Over the past few years, my life has gone through quite a few changes. Covid did a great deal to disrupt the way things were going (as they did for everyone) and it gave me quite a deal to consider. My acting, obviously, took a hit over the pandemic, and then all the other changes …
Author: Mattie
Memorial to my cat, Belisima
This morning, we had to put our cat down. Belisma, my beautiful, insane, grumpy 13 year old cat. Fred and I got her in our first year of marriage, shortly after moving into a rented accommodation that allowed us to have a pet. From the start she was a little insane, and always a highly …
Doctor Who Review: The Power of the Doctor
I’m coming to this very late due to completely getting out of the routine of writing, but this final story in the 13th Doctor’s run seems an important moment to come back to my thoughts on the series. Let’s get this straight, this was a FINALE - an all singing, all dancing, finale with all …
Book Review: Fermi’s Progress – Dyson’s Fear by Chris Farnell
Dyson’s Fear, the first of Farnell’s new Fermi’s Progress novellas, is a delightful science fiction romp. Highly self-aware and delightfully silly in places, the main impression I came away with was how dark it was below all its flippancy. This is absolutely sci-fi comedy, in the tradition of Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and …
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Doctor Who Review: Stranded 2
When the first Stranded came out, I was a little nervous at the pitch. The Doctor, Liv and Helen stuck in a house share situation in 2020 London sounded fun, and it was certainly a change in direction, but I had really enjoyed the last decade of 8th Doctor adventures, and the huge finale that …
Review of Comeback by Chris Limb
I came to this novel with little idea about what to expect, and I’m really glad of the fact I did, because this is a novel that delights in the unexpected, in subverting genre and generally breaking the rules and having a lot of fun while you do it. At the outset, we are introduced …
Some musings on self identity and freedom in the time of COVID-19
A lot of the debate around our current global pandemic as been around the curtails on our freedoms and what that means for our rights. I am hardly the first to acknowledge that this is a thoroughly modern debate in many ways - the authorities have always used their right to curtail the freedoms of …
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Doctor Who review: Revolution of the Daleks
More Daleks! I do love how opinion is divided between ‘Daleks are the reason to watch the show’ and ‘Daleks are so overused’. Personally, I think that by the end of the Tennant era, Daleks needed a bit of a rest - each Dalek story was bigger than the last and they started to veer …
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Doctor Who review: Day of the Daleks
WELCOME FRIENDS, WE NEED BUT ONE MORE FOR OUR GAME OF BRIDGE! You know how it is. You wake up one day, and you just have an overwhelming need to spend some time with the most stylish of Doctors? Pertwee was my first Doctor (back when the BBC was showing choice extracts from the series …
Review of A Spell in the Wild by Alice Tarbuck
A beautiful, captivating, deeply personal exploration of witchcraft and what it means to inhabit the world. Tarbuck takes us on a journey through the wheel of year, blending autobiographical experience with rigorous research in such a way that one cannot help but be captivated.
Mattie Tucker 