Cyber Colin's Cyber Blog

Lost Series 4 Episode 11 - Cabin Fever

2009-02-04T07:30:00.000-08:00

We finally learn about the adolescent John Locke in ‘Cabin Fever’, as flashbacks reveal that he did have a full head of hair!

His mother was 16 years-old when she had him but the little lad had to come through many illnesses, which surprised the doctors, as they where sure he would die. However, his mother just couldn’t handle it and ran off leaving a run-of-the-mil nasty, yank, Mother-in-Law to give John up for adoption.

Later, we see John as a young boy in his adoptive parent’s home. He is visited by none other than Richard Alpert, one of the Island ‘Others’. With Richard looking exactly the same as he does in the present day, something is up! Richard went on to test the young Locke for a ‘special school’ of his. But after the young boy failed his bizarre test (choosing some objects, ranging from a comic to a knife!) Alpert looks quite disappointed and takes off. Later we learn that Alpert and Matthew Abaddon (the man who visited Hurley in the mental hospital) have been monitoring Locke’s life. Abaddon moonlighted as a hospital porter whilst Locke was trying to recover from his accident, which left him paralysed. He suggested that Locke should take a ‘walkabout’ in Australia and you know what happened next…

On the Island, Locke, Hurley and Ben are still trying to find Jacob’s cabin. They are having no luck but after a rough night’s sleep, Locke sees an apparition of a deceased DHARMA operative who shows him the way to a mass grave, in which most of the DHARMA operatives where buried during ‘The Purge’ (shown in series 3). Locke searches and finds blueprints which will lead them to the cabin.

Meanwhile, on the freighter, Keamy returns from his murderous mission but he becomes more pissed off when the Captain tells him that Michael is a spy. Keamy immediately tries to kill him but as we saw in ‘Meet Kevin Johnson’ Michael can’t be killed, without ‘completing his mission’ so Keamy’s gun jams. The Captain persuades Keamy to keep him alive, as he is the only one who knows how to fix the boat’s engines. Sayid, in fear of what Keamy is going to do with the Islanders, takes a smaller boat and heads to the Island.

Later, Keamy would lose his temper for the last time and as he hears that the doctor’s body has been found on the beach - which is impossible as he is standing on the freighter! Keamy orders Frank to take them back to Island but he refuses, so Keamy killed the doctor – and had his body thrown overboard. Frank is still in a refusal mood, so the Captain is killed as well and Frank finally submits to the Marine’s wishes. But when they fly over the Island, Frank drops a satellite phone, for the Islanders to use…

With the episode coming to an end, we needed our cliffhanger! It didn’t disappoint, as Locke enters Jacob’s cabin alone, he is met by Christian Shepard and quite creepily, Claire who is stood in the corner. Claire does seem a little odd and dismisses her abandonment of her baby son as ‘its all in the plan’. Christian tells Locke that Keamy is on his way back and that the only way to keep the Island safe from them (meaning Widmore, probably) was to ‘move it’….

It was rather a ‘jumpy’ episode but for all the right reasons! I was a bit surprised that Keamy killed the ship’s Captain, as I thought he was an interesting character that could have been given a larger role. However it was finally satisfying to finally know that the Island DOES exist in its own ‘bubble of time’, as the Doctor washed up on the beach BEFORE he was killed! But I’m stumped on what the hell is going on with Christian and Claire. And where, or more importantly - who is Jacob?

But for me, the best parts of the episode where the flashbacks to a young Locke. I thought his story was done very well and surely we are going to learn more about Richard’s role in his life?

8/10

Next Time: It’s the final episode of the series (but really its in three parts!), as we are treated to the best part of three hours! Is ‘There No Place Like Home’ – lets find out!

Lost Series 4 Episode 10 - Something Nice Back Home

2009-01-30T17:44:00.000-08:00

Things are starting to come together for our ‘Lost-ies’ as they dream of ‘Something Nice Back Home’ and its far from nice, believe me!

Not that this is a bad episode, it chugs along nicely but what it revealed, had me thinking that the writers had bowed to ‘fan power’. Yes – Jack and Kate are together in the flash-forwards. Okay, this isn’t permanent but it was always very predictable and so I was a little bit disappointed by it. Not that I’m against the relationship in any way, I just thought that the tension in the Jack-Kate-Sawyer love triangle was building up nicely and would have been better if it carried on for a while. But as we now know, Sawyer isn’t part of the ‘Oceanic 6’, so Kate’s choice is obvious!

Back on the beach and Jack has somehow contracted appendicitis and Juliet insists that she operates. She is helped out by the morse code-reading dentist Bernard, who is used to handing out anaesthetics. However, with no bat to whack him on the head with – he uses chloroform instead! Kate’s also present, at Jack request and we could be seeing the beginning of the relationship, we saw in the flash-forwards.

Earlier, Sun, Jin, Daniel and Charlotte went to get medical supplies from one of the DHARMA stations and after spotting that Charlotte could understand Korean, Jin takes her to one side and threatens to hurt Daniel if the pair continue to lie about why they are there and if they don’t get Sun off the Island.

Sawyer, Claire, Aaron and Miles are on the way back to the beach from Locke’s camp but its not long before Miles, the expert when it comes to dead people, discovers the partially-buried bodies of Danielle and Karl. But what I want to know is – who buried them? I can’t see those snipers doing it and seeing as they took Alex away, she didn’t have an opportunity either.

Later, Sawyer’s over-protectiveness of Claire and Aaron would boil to the surface as they run into a flustered Frank, who instructs the adult trio to hide, has he has brought Keamy and what’s left of his team back to Island. After a rather anxious moment, they get away with it as Keamy troops away. Relieved, they make camp but Claire takes off in the night as she apparently spots her deceased father, Christian Sheppard and follows him, leaving Aaron with Sawyer and Miles. Is Jack and Claire’s father still alive after all? I do hope the writers know what their doing!

Back to the flash-forwards and more dead people pop up, sort of. As Hurley, locked up in the mental hospital, tells Jack that Charlie told him to tell Jack that he’s not supposed to raise Aaron as his own. However, Hurley isn’t taking his medication, so Jack dismisses this but Hurley gives him another message from Charlie – he’ll receive a visit from someone he knows. That someone turns out to be his Dad, who he sees twice. Jack thinks he’s hallucinating and asks a colleague to prescribe him some medication. I bet this is the start of Jack addiction to pills that we have seen in previous flash-forwards.

Later, Jack returns home and overhears Kate having a rather secretive phone call. After originally lying to him, she admits that she is doing an errand for Sawyer. Jack seems angry telling her that it was ‘his choice to stay on the Island’ and blurts out that she and Aaron aren’t related – just as the little lad is standing in the doorway…

It was yet another informative episode that has started tying up those many loose ends. We are still in the dark about the futures of the rest of the survivors but hopefully they’ll survive in one way or another! The tension is being built up, slowly but surely, as we start to come to the end of the 4th series.

7/10

Next Time: Locke, Hurley and Ben get lost in the jungle but they stop at the local Starbucks ™ and ask for directions!

Big Finish Doctor Who 117 - The Key 2 Time - The Judgement of Isskar

2009-01-28T06:07:00.000-08:00

On a planet where Time stands still, the Doctor meets a woman who is just a few minutes old. She is a Tracer, sent into our Universe by her makers to locate the six segments of the Key to Time. This being without a name wants the Doctor to be her assistant, but she doesn’t tell him the whole truth. Not at first.

Their first port of call is Mars, where a society that one day will become Ice Warriors lives in peace and civility. But the Doctor’s arrival will change all that. The universe is dying, a choice must be made, and the Judgement of Isskar will be declared. The price must be paid - even if it takes centuries…

Big Finish kick off 2009 with the release of the ‘Key 2 Time’ trilogy, starring fifth Doctor, Peter Davison. However, if you are after a more in-depth look at certain characters then check out the companion chronicle release – ‘The Prisoner’s Dilemma’. Even though it acts as a prequel to the trilogy, you’re not missing out on any of the story if you are unable to purchase a copy. However, if you’re a stickler for the development of a characters back story, then by all means - check it out! The story stars Sophie Aldred as Ace and like all companion chronicles – it’s a great listen!

Anyway back on the main subject! Let’s go back to 1978 and we are introduced to Romana and the mysterious Guardians, who are both after ‘The Key To Time’, which is a crystal made up of six different segments that can give the holder the power to rewrite the state and balance of the universe. However each segment has been scattered throughout time and space and could be disguised as anything! So the poor old Doctor has to find them and restore the balance. Don’t worry – it isn’t as confusing as I’ve told it!

I think it’s a good move by Big Finish to do a sequel to that classic series. This first story – ‘The Judgement of Isskar’, is a wonderful start! We’ve got Ice Warriors, before they where ‘Ice Warriors’, insect people who are at war with each other and of course a new companion – Amy (played by Ciara Janson). Amy is a humanoid ‘tracer’, which was the device which the fourth Doctor used to find the Key last time. However this time, the Key is decaying and Amy and her sister Zara (Laura Doddington) have been tasked to find three segments each by their masters – 'The Grace', before the key destroys itself - and the universe!

From start to finish, this audio just pulls you into the narrative. The pre-Ice Warrior Mars is a fascinating concept, which has never been explored by the television series before. There is also a nice nod to ‘Red Dawn’, an early Big Finish audio, with The Ice Warriors. But it’s the performances of the two sisters, Amy and Zara that I’m most impressed with. It’s like listening to a long-established partnership between the two characters, which in reality is just barely over an hour long!

Another partnership I was impressed with was the one between Amy and The Doctor. I felt that the new-born and naive Amy was great foil for Davison’s ‘old man in a young person’s body’-type Doctor. It was almost like being back in 1963 and William Hartnell’s old professor-type Doctor I wonder, what with Peri stuck on ‘a planet of rain’, which starts the story off and no Erimem anymore, will Amy get to stay on with The Doctor, beyond this trilogy? I hope so but its very early days!

Overall, this is a great start to what could be an epic story. All credit to everyone involved for producing yet another Big Finish masterpiece! I’m very rarely disappointed with a monthly release, so let’s hope this continues for the next 12 months - as there is some very intriguing stuff to come!

5/5

Next Time: The Doctor and Amy continue on their journey, this time they encounter ‘The Destroyer of Delights’!

Lost Series 4 Episode 9 - The Shape of Things To Come

2009-01-26T09:59:00.000-08:00

When I thought that Lost couldn’t get any better, it produces an episode like this – ‘The Shape of Things To Come’. It’s everything that an episode of Lost should be, fights, sly jokes and more weirdness than a day in the life of Michael Jackson!

This story concentrates on Ben, who is off the Island in a couple of different flash-forwards. In one, he has seemingly left the Island, as he is wearing a Dharma coat. However, he finds himself face down in the Tunisian desert, perhaps it was the same region where Charlotte found the polar bear skeleton with the DHARMA collar? Ben is then confronted by two armed locals. He kills one of them and attacks another before stealing an horse and riding to the city.

Later, Ben is in Iraq where he encounters Sayid, who is attending his wife, Nadia’s, funeral. Ben tells Sayid that Widmore ordered an hitman to kill his wife. Later, Sayid kills the assassin and agrees to become an hitman for Ben – in order to get revenge on Widmore.

Back on the Island, the corpse of the freighter’s doctor washes up on the beach. Faraday tries to call the boat using morse code. However, he lies to the others about the message, saying that ‘Everything was fine’. But, quite bizarrely, Bernard can understand morse code and told everyone about the real content of the message – ‘What are you talking about? The doctor is fine’. Angry, Jack forces Faraday to reveal that it was never their intention to rescue the survivors.

We learn that the snipers form the last episode, who killed Danielle and Karl, where the men from the boat, lead by Keamy. Alex is taken hostage, as the men shoot up Locke’s camp and kill a number of people in the process. Keamy shouts at Ben to come out and produces his hostage and holds a gun to her head. However, Ben doesn’t believe that he’ll go through with it but he (and most of the viewers, I’m sure) are left shocked when Keamy executes Alex. It was rather shocking and the acting involved is absolutely top-notch.

Ben utters something about ‘he’s changed the rules’ and runs off and seemly activates the ‘smoke monster’, which kills a number of Keamy’s men, with the rest taking cover. The rest agree that they should leave the camp but Ben stays behind for a while, to grieve over the corpse of his ‘daughter’. Meanwhile, Sawyer wants to return to the beach with Claire, Aaron and Hurley but the latter is held at gunpoint by Locke and forced to go with him and Ben, to find Jacob’s cabin. Hurley is one of the few that has seen the mysterious house, which contains the mysterious figure. Hurley agrees to go with them but it was nice to see that Sawyer cared about him!

Back to the future and Ben is in London and confronts Widmore, while in bed! He tells him that he had ‘changed the rules’ and in revenge, he would kill his daughter, Penny, so he knows what it felt like. The flash-forward was actually filmed in London, as Alan Dale was appearing in a west-end show at the time.

Overall, it was a truly excellent episode. We learnt a lot more about Ben, seeing that he was indeed human! Michael Emerson is becoming my favourite actor in Lost. Apart from his wonderful sarcastic comments and looks, his reaction to the death of his daughter was superb. And how shocking was that! The babe count has definitely gone down with the departure of Alex (Tania Raymonde)! But on a technical note, the episode was one, if not the best directed episode of Lost, since the first two episodes. For that alone, it deserves the highest praise.

10/10

Next Time: Keamy proves he is indeed a ‘bad arse’ by shooting new-born puppies - because he’s bored!

RIP ALEX :-(

Lost Series 4 Episode 8 - Meet Kevin Johnson

2009-01-21T17:42:00.000-08:00

We meet the mysterious Kevin Johnson in this aptly named episode of Lost – ‘Meet Kevin Johnson’!

Infact it’s a story we’ve been waiting for since the end of series 2 – what had happened to Michael, after he and Walt left the Island. For those of you not up to speed – Kevin Johnson is Michael and he is working on board the freighter which Sayid and Desmond are on! At the start of this episode, Sayid corners Michael and angrily insists that he should tell him why he’s there.

It turns out Michael told his son all about his killing of Ana Lucia and Libby and the boy now lives with Michael’s mum. Utterly depressed, Michael tries to kill himself – twice! It’s when he’s about to shoot himself, in a dark alley of all places, that a face from the past shows up – it’s Tom from the Island!

Later, we are ‘treated’ to a scene in Tom’s hotel room, with his boyfriend, yep – he’s bent as a sixty pound note! Anyway, Tom explains to Michael that the Island ‘won’t allow him to die, until he completes his task’. I know it sounds ridiculous but I kept watching and was treated to a great story!

Michael is told all about Charles Widmore and his faking of the Oceanic plane wreck. The plan is for him to infiltrate the boat and gather information on all the crew members. That’s until he receives a call from Walt, whilst on the boat – except it’s from Ben! Ben tells him to continue to gather information for him and then kill the crew, one by one. Michael is reluctant but when he spots the boat mercenary, Keamy, pissing about with machine guns – he knows something isn’t right…

The story isn’t good enough for Sayid, who immediately shops him to the Captain. With the Captain having a fetish for beating people up – I can’t see Michael coming out of this very well!

Meanwhile, on the Island, Ben tells everyone at the barracks about the people who are after him and lets them know that they will kill everyone on the Island. Locke takes him at his word and starts setting up defences, whilst Ben tells his fake-daughter, Alex, to go with her real-mother and her boyfriend Karl, to a safe place where the Others are. However on the way, snipers kill Karl and then Rousseau. Alex sees no choice but to surrender and admit she’s the daughter of Ben. But who are the mysterious gunmen? Is this a plan by Ben, to get his daughter back? We shall see.

Overall, it was a good episode that finally told us the story about Michael’s departure and it was satisfactory enough. Although I’m not sure how the Island can stop you from killing yourself, I do hope this is explained! I was very impressed by Harold Perrineau’s (Michael) performance. I though his acting, especially with all the emotional scenes, was absolute quality.

I was also shocked to see Danielle and to some extent, Karl being killed off in such quick fashion. Although it’s great to see that Lost aren’t afraid to swing the axe, or sniper rifle if you prefer!

9/10

Next Time – Its bets at the ready as Vincent as a no-holes-barred fight with the ‘Smoke Monster’!

Lost Series 4 Episode 7 - Ji Yeon

2009-01-19T04:59:00.000-08:00

We learn the final member of the ‘Oceanic 6’ in this, the seventh episode of series 4 of Lost – Ji Yeon.

This episode is all about Sun, who survives the Island – but is it without her husband Jin? We see flash-forwards of her about to give birth and Jin running around trying to buy a teddy Panda – its all great fun!

Back on the Island, Sun and Jin are debating whether they should join Locke’s camp because Sun doesn’t trust the people from the boat - Dan and Charlotte. Jin agrees but one person who is horrified is Juliet.

With every woman (who was impregnated on the Island) dying, Juliet is worried the same might happen to Sun and her baby, if they don’t get off the Island. Sun is adamant that she’s going to Locke’s camp, so Juliet resorts to desperate measures to keep them at the beach – she tells Jin about Sun’s affair, which she had prior to arriving on the Island.

Even though Jin can’t speak much English, he is rapidly improving and understood her words. He takes off and goes fishing with Bernard. Thankfully, the dentist is a wise old bugger and his advice seems to spark something in Jin, who forgives his wife.

Back to the future and after a scare, Sun has her baby named Ji Yeon (by Jin, on the Island) but her husband is nowhere to be seen. It’s then we learn that the parts with Jin, where infact flashbacks, as he was delivering the Panda to a client. Later, Hurley appears, to have a look at the baby – and to accompany Sun to Jin’s grave.

But that isn’t all that happened in this episode. Back at the boat, Sayid and Desmond meet the Captain who tells them that it was Ben who faked the plane crash and that his employer, Charles Widmore, is interested in getting hold of Ben to know how he did it. Whether or not he is telling the truth, is debatable. The pair are then moved to a new room, where they meet the deckhand, Kevin Johnson. But there is something familiar about this bloke – it’s Michael!

It was another solid episode that gave us some well needed depth for Sun and Jin. The writers are particularly cruel in showing us that Jin could have been alive, as its debatable whether or not Aaron should be counted as part of the ‘6’. But is he really dead? The surprise appearance of Michael was spoiled by the actors name in the credits but I didn’t notice!

7/10

Next Time: Locke starts a 'Turf War' with those on the beach - by stealing their golf clubs!

Lost Series 4 Episode 6 - The Other Woman

2009-01-15T11:53:00.000-08:00

Juliet gets more back-story in the 6th episode of series 4 of Lost – ‘The Other Woman’, although a lot of the plot seems vaguely familiar.

The story centres on Juliet’s arrival on the Island and delves into her ‘affair’ with fellow ‘Other’ Goodwin, who was killed by Ana Lucia in series 2. The title of ‘The Other Woman’ could refer to Juliet herself, as Goodwin was married to her on-Island therapist, Harper.

Juliet also has to deal with Ben, who seems very interested in her. Her fears become even more so when she realises that it was he who sent Goodwin to infiltrate the tail-section survivors (in series 2) on purpose - to keep them away from each other. An un-compassionate Ben shows Juliet the rotting corpse of Goodwin, presumably to reinforce his authority.

Back into the present storyline and Juliet is suspicious of Charlotte and Dan, when they take off from the camp. Things get more serious when a returning Kate is attack from behind by Charlotte. The pair have also taken the gas masks, which they arrived on the Island with.

However, we learn that they are turning off a ‘poison gas factory’ that could have been activated at any time and could have killed people on the Island, just as Ben did during ‘the purge’ (a flashback in series 3). But still, the pair are being mysterious and Jack and the others still don’t trust them.

Meanwhile at the barracks, Ben pleads with Locke to set him free. In exchange he tells Locke that Charles Widmore owns the freighter and wants to take over the Island. Locke seems to be giving in but wants to know who Ben’s spy is on board the freighter and before he gets his own house at the barracks, Ben tells Locke who his spy is….

It was a rather slow episode that had a ‘filler episode’ feel to it. Although I don’t personally believe filler episode exist, that’s what it feels like! The flashbacks were too similar to Juliet’s past flashbacks and offered her hardly any character development. In fact we learned more about Ben than her! I also felt that Harper was severely underused and was surprised how easily she gave up her husband to Juliet.

However, the episodes redeeming feature was it’s scenes on the present-day Island. I felt that casting of all the people from the helicopter has been a masterstroke, I really enjoy the performances of Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davies), in particular.

6/10

Next Time: Will Ben wind up Sawyer and Hurley by nicking their underwear off the washing line? So exciting isn’t it?

Lost Series 4 Episode 5 - The Constant

2009-01-14T16:09:00.000-08:00

We learn a great deal about the island and its inhabitants, in this the 5th episode of series 4 of Lost – The Constant.

After they apparently went ‘missing’ in last week’s episode, Sayid, Desmond and Frank are alive and well and heading for the freighter – so what’s going on? That question gets put on the back burner, as Desmond suddenly finds himself back in 1996 when he was in the Army.

However, he returns quickly but has no knowledge of what happened to him after 1996, so he doesn’t recognise Sayid. With Desmond, obviously distressed and teetering on the edge of sanity, they land at the boat and Desmond is taken to the sick bay. There we learn that another man has a similar condition – the radio operator, Minkowski. He explains to Desmond that Penny had been trying to contact the boat, which means nothing to Desmond, as he thinks she’s still in 1996.

Said borrows a phone to ring Jack back at the beach but its Dan who helps them out. He believes he knows what Desmond’s suffering from and asks to speak to him. After finding out that he keeps travelling between 1996 and the present day, he tells Desmond to find him, as he was a lecturer at Oxford during this time. He gives Desmond some settings for a device and a code word.

Later Desmond would meet the younger Dan and after not initially believing him, Dan is convinced when Desmond gives him the numbers and the code word. The code word, it seems is a rat. Dan then demonstrates how his device he can send the rat forwards in time. However, the rat dies and Dan explains that it’s mind couldn’t cope, as it didn’t have a ‘constant’ – something that anyone could relate to in both times that they’re in. Desmond’s constant turns out to be his girlfriend, Penny but first he must find her in 1996. Meanwhile, Minkowski dies, as his brain goes the same way as the rat.

Desmond goes to see Penny’s father, the mysterious Charles Widmore, who is busy bidding on what seems to be a piece of the Island’s memorabilia. It turns out that he has bought a journal from the captain of a ship called ‘The Black Rock’ which had crashed on the Island. Widmore gives Desmond the address but warns him that she doesn’t want to see him, after he had ran off to the Army to prove to Widmore that he was ‘worthy’ of his daughter (in series 3).

However, Desmond manages to persuade a fed-up Penny and tells her that he will phone her only once, on Christmas Eve in 2004 (it’s that date on the boat). A reluctant Penny gives him the number and when he finds himself back on the boat, he manages to ring her and once she picks it up, the rift is sealed. Desmond is okay and Penny realises that he was telling the truth. Penny tells Desmond that she has been searching for him for the last three years and tells him that she will find him. It’s a rather touching moment to be honest!

Overall it was a great episode that as proved, for some reason, the Island has a number of different time zones around it. This was why Dan had previously told Frank to stick to the compass bearing he gave him, before they left the Island. It will also be interesting to see what happens next, as we see in Dan’s journal that he has earmarked Desmond to be his ‘constant’. But whatever happens, Lost has certainly upped the weirdness stakes and I’m still unsure what’s going on - But I love it!

9/10

Next Time: Will Hurley find something to eat? I bet the poor bugger is starving – he’s had nothing to eat for a day!

Lost Series 4 Episode 4 - Eggtown

2009-01-13T05:14:00.000-08:00

The identities of the ‘Oceanic 6’ are now taking shape as we learn that young Aaron is the latest survivor. The young lad has been ‘adopted’ by Kate, who now calls him her ‘son’. However it seems that all the survivors, we have already seen (Jack, Hurley, Sayid, Kate), have a dark secret they are hiding and Ben is, probably, at the centre of it. Precisely what has happened to Aaron’s real mother, Claire, is still a mystery!

Back in the present and Locke is still keeping Miles and Ben locked up. After Ben winds him up, it seems that Locke is losing it. Meanwhile, Kate is told by Miles that he can tell her ‘who exactly she is’, if only she could get him to have a chat with Ben, the man who he’s after. Miles tells Ben that he wants $3.2 million to tell his boss that he’s dead. But why does he want that exact number?

Back to the flash-forwards (or should be forward to the flash forwards?) and Kate is on trial of the numerous crimes she committed, before she ran off to Australia. It seems bleak for her, until her Mother visits and demands to see ‘her Grandson’, in exchange for her not testifying against her daughter. Kate is having none of it and Mummy wheels off in a huff. She doesn’t testify anyway, so Kate manages to strike a deal with the prosecution. Think OJ Simpson but with better intentions! After an awkward goodbye with Jack, who can’t bring himself to see ‘her baby’ for some reason, she goes on her way. It’s then we learn that Kate’s son is indeed Aaron.

On the island, Jack and the others return to the beach but they are having trouble getting through to the freighter. When Charlotte rings the mysterious ‘emergency number’ she gets through but learns, that after a day, Frank, Sayid, Desmond and the copse of Naomi had never arrived….

It was another interesting episode that certainly continued the trend of asking more questions than answering them! But that’s what I like about Lost – they are always willing to go into the next mysterious storyline after next. I just hope they (the writers) know what their doing!

8/10

Next Time: We learn that Daniel and Charlotte are infact the mysterious Polar Bears that stalk the tropical island! With the way Lost is going – I wouldn’t be surprised!

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 13 - Dual

2009-01-12T07:23:00.000-08:00

The final episode of Heroes (Volume 3): Villains comes to a rather undramatic end, as two brothers go up against each other, in order to ‘save the world’.

Picking up from last week, with Arthur definitely dead, Nathan feels disappointed rather than aggrieved. Peter thinks that his father’s plot to give people abilities is over but Nathan has other plans. He sees it as an oppourninty to continue their father’s work but with their own ideas. Peter refuses and the pair have a stand-off before Peter punches his brother. With Nathan out of action for a while, Peter heads to the lab and confronts the ever-deteriorating Mohinder, help arrives in the shape of Knox and Flint – but it’s Peter who they help, not Mohinder! The pair want to stop people from getting powers then proceed to destroy every drop of the formula they can find.

Meanwhile at The Company, Sylar has got in and put the place in lockdown, which traps Noah, Angela, Claire and Meredith. However before hunting them down, Sylar explains that he is only after Angela, after she had lied to him about being his mother. To combat him, Noah releases the remaining prisoners and tells them ‘whoever kills Sylar will be let free’. Which is quite a silly statement, considering they are already free! However, they don’t last long, as Sylar kills at least two of them, the other - Meredith’s ‘boyfriend’ the creepy ‘puppet-master’, briefly had control of Sylar but ultimately failed in his attempt. Sylar would go on to stab Meredith with adrenaline, which made her lose control of her power (fire) and locked her in a cell, where she would be joined by Noah, not long after.

Another person who is trapped is poor Hiro, who is still in the past. After he gets himself from the flagpole, he persuades his younger self to help him find the formula and destroy it, before it can do any damage in the future.

Meanwhile back in the present, Daphne, Matt and Ando arrive at Isaac’s studio-cum-Mohinder’s lab, which doesn’t contain any hint of Mohinder. The trio quickly come to the conclusion that the only way to help Hiro is to get hold of the formula, which Ando agrees to inject himself with. With Matt being sceptical, Daphne speeds off to Pinehurst and steals one of the injections from Mohinder’s hands. Ando injects himself and after a while, realises that he has no time travel ability, just red sparks that emanate from his hands. However, after a moment where Daphne accidently travels back in time after touching him, we learn that Ando has a ‘supercharging’ ability, which enhances the quality of a person’s ability. Hence Daphne can run faster than the speed of light, which means she can go back in time!

Things aren’t going well for the two Hiro’s, as they are caught stealing the formula by their father who brings out a sword to threaten the older Hiro, who is masquerading as his cook! Hiro tries to explain but gets nowhere, so he rips the formula in two before Daphne and Ando come to take him away, just as Kaito is about to strike. But it’s no good, as we now learn that it was Hiro who spilt the paper in two in the first place. Even though Hiro goes on to destroy the formula in the present, which he steals from Tracy, surely Mohinder would have kept a copy or two?

Back at The Company and after separating Claire and Angela, Sylar bears down on the Cherie Blair lookalike and uses his newly-nicked lie detector ability on her. With her life hanging in the balance, she tells Sylar that she knows who his real parents are and the brooding murder is astonished when he learns that she’s telling the truth. Back in the cells, where Meredith is combusting with flames, Claire manages to get her Dad out but Meredith stays put and after just getting away, a huge flame engulfs the cell area. I wonder if Meredith is indeed fire proof? Noah and Claire find Angela and Sylar and Claire stabs the latter in the back of neck, which ‘shut down’s’ someone with the regenerative ability. I don’t think he’s dead – do you? The trio escape, just as The Company’s buildings blow up, thanks to Meredith’s flames.

Things are still being smashed at Pinehurst but as Knox goes to fetch Nathan, he is quite literally turned cold and falls to pieces – by Tracy. Nathan doesn’t feel thankful, so he ‘sacks’ her before going off to confront Peter. Mohinder is still sprawled out as Flint ignites the room, Peter sees no other alternative but to stab himself with one of last remaining formula injections and just about manages to fly and save his brother from being blown up. Nathan again, doesn’t seem thankful and lets his brother know that he wouldn’t have done the same and takes off. Mohinder also escapes and after sliding about in some of formula, it seems he’s cured of his infection. But as a scheming Tracy picks him up, where will this leave the troubled doctor?

We then fast forward 3 weeks into the next volume, called FUGITIVES and Nathan is in a meeting – with the President. Nathan tells the president about people with abilities and shows them case files of such people. Hiro, Micah, Mohinder, Tracy and Matt are all there but I wonder if Nathan included himself? Nathan tells the President that he wants funding for a centre to control these people and lock them all away, for the safety of the general public. The President agrees and lets Nathan know that he can have anything he wants….

It was an okay episode, not great but certainly passable. I was a bit disappointed though, to see how quickly Hiro found his way home. I felt that it could have worked for a few more episodes with him trapped in the past. I find his relationship with his father fascinating and I hope we get to see more of the marvellous George Takei, or ‘Gorgeous George’ as he is know to viewers in the UK, thanks to his jungle exploits! The relationship between Peter and Nathan has also taken a new twist, as the future that Peter saw could still happen. With Ando now having powers, it should be interesting to see how Hiro reacts to this. I wonder if Ando’s power can actually bring people’s powers back as well as ‘supercharging’ them? I also wonder if Peter has got all his abilities back after injecting himself, or it’s just the flying ability he’s got?

Overall, it was a good first half to the series and hopefully things can move up a gear when the other half arrives soon!

7/10

Next Time: We’ve not got long to wait for Volume 4! Heroes returns in February.

The IT Crowd Series 3 Episode 6 - Calendar Geeks

2009-01-09T05:14:00.000-08:00

The final episode of series 3 of ‘The IT Crowd’, ‘Calendar Geeks’, upholds the high quality that this series has produced – as Roy takes pictures of almost-naked men, in some of the most incriminating poses you have ever seen!

With Roy always ready to chance his arm with a lady, with never any luck, he sees a great opportunity when he learns that one of lovely girls on the 7th floor has a brother who is ‘boss-eyed’. So he decides to come up with a money-making idea for charity – taking photos of the 7th floor girls, without much clothes on!

Although the girls seem keen, Jen gives Roy the usual crap about equality for women, so Roy is shocked when the girls come up with a new plan – to take naked photos of their Grannies! With there being not enough of the old dears to go around, Roy hits the streets in the name of charity and gets hit himself! Sick is not the word!

With nothing left to impress his lady-friend, Roy reluctantly turns to Moss and his scientific friends, telling them the calendar is a ‘celebration of scientific achievement’. Cue hilarious scenes as Roy hints to the geeks to take their clothes off and bend over in awkward positions! Now that is sick!

Sadly the calendar is a flop but Roy’s lady-friend is impressed that Roy actually went through with it and invites him back. After a minute of fumbling, Roy keeps getting flashbacks of the geeks he photographed and realises he can’t go through with it! Awww poor Roy!

It was a fine episode to round off the series, even if it was Moss-lite! It hasn’t been confirmed but surely this can’t be the last series of The IT Crowd? I believe the writer, Graham Linehan, has hinted at a fourth series. Hopefully there will be – there’s a lot more left in the tank with more of Douglas and the return of Richmond to come!

Overall, this series is up there with the first, as the best. I feel that episode-by-episode, this series is the better but as a series, the introduction if you will, series 1 fits together perfectly.

8/10

Matt Smith - The 11th Doctor

2009-01-06T16:42:00.000-08:00

It was a decision met with excitement and surprise as the BBC announced who would take over from the outgoing David Tennant as ‘The Doctor’ in 2010. Well, from the names being banded about nobody had said that Matt Smith would be in with a shout.

So low and behold, by 7pm on Saturday 3rd January 2009, everyone knew that the 26 year-old, the youngest actor to play The Doctor, would be the next man in the TARDIS.

At first I was a little disappointed, I thought that his age was too young to be taken seriously as a 900 year-old Timelord, but boy I cheered up when the man himself was interviewed!

No disrespect to Matt but he just looks and sounds weird! Not bad weird but brilliant, fantastic, superbly weird – just what The Doctor should be like! I personally think he’ll be great, its just unfortunate that we have to wait a year to find out!

In the interview he stated that he had six months to learn the history of the show and to create his own character. It was pleasing to see him talk so passionately about the role and I was left wondering what direction the show is going in. Rumours suggest that the new head writer, Steven Moffat, may take the show back to a mysterious and dark tone. That’ll be great but I would prefer it to be like the mid-Tom Baker era rather than the Sylvester McCoy era, which is the one that has been rumoured!

I think it’s fair to say that Matt isn’t the most famous of actors. He is just at the start of what could be a great career. I just hope that Moffat has tied him to a long contract because we are running out of Doctors! If you want to check out his work, then he has starred with Billie Piper in the two Sally Lockhart stories, ‘Ruby in the Smoke’ and ‘Shadow in the North’ as well as an episode in series one of ‘Secret Diary of a Call Girl’. But he is perhaps best known as one of the leads in the political series ‘Party Animals’.

Whatever happens, I for one can’t wait! Well done Matt and good luck!

Matt Smith Interview

Doctor Who - The Next Doctor

2009-01-05T14:19:00.000-08:00

This year’s Doctor Who Christmas Special was expected to throw up a few surprises – and boy it did!

With everyone on the internet arguing over who ‘The Next Doctor’ is, nobody really noticed that there was a story to be told. Those that had bothered, had dismissed it as a remake of the Big Finish audio ‘The One Doctor’, where a man pretends to be The Doctor to make himself some money.

Thankfully, RTD came up with his own idea, as we learn that Jackson Lake (David Morrissey) stumbled across some of the Cybermen’s ‘Info Stamps’ and they made him believe that he was The Doctor, thanks to the information stored on them. It was a good plot, far better from what we suspected and the marvellous acting of Morrissey, made it all the more better.

The main plot of the story has a number of Cyberman, who escaped from the void as it ‘blew up’ during the events of ‘The Stolen Earth’/’Journey’s End’. They find themselves trapped in Victorian England and they have enlisted the help of the much-scorned Miss Hartigan (Dervla Kirwan) to help them infiltrate London and build something...

This something turns out to be a ‘Cyber King’, which is a giant robot-cum-factory. It rather spoiled the episode for me, even though this is Doctor Who, some things should not be done! Although the CGI and sound affects were top notch, it seems that pleasing Christmas audiences with things like this has priority before the actual storyline. Still, it wasn’t as embarrassing as the Queen from ‘Voyage of the Damned’!

However, apart from that, I did thoroughly enjoy this story. The performances of everyone involved was top notch, with Morrissey and Tennant working together, brilliantly once again after their stint in the BBC drama ‘Blackpool’. Velile Tshabalala was also great fun as ‘Rosita’ but I really did think that Dervla Kirwan was a little bit underused. I thought that we should have heard more of her back-story, which apparently involved her being a matron in a workhouse but she got peeved at everyone. It didn’t really make sense to me, especially with it being set in Victorian times, some of the language and set pieces all sounded a bit modern to be honest.

Overall, the episode is a lot of fun that doesn’t really add to the mythos of the show. I do hope we’ve seen the last of the Cybus Cybermen, at least for a while, as I’m hoping for the return of the Mondas Cybermen. Although I would love to see a ‘Cyberman War’!

8/10

Next Time: We’ve got a bit of a wait until the next episode – ‘Planet of the Dead’, which hasn’t even started filming yet!

Big Finish Doctor Who - 2008 Subscribers Special - Return of The Krotons

2008-12-29T18:40:00.000-08:00

The dead planet Onyakis is being plundered by the last survivors of the human race, and their leader, Commander Cobden, will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Already there are rumours of those who stand against him mysteriously disappearing. But when the Doctor and Charley find themselves on the side of those trying to expose Cobden, they discover something far more sinister.

Deep in the mines of Onyakis, alien technology is reactivating. Power is flowing. Something is forming in the darkness…

This years Big Finish ‘Subscribers Special’ sees the return of classic Doctor Who monsters ‘The Krotons’!

The Krotons only appearance on television was in December 1968, in a serial that ran until January 1969 – exactly 40 years before the release of this audio. The Krotons themselves are a strange ‘crystalline lifeform’ that need people to use ‘learning machines’ to power them.

I would advise you getting hold of a copy of ‘The Krotons’ before listening to this. I believe it is available on VHS and on ITunes. Surely it won’t be long before a DVD release?

In the audio, The Doctor and Charley find themselves lost. Not for the first time, the TARDIS is knackered and they’ve been left with no clue where (or when) they are. It turns out that this story shares some nice parallels with the 4th Doctor serial ‘The Ark in Space’, which was about human colonies. The ‘ark’ that appeared in that story (Nerva) gets a couple of mentions, which should keep old school fans happy! The story does build up rather nicely but the finish is quite disappointing.

Overall, the audio is just a bit of harmless fun that offers a good insight into The Krotons. I was a little disappointed with the pace of the story, which as mentioned, built up very well but the way everything was resolved was disappointing. However, the performances of the actors (including the legendry Philip Madoc) really do stand out rather well.

2.5/5

Big Finish Doctor Who 116 - The Raincloud Man

2008-12-29T18:10:00.000-08:00

Having just defeated the Krotons, the Doctor is treating Charley to a hearty English breakfast, when an intriguing mystery suddenly presents itself. And to solve it, they must plunge back into the criminal underbelly of Manchester, where an old friend is up to her neck in alien trouble.

But what seemed like a mere mystery ends up being a life or death struggle at the centre of an interplanetary war in which the stakes are so high, the Doctor or Charley must gamble and lose their identity. And throughout, the lone figure of the Raincloud Man may hold the key to success or failure.

The guys over at Big Finish bring out their final story of 2008, which sees the return of Manchester and DI Menzies (played by Anna Hope) in ‘The Raincloud Man’.

One thing I can say about it, is that it is pure classic Doctor Who! The story takes a while to get going but that really makes it all the better to listen to!

With it being set after ‘Return of the Krotons’ (the subscriber’s release which is reviewed here) The Doctor and Charley find themselves having breakfast in a café. But when Charley spots something strange, about false £1 coins and Manchester, The Doctor looks up an old friend.

This turns out to be the tireless DI Patricia Menzies, who apart from doing her day job is now taking care of the aliens who ask her for help, after the events of ‘The Condemned’. She agrees to help The Doctor, any way she can but she herself is busy investigating a number of strange deaths. When Charley accompanies her on a visit to an alien who can see the ‘possibilities of time’, she is told that she must tell The Doctor the truth about herself. But when the alien turns up dead, Charley is arrested for murder…

It’s another intriguing story that adds more mystery to Charley’s story. It can run the risk of being a little bit tedious but for how its okay! The audio also takes a nice twist after the second part and the story benefits from it.

Once again Anna Hope was outstanding and here’s hoping she can return again. Michael Fenton-Stevens also offers great support as the mysterious boat-owner, Brooks.

Overall it’s a very good story that is a little slow in places but still manages to make you listen to every word!

3.5/5

Next Time: It’s the start of ‘The Key 2 Time’ trilogy as the Fifth Doctor is joined by new companion Amy in ‘The Judgement of Isskar’

Survivors (2008) - Episode 6

2008-12-28T09:36:00.000-08:00

The final episode of ‘Survivors’ comes to a dramatic end, which may have repercussions on another television program close to my heart. But more about that later!

The ever-increasingly creepy government minister, Samantha Willis, appears once again, this time at the survivor’s house. She lets them know of her plan to restart the government from scratch, in her own way. In the meantime, she wants to note down the full names and occupations of everyone. To do this, she has employed the villainous Dexter, who last appeared in episode 2.

After doing nothing since her arrival, Sarah is busy this week. She gets a shock when she learns that her ‘boyfriend’ is still alive and well and Dexter says she must care for him. However, she lets slip that Anya is a doctor and she is taken instead. Furious, the men go after her whilst Abby realises that there is no turning back from here – they don’t want to be part of Samantha’s new regime. However, Naj doesn’t agree with leaving and runs away.

The boys catch up with Anya and her captors and manage to overpower them. However, Tom, with shotgun in hand, stays behind. The rest leave and Tom shoots one of the men dead and gives the other a warning to send to Samantha. Big mistake maybe?

The very rarely-seen scientists are busy trying to find Abby. With a helicopter combing the area and top of the range face-recognition software, surely it won’t be long until she is discovered?

Back at the house, Tom admits to Abby that he ‘had to’ kill the man, which he didn’t! Sarah also continues to be selfish, as she realises that Tom and Anya do have ‘a thing’ between them. Meanwhile, Greg admits to Abby that he has an ex-wife and children but she had ran off with his kids to America and he has no idea whether or not their alive.

Naj makes friends with a rather ill looking child who is a member of a scavenger gang, based at what seems to be an arcade, ran by a nasty bloke and his missus. Whilst the others are out looking for him, Naj becomes concerned at the bloke’s treatment of his new friend. Naj wants to leave when he sees that his friend is taken away in the middle of the night to whereabouts unknown. The nasty bloke takes Naj out the next day, where they run into Al. After a rather humorous confrontation, Al manages to get Naj back and break the man’s nose!

But they don’t arrive back in time, as Dexter finds the rest of the survivors and shoots Greg. Tom goes after him and a rather tense shotgun battle ensures. Meanwhile, the helicopter is coming in to land, as Abby and Anya try to treat Greg. Despite Anya saying Greg was ‘going to be okay’, it looks bleak for the survivors as Abby is snatched by armed men and dragged into the helicopter. Tom, stops his pursuit of Dexter to try to run and help them but he arrives too late, as the helicopter flies away.

It was a thrilling end to a decent series, which will be back for a second run in 2009 and quite rightly so! There is still a lot of story still left to be told, as we got a glimpse of Abby’s son at the end of the episode!

Regarding the shooting of Greg (played by Paterson Joseph), I wonder if he indeed will die as he is being heavily tipped for the role of the next Doctor in Doctor Who. He’s a great actor who hasn’t really be used as much as he should have done, in this series. Still time will tell!

8/10

The Podcast With No Name (Subtitle: CyberColin Undressed) - Episode 6

2008-12-23T05:38:00.001-08:00

6 - The ‘and The Bells Were Ringing Out For Christmas Day’ Podcast

In this special Christmas edition, Colin brings podcasting to a new low as he chats about what's on telly on Christmas Day, covers the latest Big Finish release 'The Raincloud Man' and even lets loose his own short Christmas play - 'A Colin Christmas Carol'.

Oh dear

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MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Colin

The IT Crowd Series 3 Episode 5 - Friendface

2008-12-20T20:36:00.000-08:00

The IT Crowd lampoons social networking sites in episode 5 of series 3 –‘Friendface’.

With the majority of people, who are connected to the internet, having ‘profiles’ on sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, the episode does a great job of taking the mickey not just out of the people but the sites themselves!

Jen is hooked on the website ‘Friendface’, where she is ‘talking’ to friends from school. She ropes in Moss and Roy, who are only interested in the games! \it isn’t long though before Roy is stalked by an ex-lover – a girl who wears too much makeup or ‘The Joker’ as she is referred to!

Later, Jen feels a little put out when she hears what her school friends have achieved, so she first tries to ask Roy to be her ‘pretend husband’ at a school reunion but he’s seeing The Joker, thanks to Jen’s advice, so Moss steps in!

This is when the episode really gets funny as Moss, complete with cardigan and pipe, really gets into the part! He goes way OTT with talking about Jen’s achievements, their sex life and even says he’s a professional tennis player!

Roy isn’t having a great time while trying to let The Joker down gently. She’s clearly a bit insane so Roy pretends he already as a girlfriend – Jen! Roy and The Joker head down to the school reunion, where Douglas makes a cameo appearance and with Moss pretending to be her husband, a love triangle argument happens! It all ends up with Moss slapping Roy and then the pair go outside and run off!

It was another great episode that really compliments this series well. I really enjoyed the whole ‘social networking’ plot and channel 4 have even claimed the domain name, which you can visit here: http://www.friendface.co.uk/

With only 1 episode left, I do hope Graham Linehan has another series planned – I don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t see things like Jen’ bad dancing, again!

8/10

Big Finish Doctor Who - The Stageplays - The Curse Of The Daleks

2008-12-19T20:05:00.000-08:00

The space ship Starfinder is taking two dangerous criminals for trial on Earth. En route, they crash through a meteor storm and have to make an emergency landing on Skaro – the planet of the dreaded Daleks. But Captain Redway and his faithful crew don’t anticipate any trouble. After all, the Daleks were defeated fifty years ago and now they are completely inactive. But when a crate full of mysterious devices is discovered and the Daleks start to come back to life, it becomes clear that there is a traitor amongst the Starfinder’s crew… A traitor intent on reactivating the power of the Daleks!

Doctor Who: The Stageplays concludes with the Doctor-less ‘Curse of the Daleks’ and it’s just as good as the previous two!

Originally performed in 1965, the play is notable for being Terry Nation’s first attempt at performing 'live Daleks'. The original play was performance at the Wyndham's Theatre in London. Elements of this story were used in the Second Doctor’s first full serial - ‘The Power of the Daleks’.

Much in the style of the excellent ‘Dalek Empire’ series, we are given a tale of how a group of people are forced to land on a now-deserted Skaro. The Daleks are believed to be long dead, despite there still being Dalek casings scattered across the planet’s ruins. But when a mysterious crate is found on board the ship, it is long before the Dalek’s rise again. What is in the crate and who is behind the rise of the Daleks? Is it the two prisoners? The passengers? Or even the flight crew? Or is it the Daleks, up to their old manipulative tricks?

Despite there being no Doctor, the play is still as good as a normal Big Finish play. Linking narration is provided by Nick Briggs, who as always voices the Daleks. Despite hearing his voice again, Briggs’ is an excellent narrator and puts a nice touch on the play.

I especially enjoyed the performance of Michael Praed, who played the mysterious prisoner Ladiver. I thought his performance really held the play together and the whole thing certainly hinged on that!

4/5

Overall, I’ve been very impressed with this series of stageplay adaptations, I do hope that Big Finish will adapt more spin-off stuff. I would love to hear some of the Virgin New Adventure books, being adapted!

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 12 - Our Father

2008-12-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

A few of our heroes are no more after this penultimate episode of Volume Three: Villains, called – ‘Our Father’.

Following on from last week’s episode, Hiro and Claire are 16 years in the past, watching Noah who is handed baby Claire by Kaito Nakamura. Despite the language problem, Hiro and Claire decide to see their parents and we see for the first time, Hiro’s mother who is revealed to be the holder of the catalyst, which has been earmarked for Claire. But the grown-up Hiro manages to convince his mother that he is her older son and with his mother also having the ability to heal, she helps Hiro to get his memory back and gives him the catalyst. She then dies and an upset Hiro goes after Claire.

Despite being 16 years in the past, only Claire can be that annoying in both times! She manages to make friends with her mother and takes care of her younger self. In any other self-respecting sc-fi series this would be a paradox! But credit to Heroes for doing it different. Noah trundles in and at first is suspicious but Claire manages to persuade him that she’s no danger and he understands who she is.

Back in the present, Arthur is still getting things ready as Angela sends Peter and The Haitian to kill him. Yeah, thanks mum! Nathan has agreed to join Pinehurst but wants to run things ‘his way’. At first Arthur is reluctant but agrees, for now!

In New York, Matt, Daphne and Ando arrive looking for the last drawings of Isaac Mendez. After a run-in with the courier, they manage to get hold of the last sketches and learn that Hiro is ‘lost in time’. We rewind (or should that be forward?) 16 years ago and Hiro finds Claire and tells her he has the catalyst. They get ready to leave, when Arthur appears, takes the catalyst and Hiro’s ability and throws him off the roof. He also gives Claire a message to give to Angela, that he’s won and sends her on her way. Of course, Hiro isn’t dead – he’s stuck to a flag pole! But with no ability, he is indeed lost in time. Back to the future and the trio decide they must find the formula to try and get Hiro back.

Sylar, fresh from killing Elle and then acquiring another ability – a 'human lie detector', heads to Pinehurst to ask Arthur whether or not he is his father. Peter and The Haitian are already there and as Peter pulls the trigger, Arthur manages to overcome The Haitian’s power and stops the bullet in mid-air. Then, Sylar appears and asks Arthur the question. Of course, he lies and Sylar allows the bullet to kill Arthur. He then tells Peter he doesn’t need anything from him and proceeds to get himself more abilities. Peter sends The Haitian after him, to try and stop him.

In the lab, Mohinder is testing the formula, with the catalyst, on a group of Marine’s. He injects one of these, Scott and after a couple of moments, we learn that the formula has worked and Scott has gained the ability of super-strength.

It was easily a better episode than last week’s! It was nice to see the return of George Takei and Hiro’s back-story, especially with his mother. I’m disappointed to see the demise of Elle but isn’t it great to see Sylar back at his menacing best? I was also surprised to see Arthur killed off so quickly, I thought he was a great character. But in Heroes, the saying goes ‘Nobody is ever dead’!

8/10

Next Time: It’s the last episode for a few months, with brothers on opposing sides. Who’ll win the ‘Duel’?

Survivors (2008) - Episode 5

2008-12-17T07:40:00.000-08:00

Even though this episode is an improvement, Survivors is getting worryingly slower by the hour. One episode left and it seems everything is going to get crammed in – the mysterious scientists are now after Abby and from the trailer for episode 6 – Dexter and Samantha re-appear. Surely another series is in the pipeline – there’s only an hour left!

In this episode our survivors meet a group of travellers, lead by a ‘preacher’ who believes he hears ‘god – every god’. Naj is instantly interested but the others, bar Abby, want them to go. But when one of them is revealed to be heavily pregnant and goes into labour – it’s Anya who is made to bare all.

So with Tom still transfixed with Anya, despite having his wicked way with Sarah, he is knocked for six when he hears she had a ‘relationship with a woman’. Although after a ‘heated chat’ with her, he seems to calm down. Anya’s other secret, her being a doctor, is also out in the open as she delivers the baby and saves the life of its mother, after she almost dies of heart failure.

While all this is going on, the leader is going increasingly insane and we learn later that he is ill, or psychotic, whichever side your bread is buttered. Anya tries to help him but he takes her and his group into a nearby church and holes himself up. Later the others arrive and Tom nearly kills the leader. Only a call from Anya stops him from stabbing him! Methinks Tom is as insane as his latest would-be-victim!

Back at the lab, which we rarely see, it seems that they are rounding up people to experiment on and they have got hold of the videos of the survivors, which Samantha’s bunker had filmed. The scientists’ interest is peaked when Abby flickers onto the screen and reveals she had the virus – but survived! Looks like we’re in for an ‘Abby Hunt’ in the final episode – but where do Samantha and Dexter come in? I have a fair idea!

It was a rather slow paced episode that did drag on quite a bit. Although the story was a lot better than last week’s, I felt that the tension wasn’t quite built up as well as it could have done. The characters of Tom and especially Anya have been given more outline and it should be interesting to see how this develops – if there is a second series!

6/10

Next Time: It’s the last episode of the series and will Sarah actually do something?

The IT Crowd Series 3 Episode 4 - The Speech

2008-12-15T17:04:00.000-08:00

The IT Crowd continues to be brilliant as Douglas falls in love with a ‘He/She’ and Moss and Roy take a golden opportunity to wind up Jen, in episode 4 of series 3 – ‘The Speech’.

Jen is given employee of the month (and this time – she’s alive!) and lords it over the lads, who can’t believe how someone who knows so little about her job is given employee of the month!

Meanwhile Douglas is being interviewed by a pretty magazine reporter (guest star Lucy Montgomery) and asks her out. While on this date, the two get on well and Douglas offers her a place in his bed, as you do. His lady-friend agrees but tells him her dark secret – she was a man! Douglas doesn’t seem too bothered by this and they start a passionate but manly relationship!

Back at the office, Jen is told that she must give a speech to the shareholders about IT. What with Jen knowing nothing about the subject, she tries to hint to Moss and Roy to do it for her. Roy sees this as a perfect opportunity to get his own back and he and Moss agree. The speech is based on a black box, which Moss and Roy say is the whole internet! Jen believes them and it’s really funny to see their reactions in the meeting when all the shareholders believe her!

It seems Douglas had actually misheard his new lady-friend and thought she had said that she was ‘from Iran’! It’s actually an heartbreaking scene which culminates in a manly brawl, which just put the icing on the cake! The pair crash through a panel, where Jen is giving her speech and the ‘Internet’ is broken! Panic ensures, as people think that the world is going to end!

It’s another wonderful episode that sees the IT Crowd go back to what it does best – IT jokes! I also keep being impressed by Matt Berry’s (Douglas) performances, in this series. He is a lot calmer than he was in series 2 and he’s able to use that voice better, in the more comic moments. And for once, I also noticed what a good actress Katherine Parkinson is – surely she knew that the black box wasn’t the Internet!

9/10

The Podcast With No Name (Subtitle: CyberColin Undressed) - Episode 5

2008-12-14T16:10:00.001-08:00

5 - The ‘If I Get Drunk Yes I Know I'm Gonna Be I'm Gonna Be The Man Who Gets Drunk Next To You’ Podcast.

In this edition, Colin presents clips recorded live at Collectormania Glasgow. Where he was foiled in his attempts at stealing Georgia Moffett's underwear and the awful recording device put paid to any decent sound.

Still, he had a good drink!

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Check out Colin's report, below

A Report From Collectormania Glasgow

2008-12-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Well what a weekend that was! I ended up making friends with the girl behind the bar (not sure what that says about me!)

I did nothing on the Friday, I was just a spare so I had a wander round and visited a local ship building museum! It wasn't worth the £4.25 admission and I was shocked that you had to pay! I've never paid to enter a museum in England! Back at the event, I did make up some guest boards and I was caught snogging Georgia's, thankfully the boss saw the funny side!

I sat with the lovely Jacqueline Pearce on the Saturday, I'm sure anyone who's met her would agree how lovely she is. Although she did say 'Darling' quite a lot! Georgia turned up with black hair and gave us some great news - Spooks Code 9 has been shelved! Katy Manning was as daft as ever and couldn't keep still for five minutes! Nicholas Courtney even called me Sir! I think I’ll remember that forever!

More drinks on the Saturday night (until 4.30am) but I wasn't as drunk as a certain 'Lister from Red Dwarf', which I shall end at that before I get into trouble! (he turned up at 1pm the next day) Oh and Red Dwarf will be back for a couple of episodes, for those that are interested!

On the Sunday I was with the delightful Caroline Munro, who was just as nice as Jacqueline. I didn't realise she appeared in the Big Finish audio 'Omega' but she also admitted she would love to appear in Doctor Who. I'm thinking The Rani, for those that are so desperate for her to return!

Sadly I didn't have time to get any photos with anyone apart from Katy and Caroline, hopefully next time I will!

Overall, a quiet but good weekend! I love working at signing events!

Me looking slightly pale, not sure what I drunk the night before!

Whoops!

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 11 - The Eclipse - Part 2

2008-12-13T22:08:00.000-08:00

Part 2 of ‘The Eclipse’ doesn’t really match up to the very interesting first part. We start with Sylar and Elle, who have obviously been ‘at it’ for quite a while. What the bloody hell has Noah been up to then, eh? He had them in his sights at the end of the last episode! Has he been having a quick ‘shuffle’ I wonder?

Meanwhile Claire isn’t well, her gunshot wound has got worse and we are treated to more tedious moments with her and her adoptive mother, moaning about Noah. Just sod off Claire!

Peter and Nathan are still stuck in Haiti and after Peter attempts a rather silly rescue mission and generally looks very silly, they all manage to get out alive. The Haitian even manages to sedate his brother, who has been in contact with Arthur Petrelli.

Daphne is still doing her best Davros impression and we are treated to a ‘lovely’ heart-to-heart with her and Matt. Meanwhile Hiro and Ando are still reading comic books with their new friends. It’s hardly the best use of actors I have ever seen, I thought the writers should have used Seth Green and Breckin Mayer more, to be honest!

Noah is still hunting down Sylar and Elle and after failing to nail them at a supermarket, the trio all end up back at the Bennet household and a shootout takes place. Just before this moment, all of out heroes get their powers back - as the eclipse clears. With Noah at his mercy, Sylar is denied by Hiro, who after reading he must travel back in time with Claire in his comic book, he teleports Sylar and Elle away and grabs Claire.

Things are looking up for Hiro as he and Claire arrive at the moment that a baby Claire was handed over to Noah. How this is going to help him – I’ve no idea! Back at the comic shop, Ando is told by ‘the two geeks’ that one last comic book, telling their future, does exist – but is more-or-less impossible to find.

It wasn’t the greatest heroes episode, in fact I would say it was the weakest of the series. None of the actors where used properly and I don’t understand why Sylar turned back into his old self, when he seemed to kill Elle at the end of the episode.

5/10

Next Time: Hiro finds out that he can’t be arsed with this saving the world shite and teleports back home and has a cup of tea.

Survivors (2008) - Episode 4

2008-12-12T15:04:00.000-08:00

Survivors doesn’t quite match the quality of the previous episodes in this, the 4 instalment of the series.

With Abby heading off to the building in which Samantha Willis believes that a number of missing children are, the rest are left to their own devices. Tom, Sarah, Al and Naj all decide to join Samantha in her own private community. But it isn’t long until Tom upsets one of her henchman and Al starts to piss about!

Abby befriends a man who is being hunted down by a group of teenagers. We learn that he is the heir to the house that they are in and he’s just trying to get it back. Abby tries to reason with the kids and even thinks one of them is her son, Peter, but she is mistaken. After quickly forgetting about her recently deceased husband, Abby has her ‘wicked way’ with the man after a nice soak. She then helps to negotiate a truce between him and kids, but not before one of the lads is stabbed. Thankfully he recovers and they all agree to live together.

Back at the house, Greg and Anya are being terrorised by two men who try and break into the house. After a struggle, Anya manages to get the better of them and her and Greg leave them in the middle of nowhere. This plotline seemed a bit pointless to be honest and probably was designed just to give them something to do. Still it should have been a lot better.

Meanwhile, Samantha has had enough of Al and tells Tom to throw him out, Naj also wants to leave but he’s kept at the bunker. Angry, Al breaks back in and gets Naj away and later Tom would clash with his new ‘friend’ who happens to be an ex-policeman and could sense that Tom has been in prison. After being questioned by Samantha, they both decide its best for him to leave and Tom and Sarah quickly join Al and Naj back at the house - where they all make friends, quite surprisingly!

It was a lightweight episode that lacked any real ‘punch’ that the previous episodes have had. We didn’t even see the scientists in the lab this time and I wonder if they’ll already got a series 2 planned – I can’t see them explaining it in just the two episodes we have left!

5/10

Next Time: Looks like there’s plenty of action next week and after this weeks episode that can only be a good thing!

The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 Episodes 11 & 12 - Enemy of the Bane

2008-12-11T10:08:00.000-08:00

The second series of the SJA comes to an end with ‘Enemy of the Bane’, which has some rather interesting guest stars!

With Luke having nightmares about The Bane, who created him, his fears are realised when Rani’s mother is kidnapped and Sarah is left a message. It turns out to be from none other than Mrs Wormwood (played by Samantha Bond), last seen in the first SJA episode – ‘Invasion of the Bane’.

It turns out that Wormwood needs Sarah’s help to track down a mythical device, which would open a portal to another dimension. All this and she’s also being hunted down by her own kind.

Sarah needs help and there’s only one man to call upon, no not The Doctor – THE BRIGADIER! Now retried, the Brig is still UNIT’s special envoy and is in the middle of a meeting with a UNIT major before Sarah walks in. The Brig can’t wait to assist her and he helps Sarah and Rani get into UNIT’s high-security storage warehouse. But I don’t understand why they just had a card reader on the door, if it was so high-security!

It’s not long before they are caught, as the UNIT major is on the prowl but thanks to the Sonic Lipstick (Ahhh!) they get away and head back to the house. Unfortunately, Mrs Wormwood has been doing her best to er worm her way into Luke’s life and saves him and Clyde when they are infiltrated by a Bane.

For no reason at all, Kaagh (Anthony O'Donnell), the Sontaran from the first episode of the series, pops up and assists Wormwood. We learn that Kaagh is now a mercenary and is trying to steal the artefact for Wormwood. The pair make their escape with Luke, while the others are tracked down by the UNIT major – who happens to a Bane! But thanks to the Brig’s walking stick-cum-gun, he’s quickly dispatched. I won’t look at old people in the same way again!

With the Brig staying behind to clean up the mess, the others go off and try to find Luke, who has been taken to an ancient monument in which the artefact, The Tunguska Scroll, fits into and opens the portal. Luke, being the only human there, has to insert it and he does. The portal opens and after Luke runs to Sarah, Wormwood is furious but after being attacked by her earlier, Kaagh does the honorable thing and pulls her into the portal.

It was a so-so story with the only highlights being the Brig and Kaagh. It was great to see Nicholas Courtney reprise his role and I hope he still has something left in the tank to make an appearance in Doctor Who, I’m sure he has!

The plot of Luke/Wormwood played on the whole children’s problems with adoptive parents and I thought that was done well, as many children would be able to identify with that. But I just felt that story lacked that ‘killer punch’ that previous episodes had. Even a mention of The Doctor between the Brig and Sarah would have been welcome!

7/10

Overall, this series has been a massive improvement on series 1 and many elements of the stories could even stand up to those in Doctor Who! For a children’s programme, the production values are excellent and you have just got to look at the calibre of the guest stars to see why this series is so excellent – not many children’s programmes can boast that!

Next Time: No more Sarah Jane Adventures this year but don’t worry series 3 is on its way in 2009!

The IT Crowd Series 3 Episode 3 - Tramps Like Us

2008-12-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

The IT Crowd continues to pull out the hilarious gags and set pieces in episode 3 of series 3 – ‘Tramps Like Us’.

The episode picks up from where series 2 left off, with Jen locking the door on Moss, Roy and a randy and drugged Douglas, who had tried to drug Jen. After being offered pitiful compensation and feeling unwanted by Moss and Roy, Jen applies for another job.

Meanwhile Roy gets himself into trouble when Moss throws coffee all over him and later, with no shirt on, he is asked to give his coat to the old tea lady who has collapsed. Then follows a hilarious run of events, which had Roy being thrown out of building, finding some scurfy clothes and begging for 50p for a phone call!

After accidently concussing himself, Moss is as strange as ever and when Jen asks him to help her answer a question for her job interview (What does IT mean?) he continues to act bizarrely.

Douglas has been given some ‘electric pants’ to help him quell those sexual urges but when they go haywire, he asks the concussed Moss for help. Well you can imagine what happened when a tour guide of the building took some religious persons into the IT office to see Moss, kneeled down, fiddling with Douglas’ undercarriage!

With Jen somehow being offered the job, she finds Roy on her way home and realises that the pair need her as she has ‘become one of them’. I wonder if she’ll regret it?

Another great episode, which I would have liked to have seen as the opening episode, as I didn’t really like this year’s opener! I loved Roy going topless and shouting around the building, the scene with Douglas and Moss and the ‘Windows Start-Up’ chime sounding when Moss regained his mind!

The writer, Graham Linehan seems to have a firm grasp on his characters and knows what to do with them – put them in strange and daft situations! Hopefully this won’t be the last series, as it can get even better.

10/10

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 10 - The Eclipse - Part 1

2008-12-09T08:00:00.000-08:00

‘The Eclipse’ finally comes and the Heroes lose all their abilities but that doesn’t stop them from being as murderous as ever!

The only person who is fully happy with this latest development is Mohinder, who has lost all the scales and sticky stuff that he started to spawn. Arthur isn’t happy though and threatens Mohinder to try and get all their powers back.

Arthur’s wife, the dead-ringer for Cherie Blair, has sent her sons to find the Haitian, whilst Matt and Daphne try to look for Hiro. Well its Matt and Daphne who have the most luck - as Ando and the still 10 year-old Hiro, materialise in Matt’s dingy flat.

Peter and Nathan find themselves in Haiti after Nathan’s flying ability cut out in mid air, somehow they survived and landed in the right country! After bickering, over Peter’s visit to the future, where Nathan was on their Dad’s ‘side’, they are jumped by the Haitian, who only speaks for probably, only the third time in the entire programme. But their chat is rudely interrupted by the Haitian’s brother, Baron Samedi, who the Haitian had come to find – and arrest, as he opens fire on the trio. Peter and the Haitian get away but Nathan is captured and Baron Samedi explains that he’s been sent by Arthur and knocks Nathan out.

After another argument, Daphne takes off and Matt, Ando and Hiro teleport to her childhood home to find her. She’s there but her father won’t let Matt she her, it seems her terrible secret is about to revel itself. Unfortunately, it’s nothing like we were expecting - Daphne has cerebral palsy and it seems her powers had protected her from it.

Hiro and Ando materialise in a comic shop, with Hiro hoping that he can find the next part of their ‘quest’. They bump into the two shop assistants (guest starts Breckin Meyer and Seth Green), who become astonished when the two Japanese men in front of them look exactly like they do on the front cover of a comic their holding!

Meanwhile Claire is back under the protection of her father but after a training session in self defence – with a piece of wood (yes, I know) Claire seems to be softening up and opening up to her Dad. But they are interrupted as Sylar and Elle arrive and try to capture Claire. They discover that their powers have gone and Noah quickly takes advantage and despite losing his gun, violently attacks Sylar. But Elle picks up the loose gun and shoots but Claire jumps in front of Noah and takes the bullet. However she quickly realises that she can’t heal and horrified, Noah attacks Elle and picks up his daughter and goes home. Thankfully the injury isn’t that bad and Noah, with the objection of his wife, heads back to confront Elle and Sylar. As the pair share a kiss, Noah has them in his sights – of his sniper rifle….

Although not as free-flowing as the last couple of episodes, I still enjoyed this first part of ‘The Eclipse’. I think we’ve been left in no doubt that the eclipse does give people their abilities but precisely how and indeed why, I doubt even series creator, Tim Kring knows!

Despite not been as such a major player in this series as the previous 2, I’m beginning to like Noah more, which I couldn’t say in series 1! Everything is building up nicely and with only 3 episodes to go, a lot of things are still to be tied up.

7/10

Next Time: Matt challenges Daphne to a race – just to piss her off!

Survivors (2008) - Episode 3

2008-12-08T10:29:00.000-08:00

Survivors continue to reach the high bar they’ve set themselves as we learn more about how the virus came about, in an episode which also sees the return of government minister - Samantha Willis (played by Nikki Amuka Bird).

Whilst Abby continues to search for Peter, she finds her way into an ‘Eco Bunker’ which is ran by Samantha and other survivors. With society having collapsed and being, probably the only MP left alive, Samantha tries to hold up the law.. It’s a rather interesting storyline, which concludes when she shoots dead a girl who had looted their medical supplies. Disgusted, Abby walks away but we haven’t seen the last of the murderous MP and her band of ‘hench-people’, who were in the trailer for episode 4, at the end of this episode!

Meanwhile, Tom and Greg go on a petrol run abs as they are getting into a lot of ‘male bonding’. However, it’s cut short when a firebomb is thrown at their jeep, when they arrive at what seems to be a disused farm. Of course the farm isn’t disused, it’s the home of a Dad (Neil Dudgeon) and his kids. It seems that the trio never had the virus and the Dad was pretty cagey about his kids going outside in case they caught the virus.

Later, the daughter sneaks out to talk to Tom and Greg, who when they return her home, her father believes that she is infected and refuses to take her in. But after Tom shows his softer side and gives a rousing speech from behind the backdoor, the girl is reunited with her family. It’s a very emotional story that showed the affects of the virus from the point of view from those that lived outside the towns and cities. There was also a little character development for Tom, who wasn’t his creepy self at all!

Its not as dramatic back at the house, as the rest have a laugh at Al after he attempts to build a pen for the chicken which Naj has ‘adopted’. He later redeemed himself by getting a flat-pack shed! Sarah also seems to settling in well but she seems too infatuated with Greg to really make a big impact. I expect to see a lot more of her selfish side soon!

In each episode, we have seen little snippets of two men in a lab, who are conducting experiments with the virus. In this episode, they get a little more development as the doctor tries to test himself with a vaccine but before he can, the manager of the lab overrules him and tests someone else – we dies rather horribly. I’ve not got a clue what’s going on but surely they’ve got to be behind the virus?

Overall, it was another good episode that could have easily made you slip into boredom but somehow, Survivors manages to keep you interested in listening to every single word!

8/10

Next Time: The gang go head to head with 'Team Willis' in a rather heated game of scrabble!

The IT Crowd Series 3 Episode 2 - Are We Not Men?

2008-12-03T16:05:00.000-08:00

After being slightly disappointed with last week’s effort, I needn’t have worried this week, as the guys over at the IT Crowd delivered one of the best episodes yet! ‘Are We Not Men?’ saw Moss and Roy make friends with armed robbers, who like to watch a bit of footy! Meanwhile Jen has a date with a man who looked like a magician – which probably took less than half a day to film!

With the lads longing to be ‘real men’, Moss surprises Roy when he engages the office’s postman in ‘football talk’ - complete with an OTT cockney accent! Roy is interested, so Moss shows him a website from which you can download a number of sounds to help you to learn ‘football talk’. So while at a pub later, Roy and Moss make friends with a couple of ‘real men’ and the line ‘Did you see that diabolical display last night?’ (check?) never sounded more funny!

Meanwhile Jen, forewarned by Moss and Roy about the fact that her date looks ‘like a Magician’, is on a date with a man – who looks like a magician! Not one of your classic ones, who dresses well and wore top hats, no it was one of these Darren Brown-types who just looked weird and did things with their hands. Still pretty amusing though.

After a nice day out watching West Ham with their new friends, Moss and Roy are back at work, with Roy feeling the affects of a rather heavy night of playing poker. Because he has built up such a debt with the lads, Roy agrees to do some driving for them. But he doesn’t realise that they are armed robbers and he is the getaway driver! His moment of realisation is brilliant, as he tries to phone the police and says ‘Oh no, they’re coming this way’!

Later, after being phoned earlier by Roy, Moss turns up at the lockup, where the lads are and after being distracted by his obsession of counting things, Moss starts to count all the stolen money! The strong language brought out the best Moss line of the series so far ‘Watch your ruddy language – my ears are not a toilet’! It may not sound as funny when reading it but when said by Moss, anything could be funny!

Our heroes get away just as the police come and in order to prevent suspicion – Moss grabs Roy and kisses him – twice! It’s something that you’ll never expect the characters to do and it was hilarious to watch – and I don’t often say that about kisses between men! Of course Roy had to point out that they could have hid behind some nearby bins, which made it all the more hilarious!

Overall it was an excellent episode, let down by the lack of Jen – but that’s not nessaically a bad thing! It’s interesting to note that the episodes only run for 24 minutes, which is just simply not enough – even an extra 3 minutes could make the episodes even better. I quite enjoyed another ‘fish out of water’ scene for the boys, as it does bring out the best in Moss. And I’m not sure but was it Milk or ‘A White Russian’ that he was drinking in the pub? Either way, it’s brilliant!

10/10

The Podcast With No Name (Subtitle: CyberColin Undressed) - Episode 4

2008-12-02T08:27:00.000-08:00

4 - The ‘We’re Not Gonna Sit In Silence, We’re Not Gonna Live With Fear’ Podcast

In this week’s stench of unprofessional rubbish, Colin reviews the BBC version of the Conan Doyle classic ‘The Lost World’, also reviewed is the latest adventure for The Scarifyers – ‘For King and Country’, starring Nicholas Courtney and Terry Molloy. And finally he talks about the upcoming Collectormania Glasgow event.

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Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 9 - It's Coming

2008-12-01T08:43:00.000-08:00

After last week’s breathtaking episode, I was a little disappointed to see how easy Hiro get away from the clutches of Arthur but what made it interesting is that Hiro now believes he’s 10 years old!

Ando tries to jog his friend’s memory but it seems that Hiro doesn’t remember anything beyond his 10th year. After almost giving up, Ando manages to teach his friend how to use his powers – but they aren’t as effective as they where. Hiro manages to teleport them into a bowling alley and he waffles on about waffles, before teleporting them to a comic shop!

Elsewhere Peter and Claire are on the run from Knox and Flint and with Peter stripped of his abilities, its Claire who acts the ‘tough guy’. Peter tells her that he saw her kill him in the future but Claire dismisses it and even looks horrified at the thought. Wonder if that’ll change? With Peter running away, like the true Italian he is, we learn that their bumbling pursuers have been sent for Claire. But thanks to a gas pipe and Peter standing up for once and being a man, they escape after Peter goads Flint into setting off one of his flames.

Meanwhile back at Pinehurst, or ‘Arthur’s Grotto’ as I like to call it, the main man is buttering up Sylar by telling him that it’s possible for him to take people’s abilities without killing them. Oh and the ‘grey one’ also know that it was Sylar who slowed down Peter’s fall in the previous episode. So to test out Arthur’s theory (feeling empathy) Sylar goes to the cell where Elle is now chained up and this reviewer liked that scene! She takes her anger out on him (Sylar, not me) by blasting him with her uncontrollable lightening bolts. But after a bit of touching dialogue about himself and why Elle must forgive herself – Elle can now control her power and Sylar has gained an ability – without killing anyone! We are then treating to a scene, where it seems Elle and Sylar are getting as close as they did in last week’s flashback episode.

Nathan gets into Pinehurst to confront the father he thought was dead. After refusing to ‘hug’ him (well done Nathan!) Arthur tells Nathan that he is ‘destined’ to be the President and that they could rule together. Nathan isn’t sure and leaves to think it over but Tracy has other ideas and cuts a deal with Arthur to persuade Nathan to join him. She’ll need ‘protection’ though!

More people are getting close, Fatty Matt and Dodgy Daphne get into The Company and after Matt sees a vision of the now-deceased Usutu, the building seems eerily empty. Matt finds Angela (or Cherie, if you prefer - I do, so I’m using it), who is still in a coma and he realises he must go into her mind to rescue her. She’s been trapped in there by Arthur, who’s lurking somewhere and Matt learns of Daphne’s double-agent role, when she pops up and stabs him. Of course this isn’t really her it’s Arthur! The real Daphne is in the real world, looking on, very concerned at a bleeding Matt. Thankfully he’s been stabbed in the stomach, so it’s like a pinprick to a normal person! However, she manages to persuade Matt to let her into his dream and she ends up confessing all her love for the bulky copper. There’s hope for us all yet! Cherie manages to make this version of Arthur look at the love that Matt and Daphne share (YUCK!) and reminds him they where like that once. Arthur releases his wife and the three wake up back at Cherie’s bedside.

Peter and Claire find their way into The Company and after Matt mistakes Peter to be the one that sent him to Africa, he attacks him. But once everything is settled, all is explained by Cherie, that they need to stop Arthur from getting one last piece of the formula – a catalyst. Who hold this catalyst in their blood (as explained by Mohinder, earlier), nobody knows but Claire realises about her encounter with Sylar and how he had looked at her mind and said she was ‘something special’. We then cut to Pinehurst where all of, sod it I’ll say it – ‘Arthur’s Team’ are lining up, with Elle and Tracy being the latest recruits. Arthur is drawing a painting, similar to one which Usutu had drew – an eclipse is coming!

It was another fascinating episode that could explain why Claire is so critical to the show’s plot. But when this volume, or series is finished, I’m not sure where they can go with it. But for now – I’m really enjoying this top yank drama!

9/10

Next Time: With Law and Order getting its own British spin-off, maybe Tim Kring might consider selling the Heroes format to the UK, after all – you always copy our shows!

Survivors (2008) - Episode 2

2008-11-30T16:51:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-29T21:53:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-28T02:26:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-27T06:05:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-26T02:42:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-25T01:51:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-24T09:18:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-22T07:14:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-21T06:54:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-20T11:29:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-19T05:47:00.000-08:00

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

Silent Witness Series 12 Episodes 11 & 12 - Finding Rachel

2008-11-18T11:39:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-13T15:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-12T08:36:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-11T07:01:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-09T17:09:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-08T22:30:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-02T07:10:00.000-08:00

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!

David Tennant - Thank-You! - A 10th Doctor Tribute 2005-09

2008-10-29T18:29:00.000-07:00

It’s with a little bit of sadness and shock that I write about the announcement that David Tennant will quit his role as The Doctor after the 2009 specials. It was always something that was going to happen but it was rather a shock when he announced it at the National Television Awards, where he picked up the award for best actor.

David has been a great servant to Doctor Who, even outside of filming, he has been promoting the show tirelessly and always has time for the fans. And that’s because he’s a fan himself!

It was 2005 and David Tennant burst onto the scene in the BBC Three drama – Casanova, written by Russell T Davies. His portrayal of the famous character was absolutely fantastic and that probably secured his dream role to play the Timelord he had religiously watched as a lad.

Rumours have been circulating that Tennant was always going to succeed Christopher Eccelston after the 2005 series. I suppose with the main members of the Doctor Who team, cutting their ties with the show after 2009, we will find out the truth behind the goings on in that first series.

Fast forward to June 2005 and we had known for months that the revived series was going to lose its Doctor. The production team were furious the news got out and since then they have fought to keep the programme’s plots a secret. But not many fans expected David Tennant to appear at the end of ‘The Parting of the Ways’ as the newly regenerated Doctor! It was a nice surprise, the first of many!

From his 10 seconds on series 1, David took the role on and became, arguably, the most popular Doctor ever. Women love him, men love and want to be him and he turned out to be a stalkers dream! But fair play to him, he stuck with it and handed in superb performance after superb performance.

Now I’m not a massive fan of his first series but the final two episodes of the 2006 jaunt where quite simply some of the best ‘Who’ ever. David had finally settled into his cheeky, geeky and quite brilliant characterisation of The Doctor and from then on – it was bliss. His chemistry with other cast members is always fun to watch and even his little quirks, which he brings to the role, are done very well.

However one thing that could be missed though, is his influence on the programme itself. He had recommended many things for his character to do and even had a say in a couple of casting decisions.

He has said he wants to go out on a high – well he certainly is! He still has a long year of specials to get through and that can go as slowly as possible!

So thanks David and good luck! Bring on the specials!

Silent Witness Series 12 Episodes 7 & 8 - Judgement

2008-10-28T18:25:00.000-07:00

Silent Witness continues their ethnic tour of Great Britain and this week’s (un)lucky contestants are the Hasidic Jewish community. Personally, I’m not sure what they are trying to tell us but if it gives us a little bit of an insight into other cultures (discounting the murders of course!), then it can’t be a bad thing.

After a Jewish man is found dead, the man’s family don’t want the team to do a full post mortem. Harry is annoyed and instead does a ‘dry’ post mortem – which, by the title, involves not cutting him up. The Jewish community believe that this is the handy work of a group of Polish builders, who by birth, have a vendetta against Jews.

It turns out he has been murdered and despite the family’s reservations, Harry goes ahead with a full post mortem. Some mobile phone footage of the attack, is later found on one of the Polish builders and the net seems to closing in.

Back at the office and Leo is on the case of a young girl, who was found dead after a drug-fuelled party. The owner of the house is under suspicion but is the girl’s sister hiding something? Oh and another thing – Everyone involved in this particular case are Australian. How many more of the world’s races do they need to collect before the end of the series?

Harry is getting on the nerves of the Jewish community and the feeling seems mutual. And after another man, who seemed to know something about the crime, is found dead, things can only get more heated. After the first murdered man’s brother is arrested for the murder of the second man, Harry believes he has him bang to rights – the DNA evidence proves that. But it seems Harry is mistaken and the Jewish community is in uproar - as is the investigating officer, who makes sure Harry is suspended from the case.

Leo, who is now getting cosy with his ‘lover’ from the other week, is still waist-deep in dodgy Aussies. It turns out that the murdered girl’s boyfriend supplied her with drugs and when she was discovered – it was thought she was dead. She wasn’t and was taken outside, on the cold balcony. Which is not where you want to be in a drug-fuelled coma. The girl’s sister was involved but she tried to save her life but it was in vain. This was a nice side story that didn’t get in the way of the main event and that’s something which this programme does so well.

Meanwhile, it looks bleak for Harry but when Nikki shows him fresh copies of the DNA, they come to the conclusion that the arrested man had another brother – who did it. The said brother was exiled from the community, after he was suffering from a mental illness. His father, the Rabbi, had no contact with him and the fella, obviously felt a bit peeved. He had taken a job on the Polish building site and when he saw his brother, he tried to speak to him. But as the chat got a little more heated, the Polish workers got involved and kicked him to death. Sadly the lad had to get involved and after a later confrontation with the other man, he killed him as well by pushing him into the path of an oncoming van.

It was a rather sombre end and it seems that the lad will be locked up in an institution. But its good news all round for Leo, as he moves in with his woman. Will it last? Possibly but I got the feeling that the writers were perhaps showing that Leo was more obsessed with his work than he should be. Will he change?

It perhaps wasn’t the best story of the series but considering how high the bar as been set, its no disgrace. I just hope that they would find more inspiration away from the many communities that London holds! A word too for the music in this story – loud at times but very good nevertheless! As in any television production, music is very important in setting the scene and the BBC do that better than anyone. It’s just a shame they tend to pay 5 million a year to ignorant, stupid berks!

7/10

Next Time: Evangelical Christians are next up on the Silent Witness stage of ‘Ethnic Murder Mysteries’. Wonder how many complaints the BBC will get?

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 4 - I Am Become Death

2008-10-25T06:42:00.000-07:00

We spend some time in the future, with the two Peter’s in this week’s episode of Heroes. Things have taken quite a bizarre turn, very bizarre!

The formula, which gives normal people abilities, as been made public and is available to buy by all those who are rich enough. Future Peter wants to avoid this and later we learn that the world would be destroyed if it carried on. Unfortunately for future Peter – he is a wanted ‘terrorist’ and is being hunted down by ‘The Company’, which now includes Claire. It seems that Claire wants to kill her ‘Uncle’ and she does, but she realises that the Peter from the past, the one that could change history, is still at large. Future Peter tells him beforehand to seek out his nemesis, Sylar. Peter goes looking for Mohinder, who thanks to his own drug, is living alone and in an awful state. He tells Peter where Sylar is before going to eat a small child or something!

The weirdness continues as Peter find Sylar - who is now living in Claire’s old house and is a doting Dad to his son – called Noah and calls Peter his ‘brother’. I suppose it’s a good contrast to the character he plays in ‘our’ time and it seems this series is trying to dilute his character by giving him an excuse to murder (the hunger!)

We learn that Peter is after Sylar’s original ability – the power to find out how things work, in order to ‘fix’ the past. Sylar is reluctant but after a ‘painting of the future later’, he lets Peter have it, with a warning that the hunger to want more, will come with it

Unfortunately Claire and her ‘team’ - Daphne and some bloke called Knox, arrive not long after and try to capture Peter. They take Sylar’s son hostage and accidently kill him, which enrages Sylar and he explodes, due to the fact he can’t control the power which he had stolen from Ted Sprague. Thanks to their regenerative powers, Claire and Peter survive and the latter is locked up and tortured by the former. Nathan, who is now the President and married to Tracy, arrives and speaks with his brother and allows Peter to read his mind. Peter gets curious though and wants to know how Nathan’s mind works – he starts to cut up his brother’s head in a Sylar-style attack, before stopping himself and teleporting back to the present.

Peter is back on The Company’s level 5, in Sylar’s prison cell, where he angrily attacks his new ‘brother’, as Sylar mocks him about his new found hunger. It’s turning into a rather brilliant storyline, one which makes sense for a start! The fact that Peter can absorb abilities whilst Sylar has to murder people, to steal them, is already a good dynamic and shows the two to be on two ends of the same scale. I still think this ‘brothers’ plot isn’t needed though!

Elsewhere, Matt is still on crack, as he dreams he marries Daphne in the future (the one we saw with Peter) and they both adopt Molly and have a child of their own. But after Sylar blew up, Daphne isn’t quite quick enough and collapses in Matt’s arms – fulfilling the painting, which was painted by his African mate.

Hiro and Ando spend the majority of the episode trying to escape from their cell and the pair also have a heart-to-heart about the state of their friendship. But just as Hiro is about to escape, they are summoned by Cherie Blair. She tells him that his father would be disappointed in him for losing the formula but after Ando speaks up for his friend, Cherie sends them on a mission, saying that Hiro holds the ‘key’ to getting the formula back. That key is Adam Monroe, who Hiro buried in series 2! Upon waking up from his latest death, Adam angrily grabs his former friend and it looks like he’s in trouble!

Meanwhile, Nathan and Tracy ‘get it together’, as we learn that Tracy and Nikki where part of an experiment, which resulted in them, plus their unseen sister ‘Barbara’, receiving abilities. It’s all too much for Tracy and as she fails in an attempt to confess to the murder of the reporter, she tries to jump off a bridge – where Nathan flies in and saves her.

And it’s clear that Heroes have ripped off ‘Jekyll and Hide’, as Mohinder’s temper seems to getting worse. He attacks his neighbour, who comes back for a second confrontation. Mohinder isn’t having any of it and drags him into the flat. I very much doubt he wants him to be part of a threesome with Maya, do you? Again, that is certainly going to be interesting, to see that being played out. If it’s the beginning of the end of his mind-numbingly tedious and downright cheesy voiceovers – then most Heroes fans will be delighted!

9/10

Next Time: Angela ‘Cherie Blair’ Petrelli goes on Jeremy Kyle to talk about interbreeding in the family. Is this is how all our ‘Heroes’ get their powers? Magic formula indeed!

Big Finish Doctor Who 114 - Brotherhood of the Daleks

2008-10-22T06:40:00.001-07:00

The TARDIS materialises. Despite console readings to the contrary, the Sixth Doctor and Charley step out, unexpectedly, into an alien jungle, where they find themselves stalked and then ambushed. They have landed in the middle of one of the Dalek wars, and this time the tactics used by both sides are threatening the very nature of reality.

I don’t know how to review this audio. On one hand its one of the most landmark Dalek stories that Big Finish has done. On the other, it’s the most bizarre pieces of writing this side of ‘Ghost Light’!

Okay, you can actually follow the story so the Ghost Light comparison is a bit harsh but imagine if Terry Nation based the Daleks on Communists instead of Nazis – that is what ‘Brotherhood of the Daleks’ is basically about!

The first disc (or two parts, whichever you prefer) pulls you into the story brilliantly. The Doctor and Charley land on what The Doctor thinks is an ice planet but instead its Spiridon, first seen in Jon Pertwee’s ‘Planet of the Daleks’ in 1973. But is it Spiridon? The TARDIS doesn’t think it is!

The Doctor and Charley meet a team of Thals who are waiting to be rescued, whilst they are on the run from Daleks. One of their member has been killed and they seem rather trigger-happy and after the TARDIS disappears, will The Doctor, his ridiculous deerskin apparel and Charley, get out alive?

It’s a gripping listen but once you get to part three, that’s where it all goes bonkers! At times you’re not sure what is real and what is not real. Considering this is a fiction anyway, it gets all the more confusing! Add to that the fact that the Daleks seem to remember Charley (from the audio) ‘Terror Firma’ - you’ll struggle to keep up!

It’s quite interesting to see what this story does to the Daleks. I suppose it ratifies the fact that the Daleks will never change but I would like to see a continuing arc of different Daleks, with a different agenda. Big Finish toyed with this in the ‘Dalek Empire’ spinoffs (which are a great listen, if you’re into Daleks) but I would like to see a change in direction with future Dalek stories. Let’s stop using them as joke devices, which is what the television series has done and make them into the menacing threat they should be!

As always, Colin Baker and India Fisher are on top form as the 6th Doctor and Charley. The Charley story arc is also getting that little bit more interesting. Although I do hope we have this pairing for a few years yet, I hope this plotline isn’t done to death! It isn’t surprising to listen how easy the two have settled down together. I do get the feeling that the 6th Doctor could fit in with every one of his past and future companions and that is all due to Colin, who apart from being loveable, has the best name in the world! Me and him and so much in common!

Michael Cochrane (who plays Murgat) is the main guest star in this audio. He has appeared in the television stories ‘Black Orchid’ and, (surprise, surprise!) Ghost Light’. He also appeared in the 7th Doctor audio, ‘No Man’s Land, which is well worth digging out!

There are also over 30 minutes of extras, which are also well worth a listen. If only to hear people trying to talk normally, but having the Dalek sound affect on their voice! As always the behind the scenes stuff is very informative and adds that little bit of gloss to each release. Just hearing about how India Fisher wanted to re-record a scene because she wasn’t happy with it, just shows how much work everyone puts in and that’s just great to hear. It does make you wonder how a small company like Big Finish, gets all its releases out and at the same time, maintain the high quality they have set themselves.

Despite the strangeness of this release, it’s still a good story that has plenty of twists and turns, more so from part three onwards! You may have to listen to it at least twice to understand what’s going on, though!

4/5

Next Time: its “HAPPY 45th BIRTHDAY DOCTOR WHO!”, as Big Finish will be celebrating by releasing ‘Forty Five’, with the 7th Doctor, Ace and Hex.

Bernice Summerfield 9.3 - The Adventure Of The Diogenes Damsel

2008-10-21T04:21:00.000-07:00

I quite enjoy ‘historical’ stories, be it on screen, audio or in print, I like to learn about that particular time period and enjoy the story it spawns. The Bernice Summerfield range is no different from its parent (so to speak!) Doctor Who, in producing good historical stories. ‘The Time Ring Trilogy’, consisting the stories ‘Walking To Babylon’, ‘Birthright’ and ‘Just War’ are beautifully – and brilliantly, done (although to be fair the latter two are adaption’s of Doctor Who books!) I would recommend that you start your Bernice Summerfield education there, before going to listen to the other three in the first series (Oh No It Isn’t, Beyond The Sun and Dragon’s Wrath)

The latest offering is ‘The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel’, which sees Benny stuck in Victorian London (or as the Victorians called it – London) after her time ring malfunctions. She enlists the help of Mycroft Holmes, the brother of a famous fictional detective, Sherlock Holmes. He employs Benny as his assistant and they investigate the movements of the mysterious ‘7 killer’, who murders people in the most bizarre ways. However, as Benny tries to help out, as well as work out a way to get back home, she is being watched by two strange men - a famed ‘collector of antiquities’ and his, to want for a better word, gofer!

I was a little bit disappointed that they included the Sherlock Holmes motif. What these historical do so well is that they always get history bang on. Sherlock Holmes was never real, so I didn’t understand why they played with it. Having Benny meet his brother, instead of Sherlock himself, was a nice touch though and its a break from the 'we'll do these really famous characters because we can' train of thought. Benny did meet Sherlock and Dr. Watson in a Doctor Who novel, so I suppose the writers are just keeping the continuity!

But once I got over that, I quite enjoyed it! David Warner played the very likeable Mycroft Holmes and seemed to have a good on-audio understanding with Lisa Bowerman’s Benny. The supporting cast, which includes Peter Miles, hold up the story well and its strange now not hearing the voice of Peter Summerfield (Thomas Grant), as he is only heard shouting ‘Mum’, very briefly!

As with any Benny audio, it’s a lot of fun and should be taken as so. There are plenty nods to the Time Lords and what is happening over at the collection but hopefully we can wait a while longer until this plot device is played out! We even have a guest appearance from another character from the Doctor Who range but whether or not this is set before or after the audios this character appears in, I don’t know!

4/5

Next Tine: We come to the end of a very short series, although thanks to the delay in July, it hasn’t been that short! ‘The Diet of Worms’ is the delightfully-named final story!

Silent Witness Series 12 Episodes 5 & 6 - Terror

2008-10-20T07:03:00.000-07:00

After delving into the world of inner-city crime and last week’s story about Russian gangsters, this week the Silent Witness team encounter Islamic terrorists and police shootings. Whether or not they intend to offend anyone, I don’t know! But fair play to them for not pussyfooting around the said subjects.

After an investigation into a terrorist cell, which ends up in a bugled shooting, which leaves a few people dead – including a police officer, the pathologists get to work. They are under the supervision of a tough anti-terrorist cop, DI Tranfield (Shaun Dooley) who is wary that the threat isn’t over.

Harry is charged with identifying a woman who was brought back by two men to the suspected terrorists flat. Which is a bit difficult considering half of her face as been blown away. Meanwhile Nikki and the DI clash after she suspects that the statements given by the police aren’t what exactly happened. She also tries to talk to one of dead men’s sister, as she is the only one who was left alive. Her lack of English and the fact that she’s been taken under the wing of a Turkish lawyer, slow down the investigation.

We learn that the dead policeman had a grudge against his mate, Rhys, who was in the same unit and who just happened to having an affair with his wife. After Nikki proves that he was in shooting distance of him, during the raid, he is suspended, pending further enquiry and the case looks like it’s sown up. But as Nikki makes her way home, she is ambushed and her laptop (with some of her reports on) is stolen. She gives chase but the mysterious thief pulls a gun on her and it looks like bye, bye Nikki. End of part 1.

Of course it isn’t the end for her! The man makes his escape and leaves Nikki, shaken but not hurt. The investigation continues and Harry learns all about the ‘girl with no face’ – she was an undercover officer who Tranfield knew about but he couldn’t disclose her identity because he believed she had been heavily involved in drug-taking at the flat.

Meanwhile, Rhys tries to prove his innocence. He tracks down Nikki and tells her that he was the man who stole her laptop. He asks her to look at the case again, to prove his innocence. She eventually agrees and after another look at the crime scene and how everyone was positioned, she comes to the conclusion that it was the girl who shot the police officer as well as shooting her brother, accidently.

It seems it’s too late though, as the girl, under instructions from the lawyer, attempts a suicide bombing at a local nightclub. The police get there in time and it was ironically, Rhys was the man who shot her. That isn’t the end of the action though, as back at the mortuary, the team have to clear out as Nikki has been sent a suspect package. Who says being a postman isn’t exciting?

It’s another well written episode. There was little development for the main characters but I thought this was a refreshing change, considering that happens in most episodes. I always get the feeling that at times, the supporting characters lack a lot of depth but on this occasion, it was done well.

8/10

Next Time: Leo tries to educate his team by using the new Wii game – ‘Corpse Control Clarifier’, to help him.

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 3 - One of Us, One of Them

2008-10-19T13:55:00.000-07:00

The third series of Heroes starts to get more interesting with this weeks episode ‘One of Us, One of Them’. We learn of Angela Petrelli’s plan for ‘her son’, we find out who Tracy is and Noah is back at the company and has a new partner!

After last week’s disappointing revelation that Sylar was the son of ‘Cherie Blair’, I wonder how this would start to play out. It seems she wants to use him for The Company's ends, she even ‘feeds’ him – by luring a company employee, who can know the history of any person/object just by touching it, to prove her intentions. She also plays with his mind, claiming that he has a ‘hunger’ that he can’t control. That hunger is of course, murdering people and taking their abilities. Sylar was then to join a disgusted Noah, who knows nothing of Cherie’s antics. I found this a bit strange, seeing as Sylar was fresh from cutting Claire’s head open!

Meanwhile one man who is certainly feeling the hunger at the moment, is fatty Matt, who is still stuck somewhere in Africa. Apparently his new mate has got the same ability as Isaac (he can paint the future) and has been painting about Matt, since he was a boy. It seems though, that he wants Matt to go on a ‘Sprit Walk’ and gives Matt his ‘magic headphones’ and Matt’s eyes go white like a crack addict. Not sure about this plot device, at all – magic headphones?

Tracy heads to New Orleans, to find out about Nikki, who is defiantly dead, as she finds out when she gets to the house and sees her coffin and opens it up. Little Micah is behind her and the lad (although to be fair, he’s probably hit puberty now) thinks she’s his mum. She isn’t and after a conversation, Micah helps Tracy to trace her roots and finds out that she was born at the exact same time as Nikki, at the same hospital and all this was supervised by the same doctor. Tracy leaves Micah, who I don’t think we’ll see again, and visits this Dr Zimmerman. Once there, we find out that he had ‘created’ her. This could result in a number of possibilities but I believe that Nikki’s ‘sister’ (or sisters?) are her other personalities and they all have a mental link. Sounds mental I know but this is Heroes, nothing is impossible!

Peter is still stuck inside the body of Jesse and whilst he and his gang are busy robbing money and threatening people, Noah and Sylar turn up. The other members of the gang want Noah dead, for capturing them. Although not all of them agree and the leader kills ‘The German’ by punching him right through his chest! Things would soon calm down but not before future Peter comes in, stops time and takes his present version away, to ‘show him something’. Sylar cleans up the remaining villains but not before locking Noah out and taking the powers of the men. He again comes up with the ‘I must feed my hunger’ line, which Cherie planted in his head.

Claire is taught a lesson by her birth mother, which got a little bit tedious for me. I’m starting to despise the Claire character, to be honest. Claire later drove off with one of her father’s boxes, presumably with files relating to The Company in it. Marvellous! But Hiro and Ando continue to impress, their ‘Batman and Robin’ partnership is getting better all the time. They track Daphne (aka ‘The Speedster’) down to Germany, where she is poised to steal the other half of the ‘formula’. The Haitian also pops up and does the exchange, on behalf of The Company. Hiro believes that they must follow him and after Daphne winds up Ando about his one-sided friendship with Hiro, they hit The Haitian on the head! This was to haunt them later as The Haitian caught up with them and locked them up in The Company’s prison. WHOOPS!

So with Sylar locked up as well, shower time should be fun! The Haitian is placed back with Noah and it seems Cherie has got one half of the formula. Daphne, or her employer, has the other but who is she working for? I can’t wait to find out!

8/10

Next Time: Hiro plays table tennis with Sylar, whilst Ando, the only one without powers, is crowned the ‘prison bitch’.

The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 Episodes 3 & 4 - The Day of the Clown

2008-10-14T08:46:00.000-07:00

Bradley Walsh steals the show as the villain in ‘The Day of The Clown’. For those who don’t know, he is a well-known entertainer-turned actor on British TV and perhaps one of the last people you’d expect to be in a children’s show!

This story also sees the introduction of Rani (played by Anjli Mohindra) and you know what? I was impressed! However, I do think there's something sinister going on with her though, not because her name's Rani (no not at all!) it just seemed like there was more to her than meets the eye. Apparently she wants to ‘be a journalist’, like Sarah* so expect her to be shadowing and coping all her traits. Hope she doesn’t get annoying!

Another surprise was the pace of the story. It felt more like a ‘classic’ episode of Doctor Who, as the tension was built up, little by little. I suspect it was a case of trying to do the introduction of Rani character that took up most of the time.

She arrives in Bannerman Road with her Mum and Dad (who just happens to be the new Headmaster at Luke and Clyde’s school and immediately builds up a love-hate rapport with the former!) and befriends the lads. Meanwhile, children are going missing and only Clyde and Rani can see the sinister clown’s that seem to be hanging around the place. They learn that the missing kids took tickets from a clown and disappeared not long after.

The team (is that the right word?) are lead to Elijah Spellman’s museum of ‘fun’, thanks to a ticket that Clyde had (which is why he could see the clown). They learn that Spellman isn’t what he seems to be – he’s an alien that feeds on fear! It’s also revealed that he is also the fabled ‘Pied Piper of Hamlin’, which is a well known fairytale about how a travelling entertainer took all the town’s children away after they refused to pay him for his ‘rat removal’ service. Seeing as having your children taken away is any parent’s greatest fear, it’s a rather good idea for a creepy tale, which could have worked just as well in Doctor Who!

After getting over the shock (and giggling!) of seeing Bradley Walsh playing three roles (Spellmen, The Pied Piper and ‘Oddbob The Clown'), I quite enjoyed the story! It was creepy and funny in all the right places and the kids must lap it up! Not sure about Sarah Jane’s fear of clown’s but it didn’t put me off.

The three kids work well together and Maria wasn’t really that missed, expect by poor Luke! Although I did enjoy him admitting he found out that Johnny Depp was scared of clowns – by reading Heat!**

Here’s looking forward the next story, where I believe another bizarre but brilliant piece of casting has taken place!

9/10

Next Time: Luke is (not for the first time) mistaken for Eastenders character Martin Fowler and bricks are thrown. It won’t be a pretty sight!

* I quite enjoyed Sarah insisting her name was Sarah-Jane to Rani’s mother. But if ‘Sarah’ is what the late great Jon Pertwee's Doctor (and Tom Baker) called you, that’s what I’m calling you!

** For those who don’t know, Heat is a very abysmal ‘celebrity’ gossip magazine for Women.

Silent Witness Series 12 Episodes 3 & 4 - Death's Door

2008-10-13T04:26:00.000-07:00

This week the team are joined by a student but she’s quickly ‘dispatched’, so it’s all back to normal when part two comes along!

After a woman is murdered, her face cut off and dumped by a roadside, the team try everything to identify her. It’s grizzly stuff but that’s the pull of this programme, it doesn’t hold back!

We learn that the woman is a television personality, who had recently been on more drugs than Amy Winehouse but was in the middle of a comeback - by writing a book. That book was to about a jailed Russian gangster, who became the chief suspect in the case, lead by annoying detective – Barker (played by Neil Dudgeon).

Barker takes a shine to our pretty student (Naomi Bentley – Caroline in ‘Primeval’) and it seems she’s in hot water with her mentor, Harry, after the press get hold of some details about the investigation and she is photographed when she goes with Harry, to the woman’s house.

Meanwhile, Leo is getting on like a ‘house on fire’ with Prof. Janet (Jaye Griffiths, who also appeared in a Silent Witness episode in 2003, as a police officer), who has been attached to the case for her expertise. It isn’t long though, until they are ‘at it’!

As we come to the end of episode one, Nikki is sent to a new crime scene. Unfortunately the victim is our student, who has had her throat cut. It’s a shocking end but it gets more shocking in part two, as we learn that Barker had sex with her, the night she was murdered. Nikki didn’t come to that conclusion until testing the DNA found on her against Harry’s – who had been at her flat just before Barker.

Barker isn’t the one who ‘did it though’ but he was the one who leaked information to the press, in order to get more information from the public, about the murderer. Sadly it leads to her being photographed and she was killed because of her involvement with the case.

Shocked by her death, Harry is a man on a mission and whilst he is being shadowed by a bodyguard, he is summoned by a Russian businessman who gives him information. He says that it was the jailed gangster who ordered the killing and hands him some ‘evidence’ to prove it. He even plants £10,000 in Harry’s bank account, so he can ‘work’ for him!

We learn though, that the gangster is indeed innocent and it was the businessman who ordered the murder of the women. She was writing the book on the jailed man, who co-operated with her but he had connections with the businessman man and he would have been implicated if the book was published. Thing is though, the book was already written and stored on her laptop.

It’s too late for Mr Gangster though, as he dies after an asthma attack, inside a prison van after one of the businessman’s associate’s hands him a duff asthma inhaler.

It’s another interesting and informative episode. That’s the thing with Silent Witness – you always seem to learn stuff off it! Be it medical or law, you always get your fix! There’s a decent supporting cast too, Phil Davis also appears, playing the dead woman’s unscrupulous agent. It should be interesting to see if the relationship between Leo and Janet will continue, I reckon not because I don’t think she’s in next week’s episode! But you never know!

8/10

Next Time: Harry takes a job as a college lecturer – if he as that much of an affect on Students as he did in this story, there’ll be none left!

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 Episode 2 - The Butterfly Effect

2008-10-12T11:47:00.000-07:00

After last week’s interesting opening episode, Heroes: Villains is now starting to settle down and flesh out its plotlines.

It seems that Angela ‘Cherie Blair’ Petrelli’s is going to be an integral part of this current overall storyline. She dreams that Hiro, Claire, Peter, Noah and Matt are all killed, in very viscous ways. She turns round to see Adam Monroe, Nikki, Maury Parkman and another man, who we learn later is an inmate at the company’s facility, with rather sinister grins on their faces. Sylar, standing behind her, then puts his hand on her shoulder, in a very chilling manner. Does this mean he’s going to get a group of villains together? Perhaps they’ve just set up a book club and want her to join!

Meanwhile, we learn that ‘Nikki’ isn’t Nikki at all – she’s someone called ‘Tracy Strauss’. She would later go to see Nathan and persuade him to take the job, he had been earmarked for and he’s aghast when she turns up. She is stalked by a newspaper reporter, who also believes her to the Nikki we know. He threatens to publish details of her ‘past’, which she knows nothing about. Tracy gets angrier and when she grabs hold of the reporter – he turns to ice and smashes on the floor. Which leaves one question – what has happened to Nikki?

Fatty Matt is still alive and well – just! He’s lying in the desert and is helped by a local, who seems to know him. Thing is though – Matt is in a yet unspecified country in Africa! We learn that the local can paint the future and knew Matt was coming.

Mohinder is loving his new powers and just after he deflowers Maya, he finds out he has some kind of skin infection, something that looks like ‘orange scales’. You should have worn a condom before you ‘got it on’ with the bore, Mohinder!

Sylar is up to his usual tricks and this time Bob is the victim as Sylar breaks into ‘The Company’ and kills him. The reason behind this is that Stephen Tobolowsky, who plays Bob, had an horse riding accident and was only able to act in a chair. Apparently he will make a full recovery.

Back to the action as the corpse of Bob is discovered by his daughter, Elle, who then has a showdown with Sylar. This resulted in Elle letting out a massive electrical charge, knocking Sylar out but opening all the cells and letting out all the inmates – including Noah.

Noah then goes home but immediately explains to his family that he needs to go out and recapture all the escaped inmates. He turns down Claire’s request to accompany him and he brings in her birth mother, Meredith Gordon, to protect his family. Angela takes charge of the company and immediately sacks Elle.

The escaped inmates are a terrible bunch and we now know what has happened to ‘Present Peter’. The future version of Peter trapped his younger self in the body of an inmate, Jesse Murphy, in order to keep him safe inside the company’s prison. With all hell breaking loose and the escapees murdering people on the spot, things are going to get interesting!

Hiro and Ando are perhaps coming to beginning of the end of their friendship. Ando is annoyed at Hiro, after the pair teleport to Paris, in order to get the formula back. After a showdown with the ‘speedster’, we learn that she is working for someone and she escapes, cutting Ando in the process.

Sylar wakes up and is trapped in the company’s prison, accompanied by Angela, she has to spoil it all by muttering – I am your mother! I’m not sure if this is the right thing to do, it’s a plotline which has been done so many times in other television programs and having good family members, trying to save the world and evil family members, working against them, can only make the series end up in a terrible state, which most of the shows that use this device, do.

It should be interesting to see how the plots with Matt, Nikki/Tracy and Peter, pan out. The same can be said for Nathan, who we learn is the only one who can see Linderman. Does that mean he is dead after all?

I felt that the program is trying to do plenty of ambitious things too quickly. Even though I enjoyed this episode, that bit with Angela and Sylar really spoiled it for me! Although the series has settled down rather quickly, this will give the writers the opportunity to develop the characters more, something which I think the program doesn’t do as well as it needs to. And it’s nice to see them using characters and plotlines from the novels, some of which I need to get my sticky hands on!

7/10

Next Time: We learn what the term ‘Ice Queen’ really means, thanks to Tracy!

Lost in Austen - Reviewed

2008-10-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

Take one of the most popular novels, ‘Pride and Prejudice’, sprinkle a bit of magic and stick in a modern girl. That is basically what ‘Lost in Austen’ is all about.

Now I’m no fan of these types of books or the telly adaptations. Even though I do like period dramas, mine involve war or people getting murdered – not love stories about posh wazzocks! But you know what? This works!

Written by Guy Andrews and directed by Dan Zeff, of ‘Doctor Who: Love and Monsters’ fame, it already has some decent starting blocks. Add to that the lovely Jemima Rooper (As If, Hex, Sinchronicity) and a decent support cast including, Hugh Bonneville, Alex Kingston, Gemma Atherton, Elliot Cowan, Tom Riley and Christina Cole, then it should be decent runner!

Amanda Price (Rooper) is sick of her life, stuck in a job which doesn’t appreciate her, a pig of a boyfriend who appreciates her even less, she amuses herself in a good old romantic novel to escape. However when she finds one of the books characters, Elizabeth Bennet (Atherton) in her bathroom she thinks she going mad. But when they accidently swap places, through Amanda’s ‘magic bathroom door’, she ends up in the world of ‘Pride and Prejudice’!

It’s quite amusing seeing the modern girl trying to fit in with society there. It’s very well acted from all involved, as Amanda, in her own words ‘totally buggers up the plot of the book', as she tries to set things right! Her mission takes a nose dive when she encounters the much-talked about Mr Darcy (Elliot Cowan), who isn’t anything like he is in the books and films!

There are plenty of priceless moments and quick-witted one liners. However, due to copyright issues, the scene with Amanda singing Petula Clark’s ‘Downtown’ at the bemused 19th Century characters, won’t be on the DVD unfortunately!

It’s one for the girls to be honest but lads can learn a lot from it too – like how to behave properly! Some negative things I do have about it, is the lack of coverage of Elizabeth in the modern world. We just hear she has been working as a nanny and has been hanging around with Amanda’s friend. I just felt that it would have been better if we had a situation, totally opposite to what Amanda was experiencing. Another thing was the lack of explanation behind the ‘magic door’ and how it all worked. Maybe that’s just the science-fiction geek inside me and I’m not partial to the odd bit of magic!

However, it’s an interesting concept which works extremely well. It won’t encourage me to read any of Jane Austen’s books but I don’t really have to, after seeing this! It’ll be interesting to read the views on this by fans of the book, which I’m sure will sell a few more copies! It’s well worth a look and I would encourage you to give it a go!

8/10

The DVD is out now from ITV and all good retailers.

http://www.play.com/DVD/DVD/4-/5164969/Lost-In-Austen/Product.html

Silent Witness Series 12 Episodes 1 & 2 - Safe

2008-10-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

Often underrated and ignored in favour of similar-styled shows, such as the mind-numbingly tedious CSI, Silent Witness has been going on strong for 12 series now and it really has improved with age!

The show originally featured Amanda Burton’s character Sam Ryan, a forensic pathologist and the show set in Cambridge. The setting eventually moved to London and despite her colleagues constantly changing, only Sam remained the permanent fixture.

However series 6 came about and Leo and Harry (William Gaminara and Tom Ward) joined Sam, who was to leave at the start of series 8. This gave the writers the chance to move the series on from just concentrating on one character and give the series more consistency. Later on in the series, Nikki (Emilia Fox) was to join the team, now headed by Leo and the series has gone from strength to strength ever since.

In this story, after driving home from a social shindig, Leo is stopped by the police and breath-tested. Unfortunately he is just over the limit and he is sentenced to community service - helping a football coach at a local estate. The coach isn’t too happy with this and with the gang culture hanging over the estate, a ‘drunk whitey’ isn’t going to help, is he?

Meanwhile a young girl is found dead at a fun fair. It seems she’s been murdered but the police are baffled. Whilst at the scene, Nikki is ‘picked up’ by a paramedic, which won’t go down well with fans of the Harry-Nikki story, which has been brewing for the last couple of series!

It seems that the murder is gang-related and connected to the estate Leo is on, after some mobile phone footage, displaying the murder, is found. After the person, who stabbed the girl, is gunned down, the murderer is believed to be the girl’s ‘boyfriend’. The lad though, didn’t want to be part of the gang and while he is trying to keep his little brother away from it, he himself was stabbed by the gang and saved by Leo. Instead of keeping away from them, he joined back up to get revenge for the girl’s stabbing.

Later the lad was killed in revenge, by the rival gang. Quite shockingly too! Still the police and pathologists didn’t a clue. Nobody was willing to talk to them but those people expected the police to protect them. It was quite interesting to hear that, how can they protect you, if you don’t tell them anything?

Well that statement was put into context later, as the murdered lad’s younger brother, who had been a runner for the gang, was to tell Leo about the gang and their involvement in events. Leo promised that he wouldn’t let nobody harm him but when the police went blundering in and arrested the gang’s leader, the rest of the gang sought out the young boy and set a dog on him and made sure he was dead by knifing him. It was quite shocking just to hear what they did, I didn’t think they would kill the young lad off to be honest. Sad thing is though, that probably happens for real.

Even though they proved that the dog ravaged the boy and with no knife to prove it, it seems that the CPS doesn’t agree it was murder, so the gang leader is in the clear. That is until Leo, gutted from the young boy’s murder, tries on last thing. The murdered girl was pregnant, when she was raped as part of a ‘gang initiation’. It turns out that the gang leader was the unlucky man – as the girl was 13, so he is charged.

It’s a relief for Leo who had struck up a bond with some of the kids on the estate. Its bad news for Nikki though, as the paramedic turns out to be a racist, WHOOPS!

It’s a rather difficult subject for the writers to write about, what with the current state of social breakdown and gang culture in this country. They managed to pull it off though and write a good story. With it being on the BBC too, they could have gone all PC but despite threatening to, they just managed to stay on centre, just!

8/10

Next Time – Will Nikki be dating Nick Griffin?

Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 1 - The Second Coming

2008-10-02T09:52:00.000-07:00

Heroes is back! And things do move on rather quickly in this new ‘volume’ entitled ‘Villains’.

At the end of series 2, Nathan was shot by an unknown gunman, who wanted to stop him from telling the world that people with superpowers do exist. We learn that it was Peter, from the future, who shot him. Apparently the revelation would have caused war and the world would be in a state of ruin.

Meanwhile Hiro is getting his feet under the table in his Dad’s office. A video message from beyond the grave later and Hiro uncovers a DNA formula which will apparently throw the world into chaos. We learn later that Angela Petrelli was also part of this and she tells future Peter, in uncertain terms, to go back to the future. But where is present Peter, is he looked up with Mr Bennett?

Sylar finally gets the annoying cheerleader but unlike all the others, Claire doesn’t die and retains her power, despite Sylar taking it. Apparently she is ‘special’, well that’s one word that could be used to describe her, yes!

Mohinder continues to talk shite, before and after the show and Maya is somehow speaking like a native yank. Molly has been packed off to an unknown destination, to ‘keep her safe’. Looks like the writers strike took its toll on the actress who plays young Molly, she’ll be about 21 now! Thanks to Maya, Mohinder discovers a drug that can give people superpowers and despite the protests of Maya, Mohinder goes down to the docks and injects himself like a smackhead. The daft man has only given himself ‘super strength’ – I can see this ending in tears!

We are also introduced to a new hero, a woman who can ‘run really fast’. Not sure if she’s taking any kind of banned substance, but hopefully she’ll be at the 2012 Olympics! This new hero steals the formula from Hiro, who teleports into the future to see if anything’s changed. It has – the world is crumbling and Hiro sees himself ‘killed’ by his good friend Ando, who hits him with some kind of power, he has acquired and steals the formula from him. Hmmm, sounds interesting!

Back at the hospital, Nathan goes 'all David Icke' and believes that it was god who saved him. It wasn’t, it was a bearded English bloke who was in ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Yes, Linderman is back from the dead. How and why I don’t have a Scooby but I’m sure we’ll find out in the coming weeks. We also learn that Nikki is still alive - she is being a ‘Monica Lewinsky’ to a governor who takes a shine to Nathan’s ramblings about god on telly.

Poor Matt finds himself stuck in a desert after a confrontation with future Peter, the poor bastard can’t survive 10 minutes without something to eat. I hope he finds a Little Chef somewhere!

It was an episode that moved pretty quick and some of the plot from series 1 looks a little pointless now, after Peter and the others tried to prevent Sylar from taking Claire’s power. Leaving her home alone wasn’t the best idea was it? The episode doesn’t suffer too much from it though but it could have been a little more polished. I expect it to improve as the series goes on. Everything else, as always, was bang on but I didn’t feel as if it was the best idea for an opening episode – it moved too fast!

7/10

Next Time – Hiro accidentally teleports himself inside Matt’s stomach, which at this point, is about as barren as Angela Petrelli’s knickers!

The Sarah Jane Adventures Series 2 Episodes 1 & 2 - The Last Sontaran

2008-10-01T11:51:00.000-07:00

Well what a start for series two of the Sarah Jane Adventures! Thankfully no Slitheen this time, instead we have a Sontaran milling about in show woods. It’s like ‘Time Warrior’ all over again!

Sadly though, this episode she the departure of Maria Jackson, as Yasmin Paige (who plays her) was studying for her GCSE’s at the time. Don’t understand how this would be a problem – a young Cyber Colin used to get drunk off Morrison’s knock-off Scrumpy, at the shops, every night after each exam and I did okay!

After some ‘strange lights’ are shown in the sky, next to a radio tower, the team investigate. When they get there however, they find that the tower’s head man has disappeared in the woods and his daughter is left holding the fort.

As Luke and Clyde snoop around near the woods, they stumble upon an invisible space ship, which turns out to be Commander Kaagh’s. The Sontaran wants revenge on planet earth after his fleet’s defeat during the events of the Doctor Who episodes The Sontaran Stratagem/The Poison Sky.

It’s a well written two-parter and the cliffhanger leaves those without the CBBC channel hanging! With everything set up, part two is the ‘run around and catch me’ episode, with Clyde and Kaagh exchanging some great banter. It is worth watching the episode just for that!

In fact I’ve been really impressed by young Clyde (Daniel Anthony), he’s the only one out of the teenagers that acts like a teenager and I think that’s great! It seems with Maria leaving, he will take a much bigger role this year, as his parents are due to be introduced.

Maria’s mum, Chrissie, stumbles upon the problems as she follows Alan into Sarah’s attic. She would be the one to save the day – hitting Kaagh with the heal of her shoe! Apparently that scene was originally written for the two Doctor Who episodes but Catherine Tate refused to wear anything but trainers!

So with Kaagh sent back to Sontar with his tail between his legs, Maria and father Alan leave for America. Hopefully she can return to the series one day, as her performances during series one really helped those episodes to be watchable!

8/10

Next Time – In ‘Day of the Clown’, we are introduced to Maria’s replacement – Rani. No not THE Rani, at least I hope not!

Big Finish Doctor Who 113 - Time Reef

2008-09-30T04:22:00.000-07:00

A curse on this damned reef - and curse the Doctor who brought us here!

Drawn by the siren call of a distress beacon, the TARDIS crash-lands on an uncharted time reef. However, the Doctor, Nyssa and Brewster are not the only mariners marooned on this barren rock. Commander Gammades and his crew of returning war heroes have been similarly shipwrecked, as has the beautiful but mysterious Lady Vuyoki.

But there's something else here, too. A thing of darkness which crawls blindly across the surface of the reef hunting for prey: the Ruhk.

Big Finish just keep pulling rabbits out of hats with their audios! We’ve been treated to some great stories in the last couple of months and ‘Time Reef’ is no different.

Following on from the events of ‘The Boy That Time Forgot’, we are in the TARDIS as The Doctor and Nyssa try to find items that have mysteriously disappeared, and they believe that Brewster is behind it.

They learn that the dimensions of the TARDIS are closing in and with time running out, before it's destroyed, they land at the last journey the TARDIS made – a reef, in space, which is stuck in a ‘time bubble’! They are not the only ones stuck there, the rock is populated by the ship’s crew who are on constant guard against killer birds called ‘The Ruck’. And there’s even a sinister lady nearby, who seems to have wrapped the ship’s captain around her little finger.

It’s quite a bizarre concept but it makes sense when you listen to it! It’s brilliantly written by Marc Platt, even with a lot of Ancient Greece references (for more info on that – listen to the extras!)

Our usual team are joined by Nicholas Farrell, Sean ‘Harry Potter’ Biggerstaff, Beth Chalmers and Sean Connolly. As usual the supporting cast do a wonderful job!

The three-part ‘Time Reef’ is accompanied by the one-parter – ‘A Perfect World’. This is another truly wonderful story, which sees one of the TARDIS crew making a big decision as they have caused the whole earth to be perfect, which is a bad thing! It just puts the icing on the cake and it’s rather different from the one-parters that we are used to.

4.5/5

Next Time – Colin Baker and India Fisher are back in ‘Brotherhood of the Daleks’!

Big Finish Doctor Who - The Stageplays - The Ultimate Adventure

2008-09-29T17:34:00.001-07:00

Big Finish have decided to adapt three Doctor Who stage plays onto audio, the first of which is ‘The Ultimate Adventure’. They just manage to pull it off.

The play was originally performed by Jon Pertwee from March 1989, until he became ill. David ‘Cyber Leader’ Banks took over as The Doctor, for some of his performances. It wasn’t long though until Pertwee was replaced by Colin Baker, who was sacked from his television role just three years previously. Colin reprises his role as the 6th Doctor for this audio version.

Early on it becomes obvious that this play wasn’t designed to be on audio. Everything seems a bit OTT but once everything settles down we are treated to a good story. We are introduced to the Doctor’s companion – Jason (played by former Hearsay ‘singer’ Noel Sullivan), a Frenchman saved from the guillotine by The Doctor. They materialise in London to meet Prime Minister Margret Thatcher, who wants them to protect a US envoy, who is a key man in peace talks being held in London. When they turn up, at the nightclub, the Cybermen are coming from the shadows and abduct the envoy but they are not working alone in their attempts to plunge earth into war….

The audio really gets going from part two onwards, once we are introduced to nightclub singer, Crystal (Claire Huckle), the play really goes up a notch. While it doesn’t hit the heights of Big Finish’s monthly releases, the play is adapted very well and does what its designed do - a bit of harmless fun!

The supporting cast are good and it’s great to hear David Banks back on Doctor Who. He isn’t playing the Cyber-Leader though, so there’s no chance of an “Excellent” catchphrase! Booooo!

We are also treated to the songs from the original play. Whilst there isn’t many, “Business is Business” is the standout song and the title is used as a catchphrase throughout the play. We could have done with a few more songs though!

3/5

Next Month – Trevor Martin plays The Doctor in ‘Seven Keys To Doomsday’

Torchwood - Lost Souls

2008-09-27T18:02:00.000-07:00

Torchwood made its radio debut in ‘Lost Souls’, which centred itself around ‘Big Bang Day’ celebrating the launch of the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Jack, Gwen and Ianto are contacted by Martha Jones and fly out to Switzerland to investigate a number of mysterious disappearances around the CERN base, which UNIT are guarding.

John Barrowman, Eve Myles, Gareth David-Lloyd and Freema Agyeman all reprise their roles, along with guest stars Lucy Montgomery and Stephen Critchlow As a fan of BBC Radio 4 comedies, I was expecting some funny stuff from Lucy Montgomery, so I was surprised to hear her ‘playing it straight’ for once!

The audio could have easily made the transition to the television series and I think that’s my main gripe with it. I think audios should be different, the Big Finish Doctor Who plays are so far removed from the television series, which allows us more things to think about and visualise something different, which is the main appeal of audio stories. I just felt this episode tugged along like a normal Torchwood ‘filler’ episode and didn’t really achieve anything.

I also felt that the characters where introduced far too early, it was a case of, ‘let’s get the who’s who out of way quickly’. The constant referrals to the deaths of Tosh and Owen also got a little bit tedious, I think they are better dealt with in the TV version. I felt it lacked that little of bit extra substance that most audios, especially the Big Finish ones, have.

There are some good moments though. John Barrowman, in particular, is his usual cheeky self and it was nice to see Gareth David-Lloyd given a much larger role than his television incarnation. Although I still think that they’ve killed off the wrong male Torchwood member! It’s well worth a listen, just to experience Torchwood in another medium, if you’re a big fan, you’ll lap it up!

2.5/5

Originally broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the 10th September, ‘Lost Souls’ is available now on CD or download from BBC Audiobooks. Apart from the story, the CD also contains interviews with the cast.

http://www.bbcshop.com/Science-Fiction/Torchwood-Lost-Souls/invt/9781405689441

Ashes To Ashes - Episode 8

2008-09-25T03:13:00.000-07:00

“I’m happy, hope you’re happy too”. Er, not really – series 1 of Ashes to Ashes is at an end! Never fear though – it is back next year! This series has improved with every episode and anyone still comparing it with Life on Mars, should be slapped around by Gene Hunt!

It’s a different show, with a different set up. I doubt that the solution to Alex’s predicament (if there is one!) will be same as Sam Tyler’s in Life on Mars and I feel Ashes to Ashes has more mileage in it, as the program isn’t just concentrated on one character.

In this episode, we finally find out the truth about how Alex’s parents died. Meanwhile the station is under inspection from Lord Scarman (an actual real-life person, played by Geoffrey Palmer), who has powers to close the station down. So Gene is obviously on tenderhooks and is determined that nothing and no-one will let the station down.

With the day of her parents death looming, Alex fakes a phone call from an informant and her and Ray investigate the ‘bomb threat’. They stake out a gay pride march and Alex destroys a car, which she believes the Price’s will die in, with a pink tank! Or something that was done up like a tank anyway! As they make their getaway, poor Ray breaks his nose - thanks to Alex’s driving!

The cells, back at the station, aren’t populated enough, so Chris is thrown in for ‘indecently exposing himself on a bus’! He would be joined later by some of the gay pride marchers and after a ‘YMCA’ later - you can imagine what happened next!

Alex continues her campaign and after going to prison to see Layton, who shot her in 2008 and knows about the bombing, she gets nowhere. Later she planted drugs on the Price’s in order to prevent them from getting in the car the next day. Meanwhile Lord Scarman, who knows the Price’s and is furious that they’ve been nicked, asks to sample ‘life in the cells’ – alongside poor Chris!

Alex’s efforts prove to be pointless, after another emotional chat with her mother (not again!), the Price’s are released and they borrow Evan’s car for their trip. Alex receives a phone call from Layton, who has just been released and her and Gene desperately try to reach the Price’s. We then see the events from Alex’s flashbacks, young Alex loses her balloon and gets out of the car just as her Dad, or as we learn, The Clown of Death, is behind it all and the car blows up.

Apparently, he found out about his wife’s affair with Evan and went mad. He wanted his family ‘to be together forever’ and got explosives expert, Layton, out of jail to help him. It was Evan who Layton was blackmailing in 2008, as Alex didn’t know the truth behind her parents death. And it was Gene who took Alex’s hand and took her away after the car blew up – not Evan. Does this mean Gene is real? Who knows!

A marvellous end to the series, which improved episode by episode. Even though I love Life on Mars, I honestly think Ashes to Ashes is more consistent and the storyline will become more interesting next year, hopefully! While Life on Mars was a brand-new concept, the writers have had time to plan Ashes to Ashes and improve upon the world in which its set. The moments of horror in this series have been done brilliantly and the humour has counterbalanced that well. The moment in which Tim Price was revealed to be ‘The Clown’ was totally unexpected and quite scary!

9.5/10

Here’s looking forward to next year, where hopefully we will learn more about Alex and Shaz will be given a bigger role!

Ashes To Ashes - Episode 7

2008-09-24T13:44:00.000-07:00

Alex shows her true colours this week and stabs Gene in the back after he does what he does best – beating people up! With Caroline Price and Evan waiting in the wings, Alex isn’t short of company.

Alex’s visions of the ‘Clown of Death’ continue and he tells her that someone will die and images of her colleagues are shown dead. She quickly realises she must do anything to prevent this.

After charity fundraiser, Gil Hollis (Matthew McFadyen, Keeley Hawes real-life husband) is shot and robbed of his charity money, an appeal is launched on television program, ‘Police 5’. Fat versions of Gene and Ray appear, whilst someone who looks nothing like Chris is left pounding behind them! It’s all quite funny, except for ‘real life’ Gene, Ray and Chris! Gene even appears on Police 5 with an appeal – “Don’t have nightmares, no, do have nightmares these are scum and they’re still at large and we need to nail these bastards!”

Meanwhile Gil is found out to have an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, so he seems to be very strange, doing a number or odd things and Gene loses his patience. He pays a visit to some ‘Ska Boys’, who hang around near the crime scene. But when the lads seem reluctant to give information, the real Gene Hunt is back as a mass brawl breaks out - fantastic! Gene carries on the violence back at the station, much to Alex’s horror. Gene gets his information but Alex reports him and ‘The Manc Lion’ is took off the case and put on ‘leave’. The Price’s take over Hollis’s case.

With Alex being shunned by everyone, Gene tips off the team about an item which Hollis put back on his car window, after he had been shot. They head down to the area and find the gun in a portaloo, with Chris doing the honours! Meanwhile Gene is eating a ‘Steak and Chips Pizza’ in Luigi’s, when the team burst in and tell him of the news.

But then Luigi’s becomes under siege, as Hollis has turned up, shooting at the restaurant. After Alex tries to calm him down, he runs off but Shaz follows him. After he is caught, he accidently stabs her and despite Alex’s best efforts. It seems the pretty WPC is dead. Chris, her boyfriend, is upset and Gene allows him and Ray to give Hollis a kicking, much to the horror of Sgt. Vic. Meanwhile Alex is determined not to let the ‘Clown of Death’ win and revives poor Shaz.

It was a breathtaking episode from start to finish. What I like about Ashes to Ashes, is its ability to go from a comic moment to an almost horror like, upsetting moment in seconds. Whilst the fat Ray, with jewellery and Gene’s television appearance was hilarious, the stabbing of Shaz almost brought a tear to the eye. I say almost, I’ll leave all that crying to nancy boys and the girls!

Credit to Matthew McFadyen for such a convincing role as the OCD-affected Hollis. I thought he was superb, considering the role he had to play and the fact that he had to act opposite his wife! But it all won’t be possible without the writing. Which is makes me wonder – Did Matthew Graham really write the Doctor Who episode, Fear Her?!

9/10

Next Week – We are coming to end of Ashes to Ashes but with so many questions to be answered, will everyone make it out alive?

Ashes To Ashes - Episode 6

2008-09-23T07:09:00.000-07:00

Phil Davis guest stars in this week’s Ashes to Ashes as aging bank robber Chas Cale, who met Gene Hunt 10 years previously, in Manchester. He got away then and now he has retried to run a restaurant in London with his wife. Gene doesn’t believe him, as he is investigating a local post office, which was robbed with all the hallmarks of a Chas Cale job.

Meanwhile Alex is feeling unwell. Her visions of ‘The Clown of Death’ don’t help much and she believes she is going to die. So her goodbye to Caroline Price seemed very uncomfortable, well to me anyway!

It turns out that Cale is too ill to do any kind of robbery, so the team are back at square one as Gene and Alex continue their slanging matches. Alex even steals Gene’s car to steal Cale’s rubbish bags for evidence! In fact Gene’s feeling ‘past it’ and goes to Luigi’s for a ‘quiet drink’, well nothing’s ever quiet in Luigi’s! The owner constantly badgers Gene to go upstairs and see Alex because ‘it’s not right that there’re both alone’. Gene eventually does and as they are having a few drinks, Chris and Ray, who are ‘undercover’ in a pub, contact Gene to tell him they may have nicked one of the bikers who robbed the post office.

We learn that the biker is looking after his nephew and when his alibi checks out, the team are nowhere again. That is until the biker turns up dead and the murder is witnessed by the young lad.

We find out that it was indeed Chas Cale who did the robbery along with the murdered man but it was his wife that was pulling the strings and she hired an hit man. Still, it looks bleak for Alex, as she is taken, tied up and shoved in a freezer, for the hit man to come and collect. But it’s Gene who comes to the rescue and after the most epic scene of ‘shooting a glass door’ I have ever seen, he gets Alex out of freezer and revives her!

It was another very good episode but I always feel uncomfortable watching the scenes between Alex and her mother. I don’t know if they are designed to be like that and it’s no criticism of the actors but I just squirm when Alex cries in front of her! It also seems the Gene-Alex love thing is on, after Gene drew a naughty picture of him, ahem, ‘doing’ Alex! She didn’t see it but Ray, Chris and Shaz did! Whoops!

8/10

Next Week – Gene finally does us a favour and kicks smarmy Evan’s head in!

Ashes To Ashes - Episode 5

2008-09-22T05:40:00.000-07:00

Love, guns and murder are on the menu in this week's Ashes to Ashes and Ray finds a new talent – chatting up men! Local bastard, Simon Neary, is wanted for a number of crimes, including drug dealing and pimping. But this isn’t any run-of-the-mill gangster – he happens to like the male form, much to the boys disgust!

Alex tries to befriend Simon’s ‘boyfriend’, Marcus (Russell Tovey, aka Alonso Frame in Doctor Who – Voyage of the Damned) to get information on him. Meanwhile Gene ruffs up one of his snouts, who works for Neary and who has been passing on information about a deal involving guns. It isn’t long until he turns up dead and Gene gets angry and threatens Neary.

Alex believes that if she can stop the guns from getting in, then there would be no ‘gang warfare’ in the future, thus stopping her from getting shot in 2008. Personally I thought this was a little silly of her, she wouldn’t be able to stop all the guns from getting in!

As Alex and Gene bicker, they go ‘undercover’ at a gay club with Alex accompanying Marcus. Neary doesn’t give too much away, apart from the impression he isn’t very nice and gets jealous quite easily! So it’s up to Ray, in the most hilarious scene yet, who chats up Neary! Again, the team hardly get anywhere as the gangster says something that Raymondo doesn’t like and he causes a scene and thumps a few clubbers!

It isn’t long until Alex persuades Marcus what kind of man his boyfriend is and after seeing him with Ray, he agrees to go undercover and ‘trap’ him. A ride to a disused warehouse later, where Neary has already shot the gun dealer and as he and Marcus have sex (which Gene and Alex are listening to on the radio via Marcus’s wire), he blurts out that he killed the snout. Things get more frantic and there’s a gunshot but it’s Neary who’s left in a critical condition.

Alex takes Marcus home to parents he hasn’t seen for 10 years. Presumably, the police haven’t reported that it was Marcus who shot Neary! It’s a rather touching moment, as it seems Marcus as the onset of an STD, which were rife during the 1980’s.

The episode runs at a decent pace with the usual funny moments in it! It does leave you wanting more but I would say that this episode is one of the more straight forward ones in the series, which means there is a lot more to come!

8.5/10

Next Week: Gene finally leaves the wine bar and goes drinking in a proper pub!

Ashes To Ashes - Episode 4

2008-09-21T06:14:00.000-07:00

It’s all spooky-spooky doo this week in Ashes to Ashes! There’s no sign of ghosts but spies a plenty, as the team get involved in a goverment cover up, after a man was murdered.

The episode also delves more into the Price’s and we learn that the murdered man, Martin Kennedy, was blackmailing Caroline Price after Alex’s mother was involved in an affair with dodgy Evan - and Kennedy had the photos to prove it.

But as the team pull in a group of socialists, that Kennedy had recently joined, they get nowhere. It’s only when they crack a code, hidden in Kennedy’s diary, that they get somewhere. They try and retrieve a file, which may prove the socialist group’s suspicions correct, that the government are testing nuclear weapons at Kennedy’s workplace, a government facility, and murdered Kennedy because he had plans to steal it.

Gene and Alex end up locked in an air=tight vault and things look very intimate, or is it just the heat inside the vault? Chris and Ray, fresh from ‘persuading’ the socialist leader to tell them what really happened in her dealings with Kennedy, come to the rescue.

It’s Ray and Chris that steal the show, again! Their brilliant ‘good cop, bad cop’ routine was really funny as was their attempt at ‘spying’ on Gene. Another priceless few moments was Chris taking on board advice from a feminist and Ray’s reaction to the Caroline Price photos! This is precisely what makes Ashes to Ashes as strong as it is. The quality of the writing and the supporting cast is just superb, some shows just concentrate on the main characters and that is why most end up short of quality.

8/10

Next Week: The boys end up in a gay club. Aren’t all clubs in London like that anyway?

Ashes To Ashes - Episode 3

2008-09-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

Ashes To Ashes just keeps on improving! The show has now surely got its own identity and is moving forward in the right direction, after Life on Mars.

This week, after busting a drugs ring (who stored cocaine in garden gnomes!), Gene and Alex come to blows after he doesn’t believe that ‘a lady of the night’ was raped. I say come to blows, Alex did give him a decent jab on the jaw! But for me, it’s Ray that steals the show. In Life On Mars, he was portrayed as a kind of ‘bad guy’ figure, who really disliked Sam Tyler. I didn’t like the character much but so far in Ashes To Ashes, he’s been great! He’s always got the funny quip and his on-screen ‘partnership’ with Chris is brilliant! In this episode, he shows his softer side when he befriends a rape victim, who is reluctant to tell the police what happened.

Alex gets to meet the younger version of Evan White, who is her Godfather and the person who she left her daughter, Molly, with in 2008. Personally, I think there’s something sneaky about him! Alex also gets to (drunkenly) drop her knickers again after Gene turns her down and she gets with some wine-drinking ponce!

Meanwhile, Gene believes the ‘rape’ is connected to that of a murder, which took place a while previously. After the description given to them by the ‘victim’ they stake out a party, which takes place on a boat. The team get to enjoy themselves, as the party is fancy dress! One of the staff is arrested but lack of evidence and Evan White, scupper them but it’s not long until the culprit takes another prostitute hostage and is caught. We also find out that the ‘victim’ was helping the girl who Ray befriended, as she was too scared to come forward.

Unfortunately, after the hostage makes herself disappear, it seems unlikely that a court will believe the testimony of Ray’s new friend. But he was soon nicked for storing the drugs from earlier, thanks to Ray-mondo!

It was another very good episode, we are starting to learn more about Alex and credit to the writers for resisting the temptation to make her some kind of ‘likeable hero’, just for the sake of it. It gives her a lot more depth if she has a lot of problems to work through and would be just be very boring if she was always right! The same goes with Gene, I suppose!

8.5/10

Next Week: Ray gets to use his ‘James Bond costume’ again, as he goes undercover – as a waiter!

Big Finish Doctor Who 112 - Kingdom of Silver

2008-09-18T12:07:00.000-07:00

The Doctor arrives on Tasak in search of refreshment, armed with nothing more than a kettle. But this is a time of crisis for a civilisation about to enter an industrial age.

Mindful that a devastating war is only recently over, the wise and revered Magus Riga will do almost anything to save his people from the follies of the past. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions. And the planet Tasak is host to ancient powers buried deep and long forgotten. Can visitors from another world avert disaster or will their intervention drag this innocent world into the Orion War?

After the last solo 7th Doctor story, I was a little bit worried. ‘The Death Collectors’ was a little bit disappointing but I should not have feared, as this month’s release, ‘Kingdom of Silver’ was superb!

I think it’s fair to say that ‘The Death Collectors’ downfall was the fact that it had a small cast. ‘Kingdom of Sliver’ has many more characters that accompany The Doctor and that allows for much more character development, which helps the story to ‘tick along nicely’ and not drag on, as parts of ‘The Death Collectors’, unfortunately, did.

I think it’s great that Big Finish continue to explore The Doctor’s life, just before the TV Movie, where he is travelling alone. It adds a whole new aspect to Sylvester McCoy’s Doctor and helps the character to move on from the ‘dark Doctor’ of 1989 and change into the lonely figure we saw in 1996. This and ‘Frozen Time’ do that well, whilst ‘The Death Collectors’ is interesting enough, it would probably work better with a companion or two!

The Doctor finds himself with company in the TARDIS, as Temeter (Neil Roberts) tracks a signal coming from the blue box. The Doctor is on the lookout for another signal, which he views as suspicious. He and Temeter work together to trace it but Temeter isn’t telling The Doctor what he’s really up to.

Meanwhile, the leader of the planet, Magus Riga (Terry Molloy) is preparing to throw a party for all the distinguished scientists on the planet and he even has a new statue to unveil - an artefact found at the planet’s ancient ruins – a silver statue…

The audio is beautifully paced and really grabs you, it just lacks that element of surprise as, thanks to the cover, you already know who the villains are and the plot is quite easy to figure out! It’s still an enjoyable listen and works well as a solo 7th Doctor story. It was also nice to hear Terry Molloy lending his voice to someone other than Davros!

The one-parter, included with this release, is ‘Keepsake’. It’s another compact but excellent little tale that contains some of the characters from ‘Kingdom of Sliver’. It’s a great listen and supplements the three-parter very well.

4.5/5

Next Time: Thomas Brewster joins The Doctor and Nyssa full-time as they hit a ‘Time Reef’!

Primeval Series 2 Episode 7

2008-09-17T05:51:00.000-07:00

The team find themselves in a dire situation in the last episode of Primeval – they are right in the middle of a bunker full to the brim with pre-historic creatures! Things don’t improve later, as Leek goes increasingly insane and Helen becomes even more nastier!

After Leek lets a ‘giant scorpion’ lose on a beach, he contacts Lester and taunts him, saying that he has more creatures, stationed at more locations and will release them if he doesn’t call off the search for Cutter and his team. Lester immediately brings in the sacked Stephen, who heads down to the beach to deal with it.

Meanwhile Cutter is filled in on the ‘plan’, as Leek tells him he wants to control the world by using the anomalies to change things and use the creatures to kill anyone he dislikes. He shows the professor how he controls the animals – with a computer chip stored in their brain area. Helen, just apparently, wants to continue her research into the anomalies, but does she really?

Things then kick off, as Leek sets a sabre-tooth tiger loose and Cutter destroys Leek’s computer, meaning that Connor’s virus (which he planted in episode 6) had rendered the computer from ever working again. All the cages are opened and things get messy! And as Leek is eaten by the ‘Future Predators’ the team escape or so they think. In desperation, Helen calls Stephen and he comes to the rescue. But as the door to the creatures can only be locked from the inside, it is Stephen who scarifies himself and saves everyone. Cutter is obviously gutted, as Helen makes good her escape.

It’s all very tense and the acting just about keeps it together, Karl Theobald who plays Leek is just superb and really steals the show. It was also sad to see the demise of Stephen, as he was made out to be the ‘bad guy’ of the team, when we knew he wasn’t! And Caroline got her comeuppance when Connor told her where to go! Methinks a Connor-Abby relationship is on the cards!

Plenty of action and as the plot really thickens, there are still questions to be answered. What has really happened to Claudia Brown? What exactly is Helen up to? Judging by the end, which took place at Stephen’s grave, with Helen whispering ‘things can change’, there is indeed plenty more to come. The same can be said for the return of ‘The Cleaner’ and his many ‘clones’, who accompanied Helen to Stephen’s grave!

9/10

Here’s looking forward to the 10-part series 3 in early 2009!

Torchwood Series 2 Episode 13 - Exit Wounds

2008-09-16T01:19:00.000-07:00

It was a decent enough ending to the series but, as always, it didn’t stop me having a few gripes with the story! This final episode sees the long-awaited introduction of Jack brother, Gray.

It seems however that Gray hasn’t forgiven his brother for losing his grip, during the flashbacks in ‘Adam’. In these, Jack and Gray’s home world was under attack from an ‘unknown alien race’ and as they where running away, Jack lost Gray’s grip and apparently, Gray spent most of his life imprisoned. Now, Gray has set a number of ‘traps’ around Cardiff to keep the team busy, whilst Captain John lures Jack back to the hub, where he and Gray take him prisoner. And speaking of even more prisoners, we learn that it is John, not Gray who is forced to work with the other.

Jack wakes up to find himself in Cardiff – in the year AD 27. Gray buries him as a ‘foundation stone’ and claims that Jack’s immortally is a ‘curse’ and that Jack will spend ‘every death thinking about what he has done’.

John suddenly has a change of heart, when he returns to the present and once he is free, he works with the Torchwood team, in order to bring down Gray’s reign of terror. Jack meanwhile is dug up by the Torchwood team of 1900 and asks them to freeze him because there are two of him, shagging around, in that time period.

Back to the future where Gray sets up a nuclear reactor to blow up and as Tosh tries to stop him – he shoots her. When Owen gets to the plant, he learns that he can stop the meltdown but at his own risk. Tosh, despite bleeding to death, helps him from the hub and after a tearful goodbye, they both die. The reactor room blows up with Owen inside it and Tosh dies in the arms of Jack, who has returned from the freezer. It’s a beautiful scene that would have had some fans crying.

Jack has one last showdown with Gray and as Gray refuses to forgive his brother, Jack drugs him and freezes him.

It’s a breathtaking episode that does have its questionable points. Tosh’s appearance in ‘Aliens of London’ was briefly explained, very poorly though. I also didn't understand Gray's motive, it seemed a little bit childish to me. If someone had made me lose my brother's grip and imprisoned me, I would want revenge on the ones who had chased me, not my brother. I thought that was the main reason that let the episode down.

8/10

Well it's goodbye Owen and Tosh, there is also no more Torchwood until 2009. Let’s hope the mini series, ‘Children of Earth’ will be the start of a new and improved era for Torchwood.

Torchwood Series 2 Episode 12 - Fragments

2008-09-15T09:40:00.000-07:00

Well that was an episode worth watching! After weeks of writing critical reviews, I can finally praise the efforts of Torchwood.

The story sees the team (minus Gwen, who is being lazy and is in bed, still stuck to Rhys) being led into a building, which blows up and they get trapped under the rubble. We then get to see ‘flashbacks’ of how each of them joined Torchwood.

With Jack trying to position himself near ‘The Rift’, in order to meet The Doctor again, he gets stuck in the Victorian era and is reluctantly recruited by two very foxy ladies, who work for ‘Torchwood’. They notice his immortality and his constant mumblings of ‘The Doctor’ and task him with finding him. Jack initially refuses, as Torchwood are after The Doctor but after a chance meeting with the fortune teller, known as the ‘scary little girl’ (from ‘Dead Man Walking’), he is told that he will meet The Doctor in 100 years. Jack goes back to Torchwood and reluctantly takes the job. Let the shagging begin! Things take a wrong turn for Jack however, when in 1999 a member of his team goes bananas and shoots all the team and himself dead, in the belief that the 21st Century will be ‘the end of everything’. So Jack must now recruit a new team….

Tosh is next and after she is blackmailed into getting some plans for a sonic device, she is nicked by UNIT and placed into somewhere that all prisons should be like. Jack comes to the rescue by employing her on the basis of her ‘quick learner’ ability and the fact she can delete all cookies from a computer!

Ianto’s story is crap. After the events of the Doctor Who episode ‘Doomsday’, he is out of work and heads to Cardiff and stalks Jack until he gives him a job. But it’s Owen’s story that is truly great and heartbreaking at the same time. He is engaged to Katie, who is believed to be suffering from Alzheimer's Disease. Owen pleads with his hospital colleagues to scan her brain, again and they find what seems to be a tumour. It isn’t – it’s an alien parasite that kills her and all the surgeons in the operating theatre. And as Jack gets involved, Owen tries but fails to get any information out of him and Jack covers it all up. Until Katie’s funeral that is, when Jack tells all and offers Owen a job. It’s brilliantly acted and gives us some insight into why Owen’s charter is such a ‘bastard’!

Meanwhile Gwen and Rhys arrive at the building and free the team. But someone is waiting for them, it’s a Captain John hologram and it seems he’s got Jack’s brother Gray. John threatens to ‘tear Jack’s world apart’. Should be fun next week, eh?

An excellent episode, let down only by Ianto’s story. Beautifully acted, written and we even got to some girl-on-girl, which evens up for all the Jack/Ianto ‘moments’!

9/10

Next Time: Lots of things get blown up – Jack’s jealous!

Torchwood Series 2 Episode 11 - Adrift

2008-09-14T06:46:00.000-07:00

When I didn’t think it could get any worse, Torchwood proves me wrong yet again! After a cameo by ‘Papa Lazarou’ last week, this week we have ‘Sloth’ from The Goonies!

I suppose ‘Adrift’ is supposed to tug on your heartstrings – it tug my patience! So when a young lad, Jonah, disappears as a result of ‘rift activity’. Seven months later, he is back but he’s has severely aged, his looks have gone the way of John Merrick and he is locked in a ‘hospital’ ran by some strange nurses and Jack is reluctant to tell Gwen about it.

In fact plenty of people have gone the same way and everyone but Gwen seems to know. As an ex-police officer – she has to investigate. Enter the excellent Tom Price as ‘PC Andy’, a character that should be in Torchwood a lot more!

So with Gwen doing the woman’s thing, setting up support groups for parents who have had children go missing, Jack is burrowing himself into Ianto. Ruth Jones guest stars as Jonah’s mum and her performance is, at times, a bit OTT. Stick to comedy, love!

The plot is so ridiculous, I can’t be arsed going into it. Needless to say a possible reference to The Doctor is made, as Jonah was rescued from a ‘burning planet and taken into a rescue craft’. The rest is about how Mum wants to keep Sloth but he’s a bit ‘round the twist’ so he has to stay in the hospital. Marvellous eh?

2/10

Next Week: We are coming to the end, so will the last two episodes be the saving grace of the series? I hope so but the way things have been going - I very much doubt it!

Torchwood Series 2 Episode 10 - From Out Of The Rain

2008-09-13T09:11:00.000-07:00

You know what? I’m getting sick of writing negative reviews for Torchwood. My range of insults need a rest sometime but they are unlikely to if they keep producing stories like ‘From Out Of The Rain’.

It’s a bit of ‘Last Action Hero’ and ‘The League of Gentlemen’ but set in Wales – and you thought Royston Vasey was weird! On paper, it’s a great idea but sadly it doesn’t come off.

They try to do ‘Gothic Horror’ but it comes out all American-ized and dull - much like Buffy. Next we’ll be having singing vampires, with rubbish southern accents, who fall in love with school girls! Torchwood doesn’t need to rip off other shows it should attempt to forge its own style. This series as been almost a ‘who’s of who’ of programmes that have been ripped off, or ‘influenced by’ as the writers put it!

After some old film cans are found at a cinema, the characters, namely a ‘ghostmaker’ and his assistant come to life and ‘half-kill’ people by taking their ‘breath’. Of course when the ghostmaker, or 'Papa Lazarou' as I call him, tries to take Owen’s breath - he can’t. Yet Owen still goes around talking - I’m not going to let this go you know!

Of course Jack was involved with this Circus, somewhere down the line as ‘The Man Who Couldn’t Die. I’m sure one viewing of this episode would kill him off once and for all! The episode threatens to go into an ‘older kiddies’ type of mystery and the resolution of the plot is straight out of ‘Goosebumps’!

It’s camp, over the top and a huge let down. Thankfully it’s nearly the end of the series!

3/10

Next Week: More ‘fun’ as Gwen finds herself playing ‘Strip Twister’ with the pizza boy from the first episode of series 1. Spotty freak!

Bernice Summerfield 9.2 - The Adolescence Of Time

2008-09-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

After a long delay in post-production from Big Finish, we finally get the chance to listen to ‘The Adolescence of Time’.

It’s a story with a twist as Benny hardly features so her son Peter takes the starring role. Thomas Grant is great as the young Kiloran but it was perhaps too early for him to have a solo role. Going back to the ‘End of the World’ where Jason Kane had a solo story, we were used to his character as he had been a regular seen the first series. This worked well and that is one of my favourite Benny audios, in fact that series as a whole, worked really well. In this story, I just felt we didn’t really have much to ‘hang on to’ in respect of Peter.

There are some nice touches though and everything seems neat and tidy. Peter finds a time ring and is transported to a world where prehistoric animals still roam and someone wants to capture Peter for ‘The Worm’ but he’s far too busy trying to rescue colonies of Pterodactylsl-type creatures, which are based on standalone rocks – in the sky! It’s a stunning thought and I thought Lisa Bowerman’s direction worked well.

I did feel however that the story lacked the ‘feel’ we’ve become used to with Benny audios. Whilst this new music, production and everything else is good it’s something which is far withdrawn from early Benny audios, which really got me hooked on the sexy-27th Century archaeologist! It’s perhaps something we’ll have to get used to, as this era of Benny audios continues and Peter’s character continues to develop.

2.5/5

Next Time: Benny is back on Earth – in Victorian times – in 'The Adventure of the Diogenes Damsel'

Torchwood Series 2 Episode 9 - Something Borrowed

2008-09-11T09:33:00.001-07:00

So Rhys will finally make a (dis) honest woman out of Gwen but will she ever get to the church? After a typically boozy night out in Cardiff, she wakes up in the morning and finds herself pregnant - eight months pregnant! Don’t worry though, she can explain it – it ‘came’ from an alien bite! Hmmm better tell people its Rhys’s, instead!

As they try to hide it (!) she insists she wants to go through with the wedding and we get to meet one of Rhys's mates – a bloke called ‘Banana Boat’. This weird bloke is soon put in his place by Tosh, so the story isn’t affected by smatterings of ‘brainless ponce’, throughout!

We learn that a shape-shifting alien, a Nostrovite, is after the ‘baby’ inside Gwen. I think this is possibly one of the best ideas, for a monster, that Torchwood has come up with. Simply because you don’t know who the alien is and it could change at any minute! Simple but that’s Torchwood!

The episode is more of a comic one and I think it benefits from that. Torchwood has been grim and sad – like Eastenders, so it’s nice to see them have some fun! We even get to meet the parents of Gwen and Rhys! Owen takes a backseat this week but whips out an improved version of his ‘invention’, the ‘singularity scalpel’, seen in ‘Reset’ but it’s Rhys who saves the day and everything, typically, turns out fine. There’s even time for one more laugh, as Jack retcon's all the wedding guests!

Credit to Kai Owen (Rhys) who was finally given a bigger role than being ‘the typical man’, his performance in this episode and ‘Meat’ have certainly shown that there is a point to his character!

8/10

Next Week: The circus comes to town! I wonder if Jack and Ianto will ride the haunted-alien-monster infected-Welsh, Love Boat?

Torchwood Series 2 Episode 8 - A Day In The Death

2008-09-09T06:39:00.001-07:00

Richard Briers guest stats in this weeks circus, the man who is known to Doctor Who fans for playing one of the shows most memorable roles in ‘Paradise Towers’. When I say memorable I’m referring to the ridiculous role he had to play in parts 3 & 4 as a ‘possessed corpse’, up until then he was good!

But back to Torchwood, where this week Owen is still dead. While he is sat on the top of building, talking to a suicidal women, we get to see the softer side of him. We learn in flashbacks, that Owen goes on an undercover mission to investigate a number of high energy readings, coming from the estate of Henry Parker (Briers).

It starts off particularly well but doesn’t really go anywhere. Owen is trying to persuade the girl (who we learn was in a car crash that killed her husband – just after their wedding) not to jump, whilst telling her he’s dead. I would have jumped, to be honest!

With Owen promoted from making crap coffee, he sneaks into the old man’s grounds, past the heat sensors (he’s dead, remember!) and as an altercation with a security guard – despite Martha telling him not to because he can’t heal. It’s all very Scooby Doo, as he opens the creaking door to the old man’s bedroom. We learn that Henry is a collector of alien artefacts but is seriously ill. He believes that an alien device – the pulse, is keeping him alive. It isn’t and as Owen explains this, the senile old git has a heart attack and dies. Owen tries in vain to save him but realises his CPR isn’t any help – he can’t breathe!

Which brings me to believe that the writers have seriously dropped a bollock - how can Owen talk? If he’s dead and can’t breathe, how can he have a voice? I would love them to try and explain this one!

It’s a better effort than last weeks, the moments on the roof with the girl were very touching but I felt this new ‘bond’ between Owen and Tosh is very forced and the episode as an whole was just too simple. Martha also bows out of Torchwood and returns to UNIT. But not before giving Jack a very awkward kiss (why?) and leaving us with this thought: Apart from ‘Reset’ what was the point in using her? She was hardly in this episode!

6/10

Next Week: Gwen is getting married but what will be her ‘Something Borrowed’? A new groom perhaps?

Torchwood Series 2 Episode 7 - Dead Man Walking

2008-09-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

After the highs of last week, we are once again brought back to earth with a big bump. After instigating the perfect exit for Owen, they had to spoil it by bringing him back to life.

But he isn’t alive, he’s dead but yet he’s walking about. Oooh this is confusing! Fair play to the director, Andy Goodard, for trying his best but he was let down by the pen of Matt Jones. It was a story that wasn’t needed and would have been better if they just cried over Owen for 45 minutes.

So with Owen dead, the team struggle to find out what’s going on. He can’t eat, drink or shag anything, not even Jack! It’s all very sad, the obligatory scary little girl pops up, Owen becomes the ‘King of the Weevils’ (which hasn’t got anything to do with his Weevil bite from series 1 – maybe!) then he fights the Grim Reaper. If this wasn’t shot in live action, I swear it’s a cartoon!

The acting, at times, is the programmes saving grace. Despite working with a ridiculous plot, Burn Gorman was terrific as the very unlikeable Owen and really deserves better than starring in this and a few episodes of Eastenders! Another aspect I do love about this story was the music, once again – take a bow Mr Murray Gold and his team!

It is really disappointing when they pull off a story like ‘Reset’ but follow it up with a very poor ‘sequel’. Don’t forget Martha was in this story too, although you wouldn’t have guessed. If there was an Olympic event for learning everything medical within a year, she would win platinum, never mind gold! Again, its one of many plot holes that I’m simply pissed off with and sick of ranting about it. She looks quite fit when she ‘aged’ though!

I’ve been asked ‘Why do I watch Torchwood, if I hate it?’ I don’t hate it, the writers are capable of pulling off some very good stories, and it’s a shame they have to fill the rest of the series with pointless, plot-dragging stories like this. Hope it gets better!

5/10

Next Week: Will Owen die? Will Jack have his wicked way with Martha? I don’t give a toss either way!

Free Audio Drama Download From BIG FINISH: UNIT - The Coup

2008-09-04T03:59:00.001-07:00

Big Finish are kindly giving away free downloads of the UNIT story - The Coup, originally given away with Doctor Who Magazine 351. Starring Nicholas Courtney as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.

CAST: Nicholas Courtney, Siri O'Neal, Scott Andrews, Matthew Brehner, Sara Carver, Michael Hobbs, Joseph Lidster, Mark Wright

SYNOPSIS: London, the near future; UNIT is finished. The UK division of the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce prepares to cede its authority to a new organisation... But who is attempting to sabotage the hand-over?

AUTHOR: Simon Guerrier
DIRECTOR: Ian Farrington
SOUND DESIGN: David Darlington
MUSIC: David Darlington
COVER ART: Adrian Salmon

Download here. Right-click and select 'Save Target As'

http://www.bigfinish.com/UNIT

Big Finish Doctor Who 111 - The Doomwood Curse

2008-08-30T03:33:00.000-07:00

Curses and tombs, revenge from beyond the grave - and Dick Turpin!

England, 1738. On the trail of a lost book, the Doctor and Charley arrive at the beautiful country estate of Sir Ralph and Lady Sybil. But all is far from idyllic. There’s a murderer on the loose, and the nearby woods are the haunt of the notorious highwayman Dick Turpin.

And that’s not all. Something else has journeyed here. Something that could destroy the very fabric of reality. The Doctor and Charley have just forty-eight hours to solve the mystery before the whole world succumbs to The Doomwood Curse.

Fact: This was a great return to form for Big Finish. Good Fact: It also saw the return of the 6th Doctor and Charley. Even Better Fact: We had a returning monster from the Bernice Summerfield audios!

‘The Doomwood Curse’ is a gripping listen from start to finish. Set in the 1700’s and containing England’s most legendary highwayman, Dick Turpin, it has all the ingredients to be an absolute cracker.

We finally get part two of the 6th Doctor and Charley combination and it’s clear from the start that this combination will work very well. It’s also great to see the return of the Grel (“Glory to the Grel! Glory to the Grel!”), who where heard in the Bernice Summerfield audios ‘Oh No It Isn’t’ and ‘The Grel Escape’. They are one of my favourite monsters, if only for the campness that they ooze! My only disappointment is that they didn’t do their ‘Glory to the Grel’ chant!

The story begins with the Doctor and Charley returning an overdue library book, at a rather sadistic library. The Grel just happen to be there – on the lookout for (what else!) facts! They end up in the 1700’s, a time of ladies, gentleman, curses and highwaymen. Charley seems to recognise the setting but can she work it out before it’s to late….

The story is superbly acted, especially by the two main leads. It’s a lovely bit of fun and by the time part 4 arrives, you’ll notice that all of the actors aren’t really acting anymore – they’re having too much fun!

It’s also nice to see another period setting for the 6th Doctor. I feel that a lot of the Big Finish stuff is too ‘space tech’ but thankfully the majority of the 6th Doctor stuff is set in places and times we know a bit about, so it adds more to your imagination whilst you listen to it!

It’s a masterstroke by Big Finish by placing Charley with the 6th Doctor, it does bring out his good nature, which is far removed from his television incarnation. Although I would like to see more of the ‘dark side’ of the 6th Doctor, if only to keep some continuity.

5/5

Next Time: The 7th Doctor goes solo once again as he reaches ‘The Kingdom of Sliver’!

The Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - Reviewed

2008-08-29T05:41:00.000-07:00

There’s been a lot of criticism directed at this film. Personally I didn’t see a problem with it. Okay Rachel Weisz wasn’t available to reprise her role as Evelyn but I thought Maria Bello did an admirable job in the role. Maybe turning young Alex into an adult (with an American accent?) perhaps was the only gripe I had with it!

The action takes place in China, with young Alex taking over as the adventurer, as his parents have retried from the business. But when a group of followers attempt to resurrect a murderous ancient emperor, the O’Connell’s are called up for one last adventure….

The film has been met with lukewarm appreciation from critics. You either like it or you don’t, a bit like Torchwood really! As a package, the film looks amazing and I think moving the story from Egypt to China has breathed more life into the franchise. Although I don’t think they should have moved the story on as much as they did, in terms of years. I would have liked to seen a film (or two?) set during the war, as the O’Connell’s, apparently, worked as spies. I thought that would have been a far more interesting addition to the story.

Jet Li heads the support cast as the Dragon Emperor, with John Hannah being priceless once again as Jonathan. Although I did feel that his accent was slipping far too much into his native Scots one!

Overall its harmless family fun. Some of the scenes are visually breathtaking, the battle scenes in particular. Although there are some parts that could have been done better, this film was no worse than the recent Indiana Jones film, that people love to compare it against! Also, I didn’t think releasing it in the midst of ‘The Dark Knight’ frenzy helped much!

8/10

The Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 2 Episode 8 - Vengeance Of Morbius

2008-08-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

Surely Nick Briggs, the ‘RTD of Big Finish’, could not keep up the amazing quality that the previous part of this ‘finale’ served up? Well unlike his television counterparts, he delivered an even better story and a gripping end to series two of the Eighth Doctor Adventures.

‘Vengeance of Morbius’ picks up immediately from where ‘Sisters of the Flame left’ off. Fans of the classic series will of course know who and what Morbius is. But for those who are new to the classic series and/or have never seen ‘The Brain of Morbius’, I would urge you to check it out, as the DVD has just been released. Of course the timing of this audio has got nothing to do with that, honest!

With the Doctor and Lucie facing the dilemma of being separated into particles – thanks to ‘The Sisterhood of Karn’, or ‘David Tennant’s fan club’ as I like to call them, things look bleak for the universe. Meanwhile Straxus and the winner of this months ‘underused character award’, Rosto, are trapped on the ship, as Morbius groupie and part-time richest man in the universe, Zarodnix, moves in….

I’ll go on record as saying this and its previous part, is among the best stuff Big Finish has done. Everything about this audio was just incredible. From the writing by the much-maligned Nick Briggs, the music, which was just superb and stitched each scene together perfectly, the acting, as always, was top notch. Morbius was superbly brought back to life by Samuel West and manic Zarodnix (Kenneth Colley) wasn’t too bad either!

But yet again, I find myself praising Sheridan Smith’s staggering portrayal of Lucie Miller. She just blew her other performances out of the water in this story! She just seems so at ease in the audio world and fits in with McGann’s Doctor perfectly. McGann himself has been constantly upstaged by Sheridan’s performances. Her strong willed, witty and compassionate character is already one of my favourite companions and judging by everybody else’s reactions, they more-or-less agree!

It was an interesting idea in bringing back Morbius and the Sisterhood. In fact the last two series of the 8th Doctor adventures have seen the revival of many of the classic monsters. Thankfully there have been no Daleks or Cybermen this year and I think the series has benefited from that. I just hope that they can introduce a few more original ideas to the mix for next year.

5/5

Next Time: It’s a long wait until next year! If only I had a TARDIS……

The Dark Knight Review

2008-08-14T11:31:00.000-07:00

Pre-Film Rant

So there I was, having a ‘quiet’ pint on a Saturday evening. Quiet is an understatement! The pub, where I was, used to be great for live music and loud chatter, sadly it’s on the decline now. Anyway, so there I was, blowing the cobwebs off a pint of mild when about 8 people walk in wearing make-up like a 14 year old girl and green hair, also like a 14 year old girl! Yes they where dressed up as ‘The Joker’ or ‘The Dark Knight’ to give him his proper name.

Oh wait a minute, The Joker isn’t the Dark Knight is he? It’s some bloke called ‘Batman’, who once appeared in a 1996 episode of Only Fools and Horses. Basically, this constant love feast for the film and its most well-known villain is getting on my tits! It’s nothing nasty, let me explain:

The value of things goes up when their creator or a major contributor dies. Sadly, Heath ‘The Joker’ Ledger died a few months before this film was released. And because of this, every single second or column inch of promotional material is gearing towards Heath and his untimely death. What with all the tie-in merchandise, including those T-Shirts’s that the previously mentioned pub-goers were wearing, if Warner Bros. don’t make twice as much profit, I will be astonished!

I’m just disappointed for the decent films that are out there that will be totally ignored, all because they have been released in the midst of this frenzy. A film franchise that has been ‘reset’ more times than a working girl’s bra. Will it be wrong of me to say that the hype this film has created has saved the franchise?

RIP Heath, I just hope you had an image rights clause in your contract…

The Film

I was ready to tougne-lash the film the same way I do my women but it was better than I thought it would be. Unlike the majority of the film-going public, I wasn’t caught up in all the hype that surrounded this film, so I’m able to give an honest review.

First of all I thought the film relied too much on its action sequences. We hardly had any backstory for the Joker, something which they could have done in the 2hrs 20mins the film had. I did enjoy Aaron Eckhart’s performance and I thought he stole the show. His portrayal of Harvey Dent far overshadowed those of Bale and Ledger, for me.

I thought Heath’s performance was good, not as great as people have been raving about but solid enough. The introduction of ‘Two Face’ was a surprise and I enjoyed that, as I did the death of Rachel. Not in a sadistic way, I just thought it wouldn’t happen! I wasn’t sure what Christian Bale was playing at with his ‘Batman voice’ but it was nice to see him taking his fighting skills home with him. Earn while you learn, that’s my motto!

I thought the film ended poorly, it seemed the plot just went around in circles and left it open for a possible sequel. Without Heath, obviously.

I’ve never really embraced Batman. I had one of toys when I was a kid but I never really liked the ‘hero billionaire’ background. Spiderman was a proper superhero and only a geeky kid. Says it all really.

But all-in-all, it’s a decent enough film. Not ‘the greatest ever’ as people would have you believe but definitely worth a watch.

Bring back Adam West, I say!

7.5/10