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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 1.3 - The Naked Time / Charlie X / Balance Of Terror [1969]
Actors & Directors
  • William Shatner
  • Marc Daniels
  • Vincent McEveety
  • Leonard Nimoy
  • DeForest Kelley
  • James Doohan
  • Lawrence Dobkin
  • Paul Comi
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.

Actors & Directors
  • Maureen O'Brien
  • Alethea Charlton
  • William Hartnell
  • Douglas Camfield
  • Peter Butterworth
  • Peter Purves
Run time: 96 min.
Price: £5.95

Review Doctor Who - The Time Meddler (1965) / BBC:

william hartnell

Review / Thunderbirds V14-Cham Cham
RRP: £10.99
Price: £4.98

Review Thunderbirds V14-Cham Cham:


Review Image Entertainment / Flash Gordon: The Purple Death From Outer Space [1940] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Buster Crabbe
  • Ray Taylor
  • Carol Hughes
  • Ford Beebe
  • Anne Gwynne
  • Charles Middleton
  • Frank Shannon
Release date: 2002-04-16
Run time: 88 min.
Creator: George H. Plympton
Price: £9.37

Review Flash Gordon: The Purple Death From Outer Space [1940] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review www.a2zcds.com / Terror in the Midnight Sun (1958) DVD [Remastered Edition]   [2007]
Actors & Directors
  • Barbara Wilson;Sten Gester;Robert Burton
  • Virgil W. Vogel
Release date: 2007-07-01
Run time: 77 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £9.99

Review Terror in the Midnight Sun (1958) DVD [Remastered Edition]   [2007] / www.a2zcds.com:


Review Criterion / Fiend Without a Face [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Arthur Crabtree
  • Gil Winfield
  • Marshall Thompson
  • Terry Kilburn
  • Shane Cordell
  • Michael Balfour
Release date: 2001-01-30
Run time: 74 min.
Creator: Richard Gordon
Price: £17.40

Review Fiend Without a Face [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Criterion:

Few 1950s creature features deliver in the way Fiend Without a Face does. The first hour is all build-up as tension grows between an Air Force research base and a small Canadian town (this is one of those British B films that pretends to be set overseas) as a series of mystery deaths are blamed by the superstitious on weird military experiments. It's not a spoiler to give away the big revelation, since every item of publicity material, including the DVD cover, blows the surprise: the initially invisible culprits turn out to be a killer swarm of disembodied brains with eyes on stalks and inchworm-like spinal cord tails. These creatures have a nasty habit of latching onto victims and sucking out their grey matter. The finale is a siege of a house by the fiends, which swarm en masse making unsettling brain-sucking sounds, and are bloodily done away with by the heroes. Using excellent stop-motion animation, this climax goes beyond silliness and manages to be genuinely nightmarish. The orgy of splattering brains stands proud among the cinema's first attempts at genuine horror-comic glee, setting a precedent for everything from The Evil Dead to Peter Jackson's Braindead. Marshall Thompson is a bland, stolid uniformed hero and most of the rest of the cast struggle with "anadian" accents, but Kynaston Reeves is fun as the decrepit lone researcher whose fault it all is. On the DVD: Fiend Without a Face on disc comes with a montage of scenes from other films in this batch of releases (The Day of the Triffids, The Stars Look Down) that plays automatically when the disc is inserted, but otherwise not even a trailer, much less the commentary track and other material found on the pricey but luxurious US Region 1 Criterion release. The print has nice contrasts but is pretty grainy. [+]
-Kim Newman.

Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who : Genesis Of The Daleks
Actors & Directors
  • Ian Marter
  • Tom Baker
  • Michael Wisher
  • Elisabeth Sladen
  • David Maloney
Release date: 2007-07-02
Run time: 150 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £8.99

Review Doctor Who : Genesis Of The Daleks / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Shriek Show / Frankenstein's Bloody Terror [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Manuel Manzaneque
  • Enrique López Eguiluz
  • Aurora de Alba
  • Dyanik Zurakowska
  • Julián Ugarte
  • Paul Naschy
Release date: 2005-10-25
Run time: 78 min.
Creator: Maximiliano Pérez-Flores
Price: £8.04

Review Frankenstein's Bloody Terror [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Shriek Show:


Review Mill Creek Entertainment / Sci-Fi Classics: King of Kong Island/Bride of the Gorilla/Attack of the Monsters/Gammera the Invinc [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Brad Harris
Release date: 2005-11-08
Run time: 319 min.
Price: £9.90

Review Sci-Fi Classics: King of Kong Island/Bride of the Gorilla/Attack of the Monsters/Gammera the Invinc [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Mill Creek Entertainment:


Review Universal Pictures Video / The Thunderbirds [2004]
Actors & Directors
  • Bill Paxton
  • Sophia Myles
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Anthony Edwards
  • Brady Corbet
  • Ben Kingsley
Release date: 2004-11-15
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £3.97

Review The Thunderbirds [2004] / Universal Pictures Video:


Review BBC BBCV6755 / Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors
Actors & Directors
  • Patrick Troughton
  • Deborah Watling
  • Derek Martinus
  • Frazer Hines
Run time: 116 min.
Creator: Innes Lloyd
Price: £59.99

Review Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors / BBC BBCV6755:

In this long-awaited restoration, the Doctor, Jamie and Victoria encounter the intriguing Ice Warrior monsters from Mars during Earth's second Ice Age in 3000 AD. This adventure marked the first appearance of the Ice Warriors on Doctor Who and was originally broadcast in 1967. Introduced by two of the storys original stars, Frazer Hines and Deborah Watling, this video features special audiovisual linking material in place of the currently missing (as at 1998) episodes two and three.

Review MGM / Mars Needs Women [1966] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Yvonne Craig
  • Larry Tanner
  • Tommy Kirk
  • Tony Huston
  • Warren Hammack
  • Larry Buchanan
Release date: 2001-08-28
Run time: 83 min.
Creator: Edwin Tobolowsky
Price: £5.99

Review Mars Needs Women [1966] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:


Review BBC Warner / Doctor Who: Ribos Operation [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • William Hartnell
  • Peter Davison
  • Patrick Troughton
  • Jon Pertwee
  • Tom Baker
Release date: 2002-10-01
Run time: 99 min.
Creator: Sydney Newman
Price: £8.96

Review Doctor Who: Ribos Operation [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / BBC Warner:


Review Passport Video / The Flash Gordon Collection
Actors & Directors
  • Joseph Zigman
Release date: 2008-01-08
Run time: 565 min.
Price: £9.01

Review The Flash Gordon Collection / Passport Video:


Review Image Entertainment / Flash Gordon: Spaceship to the Unknown [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Frederick Stephani
  • Jean Rogers
  • Frank Shannon
  • Charles Middleton
  • Ray Taylor
  • Priscilla Lawson
  • Buster Crabbe
Release date: 2002-04-16
Run time: 98 min.
Creator: Basil Dickey
Price: £9.85

Review Flash Gordon: Spaceship to the Unknown [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Image Entertainment:


Review MGM / Charly [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Ruth White
  • Ralph Nelson
  • Claire Bloom
  • Cliff Robertson
  • Lilia Skala
  • Leon Janney
Release date: 2005-03-08
Run time: 103 min.
Creator: Daniel Keyes
Price: £5.06

Review Charly [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / MGM:

Released in 1968, Charly is a period-piece from the summer of love when "natural" was nirvana, the air hummed with the mantra "Everybody's beautiful", and all ills stemmed from institutional monoliths such as Science, Government, Education, and Religion. It is adapted from Daniel Keyes' novel Flowers for Algernon and its hero, Charly (Cliff Robertson), is 30 years old and mentally handicapped. His innocent sweetness makes him superior to most able-minded folk, whether they're the bigoted dolts he sweeps floors for or the ambitious scientists who see him as the human equivalent of Algernon, a mouse they've surgically (but impermanently) smartened up. Naturally, post-op Charly, sporting a genius IQ, "sees things as they are". Trotted out as the neurosurgeons' poster boy, he stands up to the "learned" audience-shot as faceless, inhuman interrogators. He's every 60s flower child, berating his "elders" for blighting their brave new world. The one reward Charly derives from his higher IQ is sex. In a lengthy montage resembling a retro TV commercial, he and his teacher (Claire Bloom, a madonna with an eternal Mona Lisa smile) romp through Edenic gardens, their embraces hallowed by sunlight glinting through leaves, moonlight glinting on water, and sappy Ravi Shankar music (stylistic clichés also include embarrassing outbreaks of split screens and multiple small screens within the frame, notably when rebellious Charly turns biker). Robertson's performance is well-meaning but mawkishly sentimental. Still, in the penultimate moments when Charly begins to slide back into mental illness, the actor achieves a genuine tragic gravity, and he became a surprise Oscar winner for his pains. [+]
-Kathleen Murphy, Amazon. com.

Review BBC Warner / Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy/K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
Actors & Directors
  • Derrick Goodwin
  • William Hartnell
  • Tom Baker
  • Patrick Troughton
  • Peter Davison
  • Jon Pertwee
Release date: 2008-09-02
Run time: 143 min.
Creator: Sydney Newman
Price: £17.81

Review Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy/K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / BBC Warner:


Review Dd Home Entertainment / Quatermass 2 [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Brian Donlevy
  • John Longden
  • Val Guest
  • Bryan Forbes
  • William Franklyn
  • Sid James
Release date: 2003-03-31
Run time: 81 min.
Creator: Nigel Kneale
Price: £12.99

Review Quatermass 2 [1957] / Dd Home Entertainment:


Release date: 2001-09-17

Review Doctor Who - Davros Box Set / 2 Entertain Video:


Release date: 2004-11-23
Price: £8.11

Review Twilight Zone Collection 2 (REGION 1) (NTSC):


Models & Brands:
Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 1.3 - The Naked Time / Charlie X / Balance Of Terror [1969], Doctor Who - The Time Meddler (1965), Thunderbirds V14-Cham Cham, Flash Gordon: The Purple Death From Outer Space [1940] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Terror in the Midnight Sun (1958) DVD [Remastered Edition]   [2007], Fiend Without a Face [1958] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Doctor Who : Genesis Of The Daleks, Frankenstein's Bloody Terror [1967] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Sci-Fi Classics: King of Kong Island/Bride of the Gorilla/Attack of the Monsters/Gammera the Invinc [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Thunderbirds [2004], Doctor Who: The Ice Warriors, Mars Needs Women [1966] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Doctor Who: Ribos Operation [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Flash Gordon Collection, Flash Gordon: Spaceship to the Unknown [1936] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Charly [1968] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Doctor Who: The Invisible Enemy/K9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend [2008] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Quatermass 2 [1957], Doctor Who - Davros Box Set, Twilight Zone Collection 2 (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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