[Mirrored, as always, from the original review over at tvgeekarmy.com]

Billions of blue blistering barnacles in a thundering typhoon, can you believe we’re over halfway through the series already? It seems like only yesterday that we were just being introduced to the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond (of course, if you just started watching the latest series yesterday then that would explain the feeling completely).

We’ve seen Amy and the Doctor face the Weeping Angels, the Daleks, fish from space (like pigs in space, but not as cool), a space whale (who wasn’t really a bad guy, just misunderstood and fed humans in a point which was rather glossed over in the episode) and flying snowflakes with eyeballs. We also come to learn about the ball of crazy that is Amy Pond, the newest incarnation of The Doctor and in the last episode – Amy’s fiancé Rory.

"Amy's Choice" is a character piece; it’s an exploration of all three current cast members with a focus on Miss Pond in particular. The episode opens “five years later” with the Doctor stumbling back into Amy and Rory’s blissful married life in a sleepy English village. Amy is now pregnant and Rory has a terrible ponytail. What’s happened?

The story takes a rapid left turn by having the trio fall asleep on a bench and wake up back on the TARDIS, convinced that everything was a dream. Until they fall asleep again and wake up back in the village of the future. It quickly transpires that an individual named ‘The Dream Lord’ is manipulating them, giving our travelling time jockey’s a simple choice. Two scenarios, one real, one a dream – choose to die in one of them – if it’s the dream you wake up, if it’s reality... Well I think everyone (except Rory) can figure that one out immediately.

In the village all of the old people turn out to be inhabited by aliens that can see by sticking an eyestalk out of pensioner mouths and spit a gas that turns people into sand. On the TARDIS everything has failed and they’re falling towards a cold star, an impossible stellar body even in the world of Doctor Who.

From here the story flips back and forth between the two ‘realities’ with increasing danger and urgency. Our three chronologically advantaged heroes know they have to choose one ‘reality’ to die in but they’re divided over which – until events choose for them.

Amy’s Choice isn’t the strongest of episodes where its plot is concerned – the resolution of the episode is somewhat predictable and the explanation of events at the end smells suspiciously of the science fiction equivalent of “magic”; but like last week the episode isn’t designed with the story at the forefront. Instead it’s an episode that is meant to give us an insight into the timey-wimey Doctor and his latest companions; it’s unsurprising for an episode named "Amy’s Choice" to provide an examination of Amy and her relationships with ‘her pancho boys’, but it does do an excellent job.

The surprise comes in the form of The Dream Lord, who is revealed to be a facet of The Doctor’s darker side; it’s not an original concept for the series (see The Valeyard – who shares many characteristics), but it is always an interesting one to experience, a being as long lived and almost perpetually steeped in violence as The Doctor would be hard pressed to not carry some baggage. The Dream Lord was quite an enjoyable creation for a one off story and was one of the strongest elements – funny, creepy and thought provoking, just about right for the episode’s tone.

Amy’s Choice was a solid episode that held a lot of tension in it, but I suspect that it won’t hold up as well on repeated viewings as there’s not a lot of depth to it once you know the important outcomes of the story. But it is a vital piece of the season and has added an extra layer of complexity to the already vibrant character of Amy and that’s something to be welcomed.

Other Observations:

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[As always this is mirrored from my original post over at tvgeekarmy.com (located here).]

In recent times vampires have become something of a joke in the media. As this is about Doctor Who I shall not go into the subject here, but suffice to say I could write thousands of derogatory words about the current state of the modern vampire and not even breach the tip of that particular iceberg.

Fortunately "The Vampires of Venice" is not about vampires, except in the vaguest of terms; instead the villains of the piece are something quite different, if rather forgettable.

Let’s get the important bit out of the way first: was The Vampires of Venice any good? Well, that’s not actually an easy question to answer, because on one level it was a fantastic piece filled with enjoyable moments and fun banter. But on other levels it was a weakly plotted story, containing sub-par enemies, uneven character development and a conclusion that I can only hope was a deliberate parody of the Rusty years (more on that later on).

Last week ended with a rather saucy scene that had the pulses of a whole generation of Doctor/Amy writers racing so fast that they probably fell over in the rush to get to their keyboards. This week’s episode? It follows on from that scene with the Doctor popping out of Rory’s stag-do stripper cake and telling the lad he’s been snogged by his fiancé Amy.

What’s the Doctor’s solution to this dilemma? Take the happy (if lacking in chemistry) couple to be to Venice, 'cause everyone knows Venice is dead romantic - second most romantic city in the world is Venice, don’t you know. They’re going to enjoy a romantic get-away together at the Doctor’s expense, and we all know that means we’re going to see the pair engage in long walks, midnight supper in an alleyway (spaghetti al la nose!) and gondola rides with the Doctor punting whilst singing in Italian. That’s exactly what’s going to happen!

Of course it isn’t, you’d think after spending even thirty minutes with the Doctor that both Amy and Rory would be prepared for a situation that doesn’t even involve the least bit of romance. You’d think that instead they’d be prepared for running around, being attacked and nasty monsters. Because that’s all that happens when the Doctor is about; he’s like a walking lightning-rod for trouble he is, and sure enough they’re soon embroiled in the local events, helping a father try and rescue his daughter from a school of vampires who aren’t really vampires and are in fact fish people from the stars (how very Lovecraftian!).

So what about Rory? Is he any good as a companion? Well yes and no. The bad news is that he has very little chemistry with Amy at all. This might be the intention, as after all Amy has effectively ‘run’ away from her marriage to him. But you do want to believe that the two are at least attracted enough to each other to be engaged, and I’m not sold on that.

On the other hand Rory’s personality was a great fit for the series, able to be both serious and amusing he reminded me of Mickey - the one character from the Rose companion arc that I really came to change my opinion of (originally I disliked Mickey, but he became a favourite after his ‘I’m the tin dog’ observation, it’s where the character grew a pair). So I honestly hope Rory is around for a while to come as his presence has added a lot to the show, returning the feeling of a team to the Doctor’s adventures, providing light relief and allowing us to experience Amy’s personality separate from the Doctor’s presence.

Unfortunately, for every bit of success on the character front the episode failed on the plotting. The story was about fish from space pretending to be vampires with the plan of flooding Venice and providing brides for the sons of the ‘mother-fish’ in order to save their race from extinction. They’d come to Earth in order to flee ‘the silence in the cracks’ another nice piece of natural meta-plotting, but unfortunately that’s about it. The rest of the episode isn’t exactly bad, but it’s not memorable at all - a genuine filler episode with a few nice ideas, but ultimately forgettable.

Onto the bit I’m not sure about, the space-fish’s weather device. The first device was pretty decent, a chair filled with glowing lights that was pulled to pieces by Amy and Rory. But the main device had me feeling a little, let down. It turned out to be a globe on top of steeple filled with cogs, balls and whirly bits - and an on/off switch.

An on/off switch...

Either that’s some remarkably lazy “crikey we need something to end this episode and we’re running out of time” writing, or it’s a direct dig at one of the major complaints about Russell T. Davies’ writing. To whit, old Rusty was very reliant on the magic button / deus ex machina solution to problems. Dropping a simple, forced solution into the story in order to wrap things up - and on one occasion (Doomsday) actually having a button that undid everything (I still recall throwing the remote at the screen when that happened). As a consequence I’m not sure if this was lazy writing or it was a machine, on top of a steeple with an on/off switch as an inside joke about Rusty’s science fiction writing methods. Even if it was, it wasn’t a very good joke - so either way I wasn’t that impressed with the resolution of the episode.

"The Vampires of Venice" was pretty much the definition of a filler episode; a fun, romp of an episode with dialog that sparkled that was ultimately let down by a weak main plot and forgettable villains.

The first forgettable episode of Eleven’s tour, but thank goodness they weren’t vampires that sparkled in the sunlight.

Other observations:

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Mirrored from my original review over at tvgeekarmy.com (here)


The Tenth Doctor episode "Blink" is widely regarded as the high point in the Russell T. Davies era of nu-Who. It's a tightly scripted stand alone story that barely features the Doctor, instead following the experiences of a young lass called Sally Sparrow and her struggles against four of the most terrifying creations to ever grace the screens of British television. The Weeping Angels they were called, statues that would come to life and move when no-one is looking at them.

In addition to tapping into a primal human fear, the episode also played with time in an expert fashion, had fantastic dialog and gave us a lead character who was instantly endearing, so much so that many people (myself included) are hoping to see Sally Sparrow back on our screens sometime.

Fast forward to the final Tenant season – the one before the four specials that brought us the end of the Tenth Doctor – and we have a Moffat two-part story called "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" that succeeded on two fronts. It was a tense and scary piece that once again reminded viewers that Doctor Who is a show about hiding behind the sofa while the action happens. It also introduced the character River Song, a mysterious woman who knew more about the Doctor than anyone else alive, but the Doctor had never met her before. In fact, as the story passed it became clear that this episode was the Doctor's first meeting with River Song and River's last meeting with the Doctor. This playing with the concept of time was another example of the extra level Moffat's writing brought to the show.

These three episodes are important because they set the background for this two-part story.

Now, before we start looking at the episode itself, it's time to talk about the elephant in the room and deal with the massive crime the BBC committed while the exciting episode cliff hanger was airing.

A picture paints a thousand words, so a short video must paint a million:

Fortunately most people won't have experienced that irritating piece of advertising. For those of you who don't want to spoil the end of the episode what happened was this: right at the tense and exciting end of the episode, an end which leads into the second part of the story, the BBC decided to cover the bottom of the screen with a brightly coloured cartoon Graham Norton. Now don't get me wrong, I rather like Mr Norton, but this piece of advertising ran completely against the mood of the episode and clearly undermines a scene that was quite brilliant.

Hopefully the BBC will learn from this mistake and won't repeat it. But we'll see, as they've been aggressively pushing their voting shows for quite some time now and I guess they want to pull in the Doctor Who demographic as well. Leaves me wondering if the actor playing the twelfth Doctor will be determined with a televised voting show; wouldn't that be an exciting piece of television?

Onto the episode itself...

Wow, just, wow. "Time of Angels" wasn't perfect, but it was pretty damn close, building on two of the best episodes from previous seasons which was quite a risk to take. Screwing it up would taint the other episodes to some extent as they would no longer stand alone. Likewise, bringing back the Weeping Angels was also a considerable chance to take, and I wasn't sure that they were suited for a return to the screen.

Let's go with the one weak point in the episode before we move on: River Song. Now I like the character, I quite like the time concept and I enjoy the coy way River keeps what she knows close to her chest. But I also found her quite irritating. Before, when Alex Kingston was acting opposite David Tenant, there was a bit of chemistry between them. There was something which instantly hinted at a connection between them, before even the plot and dialog took us there. Matt Smith on the other hand has absolutely no chemistry with Alex - this does work on one hand as he comes across as a young school boy afraid of the girl in his class who likes him. On the other hand The Doctor is at least a thousand years old and he does have a granddaughter, so it might just be fear of the future fuelling his actions.

Either way Matt and Alex don't work together on screen and that's a little disingenuous to experience. Still, it's the risk you take when you have one character that's reincarnated into an entirely new personality.

It's either that, or I just don't like Alex Kingston/River Song at all. I'm suspecting a little of both. I know I really disliked her handling of the TARDIS and the removal of the old landing noise. But I did enjoy the Doctor's indignant retort about how he likes that noise.

Onto the good stuff – pretty much the entire remainder of the episode. We have a fun bit that plays with the concept of time by having River leaving a message for the Doctor to find, knowing that eventually in his travels he will run into it. Then we're introduced to the religious military headed by Father Octavian. And we're off on a bug hunt.

The episode reminded me of Aliens, with a group of soldiers heading into a situation that turns out to be far more dangerous than they initially realised. I adore Aliens, it's one of my favourite movies, and The Time of Angels stands up alongside it quite well. It keeps the threat mostly out of sight, but that's the brilliance of the Weeping Angels, that they aren't a threat until they are out of sight.

The best moment in the episode occurs quite far in, when the Doctor is talking about the indigenous (and now extinct) native population of the planet, a pleasant race that all have two heads. The immediate understanding for the viewer comes – none of the statues have two heads – but realisation for the Doctor, Amy, River and the clerics comes slowly. As such, the moment where the Doctor realises that all of the statues are Weeping Angels contains a great deal of potency. Instead of being in there hunting one single Angel they are now trapped inside a mausoleum with hundreds or even thousands of Weeping Angels. That's the moment where everything really began to feel like Aliens "They're coming out of the God dam walls!"

I do feel that the cliff hanger at the end of the episode could have been edited a little better. I would have preferred a cut that ended with the Doctor shouting "Me" and pointing the gun upwards, having him actually fire the gun and seeing the impact on his target has revealed his escape plan already. I would have liked a week to speculate about it rather than be sitting here already able to predict how they'll escape.

Amy had a more prominent role throughout this episode, having time interacting with people other than the Doctor was great and it's now becoming clear that she's as weird as suggested in various interviews. I wasn't seeing it up until now. I still prefer Donna – she's my favourite of the nu-Who companions – but Amy has real potential.

The most important part of this story is the second part, now on one level the two part story has sort of failed. I'm not busy speculating on what's going to happen next week, but that's because the episode didn't end with the Doctor and the others in peril. It ended with them about to escape from peril. But on the other hand I have been begging for more two-part stories in the style of the original show and that's what "The Time of Angels" is. It is classic horror Who with a cast full of disposable characters and a nasty that's as unpleasant as it gets. It was exciting, it was tense, it was fun and it was full of greatness.

Depending on the second part next week this story could be one of the best we've had, it's certainly been set up well. If we were still in the Russell T. Davies era of Who I wouldn't be confident that the second part will be as good as the first. But we're not, and as such I feel confident in predicting that the second part will be even better.

Now we just have to wait for it... Darn.

Other Observations:

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I've never been sure what to make about the genre of disaster movies, on one hand they almost always represent a struggle of man against nature which often involves touching personal stories and a strong moral about 'man's folly in over-reaching the limitations of the natural world'. They are also spectacular to watch with special effects that often push the envelope of your expectations for film visuals.

But on the other hand they feel rather twisted and a more than a little sociopathic as they always feature vast amounts of people being killed - often in ironic or unpleasant fashions. In some way they're almost the tamer, but genocidal version of the "torture-porn" genre - in as much as they have a great to offer someone who's just hoping to see a lot of people killed very quickly.


2012 is one of the most recent disaster movies, based on the Mayan prediction that the world will end in 2012 - it well. Does. Some science mumbo-jumbo involving the sun essentially overboiling the Earth's core results in the crust destabilising and lots of eye friendly cracks occuring all across the globe.

The story itself follows both the decisions of various world leaders - with the US President (adeptly played by Danny Glover - Predator 2) taking a major role in the movie - which is to be expected as he's the first world leader to be advised of the situation by the scientist Adrian Helmsley (Chiwetel Ejiofor - Serenity).


The personal aspect of the story follows one Jackson Curtis (John Cusack - Gross Point Blank), mild mannered a minor novellist turned limo driver. He's seperated from his wife (Amanda Peet - Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip) who's dating a plastic surgeon (Thomas McCarthy - The Wire). From here I think you can pretty much figure out where his story is going to take him, and to be fair Cusack does well with the role he's been given - but the entire thing doesn't hang together well when it's the group isn't busy running away from the latest disaster.

For myself the most enjoyable part was Woody Harrelson as paranoid (but correct) conspiracy theorist/pirate radio broadcaster Charlie Frost. Woody brought a level of enthusiasm and quality to the screen which lifted the story up for a while. I think a disaster movie based around his character would have been a fantastic prospect, and it's a shame he wasn't the central role.


On the whole 2012 was a decent film, but it did feel a little hollow at times. It was visually a feast, filled with exciting moments set against a chaotic backdrop - but the core story felt just a little flat. It's certainly something you'll enjoy watching the once, but not a film which holds up to repeated viewing. I'd recommened it to disaster movie enthusiasts, CGI lovers and people who want to spend a couple of hours unwinding and watching something which is full of style but shallower on the substance.


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I wasn't sure what to expect when I watched District 9, I sat down to watch the film with little more knowledge about it than the front cover, the blurb on the back and that it had an 8.4 rating on IMDB. The film's premise is constructed around the concept of aliens arriving and living on Earth openly, which in itself isn't original enough to warrant paying attention to (see Alien Nation and the two renditions of V for a start.) But District 9 places an original spin on this trope and manages to bring something new to the sub-genre.

The city where first contact occurs is Johannesburg in South Africa, and the aliens themselves are destitute, aimless and relatively simple on an intellectual scale. Instead of having a race bent on gradually assimilating the human race, or at least developing as equals - instead we have a race (nicknamed 'prawns' after a the Parktown prawn a species of cricket considered to be a pest) being subjugated and forced to live in a segregated slum area.


The film mixes a documentary style with traditional cinematic, unfolding in the early stages with a series of "post hoc ergo propter hoc" interviews which hint at the events upcoming. They talk about the film's protagonist, one Wilkus Van Der Merwe (Sharlto Copley) and soon the film begins to follow him, both in documentary style and in traditional cinematic, as the story unfolds.


Wilkus is a bureaucrat recently promoted by his father-in-law Peit Smit (Louis Minnaar) to oversee the eviction and relocation of the prawns from the slum area to a new camp. The new camp being located further away from Johnannesburg (and it's alarmed populace) and looking suspiciously like a concentration camp. This is one of the places where the film mirrors reality, playing on the racial tensions of South Africa's more recent history and using these (along with real locations) to heighten the speciesism in the film. Effectively the attitude that humanity has towards the prawns is a riff on the colonial attitude to the indigent populace of times before - except that the prawns are unruly and impossible to utilise as workers.

The film continues in mock-umentary style, following Wilkus as he heads out to issue notices of eviction to the prawns. Who mostly seem to be unable to understand the concept of eviction and are treated as little better than talking animals by the officials, Wilkus included.

There is no doubt that District 9 is an accomplished film, it attempts to straddle the lines between hard sci-fi (which makes you think, see Moon, Blade Runner or 2010) and more action based sci-fi (most of the rest). Instead it ends up somewhere in the middle, occupying the same space as films like Minority Report, ID4 and Aliens (a personal favourite of mine). There are thought provoking concepts in the film, things which reflect current (or recent) issues in our societies but the third act does pretty much throw those aside in favour of excitment, guns and explosions. It's still great cinematography, but don't expect to walk away from District 9 thinking "Now that was something to really think about..."

The DVD set itself is reasonable, but not overloaded with extras. There's a trio of 'behind the scenes' shorts, totalling over 30 minutes of footage, commentary and deleted scenes, but that's about it. The behind the scenes stuff is good, the commentary is solid - but not the best I've heard, I prefer commentary with multiple people rather than just the one.

District 9 is one of the best action based movies I've seen this year, and it's got enough excitement, clever dialog, fun characters and awesome set pieces to make it one of the best films I've seen this year as well. This is one which is easy to recommend.

District 9 will be out on DVD and Bluray in the UK from the 28th of December. Just in time for the new year!


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Science Fiction tends to belong to one of two categories; the first of which can be called 'soft sci-fi' and tends to revolve around using science fiction as an excuse for story telling, or more often as an excuse for explosions and flying cars - Demolition Man, Ghost Busters, Pitch Black and Pretty Woman are examples of this. The second is 'hard sci-fi' and tends to use more "realistic" near science to explore present day issues, often taking an unusual viewpoint on what it is which makes us human, or highlighting the atrocities humanity inflicts upon itself on a daily basis - Blade Runner and 2010 stand up here and show their chops.

There have also been films which straddle the line between the two with ease (Terminator 2 and Alien for example), but Moon is a film that definitely places itself in the 'hard' category with a story that takes a long look at many issues, both current and potential.

It's the story of one Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), an astronaut who's about to finish his three year stint on the far side of the moon. A stretch which has been spent isolated and alone with nothing other than the lunar base computer GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey) plus the occasional video message from Lunar Industries (the company who owns the base) and his wife Tess and young daughter Eve. It's been a lonely time for Sam and he's eager to return to Earth and start living a normal life again - three years is too long to be so alone.

But an accident reveals something startling to Sam, something which brings everything he comes to understand into question, and rapidly he discovers the truth about his time on the moon.

Warning... Beyond this link lurk heavy spoilers which will reveal major points about the film, click at your own risk...

Watching the film is a little confusing at first, I did find myself wondering what the 'hook' would be for the first 'act' of the film. Initially the film suggests that it's about finding resources to solve the world's problems, harvesting helium-3 from the Moon's surface and dispatching it to Earth in order to provide limitless energy. It then dances along the edge of the 'supernatural' with a few strange incidents that suggest paranormal events, before settling in for an examination of cloning.

Once I realised that this was the focus of the film I was able to settle back and enjoy it more fully, it's during this section that the best performances come from Sam Rockwell. He spends the rest of the movie interacting with himself (and occasionally GHERTY) both verbally and physically - showcasing a great acting range as the second, newer, Sam-Clone is younger and angrier; while the "original" clone is both dying and a far more world (moon?) weary individual who's developed skills and tempered his anger.

The camera work throughout this section is likewise fantastic, you've got one man interacting with himself in a variety of methods which show a level of sophistication way beyond the old 'split screen clones' of the past. It's entertaining the number of ways the film likes to "show off" by having Sam move around and even touch himself.

But for me, the most important part of this film is the way it makes you think. It's a film about exploitation of resources, at first it's the Moon which is being exploited - that's a fairly harmless thing and easy to accept. But it does mean you're jarred greatly when you discover that Sam himself is nothing more than a resource, a three year clone designed to live out a miserable existence under the false assumption that he'll be returning home to his wife and daughter at the end of it. The truth of the matter is that each clone lasts just three years before dying and Sam is the fifth such clone - the fifth out of what seems to be hundreds.

You're left with the question of morality and ethics, which is additionally compounded with the revelation that the original Sam is living on Earth and is (assumed) compliant in this entire operation. His wife Tess implicates the pair of them with her involvement in the video messages to Sam-Clone #5 (The "Original Clone" in the movie. These people have been bred for the purpose of mining the Moon and are lied to about their whole existence and while their work is of huge benefit to all of humanity you're left asking about the cost.

I can't finish up here without mentioning GHERTY, the lunar A.I. with emoticons that is voiced by Spacey. He's a fantastic character; exhibiting a combination of programmed desires, needs and orders. All of which come together to give you a creature which is totally compliant in the entire operation, but can't be judged for it's actions because it's a limited machine with boundaries to it's understanding.

I also like it when a film bucks my expectations, I half wondered if GHERTY would pull a HAL 9000 on Sam and was thrilled to discover that it was instead able to adapt it's programming enough to assist the Sams in their voyage of discovery.

The one thing I feel somewhat let the film down was the final dialog over the scenes of Sam #6 travelling back to Earth. It wrapped things up a little too neatly for my taste, I would have prefered to wonder about the events and be left to draw my own conclusions. It's a minor point, but for a film which raises so many questions to the viewer I personally felt that I could have done without being given the answers at the end.

So is "Moon" any good? The short answer is a simple one, it is - it's a fantastic film with something quite significant to say. The message is both strong and meaningful on many levels. But it's certainly not a film for everyone, it's a character driven piece and while the pace is strong - it's not going to wow someone who's looking for action and explosions. Instead this is a film for the science fiction reader, it's one for those of you who like to sit and think about what you've just watched.


It's one of the best films I've had the pleasure of watching this year.

Extras:
The DVD set itself comes with an impressive set of extras.

• Commentary with Writer/Director Duncan Jones, Director of Photography Gary Shaw, Concept Designer Gavin Rothery and Production Designer Tony Noble
• Commentary with Writer/Director Duncan Jones and Producer Stuart Fenegan
• "Whistle" a Short Film by Duncan Jones (28 minutes long)
  
• The Making of Moon
• Creating the Visual Effects
• Science Center Q&A with Director Duncan Jones
• Filmmaker's Q&A at the Sundance Film Festival

Details (DVD):
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 Anamoprhic Widescreen
Rating: 15
Region: 2
Run time: 1h 33mins approx
Soundtrack: 5.1 Dolby Digital
Subtitles: English (HOH), English, Hindi



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I'm not a massive Science Fiction buff as such. I grew up with a lot of shows like Battlestar Galactica, Buck Rogers, Quantum Leap, Star Trek, Doctor Who and Babylon 5 around on the television. Mostly shows my father liked to watch, I watched as well because they were more exciting than the soap opera's my sister and mother prefered and because I loved Star Wars and Doctor Who as a kid. Say what you like, I'll always be fond of Sylvester McCoy's time lord, especially in Rememberance of the Daleks.

But on the whole it's a category I'm not so forgiving about, I guess it's because Science Fiction in the media tends to become about the gubbins and the writers often have an overly strong reliance on convienient devices which do anything like say, the sonic screwdriver, or which magically fix the day.

But on the whole I can forgive these ommissions and other similar issues if the show itself is good enough in other aspects, solid characters, interesting plots or exciting villains. So this list does indeed contain the shows which have managed to rise above the limits of the standard science fiction tropes through one method or another.



Opening up this relatively short list is a real favourite of mine, starring the brilliant and craggy Lance Heinrikson as Frank Black; this dark science fiction/mystery/thriller/horror show is set in the same universe as The X-Files but was something I much preferred to watch.

A lot of this I can attribute to the dark and relatively low-key nature of the show, but also Lance and Terry O'Quinn's performances are a huge part of why I loved watching it. It's just a shame it was cancelled before being given a chance to reach the Millennium itself and close out it's meta-plot. Even the short X-Files episode 'Millennium' wasn't satisfying enough as it was clearly an X-Files episode with Frank Black in it - making it very different in tone to the rest of the show.

This seems as good a place as any to also mention Dan Owen's fan fiction 4th season of the show.



No matter how hard I try and put my finger on what it is exactly about Anthony Michael Hall's rendition of Stephen King's The Dead Zone, the actual reason eludes me somewhat. But for many reasons (some of which I wrote about a while back) The Dead Zone is one show I'll always have fond memories of. Memories somewhat sullied by the shows abrupt cancellation just as it was getting really amazing, but there is little I can do about that except hope to see

In essence the show was a riff on King's original book idea, introducing one new character near the beginning - Bruce, Johnny's physiotherapist - and seeing how his influence changed the outcome of the story. Without Bruce (as the show demonstrates in one episode) Johnny spirals off and becomes the driven, possessed lunatic who appears in the book. But with Bruce's aid the Johnny in this show instead becomes a more balanced individual, someone who's influence and psychic powers change the lives of others for good.

The last season did make some abrupt decisions about various characters and weakened the show a little. But the final trio of episodes ended on such an amazing set of notes that I was left clamouring for one final season to bring everything to a head. Sadly this was not to be.



Almost a summer companion show to The Dead Zone (for myself at least) The 4400 could almost be described as the precursor to Heroes. Over the past hundred or so years four thousand four hundred people were "abducted" or went missing for unknown reasons. Suddenly they are all returned at the same time in a flash of light, each and every one of them 'changed' somehow and then sent back for an unknown reason.

While it was a superhero science fiction show at heart, the show also dealt a lot with the issues of displacement and the losing of family ties. As the series progressed it dealt with a huge meta plot explaining and understanding why 'the 4400' were returned, who the opposition were and so forth. It was a fantastic story handed out in tantalising drips and drabs.

The show wasn't without it's hiccups though, there are a few moments which at the time felt almost like shark jumping incidents, the third season in particular was a little rough. But the fourth season hit a stride which was just staggering, especially towards the end of it's run - where it moved things into a whole new level and just left me almost speechless at it's cancellation. All it needed was one more season, but sadly it was retired by USA to make room for new shows - shows which still haven't made a significant splash...

And that's why I think any decent network would cancel a show before it's finished it's production season, in order to give the writers a chance to wrap things up for the viewers before ending.



Short lived, offbeat and wonderful. These three words could be used to describe any of Bryan Fuller's creations, the man seems to be able to create these marvelous shows with an off-beat and cultish style to them. Shows which always seem to die before their third season.

Dead Like Me is the longest lived of them, it ran for two seasons and managed a straight to DVD video which, while flawed and hurting from the lack of Mandy Patinkin and Laura Harris, did have some great moments. It's a show which charts the (un)life of one George Lass, a girl killed by a falling toilet seat on the first day of her first job. But for George that isn't the end, it's the beginning - as Rube (Patinkin) explains to her, she's been chosen to become a Reaper. One of the undead who has the job of ushering souls into the next life.

George joins Rube's group, a small selection who deal in people who die through accidents and murders - there's Mason, Roxy, Betty, Betty and later on Daisy. They meet Der Waffel hause where they are assigned their given souls (or reap) by Rube.

The show is eccentric and charming, on the surface it's dealing with the subject of death in a light but meaningful fashion. But deeper beneath that the show also deals with loss and depression, every single major character in the show is clinically depressed (apart from maybe Betty) but manifests it in a different manner.

It's this combination of humor, drama and Rube Goldberg style death sequences which make the show an enjoyable watch. It's got real heart and soul.


Witty, action packed, exciting and nothing short of plain brilliant - as the first of three shows from Joss Whedon to make it on this list Buffy is proof of Joss's writing talent. Not to mention the fantastic performances from the cast as well. Buffy is very much a modern classic of television, revitalising the horror genre by making it suitable for mainstream pre-watershed consumption.

The combination of wit, humour and horror works exceptionally well for Joss's style and gave the viewers an amazing freshman season which cemented the show's return. But it was the sophmore season that gave us the show's most memorable character - Spike. James Marsters' performance throughout the show is just magnetic, entertaining and all kinds of superb; ao personally it's Spike who really gives the show it's veritable bite and remains the primary draw for myself.



In essence a spiritual successor to Buffy, I personally prefer Supernatural - a decision I'm happy to admit is somewhat controversial. I can't exactly explain why of the two I rank this one ahead. But mostly I think it's because the show has learnt from Buffy, it's a humours and charming pastiche of the horror genre; willing to touch on any element of story telling, from folk lore and legends all the way up to B-Movies.

It also provides not only season long plots but also has run a five year meta plot which will close out this year. At every step of the way this plot has been interesting, gripping and each segment has ended with an incredible cliffhanger which leaves you just dying for more (and sometimes leaves the characters just dying). It's capable of being dark like Millennium but also light and witty like Ghostbusters, Groundhog Day and Buffy itself.

Final judgment is reserved until I've seen the rest of the fourth season and the fifth one, but at the moment I have no hesitation in putting this one here in my Top Science Fiction/Horror/Fantasy Shows.




I thought about splitting this one into the pre and post cancellation versions of the show, as they do indeed have quite different feels to them. But in all honesty they are the same show, even if some of the style has altered somewhat.

The older, classic shows, have a quirky feel to them which is ramshackle and almost whimiscal. While the newer ones manage to keep some of that energy but improve on the style and substance of the show. Now yes, there are many flaws in this show - the most recent set had quite a few terrible episodes (Daleks in Manhattan and Love & Monsters to name two) and Russell T. Davies - while an exceptional writer for character emotion - always struggles to come up with a satisfactory conclusion for his stories short of just using some 'magic reset button'. But these can easily be forgiven when the show has such fantastic performances from it's leads (David Tennant, Christopher Eccleston, Billie Piper and Catherine Tate in particular) and then even goes and gives us episodes like Blink, Human Nature, The Girl in the Fireplace, Father's Day and The Empty Child.

It's a show which started long before I was born and will mostly likely carry on long after I'm gone, and for that - and much, much more - I'll always love watching it, despite it's cheesy nature and varied episode quality.



Was there any doubt this would make an appearance on the list? When BSG is good, it's very good; and while the run wasn't perfection, some moments were decidedly ropey, the third season has vast tracts of episodes which I'll always skip if given the option and the end of the series really dragged on - it still managed to achieve an believable universe with some exceptionally awesome villains.

It's quite possibly one of the best shows of the decade and will most likely remain the definitive vision of the series. Far greater than it's fun but flawed 1980's counterpart and almost certainly stronger than any possible reimagining which might be lucking in the mind of Brian Singer.




Part science fiction, part superhero comic and part musical. Doctor Horrible's Sing Along Blog is one of three shows which demonstrate just how effective embracing the new age of media can be. Distributed for free on the internet Doctor Horrible swept up and carried along myself along with so many more watchers with it's brilliant blend of drama, comedy and singing.

The absolute star and gem of this is the talented and wonderful Neil Patrick Harris (a man who will make another appearance in one of the other lists) who gives a top notch performance as the titular Doctor Horrible. Supported with a commanding performance from Felicia Day and the lovely vision that is Nathan Fillon (wait, is that the right way round?) The show tapped into the public's love of super powers, villains and tunes you can really sing along to. Creating something which became instantly a classic while also showing where the future of television could be.

And fortunately for us, a sequel has been announced!


For such a short lived show it's almost surprising that I'm willing to put Firefly up there in the top position. But as I explained before there's so much to love about Firefly, and it's quite possible that the short lived nature of the show aids this. There are many shows which push on for just far too long, they keep churning out more and more seasons until things become tired and hackneyed or just plain stink. So the short length of the show is quite possibly of benefit here; Firefly just didn't have time to produce a bad episode, instead it's wonderful short run (and movie sequel) stand up beautifully and leave a lot of room for "what if" speculation about where things could have gone.

Add to this the western theme, witty dialog and fantastic performances from almost the entire cast combined with a fun (if rather unrealistic) 'universe' and you end up with a show I can go back and re-watch repeatedly.
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I've chosen to write about Ridley Scott's classic horror/sci-fi movie Alien in the first part of the new Film Friday series for a few reasons. Alien is a film which has influenced or at least been involved in a lot of my life, back when it was first released in the UK my parents went to go and see it (or at least my father dragged my mother along to watch it). But, as my mother is also prone to reminding me, I also went along to the cinematic showing of this film as she was pregnant with me at the time. I can only imagine how being pregnant would have influenced her experience of the film, it's certainly resulted in her consistently mentioning that same anecdote just about every time the movie Alien is mentioned. I'm not sure how I should take this and sometimes I wonder if I'm being compared (by her) to the Alien in the movie.

Fast forward about a dozen or so years and one of the more vivid memories from my childhood is my father proudly sitting me down before bedtime and showing me the opening scenes from Alien. The scenes with the lights coming on inside the Nostromo and the stasis pods opening up remain branded into my consciousness even to this day. Mostly because after showing a few of the opening scenes my father stopped the film and said "The rest of the film is horrible and scary so I won't show you it." and then sent me to bed. I didn't sleep well for quite a few nights after that, there's nothing quite like an active imagination to keep one from falling asleep without disturbing dreams...

It is worth saying that Alien was not actually the first movie in the franchise I watched in full, that prize goes to it's action packed sequel Aliens (which I'll probably touch on in a later issue of Film Friday), but it is definitely the one which left the biggest mark on me thanks to the actions of my parents. And there is no doubt that it's an iconic and brilliant film which holds up alongside and even shames many modern films (especially some of it's own later sequels).

It's hard to write anything original about Alien as it's such a critically acclaimed, influential and iconic movie, as has been noted numerous times before the structure of the movie is very simple - it's a haunted house/slasher movie in space, but the execution of the movie is something which turns the whole thing into much, much more than that.

The start of the film builds very slowly; establishing the setting, the technology and the characters with an almost leisurely pace. From the reflection of the computer screen on the empty space suit helmet onwards the show almost effortlessly crafts a world which feels real with it's low-tech approach to science fiction. The Nostromo is a brutish, ugly construct and the interior scenes continue the functional style of the exterior. There are no elegant, swooping curves or doors that go 'swoosh, beep' on this ship. Instead there are broken pipes and crew members complaining about their cut in the shares.

Which brings me smoothly onto the characters, the slow build of Alien gives us a chance to get to know these people - the engineers Brett (Harry Dean Stanton) and Parker (a pre-Homicide Yaphet Kotto), their amusing cliquishness towards Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) and complaining about money. Ripley herself is also far more interesting here than in later movies and Weaver gives a great performance as the sole survivor while Tom Skerritt is on top form as the bearded and pragmatic Dallas. It's only Lambert (Veronica Cartwright) who is somewhat forgettable in this. But the most memorable performances (aside from the barely glimpsed xenomorph) lay with Ian Holm as the semi-villainous artificial human 'simulant' Ash and of course there is John Hurt who was described as "The Man" in Coupling because of the power and disturbing nature of that famous dining scene. Embodying all the male fears about pregnancy in the space of a few moments it's a scene which has been homaged, referenced and parodied more times than I'd care to count. It's a scene for all ages it's the most memorable of all the deaths in the movie (the other two which I always recall are Ash's - because of the sheer brutality and crudeness of it and Dallas' for the tension and sudden release at the end).

The final two characters in the film are the computer Mother (voiced by Helen Horton) and the titular alien itself, who was played by the 7' 2" tall Bolaji Badejo. It's pretty much his only time in the world of film, but he gives an exceptional physical performance, greatly enhanced and aided by the adage "less is more". Unlike some of the more modern horror movies Alien avoided showing too much of it's antagonistic monster/killer, partially because it was quite literally a man in a rubber suit (and would have looked almost comedic) and partially because the human imagination of things unseen is far more potent than anything actually seen. Keeping the alien in the shadows and just providing partial glimpses or sudden visions of it - a method I appreciate far more than the ultra detailed horror which has moved into vogue right now. There's nothing more frightening than the unknown.

These days it's difficult to watch the movie without considering all of the baggage which the franchise has gathered. While the movie Aliens (which I'll certainly write about later) is a worthy, if different, successor - the later movies are a series of let downs and by the time the franchise rolls into the Predator one things are stinking to high heaven (On a side note the computer game series for Aliens vs. Predator is a far superior creation, the story for AvP2 in particular is amazing and it's a real shame it wasn't adapted when the AvP movies were announced.) Alien itself is a superb example of science-fiction and horror at it's finest, and not amount of obviously dated computers present in the movie can detract from the experience. It's certainly a contender for the best movie of 1979 and one I am able to watch and re watch time and time again.
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As the Television Critics Assoociation awarded The Big Bang Theory the Outstanding Achievement in Comedy Award this year and I personally just caught up with the complete first season it seems this kind of synchronicity is suggesting I should review the UK release of the first season boxed set.

Created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady this show centers around two geeky nerds, their closest friends and the attractive young woman who moves into the flat opposite them. Leonard (Johnny Galecki) is the most normal of the group, an intelligent if socially hampered young man, he's enamoured with Penny (Kaley Cuoco) the woman who moves into the flat opposite and befriends them. His two closest friends are Raj (Kunal Nayyar) who suffers from such extreme shyness around women he's rendered speechless, literally and Howard (Simon Helberg) who is an engineer and a terrible letch. Leonard also lives with Sheldon (Jim Parsons) a man so far up the nerdiness scale that he's almost some form of alpha nerd, or at least an omega one - perhaps the term uber-nerd or the gentlenerd's nerd is better...

Now, I've experienced bits of The Big Bang Theory on television before, and I always struggled to get into it and as such tended to switch off partway through an episode. But the release of the show on DVD allowed me to watch it from the very first episode. Initially I found somethings grated on my nerves, especially the laugh track, which is almost inappropriate at times - I do find laugh tracks annoying as they seem to be pleading with the viewer to laugh at the jokes. And in the pilot episode the laugh track managed to make everything feel unfunny until about halfway through the episode, where Sheldon's masturbation comment got it's first laugh out of me.

I've now managed to tune out the laugh track, it still annoys me if I think about it, but for the most part it's faded away from my consciousness. Mostly because the show is very good, while previous shows from these two, including Two and a Half Men, Dharma & Greg and Roseanne (amongst others) are all shows I've never really clicked with, The Big Bang Theory has succeeded. It's brought these four nerdy individuals to life and made each of them very likable and fun without going to far - many shows and films in the media tend to use the geek/nerd type as something to laugh at, but The Big Bang Theory positions them as something to laugh with. Leonard is an immensely endearing individual and a great 'straight man' for the other guys to play off, Raj's shyness hides a fun and sharp character and Sheldon is just the crowning achievement of the show. Penny is also fun and sympathetic and it's just Howard who's unlikable - but that's the point of Howard, so it's OK.

It is a crime not to mention how brilliant Jim Parsons is as Sheldon, so here we go. He's brilliant, best thing in the show and the number one reason to watch it.

In essence I'm saying that The Big Bang Theory's first season is quite brilliant, it's managed a great trick in giving us dorky, nerdy geeks who are human, positive and likable (instead of being pitied or joked about). This, along with Chuck is documenting a rise in the number of decent nerdy types being portrayed on TV, which is great - because the less "hyper-intelligent" characters like Zack (Bones) around on TV Shows the better.

I think it's also worth mentioning one point which I picked up on, The Big Bang Theory is very proud of how accurate it's nerdiness is, one of the extras goes into a whole thing about how they have a real physicist advising for all the physics sections to keep it authentic. But in the episode The Peanut Reaction the guys are sat around "playing" the Black Industries re-release of Talisman (4th Edition version) and I immediately picked up on the fact that they weren't playing by the proper rules as there were too many playing pieces on the board and Raj's dialog is complete nonsense*. This amused me, because the writers are willing to go to huge lengths for authentic nerd-osity in their Halo, their physics, film references and so many other things AND they went to the lengths of getting a suitably geeky game to play, but then skipped out on reading the rules to complete the authenticity. So close Big Bang Theory, oh so close!

The set itself is very simplistic, it's a standard DVD case with nothing fancy about it, the menus are rough and usable but nothing to write home about and there are just two extras on the discs. So there's not that much here for someone who has already watched the episodes, but the relatively low price of the set makes up for this a lot.

So as some kind of geek myself I give The Big Bang Theory approval and look forward to the second season being released on DVD.

Extras:
Quantum Mechanics of The Big Bang Theory
A Behind the scenes look at Geek Chic

Details:
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Widescreen
Languages: English
Rating: 12
Region: 2
Runtime: 358 mins
Subtitles: English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Polish, Swedish

*For the record, this is because I collect board games and have a somewhat passionate interest in owning them and playing them with friends as a form of recreation.
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Eureka is a series which has had me intrigued for quite a while, but until this week the price has always been higher than I could justify on what was essentially an impulse buy. The show arrived on my radar via the medium of "I've seen the box and liked the look of it" and then again via Twitters dakinegirl and debbiEggroll who both watch it. So I guess it gradually seeped into my consciousness and then when I saw it for ten pounds I figured "why not?"

Eureka is a sort of light-hearted super science based show which is most definitely science-fiction/light drama. U.S Marshall Jack Carter (Colin Ferguson) crashes his car while swerving to avoid a dog and ends up in what is effectively a dumping ground for America's brightest and most brilliant scientists (they're also almost all conveniently photogenic as well). After the events of the pilot episode he's reassigned to the town as their new Sheriff, and a short while later his daughter Zoe (Jordan Hinson) joins him.

As the season progresses Carter encounters a whole range of unusual events, all with super science at the heart of the cause. Carter has to work alongside his new Deputy - Joe Lopo (Erica Cerra) and DOD employee Allison Blake (Salli Richardson-Whitfield) along with the various residents of the town including Henry (Joe Morton) and Christian Bale-alike Nathan Stark (Ed Quinn) to get to the root of the latest set of strange occurrences and solve them.

That, in a nutshell, is the base format of Eureka - something weird happens, Carter gets involved, it gets solved. Essentially the classic procedural show given a bit of a spin. And if that was all, then the show would be rather dull and un-engaging, but fortunately it's not as dry as that. The characterisations in the show are lively and likable, the guest stars are well chosen, the special effects are just superb and most importantly of all Colin's character - the Sheriff - is so well grounded, charismatic and engaging that you're buoyed along with him on these fun voyages of discovery.

But, Eureka is a show with some faults, I personally did find the leaps in character familiarity to be rather sudden, especially as the tenth episode (Purple Haze) has everyone 'acting out of character', but as I wasn't familiar with most of the characters by this stage (many of them don't get fleshed out too much over the episodes beforehand beyond stereotypical traits) I did sit there wondering how I was supposed to realise everyone was acting odd without being told explicitly. Also there's another character who appears partway through, decides to stay in what seems a huge moment and then disappears from the screen until the final episode where she becomes a key part of the plot. Things like this made the show feel like it was somewhat lacking weight and gravity at times - realism within it's own universe if you like.

What I'm saying here is that Eureka is certainly an enjoyable and fun show - I watched all twelve episodes and the only time I felt things dragging was during the extended pilot episode - but it's also clear that in this season at least, the show was still in it's infancy. So, that said there's certainly enough promise in the show to ensure that I will be picking up the second season when it becomes available. Which I feel is enough of a recommendation in itself.

As for the boxed set itself, it's from Playback - which means a series of standardised components which are identical in most of their products. An attractive cardboard dust sleeve, three almost identical slim line DVDs containing one disc each and very few extras. Playback get no marks for imaginative packaging here, but they do score for standardisation, functionality and general attractiveness. I think the only part of the packaging I feel is wasteful are the DVD cases, they could have used two here if they'd been willing to have a case with two DVD holders (one on each side). Still, the set is attractive enough that I decided to purchase it almost solely on the strength of the cover, so it must work!

All in all Eureka was certainly a pleasant diversion from the normally intense and often grim shows I prefer to watch and for that reason alone I have no problems giving the first season two thumbs.

Extras:
Audio Commentary on the Pilot Episode
Deleted Scenes
Outtakes
Made in Eureka Mock Informercials
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I am completely and unashamedly a supporter of web released shows like the BBC iPlayer, Dr Horrible and The Guild, all of which (I think) show a new form of television, perhaps the future. Right now, who knows? But I approve of it, especially The Guild which was also released on XBox live, thus allowing me to watch the show from the comfort of my living room (which is a fun place) as opposed to the work based environment of my office (which is a place where bills are paid and words are written).

Lately Emerson Wild: Monster Hunter popped up onto my radar via Nuklear Power and most recently a preview video of the piece has been released on YouTube.

Here is the HD version:



I'll be following and updating about this occasionally as I do like the look, the humor and the style I've seen so far. He used the word irregardless, I love that word!

The Website is located at http://www.emersonwild.com/ and twitter is http://twitter.com/EmersonWildMH
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