BitTrip.Beat

Available for the odd price of $6.00 on Nintendo's WiiWare service, BitTrip. Beat will make a man (or woman) out of you, depending on your gender or preference, assuming you can even get your name on the high scores list--which will in the very least, require you to achieve a score of 50,000 points or greater in a given level. Good luck with that.



BitTrip.Beat walks through the valley of the shadow of Pong in a slick, attractive fashion, with addictive rhythm based game play and a twist on the old Pong formula. You play as a rectangle thing floating along through space with groovy 8-bit music and colorful, distracting pixelly stuff happening in the background while dots and blocks come at you from the right, intent on making sweet music with you.

There are two "life bars", one at the top, the "Multi" bar, and on the bottom, the "Nether". As you deflect dots, adding blips and beeps to the ongoing rhythm, the Mulit meter fills up and once it reaches max, you enter Hyper mode; the music gets funkier and more complex, and thus more enjoyable, while the graphics also get a face lift, adding flashes and effects to the game play. Eventually missing too many blocks will throw you back into normal mode, which is sad. On the opposite end, missing too many beats in normal mode will throw you into the Nether Realm, where there is no music, and the graphics are reduced to Pong-like black and white shapes with blips coming through the Wii-mote in a bland and dissatisfying way, until you earn your way out by successfully hitting enough blocks to get back into normal mode. It's a simple formula, and it will humble you, as the game gets more complex, the backgrounds more distracting, and the dots come at you faster and faster--often shifting behaviors and patterns without warning, forcing you to adapt quickly or suffer for your incompetence. Strangely, over the course of play I actually adapted to my incompetence, so there's really no need for me to play this anymore.



There are only 3 levels in this game, and I have only seen 1 1/2. You must progress through each level to reach the next, every time you play, unless you get your name on the high scores list for a given level , which took me over a week to do for the first track. Each level or song is at least ten minutes long, so you can imagine how frustrating, nerve wracking, and emasculating it is you get through the first song for the 50th time, then getting to the same gaw-damn spot in the second track for the 50th time, and having to go through all that shit again. My tail is tucked, and I am officially running away. I should have bought Star Tropics, or a 12 pack of grape soda instead.

If you're the kind of asshole that's good at old arcade games games like Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Pong, etc., then by all means give this a try. Us cool people need to steer clear of this nifty nightmare.

Urban Dead

“Urban Dead is a low-tech zombie apocalypse browser game where thousands of survivors and zombies battle for the control of a quarantined city.”

So reads the front page of what, out of necessity, has become my favorite online diversion in recent months. It’s rather fitting that the only game my shambling wreck of a computer can run these days is one in which humans stalwartly slog it out with semi-functional corpses. If anyone is here looking for a game on par with Resident Evil, Dead Rising, or even Zombies Ate My Neighbors in terms of graphics and storyline then you’ll be sorely disappointed with Urban Dead. If, however, you’re looking for an intriguing text/browser-based zombie MMO which also happens to be free…then you’ve come to the right place.

As I’ve alluded to already there are no real graphics and there is virtually no story in Urban Dead. What you do have is an intelligent game based on the time-honored horror movie premise of zombies taking over a city and the human survivors fighting for their lives. The game is set in the city of Malton which is divided up into a 10 x 10 square grid of suburbs. Each suburb is further divided into a 10 x 10 square grid of streets, buildings, cemeteries, parks, monuments and so on. These 10,000 squares give players a pretty big sandbox to play around in and as far as I can tell a freshly created character might begin the game in any of the one hundred suburbs that make up Malton.

Creating a character is quick and easy as you simply select a class, provide a name and password and begin the game. There are nine classes from four different categories to choose from all with distinct advantages and disadvantages. The Military classes are the Private (your basic grunt who is competent with a gun), the Medic (a healer armed with a pistol) and the Scout (the most effective class at evading zombie threats). The Scientist classes are the NecroTech Lab Assistant (who deal directly in identifying zombies and in turning them back into human survivors) and the Doctor (who begin the game with the ability to see the hit points of all fellow survivors). The Civilian classes are the Police Officer (similar to the Private), the Firefighter (specializing in the fire axe), and the Consumer (John Q. Public armed with a random improvised weapon and a mobile phone). The remaining category is Zombie and there’s only one class – the Corpse (any of the above classes can become a zombie if infected or killed by another zombie, but the Corpse starts out stronger than survivors who are later turned into zombies).

The four categories of classes directly relate to the four types of skills available to characters in the game: Military, Science, Miscellaneous (or Civilian) and Zombie skills. Civilian characters pay the same amount of experience points (100 XP) for all four types of skills. Military characters are predisposed to learning Military skills and can thus purchase them with fewer experience points (75 XP). However, as it’s further from their area of expertise, Military characters must spend far more on Science skills (150 XP) than other characters. The exact opposite is true for Scientist characters. I have yet to play the game from the point of view of a career Zombie, so I can’t say exactly how it works for the Corpse class.

Military skills are based almost exclusively on the use of firearms. If you want to gun down zombies with a pistol or shotgun (the only firearms available in the game unless you count the one-shot flare gun), then you’ll want to focus on Military skills. Perhaps the most universally useful Military skill, however, is called Free Running. It allows survivors to move from building to building throughout Malton without having to travel through the zombie-infested streets. Free Running is extremely useful for staying alive in Urban Dead as survivors often over-barricade buildings making many of them inaccessible from outside.

Scientific skills are of basically two types: 1) those related to NecroTech Labs and 2) those related to mundane healing. The NecroTech skills allow you to create and use devices such as DNA Extractors (used to test a zombie to see what abilities they possess and who they were before becoming zombies) and Revivication Syringes (which allow you to turn a zombie back into a survivor). The healing skills are just that, they allow you to either heal more points with first-aid kits or to diagnose survivors.

Miscellaneous or Civilian skills are simply skills that don’t fall into either of the above categories. It includes everything from Construction (allowing you to barricade buildings and repair equipment) to Body Building (providing you with a bonus of +10 hit points). There are quite a few of these skills and they’re far more varied than either Military or Scientific skills.

Zombie skills are exactly what they sound like: skills which improve the Corpse class by leaps and bounds. While I haven’t played a zombie myself some examples include Lurching Gait (zombies move as fast as survivors), Memories of Life (zombies can open doors to buildings) and Scent Fear (zombies can track badly wounded humans). Each of these allows access to greater powers later on. For instance, Scent Fear leads eventually to Scent Trail, allowing a zombie to track any survivor who has recently occupied the same square in which the zombie is located.

That’s pretty much it for skills. All characters start the game with 50 hit points and some equipment related to their chosen class. This equipment could be anything from a pistol to a pool cue or from binoculars to a first-aid kit. First-aid kits are the best way of healing either yourself or fellow survivors, but bottles of wine or beer will heal minor wounds in a pinch. Long-distance survivor-to-survivor communications require that both characters have a Mobile Phone and that they are on each other’s Contacts List. Properly tuned Radios will allow you to listen to anyone broadcasting from a specific station with a working Transmitter, as well. There’s an assortment of other items, both useful (reading books is a slow, but safe way for characters to gain experience) and cosmetic (newspapers, poetry books and crucifixes are attainable, but they serve no practical purpose).

The goal of Urban Dead is simply to stay alive or, if you happen to be undead, to convince survivors to join your ranks by gnawing on/killing them. The usual set up is that survivors barricade themselves inside buildings and zombies try to infiltrate those buildings and attack survivors, but sometimes you’ll see this scenario turned on its head. I once saw a military fort filled with survivors get overrun by zombies and just two days later the entire fenced-in nine square city block was populated with the living dead. Of course, sometimes the best defense is a good offense, so you’ll often see survivors venture out into the streets to try and take down some zombies and earn some sweet XP. This is fine as long as you remember to give yourself time to back to safety before you run out of Action Points.

Everyone starts out with 50 Action Points which regenerate at a rate of 1 point every half hour. These points, as their name so aptly states, allow a character to perform 50 actions per day* before becoming exhausted. Everything your character does from searching an area to moving from one street to another to firing a weapon uses up one Action Point. If you happen to run out of Action Points your character immediately goes to sleep. If this occurs while your character is outdoors the next time you log in you will likely find yourself zombie chow…and thus a zombie yourself. If this happens you can either decide to make a career of eating people or you can find your way to a revivification point ASAP. Revivication points are various places in each suburb (often a cemetery or an area near a NecroTech Lab) where NecroTech scientists have established a safe zone for zombies looking to return to their former lives. Of course, there’s nothing stopping a survivor who doesn’t know better from blowing your undead brains out even if you’re standing in a dedicated revivication point. For that matter there’s nothing to stop survivors from blowing each other’s brains out either…

Player Killing (PKing) is prevalent in most MMOs so it should be no surprise to find it in Urban Dead. In fact, there are entire groups dedicated to PKing. Groups are basically organizations of like-minded players working towards a common goal. The most common type of group is a Pro-Survivor group, but there are also Pro-Zombie groups composed of deadites and even some groups composed of mortals who were once Zombies and seek to aid their undead brethren by working against the survivors. You can find groups that are extremely militant, groups that focus solely on healing, groups of axe-wielding Firefighters…pretty much anything you can think of.

A lot of the joy of playing Urban Dead is lost on those who only give it a cursory glance. If I had a computer that could run anything other than solitaire or owned a console, I probably wouldn’t have taken the time to get beneath the surface of this game. If you really want to learn how to play the game you’ll pretty much have to familiarize yourself with The Urban Dead Wiki. It’s invaluable to the player who doesn’t want to stumble around blindly and wake up dead or lost every time he/she logs in.

Beginners should also probably choose a class based on what they most want to accomplish early on in the game. Privates are the best choice for a character who wants to focus on firearms. Scouts are great for traveling long distances right off the bat because of their Free Running skill. Firefighters make the best melee combatants as they’re already trained and equipped with the fire axe. If you don’t mind staying close to one area and avoiding combat, the Doctor is easily the best choice as they can gain XP by healing other survivors. Either way you go the first skill you’re going to want to procure is probably Free Running. It’s the safest way to travel and the easiest way to get access to heavily barricaded buildings.

Survivors tend to keep most buildings EHB (Extremely Heavily Barricaded) which means they’re virtually inaccessible from outside unless you have a Crowbar and want to spend all your action points tearing down walls so you can get inside. Only buildings VSB (Very Strongly Barricaded) or less are accessible from the street and these usually serve as Entry Points for survivors while the EHB buildings basically act as walls to keep out zombies. Unfortunately, it’s all too easy for an incautious survivor to end up trapped out on the streets. Again, referring to The Urban Dead Wiki is probably the wisest choice as you can locate Entry Points before your character starts wandering around aimlessly.

Urban Dead isn’t the kind of game you can just run into blindly and start hacking and slashing. It’s more or less like an elaborate chess game set on a gigantic board with the ability to customize your playing pieces. While it is an MMO, the game has no set system for creating and maintaining parties, so even if you do play with a friend you won’t be able to share XP or trade items. In fact, all you can really do with an ally is communicate, attack walking corpses that are in the same area and heal one another. When it comes down to brass tacks, however, you’re basically on your own in Urban Dead. Just like in any good zombie movie.

*A final note or those interested in running multiple characters. I would suggest you read up on the Hit Limit and how you can exempt a character from said limit by making a one-time donation in support of this excellent game.

Close Range

Once in a while a shooter comes along that reinvents the genre, breaking boundaries in game design and storytelling, and giving the genre a new set of tools to move forward with. This is not that shooter. It is, however, hilarious. And grotesque. Be sure to watch the "news" clip on the site before or after playing the demo.

5 Days A Stranger

5 Days A Stranger is a traditional point and click adventure made on the cheap by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, the often funny critic behind Zero Punctuation. The first of a Quadrilogy of games in the "Chzo Mythos", 5 Days A Stranger begins as the gentlemen thief Trilby infiltrates the ominous DeFoe manner in search of loot, only to find himself inexplicably trapped with 4 other people, and a bloody secret the mansion has held for over 200 years.
The graphics in 5 Days are typical of what you might see in an old Sierra or Lucasarts adventure, but a little bit simpler, but seeing as how the game had a budget of $0.00, it actually does an admirable job in terms of the character art and environments. Everything is colorful, and the "hotspots" are generally easy to find. The interface is clean and simple. The sound effects are sparse but repetitive, particularly when you're walking, but the occasional ghostly footsteps and whispering add some ambiance. Where this game really shines though, is the script. With the exception of a few inconsistencies in logic, and one or two tedious dialogue trees that you will have to wade through repeatedly to get to the one correct result, the dialogue is very well written, and often funny. Trilby is an excellent character for this sort of game, and his dry, sarcastic quips add a lot to the experience.
The game isn't very long--in fact, I would say it's about the perfect length for an adventure title: it doesn't wear out it's welcome, but it doesn't feel like anything in the story was left unresolved. It will probably take you about three or four hours to get through the whole thing--the puzzles aren't really that tough, and overall, it reminded me of those good one-shots The X-Files used to have during their first couple of seasons. There's more to this story if you want it, but what you'll find here stands up well enough on it's own.

Top 10 Most Underrated Doctor Who Stories

My last blog focused on the Top 10 Most Overrated Doctor Who Stories, so it was only a matter of time before I offered up its antithesis. Here are ten stories that are, on the whole, underappreciated by the majority of Doctor Who fans. Once again, these are based on the Outpost Gallifrey 2003 Reader Poll and all of the stories I've listed fall in the bottom third of the 159 original Doctor Who stories. The Dominators (#1 on my list) ranked 152 out of the aforementioned 159 stories while The Mysterious Planet (#10 on my list) ranked 111. In my opinion all of these stories are better than their reputations, though I won't say that all of them are classics. In fact, some of them are quite mediocre, but they're still better than the hardcore fans would lead you to believe.

1) The Dominators (Second Doctor: Patrick Troughton; Season 6; Story 044)

The Dominators has its fair share of problems, but by no means does it belong in the bottom ten of the original 159 Doctor Who stories. In fact, I find a lot to praise in this modest, formulaic tale of tyrants versus pacifists. The Dominators themselves are pretty effective as sort of Flash Gordon styled villains while their servants the diminutive Quarks are easily predecessors to droids as seen in Star Wars nearly twenty years later. The leads are at the top of their game in this story, as well. The Doctor is forced to behave like an imbecile so that the Dominators won’t see him as a threat and Troughton pulls this off with comic aplomb. Both Jamie and Zoe get a chance to shine on their own in several episodes, too. At five episodes The Dominators is slightly overlong and it’s hard to really care about the badly dressed Dulcians (whose very name is an apt pun), but this story is significantly better than its reputation.

2) The Web Planet (First Doctor: William Hartnell; Season 2; Story 013)

The Web Planet is like an imaginative but naïve child who is inevitably the subject of much bullying and ridicule. This is a well-written story that far exceeds its meager budget and is thus judged mainly on its stagy exterior. To be fair, The Web Planet does contain a great deal to laugh at and some of the costumes are terribly amusing, but for me the scope of the narrative and the committed performances of the stars make it all worthwhile. How often do we encounter a planet in Doctor Who that has more than one form of intelligent life on it? Even a hint that there are multiple cultures such as one might find on Earth? Not often enough, I say. The Web Planet, aka Vortis, offers three distinct races of sentient beings (and at least one sub-race) each with their own function in the story and that sort of thing should be applauded. The dedication of the actors here is amazing, really, because it’s their ability to take the story seriously that makes the whole thing work. There are some marvelously simple techniques used to give The Web Planet a true sense of otherworldliness, too, such as the Vaseline-on-the-lens trick when they’re on the planet’s surface. Like The Dominators, The Web Planet could stand to be an episode or two shorter, but all things considered it’s hardly the worst thing to come out of the second season and better than pretty much everything that survives from the third.

3) The Sensorites (First Doctor: William Hartnell; Season 1; Story 007)

Some consider The Sensorites to be the worst story of Doctor Who’s premiere season, but I don’t agree. Like the stories I mentioned above, I certainly don’t think it belongs in the bottom 10 percentile of all the original Doctor Who stories. Besides, the story which inspired the Ood can’t be all bad, can it? Episode one of The Sensorites is excellent stuff and the cliffhanger is chillingly convincing for a low-budget program in its infancy. The Sensorites are a well-conceived alien race, physically grotesque (from a human point of view) yet on the whole as complex and varied as human beings when it comes to personalities. It’s a true testament to the show that the first “scary-looking” alien race we encounter in Doctor Who (not counting the Daleks, because we never really see them) is not merely a collection of like-minded baddies out to destroy the Earth or conquer the universe. Instead, they’re a highly-civilized people who, like humans, consist of individuals who run the gamut when it comes to motivations and behavior. If The Sensorites has a flaw it’s the distinct lack of action necessary to fill six episodes, but despite that this cerebral story offers some wonderful moments and interesting ideas along the way.



4) The Power of Kroll (Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker; Season 16; Story 102)

Somehow The Power of Kroll is considered one of the two worst stories from Tom Baker’s seven year run as the Doctor, but here’s a list of half a dozen stories I enjoyed less: Planet of Evil, The Invisible Enemy, The Armageddon Factor, The Nightmare of Eden, The Horns of Nimon, and Meglos. I didn’t even mention Underworld, which really is Tom Baker’s worst story. I can see why people find so much to dislike in The Power of Kroll what with a bunch of guys painted green running around and, of course, Kroll himself…a giant squid/Not-So-Great Old One. I actually think Kroll looks pretty good for a television show of 1978, especially as the writer, the masterful Robert Holmes, received pressure from the script editor to feature “the largest monster ever to appear in Doctor Who." It’s a gritty story for the most part and features some fine actors like Philip Madoc (best known for his role as Solon in The Brain of Morbius) and John Leeson (the man behind the voice of K-9). The penultimate story of The Key to Time season, The Power of Kroll is judged almost entirely on its surface appearance. It’s still better than some people would have you believe and a veritable masterpiece when compared to The Armageddon Factor which ended the season.



5) The Krotons (Second Doctor: Patrick Troughton; Season 6; Story 047)

Ah, The Krotons. Usually, the kindest thing I hear said about The Krotons is “at least it’s not The Dominators.” Well, I’m here to tell you you’ve been mislead. The Krotons is actually a very enjoyable story filled with some of Patrick Troughton’s best moments as the Doctor. From his initial emergence from the TARDIS with umbrella in hand to his mirthful envy of Zoe’s superior intellect when they both find themselves subjected to the Teaching Machine, Troughton really shines all the way through. The Krotons themselves are big, ungainly crystalline beings, but they’re a refreshing change from flesh-and-blood aliens and robots that generally dominate Doctor Who. It bears mention that this was Robert Holmes first story for the show and, while it’s by no means his best contribution to the series, it certainly shows promise. The Krotons may not be as good as The Invasion or The War Games, but I prefer it to The Dominators and The Seeds of Death and I'll likely pick it up when it's released on DVD.



6) Dragonfire (Seventh Doctor: Sylvester McCoy; Season 24; Story 151)

Known as the best story of the otherwise dreadful 24th season, Dragonfire still suffers from a great deal of criticism…and most if it is reasonable. Iceworld isn’t terribly convincing (though it might have been twenty years earlier in black & white), Bonnie Langford is ready to annoy as companion Melanie Bush, and Doctor Who as a whole was in serious jeopardy of becoming a parody of itself (see the infamous literal cliffhanger at the end of episode one). Perhaps the best reason for watching Dragonfire is the introduction of Ace (Sophie Aldred), who eventually becomes my favorite companion since Leela was at the Fourth Doctor’s side almost a decade earlier. It’s interesting to see Ace here at her most unrestrained and troubled and it makes her maturity by the time of Survival (the final story of the original series) all the more apparent. Sabalom Glitz, possibly the best thing about The Trial of a Time Lord season, returns for another run-in with the Doctor and this gives the story an added layer of humor and charm, as well. While it’s no classic, Dragonfire provides a fitting departure for Mel and serves as an interesting prologue for Ace. Furthermore, at only three episodes long there’s no worry of it overstaying its welcome.



7) The Creature from the Pit (Fourth Doctor: Tom Baker; Season 17; Story 106)

I mentioned in my previous blog that City of Death was the best story from “the otherwise atrocious season 17,” so why am I now defending the story that immediately followed City of Death? It’s because some Doctor Who stories are so preposterous and ridiculous that they’re absolutely endearing and The Creature from the Pit is a perfect example of this category. This story is hilarious on a multitude of levels, both deliberate and inadvertent, and as a result it is one of my favorites. "The Creature" in question is a massive blobby being called Erato who pursues the Doctor and company around "The Pit" with what appears to be a giant green phallus. Then we have the wolfweeds, which look like a cross between tumbleweeds and testicles and function like a pack of rabid tribbles, glomming onto enemies and incapacitating them with their…um…glomminess. Myra Frances gives a deliciously over-the-top performance as the domineering Lady Adrasta while Tom Baker is at his zaniest. It’s also hard not to notice the hand of Douglas Adams at work as script editor in this story and I find The Creature from the Pit funnier than either The Pirate Planet or City of Death, stories which Adams wrote (or co-wrote) himself. Underneath all the delicious campiness, The Creature from the Pit contains an engaging plot with enough twists and turns to keep you guessing about what will happen next. All in all, a highly recommended story for when what you really want is a laugh.



8) Terminus (Fifth Doctor: Peter Davison; Season 20; Story 127)

No, you’re not hallucinating; I’m about to stand up for a Peter Davison story even his fans don’t seem to enjoy. Terminus appears in the middle of a trio of stories often referred to as The Black Guardian Trilogy, but it does little to move that story arc along, instead focusing on the Terminus ship itself and the eventual departure of Nyssa. Because she’s my favorite Fifth Doctor companion and she gets a very proper send off I’m perhaps a bit more lenient with this story than I might be otherwise. Looking at it objectively, however, I still think Terminus is an atmospheric and well-plotted story. It’s true The Garm is reminsicent of Barf from Spaceballs, but I’ve seen worse creatures in Doctor Who. The guards on Terminus wear what looks like an ancient prototype for the Power Suit from Metroid and the space pirates obviously came straight from the planet Thunderdome, but it was the 80s. And while The Black Guardian/Turlough plotline takes a backseat, it still provides an ominous backdrop to the already grim events taking place center stage. A bleak story for the Fifth Doctor is a good thing in my opinion as it sufficiently counters Peter Davison’s uninspiring take on the character and Terminus is nothing if not bleak.



9) Death to the Daleks (Third Doctor: Jon Pertwee; Season 11; Story 072)

Death to the Daleks is without a doubt my favorite from this list. Surprisingly it’s considered the worst of the Third Doctor’s three Dalek stories according to the Outpost Gallifrey 2003 Reader Poll. In my opinion, this is one of the best stories of Jon Pertwee’s final season, second only to The Time Warrior. Sarah Jane Smith (Elizabeth Sladen), my all-time favorite companion, is relatively new to the show at this point, but you wouldn’t know it from her rapport with the Doctor. Although she is sidelined for a great deal of the story, she has some great moments in the first episode and later on when she meets with the Exxilons. The Exxilons are a strange, diminutive race, but quite charming in their own way. Like the the Sensorites, the Exxilons are more complex than your average alien race and are extremely well used in this story, particularly Bellal, who serves as the Doctor’s pseudo-companion for much of the story. You’ve also got human soldiers, mutants and…oh, yeah…Daleks! They’re somewhat overshadowed by the Exxilons and their sentient city, but it’s nice to see the Daleks trapped in the same boat with their archenemy—the Doctor. Fine direction and solid performances make Death to the Daleks well worth a second look.



10) The Mysterious Planet (Sixth Doctor: Colin Baker; Season 23; Story 144)

Colin Baker was royally shafted on Doctor Who. He was forced to wear a patchwork quilt as a coat, stuck with a companion whose only redeeming feature was her cleavage, given the worst introductory story of any Doctor (The Twin Dilemma may be the worst Doctor Who story ever) and then cursed with a year and half hiatus between his only two seasons as the Doctor. His second and final season was a fourteen episode affair called The Trial of a Time Lord which consisted of four interlocking stories. The first of these stories was The Mysterious Planet and I personally think it is the best story of the entire season. It's clear that the Sixth Doctor and Peri have gotten closer in the time they've spent together. Peri has matured and the Doctor has mellowed somewhat in regards to her so there is little of the petty bickering that went on in the previous season. Sabalom Glitz, the mercenary and profiteer, makes his debut in this story and his repartee with his sidekick Dibber is an excellent example of Robert Holmes witty dialogue. Sadly, this was Robert Holmes final complete story for Doctor Who as he died not long afterwards. While it's hardly top shelf material, even Holmes worst stories make for better than average Doctor Who. If the remainder of The Trial of a Time Lord was as good as The Mysterious Planet, I'd have no qualms about recommending the entire season. Unfortunately, it goes downhill from here.



So, there you have it. Ten Doctor Who stories spanning a quarter of a century that aren't nearly as bad as everyone says they are. Unfortunately only three are currently available on DVD (The Web Planet, The Power of Kroll and The Mysterious Planet) and two of them really only work as part of grander, season-spanning storylines. Still, if you can track any of them down they're worth seeing. They might not be The Talons of Weng-Chiang, but each one has something to offer the receptive viewer.