Stargate SG-1: The Broca Divide

 "You referred to me as Lucy!"

It's fascinating seeing these early episodes and seeing what the format's going to be. This is, of course, an American network show from 1997, so there are twenty-odd episodes a season. So not every episode can be part of the arc where we learn more about the Stargates, the Goa'uld, and all that lovely lore stuff. We're going to get episodes of the week, like the last one. And like this.

This episode is entertaining, yes. but it can be summed up pretty simply- the team explore a new world, which is interesting, with areas of permanent day and permanent night. The culture seems to be descended from that of the ancient Minoans. And... there's this plague that turns people into wild, unhinged hominids which infects most of the team, until a cure is found. That's pretty much it.

Yet, more importantly, it further develops the relations between the characters. It establishes yet again that not every episode (perhaps not most?) will involve the Go'auld. And it's established- from the president, no less (Clinton, presumably), that the team are in fact expected to study the cultures they find. It's a good episode, but perhaps more important for the subtle things it establishes about how this show is going to be.

And yeah, I didn't expect to see General Major Briggs like that... 

Dexter: Left Turn Ahead

 "Harry gazed into the eyes of his creation and saw evil, pure and simple..." 

Wow. Yet again we have an extraordinary clever, gleefully chaotic and masterfully character-based episode... and next up is the finale. And I'm told by my very lovely partner that future seasons get even better. I'm still rather cross about those well done steaks, though. Well done steaks are an abomination. That character flaw of Dexter's is right up there with the serial killing.

So much of this is about the perverse but very real rapport between Dexter and Doakes who- as ever- is right about everything. Dexter's confidence is low after realising that his father killed himself because of what he'd made Dexter, and so he's lacking in confidence and, for him, very much losing control. And, incredibly, Doakes persuades him to get his affairs in order and turn himself in. it's extraordinary how liberated Dexter seems with the freedom he has to be honest with his honourable archenemy.

And then, at the end, Deb inadvertently persuades him otherwise, having slowly got her mojo back after last season's trauma, persuading him to just ride through it. It all feels earned and absolutely true to character for everyone. Ironically, a lot of this is due to Dexter actually being a bloody good brother.

In other news, Mike from Breaking Bad shows up, and things are going well between Deb and Lundy. Too well. I'm convinced that tragedy is round the corner.

And then there's Lila. Ah, Lila. Framing poor Angel in a despicable attempt to get Dexter back, and he can clearly see the parallels in what he himself is doing to Doakes. But she's dangerous, volatile, and Deb's confidence after realising her immigration status is misplaced. That final scene, with Lila poised to learn everything from Doakes, makes me want to see the finale. So job done.

Extraordinary episode. Aren't they all? 

Journey into Mystery #94

 "Out of my way, you flunky!"

Oh dear. This may well be the most terrible issue I've read in the Order so far. It's clear that Robert Bernstein isn't working out as the writer, and the title needs a major revamp at this point. It's a promising concept but has consistently failed to catch fire.

I mean, we begin with NASA firing a rocket into space which is powered by... a nuke. Yep, that would be the sort of rocket which tends to blow up on launch from time to time. Then again... Project Orion was actively being considered at around this time, so let's not blame the script for this, at least.

But the whole scene of the rocket losing control is just another excuse for Loki (still trapped on Asgard by the gods) to concoct an absurd escape plan which consists of having Thor get a bang on the head, giving him a contrived personality change which turns out to make him vehemently pro-Loki for no clear reason. Then again, of course it's absolutely possible to control how someone's personality changes by varying where and how you hit them on the head, right?

So Thor frees Loki, and rebels against a thankfully rather forgiving Odin, and it's fascinating just how undefined the All-Father's powers are at this early stage. We then move to an orgy of destruction, with several famous world landmarks being destroyed. But then the United Nations requests that Odin accede to Loki's inevitable blackmail... and it seems the delegates all accept the gods as being literally, well, gods, which... well!

And then we have a literal deus ex machina, we press a big red reset button, and that's it. The whole thing might as well have not happened. And, throughout the whole story, we only got a few panels with Thor as Thor.

Utterly, utterly awful. 

Children of the Stones- Charmed Circle

 "Perceptive and formidable..."

An extraordinary gripping episode, this, with a pleasingly earned bit of exposition and the sinister Mr. Hendricks, portrayed to perfection by the splendid Iain Cuthbertson, moving very much to the foreground with his presence a constant. We get to see more of his extraordinary home at the centre of the circle... and it's a nice surprise to see good old John Woodnutt as his butler. 

Hendricks' creepy gaslighting about Dai's death is hugely effective, compounded by the disappearance of the body. But our intrepid foursome make some fascinating discoveries- the people in the painting seem to exactly number the population of the village. Discrepancies between painting and chart suggest one of the stones may move. And the amulet (with a jolt of static electricity) puts young Matthew in a bit of a trance, following which things get delightfully weird.

Which is handy because, with the four of them being the only villagers who are not "happy", Hendricks has only them to convert. And, with Margaret and Sandra invited to dinner, Matt gets to watch their extraordinarily gripping conversion from afar, with white light pouring down as their faces change. The whole setting looks amazing, and the acting really succeeds in building up the tension.

This is good, creepy, atmospheric, old-fashioned plot-driven telly. Every episode just gets better and better. 

Strange Tales #110

The Human Torch vs. The Wizard and Paste Pot Pete

"Wait a minute! I'm a partner- not a servant, you know!"

The team-up we were all waiting for, right? I mean, the Wizard is sort of ok, a generic super genius undone by his own arrogance... but Paste Pot Pete, with his literal paste pot? How on Earth did he get to be more than a one-off baddie?

I like how the story leans into his rubbishness, though. He's the supplicant, the one who springs the Wizard from prison and asks to join forces, something the Wizard would certainly never have reciprocated. And, naturally, Pete spends pretty much the whole story resenting the fact that he's being bossed around.

The actual plot is very perfunctory, though, not helped by the fact it doesn't actually start until page five of thirteen, with loads of space taken up with flashbacks of previous stories and the Torch training and, er, doing homework.

Oh, and the Wizard announcing that he and Pete will just operate from his massive house because "The police would never dream I'd go there"? I think you'll find that's "always", not "never", 

Dr. Strange, Master of Black Magic

"I am the symbol of evil! The evil he has done!"

For a very brief five page story introducing Doctor Strange (at last), this is both very good and utterly fascinating. We're introduced to Doctor Strange, with as yet no origin, but just told that he practises what is rather interestingly called "black" magic. We see an unnamed Wong in one panel and briefly meet the Ancient One, here called the "Master". We learn that the "Master" doesn't expect to live long, and that Strange is his successor. We briefly meet Nightmare, and see the Nightmare Dimension. And, as far as lore goes, that's pretty much it. Strange is an alluringly mysterious figure who keeps his magical cards to his chest.

Indeed, with the excellent, creepy art of Steve Ditko, Strange has the touch of the sinister about him. This looks and feels as close to a horror comic as the Comics Code will allow in 1963, a refreshing change. The writing, too, is a huge step up from the Human Torch stuff, with cool concepts and a twist at the end, even if the client being bad is already becoming a bit of a Marvel trope.

But a Nightmare Dimension! Strange entering another person's dreams! This is awesome stuff. 

Gen V: Trojan

 "Thanks for the level up, asshole."

Wow. That's how you do a finale. Just ramping up the tension, with Godolkin's murderously Darwinian student auditions also functioning as a way for him to level up his powers so he can finally control Marie, leading to a truly thrilling climax with Marie and her friends vs. Godolkin, showing the power of the collective over the individual... although the way everyone sneaked into there was, yeah...

There's a lot of good character stuff too, though. Emma and Marie bonding over how damaged they both are from past trauma. Marie apologising and healing Cate, showing absolute trust. Jordan forgiving Marie, and dumping her, in one breath. Doug (whose experience with "Cipher" has been truly existential horror) bonding with Polarity over admiration for his late son. Godolkin's joy at being able to eat, drink, have sex and just feel again. Sage's vulnerability when asking him to live with her. Polarity's extraordinary growth as a character.

Godolkin is, of course, a monster. Yet, fascinatingly, his ultimate target is indeed Homelander, whose far right, MAGA-tinged, mentally unstable nonsense he sees as "mediocre"- a reminder that, by and large, those with far right views are not exactly ubermensch.

And the ending, with Starlight, A-Train and the gang joining the resistance just in time for the concluding season of The Boys? Uplifting and magnificent. Here's hoping they all appear, and we haven't seen the last of them.

And yes, The Boys will be replacing Gen V for the blog in this "slot". 

 

The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie

No actual spoilers to follow, fear ye not.

 I read a rather large number of Agatha Christie novels in my pre-teens and teens, but stopped well before I came of age. My memory of my teenage self's impressions is a feeling of being very impressed with the ingenuity of the plotting, but much less so with the prose and character- and of a certain irritation with what seemed to me to be a rather arrogant sense of class in a world of servants and cap doffing.

So, after reading this, not only Christie's first by my first read as an adult, have my impressions changed? Well... yes. Rather a lot, actually.

The plot is impressive. Not, perhaps, one of Christie's best, but early days. I don't usually correctly predict the villain in a whodunit but I did so here, basically by thinking metatextually. Still, the plot architecture was clever. 

More surprising was that I was rather impressed, if anything, by the prose and character. Christie is no Jane Austen, but she is superb at subtle insinuations and characterisation via lean and economical prose. She's great using the first person perspective of Hastings, both narratively and in those nicely humorous moments between him and Poirot which make it clear that the esteemed sleuth is patronising his somewhat thick colleague.

Finally... this is the young Christie, a young lady in her twenties, so she may have changed with age but I detected no class-based arrogance here- or at least not in terms of the authorial voice. Characters, of course, would naturally exhibit attitudes common to people like them in 1916, but we can't blame Christie for that. Indeed, I was rather impressed by the restraint of her authorial voice, allowing characters to define themselves. It's a subtlety of style that my teenage self perhaps failed to appreciate.

Plus, of course, the period of the novel has now receded thirty years further into the past, which may perhaps influence me to be less quick to judge the attitudes of the time but simply accept that this is an increasingly distant past.

Overall, then, a highly impressive novel. I'm left wanting more... 

 

Blade Runner 2049 (2017)

 "And blood-black nothingness begins to spin.,,"

Some films are entertainment. Some are much more of an immersive cultural experience, where one is simply bombarded with meaning by subtext, visuals, dialogue, plot, performance, world building all of it. suffice to say that, after just one viewing (in truly delightful company, I might add), I've no doubt that I've done no more than scratch the surface.

This film doesn't feel as though it's two hours and forty-three minutes long. Yet it owns its slow pace, with Denis Villeneuve feeding us a number of well-thought through environments in this future world (albeit a future to the 2019 not of the real world, but of Blade Runner!). It takes its time. This means suspense, yes, but just luxuriating on the visuals and what they mean for this subdued, downcast world where there are no trees but still cigarettes.

The plot is, perhaps, not particularly breaking new ground, despite a rather effective twist towards the end of the film, but that isn't the point. It's about mood. It's about an extraordinary cast portraying subtle yet deep emotions through facial acting. It's about world building- the Blackout, the sheer horror of Wallace's desire to create a race of synthetic slaves.

And it's a film about ideas. About memory versus reality. About the question of whether an AI can truly love. About what it means to be alive, and what that means as to who matters and who does not. About how we can so easily accept the terrible things done in our name. But also about hope, despite everything.

This is not in itself an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel, merely a sequel. Yet it feels very Philip K. Dick. It'll take a few more viewings to absorb this film properly, but it's a thing of pure hope that so philosophical a film can exist. A worthy sequel. And an extraordinary film. 

Update

 Just a quick update with a couple of things...

 Firstly, I'm sufficiently recovered from my surgery to be back at work, working full time and commuting to the office. Which is why the posting schedule has changed from me posting a fair bit more than usual while I was at home recovering to more of my normal pattern.

Secondly, I won't be posting as much over the next week or so but should be back to normal after next weekend. 

Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan (Revisited) Episodes 1, 2 and 3

Yep, the two recently rediscovered episodes just dropped on to iPlayer this morning, and you probably knew this blog post was coming.

Before I get into the episodes themselves, though, plus revisiting Day of Armageddon because it would have been silly not to, a huge shout out to Film Is Fabulous, a splendid little charity from my neck of the country who specialise in preserving and locating films, telly and other footage for posterity, much of which may otherwise be lost. Importantly, there's no cherry picking or treasure hunting. Instead, they catalogue and preserve entire collections, treating every item with equal respect. 

Through their work, we now have these two episodes, previously thought lost. And, while we should just enjoy these for the time being, there may be more hope for the future, as we now know that cutting copies are a thing. For now, though, please do check out Film Is Fabulous' splendid website, do consider donating if you can, and please don't hassle them- they clearly know what they're doing, and their work can't and mustn't be rushed.

Anyway...

The Nightmare Begins

"If it's brain... or brawn, rather, versus brain..."

This episode, more than anything else, looks AMAZING. Douglas Camfield truly excels himself here. Much as we know damn well that the forests of Kembel are just a tiny studio in Lime Grove, his claustrophobic direction, as well as Brian Cant's desperate acting, really sells the sense of peril for Kert Gantry in particular. It's great to see him and Nicholas Courtney as Bret Vyon in action. We hardly have time to notice that Varga plants are only spoken of, not seen, and how tense, claustrophobic direction means we don't actually see much of the forest set- a wise decision.

It's amusing to see Mavic Chen being interviewed and discussed by a couple of lazy civil servants whose casual attitude contrasts with the selfless dedication of Gantry and Vyon, and the lady in particular looks very Swinging Sixties indeed. Such a contrast from the very bleak shot of Gantry after the Dalek kills him.

It's fascinating to see the dynamic between the Doctor and Katarina here- he's as affectionate as ever, but she interprets everything in terms of her own culture- she's in the afterlife, heading to the "Place of Perfection". As she says to Bret, they're "on our way through the underworld".

Then there's the visual of the Doctor's magnetic chair, the city, the framing of the shot where the Doctor sees the Daleks for the first time... we're so very lucky to have this back.

Day of Armageddon

"His ambitions exceed his usefulness."

I'm conscious that I've already blogged this, way back during the marathon days, but it would be silly to leave out the middle of three consecutive episodes, especially when this episode contains the key moment with the Doctor swiping the Taranium core. That aside, though, it's marked by three extraordinary performances. Hartnell, of course, but also Nicholas Courtney as the firm but brave Bret Vyon, and the always magnificent Kevin Stoney, whose performance as Mavic Chen is a joy to watch, both because of his line delivery and his physical mannerisms. We're lucky to be able to see his performance. 

The Daleks setting fire to the forest is an extraordinary visual, so much so that you can even forgive the fact that there are only three of them. All the scenes with the delegates are brilliant. And the whole thing is just so damn tense. Then there's the ever-extraordinary musical score from the underappreciated Tristram Cary, whose music both borders on the avant-garde and works perfectly in context.

And the inside of the Spar is a perfectly Sixties space opera future, with the design of the controls being, well, not quite as charming as the fridge magnet-based technology of the baddies in The War Games, but as close as you can get.

Devil's Planet

"All is ready for their space extinction!"

We've had quite a few Terry Nation-isms thus far. Hostile plants, the constant use of "space" as an adjective ("Excuse me while I nip to the space loo for a space number two"), and even a countdown. Here we get a lesser spotted one, later to be reused in the opening episodes of Blake's 7- the prison planet with no guards, where prisoners are just dumped into a Hobbesian existence. It's a rather bleak situation into which to crash one's spaceship.

Everything still looks great, though. The gripping scene leading up to Zephon's killing, for example, showcases Camfield's sublime qualities as a director- particularly his skill at the now-lost art of blocking. And even the (thankfully not overly drawn out) bleak scenes with the hostile convicts are absolutely gripping. So, of course, of more footage of Kevin Stoney's physical mannerisms and facial expressions as Chen.

And then there's Katarina, of whose five episodes, none of which once remained, we now have an incredible three. Yet, when she says to the Doctor, with those trusting eyes which we can now see, we feel a pang...

This episode, as with all of them, is bloody brilliant. 

 

 

Tales of Suspense #42

 "By Lenin's beard! What a fairy tale!"

Yep, it's Russian communists. Again. Three stories in and no sign of any supporting cast for Iron Man, or recurring villains. Just generic aliens and communists. And... these stories really aren't any good.

The plot here is completely forgettable. A one-off communist functionary, the Red Barbarian, is an impatient tyrant who makes David Brent seem like an excellent boss, shooting his underlings dead at the slightest hint of failure. And an over-confident master of disguise, the Actor, is undone by his own arrogant hubris in his attempt to steal Tony Stark's latest invention. It's just rubbish. 

The direction of this title seems worrying. These early stories are surprisingly different to the Iron Man we'll come to know- Shellhead (a term not yet coined) is often referred to as a "knight in shining armour". Everything the armour seems to do is because of transistors. Iron Man works as an FBI agent.

I'll admit to one little moment of amusement as Iron Man disrupts communist spy ring via magnetic stuff performed by his "transistor-powered device but it doesn't affect his armour because... well, technobabble. But right now Iron Man is most certainly a bottom tier title. I hope it improves soon.