By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriros and Zombie Blues
I loved the classic era and as a teenager watched the fifth Doctor crew and saw the seventh Doctor and Ace deliver stories in the final two seasons that are all time classics.
We only saw what happened to Tegan after she left the Doctor via Big Finish audio plays and novels as with Ace. But when they returned in Jodie Whittaker’s final story, Power of the Doctor, everyone punched the air with joy. But what we were not expecting was the return of the fifth and seventh Doctors at the same time.
When the former companions are recruited by Kate Stewart to work for UNIT, Ace is happy to see the Dotor is now a woman but Tegan is fuming that he never got in contact again. The 13th Doctor’s evasiveness irritates her and she tells Yaz that they are her from decades ago.
But when the Cybermen launch their attack, Tegan fights alone until she is contacted by the 13th Doctor via a neural hologram that responds to her thoughts. Tegan’s Doctor appears and she chides him for forgetting her. He tells her he never forgot any of them. She asks what she is thinking seeing all these Cybermen and one word brings them back together; Adric. He died saving the Earth from a Cyberman bomb which wiped out the dinosaurs instead.
Similarly with Ace, we learn she left the Doctor under bad circumstances leaving a rift behind between them. Now facing a Dalek army beneath a volcano, Ace faces her Doctor’s hologram once again where they resolve their past.
There is something chilling about these two scenes that do somewhat overshadow the final 13th Doctor’s story but they are so welcome for so many reasons. It is nostalgia, a yearning for loose ends to be tied up and resolution. It is old friends returning and fighting once again and affirmation of the bonds they share that last across space and time. It is about being able to finally say goodbye to those we have lost and if the message is strong enough then the universe will find a way to make it happen. Tegan and Ace can finally move forward secure in the knowledge that their Doctor is watching over them and proud of the people they have become. Absolute and complete magic.
When the Doctor needs a rest, those he loves will stand in his place and be the defender he helped them become. There are friendships in life that will bind you to that person in ways you never see but are part of the person you will always be.
By & photos copyright of Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors ad Zombie Blues
I love the Empire Strikes Back and I love a Tautaun. They are of the era I grew up on of stop motion by the late, great Ray Harryhausen. The cuts between the physical prop and running across the snow are so reminiscent of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad and The Mysterious Island etc
So thos year when walking around Dublin Comic Con I nearly fell over my crutches when I rounded a corner and saw the guys behind DCC had included a brand new display as seen below. Let’s just say my only regret was I couldn’t have gotten to sit on him. I’ll just have to make do with my 12 inch collector’s series one with Han Solo.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
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.
Before she kicked ass in Star Trek Deep Space 9 as Jadzia Dax for six seasons, Terry Farrell headlined the third movie in the Hellraiser franchise and being totally biased, this is my favourite one. While Jadzia faced all manner of aliens and mysteries none could prepare her for anything more fantastic and terrifying than going toe to toe with Pinhead and his new breed of Cenobites.
In Hellraiser Hell on Earth, she plays Joanne Joey Summerskill, a frustrated and troubled reporter who works for channel 8. She is feeling repressed by her news boss who wants her to show more flesh to become an anchorwoman which she refutes. As fate would have it, she becomes a pawn in the battle between Pinhead and his human half, Elliot Spencer. In the previous movie, Pinhead was split into two entities who are now in constant battle for control of his soul; a battle that finds Joey plunged into the biggest and deadliest story of her career.
At the emergency room she meets a young teenager called Terri who has brought a young man in for treatment. She tells Joey she met him at a nightclub, the Boiler House. Joey hears the commotion and runs in to see the man being pulled apart by hooked chains that seemingly come out of nowhere. He explodes. Her boss does not believe her as she has no proof. Determined to find the girl, she goes to the Boiler Room in search of her. Terri finds her instead striking a deal to stay at her place in exchange for information.
Terri gives Joey the cube, the Lament Configuration, the young man had while he lay in the street and that the cube is where the chains came from. Joey confides in her that she has bad dreams about the death of her father in Vietnam. That he lay wounded while the helicopter flew off leaving him behind to be tortured at the hands of the enemy. As Elliot Spence, Pinhead’s human form, was a military man this allows him to form a connection with Joey.
Driven to solve the strange death, Joey learns of the bizarre statue that the owner of the club J.P. bought thanks to Terri. However, the shop has been closed and nothing has been sold from it in months. Checking inventory records they discover the statue came from the Channard Institute (as seen in the second movie) and unbeknownst to him it contains Pinhead himself. The statue is in fact the Pillar of Souls and thanks to J.P. the demon has begun harvesting innocent women and growing in power. Once he has fed enough Pinhead will be able to leave the pillar and walk the Earth.
Spence tells Joey she has to stop him as she witnesses Pinhead’s origins when he opened the box to indulge in his primal sexual urges. The only way is to fuse both sides of his being together once again. Too late, Joey arrives to find Pinhead has murdered everyone in the Boiler Room and new Cenobites have been born. One is the DJ who fires CDs from his mouth slicing his victims. The other is Joey’s friend, cameraman Doc who is now fused with his equipment to become Camerahead. J.P. has become Pistonhead.
As the streets explode around her Joey races for her life as Pinhead and the Cenobites pursue her for the Lament Configuration. She manages to send them to Hell but Pinhead uses her dreams against her. He poses as her father using her love for him to convince her to hand over the cube. Now all powerful Pinhead traps Joey in a machine that will turn her into his latest Cenobite. But Elliot bursts in and fights with his evil self managing to fuse them both back together. Joey is able to free herself and the Lament Configuration has turned into a diamond shape. She stabs Pinhead through the heart sending him back to Hell. She has only one last thing to do. Joey tosses the cube into the newly laid concrete of a building. However when built, the building interior reflects the markings of the Lament Configuration.
For me I like this movie becaue it uses a strong female lead against which Pinhead falls again. Farrell does a great job of portraying a strong woman being held back in her career by chauvinistic men while at the same time mourning a father killed before she was born. She can only imagine how he would be which is why she hands over the Lament Configuration to a disguised Pinhead so trustingly. He does what evil does best; they take something normal and that comforts us and twists it to suit their needs. Joey always knew that evil gave reporters their most gripping and rating grabbing stories but she gains a whole new insight into what evil truly is here and the lengths humans will go to indulge in extreme sexual pleasures. At the same time since there is a Hell then there must be a Heaven where her father is and one day she will see again.
It also shows her that even in Pinhead part of him is still good which means that though the battle between good and evil will rage across the millennia, good will always find a way to win.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
photo copyright BBC
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.
Long before Donna was brain wiped and Adric was blown up saving the Earth from the Cybermen, the first Doctor (William Hartnell) was having a traumatic time. It had been all peaches and cream up until the Dalek Masterplan when trauma and tragedy were the love children of chaos. If ever Doctor Who got dark then this was when kids all over the country got scared for very different reasons. They no longer hid behind the sofas after this story, they moved house.
In the previous story, The Myth Makers, companion Vicky (Maureen O’Brien) has stayed behind in Troy but not before she instructs one of the handmaidens of Trojan priestess Cassandra, Katrina, to help a wounded Steven Taylor (Peter Perves) back to the Tardis as Troy fell. Desperate to escape the Doctor took off with her on board. She thought the time machine was some sort of temple but she soon became familiar with her new environment.
The Tardis lands on Kembel where the Daleks have been plotting an all out invasion of the galaxy with Earthman Mavic Chen and an alliance of aliens. Earth agents are well aware of the invasion and must warn the authorities of the imminent attack. Brett Vyon (future Brigadier Nicholas Courtney) takes the Tardis crew aboard his ship when the Doctor steals the Taranium core of the Dalek weapon. The Daleks are in hot pursuit and force them onto the prison planet of Desperus where some prisoners try to hijack the ship. One convict, Kirksen, takes Katarina hostage in the airlock leaving the Doctor with an impossible choice. If he gives in the Dalek invasion will succeed. If he does nothing, then Katarina will die. Steven and the Doctor argue with Brett to take the ship back to Kembel but Vyon refuses. He cannot sacrifice everyone else just for one girl.
Katarina takes the choice out of their hands by opening the airlock and blasting her and Kirksen into space. Stunned, the Doctor hopes she has found her Place of Perfection and will always remember her as one of the daughters of the gods.
Katarina despite her short spell left an indelible impact on the show. Never before had a companion been killed. She was the first and not the only one in this story. The Daleks have never been so powerful and close to success than they were here in the Dalek Masterplan. Indeed the Master made a play on words for this story in the recent Power of the Doctor. Katarina is considered primitive by our standards yet she fully embraced the Doctor and Steven as allies. The Doctor in her eyes was a good man against a huge evil. With the fall of Troy still very much in her thoughts, the Dalek threat will see more people die in fire. The worlds of children will be torn apart by this new darkness. greeks or Daleks, it made little difference; they would come and destroy innocent lives for their own dark avarices. Their base needs will consume everything that is not like them and destroy it.
That’s the thing about looking back across history and thinking people at that time were primitive compared to what we have now. From their perspective, they were very modern and civilised. They were the epitome of what it was to be human at the time. That is what makes Katarina so special and should never be forgotten by fans or history. She was a simple handmaiden who met a man who opened her eyes to an universal truth. She recognised that it didn’t matter what time she was i; all that mattered was that each time had its own darkness to fight and it was up to us to tand up and fight.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
If you love Grand Theft Auto then you have to get yourself to Dublin Comic Con to meet Steven Ogg, Ned Luke and Shawn Fonteno. Steven was also the evil Simon in the Walking Dead. As right hand man to Negan he slaughtered the junkyard people before trying to take control from Negan. As punishment Negan made him into a zombie and tied him to his chain link fence along with all his other captured undead.
He recently returned in the spin off series Dead City in a flashback scene.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Demon Crowley is heading to Dublin Comic Con on the 9th and 10th of March to meet his fans. Played by Mark Sheppard he stayed in the role from 2009 to 2017. Mark is no stranger to Dublin having been part of a successful band before discovering acting. He was the fire starter assassin in the first season of the X Files who never returned despite being charred alive, Battlestar Galactica, the Matt Smith Doctor Who two parter the Impossible Astronaut. In the Name of the Father, Star Trek Voyager, MacGyver and much, much more.
He almost died last year of multiplr heart attacks which he gave a full and uplifting account of on the Michael Rosenbaum podcast Inside of You. Hs father was the late. great W. Morgan Shepperd. Get your tickets now to meet this great guest.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
photos copyright columbia pictures
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.
Krull is a wonderful fantasy movie full of great characters very much in the tradition of the magic and fantasy genre. While you can point at the young Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane, one character stands out as one of the most tragic and interesting.
Krull is a planet where the Beast has returned in his moving fortress to take a bride in the form of Lyssa and plunge the planet into darkness. His savage, inhuman troopers the screeching Slayers kidnap Lyssa from her own wedding killing nearly everyone in attendance. Only Colwyn (Deep Space 9’s Ken Marshall) her husband to be is injured but once healed goes after his soul mate. He teams up with a ragtag band of criminals, Ynyr who knows how to kill the Beast, a terrible magician Ergo, a blind Seer and a young boy must travel to save Lyssa and their world.
They are shadowed along the way by a cyclops called Rell. Rell saves Ergo from Slayer attacks revealing himself to the group. Having heard the Best has returned, Rell came to help them. He is eloquently spoken and has a kind heart. He sees in Ergo a greatness that Ergo cannot. Rell’s race and the Beast have aa dark history.
They made a deal with the Beast to give them the gift of foresight so they could see the future. They sacrificed one eye but in a move as twisted as the Wish Master, the Beast did indeed give them the ability to see the future. Sadly the only future they would see would be their own deaths.
In a conversation as they travel through a swamp, Ergo enquires of Rell what he would wish for if he had the chance. Rell answers simply, “Ignorance.”
Rell saves Colwyn from a Changeling, another of the Beast’s servants who has murdered the Seer and replaced him. It is a close call when Rell finds the Seer’s body in the quicksand and with seconds to spare Rell spears the creature in the back as it moves to kill Colwyn.
Rell is truly a gentle giant and he and Ergo become firm friends. Given the Beast’s fortress shifts location every day, it is Rell that tells Colwyn of the fire mares. These enchanted animals can travel huge distances giving the group hope back that they can defeat the Beast. However Ergo is taken aback when Rell declines his offer to ride with him. Rell is going to die here so he can go no further. Reaching the fortress the group is under attack when Rell suddenly appears and holds the door closed to let the gang access the fortress before it vanishes again. This is where Rell foresaw his real deatha nd he is crushed between the great stone doors as the others make it to safety.
Part of any movie’s success is not only a good story but the characters that populate it. They draw us in to the plot or send us awway with a roll of our eyes. Here Rell makes such an impression that you root for him throughout the movie and genuinely mourn his heroic sacrifice. Despite the tragedy of the cyclops people’s’ fate, doomed forever to see the moment of their own death and nothing else, there is a serenity and hopefulness in Rell. He sees hope in others and will aod them to keep Krull safe and destroy the Beast himself. Rell’s death is a celebration of sort because he has helped bring about the defeat of the Beast which destroyed his people. While it is true the cyclops brought about their own demise by making a deal literally with the Devil, the experience has left them wiser and more open to the suffering and problems of others. This goodness can be taken as a sign they are not bitter but hopeful that there will be a better future as long as as they can see the good in others like Colwyn and Ergo. For Rell he had the chance to redeem his people’s folly to secure their future and grasped it with both hands in a flurry of devotion and loyalty.
Rell was played by actor Bernard Bresslaw who at 6 foot 7 inches tall was perfeect for the role. He is most famous for being part of the Carry On movies and he was the first Ice Warrior in Doctor Who when they battled the second Doctor. As Varga, the towering Bresslaw secured the Ice Warrior’s future with his massive size and hissing voice. He is credited for their success in the show and to be fair, nobody has ever come close to his performance. Sadly he died from a heart attack at the age of 59 after a long and successful career. He was much loved by the public especially with the Carry On movies success. With his experience of making distinct characters out of giants, Rell is up there along with Varga in public appreciation.
Cyclops are few and far between in movies and sci fi and horror genres and maybe that’s a good thing because otherwise rell may not stand out as a strong and unique character whose species and culture is begging to be expanded upon and explored.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 