Robin of Sherwood: The Complete Collection

Dipping into Robin of Sherwood is like attending the greatest Renaissance festival of your life, even though it’s a TV relic of a different time – the mid ‘80s – when shows didn’t move as fast as they do now. If you’re high on the current BBC incarnation of Robin Hood, there’s no guarantee this will be your flagon of mead, as character names are about all the two shows have in common. But the show casts a potent spell, and is quite unlike any other take on the infamous thief – although many a Sherwood fanatic claim that Costner’s Prince of Thieves borrowed liberally from this series, turning gold into bullshit along the way. (And the show does have quite a rabid cult following that doesn’t seem to have waned over the years.) Indeed, if you felt the Costner movie showed potential but missed the target, then you’ll likely find that Robin of Sherwood hits the red dot squarely in the center.

Read the rest of this DVD review by clicking here and visiting Bullz-Eye.

Doctor Who: The Five Doctors: 25th Anniversary Edition

From the review:

The best reason to buy the 25th Anniversary Edition of “The Five Doctors” is for the hidden commentary track featuring David Tennant, Phil Collinson (producer of the new series) and Helen Raynor (writer for the new series). They kick back, drink champagne, bask in nostalgia, and crack wise right and left. I’ve had big issues with “The Five Doctors” for years and so do Tennant and Collinson. Yet they admire the story for the anniversary celebration it set out to be, while lovingly pointing out its many shortcomings. Their misgivings are the same as mine, but they’re warmer and fuzzier about them than I have been over the years. It’s a great commentary because they’re watching it as fans, not as people involved in the making of it. They reminisce about the buildup to the special in 1983 and share their unique memories of seeing it for the first time.

Read this entire DVD review by clicking here and visiting Bullz-Eye.

Dallas: The Complete Ninth Season

There’s one major aspect of Season Nine of Dallas that must be mentioned before discussing it further: the entire season is a dream. Or, rather, the producers retconned it into a dream one of the main characters had.

It’s important to know this going in because I can’t in good conscience recommend it to viewers if they’re going to feel cheated after investing nearly 25 hours into this material. It had to be said at the start. Surprising, though, is that, despite what reputation suggests, it’s actually a really good season of Dallas. The “why” behind the dream I’ll get to later, and if you don’t want to be spoiled further on the issue, then I suggest turning back now. On the other hand, the box art for this set goes out of its way to exploit the season’s final scene. In any case, you can’t say you weren’t warned.

Find out all about the infamous dream season by clicking here and reading the rest of this DVD review at Bullz-Eye.

Doctor Who: "Black Orchid"

After bemoaning the last few Peter Davison-era releases, I was excited about the release of “Black Orchid,” a story from his first season as the Doctor. Even though it’s half the length of a typical Doctor Who story (it’s only two episodes long), it’s regarded by many a fan as a little gem. But it’s an oddball gem, and not at all what one expects from this series. It has no science fiction elements aside from the TARDIS, and seems more like something that would’ve played on Mystery! back in the 80s. It’s noteworthy in that regard, because when the series started back in 1963, the first few seasons often featured such stories, although back then they were usually set against some important historical event. “Black Orchid,” by contrast, is far more intimate, and it isn’t trying to offer up some kind of history lesson seen through the eyes of time travelers.

Read the rest of this DVD review by clicking here to visit Bullz-Eye.

Doctor Who: Journey's End

At some point the Season Four finale of Doctor Who, “Journey’s End,” will stand on its own, but many involved in the zeitgeist of the series currently recall the week building up to its transmission on BBC1. The close of “The Stolen Earth” saw several cliffhangers, but none more powerful and mysterious than David Tennant’s Tenth Doctor regenerating. What the hell was going on? As Steven Cooper wrote to me in an e-mail: “… you have to admire RTD's skill in engineering the biggest Doctor Who cliffhanger ever seen, that generated an absolute avalanche of publicity in the UK. No matter how many times rationality insisted that David Tennant had already been seen filming the Christmas special and that there was just no way a new Doctor could be kept secret, for that whole week little paranoid doubts kept creeping in.” There’s no better way to put it. Was a new Doctor mere moments away?

Read the rest of this recap/commentary for the finale of Doctor Who's fourth season by clicking here to visit The House Next Door.