Doctor Who: Spyfall Part 1

It feels like longer than twelve months since Doctor Who appeared on our screens. While the long gap may have caused viewer interest to wane, the production team appear to used the time well in making a pretty good opening episode.

Doctor Who has done riffs on things before and this time around, it's the spy genre.  Agents are being killed off and the Doctor and company are being recruited by C to find things. We get the usual thing of car chases, assassinations and casino scenes. The Doctor and her friends infiltrate a party in tuxes, It's quite good.

Last year's stories had a lot of long talky sequences interspersed with occasional action. This time things were more evenly paced. The car chase stunt is good, though a little reminiscent of the Atmos incident. The bike sequence is slightly less so.

The aliens of this episode are effective energy beings though the voices are slightly generic. They are in the story more frequently than aliens of last year.

The aliens are in leagye with Daniel, head of VOR, played by Lenny Henry. He was good in Broadchurch so there was no question that he would be good here.

Another feature of this episode is the return of the Master, now played by Sacha Darwhan, who spends most of the episode pretending to be the British agent, 'O'. Previous reveals have set up something odd about the character, Professor Yana or Missy, but this comes almost entirely out of the blue. Sacha Darwhan plays the switch well and I look forward to seeing more of him as the character.

Segun Akinola's music is once again a good Bond riff, with the action theme he delivered for Resolution proving well.

Overall, Spyfall Part 1 is a good start to the series. Let's hope Part 2 can build on that well.

8/10

Best F(r)iends Volume I (2018)

Tommy Wiseau and Greg Sestero are known best for The Room, the 2003 film which became known as one of the worst movies of all time. This time Greg Sestero was in the driving seat, producing and playing the main character in the film. 

The story follows John, played by Sestero, a mute, homeless person whose only belonging is a torn photograph of his mother. He ends up befriending Harvey, an eccentric mortician played by Wiseau. They work together in the mortuary where Harvey reveals he has been stockpiling golden teeth. As John recovers his voice and his health, he realises that there is money to be made in selling the gold teeth so he lets Harvey in on the scheme. John starts going out with a girl and the trust between the two friends starts to unravel. The plot is not totally unsurprising, but unlike with The Room everything ties together and there are no pointless sub-plots. There are some similarities between this and The Room. You have two men whose friendship is being torn apart by a woman. This time around there is an intentionally more creepy atmosphere and you feel you cannot trust either friend. 

Greg Sestero is decent enough in the role of John. It is difficult to tell whether the lack of emotion is an intentional nod to John's mysterious nature or whether Greg Sestero is not the best actor. Either way he is decent enough.

Tommy Wiseau is effective in the role of Harvey. At least this time around, there is no pretending that Tommy Wiseau's character is ordinary. He seems kind to John but his collecting of the golden teeth and unusual money deals keep him as an unusual character. It is a much more natural role for him. Greg Sestero is effective as John. It feels as though they only did one take per scene and there may have been improvisation. Nonetheless this is interesting.

John's girlfriend is probably the best played character in the whole thing. Her reactions to Harvey are amusing.

Greg Sestero wisely leaves the direction to someone else. The sets are all exterior. There are no studio sets masquerading as exteriors.

The soundtrack is strange, ethereal and electronic. Perfect.

Overall, Volume 1 of Best Friends is a fairly decent movie. Nothing exceptional but certainly not bad.

Score: 8/10

Joker (2019)

Joker is a Taxi Driver inspired story of a nobody, Arthur Fleck, getting more deranged until he snaps and becomes the Joker. He struggles with his job, deals with family issues against Thomas Wayne.

The idea that Arthur Fleck and Thomas Wayne may be related is an interesting one but I prefer that they didn't. It would have made Thomas Wayne too much of a boogeyman. For him to hate the poor AND be a bad father to be too OTT.

The film is well-directed by Todd Phillips. The late 70s/early 80s look of the film recalls films of Martin Scorsese. Lots of narrow corridors, cracked paint and seedy, grubby looking locations. There is a moment borrowed from King of Comedy where Arthur Fleck gets beloved. The camera never moves beyond Fleck's viewpoint. The music is excellent, melanchony, sinister.

Joachim Phoenix is excellent as Fleck and the way that he gradually becoming more assertive as the Joker. His final costume is nicely reminiscent of Caesar Romero's suit. Definitely one of the best interpretations of the character.

This is a pretty decent supervillain origin story movie. A film that occasionally thinks it's more intelligent than it actually is. Some might call it violent but the origin of a supervillain is hardly going to be sunshine and roses.

The film borrows from The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns. The Joker's appearance on the talk show mirrors that of his appearance on the David Endochrine show in the Dark KNight Returns.

The film concludes with Joker escaping from Arkham and Bruce Wayne having seen his parents die and be on the way to becoming Batman. Joachim Phoenix is so good that I wish we could see his version of the Joker tackle Robert Pattinson's Batman. It's possible that this film will get a sequel but I'm hoping that it does not. The film deserves to exist as its own little oddity.

7.5/10

Doctor Who: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos

These days, we've used to the idea of every single series of Doctor Who ending with a big finale. There's usually some game changing event like a companion departure, a new Doctor's debut or the return of an old villain. It wasn't always the case though. In the 1963-1989  run of the series, it was more common for a final story to simply be a stop. The Battle of Ransokoor Av Kolos falls into the latter category. The Tardis team is pretty much the same as the end of the adventure as thy were at the beginning.Only a couple of beats make this seem significant.

One way this does resemble more recent finales is the return of an old villain. This time it's Tim Shaw, the Stenza warrior from The Woman Who Fell to Earth. Since we last saw him, he teleported to the planet of two psychic aliens know as the Uks.  With the help of the Uks, Tim Shaw has constructed an edifice which he plans to use as a super weapon. Using parts of five different planets he plans to destroy the Earth as a revenge fr the Doctor. The scheme is somewhat derivative of The Pirate Planet.

The Doctor and company get involved when they answer the distress signal and meet a man called Paltraki. Although he does not remember it straightaway he has stolen one of the planet components that Tim Shaw needs.

They are ultimately able to resolve the manner by sending the planets back to the same place. Event he Doctor refers to it as being derivative of Journey's End. 

Upon finding out about Tim Shaw, Graham decides he wants revenge. This is where the lack of game changing quality brings the episode down. The rules of genre would dictate Graham does not kill Tim Shaw. Instead he shoots him in the foot. A fan seculated it might have been more interesting if Graham had actually killed Tm Shaw and he and Ryan had tried to cover it up. As it is, the ending of this arc is a little too predictable to be interesting.

The Doctor's ethics are challenged this week but not too deeply. Graham is challenging her rules on guns, but she hands out bombs without concern. There is also the interesting idea that she has inadvertently led to Tim Shaw being the creator, but it is glossed over. Jodie is great as the Doctor, and I know from Broadchurch that she can do serious. This is one episode whee a more serious Doctor was needed to make the gravity of the situation seem real.

Tim Shaw himself is alright. Having him be weakened on a life support system was interesting. Unfortunately he didn't really do anything except to exposit and walk around a lot. I had hoped that the episode would flesh out the character but it doesn't really. He is put in stasis by Graham and Ryan at the end of the episode, but it is possible he may come back in the future. If he does then they should take his character in a new direction.

The Uks are an interesting idea. Psychic aliens who have the power to manipulate matter. It's unclear why such a powerful race would think that the injured Tim Shaw was any kind of creator. They are more creators than he is.

Ryan and Yasmin get very little to do this week. Ryan is mostly there to act as Graham's conscience and reminds Graham that they and the Tardis team are a family. Yasmin gets even less, acting as a sounding board to the Doctor but not given much else.

The setting of this episode is a disappointing quarry planet. The scenes where the Uks are speaking in portentous dialogue gave some fans flashbacks to Time and the Rani. There is speculation that it will drive people mad, but when the Doctor and Yasmin remove their implants they only get slight headaches.

One thing I like is that this episode only refers to the current series. There are some callbacks to The Ghost Monument, as in the Sniperbots, who are still as useless as they were in that episode and the reference to Stenza technology.

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos is an episode that poses a lot of interesting ideas but does not give them the depth or exploration they deserved. There are a few peppered moments. The jokes are funny. The Die Hard reference is amusing and the notion of the time travellers as family is great. It's not terrible but not the best.

Rating = 6/10

Doctor Who: It Takes You Away

In almost every series of the revived Doctor Who, the penultimate episode has been an experimental one, trying new or offbeat ideas for the show. Sometimes it pays off and you get something wonderful like Heaven Sent. Other times you get something that's a bit of a mess, like Fear Her or Nightmare in Silver.  This time around,  It Takes You Away felt somewhere between the two. Some good ideas but not executed as well as it could have been

The episode started out well, with our intrepid group of time travelers arriving at a Norwegian Fjord and investigating a boarded up house. There's a bit of a horror theme going on with these segments, with a creepy house, and figure in the shadows moving around. Segun Akinola's music aids in building the haunting atmosphere.

It turns out that the shadowy figure is a blind girl. Her father has gone missing and there seems to be a monster outside. As our explorers investigate it turns out that the father did not dissapear from outside the house but inside. A mirror in the house is a gateway to a dark realm known as the anti-zone. After dealing with the horrors of the anti-zone our heroes each the gateway to a sentient universe known as the Solitract. This is where the episode loses the horror theme and becomes an emotional story. The girl's father is alive but has been tempted here by a recreation of his dead wife. Graham soon meets a copy of Grace.

It is in the final moments that the episode slightly falls apart. The Frog was a weird element in the episode. Treated seriously. Like Buddweiser Frog.

The father, Ed, was not dealt with as harshly as perhaps he should have been. This is a an who left his disabled daughter alone in a boarded up house in the middle of nowhere with no food and no clear way back to civilization. It's not clear whether the solitract was influencing his decision or whether he is generally a terrible parent. The lack of clarity on this issue hurts the episode.

Nonetheless, the episode still had an interesting theme about moving on. The Man from his dead wife and Graham from Grace. Both have a responsibility to the living.

Graham had a lot of development coming close to his dead wife. He has the strength to pull away from it. He also gets the comedy scene of carrying food around.

Ryan was good as the helper to the girl. His proecting father issues was good.

Yasmin a little less well served as she was mostly there for the Doctor to explain things to. Liked her calming the victim.

Hopefully this episode is the calm moment before things get interesting. Next episode. with a familiar voice in the trailer, the result should be interesting.

Score = 7/10

Doctor Who: The Witchfinders

The Witch Hunts are a period not explored in televised Doctor Who before. In Bilehurst Cragg, a woman called Mistress Savage is having witches burnt. Although the Doctor stipulates non-interference she can't help but get involved and try to save a life, even if she doesn't save it. The only way out of the situation is to pretend to be a witch-finder.

They are soon joined by King James I. He is well played by Alan Cumming. Theatrical, flirtatious with Ryan, sexist towards the Doctor, and still managing to be dark  when he threatens to burn the witches. The character is definitely an interesting one to watch.

The true source of threat is revealled to be the Morax, alien war criminals that have been imprisoned on Pendel Hill. They were a well conceived alien threat. Muddy zombies. The only thing I didn't like about them were the voices which reminded me a bit of the Pyrovile Priestess from The Fires of Pompeii and the Eknodines from Amy's Choice.

The Mistress Savage was a well played villain, alternating between coldly harsh, sympathetic and evil. The girl convinced as the victim.

Jodie Whittaker was good this week. The moment she tells the others not to interfere in history and then can't help but halt the witch trial was typically Doctorish behaviour. She was also effective in the scene later on where she pleaded with King James for her life was good. It was also good to see her Doctor confronting the Morlax. She is becoming a fully rounded Doctor.

Graham was amusing when he was posing as the Witchfinder General. Although he got a serious moment to question Mistress Savage about her goodness, his funny hat meant that he always seemed comical.

Ryan didn't contribute much to the story but had comedy moments as he was hit on by King James I.

Yaz got a bit less to do this week. She did get to talk about the importance of standing up to bullying.

The episode has a very bleached out look which suited the grim subject matter. It gets a bit more colourful at the end, with lurid green trees when the Doctor stops the Morax. It is as though the Doctor fighting monsters restores the shape of the show. The music by Segun Akinola continues to be good.

While I may have preferred the previous episode, The Witchfinders is still a very decent episode of Doctor Who. It would have actually been a better Halloween Special than Arachnids in the U.K. was.

8/10

Doctor Who: Kerblam!

A gift for the Doctor contains a message for help. so she goes to Kerblam! central to investigate.
From here they could have told a story about evil business, with the two heads covering something up. Fortunately, writer Pete McTighe avoided the obvious cliches. Instead it is the worker who is attacking the system and plans to send parcels of death.

This episode was good, solid fun. Like the Tsuranga Conundrum, Kerblam is a light episode, but where the former felt unsure of itself, the latter is much moe aware of the tone, skirting between humour and seriousness.

Jodie was great this week and her Doctor was a highlight of the episode. Her giddy excitement at seeing the Keblam Man's arrival was hilarious and I loved watching her facial reactions and seeing her try on the Fez. She also got a great scene where she railed against the bosses only to say 'laters'

Ryan's background as a warehouse worker was referred to this week.He

Yaz got to use her police training against the villain for once.

Graham was fun as the janitor. It was a more comedic role but it sufficed.

The robots were good. They were more funny when they were being passive aggressive.

The supporting cast were all good. It was nice to see Julie Hesmondhalgh in the Doctor Who at last.

The music was less noticeable than last week but hte Kerblam delivery jingle was catchy

There were a lot of nods to old Doctor Who what with the Fez, the reference to The Unicorn and the Wasp as well as the Venusian Aikido.

Doctor Who: Demons of the Punjab

The Doctor takes Yaz to visit her nanny and finds out that she is due to marry a Hindu man called Prem. But this is during the partition and Prem's brother, Manish wants the division.

The wedding is blocked by Demons, or rather, aliens called Thiracians who the Doctor identified as assassins.  When it appears that they have killed the Holy Man who was supposed to initiate the wedding, the Doctor tries to hold off the aliens so that the wedding can take place.

But all is not as it seems. The aliens reveal that they are are innocent of the murder. Their planet has been destroyed and now they only pay witness to death. It was actually Manish who killed Holy Man and he has invited friends. Nani and her Mother get away while Prem holds the attackers off. The Doctor and friends get to witness Prem's death.

Demons of the Punjab is another episode where the aliens were barely there. The Thiracians look cool and the Doctor does stand up to them but are innocent Real monsters the people. It does leave the slight plot hole that if they didn't kill the Holy Man then why did they not find bullets?

The setting is the key here. The partition is an area that has not been explored yet in Who. This is mostly focused on a few people.

Yaz got proper character development. She is determined to find out more about her nani's past and initially shocked when she discovers that Prem and Nanny to Marry, but we see Yaz mature as she comes to understand how her nanny was thinking. By the end she is happy not to know anymore.

The Doctor comes across much better in this. She stands up to the aliens. She also engages with a wedding. The first time, I think, of the Doctor ever officiating.

Bradley Walsh is brilliant. Scene where he comforts Yaz is brilliant. His speech was reminiscent of the one Troughton gave.

Ryan got a bit less to do this week. But he's had enough for now.

The direction for this episode was good. Everything looked visually stunning. The music was also very good. Segun Akinola continues to shine. He got Indian composers to do this episode.

A pure historical like Hartnell. Shades of Father's Day as well.

Score = 8/10

RIP Stan Lee

Farewell to one of the most influential people in comics history.

When I was growing up, it was all about Spider-Man and the X-Men. The Avengers hadn't had their breakout success in the Marvel Studios film series yet. Spider-Man showed me how you could have a hero who had to alternate his superhero life with his ordinary life.

Doctor Who: The Tsuranga Conundrum

There comes a point in every era of Doctor Who where the new showrunner produces a bad episode. For Russell T. Davies, that was Aliens of London. For Steven Moffat it was The Beast Below. For Chris Chibnall it's The Tsuranga Conundrum.

The episode starts out well. After being blown up by a sonic mine, the Doctor and her friends are transported to The Tsuranga, a medical spaceship. For the first fifteen minutes of the episode, the Doctor, in a dazed and confused state, tries to work out where she and her friends are and how they can escape. It's a nice sequence of building up mystery, getting a sense of location and introducing our guest cast for the week.

The Tsuranga is soon under attack from a tiny alien called the P'ting. This little creature looks cute but is actually a deadly creature that eats anything and cannot be touched. This was a nice little creation and kudos to Tim Price, who worked on the Doctor Who writes room, for coming up with it.

The rest of the episode is about everyone on board trying to get the P'ting off the ship and make it safely to the medical station. At the same time, the other patients get their own little problems to deal with. A former General having to admit her pilot problem. A male pregnancy and Ryan and Graham coming to terms with their own dad. This is where the episode really start to go wrong.  For all that we're meant to believe the crew are in mortal danger, everyone gets time to stop for long chats. There is no sense that the Space Ship is getting worse.

Jodie Whittaker's Doctor wasn't given so much Matt Smith dialogue this week but she does lack authority. She bows down to the medical staff member, Astos when he talks about exploring. There is also a scene where she and General Cicero are trying to talk the crew and the General seems to have more authority. I never felt like Jodie's Doctor was really in charge.

Ryan and Graham get to bond this week. Ryan deals with issues of fatherhood. Graham gets to be the comic relief, hoping to deliver a baby based on watching Call the Midwife.

After all her character development last week, Yaz is the one who is once again given very little to do. She guards the reactor and kicks the P'ting and that's about it.

This episode felt like a dull episode of Star Trek. We had spaceships, an android who looked like Data and a Space Station. The tone was all misplaced. Every character was earnestly talking technobabble. There is a reference to CERN which was the only good scene.

The only other good thing about the episode was the music. Segun Akinola's score carried the episode, generating tension where there was none in the script.

Rating = 5/10

Doctor Who: Arachnids in the UK

Arachnophobia seems to be an affliction on many people. They find spiders to be scary and hideous.
Personally I’ve never been that scared of spiders. I actually like them. They get rid of annoying flies. Your attitude toward this episode may depend on how you feel about our eight-legged friends.

The story begins similarly to Aliens of London. The Doctor manages to return her friends to Sheffield as she promised, only half an hour after they left. The Doctor and Ryan go to have tea with Yaz at her flat while Graham decides to return to his own house. These separate scenes serve to flesh out the characters. At Yaz's flat we are introduced to her Dad and her sister. Graham returning home to mourn Grace shows how far he has developed. These scenes are written well.

Unfortunately, the sci-fi story in the middle lets it down.  Arachnids in the UK is basically the Green Death condensed into 50 minutes. Toxic waste is turning spiders into giants. There is no real mystery as to why the spiders are going big. We go from mysterious business types trying Yasmin’s dad explaining how rubbish is built up and references to rubbish chutes, and then spiders. It’s easy to see how everything fits together. No real twists along the way. Nobody other than our regulars are threatened by the spiders. You would think Yasmin’s family would come under threat to up the tension, but only her mum does.

The Spiders themselves are good CGI creation. Glad they weren’t the enemy. Sadly the Doctor elects to kill them ‘humanely’ rather than use the Tardis to take them to another planet. The death of the Big Spider is supposed to be sad but since it was going to die anyway, it’s not much. It’s similar to the death of the Triceratops in Chibnall’s Dinosaurs on a Space Ship. Also similar to exploited meat creature in Torchwood’s Meat.

The supporting cast are thinned down to three primary characters. Yasmin's dad and sister are likeable, if straightforward. Yasmin’s mum is doubter like Jackie. Professor is just dumping exposition Doand Trump character is funny for a minute. Yasmin’s dad and sister are fine.

The Doctor seemed a bit more like Matt Smith or David this week. Commenting and rambling. She referred to regeneration as though it had just happened whereas she seemed fully in control last episode.

Bradley Walsh is fanstatic this week grieving over Grace. Yasmin gets a bit more fleshed out. There is either going to be love interest in Ryan or love interest in the Doctor. Ryan gets the least to do in this episode though he does get funny moments making spider shadow puppets and using music to lure the spiders.

If there’s one thing that’s becoming apparent with the Chris Chibnall episodes, it’s that the character moments are strong and the plot is weak.  As with The Ghost Monument, I found myself checking the time which is not a good sign. Let's hope the upcoming episodes are better.

Rating = 6/10

Doctor Who: Rosa

Before this episode aired, I was very nervous. The American Civil Rights movement is a very sensitive subject matter and there are so many ways that this episode could have gone wrong. Fortunately the writers, Malorie Blackman and Chris Chibnall, were able to navigate the difficulties and the result was a very good episode.

The most important thing that this episode gets right is that the Doctor and companions did not in any way inspire Rosa's act of protest that led to the bus boycott. Instead our time travellers are on the edge of events, trying to keep history free of interference from a another time traveller, a racist  criminal called Krasko, who wants to create small changes that will stop the bus boycott and stop the Civil Rights movement from happening. There is no big plan for an alien invasion. The villain is all too-human, motivated by petty racism.

It's probably the closest to a pure historical since the William Hartnell years. We get references to Emmett Till and Ryan gets to meet Martin Luther King. As the villain is humanoid, we get no bug-eyed monsters. The enemies in this case are human. Unlike other episodes, where racism is allegorical with aliens, here it is very raw and real feeling.

I complained last time about the pacing problems. Although The Ghost Monument was set on a hostile alien planet, our regular characters never felt like they were in danger. This week, in part because of the grim subject matter, there was a lot more tension. Only minutes after leaving the Tardis, Ryan is slapped by a racist man. Every few moments there was peril afflicting our characters. It was Krasko, then it was the Police Officer. The characters were constantly kept on their toes. Their attempts to make Rosa get the bus were being disrupted and they had to improvise to make it work.

I continue to like this new Doctor. Jodie was effective, whether she was joking about being Banksy, or being serious when she confronts Krasko. The companions were also very good. Ryan and Yasmin both get to deal with racism. Ryan having to keep his cool was good. There was also a hint of chemistry between them. Graham was great. Him having to be the catalyst for Rosa Parks was good. He is fully supportive of Ryan. All were really effective at the end when they were reluctantly part of that bus journey.

The supporting cast were also very effective. Vinnette Robinson was good as Rosa Parks. She felt like a dignified human being, intelligent and brave. The show did not glamourise her or patronise her. It was very well done.

Krasko was an interesting villain. An escapee from stormcage with a vortex manipulator. He couldn't actually hurt anyone so could only manipulate. Some might wonder if he should be there or not. The story might have worked if he had been an ordinary time agent accidentally changing things.  Still, his motivation of racism did fit in with the theme.

Mark Tonderai's direction was good. I particularly liked the opening scene of the camera following the bus and then moving off into an alleyway where the Tardis materialised. A nice continuous shot. The crane shot of the motel down to the Doctor and her friends was good as it showed them oppressed by its sign.

The only thing I wasn't sure about was the song 'Rise-Up'. It was effective in the scene where Rosa was arrested and where the Doctor talks about Rosa's importance in history. I don't think it needed to be in the ending credits.

Rosa was a good episode. Where the previous two episodes of Series 11 were safe introductions, this one feels as though it is trying new things and exploring new areas for the show. A proper success.

Rate = 9/10

Doctor Who: The Ghost Monument

Fans commenting on Doctor Who have noted that the second episode of a new era defines that era more than the first episode.  The End of the World introduced Cassandra, the Face of Boe and the Doctor being the last of the Time Lords. The Beast Below introduced themes that Moffat would play with such as memory and monsters that turn out to be innocent. The impression I get from The Ghost Monument is that the Chris Chibnall era will be character driven but linear in terms of plot.

Last week's cliffhanger ending is resolved fairly quickly. Ryan and Graham are scooped up onto the ship of Angtrom (Susan Lynch). The Doctor and Yaz are scooped up onto the spaceship of Enzo (Shaun Dooley).  After their space ships crash on Desolation we then get introduced to Ilin (Art Malik) who explains the plot. Epzo and Angstrom are part of a race to reach the Ghost Monument.  Whoever gets there first will win money. To survive they must pass all the natural perils on the planet including alien micro-carnivores in the drinking water. The audience would little time to work out that the 'Ghost Monument' is actually the Tardis and thankfully, the Doctor doesn't take long to work this out. There are no real other surprises after this.

The characterization of the guest starts is also fairly straightforward. Epzo is the typical guy who has learnt to survive on his own. So you know straight away that he is going to end up working together. The theme of teamwork that binds this episode together is a fairly straightforward one. The character of Ilin, played by Art Malik, is really just an exposition engine. I can't think of any interesting character traits he had.

The only real surprise is that it transpires that the weapons were developed for the Stenza, the creatures that Tim Shaw was a member of. It is also revealed that the Doctor remembers something called 'The Timeless Child'. Although it'll be interesting to see the Stenza fleshed out, I'm less keen on the Timeless Child. I really hope it does not end up being like the Hybrid. I've had enough of things from the Doctor's past

Unfortunately the slow pacing issues that were there in last week's episode are really ramped up here. After the exciting space crash landing sequence, the episode crawls to a halt when they are crossing the water on the boat. There's a lot of chat and we get a lot of character backstory but without good dialogue it feels a little lifeless. I wonder if there was a cut scene where someone drops something in the water and eats it. The scene would have been more dramatic if the boat had started sinking.

Fortunately, things start to pick up again once the characters get to the abandoned ruins. Robot Guards and flying toilet rolls go after our heroes. These Robots look impressive but are really just an obstacle and are not that interesting in themselves. The Doctor weirdly complains about Ryan using guns and then uses an EMP Device and a cigar to burnt the atmosphere.

The crew reach the Ghost Monument. It is no surprise that Epzo and Angstrom work together and are transported away.

The new Tardis interior is a mixed bag. I like the walls and crystal pillars but am not keen on some of the quirky buttons. I do quite like the custard cream dispenser though.

The characterof Ilin was a bit vague. I'm not sure for whose benefit he's put n this race. Are others watching this somehow? What does Ilin himself get out of it?

There's not much development for our companions this week. Ryan is still dealing with the dyspraxia. Graham is still geting over Grace's death. We find out that Yasmin has a dad and a sister but that's it.

I would say this is the Doctor's episode. She is more clear in the head. She is slightly less quirky and she seems to rely on her friends a lot more. She takes charge but in a less overt way than Capaldi Doc.  we et to see her hipocracy at not using guns but still destroying the robots. Her excitement at seeing the Tardis and her love for seeing it.

Another notable feature of this episode is the opening titles which are really well designed. The swirly blue ripples are reminiscent of the non-specific swirls and shapes seen in the sixties and seventies opening.

7/10

Quatermass (1979): Ringstone Round

Quatermass is the first of the series to not be made by the BBC. The 35mm film recording certainly gives this serial a different feel to the others.

The different feel is enforced by the setting. Whereas the 1950s serials were roughly contemporary with their time of broadcast, this serial is set in a dystopian future Britain.  Feral gangs of youths roam city streets, armed police are forced to use violence and power cuts are frequent. It's quite possibly a vision of what Jeremy Corbyn's Britain will look like.

The episode begins dramatically with Professor Quatermass returning to the city only to be mugged by the youth gang. He is saved from losing his teeth by Doctor Kapp, a scientist and Jew and taken to a television centre and talk on the new link up between the US and Soviet satellites. The television studio debate is reminiscent of the media focus that Quatermass had in the first and third serial. Quatermass is more interested in finding his grandaughter, who is presumably a daughter of Paula and quite possibly the other soldier from Quatermass II. He gives a moralistic speech int he styleof the ending of he previous serial but it fallson deep ears. The TV crew also refer to the Experiment, when they talk about the first crew.


When the link up goes wrong, he and Doctor Kap return to the country side where a cult of teenagers called the Planet People, are searching for means to leave the Earth.

Kapp takes Quatermass to his home in the country where two satellites are in operation. Quatermass meets the team and family and becomes interested in the dig site that Mrs Kapp found and  following the Planet People who are heading for Ringmans Round.

The episode ends dramatically with the stand-off between he police and the planet people. As Quatermass and Kapp depart, they see a bright light beaming down seemingly leaving nothing behind but white dust. It's an effective cliffhanger.

John Mills' Quatermass reminds me of Andre Morell version, especially with his costume and cap.  Both of those versions of the character are away from the Rocket Group, solving their own problems.. Mills' Quatermass doesn't seem quite as charismatic as the Morell incarnation but he is still good.

So far Doctor Kapp seems to be the equivalent of Doctor Matthew Roney from Pit. The ally who has very strong views and a passion for science and a dislike of the planet people.

Mrs Kapp and the research team are likeable characters. Alison is likeable as well.

The music is very different to the Quatermass, although the electronic music suites the dystopian theme.

While the first episode of the new Quatermass was less focused on horror than he others, it was interesting enough to keep mehooked. Ringstone Round is a good start to Kneale's last original Quatermass serial.

Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth

'The Woman Who Lived' marks the third big reinvention of Doctor Who. We have a new showrunner, Chris Chibnall and it is also the first time that the Doctor has ever been played by the woman. It is also the first time since the 1980s that there have been three companions in the Tardis and the first time there has been a new music composer for the show since 2005. Fortunately, the production team have done well enough here to prove that those things show promise,.

Chibnall begins this story, as his two predecessors did, by introducing the new companions first. These are Ryan, Graham and Yasmin as well as supporting character Grace. We get all of the companions' motivations laid out very clearly. Ryan has dyspraxia and difficulty with co-ordination. Graham is trying to be a grandfather to Ryan. Yasmin is a police officer who wants more. It's quite a way into the story that we are introduced to the new Doctor and the monster of the week. It's a risky ploy, as some younger members may find the talking scenes boring, but in this case, it works out.

When she appears, we see that Jodie Whittaker is going to be really good as the Doctor. While I initially thought of her as Beth Lattimer, the interviews with her in the months following her casting revealed that she has a very quirky personality and that shines through here. As in The Eleventh Hour, she is up and about but there is less time spent on her having regeneration problems other than having a bit of a nap.  She gets several great moments in the episode. These include the moment, she builds her new sonic screwdriver from bis of metal and alien technology, the moment she jumps from a crane to confront an enemy and then at the end when she eulogises on her family in a speech reminiscent to the Troughton's Doctor gave in Tomb of the Cybermen. She exactly the same as a male Doctor which is as it should be. She's also very good at physical comedy and the scene where she sticks her fingers up her nose is the sort of thing you don't usually see with female tv characters. When she apolgises to her friends for seeing what Tim Shaw is doing to his victims, she deliverse those lines with more earnestness than I would have expected. Perhaps I've gotten too used to the Twelfth Doctor's snark

As with the other episodes that introduce a new Doctor or companions, the threat faced by the Doctor in The Woman Who Fell to Earth fairly straightforward. Tzim-Shaw, a member of the Stenza warrior race, has come to Earth in order to hunt a random human. This will prove himself worthy of becoming leader of his species.  A man called Karl has been tagged so the Doctor and her new friends have to work together to rescue Karl and stop Tim Shaw. The creature, Tim Shaw, is remniscent of predator and the idea that he has teeth in his face and that he collects the teeth of his victims is suitably scary for teatime viewing. Tim Shaw is also assisted by the Relay Coil, an effective tentacle monter which is a well done bit of CGI.

One way in which this episodes differs is that the defeat of the monster ends on a downbeat note. Grace sacrifices herself to stop the relay coil. Throughout she is a sort of Doctor surrogate, encouraging the others. Sharon D. Clarke is likeable in the role and part of me would have liked her to stay alive and fulfil the Jackie Tyler role. Here, she has a similar role to Danny Lattimer in Broadchurch, whose death triggers he events of the story. The scene at her funeral feels very similarly like something from Broadchurch. It is new and interesting territory for Doctor Who to explore.

Another way in which this episode differs from previous introduction episodes is that it holds off from introducing all of the Doctor Who elements. There is no title sequence this time around and we do not get a Tardis. The episode ends on a cliffhanger wit the Doctor following the trace of the Tardis and accidentally beaming herself and her friends into deep space.

The cast are all very good. Ryan is the first friend we're introduced to and pretty much the main focus for this episode. I wasn't sure about Tosin Cole's acting at first but as the episode progressed I saw his talent. He has dyspraxia which is a good way of showing the representation. As someone diagnosed with mild dyspraxia it was surprisingly nice to see it on a prime time tv show. Him learning to ride the bike was good.

Bradley Walsh is fantastic as Graham. He reminds me of Wilfred Mott in that he is the every man of the series.The reveal that he is in remission from cancer is, like Ryan's dyspraxia, an issue for him.  A very likeable character with a lot of promise.

Yasmin Khan gets the least development and I'm sure that will improve. As a Police Officer who wants to do more, you can see that companion thing of wanting to fulfil their potential. There are nine more episodes to get to know her.

One of the most obvious thing to point out about the show is the new visual look. The anamorpic lenses that are used int he cameras give the whole experience a very filmic look. Sheffield, the main setting for this adventure, looks gorgeous as do scenes set on the peaks. It feels like as much of a visual leap for the show as The Eleventh Hour in 2010. The CGI team should be happy with their realisation of the relay coil monster and the electrical storms around it are effective.

The tone of the episode was interesting. The teasers gave the impression that this series would have a lighter tone but there was a surprising lack of humour in this episode. The Doctor was the only really funny person int he episode, that and Karl with his self-help tapes. There is none of the quippy dialogue that would be found in Steven Moffat's stories. Your mileage will vary in how you felt about this. Some may find the dialogue a little flatter now but I feel that it works for giving the series a more grounded feel.

One undoubted success in the episode was the music by the new composer Segun Akinola.  His music here appears to be more about mood and creating atmosphere. It was less about the bombast as Murray Gold's was. Both are good but it's nice to have a change. The new theme music was only heard at the end of the episode but it sounded very good.

The episode held off from introducing the Tardis or the new opening titles. This is an interesting way to hook viewers to come back. It will be interesting to see if it pays off.

The only minor niggle was the guest star list shown at the end of the episode. It was an odd way of promoting the show. I'm not the biggest TV watcher so I didn't recognize many of the names and faces  Perhaps it's because Chibnall wouldn't let them show monsters.

I have to say I enjoyed this episode. Despite some pacing issues it is a compelling watch. While I never went off Steven Moffat I have felt the show has needed to change for some time. With more grounding in reality and better visuals, this works. The Woman Who Fell t Earth is not quite as good as The Eleventh Hour, it is definitely a better first episode than some. A good start to the new era.

My Rating = 8/10

Doctor Who: Teasers and Trailers

After a long lack of Doctor Who news, we have suddenly had an influx of new information, interviews and images. Here is just a small selection of what we have had:

Any England Fans that were still sad after the World Cup defeat may have been cheered up by the Doctor Who Series 11 teaser that appeared during the half-time of the World Cup final. It's a fairly small tease but it is the first time viewers would have seen Ryan, Yasmin and Graham in action as well as our first televised scene of the Doctor in her costume. We see these companions going about their lives as the Doctor flits in and out mischievously. It did the job of showing ordinary people eating ordinary food whose lives are about to be tinkered with by the Doctor.

That tease was not all as later in the following week was the San Diego Comic Con panel which appeared to be very good. There was an amusing video of Jodie arriving, a new trailer and a short scene of Bradley Walsh. It was confirmed that there will definitely be a Christmas special.

The new teaser managed to make excitement for the show without giving anything away. It was mostly scenes of the Doctor and friends in interesting landscapes. The Doctor's final line, 'This is gonna be fun', is a much better line for a trailer than 'Same old, same old...' was for Series 9.

Another interesting bit of news from Comic Con is that the Daleks will not be appearing int he next series. This is good as they have been overused and need a rest. It should be more exciting when they do come back.

Doctor Who: The New Composer

You wait for more Series 11 information and suddenly stuff appears all at once. After the unfortunate leak of the clip and images yesterday, we got some official news revealing that Segun Akinola will do the new music for Doctor Who.

I handn't heard of Segun Akinola before now but I know that he was part o the BAFTA Breakthrough Brit program. He has also scored programs including Black and British: A Forgotten History, The Human Body: Secrets of your life Revealed and BHS:How did it Happen?

Many people will be listening to the music his website to get an idea but its difficult at this stage to know what he'll do for Doctor Who. It's more of a family orientated program than some of the previous things he's done. The mmusic on his site seems instrumental rather than synth but he might go in a different direction for Doctor Who.

I have never stopped liking Murray Gold's music.  Over the years he has remained a good composer as shown by his recent music for A Very English Scandal but it will be interesting to get a fresh musical voice. 

Class: New Audio Adventures

Yesterday, it was officially confirmed that Class will be returning for a series of audio adventures. The first will feature Ace and the Daleks.

It is safe to say that Class was not entirely successful. Some will say it is because it was a bad show. Others will say it was the publicity by the BBC. I have to be honest, I would rather watch K9 and Company than any of the spin-offs.

Still, Big finish has a good track record for doing Doctor Who spin-offs. They have done the Jago and Litefoot series and several River Song audios. Having Ace and the Daleks in the first adventure is a canny way of attracting Doctor Who fans who may not be enamoured with the Class name.

Many television shows that start off badly benefit from second series. It was sad that Class never got this but an audio series might just be a way to make up for previous mistakes.

40 Years of the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy

It has been forty years since the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy was first broadcast. I first got to hear it in 2001 when the two series were repeated on BBC Radio 4 following the death of Douglas Adams earlier that year. It made an impression on me and I sought out the books and television series. I did, at one point manage to play the text based game but it was very difficult.

Now the 'Hexagonal Phase' of the series is aboat to be broadcast. It was written by Eoin Colfer and has all of the original cast back. It should be interesting and I hope to read it in futue.

Doctor Who: New Logo for a New Era

When a new  Doctor appears there are always moments that get fans excited. There's the announcement of the Doctor, the new costume, the first scene and also the new logo. This is the week of the BBC Worldwide Showcase we finally get a chance to see what it looks like.

I'm not much of an expert on logo design but this looks okay to me and it's growing on me all the time. I like the colour well enough and it stands out  against the dark background of the teaser artwork. The font looks quite thin so it will be interesting to see whether it will stand out in the shops on a piece of merchandise or not.

What I am slightly less keen on  the 'Who' insignia:

It reminds me of that awful Tardis shaped 'DW' insignia that appeared on merchandise during the Matt Smith era and was even wodged into middle the 2010 logo to create 'DoctorDWWhoBBC'. Hopefully, like the 'DW', this 'Who' will be phased out after a while. 

Seeing this new logo certainly one of those things that help to make it feel as if the show is entering a new era.