"Actor: Tom Herman"

• Futurama: Season 1 | DVD | (28/01/2002) from £8.26   |  Saving you £31.73 (384.14%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Set in the year 3000, Futurama is the acme of sci-fi animated sitcom from Simpsons creator Matt Groening. While not as universally popular as The Simpsons, Futurama is equally hip and hilarious, thanks to its zippy lateral-thinking contemporary pop cultural references, celebrity appearances (Pamela Anderson and Leonard Nimoy are among a number of guest stars to appear as disembodied heads in jars) and Bender, a distinctly Homer Simpson-esque robot. Part of Futurama's charm is that with decades of sci-fi junk behind us we've effectively been living with the distant future for years and can now have fun with it. Hence, the series stylishly jumbles motifs ranging from Lost in Space-style kitsch to the grim dystopia of Blade Runner. It also bridges the gap between the impossible dreams of your average science fiction fan and the slobbish reality of their comic reading, TV-gawping existence. Groening himself distinguishes his two series thus: "The Simpsons is fictional. Futurama is real." The opening series (premiered in 1999) sees nerdy pizza delivery boy Fry transferred to the 31st century in a cryogenic mishap. There, he meets the beautiful, one-eyed Leela (voiced by Married with Children's Katey Sagal) and the incorrigible alcoholic robot Bender. The three of them join Fry's great (x30) nephew Professor Farmsworth and work in his intergalactic delivery service. Hyper-real yet strangely recognisable situations ensue--Fry discovers he is a billionaire thanks to 1,000 years accrued interest, Leela must fend off the attentions of Captain Kirk-like Lothario Zapp Brannigan, and Fry accidentally drinks the ruler of a strange planet of liquid beings. --David StubbsOn the DVD: As with the earlier Fox release of The Simpsons, Season 1 this otherwise excellent three-disc set is let down by clunky menu navigation. There are way too many copyright warnings, no "Play All" facility, and you have to click back and forth to begin each new episode or find the additional features. By way of compensation, the menus look great and there's a goodly selection of extras on each disc. The entertaining commentaries are by Matt Groening and various members of his creative team, including producer David X Cohen and John DiMaggio (the voice of Bender) and Billy West (Fry). There are a handful of deleted scenes for certain episodes, plus the script and storyboard for the very first episode and an interactive stills gallery. The 4:3 picture is pin-sharp as is the Dolby 2.0Surround.--Mark Walker

• Futurama: Season 4 | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £6.93   |  Saving you £33.06 (477.06%)   |  RRP £39.99

  No more good news everybody--this fourth series of Futurama is the show's last. By turns frenetic and far-sighted, Matt Groening's futuristic comedy provided belly-laughs for self-confessed SF nerds, but somehow failed to connect with a broader audience, even though it was often funnier and sharper than stablemate The Simpsons. So now bid farewell to the Planet Express team--Fry, Leela, Zoidberg, Bender, Amy, Hermes, Prof Farnsworth--as well as to kindly Kif, cloned Cubert, megalomaniac Mom, mutants in the sewer, the cast of robo-sitcom All My Circuits, swashbuckling space lothario and William Shatner wannabe Zapp Brannigan, Elzar the four-armed chef, and all the other characters that made Futurama such a unique experience. This fourth and final year has all the elements that fans enjoyed so much--but also those elements that partially explain its cancellation. Recurring characters are great if you've watched the show before, as are the in-jokes; and the many parodies of classic science fiction are fine for the initiated, but risk leaving other viewers out in the cold. The show's strengths and perceived weaknesses are exemplified in the episode "Where No Fan Has Gone Before", in which the original cast of Star Trek play themselves: hilarious for Trekkers, but not really for anyone else. Elsewhere we find Leela discovering her real parents aren't aliens at all but in fact live in the sewers; Kif getting pregnant; Fry discovering the fossilised remains of his faithful pet dog; and Bender being converted to steam power. Despite some ups and downs, it's still the funniest animated show on TV. Those responsible for cancelling it can bite my shiny metal … On the DVD: Futurama, Series 4 DVD box set includes a "Play All" function on each disc. Multifarious extras include cast and crew commentaries, deleted scenes, animatics, galleries and Easter eggs. --Mark Walker

• Futurama: Season 2 | DVD | (29/03/2004) from £11.99   |  Saving you £28.00 (233.53%)   |  RRP £39.99

  Matt Groening's second series of the 31st century sci-fi sitcom Futurama maintained the high scripting standards of the first as well bringing improved digital animation. Couch potato Fry now seems thoroughly reconciled to his new existence, transported 10 centuries hence to "New New York" and working for Professor Farnsworth's delivery service. He's surrounded by a cast of freaks, including the bitchily cute Amy (with whom he has a romantic brush) and Hermes, the West Indian bureaucrat. Most sympathetic is the one-eyed Leela (voiced by Katey Sagal). Like Lisa Simpson, she is brilliant but unappreciated; she finds solace in her pet Nibbler, a tiny creature with a voracious, carnivorous appetite. By contrast, Bender, the robot, is programmed with every human vice, a sort of metal Homer Simpson with a malevolent streak. In one of the best episodes, Bender is given a "feelings" chip in order to empathise with Leela after he flushes Nibbler down the toilet. Elsewhere, Fry falls in love with a Mermaid when the team discover the lost city of Atlanta, Fry and Bender end up going to war after they join the army to get a discount on gum, and John Goodman guest stars as Santa Claus, an eight-foot gun-toting robot. Brimful with blink-and-you'll-miss-them hip jokes (such as the sign for the Taco Bellevue hospital) and political and pop satire, Futurama isn't a stern warning of things to come but rather, as the programme-makers put it, "a brilliant, hilarious reflection of our own materially (ridiculously) over-developed but morally under-developed society." On the DVD: Futurama's four-disc package presents the show in 4:3 with a Dolby Digital soundtrack. Among the many extras here are audio commentaries, storyboards, trailers, mock ads for "Soylent Chow" and "Human Rinds" and deleted scenes, including one from "Bender Gets Made" in which he seeks to evade the Robot Mafia by changing his identity. --David Stubbs

• Lexx - The Movies - Series 1 Vol.1 | DVD | (23/04/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A "Light Universe" and a "Dark Zone" keep good and bad apart for the characters of Lexx, even though it's often hard to tell the difference between the two in this offbeat and unique sci-fi show that delights in its own nastiness. The show's Canadian creators, "Supreme Beans" Paul Donovan, Lex Gigeroff, and Jeffrey Hirschfield--partnered with German money and studio facilities--intended every episode to be, in their words, "a nasty adventure". With flashes of nudity and surgical gore, and a collection of extreme hairstyles and accents, the overall look is often akin to a sci-fi Eurotrash. Aboard the stolen 10-kilometre-long spaceship Lexx (designed to look like a dragonfly) are the "Dirty Three-and-a-Half": insufferable coward Stanley H Tweedle (Brian Downey), the Edward Scissorhands clone and 2000 years-dead Kai (Michael McManus), decapitated and lovestruck robot head 790 (voiced by writer Hirschfield), and the skimpily wardrobed Zev (19-year-old Eva Habermann). It's with the last of these characters that the show generated its main audience and proved itself totally indifferent to regular boundaries of TV formatting. A disregard both for genre conventions and good taste makes the show a constant series of surprises. --Paul Tonks On the DVD: The jam-packed pilot "I Worship His Shadow" is full of startlingly graphic imagery, skimpily clad women, and literally wall-to-wall computer graphics. TV sci-fi has never been introduced so explosively. "Super Nova" has the crew of the Lexx hunting for Kai's homeworld, and drawn to a planet by a holographic message from Poetman (Tim Curry). Essentially, the story has little to do with the overall arc, but is an experiment in format and testing boundaries (the most obvious example being Zev's naked shower scene). There's also a nutty song and dance moment for Kai and Zev, a cameo of the director floating in space, and Curry chewing scenery with gusto. The first movie's disc features a Sci-fi Channel trailer of interviews for the series, a behind-the-scenes documentary introducing the show's creators and their irreverent sense of humour, plus DVD-ROM Screen Saver and Weblinks. The second movie's disc features a gallery of 12 stills, cast biographies, and another documentary which this time looks at the enormous CGI work put into the first season. This is where the digital transfer really pays off, and the FX-heavy show looks gorgeous in crisp definition as opposed to the general murkiness of TV broadcast or the VHS releases. --Paul Tonks

• Futurama Seasons 1-4 Complete Box Set | DVD | (30/10/2006) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £79.99

  Every episode from The Simpsons creator Matt Groening's hit animated comedy! Season 1: 1. Space Pilot 3000 2. The Series Has Landed 3. I Roomate 4. Love's Labour's Lost In Space 5. Fear Of A Bot Planet 6. A Fishful Of Dollars 7. My Three Suns 8. A Big Piece Of Garbage 9. Hell Is Other Robots 10. A Flight To Remember 11. Mars University 12. When Aliens Attack 13. Fry And The Slurm Factory Season 2: 1. I Second That Emotion 2. Brannigan Begin Again 3. A Hea

• Lexx - The Movies - Series 1 Vol.2 | DVD | (18/06/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A "Light Universe" and a "Dark Zone" keep good and bad apart for the characters of Lexx, even though it's often hard to tell the difference between the two in this offbeat and unique sci-fi show that delights in its own nastiness. The show's Canadian creators, "Supreme Beans" Paul Donovan, Lex Gigeroff, and Jeffrey Hirschfield--partnered with German money and studio facilities--intended every episode to be, in their words, "a nasty adventure". With flashes of nudity and surgical gore, and a collection of extreme hairstyles and accents, the overall look is often akin to a sci-fi Eurotrash. Aboard the stolen 10-kilometre-long spaceship Lexx (designed to look like a dragonfly) are the "Dirty Three-and-a-Half": insufferable coward Stanley H Tweedle (Brian Downey), the Edward Scissorhands clone and 2000 years-dead Kai (Michael McManus), decapitated and lovestruck robot head 790 (voiced by writer Hirschfield), and the skimpily wardrobed Zev (19-year-old Eva Habermann). It's with the last of these characters that the show generated its main audience and proved itself totally indifferent to regular boundaries of TV formatting. A disregard both for genre conventions and good taste makes the show a constant series of surprises. --Paul Tonks On the DVD: The first films's disc features a behind-the-scenes documentary with the show's creators talking generally about the intent of the films, a text interview with Jeffrey Hirschfield on his dual role as writer and voicing robot head 790, plus a hilarious "Purity Test" quiz to see how much of a fan you are. The second film's disc features a gallery of 12 stills, a Sci-fi Channel featurette and another documentary containing a very frank interview with director Robert Sigl and hilarious outtakes from Malcolm McDowell. --Paul Tonks

• Randy Rides Alone | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £4.98   |  Saving you £1.01 (20.28%)   |  RRP £5.99

  The territory has been invaded by a gang of renegades threatening the town and its people. Only one person has the strength to stand and fight on behalf of others...

• Django Kill! | DVD | (01/09/2008) from £7.99   |  Saving you £7.00 (87.61%)   |  RRP £14.99

  In the ultra-violent Spaghetti Western Django Kill! Tomas Milian stars as The Stranger a half-breed bandit left for dead by his double-crossing gang members who have made off with the gold they have stolen from a US army detachment. Rising from the grave he sets about seeking revenge aided by a pair of mystic Native Americans and armed only with a pistol and a supply of golden bullets. The Stranger's quest leads him to a strange town known only as The Unhappy Place. There he fin

• Lexx - Season 2 - Vol. 1 | DVD | (27/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  Seductive sci-fi from the Lexx universe. The crew of the Manhattan-sized insect return with a new twist: the voluptuous Xenia Seeberg takes over from Eva Habermann for adventures with their tongue planted firmly in someone else's cheek! 2.04 LUVLINER A desperate Stan and a frisky Xev come across a floating bordello and decide to give it a try. Needless to say it doesn't live up to the brochure and Xev Stan and 790 are all in danger - with 790 about to give 'head' a new meaning! 2.05 LAFFTRAK The name of the game is survival and ratings are the key. Xev and Stan accidentally involve themselves in a planet of television and have to keep the audience amused for fear of getting cancelled. Permanently. 2.01 MANTRID Kai is possessed with the essence of His Divine Shadow and takes the LEXX to see Mantrid the mad former Bio-Vizier to the insect lord. With Kai feeling a shadow of his former self Zev Stan and 790 have to contend with Mantrid's new plan for universal domination. 2.02 TERMINAL Kai mortally wounds Stan and the crew have to take him to the MedSat Medical Facility in order to save his life. Dishy Doctor Kazzan saves Stan's life and sweeps Zev off her feet but can Kazzan be trusted? Or is his attraction to Zev a mere ruse and he finds the LEXX a far more appealing being?

• Startup.com | DVD | (25/02/2002) from £7.99   |  Saving you £12.00 (150.19%)   |  RRP £19.99

  This critically acclaimed new documentary feature traces rise and fall of US internet company govWorks.com.

• Lexx - The Complete Season 3 | DVD | (20/10/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £29.99

  It's been 4 000 since the crew of living spaceship the Lexx fled the destruction of a universe. Now undead asassin Kai cluster-lizard sex bomb Xev anti-hero Stanley Tweedle and robot head 790 are involved in a war - and their involvement has far reaching consequences. This complete four disc box set containd all 13 episodes of the strangest and most imaginative Sci-Fi show ever. A must have for ANY fan! Episode titles: Fire And Water May Gametown Boomtown Gondola K-Town Tunnels The Key Garden Battle Girltown The Beach Heaven And Hell.

• Lexx - Season 2 - Vol. 3 | DVD | (15/04/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  LEXX 2.3 takes the crew of the LEXX to hitherto unseen areas of rudeness and adventure and continues the adventures where no other crew would even dare to go before! 2.11 NOOK: Xev Stan and Kai visit Nook a quiet settlement inhabited by monks -all of which haven 't seen a woman before.As Xev sends temperatures soaring can Nook survive her visit? 2.12 NORB: Mantrid 's representative arrives on the LEXX intent on showing them up close what the madman 's game is.Soon the LEXX is being taken apart from the inside out ... 2.13 TWILIGHT: On a planet with properties to heal the dead Xev brings Stan to recover from an accident.But the dead are animated and can smell their flesh -and they 're hungry ... 2.14 PATCHES IN THE SKY: Stan takes a trip into a drug-fuelled nightmare and encounters his nemesis Gigarotta.His only hope of escape has flipped because of all the patches in the sky ... 2.15 WOZ: Xev 's body is about to shut down and Stan and Kai have to take her on a magical journey to see the wonderful Wuzzard of Woz and show her there 's no place like home!

• Lexx - Season 2 - Vol. 2 | DVD | (18/02/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  A "Light Universe" and a "Dark Zone" keep good and bad apart for the characters of Lexx, even though it's often hard to tell the difference between the two in this offbeat and unique sci-fi show that delights in its own nastiness. The episodes in this second collection from the second series are: "Stan's Trial", "Love Grows", "White Trash", "791" and "Wake the Dead". In "Stan's Trial", he's still desperate for some "bingo bongo yum yum time", which blinds him to a sting operation laid at the Celes Pleasure Liner. His alleged traitorous past finally catches up, and the events of "Giga Shadow" are made clear. A new, shorter title sequence opens the gender questioning "Love Grows". The Lexx accidentally eats a rubbish dumper and the toxic cargo has an adverse effect on everyone--to say the least. Their sex organs are swapped! A cliffhanger surprise leads directly into "White Trash", where we find the yokel clan family have been stowed away since before the destruction of The Cluster. On a crashed ship a cyborg pilot has been decapitated, which gives 790 an idea. While Kai and Xev find a hold full of prisoners with their hearts removed, 791 is born--with more than just a little personality re-programming. This homage to Alien ends with Xev's immortal line: "You may still only be a head 790. But you're the best head I ever had." Then we're back into spoof territory as "Wake the Dead" enjoys turning The Lexx into the stomping ground for a crazed teen killer. Still asleep from a joyride begun 287 years before, the group of "deserving" kids are dispatched with glee in a great performance by Michael McManus. There's even a shower murder with a musical nod to Psycho from composer Marty Simon. And we finally see a Lexx toilet--and its tongue! On the DVD: the most exciting extra for fans is a commentary from Brian Downey (Stan) and writer Lex Giggeroff on the episode "Wake the Dead". They have great fun discussing Xenia Seeberg's wigs and confirm that this was indeed pitched as a "teen slasher flick". Also featured is a gallery of nine stills, some hilarious text "Faxx" about all five episodes, biographies of Stan and Lyekka, and a "Story So Far" re-cap. The 10-minute "Making of Lexx the Series Part 2" documentary is the same as the VHS release. --Paul Tonks

• Lexx - Season 2 - Vol. 4 | DVD | (10/06/2002) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £24.99

  In the fourth collection of episodes from the second series of Lexx the crew finally acknowledge that they're worried about Mantrid taking over the universe, and decide to test "The Uncertainty Principle" to be found at the centre of the universe. The Lexx is ensnared by "The Web", and everyone begins behaving peculiarly. Worst of all--Stanley can't find his hat. This extremely clever instalment should be watched back-to-back with the following "The Net", where all is revealed. It's the same show all over again, but with extended shots and external footage of what is happening to the Lexx. Some TV shows cobble together a "clips episode" in order to save budget. Lexx proves itself different yet again with this ingenious idea. The difference continues into "Brigadoom", which is a musical: a theatre appears from nowhere to put on a show telling the tale of the Brunnen-G. Kai and Xev take to the boards, and singalong quite oblivious to the fact TV SF usually can't pull this sort of thing off. They do. Desperate to call Mantrid's bluff, the Lexx crew are even prepared momentarily to trust his old tutor the Bio Vizier "Brizon". They know he has some treacherous agenda, but never guess what until it's almost too late. The storyline links straight into "End of the Universe", and the season finale sees every player of Mantrid's game attempting checkmate. 790 builds a counter army of drone arms, but it's Lyekker's efforts that once again save the day. The show ends with the very definition of a Big Bang, and leaves everything under one enormous question mark. On the DVD: Lexx Series 2 Vol. 4 has the most extras yet. There's one last commentary from Brian Downey (Stan) and writer Lex Giggeroff on the episode "End of the Universe". The humour remains, but it's fun to hear their awe for the CG interpretation of their original idea: putting 790's head on a Drone Arm. We also learn about the writer's arguments about the physics. Also featured is a gallery of stills, some hilarious text "FAXX" about all five episodes, four Sci-Fi Channel character spots, a fascinating interview with composer Marty Simon, biographies of 790, The Lexx, Brizon and Mantrid, and a story so far recap. Best of all, is a Sing-A-Long-a-Brunnen-G karaoke lyrics option for "Brigadoom", surely one of the greatest ideas ever had for a DVD. --Paul Tonks

• John Wayne - 3 On 1 - Star Packer / Arizona Skies / Lawless Frontier | DVD | (21/01/2002) from £6.23   |  Saving you £-0.24 (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  John Wayne - The Restored Collection' brings The Duke's classic early westerns to DVD as they have never been seen before. Using the original negatives held in the vaults of Republic Studios the films have been remastered to a standard of the highest possible quality. A man who leads a crowd of trouble makers is made sheriff in 'The Star Packer'. In 'Neath The Arizona Skies' a cowboy protects an indian princess from outlaws. 'In Lawless Frontier' a man must prove his innocence.

• The Lawless Frontier | DVD | (23/02/2004) from £15.98   |  Saving you £-2.99 (-23.00%)   |  RRP £12.99

  John Wayne plays a wrongly accused cowboy who must prove his innocence by taking on the real criminals...

• Randy Rides Alone | DVD | (10/12/2001) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £12.99

  The territory has been invaded by a gang of renegades threatening the town and its people. Wyne shows up takes control and single-handedly rides them out of town.

• The Lawless Frontier | DVD | (11/08/2003) from £N/A   |  Saving you £N/A (N/A%)   |  RRP £5.99

  John Wayne plays a wrongly accused cowboy who must prove his innocence by taking on the real criminals...