Tag Archives: TV

TV Review: Doctor Who Regeneration 1 Series 003 – The Edge of Destruction 5/10

Doctor Who Regeneration 1 Series 3: The Edge of Destruction (aka Inside the Spaceship aka Beyond the Sun)

This two-episode serial is quite unusual.  It only features the 4 main principals, and is set entirely on the Tardis.  The story is that the crew awake disorientated, and slowly realise it’s a race against time to figure out what’s wrong before the Tardis is destroyed.

It’s an odd one, especially the first part of the first episode, where the cast act completely disorientated, repeat things like they can’t remember what they said, and so on.  As it goes on, they get more lucid, but various issues arising from earlier serials come to a head.  The doctor shows distrust of Ian and Barbara, thinking they are trying to sabotage the ship, but slowly realises he’s wrong, and how valuable his new crewmates are.  We also get a setup of the Tardis being more than a machine, having some sort of innate intelligence.

However, it’s very slow and rather tonally hysterical in places (in that the acting is overwrought and much too melodramatic).  Worth a look for Whovians though.

Rating: ODD, 5/10
Suitable for all ages

 

TV Review: Doctor Who Regeneration 1 Series 002 – The Daleks 7.5/10

Doctor Who Regeneration 1 Series 2: The Daleks (aka The Mutants aka The Dead Planet)

This seven-episode run was the introduction of the Doctor’s longest-standing and greatest enemies, the Daleks. Whilst it’s stagey and slow compared with modern drama, it still holds up.  Some bits are a little ridiculous (the pretty Thal race talking like blueblood luvvies, for example), but overall it’s easy to see why the Daleks had such an impact.  I think it’s a reasonably supposition that some of the longevity of Dr Who is down to the clear iconography and character of the Daleks.  Even small children can impersonate them, and they are clearly and purely evil and self-serving – about as villanous as it gets.

In addition, this story was remade into a motion picture in 1965 with Peter Cushing playing the Doctor (in this, billed as ‘Doctor Who’)

Recommended to anyone with any interest in TV history or sci-fi.

Rating: GOOD, 7.5/10
Suitable for all ages

TV Review: Doctor Who Regeneration 1 Series 001 – An Unearthly Child 6/10

Doctor Who Regeneration 01 Series 001: The Unearthly Child (aka 10,000BC aka The Tribe of Gum)

This is the very first episodes of Dr Who, broadcast in November 1963. It consists of 4 episodes of about 23 minutes each. 

The first episode is distinct in that it introduces us to Susan Foreman, a mid-teenager who is judged a little odd by two of her teachers.  She seems to know an awful lot about some things, things she really shouldn’t know, but then seems very ignorant of some everyday things any normal teenager would be well aware of.

The teachers go to her home, and find an old man who turns out to be her Grandfather, and they then stumble into the famous Tardis.  The first episode ends with the Tardis taking flight and them ending up in a barren rocky plain, with an ominous man’s shadow in shot.

The remaining 3 episodes concern a tribe of cavemen, with a struggle for power over who can make fire.  One caveman sees the Doctor light a match, and thinks he can make fire from his hands, and various to-ing and fro-ing ensues.

Like many episodes of the Hartnell era, it’s quite stagey, but it does move at a reasonable pace, and sets up the tension reasonably well.  There’s lots here that will jar a little with anyone who knows their Who, such as the way the Doctor talks about the Tardis, the things the doctor does when they land (soil tests) which he never does thereafter, and so on.  This is perfectly understandable and legitimate, of course, this being the pilot, and their just trying out different concepts/backstory for fit.  Some things they get spot on, like the Tardis’s ‘disguise circuit’ failing.  Overall, a recommend to watch, if nothing else as a curio.

Rating: ODD, 6/10
Suitable for all ages

TV: PSYCHOVILLE – Very very dark comedy with horror elements 6.5/10

PSYCHOVILLE

Season 1, Halloween Special, Season 2

Spawned from half the team that brought the world ‘The League of Gentlemen’, Psychoville occupies a similarly-dark universe to the village of that show. Indeed, ‘Psychoville’ is named after the Japanese title of The League of Gentlemen.  It’s a series written by and starring Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton, each playing several different characters in this weird and sometimes wonderful show.

Season 1 occupies itself with a group of seemingly disparate characters whose stories slowly draw together as the series climaxes. There is a weird mass-murder-obsessed mother and son (the Sowerbutts); a troubled dwarf; a midwife who cares for a toy baby like it’s real; a blind millionaire dealer in toys who has dark secrets; and my favourite, a bitter and twisted one-handed clown called Mr Jelly who is vexed by a competitor called Mr Jolly.

Season 1 trundles along at a good pace, leading to the story of a shared, dark history of these characters.  It starts with each getting a note saying “I know what you did.”  It is very, very darkly funny and odd, and culminates in a semi-satisfying conclusion, and recommended to all people who like their comedy both weird and dark.  If you liked the darker elements of Twin Peaks, say, you may like this.

The Halloween special is, to my mind, the best of this show.  It takes the form of a set of short stories joined by a bigger strand, and these stories are classic horror tales – mysterious children; killer on the loose on a dark night; and a tale about transplanted eyes seeing more than they should.  It also serves as a decent bridge between seasons 1 and 2.

Season 2 is slightly different.  In this one, the main characters in the first start to get bumped off.  There are new characters (one of them – a librarian – sees a weird dancing figure that is very reminiscent of the dancing dwarf in Twin Peaks), and the story is about a mysterious necklace,  It’s a little baggier than the first series (there’s one major storyline involving a TV makeup woman called Hattie that adds virtually nothing to the main story – but it’s amusing nonetheless).

This is clearly a series for adults, and I’d say the best laughs come from Mr Jelly and the inappropriate behaviour and phrases of mother-and-son, the Sowerbutts.

Recommended.

OVERALL: 6.5
REWATCHABILITY: Once or twice every 5 yearas. Suitable for adults only.

 

TV Review: Battlestar Galactica miniseries and Season 1: Fantastic, gritty, funny, surprising space opera that really delivers here 9/10

The 3 hour miniseries set the scene very nicely. This was total war, and total losing, the cylons won this one outright. 3 very clear and outright awesome characters were established in this series: Commander Adama, Starbuck and Roslin. There’s also a ton of potential in the ambiguous character and situation of Baltar, with the promise of him getting up to the same level as the others, and some possibility that Tigh may reach the same heights.

Two scenes in particular stood out for me, and defined the spirit of the show: Roslin, who we’ve seen as very human and compassionate being forced to make a snap-decision about leaving a lot of ships behind vs staying and risking all of civilian humanity to the cylons, and she makes it without histrionics or any show of weakness. And near the end, when Tigh is trying to make amends with Starbuck, and Starbuck flat refuses to compromise.

We know we’re not in glossy, emotionally-vacuous territory here.

 
Episode 1 of Season 1, “33”, was just excellent. Opening right in the middle of it, we don’t get time to familiarise or warm to the characters, but instead feel their disorientation, confusion, and sense of being completely strung out. I still don’t know if 33 was a cylon ploy, like an extended water torture, or it was their time to recalc the jump. They set the bar very high with this.

Episode 2, “Water” opened really well, again in disorientation and confusion, this time with the character of Sharon being absolutely soaked and obviously not knowing where she was and how she got there. It did settle into something more ordinary after that though. I too didn’t feel the Chief acted properly or realistically. Hell, they are fighting for survival, he’s in a absolutely key position, he cannot hide stuff like that, even though it’s his girlfriend. That peeved me some. I really like the Baltar/6 interactions though, and the building relationship of Adama and Roslin.

 
Episode 3 – Bastille Day: I think Richard Hatch was just excellent as Zarek, with authority, power and still confidence conveyed in all scenes except the last one. Lee was also much better as a character. This was a great return for Hatch, not some cheesy cameo that often happens in these old->new handovers. It all worked pretty well imo, except there was a couple of slips. Making Starbuck head of a anti-terrorist squad was really stupid jump from reality (I don’t care if she’s an awesome shot), and the relenting of her character on Tigh (which he rejected, thankfully).
 
Episode 4 – Act of Contrition: Yeah not bad, but too unfocussed for me for the first half. Sharpened up well when Starbuck finally revealed to Adama she passed his son even though he wasn’t ready. What fury was shown without moving a muscle! I also liked Starbuck training the nuggets, and wish there was less of the flashback stuff and more of that. I did dig Starbuck going back to face-off 8 cyclons though – very exciting prospect, and I wish we saw more of that, and her in real peril. I really liked the character of Hotdog a lot.
 
Episode 5 – You Can’t Go Home Again: Okay, lots of plot contrivances, and I just didn’t buy that Adama would so jettison his responsibilities because of, admittedly serious, unresolved issues, but the last 5 minutes made up for it. Roslin giving the guys a serious talking-to to remind them of how they need to be, the relief at finding Starbuck, and the final scene between Adama and Starbuck. It moved me greatly, that final scene, and made the reservations about the rest of the episode vaporise.

An okay episode with some really great final few scenes.

 
 
The remaining episodes were more patchy, but overall it lead to a terrific conclusion – particularly the final 2-parter episodes, and raised a number of question marks about what the hell was going on.
 
Thoroughly recommended.