Space is no longer the final frontier. The Darkness is coming and only the Time Warriors stand between it and Earth. Grab your copies today on Amazon!
By Owen Quinn author copyright BBC
Following the events of The Reality War, the trailer for the new Doctor Who spin off The War Between The Land and The Sea has been released. Starring Gemma Redgrave, Freema Agyeman and Russell Tovey, we will see the appearance of the Sea Devils and Silurians once more. But is Salt the new Sea Devil design? And how is she connected to Barclay?
By Owen Quinn author photos copyright BBC
So, as we know, the first episode of this two-parter was simply not up to scratch. So with the Reality War, would the downward slope continue like Empire of Death?
After the cataclysmic events at the climax of part one, we learn that the Rani has been replaying this day for ages as each replay of May 23rd scrapes away the layers of the underverse which will let her free Omega. So the reset button actually works for a change. By the way, why does the Doctor keep saying Omega incorrectly?
But my scepticism was immediately burned away when Anita from Joy To The World popped up, rescues the Doctor from the falling balcony and drags him back to the Time Hotel. I liked Anita from that Christmas special and wanted her to join the Tardis and here we get a lovely catch up. After she became the manager of the Time Hotel, she looked for the Doctor, allowing us cameos from Pertwee, Matt Smith, Troughton and Hartnell but when she saw him with Rogue, she hooked up with Richie from HR and is now pregnant. Well, that’s one way of getting over the Doctor I suppose. Anita is instrumental to this because the open doors to the hotel are pumping real time back into Wish World, restoring everyone in UNIT as well as the Doctor.
Remember that last line about Poppy being his real daughter? Well, thanks to Wish World, she really is the wish of the Doctor because we learn the secret of the Time Lords. They are sterile since the genetic explosion. There can be no more Time Tots as referenced by Romana. So, young Poppy is now a hope for Time Lord society to be restored. She is made of hopes and dreams and wishes which all children are. And we know she is born from the Doctor because Ruby recognises her from Space Babies. And Belinda will burn the world rather than lose her so nice to see the Zero Room back from Castrovalva which was instrumental in the fifth Doctor’s regeneration.
Unfortunately, there is no explanation or reappearance by Susan, his granddaughter which really should have been done. But there is enough here to keep us entertained. Neither is there an explanation as to the Tardis doors exploding inwards at the end of The Interstellar Song Contest.
The reactivation of UNIT is inspiring especially as Donna’s Rose reappears. In Conrad’s world, she didn’t have a place but now she is back; the wish is breaking apart. Mel roars in on her bike and finally gets a chance to go head to head with the Rani. You can almost feel the ghost of Kate O’Mara speaking.
Everything is revealed as Mrs Flood appears to her former neighbours; Ruby and Belinda. She was supposed to be following the Doctor on all his travels but she took Christmas off, allowing Anita to rescue the Doctor.
The Omega plan fails due to his ego which is worse than ever before and poor Rani 2 is eaten alive by him while Mrs Flood flees by grabbing the time ring she used to escape the genocide of Gallifrey, last seen used by the fourth Doctor in Genesis of the Daleks. I loved the two Ranis joke but it will be lost on the younger generation.
Omega’s return in a brand new form is impressive though he could do with a lot of moisturiser. The real use of the Vindicator is revealed as the Doctor banishes him back to Hell with the power of a billion supernovas while UNIT is almost shattered in a battle with the bone beasts, a type of Reapers like those from Father’s Day. It’s a much better defeat than what was given with Sutekh. This is really the battle to save a child, one impossible child, one hope against the gods themselves. Ruby must face Conrad using the Indigo teleport harness device from The Stolen Earth as last used by Martha Jones.
Do you think all these Easter Eggs are leading to something special? No, it was internet gossip. So many elements of the 15th Doctor’s era popping up almost as if….naw, can’t be.
The triple battle, much like the climax to the last season of Stranger Things is awesome. So much going on and very enjoyable. Everyone is in there fighting for the world and this child. I have to say those creepy Borg like things with the cracked white flesh that the Rani uses were quite scary.
Hang on, I thought, why is the story over and there is still nineteen minutes to go?
The world has been restored because Ruby has the wish baby and gave Conrad his greatest wish; happiness. Mrs Flood Rani has escaped and the Doctor and Belinda, together with their daughter, are off to show her the whole of time and space. The God of wishes is now in the care of Cherry and Carla where Ruby can also keep an eye. Oh, and Susan Triad is glad not to be wearing nylon anymore. Finally, we get Ruby in the Tardis with the new family. We need more Cherry and where the hell is Morris?
As Ruby watches, Poppy fades out of existence and their memories.
Except for Ruby’s. Ruby insists Poppy was real but the Doctor doesn’t believe her and neither does anyone else but their bond makes him realise that she is telling the truth. His daughter is stuck out there, somewhere and also explains the mystery of the little child Belinda saw in The Story and The Engine.
The only way he can find her is to sacrifice himself in a supernova of regeneration energy. The Tardis flashes up all his other known faces so we get a Doctor fest of what is coming next. So begins the end of the 15th Doctor. But he is not alone.
Cue the 13th Doctor rushing into the Tardis, coat flapping. My God, I cannot believe how much of a joy it was to see her again. Maybe it’s partly because I met Jodie Whittaker last year and she was amazing. She is brilliant here as she meets her future self. We get her in full flow, criticising the new Tardis and its size with a ‘you redecorated but I don’t like it’ line. We get timey-wimey as a thing and the sad recall that she cannot tell Yaz she loves her. She is in awe of just how beautiful this incarnation is and is a real breath of fresh air. She and Ncuti shine on screen as she gives him the push he needs to find Poppy and he gives her a forgotten glimpse of the person she will become. That’s pure magic right there.
So time is shifted and Poppy is found but at a personal cost. The Doctor can never be her father just as he could never settle down and be with Rose in the parallel universe. So history has been rewritten by a degree and someone else is her father. He has also rewritten his own history with Belinda. Poppy is now the reason she wanted to get home all along. It was always about getting home to her daughter. The tragedy is, the Doctor wants it so much too but it is always out of reach for him. But as the Doctor says, the gods play tricks so you never know. He can never go home or have a family.
So, here it is. The 15th Doctor is leaving. His body is failing and the regeneration begins. Not wanting to be alone, he looks out into space at Joy, the star from Joy To The World. His body erupts with a fountain of regeneration energy among the stars in a spectacular effects sequence.
And he regenerates into….Rose Tyler??? What? What? What?
With Disney now gone, Doctor Who is going to keep going. Ncuti has been amazing. He is now forever the Doctor and what a journey he has been on. His Doctor has shone even in the shittiest of stories (yes, you Space Babies and most of season one) but if you are going to go out, then this is the way to do it. Doctor Who can still deliver after 62 years in every medium there is.
We laugh and we cry with the Doctor because the real companions are us.
As for the new Doctor? Well, who knows?
This time, we go into the deep, deep, sweltering jungles to face an alien so powerful and unique, will it beat the power of the fearless duo? The Predator is here but which of us is really the ugliest mother fucker? Join the craic. You won’t look back.
By Owen Quinn author
Photos copyright 20th Century Fox
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
Some people think Bishop is known to everyone but I have come across people that will not watch any movies made before they were born, people that don’t watch sci-fi movies, people that didn’t like it and never gave it a second thought and those that just don’t do movies.
So, as much as it is a surprise, Bishop may well be an unknown entity to a lot of people but he is as synonymous with the Aliens franchise as much as Sigourney Weaver is. Played by the amazing Lance Henriksen, Bishop echoes down the Alien franchise forever and a day. He is in fact based on wealthy industrialist and founder of Weyland Industries, Charles Bishop Weyland. Weyland was dying of a terminal disease when he discovered a hidden pyramid structure beneath the ice of the Antarctic. Hence they learned of the aliens and the Predators even though he died there.
He becomes involved with Ripley when she joins a marine crack team aboard the Sulaco en-route to discover why all contact was lost with the colony on LV-426, the moon where Ripley and her crew first met the alien. She cannot believe that they have put entire families there given they knew the aliens were there from events of the Nostromo.
Bishop is the executive science officer just as Ash was in the original and is very quiet in nature. When he performs the knife trick on a terrified Hudson, he cuts himself. It is then Ripley sees the white fluid he has for blood and backs off. Given her near murder at the hands of Ash, she is wary of Bishop despite his reassurances that his programming forbids his ever harming a human. He also prefers the term ‘artificial person’ to synthetic. She warns him to stay away from her; smashing the plate of food he offers her from his hands. The way Henriksen plays it here makes you doubt his sincerity at being shocked at how Ash acted back then. His delivery makes you wonder if he isn’t dismissing the seriousness of the incident.
When the squad is virtually wiped out by the aliens and their drop ship explodes, Bishop takes over as a medic, caring for Gorman and analysing the colony and the alien face huggers. When Bishop detects a fault in the reactor, they must get the second drop ship down from orbit to get them off before they die in a massive nuclear explosion. The only way to do it is crawl through several miles of conduit and manually realign the relay that will allow them to remote control the ship. Hudson freaks out as usual and Ripley is taken aback that Bishop volunteers to go. When he quips that he is synthetic, not stupid, Ripley sees the first glimpse that Bishop may not be like Ash as she feared.
There is a deleted scene where Bishop does encounter an alien. It spies him through a crack in the conduit but when he doesn’t react to it, it loses interest and leaves. This has never been released.
When Newt is taken by the aliens, Ripley, an injured Hicks and pilot Bishop must go after her. Bishop is concerned about the limited time they have to leave bringing up the possibility that he will fly the ship out of there. When Ripley does rescue Newt and gets back to the landing platform our fears about Bishop after all. But he flies in as it was too unstable, allowing them to get board before going full speed to outrun the explosion.
Ripley finally accepts he is not like Ash after all. He is ripped in half by the Queen launching the iconic battle between Ripley and the Queen that has gone down in movie history. But since he is synthetic Bishop is still alive and is still able to grab Newt and save her from being sucked out into space along with the Queen. He quips, “Not bad for a human,” at Ripley for taking out the Queen before smiling. Ripley ensures they are all safe in the stasis pods but not even she can believe what happens when she wakes up.
They have crashed and she reactivates the damaged Bishop who reveals to her that an alien got aboard presumably when the Queen did or she laid an egg before the fight. It caused the crash resulting in the deaths of Hicks and Newt.
He asks Ripley to deactivate him. He can be reworked but will never be what he was. It is like a human dealing with an injury so severe that they cannot go on and have asked someone to help them end their life. He’d rather be nothing than a shell of his former self. Ripley does what he asks and her reaction is one of someone who just found a best friend five minutes before then lost them in a heartbeat. But at the end of Alien 3 the company sends the scientist that designed the Bishop series and modelled them on himself. He looks like Bishop and his name is Michael Bishop, a gesture to show Ripley a friendly face to persuade her to come with him. He may well be a descendant of Weyland himself as the looks are identical. Seeing and hearing him, in the voice of her dead friend, has little impact on Ripley. She knows it is just another ploy by the company to get the alien. Her Bishop is dead; this one is the version she initially thought Bishop was; the company man with no conscience who will bury an entire colony of people to ensure the alien is brought to them. Her Bishop would never do that because her Bishop had more of a conscience and morality than these humans who gave him their face. Rather than help them, Ripley kills herself by throwing herself and her implanted alien into molten lead.
Bishop and his likeness has continued in novels, games and comics including the Marvel Alien line. He will always be the android that showed Ripley what it is to be human whether your blood is white or red.
By Owen Quinn author Photos copyright BBC
I’ve watched this episode three times now and being the penultimate episode of the season, the stakes were high with the arrival of not one but two Ranis. Both they and the Doctor were on course for 24th May 2025 when the world ended. We knew Ruby and Conrad would be back so how was it all connected?
To be honest, I wasn’t impressed. It all starts off well with the Rani murdering an entire family so she can steal the newborn seventh son. he turns out to be yet another god, the god of wishes. She locks him in a room with Conrad in her palace above London who broadcasts stories to the world, a world that he wished for. Archie Punjabi certainly has shades of Kate O’Mara in her performance and it is nice to see Kate O’Mara in flashback. She was a legend.
It is a world where a woman is a woman, destined to be a good little wife and a man is a man, out working nine to five. Therefore the Doctor and Belinda are Mister and Mrs John Smith with a daughter called Poppy. Could this be a reference to the Poppy Honey from the last episode? And no man can love another man as it’s not in Conrad’s rules.
John Smith works for UNIT, only it’s a national insurance company ran by hard nosed boss Kate Stewart. You start at nine o’clock and be happy, happy, happy. The world is perfect which speaks volumes about Conrad’s character and how he sees the world. And it isn’t pleasant.
I have to say there is a nice commentary on the disabled. Ruby is on the run as anyone having doubts about the way things are are taken away by the police. She meets Shirley, the disabled wheelchair scientific/advisor from our UNIT who is now homeless and begging on the streets. In Conrad’s world, there are no disabled people or misfits; everyone is happy, able-bodied and living an almost fifties lifestyle. This is exemplified in the scene with Belinda, her mother and grandmother who discuss Poppy’s future as a good wife and mother. Yet none can remember her labour or even when she was born. And no-one sees the disabled. I still wish Morris was back though.
His begging on the street and living in cardboard city would have been a more powerful image than Shirley.
This reflects the real world as disabled people are literally a community of their own, mostly unseen by the world and if seen in the street, glanced at out of the side of peoples’ eyes. It’s also interesting that Russell T Davies cited Davros’ disability as too extreme so give him a normal body as people would associate disability with evil. Now here we have two wheelchairs storming the Rani HQ with Ruby. The show’s logic about representing disability confuses me. And I speak as a disabled person, an amputee to be precise.
The Ranis need the doubts of the world especially that of the Doctor’s to break open reality to find the Lost One, Omega. Omega is the first and most frightening Time Lord as seen in The Three Doctors when the entire universe was in danger because of him trying to break through from the universe of antimatter he was trapped in, bringing the first three Doctors together to save the day. He would once try again with the help of sympathetic Time Lords in the fifth Doctor story, Arc of Infinity.
Here we hear the dialogue from The Three Doctors as the world begins to collapse in a fantastic special effects scene but it isn’t loud enough to be heard properly for the casual viewer. Stephen Thorne’s portrayal of Omega is iconic so it is great to hear that voice again. But the return of Omega opens up a huge contradiction in Time history and indeed the show’s history, thanks to the Chris Chibnall era.
Omega harnessed the power of a black hole to give the Time Lords the power to time travel along with Rassilon. But in the attempt, Omega was lost, believed dead. He was their greatest hero even to the Doctor. But when Gallifrey and the universe was attacked by a force from within a black hole, they discovered Omega alive in an antimatter universe. He had been forgotten, furious that he had been abandoned by the Time Lords, living in isolation in a world of his will just like Conrad but he had been driven insane and his body had gone. Only his powerful will kept him alive. Tricked by the Doctor, he was believed dead again, destroyed in a matter/antimatter explosion creating a new sun. But somehow he survived and helped by some sympathetic Timer Lords, he wanted to use the Doctor’s body print to reclaim his place in our universe.
However, the Doctor is the basis for all Time Lords, a lost child found by Tecteun who harnessed her regeneration abilities, transplanting them into every Time Lord, creating the society of Gallifrey. It was under Tecteun’s guidance that they discovered the ability to time travel. She enforced the twelve regenerations rule while heading the secretive Divison.
So the Rani may not be aware of this but the Doctor is the first and most frightening Time Lord. So Omega’s return is kind of underwhelming. The Rani’s plan seems convoluted. The next episode trailer has revealed why she wants Omega but it’s a plot line that is the similar to the Time Warriors book Tempest.
I’ve watched it three times now and still get that underwhelmed feeling. The return of Mel, Rogue and Susan are titbits. Are the latter two real or just manifestations of the Doctor’s fractured memories? Where’s the David Tennant Doctor in all of this? Is he off planet or has his memory been erased too?
So with Earth collapsing Inception style, the Doctor plunging to his death, crying out that his daughter Poppy is really his flesh and blood daughter, just left me with a feeling of… just get on with it now.
This is a very mixed episode that seems to be struggling with its own logic. We can only hope part two delivers in spades.
Guest Announcement – Jamie Campbell Bower! 
We are thrilled to welcome Jamie Campbell Bower to Dublin Comic Con: Summer Edition 2025 for a one day appearance, Saturday only!
As Jamie’s time is limited, we will have limited signing slots and autographs available to prepurchase. The ONLY way to guarantee an autograph or photoshoot is to prepurchase. We cannot guarantee autos or photo ops will be available for walk ups on the day.
Known for his unforgettable role as Vecna/Henry/One in Netflix’s global phenomenon Stranger Things, Jamie has cemented his place as one of the most compelling villains in recent TV history. But that’s not all—fans will also recognize him from:
The Twilight Saga (Caius Volturi)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 (Young Gellert Grindelwald)
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (Jace Wayland)
Sweeney Todd
This multi-talented actor and musician will be joining us for autographs & photo ops, across the weekend. Please note Jamie will not be doing a panel.
When: August 9th–10th, 2025
Where: Convention Centre Dublin
Get Tickets https://www.tixr.com/groups/comicconireland
As Jamie’s time is limited, we will have limited signing slots and autographs available to prepurchase. The ONLY way to guarantee an autograph or photoshoot is to prepurchase.
Tickets available now at www.dublincomiccon.com
Don’t miss your chance to meet the man behind Vecna—see you there! 
#DublinComicCon#StrangerThings#JamieCampbellBower#Vecna#DCC2025
By Owen Quinn author
Photos copyright MGM
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
When you think robots from the fifties and sixties you think of the Robot from Lost In Space and his warning cry of “Danger Will Robinson!” but before Robot became a hit as a comedy duo with Doctor Smith, there was another that captured audiences’ attention and quickly became labeled as the hardest working robot in Hollywood.
In 1956 the movie Forbidden Planet starring Walter Pidgeon and Leslie Nielsen was released. The movie poster showed a woman limp in the arms of a big human-sized black robot. It appeared threatening on the poster but the portrayal was far from menacing. Robby was a good guy with a great wit and willingness to help anyone out as the ship’s cook discovered when Robby delivered 60 gallons of whiskey to him. As one character remarks, Robby looks after them like a mother. He was remarkably strong and bows gracefully to Adams when they first meet. He can speak 187 other languages with their dialects and sub tongues while cooking at the same time. He is very careful to protect humans even down to telling them to fasten their seatbelts before driving off. If Robby was the template for the Lost In Space robot then it worked in spades.
Forbidden Planet was a huge movie for its time with no expense spared including the creation of Robby. MGM did not want the standard metal man robot. They wanted this to be special. Robby cost between $100,000 and $125,000 to make and if ever a studio got their money’s worth out of a robot this was it.
His conception came from a collaboration between Arnold Buddy Gillespie, Arthur Lonergan, Mentor Huebner Irving Block and Robert Kinoshita. Robby came in three parts and this proved to be easier for shooting him. He was voiced by Marvin Miller for the movie and was an instant hit. For me as a kid, I loved the domed head and you could see the internal mechanics which could be found lying around the house if you looked meaning you could be Robby. His front panel flashed when he spoke and he could put anything in his chest slot to analyse and replicate as he did with the alcohol. There had been nothing like Robby before especially when you discovered his kind and helpful nature. He could not harm humans and had internal weapons to protect Doctor Morbius (Pidgeon) and Altaira (Anne Francis).
It had been Morbius that had created Robby when the expedition first arrived at Altair 4. Robby and Altaira join the crew as Altair explodes at the movie’s ending and he is loving it being behind the controls of the ship. It is this comedic humanity that made Robby popular. Everybody wanted one.
If Robby had negotiated a wage for all his appearances, he would have been worth a fortune. He would appear in three episodes of The Twilight Zone as like the BBC years later with Blake’s 7 and Doctor Who, props were recycled to other shows much like Irwin Allen did for Lost in Space, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Time Tunnel and Land of the Giants. He would pop up in the Addams Family, Mork and Mindy, The Man From Uncle, Gremlins and the Thin Columbo to name a few but for me the battle of the giants was when Robot went head to head with Robby in the Lost In Space episode War of the Robots and later in Condemned in Space where Robby was a prison guard. This was an iconic moment and didn’t disappoint.
But in the Twilight Zone episode Uncle Simon, he appeared a little differently than we were used to. He was given a different headpiece due to the recycling policy maybe as an attempt to make it something new but most of the time he was as we remembered him from Forbidden Planet.
In 2004 Robby was entered into the Robot Hall of Fame where his legacy lasts right to this day. With every generation that watches Forbidden Planet or any of his shows then Robby’s fan base will forever grow.
By Owen Quinn author photos copyright BBC
Yes, you read that right. I gasped. Just like when we visited the Big Brother House and The Weakest Link, I knew this visit to this celebration of all things Eurovision song contest was not going to be straightforward.
I have to admit that eleven minutes in, I messaged my buddy and told him if the rest of the episode was as awesome as the first eleven minutes, I’d be a very happy man. From the very first sequence, I was smiling. I’m not a Eurovision fan but I know people that have parties for it. It got so political, it drove me away. That’s not what it is about and this episode reminds us it is all about fun and bringing people together.
There are so many easter eggs here for Euro fans and even a nice museum with Graham Norton serving as the holographic host. Rylan has somehow managed to escape the destruction of Earth to go into deep freeze only to be revived to host the contest each year. Rylan milks this episode and is a treat to watch. He is such a down to earth person anyway, he is seamless. The Tardis isn’t big enough for him and Ncuti (though it would be fun to find out). This time the contest is being hosted aboard the Harmony Arena, a space station in an air bubble. It is also sponsored by the Corporation that brought you Poppy Honey.
But this contest is highjacked by Kid and Wynn, Helians whose planet was reduced to ash and practice cannibalism and witchcraft. At least, that’s what the rumours say. With an audience of three trillion watching and over 100.000 people in the audience including Mrs Flood who is watching the Doctor’s every move and recording his vindicator readings for herself. This tells me that she cannot get back to May 24th either which means that she may not have been the reason for its destruction.
Within ten minutes, Kid and Wynn have taken control of the robot guards, popped the air bubble and nearly everyone is sucked into space to die including the Doctor. Only a few people are safe including Belinda, a singer named Cora, partners Gary and Mike and a few others. Belinda believes the Doctor is dead and that she is now alone and panics before Cora calms her. But the Doctor being the Doctor, he realised just in time that something was wrong and switched it so everyone is actually in suspended animation. The effects here are stunning as the bodies float upwards like something out of a horror movie. Kid and Wynn are played so well and their horns made me realise, there aren’t enough aliens with horns. Hmm, I think the Time Warriors books are about to get a few new species.
Kid is angry as the galaxy treats the Helians like lepers to the point they are banned from singing. Kid and Wynn are here to reveal the truth about what happened to their planet and the lies the Corporation spread to drive his people into the shadows. Nina, who is running the contest broadcast, calls Kid a monster. He replies that he has been called that all his life and that he is only doing what they think he does anyway. This simple sentence speaks volumes about what has led him here. The reveal that the Helian planet was destroyed by the Corporation who own Poppy Honey is raw. The Helians were branded monsters just so the Corporation could take the poppies from their world to flavour their honey and make it a best seller. When Cora reveals she too is a Helian who cut off her horns so she could sing her song, that we see they have genuine cause but no justification for their actions.
Frozen in space, the Doctor is called to by a familiar face seemingly from inside the Tardis. And I gasped and clapped at the same time.
Susan is finally back after being teased for so long with the Sutekh business. She keeps popping up in his head urging him on so he does what the Doctor would do. He grabs a confetti cannon and flies to an airlock where he, Gary and Mike work together to bring everyone back. I loved Gary and Mike being puppy dogs as they both fall for the Doctor. And of course, it’s done to the classic Making Your Mind Up by Bucks Fizz. You can see the pain and joy in his face as the very possibility of his granddaughter just may be alive after all and connected to him. So good to have her back but will Susan appear in the finale or is this an illusion caused by freezing in space, a near death experience. Brilliant.
Ncuti Gatwa is stunning once again in this episode as we see him slip to a part of his nature that frightens Belinda. His threats towards Kid are terrifying because Kid has put ice in his heart. When we learn that the potential murder of over three trillion people triggered memories of Gallifrey dying in a second and that he doesn’t realise Belinda is safe, the dark Doctor comes to the fore. As the twelfth Doctor warned Ashildr that if Clara died, nowhere would be safe from him because the Doctor is no longer there once she dies. Belinda knows enough to get to him and bring him back from the edge before he truly does kill Kid. Only this time we see it as the Doctor intends to pummel Kid to death by hurting him three trillion times using a hard light hologram. It is only the sight of Belinda that brings him to his senses and not even Susan pleading with him to stop works. This says so much about the pain within the Doctor. People ask why he cried at the end of Empire of Death. Because he thought he was about to get part of his family back but Ruby got hers instead. Now, here Susan is, calling to him.
But the big reveal as to who Mrs Flood really is comes and she turns out to be the Rani, the evil Time Lady that battled the sixth Doctor and caused his regeneration into the seventh Doctor. Played by the late Kate O’Mara, she was a powerful adversary. And in an added twist, Mrs Flood bi-generates just as the Doctor did. Mrs Flood is now a literal yes woman to this new Rani played by Archie Panjabi.
Is this what we have now? The Doctor’s bi-generation was a myth, a legend and now the Rani does it too? I feel that this is a plot device for the next episode. So could the Rani’s downfall be the time Mrs Flood spent as a neighbour among humans giving her a conscience? One thing the Rani never was, was a mouse. Her reveal was for me, a disappointment. It’s been rumoured since Mrs Flood first appeared that she was the Rani. What causes a flood? The rain. Rearrange into the Rani. I feel it’s a bit anti-climax to be honest but I have a feeling there is another villain in the wings behind the destruction of Earth. If I am right then even the Rani is a pawn of someone else’s game.
We will wait and see. In the meantime, what a cliffhanger as the Tardis doors exploded inwards as the Tardis plunges into May 24th 2025; the day the Earth died.
Absolutely brillaint and another cracker. Where was this quality in season one?
By Owen Quinn author
Photo copyright Pathe
I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.
2002 saw the release of Dog Soldiers, written and directed by Neil Marshall. A group of soldiers on a training exercise in the Scottish Highlands find themselves trapped in a life or death battle with werewolves.
It was a massive hit and quickly became a fan favourite. As well as being a great movie, there is nothing like it. Part of its success is down to the cast and their flawless chemistry throughout the movie. You believe they are really a team with all their moans and groans but all dedicated to their duty. They were led by Sarge who was played by Gotham’s Sean Pertwee.
Sean is a wonderful actor and doing a hard-nosed soldier with his cockney accent is almost like breathing to him. I met him back in 2022 at a convention in Lisburn outside Belfast and that was another off my bucket list. I never got to meet his dad, Doctor Who and Worzel Gummidge star Jon Pertwee but this made up for it. He was charming, talkative and genuinely interested in his fans.
As Sarge, Pertwee brings a life to him that you can identify with. He is glad his friend Cooper (Kevin McKidd) didn’t make the Special Forces selection run by Captain Ryan (Liam Cunningham). His squad are like family to him and he will protect them with everything he has. But he will kick their arses at every opportunity to make them the best that they can be. Sarge is an everyman and loves his football. The thought of never seeing his wife again terrifies him and when he speaks you listen.
This is best demonstrated in the campfire scene when he tells the story of a mate getting a devil tattoo. Eddie Oswald was his name and done to commemorate their first trip to Kuwait to mop up the last vestiges of resistance there. As a religious man Eddie knew God had his soul but his flesh was beyond redemption. So he got a laughing devil on his arse as Satan might save his skin. A few days later he was killed by an anti tank mine. Having to scoop his remains up with a shovel and put them in a bin bag affected Sarge deeply. But they found a piece of skin perfectly intact with the laughing devil. In a way Eddie was right, Satan did save his skin, just not all of it. Sarge has kept an open mind ever since.
When the werewolves attack, Sarge is slashed across the stomach, his intestines falling out. In agony he desperately tries to put them back in with Cooper’s help. They are conveniently rescued by zoologist Megan (Emma Cleasby) who takes them to a nearby house. Cooper gets the Sarge upstairs and manages to glue him back together after getting him drunk and punching him unconscious. A drunken Sarge tells Cooper he loves him and they beat back a werewolf that tries to come through the window.
When they discover the role Captain Ryan has played in all this and that Sarge and his team were only bait to lure out the wolves, Sarge attacks Ryan demonstrating his loyalty for his men. But he gets a taste of his future when Ryan turns into a wolf before them. Despite this, Sarge is determined to kill every wolf out there.
But it soon becomes clear that Sarge is healing too fast and now infected with the werewolf gene. He knows he is going to die but goes down fighting when Megan reveals she is also a wolf and lets her back in. He knows he is done for so forces Cooper into the cellar and cuts the gas line. He instructs Cooper to prove this happened for him and his lads. Even in his last moments, Sarge is more concerned for his men. He begins to transform as the wolves burst in and the whole house explodes.
Sarge has some classic one-liners in the movie like when Megan gives them her sob story that she never wanted to run with the pack and hoped Cooper would save them. She begins to transform after her pity party so Sarge shoots her in the head deadpanning “Somebody had to put it out of its misery.”
When they find the Special forces camp wrecked covered with blood and body parts, he tells them that if Little Red Riding Hood turns up with a bazooka and a bad attitude, he expects them to chin the bitch.
There is a great humor in the character especially when he is trapped in a toilet with an aerosol and a lighter fending a wolf off with his homemade flamethrower.
“I’m in the khazi!” he yells when Cooper calls for him. The wolf is tearing at the door and Sarge is burning it where he can. This is funny but also a possible in-joke as when his dad became Doctor Who he said there was nothing scarier than finding a yeti sitting in your loo. Now his son years later is fighting a werewolf in the loo.
Pertwee brings a huge amount to the character who provides the comic relief as well as being the backbone for his squad. They have been nothing more than fodder for a secret project. Good soldiers, his family, have been reduced to sacrificial lambs and all his hopes lie with Cooper now to expose it. You can be sure of one thing. Sarge will forever be looking down pushing for the truth to be told.
We’re thrilled to welcome the legendary Tia Carrere to Dublin Comic Con: Summer Edition 2025!
From battling alongside Bruce Campbell in Relic Hunter to rocking out in Wayne’s World
and fighting evil in Lilo & Stitch, as well as Ari in the classic game, The Daedalus Encounter!
Tia has been a fan-favourite across generations and genres.
Catch her this August 9th–10th at the Convention Centre Dublin for autographs, photo ops, and a panel you won’t want to miss! Tickets via https://tixr.com/groups/comicconireland/summer2025
Meet the icon. Live the adventure. Only at #DublinComicCon!
#DCCSummerEdition#TiaCarrere#WaynesWorld#RelicHunter#LiloAndStitch#ComicConIreland#dublincomiccon
The Time Warriors and Beyond 