Doctor Who has suffered the worst viewing figures since Colin Baker was Time Lord in 1986 – but star Jodie Whittaker insists she is not ready to quit yet. Sunday’s episode, Nikola Tesla’s Night of Terror, was watched by 4.04m people – the eighth worst showing in the show’s 57-year run – as fans (including 12-year-olds!) branded the new series ‘badly written’. But Whittaker vowed to carry on, saying: ‘I absolutely adore it.’ [Story as reported by The Metro and a local school.]
What an odd film. The first thirty minutes were entirely meandering, with barely a plot of consequence that could be described. There was no natural rapport between the lead actors (Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson), and the presence of Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson could do nothing to help the entirely flat script. If the movie hadn’t been a xmas present, and if I hadn’t been tipsy and full of bonhommie, I think we would have switched it off… which would have been a shame, cos the later half of the movie is an absolute blast, tightly constructed and strangely compelling. It was as if a different director entirely had suddenly been brought on board. There’s a key ‘regrouping’ scene in the desert, when Chris and Tessa are stranded and forced to confront their issues. Their conversation is entertainingly facilitated by a tiny (CGI) alien known as Pawnie – who up till that point has been the most engaging of all the characters we’ve met. It’s like they’re having a crisis meeting with the script-writers and director, actually. Anyway, it works, things are resolved, we move forward and the ‘ride’ really and literally begins.
The scenario? Er… well, the Hive are threatening to invade (yet again), but there’s a macguffin item they need to get control of first, a macguffin that has fallen into Tessa’s hands (conveniently) but which causes all sorts of baddies to pursue her. Same plot as all the other movies? Yup. There is an added dimension to this movie, however, in that there’s a mole in the Men In Black organisation. We’re kept guessing as to who the mega-baddie really is… and it could well be Chris himself. Or Pawnie. Or Liam. Or Emma. Or Agent C. And, in the second half of the movie, there are some nice jokes (none are belly-busters, but they’re good enough). Overall… the first half of the movie scores 3 out of 10, and the second half scores 8 out of 10. Weird. If you enjoy the MIB franchise, it’s probably worth your while.
…or not.
So, another year all but done. It’s been a strange one, that’s for sure. Spent 8 months in Cornwall, teaching at Falmouth University. But university student recruitment is down 22% in the subject of English… so Jan-August was pretty much the end of that gig. Still, I wrote a murder-mystery novel while I was down there (The Mists of Falmouth), so something may come of that.
Happily, I then got a secure position at Middlesex University (norf Lundun, init), which is lovely place to work. It’s filling a few of the gaps on my academic CV too. I’m leading on the Frankenstein Resurrection mobile phone app development at the moment! I spend four nights a week in a small studio flat in Golder’s Green, and three nights back up in Manchester, with the beloved cat… oh, and Nades.
I’ve got a modest little book coming out in April 2020: The Satanic in Science Fiction and Fantasy. Unless you have a Scrooge-like heart, you might wanna help me out by pre-ordering a copy here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Satanic-Science-Fiction-Fantasy-ebook/dp/B07Y7NQVR7/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=satanic+dalton&qid=1577280363&sr=8-1. Oh, go on! It’s flaming xmas. Whatever.
In further news, Kristell Ink have green-lighted The Book of Witches (as a follow up to The Book of Dragons, The Book of Angels, and The Book of Orm… what do you mean you haven’t got copies of ’em?!). I’m delighted to say we’ve got two big-name authors onboard: John Marco (US fantasy author, of whom I was a right fanboy when younger) and Adam Lively! And Charlotte Pang has done a wicked cover:
I love it.
Well, I’d better get back to my roasting chestnuts – don’t want them to burn.
Have a merry ol’ Christmas, y’all.
adz x
You’ll have heard the fuss about ‘Baby Yoda’ that’s going round. It’s not actually Yoda himself: it’s a young member of his species/race (officially ‘unknown’) who appears in the new Star Wars series (‘The Mandalorian‘) currently appearing on the Disney+ channel. The title of the series refers to a bounty hunter of Jango Fett’s own race (Boba Fett was then cloned from Jango Fett). The Mandalorian goes around the galaxy far, far away, carrying out various (highly dangerous) commissions. The series is set five years after the fall of the Empire, but before the rise of the New Republic; so it neatly bridges the time of chaos and confusion between the old movies and the new ones.
Right, now we’ve got all that out of the way, is all the aforementioned fuss warranted? Yes, it is. Entirely. I’m getting old, and I’m increasingly ‘old school’ in my Star Wars tastes, expectations and demands. I am of the belief that the new kids on the block BROKE Star Wars. Come on, you must have heard (and perhaps seen) how badly the movie Solo did, and how they then cancelled the Boba Fett movie that was planned. And the terrible plotting and character development in Rogue One was quite distressing for me. And I could go on at length – but I think you can already see how tyrannical and purist I am. The good news is The Mandalorian series doffs the finest cap (or helmet) in the galaxy to the old style Star Wars.
Incidental characters from the original trilogy of movies are now front and centre, including the bounty hunter droid (technically IG-11, while I had IG-88 as an action figure when I was a kid, collecting tokens and sending them off), power droids, the Empire spy from the first movie, Jawas, and so on. The plot moves along with zero exposition (maybe less than zero, actually), and there are long sequences without any dialogue, everything relying on evocation and landscape, like in the original movie. All of this is more than just homage: it’s an essential understanding of a form of movie-making that had somehow become lost. Jon Favreau (writer and director) has done an amazing job. He is a masterful movie-maker, of course, as the one behind the original Iron Man movie, and so on.
And then there’s the character of the Mandalorian himself. Monosyllabic. Ruthless. And yet a member of a militaristic religion, with its own codes of honour and conduct. We get fascinating glimpses and suggestions, but the ‘mystery’ of his character is kept superbly poised and compelling – not an easy job when all we ever see is the visor of his helmet. This show is a ruddy TRIUMPH! If you are of the faith, then you will go on a quest to seek out this series. You will find a way and means. May the force be with you.
What with global warming, climate change and everything, the glaciers are melting… and ancient pathogens are being released! Dr Luther Swann and his best buddy Michael Fayne go to a research station in the Antarctic (or the Arctic) to find out why contact with the staff has been lost. All they find is a load of blood and a strange biomass sample… the seal on which is broken! Yikes. The pathogenic virus is loose!
The pathogen triggers the ‘junk DNA’ in certain people, turning them into an ancient race of monstrous semi-humans who drink blood (so you can work out what the ‘V’ in ‘V Wars’ stands for). Then all hell breaks loose (as it usually does).
This show hit Netflix in December 2019. It has a nice tempo, a decent lead actor in Ian Somerhalder (a star of both Lost and The Vampire Diaries, no less) and enough unexpected twists and turns to keep us engaged. The dialogue is often throwaway stuff, but the intelligence of the ‘mystery’ at the heart of the plot largely works.
The show is also interestingly cross-genre. There’s the medical emergency ‘epidemic’ style narrative, a serial-killer detective narrative, a buddy movie narrative, a straight monster movie narrative and the inevitable family drama narrative. They interweave so the whole is greater than the sum of the parts… and it means that when we’re bored with one sub-plot, we don’t have to wait too long till we swap to another one. But what really works is the escalating sense of panic as the virus spreads further and further, and faster and faster, beyond the point of possible containment.
I suspect this show won’t be to all tastes. There’s a surprising and total lack of a supernatural or religious narrative from the start. The absence is a tad jarring… and this all feels more like a zombie series than a blood-sucker series. But there’s also something ‘fresh’ to its style too… fresh like the kills and the blood spatter. I’m enjoying it a good deal! 7 out of 10. Amen.
Wow. What a tv series Mars is! So inspiring… and believable. National Geographic have mixed talking heads of the Earth’s top scientists (recorded to 2016) with a great near-future science fiction show in which humans colonise Mars for the first time (2033). The show is entirely grounded, entirely science based and actually happening in the now. There are significant cameos with Elon Musk himself and real footage of the SpaceX program. There are interviews with Neil deGrasse Tyson (US astrophysicist) and Andy Weir (author of the amazing The Martian novel… you know, the Matt Damon film was made from it). But better than that… we have a docudrama of their vision being played out before us. It’s compelling and terrifying drama, as humans living on the edge problem solve because their very lives depend upon it. There’s a definite feel of The Martian‘s narrative here, which is no bad thing, given how much research Mr Weir did to write his novel. What an amazing story of human endeavour and spirit… it’s kind of humbling… also because it helps you realise just how vulnerable a species we are. If you’ve ever liked any sort of sci-fi in your entire life, then you simply must watch this show (two series available) on Netflix. It scores 10 out of 10 from me.
Mads Mikkelsen plays the assassin-with-a-heart Duncan Vizla in this neo-noir movie version of the Dark Horse comic book. Vizla is finally calling it a day and is about to collect his pension pot of $24m… except his unscrupulous employers (played by the wonderfully hammy Matt Lucas) can’t afford for him to collect. Naughty Matt therefore decides to have Vizla bumped off… to which Vizla takes extreme exception! Fancy taking it so personally!
Mikkelsen does a great job, bringing brooding menace, regret for misdeeds and a deep sadness to Vizla in equal measures. His relationship with the damaged young woman living in the chalet-next-door is particularly tender and believable. And believability/credibility is an entirely essential requirement for this movie, given how the rest of it is so cartoonish (unsurprising in a comic book conversion), anarchic, darkly comedic, full of caricature and bullet-raddled. Indeed, were it not for Mikkelsen, the movie would be far too voyeuristic and immoral for the taste of pretty much all audiences.
The body-count is of course ludicrously high, and Vizla has an all but superhuman ability to survive torture, brutality and heavy ordinance. It’s escapist fare, just like the John Wick movies. And there’s going to be a second movie in the series, according to industry insiders! Hopefully, the tonal balance of the next instalment will be better judged. But Polar is a good popcorn movie if you like this sort of thing. Happy days.
