Author | Lightnews

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 16h

A light mystery that mostly solves itself, under cover of Daniel’s poised audiobook reading and the infectious enthusiasm carried over by Greenwood from her copious research into 1920s Melbourne (especially Chinese immigrant culture), the theatre and Gilbert & Sullivan (Ruddigore in particular).

Book cover: “Ruddy Gore” by Kerry Greenwood (McPhee Gribble, 1995); audiobook read by Stephanie Daniel (Bolinda, 2010)

1

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 1d

A cleverly executed MG novel. Things mostly go wrong for the protagonists—a seven-year-old boy, his 11-year-old brother and sister, their grandpa and his dog—but their travails are told with humour and they come away with a deeper appreciation of family. #BetsyByars #TheNotJustAnybodyFamily

Book cover: “The Not-Just-Anybody Family” by Betsy Byars (The Bodley Head, 1986); audiobook read by Blain Fairman (Books on Tape, 2008)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 2d

An excellent follow-up season leading inevitably to cancellation. Alongside the female empowerment and action/investigation plot strands, the writers work in an honestly-played relationship breakup explored from the angle of how it affects a stepmum (Jessica Alba) and stepdaughter (Sophie Reynolds).

TV poster: “L.A.’s Finest, Season 2” (Spectrum, 2020)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 3d

Set #1: thirty years on, performing ‘The Soft ‘n’ Sexy Sound’ album in its entirety, Dave Graney managed to channel both Jim Morrison and Jonathan Richman, this unique dichotomy enabled by the Coral Snakes’ consummate musicianship. Pick of the night: ‘Morrison Floorshow’. #DaveGraney #SoftNSexySound

Concert poster: “Dave Graney ‘n’ the Coral Snakes, live @ Mo’s Desert Clubhouse, Gold Coast” (30 Years of The Soft ‘n’ Sexy Sound, 2nd November 2025)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 4d

Set #2: kept on track by the tight yet accommodating backing of the Coral Snakes, Graney returned for a second, heavier round of growled rock poetry and stoned tai-chi dance moves. Pick of the night: ‘I’m Just Havin’ One o’ Those Lives’. #DaveGraney #TheSoftNSexySound #TheCoralSnakes

Tour poster: Dave Graney ‘n’ the Coral Snakes, 30 Years of The Soft ‘n’ Sexy Sound; review of the Crowbar performance, 31st October 2025

1

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 7d

Colin Baker and Frazer Hines make for good listening, undiminished by the passing years. The story, while diverting enough, exists mostly to reunite their characters, the Overlord proving a paltry adversary even by Doctor Who’s standards of dim villains with dubious schemes. #DoctorWho #CityofSpires

Audio drama cover: “Doctor Who: City of Spires” by Simon Bovey (Big Finish, 2010)

1

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 10d

A bit rushed towards the end, but otherwise a hugely enjoyable series that goes about its business—monster-hunting parents, burgeoning supernatural teen children, shadowy government agency and ‘us versus them’ ambiguity—without pandering to or spoon-feeding enough viewers to stave off cancellation.

TV poster: “October Faction” (Netflix, 2020)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 11d

An enormous anthology, remarkable for having no truly poor stories—though also very few classics. Keith Moray’s traditionally styled ‘The Fulham Strangler’ and Claude Lalumière’s more experimental ‘A Scandal in Arabia’ come closest, showing Moriarty to be as dangerous as Holmes asserted. #Moriarty

Book cover: “The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Moriarty: The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes’s Nemesis”, ed. Maxim Jakubowski (Robinson, 2015); audiobook read by Toby Longworth (Bolinda, 2016)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 12d

40 years on from their second album, an ever-young/reinvented Pseudo Echo have brought musicianship to the fore, cultivating a sublimely 80s, endorphin-pumping live act. Highlights other than ‘Funky Town’ included ‘A Beat For You’, ‘Living in a Dream’ and ‘Nutbush City Limits’. #PseudoEcho

Tour poster: Pseudo Echo, Love an Adventure Tour, live @ the Hamilton Hotel (24th October 2025)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 13d

Two episodes of untethered timey-wimeyness, deliberately written to be explicable only in retrospect. All very clever, but it doesn’t make for a great listen. Louise Jameson narrates as Leela, and she and John Leeson play all the parts (including a sketchy Doctor). #DoctorWho #TheTimeVampire #Leela

Audio drama cover: “Doctor Who: The Time Vampire” by Nigel Fairs (Big Finish, 2010)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 14d

Book two of the ‘Machineries of Empire’ trilogy is strangely engrossing, given it mostly comprises a series of abstruse machinations, and one of the three viewpoint characters (Brezan) contributes almost nothing. Lee’s prose, too, is workmanlike. Still, the reader is pulled along. #RavenStratagem

Book cover: “Raven Stratagem” by Yoon Ha Lee (Solaris, 2017)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 15d

More ambitious than the usual run-around. The dystopia, however, is both overplayed and oversimplified, outlawing all questions but in standard interrogative form only (not other means of eliciting information), and having persons raised without such phrasings still instinctively reaching for them.

Audio drama cover: “Doctor Who: The Natural History of Fear” by Jim Mortimore (Big Finish, 2004)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 16d

A disarming little story that, in setting itself up as a comedy, appears to make one point about men, women and the human condition, switches as if to make another, then turns out to have been about robot sentience and master/slave dynamics. #RobertSheckley #HumanMansBurden

Magazine cover: Galaxy Science Fiction (September, 1956).
Book cover: 12 Great Classics of Science Fiction, ed. Groff Conklin (Fawcett, 1963); review of “Human Man’s Burden” by Robert Sheckley, pp. 57-71.

1

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 17d

A plotless short story likening career spacers to lovelorn young men grown old in service to the Foreign Legion. Russell pitches this as a SF fairy tale, but the framing narrative is awkward and the voice offers nothing of his usual personality. #EricFrankRussell #TheDoor

Magazine cover: Universe Science Fiction #4 (March 1954); review of: “The Door” by Eric Frank Russell, pp. 6-17.

1

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 18d

A glorious plethora of puns and running gags, built around the conceit of Cacofonix the bard being kidnapped as a gift for Caesar. The physical humour is delightful (as always), and all the characters brim with personality, the historical setting exquisitely realised. #AsterixtheGladiator #Asterix

Book cover: “Asterix the Gladiator” by Goscinny & Uderzo (Pilote, 1961-1962); trans. Anthea Bell & Derek Hockridge (Hodder & Stoughton, 1969)

1

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 19d

Not as coherent as some of the later Tintin stories, nor as sublimely threaded with humour—though the Thom(p)son twins do offer some light relief from the conspiracy plot and death-defying Boy’s Own antics. Hergé’s attention to artistic detail continues to amaze. #Tintin #KingOttokarsSceptre

Book cover: “Tintin: King Ottokar’s Sceptre” by Hergé (Le Petit Vingtième, 1938-1939); re-drawn in colour (Casterman, 1947); trans. Leslie Lonsdale-Cooper & Michael Turner (Methuen, 1958)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 20d

While Gatiss taps his usual vein of humour, Moffat mainlines a bestial, genuinely horrific reworking of the Dracula legend—an entirely non-romanticised embodiment to which Claes Bang fully commits. Still more defining (and triumphant) is Dolly Wells as Sister Agatha Van Helsing. #Dracula #VanHelsing

TV poster: “Dracula” by Mark Gatiss & Steven Moffat (BBC, 2020)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 22d

This has a distinct ‘Chimes of Midnight’ feel, and it’s nice to hear Big Finish try something other than run-of-the-mill. That said, some of the story elements are a little too affected in their oddness, favouring strangeness for the sake of it. #DoctorWho #TheMagicMousetrap #CelestialToymaker

Audio drama cover: “Doctor Who: The Magic Mousetrap” by Matthew Sweet (Big Finish, 2009)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 23d

This six-episode miniseries serves almost single-handedly to rehabilitate the prequel trilogy, affording it weight and relevance through Kenobi’s character arc. The scripts do justice to Ewan McGregor’s acting talent. The peril feels real, despite that we know what happens to the protagonists.

TV poster: “Obi-Wan Kenobi” dir. Deborah Chow (Disney+, 2022)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 24d

A remarkably satisfying feature, given that it’s mostly set-up for Return of the Jedi. The few thematic developments seem rushed, but the crises are compelling and the action and humour remain on-point. Yoda debuts as one of the all-time great film characters. #TheEmpireStrikesBack #StarWars #Yoda

Film poster: “The Empire Strikes Back” dir. Irvin Kershner (1980)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 25d

Wentworth cheats a little by employing an expurgated omniscient narrative to deflect attention. The ever-coughing Miss Silver is like a cuddly Miss Marple, and has the distinction of solving the murder as she goes, rather than keeping mum for a big reveal. #TheClockStrikesTwelve #MissSilver

Book cover: “The Clock Strikes Twelve” by Patricia Wentworth (J. B. Lippincott, 1944); audiobook read by Diana Bishop (Isis, 2010)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 26d

The manipulative, ‘hands off’ serial killer offers a point of difference (Andy Serkis, smilingly psychopathic). Still, Luther’s move from series to feature-length offers little to compensate for a pervading bleakness. Idris Elba is mostly consigned to staggering. Dermot Crowley brings some finesse.

Film poster: “Luther: The Fallen Sun” by Neil Cross; dir. Jamie Payne (Netflix, 2023)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 27d

What begins as a purely extraneous season, pulls itself into shape (through the addition of Rory and all the thematic strings her presence allows for) to become a surprisingly moving 10-episode finale, offering heart, humour and closure for characters and viewers alike. #Lucifer

TV poster: “Lucifer, Season 6” (Netflix, 2021)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · 28d

Kellen remains resourceful (and de Castell ingenious in flipping him between frying pan and fire), but in the absence of Ferius Parfax becomes rather too insistent on self-sabotage. His inner bleakness adds a darker, more adult tone at the expense of escapism. #Queenslayer #Spellslinger

Book cover: “Queenslayer” by Sebastien de Castell (Hot Key, 2019); audiobook read by Joe Jameson (Hot Key, 2019)

Derelict Space Sheep @maxmooneydss.bsky.social · Oct 6

More, more, more of the same, adding a blind swordsman who might as well not be, and close-quarters gun battles made magically palatable (the director hopes) by talk of physics-defying Kevlar formalwear. Wick’s epitaph should have read ‘Wished he’d tried disguising himself.’ #JohnWickChapter4

Film poster: “John Wick: Chapter 4” dir. Chad Stahelski (2023)