Doctor Who: The Ultimate Foe Review

Four weeks ago today Doctor Who fans I not only started something but I made a promise to myself which was to review each episode of season 23 AKA The Trial Of A Time Lord. Well as of today I have fulfilled that promise and I have to say it's been an interesting journey to go on full of ups and downs and alot of big hair and so I am finally pleased to present to you all my review of the season 23 finale The Ultimate Foe.

The plot of the episode is The Doctor's trial reaches it's conclusion but something is wrong and it's up to The Doctor to figure out what it is and to put a stop to it. Now here I would normally tell you my thoughts on this one story however given that season 23 has been one long story I can't really do that and so my thoughts on the season long story is that it is an interesting story filled with many twists and turns and for the time telling one story all series long was a rather bold move and so I have to give them credit for taking that risk however I do feel that this final serial should have been at least three or four episodes long just to wrap everything up.

This was the last serial and the last series to feature Colin Baker as The Doctor and while it's not his strongest serial it's a serviceable ending for his take on the character. Also starring in the serial is Bonnie Langford as Mel Bush , Lynda Bellingham as The Inquisitor , Michael Jayston as The Valeyard , Anthony Ainley as The Master , Tony Selby as Sabalom Glitz , Geoffrey Hughes as Popplewick and James Bree as The Keeper of the Matrix.

In terms of what I thought about the acting it was pretty decent that's honestly something which I can say has been strong across all of the season. The actors who you expect a great performance from in this serial do indeed deliver but alot of these solid actors just aren't given that much to do in the serial Lynda Bellingham only appears in a few scenes and the same goes for the main bad guy Michael Jayston which is a shame because they were really fun to watch.

Just like how everyone has their Doctor which is usually whichever Doctor they grew up with for me my Master is Anthony Ainley. The guy is just so fun to watch it's clear to me that he's having such a good time playing the character he really does get the character down in my opinion and while there will always be fans of the Roger Delgado or any other version of the character for me Anthony Ainley simply IS The Master.

For some reason this end serial is only two episodes long which for me just wasn't long enough to conclude the story in a satisfactory way. I honestly do feel that the serial would have worked more if it was three or four episodes long since then things that didn't get explained in the finished product like how The Master found a way into The Matrix and how The Master managed to locate two characters from The Doctors own adventures could be explained and even woven into the story for added effect.

I have to say I don't like Mel with her hair up it just doesn't suit her at all in my opinion I very much preferred the look that she had in Terror Of The Vervoids just because I feel that it suited the character more. That being said I do feel that she was slightly handled better in this episode then her introductory episode simply because she didn't get on my nerves as much this time around where as in the last episode she really did annoy me.

Alot of that I feel comes down to the fact that the first half of this serial was written by the late and great Robert Holmes. He gives the character some solid dialog and tries his best to make her a more rounded character but all of that hard work goes to waste in the second half of the serial thanks to writers Pip and Jane Baker who had to take over after Holmes sadly passed away which also means that alot her great dialog goes as does all the steps to make her an actually good character.

As well as being the last story for Colin Baker the first half of the episode was the last story for script editor Eric Saward with producer John Nathan-Turner being the uncredited script editor for the second half. It was during my watch of this episode that I realised that alot of the stories that I liked in this season all had Eric as the script editor and the one I didn't like Terror Of The Vervoids had John Nathan-Turner in the role gee I wonder if there's any connection.

Now I did promise in my last review that I would go into more detail about the actual trial and I intend on living up to that promise. However before I do I want to say that to me alot of this episode just looked cheap which is something that I should never say since Doctor Who has always had the budget of a Cheese Burger (I know some people prefer something to do with shoes but Cheese Burgers are cheaper) but those other stories always turned that into an advantage here tho they just showed us is how cheap everything looks.

Let us finally talk about the trial itself I liked how they did the trial by having the Valeyard present The Doctor as this evil person it makes us question The Valeyard even tho he's for all intense and purposes doing his job. However as the series goes on we find out very slowly that there's more to him then meets the eye and I love the banter he has with The Doctor in those early trial scenes they add in some much needed humour in my opinion.

I also liked that kind of as a way to rub it in The Doctor's face he knows the The Inquisitor's first name even going as far as to refer to her by it on several accusations. I did like that The Valeyard is a possible incarnation of the doctor which is a really interesting idea and it does make me wonder if the character will ever show up in the newer series of the show , however I do feel that the character could have been handled a bit better since his motivation makes no sense since if he kills The Doctor he'd also kill himself.

Overall this is not only the end of Colin Baker era but it's also the end of this mini review series and it's been quite a ride but I can now finally put my Season 23 blu-ray to rest. As for what I thought about this episode it was a serviceable ending to the story but like I said it needed a few more episodes just to really do it justice and on a side note I hate that they use the current logo for these classic collection blu-rays and DVD's I honestly that it would have been more fitting if they used whatever logo was used for that season or era as for this episode it gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

My First Impressions Of Star Trek: Picard SPOILERS Ahead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Star Trek fans I make it no secret that i'm not that big of a Star Trek fan i'm honestly more of a Star Wars fan I always have been and I always will be. However like alot of you I found myself excited for the show which i'm about to talk about because it looked so good and the fact that a great character actor like Sir Patrick Stewart was returning after years pf saying that he wouldn't only had me more interested and so here are my first impressions of Star Trek: Picard and yes there will be spoilers..

The plot of this episode called "Remembrance" picks up years after Star Trek: Nemesis and find Jean-Luc Picard long retired but all of that ends when a young girl enters his life and he now must go on a quest to find her sister and find out why people want them both killed. Yeah this is honestly a really great story to open the season since it does a great job of reintroducing Picard as well as introducing all of the new characters and it does it all with such great pacing.

Of course reprising his role is Sir Patrick Stewart as Jean-Luc Picard with Stewart also serving as the shows executive producer. Also starring in the episode is Isa Briones as Dahj and Soji Asher , Alison Pill as Agnes Jurati , Harry Treadaway as Narek and Evan Evagora as Elnor. Now I will say that there is a cool guest star in this episode which i'm not going to spoil here but when we get into spoilers all bets are off.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in this episode it was honestly alot better then what I was expecting it to be. Simply because the acting in any pilot is never as good as the acting in any of the other episodes since the actors are still trying to find their characters here tho since the characters are so well defined they don't have to find them at all they just know what the character would say and that really does help with the performances in my opinion.

SPOILERS STAR HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now this might not be considered a spoiler but i'm playing it safe but guest starring in this episode and also reprising his role is Brent Spiner as Data. Now I do know that the character died at the end of Nemesis and so don't worry they don't retcon that film how they bring him back is by having him appear in Picards dreams which is really they only way that they could have brought the character back at least without retconning the film.

However I will like to add that he doesn't really get alot of screen time in this episode in fact I think in total he's in it for around five minuets but i'm not exactly sure on that. For some reason Brent Spiner just looks sad in this episode and it honestly makes me wish that the character doesn't appear in future episodes just simply because I don't want to see a sad looking Brent Spiner i'd much rather they introduce a new companion for Picard.

Now I really liked the character of Dahj I thought by making her the daughter of Data let alone one in a pair of twins was both predictable and yet at the same time a great way to link it to Next Generation. Most continuations hit you over the head with the connects like for example the Star Wars sequel trilogy but here I felt that it was done in a way that was rather subtle and not heavy handed plus that connection is seemingly important to the plot of the show unlike say Kylo Ren being Han's kid which isn't important at all.

There is one thing that I really didn't like about the character and that's the fact that they really didn't give her a character at all. Which is a shame because she's only in this one episode and is the catalyst for the events of the show and so you'd thing that more of an effort would have been made into giving her an actual character but they don't so all we get is the typical person who doesn't really know what's going on until she dies.

Now there was one scene which not only sold me on the episode but also sold me on the entire series and that's the interview scene near the start of the episode or more importantly Picards speech that he gives during that interview. That one speech was so well done and I felt was very in character at least from what I could gather during the episode that I decided right there and then that I was going to watch as many episode of this show as I can because I want to spend more time with this man and it was such a bada*s moment as well.

SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now I have no idea who's doing the titles for this show but I will say that imagery and the music by Jeff Russo came together to form something truly beautiful. I'd honestly say that the episode is worth watching just based of the opening titles alone just because they are so stunning to see and i'm not going to lie I came close to crying during the opening titles that's how moved I was watching them.

Overall guys and girls just go and watch the episode right now I don't care how you see it just go and see it. So far i'd say that this is the best first episode of the year and we're not even a month in that's how confident I am in that statement because it is so good and so entertaining if this is what Star Trek is like at it's best then I might have to check out some of the older episodes  and as you guys know I never give ratings out when I do these first impressions and so I will once again say just go and watch the episode right now.

Doctor Who: Terror Of The Vervoids Review

Doctor Who fans another Wednesday is here upon us and that does mean that i'm here to present my next review in this season 23 look back. I have to say that prior to watching this episode I got some comments on one of the previous two on the main Doctor Who amino saying that I wasn't going to like how they introduce Mel and well i'm going to be getting into that later since it needs to be addressed and so here is my review of the penultimate season 23 episode Terror Of The Vervoids enjoy.

The plot in this episode is The Doctor and his sudden new companion Mel find themselves answering an call for help which takes them to a spaceliner where they must solve a set of murders. Yeah I have alot of issues with this episode but the story isn't one of them in fact I thought that they story was rather enjoyable but what I didn't like about the story was the fact that there wasn't any stakes at all and so there was no reason for the murders to be solved outside of the fact that murder is bad.

Starring in the episode is Colin Baker as The Doctor and Bonnie Langford as his new companion Mel Bush. As for the guest cast we have Lynda Bellingham as The Inquisitor , Michael Jayston as The Valeyard , Pussy Galore (yes i'm a James Bond fan so sue me for making a Goldfinger reference) as Professor Sarah Lasky , Malcolm Tierney as Doland , David Allister as Bruchner , Michael Craig as Commodore Travers , Denys Hawthorne as Rudge , Yolande Palfrey as Janet and Arthur Hewlett as Kimber.

Trust me I will be talking about Mel's introduction very soon but as for Bonnie's performance given that she has very little to go of she's not that bad but I will say that her voice does get a little annoying at times. AS for the other actors Colin is not that bad in this episode which given how good he was in the last episode isn't a good thing and Honor Blackman is just simply a delight like I said i'm a James Bond fan and she's in my all time favourite James Bond film and so to see her in this was not only a surprise but it was also welcome.

Oh boy oh boy do I have some thoughts about the introduction of Mel in short how they introduced her while it does work for the story of the season it only helps confuse the audience. Since yeah we're not introduced to Mel she just shows up in the opening scene in the TARDIS and the doctor already knows who she is meanwhile the audience myself included are sat there asking "who's that?" which is something that we should never be asking.

Her introduction also doesn't work because we don't know the character and so we don't really want to her with the doctor because we don't know her character. Since we don't know her character alot of the dialog that involves her is basically explaining who her character is and where she came from but it's done in such a bad way that it's almost laughable how badly done it is and all of these issues could have been fixed if she was given a proper introduction on screen and not in audio form.

Now then let us talk about the so called monsters of the episode the vervoids and I say so called because they add nothing to the plot what so ever. I'm not even kidding they add nothing to the plot of the episode nor are they a threat for a large portion of the story they do nothing so I have to wonder why do they even have there name in the title of the episode since that gives the impression that there going to actually do something in the episode.

Now what many people might not know is that producer John Nathan-Turner actually served as the script editor for this episode and I believe the second part of the final serial as well. So basically he had final say over everything that goes in this episode and that might explain why alot of the things in this episode just aren't that good again looking at Mel the introduction of a new companion should be treated as a big deal but it's not being treated as one here.

I hate to keep on hating on this episode just because the idea of the episode is honestly rather solid but I hated the voice they gave the vervoids. All it is is just the actors speaking normally and that's it nothing is done to make them sound alien or unique and so all the time I was watching them all I can think was a man in suit just saying those lines normally because they have no distinct voices , if you think of the creatures like the Daleks , the Cybermen and the Ice Warriors they all have very distinct alien sounding voices but here there just speaking normally and it doesn't work at all.

Now onto something actually positive about the episode which is the fact that I liked the trial scenes in this episode. They are advancing the overall story of the season really well with each ending for a serial adding in something new and while I will go into more detail about the trial in the next season 23 review I do like the idea that someone is possibly messing with both past and future events for some unknown reason.

Now rather shockingly for a Doctor Who episode there is a heavy mystery element to this story and that does mean we have to talk about it. In short I thought that the mystery could have been handled alot better since they don't give any clues as to who the killer is which is something a good mystery should do but on the other hand given the time restraints they did pull of a really intriguing mystery with plenty of twists and turns.

I also found the music for the episode done by Malcolm Clarke to be either at best just average or flat out bad at worst. There's no middle ground here and I don't know why that is there's no scene where the music is great but there are plenty of scenes where the music is just bad I honestly lost count of how many times I said to myself "that's a bad piece of music" or "that's a bad music cue" which is a shame because the music in Doctor Who is nearly always a joy to listen to.

Overall in terms of companion introduction episodes it's pretty bad since like I said they don't set up Mel at all and every bit of dialog we get revealing bits of her character just feels forced. On the other hand tho there is an interesting mystery which while it does make up for some of the episodes short coming it doesn't make up for all of them and so I have to give this episode a solid 5.5 out of 10 from me join me next week for the season 23 finale The Ultimate Foe.

Classic Doctor Who: Mindwarp Review

Doctor Who fans i'm back with the second part of the my ongoing miniseries of review for Season 23 AKA The Trial Of A Time Lord. Since i'm watching all of these episodes in order in order to fully grasp what the story for the season (which is something I will comment on come The Ultimate Foe) that does mean that this weeks I guess look back is of the final episode to feature Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown Mindwarp.

The plot of the episode is The Doctor and Peri arrive on Thoros Beta where they discover that alien arms dealer Sil is looking to prolong the life of Lord Kiv. In all honesty I found the story for this weeks episode to be rather forgetful , it's not a bad story but more effort should have gone into making it more memorable which is a shame because this is the story that sees a companion leave and those are usually really good.

The guest cast for this episode is Lynda Bellingham as The Inquisitor , Michael Jayston as The Valeyard , Brian Blessed as King Yrcanos , Nabil Shaban as Sil , Christopher Ryan as Kiv , Patrick Ryecart as Crozier , Thomas Branch as The Lukoser/Dorff , Gordon Warnecke as Tuza , Alibe Parsons as Matrona Kani , Trevor Laird as Frax and Richard Henry as Mentor. Along with regular cast members Colin Baker as The Doctor and for the last time Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown.

I will say that there is some fine acting in this episode and there is one scene in particular which really blew me away which i'll talk about later. I honestly feel that just based of these first two stories that the acting for this series is going to be really good in every episode but there's a huge chance that I could be wrong , I really cannot praise the acting in this episode enough because both Colin and Nicola really do kill it in this episode and each get a chance to show how good they really can be.

Like I said there is a scene in this serial that really did blow me away and it's the scene where Peri explains to Yrcanos what love is. Just everything about that scene just worked the writing of it was top notch , the direction was perfect and the acting from Nicola was truly phenomenal , to me that scene shows how far her character might have come I say might have because i've not seen any other series with her character and so I can't say for sure but everything about it just screams character development to me.

I was shocked to find that there wasn't that many scenes from the actual trial in this serial which I guess makes sense since there's only so many times you can show two characters arguing with each other before it gets boring. That being said tho there is meant to be a story developing during those scenes and I don't think that it's coming across as well as it could have done which is a shame because it does seem to be an interesting story.

Like I stated before this is the last episode to feature Nicola Bryant altho she would reappear in the best forgotten Dimensions In Time special several years later. I will say that how her character leaves show is one that I honestly wasn't expecting just because it's not the type of thing that one would expect from Doctor Who but at the same time it was also a fitting way to end this serial in my opinion.

It's also due to her leaving that we get some great acting from Colin he's solid all throughout this serial but there are two examples in particular where he just takes it up a notch. The first one being the fact that he seemingly betrays his companion and how your not quite sure if he's got a plan or if he's turned evil and the second is when he finds out Peri has died and he gets very emotional that to me was such a well acted scene and it's honestly how I feel The Doctor would act in that situation.

This episode does also feature the second on screen appearance of apparent fan favourite Sil and I say apparent because until a few months ago I haven't heard of the character. Based on this serial I will say that he does seem like a pretty character with actor Nabil Shaban being perfect for the role but i'd have to see more of the character to really form an opinion but he must be good since in 2019 he got his own direct to DVD movie with Shaban and creator Philip Martin as star and writer called Sil and the Devil Seeds of Arodor.

What I found to be really interesting about this serial was the fact that there's no clear good guy or bad guy. Granted alot of that does come from somethings that will get revealed later on in the season but it's interesting to think that the Doctor Who team would try and make this approach late into the shows run and even more shocking when you realise that the show was on the decline at the time that this season was being made.

What was really shocking since I was expecting this to play a part so soon in the season was the fact that they reveal that the scenes with trial are taking place at the same time as this serial. That right there was such a good idea simply because we the audience know that The Doctor would never willingly do the things that he's seen doing in this serial and so to have that reveal was so cool and yet so chilling because it leads to the death of Peri.

Overall this wasn't a bad episode but it was a forgettable one and in terms of companion leaving episodes id say that it's one of the worst just due to how forgettable the story is. That said as i've listed in this review there are a few good things to be found in the serial you just have to try really hard to remember what actually happens and so Doctor Who fans this serial gets a 6 out of 10 from me.

My First Impressions Of Thundercats Roar

Animation fans alot of animated shows debut all the time but so few of them get alot of hate just based of the announcement video alone. However this show got alot of hate from many myself included just based of the announcement video and well the first two episodes have been released by Cartoon Network and well I thought that i'd give you my thoughts on them so here are my first impressions of Thundercats Roar.

The plot of these two episodes are the Thundercats (Lion-O , Tygra , Cheetara , Panthro , WilyKit and WilyKat) escape there home world moments before it explodes and find themselves on a new planet where they must contend with the Mumm-Ra. In terms of what I thought of the plot it's pretty thin all they do is establish what the set up for the show is going to be and while that does make sense it doesn't really work for a two part episode.

Starring in this episode is Max Mittelman as Lion-O and WilyKat , Patrick Seitz as Tygra and Mumm-Ra, Erica Lindbeck as Cheetara and WilyKit , Larry Kenney as Jaga , Trevor Devall as Slithe , Andrew Kishino as Jackalman , Jim Meskimen as Monkain and Dana Snyder as Vultureman and the Berbils. This is honestly a pretty good cast if your a fan of anime there are alot of actors you'll recognise in this cast and they were the ones that made me excited the most.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it honestly wasn't that bad but at the same time I felt that it could have been better. The acting in the episode was alot better then what I thought it was going to be just based of the announcement video I assumed that pretty much everything about this show was going to suck and so I was shocked to see that the acting was OK at best since I assumed it would suck.

Now the closest company I found that might have done the animation is Warner Bros. Animation and I don't think I need to say what they've worked on since there really well known. I will say that the announcement video doesn't do the animation justice since from that video you'd assume that the animation was going to be like Teen Titans Go but it's honestly more like OK KO since it's that same amount of energy and even the art style is very similar to the art style from OK KO.

I honestly really did like the animation it was a lot better then what it had any right to be in my opinion. It was very high energy when it came to the action sequences but at the same time I would fully understand if people chose not to watch the show based of the character designs since they are kind of off putting but when you see them in motion they do kind of work for the style that this show is going for.

Now when the show was first announced there were alot of people comparing it to Teen Titans Go and in some respects I can see where they are coming from. However I have to say that just because TTG was at the time a fairly bad show doesn't mean that any show that looks like it might be bad doesn't mean that you should compare the two since these shows are different in every way possible so i'd say judge it by it's own merits and not by another shows.

Just by going of this episode and this episode alone (yes i'm judging both episodes as one) i'd say that this show is going to be more action packed then any CN reboot right now. Which was honestly something that I found to be rather refreshing since CN usually don't do action heavy shows and when they do they usually don't last long or just get lost in the schedule so it's nice to see an action heavy show airing on Cartoon Network.

There's shockingly alot of I want to say references but I dont think that's the right word here but either way it's clear that the creators have a lot of love towards the 1985 original Thundercats. Since as you can see by many of the above pictures the designs are very similar to the original show and they even use a cover version of the original theme song over the end credits which is thought was nice little touch.

Now this is technically an action comedy and so it only makes sense to talk about the comedy in the episode. I honestly thought that this episode could have been alot funnier alot of the humour looks like it's coming from how dumb they've made Lion-O which is funny once but when you repeat the joke it starts to become less funny and so i'm hoping that as the show progresses there are more and more actually funny moments in the show and that they don't just repeat the same joke over and over.

Like I said before this episode is really action heavy and so it does make sense they I talk just a little bit more about the action. I honestly thought that the action in the episode was really fun it was as over the top as you'd not only expect but also want from an animated action comedy on top of all that you get to see the Thundercats use alot of their gifts (I don't think powers is the right word to use here) which only added to the fun in my opinion and yes they made a lot of great changes to Snarf which i'm not going to go into detail about.

Overall this debut set of episodes were honestly really fun and they did a good job of introducing all of the main characters. However I would have liked it if they set up what the story for the show was going to be just because right now I don't have an itch to want to watch anymore of the series but who knows maybe they'll drop hints of the story when the show premiers in Febuary (now all we have to do is wait for Yabba-Dabba Dinosaurs! to finally debut admit it you all forgot about that show) since this show is only just starting i'm not going to give it a rating but I will say check out the episodes and judge it for yourselves.

  

Classic Doctor Who: The Mysterious Planet Review

Doctor Who fans in my last Doctor Who review I said that you'd be seeing me alot sooner then you thought. That's because one of the presents I got for Christmas was Season 23 of the show on blu-ray and is part of the classic collection and so I began to think maybe I could extend my output of Doctor Who and so where else to start with this season 23 look back then at the very beginning with my review of The Trial Of A Timelord AKA The Mysterious Planet.

The plot of the episode is Peri and The Doctor travel to the planet Ravolox a planet which has a lot of similarities to earth and while there and somewhere on the planet there is a robot that wants to blow up the universe. I want it known that I won't be judging the overall arc of the season instead i'll just be judging each individual story in this regard the story this episode is pretty forgettable at least in my opinion but at the same time it does a good job of setting up the season long arc.

Starring in this serial is Colin Baker as The Doctor and in her second to last Doctor Who serial Nicola Bryant as Peri Brown. As for the guest cast we have Lynda Bellingham as The Inquisitor , Michael Jayston as The Valeyard , Tony Selby as Sabalom Glitz , Joan Sims as Queen Katryca , Glen Murphy as Dibber , Tom Chadbon as Merdeen , Roger Brierley as The Voice Of Drathro , David Rodigan as Broken Tooth , Adam Blackwood as Balazar , Timothy Walker as Grell , Billy McColl as Humker and Sion Tudor Owen as Tandrell.

In terms of what I thought of the acting in this serial it was honestly alot better then what I was expecting it to be since I hadn't seen anything from this season I was expecting the acting to be pretty bad. So I was shocked to find that at least in this serial it's pretty decent if your a fan of British television there are a few names that you'll recognize namely the late Lynda Bellingham and the late Joan Simms.

I really did like the idea behind the planet of Ravalox and while I won't give away the big twist with the planet it is something that you can see coming if you notice clues I honestly didn't notice that much if i'm being honest. I will say that while the idea behind the planet is indeed interesting due to the lack of a budget it doesn't look as interesting as it really could be and granted this isn't the shows fault this fault lies with the BBC but more of an effort could have been made in making Ravalox look more I guess alien would be the right word.

From what I can gather the scenes with the doctor on trial are a framing device in that other stories are being told but there all being linked by this one event. I know that that sounds pretty obvious given the subtitle for this season is The Trial Of A Timelord but given that I haven't seen this season I have to assume that the rest of the season will follow the same idea and if so it's an interesting way to go about things but given that we get a new companion this season I hope that they don't skip over how the doctor met her.

Lets us talk about the villain of this serial Drathro first of all I really hated the voice they give him it just sounded so freaking annoying and it honestly was getting to the point where I couldn't wait for his scenes to end because of how annoying his voice is. I also found his motives to be really hard to understand so im not sure if there was something that was in the script but was edited out of the episode or what but I do feel that his motives should have been a tad bit more clear all I know is it's something that involves some from unstable light called black light and that's it.

I will admit to liking the design of Drathro I honestly felt that the look that they gave him really did suit his character. I feel that this is were the budget for this episode went well Drathro's design and the opening shot which I will be talking because both of them look really good and yet everything else at east from the characters that appear just in this episode just look cheap by comparison and for Doctor Who that's never a good thing.

I just said that one of the things that clearly got alot of the budget for this episode was the opening model shot and can you blame me when I put the episode on I honestly thought that it was a newly made effects shot but no it was the original one. Which is something that really did blow me away due to how good it looked it's no wonder that FOX used the exact same shot in their promo's for the 1996 Doctor Who TV movie which is something i'm not even making up they use this exact opening to pro-moat the TV movie so even in the nineties it still looked good.

For this season the show seems to be taking a nonlinear approach to it's story telling and i'm honestly not to sure how I feel about that. On the one hand it does keep the show fresh which is always a good thing but on the other hand this form of story telling doesn't really work well in the world of Doctor Who since in my opinion Doctor Who works best when there isn't a season long story being told if you want proof of that just watch series 6 from the modern era.

This serial would also see a few little changes made to the show with some changes being made to Colin's costume and Nicola being made to wear clothes that were better suited for a kids TV show if you know what i'm saying. Perhaps the biggest change tho at least in my opinion was the new theme song which was composed by Dominic Glynn which I can safely say i'm not a big fan of this theme nothing is going to be the classic theme tune in my eyes and this was just painful to listen to.

Another change made to the show was the fact they had a lot more humour starting with this very serial. Granted the choice to add in more humour didn't come from the creative team but then BBC controller Michael Grade who demanded that the show have less violence and more humour and if i'm being honest here the humour in this episode was pretty good there were plenty of goof jokes that did have me laughing but at the time I don't feel that the violence should have been toned down to the point where it's barely even present.

Overall in terms of opening episodes go there are better ones out there but at the same time this one does a good job of setting up the season long story arc. It's just a shame that a bunch of scripts had to get thrown away fro this season and judging by one of the extra's on the blu-ray set they would have made really good episodes but I can't judge something that wasn't transmitted and so this serial gets a 6.5 out of 10 from me. 

Ride Your Wave AKA Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review

Anime fans as you'll all no doubt know I very rarely make a spoiler post for an anime film or TV show. That is because I want you to experience the product with very little to know knowledge about what's going on sadly tho that actually can't happen with this film as even the plot summery gives away a key plot point and so i'm going to pretty butcher my own summery of the plot just to keep it spoiler free and so here is my spoiler filled review of Ride Your Wave aka Kimi to, Nami ni Noretara enjoy.

The plot for of the film as spoiler free as I can make it is boy meets girl something happens to either the boy or the girl and then there's the aftermath. You see I told you I was going to butcher it but your just going to have to take my word for it when I say that there's pretty much no plot outside of the central theme which I can't get into because it's spoiler but I do wish that there was more of an actual story in this film.

Starring in the film is Rina Kawaei as Hinako Mukaimizu , Ryota Katayose as Minato Hinageshi , Honoka Matsumoto as Yōko Hinageshi and Kentaro Ito as Wasabi Kawamura. Yes as you can no doubt tell i'm basing this review of the original Japanese dub which as alot of will know is a mildly rare thing for me to do however as there is no dub for this film out and it doesn't look like there will be any out soon.

As for what I thought about the acting in the film it honestly was really good altho it really is hard for me to judge Japanese voice acting since i've not heard any of these actors so I have no idea what they could do when there at their best or worst. The script of the film really does give the actors alot to work with and I do feel that that does help the actors since all they'd have to do is just say the lines and not add in character traits.

The animation for the film was done by Science Saru a company owned by director Masaaki Yuasa and is there third feature film . In terms of what I thought about the animation it's shockingly really good and I say shockingly because i've seen nothing from them and so just based of this film I can say that they do a good job when it comes to the animation with alot of scenes leaping of the screen which is something that I very rarely get to say.

SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There we go anime fans anything said beyond this point will be a spoiler and so you shouldn't anything beyond the spoiler warning if you haven't seen the film. So then what really did shock me was the fact that the main male character Minato dies nearly half way through the film that was something that I never saw coming and I couldn't mention it in the summery because it's a plot point his death has an effect on our main female character Hinako.

Part of the joy and sadness of this film for me is seeing the relationship between Minato and Hinako develop as they go from friends to boyfriend and girlfriend but then it comes crashing down when Minato dies. How the film deals with grief is honestly really interesting since we get to see Hinako go through the stages of grief eventually learning that in order for Minato to move on she must also accept his death.

Part of what made Hinako's arc seem more real to me is the fact that is that she's young and I know that sounds weird but imagine if your in early twenties you fall in love with someone and then that person suddenly dies it would be crushing. Which is what happens here for a large portion of the film she's crushed and she might possibly feel guilty for Minato's death but i'm not sure and she has to go through this horrible thing and she comes out stronger because of it.

Hinako's character at the start of the film is completely different from the character we see at the end of the film. Since at the start she's sort of happy go lucky she's not unpacked any of her boxes but then over the course of the film she learns more responsibility and that is something that I don't think the Hinako at the start of the film would even consider being like at all and it was something that I thought was very interesting.

As you can see by the above picture the film has an art style that honestly reminded me alot of Summer Wars. Considering that I liked that film that is not a bad thing at all but at the same time there was times during the more emotional moments so I do feel that they should have tweaked the designs just to suit those moments and make them more effective but since they didn't the art style and designs become a little bit distracting.

SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Overall this is an anime film that I can very easily recommend to any anime fans regardless of if you like the slice of life genre or not. This is also a film that does have plenty of flaws some of which I have mentioned in this review but if this is something that you can get past then there's a really enjoyable film in there and it helps that the pacing is honestly really good and so with all of this in mind the film gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me.