Category: 42 Word Reviews

Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Planetarium Experience

Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Planetarium Experience

(NSC Creative, 2023) Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, 10 March 2024

Performance poster: “Pink Floyd’s The Dark Side of the Moon Planetarium Experience” (NSC Creative, 2023) Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, 10 March 2024

The classic album played in its entirety, synchronised with a specially rendered visual extravaganza of space scenes and psychedelic sequences projected onto the planetarium’s skydome. The immersive experience makes one reflect and appreciate, 50 years on, just how innovative Dark Side was.

Foundation, Season 1

Foundation, Season 1

(Apple TV+, 2021)

TV poster: “Foundation, Season 1” (Apple TV+, 2021)

A remarkable series that takes Asimov’s action-light scenario and dry-cornflake characters and adapts them into a highly visual, absorbing SF story (albeit still rather abstruse and slow to gain traction). The programme’s success stems from its reinterpretation of various protagonists as female.

Wednesday

Wednesday

(Netflix, 2022)

TV poster: “Wednesday” (Netflix, 2022)

Delightfully kooky teen coming-of-age horror/mystery series. The production values smack of feature filmmaking (iconic costume design and makeup; Tim Burton directs half the episodes). Jenna Ortega makes precocious antihero Wednesday Addams an instant favourite… even before her dance-out to ‘Goo Goo Muck’!

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road

Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road

by Russell T. Davies; dir. Mark Tonderai (BBC, 2023)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: The Church on Ruby Road” by Russell T. Davies; dir. Mark Tonderai (BBC, 2023)

Davies scripts a bonhomous if heavy-handed, found-family Christmas special that rattles along while re-treading old ground (his own Whoeuvre plus a sing-and-dance tribute to Labyrinth). Ncuti Gatwa takes the Doctor’s zest for life and channels it into a more tactile, people-friendly persona.

Doctor Who: The Giggle

Doctor Who: The Giggle

by Russell T. Davies; dir. Chanya Button (BBC, 2023)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: The Giggle” by Russell T. Davies; dir. Chanya Button (BBC, 2023)

Neil Patrick Harris exudes menace as the Toymaker, yet the magnitude of his power (alluded to by the fate of the Master and the Guardians) is undermined by the utterly facile nature of the games chosen. Inexplicably, Ncuti Gatwa debuts without pants.

Unraveller

Unraveller

by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan, 2022)

audiobook read by Eleanor Bennett (Macmillan Children’s, 2022)

Book cover: “Unraveller” by Frances Hardinge (Macmillan, 2022); audiobook read by Eleanor Bennett (Macmillan Children’s, 2022)

In terms of character arcs this is standard YA fare (and overlong at that), but Hardinge commits all-in to the fantasy scenario, weaving a world whose magics and creatures seem as natural as they are wondrous. The destination more-or-less warrants the journey.

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder

Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder

by Russell T. Davies; dir. Tom Kingsley (BBC, 2023)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: Wild Blue Yonder” by Russell T. Davies; dir. Tom Kingsley (BBC, 2023)

A worthwhile experiment, Midnight-ish in nature with perhaps a spot too much ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ thrown in (the more grotesque shapeshifting tending to detract from the central concept). Not a lot of re-watch value except for the evil doppelgänger acting.

Doctor Who: The Star Beast

Doctor Who: The Star Beast

by Russell T. Davies; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2023)

TV poster: “Doctor Who: The Star Beast” by Russell T. Davies; dir. Rachel Talalay (BBC, 2023)

Russell T. Davies returns to Doctor Who as if on a season pass he misplaced for fifteen years, and brings David Tennant and Catherine Tate along for the ride, scripting a fun, tonally frivolous special that nevertheless checks assumptions at every turn.

Peaky Blinders, Season 4

Peaky Blinders, Season 4

by Steven Knight (BBC, 2017)

TV poster: “Peaky Blinders, Season 4” by Steven Knight (BBC, 2017)

Season 4 contrives to relative flatness, squeezing the Shelby family apart and then together again to counter a mob vendetta that never really amounts to much (though there are some cleverly worked surprises and Adrien Brody does bring presence to Luca Changretta).

Talion Rule

Talion Rule

by Whitney Hill (Benu Media, 2023)

Book cover: “Talion Rule” by Whitney Hill (Benu Media, 2023)

A genuine page-turner. Arden grows ever more powerful and assured, yet struggles under the sheer weight of human and Otherside prejudices she’s forced to deal with. Hill deftly piles trouble upon trouble, investing readers in both the urban fantasy and the allegory.