PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 804

Doctor Who Series 14 BBC/Disney is calling this Season One. I'm hip to the change but I don't care for it. It's annoying enough that they also call this Series 14 and not Series 40.

Russell Davis is back as show runner, he wrote most of the 8 new episodes, one is by Steven Moffat and another is by Kate Herron and Briony Redman. Directors were Mark Tonderai, Julie Anne Robinson, Ben Chessell, Dylan Holmes Williams and Jamie Donoughue.

I liked most of the episodes. Space Babies and The Devil's Chord were fun. Boom, 73 Yards, Dot and Bubble were a bit more serious. I didn't care that much for Rogue, not for any good reason. The two part ending, The Legend of Ruby Sunday and Empire Of Death seemed drawn out. Announcements last April filled me in about the new companion already in the mix.

I watched some of the first four episodes of DW Unleashed but decided to skip the other 5 episodes because I was fast forwarding through a good bit of the last couple I watched. Maybe some other day.

Science Fiction Sunday 791

Doctor Who - The Daleks in Color  Last year they edited and colorized the second story of the first Doctor and played it on TV. I just got the new Blu-ray of the show and watched it.

The 7 episodes have been trimmed down to one 75 min episode. Each original show was nearly 25 mins each so a lot is missing, even factoring out the multiple credits and recaps of what happened each episode. It moves the story along quicker but lots of little scenes aren't there anymore, like how the Tardis food maker works. They do include a DVD with the Blu-ray that has the complete episodes to watch. It's duplicate material for me, the disc is the same disc that was released ages ago. They are so careless in the Blu-Ray production that they didn't even catch the mistake in the time of the B&W episodes, listing it as 75 mins instead of the 175 or mins it is. Sloppy, BBC, sloppy.

The color restoration isn't that great but the original masters of the B&W episodes aren't that great either. On a positive side the color helps bring out the depth that's missing on the B&W episode. They also add a lot of new music that's mixed so loud it's annoying. They even add new dialog for the Daleks. There's a short making of piece on the Blu-ray that talks about the re-write. Russell T Davies said he wanted it to be more accessible to the younger fan who has only the modern run under his belt. I watched the old episode disc, they are poorer to watch but more entertaining to me. It's a nice little oddity but less interesting than I had hoped.

Science Fiction Sunday 772

Doctor Who 2023 Specials

 

The Star Beast November 25 2023 Based on a comic story by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons, screenplay by Russell T Davies, directed by Rachel Talalay.

 

The Doctor runs into Donna Noble, her daughter Rose and her husband Shaun as a spaceship crashes in London.

 

The Doctor goes to investigate and meets up with UNIT scientist Shirley Anne Bingham. The spaceship takes control of some of the UNIT soldiers.

 

Rose befriends a cute alien and lets it hide in the family's shed. After chaotic interaction with the family the Doctor arrives. The Meep tells them all he's being chased by aliens, called the Wraith Warriors, who are after it's fur.

 

It's all a lie, the Meep is really a despotic ruler ruler of a violent race. He's the last one and the Wraith's are trying to capture him. The Meep kills the Wraiths and escapes. He takes the Doctor and friends as hostages.

 

The Meep plans to use London as fuel for it's spaceship, the result will kill millions. Trapped in the Meep ship the Doctor restores Donna's memory and they shut down the ship. The Wraiths arrive to take the Meep into custody.

 

Donna doesn't die, part of the metacrisis had been transferred to Rose when she was born. Mother and daughter shed themselves of the metacrisis and life goes on.

 

The Doctor and Donna take the Tardis to go visit Wilfred Mott. Dona spills coffee on the Tardis and it dematerializes.

 

Wild Blue Yonder December 2 2023 Written by Russell T Davies, directed by Tom Kingsley.

 

After a brief encounter with Isaac Newton the Doctor and Donna transport to a spaceship on the edge of space.

 

The Tardis belches flame and disappears. The Doctor and Donna go have a look about.

 

The pair encounter a slow moving robot and some weird aliens mimicking the Doctor and Donna. 

 

Eventually the Doctor figures out the problem, the ship is set to explode and the boom time is neigh.

 

 

 

The Tardis returns and the Doctor and Donna take off to visit Wilf. He's fine but the world is in chaos.

 

The Giggle December 2 2023 Written by Russell T Davies and directed by Chanya Button.

 

The Doctor finds the human race has been reprogrammed to be huge assholes. There are riots all over the world. The Doctor and Donna get picked up by UNIT and taken to their HQ.

 

The Doctor finds Mel Bush working there.

 

UNIT has found a hidden set of notes in all TV screens, the Doctor finds a hidden image.

 

The Doctor and Donna go back to 1925 and visit the Toymaker at his shop.

 

 

 

They get trapped in his hotel corridor like labyrinth. and encounter some odd creatures.

 

Soon after UNIT gets a visit from the Toymaker, he puts on quite a show. Then he blasts the Doctor with a ray cannon.

 

 

The Doctor starts to regenerate and stops. He has Donna and Mel pull his arms and becomes two Doctors. They kick the Toymaker's ass and banish him from reality.

 

The Doctor with David Tennant's face gets to retire and he parks his Tardis in Donna's back yard. The Doctor with Ncuti Gatwa's face creats a second Tardis and goes off on new adventures.

A nice trio of adventures and a nice ending to the Doctor Donna saga. The BBC had some extra material, there's a making off for each episode and a video commentary for The Star Beast and The Giggle. There was a Children in Need special with Davros. Theose were all pretty entertaining. It was probably a good idea for Russell to take some time off, he came back strong and hopefully he'll be able to keep up with the new Doctor. He's a bit of a firecracker. Looking forward to taking a bit of a trip with him.

Science Fiction Sunday 771

 

Torchwood Series 4 Miracle Day Captain Jack and what's left of Torchwood return 2 years later with one more series of 10 episodes.

 

The world's got a problem. One day, no one dies from natural causes or injuries. Their wounds don't heal, they just keep on living. Pain pills become necessary to survive. The event gets nicknamed Miracle Day. People are stupid, it's no miracle. Jack, Gwen and Rhys get involved with the CIA in trying to figure out what's going on. There's some baddies trying to kill Jack and they've infiltrated the CIA. It's another secret company meddling in something beyond human ken and not giving a toss about how many people die so they can get what they want.

 

The dead not dying is an ancient plot device. Nothing good ever comes of it. As the days go by the world governments deal with the huge number of dead in the worse possible way, by going full fascist and not telling the public the truth. They start burning the bodies of the worst of the lot, while still alive. After things are sorted out there's hardly any payback. Same disappointing result as last series.

Glad it's all over. I'll park the DVDs in the vault and save the world from seeing them.

Science Fiction Sunday 770

Torchwood Series 3 Children Of Earth

The 5 part series was presented one per day between July 6 and 10, 2009.

 

This is the last 5 days in the life of Torchwood Cardiff. Some bad aliens came to Earth in 1965 and Captain Jack gave a dozen children to the invaders to save the Earth. Now the aliens are back and they want 10% of the worlds children. They'll kill off humanity if they don't get what they want.

 

Turns out prepubescent children are filled with fluids the aliens like to ingest, it makes them feel good. The children from 1965 are still alive, strapped to an alien, not growing or dying. Now they want more children. The aliens don't seem to expect anyone to fight back, the human's gave in last time, they expect the same this time.

 

The Prime Minister is a horrible two faced monster that wants to keep the previous alien visit a secret from the rest of the world. He has one of his subordinates order the killing of Captain Jack and the other three living witnesses so the PM doesn't leave his fingerprints on anything incriminating. Peter Capaldi plays the weak kneed civil servant. The PM is caught out in all his lies at the end of the story but sadly, there isn't enough punishment for him on screen. Disappointing Russell, very disappointing.

 

Captain Jack only has Gwen, Rhys and Ianto left at Torchwood. Sadly Ianto doesn't make it through the mess. The teams families are harassed by the evil government and some of them don't get out of this alive. Jack's grandson is one of the victims, used by Jack to transmit a signal to the aliens, it causes them pain and they leave the Earth. Jack's always ready to sacrifice someone to save the rest of humanity. It causes his daughter never to speak to him again. It's lonely at the top.

A big downer of an episode, one bad thing heaped on another, only alleviated by the fast forward button. The series ends with Torchwood done, Jack blasts off to the stars, leaving Gwen and Rhys to get back to their life.

In a couple of years Torchwood returns for a last hurrah in America. It isn't enough to save the show. I didn't really look at the extras this time. Didn't want to waste the time.

The sad thing was before I watched these episodes of Torchwood I watched the return of David Tennant as Doctor Who, it was so much better than this and it was only an hour. I'm more looking forward to the other two episodes more than I'll ever look forward to Torchwood ever again and I have a whole series to go.

Science Fiction Sunday 769

Torchwood Series 2 Episode 8 to 13

 

A Day In The Death February 27 2008 Written by Joseph Lidster and directed by Andy Goddard.

 

Owen is still alive after being resurrected but he's got some issues. So does Jack. Martha checks Owen out and says he's human. Owen can't breath and doesn't seem to age. She does find a problem, he's incapable of healing. His lack of body heat helps him break into a house where he finds Richard Biers playing a collector of alien artifacts.

 

Richard's got something that is gathering power, he believes it is keeping him alive but it's not. While Owen helps him conquer his fear of death the poor guy has a heart attack , Owen is incapable of giving him CPR so he dies. The alien artifact is more benign than thought. It puts on a nice light show.

 

Owen saves a woman from jumping off a roof by telling her about his day. They admire the alien artifact's light show.

 

Something Borrowed March 5 2008 Written by Phil Boyd and directed by Ashley Way.

 

Gwen gets pregnant when a shapeshifting alien bites her. Gwen wakes the next day pretty much ready to pop. This is another of the common plot elements shared with countless SF, fantasy and horror TV shows and movies. The pregnancy disturbs Rhys and complicates Gwen and Rhys wedding day. It only gets worse when the alien shapeshifter shows up to collect the baby.

 

From Out Of The Rain March 12 2008 Written by Peter J Hammond and Jonathan Fox Bassett.

 

A couple of evil baddies pop out of a silent movie and start gathering the last breath from some poor people. The victims goes into a coma but don't die. Torchwood sorts it all out but saves one of the victims.

 

Adrift March 19 2008 Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Mark Everest.

 

Gwen's old police pal Andy tells her about a group of missing people. Ruth Jones is mother of one young man who has disappeared. Gwen wants to dig into the story but Jack says no. She goes behind his back and discovers a building filled with the missing. They were damaged by encounters with the rift and Jack has set up a secret place to keep them safe until they die.

 

Gwen brings Ruth to see her son and it's all too much for Ruth, she has a bit of a break down. She later tells Gwen not to show the place to other people. Gwen is sad.

 

Fragments March 21 2008   Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Jonathan Fox Bassett.

 

Most everyone gets blown up in a building. Gwen is late to the site and has to rescue everyone. Jack was dead but he revives, the others are alive but trapped under rubble. The injured think back to how they were recruited by Torchwood. At the end of the episode Captain John reveals he was the one who set the bomb. He shows Jack a picture of his long lost brother Gray before cutting off the video.

 

Exit Wounds March 21 208 Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Ashley Way.

 

Captain John blows up several more bombs in Cardiff. He captures Captain Jack and takes him back to 27 AD. Jack meets Gray, who stabs him in the gut. Gray is hateful because Jack didn't rescue him from the evil aliens who captured him on their home planet. Jack had been holding Gray's hand but they still managed to get separated, the aliens snatch Gray and torture him. Gray eventually escapes and he wants some revenge. He's taken control of Captain John with a bomb on his wrist. Gray is the one who had the bombs put in place. Back in 27 AD Captain John buries Jack and Gray frees Captain John from his bomb.

Gwen, Rhys and Andy work with the police to keep order. The local nuclear reactor is going to blow and Owen tries to get it shut down. He fails and gets locked in the control room, he's killed when the coolant floods the room. Gray goes to Torchwood, shoots Toshiko and leaves her to die. Jack is dug up in 1901 by Torchwood. He asks them to freeze him in the vault. Gray thaws Captain Jack but won't accept his apology. Captain Jack subdues Gray and freezes him. The series end with Gwen, Jack and Ianto left of the Torchwood gang.

The episode 11-13 disc has some making of material and the last disc in the set has 13 short making of videos. I kind of skipped through all that and wrapped up the second series. Not a commentary to be found. Mind you, I can't complain too much, I would have skipped through them a bit and forgot about them.

I'm not overly thrilled with the stories and doubt I would have time to get around to the series again. I just didn't find the characters that compelling. I'd rather watch Doctor Who over again, or some other shows I liked better.

Science Fiction Sunday 768

Torchwood Series 2 Episodes 4 - 7

 

Meat February 6 2008 Written by Catherine Tregenna and directed by Colin Teague.

 

Torchwood investigates some odd meat that was found in a delivery truck that's crashed. It's alien meat. Gwen's hubby Rhys is the dispatcher at the trucking company. This is the episode that he finds out about Torchwood.

 

Rhys gets to go on a mission to rescue the creature the meat is coming from but things don't go to plan. Everyone is captured but escapes. The poor alien whale like creature gets put down when it gets all stressed by the fighting,

 

Adam February 13 2008 Written by Catherine Tregenna and directed by Andy Goddard.

 

An alien called Adam infiltrates the Hub and feeds everyone false memories to hide among them. The memories confuse the team and there's friction. Gwen nearly kills Rhys. The alien is captured and killed. Sloppy, Torchwood, sloppy.

 

Reset February 13 2008 Written by Matt Jones and directed by Andy Goddard.

 

A biotech company has some aliens and is experimenting on humans. The test cases are dying and Torchwood is tries to save a few of them. Jack calls in Martha Jones for some help. she's now the chief medical person for UNIT. Jack has to shoot the owner of the biotech company in the head after the man kills Owen.

 

Dead Man Walking February 20 2008 Written by Joseph Lidster and directed by Andy Goddard.

 

The Torchwood gang revive Owen with another resurrection glove he found hidden in an abandoned church by some Weevils. Owen stays alive but doesn't drain the energy out of the person who revived him. So convenient. Sloppy Joseph, Sloppy. Martha gets tuned old for some reason.

 

Owen becomes king of the Weevils. There's some other mumbo jumbo going on with Owen. Death makes a visit but Owen defeats him in a fight. Martha discovers that the energy keeping Owen alive is dissipating. Oh, well, sucks to be Owen. Martha on the other hand returns to young again.

There were no extras on the disc. Saves me some time.

Science Fiction Sunday 767

Torchwood Series 2 Episodes 1 - 3

 

Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang January 16 2008 Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Ashley Way.

 

While chasing down a fish guy the Torchwood gang are surprised by the return of Captain Jack. He'd been off with the Doctor and he's been gone a while. The team are happy to see him but mad at him for not telling them anything before he left or while he was gone.

 

James Marsters plays Captain John Hart, a co-worker and lover from Captain Jack's days as a time agent. Captain John tricks the Torchwood gang into helping him find three objects. Turns out he's a double crosser and murderous crook. He cripples the gang, kills Captain Jack, then runs off.

 

The Torchwood gang find him in their HQ trying to open a device that will lead him to the giant diamond he had killed to get. The jokes on him as the image of the lady he murdered is projected 3D. She tells him there's no diamond, it's all a trap. The device ejects a small but powerful bomb that attaches itself to Captain John.

 

Captain John handcuffs himself to Gwen and tells the Torchwood gang to help him or everyone dies. They do, everyone lives. Jack sends John back through the Rift.

 

Sleeper January 23 2008 Written by James Moran and directed by Colin Teague.

A couple are woken by burglars. Within a couple of mins the robbers are dead, sliced up. Torchwood kicks the police off the case and figure out it was Beth, the wife, that did the murders. The hubby is in the hospital.

 

The team interview Beth and find alien technology in her arm. Jack figures out she's a sleeper, put in place by the aliens to gather info before an invasion. Beth thinks she's human but it's soon proved she's an alien. Other alien's activate, regroup with a plan to blow up some nuclear warheads near Cardiff.

 

Beth stabs her poor hubby. The Torchwood gang stop the rest of the aliens but not before some major bit's of action. Beth can't stand the prospect of being frozen so she has the gang shoot her dead. Just another sad day at Torchwood.

 

To The Last Man January 30 2008 Written by Helen Raynor and directed by Andy Goddard.

 

A wounded WWI soldier gets caught up in the Rift and has been frozen by Torchwood for the last 90 years. They wake him up every year to check on him, then it's back in the freezer. This time something big happens and he's got to go back through the Rift to save the world.

The episodes were OK but I'm still not enjoying the show as much as I do Doctor Who. There were no extras on the disc and very little from what the box set says.

Science Fiction Sunday 766

Torchwood Series 1 Episode 10-13

 

Out Of Time December 17 2006 Written by Catherine Tregenna and directed by Alice Troughton.

 

A plane with three people from 1953 wind up in Cardiff in 2006. They are confused and each deal with being stuck in another time in a different way. The three are befriended by Jack, Gwen and Owen.

 

Combat December 24 2006 Written by Noel Clarke and directed by Andy Goddard.

 

Some guy is running a fight club with a weavel. Every action series seems to have this plot. Owen gets involved and they make him fight the weavel. He nearly dies but Jack arrives to save him. The guy running the fight club lets the weavel slaughter him instead of going to jail.

 

Captain Jack Harkness January 1 2007 Written by Catherine Tregenna and directed by Ashley Way.

 

Jack and Toshiko get sent to 1941 by the time rift. Jack meets the real Captain Jack Harkness. Ianto tries to stop Owen from opening the rift by shooting him in the back but it Owen manages to open the rift. That will cause problems next episode.

 

Murray Melvin plays an evil guy who travels back and forth through the rift. Some might remember him as the computer interface on the Tulip from the Starhunter series.

 

End Of Days January 1 2007 Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Ashley Way.

 

The rift causes problems and Jack fires Owen. The Torchwood team does a poor job a lot of the time.

 

Murray Melvin releases a giant monster, Jack pumps it full of life and kills it. Jack revives a while later and is picked up by the Tardis.

I skipped through the making of material and listened to about half of one of the four commentaries.

Science Fiction Sunday 765

Torchwood Series 1 Episodes 6 - 9

 

Countrycide November 19 2006 Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by Andy Goddard.

 

A gang of human flesh eating humans is killing people in the Brecon Beacons. Apparently the cannibals harvest human bodies every 10 years then live off the canned meat. The Torchwood gang find some flesh stripped bones. Owen left the keys in the car and the baddies steal it. The Torchwood gang follow the car's tracker and everyone but Jack gets caught by the gang. The cannibals even have members in the local police force. I've seen that plot device in several horror films.

 

Luckily Jack arrives at the last moment before the gang get slaughtered. He crashes a tractor through the wall and gets the drop on the cannibals. The story ends with the police taking the baddies away.

 

Greeks Bearing Gifts November 26 2006 Written by Toby Whithouse and directed by Colin Teague.

 

The Torchwood gang investigate a skeleton found on a building site. Toshiko meets a gal at a bar called Mary, we'd already seen her among the spectators at the building site. Mary gives Toshiko a special pendant that lets her read minds. It shows how shallow and dismissive some of the gang are. I wouldn't want to hang round with them. I'm on the fence about hanging around with Jack. The production wants to be an adult SF drama and that means a lot of character development. Problem is the more I get of their personality the more I'm disappointed in the characters.

 

Mary reveals herself to be an alien and gets Toshiko to takes her to Torchwood. Jack has figured out that Mary is an alien and a serial killer. He's found the alien transporter, repaired it and set it for the middle of the sun. When Jack hands Mary the transporter he turns it on and she disappears. Ha ha. We need more bad aliens in the middle of the sun.

 

They Keep Killing Suzie December 3 2006 Written by Paul Tomalin and Dan McCulloch, directed by James Strong.

 

Suzie, who killed herself in the first episode, has a plan in place to revive her with the glove. It requires a good number of people to die. Various things happen that lead Jack to reviving Suzie. Gwen wields the glove and she does such a good job that Suzie doesn't die again, in fact she gets better.

 

Suzie tricks Gwen into taking her to her father. Suzie kills her father. I could see that coming. Jack chases after them and shoots Suzie. She doesn't die until he has the glove destroyed. Suzie had been draining the life out of Gwen. Makes me think Jack needs a good HR department recruiting department to vet his staff.

 

Random Shoes December 10 2006 Written by Jacquetta May and directed by James Erskine.

 

A young man called Eugene is killed on the highway, Torchwood investigates because he was known to Torchwood as a collector of alien artifacts. He'd often turn up at their investigation sites. Now dead Eugene follows Gwen around as she investigates the alien eye he was selling on eBay.

 

It's a rather sad story of a nice young guy with jerks for friends. That's Eugene's sad mom on the right. Two of his friends secretly bid on the eye to get Eugene excited about the sale until someone else runs the bid up to £15,000. One of the two pals bids an extra £5.50 and wins. When Eugene shows up at the meet up place he finds it's them. They want the eye for next to nothing so they can resell it for a lot of money. Nice guys, huh.

 

In a struggle for the eye Eugene swallows it and runs out of restaurant only to get run down. The alien eye inside his dead body is what kept him there and it gives him a chance to save Gwen at the end of the episode. He becomes corporeal, allowing him to push Gwen out of the path of an on coming car, and then disappears with everyone looking upward.

I watched two discs this week, there were only 2 episodes on each disc. I find I'm speeding through the episodes more than I had been. The extras are some making of featurettes and a commentary for each episode. I kind of skipped through the featurettes and gave a miss to the commentaries. Just not that interested.