Made by HTV West - who were also responsible for such wyrd wonders as 'Children of the Stones', 'Into the Labyrinth', 'Arthur of the Britons' and 'Robin of Sherwood' - 'Sky' is the story of a young man with solid blue eyes and strange powers found, buried under some leaves, in the woods who turns out to be a traveller from another time and dimension who has landed in 1970's Britain by mistake (as if anyone would go there on purpose).  Needing to find the 'Juganet' (a circle of power) that will enable him to complete his journey he co-opts the help of a trio of kids but ranged against them are the forces of nature in the shape of trees (leaves seem to particularly dislike him), wildlife and a spontaneously generated 'human' named Ambrose Goodchild (Robert Eddison) as the Earth tries to rid itself of this anomaly.

Sky - the character - is an utterly alien presence who considers himself almost a god and views his helpers with a disdain bordering on contempt which makes him difficult to like.  We assume his motives are pure - he is the title character after all - but his manner is less than endearing.  Marc Harrison plays him with an ethereal otherworldliness that keeps him above and beyond his mortal helpers.

Written by the Doctor Who writing team of Bob Baker and Dave Martin the show is unapologetically odd. It makes no bones of it's contempt for the short-sightedness and self-destructive nature of contemporary society and like many of it's contemporaries it has at its core an ecological and almost neo-pagan sensibility that revolves around earth magic and, of course, ancient stone monuments.

There are some definite pacing issues and it certainly could have benefited from trimming off an episode but it is, on the whole, a wonderfully disconcerting watch and another in that great 1970s tradition of making shows for kids that had the power to actually terrify them.  Scenes of Sky and his cohort being attacked by plants and animals soundtracked with a tumultuous, synthesised, atonal, sonic squall (courtesy of Eric Wetherell) are still as effective as they were 43 years ago and the series remains as disturbingly strange and enjoyable as it ever was.

Buy it here - Sky - The Complete Series [DVD] - or watch it below.



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Simon Guerrier (ed)
Big Finish

A city destroyed by time itself. A country torn apart by revolution. The Doctor doesn't just change the lives of those around him—his actions echo through history, as shown in these tales exploring the outer reaches of cause and effect. 

This is the second of these BF Who hardbacks I've managed to score in the last little while.  I've tended to avoid them as they're a little pricey for my pocket but happily I've now come across two at vastly reduced prices so I've had the opportunity to sample them which I really wanted to do as the audios are fab - and I don't mean just their Who ones.

The first book I read was a pretty fun ride with mostly strong stories which is a template that's continued here.  Joff Brown's 'Walking City Blues' was a real highlight with the 6th Doctor in full on detective mode as was Eddie Robson's 2nd Doctor Delia Derbyshire homage, 'The Avant Guardian' and also Matthew Sweet's daft as an infested brush 'The Earwig Archipelago'.

As with the other volume there's a new companion that features in many of the stories and a vague narrative that runs through many of them that's set up by the two Simon Guerrier stories that I suppose were meant to bookend the contents but for some reason is continued, pointlessly and confusingly, in Andrew Cartmel's story which closes the book.

Truthfully, this one wasn't as good as the other and the through story was pretty ham-fisted and just got in the way but that aside as a collection of Who stories that I didn't know it was a pleasant way to spend a couple of afternoons.

Michael Moorcock
Orion Books

Enter a decaying far, far future society, a time when anything and everything is possible, where words like 'conscience' and 'morality' are meaningless, and where heartfelt love blossoms mysteriously between Mrs Amelia Underwood, an unwilling time traveller, and Jherek Carnelian, a bemused denizen of the End of Time.
The Dancers at the End of Time, containing the novels An Alien Heat, The Hollow Lands and The End of All Songs, is a brilliant homage to the 1890s of Wilde, Beardsley and the fin de siècle decadents, satire at its sharpest and most colourful.

 I first read this a few decades ago when I was about 19 or 20 and it blew my mind.  I'm not entirely convinced I understood everything but it certainly made an impact.

Here we have a collected edition of the three novels and across them Moorcock tells the story of Jherek Carnelian, a denizen of the utopia that exists on Earth at the end of time.  Into his perfect life is thrown an unwitting time traveller in the shape of a married, Victorian, Englishwoman named Mrs Amelia Underwood.

On a whim, which is how Jherek and his peers do everything, Jherek decides he's going to be in love with Amelia and to that end pursues her through various trials and tribulations from one end of time to the other and beyond.

Jherek is one of the most endearing heroes I've ever come across.  He has no understanding of hate, jealousy, rage or any other negative emotion and when faced by adversity his response is either gentle perplexity or smiling wonderment; he is, in all ways, nice.

Mrs Underwood on the other hand is a woman trapped.  Where Jherek has been raised in an environment of utter anarchy she is the product of the most restrictive societal and familial mores and when confronted by Jherek's purity, born from what she sees as sin, her reaction is to bury herself in her faith and her heritage until his relentless love soon begins to chip away at her resolve.

This is the most wonderful (3) book(s).  It is filled with joyous invention, Moorcock's words dance across the page and his character sparkle.  I am a long time fan of his work and regularly dip into one of his, many, books especially as they tend to be fairly short and fast reads that you can devour in a couple of hours.  I poured over this one and eked it out over a good few days allowing the humour to percolate and the ideas to insinuate and at the end of 665 pages I was still desperately craving more.

Buy it here -  The Dancers at the End of Time: Written by Michael Moorcock, 2013 Edition, Publisher: Gollancz [Paperback]

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On the 28th of September 1970, and for the next 26 weeks, Simon Randall (Spencer Banks) and Liz Skinner (Cheryl Burfield) slipped through a hole in the 'Time Barrier' which allowed them to explore both the past and alternate futures.  Along the way they encountered German invaders, megalomaniac scientists, clones and various future versions of themselves.  All of which was fairly typical of life in the UK in the early 70s.

Developed by Ruth Boswell (who would later also develop 'Escape Into Night' and produce 'The Tomorrow People') Timeslip was a deliberate attempt to tap into the Doctor Who audience in a kid friendly manner whilst addressing issues (such as environmentalism and authoritarianism) that were as relevant then as they are now.  It's two leads, the emotional and plucky Liz and the bookish and serious Simon both throw themselves into their roles, each maturing into their respective parts while the rest of the cast, which includes Denis Quilley as Traynor and Gerry Anderson alumni David Graham (the voice of Brains in Thunderbirds) as Simon's future self, Controller 2957, are all very watchable.

Even though it was filmed in colour the original tapes degraded and only the 12th episode (the last part of the second series) remains in colour, the others are all black and white telerecordings.

Amongst its supporters Timeslip is very fondly remembered - some of whom have produced the excellent Timeslip website - but it's a show that seems to have slipped (sorry) off many people's radars and is one that rarely seems to be mentioned anymore which is a shame as it's definitely worth your time (sorry).

Buy it here - Timeslip: The Complete Series [DVD] - or watch it below.

Nicholas Fisk
Puffin Books

A teenager in the late 21st century discovers he can time-travel using a drug supplied by his "Uncle" Lipton, a man who has already lived over 130 years and likely to live at least 100 more. Together they escape the horrors of their mindless present to experience life in the past. But time travel has its own dangers, and Uncle Lipton isn't totally honest about his motivations.

The day after I read this odd little sci-fi by Fisk it was announced that he's passed away which was a sad coincidence.  I've read two of his books before - 'Grinny' and 'A Rag, A Bone And A Hank of Hair' - ands had mostly enjoyed them and the cover art on this one was so good it pretty much jumped off the shelf into my bag.

'Time Trap' tells the story of a disaffected teen named 'Dano' who lives in a sterile and uneventful future society within a sealed environment called 'Homebody Unit 362'.  He is enlisted by his 'Uncle Lipton' to go time travelling with him using some sort of secret drug called 'Xtend'.  Journeys into the past and the future follow with Dano becoming increasingly controlled by the thrill seeking, hedonistic Lipton.

The book, albeit very short, moves at a slow pace all the way through Dano's first sojourn into the past - the British countryside during WW2 - but after that races along breathlessly into the future even more dystopian than his own time.

When the book ends it does so with a slamming halt that leaves a number of unanswered questions that have arisen including that of his death and of the nature of the pairs travelling.

It has however entertained along the way and provided an unflinching and unappetising future society where individualism and free self expression have been subsumed and life is essentially without either value or meaning both of which Fisk seems to imply reside with the family and experiences particularly with regard to nature.