The Time Warriors and Beyond

Forgotten Villains: Buffy’s The Gentlemen

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos WB

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 space no one can hear you scream and when the Gentlemen come to Buffy’s home town of Sunnydale, your scream is as lost there as the cold wastes of space.

If ever Buffy the Vampire Slayer entered full on horror it was with the introduction of the Gentleman In the episode Hush. They were born from fairytales and served by creatures in straight jackets that did their muscle work for them. Being six in number, the Gentlemen would go from town to town stealing voices in order to collect seven hearts. They never spoke and had an eternal grin of metallic teeth. They carried black medical bags that had scalpels they used when cutting out the required hearts. Their manners were impeccable as they would silently nod and applaud each other when a heart was successfully harvested. They travelled by hovering about a foot above the ground as if contact with our world was abhorrent to them.

Having an episode with no dialogue bar the beginning and the end was a bold move and one that would require an enemy so scary to keep the audience’s attention through the episode. Salem’s Lot had forever traumatised a generation when the vampiric Ralphie Glick scratched subtlety at is brother’s hospital window in order to get in. He floats through the open window and bears down on his helpless brother. Indeed the Gentlemen have a Nosferatu look about them which instinctively makes you creep out. More so there is something Victorian like about them as if they could be Jack the Ripper using the smog filled streets of Whitechapel to collect their seven hearts.

With asylums so prevalent back then, their minions would be seen as escaped prisoners. If you are faced with an enemy that can fly then you will exhaust yourself running as they float with ease bearing down like a bird of prey. The Gentlemen generate a deep primal fear in their victims of being helpless before a predator. Add to that their aged appearance, it taps into every child’s fear of really old faces that seem scary to them.

In the episode Tara is chased by them. She trips and drops her books. While picking them up we see behind her the strait jacketed creatures approaching, arms flailing with the Gentlemen hovering amid them. Tara races to the safety of the dormitory building but they follow her inside. She bangs helplessly on every door but ends up colliding with Willow and they run as the Gentlemen are literally inches behind them. The sequence is beautifully executed as the grinning Gentlemen seem to relish the taste of another victim. The way they move their hands is almost like a hellspawn conductor before an orchestra.

Sunnydale has enough problems without seeing these beings float across a fog wreathed road with their scalpels glinting in the moonlight. Buffy and Riley face the Gentlemen and their minions in a bell tower. Buffy is almost the seventh heart and while she is fighting the strait jacketed creatures, one of the Gentlemen slash her from behind with a scalpel. However Riley uses a stun gun to fell them as Buffy gestures to him to destroy their magic box containing everyone’s voices. With her voice back Buffy screams and the Gentlemen’s heads explode. That’s why they steal the town’s voices; the sound of humans is fatal to them. In a explosion of yellow blood they and their minions die leaving the town free again.

The Gentlmen are truly one of the greatest, if not arguably the greatest, monsters in any season. Their fairytale background and eloquent almost ballet like movements burn them into the audience’s memories so check out the episode again and enjoy a real slice of quality scary drama.

Forgotten Villains: V the Mini Series’ Daniel Bernstein

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright Warner Brothers

Most teenagers are lost and have no idea what to do with their lives right? They party, have fun and live life with no responsibility. Well, imagine a teenager so lost in the world where normality is a routine of sleep, work, sleep for the rest of their lives it stirs the worst in them. Many people look to the skies and wonder what else is out there so what if one day the sky answered you back?

When the Visitors arrived in our skies in their massive saucer ships declaring peace and friendship, they were quickly embraced by the world. They had the cure for cancer and were willing to share their technology with us in order to cement our future relations. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth as they say but this time it would have been a good idea. Covertly, scientists are going missing and the Visitors are suddenly playing the victim against hostile humans. To combat this threat they need young humans to sign up as part of the Visitor Youth Programme to help keep the world safe.

Daniel Bernstein had always been a screw up, lazy and forever in trouble. He performed poorly academically so when he saw a chance to join these great, wise visitors from space, he jumped at it. He is the son of Stanley and Lynn Bernstein and grandson of Albert Bernstein. Albert is a survivor of Nazi Germany death camps and he has an uneasy feeling about these space people. He sees parallels to the Nazi movement and the Visitors’ agenda especially in the establishment of the Youth Programme.

With previously respected scientists suddenly becoming enemies of the Visitors, it says a lot that the human race would believe the aliens so quickly. We have been conditioned over the decades by television and movies that aliens are more mature than us and will lead us to a better plane of existence. Their word is as solid as steel and typical of humans to attack what is different to them. So desperate are the governments to be friends with the aliens that they are blinded by their desire for technology and cures to strengthen their power bases.They would toss old friends to the wolves for that. It is no wonder the Visitors could easily manipulate people like Danew technology and cures for diseases. Now Daniel is turning on his own kind.

One family that are on the run for being scientists were the Maxwells. Part of Daniel’s job is to turn them in for treason but in this case Daniel has always had a crush on their daughter Robin (Blair Telkin). Power goes to his head quite quickly as he literally has the power of life and death over people he once called neighbours. His grandfather is hiding the Mawells and ensures his grandson does not find out but fails.

In order to keep her family safe, Daniel claims that Robin is his fiancee but she doesn’t know it yet. If she does not comply then Daniel will turn his family in to the Visitors. To this end he tries to force himself on to Robin but her father steps in and throws Daniel into a swimming pool. Daniel pulls his blaster but storms off in humiliation instead. He tells Brian, the Visitor that Robin actually has feelings for, about the refugees on the promise that his family remains untouched. They have long since stopped talking in front of him in case he reports them. Brian lies and everyone is taken for questioning. He manipulates Daniel with a promotion to his second in command. So little does his family mean to him that Daniel laps it up. A consequence of this is Brian seduces Robin and gets her pregnant as an experiment.

Daniel’s actions get him noticed on the Resistance’s radar as he is in charge of the Los Angeles Visitor Youth Programme. He kills Fred King and delivers Julie Parrish to Diana as her prisoner which elevates him in her favour or so he thinks. As Daniel is an arrogant son of a bitch that thinks of himself as invincible and indispensable to the Visitors, Daniel is again easy to manipulate. Resistance fighter Maggie Blodgett enters a romance with him in order to get information out of Daniel. Her husband tries to be understanding and it’s hard for both of them. Daniel repulses Maggie but when Diana confides in him that she is bringing important prisoners to Earth ie julie herself, Maggie gets it out of him while in bed.

He shows how evil he has become when on the night of the transfer he recognises one of the cleaning ladies. It turns out to be a disguised Ruby, a friend of his grandfather’s who dies in the interrogation. Daniel realises he has been used as a diversion tactic. Ruby reminds him of coming to her house as a boy and goes to walk away because she believes he is still good. He kills Ruby in cold blood by shooting her in the back.

The Resistance forget nothing and target Brian in order to test the Red Dust’s effectiveness against the lizard Vistors. They then leave an anonymous tip via phone that Daniel is responsible for Brian’s death. Brought before Stephen, Daniel is sentenced to death. The last we see of him is being dragged away to be processed for food for the Visitors.

We as an audience feel no sympathy for Daniel whatsoever. He felt nothing about his family being taken for questioning or the fact his grandfather never made it out of the Visitor interrogation cells. Sadly there are a lot of Daniels in the world looking for a cause they can immerse themselves in. Whether it be white supremacy, religious cults or an alien task force then be careful. Daniels are to be watched carefully. But Daniel is a prime example of how humans can be so easily swayed to turn on their own without a second thought. What are they lacking in their own minds and self esteem that allow them to fall down this path? Daniel Bernstein was brought up in a good family and despite their best efforts, he was just born to be bad. something the Visitors used to tighten their grip on humanity.

Forgotten Villains: The Bionic Woman: The Fembots

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright Universal

Every hero needs an enemy of equal or nearly equal strength to battle. For Bionic Woman Jaime Sommers, this came in the form of the deadly Fembots.

The battle begins in the three part crossover episodes of Kill Oscar. These spanned both the Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman shows. They were the creations of one Dr Franklin, an old associate of the boss of OSI, Oscar Goldman (the late Richard Anderson). When Franklin came to him years before for funding for his proposed Fembots, Oscar chose to give the funding to Rudy Wells (Martin E Brooks) instead for the bionics programme. Disgruntled Franklin has perfected his Fembots and is now selling them to the highest foreign bidder. They are exact duplicates of the person they replace, in this case Oscar’s secretary and Jaime’s friend, Callahan and Rudy’s assistant, Linda Wilson. Jaime is experiencing a strange buzzing and Rudy thinks her bionic ear is defective. In reality she is picking up on the presence of a Fembot. Little does she know how close they are.

When Oscar is kidnapped by Franklin’s robots, Callahan fails to back up Jaime’s story causing her to confront Callahan at her apartment later that evening.

When they spoke earlier in the episode the human Callahan was going to visit her mother but Jaime asks about her plans by changing the name of the city her mother lives in. Having met physical duplicates before, Jaime thinks this is just a look a like but when Callahan grabs her by the wrist in a steel grip, Jaime knows this is different. The Fembots may have been downloaded with a person’s files but they cannot hope to know the little every day conversations they have with people. But after striking her, she doesn’t expect Callahan’s face to fly off revealing a robot underneath. As bionics have their own sound effects (and yes, to this day I still impersonate them when lifting something heavy much to my kid’s annoyance) so do the Fembots when they move. When the Linda Fembot joins the fight Jaime is outnumbered. She throws an armchair in an impressive sequence to stop them but they keep coming. Jaime makes an impossible jump which lands her in hospital close to death.

Steve Austin then takes over as he and Rudy mount a rescue mission for Oscar. He has met robot doubles before in Day of the Robot so Steve is not fazed by the idea at all. He rescues Oscar, Callahan and Linda but realises too late that this Oscar is in fact a robot. The name Fembot is misleading as male robots are also made. With Jaime recovered and Oscar having issued orders that he is to be killed, Franklin broadcasts his intentions through a fallen Fembot. He has perfected his weather machine and created a storm around his island to stop them from getting to him. But Steve and Jaime are launched through the torpedo tubes of a submarine and fight off Fembot forces on the island to stop Franklin which they do. Here we learn the Fembots are susceptible to lightning and only for this, our bionic heroes may not have been able to stop Franklin at all.

Rudy however keeps one in his lab to stoudy but when it reactivates in Fembots of Las Vegas, Jaime again finds herself up against them once more. This time Franklin’s son, Carl, is out to take revenge on Oscar, Rudy and Jaime for his father’s death. He has an orbital platform that can take out any city from space, His Fembots are already in place when our heroes turn up in Las Vegas. Jaime again suffers that buzzing in her ear making her seem slightly paranoid to Oscar and Rudy. Carl believes the Fembots are superior to bionics as machines can evolve faster to even greater heights of efficiency.

Their target is Dr Rod Kyler who due to an immune deficiency must live in a bubble for fear of catching a cold and dying. He is the creator of a space energy weaweapon platform and Carl Franklin has already replaced his girlfriend with a Fembot in order to get information out of him. Jaime rescues Kyler from the Fembots and manages to leap to safety by grabbing the landing strut on Kyler’s heliccopter leading to some great shots of a dangling Jaime flying over Vegas.

She is genuinely afraid of the Fembots as she still has nightmares about her near death fight in Callahan’s apartment. This is seen when she discovers a Fembot in Rudy’s lab. That’s where the Bionic Woman went beyond other hero shows; she had a gentle frailty to her that the audience could connect with.

It turns out that Carl is in fact a flawless robot intent on completing his creator’s work. It is a shocker and a great twist leaving Jaime to challenge him to a fight to the death on a high rise tower as the energy weapon targets them. Rudy has disabled all the Fembots and it is nail biting as Jaime flees the tower before it is destroyed by the energy weapon. She tricks Carl into falling from the tower and his mechanical body lies smashed on the concrete below.

The Fembots would return in the comic strip as season four of the Bionic Woman and Austin Powers had his own Fembots with slightly naughty improvements that a television show could not get away with. The look of the Fembots can be found in the movie Westworld when the Gunslinger’ face comes off to reveal the robotics beneath. Having perfect duplicates beside you is unnerving especially as they do not need sleep, food, water and keep on coming. They will fulfill their programming until it is done including murder. If you are their target they can sit right beside you before making their move because you know the person they are impersonating and trust them. Indeed if they are a beautiful woman or handsome man they are capable of drawing you in before they strike.

But they will always be remembered for their battles with the bionic duo as the almost perfect assassin.

Forgotten Heroes: Threshold’s Lucas Pegg

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright CBS

In September 2005 a new sci fi series debuted on television called Threshold. The show featured several big names including Peter Dinklage as Arthur Ramsey. It would run for one season. CBS messed about with scheduling and did not support the show whose quality was top notch. Such was the show mishandled that the final four episodes went unaired until Sky 1 aired them and now they can also be seen on YouTube.

In Threshold, an alien species that exists in four or five dimensions send a probe to our world. The probe is witnessed by the crew of a ship and emits a signal like shattering glass upon which said crew immediately begin to transform. Some survive while the others escape into our society. Rather than an alien invasion with space ships, these aliens transform us at the genetic level into them. Instead of terraforming, they are bioforming us. There is no waste or destruction; everything is intact as the aliens take over. However the process does not work on every person, horribly mutilating some in their death throes. Nor is this signal limited to humans as animals are affected too. For example a senator plays a copy of the probe footage which kills his girlfriend and turns their cat into a vicious mutation.

Molly Caffrey is a high level crisis management consultant whose job it is to come up with plans for disasters including alien contact. Her plan for this scenario is activated and went under the codename Threshold. Caffrey brings together a team of top specialists including the mild mannered Lucas Pegg played by Rob Benedict while afraid of what is happening commits everything he has to stopping the aliens.

Long before he revealed himself as God and went mad, ready to destroy the world because of the Winchesters in Supernatural, Rob Benedict along with Peter Dinklage and Brent Spiner starred in Threshold.

Lucas is without a doubt the softest, most compassionate member of the team. He is deeply religious which Ramsey (Peter Dinklage) makes fun of with comments like on the eighth day God made aliens. Lucas wonders if this invasion is somehow part of God’s plan.

Lucas is a genius having designed satellites including the Jupiter probe. He was also the highest winner on Jeopardy. Lucas is also due to get married to Rachel, a doctor however due to the Threshold protocols, he is kept away from her and she cannot know what he does. Boss of Threshold, Baylock (Charles S Dutton) manages to allow him some contact with Rachel. Lucas is a natural worrier. Both he and Rachel are vegetarians. He along with Cavanagh (Brian Van Holt) and Caffrey (Carla Guigino) are exposed to the alien signal causing them all to dream of the Forest of Glass Trees. This means they could turn at any time but given their limited exposure they are safe for the time being, When the aliens begin to infect people then drain their blood to create a fertiliser thereby infecting crops with the alien DNA. Lucas comes up woth weapons to take down the infected without killing them. If they infect the food supply then it will not be contained.

However, Lucas begins turning causing upset to the team. Lucas insists Rachel does not know about his death given he is now mutating. Lucas forms a close bond with Ramsey and they end up a double act during the show’s run. When Ramsey sleeps with an infectee, Lucas wants to know what it was like with enhanced strength and stamina, He believes that he may never go back to Earth girls. Lucas is sucked in until Ramsey says he as triple helix rash on his privates. Lucas simply turns away and tells him to go away now. Their banter is one of the hearts of the show. Ramsey is a loudmouth rebel but even he cannot remain unaffected by watching Lucas die given they have already witnessed a friend dying in this way.

In a surprising show of emotion, Ramsey tells Caffrey that while life isn’t fair, it is way out of line in taking Lucas. However, Lucas’ exposure seems to slow the mutation down so in one last desperate attempt to save Lucas, Fenway (Brent Spiner) ups the amplification to the alien signal to see if it stops the mutation. On his deathbed Lucas reveals he and Rachell got married in secret a couple of weeks previously before Fenway along with Ramsey launches his experiment. It works but Lucas has a vision in which someone in old fashioned clothes tells him he found a way to defeat them and it is all in his journal but the man shoots himself in the head before Lucas can find out any more.

Now he has a new mission. Identify the man and he can narrow down to who the man was and what time he came from. Because of his exposure to the signal Lucas becomes a target for a partially infected man who thinks it is his job to kill all the infected. Ramsey and Lucas find themselves targts of an infected mother who wants her newborn baby back and must work together to stop her from killing them and stealing her baby back and delivering it to the aliens.

But given the canllation of the show, Lucas will forever be one half of one of the best double acts that didn’t get to flourish completely. All episodes of Threshold can be found on Youtube so go check them out.

Forgotten Villains: Voyager’s Cardassian Snake, Seska

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

There’s nothing like a good plot twist to throw the audience off balance and Seska in Star Trek Voyager’s first season did exactly that.

She was part of Chakotay’s team when they were in the Maquis and they had a brief fling which Chakotay decided would not go anywhere so he called a halt to it. But Seska clung to him like a leech always making it clear that she was keen to continue a romantic relationship with him but maintained a fiercely loyal stance towards him. Played by Martha Hackett, no one would have a clue that beneath that Bambi eyed face lay something else entirely.

In State of Flux we discovered that the Kazon Nistrim have tried to integrate stolen Federation technology into their ship with devastating consequences. B’elanna determines it could only have come from Voyager and that a member of the crew has given it to them. Kes (Jennifer Lien) reminds Seska they never got a blood sample from her so they can see if her blood could help save the critically injured Kazon. Seska reveals as a child in the Cardassian labour camps she contacted Orchid’s disease. Hr life was saved when a Cardassian woman named Ketel donated bone marrow. As a result she was told she could never again donate blood.

The episode swings back and forth as to who the real culprit is between engineer Carey and Seska. Chakotay finds himself torn between his loyalty to her and Janeway. Seska likes to break rules but she would never betray them to the Kazon. She does break into the kitchen and makes Chakotay’s favourite soup, mushroom. It results in them all losing replicator privelges for two days. Seska worms her way back into his affections playing on their past relationship. She also disobeys his order so she can retrieve the console on the Kazon ship containing the stolen technology but it goes wrong landing her in sickbay. But was she trying to cover her tracks or genuinely trying to prove to the captain that she is innocent?

Turns out the former as we discover that Seska is in fact a surgically altered Cardassian; a sleeper agent sent to infiltrate the Maquis and learn their secrets in order for the Cardassians to bring them down. Chakotay is devastated as he feels bad given Tuvok was working for Janeway and now his former lover was a Cardassian. It is then we see Seska’s true colours, She did what she did for the crew. She calls Janeway out for stranding them here, branding her foolish (which you cannot argue with) and they need allies as they are totally alone. The Kazon Nistrim would be a powerful ally to have but Janeway insists on sticking to Starfleet regulations which will get them all killed. She then beams herself to the Kazon ship and escapes.

Seska is a master manipulator covering all bases. She uses her female wiles to seduce Maj Culluh of the Kazon Nistrim and helps him steal more technology from Voyager. Chakotay disobeys his captain and goes off on his own to stop her but fails. By now she has reversed her surgery partially returning to her Cardassian features. It is clear her love for Chakotay fuels all she does and she holds the Kazon in low regard keeping Culluh on a lease even if it is a fragile one.

One thing the Cardassians are is bold and think big. Seska launches a plan to take Voyager and plays her wildest card yet to lure them into her trap. She sends a distress call to Voyaager begging Chakotay to save her and his son! She has stolen the first officer’s DNA and impregnated herself giving birth to their son but when Culluh found out he went mad. Janeway insists they have to save the child but it is all a trap. Sustained Kazon attacks result in an ambush in which Seska and the Kazon take over the ship. They leave tthe crew stranded on a volcanic planet and fly off triumphant in the brilliant first part of two parter Basics. Part two fell into cliche but the crew watching Voyager fly off without them is a great cliffhanger.

With the capture of Voyager cementing her place at Culluh’s side, Seska is lax. She fails to see the Doctor has developed beyond his programming and working against her. She does not know about former serial killer Lon Suder (voice of Chucky Brad Douriff) who is loose upon the ship working with the Doctor to sabotage the ship and make her think there are still others aboard. Tom Paris leads a fleet of Talaxians to help free the ship. Suder manages to overload the systems on the bridge killing or injuring the Kazon and himself. Beaming aboard they take the ship back to save the crew as the Kazon flee.

However by now Seska has discovered her son is in fact Culluh’s. She is genuinely shocked as she has lost her hold over Chakotay with this revelation. But Seska is killed in the overload but her last thoughts are of her son as she tries to get to him. It is a sad end for a person that thought they were doing the right thing just in the wrong way. She had no faith in seeing home again so like a true Cardassian made the best of a situation to suit their needs. She did genuinely love Chakotay and would happily have stayed a Bajoran if it meant being with him forever. Janeway has to saddle some of the responsibility here for Seska’s actions because she made the decision to strand her crew in the Delta Quadrant. It was a decision so dumb that even her future self decided to change the past and bring them home early.

Seska would return twice. Even from beyond the grave she set a trap in the holodeck in Worst Case Scenario. There, a Maquis takeover of Voyager plays out and Tuvok must play it for real thanks to Seska’s computer trap. In Shattered, Voyager is split into different time zones including the time the Kazon took over Voyager. We see the dominant, determined Seska leading the Kazon troops in all her Cardassian glory.

In the end Seska is a victim of her true Cardassian nature and her love for a man she could never have. In some ways she is to be pitied. It would have been interesting to have a Cardassian as part of the crew full time.

PreOrder Zarjaz Sci Fi Special 2024 Now!

Have you ordered your copy of ZARJAZ yet???

The ZARJAZ SCI-FI SPECIAL 2024 is a massive 116 thrill-packed pages— that’s a staggering 18 brand-new stories featuring hordes of classic 2000AD characters!

And there’ll be more than a few surprises too!

A whole year in the making, this special relaunch issue will include a mixture of colour and B&W stories, and for the first time since 2002 it will be published in glorious large format!

ZARJAZ is a not-for-profit publication and our use of Rebellion characters means we cannot offer a KickStarter like other small-press comics. However, opening it up for pre-sale will enable us to finance publication with professional printers.

There will be a limited print-run of this special issue and this will be strictly based on pre-sales. Simply put, if we receive 10 pre-orders we’ll print 10 copies. If we receive 500, we’ll print 500. This means that you will only guarantee your copy through pre-order.

Your copy of ZARJAZ SCI-FI SPECIAL 2024 will be sent out towards the end of September. There will be regular updates here and on Facebook.

To order, click the appropriate link below and you will be taken to the secure payment page for your region:

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TW Meet Doctor Who’s Yaz Khan, Mandip Gill

By and photos copyright Owen Quinn

So this was my first real life taste of the 13th Doctor’s era and I have to say I wasn’t disappointed.

Mandip Gill played companion Yaz for all of the Jodie Whittaker era eventually being kicked out when the Doctor was dying and about to regenerate. She ended up at a meeting of old companions including Ace, Tegan, Jo and Ian Chesterton to tell tales of their adventures with the Doctor. Kate Stewart was there too looking for staff so who knows where Yaz is now?

Mandip was very welcoming and had great eye contact while meeting fans. We spoke about her upcoming Big Finish stories, how she would have liked to see more scary episodes like Village of the Angels and working with Jodie. She also wanted to see Northern Ireland but wasn’t going to get the chance as both she and Jodie were only there for the day and due to fly out later that evening.

Mandip was just so engaging and fan friendly and truly happy to be here and meeting fans in a place she had never been to before. I couldn’t have wished for a better stop on my meeting Who actors and actually reinvigorated her era for me. As you can see there was no combo so had to buy a photo op which was the only downside as combos should be standard across the board. Igot her to sign one of my comics and left a happy man. Great person.

A Tremor In The Force: Voice Of Darth Vader Passes

By Owen Quinn author

You’ll see a million tributes today both long and short. The Legend that was James Earl Hones has died. Despite his prolific career, he will forever be Darth Vader. He was an integral part of my life thanks to that character. He defined it. He made it. It is why I still collect Darth Vader merchandise to this day. I never met him but the minute I heard his voice I was that kid again in the cinema. I can’t write this without mentioning the fun he brought to The Big Bang Theory. I always will be that kid in the cinema when he appeared on screen. Thank you sir. Be one with the Force.

Magic TV: Babylon 5: Sheridan Sacrifices Himself

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

So you’re having a bad day.

Giant spider monsters from the ancient past are looking to take over everything. They have converted human slaves to fool us into agreeing to their cause. You run a space station where all sorts of races coexist in less than, shall we say, harmonious circumstances. Anbassadors with hair like a peacock are secretly in league with the shadowy spiders loto avenge old grudges while reptilian baddies are suddenly looking friendlier than ever but your lovelife is looking up with your half human half Minbari girlfriend. tensions are at an all time high as the Shadows return heralds the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy of a time of great darkness. Oh yeah and to cap it all, your wife comes back from th dead.

Some days you just need an aspirin.

In the epic babylon 5, Commander John Sheridan (played by Bruce Boxleitner) is at a crosroads. The Shadows, the sneaky arachnids that have woken from their ancient sleep and are now ready to take back the galaxy. They will dominate and enslve everyone and everything. Ambassador Londo (peter Jurasik) has made a deal with them but the biggest obstacle in their way is Babylon 5 and its fearless commander, John Sheridan. He and his trusted crew and allies have been thwarting the Shadows at every turn making the likes of Ambassador G’Kar a much needed ally where he was once an irritant and obstacle to peace.

At the end of season three the Shadows tried a new tactic to bring Sheridan over to their side. His beloved wife,Anna, had been lost presumed dead years previous on a mission. However it turns out that Anna and her expedition were taken by th Shadows and converted into pilots for their ships. Now, having discovered who Anna actually is they see the chance to turn the tables. Sheridan will agree whether he does it willingly or not. Anna comes to Babylon 5 claiming they have got it all wrong and in fact the Shadows are a force for good. Reluctantly Sheridan agrees to meet them on the Shadow world of Z’Ha’Dum.

There is a real sense of dread and foreboding through this episode and watching it back, this season cliffhanger stands up there with Star Trek’s Best of Both Worlds. this is epic doing what a good cliffhanger should; leave you speechless and wondering how they are going to get out of that one. This it does in spades because very simply you never see it coming.

Sheridan and D’elenn have declared their love for each other and looking forward to their life together when Anna comes back in in a beautifully directed scene where she appears in shadow and D’elenn drops a snowglobe in shock. Sheridan leaves on his mission without telling her but records a video message for her. G’Kar is having feelings of deep foreboding and the Shadows surround Babylon 5.

On Z’Ha’dum, Sheridan meets a group of humans that argue for the cause of the Shadows hoping to bring him to their side. But Sheridan is prepared for them and the situation quickly deteriorates. Sheridan is forced to run and finds himself on a balcony high above the planet’s surface. Above him is a honeycombed dome. He activates the device on his wrist and his ship’s engines flare as nuclear bombs begin a countdown. It heads towards the planet.

Trapped Ann and a group of Shadow warriros approach. She is nothing like the wife he knew and is brimming with evil intent.

At the same time D’elenn plays the message her lover has left her. As we cut between a trapped Sheridan, the olunging ship and a devastated D’elenn, the tension is palpable. If ever there was a situation where the hero had no way out, it is this. Suddenly Sheridan hears a voice telling him to jump. He does so plunging to certain death. His White Star comes smashing through the dome and explodes as Anna screams. The world is destroyed in the nuclear blast. The Shadows flee from Babylon 5 but Security Chief Michael Garibaldi is taken too.

We leave the season stunned ust like the characters. How could Sheridan survive that fall? Did he do enough damage to the Shadows to stop them? We are left with a monlogue from G’Kar (Andreas Katsulas).

“it was the end of the Earth year 2260 and the war had paused suddenly and unexpectedly. All around us it was as if the universe was holding its breath, waiting. All of life can be broken down into moments of transition or moments of revalation. This had the feeling f both. G’Quan wrote there is a greater darkness than the one we fight; it is the darkness of the soul that has lost its way. The war we fight is not against powers and principalities; it is against chaos and despair greater than the death of flesh is the death of hope; the death of dreams against this peril we can never surrender. The future is all around us waiting in moments of transition to be born in moments of revealtion. No one knows the shape of that future or where it will take us. We know that it is always born in pain.”

Everything is up in the air now and where it goes next we can only guess but when season four returned with the resolution, it took the character of Shridan in a new direction.

This for me is one of the best episodes of Babylon 5 in the run with a beautifully structured story that squeezes every ounce of excitement and tension out of the viewer. In reality the fate of Sheridan from a lethal situation is actually better than Picard’s assimilation by the Borg because you really don’t know how this one can be resolved. A brillaint cliffhanger and example of scifi televison done right.

TW Watches Spider Scare Fest Arachnophobia

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

To commemorate the one year anniversary of the death of Julian Sands, we look back at the super spider fest, Arachnophobia.

In 1990 a movie was released that played upon peoples’ paralysing terror of spiders. Arachnophobia, a comedy horror, starred Jeff Daniels as Dr Ross Jennings and Julian Sands as Doctor James Atherton. It also starred Roseanne star John Goodman as the super serious exterminator, Delbert McClintock.

When creating a villain or monster, it’s always good to make them stick in people’s minds. When I designed the Mentara for the Time Warriors books, I always had it in my head to make them arachnids. The Mentara are tarantula like, the size of race horses with human like torsos. They scavenge battlefields through Earth’s history for bodies to feed their thirst for human flesh. However there is much more to them as they are hiding a huge secret. To find out what that is go to Amazon and buy the Time Warriors First Footsteps, Red Water book three, The Moon Once More and the Time Warriors The Belbridge Mystery. Being afraid of spiders is bad enough but imagine one that could run you down and scoop you up. Worse still, imagine it kicking in your front door and getting into your home. Did you know statistically a spider crawls over you when you sleep about 5-6 times a night?

So there was no doubt that the tale of an Venezuelan spider mating with an indigenous American born spider to create deadly venomous offspring will freak people out. We know spiders can get into our homes, silent and determinedly. We find them everywhere and often the first reaction is to kill them or wash them down a sink. Did you know that only for spiders the human race would be consumed by insects in no time? They say a spider spun a web across a cave entrance to save Jesus from Roman soldiers and that a spider in your home is a good thing because it means your home is free from damp. Let’s not forget the money spiders that cross your palm with silver.

I went out to photograph some webs one day and found ten different species of spiders in my back garden including one with a web full of babies. Going about your daily life, you would never know they were there. One was sitting in its web and when I put the macro lens near it it rose up in defiance of this strange object invading its space. It let me know to back off and that this tiny little creature was a lot smarter than I thought. This is the sort of behaviour that Arachnophobia plays on brilliantly.

When photographer Jerry Manley is bitten by a previously unknown aggressive form of spider in a Venezuelan expedition led by Doctor James Atherton (Julian Sands), the spider survives by literally sucking his body dry of all fluids inside the coffin as he is returned home causing the coroner to observe his body looked like a vampire had been at it. The spider escapes into the wild and mates, fathering little mutants that invade the town and start killing the inhabitants. This coincides with the arrival of Doctor Ross Jennings who is due to take over the country practice but just happens to be deathly afraid of spiders. So his timing kinda sucks.

When the country doctor that Ross was due to take over from decides he doesn’t want to retire after all, Ross is left in the wilderness. But when people he has treated start dying he gains the name ‘Doctor Death’. When the old doctor is bitten and dies, it becomes Ross’ worst nightmare as a new type of spider is violating his home. He calls in Doctor Atherton, who upon hearing the town’s name, realises that Jerry Manley’s coffin held more than his body.

Little does Ross know that his home is the epicentre of the spider’s web and that his cellar holds more than his wine collection. The movie shows just how easily spiders can invade our homes and how close of a proximity they really have. One victim reaches to turn off a lamp when the spider drops onto her hand from inside the shade. A football player dies when a spider secrets itself in his helmet and the old country doctor is bitten when he puts his slippers on.

Now I recall years ago putting my foot in my slipper and feeling something scurry against my toes. I tipped the shoe out and a large black spider scuttled away. Even when writing this, I can still feel it moving against my foot. Spiders don’t bother me but I once lived with my aunt and uncle and my cousin had a tarantula in a glass case. He had a brick on top and I wondered why.

I soon found out as I could hear the spider trying to push the lid off its cage but the brick held it in place. Now while I do not fear spiders, the thought of a tarantula somewhere in a dark room with me is unsettling to say the least. So I can only imagine how audiences reacted when the Jennings house is invaded en-masse by the spiders in the final battle. Jennings barn is dead centre as Atherton is attacked and webbed ready for consumption by the new mutant spiders. Luckily like wasps, they die after biting someone. Jennings finds the local coroner and his wife dead on the sofa as a spider crawls out of his mouth where they were eating popcorn while watching their favourite show. Spiders in your food is bad enough without putting one in your mouth where its bite drops you on the spot. Anyone with a genuine severe fear will never watch this movie and for good reason.

Ross falls through his floor into his cellar where his paralysing fear of a spider crawling up his infant body in his crib comes back to haunt him as he faces the same scenario. This time the spider is intelligent and intent on keeping its new domain intact. After centuries of isolation in the Venezuelan jungles, the spider wants this place as its new kingdom. When it rears up at Ross, I can see the spider in the web that did the same to me. Its silent crawling determination makes the arachnid a formidable foe but Ross manages to kill it. He decides in the end to move back to the city. It is the fact this thing made its home and base in the home of a human without their knowledge. The massive webs Ross’ wife photographed were simply thought to be ordinary spider due to the remoteness of the house.

With Delbert the exterminator, we get a comedic side to the infestation. Delbert is played by John Goodman and brings some light-hearted relief to the proceedings. Delbert struts about like a cross between the Terminator, Ghostbuster and the Gunslinger from WestWorld. The defiance of these new spiders is seen when one resists his fluid spray and fights against it proving these are no ordinary spiders.

Overall, Arachnophobia is a rewatchable classic where in the end the lesson is, people would rather face an earthquake than a spider. Awesome stuff.