PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 775

Mutant Blast 2018 Written by Fernando Alle, Adrián Cardona and Alex Duda, directed by Fernando Alle. A postapoc movie from Portugal. Released in the US by Troma.

A hungover guy wakes up from a party to find someone has drawn a mustache on his lips and a penis on his chin. If that wasn't annoying enough, a secret government organization has accidentally released some of it's failed experiments from their super soldier program. The failed experiments are infectious and eat human flesh but they aren't zombies. No matter.

Our guy goes out for a look around and runs into a lady soldier and one of the more successful super soldiers. The lady soldier accidentally shots the super soldier in the head. She blames our guy for it but it's her gun in her hand. While our guy and the lady soldier are heading for a rendezvous the secret organization blows off some nukes. Instant mutants appear and our guy isn't immune to the mutating power of the bombs.

Still our guy's better off than a lot of the blast victims, the lucky people die, the unlucky ones mutate. Our guy's left hand falls off and a rat grows out of the stump. Then things get crazy.

I thought it was a good laugh and several of them were out loud. Very much the sort of movie Troma is famous for, plenty of gore, jokes and weird characters, just funnier and better made than a lot of their product. I'd recommend it to the sort of movie fan that likes those kind of movies. You can see a nice 1080p version on YouTube in the link above. According to the director the Troma Blu-ray is a few seconds off when playing the subtitles. That would be annoying, the YouTube video is fine and looks great.

Last Sentinel 2023 Written by Malachi Smyth and directed by Tanel Toom. Found on Amazon Prime. I was disappointed to find Amazon is going to start inserting commercials in their free with membership movies. It doesn't surprise me one bit. I'm already down on the service because it doesn't offer variable speed playback. It's hard to watch crappy movies at normal speed.

The movie is a boring bottle story about 4 people on a outpost way out at sea. They shot the tower scenes in one of the Redsand Towers Sea Forts in the ocean off of Kent in the UK. It's 2063 and the world has become submerged in water. There are only two small continents poking out of the ocean. Of course they are fighting with each other.

Most of the movie is the 4 people falling apart. They aren't clever and they've been having issues dealing with their situation. There's a twist at the end that you can see coming. Dull and uninteresting. Don't bother with it.

Science Fiction Sunday 773

Babylon 5 Blu-ray Box Set 2023

The newly arrived Blu-ray set of Babylon 5 arrived more than a week ago. I've only watched two discs so far. First was the pilot movie The Gathering. It's pretty much the same as on the DVD releases. Sad, but that's what there is. The second disc contained the first 5 episodes of season 1. They are much nicer looking and they aren't cropped to widescreen like the DVD sets were. The images are nice and clear. I don't have a good enough sound system to know how much better the sound it.

I wish the set was packed with extras but it doesn't look like it. There's a trailer for The Gathering and another for The Road Home on The Gathering disc. There's nothing on the first disc of Season 1. There's nothing on the box indicating any extras, there's no booklet or any other kind of razzmatazz you'd expect for a nice Box Set, there's no mention of extras on Blu-ray.com. I'll be keeping my old DVDs as they have some good extras.

I didn't care for the plastic disc holders either. I took all the discs out of the Box Set and put them in paper sleeves. So much easier to handle. I even made a stiff paper box for the discs to sit inside the hollowed out case. Fits fine and the discs are easy access.

The new Doctor Who Blu-ray Box Set has the same cases, I really don't like them. Luckily none of the Doctor's discs were loose or scratched. I understand they could have shaken loose in transit, especially if they were carelessly put on the hubs, but I don't see it happen with a lot of the sets I get. In the B5 set the discs were one per hubs. The Doctor Who discs were one disc or two per hub, a lot of the twos were loose. I'd say 6 or 7 out of the 54 discs. Lucky for me Blu-ray discs have that protective coating and the couple of scuff marks buffed right out.

I'm going to watch these a bit at a time but this will be the only post about the set. I'm not sure I'll bother with SSF after this week. I'm certainly not going to post a lot of pictures anymore. Typepad has been having a lot of issues uploading pictures of late. I don't need that frustration. I might go back to watching crappy SF movies on Amazon Prime. That'll either get a bit more out of my AP membership or make me more frustrated.

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 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.

Science Fiction Sunday 764

Torchwood Series 1 Episodes 3 - 5

 

Ghost Machine October 29 2006 Written by Helen Raynor and directed by Colin Teague.

 

An alien artifact lets people see events in the past. Gwen sees a lost boy at a train station in 1941, Owen sees a young woman murdered under a bridge in 1963. The Torchwood team find both the young boy and the murderer survived to the modern day. Gwen meets the young boy as an old man while Owen confronts the murderer and gets driven out of the man's house.

 

They find the guy who had the alien device, he'd managed to get away during an earlier encounter. He doesn't know anything about it but he's got the other half. Activating it has Gwen see herself holding a bloody knife and crying. She later accidentally kills the murderer. The artifact gets put in the vault.

 

Cyberwoman November 5 2006 Written by Chris Chibnall and directed by James Strong.

 

Ianto is keeping a woman in the basement. She was his girlfriend before the Cybermen started converting her. They never finished the conversion and Ianto thinks he can save her. He fails miserably and the cyberwoman nearly kills everyone before Jack covers her with BBQ sauce that attracts the company pterodactyl.

 

While Jack is yelling at Ianto the cyberwoman revives and kills the pizza delivery girl. The cyberwoman puts her brain in the pizza gal's body and everyone blasts her with guns. Ianto goes back to making coffee.

 

Small Worlds November 12 2006 Written by Peter J Hammond and directed by Alice Troughton.

 

Deadly fairies are scaring and killing people that bother their chosen one. The chosen one is that little girl in the yellow dress. She reminds me of that kid in The Twilight Zone that puts people into the cornfield.

 

Jack loses an old friend to the fairies. The Torchwood gang goes after them. Captain Jack tries to stop the fairies from taking the chosen one away but eventually Jack lets them have her. The fairies are unkillable and they'll kill more people if he keeps their chosen one from going with them.

Three fair episodes. I thought the producers trying to sex up the show was kind of weak. The cyberwoman in a bikini and a metal bra? Why didn't Captain Jack toss Ianto out for making such a big mistake? I wouldn't be so forgiving.

 

The fairies episode was the more interesting to me but it also reminds me that Torchwood sure reminds me of an earlier US show called Special Unit 2. A team of monster fighters working for the government to find and kill monsters of one sort or another. I liked that series, it had a nice sense of humor.

There were commentaries for each episode, I listened to them but found myself a bit uninterested so I skipped ahead now and again. There was the usual short making of film for each episode.