The new Spectre Trailer

Bond fans got a great start to their day as another Spectre trailer was released this morning. So what does this new footage show us about the newest Bond film?

The first few moments of the trailer give us more scenes of the MI6 regulars, starting with a tense discussion between M and Bond about events in Mexico. It's nice to see that some things never change. It's great to get some more footage of Ben Wishaw's Q, one of my favourite characters from Skyfall. The trailer seems to show a more familiar Q branch scene where he is responsible for introducing Bond to his gorgeous new Car.

Bond is once again going rogue, yet we see him with Q later in the trailer. It's likely that these actions are a result of seeing that photograph that Moneypenny gave him.

We get a bit more of Mr White again and I'm fairly certain his role in the film will be purely for exposition and then death. A bit like Henderson in You Only Live Twice. I might be wrong. He might have a more interesting role, but it's still nice to get resolution to that character.

As the trailer progresses we start seeing more of the newer characters The first of these is Madeleine Swan who, according to the 007 website, is apparently Mr White's daughter. It's not something I ever expected and it will be interesting to see how this affects her relationship with Bond. Will she and Bond put aside their differences for the greater good? Or will she hold a grudge and betray Bond later in the film? Madeleine is the first character to call out the SPECTRE organisation by name, It seems that the organisation is connected to Bond. How will this play out?

We get a proper look at Oberhauser this time around and we are once again teased with evidence that he might be Blofeld such as when we see him wearing a Nehru jacket while he stands in a room that looks like a villain's control room. It's so obviously hinting that he's Blofeld that it might all be a massive feint, like the Mandarin in Iron Man 3. Oberhauser claims to be the cause of all Bond's pain. This would make sense if SPECTRE was actually the true force behind the Quantum organisation from the first two Craig films.

Mr Hinx and the Andrew Scott character only make brief appearances so its difficult to say how much they will be doing in this film. Hinx is probably going to be an old fashioned Bond henchman which we've not had since Elvis.

This trailer shows a lot of homages to the past. Bond obviously gets to wear the Connery White dinner jacket while the theme tune from On Her Majesty's Secret Service plays briefly.  In a nice homage to Goldfinger, Bond's car has a 'backfire' button that burns the pursuing car. As much as a like the 60s I hope it is not the start of dependency to the past.

Overall this was a pretty exciting trailer. It will be a shame after all this hype, Spectre turns out to be a failure. Sam Mendes did a great job with Skyfall and I hope that this film does not turn out to be the Moonraker to Skyfall's The Spy Who Loved Me. On the evidence so far I don't think it will be the worst Bond film by any means.  Strangely, I think, I'm actually looking forward to this film more than I am the new Star Wars, but we'll have to see.

Sherlock: 2015 Christmas Special

The San Diego Comic Con news has certainly been a highlight of the week for me. After Doctor Who day we get news regarding the Sherlock Christmas Special.

This little glimpse shows us Sherlock and John in Victorian times. Una Stubbs continues to be fun as Mrs Hudson with a bit of meta.

It's still kind of weird that we don't get 'proper' Sherlock until Series 4 arrives but I can get used to it.

Doctor Who Series 9 Trailer

After months of very little Doctor Who news we're suddenly getting a load of exciting info at once. On top of the exciting lego news we also got a new trailer for Series Nine. 

There's a lot of creepy imagery int his trailer, from hands reaching out of the ground to strange palid people who appear to have no eyes. The tone would suggests that they're keeping the moe horror oriented element of Series Eight. This is good because I enjoyed the darker storytelling from last year and feel that it helped to differentiate Capaldi's era from the more fairy tale feel of Matt;s. 

One thing that does seem lighter is the Doctor himself. He is seen hugging Clara, playing the guitar in the picture above and grinning when he puts on his sunglasses This would follow on from his 'I'm riding a sleigh' moment from Last Christmas. But will this all come at a price?

Clara and Missy also appear in the trailer though it's nothing particularly new. I wonder how Clara will take to reuniting with the woman that caused Danny Pink's death?

Maisie Williams also makes an appearance at the very end in highway garb.

The new series will start on 19th September, which means the gap before the Christmas special will be shorter. This might risk diluting the Christmas special a bit so I hope they've planned for this.

Overall, the trailer's got me excited for the new series. 

Lego Dimensions Doctor Who!

Forget Doctor Who Series 9. Footage from SDCC has shown that most exciting thing this year is Lego Dimensions which will have the Doctor joining the Lego Universe. 

The game will include one Doctor Who level with a later pack containing more Doctor Who levels. 

In the game you can face Daleks and Cybermen. You can also ride on the back of K-9 and even on the back of a Dalek! The Tardis works as a vehicle as well as a place to hang out.  

You start the game as the twelfth Doctor but getting killed means you regenerate back into all the other Doctors! Even more exciting every time the Doctor enters the Tardis he will 

Clara's role seems only tiny so far, when she gets rescued and there hasn't been any footage of Lego Missy yet.

I haven't played new video games for a long while as I tend to get dangerously addicted to them, The idea of a game where the Doctor teams up with Scooby Doo and Batman is going to seriously make me reconsider getting back into gaming! 

Permission to squee indeed.

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

Possible Spoilers below for any UK fans:

Last Sunday viewers bid farewell to the Sunday night drama Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Overall this show has had a bit of a mixed reception, mostly due to what some see as the slow pace of the show. Arguably the publicity shots, like the one above, just show aristocrats standing or sitting around. It misleads viewers into thinking this is a boring show which it most certainly is not. In fact it's a shame it had to end as it has been one of my favourite shows this year.

The series takes place in the 18th century. A reclusive magician, Mr Norrell, is trying to make magic respectable in England. Soon another, Jonathan Strange, discovers his own magic. The story follows the two men from being master and apprentice, enemies and finally to the friends. At the same time, the show deals with opposing order and chaos, as well as issues of class with the magicians intentionally and unintentionally having effects on the working classes.

The show certainly has a good cast.  Bertie Carvel is brilliant as Jonathan Strange. He starts off as a Bertie Wooster type of person, becomes more tired and cynical during the War with France, then a cackling magician type and finally redeeming himself. Norrell, played by Eddie Marsan, is probably the harder character to play. He is a stuffy old conservative magician who wants to bring'respectable' magic back to England. For a long time he came across as an unlikeable character until he final episode that we get to see the more sympathetic loveable side to Norrell. The giddy child who is excited to arrive in the fairy land and the shy man who hates being laughed at for his rain magic.

The supporting cast are great too. Marc Warren is funny as the Gentlemen.Enzo  Cilenti was great as Childermass. Paul Kaye was great as Vinculus. Even minor characters like Lady Pole, Arabella and Steven Black are memorable. Vincent Franklin was great here as he was in Cucumber earlier this year.

The series is certainly well directed and has an eyecatching Tim Burton/Neil Gaiman style to it. The Kingdom of Lost hope is a great spooky location.

The criticism of the slow pace of the show is misleading. Only the first episode is slow as this is setting up things for later. Each episode builds on the last and the series gets ever moe compelling.

Writer Peter Harness seems to have done pretty good job with the script. I haven't read the book yet, so I don't know how closely this series sticks to the source material, but at least I understood what was going on. Watching this series has certainly persuaded me to seek it out. A great story, writing and cast. If you haven't seen it yet I highly recommend you check it out and stick with it. It's one of the best things put out on television this year.

River Song returns in Big Finish Audios!

 

Earlier this year we had the exciting announcement that Kate Lethbridge Stewart would be joining Big Finish for Unit. Although it was exciting that the new series was merging with the old, Kate was never one of my favourite characters. Jemma Redgrave's a decent actor but I feel that the character's popularity comes more from having the Lethbridge-Stewart name than from having an interesting personality. Today there's been some new announcements that have me much more excited.

The major news is that River Song will be teaming up with the Eighth Doctor in' Doom Coalition 2' followed by 'The Diary of River Song' in 2016. Fans are puzzling over how this will fit in with the complex  chronology of River Song's timeline. In Silence in the Library she said that the Tenth Doctor was the youngest she'd known him but this was revised in The Time of Angels with her saying that she'd met many Doctors, though not necessarily in the right order. It's possible that the Doctor will be made to forget about the encounter, or that some complex time incident will erase his memory. Still, who cares when you can have Paul McGann facing off against Alex Kingston. I still hold out hope that she'll meet Peter Capaldi someday but this is pretty good as well.

We will also be seeing old Doctors facing newer monsters. The Fifth Doctor will be facing off against the Weeping Angels. How they're going to accomplish this on audio I have no idea, but it will be interesting. Colin Baker will be up against the Judoon. Sylvester McCoy will be up against the Sycorax. These monsters are a particularly good choice since I always imagined that there was more that could be done with their space voodoo

We will also be getting the return of Ian McNiece as Winston Churchill in 'The Churchill Years'. It's great to have Ian McNiece back in Doctor Who although it's harder to gauge at this stage how good this particular audio will be since we know so little about it. Hopefully it will surprise us.

This is pretty exciting. Hopefully it won't be too long before we get new Doctors joining the range.

Star Wars: Episode VII Trailer 2

Not bad at all. This second trailer seemed to focus more on nostaliga, with shots of Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader's mask, Star Destroyers and X-Wings. It was good to see Han and Chewie back. A bit fanwanky but fun. Hopefully the newer characters won't be too overshadowed by the return of the old ones. But it certainly looks promising.