"Actor: Tim Russ"

• Star Trek Voyager: The Complete Collection | DVD | (28/10/2013) from £59.99   |  Saving you £-5.08 (N/A%)   |  RRP £54.91

  The much anticipated release of the first season of Star Trek: Voyager saw the franchise boldly do what it does best and provide fans with fantastically scripted, highly entertaining science-fiction. Star Trek: Voyager made sci-fi history when it became the first Star Trek series to feature a female Captain.

• The Brittas Empire - The Complete Series 2 | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  The ultimate depiction of workplace perdition has to be Whitbury Leisure Centre in The Brittas Empire, despite the later claim of The Office to the title. And while David Brent seems all too uncomfortably real, Chris Barrie's Gordon Brittas carried the gung-ho officiousness of mediocre middle-management to its surreal conclusion. The Brittas Empire could never quite make up its mind if it was a quasi-realistic sitcom or a fantasy comedy, and it's this uneasy mixture that invites you to question whether there's anything terribly funny about unplanned single parenthood, childcare problems, assault in the workplace and women who are addicted to prescription drugs (see also Waiting for God) because of their partners' behaviour. Then, just as you're pondering all this, Brittas comes out with another mouthful of managerial psychobabble that makes you realise that only this kind of tragi-comic exaggeration is robust enough to stand up to Barrie's monstrous creation. This second series treads a fine line between the merely bleak and the really rather nasty with exquisite precision. It opens with the news that Brittas has been killed abroad in an industrial accident, prompting his tranquillizer-addled wife to mourn him for less time than it takes her to remarry--except, of course, that Brittas is alive and well. Along the way, receptionist Carole attempts to murder Brittas with a JCB when she mistakenly thinks he's assaulted her baby, which she keeps in a cupboard under her desk. On the DVD: The Brittas Empire, Series 2 carries all seven episodes on two discs, together with several extras including a gallery, a profile and a Brittas Management Quiz (don't ask!). --Roger Thomas

• The Brittas Empire - The Complete Series 4 | DVD | (19/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £19.99

  A fourth series of leisure centre management mishaps with Gordon Brittas. Episodes comprise: 1. Not A Good Day... 2. The Christening 3. Biggles Tells A Lie 4. Mr Brittas Changes Trains 5. Playing With Fire 6. Shall We Dance? 7. The Chop 8. High Noon

• Down Among The Z Men | DVD | (24/06/2002) from £7.29   |  Saving you £8.70 (119.34%)   |  RRP £15.99

  Although they made their name in the medium of radio, the legendary Goons also made brief forays into the world of television and, with Down Among the Z Men, film. It captures the team at a very early stage in their career, with Michael Bentine still in the fold, and with their unique, anarchic brand of humour still in its infancy. Sadly, the style and feel of the film does little to suit their comedy style. While radio offered an opportunity for their imaginations to run riot, here the four find themselves tied to a few stock characters, most of whom would make a more animated appearances later in their career. The plot--with its tale of eccentric professors and evil spies--sees a series of musical numbers and a variety performance crow barred into the proceedings. Those who wish to add to an already existing Goons collection may want to consider this, but anyone wondering what all the fuss is about should head straight for the many radio collections available and hear the sound of true genius at work. On The DVD: Down Among the Z Men offers little to recommend, with the DVD lacking in any extras whatsoever. Being taken from an original fifties print, the black and white picture is of reasonable quality yet cannot help but look extremely dated. At best it is the sort of curio that would pass time on a Sunday afternoon but it is hard to consider this a particularly essential DVD release. –-Phil Udell

• Samantha Who? Season 1 | DVD | (03/05/2010) from £9.89   |  Saving you £4.10 (41.46%)   |  RRP £13.99

  An ingenious and funny sitcom, Samantha Who? stars Christina Applegate as a selfish and crass businesswoman who gets amnesia during a car accident. Getting acquainted with her old life, Samantha receives a second chance at being a decent and thoughtful friend and daughter, but often stumbles in her strained efforts to be a force for good. Applegate's Samantha is initially shocked at her pre-amnesia reputation for cruelty, random displays of power, meanspiritedness to co-workers, a lack of compassion for her boyfriend Todd (Barry Watson), and brutality toward a childhood friend, Dena (Melissa McCarthy). More than any of that, however, Samantha is pained by her apparent, longtime estrangement from her mother (Jean Smart) and father (Kevin Dunn), wondering how on Earth she could have done without them in her life. The first 10 or so episodes of Samantha Who? find the new-and-improved heroine trying hard to capitalize on a different personality and perspective on things. She apologizes for old slights and unintentional, new mistakes, and leaves a lot of goodwill and some confusion in her wake. But with time and flashes of remembrance of her old life, Samantha slowly becomes a hybrid of her new sweetness and vintage schemer. Both devil and angel, she becomes a more balanced survivor and pretty funny character. The show's creators and writers give the superb cast great material and lines on the theme of rampant dissatisfaction in relationships and hope for the future. The scenes between Applegate and Smart, especially, are the stuff of an instant classic. The second half of Samantha Who: The Complete First Season loses a bit of steam, generating a little less laughter, though story ideas are still fresh and original. But on the whole, this is a series to embrace. --Tom Keogh

• The Brittas Empire - The Complete Series 1 | DVD | (21/07/2003) from £12.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (53.89%)   |  RRP £19.99

  Broadcast between 1991 and 1997, The Brittas Empire is a sitcom set in Whitbury New Town Leisure Centre. It stars Chris Barrie as Gordon Brittas, the prattish, blazered manager who remains loudly oblivious to the fact that his high-handed efforts at running the place result in utter calamity. As his gin-supping, nervous wreck of a wife observes, he thinks he's the oil that lubricates the machine but in reality he's "a bag of grit". This first series introduces Brittas, whose arrival at the new Centre prompts a rash of resignations as his petty and pedantic managerial methods constantly rebound on him. Mishaps in these episodes include a malfunctioning set of automatic doors, a disastrous wedding in the pool and a lost baby. Somehow, however, Brittas' strange sense of idealism keeps him bobbing up as all others sink into despair. The Brittas Empire could either be seen as a satire on the new tier of superfluous middle-management types who flourished in Tory Britain, or a 90s update of the old stereotype of the bureaucratic buffoon. Compared to, say, Alan Partridge, Brittas seems a bit broad and one-dimensional, a sketch-show character stretched beyond its limits. The rest of the cast don't offer much in the way of resistance or support and Brittas very swiftly becomes very annoying. Despite all problems, however, The Brittas Empire was an immense success, attracting over eight-million viewers at its peak. On the DVD: The Brittas Empire include some perfunctory, text-only items, including a Chris Barrie biography and a Brittas Fitness Quiz, as well as a sketch performed at the Royal Variety Performance of 1996, in which Brittas reveals himself as an enthusiast for conformity with EEC regulations. --David Stubbs

• Sharing The Secret | DVD | (26/06/2006) from £4.91   |  Saving you £1.08 (22.00%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Dr. Nina Moss seems to have it all - a successful practise as a therapist and a close relationship with her teenage daughter Beth. But Beth's life is spiralling out of control trying to cope with the changes to her body and the pressure at school prove too much for her. Although she is intelligent and talented she soon begins to withdraw and Nina is unaware that her daughter is going through a life-threatening crisis. One day Beth collapses at school and the horrifying truth of wh

• Sharing the Secret | DVD | (10/02/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Dr. Nina Moss seems to have it all - a successful practise as a therapist and a close relationship with her teenage daughter, Beth. But Beth's life is spiralling out of control, trying to cope with the changes to her body, and the pressure at school prove too much for her. Although she is intelligent and talented, she soon begins to withdraw and Nina is unaware that her daughter is going through a life-threatening crisis. One day Beth collapses at school and the horrifying truth of what she i...

• No Way Home | DVD | (12/04/2005) from £5.79   |  Saving you £0.20 (3.45%)   |  RRP £5.99

  Released from prison after six long years Joey Larabito does not seem the type of guy to have committed a murder. Childlike his every action speaks of innocence and kindness even among the cruel realities and grime of New York. Returning to his childhood home with a mere forty dollars in his pocket Joey hopes to stay with his brother Tommy and his wife Lorraine until he can get back on his feet. Lorraine is reluctant afraid a hardened criminal is in their midst. As the weeks go by she slowly awakens to his kind hard-working nature but realises that all is not what it seems. Joey and Tommy are headed for a collision. As the ties of childhood unravel in a tale of devotion and betrayal one brother fights for the truth the other for his life.

• Big Trouble | DVD | (03/11/2003) from £5.38   |  Saving you £9.61 (64.10%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In this new comedy the lives of several Miami denizens, from ad agents to gunrunners to street thugs to law enforcement to school-children, intersect with dangerous results.

• Star Trek: Voyager - Season 4 | DVD | (01/11/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  The fourth season of Star Trek adventures with the crew of Voyager. Episodes comprise: 1. Scorpion (Part 2) 2. The Gift 3. Day Of Honour 4. Nemesis 5. Revulsion 6. The Raven 7. Scientific Method 8. Year Of Hell (Part 1) 9. Year Of Hell (Part 2) 10. Random Thoughts 11. Concerning Flight 12. Mortal Coil 13. Waking Moments 14. Message In A Bottle 15. Hunters 16. Prey 17. Retrospect 18. The Killing Game (Part 1) 19. The Killing Game (Part 2) 20. Vis A Vis 21. The Omega Directive 22. Un

• Star Trek: Voyager - Season 1 | DVD | (03/05/2004) from £59.99   |  Saving you £25.00 (41.67%)   |  RRP £84.99

  Star Trek: Voyager, the first Trek spin-off to be made without any input at all from Gene Roddenberry, made its debut in 1995 and quickly established itself both as markedly different from cosmic cousin Deep Space Nine and as the successor to The Next Generation. Despite a lack of originality in its premise (Lost in Space anyone?), Voyager was nonetheless often a bigger ratings success than any of its predecessors. In the first series the crew of the Federation vessel Voyager must somehow try to get back home after being catapulted unwittingly to the far-flung Delta Quadrant (in the opening "Caretaker"). The ghost of Katherine Hepburn lives on in Kate Mulgrew's forceful Captain Janeway, who has an equivocal relationship with the Maquis renegade who becomes her first officer, Chakotay (Robert Beltran). Tim Russ gives possibly the franchise's first fully realistic (yawn) portrayal of a Vulcan, and to enhance the alien quotient there's cuddly chef Neelix (Ethan Phillips). Garret Wang must have drawn short straw for character development, since his Harry Kim is never imbued with any of the drama of rebellious pilot chum Tom Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill), who was later to get the series' only romance with the seemingly inescapable resident half-breed B'Elanna Torres (Roxann Dawson). Right from the start, though, the fans' favourite character was the deadpan funny man role of Robert Picardo's nameless holographic Doctor. Jerry Goldsmith's graceful theme always opens the show in style. --Paul Tonks

• Henry Fonda - Grapes Of Wrath / My Darling Clementine / Ox-Bow Incident | DVD | (10/04/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Grapes Of Wrath (1940): John Ford's memorable screen version of John Steinbeck's epic novel of the Great Depression--often regarded as the director's best film--stars Henry Fonda as Tom Joad. After having served a brief prison sentence for manslaughter Joad arrives at his family's Oklahoma farm only to find it abandoned. Muley (John Qualen) a neighbor now nearly mad with grief tells Tom of the drought that has transformed the farmland of Oklahoma into a desert and of the pre

• Star Trek: Voyager - Season 6 | DVD | (07/03/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  In their sixth season trying to return to the Alpha Quadrant, the crew of Voyager continues to find signs that they may be close to home. They ran across another Federation starship in the season 5 cliffhanger, "Equinox," which is concluded in action-packed fashion. Then they benefit from a brief communications link to home thanks to the ongoing efforts of The Next Generation's Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz), occasionally assisted by Counsellor Troi (Marina Sirtis). "One Small Step" sets Voyager on the trail of NASA's first manned mission to Mars (one of the bonus features details Robert Picardo's post-Trek work with NASA). In other episodes, Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson) tests the limits of Klingon honor ("Barge of the Dead"), Tuvok (Tim Russ) stretches his emotions ("Riddles), Paris (Robert Duncan McNeill) and Kim (Garrett Wang) embark on a new holdeck program, wrestling superstar the Rock makes a gimmicky guest appearance ("Tsunakatse"), a former crew member returns ("Fury"), and the crew discovers a group of abandoned Borg children ("Collective"). The two most interesting characters continue to be the Doctor (Picardo) and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan). The former stretches out numerous times ("Tinker, Tailor, Doctor, Spy," "Virtuoso," "Life Line"), and we learn more about Seven's Borg past in "Survival Instinct" and the season closer, in which Seven discovers that during regeneration she can enter a dream world called Unimatrix Zero. There she meets a number of mutated Borg who can exist in this world in their pre-assimilation state and who also present an idea for destroying the collective from within. The Borg Queen, however, discovers the plan and ends the season in a nightmarish cliffhanger that recalls the great Next Gen episode "The Best of Both Worlds." --David Horiuchi

• Star Trek: Voyager - Season 3 | DVD | (06/09/2004) from £39.99   |  Saving you £45.00 (112.53%)   |  RRP £84.99

  After proving its long-term potential in the second series, Star Trek: Voyager served up some of the best episodes in its entire seven-year history. The second-season cliffhanger was intelligently resolved in "Basics, Pt II", and the fan-favourite "Flashback" placed Tuvok (Tim Russ) aboard the USS Excelsior from Star Trek VI, under the command of Captain Sulu (Star Trek alumnus George Takei). It was a brilliant example of inter-series plotting, just as "False Profits" was a Ferengi-based sequel to the NextGen episode "The Price". The two-part time-travel scenario of "Future's End" is a Voyager highlight, with clear echoes (including dialogue lifted verbatim!) of Star Trek's classic "The City on the Edge of Forever", featuring delightful guest performances by actress-comedienne Sarah Silverman and Ed Begley Jr. Character-wise, the series belonged to Kes (Jennifer Lien, whose tenure on the series was now near its end), Neelix (Ethan Phillips), and the Doctor (Robert Picardo), who shined (respectively) in "Warlord", "Fair Trade", and the surprisingly touching "Real Life" (the latter directed by "Potsie" himself, Happy Days veteran Anson Williams). By infecting B'Elanna (Roxanne Dawson) with a fellow officer's "Blood Fever", Voyager delved into the turbulent Vulcan ritual of Pon Farr, while the cliffhanger "Scorpion" introduced the relentless, Borg-destroying villains of Species 8472, which would pose a continuing threat in subsequent episodes. Series 3 had a few clunkers (the guilty pleasure "Macrocosm" puts Janeway in stripped-down "Ripley" mode against invading macro-viruses, and Ensign Kim is an awkward "Favourite Son" to a bevy of babes), but for every misstep there's a strong science-fiction concept, like the highly-evolved Hadrosaurs in "Distant Origin", which doubles as a compelling indictment of institutionalised repression. Overall, this is rock-solid Trek, and the DVD features are equally engaging, albeit growing more perfunctory (especially the series 3 summary) with each full-series release. Don't forget the Easter Eggs hidden on the special-features menus, however; they contain some of the set's happiest surprises. --Jeff Shannon

• Star Trek: Voyager - Season 2 | DVD | (05/07/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  Series 2 of Star Trek: Voyager represents a vital blossoming of the series' potential. As Captain Janeway, Kate Mulgrew maintained Starfleet integrity in the lawless expanse of the Delta quadrant and became the ethical conscience of her still-uneasy Maquis/Starfleet crew, whose unanimous loyalty would be dramatically proven in "The '37's" (a first-season hold-over). Janeway's moral guidance would also assert itself in "Death Wish" (a "Q" episode featuring NextGen's Jonathan Frakes) and "Tuvix", in which life-or-death decisions landed squarely on her shoulders. Series 2 brought similar development to all the primary characters, deepening their relationships and defining their personalities, especially Robert Beltran as Chakotay (in "Initiations" and "Tattoo"), now firmly established as Janeway's best friend (and nearly more than that, in "Resolutions") and command-decision confidante. Solid sci-fi concepts abound in Series 2, although "Threshold" is considered an embarrassment (as confessed by co-executive producer Brannon Braga in a self-deprecating "Easter Egg" interview clip). It was a forgivable lapse in a consistently excellent season that intensified Janeway's struggle with the villainous Kazon, exacerbated by a Starfleet traitor in cahoots with the duplicitous Cardassian Seska (played by Martha Hackett, featured in a lively guest-star profile). The psychologically intense "Meld" (featuring a riveting guest performance by Brad Dourif) was a Tuvok-story highlight, and the aptly titled "Basics, Pt 1" provided an ominous cliffhanger, including a second planetary landing (in a season full of impressive special effects) that left Voyager's fate in question. DVD extras are abundant and worthwhile, especially the season 2 retrospective and "A Day in the Life of Ethan Phillips" (who plays Neelix under a daily ordeal of latex makeup). Several Easter egg surprises--including a music video performance by Tim Russ (Tuvok)--are hidden (but easily found) among the "Special Features" menus on disc 7. All in all, this was one of Voyager's finest seasons, leaving some enticing questions to be answered in season 3. --Jeff Shannon

• Star Trek: Voyager - Season 5 | DVD | (10/01/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  Must see episodes in Voyager Season 5 include 'Drone' in which Seven of Nine raises her 'offspring' a Borg drone from the 29th century only to see him destroyed. Season 5 also includes the feature-length 'Dark Frontier' in which Seven is captured and returned to the Borg Queen; 'Someone To Watch Over Me' in which the Doctor discovers he has a major crush on a certain female crew member and 'Equinox' in which a Starfleet captain and his crew are found to have been killing aliens in

• Star Trek: Voyager - Season 7 | DVD | (06/06/2005) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £84.99

  After seven long years trying to return home, it's no surprise that the seventh season of Voyager was emotional. It begins with the resolution to season 6's "Unimatrix Zero", in which Janeway (Kate Mulgrew), Torres (Roxann Biggs-Dawson), and Tuvok (Tim Russ) must find a way off the Borg Cube and Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) faces the loss of the precious bit of humanity she has just discovered. "Human Error" focuses on Seven's further attempts to explore her human side (a romance comes from out of the blue). And if Seven isn't the cast's most fascinating character, it's the other crew member struggling to find his not-quite-human identity, the Doctor (Robert Picardo). In "Body and Soul," the Doctor gets to experience physical life in the body of--who else?--Seven. He writes a novel in "Author, Author," and in the first of a pair of excellent two-parters, "Flesh and Blood," he explores what it means to be a hologram in the midst of a deadly situation involving the Hirogen. In the second two-parter, "Workforce," the crew is kidnapped and brainwashed into becoming ordinary laborers on a planet with a worker shortage, but Janeway is forced to question whether she wouldn't prefer this version of a normal, stable life. The seventh season also saw the first Trek wedding since Dax-Worff, the return of the old Federation-Maquis conflict, the continuing efforts of Lt. Reginald Barclay (Dwight Schultz) to bring Voyager home, Kim (Garrett Wang) taking command twice (once with the help of the Emergency Command Hologram), the return of Q, and Neelix's discovery of a group of fellow Talaxians. The final episode, "Endgame," is less concerned with misty-eyed goodbyes than with a bending of conventional views of the space-time continuum that leads to an exciting showdown with the Borg queen (Alice Krige, repeating her role from Star Trek: First Contact but making her first appearance on Voyager). DVD bonus features include the usual season recap, a 12-minute featurette on the final episode, and a crew profile of the Doctor. --David Horiuchi

• Mad Max / Lethal Weapon / We Were Soldiers | DVD | (27/09/2004) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £20.99

  Mad Max: On a remote stretch of deserted highway a band of violent bikers has taken over attacking anyone unlucky enough to cross their savage path. Racing up and down the seemingly endless miles of asphalt the crazed outlaws blaze through small towns plowing into vehicles and pedestrians alike with reckless abandon. Bringing a sense of law to this lawlessness are the mobile police force led by Max and Goose who are as fast and mean as their adversaries and are willing to

• Elgar - Fantasy Of A composer On A Bycicle | DVD | (31/03/2010) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  Elgar: Fantasy Of A Composer On A Bicycle