Tom Baker’s penultimate tale as The Doctor was a four-parter written by Johnny Byrne that aired from 31 January to 21 February, 1981. It introduced a new companion, Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and the return of The Master in the form of Geoffrey Beevers and the Anthony Ainley. The Doctor and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) arrive…
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014) – Mark Webb
The Web-Head, Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) is back in his most recent appearance which I take a look at today for the Sci-Fi Chronicles book. Mark Webb returns as director, Emma Stone returns as Gwen, Sally Field is Aunt May, and this time around spidey-senses are tingling when OsCorp seems to be behind all the…
Magnum, p.i. (1986) – Kapu and Missing Melody
Thomas (Tom Selleck) finds himself on the forbidden island of Kapu in the first episode ip this week. It was written by Deborah Dean Davis, and had an original airdate of 26 November, 1986. While attempting to serve some papers, Thomas comes to the aid of a young Hawaiian woman, Alealea (Deborah Calbero), saving…
Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan (1982) – Vonda N. McIntyre
Vonda N. McIntyre who had previously written the Trek tale, The Entropy Effect, which is given a bit of a reference in this one, adapts the screenplay for the second film, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan into novel form. There are some nice differences, changes in dialogue and expanded scenes and characters…
Batman: The Animated Series (1992) – Dreams in Darkness, Beware the Gray Ghost and Cat Scratch Fever
This week’s visit to Gotham sees three episodes that aired on the 3rd, 4th and 5th of November, 1992, respectively. Up first is Dreams in Darkness. The Dark Knight, Batman (Kevin Conroy) finds himself a prisoner of Arkham Asylum (though they respect his need for a secret identity), when he is infected with Scarecrow’s…
Top Hat (1935) – Mark Sandrich
It’s time for some Astaire and Rogers song and dance routines with the next title in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film as I dive back into the musicals chapter of this very enjoyable book. Fred Astaire is Jerry Travers and Ginger Rogers is Dale Tremont in this wonderful little musical comedy….
Spider-Man 3 (2007) – Sam Raimi
My web-slinging adventures continue with my screening of Spider-Man 3 for the Sc-Fi Chronicles, and this is a bit of a mixed bag, as instead of trusting to the director who brought them two very successful pictures, the studio wanted to shoehorn in a fan favorite character, Venom (Topher Grace) instead of letting Spidey…
Doctor Who (Tom Baker) – Warriors Gate
This four part story that was written by Steve Gallagher and ran from 3 January to 24 January, 1981 saw, by stories end the departure of Romana (Lalla Ward) as well as K9 from the TARDIS, as the E-Space Trilogy comes to an end. Biroc (David Weston) gets aboard the TARDIS, and steers it…
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) – Zack Snyder
The Hero’s Code. It apparently means nothing to Batman (Ben Affleck). It apparently means nothing to Superman (Henry Cavill). And that’s troubling, because as a child, they were two of the characters I grew up with that taught me what it was. But even worse, the creative forces behind the scenes of the latest…
Out of Africa (1985) – Sydney Pollack
Meryl Streep and Robert Redford headline this romantic drama that is based on a true story, and is a recommendation from the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book for my screening of Gone With the Wind. Claiming a number of Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Score (by John Barry), Screenplay, and obviously, Cinematography,…
The Mind Reels 