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Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Magazines

50 Years of Doctor Who (front cover)

 





50 Years of Doctor Who (back cover)

Perhaps a little pricey at £9.99 but 50 Years of Doctor Who is a beautifully laid out publication packed with informative articles about each actor playing the Doctor in the television series (including Peter Capaldi) along with articles about scripting for each incarnation. The magazine is edited by Marcus Hearn and contributors include Andrew Cartmel, Jonathan Rigby and Chris Bentley. There's also an interview with Mark Gatiss, writer of the excellent An Adventure in Space and Time.





Doctor Who Magazine issue 467 (envelope front cover)

 

 

Doctor Who Magazine issue 467 (front cover)

 

Doctor Who Magazine comes in a neat package for its souvenir issue. Priced at £7.99, its contents are contained in an illustrated sturdy envelope. It almost feels wrong to break the seal, but it has to be done. Inside we have our regular DWM goodness with reviews, letters, comic strip and time team. And then there are the features with quite a bit focusing on the show's early days. There's the first part of an in-depth article about Anthony Coburn, writer of the very first story and a look at that story's early drafts. 

As for the present era, there's a preview of 'The Day of the Doctor' as well as interviews with Matt Smith and David Tennant together and Jenna Coleman. Tons of stuff to read, really. Great stuff!

 

 

 

 

Tucked away inside our envelope is this treat. The first anniversary of 'Doctor Who' was celebrated in this 1964 issue of DWM. Not a spoof. No, sir. And the back cover:

 

 

 

It's all in the cards with this artwork and info with a card for each Doctor also in the DWM envelope.

 

 

 

50 Amazing Years of the Doctor





At £3.99 and not towing the party line is 50 Amazing Years of the Doctor from horror magazine, 'The Dark Side'. This is an unashamedly nostalgic look back at the show and features a great interview with Tom Baker. Also among the goodies here is Marcus Hearn who talks about his new book 'The Vault' and a look at the two films featuring Peter Cushing as Doctor Who.









Diversions DVD

Diversions DVD front cover
 

Train journeys. Boring, eh? Imogene (Heather Deeley) thinks so. She's handcuffed to another woman: prisoner and escort en route to jail. Imogene's fellow passengers are a young man proffering an apple and an older man absorbed in Vampirella magazine. There's only one thing to do to while away the hours: fantasize! All aboard the Sex Express!






 

 

Now, I know what you're thinking, but I can tell you that no sex takes place on the train. This, after all, is British Rail in the 1970s. There's plenty going on inside Imogene's head, though; and some of it is pretty eye watering.



 

Diversions is the hardcore version of British filmmaker Derek Ford's Sex Express under which title it was released in the U.K. to little acclaim. However, the hardcore sequences added for the overseas markets take the film up a level. It was not unusual for British sex films of this era to have spicier content added to them for foreign consumption, but these would often be outsourced. Derek Ford was rare in that he directed the whole shebang.

 



Diversions DVD menu

Alpha Blue's DVD release features a heavily scarred print full of pock marks and green lines along with some heavily distorted sound in places. The film itself still packs a punch with some of its controversial content.

Lead actress Heather Deeley seems to be something of an elusive lady these days with reports of a descent into drug use widely reported but beyond that, little is known. Her performance in Diversions is remarkable and hints at what might have been.

See Gav Crimson's blog for more on Diversions and Heather Deeley.

Diversions DVD back cover

 



 

Some Photos

Just some photos I took with my new camera today.

 

 

 

The Hot Nights of Linda (Blu-Ray/DVD Combo)

The Hot Nights of Linda (Blu-Ray+DVD Combo)

Utterly, utterly, utterly irresistible! Just look at that cover art. That's what I've been doing since this fabulous item arrived today. The first 2500 pressings (of which mine is one - wahoo!) include a bonus DVD featuring the "rare alternate banana version".

Doctor Who: The Light at the End (Limited Collector's Edition - CD)

The 50th anniversary of Doctor Who brings a treat from Big Finish with a multi-Doctor adventure available in three editions: a limited collector's edition CD (which is the one I have); the standard CD edition; and a vinyl edition. The CD editions are also available to download.

So, what do we have in this delicious collector's CD edition? Well, there are a total of five discs featuring the adventure itself on discs one and two. Disc three has a 'making of' documentary; disc four brings us another documentary: Doctor Who at Big Finish; disc five is an entry in the Companion Chronicles series called 'The Revenants' which features William Russell.

This limited collector's edition CD set is presented in a book-size hard shell slip case. This is individually numbered with total copies pressed being 10,000.

Inside the shell is a hardcover book which houses the discs and some excellent photographs and artwork featuring various Doctors, companions and others. A taste of these follows:

The Three Doctors

Grand Companions

Doctors United

Recent DVD Pick Ups: Slaughter Disc and Not Now, Comrade

 

An anti-porn porn film? kind of, I suppose. Slaughter Disc is actually pretty good given its lack of budget. It's essentially a horror film with hardcore sequences. Or is it a hardcore film with horror sequences? Well, it works either way as far as I'm concerned.

The lovely Caroline Pierce stars as murderous porn queen, Andromeda Strange, whose debauchery knows no bounds. Her latest fan is Mike, a porn addict who's on the lookout for new kicks. But it's not long before he discovers that porn kills as the gorgeously gothic Andromeda's craving for blood becomes ever more urgent.

The DVD boasts a nice selection of extras including a making of sequence and a couple of photo galleries. On the downside, the menu options are horribly placed so that they effectively run over the side of the screen which makes navigating a bit of a nuisance.




A Russian ballet dancer decides to defect to the West with the help of his striptease-performing girlfriend played by the wonderful Carol Hawkins. Her accomplices are played by Michele Dotrice and Ian Lavender whose frantic attempts to stay one step ahead of the authorities give rise to misleadings and misunderstandings aplenty.

This is a Ray Cooney farce. Much of the action takes place in the living room of one Commander Rimmington (Leslie Phillips). It's a nice living room - big with lots of space for slapstick and swinging doors. 'Not Now, Comrade' isn't quite as much fun as Cooney's 1973 farce 'Not Now, Darling', but it is still a more than pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. The cast also includes Ray Cooney himself along with Roy Kinnear, Windsor Davies and June Whitfield. There's also a cameo appearance from Don Estelle. However, the star of the show is Carol Hawkins.





Oh, Carol!

 

 

Recent DVD Pick Ups - 84 Charing Cross Road and, erm, Fantom Kiler 2

Don't know why it's taken me so long to pick up a copy of this film on DVD because I love it. I first saw it at the cinema on its release and subsequently owned a copy of the VHS and, of course, the book.

Lovely central performances from Anthony Hopkins as London bookseller Frank Doel, and Anne Bancroft as writer and bookworm Helene Hanff who cannot find the books she craves in New York. Given that the two leads do not appear on screen together and communicate only by letter there must have been a risk that this would look too much like a stage play. However, the excellent supporting cast along with the vibrant New York and staid London settings open the film out nicely.

And from the sublime to the ridiculous! I happened upon a second hand copy of Fantom Kiler 2 and obviously, I had to get it (I've already got entries 1 and 3 in the series). It's gloriously awful stuff with a crazed killer (or should I say 'kiler') on the loose who manages to find his way about even though his face is covered by what looks like a thick woollen sock. There's a detective on the case, though. Unfortunately, he's an arrogant moron who makes Inspector Clouseau look like Sherlock Holmes.

Stand by for inept English subtitles (that's when you can actually read them against the light backgrounds on the film), fake blood and naked loveliness. It's not quite as good as the first Fantom Kiler film - but what is, eh? What is?

And speaking of the first Fantom Kiler, here's a clip from that particular classic.

My Hammer Horror Top Ten

When I saw Alan Toner's blog post listing his top ten Hammer Horror films, it got me thinking about my own favourites and I decided to list my own top ten. So. . .

1. The Vampire Lovers (1970)









2. Vampire Circus (1972)

3. Twins of Evil (1971) 

4. Hands of the Ripper (1971)

5. Quatermass and the Pit (1967)