Doctor Who: What Lies Inside? – Paradox of the Daleks Review

Paradox of the Daleks is kicking off a new period for the Eighth Doctor (I hesitate to say “new era” since it has the same two companions he’s had for years now) free of an over-arching storyline with a linked title and frankly it had me with “Paradox” and “written by John Dorney”, as he is not only a great writer in general but has done great time bending stories in the past. Is Paradox of the Daleks chief among them? Well, no, but it’s still really fun! Let’s take a closer look…

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A Little Blog Update…

Hi all,

Just to give you a proper update, rather than a hastily written one I put out a few minutes ago, I’m back in the blogging mood after nearly three months off. During that time my Dad’s had five out of his six chemo sessions and is looking good despite it, and I’ve been back at full swing at work which is always busy this time of year, so I assume for those reasons I just haven’t felt like blogging, at least not enough to get any reviews out until the start of this week (or early last week, I guess).

I do have a lot of half written reviews of MCU Disney + shows, Doctor Who Big Finish releases and Star Wars High Republic comics that once I finish them off and get pictures done for them I’ll be retroactively posting in batches here and there (which will still appear in your inboxes as new posts even though I’ll be back-scheduling them so the newer, more currently-relevant posts can still stay at the top of the page) so if you see an odd number of reviews on the same topic pop into your inbox at once my apologies but if I post them one a weekday amongst the newer stuff I’ll never catch up and given I’ve already done most of the work I don’t want them to go to waste either, like there are some Big Finish releases I listened to but didn’t start a review on that will now just go by the wayside until however many years it’ll take for me to get back round to them, but the ones I’ve already pretty much done? I want to keep those.

So that’s it. I don’t know how long this burst of energy will last, maybe I’ll take some short breaks here and there, maybe I’ll do another longer break, who knows? I would like 2023 to be a year without something horrible happening to one of my parents, that might help my mental health, if nothing else…

See you around, and thanks for reading. Seeing some new comments and traffic holding steady despite the lack of new content has helped me along, I really appreciate it!

Star Wars: Andor – Season 1 Review

As a big fan of Rogue One I was really excited to see the further adventures of Cassian Andor and was mildly annoyed as large (or at least vocal) parts of the Star Wars fandom who bemoaned the idea of the series. Well, now it’s over I can sit back smugly in my chair as it was fantastic! A more mature view of the Star Wars world, and mature as in well paced and not afraid to tackle more adult themes of politics and the grey area between right and wrong rather than excessive violence or swearing that some (mostly younger) people think adult content is. With several three-episode story arcs to look at, lets not waste any more time!

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Doctor Who: Kaleidoscope Review

Even though I love six or seven part Third Doctor stories I will admit that they tend to drag, especially in the middle, so it’s always nice to get ones that manage to keep the story going at a good pace. Kaleidoscope here has almost the reverse problem: it has so much going on, so many side-plots that it can seem somewhat overwhelming. Still, I was thoroughly entertained! Let’s take a look…

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Thor: Love and Thunder Review

The latest Thor film is an interesting one as I found it more palatable than Ragnarok but a lot of people have been really down on it, citing reasons that I was previously down on Ragnarok for that I feel Love and Thunder addressed. Well, different strokes and all that! So let’s take a closer look at the further adventures of Thor…

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Bleach: Lost Agent Arc (Episodes 343 to 354) Review

The Lost Agent arc is a controversial one as it strips the show back down to its original premise: it’s all set in Karakura Town, there’s lot of Ichigo’s school life on display and the plot comes slow and steady. This upset a lot of people, both when the manga chapters came out and the anime episodes, especially those who loved the series because of the Shinigami cast. I personally find it a fun “break” between two much longer and action-heavy arcs, so I don’t mind. Want to know more? Let’s take a look at the first half!

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Doctor Who: The Power of the Doctor Review

The Power of the Doctor is a weird one, because on the one hand I thoroughly enjoyed myself for the whole 70 minutes but on the other hand I’m pretty sure that was entirely due to all the classic Who callbacks and cameos rather than the actual story of the Thirteenth Doctor’s regeneration, which the lead up to was classic Chris Chibnall in that it touched upon some interesting storylines but refused to end … pretty much any of them. Oh well! At least I enjoyed it!

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Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith Review

A rare Star Wars non-High Republic Canon novel review! Yes filling in a gap is always pleasing as a fan (hell it’s one of many reasons I love Big Finish and their audio Doctor Who productions) so setting a novel in between Episodes 6 and 7 that goes a bit deeper into the backstory of Rey, how and why Luke and Lando tracked Ochi of Bestoon and generally show a bit more of the galaxy at this time made it irresistible to me. Happy to say that although it was perhaps overly long it was a really fun read. Let’s take a closer look!

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Mass Effect 2: Legendary Edition (PS4) Review

Last year I completed the original Mass Effect’s PS4 remaster and really enjoyed the experience, remarking how I skipped on them originally because a friend had played them in front of me a lot back then. Well, Mass Effect 2 he only played the first half or so and then stopped so this not only had the actual fun of finally playing it but I got to see where the story is actually going (or I guess where it goes given the original Trilogy’s storyline has been complete for sometime now…) Happy to report improvements in both gameplay and story made this a very fun experience, so let’s take a look!

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Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi Review

This bonus six-episode animated series sort of came out of nowhere. It was revealed, quietly stepping into the background while everyone else talked about the bigger new TV series and then just… came out. If I’m being honest this is a series of two extremes as its split in two halves, one focusing on Ahsoka and one of Dooku. The Ahsoka half seems damn-near pointless and doesn’t really add anything, where as Dooku was a fantastic look at how the Jedi fell to the Dark Side and why. Want to know more? Read on!

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