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!
Showing posts with label sc-fi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sc-fi. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Friday, 30 January 2009
Lost Series 4 Episode 10 - Something Nice Back Home
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!
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!
Monday, 26 January 2009
Lost Series 4 Episode 9 - The Shape of Things To Come
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!
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 :-(
Wednesday, 21 January 2009
Lost Series 4 Episode 8 - Meet Kevin Johnson
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’!
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’!
Monday, 19 January 2009
Lost Series 4 Episode 7 - Ji Yeon
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!
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!
Thursday, 15 January 2009
Lost Series 4 Episode 6 - The Other Woman
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?
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?
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
Lost Series 4 Episode 5 - The Constant
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!
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!
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
Lost Series 4 Episode 4 - Eggtown
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!
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!
Monday, 12 January 2009
Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 13 - Dual
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.
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.
Tuesday, 6 January 2009
Matt Smith - The 11th Doctor
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
Monday, 5 January 2009
Doctor Who - The Next Doctor
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!
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!
Monday, 29 December 2008
Big Finish Doctor Who - 2008 Subscribers Special - Return of The Krotons
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
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
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’
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’
Sunday, 28 December 2008
Survivors (2008) - Episode 6
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 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
Friday, 19 December 2008
Big Finish Doctor Who - The Stageplays - The Curse Of The Daleks
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!
Thursday, 18 December 2008
Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 12 - Our Father
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’?
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’?
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Survivors (2008) - Episode 5
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?
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?
Sunday, 14 December 2008
The Podcast With No Name (Subtitle: CyberColin Undressed) - Episode 5
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.
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!
Download Direct Here (Right-click and select 'Save Target As')
RSS Feed http://cybercolin.mypodcast.com/rss.xml
Check out Colin's report, below
Saturday, 13 December 2008
Heroes (Series 3) Volume 3 - Villains - Episode 11 - The Eclipse - Part 2
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.
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.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Survivors (2008) - Episode 4
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!
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!
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