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Kevin Phillipson (9912 KP) rated Doctor Who: Spare Parts in Books
Mar 20, 2018
Peter davison (1 more)
Orign of the cybermen
One of the best big finish plays ever probably the best cybermen story gives them an orign story how they came to be before there first appearnce in yenth planet peter davisoon is perfect as the fifth doctor supported by sarah sutton as nyssa and the rest of the cast are believe playing surivors of a dying planet not knowing what there future is going to be brillant
Shaun Collins (3 KP) rated Doctor Who: Excelis Dawns in Books
Jan 12, 2018
What a conflux of good and bad this is. First the cast... Anthony Stuart Head is fantastic, and Katy Manning makes Iris a hurricane to deal with. Peter Davison raises his bemused Doctor to the occasion to deal with the two of them. The plot is interesting, and fun to listen to, (mainly due to the characters on display) but while it sets up Excelis to be interesting, it's not a place we really want to return to once this one is done. For more, check out www.travelingthevortex.com
David McK (3162 KP) rated Doctor Who: Spare Parts in Books
Mar 15, 2020
Like most other Brits, I've watched at least one episode of Doctor Who.
I still watch the (current Doctor) Jodie Whittaker episodes.
Next to the Daleks and The Master, I think the Cybermen are (perhaps) the Doctors most-famous enemies.
However, I've never really found them all that scary: I think because the fact that they are fully encased in their armour (unlike the Star Trek counterparts of the Borg) makes them seem less relevant, less of a body-horror than said Borg.
With all that said, I'd heard recently that this was one of the best Doctor Who Cybermen stories, and so thought I would give it a listen: Set on the world of Mondas, this story deals with the ascension of the Cybermen (well, one ascension anyway: they've had more ascensions than I've had hot dinners!), set during Peter Davison's tenure as The Doctor.
It's not a bad listen, with Davison reprising his role and with the story carefully laying out it's stall (and trying to show the horrors of becoming a Cyberman) through having an audience surrogate of a family on Mondas that The Doctor and his travelling companion Nyssa encounter, and try to help.
But is time a constant? Are some things destined to be? …
Listen and find out!
I still watch the (current Doctor) Jodie Whittaker episodes.
Next to the Daleks and The Master, I think the Cybermen are (perhaps) the Doctors most-famous enemies.
However, I've never really found them all that scary: I think because the fact that they are fully encased in their armour (unlike the Star Trek counterparts of the Borg) makes them seem less relevant, less of a body-horror than said Borg.
With all that said, I'd heard recently that this was one of the best Doctor Who Cybermen stories, and so thought I would give it a listen: Set on the world of Mondas, this story deals with the ascension of the Cybermen (well, one ascension anyway: they've had more ascensions than I've had hot dinners!), set during Peter Davison's tenure as The Doctor.
It's not a bad listen, with Davison reprising his role and with the story carefully laying out it's stall (and trying to show the horrors of becoming a Cyberman) through having an audience surrogate of a family on Mondas that The Doctor and his travelling companion Nyssa encounter, and try to help.
But is time a constant? Are some things destined to be? …
Listen and find out!
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Dream Horse (2021) in Movies
Jun 12, 2021
Ensemble cast (1 more)
Cinematography of racing scenes
My lovely lovely horse fails to fully engage
An extraordinary story of ambition against all the odds - based on a true story - will Dream Alliance fulfil the town's dreams, or will it all end in tears?
Positives:
- Toni Collette! Without her powerful acting presence at the heart of the piece, I think the movie would have died in a ditch. As for her Welsh accent I (as an Englishman) thought it was pretty good: on my 'Welshometer', using the scale of Richard Burton as a 10 to RDW's "Doctor Dolittle" as a 1, I'd give Ms Collette about an 8. The illustrious Mrs Movie Man (as a Welsh lady) was less impressed, but found her "tolerable" when mixed with the other Welsh-born actors!
- And what a wonderful supporting cast of well know names from all our yesterdays. Just so great to see the great Siân Phillips ("I, Claudius"), Lynda Baron ('Nurse Gladys' from "Open all Hours"), Peter Davison ("Doctor Who") and Nicholas Farrell ("Chariots of Fire") in the cast. It was also (as is traditional in these "true stories") for the actual people to appear alongside their acting counterparts in the end titles: Howard Davies in particular seemed to be chuffed to bits to be singing alongside Damien Lewis!
- Hats off to cinematographer Erik Wilson and Chris Bates (the "drone operator"), for some impressive shots. The camera angles from the turf-pumping racing scenes are very impressive.
Negatives:
- How did it make me feel? Very little at all. Which is a problem. The movie is so utterly predictable that I saw every element of the story play out way before it did. Did this happen in real life? In which case, that's annoying that life was so unrealistically predictable in its ups and downs!
- Elements of the story also felt formulaic: from the token comedy cranky old bloke (Karl Johnson) to Jan's brooding father-with-a-grudge. This latter element seems unnecessarily bolted onto the plot: poorly worked through and pretty superfluous.
Summary Thoughts on "Dream Horse": This is a feature debut for welsh-born Euros Lyn, most familiar (as a peculiar name) for popping up in the end credits of TV shows such as "Doctor Who", "Torchwood" and "His Dark Materials". And, as a great supporter of UK films, I really wanted to like this one. But it just didn't do it for me. It's also unfortunate that some of the subject material makes it unsuitable for the 6-to-8 year old horse fanatics... this is no "International Velvet".
I've seen some social media comments from people who adore the movie. And, to be clear, it's NOT a bad movie. I just personally didn't connect with me. Just goes to show that cinema really is 'horses for courses' sometimes!
(For the full graphical review, please check out the One Mann's Movies review here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2021/06/11/dream-horse-%e2%99%abi-want-to-shower-you-in-sugar-lumps-and-ride-you-over-fences%e2%99%ab/ . Thanks).
Positives:
- Toni Collette! Without her powerful acting presence at the heart of the piece, I think the movie would have died in a ditch. As for her Welsh accent I (as an Englishman) thought it was pretty good: on my 'Welshometer', using the scale of Richard Burton as a 10 to RDW's "Doctor Dolittle" as a 1, I'd give Ms Collette about an 8. The illustrious Mrs Movie Man (as a Welsh lady) was less impressed, but found her "tolerable" when mixed with the other Welsh-born actors!
- And what a wonderful supporting cast of well know names from all our yesterdays. Just so great to see the great Siân Phillips ("I, Claudius"), Lynda Baron ('Nurse Gladys' from "Open all Hours"), Peter Davison ("Doctor Who") and Nicholas Farrell ("Chariots of Fire") in the cast. It was also (as is traditional in these "true stories") for the actual people to appear alongside their acting counterparts in the end titles: Howard Davies in particular seemed to be chuffed to bits to be singing alongside Damien Lewis!
- Hats off to cinematographer Erik Wilson and Chris Bates (the "drone operator"), for some impressive shots. The camera angles from the turf-pumping racing scenes are very impressive.
Negatives:
- How did it make me feel? Very little at all. Which is a problem. The movie is so utterly predictable that I saw every element of the story play out way before it did. Did this happen in real life? In which case, that's annoying that life was so unrealistically predictable in its ups and downs!
- Elements of the story also felt formulaic: from the token comedy cranky old bloke (Karl Johnson) to Jan's brooding father-with-a-grudge. This latter element seems unnecessarily bolted onto the plot: poorly worked through and pretty superfluous.
Summary Thoughts on "Dream Horse": This is a feature debut for welsh-born Euros Lyn, most familiar (as a peculiar name) for popping up in the end credits of TV shows such as "Doctor Who", "Torchwood" and "His Dark Materials". And, as a great supporter of UK films, I really wanted to like this one. But it just didn't do it for me. It's also unfortunate that some of the subject material makes it unsuitable for the 6-to-8 year old horse fanatics... this is no "International Velvet".
I've seen some social media comments from people who adore the movie. And, to be clear, it's NOT a bad movie. I just personally didn't connect with me. Just goes to show that cinema really is 'horses for courses' sometimes!
(For the full graphical review, please check out the One Mann's Movies review here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2021/06/11/dream-horse-%e2%99%abi-want-to-shower-you-in-sugar-lumps-and-ride-you-over-fences%e2%99%ab/ . Thanks).
