Category: 2007
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Writer Garth Ennis starts distinguishing what makes Dan Dare different this issue as Dan and Digby get underway with their mission to save the galaxy. Or at least the human colonists. Though the humans and some of the alien race, the Treens, live together on some planets. The issue opens with Dan and Digby reunited,…
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Dan Dare’s all about the reassuring, calming presence of the capable colonialism and patriarchy (i.e., the British Empire). I have a feeling it’s going to get even more interesting once Anglophiliac Dan Dare returns to active duty. The original series—the British Buck Rogers—dates back to the fifties, and writer Garth Ennis keeps with the mid-century…
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X Isle ends worse than expected. The screenplay or treatment adaptation got to the point where the original writer was hoping the director would love to do an Aliens but robots sequence. Instead, in the comic medium, it goes from discovering the evil robots with tentacles who are actually just doing their job (zookeeping) to…
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The love story at the heart of Paris could take place anywhere. But it also can't take place anywhere but Paris. This collection emphasizes the Paris setting, with artist Simon Gane doing a new visual prologue of the city waking up. The birds are chirping, the lovers are waking (or already busy), and the city…
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Hitman: Closing Time opens the only way it can (or should) following the previous collection’s gut-wrenching conclusion, which saw Tommy’s surrogate father, Sean, die protecting him. It starts with a Lobo crossover. And writer Garth Ennis spends the entire issue shitting on Lobo. It’s a done-in-one crossover with art from Doug Mahnke. The art’s perfectly…
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The “Life on Mars” season finale begs think pieces about its failures. Not the direction; S.J. Clarkson does a great job. Not the acting; everyone’s good, though not really great because it’s such a bad story. To wrap up the mystery of whether series lead John Simm is living in 1973 and experiencing hallucinations he’s…
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S.J. Clarkson directs this episode so it always looks good and moves well. The script’s from first “Mars”-timer Mark Greig, who turns in a fairly decent “is the guv a killer” episode. Philip Glenister’s been charged with murder and the evidence is against him; with replacement DCI Ralph Brown in to oversee the case, John…
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It says a little bit too much about “Life on Mars” series two the writer tasked with resolving the “boyfriend in a coma, it’s really serious” arc presumably going on in future with Archie Panjabi, Simm’s girlfriend in the pilot episode who was kidnapped and apparently rescued; it’s been a season and a half and…
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It’s a Matthew Graham episode, where he definitely goes far in showing I was right to dread Matthew Graham episodes. After a delightful claymation opening, John Simm wakes to a phone call from the station. They need him there ASAP. He’s been out a day sick, which we’ll later find out is closer to two…
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So this response is going to be about the importance of show bibles for consistency’s sake, not even continuity. Or at least the first few paragraphs. And I just remembered where I heard of show bibles–“Star Trek.” The phaser rifle was only used in the pilots even though it was in the show bible as…
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New writer (Julie Rutterford) and director (Richard Clark) to the show this episode; they do a fine job, Rutterford even getting to approach some character development for John Simm as far as his relationships with his teammates. There’s not a lot, there’s nothing conclusive, but there’s more to it than usual because Simm’s big mouth…
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Thank goodness for S.J. Clarkson. There’s also a bunch of good acting in this episode, but Clarkson’s direction is what holds it all together because Chris Chibnall’s script certainly isn’t doing the trick. Chibnall has two emphases this episode—first, lengthy exposition sequences with John Simm and Philip Glenister recapping information the viewer has seen play…
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Series two starts with S.J. Clarkson directing, which is good, and Matthew Graham writing, which is middling. Graham’s leaning in on the “present affects the past,” with a villain terrorizing comatose John Simm in the hospital and the only way Simm can save himself is confronting the bad guy in the past. Marc Warren’s actually…
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Voyage of the Damned opens with a repeat of the previous season’s cliffhanger, the Doctor (David Tennant) on his space and time vessel, the TARDIS, and it crashing into something and a Titanic life preserver landing on him. Some of it’s reused footage, but I think once we get the third, “What,” exclamation, we’re into…
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So, when I started watching “Doctor Who,” I didn’t have any idea the title is a joke. Or can be a joke. Even though I’ve known about the show most of my life… didn’t realize it. Now, is the “Time Lord” thing… is the “Lord” part really important? I don’t think I’ve ever seen heavy…
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It’s still got Russell T. Davies but there’s a director change since last episode. Now it’s Colin Teague, which turns out fine because Teague’s the best director they’ve had all season except maybe Hettie Macdonald. But as far as doing straightforward “Doctor Who” successfully—especially since it’s a modern day episode—Teague excels. Though not even Teague…
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I’m going to go out on a limb and say having Howie Chaykin do an issue of art—the fiftieth Punisher MAX, so for the collectors’ who got anniversary issues–having Howie fill-in was a mistake. Maybe if the rest of it weren’t regular artist Goran Parlov, like if it’d been all guest artists. But Howie ends…
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So I very awkwardly noticed the female producer who did a couple episodes of “Who” is gone, with Phil Collinson back. It was an awkward notice because she was actually gone last episode. She just did the two-parter with the pre-WWI love story. This episode is Russell T. Davies writing and it’s the start of…
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Blink is apparently not a backdoor pilot to a “Doctor Who” spin-off where recognizable cast—in this case Carey Mulligan on her way up—interacts with the world of Doctor Who without necessarily having to do a lot of scenes with David Tennant. Or Freema Agyeman, who’s second-billed but feels like she left the show and everything…
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So I thought this episode—wrapping up a two-parter about the Doctor (David Tennant) turning himself into a human so as to avoid some aliens who are hunting him and losing himself in early 1900s England—wasn’t going to get any worse after Tennant, having regained his memory and alien… superpowers (sure, okay), asks his human love…
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I didn’t have a great feeling when I saw Paul Cornell with the writing credit but I forced myself to be hopeful. Plus, Charlie Palmer directing, surely it would be all right. What’s the worst Cornell would do, another overly melodramatic time waster… And, yes, he does do another overly melodramatic time waster only this…
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There have to be TV shows where they unintentionally duplicate episodes. Soap operas, whatever. The same plot must get repeated. Unintentionally. Because it very obviously happens intentionally, such as with 42, which is a riff on a great two-parter from last season, only without anything similarly great. Like, if you’re going to remake something… don’t…
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What is this show’s problem with companions’ mothers? We briefly met new companion Freema Agyeman’s mom, Adjoa Andoh, in the season premiere and she seemed fine. Nope. She’s possibly even more annoying than previous companion’s mom Camille Coduri, which doesn’t even seem possible, but the episode manages it, with mystery dweeb Bertie Carvel warning Andoh…
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Last episode I went in pretty hard on the British actors playing Americans but I think I may have emphasized accents too much. Hugh Quarshie’s accent isn’t bad. His performance is bad, his accent is fine. Whereas Andrew Garfield’s accent is bad and his performance is bad. Though even Garfield seems like a strong supporting…
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So… Nicholas Briggs does do the Dalek voices in this episode. He’s been doing all of them, which is weird because the Dalek voices this episode are terrible and so… I figured it was other actors. But no. It’s Briggs. And he’s terrible. I was waiting for the Daleks to show up—they’re trying to take…
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Really nice direction from Richard Clark this episode; really nice. It’s a strong episode overall, because it’s set out in space in the future, which are usually the best “Who” episodes (so far), but this episode manages to do it with a bunch of regular humans. Well, not regular humans. 5 billion years removed new…
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I was expecting more from The Shakespeare Code. Dean Lennox Kelly’s Shakespeare is rather wanting. The characterization of it all seems more Knight’s Tale than anything historical or original. There are numerous quotations throughout, usually David Tennant making a quip and Kelly saying he’s going to keep it and Tennant (or Freema Agyeman) worrying they…
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New only-other-billed actor (but technically not the new companion yet) Freema Agyeman guest starred at the end of last season but is playing a different character here. Thank goodness. Agyeman is a medical resident, so it’s going to be the Doctor and a doctor going forward, which is a lot better than a vague IT…
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Elite Squad is about how hard it is to be a fascist stormtrooper in Rio de Janeiro, because not only do you have to deal with militarized criminals, corrupt cops, smooth-talking (and sexy) liberals, you also might have a wife who doesn’t like you being a fascist stormtrooper or some dead kid’s mom come ask…
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Barracuda is one of Garth Ennis’s… what shall we call them… NC-17 action comedy limited series. He’s got a bunch of them at Vertigo, a few a handful of other places. The difference with Barracuda is it’s for Marvel (it’s the only Punisher MAX spin-off, which is something since Ennis loved spin-offs for Preacher and…
The Stop Button 