In today’s tumultuous political climate, the job of providing the world with clarity and perspective, once reserved for news anchors, has somehow fallen to late night talk show hosts. One of the people at the forefront of that movement is Stephen Colbert. This role he’s taken on, and the climate that led to it, were core themes throughout his panel at PaleyFest on Saturday night, March 16, 2019.

I’m fully aware that fans of something can inflate their initial experience with their fandom, turning it into a perfect achievement that nothing can ever touch.  After binging season one of The Umbrella Academy over two days, on the third day I went back to read the first two volumes of the Dark Horse comic book series by Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, and I’m glad I did, because it freed me to write a review unfettered from my initial experience with the comics.

I haven’t reviewed an issue of Deadly Class, a comic about a training ground for teenage assassins set in 1987, but it is one of the most unhinged, frenetic, visceral, unapologetically twisted comics around. It’s the Wizarding World for those who need a little more anarchy and chaos in their lives. It certainly doesn’t take four novels before a single character meets their demise. It is a pure adrenaline rush of joy and anxiety brought on by hypertension and violence. We have Rick Remender (writer) and Wesley Craig (artist) through Image Comics to thank for this perverse, character-driven, action extravaganza.

Like a lot of episodes this past season, I enjoyed the subplot of “Resolution” better than the main story.  I am much more invested in the companions’ arc than the adventure aspects.  Showrunner Chris Chibnall’s decision to shift the focus of the show back on the companions was the right move (especially since the previous era focused so much on mystery and suspense); however, I needed more from the Thirteenth Doctor’s first confrontation with the Daleks—or any classic monster for that matter.

I would like to begin my review of “The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” by pointing out how I correctly predicted that the Stenza would be the big bad for Series 11 in my review of the second episode.  (Ed. Note: Our staff at Fanbase Press are the most humble of folks.)

“It Takes You Away” started off slow but then won me over in the second half.

I had a very strange experience watching Doctor Who this week.  “The Witchfinders” sees the Doctor and her companions travel to Pendle Hill.  My association with Pendle Hill is that it is the name of the school handbook at my alma mater.  The school was founded by Quakers, and the book is named after the site where George Fox had a vision to establish the denomination.  Needless to say, we were never told about the incident that made the location infamous.

Good sci-fi can take real-world issues and put them in a different context to shine a new light on them.  With society becoming increasingly automated, the latest Doctor Who episode, “Kerblam!,” focuses on how that would affect the workplace.

Like the Doctor Who episode, “Rosa,” a few weeks ago, “Demons of the Punjab” focuses almost exclusively on historical events and keeps the sci-fi elements to a minimum.  Set during the Partition of India, the Doctor takes her companions back to 1947, so Yaz can see her grandmother’s past.

Earlier this season, we saw an episode that was an homage to Predator, while “The Tsuranga Conundrum” was clearly modeled after Alien … if the Xenomorph was a space gremlin.  Strangely enough, this bizarre combination works.