Looking back at 2014

It's certainly been an eventful year. In the real world we've had the centenary of the beginning of the First World War and the turbulence of the Scottish Referendum. We've also had the Ebola outbreak, Russia's attack on Ukraine, ISIS and the media's bizarre infatuation with UKIP which have made this year miserable for a great many people.

Personally I'm in a better place than I was at the end of last year. Things never stay the same though. So It'll be interesting to see where things go next year.

In pop culture terms there have been things I liked. The new Doctor Who is good. Kate Bush's return to music was also a highlight. Orphan Black has survived another year, and amazingly managed to get a third series. The rest of music has been a disappointment this year though.

It's difficult to tell what 2015 will be like. This time next year there'll have been a general election, the return of Star Wars and the third series of Orphan Black.

Doctor Who: Last Christmas

It's incredible to think that Last Christmas is the tenth Doctor Who Christmas special. The Tenth! I remember back in 2005 when we thought it was lucky to be getting only one. Not many shows get that luxury, and it's not guaranteed to continue in the future. Perhaps its because he's used to it that Steven Moffat has written a story that has quite a different tone from previous specials.Having drawn inspiration from the likes of Charles Dickens and C.S Lewis for previous specials, this year, Steven has borrowed from a whole variety of sources. We start off with a scientific arctic base form The Thing under siege from monsters that look like the facehuggers from Alien. The Doctor and Clara arrive and it turns out that everyone is trapped in a dream, like in Inception. It's true to the spirit of original series writer Robert Holmes. Unlike the former, Steven has actually written a justification in that the crew have imagined this scenario based on the films.

Fortunately, the Doctor, Clara and the base crew have assistance in the dream in the form of  Santa Claus. Before watching this story I was a bit unsure about the idea of Santa Claus appearing in Doctor Who. The character is often associated with a warm cosiness that I'm not a big fan of in fiction. Fortunately there was a good justification for him being there, in the form of a helpful dream. Some members of the audience have been moaning that Santa referring to himself as a dream will make the character seem less real to children. I would say those people need a reality check. Those kids are going to find out the harsh truth soon enough, and no one above the age of 6 should really be believing in Santa. Nick Frost did pretty good job in the role and I enjoyed his 'tough guy' persona as an alternative to the traditional kindly old man. The elves were also pretty funny too.

The introspective nature of dreams allowed the Doctor and Clara to address the lies that they told each other at the end of Series 8. It was especially nice to have Danny Pink return briefly. Allowing Clara to say goodbye to Danny and having the Doctor admit he was wrong means they can both start
the next series free of baggage. Peter Capaldi's Doctor was less abrasive this time around. He is almost apologetic when Clara berates him for insulting Danny Pink. His glee at piloting Santa's sleigh is another sign that he is a good man deep down.

The base crew were fairly uninteresting in themselves. Shona was funny when she was dancing to Slade but I don't particularly care whether or not I ever see her in the show again. It was nice to see Michael Troughton, son of Patrick, in the role of the Professor, although it has to be said that it wasn't much of a character to work with. The other crewmembers, Bellows, didn't do very much at all. These characters provided exposition and functioned as victims for the Doctor to save, but weren't that interesting in and of themselves. The monsters of the show, the Dream Crabs, were effective, in spite of having a naff name. The Sleepers were more creepy. The twist that they were actually the sleeping crew themselves as a good one.

The very best scene in this story occur towards its end with the Doctor rescuing the older Clara, It was a nice mirroring of Clara comforting the ageing Eleventh Doctor in The Time of the Doctor, especially when they both try and pull the cracker and the Doctor has to help the older Clara.
There were rumours that this would be Clara's last appearance and in a way it was slightly disappointing that this wasn't Clara's proper ending. At the same time, I like it when companions stick around for the long run. Clara's dynamic with the Twelfth Doctor has been more interesting than with the Eleventh and I want her to stay around for a while, becoming the Sarah Jane Smith to Twelve's fourth Doctor.

To sum it all up I would say this was a fairly middling episode. Not quite up to the standards of The Christmas Invasion or The Snowmen, but not as dull as Voyage of the Damned or The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe.

7/10

Next: The Doctor and Clara will return in The Magician's Apprentice. More importantly, how will Missy return from the dead? Will the Doctor find any more clues about Gallifrey? And will the show be celebrating ten years since its return? Series 9 should be interesting, indeed.

Gotham: The Series so far...

The Batman prequel series has had its winter break. So what is this show like so far?

Let's start with the good things. Robin Lord Taylor is brilliant as the Penguin.Sean Pertwee makes a good interpretation of Alfred. David Masouz is a good, distant Bruce Wayne. He had to spend most of the series in Wayne Manor, but by the end he has started getting outside. A good Cat-Woman. Even though they insist on calling her 'Cat'. Harvey Bullock. Fish Mooney is fun to watch.

I like the interpretation of Gotham City. It is somewhere between the archaic look of the 1989 film, and the more modern Nolan films. The city here looks modern, but there's the anachronistic typewriter.

Sadly it's not all success. There are some areas where this show has not done so well. Jim Gordon well played, but a bit bland as a character. Barbara Kean is bland.

The problem with prequels. We know that Jim Gordon is going to fail to save Gotham. That's probably why the Penguin's story is more compelling. In the long run he'll become an important figure in Gotham's underworld, essentially winning where Gordon will not.

There's a few episodes left. So we'll see what happens.

Bond 24

Earlier today it was revealed that Bond 24 would be titled ‘Spectre’, a name which refers to the organisation that Sean Connery’s Bond fought against in the 60s.

I can’t say I’m particularly enthused about the title. The whole one word title beginning with ‘s’ is too similar to Skyfall. The return of the Spectre organisation doesn’t fill me with much excitement either. I can see that they might have been brought back because of the extra publicity, and because it fits in with the last film’s reinvention of Moneypenny and Q, but Daniel Craig’s Bond already dealt with as secret organisation called Quantum. What will this organisation do that’s really any different?

 It’s not entirely clear yet whether Blofeld will appear or not, although it would seem odd to bring back the organisation and not the man behind it. Some people are saying that Christopher Waltz' character, 'Oberhauser', will actually be Blofeld. If this is the case then it'll be interesting to see if they keep the 60s iconography that’s been parodied for years. The Max Von Sydow version in Never Say Never Again wasn’t bald, but he kept the white cat at least

If they make him completely different then he might as well be a different character. There have been plenty of good, memorable Bond villains since the 60s, from Scaramanga to Raoul Da Silva, so what difference will having the name ‘Blofeld’ have?

On the bright side, Ralph Fiennes will be returning to play M, as will Naomie Harris as Moneypenny and Ben Wishaw as Q. It’ll be interesting to see what Malorie’s relationship with Bond will be like now that he is properly a superior. Hopefully Moneypenny will get some development and not stuck in the traditional secretary role. And at least Bond’s car is a new model. The Aston Martin DB10. Apparently it’s exclusive to James Bond. I’m not a car expert but it looks pretty nice.

The Daniel Craig Bond films have been the most consistently successful run since the Connery years. Even Quantum of Solace, which was wobbly in places, had good plot ideas in it. Here’s hoping that my reservations about this film are proved wrong, and that it will give Craig another winning outing.