PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Legends Of Dinosaurs And Monster Birds 1977

Legend Of Dinosaurs And Monster Birds 1977 Screenplay by Masaru Igami, Isao Matsumoto and Ichirô Ôtsu, directed by Junji Kurata.

 

Made by Toei Company, the studio was inspired by Jaws, the film did poorly in the Japanese theaters but was a block buster in the Soviet Union. It was known in the US as The Legend Of Dinosaurs and it was used in the last episode of the first season of Mystery Science Theater 3000 which was produced by KTMA. That version was chopped up a good bit, the original movie got a US DVD release in 2007 from Media Blasters and that's what I watched.

A woman falls into a cavern, in the Aokigahara region near Mount Fuji, she awakes to find fossilized eggs, one of which hatches. She runs off and scares a construction crew with her hysterics. A geologist called Takashi goes to take a look, while hiking around Mount Fuji he's knocked out and wakes up in the cabin of a family friend. Takashi continues his hunt for the eggs, on the way he meets an old girlfriend Akiko. She's there with her friend Junko, a scuba diver, who wants to dive in the lake where a couple in a small boat went missing.

A diver is injured in the lake, livestock have gone missing, wild theories of living dinosaurs are tossed out to the dubious public. Well, turns out it wasn't a dinosaur, it was two, one of them a plesiosaurus and the other a rhamporhynchus. The pair battle it out and the volcano erupts killing both dinos. It's a bad day on Mount Fuji and the movie ends on a cliffhanger.

I was much more entertained by the movie than on MST3K. It was like seeing a whole different movie, the MST3K version had so much trimmed out of it. It's a more adult film than I thought, there's a bit of gore, mild by today's standards and a brief bit of nudity. I'd watch it again.

I'm not sure why it did so poorly in the Japanese box office. It was Toei's biggest budget, $2.8 million and it didn't even get a third of that back in receipts. It never got released theatrically in the US but it was released to TV in 1987.

Science Fiction Sunday 719

Doctor Who 2 Series 3 Episodes 8-10

 

Human Nature May 26 2007 Written by Paul Cornell and directed by Charles Palmer. First of 2 parts.

 

To hide from the Family of Blood the Doctor hides his Time Lord self in a watch and uses the Tardis to change the cells in his body to human Calling himself John Smith, he hides in 1913 England and takes a job as a teacher at a boy's military academy. Poor Martha gets to be a maid in employ at the school. She's keeping an eye on John Smith as he has no knowledge of his past life, other than his strange dreams. He's written some of them down in a journal.

 

Jessica Stevenson plays Joan the school nurse, she's fallen for John Smith and he's reciprocated. Sadly the aliens show up and things get a bit hairy. Lucky for the Doctor he's got Martha and psychic student to help him, John Smith turns out to be a bit of nervous nelly.

 

The Family Of Blood June 2 2007 Written by Paul Cornell and directed by Charles Palmer. Second of 2 parts.

 

The baddies attack the school. I haven't see that many kids shooting guns in a boy's school since I last saw If... many years ago. In the finale John Smith has trouble giving up his life and Jessica is not happy to see the Doctor when he's back to normal. Can't blame her, she was robbed of a good life as much as John Smith. The Doctor digs into his dark side and the Family of Blood gets some unique personalized punishment.

 

A good two parter with a nice sentimental bit at the end. I like the way that the stories have more connections between them than the stories in the original series.

 

Blink June 9 2007 Written by Steven Moffatt and directed by Hettie MacDonald.

 

In 2007 London Sally Sparrow finds a message from 1969 under the wallpaper of an old and abandoned house. It's to her, from the Doctor, he's warning her not to blink and to duck. That saves Sally from nearly having a fatal encounter with the Weeping Angels.

 

They're aliens who appear to the eye as statues, they can move about when no one's watching but if you look right at them they freeze and appear to be solid stone. One of the side effects of an encounter with the Weeping Angels is being time shifted to another time and place. Sally's friend Kathy got sent back to 1920 and lived a whole new life.

 

The Doctor and Martha have an encounter with them and get time shifted to 1969 London. The Doctor uses Sally and a couple of other people to help him get the Tardis come pick him up. A future encounter between the Doctor and Sally will put even more info in his hands. Oddly the Doctor doesn't do anything to rescue the time shifted people.

 

The Doctor defeats the Weeping Angels with a clever bit of biz. They are a creepy monster and deserve it. Another good story.

 

The commentaries were fair but didn't keep my attention as much as some of the other's have. There's a video diary from David Tennant and an actual Easter Egg. If you find it you get the complete DVD message the Doctor sends Sally. That was a nice fun thing. I hardly hear of anyone doing an Easter Egg on a DVD anymore. I hardly look for them but this seemed like the disc that should have one.

Science Fiction Sunday 718

Doctor Who 2 Series 3 Episodes 4-7

 

Daleks In Manhattan April 21 2007 Written by Helen Raynor and directed by James Strong. First of 2 parts.

 

The Doctor takes Martha to see New York in 1930. There have been a number of people who  have disappeared from the Hooverville encampment in Central Park. The Doctor and Martha stop for a visit. It eventually leads them to the huge new skyscraper being built.

 

The Empire State Building is home to the Cult Of Skaro. There are only 4 Daleks left and they want to use the giant radio mast on top of the building to attract gamma radiation to power their device that will merge humans and Daleks.

 

The Black Dalek Sec opens up and his biological self merges with the site's unwilling project manager. A good reminder that there is no retirement plan but death with the Daleks. They'll just kill you, no matter who you are.

 

Evolution Of The Daleks April 18 2007 Written by Helen Raynor and directed by James Strong. Second of two parts.

 

The end result of the human Dalek merger is rather something of a problem for the remaining trio of metal heads. The new Sec wants to make peace and co-operate with other races. He thinks it's got to work better than the plan they've been following so far.

Makes sense to me, there are only 4 of them left at the start of the episode. Of course the three unchanged Daleks don't listen to him. They lit him up like a neon sign.

 

There's a lot of running about battling the Daleks and their pig men. Eventually most everyone is dead and the last Dalek manages to escape. Those pricks always seem to get away. The Doctor and Martha take off for their next adventure.

 

The Lazarus Experiment May 5 2007 Written by Stephen Greenhorn and directed by Richard Clark.

 

Mark Gatiss plays a 75 year old business man who's invented a machine to reverse aging. He's the test subject and he looks much younger. The Doctor suspects that things aren't looking so good on the inside.

 

Sure enough Mark turns into a monster that sucks the life energy out of the locals. He's not bothered by the killing, they're unimportant people. The Doctor isn't on the same page and soon he has to put an end to Mark's life. It was for the best, he was a scumbag.

 

42 May 19 2007 Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Graeme Harper.

 

The Tardis drops the gang onto a space ship that's about to fall into a sun. Another story where nearly everyone dies. Just less of them, it's a small ship.

The last story was OK but the least interesting of the lot. The rest were busy and entertaining.

Science Fiction Sunday 717

Doctor Who 2 Series 3 Episodes 1 - 3

 

Smith And Jones March 31 2007 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Charles Palmer.

 

To investigate strange activity at a hospital in London the Doctor goes undercover. He meets medical student Martha Jones. The Judoon transport the hospital to the moon while they search the place for an alien life form they want to kill. Problem is, the Doctor is an alien life form.

 

The one the Judoon want is disguised as an old lady. She's really a Plasmavore who's been sucking the locals blood. That helps her defeat the alien detector the Judoon's carry.

 

Sucking the Doctor's alien blood gets her caught and blasted to bits. The Doctor invites Martha for a ride in his Tardis and she goes right along.

 

The Shakespeare Code April 7 2007 Written by Gareth Roberts and directed by Charles Palmer.

 

In 1599 the Doctor and Martha run into William Shakespeare and a trio of witches that are really aliens called Carrionites. They're another ancient race that's supposed to be long gone. Turns out some other aliens imprisoned them somewhere. Three witches got through the barrier and want to release the rest of the Carrionites. The Doctor puts a stop to their plan.

 

Gridlock April 14 2007 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Richard Clark.

 

The Doctor takes Martha to New York in the year 5,000,000,053. They find most of the people were killed off by a virus 24 years earlier. The Face of Boe is keeping the few remaining people alive in the under city. The nearly immortal Boe is facing the end and he gives his life to save the last of the citizens.

I liked seeing the Face of Boe again. I was sad to see him die. Martha is turning out to be an interesting companion.

Three good episodes I enjoyed watching. Each episode has a commentary, the first two eps have David Tennant yakking. There's a 29 min Video Diary from David and some trailers.

Science Fiction Sunday 713

Doctor Who 2 Series 2 Episode 5-7

 

Rise Of The Cybermen May 13 2006 Written by Tom MacRae and directed by Graeme Harper. Part 1 of 2.

 

The Tardis malfunctions and drops the Doctor, Rose and Mickey in a parallel London. Unbeknownst to them a dying businessman has been creating Cybermen to keep human brains alive. He's going to force the process on everyone.

 

The Age Of Steel May 20 2006 Written by Tom MacRae and directed by Graeme Harper. Part 2 of 2.

 

 

The Doctor puts an end to the evil plan and Mickey decides to stay on the parallel London because his nan is still alive here.

 

The Idiot's Lantern May 27 2006 Written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

The Doctor takes Rose to London but lands in London in 1953. It's the day before the Queen's coronation. An entity from space called the Wire has taken residence in the TVs of a local shop owner. He's been selling cheap TVs and the Wire is using them to steal the faces of the locals. The Doctor soon puts that to rights.

I listened to all the commentaries and they were mostly entertaining. It's nice that the people doing the show are still alive and there's plenty of them who want to comment. No other extras on the disc.

Science Fiction Sunday 711

Doctor Who 2 Series 2 Christmas Special - Episode 1

 

The Christmas Invasion December 25 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by James Hawes. David Tennant wakes up from his regeneration only to crash the Tardis in London. Rose enlists her mom Jackie and part time boyfriend Mickey to help her with the Doctor.

 

While that's all going on the Earth is once again invaded. This time it's the Sycorax who've got profit from slavery in mind. They'll kill a third of the human population if they don't sell half of humanity into slavery. Prime Minster Harriet Jones pops up, she get transmatted to the alien space ship with some of her people. The aliens detect the Tardis and bring that along too. The Doctor remains asleep until the smell of a cup of tea revives him.

 

When the Doctor wakes up he gets right to work saving the day. He has a sword fight with the alien leader and tosses him off of his space ship. It's a long way down to Buckingham Palace. The Doctor has gotten harder in his new body.

 

The PM blows up the alien ship and the Doctor turns against her, ruining her career with 6 words whispered in the right ear. We hear more about Torchwood.

 

Rose has a nice Christmas dinner with her family before she jumps into the Tardis with the Doctor for a new adventure.

 

New Earth April 15 2006 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by James Hawes.

 

Human's have moved to New Earth after the sun blows up. The Doctor has gotten a message about some trouble in Ward 26 in the fancy hospital the Tardis lands near. The place is run by the Sisters Of Plenitude, they're an order of humanoid cats.

 

They seem to be doing good work but the Doctor uncovers the nasty truth. They experiment on cloned humans. That pushes him over the edge and it's off to jail for the cat ladies.

 

I enjoyed both of those episodes, they're both on the first disc of the 6 disc set. I thought I'd cut back a few eps each week, 6 or 7 was too many to get though in one day with all the extras too.

I listened to the episode commentaries and thought they were fair. There's a short video diary by Billie Piper, some deleted scenes and outtakes. Nothing too special in any of those bits.

Science Fiction Sunday 710

Doctor Who 2 Series 1 Episodes 7-13

 

The Long Game Aired May 7 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Brian Grant.

 

The Doctor and Rose wind up on a space station above the Earth in the year 200,000. It's got an alien blob guy who's controlling the humans with 24 hour a day TV. Simon Pegg is the Editor. The Doctor turns off the air conditioning and the over heated blog blows up.

Father's Day Aired May 14 2005 Written by Paul Cornell and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

Rose saves her father from death and unleashes some monsters from another dimension. The poor guy has to kill himself to set it all right. Some monsters blow up with the rift closes.

 

The Empty Child Aired May 21 2005 Written by Steven Moffat and directed by James Hawes. First of 2 parts.

 

German's are bombing London during the Blitz. Plenty of explosions in London Town. Rose gets rescued by Captain Jack, played by John Borrowman. He's a crook from the future who's scam could turn the human race into zombies. Captain Jack joins the Tardis gang to help set his big mistake to right.

 

The Doctor Dances Aired May 28 2005 Written by Steven Moffat and directed by James Hawes. Second of 2 parts.

 

The German's are still bombing London and Jack's ship get blown up.

 

Boom Town Aired June 4 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

The Tardis is refueling in Cardiff when the Doctor finds that Margaret Blaine Slitheen survived the explosion at number 10 and is mayor of Cardiff. She's got a great new scheme to create employment and power by building a nuclear power plant in the middle of the city. The Doctor figures out it's all part of an escape plan that will blow up the Earth. Only some bits of Cardiff get blown up.

Bad Wolf Aired June 11 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne. First of 2 parts.

The Doctor, Rose and Captain Jack are al kidnapped and transmatted into futuristic versions of Big Brother, The Weakest Link and What Not To Wear. Losing gets the player disintegrated. The Doctor breaks out of his show and he's surprised to find he's on the space station from The Long Game. Turns out some aliens had moved in to start controlling the humans. Plenty of small explosions during the episode.

 

The Parting Of The Ways Aired June 18 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Joe Ahearne. Second of 2 parts.

Turns out the baddies behind the subjugation of the humans are the Daleks. The Doctor will blow up the Emperor Dalek.

All in all a pretty good lot of shows.

Friday Night Movies 910

The Iceman Cometh 1989 Written by Johnny Mak and Stephen Shiu, directed by Clarence Fok with Yuen Biao directing the action. 

Yuen Biao is a Ming Guard called Fong Sau-chingin 16th century China and Yuen Wah is a nasty villain called Feng Sen who's known to rape and murder young women. After Feng Sen murders the Princess and steals the Black Jade Buddha the Emperor is mad that Fong did not stop Feng Sen. The Emperor orders Fong executed but relents when Fong begs the Emperor for his life. Fong is given 20 days to catch the crook or he's dead and so are his relatives. 

The Black Jade Buddha is a magical item that transports Feng Sen and Fong into the future. They wind up in 1980s Kowloon. Feng Sen disappears from the movie for a while. We follow Fong as he's befriended by a prostitute called Polly, played by Maggie Chung. Polly draws him into her world but Fong's too naive at first to figure out what's going on. They spend a lot of the 114 min movie working on their relationship. It's way too much and the movie nearly drags to a stop about two thirds of the way through. It was easily one of the best sleeping aids I've encountered.

The action is pretty good when it's happening but there's a lot of deadly wait time between bouts. Feng Sen is a more interesting villain than Fong is a hero but Fong eventually defeats the baddie and returns to his time. There's a dumb "happy" ending.

I'd seen this back in 1996 but failed to comment on my watched movie list. I doubt I'd buy the new Blu-ray, I doubt I'd watch it again.

Mutant Hunt 1987 Written and directed by Tim Kincaid. Tim made a few low-budget SF and horror films in his career but mostly he's made gay porn films.

I saw this back in 2012 and the only comment on my Watched Movie List is "Crappy." I don't know where I watched the movie or what format it was on, today we watched the new Vinegar Syndrome Blu-ray. While it looks nice it's still a crappy movie. Another one I won't be buying for my collection. You can watch a poor pan and scan version on YouTube but why would you.

Science Fiction Sunday 709

Doctor Who 2 Series 1 Episode 1-6 Russell T Davis is the show runner and main writer of this series. Christopher Eccleston is the 9th Doctor and Billie Piper is Rose Tyler. This was the only season for the 9th Doctor.

This is the first time I'm seeing the new version of the show. I had started watching the first run of the Doctor's adventures on November 18 2012 and ended on May 3 2015. For some reason I decided to put off watching the new series. I hadn't thought it would take over 7 years to get back to it.

 

Rose Aired March 26 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

The Autons return to London. Rose meets the Doctor at the department store that she works at. The Doctor  blows that up. He figures out that the Autons are controlled by a central hub located in the London Eye. The Doctor blows up the Autons control center. Rose decides to take the Doctor's offer of a ride in the Tardis

 

The End Of The World Aired April 2 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

The Doctor crashes an end of the Earth party on a space platform. It's packed with rich aliens who've come to see the sun expand and destroy the Earth 5.5 billion years in the future. Rose nearly gets burned to a crisp when the baddie starts killing the viewers. The Doctor figures out who that is and lets her blow up. Then the Doctor and Rose watch the Earth blow up.

 

The Unquiet Dead Aired April 9 2005 Written by Mark Gatiss and directed by Euros Lyn.

 

It's 1969 and the Tardis dumps the Doctor and Rose in Cardiff. They meet Charles Dickens and a lady who has a psychic connection to some aliens. The aliens turn out to be evil and the Doctor blows them all up.

 

Aliens Of London Aired April 16 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

Rose returns home a year after disappearing and her mother is in a right state. Rose's old boyfriend Mickey was suspected of murder, lucky for him the Bill hasn't got any evidence. The police are informed Rose has returned. Things would have settled down but an alien spaceship crashed into the Thames.

 

World War Three Aired April 23 2005 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Keith Boak.

 

This is a continuation of the previous episode. The Aliens are creeps who want to destroy the Earth so they can sell off the remains. The Doctor blows up 10 Downing Street to kill the aliens. Rose leaves with the Doctor for some more adventures.

 

Dalek Aired April 30 2005 Written by Robert Shearman and directed by Joe Ahearne.

 

The Tardis lands in a private museum of alien bits and bobs. The owner is a rich guy who's got the last Dalek chained up in his basement. His megalomania gets his brain wiped and is tossed away. Rose gets the Dalek to blow itself up.

There's a lot of explosions in Doctor Who and a big body count in many episodes. I enjoyed the series more than I expected. It's quickly paced and the stories are interesting. Both the CGI and physical special effects are fairly good. Good locations and good sets too. It's nice to see the show made with a better budget.

I'm kind of sad that Christopher Eccleston is only in the one series. I'm enjoying his doctor. Rose is fun but she brings a lot of personal drama. Her mom was alright but I'm not much of a fan of Mickey. I heard he's in the second series.

Disc one has the first three episodes with a commentary for each and several featurettes. Disc two has episodes 4-6 with commentaries, some trailers and a couple of featurettes. I've looked at all the featurettes so far but I've only listened to the first couple of commentaries. I'll get to the rest before I watch the last half of the series.

Science Fiction Sunday 708

Doctor Who The Movie The 1996 TV movie that brought back the Doctor. Nine years later they started making more episodes of the series. Written by Matthew Jacobs and directed by Geoffrey Sax. 

I found I liked the story less than the last time I watched it in 2015.

Dr Who And The Daleks 1965 Theatrical release with Peter Cushing as Dr Who. The movie is based on the 2nd Doctor Who serial The Daleks by Terry Nation, written by Milton Subotsky and an uncredited David Whitaker, directed by Gordon Flemyng.

I watched the Kino-Lorber Blu-ray this time around. It looks very nice, even on my old TV. Though the movie is based on the TV show serial it's not the same Doctor. Peter Cushing is a human who's invented the TARDIS. He's got a couple of nieces, Susan and Barbara, one of the nieces has a boyfriend called Ian. All of them get accidentally transported a planet with Daleks. Dr Who and the gang help the humanoids that are on the edge of extinction.

I found it mostly entertaining but a bit draggy in the middle. It's nice seeing the results when there's more money than usual.

The K-L Blu-ray has the 1995documentary Dalekmania that appeared on the UK DVD I watched in 2014. There's a new commentary with Kim Newman, Robert Shearman and Mark Gatiss. There's an interview with Gareth Owen, a restoration featurette and a trailer, all were on the old DVD release.

Dalek's Invasion Earth 2150AD 1966 Theatrical release with Peter Cushing as Dr Who. Based on the Doctor Who serial The Dalek Invasion Of The Earth by Terry Nation, written by Milton Subotsky with additional material by David Whitaker, directed by Gordon Flemyng.

The sequel has Dr Who and his two nieces from the first movie. Bernard Cribbins is a policeman who get attacked during a late night robbery. He stumbles onto the TARDIS, thinking it's a regular old police box he steps into use the phone. He passes out, wakes up in the future, and joins them in the fight with the Daleks.

I enjoyed the sequel more than the first film. It looks good, the story is tighter and there's plenty of action. Still, not the Doctor from the TV.

The Kino-Lorber Blu-ray has a commentary with Kim Newman, Robert Shearman and Mark Gatiss. It's also got the 1995 Dalekmania documentary, an interview with Bernard Cribbins, an interview with Gareth Owen, a restoration featurette and a trailer.