REVIEW: RED DWARF X Ep 2 - FATHERS AND SUNS

My faith is small rouge one is restored. After an OK sort of start, the second episode of the series was a cracker.

There are fewer actual jokes this time round, but the overall effect is something much more consistently entertaining, with decent sci-fi conceits at its core and some excellent character moments for Rimmer and Lister. The early part of the episode, with Rimmer carping on about the whining in his ears, while Lister got soppy over his Father’s Day card, showed just how these characters should be portrayed now. The cast are getting older, there’s no getting away from that, so why not make a virtue of it? A whinier than ever Rimmer against an increasingly soft, gummy Lister would work. Not that we want Last of the Summer Wine in space (they couldn’t find enough baths to slide down hills, for a start), but four old gits on a spaceship has plenty of mileage for a sitcom.

Lister’s father-son relationship with himself is a little touch of genius. It takes a concept from the series’ past (the underrated Series VII) and uses it to create a brilliant new piece of character-driven comedy. Craig Charles switches between crabby old dad and defiant son with aplomb, his arguing with himself being some of the funniest material in the episode. Lister Sr’s drunken video letter to his son is brilliantly done, with just enough drunken slapstick, and leads up to the best moment of the episode: the fake guitar gag. Yet it furthers the plot and ties in nicely to the other side of the story, that of the new computer.

Rebbecca Blackstone gives a sharp, quick-fire performance as the coldly logical Pree, the predictive computer. Having had messages finished for me with disturbing accuracy by my phone (I guess I’m just predictable) I love the idea of a computer that saves time by predicting your own actions. Pree’s cold if skewed logic leads to some brilliant comedy moments, before providing the threat the episode needs for its second half. The episode builds to an effective action sequence, that is finally resolved with an ingenious tying together of the episode’s two plot points.

Some elements don’t work quite as well. I’m undecided on the Medi-Bot – it’s tending just too far to the annoying side of quirky – and the Chinese Whispers joke feels contrived and is not nearly funny enough. However, this episode hits far more often than it misses. The roster of vending machines, each with their own personality, is another reworking of an element of the show’s past (and presumably leads into the upcoming love triangle episode, ‘Dear Dave). If the series continues to develop along these lines, we should be in for some real treats. I’m very much looking forward to next week’s celebrity historical.

Good Psycho Guide: Four Chainsaws.

Best Line: “You predicted that I’d cock it up, so you cocked it up for me?”

By the fans, for the fans

If you're a Doctor Who fan, and you're missing the show now that first mini-season has finished (only five episodes and now we have to wait till Christmas? Bah!) then you should take a gander at these. Two fan productions, just released, that will help fill the TARDIS-shaped hole in your life.

First of all, there's the third and final part of Power of the Daleks, the reimagined version of the lost Patrick Troughton classic. Adapted, directed and starring Nick Scovell, this is twenty-three minutes of cracking Dalek action. Produced by TNT Films and with music by Everybody Else, this is well worth watching if you need a little extra Who to keep you going till the winter. Don't worry if you're already super-familiar with the original serial; Nick and co. have reworked the story into a riveting modern adventure. The Daleks look fantastic, and sound even better, with voices by official BBC Dalek supremo Nick Briggs. Watch part three here, or go back and watch it from the beginning.

Not enough? Prefer your fiction a little more literary? Not to fear, for the Doctor Who Project, the acclaimed Canadian Doctor Who fanfic series has just published the first story in its new season (the thirty-eighth!), 'The Mask of Anhur' by the very talented Robert Mammone. This is my reading for tonight, if I've been good and done all my chores.

Sorry to say I shan't be contributing to Season 38 after all. My on-again, off-again story has finally switched to off. I have had some real issues getting this piece right, and not enough free time to give it the focus it deserves. But not to fret - 'Timebase' is still a work in progress, and TDWP chief Bob Furnell and I plan to release it in the near future, before the publication of the upcoming Season 39 (already in the planning stages).

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.