It is currently easier to have a fresh watch of classic series Doctor Who than it has been since it was first broadcast. No need to consult a series guide to find out which episodes to watch first, no need to wait for a DVD or VHS release of a […]
Pop Culture
Doctor Who A-Z #10: The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964)
For all that Doctor Who is famously a show that changes continually, its core tone, themes and concepts are remarkably durable. The show’s bank of ideas are often added to but rarely subtracted from: whereas there are many things in Ncuti Gatwa’s first season that wouldn’t happen in a Patrick […]
Delivery Run (Grimmfest 2024)
Online food delivery workers finally get their moment in the headlights in Joel Palmroos’ wintry rendition of Steven Spielberg’s road rage classic Duel. Getting it’s World Premiere at the recent Grimmfest, Delivery Run is a Finnish production set in Minnesota USA but seamlessly filmed entirely in Lapland. The story revolves […]
Doctor Who A-Z #09: Planet of Giants (1964)
If nothing else, Planet of Giants allows you to reflect on Verity Lambert’s pioneering genius. Doctor Who‘s first producer was pitched the idea of the TARDIS crew being miniaturised by C.E. Webber and Sydney Newman, who thought it would make a good first episode. Lambert thought it would be too […]
Doctor Who A-Z #08: The Reign of Terror (1964)
And so Doctor Who‘s first season ends as it began, with one of two “pure historical” stories not written by the subgenre’s mainstay John Lucarotti. The Reign of Terror is instead written by Dennis Spooner, who will soon take over as script editor from David Whitaker. As a script editor, […]
Doctor Who A-Z #07: The Sensorites (1964)
One of the questions this rewatch has made me reconsider is this: when did Doctor Who start to make its monsters complicated? In the new series, it’s commonplace: Peter Capaldi’s final season kicks off with five back-to-back episodes where an apparent monster turns out to be merely misunderstood. The trope […]
Doctor Who A-Z #06: The Aztecs (1964)
There’s a notorious moment in Timewyrm: Genesis, the first of Virgin Books’s New Adventures – stories marketed as “too broad and too deep for the small screen”, remember – where the Doctor scolds Ace for not wanting to be sexually assaulted by a paedophile. “Ace, these trips of ours are […]
Doctor Who A-Z #05: The Keys of Marinus (1964)
The Keys of Marinus is the first Terry Nation story. I know, I know he’s already done The Daleks, and any analysis of the show’s history will rightly record that serial as being more of a landmark than this one. But The Keys of Marinus is the first one that […]
Sayara (Grimmfest 2024)
Fan favourite director Can Evrenol, whose 2015 film Baskin was well-received in horror circles, had a new film playing this past weekend at Grimmfest, and although it’s not a horror per se, there are certainly grim, dark, and horrific parts to it. Sayara is a quiet young woman from Turkmenistan […]
Children of the Wicker Man (Grimmfest 2024)
The Wicker Man (1973) needs no introduction. To many, myself included, Robin Hardy’s folk-horror classic is considered one of the greatest British horror films – heck, perhaps horror films in general – of all time. However, to two of the director’s sons, Justin and Dominic Hardy, The Wicker Man is […]