Hasslein Blog: May 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 012—The Romans

By T. Scott Edwards

The Romans is a courageous episode, for a number of reasons – principally, it is a comedy. It works solely based on the idea that humour is milked out of every possible scene. Added to this the rather grim subplots involving Ian and Barbara, and it is tremendously brave – balancing humour with such gritty realism is a hard task, but Spooner does it with aplomb. As prompted by Verity Lambert, who wished for the series to broaden its dramatic range further still, she approached Spooner to write an overtly comical story. What is so magnificent about the comedy in this serial is the very "Carry On..."ness of it all. From the cast, most had since, or had before, appeared in the infamous series of British films, and much of the humour and performances would be right at home in Carry On Cleo or the like. The combination of visual gags and word play, mixed with some slapstick physical comedy, all combine to make this a very successful comedy.

From the opening of the first episode, the tempo has changed enormously, and we can see the disappointment in Vicki's face from the outset – following on from her joining the TARDIS crew in the previous serial, she has been presented with a month of relaxation in ancient Rome instead. The scenes of the crew nonchalantly lying around, quaffing wine and grapes is brilliant. What this rather effectively does, though, is to cement Vicki's place with the crew – we haven't had adventures where they have bonded, but rather they have become a united front – that family group again, by simply enjoying each others' company. Soon, though, the Doctor has decided to take Vicki on a little adventure, leaving Ian and Barbara to continue their relaxation, and outrageous flirting. The action starts almost immediately, of course, as the Doctor and Vicki discover the body of murdered Maximus Pettulian, and the Doctor very quickly adopts his guise to ensure adventure in the city of Rome. Maximus had been assassinated by a mute killer on the road to Rome, due to his involvement in a plot to assassinate Nero himself. The Doctor does not realise that yet, and so it inevitably leads to many instances of humour arising from mistaken identities.

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Sword of Sorcery #5

By Matthew Sunrich

"I feel evil seeping into my bones." –The Gray Mouser

Humankind has an enduring fascination with lost civilizations.

Of particular interest are those that are believed to have been swallowed by the ocean, for reasons that we can only guess at. The most famous of these is, of course, Atlantis, about which stories too numerous to list have been written. Others, including Lemuria, Mu, and Ys, have found their way into fiction, as well. (Mu, in particular, was a favorite of H. P. Lovecraft.) The idea that an entire continent could have just vanished from the face of the planet is undeniably intriguing, especially if we also subscribe to the idea that its human inhabitants differed from us in significant ways and that creatures beyond imagining walked its forests and shores.

This fascination is certainly connected to the belief that we, as a race, have lost something important. Perhaps the suffering and injustice in the world can be explained away by some document penned by a sage thousands of years ago, and if we could only access its wisdom peace could be restored. We were never meant to lose connection with our ancestors; they possessed fundamental knowledge that had been passed down since the beginning. Alas, those voices were forever silenced, and the cataclysmic severing of that connection is why we find it impossible to function in the world today.

Reason #2,583 That Sir Patrick Stewart Deserves His Knighthood

Heather Skye recently posted a video at YouTube that illustrates exactly why Patrick Stewart is an amazing guy, as he addresses the issue of violence against women.

Labels: Patrick Stewart

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Detective Comics #419

By Matthew Sunrich

People are willing to go to great lengths to keep their darkest secrets.

In Charlotte Bronte's classic novel Jane Eyre, the titular character takes a job as a governess in an eerie manor, Thornfield Hall, which is made even eerier by a strange presence in the attic. It turns out to be a madwoman named Bertha Mason, the first wife of Jane's betrothed and master of Thornfield, Edward Rochester, a fact that only comes out during their wedding ceremony. The cause of Bertha's insanity is unclear, though it is explored in Jean Rhys' intertextual novel Wide Sargasso Sea (for those of you who appreciate recommendations for further reading). This is perhaps the best-known example of someone's trying to hide an undesirable family member from the eyes of the world, but we find this sort of thing in numerous stories.

Quatermass II: An Exceptional Sequel—Part Two

By Greg Bakun

Two weeks ago, Hasslein Books published the first part of my review of the engaging serial Quatermass II. The first 2 episodes had been a very enjoyable experience and it is a wonderfully historical piece of British television. I watched the episodes late into the evening so the room was dark apart from the flicker of the TV which was emitting the spooky black & white images of a vintage piece of BBC history. Would the viewing of episodes 3 & 4 be as enjoyable as the first two installments? In a word, yes!

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 011—The Rescue

By T. Scott Edwards

The Rescue always had a difficult job on its hands – it needed to introduce a new companion as a replacement for Susan, whilst only being two episodes long, not really allowing a great deal of detailed characterisation. Written by the outgoing script editor, David Whitaker, it introduces Vicki admirably, by keeping the plot tight and focussed in the 50-minute running time allowed, and with a minimal cast.

Whitaker is no stranger to the two-episode format, having written Season 1's The Edge of Destruction. Here, though, there is very little action, but rather serves solely to introduce Maureen O'Brien to the cast of regulars – and it is done with wonderful panache. Vicki is clearly the sort of character which Susan should have been; rather than constantly whining or crying or spraining her ankles, she is dignified despite her loneliness, and seems equally alien and out-of-place compared with Barbara and Ian. Her dealing with Bennett, and her conversations with our regular crew, are magnificent – she fluctuates easily between pride and misery with a flair that Carole Ann Ford never could have handled.

And You Thought Having a Chip on Your Shoulder Was Bad...

by Rich Handley

A funny blast from my past just re-surfaced. Many years ago, my friend Joe Bongiorno and I were slated to write some introductions for a series of six Dark Horse Star Wars reprint books (Classic Star Wars: A Long Time Ago). At the time, another friend, Amy Pronovost, was brought in to draw me and Joe with a Star Wars species called a Hoojib sitting on our shoulders, which would have accompanied our intros.

Sadly, our involvement with the books was dropped due to space limitations (I've lost count how many times that's happened to me over the years... grumble mumble rassm frassm...), and so the world never got to revel in the glorious sight of a much-younger me with an antennaed space rabbit sitting on my shoulder (and... er... much more hair). However, Amy recently found the drawings she did all those years ago, so you can now you can behold me and the Hoojib in all our nerdy and well-coiffed splendor.

(Don't worry, Amy gave us her permission to post it, despite the "DO NOT REPOST!" plastered along the bottom.)

Labels: Dark Horse, hoojib, Star Wars

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Sword of Sorcery #4

Sword of Sorcery #4

By Matthew Sunrich

"This city has become unliveable. A man can't even
be cold and miserable in peace." –Fafhrd

Sometimes we forget just how much influence the work of H. P. Lovecraft has had on fantasy literature.

Usually associated with the horror genre, his Cthulhu Mythos introduced readers to the notion that there are things out there that are beyond the ken of mere mortals, things with indescribable forms, things with grotesque anatomies that defy any kind of logic with which we are familiar.

Why does that creature have tentacles on its face? What purpose could those sorts of appendages possibly serve?

Lando Calrissian: How I Helped Build a Scoundrel's Backstory

by Rich Handley

I used to write a lot for Lucasfilm's various Star Wars licensees, from feature articles and interviews to columns and some fiction. (I still write blogs for starwars.com from time to time, but that's about it these days.) This included wok for Star Wars Insider, Topps' Star Wars Galaxy Collector, Star Wars Gamer, Star Wars Fact Files, Dungeon/Polyhedron and more. Among the fiction were two tales about Lando Calrissian, one a comic book for Dark Horse Comics (co-written with Darko Macan), the other a short story picking up where the comic left off.

I thought I'd share the pages of the comic in this blog, for those interested. The story was called "Lady Luck," from Star Wars Tales #3, and it chronicled how Lando Calrissian (my favorite of the film characters) won Cloud City. Some time back, Brian Cronin, over at Comic Book Resources, offered a fun write-up about it here. (My great thanks to both Darko and editor Pete Janes, for allowing me to be a part what turned out to be a great gig.)

Trailers of the Planet of the Apes!

Labels: Planet of the Apes

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Detective Comics #412

Detective Comics #412

By Matthew Sunrich

In my recent post about Detective Comics #408, I discussed how the Gothic elements found in Batman's earliest Golden-Age stories had resurfaced at the beginning of the Bronze Age. This idea is again exemplified in the chilling pages of Detective Comics #412, where two knights, one medieval and one modern, do battle in "Legacy of Hate."

Bruce receives a telegram from Lord Elwood Wayne, a distant relative who is on his deathbed. He requests Bruce's presence at Waynemoor Castle in Northern England so that he can bequeath his inheritance, along with those of his other remaining relatives, in person rather than by way of a will. Bruce meets up with these other relatives on a rainy station platform: Wilhemina Wayne, from South Africa, Rev. Emelyn Wayne, a missionary in Asia, and Jeremy Wayne, from Australia.

GUEST BLOG: DVD Review: The Visitation - Special Edition

DVD Review:
The Visitation—Special Edition

By Greg Bakun

Doctor Who: The Visitation Special Edition 2-DVD Set
(Main Feature: 95 min)

Released by BBC Home Entertainment on May 14, 2013.
SRP $34.98 (DVD)

Subtitles: English SDH 4:3 Mono (Main Feature)

On a Friday night, twenty-eight years ago a 10 year old boy was sitting in his room when his mother called him out to the kitchen. It was late on an August night; perhaps 10:30pm. She called him into the kitchen because there was a series on TV she had never seen before. It was a strange mix of historical and sci-fi and she knew her son might be interested in seeing it. The series this young boy started to watch was Doctor Who and the story he found himself watching was The Visitation.

Obviously this story is about me. When my mom called me out to the kitchen, walking into the room I had no idea my life would change forever. For most fans, I am sure The Visitation may not be the story that they would use to introduce prospective new fans to the series but maybe they should. I think for me I was taken in by the visuals. All the costumes were strange and colorful. I fell in love with the Police Box that looked so rickety yet held so many secrets. I enjoyed the idea of younger people getting in trouble and needing rescue; I thought I could identify with it. I thought Peter Davison as the fifth Doctor was amazing and still is a favorite to this day. Then there was the Terileptil.

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Sword & Sorcery in the 1980s Arcade

Sword of Sorcery in the 1980s Arcade

By Matthew Sunrich

When Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson introduced the original version of Dungeons & Dragons as an optional expansion for their tabletop miniatures game Chainmail in 1974, they never could have dreamed that it would not only become immensely popular the world over (so popular, in fact, that Chainmail was soon abandoned altogether) but would also influence the world of gaming like nothing else before or since.

Follow Pat Carbajal on Facebook

Brilliant artist Pat Carbajal, who produces the wonderful covers and interior illustrations for our titles at Hasslein Books, is now on Facebook. I've been trying to convince him to join us for some time, as he's got a lot of fans there, and he finally caved. You can follow his work and marvel at his creations here. You'll be very glad you did.

Learn more.

Mona Lursa

GUEST BLOG: Cubing—Avatar: The Last Airbender

I don't watch a lot of TV. Oh, I used to, when I was a younger man (i.e., in high school and college), but then I stopped. See, six years ago, I underwent spinal fusion surgery, and it kept me more or less bedridden for a few months. And in that time, when even lifting a book cost some effort, about the only thing I really did was watch a lot of TV. So by the time I was recovered, I got really restless whenever I tried watching anything.

(This is all leading somewhere, I promise.)

Matthew Sunrich Presents: Sword of Sorcery #3

Sword of Sorcery #3

By Matthew Sunrich

"I'm considered an expert at silencing braggarts who
mock my compactness." –The Gray Mouser

Sword & sorcery and pirates have had a long association ("The Pool of the Black One," one of Robert E. Howard's original Conan stories, comes to mind). After all, the swashbuckling action, carousing, treasure-hunting, and roguish behavior endemic to corsair tales are also the trappings of sword & sorcery. Because of their similarities, the two genres mix extremely well, and, as we have seen again and again, the briny deep (with its own species of monsters, brigands, and inclement weather) can prove just as perilous as dry land, if not more so.

It's no surprise, then, that Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser would mix up with some pirates sooner or later.

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 010—The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Doctor Who Retro Review, Serial 010:
"The Dalek Invasion of Earth"
Starring: William Hartnell

By T. Scott Edwards

The Dalek Invasion of Earth is an epic adventure which sees our time travellers return to their home planet a few hundred years too late, to discover that the Daleks have conquered the planet and through slave labour and mind control are forcing the remaining survivors to mine for something from the planet's core. Terry Nation returns to his creations, the Daleks, with aplomb – after the hit-and-miss The Keys of Marinus, his writing is back on form. Whilst he'll never be as gifted at writing realistic three-dimensional characters as Lucarotti and Spooner, he does admirably when dealing with a grand-scale of characters, achieving a sense of national crisis as opposed to just a collection of characters dealing with their own issues. What is so magnificent about this serial is that we meet characters from every walk of life, and from a variety of different regions and in a number of varied locations, all dealing with the implications of the domination of their home planet. Some step up to rebel, whilst others work with their oppressive overlords and betray their own kind for some fresh fruit. Others use cunning to exploit their own people, for their own superficial gain.

The serial opens with the suicide of one of the Daleks' mind-controlled Robomen, as he struggles with his neck brace before collapsing into the poisonous depths of the river Thames. In the background throughout, there is a sign warning not to "Dump Bodies into the River". The grim realism of this sets it apart from Nation's other scripts – where he usually creates alien worlds and alien residents, here the focus is very British, and it is all the more shocking for it. The sign is something of a bug-bear of mine; the TARDIS crew spend at least ten minutes of this first episode wandering around under the bridge and yet fail to see the sign which is right behind them until much later. This is, of course, typical Nation – the realism is there, to some degree, but there is always something about it not ringing true. Peripheral vision is a hindrance to Doctor Who frequently, with characters not noticing things or not being spotted despite being in the most obvious hiding places – indeed, in the Pertwee years, it is a constant fallback as a plot device – but here it feels ridiculous. That they are looking around for clues, standing right in front of the sign, yet utterly missing it, irks me.

Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Lost" Episodes

by Rich Handley

As Star Trek Into Darkness warps into U.S. theaters today, here's a look back at a "lost" episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, titled The Star Trek Logs: An MTV Big Picture Special Edition. The special aired on MTV in November 1991, during TNG's fifth season, as a tie-in to both Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country and the two-part episode "Unification."

The Star Trek Logs featured the lovely Marina Sirtis as her TNG character, Counselor Deanna Troi, on the bridge of the U.S.S. Enterprise. Troi, having developed an interest in learning about Kirk's crew following her recent encounter with Spock in "Unification," is shown studying clips from The Original Series and its films, as though viewing recordings stored in the ship's computer.

Taking the Super Out of the Heroes

by Rich Handley

An article I wrote for Bleeding Cool Magazine #4 is in stores today. I completely forgot that was even coming out this week. Be sure to ask your local comic shop to set aside a copy for you! It's destined to be worth a gajillion dollars some day.

Labels: Bleeding Cool, Rich Handley

BLU-RAY REVIEW: Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three Remastered

BLU-RAY REVIEW:

Star Trek: The Next Generation
Season Three Remastered

By Rich Handley

When Star Trek: The Next Generation hit the airwaves in 1987, I was hooked. "Encounter at Farpoint," despite some cheesy dialog, weak acting and typical Trek clichés (not to mention a blatant ripoff of the Decker/Ilia relationship from The Motion Picture), was a solid story featuring some great new characters and impressive production values. And so I kept tuning in, happily devouring each week's new episode, and grateful to finally, after more than a decade, have new Star Trek on television, 13 years after the animated series' cancelation.

By the end of that first season, I knew something special had arrived, but felt that it hadn't yet lived up to its potential. Despite some gems, such as "The Big Goodbye," "11001001," "Heart of Glory" and "Conspiracy," the season was also putting out embarrassing clunkers like "Code of Honor," "Justice," "Angel One," "When the Bough Breaks" and "Skin of Evil." Still, I'd had one hell of a ride, and looked forward to what the following year would bring.

Labels: review, Rich Handley, Star Trek

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 009—Planet of Giants

Doctor Who Retro Review

Serial 009: "Planet of Giants"

Starring: William Hartnell

By T. Scott Edwards

Planet of Giants is a remarkable serial, for a vast number of reasons. It is the first serial of the second season, and as such shows how, due to the success of the first season, the series began to forge its way forward in a new direction. It is ambitious and bold, with extraordinary scripts, fantastic performances and truly exceptional set design. The crew are now kitted out in some rather dapper new costumes, and the whole thing feels fresher. At only 3 episodes long, the pace is sharp and direct, with very little padding – although it had originally been intended to be 4 episodes, but at the request of Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman, the serial was shortened to 3, editing together parts 3 and 4 into a faster paced climax to the story.

The serial opens with the crew, dressed in their finest, waiting for materialisation. When it comes, however, it is interrupted by braying klaxons and flashing warnings, and the doors terrifyingly open of their own accord during the materialisation. As had already been stated in The Edge of Destruction, for this to happen can mean huge catastrophe, and the TARDIS crew quickly try to work out exactly what has gone wrong. The scenes with the crew working together are fantastic – at first, Hartnell comes across exactly how he started the first season, grumpy and crotchety, before suddenly realising what he is doing, and apologising to Barbara and Ian – "I always forget niceties under pressure". It is a touching reminder of exactly how much his character has progressed and grown to appreciate these interlopers within the TARDIS.

First Look: Pat Carbajal's Artwork for the Back to the Future Chronology

Here's your first look at artist Pat Carbajal's illustrations for Hasslein's next publication, Back in Time: The Unauthorized Back to the Future Chronology, written by Greg Mitchell and Rich Handley, with a foreword by Back to the Future Fan Club founder Dan Madsen. This sketch, of the DeLorean being pursued by a dinosaur, was inspired by Universal Studios' Back to the Future: The Ride.

Pat has already illustrated Timeline of the Planet of the Apes: The Definitive Chronology, Lexicon of the Planet of the Apes: The Comprehensive Encyclopedia and A Matter of Time: The Unauthorized Back to the Future Lexicon, and he's also done some stunning work for other upcoming volumes about the Red Dwarf and James Bond universes. As you can see, he's done it again!

Labels: Back to the Future, DeLorean, dinosaur, Pat Carbajal, timeline

Quatermass II: An Exceptional Sequel—Part One

Quatermass II: An Exceptional Sequel—Part One

By Greg Bakun

In 1953, the BBC broadcast the groundbreaking series, The Quatermass Experiment. This six-part adventure chronicles the work of Professor Bernard Quatermass as he heads the British Experimental Rocket Group. The story surrounds the mysterious crash of the Quatermass rocket ship where all the crew seems to have disappeared apart from one. The British Film Institute described this production as "one of the most influential series of the 1950s." The BBC knew fairly quickly that this serial was a success. They sold the film rights of the story to Hammer and they commissioned Quatermass creator Nigel Kneale with creating another story which would begin broadcast just as the BBC's new competition, ITV, started broadcasting in September of 1955.

Matthew Sunrich Presents...Detective Comics #403

Detective Comics #403

By Matthew Sunrich

In the landmark Batman #217 (December 1969), the issue that is recognized as having ushered in the Dark Knight's Bronze Age, Bruce Wayne outlines his new strategies for dealing with crime, as well as his initiative for protecting the victims, who are all too often left out in the cold even when cases are successfully closed. The former is the bailiwick of Batman, while the latter is that of Bruce. Even though they are two sides of the same coin, the Caped Crusader and his civilian alter ego are distinct personas, and it is this duality that allows one to operate during the daylight hours and the other at night, thus doubling his effectiveness. (The question of when he's supposed to sleep is addressed later on.)

The "special assistance" initiative, sponsored by the Wayne Foundation, is dubbed V. I. P. (Victims, Inc. Program). It often serves a dual purpose, as the victims who come seeking Wayne's help are also unwittingly apprising Batman of the injustices they've suffered. I'm sure that Bruce considered this when he established the program. After all, even though the Masked Man-hunter is usually several steps ahead of the criminals in Gotham (and elsewhere), he still appreciates the fact that getting the "inside scoop" from the horse's mouths saves him a lot of footwork and the necessity of relying on his network of informants.

Matthew Sunrich Presents...Sword of Sorcery #2

Sword of Sorcery #2

By Matthew Sunrich

If there really is such a thing as "honor among thieves," it certainly doesn't exist in Lankhmar, the home city of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, at least if the events in Sword of Sorcery #2 are any indication.

Continuing the adventures of Fritz Leiber's sword & sorcery duo, the second issue of this dynamic series finds our heroes at odds with the Thieves' Guild, as well as a ghostly triumvirate threatening vengeance if a certain purloined item is not returned to them. Denny O'Neil and Howard Chaykin again take the reins as the crimson-haired barbarian and his cloaked companion become ensnared in a morass of skulduggery.

The Effects of Steroid Use: A Public Service Announcement

Thanks to Josh Radke for the image,

which I "borrowed" from his Facebook status update.

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Detective Comics #408

Detective Comics #408

By Matthew Sunrich

Batman has a relationship with the Gothic that goes all the way back to Detective Comics #29 (1939).

Around that time, seminal horror films such as Frankenstein (and its sequels), Dracula, and the various adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's short stories (The Black Cat) and poetry (The Raven), all of which have strong Gothic elements, were immensely popular at the box office. Horror as a distinct genre did not yet exist (the work of its practitioners at the time, which included such writers as H. P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and August Derleth, was lumped into the category of "weird fiction"), but audiences clearly responded enthusiastically to its tropes. Terror is a powerful emotion, and filmmakers lined their pockets again and again by enticing moviegoers with the dark romances of nineteenth-century literature.

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 008—The Reign of Terror

Doctor Who Retro Review

Serial 008: "The Reign of Terror"

Starring: William Hartnell

By T. Scott Edwards

(NB – this blog was written before the SE DVD was released, which of course includes the two missing episodes animated.)

My experiences of The Reign of Terror have never been complete – a friend sent me all of the audio tracks to all of the stories from Hartnell and Troughton's tenure and I listened to them all at length, filling in the blanks with the Lost in Time boxset. With The Reign of Terror, however, I had only ever bothered to listen to the sound track, since the episodes had not been released on DVD. Despite their availability online, I had simply made do with the luscious sounds. I realise now that I was cheating myself – following on from the rather drab and monotonous The Sensorites, the TARDIS returns the crew to Earth slap-bang in the centre of the French Revolution – and it is stunning.

Back to the TARDIS

GAME REVIEW: Star Trek—The Video Game

GAME REVIEW:

Star Trek: The Video Game

By Rich Handley

The past four decades have seen the release of numerous video games based on the Star Trek universe, ranging from pinball, simulator and text-based games to casino, handheld and graphics-intensive console- and computer-based adventures. The latest is a third-person action-adventure game developed by Digital Extremes for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows platforms. It's based on the rebooted film universe, so there was a lot of potential for this to have been an action-packed thrill-ride romp. Regrettably, it often doesn't live up to that potential.

Published by Paramount Pictures, Namco Bandai Games, Bad Robot Interactive and CBS Studios, Star Trek features cooperative gameplay elements, enabling players to work together as teammates against one or more artificial-intelligence (AI) opponents, in order to heal each other's wounds, provide cover fire during battle, share weapons, defeat enemies, get around obstacles and so forth. At the start of a given chapter, a player chooses whether to portray Kirk or Spock (gameplay is different for each, focused more on shooting or stealth, respectively, with Spock able to perform such Vulcan maneuvers as mind melds and nerve pinches). A fellow player can join in as the companion officer; if not, the AI will assume control of that character—often with absurd results.

Scientifically Accurate Ninja Turtles!

Take THAT, Michael Bay.

Labels: Ninja Turtles

First Trailer for The Wolverine!

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 007—The Sensorites

Doctor Who Retro Review

Serial 007: "The Sensorites"

Starring: William Hartnell

By T. Scott Edwards

The Sensorites has long been regarded by many Who fans as a bit of a miss – Neil Perryman on the Adventures with the Wife in Space blog jovially remarks "67% fail halfway through this story" when attempting to watch the series from the very beginning. Whether this comment is true or not is irrelevant. It cements the group-culture idea that it is not a 'good' serial.

Yet it has certain elements which make it tremendously good fun to watch. Some of the performances are excellent – Peter Glaze, Stephen Dartnell and John Bailey are particularly good – and the central ideas of xenophobia, and the dangers of war, are strong. It is the script and direction here which let the story down. Just like with Nation's script for The Keys of Marinus, the central idea, whilst a good one, is let down by plodding and unnatural exposition. Peter R Newman's script works at times, and at others slows everything down too much. Mervyn Pinfield's direction at times is stylistic and filled with flair – such as at the beginning of episode 1, as the camera tracks from within the TARDIS onto the deck of the spaceship – but at other times feels clunky and uninspired. When Cox takes over for episodes 5 and 6, the whole affair feels slightly tighter, and episode 6 is one of the strongest, but part 5 still feels hindered by poor scripting and so still lags.

Hasslein Blog

Friday, May 31, 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 012—The Romans

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Sword of Sorcery #5

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Reason #2,583 That Sir Patrick Stewart Deserves His Knighthood

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Detective Comics #419

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Quatermass II: An Exceptional Sequel—Part Two

Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 011—The Rescue

Sunday, May 26, 2013

And You Thought Having a Chip on Your Shoulder Was Bad...

Friday, May 24, 2013

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Sword of Sorcery #4

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

Lando Calrissian: How I Helped Build a Scoundrel's Backstory

Trailers of the Planet of the Apes!

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Detective Comics #412

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

GUEST BLOG: DVD Review: The Visitation - Special Edition

Monday, May 20, 2013

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Sword & Sorcery in the 1980s Arcade

Friday, May 17, 2013

Follow Pat Carbajal on Facebook

Mona Lursa

Thursday, May 16, 2013

GUEST BLOG: Cubing—Avatar: The Last Airbender

Matthew Sunrich Presents: Sword of Sorcery #3

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 010—The Dalek Invasion of Earth

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Star Trek: The Next Generation's "Lost" Episodes

Taking the Super Out of the Heroes

BLU-RAY REVIEW: Star Trek: The Next Generation Season Three Remastered

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 009—Planet of Giants

Monday, May 13, 2013

First Look: Pat Carbajal's Artwork for the Back to the Future Chronology

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Quatermass II: An Exceptional Sequel—Part One

Saturday, May 11, 2013

Matthew Sunrich Presents...Detective Comics #403

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Matthew Sunrich Presents...Sword of Sorcery #2

Monday, May 6, 2013

The Effects of Steroid Use: A Public Service Announcement

Friday, May 3, 2013

Matthew Sunrich Presents... Detective Comics #408

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 008—The Reign of Terror

Thursday, May 2, 2013

Back to the TARDIS

GAME REVIEW: Star Trek—The Video Game

Scientifically Accurate Ninja Turtles!

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

First Trailer for The Wolverine!

Doctor Who Retro Review: Serial 007—The Sensorites

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