TW Reviews Doctor Who Boom S01E03

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photo copyright BBC

There is a lot riding on this episode given the calibre of the writer.

Former showrunner Steven Moffat (I’m taller tha him you know and a lovely man to chat with) is back to write for the show now run by his old mate Russell T Davies. But does Boom follow the pattern of previous episodes and disappoint?

Damn you can see that Davies and Disney are distant memories in Boom. If this episode had been the season opener the ratings would have been a lot better than they were. Indeed on the back of this maybe Moffat should have been the man to bring back the show for the new era.

We open with two soldiers stumbling across a devastated landscape. They are members of the Anglican Marines whom we first met when they had River Song in custody on a mission against the Weeping Angels. One steps on a landmine and is vaporised while the other, John Vater, who has been blinded in an explosion is treated by a mobile robotic ambulance. It decides four weeks is too long for his injuries to heal to be of value to the war effort. He is given the chance to send one last message to his young daughter before being compressed into a torch like object. It contains an interactive AI of the deceased that will prove critical later. I’ll call it an infostamp as seen in the tenth Doctor story the Next Doctor.

We also meet Vater’s daughter, Splice and soldiers Canto and Mundy Flynn. Kanto and Mundy have a thing for each other while Splice is waiting for her dad to come back. Now here’s the thing; Mundy (Varada Sethu) as we know is to join as a companion in season two and here her introduction to the Doctor and Ruby is fraught to say the least. This is similar to the surprise Clara introduction in Asylum of the Daleks. But that’s the whole tone of this episode. Take nothing for granted.

It is about the horrors and economics of war but as seen through the eyes of the Doctor and Ruby.

When Vater is killed the Tardis materialises and the Doctor runs out to help but he ends up standing on a landmine which we have already seen is lethal. His Time Lord heritage delays the explosion but the tension is palpable. If ever anyone ever had doubts about Ncuti Gatwa as the Doctor Steven Moffat has lain those to rest.

Our fun loving Doctor is suddenly faced with the real possibility of death. He has no gadgets, no special tricks, nothing. He is a man facing his own mortality with only Ruby to help. Ncuti gives a tour de force performance here as the Doctor literally one step from death. The usual fun loving Time Lord is reduced to a terrified, babbling man whose demise will destroy half the planet.

This sudden revelation of the Doctor’s death in this manner will cause such devastation actually ties in with his regeneration energy which we have seen level Trenzalore and destroy the Tardis. That may have confused some viewers and it initially did for me but thankfully I’m a lifelong fan. That’s why all the Easter eggs were a delight even poor Vater telling the ambulance that his vision is impaired, the cry of a Dalek when its eye stalk is compromised as far back as the McCoy era Remembrance of the Daleks and the Doctor telling Splice that he loves fish fingers and custard.

Indeed Ncuti’s performance here brought back shades of Matt Smith for me. That pure rage and anger while trying to keep spirits up opens up this Doctor like never before. His helplessness and terror scare Ruby to an extent but she refuses to do anything he says. She will save him no matter what.

The three storylines converge nicely, each significant to each other. Splice turns up to find her dad along with her protector Mundy as does Canto. Each arrival puts them all in greater danger as the Doctor struggles to control his bopdy functions that will trigger the landmine. Trust is in small supply until the Doctor figures out how to save the day and what is really going on. The war is a fake run by a company to generate profits and the mysterious enemy which may be mist or mud monsters don’t exist at all.

Mundy and her fellow priests have been fighting a one sided war for profit only. Watching her initial distrustful meeting with the frozen Doctor in which she wants to get Splice back to the base with her father’s remains is a beautiful mini journey. Her mission is to keep Splice safe and bring her dad home to her as the infostamp contains his memories and interactive hologram. When she fires on the Doctor and he almost drops the infostamp you jump. Her arc is well done given Canto’s death, her new found role as mother to Splice and taking a chance on this man, whose death will destroy them all, when he challenges her faith against proof is fraught with tension but very well acted.

That’s the strength of this episode; it is believable. I never found anything hard to swallow. It is almost a stage play but also a chance to expand the Ruby mystery and show that travelling with the Doctor is not always a song and dance show. The song here is haunting and beautiful and integral to the action.

War is hell as Mister Ratcliffe tells the Dalek computer in 1963 London and here the stark reality of war is slammed home. Innocent people die in war under the banner of collateral damage or acceptable losses. The true horror of that is lost in a whitewash but here when Ruby is shot by Canto it is brutal and hardhitting, The horror of her body jerking under multiple shots and plunging down the slope like broken doll is horrifying. Moffat killed both Clara and Bill Potts back in the day (remember Bill getting a hole blown in her the size of a basketball before being turned into a Cyberman with the Master#s help?)

Helpless to rush to her side and save the day, The Doctor cries with a feeling of complete uselessness. I don’t think we have seen him experience just how lethal war is before like this. He is stuck in a moment of time helpless while all he cares about falls around him. Could it be that he is seeing those he lost as he stares at Ruby’s broken body? He made a promise to her mother to keep her safe and as failed. Just as he told Rory’s dad that he would bring Amy and Rory back safely, the Doctor’s life may have just claimed another innocent that he was suposed to care for.

When the ambulance decides Ruby’s injuries are too etensive to treat, ssnow begins to fall just as it did before, manifested somehow by Ruby life force fading. There are always options and the Doctor finds a way to save everyone incuding himself when he persuades Mundy to believe him and uses Vater’s infostamp to invade the ambulance’s network. But what does the snow manifestation mean? When Maestro was draining Ruby of her music last week, something was triggered that scared even the Toymaker’s daughter.

Could Ruby be one of the pantheon gods but one that isn’t evil or a meglamaniac? Only a god can scare a god. Is her near death experiences causing her real self to manifest like a butterfly emerging from a caterpillar? When the Doctor opened the veil between realities in Wild Blue Yonder was Ruby a consequence of that act? It would explain why the Doctor looked so nervous doing secret scans of Ruby in the Tardis. It would also explain why he was tracking her in The Church on Ruby Road in the clubs. Could Ruby be the Dark Phoenix of Doctor Who? All this love and attention and hugs may be the Doctor’s way of bringing her to the good side if she does ever emerge. Or was she taken from the baby farm, implanted with a force that will destroy the gods that are coming and left on Earth for the Doctor to find? Is there another force watching out for the Doctor? After all the universe without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about. Food for thought indeed.

Overall, Boom is pure Doctor Who at its best; a beautiful intimate setting with performances that allow us to really see why Gatwa and Gibon were given this job. I was on the edge of my seat. I had no idea how the Doctor was going to get out of this and despite a slightly happy ever after ending, was a journey of perfect writing. The dialogue is delicious. I would have liked to have seen Ruby and the Doctor impacted as they stood in the Tardis door a bit more like the tenth Doctor was at the end of Midnight. On that occasion the Doctor was as close to death as he is in Boom. I have a feeling that the trauma they both go through is merely a taster for what is to come.

Welome back Steven Moffat;  see you again at Christmas.

Forgotten Monsters: The Triffids

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

Monsters work best when they take the familiar and normal everyday things we feel comfortable around and twist them to tap into our primal fears. The Triffids are one such monster. Introduced to the masses in the John Wyndham novel Day of the Triffids, they would spawn a movie and several television adaptations despite the fact the Triffids themselves were peripheral to the novel’s original story.

We know there are flesh eating plants in the wild like the Venus Fly Trap but when we go to sleep at night, we aren’t expecting to find a seven foot one ready to eat us.

What makes the idea of the Triffids so scary is the fact most of the world has been blinded by a meteor shower. As they say the one eyed man is king in the land of the blind but here it is the only way to survive a Trifiid attack. The greatest terror is the one we never knew existed so when the escaped Triffids begin hunting down the blind human populace, the very idea is terrifying. Losing your sight is a terror none of us want to happen. It literally scares us to our very core. But if it did happen at least we have a support network and services to fall back on to cope with this new reality. Not so in the world left in Day of the Triffids. With millions now blind it is impossible to save any one. Stumbling around, blinded and alone, the chilling idea that a giant plant can simply take its time and kill you is something that does make us chill to the very soul.

The origins of the Triffids differ from version to version. In the book, they were genetically modified by the USSR. They escaped into the wild but they produce a high quality oil resulting in cultivation farms across the world. They are capable of moving and are extremely venomous striking their victims with a stinger that lashes from their open pod orifices similar to how lizards feed. Bill Masen is a biologist in the book who survives the being blinded ironically thaanks to a triffid. He is accidentally sprayed by venom in his face but his sight is saved. His eyes are bandaged when the meteors arrive. When he takes them off the following day, the world is in chaos, the worst qualities of man erupt and the Triffids have escaped their farms en masse. While they will eat anything, the devastated human populace is easy pickings for them.

In the movie Bill is a naval officer played by Dallas’ Howard Keel. The 1981 BBC adaptation by John Duttine and 2009 by Dougray Scott. The Triffid origins also changed as it was suggested in the 1981 version that the Triffids came as spores on the meteors and seeded themselves on Earth. In the 2009 version the Triffids retained their oil producing qualities having been discovered by and killed by Bill Masen’s mother. But across all three the Triffids retain their horror. In the movie they are almost like deformed plants, spiky and rotten like autimn trees that pull themselves along with an appendage. One man is stung in the face and seems to almost go into a trance as he is pulled into the Triffid. It’s not clear if they eat the meat directly or release digestive enzymes that dissolve their hapless victims. g.

They are almost silent predators uttering a slurping sound in the movie. The lighthouse battle is one of the most terrifying scenes as they appear resistance to everything and use their long appendages to slash at their prey. With a small space like a lighthouse, it makes the threat more intense. It’s interesting to note that the Triffid on the original movie poster puts me in mind of one of the forms of the Thing in John Carpenter’s remake. Maybe he was paying homage to this version but I digress. The Triffids are in no rush, they don’t speak and in the darkness they herd together. When Bill manages to keep them at bay with an electric fence, they use their intelligence to probe for weak spots in the fence so they can smash it down. When the fence does fall their invasion of the hosue, smashing through the French windows and doors is one of the most memorable sequences in the movie. What makes it so scary is the fact the sanctuary has been taken over by escaped prisoners who have taken the inhabitants and using them for their own base needs. Doctor Who star Carole Ann Ford who played Bettina in the movie is seen being dragged upstairs by a criminal who obviously intends to rape her. Bill is helpless and has to leave them all behind while the Triffids kill everyone in the house. Fire it seems is the only thing that can kill them resulting in a spectacular sight. However as we discover, salt water dissolves them.

In the 1981 television version, the Triffids are redesigned for a new audience. They are like giant flowers at first seemingly at home in hedges and gardens patiently waiting for some unsuspecting human or animal to come its way. Their stingers leave a multilined mark on the skin like they have been clawed causing the victim to fall paralysed where the plant consumes them at its convenience. These Triffids make a clicking sound which is ominous as it could be any animal or bird making the sound. Again the notion of their threat is not even something humanity in general can conceive of making them easy prey. Their bright yellow and orange appearance is to lure people in as they love bright flowers. The first thing we do as a species is sniff them. Only this time you get a stinger in the mouth for your trouble and absorbed.

In the 2009 version, computer generated effects had come into force allowing the development of the Triffids on screen. Now they had roots and tendrils that allowed them to move faster. Two scenes stand out for me. When they attack Bill in a fog shrouded night, they are a formidable foe using heir tendrils to fell prey before spitting venom on them. Joely Richardson’s character of Jo Playton is attacked in an office. The ferociousness of the monster as it rips apart the room to get to her is terrifying making this the most dangerous of all the versions. They can smash through glass to spit their venom like ravenous dogs gunting down their prey.

Maybe it’s time for another reinvention of the Day of the Triffids. Plant monsters are few and far between in sci fi but the Triffids stand out as one of the most terrifying even to this day. Not only are they intelligent, not held back by morals and are driven by hunger.They are not interested in domination. Nature has selected them perhaps to remind humanity that they are not at the top of the food chain and that hubris comes before a very big fall. So the next time you take a notion to sniff a pretty looking flower think twice. You never know.

TW reviews Doctor Who S01E02 The Devil’s Chord

By Owen Quinn author

SPOILERS BEWARE!!!! SPOILERS BEWARE!!!

Now this episode is a big improvement on last week’s season opener Space Babies. I would go so far as to say this was so close to being a classic as you’ll get until either Russell T Davies thought it would be a good idea to end the episode as he did or Disney piped in and told him to do it.

The Devil’s Chord opens in the 1920s when a music tutor is giving a piano lesson to a young boy. He plays something forbidden, the Devil’s Chord which brings forward the Maestro, using the chord to gain entry into our reality. Immediately we get the pronoun thing in our faces which is unnecessary. Keep that out of a show that is a family event and only causes controversy wherever it goes.

Maestro’s entrance is impressive enough without adding that in. However the over the top elements of the performance do not do the character any favours. More on that later. The tutor is a musical genius who never got the big break so is filled with songs the world will never hear. Maestro sucks him him dry killing after revealing the the pupil he was teaching was in fact a harbinger for Maestro. She promptly gets rid of the boy too. Dark stuff that bodes well.

Ruby wants to see the Beatles recording their first album and the Doctor cannot believe he has never done it before. Suitably attired they excitedly cross the iconic zebra crossing on Abbey road. It is clear these two are having fun and certainly their chemistry shines. Their enthusiasm makes you want to go with them to see what happens and it is infectious. You cannot help but smile at their antics.

However they soon learn that something is very wrong as the Beatles and Cilla Black are singing songs that are dull. Upon questioning them they find music has somehow gone from the world. There is no dancing, composing and all the classic hits from both Cilla and the Beatles no longer exist.

When the Doctor asks Ruby to play a tune on the piano to see what happens, it brings forth Maestro from within the piano. Worse still, as she emerges she has the same giggle as the Toymaker. Terrified the Doctor and Ruby run.

Now let’s just address the casting of Jinx Monsoon as the Maestro. I don’t care who plays the role as long as it is the right person. I initially saw clips and thought to myself this was going to be played for laughs by Maestro being OTT. Jinx is a real life drag queen and the BBC did her no service by showing clips that reinforced the stereotypical impression people have of drag queens as being over the top. I thought this was stunt casting to keep in line with inclusion and diversity. Anyone that has read my books, the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues, will know I am a big advocate of of diversity and inclusion where it fits. It cannot be shoehorned in just for the sake of offending or not being accepted. I am an amputee and have discovered just how disabled unfriendly the world is. But I’m not just going to stick a character in a wheelchair in a story for no reason.

So I will say something I honestly didn’t think I would say in this review. Jinx Monsoon was perfect as the Maestro. When she first appeared I thought drop the OTT and just act but when you discover the over the top traits are due to the fact her dad is the Toymaker then it fits in perfectly. He was mad, bad and dangerous to know and so Maestro is too. When Maestro was evil, hunting down her victims there is actually a real tension there and fear telling you that this ginger haired madwoman will have no problem killing you. Jinx is predatory in her expression and movements. Her very eyes burn with malignancy.

Ask the old pensioner that dared play her harpsicord or is it a piano? I’m not sure which. So between murdering a kid, a music tutor and a pensioner, Maestro has no limits. She will take what she wants from whomever she wants. Like her father it is all about me, me, me. The line between outrageous and evil is walked beautifully here but if Maestro had been a regular villain of the week then the over the top moments would have only reinforce a stereotype. Shame on the show if that had happened.

This is seen in what was the best scene of the show where I was genuinely unnerved. Hiding in a cellar, the Doctor uses the sonic to kill sound. Maestro is hunting them for Ruby’s music and the tension is palpable. It reminded me of being stalked by a Weeping Angel and have to say the memory of Space Babies was gone in that moment. The absolute silence and camera work were beautifully done.

We have to acknowledge Ncuti Gatwa’s performance here. He is terrified as the battle with the Toymaker tore his soul apart causing the biregeneration. It took two Doctors to stop him and this time he cannot do it. It shows that his battles leave a scars that he rarely talks but simmer below the surface. This is an unexpected insight to the Doctor’s mind and a sharp contrast to the loving life Doctor we have come to see. Their initial joy at meeting the Beatles at the start of the episode amplifies this. They are trapped like rats in the dark being saved only by the old lady playing her music which Maestro homes in on.

The Doctor’s terror is showcased in a scene that brings back the fourth Doctor’s ghost. When Ruby insists that Maestro does not make a difference the Doctor brings her to the present day where the world is literally ash. Just as the fourth doctor showed Sarah Jane and Laurence Scarman the future devastated Earth if Sutekh isn’t stopped in the Pyramids of Mars, the Doctor shows just how powerful Maestro is and what will happen if she isn’t stopped somehow. It is just as powerful now as when Tom Baker, Elisabeth Sladen and Michael Sheard did it. Beautifully done.

The final battle is almost balletic in nature as the Doctor and Ruby face Maestro down. When Maestro tries to drain Ruby of her musical skills, the music in her is harmful to Maestro indicating that Ruby is so much more and that her being left on the church steps at Christmas has a bigger meaning than we thought. Hearing the Christmas choir made me sit up. It is somehow part of her very being but how? What is it?

If one chord brought Maestro here then the Doctor assumes that another will send her back. And delightfully this time the Doctor fails. He does not find the last key to complete the sequence. Maestro is seemingly safe to take over. I loved the effects of the musical notes solidifying into reality which are key to allowing Paul McCartney and John Lennon to complete the Doctor’s tune and send Maestro back to where she came from. But not before she warns of someone else who has been waiting. Another super being from the Toymaker’s dimension?

My God, I was impressed and expectations subverted so far that I loved this but then I got kicked in the balls so hard I’m still crying.

The musical ending totally destroyed what could have been a classic terrifying story. The fourth wall has been broken before in the first Doctor episode the Fesst of Stephen and when the fourth Doctor wheels a new K9 out at the end of Invasion of Time and smiles into the camera but the wink here is unnecessary. All suspense of belief was gone in that second. I don’t know whether Russell T Davies thought this would be a good idea or if Disney stuck their three fingers in and said they wanted it done but it was awful. This is Doctor Who not Disney Kid’s Club or Glee. The inclusion of this where the Doctor and Ruby dance on a musical zebra crossing and even the Tardis is musically possessed is jumping the shark. Nowhere in Doctor Who history would this fit in. Of course it hid the real twist that Maestro’s  boy harbinger was alive and well.  Is this the new storytelling that Russell T Davies claims drew him back to the show? Does he not see this is not storytelling but compliance to the money men for the sake of the show? He knows Doctor Who intimately as I do so is he behind closed doors thinking how wrong this was for Who.

I will watch this again because there is so much to love that drips Doctor Who but I’ll stop the second the Doctor says twist. Stephen Moffat has penned next week’s episode Boom so here’s hoping we get a great turn. As for the Devil’s Chord, avoid the musical ending and you will love it.

TW reviews Doctor Who S01E01 Space Babies

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

SPOILERS BEWARE!!! SPOILERS BEWARE!!!

So here we go. A brand new series of adventures featuring the 15th Doctor (technically the 16th) and Ruby Sunday in a disappointingly short 8 episode run. So will fans’ fears of woke changing what we love as the mouse watches from the background?

First thing that strikes me is the massive publicity drive this got in America with murals on trains and buses while the people that have kept this show going especially when it was down get a few snippets on social media. Well it isn’t the first time that has happened. Indeed there was no fanfare to announce tht Ncuti Gatwa was the new Doctor. Why not? Russell T Davies has said that the BBC is on its way out so is the attention being focused elsewhere in case the show needs a new home?

Well after this episode I wouldn’t be surprised that this marks the downward spiral leading to the end. I stayed up and watched the midnight showing on BBC iPlayer. The internet the following morning is divided about Space Babies but you can see the younger fans loved it while the RIP Doctor Who wave seems justified in shaking its collective head.

We start off right from the end of The Church on Ruby Road as Ruby boards the Tardis. We get a rundown of Doctor Who history before going back to meet the dinosaurs. To be fair that’s where I would go first. The fears of Martha Jones prove justified as Ruby steps on a butterfly and changes the future. Here comes my first problem.

The Doctor can now bring dead things back to life simply by blowing on them? This restores the timeline and Ruby is human again. Jumping the shark like this grates just like the 13th Doctor’s regeneration where even the clothes changed without explanation. All it would have taken was a line saying it was the Toymaker manipulating the game but no. But even the classic series was guilty of this with the Master’s multiple returns from death (Planet of Fire for example where he burned to death). Also Image of the Fendahl where a locked door mysteriously opens freeing the imprisoned Doctor for no reason. But this is cheating the audience. Don’t treat them like idiots. In my Time Warriors books I go out of my way to ensure plot holes and illogical events don’t happen for the sake of moving the story forward. Normal Joe will roll his eyes while fans will try to weave it all together in fanfiction.

Now the chemistry between the Doctor and Ruby is great. They get on so well and Millie Gibson effortlessly portrays the excitement of stepping aboard a time machine and having all of creation at your feet. But does she have a hidden agenda and does the Doctor really trust her? Not from his actions later on in the episode. As an aside I do like the new title sequence.

Then they land on a space station seemingly in need of repair and on the verge of destruction. There is a monster in the dark and Ruby’s initial awe quickly dissipates. Even the Doctor is uncharacteristically frightened of this creature. Escaping, they find themselves in a baby farm. It may offer a clue as to Ruby’s past as her DNA does not exist anywhere and the image of the babies suspended in liquid is a bit disturbing.

But all this falls apart when they find the bridge where talking babies in prams are running the station. They are scared of the Boogeyman and are delighted their mummy and daddy have come back for them. It is a ludicrous idea but the Doctor and Ruby’s reactions are enjoyable much likethe tenth Doctor and Donna being mistaken as husband and wife. The Doctor can speak baby as we saw with Matt Smith on multiple occasions but here the Doctor can have full blown conversations with them. But they have a secret guardian, Jocelyn, who knows the end is coming for all of them.

The story falls completely and becomes embarassing. When baby Eric goes after the Boogeyman, how does he get into the locker to hide and survive the attack? Again logic is thrown out the window for handiness sake. Nothing can save this episode as we discover the Boogeyman is made out of snot yet the Doctor risks all to save it from death because it is the last of its kind just like him. What? Given half of it is already been sucked into space I suppose the assumption is it will rebuild its legs from more baby snot. Not forgetting of course that the station could not move but then is able to thanks to years of nappies being stored and creating methane gas so the station literally farts its way to the nearest world where they can live.

Russell T Davies is a great writer but even at the Eccleston era there was dumb ideas, farting Slitheens and burping wheelie bins. Space Babies feels like the love child of something you would see on Disney, Rugrats and Look Who’s Talking. Snot monsters is like something from Eerie Indiana (though that was good show).

I sat at one o’clock in the morning and just stared like I’d been slapped in the face. Is this really what they class as new ways of story telling which apparently brought Davies back to the show. Never ever criticise The Twin Dilemma again folks. As a fan and a lifelong fan who knows what he is talking about, this is Doctor Who at the lowest level. Like the stockpiled dirty nappies, it was a pile of shit.

It baffles me that this would have been passed as a televised story never mind a season opener. This zany idea just does not work at all.

The only part that made me sit up was the Doctor being caught up in the memory of the night Ruby was left at the church. This time the mysterious woman has vivid red nails almost talon like. Now remember that the person that took the Toymaker’s gold tooth also had red nail varnish and in the Devil’s Chord the villain also has nails like this. Is there a connection? Gatwa keeps his Doctor fluid almost as if he has too many moods going on and he is almost mentally hyperventilating at this new life free from past guilts. When he tells Ruby he will never take her back to the night she was left at the church to find out who her mother is there is a real tension between them. I’m not altogether sure if Ruby isn’t annoyed at this and says she was going to ask him to take her back to her real mother, Carla, the only mother she has ever known.

The ghost of Matt Smith rears his head as the Doctor drops the fun loving facade and uses the Tardis to scan Ruby just as he once did with Clara, the Impossible Girl. There is the hint of fear in his performance at what she may be so is that why he invited her to travel with him? is this a case of keep your enemies close? Is this excitable Doctor not as happy and trusting as he seems?

Is the shadow of the seventh Doctor right in front of us as the master manipulator and keeping Ace close as he recognised she was part of a greater threat? While this is a new Doctor, he certainly has shades of his past selves.

Performance wise, a great Tardis team but mired in a script so bad that it needs to go into the bin. I bet in years to come the baby actors will be signing at conventions. On to the Devil’s Chord please and let’s hope things are on the up.

Forgotten Heroes: Planet of the Apes: Cornelius

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriros and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright 20th century Fox

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

Despite it being over fifty years since the release of the very first Planet of the Apes movie, there are only two names eternally synonymous with the series even with the recent remakes; Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowall. Although Mister Heston appeared in the first two, McDowall would not only do four movies but the short lived television series too. He was absent from the role of Cornelius in the second movie, Beneath the Planet of the Apes but played three characters in total. He would become the face of the franchise making all sorts of appearances including the Carol Burnett show as Cornelius placing him firmly in pop culture status.

Just from this clip alone you see that only McDowall was born to play Cornelius. He understood the character imbuing him with traits such as the nose twitch and jaw movement. The slight hunch, how he walked and held his body were perfect. Although Cornelius appeared in the second movie, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, he wasn’t played by McDowall and you can tell. Filming clashed with a directorial duty over in Scotland so British American actor David Warson took the role for this movie only. While Kim Hunter returned as his fiesty wife Zira, you could easily tell that this was not McDowall beneath the mask. They had a chemistry that flowed beyond the mask and bounced off each other seamlessly making the audience believe that these two talking apes were in fact a real human couple.

This connection was lost for the sequel. As you see from the above clip, the finishing touch for the character of Cornelius was McDowall’s distinctive voice. Watson did a capable job but too far removed from the performance delivered by McDowall in the original. You can see from the photos that even the body and head shape were very different from that of McDowall’s.

Cornelius was the husband of the strong willed scientist, Zira, who fought for human rights and protested when they were treated as fodder just as animal rights activists sabotaged fox hunts. He was terrified what would happen of the council decided she was too much of a social problem inciting civil unrest. His pleas for her to tread carefully went often unheard such was her passion for uncovering the truth of what has been found out in the Forbidden Zone. As a psychologist and vet she had a keen interest in humans and knew there were was more to them than taught by the Council. Cornelius had found curious artifacts at an archaeological site in the Forbidden Zone which further piqued her interest.

Cornelius preferred to keep his questions internal for fear of the Ministry of Science’s retribution. His discoveries in the Forbidden Zone were actively discouraged by the Minister of Science, orangutan Dr Zaius. He feared that Cornelius would put together the truth about their world; that man once had a successful thriving civilisation until some catastrophe cut them down allowing rhe apes to rise to power. He stood by Zira because he loved her deeply but when Taylor (Heston) and human girl Nova (Linda Harrison) arrived, he tried to get them away from his home in case the gorillas found them. While fascinated by the fact Taylor could talk and confirmed that man was once the superior race, Cornelius must put his scientific curiosity aside to protect him and Zira. Fate has other ideas as Zaius finally reveals the truth about the ape culture and knows what man once had. As we know man detonated nuclear bombs reducing their world to this.

Original Cinema Quad Poster – Movie Film Posters

But Taylor and Nova travelling into the Zone brings ony new troubles for Cornelius and Zira in the second movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes. A second astronaut arrives, John Brent (James Francuscus), looking for Taylor and the others. He soon finds the truth about this world too realising they have flown through a time warp. Now they find themselves on a rescue mission to save Taylor from the clutches of a cult like movement of mutant human surviviors ready to claim their world back by wiping out the apes with bomb. These humans worship a doomsday bomb as their god and easily control others to do their bidding.

McDowall returns as Cornelius in the third movie Escape from Planet of the Apes. Just before the bomb detonates, wiping out the world, Cornelius and Zira escape in Taylor’s spaceship and end up back in present day Earth. At first they are celebrities and live a celebrity lifestyle but forces are gathering that will turn them into hunted fugitives. When the government discovers what the future will bring they decide that Cornelius and Zira must die along with their new born baby Cesar. You cannot help but feel for them that they are living the life hidden from them by the Ministry of Science. It is bountiful and they have been accepted by human society in ways they never dreamed of. You care about the three apes because they were too trusting and should never have revealed what is to come.

With the help of circus owner, the kindly Armando (Fantasy Island and Star Trek’s Khan Ricardo Montalban) they run but are gunned down. We as the audience know how good and kind Zira and Cornelius are and their knowledge could help mankind but in the end xenophobia kicks in. Their murder is shocking and brutal but as we learn in the final scene of the movie their baby Caesar is alive and well ensuring the future will still happen.

While McDowall went on to play Caesar in the following movies and the television show as Galen, there is always something about the spirit of Cirnelius with him when the ape mask goes on. A lot of the success of the franchise lies with Roddy McDowall so when Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is released, I’m quite sure he will be looking down on his legacy.

Forgotten Heroes: Odyssey 5’s Sarah Forbes

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

In another universe I wouldn’t have to be writing about Odyssey 5. It would have been on all our lips like Quantum Leap. My first view of it was on a late night slot on television and by the end of the hour and a half I was hooked. very few shows have caught my attention in the first episode like this for example X Files and The Walking Dead but Odyssey 5 was a trailblazer for other shows today. It had swearing, full frontal nudity all wrapped up in a sci fi coat.

The characters were flawed; three dimensional good and bad in all their glory. To get the show’s premise you should click on the video above which is the show’s intro and gives you everything you need to know. What is beautiful about odyssey 5 written and created by the late Manny Coto, was that it played with our expectations of time travel in the same way as it did the characters. They all know what is going to happen in their lives and the world so all they need to do is live it again and look for signs of the mystery of what caused the Earth to explode and stop it. However this is not the case as their very investigations begin to change the future within months. These themes were also explored in the series Travellers. The Odyssey was the name of the shuttle they were all on when the Earth died. The titular 5 refers to the occupants of the shuttle. Three of them are astronauts Chuck Taggart (Peter Weller), his son Neil (Christopher Gorham), scientist Kurt Mendel (Sebastian Roche), astronaut and senator’s daughter Angela (Tamara Craig Thomas) and reporter Sarah Forbes (Leslie Silva).

Sarah Forbes played by Leslie Silva, was a high profile news reporter who bagged a place upon the Odyssey shuttle mission. Out of all the five people sent back in time, Sarah represents the one with the most to lose and the most to gain. In the original timeline, Sarah’s young son Corey died of a rare form of cancer.

Its symptoms went undiagnosed until too late. As a result Sarah’s marriage to her husband Paul fell apart and she began an affair with her boss at the news station, Troy. Now Corey is alive and well and Sarah has a two fold mission; save the Earth and her son.

Being returned five years in the past, Sarah is still married to Paul. It must be hard to pretend to still love someone you’d grown beyond in your mind and heart but Sarah goes along with it. The type of cancer she knows Corey will get is hard to diagnose and with no symptoms showing at this point in time, Sarah has the luxury to watch for them. and do something to stop it from happening.

Her contribution to the team is her access to news networks and weird stories that may be the work of the synthetics or the Sentients. She alerts the team to the ten year olds murdering family members or being the sole survivors of house fires. It turns out her reporter instincts are right as the children are being controlled to build a machine to create a portal. The team don’t get to save all the children but most of them are not taken and returned to their families.

Equally she and Angela try to stop the kidnapping of a little girl but somehow their presence changes events causing another child to be taken instead leaving Sarah and Angela the new suspects. As the others found, knowing the future is not a guarantee that events will take the same path. Chuck and Neil learn this lesson all too well when Chuck’s beloved wife Paige is murdered by a synthetic skin that changes her into an assassin. Kurt discovers he doesn’t know sports results as well as he thought he did which places his life in danger. With ther arrival back in the past and subsequent investigations are changing events so the future is shifting. Maybe this will apply to Corey nd Sarah can save him. Have what they have done already managed to prevent the destruction of Earth? They don’t know but this future knowledge threatens their own well being.

Sarah arrives home one night to discover Paul has taken Corey having discovered that Sarah has been giving the kid medication that has not been prescribed by a doctor. Unable to tell anyone the truth about what she knows, Sarah looks like a crazy mother before the court at the custody hearing. Her story falls apart on the stand and Corey tells the court he didn’t like the medicine and his mummy told him she was now a doctor. Looking like she is abusing her son, Sarah has supervised visits only which upsets Corey as he doesn’t want to leave his mother. Despite begging her husband to believe her, Sarah is alone and the more time she spends apart from Corey, the less she can do to help stop the cancer taking hold.

The scene where she receives the phone call telling her she has lost her case is heartbreaking because we as the audience know she is racing against time to save her child. In reality, we would do the same but that’s what Odyssey 5 does best. It has a heart and really has you wanting to reach out and hug the characters when they are kicked in the nuts. You’d think that given they are trying to save the world, fate would give them a break but sadly not.

Her actions end her marriage before it did in the original timeline and worse still, she meets Troy, the man she will end up with. Despite herself she can’t resist Troy’s advances which results in her breaking up his relationship leaving her looking like a marriage wrecker. By th season’s multiple cliffhangers, Paul realises Sarah has been right all long as Corey is diagnosed with cancer. What a beautiful and terrifying theme to include where you witness your child dying twice, burying them twice. It is such a pity that we will never get to see what happens. Knowing what she knows, would Sarah have tried to use synthetic tech to save Corey? Would she have made a deal with the devil to keep Corey alive? What impact would that have on her relationships with the team? Would saving your child cause the end of the world? Those are fascinating themes that could have been explored but never will be. Manny Coto passed in 2023 and he ever got around to finishing the story in another medium.

But Sarah has fun as well. She gets along with Harry, a synthetic that turns out to be a super nerd of sorts and teaches her the Vulcan nerve pinch which she uses in future episodes when fighting the synthetics. She is upset when Harry dies but it shows them synthetics are not all the robotic killing machines as portrayed so far.

And that’s what it is to be human: to laugh amid the terror and tragedy. Of all the Odyssey crew, Sarah was the one that had reason to fight harder than anyone else.

Forgotten Villains: Star Trek TAS: Tchar of the Skorr

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

photos copyright Paramount Pictures

I was recently made aware of just how many movies and television shows the younger generation have never heard of, never mind seen. So to that end, we look back at some characters you really need to see before you kick the bucket.

There’s nothing I like more than a flying alien especially when based on Earth birds like eagles. There’s something about them that immediately elevates the fear factor because it’s bad enough being attacked by something predatory that pricks your primal fears but when it swoops from above outmanoeuvring you it is lethal. In Enterprise season 3, the alien threat the Xindi are composed of several species. One was supposed to be an avian but they had become extinct. Only the animated series provided such a creature given in animation there are no limits to the size and shapes of the aliens the Enterprise crew could encounter.

In season one’s sixteenth episode the Jihad, Kirk and Spock joins forces with a variety of aliens on a quest to prevent a disaster from happening. One of the specialists that are summoned is Tchar from the avian species the Skorr. He is the hereditary prince of the Skorr and Master of the Eyrie. They were a violent warrior people over two centuries ago with advanced military technology and could breed warriors at an exponential rate. But they became a civilised race and part of the Federation thanks to the teachings of their religious leader Alar.

Upon his death the Skorr made him immortal by placing his brain waves into a sacred sculpture, the Soul of Alar (also known as the Soul of Skorr). It was stolen. If the Skorr find tHis out they will declare holy war on everyone consuming all planets in the galaxy. They are capable of breeding 200 billion warriors in two years which makes them a serious threat to the stability of the Federation.

Their mission now is to retrieve the Soul of the Skorr.

Kirk and this team will be the fourth to try and get it back from an unstable world full of volcanic activity and atmospheric storms. Tchar’s ability to fly gives the group an advantage from aerial reconnaissance. They are attacked by mechanical dragon like creatures and Tchar is seemingly carried off by one of the beasts. They find a Skorr temple where Tchar claimed he can hear the Soul of Alar calling to him.

Just as they are about to get the Soul, Tchar is revealed as the villain. He stole the Soul because it has reduced th Skorr to soft creatures when they should be fighting great battles. The Federation has taken their warrior souls from them. With the relic destroyed the Skorr will rise up and take revenge. When Spock points out many will die, Skorr agrees saying it will be a warrior’s death. They are very Klingon like in their thinking as several times since the Khitomer Accords, some Klingons have fought to go back to their warrior days rejecting the new peace.

Skorr is defeated when he turns off the gravity forcing them to fight on his terms; in the air like Skorr. Between them Kirk and Spock capture him sending him back the planet they were initially summoned to. Skorr’s view is seen as a sickness and he is sent for rehabilitation. They acknowledge he is proud and brave but has to be made sane and whole again.

It is a pity that these animated episodes only run around twenty minutes. The Skorr are an unique species in the Star Trek universe as avians. With today’s CGI it wouldn’t be hard to have one as a member of the Entrprise crew or feature in a story. Maybe it’s about time we revisited the Skorr and expand their culture to make them fan favourites.

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Hatchet: A Multilayered Masterpiece

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

2007 saw the release of Hatchet, a new horror movie that would become a franchise spawning three more movies, action figures and comic books. From the mind of Adam Green, it saw the introduction of Victor Crowley in to horror. I almost said villain there but unlike Michael and Freddy, he is really a victim. Indeed, Victor was a victim of circumstance and other’s actions while he was still in the womb. So, it is bloody no wonder that he reacts so badly to the intrusions into his territory in the movies. He is simply protecting his space.

Victor, we learn, is a repeater forever doomed to come back from the dead for eternity until he is reunited with his father. The legend is tested in Hatchet 2 but the ashes in the ruin are not his father so it fails miserably. While the intentions were good, the execution is flawed.

Victor was the result of an affair his father, Thomas Crowley (Kane Hodder who also plays adult Victor), had with the nurse who was tending his terminally ill mother. They fell in love conceiving Victor in the process. When Victor’s mother found out about their love in her dying moments, she cursed the baby robbing her husband of his heir, the one thing she couldn’t give him due to her illness. Victor’s mother died in childbirth and he was born with deformities.

Victor’s father, played by Kane Hodder, took his son and moved to Honey Island Swamp, supposed home of a Bigfoot type monster for many years. They would go to town but the kids would tease Victor over his appearance relentlessly. Victor never had contact with any other kids and that is a vital part of growing up. Within the character’s introduction Adam Green makes his monster/villain sympathetic by introducing the themes of bullying and isolation. Victor’s dad does not avail of any services the medical world provides, probably because he does not have the money to avail of them. The shack they live in is basic and Victor does not have much in the way of toys or games consoles or any of the other things taken for granted by kids these days. The basic joy of playing is extended only to in and around their house but if a stranger calls Victor has to scurry away into the safety of the house. It is the only way his father can keep him safe from the bullies. It is all he can do to give his so any sort of life free from any more pain than he already suffers.

By introducing the themes of being different, disability and poverty, Hatchet becomes a social commentary. We probably laugh at it without thinking about these issues but if we look at the real world, especially now, in this cost-of-living crisis, disabled kids living in poverty and their parents struggling to give them a decent life is very real. Indeed, it applies to all children these days but by adding these to Victor’s life it immediately elevates him to more than just another bloodthirsty slasher killer. It is society that has let Victor down as well as taunting bullies. His father’s poverty, their location out in the swamp and the attitudes of others are not Victor’s fault. It is clear from the scene at the grocery store that Victor is terrified of children because bullies are the only ones he has met so far. By this being his only exposure to children, it makes him believe others represent pain. All he has is his father and anyone else is a threat.

If his father had sought out social help then Victor would have known the joy of playing with other children. Kids don’t see colour or differences; they only see another person to play with. If Victor had grown up with this sort of emotional and physical contact then the pressure would have also been off his father. He could have availed of facilities and services for children like Victor but it wasn’t to be. So ashamed was Thomas of Victor’s disfigurement which is severe, Thomas thought it was better to keep him isolated. Intentionally or not Hatchet highlights the need for social services in society or kids slip through the cracks., Les we forget kids like Victor were put away into institutions and kept a dark family secret where they died forgotten while the world went by.

By keeping Victor isolated from the rest of the world, people being what they are will make up stories about the monster, the freak in the swamp. The parents would probably scare their kids with these tales as a deterrent to stop them from going into the alligator infested swamps. Rightly so, but, no-one would have thought the effect of these stories as the older kids get the bolder they get. They can be easily led by others with alarming consequences.

This is what happens one Halloween when a gang decide to go to Victor’s house and scare him with fireworks. His dad has gone to run an errand so Victor is locked inside the house. Thomas comes back to a burning house. Victor is behind the door trying to get out. Thomas uses an axe to smash the door down but doesn’t realise his son is behind it. Victor collapses as he is hit in the face. He dies leaving behind his dad who dies ten years later from a broken heart. Again, this may seem like a simple piece of story to fill in the plot but it is in fact a beautiful representation of the bonds between a father and son. Thomas literally gives up his life to care for his son. It isn’t even a question; it is his duty. Perhaps he never got over the death of Victor’s mother. A broken heart can be a burden but when you have a child involved, some cap their grief and put all their attention into the child. Life is all about their care and well-being and nothing will stop anyone from ensuring that happens. Thomas falling in love destroyed his son’s life and now he has killed the only thing he had left. Maybe the grief he had been ignoring finally could be ignored no more and ate away at him. He died alone and unloved which again brings in the theme of isolation and the importance of human contact. Like his son, Thomas had no-one. What a tragedy that in this world with billions of people, not one thought of reaching out to Thomas and giving him a lifeline. His money was good enough for Gertrude’s store, he was known in the area; yet nothing. How is that possible in this world yet it is sadly a fact that happens every day.

When you look at it, Victor is to be pitied more than feared. He spends the afterlife seeking out his father, the haunting wails of daddy echoing out across the swamps. You can hear the pain and longing in that cry. Regardless of his murderous ways, Victor is alone. Let’s face it, anyone stupid enough to go out there deserve what they get because all contact with the outside world has terrified Victor hence his actions. He is a kid desperately seeking his dad, the one stable thing in his life that loved him and cared for Victor regardless of what he looked like. This was attempted in the Rob Zombie remake of Halloween by showing the origins of Michael in an abusive household from his mother’s boyfriend and his relationship with his mother. But it fails miserably, not convincing audiences at all, unlike the one between Thomas and Victor.

Behind all the blood and guts and dark comedy, there is a sadness in Hatchet where you cannot help but feel sorry for Victor. We have seen movies like Mask, the Elephant Man and even Beauty and the Beast where someone who looks different deals with society in different ways. Hatchet falls into that category. Whether Adam Green inserted these themes deliberately or it is just new eyes seeing it, Hatchet is a horror movie that has heart and social commentary that is still effective in today’s society; perhaps more than ever before. That’s why Hatchet stands head and shoulders above the rest of the genre for its soul and emotion.

Book Excerpt: Zombie Blues 3: Faithless Zombie

By and copyroght of Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

The zombie rollercoaster continues as the undead continue to give us their view of being a rotting corpse under the control of Mother Nature.
This time round we meet Comic Book zombie and the zombie who thinks the ending of Toy Story 3 is sacrilege. What happens when a zombie’s faith in God is rocked to its very foundation and why is the spirit of Elvis Presley still going strong in the vast
roaming herds?
A zombie tells why the covid pandemic was much preferable to being undead and why having a club foot makes you feel normal as a zombie. Plus more zombie characters than you can shake a stick at.

Available on Amazon now!

Faithless Zombie

“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name”

Damn those words are so hollow right now. The Church’s reputation has suffered in recent years but never so much as right now.

If ever the world needed you now was the time for God to step in and show himself to his flocks of scared worshippers it was now.

But he didn’t. He wasn’t going to any time soon.

Millions succumbed to the wrath of Mother Nature withering into these shuffling husks beneath her poisonous touch. Gnarled fingers stroked the purity of the flesh surrounding the soul, twisting it into abominations intent on killing every last human on the planet. What was your response God?

Yeah, good one; hide in heaven silently watching us struggle as usual like some reality show you can switch off without an afterthought. It would not be a stretch to say my very soul is broken. But then again that’s been your response for centuries; absolute silence and you wonder why humanity has lost faith in you? According to the Holy Bible you weren’t so quiet when you needed Moses or Noah when the shit hit the fan.

I preached every day to the faithful so they could see your truth in every day life packing my Church every Sunday. We acknowledged your glory as being everywhere from the first golden rays of the sun rise to the miraculous arrival of a baby to the world. How many of those babies lie dead because of your impotence you coward?  Who would have thought that the emergence of the undead would be the proof the world needed to declare you really exist? 

You bore creation in less than a week so therefore you created Mother Nature. By definition her very existence proves that you do exist once and for all. Atheists all around the world are either dead and in your glory or undead like me or confirming their own beliefs as they gaze upon this shattered world of the dead. God exists, hallelujah! So what? How can you silently stand by and witness your own creation be torn apart reducing our ephemeral lives to ash like this? Where does this fit in your great plan the faithful ask? Why haven’t you seen fit to open the heavens, step in and put an end to this horrendous scheme? If this is God working in mysterious ways, it’s certainly winning you no fans. I put on this sacred collar to preach your word to your flock but now another controls them easier than any shepherd could. If my cold dead fingers could rip this collar from my turkey neck they certainly would