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Review Manga Entertainment / Psychic Wars
Actors & Directors
  • Julia Braams
  • Lisa Ross (III)
  • Alan Blyton
  • Frank Rozelaar-Green
  • Lesley Rooney
  • Tetsuo Imazawa
Release date: 1998-05-11
Run time: 60 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.54

Review Psychic Wars / Manga Entertainment:


Actors & Directors
  • David Bowie
  • Nicolas Roeg
  • Bernie Casey
  • Rip Torn
  • Candy Clark
  • Buck Henry
Release date: 1998-05-18
Run time: 132 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.00

Review The Man Who Fell To Earth [1976] / Warner Home Video:

While other films directed by Nicolas Roeg have attained similar cult status (including Walkabout and Don't Look Now), none has been as hotly debated as this languid but oddly fascinating adaptation of the science fiction novel by Walter Tevis. In The Man Who Fell to Earth, David Bowie plays the alien of the title, who arrives on Earth with hopes of finding a way to save his own planet from turning into an arid wasteland. He funds this effort by capitalising on several highly lucrative inventions, and in so doing becomes the powerful leader of an international corporate conglomerate. But his success has negative consequences as well-his contact with Earth has a disintegrating effect that sends him into a tailspin of disorientation and metaphysical despair. The sexual attention of a cheerful young woman (Candy Clark) doesn't do much to change his outlook, and his introduction to liquor proves even more devastating, until, finally, it looks as though his visit to Earth may be a permanent one. The Man Who Fell to Earth is definitely not for every taste-it's a highly contemplative, primarily visual experience that Roeg directs as an abstract treatise on (among other things) the alienating effects of an over-commercialised society. Stimulating and hypnotic or frightfully dull, depending on your receptivity to its loosely knit ideas, it's at least in part about not belonging, about being disconnected from the world-about being a stranger in a strange land when there's really no place like home. -Jeff Shannon.

Review Warner Home Video / Babylon 5 Volume 14 [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruce Boxleitner
  • John C. Flinn III
  • Jim Johnston
  • Jerry Doyle
  • Claudia Christian
  • Peter Jurasik
  • Mary Kay Adams
Release date: 1996-09-02
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £1.37

Review Babylon 5 Volume 14 [1994] / Warner Home Video:


Review Metrodome Distribution / Invaders, The - Vol. 1 - Beachhead / The Experiment [1967]
Actors & Directors
  • Roy Thinnes|Diane Baker|J.D. Cannon|James Daly
Release date: 1993-10-18
Run time: 97 min.
Price: £12.99

Review Invaders, The - Vol. 1 - Beachhead / The Experiment [1967] / Metrodome Distribution:


Review Warner Home Video / The Omega Man [1972]
Actors & Directors
  • Eric Laneuville
  • Rosalind Cash
  • Anthony Zerbe
  • Boris Sagal
  • Paul Koslo
  • Charlton Heston
Release date: 1995-08-14
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £11.95

Review The Omega Man [1972] / Warner Home Video:

Science fiction took a grim turn in the 1970s-the heyday of Agent Orange, nuclear peril and Watergate. Suddenly, most of our possible futures took on a "last man on Earth" flavour, with The Omega Man topping the doom-struck heap. Charlton Heston plays the government researcher behind the ultimate biological weapon, a deadly plague that has ravaged humanity. There are two groups of survivors: a dwindling band of immune humans and an infected, psychopathic mob of light-hating quasi-vampires. The infected are led by Mathias, a clever, charismatic man set on destroying the last remnants of the civilisation that produced the plague. Heston has a vaccine-but he and the few remaining normals are outnumbered and outgunned. By day, he builds a makeshift version of the nuclear family (with Rosalind Cash as his afro-wearing, gun-toting little lady). They plan for the future while roaming freely through an empty urban landscape, taking what few pleasures life has left. By night, they defend themselves against the growing horde of plague victims. Both a bittersweet romance and a gothic cautionary tale, The Omega Man paints a convincing portrait of hope and despair. [+]
It ain't pretty, but it's a great movie. -Grant Balfour With its opening long shots of a car driving through the canyons of empty streets stirring up clouds of waste paper, Charlton Heston's 1971 film The Omega Man is an interesting precursor of more recent last-person-on-earth films such as 28 Days Later. Heston is surprisingly good at conveying the terror of being completely on your own, with sanity that wanders into long conversations with the inanimate. Rather less good are the film's antagonists, victims of bacterial warfare left as albino psychotics determined to destroy Heston as a representative of the old dead world of science and technology and a small group of the infected, but not yet changed, who live virtuous pastoral lives in the hills. The film's racial politics are interestingly dated: the heroine, Lisa, is black and has some wince-worthy moments of blaxploitation movie chic; the moment when she changes is nonetheless chilling for being eminently predictable. Loosely based on Richard Matheson's classic genre novel I Am Legend, perhaps the best thing about the film is that it comes from an era when science-fiction blockbusters could be relentlessly downbeat. On the DVD: The Omega Mancomes to disc with some interesting special features. There's a television "making of" that was shown at the time, as well as the trailer and an interesting short retrospective documentary containing interviews with the surviving screenwriter Joyce Corrington and a couple of the younger actors. The anamorphic widescreen picture is fine, as is the digitally remastered mono sound. -Roz Kaveney.

Review Contender Entertainment Group / Farscape Vol. 1.4 - 1.08 That Old Black Magic / 1.09 DNA Mad Scientist [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Geoff Bennett (II)
  • Ian Watson (II)
  • Tony Tilse
Release date: 2000-05-15
Run time: 113 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £13.99

Review Farscape Vol. 1.4 - 1.08 That Old Black Magic / 1.09 DNA Mad Scientist [1999] / Contender Entertainment Group:

An international co-production of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, Australia's Channel 9 and Hallmark Entertainment, Farscape is genre television at its most ambitious, inspired both by the cult appeal of Babylon 5 and the continuing success of the Star Trek franchise. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry, Farscape takes a visual leap beyond previous shows. Admittedly, the basic premise may be borrowed from Buck Rogers (American astronaut catapulted to far-flung galaxy populated by strange aliens), while the crew have something of Blake's 7 about them (a motley bunch of escaped convicts pursued by a relentless foe), and ideas such as the living ship are borrowed from Babylon 5. However the Farscape concept has a freshness that makes it look and feel completely original. The production design is all bio-mechanical curves and the script never takes itself too seriously (fart jokes and double-entendres pop up when you least expect them). It must have been expensive to make, but it certainly looks (and sounds) like every penny made it to the screen. In true Buck Rogers style, Ben Browder plays leading man John Crichton as an all-American astronaut, although with a more believable sense of bewilderment; the supporting cast is a mixture of Australian and British actors, mostly disguised under heavy make-up. There are two episodes on Volume 4. In "That Old Black Magic", a malevolent magician forces a confrontation between Crichton and his nemesis, Crais; Zhaan must revive her bad old ways in order to save the day. "DNA Mad Scientist" is the most original episode, with a neat twist on the Frankenstein scenario thanks to the splendid villain, Namtar; a distinctly unpleasant side to some of the characters is revealed as they bargain body parts in exchange for a map home. [+]
-Mark Walker.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 20 - Blood Oath / The Maquis Part 1 [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Siddig El Fadil
  • David Livingston
  • Winrich Kolbe
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Colm Meaney
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • Terry Farrell
Release date: 1994-08-22
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.84

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 20 - Blood Oath / The Maquis Part 1 [1995] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

From the outset, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was about conflict. Producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller challenged the utopian ideals of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe to create something totally different from its predecessors. This meant no familial camaraderie, squeaky-clean Federation diplomacy or beige décor. Instead they wanted interpersonal friction, ruthless enemies (Gamma Quadrant Imperialists-The Dominion) and rebellion at every turn. The DS9 concept was originally facilitated by introducing the Cardassian/Bajoran war during The Next Generation's final days. After a muted first reception fans gradually came to accept the new look, but no one liked Star Trek without a starship and eventually the producers capitulated to viewers' wishes by introducing the USS Defiant (an apt name) in Season 3. Relying far less on technobabble than TNG, DS9 was unafraid to focus on matters of the spirit instead, demonstrating a gutsy independence from its parent shows. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by Babylon 5, improved CGI space battles also became a fan favourite. Throughout the increasingly serialised story arc there were rebellious factions within the different establishments: Kira had belonged to the Shakaar resistance cell; The Maquis was Starfleet vs. Cardassians; Section 31 was a secret Starfleet group; The True Way was a Bajoran group opposed to peace; the Cardassians had their Obsidian Order and the Romulans their Gestapo-like Tal Shiar. [+]
Yet for all its constant bickering and espionage (even Bashir got to be James Bond), there was always some contemporary social commentary lurking: the Ferengi were used as a comedic foil to frown on materialistic greed; drugs were looked at via the Jem'Hadar foot soldiers' addiction to Ketracel White. Perhaps Sisko summed up the real heart of things: "Bajor doesn't need a man, it needs a legend". A future vision that retains a place for religion and spirituality turned out to be Deep Space Nine's first best destiny. -Paul Tonks.

Review Moonstone Pictures / Extra Terrestrial Visitors
Actors & Directors
  • Sara Palmer
  • Susanna Bequer
  • Juan Piquer Simón
  • Nina Ferrer
  • Óscar Martín (II)
  • Ian Sera
Release date: 1996-09-16
Run time: 80 min.
Price: £4.99

Review Extra Terrestrial Visitors / Moonstone Pictures:


Review Head on / Trekkers Scrapbook - Trek The Series [1995]
Release date: 1995-10-16
Price: £9.99

Review Trekkers Scrapbook - Trek The Series [1995] / Head on:


Review Manga Entertainment / Tokyo Revelation
Release date: 1997-08-11
Run time: 55 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £8.99

Review Tokyo Revelation / Manga Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek Voyager Vol 4.4 [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Roxann Dawson
  • Ethan Phillips
  • Kate Mulgrew
  • David Livingston
  • Allan Kroeker
  • Robert Beltran
  • Jeri Lynn Ryan
Release date: 1998-05-04
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £13.99

Review Star Trek Voyager Vol 4.4 [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Fabulous Films Ltd. / Blake's 7 - Aftermath / Power Play - Episodes 27 And 28 [1978]
Actors & Directors
  • Vivienne Cozens
  • Douglas Camfield
  • Fiona Cumming
  • Jonathan Wright-Miller
  • Viktors Ritelis
Release date: 1999-02-22
Run time: 103 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £12.71

Review Blake's 7 - Aftermath / Power Play - Episodes 27 And 28 [1978] / Fabulous Films Ltd.:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6 - The Nagus / Vortex [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • David Livingston
  • Nana Visitor
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Armin Shimerman
  • Avery Brooks
  • Winrich Kolbe
  • Colm Meaney
Release date: 1993-10-04
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £8.75

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6 - The Nagus / Vortex [1995] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

From the outset, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was about conflict. Producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller challenged the utopian ideals of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe to create something totally different from its predecessors. This meant no familial camaraderie, squeaky-clean Federation diplomacy or beige décor. Instead they wanted interpersonal friction, ruthless enemies (Gamma Quadrant Imperialists-The Dominion) and rebellion at every turn. The DS9 concept was originally facilitated by introducing the Cardassian/Bajoran war during The Next Generation's final days. After a muted first reception fans gradually came to accept the new look, but no one liked Star Trek without a starship and eventually the producers capitulated to viewers' wishes by introducing the USS Defiant (an apt name) in Season 3. Relying far less on technobabble than TNG, DS9 was unafraid to focus on matters of the spirit demonstrating a gutsy independence from its parent shows. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by Babylon 5, improved CGI space battles also became a fan favourite. Throughout the increasingly serialised story arc there were rebellious factions within the different establishments: Kira had belonged to the Shakaar resistance cell; The Maquis was Starfleet vs. Cardassians; Section 31 was a secret Starfleet group; The True Way was a Bajoran group opposed to peace; the Cardassians had their Obsidian Order and the Romulans their Gestapo-like Tal Shiar. [+]
Yet for all its constant bickering and espionage (even Bashir got to be James Bond) there was always some contemporary social commentary lurking: the Ferengi were used as a comedic foil to frown on materialistic greed; drugs were looked at via the Jem'Hadar foot soldiers' addiction to Ketracel White. Perhaps Sisko summed up the real heart of things: "Bajor doesn't need a man, it needs a legend". A future vision that retains a place for religion and spirituality turned out to be Deep Space Nine's first best destiny. -Paul Tonks.

Review Manga Entertainment / Zeguy
Actors & Directors
  • Shigenori Kageyama
Release date: 1994-09-12
Run time: 65 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Zeguy / Manga Entertainment:


Review Entertainment in Video / Crash And Burn [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Charles Band|Paul Ganus|Megan Ward|Bill Moseley
Release date: 1991-09-09
Run time: 81 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Crash And Burn [1989] / Entertainment in Video:


Review Mia Video Entertainment Ltd / A.P.E.X. [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Adam Lawson
  • Mitchell Cox
  • Phillip J. Roth
  • Marcus Aurelius
  • Richard Keats
  • Lisa Ann Russell
Release date: 1995-09-24
Run time: 98 min.
Price: £10.99

Review A.P.E.X. [1993] / Mia Video Entertainment Ltd:


Review Digital Video Distribution / Specimen [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Andrew Jackson (II)
  • Douglas O'Keeffe
  • Ingrid Kavelaars
  • David Kerman
  • John Bradshaw
  • Mark-Paul Gosselaar
Release date: 1999-06-21
Run time: 81 min.
Price: £6.99

Review Specimen [1996] / Digital Video Distribution:


Actors & Directors
  • Paul Reiser
  • Carrie Henn
  • Sigourney Weaver
  • James Cameron
  • Michael Biehn
  • Lance Henriksen
Release date: 1997-12-29
Run time: 132 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £2.49

Review Aliens [1986] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

James Cameron's Aliens digests all the virtues of Alien and regurgitates them bigger, louder and brasher than before. By the simple expedient of turning the singular beast of the original into a plural, Cameron transforms the franchise's focus from horror to all-out action. Sigourney Weaver's Ripley-one of the strongest roles for a female lead in mainstream cinema-is centre-stage throughout, more than able to hold her own either among the butch Marines and insectoid aliens. Although the director later revealed that there were only ever six alien costumes in any one shot, rapid-fire editing makes it seem like hundreds. Aliens is one of the most dynamic, viscerally exciting movies of the decade and, as a bug-fest, remained unsurpassed until the glorious Starship Troopers in 1997. On the DVD: The Director's Cut reinstates 17 crucial minutes of footage deleted from the theatrical release. It reveals how the colony on LV-426 encountered the aliens, and more importantly why Ripley's maternal bond with Newt is so strong, which adds an extra dimension to the film's climax. Also included is a short, fairly bland interview with James Cameron, recorded at the time of the cinema release, as well as some background explanation on how specific special effects were created. Unlike the Alien disc, there is no directorial commentary. -Mark Walker Aliens is one of the few cases of a sequel that far surpassed the original. [+]
Sigourney Weaver returns as Ripley, who awakens on Earth only to discover that she has been hibernating in space so long that everyone she knows is dead. Then she is talked into travelling (along with a squad of Marines) to a planet under assault by the same aliens that nearly killed her. Once she gets there, she finds a lost little girl who triggers her maternal instincts-and she discovers that the company has once again double-crossed her, in hopes of capturing one of the aliens to study as a military weapon. Directed and written by James Cameron, this is one of the most intensely exciting (not to mention intensely frightening) action films ever, with a large ensemble cast that includes Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Paul Reiser, and Michael Biehn. Weaver defined the action woman in this film and walked away with an Oscar nomination for her trouble. -Marshall Fine.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 3.4 - Civil Defense / Meridian
Actors & Directors
  • Siddig El Fadil
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Avery Brooks
  • Reza Badiyi
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • Terry Farrell
Release date: 1995-03-27
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.35

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 3.4 - Civil Defense / Meridian / Paramount Home Entertainment:

From the outset, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was about conflict. Producers Rick Berman and Michael Piller challenged the utopian ideals of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek universe to create something totally different from its predecessors. That meant no familial camaraderie, squeaky-clean Federation diplomacy, or beige décor. Instead they wanted interpersonal friction, ruthless enemies (Gamma Quadrant Imperialists-The Dominion) and rebellion at every turn. The DS9 concept was originally facilitated by introducing the Cardassian/Bajoran war during The Next Generation's final days. After a muted first reception fans gradually came to accept the new look, but no one liked Star Trek without a starship and eventually the producers capitulated to viewers' wishes by introducing the USS Defiant (an apt name) in Season 3. Relying far less on technobabble than TNG, DS9 was unafraid to focus on matters of the spirit instead, demonstrating a ballsy independence from its parent shows. Taking up the gauntlet thrown down by Babylon 5, improved CGI space battles also became a fan favourite. Throughout the increasingly serialised story arc there were rebellious factions within the different establishments: Kira had belonged to the Shakaar resistance cell; the Maquis was Starfleet vs Cardassians; section 31 was a secret Starfleet group; the True Way was a Bajoran group opposed to peace; the Cardassians had their Obsidian Order and the Romulans their Gestapo-like Tal Shiar. Yet for all its constant bickering and espionage (even Bashir got to be James Bond), there was always some contemporary social commentary lurking: the Ferengi were used as a comedic foil to frown on materialistic greed; drugs were looked at via the Jem'Hadar foot soldiers' addiction to Ketracel White. [+]
Perhaps Sisko summed up the real heart of things: "Bajor doesn't need a man, it needs a legend". A future vision that retains a place for religion and spirituality turned out to be Deep Space Nine's first best destiny. -Paul Tonks.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek 5 : The Final Frontier [1989]
Actors & Directors
  • Nichelle Nichols
  • William Shatner
  • Walter Koenig
  • Leonard Nimoy
  • William Shatner
  • DeForest Kelley
Release date: 1998-12-28
Run time: 102 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £2.49

Review Star Trek 5 : The Final Frontier [1989] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Almost universally derided on its first release as the worst of the Star Trek movies to date, The Final Frontier may just have been the victim of bad press. Following in the wake of the massively successful fourth instalment The Voyage Home didn't help matters (notoriously, even-numbered entries are better), nor did having novice director and shameless egomaniac William Shatner at the helm. But if the story, conceived and co-written by Shatner, teeters dangerously on the verge of being corny at times, it redeems itself with enough thought-provoking scenes in the best tradition of the series, and a surprisingly original finale. Granted there are a few too many yawning plot holes along the way, and the general tone is over-earnest (despite some painfully slapstick comedy moments), but the interaction of the central trio (Kirk, Spock and McCoy) is often funny and genuinely insightful; while Laurence Luckinbill is a charismatic adversary as the renegade Vulcan Sybok. True, the rest of the cast scarcely get a look in, and the special effects betray serious budgetary restrictions, but with a standout score from Jerry Goldsmith and a meaty philosophical premise to play around with, Star Trek V looks a lot more substantial in retrospect. Certainly it's no worse than either Generations or Insurrection, the next "odd-numbered" entries in the series. On the DVD: This is a non-anamorphic widescreen (2. 35:1) print, with only two trailers as extra features. Quite frankly, Star Trek fans are being short-changed. -Mark Walker.

Browse Science Fiction & Fantasy:

Models & Brands:
Psychic Wars, The Man Who Fell To Earth [1976], Babylon 5 Volume 14 [1994], Invaders, The - Vol. 1 - Beachhead / The Experiment [1967], The Omega Man [1972], Farscape Vol. 1.4 - 1.08 That Old Black Magic / 1.09 DNA Mad Scientist [1999], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 20 - Blood Oath / The Maquis Part 1 [1995], Extra Terrestrial Visitors, Trekkers Scrapbook - Trek The Series [1995], Tokyo Revelation, Star Trek Voyager Vol 4.4 [1996], Blake's 7 - Aftermath / Power Play - Episodes 27 And 28 [1978], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6 - The Nagus / Vortex [1995], Zeguy, Crash And Burn [1989], A.P.E.X. [1993], Specimen [1996], Aliens [1986], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 3.4 - Civil Defense / Meridian, Star Trek 5 : The Final Frontier [1989]

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