Jacob Licklider CR: Isles of the Emberdark

A ★★★★ review of Bambi (1942) Bambi is fairly contemplative for a Disney movie.  It’s a series of vignettes about Bambi growing up in the woods, reflecting the general adolescence of the prospective viewer.  I am uncertain exactly...

Bambi (1942) - Contemplative, environmental, and a visual treat.

boxd.it/aEkptd

A ★★★★ review of Bambi (1942) Bambi is fairly contemplative for a Disney movie.  It’s a series of vignettes about Bambi growing up in the woods, reflecting the general adolescence of the prospective viewer.  I am uncertain exactly...

Bambi (1942) - Contemplative, environmental, and a visual treat.

boxd.it/aEkptd

Cover of Doctor Who: Snare featuring Rose and the Doctor in front of alien vegetation.

Snare by: Tim Foley: This was fantastic (pun intended). Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper being back together as the Doctor and Rose means the Ninth Doctor Adventures can actually move forward and not keep the Doctor in the holding pattern he has been. This is an immediate follow up to

sweet. Foley is also directly reflecting on Father’s Day, setting the series up to be working through the fallout from that which grounds the series in a finite arc that also fits within the context of Series 1.

story itself is about a childhood friend of Rose, Kevin, who is clearing out his recent key deceased dad’s flat as alien vegetation has grown providing a mystery for the Doctor and Rose to solve. As it unfolds you get some of Foley’s best character work and the musing on living in the past is very

Father’s Day, reflecting on grief, drifting apart from family, and reconnecting in the nick of time before things have gone too far to fix. Eccleston and Piper just reconnect in these roles, playing off each other perfectly. Camille Coduri as Jackie Tyler gets to be great comedic relief. The

Cover of Doctor Who: Snare featuring Rose and the Doctor in front of alien vegetation.

Snare by: Tim Foley: This was fantastic (pun intended). Christopher Eccleston and Billie Piper being back together as the Doctor and Rose means the Ninth Doctor Adventures can actually move forward and not keep the Doctor in the holding pattern he has been. This is an immediate follow up to

Cover of Smith and Sullivan: Reunited featuring Sarah Jane, Harry Sullivan, and K9 surrounded by a car, phone booths, a picture of Aunt Lavinia, a TV, a picture of a robot; all on a skyline that gradients to purple.

Smith and Sullivan: Reunited: All three stories really highlight the journalist aspect of Sarah Jane Smith, but the real highlight is just the chemistry between Sadie Miller and Christopher Naylor. It’s a shame they only announced this one because there is a lot of potential for more here, though

Smith and Sullivan: Blood Type by: Simon Guerrier: This one is a little weird. It’s good, very good for two thirds of it. It starts off as a story about how illegal immigration as a crisis is largely manufactured and hurts people who live their lives alone, then it shifts to a story about the

hopefully it doesn’t become too bogged down in Doctor Who continuity in future sets. The set is a solid foundation to build on, so I’m hopeful things will just grow from here.

Cover of Smith and Sullivan: Reunited featuring Sarah Jane, Harry Sullivan, and K9 surrounded by a car, phone booths, a picture of Aunt Lavinia, a TV, a picture of a robot; all on a skyline that gradients to purple.

Smith and Sullivan: Reunited: All three stories really highlight the journalist aspect of Sarah Jane Smith, but the real highlight is just the chemistry between Sadie Miller and Christopher Naylor. It’s a shame they only announced this one because there is a lot of potential for more here, though

back because Guerrier wrote himself into the corner with Kitt as a character.

sympathetic because they don’t expose him as an alien but he has to pay for the crime, but it’s an aspect that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. The AI commentary is great and largely applies to any technological breakthrough though. Weirdly it’s still the strongest story in the set but it’s held

current problems of generative AI in the context of the 1980s setting. The trouble comes with the final 10 minutes having our immigrant/asylum seeker analog is revealed to actually be the villain and technically a murderer. Guerrier is clearly aware of the problems, he keeps Sarah and Harry as

Smith and Sullivan: Blood Type by: Simon Guerrier: This one is a little weird. It’s good, very good for two thirds of it. It starts off as a story about how illegal immigration as a crisis is largely manufactured and hurts people who live their lives alone, then it shifts to a story about the

Smith and Sullivan: Union of the Snake by: Roland Moore: The second episode also takes some imagery from Justin Richard’s’ System Shock with a literal time traveling, cybernetic snake as a large part of the episode. Moore’s addition to the series is actually about a businessman pioneering and

alien artifacts who is clearly meant to be a recurring element. Another quite enjoyable one.

experimenting with alien technology to deal with the grief of his lost son. I love the way Moore ends the episode as almost bittersweet for Eric Chen played by Chris Lew Kum Hoi. Sarah and Harry have separate plots which both really push the story forward in a nice way, plus we get a collector of

Smith and Sullivan: Union of the Snake by: Roland Moore: The second episode also takes some imagery from Justin Richard’s’ System Shock with a literal time traveling, cybernetic snake as a large part of the episode. Moore’s addition to the series is actually about a businessman pioneering and

Considering it came from the mind of Gene Roddenberry I’m going to guess not.

Made especially funny since carbon offsets largely are scams.

Oh I’m sure there will be. I know they’ve had better results with different color recovery methods. I doubt we’ll see CGI model replacements though.

Actually, it's really interesting that while Moore's The Killing Joke has become THE Joker story, his Mortal Clay didn't do the same for Clayface. Preston Payne is the Clayface in this AND in Arkham Asylum but now he's just a weird footnote on Clayface's wikipedia page.

A ★★★★½ review of Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) Invasion of the Dinosaurs is often unfairly maligned as a story due to subpar visual effects.  There’s nothing to sugarcoat, certain models and puppets used to depict the dinosaurs leave a lot to be d...

Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) - Actually one of Malcolm Hulke’s best scripts.

boxd.it/aDBsrz

A ★★★★½ review of Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) Invasion of the Dinosaurs is often unfairly maligned as a story due to subpar visual effects.  There’s nothing to sugarcoat, certain models and puppets used to depict the dinosaurs leave a lot to be d...

Doctor Who: Invasion of the Dinosaurs (1974) - Actually one of Malcolm Hulke’s best scripts.

boxd.it/aDBsrz

It utterly floored me when I read the DC Finest Year One and Year Two collection which knowing Moore it shouldn’t have.

Batman Annual 11 is also just as humanistic as Moore’s other work

Heck even his two Batman stories show love of the characters.

A ½ review of War of the Worlds (2025) I don't think I've ever seen a movie with this much corporate speak in it. This adaptation of The War of the Worlds is entirely on screens and is like 60% really bad computer generated imagery (that l...

War of the Worlds (2025) - Capitalism and the authoritarianism of the United States governmental security agencies good apparently.

boxd.it/aCLLeF

A ½ review of War of the Worlds (2025) I don't think I've ever seen a movie with this much corporate speak in it. This adaptation of The War of the Worlds is entirely on screens and is like 60% really bad computer generated imagery (that l...

War of the Worlds (2025) - Capitalism and the authoritarianism of the United States governmental security agencies good apparently.

boxd.it/aCLLeF