Doctor Who: The Celestial Toymaker
by Brian Hayles; dir. Bill Sellars (BBC, 1966/2024)
The most ambitious lost story animation to date. Even if the characters now stray into the uncanny valley, the 3D, multi-angle approach offers a zaniness lacking in the original. The colour version is particularly eye-catching… but it’s still a deplorably weak script.
1968: The Year that Rocked the World
by Mark Kurlansky (Ballantine, 2003); audiobook read by Christopher Cazenove (Phoenix, 2004)
A deep dive into the momentous-seeming socio-political events (mostly American and European) that shaped 1968. Kurlansky makes connections and shows likenesses, but whereas he biographises 1968 down to its minutiae, he omits the ‘what happened after’ contextualising necessary to establish lasting impact.
A Certain Scientific Railgun, Season 1
(Tokyo MX, 2009-2010)
A 12-part story told across twice that many episodes. The result is excellent character development (with frequent meanderings into schoolgirl slice of life) but an almost negligent dilation of the spec-fic element. Poorly integrated crossovers from A Certain Magical Index don’t help!
The Possessors
by John Christopher (Hodder & Stoughton, 1965)
![Book cover: “The Possessors” by John Christopher (Hodder & Stoughton, 1965) [Sphere, 1978 edition]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Christopher_Possessors.jpg)
The sort of novel whose publication in 1965 might well have informed Innes Lloyd and Gerry Davis as they gravitated Doctor Who towards ‘base under siege’ stories. Christopher postulates an isolated setting and bleak alien invasion scenario, grimly explored through damaged characters.
Great-Uncle Harry: A Tale of War and Empire
by Michael Palin (Penguin, 2023); audiobook read by Michael Palin (Penguin Audio, 2023)
Palin argues for his great uncle’s relevance but doesn’t really succeed. Assiduous research has seduced him into including too much detail about Harry’s parents, while the lengthy section on military service, illuminating of the First World War more generally, lacks biographical interest.
Doctor Strange
dir. Scott Derrickson (2016)
Benedict Cumberbatch gets some pre-hero acting in, which makes this film infinitely better than its sequel. While Tilda Swinton and Benedict Wong are also worth watching (in the quiet moments), the dimension-shifting action scenes and extended astral-plane trip are boring as batshit.
Dreadful Sanctuary
by Eric Frank Russell (Astounding Science Fiction, 1948)
revised novelised edition (Lancer, 1963)
How do you know you are sane? Russell’s hardboiled, offbeat prose drives a SF conspiracy thriller born, like Sinister Barrier, of Fortean speculation. The Lancer publication, purportedly revised by Russell himself, substitutes an ending markedly more pessimistic than those of other editions.
Cowboys & Aliens
dir. Jon Favreau (2011)
Better than could be expected given five co-writers and a story extrapolated (via graphic novel) from a gimmick title. The western element is played seriously but the aliens suffer from rampant Hollywooditus, spurning their own advanced technology to behave as mindless beasts.
Erased
by Taku Kishimoto; dir. Tomohiko Itō (Fuji TV, 2016)
A sweet spec-fic exploration of how childhood experiences go towards shaping adult life—somewhat unbalanced in presenting its past and present elements, but Satoru’s extended Revival as an 11-year-old in 1988 is effective in its own right. Satoru’s mum nails single parenthood.
Tintin: The Shooting Star
by Hergé (Casterman, 1942)
trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1961)
A straightforward adventure in the style of early SF novels: a hint of the supernatural, a lashing of fantastic elements (most memorably the gigantic mushrooms and other dreamlike eruptions), but a dramatic pulse that comes largely from the sabotage- and race-to-get-there-first plots.