The Montclair Film Festival is held in Montclair New Jersey at the Clairridge (A non-profit cinema in the area) every year during October. The festival includes American films, foreign films, short films and documentaries. Some of the films that were shown this year included Anora, The Order, The Piano Lesson, […]
Pop Culture
Doctor Who A-Z #26: The Savages (1966)
This is the first Doctor Who script by Ian Stuart Black. For all he won’t be one of the series’ most prolific or acclaimed writers, he’ll always be a step or two ahead of where the show is headed. His next story, The War Machines, maps out the core subject […]
Doctor Who A-Z #25: The Gunfighters (1966)
The first episode of The Gunfighters is titled ‘A Holiday for the Doctor’, and that fairly describes the mood as the story opens. Not since The Romans have we seen a TARDIS crew so eager for a vacation: Steven and Dodo, a duo who even seemed to be having fun […]
Doctor Who A-Z #24: The Celestial Toymaker (1966)
The format of Doctor Who is famously one of the most expansive in television history, and it is to the writing team’s immense credit that they took about a year to get bored of its limitations. Terry Nation’s idea to have the Doctor and his companions enter the human imagination in Season […]
Doctor Who A-Z #23: The Ark (1966)
Doctor Who is a fantastical show, so much so that every time a character does something banal, your ears prick up. When Dorothea “Dodo” Chaplet, the Doctor’s newest companion, steps out of the TARDIS on her first voyage and immediately sneezes, we know there has to be some reason for it. […]
Doctor Who A-Z #22: The Massacre (1966)
Also known as The Massacre of St. Bartholemew’s Eve, this is a case of crazy name, surprisingly sober story. The Massacre sees John Lucarotti return to Doctor Who after taking a break for the show’s second season. By the 1970s, that kind of break would be unremarkable; Robert Holmes sat […]
6 Things Not To Miss at Soho Horror Festival (2024 Curtain Raiser)
The end of November sees the award-winning Soho Horror Festival return to Brixton – 3 days of fresh and independent horror that is certain to make jaws drop, entertain and raise the flag for us horror weirdos. The line-up has something for everyone, dipping into many different sub-genres but here […]
Doctor Who A-Z #21: The Daleks’ Master Plan (1965-66)
The odd thing about Terry Nation is that, the more he began to define himself as a writer of epic science fiction, the more he returned to his roots in comedy sketches. It’s not just that stories like this and The Chase contain more comedy than the Doctor Who stories […]
Doctor Who A-Z #20: The Myth Makers (1965)
Andrew Cartmel, the final script editor for classic series Doctor Who, would always push for more stories to be set on Earth, arguing that whereas the BBC’s attempt to create alien planets and races were variable, they were reliably world-class at period drama. The Myth Makers proves this was always […]
Doctor Who A-Z #19: Mission to the Unknown (1965)
I’d like to think these reviews hold a bit of interest to people who aren’t into Doctor Who, if only because the history of Doctor Who is, to a large extent, the history of British television. Today’s entry, for instance, tells us something about the BBC’s commercial position in the […]