WHO REVIEW: The Daleks series (Time Lord Victorious)

Terry Nation tried to take the Daleks to the United States and develop their own series right back in 1966. It's taken over fifty years but the malicious pepperpots finally have their own TV vehicle - of a sort. As part of the Time Lord Victorious crossover, the BBC YouTube channel has released a five-part animated series for streaming. Apart from the fact that it's the only completely free item of Doctor Who released as part of the initiative (even the TV series technically costs the license fee if you wanted to catch up on that), it's a fun little diversion that's easy to enjoy without reams of foreknowledge.

Still, it does tie into the overall story, albeit peripherally. As yet I've not made too much headway into TLV, but this, as best I can make out from the online guides, leads into the Defender of the Daleks comic story from Titan. The storyline sees the Dalek Emperor and the Dalek Strategist from that series leading a campaign against a deadly, seemingly unstoppable threat from another dimension, named simply "the Entity." We don't see much of this being, or beings, mostly just green light emanating from a dimensional rift, but its forces absolutely wipe the floor with the Daleks. 

Each episode, only about thirteen minutes long, sees the Daleks take on another race in their attempts at universal domination/survival. "The Archive of Islos" sees the Emperor try to take over a galactic database tended by a race of robots, only to get double-crossed by them when they hand the Daleks over to the Entity. "The Sentinel of the Fifth Galaxy" sees the Strategist travel to an abandoned colony (possibly Spiridon, but probably another planet in the same campaign) to contact the Sentinel, a surprisingly cutesie robot called R-41, to reactivate an army of Daleks for the upcoming war. "Planet of the Mechanoids" sees the Emperor and Strategist desperately turn to their old enemies the Mechanoids, now evolved into something more sophisticated, in an alliance against the Entity. This continues with the two forces double-crossing each other in "The Deadly Ally" and "Day of Reckoning," while trying to battle the Entity as well.

It's simple, straightforward space adventure stuff, with lots of blasting lasers, swarms of robots and nice big explosions. Profound it isn't. But why would it be? This is a kids' cartoon series intended to distract for quarter of an hour a week, and on that level, it works perfectly. Some fans are complaining about the standard of animation, but frankly, for a webcast cartoon about killer robots this is absolutely fine. It's bold, colourful and easy to follow. The voice work is great; Nick Briggs is as good as ever as the Daleks, with his Emperor being particularly impressive. Anjli Mohindra voices the Mechanoid Queen, with Ayesha Antoine as other Mechanoids and the Chief Archivian. Thankfully, the Mechanoid voices are far better than the irritating ones from The Chase - far more human but still recognisably Mechanical. R-41 is voiced by Joe Sugg, who makes the robot likeable but untrustworthy. 

While this is intended for young fans on the surface, underneath it's a clear love letter to classic Doctor Who and Dalek stories. Longtime fans will get a buzz from seeing old favourites from the Dalek Chronicles comics such as the Golden Emperor and the Mechanoids realised on screen for the first time in decades, or ever. The links to the rest of TLV is flimsy - the story just seems to be the Daleks getting beaten up by various aliens before turning the tide moments before utter defeat - but in this case I think this is a strength. This is a bit of fun that stands on its own nicely.

REVIEW: Archer - Danger Island

Archer reaches its ninth (and penultimate) season, once again retooling the series' set-up and taking place within an elaborate fantasy within the comatose Archer's brain. After the noir-styled detective antics of season eight, this run relocates the action to the fictional Pacific island of Mitimotu in the year 1938 (for the first time ever we have a definitive dating for an Archer series!) The island is occupied by the French but is a haven for drop-outs of all nationalities, and soon ends up swarming with Nazis getting ready for WWII.

Danger Island isn't short on adventure cliches, with cannibalistic natives, a legendary idol, stormtroopers and Komodo dragons all appearing. Oh, and quicksand. I've missed quicksand. With Archer reconceived as an alcoholic charter pilot (and former US Army air commander), who co-pilots with Pam. A lot of people will see Indiana Jones in all this, but it's mostly inspired by its TV brother Tales of the Golden Monkey which came out soon after. Creator Adam Reed has confirmed that this was one of his favourite series (I don't think it's been aired in years, at least not in the UK), and the set-up is pretty much identical. Although, in Golden Monkey, it was the dog who wore an eye patch, not the hero. (You know what else was based on Golden Monkey? Disney's TaleSpin. Really.)

One thing I really like about Danger Island is the Archer-Pam relationship. There's a nice moment in an earlier season where they realise they're pretty much best friends and despite all their bitching at each other, they've always got each other's backs. That's the case here, with Pam and Archer being long-time partners and coming to the same conclusion in about six episodes. The other characters are re-jigged to a similar extent as the previous season, although some go to more ludicrous extremes. Cyril is the villain again, now the evil Nazi Fuchs (later to become UberFuchs in the story's most over-the-top development), on the island to secure the legendary idol for the Reich. Lana has gone from being African American/mixed race to now apparently being a Pacific Islander, princess of the island and determined to free her people from the French Empire even if it means siding with the Germans. Malory runs a hotel on the island, is still Archer's mother again and is basically the same character as always. Ray is refashioned as a French gendarme, a role he is perfectly suited for. No Jeffrey Tambor this year, unsurprisingly.

Judy Greer's character is, this time, Charlotte VanderTunt, on the island for her honeymoon before Archer seduces her and wrecks her life. She's as batshit crazy but for once it's actually in response to some pretty traumatic experiences instead of her inbred genes and glue habit. to be honest, as brilliant as Greer is and as funny as some of Charlotte's moments are, I'm really not a fan of what happens to the character. Archer has never been afraid to cross the line when it comes to good taste, but a lot of what happens to Charlotte is pretty horrible and too tragic to be funny.

Bizarrely, Krieger is not brought back as one of the Nazis, in spite of his legendary status as a clone of Adolf Hitler. Instead, Lucky Yates voices a macaw named Crackers, who is somehow possessed of human intelligence and acts as Archer and Pam's sidekick. One of the better running jokes is that no one can understand how a bird can act like this but it's never even vaguely explained, beyond Archer handwaving it away as "he's a parrot." Anyway, Crackers gets a lot of the best lines, and some of the best scenes involve Archer, Pam and Crackers adventuring together.

The adventure stuff is generally pretty fun, but, just like with Dreamland, there's a real drop in the quality of the comedy. Archer just isn't as funny as it used to be, and, while the new setting seems like a real winner (albeit one that's going to piss off Germans and Pacific Islanders alike), it just doesn't seem to lend itself to comedy the same way as previous years. That, or perhaps the show's just running out of steam. Nine years is a long time to keep something with a pretty thin premise going, and while the new format of changing the setting every year is helping keep it fresh, it's starting to strain. Still, I'm looking for to next year's Archer in space, something I've been asking for for years. Although I had hoped more for Archer Trek than Archer meets Alien, but still, here's hoping the final season sends it out with a bang.

Two short films

Two short animations that have been gaining attention and are worth sharing far and wide. The first only went up two days ago, and celebrates love and diversity. Too cute for words.


"In a Heartbeat" is by Beth David and Esteban Bravo.

The second film has been around since February but somehow I've only just stumbled upon it. It's an excellent sf short and cooperation vs. greed.

"Wire Cutters" was made by Jack Anderson and is hosted by omeleto.com.