Billy wishes the lights would go out in Revolution, but they stubbornly remain on. Here's his review of the latest episode...
This review contains spoilers.
1.14 The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia
It's a great title, The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia, or it might have been had the lights been on in the first place. That said, I did notice a change this week, with Revolution moving from the mostly stupid to the generally boring.
What the writers of Revolution are entirely rubbish at doing is adding a plot element in that doesn't have an obvious use. That's well demonstrated by the appearance of the knife early in this one, where you know once Miles picks it up, and announces it's his, that it will end up killing someone before we're done. Once the story is told a few minutes later about the history of the knife, we even know who he'll kill with it. The term 'telegraphing' just doesn't do it justice. This is like erecting forty-foot billboards on each and every block on the way to each and every plot point.
Miles Matheson: the man everyone loves to hate, but nobody actually does anything about. Even he hates himself, for all the terrible things he's done to people. I'm utterly bored with this character, and actor Billy Burke looks like he's had enough too. But Revolution just isn't for insomniacs it's also for those who can't think anything through.
This week, the Mickey Mouse Club sends Miles' protégé Alex into Atlanta on foot with a nuclear device in a backpack, and then flies helicopters over the city to show how much easier they could have made that job if they weren't complete idiots. By using that time-honoured tradition of dressing as soldiers, Nora, Miles and Charlie walk into Atlanta to stop Alex using the bomb. If this sounds tedious, I'm making it sound radically more exciting than it actually was.
As an interlude to that silliness, Rachel and Aaron are wandering around in woods trying to address some misinformation that we were all given about the nanites a few weeks back. We were told previously that they have 'only two modes' by Rachel, who it soon becomes pretty apparent doesn't know jack about them at all. We meet the woman who does, and she demonstrates that turning off the power is just one of the many things they can do. What doesn't make any sense is that we're given the stark choice that they either absorb the power or they're will be destroyed. There is no just-keep-fighting-cancer mode, because those who engineered them are morons. That creates a moral dilemma for those involved, because the arbitrary rules they've created say you can't have the power back without killing loved ones. But keeping them alive is much more important than the destruction of society, isn't it?
Not for the first time, and possibly the fourteenth, I got the distinct impression that those behind Revolution are making this all up as they go along, hoping unrealistically that it will provide the show with an 'edge' and not seem like the horrible mess it is.
So what did I like this week? Well, it took fourteen episodes, but they finally introduced steam-powered vehicles other than a train! Hooray. Except their explanation of why they had this technology in Georgia was a complete joke. It's because down South they have 'money'. That was uber-dumb. Yes they might have a few dollars of a currency that's not widely accepted, but in the North they've got 'coal' and 'wood', surely? And, if you've got steam-powered vehicles, surely you'd have gas lighting in Atlanta, wouldn't you? No is the answer, so the lights never go on, to then go out.
It all ends with those in Atlanta, who hated Miles, giving him an army and weapons to go fight his old buddy, so he can do terrible things and be hated even more. I'm not a huge fan of his either, but compared to the loathing I have for the people who subject me to this show on a regular basis, he's a star.
Next week Miles meets someone who holds a grudge against him from the past, because everyone in the North American continent does, apparently.
A flashback holds some answers in this week's Bates Motel, a show that continues to impress. Here's Michael's review...
This review contains spoilers.
1.6 The Truth
In last week’s review, I noted some of the heavy symbolism and visual metaphor at play in Bates Motel. This week’s episode started with a corker. Norma circling round and round in her car while Norman held on for dear life, and neither one of them fully in control. It was an apt way to open an episode that finally addressed the Bates’ oddities head on. The viewer, like poor confused Emma, could only look on at Norm ‘n’ Norma in helpless horror. I think we could all do with some water. Some water would help, right?
First though, Dylan. His dispatching of Ethan’s killer has given his bad boy reputation a real boost and his association with the criminal organisation appears to be going places. He’d be advised to proceed with a little more caution – Gil seemed very easily impressed that he’d killed the chap, with little concern about witnesses or other lose ends. When Remo (the ‘Seasoned Professional’) showed up, there’s no effort to confirm identities before they start naming names and citing crimes. With this level of professionalism, seasoned or otherwise, it’s hardly surprising that Ethan bought a bullet.
Still, it doesn’t do to pick holes too much. The brief scene with Gil was handled well. As Dylan, Max Thieriot did a great job of conveying how upsetting the whole thing was. Given the empty coldness of his mum and brother, it was refreshing to see that some characters do feel the emotional burden of violence.
The segue into the truck disposal was great fun and Gil’s sinister voiceover, although clichéd, had a narrative purpose. Dylan’s method was obvious, it doesn’t take a pyromaniac to know how to stuff a fuel tank with a petrol-soaked rag, but it was a nice reminder of the way that he’s being manipulated from afar.
Speaking of the manipulative, Zack Shelby. Shudder. He’s spent the past few episodes getting progressively nastier and was truly horrible in this one. The sex scene with Norma made my skin crawl, but that was largely Vera Farmiga’s work. Her look of numb resignation and the switch to false enthusiasm was startling, especially as the camera lingered on her rather than her assailant.
Not that it will have much more opportunity to linger on him. The episode’s most frantic sequence, from Zack’s suspicion of the water pipes to his bloody demise, was handled with verve, particularly the tense moment in the kitchen (what is it about their kitchen? First Summers, now Shelby. You won’t catch me accepting a dinner invitation, that’s for sure.)
The killing of Shelby felt like a settling of an arc. He had been building into some kind of Big Bad, or at the very least, an end-of-season Boss but he’s gone with four episodes still in the pipeline. The sex trafficking storyline has further to run, but the biggest clue to where the show will go now was Norma’s confession and the flashback to the death of Norman’s father.
That the flashback, and the information it provided, was the episode’s best bit barely needs stating, but it does remind us that, at its heart, Bates Motel is a reboot. Even with the room for improvisation provided by the show’s expansion into White Pine Bay, it is something of a handicap. Back at episode two, I commented that the use of existing characters was limiting. It’s possibly worse than that. As with fellow TV reboot Hannibal, it’s easy to suspect that name recognition helped to get the show green lit, and now it’s something that the writers have to live with.
Bates Motel is a drama based on murder, rape, mental illness and, in all likelihood, child abuse. However, our familiarity with the characters robs it of the horror. We’re not watching an abused and confused young man, we’re watching Norman Bates. It’s the same mechanism by which Freddie Kreuger went from murderous stalker of nightmares to flogger of Halloween ‘Freddie gloves’ for kids.
The scene in which Norman kills his father is a case in point. Norman, in one of his fugue states, silently approaches his father from behind and swiftly, almost expertly, smashes his skull with a single swing. As the old man lies dead on the floor, a pool of blood expands elegantly around him. It is, apart from the blood, all very clean and efficient. Norman’s later grief is that of a different person – he simply isn’t the same guy who swung the blow and the viewer can carry on rooting for Norman.
This is where the show becomes trapped by the lead character’s condition. The death of Mr Bates, like those of Summers, Shelby and the guy who killed Ethan, was reactive. The central three only kill people from whom the viewer has suspended sympathy. Despite this, at some point, Norman will have to switch from being a dead-eyed defender of his mum’s safety to become a rather less discriminate killer. It will be a tricky path for the writers to negotiate. I have a theory of how it might be achieved, but I guess it depends on whether it’s Norman or Norma who actually has their hands on the wheel.
Emma awards the latest Christmas-set episode of Community with a C minus grade. Here's her review of Intro to Knots...
This review contains spoilers.
4.10 Intro to Knots
It's another week, so it must be time for another disappointing episode of what used to be one of the best shows on television. Yup, it's week 10 - only 10? - so step forward Intro to Knots. Given that in the Greendale-verse, it's only just Christmas 2012, there was clearly no way that a belated Holiday Special was going to be anything other than depressing - Xmas celebrations watched in spring sunshine simply don't work.
To whit - a group party at Jeff's place - you read that right, they hang out at Jeff's now - so the gang could wear sweaters, swap presents they weren't supposed to buy and so Annie can play at being Mrs Jeff, takes a turn for the worse when they accidentally take Prof Cantwell hostage. Actually, written like that, it sounds like a half-decent idea... until we discover that the only reason the cantankerous Brit is there is so that the aforementioned fake Mrs Jeff can improve her grade. Apparently, at educational institutions of the calibre of Greendale, essays are written in groups - and Jeff, as always, didn't bother. Despite his plan to graduate early by passing History, he still couldn't be bothered to read a book. But, as always to appears to be the way with Jeff's life, they passed regardless, just not with Annie's prerequisite A grade - hence the hostage taking. So far, so sitcom.
But then something unusual happened. Firstly, Pierce was completely absent from the episode. Which is surely a Christmas miracle. A Pierce-less Community can only ever be a good thing, particularly when the sad old sod is replaced by another sad old sod... Who just happens to be played by Malcolm McDowell. If only he'd been free to join the cast four years ago. Anyhoo, replacing one sad old git with another could be construed as like for like, but the Professor's foibles - loneliness, a penchant for 18 year old girls, barely recognisable British slang - are infinitely more preferable to Pierce's incomprehensible confidence, racism and general all-round dickishness. So, having started off as unusual, it got weirder - Abed was... Abed. Well, almost. Obsessed with the group doing a Die Hard Christmas, he chose to sit back and watch the bizarre action unfold as a movie goer, complete with popcorn and cultural references, rather than take part in the fake hostage situation. Which is about as close as we've got to the Abed we know and love all season. And while it might not have been his most memorable appearance ever, it's till rather lovely to have him almost back. Surely, Christmas miracle number two.
Sadly, two miracles was all Xmas 2012 could spring to - not that we're ungrateful or anything. Despite the two positives mentioned above, the rest of the episode felt strangely deflated, much like a make-do episode. The single location, the contrived Friends-style storyline, the oddly static camera work, the overt sentimentality all meant that the show couldn't rise above a sub-par special of the Friend-ly variety - think the 'live in a box' episode, but sans the snappy one liners. Yes, Friends was indeed occasionally funny, but that was a decade ago, and at times, this episode felt easily a decade old. And then there were the kittens. This show has, in the past, very successfully attempted the surreal, the bizarre and the downright insane, but kittens? Either this is a reference that British audiences just don't get, or they let the work experience kid write the last page of the show while the actual writers were at their own Christmas party.
As we've come to expect from season four, Intro to Knots was an episode that wrestled with itself - and lost. The multiple personalities of Network approved trad comedy, geek approved alternative comedy, and the please watch us next week here are some kittens don’t hate us desperation rubbed uncomfortably up against each other, vying for position, and much like wrestling, with no clear winner. If the episode had actually been an assignment - and some could argue that currently, every episode feels like an assignment - then it would have made a solid C-. Admittedly, that's barely a passing grade, but given the consecutive F's of the last several episodes, a C- is more than fair. While this show may never again hit the dizzy heights of paintball and Goodfellas, this week at least, it wasn't terrible. And that's pretty much the best we can hope for.
Community turns to Avenue Q-style puppets this week, but still falls alarmingly flat. Here's Emma's review...
This review contains spoilers.
4.9 Intro to Felt Surrogacy
As Community's painfully slow demise continues to depress comedy fans the world over, hopes that any of the remaining episodes could somehow recapture that Greendale magic, have long since died. The show's latest offering, Intro to Felt Surrogacy, sadly did nothing to stem the haemorrhaging of viewers, and in fact, may well have been the last nail in the Community coffin for many a loyal fan.
The reason for this episode's epic fail can be summed up one word: Puppets. In a vain attempt to capture the quirky, ironic magic of the past non-live action episodes, the powers that be over at Community decided, in their clearly infinite wisdom, that what the show needs to get back on top is an Avenue Q-style, 'adult' felt extravaganza. Because nothing says funny like a hand puppet on LSD. Based around the absurd idea that Dean Pelton a) cares that the group are being weird and b) wouldn’t relish all the Jeff alone time that would result in the aforementioned weirdness, he persuades the group to therapise themselves with the help of said felt substitutes. Reliving a drugged-up night in the woods, after much literal hand-wringing, the now obligatory comments about repetition being bad - oh the irony - and growth being good, the group are back to normal, and we're left wondering what the hell just happened.
For all its 'quirky''adult comedy' intentions, what's atcually happening on screen is neither quirky nor adult. In fact, in place, it borders on insulting, as it has become clear that the new regime apparently doesn't watch the show it's currently ruining. Here's a hint, new regime: if you're going to build a show around the revelation of terrible secrets during an accidental psychotropic experience, at least make the secrets actual secrets. For instance, don't tell us that Britta is a fake activist - we've all known that since the episode when Annie and Shirley decided to get in on some of that left wing action. Pierce is a liar? We've known that since the first episode. Troy isn't very bright? Again, see the first episode. Annie will do anything for an A? Have they not seen the episode where she launched an entire investigation into who schmushed her potato. And Jeff's just like his dad? See every episode ever. Aside from Shirley's admission of questionable parenting, the only actual secret revealed during the episode was that Troy apparently doesn't like the woman he's sleeping with very much. Clearly, the script took a back seat to the novelty gloves, which in itself was a grave mis-step.
Once again, all the elements that should make up an episode of Community were present, but once again, the elements were badly chosen, off kilter and wide of the mark by a very considerable distance. Even the Dean's Pinocchio costume was creepy rather than amusing. At least we know why now, though - it's difficult to keep a show original if you've no idea what's happened over the last three years. Perhaps what was most distasteful about this episode though was it's bizarre treatment of Britta. Now, regular readers will know that a little Britta-baiting is wholeheartedly welcomed, however, in Intro to Felt Surrogacy, it was puzzling and distinctly un-Community like. Having spent most of this season trying to convince us that Britta is a mature, focussed adult now, it seems contrary to pick on her in such a fashion this week.
So, aside from the forced jollity of the novelty gloves, Intro to Felt Surrogacy is just the latest in a series-long arc of confusion. This is a show that has lost its way in the worst way, and the schizophrenia caused by its current predicament becomes more apparent with each episode. What was once anger at the shoddy treatment of what was once a unique show, has been replaced with a sadness at the loss of some great comedy and superb characters.
With audience numbers understandably dwindling, it's increasingly unlikely that the study group will return for a fifth season, and perhaps that is no bad thing. What is a bad thing, is that Community's swan song season has been hijacked by idiots.
Big Bang Community strikes again, in another episode that misses most of its marks. Here's Emma's review...
This review contains spoilers.
4.8 Herstory of Dance
In what has become a depressingly familiar occurrence at Greendale, Herstory of Dance once again appeared to have several of the essential Community ingredients, but was seriously lacking in both method and execution. When the even-more-bizarrely-costumed-than-usual Dean Pelton announces a college dance that will allow Abed to live out one of the classic sitcom/romcom setups, classic comedy of the surreal Community style seems like a cake walk. Abed on two dates at once? In costume? While tricking Annie and Shirley? Surely even Big Bang Community couldn't mess this up...
However, as the clearly audible, collective gritting of audience teeth bore out, even Big Bang Community can mess this up. Where once the show's TV and movie homages were subtle, close to the writer's and audience's hearts, and often, not as obvious as you might think, these days they are vapid, general to the point of ridiculousness, about as subtle as Jordan in a crotchless neon wedding dress, and just about as funny...
Alarm bells started ringing when, rather than jump at the chance for TV-based hi jinx, Abed refuses. Once again the voice of Community in more ways than one, he talks about growth and not seeing everything through the filter of television - which, as far as most of us can tell, was the central premise of the show to begin with, but more on that later. When he eventually decides to take on the world's most overdone teen boy bit, it's bizarrely gagless. When forts or paintball, Don Draper or Troy are involved, the joy on-screen is palpable. Here, the strongest emotion in display is apathy; even when Abed shockingly meets the girls of his dreams, and even more shockingly, she's the quiet chick in the glasses, he mirrors our mood perfectly.
By the time he's on stage, declaring his like for the girl he just met, the weight of predictability has broken the episode. Of course, any homage or reference needs an element of predictability, or rather, at the very least to be recognisable, before they're generally subverted or used in unusual ways - something that Community used to excel at. See the Goodfellas episode for proof. In their efforts to allegedly make the show more accessible, the show's most interesting and creative quality has been hacked out and replaced with a random bland generator.
Sadly, what pretty much every network in the Western world has yet to realise is that their audiences in large part, are composed of viewers that were raised on TV and movies. It's a language that many, many people speak, and by removing that pop culture referencing element - that shared touchstone that crosses age, geographic locations and pretty much every other boundary - there's very little left of what makes the show special, and Herstory of Dance is a prime example of that. And let's not forget, with each new episode, as Abed becomes less and less Abed, Pierce gets less and less offensive, and more and more fatherly towards the group. This cannot be a coincidence - the smart money says we're reaping the rewards of a certain Senior Citizen's diva tantrum not so long ago.
It's clearly not just Abed that's suffering under the show's new regime - even the intentionally quirky cameos that have been so successful in previous seasons now fall as flat as the jokes. Sophie B. Hawkins? Because this week, Britta is no longer the quickly maturing psyche major that the new show forced her to be; this week she's so dumb that she confuses Susan B. Anthony with the aforementioned 90's singer? Even for old Britta, that's a stretch. A seemingly small gripe perhaps, but it's one of the most obvious ways in which the show has lost its identity, or rather, had it forcibly removed.
So while it's now clear that Big Bang Community is here to stay, it would be simply unfair to judge it by Old Community's incredibly high standards. Rather, by the so low they're almost non-existent standards of the show's current incarnation, it stands as one of the better Big Bang Community episode. However, like The Big Bang Theory itself, that's not saying much. Graduation is very nearly upon us, and at least then, this 'experimental' final year phase will be over, and like many graduates, we can all pretend like it never happened. TVland certainly will.
It's battle royale time on Xbox.com, and the Xbox Ultimate Collection contest is under way...
In a move to attract more punters to the Xbox Live gaming marketplace, Microsoft has begun a tournament of sorts for the most popular XBLA titles.
Taking place over eight weeks, the contest will pit some of XBLA's biggest titles against each other, with the public voting for which is the best. Each week two titles will face off, with the winner being added to the Xbox Ultimate Collection and then being discounted by 50% for the following week. This week's contenders are puzzlers, Zuma II and Bejewelled 3.
In all, there will be 30 games included in the contest, which incorporates titles from six different game genres, action and adventure, arcade, combat, puzzle, sport and strategy.
To chart the progress of the collection, there's an interactive leaderboard, which not only shows you the current state of affairs, but also allows punters to assemble their own ultimate collection.
You'll find a link to the Ultimate Collection website below, which is fully interactive, with an island that you can explore, revealing information about why each game has been included in the contest.
Every leak helps, as the next Call of Duty, called Ghosts, has been leaked by Tesco...
One of the biggest retailers in the world, Tesco, has seemingly dropped a bit of a clanger, and has leaked the name and box art for the next entry in the Call of Duty series, Ghosts.
A listing made public by the company included cover art for both the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 incarnations of the game, which is quite telling, as previously it was believed that Ghosts was headed only to PC and next gen consoles.
The box art, if final, clearly confirms the Ghosts name, and also has Infinity Ward's logo at the bottom. The soldier on the cover is pulling on a mask that looks identical to the one worn by Ghost, a character seen in previous Modern Warfare titles.
Tesco has since taken down the listing for the game.
Despite various leaks, not much is known about the game, other than it'll apparently take place in the future, but due to a major plot twist, current technology will be used. I'm guessing some sort of EMP incident that's disabled future tech, or a nuclear threat of some description. Treyarch already explored hacking future weapons in Black Ops II, so hopefully IW will do something different.
2K Marin's much-delayed, and now re-designed XCOM title will be unveiled soon...
After much speculation, it's been officially revealed that the new XCOM tactical shooter from 2K will be revealed very soon.
An official statement from 2K Games stated the game has changed greatly since the 2011 reveal, and that the final result will be more in line with Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
The post on the 2K blog stated,“In the coming days the world will get a fresh look at the long-awaited squad-based tactical shooter in development at 2K Marin. Announced back in 2010, the game has undergone an evolution since we last showed it to you at E3 2011. Firaxis’ critically acclaimed turn-based strategy title, XCOM: Enemy Unknown, has reignited the classic franchise and we feel that the time is right to deliver a new experience within the world of XCOM.”
The post also mentions that the dev team has, during a collaborative process, refined the game and added new ideas in order to create the best possible XCOM title. Presumably a lot of this came from the direction Firaxis made with its highly successful outing, and a bid to make the game appeal to the same fan base, whilst attracting new players.
More information will be revealed in“a matter of days.”
Spoilers ahoy in this glut of images from Saturday's Doctor Who episode, Journey To The Centre Of The TARDIS...
Here we are then, two mini-trailers for this Saturday's Doctor Who episode, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, a short clip, and two dozen images from the adventure. That's more Doctor Who excitement in one place than is strictly healthy.
Spoilers ahead (especially in the last few images), so proceed with caution...
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Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS airs on BBC One this Saturday the 27th of April at 6.30pm. Read our spoiler-free review, here.
Spoiler-filled discussion of Iron Man 3 welcome here. Just stay away if you've not seen the film!
Have you seen Iron Man 3 yet? If you have, then feel free to read on. If you haven't, we can't warn you enough that we're in DEEP SPOILER TERRITORY here.
Because we suspected, when we saw the film, that this might be the most divisive Marvel movie to date. With that in mind, it makes sense, we figured, to open up a place to discuss and debate the film with as many spoilers as you like.
So here we are. Basic rules: be nice to each other, and stay on topic. That established, leave your thoughts on Iron Man 3 below...
Pixar's Monsters Inc gets a prequel, with Monsters University. And here's the brand new trailer...
The animated movie to beat this summer? Monsters University could well be. Set before the events of Monsters Inc, the film reunites Sully and Mike, telling the story of how they came to meet for the first time.
The first preview trailer, released a few months ago, was a real hoot. And now? There's a big, long new trailer to feast your eyes on. Dan Scanlon is directing, John Goodman and Billy Crystal are back on voicing duties, and the film is due for release in July. Take a look at this and see what you reckon...
Aardman is bringing Shaun The Sheep to the big screen, and it'll be in a full stop-motion feature.
After The Pirates: An Adventure With Scientists hit big in the UK last year, and less big in the US, the future of Aardman Animations' movie division wasn't clear. We knew that more films were on the way, but what we didn't know was what they were.
Nick Park has been said several times to be working on a new film, with plans to tackle a second Wallace & Gromit feature after that. We hope that remains the case. But now we have a confirmed announcement as to at least one project on the Aardman slate: a Shaun The Sheep movie.
And there's some really good news here: it's going to be a stop motion feature. It's going to be written and directed by Richard Starzak and Mark Burton, and Studio Canal will be distributing the movie in the UK.
Interestingly, Sony doesn't seem involved with this one. Aardman did have a deal in place with Sony, but we can't ascertain whether that's still in force. Aardman is believed to have more CG features in the offing, and it's possible that they'll go through Sony, but Shaun The Sheep isn't.
As for a story, there's a brief synopsis that's been released. It reads: "When Shaun's mischief inadvertently leads to the Farmer being taken away from the farm, Shaun, Bitzer and the flock have to go into the big city to rescue him, setting the stage for an epic adventure".
No word on a release date yet, but with a new Aardman stop motion feature, you can be sure we'll keep you updated. This is a good day.
Steve Coogan stars inthe biopic of Soho publisher Paul Raymond, The Look Of Love. Here's Paul's review of a rather flaccid comedy drama...
Sex on film is a tricky business. Orson Welles once argued that the 'physical act of love' was the one of only two things (along with praying) that you could never accurately depict on screen: and it remains true, even if in recent years all manner of actual unsimulated sex acts have slipped past the watchful eyes of a BBFC board determined to disarm film geeks who grew up on banned nunchucks and video nasties. It remains true because, of course, Welles wasn’t referring to actually showing the fleshy mechanics of sex – his argument was that the heady emotional cocktail you actually experience when you're having sex just isn’t something that will translate adequately into another medium.
Paul Raymond, aka The King of Soho, aka Steve Coogan in Michael Winterbottom's biopic The Look Of Love, would have disagreed with Welles's sentiments in the strongest possible terms, having spent his whole life attempting - and, for the most part, succeeding - to turn the sex he surrounded himself with into mass-market entertainment and, naturally, into a tidy profit, riding the coat-tails of a sex industry borne of the progressive 60s and 70s era to a multi-million pound fortune and a Central London property empire.
In The Look Of Love we're first introduced to Raymond at the end of his career, after he's established a stranglehold on the strip of peep shows, sex shops and strip bars along Berwick Street in London and long after his (possibly self-appointed) coronation as The King of Soho (the original title for the film before a rival biopic, made in conjunction with the Raymond family, cried foul and left Winterbottom's film with its current 'hey-we-need-something-will-this-do' title).
We then follow the story of his personal and professional journey over the course of the next three decades, with these two facets of his life consistently, hopelessly intertwined (it's telling that all of the women in his life also work for him). We move from his bawdy on-stage sex comedies to the gynecological intensity of his Men Only magazines in the late 80s; from his loyal, sexually liberal wife (Anna Friel) to a leggy, even more liberal younger model (Tamsin Edgerton); and finally to his relationship with his daughter (Imogen Poots), the heir to the Raymond empire who idolises her father while struggling to establish herself as a talent in her own right.
The incredible job Coogan and Winterbottom did in recreating the world of post-punk Manchester in 24 Hour Party People suggests that they’d be the ideal team to pull us into the seedy underbelly of Soho in its grubby prime. So it's surprising then just how mediocre and uninvolving The Look of Love feels: it's unconvincing even as a time capsule, with daft clothes, pube-y wigs (looking at you, Chris Addison) and repeated, hackneyed montages of hedonism left to paper over the cracks left by a staid screenplay and uncharacteristically flat direction from Winterbottom.
Also, for a film ostensibly about sex and exploitation, it's surprisingly prudish, even when it moves on to the Men Only years: everyone who has sex in The Look Of Love is either a) softly lit, b) in a montage, and they pretty much always look as if they're having fun. The closest the film comes to acknowledging the seedy nature of the business is when a character is compelled to leave a relationship due to the partner's appetite for group sex, but even then their disquiet at having to participate in relentless, coke-fuelled orgies is registered onscreen with little more than an mildly exasperated 'you left the toilet seat up' eyeroll.
The performances are also something of an issue - of all the big-screen variations of the Steve Coogan persona that Coogan has given in Winterbottom's films (not a criticism, by the way - most of the great film stars in history operate within certain parameters) this is the least successful. Coogan is a fine actor and has demonstrated dramatic chops in the past, but every time it feels as if he's going to tap into something interesting with his performance as Raymond, it's undercut with a Partridge-ism shorthand for a quick laugh that can't help but distance you from Raymond as a character in his own right.
This isn't just a problem with Coogan - while the story of Raymond's life has the ready-made structure of a Greek tragedy, the supporting cast is predominantly filled with familiar faces from British comedy, including Matt Lucas, David Walliams, Chris Addison, Miles Jupp and Stephen Fry, which, along with the film's nudge-nudge wink-wink attitude to sex, makes it feel more like a late period Carry On film than the British Boogie Nights it would clearly like to be. It's a shame, as the central family/relationship storyline constantly threatens to be involving, only for Will from The Inbetweeners to show up and start being Will from The Inbetweeners, swiftly robbing the film of its dramatic momentum.
There are good performances here, though - particularly from Anna Friel, who brings reliable gravitas and humanity to her role as a strong, liberated woman baffled by her husband's behaviour, and Imogen Poots, whose offbeat, heart-breaking performance is the most interesting thing about The Look Of Love while still feeling as if it belongs in a different film.
For all of its many flaws The Look Of Love is diverting enough for most of its running time, but we have to expect more from Coogan and Winterbottom, who together have served up three of the funniest, most inventive British films of the past decade in 24 Hour Party People,A Cock And Bull Story, and The Trip. Put succinctly, for a sex-comedy drama, The Look Of Love just isn't sexy, funny or dramatic enough.
We delve into the recent first trailer for Thor: The Dark World to find out what geeky goodness it contains...
As if there wasn't enough Marvel Studios material in cinemas this week, what with the release of Iron Man 3, the wheels of promotion are already moving on the next film in the so-called Second Phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – Thor 2, aka Thor: The Dark World.
And given what an unexpected hit Thor was, we can hardly wait to see what'll be in it. That's why we've gone through the trailer to see what details can be picked out…
Strange Lands
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The first Thor film was set largely in Oklahoma as a nod to J Michael Straczynski's much-celebrated run on the comics - but Thor: The Dark World is taking place in a much stranger land: Britain! As a native, it's hard not to be pleased by that. This isn't the first time London has appeared in a Marvel film, but last time it was Fantastic Four 2, so we'd rather not mention it. We've known for a while that Thor 2 was being shot in the UK, but this is the first we've heard about a giant set-piece in the capital. Between this and Star Trek Into Darkness, it's pretty clear that this year's blockbusters have it in for the East End.
Of course, it's not entirely clear what's happening (except that it appears to be lifting from Fleur & Manu's music video for M83's Midnight City…) but you can bet that it's somehow related to bad things happening on the world tree. And whatever giant thing it is that's carving a slice out of Greenwich Palace.
Meet The Parents
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Natalie Portman was, let's face it, dealt with rather hastily in The Avengers. It's likely that Thor's going to have a lot of explaining to do when he next comes back to meet her. Apparently his way of smoothing things over and proving that he's serious about a relationship is to take her back to Asgard so she can meet his family and friends. Will they successfully reverse the hilarious culture-shock moments from the first film? Let's hope!
Of course, judging by that shot of her on a weird glowy thing and the amount of scowling from both Odin and Freya, it's a safe bet that hanging out in Asgard isn't as much fun as it used to be. There are spoilers out there explaining what happens to Foster if you're interested, but suffice to say it's probably not good.
Sidekicks
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As well as adapting material from the comics, the Marvel movies have never been shy about creating their own characters. And the best character they've come up with is, without a doubt, Darcy Lewis. Yes, stop your crying, Agent Coulson fans. Frankly, Thor 2 without Kat Dennings' Gen Y sidekick would've been a travesty. Let's hope she gets more screen time than the trailer suggests!
Someone not seen in this trailer (but already confirmed for the cast) is Eric Selvig. Last seen spouting exposition The Avengers, we can't help wondering if he'll be as traumatised as Tony Stark was by the whole experience.
Also returning: Sif! Is that a shifty look she's giving Jane earlier in the trailer? Although the first Thor film was largely a story about a squabbling family, there was more than a little feeling of fairytale romance to Thor and Foster's story. If Sif's getting jealous, there's a good chance that she'll have to make some hard decisions when it comes to helping rescue Foster. Let's just hope there's no one with an ulterior motive around to whisper in her ear…
Loki-motive
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Let's face it. As much fun as Hemsworth's Thor can be, in a kind of god-as-frat-boy way, it's Tom Hiddleston's Loki who stole the show in Avengers. Will he repeat that feat here? Well, he's already walked off with the trailer simply by turning up with his third haircut in as many films, so I'm betting yes.
Of course, the context of his appearance tells us two things: firstly, that the situation is already incredibly dire, and secondly, that it's all going to end in tears. Probably for anyone who ever trusted Loki. I mean, come on! Not only did he try to usurp Asgard's throne and conquer Earth, but he's the God of Mischief! That's his job! What more evidence do you need no to trust him?
By Ecc'
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And finally, who's this bizarre and creepy figure? Could it be the villain of the piece, Malekith, as portrayed by Christopher Eccleston? Maybe. Whoever it is appears to be the one driving a giant evil-looking spaceship into Earth, so if it is Malekith, it looks like he's going to be a villain who's not afraid to get up close and personal. Especially since the same floating ship also turns up in Asgard later on.
The question, though, is why he's come to Earth. And why he later goes to Asgard. Both bold moves, and judging by the scene later in the trailer where Malekith has Foster in some kind of magical grip, it's likely that he's using her to get to Thor. What does he want? There are no clues… yet.
Thor: The Dark World is due for release on the 30th October in the UK.
As the Marvel Cinematic Universe enters phase two with Iron Man 3, James ponders the dominant position Disney has in movie entertainment...
Director Fury, commence Phase Two. It starts right now as Iron Man 3 arrives in cinemas to propel the Marvel movie plan onward through the next few years. It will carry on with a series of standalone flicks - Thor: The Dark World, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy - before climaxing in May 2015 with The Avengers 2.
Those films will dominate the landscape, and that's the way the Marvel Cinematic Universe will be unrolling. Then, once all those movies have come to pass, it'll be on to Phase Three, then Phase Four and so on so on potentially until the end of the world. (It'll probably keep on running in another world, such as Asgard, which is lucky enough to have Thor and various other Norse deities on hand to prevent an apocalypse.)
The cycle could carry on forever, such is the depth of the Marvelverse and the solidity of the movie super-franchise deftly developed from it over the past decade. A tremendous amount of credit is due to Marvel Studios' masterminds - producer Kevin Feige and all his cohorts in collaboration with an array of moviemaking maestros and prime screen performers. Collectively, they've done an outstanding job of building up beloved print icons as cinematic characters, introducing them in staggered fashion and then ingeniously weaving them all together to maximum effect.
The end pay-off - The Avengers or Avengers Assemble if you prefer the UK title which explicitly outlines what happens - was so satisfying as a result. It's possibly the ultimate ensemble movie, the ultimate event movie and ultimate comic book blockbuster experience. It was also the ultimate vindication for perennial outsider Joss Whedon, who finally got to avenge himself for all the creative frustrations inflicted upon his ginger genius over the ages.
All the carefully constructed hype and momentum culminated in that sweet shot where the camera circles round our assembled costume heroes as they gird themselves to fight back against the Chitauri fleet devastating New York City. It's one of the greatest moments in pop culture history and one that comic book geeks have been waiting decades for - the orgasmic apex of a impossible fantasy that somehow became reality (or, at least, 3D cinema screen reality).
Epic heights and an amazing achievement, indeed. Now tasked with following up that monumental Hulksmash, Whedon is under immense pressure to deliver the goods with The Avengers 2 and the same applies for the standalone movies prefacing it.
There's no real reason to be pessimistic or anxious, though. We've come to accept that it's pretty much a given that Marvel movies - like Studio Ghibli or Pixar features - are going to be brilliant. Aside from some ambivalence about the two Hulk flicks and Iron Man 2, the Marvel Movie Universe is popularly held in great esteem and regarded as a franchise consistently operating at a high standard.
Untroubled by doubt, I'm looking forward to all the future films that'll make up Phase Two and then the subsequent phases. Nevertheless, I'm not completely clear of all concern as I approach Iron Man 3 and its followers. I'm needled by a question that I think is worth asking: Are Marvel too good?
I'll break it down: all rivals have been left reeling as Marvel Studios have effectively adapted comics lore into immersive, intelligent works of blockbuster entertainment. The films collectively making up Phase One have, thus far, blown geek minds and simultaneously appealed to mass audiences beyond the cult fanbase.
On movie terms, in the battle fought between the Big Two, it's definitely a bit of an ant-and-boot affair as Marvel stomp all over DC Comics. Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy aside, while Marvel has gone stratospheric, DC has been grounded with failures like Green Lantern and Jonah Hex. All hope for an incredible reversal of fortune now rest on the shoulders of the Man Of Steel.
Meanwhile, Marvel reigns resplendent and seemingly invincible, but I question whether their excelsior edge is distorting the pop cultural playing field and potentially harming the game. Is it fair that one power player should absolutely dominate? Are we sleepwalking into a monopolised movie scene?
The crucial thing to remember here is that Marvel is now owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns Lucasfilm, The Muppets Studio and Pixar. Alongside the Avengers and the rest of the Marvelverse, the House of Mouse holds the Star Wars galaxy, the Muppets, Indiana Jones and much more in its mighty grip. Disney lords over modern western pop culture and pretty much rules everything around you (or, rather, everything that was around your childhood).
This is slightly disconcerting, and I can envisage a disastrous dystopian scenario where Disney takes over the entire universe and manages to do so by continually producing exceptional Marvel movies that subdue audiences into awe and erode any desires to resist against Mickeytatorship.
To ensure that this doesn't happen, I believe that a bad Marvel movie needs to be crafted. An offensively awful effort that bombs at the box office would be a shock to the system and complacent cinemagoers will be roused to wary vigilance once again. For the sake of essential balance, Marvel Studios needs to mess it all up and handicap their own rise to pre-eminence. (Read: Walt Disney's ghastly rise to Universal Supremacy for, as described in the Donaldducknomicon, "In his Magic Kingdom cryo-chamber, dead Walter waits dreaming.")
Trashing the good work of the cycle is going to be difficult to do, but it is achievable if the right wrong-turns are made. Here are a few ways in which Marvel can screw up Phase Two...
Make a huge mistake in replacing Robert Downey Jr
Speculation surrounds Tony Stark and there are questions over whether Iron Man 3 will be the last time we see Robert Downey Jr in the role. Hopefully this won't be the case - I mean, come on! Robert Downey Jr is Tony Stark! - but if at his contract's end he's decided he's done, so be it. We'll have to embrace whoever succeeds him as Iron Man and I, for one, will do that enthusiastically.
At least, I will if they've made a good choice. Miscast the arc reactor heart of the Avengers, however, and the whole thing falls apart. To mess it all up, all Marvel have to do is hire the wrong man to fill Downey's steel shoes. Pass the poisoned chalice to a performer whose talents are best deployed elsewhere and who certain audiences have an intense dislike for, and we'll have realised the idealised atrocity. Ladies and gentleman, I introduce to you your new Tony Stark and Iron Man: Mr Adam Sandler.
Make everything too 'child-friendly'
By desperately chasing family audiences and consciously dumbing down to appeal to kids (because people wrongly believe that children are stupid), Marvel could significantly dilute the power of its cinematic products. Sanitise the Marvelverse so that it's stripped of death and violence, thereby eliminating suspenseful threat, and all the emotional depth and intrigue of the earlier films will be undermined. And how about if all the witty dialogue were replaced with by-the-numbers slapstick as our assembled heroes suddenly have a regressive personality shift and become goofballs specialising in repetitive poo jokes? Do this and everyone over the age of three will be disgusted and drop Marvel Phase Two faster than they would a soiled diaper.
Alternatively, make it all too 'adult'
Attempt to 'Nolanise' the Marvelverse and accentuate the enhanced-gravity of Shane Black's Iron Man 3 to extreme ends and the whole supergroup shawarma party becomes unbearably dark. I'm not talking about 'going dark' in the generic sense though - I mean delving to deathly grim depths and pushing the material into hardcore Rated-R regions that even the most unflinching, desensitised film aficionados would find troubling.
Bear witness to heavy sexposition on the SHIELD Helicarrier as ultra-profane Nick Fury outlines plots while conducting sadomasochistic orgies. Observe with discomfort as Black Widow produces surrealistic ultraviolent bloodbaths while Hawkeye conducts his own cannibal holocausts. Meanwhile beneath the Brooklyn Bridge unhinged addict Captain America is going through a harrowing crystal meth problem. True believers: look upon this depravity and despair for the fun franchise you once loved.
Force ill-fitting franchise crossovers
The only thing I didn't like in The Muppets was the moment at the movie's end when a Mickey Mouse's iconic ears appeared in a firework display. It felt uneasy and, actually, pretty rude - a tactless interruption from Disney's mascot as his trademark icon photobombed the Jim Henson party.
To similarly besmirch the sanctity of the Marvelverse, all the Walt Disney Company has to do is enforce other crossover cameo appearances from other franchises' characters. Everyone will be understandably furious when they suddenly find that Thor has been sucked into an animated alternate dimension where he has to save a singing Disney princess. Likewise, many will leave theatres when they see Sam the Eagle and Captain America tag-team fighting Boba Fett. No one will ever forgive Joss Whedon if The Avengers 2 opens with Kermit the Frog, Yoda and the Incredible Hulk lamenting about how "it's not easy being green".
If the next set of Marvel movies commit some of these heinous errors we'll be okay. We'll have dreadful films but we'll have balance, and the House of Mouse megalomaniac monopoly mission powered by the Avengers will have been checked. Fallibility exposed, the Marvel Cinematic Universe will have shown its vulnerability and that's important, because their vulnerability is the very quality that makes Marvel's icons so appealing.
After the Phase Two abomination, everyone can get excited about the point where things 'get back on track' or 'return to form'. I still believe in heroes, even if they went through a strange and disappointing period where their superpower seemed to be making poo jokes.
James Clayton is going to enter the picture in Phase 5 when Nick Fury and Disney finally get their act together and make him a reasonable offer. You can visit his website or follow him on Twitter.
The grumbling still continues to surround Paramount's World War Z. But surely, Simon argues, we need to see the film before we judge it...
Heading into summer blockbuster season, there's usually a film or two that appears to have a target on the back of its head. Said target thus attracts a degree of justified and not so justified internet 'feedback', and it means that the film in question has to do something extra special to turn things around.
Head back to 2009, and the film in question was Avatar. It may be puzzling to think it now, but in the months ahead of the release of the biggest box office hit of all time, there were serious doubts. A lacklustre first trailer didn't help, and the numerous and oft-repeated Ferngully gags weren't far behind. Avatar, we were told, was in serious trouble. You know what happened next.
But then you probably know what happened to Green Lantern as well. The Martin Campbell-directed blockbuster was garnering negative buzz for some time ahead of its release, and sadly, in this case the final print justified the vast bulk of it.
This summer? If you put aside The Lone Ranger for the minute, a tricky sell of a film but with some intriguing ingredients, the target for the internet ire is the film of Max Brooks'World War Z.
And, to a degree, you can see why. Few people got to the end of the book and thought one of these two things: that it was a logical film adaptation, and that it would be suitable material for a mega-money, mainstream summer blockbuster.
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But Paramount Pictures has heavily backed the project, reportedly spending the best part of $200m to bring World War Z to the big screen. It was originally scheduled to be released in December 2012, but the studio shunted the film to its current June 2013 release date instead. Interestingly, both films that Paramount delayed from 2012 to 2013 thus far - Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters and G.I. Joe: Retaliation - have performed really well, to the point where sequels to both are in the works. So the delay in itself is perhaps nothing to be overly concerned over, at least on a commercial level.
World War Z, though, has challenges. This week, it was confirmed that the film had been given a PG-13 rating in the US. Talking to Empire magazine for its latest issue, director Marc Forster said he had no problem with that, and you'd have to imagine, given the money that's been lavished on the movie, that it was probably part of the deal from day one.
Forster also defended, in the same Empire piece, the loudly reported stories of reshoots. Damon Lindelof, a writer who must be getting just a little tired of painting targets on his own back, reportedly came on board last June to rewrite a good chunk of the final act, even though initial production had been completed. Forster confirmed that a new ending was crafted for the film, which took just shy of five weeks to shoot. Again, he argued that reshoots were always part of the process. He used a persian rug analogy, but we'll let him off that.
The one alarm bell for us, aside from the fact that the book really isn't a natural and logical fit for a traditional movie screenplay (and that's not us being pissy: the structure of the book doesn't seem to lend it to a film at all), is how shy the promotional material appears to be about the 'Z' part of the title. Paramount, and it's better than marketing movies than we are, has opted to push the 'World War' element very hard, and the scale of the film. It's also pushed the fact that Brad Pitt is starring, which is logical. But take a look at the trailers and posters for the film, and there's nothing remotely approaching a close-up of a zombie. Given that they're such a component part of the movie, why is Paramount trying to hide them?
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Furthermore, is a film about zombies and global war really PG-13 material? And if it is, should it be? Inevitably, that's where the debate has been this week, even appreciating that PG-13 allows you to get away with a lot more than it once did.
But are we overlooking a trump card in World War Z's corner? Notwithstanding the fact that director Marc Forster is capable of making excellent films (Quantum Of Solace aside), Brad Pitt is nobody's fool. He's not just star of this film, he's produced it and shepherded the project as well. And you'd have to imagine he's the one who initially bought into the material, and has every incentive to protect it.
Because there are terrific filmmakers at work here, and appreciating there are concerns - as we've outlined - you can't accuse Paramount, Forster and Pitt of doing things by halves here. It might not all hang together come the final cut, but you simply won't be able to accuse them of not giving it a good go.
The shroud of negativity is not an unbeatable foe for World War Z, and it's an issue we've addressed before on the site here. In the years we've been running Den Of Geek, we've seen a whole bunch of films, including the likes of Dredd, X-Men: First Class, Avatar and more, emerge from being written off in advance, to turn into something far better than people were giving them credit for.
The conclusion here is obvious, and that's to wait until the film has been seen. And if the overriding negativity does prove to be correct, then a lengthy and brutal post-mortem is almost certain. Yet there just might be more to World War Z than it's being given credit for. It's clearly not going to be a faithful recreation of the book, but then it never was. If it can capture the themes, tone and key sequences, though, then the idea of the two possible further sequels might just be an upbeat one. No matter what the internet is currently saying.
A posh collector's book, featuring all nine of Doctor Who's regeneration stories, and more, will be released this June...
In this, the fiftieth anniversary year, there'll be no shortage of Doctor Who merchandise and memorabilia released to mark the occasion. Travel mugs, coins, teapots, prints, jigsaws... even (and this one is exciting for those occuping the overlap in the Venn diagram of people who love quizzing, tiny pieces of wedge-shaped plastic, and Doctor Who) a Who version of Trivial Pursuit.
This though, is one for the serious collectors. Regeneration is a limited edition book including six DVDs including The Caves of Androzani, The End of Time, and (trumpet fanfare) The Tenth Planet. All nine regeneration episodes are included, along with photography, and detailed accounts of each transition. The missing fourth episode of the First Doctor's regeneration story has been recreated in 2D animation, a clip from which you can see below courtesy of Doctor Who TV.
Here's a full list of the stories included in the DVD book: The Tenth Planet, The War Games, Planet of the Spiders, Logopolis, The Caves of Androzani, Time and the Rani, Doctor Who: The Movie, Bad Wolf and The Parting of the Ways, The End of Time. Watch the teaser trailer for the collection below.
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The Regeneration collection will be released on the 24th of June only in the UK and is available to pre-order at the BBC shop, now.
Cameron sings the praises of twenty-five classic and modern Doctor Who adventures that deserve more love. See what made the cut below...
Doctor Who fans can be an odd bunch at times (and by that I mean all the time), what's gold to one is dross to another. And when you think everyone is agreed on a genuine stinker (Timelash, for example), you'll find it has admirers in abundance. But what's here are some of the stories that, for whatever reason, get overlooked, underseen and, perhaps, undervalued - in no particular order.
The Awakening
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Two-parters often get forgotten about (in classic Doctor Who at any rate) and this Peter Davison story, whilst perhaps best known to Who fans for a famous blooper featuring a horse, has some tremendous imagery and beautiful location shooting. Best of all is the villain of the piece, The Malus, who put the willies right up me as young boy. Its appearance in the TARDIS as an almost monkey-like being is unsettling, whilst its full appearance featuring a giant head may remind older readers of the arcade game Sinistar (which also scared me as a youngster).
Planet of the Dead
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Considering how bold and "out there" this one-hour episode is, the amount of derision the David Tennant Easter special gets kind of baffles me. Gareth Roberts and Russell T. Davies produced a romptactular spectacular with planet-hopping on a bus! The Tritovore made for an interesting and friendly alien but it was the unnamed nasty flying stingray-like creatures that devoured planets and created their own wormholes who chomped through the romp most threateningly.
The Ambassadors of Death
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I suspect, since the DVD of this story was released last year, that this Jon Pertwee seven-parter (yes, you read correctly - seven) is currently being reassessed by fans. There's a tremendous energy throughout (okay, perhaps a couple of episodes could have been snipped) but its change of locale and story twists are more than enough to make this a hugely pleasing outing. Best of all are the cliffhangers (and there are some crackers in The Ambassadors of Death) which find the famous Doctor Who sting acutely breaking in on the action with a fraction of a second to spare, very modern and very exciting. The use of in-episode stings, which punctuate the start-of-episode recap are also to be highly commended for their ingenuity.
The Leisure Hive
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Kicking off the Eighties in measurable style, and by that I mean glitzy, this Tom Baker four-parter saw the beginning of the end for his time in the TARDIS. The Argolins were straight out of a David Bowie video but the Foamasi were an interesting and excellently designed alien (despite their realisation not being quite so excellent). Highlights include seeing Baker getting his limps ripped apart and an expertly executed aged Doctor, a top make-up job. It was a fresh start for the decade and a signpost of things to come.
Aliens of London/World War III
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Ok, so some of you don't like The Slitheen. I'm not a fan of Game of Thrones but I don't go on about it. For the first time in Who's history, we got a proper alien invasion story that involved the world and we saw this evidenced (through what would become a Russell T. Davies trademark, rolling news items), witnessing the ramifications on the population, not just The Doctor and his companion. The crashing of the ship into Big Ben and then into the Thames was a marvellous slice of imagery, and an iconic moment for the show displaying its new-found ability to utilise special effects convincingly. And who doesn't love the Space Pig?
The Ark
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Detractors of this William Hartnell outing often cite aliens The Monoids and invisible Refusians but any story that features the line "Take them to the security kitchen!" needs to be appreciated. In all seriousness, The Ark is notable, and well worth watching for a few things: the interference that The Doctor and his companions have unwittingly caused (bringing the common cold into contact with an alien race); the results of this many years down the line when the TARDIS returns to the same spot; and a cracking and visually beautiful cliffhanger to its second episode.
Black Orchid
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Another two-parter and another set in the past for Peter Davison and his young gang. Its brevity serves the story perfectly in this Agatha Christie-esque tale with a dark, and horrific, family secret at the heart of the tale. The location shooting is a joy, not mention tremendously English, and the costumes are a blast - though The Doctor's harlequin outfit is deeply unsettling with its eerie mask and deceptively colourful facade. Also worth noting is Black Orchid's terrific cast, featuring Michael Cochrane (recently seen as Reverend Travis in Downton Abbey), Barbara Murray (Passport to Pimlico) and Moray Watson (Rumpole of the Bailey), and that incredibly moving denouement.
Dreamland
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You might think I'm cheating with this one, but this is a bona fide Doctor Who story from the BBC and even broadcast on television. From The Waters Of Mars co-writer Phil Ford, a companion-less Tenth Doctor goes on a computer-generated animated adventure into the heart of Area 51 in the late 1950s, where the Time Lord discovers some Men In Black and a nasty alien at work. Cast-wise, this tale is quite the eye (or ear, rather) opener, there's Georgia Moffett (The Doctor's Daughter), screen legend David Warner (Tron), Stuart Milligan (President Nixon in The Impossible Astronaut two-parter), Lisa Bowerman (familiar to some as Bernice Summerfield in the Big Finish audio adventures) and even Nicholas Rowe (well "known" for portraying Sherlock Holmes in Steven Spielberg's Young Sherlock Holmes). Fact fans may also note, that The Sarah Jane Adventures used elements of Dreamland in the Phil Ford stories Prisoner of the Judoon and The Vault of Secrets.
The Greatest Show in the Galaxy
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Clowns! Killer clowns! Aargh! Some of you may be saying. Whilst certainly not under appreciated by Sylvester McCoy fans (all twelve of them), those who are less impressed with The Seventh Doctor's run will find much to enjoy in this 1988 four-parter. Apart from the meta-inclusion of Gian Sammarco (television's original Adrian Mole) as Whizz Kid - a thinly veiled parody of the Doctor Who fan (nice prophetic bow tie though), the highlight is most definitely Ian Reddington's role as Chief Clown. A superb performance and, still to this day, one of Who's finest villains.
The Android Invasion
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Often overlooked due its placing in the legendary "Season 13", where every story is a classic, and sandwiched between fan-favourites, Pyramids of Mars and The Brain of Morbius, this Tom Baker and Elisabeth Sladen four-parter has so much going for it, and very little against. The Kraals are a fantastically designed monster and their simple Earth invasion is refreshing, but it's their titular androids that make for such a haunting viewing. Witness as Sarah Jane Smith's face falls off to reveal the ghostly circuitry beneath. *Shudder* Again, the location shooting serves the story, from Who legend and "creator" of the Daleks, Terry Nation, well with some stunning village shots (The Doctor tied to a cross) and the opening "death" of a UNIT soldier. The very essence of classic Who.
The Mind of Evil
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Like previous entry The Ambassadors of Death, I suspect this six-parter from 1971 will be reassessed on its release later this year on DVD. Now restored to full colour, some of us were lucky enough to see the "new" version at the recent BFI screening in March. And what a cracker this is. Despite being a six-parter, The Mind of Evil keeps its pace and interest maintained throughout. Whilst not quite gritty, prison scenes add to the chaotic nature of the tale and there's yet another delicious appearance from Roger Delgado as renegade Time Lord, The Master.
The Unicorn and the Wasp
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Due to its humour and light tone, a trait loathed by certain parts of Doctor Who fandom, this Gareth Roberts story breezes along and its triumph, by and large, is down to the cast and the fun script. The story itself, a knowing Agatha Christie pastiche (perhaps a little too knowing, at times), has laughs and giggles galore and the cast, featuring legends like Felicity Kendall and Christopher Benjamin and top acting talent such as Tom Goodman-Hill and the beautiful Fenella Woolgar (as the aforementioned real-life crime writer). But it's that delightful chemistry of Tennant and Tate who make for the most emtertaining of comedy duos, kissing and deducing their way through this summer picnic of a Who story.
Frontios
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For me, this is a genuine classic and it perturbs me somewhat that there are fans out there who dislike this Peter Davison tale so much (but such is the life of a Doctor Who fan, I accept this). I mean, it has the TARDIS BREAKING UP INTO PIECES!!! That should surely be enough but there's more. "Monsters" of the piece, The Tractators, whilst not perfect on screen, are one of Doctor Who's most interesting additions - think giant woodlice that suck people into the ground. It's a proper horror story in the guise of a science-fiction tale, a trope that Doctor Who does all too well.
Terror of the Vervoids
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More Agatha Christie style fun here as The Sixth Doctor embarked on his own Murder on the Orient Express (someone is even seen reading the book in the story). It's a solid tale and if you removed the frankly tedious Trial of a Time Lord moments from it, you'd be left with a cracking Who story with a damn threatening monster, The Vervoids. Of course, there's more than meets the eye to these guys and their needs, but I shan't spoil that for you.
Doctor Who (The 1996 Paul McGann TV Movie)
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One of my biggest gripes for The Eighth Doctor's one night stand in the middle of the Nineties is its name. We all just call it The 1996 Paul McGann TV Movie rather than its proper, and rather useless, name, Doctor Who. Anyway, title grumbles aside, the only on-screen appearance of Paul McGann as everyone's favourite Gallifreyan (to date) does have much in its favour (despite an ending that not only makes little sense, it actively pisses on the show's history and the very notion of what it means to be a time-traveler) - namely Paul McGann. The Withnail & I actor puts in such a wonderfully Doctor-y performance that it would ensure a career in audio and books for years to come.
Boom Town
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The Slitheen! Again!!! Though, it should be noted, the beasts from Raxacoricofallapatorius barely make an appearance in their true form, leaving wonderful actress Annette Badland to strut her stuff so brilliantly across this episode. Never before, or since, in Doctor Who have we seen The Doctor, here played by everyone's favourite grumpy northerner Christopher Eccleston, dine with his prey before execution. "Dinner and bondage. Works for me," leers the alien during a fascinating tete-a-tete where the morality of The Doctor is laid bare by his captor in a Cardiff restaurant; the sublime meets the ridiculous (you can choose which is which in that metaphor).
Victory of the Daleks
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I had to be in the minority when the new Dalek Paradigm came along. I was quite fond of their colourful and rotund appearance (being a fan of the Peter Cushing movie Daleks, you see) but this Mark Gatiss tale featuring The Eleventh Doctor has got lots more going on than simply giant gaudy pepperpots. Churchill, spitfires in space and tea-serving subservient Daleks - it's got it all! In all seriousness, the notion of the mad little tanks scheming around, luring The Doctor in to reboot their species (or something like that) reminds us how clever the Daleks can be.
Nightmare of Eden
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What this extraordinary Tom Baker four-parter lacks in production values and acting, it makes up for in ideas and barminess. The Mandrels, the "monsters" of the piece, may well have looked and acted like they stepped out of The Muppet Show but this is a gritty tale of drug-running on an intergalactic scale. The Fourth Doctor is appalled as he gets embroiled in something he genuinely believes to be evil but by the time we hear him bellow, "My fingers, my arms, my legs, my everything!" any notion of gravity has somewhat dissipated. It was a story, I should say, that utterly terrified me as a child and, if you can get over the performances, which, I have to admit, are gruesomely hilarious, and the production (poor, at best) then there's much to admire. I suspect, however, there's now more to have a giggle at than think about.
Love and Monsters
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Until the appearance of Peter Kay as The Abzorbaloff in the final third of this 2006 episode starring Marc Warren, Love and Monsters could have been an out-and-out classic loved by all. The very notion of a "Doctor-lite" story is, without wanting to lay on this over-used word, genius. Wanting to focus on the "other" people affected by The Doctor's life is admirable and, indeed, here is utterly fantastic. Typical Russell T. Davies and typically emotional and engaging as a result; and what a cast too! Shirley Henderson, Simon Greenall, Moya Brady and Kathryn Drysdale add beautifully to LINDA (London Investigation 'n' Detective Agency) whilst Camille Coduri give us so much more with Jackie Tyler, and how it feels when left daughterless. Praise should be delivered for sheer balls and ingenuity, reinvigorating Doctor Who in such a thoughtful and pleasing fashion. AND there's ELO - perfect!
The Pirate Planet
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As the second story in the infamous Key To Time season, this story from Douglas Adams (the man behind the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, as if you didn't know) is positively bristling with ideas. The planet in question is hollow and has been materialising around other planets, mining their resources leaving tiny remains all in a bid to attain immortality. Best of all is Tom Baker's face-off with The Pirate Captain, a Darth Vader-esque man/machine hybrid - "Appreciate it... appreciate it! You commit mass destruction and murder on a scale that's almost inconceivable and you ask me to appreciate it!" The Doctor questions in disbelief. Brilliant stuff from Baker. As you'd expect from Adams, there's humour and concepts galore.
Mawdryn Undead
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Talk about timey-wimey, The Fifth Doctor was getting up to all sorts of flim-flammery back in the Eighties/Seventies in this four-parter which acts as a sequel, of sorts, to The Key to Time season mentioned above. For its time, and even re-watching now, Mawdryn Undead is an extremely pacey piece which darts between two time zones in the most pleasing, and modern, of fashions. Despite the UNIT dating controversy (using The Brigadier as teacher in The Eighties) fans can revel in the fake Doctor, the titular Mawdyrn (who's traveling with his chums through eternity doomed to a life of perpetual death) who tries to convince Tegan and Sarah that he has merely regenerated. Design-wise, it's a triumph with a beautiful ship, super brain-bulging aliens and a haunting score from Paddy Kingsland.
The End of the World
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Easy to forget about this little beauty as its previous story, Rose, tends to get much more attention (for good reason). After showing us modern-day London, Russell T. Davies took us far into the future to watch the Earth burn but also watch how The Ninth Doctor and his new companion were getting on. Like a couple of entries here, it was an Agatha Christie-style tale, and again in space - a simple, solid story. Rose was still coming to terms with her new BFF and their relationship was a little frosty but after the revelation of the Time War and the need for some chips, all was well. Only two stories in and the new cast and crew were assuredly steering the show in the right direction with story and heart.
Invasion of the Dinosaurs
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Another story often put to the side due to the main monsters of the tale, the Dinosaurs. Yes, they are bloody terrible. Laughably so, I shan't disabuse you of that notion - there's absolutely nothing positive to say about them at all, from design to execution. But it's the story in this Jon Pertwee six-parter that's worth the re-evaluation. Someone is tampering with time and using the prehistoric baddies to evacuate London, all in the noble cause of the environment and the future of mankind. In an exciting twist, trusty old Mike Yates turns out to be a traitor (believing he is in the right), adding to the layers of this intriguing tale. Invasion of the Dinosaurs is worth watching alone for the opening episode with its eerie empty streets and unfolding mystery, classic Who.
The End of Time
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Lots of negativity was hurtled towards David Tennant's swan song as The Doctor (don't worry kids, he'll be back!), mainly due to its protracted denouement, but as a finale, The End of Time is nothing short of breathtaking. The goodbye scenes, which many loathed (and by many, I mean a few people on the internet - not real people), are a testament to the Russell T. Davies era and how far we'd come in Doctor Who. The Time Lord cares about humans, and cares about the those he travels with and those whose lives he had touched - these final moments are beautiful and incredibly moving. I am unapologetic about that, they are stunning scenes in Who's history. But The End of Time is so much more than the farewells; there's the bold and much-longed for return of The Master AND the Time Lords. The renegade's insanity is revealed as is the macabre nature of The Doctor's people; graphically detailed in the final days of the Time War. For some, the show would never be the same again.
The Five Doctors
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There are very few Doctor Who stories I can just stick on and watch at any point, regardless of mood - and this 20th Anniversary Special is one of them. In fact, it's probably the Doctor Who story I've watched the most over the years, never tiring of the multi-Doctor fun. Some "fans", and I use the term quite wrongly, are sniffy about this and often ignore it, possibly because it's such a joyous affair. But what should be remembered is the fact that aside from the sheer delight of seeing five Doctors together on screen (well, OK, three) the notion of searching for immortality is fascinating, especially when there are corrupt Time Lords sniffing around. Best of all, for me, is the Raston Warrior Robot - when we gonna see that guy again?
Whilst providing an update on The Avengers 2, Joss Whedon has dropped a major hint regarding the identities of new characters.
With rumours of Robert Downey Jr and Iron Man taking a reduced role in future Marvel movies, it has been hinted at that other characters would be brought in to fill the void he may or may not be leaving behind. In a recent interview with Yahoo, Joss Whedon has been chatting about The Avengers 2 and dropped some hints as to who the characters might be, whilst discussing the creative process behind The Avengers 2.
“I try not to think of it as topping The Avengers", Whedon said. "I try to think of this as its own movie. Sometimes yeah, I feel pressure and by the way Shane [Black] – not helping! Iron Man 3– not helping! Because I saw this and man he really got it right".
He continued: “But when you're in the story and you're dealing with these characters that you love, that everybody loves, when you've got the characters sliding in next to them it's very exciting. Then I don't feel pressure, it's like I'm reading my favourite comic.”
“It's going really well, eventually someone will explain to me that it's not and they pull me out of my bubble. I've been writing and meeting with actors and we're starting to storyboard, all the preliminary processes. This is the part where it's all still fun.”
He concludes his update on the creative process by dropping the hint as to who the new characters could be. "I've got these two characters, two of my favourite characters from the comic book, a brother-sister act. They're in the movie".
A brother-sister act seems to suggest Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, but we guess time will tell on this one.
MTV orders a one-hour pilot for a new series based on the Scream series of movies...
After the relative disappointment, both commercially and critically, of Scream 4, it seemed that the future of the horror franchise lay in a reboot. However, it now looks as if that's not the case.
MTV has announced that it's ordered a one hour pilot for a series based on the Scream movies, although at this stage, a writer isn't attached to the project. It's fair to suggest that Kevin Williamson will not be involved, although we're happy to be surprised there. Wes Craven may direct.
Apparently, the Scream show has been in the works for over a year so far. When we get more details on it, and exactly what it'll focus on, we'll let you know.
