Review, buy Science Fiction & Fantasy: Blake's 7 - Way Back / Space Fall - Episodes 1 And 2 [1978], Forbidden Planet, Planet Of The Apes [1967], Doctor Who - The Rescue / The Romans [1964] [1965], Highlander: The Beast Below, Lifepod [1993], Star Wars [1977], The Avengers - Vol. 19 - A Surfeit Of H2O / Superlative Seven [1966], Tron [1982], Doctor Who The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [1963], Star Trek The Next Generation 35 : Hollow Pursuits / The Most Toys [1990], Downtime, The Avengers - Vol. 3 - A Touch Of Brimstone / The Bird Who Knew Too Much, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Siegfried [1924], Star Trek The Next Generation: Descent - The Full Length TV Movie [1990], The Empire Strikes Back - Special Edition [1980], doctor who, the gunfighters, Doctor Who - Timelash [1985], Doctor Who

What's interesting about this video is also what makes it seem amateurish at first: it is neither endorsed nor authorised by 20th Century Fox or Lucasfilm. The result: a montage of interviews with everybody of importance to the Star Wars world-from George Lucas and Liam Neeson to Samuel L. Jackson and Harrison Ford, with intelligently written voice-over narration, and a unique exploration of Star Wars and Star Trek together. This is at once an homage to the Star Wars trilogies and a documentary of its sci-fi precursors, from silent film to Star Trek. Since this collection of interviews isn't authorised by Lucasfilm, you won't find footage of the Star Wars movies here, although you will find terrific snippets from sci-fi milestones such as Fritz Lang's Metropolis. A youthful Carrie Fisher talk about the interplanetary appeal of the original Star Wars, while a 20-years-older Fischer talks about the films' fairytale-like grasp across generations. Young and older Harrison Fords and Mark Hamill give interesting perspectives as well; the video also sports one of the longer interviews recorded with the man inside C-3PO. Besides the actual cast and crew of the Star Wars movies, including The Phantom Menace, there are interviews here with stars as fans, famous people who love the movies as much as anyone: Sharon Stone, Gary Busey, Hugh Hefner, Magic Johnson, Christina Ricci and William Shatner. A fun and provocative look through uncensored interviews across the spectrum at all that is Star Wars, worthy of any fan's archive, this is a must for any serious collection. -Erik Macki.

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The Avengers - Vol. 19 - A Surfeit Of H2O / Superlative Seven [1966] (Lumiere Pictures)

Actors & Directors

Diana Rigg
Albert Lieven
Charlotte Rampling
Sidney Hayers
Patrick Macnee
Noel Purcell

Release date: 1995-01-30
Run time: 100 min.
Price: £10.99

Review The Avengers - Vol. 19 - A Surfeit Of H2O / Superlative Seven [1966] / Lumiere Pictures:

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Tron [1982] (Walt Disney Home Video)

Actors & Directors

Steven Lisberger
David Warner
Bruce Boxleitner
Cindy Morgan
Jeff Bridges

Run time: 92 min.
RRP: ~~£9.99~~
Price: £14.99

Review Tron [1982] / Walt Disney Home Video:

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Review 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [1963]

Doctor Who The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [1963] (2 Entertain Video)

Actors & Directors

Chris Jury
Alan Wareing
Ricco Ross
Sylvester McCoy
T.P. McKenna
Peggy Mount

Release date: 2000-01-24
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: ~~£12.99~~
Price: £19.98

Review Doctor Who The Greatest Show in the Galaxy [1963] / 2 Entertain Video:

Doctor Who isn't really known for its villains having a high level of creepiness for anyone over the age of 10 but if you have any sort of clown phobia, this adventure is sure to confirm your worst fears about them. The Doctor (Sylvester McCoy) and his companion Ace land on a barren planet that is hosting the Psychic Circus, which has fallen on hard times. Now, any soul unfortunate enough to stumble into the big top is forced to entertain in the centre ring with typically fatal results. The Doctor tries to find out who or what is behind it all and the resulting story comes off like an allegory for the series itself. After a creative slump in the mid-1980s, Doctor Who was finding its footing again, although the story is burdened by throwing as many disparate elements as possible (including an animated corpse, a wolf girl and even the Gods of Ragnarok) into the mix. The Gods, not unlike the audience, demand to be kept entertained, but for the most part the best the Doctor can do is some cheap conjuring tricks while waiting for the inevitable climax. The most effective element throughout is the menace provided by Ian Reddingon (a regular on EastEnders) as the Chief Clown, sending victims to their doom with wave of his hand and a perpetual smile painted on his face. -Ryan K. Johnson.

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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation 35 : Hollow Pursuits / The Most Toys [1990]

Star Trek The Next Generation 35 : Hollow Pursuits / The Most Toys [1990] (Paramount Home Entertainment)

Actors & Directors

Nehemiah Persoff
Whoopi Goldberg
Timothy Bond
Cliff Bole
Colm Meaney
Jonathan Frakes
Charles Lang

Release date: 1992-01-20
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: ~~£10.99~~
Price: £4.95

Review Star Trek The Next Generation 35 : Hollow Pursuits / The Most Toys [1990] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

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Downtime (Reeltime Pictures)

Actors & Directors

Elisabeth Sladen
Nicholas Courtney
Debbie Watling
Jack Watling
Christopher Barry

Release date: 2000-01-24
Run time: 68 min.
RRP: ~~£11.99~~
Price: £19.99

Review Downtime / Reeltime Pictures:

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The Avengers - Vol. 3 - A Touch Of Brimstone / The Bird Who Knew Too Much (Lumiere Pictures)

Actors & Directors

Linda Thorson
Patrick Macnee

Release date: 1993-10-25
Run time: 98 min.
RRP: ~~£10.99~~
Price: £9.99

Review The Avengers - Vol. 3 - A Touch Of Brimstone / The Bird Who Knew Too Much / Lumiere Pictures:

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2001: A Space Odyssey (Warner)

Actors & Directors

Keir Dullea
Stanley Kubrick
Daniel Richter
William Sylvester
Gary Lockwood
Leonard Rossiter

Release date: 2001-09-10
RRP: ~~£12.99~~
Price: £10.99

Review 2001: A Space Odyssey / Warner:

A daring experiment in unconventional narrative inspired by Arthur C Clarke's short story "The Sentinel", 2001: A Space Odyssey is a visual tone poem (barely 40 minutes of dialogue in a 139-minute film) that charts a phenomenal history of human evolution. When Stanley Kubrick recruited Clarke to collaborate on "the proverbial intelligent science fiction film", it's a safe bet neither the maverick auteur nor the great science fiction writer knew they would virtually redefine the parameters of the cinema experience with the result. From the dawn-of-man discovery of crude but deadly tools in the film's opening sequence to the journey of the spaceship Discovery and metaphysical birth of the "star child" at film's end, Kubrick's vision is meticulous and precise. In keeping with the director's underlying theme of dehumanisation by technology, the notorious, seemingly omniscient, computer HAL 9000 has more warmth and personality than the human astronauts it is supposedly serving. (The director also leaves the meaning of the black, rectangular alien monoliths open for discussion. ) This theme, in part, is what makes 2001 a film like no other, though dated now that its post-millennial space exploration has proven optimistic compared to reality. Still, the film is timelessly provocative in its pioneering exploration of inner and outer-space consciousness. With spectacular, painstakingly authentic special effects that have stood the test of time, Kubrick's film is nothing less than a cinematic milestone-puzzling, provocative and perfect. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

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Siegfried [1924] (Tartan Video)

Actors & Directors

Margarete Schön
Paul Richter
Fritz Lang
Theodor Loos
Gertrud Arnold
Hanna Ralph

Release date: 1994-08-22
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: ~~£15.99~~
Price: £15.99

Review Siegfried [1924] / Tartan Video:

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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation: Descent - The Full Length TV Movie [1990]

Star Trek The Next Generation: Descent - The Full Length TV Movie [1990] (Paramount Home Entertainment)

Actors & Directors

Jonathan Frakes
John Neville
Alexander Singer
Alex Datcher
Jim Norton
Patrick Stewart

Release date: 1995-04-24
Run time: 82 min.
RRP: ~~£5.99~~
Price: £4.83

Review Star Trek The Next Generation: Descent - The Full Length TV Movie [1990] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

In 1987, some 20 years after the original series had ended, Star Trek: The Next Generation was launched into a decade renowned for its materialistic greed, but also for its hesitant steps towards a more unified world order. Creator Gene Roddenberry revised his vision of humanity's future accordingly, shifting the Trek timeline 80 years on and reinventing the new Starship Enterprise as an Ark-like exploration vessel full of families, schools, soothing recreational facilities and a maternally pacifying computer voice (Roddenberry's wife, Majel Barrett). The Next Generation crew were not soldiers, but scientists and diplomats. Unlike the fiercely individualistic Captain Kirk, Patrick Stewart's patrician Captain Jean-Luc Picard was a model team leader: no matter how desperate the crisis, he ensured that everyone got to sit round the Conference Room table and talk it over. And in a true late-1980s touch, a key member of the Bridge crew was psychoanalyst Counsellor Troi, always on hand to discuss everyone's feelings. Season Two saw the welcome introduction of the cybernetic horror that was the Borg. Originally a powerful symbol of technological misuse in an otherwise technologically utopian universe, ultimately their hive-like existence served to reinforce the message that everyone would be much happier as a team player. Even renegade super-entity Q (John De Lancie) relied on Picard as much as his fellow god-like playmates; Data followed Pinocchio and Spock in a quest to discard what made him an individual; and there was even an episode that rationalised why all aliens basically looked alike (we're all one big family). Even the slogan change to "Where no one has gone before" acknowledges that there's no "one" in a team. But for all its earnest political correctness and an over-reliance on "technobabble", good stories played by an appealing ensemble cast were at the heart of the show's success. [+]

After seven successful seasons, "All Good Things" finally came to an end. Until Deep Space Nine, Voyager and Enterprise, that is. -Paul Tonks.

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