The Tripods Season 2 episodes 9 & 10

Episode 9: As we’ve seen lately in the news, rebellion can spring up in surprising places and from surprising sources and so it is in this pivotal episode. Will’s visit to the Cognosc has stirred the masters and now it seems as if Coggie is helping the Freemen by draining enough power to cause major problems within the city. You can tell things are bad because people are running around looking concerned and fiddling with dials. Worse than that for the slaves, the Pink Parrot disco breaks down. Unable to dance, they just collapse – it’s just like 4am on a Sunday morning!

Panic Moon December 2013 Issue

The December 2013 issue is of Panic Moon is out now and is the biggest and best issue yet.
We welcome Peter Capaldi’s casting, review The Day of the Doctor, An Adventure in Space and Time, all series seven’s episodes,prequels and ‘minisodes’, plus missing-no-more stories The Web of Fear and The Enemy of the World. We also consider race in Doctor Who, look at the latest redesigns of the Cybermen, Ice Warriors and the TARDIS console, pay a heartfelt tribute to Dalek designer Ray Cusick and revisit An Unearthly Child from three different perspectives.
This issue’s writers include Toby Hadoke and other insightful scribes. The issue is lavishly illustrated with beautiful original artwork. The issue comprises 44 monochrome pages in Panic Moon’s distinctive A6 ‘pocket sized’ format. Just right for reading on the bus (or in the
loo!).
It costs just £1.50 in the UK including postage. For those outside the UK, it’s £3.00.
More information at the website: http://www.tinyurl.com/pmzine
To order, please make payment using paypal to panicmoonfanzine@googlemail.com. Please use the ‘gift’ or ‘personal payment owed’ option as this minimises the fees – Panic Moon is an amateur non-profit making concern so this helps us keep our losses to
a minimum. Don’t forget to add your postal address (including country if not UK) in the notes section. If you don’t want to use the use the ‘gift’ or ‘personal payment owed’ option, please add 26p (for UK orders) or 32p for orders outside the UK to help offset the fees.
Cheque payment also acceptable for UK orders: enquire by email for address.

Atlantis episodes 5 to 9

Finally, Atlantis springs to life in `Pandora’s Box` the best episode of the series so far. After 8 fair to middling episodes each of which nonetheless contained tantalising glimpses of potential the series explodes into life with this Howard Overman penned story of how Medusa became the legend we know. It’s surprising that the writers played this card relatively soon as we have barely got to know her but it is an ace that unlocks the show’s own Pandora’s Box. The tag line for the episode is that things will never be the same again and this turns out to be refreshingly true. 

"Gosh, is the episode really that good?"  "Yes, I think it is!"

The Tripods Season 2 Episodes 5 to 8

Episode 5: Finally we’re inside the City of Gold which turns out to be more of a city of metal. Given budgetary limitations the scope of the episode is mostly impressive for its time. You certainly feel the scale of the place with several very well composed shots of people moving about the walkways and a good attempt is made to match the various elements- locations, studio and models- so they blend together. For the first time, the story begins to feel more imaginative with some innovative transport for its inhabitants in the form of floating cubes of green light. There is suitable incidental music to score the splendour. Best of all and in a couple of well- directed scenes we also meet the creatures who now rule the world. They’re odd looking and shot carefully enough to draw the eye away from any shortcomings. They look powerful yet talk in reasonable voices suggesting intelligence. If the city’s environs are impressive, the costumes are less so with the slaves forced to don cut off spacesuits which make them resemble spacemen at the beach. 

"Nice weather for a paddle, Will?"    "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, la"

The Hunger Games Catching Fire

If The Hunger Games tried to divert us from the darker undercurrents of Suzanne Collins’s story then Catching Fire wants to draw our attention to them. This is the big difference between the two films, perhaps in part due to a change in director and also because the story is becoming larger after the unexpected results of the Games. While clearly still a big budget tent pole movie, Catching Fire plays with some of the toys of mature film making while Jennifer Laurence brings her Oscar winning gravity to bear on key occasions. It’s not often that the second film in a series is better than the first but Catching Fire manages to surpass the first Hunger Games film in every area.

John's Doctor Who Fanbook #8

Me in September 2002. By now there was a new fanzine This way up launched at the start of that year and this was definitely the image I wanted to convey. Again done in a photo booth as smartphones and selfies still hadn’t been invented and neither had time travel! 

John's Doctor Who Fanbook #7