I'm still exceptionally short of time and energy at the moment, but I have made a decision to update at least once a week no matter what happens. I am also posting over at TV Geek Army - so I'll start putting links or cross posts here when the site is updated with some thing from myself. At the moment Eric from TVGA and myself are round tabling about finales - the entire series so far can be read here, needless to say it is spoiler-riffic, but only about shows that have been finished for a while and each post on the link has a spoiler cut so you don't need to worry about reading a show finale you haven't seen yet.

Myself I have been using the summer months to catch up on a multitude of shows, what follows is a couple of sentences on the seasons I've seen.

Bones Season 4
Thank goodness Zach is down to an occasional guest star now, final episode was pretty rubbish but Booth's storyline was great. This show is one of my favourite "trashy" procedurals.

Mad Men Season 2
Still as great as ever, in the process of watching season 3 right now.

Frisky Dingo Season 1
I loved Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law and I'm still rocking The Venture Brothers - so it's no surprise I enjoyed the first season of this show.

Samantha Who Season 1
I know it was cancelled, but I wanted to give it a try anyway and I must say, you can't help but fall in love with Christina Applegate in it. She's wonderful.

Doctor Who - Doctor Eleven, Series 1
You can read my reviews at TVGA here. Brilliant series, I did not think I was going to like Matt Smith more than David Tenant, but I do. Vincent and the Doctor was one of the greatest episodes of any show, ever.

How I Met Your Mother Season 3
So glad they're finally releasing this show on a reasonable schedule in the UK. Season 3 was as great on the rewatch as it was the first time round.

HIMYM Season 5
I caught up with the complete 5th season as well recently, it was decent but a little forgettable in parts. The show has become TV popcorn, easy to digest but not much to remember. I still love it though.

Eureka Season 2
A really silly show in some respects, but it's so much fun it's easy to forgive the dafter parts of it.

Burn Notice Season 2
Burn Notice is something I fell behind with watching and really, desperately want to catch up on. I need the third season to be released in the UK asap. Adored the second season, better than ever.

Buffy Season 3
One of my favourite seasons, I'm two episodes away from the end of it and I'm just holding off from watching them because I know the mayor is going to be killed and I like the mayor.

I'll be back next week with a more substantial review of a show. I'll also let you know if I update on TVGA, I'm waiting for Eric's response on the Finale Round table before I post again though.
Direct Link

I'll be back from the hiatus soon, first up will be the remaining Doctor Who episodes to bring the series up to date. Then a few DVDs, then... Who knows?

I've been a little creatively drained since I moved, and busy with work related projects as well. But I made a commitment here and I plan to carry on regardless.

Back soon!
Direct Link

I recently received a copy of "He's Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy!" It's a full length 90 minute recording of the show held in celebration of Monty Python's Ruby (40th) Anniversary. I've always enjoyed the Python shows, especially the first three seasons and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, Life of Brian is my second favourite of all the Python movies and as I missed any chance to see 'Spamalot' I was rather thrilled to see what the performance at the Royal Albert Hall last October had been like.


He's Not the Messiah follows on in the style of Spamalot, giving one of the classic Python films a musical treatment; mixing the original story with songs (mostly new) being performed with Eric Idle in the position of narrator and one of four singers (the others are Judith - Shannon Mercer, Mandy - Rosalind Plowright, Various, including Bigus Dickus - Christopher Purves and William Ferguson as Brian). Also appearing in this anniversary celebration are Python veterans Terry Jones, Terry Gilliam, Michael Palin, Carol Cleveland and Neil Innes. The music itself was played by the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra and the B.B.C. Chorus with Andrew Haveron and conducted by John Du Prez.

The show is divided into five acts and contains a total of twenty seven songs; some completely original, others spoofing existing works or even reprising classic Python songs - of the original works it's "A Fair Day's Work", "Woe Woe Woe!", "I Want to be a Girl" and the Bob Dylan spoof "Individuals" that I enjoyed the most. But they all paled in comparison to the two classic Python songs sung in the piece.

The cast is likewise fantastic, each of the four lead singers are all exceptionally talented, but they're left a little in the shadow when compared to the performances put in by Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam. Each of these men really gives it their all and shows just why Monty Python is still considered to be one of the great shows. But one of them rises above the rest, stealing every single moment away and dominating the stage with all of the best performances.


That man is Michael Palin, each of his various roles is played with a great deal of gusto, talent and spellbinding humour. Whether he's on as Mrs Betty Palin or the classic lisping Julius Caeser he's effortlessly electric and his final performance in the mighty show closing number as that immortal Python character Bevis is just fantastic.

He's Not the Messiah is simply a must watch for any Python connoisseur and a great musical in its own right. It's funny, fast and just a little bit magical.


He's Not the Messiah: He's a Very Naughty Boy was released in the USA on the 8th of June and in the UK on the 14th.
Direct Link

It's no Reservoir Dogs or Heat, but Armored was an enjoyable 88 minutes of tension and uncertainty.


Direct Link

[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:

Direct Link

[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:

Direct Link

Around eight years ago, a friend of mine introduced me to a film that he described as "something you've just got to watch". He told me that it was called 'The Boondock Saints' and said he'd bring it around to watch on DVD. I must admit to being a little put off by the title as I wasn't sure what to expect from that film title.

So it would be fair to say that when I finally sat down to watch the film I wasn't expecting that much from it, but, to cut a long story short, I was blown away by the film in a matter of minutes. The Boondock Saints combined fun dialog, great characters and superb action into a film that dealt with it's subject matter in a lighthearted manner. It wasn't a perfect creation by any means, but it's easy to see why the film has established cult status for itself.

It's ten years since the original movie first came out, and All Saints Day is the surprising sequel. I say surprising because The Boondock Saints was a somewhat complete creation in itself, it was left slightly open ended but without any plot threads hanging at all, and as time passed I'd just assumed that was it.

All Saint's Day returns to the MacManus brothers Connor (Sean Patrick Flanery - who I loved watching in The Dead Zone), Murphy (Norman Reedus) along with their father (Billy Connolly) who are now living an idyllic life after their accidental vigilante rampage. They were previously assisted in their disappearance by Detective Paul Smecker (Willem Dafoe); who has sadly passed away - a genuine shame, because Dafoe's performance in the first film was one of the greatest elements of it.

The two lads have their peaceful beard growing existence in Ireland is shattered when a priest is murdered in Boston, executed in a similar fashion to the way they killed criminals during their own spree. It's enough to force them into cutting their hair, shaving their beards and heading back for retribution. On the way they meet a diminutive Mexican named Romeo (Clifton Collins Jr.) who teams up with them for the excitement.

In Boston itself the police are investigating the murder, Detective's Greenly, Duffy and Dolly (all returning from the first movie) are terrified that their involvement with the Saints will be uncovered by the investigation. An investigation headed by the southern belle Eunice (Julie Benz), a woman with powers of deduction that are nearly the equal of Smeckers.

The two story lines twist around each other much like the first movie, with Eunice providing the flashbacks that tell the story of how each encounter between the mafia and the Saints unfolded. Just like the first film, these story lines converge together before the end. But there is also a third story, initially told in simple flashbacks, and it's that story which comes to the forefront as the film progresses.

Connor and Murphy are as interchangeable as always, neither individual has much character - existing as little more than implements of revenge, snarky dialog and exciting set pieces. But the other characters surrounding them, especially Romeo, Eunice and Poppa (Connelly) more than make up for this, in fact the shallow nature of the Saints is essential to the story of both films; they're Irish, they fight, they kill criminals, they berate each other repeatedly. That's all you need from them, they don't require extra depth.

Romeo fills the role that Rocco did in the original movie, he's the offbeat comedy sidekick and in some ways he actually fills the role out with more success than Rocco did. His description of his plan to assault a drug warehouse is just unbelievably funny, made even funnier when it's contrasted against the reality of the plan unfolding.

All Saints Day has the same brilliant crude, hilarious dialog combined with fast, exciting action and the religious imagery of the first film. In fact it doesn't even try to evolve from beyond the first movie's premise for around two thirds of it, and that's where it's at his best. When Connor, Murphy and Romeo are bickering with each other the strengths of the script shine and you'll find it laugh out loud hilarious.

But, it is fair to say that this movie is not as strong as the original one was, a large part of that is due to the huge gap left by Dafoe and David Della Rocco, both of whom played characters not present in the second film. Rocco does makes a reappearance in a strange dream sequence that is funny, it's totally redundant to the main part of the film and seems to be little more than an independent rant/speech put in because Troy Duffy wanted to give Rocco a part in the film and had something he wanted to say about being a man. It's a great piece to watch, but after it's over you are left wondering "what the heck was that about?"

The film is also a lot better in the earlier acts, the original Boondock Saints had this problem as well. They both start out as a hilarious tongue in cheek vigilante action movie and then turn serious near the end. It's the serious section where the films struggle to maintain interest, in the first one that's just the last half an hour or so, but in All Saints Day it's more like a third of the film that turns serious.

But, having said that I did thoroughly enjoy All Saints Day and I'm eagerly anticipating a third movie in the franchise. Because where would we be without our fecking rope?

So I can give The Boondock Saints 2: All Saints Day a hearty recommendation for everyone who enjoyed the first movie. And for those of you who haven't seen it yet, do yourself a favour and get both of these films on DVD.
Direct Link

As I mentioned last week, it’s difficult to judge a two part story on a show like Doctor Who until you’ve seen the second part. This is in part because nu-Who tends to use the second episode to shift gears and drive the narrative in a different direction and in part because some of the ‘second parts’ have been pretty disappointing (“Daleks in Manhattan” anyone?).

I did feel quite confident that “Flesh and Stone” would be handled well; Moffat does seem to have a strong handle on the various tropes that work together well in order to produce a solid and enjoyable tale. “Flesh and Stone” continues this trend, delivering an episode that closes up “The Time of Angels” well and expands the storyline for the season by bringing certain key facts into focus for both the characters in the show and the audience.

First up, I guess that my concerns about ‘the cracks in time and space’ turning out to be a weakly designed plot device in the vein of the Russell T. Davies era have turned out to be unfounded. I’m a huge fan of shows doing something unexpected, and Doctor Who has delivered by having the crack become a major part of “Flesh and Stone”, both by bringing the Doctor more aware of their nature and by involving the crack in the resolution of the episode in quite a natural fashion.

I still feel that the break between the two episodes wasn’t handled quite right, there’s no real sense of danger between last week’s and this weeks. The pre-2000 Doctor Who series would have had everyone standing, huddled together and panicking about their fate - with only the Doctor looking calm and measured. I do miss that week of anticipation, it was far more tantalising than the ‘next week on Doctor Who’ teasers we’re getting now.

That said, the start of “Flesh and Stone” was superb, providing a believable (in the context of the show’s history) escape, some fun moments and a change in the feel of the story. Gone was the claustrophobic feel of the surrounding Angels in a cave and instead we’re treated to a classic ‘flight from the gribbly monsters’ scenario that then opens up into a two-fold story. The first of these continuing to deal with the Weeping Angels and the second with the crack in time and space and its relationship with Amy Pond - a story that has opened up the rest of the season and started to set the future, but also gave us some exceptionally subtle moments that will pay off later on.

That said, the episode was also a little uneven, there’s an awful lot going on in the story. You have the Angels, the clerics, River, Amy, The Doctor and the crack in the wall and they’re all competing with each other for time on screen. I know I’ve said it before quite a few times, but I really believe that Doctor Who would be better off moving back to a half hour show format with longer stories. Despite being involved in a two part story “Flesh and Stone” was very much it’s own narrative and it did suffer because some of the story elements had to be either drawn back from the forefront or underdeveloped.

The clerics were one of the things left mostly undeveloped, there wasn’t much to tie them in as clerics really - they were mostly generic soldiers who existed to be killed off (or written out of existence). Now in my opinion that was a real missed opportunity - one of the things that made Aliens such a success is the shear accessibility of the marines. True this was achieved by creating stereotyped personalities that were loud and instantly identifiable, but doing this gave us some big characters that confidently walked into a fall - it made the situation where the brown stuff hit the fan stronger because we felt like we knew these people and had always known them. The clerics on the other hand were little more than the usual Doctor Who soldiers, they could have been members of UNIT, or any British armed forces for all the personality they had outside of the bishop. I did like the symbolism of the clerics (and later Angels) “going into the light”, but that’s not enough - bumping off nameless mooks is just not as potent as killing a character that people have had time to identify with. The bishop’s end at the hands of an Angel did work, but it also felt like he had extra characterisation that ended up on the cutting room floor.

The Angels also became victims of this ‘overstuffed’ effect, they turned from a terrifying threat into the secondary minor threat and finally they ended up something that (if I’m honest) evoked pity. I think it was the combination of giving them a voice (through Angel Bob) and as such having them essentially plead with the Doctor, asking him to throw himself into the crack in order to save them. It had the effect of humanising them and then lowering their status from something that was alien and terrifying into something to be pitied. As great as the Angels falling into the light was to see, it wasn’t worth the price they paid as villains. I think that Moffat has made a decision to not use the Weeping Angels again in the future and that’s why he did this.

I’m also not sure about actually seeing the Angels move, I think I preferred it when they just suddenly changed poses when the camera wasn’t looking at them. That made the Angels seem more threatening to the viewer because the camera was functioning as an eye itself. Once we could see them move we were divorced from the situation and the perceived threat the Angels posed to the audience was almost removed - in fact I’ve read more than a few people’s comments elsewhere expressing a feeling of pity for the Angels by the end of the episode - not sure about that, I preferred the Angels as an object of terror.

I do have to congratulate Moffat on the method he used when dealing with the Doctor defeating the Angels mind you. It was a completely natural and understandable moment that did feel made sense and most importantly did not feel forced at all. We knew that the Angels were feeding off the ship’s power source, we knew that everyone was standing on a vertical plane thanks to the artificial gravity - so when it failed and the Angels plummeted into the bright light (bright light!), it all just worked.

Last of all we have the aftermath to look at - the bit that’s going to have the romance seekers (and those terrible slash fiction writers) dribbling all over the upholstery in excitement. I am of course referring to Amy’s reaction towards the Doctor and the addressing of the inevitable sexual tension (on her part at least) between them. It was, frankly, hilarious. Matt Smith is able to play the role of an uncomfortable man fending off advances exceptionally well, and Karen’s delivery of her lines ensured that the sauciest scene in Doctor Who’s history didn’t get too far away from ‘child friendly’. It was something that played well for laughs, provided plot advancement and wasn’t so overtly sexual that it could cause offence (it was like one of the tamer Carry On films). It gave us a great end to the episode and more importantly an early introduction towards the construction of the series finale.

(Even if it does mean that some people are going to interpret the ending as being ‘The Doctor and Amy doing it in the TARDIS.)

Other observations:

Direct Link

I have quite a soft spot fot the original Boondock Saints movie. The sequel was released on DVD this week and there will be a review of it on (film) Friday. Until then here's the release trailer for the film.



Direct Link

The final season of any show often feels like the last leg of a marathon to myself, it needs to be the season which brings everything to a head and closes the stories it wants to close (not all stories have to be closed, sometimes it's more interesting to leave threads hanging open). The Sopranos Season 6 Part 1 (here to referenced as Part One) in some ways manages to walk into this while also avoiding it. I'm not sure exactly how it gets away with being the first half of the last season, pacing and story-wise there's no doubt that it is half of a construct that is only completed with the second part. But it's also a dominant season with exceptionally strong moments that stand alone.

At the end of the last season Tony fled from Johnny Sack's home as the feds closed in on the head of the New York family. The final season opens with the episode 'Members Only' and delivers one of the biggest moments of the show - Junior Soprano - who started to slip with Alzhiemer's last season - takes a huge step further into his illness by shooting Tony at the end of the epsidoe, making this the second time Tony has been shot during the series. His coma, his experiences in it and the attitudes of the New Jersey crew form a huge part of early episodes.

One of the other main threads of the season follows the gradual decline of Johnny Sack and the rise of Phil Leotardo as a dangerous threat to Tony and his boys (Philly still unwilling to let Tony Blundetto's killing of Angelo go as he was unable to extract revenge from Tony B because Tony S had already killed him to spare the man being tortured to death - and to try and close the issue between New York and New Jersey).

Another character brought to the front of the season is Vito, one of Tony's highest earners - he moves from being a supporting character with a few unusual, interesting and notable traits (his rapid weight loss and suppressed/concealed homosexuality being the primary two) into the limelight when he is outed. I was rather surprised by the expertise and skill involved in the entire story. Vito comes across very strongly as a sympathetic and likeable individual during his time away from New Jersey, which is not to say that you'll forget this is the man who killed Jackie Jr. But you do come to appreciate him a a rounded personality.

The show is as tight and superb as ever, this season has a stronger direction than any before as it's building up towards the final block of episodes. Providing plenty of foreshadowing, metaphors and hints at the storm brewing between the New Jersey and New York families in the final part.

It's a great season that is followed by an amazing one.
Direct Link

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:

Direct Link

This is mirrored from the original post of my review over at tvgeekarmy.com

Doctor Who is an iconic British television institution; the titular character has been through many different incarnations, aided many allies and faced countless foes. But the most iconic and haunting of all his enemies are, of course, those terrifying salt and pepper pots: the Daleks. Representing the worst of human nature, the urge to destroy anything which is different from the perceived norm of humanity, they are genocidal creatures which have faced the Doctor many times and survived.

For me the two iconic Dalek stories from the first seven incarnations of the Doctor include "Remembrance of the Daleks," a seventh Doctor story that shattered the biggest protection a child hiding behind the sofa had. It gave us Daleks that were able to travel upstairs – something that was used with great effect in the ninth and tenth Doctor's encounters with them. The second story is none other than the fourth Doctor's six-part serial, "Genesis of the Daleks," which contains that defining moment of mercy on the Doctor's part, refusing to commit genocide and wipe out the Daleks even though it would save millions. Instead he spared them proclaiming that "out of their evil must come something good".

Skip forward to the 2005 episode "Dalek" in which the Doctor encountered a single Dalek in a collection. It should remain relatively fresh in the memories of most people who saw it, so I think it'll suffice to say that it was one of the most potent episodes of the ninth Doctor's short time on the screens and the end of the episode made the eventual series reveal about the surviving Daleks a great deal stronger.

The Daleks are as essential to Doctor Who as butter is to bread, so Eleven's first encounter with them needed to be memorable, strong and also avoid the terrible mistakes that occurred in the two-part episodes "Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks". Russell T. Davies had the Daleks limping from one encounter to the next, seemingly destroyed on several occasions, only to pull more of them out from his hat. Now, I'm not going to dispute the fact that the return of Davros in "The Stolen Earth" was a brilliant moment and was one of Rusty's better series-end stories, but he did have the Daleks seemingly wiped out time and time again. So much so that, if the British public didn't know that Doctor Who always means Daleks, you'd be forgiven for assuming that Journey's End presented us with the definitive end of them.

Moffat has chosen to deal with this issue early in Eleventh's time on our screens, giving us "Victory of the Daleks" as the third episode of the series and effectively re-establishing the Daleks as a credible and serious threat to life, the universe and everything. But he goes further than that in the episode, and Mark Gatiss's script delivers everything you'd want from the episode and more besides.

"Victory of the Daleks" was a fun and energetic episode that had huge helpings of goodness for us to consume. Starting with the wonderful Ian McNeice giving a great performance as Winston Spencer-Churchill and moving quickly forward, developing in an unexpected direction, one that I must admit I was a little surprised and delighted with. The story looked set to be one rotating around the dilemma of using Dalek-like machines called "Ironsides" as weapons against Nazis and it quickly revealed that they were in truth Daleks masquerading (the obvious reveal); but then the story went one twist further, revealing that the Daleks were doing this in order to lure the Doctor and bait him into providing a testimony, one that would allow them to use a progenitor and rebuild their race from the start.

Once again Moffat shows his ability to steer the story in an unexpected direction and make it feel believable. In the series opener he gave us a Doctor with a plan, a back up plan and then another half dozen alternative contingency plans to work with. Now he's given us Daleks that are able to use the Doctor's predictability about certain things and turn it to their advantage.

But he did more than that. In one fell swoop this episode rose up to match a past episode with a similar title ("X of the Daleks") and also took a huge step towards returning the Daleks to a more iconic appearance. Rusty's Daleks were a bronze (except when painted military green), busy affair; Moffat's new Daleks are a cleaner creation, coloured in a bright, solid and shiny style (available in a range of colours for the fashion conscious! Just like your phone!) that harkens back to the Daleks of the last century. Mind you, that's hardly surprising, I mean Moffat did write a Dalek into his 1990s relationship sitcom "Coupling". The man is an unashamed "Who-aphile" and we're all very fortunate he's at the helm of the show now.

Matt Smith's performance as the Doctor continues to grow, but I did feel there were a few moments in this episode where he wasn't as solid as he had been in the previous two and he didn't deliver his dialog with as much conviction as he could have. Then again, he did face of against the Daleks while armed with nothing more than a Jammie Dodger and how can you not love someone who does that?

Speaking of the Jammie Dodger, it was nice writing to have the Doctor improvising such an iconic and highly British biscuit as a detonation device in order to bluff the Daleks and encourage them to monolog their (relatively) evil plans to him. The audacity and inventiveness of the man knows no bounds!

Likewise it was a great moment to have the newly created 'pure' Daleks kill the last of Russell's creations – wiping the slate clean and sending the Daleks forward ready for later confrontations. It was also a good touch to have them see through the biscuit bluff (which is what I'm going to now call any similar situation on television) and also have a plan which relied on the predictability of the Doctor's nature in order to escape and rebuild their race.

"Victory of the Daleks" is an episode designed to acknowledge the past of the show while also setting things in place for the future. It was an episode that felt weighted in the history of Doctor Who without being overburdened by it.

In short, it was a huge success as an episode and the best work Mark Gatiss has written for the show to date.

Other observations:

Direct Link

This one may well be old hat to many of you, but recently I chanced upon the web series "We Need Girlfriends" and thought it was worthy of sharing.



Direct Link

Ok, so I watched the first episode of Treme on Tuesday and I've pretty much spent the past few days thinking about what to make of it. I know from experience of previous David Simon pieces (The Corner, Generation Kill & The Wire) that the first episode of his works is going to be a slow build that throws you into a story that feels like it's already in progress.

The Wire - Simon's 'head and shoulders above all else' show - was a show which took me exactly fourteen episodes to click with, until the start of the second season I was wading through a show with a dense plot and hard to understand dialog that occasionally was unbelievably brilliant and at other times real hard work to keep up with. Of course, I'm now at the point where I can pretty much name all of the minor bit part players by sight - thanks to repeated viewings and of course my Watching the Wire series (currently on hiatus).

The first, and most important thing, is to immediately familiarise yourself with the characters. Lets face it, you're not going to get anywhere if you're only able to name the actors by either their own name or the names of the characters they've played in the past.

So here's the core cast introduced in the first episode (HBO Page here):
Ladonna Batiste-Williams - Khandi Alexander (Fran - The Corner)
Toni Bernette - Melissa Leo (Kay Howard - Homicide: Life on the Street)
Albert Lambreaux - Clarke Peters (Lester Freamon - The Wire)
Antoine Batiste - Wendell Pierce (Bunk Mooreland - The Wire)
Davis McArly - Steve Zahn (He's one of those guys you'll recognise without knowing where from)
Creighton Bennet - John Goodman (The Big Lewbowski, amongst others)
Annie - Lucia Micarelli (First appearance)
Sonny - Michiel Huisman (De co-assistant, no I haven't heard of it either)
Janette Desautel - Kim Dickens (Deadwood)
Delmond Lambreaux - Rob Brown (Finding Forrester)

If you're going to follow the series you'll need that list - I know I will, Simon doesn't give traditional character introductions, he just throws you in there and expects you to swim. Which, I must admit, was a little tough with Treme. There's no doubt already that it's a fantastic show that's going to bloom into a must watch for critics and culture vultures, but there's also no doubt that it's a show which is going to be inaccessible to many viewers. I'm OK with that, but it is a shame that so many viewers will miss out because they're unwilling to put the effort in.

Treme is also a little bewildering at this stage because I don't know much about the city, the neighbourhood or the disaster. I know I can trust David Simon's writing to change all of that, he's an authentic storyteller with a real eye for enlightening and bringing home truths to the viewer.

Until that point I'm just going to enjoy watching Clarke Peters dressed up as a Mardi Gras chieftain.


Direct Link

No full update here today. But you can read my review of Doctor Who's second episode over at TVGeekArmy.com

It's located here.
Direct Link

The fifth season of The Sopranos marks the moment where that legend of an actor Steve Buscemi (seriously, name something he's not good in) steps out from behind the camera and onto the screen. Taking the role of Tony Soprano's cousin Tony Blundetto. He'd been involved in the show previously - directing the episodes Pine Barrens and Everybody Hurts. Tony B's story is one of the major arcs of the fifth season, the man did grow up alongside Tony Soprano and, as it turns out, went to prison at least partially because of Tony S.

Tony B's story is a pretty interesting one, for those of you who've seen the season before and need a refresher I do recommend the wikipedia article on it (here) - as long as no-one has amended it to mention that Tony B was in fact an intergalactic time traveller from Vogon 6 who came to Earth in order to determine the secret of making really good cheese. (Unlikely as, let's face it, Americans don't know how to make decent cheeses - they'd be better off snooping on the British or French). Tony B's story is also strengthened by Steve Buscemi's unholy Acting Talent, (did I mention how good Steve is in his performances? I did, well let's mention it again). Fortunately for The Sopranos the show is filled with accomplished actors providing charaters that are deep, meaningful and very real - so Steve's performance as Tony B fits into the show like Cinderella's foot in the glass slipper (such a daft fairy tale) - he doesn't overwhelm the plot, instead he remains a low key prescence who gradually grows, changes and becomes more significant in an entirely natural fashion.

The rest of the season continues in the solid, real and above all else, brilliant style you should have come to expect from The Sopranos by now. Tony is dealing with his seperation from Carmella in the only way he can, by persuing Dr Melfi, Meadow and AJ are dealing with their parent's break up in their own ways. And Uncle June begins to show mild, early signs of Alzheimer's disease - which would be a tragic (if somewhat fitting) end for a man who lived a life that was pretty dispicable in the terms of normal society.

The mounting tension between the New York families provides another thrust of season five's plot - the struggle naturally has a great deal of influence on the lives of the New Jersey crew as they (in essence) live in the shadow of the "New York Mobs". And when other events begin to strain the relationship between the two groups things really begin to break out.

There's an awful lot to like about the fifth season of The Sopranos, it's on par with the fourth one in terms of quality and is a fantastic piece of television in it's own right.
Direct Link

Last week I posted a caricature of Horatio Cane and I wanted to show you some more of the Artist's work. His name is Anthony Geoffroy and his website is located at www.anthonygeoffroy.com (alternatively his deviant art page is here).

His site is all flash, and I'm not a big fan of flash websites, they always feel clunky and like they're trying too hard, but his art is excellent and here are some of my favourites.



Direct Link

Direct Link

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.


Direct Link