cult tv, mostly British, of the 60s and 70s

Outlaw Star is a 1998 anime space adventure TV series with a Wild West vibe, a slight affinity to Lexx. Space adventurers who are not bad guys but not exactly good guys either. An outstanding engrossing strange clever and oddball series.

Here's my review.

The Time Tunnel is a 1966 TV tie-in novel written by Murray Leinster. Enjoyable and has most of the strengths of the excellent TV series and hints at a few ethical issue. Like the TV series, cleverer than it seems to be on the surface.

Here's my review.

Ergo Proxy is a 2006 Japanese cyberpunk anime TV series. In a utopian future robots learn to disobey orders. The characters' personalities are fragmenting, or merging. We keep doubting what we know. Great complex intelligent grown-up anime. 

Here's my review.

Van der Valk, excellent intelligent slightly unconventional 1972-77 British TV series about an Amsterdam cop, with lots of clever narrative misdirection, unexpected tonal shifts and a prickly but charismatic hero. Barry Foster perfectly cast.

Here's my review.

Gunbuster is a 1988-89 anime OVA. Features an epic struggle for survival with space monsters, giant robots, time paradoxes and scantily-clad (sometimes unclad) babes. An intelligent, subtle, emotionally resonant complex sci-fi tale. Superb.

Here's my review.

Michael Avallone's The Blazing Affair was the second original novel based on the Girl from U.N.C.L.E. TV series. A competent enough spy thriller and reasonably enjoyable. Lots of gadgets. Worth checking out if you’re a fan of the TV series.

Here's my review.

V is a two-part 1983 US alien invasion sci-fi TV mini-series. Flying saucers arrive on Earth. The aliens appear to be friendly. Appearances can be deceptive. The special effects have a very 80s arcade game look. Fairly entertaining.

Here's my review.

The 2nd season of the Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex anime TV series began its run in 2004. Brilliant cynical paranoid cyberpunk sci-fi. Very much about dirty deadly political power games. Trust no-one. Nothing is what it seems to be. 

Here's my review.

Some episode reviews from season 2 of Perry Mason, a series that raised the bar in terms of complex plotting in 1950s U.S. TV and demonstrated the potential of the hour-long episodic TV drama. And that terrific cast! Always fun to revisit.

Here's my review.

Peter Leslie’s The Cornish Pixie Affair, published in 1967, fifth of the original novels based on the TV spy series The Girl from U.N.C.L.E.. It starts with a murder in a circus (the circus setting is used extremely well). Statuettes of pixies play a role. Entertaining.

Here's my review.