REVIEW: RED DWARF X Ep.1 TROJAN

SPOILERS, naturally.

Well, I greeted the news of a new series of Red Dwarf with cynical pessimism. Then the clips began to trickle out, and my excitement began to build. This actually looked it might be a return to form. In the end, it was OK. I don’t think anyone can argue that the recent series hold up to the classic years of the show (which could be anything from series two to six, depending on taste). This certainly felt more like Red Dwarf than the misguided Back to Earth miniseries, although it was qualitatively different from earlier series. The jokes came thick and fast, and there were more hits than misses.

REVIEW: The Blue Landscape and Other Stories by Stewart Sheargold

Regular readers (yes, both of you) will know that I’m a big fan of Obverse Books, the small press publishers of Iris Wildthyme, Faction Paradox and other far-fetched fiction. Well, Obverse are branching out in a slightly new direction, and have created a new subsidiary site that sells what they term ‘modern pulp.’ Manleigh Books provide not only e-book copies of Obverse’s titles but also exclusively electronic new fiction with a distinctly pulpy texture. I’ll be reviewing some of their latest releases over the next week or so.

The Blue Landscape is a brand new short story collection by well-regarded author Stewart Sheargold, a name that should be familiar to readers and listeners of Obverse Books and Big Finish Productions. He’s a name to watch in Doctor Who-related circles, but be warned that the thirteen stories of The Blue Landscape are not the kind of thing you may be used to from the author. The only tale to enter the world of Doctor Who in any way is ‘Siens Fikshen,’ the final story in the collection, a gorgeous little story about a very young fan’s love for his favourite programme. The bulk of the volume is of a far more adult nature, focussing on sex, heartbreak and obsession.

A couple of the stories could be described as fantasy, and also as horror. The opening piece, ‘The Beautification,’ gets the collection off to an affecting, emotional and chilling start, while the later entry ‘The Eyes of the Day’ takes a perverse journey to a snowbound winter kingdom. Beautifully written if rather stomach-churning, it’s one of my favourite stories from the book, despite playing on a nasty idea that I’m particularly phobic to.

Several of the tales take place at the shoreline, the metaphorical border of two worlds. ‘Charlotte Imagines the Sea’ is a poignant tale of two friends walking by the sea, disturbing old memories, while ‘A Cool, Calm Place’ is a strange, sad tale of love and lust at the sea’s edge. The most heartbreaking story of the collection, ‘Painting Medusa Pink,’ is a tale of tragedy that also takes place mainly along the shore’s edge. A beautifully written tale of dreams and loss, it’s one of the highlights of the book.

Sex, both gay and straight, is the dominant, ever-present core of the book, and many of the stories either revolve around it or feature it prominently. We are, as a species, obsessed with sex, and Sheargold finds no shortage of ways to explore it. ‘The Sunday Lover’ skirts between eroticism and tragedy, while ‘Lemon-work’ uses sex to explore the mundane reality of our everyday lives. The one story I didn’t enjoy was ‘Hobbies,’ a tale of rape and a twisted version of female empowerment. Undoubtedly well-written, to me it’s unpleasant and rather offensive. Others may disagree, but it’s certain to provoke a powerful response from its readers.

‘The Blue Landscape’ itself is most obviously about sex and sexuality, but also about the inevitable loss of the imagination and innocence of childhood, and is another beautifully written piece. Other stories, ‘The Winter Tower’ and ‘The Garden,’ ruminate on death, or more specifically its lead-up and the desire for it. My personal favourite of the collection is ‘The Tea Party,’ a sexually charged, powerfully written and deeply philosophical meeting between God and the Devil. Exploring the true nature of sin and forgiveness, it’s an uncompromising dissection of supposedly modern Christian values.

The Blue Landscape is not quite what I was expecting from its author, and that is a rare and unexpected thing in itself. A collection of powerful short works which will surprise, horrify, entice and offend, it certainly makes a bold impression.

Buy The Blue Landscape in both ePub and Kindle format here.

WHO REVIEW: 7.5 - The Angels Take Manhattan

So, that was Amy and Rory then. The end of a very short ‘season’ of adventures, and of a long and complex relationship between two young Brits and an extraterrestrial. It’s been an emotional and convoluted journey, and it’s ended like it began: full of temporal anomalies and plot holes. But my, what fun it’s been.

The Angels Take Manhattan is, primarily, Amy and Rory’s episode, but the Doctor, River and the Angels themselves all get some decent characterisation or exploration. Did it need to be set in New York? Not at all; it would have worked just as well in Cardiff or London, but the setting certainly adds something to the episode. The location work is a boon; the city is brought to life in some gorgeous shots, both in the bustling New York of 2012 and the grim night of gumshoe 1938. We have only a handful of incidental characters; the only one that makes an impression is Grayle, the collecting crime lord. Mike McShane (still, for me, the Who’s Line is it Anyway? guy) gives him a personality beyond what such a character deserves; he is, after all, just there as a plot mechanism.

The Angels themselves work beautifully here. I’m on record as being of the opinion that their first appearance should have been their last; this episode has given me reason to reconsider. They are utilised far better here than in Series Five’s two-parter, still recognisably working to their original MO yet being expanded into a broader creation. The concept of a battery farm for human prey is inventive and chilling; I’m not sure it really makes sense for them to need one, if they’ve got the whole of New York at their mercy, but it’s still a fine idea. (And who knows? Perhaps they need to avoid twisting the timeline to much. Time-shifting everyone in New York would mess things up pretty drastically.) While I’m not sure quite how they’ve taken over all the statues in the city, it does provide some memorable visuals. The baby Angels, creepy little cherubs, are fantastic, and their little giggle is quite unsettling (although they sound exactly like the Boos in the Super Mario games, which pulled me out of the moment rather suddenly).

If there’s a single concept or visual that’s going to stick in people’s minds after watching this episode, it’s the Statue of Liberty. Making the most iconic statue in the world into a Weeping Angel was surely an irresistible conceit for the show’s creators, and few shows would have the balls to pull off something quite so absurd. Even a moment’s thought shoots this idea to bits, though; I refuse to believe that there’s a single moment when nobody is looking at the Statue. Angel or not, it should be permanently rooted to the spot (except when animated by positively-charged mood slime by the Ghostbusters, of course).

The central concept, of being part of a story and the perils involved therein, is a beauty. It does, after all, tie in to the fairytale ethos of the series in the eleventh Doctor era so far, but is here brought to the fore like never before. In a series in which time has been seen to be changed again and again, we needed an episode like this to put some boundaries back in. There’s no drama if the hero can nip back and sort everything out again later; contrived though it may be, setting the Doctor’s story down an inalterable path removes some of his ever-increasing power, and rightly so. “Time can be rewritten,” points out Amy. “Not once you’ve read it,” responds the Doctor. Other episodes might disagree on this point, but here, it works beautifully, giving the story real drama and impetus.

While there are moments when the time-travel threatens to become the star of the show, Moffat keeps thing rooted in the experiences and reactions of his character. When Amy reads ahead, the Doctor is fated to break River’s wrist. OK, he doesn’t actually break it himself, but leads it to happen, and the resulting confrontation between the two of them is extremely powerful. Indeed, this is the first time that River and the Doctor have actually felt like a couple, be they bickering, flirting or faffing about with the TARDIS lightbulb. Equally, the friendship between Amy, Rory and the Doctor has never felt stronger or more natural than when they’re all larking about in the park at the beginning. It makes the eventual outcome of this adventure all the more poignant.

WHO REVIEW: 7-4. The Power of Three

The Chibnall’s second episode of the year, and it’s another light-hearted one with some good, funny lines. It’s not as comedic as Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, although it does verge on sitcom territory in the first, mostly housebound scenes. It feels both very contemporary and quite derivative, harking back to the RTD days with its news reports and celebrity cameos (love Brian Cox’s scene), and  dropping references to Twitter and the Wii. Much like those earlier episodes, this makes it seem very up-to-the-minute, but will inevitably date it rapidly. On the other hand, the Doctor coming to stay has elements of the Craig episodes from the previous two series (The Lodger and Closing Time), while UNIT’s involvement connects to the series’ noble history.

For the most part, this is a fun, solidly enjoyable episode with a great central concept. The sudden appearance of millions of small, black cubes all over the world is a wonderful sci-fi idea, and humanity’s response to it – panic mixed with curiosity, followed by complete acceptance and apathy – is probably exactly how we’d really react to such an event. There’s some wonderful character work here, leading to some of the series best laughs. Mark Williams as Brian once again steals any scene he’s in. His immediate fascination with the cubes develops into calm contemplation, first leaving him in the TARDIS for four days, alone with his thoughts, then making his daily Brian’s Log for UNIT. He provides some good laughs – “Don’t mock my log,” – but he remains the heart of the episode, the emotional support for Amy, Rory and, surprisingly, the Doctor.

The married couple are also well used, with the episode revolving around their developing life together and their gradual drifting away from the Doctor. They get to act like real people again, two ordinary Brits whose lives have been invaded by a Time Lord. While Amy gets yet another career, it’s good to see Rory back in the hospital; it seems that Chibnall is the only writer these days who remembers the guy’s a nurse. While, in the end, they elect to continue travelling with the Doctor, it’s hard to escape the feeling that they’re time with him has come to a natural end. Of course, the actual, probably distinctly unnatural end, will come next week.

Despite Amy’s claim that this is the year “the Doctor came to stay,” he actually spends very little time in the Pond household, and what little time he is there goes mostly unseen. The brief snatch we do get sees him at his most skatty, jumpy and irritable; indeed, his most “Eleventh-Doctorish.” This version of the Doctor, more than any other, needs to be kept busy and on the move, and seeing him cooped up with nothing to do, in a constant state of ants-in-his-pants, is hilarious. Not that he doesn’t get some quitter moments. While his tete-a-tete with Amy is rather beautiful, it’s his confrontation with Brian that sticks in the memory, forced to admit that, yes, sometimes his companions die on their travels. It’s pretty likely that this is foreshadowing something nasty due to occur next episode.

While Amy and Rory’s days on the show are numbered, and that probably means no more Brian, we do have a new character to enjoy, one who I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of. Shame on you if you didn’t spot the surname and realise that Kate Stewart was the Brigadier’s daughter, but perhaps you were just too busy enjoying such a wonderful new character. Calm, confident and controlled, our new UNIT leader provides a perfect foil to Matt Smith’s manic Doctor. Jemma Redgrave is perfectly cast, and Kate is a fine successor to the legendary Brig. I hope it won’t be too long before we see her again.

CAPTAIN'S BLOG: TNG 1.8-1.9

1.8) The Battle

or

‘Sphere and Loathing’

The Mission: Rendezvous with the Ferengi Alliance at system Xendi Sabu.

Planets visited: None.

Future History: Nine years previously (2355) in star system Maxia Zeta, the USS Stargazer under Captain Picard encountered an unknown alien ship that fired upon them without provocation. Picard destroyed the alien ship, but not before the Stargazer was crippled. Leaving it to explode, the crew abandoned ship and spent weeks drifting in life pods.

Turns out the ship was Ferengi, and was under the command of Daimon Bok’s son. The Ferengi now call the incident the Battle of Maxia. Somehow the Stargazer survived, and came into Bok’s possession.

Oh, and in the 24^th century they now longer have colds or headaches. Lucky bastards.

Alien Life Forms: The Ferengi are back. This time they actually get some characterisation beyond the previous ‘squeaky rodents meets Yankee traders’ approach. Daimon Bok has come up with a scheme to punish Picard for the death of his son, offering him the Stargazer as a gift in order to draw him in. His first officer, Kazago, and a third Ferengi crewman, Rata, are horrified that he is not offering to sell the ship back to him. Kazago displays loyalty to his captain, but removes him from command when it becomes clear his behaviour is motivated solely by revenge, not profit. Troi seems to have no trouble sensing the Ferengis’ emotions, not that it helps anyone much.

The Picard Manoeuvre: Ah, well. We learn that Picard commanded another starship nine years ago, although where he has been posted during the period before he took command of the Enterprise is not revealed. We learn the nature of the now legendary Picard Manoeuvre: when faced with the Ferengi Marauder at Maxia, and deducing it had only light-speed sensors, he jumped his ship to warp for a brief moment, causing it to appear at two places on the Ferengi sensors. He then blasted them from behind. (We also see plenty of the other Picard Manoeuvre, where he tugs his tunic down.) Picard is beset with headaches but soldiers on through his mission to the Ferengi (what a trooper - a headache gets you off work in the 24^th century). This is all down to the Thought Maker, Bok’s weapon, which eventually causes him to relive the memories of the attack at Maxia when on the Stargazer bridge.

Why didn't I stick with Shakespeare?

Number One: Intensely loyal to Picard by now. He refuses to believe that his captain would attack an unidentified ship unless in defence, whatever the newly recovered Stargazer log claims. He rightly believes that Bok has forged it, and succeeds in talking Picard out of his technologically induced hallucination. Riker develops a decent rapport with fellow first officer Kazago.

Future Treknology: Bok has got hold of a rare and dangerous Thought Maker. Completely illegal in the Ferengi Alliance, such a machine is capable of altering the minds of humanoid life forms. A Thought Maker consists of two glowing pink and silver spheres, a large control unit and a smaller relay unit. The relay needs to be near the intended victim to fully take him over, but can affect him from a distance of millions of kilometres, producing headaches, dreams and hallucinations. At full influence, it makes its victim extremely susceptible to suggestion.

Space Bilge/Funny Bits: There’s some clunky dialogue here, particularly Worf’s revelation that Picard brought a “fairly heavy chest” onto the Enterprise from the Stargazer when they’re trying to work out how something may be affecting him. Kazago actually says “I’m all ears.” Sometimes the obvious ones are the best.

Verdict: A good episode, highlighting the developing relationship between Picard and Riker, exploring the Captain’s past and using the Ferengi far more effectively than in their debut. It’s a shame that this follows on so soon from another episode in which Picard is influenced and acting out of character, but that’s not this episode’s fault. An effective story.