Jacob Licklider CR: Temptation of the Force
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Jacob Licklider CR: Temptation of the Force
@newt5996.bsky.social
160 followers 150 following 2.5K posts
Trumpet player, Doctor Who fan, actual scientist I guess, and Cyclops. Has a comics podcast. He/him.

https://linktr.ee/newt5996
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Dare You by: Lisa McMullin: Last one set on the Powell Estate because it’s so obvious these first three were meant to be a themed box set. The setting and dealing with the relationships between Rose and Jackie post Father’s Day there is a tendency for this story to feel a little similar to Snare.
Cover of Doctor Who: Dare You featuring the Earth, a grandfather clock, the Doctor, Rose, and the Hellion (a green goblin/fae) all in a red background.
December 9, 2025 at 7:51 PM
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Christmas: It’s a Wonderful War and Other Stories: The second holiday anthology while not quite reaching as many highs as Halloween just lets four very unique stories to thrive. Setting it around Christmas may be slightly more limiting than Halloween (horror is a genre while Christmas is more a
Cover of Doctor Who: Christmas: It’s a Wonderful War and Other Stories centering a Dalek decked out in red and green on a battlefield.
December 9, 2025 at 5:06 PM
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This week's #StarTrek The Next Generation is a script that has some interesting ideas but they're all underdeveloped and the conclusion has Riker basically do a murder. This is The Vengeance Factor:

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Screenshot of Star Trek: The Next Generation "The Vengeance Factor" featuring the servant Yuta
December 6, 2025 at 9:29 PM
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My #LastFourWatched has been trying to finish this list of “coming of age films” recommended by coworkers who only seem to know what coming of age means half the time.
Letterboxd recent activity showing posters for My Girl (1991), Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Green Mile (1999), and How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) scored 3.0, 4.5, 4.5, and 2.5 stars respectively.
December 5, 2025 at 3:25 PM
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Christmas: Unholy Night by: Noga Flaishon: Big Finish’s Christmas anthology opens with a parody of Hallmark Christmas movies and it’s a shallow parody. Flaishon doesn’t have really anything to say about the genre, even having one character pay lip service to the true meaning of Christmas but that
Cover of Doctor Who: Christmas: It’s a Wonderful War and Other Stories centering a Dalek decked out in red and green on a battlefield.
December 2, 2025 at 5:03 PM
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Other Lives by: Gary Hopkins: Not perfect but I really do love this one. It’s a pure historical through and through basically taking the premise of Black Orchid (a story I hate) and ramping it up to 11 with doubles for the Doctor, Charley, and C’rizz, plus the Duke of Wellington, C’rizz being sold
Cover of Doctor Who: Other Lives featuring Charley in finery, the Doctor in beard and top hat, and C’rizz as a freak all in front of the very blue Crystal Palace.
December 2, 2025 at 3:24 PM
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Singularity by: James Swallow: There’s a reason this one isn’t talked about much and that’s because it’s one of those stories that suffers from just being fine and a little bit too long. Swallow is playing around with some interesting ideas, the singularity as a concept is great though not really
Cover of Doctor Who: Singularity featuring Turlough, the TARDIS with beam, the Cathedral of Vasily the Blessed, and the Doctor.
December 1, 2025 at 5:16 PM
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One day #StarTrek The Next Generation won't be sexist towards Troi and its other female characters. This is The Price:

jacoblickliderreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Screenshot from Star Trek: The Next Generation "The Price" of Crusher and Troi in 1980s workout clothes, working out.
November 29, 2025 at 6:02 PM
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The Suns of Caresh despite writing the Doctor and Jo as a bit generic has a lot of really interesting ideas for a #DoctorWho novel:

jacoblickliderreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Cover of Doctor Who: The Suns of Caresh featuring images of the Doctor, a woman, and Jo Grant (all three bald and without ears) in front of an orange landscape.
November 24, 2025 at 11:39 PM
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Scaredy Cat by: Will Shindler: 73 minutes somehow feels padded for whatever this story is and yet there isn’t actually anything here. The most interesting idea is the genetic memory of a planet, but also the villain here is a stereotype and several ableist tropes rolled into one. Everyone sounds
Cover of Doctor Who: Scaredy Cat featuring the Doctor, two planets, and large silhouettes on one planet; everything bathed in red.
November 24, 2025 at 10:10 PM
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Causeway: One of the strongest recent Big Finish box sets. Both stories focus in on what makes Lady Audacity Montague tick as a character and pushes her specifically to a limit without making this feel like it should be an ending for the character. That doesn’t mean the other regulars are shafted
Cover of Doctor Who: Causeway featuring the Doctor, Audacity, a Silurian dressed as the Doctor, and Charley in a black space suit surrounded by Copenhagen , a clock face, and the Earth.
November 24, 2025 at 8:41 PM
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Lost Amongst the Stars by: Rochana Patel: The latest Eighth Doctor set opens with a horror story that feels empty, and I mean that in a good way. This one nearly sees Audacity die and be pushed to her absolute limit and while the ending has her survive and a monologue about how she and Charley are
Cover of Doctor Who: Causeway featuring the Doctor, Audacity, a Silurian dressed as the Doctor, and Charley in a black space suit surrounded by London, a clock face, and the Earth.
November 24, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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Lionesses in Winter by: Lisa McMullin: This one for me is the strongest Thirteenth Doctor audio so far. A lot of that is because Lisa McMullin really goes for a story about dysfunctional relationships, the inability to communicate, and how the Thirteenth Doctor really hates endings. She parallels
Cover of Doctor Who: Lionesses in Winter featuring Yaz, a ghostly Prince Philip, and the Doctor in front of a blue background.
November 23, 2025 at 5:58 PM
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Bernice Summerfield: The Dalek Eternity 3 by: Sophia McDougall and Tim Foley: This one is actually solid all the way through. Tim Foley’s second episode comes across as just a bit silly for me, it’s about the nephew of Mavic Chen in a parody of Doctor Who fans. It’s not a bad parody but it is just
Cover of Bernice Summerfield: The Dalek Eternity 3 featuring Benny, a red and blue Dalek in front of a planet with red rings
November 23, 2025 at 4:11 PM
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The Enemy is an episode that sets up a new status quo for #StarTrek in so many ways and yet isn’t talked about as one of the best of The Next Generation:

jacoblickliderreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Screenshot from Star Trek: The Next Generation “The Enemy” of Geordi La Forge and the Romulan Bochra, both injured in a dark, rocky terrain.
November 23, 2025 at 3:33 PM
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The most recent taste in my mouth is a very specific type of bad anti-racism film, we really should just forget the Titans. #LastFourWatched
Recent activity Letterboxd screenshot featuring posters of Remember the Titans (2000), Demi Adejuyigbe is Going to Do One (1) Backflip (2005), Dark Star (1974), and Good Will Hunting (1997) scoring each 2.5, 4.0, 3.5, and 5.0 stars respectively
November 21, 2025 at 4:12 PM
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Halloween: Sea Smoke and Other Stories: Not a bad story in the lot. Highlighting different writers and directors is a particular strength of the set. Each episode plays on a different type of horror story which is particularly nice and avoids the issues of 1 hour Doctor Who stories because of how
Cover of Doctor Who: Halloween: Sea Smoke and Other Stories featuring the TARDIS battered sitting on the beach in a fog.
November 18, 2025 at 8:56 PM
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Once again I'm a day late on this but this week's #StarTrek is Booby Trap, an episode with a perfectly well done A-plot and a B-plot that is basically 1980s romance tropes which haven't aged great:

jacoblickliderreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/boob...
Screenshot from Star Trek: The Next Generation "Booby Trap" of Geordi La Forge and Dr. Leah Brahms (giving Geordi a shoulder massage) on the holodeck.
November 16, 2025 at 4:14 PM
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Robert Shearman’s other #DoctorWho audio novelization is shorter but no less interesting. This is Jubilee:

jacoblickliderreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/jubi...
Book cover of Doctor Who: Jubilee featuring a crudely drawn Dalek exploding into bunting on a cream white background.
November 16, 2025 at 1:45 PM
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As I did with the adult side of Phase III of #StarWars The High Republic I have thoughts on the YA side with Defy the Storm:

jacoblickliderreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/star...
Cover of Star Wars: The High Republic: Defy the Storm, a group shot of the novel's protagonists surrounded by the heavily armored Nihil.
November 16, 2025 at 12:40 AM
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This week's #StarTrek The Next Generation is an examination of grief through the eyes of the crew and a child playing out like a drama until there's an alien. This is The Bonding:

jacoblickliderreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Screenshot of Star Trek: The Next Generation "The Bonding" of Jeremy and Worf participating in the Klingon bonding ceremony, lighting candles.
November 8, 2025 at 8:54 PM
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My hot take in my #LastFourWatched is that Hocus Pocus isn’t all that great.
Letterboxd Recent Activity screenshot featuring posters from Clerks (1994), Catch Me If You Can (2002), The Breakfast Club (1985), and Hocus Pocus (1993) rated 3.5, 4.5, 4.0, and 2.5 stars respectively.
November 7, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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Rob Shearman has novelized two #DoctorWho audio dramas and I have some thoughts on The Chimes of Midnight:

jacoblickliderreviews.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-...
Book cover of Doctor Who: The Chimes of Midnight featuring a red clock on a black background.
November 6, 2025 at 2:21 PM
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Halloween: Sea Smoke by: Jonathan Sims: Oh look, Jonathan Sims wrote a Jonathan Sims script, just toned down quite a bit to fit the general audience of Big Finish. There is part of me that wishes we would have let Sims go full works and the sound design and music from Big Finish mainstay Howard
Cover of Doctor Who: Halloween: Sea Smoke and Other Stories featuring the TARDIS battered sitting on the beach in a fog.
November 4, 2025 at 5:03 PM
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Sherlock Holmes Untold: The Strange Disappearance of James Phillimore by: Jonathan Barnes: The best episode yet, a transition episode that brings together this idea of the conspiracy between every case. This one also examines the idea of the innocents stuck in the middle in the case of Mrs.
Cover of Sherlock Holmes Untold: The Strange Disappearance of James Phillimore
November 4, 2025 at 3:51 PM