Doctor Who: The Remains of Kaerula / The Ruins of Kaerula Review

The next load of Fourth Doctor audio dramas have arrived, and sadly this double-bill fits into that all too frequent category of “dull and forgettable”. I guess because they have to make so many often one hours stories for Mr. Baker is why so many of his “Fourth Doctor Adventures” fall flat, but that’s not really an excuse when plenty have been good, and a few great. Oh well, let’s get my thoughts down before I literally forget everything about it…

Continue reading

My Hero Academia: Vigilantes – Season 1 Review

While everyone is gearing up for the big final season of My Hero Academia in the autumn Toei decided to drop a new series in the meantime with Vigilantes, which was a spin-off prequel manga than ran alongside the main manga for a lot of its run so it’s not something they pulled out of nowhere, more odd that they chose now to start adapting it right before the main show ends. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, the humour was spot on as were some of the comic book caricatures / parodies, but a lot of its run time was very “of the week” which did affect the pace somewhat. Let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading

Doctor Who: Fallen Heroes Review

The War Doctor returns to our scre… audio-playing-devices with “Fallen Heroes”, a story I was really looking forward to not just because I really like the War Doctor range but because it was said  to be inspired by the likes of the X-Files and definitely Alan Wake, which is a unique idea for Doctor Who but especially the War Doctor, who tends to be all Daleks and blasters. Did it live up to my expectations? Well…

Continue reading

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (PS4) Review

Resuming the on-and-off Kingdom Hearts first ever playthrough… thing, we reach Birth by Sleep, a game originally on the PSP but in terms of this review it also got a few “HD” console ports, which is handy. Set ten years before Kingdom Hearts I, the game features three protagonists each with their own story mode that intersect with each other, which was fun (reminded me of the Resident Evil 2 A/B scenarios) and the combat was great as well. Let’s see how it fairs overall though…

Continue reading

Doctor Who: The Key to Many Worlds & Inconstancy Review

The final two stories in the “Cosmos and Mrs. Clarke” release couldn’t be more different. “The Key to Many Worlds” sees both the return of Marco Polo and Iris Wildthyme and has a strong line of comedy running through it (as you’d imagine!) while “Inconstancy” is a rather dull affair featuring clones and lots of past-tense narration. Ah well, how well and poorly do these things effect their stories? Read on and find out!

Continue reading

Doctor Who: The Story Demon Review

Kicking off the latest Sixth Doctor audio boxset is “The Story Demon”, which promises a Dalek telling kids stories, which is a weird concept but also a fun idea. A lot of the rest of the story feels appropriately straight for a popular children’s book, with a few more grizzly exceptions, overall leading to a pleasant hour’s listen. Let’s take a look…

Continue reading

Star Wars: The High Republic – The Edge of Balance: Premonition Review

“Star Wars: The High Republic – The Edge of Balance: Premonition” (blimey, enough subtitles for you?!) is a sort of spin-off manga volume in the High Republic series rather than a Volume 3 (or 4 if you include the Phase II “Precedent” one), as it focuses solely on Yoda rather than the Edge of Balance cast (who will return in volumes 3 and 4 to finish the Manga series off). It’s good though, we get to see him take a bit more direct action and come into contact with the Nameless, as throughout most of the era he’s been a voice to council with and that’s about it (which makes sense and is fine by me as I’ve loved the original characters from this era!) So let’s take a look!

Continue reading

Doctor Who: Hooklight Review

Hooklight is a twelve (!) part story that was released across two six-episode boxsets, but unlike the ill-fated “Last Day” double-whammy from last year this is actually coherent and enjoyable! While not perfect, particularly in the second half, Hooklight succeeds at a grander form of storytelling (even if it borrows heavily from the narrative structure of Lord of the Rings) and introduces genuinely interesting characters that have a chance to develop and breathe thanks to the extended runtime. Let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading

Doctor Who: Vampire Weekend Review

I know I’ve skipped ahead of a few Big Finish releases here but, given its significance I wanted to get this review up a little quicker as yes: here we are, another Doctor has joined the world of Audio Drama and it’s the Thirteenth Doctor herself! “Vampire Weekend” doesn’t break any mould but what it does do is give us a fun story re-establishing The Doctor and Yaz’s personalities / relationship before, hopefully, doing some more interesting things with the characters going forward. I don’t know about a “full on Sixth Doctor rehabilitation” as some are hoping, but it’s safe to say that this era free from Chris Chibnall can only be a good thing. Let’s take a look!

Continue reading