In “The Sands of Life”, The Doctor and Romana found themselves in the middle of an impending war between humanity and aliens called the Laan. While the Laan were arriving on Earth in the belief that they were returning to their breeding grounds, the unique nature of their connection to the time-space continuum made it very clear that they were in the wrong place. Unfortunately, the Laan are less than willing to listen to reason, as they are more concerned with the hostile actions of the Conglomerate, driven by Cuthbert, the company’s mysterious CEO.

Having kicked off the latest “season” of the Fourth Doctor Adventures with the underwhelming “The Auntie Matter”, Big Finish hits the ground running with a much more interesting adventure with “The Sands of Life”. What seems at first to be a standard stand-alone story about a mysterious invasion of Earth by aliens turns into something much more complicated.

The first run of Fourth Doctor Adventures from Big Finish was largely a success, reuniting Tom Baker and Louise Jameson (Leela) for some adventures set during the middle of their short but memorable run from the 1970s. The second “season” takes a slightly different direction by focusing on the Doctor’s adventures with the first Romana (played by the late Mary Tamm).

One of the most unfortunate tendencies in the Star Trek franchise, prior to the “reboot” in the current films, has been the lack of a solid ending. Deep Space Nine and Voyager both managed to end relatively well, but only the former managed to take that ending and evolve into a post-finale series of novels with actual heft. The rest of the post-finale fiction has, to one extent or another, been devoted to fixing what the final on-screen word dismantled.

I was impressed coming out of the film. I tried finding flaws but ended up with very little. Every aspect was executed with precision and purpose. I think the film will be able to ignite an excitement surrounding a Superman film that has been missing for almost thirty years now.

Starting from being a simple indie title, it caught the attention of Microsoft back in 2009’s Dream.Play.Build challenge and stayed in development for over 3 years. Until its release as one of Xbox’s Summer of Arcade titles, the showcase for mayor indie titles throughout each year. And now it has made its way to Steam for people to enjoy on the PC. Designed and programmed by only one person, this game looks promising. But is it truly worth the hype or will it bite the dust?

When I first heard that the end of Fringe was going to be followed by a trilogy of prequel novels, I was quite excited. While the series itself delved into a lot of the history behind the events depicted in the complicated mythology of the Bishops and Olivia Dunham, there were still plenty of stories to tell. Prequels felt like the right way to go, if only because peeling back the layers of character histories felt more promising than a conventional “case of the week”.

I have to be honest, before being allowed to review Metro: Last Light, I had really no clue what the series was about. Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised and disappointed that I discovered this series earlier. Metro: Last Light picks up directly after the events of Metro 2033, although fans of the book series might be interested to know that the story deviates almost completely from Metro 2034. Once again you play as Artyom, who has been tasked to track down a "Dark One" survivor, the last of his kind. But during his pursuit he is hunted by all sorts of horrors including man and mutants.

Being the youngest captain in Federation history has not stopped James Kirk from taking risks, making mistakes and suffering the consequences. But soon a bigger problem rears its head in the form of John Harrison, a rogue agent who single-handedly cripples Starfleet and threatens the safety of the whole Federation.

Recent Supernatural novels have managed to set a strong standard, both in terms of keeping the characterization of the Brothers Winchester fairly close to the original television incarnations and supplying a solid, if sometimes overly ambitious, trigger for the main plot. Considering that this is the last novel currently on the schedule, one would hope that the trend would continue.