Author: David Hogan

Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace Review

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The latest animated Doctor Who release has arrived (well, it arrived a month or so ago, I’m just getting to it now because I decided to wait to get it as a Christmas present…) and while I’m thrilled the range isn’t dead I have to say that the Underwater Menace is among my least favourite Who stories and this release hasn’t changed that opinion. The animation is fun and helps hold my attention more than the screenshot slideshows did but the old idiom “You can’t polish a turd” comes to mind… Let’s take a look!

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Jujutsu Kaisen – Shibuya Incident Arc (Episodes 30 – 47) Review

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As some may have gathered by a lot of the anime I review on this site, I like a good action Shonen show, dramatic bloody fights of good versus evil often (but not always) based around the idea of overcoming the odds through will power and the want to do good. Classic popcorn entertainment. What Jujutsu Kaisen’s Shibuya Incident Arc has shown me though is you can indeed have too much of a good thing, because by the end of it I was actually kind of fed up of large-scale and well animated fight scenes and for the first time I can remember I was “wondering where the plot was”, which is not something that normally bothers me when watching a show like this (see: my love of the Dragon Ball franchise). Well, with that initial thought out of the way, let’s take a deeper look!

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Star Wars: The High Republic – The Eye of Darkness Review

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Phase III of the High Republic finally arrived with “The Eye of Darkness”, reuniting us with the cast of the original Phase of the era after a series of prequel books that, to be fair, I did enjoy a lot more than I thought I would. Still though, I was waiting to reunite with these characters and see what’s happening with the Nihil and Marchion Ro and I’m happy to report that for a book whose objective it was to set the scene for the big finale it did it very well indeed. Let’s take a look!

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My Top 10 Games of 2023

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There have been a lot of years with the “Top 10 Games of 2023” where I’ve had to put one or two on that barely count just to make up the ten but this year I made a full ten quite easily, and had a rough time picking what should be Number 1. Also like prior years there is a major game missing, this time Baldur’s Gate III as it’s just not the kind of genre / game I like to play, so you’ll just have to excuse its absence here. As I always say, this is my top 10 of the games I’ve played, so there are bound to be games I just don’t have the time to play (especially as I like playing plenty of older games too!) So with that said, let’s take a look!

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My Top 10 Doctor Who Stories of 2023

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I always enjoy the Top 10 Doctor Who story list I do each year, I believe unlike the lists either side that It’s pretty unique to this site. 2023 was a tough year to fill out the bottom and middle because a lot of stories were “very good” but only three or so I actually gave a full 5 to. Interested in which ones landed where? Let’s take a look!

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My Top 10 TV Series/Seasons of 2023

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Another year, another Top 10 TV series / seasons list! Although I’ve been enjoying Season 2 of What If…? It failed to make the cut, which makes this the first list since Disney + started that an MCU show hasn’t made it on here somewhere, which is a shame, but there you go. At least anime and Star Wars had me covered! Let’s take a look…

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Super Mario Bros. Wonder (Switch) Review

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It’s been a long time since I brought a 2D Mario game, mostly due to not liking the visuals of the New Super Mario Bros. series, but Wonder really caught my eye during its announcement trailer due to its much clearer and nicer visuals and its bizarre new “Wonder Flowers” which cause the levels to become very … weird, sometimes in a really fun way. I’ve really enjoyed my time with Wonder, but the strange lack of difficulty in the main game then a sudden spike in the option Special World wasn’t the best game design from the company that normally is so great at it… Let’s take a look, anyway!

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Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road Review

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The first solo Fifteenth Doctor story has aired and… hmmm. It’s an odd one, to say the least! It has a lot of that classic Russell T. Davies focus on a companion’s family life which is fine but it also has that early RTD issue where he’s aimed the tone perhaps a bit too young, like when he had the good idea of alien body snatchers and then ruined it by having them fart all the time, and Ncut Gatwa isn’t at the same level he was in his debut in the role. It’s a mixed bag of an episode, so I guess the best thing to do is take a deeper look at it!

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Doctor Who: In The Bleak Midwinter – The Empty Man & Winter of the Demon Review

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The final two-thirds of “In The Bleak Midwinter” has less of a Christmas focus and more of a horror / sci-fi focus with the stories happening around the festive period. It certainly helps the box feel fresher and both stories are perfectly fine in their own right, even if the second story is a little on the plain side. Let’s take a look and then relax over Christmas… before I quickly try and write the review of the new Christmas special on Boxing Day or thereabouts!

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Doctor Who: In The Bleak Midwinter – Twenty-Four Doors in December Review

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I’d like to say “I love it when a plan comes together!” but in reality it just so happens that this festive Doctor Who boxset is able to be reviewed on Christmas Eve itself, with just a little bit of “why not?” schedule managing by myself. That being said, I’m putting both halves up today because I don’t want to worry about handling my blog on Christmas Day itself, nor do I was to put up a Christmas story review after Christmas (new TV Who special aside because that actually airs on the day itself, so can’t get around that!) “Twenty-Four Doors in December” is a good old fashioned heart-warming story set in roughly modern-day revolving around a down-on-his-luck man looking for a Christmas miracle… does he get it?! Well… I mean it wouldn’t be very heart-warming otherwise, but let’s take a look and act surprised anyway!

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