Batwoman "Pilot" Review With SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DC fans this has been quite the week for the company with not one but two movies out one animated and the other being Joker and the fact that both Supergirl and a new show have premiered just last night. While it would have been super easy for me to take a look at Supergirl since i've been watching the show on and of since it first started it's the new show that i'm going to be taking a look at and so here is my spoiler filled review of the pilot episode actually called pilot for Batwoman.

The plot of the episode is that military graduate and security agent Sophie Moore has been kidnapped by a new gang themed around Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and this brings back Kate Kane who tries to find the missing agent. I'm not going to go to deep into the actual plot of the episode here just because if I did i'd be here all day writing just that bit I will say that it did a good job of setting up certain characters and character arc's for the season but at the same time there's very little sense of where this season is going.

Technically reprising her role from the Elseworlds crossover is Ruby Rose as Kate Kane / Batwoman and she is joined by Ex Birds of Prey Star Rachel Skarsten as Alice , Meagan Tandy as Sophie Moore , Nicole Kang as Mary Hamilton , Camrus Johnson as Luke Fox , Elizabeth Anweis as Catherine Hamilton-Kane , Rachel Maddow as the voice of Vesper Fairchild , Dougray Scott as Jacob Kane and Brendon Zub as Chuck Dodgson.

I honestly didn't mind the acting in this episode I always say that you can't expect great acting from a pilot episode because all of the actors are trying to find there characters and it's true here. The acting isn't that good and the chemistry isn't quite there yet but that's to be expected from a pilot episode and just based of this episode alone I can see the acting and the chemistry getting better over the course of the season.

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

They spoil what could have been a really cool reveal at the end of the episode because they reveal that the season's main villain Alice is in fact Kate's presumed dead sister. To me that's a waste of a good reveal because we hardly know these characters so just imagine how much cooler it would have been if we got that reveal at say the end of episode twelve or thirteen when we've had much longer to get to really know the characters it would have made for a great holy s**t moment but here it just feels wasted.

Now if you'll recall in the Elseworlds crossover event we did meet Kate fully dressed as Batwoman and so this series does act as a prequel. However it's hard to say how far back we've gone because there's no indication what so ever of a time frame and the fact that it's basically a prequel means that we already know that Kate is going to come out on top by the end of the season and so there's no tension what so ever it's not the fault of the show runners but rather who made the call to have her appear in Elseworlds who's at fault.

Speaking of Alice I freaking loved her in this episode she's wonderfully insane and just out there she's everything the original book Alice was and then some. I honestly couldn't wait for her scenes to come up because I was having such a good time watching her and the fact that she quotes Alice's Adventures In Wonderland just really helped sell the whole wonderland gimmick to me and I can't wait to see more of her this season.

I've held of talking about this long enough but I just have to talk about this there was some controversy surrounding the show. The first of which had to do with the casting of lead actress Ruby Rose who is a lesbian but apparently she's not lesbian enough to play this openly gay character and that to me is just so freaking stupid because there's no such thing as being lesbian enough what does that even mean anyways someone please help me out.

The second bit of controversy comes from the fact that from the trailer this series seemed to be pushing an agenda and yeah I kind of agree the trailer did do that. However some of the cringyness from the trailer wasn't in this episode and so I don't really think that this series has an agenda what so ever however there is a certain line of dialog spoken in the trailer which is in this episode and it's the batsuit line I hated that line in the trailer and hate it in this episode the suit it perfect just the way it is giving it to a woman suddenly doesn't mean the suit has faults that's just bad and forced writing right there.

As to be expected there is going to be alot of action in this show and there is some in this very episode and I have to say that for a TV show the action wasn't that bad. Don't get me wrong it's not that good either but given that these shows always have a small budget it's a miracle that we get anything at all and I do feel that Batwoman shouldn't have fought Alice in the first episode that's something that should have been held of until later in the season like maybe the season finale or if your going to have them fight here have Batwoman only just win like make it a really close fight so then that way she has growing to do as a fighter.

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

Overall in terms of pilot episodes this wasn't that bad in my opinion but there's alot of room to grow as for if i'll be checking this series out week to week i'll probably watch the first few episodes and then take it from there and since this is a pilot episode i'm not going to give it a rating since it's the start of a journey and not the whole thing and so i'll only review the whole show when it ends it's run and not it's first season. 

Wonder Woman: Bloodlines SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review

Animation fans DC is back with yet another new movie and oddly enough there released this movie on a Saturday. I will be getting more into that later on in the review because such a weird day to release a movie but i'm a huge fan of not only the Wonder Woman character but also the 2009 animated film and so you can bet that in was excited as all hell when this film was announced and so here is my review of Wonder Woman: Bloodlines.

The plot of the movie is someone is looking for Themyscira and it's up to Diana to stop them for stealing it's tech all the while she's trying to help heel a young girl who's turned evil. This film is part prequel and so you do get the Wonder Woman but a more condensed version of it with alot of stuff cut out as for what I thought the overall story it's fine but it was also a very weak plot with the actual story only coming into play around forty five to fifty minuets into this hour and twenty three minuet movie.

Reprising her role is Rosario Dawson as Diana Prince / Wonder Woman and she is joined by Jeffrey Donovan as Steve Trevor , Marie Avgeropoulos as Vanessa Kapatelis / Silver Swan , Adrienne C. Moore as Etta Candy , Kimberly Brooks as Cheetah and Giganta , Courtenay Taylor as Doctor Poison , Constance Zimmer as Veronica Cale , Nia Vardalos as Julia Kapatelis , Michael Dorn as Ferdinand , voice acting legend Cree Summer as Hippolyta and Mozhan Marnò as Doctor Cyber.

Honestly the acting in the film was alot better then what I thought it was going to be and i'm saying that because the acting in the 2009 film is so good that I can't picture those characters played by anyone else. Altho I will say that Nathan Fillion has alot more charm in his performance then Jeffrey Donovan does but that's just my opinion and Rosario is honestly getting better in the role of Wonder Woman.

The animation for the film was done by Digital eMation who have done the animation for the recent Scooby Doo! movies. They might have done some DC films as well but their website doesn't list their credits and their name isn't listed on the film's IMDB but it is listed in the actual film. Their animation is usually really good but here I don't know why but the animation seen in this film just feels really lazy to me I don't if it's because they were busy working on Return To Zombie Island or if they just didn't have enough time or money but they could have done alot better in my opinion.

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

As you can see in the above picture Diana does get a new costume and in my opinion it's miles better then the one she's been wearing in the recent animated films. If your wondering why it looks familiar it's because it looks exactly like the one that Gal Gadot wore in the 2017 film it's actually unreal how similar it looks but for some strange reason they choose to have her in her Animated Movie Universe attire for the majority of the film but when it comes to the final battle she suddenly needs a costume change.

They did Steven Trevor dirty not only did they give him nothing to do outside of being the toyboy for Diana they also emasculate him at every single chance he's always the but of the joke. Which for a film where the main character is a feminist icon isn't something to be proud of as it comes across as you saying that all men should be the but of all the jokes and that women are better then men at everything and that was something that really annoyed me because both the 2017 film and the 2009 animated film treated him better then this film did.

Not to keep on bringing up the 2009 film but in that film they at least explain how Diana got her costume and they explain away things like the lasso of truth. Here while they do explain how she got her costume nothing is explained which is something I thought to be rather odd since there could be people who have only seen the 2017 film and thus don't know the lore that well and so they won't really know how the lasso works that well and why when Diana wraps it around herself it's a big deal.

This is going to be the last time I mention the 2009 film but in that film when Diana got her costume it felt earned it felt like we earned that moment of seeing her standing proudly in her costume. Here she comes out wearing it after no build up and very little time spent with her and establishing what this version of the character was like when she was younger while that might not seem like a big deal to some of you it is to me because we don't know what this version of the character is like because the only time she's featured she's a bit player in someone else's story where as here she's the main character so we need to know more about her.

Now I said i'd mention this at the start of the review and i'm a man of my word but they released this movie on a Saturday. Which to me is such a weird day to be releasing a movie because no one is going to be checking out a new direct to DVD movie on a Saturday if anything alot of people are going to be spending the day in bed or out with friends or family. The only reason why I think they did this is because Teen Titans Go1 Vs Teen Titans on a Tuesday which is when DC would normally release there direct to DVD movies and because TTG makes them more money they gave that the prime date and this gets the weird weekend date for it's release.

Like I said there is alot of jokes in this film and alot of them are oddly centred around Steve Trevor for no reason what so ever. That said there are some jokes which aren't centred on him and that are actually funny the film overall is actually entertaining outside of the issues that I mentioned and having funny jokes does help the film be more entertaining it's just a shame that there's more jokes emasculating Steven then this about literally anything else.

There are alot of villains in this film and if i'm being honest alot of them are really weak and I say that because outside of one villain the rest have no motivation what so ever. In fact the only one who does have motivation is Veronica Cale which is she wants the tech from Diana's homeland and that's it the rest of them are just there to serve as bosses for Diana to fight. I'm not saying that every villain in a movie like this needs a reason to be fighting the bad guy but it honestly help the film if they were given one even if it's just something small it would at least be something.

Now I Know I said I wasn't going to be talking about the 2009 film anymore but there is just one more thing I want to bring up and that's Queen Hippolyta. In the 2009 film we know why she doesn't want Diana to go of to man's world because we've seen some of what she's gone throw and so it makes sense here even tho she does kind of give a reason as to why she doesn't want her to go it still doesn't explain why she's cold towards her daughter during the final battle or wouldn't even offer to help her when she was fighting Medusa if the film makers are going to have her act like that then at least give us a solid reason and not "I was afraid of loosing you.................even tho your here on the island defending me".

Now since this is a superhero action movie we finally get to talk about the action seen in the film itself. To me the action wasn't that bad I meant it wasn't really great either but it's alot better then what it could have been in my opinion and for me the best action sequence in the whole film is the one in the third act on Themyscira it's a long drawn out fight to the death and there are several times in which Diana could have died and I was left on the edge of my seat because of that fact and yes they do show her bleeding and yes there is an after credits scene which i'm mentioning now because its my last chance to do so.

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

Overall like I said this is a very entertaining film and out of the two Wonder Woman animated films I think i've made it clear which one I prefer and so this film gets a modest 5.5 out of 10 from me

Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review

Ladies and gents I make it no secret to being a fan of the first Teen Titans Go movie and so you can bet I was looking forward to seeing what they would for the teams first straight to DVD movie. Unlike alot of you reading this review I never watched an episode of the 2003 Teen Titans TV show so that might be why I don't mind Go! as much but even so I was looking forward to see how the two teams would interact and well I now don't have to wait to see it because it's been released and here is my review of Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans.

The plot of this movie is villains from both the 2003 world and the 2013 world team up to take on both versions of the Titans and both teams have to put aside their differences to put a stop to this dimension level threat. Yeah when I think of a crossover movie this is the kind of plot that I think of and i'll admit even tho everyone knew that both teams would eventually get along it was still fun seeing how they would get to that point and I was shockingly engaged throughout the whole thing which was something I never thought i'd say for a TTG product but that's how good the story was for me.

Starring in the film is Scott Menville as Robin , Tara Strong as Raven , Khary Payton as Cyborg , Hynden Walch as Starfire , Greg Cipes as Beast Boy , Kevin Michael Richardson as Trigon , Robert Morse as Santa Claus , Grey Griffin as Mrs. Claus , Rhys Darby as Master of Games and in a surprise bit of casting "Weird Al" Yankovic as Gentleman Ghost and Darkseid. It goes without saying that all of the main cast are returning from the show as is Robert Morse I just didn't bother to state it because it was pretty obvious.

As for what I thought about the acting from the main cast it was honestly really good but that's not really a surprise since they've been playing these characters since 2003. The whole cast really do a solid job in this movie I can't fault a single actor in this even Weird Al who's not in the film that much still gives a solid performance and out of all the actors he's the one you'd actually forgive the most for not turning in a solid performance just doe to the fact that he's been in better things but nope he's good in this.

Now I can't find the company who did the animation for this film at all so i'm just going to say that it was done by Warner Bros. Animation just for the sake of it. In all honesty I went into this movie knowing that the animation wasn't going to be as good as Go To The Movies but it's still really good considering that this is a straight to DVD movie you can tell that the animators really did care for this product and were determined to make it the best they could.

Visually this is where the film is a bit of a let down for me just because if you took one frame from the first movie and you knew that it was from a movie. In this film tho it looks exactly like the show I could take any picture from this film and i'd struggle to work out if it was from a film or not but at the same time I have to give them a little bit of wiggle room because this is a straight to DVD movie but you still need to tell that it's a movie and not just an episode of the show.

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

Now there's a reason why i've thrown up a spoiler warning here and it's due to one scene that I wasn't expecting to happen. During the film the two teams learn that they have to use this device to cross dimensions and when they do one of the worlds that they visit is that of the New 52 DC Films and they meet the Titans from that world and adding to that is the fact that they got Sean Maher to reprise his role as Nightwing.

They don't just visit the world of the New 52 films tho they also go to the world of a possibly 60's inspired show which could be a reference to The Superman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure but i'm not exactly sure tho and they also visit the world of original comics which I honestly thought was really fun to see on screen and the fact that the comic Titans use word bubbles and the only way they can movie is if someone turns a page is funny as hell.

There's a scene in this movie which is straight up like the awesome scene in Avengers: Endgame and like in that film it's awesome in this one. To put it simple during the final battle with Trigon both Titans stop of at the various worlds and they recruit every single Teen Titans team and they all join in the final fight heck i'm honestly shocked that they somehow didn't work in the current live action Titans team.

The first joke of any comedy is always important because that joke will determine if the audience is with you or against you and sadly the opening joke in this film is bad all it is is just some pet food slowing leaving a can and that's it. Yes the opening joke from Go! To The Movies was bad since it was just a fart joke so you would have thought that the team would have learned their lesson and put in a better opening joke but they really didn't.

What I honestly wasn't expecting from this film and it's something that i'm glad happened it's that hey made Raven the main character of the film. It's like how they made Robin the main character of the previous film in that she's the character who goes through the actual change and grows as a character in this case it's learning to accept her demon half which is what the 2003 trigon is after so he can take over the multiverse. and that does lead to a cool as hell scene in the third act where 2013 Raven absorbs all the power from all the other Raven's to form a truly awesome form.

Like the previous film this one is a musical but unlike the previous film the songs in this film aren't that good and are honestly kind of forced. The songs in the previous film where catchy and were songs that you could sing along to here the songs just sound the same to me but I will admit to liking the nineties style rap that both teams perform early on in the film mostly because they take some shots at Teen Titans Go! and the fact they have a small budget which was honestly funny.

For some reason this show likes to put out bad trailers for there actually good movies like think about Go! To The Movies had a bad first trailer and so did this one. It's due to that trailer that I honestly thought that this film was going to be really bad and so I was presently surprised to see that it's not only good but it's also a very entertaining film and alot of that does come down to the jokes in the film.

The comedy in the film apart from the opening joke was actually pretty good with a fair few of the jokes landing with me. I'll admit that I found the previous film to be funnier but that doesn't mean that there aren't some jokes in this film like for example both Starfires find Sean's Nightwing to be more attractive then there own Robin and the fact that the 2013 Starfire frequently swoons over the 2003 Robin right infront of the 2013 version.

Now then since this is an action movie that means we do have to talk about the action seen in the film itself. The action in my opinion was honestly really fun we get to see both teams working together side by side which really does help in my opinion but sadly they don't take full advantage of that just because they stick to having the 2003 versions team up with however there 2013 counterpart is but the action is still really good and feels like it belongs in a movie.

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

Overall this is a really fun movie and since we know that the previous movie is canon to the show we can there for assume that this one is as well. While the film isn't as good as the previous movie visually it is epic enough and the action is fun enough that you kind of forget about that and so it gets a 7 out of 10 from me.

  

Viz: The Trumpeter's Lips Review

Now then comic book fans as you might have gathered by now i'm a bit of a Viz fan not only do I read each new issue when it comes out but I also make it a habit to read the annuals and well since my review of last years went down a treat I thought i'd try and make this either a yearly thing or one that happens every few months and so here is my review of the new Viz annual Viz: The Trumpeter's Lips enjoy.

As I stated in my review of the previous annual there is no plot just a bunch of individual strips each with there own story to tell. So one of them might be about someone recording a Christmas TV special but the one below it would be about something completely different and so I would advise anyone thinking about starting to read Viz books to be ready not to expect a whole lot of plot just expect there to be a basic set up and nothing more,

All of the old favourites return including the likes of Buster Gonad , Biffa Bacon , Roger Mellie , The Male Online and The Fat Sl*gs. There's really nothing new I can add about these characters because alot of them have been going on for around twenty years and the same person who created them is still writing and drawing them to this very day and so if you already like these characters then your still going to like them here.

Just so you all know the characters that i've listed aren't the only characters who appear in the annual this year it's just there the only ones that I can actually remember. I honestly think that if I was to count how many characters appear in this years collection including one of characters there would most likely be around forty to fifty characters but that's just a very rough guess so please don't hold me to it.

I'll have you guys know that it's hard for me to find any suitable pictures for this review let alone any from the actual collection and so any picture I do use most likely isn't from the collection but is the best representation of the character. I honestly feel that the above picture is perhaps the best representation of the Roger Mellie character because without him saying anything you get what kind of character he is.

Now i'll full on admit I wasn't expecting to do this review so early on in the year and yes I know it's near the end of summer but what I mean is I wasn't expecting to be having a copy of this book until much later in the year. So you can imagine my shock when I walked into a shop in Wales and I found a copy of this book so you can bet that I bought it as soon a I saw it because i'm not waiting several months like I did last year i've learned my lesson.

As with any Viz book be it the I guess yearly annuals or the monthly issues the news articles are so worth reading. I have to wonder how the team come up with funny and fresh news articles every single month because each article is worth reading just to see what crazy stuff the editorial staff come up with and dare I say it this year there actually better and funnier then some of the featured strips but that's just my opinion.

Now I would very much like to mention who did the artwork and who wrote each strip but like alot of comic strips there names aren't seen anywhere. That being said the artwork pretty much what you expect from the Viz team at this point altho if you know some of the creators then you'll notice that some of the characters look alike for example the character of Buster Gonad looks alot like Baz from The Fat Sl*gs however due to Buster's full name I can't post any pictures.

If i'm being honest one of the strips that I enjoyed the most with this release is The Male Online which is weird because I barely find those strips to be funny. However when I was re-reading The Pieman's Wig and reading this annual I found myself not only enjoying the strip alot but also laughing at pretty much all of them because they are really funny and that was something that I wasn't expecting to do.

Now as with the previous Viz releases this collection of strips is rude as all hell which is also why I can't include pictures of certain characters due to their names. So if you have any young relatives then don't even think of getting them anything from Viz because chances are it will scar them for life even the one's that aren't quite that rude are still more mature then anything seen in the Beano or Dandy that's how mature they are.

In all honesty this annual isn't as funny as last years one but it still does have plenty of good jokes in it. For me tho the best one isn't even a joke it's a headline all it is is a question asking how Henry The 8th Mowed his lawn I don't know why but for some reason that really got a laugh out of me maybe because it's so strange and absurd that you can't help but laugh at the joke that being said tho there are alot of jokes that I just didn't find funny and there was a few jokes at a certain controversial president which were honestly pretty funny.

Overall this was a solid collection of the best strips from previous issues but with that being said it's not as good as the previous one and so it gets a 7 out of 10 from me. If you guys liked this review let me know because i'm thinking of reviewing every issue of Viz when it comes out and this would be a great way for me to gage if there's any interest

Classic Doctor Who: Spearhead From Space Review

Doctor Who fans I will always state that the Third Doctor is my favourite doctor and while I have seen the serial i'm about to review before this is my first time reviewing it. This was a serial that for a long time I never saw in it's entirety until a few years ago and well while I was stuck thinking of what other classic Doctor Who serials I could review this was one of the episodes that sprung into mind and so here is my review of Spearhead From Space.

The plot of the serial is The Autons are trying to take over the world and it's up to UNIT and a newly regenerated Doctor to put a stop to it. This episode had a lot to do not only did it have to introduce a new doctor but also a new companion and a new enemy but it also had to reintroduce Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. So you would understand if the story wasn't that good however I thought that the story was really entertaining but I feel it could have done with at least one more episode just to get things right.

Like i said this serial introduces both Jon Pertwee as The Doctor and Caroline John as Liz Shaw and it also reintroduced Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart. Joining them in this serial is Hugh Burden as Channing , Derek Smee as Ransome , John Woodnutt as Hibbert , Neil Wilson as Sam Seeley , Betty Bowden as Meg Seeley , Hamilton Dyce as General Scobie and John Breslin as Captain Munro.

Now this is something that you guys won't know but i've been a fan of Jon Pertwee's since I was a kid because I watched a lot of his other show Worzel Gummidge and so I know that he can act and he is really good in this serial. I'll admit that outside of this serial I haven't Caroline John or Nicholas Courtney in anything outside of Doctor Who but in terms of this serial i'd be interested to see what else they worked on because they were pretty solid in this serial. The guest cast I thought were OK at best altho I got the impression that they didn't know if they show treat the material seriously or not and so while some of them deliver an over the top performance some of them also play it straight.

Now not only did this episode have a lot of characters to introduce but it also had to introduce a new enemy the autons. In  this serial I have to say that they are kind of creepy but at the same time they looked fake to me i'm honestly sure that at one point I saw the eye of one of the actors playing one of the autons. That being said tho they look creepy as all hell there's just something about an emotionless face which just looks freaking creepy.

Now in case you couldn't tell by the above pictures this was also the first Doctor Who serial to not only be produced in but also shown in colour. I know that that's something that we take for granted these days but back in the seventies colour TV was still a relatively new thing so it was a big deal for any show to be shown in colour and that right there makes this episode historic because like I said it was the first Doctor Who serial produced in colour.

This is the only serial i've seen with Liz and I can say that I like her she's got the feistiness of Amy but with the brains to back it up. To me she seems like the type of character that will put you down but will do it by saying something smart and I just love that about her and it makes me wonder why they got rid of her after just one series since there appears to be more to her then what we actually saw in this serial.

I can't really talk that much about The Brigadier just because this serial really doesn't show of much of his personality but given that he's present for all of the third doctors run it's bound to shine through in later episodes. Here he seems to be a rather stern character and I hope that we get to see more of his softer side in the later serials just because having a character who's always stern could make them unlikable.

One of the reasons why I think that this serial would have been better with five episodes is that it would have given a chance to flesh out some of the secondary characters. The fact that they didn't do that is an issue when it comes to the character of salesman John Ransome who appears through out the adventure but they don't really give us a reason to care about him nor make him seem a more three dimensional character and so when he does die I felt nothing.

Now what is something to be expected in the Jon Pertwee era is that there is a few action scenes however at least in this serial there is no scenes of Jon fighting someone. The action that we do see in this serial is kind of average all it is is just two guys shooting each other and that's really it but given that if im right this was the first real action sequence on Doctor Who I guess it's good that they started of on a small scale.

There was one scene which actually scared the living he*l out of me when I saw it on the screen and it's the scene where the doctor is almost killed by The Nestene Consciousness. What made this scene so creepy and scary to me is that not only is it shot in extreme closeup just of Jon Pertwee but because of that we get to see alot of the reactions on Jon's face and he looks scared and so if The Doctor is scared then we the audience must be scared as well.

Overall in terms of debut stories this was pretty solid and given that the serial had so much to do it's wonder that it still turns out to be as good as it is but that said the small episode count does mean characters aren't fleshed out that well and it does mean we don't get to see much in terms of personality from our leads and so it gets an 8 out of 10 from me.

Classic Doctor Who: Destiny Of The Daleks Review

Doctor Who fans the thought occurred to me that outside of reviewing the classic story Shada i've not taken a look at any serial from the Tom Baker era. Well the other day I started looking at stories from his time in the TARDIS and without realising it the story I chose a story from the exact same season as Shada should it have been completed and so here is my review of the season 17 opening serial Destiny Of The Daleks.

The plot of the serial is The Doctor and a newly regenerated Romana find themselves of Skaro and in the middle of a battle centuries in the making. The plot of the episode is honestly pretty weak and is easily the weakest dalek story i've seen from the classic era since there is no real plot to it for the most part but that being said the pacing of the episodes and of the story is honestly really good and due to that the time did fly by for each of the episodes.

Now this serial does have Tom Baker as The Doctor and it also introduces Lalla Ward (who appeared in the season 16 finale The Armageddon Factor as Princess Astra) here playing Romana. Together they are joined by David Gooderson as Davros , Peter Straker as Commander Sharrel , Suzanne Danielle as Agella , Tony Osoba as Lan , Tim Barlow as Tyssan , Penny Casdagli as Jall , David Yip as Veldan , Cassandra as a Movellan Guard and Roy Skelton as the Dalek Voices.

Now having seen Lalla in Shada so I do now that she can indeed act when the script is really good and the same is true here she is honestly really good in her debut story there are of course some rough edges in her acting but that's really it. Tom is really good in this episode but he doesn't get much of a chance to shine really which is a shame but given that he's acting opposite both the daleks and davros it's kind of understandable. As for the guest actors like Tom they don't really get much of a chance to shine which here is a bit of an issue because alot of the guest cast do play important characters.

Now this episode is famous or rather infamous for Romana's regeneration scene mostly because it's played for laughs. I personally had no problem with it since it's only a short scene and once it's done it's never brought up again but at the same time that might also be why alot of fans don't really like it because the regeneration doesn't have an effect on the story but I honestly feel that doing a regeneration scene and having it played for laughs is a rather fresh way of doing it and while that kind of scene wouldn't work for The Doctor it does however work for his companions if that makes sense.

This story is also kind of historic because it's the last Doctor Who story that Dalek creator Terry Nation wrote. However even tho he is the credited writer of the story there was a lot of Douglas Adams who according to director Ken Grieve wrote 98% of the script so it's difficult to say who wrote the Romana regeneration scene but given that Terry most likely didn't write that much of the dalek stuff that might explain why the story and the daleks just aren't that good in this story.

Let's talk about Davros because he really doesn't do anything at all in this story and i'm not making that up he does nothing that adds to the plot of the story. I honestly feel that he was added in at the last minuet due to the fact he has little impact on the actual plot of the story which is a shame because he's the one who created the daleks and like the daleks the makers of the show don't treat him with any respect.

You want proof of that the Davros mask is in such bad shape that his eyes don't even open so it looks like he's fast asleep and there are times where the mouth looks like it's falling of. The Daleks aren't in much better shape because they've been kept in storage for some time and so there models have a lot of tear to them it honestly makes you wonder why the BBC didn't take better care of the models since the daleks are one of the icons of this franchise even in the late seventies.

Now this serial does have a lot of location work a shocking amount for classic Doctor Who in fact I recon that at least 99% of this serial was done on location. Which actually means there's no K9 in this serial because the production crew had issues with the last time there was large amount of location work for an episode and so to save themselves the bother of going through all that trouble again they simply wrote him out at the start of the story.

The Movellan's just didn't seem that interesting to me which is a shame because having robots going to war with the daleks does sound interesting. However they don't really have that good of a look either to me they looked like they just stepped out of auditioning for that hologram thing for The Star Wars Holiday Special only they were done on half the budget and were acting opposite Tom Baker and don't worry if you don't get that Star Wars reference but trust me they do look pretty bad.

This serial is four episodes long but really doesn't have the story to cover that amount of episodes if anything it should have been two or three episodes long. However due to it being four episodes it does mean that the plot does get effected since it doesn't really kick in until episode 2 or 3 which isn't really something you want to happen for a story this short the plot should kick in around episode one since then you'd have more time to flesh out the characters and make the guest characters seem actually interesting.

Now this is a dalek story and so that means we do have to talk about our favourite pepper pot monsters. In my opinion the daleks in this story just aren't scary which is a shame because by design they should be scary in all most every scene there in but here there just not in fact in one case there the butt of a joke which while it is a funny joke it makes them less scary at least in my opinion it does.

Overall this is a pretty weak Dalek I can't say if this a weak Tom Baker story since apart from this one i've only seen one but even so this story gets a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

  

Steven Universe: The Movie SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Review

Steven Universe fans as you'll all no doubt know yesterday I had to make a choice and that choice was do I review Return To Zombie Island first or do I review this movie first. Well you all know what option I went with and I have since wished that I hadn't chosen Return To Zombie Island because that movie sucked badly so to say I was looking forward to seeing this movie would be like saying Avengers: Endgame made a little bit of money and so here is my review of Steven Universe: The Movie and yes there will be spoilers.

The plot of the movie is a few years have passed since the final episode of the show and Steven has gotten used to a life with no fighting but all of that changes when a new gem named Spinel threatens to destroy the world. To say that this plot is epic again would be an understatement one of the hardest things you can do when transferring a show to a movie is coming up with a plot that can only be done in a movie and this movie did just that I honestly feel that this story could only be told in a movie and it helps that the pacing was so freaking good the time just flew by for me whole watching this film and that's not something I get to say often.

Now it goes without saying that all of the actors from the show reprised their roles for this movie so i'm just not going to bring that up. So starring in the film is Zach Callison as Steven Universe , Estelle as Garnet , Charlyne Yi as Ruby , Erica Luttrell as Sapphire , Michaela Dietz as Amethyst , Deedee Magno Hall as Pearl , Sarah Stiles as Spinel , Tom Scharpling as Greg Universe , Grace Rolek as Connie Maheswaran , Matthew Moy as Lars Barriga , Kate Micucci as Sadie Miller , Shelby Rabara as Peridot , Jennifer Paz as Lapis Lazuli , Uzo Aduba as Bismuth , Patti LuPone as Yellow Diamond , Lisa Hannigan as Blue Diamond , Christine Ebersole as White Diamond , Toks Olagundoye as Nanefua Pizza , Aimee Mann as Opal and finally Ted Leo as Steg.

I honestly really did enjoy the acting in this film it's also one of the many things that the series got a lot of praise for as well. Which isn't hard to see why because all of the characters are so well acted and now it;s hard for anyone to imagine these characters being played by other actors. As for the new cast members those being Sarah Stiles and Ted Leo there really good as well I mean Ted isn't in the film much but Sarah is just a joy to watch in the film.

The animation for the film I assume was done by Cartoon Network Studios I say assume because there's no listed company anywhere on either the film's IMDB or the shows IMDB so this is pure guess work. As for what I thought about the animation it's more movie like and by that I mean when you see it it looks like the kind of animation you'd see in a movie which is honestly what you want you don't want the animation to be the exact same as it is in the show there needs to be some form of improvement.

IfF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FILM YET THEN DON'T GO ANY FURTHER BECAUSE THERE WILL BE SPOILERS GALORE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The movie confirms something that has been hinted at for a long time and that's the fact that Steven's mother is pretty much a bad guy. If you think about it everything bad that's happened to Steven happend because of something that his mother did and once again that comes into play here as it turns out the villain of the film Spinel was Rose's I guess friend and Rose just left her on an asteroid for thousands of years.

You can pretty much see this movie without seeing an episode of the show because the opening few minuets is just them recapping the events of the show. Which for people who havn't seen the show is a good idea however the only people who are going to be seeing this film are fans of the show so it kind of makes no sense in doing in that recap , however it would have worked if they added in some stuff which would come into play during the movie but they don't so it comes across as pointless.

What I found really interesting is that very early on Pearl , Amethyst and Garnet got taken out of action really freaking early. That is such a good idea because it makes your villain seem more of a threat and it now forces Steven to really have to think about how to save the world instead of relaying solely on his friends and for some of them it does lead to alot of comedic scenes which are actually funny.

What was also interesting is the fact that the villain has the ability to turn people essentially to babies at least if she wanted to go that far. I just love that I guess power just because it opens the door for the characters to find out new things about themselves which does happen here with Steven realising that the fight isn't over and that he has to keep on fighting until it's over for good and so in that regard the film is also a tragedy due to the fact that at the start of the film Steven is happy with the fight being over.

I loved the character of Spinel even tho she was the villain of the film to me she was really freaking enjoyable. In my opinion she's like Harley Quinn if Harley had been made for Steven Universe but kept the exact same personality that's how insane she is and how much of a fun character she is and I just fell in love with her and I kind of want to see more from her be it in the comics or in a future series or film.

This is a comedy and with that in mind one would expect there to be some jokes and well let's just say the jokes in this movie are alot better then alot of the jokes in Return To Zombie Island. While there aren't any joke jokes and by that I mean there's no set up and punchline alot of the films humour comes from alot of the cuter character moments like for example during one of the scenes when Steven is trying to get Garnet to remember by putting her in danger Peridot pulls out a giant Pizza cutter which to me was funny and later on in that same scene Sapphire describes everything that's happening.

This film is a musical and I have to say that honest to god the songs in the film aren't that bad in fact some of them are really catchy. I honestly think that "Drift Away" which is the villain song for the movie is honestly really good and it fits the character of Spinel really well it starts of really playful and kind of upbeat but then as it goes on it takes on a life of it's own and it truly becomes a really good villain song and it was one of my favourite songs in the movie I also really liked "True Kinda Love" as well.

I say one of my favourites because this movie has alot of musical numbers in it which for a musical makes a lot of sense. However there are times where one song would finish and then less then a minuet later the next one is playing there was no time to catch your breath and it was getting so bad that I at times was saying "Oh My God  We Just Had A Musical Number We Don't Need Another One" and I honestly feel that alot of the numbers in this film were there just to pad the time of the film we really didn't need the song that Sadie and the band sing at all but it's there for some reason but hey if Kate Micucci is in your cast you got to have her sing something. 

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

Overall this movie is far better then Return To Zombie Island was and it serves as a great epilogue to the show but it's not a perfect film as i've already listed some of it's issues and so it gets an 8.5 out of 10 from me.