By Roy Mathur, on 2026-05-01, at 01:59:27 to 03:39:16 GMT, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
It's been more than a month since the last pod because I've been sick with a series of awful influenzas, and inner ear and chest infections, but I'm back again.
NB This isn't the new format podcast I'm planning, i.e. single topic review episodes with a bunch of other micro-reviews and news, but it is different in that I've now fully transitioned away from reviewing or revisiting any media except SFFH. If anyone wants to chat off topic about other interests like bikes, boats, rock, tech, or other aspects of SFFH, etc., please let me know and I'll set up a community chat. Enjoy enjoy.
I'd put this 2018 animation off because, as in the comics, for me Spider-Man begins and ends with Peter Parker; no clones and no other spider-themed masks. However, with nothing better to do, I watched likeable Miles Morales and other alt-Spideys fixing the multiverse by stymieing the dastardly Kingpin.
I enjoyed the frenetic, kinetic, eye-searing, trippy, colourful, pathos and comedy-filled non-stop action.
In the 2025 film, de Fontaine's experimental Marvel Superman Sentry's dark side goes berserk turning people and New York into shadows. On the run from de Fontaine, her ex-mercs Yelena Belova (Florence Pugh), US Agent, and Ghost, team up with Belova's dad, Red Guardian (David Harbour), and Winter Soldier. They call themselves the Thunderbolts, rescue New York, and are proclaimed the New Avengers by a sneaky De Fontaine.
Good, but the Bob/Sentry/Void threat is a bit boring.
2025. On Earth-828 in the 60s, F4 battle hungry Galactus, with the help of his last-minute turn-coat herald, an absurdly sexy female Silver Silver (Johny is understandably smitten), helping to teleport the planet gobbler far away. Doctor Doom shows up at the end.
The usual Marvel excellence with lovely Jetson-style retrofuturism and it's good to see Galactus up close.
2026. I found the Jimmys puerile, the barn torture-porn scene horrid, I don't believe a doctor in the woods can cure zombies, but Fienne's Alien Sex Fiend Nik Fiend-style lip-synch of Iron Maiden's best song, The Number of the Beast, is fantastic.
Presidents Snow's orgin story from a poor young man, to soldier, to murderous political operator, does not at all endear me too him. It's like being expected to be empathetic to Hitler's feelings.
BBC One's techno-thriler returns for season 3 in 2026. The twist is that the honest copper protagonist, and acting head of formerly bent deepfaking S015, is replaced by a nutter who has fooled her new anti-deepfake cameras to assassinate a Prime Ministerial candidate.
Interestingly for a BBC series, it isn't shy about painting the Met police's S015 (CTC), CIA, or MI6's wetwork boys (or whatever they actually do) the Increment (now E Squadron), as occasionally a bunch of rotters.
The creator Ben Chanan also assiduously side-steps the sci-fi ghetto, claiming the series isn't sci-fi, but the tech really is at the moment. What it properly doesn't address is that it doesn't take high tech "correction" deepfake tech for any government to be corrupt, criminal, murderous, or stick people in the frame if they really want to.
Episode 1: The Hedge Knight (2026) is about an outsized poverty-struck knight and his bald squire trying to make a name at the lists.
The same scatological, grimy, grim comedy of GoT, though lighter than HotD, but still not for me. There's also an Arya spinoff in the works, upon which I shall reserve judgement.
Apple's three season alien invasion story came to an end in 2025.
Losing the war Casper and other psychics open a portal to the mother ship and in goes USSF operator to save the day. The series concludes at season one, but is brought back with evolving aliens, whose motives are never revealed throughout, and the pace in the second season is glacial.
Much better is the Anglo-French War of the Worlds (2019), featuring Gabriel Byrne's anti-hero, which has a truly mind-bending twist explaining Boston Dynamic-style Terminator dogs dispatching humans with captive bolt guns built into their heads. It's weird.
The poor outsider marries a rich, handsome prince in depths of winter, a family curse, the monster at the wedding, woods, hunting, foxes, a baby, death; this is fairytale horror.
Too influenced by The Evil Dead and Blairwitch. Fans who become filmmakers should strive to become auteurs instead of copycats. It Duffers produced, so...
I liked the strong fairytale-like theme and that it was a self-contained miniseries. The lead is very good and relatable, and her crazy, obnoxious, precocious, high-strung future sister-in-law is absolutely fantastic.
Season 5 2006; Margo's in prison, maybe there's life on Titan, Mars rankles under Earth control and revolution simmers, and an ailing aged Ed heroically pilots a lander to aide the escape of his North Korean friend.
Bald wigs are the only things continuing to let down the brilliant alt-future SF.
Season 2 2026 and he and Angela are underground and also an item, Punisher's disappeared, while the Anti-Vigilante Task Force bully New York as Kingpin's private army, like Trump's ICE. We also finally get a nice Swordsman moment as Daredvil rescues him from AVTF cells.
It's still running, but the Big D's talky hand wringing is getting boring.
The final(?) season of sees Billy Butcher's Boys pad up the series with a lot of toing and froing, when the working anti-supe virus is destroyed and a fresh batch has to be cooked up by Frenchie. Oh, come on!
Sue Malden of Film is Fabulous!, a former BBC archivist, said that they had found two episodes of The Daleks' Master Plan in the collection of a recently deceased collector. Why hadn't the collector come forward sooner? I can't help thinking of Indiana Jone's outrage at the theft of the Cross of Coronado, when he says, "It belongs in a museum!"
This is great news, but it does not mean I will not go back to re-revisit that story arc because the new availability of these episodes barely makes a dent in the hash I made of this revisit in the first place. For example, mistaking Nicolas Courtney for Stephen Greif, playing Space Security Agent Bret Vyon. I'll hang up my Whovian hat immediately.
The Beeb celebrated David Tennant's 20 years (well, not continuously) as the Doc with a night of BBC programming, on the 16th of April on BBC Three, consisting of 20 Years of Tennant Specials: The Star Beast, Wild Blue Yonder, The Giggle, and Talking Doctor Who featuring David Tennant. This followed news from Big Finish in mid-March that they commissioned 15 new stories featuring him. There's also his possible return in RTD's 2026 Christmas Special. The Specials I missed because I was sick and BF stories have never held my interest.
While I like his version of the Doctor, I can't help the very obvious feeling that this stinks of desperation by the Beeb after the Disney fiasco. I miss New Who! Bring it back!
That brings us on to next month. In February this year, the BBC said that they had found the original film negative of Doctor Who: The Movie. Since the original release had been edited on lower quality video tape, this mean it could be remastered for 4K, for release on 27 May 2026. Huzzah! Except it's already sold out, thanks to understock, rabid fans, and, no doubt, scalpers.
Don't panic, there's still a zillion ways to see the only slightly less shiny version on iPlayer, Blu-ray, DVD and, of course, the high seas.
Crazed fans with more disposable income than sense is also a blight on the fandom of Doctor Who when one tries purchasing tickets for just about any event. The situation not only sours my feelings to fellow fans, but also to the business and celebrities raking it in. So, because of that and personal health and family responsibilities, about the only event I can see myself going to this year is Collectormania Milton Keynes in May because I live nearby and it is free.
Despite attending on and off since 2013, and talking about Who for a decade plus, I'm guessing people still barely know I exist in SFFH and Whovian fandom, so if you're there, please help end my ongoing existential crisis by saying hello. I'll be nervously walking around trying to engage people in conversion and, no doubt, gingerly proffering my podcast business cards. Hey, maybe I'll make some badges?!
Finally on a trivial note, regarding, er, trivia, in pod 607, Doctor Who: Battlefield, I didn't mention, because I didn't know or had forgotten, that Jean Marsh was once married to Jon Pertwee.
NB Ghost Light next.