Doctor Who The Lost Episodes, The Crusade: The Knight Of Jaffaa Review

Ok, so this one was a bit harder for me to keep track of and review… just because it’s all audio and no visual. I am a very hard person to keep still for long periods of time unless I am completely entranced by something, but an audio thing is not the way to do it. I’m afraid I had to listen to this a few times before I knew what was going on.

The episode opens with sounds of the credits then followed by music that lets you know we are still in the kingly era and in some trouble still. The Doctor seems to be talking to his Highness, fluffing his ego of the current situation. He is persuaded to send a messenger to the opposing team. His highness then calls upon Joanna, his sister I guess. They are talking, discussing the jewel she owns, which appears to be new and from the opposing enemy. Plus deciding on who will go talk with the sultan and get one of their men back.

Like I said earlier, this was very hard to follow, I was not sure where or what was going on, but from what I gather, the episode is basically about the king trying to get back one of his favored men, and doing this without it being known that this knight is so sought for. They are trying to do this peacefully it seems, yet I feel like the sultan dude may not be so up for the peaceful treaty. In one part, Ian (one of the Doctor’s companions) has been knighted by the king, which is awesome for him. And they are still trying to get Barbara back,  (who I think may have escaped) which sounds like once the sultan finds out of course he is not happy camper about this, and figures out that the king’s man he has captured may be who helped Barbara escape.

I had to giggle at one of the audio parts, it seems that the Doctor is being accused of steeling from a couple of merchants. The Doctor of course if being very witty, trying to confuse the two accusers of their claims and pretty much makes them look (I mean sound) the fool.

(there was a long part where you hear that something is supposed to be going on but I have no idea what, I think that maybe people are sneaking around, maybe either escaping or breaking in? )

Then the show ends…. And I am left confused as to the last part of what happened. But over all the whole episode was basically about the knight of the king, one party wanting to free him and the other party seems to have lost him. Though the episode seemed well thought of, I wish they would have given the video part so I could better tell of the actions going on here. Regardless I enjoyed trying to imagine what was happening ^_^

Justice League Spoof Released By Artspear Entertainment

I love it when people do these! Making fun of movies, tv shows, commercials, they are just super fun to watch. And here is one more done in honor of the Justice League movie they premiered at the San Diego ComicCon.

The spoof was created by Artspear Entertainment, and is on YoutTube for your viewing pleasure but as we are nice, I’ve included it below. It has Batman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, The Flash and of course Cyborg. The trailer is animated, but looks more like someone traced over the characters and gave them silly looking eyes. There is a very goofy scene where Batman is talking with Cyborg about who he is, and when asked if this is relevant to now, Batman replies with a no and disappears, messing with Cyborg’s head… Completely fantastic and silly.

I have loaded the video below for you all to enjoy as much as I have. As well as you should go check out the trailer for the real Justice League movie if you haven’t already. I can’t wait for this awesome movie! ^_^

Which Star From Firefly Said ‘One Season Was Enough’ ? …

Oh Firefly, the show that was prematurely ripped from our hearts after just one season. To never know what was to come of the ship and its crew, to never see if the captain may in fact marry the lovely companion. Or to see if they ever become rich and no longer have to scavenge the universe searching for junk to sell in need of finances or trade…. Why cruel universe, why did thou taketh it from us…..*shakes fists at the sky*

 Ok that may have been a little dramatic, but I’m sure you all feel the same as I when it comes to Firefly. And yet there is someone out there who thinks that one season was enough….. and it’s from someone who was on the show!!! (WTH) And you know who this traitor is… Nathan Fillion! (wait what!!??!!) He has stated, “it’s really hard to look at this kind of stuff and say ‘give me more’, because enough is enough. Oh my god, it was everything, it was everything, how can everything not be enough?” What do you mean how can everything not be enough, it ended after 11 out of 13 episodes and left us without full closure…. Sure there are comics that continue on the legacy of this wonderful franchise but come on… if they had allowed the series to finish with some sort of conclusion then maybe we all wouldn’t be begging for more. Well ok, that’s not entirely true I’m sure. The show made it big for Joss Whedon,  and brought him to the top more than any other show, (bigger than Buffy) and left the empty whole in our stomachs that needed to be filled. Sure, eat on Joss and Nathan, enjoy your careers that hit huge thanks to the wonderful making of Firefly, no matter that to us, the fans, who are the reason you all had your major time with the lights and fame, are left to our own sorrows and emptiness inside….

^_^      

LEGO Dimensions: Five Year One Packs To Consider

LEGO Dimensions Year Two releases in three days, but which Year One packs should you buy in the meantime? Well, here are my five favourite Year One packs for your consideration:

Doctor Who Level Pack

Character: The Doctor

Vehicle: The TARDIS

Gadget: K9

Price: £24.97

LEGO Doctor Who is arguably the best value out of all the LEGO Dimensions packs. Not only do you get an authentic Doctor Who level based on a new storyline (The Dalek Extermination of Earth) with Peter Capaldi, Nicholas Briggs and Julian Bleach reprising their roles as The Doctor , the Daleks and Davros respectively, but the pack allows you to play as all thirteen incarnations of the Doctor – effectively thirteen characters on one NFC tag. Not only that but the TARDIS mini-build has access to every theme tune (bar the TV Movie theme) and TARDIS console room throughout the show’s 53 years on air. K9 (voiced once again by John Leeson) is a nice addition too, although it is a shame that he is a gadget rather than a character in his own right.

Cyberman and Dalek Fun Pack

Character: Cyberman

Vehicle: Dalek

Price: £12.99

The Cyberman and Dalek Fun Pack is the cheapest way to access the fantastic Doctor Who Adventure World, featuring a host of familiar faces such as Captain Jack Harkness, Madame Vastra and Strax (voiced by John Barrowman, Neve McIntosh and Dan Starkey respectively). You also get Doctor Who’s two most iconic enemies in one pack; the Cyberman (with Nicholas Briggs reprising the role) in particular comes with a whole range of abilities such as mind control and diving underwater. As with K9, it is a shame the Dalek is a vehicle rather than a character – but it does make sense in context of the show, given that the casing is merely a travel machine operated by a  Kaled mutant. Plus: having the Doctor ride a Dalek never grows old!

Doc Brown Fun Pack

Character: Doc Brown

Vehicle: Travelling Time Train

Price: £12.99

Overall, I prefer the Doc Brown Fun Pack to the Back To The Future Level Pack. Whilst I enjoy playing as Marty McFly and having access to the hoverboard from Back to the Future Part 2 and the Delorean Time Machine is nice the level was a bit on the short side – especially in comparison to the 45 minutes of gameplay from the Doctor Who Level Pack. The best Back to the Future content in the game is probably the excellent Hill Valley Adventure World and you don’t need to pay £21.99 to access that. Just as with the Delorean from the Level Pack the time-travelling train from Back to the Future Part 3 allows you to visit all three Hill Valley timezones – 1985, 1885 and 2015 – and any other Back to the Future time travel spots in the main campaign. Christopher Lloyd also reprises his role as Doc Brown and has a number of abilities including the ability to fix LEGO objects and use hacking terminals.

The Simpsons Level Pack

Character: Homer Simpson

Vehicle: Homer’s Car

Gadget: Taunt-o-Vision

Price: £19.99

Homer Simpson is one of very few Simpsons characters with voice clips in the game. For reasons unknown, Twentieth Century Fox would only allow LEGO Dimensions to use the voice work of Dan Castellaneta. It is testament therefore to Traveller’s Tales that they managed to make two LEGO Dimensions Simpsons levels that feel authentic to the popular animated sitcom: the Starter Pack level Meltdown at Sector 7-G…and the level pack’s The Mysterious Voyage of Homer.

The Mysterious Voyage of Homer is based on the classic Simpsons episode by the same name and it feels exactly like playing a LEGO recreation of the story. Fortunately for this level they were able to use the voice of Johnny Cash (who played The Space Coyote); for the other voices they replace the characters’ dialogue with mime. This strange mix of modern LEGO dialogue and past LEGO miming works surprisingly well; you don’t even notice that most of the voices are missing and the story is still easy to follow. The Mysterious Voyage of Homer leaves you wanting a full-blown LEGO Simpsons videogame, even if they wouldn’t be able to include voices for Bart, Marge or Lisa.

Oddly the pack refers to the Family Sedan as ‘Homer’s Car’; regardless, the vehicle is a nice addition to the collection of iconic cars (such as the Ecto-1 and Delorean Time Machine) available for the game. The Taunt-o-Vision feels like classic Simpsons with its wacky ability to blow up Silver LEGO objects. It’s just a shame that the Springfield Adventure World feels rather life-less without any of the show’s cast reprising their roles to give out quests.

Emmet Fun Pack

Character: Emmet

Vehicle: Emmet’s Excavator

Price: £5.79

Emmet was of course the star of The LEGO Movie and in my book that makes him a must-have for any LEGO Dimensions player. It is amazing that they managed to entice famous Hollywood actor Chris Pratt to reprise his role when archive audio would have been a much cheaper alternative. Emmet is not only a great character but he is also the only NFC minifigure to have the drilling ability (well, until the Jake The Dog Team Pack is released this Friday). The thing I love most about this pack however is the fact that Emmet’s Excavator can be rebuilt into the Destruct-o-Mech, which bears a strong (and probably deliberate) resemblance to the Construct-o-Mech from The LEGO Movie:

So those are my top five favourite LEGO Dimensions Year One packs. Do you agree with my list? Let me know in the comments below.

All prices are taken from Amazon UK as of Tuesday 27th September 2016.

Iron Fist Writer Joins Runaways Team

It was recently announced that US streaming service Hulu will be making a series of Marvel’s Runaways. The comics, which ran from 2003-2009, features a group of super-powered teenagers who discover their parents are part of an evil crime organisation, known as “The Pride”. Even though it finished seven years ago, it has remained a fan favourite, and it’s ensemble cast lends itself very well to a TV adaptation.

It had already been released that the showrunners would be Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage (Gossip Girl) and executively produced by Marvel TV stalwarts Jeph Loeb and Jim Chory. Yesterday, Iron Fist writer Tamara Becher announced that she too has joined the team bringing Runaways to the screen.

New gig, day one. pic.twitter.com/o9qZyn8jPY

— Tamara Becher (@trbecher) September 26, 2016

Beacher is no stranger to teen ensemble casts, as she formally wrote for Joss Whedon‘s classic Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. She has just finished work on the Netflix/Marvel series Iron Fist, due for release next year, and she obviously impressed the comic moguls, as they’ve snapped her up quickly for this new project.

It’s not the first time Marvel has collaborated with someone other than Netflix to produce a TV series; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is on ABC. The difference here is that Hulu is another streaming service, rather than a comer coal network, making it a direct competitor with Netflix. At present, it’s unclear whether the Runaways series will link in to the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe, like Daredevil, Jessica Jones and AoS have, or whether it will be standalone.

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Modern Family To Feature Transgender Child Actor

ABC’s award winning sitcom Modern Family has never been afraid of breaking new ground, both in story-lines and innovation. It was one of the first shows to feature a committed gay couple (culminating in one of the first gay weddings in 2014)  and last year filmed an episode entirely shot using an iPhone. They are now pitching another first: they are the first television show to use an openly transgender child actor.

The episode, “A Stereotypical Day” is due to air tomorrow (28th September) and, according to Variety, will feature 8-year-old Jackson Millarker. The story will focus of Mitchell (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and Cameron (Eric Stonestreet) being overcome with pride that their daughter Lily (Aubrey Anderson-Emmons) wants to invite her trans friend Tom (Millarker) over for a play date. As Cam and Mitchell are notoriously a bit pompous and self-congratulating (for comedic effect), they see it as a sign of their awesome parenting that their daughter is so open minded. However, their joy is short lived, when they overhear Lily insulting her friend, and they use the moment as an opportunity to  teach her. This being Modern Family, I assume it will all resolve nicely by the end!

Fans have taken to social media to praise the show for the move and to demand that Hollywood do more to include trans actors:

First transgender-centric episode, and first trans-kid on #TV. Modern Family trully a forward show #wow #lgtv https://t.co/Ys7vQgkmse pic.twitter.com/sw6Y2rTb8c

— Ze D. Kya (dekya) (@zedekya) September 27, 2016

"Modern Family" has cast a Trans child actor to play one of Lily's friends. If they can cast Trans actors, so can the rest of Hollywood.

— ZackPas+ (@dapperzack) September 26, 2016

Thank you @ModernFam for casting a child #transactor! #translivesmatter #lovewins #livingourtruth #transchoruslahttps://t.co/pKMxt4i3iz

— TransChorusLA (@TransChorusLA) September 26, 2016

However some fans are still critical at the decision to cast heterosexual actor Stonestreet as gay character Cam:

"Modern Family" casting trans child but still has fake gay Eric Stonestreet https://t.co/R6em93syxh

— Robert Heikkila (@newsouth418) September 26, 2016

‘A Stereotypical Day’ is the second episode of Modern Family‘s 8th season, and will air tomorrow night (28th September) on ABC.

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‘Marvel, after careful consideration I’ve decided to endorse your film’ – Sam Neill To Cameo In Thor Ragnarok

Sam Neill has confirmed that he will cameo in the upcoming Marvel  film Thor Ragnarok. In an interview with ShortList, he revealed ‘I’m not really allowed to say this and I can’t tell you what it is…I did a couple of days on Thor just before I came over here.’ Sam Neill is most famous for playing paleontologist Alan Grant in Jurassic Park…and he isn’t the only Jurassic Park actor set to star in the movie. Jeff Goldblum will also appear as The Grandmaster, a character who is part of the Marvel supervillain group known as the Elders of the Universe; he first appeared in The Avengers #69. The Grandmaster won’t be the first Elder of the Universe to make an appearance in the MCU. Benico del Toro played The Collector in Guardians of the Galaxy, a being who owns an ever-growing collection of various interstellar species, relics and fauna.

Whilst Thor Ragnarok is proving to be a Jurassic Park reunion, don’t expect to see Sam Neill in Jurassic World 2, if his theory about Mr Grant is anything to go by.  When asked about a possible return to Jurassic Park, he offered his own narrative reason for why we may not see Alan Grant again: “I think the problem is that no one knows where Alan Grant is anymore. He’s retired from paleontology. He’s sick to death of dinosaurs and running. He’s not quite as fleet of foot as he was, and he’s now retired to Dayton, Ohio, and has a very successful accountancy business… I think that’s what’s happened to Alan. Either that or he’s dead,”

According to Sam Neill, “Someone found his hat. His hat was floating on the Hudson river, but that was the last ever heard of him,”. He also makes a good point about the aftermath of Alan’s traumatic experiences on Isla Nublar and Isla Sorna: “How do you recover from all of that stuff? I don’t think therapists are trained to deal with post-dino stuff. No. I don’t think you get over it. Accountancy would be one way,”

Hopefully there’s still a chance that we’ll get to see Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic World 2 – because who wouldn’t want to see Chris Pratt and Jeff Goldblum in the same film? It’s a shame we’re likely not getting a full Jurassic Park reunion anytime soon though.

Thor Ragnarok will be in cinemas 27th October 2017, whilst Jurassic World 2 will be released on 7th June 2018.

 

Fear The Walking Dead SN2 EP13- ‘Date of Death’

A somewhat subdued outing set the pieces in motion for a climactic finale.

We’ve been waiting a while now to see just how the Chris and Travis storyline would culminate, and boy did it deliver. The two have had a rather limited amount of screentime this half season, with the gaps between their focused episodes draining them of much tension. Through trailers and general common sense, we basically knew how the story was going to end for the two of them, so to drag it out wasn’t really the best idea. Still, what we were given this episode was brilliant.

It’s always interesting seeing how different characters adapt to the world around them. Sure Chris is annoying, crazy and downright dangerous, but he’s also probably one of the few people that’ll last a significant amount of time in this world. Travis’ policy of not harming other people however is something he’s going to have to get over soon or he’ll just be another dead guy. What was so great about their story here then, was that the ‘right thing’ to do wasn’t obvious. The farmer was obviously dangerous and could’ve easily killed them, but at the same time, they were trespassing on his land and he had every right to threaten them. So whilst the justification behind Chris’s actions is ultimately murky, it was his attitude afterwards that showed how dangerous he had become.

He showed no remorse whatsoever for killing the farmer, a fact that understandably haunted Travis and set them both on a new path. I believe it’s part of the reason Chris is so hated by audiences. With some of the characters in ‘The Walking Dead’ it is the same situation, however that’s been built up through six seasons, so their stance feels earned. Chris on the other hand is just a stone cold psychopath, so to see his transformation occur so abruptly alienates him from the viewer. At the other extreme, Travis is being rather stupid in his approach to the apocalypse. It was great to see him take charge and try to save one of Chris’ new ‘friends’, as before he seemed to have lost all backbone, never really taking charge. This was followed up though by him sticking rather unsafely by his morals. As he said himself later in the episode, he could have played along, but his strict moral code is placing him in unnecessary danger. And just ask Dale, Herschel or Tyreese, being the moral compass is not a good position to be in.

The story culminated in some heated arguments, and Travis (rather half-heartedly I thought) trying to persuade Chris not to go with his newfound friends. That was minus one of course since they shot the other guy in the head, aided by Chris. He has truly gone off the deep end now, and although this guy may have been dead weight, killing him just wasn’t necessary. This episode worked perfectly to wipe out all doubt about Chris’s current state of mind, setting him and his new group up to be the perfect villains for the finale. This was only supported by the fact that at least two of them turned up at the hotel by episode’s end. Chris may or may not be among them, but no doubt they’ll cause trouble regardless.

Though that is of course all thanks to Maddison. Turning on the hotel power at night was one of the most bone headed desperate moves by her to find Nick on the show to date. Her obsession to protect Nick seems to go beyond just motherly love, feeling tied to how she views herself as a successful person, and this was a clear example of how her current attitude could easily see her die. In that respect, her and Travis are equals. Their love for their children comes at a detriment to their safety and as a result, the safety of characters we really care about, *cough cough* Alicia and Strand *cough cough*. So whilst what she did brought Travis back to her, it also brought a whole lotta trouble in the form of other survivors. These weren’t dangerous survivors per se, just desperate for a safe place to be. However, in opening the doors to them, they opened themselves up to being extremely vulnerable. It played right into the theme of right and wrong that this series is so excellent at playing with, only in this case, the answer was already very clear.

Of course even in a quieter episode there are lots of things to see, so other highlights include:

• I don’t think we ever did before, but we now have a definitive time for when ‘The Walking Dead’ TV universe is set, that being 2010. It makes sense given that was the start date of the main series, but it was never clear, especially given the phones and such we saw characters using in ‘Fear’ Season 1.

• That farmer guy was big on family photos wasn’t he? I get the need to make us feel bad for this guy, but I think they went a bit overboard.

• Alicia’s dad’s suicide note was harsh: “I love you all, but enough is enough.” Ouch.

• Alicia and Maddison sort of made up this episode, which I can’t say I’m a fan of. There’s so much potential there for Alicia to grow as a character by breaking away from her mother a bit, as I feel at the moment Maddison is holding her back.

• The structure was a bit odd again this episode. It was mostly contained to Chris and Travis which was great, and the opening with Travis reaching the Hotel made sense, but there were one too many scenes at the Hotel that detracted from the tension of the more important story.

So another episode of ‘Fear the Walking Dead’ comes to a close, and now everything is set in place for what promises to be a climactic finale. This episode may not have been as exciting as prior instalments, but it brought much needed closure to a good storyline that suffered from being unnecessarily dragged out. The last two episodes are airing back to back next week, promising a crazy end to the season, but with various characters still scattered about, will they ever find each other again? And more importantly who will survive?

The Weekend’s Top 10 Box Office Chart 23rd-25th September 2016

Hi movie fans! It’s been quite a quiet weekend for films with only a couple of new big releases – namely The Magnificent Seven and Storks. Sully has been clinging on to the top spot for a couple of weeks, so let’s see how Tom Hanks and co are getting on this week.

Chart Legend

Rank / Movie Title / Studio

W/E Gross = Weekend Gross /T/Gross= Total Gross /LW= Last Week

Green = UP / Red = DOWN / Blue = No Movement / Teal = New

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BOX OFFICE MOVIE CHART

1. The Magnificent Seven (2016) / Sony

W/E Gross      T/Gross         LW

$35,000,000    $35,000,000    NEW

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2. Storks/ WB

W/E Gross      T/Gross         LW

$21,805,000    $21,805,000    NEW

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3. Sully / WB

W/E Gross       T/Gross        LW

$13,830,000   $92,393,477      #1

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4. Bridget Jones’s Baby / Universal

W/E Gross       T/Gross        LW

$4,520,000      $16,457,675     #3

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5. Snowden / ORF

W/E Gross       T/Gross       LW

$4,144,989      $15,139,215    #4

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6. Blair Witch/ LGF

W/E Gross       T/Gross       LW

$3,950,000      $16,128,695    #2

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7. Don’t Breathe / SGem

W/E Gross       T/Gross       LW

$3,800,000      $81,110,808    #5

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8. Suicide Squad / WB

W/E Gross      T/Gross        LW

$3,110,000     $318,133,343    #7

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9. When the Bough Breaks / SGem

W/E Gross      T/Gross        LW

$2,500,000     $26,613,349     #6

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10. Kubo and the Two Strings / Focus

W/E Gross      T/Gross        LW

$1,103,000     $45,954,573     #9

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So that’s a wrap! A couple of newbies up at the top, and everything else is going down, down, down. Will Magnificent Seven hold on next week when up against Tim Burton’s latest outing, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children? We shall see…

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Once Upon A Time SN6 E1 – The Savior

I felt like I’d been waiting for … well… forever, for this premiere.  To be honest, I wasn’t all that impressed.  I mean, yeah, we got some Captain Swan moments and got our first glimpse of Aladdin and Jafar, but other than that it was really kind of …. meh.

We saw the return of a few of our favorite things… the yellow bug, the red leather jacket, Granny’s.  And then, right at the end, we got a real good dose of The Evil Queen.  She and Zelena are going to be a force to be reckoned with this season.

I really enjoyed the Rumple/Sleeping Belle story line.  I caught myself singing along to the instrumental version of Beauty and the Beast while Rumple and Belle danced in a magically changing castle.  That was a great nod to the movie and made me a little misty eyed.  I have to admit, I was shocked to discover who Morpheus really was!

Oded Fehr makes a great Jafar!  I caught myself actually liking him better than Aladdin (Deniz Akdeniz).  And, he told us something about Saviors that spells problems for Emma.

I totally distrust “The Oracle”… something just doesn’t seem right there.  And all of the refugees from The Land of Untold Stories?  Yeah, I got the feeling that was metaphorical for the current political issues (and I’m not sure how I feel about that).

They even hinted that we might see Robin again!  Shut up!  It could happen!

Yes it could!

All in all, they set up the season very nicely with a lot of turmoil and trouble for Swan & Co.  And, I’ll be waiting to see how this all plays out.  Hopefully the rest of the season will give me more than a …. meh.