Feed aggregator

The TV Movie looks better than ever in a new 4K remastering

It’s time to party like it’s 1999 because the Doctor Who TV Movie is back, and it’s looking better than ever. It’s undoubtedly one of the most re-released stories in the history of the series. Yet, this new version certainly justifies any double, triple, or even quadruple, dipping it asks of fans. Produced as a co-production with Universal Studios the movie was always a sumptuous affair by Doctor Who standards. It was shot entirely on 35mm film, with none of the sudden switches to video tape any time characters moved indoors that typified the BBC made episodes. Now, however, that original 35mm footage has been rediscovered in a Universal storage facility. Thanks to that, the painstakingly remastered Blu-ray edition looks incredible, even in 4K.

In a way it simply emphasises how stylish it’s always been. For years, there was a lingering reverse snobbery about it among some corners of fandom. A belief, perhaps, that Doctor Who actually should be wobbly sets, dodgy rubber monsters, and fuzzy videotape. However, more than twenty years since the show’s revival, the sort of fun transitions and smooth blocking that punctuate Geoffrey Sax’s direction seem much more familiar. That said, these 90 minutes are still more packed with gorgeous lighting and beautiful direction than your everyday Who. Cameras rotate as they travel down empty hospital corridors, the torture device intended for the Doctor is first glimpsed in a mirror, and the Doctor’s rebirth swaps back and forth with footage from Universal’s own Frankenstein.

There’s only disadvantage this new upgrade, in fact. The lace front of Paul McGann’s wig is rather more obvious to eagle eyed viewers than before.

 

The new set reuses pre-existing commentaries and info text, however 2010’s The Seven Year Hitch is as compelling as ever

Having been around the block a few times now, the Doctor Who TV Movie already comes with a healthy package of existing extras. Inevitably, these are a bit of mixed bag. 2010’s The Seven Year Hitch continues to be one of the most compelling Making Of documentaries in the Whoniverse. It’s a frank recollection of the difficulties involved in the dramatic, and sometimes frustrating, battle to get the beloved Time Lord back on our screens. On one side of the Atlantic, Philip Segal battles against the BBC’s disinterest in the show. It’s a lack of faith which sometimes tips over into outright hostility towards the project. On the other, he struggles to infect luminaries like Steven Spielberg with his love of the show.

There are also two commentaries, one by Sax, and the other by erstwhile Doctors McGann and Sylvester McCoy, both hail from the early days of DVD commentaries. It was a time when contributors weren’t entirely comfortable with the format yet. As a result, they’re both rather tentative in their own way. The two Doctors provide a rather low key round of anecdotes. Meanwhile, Sax’s is very dry, with some rather redundant observations like noting every time the Master-snake appears that it was CGI.

Most disappointing perhaps, is the decision not to update the original Info Text, leading to oddities like it claiming Paul McGann never played the Doctor on screen again.

 

The set also has new interviews with almost all the major players with one notable exception

Sax is much more enthusiastic form 25 years later when In Conversation with Matthew Sweet. It’s one of the highlights of the set, revealing the director as a deeply imaginative creator responsible for many of the best things about the TV Movie. He’s also almost pathologically humble, to the point that even Sweet scoffs. McCoy is similarly revitalised compared to his commentary performance, this time in an interview with Doctor Who’s own Janet Fielding. Unexpectedly though, the main takeaway is a new appreciation for the genius and generosity of their mutual friend and collaborator Ken Campbell.

Paul McGann has always drawn special praise for how quickly he nails his version of the Doctor. But rare behind the scenes footage here will deepen your appreciation of just how fragile and magical that is. During his audition a single two word note (“More excited,”) suddenly brings the Eighth Doctor we’ve known and loved for a quarter century since to instant life. It’s a testament to McGann’s skill that he infers so much about the character’s entire personality from that simple note.

In between all this, there are gems like the TARDIS model footage from the opening credits, and an isolated soundtrack. The latter in particular is really elevated by not being in competition with the bombastic dialogue and sound effects.

It’s just a shame there isn’t more of Paul McGann himself here. But then again, any plans for a new McGann commentary and In Conversation can be held as selling points to justify quintuple dipping for the inevitable Collection Wilderness Years set…

 

Doctor Who: The TV Movie on Blu-ray and 4K. Cover by Lee Binding (c) BBC Studios Doctor Who: The TV Movie

The Doctor is returning home to Gallifrey with the remains of his arch-nemesis, the Master. Forced off course, the TARDIS arrives in San Francisco on New Year’s Eve 1999, where the Doctor is critically wounded in a gangland gun battle. At the local hospital, Dr Grace Holloway fights – and fails – to save his life.

Later, in the morgue, the Doctor wakes up a new man. But he is not the only one – the Master has also found himself a new body. As the clock counts down to the start of the new millennium, can the Doctor stop his oldest enemy destroying all life on Earth?

The post REVIEW: Doctor Who: The TV Movie Blu-ray appeared first on Blogtor Who.

The second volume of the Fifteenth Doctor’s Doctor Who Magazine comic strip adventures is coming soon

The Fifteenth Doctor’s adventures continue in the pages of Doctor Who Magazine! Join him as he hurtles through time and space in this action-packed collection of comic-strip adventures! From a deadly game of ‘It’ on the planet Grey Grieving to battling a skeletal Ossurian at the Museum of Natural History, the Doctor faces thrills, chills and unexpected dangers at every turn! Impish enemies, disco delinquents and spine-chilling spooks are bad enough. But there’s even worse on the horizon for the Doctor when he clashes with the Daleks in 1920s Paris. Drawn into a cabaret of shadows and secrets, he finds familiar faces and dabblers in the occult – and discovers his oldest, most deadly foes may have struck a deal with the devil!

This second volume of comic strip adventures for Ncuti Gatwa’s incarnation of the Time Lord reprints the strips from DWM issues 613 to 631. It includes the stories:

• Run
• Dance Till You Drop
• No Signs of Life
• His Mad Pranks
• Field Trip
• A Ghost Story for Christmas
• Corruption of the Daleks

Scripts are by Alan Barnes. Jason Quinn, John Freeman, and Mike Collins. Meanwhile, art is from Martin Geraghty, James Offredi, Mike Collins, and John Ross. Across these seven stories, the Doctor travels variously with Belinda Chandra, Mel Bush, his classic DWM companion Fey Truscott-Sade, and by himself. And not only do they provide an unexpected prequel/sequel to Alan Moore and David Lloyd’s classic Black Legacy, but an opportunity for this incarnation to finally face the Daleks!

 

Doctor Who: Corruption of the Daleks (c) Panini Doctor Who: Corruption of the Daleks

Doctor Who: Corruption of the Daleks is available to pre-order now from Amazon with a release date of the the 4th of November. There’s still no official confirmation, but there will likely also be an alternate cover exclusive to the Panini store once the listing goes online there.

The post Doctor Who: Corruption of the Daleks appeared first on Blogtor Who.

By Greg Daley
Tarichan Games
B/X
Level 3

In the delta city of Portic, the heralds walk the bridges and call for the brave to save the settlement from the pernicious Thieve’s Guild. Papyri offering rewards in the thousands of gold pieces are handed out to the armed, the weaselly, and the wise. Advertising had its effect and dozens of applicants turned up at the Lighthouse. Even after describing the undead infested island, and the underground trap maze expected to confront them, four groups of adventurers drew lots to select which night they enter. The party is assembled, with retainers in tow, as the sun sinks west on the third day. No one has yet emerged from the Odd’s Sink (the Island of the Death). Straps are tightened, supplies checked, and holy symbols kissed as the guards move the barricade on the pontoon bridge.

This 26 page adventure uses about sixteen pages to present forty rooms in two tomb/undead themed dungeons. It is … obscure? In a good way. Full of tomb encounters that are familiar and yet not boring old vanilla tomb encounters. This feels like a lived-in world. That needs an editor in charge of formatting and layout.

You’ve read the marketing blurb, above, and it sounds a little early days to me. Like, 1972 early days. But, let’s back up a minutes and cover what has lead to that marketing blurb, above. We’ve got an old city. The nobility want to revolt cause they don’t like the current .gov. Revolts cost money. They get a loan from the local Guild Bank. This is a legitimate front for the thieves guild, which the current .gov kind of telerates. Revolution successful, there’s a new .gov in charge. Oh, the nobles have a VERY large sum to pay back to the Guild bank. And don’t want to. And the new .gov HATES thieves. Thus starts a pogrom against the thieves and the guild bank, which has an air of neighborhood watch death squads to it, an/or citizen checkpoints/militias. The last of the guild has been tracked to the Isle of the Dead, a funerary isle for the city. Chill during the day for burials, at night the undead walk about and giant beam of blue light shoots up into the sky. And the last of the guild was seen descending in to a tomb tha the light shoots up from. NOW you can go to the lighthouse and apply to root out the last of the guild … and you’re third in line to do so after drawing lots. Needless to say, your turns pops.

There are two dungeons to explore, each with about twenty or so rooms with a “tomb” or catacombs theme to both of them. Supplementing this is a small handful of other encounters nearby. A ship anchored offshore that could be aligned with the guild. Another, with a letter of marque, bringing in smugglers and pirates. Not exactly an adventure locale but more support for play AFTER the tombs are entered and the party returns out again, either successful or taking a break before they reenter. IE: things to support downtime, and such. This is further supplemented by eight or so “events.” Each takes up about a quarter of a page and details some things that could happen to complicate things. If the party returns out of the dungeon then maybe they get approached by someone and a conversation is had and an alternative entrance is offered, or bribes, or so on. 

I’m hoping, from all of that, you take away of a kind of context tha the designer has provided for the adventure. A context that all directly relates to things going in the adventure that a DM can use to add interesting things going on in the real world, to riff on and further enhance play. Specifics. It gives the world a kind of lived-in feel. The dungeon encounters, also, have a kind of lived-in feel to them, but its done in a different way. One room is kind of partially flooded. Below the water, is a grate that shifts if any step on it. (That, alone, is pretty nifty room feature. The use of a shifting grate implies things that a static grate does not.) “The Red Tree brigade, who entered the vaults first, are still here. They move through the water, their mail and robes torn, the wizened and twisted shapes no longer alive. They thrash through the water toward the warm meat of the party. – Red Tree Brigade Ghoul (3) “ The flooded room. The grate in the floor. The SHIFTING grate, and then the former party. It’s layered, and feels real to me. And the adventure does this over and over again. I think tomb dungeons can usually feel boring. But this has more of an undercity vibe, with tombs, vibe thing going on. Not completely, but there’s enough that it does bring a freshness to it. Ye Olde Slamming Locke Door is present as a trap room in this, but the room fills with smoke, a real life hazard that is quite seldom used. And this in spite of the twenty-ish room size of each of the dungeons. 

And this thing is a PAIN. I mentioned “obscure”, yes?

It’s like, all over the place. Sometimes we get a “you” in the descriptions. “A set of creatures clunks toward you, heavily decayed, skull domes showing. …” Sometimes there’s a random monster stats in a room that IN NO WAY mentions a creature. The rooms are inconsistently written, not clear in many places, or similar features described different ways, in the same room, making you wonder if you’re missing something. The text is … obdurate. Lengthy, maybe with a touch of self-indulgence, but not falling in to any clearly recognizable sin, like backstory, trap and door porn, or explaining why. Maybe a little of the if/then style. It’s just hard to dig through it all. Hard, but not unrewarding.

I am waffling, back and forth, on the Tarichan adventures. Best. No Regerts. I’m going to Best this one, I think. But, also, you know what I really wish? That Daley keep writing. Keep working on his products. And every day go back and edit the manuscript to this adventure for ten minutes or so. Every day. Not with the intent to publish it again but just to rework it and try to clean it up. Call it a daley trip to the adventure formatting and writing gym. Just to kind of get in the practice of seeing what’s possible, without any pressure to produce.

Anyway, good little necropolis adventure. and, frankly, I think Daley is about at the point in which he’s on an auto-buy list.

This is $3.50 at DriveThru. The preview is fourteen pages, more than enough to get a sense of the piece. 

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/570696/wmc-vaults-of-urpiram?1892600

 Here is a comprehensive d20 table of complications, hazards, and unexpected operational twists to throw at your players once they breach the airlock or cross the threshold of a space wreck.d20 Space Wreck Complications & Environmental Hazardsd20Hazard CategoryDescription & Mechanical Impact1Structural DecompressionThe hull integrity is hanging by a thread. Any explosive weapon fire,Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – TV Insider, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

Events have conspired to put in a wuxia mood what with the Wandering Blades draft, the impending release of the new Last Airbender movie, and the recent Criterion sale on Amazon where I picked up a couple of wuxia titles among other things. Then there's Wesley Chu's wuxia-inspired fantasy novel, The Art of Prophecy. I've been listening to the audiobook.

Chu's book is interesting because it mixes the epic fantasy elements with the wuxia ones. The people of Zhuun have been training a prophesized champion to defeat the Eternal Khan and free them from the menace of the Katuia tribes and their steam-powered roving cities of the grasslands. The first problem is the champion, a fifteen year-old boy named Jian, hasn't really received the proper training. Instead, he's just grown up spoiled by luxury and self-importance. The elder "master war artist" Ling Taishi shows up to set things right, but she's just starting to make headway with the boy when the second problem drops: the Eternal Khan is killed while drunk by a random Zhuun soldier. 

With the prophecy busted, Jian is a political liability for the five Dukes of Zhuun and the delicate balance of power between them. Tiashi rescues the boy, and they both go on the run.

When while, the Katuia are thrown into chaos and the warrior Sali, decides to break tradition and delay her duty in order to try to find the only surviving member of her family. There's also the mad assassin Qisami thrown into the mix.

I like how Chu uses familiar wuxia elements but remakes them for a fantasy world. Instead of the wulin we have the lunar court as the society of martial artists, presumably related to the world's three moons and their seasonal cycles. Instead of "lightness kung fu" Tiashi's abilities are described as manipulating air with her spiritual energy. There are also the completely un-wuxia elements of the Steampunkish Katuia cities and their home grassland which is formed by gigantic blades of crash and a brittle crust of earth over a sea.

There are 2 more books in the series after this one, and I am interested in seeing where it goes. 

 Rodan, known as the "Fire Demon" in the Monsterverse, is a Titan-class aerial predator. In The Cepheus Engine, he is not just a monster; he is a force of nature. Because his scale dwarfs standard characters, he is best treated as a "Vehicle/Titan" archetype.This blog entry picks up from Godzilla from the Monsterverse Movies for Cepheus Engine Rpg Including Radiation Sickness Rules, andNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – Doctor Who: Amy and Rory Highlights, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

 To capture the essence of a trader who bargains with multi-dimensional horrors, extra-planar syndicates, and corporate technocrats across the Skull Tower World Gates, we use the ACKS II Class Construction Rules. This blog entry picks right up from Integrating Adventurer Conqueror King System II (ACKS II) with the legendary, chaotic, and maximum-gonzo DNA of Dave Hargrave's Arduin Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

MooglyCAL2026 Block 14 is a lovely, floral, center square by Golden Lucy Crafts! Olena Jones has designed the pretty Cotton Candy Square, and it's perfect for every skill level. Get all the details for this free crochet along, and the free pattern link below! Disclaimer: This post includes affiliate links; materials provided by Local Crafts. […]

The post MooglyCAL2026 Block 14 appeared first on moogly. Please visit www.mooglyblog.com for this post.

0

Omaha’s Homegrown Comic Con Expands with Legendary Comic Creators, Animation Talent, and Fan-Favorite Voice Actors Omaha, NE – (July 8, 2026) – Following a successful inaugural event, Comic Con Nebraska…

NEW COMICS 4 THIS WEEK (07/08/26) *All comics will be rated on a scale from 1 to 10* Absolute Batman # 22 (9.5/10) Absolute Catwoman # 2 (8/10) Amazing Spider-Man…

The independent comics community is mourning the loss of artist, writer, and publisher Jim Ritchey III, whose passion for storytelling and love of Golden Age heroes made him a respected…

 Here is a stat block and breakdown for Godzilla, adapted for the Cepheus Engine (and classic 2D6 sci-fi roleplaying systems).Because the Monsterverse Godzilla is an apocalyptic, 100,000-ton titan, his physical stats go far beyond the standard human scale. He is treated as a unique, planet-shaping threat.Godzilla, Titanus GojiraNeedleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

The post Video of the Day – The Whoniverse Show, 2026 appeared first on Blogtor Who.

In a distant galaxy, OMNI, a robotic super weapon, faces a malevolent Necromancer. It’s Transformers meets Battlestar Galactica. Ringo and Tripwire Award-nominated writer and artist Niall O’Rourke, creator of the…

Title: Samson # 1 Publisher: Biting Comics Words/Story: Ben Lacy Pencil/Inks: Jhonesbas Craneo Colors: Anton Polknovskyi Lettering: Nikki Powers Cover: Toby Gotesman Schneider Variant Covers: David Baf Gallart, Nico Toran…

 Clement Sector (published by Independence Games) is a hard science-fiction, sandbox campaign setting built on the 2d6 Cepheus Engine (and heavily rooted in Classic Traveller / 2300 AD traditions).The core premise of the setting makes it an absolute goldmine for Space Western themes: isolation, decentralization, a lack of overarching Needleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11243274667834930867noreply@blogger.com0

DC BOOTH HOSTS 1950s-INSPIRED DAILY PLANET NEWSSTAND WITH MAD MAGAZINE #1 FACSIMILE, SUPERMAN EXPERIENCE #1, AND MORE JIM LEE TO HOST FAN-FAVORITE “JIM LEE AND FRIENDS” PANEL WITH SURPRISE GUESTS ON THURSDAY…