Through the Looking Glass

A while ago, there was some ‘controversy’ when Warhorse Studios, the chaps behind the game Kingdom Come Deliverance (set in Bohemia [roughly the Czech Republic] in 1403), were criticised because everyone in it was white. The game’s set in a small geographical area, and everyone being white then is realistic, which is the angle that’s strongly pushed at every level in KCD. Larger cities were more cosmopolitan, but there’s no equivalent of Prague or Vienna in the game. In my view, those wanting diversity were simply trying to impose modern standards on historical reality (which isn’t necessarily unreasonable if you have a fast and loose approach to history, but the whole KCD game was focused on being realistic).

But it did get me thinking. Sometimes, people want to impose modern social, moral norms on historical works of media, whether videogames, film, TV etc. But what if it happened in reverse? What if we had a roughly medieval mindset, and assessed modern works by that standard?

In Stargate: Atlantis, female cast members often have bare arms. That would be frowned upon. (Plunging cleavage, not a problem, but biceps? Titillating beyond acceptability). There’s also a lot of loose hair. Again, at some periods in history this was rather indicative of, er, prostitution (as were the bare arms). A medieval person, once having gotten over the witchcraft of television, would be bemused to see this.

In the West, there’s generally been a decrease in formality between higher and lower status people (thinking primarily of working relationships, but also in those wonderful countries that still benefit from the splendidness of monarchy). This lack of formality would seem quite odd to those of a medieval mindset, where one’s social superior (local lord, say) could be the man sitting in judgement on you one day, and it paid to show due deference.

Medieval attitudes to vegans would be interesting to observe. Animal cruelty was pretty widespread, yet meat wasn’t eaten on around half the days of the year (it was permanently banned on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, as well as being forbidden on certain holy days). Voluntarily not eating meat might be seen as indicative of religious devotion.

Sticking with food, being fat was seen as a sign of prosperity. In a world where one bad harvest can kill the frail and two bad harvests can destroy peasant villages, having sufficient food to not merely meet but exceed needs was proof of wealth. Paler skin was also indicative of high status, as more time was spent indoors rather than working the fields. Thinner people (generally but not always considered more attractive these days) were seen as less attractive because it was down to lack of food, rather than an aesthetic choice.

Despite certain glass-ceiling smashing memes, women have had leading roles in sci-fi for quite some time (Ripley, Janeway, Samantha Carter, etc). In a world where petty treason makes it a criminal offence for a wife to disobey her husband, and which could be successfully used by a woman ordered to commit a crime to escape legal punishment, this would probably be seen as really rather odd. That said, there were exceptions in medieval times (Black Agnes commanded a Scottish castle when her husband was away, defying English attempts to capture it, for example) but it’d still seem rather peculiar in medieval eyes.

The absence of references to God would be utterly perplexing. Excepting the odd expression (“Thank God for that” etc), most people hardly ever refer to God in day to day conversation. Obviously religious people do more often, but even that would be dramatically less than was usual for medieval England, which was steeped in Christianity.

Which brings us to an ugly aspect of medieval thinking: widespread dislike of the Jews. Jews came over with William the Conqueror in 1066, and suffered particularly during the reigns of John and Edward I. They were generally concentrated in a small number of urban centres, mostly London, and were pretty well-off due to usury (the forerunner of modern banking). However, this was against Christian teaching at the time, so, whilst economically beneficial for the Jews, and also more widely, the wealth was achieved through acts against Christian doctrine, by a minority. Sadly, the average medieval fellow watching TV showing anti-Jewish behaviour might be more likely to side with the bigot than the victim.

It’s almost as if imposing the moral and social attitudes of one time period on another, far removed, is a daft thing to do…

Thaddeus

Review: Game of Thrones, season six

It’s been a little while since I saw the fifth series of Game of Thrones, but I’ve got to say that the sixth was the televisual equivalent of fitting like a glove.

At this stage, and certainly by the end of the series, the TV show is ahead of the books, so if you’re waiting for the books then I’d advise you stop watching either at the end of the fourth or fifth series (the fifth is ahead of the books in at least one significant place but behind in many others). That said, there is some divergence between the media, so…

Naturally, there will be spoilers galore for the first five series. I shall keep spoilers of the sixth to the barest minimum reasonably possible. So if you want zero spoilers at all, stop reading now.

***

The three main prongs of the story are the ongoing power struggle in King’s Landing, the battle to rule the North, and Daenerys’ arc (which I shall not spoil but shall say is significantly better than the last few seasons of Meereen hum-drummery).

The High Sparrow’s storyline, the tale of insidious fanaticism, of the seemingly kind being amongst the most brutal (the benevolent dictatorship of stamping on your face, but only because it’s good for you) is absolutely fantastic.

The last two episodes, as is so often the case, were great, both wrapping up some storylines and promising future delights in others. The CGI remains very good but they aren’t over-egging it, using real actors, horses and practical effects well instead of simply relying on pixel magic all the time (and going for tiling of real images rather than making pretend ones where possible).

The general quality of acting is, as always, excellent. Jonathan Pryce as the High Sparrow deserves a special nod for his portrayal of the smiling, kind fanatic.

The story has one or two twists and turns that are predictable (one in particular is so lacking in surprise it did make me wonder how the unfortunate chap involved didn’t see it coming) but there’s a good share of cunning twists and fiendish plans. There’s a relatively strong focus on the three main plots I mentioned above.

Bran returns after an absence in the fifth series, and there are rather dramatic doings. He is not the only character to return (and I am not referring to he whom you might think I am referring to).

Downsides on the TV show itself are minimal. Dorne was a dog that didn’t bark, featuring but not nearly as heavily as I anticipated.

That said, keeping all the plates spinning with a show that has so many different threads is a difficult thing and, by and large, the showrunners have done a great job.

Weirdly, the case/packaging have changed a lot from the first five series, being significantly slimmer. I have mixed feelings as I don’t have that much room, but format changes within a series irk me.

As always, some commentaries are better than others. Sophie Turner and Kit Harrington (Sansa and Jon) were entertaining, and I enjoyed the quartet of chaps (particularly Dolorous Ed’s actor, Ben Crompton).

Whilst not a fan, as a rule, of behind the scenes stuff, the half hour (ish) look at the Paint Hall over 24 hours was quite fun because we get to see the cast and crew in their natural habitat. There’s also a behind the scenes look at a battle. Shan’t give details to avoid spoilers, but it was also pretty interesting.

By this stage, you pretty much know if you want to keep watching Game of Thrones or not. There are no clangers or woeful reasons not to watch, the general excellence is maintained, and if one or two plot twists are telegraphed, there are plenty more great moments to enjoy.

Thaddeus

Review: Game of Thrones, series 4 box set (DVD)

I’ll keep this as spoiler-free as possible, but there are spoilers for earlier series so if you haven’t seen those you may wish to stop reading now.

The story picks up with Joffrey firmly in place as King of the Seven Kingdoms, and Tywin Lannister as ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Meanwhile, Mance Rayder is marching on the depleted Night’s Watch with a vast army.

There are a number of very significant plot twists, as you’d expect (a couple early on, a couple later). It seemed a little slower (though no less engaging) and perhaps less tense in the middle than earlier series, probably because the war for the throne is more or less over (for the time being).

We get a number of new characters, most significantly Prince Oberyn, a Lannister-hater whose sister and nephews and nieces were killed on the orders of Tywin Lannister when Robert Baratheon became king.

There seems to be a focus shift, with a little less for Daenerys and Tyrion, and more for Jon Snow. Despite liking the first two characters a lot, the way the Night’s Watch storyline develops works very nicely.

It also features the grimmest death by some way in Game of Thrones. I suspect those of a nervous disposition might be a bit unnerved by it. Otherwise, there’s the usual high and frequent level of violence. It might just be me, but there seems to be a bit less in the way of sex.

The extras are reasonable. There’s a nice round table discussion with some of the departing actors whose characters have snuffed it. Commentaries seem a bit lacking compared to earlier box sets, except on the final disc (the Kit Harrington, Rose Leslie and John Bradley commentary of episode 9 is the best by a distance). There’s a short but entertaining blooper reel, a couple of deleted scenes and a few other extras which are reasonably interesting.

Finally, if you’re also reading the books it’s worth noting that there are some departures from the source material and some accelerating of certain events so they happen sooner. For what it’s worth, I think that works perfectly well.

The tenth episode ends in such a way that I’m very much looking forward to seeing what happens for the next series, and will definitely be picking up that box set when it comes out.

Thaddeus

The 100: first season review

The 100 is a new TV series that just finished airing (in the UK). It’s a sci-fi set a century or so after a nuclear war devastated the world, and charts the efforts of the few people left trying to return because their space station is beyond saving.

The first people sent (one hundred) are criminals. Because of the lack of resources all crimes are capital, but juvenile offenders are incarcerated until they reach the age of majority, when they get the special birthday present of a spacewalk without a spacesuit. The 100 are sent to see whether radiation has died down enough for the Earth to be survived.

I’ve got to admit, whilst liking the premise, I was going to give up on this roughly a third of the way in. A fellow from the internet, who had seen the whole series, suggested I reconsider, so I gave it another shot.

I enjoyed the latter half more than the first (bit like Supermodels of SHIELD. The 100 have also outlawed ugly women). There’s a nice diarchy situation going on, with two characters (Clarke and Bellamy) effectively leading the juvenile criminals. Clarke being more conciliatory and Bellamy more authoritarian/militaristic, though both have a certain pragmatism.

Early on, I felt that the episodes were sometimes not very engaging, and that the main storyline was taking a while to unfold. Later episodes did a better job of mingling the central storyline with each individual episode’s plot [I won’t go into detail for fear of spoilers]. Still room to improve, but it was entertaining.

The action on the Ark (the space station, where the parents and other adults still dwell) was usually interesting as a power struggle took hold as resources dwindled to almost nothing, and efforts to reach the ground hit a snag or two.

The finale of the season worked very well, I thought. Can’t go into detail, obviously, but it had been built up nicely and left some questions hanging for the second season.

I still don’t see why enforced American accents were the order of the day, though. The protagonist, Eliza Taylor (as Clarke), has a perfect American accent but what’s wrong with her native Aussie? Did those space fascists ban non-US accents as well as ugly women?

Pace, in the first half, could’ve and should’ve been faster.

On the plus side, there are some genuinely surprising plot twists, perhaps the most notable coming fairly early on.

I hope the second season builds on the first and the show continues to improve. I’ll be watching it.

Thaddeus

The 100 – first episode thoughts

The first episode of The 100, a new sci-fi series, was aired last night on E4 (Mondays, 9pm). If you missed it, as well as a near certain repeat, it's available via Channel 4's on demand service, online.

Beyond the basics of the premise there are no spoilers below.

The basic premise of The 100 is this: nuclear devastation wrecked Earth. Those who could, fled to the small number of working space stations, which were joined together to form the Ark. For 97 years, mankind has survived there.

However, the Ark is failing. The only alternative, if it cannot be mended, is to try and survive on horribly irradiated Earth. The canaries used to find out whether it's possible are 100 juvenile prisoners (due to very scarce resources all crimes are capital, with those below the age of majority being locked up instead). The 100 are sent down with wrist-bands attached to measure their vital signs, so that those on the Ark can decide whether Earth is now safe.

It's a pretty simple and sensible premise. I rather like it (then again, I liked the premise of Outcasts). The action is split between bickering adults on the Ark and bickering teenagers on Earth.

There is a Lord of the Flies feel to the newly released prisoners, many of whom are juvenile delinquents. The Ark was never going to be a happy place given the resources limitations, but it's perhaps going to be just as fraught as the situation on Earth.

Acting, I think it's fair to say, is a little variable. Most of the faces, except the lovely Kelly Hu, are new to me, and if you get weird deja vu with the protagonist, Eliza Taylor, it's because she was in Neighbours a few years ago (I had that for a while when I first saw Jesse Spencer as Dr. Chase in House). It's a slight shame they made her adopt a (very good) American accent rather than her Aussie one. One would've thought that people who aren't American would've survived. (Reminds me a shade of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which has a strong international focus but still gives every single soldier an American accent).

There are relatively few special effects, and I'm glad the show isn't going over the top with that. What CGI etc there is works well.

Anyway, the first episode was pretty interesting and I'll catch the second next week.

Thaddeus

Agents of SHIELD, series 1 review

Marvel's Supermodels of SHIELD came to the end of its first season yesterday, so now's the time for a quick look back at how things went.

Two disclaimers: below there will be spoilers about series 1. This is a bit obvious and I'll keep them as minor as possible, but as there are significant plot twists I would advise anyone wary of them to stop reading now and check this review when they're caught up. Secondly, my knowledge of the Marvel world from both the films and the comics is less than many people, so I should be able to provide a decent everyman “Will I like this series if I've not watched the films?” perspective, but less inside/detailed knowledge than a serious Marvel fan.

The utterly spoiler free and concise summary would be: bit of a slow start, but worth persevering with and the second half has some great twists.

Below there be spoilers.

The story follows Agent Coulson, a high ranking agent of SHIELD (think CIA against supervillains), and his team as they fly around the world on a plane fondly referred to as 'the bus', picking up alien artefacts and tracking down dangerous individuals with strange powers. As the series progresses (there are 22 episodes) it starts weaving together a tighter plot arc and shifts away from a monster of the week approach.

The main antagonist is referred to as the Clairvoyant, who always seems, fittingly, to be one step ahead of Coulson and able to accurately predict what SHIELD will do. His identity remains a mystery for about ¾ of the series, and I won't reveal it here.

As well as Coulson there's Agent May, an arse-kicker, Agent Ward, also an arse-kicker, FitzSimmons (technically two people, Fitz being an engineer and Simmons being a rather lovely scientist), and new girl Skye, a hacker who becomes poacher turned gamekeeper.

Grant Ward turns out to have several shades of grey, unlike most of the main cast who tend to be almost entirely good (as you might expect from the 'good guys'). Trip is an agent who joins Coulson later on, but is never really fleshed out. That's the only real weak spot that stands out from the second half.

The first half of the series (there was a mid-season interval) is clearly the weaker of the two. It took a little while to develop the characters and get the group dynamic going, and the mentions of Coulson's holiday in Tahiti (he was meant to be dead, but he got better) were too frequent and disinteresting. It was never bad, but it felt like a slow start.

From around the midpoint onwards the series improved dramatically. Not only were there several clever plot twists, the writers were willing to have significant characters knocked off or reveal themselves as evil. Mike Peterson's character arc was particularly interesting, going from confused but decent to good, then being dragged into unwilling evil, and it was credibly done. I'm sure we'll see more of him.

As the Clairvoyant's plan unfolds, and we learn what Coulson's holiday in Tahiti actually was, the pace of the main storyline improves and (to use a videogame analogy) the sidequests of the early episodes give way to the main quest of the latter half.

It's not perfect by any stretch, and the start was lacklustre, but I very much enjoyed the second half the season and I'm glad it got renewed.

The season ended with Coulson as Director of SHIELD, tasked with building it back up after the significant setbacks it suffered during the course of the season. Whether Fitz will return was not made clear (bit surprised by that).

Marvel's films have been going from strength to strength, and having a lengthy TV series act as a backdrop to that was always going to be tricky. It's off to a decent start.

Thaddeus

Stargate Atlantis and Universe

Pick (formerly Pick TV) has been running what might be called a Stargate marathon. Since about October 2012 they’ve played every episode of SG-1, Atlantis and Universe, as well as the two SG-1 films.

Rather stupidly, I managed to miss, (as I did when first broadcast) a very significant middle episode of SG-1, but otherwise I saw almost all of every series.

There will necessarily be some vague spoilers, but given SG-1 started when floppy disks were still in use (1.44MB of storage… seems ridiculous now) and Universe ended a few years ago I imagine most people who want to have seen it will have.

I wrote about SG-1 here.

To summarise, I really like SG-1. It might be my favourite sci-fi series (I’ve just started watching Battlestar Galactica, though, so that may or may not last). If you haven’t seen it, you really should give it a try.

Atlantis has some good points… but quite a few drawbacks too. I feel even some of the major characters are underdeveloped. Teyla (and the Athosians), Ford (the most boring man in the whole franchise) and Ronan lack much of a backstory. Yes, yes, Teyla’s people got attacked, but the Athosians aren’t especially interesting and if I were asked (after watching a hundred episodes) to name a few things Teyla did when she wasn’t doing her job I couldn’t answer (beyond meditating).

McKay’s a great character, but they seem to have accidentally given him too much. He’s the sarcastic one, the slightly awkward one, and the incredibly clever one. Shepard (who I really disliked initially, but thought was alright later on) is the leader, which relegates Teyla and Ford/Ronon to just muscle.

The Wraith are an interesting villain, but the lack of a real ‘bad guy’ individual early on was a weakness, I think. Apophis and others helped SG-1 (who is Holmes without Moriarty, or the Doctor without the Daleks?). Until Michael and Todd there isn’t anything remotely comparable. That said, I liked what they did with Michael and Todd quite a lot.

It is an entertaining series, but not on a par with SG-1.

Universe was a whole different bag of monkeys. To get biblical on you, Universe is the asynoptic gospel. Whereas SG-1 and Atlantis have a broadly similar feel, Universe deliberately goes for a much darker tone. The cast are stranded on a ship, Destiny, which is on the other side of the universe (hence the name) and have only limited contact with Earth.

I like the premise a lot. The execution… less so.

Robert Carlyle as Rush and David Blue as Eli were very good. I was surprised to like Eli so much. Although a mathematical genius he is the everyman character, thrust into Stargate’s advanced world out of the blue. Normally I loathe ‘nice’ everyman characters, but Blue played him very well.

Carlyle’s a cracking actor, so remarking on that is as redundant as noticing that Samuel L. Jackson is cool. Nevertheless, and for the record, Rush is the best character on the show.

But… otherwise I was less taken with the characters. It’s hard to know whether to attribute that to actors or writers. The colonel, for example, I found tedious every time I saw him. The lieutenant (Matt) came across as a stereotypical incredibly nice guy trying his best and being bland as hell. The sergeant, however, was somewhat interesting (with his anger management issues).

The dark tone was a significant shift for the franchise, but there was no reason it couldn’t work. A problem was when it butted against the light-hearted lore (I remember Jack O’Neill making a typical witticism which seemed to jar with the dreadfully serious tone of the series).

Lack of enemies (as with Atlantis) that were interesting was another problem. There were vaguely menacing but not very well-defined aliens. And automated attack drones with no backstory whatsoever. And the Lucian Alliance, which (being mercenaries) were somewhat more interesting but couldn’t fill the void by themselves.

The issue of long-term confinement with serious difficulty obtaining sufficient food and water came up a few times, and was handled pretty well.

The biggest problem Atlantis and Universe faced was an inability to match, or come close to, SG-1. I’ve heard a few more Stargate films are in the offing, so it’ll be interesting to see how they go.

Although I’ve been a bit down on the latter two series, I do like the Stargate world. It’s less serious and more humorous (and realistic because of that humour) than other sci-fi worlds, but to keep going it needs a new head of steam. Will they bring back the Goa’uld? Or the Ori (I hope not)?

And for those into sci-fi, Pick have just started repeating SG-1 (first episode is on tonight, 8pm) and Battlestar Galactica airs from 9pm on Mondays.

Thaddeus

Stargate: SG-1

The UK free-to-air channel Pick TV has just finished its run of Stargate: SG-1 episodes. I haven’t watched every single one (annoyingly, I missed a critical one when a certain cast member was changed, which I also missed when it was aired originally) but I have seen the vast majority.

Anyway, after many months of watching the series it seemed fitting to write a review. I’ll endeavour to keep spoilers to a minimum (incidentally, I haven’t seen the subsequent made-for-TV films that were made with the SG-1 cast).

Stargate: SG-1 followed the original Stargate film. Two characters (played by differing actors in the shift to TV) were retained, namely Colonel Jack O’Neill and Dr. Daniel Jackson, an archaeologist. Dr. Jackson’s character is relevant to a sci-fi show because a race of alien parasites known as Goa’uld pretend to be gods, and (although they use advanced, and often stolen, technology) take on roles from various mythologies. As a result, the lore of the past is relevant to the current state of play in the galaxy.

In addition to O’Neill and Dr. Jackson, the main team (SG-1) consists of Captain Samantha Carter, an airforce pilot/scientist and Teal’c, a laconic alien. The two other regulars for most of the show were General Hammond, their commander, and Dr. Janet Fraiser, the head of the medical staff.

Generally, I loathe the term ‘for all the family’. It tends to be used about children’s shows to try and make them sound less ‘kiddy’. But SG-1 actually is something anyone can watch and be entertained by. I was watching it (when first broadcast) whilst at school, and at that time a relative (with whom I suspect my viewing habits do not frequently coincide) also watched it. I’ve been watching it for months now, and thoroughly enjoyed it.

So, what’s good about it?

Humour. Whilst in sci-fi a certain suspension of disbelief is necessary, the general lack of humour (or good humour) in certain shows grates a bit. It isn’t overplayed in SG-1, and is both entertaining and well-delivered. One of the last episodes ended thus:

Great characters. There isn’t a weak link in the initial cast, and there’s a great group dynamic. Later on Ben Browder and Claudia Black both join, which I found a bit surreal because I’ve also watched most of Farscape (in which they both also star, making later SG-1 feel a bit like I’ve fallen into a parallel universe).

Good lore/backstory. The ancient myths referred to (mostly Egypt, initially) are perfect because they’re familiar enough not to need extensive explanation/info-dumping but unusual enough that they’re not hackneyed and have room for some interesting revelations.

It’s an odd feeling not having SG-1 to watch anymore. The closest comparison I can think of is when I finally finished Outlaws of theMarsh, which is a bloody enormous Chinese classic of over 2,000 pages. When I reached the end it seemed strange not to spend an hour or two a day with Song Jiang and Li Kui anymore.

Thaddeus

Red Dwarf X

Well, Dave has been banging on about the return of Red Dwarf for ages. Given Back To Earth's lacklustre reception it was perhaps surprising that series X was commissioned, but I'm glad it was (incidentally, the scutters tell me XI will be following soon).

As might be expected for a show that's migrated from the BBC to Dave there are a few differences (different outfits, new model Red Dwarf, an advert break in the middle) but it felt very much the same.

I think the live audience helps, and the jokes are pretty good. The crew are a bit older, and it shows, but the chemistry's as good as ever.

Special effects are miles better than the old series (which had charmingly ropey effects) and similar to, or maybe a bit better than, VIII. (For those wondering, it seems Back To Earth counts as season IX).

I'm not going to talk much about the plot, in case anyone hasn't seen it but plans to later, except to say that it makes rather more sense than a typical episode of New Who. Which is nice.

Probably the most notable absence is that of Holly. It's not clear whether or not either of the old Hollies or a new one will end up making an appearance/becoming a regular.

So, it was an enjoyable and amusing episode, not quite vintage but definitely worth watching, and I'm hoping the rest of the series will be as good or better.

Thaddeus

Review: Game of Thrones DVD

The wait to get to see this series, based on the excellent book of the same name, seemed endless. I’d read A Game of Thrones some time ago, enough to forget most minor points but not so much that the major plot twists would prove a surprise.

The acting was generally very good, and a particularly pleasant surprise was the numerous child actors who did sterling work. Joffrey was as repellent as he ought to be, Arya was a very likeable tomboy, and Sansa was naïve and full of herself. Naturally, Sean Bean gave a bloody good performance as Ned Stark, (almost the only honest man in King’s Landing). Peter Dinklage played Tyrion Lannister, and was also thoroughly excellent.

There was more sex than expected, and a reasonable amount of fairly graphic violence. It wasn’t overdone but it’s clearly not family viewing or for the particularly squeamish.

The plot is very close to the book and the differences are largely there for reasons of practicality (there’s a normal carriage rather than a massive one for Cersei) or clarity (the Others are referred to as White Walkers throughout). They’ve had to slightly tone down one or two things (I forget how old Daenerys is in the book, but I think she’s a bit older in the TV series) but not much.

There are a range of extras, including commentary on many episodes (from cast and crew), background on Westeros and character profiles. The first commentary is by a pair of producers, and was actually pretty interesting (well, I thought so). So far I’ve only listened to that and the second commentary, with a trio of actors (Headey, Addy and Coster-Waldau), which was also enjoyable.

I think the TV series does the book justice, and A Game of Thrones is one of the best books I’ve ever read. There’s a second series due to begin on TV soon, and I hope it’s as good as the first (and that the DVD gets released a bit sooner this time).

Thaddeus

Alphas

It was the season finale last night, on 5*. Alphas takes place in a world where certain humans have undergone mutations which enable them to have certain abilities (ultra-acute senses, the ability to manipulate data without needing hardware and so on). Naturally, some of them are good, and some are evil. So, it’s a bit like X-Men or Heroes (the creator was one of the writers of X-Men 2, the best of the three films, I think).

I did miss the first episode (must admit I’m hardly an avid viewer of 5*) but saw the rest. I rather liked the series. My favourite episode was the penultimate one, which involved the non-Alpha team leader Dr. Rosen and the Alphas being accused of harbouring (unwittingly) a double agent.

It did take me a little while to get into it. The first two (well, episodes 2 and 3) didn’t grab me right away, but unlike the exercise in hopeless masochism which was the viewing of Outcasts I am glad I kept watching.

There wasn’t a single antagonist throughout the series, but there was a collective one: the terrorist Alpha organisation Red Flag. I thought that the treatment of terrorism (given the psychological aftermath of 9/11) was well-balanced, with the ‘good guys’ often in disagreement about whether hard or soft power was the way to combat terrorism and Red Flag itself portrayed as a violent but not unthinking group.

The basic formula behind Alphas is tried and tested (as above, X-Men and Heroes have done similar things) which does create a problem: how do you make powers that aren’t identical to other shows and how do you add some originality?

Alphas does a reasonably good job of not copying and pasting powers. Yes, there’s a chap who’s very strong, but if he weren’t there it would be a glaring omission. Gary, an autistic chap, and his ability to manipulate wireless communications is perhaps the most original and interesting. Generally, the power level is less than X-Men, and far less than the sometimes over the top Heroes. The series is about people (rather flawed people, as Dr. Rosen doubles as their therapist as well as boss) with powers, rather than cool powers who happen to have people attached. Sometimes the episodes were not as engaging as they could have been and some more special effects would’ve been nice.

I intend to watch the next series, assuming it gets made and filters through to freeview. I think Alphas has room for improvement but is pretty good.

Thaddeus

Alphas, on 5* at 10pm

A while ago I saw a discussion about this programme, but, as is often the case, it wasn’t on Freeview. I don’t watch 5* often, but yesterday caught some of the 2007 CGI Beowulf film and saw an ad for Alphas.

The next episode (airs tonight) is number 3, and the second can be seen (for a few hours anyway) on the Channel Five website. Unfortunately I didn’t see the first episode, but there we are.

The premise is not all that original (people suddenly start developing cool mutations that give them strange powers), and will be familiar to anyone who watched the excellent X-Men films or Heroes.

Episode 2 was a little hit and miss, but it is a new series and I’ll probably give it a go for a few weeks and see how it progresses. Some of the powers do look to be a little more interesting than usuak (one chap has a sort of rational predictive power, not quite prophecy but similar to it), although there is the obligatory strong man and persuasive woman.

I hope it ends up better than Heroes. I watched almost all of series 1, but missed series 2 (it clashed with House) and didn’t really feel the need to watch it later. People not getting killed (in both books and series like this) is something I dislike and (Isaac, I think his name was, aside) Heroes was pretty bad at that. It’s hard to build up dramatic tension or feel worried for someone if you know that the man next to them who has just been introduced and is wearing a red Star Trek uniform is going to be the one taking the bullet.

The Walking Dead has also made a return, but has jumped from Channel Five to FX (not Freeview) so hopefully, like Alphas, it will make a free-to-air appearance in a little while. I enjoyed the first series, but was surprised by how brief it was (just six episodes) given the American habit of mega-series with 20 or so episodes.

I hope the next time a British firm tries making something they spend a little less on special effects and a bit more on writing. I tried to like Outcasts. I did. It even had the (occasional) good moment, but you can’t transmit a virus by vibrating air molecules and even if you could the virus wouldn’t stop being there when the transmission halted.

Last (but very much not least) The Big Bang Theory returns this Thursday at 8pm on E4.

Thaddeus

Forthcoming TV sci-fi

There are two BBC sci-fi progs coming in the near future, one on Monday and one later in the year. The former is the new show Outcasts (I did read somewhere or other they don’t like it being referred to as ‘sci-fi’ but given that it is sci-fi, that’s how I’ll describe it).

The programme is set on the world of Carpathia, in the settlement of Forthaven where a small group of humans have made their home, having fled Earth. There are 8 episodes (unlike America, the UK doesn’t seem a fan of massive 20-24 episode seasons) and the first is on Monday at 9pm, BBC1.

Ben Richards, the writer, has said that Outcasts is about the possibility of redemption and refuting the idea that humans are bound to be bad. I subscribe somewhat to the tabula rasa (blank slate) view of humanity, so that seems fair enough to me.

Hard to say how good or bad it’ll be, given it’s entirely new, but the cast seems decent enough. If I do a review, it’ll be on Tuesday.

The other programme is Doctor Who, which returns in the Spring. I’ve got a bit of a love-hate relationship with New Who. Some bits have been excellent (the entire Blink episode, for example) but some have been abysmal (the Master). The new series sees the return of River Song (not a fan of her), and both companions.

Here’s my Doctor Who wish list:

1. When the Master comes back, he must have an evil beard
2. Killing robots/cyborgs with emotions is a cop-out, stop it
3. No gaping plot holes, please
4. Return of the Mondas cybermen
5. Sort out the Time Lords. The daleks have been brought back properly, the same will eventually happen for the Time Lords, so get on with it

For the first time ever, it’s been shot on location in America. I wonder if they’ll mess about with cowboys and Indians, or suchlike.

Neil Gaiman, famous fantasy author, has written one of the episodes but I don’t have any details of what’s written.

Incidentally, I think Matt Smith is signed up for at least this year and the next, which is good. I rather like his sarcastic utterances. Not sure about companions (I’d quite like an alien, or someone from the past, as the next one).

For those with Sky, Game of Thrones (the television version of George RR Martin’s fantastic first part of A Song of Ice and Fire) will also come out later in the year. Damned shame I won’t be able to watch it, but there we are.

Thaddeus