Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 24 - 1990

So one thing dominated my life this year. The owls are not what they seem...

1990:

The trivia:

• Long before the hugely successful musical comedy series concerning the William McKinley High School Glee Club, there was another TV show that tried to fuse drama with big show tunes. "Cop Rock" was created by "Hill Street Blues" supremo Stephen Bochco and centred on the Los Angeles Police Department as they went about their usual duties, but routinely broke out into musical and dance numbers throughout the storylines. It's bizarre nature and a critical drubbing meant it lasted a mere eleven episodes.
• An even quicker departure from TV screens was the fate of an incredibly ill-considered "situation comedy" from fledgling UK satellite TV channel 'Galaxy'. "Heil Honey I'm Home!" was a parody of early American domestic comedies with their corny characters and wildly applauding audiences. The problem was that the situation was Adolf Hitler and his wife Eva Braun living in Berlin and repeatedly trying to get rid of their Jewish neighbours next door! Needless to say although a number of episodes were recorded, only one was ever shown amidst a storm of protests and the whole thing was quietly shoved under the carpet never to be seen again.
• Launched in October 1990, the now world famous Internet Movie Database (IMDb) started life as a Usenet posting by British film fan Colin Needham. Back then however it was known as "Those Eyes" and its sole interest was...actresses with beautiful eyes.

The memory:

Twin Peaks

It's hard to believe that twenty-six years after it ended, here I am able to turn on my television screen and watch brand new episodes of "Twin Peaks". I don't think I have been this excited about the revival of a TV show since "Doctor Who" came back in 2005. This is probably because when it first aired on British screens in 1990, "Twin Peaks" became something that consumed me.

To be honest I don't really want to talk about the minutiae of the plot or the quality of the scripts and actors and programme makers. Far better people than I have written thousands of words on the subject and there have been lots of articles and look-backs in recent months leading up to the revival. But for the sake of those who may have been living under a rock, let 's get the basic information out of the way first - the stuff that pretty much everyone is aware of even if they have never watched the show, because it's seeped into the public consciousness. Mark Frost and David Lynch. Special Agent Dale Cooper. Who killed Laura Palmer? A body wrapped in plastic. Damn fine coffee and cherry pie. One-armed men, giants, a red curtained room and lots of weird stuff that no one quite understands.

But "Twin Peaks" was so much more that just an odd murder / mystery / soap opera. As it's popularity grew during those weeks of October / November 1990, my friends and I began to get together to watch the show, having weekly Twin Peaks evenings where we could view the episode and then chat about what it all meant. The haunting music by Angelo Badalamenti became our soundtrack. We poured over the details, every new snippet of information in newspapers and magazines. Considering the UK was six months behind original transmission at the start (we caught up significantly by the end of season two), I don't remember any spoilers leaking out about the shooting of Agent Cooper at the end of episode eight. Luckily we only had to wait over the Christmas break before finding out the resolution...

That meant I personally had time to read "The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer" - an official 'novel' which fleshed out the personal history of the tragic teenager and her descent into a world of prostitution, drugs and the manipulations of an evil creature called BOB. It was the perfect way to continue my fascination with the series and it's characters.

When the programme returned in January it was full steam head into 22 episodes of drama, weirdness and horror. The revelation of Laura's killer was just the start. I know I may be in the minority here, but I really enjoyed the involvement of Cooper's old partner Windom Earle and the lengths he went to to gain access to the Black Lodge. The more mystery and mythology the show added the better as far as I was concerned - which meant that the final episode was an astonishing mix of the mundane and the mad, culminating in one of the best cliffhangers in TV history.

Sadly there was to be no immediate follow-up. But I consoled myself with the other assorted official merchandise. "The Autobiography of FBI Special Agent Dale Cooper" gave a lot of background to the unconventional agent. "Twin Peaks: An Access Guide to the Town" was my travellers guide. But my favourite was "Diane... - The Twin Peaks Tapes of Agent Cooper". Performed by Kyle MacLachlan, this was a cassette tape only release which consisted of newly recorded Cooper messages to his unseen assistant Diane, mixed in with sound clips from the broadcasts. This was material set both before and during his trip to Twin Peaks and included Cooper being shot and recovering afterwards. It was as close as I could come to a new episode.

Of course in 1992 we did get something new, although "Fire Walk With Me" wasn't quite what I personally had in mind. It's disturbing narrative and time-twisting prequel / sequel nature meant that on first viewing  many didn't get it - including, I hate to admit, me. It's not a "Twin Peaks" continuation - it's more a David Lynch horror movie set in the same world. Of course subsequently I came to realise what a brilliant piece of cinema it is and how it draws so many of the themes together.

I continued to stay connected to "Twin Peaks" fandom over the next couple of  years, buying the regular fanzine "Wrapped In Plastic" from Win-Mill Productions. But by the time that folded in 1996 any sign of a third series was a non-existent and the television world had moved onto other things - and to be honest so had I. But the series (and my interest in it) was always there at the back of my mind, and I eagerly purchased the various DVD and Blu-ray box sets as they came out, relishing the additional material each one provided.

Over the years rumours continued to surface of a continuation / mini-series / film to explain everything and resolve the dangling plotlines but they never came to anything until...well, here we are in 2017 with eighteen new episodes written and directed by the mastermind behind it all. Judging from the first few I have watched, this is pure unfiltered Lynch - unrestrained by corporate network interference and able to deliver his vision the way he wants to. I couldn't be happier.


Honourable mentions:

• Parker Lewis Can't Lose - In the wake of the success of the 1986 movie "Ferris Bueller's Day Off", the Fox TV network debuted a high school comedy series that riffed on the same idea of a student constantly getting one over on the teachers and other antagonists. The difference was that "Parker Lewis Can't Lose" embraced a far more surreal element that saw it teeter on the edge of destroying the fourth wall. As the titular cool guy, Corin Nemec strolled through the halls of Santo Domingo High with his best buds with unshakeable self confidence, a plan for every situation and an endless supply of loud shirts. Every episode brought a new problem - whether it was outwitting the machinations of the Cruella de Vil-like Principal Musso or Parker's own maniacal little sister. There was an almost Chuck Jones cartoon-like quality to the production, with endless sight gags, visual cues and pop culture references (that will seem incredibly outdated by now). Importantly it was one of the first shows that I ever watched on satellite television. Late 1990 was the year that we got a Sky dish after my parents had initially gone with the "squariel" dish  and the five BSB channels - not the first time that my dad backed the loser in a technology race. In a plethora of new imported shows on "Sky Channel", this little comedy stood out as being fresh and different, even if it'a a little cheesy.

• Dances With Wolves -  Kevin Costner's epic historical western which tells the story of a Union Lieutenant and his relationship with a tribe of Lakota Indians was my favourite film of the year by a wide margin. Although I was already a fan of the genre through exposure to the classics by my parents, I vividly remember going to the cinema with my friends and being blown away (even if the projectionist did get the screen ratio wrong at the beginning so everything was squashed and had to start the reel again). This was also a time where a three hour long movie was rare, which made the whole thing seem even more of an event (the eventual four-hour special edition was even better).  Like "Jaws", I have bought multiple versions over the years in different formats, along with the Oscar-winning soundtrack by John Barry. 

• Postcards From The Edge - The film version of the late Carrie Fisher's semi-autobiographical novel starring Meryl Streep, Shirley MacLaine and Dennis Quaid is a quality piece of drama. But it's on purely this list because of how much I love the song - "I'm Checkin' Out" - that Meryl's character Suzanne Vale performs in the closing moments. Even if you don't like country music, it's still a fantastic performance:

• The Crystal Maze - The original and best version of the classic puzzle-solving adventure game show with mercurial host Richard O'Brien. The challenge saw teams of contestants travelling across four different "zones" to compete in a series of different mental, physical, skill or 'mystery' games against the clock. Each successful game won a time crystal. These allowed the players a certain amount of time in the "Crystal Dome" where they had to collect as many gold tokens as possible from those blown into the air by gigantic fans. Getting over a certain number of gold tokens won the prize - usually activity days out. O'Brien was a perfect if unconventional host - genial and welcoming but also quick with a deadpan quip and jokes to camera about the contestants stupidity. His presence made the programme hugely successful and I religiously watched every week. After his departure it limped on with Ed Tudor-Pole but it was never the same. However the format is so well remembered and loved that a 2017 revival has just started and there are even two real world version you can take part in. I must get a team together...

Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 23 - 1989

When choosing things for the top spot in these posts, I desperately want to avoid the obvious choices (although some do creep into "honourable mentions") - plus other items are excluded because I plan longer posts on them once this is all over. In the end I went with a series of books which a lot of people will never have heard of, but which were far better than their beginnings might suggest...

1989:

The trivia:

• Scuba diver William Lamm was swimming in eight feet of water in Florida when he was accidentally sucked into the intake pipe for Hutchinson Island's nuclear power plant. Carried at speed through over 1,600 feet of pipeline, he was eventually dumped into the cooling pond surrounding the reactor. Thankfully he survived with barely a bruise.
• An amateur collector of 18th century maps bought an old tattered painting of a country scene for US$ 4.00 at a Pennsylvania bargain sale - purely because he liked the frame. When he took the frame apart, he discovered a copy of the US Declaration of Independence hidden inside. Thinking it nothing more than a curiosity, he just put it to one side until a friend convinced him to contact an expert. It turned out to be one of only 200 "John Dunlap broadsides" printed on the evening of 4th July 1776 and sold two years later for US$ 2.4 million.
• A MiG-23 pilot mistakenly ejected on take off from a Polish airfield.The aircraft continued to fly over 500 miles on autopilot only to eventually crash into a house in Belgium, sadly killing a teenager living there.

The memory:

The Cineverse Cycle by Craig Shaw Gardner

In the wake of the success of Terry Pratchett's "Discworld" novels, publishers realised that comic fantasy could be big business. The truth is that a more light-hearted take on the standard fantasy tropes had been around for a long time, but it had never captured the general public's imagination. in quite the same way until now - so suddenly there was a plethora of new authors to choose from in the UK. During regular trips to Forbidden Planet I started to pick up a number of these books - John DeChancie's "Castle Perilous" series, Simon Hawke's "The Wizard of Fourth Street", Christopher Statsheff's "Warlock" sequence (although he had actually been writing for many years beforehand).and Alan Dean Fosters "Spellsinger". In addition I continued to collect the ongoing "Xanth" adventures from Piers Anthony. I bought a *lot* of books.

Amongst the dozens of new titles on the shelves, one author particularly stood out - but what attracted me to his name was not the blurb on the back, but the cover. You see, in a canny move, the publishers decided to get Discworld artist Josh Kirby to also produce the covers for the books by American writer Craig Shaw Gardner. I guess they felt that readers who already strongly associated Kirby's instantly recognisable work with the quality of Pratchett's books, would make the same leap and feel that they were being told "this is more of the same kind of stuff". Well guess what - it worked on me!

Gardner released "A Malady of Magicks" in 1986, but I think it was some time later when it, and the other two volumes in this first trilogy ("A Multitude of Monsters" and "A Night in the Netherhells")  reached UK shores with their Kirby covers. In a nutshell, the main plot is fairly simple - Ebenezum is a possibly the greatest wizard of the age. After an altercation with a demon, causes him to be cursed to be allergic to magic,  he and his hapless apprentice Wuntvor must journey to the City of Forbidden Delights in search of a cure, all the while avoiding death, disaster and perils such as tap-dancing dragons, enchanted chickens, etc, etc. It's your typical episodic quest narrative and very reminiscent in places of "The Colour of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic" with its send-up of standard fantasy. It's light, whimsical and occasionally funny - good enough to while away the time on a train journey but certainly nothing mind-blowingly original. Nonetheless I enjoyed the books enough to pick up the sequel "Wuntvor" trilogy, which ventures into fairy tale territory as the helper becomes the hero and has to save the world with help from (amongst others) an amorous unicorn, a ferret and a cowardly sword.

I've written before how I took one of these books to a Terry signing and he wrote inside "nice cover.,...". But these Pratchett-pastiches are not the core of this particular memory. Craig Shaw Gardner's next series was far more in tune with my love for all things from the worlds of movies, pulp serials and comic books....

Billed as the first volume in the Cineverse Cycle", "Slaves of the Volcano God" concerns public relations worker Roger, an average guy who discovers that his girlfriend Delores is actually from the Cineverse, where each world is based on a B-movie genre. Roger can travel between worlds using his trust Captain Crusader Decoder Ring (found inside a cereal packet). The key to the Cineverse is that "Movie Magic" always applies - so in the Wild West, cowboys never run out of ammo, if you enter the "Musical Comedies" you may never escape as everyone bursts into song at inopportune moments, and good guys always win (except in 1970s gritty dramas). On his quest to rescue Delores from the villainous Doctor Dread, Roger also has to figures out what caused "The Change" (the reason why movies are just not as good as they used to be) and exactly who or what is the Plotmaster... The story continues in "Bride of the Slime Monster" and concludes in "Revenge of the Fluffy Bunnies".

I think what appealed to me most about the Cineverse is that it's obvious that Gardner has a deep abiding love for the B-movie genre and it's conventions. His story is peppered with allusions to classics of the past and each of his worlds has been designed to operate within its own rule-sets and contain appropriate challenges. Along with this there is a feel of those black and white Republic serials with their weekly cliffhangers, dastardly villains and bizarre science. My own childhood was one of growing up with a film-loving family and weekends and school holidays filled with the likes of "Flash Gordon", "King of the Rocketmen", "Them!", "Godzilla" or "It Came From Beneath The Sea", The more you know about the movies, the more you will enjoy these books. It's a far more original work that the humorous fantasies of Ebenezum and Wuntvor - satirical rather than trying to be "funny" and all the better for it. It also helps that there is a rollicking good plot inside the pages.

Long out of print, the "Cineverse Cycle" is a lost pearl amongst a sea of parodies and Pratchett copycats. Not every book has to be epic or life changing or worthy of the Man Booker prize. Sometimes you just need a series that is damn good fun.

Honourable mentions:

• Batman - He could never better the late great Adam West, but Michael Keaton made a pretty good Dark Knight and an even better Bruce Wayne. The costume is excellent, the Batmobile looks suitably cool and Gotham feels like somewhere that the bizarre rogues gallery could come from (even if it does look like a movie set a little too much at times). Keaton certainly shut down the haters who lambasted his casting when his name was first attached. I'm not so enamoured with Jack Nicholson's Joker. Yes the Clown Prince of Crime is meant to be over the top, but Nicholson went too far in the wrong direction for my personal tastes - but I guess superhero movies were a big gamble back then and they needed a "name" actor to anchor things for cinema goers. Despite this, I still loved the film when it first came out and even though I wasn't the greatest Prince fan, bought both soundtrack albums. The less said about Vicki Vale the better though...

• Truckers by Terry Prachett - So after I headlined one of his 'imitators', here comes PTerry himself with the first in the "Nome / Bromeliad" trilogy. It was the first non-Discworld book of his that I read, and I instantly became enamoured with the tiny characters and their journey to find where they came from and how to get back there - especially this first novels central concept of an entire tribe of Nomes living under the floorboards of a department store. "Truckers" showed the world that Pratchett was capable of more than just tales of witches and wizards and luggage with legs and the trilogy as a whole is as good as any of the best Discworld stories. Animation experts Cosgrove Hall of "Danger Mouse " fame did an excellent stop-motion adaptation in 1992.

• Doom Patrol - I can't really be called a Grant Morrison fan. Much of the time (especially in recent years) he feels like a bargain basement Alan Moore tribute act, revelling in trying to be clever for clevers sake, but occasionally he does have real flashes of originality and brilliance. His reinvention of this 1960s DC super-team of freaks and rejects with artist Richard Case is one such occurrence. I was fascinated by the bizarre storylines and creations he came up with, such as the Brotherhood of Dada, the Scissormen and Danny The Street. It's all so absurd and abstract and a little bit pretentious that you can't help being swept away by the insanity.

• London Boys - The Twelve Commandments of Dance - It's cheesy Europop synth dance music and to be honest it's pretty awful. Why is it even on the list then? Well apart from the fact that the songs were never off the radio in the summer of 1989, it's here because it was an album I bought and tried to like to impress a girl I was genuinely infatuated with. Listening now instantly transports me back to a time and place when I was young, naive and a little bit too keen. No wonder the lady in question tolerated my friendship and nothing further...

• Metropolis :The Musical - With, let's be fair, only a couple of really good tunes, this stage version of the Fritz Lang classic needed something else to make it stand out. Thankfully it had the UK debut of future star Judy Kuhn as Maria / Futura and the deep voice and magnetic presence of the one and only Brian Blessed - and actor Jonathan Adams in a great supporting role. In addition there was the huge metallic moving set with it's rising platforms and cradles coming from the ceiling. That, plus my love for the original film was enough to get me to the theatre three times in quick succession. Which was just as well as "Metropolis" only lasted 214 performances before being consigned to a footnote in musical history. "The machines are beautiful..."

• Beautiful Stories For Ugly Children - The first series from DC's alternative imprint Piranha Press was not really a comic book at all, more a series of text stories with accompanying illustrations. But what stories they were. Forget the brightly coloured pantheon of superheroes, this was a monochromatic world of unsettling, twisted and creepy fables with titles such as "A Cotton Candy Autopsy", "Die Ranbow Die" and The Santas of Demotion Street" . Written by Dave Loupre and drawn by Dan Sweetman,whose scratchy yet beautiful penmanship offered a distorted view of the world, these tales were full of dark humour, unsympathetic characters and unhappy endings. It was thirty issues of brilliance. 

• Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure - The best film ever about time travel in a phone box (well at least until a proper "Doctor Who" movies gets made). Every viewing (and there have been many) is a wonderful joyous experience. It's damn near perfect and incredibly the sequel is even better. What else can I say except...

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 15 - The X-Files 1.15 - Lazarus

This is a bit more like it...

The X-Files 1.15 - Lazarus

Thankfully it's a more solid episode this week, The problem is that I can't say it was particularly exciting to watch and consequently I don't have a lot to say about it. However, along with lots of real detective work, there were a couple of nice touches:

Firstly we have the revelation that Dana Scully definitely has a thing for older men, having dated her teacher at some point. While we can question the appropriateness of this and the "daddy issues" that it might suggest, at least it adds further nuance to Scully's character - that's if it is part of her persona and not just a convenient hook dreamt up to hang the plot off of.

The second thing I liked was the professor and his lovely story about the airline pilot who supposedly became possessed by the dead husband of his lover and later strangled her with an extension cord. It's the almost gleeful way that he smiles and walks away after telling this tall tale that endeared him to me. "That's a nice story" says Mulder after a long pause...

Things really do hinge on the performance of Christopher Allport in the role of Willis / Dupre-in Willis' body, and he does some great work here. He's particularly convincing as the multiple murder back from the dead and Dupre's infatuation with Lulu is mirrored is Willis's own intense obsession with the homicidal psychopaths. They are clearly meant to be a take on the Bonnie and Clyde outlaw couple trope, and both guest actors do well in portraying the viciousness of the duo. Nice skull mask too.

I'm less happy with Scully's continued resistance to believe in *any* of Mulder's theories even in the face of some solid evidence to the contrary. I get that this is her ex lover who is being "possessed", so she's more defensive than usual, but her stubbornness to even consider alternative explanations is bordering on stupidity. Surely she should be at least considering that Willis might be ill or unstable after being technically dead for so long - but no, she seems totally okay with things, blindly accepting that "Willis" passed his FBI evaluations and has been cleared to return to duty. Speaking of which, there is no way that Dupre would pass the FBI tests  - he's not a trained agent and has no access to Willis' memories (he can't recall Scully's birthday). It's a tiny step too far.

Other thoughts and facts:

• The whole bit with Dupre's tattoo felt like the writers needed to hammer home the point that Willis had been possessed. It would have been far better to make it more ambiguous and leave viewers in the dark somewhat about if it had really happened, or if Willis's preoccupation with Dupree and Lulu had pushed him off the deep end. 
• Why did "Willis" cut off three fingers from Dupre's hand? He only wanted the ring so surely one would have been enough.
• Can you really estimate the height of a plane from the noise of the engine? Apparently so.
• Someone seems to have Mark Snow's soundtrack generator on autopilot. The "creepy music" riff pops up in the most unusual and inappropriate places in this episode.

In conclusion, while the whole idea of a vengeful "soul" possessing another persons body after death is not a new idea, and the execution might be a tad pedestrian, there are a number of little moments within the episode that lift it above the mere humdrum.

Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 22 - 1988

A real case of "you had to be there"...

1988:

The trivia:

• As a protest against null voting, Brazilian magazine "Casseta Popular" submitted a chimpanzee named Tiao from the Rio de Janeiro zoo as a candidate in the upcoming election. Tiao was well known locally for his bad temper and habit of throwing mud and feces on visitors. In the election he incredibly received over 400,000 votes and came third. but of course his ballots were considered null. When Tiao died in 1996 at the age of 34, the city declared three days of official mourning. Shades of Mayor Dave the Orangutan in 2000 AD ?
• At the opening ceremony of the Seoul Summer Olympics, a large group of white doves were released to symbolise peace. Later the Olympic torch was carried into the stadium, and by now many of the doves had settled on the cauldron of the official flame. Despite this, the lighting of the flame proceeded as normal and worldwide TV audiences watched in horror at scenes of the doves being cooked alive on the world's biggest barbecue.
• Former NASA engineer Edgar C. Whisenant wrote a book predicting that the Rapture (when the Christian dead would be resurrected and join the living in heaven for eternity) would occur in September 1988. The book sold more than 4.5 million copies and some evangelical groups began to prepare their members for the coming event. When it failed to occur, at the appointed time, Whisenant followed up with other books - with predictions for 1989, 1993 and 1994. These failed to sell quite so well...
• In 1988 a huge controversy swirled around Hollywood regarding the attempts to colourise black and white films. Speaking to Congress about this activity, "Star Wars" supremo George Lucas passionately stated that "People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians...In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives...Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten". I guess your movies don't count then, George?

The memory:

Destination Docklands

Electronic musical genius Jean-Michel Jarre had become a big part of my life by 1988. Thanks to my brother's friend Alan I'd been introduced to his music around the time that "Magnetic Fields" was released and I'd never looked back, buying each album as it was released and playing them over and over again. Jarre had also become known for his large elaborate concerts - which featured lasers, fireworks and images being projected on the sides of tall buildings. When it was announced that, at the peak of his popularity, he would be bringing his show to the UK in support of the release of new album "Revolutions", I was obviously extremely keen to attend. Named "Destination Docklands", it would be using the partially derelict  Royal Victoria Dock in London as its backdrop, as Jarre felt the industrial, desolate environment with its cranes, warehouses and grain silos was suited for his music. Who wouldn't want to be part of that once-in-a-lifetime experience? There was just one teensy problem - I was going to be on holiday for two weeks in September and wouldn't you know it, that was exactly when the concert was due to take place on 24th September.

Oh well, I guess I was destined not to see the great man live. I wasn't about to cancel a long-planned and very expensive trip overseas. That was that. Or was it....?

Earlier in the year Jarre and his team had met with officials from Newham Borough Council to discuss the project. This was to be a huge event. Hundreds of thousands of people. Massive lighting rigs, Pyrotechnics. Lasers. A floating stage. Repainting the facade of the Spillers Millennium Mills building for the projections. The logistics were staggering. Expressing strong concerns about the size of the thing and the associated safety fears (not to mention getting that many people in and out of the area), the council did the usual bureaucratic thing and took an absolute age to make a decision, finally rejecting the application outright on 12th September - just a few days before I was due to fly out to the USA.

Such was the disappointment that the decision made the UK news headlines - after all it had been planned as the biggest show of it's kind the country had ever seen. I felt slightly better about things though, I couldn't miss out on something that wasn't going to happen anyway could I? So I relaxed and proceeded to go off and enjoy my holiday. Goodbye London, hello Epcot.

Meanwhile though, Jarre was persevering with his planning application and spent a two hectic weeks looking for alternative locations, while still working on the Docklands site in the hope that he could satisfy the councillors issues. This was all still big news, even thousands of miles away in Florida (Jarre had experienced somewhat similar difficulties with his "Rendez-vous Houston" concert a few years previous). Semi-regular phone calls back to my parents in the UK and the media coverage meant I was aware of all the twists and turns, and this glimmer of a resurrection meant that my excitement levels began to rise. Maybe, just maybe, fate might have turned in my favour...

Eventually Jarre's tenacity paid off, and after making some logistical changes - and most significantly splitting the concert across two nights (thus reducing the attendance numbers for each one) - he won conditional approval on 28th September for two shows to take place on the 8th and 9th of October. I can't recall if those with unused tickets from the aborted 24th September performance could still use them for the new date or if they were refunded and had to apply again - the vital thing was that *new* tickets were going on sale and everyone could apply. But hang on, I wasn't back in the country until 1st October - they would have sold out by the time I got home! No internet back then either of course, so no way of buying things online. You had to call a sales office in person. Frantically I used the expensive hotel phone to contact my friend Neil and arranged with him that he would make the all-important call and do his utmost to get tickets for all of us. Eventually after several anxious hours, word reached my brother and I in Florida. Success ! We were going to the Sunday performance!

Building work contained in Docklands at a frenzied rate in order to be ready in time for early October. The 30m by 40m floating "battleship" stage on which Jarre and his musicians were to perform was constructed on top of huge steel barges towed down from the north of England. Large purpose-built display screens were erected along, with World War II searchlights positioned on rooftops. The buildings were painted white. A giant mirror ball mean for the event fell into the road during transportation and for a while was confused for a fallen satellite. Anticipation was building. This was epic stuff. Meanwhile with a just a few days to go my friends and I planned how we would get to the venue.

Eventually the weekend of the concerts came, and with it one final set of problems for the Frenchman - the unpredictable British weather. A howling force seven gale hampered final preparations. That giant stage (and the 400 tonnes of material on board) was meant to float back and forth along the dock, but the increasingly inclement weather meant that concerns that it might break free from its moorings put paid to that idea. The Saturday was the wettest day of the year and rain lashed the temporary grandstands and dock area. Nothing could dampen anyone's enthusiasm however and the first show went ahead as planned. Then it was our turn.

We made our way to London (and again my memory fails me as I can't remember if that was by car or train. Not important I guess). In any case as we walked closer to the venue there was a veritable buzz in the air. Hordes of people were arriving from every direction. Not everyone had tickets - some had come just to see the light show and fireworks from a distance. The streets and parks were full. The sky alight with searchlights. Closer still the stewards herded us like willing sheep into the muddy area before the stage and up to the seating - the vast cranes towering over us as we waited patiently. The sun began to set - and then the rain began to pour down.

Finally when the darkness was complete and everyone was in place,  the searchlights dropped. A solitary green hued laser light pierced out of the darkness with a "woosh"  and the windows of the building in front of us turned red as the crowds cheered wildly. As the opening bars of "Industrial Revolution - Overture" boomed out, Jean-Michel Jarre appeared in the spotlight slowly walked down some steps - dressed in a smart aquamarine long jacket - with a roadie holding a large umbrella to shield him from the worst of the weather. As the music soared so did the first of the fireworks into the night sky. When the first piece finished Jarre punched his fist in the air in celebration. Despite the awful weather, he was determined to enjoy himself.

Well that's what you can see him do on the video recording of the whole event. To be honest the rain by this point was very heavy, and I was far enough back from the stage (which was also slightly to the right) that all I could see was a coloured blob in the distance. Then one of my friends handed me a pair of binoculars that he had cleverly thought to bring along and everything came into focus - until I had to hand them to the next person anyway. I pitied some of the others at the furthest reaches of the grandstand. They must have wondered exactly where the Frenchman was twiddling his knobs and playing his laser harp.

Not that it mattered really. Jarre's shows have always been about the experience as a whole and in this respect he didn't disappoint. If anything the wind and rain added to the drama and he carried on regardless of the buffeting gusts (at one point in between tracks he even jokes that "Frogs like rain"...). Synchronous with the music that I knew so well  were more fireworks and lights and images than I had ever experienced before. Spectacular doesn't even begin to cover it. In fact, take a look for yourself at this excerpt from the official release which really shows the extent of the weather and the scale of the concert:

The piece being played is one of my favourites, "Fourth Rendez-Vous". That grinning guitarist at the end with Jarre? That's the legendary Hank Marvin from "The Shadows", one of the most influential musicians of the 60s and 70s. He appears on the track "London Kid" on the "Revolutions" album but was present throughout other parts of the night. There was also a choir from Mali on stage for "September" - a tribute to South African political activist Dulcie September who had been assassinated early in the year. There were tracks from all of Jarre's albums, each accompanied by amazing visuals and enthusiasm from the 100,000 attendees.

Eventually the show came to a conclusion with another massive burst of fireworks and my friends and and I made our long way home - cold and very wet, but extremely happy. Despite all the odds and the setbacks, Jarre had pulled off something truly special and thanks to good luck, we had memories that have lasted a lifetime.

Honourable mentions:

• Who Framed Roger Rabbit - I'm not including this film on the list because it's a live action / animation mash up classic with wonderful characters, a fantastic plot and more cartoon guest stars than you can shake a stick at (plus of course Jessica Rabbit, the first animated lady to make men of any age feel a little bit funny...).Those things are all a given and any one of them make it deserving of being in any countdown of genuinely amazing movies. No it's here because of *where* I saw it....

• In the heady days of the late 1980s there was still a significant gap between cinema releases in the US and the UK. - in this case it was going to be nearly six months before we Brits would get to see this hotly anticipated, highly unusual production. I'd read all about it in "Empire" magazine already and was pretty excited. Then as I mentioned earlier, I went to Florida for two weeks holiday with my brother in mid-September - ostensibly to do the whole Disney thing - but we also took in Kennedy Space Centre, Rosie O' Grady's Good Time Emporium, Wet 'n' Wild, Busch Gardens, Sea World, etc,etc. On a rare day of downtime in the packed schedule, we found ourselves in the local giant shopping mall and adjoining multiplex cinema (something the UK was only just starting to get). To our surprise "Roger Rabbit" was still playing and a showing was about to start. We couldn't believe it and quickly bought tickets. As great as the film was, I think we were more excited that we were seeing it way before any of our friends!

• Killer Klowns from Outer Space  - Remember how last week I mentioned that horror films are not really my favourite genre? Well here's one of the exceptions to the rule, and it's more of a low budget slightly scary science fiction comedy than anything else. Plus, everybody hates clowns, right? The basic plot might be simple - mysterious clown-like aliens descend to Earth and attempt to kill all the inhabitants of a sleepy American town - but it's the imaginative and touch-in-cheek nature of how they do it (and how the townsfolk defend themselves) that makes this a thoroughly enjoyable 82 minutes. Where else could you see toy guns that fire deadly popcorn, a balloon animal dog that comes to life, a human puppet show and aliens that use a crazy straw to drink the liquefied remains of their victims (I knew Doctor Who had ripped off that little old lady in "Smith & Jones" from somewhere...) One of those movies that the word "cult" was invented for.

• Batman: The Killing Joke - Some say that this is the definitive Batman / Joker story. There is no doubt that it's a brilliant read and is beautifully drawn, plus it's influence on DC continuity in subsequent decades has been immense, especially in relation to Barbara Gordon as Batgirl / Oracle. But I'm just not so sure it's the solid gold classic everyone make it out to be. Even Moore and Bolland don't rate it as their best work (and Moore of course has "dis-owned" everything he ever did for DC).

• Doctorin' The TARDIS - I'm a "Doctor Who" fan, of *course* I bought the 12" version of this. It got to number one! It's a novelty song naturally, that mixes the TV shows theme music with dodgy 70s rocker Gary Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part Two) plus samples of Sweet's "Blockbuster" and catchphrases by comedian Harry Enfield's boorish plasterer Loadsamoney - put together by the gents behind "The Justified Agents of Mu-Mu" and "The KLF", The music press naturally hated it, but the public took it to there hearts and it sold millions of copies around the world. Why the Ford Galaxie car "frontman"? No idea, but it's a harmless bit of fun for two a half minutes. Judge for yourself...

• Tad Williams - The Dragonbone Chair - The first in the epic fantasy trilogy "Memory, Sorrow and Thorn" which deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as a certain series by George R.R. Martin. It may have less sex and violence and more traditional fantasy elements but it's the depth of William's characters (and the sheer number of them), the time he takes to build his world and the fact that he subverts many of the tropes of the genre while embracing others in new ways that make the whole sequence so memorable. That and the books are really, really long. I still don't know if I've read anything better. Tad's other books aren't too shabby either.

• Black Kiss - Probably one of the the most controversial comics of the late 80s, primarily because of the explicit sexual content. Howard Chaykin's hard-boiled thriller is decent enough, but it's the nature of some of the scenes which forced publishers Vortex to seal each issue in a plastic bag so that under-age children couldn't peek inside - that was a big thing in the comic shops. Nowadays I'm not sure anyone would even bat an eyelid.

• Young Einstein - Didn't you know that Albert Einstein was really a Tasmanian who discovered the theory of relativity while trying to add bubbles to beer and invented rock and roll, the electric guitar and surfing? Well 'Yahoo' Serious did and he made a movie about it. It's a slapstick comic fantasy and very, very silly - but at the time I really loved it for some strange reason. Serious is like a proto-Jim Carrey, all rubber facial expressions and odd movements, but there is a kind of innocent charm running through all the nonsense.  It's years since I've watched it though, so goodness knows what I would make of it now.

• Mr Jolly Lives Next Door - If "Destination Docklands" hadn't been such a big thing in 1988, then this would have been in the premier spot. There are many superb episodes of "The Comic Strip Presents...", but only one which has such personal importance that I can quote large swathes of it to this day. There is a seven year gap between my sister and I, and this is the film which really brought us together as she hit her teenage years. 

• Rik and Ade run the "Dreamytime Escorts" agency (tagline 'Escorts Bestcorts. Come in if you're saucy!'). This basically involves them swindling foreign tourists into take them on a binge drinking tour at their expense or stealing booze from Heimi Henderson's off-licence situated below their office. Next door lives Mr Jolly, a psychopathic contract killer, played by the manic Peter Cook. Intercepting an envelope meant for Jolly containing a wad of cash and a request to "take out" TV presenter Nicholas Parsons, the pair embark on a booze-filled trip to meet him at the Dorchester hotel, spending the cash for the hit on 1,574 gin and tonics. Much violence, death and destruction ensues, which also involves the music of Tom Jones, some exploding tonic water and the competition winning catchphrase "Never ever bloody anything ever".

• I've just had my 50th birthday as I write this and the card my sister sent me is one of those you can design yourself online by adding your own pictures. At the top on the front are images of Nicholas Parsons, Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson in "Mr Jolly". Our love for this one-off comedy is that deep and has lasted that long. I'm sure I'll be ninety and still be laughing at this classic.

I Saw Elvis In A Potato Chip Once 14 - The X-Files 1.14 - Gender Bender

Oh dear. Another season one clunker, which ends so suddenly it's almost as if they didn't so much run of of airtime as think "Right that's quite enough of that...".

The X-Files 1.14 - Gender Bender

On the face of it, a case involving death by sex should be right up Mulder's street. Not only that but it looks like the killer is a shape shifting genetic mutant too. Fox must having been wetting himself with excitement - and to be honest there is the kernel of a good idea here. The problem is that the whole way it's presented made me feel slightly uncomfortable. I know it's probably a bit unfair to compare the morals of a 1990s show with the more enlightened attitudes of today (for goodness sake don't look at some 1970s British sitcoms), but there is a thinly veiled undercurrent of sexual and religious intolerance going on here - both towards the body-swapping killer and the Amish-like Kindred society.

There is lots of prolonged, meaningful staring. Scully getting incredibly aroused by just a touch. Mulder being completely unable to read a map or follow a compass. Some nasty looking goo. What appeared to be a sudden shot of Princess Diana. It all gets bogged down under the weight of its own ridiculousness. Plus there's that ending. Is it a genius shock twist - or just mad? I bet we never hear of the Kindred ever again.

To be fair there are a few good points. The episode is directed and shot very well and there is a nice organic vibe going on with the fleshy pulsating walls. Duchovny and Anderson are great and the actor who played Brother Andrew manages to keep things just the right side of the creepy serial killer line - but only just.

Other thoughts and facts:

• Just what the hell is a "Chippy"? As if there wasn't enough sexism going on.
• There's a large picture on the wall near the start that looks very H.R. Giger. Someone's a fan.
• The music cue in the caves sequence is very "Tubular Bells" (or "The Exorcist" if you must). Someones's head turning right round would have pepped things up no end.
• I wonder how the Amish society felt about the episode? Oh wait - they don't watch television, so the writers could be as rude as they liked.

So far "The X-Files" season one has been wildly varying in terms of quality with only a couple of standouts - and I'm not really feeling the love. Saying that, the same could be said of a show like "Star Trek: The Next Generation" in it's premiere year, and look how that turned out. With ten episodes left I'm hoping things start to step up a gear as the creative team find their feet at last.

Random Ravings 16 - Art And Illusion

So, I haven't done one of these for a while, and I thought it was time I caught up with some very brief thoughts on the latest series of what has become one of my all time top TV shows...

Line of Duty Series 4

Not quite reaching the heights of season 3 and the conclusion of the "Caddy" storyline, this was still riveting television. Getting an actress of the calibre of Thandie Newton in as your main antagonist doesn't hurt of course. A slow first couple of episodes had me worried for a while, but I shouldn't have doubted creator Jed Mercurio and his ability to ratchet up the tension and deliver a finale that had several "punch the air" moments. In the end the identity of  "Balaclava Man" was relatively unimportant, just peeling back another layer of this vast conspiracy at the top of the police force.

As Roz Huntely, Thandie Newton was ice cold under pressure, but this did mean that I didn't feel any connection to her or begin to doubt her culpability in the same way as Lindsay Denton from the previous series. However I can't deny her that small moment of redemption when she was able to reveal the extent of lawyer Jimmy Lakewell's corruption. Her last act was to actually do her job as a police officer and save an innocent man from jail.

The real star of the show though continues to be Adrian Dunbar as Superintendent Ted Hastings - surely up there with being the best TV cop since...Gene Hunt?. I almost stood up and cheered when he finally got his man and sleazy chief Derek Hilton was revealed at last - twinned with a vague sense of dissatisfaction that his death was off-camera.

There’s still a ton of unanswered questions. Who exactly are the criminal at the top of the chain? How many other “Balaclava men” are still out there, and how many bent coppers? Was Hilton really the so-called “H” in charge? “This is beginning to feel like a life’s work” said Ted Hastings. I can’t have been the only one to think "I bloody well hope so". Here's to series five.

Golden Sunsets - 50 Years Of Memories - Part 21 - 1987

By my early twenties I was fully immersed in the comics industry - both as a reader and as a retailer. But an encounter with one of my customers lead to the discovery of a different kind of super-heroics...

1987:

The trivia:

• By 1987, due to poaching, lead poisoning and destruction of their natural habitat, there were only 27 California Condors left on the planet. All of the huge birds, with their 3 metre wide wingspan, were captured and placed in the San Diego Wild Animal Park and the Los Angeles Zoo to help preserve the species. Thankfully due to a successful breeding program there are now over four hundred - many living wild.
• Chicago businessman Steve Rothstein purchased an unlimited first class American Airlines ticket for US$ 233,509. During the more than 10 years he owned it, he travelled in excess of 10 million miles, made over 500 trips to England and apparently cost the airline US$ 21 million. The pass was terminated in 2008 due to "fradulent behaviour".
• 19-year old German amateur aviator Matthias Rust managed to fly his small Cessna aircraft all the way from Helsinki to Moscow and land illegally near Red Square. Despite being tracked several times by Soviet air defence, he was never shot down. Although originally sentenced to four years in prison he only served a few months and the incident allowed progressive Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to dismiss many of his harshest military opponents.

Okay so I guess before I start with the memory proper, I should provide a bit more context to that comment at the top of the page about being a comics "retailer". This might take a while...

By the mid-1980s I was getting my regular comics from specialist shops rather than newsagents. It started with all those trips to "Forbidden Planet" in London, but as I left school and (after a brief period in market research) started working in Southend-on-Sea, I switched to getting my weekly fix from the local independent book shop in the Victoria Circus Shoping Centre - known rather generically as "The New Bookshop" (I never did discover where the "Old" one was).

The two rather mature gentlemen who ran the shop were always friendly and I became a regular customer. Their shelves were crammed full of all the latest Marvel, DC and independent titles. Each week I would pick up the current releases (almost everything to be honest) which they had put by in a hi-tech filing system of brown paper bags with your name written in marker pen. Thanks to these lovely fellows I discovered comics from First, Comico, Capital, Eclipse and a vast range of other titles. More and more of my meagre wages was being spent on four-colour adventures (well I was still living at home and couldn't drive, so had very little outgoings). I reunited with some old friends in the shop as we all started to hang out there and met some new ones along the way - including a very young Warren Ellis.

Then to my delight, a proper specialist comic book store opened on the ground floor of the shopping centre. "Collector's Dream" was run by run by local writer, artist, musician and sometime shoe salesman Gary Spencer Millidge. Gary would become well known in comic circles in later years for his seminal series "Strangehaven", but when I first got to know him, he was focused on the new shop and associated mail order subscription service. "Collector's Dream" became the new place for us comics fans to hang out, and it was in Gary's shop that we saw him work on the famine relief title that became 1985's "Food For Thought" (way before Marvel and DC produced their own titles). I was there when he unboxed the first issues of "Watchmen" and "The Dark Knight Returns". My younger brother even worked there for a while when he first left school. Those were great times.

But at some point not long after this (and here my memory gets slightly hazy), Gary decided that he needed to down-size and move the shop to smaller premises. I really wanted to get into the industry in some way and convinced my brother and a friend that we should buy the "Collector's Dream" mail order service and run it ourselves. With a cash loan from my father, we did just that and from my bedroom we somehow managed to run a small business on a complete shoestring.

Typing up the monthly order catalogues on a Commodore 64 computer, printing them out and pasting them together to then be photocopied, we wrote semi-humourous editorials to accompany the listings. We started with the customer list we had purchased from Gary and then expanded it by handing out flyers at the Westminster Comic Mart's - which looked great thanks to a custom piece of Alan Davis artwork we had got with the business purchase,  Deliveries from Titan Distributors became a weekly occurrence along with regular trips to the warehouse itself in Mile End for single issues (the minimum pre-order was two copies). All of our spare time was spent wrapping parcels, collating orders, banking cheques and keeping things afloat - all this while holding down regular jobs. It was hard work but hugely exciting. We made lot's of contacts, learnt a huge deal and of course bought a *lot* of comics for ourselves at trade prices!

One of our regular overseas customers was a young guy called Philip Chee who lived in Hong Kong and he often sent us long letters with his large order, chatting about his love of science fiction and fantasy and comics. Over time we corresponded back and forth and developed a good relationship with this fellow fan who was half a world away. Then one month Philip mentioned that he was going to be in London visiting family - did we want to meet up with him for lunch or something?

Arranging to meet outside Tottenham Court Road tube station in the West End, the three of us waited somewhat nervously until approached by a young dark haired gentleman in glasses. Yes, this was Philip and after a few minutes we found ourselves getting on really well, even if he did come across as very excitable and a definite comic book expert. We made a tour of all the London comic shops within walking distance (Philip wanted to stock up on back issues) and ended up at the flagship "Forbidden Planet" store, which as well as comics had the best selection of SF and fantasy novels that we knew of.

Perusing the lengthy low shelves for anything new, Philip picked up a US import book with a somewhat lurid purple-ish cover and a shining logo.. "The secret history of our times revealed" it claimed. "Had I heard of "Wild Cards" before?" Philip asked. I shook my head and he thrust the book into my hands. "You should try this series, it's really good" he replied (or words to that effect). Not wanting to appear rude - and to be honest open for something new to read - I took a look at the blurb on the back. What I saw was enough for me to plonk down my cash - and a nearly thirty year love affair was about to begin...

The memory:

Wild Cards

This was a world parallel to our own - a history in which an alien virus struck the Earth in the aftermath of World War II. Thousands were killed, but a handful of survivors were endowed with strange superhuman powers. Some were called 'Aces', gifted with extraordinary mental and physical abilities. Others were 'Jokers', cursed with bizarre mental or physical disfigurements Some turned their talents to the service of humanity, some used them for evil - and the Wild Cards 'shared' universe was born.

So this might have sounded like your typical Marvel or DC super-hero universe in prose form. But the difference was that these were "mosaic" novels (although the first book was more district short stories). Each unique character was created and written separately by a leading science fiction author, but formed part of a jigsaw whole, shepherded and edited by some guy I'd never heard of called George R.R. Martin. These weren't your traditional throwaway stories either. Following the 80s trend towards more realistic portrayals of super-heroes, these characters were fully three dimensional. They changed and adapted and faded in out out of the narrative like real people and even died, sometimes in violent pointless ways. The authors involved include Walter John Williams, Roger Zelazny, Melinda, M. Snodgrass, Stephen Leigh and Daniel Abraham. Even "X-Men" scribe Chris Claremont had an entry, but there are many many others.

The first volume chronicled the events from World War II to the present day and showed the emergence of the Aces and Jokers and the effect they had on world events. In addition there were many allusions to real-life celebrities being affected by the virus. Mick Jagger was a werewolf. Jim Morrison really *was* the Lizard King, etc, etc Most importantly we were introduced to many key players in the Wild Cards series as the decades passed:

• Doctor Tachyon -  a flamboyant Takesian who tried to prevent the detonation of his races virus bomb and now attempts to atone for their mistake by staying on Earth.
• Croyd Crenson "The Sleeper" - cursed to fall into a coma and wake up in a new body every few months. Sometimes an Ace and sometimes a Joker, he never knows what will happen when he falls asleep.
• The Great and Powerful Turtle - possessed of the world most powerful mental abilities, he hides inside a metal shall constructed from an old VW Beetle
• Fortunato - the supreme sorcerer on the planet who recharges his powers via tantric sex.
• Captain Trips - a burned out hippy biochemist who can call forth five different super-powered persona through the use of drugs
• Puppetman - a politician able to control the minds of anyone he touches and feed off their negative emotions? How could that  not be a bad thing...

I loved the first book and immediately went back and brought the following two. Set in the then current late 80s, each one dealt with a particular threat but sub-plots and continuing threads were interwoven and carried across between the novels, although generally each three books formed a loose trilogy. Between 1987 and 1993 there were twelve books published and "Wild Cards" straddled a host of different genres from political thriller to detective mystery to space opera. A  universe of different heroes and villains were introduced and like the best comic multi-part stories, sometimes it took several volumes for good to triumph over evil - and sometimes the bad guys won and people died. I couldn't get enough. This was my comics world though an adult lens. It was violent, sexy, horrific, thought provoking and overall brilliant.

Around about book six, a UK publisher (I think it was Titan) caught onto the "Wild Cards" phenomenon and they re-issued the books with new Brian Bolland covers, US publisher Bartam Spectra responded with their own new covers by "Grimjack" artist Timothy Truman, who continued with the new releases, and it's those that adorn my copies of books seven to twelve.

With a new trilogy starting in volume 13 came a new publisher - Baen replacing Bantam Spectra - and Barclay Shaw took over from Tim Truman as cover artist. Released a mere month after book 12, "Card Sharks" was subtitled 'Book 1 of a New Cycle'. A conspiracy tale involving a deadly "antidote" to the Wild Card virus known as the "Black Trump", the set of three also brought a number of character arcs to a conclusion and wrapped up things pretty neatly for the series as a whole. It would be seven years before I would get to read a new story set in this universe.

2002 brought "Deuces Down". Published by iBooks, the long-awaited sixteenth volume in the series was almost a companion piece to the first, as the reader was presented with an anthology of individual tales spanning four decades from 1968. However this time it was viewed from the sidelines as the focus was on those less well known members of the Wild Card saga, the 'Deuces' - those whose powers were almost negligible and often more trouble than they're worth. It's an interesting book but I wanted things to move forward in the main timeline.

Four years later I got my wish in "Death Draws Five", a novel written solely by John J. Miller. An apocalyptic thriller with religious overtones it featured the welcome return of favourite characters such as Carnifex, Mr. Nobody and Fortunato plus new female bad-ass Midnight Angel. But iBooks were about to go into bankruptcy and a new publisher was needed yet again. 

Enter Tor Books, who have released a further six new novels so far, with more to come - plus reprints of the originals, some with extra stories added. There have been many new characters, many new writers brought into the "Wild Cards Trust" and many new Jokers, Aces, Deuces and villains. 

Turning things almost full circle, there have been two comics versions (Epic did four issues in 1990 and the Dabel Brothers  / Dynamite six in 2008), plus role playing games, audio books, online short stories and translations into several different languages. There (predictably) is even a live action TV show in development. 

Why do I love the books so much? Certainly regular superhero comics have caught up with some of the storytelling techniques used ("Astro City" springs to mind) but I think it really comes down to two reasons. Firstly it's that things really do change within the in-novel universe - unlike the transitory illusion of change with mainstream comics (at least from the big two publishers). "Wild Cards" has been running for thirty years with nary a reboot or reality altering event in sight. Secondly it's that there is a real weight to the characters (probably because they are always written by their creators) which means you care about what happens to them. The "Wild Cards" universe looks certain to continue for many years to come and I for one can't wait to get each new release.


Honourable mentions:

• Filthy, Rich and Catflap - At a mere six episodes, this series was kind of the bridge between the anarchy of the "The Young Ones" and the sheer slapstick brilliance of "Bottom" that was to come. Rik Mayall played Richie Rich, a talentless out of work actor, Nigel Planer his sponging agent Ralph Filthy and Adrian Edmonson was Edward Didgeridoo Catflap, Richie's violent drunken minder. Treating the Fourth Wall as if it just didn't exist and frequently taking the piss out of Z-list celebrities and their huge egos, I found the show not quite as enjoyable as it's predecessor but still worth tuning in for the relentlessly manic performances.

• Green Arrow The Longbow Hunters - After "The Dark Knight Returns", this was DC's second "prestige" format mini series and for my money one of the finest Green Arrow stories ever told. I was already a fan of writer / artist Mike Grell from his time on "Jon Sable, Freelance" but the quality of his work here is on a whole other level and succeeded in getting me seriously invested in a character which I had never really been that bothered about before. By stripping away the trick arrows and bombastic villains, acknowledging his age and grounding things in a more realistic environment, Grell turned Oliver Queen into an urban hunter and these three issues paved the way for a fantastic seven year run as writer and occasional artist. I still don't think Green Arrow has been written better.

• Weaveworld by Clive Barker - I never got into the"Books of Blood" or the "Hellraiser" movies. Horror stories are not really my thing and certainly thirty years ago I had read only a mere handful of genre novels. However I picked up "Weaveworld" because of the more fantasy-orientated premise - and boy was I glad I did. The book revolves around the secret existence of a race of magical beings known as the "Seerkind" and their struggles to remain hidden from the non-magical world inside "The Fugue" - a separate dimension woven into the strands of a carpet. The Seerkind have to face multiple dangers from human and non-human antagonists, plus the mysterious "Scourge" which seeks to destroy all magic. Full of religious allusions and themes, a multi-facted plot and truly evil and horrific threats, the novel was several worlds away from the more traditional fantasies I had consumed up to that point and even now remains one of the best books I have ever read. I quickly became a Barker devotee as he published one excellent novel after another over the next ten years. Any attempt to turn "Weaveworld" into a film or TV series can only be doomed to fail in my eyes, as it would be practically impossible to match the imagination and power of Barker's prose.

• The New Statesman - It's Rik Mayall in a razor sharp political comedy. What's not to love? As M.P. Alan B'Stard he was selfish, devious, lecherous and out only for himself. Heaven help anyone who got in his way, and whatever schemes, crises or scandals surrounded him, B'Stard always came up as top dog. It was a role tailor made for Mayall and proved that he was not only a brilliant comedian but also a tremendous actor. I may have been  biased of course (since I already considered Rik to be my comedy god), but as well as being very funny the show was savagely cruel and irreverent to all it's targets from any corner of the political spectrum. Four series, two specials, a couple of stage shows and many newspaper columns - B'stard was a force of nature and hugely popular. Any resemblance to real politicians either living or dead was completely deliberate.

• Star Trek Next Generation - We actually didn't get to see this show in the UK until September 1990, when it started airing in its regular early evening slot on BBC2 (and then subsequently on Sky One), but I've included it here as it was first broadcast in the USA in 1987. That first viewing came at the right time for me as "Doctor Who" had finished the previous December. I quickly took to the adventures of the Enterprise D crew, and thanks to some 4 hour tapes and my trust Panasonic VHS video, I recorded up to eight episodes on one cassette in 'long play'. In later years this meant that my first wife and I (also a fan) would occasionally start watching an episode in bed, fall asleep and wake up the next morning to find that Captain Picard was still boldly going.. For a while I was obsessed with all things "Trek" and amassed a large collection of books, comics, fact files and assorted ephemera. Looking back, even if that obsession has faded and even if it doesn't quite reach the heights of "Deep Space Nine" in terms of dramatic arcs and long-form storytelling, "TNG" still has a cast of characters that I love to spend time with, and it's one of those shows where despite having seen each episode so many times that I probably know the plots off by heart, when one comes on the TV I still stop changing channels and start watching.

Marshal Law - First published by Epic Comics as a six-issue mini, before sporadically hopping around a number of different publishers and formats in the subsequent years, Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill's savage satire of the superhero genre is a classic that deserves a much wider audience. Set in the future city of San Futuro, Law's job was to take down rogue heroes, which he did with maximum force and extreme pleasure. He hated all costumed heroes - including himself - and Mills parodied pretty much all the major characters over the course of the various storylines. It's violent, funny and packed with a wide disregard for the meaningless tales of the larger than life costumed do-gooders. Match that with O'Neill's unique spiky artwork and you have something really rather special. Later odd cross-overs with characters such as The Mask and even Hellraiser's Pinhead are less acerbic but still interesting. There is a big deluxe 480 page collection available which deserves to be on your Christmas present list.

Max Headroom - The world's first computer generated TV star (sort of), it's hard to describe to people that weren't there exactly how popular Max was in the mid-80s. Star of a one-off near-future TV drama, host of a video jukebox / interview chat show, the spokesman for "New Coke" and even part of a pop song along with the Art of Noise, Matt Frewer's creation and his staccato voice was everywhere. I enjoyed all of these appearances, but it's the US TV series which is my favourite. Set in a dystopian near future (aren't they all?) where television networks rule the world, it was full of inventive imagery and storylines - at least for the time. Nowadays many of the things it predicted have sort of come true, which is kind of worrying...

By the way, there are a lot of other fantastic comics I could mention here, but I'm saving them for longer pieces further down the line. There is also this little series called "Star Cops" that deserves a *lot* of love and attention...