Doctor Who 2023: 60th Anniversary 1st Special: The Star Beast

 Righty oh so after a little hiatus after all that Jodie Whittaker stuff. Now let's get one thing straight I was open to a female doctor timelords are aliens with regeneration powers. I mean come on try can probably become other races too. Not only that Jodie was pretty good as the doctor most of the time. It was just most of the stories were too preachy or just badly written AND I'm sorry but the timeless child stuff was shit.

Anyway we're here because Jodie strangely regenerated into Tennant again?

RTD was back at the helm Doctor Who was saved, except no AND yes. This episode was both amazing in execution with lots of tech, whizz bangs and fun. Not to mention a great enemy that was if you didn't already know the old comics quite a shocker!

First up things I liked, Tennant for the most part was straight back into his shoes. Donna albeit a little different (though explained why later) was great too. Shaun her husband was amazing too, probably one of my favourite parts actually. The star beast or The Meep was great as well as it's practical effects too. It was 'nice' to see UNIT back too but more on that later too. The alien hunters were great too and the return of the shadow proclamation also. As well as the impromptu courtroom scene. Yes I noticed the bullets did no damage to the car.

It's easy to see the cash injections that the shows had too upping the production values sky high. The new tech was amazing, though maybe a little over reliance on the sonic screwdriver. But I'm a Sci-Fi geek so I loved it still. It was funny and sad at times which made me smile and also at one time brought a tear to my eye.

Now the little niggles: UNIT could have just been the army or pretty much any other military service. Granted they are setting them up for later episodes, it was just a bit wet lettuce you know. Now the scientist in the wheelchair was amazing beautiful and we'll acted, the weapons were very cheesy. Now one bug bear I had was the soldier uses the stairs he's like sorry mam. WHY anyone with half a brain cell knows wheelchairs can't go up stairs, there was literally no need to point it out. As mentioned the over use of sonic for almost every situation. Except the spaceship bit with the deadlock.

Now here's the bit that might annoy some people who don't really read into it and just take it at face value. I have never and never will be a bigot of any kind. I've been around the LGBTQ scene all my life. From when my friend came out to going to (what they were referred to back in the 90s as) gay clubs. Not only that I've dated 3 Trans girls throughout my life too. It was the damn over use of pointing out that Yasmins character (who was very wooden and looks about 30 playing a 15 year old) Rose was Trans, every minute of every scene she was involved in something was brought up. Now nothing bad in that or saying it a few times. Especially with Donna's mother because even me at 41 now having friends/ex-partners still get things messed up, my dad at 63 jeez I wouldn't even TRY to explain to him. These things do all lead into my biggest concern with the episode with also spawns a few niggles itself then too.

The doctor is an almost omnipotent being who can be any gender, probably any race (and I mean alien etc not skin colour). Gets scolded for possible misgendering the Meep who just throws it under the carpet anyway. Then we get him being scolded about presenting as male later on when Donna and Rose can just 'let go' because only women can do that apparently. Which brings me to a good point my one trans friend brought up. Does that mean FtoM trans identifying people are shit then?

I mean they identify as men now see that's what you get writing stupid shit like that in. Back to the point, again making the doctor who (hehe) has previously been female out to be inferior now. I mean come on stick to a path and follow it.

Now rant over onto some other points, the glass divider coming down really reminded of End of Time with Wilf that's what made me tear up. The whole doctor Donna bit was awesome too, I knew she wasn't dead so didn't get sad. The ease in which it was solved felt a little detracting from the emotional loss of letting her go before too. The evil Meep was cool but didn't need to be like oh my boss will be unhappy! 

We know there's a bigger bad, in fact it wasn't needed to even be said, again felt a little dumbed down there.

Now over all I did actually like the episode the action and Sci-Fi-ness of it all was great.

Som factors to point out, some people said Donna spilling the coffee looks very deliberate. I'm inclined to think no, Catherine is a very slapstick comedian who does 'over the top' but we'll see on that. Also the fact that she somehow knew that Tennant wasn't 10th but 14th, again metacrisis meant they were linked so I think that's how she knew about in-between doctors. Again we'll see on that. What I'm hoping now is they got the woke out in this episode, so the next 2 will be pure storyline awesomeness.

Star beast gets a disappointing 3 out 5 from THN as I can tell the more I watch it the more those things will grate on me.

Review: Phantasm 3 Lord of the Dead (1994)

Stars: Angus Scrimm, Reggie Bannister

Budget: $2.5 million

Directed By: Don Coscarelli

The third movie in the phantasm series, was plagued by a strange release schedule, it was meant for a larger theatrical release but due to a conflict with Coscarelli they pulled it last minute. Though It did get a limited release in some areas that didn't get the memo (where it did a reasonable opening weekend too!)

It was then released DtV where it became one of the top 100 highest selling videos of the time.

So yes it did that well despite again taking ages in development just like the previous one did. It has it's fans and haters such as people who like the direction it went, then others who don't especially with the trope of oh it was a dream sequence! already becoming and old gimmick.
Another move by Paramount was to get A. Micheal Baldwin back as Mike after the fan uproar of him being replaced in the second movie.
Amazing what a great fan disdain could achieve years ago, these days movie studios just do what they want and wonder why movies do bad, then blame out of date concepts such as misogyny rather than just plain bad story/writing. That however is a rant for a different day!

So this movie takes just after the last one, where the Tall Man emerges from the gateway just minutes after what happened in the last one. Odd due to what just happened in the previous film. We join the STILL not dead Reggie who survives once again, falling from the hearse to watch as it explodes further down the road. Reggie manages to save Mike but Liz is clearly dead. The Tall Man appears taking her head with him, after Reggie scares him off with a hand grenade.

Mike is in a coma however, so he is put in hospital. A few years later Mike awakes after receiving an odd premonition from his dead brother. This is interrupted by the Tall Man. Mike awakes only to be attacked by a crazy nurse, though he manages to subdue her.
Reggie magically turns up and they both watch in weird wonder as a sphere bursts from the nurses head then flies off. 

When they get to Reggie's house they are attacked by the Tall Man who has turned Jody into a sphere, but not before he tells them of Idaho. The Tall Man then manages to get away with Mike to the other realm after besting Reggie.

Reggie awakens beginning a Journey towards the before mentioned state, along the way he is captured by three people. They lock him in the boot/trunk of his car when he reaches the town. He is later rescued by a new kid called Tim, after the earlier trio try and break into a house they are subsequently killed.
Tim ends up explaining that the Tall Man used was in this town, which is why it's now pretty much a ghost town, he took everyone including his parents. Reggie tries to leave Tim behind at an orphanage but the boy stows away in Reggie's car. When Reggie is later attacked by a sphere while looking for Mike. He bumps into two other people Rocky and Tanesha. Tanesha is Killed by the sphere, Tim managed to destroy it saving the other two.

They then follow some hearses, that night Reggie has a dream where him and Jody rescue Mike. (see what I mean about the dream sequences etc?). Reggie awakes and Mike with the aid of Jody falls out of a rift. They close it in time to sever the Tall Mans hands as he tries to follow them through it. They all get separated (Mike/Reggie, Tim, Rocky) when they are attacked by the looters from earlier. They are now undead. the Jody sphere contacts mike telling him that the Tall Man is amassing an army to take over their dimension.

The Tall Man recaptures Mike and starts to operate on him, remembering he has a weakness to cold the heroes attack him with liquid nitrogen. They succeed in locking him in a freezer but his head explodes revealing a golden sphere, Reggie manages to catch it with a plunger! then puts it into the liquid nitrogen. We then get some revelations about Mike!

THN doesn't spoil the endings of films unless their so bad their not worth watching, Phantasm 3 is well worth the watch especially if your invested in the series by now. this is much better than the second film though the continuous dream sequences can get a bit annoying especially as they kind of effect the real world too. So what's the point to them being dreams? 

Aside from that this film has much better acting and stronger continuation of the story-line with a better ending than both the first two.
THN awards Phantasm 3 a strong 3 out of 5 stars with a recommendation to watch