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03 Jun

Doctor Who: the Historical Places the Show Has Never Visited (But Should)

New DVD release, , , , ,
All of time, all of space, at your fingertips. That’s the promise of the TARDIS.  And despite a strong predilection for London, Earth, in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the Doctor has certainly gotten about a bit. But the thing about the universe is, there’s a lot of it, and there are still key historical events, massive epochs of history and places in the universe that the Doctor has never been to on screen. Some of these have made appearances in the books, comics, of Big Finish audios, but as ‘The Haunting of Villa Diodati‘ shows, Doctor Who…
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05 Dec

Warrior: The Historical Inspiration for Dylan Leary

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This article contains Warrior spoilers. Although the Bruce Lee-inspired Cinemax series Warrior is fiction, it is loosely based on historical events of San Francisco in the 1870s. Just as Nellie Davenport (Miranda Raison) is based upon on a remarkable San Franciscan heroine, Donaldina Cameron, the Season 2 Finale drops a bomb for one of the show’s central characters. At the end of the episode when Dylan Leary (Dean Jagger) declares “I’m Dylan Leary and I’m here on behalf of the Workingmen’s Party of California,” it’s a major tell. The Workingmen’s Party of California was an actual organization during the period when…
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30 Nov

The Last Kingdom’s Historical Advisor on Accuracy: ‘It’s a Constant Compromise’

Netflix, New DVD release, , , , ,
After completing his PhD in Early Medieval History, Ryan Lavelle picked up a novel dramatising the events of King Alfred’s early reign. The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell was the first in what was then known as the Saxon Stories saga. It told the story of Uhtred, a fictional 9th century Northumbrian warrior raised by Vikings who, despite a conflicted relationship with the king of Wessex, became Alfred’s military tactician. Lavelle lapped it up. In the following years, Cornwell published another, and then another and another. Lavelle read them all, delighting in their inclusion of real historical events and use…
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10 Oct

Warrior: The Historical Inspiration for Nellie Davenport

New DVD release, , , ,
This article contains Warrior spoilers. In “The Chinese Connection,” the second episode of Season 2 of Warrior, a new character named Nellie Davenport (Miranda Raison) enters the show. She’s a wealthy widow committed to ending the exploitation of Chinese women by leading police raids on brothels and offering alternatives to Warrior’s favorite brothel madam, Ah Toy. “We introduced the character of Nellie Davenport,” reveals Warrior showrunner Jonathan Tropper, “She was based on an actual person.” Tropper is quick to point out that Warrior is not a docudrama. He sees it as more like a martial arts fable or graphic novel…
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31 Aug

Strike: Lethal White Episode 2 Review – I Love You’s and Historical Clues

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This Strike: Lethal White Episode 2 review contains spoilers.  There goes that revenue stream. With Strike’s wealthiest client’s head plastic-wrapped like a fridge-ready ham, how will the agency afford somebody to answer the phones now? The more pressing question, of course, is who killed the old badger? There are more than enough people – including but not limited to his own wife and children – who’d presumably be happy to see Jasper Chiswell breathe his last. Not least among them Geraint Winn, the Labour MP whose fraudulent charity finances were exposed in episode two, giving Chiswell what he needed to…
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18 Aug

Historical War Epics of the 2000s Ranked

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“There was once a dream that was Rome. You could only whisper it, anything more than a whisper and it would vanish.” These were the words spoken by Richard Harris at his most regal in Gladiator, adding some blockbuster poeticism to the democratic ideals of the Roman republic—a dream lost long before Gladiator begins. But he could just as easily be speaking about the beauty and grandeur of the historical epics which inspired Gladiator . Decades before Russell Crowe and Ridley Scott reawakened that whisper to a mighty roar, historical war epics, from swords and sandals beefcake cinema to Napoleonic…
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18 Jul

How Cursed’s Surprising Take on Merlin Reflects the Wizard’s Historical Origins

Netflix, New DVD release, , , , , ,
The following contains spoilers for Netflix’s CURSED. Read our spoiler-free review of the series here. While Netflix’s Cursed focuses primarily on the story of Nimue, a young girl with a magical gift and a dark destiny as the future Lady of the Lake, it asks its audience to engage with the traditional tropes of Arthurian legend in new and interesting ways.  Cursed’s Merlin may also feel a bit strange to viewers who are only familiar with the character as the legendary wizard from film adaptations like Disney’s The Sword in the Stone, or the famous T.H. White novel it’s based on, The Once…
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DVD Guide reviews current dvd releases of movies and TV shows. The reviews of these dvd releases are my thoughts and understandings of the movie, dvd releases or TV show and not be taken as fact.

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