Category: Review

  • Elements of Procedure

    Elements of Procedure

    I am a huge fan of the P J Hammond classic Sapphire and Steel (Amazon UK) series of the late 70s/early 80s, so my discovery of Elements of Procedure, on DriveThruRPG, was very welcome. By way of caveat, I believe the game is not final yet, but everything I write below follows multiple read-throughs of…

  • Maelstrom

    The elevator pitch: Adventure and intrigue in the time of the Tudors, with MAGIC! In the mid-1980s the Fighting Fantasy phenomenon kicked off and caught the attention of gamers and newcomers alike. The concept meant that you could enjoy fantasy and science fiction adventures with more interaction than simply reading a book, but you didn’t…

  • The Spectre of My Butt

    Today I judge my tolerance for new movies by the pain in my butt. A fact of age, I suspect. I cannot tolerate the sit through anything if it means the discomfort of shifting from buttock to buttock. If I lose sensation in my behind and there’s nothing there to distract me, the diversion has…

  • Where’s the Sense8 in it?

    I found the first episode of Sense8 overwhelming. And long. Brain-bludgeoning. Disconcerting. Mildly bewildering. In the end, I’m left with the feeling that I might like to watch more of it, but I’m really not 100% certain. To draw a comparison, when I watched Heroes for the first time, I had no doubts that I…

  • Saving Santa

    OK – I can see Christmas Who remaining as divisive as ever. Since the Sycarax, murderous Christmas trees and oompah Santa-masked mercenaries took to the screen in the Tennent-period, has anything divided Who fans more? OK – Catherine Tate, perhaps. And Clara. Indeed, I sense Clara will have much to do with the division this…

  • Kill The Moon – with Spiders

    To my mind, ‘Kill The Moon’ turned out to be another good episode. If I could compare it to a past Doctor – and it feels like the series currently demands that of you – it would probably be the Fourth Doctor, dear old Tom Baker. When the Doctor disappears into the crack in the…

  • Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories

    Reading Eleven Doctors, Eleven Stories has been an interesting experience. Over the course of last year, these short stories got released as e-books, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Doctor Who series. Here, they’re collected in a chunky volume, wrapped in a silvery cover. Physically, it represents an imposing read. I have read…

  • You Ham-Fisted Bun Vendor!

    Days of delicate hard work and now look at it… The whole plan up in smoke because you messed with my careful (and entirely suspicious) preparations. So, The Doctor gets a job as the caretaker at Coal Hill School, on the trail of the relentless and terrifying Skovox Blitzer (it’s a sort of crab/spider/robot thing that…

  • The Heist of Your Life

    OK – so, I don’t think that we have done a bank job before. Or done something quite so Ocean’s Eleven with time travellers thrown into the mix. I can see the potential for entertainment value here – and, I wouldn’t rob Time Heist of any redeeming features. However, it didn’t really do it for me. Even…