This Above All (1942)

 "A man ,must have integrity..."

This is another British war film, reasonably obscure despite starring Joan Fontaine, and a fascinating snapshot of the age.

It is, I suppose, a wartime romance on the surface. And the performances and characterisation are excellent. Yet at its core it's far more philosophical- about the ethics of war, of duty, of what's being fought for- in a way which could only have emerged in the middle of the Second World War.

Prue is a young, aristocratic lady who scandalises her rich family by joining the WAAF... as a private, despite her upbringing, wanting to do her part, frustrated by the stuffy life of privilege she sees around her by those who see the War as an inconvenient intrusion on their comforts. Clive, meanwhile, is a brave soldier, Dunkirk hero, mentioned in dispatches... yet AWOL and on the brink of desertion not from cowardice but disillusion with the privileged nonentoities whom he percieves to be in charge.

The narrative plays out as the well-done melodrama that it is, with a happy ending after many twists and turns. Yet what lingers most about this film, aside from the very contemporary attitude towards pre-marital sex, is that yes, the message is one of patriotism, of duty, of honour. But it is also a film, pointing forwards to the 1945 election, that Britain has come together for the war and so must never again go back to the old ways of privilege, poverty and a nation divided.

This film is no more than quite good, I suppose. But it's a fascinating snapshot of the age.

Shakedown: Return of the Sontarans

 "Called himself the Physician, or the Dentist, or something..."

The new season of Doctor Who is over. I need something for the withdrawal symptoms, really rather urgently.

This is another of those fan-made, straight to video dramas made during Doctor Who's "wilderness years". Made on a shoestring by fans, they were nevertheless fascinating. Often featuring actors from the show, as well as other British telefantasy series such as Blake's 7, they varied in quality, in truth. Many of those fans making them would go on to greater things, though, and for what they were- and their minuscule budgets- they were very impressive.

This, which I've now seen for the first time, is undoubtedly one of the best.

The script, from ever-reliable Terrance Dicks, is genuinely witty and full of twists and turns. The Sontarans here are supremely designed, wtritten and acted, coming across as a very three-dimesnsional species. The Rutans are used well, with surprisingly good effects.

And while the performances are variable, Brian Croucher truly stands out. So does Carole Ann Ford, playing a much deeper and interesting character than Susan ever was. 

Location shooting on HMS Belfast, and creative use of camerawork, makes this look far less cheap than it doubtless was. It's not quite a prodessional production and that shows in places- it looks as though the performances are not always well directed. Yet, with a very strong script at its core, this is a highly impressive piece of work.

The Boys: We'll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here

 "Elon Musk has more charm than he does. And she's half-android."

This episode proves that, good as the last two were, it's possible to get even better. Such a brilliant, perfect, nuanced piece of television.

There's all kinds of very contemporary subtext here, with Vought and its cronies pushing superheroes as a far right wedge issue. There's a man with a gun who nearly murders some of Starlight's followers because of a crazy, Pizzagate-style conspiracy theory. There's a nod to the concerning transphobia epidemic that's rife today, Sister Sage's sinister Project 25-style plans include plans to remove all books covering "critical Supe theory" and allowing Supes to outrank the police and military. Brr.

Yet the character stuff is deep. Hughie finally gets to see his errant mother as a real human being, who left her child not becaudse of innate evil but because it was the only way to save herself folloeing a suicide attempt caused by post-partum depression. Wow. Sister Sage and Firecracker join the Seven... and, very cleverly, after we've come to realise what a nasty, MAGA piece of work Firecracker is, the rug gets pulled out from under us: she genuinely comes from nothing, and had her life chances ruined by thirteen year old little rick girl Annie... and "People don't change". Wow.

Meanwhile, Kimiko realises she has to face her past and overcome her deomons, while Frenchie refuses to share about him, retreating into getting high, having to face not only that he's killed Colin's family but has murdered so many. It's interesting to see where they're going with this. M.M. struggles with leadership, the new Black Noir struggles with his acting, and the Deep has a love triangle going on with Sage and, er, an octopus.

But the real meat of the episode is the tug of war between an increasingly scary Homelander and the dying Butcher for Ryan. Butcher and Ryan have a truly affecting scene, Ryan clearly seeing Butcher asa flawed, damaged but ultimately good man. Homelander, meanwhile, is casually leaving a trail of human bodies behind him... but what't that multiple personality moment at the end? He has to go "back to the start?"

As ever with The Boys, I've no idea where this is going. But I bleeding well love it.

The Boys: Life Among the Septics

" I swear to God... stupod people who think they're smart make me want to eat my own ***."

Yet again, there's a lot going on here, early in the season though we are. Sister Sage continues to be fascinating- the smartest person on the planet and utterly amoral. She has ber own agenda too, and we start to see parts of it. Despite her obvuous disdain for the subtle racism directed at her, she is ultimately a supe supremacist, telling the Deep to stand up to Ashley because "You're an evolutionarily superior being."

Ironically, she's an interesting comparison to Stormfront and, in the end, similarly fascistic. It's just that her racism is less... old-fashioned. And Homelander quite agrees. Much of the episode consists of Ryan prepping for his first "Solo save" in public, which goes horribly wrong as the "villain" is horribly killed by Homelander. Chillingly, Homelander just doesn't get why Ryan is upset about this- "humans are fragile".

Horrifying though this is, it shows a horrible truth: superheroes never truly save anyone, it's all staged... as A-Train is forced to admit to his nephews. Meanwhile, he's filming his own origin movie which is changing his past to include all sorts of subtly racist tropes... and Will Ferrell. No wonder he's annoyed enough to sneak footage exonerating last episode's two murder scapegoats to Annie and Hughie.

Meanwhile, Kimiko gets drunk, continues to be lovely to Frenchie and maybe, just maybe, confronts her own past. Hughie, meanwhile, confronts his errant mother. And the ongoing psychodrama between M.M. and the dying Butcher continues.

Best of all, as ever, is the social commentary- the subtle and not so subtle racism of MAGA America, and the dangers of conspiracy theories, which are far from harmless and all have dangeroud far right ideology not far beneath the surface. Ah, I love The Boys. I just need to get bleeding well caught up.

Doctor Who: Empire of Death

 “Is this thing safe?”

“Absolute deathtrap, Melanie B.”

I was going to do a separate blog post for the Tales of the TARDIS thing for Pyramids of Mars but, well, there’s not much to it. We have some extra Egypt stock footage, some mildly redone effects, and a very short prologue and epilogue with the Doctor and Ruby wonder what the Dickens they’re going to do about Sutlekh. He’s unstoppable, he’s evolved into a “titan”… and that’s it. Presumably it takes place at some point during the episode in that remembered TARDIS while Mel is off doing something?

So on to the episode itself. I watched it at 7am this morning. Since then I’ve had a 200 mile drive and a day spent in full-on dad mode. I’m aware, as hours have passed, that opinion seems to be divided, much as I’ve tried to avoid others’ thought until I’ve blogged mine. Yet I can see how this episode could be fairly criticised: Sutekh destroys all life in the universe, is defeated by a clever trick, everyone is brought back to life with the press of a reset button, and Ruby’s mum was a massive red herring.

And yet… for me, the emotional and storytelling beats were fantastic. I bloody loved this finale. So let’s get into why. This may take a while.

We begin with what at first seems to be the destruction of UNIT with Sutekh’s Dust of Death- Kate Lethbridge-Stewart’s death is played like a big, stoic, dramatic moments and packs a punch. Yet it’s soon clear that the dust is spreading across London. The Doctor, Ruby and Mel escape in the TARDIS… and they can see, through the TARDIS doors, as the dust covers the whole planet. Earth is utterly sterilised. Other than them, there will soon be no one.

We get an interesting scene with Cherry and Mrs Flood, who seemed so creepy last episode but, if you recall, I suspected she may turn out to be an example of the creepy red herring trope- the apparently sinister character who turns out to be benevolent. I see nothing here to change my mind. Mrs Flood sees what’s coming, sighs, says she had “such plans” and hugs Cherry as both become dust. It’s a fascinating scene. And one which suggests to me that, whoever Mrs Flood is, and we may or may not like her agenda… but she’s no Big Bad.

We get some exposition from Sutekh, Gabriel Woolf still sounding spellbounding at ninety-one years of age. It seemed Sutekh hitched a ride on the TARDIS back in 1911 and has been there ever since, slowly setting a trap, the TARDIS now his forever. Yet somehow, very much light shaded by the Doctor, Sutekh seems to be sparing Ruby, Mel and himself.. why? It may all feel a little neat, but all of this is utterly compelling.

So they escape in the TARDIS from the reconstruction of that night on Ruby Road… a “remembered TARDIS”. Is this the explanation for what we see in Tales of the TARDIS? Because I still don’t understand how it all fits together, but no matter.

What does matter is that it isn’t just Earth, it’s everywhere: dead, sterile, lifeless. The Doctor speaks of Venus; Telos; Karen: the Ood Sphere; Skaro. Everywhere and every when the Doctor has visited, dead because he visited. An unbearable weight on anyone’s conscience: “I thought it was fun.” Ncuti Gatwa plays the Doctor’s anguish with such exquisite force. 

Millie Gibson is quite wonderful in this sequence, but do is Bonnie Langford, who really gets material to make Mel shine as she never could way back when, and rises with aplomb to the opportunity.

It all comes back to Ruby’s mother, the all-powerful secret that Sutekh wants. It seems he’s won, but this is his downfall. This… and a spoon. The scene of the Doctor and the poor forgetful lady in the tent who has somehow survived longer … yes, there’s subtext here that I’m not getting, isn’t there?

Yet the Doctor has a spoon… and we get some more exposition and unexpected references to 73 Yards. I’m not sure any of that episode’s ambiguities are explained, beyond the significance of that distance, but nor did they need to be. The secret of Ruby’s birth mother is found, while Mel becomes a horrifying looking servant of Sutekh. All looks bleak.. until the Doctor’s plan unfolds. It’s deeply satisfying, earned, and hits all the emotional beats, including the Doctor’s regret at having no choice but to kill Sutekh. And yes, everyone is resurrected… but the emotional beats are exquisite. And it all happened. 

That Ruby’s mum is just normal is… perfect. Ordinary, good but flawed people are as important as powerful godlike beings. And the scenes where Ruby finds and gets to know her birth mother are… utterly wonderful.

And so, with this all going on, the Doctor leaves for a while. He promises Ruby he’ll be back. He tends not to do this… but this time we believe him.

Oh, and Ruby’s parting words to the Doctor are “I love you”. Oh RTD, you give us the feels in ways Chibnall never could.

And we end… with a narration from a rather different Mrs Flood- her true self, whoever she is? To be continued, clearly. All else for this season is wrapped up: Mrs Flood is for next year. And all is foreboding…

This is television with heart, scares, thrills, all the things we’ve missed for so long. I loved every second of this.

The Boys: The Department of Dirty Tricks

 "You know, there were no relations with an octopus..."

Ouch. Three new episodes of The Boys dropped last Friday, showing zero respect for my schedule. Bear with me; I'mll get them watched and up to date as soon as I can, even if it means watching episodes on some consecutive days.

It's been a while, hasn't it? I've missed The Boys. This season opener may not have an... explosive moment like the last one, but damn, it's good. So good, in fact, that it even deserves to be bookended by a certain suddenly outdated stone cold classic by the Sex Pistols. But who are the flowers in the dustbin, and who the poison in the human machine, if I may further torture some already tortured metaphors?

So... Homelander, a scarily powerful and unhinged figure idolised by fanatical far right supporters, is undergoing a criminal trial. Meanwhile, a new president has been elected... and is trying to get the CIA, employing the Boys, to kill his vice-preseident, one Victoria Neumann, before January 6th and the inauguration, thereby altering the result of the election. Isn't it great to have such pure superhero escapism, which in no way reflects current events?

Most of the gang see Vicky (and her very, very scary daughter with some truly icky powers) as the main threat... but the slowly dying Billy Butcher is highly focused on Homelander. And they're sort of both right, althgough thankfully not yet in conflict; it seems that Butcher is about to betray Hughie and ally with Neumann against Homelander... but he doesn't.

Hughie's dad has a stroke. Homelander is having a mid-life crisis and is tired of being surrounded by sycophants (ha!)... yet he bonds with Sister Sage, whose superpower is genius... and follows her deliciously evil, utterly amoral plan.Right down to having his biggest fans beaten to death by three of said sycophants for a false flag op. Ouch.

And it seems Black Noir is not quite dead after all?)

The arc with Ryan isfascinating... will he choose Billy or Homelander? Frenchie has an old flame, Colin. Already, there's so much going on. As ever, this is soooo good.

Better Call Saul: Magic Man

 "Doesn't that sound like you're envouraging people to commit crimes?"

We begin the season- as we haven't for a while- in the monochrome present, in Nebraska, as the artist formerly known as Jimmy continues his life of constant worry and looking over his shoulder, miserable, with nothing to look forward to. We continue in this vein until, suddenly... he's recognised by someone from New Mexico. So what to do? Yet another new life (from the same bloke and the same actor!) would be far too expensive... so he's going to take matters into his own hands.The whole sequence takes thirteen minutes, and only then do the titles kick in.

This is exciting, to say the least. For every other plot thread, we know roughly how things are going to pan out. That Jimmy is going to practise as Saul Goodman, that Gus is going to win out over Lalo, that Kim was nowhere to be seen in Breaking Bad. But for this, in the "present"... this is uncharted territory. It seems this part of the show may get more prominent.

And yet so many more plot treads, potential season arcs, are beginning to unfurl. Nacho, having thought he'd won, now has to contend with Lalo. And Lalo is a problem for Gus too, who is on the back foot in relation to him, and can't overtly act against Lalo without annoying Don Eladio. But Gus is Gus, and it's clear he intends to kill Lalo... an arc for this season?

Interestingly, there's a comment about Gus. he's competent, he gets results, but he's "not one of us". Subtle racism?

Then there's Jimmy, setting up as Saul Goodman to the existing criminal clientele to whom he's been selling phones... and he is, as ever, quite the successful salesman. Kim, of course, being a real lawyer, can't understand what he's up to, and it seems the rift will grow... and yet, at the end, she is again seduced by his tricks despite hereself.

Most interestingly... Mike sends away Werner's very scared crew, and when Kai states that Wener had it coming... he gets hit for his troubles. And yet, when another German tells Mike that Werner was worth fifty of him... Mike lets it slide. Ouch. There even seems to be a rift developing between him and Gus.

Already, this season is sizzling, with so much going on. At last, we really feel as though the world we experienced with Walter White is not too far away. Superb television, as ever.

Carry On Spying (1964)

 "Stop messin' about..."

I keep thinking I'm still quite early on in my chronological journey through the Carry On films, but I'm further along than I's thought. This is the last of the films to be shot in black and white, but the humour is by now real Carry On innuendo... andat last we lave the lovely and wonderful Barbara Windsor, doing as she always does.

We have Bernard Cribbins again, for the last time, and surprisingly few of the usual faces. Charles Hawtrey is... well, Charles Hawtrey, while Kenneth Williams stars. Interestingly, though, Williams isn't his usual Carry On persona here, being much more the "stop messin' about" persona that contemporary audiences would remember from Hancock's Half Hour on the wireless.

And... it's perfectly entertaining, giving us exactly what we want from a fairly standard Carry On. It's riffing on the spy genre but not, as one might have expected in 1964, with a great focus on James Bond, although Dr Claw is blatantly a pastiche of a Bond villain and we get a little riff on the train scene from From Russia with Love. We also get an extended sequence in Vienna riffing off The Third Man, complete with zither, and another extended sequence in Algiers where we're presented with some vaguely orientalist stereotypes which, er, haven't aged well. Fakirs, beds of nails, snake charmers... in Algeria?!

Like all Carry Ons, this is as much a fascinating little time capsule as an entertaining little comedy- I particularly noticed a random fruit machine with an unexpected Sega logo, which I suspect is not something often mentioned in connection with this film.

Overall, thoiugh, a splendid romp. And I'm about to enter the peak Carry On period...

Doctor Who: The Legend of Ruby Sunday

 "I am in Hell..."

Needless to say, this is going to be a long one.

It's sort of fasionable within fandom, and indeed within fandoms, to prefer the good, unusual quirky episodes to the big, two-part season finales with Big Things happening. I'm quite of that school of thought myself. But let's not pretend here: there's room for both, and I, for one, love a big season finale.

And this episode is very no nonsense about what it is. It advertises, from the start, that this is an episode about Big Things. Bang bang bang, one after another. The Doctor and Ruby arrive at UNIT! Ruby's meeting them for the first time! Rose and Kate! That robot thingy's had an upgrade! And, er, there's this bizarre child genius figure about whom the less said the better, but never mind.

And there's exactly zero faffing about as the episode hones in on the arc stuff, starting with this mysterious woman whose face has been following the Doctor and Ruby around all season. She's a big computer tycoon, very famous... and her company, S Triad, is an acronym of TARDIS, while her first name is Susan. And this in a season where the Doctor's perennially ankle-spraining grandaughter has alreadsy been mentioned. Could it be...?

I love the quip from Kate about how UNIT are always stopping evil software geniuses with alien tech "excelpt him, obviously". Hah. But again, it's zero faffing about as we get straight on to the mysterious origins of Ruby back at that church on Ruby Road that Christmas Eve, as UNIT set to try and solve the mystery with the help of impossibly advanced tech, technobabble and, er, a video tape. I'm not sure why UNIT is happy to use its resources, no doubt expensively, to do this... but never mind. This is season finale logic, and I'm enjoying the ride.

And, of course, Carla needs to be along for the ride too. Which means her mother needs looking after, by our old friend Mrs Flood. Except... as soon as the two of them are left alone together, Mrs Flood starts to act all sinister, stating that "He waits no more".... yep. It's the One Who Waits.

But... and please do indulge me here: I say this totally unspoiled. But could Mrs Flood be that trope that's the hilariously sinister red herring who is actually not a baddie at all? I'm aware, of course- and this is jumping ahead a bit- that she could be Susan,but it would be cool if Susan herself were just a bit of misdirection, although perhaps to be followed up next season?

Anyway, digressions aside... we see a reconstruction of that night, with Ruby's birth mum being an uncanny, hooded figure whose face cannot be seen. Yet she points at the observing Doctor, memories and even video footage change, and there's a deeply creepy, malign presence that horribly kills the poor redshirt, obviously doomed though he was. I love the brief look of disgust Kate gives the Doctor. This is his fault.UNIT are doing all this only to indulge the Doctor, and they lose one of their own.

So what of the mysterious Susan Triad? The Doctor is paired here with the delightful Mel- Bonnie Langford is quite, quite wonderful- who is far better written here than she ever was as a companion. There are even hints of a backstory ("I lost my family to the most terrible things...")... and it's clear that Susan Triad is not who we thought she was. The reveal- another harbinger, the "wrong anagram"- is deeply effective... we get a bit of horrifying exposition of the Pantheon- the Toymaker, the Trickster, the Maestro, the Mara, some others... and, atop them all...

Sutekh. And they've only bloody gone and got Gabriel Woolf.

I suspect this won't make much sense on a second viewing. I don't particularly care. The storytelling beats were exquisite and had me on the edge of my seat. I LOVED this.

Batman: The Animated Series- Christmas with the Joker

 "Jingle bells, Batman smells..."

I love that they use the opening to the version of Jingle Bells I ised to sing in primary schools, even if the rest of the words are different. This is our first introduction to Mark Hamill's Joker (and Arkham Asylum), and it's perfect.

Batman has always been perfect for splendidly dark Christmas tales, and this is no exception. Oh, the plot is straightforward enough, and bonkers, as the Joker dangerously toys with Batman on Christmas Day. It reminds me of those Steve Englehart stories from the '70s which themselves riffed on the early Joker tales. This is very typical Joker stuff, exactly what you want as an introduction.

Incidentally, we now have Robin, after he wasn't in the first episode. Is this the plan, to sometimes feature the character and sometimes not? And which Robin is this? I can't quite recall if Tim Drake was a thing in 1992, but I'm sure all will slowly be revealed. I love the banter between the two of them over Christmas and It's a Wonderful Life.

All very impressive stuff- and very "trad" post-1970 Denny O'Neill revamp Batman in a way which hadn't actually be seen on screen before this. It's fadcinating to see this series unfold.

The Last Sect (2006)

"Once you join us you'll see this isn't a Heaven you have to suffer to enter..."

I don't mind a good bad film. Bad films can be enormous fum, as all right-thinking people know. No: there is no sin but being boring. And crikey, this films- about good looking, vaguely kinky female vampires, for Pete's sake is oh, so desperately and soul crushingly dull.

So what went wrong? No one sets out to make a bad film, after all. And it is, at least, interesting, to see the very 2006 attitudes to the internet and to online dating, by no means an accepted thing at that point, as well as mild social commentary about the dating experience for women and for men. The cinematography is good, despite the vaguely washed out look which has dated somewhat but I remember at the time being a tiresome trend... but it's done well. The cast, is good by and large. I mean, yes, David Carradine phones in his performance a bit, a wise decision with this script, but he oozes charisma nonetheless. And the soundtrack by the Duke Spirit, something else that's very 2006, is utterly wonderful.

But it's soooo slooow. At first the talkiness is ok. But the characters, who are dull anyway, just talk and talk and nothing ever happens. Yes, the film looks good, but that's because the set oieces are kept to a minimum, there doesn't seem to be any location filming, and it's ninety minutes of exposition and talking and talking and talking and oh my god hw much longer do I have to try to concentrate. We're talking possibly the dullest lesbian kiss in cinematic history here.

I can't think of any reason whatsoever why anybody would want to put themselves through tfhis ilm. I beseech you: don't suffer as I did.

The Dogs of War (1980)

 "He wants to be God. I want to be rich!"

I was expecting this film to be rather more similar to Day of the Jackal- after all, both films are based on Frederick Forsyth novels of a similar ilk, focusing on the fascinating process of organising an assassination and a coup, respectively. Yes, Forsyth is a reactionary old git, but I did enjoy reading his novels in my teens. Basic, functional prose, zero charactersation, all plot, but somewhat unputdownable as potboilers go.

It's fair to say that this film is a different beast from Day of the Jackal. It omits the best bits of the novel- the planning of the coup, the details of how the sausage is made- and is, more or less, whilea faithful adaptation on the whole, much more of a very straightforward action film starring a very young Christopher Walken and helmed by the future director of Raw Deal.

As such... it's fine. Walken isdecent, as ever, but I've  always found him to be precisely that- decent, competent, but lacking in anything deeper than that. Colin Blakely is rather good, but none of the supporting cast stand out, and the big action scene at the end is rather dull. 

I suppose the earlier scenes where Shannon, and the viewer, explore the realitiesof a poor African dictatorship, hold some interest but, well, are we perhaps in an area of rather dodgy stereotyping? This film is largely fine, it's decent enough, but a far better adaptation of the novel could potentially have been made.

Doctor Who: Rogue

 "Just try not to get engaged, or accidentally invent tarmac".

My, Doctor Who is very metatextual these days.

Another bloody good episode this week. Oh, it didn't quite hit the higghs of last week or the week before, but that's frankly a high bar to reach. This was a bloody good bit of television.

It's also an episode written by someone not a Doctor Who showrunner, which is nice. Indeed, Kate Herron and Briony Redman are not only new to the show but have no connection to the fandom that I know of... and are, you know, a nice break from the testosterone. I know of Kate Herron as director of both Sex Education and Loki... and, whilst she doesn't seem to have writing credits for the latter, she apparently did a bit of showrunning. This is excellent: Loki is by far the best of the Disney Plus Marvel telly stuff.

Anyway, it's Regency England in 1813. "Oh my Bridgerton" indeed, as all the Jane Austen tropes are nicely deconstructed from the first scene, which gives us a nice little teaser to what'ds going on, as a Regency fop decides the man with him is a bounder and a cad... so he takes over his identity and kills him. Lovely.

It all looks wonderful, although I'm sure those who are upset by such things will complain about the presence of the occasional actor who has the temerity to not be white.Ruby gets to explore all the Jane Ausen stuff, while the Doctor meets, and flirts with, the mysterious Rogue, a bounty hunter who is mysterious, plays D&D(!), and is a rather convenient source of exposition as to what's going on- it's shape shifting aliewns, of course.,The two of them get on famously, despite Rogue committing the social faux pas of trying to kill a man on the first date. No doubt thosewho love to complain about such things will moan about the fact that, by this point, we pretty clearly have a Doctor coded as gay. Meh. People have sexual orientations. It's a mundane fact of life.

Rogue's invisible ship is a bit Shada, and Susan Twist is a portrait this time, but otherwise there's a total lack of continuity references, which is pleasing, a sign of new writing blood and proof that the show need not feel the need to reference its past every five minutes... much though I love it when that does happen. It's complicated.

The Doctor and Rogue are really getting on. The Doctor invites Rogue to travel with him, they almost kiss, and... yeah, it's clear at this point that he's doomed in some way. But the big reveal is delightfully metatextual: the alien shape shifters are cosplaying. And, I'm sure, no doubt there will e conventions in the coming months with fans cosplaying as them. Deliciously, the aliens behave like fans, complete with their "season finale".

The bit of cruel misdirection at the end, making us believe Ruby is dead, is well done, as is Rogue's heroism. He's more than a bounty hunter... and we get a nice hint that he may be returning. I love the Doctor's reaction to his broken heart, too: he's been there so many times, and just wants to go onwards... but Ruby, lovely as she is, insists on a proper hug. And rightly so.

But what truly makes this episode shine is the wit of the script and the delightful metatextualism of its ideas. I can't believe the season is nearly over. Can't it go on forever?

The Sweeney: Night Out

 "Wait, where's my gun?"

"In the dishwasher?"

This is another subtle little character episode from the pen of none other than Troy Kennedy Martin. On the surface it's about Regan keeping an old flame, Iris, in her flat next to a pub while a Superindendent and his gang carry out an operation to grab the villains doing a job in the vault of the bank next to the pub next door. There's suspense. There's shootout. There's realistic fear from Regan.

And yet... this is really about the people. Jack's old flame is... nice, witty, likeable. You can see why Jack liked her. And, despite an awkward start, you can see their chemistry.As real people often do, they fall apart through circumstances but crisiscan bring back the old affections...and so Irisand Jack end up in bed together. Twice. With lots of rather glorious screwball comedy for good measure.

Yet it's also a fascinating character study of T.P. McKenna's Superintendent, a man who loves success, loves publicity and is admired by his men, seduced by the glamour... yet it's all about him, and he cares not how many get hurt, or killed, in the attempt. John Thaw plays contempt for this man to perfection. The suspense at the end is electric. At one point I thought Iris would be the one being shot.

Not the best episode so far, perhaps, but only because of the high quality of the others. And I love the casual response to the bar fight as "Well, I suppose it's Saturday night, innit?"

Batman: The Animated Series- On Leather Wings

 "I only toss butlers, Alfred..."

And so it begins.

I'm watching these in production order, as I'm, reliably informed the broadcast order ill all over trhe place. I'll do a season for now, then see how it goes, but it has to ber said this is quite my period. It's 1992, before Bane and Azrael and Tim Drake and whatnot: I know the lore pretty well at this point.

And you know what? This is excellent stuff. Confession time: I started watching the first episode of the '90s X-Men cartoon some months ago in preparation for X-Men '97, and, despite my fond memories... it was bloody awful. I may or may not try again at some point. But this, at least, is superb.

The plot is straightforward- a mysterious bat-like figure is stealing pharmaceuticals and the police blame Batman, but it's actually Man-Bat. Simple. But simple is needed, as this is the first episode and we only have twenty-two minutes to tell the story. We 're introduced tothe early '90s, slightly acerbic Bruce-Alfred dynamic. Commissioner Gordon is world-weary, plagued by politics and the delightfully annoying Harvey Bullock... and then there's a brief glimpse of the district attorney, one Harvey Dent, whom I'm sure will remain a very... singular fellow.

The characters, the dialogue, the angular animation- all are very good indeed. And it all oozes just enough of the Tim Burton style- the music, the Batmobile design, while being very clearly its own beast. And the title card at the start- it seems inspired by the movie serials.

A necessarily functional start, but a good one. Let's see where this goes.

The Sweeney: Jigsaw

 "He's got the Church and the Palace of Westminster on his side. Who have you got?"

On the surface, this episode is all plot, and very cleverly done. It's not a whodunit, it's a "howdunit". We know Eddie and Eric are the villains what robbed the payroll and coshed the nightwatchman, but they have cast iron alibis- with Regan himself and a vicar respectively. The episode is all about how Regan, with Carter's dogged support, try and ultimately succeed in nailing them despite pressire- including from the local MP- to stop "harrassing" Eddie.

It's all verty clever, centred on character; Eddie's cynical pose as a family man is his downfall. And so it's all tied up neatly.

And yet... this is really a character episode. We're five episodes in. We start to get to know them a little more. So we have Regan confronting Eddie at the school gates, leading to us meeting Carter's wife, who tells him what she thinks of Regain, and she doesn't like him... contrasting with Carter's genuine admiration. Itr's a nice little character moment.

We also see Regan annoyed by Eddie's family man act, cynically using the affections of a child for personal gain... and we learn that this is largely because Regan is divorced, can't see his own daugher, and his ex's new fella is the one who is "there". Ouch.

This series hasn't had a duffepisode yet, and it's slowly getting better and better. And, yet again, it's a fascinating glimpse into a Britain just a few years before my earliest memories.

Doctor Who: Dot and Bubble

 “You’re so good at walking!”

This episode is, obviously, brilliant. I suppose it’s Doctor Who riffing on Unfriended and other films of that ilk, but it’s so more than that, going beyond social media to other menaces of modern society, such as Alexa and other such AI nonsense that you won’t catch me playing around with. So we have a subtext… but this is Doctor Who in 2024. And there’s always a twist at the end.

So it’s the far future, and a bunch of rich, useless young people have been sent off to a colony to be stupid and decadent. They live inside a very literal social media  “bubble” and can’t even walk without an AI telling them where to go, a nicely blatant bit of satire. I know I’m middle aged, and let me pause here to say that, while I don’t play around with this Alexa nonsense, I’m as addicted to my phone as anyone. But, well, like Ricky September, I read books. But I confess to enjoying the skewering of thd younger generation here, oblivious to the fact that massive great gastropods are eating them alive because they literally don’t look where they’re going in their vacuous social media bubble.

Both the Doctor and Millie are restricted in screen time here, so Callie Cooke ably helms the episode as the vacuous Lindy who, we slowly learn, is not only stupid but not a very nice person beneath the surface vacuity and forced jollity.

Her scenes with Ricky September, a pop star who beats his typecasting by actually being a seemingly decent and clever chap who reads books and is brave and heroic (but, well, part of a dodgy society, as we will see- does he share its views, I wonder?), are hilarious examples of the comedy of awkwardness, Lindy utterly oblivious of what someone who didn’t live entirely online would know to be cringeworthy faux pax…

And then she cynically throws him under the bus to save her own skin. Ouch.

And then we have the twist. No, not Susan Twist, although she appears, and gets lampshaded a bit more strongly than in last episode… but the epilogue. The survivors… are white supremacists, and insist on hardship and probable death, useless as they are, rather than escape in a TARDIS owned by a black man. Wow. Cleverly, this puts an awful lot of Lindy’s earlier lines into quite a different context on a second viewing.

That hits hard. It’s fascinating to see RTD address Ncuti Gatwa’s African origins in this way. And, I suppose, the moral is that racism is not just immoral: it is backwards, decadent, weak, a sign of a society that will ultimately lose in the Darwinian struggle to more robust societies.

Wow. It’s been several hours, and the conclusion still hits hard. Three more episodes to go…