roundup

Gerry Anderson’s mid-’90s live-action show SPACE PRECINCT (out now, DVD) leaked out in a dozen volumes in the early noughties, but now there’s finally a complete box set. Following a former NYC cop on the planet Altor as he investigates crimes both human and alien, it plays very much like a gritty ’70s police show, but with the addition of criminals with ESP, robots and flying police cars. Action-packed and surprisingly dark at times (but silly at others), it’s reasonably good fun, but some of the rubberylooking creatures have not aged well. Anyone who, back in April, shelled out for the remastered Special Edition DVD of THREADS (17 December, Blu-ray) is likely to get the hump now the BBC’s 1984 one-off about the outbreak (and aftermath) of nuclear war is unexpectedly getting a HD release. This edition includes a new “directorapproved widescreen edition”, which can surely only undermine the gloomy ’80s nostalgia? We said: “The most harrowingly bleak drama ever broadcast on the BBC... Its relentlessness is exhausting.” Finally, HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA 3 (out now, 4K/Blu-ray/ DVD) sees Dracula (voiced by Adam Sandler) and family taking a luxury cruise; unbeknownst to him, the ship’s captain belongs to a dynasty of vampire hunters… We said: “Sounds like a soporific sitcom spin-off of the ’70s, but it buzzes with cartoon energy. There are occasional dry patches and lame moments, but the screen is impressively crammed with funny monsters.”