Doctor Who’s ninth season began with a story that anticipated Marvel’s X-Men and ends with this, a story that anticipates Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace. The dialogue about “women’s lib” between the Master’s unwitting lackeys Ingram and Hyde has the nose-bruising glibness of a classic Rick Dagless/Liz Wool interaction, and the first […]
Pop Culture
Doctor Who A-Z #63: The Mutants (1972)
Everyone knows The Mutants is a bad story. Ever since it was being filmed, when Jon Pertwee first noticed the similarity between the opening scene and Monty Python‘s “It’s…” man, people have been making fun of it. In Doctor Who Magazine‘s Mighty 200 poll, The Time Monster was the only […]
Doctor Who A-Z #62: The Sea Devils (1972)
We’re exactly halfway through Jon Pertwee’s tenure as Doctor now. I’ve had plenty of opportunities to disagree with the consensus on this period of the show so far, and there’ll be even more of that in the second half of Pertwee’s run. Mostly I’ve disagreed in a way which favours […]
Doctor Who A-Z #61: The Curse of Peladon (1972)
Jon Pertwee-era Doctor Who looks and feels very different to William Hartnell-era Doctor Who, and yet behind the scenes there’s still a surprising amount of shared personnel. This serial, for instance, is written by Brian Hayles, who’s been working on the show since 1966’s The Celestial Toymaker. He’s had a […]
Doctor Who A-Z #60: Day of the Daleks (1972)
Steven Moffat once cited The Rescue as one of the most influential stories in Doctor Who‘s history, arguing that while we commemorate the debut of a new Doctor, companion or monster we rarely remember the stories which introduce new ideas, or a different type of story that can be told within this wide-open […]
Slice of Lynch: Eraserhead (1977) David Lynch’s Masterpiece Still Enthralls
Let’s Rock! Decoding David Lynch, One Film At a Time – Part One It’s been a few weeks since David Lynch passed, and this is the first time I have been able to bring myself to watch one of his films. I mulled it over for a long while, trying […]
House Of Ashes (Glasgow Frightfest 2025)
It never ceases to amaze me how genre cinema can adapt itself to anything. From sociopolitical melodrama to generations divided, whether it be Science Fiction or Horror, there are reasons why so many of us are drawn off the beaten path and into the spooky woods of the cinematic landscape. […]
Psyche (Glasgow Frightfest 2025)
Take Alex Garland’s Annihilation with a smidgen of the budget and far fewer trees. Blend this with Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal and filter the result through Terrence Malick. That is a reductive description of Psyche, a discordant but striking journey through landscapes and mindscapes alike that received its UK […]
Rumpelstiltskin (Glasgow Frightfest 2025)
The original folk tale of Rumpelstiltskin is one we’ve all had read to us as children or at least know the overarching events of. A miller, eager to elevate his social status, lies about his daughter’s abilities – claiming she can spin straw into gold. The king, soon to remarry, […]
The Doom Busters (Glasgow Frightfest 2025)
Maybe in the future, I should judge what films I watch based on if I crack a smile or not looking at the synopsis, because when I noticed that The Doom Busters was about British citizens serving in the Home Guard uncovering an alien presence during World War II, I […]