Cricket on the Hearth

I've never really been a fan of Charles Dickens. It's probably because I hated reading Great Expectations in high school. He comes up a lot at Christmas though. I actually have to go out of my way each year to avoid reviewing too many adaptations of A Christmas Carol. So it came as both a surprise and a disappointment when I learned that Dickens had actually written a number of books centered around Christmas. And one of them was the basis of the Rankin/Bass special Cricket on the Hearth. The special, which differs somewhat from the novella, is the dour tale of a widowed toymaker, his daughter and the cricket they invite into their home for some reason. When the daughter's fiancée is lost a sea, she goes blind and the family falls on hard times. They end up working for a heartless miser who wants to marry the blind daughter. There's also a bunch of talking animals in the special and some toys that come to life for a few minutes. It's weird. Not as weird as some of Rankin/Bass' other animated specials, but weird nonetheless.

Rating: Toy Elephant%

The Sea Devils

The Third Doctor is often referred to as a "man of action" and The Sea Devils is the perfect showcase for this title. While battling the Sea Devils, an aquatic offshoot of the Silurians, the Doctor engages in fisticuffs, gets into a sword fight, throws himself on barbed wire and pilots several means of transportation. This serial also reintroduces the Master, seemingly under lock and key after the events of The Dæmons. The show's producers managed to get assistance from the Royal Navy, so many of the locations and vehicles used in the show (including a freakin' hovercraft) are authentic. And the script provides several opportunities for some perfectly British bureaucratic pissing contests.

Rating: Oh, you think so?%