Review: Neil Gaiman's Likely Stories (Series One)

This mini anthology series based on Neil Gaiman's short stories is a real treat for fans of the author. Here's our review...

Review: Marvel's Agent Carter (Season Two)

Marvel's top secret agent is back for a second season! Let's see if it reached the heights of the first...

Review: Marvel's Daredevil (Season Two)

After belatedly catching up with Season One of Daredevil earlier this month, here's a look at the brand-new Season Two. Did it live up to the first?

Scribble Creatures Spotlight: Angel

It was Buffy the Vampire Slayer's 19th birthday the other day. To celebrate, our Spotlight series continues as we look at that show's often underappreciated spin-off...

 

Review: Marvel's Daredevil (Season One)

With the second one arriving shortly, I finally catch up with season one of Marvel's much acclaimed TV series...

Monthly Mini-Reviews: February - Ant-Man, Dickensian, Ghosts of Manhattan

Monthly Mini-Reviews is back - in a brand-new format! This month: shrinking superheroes, Dickensian fan-fiction and steampunk vigilantes...

Ant-Man 

Review: Marvel's Jessica Jones (Season One)

After reviewing Agent Carter earlier in the year, we now take a look at Marvel's lastest female-led TV series. Meet Jessica Jones...

Review: Marvel's Agent Carter (Season One)

Today we take a look at the forgotten hero of the Marvel universe - move over Iron Man et al, it's Peggy Carter's time in the limelight...

While I wouldn't say I'm an out and out fanboy, per se, of the Marvel Cinematic Universe I am certainly an appreciator of it. The Avengers is a perennially entertaining film and I also enjoyed the single-hero films, particularly the Captain America ones (though Iron Man is probably the best Avenger). In regards to the first 1940s-set Cap film - The First Avenger - a big reason for my liking it was the brilliant Peggy Carter, by far the best super-hero 'love interest' around. Well-played by Hayley Atwell, Peggy was a capable soldier and secret agent and didn't fall into the damsel-in-distress model. I was excited, then, when I heard she would be the first female character to lead her own instalment of the MCU in Agent Carter, the series. Eat your heart out, Black Widow!

Thankfully, Agent Carter was a genuinely thrilling show - the driving force of which is Peggy's fight to prove herself despite the fierce sexism of her co-workers at the SSR (the forerunner to SHIELD). The pace and plot more or less consistently gain momentum over the trim eight episode series so that, by the time of the finale, I was both excited and saddened to see it end. While at first the supporting characters seem plain and the villains too obscure, Peggy's fellow agents, such as the boorish Thompson, stern Chief Dooley and the understanding Souza, are fleshed out as the series goes on and two effective villains are introduced. Here's hoping we have more of them if the series is renewed. Oh, and word must be given to James D'Arcy's lovable stiff-upper lipped Edwin Jarvis, butler to Howard Stark, whose double act with Peggy makes up the majority of the humour - and heart - of the series. 

But the show can only belong to Hayley Atwell who triumphs in the starring role. Though at times the series itself seems less sure about her as its lead. For instance, whenever Dominic Cooper's Howard Stark turns up, as he does from time to time, the focus almost totally switches to him as if as the audience would much rather be watching a show about Iron Man's womanising Dad and Peggy is just holding his place. Mostly, though, Peggy is handled well by the showmakers and it's refreshing to have both an adventure-based period series and an exciting female lead. 

US TV seems to be superior to British telly in its female lead characters - Buffy comes to mind as the queen of them all - but still there's too few well-developed female characters like Peggy around today. For that alone, I'm very happy that, after some uncertainty, Agent Carter has been given a second series. It's lucky then that Agent Carter is a fun show on its own two legs regardless of Peggy. It may employ the odd familiar plot point or guessable twist but its general consistent quality more than make up for a few quibbles. Agent Carter, you had better report back for duty soon.

Female agency - Peggy Carter has to prove herself to her colleagues in a post-War America.

P.S. Despite the links to the popular MCU and starring three brits as the leads, for some unfathomable reason Agent Carter took an age to be shown in the UK. Hopefully, this will be sorted out next year or will simply just go up on Netflix. Come on, she's even nicknamed 'Miss Union Jack'...

Monthly Scribbles: The BBC, Bond and Robin Hood

Now that July has been and gone (yes, I know, we're now over halfway through the year but hold off on the realisation that your life is dwindling away, all right, this is a light-hearted post) it's time for another sporadic round-up of the month's Scribble Creatures-y news in Monthly Scribbles.

Capaldi's Credentials

July was a busy month for the Big Two - Sherlock and Doctor Who - as tantalising trailers for both were released. But as I've already blabbed about those here and here, I'll look at a less covered item now. Namely, this fun interview that appeared online recently which shows Peter Capaldi at his Who-loving best. Everyone knows Capaldi is a life-long fan of the show but this interview - in which he seemingly can't stop himself from talking about his favourite Who episodes - is a great demonstration of his fan credentials. It's always nice when the Doctor loves Doctor Who just as much as the fans. 

The Game is over...

I'm sad to report that Toby Whithouse spy drama The Game has been cancelled. It's a great shame as, despite a couple of criticisms I had, it had a lot of promise. What with the loss of the brilliant In The Flesh earlier this year as well, it seems the Beeb have either gone off their rocker or simply can't afford to take a chance on such shows as they used to (thank you very much, government). Either way, the BBC may make mistakes but we would miss it terribly if it wasn't there. Hint hint: please sign this petition to protect the BBC. It's very worthwhile.

Anyway, now to get off my soapbox...


'Their name is... Spectre.' 

Not to be outdone by his fellow British heroes, there was also a trailer for the latest James Bond film Spectre released this month - and it was a whopper. As well as being an effective teaser for the film it is also littered with lovely kisses to the past - Bond and the new M seem to be at odds, suggesting the relationship between 007 and the original Ms, Christoph Waltz is wearing a very Blofeldian nehru jacket and Q is giving Bond a car with gadgets. Not to mention the rousing theme music from On Her Majesty's Secret Service playing throughout. The last film Skyfall somewhat converted me from Bond liker to fledgling fan so I'm eagerly awaiting this instalment, which seems to be a series finale to Craig's Bond films. 


Mini-Review of the Month

The Adventures of Robin Hood

Until this month, I had never read nor seen anything to do with Robin Hood (well, except such non-canonical takes as last year's Doctor Who episode and that Disney film with the foxes). After twenty-odd years I finally put that right when I came across a copy of Robert Lancelyn Green's children's novel, which tells the story of the Prince of Thieves' life, drawn from the classical ballads and folk stories. It's written in a charming fairy tale style which brings Sherwood Forest and its inhabitants to storybook life in a way that sends you back to being ten years old, even if like me you weren't familiar with the world at that age. Highlights include the bizarrely supernatural 'The Witch of Paplewick', a Maid Marion who is pleasingly pro-active rather than a damsel-in-distress and - spoiler warning for a 700 year old legend - the surprisingly moving final chapters.

Top Five Faceless Villains

While we all enjoy a good villain to boo and hiss at (such as these fearsome females), sometimes it can be more interesting and unsettling to have a more unknowable - faceless - antagonist. In this list I won't be looking at baddies who hid their faces like The Claw from Inspector Gadget but those soulless villains, often corrupt corporations or surveillance states, who conspire against our hero for their own nefarious, and usually nebulous, ends. Evil organisations such as James Bond's SPECTRE aren't eligible as they often have a single leader (in SPECTRE's case, Blofeld) who acts as the hero's nemesis rather than the organisation themselves.

Wolfram & Hart

Appeared in: Angel 

Built around the premise 'what if lawyers actually were as evil as people say they are?, Wolfram & Hart are the demon-worshipping law firm that plan to end the world on Buffy spin-off Angel.
We get to know several of the firm's smarmy employees over Angel's five season run but we never meet the mysterious 'Senior Partners' - beings who are basically personifications of evil. An organisation of humans as the evil enemies of our traditional monster hero, W&H are the perfect villains for the more moraly-grey world of Angel. 

HYDRA

Appeared in: Marvel comics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Originally featuring in The First Avenger, HYDRA were used to a brilliant effect in The Winter Solider. In the Captain America sequel, that niggling doubt about the modern world - that we're all being spied on for evil purposes - turns out to be true and, what's more, the good guys we thought we could trust (namely SHIELD) are in fact controlled by HYDRA, the ex-Nazi terrorist organisation. HYDRA are one of the best faceless villains, as they have no one head person in charge. Quite literally as their catchphrase is 'cut off one head, two more will take its place.' Hail HYDRA!

The 'Listen' Creature

Appeared in: Doctor Who - 'Listen'

Number three on our list is a bit of a different one; rather than a headless organisation this one is an unseen creature. The most ambiguous Doctor Who monster, 'the perfect hider' that the Doctor hunts for in 'Listen' is left unseen, leaving it to the audience to make up for themselves whether such a creature exists. It's a sophisticated twist on the usually front-and-centre Who antagonists - but, come on, that is clearly an alien standing behind Clara...

The Village

Appeared in: The Prisoner

Probably the most nebulous of the villains on this list, we never get any real sense of what the mysterious overseers of the Village in 60s spy series The Prisoner actually want. We know they wish to find out why our nameless hero Number Six resigned from his job but just why it is so important we never find out. Regardless, the ever-changing figure of Number Two, who runs the Village, the unique architecture and the almost-lobotomised residents make the Village one of the most insidious faceless villains in all of fiction. But, as Number Six always asks, who is Number One?

Big Brother

Appeared in: Nineteen Eighty Four 

Turning our list on its head is our leader. All Big Brother is is a face - whether he exists or not is never discovered but the image of Big Brother is certainly used by corrupt dictators IngSoc to keep control of the dystopian Britain featured in Orwell's seminal novel. Created in the forties, Big Brother infamously predicts the rise of the surveillance state. If you need proof that Big Brother is the most evil faceless villain on this list it inspired the inexplicably long-lasting Big Brother reality series. It may appear that we are the ones who are watching Big Brother but, in fact, Big Brother is watching you...

Review: The Game (Series One)

I spy with my little eye... Here's a look at the BBC's recent dip into the current spy craze, Toby Whithouse's The Game...

Having been a massive fan of his supernatural comedy-drama Being Human, I was eager to see Doctor Who writer Toby Whithouse's next series - a John Le Carre-esque spy thriller set in the Cold War. Well, to enjoy the series you need to leave Being Human behind at the door (though that won't stop me mentioning it throughout this review) as across the six episode (first? only?) series The Game creates its own world in which people in the shadows threaten our daily life...

The Game sees our MI5 heroes investigating the apparently apocalyptic Soviet Operation: Glass - while 5's best spy, Joe Lambe, has his own goal, finding the vicious Odin, the KGB assassin who killed his girlfriend.

Firstly, The Game's biggest success is probably its recreation of a world on the brink of nuclear war, with the UK and the USSR sparring with spies rather than soldiers (the show is effectively shot, fittingly full of greys and browns rather than blacks and whites). Yet this setting would fall flat if it wasn't for the well-developed cast of characters. There's not the believability of BH's flatmates but we get a hefty impression of each of the MI5 team, including the socially-awkward Q-like Alan, played by Sherlock's Anderson, and Brian Cox's 'lion of espionage' codenamed Daddy. While the most enjoyable character is surely middle-aged mummy's boy Bobby Waterhouse, from whom the greatest source of humour comes, our protagonist is Joe Lambe, a moody agent with murky morals whose played by the Cumberbatch-ian Tom Hughes (expect to see more of him in the future). Because of this, the expected 'we've got a mole' storyline is genuinely surprisingly - gold star for anyone who guesses who it is.

If I am honest, however, a personal preference for the wackier side of spy fiction (see: The Prisoner) stopped me from totally loving the series. Also, for me, The Game tried to echo the hush-hush world of real spying so much the show was sometimes short of a certain fizz. In many ways, it is closer to Whithouse's Doctor Who episodes in which he will try on a genre e.g. 'A Town Called Mercy' rather than the assured storytelling of Being Human. Damn, I did it again.

But while this series may lack the sense of fun and depth of character that was the signature of Being Human (I just can't help myself, can I?), it was possibly a tighter run of episodes than many of BH's, boasting a well-developed plot and an interesting character arc for Joe. Here's hoping any wrinkles can be ironed out if the show gets a second series. Then The Game will really be afoot.

The Game's up! - Joe knows there's a mole in MI5. But who is it?

Monthly Scribbles: Inside Series Nine

Well, now that April's upped and left (won't be seeing her again til next year now - just the odd phone call wouldn't go amiss), it's time to look at what happened over the past month. Up first, the Doctor will be seeing doubles in the next series...

Doctor Who Series Nine is shaping up

 

Quite a few details about the 2015 series of Doctor Who have come to light over the past few weeks. One of the most high-profile was the news that Game of Throne's Maisie Williams is to guest star in episodes 5 and 6 of Series Nine - The Girl Who Died, co-written by Series Eight's Jamie Mathieson and Steven Moffat, and The Woman Who Lived, by Torchwood writer Cathrine Treganna. With all the coverage she is getting, it's assumed Maisie will be playing a major character. The prevalent theory is that she will be a younger version of Clara. The character's detractors will no doubt be pleased that there may be two Claras runnng about this year...

Elsewhere, we now know UNIT head Kate Stewart will be back not once but twice in Series Nine, in episodes 1, 2, 7 and 8. And let's not forget this rocking monster, the first new enemy to be revealed from the series.

However, the most intriguing tidbit we now know is that Series Nine will be much heavier on two parters. In a move away from the usual series structure of the one-three double-decker stories, apparently every two episodes of the series will be linked in some way - with it only being revealed that they will be of the same story when you watch it. This is a very bold new way of laying out a series and one I'm very excited to see unfold. Hurry up, August!


I was Sherlocked! 

Let's zoom in from the whole of time and space and forcus on Baker Street now. This month, I was lucky enough to attend the first official Sherlock convention. I could only make it up to London for one of the days but it was still good fun, although I unfortunately missed Benedict Cumberbatch's appearance. A highlight was Moffat and Gatiss' talk - the pair being as entertaining and informative as they always are (with some tantalising hints about what stories they want to do next on the show) - and there was always something to do (with prop musuems and, well, the endless queing). You can read a fuller write-up of the event here.


Mr Holmes trailer

Sticking with Sherlock, here's the trailer for Mr Holmes, which sees Ian McKellen as an elderly Holmes revisiting the case that made him retire. I have some misgivings about the film - it doesn't seem particularly Holmesian in tone and I'm not sure I really want to see my beloved Sherlock Holmes at the end of his life, losing his great mental faculties, but I'm certainly fascinated. Here's hoping it makes a reference to Miss Mary Russell, the retired Holmes' partner in detection - and wife! - in one series of novels.


Highlight of the month

Inside No. 9 (Series Two)

Despite never having seen TV's masters of macabre Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith's previous dark comic hits The League of Gentlemen and Psychoville, I was very pleased to recently catch the second series of Inside No. 9, a hidden gem of a show that deserves more attention. An anthology series, every episode differs wildly in tone and atmosphere but are linked by the fact they are set in somewhere labelled 'no.9' (e.g. a train carriage, a haunted house, a seemingly-ordinary flat). As with every anthology series, the quality varies but each episode is a tense, witty treat with at least half of the six-part run being outright classics. Shearsmith and Pemberton manage to carve each half hour segment into whatever shape they want - be it a nail-biting horror or a surprising tear-jerker. When it surely returns for a series three, I urge you to go a-knocking on No.9 - you never know what you might find inside...

Monthly Mini-Reviews: December - Christmas Special

Well, it's that time again. Christmas has come and gone and it's literally only just turned New Year...
Oh, I can't lie. I'm afraid there's been a technical mishap here at Scribble Creatures HQ. This post, my Monthly Mini-Reviews Christmas Special, should have gone out in the first days of January but that doesn't seem to have occurred. I do apologise - I've no idea how that happened. It seems there is a Ghost of Christmas Past in the machine...
And speaking of ghosts in machines:

Black Mirror: White Christmas

It was only natural that Charlie Brooker's techno-paranoia anthology series would get a Christmas special. After all, what says Christmas more than a reminder that the future is just around the corner? Acting as the series' usual trilogy of stories all in one, this feature-length episode serves us three interconnected tales from a chilling near-future (all based around Jon Hamm and Rafe Spall who both give terrific performances). First and foremost, Brooker's writing is once again on top form - the bleakness and the strangeness are cleverly ofset by the razor-sharp wit and satire that runs throughout. The second segment is the weakest and I have to say I saw some of the twists coming but that does not take away from the... enjoyment seems like the wrong word to attach to something so grim. So was it a white Christmas, after all? No, No, it was black. So very black.

Good Omens (radio series)

Following on from the terrific radio series of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere it was a no-brainer to adapt Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's comedy about the end of the world as a festive treat.
The story  - a distinctly British way of approaching the apocalypse - transitions well to the medium, ably helped by the drama's amazing cast. Comedians Peter Serafinowicz and Mark Heap are great choices for the roles of angel/demon partnership Aziraphale and Crowley (though I imagine many are still holding out for Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston if the story ever makes it to film) and are well supported by Merlin's Colin Morgan, Paterson Joseph and Louise Brealey amongst others. Overall, I may have preferred Neverwhere but this was still a wonderful slice of alternative Christmas entertainment. Well, you can't get more 'alternative Christmas' than the Antichrist.

The Golden Compass

I've been avoiding The Golden Compass for years now due to its lacklustre reputation for being a poor adaptation of Phillip Pullman's popular His Dark Materials books. This Christmas, however, I gave in and gave it a go. Sadly the general consensus is right. Clearly made in an attempt to create another Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter franchise, the film has neither the flair nor confidence of those films and on top of that struggles to adapt Pullman's plot to the screen. That said, there are some pluses- if the script and direction are a bit lacking the visuals are terrific as Lyra's alternate world is brought to life with a vivid psuedo-Steampunk feel. Likewise, Nicole Kidman exudes icy evil as Miss Coulter and Dakota Blue Richards makes for quite a good Lyra. Despite these successes, though, The Golden Compass is not quite pointing in the right direction.

The Sleeper and the Spindle

Leaving behind the Christmas viewing, we turn to something I was lucky enough to get for Christmas - Neil Gaiman's latest book! In it, Gaiman weaves together two traditional tales to form an original feminist fairy tale. As the book's blurb says 'no one is waiting for a prince to appear on his trusty steed here' - it is a queen who risks life and limb to save the sleeping beauty in this story. Gaiman's prose is as crisp and as evocative as ever but in truth the book belongs to both author and illustrator as Chris Riddell's illustrations, beautifully rendered in monochrome and gold, are as equally impressive as the writing. I have been a fan of Riddell since reading The Edge Chronicles when I was younger so am over the moon he is now Neil Gaiman's resident illustrator. A true piece of art, The Sleeper and the Spindle is a proper old-fashioned storybook that takes us back to once upon a time...

Monthly Mini-Reviews: June - TV Special

Continuing on with the resurrected Monthly Mini-Reviews feature, this time around there's a cornucopia of goggle-box-based goodies for you to feast your eyes on. In other, less purple, terms - it's the Monthly Mini-Review TV Special! First up, speaking of resurrections...


In The Flesh (Series Two)

After the cancellation of Being Human, I was left bereft over the lack of interesting supernatural dramas on British TV - for about a month, that is, as right around the corner came In The Flesh, another BBC Three show which had a similar melding of the monsters with the mundane. Set in a small Northern village after the Zombie Apocalypse, it saw Zombies (or Partially-Deceased Syndrome sufferers) return home, having been treated for their conditions, only to be met with prejudice and hostility.
The second series really comes into its own, expanding the mythology of the show and deepening the characters. Luke Newberry as the put-upon Kieran continues to be a talented find, ably supported by Emily Bevan as the (ironically) lively zombie Amy and the obligatory brooding Irishman (I'm thinking Being Human's Mitchell) in Emmett Scanlan's Simon.
Despite the impending death-knell of BBC Three itself, as the series has just won a BAFTA and has been met with positive responsive and garnered a strong fanbase, I suspect that this Zombie show won't be easy to kill off...

Penny Dreadful: 'Night Work'

Since hearing about the upcoming Victorian gothic series, helmed by John Logan and Sam Mendes (the writer-director team behind the recent excellent Bond film Skyfall) I've been very intrigued. And, although, I've only got around to watching the pilot episode so far I would say that intrigue was justified.
In its premise, it's a dark and heady blend of the 19th century's most famous macabre works, featuring Dr Frankenstein and his monster, Dorian Gray, a hunt for a vampiric Mina Murray and an Egyptian curse, however, whereas previous riffs on this idea, namely Van Helsing, went all-action, from what I've seen so far Penny Dreadful sees itself as a good old-fashioned supernatural soap opera.
The stonking, and positively Bond-laden cast, is headed by Eva Green as seer Vanessa Ives, Timothy Dalton as game hunter Malcolm Murray and Josh Hartnett as American cowboy Ethan Chandler who all get a chunk of the action, or rather dialogue, in this opening hour which neatly sets up several threads of the series. Channelling the lurid, melodramatic stylings of its namesake but marrying it with a somewhat sombre, contemplative feel, Penny Dreadful is certainly one to watch.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

As easily the best instalment of the wildly uneven Torchwood (although don't tell my younger self I said that, he was obsessed with it), and one of my favourite individual television series ever, I was due a rewatch of 2009's Torchwood: Children of Earth for the first time in several years. Thankfully it did not disappoint.
To my mind, this is the Torchwood series which most satisfactorily reaches its mandate of being Doctor Who's mature sister show, examining the political and social effects of alien incursion far more than Who ever could or should. It also isn't afraid to push the boundaries far further than can be done on Doctor Who, producing some truly shocking, gut-wrenching, tear-jerking moments across its tightly-plotted five episodes. The main three cast members - John Barrowman, Eve Myles and Gareth David-Lloyd - are all on top form but Peter Capaldi (hey, whatever happened to him?) steals the show as pressured politician John Frobisher, a man who is forced to make difficult choices when placed as the ambassador of the human race. This is simply science fiction drama at its best.     

Bates Motel (Season Two)

While it is by no means needed, a prequel series to Hitchcock's seminal thriller./horror film Psycho that focussed on the teenage years of the crazed cross-dressing killer Norman Bates was something that caught my interest.
The best parts of the series are undoubtedly those that feature Norman and Norma, played rather solidly by Vera Famiga, who are embellished significantly beyond Hitchcock's, literally, 'psycho' characterisation to become three-dimensional people, with good and, in particular, bad points. Particular praise should be given to Freddie Highmore (once the innocent Charlie Bucket from Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) who siphons off several of Anthony Perkins', the original Bates, mannerisms while giving the character his own spin. Inspired by Twin Peaks in its presentation of a suburban town full of secrets, it can be hit-and-miss but this second series improved upon the first, taking Norman further down the dark path. You wouldn't think it to look at him, would you? Why, he wouldn't even hurt a fly... 

You can read more of my televisual ramblings over on Whatculture where I chose 8 TV Finales That Left Major Unanswered Questions.

Monthly Scribbles: A Study in Danny Pink And Other Stories

Well, that's another month gone by. As the shortest month of the year, February we hardly knew you. But before it sinks into the murky backwaters of our memories to be replaced by the bouncing baby March (yes, I know it's nearly a week old, sssh!), let's take a look at the things that shook the world this past month. And for 'shook the world' read 'relevant to me.'

New Doctor Who companion unveiled

In the Whoniverse, February brought the news that the Twelfth Doctor and Clara will be joined in Series Eight of the show by Danny Pink, played by Samuel Anderson. Danny (whose name is strangely reminiscent of Marc Warren's Hustle character, Danny Blue) will be a fellow teacher at Coal Hill School alongside Clara who was seen working at the school, which first appeared in Doctor Who's pilot episode 'An Unearthly Child', in November's The Day of the Doctor. While it waits to be seen what sort of character Danny will be - another love interest in the vein of past male companions Mickey and Rory? - it's a clever move by Moffat to mirror the Doctor's original two companions, Ian and Barbara, who both worked at Coal Hill. All we need now is the Doctor's granddaughter to join them in the TARDIS and the original TARDIS team will be recreated. Now if only a close relation of the Doctor's was still around to come back in the show, then we'd have a real 'generated anomaly'...

Writing Across the Web

For those loyal Scribble fans who eagerly await new material from this site (hello Mum), I apologise for the sparse number of posts over the last month but I've had my fingers in so many pies I didn't have any free to write blog posts with.
February saw me undertake numerous online endeavours including three articles for Whatculture. Fancy reading about Sherlock Holmes' ten weirdest adaptations? Or if you've got a hankering for a headache, why not spend some timey-wimey reading over the greatest time-travel orientated episodes of Doctor Who, either written by Steven Moffat or from the other talented timey-wimey writers to grace the show. If you are in the mood for some fiction, a flash fiction of mine, concerning the social media addiction of a super-villain, can be read over on The Flashnificents. Oh, and I almost forgot, I've also started writing for Hypable, and you can read a couple of news pieces I wrote up for them here. Phew.

Mini-Reviews

Shada

Based on the famed (at least in Doctor Who circles) untelevised story, modern Who scribe Gareth Roberts (whose episodes include 'The Lodger' and 'The Shakespeare Code') takes the baton from Douglas Adams in this fun romp - and I mean that in the best possible way - that merges the Adamsian Who of the late seventies with modern sensibilities.
Shada sees the Fourth Doctor and Romana in Cambridge to visit the Doctor's absent-minded old friend, Professor Chronotis. However, with the ruthless alien Skagra also in the area, it becomes a race to stop the most dangerous book in the universe from ever being read...
The book (that is the novel, not the dangerous universe-destroying one) is a delight, with Roberts treading exactly the right line between affectionate nods to Adams' style yet understanding not to attempt to write like him. While some of it may be familiar if you're a fan of Adams' work (after the TV story was abandoned, Adams used many plot details in his Dirk Gently novel), Shada is a treat for any Who fan or anyone who enjoys humorous science fiction.

Jonathan Creek: 'The Letters of Septimus Noone'

Last Friday night, the first full series in ten years of the Alan Davies-starring detective series, Jonathan Creek, began. I was once quite the fan of the show, with its impossible crimes and dedication to Holmesian logic. However, since Sherlock I'm afraid it's rather been knocked from the top spot of 'Cleverest Detective Show on TV.' Nevertheless, I was hopeful that the show could still deliver.
Sadly, this first episode left me a bit underwhelmed. An unorthodox 'mystery' (I.e. as an audience, we are shown the stages of the murder rather than being asked to work them out) meant that there was little of the customary guessing-game that one likes to play with shows like this. As well as narratively, the set-up of the show has changed as instead of being an eccentric bachelor in his wind mill, Jonathan is now retired from sleuthing and living in a country house - with a wife! As Polly, Sarah Alexander is a solid successor to Sheridan Smith's sidekick and, although it seems a tad too cosy, could make for an interesting development across the series. On the basis of this episode, while Jonathan is still a competent show and deserves this new series, it is not without its creaks.

Review: Jekyll (Series One)

Everyone has a dark side. This is the theme of today's post. We may appear trustworthy members of society but underneath may lurk a secondary savage nature. The side you try to hide. the side you try to bury deep and the side that may come to the fore and close this tab if I keep up this melodramatic introduction. So, as Gothic Creatures month continues, we turn our two-faced heads to inspect a new take on a classic tale...

Three years before he reinvented Sherlock Holmes as a modern-day sleuth, Steven Moffat brought another icon of late-Victorian literature into the 21st century - the tragic Dr Jekyll and his twisted other half, Mr Hyde.

Jekyll, a sequel to the Robert Louis Stevenson original, sees James Nesbitt (ubiquitous on British television back in 2007, he can now be seen as Bofur in The Hobbit films) as Dr Tom Jackman, a man who is suffering from serious split personality. Cutting himself off from his job, friends and family, he is determined to defeat his inner demons before they - or should that be 'he' - can bring harm to his loved ones. Jackman, a descendant of Dr Jekyll, can trust no one - not even himself. 

As one can expect from Steven Moffat, the king of complex plots, this short six-part series (no more were produced) hurtles at a strong pace and is unpredictable to the extreme. While this is far from being the only reimagining of Jekyll and Hyde, to take the Victorian gothic novel and turn it into a contemporary conspiracy thriller show as this does is really quite inspired. Thankfully, however, Jekyll manages to never take itself too seriously and supplies another thing one will always find in Moffat's work; more than a handful of humour. Mr Hyde - oh, yes, he still calls himself that - is portrayed as a camp, so-mad-he-loves-being-evil villain in the vein of John Simm's The Master and, later, Andrew Scott's Moriarty and so regularly gets you laughing with him, despite his nasty nature. 

Across the episodes, there are some stonking great classics of Moffat dialogue. My favourite has to go to the following exchange that's played to deadpan perfection by Nesbitt:

Jackman finds a CD titled 'Disney Favourites' on his desk

Tom: What's this?

Katherine: It's his.

Tom: He has Disney favourites?

Katherine: He likes the songs.

Tom: My dark side likes Mary Poppins. No wonder I was bullied at school.

The cast is filled out ably by familiar actors to any British TV viewer, including Meera Syal, Denis Lawson and Michelle Ryan. Ryan plays Katherine, Jackman's capable assistant who helps keep Hyde at bay (by giving him Disney CDs, apparently) while Syal and Fenella Woolgar (Who's Agatha Christie) play a pair of lesbian private detectives - clear forebears of Moffat's much-loved crinolined crime-fighting duo Madame Vastra and Jenny. They are all entertaining additions to the cast but sadly fall a bit by the wayside in the series' latter half as the plot spirals all over the place (in a good way). On the plus side, though, Gina Bellman who is underused in the first episodes gets a chance to shine as Jackman's suffering wife.

As the issues with character above suggests, the show does have its problems. The biggest being that there's something about it that means the series as a whole just doesn't click. It's certainly great fun to watch but it is the show's inability to ever quite come together that keeps the production from reaching the heights of Sherlock and Moffat's Doctor Who. While the writing runs the show and the actors carry it well, it seems like one-part generic TV drama and one-part bonkers, innovative stuff. The series was clearly designed as a vehicle for Nesbitt, who plays both roles with either suitable restraint or bouncing energy, and also allows Moffat to go solo on a big-game drama project for the first time. Perhaps it is these manufactured beginnings that stop Jekyll being a truly great piece of television.

On the whole, Jekyll is a hugely enjoyable series with sharp writing and solid performances but one that never quite fires on all cylinders. With elements of both pure genius and mediocrity, Jekyll really is a show split down the middle, meaning that the series may leave the viewers themselves in two minds.  

Top Five Fictional Sidekicks

To tie in to my upcoming mini-blogathon concerning favourite fictional characters, I thought I would follow on from my previous post, Top Five Fictional Characters With No Name, with a list of the best sidekicks from fiction. A hero is nothing without a loyal trusty sidekick who will never leave their side - as I, a humble blogger, am nothing without readers. So do read on and discover a few of the most loyal and trustiest sidekicks of them all.


Baldrick
Appeared in: the Blackadder series, played by Tony Robinson

It's a staple of comedy that the main character will have a bumbling idiotic sidekick and the fiendish Edmund Blackadder's servant through the ages, Baldrick, is the epitome of the stereotype. As with the best double acts, Baldrick is a perfect foil for his wily master; with a brain not big enough to be spread over a small water biscuit, he often tries to aid Blackadder in his schemes with a 'cunning plan' that always fails to live up to the promise. On a side note, if you're not familiar with the Blackadder series it's the Shakespeare of television comedy and is a clever as a fox that's been made professor of clever at Oxford University.


Ron and Hermione
Appeared in: the Harry Potter books by JK Rowling and film series, played by Rupert Grint and Emma Watson

We're all familiar with these two. That boy wizard in the glasses would surely have never made it through all the magical mayhem if it were not for his infallible friends. Both are likeable characters; while Hermione is the intelligent one, Ron is generally seen as the comedy sidekick thanks to the character's presentation in the films (though Rupert Grint does a great job, particularly in The Deathly Hallows: Part One) but he is more fleshed-out in the books. As with everything in Rowling's stories, Ron and Hermione come from familiar moulds but the moulds work well, hence why they are moulds in the first place. Moulds.

Nick Carraway
Appeared in: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

When thinking of classic sidekicks one's mind doesn't necessarily jump to the narrator of F Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. However, I'm fond of Carraway (not neccesarily Tobey Macguire's film version, although I didn't dislike him as others did) and find his friendship with Gatsby rather Holmesian/Watsonian. Like many other classic sidekicks, we see the hero of the story through Nick's eyes; while Gatsby is the star of the novel, Carraway, his closest friend, is an equally well-fleshed out character who contrasts and compliments the protagonist. Definitely a sidekick. A great sidekick.

Sarah Jane Smith

Appeared in: Doctor Who, the Sarah Jane Adventures and K-9 and Company, played by Elisabeth Sladen

In its illustrious fifty-year history, Doctor Who has featured many beloved sidekicks, or companions as we fans call them, for everyone's favourite eccentrically-dressed, Sonic Screwdriver-using alien. But of them all, Elisabeth Sladen's Sarah Jane Smith is the most treasured; a character that every companion created since is measured up to. An intelligent, adventurous journalist, Sarah was the star of her own popular spin-off show (that was only cancelled upon the event of Sladen's untimely passing) and, like the Brigadier, has worked with multiple Doctors. Sarah Jane is simply the Doctor's greatest friend.


Dr Watson
Appeared in: the Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and numerous film and TV adaptations and literary pastiches

In a list of the greatest fictional sidekicks, who else could take the top spot over Baker Street's finest doctor, chronicler and moustache-spotter, Sherlock Holmes' right-hand man, Dr John (sometimes James, but let's not get into that now) Watson? He is everything the hero's best friend should be; an everyman to contrast with the hero's extraordinary nature but also with a streak of brilliance to be of aid to the hero. Together with Holmes he is known for being one half of the greatest friendship in literature but even by himself Dr Watson is one of the most popular and enduring characters fiction has ever produced.

Top Five Fictional Characters With No Name

After fifty years of mystery, it has been promised that this Saturday in the current series finale of Doctor Who, the Doctor's name will be revealed in the aptly-titled 'The Name of the Doctor.' To celebrate the occasion I thought I would draw up a list of other fictional characters that remain nameless (one of whom the Doctor may cease to be come Saturday). It's not so much a definitive list than a few characters from disparate strands of fiction that, I think, use their namelessness effectively. So, please, read on, whatever your name is.


Nobody Owens
Appeared in: The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

The protagonist of Neil Gaiman's excellent young adult novel The Graveyard Book, Nobody Owens, known as 'Bod', was made an orphan as a baby after a mysterious killer murdered his family. Instead, Bod was raised, naturally, by the resident ghosts of a graveyard he called home, with the novel following his adventures in and out of the cemetery. Technically, Bod may not count for this list as he is given a name by his surrogate spook-relatives but Nobody is only called such as his adopted mother says 'he looks like nobody but himself.' That's hardly a name now, is it?


 Captain Jack Harkness
Appeared in: Doctor Who and Torchwood, played by John Barrowman

If you only know of John Barrowman's flighty adventurer Captain Jack from Doctor Who, you may be a bit surprised by his placement on this list due to the fact that, well, he has a name. However, in his own spin-off series Torchwood, it is revealed that Jack stole the identity of the real Captain Jack Harkness, an American WW2 soldier, back in the days when he was a bad'un. It's a clear attempt to make Jack more like the Doctor and perhaps isn't mined to too large a degree but it does add to the character's enigmatic and very long life (he's immortal, remember).

The Joker
Appeared in: Batman comics and numerous film and TV adaptations

I'm sure you're all familiar with this fellow. Mad as a box of frogs, the Joker is Batman's arch-nemesis. Sometimes a fairly harmless trickster others a psychotic killer, whatever version of the character it is his past is reliably convoluted and unknowable. Apart from in Tim Burton's Batman where Jack Nicholson's Clown Prince of Crime is called, um, Jack, and in Alan Moore's The Killing Joke graphic novel, where his name is ... also Jack. Well, apart from those examples, the Joker is made all the more threatening due to his namelessness as the less we know of his origins and motives, the more we wonder. Which is far more potent; a large reason why he is such an effective and popular character.


Number Six
Appeared in: The Prisoner, played by Patrick MacGoohan

In the superb sixties series, The Prisoner, a man resigns from his (unknown) job returns to his London flat where he is gassed and wakes up in the Village. A surreal, remote town full of brainwashed individuals and run by the face-changing Number Two, he seems to have been brought there so 'they' may find out the reason why indeed he resigned. As each inhabitant of the Village is assigned a number, we never find out our protagonist's name as he, each episode, tries to escape the Village. The importance of Number Six's lack of a name and his constant refusal to back down to the powers behind the Village is summed up in his famous phrase: 'I am not a number, I am a free man!' The series itself I highly recommend; it's truly iconic and has influenced such modern successful series such as Lost and Life on Mars.


The Creature
Appeared in: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and numerous film, TV, literature and theatre adaptations

The greatest nameless character from all of fiction surely has to be Mary Shelley's sorrowful, passionate and volatile creation. We're all familiar with his story: the outcome of an experiment to create life by Victor Frankenstein, the Creature is shunned by his 'father' and forced to fend for himself upon which he learns humanity's best and worst qualities. Played by Benedict Cumberbatch, pictured left, who shared the role with Johnny Lee Miller in the fantastic Danny Boyle stage production, the Creature is defined by his lack of identity; constantly searching for his place in the world rather than being the inhuman monster that the people he encounters take him for. The Creature's story perfectly encapsulates why our names and identity, things we take for granted, are so important to how the world perceives us and how we view ourselves.


Talking of fictional characters.... Before we get too philosophical, this post acts as a forebear for an upcoming small blogathon I'm hosting concerning our Favourite Fictional Characters. If this interests you, have a read about it here.

Monthly Mini-Reviews: February

Here's the second instalment of my new monthly feature in which I very concisely rate some films, television or books that I've enjoyed over the month. For starters, let's take a look at the future...


Black Mirror (Series Two)

If you like your television dark and thought-provoking then Black Mirror is the show for you. While the first series was still blackly comic, this second series of Charlie Brooker's sci-fiesque satirical anthology series is definitely somewhat straighter and more disturbing - in a good way if that's possible. Like Series One, the third episode is again the weakest although all three episodes offer an intriguing skewered look at our technology-obsessed world. The scary thing is most of the seemingly-outlandish events in the series aren't actually a million miles away.

Hugo

And now for something completely different. I recently had the pleasure of watching Martin Scorcesee's Hugo, a rather charming family film that acts as a love letter to the early days of cinema. Ben Kingsley steals the show as downhearted film-maker George Melies but Asa Butterfield and Chloe Grace Moretz do good jobs as the two young leads. I imagine, sadly, that at some parts kids might lose interest but, if you have an interest in film or just like a simple story engagingly told,  I recommend you give it a go whatever you're age.

Mister Creecher

Chris Priestley is a young adults author I'm quite fond of thanks to the gothic, spooky shape his writing often takes. Here he doesn't disappoint; in 1800s London, streetwise Billy encounters a great hulk of a man intent on finding someone who's wronged him, one Victor Frankenstein. A novel that acts as a counterpart to Mary Shelley's classic, it's an entertaining, fast-paced read that, although it perhaps doesn't shine a whole new light on the well-known story, will hopefully entice its teenage readership to search out the original novel. I hope they like it.

Ashes to Ashes (Series One)

I'm a massive fan of Life on Mars and watched its series through several times, however not until now have I given its follow-up series Ashes to Ashes a re-viewing. Just as I remember, it's not as good as its forebear, as its basically the same idea being done again it lacks the freshness - and most of the surrealism - that Mars had. That said, it's still an enjoyable police procedural series with a twist and Phillip Glenister is still great as a slightly watered-down but still rough-and-ready cop, Gene Hunt.