Revisitations 3 box set

Not a huge amount of ‘added value’ in this preamble, I’m afraid.

This is from DWM #445, and I guess continues my stint reviewing the Revisitation series (see here and here).

Revisitations 2 box set

While Gary Gillatt was busy with the Mara boxset, I snuck back into the DVD reviewing pages with this. 

Reviewing the three stories in the format I opted for here took a small leap in imagination, chunking it up into three mini-reviews rather than one narrative. Since then, where possible, I’ve inserted lists and the like in the copy, cos I think it’s good to break up the flow.

This is from DWM #433 and presented here with an additional joke about Toby Hadoke, which was excised from the finished piece presumably due to grounds of quality (ie. lack of).

The Seeds of Doom

Unsurprisingly, following on from my last post, this became my final regular DVD review. It’s from DWM #428, which was – bizarrely – a soap opera-themed edition. As it happened, Chris Hughes and myself wrote the lead feature in that issue, an essay on how comparable, if at all, Doctor Who is to the likes of EastEnders or Corrie. But that’s not for this blog.

Let’s get back to me quitting…

I’d been reviewing the DVD releases for about a year. A year of spending all my lunchbreaks watching or writing about Doctor Who. Often weekends too. Whether you think my stuff was any good or not, those reviews were incredibly densely written. It’s very labour intensive. I don’t think it’s speaking out of turn to reveal that my predecessor/successor Gary Gillatt feels the same about the job. You’re competing with decades of fan-writing, trying to find new threads, new arguments…

And so I told Tom and Peter at DWM I wanted to stop. At least doing it regularly. So far I’ve returned to write one other DVD review, and there may be more… there may not. For me, it’s more fun reviewing the current series on TV. In some ways, that’s more of a challenge. You can’t be as irreverent, it’s a more political situation, it’s a quicker churn and – well – it’s just more alive.

Having made the decision this was to be my swansong, I then cocked it up by referring to the character of Sir Colin as “Sir Charles” throughout (corrected here).

Ah well.

Revisitations 1 box set

It sounds mealy-mouthed, but the big, box set releases hastened my demise as DWM‘s regular DVD reviewer. Just too much stuff to wade through, and a little soul destroying watching a zillion DVD extras that were often neither very good, nor very bad.

Harumph! This is from DWM #427.

Time and the Rani

This is from DWM #426, and the opening paras were my attempt to bring a slightly different perspective to the story. Namely: Can you imagine nowadays if they introduced a new Doctor in such a haphazard fashion? You probably can’t, because they absolutely wouldn’t. It’s staggering to think poor old Sylvester McCoy was revealed in such a botched way.

I did enjoy coming up with my own bastardised aphorisms; making some fun out of that silly conceit. Although I fear I rather over-egged the prodding.

Revenge of the Cybermen/Silver Nemesis

When I first submitted this piece, the preternaturally personable Peter Ware at DWM gently advised me I had to change the opening. I’d been bold, and slung in a wholly critical remark about something/someone (forgive me for being vague)… with the ‘joke’ being, later on in the piece, I’d recant completely. But, as the principled Peter pointed out, readers would possibly never get beyond that jibe. 

It was a good point, and so I rewrote. I’m glad I did, even though my pay-off in the second paragraph is now very flabby indeed. But the original draft would have haunted me forever,

This is from DWM #425.

The Dominators

There’s an all-too-easy trick if you want to give the appearance your writing is structured and thought-through. Have the ending of a piece tie up its opening. That’s blatantly what I did here (from DWM #424.)

I recall a very good pal from a rival magazine telling me how neat this review was and I attribute that entirely to its symmetry. It’s not something I resort to very often. It makes me feel as though I’m not trying hard enough. Likewise, closing on a pithy final bon mot. 

Another all-too-easy trick.

Kamelion Tales Collection

My final effort from DWM #423. This one was published credited to ‘James Kargoh’, rather than myself, as a bit of fun in deference to The King’s Demons. 

I really, really hated the ‘special edition’ of Planet of Fire on this release, and remember the spite pouring from me as I wrote the curt few lines about it below. It felt quite brutal, but when I saw it again on the printed page, it wasn’t so cutting. A lesson, there. 

The Creature from the Pit

Well, this one is full of a load of old nonsense, isn’t it? Although I was quite pleased with the “limey wimey” gag (even though anyone still trading off “timey wimey” come summer 2010 was probably pushing it a bit). After filing this piece, I remember Peter from DWM gently advised me it was felt I was quoting from the episodes a little too much. I was.

Anyway, from DWM #422…

Myths and Legends box set

From DWM #421. And I think it was the box set releases that ultimately caused me to quit regularly reviewing DVDs for the magazine. So many man hours…