Tag / scifi

by Andrea

SOLOS (Amazon Originals, 2021)

What is SOLOS about?

SOLOS is about 8 people, from different times but the same universe. Eight people who drift together or apart, who are tied up together in the fabric of space.  Each episode stars one person, only the finale features two. Each protagonist has someone to play off of, either themselves in a double role, or sometimes, an AI companion, a disembodied voice. Each performance is stellar, and each script is tangled up in speculative fiction tropes. Time travel, humans and bots, space and the advancements of technology. The good ones, and the bad ones.

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Doctor Who: Death in Heaven
by Andrea

Doctor Who: the Complete Series 8 Finale.

Previously on Doctor Who: Flatline.

Prologue

Due to Comic Con and work stuff, my viewing schedule has been messed about a little — and although Doctor Who is obviously coded for weekly viewing including seven days of dread before the next episode comes along, I’ll be binge-watching and reviewing the last three episodes of Series 8 in one go. From what spoilers I couldn’t really escape, looks like it’ll wreck most of my nerves whilst saving me getting upset about a few things, too.

Good luck. Continue reading →

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The aliens of 'Flatline.'
by Andrea

“Goodness had nothing to do with it.” — Doctor Who: Flatline.

Previously on Doctor Who: The Mummy on the Orient Express.

What I like about this series of Doctor Who is that it doesn’t make everything alright. Things are allowed to not be ok, people are allowed to not be ok. “It’s ok,” could so often have been the tagline to the denouement of the week, but not this time. Not with this Doctor. What I love even more is that this time, they truly used the Doctor-lite episode to give Clara/Jenna exemplary material to work with, and she did, even more excellently than in Kill the Moon, and that was challenging already. Continue reading →

The Mummy on the Orient Express
by Andrea

Doctor Who: The Mummy on the Orient Express.

Previously on Doctor Who: Kill the Moon.

This episode affords us one of the luxuries of time travel: the recreation of period dress, set, and costume design — in the future, in space, making it feel endearingly fallen out of time. Donna went ‘flapper or slapper’ in Agatha Christie’s own time, now Clara is stepping onto the Orient Express. A marvel in its own right, of course, but also indelibly connected to, again, Christie. And we’re dealing with murder here, too — except that the perpetrator hails from a different world entirely. Continue reading →

by Andrea

Doctor Who: The Caretaker.

Doctor Who The Caretaker promo

Previously on Doctor Who: Time Heist.

Really, Doctor Who, really?

There’s a fine line between the Doctor acting as gatekeeper to Clara’s love life and just being concerned for her wellfare and Clara herself wanting the Doctor to like her boyfriend simply because people like it when their friends and their significant others get along. This episode is dangerously skirting that line and, frankly, introducing an Eleventh Doctor Doppelgänger and letting the Doctor believe that he is the SO, then leading to instant approval… is not the way to go. At best, it’s a really, really flat joke.

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by Andrea

Impossible Heroes — Doctor Who: Robot of Sherwood

Previously on Doctor Who: Into the Dalek.

Robot of Sherwood is a romp, a sassfest, and in the line-up of recent new-Who episodes, perhaps a bit of an odd duck reaching back to the Doctor meeting funny folk from history and fiction in the olden days. The only thing we’re missing, perhaps, is the lizard. Wasn’t there supposed to be a lizard? (→ Blink)

In summary: I’ve just seen the Doctor flip Robin Hood the bird, I don’t care what else happens this weekend.

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The Doctor and Clara against the backdrop of the TARDIS and London in flames.
by Andrea

“He needs you.” — Doctor Who: Deep Breath, series return review

Previously on Doctor Who: The Time of the Doctor.

The Doctor has landed, the Doctor is in.

Doctor Who has returned, clockwork dancing to a darker tune, in sync with a Scottish heartbeat and an erratic consciousness. Welcome to the Untempered Schism that is Peter Capaldi’s ferocious first performance as the Twelfth Doctor. Continue reading →

by Andrea

Freelance artist Billy Hanshaw’s title sequence idea will become part of Doctor Who’s new signature opening

Now, pretty much the best thing for any fan is to create a thing, have the creators and/or show runners come across it, and have them love it, perhaps give you a retweet or a shout-out. What’s even better than that — well, to have it integrated into the actual show. It’s happened to Will Graham’s dog Applesauce, but probably no-one thought they’d get as  far as Billy Hanshaw. The freelance motion graphics artist created a title sequence for Doctor Who’s up and coming 8th series, creating a beautiful tapestry of time and space. He posted it on youtube, where it’s attracted a huge number of viewers and admirers, including show runner Steven Moffat, who liked it so much he approached Hanshaw about using his idea — in fact, a huge part of the animation as it is in his original video — in the new title/credits sequence for the Twelfth Doctor’s first run in the TARDIS.

See the gorgeous animation below:

Source: SPACE Blogs’s article, by Neil

by Andrea

Doctor Who: Comics Launch Trailer has landed

Today, BBC are launching the new Doctor Who: Comics range, the first two stories featuring the Tenth and Eleventh Doctor, respectively, and all-new companions.

Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor #1 — meet Gabriella Gonzalez, New York resident and working in her family’s laundromat business, dreams of going to college “and bigger, better and brighter things.” So when the Doctor crashes the party on the eve of the Day of the Dead celebrations, it’s no surprise that she seizes the opportunity with both hands.

Doctor Who: The Eleventh Doctor #1 — mee Alice Obiefune, who has just lost her mother when the Doctor wanders in out the TARDIS door. But what does this grieving young woman have to do with the career of a 70s musician, an amnesiac alien, and a terrifying cosmic threat?

Both covers for the new issues were drawn by the renowned fandom artist Alice X. Zhang!

Comics are on sale starting today, July 23. They will also be sold as hardcover editions (around 130 pages) in the US, the UK, and Germany starting in December!