Things To Come 2017

In which I attempt to drum up some interest by indicating what I am working on...

Back in April 2015 I posted an entry which gave some obscure picture clues as to the kind of things that would be coming up on the blog in the following few months. Of course me being me, some of those things took much longer to arrive and others, well they haven't appeared at all (yet).

Despite what some might think, I'm not giving up - even though things have ground to a virtual standstill around here. There will be more on my reaction to that problem in the first week of the new year, but for now, here's a new set of visual hints for each of my various "strands".

Things *are* picking up I promise you...

Collector's Dream (comics):

Golden Sunsets (????):

View From The Fifth Row (movies):

The Doctor Who Show (podcast):

The Book Tower (novels):

The Idiot's Lantern (television):

Tape Loading Error (video games):

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once (????):

The 800 Day Project (classic Doctor Who):

The Reminiscence Bump (music):

Random Ravings (????):

The Inmate Interviews (Q&A):

Timelord Thoughts (modern Doctor Who):

As you can see, lots of different things there in between the "spine" of Doctor Who. Some of these are just placeholders. Some are almost finished. Some are just ideas in my head - and some are being kept secret...

So feel free to join me in 2017 for what hopefully is an interesting year...

The Doctor Who Show Reviews - Episode 11 (TARDIS Library 3)

Time to take a look at some more Doctor Who comics. This is the text version of the podcast review I recorded for the episode released at the end of November 2016. Apologies but it's going to be a short one this month with just a single title to look at. The intention is to catch up on the final two parts of "Supremacy of the Cybermen" in time for December.

Moving right along then, let's take a look at the most release in Year Two of the adventures of the Twelfth Doctor. Skip straight to my comments at the end if you don't want to know certain aspects of the story, as there will be spoilers from this point on.

Twelfth Doctor  # 2.10

"Playing House" Part 2. Writer George Mann. Artist: Rachael Stott

So in the previous issue, the Doctor and new companion Hattie found themselves in the windswept English countryside thanks to the TARDIS. Investigating an innocent-looking house they instead discovered that it was anything but normal. Trapped in a labyrinth of endless corridors and seemingly infinite rooms, the pair not only encountered distressed mum Holly, who had lost her entire family to the mysterious mansion, but also the ghost-like Spyrillites - temporal scavengers who feed on vortex energy. Following them to the heart of the structure, the Doctor uncovered the chilling reality - the house is really another TARDIS, and something is *very* wrong...

As this new issue opens we see the Spyrillites gorging themselves on the white globes of energy hanging from the Architecural Reconfiguration System - that giant tree-like machine we last saw in "Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS". The Doctor interrogates Holly about her activities before she entered the house and everything went crazy, and deduces that she accidentally brought home the shell of a TARDIS disguised as an everyday object. Unfortunately this TARDIS is dying - leaking Artron energy everywhere and losing control of its internal dimensions. Instead of collapsing in on itself, the time ship has merged with the family home and is expanding exponentially. The immeasurable number of rooms will continue to spill out across the Earth until the planet implodes under the strain.

That all means nothing to Holly - she just wants to find her children. The Doctor tries to calm her down by saying that this TARDIS has them safe and will lead them to their location. Hattie figures out that means the cellar - that's what all those physic projections of running children in part one were for - but the way is locked and the countdown clock has chimed seven. Time is running out. Wooden doors are no match for an angry mother though and Holly kicks her way through to a maze of twisting stairways which eventually lead to a tearful reunion with her family.

Chatting to the two children, the Doctor learns that they know the way to the TARDIS console room (or "the new kitchen" as they call it). Following the kids through a dizzying array of ever more bizarre locations, everyone finally arrives in the vast control room as the clock chimes three - but a number of very corporeal looking Spyrillites are already there. While Hattie, Holly and her husband grapple hand-to-hand with the monsters, the Doctor attempts to reconfigure the TARDIS controls. As the battle appears to be lost, Hattie remembers the hugely signposted plot point from last issue and forces the Spyrillites back by throwing salt at them.

Thankfully the Doctor manages to reset the malfunctioning TARDIS long enough to separate it from the house and bring everything back to normal. The Spyrillites are gone and Holly's family are safe at last. Saying their goodbyes, the Doctor and Hattie rematerialise in space to see the poor lost TARDIS finally explode at the heart of a star. There is time for one last guitar jam session before Hattie is taken back to her home on The Twist. It appears it really was just one trip in time and space...

Okay...  So it might seem that for a change I've skimmed lightly over the plot in this issue, but here's the first problem - I really haven't - that's pretty much all there is. Don't get me wrong, there are some interesting pieces for Rachael Stott to work her artistic magic on - and I'll come back to those later - but in story terms it's pretty weak and seems very rushed. Once again George Mann has let me down with his conclusion. I should know better by now.

Let's look at things in a bit more detail. Firstly there was no real sense of clear peril here. Yes the TARDIS was expanding and the clock was counting down - but to what? What exactly would have happened if it had reached zero? Supposedly the Earth was in peril from the ever-expanding TARDIS but would it have exploded suddenly as the clock struck it's final chime? It's all a bit muddled.

Secondly, to resolve the whole situation the Doctor has to do little more than punch a few buttons. Come on, when you've got the incalculable inconstant playground of the TARDIS to work with, surely there's a chance to come up with something more...original? You know...make something up? Add something new to our knowledge about how TARDIS's work?

Thirdly, whose ship was it anyway and why was it abandoned? Maybe the series writers are going to address this further down the line, but a throwaway question from the Doctor wouldn't have hurt to set things up. I'm also surprised that the Doctor just chose to destroy the malfunctioning TARDIS instead of investigating things further.

Finally the Spyrillites turned out to be completely ineffectual, scared off by a little salt which was conveniently available. Er.. and why did the console room develop into a second kitchen exactly? I know it merged with the families house somehow but it's a bit of a stretch. Surely I can't be the only one who is asking these kind of questions?

As far as the characters are concerned, the Doctor is his usual mercurial self and I have no problem with how he is portrayed, but Hattie walks off stage after having had zero chance at development  - beyond repeatedly saying "Doctor, you make no sense". There is a hint that her story may not be completely over, but to be honest I've no great desire to see her again. On the positive side there is a nice undercurrent theme of how a mother's love for her family can drive her to overcome huge obstacles and Holly does come across as very strong willed.

Though I might be disappointed with the script, it's the complete opposite with the pictures. I raved about Rachael Stott's artwork last month and it's more superlatives this time. As I hoped, she makes the most of the setting to develop unusual panel designs and page layouts and produce some simply beautiful images. I defy anyone not to be impressed by the depiction of the giant console room with its mass of walkways rising from a pit of bizarre looking machinery worthy of Jack Kirby himself. You want variation in your TARDIS rooms? Rachael gives it to you in spades, with one simply stunning widescreen illustration showing a village street, crystal caves, a rose garden, a parade of shops and even a submarine. It's wonderful.

The Doctor is even more energetic than last issue. He constantly looks to be on the move, dashing from one place to the next, his body as active as his brain. If I have to pick one favourite image, it has to be the full page shot as he explains how the dying TARDIS is expanding - one hand on his hip and the other raised in the air, his eyes vibrant under those attack eyebrows. Conversely if I have one tiny criticism it's that the portrayal of Hattie seems a little inconsistent at times -  but it's a minor flaw in an otherwise marvellous tapestry. I'm starting to wonder if Rachael might have her own Doctor Who story to tell someday, and what wonders she might produce as both writer and artist.

So the scores on the doors are probably 4 our of 10 with a must try harder for the story and an 8 out of 10 for the artwork. An interesting read let down by yet another too-swift resolution.

A quick glance at the variant covers reveals some fine penmanship from Mike Collins and Warren Pleece, but star billing goes to Mariano Laclaustra and his interpretation of Escher's famous "Hand With Reflecting Sphere". Mariano is back on interior art duties next time along with returning writer Robbie Morrison and apparently a new comics companion. Of course I'll be taking a look at that issue in next month's review.

Right I'm off. Don't forget about the audio version on the "TARDIS Library" podcast which you can listen to it at www.dwshow.net or download it to your mobile device via the usual iOS or Android apps. Please subscribe, share and support all the effort from my fellow presenters across all the shows we produce.

You can follow The Doctor Who Show on Twitter at @the DWshow or on Facebook at facebook.com/theDWshow. Finally the e-mail address is hello@the DWshow.net

If you have any specific comments about the blog, I'm always happy to chat on Twitter @livewire1221

Enjoy reading  and remember - the owls are not what they seem...

The Doctor Who Show Reviews - Episode 10 (TARDIS Library 2)

Welcome back to the Doctor Who Show "TARDIS Library". This is the text version of the podcast reviews I recorded for the episode released at the end of October 2016. One small point of note before I move on - as the fiction review segment of the podcast is now it's own separate thing each month, I've decided to start showing that sub-numbering in the title header so things tally up. Just in case anyone wondered. Or not.

Anyway, as usual I'm going to be looking at a pair of comics from Titan's line of Doctor Who titles, so let's crack on. Spoiler shields at the ready...

Fourth Doctor mini-series #5 (of 5):

 "Gaze of the Medusa" Part 5. Writers: Gordon Rennie & Emma Beeby. Artist: Brian Williamson

I last looked at this series way back in August 2016, so it's worth a quick recap of the key events of the previous four issues:

The Doctor and Sarah Jane had travelled to Victorian London. While walking in the foggy streets, they encountered strange giant cyclops creatures and Sarah Jane was captured while the Doctor was rescued by amateur "Chonologist" Professor Odysseus James and his daughter Athena. Sarah Jane was brought before the mysteriously veiled Lady Frances Carstairs who showed her a number of modern looking statues, including - scarily -  one of Sarah Jane herself !

Via her late husbands archaeological digs, Lady Frances had obtained the "Lamp of Chronos", a device which opened a portal into a different era. However she apparently encountered something nasty lurking in that past time period that was now slowly changing her physical form to stone. Hoping to use the TARDIS occupants knowledge to release the creature and regain her humanity, she schemed to capture the Doctor as he approached her mansion with his new friends on a rescue mission. Unfortunately in the ensuing scuffle the Lamp of Chronos activated and sent Sarah Jane and the Professor back in time to a cavern in the fifth century B.C.

While the Doctor and Athena were stuck in Victorian London trying to figure out a way to get them back, Sarah Jane and the Prof explored the underground cave system they were stranded in - only to discover that they were being stalked by a snake-like monster. Pursuing them relentlessly through the tunnels, it finally turned it's gaze on to poor Sarah Jane and transformed her into an immobile statue.

Managing to re-activate the Lamp of Chronos using the power of the TARDIS, the Doctor and Athena stepped into the past  - swiftly followed by Lady Carstairs and her one-eyed Scryclops henchmen. Coming across the injured Professor who was slowly turning to stone himself, the Doctor realised that they were actually in a prison for an alien parasite known as the "Medusa", which fed on the life energies of its quantum locked victims over centuries. Saving Athena from the rampaging Scryclops, the Professor sacrificed himself and crumbled to dust, allowing Athena and the Doctor to confront the Medusa. However suddenly the pair were surrounded by a green glow which the Doctor identified as a transmat beam and they rematerialised in front of...something huge.

Cue the cliff-hanger scream...

So having caught up, what does issue five hold in store?

The Doctor and Athena arrive inside what appears to be a futuristic looking spaceship. Looking up  - and up, and UP - they can see the seated form of an enormous bearded humanoid - a staff across his lap and a circlet upon his brow. Athena thinks that it's the god Zeus, but the Doctor tells her it's really just a hologram. Suddenly a booming voice makes him realise that it's beginning to wake up.

Meanwhile, Lady Carstairs is finally granted an audience with the hideous creature she has served for so long. Revealing her partially turned to stone face and that she was the one who had sent fresh beings through the time portal for the Medusa to feed upon, she begs it for a cure. The monster just laughs mirthlessly and declares that their "pact" was all a ruse - a lure to get Lady Carstairs into the past so that it could complete the transformation and use the poor bereaved woman as a vessel to escape it's prison.

Back in the alien ship, the Doctor tinkers with the computers, and via a series of images the hologram avatar divulges the secrets of the prison vessel, the Medusa and it's original captors. Using it's mental abilities the alien criminal controlled the menial Scryclops creatures so that they rose up against their masters and caused the ship to crash on Earth - burying itself deep beneath the surface of Ancient Greece. It may have broken free of it's jailers but the Medusa is still trapped within the ships bio-metric limitation field - unless.....with sudden horror the Doctor realises it's nefarious plan - that bodily possession is it's way out.

Completing the transfer of it's consciousness, the Medusa transmogrifies the body of Lady Carstairs into a humanoid reptilian hybrid. It's free to escape the underground prison and travel to the Victorian future. Free to feed. Realising that it's primary purpose has been thwarted, the prison ship's hologram initiates a self destruct sequence. The Doctor convinces the hologram intelligence that only he can stop the Medusa, and the Time Lord and Athena are swiftly trans-matted back outside to the caves. Avoiding the falling rock as the cave system shudders under the energies building within the ship, they race back to the portal.  The Doctor knows that shutting it down is the only way to save the future.

Stumbling back through the time gate into the Professor's lab, the Doctor manages to destabilise the temporal field and temporarily trap the Medusa before she can follow after them. He tries one last time to reason with her but it's to no avail - she is consumed with a need to feed on the "lesser species" and nothing will get in her way. Before the unstable Lamp of Chronos expires, the prison ship in the past suddenly and violently explodes, bringing down the ceiling on the Medusa, its green blood oozing out across the cave floor. Throwing the Lamp through its own portal, the Doctor traps the fiend in the past. Forever.

Between panels, the Doctor apparently uses the TARDIS and some of the Professor's equipment to reverse the quantum process and restore Sarah Jane (and others) to full health. Reunited at last and strolling through sunny London they meet up with Athena and her Navy Doctor fiancé, Lieutenant Albert Sul.....oh I think you can all guess who he is by now. It seems there is a wedding to attend. Someone's great-grandparents are getting married....

So at the end of all that, what did I think? Well on the whole it was very enjoyable. I think I've said before that the Doctor's characterisation is pretty much spot on. Yes, if I'm being particularly fan-boyishly nit-picky there are a few plot holes -  like where exactly did the Lamp of Chronos come from in the first place? plus,which race of alien idiots captures a villainess who can control minds without putting appropriate safeguards in place? - but those are fairly minor in the scheme of the whole thing. The plot actually hangs together really well and I was genuinely surprised at the way Lady Carstairs was used in the end.

I'm less happy about the treatment of Sarah Jane Smith. She's totally side-lined as a statue for most of the storyline in favour the plucky yet uninteresting Athena. It's such a waste of a well-loved character. I'd much rather SJ had been in the thick of it working things out and helping the Doctor - especially as we all knew that she was in no real danger anyway and would be fine by the end of issue five. That's the perennial problem with doing any kind of story with past companions - you can't have any real surprises. Having said all that and been so critical, I guess maybe the writers were thinking "we've only got five issues and everyone knows what Sarah Jane is like anyway, so let's create a new female lead with whom we can have a dramatic and emotional character arc". That kind of works.

As a new monster for the Doctor to face, the Medusa is not going to go down in Who legend as particularly memorable or have fans crying out for a return appearance (although there is a slight hint that her story is not completely over). She was not particularly nuanced, being more evil for evil's sake - so very traditional for Classic Doctor Who then. If she was to come back it might be nice to find out exactly why she was imprisoned in the first place. Plus there is still the mystery of what happened to the race of god-like aliens that the ship hologram was so patiently waiting for.

Moving on to the art, I think I've just about got to the point of being able to look past Brian Williamson's photo referencing that I was so disparaging of in past reviews - although there's no disguising a re-use of that handshake pose - even if he does flip the image. It's only really jarring when you have two panels next to each other where one looks *exactly* like Tom and the other looks nothing like him. In other areas the humanoid form of the Medusa is what you would expect - all green skin and forked tongue. Brian's alien "god" designs are pretty good too, and there is a glimpse of some interesting looking tech. If I was being very kind I'd say that there is a bit of a Brent Anderson vibe going on with some of his art, which is no bad thing. Maybe Brian just needs to move away from illustrating characters that have to look like well known actors and develop his own style a bit more. As an aside, I'd also be interested to know why there was such a long delay between issues four and five and if that was art or script driven. I say this because the artwork starts out much stronger than it finishes.

All told I think the mini series was a conditional success - a three and a half out of five if you must. Knowing the rate Titan are pumping them out I'm sure that it's almost a given that we will get more Fourth Doctor adventures, so when we do, I think I'd like to see a more original villain, better use of the companion, less reliance on the well trodden Victorian trappings of the televised series and perhaps a different artist. Let's see what they can come up with.

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Twelfth Doctor  # 2.9

"Playing House" Part 1. Writer George Mann. Artist: Rachael Stott

Cast your mind back to last month's issue, and after solving world peace on The Twist with his rock concert, the Doctor has invited guitarist Hattie for one trip in the TARDIS. As I feared, the issue opens with the pair jamming in the console room. Thankfully it's cut short by the TARDIS alarm. Something is leaking dangerous amounts of temporal energy on 21st Century Earth and the TARDIS obviously wants the Doctor to investigate.

Outside the ship is a windswept moor and an eerie mansion looking like something straight out of a Hammer horror movie. Of course the Doctor wants to explore, while Hattie's *not* so keen. Using his trusty sonic screwdriver the Doctor gains entrance to the house and inside they discover a veritable treasure trove of antiquities. Suddenly the door slams shut and no amount of sonic-ing will budge it. They're trapped.

Deciding to take a further look around (as if they had any choice), the pair discover that the house is absolutely huge - with a seemingly endless series of varied rooms, courtyards and even an observatory. What's more the clock just struck fifteen and there is a curious tapping on the windows coming from an ethereal looking figure. It's enough to unnerve even a Time Lord.

The clock strikes fourteen and suddenly Hattie spots a pink-clad little girl. She chases after her until the child vanishes through another locked portico. Hearing a voice calling out, they step through one more door and suddenly find themselves in a green woodland confronted by a woman who thinks this is *her* house and who has lost her family in the labyrinth. Retiring to a vast library, the woman - known as Holly - reveals that things started to go crazy after a visit to an antiques fair. Her children started seeing strange things, the house expanded and eventually both the kids and her husband vanished into its depths and cannot be found anywhere except as ghostly images.

The Doctor is distracted from the story by the chiming of the clock. It's now striking thirteen and is obviously counting down to something. What's more the tapping is back and so are the flying things outside. The Doctor identifies the vapourous beings at the windows as "Spyrilites" -  scavenger creatures from the temporal void that feed on Artron energy. If they are here then something is *very* wrong and everyone is in danger.

So what does the Doctor do? He lets them in of course ! But instead of feeding on the time travellers, the host of Spyrilites swoop off through the mansion in search of a greater energy prize - with the Doctor and his companions in hot pursuit. Tracking the entities through ever more elaborate and unusual spaces they finally the ghostly forms feeding at the heart of the house - and the Doctor realises where he really is...

Okay, I'll come back to the story in a moment because I really want to give praise to Rachael Stott's artwork this time round. The plot requires her to draw a myriad of different environments across it's 20 pages and she is more than up to the task. I particularly like the use of large circular panels to depict the various surroundings the Doctor and Hattie find themselves in. There is one double page spread of this with a backdrop of a map of the house that has a lot of lovely little Easter eggs. Apparently the mansion has a comics library, a room of puppies and even a treat for Harry Potter fans. Plus what exactly is a "Psicord room" ?

But it's not just detail packed backgrounds or innovative panel layouts that impress. I've praised Rachael's figure work before, but her depiction of the Doctor just gets better and better. There are no static talking heads here - each image has the Doctor being expressive in one way or another. There is a real sense of dynamic movement  - whether it's him leaping across a room to examine something or the slop of tea in a cup as he gesticulates wildly. Elsewhere, the design of the Spyrilites is appropriate, give they are really just pale ghosts, but there is a subtle hint of the nasty in their skull-like faces and the tendrils of void-stuff that swirl around them.

I'm sincerely hoping that the script continues to give Rachael plenty of opportunities to show her artistic talent - and speaking of that script, how does it fair against George Mann's other efforts?

Well, the notion of an infinite house is not really a new one - having been used to great effect by authors such as Tad Williams in his "Otherland" series or Guy Adams's "The World House" - but it's still a fun one. To be honest it won't take you as long as the Doctor to work out what is going on here - I think I'd made the leap by about page nine. That's not to say it's not an enjoyable journey. There *are* a couple of bits of clunky expositional dialogue - especially one sentence which is so clearly a set up for later in the story that George may as well have put up a big flashing neon sign with a klaxon saying "important plot point here".

You can't deny that he knows how to write for the character of the Twelfth Doctor though. My favourite section was the conversation with distraught mum Holly and immediately afterwards. where the Doctor comes across perfectly as inquisitive, arrogant, forceful, totally unpredictable - yet undoubtedly kind.

It's obvious that George is a man who loves Doctor Who and loves playing around with and adding to the lore of the show - witness his War Doctor novel and various comics mini series. The Spyralites are an admirable idea - even if we already have Chonovores, Vortisaurs and Reapers coming from the vortex. The conclusion of this episode also may open things up for him to do something new with other well known motifs. My problem is, George has let me down badly before (just last issue in fact) so I'm not especially hopeful of an innovative conclusion. Maybe the concepts he's playing with will spur him on to up his game.

Just a quick note on the variant covers and the only one of note this month is from Stephen Byrne - an Irish artist best known for work on the "Plants vs. Zombies" franchise -  and there is a definite feel of that game in his cover. However he has just been announced as the artist on DC's 'Rebirth' of "The Ray", so he's obviously a talent to watch.

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Right. That's definitely enough from me. More next month - same bat-time. Same bat-channel.

Come on - we all know there really is only one Batman. And his name is West...

The Doctor Who Show Reviews - Episode 9 (TARDIS Library 1)

A month goes past very quickly. I'm sure someone is stealing one of the days of the week somehow. Anyway, here's the text version of the comics reviews for episode 9 of the "Doctor Who Show" podcast. The reviews have actually been spun-off into their own distinct sub-podcast from this month, sub-titled "The TARDIS Library"

The spoiler warning alarm is active, so don't read any further if you want to experience the issue completely cold.

Twelfth Doctor  # 2.8

"The Twist" Part 3. Writer George Mann. Artist: Mariano Laclaustra

So what do we find beneath the three covers we have to choose from this month?

If you recall, we left the Doctor, bass player Hattie and Jakob, the guy with the cybernetic eye, at the mercy of the Foxkin. These bipedal vulpines are the intelligent descendants of the original creatures from the colony ship that founded The Twist, but they have been keeping a massive secret about the origins of the human inhabitants  - one they can't let anyone reveal.To protect everything, the Doctor and his companions are condemned to a life of permanent imprisonment in the Foxkin city.

And that's where we pick things up. Jakob certainly doesn’t like being locked up. He reveals himself to be a nasty, bigoted piece of work - unable to believe that such "vermin" had anything to do with his birth. It's perhaps a slightly sudden character development, but it does give the Doctor the opportunity to deliver a great sarcastic put down. The racist idiot does prove useful though as his bionic eye finally makes an appearance in the plot and allows the three to escape (I won’t reveal exactly how).

Suddenly they are surrounded by more Foxkin - but these are a different bunch - an offshoot who believe that they should reveal themselves and integrate with the human population. Leading everyone back the the park on the surface, they arrive just in time to see the particular Foxkin Hattie hit with her beloved bass guitar (last issue) being bundled away by the security forces. Armed police and reporters are everywhere and The Twist's own Nigel Farage delivers a speech about the "aliens amongst us - coming to take our jobs..."

It's the vindication Jakob has been waiting for. He goes into full on rant mode, practically frothing at the mouth about destroying the Foxkin. Of course the Doctor knows the truth - he's always known the truth - Jakob is the real monster here and his complete story, including his search for whomever murdered his friend the councilor, has been a pack of lies. The truth is divulged at last - from Jakob's own eye no less - and he runs off into the crowds. I had a hunch something was up with him from the start - the xenophobic nutter knew his way around those underground tunnels a bit *too* well.

So what's the Doctor's solution to how to reveal the Foxkin to the world?

Wait for it....

Hold an outdoor rock concert apparently!

Yes the Doctor gets to play his funky alien guitar with Hattie's band "Space Pirates" as their fans (who are apparently all political revolutionaries) gather in the park. Transmitting his message of tolerance to the citizens of the Twist, the Timelord urges them to never be cruel or cowardly. The power of rock music unites everyone and both sides greet each other in friendship as the Foxkin step out of the shadows.

All this and Jakob gets arrested.

Hmmmmm…..

No I'm sorry, it's utter rubbish.

It's the worst kind of saccharine ending - up there with "love saves you from becoming a Cyberman" and "thinking hard about the Doctor stops him being Dobby the House Elf". Is this the best that George Mann could come up with? All that build up over the last two issues and it's all over because the Doctor tells them to be nice to each other - as if that's what would really happen if you confronted a human population with the truth than they only exist thanks to some super-intelligent foxes.

Maybe he was trying for a similar feel to the Zygon two-parter from season 9, and  perhaps you could wave it away by saying the future is a more enlightened time and everyone is more loving and tolerant - but that's not born out by the behaviour shown on the page when Jakob and his pals are promoting racial hatred.

You know what I'd have liked to have seen? Things go wrong. Give the Doctor his "Live Aid" moment. Reveal the Foxkin. But have the Doctor misjudge things for once. Instead of peace and love you get mass panic and fighting on the streets and mutual mistrust. Have the Doctor struggling to find a cleverer way to broker peace and convince the two populations that they won't kill each other as soon as his back is turned. He's a Timelord. He's got LOTS of time. Make him work for things and have to stay on the Twist for six months and really put some effort in - not swan off after five minutes. No wonder Ashildr had to clean up after him...

Anyway, let's take it as a given that I wasn't fond of the conclusion to the storyline. We do get a new companion though, as Hattie joins the TARDIS (for now anyway). She a bit of a personality vacuum based on her appearances so far, so let's see if future issues flesh out her background a bit more. I just hope its not going to be a constant stream of spot the musical allusion and jam sessions in the TARDIS from now on.

I've not really mentioned the art yet. It’s quality figure work from Mariano and his Argentinian assistants as we have come to expect - solidly building on the previous issues, and the Foxkin probably look their best this time out. There are a few detailed double splash pages for the big scenes, but generally I thought there was a distinct lack of backgrounds in most of the panels. Admittedly there were a lot of talking head shots and close-ups, but it wouldn’t have hurt to put in a few lines to give location context. Carlos Cabrera does his best but just seemed to colour everything a bit…well...…orange. Mariano seems to be at his best in the wide angles and multiple points of view. Next time, give him plenty of alien vistas to draw, along with the talking heads. 

Talking of crowd scenes though, there's one image as we flip through multiple locations around The Twist that caught my eye. Amongst a scene of punk rockers giving it their all at the concert in the park is an eerie hooded figure all in white - like a version of Moon Knight has stepped into Doctor Who, or those headless monks from Matt Smith's tenure. It's very out of place and has to be deliberate. I'll keep a look out for other appearances of hooded guy in upcoming comics and hopefully it'll all mean something down the line.

All told, despite the artists best efforts it's a supremely disappointing end to this story. I had my fingers crossed last month that George Mann could pull things into interesting shapes, but sadly he didn't deliver. Next issue he is still around as writer but Rachael Stott is back on art. I'm looking forward to that if nothing else. 

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Still no Fourth Doctor issue 5 at the time of writing but I believe its due imminently, so I'll come back to that next time. Instead I thought I'd take a quick skim through the issues released so far in this years "event" series, 

Supremacy of the Cybermen # 1 - 3

 

Four Doctors, six companions, a bevy of guest star friends and foes and a silver implacable army. Sounds like a recipe for a lot of fun doesn't it?.

It's written by George Mann (yes it's him again which doesn’t fill me with confidence from the start, but we'll see). This time though he's joined by co-writer Cavan Scott. Art is from Allessandro Vitti with Ivan Rodriguez and Walter Geovanni - except for where its by Tazio Bettin on a few odd pages. The colourist is Nicola Righi.

Parts one to three are out so far, but I'm not going to do my usual blow-by-blow in depth analysis of each issue. Instead for now this will be a few random thoughts about what I've seen so far and how it's shaping up.

The first thing to mention is that although we have four Doctors featured in every issue - incarnations Nine to Twelve - none of them meet each other. I guess that may come later, but right now each Doctor is in their own timeline with their own problems to face caused by the Cybermen. Nine is on Earth in 2006 with Rose, Jack and Jackie Tyler, Ten is with new comics companions Gabby and Cindy in the 24th Century and Eleven is with regular pal Alice in the time of the dinosaurs.

Twelve meanwhile is on his own, after the end of "Hell Bent" - and in fact Mann & Scott are picking up on plot threads directly from the last two episodes of that season. They even deal with a little niggle than some fans had about the appearance of a certain Sisterhood...

It's a bold move, especially if Moffat is about to do his own spin on these outstanding points next year. Still if you are going to be writing an "event" series you have to think big - and that’s one thing you have to commend this storyline for - its certainly epic.

The Cybermen are more powerful than ever. Time is being rewritten. The Doctor(s) are fighting for survival on multiple fronts and an old foe is our for revenge. Remember my thing about wanting comics to be more than just normal stories with attractive drawings? (you're probably bored if hearing me bang on about it by now). THIS is the kind of thing I wanted. Okay it's not really innovative in the way that the story from a couple of months ago about living people trapped in comics was, but there is certainly no way that this tale could be told on our TV screens - even with a very generous television budget.

Both writers are obviously having fun here - cherry picking bits and pieces from the past six decades of the series and expanding things in new directions in some cases. We get a Sontaran leader with a grey beard, the return of a giant creature not seen since Christmas 2008 and a location from "The Five Doctors" even makes an appearance. Plus, you can tell from one especially nice page in issue three that this is truly a story that affects ALL of the Doctors throughout time and space.

In fact this has actually surprised me because I genuinely don’t know where the storyline is heading.
I'm a little dubious about turning one character into such an out-and-out bad guy and there seems to be a lot to deal with, being that there are only two issues remaining, but…..please….don't let me down George. Not again.

What about the art? Well Allessandro Vitti is not the greatest at likenesses of the actors - with Doctor Ten and Jackie Tyler coming off the worst, but you can tell who's who. He's far better at the big images like the Sontaran imperial flagship or dozens of Cyber vessels crowding the sky or a rampaging dinosaur. It's certainly full of life, backgrounds teeming with detail, almost frantic in places, as if his pen (pencil? tablet stylus?) was struggling to keep up with the action, The double page where we first meet the Ninth Doctor, with  its multiple vertical panels and quick cuts, is particularly worth of praise. Plus who doesn’t want to see a giant Cyberman head in space?

As for the work by Nicola Righi? Its certainly very colourful, even lurid at times. Dayglo pink and deep red backgrounds cast multi coloured shadows on characters faces. Prehistoric Earth is verdant green and a cyber conversion chamber glows with an eerie light. Somehow it feels like it harks back to the four colour world of early comics, but with a modern sensibility. This is not the real world. I really liked it a lot.

So three issues down, two to go. Maybe time for a little more direct menace from our silver big bads (who have not been front and centre quite yet) and hopefully a couple more twists and turns (and maybe some further incarnations of the Doctor), but so far Supremacy of the Cybermen is immensely enjoyable.

Right  that's me done for another month

As my favourite alien comics editor likes to say - Splundig vur Thrigg Earthlets !

View From The Fifth Row 9 - 9

Back with something new at last.

It's somewhat apt that the ninth post in this series of film reviews concerns a lesser known CGI animated science fiction / fantasy that was originally released on the 9th September 2009. It stars the voice talent of a veritable who's who of genre actors, including Elijah Wood, Crispin Glover, Martin Landau and Christopher Plummer. It's name could only be:

It's an alternate world. An unspecified time in the future, a strange rag-doll like creature with the number 9 on it's back wakes up in a laboratory. Clutching an artefact he finds in the lab, 9 ventures out into a landscape devastated by a planet-wide war. A world where creepy bio-mechanical machines stalk the surface - built and controlled by a self-aware computer brain.

Discovering others of his kind, 9 learns that he is one of a series of "Stichpunks"  - each imbued with a portion of the soul of the scientist that created them. 9 must rally his new friends into action and discover why the machines want to destroy them and why the Stitchpunks may just be mankind's last hope...

So far, so predictable you might think. But it's the depth of the themes behind the story, the quality of the animation and the vision of it's first-time director, Shane Acker, that allow this brief film (it's a mere 79 minutes long) to rise above many other bigger-budgeted CGI films.

Originally planning to become an architect, Shane Acker obtained degrees in that subject before realising that his true passion lay in film-making. Joining UCLA's animation workshop, he went on to produce two highly regarding animated shorts - "The Hangnail" and "The Astounding Talent of Mr Grenade", before spending four and a half years (on and off)  writing, directing and co-animating an 11-minute CGI dark fable - the first version of "9".

Released in 2005, it went on to be presented at a number of high-profile film festivals and was nominated for an Academy Award. It also caught the attention of Tim Burton, who was so impressed that together with Timur Bekmambetov (at the that point coming off the successes of "Night Watch" and " Wanted") he decided to produce a full length version with a modest $30 million budget.

So what makes this version of "9" so great? Well, first of all it's just stunningly beautiful to look at. This is not just 'good' CGI, this is some of the best I have ever seen. Seriously, if you want a film to show off your giant TV and Blu-ray player, this should be your first choice. Every single element has been painstakingly realised from the rubble-strewn cityscape to the terrifying bio-mechanical animals to the individual stitches on the bodies of the lead characters. These creatures are actually more expressive and well realised than the humans - they really look like they are made our of sackcloth and thread, not pixels. The film has a bleak, eerie visual style that looks like nothing else. It's breathtaking.

Secondly, although it's an animated film, there is far more going on that with some traditional CGI fare. Each of the nine Stichpunks are embodiments of different aspects of human personality. There are some interesting metaphysical and psychological thoughts running though the narrative about how as humans, interaction with others helps define ourselves. Divided up the other Stitchpunks are somewhat directionless and desire only to exist and not strive for greater understanding - slaves to the pure logical "brain" (the "Fabrication Machine" which is the primary evil of the film). If they are integrated and work together and have compassion for others, do they become a "whole" personality? Is that what their creator intended? Is that what is needed to save the world?

All the great "kids" releases work on multiple levels for multiple audiences and this is no different. If there is a problem, it's that the themes are perhaps buried deeper than usual, so that on first watch the film could come across as a confusing and even simplistic. It's one of those movies that bears out repeated viewings, but I can see how it could divide opinion.

It also sadly didn't set the box office alight on release back in 2009. That could partly be because it's not really suitable for very young children, as the monsters are unique and terrifying and some of the action sequences are pretty intense and scary. Also, maybe it was too difficult for some to see past the surface storyline to the allegories within. "Time Out" magazine described it as "an intriguing failure", but I think that's being extremely unkind.

"9" is not your average kids film. In fact, I'm loathe to call it a kids film at all, as I think it appeals to an older audience looking for something that requires one to stretch the brain cells that little bit more. On top of that, unlike some of the bloated blockbusters of recent years, this is a film that could actually have benefited from a longer running time. I wanted to know much, much more about this world. It's a film full of innovative cutting edge CGI but also mystery and a sense of wonder.

Dark, different  and original. An overlooked and underrated gem. I adore it.

The Doctor Who Show Reviews - Episode 8

I'm slowly edging towards having some other new stuff to post on the blog. No really I mean it this time. In the interim here's the text version of the comics review I recently recorded for episode 8 of the "Doctor Who Show" podcast.

As always a quick spoiler warning -  I will be talking about the story of the issue in question, but avoiding any major plot revelations where possible.

Twelfth Doctor  # 2.7

"The Twist" Part 2. Writer George Mann. Artist: Mariano Laclaustra

Sadly it's going to be a quick one this month as I've only got  one comic to look at. The final issue of the Fourth Doctor mini-series hasn’t been published yet, so the focus is solely on the latest in the Twelfth Doctor ongoing series.

If you recall, last month we had The Doctor indulging in his love for punk music by visiting the huge space station known as "The Twist". Here he met bass player Hattie and Jakob, a man on the run who had been framed for the murder of his best friend. Together the three had began to uncover some kind of government conspiracy, before being pursued by security forces into a park and suddenly confronted by a giant red furred beast...

We pick up immediately where we left off. The Doctor does his usual distracting technique of marvelling at the beauty of the creature and trying to calm the situation - all while Jakob pulls frantically at a metal panel hidden in the grass. As the creature moves in Hattie, desperately wacks it over the head with her beloved bass guitar and the three escape into some kind of service cave under the park.

Jakob has been in these under-tunnels before - this was where he previously encountered the fox creatures during his investigations.The Doctor is keen to find their "warren" and continues to explore, despite the protestations of the others. Following the strangely natural seeming tunnels, they eventually emerge into a gigantic cavern full of all kinds of wildlife. Jakob explains that this is one of two 'oxygen domes' from the original Earth colony ship, which was buried in the rock as the structure of The Twist was bio-mechanically grown around it.

Suddenly the trio are surrounded by more of the creatures, who identify themselves as "The Foxkin". The Doctor tries to reason with them but is quickly pulled away by Hattie before he can be attacked.To escape, he and his companions tumble through a large airlock type portal into the heart of the ship - the "stasis farm" - where the original colonists slept during their long journey through the vast interstellar distances of space.

The problem is, all the stasis pods are full of skeletons - none of the colonists survived the trip. The Doctor confirms this by managing to activate the dormant systems of the stasis farm and interrogate the ship's records. But if that's the case - if everyone is dead - where did the indigenous inhabitants of The Twist come from? 

Eager to find out more, the Doctor does the unexpected. He triggers an alarm, summoning the Foxkin to the stasis farm through other passageways and the humanoids are captured - much to Jakob's disgust. Taken to the second undiscovered oxygen dome - which contains a complete city - they are hauled in front of Canek, the leader of the Foxkin.

There is a much bigger secret here. Canek is apparently known as the "High Sequencer" which means that for the human inhabitants the Foxkin are really….

…and that's where I'm going to stop, as I don’t want to spoil the ending. However it's only a minor saving grace, because you will probably be able to figure it out for yourself before you turn that final page.You see, the real problem here is that this issue is all a bit predictable. The Foxkin are just what they sound like - giant talking foxes - another on the list of anthropomorphised animals as aliens which we have seen a hundred times in Doctor Who. Add the fact that we've seen lost colony ships before. We've seen hidden societies below ground before. I was just hoping for something a bit...cleverer. More surprising.

There are also parts which don’t make logical sense. Would a vast colony ship full of thousands of people really just be abandoned as lost? How has the Foxkin city remained hidden for thousands of years with all those technologically advanced humans up above? Especially as any Tom, Dick or Jakob seems to be able to open the secret doors at will? I'm all for suspension of belief in Doctor Who and science fiction in general but - I don't know, maybe I've just been exposed to too much genre fiction over the years and expect too much. It can't be easy coming up with wildly original ideas month after month. Goodness knows I couldn't do it. Am I being unfair? 

Art wise though the high standard of last issue is maintained, even if the design of the Foxkin is just 'giant foxes in tattered robes'. There is are a couple of particularly lovely images - one of the prehistoric-like bio dome, complete with curled tailed lizard on a stick - and the other the control centre of the stasis farm, which is somewhat reminiscent of the chamber from "Tomb of the Cybermen". The Foxkin city itself is obviously based on images of Roman architecture, with it's squares, amphitheatres and domed palaces.

Looking at the credits though, I do wonder if there were some deadline problems on the art front, because the exotically named Agus Calcagno and Fer Centurion are listed as "art assistants". I can't see any noticeable difference in Mariano's figure work, so maybe the assist was just on backgrounds. It's also worth mentioning the sterling work from the colourist, Carlos Cabrera, which really add to the mood of the strip, especially a superb page where the Doctor discovers the fate of the colonists.

So there we have it. A solid issue -  perhaps let down by an overly-familiar kind of alien threat and a predictable secret.  Looking forward, I hope that George Mann has a couple of tricks up his sleeve to take this in a less obvious direction, but based on this issue I'm not holding out much hope. I still think that there is more to Jakob though. He knows too much and that cybernetic eye still hasn't been explained. I guess it's fingers crossed for part 3 then.

Just time for a quick look at the variant covers and it's a pretty bland bunch to be honest. Alex Ronald usually does moody and evocative paintings, but his image this month is just a standard, if nicely coloured, pose of the Doctor. Nothing that leaps out at you.Will Brooks photo cover is eminently forgettable, so lets skip over that quickly. Simon Myers continues his album cover homages with Clara in place of the waitress on Supertramps's "Breakfast In America" - famous of course for "The Logical Song". I've seen him do much better though. There's also a "Doctor Who Comic Day" cover from Todd Nauck - who's definitely getting a lot of work from Titan at the moment - but it's marred because Mr. Capaldi seems to be thrusting his crotch at the reader. Is it just my bad eyesight?

Best of the bunch is the cartoon-esque cover from Zak Simmonds-Hurn - another artist who has done tons of work for "The Phoenix", plus his own self published series "Monstrosity" which is really most excellent and well worth checking out.

Okay. That's about it for this month. Don't forget about the audio version on the "Doctor Who Show" podcast which you can listen to it at www.dwshow.net or download it to your mobile device via the usual iOS or Android apps. Please subscribe, share and leave five star reviews and support all the effort from my fellow presenters. We really do appreciate all your comments.

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