Golden Sunsets Redux - 60 Years Of Memories - Part 33 - 1999

So in this extended trawl through my personal history we have finally reached 1999 -  the eve of a new millennium (or not, depending on who you believe). We partied hard like Prince - and marvelled at how it all seemed so far away when we were 16. Would it be a new century of wonder and possibilities or Y2K Armageddon? At least the moon hadn't been blown out of orbit by a nuclear explosion... Hard to believe that back then there was no Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Google Maps, no smart phones, Blu-ray discs, Amazon Kindles or Wikipedia. But we still hadn’t invented a damn jet-pack! Never mind, we did have...

1999:

The trivia:

• Chess Grandmaster Garry Kasparov played "The World" in a game that lasted over four months with one move a day. More than 50,000 people from 75 different countries participated with The World team's moves being decided by majority vote. Kasparov ended up winning on turn 62 when 51% of The World decided to resign. He later claimed that it was the greatest game of chess he had ever played, although also admitted to sneaking a look at the World Team strategy forums!

• Three days after the animated Disney movie "The Rescuers" had been released on VHS video (for the second time), 3.4 million copies were recalled because a scene of the mouse heroes flying over New York City contained two frames of an "objectionable image" - a blurry photo of a naked woman. You could only see this if you knew exactly where to pause the video at the right moment, but Disney still chose to destroy the cassettes to maintain their wholesome family image.

• On 9th September 1914, 26 year old British soldier Private Thomas Hughes from Stockton-on-Tees tossed a green ginger beer bottle containing a letter to his wife into the English Channel. Two days later he was killed in action in World War I. In 1999, fisherman Steve Gowan dredged up the bottle as he fished for cod off the English coast near the mouth of the River Thames. Although Hughes' wife had died in 1979, his daughter, now 86, was still alive living in New Zealand. With the help of the New Zealand Post, Gowan was able to hand deliver the letter at last.

The memory:

So once again, making a choice for the top spot was *really* difficult. There was so much good stuff that came out in 1999 that I wrestled with myself long into the night, especially as I’ve always strived to avoid the obvious things that populate a gazillion top ten lists across the internet. The idea is to pick things with more personal connections. Don't get me wrong  - everything you can probably think of (and maybe more) is present and correct further down this entry, but in the end I chose the item that I spent the most time on - hence it’s time for a meandering trip through the years to reach:

Donkey Kong 64

I've mentioned my love of video games before - the 80s hey-day of the ZX Spectrum and the plethora of home produced titles that really kick-started the whole UK gaming industry  generate the fondest memories (look here for my recollections of one particular Speccy game) But what I've not covered is the fact that in the Sony versus Nintendo console war that straddled most of the late 90s, I came firmly down in the Nintendo camp. I think it's probably because, at the time, Nintendo produced more of my favourite type of games - platformers.

You just have to look back at the hours I spent playing Spectrum classics such as Manic Miner, Jet Set Willy, Chuckie Egg or Head Over Heels to get a sense that these were my games of choice. The puzzle elements, the split second timing to get through a screen or room, the joy at finding all the bonus elements  - they all added up. I'd dabbled with a Sega Mega Drive in the early 90s as well - everyone must have played "Sonic The Hedgehog" at some point - and I remember a title called "Rolo to The Rescue" which involved a platforming elephant. Plus the decidedly weird "Ecco The Dolphin" (was Sega obsessed with animal protagonists?)  - but beyond those, the Mega Drive didn't make much of an impact on me.

However I recall clearly when, in 1994, I first saw my then 11 year old brother-in-law's grey Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) with its rounded joypad and chunky cartridges. I was really keen to have a go, even though, as supposedly a "fourth generation" games device, it was probably a few years old by then. He had a copy of "Super Mario World" and after just a few plays I was hooked. I’d like to think we bonded over taking turns to work through the levels. Every time I visited my in-laws, we would inevitably end up in a games session.

But this is where my memory gets a bit hazy. On one hand I’m pretty sure I never owned a SNES of my own. But on the other I remember some of the games far too much to have only played them occasionally. It’s somewhat confusing. Maybe it’ll come back to me. In any case, one game I recall with real fondness is "Donkey Kong Country", which I still think is the peak of the games released for that particular console (don't shower me with abuse, I still agree that Mario and Zelda are both excellent too).

"Donkey Kong Country" (and its SNES sequels) was released by Rare Limited, the British video games company that always seemed to be pushing the boundaries of what was possible with limited system capabilities. I knew of them of course from their "Ultimate Play The Game" guise when they were the premier developer of titles for the ZX Spectrum - classics such as "Knightlore", "Underwurlde" and "Lunar Jetman" - all games that I had played to death back in the 80s. What they got from the incredibly tiny memory of the humble Speccy was astounding - and thanks to some really clever manipulation of the hardware, they did the same with the SNES - creating pre-rendered 3D graphics that were unlike anything Nintendo fans had seen before.

Running, jumping or rolling through 40 side-scrolling, ever-more-difficult levels, gamers could play as either Donkey Kong or his sidekick Diddy, swapping between them (and utilising their different abilities)  to collect bananas, defeat enemies, reach difficult areas or unlock hidden rooms. It was utterly addictive.I spent (or wasted) far too many hours conquering each level and uncovering as many of the secrets as I could. Even to this day the game still stands up as a classic of the platforming genre and I've played versions of it across many subsequent consoles. Just looking at the graphics brings a smile to my face.  But the thing is, within a few short years, Rare would create something that would make all of the "Donkey Kong Country" innovations look like mere child's play...

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So it's perhaps relevant at this point to state that I've never been one of those people who *has* to have the newest console on the day of release and boast how I've completed "Ultra-Sniper XXII" in less than 38 hours with no sleep and only a mug of coffee (or something stronger) for company. I prefer to wait until a decent amount of quality titles come out, read the reviews and pick and choose the high rated ones that appeal to me. In recent years I’ve even been known to wait until the next generation before investing in the one before. What kind of gamer am I ?!

Anyway, when the "Nintendo 64" came out in the UK in March 1997, it was different - I just knew I had to have one. Okay perhaps not as soon as it came out, but certainly within the first 6 months I had convinced my wife to let me buy one. I'd been reading the video gaming magazines and the hype surrounding the N64 console and the universal acclaim given to another of Rare's releases, the licenced James Bond title "Goldeneye". That plus the obvious attraction of a Mario game in 3D at last were enough to tip me over the edge to part with my hard-earned cash. As I unpacked the matt black console and the three pronged grey controller I'll admit to a certain thrill of excitement.

Plugging in the "Goldeneye" cartridge and starting up the game was a revelation. Here were 3D graphics and quality gameplay like I had never seen before. I quickly adapted to the unusual controller and the configuration of the various buttons and was dispatching bad guys like a true secret agent. Sure the characters faces did look like they had been hit with a mallet but at least they *had* proper faces. Next was "Super Mario 64", with its dynamic camera system, bright polygon graphics and an open-world to explore containing dozens of  missions. It was brilliant - exactly the kind of thing I loved about the SNES games but taken to a whole new level. I was in gaming heaven.

It’s also worth mentioning that by this point, due to the sudden death of her father, my wife and young daughter had relocated 180 miles away to be near the rest of her grieving family. I stayed around London for work during the week and returned to be with them at weekends, so had a lot of spare hours in the evenings after work. I spent much of that time on the N64.

This unusual situation continued for quite a while (even through the birth of my second daughter), so I was still spending time with my console for company. Over the next year I picked up a number of other N64 titles. The car/plane/hovercraft racing delights of "Diddy Kong Racing" (better than Mario Kart in my view). The building destroying antics of "Blast Corps". Award-winning puzzle / action with "Zelda: Ocarina of Time". Then in 1998, Rare Limited outdid Nintendo’s own developers and produced the simply superb single player 3D exploration platformer "Banjo-Kazooie". Working from a core hub, the titular bear and bird characters collaborate together in a non-linear fashion through nine different worlds to defeat the evil witch Gruntilda - collecting musical notes and jigsaw pieces along the way to gain access to each new world. Each section is simply stuffed with memorable characters, hidden areas and extra quests. Plus Banjo and Kazooie can gain a wide range of abilities to help them reach the most tricky of places. Oh and did I mention that their shaman friend “Mumbo Jumbo”, can use his magical powers to transform them into other creatures such as a walrus, a crocodile and a termite?

If "Donkey Kong Country" had reinforced a platformer addiction and "Super Mario 64" had turned it into 3D, then "Banjo-Kazooie" took that enthusiasm and turned the heat up big style!  I wasn't the only one who thought so, as the game sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has continued to influence developers ever since - just look at spiritual successor "Yooka-Laylee" that came out as recently as 2017. 

It’s funny though, despite the hours of gameplay, I can't recall if I ever actually completed "Banjo-Kazooie".  I certainly never got to play the sequel, "Banjo-Tooie" when it came out in 2000. That’s odd because I was still buying the odd game here and there. Maybe I was platformed out by that point. 

That’s probably because of what came next and it’s time to get to the point of this post. In November 1999 Rare released “Donkey Kong 64”. This took the open-world, co-op characters, collect-a-thon mechanics of “Banjo” and dialed it up to eleven. It’s a game of themed levels chock full of mini-games, puzzles, secret bonuses, transformations and more types of banana than you can possibly imagine. Each Kong family member has their own special skills - for example Donkey operates levers, Diddy can fly and Tiny can crawl through holes. Plus they each have a unique weapon. Areas of the game can only be accessed by collecting banana medals or completing quests and may involve traipsing back and forth between worlds. It’s a vast, vast game - and I was hooked from day one. 

“Donkey Kong 64” was also one of the first N64 games that needed the Nintendo Expansion Pak (which came bundled with the cartridge). This was a plug in that doubled the consoles RAM to 8 MB (astonishingly small by today’s standards) and Rare made the most of it to improve rendering, frame rates and dynamic lighting. Character animations and cut-scenes were smoother. Levels were bigger. Bosses were enormous. There were even version of the original “Donkey Kong” and “Jetpac” games (the latter a real ZX Spectrum classic) that you had to beat.

The game was deservedly a huge success and sold over 5 million copies - and to say I was addicted was an understatement. While some reviews criticised its similarity to “Banjo Kazooie” and the chore of collecting objects as excessively repetitive, I found it all enormous fun and it extended the playability. It really was the fore-runner of today’s open-world games with their endless variety of books, audio clips, back-story information, statues and assorted objects that you can collect to get that perfect score. I found a real sense of achievement in unlocking each charming new world or defeating each boss with a funky weapon. Oh and those who considered the  opening “DK Rap” to be awful completely missed the point - it’s meant to be cheesy!

In the many years since release, the game has come in for a lot of criticism, particularly about the sheer number of mini-games, the backtracking between worlds and the insane volume of collectables (thousands more than other platformers of the time) - with some arguing that DK64 "killed" the 3D-platformer as a genre. I don't buy that, especially as Nintendo have continued to release Mario games, each successively larger and with more "stuff" than the one before. I suspect that there's a certain amount of mob behavior happening here, with people feeling they have to join in with the pile on. I've never really understood that. All I know is that at the time this was one of my all-time favourite N64 games and just writing about it has made me want to get my console and cartridges out of mothballs in the loft and have one more go.

And it remained my favourite until a certain squirrel had a "Bad Fur Day". But that's for another time...

Honourable mentions:

A lot to get through here, so I'll try to keep things as brief as I can...

• The Matrix - What can I write about this film that hasn't been said a hundred times before? Yes Keanu is slightly wooden. Yes the sequels are awesome / patchy / rubbish / impenetrable (take your pick). Oh and yes the Wachowskis have cherry picked bits from various other SF novels, comics and Asian cinema. But you can't deny the fact that it's all just so damn cool looking and  features effects that changed the movie industry forever. I just loved every second of it. Over the years I've watched, played and read everything to do with the franchise and like so many others, this was the film that made me switch to buying DVDs. A game changer in almost every way.

• Planetary - I personally knew Warren Ellis when he was a struggling new writer back in the 1980s, and his career has waxed and waned over the intervening decades. He wrote some great comics back in the day, although in recent years they have been over-shadowed by some disturbing sexual coercion allegations . Some might cite "Transmetropolitan" as his best work, but for me these 27 issues are the most enjoyable - even if they were frustratingly spread across a ten year period. As I’ve mentioned several times before, I’m someone who grew up loving the original literary adventures of heroes such as James Bond, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Doc Savage, I think a large part of the fun is watching Ellis weave his alternative versions through the larger mysterious occurrences / conspiracy / multiverse narrative. It reminds me somewhat of Philip Jose Farmer's "Wold Newton" concept (remember “A Feast Unknown” from 1969?) or Alan Moore's "League of Extraordinary Gentlemen". Of course the story of the Planetary organisation versus "The Four" also hinges on the exceptional artwork of the sadly missed John Cassady - and his blend of the real and the fantastic makes the series look stunning. Overall it's a fairly brief series, but one that set a high benchmark for how good modern comics could be. Just a shame it's reputation has become tainted by the authors behaviour. 

• Queer As Folk -  I'm not gay (I'm bi, actually). I've never lived in Manchester. But I know great drama when I see it and this landmark series from Russell T Davies had me hooked from the first episode. Aidan Gillen was just magnetic as serial shagger Stuart Allen Jones - ably supported by Craig Kelly and Charlie Hunnam in what proved to be his breakout role. I'm sure the real gay scene is not all clubbing, hedonistic sex and catty put-downs, but the quality of RTD's writing made the characters and their world feel so real. This was a community that had never been shown on British TV screens with such honesty (and sexiness) before. Every episode had countless memorable moments, plus managed to make sharp-turns into hard-hitting emotion (coming our to your parents, pretending to be straight, drug overdoes) with huge success. It was glorious and exhausting at the same time - all this plus some excellent music from Murray Gold - and the best scenes featuring Doctor Who outside of the series itself! Unfortunately the truncated two-episode second season lost it's way somewhat - and in typical RTD fashion the ending is pretty awful - but that first series? Wow.

• The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart & Jack Cohen - How can you meld the fantasy silliness of Discworld with serious scientific explanations on the origins of the universe, quantum mechanics, evolution and the future of space travel ? Incredibly successfully so it happens when you have three superb writers on board. I genuinely found this book (and it's three sequels) un-put-downable. I'm a real believer in making science accessible to as wide an audience as possible and I challenge anyone to read this book and not find something fascinating and though provoking within its pages. It's not an exhaustive science book by any means - more an introductory guide to spur you to read further - and some might say that the Discworld element suffer by being broken up into such short chapters, but I personally don't agree. I found everything to be huge fun. 

• The Thomas Crown Affair - Sometimes a remake can be as good as (and dare I say it possibly even better) than the original. Such is the case with this version of the 1968 Steve McQueen heist movie, directed by John McTiernan and starring Piece Brosnan (then at the peak of his Bond tenure) and Rene Russo. Adjusting the plot to centre around an art thief and an insurance investigator really works - and the twists and turns as Crown's layers of deception are revealed are well worth the wait. But it's the central performances from the never more suave Brosnan and the sultry Russo that really make this a film to savour. The chemistry between them is electric and you really buy into the cat and mouse game they play (but who is who?) and the romance that develops. An absolute joy to watch.

• Farscape -  How can you sum up such a weird and wonderful TV show in just a couple of sentences? Okay <<deep breath>> here goes....American astronaut John Crichton flies through a wormhole and is picked up by a vast bio-mechanical living starship called Moya. On board he finds a bunch of aliens (some played by actors, some by puppets from the Jim Henson Creature Shop) that are trying to escape from the regime of the militaristic Peacekeepers. With no way back to Earth, Crichton has to adapt to the life of an outlaw, encountering ever more bizarre exotic races and avoiding multiple enemies, including the sadistic Scorpius, who want the hero's brain for his own evil ends....

• Nope. That just doesn't do it justice. This was a show that dared to be different - featuring a nemesis in a leather gimp suit, an alien that farted helium and another that orgasmed when exposed to light. There's an episode done mostly in the style of a Looney Tunes cartoon. Another where the crew are all spaced out on drugs. Far from being "Star Trek with Muppets" it pushed the envelope and turned familiar genre tropes on their head, frequently with hilarious results. The creatures felt like living breathing beings because they were there on set with the actors, not added by CGI afterwards. It was mad, bad and dangerous to know  - and I frelling love everything about it.

• America's Best Comics (ABC) - Starting with "The League of Extraordinary Gentleman (with it's high concept of bringing together protagonists from disparate worlds of fiction), superstar writer Alan Moore created his own best-selling comic line of heroes and villains. Using some of the public-domain characters from the long forgotten "Nedor" titles of the 1940s, along with new creations from Moore and his collaborators, ABC Comics was soon publishing a diverse line of truly excellent titles. Whether it was the Doc Savage homage "Tom Strong", with the crisp clean lines of Chris Sprouse, the super powered police procedural "Top Ten" featuring hyper detailed panels from Gene Ha and Zander Cannon, or "The Spirit" infused crime busting of "Grey Shirt" with Rick Veitch - there was something for everyone. The true gem though was "Promethea" featuring the astonishing and experimental artwork of J.H. Williams III. What seemed to begin as a fantasy-tinged homage to Wonder Woman soon developed into an epic history of magic, mysticism and Moore's own philosophical beliefs. Full of symbolism, an exploration of the spheres of the Kabbalah and a journey through several versions of heaven and hell, I can't really say I understood it all. However at least it made me *think* - plus it looked like nothing else in comics. Maybe one day we will get the planned landscape "Immateria" edition that will show off Williams' artwork in it's very best light. As Moore's last real foray into a mainstream comics universe, the ABC line as a whole was an overwhelming success and produced a couple of titles that sit very high in his overall oeuvre.

• The Mummy - A (very) loose remake of the 1932 Boris Karloff original, Stephen Sommers film styles things with far more of an supernatural "Indiana Jones" spin- a likable hero, smart one-liners and huge set pieces being the order of the day. While the CGI was impressive for the time and the plot rattles along with nary a pause for breath, what really makes this movie sing are it's characters - and the actors playing them. I'd somehow never heard of Brendan Fraser before seeing "The Mummy" - despite him being in such excellent fare as "Gods & Monsters" and "Blast From The Past" just a few months earlier - but he is just a wonderful action hero and has great chemistry with the delectable Evelyn, played by Rachel Weisz. John Hannah bumbles through proceedings as her hapless brother and when he finally gets some screen time, Arnold Vosloo is suitably creepy as the titular villain. All in all it's a regular favourite in our house, although I do wonder if that's due to the  attractions of the devilishly handsome Ardeth Bay  played by Oded Fehr...

• Galaxy Quest - I've my other half to thank for this one too, as despite my love for all things "Trek" it somehow passed me by on it's initial release. Perhaps I thought it was just a simple parody - but nothing could be further from the truth. The premise - a bunch of actors from a 20 year old SF show that are hawking themselves round the fan circuit are suddenly contacted by aliens that think their characters are real - is a great one and yes, there are homages to the most famous tropes of the classic series and it's 1980s "Next Generation" revival, but it's done with a knowing wink at the audience and a warmhearted love for the source material, rather than any nasty intent  While Tim Allen is great casting as the egotistical Jason Nesmith  and Sigourney Weaver proves that she can do light SF as well as face-hugging alien horror, it's Alan Rickman who steals the show (as he so often does) as the world-weary Alexander Dane, forever typecast as a bumpy headed alien when all he really wanted to do was be in classical drama. The film has deservedly become a cult classic in more recent years and it's easy to see why when everyone seems to be having so much fun. I fell in love with it straight away and never get tired of watching it. "By Grabthar's Hammer, it's good !"

• Heart of Empire: The Legacy of Luther Arkwright - The original appearances of Bryan Talbot's time-twisting, reality bending comic character appeared before I was really aware of anything outside of British newsagent titles, so it wasn't really until was in my early 20s - when Valkyrie Press reprinted and completed the story - that I as able to read the full magnum opus. I was already familiar with Talbot's moody black & white penmanship from his time on "Nemesis The Warlock" in 2000 AD, and as someone who had also grown up reading and watching lots of fiction about parallel worlds, the story instantly appealed to me, despite it's complexity. 

• Fast forward to 1999 and Dark Horse Comics released sequel "Heart of Empire", set 23 years later and centering on Luther's daughter Victoria. Talbot's art style has evolved - less scratchy heavy inks and more crisp intricate fine line work -  plus of course it's in gorgeous full colour which practically leaps out at you. The story line is less experimental, but still full of depth and hidden meaning plus lashings of sex, violence, psychedelic imagery, weird characters and twists across the dimensions - all wrapped in the history of a decadent alternate British Empire. The whole package showcases a creator at the peak of his craft, fully in control of his character and their skewed world.  I love every page and personally can't wait til the newly announced third volume is published in 2022...

• Finally, I was going to mention "The Phantom Menace" as a joke in the vein of  "Oh god no...", but then I remembered that there was one truly fantastic thing that came out of the massive disappointment known as Star Wars: Episode I.......take it away Al....

We're All Stories In The End 24 - Dominion

No villain. No TARDIS. No problem...

Dominion by Nick Walters

Eighth Doctor Adventures number: 22

Originally published: May 1999

Companions: Sam, Fitz

When the Doctor loses both Sam and the TARDIS after an encounter with a mysterious dimensional anomaly, he finds himself affected in a very fundamental way, doubting his own powers and making crucial errors of judgment.

Stranded amongst the forests and lakes of southern Sweden in the summer of 1999, it quickly becomes clear to the Doctor and Fitz that something unusual — and dangerous — is afoot. Fitz finds himself acting the hero as the search for Sam gets them involved with investigations into strange disappearances — and manifestations of even stranger creatures.

Events quickly spiral out of control as the Doctor and Fitz become entangled with a secret deep beneath the forest, a secret which could save Sam and an entire doomed alien race — but destroy the Earth in the process.

 

One thing that a Doctor Who novel needs to do is hook you in from the start - present the reader with an intriguing situation or mystery that makes you want to find out what happens next. Within the first two chapters of "Dominion", Nick Walters manages to do just that.

Young Kerstin is relaxing with her boyfriend at a remote cabin, until something extraordinary quite literally rips the landscape and her lover away. Meanwhile, old Bjorn finds that a creature not of Earth has torn his animals to pieces.

It's dramatic, it's chilling, and it's the sort of cold open that the modern series has done many times. It's really nice to see it used in a novel so effectively.

The other thing that a good novel Doctor Who needs to do is give you a sense of place, and in this regard "Dominion" succeeds on two fronts:

Firstly, after we've lost Sam down a wormhole, there's the Swedish locale that Fitz and the Doctor find themselves in. Too often visits to Earth are always London or the Home Counties, so setting this part of the story in Sweden is a refreshing change. And with the loss of the TARDIS in the middle of a forest, a mystery to solve, and the introduction of pragmatic detective inspector Nordenstam, Walters really does a lot to make the early part of the book feel like a modern Scandinavian crime drama. Kirsten, Bjorn and Nordenstam also benefit from care being paid to their motivations and emotional state. Their personal losses felt honest and real.

Secondly there's the bizarre world of the Dominion itself. It's hard to come up with something that feels truly alien. It's even harder to describe that alien-ness in detail on the page without going so "weird" that it loses the reader. Personally I thought that Nick Walters managed this balancing act extremely well.

The intelligent inhabitants possess unusual biological technology and a fascinating reproductive cycle. The ravenous monsters are suitable gruesome - all teeth and claws and bodies straight out of nightmares. And the endless sea-sky cavern nature of the Dominion was vividly described.

Perhaps my only quibble is that after coming up with T'hiili and T'vorha for the science / warrior castes, Walters settles on the boringly mundane "Ruin" and "Bane" for the monsters and "Blight" for the black wall that threatens to engulf everything Sure, they are to the point, but I would have preferred something a bit more...exotic.

Plus I really wanted to see where the T'hiili and T'vorha ended up - and what happened with the Queen and her offspring after the Dominion was destroyed - but sadly it was not to be. It's a thread that just could have used a couple more pages to round things off nicely. 

Another pleasant surprise was that Sam - a character who I've come to find incredibly annoying - is actually pretty good here. No constant moaning and pining for the Doctor (well a bit but it was tolerable given the situation) and no moralising. Just some mild peril while building alien relations and figuring things out. This was much more like it!

That said, I would still have preferred her to have been dumped and Kirsten to have taken her place. And I definitely would have liked a better explanation as to why the Doctor was so adamant Kirsten could not go travelling in the TARDIS. Maybe that will play out in another novel.

As for the other characters, well Fitz is Fitz in all his randy, well-meaning, cigarette-obsessed glory. This is early in his TARDIS journey I think, but I'm interested in finding out what happened in "Revolution Man" and on Om-Tsor, whenever I get to those books. 

Major Wolstencroft is your stereotypical blustering, by the book UNIT man, but it was an interesting twist that despite his obstructions, he didn’t turn into an out and out bad guy. More that he was just trying to do his job to the best of his ability

Professor Nagle was equally single minded but her actions were far less forgivable, and I really didn’t care when her recklessness and selfishness led to her demise. 

In the end, I think what intrigued me the most about this novel was the fact there really isn't a true villain.

The Blight was just our universe obeying the laws of entropy. The Professor created the wormhole problem, but it was out of scientific zeal, not world conquering ambitions. Even the Bane and the Ruin were just doing what came naturally.

Sometimes you don't need a moustache twirling maniac or a creature from the dawn of time to generate an interesting and threatening scenario.

Or to end up with a pretty damn fine book.

Golden Sunsets Redux - 60 Years of Memories - Part 32 - 1998

Another really important year for me now, as my second daughter Mollie was born in November, after my wife suffered another difficult pregnancy. She's an amazing young woman - very different to her sister, but just as talented in an artistic rather than literary sense. As I write this she is just completing her third year of being an IT teacher at a large secondary school. It's hard work, but she loves it, and it appears the pupils love her too. I'm one very proud dad.

This memory however, is about my first daughter...

1998:

The trivia:

• On 1st April 1998, Burger King took out a full-page advert in the USA Today newspaper touting the introduction  of a  new "Whopper" burger especially designed for left -handed people. The new bun would contain the same ingredients as the original sandwich, but rotated 180° to redistribute the weight and making in easier for lefties to hold without everything falling out. Thousands of customers swarmed BK restaurants requesting this new innovative burger - along with many others demanding their own "right-handed" version...

• As part of a marketing campaign for their new "Beats" watches, Swiss company Swatch tried to introduce a new decimal method of measuring time. Each day was split into 1,000 ".beats", equivalent to 86.4 seconds, with times noted as a three digit number. So the notation "@248" was 248 .beats after midnight or 5.57 am. At the same time Swatch announced that this new metric measurement had become the official time system for "Nation1", an online country apparently created and run by children. Strangely, it never caught on.

• "Galaxy 4" was part of a group of commercial communications satellites launched throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s. They carried television feeds, radio networks, credit‑card verification systems, and - crucially - the nationwide US pager network. By the late ’90s, pagers were everywhere. More than 45 million of them depended on Galaxy 4’s steady signal. On 19th May, the satellite’s attitude control system failed and it lost its ability to stay pointed correctly at Earth. Within hours the pager networks went dark. Doctors couldn’t be reached, delivery companies couldn’t coordinate and emergency responders had to fall back on landlines and radio. It was one of the first moments when people realised how much we depend on these fragile devices floating above our heads.

The memory:

A Bug's Life

The second ever Pixar feature film has a special place in my heart. Not because of it's fun story, excellent Randy Newman soundtrack or ground-breaking CGI animation - although those are all great reasons for it being on anyone's list. No, more importantly, this was the first film that I properly *shared* with my eldest daughter Hannah. I'm cheating with my timelines a little here, but it's a story that's too important to me not to tell...

"A Bug's Life" was very loosely inspired by Aesop's fable "The Ant and the Grasshopper", with elements of the classic Japanese epic "The Seven Samurai" - all mixed with that special Pixar sauce. The movie tells the story of an outcast inventor ant named Flik. When one of his faulty inventions results in the loss of the annual harvest that is always given to a bunch of bullying grasshoppers - and he then causes the tithe to be doubled after standing up to their leader - Flik suggests that he try to recruit some "warrior bugs" to fight the grasshoppers. The ant royal council agree, but really only to keep him out of the way...

Travelling to the insect "city" (in reality a huge pile of rubbish), Flik encounters a group of incompetent circus bugs, whose actions in trying to avoid paying a bill cause him to mistake them for the warriors he needs. He persuades them to return with him to the ant colony - mainly because they think he is a talent agent - but once they arrive and are greeted as saviour heroes, both Flik and the troupe realise their mistake. However, after they band together to save Princess Atta's baby sister Dot from a ravenous bird, they come up with an audacious plan.

Hannah was heading towards three years old when "A Bug's Life" came out at the tail end of 1998. I'm not sure my wife and I took her to the cinema to see it, as it was around about then that Mollie arrived, five weeks early. What I do know is that I bought the VHS tape when it was released a few months later, and by then Hannah had definitely been exposed to the large amounts of  merchandise for the film, through visits to the Disney Store and presents from relatives. She had a Princess Atta soft toy and her sister had a baby Dot, both of which went everywhere with them.

The thing is, early 1999 was also around the time when my wife and I finally split up after a difficult few years. It was a deeply upsetting time, but by then I wasn't living with the rest of the family full time anyway (due to other circumstances too complicated to go into here), so my weekend trips from London back to the family home 180 miles way just became more formalised.  Hannah and I had always been close, so in those early months of the separation my two day visits became even more special.

Hannah was not a physically active child, due to the effects of the cerebral palsy she was born with, so she and I tended to gravitate towards more...stationary pursuits. We watched the video of  "A Bug's Life" together over and over and over again. Every scene became ingrained in my memory - it became our go-to film.

She particularly responded to the character of Dot. Perhaps she saw a little of herself in the tiny ant girl who wished she could do more. At the start, when Dot feels that she is never going to make a difference in the colony, Flik shows her a seed, using the analogy that even mighty oak trees come from small beginnings, and Dot has to give it time - she is still just a seed. As the film progresses and the battle against the grasshoppers takes a darker turn, Flik is ashamed of all the troubles he has caused and does not want to go back to the colony. Dot then picks up a stone and shows it to Flik, reciting the exact words he told her at the start - "pretend this is a seed" - gradually turning his depression into determination. Out of all the love my daughter had for the film, these two scenes seemed to stay with her.

As the year wore on, Hannah, her mum and new baby sister moved from the rented house we had all shared to a new-build house closer to my soon to be ex-mother-in-law. It made sense, and it was a nice sized place close to other family members and amenities. My wife and I still spent some time together for the kids sake, plus since I'd had to travel three hours each way to visit them, it was easier to be based at her house then have to be out all the time. But that proximity meant we still fought over a lot of the same old issues....

During one weekend visit, I think I was feeling particularly low - probably due to another protracted disagreement. I was just getting the kids out of the car as it was parked on the driveway of their new house. As was typical of new developments at the time, the driveway that led down the side to the garage was concrete with a centre section covered with small pale stones - probably a form of  limestone gravel known as Cotswold Chippings. As I lifted Hannah out of the car seat onto the driveway, she suddenly bent down and picked up one of the stones. She turned to me with a big smile on her young face. "Pretend it's a seed, Daddy" she said, handing it to me.

Immediately my mood lifted and blinking away some tears, I grinned and hugged her tightly. "I will" I promised, putting it carefully in my pocket. "I will". We carried on into the house and after a couple of hours I drove away for my long journey home. The weight of everything else still hadn’t gone away, but for a while it felt a little lighter. Later that night as I emptied my pockets, I found the stone again. I held it for a moment, thinking of Hannah, then smiled and placed it on a bookshelf before going to bed.

Almost thirty years later, I still have that "seed":    

I'm never going to part with it. It's moved house with me, been knocked off the shelf by cats and even once fell into a glass of Coke, but it's endured all of those ups and downs -  just like me and just like my relationship with Hannah - which despite a few rocky patches (pardon the pun), is now better than it's ever been. That simple little stone is a lovely reminder of how wonderful my daughter can be, and how we shared something special. Every oak starts from an acorn...

Honourable mentions:

• Age of Bronze by Eric Shanower - This brilliant artist / writer came to prominence through his series of "Oz" graphic novels, published by First Comics in the mid 1980's. His clean, almost glowing, artwork was just beautiful, and his stories had a timeless quality, which took me back to a time when I read the original stories by L. Frank Baum as a kid. Shanower did a wide range of work for other publishers over the following years, but in 1998 he began what has became his most ambitious project. "Age of Bronze" was intended to tell the entire story of the Trojan War in comic form, in as much authentic historical detail as possible (omitting appearances from gods, centaurs, nymphs, etc.). It's a dense read - but Shanower's painstaking eye for period detail brings the characters and settings to life. I love it intensely, but it's not going to be for everyone. If you want an action packed condensed movie-style adaptation you are going to struggle. Frustratingly, nearly thirty years have passed but the story is still unfinished. After 33 issues it went on a lengthy hiatus until 2019, with a switch to full colour and digital single issues (with physical collections to follow). Shanower had plans to publish two issues a year, but sadly nothing more has been forthcoming - and he seems to have moved onto other things - particularly additional stories of Oz. I fear we may never see the completion of this epic tale.

• Gods and Monsters - English film director James Whale is most famously known for his work on several all-time classic horror movies - 1931s "Frankenstein" (with Boris Karloff as the creature), 1933s "The Invisible Man (Claude Rains) and 1935s "Bride of Frankenstein". What is possibly less well known is that he was openly gay - something which was very unusual for the time period. I discovered this early film from Bill Condon by chance on TV, but its sensitive and warm account of Whale's last few days - and the *possible* bittersweet relationship he may have had with his gardener (Brendan Fraser) - has stayed with me. The always watchable Sir Ian McKellen excels as the filmmaker. His best years are behind him and he is living alone, still haunted by the voices of his past. Fraser equally holds his own as former Marine Clayton Boone. His gentle demeanor and flat-top haircut recalling the unmistakable images of Mary Shelley's most famous creation. There are several flashbacks: to the making of Whales classic movies, the extravagant pool parties and his experiences during the First World War - all of which enhance a wonderful character piece. The gentle pace may not be for everyone, but I learnt a lot about a man that previously I knew in name only.

• City of Golden Shadow (Otherland Book 1) by Tad Williams -  Okay I'm cheating again, because 1998 was the year that this first book in the "Otherland" series came out in paperback in the UK, rather than it's original publication date. I was handed the book by a friend who really struggled with it, but he knew I loved Williams's "Memory, Sorrow & Thorn" series, so thought I would appreciate it more - and he was dead right. Rather than high fantasy, the four huge novels are set in the near future where total immersion virtual reality has become the norm and anyone can access a vast array of imagined worlds. A diverse set of ordinary people from across the globe find themselves drawn into the 'Otherland' network, assisted by a mysterious benefactor. They not only have to contend with battling bizarre creatures controlled by the all-powerful 'Grail Brotherhood', but also realise they are unable to log off - they are trapped in the network and - you guessed it -  if they die virtually, they also die in the real world. Williams manages to have his cake *and* eat it, as the virtual reality setting allows him to create myriad plot threads across every genre, from ancient Egypt to the Wizard of Oz. From the Battle of Troy to a gigantic house with no "outside". All these years on - and especially in the wake of successes like "Ready Player One" - this idea may sound old hat, but at the time this was territory that that had not been explored before - and certainly not in such depth. I found myself eagerly awaiting each new instalment, desperate to discover the reason for the world-wide conspiracy and the core mystery of "The Other" at it's heart. Still well worth a read.

• The Young Persons Guide to Becoming a Rockstar - Another of those odd little Channel 4  programmes which  promptly vanished into obscurity after it's six episode run. I'm sure I'm one of only a few people to even remember it. The series is a humorous take on the UK music industry, focusing on the improbably named Glaswegian band "Jocks Wa Hey", led by the personable Jez MacAllister (played by Ciarán McMenamin). Helped or hindered by a motley group of misfits and nutcases, the band stumble through life, somehow managing to get signed, make a ridiculously expensive album *and* get into the charts. Along the way there are a swathe of celebrity cameos (even a very young Gerard Butler) and gentle piss-takes of certain bands of the decade - such as "Bonk, Bonk, Bonk", who bear a more than passing resemblance to a certain Clydebank pop/soul group -  complete with a spiky haired frontman who just won't stop singing. It's hardly savage biting satire, but the cast all appear to be having a great time, and the mostly original music was melodic enough to make me buy the soundtrack album. 

• Pleasantville -  If there was any justice, this wonderful film would be lauded alongside "The Truman Show" as one of the best high-concept-with-emotional-depth movies of the decade. Instead it's seems to be under-appreciated. The basic idea of two modern day kids transported into the black and white world of a 1950s TV sitcom is a good one - allowing for all the fish out of water / culture clash motif's you would expect - but it's the execution where it really shines. David (Tobey Maguire) and Jennifer (Reese Witherspoon) find that their very presence is changing the town, stripping away the bland innocence. Not only that, but as both people and places start to burst into colour and characters step outside their defined roles, it allows for an examination of how some embrace change, and the lengths others will go to preserve what's considered "normal". The colour effects are uniformly excellent and are used to great effect, such as a tree on fire, "Bud" covering his mother's colour face with B&W makeup, and shop owner Bill Johnson's paintings (a lovely performance from Jeff Daniels). Yes, some of the outrage about "coloureds" is a bit too on the nose, but it's forgivable when a film is as warm, inventive and enjoyable as this one. 

• Wold's Wildest Police Videos - This reality clip show of car chases, smashes and arrests -  presented by the gravelly voiced John Bunnell  - might seem like an odd choice, and it's not here because I particularly *loved* the programme. It earns a place just due to it's sheer ubiquitousness, as it seemed to be on television all the damn time ! If I flicked through the growing number of satellite channels available to me, no matter the hour of day or night - there was ex-Sheriff Burnell with his over-dramatic commentary on yet another law enforcement pursuit. "World's Wildest" became such a guilty pleasure in my family that we played a game each night to try and find it. Was it an episode that we had seen before? Was John going to wax lyrically over the sound of car horns and screeching tyres on the perils of being a criminal, and then make some awful pun at their eventual capture? You bet he was!

• Dark City - If it wasn't  for the emotional connection to "A Bug's Life",  I think this dark SF mystery from Alex Proyas would have made the top spot. Despite its obvious influences, it still offers a unique vision, asks some deep questions - and has a love for science fiction past and present running all the way through. As the film opens, our protagonist, played by Rufus Sewell, wakes up in a hotel bath tub, seemingly with no memory of who he is or his past life. Just as he discovers the body of a murdered woman and a bloody knife, the phone rings, and a mysterious voice urges him to get out quickly - "The Strangers" are coming. Fleeing the scene through a city of perpetual night, he avoids encountering the sinister Strangers - pale, bald people in black coats and wide-brimmed hats. Tracking down his estranged wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly) he discovers that his name is John Murdoch, and he is wanted for a series of grisly murders - crimes which he cannot remember committing.... What follows is a desperate chase through a strange cityscape - one which keeps changing at midnight while the inhabitants sleep, as The Strangers use their powers to alter people's identities, twist the shapes of buildings and "tune" their unknowable experiment into new configurations. There is no way I am going to reveal all the twists and turns of this noir-tinged story, as unravelling the layers is one of the best parts of the experience - along with the fantastic production design. Suffice it to say that I found "Dark City" incredibly original and deeply satisfying, even on multiple viewings. There's a really good cast too, including Keifer Sutherland, Ian Richardson, David Wenham and William Hurt. It's especially good fun as "Mr. Hand" (one of The Strangers tasked with capturing John Murdoch) is played by the one-and-only Richard O'Brien of "Rocky Horror" and "Crystal Maze" fame. Never was a creepy bald man cast so well !

Golden Sunsets Redux - 60 Years of Memories - Part 31 - 1997

 A reminder that science fiction still knows how to go big. Really big...

1997:

The trivia:

• Reverend Robert Shields from Dayton in the USA developed an extraordinary compulsion to document *everything* about his life. Between 1972 and 1997 he kept a diary of every five minutes, including recording his body temperature, blood pressure,  when he changed the light bulbs and even his bowel movements. Nothing was too trivial. By the time he stopped due to ill health, the diary amounted to 37.5 million words and filled 94 boxes. After his death in 2007, the full archive was donated to Washington State University. But Shields himself insisted that the material should not be opened until 50 years after, meaning the diaries will remain sealed until 2057.

• As part of his High School science class, 14-year old Nathan Zoner convinced 43 out of 50 classmates to vote to ban the chemical "Dihydrogen Monoxide", citing its many negative effects on the environment.  He presented real facts - that it erodes rock, causes severe burns in its gaseous state, is found in cancerous tumours, and kills thousands of people every year. Many people panicked. He won first prize at the Greater Idaho Science Fair for his project, because it proved that the use of true facts can sometimes lead the public to a false conclusion. Because "Dihydrogen monoxide" is of course...water.

• In April of 1997 the Hale-Bopp comet was at its brightest as it passed close to the Sun, and it continued to be visible in the night sky until December. This lengthy visibility and the extensive coverage in the media and on the internet made it the most observed comet in human history. But it also became infamous when 39 members of the "Heaven's Gate" religious cult committed mass suicide - all in in order to reach what they believed was an extra-terrestrial spacecraft hiding in the comets trail.

The memory:

The Night's Dawn Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton

 If the "Lensmen" sequence of novels by E.E. 'Doc' Smith had instilled in me a love of grandiose space opera as a youngster, then this massive series (in both page count and scope) proved that the SF sub-genre was still alive and kicking and in *very* good hands.

It's worth admitting here that I'm breaking my own internal rules slightly, because the first volume in the trilogy - "The Reality Dysfunction" - came out in 1996, but I didn't discover Mr. Hamilton's work until book two - "The Neutronium Alchemist" was released in 1997. I really wanted the saga to have the top spot somewhere, but since 1996 and 1999 (when final volume "The Naked God" came out) are already allocated, it seemed to fit best here. Anyway, let's dive in...

In the 27th Century, mankind can travel to the stars and has colonised over 900 worlds, plus numerous asteroids and space stations. However, although humanity is united under the auspices of the 'Confederation' (which includes two alien species - the Tyrathca and the Kiint), it has split into two distinct factions - the religious "Adamists", who use machine based nanotechnology and see themselves as "true humans", and the progressive, genetically modified "Edenists" - who have embraced biotechnology (bitek) and can telepathically communicate with their living wormhole-creating vessels (known as Voidhawks). The "Edenists" can also avoid death, by transferring their consciousness into their sentient giant habitats. Plus they dominate the economy, because they harvest 'Helium 3' from gas giant planets - and this is the primary fuel source for all "Adamist" starships.

Against this backdrop we are introduced to a vast array of characters, amongst them: The imprisoned terrorist scientist Dr. Alkad Mzu, designer of the outlawed antimatter super weapon "The Alchemist". Space trader Joshua Calvert, who made his fortune from the sudden discovery of artefacts from an extinct alien species. The fiery "Edenist" Syrinx, who forms a telepathic bond with the bitek starship 'Oeone' and now competes against Joshua in the lucrative shipping industry between worlds. And lastly, the charismatic but sadistic Satanist, Quinn Dexter, leader of a group of revolting convicts on the tropical settlement planet Lalonde.

It's on Lalonde where the main plot really kicks in. While Quinn Dexter is engaged in torturing a local law enforcer, an ancient alien known as the Ly-cilph, which is observing the conflict, notices the dying policeman's energy signature leave his body. It  follows this energy to another dimension (later named 'the Beyond'), which contains the "souls" of human-kind's long dead - billions of them. Unfortunately this brief contact ruptures the barrier between 'the Beyond' and our dimension, allowing the souls to begin to escape and posses the bodies of the living. Many have been driven insane after centuries of imprisonment, as they could sense the "real" world but not touch it. It seems Dexter is just the first possessed of millions to come...

The 'reincarnated dead' find that they can allow more trapped souls through *and* they can harness energy based powers, both as an offensive weapon and to reshape local reality. However, this prevents them from using use any form of advanced electronics. Consequently, Lalonde is quickly over-run and many of the possessed (including Quinn, who has regained control of his body, but kept the powers) leave in spaceships to spread to the wider Confederation.

If  this all sounds a bit like the beginnings of a zombie outbreak in space, well that's true, in a very limited sense - but the trilogy is so much more than that. As possession spreads throughout the Confederation like a virus, the viewpoint continues to switch, so that we see the unfolding chaos across the known galaxy. Individuals battle for survival. Governments and even planets fall. There are massive space battles and exploding stars - and across it all Quinn Dexter prepares to unleash his final apocalypse on Earth. It's exhilarating stuff. Even something that might sound hoary - like bringing in Al Capone and Fletcher Christian as two of the possessing souls - works, because Hamilton's characters have weight and history and depth. They act like real people, not movie cliché cut-outs, and we care about their fates. Key plot reveals also feel earned, because characters discover them by detective work and sheer bloody survival.

The horror elements (and the books don't shy away from graphic violence) blend seamlessly with the more serious military science fiction and space opera themes, and events have real consequence. Plus Hamilton takes the time to examine the philosophical and metaphysical sides of the conflict. For example, how does the existence of "the Beyond" change humanity's views on religion and the afterlife? Yes, there are a vast array of multi-layered subplots, which can be challenging to keep up with - this is certainly not a story that you can skim - but Hamilton is a master juggler, and knows exactly how to keep all the planets in the air, when to ratchet up the suspense, and when to pull back the curtain.

This huge trilogy is also where a lot of Hamilton's core ideas - which he returns to in slightly different forms in subsequent novels - are first brought into the light. Humans enhanced by integrated technology. Vast man-made habitats. Innovative ways of crossing huge galactic distances. Aliens that are truly nothing like us (no bumpy foreheaded bipeds here). The fact that no matter how far out into the universe we go, we just take our prejudices and limited ways of thinking with us.

If I have one criticism, it's that the ending of the whole saga slightly falls short of the immense build-up. It's innovative, and there's a logic to it - and it all fits together in a massively complicated tapestry - but after three enormous volumes of escalating scope and imagination, I was perhaps hoping for something just a little...more. But that's nit-picking.

It’s not just the scale of his fiction that sets Hamilton apart, but the confidence with which he handles it - the ability to weave together dozens of plotlines, hundreds of characters, and entire worlds, and still deliver a story that feels coherent and compelling. The "Night’s Dawn" trilogy remains one of the best examples of what he can do - a work that is as imaginative as it is ambitious, and as entertaining as it is thought-provoking. It’s not perfect, but it’s exactly the kind of imperfect that comes from trying to do something genuinely enormous. And for me, that’s what makes it so rewarding. 

To my mind, after reading this series, there's space opera, there's epic space opera, and then there's Peter F. Hamilton - and no one else even comes close.

Honourable mentions:

• Contact - Starring the always excellent Jodie Foster, this is one of those rare things - an intelligent, thoughtful science fiction film that dares to ask big questions about science, the universe and faith (in all senses of the word). When radio astronomer Ellie Arroway discovers radio transmissions coming from Vega, it leads to the building of a gigantic machine - one that may just take mankind to it's first extraterrestrial encounter. What will the occupant find at the other end of their journey? Is it real? Is it the biggest hoax ever perpetrated? The film doesn't give all the answers, and it's all the better for it.  It should come as no surprise that I love the film so much when you learn that is was written by one of my personal heroes - scientist Carl Sagan - and was directed by Robert Zemeckis, responsible for the almost perfect "Back To The Future Trilogy". A seemingly forgotten classic, 

• Buffy The Vampire Slayer - It's difficult looking back now to really appreciate how much a ground-breaking impact "Buffy" had on genre television. The show had a powerful female heroine, witty and intelligent scripts - that combined fantastical elements will the real world trials of the average teenager (or twenty-something) - and a cast of interesting and relatable characters (even the evil ones).  It really brought fantasy television to the attention of the masses. Although it wasn't the first show to use season long plot arcs, it certainly re-popularised the idea - and phrases such as "Big Bad" to refer to the ultimate season villain, have become part of modern TV language. I first discovered it in the familiar BBC2 evening slot (where some episodes were cut), but my fascination really took off when I started buying the VHS video releases. It was also one of the first programmes you could buy in "box set" collections (albeit each season was split into two releases of three cassettes each). I bought them all, before upgrading to the DVD complete collection. It's a few years since I've watched any, but any show that can consistently produce excellent episodes week in week out for seven years  - and also deliver stories as emotionally rich and diverse as "The Body", "Hush" and "Once More With Feeling" will always get my vote. 

• Star Trek: New Frontier -  I love "Star Trek" in all its various TV and film incarnations, but I've never really been one for diving into the novelised adventures of Kirk, Picard, Sisko et al. Although Pocket Books started releasing new stories in the early 80s, they didn't make their way to UK shores until around 1987, when I started seeing them in places like Forbidden Planet - but they were nothing more than a curiosity. Then in 1997 along came comics writer Peter David, who began to develop his own little corner of the "Trek" universe, using a combination of new characters and minor background players from the various TV series. "New Frontier" concerned the adventures of the reckless Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the oddball crew of the Federation Starship 'Excalibur', as it explores Sector 221-G, home of the recently fallen Thallonian Empire. Intrigued by the concept, plus being aware of the quality of David's extensive comics work, I decided to take a chance and picked up the first couple of books - and that was it - I was hooked. Apart from the interactions of the unique crew and their adventures, my primary reason for enjoying the books so much was that you genuinely never knew what direction things could go in. Unlike Kirk and Picard, who (of course) would always survive, David might kill off a prominent character, or jump forward in time or just throw in a real plot curve ball - it was that unpredictable. Between 1997 and 2006 David wrote sixteen full novels plus the "New Frontier" crew made appearances in a number of  other book mini-series, anthologies, and even their own comics. Things then tailed off and there were only two new books in the next six years, before a final trilogy of e-novellas in 2015. I bought them all, and to my mind they are some of the very best tie-in books to come out of the mega franchise. Well worth a read even if you are only a casual fan.

• The Fifth Element - It's wild, it's wacky, I'm sure certain parts don't make a whole lot of sense - but I just can't help but love Luc Besson's 23rd century science fiction action extravaganza. Even if it is clearly influenced by the French SF graphic novel series "Valerian & Laureline", you have to admire it's sheer imagination and ambition. Amongst the special effects, and a story of a once-every-5,000-years cosmic alignment, Besson weaves an all-star cast. Bruce Willis as world weary and cynical cab driver, Korben Dallas. Ian Holm as a nervous priest who knows the truth behind the elements. And Gary Oldman chewing the scenery with absolute gusto as Jean -Baptiste Emanuel Zorg - the villain of the piece, with his half shaved head, bizarre Southern accent and dog-faced henchmen. Plus of course Milla Jovovich as the strange, ethereal Leeloo. Less successful is Chris Tucker as the garish DJ Ruby Rhod - his high pitched fast-talking schtick wears thin very quickly. But that's the one small fly in the ointment of of an otherwise riot of a film.

• Teletubbies - The brightly coloured forms of Tinky Winky, Laa-Laa, Dipsy and Po were *everywhere* in 1997, as what was conceived as a fun, educational series for pre-school children caught the imagination of the general population of Great Britain.  It even resulted in four characters who only communicate in gibberish having a number one hit single! For me as the father of a one-year old daughter who loved the show, I became very familiar with the repetitive surreal world, and bizarre things like the Noo-noo and the Voice Trumpets. My wife even turned my daughters room into Teletubbyland, complete with rolling green hills, a grass carpet, paper sunflowers on the walls  and the rays of the Sun Baby shining out from the corner. Goodness knows what the people who lived there after us thought of it !

• Hanson - Mmmbop - Okay, so this one is a real guilty / secret  pleasure. The three young Hanson brothers from Tulsa, Oklahoma had been making music since the early 90s, but exploded on the music scene with the release of this single, which reached number one in 27 countries  - and went on to sell over 700,000 copies in the UK alone. Even those who said that they hated it couldn't help secretly singing along to the infectious albeit nonsensical chorus. Sure it's bubblegum pop aimed at a teenage market  - and I was certainly outside that demographic - but what can I say, I like good pop music no matter my age and even when it's not "cool" to do so. Subsequent single releases hit the top ten too (even though people seem to remember Hanson as a one-hit wonder), and piqued my interest enough to shell out for the whole album, "Middle of Nowhere", when I saw it at a bargain price. Despite a few cheesy ballads, it's a selection of cheerful, supremely catchy melodies mixed with modern slick production values. People seem to remember 1997 as the year of Oasis, Radiohead and The Verve, but at a time when my personal life was going through a series of enormous highs and lows, I just remember the music that made me smile...

• The Game - This is probably the film directed by David Fincher that very few people have heard of, let alone seen - yet strangely for me it's one of the most rewarding. Michael Douglas is wealthy investment baker Nicholas Van Orton who is given an usual present for his birthday from his brother: a ticket for a "game" that he promises will change his life. I can't say too much more for fear of spoiling the enjoyment, as your work your way through the labyrinthine plot and its unexpected twists and turns - but hell is the payoff worth it. I love twisty-turny films like this, and the first time I saw "The Game" I sat with my mouth open as Fincher slowly opened up his puzzle box. To be honest it's a trick that probably only works on that initial viewing, but boy, is it worth it.

• Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone - Who? Never heard of him...