Tag Archives: Nicholas Briggs

Doctor Who: World Enough And Time. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas, Michelle Gomez, John Simm, Oliver Lansley, Paul Brightwell, Alison Lintott, Nicholas Briggs.

To the coy Mistress, all will come to pass when she meets her former self, till then “Had we but world enough, and time” then perhaps the puzzle and the death of a friend might be more easily dealt with but then nothing is that simple in the world of the two part finale and especially not in the realm of Time and the Doctor.

Doctor Who: World Enough And Time. Television Review. full post

(621 words, estimated 2:29 mins reading time)

Doctor Who, The Pilot. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas, Nicholas Briggs, Jennifer Hennessy, Stephanie Hyam.

What are the greatest of gifts you can give anybody, it isn’t anything you can wrap, you can’t spend it, you cannot offer it as a prize, for then the truly worthy don’t receive it and the undeserving don’t value it. Time, compassion, patience and the ability to listen without expecting to have to answer back, these are the greatest gifts and as a species we have become very bad at offering these moments to people without expecting some kind of reward.

Doctor Who, The Pilot. Television Review. full post

(576 words, estimated 2:18 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Hell Bent. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Donald Sumpter, Ken Bones, Clare Higgins, Maisie Williams, T’Nia Miller, Malachi Kirby, Linda Broughton, Martin T. Sherman, Jami Reid-Quarrell, Nicholas Briggs, Ross Mullan.

Living for a few thousand years would be enough for anybody of sound mind and disposition to start feeling the pressure of existence. When that person has been held captive, held hostage in a diabolical prison by the very people he saved, for over four billion years, it’s really not a surprise that the mind might fracture, that the one thing that kept the mind truly occupied during that time was the death of a much trusted and loved companion; it really is only to be certain that the mind is Hell Bent on revenge.

Doctor Who: Hell Bent. Television Review. full post

(429 words, estimated 1:43 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Zygon Inversion. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Ingrid Oliver, Jemma Redgrave, Nicholas Asbury, Aiden Cook, Tom Wilton, Jack Parker, Nicholas Briggs.

If you want to defeat an enemy then talk their language, if you wish to save the world from destruction, then learn the art of co-existence, learn to have true and meaningful discourse.

For the world in which The Doctor inhabits is not one to be given up lightly. It is not a world of continued aggression, it is one where things can be achieved if people are willing to talk, willing to sacrifice something more than their humanity, something more powerful than the ability to change; it is not an invasion but a peace that can be sought and won.

Doctor Who: The Zygon Inversion. Television Review. full post

(427 words, estimated 1:42 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: We Are The Daleks. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

Cast: Sylvester McCoy, Bonnie Langford, Nicholas Briggs, Kirsty Bestermamn, Angus Wright, Mary Conlon, Robbie Stevens, Ashley Zhangazha, Lizzie Roper, Dominic Thornburn.

Every human on Earth has the capacity to become something they detest, something that lingers in the dark realms and festers, seething with hatred, jealousy, rage and revulsion, a creature to whom the simple pleasures enjoyed by others become something of ridicule because they are not like us. This trait is something we overpower every day, something we must steer away from lest the terrifying notion of Fascism looks up and sees an opening in the crack and crawls like a demented pregnant Black Widow Spider, one filled with insanity and corrupted thought into the lives of everyone it touches. It is the Dalek that lingers in us all and appears without hesitation if pushed.

Doctor Who: We Are The Daleks. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(472 words, estimated 1:53 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Witch’s Familiar, Television Review. B.B.C.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Julian Bleach, Jami Reid-Quarrell, Joey Price, Nicholas Briggs, Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg.

Two-part stories within the world of Doctor Who have a habit of being lost in the storm, the build up can be a let-down or the finale such a disappointment that the whole structure of the tale becomes a series of woes and misbegotten anecdotes struggling to breathe in the weight of expectation.

Doctor Who: The Witch’s Familiar, Television Review. B.B.C. full post

(607 words, estimated 2:26 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Magician’s Apprentice. Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Peter Capaldi, Jenna Coleman, Michelle Gomez, Julian Bleach, Jami Reid-Quarrell, Jemma Redgrave, Jaye Griffiths, Harki Bhambra, Daniel Hoffman-Gill, Joey Price, Benjamin Cawley, Aaron Neil, Clare Higgins, Nicholas Briggs, Kelly Hunter, India Ria Amarteifio, Dasharn Anderson, Stefan Adegbola, Shin-Fei Chen, Lucy Newman-Williams, Demi Papaminas, Barnaby Edwards, Nicholas Pegg, Jonathan Ojinnaka.

Doctor Who: The Magician’s Apprentice. Television Review. full post

(492 words, estimated 1:58 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: The Fate of Krelos/Return To Telos. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Tom Baker, Louise Jameson, John Leeson, Frazer Hines, Michael Cochrane, Veronica Roberts, Bernard Holley, Nicholas Briggs.

The name Telos is enough to have long term fans of Doctor Who reaching for the nearest bottle of glee and asking their friends and neighbours to pour it all over them without hesitation or complaint. Telos, the stuff of legends, it’s up there with Mondas and St. Paul’s Cathedral in terms of iconic homes for the Cybermen.

Revisiting Telos though is problematic for The Doctor, for a start getting in the way of a previous incarnation is always going to stir up agitation.

Doctor Who: The Fate of Krelos/Return To Telos. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(506 words, estimated 2:01 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Last Of The Cybermen. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Colin Baker, Frazer Hines, Wendy Padbury, Lucy Liemann, Kieran Hodgson, Nicholas Farrell, Nicholas Briggs.

The Cybermen are never more dangerous than when completely and utterly defeated. Time and Time again from the edge of extinction, from the void between realities and the darkness of space they have survived, regrouped and in some cases have even nearly rivalled the Daleks for their natural predisposition to conquer and enslave; for they are a monster that never quite knows when to finally give up.

Doctor Who: Last Of The Cybermen. Audio Drama Review. Big Finish. full post

(570 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Paul McGann, Nicola Walker, Barnaby Kay, Beth Chalmers, Charlie Norfolk, Derek Hutchinson, Dan Starkey, Camilla Power, John Dorney, Rachael Stirling, Alex Wyndham, Blake Ritson, Nicholas Briggs, Alex MacQueen, Sorcha Cusack, Susannah Harker, David Sibley.

Arguably one of the most involved, most deliberately, and it has to be said wonderfully elaborately written endeavours undertaken by Big Finish finally comes to an end as the saga of Dark Eyes sees the Eighth incarnation battle not only the Eminence, The Master and the Daleks but also Time itself. It is a battle that sees the foreshadowing of what is to come, of the ache that will grip the Doctor as the Time War sets out to destroy all and in which the very soul of the Time Lord is challenged.

Doctor Who: Dark Eyes 4. Audio Drama Review, Big Finish. full post

(464 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)