Do Doctor Who Fans Really Have Anything To Worry About In This 50th Anniversary Year?

Much has been made on fan forums of this picture of a BBC Worldwide promotional poster taken at a toy convention.

After Steven Moffat suggested Doctor Who would take over TV for the anniversary I would say fans could be justifiably miffed at the paltry offerings on display. But I'd caution that 1) Doctor Who producers are infamous liars and should never be trusted and 2) we don't know that that is everything on offer. 

Unfortunately a lot of fans seem to be losing their heads over this. I suppose, because I became a Doctor Who fan in the wildnerness years of the early 90s, I'm a little more willing to accept whatever I'm given. But even if we get nothing more than what has already been announced I really don't think Doctor Who fans have anything to be complaining about. 

So we've got 8 standard episodes of Doctor Who series 7 to come. A 50th anniversary special and An Adventure in Space and Time which dramatises the production of the first series of Doctor Who. Plus we get  11 Doctor Who audio stories in the form of the Destiny of the Doctor (starting this month with Hunters of Earth). And we get a Big Finish multi-Doctor story The Light At The End featuring all 5 surviving "Classic" Doctors and multiple other Doctor Who stars. 

Big Finish are also giving us, in their main Doctor Who range, a trilogy of stories set in 1963 with the final story featuring a return of the stars of the 25th anniversary! Meanwhile their Companion Chronicles series will feature another trilogy starting in November with the first story telling the tale of the Doctor and Susan on Gallifrey before they began their adventures. 

Meanwhile in the world of books... Each month between now and November Puffin are releasing a short story by e-book written by well known children's authors. I read the first one last night, A Big Hand For The Doctor, and was suitably impressed. 

Plus IDW are printing a special 11 part series of comics featuring every Doctor and the Doctor Who Magazine has just started its own Doctor Who anniversary special comic story. 

And on top of all this we are getting other Doctor Who books, the usual Big Finish output (which is considerable) and the new IDW Doctor Who volume 3. 

So no, I think content wise this year is going to be mammoth!!

11.22.63 - Stephen King Still Has It!

I've just finished reading Stephen King's 11.22.63. It is the story of a man who is shown a way to travel into the past and, on the way to stopping the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, begins to discover time  doesn't want to be changed.

I'm a huge Stephen King fan. This does mean I'm more able to put up with the "extra padding" he tends to put in his books. It exists here, I won't deny it, and there is a great deal that could've been left out. But then again that is a bit like being unhappy that someone would do a painting when they could just do a line drawing. 

The story is good, the pacing is up there with the better Stephen King novels, and you do start to care about the mission. Will he stop the assassination? What will happen if he does? Those questions are answered and the ending of the book is far more satisfying that you'd think given we know JFK really was assassinated.

The usual King touches are there. He has brief snippets of what I'd call "Kingese" (Jimla!). We have references to his other works, with an extended stay for Jake Epping (the main character) in Derry where he interacts with characters from IT not long after the 50s segment of that book. I'm a huge IT fan and I was so pleased to read Bev and Richie once again! And yes, the protagonist is an English teacher...  

This is certainly one of his better books, coming somewhere just below IT and The Stand on my personal favourites list. Check it out!

Stephen King's 11.22.63 - Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk

Primeval: S04E04

Sorry for the late update, I've been incredibly distracted by personal issues this last week or so.

Episode 4 of the fourth series of Primeval finally had me interested again. After the previous episode I was worried that there might be no hope for this programme at all but I love being proved wrong. There was a plot. There was several story strands that worked well. There was mild peril. There was character development. And there was less poor use of CGI (except for a couple of poorly edited reused shots).

I'm intrigued by Matt now, whereas before I was just annoyed by him. What is his backstory? When asked about school he suggested he didn't remember it. Is this a lie? Is he from a different time? Is that why he is so friendly towards Emily?

I want to know. I'm interested. Finally Primeval! FINALLY!

Primeval: S04E03

Talk about a mixed bag. This episode, "Tree Creepers" showed  us everything that can be good about the concept of the show. But it also showed us everything that can be bad about it's implementation. 

The A-plot was regarding 3 time travellers who appear through an anomaly in a theatre, followed by two rather nasty arboreal reptiles. The B-plot has Connor stuck back at base working on a security system that accidentally locks down the entire ARC. 

The good points: The time travellers (up to 15 of them supposedly) are an interesting addition to the show and something that appears, hopefully, to be adding a bit more depth to the usual "monster of the week" run of the mill show. In fact the story continues into at least next episode which is excellent. 

Connor had plenty of screen time. 

And there were some interesting questions that'll make me come back next week:

Will Rex survive?

Why are the time travellers around? Are they lost or simply adventurers? 

What are Gideon and Matt up to? 

What is Burton's "New Dawn" programme? 

Now for the really bad points:

The CGI-human interaction is truly appalling. The fight scenes between Matt and a Tree Creeper was truly boring as at no point would my mind allow me to believe the Tree Creeper and Matt were even in the same room. Something has to be done to avoid too much reliance on CGI if they are unable to use it in a compelling way. 

Doctor Who expects us to suspend all belief of reality and accept the insane, illogical and stupid as real. That works because Doctor Who's that sort of show and it's built up our trust over many, many years. Primeval's writers have obviously watched the Doctor's mad cap solutions to things (Think nice thoughts!) and thought they could try the same on their show, and that no one would care. They are very wrong. Showing electricity moving up a pole as if it would be visible, or Rex's amazing recovery from unconscious to happy flying Rex in about 2 seconds are just too unbelievable. They take me out of the story and ruin it for me. I don't want to have to sit there, in a show about time-travel for heaven's sake, and think this is just totally unrealistic. 

And it's not just in the technical, nit-picking aspects that this "unreal" feeling permeates through the show. The human reactions to situations don't ring true. Burton is dying in a room without oxygen. Connor is working on a solution. Connor seems unconcerned, slow, unhurried, and relaxed. It's jarringly awful writing. I wanted to see urgency, fear and focus. I wanted tension. The most tense I felt was as to whether or not Rex would survive and even that was ruined by his super quick recovery. When you're more concerned about whether a CGI flying lizard might survive than one of the more compelling characters (Burton), then you know something is up. 

The reason I stopped watching Primeval during series 3 was because it had an excellent concept that was being handled extremely badly. This show has a really great potential but it's now series 4 and I just don't see it being realised. I'll persevere but only because I hope for better.

Primeval: S04E02

The second episode of series 4 was a vast improvement over the first. Whilst both are still run of the mill monster of the week episodes, the second episode had a heart. There were jokes, Lester, Abby and Connor actually acted like themselves and there were more hints of what Gideon (the old man who keeps talking to Matt) is up to. And with Connor's friend from the dodo episode returning and our first look at Rex and his new home in the menagerie, we had a good sense of the highlights of earlier series.

Plus Kaprosuchus was this weeks monster. How anyone can not go "Whoop" at that, I don't know!

Primeval: S04E01

I've been looking forward to the return of Primeval for some time. It's a bit bizarre, given the fact that I gave up on series 3 halfway through and promised myself never to watch the show again.

So I sat down to watch the first episode of the fourth season with my expectations raised extremely highly and thus I was disappointed.

The problem with the show had been that it was becoming ever more a "monster of the week" show. That was forgiveable at the start, but I'd hoped to see a thread of a story going through each episode. The Helen Cutter stuff just didn't do it for me. Thus when this first episode turned out to be little more than just another monster of the week story (it's a Spinosaurus, which sort of makes up for it!) I was crushed.

However, I'm being unfair. The acting was better than usual. If we forget the massive plot holes (good to see somethings never change), the story was alright as a set up. The end showing Matt Anderson talking to some old fellow, and the possible dynamics of Philip Burton's relationship with the ARC leave me hopeful there might be something more to come.

So yes I was disappointed. I shall lower my expectations for tonight's episode accordingly and cross my fingers for improvement.

Things I'm Looking Forward To In 2011

1. Primeval

Well at least I don't have to wait long for this one; the series 4 opener is on the 1st of January and the second episode is shown the next day! Not only do we have the best characters returning (Lester being the most awesome) and the worst characters written out but we get two series in 2011. The first will premiere on ITV and the second will be shown towards the end of the year on Watch (all thanks to the unique joint funding that has brought Primeval back from cancellation).



It looks like the special effects budget has been improved, although the first few episodes seem very reptilian heavy. Despite having been rather sceptical when Primeval first arrived on our screens, it's grown on me and I think it can be excellent with the right people behind it. I'm quietly confident it finally has the right mixture of people and money to be a success.

2. Terra Nova

The pilot is due out in May, and I've been looking forward to it for a while. Steven Spielberg, Brannon Braga, time travel, dinosaurs and a family in peril?? How can I not get excited?

I don't know any of the cast and the plot is a little vague but I'm still eagerly awaiting our first look at this show!

3. Movies

Lots of movies to get excited about, but here are a few of the one's I'm looking forward to.

The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn - Tintin. I mean, you have to see it don't you??
I Am Number Four - Only interested because everyone else keeps telling me about it.
Battle: Los Angeles - Really excited about this
Scream 4 - 1990s retro.
X-Men: First Class - I'm an X-Men completist. I suspect this will be shite.
Green Lantern - I don't know why but I think the trailer for this looked awesome. (Muscles I suspect ;) )
Rise of the Apes - I LOVE the Apes movies.
Transformers: Dark of the Moon - I was disappointed by the last movie. Let's hope they've learnt their lessons.

4. Doctor Who Series 6

I'll admit I was extremely lukewarm towards Matt Smith but the Christmas Carol episode and a rewatching of series 5 has made me rediscover my love for Doctor Who and with the following trailer how could you not get excited??



5. Torchwood: The New World

After the amazing Children of the Earth I am very excited to see what the 10 part story they are dreaming up at Torchwood towers is about!

6. Falling Skies



Steven Spielberg. Aliens. How can you go wrong??

7. The Walking Dead

Both the second series of the TV series and the continuing monthly comic series make The Walking Dead a highlight of 2011. You simply must check both out.

Predators

I'm a franchise fan. Predator was a masterpiece, Predator II was great, Aliens Vs Predator was alright and AVP:R was.... well absolutely awful but I watched it. That's how much of a fan I am. 

I've had July's release of Predators set in my diary for a while and was really looking forward to it. Alas, it turns out to be yet another bitter disappointment. 

The pacing was all wrong. In Predator, the slow parts were short and useful for building up the tension. In Predators, the slow parts of the bulk of the movie and were useful for story advancement but failed to build up the tension at all. I didn't feel the characters were in constant jeopardy, as they should have been, and I didn't feel excited or interested about their fates. Each death came with inevitability rather than surprise. Each death was in fact far from sudden. You knew it was coming. And you just don't care. 

The acting was decent, the filming alright, the overall story had promise. But the weird, glaring errors (despite being out in the open often, none of them noticed the planets above their heads until they reached a scenic clifftop setting!!) and the total lack of pacing leads this movie to be on a par with AvP. Alright but not recommended. It's worth a watch if it comes on the telly, but don't part with any hard earned money for it!

Dinoshark

Eric Balfour - The Only Good Thing About This Movie

You see something titled "Dinoshark" and you hope for a truly awesome B-movie. You're thinking Jaws meets Jurassic Park, and you get overly excited at the prospect.

Alas. I have very low standards. I love B-movies! LOVE 'EM. I accept a certain level of bad special effects and terrible acting.

But... Dinoshark mixes the very worst special effects money can't buy and awful acting little seen since "Leeches"  and comes up with diddly squat. There's no tension, no suspense, nothing. If it had simply straight copied the scenes from Jaws it would have been better. Instead we get simple attack after uneventful attack. Boring

Eric Balfour is the only good thing in this movie, but that makes it even worse... when you have someone actually acting talking to someone trying desperately to act it only shows the flaws up even more clearly.

 Lesson learnt: SyFy (don't you hate their rebranding??) TV movies are just never going to get any better.

Alien Prequel Vs Predators

With Predators due to be released later this year and Ridley Scott's return to the Alien franchise almost a given, it's time to start getting excited!

Below are the first on set pictures from the production of Predators, a film I trust will see us put the AvP franchise to bed and return us to firmer movie ground.

And if the rumours are to be believed we might even get a brief cameo by his most sexiness himself...

And an Alien prequel would be very, very exciting. With the mess made by Alien3 and Alien Resurrection, it's probably good to return to a time when the Xenomorphs were terrifying. Most exciting stuff indeed!

Dinoshark and Sharktopus: Seriously!

Imagine a world in which movies with titles like Dinoshark and Sharktopus can exist. Imagine no more... Dread Central brings us some info on what surely must be considered the most eagerly awaiting B-Movies of the year!

And in other exciting news from Sci-Fi Wire, it looks like Steven Spielberg might be returning to sci-fi telly with a time travelling family AND DINOSAURS! If Terra Nova is greenlit I promise to bow down before Rupert Murdoch and never say mean things about Fox again (unless they then cancel it). Spielberg. Dinosaurs. Just keep saying it. *sigh*

Survivors: Improvements?

After last weeks post on Survivors current series and it's downsides, we were actually treated to a good episode this week.

Despite starting off as your standard Survivors "One/Two Of The Group Is Missing" story, it actually comes off as a refreshingly depressing take on human nature, in which a slave labour camp is being at a coal mine. The characters felt real, there was some gritty scenes involving harsh retribution and tough decisions, and we finally (if somewhat predictable) see a return of Abby's missing son to the storyline.

With possible foundations now laid out for future developments and the group finally seeming to accept the reality of their situation, I'm now eager to see how they round off this series. The Family is now united, the criminal and the nurse, the playboy and the schoolboy, together to face whatever the future holds for them. Maybe there is hope for the future of this series.  

Talking of BBC telly, whilst we wait for more news about exactly how/when Torchwood will be returning, Watch have issued a new online Torchwood comic... featuring Ianto!! Click here for more...

More Jurassic Park IV News

More Joe Johnston tidbits on the proposed new Jurassic Park movie. When asked about the "leaked" script of a proposed sequel from a couple of years back featuring gun-toting dinosaurs...

Drew: Is that still in the offing, or have you moved on now to a new idea?

Joe: We have. There is an idea now for number four that is different from the first three, and that is more or less the beginning of a new trilogy, in that it sends the whole franchise off in a new direction. It's not about the dinosaur park anymore. It's about all-new characters. So Steven's busy right now with the stuff he's doing and I've got to do "Captain America," but hopefully afterwards, we'll find time to develop it. And really... it's something different that we haven't seen before in the "Jurassic Park" world.

Drew: I'm sorry we won't see the Sayles/Monahan idea.

Joe: Well, you know, Universal and Steven will want to keep making these movies as long as they're successful, and who knows? We may see the Monahan/Sayles version come back.

All bizarrely positive considering this is a project that has been in development hell for years. Let's hope we get some serious dinosaur action... in 3D!!

Fringe And Caprica: Could Be Better?

Fringe and Caprica are the only current US TV shows I watch on a regular basis. Both have interesting premises, but both have flaws.

Fringe is the X-Files for the 21st Century. It has awesome monster of the week episodes and a story arc from heaven. Plus both the monster of the week episodes and the story arc work together so the show feels far less disjointed than the X-Files sometimes did (oh we've uncovered a global conspiracy but next week we'll be in small town America dealing with a Satanic cult because we have no focus). Better yet, we actually learn things about the story arc. Where the X-Files served only to confuse whenever it tried to give you a little bit of info, Fringe slowly builds up the back story to the clash of the two universes.

But it has a few flaws. Astrid is a totally under utilised character even if she was just used for comic relief. The Olivia/Peter romance just doesn't ring true and certainly is being rushed. As we all know shows usually quickly jump the shark once any sexual tension is removed. The fact Bishop is linked to just about every case they investigate is starting to stretch belief. He may be a genius but even he only had finite time available. I think it could do with more focus on the Massive Dynamic storyline and general Fringe weirdness and less random emotional visits to places from Bishops/Olivia's pasts

Caprica is another very interesting proposition. Set in the Battlestar Galactica universe but 58 years before the Destruction Of The Twelve Colonies, it's very different to BSG. BSG was about imminent life/death situations, war and rebellion. Caprica is more a sci-fi soap opera about love, life and intrigue. Which is fitting as BSG at it's best was also sometimes pretty close to becoming a sci-fi soap opera.

The world we are presented with is a very advanced 1950s sort of place, with strange and unusual lifestyles and a new monotheistic religion rising in opposition to the mainstream Greco-Roman polytheism. It's actually pretty damn cool.

However for a soap opera to work you must like at least some of the characters. So far there seem to be very few characters I can actually say I like. And I feel like they are intentionally dragging the story out so it moves at a very, very slow pace. This last episode felt more like an extended middle with no beginning nor end and no great plot reveals or moves forward. I think the writers need to get a little sharper otherwise I know I'm going to be getting very bored soon.

However I think both series do have the potential to become very, very good pieces of television and move sci-fi telly to a new level. Fringe really does the push the boundaries of the imagination and Caprica might push the boundaries of genre's in general. Bring on the next episodes...

Survivors Series 2: We Have A Problem

Thanks mainly to many early Sunday morning showings of the original series of Survivors on UK Gold when I was young, I have a lot of time for the re-imagined series. The first series was alright, nothing spectacular and some of the acting really sucking, but it got us through and it ended with a major revelation which had me eager to see the second series.

Sadly, half way through, it is not living up to expectations. Every sci-fi/fantasy show sometimes suffers from "monster of the week" syndrome. Survivors seems to be trapped by "rescue of the week" syndrome. Episode 1: Anya/Al trapped under fallen debris. Episode 2: Abby finally escapes her imprisonment. Episode 3: Tom is kidnapped by Samantha and her group. Episode 4: Tom and Greg forced to work in a coal mine by a new set of captors. Etc??

This would be bearable if they added some new twists to what is happening to the main group. Instead we have no new additions (seriously, surely there would be people eager to join up with a group??), no permanent base (Abby's group seems to be the only nomadic group in the country) and nothing NEW. Basically the interesting parts of the first season were all those taken from Terry Nation's novelisation of the original series. Now they have run out of that inspiration it would seem like the show's writers have just given up trying to be interesting.

I truly hope something changes, and soon! This is a post-apocalyptic show... we need dirty clothes, tough choices, main character deaths and new additions. Or else this new series may be even shorter than the original!!

New Judge Dredd Movie... Don't Mess This Up!!

So the new Judge Dredd movie is moving towards production and I have great hopes... and great fears... for it.

I've been a fan of 2000AD and Judge Dredd in particular since forever. The vistas and people of Mega City One are so awesomely freakish and grand that they practically scream out for a movie. Yet when they finally got one, a Sylvester Stallone Americanised mediocre movie, the very character whom held it all together was turned into an All-American hero when in fact he is a conflicted but resolute officer of a fascist state.

If the movie can at least maintain some of Judge Dredd's grittiness, it's freakishness and it's vast and magnificent cityscape then it might very well be the best movie ever made.

And I think it could do it. With the effects that can be achieved now, the inhabitants and backgrounds can really be brought to life.

But something tells me that this movie will be a sanitised version of Mega City One. And it'd be all the poorer for it.

If you've never read any Judge Dredd I advise you to do so immediately!!

Megapiranha!

From the studio that brought us Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus, comes Megapiranha, a movie released just in time for the Piranha 3-D remake.

Not only that but it's got Tiffany in it! Yes... Tiffany! Mega Shark Vs. Giant Octopus was amusing but not quite bad enough to be "so bad it's good". Hopefully Mega Piranha can avoid mediocrity and go for gold and make a B-movie for which we can all be proud!

Stephen King's Under The Dome

So... this week I have been mainly reading Under The Dome by Stephen King. Full disclosure: I am an unreformed Stephen King fan. So take my review with a pinch of salt!

This book is no quick read. It's over 800 pages long. Now some reviewers have moaned about this as if length is an indication of quality. Well it's not. You can't moan about the length of a book unless it's bad. And this is certainly not a bad book.

I'm going to put Under The Dome up there with It and The Stand, as an example of Stephen King at is best. Now, although I think what I'm about to say might be sacrilegious, I believe this book is better paced than either of those two with much tighter, neater writing and a clearer story. I don't want to diminish the other two books, whose charms are obvious, but Under The Dome involves far less "Oh get to the point" and more "What the hell is coming next???"

The characters are Stephen King archetypes... strong women, trailer trash, truly evil bastards who don't even know they are evil, and the ever present strong but loving good guy. Again there has been some complaints about that from a few reviewers but I have to say I find it... cosy. As a seasoned Stephen King reader I feel like I'm settling in with welcoming relatives of well loved friends.

The story is compelling (putting me in mind a little of a post-September 11th The Tommyknockers) and keeps you  reading in order to see where it goes next. Even though that tends not to be a happy place, the book isn't totally grim with enough hope and humour to keep you going.

Pick it up, this is one of his classics.

Primeval - Should We Give It One More Chance?

I gave up on Primeval mid-way through Series 3 and vowed never to watch it again given the pitiful state of acting and writing.

Well, it was cancelled at the end of the series and I was only slightly sad when I found out. This show has sooooo much potential. It could be the ITV rival to Doctor Who. But they bodged that last season so badly that they completely squandered the possibilities inherent in the show's premise.

But now new, international, funding has been found and the shows about to receive a big shake up for series 4. They will be focussing more on future based stories... with some more complicated storylines.

I'm willing to give it one more go. It better not disappoint!

Jurassic Park IV News

Hold on to your hats people! It's yet more drip-drip news of Jurassic Park IV...

Last year Joe Johnston stated yet again there might still be hope of a new Jurassic Park movie. Well we've heard this before (way back in 2005!) so I just dismissed it as just more hot air. But now Joe Johnston has told BoxOffice a bit more about his plans, more firmly confirmed it is happening (sure...) and given us some hope it might actually not suck (I'm not saying the others films sucked, I'm a huge JP fan!).

The internet is freaking out that there might be a Jurassic Park IV.

Wow, when did that happen?

November—you mentioned to Ain't It Cool that there might be a good script.

Did I tell him? Was it me?

You said that there was no way to get people back on the island for a fourth time and have it make sense, but that 2001 was the last installment and we're due.

Well, there is going to be a Jurassic Park IV. And it's going to be unlike anything you've seen. It breaks away from the first three—it's essentially the beginning of the second Jurassic Park trilogy. It's going to be done in a completely different way. That's pretty much all I can tell you.

A second trilogy?

If you think of the first three as a trilogy, number four would be the beginning of a second trilogy.

That's big. So not to lock you in, but there's a possibility there might be a total of six films?

Well, you never know. If they keep working—and if audiences keep going to them—there's no reason why there wouldn't be. We just want to make them justified in their own right. We don't want to make sequel after sequel just because there's a market for it. We want to tell different, interesting stories. You don't want to just sell hamburger.

I think a new trilogy, a new start, would be an excellent idea as the previous trilogy has truly screwed writers by making it nearly impossible to find a sensible way to create a plot involving dinosaurs!

No doubt news will come out in 3 or 4 months saying the plans have been shelved. Again. *sigh*

If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist