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Review Star Wars Trilogy / Fox:


Review Kiseki Films / Robotech - Vol. 4 - Blind Game / First Contact / The Big Escape
Actors & Directors
  • J. Jay Smith
  • Robert V. Barron
  • Rebecca Forstadt
  • Mary Cobb
  • Jean-Claude Ballard
  • Eddie Frierson
Release date: 2002-08-01
Run time: 71 min.
Price: £7.99

Review Robotech - Vol. 4 - Blind Game / First Contact / The Big Escape / Kiseki Films:

Although it helped to create an international audience for Japanese animation, Robotech (1985) has always been an anomaly: an anime series that was never seen in Japan in its final form. Producers at Harmony Gold edited together footage from Super Dimension Fortress: Macross, Genesis Climber Mospeada and Super-dimensional Cavalry Southern Cross, three similar-looking series from Tatsunoko Studios, to create an 85-episode sci-fi epic with a new story line. Toys, role-playing games and novelisations have kept Robotech alive in the hearts of its fans long after it went off air. As the adventure continues, the crew of the SDF-1 tries out a new defence system, overtaxes it and devastates 25 square miles of the Earth. Not surprisingly, the government orders the ship back into space; the Zentraedi believe they are facing a terrible new weapon and launch a series of assaults. Enchanted with the freer way of life they've found aboard the SDF, three Zentraedi spies defect. When Lisa discovers their two races are almost identical biochemically, she takes the information to Earth to try to persuade the government to open peace negotiations. While Human-Zentraedi relations improve, interpersonal relations among humans grow increasingly complicated: the bond between Lisa and Rick intensifies, Minmei becomes more involved with Kyle and Max is smitten with Miriya, another Zentraedi spy. The prints of several of these episodes have faded badly: some lines appear and disappear and the characters' faces have a weird, splotchy look. -Charles Solomon, Amazon. [+]
com.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 4.1 [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • Rob Bowman
  • Cliff Bole
  • Brent Spiner
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Les Landau
Release date: 2001-03-19
Run time: 131 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.50

Review Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 4.1 [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.

Review Digital Video Distribution / Graveyard Tramps [1973]
Actors & Directors
  • Victoria Vetri
  • Anitra Ford
  • Cliff Osmond
  • William Smith
  • Wright King
  • Denis Sanders
Release date: 1995-12-27
Run time: 85 min.
Price: £5.99

Review Graveyard Tramps [1973] / Digital Video Distribution:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Farscape Vol. 1.7 - 1.15 Durka Returns / 1.16 A Human Reaction [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Ian Watson (II)
  • Geoff Bennett (II)
  • Tony Tilse
Release date: 2000-08-07
Run time: 110 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £5.90

Review Farscape Vol. 1.7 - 1.15 Durka Returns / 1.16 A Human Reaction [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 like the living ship are borrowed from Babylon 5, but 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-in Dolby Digital 5. 1) 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. Series One continues with two more episodes on this tape: "Durka Returns", in which the crew meet the beautiful Chiana as well as Rygel's old tormentor, Captain Durka; and "A Human Reaction", where Crichton finally gets back to Earth but with unfortunate results for the rest of Moya's crew. -Mark Walker.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The Empire Strikes Back [1980]
Actors & Directors
  • Carrie Fisher
  • Billy Dee Williams
  • Anthony Daniels
  • Irvin Kershner
  • Mark Hamill
  • Harrison Ford
Release date: 1995-10-16
Run time: 119 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £2.62

Review The Empire Strikes Back [1980] / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Tekwar 2 - TekLords [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Torri Higginson
  • William Shatner
  • George Bloomfield
  • Greg Evigan
  • Eugene Clark
Run time: 86 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Tekwar 2 - TekLords [1994] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Kiseki Films / Robotech - Vol. 7 - Bursting Point / Paradise Lost [1985]
Actors & Directors
  • Mary Cobb
  • Rebecca Forstadt
  • Jean-Claude Ballard
  • Robert V. Barron
  • J. Jay Smith
  • Eddie Frierson
Release date: 1997-03-24
Run time: 75 min.
Price: £7.99

Review Robotech - Vol. 7 - Bursting Point / Paradise Lost [1985] / Kiseki Films:


Review Reeltime Pictures / Mindgame
Actors & Directors
  • Miles Richardson
  • Toby Aspin
  • Sophie Aldred
  • Keith Barnfather
  • Bryan Robson
Release date: 1998-09-14
Run time: 32 min.
Price: £11.99

Review Mindgame / Reeltime Pictures:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Farscape - Vol. 2.1 - 2.01 Mind The Baby / 2.02 Vitas Mortis / 2.03 Taking The Stone [1999]
Actors & Directors
  • Geoff Bennett (II)
  • Tony Tilse
  • Ian Watson (II)
Release date: 2001-03-12
Run time: 135 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £3.55

Review Farscape - Vol. 2.1 - 2.01 Mind The Baby / 2.02 Vitas Mortis / 2.03 Taking The Stone [1999] / Contender Entertainment Group:

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, but taking a visual and conceptual leap beyond those shows. Making extensive use of CGI, prosthetics and state-of-the-art puppetry, (courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop), 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, which is peppered with post-modern pop culture references and movie in-jokes, never takes itself too seriously. It may be expensive to make, but it certainly looks (and sounds-in Dolby Digital 5. 1) like every penny made it to the screen. Ben Browder plays leading man John Crichton as a latter-day Buck Rogers, but with an entirely believable sense of bewilderment, not to mention loss; the rest of the living ship Moya's crew also have plenty of difficult issues to deal with, allowing Farscape's writers licence to develop their characters in often unexpected ways. The result is episodic TV sci-fi that continually pushes at the accepted boundaries of the format. On this tape: After the nail-biting cliffhanger at the end of the first series, the second series gets off to a shaky start in "Mind the Baby", as all the loose plot ends have to be gathered and resolved. Crais apparently has a change of heart, and Scorpius takes his place as Crichton's new nemesis. In "Vitas Mortis" D'Argo falls for a lonely Luxan, with catastrophic and barely plausible results for Moya. [+]
"Taking the Stone" showcases Chiana's grief in an episode that manages to be even more confusing. -Mark Walker.

Review Manga Entertainment / Fist Of The North Star - Vol. 5
Actors & Directors
  • Toshio Furukawa
  • Chikao Ôtsuka
  • Toyoo Ashida
  • Yuriko Yamamoto
  • Akira Kamiya
  • Kenji Utsumi
Release date: 1999-09-13
Run time: 64 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.99

Review Fist Of The North Star - Vol. 5 / Manga Entertainment:


Review Kiseki Films / M.D. Geist - Death Force
Actors & Directors
  • Dave Couch
  • Joan Baker
  • Barry Banner
  • Hayato Ikeda
  • Koichi Ohata
  • Gordon Miller (II)
  • Jason Beck (II)
Release date: 2000-01-24
Run time: 44 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £1.10

Review M.D. Geist - Death Force / Kiseki Films:


Actors & Directors
  • Tony Dow
  • Alex Mendoza
Release date: 2000-07-10
Price: £49.99

Review Crusade [1999] / Warner Home Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek Voyager - The haunting of deck twelve & Unimatrix zero - Volume 6.13 [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Beltran
  • Kate Mulgrew
  • David Livingston
  • Allan Kroeker
  • Roxann Dawson
Release date: 2001-01-22
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £13.95

Review Star Trek Voyager - The haunting of deck twelve & Unimatrix zero - Volume 6.13 [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Star Trek: Voyager, the first Trek spin-off to be made without any input at all from Gene Roddenberry, made its debut in 1995 and quickly established itself both as markedly different from cosmic cousin Deep Space Nine and as the successor to The Next Generation. Despite a lack of originality in its premise (Lost in Space anyone?), Voyager has been a bigger ratings success than any of its predecessors. Catapulted unwittingly to the far-flung Delta Quadrant, the crew of the Federation vessel Voyager must try somehow to get back home. The ghost of Katherine Hepburn lives on in Kate Mulgrew's forceful Captain Janeway. Until the fourth season, the fan favourite was the straight-funny man role of Robert Picardo's nameless Doctor. Then, with the brave Borg storyline "Scorpion Part 2", a serious improvement in the show's behind-the-scenes thinking introduced actress Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, who immediately upped sex appeal and viewing numbers. -Paul Tonks On this tape: Told in retrospect to the Borg children by Neelix, "The Haunting of Deck Twelve" involves Voyager enduring a complete power shut-down while passing through a nebula. "The Haunting" of course isn't a ghost but a non-corporeal-living-nebula-creature that manifests itself in a series of malfunctions throughout the ship. Like other "ship malfunction" stories it can't create enough drama to sustain an entire episode. "Unimatrix Zero" takes another twist on Borg individuality by creating a "dream realm" for their individual minds to inhabit when regenerating. [+]
Seven of Nine infiltrates the group but the Borg aren't far behind. The use of the Borg Queen as the adversary devalues the collective quality that the Borg maintained throughout earlier episodes. It's familiar ground, especially when the last two-part Borg episode, "Dark Frontier", had already dealt with the Voyager crew invading the Borg and it seems that the majority of this episode is a build-up to the cliff-hanger final scene that ends the season. -Colin Neal.

Review MGM Entertainment / The Outer Limits - Vol. 2 - Man With The Power / The Architects Of Fear [1963]
Actors & Directors
  • Byron Haskin
  • Priscilla Morrill
  • Donald Pleasence
  • Geraldine Brooks
  • Robert Culp
  • Frank Maxwell
  • Laslo Benedek
Release date: 1995-09-18
Run time: 102 min.
Price: £9.99

Review The Outer Limits - Vol. 2 - Man With The Power / The Architects Of Fear [1963] / MGM Entertainment:


Review Quantum Leap / Bidding Adieu [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Daphne Ashbrook
  • Sylvester McCoy
  • Paul McGann
Release date: 1999-05-10
Run time: 52 min.
RRP: £4.99
Price: £11.77

Review Bidding Adieu [1996] / Quantum Leap:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 7.1 [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Robert Picardo
  • Kate Mulgrew
  • David Livingston
  • Jeri Ryan
  • Michael Vejar
Release date: 2001-03-19
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.99

Review Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 7.1 [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:

Star Trek: Voyager, the first Trek spin-off to be made without any input at all from Gene Roddenberry, made its debut in 1995 and quickly established itself both as markedly different from cosmic cousin Deep Space Nine and as the successor to The Next Generation. Despite a lack of originality in its premise (Lost in Space anyone?), Voyager has none the less often been a bigger ratings success than any of its predecessors. Catapulted unwittingly to the far-flung Delta Quadrant, the crew of the Federation vessel Voyager must try somehow to get back home. The ghost of Katherine Hepburn lives on in Kate Mulgrew's forceful Captain Janeway, who has an equivocal (does she, doesn't she fancy him?) relationship with first officer and Native American-lite Chakotay (Robert Beltran). Tim Russ gives possibly the franchises' first fully realistic (yawn) portrayal of a Vulcan, and to enhance the alien quotient there's cuddly chef Neelix (Ethan Phillips). Until the fourth season, the fan favourite was the straight-funny man role of Robert Picardo's nameless Doctor. Then, with the brave Borg storyline "Scorpion Part 2", a serious improvement in the show's behind-the-scenes thinking introduced actress Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine, who immediately upped sex appeal and viewing numbers. Jerry Goldsmith's graceful theme always opens the show in style. -Paul Tonks On this tape: From the outset the second part of "Unimatrix Zero" (or "Borg ship infiltration episode of the week") retreads the path set by the movie First Contact and the two-part episode "Dark Frontier". Although there's a twist on the cliffhanger in the opening scene there's very little new here and this story doesn't live up to the standards set by "Scorpion" three years earlier. [+]
There's a new long-distance relationship for Seven of Nine to look out for but things soon return to normal in Borg space. In "Imperfection" we bid farewell the Borg children except for Icheb who remains, conveniently to help Seven of Nine when her ocular implant malfunctions. As usual, Janeway and Tuvok have to infiltrate another Borg cube looking for spare parts but when this fails it's left to Icheb to donate an implant and for both of them to adapt. -Colin Neal.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 6.7 (Virtuoso/Memorial) [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Allan Kroeker
  • Les Landau
  • Robert Picardo
  • Kate Mulgrew
  • Roxann Dawson
  • Ethan Phillips
  • Robert Beltran
Release date: 2000-09-04
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £9.98

Review Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 6.7 (Virtuoso/Memorial) [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Marquee Pictures / The Silencers [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Richard Pepin
  • Jack Scalia
  • Carlos Lauchu
  • Lucinda Weist
Release date: 2000-02-22
Run time: 96 min.
Price: £4.99

Review The Silencers [1996] / Marquee Pictures:


Review MGM Entertainment / Species 2 [1998]
Actors & Directors
  • George Dzundza
  • Marg Helgenberger
  • Michael Madsen
  • Natasha Henstridge
  • Mykelti Williamson
  • Peter Medak
Release date: 2000-02-01
Run time: 89 min.
RRP: £15.99
Price: £3.29

Review Species 2 [1998] / MGM Entertainment:

"They could fuck the human race out of existence!" warns Michael Madsen in this inevitable-and inevitably contrived-sequel to 1995's surprise sci-fi hit. He's referring to a celebrated astronaut (Justin Lazard) infected with alien DNA from his history-making Mars landing, and the half-alien Eve (Natasha Henstridge), who was created from alien-human embryo splicing by biochemist Dr Laura Baker (Marg Helgenberger) in an effort to discover the alien species' vulnerabilities on Earth. While the astronaut sows his gruesomely wild oats with doomed women (resulting in a bevy of creepy kids in alien cocoons), Eve goes into heat until she and the astronaut can consummate their procreative lust. Sex and death are served up like money-shots in a porno flick, with an emphasis on gory flesh-regeneration, explosive pregnancies and slimy-tentacled intercourse. All of which makes this is the kind of derivative schlock that only a true fan could love, but it's boosted to a tolerable level of entertainment by the returning cast (Madsen, Henstridge and Helgenberger) from the previous film. -Jeff Shannon, Amazon. com.

Models & Brands:
Star Wars Trilogy, Robotech - Vol. 4 - Blind Game / First Contact / The Big Escape, Star Trek The Next Generation - Vol. 4.1 [1990], Graveyard Tramps [1973], Farscape Vol. 1.7 - 1.15 Durka Returns / 1.16 A Human Reaction [1999], The Empire Strikes Back [1980], Tekwar 2 - TekLords [1994], Robotech - Vol. 7 - Bursting Point / Paradise Lost [1985], Mindgame, Farscape - Vol. 2.1 - 2.01 Mind The Baby / 2.02 Vitas Mortis / 2.03 Taking The Stone [1999], Fist Of The North Star - Vol. 5, M.D. Geist - Death Force, Crusade [1999], Star Trek Voyager - The haunting of deck twelve & Unimatrix zero - Volume 6.13 [1996], The Outer Limits - Vol. 2 - Man With The Power / The Architects Of Fear [1963], Bidding Adieu [1996], Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 7.1 [1996], Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 6.7 (Virtuoso/Memorial) [1996], The Silencers [1996], Species 2 [1998]

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