Pointless Witterings

Starring  Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham, with Jaqueline Pearce & Stephan Grief  Written by Terry Nation  Directed by Verre Lorrimer  The Federation complex on Centero  has become Blake's next target, his aim - to steal the Federation's cypher machine. With that, he'll be able to decode all Federation communications and transmissions. But the plan goes horribly wrong when Cally is separated from her teleport bracelet and caught in the ensuing explosion. Blake wishes to go back, but with the Liberator now being pursued, turning back would result in the destruction of the ship.  However, worse is to come. Cally is found - alive in the wreckage. However, the supreme commander has assigned a new warrior to find and destroy Blake. Travis is coming for Blake, and his trap has already been prepeared...    Seek-Locate-Destroy may not seem, on paper, at least to be a very exciting story. The elements

Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Richard Beale, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter Tuddenham  Written by Terry Nation  Directed by Michael E Briant  After being sabotaged by Cally, the Liberator becomes trapped - in the phenomena known as the Web!  With the ship grounded and the Federation's pursuit ships closing in, Blake must go down to the surface of a nearby planet and barter with it's inhabitants to provide them with a means of escape. But the inhabitants that Blake finds are determined to destroy a new species of biological test subjects... But what does this have to do with 'The Lost'?    I'm sorry to say, but The Web is the first really bad story that Blake's 7 has put out. Certainly, some interesting themes are banded about, and the direction and acting is wonderfully, but the story itself is woefully slow and sadly not very involving, which isn't a cristism that can often be levelled at Blake's 7.   The

Starring Peter Davison, Roberta Taylor, David Troughton & Timothy West  Written by Nigel Fairs  Directed by Barnaby Edwards  Do you remember the Eighties? The Rubik's cube... Duran Duran... deelyboppers... and the Cuddlesomes - pink vampire hamsters, the must-have toy of twenty-three Christmases ago.  For so long now, the Cuddlesomes have been forgotten, lying in attics and junk shops. But now they're waking up. And they want to give us all a cuddle. A long, slow, deadly cuddle... Landing in an England gripped by a strange new plague, the Doctor is soon on the Cuddlesomes' trail. But the toys are just part of a twisted plan to wipe out a whole generation... The final Big Finish DWM exclusive to be released on CD, Cuddlesome fits in more with the 60 minute subscriber specials that Big Finish dish out every Christmas, rather than the half an hour vinaigrettes that are usually supplied with DWM. It has a much deeper plot and the production is much more advanced than some o

Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson, Jan Chappell & Peter  Tuddenham  Written by Terry Nation  Directed by Pennant Roberts  With full control of the Liberator, Blake and his crew set there sights on the Federation's communications complex on Saurian Major. En route, however, they pick up an alien ship, bringing it aboard for further study.  While Blake, Villa and Avon go down to the planet in search of allies, Jenna and Gan are left to guard the Liberator. However, the capsule that was brought on board isn't as empty as was first thought, and very soon, they find themselves under attack from all sides... Down on the surface of Saurian Major, Blake runs into freedom fighter and telepath Cally. With just the four of them, Blake hopes they can destroy the complex. But with security guards closing in, can they sabotage the station and get out before there blown to kingdom come?    By now, Blake's 7 has very much entered into a

Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Brian Blessed, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette, David Jackson and Peter T uddenham Written by Terry Nation  Directed by Vere Lorrimer  Now free from the Federation, Blake, Avon and Jenna start coming to terms with the ship that they've stumbled across. However, they're not alone on board the craft... Meanwhile, the remaining prisoners arrive on Cygnus Alpha, only to find it a desolate wasteland. One rulled over by Vargas, a  tyrannical mad man who kills any unbelievers in his faith. And with the Liberator directly in his sights, he can, at last, take his faith out into the stars... After two brilliantly innovative episodes, it's such a shame that Blake's 7's third episode is a little more mundane. Certainly, one couldn't argue that the idea of religious zealots is one sci-fi idea that has been continually used, and sadly, here it's not really exploted in any different angle to how it has before. It all just turns into a b

Written by Terrance Dicks  Put on trial by the Time Lords, and found guilty of interfering in the affairs of other worlds, the Doctor is exiled to Earth in the 20th century, his appearance once again changed. His arrival coincides with a meteorite shower. But these are no ordinary meteorites. The Nestene Consciousness has began its first attempt to invade Earth using killer Autons and deadly window shop dummies. Only the Doctor and UNIT can stop the attack. But the Doctor is recovering in hospital, and his old friend the Brigadier doesn't even recognise him. Can the Doctor recover and win UNIT's trust before the invasion begins? After the success of the first three Target novelisations, Target turned there attention to the very first third Doctor story, Spearhead From Space. The story itself really launched a brand new era of the show, so makes perfect adaption material for what would become the first in a long line of adaptions and novelisations. And it's brilliant: utterl

Starring Gareth Thomas, Paul Darrow, Glynn Owen, Leslie Schofield, Michael Keating, Sally Knyvette & David Jackson  Written by Terry Nation  Directed by Pennant Roberts  Blake is now trapped aboard the prison ship London, on his way to the penal colony on Cygus Alpha. However, he's planning a breakout!  It requires the aide of computer genius Kerr Avon. He, on the other hand, has no interest in destroying the Federation, mearly acquiring wealth to support himself. But, with the threat of having to spend the rest of his life on Cygus Alpha, Avon maybe desperate enough to side with the rebels. But Sub-Commander Raiker has other ideas... Blake's 7 continually throws up suprises, and this second episode is incredibly different from anything that the first did. Rather than a grand, epic follow up to the grand and epic first episode, the second episode is a very tight and contined piece, rather like a play or prison drama, and launches us away from the more psychological based dr

Starring Peter Davison, Sarah Sutton, Keith Barron, Liza Tarbuck & Nicholas Briggs  Written by Mark Morris  Directed by Barnaby Edwards  Stockbridge used to be such a lovely place. The loveliest village in all England, according to the guide books. But hardly anyone visits Stockbridge now: a few tourists, a couple of Trust guides, the odd beady-eyed crow.  But something is coming to Stockbridge. Something which turns village cricketers into ravening zombies - a plague such as the Earth has never seen, falling through history from a time when humanity's greatest enemy was a race known as the Daleks. The Doctor and Nyssa visit Stockbridge for the final time, to confront the terrible secret buried at it's heart. The storm clouds are gathering... The final part of the Stockbridge trilogy sees The Doctor and Nyssa propelled into the future, where Stockbridge sits under a enviroment bubble. This story therefore has to end the whole arc, satisfactorily resolve the cliffhanger from

Starring Sylvester McCoy, Tracey Childs, Miranda Raison, David Sibley & Christian Edwards  Written by Jonathan Barnes  Directed by Ken Bentley  The Umbrella Man is back. But when the Doctor recruits UNIT's Scientific Adviser Elizabeth Klein for an off-the-books mission to the apocalyptic final days of Hitler's Germany, he isn't expecting Klein's hapless young assistant, Will Arrowsmith, to be joining them too.  The Doctor isn't the only alien creature seeking to loot a very particular secret from a Nazi base in Dusseldorf, however. Strange and sinister beings are converging on the same time/space location in search of the scientist Schalk, who experiments are the key to a devastating power... The power of Persuasion.  Now, any story that features Elizabeth Klein should be brilliant. She's a brilliant character with a wonderful backstory and plenty of potential, and she's wonderfully played by Tracey Childs. So normally, any Klein story would be received

Starring Sylvester McCoy, Ann Bell & Tracey Childs  Written by Andy Lane Directed by Lisa Bowerman  1950's Kenya. The Mau Mau uprising. A disparate group of women lie low in a remote house in the jungle, waiting for a resolution or for rescue. Among these British imperialists is Elizabeth Klein, a refugee from a timeline that no longer exists...thanks to the Doctor.  Reunited, the Doctor and Klein are forced to set aside their differences by terrifying circumstances. People are dying in this remote place. One by one. And there's something out there, in the jungle, accompanied only by the flutter of a thousand tiny wings... Many Doctor Who stories have a certain pace to them, and action sequences that keep the story interesting. A Thousand Tiny Wings, however, is very different to any Doctor Who story before or since. There's no real pace to it and there's no real action sequences either. Instead, it's more concerned with slow burning tension and seeing how the c

Starring Sylvester McCoy & Timothy West  Written by Mark Morris  Directed by Ken Bentley  Aquaphobia n. An abnormal fear of water, or drowning.  Blattodephobia n. The morbid fear of cockroaches.  Catoptrophobia n. Fear of mirrors, or seeing one's own reflection.  There's a whole ABC of horrors at Bluefire House - as four young people, drawn together to this tumbledown hotel at the edge of nowhere, are about to discover. But whatever the ancient and foul thing that has emerged from the wilderness to drag them here, speaking of it will only strengthen it.  The Doctor alone knows what lurks at the heart of Bluefire House. But the monster of his childhood dreams is coming. The Mi'en Kalarash is coming... Just this once, the Doctor's afraid.  House Of Blue Fire is a story of two halfs. The first half is creepy ghost story, the second psychological thriller. Now, while I love a story that can bring two aspects and ideas together, however House Of Blue Fire really suffers

Starring Deborah Watling & Frazer Hines  Written by Nigel Robinson  Directed by Lisa Bowerman  After colliding with a meteor in space, the TARDIS is forced to make an emergency landing on Earth. The place is China around 200 BC, during the reign of the first emperor, Qin.  When the Doctor is taken away to the imperial city, it's up to Victoria and Jamie to save him. Their friend is now a prisoner of Qin, who intends to extract the secret of eternal life so that he may rule the world forever... Oh. Well, I wasn't expecting that.  If I thought that The Suffering was poor, this was even worse. The Emperor Of Eternity certainly has it's merit, but sadly the story moves too slowly for my liking. It ju st ponders about, never really moving and never really achiving anything, the moral implications of this story overtaking the narrative aspects of the story. The danger in this story is treated by the numbers, rather than making it feel like any real danger. And that's a re

Starring Gareth Thomas, Robert Bettey, Michael Keating & Sally Knyvette Written by Terry Nation  Directed by Michael E Briant    Roj Blake is an ordinary man, living an ordinary life on Earth.  That is until he uncovers the truth behind the vicious Federation.  Will he escape there clutches, or will the Federation manage to destroy Blake's following - for good?  No series has ever been brave as Blake's 7, I feel. No series before of since has taken the risks that Blake's 7 ever has, and because of that simple leap of faith, Blake's 7 has become a programme with cult status. And this first episode proves exactly why that's the case, with it's dynamic direction, great stars and it's terrific script. Certainly, many may criticise Terry Nation (myself included) for his lapses into formulaic storytelling, but when he's on form (here, Doctor Who: The Daleks & Genesis Of The Daleks, Survivors: The Fourth Horseman and later in Blake's 7 with episodes

Starring Peter Purves & Maureen O'Brien  Written by Jacqueline Rayner  Directed by Lisa Bowerman  The TARDIS materialises in England in the year 1912, a time of great social change. The Suffragette movement is lobbying for votes for women, and the skull of the so-called 'missing link' has been discovered in Piltdown.  While Vicki falls victim to a strange influence, the Doctor and Steven investigate the fossilised remains. The Suffering has been unleashed. Can the travellers survive it's rage?  The Suffering is a story of two halfs, but I suppose that's the point. The first disc is very much Steven's story, while the second disc is Vicki's story, therefore making the story feel more like two separate, but linked stories. And therein lies the main problem with The Suffering: it feels more like two seperate stories rather than one much longer one. One story is about the remains of a dead alien trying to possess females like Vicki and return to life, while