Since hardly anything of note came out last week, there was no new DVD/Blu-Ray thread. But since there was quite a few stuff this week, I’m lumping the two or three that came out last week with this week’s entry. Here we go.
The Darkest Hour- This movie came out last year around the holiday season, so it got overlooked. But it’s a decent Sci-Fi movie. Two young would-be entrepreneurs (one of them played by Speed Racer’s Emile Hirsch) travel to Moscow to jumpstart their new business. While there, they indulge themselves in the Russian nightlife, meeting two other American women in a nightclub. This turns out to be the exact same time that some aliens decide to invade Earth. The interesting thing about these aliens is that 1) They feed off energy and 2) They’re invisible. It’s actually done pretty effectively. It reminded me of that episode from Jonny Quest, “The Invisible Monster,” except there’s a lot more of them.
Oh, and speaking of Jonny Quest…
The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, Season 1 Vol. 2.- This came out last week under the Warner Archives label, meaning it’s one of those “manufactured on demand” titles you order online. The first volume was available at retail over a year ago, but I guess it didn’t sell well enough considering interval between releases.
Anyway, this contains the second 13 episodes of Season 1. Thundercats fans might find it of interest as Peter Lawrence was one of the scriptwriters and showrunners. Episodes in this set include:
“In the Wake of the Mary Celeste,” “AMOK,” “Besieged in Paradise,” “The Spectre of the Pine Barrens,” “Heroes,” “The Ballad of Belle Bonnet,” “In the Darkness of the Moon,” “The Secret of Moai,” “Expedition to Khumbu,” “Ice Will Burn,” “Future Rage,” “Alligators and the Okeechobee Village,” and “To Bardo and Back.”
Night Gallery, Season 3.- Genre fans know that after The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling came back to television with a more Horror-themed show in the 1970’s called Night Gallery. As with Twilight Zone, it was an anthology show with some episodes based on short stories by noted writers such as Robert Bloch, Richard Mathison and even H.P. Lovecraft. While it might not have been as well-remembered as TZ, it’s still well-regarded. Episodes in this set include:
“Return of the Sorcerer,” “The Girl With the Hungry Eyes,” “Rare Objects,” “Spectre in Tap Shoes,” “You Can Come Up Now, Mrs. Millikan,” “Smile, Please,” “The Other Way Out,” “Fright Night,” “Finnegan’s Flight,” “She’ll Be Company for You,” “The Ring With the Red Velvet Ropes,” “Something in the Woodwork,” “Death on a Barge,” “Whisper,” “The Doll of Death,” “Hatred Unto Death,” “How to Cure the Common Vampire,” “Die Now, Pay Later” and “Room for One Less.”
Torchwood: Miracle Day- This was the TV movie that premiered after Torchwood got picked-up by Starz. Now, I can’t say I’m very familiar with the show. I’ve never seen a single episode, and I can’t even say how well the show made the transition between networks. But if you’re a fan, I’m just letting you know it’s out there.
Dark Shadows: The Complete Series- The series has been released piecemeal in the last few weeks, but in this set, shaped like a coffin with an image of Barnabas Collins lying inside no less, you get the whole deal. With the Tim Burton movie set to come out next month, this is a good opportunity to check it out and see how it’s held up over the years.
Logan’s Run: The Complete Series- Back in the 1970’s there was an attempt to turn the story of Logan’s Run, which had already been filmed as a movie, into an ongoing TV series. It retained the basic structure of the movie, with Logan and Jessica (played here by Gregory Harrison and Heather Menzies) escaping the City of Domes in search of Sanctuary with Logan’s fellow Sandman and former friend Francis in hot pursuit. In addition, a third character, an android named Rem (Donald Moffat) joined Logan and Jessica on their journey. The show was noteworthy for featuring scripts by writers who had worked on the original Star Trek, including D.C. Fontana, David Gerrold and Harlan Ellison.
Unfortunately, the nature of the show turned it into yet another variation on The Fugitive formula, as the search for Sanctuary was turned into one of those unattainable goals that made the whole show’s reason for existing possible. So they never really got there. I don’t think that it was ever as good as the movie, personally. But it may be of interest to fans to see how they attempted to turn it into a weekly TV series.
Doctor Who: The Carnival of Monsters- The Third Doctor, now able to explore time and space once again after the Time Lords have lifted his exile on Earth, takes Jo Grant for a spin in the TARDIS and lands in what they think is cargo freighter bound for Hong Kong in the 1920’s. But when they notice that the same events keep repeating themselves - including an attack by a plesiosaur - they begin to realize things aren’t what they appear. They soon realize they have become part of an attraction in a device operated by an interstellar carny that houses a collection of creatures from throughout the galaxy. The most fearsome being the savage Drashigs. The Doctor and Jo must find a way to escape the device, without releasing the Drashigs.
This was previously released on DVD, with this edition containing a few more extras.
Doctor Who: The Daemons- When a series supernatural occurrences are reported in the town of Devil’s End, the Third Doctor and UNIT are sent to investigate. Once more, it turns out that the Master is at the heart of things, this time posing as the town’s vicar, as he intends to awaken the demonic presence that’s been slumbering under the town for centuries. It turns out that this being, named Azal, is one of a race of ancient beings known as the Daemons that visited Earth long ago, and from which our concept of Devils and Demons came from.
This is the first time that this serial has been released on DVD. It’s also one of the episodes restored back to color. All the Jon Pertwee episodes were made in color, but several, including “The Daemons,” had only been available for years in black and white. This was due to the BBC’s practice at the time of wiping video tapes to save space, as back then they didn’t think these shows would ever be rebroadcast. This is why many early Doctor Who episodes have been lost, although there have been various restoration projects that have involved audio recordings, video recordings made in other countries, and in some cases original animation.
Currently two other Pertwee-era episodes, “The Ambassadors of Death” and “The Mind of Evil,” are being restored to color using a process that brings out the color signal in a black and white video tape recording. Apparently when these episodes were recorded from color film to videotape, the tapes retained the original color signal, as it could be seen “popping” at times. And this process is being used to not only restore Doctor Who, but a bunch of other older BBC shows that for a long time had also been available only as black and white video recordings.