a girl's touch; determined to inform the Doctor they are more alike than he would like to admit; defeated through reasoning etc...
That aside, this book is a fun read, and taken at that level it is more than successful.
| What: | Cat's Cradle: Warhead (New Adventures novels) |
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| By: | Kenny Rutgers, Woodridge, IL, USA |
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| Date: | Wednesday 17 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 6 |
I would have like this book a lot more if it were not for chapter 4. I mean how many times can you use the name Bobby Prescot in one chapter? It annoyed the heck out of me!
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| the green death.great book. |
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storyline:a company controlled by the B.O.S.S. pumps chemicals into the ground mutating maggots into giant maggots. they have to stop them before its to late.i could not put this book down. doctor: john pertwee.
I thought this book was a very well structured book and one of the best ive ever read.it has a great storyline and i thought the best part is where noah's being turned into a wirrn. i could not put this book down.
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| Stealers of Time more like it |
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I was looking forward to reading this book from the moment that I saw it. The back cover of the book made me dive into this read from the moment I got home.
Though the story and the book do not do the same. I had to put this book down half way, it was a real disappointment to find it boring and to have to stop reading it.
It went very slow and it did not seem like a Doctor Who book. That is to say there was no point in what I read of the book that made me want to continue reading. Rather it just gave me a dizzy spell. The characters sort of wonder in who they are for a better part of the story.
If anything that did get my attention was the ‘Bad Wolf’ reference. That was the most amusing bit in the whole story.
Avoid this book if you can, the Doctor Who books that came before it are a better read. This one is only a read if you must. Other wise, it'll steal your time.
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| A great end to a great series |
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| What: | Survival (BBC classic series videos) |
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| By: | Nick, Australia |
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| Date: | Saturday 13 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
It was a shame that the series ended in 1989, after quite a few poor seasons, Doctor Who finally came back with a vengance with Season 26, one of the best ever seasons I think. Stories like Ghost Light, Curse of Fenric, and Survival. Survival was an excellent end, a story about survival (DUH!) and barbarianism. Ainely gives his best ever performance as the Master, without all the Ham and cheesynes. The only problem with this Story, much like Ghostlight, is that despite being superb, it was given only 3 episodes, making a very rushed and anoying conclusion. But despite all this, Survival is one of the best stories and a great way to end the series until it came back in 2005.
| What: | I am a Dalek (Quick Reads books) |
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| By: | David Yates, Reading, Berkshire |
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| Date: | Saturday 13 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
Similar in style to the stories in last years Doctor Who annual. If you liked those you’ll like ’I Am a Dalek’
I did expect something a little funnier from our Mr Roberts I must admit. His short stories elsewhere have been little gems - the one in the BF anthology, The Muses springs to mind as being particularly effective. But that’s hardly a criticism, as this effective enough without having to be being roll around funny.
The Dalek is respectfully portrayed and in keeping with the current TV series. Being a xenophobic unstoppable war machine, in fact the violence just as cold and brutal as they have been on the telly.
The two main supporting characters, Kate and Frank are surprisingly fleshed out considering the page count and that’s a testament to Gareth Roberts deft hand at making them believable with a few short sentences. Frank in particular gets a nice little piece at the end of the story.
So, in summing up: hardly a Gareth Roberts masterpiece to match A Very English Way Of Death (but what is?) and considering that it’s part of the Quick Reads initiative it does its job amicably well.
Very enjoyable.
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| Good but by no means the best! |
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| What: | Pyramids of Mars (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Rob, Wolverhampton |
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| Date: | Friday 12 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 1 |
Sorry but this is the most over rated story in the history of the series. The first time I watched it I fell asleep. I don't really think it's as awful as a 1 out of 10. I only gave it a 1 to try and drag the average mark down a bit. I'd really give it a 6. On re-watching it I enjoyed it more than my viewing. Still way over rating though. Watch 'The Robots of Death' instead. Now that's a quality!
| What: | Series 2 Volume 1: (BBC new series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | The Rani, Gallifrey |
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| Date: | Thursday 11 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 10 |
The 10th Doctor's era officially gets underway with a blast. The hourlong Christmas Invasion allows the Doctor to rest up and recouperate after sacrificing his ears and his life for Rose. The new Doctor (after an initial period of manic hyperactivity on Children in Need - not on this disc) succumbs to the overdose of energy in his system and he spends a while in bed recovering. Rose does her best in the meantime to try and shoulder the Doctor's burdens but it gets too much for her. Elsewhere Harriet Jones (Prime Minister) gets to grips with an alien invasion and is abducted by them, after a possession scare with many people climbing up onto high buildings. When things finally get to their worst the Doctor recovers in time to save the day, albeit it with a second new hand. The Doctor then settles down somewhat in New Earth (he and Rose have been off having many fantastic adventures inbetween it seems) he's now a lot more sure of himself and Rose is more comfortable with him. So it comes as little surprise that he can tell when Rose is possessed by Cassandra (Billie having the time of her life overacting outrageously as Cassandra) and then the Doctor going into angry guy mode when he discovers what's really going on. Here he's much more assertive and sure of himself. He's even scaryier than Ecclestone at one point and comes across as a Doctor who can do anything, even though 80% of it was probably bluff. He's not someone you want to bet against that's for sure. The appetite is then whetted for more adventures thanks to the teaser and I for one can't wait for the new DVD release :)
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| A nice list, but irritating style. |
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Written at the height of our transatlantic cousins' enthusiasm for Who, "Travels Without the TARDIS" was written by and squarely aimed at US fans visiting the mother country on pilgrimage. As a shortish list of locations to visit it was quite good, although it would be wise not to trust the directions: for Leeds Castle (in Kent) it suggests you go to Kings Cross and board a train for Leeds (W Yorks) - some 250 miles in the wrong direction. The description of the weird behaviour of the natives and their primitive living conditions can be ever so slightly irritating, but then that epitomises the relationship between UK and US fans at the time. Some early copies had pages 81 - 96 missing, which I found rather irritating as this included the bulk of the description of Aldbourne, and also my hometown.
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| The most 'grown up' novel so far. |
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| What: | The Feast of the Drowned (BBC New Series Adventures novels) |
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| By: | David Yates, Reading, Berkshire. UK |
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| Date: | Wednesday 10 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 8 |
The best of the three tenth Doctor books published so far without a doubt. It managed to satisfy me as a EDA reader and as a new series viewer.
No mean feat.
Considering this must’ve been written with only scripts to go on, the tenth Doctor is fully realised and is definitely the Doctor DT portrays on screen.
It had the RTDness (the fast pace, character comedy, family elements and no overt technobabble) of the new series down pat, while retaining the essence of the EDAs (plot with plenty of meat on its bones and a long enough story to feel like a full blown novel – as opposed to the extended telly adventures that some of the previous novels have fallen foul of).
If you’re an old school fan and you’ve only ever read the Virgin/BBC books this probably as close to them as this line of books is going to get.
Give it a go.
i used to study this book when i was 10. great stuff...
| What: | Ghost Light (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | whites, sos,england |
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| Date: | Monday 8 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 9 |
This is one of the best for sure. Dark and foreboding, and actually exploring the companions character (as the other stories do from this season- not including battlefield).
The show was taking a much darker direction at this time and a mcoy and aldred season 27 would of been sooooo cool!
Best story, Best Doctor, best companion. my opinion, My doctor. love it.
| What: | The Two Doctors (BBC classic series DVDs/Blu-rays) |
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| By: | Whites, southend, england |
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| Date: | Monday 8 May 2006 |
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| Rating: | 7 |
Really good, for about 20 minutes... bless em though. nice outfit Peri!
I love this book. read it. you will love it too.
