Author: David Hogan

Doctor Who – Deathworld Review

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In terms of “Lost Stories” that are left to adapt Deathworld was a big one as it was the original planned 10th Anniversary story featuring all three Doctors at that point in the show, but William Hartnell’s failing health meant it was scrapped early on and The Three Doctors was created instead. It always sounded really odd based on what we knew and getting to hear it adapted hasn’t changed my mind there, I have no idea how this would’ve worked at the time, but whatever. How does it work now, as an audio drama with four of the six regulars being recasts? Let’s find out!

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Neon Genesis Evangelion (Episodes 14 – 26) Review

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My review of the first half of the series can be found HERE.

The second half of Neon Genesis Evangelion is a hard one to crack. It has several episodes that are a bit more “introspective” which some fans try to spin as completely intentional but the creators themselves have admitted it was born out of necessity due to running out of budget and time. The most obvious example of this is the final two episodes, which when I first saw it back whenever it aired on the Sci-Fi channel I was pee’d off at how… nothing it was, but what about now? Has mentally maturing and being armed with the knowledge of what the ending was supposed to convey made me go easier on it? Let’s find out, with once again a “warning” that this is a very surface-level review, so no deep dive into religious themes and analysing every scene, I’ll leave that to those more engrossed in the series…

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Doctor Who: Operation Werewolf Review

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After a sudden return of the Novel Adaptation range we now get to the first of two returns to the Lost Stories range! “Operation Werewolf” was partially pencilled in for the Second Doctor era before, I believe, it was scrapped because it was considered bad taste to do a story set during WWII as it hadn’t been that long since its end (which is a weird thought really) but here in 2024 we have no such worry, in fact Doctor Who especially is if anything overran with the time period. It’s for that reason I wasn’t super excited for this release (at least not compared to the next one) but I am a fan of the new Michael Troughton Second Doctor so I was looking forward to a non-Season 6B story featuring him, and I got that at least! Let’s take a look.

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Metal Gear (MSX / NES) Review

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After skipping forward (or backwards game-continuity-wise!) to MGS3 due to the remake being on the horizon it’s time to get this on-and-off look at the Metal Gear franchise off proper by looking at the very first game in the series. I actually own and played the NES version back in the day so unlike a lot of people who started with MGS on the PS1 this game does hold a lot of nostalgia for me. Okay, I was really bad at the game at the time and the NES version is much worse than the MSX original as it turns out, but regardless it’s always fun to head back here, and thanks to the “Master Collection” it was even easier to play the original AND the NES version on my regular TV this time round. So let’s take a look at the game that started it all.

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X-Men – Origin (X-Men Issues 1-10) Review

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Our next foray into Marvel comic origin issues is the X-Men, appearing here in their first ten issues. It’s funny given how big they became but the X-Men weren’t actually super popular in these early issues, it wasn’t really until the reboot in the mid-70s that it started picking up steam (stay tuned for that one later!) and then skyrocketed in the 80s. So is there any point to revisiting the less popular years? Let’s find out!

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Doctor Who: Goth Opera Review

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It’s time for a one-off return to the Novel Adaptations range as for some reason the Paul Cornell “Missing Adventures” book Goth Opera has been turned into an audio drama, but not the Fourth Doctor novel that leads into it, so it’s all a bit odd. Still, I’m not going to turn down a three-hour Fifth Doctor story with a larger cast one way or another, so let’s take a look!

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Neon Genesis Evangelion (Episodes 1 – 13) Review

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As promised (a while ago now, stupid busy summer!) it’s time to finally tackle this behemoth. “Neon Genesis Evangelion” is not only massively influential but it also has thousands of pages, podcasts and videos analysing every frame, slight story nuance and every potential reference, meaning I didn’t know whether to really bother reviewing the series in my more casual format, but you know what? It would be weirder if this site never had Evangelion on it at all, so now I’ve watched the official blu-rays its now or inevitably later, so may as well be now! The first half of the series is undeniably great, which won’t take any of you by surprise, so let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who: Conspiracy of Raven Review

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We’re back to the Big Finish-exclusive “post War Games” era of the Second Doctor with “Conspiracy of Raven”, featuring three strongly-linked stories moving the plot forward. I stress moving forward rather than “bringing to an end” as it is just the next chapter is this storyline rather than anything else, and as a chapter it’s not really that interesting. Still, the performances are great, so that elevates the material a bit! Let’s take a look.

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Doctor Who: The Last Day – Part Two Review

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At the end of my review for Part One I said “I guess and we’ll see if any of this actually pays off in a meaningful way or not…” and now I’ve listened to Part Two, guess what? Not! Yes, somehow Part Two is just as much of a muddled mess as the first half despite what I thought would be getting the Doctor-lite set up episodes out the way leading to a bigger role for the man whose last adventure it actually was turned out to not be the case, instead we just got another six episodes of loads of companions and old foes, a lot which nobody remembers all, running around with little direction until a final episode that tries to tie it all together but fails, instead giving us a pretty nasty and crappy way to send off the Seventh Doctor, possibly even worse that his undignified end from the TV movie… Yikes. Let’s take a look, shall we?

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