Kyle Robert Shultz's Blog, page 4
January 22, 2020
Doctor Who: Dark Universe Audio Drama Review (Spoiler-Free)
Note: This review is spoiler-free.
How far into the darkness is the Doctor willing to go?
Few Doctor Who stories actually answer this question, though many have tried. Throughout the history of the franchise, some of the (multiple!) moments telegraphed in advance as being “the Doctor's darkest hour” really weren't. We've been told that the War Doctor was the darkest of all the Doctor's selves, yet most of his violence was kept off-screen. More than half of the Doctor's incarnations have, at...
January 21, 2020
Doctor Who: “Coming Soon” Series 12 Trailer Breakdown
May I just say that if you think the latest trailer for the second half of Doctor Who Series 12 is intense…try watching it at 0.25 speed. Nightmare fuel.
We now have a glimpse at what lies in store for us in the rest of Series 12–not counting the holiday special (probably Christmas) which hasn't been talked about much but which is definitely coming at the end of the year. And if the BBC's goal was to pique Whovians' interest and make them nervous…well, they definitely succeeded with me.
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January 20, 2020
Doctor Who S12E4: Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror Review
[image error]To answer the question that's likely at the forefront of your mind if you read my review of last week's Doctor Who episode “Orphan 55”, yes, this episode is better. Much better.
I'm actually surprised Doctor Who has never tackled Nikola Tesla before. Quite possibly it has, in some spinoff media, but off the top of my head, I can't think of any stories that featured him. The man is a fascinating and somewhat bizarre figure whose exploits verge on the science fictional even without adding any...
January 19, 2020
Chironicles: Reloaded
Recently, I started posting a webcomic called Chironicles, a comedic take on some of the wackiest moments in Greek mythology. (In case you have no idea what I'm talking about, here's one of the strips from the comic.)
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Now, I love writing and drawing this thing. It's a lot of fun. But I've run up against one of those entrepreneurial hurdles where what you enjoy doing isn't always the most profitable thing to be spending your time on. As you may know if you follow my blog regularly, I'm...
January 17, 2020
The Geppetto Codex: Now Available!
No, we are not going to talk about how long it's been since I've published a Beaumont and Beasley book. Let's focus on the positive, shall we?
The Geppetto Codex,Beaumont and Beasley Book 5, is now available on Kindle. (The paperback edition will be available later today.)
[image error]They've got no strings…and they want revenge.
The people of the city of Vetri are turning into wooden statues…
…and Beaumont and Beasley are not on the case.
Not technically, anyway. This case must fall to two of their...
January 13, 2020
Doctor Who S12E3: Orphan 55 Review
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Come on, Ed Hime. I trusted you. I defended the talking frog. Why'd you have to go and let Greta Thunberg ghost-write your second Doctor Who script?
“Orphan 55” is the first episode of Series 12 to step back into “monster-of-the-week” territory after the continuity-laden two-part premiere. Series 11 didn't do a very good job with this kind of story on the whole, but there were a couple of breakout...
January 6, 2020
Doctor Who S12E2: Spyfall Part 2 Review
[image error]So, remember how I've said a couple of times over the past two years that Chris Chibnall isn't willing to take risks with Doctor Who?
I really don't think anyone can say that now.
Name any game-changing moment for Doctor Who over the past couple of decades; Spyfall Part 2 is at least as significant. And even if you've seen a spoiler or two for it, you probably don't know the full story.
Ladies and gentlemen, Doctor Who is event television again. And I couldn't be happier.
There's another big...
January 4, 2020
Ten Things about The Geppetto Codex
[image error]This is the first of many teaser posts I'm going to be making for the books I release this year. Expect one leading up to each new title. You'll also get the opportunity to ask questions in the comments on these posts…which I will answer with varying degrees of truthfulness.
One: As I've teased on social media, The Geppetto Codex is the beginning of the end for Beaumont and Beasley.
How can that be, when there are still ten books to go in the series? Well, you'll just have to keep reading to...
January 2, 2020
Doctor Who S12E1: Spyfall Part 1 Review
[image error]There are enormous spoilers at the end of this post.
Man, it felt good to write that. Actual spoilers. For actual, big Stuff. It's been far too long since we've had that on Doctor Who.
I'm deploying a double layer of spoiler protection for this post. I'll be providing a quick and spoiler-free verdict like I did last year, then talking about the less-important spoilery stuff for the episode. But I'm saving all my discussion of the last five minutes of Spyfall Part 1 for an extra-spoilery...
December 31, 2019
A Few of My Favorite Things in 2019
I'm mainly looking forward to 2020 for a somewhat stupid reason: the year itself looks and sounds cool. I briefly mentioned this in a previous post, but “2020” evokes futuristic stuff in my head. Time travelers. Flying cars. Hoverboards. Alien invasions and various and sundry other apocalypses (okay, maybe those aren't exactly appealing). I can't name any off the top of my head, but I'm sure there are a gazillion sci-fi works from the 20th century that picked 2020-something as “the future.”
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