PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 830

The Doombolt Chase Series 1 1978 Written by Don Houghton, directed by Robert Fuest and Peter Graham Scott. A 6 episode series from ITV that's only vaguely science fiction. It's mostly a teen adventure story involving the British Navy.

Commander David Wheeler re-directed his Navy ship to run down a small boat. It didn't appear to be occupied but they don't stop to check. Wheeler gives no explanation to the Navy and is court-martialed. Wheeler's son Richard doesn't get any explanation from him. Richard decides to investigate with the help from friends Pete and Lucy. Pete is a junior seaman and was on the bridge when the incident happened.

They stumble on some baddies who are lead by a scientist. He worked on the Navy's beam weapon project but quit about a year ago. He's improved the beam weapon and plans to blow up a giant supertanker if they don't give him £5 million. The teens help thwart the plan. At the end it's revealed that Commander Wheeler was court-martialed as part of a plan to smoke out the baddies.

It's mostly entertaining, there's a lot of running through fields. Helps pad out the 6 eps, I guess. I probably wouldn't watch it again.

Midnight Sun Series 1 2016

Midnight Sun Series 1 2016 Created and directed by Måns Mårlind and  Björn Stein, screenplay by Måns Mårlind. A Swedish French police procedural set in Kiruna, Sweden's northern most town.

A French national is killed near the town and a French detective comes to help with the investigation. Kahina is from Paris and she's got a major amount of personal baggage. She works with Anders, a deputy police prosecutor. He's got a good bunch of personal baggage too. Everyone's in the town and surrounding area has a lot of personal baggage. The whole show is one long luggagefest.

Two more bodies pop up. Local citizens are attacked and our cops are constantly getting knocked around and out. One of them is the third victim. Clues are slow to come but they start to put the case together. Increased knowledge brings more danger, there's a decent body count, it's rather more brutal and vengeful than most of the cop shows I prefer. On the plus side, there's plenty of nice scenery and helicopter rides.

There's only the one series, I doubt I'll need to watch it again anytime.

The Agatha Christie Hour 1982

The Agatha Christie Hour 1982

A series of 10 episodes that are based on Agatha Christie stories. Adapted and directed by a gang of film makers. There are dozens and dozens of actors, some I knew, some I did not.

The stories are a mixture, there are some that are more serious and some that had a nice sense of humor. I liked most of the stories, the more serious were less engaging. I'd watch about a half dozen again, the others I'd probably speed through or skip. I found a used DVD online for 15 bucks. Fifty smackaroonies new on Amazon.

Science Fiction Sunday 828

The Rig Series 2 Written by David Macpherson, Matthew Jacobs, Morgan and Meg Staller, directed by John Stricklland and Alex Holmes. I watched it on Amazon Prime.

I'd seen the first series but hadn't cared enough to want to revisit. I skimmed my way through the second series and wasn't impressed with that either. More trouble on the Rig with baddies from the corporation trying to control the situation for profit and the ancient creature they call the Ancestor knocking them about. Greedy corporate characters are the worst of the two. Lots of running about and lots of yakking.

Like the first one I wouldn't bother with this series again. It looks from the ending, it reminds me of a big ass open door, the producers hope for a third series. It's only been out for a few days, we'll see if they announce a third series or not.

Science Fiction Sunday 827

El Refugio TV Mini Series 2022 Written by Francisco Ortega, Julio Rojas and Enrique Videla, directed by Pablo Fendrick. A Mexican 6 episode mini series about an alien invasion.

Something is going on in the sky and it's affecting people's phones and TV. People living on a ranch in the country see weird lights in the sky. Locals in the nearest town start going crazy, they get violent as the food gets scarce. The family manage to keep people off their farm but there are casualties. Eventually it gets to the alien and their ugly dog like creatures with big teeth. No big whoop there.

Most of the screen time is spent on the family and their day to day personal drama. After a few episodes you see the alien ship and near the end you see the alien attack dog. The CGI and practical effects were fairly good. I don't see much of modern Mexican TV. Decent looking program, much like the productions of many other countries. I didn't care that much for the story, there was a cliffhanger for every episode and then an abrupt ending. I don't know if there are anymore eps coming? Probably wouldn't care if there were.

Sherlock Holmes 2013 Russian TV Series

Sherlock Holmes 2013 Russian TV series. Created by Ruben Dishdishyan, written by Andrey Kavun, Leonid Porokhin and Igor Pogodin, directed by Andrey Kavum. A 16 episode series that features 8 stories. I found this Russian TV adaptation on Amazon. The 2 DVD set is a bootleg with four 90 min stories on each disc. The 2 episodes for each story are edited together, a common practice with two part stories.

The first episode is their origin story. Watson had served in the military in Afghanistan, he'd gotten wounded and returned to England to recuperate.  Months later Watson heads to London to start a practice, the day he arrives  he stumbles into a murder investigation where he meets Holmes. He learns of a room available in Mrs Hudson's boarding house on Baker Street. Watson moves in and their partnership develops.

The second story has Holmes and Watson drawn into the murder of an young Indian prince. He was gunned down by some cabbies. Turns out one of the cabbies got wounded and he goes to visit Dr Watson for medical help. He dies shortly after he  gets there. Lestrade shows up, he's been trailing the wounded man. He suspects Holmes and Watson are up to something but he has no proof. It's a complicated story of nationalism and racism. There's a fair bit of violence and some gory bits.

It's well produced, there are great sets and locations. I liked the characters, especially Dr Watson, I was sad to hear actor Andrey Panin passed away before he could even dub the last of his lines. Igor Petrenko plays Holmes, Mikhail Boyarskiy plays inspector Lestrade and Ingeborga Dapkunaite plays Mrs Hudson. That's them in the picture at the top of the post.

Just based on the 2 stories I've watched so far I'd recommend the series. I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.

Crá Series 1 2024

Crá Series 1 2024 Written by Richie Conroy, Doireann Ni Chorragáin, directed by Philip Doherty. An Irish police procedural shot in the desolate hills and peat bogs of County Donegal. The cast speaks Irish or Gaelic for the most part, a few English phrases creep into the conversation.

A cop finds a body in a peat bog and suspects it's his mother. She disappeared 15 years ago. The body, it really is his mother, opens a can of worms involving murder, bad cops and horrible family members including a child molester and rapist. It's really heavy on personal drama and bad family relationships. It's a struggle to like anyone. Crá is an Irish-language word meaning torment. The show lives up to it's name. I wouldn't want to watch it again, I'm nearly sorry I started watching it, surely I've got something better to watch.

Ellis Series 1 2024

Ellis Series 1 2024 Written by Paul Logue, Jessica Rushton, Maria Ward and Sian Martin, directed by Nick Hurran, Ryan Tohill and Andy Tohill. A Channel 5 production starring Sharon D Clarke as DCI Ellis and Andrew Gower as DS Harper. There are three 90 minute episodes.

DCI Ellis is sent to a station to help with a murder investigation despite the station not asking for help. DC Harper works at the station and he get assigned to DCI Ellis. Ellis takes charge and she's no nonsense. The station is out of touch, the top detectives are sloppy and their Chief is a weak willed man. They cover things up and protect their own, not so good for the victims seeking help. Some of those cops need a good beat down. Harper decides he's had enough and tells his boss to F off. He gets transferred to Ellis. He's better off.

In the second story a police detective is missing, in the third story a couple is missing. They all soon turn up dead so there's plenty of investigate. The second police station has some issues and really needs a house clean, the third station is way better off, more out of their depth than anything.

I enjoyed the series and hope they make some more. I'd watch them again someday. It's on AppleTV+ in the US.

Dad's Army - The Missing Episodes

Dad's Army - The Missing Episodes

The BBC had the three missing episodes from Series 2 of Dad's Army and the two missing Christmas Specials animated and packed onto a DVD with some extras. My favorite extra was the color restored version of Room At The Bottom.

The three missing episodes were the The Loneliness Of The Long Distance Walker, A Stripe For Frazer and Under Fire. The two Christmas episodes were Santa On Patrol 1968 and Cornish Floral Dance 1970. I have the complete Dad's Army DVD set from the UK and the 3 missing episodes were represented on disc by the radio recordings of the show. There's no complete series on DVD in the US.

The soundtrack for A Stripe For Frazier was recorded off air by a fan, this same thing happened in the restorations of Doctor Who. This was used in the animated episode. They used the radio versions for the other two episodes. The three missing episodes were recreated with a cast in 2019 and released on DVD the same year. That set is out of print and people are asking $150 for a copy.

The animations were produced in B&W, same as the first two series of the show. The animation is fairly limited but watchable. It's very much the same style as the animations the BBC has been producing for Doctor Who.

Room At The Bottom was the only episode from the color series of Dad's Army that didn't have a color copy in the archive. There was a B&W 16MM print that was used to restore the color by digital magic. It looks quite good. There's a good enough making of and a few bits and bobs in the extras. I thought it was worth getting and will watch it again when I go through the whole series again.

Borderline Series 1 2024

Borderline Series 1 2024 Written by John Forte and directed by Robert Quinn. An Irish police procedural set in the border area between the two Irish countries.

Eoin Macken plays Detective Inspector Philip Boyd of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Amy De Bhrún plays Detective Inspector Aoife Regan of the Republic of Ireland's Garda Síochána. They are forced to work together and they don't care for it, especially DI Regan, she's an absolute horror of a partner.

There are three 2 episode stories that aired on Roku September 1 this year. The murders are pretty much standard stuff. Both main characters have back stories that complicate their day to day police work. I could have easily done without them. I turned up the speed after awhile.

It gets an 8.1 on the IMDb but I didn't care that much for it, I gave it a 6, mostly because I had to sit through all the DI Regan hoopla. What an asshole. I might watch a second series but I wouldn't bother watching this one over.