Doctor Who: Time Crash
by Steven Moffat; dir. Graeme Harper (BBC, 2007)
An 8-minute charity special that should very much be considered canonical. Moffat’s mini-script is first-rate, pairing the Fifth and Tenth Doctors in a humorous yet sentimental melding of eras (thus also director Graeme Harper). David Tennant and Peter Davison work brilliantly together.
Eureka: O Little Town
Eureka: O Little Town
A relatively sedate and sentimental episode, more festive than frenetic. In this instance the threat to Eureka is due to the unfortunate concatenation of Taggart’s designing technology to validate Santa and Vincent’s trying on-the-sly to restore the good name of Christmas fruitcake.
Godzilla Minus One
dir. Takashi Yamazaki (2023) [subtitled]
![Film poster: “Godzilla Minus One” dir. Takashi Yamazaki (2023) [subtitled]](https://www.derelictspacesheep.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/Godzilla-Minus-One.png)
Well-acted (insofar as subtitled performances can be judged by a monolingual English viewer). The story has a refreshing depth beyond its monster element, emotionally engaging to the extent that Godzilla’s poorly anger-managed on-land demolition stomps can hang in suspended disbelief as allegory.
A Hat Full of Sky
by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 2004); audiobook ready by Stephen Briggs (2004)
Tiffany Aching again proves a winning protagonist, her precocious powers stemming from nothing more innate than a clear, logical, inquisitive mind. While the threat feels real, Pratchett has fun with the Nac Mac Feegle. Granny Weatherwax’s character benefits from an outside perspective.
Scooby Apocalypse, Vol. 1
by Keith Giffen & J.M. DeMatteis; ill. Howard Porter (DC Comics, 2017)
A conceptually appealing reboot, soon rendered tiresome by an overload of slick, cluttered, gory action panels and the writers’ insistence on vomiting up Daphne and Velma’s argument every few pages. Ultimately, subjecting the Scooby Gang to zombified mature content merely diminishes them.
MacGyver, Season 3
(CBS, 2018-2019)
Given the freewheeling escapism at play in Seasons 1-2, upping the stakes was perhaps ill-advised. The team become cavalier action superheroes. Personal issues intrude, hanging Lucas Till out to dry beyond the range of clean-cut sincerity. Levy Tran is a welcome addition.
Kraftwerk Live @ The Brisbane Convention Centre
(Australia & New Zealand Tour, 4 December 2023)
Iconic in the truest sense. Electronic music pioneers Kraftwerk stood at their synthesisers for two hours, affectedly impersonal afront/amidst a choreographed pulsation of light and sound: pre-programmed loops layered and manipulated on the fly. Highlights included ‘Radioactivity’, ‘Trans-Europe Express’ and ‘The Robots’.
Gravity is the Thing
by Jaclyn Moriarty (Harper, 2019); audiobook read by Aimee Horne (W. F. Howes, 2019)
For much of the book, Moriarty treads a fine, facetious line between quirky characterisation and utterly banal, cod-observational wisdom. This, it turns out, is artfully used both to obscure and to foreshadow plot shifts. Kudos for incorporating a single mother/young child relationship.
The Who Adventures: The Art and History of Virgin Publishing’s Doctor Who Fiction
by David J Howe (Telos, 2021)
The painstaking history of a publishing enterprise whose workings will be of limited interest to most readers. Howe includes lengthy biographical notes on everyone concerned. Diligently researched but for the most part textual deadweight cluttering and detracting from the coffee-table art component.
Worse Things Happen at Sea
Tales of Life, Love, Family and the Everyday Beauty in Between
by William McInnes & Sarah Watt (Hachette, 2011)
audiobook read by Clem Fechner (QNS Audio, 2014)
Entwined memoirs with a cumulative focus on family, mortality, embracing life and coping with death. McInnes reaches his conclusions through rambling associative leaps, Watt by more direct reflection. Fechner’s audiobook reading captures the sometimes humorous, always heartfelt tone (but not female voices).