Sinister Dexter - should the gunsharks be permanently retired? No - they've many more stories to tell! Yes - to the electric chair with them!

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29th June 04

Cover by Henry Flint

Toby Longworth as Judge Dredd
Clare Buckfield as Judge Amy Steel
Regina Reagan as Enigma Smith
Peter Sowerbutts as Quentin Quail
Nicholas Briggs as Jarvis
Teresa Gallagher as Chief Judge Hershey
Kerry Skinner as Sabrina Mills

Quotable quote: ‘I don’t care how much she paid you, that’s still illegal!’

Brit Cit's top film director, Quentin Quail, is coming to Mega City One. But, he soon finds that his life is in peril, as he appears to be the target of an assassin. Quail is an arrogant, insufferable ass. Even a mother couldn’t love him... so guess who Hershey assigns as his personal bodyguard?

There are some great scenes as Dredd gets repeatedly rubbed up the wrong way by the director, which show Longworth and Sowerbutts having a complete ball with the brilliant David Bishop script. It’s also nice to see the return of Judge Amy Steel, who gets to do most of the investigation work, as she gets closer and closer to the identity of the assassin.
This one will leave you wanting more.

Cover by Henry Flint

Toby Longworth as Judge Dredd
Nicola Bryant as Judge Mordin
Andrew Fettes as Honest Bob
Jack Galagher as Riley
Alfred Hoffman as Jude
Adam Blaug as Malcom
Laurence Bouvard as Stacey Dolan

Quotable quote: ‘I’m laughing inside.’

Fresh from his triumph on Down to Earth, Jonathan Clements tries his hand with Dredd. Can he pull the same trick here as he did with Johnny? Drokkin’ right he can! This is tremendous fun.
Dredd is sent to Titan on an undercover mission. Titan, you see, is now run by a private security company, and things seem to be going wrong, with a series of unexplained deaths to investigate.
Clements again juggles action, drama, and comedy perfectly, as Dredd interacts with the colourful cast of inmates.

Oh, and you get the delectable Nicola Bryant as well...

Cover by Henry Flint

Toby Longworth as Judge Dredd
Clare Buckfield as Judge Amy Steel
Trevor Littledale as Detective Judge Armitage
George Telfer as Payne
Jeremy James as Blake
Hannah Smith as Eve Karter
Steven Wickman as Harry Karter

Quotable quote: ‘Don’t come the post-feminist facista with me sunshine.’

Cast your mind back up the page to The Big Shot. Remember how I told you that it would leave you wanting more? Well, here it is.

This follows on from events in that drama, as Dredd and Steel pay a visit to Brit Cit to follow the trail of the assassin. Which is a pretty cool idea, but is not the big thing about this one.
No, it is the fact that in features none other than Detective Judge Armitage . He doesn’t sound like I imagined him, he’s kind of a cross between James Mason, and Harry Enfield’s Mr. Cumley-Warner. I have always thought he sounded, I don’t know, older than he does here.
Not to detract from Littledale and the splendid job he does here. I would certainly like to here more with this character.

As for the plot, Bishop has pulled off another corker here, as we delve into the life of Amy Steel, and give her a plot arc that any other character would die for (That’s not to say that she does..!)

Cover by Henry Flint

Toby Longworth as Judge Dredd
Nicholas Briggs as Tark Pastry
Mark Donovan as Frisco Lambada
Jeremy James as Brucie Squires
Hannah Smith as Marjory Household

Quotable quote: ‘I’m not interested in your peccadilloes, creep’

Written by Jonathan Morris, this one really pushes the format in another direction. It is based around a television show, a fly on the wall documentary show, as the incredibly irritating host, Tark Pastry, a presenter who makes Alan Partridge look like Jeremy Paxman, gets to follow the lawman around for a few days.

This is very funny. The show itself is as horrendous as you have ever imagined Mega City TV to be. It has some wonderful touches, like the show having a cheesy version of the Big Finish Dredd theme as its music, or some hilarious advertisements, my favourite being a pastiche of the ‘I don’t think I could do that’ police ads we are subjected to. And in the middle of all this, Morris manages to squeeze in a plot too!

Frothy and throwaway, this illustrates beautifully the scale and range of storytelling that is possible in the world of Dredd.