My First Impressions Of Star Trek: Lower Decks

 

Well then here's a post I really wasn't planning on doing simply because I forgot that this show was even coming out this month. I was going to produce a first impressions of this show but I honestly thought that the show was coming out later in the year like September or October I honestly forgot that that it was coming out today and well since i've just seen the first episode here are my first impressions of "Star Trek: Lower Decks" enjoy.

I really wish that I could tell you the plot of this episode or this show for that matter however it seems like there's no plot to either one. This episode does have somewhat of a story about making contact with an alien race and helping them out but it's so thin that it might as well not even be there and just based of this episode there seems to be no plot to the actual show and so I have to wonder why should I get invested in these characters if the makers of the show aren't bothering to tell any kind of story whatsoever.

Starring in this episode and the rest of the rest of this series are Tawny Newsome as Ensign Beckett Mariner and Jack Quaid as Ensign Brad Boimler . Also starring in this episode and the rest of the series is Noël Wells as Ensign D'Vana Tendi , Eugene Cordero as Ensign Sam Rutherford , Dawnn Lewis as Captain Carol Freeman , Jerry O'Connell as Commander Jack Ransom , Fred Tatasciore as Lieutenant Shaxs and Gillian Vigman as Dr. T'Ana.

Acting wise this episode does fair a little bit better in my opinion since all of the actors are clearly trying to give a good performance. However the issue is that the actors aren't given a good enough script and so they have nothing to work of when it comes to something like character and so even tho the actors are clearly trying to make this script work they just can't because the script won't allow them to.

Doing the animation for this episode and this series is Titmouse who have worked on so many TV shows , video games and film's that it would take me all day just to list all of there credits. Now I say this as a fan of Titmouse and what they've produced but the animation in this episodes while it is OK it's clearly not the studios best work which is a shame because when the animation in this episode wants to be good it can be good to look at but then there are times where the animation looks pretty bad and that makes me wonder who gave this animation the OK.

Now then this episode seems to be like a parody of Star Trek the issue is we already have a show like that called The Orville. Honestly The Orville is alot closer in spirit and tone to Star Trek then Star Trek: Lower Decks seems to be since The Orville is made by people who understand what made Star Trek such a phenomenon in the first place while also pointing out a few of the more funnier aspects of the show.

While the show was being promoted I saw lots of videos on Youtube comparing this show to The Orville which is fair enough. However none of them pointed out the obvious thing and that is the fact that the show visually looks alot like Final Space which I don't get because that was the first thing that you notice is that it looks like a cheap version of Final Space hell it's even an adult comedy so it looks like the makers of this show saw an episode on Final Space one night and decided to remake aspects of that show only they added the Star Trek name so it would get alot more media attention.

As with anything to do with Star Trek this show is being aired on CBS All Access because god forbid another network airs a Star Trek show. This also means that if you live in anywhere accept America then your screwed because there are currently no release dates for this show internationally but the team is hard at work on getting that fixed and so if you like Star Trek then chances are you'll have to wait a little bit longer to watch this show in other countries.

I want it known that even tho i've said some negative things about this show i'm not entirely against the show. Since it could serve as a way to introduce new fans to the world of Star Trek which at the end of the day is a good thing since it would hopefully get them to watch the classic episodes and movies be they from the original series , The Next Generation or the various other Star Trek shows I only hope that the fans that this show does create don't turn out like the new Star Wars fans where they bash everything that came before Disney buying Lucasfilm.

Since this is a comedy because clearly The Orville wasn't enough of a parody of Star Trek that means we have to talk about the jokes in the episode. Which for me personally was very hit and miss for every joke that got a smile out of me there were several that followed that didn't even get that , yes all comedy is subjective but when your jokes can't even get someone to smile then you've clearly told an unfunny joke.

Overall I cannot say that this was a good pilot because it's honestly not it does everything that a pilot episode shouldn't do. As such I don't really see my self watching this series on a weekly basis however it is one that I can see myself checking in on every few weeks just to see if it's improve however since this is the e first episode im not going to give it a rating since I want to see if this show improves or not but im not that hopeful.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Star Trek fandom wiki page , Google Images or The Orville Season 1 fandom wiki page. I will admit that the images from the fandom wiki page's as high definition as I thought that they would be but i'm shocked that there aren't that many high definition images of this show on Google Images as such I can't really recommend the Star Trek fandom wiki page just because they don't have that many images for this show but here's hoping they upload some soon.

 

Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling "The Junkyard 500" And "Junkenstein" Review

Wrestling fans very rarely do I get to talk about both cartoons and wrestling and well I found a cartoon that not alot of not only wrestling fans but also cartoon lovers don't know about and i've seen it's debit episode. Let me tell you something brother this debut episode is really freaking something and incase your wondering why there are two episode names in the review well i'll get into that later but for now here is my review of the first episode of "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'N' Wrestling" called "The Junkyard 500" and "Junkenstein" enjoy.

The plot for the first half of the episode which is called "The Junkyard 500" is that Junkyard Dog and Rowdy Roddy Piper decide to have a race to see whose car will get put into a movie where as the plot of the second half of the episode which is called "Junkenstein" involves Junkyard Dog and André the Giant building a Frankenstein type creature that then decides to destroy the town the wrestlers live in. Oh boy where do I begin first of the plot to the second half of the episode is weird and really doesn't make sense even for a cartoon and the plot to the first half of the episode is so rushed that it's over before it even begins both of which are very bad things.

Starring in these episodes and the rest of the series are Brad Garrett as Hulk Hogan and Charlie Adler as Rowdy Roddy Piper. Also starring in these episodes and the rest of the series is Lewis Arquette as Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka , Uncle Phil as Junkyard Dog , Jodi Carlisle as Wendi Richter and  The Fabulous Moolah , George DiCenzo as Captain Lou Albano , Ron Feinberg as André the Giant , Pat Fraley as Hillbilly Jim , Ron Gans as Nikolai Volkoff , Ernest Harada as Mr. Fuji , Aron Kincaid as The Iron Sheik , Chuck Licini as Big John Studd , Joey Pento as Tito Santana and Neil Ross as Mean Gene Okerlund.

Oh boy how do I describe the acting in these two episodes let me put it like this the acting in these two episodes makes the acting in Captain Marvel look OSCAR worthy by comparison. That's how bad the acting in these two episodes are don't get me wrong the actors are clearly doing there best but there not really given anything to work with in terms of character or personality but I will admit that Brad Garrett does a really good Hulk Hogan impression so there's that at least.

Doing the animation for these segments and the rest of the series is i'm assuming DIC Entertainment since there's no listed animation company. I will give the animation this for being a cheap cash in there is a lot more effort thrown into the animation then what is really needed but with that being said yikes is the animation in these two episodes pretty freaking bad even for an eighties cartoon the animation is really bad.

The worst thing that I can say about the animation is that it looks cheap nothing about the animation in these episodes looks expensive it looks like it was thrown together over a weekend. Which should never be the case I don't know if the WWE then WWF gave DIC any money for the project or if the series was solely funded by DIC but there needed to be more money thrown at the series so that the quality of the animation could have been better.

I sad that I would explain why there are two episode names in the title of this review and well i'm a man of my word. Each episode would either have one twenty two minuet episode or two eleven minuets segments and in the case of this episode there are two eleven minuet segments why they couldn't make up there mind of a format for the show is truly beyond me since it would make the show feel more consistent but what do I know I just watch cartoons and wrestling all of the freaking time it's not like I was the target auidence for this show or anything.

Speaking of the wrestling there is no wrestling at all in these two episodes which to me is weird since it's a show based on a wrestler and has wrestlers as it's main cast. As such you'd think that the makers of the show would think of a way to include actual wrestling somewhere in these segments but nope they don't in fact it feels like there going out of there way to ignore the wrestling aspect of it's characters but it could also be because of either censors or parents groups and not the fault of the show makers or those involved with making the show.

Each segment both started and ended with a live action segment featuring the actual real life wrestlers from the show. Which makes me question even more why they just didn't cast them to voice there characters since they were already involved with the show with these segments so why not have them join the show as the voice cast as much as I love the voice actors that they got for this show it makes no sense in having them when you already have there real life counterparts filming live action segments for the show.

For those that don't know this show ran for two seasons starting on September 14th 1985 and ending on October 18th 1986 and was broadcast on CBS. As far as I can tell the only way that you can watch the show right now is on Youtube since as far as I know it's been scrubbed completely from the WWE Network and there are no DVD's released however if you still have a VHS player for some reason you can still find VHS tapes of the show on Ebay UK and I assume the American Ebay.

Now then since there is alot more comedy in these episodes then there is actual wrestling that means I have to talk about the jokes in these episodes. Which are just the typical jokes you'd find in a Saturday morning cartoon in that there not really that funny but at the same time I can see kids in the eighties laughing at some of the stuff that happens in these episodes but all comedy is subjective and so just because I didn't find the episodes funny doesn't mean that you guys won't you guys might find these episodes to be funny as hell.

Overall I can't say that this is a bad show because it wasn't really made for me nor was it made for my generation. It was made for the wrestling fan that grew up in the eighties and who grew up watching Hulk Hogan and these wrestlers but that doesn't make it a good show and it doesn't make these segments any good either in fact I think that these segments are fairly bad as such this episode gets a 4 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page , Wikipedia and Google Images. Honestly I wasn't expecting to find any high definition images for this episode and yeah I got exactly what I expected as such I can't really recommend any of the websites but if I was pushed i'd say use the Pro Wrestling fandom wiki page just because they have alot of images from the episodes but that's just me tho.

 

Hannah Montana "Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" Review

Disney fans you've seen me review episodes of animated shows before but I thought that i'd something a little bit different and instead take a look at an episode from a live action Disney Channel show. I thought that i'd do this because honestly no one talks about these shows which is odd because alot of us grew up watching these shows and so why shouldn't we talk about them anyways here is my review of the very first episode of Hannah Montana "Lilly, Do You Want to Know a Secret?" enjoy.

Now I would like to talk about the plot of this episode however there really isn't one which is perhaps the episodes biggest issue. Since there's no plot there's also no reason for me to invested in the characters and the story it's just alot of stuff happening for no reason and very little of what happens as we now know has a lasting impact on the show itself so it makes me wonder why they went with this episode to start of the show when they could have had one with a stronger story or an any story would have worked much better in the long run.

Starring in this episode and the rest of the series is Miley Cyrus as Miley Stewart/Hannah Montana , Emily Osment as Lilly Truscott , Mitchel Musso as Oliver Oken , Jason Earles as Jackson Stewart and Billy Ray Cyrus as Robby Ray Stewart. Guest starring in the episode are Shanica Knowles as Amber Addison , Anna Maria Perez De Tagle as Ashley Dewitt , Matt Winston as Fermine and Corbin Bleu as Johnny Collins.

As we all know the acting in any live action Disney Channel comedy is never that good and yeah the same is true here. All of the kid actors are overacting in every single scene there in and the adult actors are under acting with them barely putting in any kind of emotion. I honestly expected bad acting from the child actors because they are kids after all but not from the adult actors who should have put in some form of effort.

Now this was a show that i've grown up watching and i've seen all of the main cast from this episode in other things. As such it was a shock to me to see how young they all looked in this episode it honestly took me a second just to remember that this is how they all looked back in 2005 because i'm so used to seeing them all alot older I had completely forgotten what they all looked like when they were alot younger.

Honestly if this pilot was being aired today then it would get alot of negative attention due to the character of Fermine as played badly by Matt Winston. Just because the character the stereotypical gay fashion designer which trust me would get alot of people both on the internet and of the internet pretty freaking angry and honestly it makes me wonder why people haven't called this show out yet since they like to call out people over every little thing.

Honestly watching this episode again was weird as hell for me because it was like tacking trip back in time seeing all this old technology that's present in this episode. As well as seeing how this looks like a show made in the year 2005 which is honestly something that you don't get these days since the Disney Channel shows look like they could have been made in anytime even tho they always make use of whatever modern day technology is going around plus it was freaking weird to see old school flip up phones.

Yeah as top be expected there's drama in this episode and yeah it's not really handled well at all given the running time the writers did the best that they could do with the drama but if they had an actual story to tell and a longer running time then the drama would have worked alot better. As it is tho that big dramatic scene that all comedies have just doesn't work since we have to no reason to care for the characters and because the whole episode needs this drama to work the episode fails when the drama itself fails.

One of the biggest issues that many had when this episode was released is the fact that there are to many song interludes. Which isn't the case there's only about three which for this kind of show is the norm but with that being said they are all the exact same song so if you didn't like the song the first time your going to hate it by the end of the episode and so I don't know why they didn't include a mixture of songs just to keep those segments from feeling the same.

Yeah to say that the jokes in this film didn't really age very well would be a huge freaking understatement. Since yeah this episode really isn't that funny at all at least in my opinion anyways they depend so much on the stereotypical jokes of "your my brother and so your disgusting in every way possible" which just isn't funny it's lazy and alot of the times laugh track would go of when nothing funny was even happening or being said.

Overall i'm honestly shocked that they made anymore episodes after this episode since it's not that good of an episode. With that being said tho I can very easily see young girls still finding this episode to be funny and the song catchy but as someone who grew up with this show it's not really an episode that has aged well and so I have to again wonder why the creators didn't pick a stronger episode to be the premier episode as such this episode gets a 4 out of 10 from this long time Disney fan.

All images used in this review were gathered from either the official Hannah Montana fandom wiki page , the official Disney fandom wiki page and Google Images. Yeah i;m not going to lie the image quality is exactly what I expected from a show made in 2005 but with that being said there are some images that blew me away with how high quality they are as such I really cannot recommend any of these websites for high definition images of this episode but if you want to use any of these websites then I say go for it.

 

Tekken: Blood Vengeance Dub Review

Video game fans whenever people mention video game movies they usually mean the ones that get a theatrical release and are live action. Well I want to talk about a video game movie that was straight to DVD and is animated because believe it or not those exist as well and they should be talked about in the same way that people talk the live adaptations and so here is my review of the 2011 film "Tekken: Blood Vengeance" enjoy.

The plot of the film is high school student Ling Xiaoyu is recruited by Anna Williams of G Corporation to transfer to Kyoto University and gather information on a student named Shin Kamiya. In all honesty I found the story to be rather forgettable which is never a good thing even more so when like this film it can be pretty interesting and so I have to wonder why in the hell the story can be both forgettable when it wants to be and interesting when it wants to be when it should be one or the other.

Now as you can see in the name of this post i'm doing this review based of the dubbed version of the film just because that's the copy of the film that I have on DVD and so it's easier then tracking down and downloading the subtitled version. As such starring in this film is Carrie Keranen as Ling Xiaoyu , Cristina Vee as Alisa Bosconovitch , David Vincent as Shin Kamiya , Taylor Henry as Heihachi Mishima , Kyle Hebert as Kazuya Mishima , Darren Daniels as Jin Kazama , Charlotte Bell as Nina Williams and Mokujin and Tara Platt as Anna Williams.

Now I do have some issues with the dub not the quality of the dub or the acting both of which I think are really good but it's the fact that have the time the character,lips don't match what there saying which is something i'm going to be bringing up again because it's a big issue. As for what I thought about the actual acting in the film given the amount of good anime voice actors in this film it shouldn't surprise you to learn that I thought that the acting was actually really good with all of the dub voice actors putting in solid performances.

The animation for this film was handled by Digital Frontier who of course did the animation for the first two Resident Evil CGI films Resident Evil: Degeneration and Resident Evil: Damnation. In all honesty the animation in the film is the best thing about the film because it's so stunning to look at with all of the characters having good CGI models and the fact that the film doesn't use that zany fast paced animation style really works in the films favour.

I will admit there was one thing that I didn't like about the animation but it's very freaking minor and that's the fact that in some shots Nina's clothes look like there from a Playstation 3 game. I say that because there's a huge dip in the quality of the animation in those shots but there are so few and far between and they don't distract from the overall film but it is still a little issue that I thought was worth bringing up since it did annoy me a little bit.

Now I said that i'd be talking about the lip movements again because I do feel that it's a big issue because it's very distracting. Since a character will start talking and a few seconds later the lips will catch up to what there saying and I don't know what caused this issue but it's one that in my opinion needed to be fixed because it can take you out of the film since if your like me you'll be wondering why the lips aren't matching up quite right.

I believe that this film is a prequel to Tekken 6 and since i've not played any of the games for years I can't say if this film works as a prequel to that game. I can say tho that you don't have to played that game or any of the games in order to understand what's going on or who the characters are since the film acts as a standalone adventure and it does a good job of telling all you need you need to know about the characters.

For me the key thing in this film is the friendship between Ling Xiaoyu as played by Carrie Keranen and Alisa Bosconovitch who is played by Cristina Vee. I say because alot of the film revolves around there friendship which is actually a smart thing since it grounds the film is some sort of reality and it makes the characters feel more real and it helps that both the characters are honestly extremely likeable in my opinion.

This film is around ninety minuets which actually does feel about right since there isn't that much of a story to fill out anything longer. However with that being said there are large portions of the film where it's just the characters talking and there not that interesting and are honestly pretty boring to watch in my opinion and it's those scenes that make the film drag since alot of the time there not talking about anything related to the plot or advancing the plot in any way.

Now then since this is an action film and so that means that I have to talk about the action that's in the film itself. Which I feel is honestly pretty standerd which i;m not quite sure if that's a good thing or not since alot of the action is honestly really freaking cool but at the same time it's also stuff that we've seen done better in other action film and so I honestly have no idea what to think about the action in this film which is a first for me.

Overall this film is clearly trying to be good and there is clear effort thrown into making the film actually good. The issue is tho alot of the film is just boring to watch which is never a good thing and because it's boring the film can feel like a chore to sit through and so I wouldn't blame anyone if they turned this film because honestly I felt like doing the same myself as such this film gets a 5 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from the official Tekken fandom wiki page and once again I didn't get the images from any other website. I will admit I thought that alot of the images on the official Tekken fandom wiki page would be high definition and sadly not that many of them are as such I really can't recommend that website for high definition images of this film since there really isn't that many but if you want to use that website for HD images from this film then be my guest. 

My First Impressions Of Muppets Now

The Muppets is a brand name that so well known around the world with the characters appearing in everything from TV shows to movies to commercials for bread. Well now they are taking on the world of online streaming with a new show which to say it's a but strange would be a huge understatement and well I thought that i'd do you all a favour by checking out the very first episode and give you my first impressions of "Muppets Now" enjoy.

There is no real plot to this show or even this episode it's just Scooter uploading the show and the episodes playing out. What I like about this set up is that from what I can gather all of the muppets are going to have shows that fit there personality so for example Miss Piggy has a fashion show while Kermit has a show interviewing people and Walter has a show learning all about the various hobbies of the various muppet characters , this set up to me works because it opens the door to alot of laughs as well as having shows that fit the hosts personality.

Starring in this episode is new Kermit voice actor Matt Vogel as Kermit the Frog and Uncle Deadly and Eric Jacobson as Miss Piggy , Fozzie Bear and Sam the Eagle. Also starring in the episode is Peter Linz as Walter , David Rudman as Scooter and Janice , Bill Barretta as The Swedish Chef , Howard Tubman , Dave Goelz as Gonzo and Julianne Buescher as Margaret and Beverly Plume as well as a whole bunch of celebrities none of which i'm going to spoil because they are really fun to see in this episode.

Like I said we do have a new voice actor for Kermit here and while Matt Vogel does do a good job I think his voice will take a while to get used to.The rest of the cast do a good job which shouldn't come as a surprise since alot of them have been playing these characters for nearly twenty years and so of course there going to know what that character would say and how they would react in certain situations.

This episode is twenty two minuets long but it really doesn't feel like it at all mostly because the episode is split up into several segments. Which I feel help with the shows pacing because your with one character just long enough to get some laughs and then you cut away from that character before it gets to boring which honestly keeps not only the episode but the segments from getting boring in my opinion.

That being said there are very few times where you see The Muppets together and so the episode isn't as fun as it perhaps could have been. Since part of what makes The Muppets fun to watch is seeing the characters interact with each other and sadly there isn't alot of scenes with The Muppet characters talking to each other which honestly makes the episode a little less fun to watch but hey this is only the first episode and so hopefully they will have more scenes together in future episodes.

Now given how this character was very prominent in the marketing for the show i'm surprised that the character of Joe The Legal Weasel aka Joe From Legal actually doesn't appear in the episode. This isn't a spoiler since there's really nothing to spoil in this episode but i'm shocked that the character wasn't included in someway shape or form given that he featured in pretty much every piece of promotional material for the show.

I'm trying not to spoil anything here but I will say finding out what Kermit's hobby is is honestly pretty freaking funny just because it was so unexpected. Then to make the joke even better Kermit tries to teach Walter his hobby which oddly works for that character , however Kermit's hobby really doesn't make sense as funny as it is simply because the hobby isn't something that Kermit would enjoy doing let alone be a master in.

I honestly feel that this show is going to take the best advantage of Disney+ releasing episodes weekly simply because of the fact that there will be a large group of people waiting to see the reviews for the episode to see if it's worth watching. Which your just not going to get if you release the episodes all at once plus given the format of the show I could see people getting very bored of the show if all the episodes were released at once.

Now then since this is The Muppets which means it's a comedy and so we have to talk about the jokes that are in the episode. Which yeah I thought the jokes were pretty funny again i'm going to spoil what the jokes are because of how funny I think the jokes are but I will say that there's a joke in Walters Muppet Masters show which I find to be freaking funny and is so in character for one of the characters involved and leave it at that.

Overall this was a pretty decent episode i'm not going to say that it's laugh out loud funny because it's really not. However there are alot of good things about the episode and it's a show that I can see pleasing old fans hopefully bring new fans to this franchise for the characters debut on Disney+ the show is alot better then what it really could have been in my opinion and since this is the first epsidoe i'm not going to give this rating but I might review the whole series when it finishes airing but we'll see about that.

All and I do mean all the images used in this review were gathered from the official Muppets fandom wiki page. I was honestly shocked at how many high definition images there are not only for this episode but for the series as a whole so yeah if you want high definition images for this show or this episode feel free to use the official muppets fandom wiki page and I only used alot of Miss pIggy images because she's a star and you all know it.

Doctor Who: The Movie Review

Doctor Who fans it's been a few days since I made the promise of reviewing of the 1996 Doctor Who movie and well i'm a man of my word. As such I made sure that there was nothing that would stop me from getting this review to you and luckily everything went smoothly just so I could sit down and watch the movie and so guys and girls here it is at last my review of the 1996 Doctor Who movie "Doctor Who: The Movie" enjoy.

The plot of the film is a newly regenerated Doctor has only a few hours to save the world from The Masters latest plan and to stop The Master from stealing his own body and his remaining lives. I honestly found the plot to be rather enjoyable yes it is pretty straight forward but given that the film is just under ninety minuets that is honestly to be expected plus it does a good job of setting up what this new Doctor could have been if the show had been picked up because yes this is a pilot for an American produced continuation of the show.

Starring in the film is Sylvester McCoy as The Seventh Doctor , Paul McGann as The Eighth Doctor and Eric Roberts as The Master. Also starring in the film is Daphne Ashbrook as Dr. Grace Holloway , Yee Jee Tso as Chang Lee , John Novak as Salinger , Michael David Simms as Dr. Swift , Eliza Roberts as Miranda , Dave Hurtubise as Professor Wagg , Dolores Drake as Curtis , Catherine Lough as Wheeler , William Sasso as Pete , Joel Wirkkunen as Ted and Jeremy Radick as Gareth.

In all honesty the acting in the film isn't that bad since the actors do the best with what there given the issue is the acting isn't that good either because the script gives them very little to work with. Which is honestly a shame because there are some really good actors in this film and yet the script gives them nothing to work with and so there left struggling to get some sort of decent performance from a script that really should have been better.

Let us take a second to talk about the new TARDIS control room design because honestly I feel that it needs to be talked about. Which I honestly did like while the TV show has made some truly great looking control rooms in the past there was no way in hell that they could create something for a movie without it loosing something in the translation and so here they made a set that is a worthy control room at least in my opinion.

They also made the interior of the TARDIS seem more gothic or at least I think they did anyways which is honestly something that I never noticed before now. Which i'm not quite sure how I feel about it to be honest since while it does work for the time that this film was released which was big on gothic culture it also dates the film because of that fact and the fact that they somehow have a church like room in the TARDIS to me is taking things a step to far I can suspend my disbelief for alot of this film but considering that this is a continuation of the show and yet there only just now bringing up this church like room which houses the eye of harmony to me is not a good idea and is just pretty stupid.

Now I wouldn't normally talk about a companion until we got more episodes with that character but since this character only appears in this episode let's talk about Dr. Grace Holloway as played by Daphne Ashbrook. In my opinion if this film had gone on to become a series she could have been a solid companion however since she only appears in this film she feels kind of like a secondary character with her not getting alot of character development but she does show signs of being a great character if more screen time was given to her.

The same thing cannot be said for Chang Lee who as mentioned before is played by Yee Jee Tso and in this film is The Masters companion because yeah that's what we want to see The Master have a companion. To me this character really isn't written that well at all with him being written like an annoying nineties teenager which really doesn't make the character likeable at all and hell the film makers don't even give us a reason to care for the character at all so when he does die (this film came out in 1996 get over it) you feel nothing for the character.

This film does feature some CGI which was done by Northwest Imaging & FX and Lindala Schminken FX. Now I have to say that this is a TV movie and so of cause the budget for the effects isn't going to be bug but even so these effects look dated as all hell even taking into account when this film was made the effects still don't look that good im sure back in 1996 the effects looked good but ere they look like something you'd see in a late Playstation 1 game cutscene.

I will admit that this version of The Master is really fun to watch and alot of that does come from the fact that Eric Roberts really just doesn't give a damn and is just having the time of his life playing this part. I honestly would have loved to see him continue playing the part but with a much better script just to see what he would do with the part , not helping things tho is the fact that now for some reason time lords have the power to steal each others lives which is something that is never fully explained which considering this is a huge plot point this really should have been explained but for some reason the film makers chose not to explain this very crucial plot point.

Now then let's take the time to talk about The Eighth Doctor who is wonderfully played by Paul McGann. Like Grace there is a great character here trying to get out but due to the script and very short running time I honestly that if Paul had a better script for his debut adventure as well as a longer running time then his version of The Doctor and this adventure will be remembered alot more fondly then it actually is.

Overall as a pilot this isn't that bad since it does a fairly solid job of introducing the characters but at the same time it doesn't set up any future storylines. I really cannot tell if this was made for the fans or not simply because the film throws alot at you which would confuse none fans of the show but then again the film does away with alot of the established lore which would upset fans of the show as such this film gets a 6 out of 10 from me.

All images used in this review were gathered from Wikipedia , Google Images or the official Doctor Who fandom wiki page. I full on admit to not expecting any high definition images from any of these websites and yeah I got exactly what I expected as such I can't really recommend either website for high definition images but if you want to use any of the above websites then I say go for it and no matter what you think of the above DVD cover at least it's not as bad as the films actual poster which is the above image by the way.

 

  

South Park "Cartman Gets An A**l Probe" Review

Animation in all my years producing reviews i've seen animated shows come and go alot leaving no impact. However there has always been one show that has not only stuck around but managed to change what it meant to be an adult animated series from it's raunchy humour to it's often controversial takes on recent topics South Park has been there to guide us and to make us laugh and so here is my review of the very first episode of the show which I have edited "Cartman Gets An A**l Probe" enjoy everyone.

The plot of the episode is Kyle's brother Ike finds himself kidnapped by Aliens which Cartman doesn't believe exist and so it's up to Kyle to get him back before there parents find out. Plot wise this is the strongest of South Park episodes which is something that even Comedy Central agree with since they weren't even sure if they were going to commission more episodes but with that being said it is still a fun story to see play out.

Starring in the episode is co-creator / co-writer / producer and director Trey Parker as Stan Marsh , Eric Cartman and Mr. Garrison. Also starring in the episode is co-creator , co-writer and producer Matt Stone as Kyle Broflovski , Kenny McCormick , Cows , Pip and Carl , Mary Kay Bergman as Liane Cartman and Wendy Testaburger , the late great Isaac Hayes as Chef  and Franchesca Clifford as Ike Broflovski.

In terms of what I thought about the acting in the episode it was honestly pretty average at best and alot of that comes down to the fact that both Trey and Matt aren't experienced writers or directors and so they have no clue what will work but as we find out they do improve over time. However what I found to be pretty over putting and at the same time interesting is the fact that alot of the characters voices are alot rougher then what we are used which while it did make the episode hard to watch just because im more used to the voices that they have now it was also interesting seeing where the characters voices started out.

Doing the animation for the episode is Celluloid Studios and if you haven't heard of them don't worry because I haven't either. As we all know South Park is known for having a cut out animation style but what many don't know is that this is the only episode to feature cut out animation and even with that in mind the animation does look pretty good yes you can tell that they are just moving the characters by hand and I think you can see a few of the animators hands in some frames but to me that adds to the charm of the show.

This episode is actually pretty freaking tame at least in terms of swearing and other adult things seen in the show. Don't get me wrong it's still there but it was more present in other episodes which to me seems like an odd way to go for this debut episode since you'd normally go all out in the first episode just to get people's attention but no Trey and Matt seem to have taken the opposite approach with this episode instead going a less equals more approach which oddly works in the episodes favour but at the same time it's not the South Park we know and love but it's close.

Now this is something that I actually didn't know and that's the fact that this episode is basically a re-edited version of an un-aired pilot both going by the same name. What makes this interesting is that the un-aired pilot gives Cartman a family we see his father and sister in the un-aired version I can't say if they speak or not but I find it interesting that these two characters would be wiped from the show's canon.

The un-aired pilot also adds in alot of scenes which I don't know if they add to the overall story or not but it does make me wonder why alot of the scenes were cut out of the final version. You can actually watch the un-aired pilot as it's on the complete second season DVD box set so it would be interesting to watch just to see why the removed scenes where cut from the aired version of the episode and to see what Cartman's father and sister were like as characters.

Now if you know the show and considering it's been on for well over twenty years then you'll know that Cartman's mother has a bit of a shall we say past with the whole male gender of the town. Well shockingly they did kind of hint at her more I guess naughty side in this episode i'm not going to repeat what's said but let's say it has something to do with the fact that Cartman called his cat a d**do and his mother said that the cat is sleeping with her tonight.

I can honestly see why Comedy Central didn't want to order more episodes after this one since this isn't the best representation of the show whatsoever. Don't get me wrong it's damn close to how the final show would end up being but at the same time this pilot episode feels like a pilot to another show and not to South Park since it barely resembles what South Park is and what it's capable of doing when it's at it's best.

Now then since this is a comedy that means that I have to talk about the jokes that are in the episode itself. Which I honestly have very mixed feelings about because while there are indeed some very funny jokes in this episode like the fact that the Aliens have Cartman "transform" and sing "I Love To Singa" is a very funny joke but at the same time there are jokes that aren't like the fart jokes which are never funny.

Overall this is very mixed bag of an episode with alot of good things in it but there's also alot of bad things present as well. There are hints of how good South Park can be when it's at it's best with alot of funny jokes but at the same time there are hints of how bad the show can be as well with alot of jokes not landing and the writing being very hit and miss as such this episode gets an 8.5 out of 10 from this long time South Park fan.

All of the images used in this review were gathered from either Wikipedia , Google Images or the official South Park fandom wiki page. I will admit that I was one of those kids who when he was seven years old would watch this show when it was first broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK (yes my parents knew) so i've literally grown up with the show and so it was nice to go back to the episode that started it all and the fact that I was able to find alot of high definition images pretty much all of them from the official South Park fandom wiki page made my inner child very happy indeed.