Ever lose your heart to a starship trooper? Well, try losing a leg to a Klingon!
I don’t mean Chewbacca rip an arm off, limb loss. I mean, he got a hold of my prosthetic leg and tried to make a weapon out of it to whip up Klingon bloodlust. He left me clinging on (see what I did there) to the side of a transporter while he read my new book, The Time Warriors, When Angels Burn.
All I did was ask to sit on his Klingon captain’s chair for a photo then the great leg escapade began. It seems Bat’leths are on their way out so rushing at an enemy with a human leg will make an enemy turn and run. Well, you can be sure that whomever’s leg the Klingon is holding ain’t running anywhere any more. I bet he watched Ghosts of Mars. I tried top kick him in the behind but it got stuck and don’t ask me how.
Does a Klingon shit in the woods? After seeing my leg sticking out of there, I don’t want to know, really.
So there I was, leg off, stump hanging and doing my best to hop when off he went and sat in his command chair to read. So there he sat, my leg at his feet like Commander Kruge’s pet lizard dog in Star Trek 3 The Search for Spock. Then I noticed he’s reading my new book The Time Warriors, When Angels Burn. I bet Worf wasn’t such a naughty Klingon.
So, if the Klingonds buy the book in numbers equal to the space armada that attacked Cardassia in Deep Space 9, then I can buy a new leg or two. Am I still clinging on to the transporter where he left me? Will I ever get my leg back? And how many books will the Klingon race buy? Or was Q right? I woinder has he ate any good books lately? Should |I be insulted if they don’t eat them?
Klingons are komplicated!
Check the evidence below ro see this heinous crime!
Time passes and people grow older. Some of us look great and the rest of you…well, time’s a bitch.
But one celebrity that time seems to have ignored completely and transformed into another character is Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel’s Cordelia, Charisma Carpenter. When I met her in September of this year, I had to look twice. I don’t know what I was expecting but to say Charisma is looking great is an understatement.
Her hair was tied back and wearing glasses and the first thing that struck me was just how much she looked like Lynda Carter from the Wonder Woman series. During that series, Lynda’s secret identity was agent Diana Prince. She too had glasses and tied back hair. You don’t believe me? Compare the photo below to the one above.
Seems clear to me talking about the similarity.
Charisma I had heard could be difficult with fans but not a bit of it. She is one of the nicest people you could meet. She looks you in the eye when talking to you, doesn’t rush you or seem eager to get you out of the way so she can get as many fans through as possible. We all know why she was killed off in Angel and the issues she had at the hands of Josh Weddon so it is to her credit that rose above all of this to burn the character of Cordelia into an icon fans still to this day love and admire.
I pointed out to her how similar she looked to Diana Prince which led us to talking about Lynda Carter. Charisma has never met her but follows her on social media. We chatted about everything bar Buffy and Angel and it was great, I’m sure while celebrities will inevitably talk endlessly about their shows and characters but it’s refreshing to chat about other things and life itself.
I usually get comics signed by celebrities which are relevant to their show or character and I was surprised to find that there is only one comic book that focused on Cordelia itself. I find that bizarre given how integral the character is to the entire Buffy universe.
So, I got it signed and while David Boreanez was due to also appear before cancelling to go to the Emmys, I would have perhaps got him to sign it to as Angel and Cordelia are as intertwined as Buffy and Angel.
I’m so glad I got to meet and chat with Charisma. It was truly a pleasure.
It’s not every day that Superman swoops into town for a visit but last September, that’s exactly what happened.
At a comic con, Tyler Heochlin and Elizabeth Tulloch arrived to meet fans. Elizabeth also doubled for her screen partner and husband in real life, David Giuntoli who played Grimm.
I had been so excited by this because Superman and Lois had taken the formula and created something brand new with it. And thanks to James Gunn, it had been tragically cut short because he was making this highly anticipated new Superman movie to reboot the DC cinematic universe to make it reach Marvel’s standards. Well, that was a fuck up, wasn’t it? Fans were denied another three years of this great show and I don’t say that lightly.
Tyler is effortlessly the best Superman in years, up there with Cavill. He makes it seem so easy. I became a fan of his when he starred as Derek the werewolf in Teen Wolf. So when he cat as Superman in the CW universe, it was a great choice. When you meet him in real life, he’s much taller and with those chiselled features is every bit Clark Kent/Superman.
And let no one tell you that he isn’t kind and patient with fans. He shakes everyone’s hands, gives hugs and makes sure those few minutes with him stay with you the rest of your life. Now as he arrived that day, he went straight into photo shoot mode.
I had booked the duo with both him and Elizabeth Tulloch. I’ll talk about Elizabeth in another post. At the time I had my prosthetic leg, my good leg in a plaster cast and had to use two crutches to get about. But there was no way I was going to have those crutches in the photo. So I put them aside and hobbled over.
When I saw them, I said, I’ve been waiting on this for months and Elizabeth replied, so have we. So I got in between them, a wee bit wobbly but Tyler had a hold of me and said,” Superman’s got you.”
Well, I had feelings I’d never had since Dean cain stood behind me and pulled my hoodie open just like Teri Hatcher did for him in their publicity shots for the show at the time. And at 58, I know I will always be the kid and never lose the love of all this which suits me fine. Other people can put away childish things but those people are denying themselves as to who they are.
So, photo done and still spinning, I had to queue to get their signatures. I usually get comics signed by the relevant actor and in this case, the minute I saw the cover I knew exactly what I wanted. It was an image used in the promo material for the show and was the most beautiful cover,
We got chatting as he said welcome back. He was understandably quiet on the James Gunn saga but I assure him nobody was happy about it and everyone was firmly on his side. We chatted about Teen Wolf and just what made him the personification of Superman for this new era, not that lame movie one. He is gracious and kind to everyone and you can see it is not forced or fake. Tyler is very amiable and open to everyone.
So, the last time the Walking Dead’s Tom Payne was in Northern Ireland, he was with Michael Rooker at a comic con. I was ready to rock and roll. However, a month before I was due to meet them both, I had my leg amputated.
Sigh.
So, no Tom and no Michael, just a wheelchair and a stump. I have met a lot of the Walking Dead cast and at this stage am ticking off who’s left. I also started getting the comics signed where they either first appear or something significant happens to their character within., I started that with Khary Payton aka King Ezekiel with his debut appearance in the comics. I met Madison Lintz earlier this year who played the ill fated Sophia, so the list is coming down. And now I have Tom off the list and comic signed.
but it was a day of adventure that had me standing arguing about who Tom really was.
So Tom was the first guest I met on the day. I was the first one up and had the opportunity to chat with him at length. I have to say, he is not one to rush people and is as gregarious as any Irish person. I told him the amputation story and how I lost out on meeting him the last time but now I finally met him. We’d seen him at Walker Stalker in London two years in a row but the cost of getting the biggies like Negan and Daryl etc meant we didn’t get to meet Tom. We then got on to how the Walking Deas cast are a family unit thanks to appearing at cons all over the world especially with characters, Jesus never appeared with. We compared it to the casts of Star Trek who tell of a similar feeling but with the Walking Dead it seems tighter.
And so, Jesus first appearance issue signed and sealed and added to the collection.
I had a photoshoot later in the day with him which wasn’t going to happen until twenty past three.
So I queued up and my ticket was scanned. Once the photo was done that was me on my way home, a happy man.
But there was to be one last twist in my celebrity journey.
I was at the front of the queue. A man walked in and the girl said go ahead and get my photo. I looked at the man and then at her.
“That’s not Tom,” I said.
She looked at me. She checked with the photographer who said it was Tom Payne.
“That’s not Tom Payne from the Walking Dead unless he had some serious plastic surgery since ten o’clock this morning,” I said.
“Well, sure, get your photo with him anyway,” she said.
“Oh alright, so that means I get a free one with Tom Payne since this isn’t the photo I paid for.”
She looked to the people queuing behind me.
She asked who they were queuing for and they said……..Tom Bennett from House of Dragons.
Wring Tom and wrong queue. The lady doing the tickets had out me in the wrong one. I was told then that it was the other photo booth, so I went up to there only to be told that Tom had finished up eleven minutes ago. I sighed as no one was quite sure what was happening. I was offered a selfie but declined. I’d prepaid so wanted the professional photo.
And so I went back to the original booth area and waited. The young lady that had made the mistake came up and told me Tom was going to come back for the photo. As I sat on a speaker crate, who comes next to me but the Bionic Woman herself. She was doing her makeup before her shoot. We got chatting about the day and how nice people were to her. That’s because you mean a lot to people and we are so delighted to see you in Ireland, I answered. Then another face appeared. It was Charisma Carpenter, Cordelia from Buffy the Vampire Slayer dressed as a cat from the iconic Halloween episode. Then Tom Bennett appeared and there I was surrounded by celebrities I wanted to meet in a sealed off area. I couldn’t even take a photo which would have been awesome!
Tom then came up to take the photo and we got the photo finally.
I couldn’t have written this. I felt like the man that came face to face with Sasquatch but didn’t have time to take a photo. So the lesson was that from every mistake, comes something positive and I got an experience I could never have paid for.
While I absolutely love the Bill Skarsgard version of Pennywise, none of it could have happened without being set a very high bar by the great, late Tim Curry.
While the modern Pennywise benefits from CGI effects, when Tim Curry never had those available to him. His effects were all practical and not a computer in sight. While Skarsgard’s version is very much performance driven, it is something that Tim had to face when he debuted the killer clown in the 80s.
Clowns have never bothered me one way or the other but Pennywise has risen to become the most terrifying monster in cinema and television with the run of the recent |Welcome to Derry.
Curry is like a tight rope walker. he balances perfectly between the loveable clown and the monster. He uses deceit and hallucination to scare people, to throw them off balance so he can strike. A great example of this is when Pennywise appears in the shower room while young Eddie.
The horror of grown man entering a shower while a child is naked has paedophilic overtones but it is the way Curry plays it that makes it even more chilling. he calls to |Eddie from the drain, one white gloved hand pushing up and then another to open the drain. It is clearly stop motion but it allows Pennywise to pop up. He casually attacks Eddie by calling him girlie boy and wheezy. He taunts him, promising he will like it down where Pennywise wants to take him. He warns him running will do no good and to come back anytime and bring his friends. If you look, t=you will see Pennywise’s eyes are not normal. They have a jaundice tinge to them that give him a sickly look. In a human, eye discolouration usually indicates a medical condition or something is wrong.
Curry maintains a chirpy, happy clown funny man stance until he tells Eddie to bring his friends. With a deft bow of his head, Curry brings the head back up to reveal a mouth full of savage teeth, roaring then descending into laughter.
This is a perfect example of how Curry used simple tricks to make him scary alongside practical special effects. When he takes control of the shower heads that snake out to attack Eddie, they are jerky but serpentine in intent.
Similarly, in the scene of grown up Ben Hanscom where he comforts what he thinks is his long time crush, Beverly Marshall. They embrace but as Ben looks in the mirror, he sees Pennywise’s long yellow clown trousers. jerking back, Pennywise is there and laughs, “Kiss me, fat boy!”
As a master of shape changing and deceit, Pennywise gets into people’s heads in order to kill them. A little torture is good for the soul they say and when he eats them, it’s always nice to taste some adrenalin or cortisol.
Curry latches on to all of these character traits and throws them at us full blast.
The first scene we see him is the one with Georgie. As this is the first glance at the main villain, it was important that Curry made the audience sit up and scream. If the initial scene with the onscreen murder of a child shocks, then it lets the audience know that nothing is safe in this story. Indeed, Welcome to Derry ran with this to great effect.
Georgi’s paper boat has been swept into the sewers. Georgi can’t get it but meets helpful clown, Pennywise.
Pennywise’s face, unlike the remake, is in full light so Georgie can see the clown. Curry did a lot of eye movement to highlight Pennywise’s reflections.
“Come on, Bucko., Don’t you want a balloon?” taunts Pennywise, keeping the boy’s attention with threats. When Georgie says he shouldn’t take stuff from strangers to strangers because his dad said so, Pennywise seems offended, introducing himself as Pennywise the dancing clown and he is Georgie, so they know each other. his facial expressions and eye movements are critical here like he’s shy and stunned Georgie has to go. he then lures the boy with his lost paper boat, promising more balloons of all colours and sizes, cotton candy and all sort s of other prizes down where Pennywise is.
You can see the subtle change as the predator is on the edge of losing his prey. You can see his expression become hard as he tells Georgie about the balloons. When Georgie asks do they float, the face hardens like a snake about to strike, saying, “Oh yes, when you’re down here with me, you’ll float too!”
The mask falls with the words “You’ll float too!” he shouts it as he rips the boy’s arm off.
You’re not sure if the rage of pennywise is at himself for almost letting Georgie slip away or because his own primal urges have gotten him riled so close to food but whatever it is, the change from likeable, friendly clown to minster is subtle, making the final attack that much more powerful.
It is beautifully lit as you only really get Pennywise’s face in bright view because it is his expression and tone of voice that draws children in. It is their love of clowns, balloons, cotton candy and surprises that are easy weapons against children.
But even when the Loser’s Club grown up versions return to the town 27 years later, Pennywise still knows their inner weaknesses to taunt them. He drives Ritchie mad with exploding balloons of blood and beep, beep has never seemed so scary.
It is no wonder that Curry made an instant classic with Pennywise when it first aired. And there was a lot of trepidation when it was announced there was to be a remake with a brand new Pennywise. What both Curry and Skarsgard have shown us is that a character such as Pennywise is only successful thanks to the man behind it. The performance is all and Curry, whether it be as Legend, Pennywise, Congo or Scary Movie 2 is the best one to look to amplifying the fear factor of the material through voice, gesture and inflections.
When you think of Pennywise, you will always see Tim Curry.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright Paramount
When the character of Hemmer was announced as part of the cast of Strange New Worlds, I was more than excited. We were getting a series regular from an unknown species that was introduced in Star Trek Enterprise in its fourth season. The Aenar were a sub species of the Andorians which were previously unknown. When the Romulans launch a marauder that can appear as any craft they wish, the Andorians see a Tellarite vehicle and vice versa. It is designed to create conflict in the Alpha Quadrant and start a war that will allow the Romulans to invade. There is no Federation at this point but we see the first footsteps as Archer (Scott Bakula) manages to unite Andorians, Vulcans and Tellarites against the threat. The ship it turns out is being remotely piloted by the brain power of a captured Aenar, Gared. Andorian Commander Shran (Jeffrey Coombs) leads Archer to the Aenar domain where Gared’s sister Jhamel agrees to help. The Aenar are blind but highly telepathic to the point their other senses are superior which is why the Romulans kidnapped Gared in the first place. Gared was imprisoned on Romulus but able to control the marauder ships easily. He could also speak to his sister across the void too such was their abilities.
The chance to explore such a fascinating race was a spectacular opportunity launching Hemmer into the same league as Data, Odo and Spock. A pacifist that refuses to take part in the Enterprise’s battles but was there to help in any other way. Such moral conflict was ripe for writers but as the current Kurtzman backlash shows, they hadn’t a clue what to with him. Little did we know that the producers intended Hemmer to die before the end of the first season. He becomes infected with Gorn babies and sacrifices himself to kill them and save his crew mates. To say I was pissed was an almighty understatement.
They said Bruce Horak would be their franchise’s Jeffrey Coombs who has played multiple roles in Trek over the years. But did that happen?
Nope, it didn’t.
Again, a wonderful opportunity to showcase a severely sighted actor as a central character alive for fresh exploration and worldview. So why then did Trek screw up so bad and to be honest, we should have seen the signs right there of the end of Trek, swopping character for politics and woke.
Hemmer did not appear in all of the episodes and in some he was merely a walk on. He was front and centre in the Elysian Kingdom where we saw his humour, adaptability and telepathic abilities. He was dead the next episode, All Those That Wander. So, since the plan was always to kill him off, it was vital you had him front and centre so audiences would fall in love with him. Not that they didn’t but given what was coming, it was an opportunity totally wasted. Kurtzman, like Disney, did not know what he had and what the legacy should be.
Now, where could Kurtzman and his team have looked to see just how it should be done? How to fully endear a three dimensional character to the audience before they are killed off in a shocker of an episode. Hmmm….
Look no further than The Orville and Seth McFarlane.
How ironic that a show that was meant to be a comedy version of Trek but soon found itself delivering stories better than Star Trek Strange New Worlds did.
And it came in the form of one Charley Burke.
Played by Anne Winters, Charly was introduced in the third season as a new navigator. In the second season, in the episodes Identity parts 1 and 2, the Orville’s robotic emissary, Isaac was revealed to be on a mission not to learn about organics but to assess their status for genocide. With the Orville crew captured, the Kaylons launched their fleet to exterminate first Earth then every other planet of organics from the galaxy. Isaac turned on his own people but not before thousands had been killed in the battle.
One such person was fellow ensign Amanda, who served with Charly. Charly fell in love with her but never got to tell her how she felt. Amanda was killed while saving Charly.
So, when she ended up on the Orville serving with Isaac, she made it clear that she hated him. Isaac had triggered the battle and his restoration as an active member of the Orville crew was met with isolation and distrust.
There was nothing backwards as Charly. She told Isaac how she felt about him and why.
“One second she was there and the next, she was gone. Along with 300 other people. Because of you. So, you see, it really is a shame that you can’t feel anything. Because you deserve to feel all the pain in the universe.”
Now exiled from Kaylon and hated by those around him, Isaac committed suicide.
One of Charly’s skills was the ability to see problems in five dimensions. This skill helps her save Isaac. Once restored she tells him, she didn’t do it for him. It was sonly the pleas of young Marcus Finn that swayed her to do it.
Isaac was a father figure to the Finn kids and while young Marcus doesn’t hold a grudge, his older brother does.
While this story arc continued for the whole season, Charly still was in the middle of the action, almost being executed at the hands of a Krill in a coup.
When a weapon was created that would kill every Kaylon, Charly helped with the construction of the device. With a peace of sorts now in effect, she went with her shipmates to Kelly Grayson’s cabin. We learned Charly could sing as she duetted with fellow pilot Gordon Malloy. Charly opens up to Kelly about how she feels about this. We know Charly by this stage.
Indeed, she is forced to team up with a human looking Isaac when the ship goes back in time to rescue Mally who was stranded in our time. In order to go home again, she and Isaac must locate dysonium to power the quantum drive.
She handles a bar full of bikers, can ride a motorcycle, passes Isaac off as her brother and fiancé before they get the mineral. She is disturbed by Isaac trying to make small talk with her. He is simply trying to get to know her. While Charly isn’t exactly warming to Isaac, she opens up and tells him all about Amanda and how the Kaylon invasion took away any future with her. Like Data, Isaac is a smart cookie and still thanks her for saving his life.
And that is the difference between Hemmer and Charly. She was kept at the centre of the show, each week peeling off another layer off her character. The best Hemmer got was to be a Yoda to Uhura.
Hemmer kind of feels like Captain Phasma; a great character woefully misused and left to fail.
Little did we know that the entire reason for Charly was about to be made very clear and just how carefully constructed was her plotlines right under our noses.
As I said earlier, she helped construct a weapon that could destroy thousands of Kaylons at once. It is a doomsday weapon but one that makes the Kaylon stop and think twice. For now, the Kaylon threat is ended, at least until they find a weakness. They will not as Charly and Isaac are the only ones that know how it ticks. They have set a self destruct into it if tampered with.
But when it is stolen and handed to the Krill and Moclan alliance, the race is on to stop them setting it off, so it destroys every Kaylon in existence. Earlier in the season, Charly would have cheered for this but she cannot stand by and let an entire species be murdered even if they are robots.
Forced to team up with the |Kaylon to stop the massacre, they arrive too late.
The weapon is activated and Charly cannot turn it off.
There is only one option.
Charly must stay behind and focus the blast into the Moclan secret base to save the Kaylons.
Now, this was a shocker and came right out of the blue. How could they introduce such a great character that we have grown to like and love then kill her off? Charly manages to tell Amanda that they will be together soon before she is killed in the explosion. There are no tears, no regrets, just a relief that Charly will be with the woman she loves again. Even in her death, we learn that Charly is a believer in life after death.
Kaylon Prime is confused about what Charly has done. He cannot concede why someone that hated his kind would give her life to save them.
In scenes that are just stunning, Grayson yells that she did it to save the Kaylon from being wiped out of existence.
It is her sacrifice that begins a new dawn between the Union and the Kaylon. Up to this point, organics were things that could not be trusted and had to be killed. They judged the rest of the species by the cruel actions of their builders who tortured and degraded the robots as slaves.
Now, the sacrifice of one girl whose world was shattered by them, has died to protect their right to exist.
As Isaac tells the Prime; the organics are his friends which is what he was trying to tell his species all along.
We know Charly. We don’t know Hemmer. We cared about Hemmer but we took Charly to our hearts because she was right there with us every week, not reduced to a mere couple of scenes.
When we walked away from the Hemmer’s death, we were stunned at the stupidity of it. When we walked away from Charly’s, we were broken hearted.
For a show that started a s a comedy homage top Trek, busted its balls compared to the Kurtzman era, tackling issues Trek had not touched. I’d swop the musical episode for any of the Orville episodes in any season.
Shame on you, Kurtzman and well done Seth McFarlane.
We will always mourn Charly but we will always wish Hemmer had been handled right.
The seventies for many seem like the Victorian era but for those of my generation, it was only yesterday.
Our childhoods were filled with Star Trek, Space 1999, Swap Shop, Logan’s Run and so much more. But there are certain shows and characters that burn into your mind for the rest of your life.
Two such shows were the Six Million Dollar Man and The Bionic Woman. Steve Austin and Jamie Sommers battled all sorts of things from Death Probes to Fembots to aliens who controlled the Sasquatch. Steve’s fight with the Sasquatch is the core of my childhood. I was fascinated by the Bigfoot legend and to see him on screen fighting Steve Audtin stayed with me and many of my generation.
But with the arrival of Jaime Sommers, Steve’s former girlfriend, teacher and star tennis player, the world changed. After Star Trek’s Uhura, Jaime was my second crush. The Bionic Woman brought a whole new dimension to the world of bionics. She brought a compassion to the series, a compassion we didn’t have with Steve.
Remember, both shows at their heart is about dealing with disability and taking control of their condition rather than moping about. It was turning disability into a positive force to show no matter what, you can still beat the odds. While The Bionic Woman was cruelly cut short because of network politics, those three seasons stayed with me to this day. I still watch them because they have a great, timeless entertainment quality.
Lindsay brought humanity and compassion to the show as seen in The Vega Influence, Deadly Ringer and Run, Jamie, Run as well as Tomorrow is Doomsday. Lindsay is so immediately likeable that you would want to go with her on her journey.
I saw her and Lee Majors do cons in England and shook my head as to why they couldn’t come here. I was resigned to the fact that I would never meet them.
That is, until this year of 2026.
Lindsay was announced as a guest for a comic con in Northern Ireland, I was in right away. I paid up front and had a dilemma as to what to get her to sign. I ended up going with a copy of Mad Magazine with her and the Six Million Dollar Man on it.
The day came and there she was. Lindsay Wagner, now in her seventies and looking amazing. We had a chat about the show, its impact and at one point, she did the thing with her hair. In the show, when she was using her bionic hearing, Jaime would move her hair back slightly from her ear. Well, I nearly collapsed on my crutches when Lindsay did this right in front of me. It wasn’t planned, it just happened and the fanboy in me was grinning from ear to ear. But I had done it, I had met a childhood heroine, got her to sign something, got to tell her just how much the show meant to me. Now that I am disabled, it adds a new shade to the show for me but in a good way.
But little did I know that my meeting Jaime Sommers wasn’t quite over yet. When I went for my photoshoot with the Walking Dead’s Jesus aka Tom Payne, there was a mix up. They were trying to tell me that Tom Bennett from House of Dragons was Tom Payne. I’d been put in the wrong queue and I was amazed the organisers were trying to convince me to get in with “Tom Payne.” It wasn’t him as I knew him from the show and the fact I’d met him earlier that day. To this day, passing off Tom Bennet as Tom Payne amazes me now. So I had to sit out the back waiting for someone to find the real Tom Payne. So as I was waiting, who comes along and stops beside me to do her make up but Lindsay for a photoshoot. I got chatting to her again, asking her was she enjoying her time in Northern Ireland. She said that everyone was so kind which really touched her. As this was the Bionic Woman’s 50th anniversary, how great must that be to not only meet fans from the time it was broadcast but new generations. We also got the chance to tell her that she humanised disability long before anyone else did and in a way that will last long after the 50th anniversary.
So, after all this time, I got to meet one of my childhood icons, not once but twice on the same day. I got to tell her how I felt about the show from childhood to manhood. How could I not treasure that memory?
Have you seen how people throw a wake for themselves just to see who would turn up and what they would say about the deceased? Well, I thought, why wait until a celebrity you admire dise before writing how much they have impacted you through their movies or television roles.
What can I say about Tom Baker? He is an icon of the highest degree and now in his 90s, Tom still has that same twinkle in his eye he had throughout his career.
He is, of course, the Doctor, the fourth to be precise and he elevated the show to international status under the watchful eye of then producer, John Nathan Turner. For seven magical years, Tom played the Time Lord and let’s face it, it really went to his head. He broke relationships that were mended later on in life and was just this tornado of energy. I first saw him as the magician Koura in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger.
“Always do what you’re best at!” he cried in Nightmare of Eden and he did exactly that. But for me, Tom went way beyond Doctor Who but the show is my first love and I’ve stuck with all these years in good and bad times. Earlier today, I watched a few episodes and one of them was Planet of the Spiders where Tom arrived and straight on to Robot. I have so many great childhood memories from that era. I remember omnibus editions of Robots of Death, falling in love with Leela and wanting a K9 all of my own. I was and still am, terrified by the Image of the Fendahl. I was frightened when Sarah Jane went blind in Brain of Morbius and the monster was right behind her. What if they get stuck on Skaro thousands of years in the past in Genesis of the Daleks when Davros debuted?
Tom’s voice is up there with Morgan Freemans. I used to watch the Book Tower weekly as he read stories that enchanted me just from his voice alone. He was a raconteur with a sharp wit and often messed with interviewers. I remember his sullen look and popping of the cheeks when his departure was announced. He was leaning against the Tardis as if all was lost for him.
I suppose in a way, it was. He was leaving the show that he defined more than anyone else up to that point. He was going on to play |Sherlock Holmes in the Hound of the Baskervilles, the Life and Loves of a She Devil, voiceovers, stage and conventions in America. So loves is Tom that the creators of Little Britain hired him to do voice work for them on every episode which again highlighted his md sense of humour and wit.
While he forever regrets not doing the Five Doctors twentieth anniversary story, he has returned time and again as the fourth Doctor in various things for Children in Need, the 50th anniversary story, the Day of the Doctor as the curator who looks exactly like the fourth Doctor and Shada restoration.
I’ve never met Tom and at this stage never will which is a pity. My late friend did when Tom landed in Belfast and visited schools here which can be found online. I still am jealous of him. But I can live with that.
Tom was a guiding light in my literature, reading and imagination as I too dreamt of joining him in the Tardis. Indeed, he joined the Big Finish audio plays where he has met his other selves, joined old companions like Leela and K9 and fought old foes like the decayed Master. And even now, Tom still has that love of the show and fans and always does a Christmas message for everyone.
His legacy is not that he is Tom Baker but his legacy is us. Every child that tuned in to see the madman in the giant scarf and were spellbound. We stayed with him in books and fired our imaginations. If I were to produce a show, there would be a place for Tom for sure.
I’ll finish by telling you of our house when his regeneration finally came in part four of Logopolis. I can tell you who was there, where they were sitting and what we were doing. A hush fell over us as the fourth Doctor sighed his last and in a cocoon, handed it all over to Peter Davison. Even my dad, who wasn’t a fan turned to see the fourth Doctor die.
There are few legends in the world but Tom Baker remains one of them and perhaps, the greatest of them all.
Appalachia is a brand new series form the creator of the Time |Warriors, Zombie Blues, stageplay Dragons of Azrael and Tales from Ballinfree author Owen QUinn. It was inspired by a comment from a colleague, asking why no one has written something scary about the mysterious happenings’ in thr Appalachias. Well, might as well have a go!
There are three simple rules to follow when in the Appalachia.
Don’t whistle after dark if something whistles at you.
Don’t answer if something calls your name from the forest.
If the forest goes suddenly dead silent, leave. Right away.
Some people just never listen.
Three horrific murders overnight, shake a quiet Appalachian town.
Two park rangers and a cop are drawn into a secret world where myth and legend are reality.
With time running out when two hikers vanish, they must find the killer fast. As the veil between worlds breaks, no one can be trusted. Ancient secrets emerge as a web of lies is spun. But how do you find and kill a creature that no one believes exist?
There are three things you must know about Appalachia before setting one foot there.
And by that, I mean, stop.
Look at those majestic mountains with its ocean of tall trees, occasionally snow tinged high peaks and rush of rivers and lakes.
A perfect, postcard picture revelation to ignite the senses of whomever gazes upon it. They stretch approximately two thousand miles from Newfoundland in Canada right through to Central Alabama. Impressive, right?
If there was ever a sign that God exists, then how else could such a beautiful thing come to be. Yep, it’s world renowned testament to the power of nature and why we should stop and feel humble in its presence.
However, there are some rules to bear in mind.
Don’t whistle after dark if something whistles at you.
Don’t answer if something calls your name from the forest.
If the forest goes suddenly dead silent, leave. Right away.
Here’s what they don’t tell you.
Don’t be in the forests at all, ever.
Don’t be fooled by the bubbling streams and sunlight dancing with bright, dappled sunlight through regal trees to the tune of bird song. When you stare in awe of the salmon jumping from the water, remember they are leaping not only to spawn but to avoid the bears. Lock your doors and windows at night. If a mouse can climb a wall and get into your home while you snooze, imagine what else can get in.
But that’s the trouble.
People are too bogged down by making ends meet, working, sucked right into social media comparing fake jovial lives, kids, relationship drama and looking for kicks and cheap sex just to make it to the next day. Sometimes the end of the month payday seemed like years away, waiting for the next fragile lump sum to do it all over again. They never even thought to stare up at the stars. The patient universe instead stared down on their insular ways.
Normality is the greatest weapon the unnatural have to undermine and unravel our lives. People don’t realise things exist outside the norm and when they do, it’s too late.
And even if they survive the encounter, they endure a life sentence that stays locked inside them; a secret that they cannot tell. But if you see someone just staring up at the Appalachian majesty, look in their eyes.
They aren’t seeing the postcard photo you see. If you’re lucky, you never will. If you aren’t so lucky, you will pass them in the street. You will glance at each other with a dark, tainted look that needs no words.
An entire conversation will take place without a single syllable uttered. And yet, you’re both totally alone in your fear.
Still, you could win the lottery. Yeah, you could.
But you know folks; they don’t listen and those who have reached their twilight years; well, they’re the ones that listened to the advice. As for the rest, well, they’re silent in their graves; that is, if they ever found their bodies. Dead men and women tell no tales but if they could, no one would ever set foot outside their doors after dark ever again.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
PHOTOS COPYRIGHT PARAMOUNT
In the season three tewo parter, Deep Space 9 delivered a story that beautifully affirmed just how dangerous the Dominion was as a foe to the Alpha Quadrant but gav new life and dimensions to the Cardassians and the Romulans.
The dominion had been introduced at the end of season two in The Jem’Hadar and in the opening season three episodes, it was revealed that the Dominion were in fact Changelings, Odo’s species. They ruled with an iron fist because of the way solids had treated them in the past. They showed no mercy and saw the intrusion inot the Gamma Quadrant by a powerful Federation a threat to their existence. And the Dominion had no interest in making new friends. What Odo does as a lawmaker, keep order and justice, the Dominion did to ensure compliance from the solids. We would discover that the Dominion unleashed a plague upon a planet just to teach them a lesson. They destroyed a Galaxy class starship just to make a point as to how far they would go to protect their territory. The Dominion saw just how chaotic the Alpha Quadrant was and how it could be manipulated.
When someone tries to kill Cardassian, Garak (Andrew Robinson), Odo discovers that he did it himself. Someone is killing former members of the Obsidian Order, the Cardassian version of the KGB as is the Tal Shiar of the Romulan society. Both were enemies of the Federation, enjoying a fragile peace. Garak needs to find out what is happening by seeking who is behind the murders.
Odo and Garek take a runabout and are captured by a secret joint fleet of Romulans and Cardassians. The Romulans have equipped the Cardassians with cloaking devices so they can get through the wormhole undetected.
As a show rich with secondary characters, it expanded the story base exponentially, the writers skilfully weaving these characters into the overall tapestry that was about to erupt into war which was unheard of in Star trek. Wars had been mentioned before, the Klingon, the Romulans but they had never been done onscreen as an ongoing story.
This episode would pave the way for all that was to come.
We knew very little about Garak as his past was a mystery. He lied a lot, confusing Doctor Bashir with conflicting stories of his past. It is clear he was connected somehow and had stayed on DS9 to avoid Gul Dukat, his enemy. He could not go home but this is his chance to do exactly that. Heading this operation is his former boss, Enabran Tain. He and Romulan Lovok devised this operation to bring a new powerbase to the galaxy. We would later find out that this is Garak’s father but it was tain that ordered the deaths of all his former operatives. But he underestimated Garak as usual and offers him a place at his side which Garak accepts. Garak must torture Odo to discover the secrets of the Changelings especially as they are about to destroy his entire species. The alliance has learned the location of the Changeling homeworld as seen in the opening two part episode The Search.
This unholy alliance have now developed technology to hurt Changelings which Garak uses on Odo during his interrogation. Trapped in a forcefield, Odo cannot chnage and when a Changeling cannot return to their liquid state, they begin to crumble and flake.
But the kicker comes when the fleet arrives at the Changeling homeworld where they launch a devastating attack. Tain and Lovok are stunned when they find out it is all an illusion. This is not the Changeling homeworld but a trap to weaken two of the greatest powers in the Alpha Quadrant, leaving just the Klingons and the Federation to deal with. Dominion fighters attack the fleet, destroying it. Unable to comprehend, Tain has a breakdown. Garak frees Odo but will not leave without Tain. He finds him on the bridge babbling as it burns around him. The Jem’Hadar take out ship after ship, leaving Odo to forcibly remove Garak and flee. It turns out Lovok was in fact a Changeling and manipulated Tain’s thirst for ultimate power. tain devised the plan and the Changelings ensured it went ahead as these two powers were a real threat to them.
It is a great sequence especially when they relaise that there are over one hundred and fifty Jem’Hadar ships heading right for them. You can feel the fear in the Romulan officer’s voice at this fact. They know they are about to die for nothing. It is saying something when a Romulan shows fear. We get a lovely space battle that DS9 honed so well to give the full effect of space battle.
With that rousing background music , the entire reveal sequence is exciting and keeps you glued. The Dominion is unlike any enemy faced before and even the Borg could not assimilate them due tot heir liquid state. The Romulans and Cardassians have been strong, devious opponenets to the Federation so far, always pushing the boundaries in the hope of war happening. To see them getting their asses kicked so brutally is another statement that DS9 is not the usual Trek and that nothing is safe any more. As we would see, there were more surprises to come and the war arc would run to the very last episode of the final season.
A great moment that set DS9 up above the others as the brilliant stprytelling it was famed for.
Have you seen how people throw a wake for themselves just to see who would turn up and what they would say about the deceased? Well, I thought, why wait until a celebrity you admire to die before writing how much they have impacted you through their movies or television roles.
Sometimes, meeting an American celebrity almost seems like a royal event. They are bigger, brasher and somewhat out of reach of us ordinary people. After all, we only see them on screen and we don’t live in their country so the chance of meeting them are slim to never.
But events and cons happen that bring them to our doorsteps and when Walker Stalker convention happened in London, we had to go.
Top of our list was Negan and Daryl Dixon.
We had been fans of JDM ever since Grey’s Anatomy, PS I Love You but especially as the dad of Sam and Dean Winchester in the long running Supernatural. John died at the start of season 2 in order to save Dean.
For years, fans clamoured for his return and it happened in the episode Babylon when they brought him forward in time by accident. So why did it take so long to bring him back? Well because he had become the villainous Negan in The Walking Dead and became a cerebral part of the show. Supernatural would cameo Lucille, his barb wired covered baseball bat that kills Glenn and Abraham in an episode where they say it was their dad’s favourite weapon.
I bought my Negan T shirt and booked the photo shoot and off we went.
He is a truly larger than life presence and is a literal giant towering above everyone. To play Sam and Dean’s father you would have to really tall. We saw him being escorted round and he waved to the fans and we were in his line of sight.
What really impressed me about him was the fact he took the time in the photoshoot to shake all of our hands, welcome us and thank us. In these things, you literally get your photo taken then out you go with barely a word but this elevated him in our eyes. We didn’t get his autograph because you had to pay for that separately and there were no spaces left. We will get it one day though.
But Jeffrey Dean Morgan is so laid back when meeting people and he takes his time with them. He knows that this may be their only chance to meet him so he makes sure they get the full package. Let’s face it, he doesn’t have to but when you watch interviews with him, he is a very grounded man grateful for what life has given him.
I guarantee there isn’t a fan that hasn’t walked away from meeting him and been disappointed. It doesn’t matter if you’re eighty or eight, he has time for everyone. We, as a family of Walking Dead fans, will never forget that. When you shake someone’s hand, you look them in the eye and he did that.
I can’t say enough good things about Jeffrey Dean Morgan and perhaps if it reads this, he’ll know people will watch him no matter hat he appears in. Whether it be Watchmen, Rampage, The Unholy, The Boys or Postcard Killings, Jeffrey Dean Morgan should be on your list to meet. You will never forget it.
