By Roy Mathur, on 2026-10-25, at 01:05:03 to 02:09:34 BST, for Captain Roy's Rusty Rocket Radio Show
More than a month later, hello again. Welcome to the new podcast format consisting of one big review and several microreviews, so that there is always something of substance worth listening to in each new episode. I'm beginning with a redux review and recent re-revisit of Dr. Who and the Daleks (1965), as we wind down the Classic Doctor Who revisit. I'm re-reviewing it because my first attempt was back when my classic Doctor Who revisit was an extremely casual affair, so there's only a few minutes of me talking about the film in pods 59--60 from 2014. I'll roll my previous thoughts into this revisit because the film deserves more. As usual, spoilers for everything. Incidentally, sorry for the increasingly yawning gaps between pods, as my life is complicated.
We have an all-star cast of Dr. Who (Peter Cushing), Ian (Roy Castle; allround lighter entertainer and presenter of Record Breakers) Susan (Roberta Tovey; Daleks' Invasion Earth 2150 A.D., her father, George Tovey, was a poacher in Pyramids of Mars, see Boldly Voyaging the Multiverse 2011-11-21 and pod 345) and Barbara (Jennie Linden; Hammer's Nightmare 1964, Vampira 1974). Directed by Gordon Flemyng (Jason Flemyng's dad). Produced by Milton Subotsky and Max J. Rosenberg's Amicus, riding the Dalekmania high sweeping the nation they optioned The Daleks (pod 34) and The Dalek Invasion of Earth (pod 39), and a third from Terry Nation for GBP 500 with Subotsky adapting the screenplay. Filmed at Shepperton Studios at a cost of GBP 180k, released 23 August 1965, repeated on TV frequently, and available in multiple formats; VHS, Betamax, DVD (I have the Studio Canal double set) multiple times since initial Super 8 in 1977 and the absurdly overpriced remastered Steelbook Blu-ray in 2022. Bizarrely, not on iPlayer.
The UK no. 1 single is the Beatle's Help! Mum and Dad aren't married yet, but Dad, living in Kenington, will leave work without telling his chocolate factory employers to go to Mauritius for the marriage.
Though the film's slightly before my time it and its sequel were Sci-Fi staples of Saturday morning children's TV repeats, so I have seen them many times since. The same goes for films like First Men in the Moon (1964), etc. However, they were also the fare of children's Saturday morning cinema clubs, like the one I was taken to at Catford ABC cinema, so it is possible I have seen it on the big screen... I just can't be sure.
We open with Ian turning up at the Whos front door with chocolates for Barbara, one of Dr. Who's granddaughters who he is courting. The younger child, Susan answers the door. When the Doctor shows Ian the Tardis he has built in his back garden, Ian accidentally pushes a lever, instantly transporting them to an alien planet. After a brief outing into the sinister wasteland, where they find a mysterious medical kit, Ian tells them they must return immediately. The Doctor fakes a shortage of mercury in one of the Tardis's fluid links, so that he can explore the nearby city. They are captured by Daleks and begin to succumb to radiation sickness. Hearing this, the Daleks say that if Susan brings back the kit, they will share the anti-radiation drugs because the drugs will allow the Daleks to leave the prison of their shells. Susan collects the kit and meets Alydon, leader of the Thals, the mutated remnants of the Daleks' ancient enemy. He tells her that the kit was in exchange for Dalek supplies as their crops have failed. He gives her another kit and his cape. The Daleks force Susan to write of letter to the Thals agreeing to the exchange, as a ruse to massacre them. They escape their cell by blinding a Dalek jailer's eye stalk with food, extracting the Dalek from it's shell and leave it shrouded in the Thal cape. Ian climbs in, pretends to be a Dalek, they escape to warn the Thals. The anti-radiation drug is useless to the Daleks, so they decide to "explode another neutron bomb and increase radiation throughout the planet to a point where even the drug of the Thals will not be able to protect them from it." With the fluid link still in the city, they can't escape without the Thals' help, but the Thals won't fight, even at the point of extinction, until the Doctor pretends to instruct Ian to take Alydon's girlfriend to the Daleks in exchange for the fluid link. Outraged, Alydon strikes Ian. Realising he cares about the fate of his people, despite Thal pacifism, he agrees they should attack. The attack goes badly and Dr. Who and Susan are captured. Elsewhere, Ian, Barbara, and some Thal men, sneak into the city via the route of the water pipes through the deadly swamp and the mountain to join a battle in the control room. Ian ducks as the Daleks shoot at him, destroying their own control panel. This cuts power, halts the countdown, and kills the remaining Daleks. The Doctor's group is gifted with Thal capes and they leave, only to end up in the middle of a marching Roman legion.
It's obvious now, but funny to see how similar the film is to the TV original, but until the rewatch I was much more familiar with the film. The basics are all similar; Daleks vs. Thals, but curiously no mention is made of Skaro. However, I really enjoy the pace of the film script, something the baggier classic Doctor Who TV serials could have learned from.
The tone is gentler than the grittier TV serial to appeal to a younger audience and it is funnier. In the scene when we first meet the Doctor, Susan and Barbara are reading science books, but when the camera pans to the Doctor, he is reading Eagle.
There are notable differences from the TV series. Dr. Who is the Doctor's actual name. No mention is made of the Doctor being alien, he is simply an old inventor who has built a time and space machine in his back garden, which is just so delightfully, eccentrically English. Also, Barbara is his older granddaughter and Susan is a lot younger.
Filmed for the big screen, this is a gloriously colour movie shot on proper Technicolor Techniscope 35mm 2.35:1 widescreen film. The petrified forest, jungle, swamp, and high tech Dalek city sets are fantastically built and the background matte paintings are gorgeous.
Regarding creature design, there are three Dalek colours; a black leader, red commander, and ordinary blues, though they are all taller than their TV counterparts and have claws, not toilet plungers. I enjoyed their organic green spidery-like forms, only seen when a mottled limb pokes out from beneath Susan's Thal cape. Its gold, beautiful claws are an unsettling touch. The good-looking Thals' grey body paint and eyeshadow are immaculate. Regarding props, everything about the Dalek city is glitzy and apparently they love contemporary Earth lava lamps.
Peter Cushing was 51 at the time of filming and yet he is playing the role as a doddery old man. Cushing's portrayal reminded me of Clive Dunn at 48 playing ancient Corporal Jones in Dad's Army in 1968. Admittedly, William Hartnell was 55 when he started playing the Doctor, but seemed more spry. On the other hand, Cushing nails Hartnell's occasional ruthlessness (displayed disturbingly with the Doctor's attempted cold-blooded murder of an caveman in An Unearthly Child; pod 33) when he manipulates Alydon.
We have Roy Castle's pantomime antics throughout, which falls a little flat. His slapstick is why the star got the role, so it's no fault of his, just that he was miscast and isn't a patch on William Russell's TV Ian.
Susan (Roberta Tovey) has some plum screen time, right from the beginning, opening the door for Ian, the mission back to the Tardis for the medical kit, writing a letter to the Thals, which makes sense as she is the main audience's (i.e. kids) primary protagonist.
Barbara (Jennie Linden) has little to do other than scowl at Ian for not being man enough to leap the chasm, though earlier, she does have the idea to smear the Dalek eye stalk with alien chocolate pudding.
Amicus pulled off their usual minor miracle. The low budget bely high production values, giving it the lighter cinematic treatment different but equal importance to the original more serious TV serial. Entertaining, colourful, unmissable, appealing to a broad audience, not just Doctor Who fans. Moderately successful at the box office, as 20th most popular film of the year, Amicus released a sequel that bombed relatively speaking, so plans for a third was abandoned.
2024 Sony horror film adaption Horrorscope (1992) by prolific genre author, including DW Target novelizations, John Peel, writing under the pseudonym Nicholas Adams. Includes Tom Holland's Spider-Man's "guy in the chair", likeable Jacob Batalon.
College kids find creepy old tarot deck and unleash the violent spirit of a witch determined to kill them all in all manner of gruesome ways.
It's entertaining enough, with a YA vibe, though hardly scary, despite some great creature effects.
Steven Spielber's 2026 Universal Pictures summer spectacular, in which a couple of ex-abductees are hunted for their alien-gifted abilities and eventually harken a new age of peace. ("He's not the messiah!" Sorry).
Emily Blunt tries her best to hold up this Spielbergian first contact movie, that's supposed to be epic, but is sadly not a patch on Close Encounters of the Third Kind or E.T. The kindest I can say is that it reminded me of the excellent original Escape to Witch Mountain (1975) that was a powerful influence on my childhood. Thanks, Mum!
In this 2026 film, Kara Zor-El, Clark's younger cousin, continues as the planet-hopping party-girl from Superman (2025), sticking to red sun worlds where she can get drunk. She teams up with a vengeful orphan whose parents were murdered, when she needs an antidote for Krypto poisoned by the same slavers. With help from maniacal space bounty hunter Lobo (Jason Momoa), she kills the bad guy and returns to Earth, ready for a different life.
Influenced by Guardians of the Galaxy, right down to the piratey plot, effects, grunge, bright colours, accents, and even fonts. It is, however, enjoyable.
2026 Jon Favreau directed film in which Mando and Grogu take a dodgy Alliance contract to bring in a runaway Hutt in exchange for the location of an Imperial bad guy. Turns out, slap my thigh, the Hutts are lying.
Delightful boy's own adventure that's more than just action-packed TV episodes strung together. This has better effects, gorgeous, luscious, planetary environments (great swampy, mossy greens), fantastic puppetry, and lovely heart-warming moments. Sure, in the lore there's a Hutt Jedi, but it's nice to this other young Hutt portrayed in a better light and even befriending Grogu.
A man is swallowed by a whale in the Whalefall (2026) trailer I saw recently. He then has to stage his own rescue, during which we have flashbacks of insane macho advice from muscular, tattooed, ageing Testosterone Dad (a hairless Josh Brolin). It is unintentionally hilarious and, while I have too much respect for creatives to watch anything ironically, even the schlock, I might make an exception this time. Maybe.
A less cheesy (more cheddar than camembert) 2026 reboot of 90s Mortal Kombat. Again, Earth fighters are zapped to the Outer World to fight to the death, in a tournament arranged by the gods, for the survival of our planet.
Urban's Johnny Cage is cool and funny, but again, portrayed with less delightful fromage than his predecessor, the much less famous Linden Ashby. Likewise, I sorely miss Christopher Lambert's batty Rayden. Likeable, silly, gory, forgettable, it at least made me dust off my Sega cart while writing this. Get over here!
2026 children's fantasy film, based on Enid Blyton's book and starring Andrew Garfield, in which his wife's loss of job leads to family moving to a ramshackle barn in the idyllic countryside and attempt the good life. In nearby woods, the children find a tree inhabited by mythical beings and the gateway to other fantastical lands.
Personally, I would love to live in the countryside, but not like this. The lovely idea is undone by low stakes adventure, saccharine pantomime, and a preachy tone, telling us this is how a family should be; wholesome country folk with no tech and girls who wear flowers in their hair. It's creepily reminiscent of those American Christmas family values films rammed down our throats in the UK every year.
Though the pink cop is stolen lock-stock from Red Dwarf, on the plus side, I was reminded of Clive Barker's fantastical Weaveworld, and the idea, diluted as it is, that imagination is magical.
2017 Brit flick horror available on iPlayer about asylum seeker family fleeing a massacre and barely making it across the channel in a small boat. Still suffering PTSD, the couple find uncaring officials, mostly hostile Brits (the black-on-black racism is depressingly realistic), and a house seemingly haunted by the malevolent spirit of their dead daughter.
The jump scares start too early and the ending, with happy ghosts, trivialises the drowning deaths of too many people. Echoes of Poltergeist too, but I found the folklore refreshing and absorbing, and different from the Western supernatural.
2024 horror (curr. iPlayer), in which ageing star (Demi Moore) is anonymously offered the Substance, a treatment that creates a young simulacrum, who greedily starts draining the host of lifeforce.
Grand guignol gore and fire-hosed Kensington Gore in this body horror Cinderella, with splashes of giallo (literally on occasion). A vicious satire and allegory for the motivations and lengths celebrities will go to look young. Actually, ageing Elisabeth Sparkle looks fantastic, but then she is played by Demi Moore, who ironically has herself undergone many treatments. Her flexible young version Sue (Sarah Margaret) is Andie MacDowell's dancer/actor daughter.
2026; Parker, forgotten about since Doctor Strange's spell, continues clearing up crime as New York's friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man, until incredibly powerful and destructive mutant, Jean Grey, attacks DODC. Spidey has to reluctantly team up with Punisher to stop her.
Very long, very action-packed, but I'm confused about the timeline and Maguire forearm web shooters. The scene with May at c.2 hours 6 minutes, and later as his friends begin to recognise him again, reduced me to tears.
Penultimate Season 3 2026 explains why you shouldn't trust Elon Musk and, incidentally, the discovery that 1 contains the human dictators of the entire network, which Juliette Nichols intends on attacking. For a good long while, Camille Sims, Robert Sims' Lady Macbeth, plays a really nasty villain, until she turncoats to prevent 1 from killing 18. Tension is also ramped up with the flashbacks of the fascistic, genocidal, brutal, megalomaniacal founders in the past, which gets current and topical with drone massacres, chemical warfare, and deep conspiracies that have yet to be revealed. The drugged social control aspect reminds me of Blake's 7: Traitor. Pray you don't survive the end of the world.
I've said before that Silo takes a large amount of Jeanne DuPrau's very similar YA series The City of Ember and then runs with it to make an effective adult drama. What gets my goat is reading interviews with Hugh Howey doing wriggly changing backrospectives. It's an excellent way of getting fans on your side because saying Platos's Republic inspired you, confers a pseudo-intellectual status on your fans, as in, "I'm really intelligent for reading this geek book because it's based on something Plato said." I know creatives lie because of the fear of litigation, but most steal, so I wish they (including JK Rowling) would be honest about it.
Eli Roth's 2023 gross (starts with a blood fight) kids' toon about New Orleans ghost hunters is available on BBC iPlayer CBBC.
It's contains real French folklore (some of which I share due to my Mauritian heritage, e.g. rougarou/loogaroo) and the Voodoo culture of New Orleans, which sets it apart from the hoi polloi.
2026 DCU series made by Warner Bros. et al, released on HBO, about Hal Jordan's ageing Green Lantern (Kyle Chandler) reluctantly training his replacement, a younger John Stewart (Aaron Pierre), in this DCU connected universe that includes Sinestro (episode 2). During the training they encounter deadly Manhunter species aliens hiding in a rural town, dominated by a human militia.
I don't know much about Green Lantern as I only bought the shared comic to read the Green Arrow strip. I also preferred my superheroes more down-to-earth at the time. It goes to show what a good job the MCU has done making teams and cosmic weirdness more accessible. In the same way, DC have made this sweary new series engaging and informative to one unfamiliar with anything other than the basics of Green Lantern. There's not too much exposition or lore-dump, so exposure to the universe is natural. I like the story, the leads, and the FX.
Trivia: test pilot Hal Jordan is, in fact, the second (Silver Age) Green Lantern. The first was Golden Age engineer Alan Scott.
I have reservations about Anson Mount's abysmally stupid social media comments, but as an actor, he is a fine Captain Christopher Pike, though very different from the iconic Jeffrey Hunter of TOS's The Cage/Where No Man Has Gone Before, who was replaced by William Shatner. I thought Hunter was very good, but he was a failure with audiences. Stupid bloody audiences, what do they know? That aside, season 4 ran from July to September 2026 and by the time you hear this, I'll have boxsetted the lot.
It's a slick production, but too many shallow episodes this season. Muppets (like that Angel episode), a very unfunny reboot of TOS Shore Leave, and another mad bad Star Fleet officer temporarily commanding Enterprise, but at least no more musical nonsense this season. The series is continuing its combination of TOS parody and pure fanservice. It's a waste of time if all Trek is to be like this now. Returning weird Boltzmann brain notwithstanding, why not pivot the next series to hard Sci-Fi, while retaining the heart?
Apple TV 2026 series in which mainlander single-father mayor of economically struggling small island struggles against every nautical horror cliche imaginable---Cthullo, Jaws, The Fog, etc.---as he desperately courts publicity from a New Yorker journalist. He's in throws of ecstasy when the journo says Widow's Bay could be the next Martha's Vinyard.
While I find the 2026 sitcom funny, in the style of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, i.e. without a laughter track, it references so much media I already enjoy, that it's somewhat a busman's (boatman's?) holiday. I'm sure Welcome to Night Vale hipsters will love this, but for me it is Matthew Rhys's much put-upon town mayor who saves the day.
Here's another item I might have already discussed. There's a 2025 c.5 minute trailer/short adventure webcast by Pete McTighe (Kerblam!, etc., and touted as a possible future Who showrunner). It reunites 5 with Tegan and was released last year as publicity for The Collection: Season 21 (10 x Blu-ray set of Davison--Baker).
The Tardis brings the Doctor and Tegan to Butler's Wharf, where Tegan left the Doctor in Resurrection of The Daleks (1983) (pod 537). NB also used in The Dalek Invasion of Earth (1964) (pod 39). The Doctor breaks into a building, they find a space soldier carrying what Tegan recognises as data beacon with a partial 3D message projection from Turlough (like Leia's message in Star Wars), who says Trion has been invaded and he needs the Doctor's urgent help if his people are to survive (again, like Leia), then the Daleks arrive and the Doctor tells them to take them as prisoners to Trion.
Search on YouTube for "The Fifth Doctor vs. the Daleks: The Collection---Season 21 Announcement Trailer---Doctor Who".
YouTuber, The Unmade Season, recently (2026) released the 55 minute fan-made The Curse of Kilmorag. It was made with generative AI and has received fan acclaim, and was shortly thereafter issued a takedown notice. So it was gone before I could even see it.
I have, however, at least seen all the other AI Doctor Who shorts the channel uploaded. They are very professional, but incredibly derivative of New Who (and Alien: Earth's eyeball creature, but then BBC Who has always pick'n'mixed other IP too). Less forgivably, it was bland. I hope whoever wins the BBC tender watches this and thinks: no, we're going in an entirely different direction.
On the other hand, if you're a struggling scriptwriter...
The thought occurs: what if this is a hoax, not using AI at all, but actual actors and practical effects?
Schedule for late 2027, this is a 52 x 11 min CBeebies CGI animation series with an extremely cutesy look. BBC: "the series follows the Doctor, a young Time Lord, and his friends Hannah, Beastie and Toast-IE as they embark on extraordinary adventures through time and space."
Given the year long wait for release, and the length of the series, I can't see us returning to live action DW until at least after that. Parrrp!
The Beeb made a big hoopla of selling 14--15's (Tennant 2 and Gatwa) Tardis roundels in the last few days. Stop laughing. They were flogged at the propstore.com for GBP 395 plus GBP 25 for delivery.
It caused a largely negative reaction amongst fans on social media, and who can blame them as we are constantly gorged by scalpers, which now includes the BBC.
Talking of that, another Collectormania has occurred and, like all the others, I attended 16--18 Oct.
It was surprisingly crowded, but mainly aimed at flogging celeb photos and buying overpriced tat, like the double-price B and M Tardis I refused to buy at this and the previous Collectormania.
A biography of prolific children's TV, soap, and sci-fi creator (80s--present), Russell T Davies (Stephen Russell Davies), written by him and co-writter, Boyd Hilton, was published on October 8 2026.
RTD doesn't do things by halves. Of course, he's done oodles outside of Doctor Who, but speaking as a Who fan, it is remarkable that he both brought the series soaring back from the dead to worldwide acclaim, and then plunged it into to ground at the end.
A day after a low-key, but delightful birthday, I ate a late Sunday afternoon breakfast of samosas, while watching a video from the BBC Youtube Archive of ex-farmhand and folklorist Michael J Murhpy talking Irish myths in 1981; fairy hawthorns, Finn mac Cumhaill messing up a poor Scottish giant, etc. See Ulster in Focus: Michael J. Murphy - The Folklore Collector, BBC Archive, BBC Northern Ireland (1981).
As a myth, folklore, and fantasy nut, it fired me up to finally write down Mum's version of man crossing the pari, which could be surmised as, "Don't mess with fairies!" Expect another about the aforementioned loogaroo (werewolf) shortly thereafter. Funny enough, one of the practitioners at my GP shares the name of a native bogeyman, though they'll remain anonymous for obvious reasons.
Season 4 2026 animated adaptation of Robert Kirkman's comic sees Mark and Oliver ultimately joining Nolan in the extremely bloody war against their own people, the super space-Nazi Viltrum Empire.
Voice acting, story, action, and even panel-like splash title card, and rock, punk, and techno needle drops, are all excellently conceived and executed. The only thing I don't like is the Star Trek parody, reminding me of Peter David's unfunny takeover of Dreadstar comic.
The highlight of the season is the extremely metal episode, Hurm, with Mark summoned to Hell to help Satan.
Before I ditched the 2017 series, I said hundreds of pods ago in 186: "Elon Musk, sorry Darius Tanz, tries to save the world with the help of geeky student. Plays like a paranoid version of the Numbers TV show, and very far-fetched."
Since a recent boredom-encouraged watch, I stick by what I said, adding that we didn't know that Musk was a Nazi back then. The hurtling doomsday asteroid sci-fi conspiracy series isn't bad, but the acting and direction are soapy.
2026 Marvel comedy about actor Simon (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II: great as Black Manta in Aquaman, also great, but very annoying, as hipster-Candyman) hiding superpowers. He is mentored by Trevor Slattery's reformed Mandarin (Sir Ben Kingsley), working as an undercover CI for Agent Cleary's (Arian Moayed from Spider-Man, etc.) Department of Damage Control, when he and Simon meet at a Midnight Cowboy matinee.
Seeing a smalltime actor trying to make the most of his tiny role, while the crew get impatient on set made me, as a creative, die inside with empathy. The series appeals to me on two levels as both a fan of superheroes and a creative who has a lot of underutilised potential. Studio backlots, Walk of Fame, Mann's Chinese Theatre, auditions, talent agents, cameos of celebrities playing fictionalised versions of themselves (Joe Pantoliano), the mechanics of Hollywood, lots of LA, and an underdog having his day; the heart-warming comedy is pure wish fulfilment for creative nerds. Oh, the dominoes, drinking, culture, and creole I could relate to, though the language is too Francais for my taste.
Mike Flanagan's latest 2026 Amazon miniseries, full of Flanagan regulars and Matthew Lillard as a lame headmaster, is based on King's first novel published in 1974, and is the latest of several adaptations. Apart from De Palma's sublime film in 1976, it was adapted as a musical in 1989, and as a film in 2002 and 2013. Updated for our miserable age of anti-social media, it tells of a girl with developing telekinetic superpowers, abused at home and viciously bullied at highschool. This version of Carrietta White's mother is a recent widow and in addition to being a violent religious maniac is also a right-wing conspiracy theorist. The adaptation also expands the terse original into a larger Kingverse, that Stephen King would probably appreciate in that I was reminded of the Shop from Firestarter, The Institute, and John Farris's programme for psychic assassins from The Fury, which must have influenced King's writing.
While I can't fully understand Carrie's life, I relate to her hostile environment, social isolation, and bookishness. Growing up, I wasn't scholarly, but I escaped the mutual two-way hatred of my home town via the world of SFFH.
I've reviewed everything Flanagan has done in the past generally favourably; 413 Midnight Mass, 415 The Haunting of Bly Manor, and 511 The Fall of the House of Usher. This is no exception. Flanagan plans for more seasons of Carrie, but I think the story is complete and any more would be dilution.
In this 2026 Marvel miniseries, the last Marvel on screen before the release of Avengers: Doomsday on 16 Dec, Paul Bettany is White Vision, an android built from Vision's remaining parts (after his death in Endgame) by SWORD to battle Wanda's magical doppelganger of Vision. In hiding from SWORD, he tries to understand his place in the world by living an ordinary human life, working in the Edinburgh pub Vision and Wanda used to frequent. In his spare time, he retreats into a virtual software world, staffed by the sentient software of JARVIS and other AIs, where he also holds Ultron prisoner, again in an effort to understand humanity. That is, until the pub is attacked and the landlady murdered in a botched attempt at kidnapping him by amoral mercenary Paladin.
Despite the plot, which sounds exciting, the first episode was very slow paced and very depressing. By the time you hear this, maybe it's better, but I won't know because I forced myself to stop watching anything so that I could work on releasing this pod.
Announced Friday (Oct. 23) is a new upcoming 2027 free point-and-click computer game (PC and Linux only). It is, of course, based on titular Anglia TV children's fantasy adventure game show that ran from 1987--1994. The original presenter dungeon master Treguard's (Hugo Myatt) iconic gravelly voice acting will feature. This joins several spinoff fiction and CYOA books, a board game, and two computer games released in the 80s--90s. See knightmaregame.co.uk