Writer/director Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light is a beautiful and emotional achievement, celebrating the beauty of cinema while allowing its star, Olivia Colman to deliver a powerful, layered and nuanced performance as Hillary. She’s a woman of a certain age who suffers from a mental illness, which she has to contend with in her day-to-day…
Tag: stephen
Doctor Who (William Hartnell) – The Gunfighters
The Doctor (Hartnell), Stephen (Peter Purves) and Dodo (Jackie Lane) find themselves in the Wild West, specifically the O.K. Corral when the TARDIS next lands in this tale written by Donald Cotton. Filled with a sense of fun, and a really bad recurring song, this story aired in 4 parts, A Holiday for the…
Doctor Who (William Hartnell) – The Celestial Toymaker
Michael Gough menaces the Doctor (Hartnell) in this week’s story! Written by Brian Hayles and airing in 4 parts, The Celestial Toyroom, The Hall of Dolls, The Dancing Floor, and the Final Test, from 2 April to 23 April, 1966, this story was originally planned to be Hartnell’s exit as the Doctor. The TARDIS…
Doctor Who (William Hartnell) – The Ark
This week, the TARDIS travels far into the future, and happily, I didn’t have to watch a reconstruction of it! This time all of the episodes survived, and it was a fun tale. The Ark was originally aired from 5 March to 26 March 1966, and was written by Paul Erickson and Lesley Scott. Over…
Doctor Who (William Hartnell) – Galaxy 4
Season 3 of the classic BBC series gets underway with this four-part adventure written by William Emms, and originally broadcast from 11 September to 2 October, 1965, and isn’t the strongest way to start the new season. Unfortunately, that may be due to the fact that the viewing experience available to viewers now, is just…
Doctor Who (William Hartnell) – The Time Meddler
The second season of Doctor Who comes to an end with this fun tale scripted by Dennis Spooner. It originally ran from 3 July to 24 July, 1965, and introduced another time traveler, the Monk (Peter Butterworth), from the same place as the Doctor, though Gallifrey isn’t mentioned by name yet. The four parts, The…
Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (1951) – Albert Lewin
The recommendations following Pandora’s Box in Great Movies – 100 Years of Film is this romantic fantasy drama starring Ava Gardner and James Mason in the titular roles and both of them are seeking a form of redemption and salvation. Gardner as Pandora, for me, is extremely unlikable character, cold, manipulative, and quite willing to…
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
Romero finds his way onto the 101 Horror Movies again with the follow-up to the classic Night of the Living Dead with Dawn of the Dead. First off, let me get this out of the way. I liked it. I also like the remake. I did, however, find that the film itself, the 139 minute…
The Mind Reels 