A Christmas Carol Soundtrack Mega-Review

Posted on January 5, 2012 by ReddiShadow

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they fly by.” – Douglas Adams

I think I can say that the following post has become my own personal Duke Nukem Forever. What started out as a quick little review to fill time until The RTD Roundup – Rose Part III has now mutated into a 16,000 word monster, making it the longest post I have ever written for this site. Month after month of toil, blood, sweat, the bedevilled temptress that is Internet surfing and a hefty glob of procrastination has meant promise after promise to get it done has been broken. Hell, after a while I stopped saying when I’d get it done and kept the deadlines I set for myself to myself, since I knew in all likelihood I’d just break it. Still, if you’re reading this, then it means I’ve finally managed to get my act together sufficiently to polish off this gargantuan mass of a post.

But enough of that, what of the purpose of said post? Well, if you’ve somehow read this far without knowing what said purpose is, I congratulate you on your lack of peripheral vision. The rest of you should know that this is a review of Murray Gold’s score to A Christmas Carol. If you’re wondering whether I mean “the one with CG Jim Carrey or the one with Kermit the Frog”, then I’m wondering what the hell you’re doing coming to this site. Continue reading →

Miracle Day: First Impressions

Posted on June 11, 2011 by ReddiShadow

My, it has been a while, hasn’t it? Six months may not seem like a long time, but if you look at the Cybermen box set review below and think back to when you first read it, it seems like an eternity ago. In fact, let’s think back to what the world was like when that last post went up:

The Big Bang was the most recent episode. We didn’t even know A Christmas Carol’s title, let alone it’s plot.
Series Six was still some vague entity off in the distant ether.
David Tennant fans were still bitching about how Matt Smith wasn’t as good.
Haters of the 2010 theme still had their fingers crossed that it would prove to be the 21^st Century equivalent of the Glynn theme (the TV version at least), a one-season mistake that would be looked back on and laughed at.
The Sarah Jane Adventures had a bright future, looking set to take the lead over new Doctor Who in season numbers.
Torchwood was still dead and looked like it would remain so.
Bow ties and fezzes were (and still are) cool, but Stetsons were not.
Uh… Osama bin Laden was still alive…
Erm… the economy… no, that’s still in the toilet…

Actually, that’s pretty much all that’s changed during Eye of Harmony’s little break. Huh.

But, more importantly, what of the future? Well, I’ve had several projects on the back burner since last December, but due to other commitments I’ve just not had the time to finish them. Now though, with a four month vacation until the start of the new term in October, I’ve got plenty of time to get them all posted for your reading pleasure. In order of priority, here’s what you can expect from me in the coming weeks. Continue reading →

The RTD Roundup: Rose (Part 2)

Posted on July 22, 2010 by ReddiShadow

I’d like to thank the troll on the previous post for giving me the motivation to post again so soon. This one’s for you, buddy.

So when we last left our insipid heroine, she was locked in an F-grade horror film- I mean basement, and the door mysteriously locked itself. Now I’ve recovered from laughing, let’s move on.

Rose continues on in Dead Before Credits tradition by calling out “is someone mucking about?” Come on, lady. Don’t you know that’s like the ringtone on the Grim Reaper’s pager? True to form, as soon as she moves past some dummies, one moves with an incredibly loud squeak. Alerted, she turns, and the Auton peeks out of the shadows. It’s probably just me here, but does anyone else mentally hear the Auton speak with the voice of that Scottish guy from The IT Crowd when it leans over?

“Hullo there!”

Rose is determined… to be a blonde body statistic of the movie’s villain, it seems, as she continues to spout classic lines blondes inevitably loose in this situation, including old chestnuts “You got me, very funny” and “Right, I got the joke”.

“Who’s idea was this, then? Was it Derek’s?” Oh please God, Doctor, PLEASE appear and save us from pointless references to characters we’ll never see, let alone care about. The Autons start surrounding her, with Rose insistent on getting every blonde cliché in the book into this scene by tripping over backwards. Luckily RTD has at least some sense in not having her scrabble away on the floor like the thousands of her predecessors have done since the dawn of the slasher movie. No, instead she begins getting up, and teleports about a foot away. Why does she not use this power of bad editing to escape? Maybe she can’t teleport through walls or something. Continue reading →

The RTD Roundup: Rose (Part 1)

Posted on July 20, 2010 by ReddiShadow

I’ve been humming and ha-ing about posting this for over two weeks now. Although I’m only a few minutes into the episode, I’ve already written over 1500 words. At that rate, it’ll take forever. So, I’m going to post what I have so far, and then if there’s enough of a response to it, I’ll continue on. Please, if you want to see more, leave a comment. I won’t know otherwise.

Now though, the post:

Russell T Davies: Bond Villain

Ah, Russell T Davies. What can you say about him? He’s possibly the most controversial behind-the-scenes figure in Doctor Who history. On the one hand, he took a long dead TV series and turned it into one of the BBC’s biggest hitters. On the other, he writes stories that, while appearing to be perfectly good stories on the surface, completely fall apart when given any level of scrutiny. Then factor in Doctor-worship, his story-trumps-rules approach or convoluted finales to add to the list of weaknesses. Hell, let’s not even talk about his overuse of gay or bisexual characters to make a Star Trek-esque statement on acceptance of different sexual orientations. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a noble goal, but when almost every story has a male or female character mention in passing they have a partner of the same gender, it gets extremely irritating.

But, what of the early days? Continue reading →

Blood of the Cybermen adventure game review

Posted on June 29, 2010 by ReddiShadow

You people…

You people and your fast computers… It’s just perfect for you, ISN’T IT?! Runs like a dream… No worries… But you don’t know, man! You weren’t there!

You weren’t there…

Y’know, I wish someone else would review these games. I really do. As I mentioned in City of the Daleks, my 2005 laptop just isn’t built to handle a 2010 game. So, I have to sit through the opening titles for three minutes (I timed it), because it advances frame by frame every other second. I have to sit in total silence, watching the opening credits in ultra-slow-mo, for three full minutes. That may not seem like a long time to you, but trust me, it’s an eternity.

But no, it’s up to me and my craptacular PC to enter hell once more.
Continue reading →