I am Ashley Elsdon

someone who's doing some things

Tag: Vintage

Old but not bad, that’s what I mean by vintage.

3rd Doctor … The Mind of Evil

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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.

Thunderbirds, the original, and what’s coming …

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Lady Penelope
Lady Penelope
Lady Penelope and Parker
Lady Penelope and Parker

These pictures are from the upcoming new episodes that were funded via Kickstarter last year. I’m really looking forward to seeing them, and in preparation I’ve been making my way through all of the original episodes, which is no minor task I can tell you. I’m only disc 4 so far, but it’s worth it. I’m enjoying seeing them again.

Return to the Planet of the Apes

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I was researching around the Planet of the Apes stories to see what other things I’d missed, and I came across this spin off which was made after the original film, and after the TV series. It has a different view of the ape culture where the apes are more sophisticated and have a higher technology culture than portrayed in both the films and in the TV series. Apparently this is more in keeping with the original book, which I’m sad to say I’ve never read! I must put that right soon though.

So I’m planning on getting hold of this at some point soon, although possibly after I’ve watched the whole of the TV series.

Looking forward to the new episodes of Thunderbirds

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Thunderbird Christmas
Thunderbird Christmas

I kickstarted these new episodes a while back and I’m really looking forward to them, but I’m expecting to only watch them when I’ve got through the entire existing set of episodes. Only then will I watch the new ones. I want to get it done in order you know.

Anyway, the picture above was on the Christmas email from the project. It looks pretty cool. I can’t wait to see what they’ve done.

Old fashioned Cassette Recorder (biscuit tin)

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Old fashioned Cassette Recorder (biscuit tin)
Old fashioned Cassette Recorder (biscuit tin)

I had one of these years ago. In fact, I had a number of these. But one that was very like this one. I think it was the Ferguson that was almost identical to this. It was excellent. Ok, not excellent, but really good for its time. I used it to record all sorts of things and amassed a huge cassette collection, and have very little of it left.

Even so, now I have a nice tin. I’ve decided to use it for field recording accessories. That seems like an appropriate use for it.

Planet of the Apes, the TV series (1974)

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

I am a big fan of Planet of the Apes, in all its iterations. My favourite being the original films dating from 1968 to 1973. This is the TV series which came out in 1974 and ran for 14 episodes. I remember seeing it on TV, although I’m guessing that was reruns. Of course, after that was the Tim Burton remake in 2001 and more recently the two movies, “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”, and “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes”, both of which I’ve thought were well made and good interpretations of the story.

I’m enjoying watching these again and seeing how the makers were trying to create a nice long running season of episodes, but sadly only got 14 out.

I’m going to be interested to see what the next film in the current series does. It is meant to come out in 2017. I’m hoping that they’ll do more than just the next one, that they’ll take the story into a new direction too. Let’s see.

After listening to Survivors series 3

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I have to say it was another good series. It moved the story on in a similar but slightly different direction to what’s gone before. I like that. If I have any complaints at all, and really, I don’t, it’s that I would’ve wanted something just a little more dramatic. It was good though.

I really like what Big Finish have done with it. Not just because I like the fact that Survivors is still going because of them, but because of the way they’ve put it together, keeping the feel of the original, and even some of the original cast, but expanding it and taking it in new and yet consistent directions.

I won’t give any spoilers though.