Tag: Reviews (N)

Doctor Who Season Two – New Earth

No Spoilers

‘New Earth,’ the first proper episode of season two of the new Who, has plot holes you could drive a bus through and characterisation that sometimes beggars comprehension. It is, I think without a doubt, the worse script Russell T. Davies has ever written.

It’s also a very bad first episode for a season.

First eps have a lot riding on them; you are bound to get new viewers who will need just a little setup to feel comfortable. You also have the returning viewers who just want you to go straight into the story. ‘New Earth’ really caters for the latter crowd; a returning villian with next to little introduction, a overly elaborate plot and a companion who spends most of the episode being out of her mind. It is the latter point which is probably the most vexing. New viewers want to see how Rose and the Doctor interact; ‘New Earth’ delays that by a week by providing a first episode that admittedly introduces the Doctor well but fails to introduce Rose, the character with whom we are meant to identify with and feel for.

I enjoyed the story; I can only say that I expected much more, especially after just how well ‘Rose’ reintroduced the show to the world last year. Next week looks fun, though; it has werewolves.

04/16/2006

Lost Season Two

A lot of people found the second season of ‘Twin Peaks’ just a tad too bizaare, which was a major factor in its non-renewal; it lost its core audience, the non-genre fans that tolerate a little fantasy in their drama. ‘Lost’ season two, which could well have gone the way of ‘Twin Peaks’ season two, seems to have amped up its fantasy whilst continuing to focus on the mystery of the island. We’ve learnt a lot this season about the Dharma Initiative and the Others but, by and large, this information is sidereal to the character backstories the show does so well.

It’s a clever move. Die-hard fans love the unfolding mystery whilst casual viewers can dip in and out of the show and only be a little confused by the dealings in the hatch. With eight episodes to go and a lot more explaining to do I really can’t say I know where the show is going for its third season. I can say, however, that I’ll be sticking with it until the end, even if they do the unthinkable and kill off Locke. Still, the mooted plan for a theatrical release finale seems like a really risky idea; watching a show every Tuesday night is one thing, but heading off to the cinema to watch a film that will likely need a fairly detailed knowledge of the TV show is another matter entirely.

Perhaps, however, ‘Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me’ has tainted all my hopes, dreams and desires.

Damn you, David Lynch. Damn you to hell.

04/01/2006

Hex Season One Review

Say what you will about ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ but as a TV series it, more than any other, redefined modern telefantasy. It showed that a genre show could be popular and that character drama was equally as important as plot devices, a notion that many shows to this day could well do to remember. Like all shows, ‘Buffy’ has had its imitators, and none is more blatant and yet so different than ‘Hex.’

This is a review of the first season only, as season two which has completed its run, I have not yet seen. ‘Hex’ is Brit-Buffy; we have a pretty girl who wants to be popular as the nominal hero, we have the wacky sidekick, the arrogant drama queen and even the tortured demon (who this time is actually an angel). In many ways every major part of the setting is due to ‘Buffy.’ It’s set at a school, it has a school principal who may know more than he is letting on and the world is at stake.

Yet, at the same time, it is remarkably different. (more…)

03/18/2006

Not really an argument but a half-formed pointlette

In Mick Garris’ ‘Chocolate’ a man, for no discerable reason, suddenly starts to share sensations with another person, someone he has never met. It is the kind of conceit commonly found in horror that, if not handled properly, can yank the viewer out of the story and make them wonder ‘So, why is this happening again?’

If I was to be overly general I would say that there are two schools of horror; deserved and undeserved victims. It’s a rather usually demarcation; is the antiquarian of M. R. James’ ‘Count Magnus’ deserving of his fate simply because he showed an academic curiousity in an old casket? Still, there is at least a question that any horror ‘author’ must answer; why is this thing happening to these people? Often this is blithely ignored, and sometimes for good reason. Why are the dead returning to life and terrorising these people? Because the horror of the situation comes from being in such an extreme and unexpected context. The victims of this horror are not unique; the terror is ocurring to everyone everywhere and the story comes from what these select individuals will do given their circumstances.

Yet when something utterly random and unique plagues a character; well, that takes rare skill to sell.

Perhaps it is my academic training that makes me question such things; it probably does disrupt the fiction. Yet perhaps not. Take ‘Ringu’ as an example. Sadako has invested her anger in a videotape. A reporter becomes involved; she (he, depending on which version of the story you are experiencing) seemingly has weird and random events occur to her (him)… Except that they aren’t. She is researching a killer video tape. People, that she knows of, have died because of it. So it is not random or unexpected, just different.

Unlike ‘Chocolate,’ which has no rhyme or reason behind it. It is a series of events with no explanation and no real consequence. Pity, really.

03/14/2006

“No Second chances; I’m that kind of man.”

Welcome back Mr. Patrick Troughton. Or, at least, that’s what I thought after watching ‘The Christmas Invasion,; the latest episode of ‘Doctor Who.’

My thoughts; uninspired up until the tenth Doctor makes his presence felt. The UNIT material was okay, although the continued lack of the Brigadier will irk me for a while, especially if Nicholas Courtney dies. Whilst the Brigadier might be continuity overload of a sort at least a passing reference to him would have been good. Otherwise it’s a little humdrum… Or it could be seen as being. Russell T. Davies, the producer, scripted this episode and like many of his stories from the previous season it just doesn’t seem to stack up all that well to the other stories he produced. This is a weirdly good thing; Davies stories are not bad but he has made the decision to hire even better craftspeople to surround him. Thus we get a good scriptwriter-turned-producer whose work looks weak compared to that of his staff.

But here is the canny part; Davies gets to characterise the new Doctor by writing his maiden story. And what a character it is (let’s ignore the fact that I am starting sentences with conjunctions). The new Doctor is friendly yet spikey; he can be hugs and kisses one minute and serious the next. There is a Second Doctor playfulness here, as well as the Troughton anger when people disappoint the Doctor. Without giving anything away there is also a return of the Seventh Doctor’s ability to cause trouble through innocent means. Davies writes this stuff well, even if he does steal lines from such magnum opuses as ‘The Lion King.’ I wonder of this new Doctor will be quoting a lot of pop culture.

(And the ‘Hitchhikers…’ reference was worth the price of admission alone.)

I’m gushing here and I’ve lost the thread of my thought. Let it suffice to say that I have high hopes for the new season and if Tenant continues to impress me I’ll be glad that he’s staying in the TARDIS for at least another season.

01/03/2006

The Firefly Quandary

“So, did you see ‘Serenity?'”

“Oh yes. ‘I’m like a leaf in the wind…'”

“‘Splunk!’ Wasn’t it the greatest?”

“Pretty damn good. Actually much, much better than I thought it would be.”

“Come on, it’s Joss Whedon. The man’s a god. ‘Firefly’ is the best science fiction series of recent note!”

“Aah, I’m more of a ‘Farscape’ fan, myself.”

“Yeah, well, ‘Farscape’ had four seasons; ‘Firefly’ only had the thirteen episodes.”

“So?”

“Well, had ‘Firefly’ run as long as ‘Farscape’ it would have been the better series…”

You can see my quandary, readers. If ‘Firefly had run four years, then it would have been better than ‘Farscape.’ To evaluate such a claim you would need to look at what else Mr. Whedon has written and produced. (more…)

10/02/2005