The DVD Archives: Star Trek Voyager Season 1

Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers, in my random DVD viewings I ventured onto season 1 of the Star Trek spin off Voyager season 1. So without further ado here's my opinion of the individual episodes:

Caretaker: A good start with a story which introduces the characters, the ship and the situation with ships in a certain section of space being randomly pulled across to the other side of the universe against their will. A really good point is that this actual event is dangerous and a good few members of the crew who loom like they are being set up and introduced as regulars are killed twenty minutes into the first episode. The main characters introduction is staggered throughout the two episodes with a few swerves thrown in. The end situation with two crews thrown together to pilot an undermanned star ship is possibly the most intriguing of any Star Trek pilot. 6/10.

Paralax: A very good episode showing the two crews aren't quite getting along and choosing Torres to get the first character centric episode is a good way to bring in the supporting cast and give a good share of the action to Chakotay and Janeway. Also a very good situation for the episode. 8/10.

Time and Again: Tepid timey wimey rubbish. 0/10

Phage: A brilliant alien race, a fantastic plot and an absorbing episode. 10/10.

The Cloud: A proper good one off nail the story to the plot episode. 8/10.

Eye of the Needle: A good little character episode with a few intriguing twists. 7/10.

Ex Post Facto: A good little whodunit and an interesting take on first contact with a new species. 6/10.

Emanations: Dull but worthy, Kim is a decent supporting character but his first centric episode doesn't hold my interest. 5/10.

Prime Factors: Good stuff and interesting to see characters entering a situation with no right or wrong and wrestling with their consciouses. 6/10.

State of Flux: A very good episode making full use of a supporting character (up to this point) and placing the rest of the cast in a situation where not everyone can be trusted. 9/10.

Heroes and Villains: Interesting use of the holodeck and nice to see The Doctor get an episode to shine. 9/10.

Cathexis: Absolute fantastic plot with twists and turns, by far one of the best episodes. 10/10.

Faces: Good to see the Vidiians reappear, they are being turned into a big threat to the Voyager crew. Interesting chaarcter examination of Torres by splitting her in two. 8/10.

Jetrel: Possibly one of my favourite episodes of this show, Neelix is a more interesting character and nice to see shades of grey developing for what looked to be a black and white character. 10/10

Learning Curve: Nice to see that some of the crew are having trouble adapting to star fleet rules and a good way of fleshing out some background characters as Tuvok trains them. But it feels out of place, this should have been the 4th or 5th episode and as such it doesn't quite work. 6/10.


A very good first season with a lot of interesting characters and new aliens introduced, only niggle is I'd like to see more edge between the two crews.

Losing Your Mojo

Good afternoon ladies and gentle readers, have you ever lost your mojo?

Your swerve, your swagger, that little bit of x-factor in yourself.

I'm going to let you into a secret readers, you never lost it and its never gone. If you have something to do and find yourself unable to do it, steal yourself get yourself together, remember all the things that make you do those thing you do and go for it a second time.

Thats todays words of wisdom from this blogger and after a few days banging my head against the wall its back into the fight tomorrow.

The Big Finish Catch-up: January - August 2016

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues;

Hello ladies and gentle readers, regular readers of this blog may have noticed that blog entries are becoming a tad infrequent. Sorry about that but life is getting in the way and in an effort to catch up all the stories I listened to in the first eight months of the year are getting a one sentence review, so here we go;

The Macros, Lost story featuring the 6th Doctor and Peri: nice tight story decent plot.

Circular Time, series of one episode stories featuring the 5th Doctor and Nyssa: punch the air level brilliant, again didn't know about the format and the most enjoyable release I've heard in ages.

Nocturne, featuring the 7th Doctor, Ace and Hex: a rather low key feel but very good and oddly emotional in a strange way.

Renaissance of the Daleks, featuring the 5th Doctor and Nyssa: very good plot but very uninvolving.

Year of the Pig, featuring the 6th Doctor and Peri: Very Wodehouse in a good way.

The Thousand Worlds featuring the War Doctor: good but very much the second act of a box set.

Exotron and Urban Myths featuring the 5th Doctor and Peri: Exotron was decent and Urban Myths was very enjoyable.

Valhalla featuring the 7th Doctor, very atmospheric with the first half being a lot better.

I.D. and Urgent Calls featuring the 6th Doctor: I have no memory what so ever of I.D. and Urgent Calls is utter gorgeousness personified.

Memory Lane featuring the 8th Doctor: Charley and C'rizz: good stuff in a rather good strange way.

Frozen Time featuring the 7th Doctor: run of the mill.

Son of the Dragon featuring the 5th Doctor, Peri and Erimem: good but felt like a retread of 'The Settling' without the bite.

Return of the Daleks featuring the 7th Doctor: very good and very dark.

Rulers of the Universe featuring River Song and the 8th Doctor: very good and cracking end to the box set.

The Circus of Doom featuring the 4th Doctor and Mike Yates: Tom is bloody brilliant and on cracking form.

The Heart of the Battle featuring the War Doctor: a powerful end to the series with John Hurt being more bombastic than I expected.

100 featuring the 6th Doctor and Evelyn: two wonderfully funny stories, a fantastic dark one and one I'd love to have been a full length story.

Absolution featuring the 8th Doctor, Charley and C'rizz: an absolute unexpected game changer.

Minds Eye and Mission of the Viyrans featuring the 5th Doctor, Peri and Erimem: two cracking and different stories leaving me rather anxious for this line up of characters. 

10 questions I have after Euro 2016...

1. Has the Ronaldo / Messi debate been put to bed? They've traded La Liga titles and Ballond'Ors but now Ronaldo has an International tournament win to Messi's Olympic gold medal.

2. What next for Italy now that Antonio Conte has left for Chelsea? This maybe the weakest generation of Italian players in the history of forever and Conte had them playing like world beaters in a tight system. Can the next manager keep them anywhere near this level of play let alone better it?

3.Whats eating Paul Pogba? After his amazing domestic season viewers and fans were queueing up to see Paul Pogba dominate this final, but it didn't happen...

4. Where will Robson-Kanu be playing next season? He let his contract at Reading wind down, he scored the goal of tournament, is that enough to get a new club interested in him?

5. Will England continue fooling themselves into thinking Wayne Rooney is a world class midfielder? All through the tournament England had many faults but the worst was this joke of an experiment in midfield, surely they wont persist with it for another tournament?

6. Is Will Grigg still on fire?

7. Have Belgium morphed into Holland? Belgium, full of skillful players like Kevin De Bruyne, Jan Vertonghen and Eden Hazard but played like strangers and full of infighting rumours. Do we become our worst enemies?

8. What next for the underdogs? Iceland getting to the knockout stage, Wales to the semi finals and Hungary taking the lead against Portugal three times - it was a tournament for underdogs but attention turns to the World Cup qualifiers and with less places up for grabs will they even qualify let alone bring the tournament to life again?

9. Where next for Antoine Griezmann? The winner of the golden hoof/boot/slingback and after a magnificent two years for Aletico Madrid, surely the worlds his oyster?

10. Is finishing runners up enough to bring the people of France together? Bombings, murders we all know what happened in France and this tournament was seen as the ideal opportunity to bring the countries people back together. Ladies and gentle readers it is the firm hope of this blogger that it was enough.

The Big Finish Catch-Up: December 2015

For those of you new to this section of the blog, I started listening to the Big Finish Doctor Who releases when they started back in 1999, getting them as they were released up to mid 2002 and release No 33 Neverland. At that time I left Uni and due to being a bit busy with life and what not I only heard one or two releases over the next few years. I started getting back into them around 2008 and was 6 years behind at that point. Due to wondering off into the Lost Doctor range and a relaxed listening pace I fell further behind. In order to catch up I'm listening to two releases a month (or more when its a 60 min single disc release, plus without seeing the cover or knowing anything about the story) and my mission to catch up continues;

My final audio session of 2015 started with 'The Last Post' from the 'companion chronicle' range starring Caroline John in her final performance as Liz before her passing. Its a bit of a belter and Caroline performs the other UNIT regulars with gusto. Some fannish moments and another story that shows this range isn't to be ignored.

The moment I found out that Big Finish had the War Doctor I knew I couldn't wait eight years to catch up. This feels like something different from the norm, more tragic than anything I've ever heard and John Hurt gives a war/universe weary performance. It feels both epic and intimate, the story throws you off kilter - just as you think a typical 'Whoish' thing is going to happen the rug is tugged from under the listeners feet and you realise this is going to be a range unlike any other. The War Doctors relationship with the Time Lords also isn't what I expected but it suits the Doctors renegade nature. It has an odd end but its an odd story with what I suspect included a lot of set up. In short 'The Innocent' is a very interesting story and feels like it could be the start of a special journey.

Tips for Euro 2016

Good evening ladies and gentle readers, on the eve of Euro 2016 its time for my irregular betting and trading tips for Euro 2016! And without further ado...

Starting off big, outright lay of France to win the thing @ 4.5

We've all seen it before, being the home nation artificially shortens a countries price. You will never convince me in a decade of Sundays that France are a 4.4 shot. Outright lay and I will say this now France wont win Euro 2016.

Group B winner a back of England @ 1.85

Heresy I hear you say, how can you tip the noisy neighbours from over the bridge? But hear me out! Look at the price! Look at the qualifying form! Look at the opposition! You will never get a price this good on a team in this situation.

Lay of Turkey to finish top 2 in Group D @ 3.05

A small lay as I favour Czech Republic or Croatia to qualify alongside Germany.

Lay of Sweden to finish bottom of Group E @ 2.90

I think Group D is the group of death that will see Rep Ire wiped out as the rest battle for the top spot.

Albania V Switzerland back over 2.5 goals @ 2.78

Turkey V Croatia lay under 5 booking points.

and thats it for the moment, I hope to see you on the other side with a slightly swollen purse.

Thoughts on Wrestlemania 32

I didn't watch it, but I hope those that did had a nice time and weren't to tired this morning. Also from past experience I hope everyone who stayed up survived work without getting an official warning for falling asleep.