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Review Columbia TriStar / The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Cy Endfield
  • Hugh Marlowe
  • Michael Craig
  • Robert Gordon
  • Joan Greenwood
  • Kenneth Tobey
  • Faith Domergue
  • Fred F. Sears
  • Nathan Juran
Release date: 2004-11-30
Run time: 446 min.
Creator: Crane Wilbur
Price: £30.65

Review The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - The Creature From The Pit [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Baker
Release date: 2002-07-15
Run time: 97 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £14.98

Review Doctor Who - The Creature From The Pit [1979] / 2 Entertain Video:

The 1979 Doctor Who adventure "The Creature from the Pit" finds Tom Baker's fourth Doctor in decidedly tongue-in-cheek mode on the planet Cloris, a world where metal is in such short supply its possession means power, and where a very large green alien is annoyed at being kept prisoner in a pit. As so often the Doctor gets caught between two feuding parties, here the power-crazed Lady Adrasta (Myra Frances) and her court, and a bunch of Pythonesque bandits led by John Bryans. This motley crew reveal the influence of script editor Douglas Adams, while more fun is to had from Baker's interaction with the astrologer Organon, played by Geoffrey "Catweazle" Bayldon in a role which recalls Adams' Slartibartfast from The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. At four episodes a thin story is over-stretched, the finale seems tacked on, and the shoddy creature effects are more remarkably phallic than anything in the same year's cinema release, Alien. On the plus side, Lalla Ward in her third story grows nicely into her role as Romana, David Brierley takes over from John Leeson as the voice of robot dog K-9 and the set design and costumes are well up to the show's late-70s high standards. Not a patch on the immediately preceding "City of Death", but an entertaining Whovian pantomime nonetheless. -Gary S Dalkin.

Actors & Directors
  • Cathy Downs
  • Michael Whalen
  • Phillip Pine
  • Kent Taylor
  • Helene Stanton
  • Dan Milner
Release date: 2001-08-21
Run time: 80 min.
Creator: Lou Rusoff
Price: £8.41

Review The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Retromedia Entertainment:


Review Anchor Bay / The Viking Queen [1967] (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Donald Houston
  • Adrienne Corri
  • Don Chaffey
  • Andrew Keir
  • Don Murray
  • Carita
Release date: 1999-04-06
Run time: 91 min.
Creator: Clarke Reynolds
Price: £25.95

Review The Viking Queen [1967] (NTSC) / Anchor Bay:


Review 2 Entertain Video / Dr Who - An Unearthly Child [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Jon Pertwee
  • Patrick Troughton
  • William Hartnell
  • Peter Davison
  • Tom Baker
Release date: 2000-09-04
Run time: 95 min.
Creator: Sydney Newman
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.95

Review Dr Who - An Unearthly Child [1963] / 2 Entertain Video:

The "unearthly" strains of Ron Grainer's soon-to-be-famous title music announced the arrival of Dr Who to British TV screens on Saturday 23rd November, 1963. It must have been quite a baffling experience for first-time viewers: the swirling abstract graphics, the weird electronic sound effects courtesy of the BBC's Radiophonic Workshop, the very oddity of the show's title. This really was groundbreaking TV. "I think you'll find there's a very simple explanation for all of this", says schoolteacher Ian Chesterton (William Russell) condescendingly, shortly before being taken on board the TARDIS and transported to an alien planet. For audiences, too, this was something entirely unfamiliar, yet obviously appealing: Dr Who ran for almost 30 years and even long after cancellation it remains one of the BBC's most popular shows. His later incarnations were all eccentric in their different ways, but William Hartnell's original Doctor is an irascible and distinctively alien character, not at all happy having to put up with ignorant 20th-century humans. The "Unearthly Child" of the title is his granddaughter Susan (Carole Ann Ford), temporarily attending school on Earth. She is conspicuously different from her classmates and attracts the attention of two of her teachers who resolve to find out why. After an encounter with her mysterious grandfather they are whisked away on an adventure to a different time and place where angry cavemen are trying in vain to learn the secret of fire. Thus the show's trademarks are established from the outset: the Doctor and his more or less reluctant human companions, the mechanical unreliability of the TARDIS, the cliffhanger ending of each episode. [+]
It was a formula that rarely changed but that allowed apparently limitless variation, the only constraint being the BBC's budget. In later years the show tried vainly to compete with blockbuster special effects movies; but its original low-key incarnation relied more on inventive scenarios and good writing-qualities that are just as important now as then. -Mark Walker.

Actors & Directors
  • Rod Serling
Release date: 1990-10-25
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £6.54

Review The Twilight Zone Volume 2 - Time Enough At Last; The After Hours; The Changing Of The Guards; The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street [1960] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Episode 1 - The Cage [1964]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Butler
  • John Hoyt
  • Peter Duryea
  • Susan Oliver
  • Jeffrey Hunter
  • Leonard Nimoy
Release date: 1990-07-02
Run time: 63 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £3.99

Review Star Trek : Episode 1 - The Cage [1964] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Made in 1964, the original pilot episode of Star Trek, "The Cage", was rejected by NBC executives because it was just "too cerebral": with well-developed characters, groundbreaking (for the time) special effects and a screen play that spoke eloquently of its creator's compassionate, liberal humanism. Science fiction of this quality had simply never been seen on the small screen before. Jeffrey Hunter's stoical Captain Pike is at the helm of the Starship Enterprise, Leonard Nimoy's Spock has the ears but not the familiar reserved demeanour; and Majel Barrett's Number One is a remarkably frosty female lead. The "cerebral" story is reminiscent of Forbidden Planet, as a group of super-intelligent aliens manipulate Pike for their own mysterious ends. But instead of simply dropping Gene Roddenberry's ambitious idea, in an unprecedented move the network requested he make a second pilot. Jeffrey Hunter stepped down from the captain's chair in favour of William Shatner for "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in 1966 and, well, everyone knows the rest. "The Cage" did not quite disappear, however, as it was cannily recycled in the two-part episode "The Menagerie". This is where it all began. -Mark Walker.

Review Alpha Video / Evil Brain From Outer Space [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Kan Hayashi
  • Koreyoshi Akasaka
  • Minoru Takada
  • Junko Ikeuchi
  • Ken Utsui
  • Akira Mitsuwa
  • Teruo Ishii
  • Kami Ashita
Release date: 2004-07-27
Run time: 78 min.
Creator: Ichirô Miyagawa
Price: £2.83

Review Evil Brain From Outer Space [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Alpha Video:


Review Synapse Video / Invasion USA [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Kennedy
  • Robert Bice
  • Alfred E. Green
  • Peggie Castle
  • Dan O'Herlihy
  • Gerald Mohr
Release date: 2002-05-07
Run time: 73 min.
Creator: Peter Miller
Price: £7.95

Review Invasion USA [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Synapse Video:


Review Village Entertainment / Nude On The Moon [1960]
Actors & Directors
  • Ira Magee
  • Raymond Phelan
  • Marietta
  • Doris Wishman
  • William Mayer
  • Lester Brown
  • Lacey Kelly
Release date: 2003-10-06
Run time: 69 min.
Creator: Martin Caplan
RRP: £16.99
Price: £8.73

Review Nude On The Moon [1960] / Village Entertainment:


Review Platinum Disc / Undersea Kingdom [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Joseph Kane
  • Lois Wilde
  • Monte Blue
  • Ray Corrigan
  • William Farnum
  • B. Reeves Eason
  • Boothe Howard
Release date: 2004-02-24
Run time: 226 min.
Creator: Tracy Knight
Price: £3.85

Review Undersea Kingdom [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Platinum Disc:


Review / Doctor Who The New Series - Vol 4 - R2 DVD
Actors & Directors
  • Christopher Eccleston
Run time: 132 min.

Review Doctor Who The New Series - Vol 4 - R2 DVD:

Boom town / Bad wolf / The parting of the ways

Run time: 101 min.

Review Doctor Who The five Doctors video tape / bbc bbcv5734:

special previously untrasmitted version new scenes, new effect and soundtrack

Review Platinum Disc / First Spaceship on Venus [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Yoko Tani
  • Oldrich Lukes
  • Michail N. Postnikow
  • Julius Ongewe
  • Ignacy Machowski
  • Kurt Maetzig
Release date: 1999-06-29
Run time: 79 min.
Creator: Stanislaw Lem
Price: £4.76

Review First Spaceship on Venus [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Platinum Disc:


Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Twilight Zone Volume 5 - A Hundred Yards Over The Rim; Death's-Head Revisited; People Are Alike All Over; Five Characters In Search Of An Exit
Actors & Directors
  • Rod Serling
Release date: 1991-05-09
Run time: 92 min.
Price: £10.99

Review The Twilight Zone Volume 5 - A Hundred Yards Over The Rim; Death's-Head Revisited; People Are Alike All Over; Five Characters In Search Of An Exit / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 1.1 - The Cage / Where No Man Has Gone Before / The Corbomite Manoeuver [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • James Goldstone
  • Gary Lockwood
  • George Takei
  • William Shatner
  • Leonard Nimoy
  • Sally Kellerman
Release date: 1996-06-24
Run time: 160 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £14.98

Review Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 1.1 - The Cage / Where No Man Has Gone Before / The Corbomite Manoeuver [1969] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Made in 1964, the original pilot episode of Star Trek, "The Cage", was rejected by NBC executives because it was just "too cerebral": with well-developed characters, groundbreaking (for the time) special effects and a screen play that spoke eloquently of its creator's compassionate, liberal humanism, science fiction of this quality had simply never been seen on the small screen before. Jeffrey Hunter's stoical Captain Pike is at the helm of the Starship Enterprise, Leonard Nimoy's Spock has the ears but not the familiar reserved demeanour; and Majel Barrett's Number One is a remarkably frosty female lead. The "cerebral" story is reminiscent of Forbidden Planet, as a group of super-intelligent aliens manipulate Pike for their own mysterious ends. But instead of simply dropping Gene Roddenberry's ambitious idea, in an unprecedented move the network requested he make a second pilot. Jeffrey Hunter stepped down from the captain's chair in favour of William Shatner for "Where No Man Has Gone Before" in 1966 and, well, everyone knows the rest. "The Cage" did not quite disappear, however, as it was cannily recycled in the two-part episode "The Menagerie". This is where it all began. -Mark Walker.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - Underworld [1977]
Actors & Directors
  • James Maxwell
  • Norman Stewart
  • Tom Baker
  • Alan Lake
Release date: 2002-03-04
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £22.24

Review Doctor Who - Underworld [1977] / 2 Entertain Video:

The Doctor Who adventure "Underworld" finds Tom Baker's incarnation of the Doctor, accompanied by Leela (Louise Jameson) and faithful robot dog K9, materialising on a Minyan spaceship, one of two surviving vessels from a world destroyed 100,000 years before. The crew are on a quest to find the lost gene banks of their race, which were placed on a second ship around which a young planet has since formed. In a similar scenario to the previous season's "The Face of Evil" the descendants of the crew of this second ship have degenerated into superstitious primitivism ruled by a malfunctioning computer and, as in so many Doctor Who adventures, including the immediately proceeding "The Sun Makers" (1977), they are dominated by a brutal, self-serving elite. The story is one of revolution in a series of underground tunnels, which are achieved with less than convincing "blue screen" process work, while the costumes and action clearly influenced by both Logan's Run (1976) and Star Wars (1977). The latter was in the cinemas as "Underworld" aired and its influence resulted in the introduction of post-production SFX work to produce the quite impressive ray-gun effects seen here. A fairly standard late-1970s addition to the show, "Underworld" is nevertheless an exciting and fast-moving action melodrama. -Gary S. Dalkin.

Review Doctor Who / Doctor Who: Warriors of the Deep - Episode 131 (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Release date: 2008-06-03
Run time: 98 min.
Price: £12.26

Review Doctor Who: Warriors of the Deep - Episode 131 (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Doctor Who:


Review / doctor who castrovalva
Price: £10.00

Review doctor who castrovalva:


Review ITV DVD / Thunderbirds Box Set (9 discs) [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • John Tate
Release date: 2000-11-13
Creator: Sylvia Anderson
RRP: £124.99
Price: £89.75

Review Thunderbirds Box Set (9 discs) [1965] / ITV DVD:

"Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines-the real stars of the show-while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catch phrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company. ) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood. In this box set: All 32 episodes on eight discs, plus a bonus DVD featuring "The Thunderbirds Companion", an exclusive documentary with interviews and behind-the-scenes footage. -Mark Walker.

Models & Brands:
The Fantastic Films of Ray Harryhausen (REGION 1) (NTSC), Doctor Who - The Creature From The Pit [1979], The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Viking Queen [1967] (NTSC), Dr Who - An Unearthly Child [1963], The Twilight Zone Volume 2 - Time Enough At Last; The After Hours; The Changing Of The Guards; The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street [1960], Star Trek : Episode 1 - The Cage [1964], Evil Brain From Outer Space [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Invasion USA [1952] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Nude On The Moon [1960], Undersea Kingdom [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Doctor Who The New Series - Vol 4 - R2 DVD, Doctor Who The five Doctors video tape, First Spaceship on Venus [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Twilight Zone Volume 5 - A Hundred Yards Over The Rim; Death's-Head Revisited; People Are Alike All Over; Five Characters In Search Of An Exit, Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 1.1 - The Cage / Where No Man Has Gone Before / The Corbomite Manoeuver [1969], Doctor Who - Underworld [1977], Doctor Who: Warriors of the Deep - Episode 131 (REGION 1) (NTSC), doctor who castrovalva, Thunderbirds Box Set (9 discs) [1965]

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