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Review Sony Pictures / It Came from Beneath the Sea [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Gordon
  • Faith Domergue
  • Dean Maddox Jr.
  • Ian Keith
  • Donald Curtis
  • Kenneth Tobey
Release date: 2008-01-15
Run time: 79 min.
Creator: Hal Smith
Price: £13.60

Review It Came from Beneath the Sea [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Sony Pictures:

It Came from Beneath the Sea appeared two years after Ray Harryhausen unleashed The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms upon New York City. This time the master special-effects creator turned loose a giant (albeit six-armed) octopus on San Francisco, and the result is another enjoyable atom-age adventure that should please fans of vintage science fiction. Kenneth Tobey, who battled The Thing (From Another World) in 1951, stars as a Navy captain pursuing a monstrous octopoid (sextapoid?) after it attacks his atomic sub. After it wreaks havoc with shipping lanes, he tracks the creature to San Francisco for a final showdown. Scripting by George Worthing Yates (Them) and Hal Smith and direction by Robert Gordon are perfunctory at best, which gives the always-reliable Tobey and costar Faith Domergue little to do, but this is Harryhausen's show, and his monster, though the budget was restrained, is still impressive. Younger audiences weaned on digital FX may find this creaky, but nostalgic viewers will enjoy its simple thrills. -Paul Gaita.

Actors & Directors
  • William Russell
  • William Hartnell
  • Richard Martin
  • Jacqueline Hill
  • Maureen O'Brien
  • Sylvester McCoy
  • Andrew Morgan
Release date: 1993-09-06
Run time: 246 min.
Price: £30.99

Review Doctor Who - The Daleks (Limited Edition tin: The Chase[1965]/Remembrance of the Daleks[1988]):


Review Aviva International / The Twilight Zone - Vol. 4 [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Charles Bronson
  • Burgess Meredith
  • Jack Klugman
  • Elizabeth Montgomery
Release date: 2000-05-29
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £14.99

Review The Twilight Zone - Vol. 4 [1960] / Aviva International:

In 1959 screenwriter Rod Serling first opened the door to the "dimension of imagination" that is The Twilight Zone, a show quite unlike anything that had gone before, and better than much that has followed in its wake. This original and daring television series ran for five seasons from 1959 to 1964 and still looks as fresh as ever, particularly on DVD. What distinguished the series was the quality of the scripts, many of which were penned by Serling, but with significant contributions from veteran sci-fi authors and screenwriters such as Richard Matheson. Actors of the calibre of Robert Redford, Burgess Meredith, Lee Marvin and William Shatner gave some of their best small-screen performances, while an unforgettable main title theme by Bernard Herrmann and musical contributions from young turks such as Jerry Goldsmith underlined the show's attraction for great creative talent both behind and in front of the cameras. Volume 4 cherry-picks four of the show's more diverse episodes. In "Mr Dingle the Strong" (episode 55) alien visitors experiment on a hapless human, but instead of sinister X Files horror, Serling plays it for laughs. Despite the sparkling presence of Burgess Meredith (the closest the series came to a regular star), this one-joke plot demonstrates why the Zone only rarely ventured into comedy. "Two" (episode 66) pits a characteristically taciturn Charles Bronson against an even more stoical Elizabeth Montgomery, two soldiers from opposing sides who must rediscover themselves as the last man and woman and play Adam and Eve in a post-holocaust world. "A Passage for Trumpet" (episode 32) casts Jack Klugman (The Odd Couple, Quincy) as a downtrodden trumpeter who, in a jazz rewrite of It's a Wonderful Life, learns to value life. Nice. [+]
Finally, "The Four of Us are Dying" (episode 13) employs four different actors to play the same character, a "cheap little con-man" whose ability to change his features at will doesn't prevent his deserved comeuppance (more jazz here, this time in a wonderfully jagged underscore from Jerry Goldsmith). On the DVD: A neat animated menu with a winking eye guides the viewer "Inside the Twilight Zone", which consists of digests of background information on the individual episodes, as well as a general history of the show, season-by-season breakdown and a potted biography of Serling. -Mark Walker.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Planet Of The Apes (Special Edition) [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Maurice Evans
  • Kim Hunter
  • Franklin J. Schaffner
  • Roddy McDowall
  • Linda Harrison
  • Charlton Heston
Release date: 2006-03-06
Run time: 108 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Planet Of The Apes (Special Edition) [1967] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review MPI Home Video / The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Leo Genn
  • Charles Jarrott
  • Jack Palance
  • Denholm Elliott
  • Rex Sevenoaks
  • Torin Thatcher
Release date: 2002-08-27
Run time: 120 min.
Creator: Ian McLellan Hunter
Price: £7.08

Review The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MPI Home Video:


Review Network / Space Patrol [1963] single disc edition
Actors & Directors
  • Dick Vosburgh
  • Murray Kash
  • Ysanne Churchman
  • Ronnie Stevens
  • Libby Morris
Release date: 2001-07-16
Run time: 150 min.
Creator: Len Walter
Price: £15.99

Review Space Patrol [1963] single disc edition / Network:


Review Warner Home Video / The Time Machine [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Alan Young
  • George Pal
  • Sebastian Cabot
  • Rod Taylor
  • Tom Helmore
  • Yvette Mimieux
Release date: 2000-10-03
Run time: 103 min.
Price: £9.62

Review The Time Machine [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Warner Home Video:

In 1960 producer-director George Pal's The Time Machine reshaped HG Wells' thoughtful, ironic novel into a two-fisted action movie, but one that still appeals to children and adults immensely and deserves its classic status. Wells' themes of biological and social evolution are played down, but there is a surprisingly melancholy thread as Rod Taylor's Time Traveller keeps stopping off at future wars to find that human stupidity still persists. In the first week of 1900 a group of fussy Victorians gather in Taylor's chintzy, overstuffed parlour to hear him tell of his expedition to the future, where the world is divided between the surface-dwelling, childish, beautiful Eloi and the hideous, underground, cannibal Morlocks. Wells intended both factions to seem degenerate, the logical final evolution of the class system, but Pal has Taylor pull a Captain Kirk and side with the Eloi and teach them to fight against their oppressors. The time travel sequence remains a tour de force, with a shop window mannequin demonstrating a parade of fashions as the years fly by in seconds and charming but still-effective stop-motion effects. The future is a wonderfully coloured landscape with properly gruesome cave-dwelling monsters and a winning Eloi heroine in Yvette Mimieux. It may not be totally Wells, but it's a treat. On the DVD: The Time Machine arrives on disc in a lovely widescreen print which makes the film seem new all over again. The featurette "Time Machine: The Journey Back" combines some mild behind-the-scenes stuff about the film (and its star prop) with a moving mini-sequel reuniting stars Rod Taylor and Alan Young in a scene that actually addresses a plot point skipped over in the original. -Kim Newman.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 1.3 - The Naked Time / Charlie X / Balance Of Terror [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Comi
  • Lawrence Dobkin
  • William Shatner
  • James Doohan
  • Vincent McEveety
  • Marc Daniels
  • Leonard Nimoy
  • DeForest Kelley
Release date: 1996-07-08
Run time: 144 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 1.3 - The Naked Time / Charlie X / Balance Of Terror [1969] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

One of the most popular and influential shows in the history of television, for many viewers the original Star Trek (1966-9) defines good science fiction: however much it tries to be about the future, it cannot help but reflect the values of its own time, and Star Trek's vision was very much a product of creator Gene Roddenberry's 1960s' liberal-humanist idealism. Conceived at the height of the Cold War and during the escalation of the Vietnam conflict, his was a radical vision of a world where national and racial differences have been put aside and all people work together. With a policy of non-intervention in the affairs of other civilisations, and violence only as a last resort, Star Trek embodied a lost dream, a fantasy of what America could have been had John F. Kennedy not been assassinated in 1963. Captain James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner) had the middle name of a Roman emperor, but otherwise shared his initials with the late president, and both were young, good looking, womanising, charismatic popular heroes. If Kirk didn't uphold truth, justice and the American way from the White House, a big white starship was the next best thing. There was even a Russian, Mr Chekov (Walter Koenig), on the bridge, and the show delivered network TV's first inter-racial kiss between Kirk and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). Even though there was a white American male in control, it was still all a bit much for 1960s' mainstream TV, hence the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, boldly going on its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, only lasted three seasons and 72 episodes before being cancelled in 1969, the year Man first walked on the moon. While the once-ground-breaking special effects now look routine, and the then-radical politics have now become part of the politically correct global mainstream, Star Trek retains an enduring popularity due to its strong storytelling-the show employed such top science fiction writers as Robert Bloch, Harlan Ellison, Richard Matheson, Norman Spinrad and Theodore Sturgeon-and admirable characters. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Scotty (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), Kirk, Chekov and Uhura remain icons for a world short of real heroes: loyal to the end, honest and utterly dedicated, these were the friends and colleagues who week after week trusted each other with their lives. [+]
Devoid of cynicism and self-interest the crew of the USS Enterprise never, ever let anyone down, and ultimately that is a very big reason for Star Trek's enduring popularity. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Dd Home Entertainment / X The Unknown [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Dean Jagger
  • Leslie Norman
  • Leo McKern
  • Anthony Newley
  • Jameson Clark
  • Edward Chapman
Release date: 2003-05-26
Run time: 76 min.
Creator: Jimmy Sangster
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.00

Review X The Unknown [1956] / Dd Home Entertainment:


Review Bfi Video / The Mysterians [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Kenji Sahara
  • Yumi Shirakawa
  • Inoshiro Honda
  • Akihiko Hirata
Release date: 2006-02-13
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £12.99

Review The Mysterians [1957] / Bfi Video:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - The Visitation/Black Orchid [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Peter Davison
  • Janet Fielding
Release date: 1994-07-04
Run time: 146 min.
RRP: £16.99
Price: £9.99

Review Doctor Who - The Visitation/Black Orchid [1963] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Warner Home Video / Doctor Who and the Daleks / Daleks Invasion of Earth AD2150 [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Jon Pertwee
  • Patrick Troughton
  • Tom Baker
  • William Hartnell
  • Peter Davison
Release date: 1993-02-22
Run time: 158 min.
Creator: Sydney Newman
RRP: £5.99
Price: £10.73

Review Doctor Who and the Daleks / Daleks Invasion of Earth AD2150 [1963] / Warner Home Video:


Review ST Clair Vision / Future Worlds [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Hatch
Release date: 2006-10-17
Run time: 779 min.
Creator: Sally Mansfeild
Price: £4.11

Review Future Worlds [1956] / ST Clair Vision:


Review Meridian Entertainment / Quatermass And The Pit [1958]
Actors & Directors
  • Colin Morton
  • Holly Bane
Release date: 2000-08-21
Run time: 178 min.
RRP: £19.99
Price: £43.99

Review Quatermass And The Pit [1958] / Meridian Entertainment:

We have met the enemy, and it is us: when a Martian spacecraft with a terrifying link to the origins of humanity is unearthed beneath a London tube station, only the esteemed Professor Bernard Quatermass (a very British-and possibly mad-precursor to Mulder and Scully) can save London's suddenly murderous population from itself. One of the most intelligently paranoid science fiction films ever produced, this pessimistic masterpiece functions as a dark flip side to the relatively optimistic alien-induced evolution theory presented in the later 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nigel Kneale's brilliant script (which posits a surprisingly plausible, otherworldly rationale for the existence of the supernatural) was later appropriated by acknowledged fan John Carpenter for his underrated Prince of Darkness. A must-see for horror and science-fiction aficionados. -Andrew Wright, Amazon. com.

Review Image Entertainment / The Atomic Submarine [1959] (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Bob Steele
  • Paul Dubov
  • Arthur Franz
  • Brett Halsey
  • Dick Foran
  • Spencer Gordon Bennet
Release date: 1998-06-24
Run time: 72 min.
Creator: Orville H. Hampton
Price: £113.99

Review The Atomic Submarine [1959] (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Twilight Zone: The Movie [Blu-ray] [1983] [US Import]
Actors & Directors
  • Patricia Barry
  • Nancy Cartwright
  • Domingo Ambriz
  • Peter Brocco
  • Larry Cedar
Release date: 2007-10-09
Run time: 101 min.
Creator: John Hora
Price: £14.34

Review Twilight Zone: The Movie [Blu-ray] [1983] [US Import] / Warner Home Video:


Review TRTFC / Plan 9 From Outer Space [1959]
Actors & Directors
  • Gregory Walcott
  • John Breckinridge
  • Edward D. Wood Jr.
  • Duke Moore
  • Bela Lugosi
  • Lyle Talbot
Release date: 2009-02-23
Run time: 80 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.98

Review Plan 9 From Outer Space [1959] / TRTFC:


Review United American Video Corp. / Invaders From Mars [1953]
Actors & Directors
  • Arthur Franz
  • William Cameron Menzies
  • Jimmy Hunt
  • Helena Carter
  • Hillary Brooke
  • Leif Erickson
Release date: 1998-09-07
Run time: 78 min.
Creator: Richard Blake
RRP: £13.99
Price: £48.14

Review Invaders From Mars [1953] / United American Video Corp.:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks [1988]
Actors & Directors
  • Andrew Morgan
  • Sylvester McCoy
Release date: 2007-07-02
Run time: 98 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks [1988] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review / DOCTOR WHO - ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN VIDEO (VHS)

Review DOCTOR WHO - ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN VIDEO (VHS):

The TARDIS is lured to Earth in 1985 by a distress call sent by Lytton, who has made contact with a group of Cybermen based in London's sewers. The Doctor and Peri are then captured and forced to take Lytton and the Cybermen in the TARDIS to the Cybermen's home planet Telos. The Cybermen have stolen a time vessel from another race and plan to change history by crashing Halley's Comet into Earth and obliterating it before it can bring about the demise of their original home world, Mondas, in 1986. Lytton is, however, a double agent employed by the Cryons - a species native to Telos. His mission is to capture the stolen time vessel, but he fails and is partially converted into a Cyberman. The Doctor is unable to save him, but manages to kill the Cyber Controller. The Cryon leader Flast sacrifices her own life and a huge explosion completely destroys the tombs.

Models & Brands:
It Came from Beneath the Sea [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Doctor Who - The Daleks (Limited Edition tin: The Chase[1965]/Remembrance of the Daleks[1988]), The Twilight Zone - Vol. 4 [1960], Planet Of The Apes (Special Edition) [1967], The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Space Patrol [1963] single disc edition, The Time Machine [1960] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 1.3 - The Naked Time / Charlie X / Balance Of Terror [1969], X The Unknown [1956], The Mysterians [1957], Doctor Who - The Visitation/Black Orchid [1963], Doctor Who and the Daleks / Daleks Invasion of Earth AD2150 [1963], Future Worlds [1956], Quatermass And The Pit [1958], The Atomic Submarine [1959] (NTSC), Twilight Zone: The Movie [Blu-ray] [1983] [US Import], Plan 9 From Outer Space [1959], Invaders From Mars [1953], Doctor Who: Remembrance of the Daleks [1988], DOCTOR WHO - ATTACK OF THE CYBERMEN VIDEO (VHS)

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