Tales to Astonish #46

 "Peace! Quiet! How ghastly!"

Ah, a short one. Perfect as something to blog after a very, very long drive. 

I admit is: my heart sinks when I see an Ant-Man story- and see also Thor and Iron Man. There's potential there... well, perhaps less so with Ant-Man. But the stories are just clunky and silly and, while that has its amusing side, there's no real depth, characterisation or, indeed, effect on the slowly emerging Marvel Universe, to the extent that it yet exists.

This one is... well, weirdly packed with little bits of Greek etymology in the name of the readers' classical education. But yes, it's very, very silly. Of course, this isn't that Cyclops (but let's not jump the gun, we haven't quite met him yet!) yet, despite a bit of misdirection, it's not the character from The Odyssey either. No, it's a robot controlled by... aliens. Well, let's face it. It's the early '60s. It was either that or communists.

Our heroes dispose of the baddies fairly easily, convincing them that humans are just too powerful and scary to conquer, as you do. And yes, they do this while only ever addressing each other by their superhero names, even in private. It's perfectly fine but, well, skippable.

Two things worth mentioning, though. The city is referred to not by name but as "the city", with Marvel slowly transitioning from those DC-style fictional cities. And, when Ant-Man thinks that the Wasp may be killed, he thinks that "... without her, I... I can't picture my life." Is the love plot actually starting to move...?

Stargate SG-1: Brief Candle

 "It's a paradise."

"Yeah, sure, have an apple. What could happen?" 

From the blurb this looks as though it's going to be a standard bit of high concept '90s telly sci-fi. But it's so much more than that, genuinely deep and psychological, and utterly superb telly. Yes, sometimes an episode of television which takes its title from a well-known Shakespeare quote can be extraordinary rather than pretentious...!

The concept is deeply horrific. The Gou'auld once kidnapped a population from pre-Homeric Greece (the actual Argos?) and modified them by means of nanotechnology to have shortened lifespans of just one hundred days just to experiment with speeding up human evolution over the very long term. Cruelly, the people have no idea that longer lives can happen, and worship their alien exploiter as a god.

And yet, they love and cherish every day of their short lives. And so, as Jack ends up sleeping with a local lady (always unwise...) and having his own lifespan shortened, he learns the value of existence. These people do far more with one hundred days than either Napoleon or FDR.

Yes, it's a cop out at the end to have Jack's aging reversed, but this is '90s episodic sci-fi telly. And we do rather gloss over how these people learn to speak, cook, and exist in such a short span. But there are so many ideas in this clever little episode.

Monetising My Blog

This hasn't been an easy decision. I've had this blog for sixteen years plus, and until now I hadn't monetised it. I was worried about selling out, I suppose, or turning a fun, relaxing hobby into "work". But times have changed. There's a wedding to pay for, a cost of living situation, and it would be nice to put some money away for my daughter. There's a real person and a real life beneath this blog, and I'm giving it a try.

That said, I've no idea whether it'll make any real difference. If it doesn't, I'll change my mind. Either way, I'll still treat this blog as I've always done- as a hobby. Whatever happens, it won't have any effect on the content. 

I hope my readers understand. Well, bots aside!

Batman: The Animated Series- The Demon's Quest, Part 1

 "The master gave you no permission to leave."

"I didn't ask for any."

At long last the Animated Series, having already teased us with Talia, finally gives us its Ra's Al Ghul, and what a Ra's Al Ghul. This episode, adapted by Denny O'Neil himself from his 1971 original in Batman #232, is a tour de force. It matters not that we know from the beginning that Al Ghul is behind everything, the whole thing is just so compelling. And David Warner... what a performance.

I love how Al Ghul works out Batman's identity, an obvious method to one with his resources, and the whole treasure hunt through India, Malaysia and the Himalayas on which he leads Batman. Batman, of course, knows exactly what's going on, but is surprised to see himself being offered the chance to be a dying Al Ghul's successor... yet he rudely refuses, causing great offence. Unsurprisingly, as the offer includes a declaration of Talia's love for him.

But it seems that Al Ghul is dying... but Talia insists on getting him to the Lazarus Pit, which revitalises him. Yet, if this exists, why did he say he was dying and make the offer to Batman? And why does he seem to have gone bonkers and lifted Talia above himself?

I'm sure we'll find out. But wow. What an episode. 

ParaNorman (2012)

 "What do you think you're doing firing at civilians? That's for the police to do!"

I don't recall having even heard of this nice little animated film before this weekend, so I assume it doesn't loom all that large in popular culture. If so, that's a shame as I rather liked it. 

I'll confess I haven't seen Coraline, and this film (and its animation) is very much in the same vein. I'm hugely impressed by the fact that this, a twenty-first century animated film, is stop motion rather than CGI. That's a huge point in its favour. So is the fact that the cast is comprised of a mix of unknowns and character actors rather than huge stars.

This is a nice little spooky tale based on the curse of a girl wrongly hanged as a witch three centuries ago (although I'm not sure Puritans in Massachusetts would still be wearing clothes like that as late as 1712, even with the rather sensible American disdain for wigs?), and yes, there is a certain amount of sentiment and moralising, about parenting and how we ought to be more accepting of people who are "weird".

But the film is genuinely funny, both in terms of verbal wit and having fun playing with the tropes, and there are some gleeful little satirical one liners in there. It's only a fairly short film at ninety minutes, and an underappreciated little gem.

Legends: This Is Liverpool

 "That's called importing drugs. It's sort of the opposite of what we do."

Things get even more dramatic and dangerous this week for our underpaid Customs officers working on a shoestring and risking our lives, showing the real costs. Yet we also see why they're doing it. A young Tommy, ironically the son of one of the kingpins himself, finds himself hooked on heroin through a perfectly ordinary and natural set of circumstances, and we slowly see his decline and death. it's harrowing, and it happens to the very father who... orchestrates the shocking ending.

Guy is getting deeper and deeper into his "legend"... and thereby connecting well with Don, who well knows the appeal and the costs. And he's under pressure to show what he can do by actually importing large quantities of heroin which, well, he can't do. But, in a delightful sequence, Don solves the problem in arranging a deliberately botched raid by armed police in Felixtowe. I also love the sequence in which he desperately gets some customs officers to back off. Steve Coogan absolutely steals every scene he's in.

Kate and Bailey also have some excitement, getting locked in while sneaking around but getting away with it through sheer desperate cleverness. But the moment of sheer drama is Shaun's cover being blown, and he and his family subsequently escaping a fiery death by the skin of their teeth. It's utterly gripping, and really sells the risks of undercover work... yet, earlier in the episode, Shaun confesses just how much he's loving it.

Still utterly gripping, even if much of the episode is necessarily setting things up. 

Dexter: Our Father

 "God created pudding. Then He rested."

New season, and it's fascinating to see how they handle it. Because, well, from Dexter's perspective, there are no dangling plot threads or problems. Life is fine. In fact, the opening episode even leans into that, making it very clear that Rita is really, really into him, and the kids are starting to see him as a real father figure. Even Deb has given up "men, booze and cigarettes", although she soon quite sensibly changes her mind about the middle option. One can go too far, after all.

But then something happens... things get chaotic, and Dexter accidentally kills someone he hadn't intended to, someone who is perhaps no angel, as we soon find, but being a junkie wouldn't make him deserving of death according to Dexter's code. And yet Dexter seems not too bothered by this, and is pondering changes to the code. He seems to be distancing himself from the memory of Harry...? It'll be interesting to see where this goes.

Oh, and said accidental victim has ties to a very influential local family, one of whom is Bail Organa. And Princess Leia's dad seems to have real "permanent new character" energy.

What else? Angel is getting promoted, but is also drinking a lot. This is clearly a character arc. There's that internal affairs lady, too, and her suspicions around a new character that have Deb very curious. And, yeah, we have a dentist's surgery that's shot very interestingly, with lots of glaring white and not going for realism. It'll be interesting to see where that sort of thing goes, too.

A promising start. 

The Whisper Man (2026)

 "If you're lonely, sad and blue, the Whisper Man will come for you...

This film is, I suppose, a harbinger of the future- no big screen release, straight on to Netflix. Yet we no longer live in a world where I could differentiate on this blog between films and feature length one-off TV dramas. Yes, this had no cinema release, but the cast, the production values... I can't say that this isn't a film. It's something I'll have to let go. Just like people pronouncing "h" as "haitch", as I was taught never to do. Language changes, and so does the way we consume culture.

This is bloody good, though. A well-executed thriller based on an apparent copycat killer taking the same methodology of an old serial killer from the '80s, with a clever plot and lots of excitement. It reminds me a little of Se7en, Zodiac, even Saw,  but thankfully more in the sense of story than gore, which is quite rightly not dwelt upon here.

The characterisation is very much worthy of the impressive cast, who most certainly do not disappoint, with Michael Keaton particularly impressive. And, importantly, this film is about something, at its heart being about family, the importance of relationships, and indeed of kindness and forgiveness between the generations, accepting that we are all fallible human beings.

Highly recommended. This film fulfils all the requirements of a good serial killer crime thriller yet it works on more than a surface level.

SPECTRE (2015)

"Information is all, is it not?"" 

Ok, perhaps this isn't quite as good as its predecessor, but that's a very high bar, and this is nevertheless a fine Bond film. And a highly satisfying payoff to all the long-running plot threads that have been playing out since Casino Royale. Needless to say... spoilers!

It's a huge thrill to see Bond, gone just rogue enough, chasing all the pre-existing clues to an organisation that was always going to be SPECTRE, and an end of level boss, played superbly as always by Christoph Waltz, who was always going to be Ernst Stavro Blofeld. The backstory is nice, though, with "Blofeld" being Bond;s childhood stepbrother who regards him as a "cuckoo". The fact that his mother's maiden name happens to be Blofeld does, admittedly, feel a little forced... but, dammit, rule of cool.

The set pieces are awesome, right from the start with the Day of the Dead in Mexico City, right through Bond's infiltration of the mysterious organisation's headquarters in Rome through to the final showdown with "Blofeld". Andrew Scott's secondary, bureaucratic baddie ("C"... yes, I get the allusion!) is fun. And there is, of course, a very real subtext to it all with us all merrily handing over our personal data to those evil, MAGA-loving tech bros. In the real world, sadly, there's no 007 to save us from our fate.

The ending is, with the very obvious difference that Madeleine gets to live, somewhat redolent of On Her Majesty's Secret Service, with Bond falling in love and choosing love over the job. But, of course, there's one more film of this era to go. If it's anywhere near as good as this, I can't wait.

Game of Thrones: The Mad King (Dominic Cooke, 2026)

The play is still (just!) on at the RSC in Stratford, and playgoers are being asked to keep schtum about the plot, the staging and all things potentially spoilerific, albeit not for very much longer. This, of course, presents an interesting challenge when writing a blog post about it, but it's the sort of challenge that I'm minded to accept, so here goes...

My very lovely fiancee and I, courtesy of her very generous dad, found ourselves in the best seats imaginable when watching the play last night. Whilst I'll say nothing of the details, the staging is creative and brilliant. The script and story, too, are superb, very Game of Thrones. The story, as one might guess, deals with the late reign of Aerys II Targaryen, but more than that I won't say, except that both the plot and the characterisation are deeply satisfying. The worldbuilding is, of course, also satisfying, but at its core this is a very human play that is absolutely about human emotions, relationships, choices and free will. 

One spoiler-free way to praise the play is to say that, yes, the cast is large, but it doesn't feel that way at all.  

Journey into Mystery #95

 "Great Scott! I'm seeing things!"

Another fairly throwaway Thor story here, courtesy of the pen of Robert Bernstein; this is a title that badly needs to be lifted out of its early rut. Nice start, though, with Odin summoning Thor to use his power over thunderstorms to deal with a drought in Asgard, something that would have been useful here in the English Midlands in recent weeks.

Sadly, we then proceed to move on to a rather generic little romp with our mad scientist du jour, one Professor Zaxton, a one off villain. Indeed, we know from the moment he sees Don Blake turn into Thor that he won't survive this issue. And so we get a simple little tale of a duplicating ray that creates doubles which, for some reason, have the opposite personality of the original. Neatly, though, Thor is able to defeat his evil duplicate, with its two hammers, because the duplicate is not worthy, which is a clever resolution.

Still... Don Blake is a physician. Could he really invent a super intelligent and invincible robot thingy? And there's a lot of exposition by thought bubble here. Still, I've read worse. 

Stargate SG-1: The Nox

 "The young do not always do as they are told..."

A rather interesting and different episode, this. A world on which there lives a mysterious race called the Nox who at first appear to be strange, primitive, helpless yet also with wondrous abilities such as healing and invisibility. Throughout the episode we slowly discover that they are not what they seem, that their pacifism arises from wisdom and confidence, and that the Go'auld are no threat to them. 

Indeed, we end with a reveal to the gang that, invisibly, the Nox in fact possess hidden yet impossibly advanced technology. To paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke, any suffociently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. This episode is a rather successful example of the trope that arises from that, and one of the stronger episodes thus far.

It also develops the lore and season arc rather nicely. The US government are now starting to have doubts about the Stargate project due to the poor results in terms of advanced alien tech. Plus we get to see Go'uald again... and Apophis! It is, admittedly, something of a coincidence that they're all on the planet at the same time. Still, a rather strong episode, with Armin Shimerman in it to boot.

Personal Update

 Let's just say it's been a very busy, eventful couple of weeks, but blogging will be back to normal as of tomorrow. There's been a lot of life stuff.

 And... well, I'm now engaged to be married to a very lovely lady, and I couldn't be happier. This just goes to show that there is still life, and there is still love, after divorce. Anyone who is reading this who's going through a horrible divorce right now... one day, it'll be over, you'll know where you stand, you can start to rebuild.

Never give up on love. 

Update

 I realise I've not been posting much this month, but you can rest assured that's for a reason (basically, childcare), it's nothing bad, and things should return to normal after the weekend.

Batman: The Animated Series- Blind as a Bat

 "Your aim appears to be a little off today, Batman..."

This is a fairly basic, run of the mill episode, the gimmick being that Batman has to deal with a plot by the Penguin while temporarily blinded, with the added warning that Lesley Thompkins has sternly warned him that he'll go blind if he doesn't rest.

We know how it'll end from the beginning, of course; the final scene, where he opens his eyes, has no real suspense. But it's a decent enough way to spend twenty minutes, even if not exactly earth shattering. yet again, it's nice to see so many recurring characters- Lesley Thompkins, Hamilton Hill- making this Gothan City feel real and textured. And there's a nice little hint of Bruce Wayne feeling uneasy about Waynetech manufacturing military technology.

There are some nice little moments, such as when there's initially no response to the Batsignal. I'm enjoying the typical overconfidence of the Penguin in the Animated Series. Ultimately, though, this episode isn't going to particularly stand out.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

This isn't the first time I've read this novel but, well, I was a pre-teen back in the early '90s, and I'm in my late forties now. This, shall we say, was a very different experience.

This is, I suppose, the main text, if not quite the first,
to properly introduce and popularise the legends of the vampire to late Victorian society, both in this country and across the West. And it does this very well indeed; the Count is a superb villain, odd though it is that we see so much of him in the opening chapters, with poor Jonathan Harker trapped in his castle, yet thereafter he is spoken of more often than he is seen, with the character of Van Helsing there throughout to impress upon him his many, many powers. Indeed, Dracula's powers are immense, far beyond those we usually associate with vampires, and his nightly presence feels ever-present. His slow, horrible killing of Lucy is deeply effective, and gives us a real sense of threat for the back half of the novel.

And then there's the scene where he has Mina imbibe his own blood, damning her by ensuring she will become like him, unless he dies soon. And that chilling sentence "This is not the first time, or the second, that your veins have appeased my thirst!" Brrr...

And yet, despite the novel working well in terms of structure and effective horror- some say the bits with Lucy slowly being drained to death drag, but I certainly don't- the novel has little deeper to offer. Yes, we can comment on how the novel reveals the anxieties of its time, but that is incidental, and largely unintentional. The characters are all very much stock types, with no real depth. The prose may sing at times, but for an epistolary novel this gives us very little in terms of real interiority. These characters have no real depth, they are characters in a grand guignol. And the speech patterns of Van Helsing, in particular, become annoying very quickly.

A mixed bag of a novel, then. But it's a fascinating artifact in the history of the vampire trope, and an entertaining read. 

Legends: Alliance

 "You're allowed to enjoy it, Guy."

As per the quote... Guy's wife knows him well. He needs the excitement, the risk, all of it. And, as we hear more of Mylonas's background this episode, perhaps the two of them are more similar than either would admit- both adrenaline junkies.

Turning to Kate and Bailey, we have quite the contrast. Kate is game to take risks, Bailey more cautious, causing tension... until an everyday instance of police racism makes Kate realise what Bailey has to live with, and why he has to be cautious. Meanwhile we meet Scouser Shaun, another bored VAT man, who is sent straight undercover, all because he cares deeply about his local community.

And so our protagonists are nicely developed as characters as we explore the world into which they've been dropped, a world of constant risk, calculation, adrenaline, with occasional betrayal and murder, with twists and turns that lead Kate and Bailey to witness the forging of a new alliance between Hakan's Turks and Carter's Scousers. It's all superbly sculpted plot-wise, yet it really gets us to know the protagonists.

Even more worrying, one of the Turks seems to suspect Guy, and a white van is watching his wife and daughter at their house. The levels of risk are off the charts... but this is Customs, far wilder and riskier than the police or the spooks. This is simply gripping stuff. The drug smuggling montage at the start alone is magnificent television.

I'm loving this. 

Fantastic Four #17

 "Forgive me for interrupting you by sending my pseudo-image here. But I am still human enough to wish to gloat over your hapless plight!"

I love the exciting cover to this one, promising so much action. But not as much as I love the declaration that "Marvel Comics Group ushers in the Marvel age of comics". Fantastic Four may not be as good as Amazing Spider-Man, but it's easily the second best title at this point.

It's absolute bonkers, though.

We begin by saying farewell to last issue's guest star, Ant-Man. After all, his appearance in this more popular title is a clear sign that sales of Tales to Astonish must be flagging. No wonder the Thing is seen reading an issue as a subtle hint to the readers. 

Doom, though, is still at large... and he wants power, namely as a member of President Kennedy's cabinet, which is utterly bizarre. Latveria is not yet a thing, and I don't think there's yet any suggestion that he's anything other than American. Still, nice oblique visual hints of Camelot are nice, with JFK and "Caroline's bedtime".

It's probably best not to think about the plot too much, with Doom kidnapping Alicia as leverage but then utterly failing to use her as such when the FF attack his base in, er, a cloud floating above New York. Yep. Bonkers. 

But we end with such fun little set pieces, and the issue has so much overall charm, that I can't help but love it. Especially as we end with Doom jumping out of the plane, ostensibly to his, er, doom, but wevknow damn well that's not going to happen... 

 

Stargate SG-1: Cold Lazarus

 "Your world is a strange place..."

Concept-wise, this is pretty simple- the gang explore a world and find some crystals, some of the crystals disguise themselves as Jack. So, early on in this series, this seems to be another example of an episode in which the point is not so much exploring the Stargate but rather with a threat which they bring back to Earth with them.

Except there's more. This episode deepens the series not so much by exploring the lore as exploring character, as the crystal entity is introduced to Jack's tragic backstory- the fact that he carelessly left his gun around, that his son thereby accidentally used the gun to tragically shoot himself, leading to devastation and the collapse of the marriage.

This episode uses the conceit of the crystal entity to explore this, as we meet Sara, Jack's ex-wife, and the two reconcile against the odds, with it looking as though they may even get back together. It's well-handled, well acted, and it's clever how Sara interprets the entity's clueless statements and questions as being deeper than they are.

And yet... it may hit differently in the USA, with its extremely permissive gun laws but, to me, there can be no forgiving what Jack did. You can't have guns in a domestic setting, and leaving it lying around for kids to find is utterly beyond the pale. Yet Sara is not angry at him...?

Still, the episode is well done, and there are consequences perhaps for Jack's personal life but also in that the team now all know of his dark past. As ever, it's fascinating in these early episodes seeing the series explore what it wants to be. 

Enola Holmes 3 (2026)

 "There are two paths you can take, Enola. Yours, or the path others choose for you."

This sequel, with the same ensemble cast and the same writer in oft-rumoured future Doctor Who showrunner Jack Thorne, is exactly what we might expect, from the rollicking adventure to the nicely plotted mystery to the in media res beginning. This is, of course, no bad thing. This film is bloody good, giving us exactly what we expect and exactly what we want as far as the characters are concerned, with a satisfying whodunit to provide the mystery.

Yes, the film is full of anachronistic social attitudes to things like colonialism, gender roles, marriage and social class, especially with regards to a happy ending that could never fly in the actual 1880s. But this, again, is no bad thing. There are films where one can legitimately be demanding in terms of historical accuracy, yes indeed. This is not one of them. A family friendly romp should not concern itself with (SPOILERS!) the impossibility of a peer disclaiming his peerage eighty years before Tony Benn, or the even greater impossibility of the concluding ceremony being accepted as any kind of marriage at the time. Such things do not matter- a modern audience, with modern (and much more enlightened) values, must be entertained.

This film is, quite simply, fun. The cast is magnificent, the feminine contingent especially. Sharon Duncan-Brewster is extraordinary as a Moriarty with a surprising amount of depth. Helena Bonham Carter is, well, Helena Bonham Carter. And Millie Bobby Brown, with her charisma and her delicious fourth wall moments, carries the whole thing. Little Miss Llamastrangler (who called the film "peak") give this film our thorough endorsement.