Author: David Hogan

Doctor Who – Dream Team Review

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The second story of the latest Fifth Doctor boxset sees the return of the “Dream Crabs” from the Twelfth Doctor Christmas Special “Last Christmas” as well as a couple of audios a year or two ago, and its safe to say that there really isn’t anything new you can do with them beyond repeating the same story beats from their first appearance. Most returning monsters you can put some sort of spin on but here its more dreams within dreams sequences and fake-outs, with only a little wrinkle in why they are where they are. Still, unoriginal as it may be, what was it like to listen to? Let’s find out!

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One Piece – Fishman Island Arc (Episodes 554 – 574) Review

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After spending an extra review’s worth of time with the Fishman Island arc it’s time to bring it to a close, thankfully. Okay, the finale has some classic One Piece “satisfying villain beatdown” about it, but really thanks to not really caring about either the villains or the new good guys it doesn’t have the same impact as it has done in previous, or indeed future arcs. Either way, let’s take a look and get this arc out of the way for good…

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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages (Manga) Review

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The next Zelda manga adaptation is, unsurprisingly, the Oracle of Ages, following on from Seasons last time (though the games could be played in either order, for the record). After a magic seasons-changing rod and some talking animals gave Seasons a unique feel Ages feels more in-line with your standard LoZ affair, including time travel and even a battle with Ganon at the end (though again that would happen at the end of Seasons if you played the games the other way around…) So let’s get to it!

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Doctor Who – The Merfolk Murders Review

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The latest Fifth Doctor boxset continues the trend of well written genre pieces with “The Merfolk Murders”, a great example of Doctor Who doing the classic “whodunnit?” story, with a 1940 Scottish historical setting to finish it off. In fact this is a full-on historical in that beyond our time travelling protagonists there are no sci-fi elements at all. So let’s take a look at this murder mystery and keep in mind that the spoiler section is perhaps more important than ever in terms of not looking at it if you intend to get the most out of the story!

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Final Fantasy VII: Rebirth (PS5) Review

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Time to take a look at one of my most anticipated games of recent memory with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. The second part of the Final Fantasy VII “Remake Trilogy” arrived back at the very end of February and I’ve been playing it like a man possessed! Taking characters and a world I already love and not only expanding the already great combat system from the last game but also adding in fun open world exploration with great graphics and no pop ins and errors like the PS4 Remake was a recipe for greatness in my eyes, and I’m thrilled to report it lived up to those heights. So let’s take a rather unavoidably long look at the game!

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Doctor Who: The Dark Path Review

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It’s been about two years since I’ve been so caught up with Big Finish releases that I can actually post reviews of other Doctor Who stuff during quieter periods. The last one was in the middle of the Second Doctor part of this random TV and other media marathon and I actually went on to write the three other Second Doctor reviews before this site went on hiatus, so these next three random Who reviews are still in the old review format but Third Doctor onwards will match with current reviews. Without further ado:

So the non-TV part of the Second Doctor’s run in this chunk of older Who reviews starts off with a book review, a rare thing on this blog due to nothing other than me being a slow reader. Anyway, when I decided to finally go back and read some of the Doctor Who books I’d always wanted to read this was an obvious one because the idea of not just the Second Doctor meeting the Master but also a look at how The Doctor’s old friend became his enemy was too interesting a concept to pass up. Did it live up to that possibility? Let’s find out!

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Red Dwarf – The Promised Land Review

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We’ve reached the end of our look at Red Dwarf (well, for now, there have been at least three other points in the show’s run that looked like the end that turned out not to be the case!) as we take a look at “The Promised Land”, a 90-ish minute special. Remember when in the Series XI and XII reviews I mentioned episodes that felt like Doug Naylor had one good idea and that one idea didn’t stretch enough for 30 minutes? Well, imagine that, but the one idea not stretching to 90. While it does have one or two good moments of comedy, the vast majority is once again just “okay”. Let’s take a deeper look anyway!

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One Piece – Fishman Island Arc (Episodes 539 – 553) Review

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The Fisman Island Arc continues to chug along with an extended flashback in order to set up a lot of the characters and conflict that have already been of central focus so far and completely failed to gain my interest… In fairness, the flashback does hit heavy with the theme of illogical racism that is the core focus of the Fishmen, but once we get back to the present day I still can’t say I particularly care about any of them… Which makes me sound like a Fishman racist (whatever that means in real life) but I’m just talking about the lead villains and the stuff… Anyway, Let’s take a look!

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Doctor Who – The Invisible Enemy Review

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Another season of Doctor Who has arrived on Blu-Ray, so let’s take a look at the story I haven’t seen in the longest time, which is this case was difficult as while Season 15 has two of my favourite Tom Baker stories in “Horror of Fang Rock” and “Image of the Fendahl” it also has three of my least favourites in “Underworld”, “The Sun Makers” and this story, all three committing the cardinal sin of being dull rather than at least “so bad it’s fun to watch and make fun of”. In thinking about it, I’m pretty sure it’s “Invisible Enemy” that takes the prize of the longest since I last watched it, and given this has the debut of K9 there’s at least SOME interest to be found here… Let’s take a look, and who knows, maybe this time round I’ll suddenly really like it?!

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Spider-Man – Origin (Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man Issues 1-10) Review

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Our next look at Marvel comics is, really, the big one as Spider-Man is undoubtably Marvel’s most popular hero. That being said his original run of comics, the first 10 of which are collected in a trade paperback I have (along with his debut issue in “Amazing Fantasy”) are all full of 60s charm and villain backstories we’ve seen 100 times since, often with these villains themselves in adaptations. Hell, Spider-Man’s debut story has been adapted so many times now that it’s going to feel redundant talking about it! Still, this is a look at major Marvel comic stories and I can’t miss out Spider-Man’s debut, so let’s start with that issue…

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