Okay, I've given it some thought and since the overwhelming demand was to continue reviewing in order, that's what I'm going to do. Let's face it, after season one, how bad can it get?

Well…

2.1 The Child

It's season two, and that means everything's gone slightly different! Riker has a beard! Wesley has a halfway-decent uniform! La Forge has a job title! There's barely enough time to explain all of the changes they've made to the status quo before a weird tinkerbell-esque sprite of energy sneaks onto the Enterprise and merges with a sleeping Deanna Troi. This can mean only one thing: we're heading for a Troi-centric episode. First one back? Really? Okay…

After the credits, Picard starts asking what's happened to everyone's favourite new crew member (sigh) Dr. Pulaski. Turns out that instead of going to sickbay, she's in Ten-Forward! Whatever that is! Boy, they've really got a lot of changes to mention. Picard decides to go and meet her personally, and on the way he has a suitably awkward chat with Wesley where we learn that he's leaving the ship to rejoin his mother. Given that Wesley was responsible for 90% of the last-second solutions that stopped the Enterprise from being destroyed in season one, it seems like a bad choice to let him go, but fair enough.

Picard gets to Ten-Forward and HANG ON DOES ANYONE ELSE REALISE THAT BARTENDER IS WHOOPI GOLDBERG!? Picard sidles up to (sigh) Dr. Pulaski, but before he can deliver the theatrical smackdown he had planned, she shuts him up and introduces a clearly unsettled Troi. Picard calls a meeting and informs the rest of the staff that Troi is pregnant, all of whom are visibly horrified and disgusted by the mere notion of it. Before they can properly express how stupid they think she is for accidentally getting pregnant, it is revealed that the child is growing at an incredible rate. They bat around possible solutions until Troi dramatically announces her intention to take it to term. Yes, that seems wise.

To Picard's credit, he respects her decision and the ship continues to Odette 9, where it is to collect some massively dangerous viral samples for transport. While going about his android business, Data encounters Troi, who is going into labour. They go to sickbay, where (sigh) Dr. Pulaski happily helps deliver this terrifying child created by an unexplained alien lifeform. Troi gives the kind of quick, pain-free, entirely silent birth that Scientology members can only aspire to, and once they've wiped the chunks off him Troi names him Ianandra. "Ian" for short.

The following day, everyone belatedly agrees that this situation is probably a bit weird, especially when the kid has grown to age 8 within a few hours. The virus samples are finally transported onboard and all is well, even though one broken container could wipe out the entire crew. Picard, Troi and (sigh) Dr. Pulaski interrogate Ian about his sudden appearance on the Enterprise, but he's still too young to explain his decision. Meanwhile, Whoopi Goldberg speaks to Wesley about his plans to leave, but he's also too young to explain his decision.

Unfortunately, one of the virus samples is growing. Everyone is understandably concerned. The cause is some weird, rare radiation that shouldn't even be on the ship. One guess as to which freakishly fast-growing child is emitting it! Luckily, they don't make us wait for the answer: Ian simply declares himself the problem and immediately dies. Wait, what!? Suddenly, he turns back into Tinkerbell, says goodbye to Troi, and flies off. Back into space. Troi explains that he was merely curious about humanity and wanted to learn what it was like to be a human. Now he has his answer: you grow to age 8 within 24 hours then voluntarily die. An experience common to humans (and betazoids) everywhere.

With Ian out of the way, the Enterprise reaches its destination safely and transports the virus samples to the people developing the vaccine. Prompted by his talk with Whoopi Goldberg, Wesley finally requests that he be allowed to stay on board the Enterprise, and is told he can. So the Enterprise has lost one child but gained another. As the episode ends, Troi remains a dead-eyed rictus grin in the face of her recent child death. Er, is there a counsellor for the counsellor? Never mind, no time for that! Onward to the next episode!

TNG WTF: The most WTF thing about this episode is that at no point in the course of it does anyone address that what has happened to Troi is basically a form of rape. Sorry to get all heavy for a moment, but that's what's really going on here, right? She's been impregnated without her consent. You imagine she might feel upset, or violated, or angry. But no! She's fine with it. Happy, even!

In fact, when she says she wants to bring the baby to term, not one of her so-called friends steps in and says "Hey, do you realise you're probably being a bit mind-controlled?"– something which is clearly happening on some level because when she gives birth it's a pain-free and wonderful experience. So, not only has she been physically violated, she's been psychologically disempowered. Sounds familiar, right?

Clearly, that wasn't the story they wanted to do, which would be fine if they'd actually addressed the problem in the script. All they had to do was tweak it so that Troi voluntarily accepts the alien consciousness. But that's not what they did. Personally I think its gender politics are more inept than insidious, but it's hardly a good start to the season.

TNG LOL: Anyone who's been reading these episode reviews will know how much I enjoyed the scene in When the Bough Breaks where one of the learning activities was manipulating 3D shapes with a joystick. Well, it's back! At 26:11! Nothing has ever made me laugh harder that seeing this return. Let's hear it for prop re-use.

Who's that Face?: It's Whoopi Goldberg! From Sister Act 2!

Time Until Meeting: 9:43. It's an impromptu baby shower for Troi! Only instead of presents, they're showering her with disdain. If only Yar was still alive.

Captain's Log: Any hopes that season two would shed the amateur-hour plotting of season one and start acting like a proper TV show can be pretty much dispelled by this episode. Funny story: I have two pet hates in TV, and this one contains both of them.

The first thing I hate is when people cease to act like rational individuals just so the plot can proceed unimpeded (e.g. at no point does anyone say to Troi what the audience is thinking: "Hey, have you noticed that this is all insane?"). The second thing I hate is plots where the main characters have no agency. Nothing anyone does in this story actually affects anything. Ian is born, he realises (by himself) that he's endangering the crew, and then he voluntarily dies. Various characters explain what's going on, but they never actually steer it. They're just a bunch of ineffectual losers. Replace any main character in this episode with a parsnip and the outcome will be unchanged.

So there's bad characterisation and bad plotting. There's also the clunky introduction of EVERY new element the show added. It's a wonder someone doesn't say "Nice facial hair, beardo" to Riker because that's the level of subtlety they go for. Naturalistic it ain't.

To top it off, what makes this episode truly dire is the complete lack of a point being made about anything. When Star Trek is being didactic and preachy, it at least has something to say. Here, the episode sort of hints that it has some thoughts about a woman's rights over her own body, but it chickens out well short of actually raising them.

Watch or Skip? Oof. If it didn't introduce and explain EVERYTHING new about season two you could skip it. But unfortunately, it does. So there's really no choice...

Read James' TNG season one lookbacks, here.

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Warning: these pictures contain casting and returning classic monster spoilers for Doctor Who's 50th anniversary episode.

Over the past fortnight, a trickle of images from the currently filming Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode has dripped onto the internet, eliciting from Who fans the kind of 'ooohs' and 'ahhhs' you'd hear at a municipal cricket ground fireworks display. We saw Matt Smith dangle from the TARDIS over Trafalgar Square (oooh!), David Tennant and a Zygon on a Welsh hillside (ahhh!), and John Hurt in full costume stride around set next to a man in a puffa jacket (both oooh and ahhh!).

Here's a choice few for those who want to see them, and be warned, you're entering spoiler territory, so proceed at your peril... 

Blogtor Who / Mirror / SFX

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After a period of uncertainty over the future of his scheduled projects, director David Cronenberg's finally seeing some proper movement on his next movie, Maps To The Stars. Variously described as a thriller and ghost story set in Hollywood and dealing with celebrity obsession, the script is by Wild Palms writer Bruce Wagner.

With financiers and distributor eOne now on board, it's been announced that Julianne Moore, John Cusack, Robert Pattinson and Sarah Gadon (who previously appeared in A Dangerous Method and Cosmopolis) will all star.

Given that Cronenberg tried to get Maps To The Stars made five or so years ago, only to see the financing fall through, it's encouraging to see the project finally get going. And from the little we know about the film, it sounds like a heady concoction of satire and drama, and its 'thriller' and 'ghost story' descriptions hint at some intriguing genre elements, too.

"It's very extreme," Cronenberg once said of the script - which, coming from the erstwhile king of venereal horror, is really saying something. Maps To The Stars will be launched at Cannes in May, while shooting is set to begin in July.

Variety

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"His secret revealed" 

That's the promise of the latest and last episode poster released for the current run of Doctor Who episodes, The Name of the Doctor.

Written by showrunner Steven Moffat and directed by Saul Metzstein, the episode welcomes the return of (look away now if you don't want to know) River Song. Alex Kingston's character, not at all incidentally, was the subject of the episode's original rumoured title*, which we've stuck beneath the image for those who'd rather avoid potential spoilers.

The name, the secret, the wife, the companion, the set-up to the 50th anniversary episode... We could be in for something rather special here, don't you agree?

Here's what the official BBC blog had to say:

The title of the series finale has been revealed and is the hugely intriguing: The Name of the Doctor.

The ‘poster’ for the series’ final adventure was unveiled today and it also confirms that Alex Kingston is back, joining Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman for what promises to be a jaw-dropping end to a spectacular series.

But we’re not there, yet! We’ve still to unravel the mystery of Clara – the woman ‘twice killed’ and yet still by the Doctor’s side… What secrets does she hold? And in the weeks ahead we’ve a trip to a haunted house, a journey to the centre of the TARDIS and a nightmare clash with the mighty Cybermen. But after all those adventures we have The Name of the Doctor and stand by for something that you might always have believed to be impossible…

*The Funeral of River Song

BBC

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As Marvel gears up for the release of Iron Man 3, it's keen to remind us that another of its superheros will be back again soon, too. And appropriately, Thor: The Dark World is scheduled to land this winter, with a new adventure set one year after The Avengers.

The first poster, which you'll find pasted lovingly below these very words, is also a wintry affair. Featuring Chris Hemsworth bravely clutching his hammer amid a blizzard of ice and debris, it's a cool reintroduction to one of Marvel's handsomely mulleted heroes.

Aside from the blizzard and the lightning, there's another drama: what's Thor looking at? Why so tense? Alas, we'll have to wait until at least the arrival of the first trailer to find that information out - and on that topic, we're expecting the first Thor 2 trailer to materialise in the next week or two.

Thor: The Dark World is due out on the 30th October. 

IMP Awards

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This review contains spoilers.

1.2 The Serpent

Somewhere in the pile of ideas that is Da Vinci's Demons, there may very well be a good television show, but two episodes in it hasn't emerged from the sketchbook into the realm of reality. Like the real Leonardo's helicopter, the ideas are present but not fully realised. Indeed, there may be too many ideas for the show's own good. 

There's a lot going on in Da Vinci's Demons. There are elements in conflict in Florence, as Lorenzo Medici goes up against Leonardo for the love of Lucrezia (who is also married to someone else, though he hasn't showed up yet to complete the rare love quadrangle). There's also apparently a power struggle within Florence. Leonardo has a strained relationship with his father, who works for Medici. The father, of course, thinks that Leonardo is a fool who will be restrained by his low birth to a slave girl. As if that wasn't enough, Florence is in a power struggle with the Vatican and its allies, as the Vatican wants to expand its sphere of influence over the whole of the boot. And, oh yeah, there are a couple of warring secret societies going after a magical artifact that contains some sort of germ of super-knowledge. 

Essentially, it seems as though creator David S. Goyer dug into his idea bag and stuck everything into the same television show (one with just eight episodes per season, remember, so it's not like they're filling twenty-four-episodes). I understand that some of these things are intended to stretch out over the course of a series (specifically the Florence/Vatican conflict and possibly the Book of Leaves thing with the duelling secret societies), but at present, it just comes across as cluttered and unclear, with a whole lot of people to keep track of.

However, one thing has come into focus, to the show's benefit, and that's who the main antagonist for Leonardo is going to be. That would be Count Riario, played with scenery-chewing mania by Blake Ritson. Having a villain who can actively play off Leonardo, Lorenzo Medici, and the rest of the Florence crew has kind of perked things up. One specific bad guy who is clever enough to work against Leo and his crew and young enough to be a physical match for the gifted fencer and his friends is a huge improvement. It's a rare bit of focus for a show that's pretty muddled through its second installment. Leonardo is doing too much stuff week in and week out, 

Many of the characters still aren't well defined, and for a lot of them who aren't Leonardo, Lorenzo, Lucrezia, Nico, and now Riario are kind of inconsequential. I only know Nico's name as a character because he's the same kid who played Lommy Greenhands on Game of Thrones. I'm aware that Leonardo's scruffier friend is Zoroaster, but I never remember his name until I look it up on the IMDB and simply think of him as “scruffy friend”. I have no idea what his father's name is. I only know Pope Sixtus because he's the guy dressed like a Pope. I'm having difficulty differentiating between the Florentine police and the Vatican militia. I hope it's not just me. 

One of the things that Da Vinci's Demons does well, as far as I'm concerned, is showing Leonardo's thought process. In the hands of David S. Goyer, who is a good visual director, these scenes of plot and plan become interesting rotoscoped blueprints imposed over whatever's in the real scene. It's clever - you have someone like Sherlock Holmes who talks his way through his movements step by step with slow-motion and voice over, and someone like Leonardo who is also famed for his keen visual sense in pretty much every field of human achievement. 

It's one of the show's many ideas and it may be its best-executed idea. There are some good visual moments, but at present they seem to be getting a little lost in the massive amount of plot to chew through. Sometimes, less is more. 

Read Ron's review of the previous episode, The Hanged Man, here.

US Correspondent Ron Hogan would like to see more random explosions to go along with the gratuitous nudity in Da Vinci's Demons. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.

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After viral video teases and much speculation on what it all meant, Bethesda has revealed its next project, and as predicted by many is, indeed, a new project from Resident Evil creator, Shinji Mikami.

Called The Evil Within, the game will be a new survival horror title that Mikami hopes will return to true survival horror roots, and after watching the trailer, it's wholly apparent that this isn't going to be a watered down, middling horror title.

The trailer is a live action teaser that looks to take place in some sort of asylum. And, like all good asylums, it's filled with creepy hallways, strange creatures and a blood-soaked four-armed woman with a predilection for crawling along the walls.

"We're incredibly proud to announce The Evil Within.” Mikami said.

"My team and I are committed to creating an exciting new franchise, providing fans the perfect blend of horror and action."

The game, according to a translation from the Japanese Bethesda site (via Gematsu) will be powered by id Tech 5, and screenshots posted on IGN show some actual gameplay, and from these early glimpses, the game would appear to be similar in style to Resident Evil's later incarnations (four onwards) in terms of gameplay, but with a much more adult, horror theme.

Gematsu also details some of the story, which will see players take on the role of a Detective called Sebastian, who is investigating a mass murder. Shortly after arriving at the scene, Sebastian, his partner and other officers lose consciousness and awake in a world filled with monsters and all sorts of creepiness.

In order to survive, Sebastian has to overcome these threats, avoid all sorts of traps (which he can use against his foes too), and face his own darkest fears. Events will also take place in a world that warps and shifts according to the player's actions.

The Bethesda blog also mentions a little more about the gameplay, "Players must survive on limited resources, experiencing that supreme match of action and horror, that indescribable terror. To survive in an afflicted world, your anxiety and nerves will be pushed to the edge."

With Mikami's involvement, and his intention to return to true survival horror, this could be the game old-hand Resident Evil, and Silent Hill fans have been waiting for.

The Evil Within is coming to Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and next gen systems next year.

Gematsu

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When rumours of The Crow remake resurfaced a few weeks back, it was initially being reported that James McAvoy was being linked to the role. That rumour has since been debunked. So it would appear that a search for a star had gone back to square one. Well, whether it did or didn't, there's now progress, as it's being reported that Tom Hiddleston is in early talks for the role. Furthermore, rumours have it that he's so keen on landing the role that he's sent in a make-up test to demonstrate his look.

McAvoy would have been a fine choice for the role, but you can certainly see the appeal of Hiddelston as well. He's an immensely gifted actor who can portray light and dark almost effortlessly and does so with a great deal of charm and charisma. It's a piece of casting that makes a lot of sense.

The remake is set to be directed by F Javier Guitterez with the script being penned by Jesse Wigutow, using James O'Barr's comic as the source. More news on the remake of The Crow when it's available.

The Wrap

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This review contains spoilers.

4.19 Pictures of You

It’s been a couple of weeks since there was a party in Mystic Falls, so it must be time for the ladies and gents of the town (or at least the high school) to dust off all of their finery for senior prom. Episodes of The Vampire Diaries set around some kind of event are usually entertaining and, despite all of the same problems season four of the show has been stumbling over for nineteen weeks, this is no different.

Pictures of You works best if you ignore everything that Elena, Damon and Stefan are doing and, as they’re our three leading characters, that just illustrates how confused The Vampire Diaries has really become. No, this week is a chance for Matt and Bonnie, usually ignored or missing half of the time, to shine. If you’ve been reading my reviews of the show for a while, then you’ll know that I despise Bonnie and everything she gets up to, but I genuinely enjoyed her this week.

She gets to be badass while at the same time not acting like an idiot – two things you can’t usually say. Because this is a sentimental high school rite of passage episode, Jeremy pops up a couple of weeks early, first in a dream sequence and then outside of the high school ready for a dance. Of course, as has been guessed by fans across the internet, Jeremy is actually Silas in disguise, doing his best to sway Bonnie on the whole ‘opening the gates of hell’ issue. She resolutely refuses, but her magic starts getting her into a bit of trouble.

Since this is senior prom, there’s plenty of relationship drama to go around. Elena still refuses to turn her emotions back on, and Damon and Stefan are still intent on forcibly defying her wishes. This whole thing is just creepy and deeply sexist – it would be slightly better if one of the people trying to change her mind was a fellow woman. Caroline, for example, could be used to explain how being a vampire has helped her through various traumas. In the end, the two boys literally drug her and lock her in the cellar, planning to torture her until she agrees with them – great boyfriends, eh?

Their original plan doesn’t even make sense – that they could ‘stir’ feelings in her – surely the switch works like an on/off button – no one would want to feel grief and pain if they had the chance. Seeing a picture of Jeremy or a photo that her mother took before freshman year wouldn’t stir anything in her because she has no feelings to stir. I really need a proper explanation as to how the switch works and, for that matter, a list of characters who currently have it on and off. Also, let me know in the comments if I’m mistaken, but didn’t Rose once tell us that the switch was a work of fiction?

In addition to the central trio, another love triangle makes a brief (and final?) return when Tyler comes to visit Caroline. It’s a sweet little scene that presumably plays as closure for fans of the couple, and makes prom a little more romantic than it had been up until that point. But I do wonder, in a show so focused on its characters' romantic entanglements, what they’re going to do with Caroline after Klaus runs off to New Orleans (more on that later). Will we be getting some new characters? Or will we be seeing the long-awaited and very popular Stefan/Caroline pairing? They get my vote, if only to get him away from Elena.

And another couple popular with the fans get their last hurrah before The Originals, too, as Matt goes from telling Rebekah that she’s the antichrist to actually recognising that she wants to be a better person. It’s satisfying to see him be telling her the blunt truth, but also completely in character for him to offer her some forgiveness once she selflessly saves April’s life. Whether she’ll get her reward in the cure is now in question though since, via a neat editing trick, we and Elijah were tricked by Silas into thinking he was the littlest Original and handing over the vial of blood.

We’re unlikely to find out what happened to it next week, as we’re taking a holiday to New Orleans for the backdoor pilot of The Originals. That letter from Katherine to Klaus in this episode was clumsy as hell, but it did the job in giving him an excuse to pack his bags. I’m going in with high expectations, so let’s all hope that the episode meets them. See you there!

Read Caroline's review of the previous episode, American Gothic, here.

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This review contains spoilers. Our spoiler-free review is here.

Hide

"It's 1974. You're the assistant".

While the internet bubbles with a generous dose of negativity towards the current run of Doctor Who, the show itself continues to get on with the job, and also continues, for our money at least, to impress. That's with the caveat this week that we could have lived without the last two minutes or so of Neil Cross' otherwise really impressive Hide. So if it's okay with you, we'll get that ending out of the way first, as there's nerd gold to explore after that.

In days of old on Doctor Who, the TARDIS would have dematerialised and things would have finished once the foe of the episode had apparently been defeated. But there's a trend in modern Who, and it's a hard one to knock, to genuinely make sure pretty much every creature and monster has some kind of motivation to what they're doing. Every now and then there's an exception to the rule, Russell T Davies' wonderful Midnight being an example, but then it's arguably because the unexplained foe option is so rarely used that makes it so impactful.

Here, a really atmospheric and well executed haunted house tale segued into a second love story by the end (the first, between the two lead guest stars, worked fine), and, to us at least, it didn't feel like a comfortable fit. It felt a little too bolted on, and didn't convincingly gel with what had gone before. Perhaps in a longer draft of the story, it may have had more resonance. But it felt a little bit like a twist for the sake of a twist.

Granted, it explained the emotions and the rationale for what had happened, but was that, in this case, really necessary? One of the most frustrating omissions to modern Who was the never-filmed scene that followed the events of The Angels Take Manhattan, that we reported on here. It seems a shame that Hide got an emotional, love-driven ending it didn't seem to build to, but The Angels Take Manhattan never had the one that could have really turned it into something extra special.

That out of the way, there's a lot to be positive about here, in what was a very good episode of Who. For the main narrative itself, Hide took place in an old, creeky, period drama-style house in the early 1970s (with Clara happily poking fun at the idea that anyone would buy such a place, given its history). That means impressive knitwear, shades of brown, and the kind of technological equipment that doesn't just leave the Doctor wanting to fondle it. You got the feeling very early on that it's all going to hang together well, and that the show was in a confident mood.

After a breezy introduction, that slotted things where they needed to be economically, Hide really hit its stride as it gradually upped the smoke and mirrors of the seeming haunted house story. It did it by keeping its cast small, with the characters of Alex (Dougray Scott) and Emma (Jessica Raine) having room and time to be fleshed out satisfyingly as a consequence of that. Granted, we got CG beasties, which weren't bad, but it was a human story in the midst of all the creepiness.

But what was also clever here was that a good, solid sci-fi subversion was thrown into the mix of what could have been a straight horror-esque episode. The TARDIS hasn't been doing a great deal of zapping around in episodes in this latest run, and when it does here, it's used to effect to get across the story of a woman stuck in time.

It's a thoughtful spin on what could have been a pretty basic setup, and it goes against how the Doctor usually sees things. After all, the Doctor generally sees people for a miniscule fraction of their lives, whilst they see him for proportionally a lot longer. Here, the fact that the character of Hila is basically stuck in her own three minutes or so of time, just stretched over many, many years, turned that on its head somewhat.

On top of that, the excellent production team here certainly had a lot of fun playing with haunted house conventions as things heated up too, with stares into empty spaces, some Most Haunted-style vibes and lots of candelight. Curiously, it was a 1970s house with some power, but candles still seemed very much in vogue.

Yet the gold for dedicated Who viewers came in two chunks. Firstly, and tying into the theme of the overall series so far, there's the ongoing question of just who or what Clara is. In fact, we learned that the reason the Doctor turned up here in the first place was to ask Emma Grayling that very question (but why?). Furthermore, the Doctor and Clara had a chance for a chat in the middle of the episode. "You are the only mystery worth solving", the Doctor said to her. And a mystery she remained, albeit a deeper one by the time Hide is finished.

Because Hide also paved the way towards next week's nerd-bait, Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS. And it's the TARDIS that's begun to take more prominence. So then: just why doesn't the TARDIS like Clara? Earlier in the series, it wouldn't let her in, you may remember. Here, she made a comment about her feeling it doesn't like her, which seemed all but confirmed just a little later. And when you threw in the conversation she had with Emma, where she was warned to not trust the Doctor, because "there's a sliver of ice in his heart", things seemed to be deepening. It's interesting that Emma has advice for Clara about the Doctor, and the Doctor about Clara. Is this one of those moments where we read too much into things, we wonder? We'll be speculating that Clara is the Rani at this rate.

As well as that for old-time Who devotees, outside of a Battlefield-esque chalk circle, two TARDIS references will not have surpressed the geekbumps. The reference to the Eye Of Harmony, for starters, something rarely touched on but not utterly ignored in new Who. And then there was the small matter of the cloister bell going off as well. Again, given the episode that's about to follow, and given how TARDIS-centric that looks, you'd have to say that's no coincidence. We're really rather excited.

It's the fact that Hide managed to pack all this in, along with a predominantly satisfying central story, that made it an impressive episode, and one of the strongest of the current run so far. Writer Neil Cross is certainly likely to get a far more positive reaction to this story than he did for the divisive The Rings Of Akhaten, and there's enough here to make the idea of a further adventure from him a welcome one.

A couple of bumps aside then, Hide was a welcome mix of old and new Who, blurring the lines between them both and bringing them together as one show particularly well. Next week, though, we get that TARDIS-centric episode. The last time that happened, we got The Doctor's Wife. One of the best episodes of the show in living memory.

No pressure, then...

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The incredible Hollywood poster sausage machine has had another busy couple of days, with the first new poster for Iron Man 3 for, er, a good week or so one of its latest products.

This Iron Man 3 promo is apparently one that'll be given away at certain IMAX screenings of the film, and that's the first of the three posters we've got here. The next one is the latest in the ongoing marketing campaign for Pacific Rim. We're still a while away from a new trailer for that we think, so expect more of these posters in the weeks ahead.

And then there's a poster for a film that's high on the radar of a few of us here: Before Midnight. Starring Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke, and directed by Richard Linklater, if Before Midnight delivers, it might just be the perfect movie trilogy that it caps off.

More on all of these in due course. In the meantime, here are the posters...

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Perhaps the only surprise about the news Dodgeball 2 is now in the works is how long it's taken. The original, a very funny movie about chucking balls in people's mushes, made a lot of money back in 2004, and gave Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn a big hit. Granted, that Lance Armstrong cameo looks a little dodgy now, but the film still stands up.

A sequel had been chatted about before, but it's now been reported that Clay Tarver has been hired to pen a screenplay for Dodgeball 2. The new film will see the duelling gym owners, played by Stiller and Vaughn, joining forces this time around, although inevitably not much else is known about it at the moment.

When we hear more, we'll let you know....

The Hollywood Reporter.

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Ah, we've not had a Justice League rumour for a little while, not least one about a potential director for the film. So grab yourself your favourite type of biscuit, and see what you make of this.

Warner Bros is banking heavily on Zack Snyder this summer, given that he's directed the incoming Superman reboot, Man Of Steel. When he does the interview circuit for the film, which he's presumably started on, he can expect to be asked lots of times too whether he's going to direct Man Of Steel 2. But there might be another film to throw into the mix too, and that might just be Justice League.

The source of the current rumour? Gangster Squad director Ruben Flesicher. He himself is doing interviews to promote the DVD and Blu-ray release of that movie, and he was asked whether he'd be interested in doing the Justice League film, given that his name was mooted some months back. His answer? He's interested, but "well that's something that Zack Snyder is going to wind up doing".

Gangster Squad was penned by Will Beall, who had been working on a script for the Justice League film, which at least suggests that Fleischer had access to some insider knowledge (suggests, but doesn't confirm, we should point out). On the flipside, this may just all be that he's heard the same rumours as the rest of us.

Bottom line: we don't know anymore several paragraphs into this piece that we did at the start. But if Man Of Steel succeeds, as early buzz suggests it will, then at the very least you'd have to suggest that Zack Snyder is a candidate for the Justice League job.

Screen Crush.

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Production is starting in the UK in just a month or two on Marvel's biggest gamble in its 'phase two' of movies. Whilst sequels to Iron Man, Captain America and Thor are pretty much safe hits, you can't say the same of Guardians Of The Galaxy. And that instantly makes it one of the most intriguing projects that Marvel Studios has yet tackled.

The cast has been slotting into place over the past few weeks, with Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana and Michael Rooker amongst those heading to the UK to shoot the film. And director James Gunn has now added Ophelia Lovibond to his cast. Her role is being kept secret so far though, so that's about all we can tell you.

Guardians Of The Galaxy is set to open on August 1st 2014. More news on the film as we hear it.

The Hollywood Reporter.

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This review contains spoilers.

1.14 The End Is Near

The Following seems to have blown all its lighting budget on collapsible knives and corn syrup blood instead of investing in ways to shoot outdoor scenes at night without losing the entire scene to murky nothingness. A chase through the woods is all noise and occasional flashes of shadows moving across less shadowy places, and it's not the effective sort of noise that we got at the end of the episode over the ending title card. In some scenes, such as this week's big, confusing cultists versus townspeople orgy of violence, it makes sense for the show to go dark in the literal sense; there are only so many stabbings and guttings and shootings you can show to America, even on the Fox Network. 

I understand that taking light away can create tension where there is none, even if nothing happens except Kevin Bacon tripping over an ottoman, but when you've got stuff that's already fairly tense—searching room to room for a hive of killers, for example—you don't need to resort to cheap tension so much. It's a technique that can work, but if it's overused (like it is on this show), it becomes tedious. Joshua Butler, this week's director, ends up going back to the darkness multiple times. Sometimes, it works great; other times, it's just kind of annoying that we can't see what's going on. 

However, when we can see what's going on, I kind of like how the show is playing out the Joe Carroll string. James Purefoy hasn't had a lot to do with his character, but this week seems to be Joe's best episode since the opener, if only because he's been doing a lot of character work all season long that seems to be finally paying off. The more Joe's plan unravels, the more dangerous Joe becomes, but not necessarily to Ryan. Mostly, Joe's becoming dangerous to himself, thanks to his increased drinking, his gobbling of pain pills, and the massive open wound on his side that gives all his button-down shirts a telltale stigmata. 

Joe still isn't much of a compelling cult leader, even when he's rallying his troops for a big cult event via goofy prayer/chanting. However, as a completely unhinged failure, he's a lot more entertaining. Watching Joe try to keep his cool as he keeps screwing up scheme after scheme is actually pretty fun, and it gives Purefoy something to sink his teeth into as Joe becomes less confident and cool and more desperate and twitchy. I wouldn't say that the show is finding the character, but I would say that the character is sinking to the level of the writing in a sense. The Following uses a ton of cliches, and as Joe's facade is intentionally cracked, his cheesiness makes more sense as he's just frantically trying to cling to the shreds of his broken empire. 

That's what is so curious about The Following getting picked up for a second season. With the way the Followers seem to be dying off and with the way the FBI seems to be finally closing in on Joe, I'm not sure how they're going to get a second season out of the programme. If they hadn't blown through all their ideas about Joe escaping and having his cult and all that stuff this season, then they could have saved some of it for next year. As it is, they must have some kind of idea for next season, perhaps based around the few of Joe's followers that haven't died, or... who knows, really. Maybe Ryan joins the FBI again as part of an anti-cult task force? 

There are two episodes left, and it doesn't seem like Joe's going to make a getaway if things continue to go the way they area. In fact, I'm not sure he should make a getaway; he had all the technology and manpower he could want at his disposal, and he wastes it kidnapping his ex-wife and picking on Kevin Bacon and writing a terrible book. There may be a lot of bad blood between Hardy and Carroll, but I wouldn't go so far as to say the two are an even match. Thankfully for Joe, the average FBI agent is as incompetent as he is, so that makes the clashes between cult and cop more even. 

Maybe next season one of Joe's more intelligent acolytes—perhaps the mysterious Alex or whatever his name is that the show introduced this week out of nowhere as the Roderick replacement—might be a fitting replacement for the mad associate professor of Stab University.

Read Ron's review of the previous episode, Havenport, here. 

US Correspondent Ron Hogan likes the idea of Joe being a big failure as a cult leader and as a serial killer, rather than the idea of Joe the beloved mastermind. Find more by Ron daily at Shaktronics and PopFi.

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Playing ahead of screenings of Iron Man 3, which begins its global roll-out this week, the first trailer for Marvel's next 'phase two' movie, Thor: The Dark World, has just landed.

The movie has been directed by Game Of Thrones' Alan Taylor, and Chris Hemsworth is reprising the title role. Joining him are Natalie Portman, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccelston and Zachary Levi, amongst others.

And you know what? That first trailer has just turned up online too. Take a look at it below. Thor: The Dark World arrives in UK cinemas from 30th October, and it's out in the US the week after...

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Recently the target of a new crowdfunding campaign, the move to secure the rights to Relic Entertainment's Homeworld RTS was outbid, thus stopping the Kickstarter project in its tracks. At the time, it was a total mystery who had won the rights to use the sci-fi strategy title's license.

Well, it's now been revealed that the winning bidder is none other than Gearbox. Scooping the rights in the wake of THQ's collapse, Gearbox intends to bring the series back for a new generation of fans.

A Gearbox statement read,“Gearbox Software has prevailed as the highest bidder in the acquisition of the Homeworld franchise from THQ. Brian Martel, Gearbox Software's Chief Creative Officer, has great love and respect for Relic's brilliant, fun and innovative game and personally spearheaded the acquisition.

“Brian intends as first priority to direct Gearbox's interest to preserve and assemble the purest form of the original acclaimed and beloved games, Homeworld and Homeworld 2, with the intent of making them accessible on today's leading digital platforms.”

The developer also encouraged fans to visit the company forums (link below) to provide input on what they'd like to see from the Homeworld license moving forward.

Relic's Homeworld was a unique, fully 3D RTS that broke the mould of the traditional Command & Conquer clone. As the commander of a colony ship transporting your race to their newly discovered home world, Battlestar Galactica-style, you had to traverse the dangers of space, building and expanding your fleet and defensive capabilities, and repelling enemy attacks.

The license has remained dormant since Homeworld 2 in 2003, but in the hands of Gearbox, it'll be interesting to see how the series returns, given that the genre is hardly the company's usual style of title.

Gearbox forums

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Gearbox hasn't been the only company picking the remaining morsels of meat from THQ's carcass. Nordic Games has recently announced that it's won the rights for the remaining THQ licences, which were bundled up in a very tempting deal.

The $4.9 million sum managed to secure Nordic Games quite a few licenses, chief amongst them the Darksiders series. Other titles in the deal included Red Faction and MX vs ATV, along with other owned and licensed software. These included franchises like Frontlines,Destroy All Humans, Supreme Commander, and Full Spectrum Warrior.

The press release from Nordic Games stated,"First and foremost we are very happy about this deal which also turns over a new leaf for the entire Nordic Games Group. In the long term, we either want to cooperate with the original creators or best possible developers in order to work on sequels or additional content for these titles,"

The bundle of titles gives Nordic Games plenty to work with, and fans of Darksiders should be happy to know that the license will likely return. Of course, it could have arguably been better in the hands of Darksiders' original creators, Vigil (now absorbed by Crytek), but its bid was beaten by Nordic's.

And, that's not all, as the above list of titles is only a small selection of those known to now belong to Nordic (pending court approval). More are still to be revealed, which Nordic had confirmed it will do in May. Essentially, Nordic owns everything that was left after everyone else cherry-picked from THQ's assets, and that's still quite a catalogue.

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Japan has a sizeable part to play in James Mangold's upcoming movie The Wolverine, given that that's where the title character will be spending a solid chunk of time. Said title character is played, of course, by Hugh Jackman, and we can get another look at what he's up to, courtesy of this new Japanese trailer for the movie.

With thanks to Bleeding Cool for the heads up, this isn't giving a great deal more away (not that we'd want it to), but we thought you might be interested in seeing it anyway.

The Wolverine lands in July.

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Already hinted at by series creator Hideo Kojima via his Twitter feed, Konami has now officially announced that Metal Gear Solid is to get a new compilation.

Metal Gear Solid: Legacy Collection will include all Metal Gear Solid titles up to and including Metal Gear Solid 4: Trophy Edition, and yes, for those wondering, it will include the original PSOne classic, Metal Gear Solid, although it may not be remastered for HD.

The titles included will be Metal Gear Solid (along with it's VR Missions pack), Metal Gear Solid 2 HD, Metal Gear Solid 3 HD, Metal Gear Solid 4: Trophy Edition and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The pack will also include the original MSX versions of Metal Gear 1 and 2, and a digital graphic novel.

The Legacy collection will be a fans dream compilation. The inclusion of the Gamecube's Twin Snakes version of Metal Gear Solid would satisfy those hankering for a more HD Metal Gear Solid, however, most will simply be happy that they can play the PSOne classic without digging out their old consoles, if they've not already grabbed it from PSN, that is.

Sadly, of you don't own a PlayStation 3, then you're going to miss out on the collection, as it's a Sony Exclusive. Metal Gear Solid: Legacy Collection will arrive in the US in June, with a European release date to be confirmed.

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