Survivors (2008) - Episode 2

Survivors settles down this week, after the mammoth episode last time, we only have an hour but it’s still as good as the first!

After getting themselves a nice house, our survivors go out hunting for food. But don’t worry, no animals were directly killed in the making of this episode – they just looted some shops!

Now, if I had the freedom of an entire town I would nick the most expensive and quality stuff, our survivors are not in that frame of mind though – as they try to get stuff from low-budget supermarket – NETTO! Oh dear!

But someone has already ‘claimed’ the supermarket and the leader, Dexter (played by Anthony Flanagan) is armed with a lovely shotgun! He threatens the survivors and tells them to stay away. But Abby can’t resist – as she believes she saw someone who looked like her missing son’s teacher, at the supermarket.

Meanwhile, Greg goes off on his own, searching and finds a massive warehouse. Unfortunately it’s already been taken by a bloke and his rather good-looking girlfriend/hostage, Sarah. After fatty hurts himself, Greg comes to the rescue and even refuses to ‘do the dirty’ with Sarah, who seems to be playing her ‘boyfriend’, in order to set up a profitable trading business with other survivors.

Al isn’t having a great day. After he ‘accidently’ killed an old shopkeeper, after he caught Najid looting it, he makes a drunken move on Anya, who we know - happens to be a lesbian! All seen of course by the murderous Tom Price, who as a thing for Anya and he later threatens Al.

Later the gang who ‘owned’ the Netto, found the warehouse and took it from Sarah, who joined the others back at the house. Meanwhile the gang found the injured man and took over the warehouse. Something tells me they’ll be back! Sarah’s character was portrayed as being rather selfish and she looks like she’ll be a great addition to this already bad and odd bunch!

Overall it was an interesting episode, which gave the main characters a bit of much needed depth and development, I can only see this series improving as time goes on.

8/10

Next Time: Will Al continue to pursue his lesbian love interest – and survive? That would be worth an episode all on its own!

The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 Episodes 9 & 10 - The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith

The Sarah Jane Adventures continue to deify children and make the adults enjoy it even more, in this latest story - ‘The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith’.

Okay I still have the odd gripe, but you can’t deny that this series has been the most groundbreaking CHILDREN’S PROGRAMME for a long while. That’s what it’s supposed to be – a programme for kids! I wish I had something so spectacular when I was a lad! The ITV series ‘Knightmare’ was considered cutting-edge when I was young – it looks like an absolute joke now!

This story continued the high standard that this series has already set. As always, Daniel Antony (Clyde) was great and stole every scene he was in. Young Rani is looking every inch ‘a Maria’ and even Luke is looking - quite normal!

Even the writing on this series doesn’t ‘dumb it down’ to kids. We even have a returning character, created in the SJA universe – The Trickster, to deal with! The ugly one (as he’s known among kids – I think!), has to create a world of chaos, so he could feed upon it – but the only way to do that is to take Sarah out of time – again!

So that gives us the opportunity to browse, once again, into Sarah’s back-story. Orphaned as a child, we never really learned a lot about Sarah’s past life before The Doctor. We do here, as Sarah ‘gives in to temptation’ and goes through a ‘time fisher’ (created, of course by the Trickster) and tries to prevent her parents deaths.

When she does, the future changes but thanks to the ‘box’ which featured in the Series 1 story, ‘Whatever Happened To Sarah Jane’, Clyde and Rani where protected from The Trickster’s changing of history. Thankfully all is put back in the correct path, as Sarah’s parents – who quite quickly realised who the old Sarah was – corrected history.

This episode wasn’t without its great moments. For one, the appearance of the TARDIS, ‘The Doctor’s Theme’ in the background and Sarah’s running towards it – only for it to be an actual 50’s Police Box! Then there was her scenes with her parents – surely too much good acting for a kids show?

But here comes my main gripe – why does Sarah, a very experience time-traveller, who told The Doctor in the episode ‘School Reunion’ that ‘everything has its time and everything must end’ so quickly become very naive? I found it quite strange that she decided, so quickly, to break the rules of time-travel. Yes I understand the need to see her parents but Luke already warned it that it could have been a trap and she just dismissed it! I just found it very out of character.

Overall though, it was a good episode that I thoroughly enjoyed.

8/10

Next Time: I HAVE ONE THING TO SAY: BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG! BRIG!

The Podcast With No Name (Subtitle: CyberColin Undressed) - Episode 3

3 - The 'I Can't Decide, Whether You Should Live Or Die' Podcast

In today’s bucket of delights, I’ll saying a big happy birthday to Doctor Who by reviewing the audio – called, er Forty Five. I’ll also be reviewing the BBC three series ‘Funland’, which is a sick but funny thriller. And I’ll also be talking about the joys and frustations of buying stuff from Ebay!

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The IT Crowd Series 3 Episode 1 - From Hell

I was looking forward to the brand new series of ‘The IT Crowd’ but after the first viewing of episode 1 – ‘From Hell’, I wasn’t that impressed.

So I went back and watched the episode again and I found it to be not as dull as I though it was! Jen was once again shown to be her usual naive self and I thought the whole ‘Builders From Hell’ worked really well but maybe would have been better with all of the main cast involved. It was also great to see a cameo from Chris Morris and his 'Hiltergram'!

I liked the plot with Roy, trying to get his £20 back and it was nice to see that Douglas seems to have ‘calmed down’ for this series. In fact I quite enjoyed Matt Berry’s performance - after watching Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, I knew he could be better from what he showed in the second series of The IT Crowd.

I did feel Moss was a little bit underused. I would have liked to have seen more detail about him being ‘bullied’ and I didn’t think the whole ‘I’ve got a gun!’ was as funny as the laughter track suggested. And what about that laughter track? I know The IT Crowd is filmed in front of a studio audience but the track sounded way OTT, like it was a yank ‘sitcom’, or something. Less of that please!

So after watching it again, I enjoyed it more but hopefully we’ll see an improvement in the episodes to come!

7/10

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 8 - Villains

What an episode of Heroes that was! I was arguing with myself to not give it 10 out of 10, but I thought - sod it! From the start of this episode, when the name of the program was changed to ‘Villains’, I knew we where in for something good. But I was still left shocked and surprised!

After eating Usutu’s paste at the end of the last episode, Hiro is now smacked up to his tits and presumably, the effects react with his time-travel ability to make him dream about Arthur Petrelli – 18 months ago.

We learn that Arthur was involved with Linderman’s dodgy dealings and it was he and not Linderman that tried to kill Nathan in the car crash that left his son’s wife paralysed. Nathan, who’s original profession was a lawyer, was investigating Linderman’s dealings, which would have incriminated his father and probably, The Company.

Speaking of The Company, Thompson, played by Doctor Who and Batman star Eric Roberts, isn’t dead yet and we see him tracking down Meredith and her brother Flint. If we step back (or is it forward?) into the time, in which a smacked-up Hiro is in, Flint is now part of Pinehurst and was sprung from The Company by Daphne in the episode ‘Dying of The Light’. Thompson manages to capture the pair and offers Meredith a job. But despite looking comfortable being an agent, Meredith escapes, along with her brother – with Thompson in close pursuit. After the pair set fire to a train, Flint escapes but Meredith is captured. However, Thompson releases her when he realises that she doesn’t know what really happened to her daughter, Claire. In a cruel twist, Claire is shown running into the same train, to save the survivors, seen in the first episode of Heroes – Genesis.

Hiro then dreams about Sylar, like so many fangirls do, or so I’m told! Horrified at the killings he did, Sylar tries to hang himself but he’s saved – by Elle. It isn’t that straight forward though, Elle is with Noah, who has been sent down to watch Sylar. Elle starts to build up a relationship with Sylar and later, brought another person with an ‘ability’ round to his house. All this has been planned by The Company though as Sylar can’t resist killing to steal abilities. It’s a rather harrowing plot by The Company, who are just interesting in watching Sylar at this moment in time and when Noah tries to reason with Elle, he tells her ‘we just take our orders’.

Hiro finally wakes up and realises he must tell Angela about the revival of Arthur but as Usutu is nowhere to be found and along with Ando, they look for him and find his body – minus an head. The poor man’s bonce is quickly found though but then a hand rests on Hiro shoulder and spins him around – it’s Arthur, who is poised to take Hiro’s ability!

It’s a very interesting episode, which gives us a lot of back-story on characters that needed a lot more explanation. It was good how they made certain characters look like they did in series 1 and even the way they interweaved the footage of past episodes. It’s was great to see Eric Roberts back and even a Christopher Eccelston (Claude) reference. Hopefully he’ll make a proper return to the series, soon! However, the cliff-hanger made the episode as fantastic as it was! Will Hiro survive? I honestly don’t know!

10/10

Next Time: Hiro manages to teleport Arthur into the body of Russell Brand. It’ll probably improve him and make him a better person, to be honest. And that’s Brand, not Arthur!

RIP Usutu

Survivors (2008) - Episode 1

This could end up being one of the best television events of the year, or it could end up being a mess. But after watching the first episode of the new version of Terry Nation’s ‘Survivors’, I’m quietly confident this will be a hit!

Starring the cream of British talent, the show tells the story of a virus that has gripped Europe, and soon – the world. One day, only (much less than) 10% of world’s population wakes up – the rest have succumbed to this mysterious virus.

We follow a number of characters. Abby Grant (Julie Graham) contracts the disease and looks like she’s about to die. But when she wakes up, she finds that she’s well and her husband (Shaun Dingwall) is dead. She hunts for her son (who is away on a trip) but is unable to locate him, or indeed his body. She eventually meets fellow survivor Greg Preston (Patterson Joseph).

We are also introduced to Dr. Anya Raczynski (Zoe Tapper) who after her ex. Girlfriend is brought in by her flatmate, Jenny (Freema Agyeman), realises that the virus can’t be cured, at least not now. Later she attempted to take her own life, after Jenny also contracted the virus.

Meanwhile murderer Tom Price (Max Beesley) breaks out of prison when everyone in there dies, all expect for another prison officer, who he kills to get out. He would later meet up with Anya, after being thrown out of a car for threatening two more survivors he had befriended.

Rich playboy Al is forced to be responsible for an 11-year-old boy, after he finds him alone, in the street playing football. After travelling for a while, they eventually meet Abby and Greg on the motorway – just as Anya is treating the injured Tom. And after the others seem reluctant to stick together, Abby gives a rousing speech about how they must remain together in order to survive. And they do!

It was an excellent introduction to the series and easily justified it’s an hour and a half timeslot. The pacing was just right and the plot was set up well, as the various people met. I’m sure there’s plenty more to come, as we had a little look at who may be behind the virus, towards the end!

The acting was very good, I enjoyed Patterson Joseph’s short role and if the rumours of him being the next Doctor Who are true, I wouldn’t mind! But for me, Max Beesley stole the show as the creepy Tom Price. Although he’s a very violent psychopathic-murderer, I couldn’t help but take great delight in his performance! What does that say about me?

I was also surprised to see them kill off Shaun Dingwall’s and (maybe) Freema’s characters, as they where given a major billing for the series. That’s makes it all the more better!

9/10

Next Time: The Survivors start to work together but which way will Tom go? And will we find out more about Greg? I’ll be glued anyway!

Happy 45th Birthday Doctor Who! 23rd November 1963 - 23rd November 2008

45 years and still as good as ever. Doctor Who is not a television programme, it’s a hobby, a job, an obsession, whatever you want to call it. It has taken over people’s lives, their childhoods, relationships, marriages and children. Who would have thought that in 1963, a science-fiction educational program, aired on the BBC was going to turn into the huge fandom monster it has created? These fans could be anyone, mainly nutters but there’s always someone who can appreciate the production values of ‘Sliver Nemesis’. Or is it just me?

These fans kept the flame alight during the barren years since 1989 and are now reaping the benefits in this golden age for Doctor Who. The children’s educational program from 1963 is now the UK’s best loved drama.

Each decade of the programme has had a special anniversary episode(s). We’ve had the ‘Three Doctors’ in 1973, ‘The Five Doctors’ in 1984 and the unforgettable (in many ways) ‘Dimensions In Time’ in 1993. However, perhaps the most celebrated anniversary was the 40th. Just a month beforehand the fans received the best news ever – Doctor Who would be returning!

It isn’t just the television episodes that are eagerly awaited though, audio dramas, books, magazines, toys, conventions and many other things are at the top of any fans list. But for this particular anniversary, it is Big Finish who are celebrating with the release of their special audio, made up of 4 one-part stories, the mind blowingly named - Forty Five!


This audio sees Sylvester McCoy taking on four separate stories, following the releases of Peter Davison’s ‘Circular Time’ and Colin Baker’s ‘100’ (which was to celebrate Big Finish’s 100th Doctor Who release). Each of the four stories, in this audio, are linked by Forty Five or its numerical version. It becomes apparent, whilst listen to this, that it’s another example of quality planning by Big Finish and thier writers.

The CD kicks off with ‘False Gods’ where we meet Howard Carter in Egypt, some years before his major discovery of Tutankhamun. The Doctor, Ace and Hex are forced to materialise there, after they hit a time distortion. The trio land and soon encounter Carter and his students. But they are soon spilt up and divided in different periods of time. It’s a nice story that ticks along nicely but the last 10 minutes in particular are excellent.

Part two of this audio is the story ‘Order of Simplicity’, which sees the trio land on a windswept island in the year 3380 after The Doctor receives a coded transmission. He learns that a professor based on the island, needs help to crack a code. But something sinister seems to be behind it, what is the code really for and why is The Doctor so keen to crack it? This story is designed to be very creepy and the apparent 19th century décor in the professor’s house, for the year it’s set in, does seems a little strange! It’s an interesting enough story but its one of those that you’ll have to listen to carefully – it has a sort of ‘Ghost Light’ feel to it!

Part three is ‘Casualties of War’ and is the best 20-odd minutes on the CD! It’s VE Day but The Doctor is busy tracking the signal of an alien device. It seems that a local thief has got his mucky hands on a large quantity of alien artefacts and is already using one to great affect. The Doctor needs to find him quickly, apart from the device being dangerous, some ‘old friends’ from a couple of past Big Finish audios are on his trail and are determined to get back the artefacts, at any cost. This story sees Ace given more back-story and it also seems that the Hex ‘arc’ is getting ready to unravel itself. All in all, it’s a wonderful story that will leave you wanting more!

The final story of the audio is also as well delivered as the previous three. Although, ‘The Word Lord’ is the most strangest story I’ve listened to for a while, its well worth it just for the David Tennant impression – you’ll know what I’ll mean if you’ve heard it! The story starts with the trio under arrest for materialising in a high-security bunker, just when a Russian politician is murdered. But thanks to a UNIT link, they end up helping the people there but they have only – 45 minutes to do it. You probably can see where this is going but quite surprisingly, it doesn’t get annoying!

We may or may not see certain characters again, something which could be interesting next year, as each Doctor will have a trilogy of audio releases in consecutive months! As always, the pairing of the 7th Doctor, Ace and Hex remain one of my favourite’s and they pull each story off particularly well. I think we’ll be delving into Hex’s back-story soon but don’t hold me to it!

4/5

Next Time: It’s Christmas, so The Doctor and Charley are in – Manchester. Don’ worry, I’m sure the ‘Raincloud Man’ will be good!

Big Finish Doctor Who - The Stageplays - The Seven Keys To Doomsday

The series of Doctor Who: The Stageplays, continues with ‘The Seven Keys To Doomsday’, which stars Trevor Martin as the Doctor. Martin had previously played a Time Lord in Patrick Troughton’s last (regular) story – 1969’s ‘The War Games’, which was the first time we had learned (and saw) where The Doctor was from.

Originally performed in 1974, Jon Pertwee was originally going to play the role but Trevor Martin was offered it instead. Martin’s Doctor is supposed to be an alternate 4th Doctor but he doesn’t half remind you of Jon Pertwee’s incarnation, but I’ll talk about that later. Another interesting cast note is that Wendy Padbury (who played Zoe during Patrick Troughton’s reign as The Doctor) played Jenny, The Doctor’s companion in this story.

Martin does a wonderful job as The Doctor and I would love to hear from him again. True, he does remind you a lot of Jon Pertwee’s incarnation but that’s no bad thing! Perhaps the script was indeed written for Pertwee’s Doctor, rather than a brand new Doctor. However, what makes Martin’s Doctor so good is that from his first couple of sentences, you can hear the warmth and the ‘granddaddy feel’ that old-school Doctors had – something which we miss in this new era of Doctor Who.

The audio opens up, with surprise, surprise, Nick Briggs playing the injured and regenerating Doctor. Despite it only being a small role, I’m getting sick of hearing his voice! I don’t mind him doing the Daleks or the Cybermen, as he does a wonderful job but do we really need him playing in almost every audio? His voice is easily recognisable and you just think ‘oh, it’s Nick Briggs’ rather than the character he’s playing and it does throw you off your thoughts. Or is it just me?

Back on topic and the audio starts off rather nicely. Jenny (played by Charlie Hayes – the real-life daughter of Wendy Padbury) and Jimmy (Joe Thompson) are a couple who have gone to watch a play at a local theatre. But as they take their seats, a blue box materialises on stage and out steps a man, a dying man. Everyone thinks its part of the act but Jenny realises it isn’t and helps the man back into his box.

Of course this man is The Doctor and he regenerates into Trevor Martin. It seems that The Doctor is in the middle of a mission for the Timelords and takes Jenny and Jimmy along for the ride. We learn that The Doctor is trying to find seven crystals which in the wrong hands, could be the key to the destruction of the universe.

The plot is very much like The Key To Time series that was aired in 1978. Infact you could say that series took its inspiration from Seven Keys To Doomsday!

The story has been adapted well, even more so than ‘The Ultimate Adventure’. It’s a little short in running time but the CD’s are packed with extras, so you won’t feel disappointed!

As mentioned Trevor Martin does a wonderful job as The Doctor but credit must also go to the support cast and especially Charlie Hayes who played Jenny, who sounded every much companion material!

4/5

Next Time: The Stageplays concludes with ‘Curse of The Daleks’, with no actual person playing the Doctor but narrated by – Nick Briggs. Brilliant!

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 7 - Eris Quod Sum

Arthur Petrelli shows his nasty side in the latest episode of Heroes – ‘Eris Quod Sum’. For those who want to know, ‘Eris Quod Sum’ is Latin for ‘I was what you are, you will be what I am’.

After stealing his son’s powers, he locks Peter up, who refuses to join his father’s company. Meanwhile his wife Angela, still in a coma, visits Sylar in a dream and tells him to break out of The Company and rescue Peter from Pinehurst. Whether or not she has used her ‘dream powers’, is still unclear.

Mohinder, fresh from a confrontation with Nathan and Tracy, realises his monstrous behaviour and takes Maya along to Pinehurst. Arthur gets rid or her powers and hopefully that’s DEFINITELY the last time we’ll see her! Please! Mohinder stays behind at Pinehurst to help them research the second half of the formula, which in turn would help Mohinder rid himself of his self-induced ability. But Pinehurst have to first thwart an attack from Sylar, who manages to break Peter out but Mohinder arrives and sedates him, while Peter escapes.

Claire and Sandra arrive home to find that all their electrical equipment has shorted out. Don’t worry, they’ve not switched to E-on, Elle is back and she’s having problems controlling her electrical ability. With no Noah around, Elle is stuck for help but Claire produces the Pinehurst card and the pair go there for help. Claire, apparently still ‘can’t feel pain’, I think many people would love to have that ability, as well as being able to heal!

Back at Pinehurst, Arthur isn’t happy that Daphne hasn’t recruited Matt, so he tells her to kill him. His father, Maury protests and Arthur kills him on the spot. I was quite shocked by that, I think Maury was a great sinister character who wasn’t given enough screen time. Arthur then gives Daphne an ultimatum – kill Matt or I’ll kill you! I don’t understand why he can’t do it himself?

Peter is still sneaking around Pinehurst and goes back to help Sylar escape but all the time he’s been in Sylar’s company, Arthur has been having an hart-to-hart with ‘his son’. He tells Sylar that Angela saw ‘something evil’ in him and tried to drown him when he was a baby. He persuades him to work for them and he agrees – but does he? I’m not so sure. Peter bursts in and the three argue, Sylar sees that Arthur is getting angry at Peter and throws his brother out of the window – from the seventh floor. However, Peter’s fall was slowed down before he hit the ground - but was it Sylar who saved him?

Claire and Elle arrive at Pinehurst, just as Peter is falling to the ground. Peter tells the pair not to go into Pinehurst and Claire agrees. But Elle goes in, desperate to rid herself of her powers. Claire and Peter go and see Nathan, who is told about his father by Peter. He tries to persuade Nathan not to go looking for him but later Nathan tells Tracy that he has to go and see his father.

Daphne arrives at Matt’s, ready to kill him. But she can’t go though with it and knowing that she’s probably being followed, Matt hatches a plan. But it seems it’s too late, as Knox, the man who gets strong on people’s fear, arrives and kills the pair of them. He leaves quite happy but don’t worry – Matt and Daphne or still alive! Matt had used his mind-altering abilities to make Knox believe he had killed them. Unless I’m mistaken, that’s the first time Matt has shown he could do that. Matt then persuades Daphne to come with him to The Company but it all turns out to be a ploy from Daphne, who has been double-crossing Matt all the way, in order to get into The Company. Interesting times lie ahead!

Hiro, Ando and Usutu are still getting on like a ‘house on fire’ but Hiro dismisses the African’s advice on ‘choosing his own path’ and refuses not to go back in time again, to solve his problems. Usutu gives the pair a strange paste to eat. Hiro does eat it and conks out, Ando is mortified and accuses Usutu of trickery but he tells Ando that he Hiro ‘must be shown the right path’. So I presume he’s had some of the ‘drugs’ that Matt had and is now on a ‘spirit walk’ of his own? Yup, I thought so!

It was another solid episode but I was quite shocked at the death of Maury Parkman. I didn’t think it was a wise move by Arthur, as Maury had been his right-hand man for what must have been many a year and he even had saved Arthur from certain death. I also think taking Peter’s powers away is very interesting. Now that he can’t use his abilities, it should be good to see how he works things out. In programs like these, it can be so easy just to use your powers to get yourself out of a situation!

8/10

Next Time: Hiro, Ando and Usutu make up their own Hip-Hop group, call themselves ‘The Time-Travelling Future Painter Dudes and The Other Useless Brother’ and take America by storm! Give me some skin, man!

The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 Episodes 7 & 8 - The Mark of the Berserker

When I first saw the actual ‘Mark of the Berserker’, I immediately thought - ‘Mark of the Rani’! I’m not sure what game the writers are playing but I’m sure they're having a good laugh!

As for this story - I quite enjoyed it! Gary Beadle, most famous for playing Paul Trueman in EastEnders, pops up as Clyde’s Dad, also named Paul, in this Sarah-lite story. Pressumably she was away filming the Doctor Who episodes ‘The Stolen Earth’/’Journey’s End’, when this was being filmed.

Considering the SJA is a kids show, they don’t half go into the relationships of kids and their parents quite a lot! I think its something kids, in this day and age, can relate to. Apart from all the alien stuff of course!

The story starts in the school, as a young lad is being picked on by some other lad’s. But he produces something out of pocket - a pedant, which apart from leaving a strange mark on his hand, also makes people do whatever he says! It may sound good but the lad is being taken over by something and he just about gets rid of it, just as a nosey Rani (not the one mentioned earlier!) finds him in the cleanest gents I have ever seen!

Rani takes it home and quickly realises its powers. But she also realises that it’s very dangerous, so she drops it off at Sarah Jane’s, who is away, undercover at a hospital.

Meanwhile is Luke sleeping over at Clyde’s. The next morning however, Clyde’s Dad turns up out of blue and asks to spend some time with his son. His mum is reluctant but Clyde goes along with him and his Dad tries to win his son round. But Clyde, in a vain hope of trying to impress him, tells him about all his work with the aliens and even takes him round to Sarah Jane’s attic to show him all the artefacts they had collected. Paul is impressed but he hears something - the pendant is calling him. He unconsciously takes it and he proceeds to take his son away to ‘have a nice time’.

It seems that the pendant is quickly taking him over and Paul makes his son forget about Luke, Rani and his Mum and takes him on a ‘shopping’ trip. So after a free Ferrari and nice clothes later, Paul wants more for his son and intends to find them both a yacht! And they’ll get one – as the pendant can make people do whatever the person wearing it, wants!

Luke and Rani are stuck and there is only two people who can help them – Maria and her Dad! It’s nice seeing the pair back and it was a nice surprise, to be honest! Maria’s Dad hacks into UNIT to get some info about the mark and we learn that it is ‘The Mark of Berserker’ and if Paul didn’t recover – then he would turn into a Berserker, who would be hell-bent on taking over the world.

Together with Clyde’s mum, they follow Clyde and Paul, thanks to a bit of hacking and tracking a mobile phone signal! Of course, when they find and try to stop them, Clyde doesn’t know who they are and they try to plead with Paul to remember who he is. It all looks bleak, as Paul is turning into a Berserker but then – Sarah Jane arrives!

Although it was quite ante-climatic, Sarah helps to save the day, along with Clyde, who remembers her. Paul is made to remember who he is by his son and the Berserker is gone.

Clyde spends a moment with his Dad, who realises that he hasn’t been a great Dad and he and his son part on good terms. Clyde makes his mum forget what happened, thanks to the pedant, before throwing the device into the water. Do you think that’s a great idea Clyde? What if someone fishes it out?

It was a good story, without doing anything spectacular. There were some touching scenes, especially at the end with Sarah Jane and I think the kids would have enjoyed this!

8/10

Next Time: A boy comes through a time fisher but why is Sarah Jane tempted to go back in time, once again?

The Podcast With No Name (Subtitle: CyberColin Undressed) - Episode 2

2 - The 'We Dream The Same, Dream We Want The Same Thing’ Podcast

In this edition I’ll be reviewing the goings at the annual Children In Need Night, where cult TV played its part. I’ll also be pulling a British cult comedy DVD from the arse of obscurity and reviewing Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. Finally, I’ll be ranting about the dwindling number of public houses in Britain.

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Silent Witness Series 12 Episodes 11 & 12 - Finding Rachel

The Silent Witness team are in Zambia for the last story of the series and they pulled it off rather well.

Nikki is contacted by an old school friend, Peter Ellis, who runs a mining business in Zambia, after the daughter of one of his work colleague’s went missing and her bones where found. With the only pathologist away, the team are drafted in to try and establish what had happened to Rachel, the missing girl.

As soon as they arrive, they encounter bandits and robbed of a few of their personal affects. They meet everyone who knew Rachel, who was a doctor at a Christian mission. Nobody seems to know what happened to her but they all look shifty! And when Nikki establish that the bones found where not Rachel’s, the plot thickens.

After Harry saves a young journalist friend of Rachel’s, after he is run down, things look all the more suspicious. But the lad dies, whilst he is recovering – later we find out he was injected with heroin.

As Rachel’s dad is getting all the more desperate, another one of Rachel’s friends, the daughter of the people who run the mission, turns up dead, although this is found out to be an accident. The girl had earlier used Rachel’s credit card to book an hotel room and everyone thought that Rachel was alive, so imagine their surprise!

Later, as Leo is tracing Rachel’s last job – testing water for signs of disease, Harry and Nikki spot that their clothes have been sold on. They question the villagers and eventually they are led to their last known whereabouts – the scene of Rachel’s death.

Uranium was discovered by the mining company and Peter had tried to hush it up, as the Zambian government wouldn’t allow it to be mined. But when a spillage of uranium found its way into the local water supply, people contracted a host of diseases and many women had lost their babies.

Rachel was investigating this and when she found that the water was contaminated with uranium, she tries to tell her Dad but when Peter found out, he had some of his men chase her. Although he didn’t mean for her to be killed, she had injured herself and hid in a tip. Rachel had bled to death. She had also told her journalist friend about the ‘conspiracy’ and his killing was ordered by Peter Dodgy bastard!

It was a fine closing episode to the series. It was nice for the team to go somewhere else for a change, away from the drab streets of London. It’s another well written episode that everyone involved should take credit for. Here’s waiting for series 13, next year!

8/10

Bernice Summerfield 9.4 - The Diet Of Worms

Series 9 of the Bernice Summerfield audios concludes with ‘The Diet of Worms’ and it isn’t as strange as it sounds!

Even though this series has been hit by delays, you still get the feeling that we haven’t really got anywhere in developing the characters of Benny and Peter. Yes, Peter has grown up but we haven’t really pushed his character enough, ditto Benny. It should be interesting to see what Big Finish do next year, with hopefully a much longer series than just 4 stories!

Back to this audio, where Benny finds herself applying for a job at a ‘depository of knowledge’, which holds almost every written artefact that comes from Earth. However, after learning that the job is no longer open, as the depository is having finical difficulties, Benny gets set to leave. But in the vaults of the depository, something is hiding in the books. Something that repeats out loud the text of the book, before the reader can read it. Can Benny solve the mystery and help to save the timeless artefacts from going missing, forever?

It’s a rather better listen than I have described it, to be honest! It doesn’t really kick in until halfway through, then you’ll enjoy it. It has some nice moments, Mrs T. the robot cake-lady steals the show, as she at one point babysits for Peter! The last couple of minutes in particular are really good and should lead us into series 10, when it comes along. I for one can’t wait!

Overall, ‘The Diet of Worms’ is a bit of old fashioned Benny fun (if there is such a thing!), it really complements this season well, as a couple of stories that aren’t really content heavy. I’m hoping that the writers will step it up a gear when series 10 arrives!

4/5

Next Time: There’s no word yet on the details for series 10 but keep your eyes peeled on the Big Finish website for all the latest news!

Colin's Podcast - The Podcast With No Name (Subtitle: Cyber Colin Undressed) - DOWNLOAD NOW!

Join Colin, as he hosts his own unique podcast - The Podcast With No Name (Subtitle: Cyber Colin Undressed). Colin covers mostly British, cult television, audios and books. Be it Sc-Fi or Fantasy - it's all done! So get ready to listen to the worse podcast you'll ever listen to! Sprinkled with humour and libelous content, it sure isn't like any podcast you've ever heard!

1 - The 'I've Got The Face But Sadly Not The Voice' Podcast

In this edition, Colin talks about Doctor Who - David Tennant's departure and reviews the series 4 and Torchwood sountracks, as well as the latest Bernice Summerfield audio story - 'The Diet of Worms'. All of which come neatly wrapped in the biggest pile of unprofessionalism, since Sarah Palin.

Download Direct Here (Right-click and select 'Save Target As')

RSS Feed http://cybercolin.mypodcast.com/rss.xml

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 6 - Dying of the Light

We knew that Hiro didn’t really kill his best friend, didn’t we? Well I did anyway! It’s all turns out to be a hoax with some fake blood and a joke sword! Horrified at what he’s done, Daphne gives Hiro his first task – to go and capture Matt’s African mate, Usutu. The wily African knows he’s coming of course and we are treated to a couple of humorous scenes involving hitting Hiro on the head with a spade - twice! Ustsu eventually goads Hiro into not using his time travel ability and it works, but the man who can paint the future is always one step ahead and quite happily chats to Hiro and Ando. It looks like the trio are going to become friends now. Awww!

Meanwhile Arthur Petrelli is back on his feet, after he disposes of Adam and his regenerative powers, as he is turned to dust. It seems that Arthur has a similar power to his son Peter but instead of copying powers, he steals them from the original host. Now with the revelation that he has another ‘son’, Sylar, who murdered people to steal their powers, where does this leave Nathan, who was given his flying ability? I don’t think he’s a Petrelli!

Nathan’s going nowhere at the moment - he’s taken prisoner by mad Mohinder! Along with Tracy, Nathan visited Mohinder in the last episode to find out whether or not Mohinder has found a cure to rid people of their abilities. Despite having a number of people cocooned in his back room and now Nathan and Tracy, Mohinder seems horrified by what he’s doing. However he quickly dismisses that remorse, like you do!

Fatty Matt, on the other hand, has somehow afforded a flight back to the US from ‘somewhere in Africa’ and even got his tortoise through customs! At the airport, he meets Daphne, who is waiting to offer him a position at Pinehurst. She knows nothing of Matt’s dream about the pair, in the future. It becomes rather uncomfortable to watch, as Matt tells her the gory details of how ‘they will end up married’ etc. Yuck! Matt continues to pour his heart out and tells her that he will protect Daphne. Daphne reveals that she doesn’t like working for Pinehurst, but they have something on her? Wonder what it could be? Hope its some pictures of her in the nuddy!

Poor Daphne has got to put her chubby (but loveable!) stalker on hold as she is speeding back and forth like Lewis Hamilton, but faster. She has been tasked by Linderman/Maury Parkman, to recruit others to Pinehurst. She heads to The Company’s Level 5 to break out Flint, who was captured during the bank raid in the episode ‘One of Us, One of Them’. Before that however, she also offers Sylar a position at Pinehurst. He refuses and instead tries to tell Peter about the ‘other Company’. Peter is having none of it though and after a fight, sedates Sylar and heads to Pinehurst himself.

No Heroes episode is complete without boring, childish Claire! This week the super-cheerleader and her adoptive ‘mom’ try to free Claire’s birth mother, Meredith, from the clutches of the ‘puppet-master’, Eric Doyle. The pair are captured and we spend a couple of tense moments playing Russian Roulette with Meredith. I know I often take the piss out of Claire a bit but I thought this scene was her best for a while. Claire begs her adoptive mother to shoot her (as Claire can’t be killed of course!), she does and Claire manages to recover and whack Doyle over the head.

I thought it was a great scene and it showed that the relationship between Claire and her adoptive mother was as strong as it ever was. Despite her regenerative abilities it must have took some bottle to shoot her, the girl who she had brought up as her own and now her birth mother was watching on. Noah turns up and takes Doyle back to Level 5 but not before offering Meredith a position with The Company. A word on Doyle – I liked his character, which was sleazy and creepy in all the right places but if I had three women under my control, I certainly wouldn’t be trying to make them kill each other! What a tit!

Daphne is still running about and she visits Mohinder and offers him a job with Pinehurst. Who does she think she is? Alan Sugar? Well it’s Mohinder who ends up being FIRED as Daphne discovers his secret stash of bodies and makes her escape. What will Pinehurst make of this? Meanwhile Nathan and Tracy try to escape but clearly angry after the confrontation with Daphne, Mohinder does his best Hulk impression and chucks a bench at them…

Peter arrives at Pinehurst but finds Arthur giving a speech to his new found ‘team’. Peter bursts in, lighting bolts in hand and is left opened-mouthed at the sight of his dad, who he thought was dead. His dad asks him for a hug and Peter, clearly upset and disoriented, agrees. Peter suddenly collapses and realises that his father has taken his powers away from him, all of them…

It was a better episode than last week. It was sad to see the apparent death of Adam Monroe (David Anders), who went from a loveable rouge to villain during the course of the second series. This story arc is getting all the more interesting, as it seems Pinehurst are getting ready for a showdown with The Company. But there are plenty more stories to be told. Like when will we see the saucy photos of Daphne that Arthur is hiding?

8/10

Next Time: Daphne, Elle, Claire, Meredith, Tracy and Mr Muggles call into CyberColin Towers for a bit of ‘fun’ in the Jacuzzi!

Silent Witness Series 12 Episodes 9 & 10 - The Lost Child

It wasn’t quite another raid on religion this week but we did have a Christian, who was embroiled in a pedo case though! Before anyone takes offence, he didn’t do it!

A young lad is found dead, clogging up a drainage pipe, by his headmaster. The lad had befriended another boy, who was now missing. Evidence is found that the boy was sexually abused and the men in the frame are the missing boy’s ‘uncle’ and their landlord – a convicted ‘dirty bastard’.

The headmaster of the school also happens to be Nikki’s former teacher and we get a nice back-story for the pretty pathologist. Apparently she ran away from school, unhappy at everything and the teacher, Noel Hopkins, retrieved her and was her ‘mentor’.

Meanwhile Harry and Leo are on a ‘Berracane hunt’, after the drowned lad was found with the chemical in his body. So it’s a case of ‘find the chemical, find the boy’, simple then, isn’t it!

The net to catch the nonce is widened and after the revelation that Hopkins is acquainted with the landlord, the weird Christian (the dead boy’s stepfather) and the fact he had a phone call from the uncle, put him in the frame. Oh and the uncle is found dead after being hit by a train, when he was on his way to meet Hopkins. He’s that badly disfigured – he’s mistaken for the missing boy.

Nikki doesn’t believe that Hopkins is behind it but that doesn’t stop her questioning herself when Hopkins gives her some home truths. Is she ‘The Lost Child’ this story is about? As the police learn that it was the uncle that was killed, they have to let Hopkins go. But that doesn’t stop a hate mob, drawing graffiti on his property and firebombing his house. Comparisons with this can be made to real life events, when innocent people are attacked, like the Paediatrician, who was attacked by a group of toothless simpletons who believed that he was a Paedophile!

Anyway I digress, we learn that the missing boy isn’t missing after all. The ‘uncle’ and the ‘boy’ are the same person. It’s clear that the landlord made him pose as a 12-year old boy, in order to lure young lads to the pair’s ‘secret hiding place’. Unfortunately, the only evidence is photos of the landlord and the man ‘at it’. But landlord will get is comeuppance as he has Berracane poisoning and not long to live. Sweet justice, wouldn’t you say?

It was another well written episode, Emile Fox (Nikki) and especially guest star Reece Dindsdale (Hopkins) were superb, at acting this harrowing story out.

8/10

Next Time: It’s the last story of the series and the BBC has decided to splash out on a trip abroad. Is it Las Vegas? No, it isn’t - it’s in Africa, which is a shame – those CSI chumps need a good kick up the arse!

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 5 - Angels and Monsters

The latest episodes of Heroes chugs along rather nicely, without really trying. That’s not to say ‘Angel’s and Monsters’ is a bad episode, it just isn’t as good as previous episodes! You can even play a game whilst watching this – counting every time the word ‘Monster’ is uttered! There's even a nice change at the start of this episode - Nathan does the 'bollocks narration' instead of Mohinder!

Nathan is still being followed around by Linderman, who claims to have been sent by ‘a higher power’ to help Nathan. Nathan takes this to be ‘from God’ – the fool! Later, Nathan finds out that his powers where given to him by Dr. Zimmerman, the bloke who also worked on Tracy and her sisters. Now does this mean Nathan isn’t his mother’s son? Both of his parents and ‘brothers’ have abilities. Or does it mean the whole plot of abilities running in the family, is bollocks?

Mohinder continues his weird behaviour and confronts a drug dealer, as you do, and whacks him in some sort of cocoon, which he has also done to his neighbour from last week. Maya becomes suspicious after hearing news of the missing neighbour and after she investigates, finds Mohinder’s ‘secret stash’. She is discovered and whacked in a cocoon herself, hopefully this will be the last of Maya – she isn’t my favourite character, in fact I would go as far as saying she’s very sleep-inducing! It should be interesting to see what they do with Mohinder’s character, I suspect this is the beginning of the end though, for the Indian geneticist.

Meanwhile, picking up from the end of last week’s episode, Peter attacks Sylar and then becomes infatuated with what his mother is thinking and starts to cut open her head – until Sylar recovers and knocks him out. Will Peter become the main ‘villain’ now? I suspect not, as I reckon there is a lot more evil to come from Sylar and his new-found ‘mother’!

Boring Claire is on the trail of an escaped Level 5 convict – Stephen Canfield, who can create vortexes. We learn that he had accidently ‘murdered’ his neighbour by opening one up. He seemed remorseful and just wanted to find his family, who had disappeared when he was taken by The Company. Noah and Sylar turn up, Stephen gets scared and opens up a vortex and makes a run for it. Sylar ends up saving Claire and the three go and meet Stephen, who had also arranged to meet his family, thanks to information given to him by Claire.

Noah though, says that he’ll let Stephen go free if he trapped Sylar in a vortex. Sylar has got the ‘super hearing’ ability though, so it’s not a great idea! Stephen refuses and traps himself in one of his vortexes. What I want to know is: Where do these vortex’s go? They must go somewhere, in time or space….

Back at the Bennet household, Claire's real and adoptive mothers realise that she was lying about her trip to a ‘cheerleading retreat’. Her (real) mother believes that she has gone after a dangerous escaped Level 5 prisoner, Eric Doyle, who she happens to know. She goes after him but the man seems to have the ability to make people do what he wants. Then follows a lovely scene at his dinner table, which leads to the most awkward since Spiderman 1!

Adam, let loose by Hiro in the last episode, eventually agrees to help the loveable Jap to find Daphne. They go to a bar, which happens to be a ‘hang-out’ for ‘special persons for hire’. Adam gets into a fight and is thrown out, later he’s captured by persons unknown, who we learn later is ‘Pinehurst Industries’. Daphne and her friend Knox turn up and challenge Hiro to prove his worth, to join them. With Hiro desperate to go undercover, he completes the challenge set to him by Knox – stabbing Ando. Even though it was shocking to see this, I reckon Hiro will go back and ‘fix’ this. Surely he will?

Daphne meanwhile, is another who has been seeing Linderman. She returns to the mysterious ‘Pinehurst Industries’ and we learn that he has hired her and tasks her with finding one more person – Matt Parkman. However, Linderman isn’t Linderman – he’s Maury Parkman, who has been implanting the image of Linderman in Nathan and Daphne’s head. And that’s not all, after Cherie Blair had one of her ‘dreams’, the mysterious man who was in it turns out to be running Pinehurst from the comfort of his sickbed, her husband – Arthur Petrelli.

It wasn’t the most action packed episode but the amount of plotlines which have been revealed made up for that. I’m not sure about having The Company vs. Pinehurst plot and I thought Arthur was dead? It seems in Heroes (and in most sc-fi shows, to be fair) that dead doesn’t mean dead. Although in one case – I hope Maya is dead!

6/10

Next Time: Arthur turns out to be some random bloke who has no powers at all. I wouldn’t be surprised, considering how Heroes loves giving us ‘twists’!

The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 Episodes - 5 & 6 - Secrets of the Stars

Russ Abbott continues the trend of ‘this year’s most bizarre casting in a children’s television show’, in this story - ‘Secrets of the Stars’.

The comedian, best known for his sketch show in the late 80’s, plays a fake astrologer, Martin Trueman, who is given ‘the gift’ of the stars, after he is hit by a unknown force. Trueman can now perform a number of correct predictions, which creep out Sarah and the gang when they go and see one of his shows.

Before the show everyone fills out a card, with their name and date of birth. Luke gets a little upset, as he doesn’t have a birthday, as he was ‘activated’ in ‘Invasion of the Bane’.

It makes for a very interesting plot, as Trueman’s plan is to make everyone in the world to obey his will – by using their star signs to control them. Apparently astrology exists on almost every planet and was once a real thing – in a universe that was here before our own. Not sure if many kids could understand that!

There are some nice nods to classic Doctor Who characters, the Draconians and there’s even a flashback scene with The Doctor, using clips from the episodes ‘School Reunion’ and ‘Journey’s End’.

Later, Clyde is possessed by Trueman and intends to kill Sarah – but doesn’t, after Luke tries to persuade him. Meanwhile everyone on the planet is being possessed, star-sign by star-sign.

The team head down to Trueman’s theatre and try to stop him. It looks bleak but Luke realises he is the only one who can stop it. He is able to discharge the energy generated by ‘the Ancient Lights’ as he was never born – so he doesn’t have a star-sign. They try and save Trueman but he instead ‘joins the stars’ rather than being put in jail, after his plan involved taking over every broadcast signal, to get his message through.

The first part built up really well but I was a little surprised to see that an adult relationship provided a bit of dynamic, when Trueman’s client was taken over and her husband was a bit peeved. Considering this is a children’s program, I feel that the writers don’t dumb down the stories too much and that is to their credit.

I was a little bit disappointed with part two, I just didn’t buy the whole star-sign stuff, controlling everyone on the planet. Russ Abbott was great though and it was nice to see him back on television, apparently he’s going to join the cast of ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ soon and at 61, he’s probably one of the youngest members of that cast – ever!

7.5/10

Next Time: Roy ‘Chubby’ Brown, who is banned from television, guest stars as Sarah’s estranged husband. Fat bastard!