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Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 4.4 - Little Green Men / Starship Down [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Cirroc Lofton
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • James L. Conway
  • Avery Brooks
  • Terry Farrell
  • Michael Dorn
  • Alexander Singer
Release date: 1996-04-22
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £1.29

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 4.4 - Little Green Men / Starship Down [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 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 Voyager Vol 4.4 [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Ethan Phillips
  • Kate Mulgrew
  • Allan Kroeker
  • David Livingston
  • Jeri Lynn Ryan
  • Roxann Dawson
  • Robert Beltran
Release date: 1998-05-04
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £5.45

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


Review ITV DVD / Thunderbirds - Pod 2 [1965]
Actors & Directors
  • John Tate
Release date: 2000-11-13
Price: £49.99

Review Thunderbirds - Pod 2 [1965] / ITV DVD:

"Filmed in VIDECOLOR [explosions, drum roll, music builds to a climax] and SUPERMARIONATION"! The opening sequence of Thunderbirds is itself a masterclass in Gerry Anderson's marionette hyperbole: who else would dare to make a virtue out of the fact that (a) the show is in colour and (b) it's got puppets in it? But everything about this series really is epic: Thunderbirds is action on the grandest scale, pre-dating such high-concept Hollywood vehicles as Armaggedon by 30 years and more (the acting is better, too), and fetishising gadgets in a way that even the most excessive Bond movies could never hope to rival. Unsurprisingly, it transpires that the visual effects are by Derek Meddings, whose later contributions to Bond movies like The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker echo his pioneering model work here. As to the characters, the clean-cut Tracey boys take second place in the audiences' affections to their cool machines-the real stars of the show-while comic relief is to be found in the charming company of Lady Penelope and her pink Rolls (number plate FAB1), driven by lugubrious chauffeur Parker, whose "Yes, milady" catch phrase resonated around school playgrounds for decades. (Spare a thought for poor old John Tracey, stuck up in space on Thunderbird 5 with only the radio for company. ) The puppet stunt-work is breathtakingly audacious, and every week's death-defying escapade is nail-bitingly choreographed in the very best tradition of disaster movies. First shown in 1964 and now digitally remastered, Thunderbirds is children's TV that still looks and sounds like big-budget Hollywood. In this pod: Episodes 17-32 on four VHS tapes in a special presentation box.

Actors & Directors
  • Douglas Muir
  • Patrick Macnee
  • Jonathan Alwyn
  • Hedger Wallace
  • Alan Mason
  • Honor Blackman
Release date: 1995-06-26
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £7.50

Review The Avengers - Cathy Gale - Vol. 1 - Death Dispatch / Propellant 23 [1962] / Lumiere Pictures:


Actors & Directors
  • Gareth Hunt
  • Patrick Macnee
  • Ray Austin
  • John Carson
  • Ed Devereaux
  • Joanna Lumley
  • Robert Fuest
Release date: 1996-02-26
Price: £10.99

Review The New Avengers - The Midas Touch / House Of Cards [1976] / Lumiere Pictures:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation 75 : Rightful Heir / Second Chances [1993]
Actors & Directors
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Michael Dorn
  • Brent Spiner
  • Winrich Kolbe
  • LeVar Burton
Release date: 1994-01-10
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £2.50

Review Star Trek The Next Generation 75 : Rightful Heir / Second Chances [1993] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Babylon 5 - Vol. 12 - Geometry Of Shadows / A Distant Star [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Claudia Christian
  • Bruce Boxleitner
  • Michael Vejar
  • Richard Biggs
  • Jim Johnston
  • Jerry Doyle
  • Mira Furlan
Release date: 1996-07-22
Run time: 84 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £0.66

Review Babylon 5 - Vol. 12 - Geometry Of Shadows / A Distant Star [1994] / Warner Home Video:


Review Contender Entertainment Group / Avenging The Avengers [2000]
Actors & Directors
  • Linda Thorson
  • Paul Madden
  • James Hill
  • Dean Stockton
  • Honor Blackman
  • Diana Rigg
  • Patrick Macnee
Release date: 2000-06-05
Run time: 40 min.
Price: £9.99

Review Avenging The Avengers [2000] / Contender Entertainment Group:


Review Tring International Plc / Real X-Files - Psychic Spying....? [1995]
Release date: 1997-06-30
Run time: 50 min.
Price: £10.99

Review Real X-Files - Psychic Spying....? [1995] / Tring International Plc:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 3.8 - The Savage Curtain / All Our Yesterdays / Turnabout Intruder
Actors & Directors
  • William Shatner
  • Leonard Nimoy
  • Herb Wallerstein
  • Herschel Daugherty
  • Marvin J. Chomsky
Release date: 1998-03-02
Run time: 144 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £10.95

Review Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 3.8 - The Savage Curtain / All Our Yesterdays / Turnabout Intruder / Paramount Home Entertainment:

One of the most popular and influential shows in the history of television for many viewers the original Star Trek (1966-9) defines good science fiction: however much it tries to be about the future, it cannot help but reflect the values of its own time, and Star Trek's vision was very much a product of creator Gene Roddenberry's 1960s liberal-humanist idealism. Conceived at the height of the Cold War and during the escalation of the Vietnam conflict, his was a radical vision of a world where national and racial differences have been put aside and all people work together. With a policy of non-intervention in the affairs of other civilisations and violence only as a last resort, Star Trek embodied a lost dream, a fantasy of what America could have been had John F Kennedy not been assassinated in 1963. Captain James Tiberius Kirk (William Shatner) had the middle name of a Roman emperor but otherwise shared his initials with the late president, and both were young, good looking, womanising, charismatic popular heroes. If Kirk didn't uphold truth, justice and the American way from the White House, a big white starship was the next best thing. There was even a Russian, Mr Chekov (Walter Koenig), on the bridge and the show delivered network TV's first inter-racial kiss between Kirk and Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). Even though there was a white American male in control, it was still all a bit much for 1960s' mainstream TV, hence the voyages of the Starship Enterprise, boldly going on its five-year mission to explore strange new worlds, only lasted three seasons and 72 episodes before being cancelled in 1969, the year Man first walked on the moon. While the once-groundbreaking special effects now look routine, and the then-radical politics have now become part of the Politically Correct global mainstream, Star Trek retains an enduring popularity due to its strong storytelling-the show employed such top science fiction writers as Robert Bloch, Harlan Elllison, Richard Matheson, Norman Spinrad and Theodore Sturgeon-and admirable characters. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and Scotty (James Doohan), Sulu (George Takei), Kirk, Chekov and Uhura remain icons for a world short of real heroes: loyal to the end, honest and utterly dedicated, these were the friends and colleagues who week after week trusted each other with their lives. Devoid of cynicism and self-interest the crew of the USS Enterprise never let anyone down and ultimately that is a very big reason for Star Trek's enduring popularity. [+]
-Gary S Dalkin.

Review 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment / The X Files : Deadalive
Actors & Directors
  • David Duchovny
  • Robert Patrick
  • Kim Manners
  • Tony Wharmby
  • Gillian Anderson
Release date: 2001-08-06
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £14.99
Price: £0.99

Review The X Files : Deadalive / 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment:

This release consists of two episodes-"This is Not Happening" and "Dead alive"-of the eighth series of The X-Files spliced together into a feature-length story. With David Duchovny contracted only to do a certain percentage of shows this year, Robert Patrick was brought in as Agent John Doggett, partnering Gillian Anderson's Agent Scully while Duchovny's Mulder is off being tortured by alien-abductors in what looks like an industrial dentist's chair. This story comes about two-thirds of the way through the arc and sets up Duchovny's return to the show-though he literally has to die and come back to get back on the case. It's an unfortunate paradox that most X-Files standalone releases concentrate on the dreary alien-abduction/conspiracy episodes which carry the greater storyline of the show, giving the misleading impression that the series is a drearily solemn, badly plotted, straight-faced but stupid sci-fi soap opera. Always skipped over are the far more interesting, entertaining and impressive stand-alone supernatural mysteries or strange comic exercises. Though Duchovny is mostly lying in a hospital bed with oatmeal all over his face, Anderson-whose character is pregnant this series, another dull sub-plot-still gives an amazingly committed performance and gets terrific support from Patrick, whose character has shaken up a lot of what was settled or stale about the show and the always-underrated Mitch Pileggi as Assistant Director Skinner. The story features several wild-eyed UFO guru types (including Roy Thinnes, once star of The Invaders) and returned abductees transformed into un-killable alien zombies. It's as well made as ever, with ominous shadows and the odd smart line but you need to have been paying very close attention for seven years to understand what's going on. With Duchovny a potential escapee and Anderson perhaps in line to follow, this episode brings on the excellent Annabeth Gish as Agent Monica Reyes, a specialist in bizarre rituals, who is being effectively set up to partner Patrick in a post-Mulder-and-Scully X-Files that might well keep the franchise going on forever Star Trek-fashion. -Kim Newman.

Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 2.6 - Threshold / Meld [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Roxann Biggs-Dawson
  • Alexander Singer
  • Robert Beltran
  • Jennifer Lien
  • Robert Duncan McNeill
  • Cliff Bole
  • Kate Mulgrew
Release date: 1996-07-08
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £4.35

Review Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 2.6 - Threshold / Meld [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.10 - Strange Bed Fellows / The Changing Face Of Evil? [1995]
Actors & Directors
  • Michael Vejar
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Avery Brooks
  • Rene Auberjonois
  • Michael Dorn
Release date: 1999-10-04
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £21.45

Review Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.10 - Strange Bed Fellows / The Changing Face Of Evil? [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 Voyager Vol 5.4 [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • David Livingston
  • Jad Magher
  • Roxann Dawson
  • Robert Duncan McNeill
  • Robert Beltran
  • Ethan Phillips
Release date: 1999-05-24
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.75

Review Star Trek Voyager Vol 5.4 [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 5.5 (Thirty Days/Counterpoint) [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Winrich Kolbe
  • Kate Mulgrew
  • Robert Picardo
  • Jeri Lynn Ryan
  • Les Landau
Release date: 1999-06-07
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £0.98

Review Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 5.5 (Thirty Days/Counterpoint) [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation 1 : Encounter At Farpoint [1987]
Actors & Directors
  • LeVar Burton
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Corey Allen
  • Gates McFadden
  • Denise Crosby
Release date: 1990-04-02
Run time: 91 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £0.98

Review Star Trek The Next Generation 1 : Encounter At Farpoint [1987] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Actors & Directors
  • Jack McGowran
  • Gordon Flemyng
  • Patrick Macnee
  • Patricia Haines
  • Diana Rigg
  • Peter Doffell
  • Nigel Green
  • Peter Graham Scott
Release date: 1994-06-27
Run time: 100 min.
RRP: £10.99
Price: £5.00

Review The Avengers - Vol. 13 - The Master Minds / The Winged Avenger [1965] / Lumiere Pictures:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek Voyager Vol 4.10 [1996]
Actors & Directors
  • Victor Lobl
  • Roxann Dawson
  • Jesus Trevino
  • Robert Beltran
  • Robert Duncan McNeill
  • Kate Mulgrew
  • Ethan Phillips
Release date: 1998-10-05
Run time: 88 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £2.24

Review Star Trek Voyager Vol 4.10 [1996] / Paramount Home Entertainment:


Review Warner Home Video / Babylon 5 - Vol. 5.11 - Objects At Rest / Sleeping In Light [1994]
Actors & Directors
  • Bruce Boxleitner
  • Mira Furlan
  • Peter Jurasik
  • John Copeland
  • Jerry Doyle
  • Michael Straczynski
  • Andreas Katsulas
Release date: 1999-09-20
Run time: 85 min.
RRP: £12.99
Price: £4.49

Review Babylon 5 - Vol. 5.11 - Objects At Rest / Sleeping In Light [1994] / Warner Home Video:


Review Paramount Home Entertainment / Star Trek The Next Generation: Encounter At Farpoint - The Full Length TV Movie [1990]
Actors & Directors
  • John De Lancie
  • LeVar Burton
  • Jonathan Frakes
  • Corey Allen
  • Patrick Stewart
  • Michael Bell
Release date: 1995-01-16
Run time: 87 min.
RRP: £5.99
Price: £7.48

Review Star Trek The Next Generation: Encounter At Farpoint - 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.

Browse Television:

Models & Brands:
Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 4.4 - Little Green Men / Starship Down [1995], Star Trek Voyager Vol 4.4 [1996], Thunderbirds - Pod 2 [1965], The Avengers - Cathy Gale - Vol. 1 - Death Dispatch / Propellant 23 [1962], The New Avengers - The Midas Touch / House Of Cards [1976], Star Trek The Next Generation 75 : Rightful Heir / Second Chances [1993], Babylon 5 - Vol. 12 - Geometry Of Shadows / A Distant Star [1994], Avenging The Avengers [2000], Real X-Files - Psychic Spying....? [1995], Star Trek : The Original Series - Vol. 3.8 - The Savage Curtain / All Our Yesterdays / Turnabout Intruder, The X Files : Deadalive, Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 2.6 - Threshold / Meld [1996], Star Trek : Deep Space Nine - Vol. 7.10 - Strange Bed Fellows / The Changing Face Of Evil? [1995], Star Trek Voyager Vol 5.4 [1996], Star Trek Voyager - Vol. 5.5 (Thirty Days/Counterpoint) [1996], Star Trek The Next Generation 1 : Encounter At Farpoint [1987], The Avengers - Vol. 13 - The Master Minds / The Winged Avenger [1965], Star Trek Voyager Vol 4.10 [1996], Babylon 5 - Vol. 5.11 - Objects At Rest / Sleeping In Light [1994], Star Trek The Next Generation: Encounter At Farpoint - The Full Length TV Movie [1990]

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