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joekronberg
Reviews
Do You Have a Licence to Save This Planet? (2001)
An obscure and amusing tale of The Foot Doctor, addressing the licensing issues of making spinoffs of the cancelled Doctor Who.
In order to watch and enjoy this film, you need to be a fan of Doctor Who, and have some background knowledge of the show's cancellation and how BBV came to be.
That being said, it was an amusing way for BBV to address to the fans the many issues with making all of these "almost Who" (as said by Nick Briggs), by making the Licensing Manager the main villain.
The Foot Doctor (mocking how the many series such as The Stranger, The Professor, The Wanderer, etc was practically The Doctor, but the didn't have the rights to the character) is summoned by Rassilon, where he finds some of the villains that BBV is able to use, all attempting world (or front lawn) domination, with the Cyberons as the main issue.
Mockery of the creatures they were forced to work with without rights was quite evident, with one Cyberon wanting to be a Cyber Leader wearing black headphones, and mentions of the differing ears, and the Sontarans licking their lips as an attempt to frighten women.
The Foot Doctor encounters The Salesman, who has all the tricks of the trade, and with him goes against the Licensing Manager to continue their non canon world.
Overall, the film does a good job of explaining the process of using characters from the show, and only using Doctor-like characters in order to keep bringing fans Doctor Who despite cancellation.
Wartime (1988)
Doctor Who companion Sgt. (now Warrant Officer) John Benton is forced to confront ghosts from his past...
As the very first independent Doctor Who spin off, Wartime did an excellent job of paving the way for several other films, books, and audio dramas (without needing the approval of that pesky BBC).
As far as supernatural B films go, Wartime isn't too shabby. Although it's only half an hour long, we receive a lot of character development for Benton, which we didn't get to see much of in Doctor Who. With John Levine reprising the lead role, it's gratifying to see him able to explore more of the character.
While on a trip for UNIT, Benton visits the grave of his brother, whose death he believes to be his fault, when the ghost of his brother appears from behind the tombstone and begins to play games with Benton's mind. Benton's Jeep then breaks down and he decides to explore the area where he and his brother used to spend their childhood, along with the place of the accident.
From there it's a spiral of Benton confronting his emotions, where we see scenes of him yelling at the ghost of his father, trying to save his brother, and wanting to prevent the death of his father, which is what made him go into his line of work. Overall, a great display of finding oneself and facing regrets.
But with great concepts, a great storyline wasn't completely evident. The film was far too short for an entire plot to form, and leaves us with many unanswered questions, such as "Why were these events occurring?", "Who was the man trying to rob the car, and why was he with the ghosts?", "How does a prick from a rose cause that amount of blood?", and "How was anything actually resolved?"
Yes, Benton's inner struggles and hardships were beaten, but assuming that the ghosts were real (or some temporal anomaly), then why did they stop without Benton having to fight them?
In the end, you're left with many unanswered questions and a little confusion, but Wartime brings great character development to a Doctor Who character who deserves more love, and if anything brings us more theories...
Zygon (2008)
Aliens become trapped on Earth and take human forms, when one loses his memory and falls in love...
Although Zygon is a low budget B film, I actually enjoyed the film quite a bit. What was lacking in effects was made up for in acting and writing, which was especially good for a direct to DVD film.
I like to think of this as an even more sexual Torchwood, with explicit nudity right from the start, and much more gory.
While I appreciate the film as a Doctor Who die hard, this film would also be well enjoyed by any fans of sci if or B films, given that not a lot of background knowledge on the Zygons is needed to view the film (although I would recommend viewing Cyberon beforehand for background on Lauren Anderson).
What was a little disappointing as a Doctor Who fan was the very brief sight of Torlakhl (one of the Zygons) in his true form. I did however prefer the device in which the Zygons made it possible to convert themselves over the original pods in Terror of the Zygons.
Another issue was getting past some of the sex, but the way that it was used I believe to be practical. It helped to show how far into the human persona Michael Kirkwood adopted was, given that it is unlikely that a Zygon would have intercourse with another species otherwise. It was also amusing to see Lauren in the body of a man sleeping with a woman, trying not to blow her cover.
And for a B film, the gore was much more convincing than one would expect. From sloth throats to brains splattered on the wall, the blood wasn't over used and seemed convincing enough (it honestly caught me off guard after seeing Doctor Who spinoffs such as War Time, where the blood was ridiculously fake).
Overall, the film is a great addition to the Doctor Who universe, and an above average B film which can be loved by anyone (except for children, dear lord never allow a child to see this).