An absolutely classic Doctor Who episode, and with my favorite Doctor, the great Tom Baker. And with Leela, one of the Doctor’s most interesting companions, as she is an absolute warrior who runs on instinct and not intellect, and this Episode also introduces the great K-9 who became such a stalwart companion to the Doctor. Not only is this one enjoyable, but how cool is getting to litterally travel into the mind of a time lord. Nice. One of the best, and the disc also includes the pilot to the ill fated K-9 and Company Show, where Sarah Jane Smith got K-9.

In the year 5000 humans have spread across the solar system, and s space shuttle ends up passing through a strange virus, and the virus takes over their minds, and they head to the ships destination, Titan Base. The crew starts taking over the base, but the station manager Lowe (Michael Sheard) manages to get off a distress call, which the Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companion Leela (Louise Jameson) hear the message, and go to help. The Doctor is infected by the Virus, though not completely taken over, but amazingly Leela is immune from infection. The Doctor is meant to be the Nucleaus of the Swarm, taken over by the infections central intelligence. The Nucleus wants Leela killed, and orders the Doctor to do it, but he breaks free, and allows Leela to get him in the Tardis and head to the nearest Medical Center, along with Lowe who has just been secretly infected.

REVEIW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

I picked this series up because Steven Moffatt was a writer on the new Doctor Who, having written some great episodes, and who and who is becoming the new show runner for Doctor Who. It is also rumored that once Tennat leaves the show, either after the next 4 specials, or the 5th season, that Moffatt will replace Tennat with James Nesbitt, so I wanted to get familiar with these two, in the year long wait for the 5th Season of Doctor Who. And I am glad I checked out this series, because it is incredibly well written and put together, and Nesbitt is fantastic in his dual roles here. This is an amazing series and a must see, though I do wish that the DVD had been compressed better. IT has some ugly consistent noise throughout the blacks in the whole show. Oh well, it is still a must see. See it on BBC America if you can, or rent the DVD’s, it is well worth it. A really cool modern look at the Jekyll and Hyde story, which is not so much a retelling as an update, that spans the original story and brings it into modern times, it is in fact described by it’s creators as a sequel instead of a telling.

Tom Jackman (James Nesbitt) is a prominent scientist making a good living, who has himself a major problem, and has become estranged from his family because of it. The shot starts with him interviewing a psychologist Katherine Reimer (Michelle Ryan who was recently in the US remake of the Million Dollar Woman) which he is hiring to work for him, and his strange alter ego. It seems that Jackman in fact changes from himself to a version of himself much like his id, who is also physically stronger and taller, and thinner, who goes about having sex, and roughing people up and drinking. In fact Jackman always had a headache, but what he doesn’t realize he is in fact always hungover. And the alter ego keeps showing up more often, and Jackman has a chair with straps to keep him locked up and punish him at times. Jackman finds that his estranged wife Claire (Gina Bellman) with who he has two child with, has hired a detective named Miranda Calendar (Meera Syal) and her pregnant girlfriend Min (Fenella Woolgar), who didn’t reveal his alter ego to his wife, but does reveal that the black van following Jackman is not from her. Finally Jackman’s alter ego meets an American named Benjamin Lennox (Paterson Joseph) who works for an organization called Klein & Utterson, and who names the later ego Hyde.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

The British sitcom that was the start of the brilliant careers of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright, this hillarious comedy really must be seen. It took me a few episodes to really get into it, but it has so many funny little jokes throughout and such a twisted sense of humor, that this is really a must see show, and the only bad part is the whole show is only two series and a total of 14 episodes long. The newly released US DVD has a commentary with the cast, crew and some fans, with outtakes and a documentary as well as deleted scenes and more. For any fans of British Humor and who is around my age and a bit of a sci-fi geek, this show is an absolute must see.

Tim Bisley (Simon Pegg) is dumped by his 5 year girlfriend Sarah (Anna Wilson-Jones) who went with is best friend Duane Benzie (Peter Serrafinowicz), an this would be comic book artist, who works at a comic book store, must find a place to stay. His best friend is Mike Watt (Nick Frost) a war obsessed man, who used to be in the provincial army but got kicked out for stealing a tank, and trying to invade Paris, and couldn’t join the real army because of something Tim did as a kid. At a local coffee shop Tim meets aspiring writer Daisy Steiner (Jessica Hynes, previously Stevenson) and the two find an add for an inexpensive flat, that is only for a professional couple, so they pretend as a couple to get the 2 bedroom flat.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

Another sumptuous adaption of a story of betrayal an lust set in Victorian England from a novel by Sarah Waters. This too has some lesbian story elements, though they are not as front and center as those in Tipping the Velvet. This is a very enjoyable BBC series, with great cinematography and acting, and a story that will have you on the edge of your seat until the end, because their are more twists and turns here than you can shake a stick at. It is good that the BBC went for 180 minutes because this story would have suffered from being shorter. Certainly worth checking out.

This is the story of two girls whose lives will be intertwined, a young orphan named Sue Trinder (Sally Hawkins) who has been brought up by a group of fingersmiths (Thieves) led by Mrs Sucksby (Imedla Staunton) and Maud Lilly (Elaine Cassidy) the daughter of a woman who went mad, and was raised in a mad house, only to be taken in by her strict and strange uncle (Charles Dance) to become his secretary. A young charlatan involved with Mrs Sucksby named Richard Rivers (Rupert Evans) hatches a plot to get mary Maud, and get her $40,000 pound inheritance and then put her in a mad house, by using Sue as her maid (so Sue will get $3000 pounds). The plan seems simple, if diabolical enough, but things start to awry when Sue starts to develop feelings for Maud, and doesn’t want her to be taken in by Rivers.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

A sumptuous BBC adaption of the Sarah Waters novel about torrid lesbian romance in Victorian London. This is quite an enjoyable series, and I heard about it because Keeley Hawes who I recently saw in Ashes to Ashes the sequel to Life on Mars, and thought she was a great actress, and she was good in this, though the lead role played by Rachael Stirling is really the standout here. After this I am sure she will be huge. This is quite an enjoyable 3 episodes and I highly recommend checking this out. You have to love that the BBC shows nudity on TV, while we can show violence but not nudity, a part of everyday life. There is not a huge amount here, but enough to make this pretty sexy.

Nancy “Nan” Astley (Rachael Stirling) is a young girl living in Whilstable, England in the 1880′s working in an oyster cafe that her family owns and runs. She doesn’t really fit in, and never is too interested in the boy she dates. Then the man who courting her sister takes the whole family to the theater, and Nan is awestruck by a female impersonator named Kitty Butler (Keely Hawes), and she starts going to the show every night. Kitty ends her act by throwing a rose to a girl in the audience, and one night she goes over and hands a rose to Nan, and then has her taken backstage to her dressing room. The two hit it off, and Nan starts coming every day, and helping Kitty get dressed, but secretly wanting to be here lover. One day Kitty gets a job offer to move to London, and to headline a show, and she asks Nan to go with her, and Nan agrees, and goes to London, living with Kitty and sleeping in her bed with her. One day Nan tries on Kitty’s clothes, and when Kitty sees her, she decides they can do an act with the two of them. Nan goes by the name of Nan King. The first night, they do their act, which includes a kiss, and they are celebrating afterwards, but when Nan dances with a trumpeter, Kitty gets angry and storms out, but Nan follows, and in the carriage the two start kissing and when they get home they make love.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER…

(more…)

Actually quite an enjoyable romantic comedy with the twist of having a newlywed woman fall for a lesbian on her wedding day. And this is not a low quality film, but a very well done and enjoyable film, that shows the dark sides as well as the light of falling for someone other than the one you marry. I actually thoroughly enjoyed this film, with good actors, and well written and directed.

Rachel (Piper Perabo who recently on an episode of House) is marrying her closest friend Hec (Mathew Headey from Match Point), but at the wedding she gets a glance at the lovely Luce (Lena Headey who has recently been in the new Terminator The Sarah Connor Chronicles) who is doing the flowers, and that glance will change everything for Rachel and her husband. At the reception Rachel loses her wring in the punch bowl, and Luce helps her fish it out, then has to fend off affections of Hec’s best friend Cooper (Darren Boyd). Luce ends up ducking out early, as she realized she likes Rachel, so she bails quickly. At her flower shop, Rachel comes in to thank Luce, and invites her over to dinner. She invites Cooper too, to try and hook them up, not realizing that Luce is gay, which she tells Hec. At first Rachel doesn’t believe, but they run into Luce with another woman at the supermarket. and Rachel realizes the truth. Even more though, she realizes she is in fact interested with Rachel, even renting a lesbian DVD at the video store.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER…

(more…)

At best a mediocre Doctor Who adventure, notable only for the first appearance of Elisabeth Sladen as Sarah Jane Smith and the debut of the Sontarans who have most recently returned in the last Season of the current Tenant Doctor Who.

In the Middle Ages the Kind known as Irongron (David Daker) and his right hand Bloodaxe (John J. Carney) discover a crashed spaceship and meet it’s occupant the Sontaran warrior Linx (Kevin Linday). Linx offers Irongron weapons in exchange for help in his repairing his craft, and an alliance if formed. Meanwhile in modern time, the Doctor (Jon Pertwee) and Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) are investigating the disappearances of a bunch of important scientists.A young journalist named Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) sneaks into the complex and meets the doctor, and ends up sneaking into his TARDIS before he follows the disappearance fo a scientists named Rubeish (Donald Pelmear). The Tardis goes back to the middle ages, and Sarah sneaks out, and ends up getting captured by Irongron.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS….

(more…)

This is the earliest episode of Doctor Who I have ever seen, and the only one with the first Doctor and his granddaughter Susan, and the basic story was remade into the 2 movies Dr. Who and the Daleks and Saleks Invasion Earth 2150 A.D. which change the story and make it actually Doctor Who from Earth. This actually starts the second season of Doctor Who and while the quality of the black and white video is quite low, it is surprising how much of the original Who is still in the story (even if he didn’t become a Timelord until the second Doctor, and the third Doctor that talked about Gallifrey). And the Daleks improved, but these are the basic ones (actually there second appearance) that have not really changed till this day. Cool to see. Damn I would love to see the entire Doctor Who series.

The Doctor (William Hartnell) materializes the Tardis on Earth in London, though not quite sure of the time, though he is supposed to return Ian Chesterton (William Russell) and Barbara Wright (Jacqueline Hill) to their home, and they get out with the Doctor’s niece Susan Foreman (Carol Anne Ford). London is curiously silent. Susan tries to climb a wall, but slips and twists her ankle, and causes the bridge to fall and cover the entrance to the Tardis. The Doctor and Ian head off to check out a warehouse across the way, and find a calendar marked 2164 and a dead body with a strange appliance attached to his head, a Roboman. Meanwhile Susuan and Barbara get taken by human freedom fighters to their hiding place. The Doctor and Ian decide to return to the Tardis when they see a flying saucer over the city, but they find the girls have gone, and then Robomen surround them, and a Dalek emerges from the water, as they have conquerd Earth. The Dalek orders them taken to the Landing area.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILER…

(more…)

A mediocre Tom Baker adventure as Doctor Who. Enjoyable that it has the Daleks and is the first episode of the second Romana (Lalla Ward who had just played Princess AStra in the Armageddon Factor and who ended up marrying Baker for a short period), but obviously low budget, and not too hard workout out. I love when for set pieces they have little spot lights on stands. I mean that doesn’t throw you out at all does it? Still it was Tom Baker Doctor who, so I still had fun watching it.

Using the randomizer so as not to run into enemy hands, the Tardis lands a planet that is strangely familiar to the Doctor (Tom Baker). K-9 is suffering from Laryngitis, and Romana (Lalla Ward) comes out in the form of Princess Astra having just regenerated, the Doctor wants her to take another form, but this is the one she wants, so he relents, and the two head out. The planet has very high levels of radiation, so they take pills and head out, but their are seismic disturbances and explosions. They watch some humanoids burry a body, and then watch a spaceship come and land and half burry itself in the sand, they are going to investigate, but explosions make them enter ruins, where a girder falls on the doctor. Romana goes back to get K-9, but discovers that the Tardis has been partially burried, and when she returns, the Doctor is gone. The Doctor has been taken by a silver haired high tech race called the Movellans. Romana sees a man, and runs to hide and ends up captured by the Daleks.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

A classic Tom Baker Doctor Who with Elisabeth Sladen as his companion. This one has elements of both Forbidden Planet and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and really has 4 enemies that the Doctor must Deal with or befriend. This is a great one, and I love the planetary sets as well as the space ship they end up on. Not only that but Sladen was so much more an equal to the doctor than Billie Piper could ever be. This is must see for all Tom Baker fans.

The TARDIS picks up a distress call, and ends up on the planet Zeta Minor, where a Morestran Scientific expedition had fallen to an invisible killer that takes the bodies and then brings them back completely drained of life. A military mission from Soresnosn arrives, and finds Professor Sorenson (Frederick Jaeger) still alive, though a bit manic and unwilling to give up his antimatter work. The squad takes the Doctor captive, thinking he is the killer, and beam the Tardis to their ship with Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) inside of it.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

I am not usually a fan of romantic comedy, but this one is pretty cute and well done, and overall an enjoyable flick. I like movies like Rashomon where you see one event from different perspectives (though here it is not about the differences, but just seeing the same events from another perspective). It is kind of creepy how much Monica Potter looks like a younger Julia Roberts though. Just weird.

A young american woman named Martha (Monica Potter) comes to England and seriously effects the lives of 3 best friends. We are told the whole story by Laurence (Joseph Fiennes) to his neighbor he believes is a psychologist named Pedersen (Ray Winstone). The richest music executive friend Daniel (Tom Hallander) met Martha at the airport, and bought her an upgrade ticket, but she took the money, so he sat back in economy with her, and learns she is basically running away from her life. Daniel then gives her a free night at a hotel he uses for clients, and then never hears from her again. And he is totally in love with her, and depressed, but what we learn is in fact Laurence went to the airport to meet Daniel and talk about their friend Frank (Rufus Sewell), but missed him and got hit in the head, and met Martha and ended up going to the hotel with her, and they almost kissed, but when flowers arrived from Daniel, he ran to save his friendship.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...

(more…)

It is too bad, but this should in fact be called 3 of 5 Doctors, since Tom Baker is only here in archival footage (which is too bad, he would have been great to see with everyone else, and many villains and companions joining as well. It is an enjoyable romp. This is the special edition, which is longer and has added effects (pretty pitiful computer graphics if you ask me). Worth checking out for sure, especially with the clash off all the Doctor’s personalities, though my least favorite is Peter Davison, and damn wasn’t Richard Hurndall as the first doctor (replacing William Hartnell who died in 1975) a surly old man! Ha, I have never seen him as the Doctor. This is really fun, damn I wish they would do something like this in the current Doctor Who, and get all the living Doctors to be in it. Still it all ends very easily without much of an ending, but still fun.

The Doctor (Peter Davison) and his companions Tegan Jovanka (Janet Fielding) and Turlough (Mark Stickson) are on a Holiday in the EYe of Orion, when the Doctor starts feeling as if parts of himself have been ripped away. We see the First Doctor (Richard Hurndall) being taken by a time vortex then the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton) is visiting the Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (NIcholas Courtney) when they are taken. Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) ignores a warning from K9 (John Leeson) and is taken. Then the Third Doctor (jon Pertwee) is taken. The Fourth Doctor (Tom Baker) is attempted to be taken, but something happens, and he is caught in time. All the Doctor’s as well as many of their companions, sush as the first Doctor’s granddaughter Susan (Carol Ann Ford), the Cybermen and a Dalek that fights the First Doctor. They have all been taken to the Death Zone on Gallifrey homeworld of the TimeLords, where a tomb of an ancient powerful timelord Rassilon is housed and the ancient TImelords used to use to play games of death.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

An OK Tom Baker adventure, and I believe the last one available on NTSC DVD at this point. The best part is the aged makeup on Tom Baker which is fantastic, and this one is mostly notable as the end of the Doctor using the Randmizer he installed at the end of the Key of Time Series. Enjoyable, but nothing too special, except I do think Tom Baker’s last season uniform with the question marks on the color is my favorite of all.

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) have turned off the randomizer, and decided to go on a vacation, but they are in Brighton, on the off Season and cold. Romana accidently blows up K-9, but decides she wants to go the planet Argolis and it’s giant pleasure domes the Hive. The Argolin race is dyeing, and their planet is a wasteland thanks to a war with the Foamasi, a reptilian race, who it seems now want to buy the dead planet of it’s adversary, and take it out of the horrible debt it is in. The Argolins are led by Mena (Adrienne Corri) mother of the young Pangol (David Haig) who hates all aliens and especially the Foamasi, and runs a machine that plays image games based on a tachyon technology, but it seems to backfire and someone is actually ripped to pieces by the machine.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

A very enjoyable Tom Baker Dr Who romp through Paris and time, trying to figure out what is happening with certain time shifts that seem to be occurring, and only they can see them. This is quite an enjoyable tale, with a great villain, and some fun trips into history, and Lalla Ward as Romana does make a good companion to the Doctor, having another Time Lord along makes him up his scientific game. A must see for any Tom Baker fans.

An alien being on Earth in the past from a race called the Jagaroth attempts to take off from ancient molten Earth, but the ship explodes. The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) are in Paris in 1979 enjoying a holiday, when they feel time slip, they are not too worried and visit the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa, but then another time slip occurs, and The Doctor almost passes out. As he falls, he lands in the lap of The Countess Scarlioni (Catherine Schell), where he grabs a bracelet made with futuristic Alien technology. The Doctor and Romana leave, and are followed by a private detective Duggan (Tom Chadbon). Duggan thinks they are thieves, but in fact thieves working for the Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover) come and take the bracelet, and then take them to meet the Count. The Count has a scientist named Professor Kerensky (David Graham) working on some time experiments, he thinks to solve world hunger, but it is in fact for more nefarious purposes.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

Sure the effects are as cheesy as can be, but this is a riveting horror adventure, set in the confines of a lonely light house. Again I enjoy having Louise Jameson as the warrior woman, which is such a change from most of the Doctor’s companions. And it is another fun Tom Baker adventure.

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) get lost in the fog, and end up on the lonely Fang Rock the location of an old lighthouse which recently had electricity installed, with 3 keepers. The youngest keeper VInce Hawkins (John Abbott) saw a light fall from the sky, and he and the eldest keeper Rueben (Colin Douglas) find the engineer Ben (Ralph Watson) dead, just as the Doctor and Leela show up. The power keeps dyeing in the lighthouse, and a ship ends up wrecking, and they rescue the survivors with a greedy lord Palmerdale (Sean Caffrey) his colonel friend Skinsale (Alan Rowe) the lords secretary Adelaide (Annette Wollett) and Harker (Rio Fanning).

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

A long story, six episodes instead of the usual 4, is an enjoyable romp in victorian England with the Doctor dressed in his best Holmes attire, though honestly not too memorable and it is just too bad that most of the Chinese in the episode are played by white people because it certainly comes off as a bit racist. Nothing too memorable here for sure, and made best by having Louise Jameson as Leela because as a warrior woman, she is so different than most of his other companions.

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Leela (Louise Jameson) head back to Victorian England circa 1888 to see how her ancestors live, and to go to a theater, but they have a run in with a bunch of Chinese Coolies, and the Police take them in to question them, as Leela was beating the guy up that they captured. A stage magician named Li H’sen Chang (John Bennett) who seems to be part of disappearances of woman that come to his show, is brought in to interpret, and has the coolie kill himself. The Doctor then befriends the police pathologist Professor Litefoot (Henry Gordon Jago) and they discover large rat hair, and find giant rats in the sewer which must be protecting something.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

An enjoyable Tom Baker adventure, with a warrior companion Leela (Louise Jameson), and some interesting aliens. Enjoyable.

Leela and the Doctor (Tom Baker) arrive on an alien planet in side of a massive sandminer Storm Mine 4, which is mining the sand in the air for precious ores. The ship is run by COmmander Uvanov (Russell Hunter) and a small human crew aided by numerous humanoid robots, with 3 classes, their leader, the talking class, and the dumb class, and just as the Doctor and Leela arrive their is a murder among the crew, and they quickly try to blame the Doctor and Leela for the crime.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

An enjoyable who adventure on Earth and in the distant reaches of space, and markable as the last episode with Elisabeth Sladen playing Sarah Jane Smith as the Doctor’s companion (at least in the main series, she did later return in K-9 and Company and The Five Doctors and Dimensions in Time as well as some radio dramas, and eventually in the 2006 season of Doctor Who with David Tennant [and she still looked damn good too, a site better Billie Piper, that is for sure]). It is too bad the next episode is not on DVD, because it marks the return of the Master and I would love to see that, especially since he is returning in the current season of Tennant’s Doctor Who. When did the Tardis get this Retro look? It didn’t have it in his first season or in his last. Hmmm.

This episode starts with Space Aliens in the distant past, setting a space ship to explode on a distant inhospitable planet named Kastria in order to kill one of their own, but their is the chance it will not work, and their will not be complete destruction, which could cause trouble for the whole universe. In the present the Doctor (Tom Baker) returning to Earth with Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen), but landing in a rock quary, where there is an explosion and Sarah is buried. She is alive, but has found a piece of petrified hand and a ring that is maybe 10 million years old, and the ring has taken over her mind, it is the ring of the Alien.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

The Doctor continues his travels with Sarah Jane Smith, this time meeting an ancient evil that would attempt to destroy all life in the universe, an Egyptian god named Sutekh. Enjoyable, but again not one of the Doctor’s most memorable adventures. Still a fun time.

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) are on their way back to UNIT HQ on earth when a jackal like face appears in the Tardis and they end up in 1911 in an old priory owned by a famous Egyptologist named Marcus Scarman (Bernard Archard). Marcus recently found the ancient tomb of Sutekh (Gabriel Woolf) in Egypt and something happened to him. He has not returned, but a mysterious Egyptian named Ibrahim Namin (Peter Mayock) has come back to watch over things, and is treating everyone horribly. Marcus’s brother Laurence (Michael SHeard) is worried about his brother, but can find nothing out. And Namin uses his ring to activate walking robotic mummies to serve him. A sarcophogus opens, which is a portal and out comes Marcus, who is now fully controlled by Sutekh, and kills the Egyptian, and sets the robots to building a rocket to destroy the Pyramid on Mars which powers the tomb of Sutekh which was set by Horus to trap the evil god.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

A short and direct follow up The Ark in Space (only 2 episodes versus 4 for this story), and a fun and easy one off. Again, nothing to write home about, but still fun to watch. All taking place outside on a hillside, with a cheesy robot, spaceship and alien.

The Doctor (Tom Baker), Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) and Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter) beam down to Earth to check the ring of transporter rings from the Ark set to bring the lost humans back. As the Doctor is trying to fix the transmat beam, Harry falls in a trap, and Sarah is taken by a strange robot along with a space suited human. Their are a group of humans who crashed on Earth, and they are being taken by this robot and experimented on and tortured by it’s owner.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

Another Doctor Who adventure, not great effects, but a pretty cool story. Enjoyable if not too memorable. This one takes place right after Tom Baker’s first adventure Robot and is his first off Earth, though of course it has to do with Earth as it is the Doctor’s favorite planet.

Due to an accident by Harry Sullivan (Ian Marter), he, the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) end up in the 131st century to a Spark Ark named Space Station Nerva filled with cryogenically sleeping human’s who escaped the Earth years before because of solar flares set to decimate the planet. The people were never awakened though, as the ship was sabotaged, the ship has no power and no oxygen, so the Doctor must make repairs, but he finds the wires have been bitten through. When they put the power back on, Sarah is accidently knocked into a cryogenic machine, and a defense system almost takes out the Doctor and Harry. They disable the system and the chief medical officer Vira (Wendy Williams) is awakened, though she doesn’t like them, thinking them substandard humans, but they are helping out, as their are some creatures on the ship. They find the remains of a giant insect. Then the leader of the ship named Noah (Kenton Moore) is awakened but he hates the Doctor and his friends immediately, and wants to exterminate them, not believing in the bugs onboard.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

Included with the box set including stories 115 and 116, this first adventure of Peter Davison as the Doctor is quite enjoyable, though you don’t get much of the new Doctor’s personality because through most of the story he is just recovering from his rather severe regeneration. I honestly can’t say I remember much of Davison’s doctor, but from this I would be willing to see more.

Starting right where the last one ended with Peter Davison as the new Doctor, Adric (Matthew Waterhouse), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton) and Tegan (Janet Fielding) try to get the Doctor back to the Tardis, and Adric only escapes with a little help from the Master (Anthony AInley). The Doctors needs help finding the Zero room which will help him keep the outside world out of his mind, while he recovers from the Regeneration, but Adric under the Master’s control takes over the ship, and sets it to go back to the creation of the universe, which will destroy the ship.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

A great story, and how can it not be with the Doctor having to team up with his ultimate enemy The Master, and sadly the end of an era, for this is the last story with Tom Baker as the Doctor. After 7 years he ended his run as the famous doctor, and what a run it was. The ending is quite sad as his enemies and companions flash before his eyes, and he regenerates into a new form.

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) head to Earth to measure the exact dimensions of a police call box, so they can head to the planet Logopolis where they can perform a special mathematics to fix the Tardis’s Chameleon circuit and allow it to look like other things. They arrive on Earth over a Police Box, but it seems to be another Tardis, and they start going in through multiple Tardis’s within their Tardis. Meanwhile an AIrline Stewardis named Tegan (Janet Fielding) wanders into the Tardis and gets lost. A wraith like watcher looks on at them, and some police attempt to arrest the Doctor for shrinking Tegan’s aunt into a doll size, killing her and a cop, but Adric helps the Doctor escape. The Doctor wants to flush out his Tardis, because he knows another Tardis is inside and could be anywhere, so he plans on flooding it with water, but lands on a boat instead, and talks to the Watcher, who heads them toward Logopolis.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

Tom Baker is really the best doctor hands down. I just watched Robot, which was his first episode, and now I am watching the episodes that ended up as his last of his seven season run. He really had the doctor down by this point, and his outfit was the best. His long boots, the purple velvet outfit and long scarf, and the color with the question marks on it. And this is the final return of the Master with Tom Baker, the Doctor’s greatest foe. Another enjoyable series, leading up right to the end. I had forgotten about the new space ending and theme, though I like the original Tom Baker opening with the tunnel better.

The Doctor (Tom Baker) and his companion Adric (Matthew Waterhouse) are heading to Gallifrey when the Tardis is taken over and turned toward the planet Traken, a supposedly completely peaceful world where evil cannot even exist, but something is going wrong, and the Keeper (Denis Carey) comes to the Doctor to show him the evil on his planet, as the all powerful keeper feels his life force ebb and he must pass his power on to another Traken. A great evil came to the planet in the form of Melkur, a life form that has been calcified into a statue by the power of the keeper which is called the source. A woman named Kassia (Sheila Ruskin) has taken care of the statue for years, and now she has become a consul of eldars and has been married to Consul Tremas (Anthony Ainley). The Keeper sees a great evil happening here, so calls on the Doctor to come to Traken and help save the Source.

REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS…

(more…)

I have been on a huge Doctor Who kick of late, and with the Master Returning to David Tennant’s doctor this Season, I wanted to pick up some Tom Baker Doctor Who and remember more about him. This was just released and is Tom Baker’s first adventure as the doctor, as he has his transformation and starts to come into his own. This whole episode is all on Earth in the company of the Brigadier and UNIT, and is obviously a transition episode with the Doctor not yet venturing off the Earth, but it does show the hint of how great Tom Baker would be as the doctor, how much he would bring to the show. Right from the start he makes the Doctor his own.

Immediately Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (Nicholas Courtney) and Sarah Jane Smith (Elisabeth Sladen) watch the Doctor regenerate into his present form (Tom Baker), at first he is a bit out of it, but quickly decides to help them with some secret plans and equipment that were stolen from 2 high security military bases. We see Tom Baker try to figure out what to wear (hilarious), and start to help. Sarah Jane though investigates an origanization called the Think Tank, where they had a giant robot program created by a scientist who has left the program named Professor J.P. Kettlewell (Edward Burnham). And she doesn’t trust him or the leader of the think tank Miss HIlda Winters (Patricia Maynard).

REVIEW CONTAIN SPOILERS…

(more…)