Review: The Evil of the Daleks Novelisation (2023)

Just when you thought there was nothing new in the novelisation arena, along comes Frazer Hines, the actor who played Jamie in the TV series, with a new book which adds a new twist to the novelisation idea ... novelising a repeat showing of a story ...

It's a nice conceit ... for the story 'The Evil of the Daleks' was repeated following transmission of 'The Wheel In Space', and before 'The Dominators', and the show even provided, at the end of 'The Wheel In Space', a little lead in to the repeat where the Doctor shows new companion Zoe the sort of thing she might face if she travels with them in the TARDIS.

Thus the book presents a straightforward and quite effective novelisation of the actual 'The Evil of the Daleks' episodes, and between each is a little piece from Jamie's perspective which shows the TARDIS trio's reactions to the events of the past story as it unfolds. It's all rather pleasant ... and a good read.

Having Hines also narrate the audio version is also effective, especially as the story presents Jamie in an excellent light - he even has an episode (5) pretty much to himself as he explores Maxtible's Victorian mansion in search of Victoria, meeting and befriending the Turk, Kemel, and avoiding the Daleks along the way ... all in the Daleks' pursuit of trying to discover what 'the Human Factor' is: what makes a human a human ... and Jamie presents all the right traits along the way.

Hines worked on the book with authors Mike Tucker and Steve Cole, and it's got a cracking cover from Lee Binding ...

If you want a signed copy, with a special bookplate from artist Adrian Salmon, then head to Frazer's own online store: www.frazerhines.co.uk ... otherwise the book is available from all the usual stockists.

Review: The Daily Doctor

Part of the BBC's book offerings for the sixtieth anniversary of Doctor Who comes The Daily Doctor: 365¼ Whoniversal Meditations on Life and How to Live It by Simon Guerrier and Peter Anghelides.

It's a tough book to review and I am friends with both the authors, and what I can say from the outset is that they set themselves a challenge and a half in doing this book ... and perhaps that is why Steve Tribe, originally announced as the author, dropped out ...

But that challenge is a double edged sword ... as while it is impressive to draw and spin life lessons off the slightest of mentions, dialogue, or happenings in the show ... some of them are a little too tenuous and seem clutching at straws to make up the numbers.

We have a lesson for every day of the year, and if there is a plan at foot here to match events/stories with dates then I can't see it ... it seems pretty random. At least Valentines day has a love-based one, even if it is about Susan leaving and 'letting love go' ... so not very happy.

I was considering how one might approach creating such a book ... probably thinking through each episode initially to find what 'lessons' there might be therein, but also searching through the transcript archive looking for keywords which might prompt a 'lesson' too ...

On the plus side, I enjoyed reading and dipping through it ... but on the negative, it's slight, and the text tends to tell you the plot of whichever story they have chosen the quote from (which of course I already know), with a skew towards whatever the 'lesson' is, and then give you the 'lesson' in the last sentence ... It's also all very serious, a step away from the flippant '365¼' in the title (I'm not sure what the ¼ lesson is to be honest - we don't have one for 29th Feb, but there is an extra 'Saying Goodbye' one at the end - which, rather oddly, given the number of great 'goodbyes' there are in the show itself, comes from the audio story The Pescatons!)

The design is nice, the layout loose and friendly ... but it feels very much like a filler book. Why does this book exist? Did it need to be written/compiled? The answer is tricky ...

Perhaps for the fan who might like to read and be enlightened each day with some words of wisdom from the show ... a good stocking filler for the year ahead ...

Review: Red 11 (2018)

We stumbled across Red 11 on Prime ... at the time it had one 5 star review and we smiled and said, yeah, like that's from the director's mum!  But then we looked closer and saw the director was one Robert Rodriguez, the man behind one of the greatest zombie films, Planet Terror ... and also the man who brought us From Dusk Till Dawn and Machete!  So we thought ... nothing to lose!

It turns out that Red 11 is something rather good. It's a sort of sci fi thriller set in a hospital where a chap volunteers to be part of a medical trial - earning $7k at the end for his trouble. The issue is that the trial seems very suspicious, with the various people taking part in different trials being given different coloured t-shirts - his is red, and he is number 11 in his trial, hence the title.

As we progress, so it starts to get wierd with some of the people starting to display telekenetic powers ... and what is it all about, who is running it ... and why ... and will Red 11 get out alive!

Red 11 is an accomplished and enjoyable thriller, well made and directed and with some great moments. I loved the subverting of the 'wall' by the inclusion of a character called Score, who has a small keyboard and who actually provides the music for the film as it progresses ... with themes for the characters and action and so on ...

But there's more ... in a short intro to the film Rodriguez explains that he made the film himself, with only his son, for $7k ... all the actors, crew and so on presumably all worked for nothing, and he also wrote, directed, produced, edited, and did the music himself. There are no other credits, so presumably he also graded it and did the titles and ... and ... basically EVERYTHING.

Now that's impressive. Very impressive.

So if you're interested in the genre, and want to see how a low budget film could be put together for next to nothing ... give it a look!

There's also a series on Prime called Rebel Without a Crew which breaks down his production process and shows just how the film was made ... again, excellent stuff for any would be film maker ...

Review: Doom's Day: Extraction Point

I'm really not a great fan of these Doctor Who multi-part multi-platform 'event' fiction things ... there's too much baggage to try and explain in a review ... and at the end of the day, I'm not sure who is engaged enough in the idea to want to try and seek out the various online, comic strip, graphic novel, CD, vinyl record, novel and, for all I know, Give A Show Projector slide and cardset given away with packets of tea bags ... it's all too much!

But this novel, Doom's Day: Extraction Point caught my eye, and so I thought I'd give it a whirl, and I'm actually glad I did as it's not bad as a novel.

It's not exactly stand-alone of course, and you need to have some understanding of what is happening beyond the events in the novel itself, which is a shame.

So there's this character called Doom, and she's apparently an assassin ... the Beeb released a video of her before this range started and, to be brutally honest, it was awful:

So I wasn't filled with confidence ...

The book covers four hours in Doom's life (fourteen through eleven). And each hour she has to kill someone. It's not clear at all why this is, or what would happen if she fails ... but there's a lot of agonising about it. She also seems to be looking for the Doctor ... but then, when she finds him - several times - she doesn't find out or ask why or how the Doctor is supposed to help her ...

Instead we're plunged into action as she tries to kill a chap on a snowy planet: it's all chair lifts and skis and fast moving action ... and then we discover that the planet isn't what it seems and the race behind it are an old enemy of the Doctor (who don't then appear again in the book!)  

It's hard to review with no spoilers at all as, to be honest, the book is FULL of old enemies and old Doctors and most of them are pictured on the cover! But from a snowy wasteland we're taken to Satellite 5 from the 9th Doctor adventure 'The Long Game' where Doom has to kill a ghost and the whole plot riffs around the Jagrafess, Cathica, and game shows, just the same as the TV episodes did ...

Then we're off to an asteroid which seems infested with insects which aren't quite what they seem ... and then finally we're back to the real planet the fake one in the first adventure was based on, and Doom has to kill two of the people there ... except that the Family Slitheen are also in attendance ...

It's fast and frantic stuff and M G Harris has an engaging style which drags the reader through with little time to ponder on continuity or plot holes ... or just how Doom manages to keep going through hour after hour of frenetic running, climbing, falling, death defying escapes while working out who to kill and how as she goes ... I'm not sure she even stops to drink, eat or to attend to ... personal stuff ... in the course of her adventures.

What's interesting though that all the Doctor Who continuity gubbins sort of makes this feel like a Doctor Who adventure, even though the Doctor is largely absent ... and when he does appear, it doesn't feel much more like Doctor Who at all ...

A final word on the title ... Extraction Point ... I can't really see what this has to do with the story ... it just seems to be a nice title that the publisher decided to hang on it ...

And of course, at the end, Doom is off to the tenth hour that she is counting down ... with no conclusion or answers to why she sees 'Death', all black cowl and scythe, in a cafe toilet on Earth in 2006 ... seems she might have seen it before ... but I've no idea.

There are, presumably, 24 of these 'hours' scattered throughout the various media and written, with various degrees of success, by different authors ... Here's a handy chart ...

It's a bold idea to be sure ... but I do feel that the overall execution is shaky ... and as to whether any fans will stay the distance and experience all the adventures is anyone's guess, especially as some are in limited-time form like a separate comic supplement given away with Doctor Who Magazine, or two of the adventures as part of a computer game called Lost In Time.

But as a rollicking adventure novel, full of action and adventure in the Doctor Who Universe ... it's not at all bad!

Review: More new Target Novelisations!

 Here's some thoughts on the final two Target novelisations released by BBC Books in the 2023 batch!

THE ZYGON INVASION by Peter Harness

This book was delayed from the last batch as the author was hard at work on a new TV series. It combines two episodes into one book: 'The Zygon Invasion' and 'The Zygon Inversion' with a nod to 'The Day of the Doctor' as well ... and it's complicated stuff, as Steven Moffat's Who was wont to be.

Here we have the Doctor, Clara, and a Zygon calling herself 'Bonnie' pretending to be Clara, the UNIT Doctor Who fan Osgood, and a Zygon pretending to be Osgood ... Kate Lethbridge-Stuart running all over the world, planes being shot down, Zygons going underground, no-one being quite sure who anyone is ... and there's some real world allusions to terrorism and race hate and so on running through it all as well. It's strong and important and has lessons for humanity to impart!

But sadly the confusion extends to the book, wherein Harness really seems to have just adapted the scripts, with only cursory additions and deviations. However maybe there are more changes than I think as I've not compared them directly to the transmitted episodes.  A similar sense of confusion came over me in watching the show ... struggling to keep up with who was who and who wasn't ...

I was surprised that Harness adopts the pronoun 'they' when talking about Osgood, as there wasn't, as far as I can tell, anything in the series to suggest this - indeed a quick scan of the Doctor Who Wiki article on the character never mentions or uses that pronoun. However the story arc of The Zygon Invasion is Osgood's, with 'the Osgood Box' being the ultimate deterrent to war between the races, and a cracking speech from the Doctor at the end - some of the very best writing that the show has presented.

Overall I was slightly disappointed with the novelisation. I think perhaps it is a story which doesn't really lend itself to prose form, being so rich in imagery and idea which was presented and realised so well on television. These days I think the novelisations have to work so much harder as the source material is easy to find and revisit.

KERBLAM! by Pete McTighe

The final title released in this batch was a novelisation of a story which received a fair amount of comment when transmitted. The issue was that it's looking at an Amazon-like retail giant called Kerb!am, a company which exploits the human workers and brings in AI-style robots to monitor them - all very pertinent stuff for our time, and the sort of exploration of real world issues which Doctor Who has always done well.

Sadly here, in the endgame of the story on television, innocent people are killed, and the Doctor does nothing to try and change the status quo, leaving the retail giant free to carry on doing what they're doing with nary a word of reprimand from the Doctor.

In the novelisation, McTighe manages to rectify this slightly, and we have an ending where things have been changed for the better - humans are put in charge of the robots rather than vice versa. But we still have the rather horrible death of a sympathetic character to deal with, and we also lose the little cameo from Lee Mack - or rather the character is there, but devoid of Mack's appearance and performance, is very forgettable.

What's good here is the interplay between the Doctor, Yas, Ryan and Graham - more than enough characters to try and get a grip on - but McTighe manages it, and makes them all likable and the dynamic between them works on the page.

Overall a decent adaptation which adds some additional nuances and thought to the episode as seen on screen ... one wonders if some of this was in McTighe's original scripts and ideas but got lost along the way.

Review: new 2023 Target DOCTOR WHO Editions

July 2023 and Ebury/BBC Books have issued five more novelisations under the Target banner ... Here's a review of three of them!!

WARRIORS' GATE AND BEYOND by Stephen Gallagher

Stephen is an old pal of mine, and it's great to see one of his classic series stories getting a new novelisation. The history of this one is interesting:  Stephen originally submitted the scripts to the Doctor Who Production Office, and then John Nathan-Turner, the producer at the time, wanted a hefty rewrite, so Stephen apparently took his scripts and cut them up, putting them back together again to create the story as transmitted. He then 'lost' the original version for many years until it turned up again, granting the opportunity for Stephen to return to the source material and to novelise that ...

And so 'Warriors' Gate' gets a new outing. To be honest, it's not that much different from the story as on television, and it reads well. It's very like one of those novelisations by the original author where they have taken the opportunity to expand and develop the scenario and characters to a degree that the television version could not. We still have the Privateer exploiting Time Sensitive Tharils as navigators; there's still the Gateway; and the idea that the Tharils were once the enslavers, and the Gundan robots were created to battle them ... Romana still wants to leave ... K9 is still damaged and needs to stay with Romana, and Adric is still ... well ... Adric. Of all the cast he has the least to do! Not really surprising as he would most likely have been a late addition to the cast/scripts, joining the show just two stories earlier.

What is good is that in this novelisation, the focus is shifted more from Rorvic and his Privateer chums to the Tharils and their predicament. It's a good move. I also liked how one of the great shots from the TV episodes, of the coin spinning in the air and stopping, is used here with a greater explanation and development on how the randomness of tossing a coin can help navigate through the Gateway portals. 

Overall it's a grand story, and as you would expect from a writer of Gallagher's calibre, very well written.

The book also contains a short story: 'The Kairos Ring', which was written as an audio for the BBC to release, and also an even shorter story 'The Little Book of Fate' in which the Doctor meets Romana again ... 

Overall it's a smashing package and well worth a look. If you're wondering, then the original Target novelisation of 'Warriors' Gate' was as by John Lydecker, which was Stephen Gallagher under a pseudonym...

PLANET OF THE OOD by Keith Temple

This novelisation is a revalaton! The TV story 'Planet of the Ood' was not one of the best ... hampered by a somewhat ridiculous CGI chase in the middle between the Doctor and a claw machine in a factory, and reintroducing the Ood from previous adventures, the story seemed a little disposable.

Here though, Temple writes with panache and delivers an excellent book that both expands on and explains much of what happens in the television story. Motivations are developed for all the characters, and Halperin comes over as just horrible and truly deserving of his fate!  Though I have to say that the explanation for just how what happens to him happens to him is not forthcoming. It was a bit of a leap of believability  on television, and remains so here.

But I really enjoyed revisiting the story through the lens of Temple's prose. It's excellently done, and I hope he gets to write some more!

THE WATERS OF MARS by Phil Ford

In contrast to Temple's novelisation, Phil Ford's adaptation of his scripts for the story seems perfunctory. However there is still a great deal to enjoy about this story of a Mars mission which falls foul of an alien entity trapped under the ice beneath the planet's surface, and which seems to be formed of the water itself.

I found myself not really engaging with the Doctor - Temple manages to capture him nicely, but here he seems distant. Maybe it's because there's no companion character for him to bounce off ... but also in the televised story, we also have Graham Harper's assured direction to propel us along, the superb action and direction stopping us from thinking too hard about the story.

Also, in terms of the series, this is the Doctor starting to go off the rails somewhat and to believe that he can do anything, anywhere, anytime and nothing can stop him ... it's the beginning of the end of the tenth Doctor in all honesty. These elements are all nicely explored, and the parallels between all the characters are well drawn. Even the annoying robot 'Gadget' seems to redeem itself.

It's a good, functional novelisation, but perhaps a little too 'by the numbers' in an age where readers are perhaps expecting more from their written-word Who ... I rattled through it quite quickly, and I found myself nodding along to the beats of the original ... it's very much an effective novelisation of what was seen on screen in that regard.

***

As well as these three, also published are KERBLAM! by Pete McTighe and THE ZYGON INVASION by Peter Harness ... Well worth checking out!

Review: What Lies Below (2020)

As an adjunct to my review of The Commuter, here's a film which pretty much delivers nothing of what is promised ...

What Lies Below is touted as a cross between Species and A Quiet Place and is written and directed by Braden R Duemmle (remember my Red Flag that seeing the same name in both those roles tends to point to a lack lustre end result).

The plot follows a mother, Michelle (Mena Suvari), and her teenaged daughter Liberty (Ema Horvath). Liberty returns home to find that her mum has a new boyfriend, the seemingly perfect John Smith (Trey Tucker) ... but as the film unfolds, so John is seen to be creepy as heck, and possibly not even human!

The only nod to Species here is that John is looking to procreate (and in a couple of scenes he has freaky alien feet), and A Quiet Place? No idea where they got that one from. The film drags its length as it's fairly apparent that they had no budget for any effects, CGI or otherwise, and so you're waiting for things to happen, to be revealed and they never are ...

It's also a Red Flag when the various websites which offer 'explanations' of plot points and endings are all over a film, as it simply tends to mean that the film has done a poor job of explaining them in the narrative they are presenting. And sure enough, there are lots of sites explaining 'the boat scene' and the ending of this film.

The film looks nice, and the performances are okay, though everyone seems to be the wrong ages, and the scenes of John watching Liberty shower, and then later on the attempted impregnations are a little too far on the side of the voyeuristic and inappropriate.  So watch it if you like a slow burn film ... some interesting ideas ... but don't expect it all to make total sense ...

And the title?  What exactly does lie below?  Are we talking about under the lake here, or is this a euphemism for what John keeps in his shorts ... we shall never know!

Review: The Commuter (2018)

There's so much substandard fare on Prime, that to come across a film which is actually exciting and interesting is worth shouting about ... The Commuter is one such film.

Over lockdown we have become used to seeing films with very limited casts and set in isolate locations. They're usually possession-type plots, or ghosts, as these are easiest to create on a budget, and many simply have no followable plot and disappointing endings - if you can even get there. You can usually tell this sort of film by the Red Flag that the writer, director, producer is all the same person (and sometimes they also do the make-up, costumes and probably make the tea as well!)

The Commuter however is just pre-lockdown and is written by Byron Willinger, Philip de Blasi and Ryan Engle, and directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who you might remember helmed the superb Blake Lively vehicle The Shallows. The film stars Liam Neeson and Vera Farmiga and has a simple premise. A cop, Michael MacCauley (Liam Neeson), travels the same route to work every day, taking the same train. And so he recognises the same people on the train every day. Now hitting sixty, he is abruptly fired from his job, and travels home in some despair. But. On the train he meets a women, Joanna (Vera Farmiga), who asks him to locate 'Prynne', the alias of an unknown passenger on the train whom Joanna claims has a stolen item. Joanna tells Michael that he will find $25,000 in the bathroom and be paid a further $75,000 when his task is done. She leaves the train, and Michael finds the money in the bathroom ... it all seems genuine. But when he tries to leave the train he realises that his family is in danger, and that whoever Joanna works for is watching his every move.

The film then slowly escalates into a nightmare for Michael as he tries to track down the mysterious Prynne, with deaths and intrigue and a whole 'you cannot trust anyone' vibe. Very enjoyable indeed ... and the ending pays off what has come before.

My main concern with the film was why, if they had all the resources and money to pay Michael, terrorise his family, cause people to be killed, and to watch his every move, why didn't they know who this Phrynn was, what they were carrying, and do their dirty work themselves?  It all seemed a little contrived to set all this up just, it seemed, to torment Michael.

However Neeson gives a powerful performance of a man on the brink, and the acting from all the supporting characters is great (including Shazad Latif who you might recognise as Clem Fandango from the series Toast).

Well worth 105 minutes of your time!

Review: Laurel & Chaplin: The Feud Stage Play

From the outset you know that this play, Laurel & Chaplin: The Feud, is going to be something slightly different. In London's West End, it's showing at the Cambridge Theatre, but only on Monday nights ... the rest of the week the theatre is home to the stage production of Matilda ... and the theatre is done out with elements relating to that show: school desks, books on the walls and so on ...

But here, Jordan Conway, playing Chaplin, starts messing about in the seats before the show starts ... goofing with the people in the gallery ... before it all kicks into gear as the lights dim, and he introduces himself.

The play follows and documents the relationship between Charlie Chaplin, and Stan Laurel (Matt Knight) from when they first met in London (introduced to the stage by Chaplin's mother, a somewhat drink-addicted stage songbird) through to when Chaplin headed for Hollywood and beyond. The double act was indeed Chaplin and Laurel for a time as the two cavorted and performed and developed their schtick on stage: Chaplin 'the funny one' and Laurel 'the straight man' ... however nothing is that simple, and Laurel was the more talented of the two, and Chaplin developed a fear of being overshadowed, thus when Fred Karno (Richard Gauntlett) entices Chaplin to Hollywood, Laurel never hears from him again, and eventually teams up with Oliver Hardy to create the great comedy duo of early film.

The show is fast and furious, with some superb and occasionally jaw-dropping performances from the cast, who do all their own stunts and prat falls, and indeed magic and displays of dexterity ... it's simply amazing and very, very entertaining.

There's a sequence at the start of act two, where Chaplin puts together a silent movie, and three people from the audience are dragged up on stage to play the parts, as Chaplin explains what they have to do, and then they do it ... all with no words at all.  I have not laughed so hard for years!  There's so many small elements which make it funny, and seeing non-actors going through the paces was superb!

If you have any interest in the subject matter, it's a story of friendship, but also pathos and sadness as Chaplin abandons his friend. But it's also a rollicking great stage experience ... fun and hilarious ... and of course, highly recommended.

A footnote: we saw the show on the opening night, and also present was Jon Conway, father to star Jordan, who produced, co-wrote (with Jordan) and co-directed, and also the other co-director, Michael Barrymore - yes, the TV personality and comedian - who gave a very humbling short speech at the conclusion. This show brings together all the delights of old-style music hall, with the acts, the music and the sheer variety of talent on offer ... Superb!

Where: THE CAMBRIDGE THEATRE, LONDON

When: Monday evenings (to 28th August 2023)

How to get tickets: https://jonconwayproductions.com/laurel-chaplin-the-feud/

From 30 August - 2 September 2023 there are also four shows at the Blackpool Winter Gardens, also bookable at the above link

Review: Renfield (2023)

We had a sense ... a feeling that we were going to enjoy Renfield.  Nothing you could put your finger on ... but we love vampire films, and we also love a good Nick Cage film ... and also with Nicholas Hoult in the cast (who was amazing in both Warm Bodies and The Menu) it looked a good bet.

We were not disappointed.

Within three minutes of the film starting, as they are recreating scenes from the original Universal Dracula with Cage as Dracula and Hoult as Renfield, both doing startlingly good impressions of Bela Lugosi and Dwight Frye, we were beaming with joy!

From there we're straight into some fast and furious action as Dracula is cornered by vampire hunters and chased around a room, before he is captured in a circle and burned to a crisp ... just superb ... and the film has barely started.

In Renfield, the plot is broadly following the title character (Hoult) as he serves his master, Dracula (Cage). The difference is that eating bugs bestows Renfield with some of his master's power, so he becomes super strong, and can jump and leap around supernaturally ... Dracula's blood also heals him, so the various injuries he sustains from fighting down the bad guys in the drugs cartel are dealt with too ... So there's a bad guy with a cocaine smuggling ring, and Dracula and Renfield fall foul of them ... and we follow the threads to a crime boss (Shohreh Aghdashloo) who wants Dracula to help get rid of a rival gang ... There's also a policewoman (Awkwafina) who gets involved, and the whole thing rattles along at a good pace!

We loved the film!  The character of Dracula is superbly performed by Cage, the make-up and effects are brilliant, and Cage brings a lot of interest and pathos to the character, which is cast as a classic narcissist gaslighter, who dumps on poor Renfield at every turn, making him feel that everything is his fault. It's a great reading of the characters, and the script by Ryan Ridley does a good job of bringing it all to life.

Hoult, as expected, plays the downtrodden Renfield very well, and when he joins a kind of AA group for co-dependent abusive relationships, the smiles keep coming!  

I've seen people hating the film, turning it off and so on ... but for my money, if you like vampire films, and appreciate the broad and rich history of them, then you should love this one!  It's a romp, yes, and it doesn't take itself too seriously ... just serious enough for it to entertain without becoming a farce.

I'd give it probably eight or nine out of ten!!

Review: The Lunchbox (2013)

Wait a moment ... why is David J Howe of this parish, reviewing a film which seems to have nothing to do with his usual fare of zombies, horrors, vampires, ghosts or Doctor Who ... or TV SciFi/Horror?

The answer is simple ... like some of the other non-genre films that I adore (say hello The Holiday and Airplane! - and of course The Stranger in Our Bed :)) it's a brilliant film, and very underrated and overlooked ... so I thought I'd try and share some love and get people seeking it out.

Released in 2013, and written and directed by Ritesh Batra, The Lunchbox contains a simple idea. In Mumbai, when the menfolk (and I assume womenfolk too) have all gone off to work in the city, their partners prepare their lunches at home. From what we see, these are usually some curries, vegetables, some chapati and so on. Similar lunches can also be ordered from companies who provide the service. Once they have been prepared, the lunchboxes are packed and then collected by a small army of people called dabbawalla ... these folk cycle and collect the boxes, then consolidate them all to go into crates on the trains, to be taken into the city, and then, using some arcane system of knowledge, get distributed to the offices and onto the desks of the workers, so they have a hot, freshly prepared dinner at lunchtime.

It's a superb idea, and the film does well in showing the process at work ... in a crowded Mumbai, people everywhere, somehow these boxes reach their intended recipients ... well ... all except one.

The film is about two people: at home is Ila (Nimrat Kaur) who dutifully prepares lunch for her absent husband. She is aided by her unseen Auntie (Bharati Achrekar) and the two have a great banter as Ila prepares the food ... getting advice and help from her upstairs friend. The prepared lunchbox however doesn't get delivered to Ila's husband, instead it arrives with grumpy and about to retire Saajan (Irrfan Khan), who is surprised to receive such delicious food. The next day, realising the mistake, Ila pops a note in with the food, apologising. Saajan replies ... and so it begins.

The two begin a relationship of sorts through these notes and the food that Ila makes ... and it's beautiful. Ila is sad and lonely, and Saajan is a widower ... so the two share their stories and their lives and slowly it changes them ...

I love the film. It was recommended to me by a friend at work, and I managed to find a copy ... It manages to pull at all the right strings in presenting a very human story through the most unlikely of circumstances ... Ila's 'Auntie' is a brilliant creation. Never seen, but always there with advice and help and consolation. The scenes of Mumbai are brilliantly shot, and the offices and the people are as real a depiction of the culture and the people as I have ever seen.

The film is in Hindi, but has subtitles in English, but with such a good film this doesn't matter as the performances and the story pull you through.  I'm not going to reveal how it ends or the twists it takes as it's worth seeking it out yourself!

If you like a good romantic film, and don't mind subtitles, then please check it out! There are DVD copies on the big A if you look ... and it's available on Prime if you want to stream it.

But don't take my word for it ... according to the Wiki, the film won the 'Critics Week Viewers Choice Award' also known as the 'Grand Rail d'Or'. It was a box-office success and received unanimous critical acclaim. The Lunchbox was also nominated for 'Best Film Not in the English Language' at the 2015 British Academy Film Awards.

Review: Black Mirror Season 6

Thank goodness for Black Mirror. Just when you thought there might be nothing left to watch on Netflix, along come some more episodes of the best science fiction/drama/horror/fantasy series going!

Season five was some four years ago, so writer and creator Charlie Brooker has a lot of material to play with, and the opening episode is in many ways a typical Black Mirror scenario, concerned with technology, it's rapid rise, and where this might all eventually lead. It's one of the big strengths of the series that a simple 'what if' can launch you into some full blown horror scenario which still seems completely believable.

In 'Joan is Awful' we follow the character of Joan (Annie Murphy) who, with her distinctive white streaks in her hair is head of something or other at a large tech company. She has a bad day: she has to sack a colleague, sings in the car going to work, drops a cigarette on said colleague as they leave the building ... just a general, normal bad day ...

But when she gets home, she discovers that the streaming company Streamberry (a direct swipe of Netflix, even down to the onscreen visuals and sounds) has a new series on called Joan is Awful, and this follows the life of a lady called Joan, played by Salma Hyack, who looks exactly like Joan, and whose day unfolds in exactly the same way ... even down to secret text from an ex-boyfriend ...

As a result her current boyfriend (or husband, it's not important) walks out on her, she loses her job, and her life becomes more and more a living hell ... and of course the TV show matches this all beat for beat.

It transpires that, when Joan signed up for Streamberry, she ticked the box that said she had read and accepted the terms and conditions, and as a result, Streamberry was allowed to stalk her and to use her life as the basis for a TV show!  Shades here of the South Park episode 'Human CentiPad' where one of the children, Kyle, is stalked by Apple as a result of not reading the Terms and Conditions when agreeing to download the latest iTunes update, and as a result he has actually agreed to be part of a horrendous medical experiment!

Anyway, Joan takes her complaints to Streamberry, but meets a frosty reception as this is all part of their global plans. Salma Hyack is also displeased as they are using her likeness via an AI to make the episodes - and she has no say and gets no fees ... so she and Joan join forces to try and take Streamberry down!

The episode is a brilliant reflection on modern life where we're expected to read many-page terms and conditions online in order to access services, and in reality have little idea as to what we are signing up to. Plus the ruthlessness and cold-heartedness of Streamberry is notable, moreso as Netflix are airing the series, and this seems to not reflect well on them at all ... I guess someone there has a sense of irony or humour after all. I do wish they would agree to pay the writers fairly though :(

The second episode is called 'Loch Henry' and is a complete change of mood and style. Here we're with a young couple Davis (Samuel Blenkin) and Pia (Myha'la Herrold) who arrive at Davis' family home by the Loch, looking to make a documentary about a couple who went missing there years ago. There's various likely suspects, and we soon realise that this time we're in murder-mystery territory as the culprits are revealed ...

I don't want to say too much here as the pleasure in this episode is watching it unravel before you, and realising who and how the murders happened. It's a sad tale, and the ending isn't all happy ...

'Beyond the Sea' is a strange title for a character piece about two astronauts, Cliff Stanfield (Aaron Paul) and David Ross (Josh Hartnett) on a six year deep space mission.

What puzzled me a little about this episode was the time it was set in - apparently 1969 on Earth, but we're in some sort of alternate universe as the two astronauts are in a space station-like craft, and take it in turns to 'connect' their minds with a robotic body back on Earth, who looks and acts just like them, and which, when their mind is in it, carries on their life as though they had never left.

The robotic 'self' seems to be made from some quasi-organic material and 'bleeds' a silver liquid when cut. So when the men visit their wives and family, they can interact and carry on as normal.

This is, until a crazed Manson-like gang infiltrate David's home and viciously kill his family in front of him, objecting to his 'non-human' form.

David slips into depression, as he is now unable to take the breaks he would have done from the tedium of the space craft. But then Cliff has an idea, why doesn't David take Cliff's robot body for some periods ... to give him relief and to try and keep him sane.  Thus David does this, and meets Cliff's wife Lana (Kate Mara) and son. David can paint, which Cliff cannot, and so David persuades him to allow him to continue to visit in order to complete a painting of the house ...

As this is a Black Mirror episode, perhaps you shouldn't expect happy endings, and here where the story goes and how it ends is maybe the darkest the series has delved so far. Ostensibly a science fiction episode, it's actually a very dark treatise on loneliness, death, and the human condition ...

'Mazey Day' follows the life of a papparazo photographer, Bo (Zazie Beetz), who picks up a lead on a celebrity Mazey Day (Clara Rugaard) who has not been seen for two weeks after she left a film set. Bo has been recently disenfranchised by her chosen career when one of her 'subjects' commits suicide ... But the Mazey Day pictures are worth a lot of money, and so she sets out to try and find her, tracing her to a rehabilitation centre.  She and some fellow 'togs' break in, and find that she seems to be being held captive there ... but why?

As always, I'm not going to give the game away, but this is a great horror-based episode, with a neat twist that we certainly didn't see coming ... It's television firing on all cylinders, and giving us science fiction, horror, thriller, drama and everything in between ...

Finally in Season 6 comes 'Demon79', and Brooker's penchant for humour comes right to the fore (the episode is co-written with Bisha K Ali). Nida (Anjana Vasan) is a mild manner worker selling shoes in a department store, and she experiences imagined flashes of extreme violence against some who cross her. She is forced to eat her lunch in the basement, because others have complained of the smell of her spicy food, and one day she finds a talisman, cuts her finger, and accidentally summons a demon Gaap (Paapa Essiedu). Initially appearing as a very horrific vision, the demon realises that if he is going to get anywhere, he needs to look acceptable so pulls an image from her mind as to who to look like. And he chooses Bobby from the band Boney M in the video for their single 'Rasputin'!  Thus he tells Nida that she needs to kill three people in three days or the world will end ... but what will mild-mannered Nida do?  Surely there's some out there who deserve to die!

Thus the stage is set for a very entertaining episode, levened with humour and great characters, and with all the little touches that make Black Mirror so great. I loved Nida watching Sapphire and Steel one evening ... and the use of Bobby off the Boney M video is inspired.

I have loved this season of Black Mirror which again proves that it's one of the best shows on streaming. Every episode presents something new and different and we veer from science fiction to horror to comedy to thriller to drama and back again, and often all of them all at once.  It's inspired and accomplished writing, supported by great performances and direction.  A note too for the design, which manages to make the settings look like the years they're supposed to be - 1979 here in 'Demon79'.

Do yourself a favour and dive in. If you're not keen on a certain episode (we found the very first one in season 1 - about the politician and the pig - to be not to our taste) then go to another as there are sure to be some things here which will inspire and move you.  For me, the best episode remains 'San Junipero', a superior treatise on love and death ... but others may love other episodes.

Review: Run Sweetheart Run (2020)

We found this thriller on Prime, and decided to give it a go ... and were very pleasantly surprised.  It's an effective 'chase' thriller wherein Cherie (Ella Balinska), a young mother, agrees to go on a date with a client of the law firm she works for ... as she is preparing though, her period starts, and she is out of tampons, so has to extemporise.

Initially, this focus on her period and the blood seemed out of place and, well, icky ... but it actually has a lot to do with the action that follows. The man Cherie meets is Ethan (Pilou Asbæk), and while he seems kind and nice and fun to be with, he's actually something of an unpredictable maniac who dogs hate ... Cherie runs from him, not realise that he's actually some sort of supernatural demon who has scented her blood and so can find her wherever she goes.

Thus she runs ... and the film occasionally puts up a large red RUN on the screen each time she needs to get out of there ... shades of the Werewolf Break in The Beast Must Die!  But each time, Ethan turns up to slaughter whoever might be with or helping Cherie!  It's a great action concept and the film handles it really well. You never quite know when he might appear or who might get killed ...

Eventually she finds some help, but I'm not going to go there as it's worth enjoying the film for yourself.

The blood and gore is well done, and the sense of threat and terror is ratcheted up as the film progresses. Cherie is a good heroine, strong and capable, but she finds herself being tried by the supernaturally strong and unkillable Ethan. At times he reminded me of 'the Shape' in John Carpenter's Halloween and subsequent films ... a strong, mostly silent, stalker who is out to get you!

Run Sweetheart Run was directed by Shana Feste from a screenplay by Feste, Keith Josef Adkins and Kellee Terrell, and is another great slice of horror from Blumhouse Studios, who seem to be cornering the market these days in great horror thrillers.  Well worth checking out.

 

 

Review: Freaky (2020)

Freaky, is, probably because filmmakers have no imagination, a riff on the Freaky Friday film - ie it's a bodyswap.  But this is a little more imaginative in that here, the teenaged victim swaps with the serial killer!

It all kicks off in a very familiar style, no real surprise as it's a Blumhouse film, and they tend to know their horror. So there's a killer, the Butcher, who targets teens at a prom, who comes back every so often to kill again ... and we're stalking a girl, killing her boyfriend ... it even has the Halloween style masked killer who cocks his head to the side to inspect a kill ...

But then we leap forward, and it's the turn of another group of teens to try and escape the killings ... but the killer uses an ancient sacrificial blade called la Dola and this causes his victim, Millie (Kathryn Newton) to swap with the Butcher (Vince Vaughn) ... The bulk of the film then follows 'Millie' as the Butcher reinvents her as a hot chick, out to find kids to kill, and 'The Butcher' as Millie tries to come to terms with what has happened and to recruit her friends to help her stop the killings!

There are some neat gore effects, but nothing too nasty or dwelt upon which I appreciated ... however the murder methods are quite nasty - cut in half on a wood saw, a meat hook in the eye ... The performances too are excellent, with kudos especially to Newton and Vaughn who seem to be having a great time, and who manage to make the volte face idea work.

The love of horror continues into the character names. Millie's boyfriend is called Booker Strode (no doubt after Laurie Strode from Halloween), and Millie's second name is Kessler (taken from David in An American Werewolf in London?). The film was inspired by the writer, Michael Kennedy, seeing Happy Death Day and liking the mix of slasher film with Groundhog Day (and that film and it's sequel are Highly recommended!). Thus Freaky is directed by the same man: Christopher Landon.

Well worth 90 minutes of your time, if you like horror with an 80s vibe but which manages to do something new and interesting, then this should be right up your street.

Review: Bloodshot (2020)

This Vin Diesel film is new on Prime and new to me ... it's a science fiction tale, but starts as though it's a straight thriller.

Diesel plays a soldier, Ray Garrison, out in combat, and he ends up kidnapped by the bad guy, who then kills his wife in order to try and make him talk ... but Diesel knows nothing so gets shot in the head for his trouble ...

But then, we discover that Diesel's body has been taken for scientific research and he's been given a hefty dose of nanobots which have repaired his body, and which make him superstrong and almost unstoppable ...

So what does he do? He heads off to find the guy who killed his wife to extract his revenge ...

To say more would be to spoil the film and to give away some of the twists ... needless to say it's not straighforward! It is, however, a hugely enjoyable action thriller of the type that Diesel does really well ... if you remember him in the excellent Pitch Black and XXX then this is more of the same!

The film also stars Talulah Riley as his wife Gina, and Eiza González as KT. The main protagonist is Guy Pierce as Dr Emil Harting, but there are strong performances from Sam Heughan and Lamorne Morris as well.

A very enjoyable evening's entertainment!  Recommended!

Review: New DOCTOR WHO books Christmas 2022: A Short History of Everyone; The Official 60th Anniversary Annual 2023; Origin Stories

It's been a little time since I've had a chance to chat about some new Doctor Who titles, so it's been a pleasure to look at these three titles, all of which appeared recently ...

First up is Doctor Who: A Short History of Everyone. This is actually material compiled from three earlier titles published by Penguin: How To Be A Timelord; The Companion's Companion and A History Of Humankind; but the material has been reworked with additional illustration and 'jottings' to bring it up to date and relevant for the 13th Doctor.

It's a strange book really: it's aimed at the younger market, so the layout is all handwritten text with notes scribbled in the margins, faux post-it-notes scattered about ... as though the Doctor has compiled all this information together in one place, complete with photos and drawings and sketches and so on, and it's just been printed! There's sections 'written' by Ace, and Grace Holloway and UNIT and Susan and so on ... All as though the Doctor has kept a scrapbook of everything as they wander through their adventures. And it's all very 'talking down', with quips and jokes and all aimed at ... maybe a 6 year old?

But there is a fondness about it ... it's busy and interesting to look at, quite diverting ... it's just all so young-aimed. I suppose in a way the show with the 13th Doctor was aimed far younger than the 12th or previous Doctors. The storytelling onscreen was simpler and the moral dilemmas more straightforward and in-your-face, so possibly this is where they were trying to pitch this book ...

As an introduction to Doctor Who for a young fan, it's pretty good, though lacking much in the way of meat. It is excellently designed and structured though, and the authors (Craig Donaghy and Justin Richards) have done a great job in trying to cover as many bases as they can. As always with these books, there's a focus on 'modern Who' ie post 2005, but there's a fair amount of Classic Who represented too with information on past Doctors and companions, as well as a handful of monsters who have not (so far) reappeared in the new series: Haemovores, Sil, Krynoid, Axons, Jagaroth and so on.

All in all, a nice little book which should be diverting for any young fan!

Next up is Doctor Who: The Official 60th Anniversary Annual 2023. Over the years the Doctor Who Annual has undergone various transformations. From being predominantly fiction-based for most of the Classic Series, to now being a photo/latest series-based book in line with the majority of Doctor Who publishing in the 2000s.

For the 60th Anniversary volume, writer and designer Paul Lang has pulled together as much as the 62 pages allow ... And again this is all written for younger readers ... using slang and trying to be flippant and funny all the time. Some of it works, but there's a part of me that really hankers for the adult-written but accessible factual texts of the past ... I guess the Annual is not the place to be looking for that!

There a history of the Doctor here, Daleks, Companions, Weapons ... that some items are missing is covered in that the 13th Doctor had her memory wiped ... so this is only the stuff she can remember ... it's fiction posing as fact posing as fiction ... very Meta!

We have Sontarans, Sea Devils, Swarm and Azure ... Karvanista ... foes of the Flux ... some puzzles and quizzes, a drawing challenge ... There's even a short story here by Jasbinder Bilan - 'Clara Oswald and the Enchanted Forest' (which is actually from the book Origin Stories! Nice piece of PR there!)

The Annual has always been traditionally the Christmas stocking present for kids, and this volume continues the tradition. Like the Short History, it's busy and there's a lot crammed in ... plenty to read and look at on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, some activities to do, a story to read ...  

As a celebration of 60 years, Annual-style, it's good, and Lang covers all the main bases. It's also gone up in price by £1 - the first price rise since 2009 - 13 years! Which is not bad going.

Finally for this selection, Doctor Who: Origin Stories. This is a collection of ten short stories (and an Epilogue) featuring the lives of some of the Doctor's companions before they met the Doctor ... Two of them have been written by the actresses who played the companion: Sophie Aldred contributes an Ace story, and Katy Manning pens a Jo story. It's also good to see credit and acknowledgement being given to the creators and copyright owners of several of the characters and elements used within the stories.

The 'Ace' story, 'Chemistry', kicks things off, and it's a tale of Ace at school where she invents Nitro9 and blows up the Chemistry Lab ... but the Doctor is there too as a chemistry teacher who helps her ... and then the Head turns into a monster and the Doctor saves her ... 

It's nicely written, but I'm not a great fan of narratives where the Doctor inserts his/herself into the past lives of companions before they met him ... that would do all sorts of harm to the timestreams as well as screwing up in-show continuity (just look at Clara!)! Sadly this meant that several of the stories in this book were not for me.

'My Daddy Fights Monsters' by Dave Rudden is a tale of young Kate Lethbridge-Stewart and an encounter with an alien 'Assessor' observing the Earth and trying to find more out about the Doctor ... At least the Doctor isn't in this one ... it's OK ... a little simple ... but something that could conceivably have happened in Kate's past.

The next story 'The Myriapod Mutiny' is by Emma Norry and features Yas and Ryan, again at school and again facing some alien incursion ... and the Doctor makes an appearance too ... but it's OK as their memories are wiped at the end ...

Then there's a Davros story by Temi Oh, a Sarah Jane Smith tale from Mark Griffiths in which she meets the fourth Doctor but then forgets all about it at the end, a second tale from Dave Rudden has Vastra telling a story of her early life to Jenny, Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé writes about Martha Jones who meets the Doctor and then forgets all about it, Nikita Gill's story features Amy Pond and Rory, Jasbinder Bilan tackles Clara (who again meets the Doctor and then forgets all about it), and finally Katy Manning spins a tale of Jo Jones (nee Grant). This is more of a memoir - various little excerpts from her life - and she meets a time traveller ... but it's Iris Wildthyme from Paul Magrs' books and audios rather than the Doctor ... and then finally the Epilogue where we get another story from Dave Rudden which features the Master/Missy.

Overall this is an uneven and disappointing selection. Too many of the tales rely on a past, and then forgotten, meeting with the Doctor, and for many of these companion characters, part of the point of them appearing in the show was that their past lives were uneventful and lacking meaning: a meaning that travelling with the Doctor gave them. Maybe because it's aimed at the 5-10 year old reader this sort of repetition is okay ... the young fan just waiting and anticipating in each case for the Doctor to appear ... 

Conceptually a book focussing on stories of what happened to the companions before they met and travelled with the Doctor was perhaps always going to be a struggle ... either there is no story there, or they had already met (and forgotten) all manner of alien monsters and nasties, and of course the Doctor was there to put things right. It does have a beautifully composed cover though - sadly uncredited in the book.

Review: Doctor Who and the Daleks (2022)

Every so often a Doctor Who item comes along that when you first year about it, you scratch your head and wonder why ...  This was my reaction when I heard about this new edition of Doctor Who and an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks (as it was originally called) being released by BBC books. It's a large format hardback illustrated by Robert Hack, one of the artists whose work has been seen on trading cards and in the Doctor Who comics and graphic novels ... he's also a fine fellow in real life!

So I wondered how they could make this work ... what a strange choice of something to release ... a book that has been in print almost non-stop since it's first release in 1965 ...

And yesterday I got a review copy.

And wow!

Sometimes a book just gets everything right, and this is one of those times. The size is sort of mid-way between a large format A4 sort of size, and the smaller Royal size that some hardback fiction is released at. But the slightly squarer format really works.

Probably my only complaint is that title. They have called it Doctor Who and the Daleks ... I would have preferred the original and more nostalgic Doctor Who in an Exciting Adventure with the Daleks ... but that's just being picky.

The book contains the text from the 2011 reissue of the novelisation by BBC Books in their 'Target' imprint ... but this time, for reasons best known to them, they omit to credit Justin Richards for the 'Changing Face' and 'About the Authors' texts, and Steve Tribe for the 'Between the Lines' section. There's also nothing about Robert in the book itself (he does get a mention on the back cover flap though). It would have been nice to have seen an afterword piece from him on his work, the unused cover ideas and so on ... Neil Gaiman does get a credit for his superb and nostalgic introduction though ... which sets the scene nicely for the story to follow.

The real beauty of the book kicks in on the first page, as we are treated to the first of the many illustrations of a car on a foggy Barnes Common being driven by Ian Chesterton. This reminds us that this is David Whitaker's superb novelisation, which differs in some respects from the televised story ... like Neil, I have memories of the Barnes Common opening, the car accident, and the strange man with the everlasting matches ... and it's all here ...

Robert's illustrations take you into the story and present scenes as we move through ... it's all here ... mutations in the swamps ... Dalek mutants ... Thals being exterminated ... Ian climbing inside the Dalek casing ... and, finally, the incredible glass Dalek itself!  All rendered in gorgeous illustration which leap off the page.

If this was an experiment, then it really worked well! The book is beautiful to look at, and the story is one of the very best from the Doctor Who Novelisation range.

At £30 the book is not cheap, but I'm assuming that you can probably find it for less if you search - at the time of writing Amazon have it for £19.99 which is pretty good!

As a gift to give to a new fan of the show, it's pretty perfect ... and for us old nostalgists, it brings back lots of smashing memories ...

Top marks to BBC Books for this one ... and maybe we'll see more stories adapted into this format in the future!

Doctor Who and the Daleks is published in hardback by BBC Books (an imprint of Ebury Publishing). 3 November 2022, £30.00