FANS WHO: Dr Who Meets the Scorpion

Mandy Rose and Phillip Roy in Dr Who Meets the Scorpion

Dr Who Meets the Scorpion - what a fun title. The sort of title that’s both lurid and mysterious. A new fanfilm from PREP-B Productions, this is a full ninety-minute movie now streaming on YouTube. It’s a love letter to classic Doctor Who - sixties, seventies and eighties. The title is styled like that of the first Dalek movie, Dr Who and the Daleks, with various nods to that film and its sequel, with many of the sound effects taken from it. The theme tune used for the striking title sequence is the beloved seventies version of the classic Grainer-Derbyshire theme, while the visuals mostly call back to the mid-70s to early 80s, with the Doctor himself looking like he stepped out of The Sweeney or Gangsters. 

The Doctor is played by Phillip Roy, who also writes, produces, co-directs, and co-edits. A bit of a vanity project, then, creating the entire film and casting himself in the title role? To be honest, with the opportunity to create my own version of Doctor Who, I’d do the same. Fortunately, Roy makes a decent Doctor. There’s something of David Collings to him, a softly-spoken charisma that makes him very engaging. He comes across as quite a sentimental incarnation, very reassuring, while occasionally ruthless, with a sharp sense of humour. I like him.

The film begins at the tail end of an adventure, with the Doctor finishing another plot by the Daleks (in glorious technicolor Cushing-style). The Daleks’ varied accents pulled me out of it a little, but it’s a solidly produced scene that gives a good flavour of the kind of Doctor we’re going to be watching. Then it’s back to Earth for a holiday… or rather, another adventure and a brush with death. Naturally.

While he’s travelling alone to begin with, it isn’t long before the Doctor finds himself thrown together with a new companion. Jennie, played by the beautiful Mandy Rose, is a resourceful and courageous young woman on a mission of her own, which brings her, the Doctor, and his kipper tie face-to-face with the story’s initial villain. However, this time the Doctor is facing that most callous of enemies - corporate business - and there’s a ladder of villains, each answering to someone higher up the chain. The immediate threat, the smug, yet almost likeable Mr Taylor (Brian Smith) answers to the more alien, and more arch head of the company, the Scorpion himself (Lucas Edwards, under some decent make-up effects). As for who the Scorpion answers to… that’s a mystery left open.

The story jumps from setting to setting as the Doctor and Jennie trace the villains’ base of operations, visiting alien worlds that look like they’ve stepped straight into 70s Doctor Who (and I do mean that as a compliment). There’s a flashback to an old-fashioned night club cabaret night which has some interesting moments but slows things down a bit too much, but on the whole, this is a pacy, entertaining adventure.

The only thing that lets it down, for me, is the reliance on callbacks in the script. Naturally, this is a film by fans, for fans, and we all love some little kisses to the past. Some of them work very well, particularly when they actually influence the plot (including a very unexpected voice role for a star of 80s Doctor Who), but a lot of them are simply throwaway lines, and after a while they wear a bit thin. It’s a shame, because when the dialogue is original, it works well, being frequently touching, other times very funny.

Still, Dr Who Meets the Scorpion is one of the best fanfilms I’ve seen; certainly one of the most professional. I hope when the sequel arrives, Roy is confident enough to let his Doctor stand on his own, and rely less on well-remembered lines from his predecessors (how far ahead he is isn’t clear, but he’s clearly a future incarnation from beyond the Ncuti Gatwa series). I can definitely recommend this as an entertaining diversion for fans of classic, twentieth century Doctor Who.

You can watch Dr Who Meets the Scorpion here. 

To help fund the proposed sequel, Dr Who and the Doomsday Weapon, please visit here.

REVIEW: REAL! A Ghostbusters Tale

It's under a week until the international release of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the long-awaited return to the original Ghostbusters universe that began with that first film in 1984. If you can't wait to see some new Ghostbusters action, though, who you gonna call? 

You're going to head over to YouTube, where REAL! A Ghostbusters Tale received its online release on, of course, Hallowe'en, some clever timing that the official Ghostbusters marketers seem to have missed. REAL! is a Ghostbusters fanfilm, and it's far from the first, however it is easily one of the best made fan productions I've seen, in any fandom. REAL! is an Italian production, but don't worry, English subs are available if you're a cultural ignoramus like me. Eduardo Stoppacciaro is listed as creator and producer, stars in the film and also directs alongside Christian Calabretta, who wrote the script with Valerio Albasini di Giorgio.

An Italian Ghostbusters film is a new thing, and wow, is this Italian! Set in Rome itself, the directors and cinematographer Simone Schiralli make the most of the iconic architecture as they set the scene. It gives the film a wholly different flavour to any Ghostbusters production before, but this still feels very much authentically Ghostbusters. Set in the same continuity as the original two films, REAL! has a contemporary setting and runs with the idea - used in Extreme Ghostbusters and the upcoming Afterlife - that spectral sightings dried up after the main events of the films. Now, events in Rome are opening the gateway again, leading to three gents from a local university to become embroiled in the spirit world when they rent a flat that turns out to be haunted. 

Starring Marco Fumarola, Fabio Cavalieri alongside Stoppaccario, REAL! re-creates the set-up of the first film, but with new characters with their own dynamic. Stoppaccario plays Davide, and while he has something of the look of Egon, he's more of a charming jack-of-all-trades, and he gets the romantic subplot. Cavalieri is Simone, the spunky, sarky, overexcitable one of the group, while Fumarola is Ludovico, who's the mechanically-minded genius. Exposed to a horrible haunting, the trio contact Egon Spengler himself (voiced by Mario Cordova) who agrees to send them the specs of the 'busting equipment so they can build their own. Alongside the guys is Lidia Perrone as Susanna, the beautiful love interest who has secrets of her own, and Alessandro Budroni as the ultimate villain of the piece, the mystic Fulgenzio Ippolito Margano.

There are some fun nods to the silliness of the original. A favourite moment is the pointing out the miraculous engineering required to build a particle accelerator that fits on a backpack, as opposed to being several miles across as they are in reality. There's also a lovely mid-credits scene where the new 'busters recruit a secretary, played by Christiana Lionello, who must be a distant cousin of Janine Melnitz. 

However, with a name like REAL! you'd be expecting some kind of riff on The Real Ghostbusters, the single best animated of all time, yes? And you'd be right. While the film is very much in the world of the original film, most of the ghosts are fantastic recreations of the spooks that made up the RGB toy line from Kenner. For anyone of my generation they're a wonderful burst of nostalgia - they even have a cameo by everyone's favourite, the Bug-Eye Ghost (Afterlife stole their idea!). It can't be understated how impressive the effects are in the film. The ghosts are wonderfully realised, with something of the style of the original film's spooks, something of the CGI ghouls of the 2016 movie, and something of their own. As well as the joyful inclusion of ghosts familiar from the toy range, some of the more original manifestations are genuinely pretty creepy.

With a script that's genuinely funny, a deliciously spooky threat, clever ideas, great direction and incredible effects, REAL! A Ghostbusters Tale is an excellent addition to the ever-growing and beloved world of ghostbusting. 

You can watch the film for free here. Make sure you watch through the credits for some lovely treats for the fan community, too.

LOCKDOWN - Doctors Assemble!

This one is right on the cusp of being a Fans Who review. Naturally, a complete multi-Doctor extravaganza like this is going to need some impersonators, but this is almost all impersonators. Two of them - Jacob Dudman, who does the Eleventh Doctor (perfectly) and Jon Culshaw (who does the Third, Fourth and Fifth Doctors) - have performed as stand-in Doctors for Big Finish. Other than that, the only bona fide Doctor is David Bradley, who's the third First Doctor on the TV series, and since he was cast for his physical resemblance to Hartnell, he actually sounds the least like the original Doctor. Bradley's involved, of course, because this is a semi-anniversary show to tie-in with the watch-along of An Adventure in Space and Time. Did they try to get any more "real" Doctors? We know at least some of them would be up for it.

But still, this is great. The most ambitious of the Lockdown stories so far, organised by Emily Cook, with fourteen Doctors all chatting at each other in the TARDIS. At fifteen minutes, there's barely a plot, but that's not the point. This is tremendous fun. Everything from the recycled classic lines to the brilliant profile pics for each Doctor. The empty shelves of toilet paper behind the War Doctor is just hilarious. "No more," indeed. Some of the impressions are better than others, but they're all good enough to sell it. Other than the semi-official guys, Chris Walker-Thomson's Second Doctor and Jonathon Carley's War Doctor are probably the best, but everyone makes a good Doctor. James Goss knows how to write a funny Who story, and this is right up his street. Just lovely.

Watch it here and enjoy!

FANS WHO: Mission to the Unknown

This has to be the great triumph of the Doctor Who fan film world. I guess Devious made a big name for itself, getting Jon Pertwee involved and all and making it as a DVD extra, but this is something special. A university drama project impressing the BBC enough to air on their official YouTube channel, with heavy coverage in DWM. In effect, this is now the official BBC version of Mission to the Unknown, given that the original is long gone and only exists as a soundtrack. The University of Central Lancaster has usurped the original episode, 54 years to the day.

Mission to the Unknown is a canny choice by . There are a lot of Doctor Who episodes missing from the archives, but this is one of the few that looks honest-to-goodness gone for ever. There's not a scrap of footage left, there's no indication that any copies sold abroad were retained by their buyers, and there was just less interest for many years since it doesn't feature the Doctor or his companions. This one is not turning up in someone's lock-up.

However, the very fact that this is such an oddity amongst Doctor Who episodes works in its favour as a fan project. There's no need to recast the Doctor or his companions, and barely anyone watching today has seen the episode's star Edward de Souza in the role as space hero Marc Cory. The fan production can really stand on its own.

The UCLan version of Mission really stands up. We can't see the original but, judging from what's left of the follow-up The Dalek Master Plan, the student version looks easily as good as the original. The starship set and the jungle of the planet Kemble look spot-on; yes, they're a bit minimalist and claustrophobic, but that was exactly what the sets were like in the 1965 Doctor Who. Black and white hides a lot of sins, and while this would look pretty cheap in colour, it looks classy in monochrome.

The video quality is a lot better now, of course, so the limitations of the monsters, faithfully reproduced, are going to show up a lot more. The Planetarians look cheap here, but that rather adds to the charm. They were cheap in 1965. This is a recreation of the original Dalek Cutaway, right down to Paul Stenton's hissing barrow boy performance as Malpha. Seriously, if anything, the original was more ridiculous.

Of course, the UClan crew have achieved a real coup getting Nick Briggs in to voice the Daleks. When combined with some excellent Dalek props, having the official Dalek voice artist makes these pepperpots the real deal. Briggs, to his credit, strikes a balance between recreating the idiosyncratic voices of the time and his tried-and-tested modern Dalek staccato. It's not the first time Briggs has recreated the Dalek voices for a fan production, of course, even since he became the Beeb's main monster modulator, but it still lends an air of authenticity to the production.

Then it's down to the human cast. Marco Simioni takes over from de Souza as Marc Cory, with Dan Gilligan as the long-suffering Lowery. Yes, they're a bit hammy, yes, there's some slightly wooden RP, but again, this calls back to the original episode. Listen to the soundtrack - it's hammy. You can't fault this for calling back to 1960s Doctor Who.

To think these students made this in just five days. Great work guys.

And those Varga plants are just the cutest.

Watch the episode here.

Doctor Who and the Adventures in the Far East - Part Two

You may remember the recent revelation that Doctor Who had a secret incarnation in Korean comicbooks... and the there's this:



OK, it's not really a Japanese tokustatsu style TV version of Doctor Who from the seventies. It's a fan project by someone who styles themselves "lepoissonriuge." It's been up on YouTube for five years, but I happened to stumble across it the other day. It's pretty brilliantly done - both the tokusatsu genre and Doctor Who really lend themselves to cheap-looking productions!

I love the Doctor's monster-fighting outfit here, the ridiculous Dalek and the unrecognisabel Cybermen. If the BBC had tried to make a quick quid by selling the rights to Doctor Who to Toei Company like Stan Lee id with Spider-Man, the results would probably have looked a lot like that. Although, naturally, a giant Emperor Dalek would show up for the climax and be defeated when the TARDIS turned into a giant robot.

BabelColour does it again

The mighty BabelColour, aka Stuart Humphryes, has redone his neverending project, the "Every Doctor Who Story" video, bringing it bang up to date. The video clocks in at over nine minutes and has clips of every Doctor Who serial and standalone episode from An Unearthly Child in November/December 1963 to "Twice Upon a Time" in December 2017, covering all the Doctors from William Hartnell to Jodie Whitaker. It's all set to the marvellous mash-up "Whorythmics" and features an opening monologue by some fine Doctor impressionists.

Previous versions of this video have ended with a rundown of spin-offs, movies, skits and adverts featuring the Doctor. This would make the video ludicrously long, so Babs is making a separate video to cover these. (If it had been my project, I'd have found some way to include the two Peter Cushing movies and the two David Tennant cartoons in the main video, but I have neither the technical ability or creative skill to make one of these and certainly not the patience and attention to detail it requires.)

Take a look at the video below and be sure to subscribe to the BabelColour YouTube channel.

FANS WHO: I Can See You

Waaaay back in 1997, when Doctor Who was seemingly dead onscreen, a group of fans under the name TNT Films made their own serial. The 90s were the golden age of Doctor Who fan productions, and by '97 looked like the only way forward for Who onscreen. Fans wanted as much Doctor Who as they could get their hands on, and a lot of amateurish rubbish got more attention than it deserved. So it was especially exciting when someone made something that was genuinely good. The Millennium Trap was one such production, a fun and well-made adventure that evoked both the Troughton and Pertwee eras and brought Nick Scovell to attention as the fan Doctor to follow.

At the end of The Millennium Trap, Scovell's Doctor regenerated, transforming into the young James Harper. After that, though, we didn't see what happened to the new Doctor. Scovell returned in several stage productions and eventually another filmed serial (and in the last stageplay, regenerated again - into Nicholas Briggs!) but we never got a chance to see what followed from Trap. Then, some years ago, TNT Films unexpectedly announced that James Harper would star in a follow-up, titled Doctor Who: I Can See You. After some production stills and info were released and there was some strong fan interest, it all went quiet.

Finally, in 2018, I Can See You is now complete and available. So was is worth the wait?

Well, the first thing to say is that this is a much simpler affair than the story it sequalises. A short story rather than a novel. It's also a pretty cheap affair (although not so cheerful); aside from the lovely TARDIS set, it's filmed in public spaces and a charity shop, before eventually ending up in a featureless void. However, the appeal of Doctor Who, let alone fanfilms, has never been in huge budgets or flashy effects. I Can See You feels like Doctor Who, combining a tight script with some decent direction (by Rob Hamilton and Andy Robb respectively) to give us a straightforward but effective adventure. The cast is small, led by Harper himself and Mary Stone, as his homeless companion JoJo. On the run from an alien force, JoJo is a character who wouldn't be out of place in the modern TV series. Initially disregarded by the Doctor, she becomes part of his life by sheer force of will. It's a memorable performance by Stone, and it's a pity we likely won't see more adventures from these two leads.

This is Doctor Who, though, and what everyone is really wondering is, what's the Doctor like?

James Harper makes an excellent Doctor. He's quite different to his predecessor (any chance of a Scovell-Harper remake of The Two Doctors?) Initially, he's acerbic and dismissive, having no time for anyone, even someone in mortal danger. There's clearly something weighing down on him, something that has taken its toll on his spirit. We get a little insight into what's bothering him, but ultimately it remains mysterious. In time, though, the thrill of the chase and the impact of JoJo reawaken his adventurous spirit. There's a very Doctorish quality to Harper, and visually at least, he has a little of both Tennant and Capaldi to him.

Short but sweet, I Can See You is a great little adventure for an engaging Doctor-companion team. It's a treat to finally get to see it.




I Can See You can be viewed on the team's Facebook page. 
The next Fans Who review will be The Wooden Planet from CP Studios.

JEDI'S CODE

Here's an impressive and rather fun short film to help tide you over till The Last Jedi comes out next week. It's only eight minutes long and looks incredible. Clearly filmed on the southern coast, it really has that Star Wars feel to it. It was written by Lorenzo Fantini and directed by Carlos Boellinger, with an excellent original score from Two Twenty Two. It stars Omri Rose, Paula Rodriguez and the amazing Veronica Jean Trickett who you may recognise from As We Are or other awesome things.

It's the Dark Times between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and the Jedi are almost extinct...


https://www.tincowboys.com/starwars

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek Continues 10/11 - "To Boldly Go" Parts 1 & 2

The premier Trek fanfilm series comes to an end with this exciting two-parter. While I have said that I sometimes would have preferred a few more stand-alone episodes that hung less off established canon, it only seems right that this grand finale should seek to tie-up the series in every way it can. When Vic Mignona set out to make Continues, it was with the intention of completing the Enterprise's five-year mission with a final season of Star Trek. Now that CBS have come down on fan projects like this, it seems that “To Boldly Go” will act as a finale for a whole era of fan Trek.

What makes this story work so very well is that it combines a riveting storyline with actors who have come to grips with these classic roles, and a genuine desire to round off this period of Star Trek. It follows up on the mysterious effects of the Galactic Barrier from the pilot episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” with a group of rebel ESPers (plus one villainous Vulcan) attempt to take the Enterprise as part of a bid to usurp humanity's place in the Galaxy. It is these miscreants who are responsible for the destruction and vanishing of various Constitution-class starships throughout the Continues series. During the transgalactic game of cat-and-mouse, Spock seeks out his one-time paramour, the Romulan commander from “The Enterprise Incident,” now repatriated and once again commanding a Bird-of-Prey, the Hawk's Talon, beautifully rendered here.

Making this story a sequel to the pilot is a brilliant decision, but it also bookends the series by seguing directly into the set-up for The Motion Picture. Not only do the creators of the story make this work in spite of the huge tonal differences between the original series and the film, but it works perfectly as a character piece, giving solid, believable reasons for Kirk, Spock and McCoy going their separate ways once the mission is completed. Indeed, we find Kirk in much the same place here as we found Pike in “The Cage,” weighed under by years of responsibility and the guilt of so many deaths under his command. Spock is torn between his burgeoning emotions and the logic he believes in and the responsibility of impending command, while McCoy is simple sick of watching people die.

We know, of course, that most of the crew are going to make it through to the end of the episode, what with them carrying on through The Motion Picture and subsequent movies. However, that doesn't mean there aren't major losses throughout the adventure, not least of which is a good chunk of the Enterprise itself. The ship really earns its refit on this mission. We also get to see the long-imagined saucer separation of the original Enterprise, one of many exceptionally well-produced visual effects sequences.

The regular cast all get moments to shine, with particular praise due to Todd Haberkorn as Spock, who I think has really nailed the part over the last few episodes. I was pleased to see Kim Stinger's Uhura get a meatier role than in most previous episodes. The multi-talented Kipleigh Brown, as the recurring character Lt. Smith, gets a very strong episode in part two, becoming an essential member of the cast for this finale, and there is some strong material for Michele Specht as ship's councillor Dr. McKennah. The guest cast is also very good throughout, with special praise needed for the wonderful Nicola Bryant. As a Doctor Who aficionado (in case you hadn't noticed), it's a treat to see her here, with her natural accent rather than an affected American one, and she's clearly having a great time playing the villain of the piece. Another star turn is Amy Rydell as Romulan Commander Charvanek, who is not only very impressive in the role, but is the daughter of the original holder of the role, Joanne Linville.

While the two-parter was full of excitement and adventure, it's actually the final few scenes that really made an impact for me. Moving into the slower, more thoughtful territory of The Motion Picture, it sees Kirk accept his deskjob promotion from Admiral Nogura. (As a little visual treat, we see the now-traditional selection of model starships, including the Phoenix, Enterprise NX-01, USS Kelvin and USS Discovery, further tying different eras of Star Trek together.) Vic Mignona gives a speech to his erstwhile crew and one final log entry, and it's as much him speaking to the viewers as it is Kirk addressing Starfleet. As the prime mover and star of Star Trek Continues, it's only right that he gets to make this send-off, and as far as I'm concerned, he and his crew are very much a part of the Star Trek family. Mission accomplished.


Watch all the episodes of Star Trek Continues here.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek Continues 9 - "What Ships Are For"

Before they begin their two-part finale, the Star Trek Continues team present a stand-alone episode that embodies exactly what classic Star Trek was all about. "What Ships Are For" is a story with a strong, simple but effective moral message that would fit in perfectly in Trek's classic run, although it has a particular resonance with today's concerns.

The episode is set on and around Hyalinus, a misshapen asteroid that is inhabited by a sophisticated race of people who are slowly making their way out into the wider universe. When Kirk and co. beam to the surface in order to make official contact with the Hyalini, they find a monochrome world, completely leached of colour. It's a great visual hook, and particularly striking in contrast to the rainbow colours of the series as a whole. It becomes clear that Hyalinus is bathed in solar radiation that prevents the eyes' cone cells from functioning, so that no one on the surface can see colour. It's a bit of a question then why the Hyalini evolved cones in the first place, although it's said that the radiation has been increasing over the last few centuries so presumably once they functioned normally. The increasing radiation is also causing a sickness to appear among the population.

Kirk takes an inhabitant of the planet back to the Enterprise - the youngest and prettiest, obviously - and introduces her to the world of colour. It becomes clear that there is another species in the system, the Abicians, who are considered backward, savage immigrants and refugees, violently kept away from Hyalinus. However, it becomes clear that there are thousands of Abicians living on the planet, fully integrated. Should the Federation help counteract the radiation and allow the people of the planet to see in colour again, they will be able to see the aliens living among them, with potentially violent consequences.

It's a pretty obvious metaphor for racism and xenophobia, but I enjoy episodes with a strong, in-your-face moral sometimes. Just like "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," this episode knocks you on the head with how ridiculous it is to judge people based on the colour of their skin, but being obvious about it doesn't make it any less true or important. A little more subtle is the pro-refugee message, pushing the message that a nation cannot thrive by shielding it from outsiders, something that both the US and the UK could learn to accept. There's a fine line that points out that compassion can exist alongside fear and pride, another thing we could stand to learn.

It's a decent script, written by Kipleigh Brown, who also plays Lt. Smith (who surprisingly barely features in the episode). The are some elements, particularly the interplay between Kirk, Spock and Bones, which don't flow very well and feel forced in. The main cast, though, improve in their roles all the time, with Vic Mignogna now giving an almost perfect reenactment of Shatner's Kirk. There are good turns by Elizabeth Maxwell as young alien Sekara and Anne Lockhart as her foster mother Thaius. Lockhart is another actor who is best known for a major sci fi role, in this case Sheba in the original Battlestar Galactica. The big draw here though is John de Lancie, making a powerful guest appearance as Galisti, ruler of Hyalinus. It's a welcome surprise that he isn't playing Q, but an entirely new character, one who has some excellent confrontation with Kirk. He's undeniably a highlight of the episode.

Although there are elements in the episode that call back to the series as a whole, "What Ships Are For" plays down it's connections to the Trek mythology. There's a mention of yet another two Constitution-class ships being lost from service, which is presumably going to tie into the finale and the Enterprise's part in the revamp of Starfleet. There's another moment which ties into the Motion Picture, which signifies the end point of Star Trek Continues, and also provided a laugh: the crew get their first glimpse of the beige pyjamas that pass as uniforms in that movie, and promptly declare that they'll never be seen dead in them. It's a fun little nod to the movie, and also ties into the overall episode with its tale of drabness and lost colour. The only other element I picked up that tied into the mythology was that the Enterprise's next mission is to Daran 5, which would be a follow-up to the events of the third season episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky."

Beyond these gentle nods, though, this a fun, effective episode that stands proudly on its own two feet.

"What Ships Are For" can be watched here.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek Continues 8 - Still Treads the Shadow

Star Trek Continues continues continuing, which is a pleasant surprise to some of fandom considering how unfriendly Paramount have become to fanfilms since the Axanar lawsuit. However, all of Continues' fundraising for the next four episodes was completed prior to the legal announcement, and the production team are pushing ahead with finishing their series, albeit a few episodes shorter than originally planned. I shall try to be as spoiler-free as I can without being totally vague, but if you want, you can watch the episode first here and then come back.

"Still Treads the Shadow" (classic pretentious Trek title there) is a solid episode that revolves almost entirely around Vic Mignola's Captain Kirk. In fact, Mignola gets to portray three characters in the story, although the exact nature of those characters is quite surprising. Mignola does a great job making his three roles distinct. The rest of the regular cast are a little overlooked in this episode, with a good deal of the material going to the big guest star Rekha Sharma, best known to SF fans as Tori on Battlestar Galactica. If anything, though, Sharma could have done with more screentime, to make the most of a promising character and by far the best actor on the production. Sharma's a huge Trek fan by all accounts, so maybe we'll see more of her in another episode.

"Still Treads the Shadow" is written by Judy Burns, who has racked up a lot of professional screen credits over the years, but whose first such credit was that of co-writer on the third season Star Trek episode "The Tholian Web." If anyone was expecting a sequel to that episode, then they'd be absolutely right. Don't expect a rematch with the Tholians, though, as this episode takes a very different take. At first glance, it appears to conflict with Enterprise's fourth season story "In a Mirror, Darkly," which provided its own sequel to "Web," however, a clever line of dialogue allows both sequels to co-exist.

The episode's script is science-heavy without ever becoming too laden with technobabble. I enjoy TOS pastiches that take into account recent discoveries and theories. "Shadow" includes dialogue regarding gravity waves and dark matter, and while both of these had been theorised in the early part of the 20th century, they hadn't become generally accepted or well known concepts until more recently. The dialogue is backed up by some spectacular effects work, which comes across as more showy and modern than previous episodes but works beautifully for the episode. Fans might see some similarity with episodes such as "Second Chances" and "Deadlock," but Trek has never shied away from re-exploring familiar tropes. Well worth a watch.

The Almost Doctors by Babelcolour

Stuart 'Bablecolour' Humphryes has uploaded his latest video, this one initially inspired by a request from Mark Gatiss. Humphryes has created a very clever "mockumentary" which gives us a glimpse into parallel timelines, where different actors played the part of the Doctor. Actors like Jim Dale and Fulton McKay, who were offered the role in reality but turned it down or were eventually deemed unsuitable. It's a fascinating what-if making use of some ingenious video manipulation.

He's started with Part Two, covering the 1970s, with the 60s-focused Part One to follow. Hopefully we'll get a Part Three as well if we're very good.

FANS WHO: Fury From the Deep - 2002 Stageplay

Nick Scovell first played the Doctor in a self-penned stageplay in 1996, titled Planet of Storms. It was this production that brought him to the attention of Rob Thrush, who cast him as the Doctor in his fanfilm The Millennium Trap, still the most popular and well-known production to star Scovell as the Doctor. Thrush joined Scovell's theatre group, and they went on to hold four further Doctor Who stageplays. Each of these was based on a 1960s serial, lost from the archives: The Web of Fear (performed in 2000), Fury from the Deep (2002), Evil of the Daleks (2006) and The Dalek Masterplan (2007).

After this, plans were afoot to adapt The Power of the Daleks for stage, but the BBC declined, in this instance, to provide permission. A mistake, in my view, as the previous plays had been very popular with fans (both old and new, in the case of the more recent plays), and had raised money for the BBC's own charity, Children in Need. Still, we can't expect too much logic from the Beeb, who junked the episodes in the first place, after all. Scovell and Thrush went on to create Power of the Daleks: Reimagined, a fanfilm which was made available via YouTube in 2012, and won great fan acclaim until the Beeb stepped in again and demanded its removal.

However, there has been a recent burst of new enthusiasm for Scovell's Doctor, with a Facebook group being created to celebrate his Doctor's 20th anniversary by providing access to new and archive material. Just before we ushered in the new year, the group released a brief two-hander episode to mark the occasion, "A Moment in Time." Before that, however, we were briefly treated to a recording of a performance of Fury of the Deep, made available for only a few days before being withdrawn. h

Fury From the Deep was performed at Portsmouth Theatre Royal, the same venue that would later play host to both Evil and Masterplan. It was when Evil was being publicised that I first found out about Interalia Theatre's Doctor Who productions, and so while I saw and thoroughly enjoyed both Dalek plays, I never had the chance to see Fury performed. As such, it was a great opportunity to experience this version of the serial. Two things struck me about the production. Firstly was the use of pre-filmed inserts, which were played at the original performance on a screen mounted above the stage. While this may have been a little disjointed to see, it makes it quite an interesting multimedia experience, and when played "full screen" as it were, as part of the video, the inserts work extremely well.  These include some excellent location work, and the recreation of some classic scenes, including the chilling moment when Maggie Harris walks to her seeming doom beneath the waves. They're certainly not unambitious either, bringing in a helicopter for the Doctor and co. to zip about in.

The Doctor catches sight of a helicopter

Secondly, within the play itself there is a very clever use of the structure of the theatre itself. With Fury From the Deep involving all manner of plunges to the depths, through pipes and pits, a single level stage was always going to feel rather flat. Instead, Thrush directs the play to make use of the many levels of the theatre itself. The cast begin some scenes in the uppermost levels ("That power would put me up above the gods!) before descending down scaffolding into the heart of the theatre. It's tremendously effective, giving real scale and, well, depth to the production.

Nick Scovell is excellent as the Doctor, giving a performance that is akin to Patrick Troughton's without ever being a pastiche. There's an earnestness to his Doctor, but with a twinkle and occasional bursts of pure glee at the adventure. Victoria Waterfield is a central figure to this story, here played with great sympathy by Laura Ford. (Victoria had previusly been played by Nancy Holloway in The Web of Fear, while Rosie Grant took on the role for Evil of the Daleks - ironically the character's debut story was adapted after her departure.) Jamie is played by John Paul McCrohon, who gives his all as the canny Scotsman and absolutely fits the part.

I also have to sing the praises of the creature operators (one of whom is named Matt Smith, although I presume not that Matt Smith), who bring the weed creatures to life far more effectively than in the original serial. Making an angry bunch of algae into a credible threat isn't easy, but they managed it here, and the cast all play it with absolute conviction. Fury From the Deep is definite classic in the world of Doctor Who fan productions. Planet of Storms is still available to view (being a non-copyrighted script), but the quality of the recording is sadly somewhat poor. Here's hoping some of the other remakes will be made available for a short time in future. They are most certainly deserving of new fans.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek Continues: Episode 7 - Embracing the Winds

It's good to see that Star Trek Continues is continuing to continue. With Paramount coming down hard on fan productions, I expected this series to come to a halt. However, the guys behind Continues have confirmed that they plan to carry the series on to its conclusion, which is expected to bring it right up to the end of the five year mission, and the lead up to The Motion Picture. Given that, of all the fan series, Continues is the one that is designed to reproduce the original Star Trek the most closely, I can't imagine that Paramount will leave it alone for long.

The latest episode, "Embracing the Winds," shies away from hard sci-fi and and gives us some good, old-fashioned social commentary. It's very much in the style of the courthouse episodes of the original series, such as "The Menagerie" and "Court Martial." Much of the episode takes place at a Starfleet hearing, overseen by Captain Kirk (series overseer Vic Mignogna), Commodore Gray (Buck Rogers' Erin Gray, amking a return appearance to the series) and the Vulcan Vice Admiral Stomm (the classy Beau Billingsley, who previously appeared in Star Trek Into Darkness). The episode revolves around the fate of the USS Hood, a starship whose crew has been mysteriously killed. Looking to recrew the ship, Commodore Gray has to decide which of two commanders to promote to captain.

The choice comes down to Spock, (series regular Todd Haberkorn), who is torn between career progression and stayig aboard the Enterprise, and Commander Garrett (Clare Kramer, best known as Glory in Buffy), an officer with a turbulent career who believes she has been held down because of her gender. The story is preoccupied with the many kinds of discrimination and prejudgment that people (or at least, non-white, non-straight, non-male people) face in their lives. Spock is judged by both humans and Vulcans because of his mixed heritage, while Garrett faces questions due to her nature as an ambitious woman.

It's depressing to think that there might still be sexual discrimination in the 23rd century. I suspect that the starting point for the episode was an attempt to explain the sexist attitude of the final original series episode, "Turnabout Intruder," which notoriously implied that women couldn't be starship captains. Since Enterprise has since shown that female captains have been part of Starfleet since its beginnings (as noted in this episode), the script suggests that it is throwback Tellarite attitudes, and Starfleet attempts to appease the race, that have led to women being kept out of the captain's chair. It's contrived, but it works, and perhaps could be taken as a parallel for how traditionally conservative nations are struggling to fit into the global community. Primarily, though, this episode is concerned with America's ongoing problems with misogyny and sexism, something that is in discussion more and more.

Clare Kramer is particularly good in the episode, making Garrett into a remarkable, if difficult to like, character. It's a testament to the strength of the script that we sympathise with Garrett and agree with her ideals, even while her personal flaws are apaprent. Meanwhile, the regular Enterprise crew engage in a mission to investigate the Hood, given the episode a more perilous B-story. It works well enough to keep things going, but the more interesting stuff is happening at the starbase, and the events on the Hood rather shut the story down and give Starfleet an easy way out of its dilemma. Nonetheless, this is a strong, thoughtful episode, with an important message. This is exactly what Star Trek should be doing; looking at today's issues through a futurist perspective.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek Continues - Come Not Between the Dragons

The latest and sixth episode of the Star Trek Continues fan series is one of the best so far. Unlike the majority of episodes in the series - indeed, in fanfilms in general - "Come Not Between the Dragons" doesn't focus on returning characters, recognisable aliens and continuity points. Instead, it embraces the spirit of Star Trek by exploring the universe and encountering strange new life forms. In this case, the dragons of the title: gigantic "nomadic extremophiles", or cosmozoa (utilising Christopher Bennett's word there), one of which breaches the hull of the ship in order to hide out.

While the episode starts as a monster hunt, it isn't long before one of the crew makes contact with the alien, Usde. The crewman in question, Eliza Taylor, is played by Gigi Edgley, who I didn't recognise straight away because she wasn't painted grey. It's great to see the series continue to utilise actors from multiple sci-fi series. After faces from Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers and Doctor Who (the Doctor himself), we get a guest spot from FarScape's Chiana. She's a great addition to the crew, which takes time to feature more of the regular cast than usual. Usde itself is a brilliant creation, a mix of puppetry and CGI used to create the metallic creature and its much larger, space-dwelling assailant.

The episode takes a turn towards "The Naked Time" territory in the second half. Every Trek series has an episode with the regulars acting out of character (usually at least two, one of which is a Mirror Universe ep). This time, energy waves emitted by Usde's pursuer drive the crew to distraction, beginning with irritability and ending with irrational acts of rage. It's a more cliched aspect to the episode, but it feels very Trek and makes for a tense situation in which to embed the alien contact story. Add in a little of Star Trek's perennial obsession with father figures, and you've got what would have made a classic episode of sixties Trek.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek: Horizon

The majority of Star Trek fan films are intended to recreate the classic series, either as new adventures of Kirk and Spock  on the USS Enterprise or with newly conceived crews on her sister ships. A few look to recreate other series, though (or even "missing" eras, such as the now aborted Star Trek: Axanar).  Star Trek: Horizon is a new feature length fan production, that, while creating a new ship and crew, works very much as a lost episode of the series Enterprise.

Set in 2160, five years after the conclusion of Enterprise and at the height of the war with the Romulan Empire, Horizon introduces the starship Discovery NX-04 (NX starships traditionally being named after space shuttle orbiters). Commanded by Captain Harrison Hawke (Paul Lang), the Discovery has taken a beating on a mission to collect a Romulan defector (Tamar, played by Callie Bussell), but is soon repaired and rearmed to go on a new mission into disputed space, as part of a fleet of Starfleet and Vulcan ships. Things do not go as expected, with the Discovery pulled through time and space to a distant galaxy, arriving at a planet that is central to a deadly Romulan plot.

Horizon pulls together various elements of Trek lore to create a fan-pleasing but quite inventive storyline. As well as the fabled Romulan War that was never seen on screen, it brings in the Temporal Cold War that ran through Enterprise, with characters originating from various centuries. The Horizon of the title is a superweapon, created by aliens who fought the Iconians tens of thousands of years ago. Relics of the Iconians appeared in The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, and we get to see a little more of the ancient civilisation here, depicting them rather differently and certainly more benevolently than we'd been led to believe. Events from the new Abrams movie franchise are even alluded to; the film also takes a few stylistic cues from the blockbusters.

The plot is enjoyable and well-paced, with some finely directed action sequences as well as quieter, more emotional moments. I particularly liked that we get to see the senior crew in their off hours, acting like normal people away from the front line and their stations. Horizon was made on a tight budget, and that shows, with a small cast and limited sets, but the effects work is excellent and there are some fine visuals. On the other hand, the film has a low-res, soft focus quality throughout. This may be a stylistic choice, or intended to mask production shortcomings, but it detracts from the end product.

The acting, to be perfectly fair, isn't great. It's not terrible, it's never unwatchable, but it's quite mediocre. The dialogue is quite cliched and stilted, although there is the occasional fun line. It's significantly better in these regards than Star Trek: Renegades, which was made with the involvement of several professionals. Considering the tiny budget and the amateur nature of the production, this is quite the success, and worth your time if you're an Enterprise fan with 100 minutes to spare.

Watch Star Trek Horizon here.

TREK REVIEW: New Voyages: The Holiest Thing

SPOILERS! If you haven't seen the episode, you can watch it here first.

Not so much a new voyage as a walk along well-trodden paths, this latest episode of the fan series is nonetheless one of the best they have produced. It's heavy on the continuity, but it doesn't feel forced or awkward, with the exception of the odd decision to frame the story with scenes of a 24th Century Scotty reminiscing about the adventure (he has little to do with the main adventure, making it doubly strange). This is primarily the story of Dr. Carol Marcus, the character remembered for her appearance as Kirk's lost love in The Wrath of Khan (and less well remembered for inclusion in its cover version, Star Trek Into Darkness). Here, Dr. Marcus is played by the beautiful Jacy King, who gives a fine performance as a scientist who believes passionately in the vital nature of her work and who will defend it to the hilt, even in the face of disaster. Less convincing is her romance with Kirk, although this has more to do with the limited screentime, and with Brian Goss's performance. As yet, I'm not convinced by Goss as Kirk, who seems a little freshfaced and ineffectual here. He lacks Kirk's display of bravado and confidence; he'd probably have worked well when younger as a less experience Jim Kirk, as lieutenant on the Yorktown, but he doesn't yet convince as the legendary captain, Still, give him time - he's very new to the role.

Anyway, "The Holiest Thing" is a prequel to the aforementioned Wrath of the Khan, dealing with Dr. Marcus's first attempts to create a new terraforming device that will bring "life from lifelessness." We know it's doomed to fail, which makes her passion for the project both wonderful to see and rather heartbreaking. Here, it's the actions of a fellow scientist on their base on Lappa Three that spells disaster, but we know that once day, she'll be cutting similar corners with the Genesis device, with catastrophic effects. This episode ties in nicely to the movie, although the timing is a little questionable. Still, I don't mind this too much - continuity is fun to play with, but being beholden to it is a poor idea. Yes, this adventure should have happened earlier if Kirk's son David was to be the result, but then it wouldn't have been made as part of Star Trek: New Voyages.

This attitude to continuity is best displayed in the identity of the mysterious aliens involved in the disaster. The series Enterprise drew flak for its inclusion of the Ferengi, clashing with established continuity. This goes even further, happily having the Ferengi identify themselves once they are revealed, in spite of apparently not making contact with the Federation until the time of Picard. Frankly, who cares? The Ferengi make a fun baddie for the episode, and Clay Sayre gives a great performance as the grotty Ferengi captain, beneath some truly excellent make-up. The series is looking better than ever; there's a sequence where the camera draws back from the Enterprise through the star system, revealing the alien ship, that is absolutely gorgeous. Pretty damned good stuff.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek Continues: Divided We Stand

I rather enjoyed this one, in spite of its being squarely aimed at the core American audience of Trek fans. It's not, to be fair, terribly original in its content: Kirk and McCoy are seemingly sent back in time to the American Civil War, although it's very quickly revealed to the audience that they have been infected by a virus that has caught them in a shared dreamscape. There's no mystery to it, nor much interest in the Enterprise-based subplot of curing the two friends. No, this is all about how Jim and Bones cope in this environment, believing it to be viscerally real and apparently without hope of rescue.

The original Star Trek played with Earth's history on numerous occasions, so much so that it seems odd that it wasn't repurposed as a time travel show. Whether it was actual trips into the past, bizarre alien recreations or planets that seem to have developed along Earthlike lines due to interference or sheer coincidence. So this excursion to 19th century America feels very in keeping with the series that it's seeking to emulate, without taking the path of previous episodes and indulging in heavy continuity. Not that there's anything wrong with heavy continuity in a fan series, but it's a pleasure to have something a little fresher after a run of sequels and callbacks. In fact, I can only think of one nod to the series' history, that being the name of the probe that delivers the virus: Friendship Three, presumably a successor to the eponymous probe from the Voyager episode Friendship One.

The strength of the episode lies in the recreation of the American battlefields. I presume the production team called on the services of some historical reenactment enthusiasts, since the battle scenes are populous and convincing (not that I'm any expert on the period, never having had a particular interest in the American Civil War). The decision to use Kirk and McCoy was a wise one. The strength of their friendship keeps them going through the bloody horrors of a very real war, far from the usually sanitised conflicts seen in Trek (although the original series was bloodier than people remember). Their respective backgrounds put Kirk and Bones on opposing sides in the war, with Kirk cast as a Union soldier and McCoy as his prisoner. It unfolds predictably, but nonetheless effectively, with both Vic Mignola and Chuck Huber working extremely well together here. A particularly effective installment from an always impressive fan production.


Watch the episode here.

TREK REVIEW: Star Trek: Renegades

This had so much promise. Such a pity. One of the big fan productions, with higher than average productions values and several stars of the franchise appearing both as new and established characters.Unfortunately, it's really not terribly good.

The set-up is promising: it's 2388, a year after the destruction of Romulus and ten years since the starship Voyager returned to Earth. A disturbing new threat has emerged in the quadrant, but Starfleet are reluctant to to anything about it, hiding behind the Prime Directive. Whole planets are vanishing the space around them collapsing in on itself. A newly contacted alien species, based on the planet Syphon, is behind the events. Some in Starfleet suspect a conspiracy within their ranks is what is keeping the Federation from investigating this threat. In such circumstances, it's down to rebels and renegades to defend the Earth and its allies.

Renegades has been much touted as a darker, grimmer version of Trek, and it certainly delivers on that promise. We meet the central protagonist, Lexxa Singh, in a particularly brutal prison, having been left hanging out to dry by the Federation. The villainous Borada and his Syphon buddies are vicious brutes. Much is made of Starfleet's dirty tricks department, Section 31, and there are heavy hints of some nasty secrets in the Federation's past, although it's not entirely clear how much of this is true and how much is fabricated by its own enemies. There are some surprisingly violent moments that come with little warning. It's a murkier side of the Star Trek universe.

On the whole, I'm OK with that. I've spoken out against the tendency of recent movies to make grimdark adaptations of properties, but sometimes it's worthwhile having a look at the darker side of a world and seeing how far the fiction will stretch. I wouldn't want every episode of Trek to be like this, but occasionally exploring the seedier, dirtier side of a universe is worth doing. It's not entirely original, of course; perhaps it's a sign of the cynicism of our age that we can't quite believe in a utopia like the Federation anymore, and have to imagine conspiracies and dirty secrets behind the facade. At the end of the day, not everyone can be living a good, happy life in this or any universe, and these kinds of productions reflect that reality.

However, as with the most recent official Trek production, Star Trek Into Darkness, the attempt to make Renegades darker and more uncompromising is ham-fisted. As with STID, this is a poorly written script, with a plot whose twists and revelations make little narrative sense, and with poorly judged attempts at gritty reality. I can forgive the cringeworthy Syphon aliens, with their endless bleating on about the honour of the kill and macho posturing; Star Trek's been obsessed with that crap since it began to invent a culture for the Klingons back in the beginnings of TNG, and this just feels like more of the same. (Although, with both of these examples, it's clear that the writers have never once met anyone from any of the real warrior cultures that exist on Earth or bothered to investigate what such people might be like.) There's much worse examples than that, with continual posturing by the main characters, and needless moments of gratuitous unpleasantness. Oh, great, now the aliens are casually making rape threats to the women; even filtered through po-faced Trek language I'm not keen on shit like that.

It's certainly impressive that so many actors from official Trek productions have joined this cast. Most significant are Walter Koenig returning as Chekov (a longtime supporter of unofficial and fan projects), and Tim Russ as Tuvok. Both characters are well into their second century, with Chekov a prominent Starfleet Admiral, and Tuvok heading Section 31, which is a little harder to swallow. They share a fair part of their screentime, and this helps sell the significance of the plot: two recognisable characters discussing the importance of the unfolding events. Added to this we have Richard Herd returning as occasional Voyager guest character Admiral Paris, Manu Intiraymi as former Borg drone Icheb, and a star turn by Robert Picardo as Dr Zimmerman, creator of the EMH. Another returning cast member is Gary Graham, previously the Vulcan ambassador Soval in Enterprise, here playing a humanoid renegade named Ragnar.

Having so many characters from disparate parts of Star Trek come together has a risk of developing "small universe syndrome," but with a fan production like this is helped add authenticity, and makes it all feel like part of one, big narrative. Unfortunately, guesting on Star Trek does not mean an actor is actually any good at their job. Graham, in particular, should have stuck to playing Vulcans, as he seems incapable of convincingly expressing any human emotions. Admittedly, the dialogue he's given is pretty poor, but still. Many of the new faces in the cast are as bad, or even worse; there are several scenes in this film that, with the combination of poor acting and risible dialogue, are borderline unwatchable. A great deal of time is given to the crew of the Icarus, the eponymous renegades, several of whom are not capable of holding a scene together. Edward Furlong, best known for his childhood role as John Connor is Terminator 2, is the ship's technician, Fixer, and his acting skills haven't improved much over the years. There's worse acting in the film, but I expect better from the bigger names.

The best of the renegades is the aforementioned Lexxa Singh, the captain of the Icarus, and seemingly part of Khan Noonien Singh's extended family of superhuman augments. Adrienne Wilkinson is really very good in the role, a strong-willed, dangerous but principled character, and she makes a lot of the scenes watchable. Making her an augment doesn't add much to the storyline, but does give her a handy set of superpowers. In fact, the Icarus crew are essentially a superteam, boasting many powered-up individuals. Ragnar is a shapeshifter, while Icheb has had his Borg technology weaponised against his will. There's a mutant Betazoid who has no telepathic ability but displays psychokinesis, a war-damaged Bajoran and a recalcitrant Breen. It's a team that would work well in comics, a sort of Trek version of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Also very comicbook-esque is the boosting of the cast with numerous sexy alien females of various species, something I'm honest enough to admit made the film more enjoyable for me. (I don't think the Breen was a sexy female, but who can say under all that kit.)

Where the film really succeeds is in its visuals. It's well directed by Tim Russ, and has numerous pros working on the visual effects and design. The space sequences are gorgeous, both for the starships and the various planets seen. The CGI planetscapes occasionally look a little cartoonish, but since this is a consistent style, it doesn't detract from the overall effect. I particularly liked the surface of Syphon, a desolate realm that appeared inspired by the sets of Alien and its follow-ups. The make-up is also excellent, and while some have been critical of the villainous Borada and his followers, I think they worked well visually. Combining reptilian and simian looks, their design is intimidating, and while the prosthetics are a little rubbery and static, I actually don't mind that effect. It's kind of classic.

Ultimately, though, the fun ideas and impressive visuals aren't enough to save the film from the poor scripting and performances. The climax clearly sets up the possibility of sequels, and it's been well enough received by fans to make this likely, but there's a great deal of room for improvement between now and episode two.

FANS WHO: The Ten Doctors, by Babelcolour

The long awaited final episode of The Ten Doctors, the fanfilm by Stuart Humphryes, aka Babelcolour, is now here. Babel began working on this back in 2009, when David Tennant was the incumbent Doctor, piecing together a new story out of segments of footage from the series, augmenting them with hundreds of new effects shots to create three short episodes with a new story. Babel provided the voice of the villain for the story himself, with all other characters' lines being taken from existing recordings or, from episode three onwards, using impressionists to record new dialogue. Then, he got the job to colourise The Mind of Evil for the BBC, and no longer had time to work on his fan project. It looked like that was that, but earlier this year, spurred on by his fans, he found time to complete it, with further help from voice artists and CGI sequences by Mert Karaca.

Now you can watch episode four, or, if you want to experience the whole thing, the entire story, which clocks in at a little under fifty minutes, just like an episode of the real series. Babel plays merry hell with established continuity, taking barely explained hints and glimpses and creating an unknown story from the Doctor's past. There are far more than ten Doctors featured in part four, and the "Ten Doctors" of the title might not be the ones you're expecting.

Mert Karaca