Doctor Who: The Seeds of Death Review

“Your leader will be angry if you kill me! I’m a genius”

The Patrick Troughton years were the beginning of the monster boom on Doctor Who. The historical episodes, a regular fixture of the previous era, had been phase out and replaced by numerous ‘base under siege’ stories as the Doctor frequently battled Daleks, Cybermen, Yeti, Macra, Quarks, Krotons, Cybermen again and the Ice Warriors.

Doctor Who: The Krotons Review

“The Doctor’s almost as clever as I am”

Robert Holmes isn’t just my favourite Doctor Who writer, he is without a shadow of a doubt the finest writer this show has ever had (past, present or future) and I will gladly fight anyone who says differently.

What was that? Russell T. Davies? Right, you, outside now!

Doctor Who: The Invasion Review

"My body may be cybernetic but my mind stays human!"

Playing out like the world’s longest and cheapest Bond movie, ‘The Invasion’ is probably the most iconic and well-loved Cybermen story. As far as I’m concerned it’s unquestionably their finest hour, made all the better by the fact the cybernetic dullards from Mondas are hardly in it.

Doctor Who: The Mind Robber Review

“Well, we’re nowhere. It’s as simple as that”

When I first saw ‘The Mind Robber’ at the wee age of very small I thought it was absolutely brilliant. A fantastical and atmospheric tale filled with some unforgettable imagery. But I eventually grew up and with age comes cynicism. Now I can’t help seeing ‘The Mind Robber’ for what it really is; a load of surrealist nonsense that could’ve only been produced in the 1960s

Doctor Who: The Dominators Review

“Shall we destroy? Shall we destroy?”

One of the great tragedies of Doctor Who is the loss of numerous episodes from the show’s monochrome days due to the BBC’s insane junking policy during the 1970s (cheap gits wouldn’t fork out for new tapes so they just recorded over all the old ones). Patrick Troughton certainly came off the worst. To date only six of his stories still exist in their entirety. Eleven are incomplete and four are completely lost, unlikely to ever be recovered. Season six (Troughton’s last as the Doctor) is the only Second Doctor season that remains more or less intact with only two incomplete stories. ‘The Dominators’ was the opening story of that season and by Rassillon’s beard is it dull.

Babylon 5: Season 5 DVD Review

The Wheel of Fire

The last minute renewal for Babylon 5 was something of a mixed blessing. On one had it meant that the show would continue and J. Michael Straczynski would now be able to complete his much talked about five-year-plan. But since Straczynski had wrapped up almost every single significant plot thread the previous season he was now stumped about what to do next. Sure, he had a lot of great stuff with Londo planned but that didn’t get going until towards the end of the season. So what the hell was he going to do until then?

Babylon 5: Season 4 DVD Review

No Surrender, No Retreat

So much for best laid plans, eh. When he first conceived of Babylon 5 way back when J. Michael Straczynski had a definitive five year plan for the series. By the fourth season that plan was in serious danger of falling apart. The Prime Time Entertainment Network, the series’ home from day one, was not long for this world and as such the future of the series was uncertain. Fearing that his show would be cancelled before he could conclude the story Straczynski went in to emergency damage control and started wrapping up the all major storylines far earlier than he’d initially planned. As a result season four is the most densely packed season of the show’s entire run as barely a single episode is wasted in Straczynski’s mad rush to bring his story to a what seemed at the time to be a premature end.

Babylon 5: Season 3 DVD Review

Point of No Return

In my humble little opinion season three of Babylon 5 is the one of the finest seasons of television in the entire history of the medium. This was the absolute peek of J. Michael Straczynski’s small screen space opera. Admittedly, it’s not 100% perfect. It was at this point that Straczynski started writing ever single episode himself (an impressive achievement to be sure) so inevitable dreck like ‘Grey 17 is Missing’ gets sandwiched in between all the great stuff. And we were pretty much spoilt for choice with great stuff this season. After two years worth of build up this was the season where things were finally starting to pay off.

Babylon 5: Season 2 DVD Review

The Coming of Shadows
It was a year of change in season two of Babylon 5.

After the first season had wrapped up production it was mutually agree by all that Michael O’Hare wasn’t working out as the show’s leading man. O’Hare amicably agreed with creator J. Michael Straczynski to depart from the show (least that’s what they keep telling everyone) and was soon replaced by Bruce Boxleitner as Captain John J. Sheridan. The former Tron fitted in quite well on B5 and after about a few episodes you’d easily be forgiven for thinking he’d been there the whole time.

Babylon 5: Season 1 DVD Review

Signs and Portents
J. Michael Straczynski’s Babylon 5 was the last, best hope for a rival sci-fi television franchise to challenge the dominance of Star Trek. It failed. And let’s be glad it did. Last thing we needed was another bloated franchise knocking out a never ending cycle of naff spin-offs. Instead let’s be thankful for what remains to this day as one of the finest sci-fi series ever made. But it did take some time before it got there.