Review, buy Science Fiction & Fantasy: Doctor Who: Vengeance on Varos [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Thunderbirds 2086-Nightmare/Metal, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians [1964] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Thunderbirds - Volume 15, The Beast of Yucca Flats [1961] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Twilight Zone - Vol. 11 [1963], The Twilight Zone, Vol. 43 [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Blake of Scotland Yard [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Doctor Who: The Aztecs [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC), Thunderbirds, Set 4 [1965] (REGION 1) (NTSC), TOM BAKER : MYTH MAKERS 17 : MEET THE STARS FROM DOCTOR WHO, Giant Gila Monster [1959] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Twilight Zone - Vol. 24 [1963], Last Woman on Earth (1960) DVD [2007], 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], Doctor Who The Ark in Space [1963], King Dinosaur/Bride and The Beast [1955] (REGION 1) (NTSC), The Twilight Zone - Vol. 23 [1963], The Twilight Zone, Vol. 5 [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

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 a magnificent five seasons from 1959 to 1964 and still looks as fresh as ever, particularly on DVD. What distinguished the series (and still does) is 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. 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, a season-by-season breakdown and a potted biography of Serling. -Mark Walker.

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Review Twilight Zone / The Twilight Zone, Vol. 43 [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

The Twilight Zone, Vol. 43 [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) (Twilight Zone)

Release date: 2001-06-26
Run time: 100 min.
Price: £2.13

Review The Twilight Zone, Vol. 43 [1963] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Twilight Zone:

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Review Alpha Video / Blake of Scotland Yard [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Blake of Scotland Yard [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC) (Alpha Video)

Actors & Directors

Bob Hill
Ralph Byrd

Release date: 2008-09-30
Price: £3.61

Review Blake of Scotland Yard [1937] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Alpha Video:

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Review Columbia TriStar / Earth vs. the Flying Saucers [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) (Columbia TriStar)

Actors & Directors

Joan Taylor
Donald Curtis
Hugh Marlowe
John Zaremba
Morris Ankrum
Fred F. Sears

Release date: 2002-09-17
Run time: 83 min.
Price: £28.72

Review Earth vs. the Flying Saucers [1956] (REGION 1) (NTSC) / Columbia TriStar:

Notable neither for its director nor its stars, Earth vs the Flying Saucers has been given the widescreen DVD treatment rather because of its special-effects man, the legendary Ray Harryhausen. A Twilight Zone styled voiceover introduces Dr Marvin Russell and his wife of two hours as they're buzzed by an overhead flying saucer-the first of many. When a translation device reveals the saucer-occupants' fiendish plan to take over the world, it's time for a good old army-alien punch-up. Cue screenfuls of avuncular patriarchs, loads of techno-flannel space-speak and plenty of gratuitous American-monument destruction. A by-numbers B-movie, this is only really notable for Harryhausen's stop-motion FX work-and though this, his fifth feature, isn't a patch on his later Technicolor masterpieces, his trick of demolishing facsimiles of recognisable landmarks is cited by many premier filmmakers as being hugely influential on their work. This is very much of its time, the saucer-people arousing few of the thrills engendered by his later creations (Sinbad's Cyclops, for example). And with Cold War fears now just a memory, the Ruskies, or rather aliens, can no longer prevail upon a zeitgeist of xenophobic paranoia for their power. On the DVD: Earth vs the Flying Saucers's black-and-white picture is clean and crisp in this anamorphic 1. 85:1 widescreen transfer and the Dolby digital mono soundtrack is clear enough. The theatrical trailer will please fans of kitsch, as will the featurette "This Is Dynamation" produced at the same time as the first Sinbad movie. [+]

The real corker here though is the generously proportioned documentary "The Harryhausen Chronicles": narrated by Leonard Nimoy, it features a stellar cast of devotees (George Lucas among them) waxing lyrical about the influence of Harryhausen's films, and allows the man himself to ramble fascinatingly over clips of his filmic canon. If you're a fan, it's Harryhausen heaven. -Paul Eisinger.

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