Doctor Who "A Big Hand for The Doctor" eBook Review

Doctor Who:
A Big Hand For The Doctor
By Eoin Colfer

The first of 11 Doctor Who eBooks to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who has been released. The story centers on the 1st Doctor and Susan before they met Ian and Barbara.   It takes place in 1900 London where The Doctor is looking to get a new hand. His old hand was chopped off by a Soul Pirate.  Apparently and old acquaintance of his has set up a shop and he specializes in attaching cloned body parts or other types of parts like an exoskeleton hand.   Then he gets a message from Susan that the Soul Pirates are up to no good and that he needs to hurry up and meet her. Well that is when the adventure begins.

A Big Hand for The Doctor was written by Eoin Colfer who is famous for his Artemis fowl series of young adult novels.  Since these eBooks are aimed at a younger audience having a young adult author write them is a pretty good idea as it won’t be bogged down with a lot of science fiction jargon or a complicated plot.  With that said Eoin Colfer does give us a very enjoyable story that is pretty easy to follow and is pretty easy to read.  He captured the feel of William Hartnell’s Doctor very well and I could see this fitting into that particular era.  Only thing is I wished it was a tad bit longer as I thought it was to short.  But since this is a series of stories that will be released in one volume later this year I can see why it was the length it was.

The only thing I had a problem with is the whole hand thing.  I just didn’t like that idea but knew why it was done, you will too once you get to the last chapter, but I still didn’t care for it.  It just didn’t seem right and not something that would have happened to The Doctor.  But in all A Big Hand For The Doctor was an enjoyable read and a fun one to read before bed or during a lazy afternoon.
Grade B+

Official Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Website Launched

The BBC have launched an official 50th Anniversary website celebrating the history of Doctor Who and all The Doctor's.  It's pretty cool as there is lots of stuff you can view about Doctor Who.  You can check it out at this link.

http://www.doctorwho.tv/

Caves of Androzani Soundtrack Released For Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary

Silva Screens has announced that they will be releasing several soundtracks from classic stories in part to celebrate Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary.  First up is Peter Davison's last story The Caves of Androzani.  It will be out for sale and download on the 25th of March.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Space Museum

Doctor Who
The Space Museum 
By Glyn Jones

“Well, why not? Why shouldn't it be? It's quite natural. After all, you have objects of historical interest on Earth, so why not a museum in space? I always thought I'd find one someday.”

There are all types of museums.  All over the world and for the most part free to enter.  There are art museums, museums that house historical articles and museums that have natural history like dinosaurs and such.  But the most famous museum of all is the Space Museum.  What is the Space Museum? Well it is a museum that is on the planet Xeros.  What is unique about this museum is that there are some pretty interesting exhibits on display.  Like for instance a Dalek from the planet Skaro.  Yes a Dalek on display.  Well maybe its shell as it is pretty empty inside luckily for us.

The gem of the museum is the exhibit of the time travelers.  Yes a true gem that.  The four time travelers and their blue box.  It is in fact a marvel that they can all fit in that box and travel through time.  So marvel at the time travelers known as The Doctor, Ian, Barbara and Vicky and look at their wonderful craft The TARDIS the next time you are on Xeros and are visiting The Space Museum.

Remembering John Christopher and His Books By Steve Taylor - Bryant

Taking a look at a legend. Though he passed away last year, the father of Will Parker shall always capture our imaginations...

A lot gets spoken regarding legacy. What legacy will the 2012 London Olympics leave? Is George Lucas harming the legacy of Star Wars with the changes? These are just a couple of examples to show that legacy tends to raise more questions than it answers.

Samuel Youd was born on the 16th April 1922, and was destined to write. He wrote short stories, novels, comic book entries, all sorts of styles of writing under numerous pseudonyms. It is the pseudonym of John Christopher that I fondly remember. Despite many titles, both as Christopher and his other names, the novels that spring instantly to mind are The Tripod trilogy, written between 1967 and 1969; and my favourite of John Christopher's books, 1977's Empty World.

The Tripods trilogy was about a conquered humanity. The Masters travel around in huge three-legged machines known as The Tripods, and the world becomes reminiscent of the middle ages. Humans are controlled from their teenage years by implant 'Caps' which take away curiosity and leave the person incapable of dissent. They work for, and worship, The Tripods, and those for whom the Caps don't work are left wandering the world as vagrants.

I will get to the point about legacy soon, but allow me this synopsis, a brief description of Empty World:

Doctor Who Episodes Could Be Limited in 2013

According to a merchandise banner on display at the BBC's table at the London Toy Fair, Doctor Who will air the remainder 8 episodes of this season and then the 50th Anniversary in the fall.  There is no mention of a Christmas special nor any season 8 airing at all in 2013.  To top this off, the anniversary special is 60 minutes long and not a season long celebration as hoped.    The Banner also mentions the docu-drama and 11 other documentary specials.

Now the banner does say "To Include" and so there may be more to be announced but if that is it then this anniversary may not be as big as originally thought.


Seen at I09 -

http://io9.com/5978389/no-new-doctor-who-episodes-between-this-spring-and-the-anniversary-special

Trailer For BBCA Doctor Who The Doctor's Revisited Airing This Sunday

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Web Planet

Doctor Who:

The Web Planet

By Bill Strutton

“We seem to be caught. Trapped somehow. This is some strange phenomena. There's no power in the ship. It's useless.”

The Web Planet isn’t one of those stories that you go crazy over to watch again.  No in fact, it is quite boring.  Ok.  To be fair The Web Planet wasn’t intended to be watched in one sitting.  It was in fact a serial that was to be enjoyed weekly with the traditional cliff hanger which was a classic way to tell a story back in the sixties for Doctor Who.

This story comprises part of the second season of Doctor Who shows William Hartnell to be completely comfortable in the role of the First Doctor.  In fact despite his stumbling of words he does a remarkable job with the battle of wits with Animus. The Animus is an intelligence that has mind control over the Zarbi and their fellow creature the larvae gun. In fact the other creatures in this story the butterfly like Menoptera.  These creatures occupy the planet Vortis which at one time was peaceful where they all lived in harmony.

Doctor Who Returns Saturday March 30

The BBC have announced that rest of Series 7 of Doctor Who will return Easter weekend.  The show will air on Saturday March 30th and it will be a story written by Steven Moffat.  Not Much longer now to find out more about the mystery that is Clara Oswald. Full story here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/doctorwho/articles/Date-Confirmed-for-the-Doctors-Return

Source: Official BBC Doctor Who Website

The Hannibal Lector Series By Steve Taylor - Bryant

I love horror. I love blood and guts horror, torture horror, and mythical creature horror. The likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street, and the seven SAW films make up a large part of my DVD and BluRay collection, but my favourite part of the genre is anything that is psychological. And this leads me to an author who does this better than most: Thomas Harris.

Harris was born on April 11th 1940 in Jackson, Tennessee and majored in English at Baylor University in the now infamous town of Waco in Texas. After a brief stint with the Waco Herald he joined the Associated Press in New York City and covered crime in the United States and Mexico whilst working on his fiction writing.

His debut novel Black Sunday is about an American planning an act of terrorism at the Super Bowl and was released in 1975, but it is a certain quadrilogy that brought Harris to the public's attention. Starting in 1981 the world was introduced to the cannibalistic sociopath Doctor Hannibal Lecter, a forensic psychiatrist.

American Vampire Volume Two Review

American Vampire Vol 2
Written By Scott Snyder
Art By Rafael Albuquerque &
Mateus Santolouco

Continuing with the story of Skinner Sweet and Pearl American Vampire Volume 2 contains two stories and collects issues 6 – 11 of the ongoing comic book series.  The first story involves Skinner Sweet in Las Vegas in 1936.  There Skinner is a big mob boss in Sin City and he’s gotten up the crawl of Las Vegas Police Chief Cash McCogan.  Of course there are vampires involved and someone is pecking off certain members who lowballed the bid on the Hoover Dam and went into business with the vampires.  Thus bringing the mayhem to the city on the up rise that is Las Vegas.

The second story involves Pearl and Henry as they try to live a quiet life away from vampires and Skinner Sweet.  But Pearl who is one of The American Vampires is always on the lookout for anyone who might be coming after them.  Especially The Vassals of the Morningstar who hunt and kill vampires and the come to Pearl to ask her how they can kill American Vampires so they can use that info against Skinner Sweet.

Not to give too much away you can guess what ensues next.  Yes lots of violence and action that you have come to expect with American Vampire.  Scott Snyder gives us a pretty good Skinner story and also sets up a good story for Pearl and Henry that gets more attention in Volume 3.  I love the new characters that were introduced in Volume Two like Cash Morgan.  He is a pretty cool character and you really feel for him at the end considering what Skinner does to his pregnant wife.  The Skinner Las Vegas story was the better of the two stories as it had more action and well more blood and killing of vampires.

I did enjoy the Pearl and Henry story as it is building up to something.  They are being followed and on the run and you feel like at some point someone is going to capture them.  I like how Scott Snyder is taking his time with Pearl as you get to know her a bit and you actually get a sense of what Pearl and Henry want.  They want to live a happy life and to be left alone from the vampire hunters and the vampires.

American Vampire Volume 2 is a good collection with two stories that are pretty enjoyable and full of vampire violence for the diehard horror fan.  What is exceptional is the smart story that Scott Snyder weaves as it is apparent that he is planning something major.  You get the feel that the way the story is being told is that American Vampire is a story with a beginning a middle and an end and that the beginning has got me hooked to find out what happens in the middle.
Grade A

Classic Doctor Who Returns to America!

BBC America will be airing previous Doctor Who episodes all year in celebration of the 50th Anniversary.  "The Doctors Revisited" series will air one story from each Doctor each month and will start with the First Doctor story, "The Aztecs."  The debut of this first story will be Sunday January 27 at 9pm.

While some PBS Channels still show Doctor Who in America, it is less common than ever.

Hello Sweety! Alex Kingston To Play Dinah Lance On Arrow!!!

Doctor Who star Alex Kingston has been tapped to play Laurel Lance mom and Detective Quentin's ex wife Dinah Lance in a recurring guest role on Arrow.  Comic book readers will know that Dinah Lance was the original Black Canary and well who knows if she will don the fishnet stockings.  Alex Kingston is the 3rd Actor from Doctor Who to appear on Arrow as Doctor Moon Colin Salmon plays Walter Steele and of course Captain Jack himself John Barrowmen plays Malcolm Merlyn. You can read the full article here.
http://insidetv.ew.com/2013/01/22/arrow-alex-kingston/

Source: EW.Com

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Romans

Doctor Who:

The Romans

By Dennis Spooner

“You know, I am so constantly outwitting the opposition I tend to forget the delights and satisfaction of the gentle art of fisticuffs.”

During Doctor Who’s second season the production crew decided to do something different.  They decided to make a historical with a different twist.  They decided to make it funny and take advantage of William Hartnell’s comedic presence.  William Hartnell used to do a lot of comedy when he first started acting and the Romans was the perfect vessel for him to revisit his roots.   

The Romans is not your usual Doctor Who story. Besides the fact that it is pretty funny it also was one of the few stories where there were two stories going on at once.  First you have The Doctor and Vicki en route to Rome when they come across a body. In fact it’s the body of Maximus Pettulian.  The Doctor picks up the lyre just as a centurion arrives and mistakes The Doctor as the famous lyre player.   So they are whisked away to Rome where an audience with Emperor Nero awaits them.

Doctor Who 50th Anniversary: The Rescue

Doctor Who

The  Rescue
By David Whitaker

“You're sorry for me aren't you? I'm perfectly all right, you know. I don't care if nobody ever comes. I'm fine. I'm perfectly all right!”

The Rescue introduces us to new companion Vickie who replaces Susan who left at the end of The Dalek Invasion of Earth.  Vickie is one of the survivors of a ship that had crashed on Dido.  There are two survivors Vickie and Bennett and they have themselves a bit of a problem.  Apparently they are being terrorized by Koquillion. Koquillion says he is protecting them from his people who have killed the rest of the crew of their ship including Vickie’s dad.  He also informed them that another ship had landed and his people have killed them also.