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Review Sony Pictures Home Entertainment / Ray Harryhausen Sci-Fi Series - 20 Million Miles To Earth / It Came From Beneath The Sea [1957]
Actors & Directors
  • Nathan Juran
  • Frank Puglia
  • Thomas Browne Henry
  • William Hopper
  • Joan Taylor
  • Robert Gordon
  • John Zaremba
Release date: 1993-03-08
Run time: 155 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £10.99

Review Ray Harryhausen Sci-Fi Series - 20 Million Miles To Earth / It Came From Beneath The Sea [1957] / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment:


Review Sovereign Multimedia Ltd / Survivors 3 - Gone To The Angels / Garland's War [1975]
Actors & Directors
  • Gerald Blake
  • Terence Williams
  • Lucy Fleming
  • Carolyn Seymour
Release date: 1998-06-08
Run time: 99 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £5.45

Review Survivors 3 - Gone To The Angels / Garland's War [1975] / Sovereign Multimedia Ltd:


Review Manga Entertainment / Cyber City OEDO 808 - Files 1 To 3 [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Yoshiaki Kawajiri
  • Michael M. Simpson
  • Bob Sherman
  • Bruce Martin (IX)
  • Sean Barrett (II)
  • Marc Smith
Release date: 1996-04-15
Run time: 127 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Cyber City OEDO 808 - Files 1 To 3 [1990] / Manga Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Babylon 5 - A Call To Arms [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Vejar
  • Bruce Boxleitner
  • Jeff Conaway
  • Jerry Doyle
  • Peter Woodward
  • Carrie Dobro
Release date: 1999-08-02
Run time: 90 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £0.99

Review Babylon 5 - A Call To Arms [1999] / Warner Home Video:

We were promised that it would all end "in fire". Maybe at the end of its five-year run Babylon 5 fulfilled that promise for some viewers, but the announcement that a spin-off series, Crusade would serve to complete story threads moved the goalposts for most. It was a brave idea to attempt bridging the segue into Crusade via this fourth TV movie, but after the ending given by the episode "Sleeping in Light", the timing seems a little last-minute. Bruce Boxleitner gives one last greyed-up and chiselled performance as Sheridan-now President of the new Alliance. Overseeing an unveiled fleet of prototype Victory Destroyer ships, he receives visions offering warning about a lingering danger despite the end of the Shadow War. Though advised and manipulated by Technomage Galen (Peter Woodward), Sheridan is still unable to prevent the unleashing of the Drakh's last Planet Killer weapon. Infused in Earth's atmosphere, this plague will take five years to go "live" and then kill every last human. So begins the premise for the new show. It's a little too incomplete to satisfy as an individual movie. Watching it in conjunction with "War Zone" (the Crusade pilot episode) will give a better understanding of what's motivating everyone. [+]
-Paul Tonks The epic SF series Babylon 5 was a unique experiment in the history of television. It was effectively a novel for television in five seasons, consisting of 110 episodes with a clear beginning, middle and end. The first season introduces the main characters, headed this year by Commander Jeffery Sinclair (Michael O'Hare) and Security Chief Michael Garibaldi (Jerry Doyle), and familiarises the audience with the unique environment of a five-mile-long space station in the year 2257. The first episode, "Midnight on the Firing Line", plays at a breathless pace, introducing Commander Susan Ivanova (Claudia Christian) and establishing the conflict between the Narn and Centauri races as represented by their ambassadors, G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) and Londo Mollari (Peter Jurasik). Then follow several mediocre episodes which initially give the impression that B5 is a Star Trek clone afflicted with "silly alien of the week" syndrome. Episodes such as "Soul Hunter" and "Infection" are best watched in hindsight, with knowledge of how good the show later became. With "And the Sky Full of Stars" B5 really begins to hit its stride, Sinclair being forced to relive his mysterious experiences during the Earth-Minbari war. Filler shows such as "TKO" are notable only for being controversially violent, while the disappointing "Grail" points to writer-creator J. Michael Straczynski's fascination with Arthurian mythology. "Signs and Portents" introduces the sinister Mr Morden (Ed Wasser) and offers the chilling first appearance of ancient alien threat, the Shadows. B5 hits warp speed with a run of exceptional episodes building to the season finale. The two-part "A Voice in the Wilderness" has Mars breaking into open revolt against Earth and the discovery of a "Great Machine" on the dead world Epsilon 3. Referencing 1950s SF classic Forbidden Planet, the story leads to the superb time travel-based "Babylon Squared". Season finale "Chrysalis" proves more than just the usual television cliff-hanger, placing Minbari ambassador Delenn in conflict with her ruling Grey Council and forcing on her a decision which laid the groundwork for Babylon 5 eventually to become a great love story. -Gary S Dalkin.

Review Warner Home Video / Soylent Green - Special Collector's Edition (1973)
Actors & Directors
  • Charlton Heston
  • Brock Peters
  • Richard Fleischer
  • Chuck Connors
  • Joseph Cotten
  • Leigh Taylor-Young
Release date: 1995-08-14
Run time: 93 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £13.90

Review Soylent Green - Special Collector's Edition (1973) / Warner Home Video:

While Soylent Green may be one of the many dystopian visions of the future, the film stands out because it's one of the few titles that addresses current environmental issues head on. Adapted from Harry Harrison's novel Make Room, Make Room, it gives us a nightmarish vision of an over-populated, polluted future on the brink of collapse-a vision that gets uncomfortably closer every year. Charlton Heston as police officer Thorn investigates a murder in between suppressing food riots and uncovers the nightmarish truth about Soylent Green, the new foodstuff being sold to the poor. The film neatly combines police procedural with conspiracy thriller. Heston's scenes are counterpointed by more elegiac ones in which the centenarian Edward G Robinson as his friend Sol broods on the world he has outlived-his death in a euthanasia chamber is a gloriously lachrymose moment, which he plays to the hilt. Heston, too, is good as Thorn, a morally equivocal cop who loots the apartments of the victims whose deaths he investigates-he's a man just getting by in an impossible world. On the DVD: Soylent Green on disc comes with a commentary from director Richard Fleischer, the highpoint of which is a memorable description of what it was like to work with the brilliant ailing, entirely deaf Robinson. He is joined by Leigh Taylor-Young whose work on the film as heroine led to years of serious environmentalist commitment. It has a useful contemporary making-of documentary and touching shots of Robinson's 100th birthday party with telegrams from Sinatra and others. The feature itself is presented in anamorphic widescreen with its original mono sound. [+]
-Roz Kaveney.

Review MGM Entertainment / Stargate SG-1 Vol. 2.4 - Missions 2.07 & 2.08 [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • Don Davis
  • Michael Shanks
  • Jay Acovone
  • William Gereghty
  • David Warry-Smith
  • Richard Dean Anderson
  • Amanda Tapping
Release date: 2000-04-24
Run time: 84 min.
Price: £7.99

Review Stargate SG-1 Vol. 2.4 - Missions 2.07 & 2.08 [1998] / MGM Entertainment:

The 1994 film Stargate was originally intended as the start of a franchise, but creators Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin were distracted celebrating their Independence Day. Episodic TV treatment was the natural next step. Since neither Kurt Russell nor James Spader would be able to commit, it gave the producers licence to tinker with the cast and the universe they'd explore. Replacing the roles of Colonel Jack O'Neill and Dr Daniel Jackson respectively are Richard Dean Anderson and Michael Shanks. They're joined by Captain Samantha Carter (Amanda Tapping) and guilt-stricken former alien baddie Teal'c (Christopher Judge) to form the teacher's pet primary unit SG-1 With a seemingly endless network of Stargates found to exist on planets all across the known universe, their mission is to make first contact with as many friendly races as possible. Chasing their heels at almost every turn are the "overlord" pharaoh-like Goa'uld-the ancient Egyptian Gods who are none too chummy after the events of the original film. The welcome notion of a continued plot thread sees offshoots that follow the reincarnation of Daniel's wife, Sam's father literally joining a renegade faction of the Goa'uld, and Jack in an unending quest to out-sarcasm everyone. There's something of The Time Tunnel to the show's premise, but amid a dearth of derivative look-a-likes, Stargate has held its own with stories that put the science fiction back into TV sci-fi. On this tape there's a rather unfriendly "Message in a Bottle" delivered to O'Neill in the form of a spear through his shoulder. This fantastic episode demonstrates every aspect of the show's appeal. [+]
In "Family", Teal'c's son Rya'c performs a role reversal on his father that puts the Goa'uld's motivations in question. -Paul Tonks.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 5.13 - In the Cards / A Call To Arms Pt.I [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Avery Brooks
  • Steven Berkoff
  • Allan Kroeker
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Michael Dorn
  • Michael Dorn
  • Terry Farrell
Release date: 1997-10-20
Run time: 88 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 5.13 - In the Cards / A Call To Arms Pt.I [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. That meant no familial camaraderie, squeaky-clean Federation diplomacy, or beige décor. Instead they wanted inter-personal 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 Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.7 - Far Beyond The Stars / One Little Ship
Actors & Directors
  • Terry Farrell
  • Michael Dorn
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • Allan Kroeker
  • Avery Brooks
  • Avery Brooks
Release date: 1998-07-06
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.97

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.7 - Far Beyond The Stars / One Little Ship / 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 inter-personal 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 Fabulous Films Ltd. / Dark Star [1974]
Actors & Directors
  • John Carpenter
  • Brian Narelle
  • Cal Kuniholm
  • Dan O'Bannon
  • Dre Pahich
  • Adam Beckenbaugh
Release date: 1997-07-21
Run time: 79 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £13.31

Review Dark Star [1974] / Fabulous Films Ltd.:

The crew of the spaceship Dark Star are on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonisation by using smart bombs which zoom off cheerfully to do their duty. But unlike the orderly inhabitants of Star Trek's Enterprise, the nerves of this crew are becoming frayed to the point of psychosis. Their captain has been killed by a radiation leak that also destroyed their toilet paper. "Don't give me any of that 'Intelligent Life' stuff", says Commander Doolittle when presented with the possibility of alien life, "Find me something I can blow up". When an asteroid storm causes a malfunction, Bomb Number 20 (the most cheerful character in the film) has to be repeatedly talked out of exploding prematurely, each time becoming more and more peevish, until they have to teach him phenomenology to make him doubt his existence. And the film's apocalyptic ending, lifted almost wholly from Ray Bradbury's short story "Kaleidoscope" has the remaining crew drifting away from each other in space, each to a suitably absurd end. Absurd, surreal and very funny. John Carpenter once described Dark Star as "Waiting for Godot in space". Made at a cost of practically nothing, the film's effects are nevertheless impressive and, along with the number of ideas crammed into its 83 minutes, ought to shame makers of science fiction films costing hundreds of times more. -Jim Gay.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.3 - Favour of the Bold Pt.I / Sacrifice of Angels Pt.II
Actors & Directors
  • Terry Farrell
  • Winrich Kolbe
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Allan Kroeker
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • Avery Brooks
  • Michael Dorn
Release date: 1998-04-06
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.39

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.3 - Favour of the Bold Pt.I / Sacrifice of Angels Pt.II / 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.

Price: £9.99

Review Lost in Space 3-Hungry Sea:


Review Warner Home Video / The Omega Man [1972]
Actors & Directors
  • Paul Koslo
  • Boris Sagal
  • Eric Laneuville
  • Anthony Zerbe
  • Rosalind Cash
  • 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 Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.13 - What You Leave Behind [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Dorn
  • Allan Kroeker
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Avery Brooks
Release date: 1999-12-27
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £7.98

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.13 - What You Leave Behind [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. That meant no familial camaraderie, squeaky-clean Federation diplomacy, or beige décor. Instead they wanted inter-personal 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 : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.6 - Waltz / Who Mourns For Morn? [1997]
Actors & Directors
  • Avery Brooks
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Victor Lobl
  • Michael Dorn
  • Rene Auberjonois
Release date: 1998-06-15
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £6.98

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.6 - Waltz / Who Mourns For Morn? [1997] / 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 2 Entertain Video / Doctor Who - The Web Planet - Double Video : Parts 1 And 2 [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • William Hartnell
  • Richard Martin
Release date: 1990-09-10
Run time: 146 min.
Price: £19.99

Review Doctor Who - The Web Planet - Double Video : Parts 1 And 2 [1965] / 2 Entertain Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.4 - You Are Cordially Invited / Resurrection
Actors & Directors
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • LeVar Burton
  • Colm Meaney
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Michael Dorn
  • David Livingston
  • Terry Farrell
Release date: 1998-05-04
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.42

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.4 - You Are Cordially Invited / Resurrection / 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 Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.5 - Covenant / It's Only A Paper Moon [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • John T. Kretchmer
  • Avery Brooks
  • Anson Williams
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Michael Dorn
Release date: 1999-06-07
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.50

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.5 - Covenant / It's Only A Paper Moon [1999] / 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 inter-personal 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 Warner Home Video / Forbidden Planet [1956]
Actors & Directors
  • Walter Pidgeon
  • Warren Stevens
  • Leslie Nielsen
  • Anne Francis
  • Jack Kelly
  • Fred M. Wilcox
Release date: 1995-07-17
Run time: 94 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £13.24

Review Forbidden Planet [1956] / Warner Home Video:

This 1956 pop adaptation of Shakespeare's The Tempest is one of the best, most influential science fiction movies ever made. Its space explorers are the models for the crew of Star Trek's Enterprise, and the film's robot is clearly the prototype for Robby in Lost in Space. Walter Pidgeon is the Prospero figure, presiding over a paradisiacal world with his lovely young daughter and their servile droid. When the crew of a spaceship lands on the planet, they become aware of a sinister invisible force that threatens to destroy them. Great special effects and a bizarre electronic score help make Forbidden Planet as fresh, imaginative and fun as it was when first released.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.1 - A Time To Stand / Rocks and Shoals
Actors & Directors
  • Avery Brooks
  • Michael Vejar
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Michael Dorn
  • Allan Kroeker
  • Terry Farrell
Release date: 1998-02-02
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.39

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.1 - A Time To Stand / Rocks and Shoals / 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 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / Alien [1979]
Actors & Directors
  • Tom Skerritt
  • Sigourney Weaver
  • Harry Dean Stanton
  • Ridley Scott
  • Veronica Cartwright
  • John Hurt
Release date: 1997-12-29
Run time: 116 min.
RRP: £9.99
Price: £0.93

Review Alien [1979] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

By transplanting the classic haunted house scenario into space, Ridley Scott, together with screenwriters Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, produced a work of genuinely original cinematic sci-fi with Alien that, despite the passage of years and countless inferior imitations, remains shockingly fresh even after repeated viewing. Scott's legendary obsession with detail ensures that the setting is thoroughly conceived, while the Gothic production design and Jerry Goldsmith's wonderfully unsettling score produce a sense of disquiet from the outset: everything about the spaceship Nostromo-from Tupperware to toolboxes-seems oddly familiar yet disconcertingly. well, alien. Nothing much to speak of happens for at least the first 30 minutes, and that in a way is the secret of the film's success: the audience has been nervously peering round every corner for so long that by the time the eponymous beast claims its first victim, the release of pent-up anxiety is all the more effective. Although Sigourney Weaver ultimately takes centre-stage, the ensemble cast is uniformly excellent. The remarkably low-tech effects still look good (better in many places than the CGI of the sequels), while the nightmarish quality of H. R. Giger's bio-mechanical creature and set design is enhanced by camerawork that tantalises by what it doesn't reveal. [+]
On the DVD: The director, audibly pausing to puff on his cigar at regular intervals, provides an insightful commentary which, in tandem with superior sound and picture, sheds light into some previously unexplored dark recesses of this much-analysed, much-discussed movie (why the crew eat muesli, for example, or where the "rain" in the engine room is coming from). Deleted scenes include the famous "cocoon" sequence, the completion of the creature's insect-like life-cycle for which cinema audiences had to wait until 1986 and James Cameron's Aliens. Isolated audio tracks, a picture gallery of production artwork and a "making of" documentary complete a highly attractive DVD package. -Mark Walker.

Models & Brands:
Ray Harryhausen Sci-Fi Series - 20 Million Miles To Earth / It Came From Beneath The Sea [1957], Survivors 3 - Gone To The Angels / Garland's War [1975], Cyber City OEDO 808 - Files 1 To 3 [1990], Babylon 5 - A Call To Arms [1999], Soylent Green - Special Collector's Edition (1973), Stargate SG-1 Vol. 2.4 - Missions 2.07 & 2.08 [1998], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 5.13 - In the Cards / A Call To Arms Pt.I [1995], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.7 - Far Beyond The Stars / One Little Ship, Dark Star [1974], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.3 - Favour of the Bold Pt.I / Sacrifice of Angels Pt.II, Lost in Space 3-Hungry Sea, The Omega Man [1972], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.13 - What You Leave Behind [1995], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.6 - Waltz / Who Mourns For Morn? [1997], Doctor Who - The Web Planet - Double Video : Parts 1 And 2 [1965], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.4 - You Are Cordially Invited / Resurrection, Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.5 - Covenant / It's Only A Paper Moon [1999], Forbidden Planet [1956], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 6.1 - A Time To Stand / Rocks and Shoals, Alien [1979]

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