Tag: TV

Yep, TV stuff. I like watching TV. Not all TV, but some shows.

His Dark Materials (BBC)

Posted by on in Books and Audiobooks, TVLeave a comment

I was aware of this story and the books, but had never really thought about reading them. So when the BBC announced their new series I decided to give it a go. I have to admit that I had low expectations as they’d not exactly done a great job with War of the Worlds.

But, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually very good indeed. I watched all of the episodes, and, whilst I can’t say it was a story that I found totally gripping or interesting, it was actually good.

I think they’re making more of this too. I would definitely watch more if they do. If nothing else I expect it’ll be diverting.

The other thing it’s made me do is to get the first of the audio books. I haven’t started listening to it as yet, but I’ll get to it eventually.

Revisiting Survivors

Posted by on in Audiobooks, Books and Audiobooks, TVLeave a comment

Survivors is a relatively little known TV show from the 1970s. It was about a virus that killed off almost the entire population of the planet. The people who were left were the ‘Survivors’. This is of course the subject of quite a lot of TV shows and films these days, but back then I think it was quite ground breaking.

It only got 3 seasons on TV, but, a few years ago, Big Finish, a company that makes some of my favourite audiobooks brought it back, with the three lead actors as well. Big Finish produced 9 seasons of it, each with 4 hour long episodes. It was brilliant. In fact, so much so that I’m revisiting the whole thing this year. Starting with the TV series. Which, in my opinion, stands the test of time, and is actually better than a lot of TV these days.

Survivors from the 1970s took a slow approach to storytelling. Or maybe that was the norm back then? Either way, it took its time in each episode. It had a natural feel too that somehow made it more believable.

I’ve enjoyed watching this again, and remembering the characters, the story and the where it took us.

Now that I’ve finished watching it I’m going to move on to listening to all of the audio stories that Big Finish Productions created. There are 9 box sets of these, so that will probably take me a while to get through I should think. When I do, I think I might post a summary of my thoughts on the whole thing.

Citizen Smith

Posted by on in TVLeave a comment
Tooting Popular Front

If you don’t remember Citizen Smith (and you’d need to be of a certain age to do so), then this post is probably not for you. Citizen Smith was a sitcom back in the late 1970’s. It ran for about 3 years and was probably quite good for its time.

A couple of years ago I posted about its return, but it seems that hasn’t happened. I can’t even remember where I heard about it.

The other night I got the DVD out of seasons 1 and 2 and started to watch them. I’d started this before, when I bought the DVDs, but hadn’t got very far. Once again I didn’t get very far. Why? Mainly because it was really awful.

When I say awful, I don’t mean awful by 1970’s standards, I mean by today’s standards, which is of course totally unfair. Judging this show by today’s criteria makes no sense at all. It wasn’t written or performed by those standards and it shouldn’t be watched by those either. That’s hard though. When I watch this I simply can’t help but see it in terms of what is in my opinion good for now.

In reality it was a great show for its day. I can remember enjoying it back then, and the fact that I can’t really enjoy it now shouldn’t damage that memory.

I’d still like to see a reboot of it though. I think that could be fun.

For now, I don’t think I’ll be putting those DVDs back in the player.

Watching Star Trek, from the start …

Posted by on in TVLeave a comment

I’ve just finished watching what was the final iteration of Star Trek, “Enterprise”. Of course “Enterprise” was set before the original series of Star Trek, but was the last to be made. Having watched it I’ve now started watched the original series from the start as it’s just turned up on netflix. In fact, it isn’t the only Star Trek series that’s arrived on netflix. In fact they’ve now got the original series, TNG, DS9 and Voyager too. So I now have a unique opportunity, I can watch every episode in strict chronological order.

And that’s what I plan to do now. I’ll be going through the lot!

Peladon Tales

Posted by on in TVLeave a comment

Peladon Tales
Peladon Tales

In my ongoing plan to slowly acquire all of the 3rd Doctor DVDs, these are the two I bought next. Anyone who knows the third doctor will realise that I’m not doing this in any kind of order at all. At least, not so far. It has been a bit random, but I’ll probably start collecting in order quite soon.

However, these two stories came as a boxed set, so there was little choice in that.

The Curse of Peladon
The Curse of Peladon

The Curse of Peladon is the earlier story, and the first time that the 3rd Doctor visits Peladon. It’s a good story by any standards. Of course the production values are early 70s TV and that probably doesn’t stand the test of time. However, I really enjoyed it, especially because one of the main characters is played by the son of the second Doctor.

The Monster of Peladon
The Monster of Peladon

The second story was right at the end of Mr Pertwee’s time as the Doctor. It is another good one, in my view, and again, I enjoyed it a lot.

At some point I’m going to go through all of the 3rd Doctor stories in order, when I’ve got them of course, and that will be truly epic.

Doctor Who, The Time Warrior, Sarah-Jane Smith’s first adventure

Posted by on in TVLeave a comment

Doctor Who, the Time Warrior
Doctor Who, the Time Warrior

This is a great story. Sarah-Jane’s first outing with the Doctor, and a great one to start off with too. Sontarans are always good fun right!

I hadn’t seen this in ages, but it really has stood the test of time, and, as ever, Pertwee is brilliant.

Finished watching Planet of the Apes, the TV series

Posted by on in TVLeave a comment

Planet of the Apes TV series
Planet of the Apes TV series

I’ve said it before, I’m a big fan of Planet of the Apes, in all its iterations. Of course, my favourites are the original films from 1968 to 1973. Above is the TV series which came out in 1974 and ran for only 14 episodes.

Having watched it again in 2016 I realise that it was very much like a lot of other TV series in the 70’s. Built to run as long as possible, with a handful (in this case 2 humans and an ape) of good guys going from place to place and doing good, righting wrongs etc. There are plenty of examples of this kind of TV show from the period.

The sad thing is that the TV version of Planet of the Apes wasn’t about the story at all. It started off being about the story and then devolved into a weekly story about going from village to village. When it ran out of episodes the series didn’t even end. There was no closure at all. It was a shame really.

So now I’ve only got one more DVD to watch. The animated series, which is apparently not bad. We’ll see, and I’ll let you know what I think.

3rd Doctor … The Mind of Evil

Posted by on in TVLeave a comment

Doctor Who The Mind of Evil
Doctor Who The Mind of Evil

This is a great old story 3rd Doctor story. An excellent performance from Roger Delgado and of course from Mr Pertwee himself. I really liked this story and it has been restored beautifully as well.

This version comes on 2 discs. The second disc has some really good extras on it and some very interesting revelations about how the production was put together and the issues that it faced.

The restoration job on the series was really good, both picture and audio. I have to say I was very impressed with it.

I’d seen this story on TV in the not too distant past so it wasn’t totally new to me, but it was good to see it nevertheless.