A new and exciting culinary experience has just opened in the coastal town of Millisle situated between Donaghadee and Bangor and it’s one not to be missed.
R Plaice has opened its doors bringing its wide menu of food for all the family to experience. Serving everything from traditional fish and chips to burgers to butties, you will not fail to enjoy the food they offer. Their pasties, goujons and chicken fillets are all homemade and the fish are battered to order ensuring that personal touch that will keep you and the family coming back for more. Add to that it is great value for money including pensioner discounts and you will leave with money in your pocket and a full belly. If you don’t fancy fish and chips then you can get a delicious pizza from Absolute Pizza, prepared and freshly made right before your eyes at even more great prices. And if it is miserable outside you can take advantage of the seating area.
We were invited to sample the food and we were not disappointed. Now I will be up front and admit I not a fan of fast food in general but after our visit to R Plaice and Absolute Pizza, they may have shown me that I need to raise my expectations of so called fast food {and I hate to use that term} given what we ate. I’m not even sure that the term fast food applies as it was cooked with an attention to detail the friendly staff genuinely projected.
Our party had a range of dishes from two types of pizza, steak burgers, chicken burgers, gravy chips, cod, sausages and chips. I have to say the chips were cooked perfectly and there wasn’t as much as a crumb left over. The steak burger was succulent where the taste lingered in your mouth. The cod in batter wasn’t at all greasy and the pizzas were to die for. Trust me when I say I am not blowing smoke up anyone’s ass here because you know I’m as blunt as a hammer but I can honestly say that if this is how fast food is cooked then my new diet regime could well be out the window. It wasn’t greasy, you could taste the food you were eating and it was filling.
Thanks for that Jeff; jelly belly may be around longer than I anticipated. Think bananas, think rice, think tuna…dammit I can’t get over that steak burger , chips and meat feast pizza!
What makes me excited by the opening of R Plaice and Absolute Pizza is the fact it is located in the Main Street literally feet from the beach. There are plans to let you sit outside at picnic tables come the summer where you can sit and look over the ocean and enjoy your food. The R Plaice ice cream range is coming too! Given how close the caravan parks are this is just a great addition to Millisle. Now if I can come away from this welcoming environment on a cold winter night happy then how cool is it going to be when the bright evenings return and you can sit and dine in the beautiful coastal family environment.
This new venture I am genuinely excited for because I’m counting down to the summer so I can go explore Millisle with its beach, sea view and windmill knowing I can sit and enjoy good food in this picturesque environment at the right times, open at 12 o’clock and closing at 9 o’clock as the sun sets. If you’re a local of Millisle then you are lucky people. Yes, there’s even a delivery service in case you’re in the middle of Eastenders and it’s too exciting to tear yourself away from.
Check R Plaice and Absolute Pizza out and enjoy food as it is meant to be cooked.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright Columbia 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.
In hindsight it is not really fair to call Captain Blake a villain. He is a victim of other men’s greed and wants revenge for the murders of his fellow travelers and the theft of his gold. His presence also opens up discussion as to is his thirst for revenge powerful enough to bring them back after a hundred years for revenge or did he make a deal with some other primal force we have no idea existed. There are many places all around the planet built on bloodshed and treason where innocents were preyed upon by more powerful people to maintain their own ambitions.
it is the centennial of the coastal town of Antonio Bay and preparations are well under way to celebrate it. However none of the townspeople know that the legacy they are celebrating is in fact soaked in the blood of the innocent. At the stroke of midnight strange almost poltergeist like events start to happen. It is only the herald for the arrival of the ghosts of captain William Blake and his crew eager to take 6 lives to appease their thirst for vengeance for being betrayed.
Fisherman Nick Castle narrowly escapes being skewered at this front door by one of the ghosts when the clock strikes one o’clock in the morning.
Then the Fog comes and people start to die. Nick along with a hitchhiker he picked up, Elizabeth (Jamie Lee Curtis) discover three of his friends boat with a single body aboard. There is evidence of the ship being aged due to rust and the body once autopsied has been under the water for a long time. This is impossible as it has only been the night before. However when the corpse gets up, takes a scalpel and scores the number 3 into the floor, things change. But 3 what?
Father Malone finds his centenary celebrations tainted when a mini earthquake opens part of a wall in his church. He finds an old diary belonging to his grandfather. To his horror, he discovers the town of Antonio Bay was founded on the murder of Blake and the people on his ship, the Elizabeth Dane. Local Dj, Stevie Wayne’s son finds a piece of driftwood on the beach that initially caught his attention as a gold coin before transforming. It is emblazoned with the name Elizabeth Dane and when Stevie takes it to her radio station it leaks water and unearthly voices come over the radio triggering a fire. Is this Blake reaching out to herald his return? All of this happens in broad daylight so what supernatural force is Blake tapped into or is it the collective rage of his crew causing these things to happen?
Father Malone is found by town celebration coordinator Kathy (Jamie Lee Curtis’ real life mother Janet Leigh) and her assistant Sandy, drinking alone in the church where he reads them the diary. Blake made a deal with the council consisting of 6 members for a plot of land on which to settle with his people. He paid in gold, some of which was used to fund the town of San Antonio while the rest was melted down into a giant cross and hidden in the walls of the church. They lit a beacon for the Elizabeth Dane to follow but instead it led the ship to rocks where it broke apart and sank killing everyone on board.
Everyone on board suffered from leprosy and the council did not want a leper colony nearby. So they swindled Blake them murdered them all under the guise of accident at sea. Now Blake is back to claim 6 lives to represent the number of council members. Malone’s grandfather was tortured by his conscience so hid the rest of the gold in the walls of the church. Malone is devastated but Blake has already set his plan into motion. Stevie’s son Andy and his babysitter, Mrs Kobritz are trapped as the Fog hits the town cutting it off by taking down the telephone and power lines. Weatherman Dan who has a crush on Stevie is also killed. What is cool is that the dead are hidden by the fog, showing as silhouettes.
It is only when Nick and Elizabeth rescue Andy, they see the dead crew in the flesh. They are decayed but intact slowly moving with their weapons whether it be a hook or sword to take their lives. They walk rather than run as if they know they have all the time in the world. Stevie is trapped in her lighthouse radio station desperately broadcasting to save anyone that can hear her and can see the whole town from her vantage point. She is able to warn people before the lines are cut and the ghosts attack her too.
But the church is the place of the final attack. Trapped inside, Nick and the others realise that Blake is back for the treasure that was stolen and demands 6 lives in return. With the three fishermen, Mrs Kobritz and Dan already dead, that leaves one. Wracked by guilt at what his ancestor did, Malone grabs the golden cross and goes alone to face Blake. The imagery is very evocative as the church is filled with low level fog and the crew standing amid it. Malone calls to Blake and one steps forward eyes red. This is Blake fully in control of the situation. He is an enemy that cannot be defeated and has the town on his knees. He grabs the cross which blazes with a golden light. Nick pulls Malone away as the light fades.
The fog pulls back seemingly having gotten what it wants leaving the survivors to count their blessings. However when Nick and the others leave, Blake returns and murders Malone as the final part of his compensation.
The Fog leaves us to speculate as to how Blake and his crew were able to reach across one hundred years to take revenge. The human mind is a powerful thing and it may well be their unified terror and rage at being betrayed caused some sort of manifestation. Or there is the belief there are forces out there dark and mysterious that have spawned dark magic and legends. Could the Fog be an entity all of its own that sympathised with Blake’s cause? The cause may be just but he should have gone after descendants of the original 6 rather than innocents. That would tip him into the villain camp. Whatever happened, the movie rightly does not explain how. I’m ignoring the 2005 remake as it was just tripe. Blake will forever be a man that stood up against evil across time but whose methods failed in taking the right culprits.
So I left for a long deserved holiday in Turkey on the day Salem’s Lot was broadcast so with limited internet I couldn’t resist checking YouTube for clips and to see what people thought.
Now we all know that this almost never got released due to so many issues and sad to say they are plain for all to see on screen. Everyone knows Salem’s Lot is like a favourite child to me. The original mini series is just perfect and terrified me as a kid. Those fears continue to this day especially the scraping at the window and the “Look at me ” scene. The Rob Lowe version is weak and we are not even going to talk about the woeful Return To Salem’s Lot movie. The David Soul version is terrifying and told beautifully by director Tobe Hooper.
So when this delayed version was announced for transmission, I was excited. Could they match the terror of the original? Would a noise at the window make me slip even further under the quilt?
Sadly, no.
Anyone approaching this project surely knows that this story is too big for a two hour movie. The original was edited for a DVD release and lacked any impact it had on first viewing. It was chopped to bits losing the character nuances and flow of the story. Salem’s Lot should have been handled like It; two movies or a four hour mini series. The story is too big and complex for two hours. And it shows.
The editing and rush to broadcast is so obvious leaving me scratching my head at parts. Everyone came to the firm conclusion that vampires were real very quickly. The characters are mere ghosts of what they should be and we simply do not care. Some are reduced to mere cameos. The only exception is teacher Matthew Burke whom seems to be a three dimensional figure until he decides to go and research Barlow by going into Barlow’s basement. Bill Camp does a great job of making Matthew the most human character in the entire movie yet his end is steeped in dumbass. There he meets Mark Petrie who from the outset seems a little violent for a boy his age. Beating the bully is one thing but torture is something else. Before you know Burke is dead and Mark is out as a one boy killing machine whose research for killing vampires comes from his comic books. But as a horror fan, he would have already known all vampire lore. This scene makes it look like he only became interested in horror the week before transmission.
But before I tear it apart I will admit there were some great attempts at originality and making it scary.
Ralphie’s abduction by Straker is almost Tim Burtonesque in nature via the silhouettes. Similarly Ralphie seeing Barlow creep towards him from inside the sack is unnerving but why do Barlow’s reveal so early and so matter of factly?
Mike Ryerson and Matthew Burke in the bar. Sickly Mike on the verge of becoming a vampire is scary thanks to the lighting and direction. When you think he has turned is a genuine heartstopper as you fear for Matthew Burke’s life. You’re waiting for the rocking chair scene in his house and those words that haunt horror fans since the original transmission.
“Look at me teacher!”
The new battle is almost as good as vampire Mike shows a cunning side to the vamps but it fails to match the original.
Seeing the vampires on the rooftops is freaky but that shot in the trailer is really it.
The drive in with coffin cars was clever and scary, a good idea that wasn’t used to its full potential.
But for fans the most iconic scenes from the original were when Mark receives a midnight visit from his buddy Glick. This was the first scene I saw on holiday and immediately shook my head.
The scare factor of a vampire invasion is the fact it is insidious and silent. It happens in the night leaving us thinking there is a bad flu going round. Do we really check on our neighbours as much as we talk of how we carer about our friends and neighbours? No we don’t which allows Barlow to infect so many so quickly. In the original Danny Glick is whispering to Mark to open the window, lightly scratching with those nails. If you were in a deep sleep in the same room, you wouldn’t even know it was happening. Silence, stealth and hiding behind normality because we would never believe such a thing as vampires was possible is how the town falls.
But not here.
Ralphie bangs on the window so loudly it’s like the bailiffs are at the door and shouts at Mark to let him in. If that were our house, everyone would be up asking what the hell all the noise was. Even vampire Glick entering the room is too fast; there is no tension, no horror, no drama as this thing enters the room. Then it gets a cross in the face and screams out the window. All I can say is Mark’s parents are a pair of really deep sleepers, bless them.
But this again is the rushed editing and loss of story that cripples this scene. There are moments where even the audience were saying “Oh come on!”
In the climatic drive-in vampire emergence, Ben Mears is bounced on by three vamps and yet doesn’t get bitten once. What are they waiting for? His neck? Oh no, we can’t bite any other part of your body bar the neck.
Ben and Mark drive out of the town as all the vampires apparently burned when Mark collapsed the big movie screen catching the vamps in the sunlight. The impression is that all the vampires are dead and they drive off to who knows where. Really? I didn’t see any kid vampires there and we know there are lots of them as demonstrated by the treehouse scene. It’s just over and that’s it. First thing I’d be doing is dropping Maniac Mark off to the nearest rehab for counselling. That kid went super-killer too fast for my liking.
The bottom line is, aside from Matthew Burke, I didn’t care about these characters at all. Speaking of which, I am quite sure that James Mason is turning in his grave with the version of Straker presented here. Who on that team thought this was a good move? He talks like he’s trying to revive Young Frankenstein. I actually cringed at how Straker was portrayed. He is so OTT it is laughable; e.g. the scene where he tries to get the Glick boys into his car. The acting of Pilou Asbaek is so shockingly bad as Straker is reduced to a mere caricature. The beauty of the character when James mason played it, is that Starker is so friendly and seemingly open, that you cannot help but be drawn to him. He is the quintessential gentleman that you would happily have tea and scones with. Yet beneath that exterior, you can see his malevolence especially when dealing with the police. He knows full well the fate of everyone in the town and is smugly seething with triumph that he has served his Master so well and delivered the townspeople literally into Hell. This Straker is mere pantomime to the point of embarrassment.
I don’t mind the new Barlow and his death didn’t seem as easy as the original. For me it was very 30 Days Of Night but his scare factor was ripped away with poor direction and an all too early reveal.
Salem’s Lot 2024 is simply a rush job that was made by people that hoped the name alone would bring in the bucks. They failed to understand what makes Salem’s Lot so scary. They failed to understand how big this story is and while they took some parts of the original as templates for this new version, it fails due to rushed editing. Take the scene where the heroes enter the Marsten House and it is the morning. They are no sooner in the house that they run out of it. It is suddenly night.
The inconsistencies are there for all to see. When Doctor Cody stabs vampire Mrs Glick in the face with a scalpel, she says that there is no blood yet when Ben Mears falls on top of a vamp, it explodes in a shower of blood. Come on guys, is it any wonder that they were hesitant to release it?
As it stands now, there is nothing to match the terror and pure genuine, palpable fear generated by the original. Maybe it is time for James Wan to put his spin on it. In the meantime, David soul and James mason can stand undefeated champions of childhood terror.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright Entertainment Film Distributors
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.
Hellraiser explores human lust and base needs and those individuals that crave more than basic sex and loving relationships. They want to go deeper than anyone else to push the boundaries between pleasure and pain . The key to this is solving the puzzle cubes that confound like Chinese puzzle boxes.
Once solved the desperate individuals tortured by needs that scream at them to fulfill, are fatally caught in the Cenobite web that takes them to literally Hell from which they never come back. They quickly learn there is a deeper truth to the old saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” Perhaps this was invented by some other poor soul lost to the Cenobites as a wasted warning to others.
Dr Philip Channard played by Kenneth Cranham is a man driven by such needs. He is in a position of power which allows him to indulge and use any and all means to get those answers. He has created the Channard Institute where he uses his patients as guinea pigs. At some point he somehow discovered the cubes but cannot solve them.
He learns of the events of the first movie when a traumatised Kirsty is admitted to his Institute and tells them what happened. She begs them to destroy the mattress Julia died on. She brought Frank (Sean Chapman) back by feeding him victims to consume allowing himself to regenerate and escape from the Cenobite hell. They had a steamy affair the night before her wedding to his brother Larry and she still lusts after him.
However Larry’s daughter Kirsty (Ashley Laurence) discovers their secret and steals the cube. Terrified that she will somehow alert the Cenobites to Frank’s location, Larry Cotton (Deep Space 9’s Garak and Dirty Harry star (Andrew Robinson) is murdered by Julia, allowing Frank to wear his skin. Kirsty however made a deal with the Cenobites to deliver both Frank and Julia to them. This is what Channard has been waiting for.
Channard now has the bloody mattress used by them and is feeding patients to it. It reanimates Julia who has been skinned. That doesn’t matter to Channard as he kisses her fleshy body. She is the key he has been seeking and his base needs want her because she has no inhibitions. So he feeds her patients in order for her to regenerate fully. He also gives a puzzle box to a young mute girl Tiffany whom Kirsty befriends. At Julia’s urging, Channard gave Tiffany the cube to solve in order to open the gates to Hell. Channard has a massive collection of cubes and relics detailing Hell and its secrets.
With the mattress successfully installed in his home along with Julia Channard thinks he is full control. However once in Hell, Julia and Channard find the god Leviathan the god of flesh, hunger and desire, Lord of the Labyrinth. But Julia reveals she has only one task; to deliver souls to Leviathan and it wants Channard.
He is transformed into Doctor Cenobite, a malevolent being that acts out all of Channard’s deepest sickest fantasies. His is probably one of the best Cenobite designs. He is dangling from a pronged tentacle like tendril attached to his head, his skin blue and wrapped in wire. It has drilled into his skull making him an extension of itself.
Such is the depth of Channard’s new power as part of the Leviathan, Pinhead and the other Cenobites take him on. Channard wants to rule Hell and needs rid of the others so they can be remade. He reverts them back to human form including Pinhead. He played god in the Institute and now he intends to rule Hell itself. He has worshipped from afar for so long and wanted to know its secrets, he intends to make it in his open image. Or could it be he is channeling the wishes of the Leviathan? Is Chananrd’s thirst for the darkest experiences mirror the Leviathan’s so closely they are one and the same?
He tries to stop Tiffany from solving the puzzle by turning her into a Cenobite but Julia enters distracting him. Despite her betrayal, he still wants her but it is really Kirsty using Julia’s skin. While distracted Tiffany solves the cube triggering Leviathan to turn into a massive cube, killing Channard in the process.
To have a Cenobite god to scare even Pinhead was a great idea and Channard was the perfect choice. As a doctor who has sworn to do no harm, he has no feeling for his patients, willingly killing and abusing them to further his own gains. He only cared for himself and even his lust for Julia was only to satisfy one of his sick fantasies. There have been many villain doctors over the years but Doctor Cenobite has to rank near the top.
If you can scare Pinhead to the point he protects humans then the threat is very real.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright 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.
Some of the most dangerous things in the world are a wounded animal, a cornered animal, a woman scorned and a man with nothing left to lose. In Angel season three, Angel went up against his most dangerous foe ever. He was not a supernatural being; he was not all powerful. He was a vampire hunter from the 18th century on a mission of vengeance. He had chased Darla and Angelus across Europe but failed to catch them. Having been exposed to the dark world thanks to Angelus and Darla, Daniel Holtz used dark forces to execute his plan. He was going to kill Angelus for murdering his entire family. The problem was that Angelus no longer existed; he was now the hero we know as Angel. But Holtz doesn’t care. Everything and everyone Angel holds dear was going to die but as fate would have it Holtz managed to destroy Angel in a way he could never have planned for.
Back in the past, Holtz had a family so to put him off tracking them, Darla and Angelus decided to enter Holtz’s home. They murdered his infant son and wife. When Holt got home, his daughter had been turned. Distraught Holt had to put her in direct sunlight. Instead of breaking him, it only fuelled his hatred and determination to bring them both down. He almost did it by trapping them in a burning barn but Darla left Angelus to die but he too escaped. No matter how many times he tried, Holtz failed to kill them. In a final humiliation, he tortured Angelus for hours in Rome. Darla freed him but they mocked Holtz saying they would not kill him as he was like family to them. This sent the hunter into a seclusion.
But Angel made a lot of enemies over the years and Holtz was offered a lifeline by the demon Sahjhan. Sahjhan put him in a state of suspened animation until 2001 when Sahjhan showed Holtz the new world and what had happened in the years since he slept. The demon even gave him a army of grappler demons with which he took out Wolfram and Hart’s SWAT team. Holtz was shocked to learn that Darla was pregnant and that Angel now had a soul and worked for the good of the people. Sparing him, Holtz decided on a new plan. He would hurt those that Angel loved and began recruiting humans who hated monsters as much as he did. His first recruit was Justine Cooper whom had lost her sister to vampires. Focusing her anger, Holtz gave her a new purpose.
He trapped Fred and Gunn in a vampire’s nest but they survived. Wesley began to notice Angel’s behaviour change around Connor as if his blood lust was rising. To his horror, he discovers a prophecy that Angel would kill Connor so along with Justine, he took Connor. However the prophecy was false, planted by Sahjhan who was manipulating the entire situation because in reality, the prophecy showed that Connor would grow up to kill him. Justine slit Wesley’s throat leaving him for dead.
She and Holtz would keep Connor raising him as their own renaming him Stephen. This triggers a four way battle as Wolfran and Hart, Angel, Holtz and Sanjhan fight for the baby who Holtz is clutching. Sanjhan reveals the truth and opens a portal to a hell dimensio Quir’toth. It is nowhere anyone should be. It is a standoff and realising that Connor will never be safe with him, Angel lets Holtz raise his son who would never know who his father was. In a stunning end to the episode, Holtz jumps into the portal with the baby robbing Angel of his son.
Time moves at a different pace in the hell dimension and a few months later Connor returns with an elderly Holtz. This Connor is a teenager with a deep hatred of Angel and as skilled a fighter as any slayer. Holtz is killed by Justine at his request. They make it look like Holtz has been killed by a vampire by using a pickaxe to fake fang marks. Connor wrongly blamed Angel and tgether with Justine, buries him at sea as punishment.
Angel season three was the best for me personally. It had such strong storytelling ad jaw dropping moments you couldn’t fail to be hooked. Whether it was Darla’s staking herself so her baby can be born, Holtz seeing Angel holding the newborn in the rain, Wesley’s betrayal and getting his throat slit to Angel trying to kill him in his hospital bed, Holtz smashed the world of Angel almost beyond repair. Even lounge lizard singing demon Lorne being attacked by Wesley as he takes Connor is an act too horrible to comprehend. Sanjhan to save his own life, used Holtz as a pawn to bring Angel down and team Angel are turning on each other. Keith Szarabajka played Holtz flawlessly. He was cool and calculating driven by the pan of the muder of his family. Seeing an opportunity, he wanted to turn Connor against his father which is worse than killing him just as Angelus did with his children. He was a master manipulator with a plan that Sanjhan knew nothing of. When a demon underestimates a vampire hunter that speaks volumes about the character of the hunter and lack of foresight on the part of the demon. You completely agree with Holtz and his cause but you have to keep in mind that people can chnage.
That entire season stands today as a gripping drama that hurts us as an audience as surely as it hurts our heroes. Great stuff.
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.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright Warner Brothers
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.
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.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright Universal
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.
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.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Photos copyright CBS
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 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.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
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 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.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 