Doctor Who (David Tennant) – Fear Her and Army of Ghosts

The Doctor (Tennant) and Rose (Billie Piper) find themselves in a rather unusual adventure during the 2012 Olympics. Fear Her was written by Matthew Graham and first aired on 24 June, 2006. Arriving in an English neighbourhood, the Doctor realises something strange is going on, when children seem to be disappearing up and down the…

Doctor Who (David Tennant) – Rise of the Cybermen and Age of Steel

Airing on 13 May, 2006, Tom MacRae’s script brought back the devious and dangerous Cybermen to the television programme, when the Doctor (Tennnant), Rose (Billie Piper) and Mickey (Noel Clarke) end up on a parallel Earth, where John Lumic (Roger Lloyd-Pack), a power-hungry industrialist, plans to upgrade humanity for his own benefit. Running around in…

Doctor Who (Christoper Eccleston) – The Long Game and Father’s Day

The Doctor (Eccleston), Rose (Billie Piper) and Adam (Bruno Langley) travel to the far flung future, to Satellite 5, orbiting the Earth, only to find something has gone dreadfully wrong with future history. The Long Game was written by Russell T. Davies and first aired on 7 May, 2005. The Doctor is sure something has…

Doctor Who (Christopher Eccleston) – World War Three and Dalek

The Doctor (Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) alongside Mickey (Noel Clarke), Harriet Jones (Penelope Wilton) and Rose’s mother, Jackie (Camille Coduri) take on the Slitheen in the conclusion to last week’s episode, Aliens of London. World War Three was written by Russell T. Davies and had an original airdate of 23 April, 2005. The episode…

Doctor Who (Christoper Eccleston) – The Unquiet Dead and Aliens of London

The Doctor (Eccleston) and Rose (Billie Piper) travel back to Cardiff (an in-joke because that is where the series shoots), 1869. There they quickly find themselves embroiled in alien mystery, and chatting with Charles Dickens (Simon Callow) in The Unquiet Dead. Written by Mark Gatiss, with an original airdate of 9 April, 2005, this episode…

Whistle Down the Wind (1961) – Bryan Forbes

As I return to the Family Genre in the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film book, I come across a number of recommendations from a screening for E.T. which I’ve previously covered Whistle Down the Wind is a British film that focuses on a group of young children, including Charles (Alan Barnes), Nan (Diane…

Toronto After Dark 2016: War On Everyone – John Micheal McDonagh

My time with the 2016 Toronto After Dark film festival got underway last night with the exceptional, brash, bold, politically incorrect, devastatingly hilarious War On Everyone. I think the only thing I would have changed about it is the name, everything else, totally worked for me. Now, as a caveat, part of the enjoyment of…

Quantum Leap (1990) – Animal Frat and Another Mother

  Sam (Scott Bakula) is back in school, when he leaps into Knut ‘Wild Thing’ Wileton, in Animal Frat. This Animal House-like episode was penned by Chris Ruppenthal and aired 3 January, 1990. It’s 19 October, 1967, and Sam seems to be Big Man On Campus, but as always, he’s there to put something right,…

Runaway (1984) – Michael Crichton

  My time with the Sci-Fi Chronicles book continues as I dive into Michael Crichton’s other science fiction film from the 80s, Runaway, starring Tom Selleck, Cynthia Rhodes, and Gene Simmons. Selleck is Jack Ramsay, a cop that specializes in robots. With his partner, Thompson (Rhodes) at his side, he finds himself pulled into a…