The Time Warriors and Beyond

TW Reviews Doctor Who Empire of Death S01E08

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Ok, so I’ve held back from releasing this review just to see if my reaction is the same as other peoples’. Not that I have ever based my opinions on what others think; I’ve always been my own man and never a sheep but seeing the final episode of Ncuti Gatwa’s first season has left me kind of wrinkled.

The bottom line is that after the super first episode which climaxed in the reveal of God of Death Sutekh from the classic fourth Doctor story The Pyramids of Mars as the big bad, He Who Waits, was stunning. I have watched that cliffhanger over and over again all week so it was for me the midnight showing as usual.

And what we got was a lesson in the logistics of why bringing back such a powerful enemy is a bad idea unless you have an airtight story for his defeat. It’s also a lesson in how to completely kick an audience in the balls and leave them asking, “What was the point of that?” or “Is that it?”

I have been attacked as a hater of Doctor Who over the last while which is ridiculous. I have been a fan since 1971, been there through the wilderness years and suffered the Jodie Whittaker era unleashed on us by Chris Chibnall and am still here after all these years. One of my first memories is the Pertwee theme music coming on and me running upstairs to hide in my room I was so scared. I have two novel franchises, the Time Warriors (written as an alternative to Doctor Who because John Nathan Turner wouldn’t read my younger self’s handwritten script, books 9 and 10 coming soon) and Zombie Blues. I know how to write a story, I know what is exciting and story logic is paramount. So to bash views that dare to criticize the show and label genuine fans people haters is just indicative of fans that see no wrong in what they see and will just take anything that is shown. Don’t jump on a bandwagon, be brave enough to speak your mind. I’m here to keep the show alive and not let it drown under cliche and thoughtlessness.

Let’s get the good stuff out of the way.

Ncuti Gatwa is most definitely the Doctor. That gravitas I never saw in previous episodes was there finally when he first confronts Sutekh face to face. When he starts screaming in frustration as the universe falls, some have said that he seems to roar and scream a lot but in this instance as well as the ending of Dot and Bubble, it is justified.

The fact that Sutekh has always been with the Doctor ever since Pyramids of Mars is a fascinating one and every subsequent landing marked that world for death as the God of Death restored himself and evolved into what he has become now. That is a great concept. The Doctor is always racing towards things before they fade and die and living for those that they have lost along the way. Pure evil works best when it takes what is normal for us and precious to us and twists it to their own vile ends. The revelation that your travels and everything you stand for were in fact a prelude to total annihilation would break the Doctor. He celebrates the joy of the universe so to be its unwitting executioner tears at his soul. The Doctor began this journey healed and loving life even more than before but that pain is still very much alive under the laughter.

The acolytes of Sutekh were genuinely disturbing and that moment when Mel fell to Sutekh’s control was very well done. Bonnie Langford gave the performance of a lifetime as plucky Mel that urges the Doctor to run before falling to Sutekh’s will then dying. She is a tour de force. When she enters the memory Tardis and hugs the sixth Doctor’s coat is beautiful and made better with no dialogue. Her reaction alone sells it. It is nice to see the memory Tardis from Tales of the Tardis being used and got to notice even more relics from the past. The destruction of Earth as everyone is consumed by the dust of death is well done. dust of Death however is a dumb name. If Susan/Sutekh had said the breath of Sutekh then this worked better. Yes, it would have garnered some jokes about bad breath but the dust of death sounds like a crop dusting issue.

I loved the final UNIT attempt to destroy Sutekh before they were reduced to dust. Now that was a heroic fall but I really wanted Morris to be in the rest of the episode. We have to have him back asap. Indeed we need Donna, Ace, Tegan, Mel, Martha and whoever wants to come back under the UNIT banner now. Remember K9’s only down the road too along with the Sarah Jane gang.

Speaking of story logic and flow, the Empire of Death is sadly lacking leaving a poor end to all these weeks of questions and worries. Who is the boss the Meep spoke about that will come for the Doctor? Mrs Flood looking like an East 17 Christmas number one video? Come on! And her credibility is gone already. She told Cherry Sunday as Sutekh’s dust fell, that this was how her story ended but they all came back from the dead. She says the Doctor’s story will end in absolute terror; not believing it based on her performance so far.

Logic point 2: The Doctor still has many planets to visit so not all planets are dead. Mel points this out so how are they the last three people in the universe? The Doctor talks about the wake or web of his travels but if he hasn’t ben there then it can’t fall. If every planet has a Susan Triad on it, I’m sure she’s delighted to be on Gallifrey blowing dust for the craic with no one to kill. Pointless. Indeed when the planets come back, the Doctor mentions Spiridon which he visited in his third incarnation well before Pyramids of Mars so how was it destroyed and brought back? Similarly Peladon should be fine as again the third incarnation was pivotal to it.

Of course those clutching at straws will say he went back in an unseen adventure. Or he may have been everywhere but doesn’t know because all his past lives’ memories have been sealed inside the chameleon watch. Possibly but unlikely. If you go with that theory then it is just a lazy way to try and plug a plot hole that is as big as the moon. Even after the events of Logopolis and the Flux, the universe is still a big place with many unvisited places.

Logic 3: The Tardis has been blown up in the past and divided in The Giggle. In the fifth Doctor story Frontios the Tardis was ripped apart and put back together by the power of the Tractator Gravis. Where was Sutekh fitting into that? Did he jump to the 15th’s Tradis when it split in the Giggle? Why did he not save it and himself when it plunged into the Big bang in Castrovalva? The only thing that saved it then was jettisoning a quarter of the interior structure. I know this sounds like I am nit picking but when you present the idea that Sutekh has been part of the Tardis since his defeat then, no matter how cool an idea that is, it needs to make sense. In fact didn’t the Toymaker say that he had met the One Who Waits and didn’t tackle him? Did he see him stuck to the Tardis?

Logic 4: Sutekh is hung up on Ruby’s mother’s name? That’s why he won’t kill them? Piss off; he knows the Tardis inside out and every part of the Doctor’s life. Surely the chameleon watch hidden deep in the Tardis would be more of an allure for Sutekh? The Doctor is an infinite being thanks to the Timeless Children. His body and power gave rise to the Time Lord society. Isn’t he technically a god now? Finding that portal the child Doctor was first discovered at would be something that would prick a god’s curiosity? If Ruby’s mother was something special then we could go for that but she wasn’t. Far from it.

Logic 5: Sutekh was defeated by 740 of his fellow Osirans yet the Doctor uses a dog whistle and a leash? He was only beaten the first time by sheer luck, a two minute window that gave the Doctor time to send Sutekh forward to his death. That’s another thing; you can’t kill a God; trap them, fool them but death is not something they fear. I hear you cry the seventh Doctor blew up the Gods of Ragnarok but he didn’t. He blew up the circus they were operating from so they had no base here.

So to drag Sutekh through the vortex and bring the universe back to life was dumb. The ending of The Last of the Time Lords with everyone chanting the Doctor’s name made much more sense. Death plus death equals life? Okay.

Logic 6: The events of 73 Yards are the key to the identity of Ruby’s mother yet no one can remember it happening. How is that possible? Some will say the Tardis telepathic circuits but credulity is stretched here. Nicely tied in though to the distance of the Tardis perception filter. It is possible that Sutekh influenced those events so he could discover her identity. No, I don’t buy it either.

Logic 7: Ruby’s mother was pointing at the road sign to make sure her daughter was named Ruby? That could have been such a cool moment if done right. What if she had been pointing at Sutekh to warn the Doctor? That would have been better.

Logic 8: So the big Ruby mystery is that there is no mystery. What kind of slap to the audience is that? So Ruby making it snow is just something she can do. Wrong. In The Devil’s Chord, Maestro says that Ruby has a hidden song deep within her soul. It is a power that only the Oldest One has. Whatever is hidden in Ruby equals the Old One which also means that he was there the night she was born. it is enough to freak Maestro out. Inside Ruby is the power to fight Sutekh but apparently not. Given what we now know this makes no sense and comes across as a Poundshop Curse of Fenric reveal. That is how you do a god returning.

Logic 9: Ruby’s mother is just a human which means Ruby is a mutant that can make it snow. All she needs now is Storm and Professor Charles Xavier to turn up and recruit her. The power of belief was behind it all? Sorry but after investing eight weeks and a Christmas special all I can say is Fuck off. How lazy can you be and how quickly you will lose the few viewers you have who want good story telling.

Logic 10: Too twee an ending. Ruby gets her real mummy and daddy back and they all get on with Carla and Cherry happily ever after. Don’t get me wrong; I have seen this happen in real life and I am delighted when it does but this is too sugary to stomach. I love happy endings but ugh. All we need is Lassie.

Logic 11: Why does he keep telling people he’s the last of the Time Lords? He has number 14 living with the Nobles, daughter Jenny out there at least part Time Lord and unbeknownst to him the Master. Now if you say but he’s the Doctor so when he refers to himself as the last then he sees 14 and he as one being. Really? Then why did he refer to his fourth incarnation and Sarah Jane as just people who travelled in the Tardis. Sarah jane was never just a person to him.

Now Ruby leaves the Tardis and the Doctor is devastated. Some have said he literally throws her off the Tardis like she never mattered but look again. All through this season we have family mentioned. The Doctor believes that he has at last found his granddaughter Susan only to find it is part of Sutekh’s lie. He is devastated but just as he cannot be with Rose he cannot be part of this family reunion because it hurts too much. Once again the Doctor gets no reward for saving everyone again except loneliness. He can only watch happiness from the sidelines. He can never be truly happy. It hurts to say goodbye which is a nice throwback to when the fourth Doctor made Sarah Jane leave the Tardis when he was summoned home by the Time Lords. That was so underplayed to be magic. It’s also interesting to note that the Doctor tries to persuade Ruby not to go talk to her mother because he knows he will lose her if she does.

if only some of the rumours had been true and executed; Sean Pertwee would play the 3rd Doctor because of UNIT’s secret time window. That Ruby would have turned out to be the Doctor’s great great granddaughter because it was Susan that was the mysterious woman in the hooded cloak on Christmas Eve. Since this season was rechristened season one, it would have been poetic and a beautiful symmetry to 23rd of November 1963 to have the Doctor travel with a granddaughter once again. Given Carole Ann Ford is the last surviving member of the original cast this would have been the perfect opportunity to do this given we lost William Russell a couple of weeks back. A wasted opportunity that went down the happy family road lined with manure.

TW Reviews The Boys S04E04 Wisdom of the Ages aka There’s a Draft Where My Penis Used To Be

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

I think I can safely say that there isn’t a man alive that left this episode without cradling his junk. It wouldn’t surprise me that afterwards many spent a long time caressing and comforting their wee man like a pet that has nearly gotten run over by a car.

We still have four episodes to go but Wisdom of Ages stands out as being the Empire Strikes Back of the entire season. No one comes out of this well . Mother’s Milk who is trying to hold everything together as things fall collectively apart. Even his and Butcher’s blackmail attempt on Firecracker fails when she reveals it herself. She manages to turn having sexual relations with a minor into a God given mistake just like the real life Evangelical preachers caught cheating on their spouses. It is a real echo of life that bad guys can so easily can make the good guys look bad to shine their own haloes. Again the fact people believe it without question is the real world.

Starlight’s biggest secret is televised by Firecracker and it isn’t about the childhood bullying. The Homelander folks have been portraying her as a child abuser so when Firecracker reveals Starlight’s abortion to the world then it is a step too far. Starlight pummels her to within an inch of her life in front of the cameras but it seals the rumours of her dark side and she loses her political allies. The Starlight movement crashes down.

Frenchie reveals his secret to Colin who rejects him leavng him a broken heap on the floor. Hughie makes a deal with A Train for Compound V to save his father’s life who suddenly shows signs of life. There is something not right with Hughie’s mother but we shall see. A Train risks all as the only place he can get it is Homelander’s apartment. In another mirror dance gorgeous piece of writing, Ashley and Kimiko discover what is going on. Ashley is also cracking, The only thing she can do is shit in Homelander’s toilet and not flush it but keeps A Train’s secret while Kimoko goes spare at Hughie. She has her own issues as she is faced with a dark secret from her past. Butcher asks Mother’s Milk to raise Ryan once he dies. Every performance sings off the screen as their lives crumble around them and the world sees them as the bad guys. However the uneasy alliance that forms betwen A Train and Hughie gives us hope in all this darkness. There are all these broken pieces on both sides yet none can come together to formualte a plan to destroy Homelander.

But this episode belongs to Homelander. I’ve been a fan of Anthony Starr since Banshee. Here Homelander sinks to his lowest and we see exactly what the world has in store if he has his way. This is a performance that is so dark and deranged that I couldn’t help but see shades of Heath Ledger’s Joker. While the Boys goes dark constantly this is a level that makes the audience recoil in shock.

And I mean shock.

We have seen him laser a woman’s brains out last week for just admitting she spoke to Starlight but when he returns to the Vought secret lab where he was raised and meets the people that raised him there again, it is an abject lesson into the mind of a psychopath. He has been traumatised as a child and never dealt with it so after his breakdown at the end of last week’s episode, it is time he began getting rid of these issues that haunt him.

You know something bad is coming when Homelander arrives in the lift totally calm and pleasant bearing an ice cream cake. He demands that Barbara, the big boss of Vought’s lab, come join the reunion while he reminisces with two of the men that raised him. Frank and Marty are his main targets.

Homelander begins his revenge by challenging Frank to a game of waste paper basketball. Frank used to play this while he put young Homelander into the furnace to see what effect it had on him. Homelander tells him it hurt his skin and he screamed in agony as Frank completely ignored his suffering with a game of waste paper basketball. He puts Frank in the furnace and burns him alive in front of everyone with a smile and threat that his family will burn if he refuses.

Marty’s death is even more sadistic. he had a nickname for Homelander, Squirt. It came from Marty catching the boy masturbating hence squirt and belittling him. Homelander insists Marty jerk off in front of everyone so they can laugh at him. Starr jumps between nice and shimmering threat effortlessly. When he lasers Marty’s genitalia off piercing a hole right through him every man in the world held his wee man protectively. Starr deserves an Emmy for this. His performance is terrifying.

When Barbara arrives she forces Homelander to face some home truths. Homelander could have broken out of the lab any time he wanted. He didn’t because he craved their love and attention. It was a love that was corrupted and why he has such issues with relationships now. Thematically Hoelander is a victim f child abuse which makes him a multilayered character even in this horror. He craves love so much ot is like a drug even though he denies it. So to that end Homelander reminds Barbara of the Bad Room where he suffered through all their tests. As the episode closes the full fury of Homelander is done off screen. All we see is the aftermath with the walls smeared with the bloody remains of the staff and Barbara standing traumatised in the middle of it.

Homelander takes the lift out again covered in blood and guts.

We are left to only imagine the deaths he gave the others given how sadistic he was to Marty and Frank. This is the turning point of the series, the episode where Homelander becomes the personification of the Devil himself. This is the best piece of drama I have seen all year. I will watch again because the nuances of the storytelling and performances are beautifully subtle.

To make your audience squirm, recoil in terror, laugh and end the show with a stiff drink is the mark of great storytelling. Just bloody brilliant.

TV Magic Moments: We Play The Contest Again… Time Lord

Photos and video copyright BBC

For a long time people slagged off the final years of classic Doctor Who but in reality, the final two seasons of the McCoy era brought stories that stand head and shoulders above a lot o the tripe of the new era. The Curse of Fenric is one such example because it weaved together horror, sci fi, myth and an enemy we didn’t even know existed in to an epic that had so much material it was released as a special on DVD.

The Curse of Fenric is the quintessential Doctor Who story. It incorporates so many themes like growing up, regret, parental issues, the fallout of war, vampires, faith and environmental issues. Ace met the Doctor when she was caught in a time storm that brought her to Ice World and a new life aboard the Tardis. Doctor Who is full of silly notions and a time storm is one of them and at first glance a plot device but Fenric will show that we have been duped all along.

Against the backdrop of invading Russians infiltrating a British base for the Ultima machine designed to break German codes while barnacled covered vampires rise from the deep, we discover that the Doctor has been manipulated by an ancient enemy he trapped centuries ago in a chess match. Now the Wolves of Fenric have been gathered including the base commander Millington, Dr Judson, its staff, the Russians and Ace herself in a trap to free Fenric from his chains to take revenge on the Doctor.

The wheelchair bound Judson has been trying to break the codes with the machine but instead has inadvertently released Fenric from his prison to face the Doctor again. Even though the Doctor knew Ace was part of his plan the minute he heard about the time storm, he took her on as a companion to keep her close and work out Fenric’s plan. But despite all this by the climax of the third episode, the vampires are swarming the base, people are dying and the Doctor is helpless to stop what is coming. A storm lashes the countryside and lightning strikes the out of control Ultima machine electrifying Judson where he sits. His nurse tries to help but the Doctor holds her back. Millington is quoting legend as he claims the chains of Fenric are broken. Ace thinks he is the new host body but with a look of fear, the mentally unstable Millington looks over the Doctor’s shoulder.

In a beautiful piece of direction, the Doctor faces the camera in a sickly yellow light as a possessed Judson gets to his feet. His eyes flick open burning with fire. His face is hard as rock as he simply states, “We play the contest again…Time Lord.”

The impact of this cliffhanger is as strong today. The audience is left in agony. What game? Who is Fenric and what contest is he talking about? And how the hell does he know the Doctor is a Time Lord? An awesome cliffhanger for a timeless classic.

Video and photo copyright bbc

Forgotten Villains: Westworld’s Gunslinger

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

{hotos copyright Metro Goldwyn Mayer

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.

I guarantee that fans of the current version of Westworld do not realise where the idea originated. Future Jurassic Park writer Michael Crichton conceived and directed this movie where man again messes up with his hubris around technology. Humanity has created these machines in his own image and programmed them to think and act as they dictate. However as God discovered you cannot control the nature of a thing even nonliving ones and nature will always find a way as Jurassic Park showed. Humityan is flawed by his own arrogance and base nature so therefore anything he creates with his image and nature will also be flawed.

WestWorld is the ultimate adult fantasy as you can live in any era and interact with perfect doubles of humans. You can travel to Rome or be part of medieval England or as we discover. the Wild West. Paying guests can kill at will and indulge in debauchery with the robots which makes the whole idea of WestWorld a little uncomfortable. Instead of a static sex doll, you now have one that reacts to your every deviant wish. If you kill one it is taken away for repair and released back into the simulations. Here two men, Blane (Josh Brolin) and Martin (Richard Benjamin) pay for the western scenario. Their foe is the Gunslinger portrayed by legendary actor Yul Brynner of the King and I and The Magnificent Seven fame.

The character of the all in black gunslinger is based on his role as Chris in the Magnificent Seven. However something is wrong with the robots and they begin to kill everyone in sight.

The Gunslinger is a prototype Terminator. He never stops, says only the few words he has been programmed with and is hard to kill. In the original scenario, Martin kills the Gunslinger as part of the paying scenario. It is all part of the story they have paid for stroking their egos which are neglected in real life. Here they are big names in the Wild West, unstoppable and rogue mavericks. The Gunslinger simply pops up the following day ready to do it all over again. His programming makes him allow the human guests to shoot first to complete the story.

However this glitch spreads quickly. Blane takes his turn against the Gunslinger but this time is shot dead. Martin then runs but it is a game of cat and mouse now with the Gunslinger in pursuit. Brynner is electrifying as the Gunslinger, his expression impassive as he hunts down the humans. He is only carrying out his programming as dictated to by the human creators. As Westworld allows the indulgence of human vices, the Gunslinger is only continuing these behaviours by shooting guests in cold blood. That is the nature he has been given so in a way he is not a villain but a victim of human folly and hubris. The robots are not evil but helpless victims of human stupidity.

The Gunslinger brefly pops up in the sequel Futureland and makes an even briefer cameo in the short lived, very short lived, my God, so quick you missed it Westworld television series. His weakness lies within the materials he has been built with and Martin is forced to set fire to him. While his programming keeps the charred shell going, his mechanics cannot withstand it and it collapses dead, beyond repair.

One of the iconic moments that cements the Gunslinger in audience memories, is when the Gunslinger’s face is knocked off to reveal the robotcs beneath. Yul Brynner was a seriously handsome man so to see his exotic features masking circuits and fake eyes is a shocker, Indeed this image was carried on in the Bionic Woman and Six Million Man when they battled the Fembots and Robot Maker respectively. Doctor Who did it in the Android Invasion and Austin Powers had his own Fembot enemies. But every time we saw the faces fall off, all we could think of was the Gunslinger.

So track down the original Westworld and see for yourselves and glory in the original Terminator.

TW Reviews Doctor Who The Legend of Ruby Sunday S01E07

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

So here it is; the penultimate episode of the season where we are promised answers to Ruby’s identity and the reveal of the Big Bad. He Who Waits is coming and judging by the trailers, the Earth is up against it this time for real. We have faced the gods Toymaker and his daughter Maestro. As far back as the Meep we knew there was someone waiting to face the Doctor, someone that scared even the Toymaker.

Now while we didn’t get to find out who Ruby’s mother was (at least not this time, maybe the finale), we did discover who the Big Bad was. Did you figure it out? Did you click on that the Devil’s Chord told us who it was? did you figure the same episode laid out a huge red herring for us to distract us? I didn’t until we were almost there and realised we had already been told. I said in my review of The Devil’s Chord that the scene where the Doctor shows a devastated Earth if they leave Maestro to her devices was a lovely throwback to the fourth Doctor story, the Pyramids of Mars. There, the Doctor faced the same question from Sarah jane as to why they didn’t just leave because they knew the world didn’t end.

Earth was a husk and now we know why it was done. But before we get to that we have to look at the rest. So the mysterious woman that keps appearing is in fact solved in the first minutes of the story. She is Susan Twist head of S Triad Technology about to launch a free software upon th world in a matter of hours. Of course, it is an anagram of Tardis and UNIT has been watching her for the last two months. New scientific adviser Morris Gibbons, a genius 13 year old who had an encounter with an asteroid, says it is almost certainly a trap. We love Lenny Rush and we want to see him back. In fact he needs a trip in the Tardis. Morris fits right in and looks like he has been there forever regardless of his Segway. Plenty of room on the Tardis for that.

Harriet, the new head of the archive helps with the Ruby mystery. Rose Noble is back and she is very welcome. But the problem is the only Susan the Doctor knows with knowledge of Tardis tech is his granddaughter that he left behind in the 22nd century after the Dalek Invasion of Earth.

It seems the big bad is the Doctor’s own family. Now to be honst I never fell for that one. It didn’t make sense. Unless Susan was possessed and transported through time then she would never turn on her grandfather. Add to that when Paul McGann returned in the Night of the Doctor he mentioned all of his companions from his Big Finish adventures. He wishes them all well before taking the regeneration potion. Technically that made them all canon. The problem with that is that he returned to battle the Daleks once again with Susan and his new great grandson, Alex. Alex along with Lucie Miller were killed. But did she die in the Time War or was she protected? Watching the Doctor being afraid of facing his lost granddaughter again and potentially having to put her down was great to watch. The Doctor and Kate share a beautiful moment where they discuss the Brigadier and family. It is compelling how the Doctor sees himself in comparison to others.

Ncuti’s Doctor fits right in with UNIT and his delight at seeing an undercover Mel working alongside Susan adds to the character compared to poor Rose who only gets to watch shoplifters in Catford.

But the Doctor has a second use for UNIT. They need to find out who Ruby’s mother is. Using an old video cassette and a time window that the Doctor forbid UNIT to create they are able to recreate the past in a simulation type environment but cannot see who Ruby’s mother is. But things keep changing as something else arrives in the simulation, a cloud of fire, dark and billowing. When a soldier is killed inside the time window it is the start of the reveal.

Whatever it is has woven itself to the Tardis itself and cannot be seen by the naked eye. The mysterious groans we have heard are in fact the baddie. But who is it? How is it connected to Mrs Flood who suddenly changes from a nice chatty neighbour to a spectral wraith with Ruby’s bedridden grandmother trapped in the flat as a storm billows over the city? I’ve been a fan of Anita Dobson since her Angie Watts days and still have her signed Angie official Eastenders photo. Is Mrs flood a part of Susan Triad or something else? Is she a servant of ….? Well let’s not say the Big Bad’s name just yet.

The Doctor and Mel are facing Susan Triad while Ruby remains at UNIT with Rose. The reveal is brilliantly done on two fronts. By the ay did you notice the Master reval music from Utopia when Ruby enters the time window again? Another thing to throw us off. Kate demands the invisible being that has been attached to the Tardis all this time show itself. The black cloud solidifies while Susan falls to her knees. The autocue screens fill with Susan’s words as Harriet in UNIT recites some kind of ancient text. The god are named as He Who Waits reveals himself.

The reveal to the 15th Doctor is as powerful as Fenric’s reveal to the seventh Doctor. The phrase “It was the wrong anagram” will go down in history. Sue is short for Susan and add that to tech the big bad shows himself. Perched aboard the Tardis is a huge anubis type creature.

Sutekh, last of the Osirans, the god of death, is back.

Harriett’s surname is Harbinger who is a servant of Sutekh and whirls round on Kate, her face part skull. Ruby is trapped inside the time window in 2004 in a snowstorm with her mother. Susan begins remembering all the places the Doctor has seen her before being turned into a terrifying skull creature that dissolves people by touch. This is pure horror especially the nice touch of the creaking bones as Susan moves. The Doctor and Mel are helpless as Sutekh manifests once again promising to bring the gift of death to all humanity. Sutekh is once again voicedd by Gabriel Woolf and his voice is still as terrifying as it was back in the original. He is now in his nineties and it really is a thrill to have him back.

That was a great cliffhanger and beautiful red herring placement . Gatwa’s terror at Sutekh’s return is brillaint. The only other thing I would have done is when he tells Mel to get back from Susan, he should have yelled it to betray his absolute terror, not just said it. Somehow Sutekh has played the long game. he latched onto the Tardis having survivd death and planned. Sutekh deliberately lured the Doctor and his allies in by playing on the family connection and he fell for it. Now the god of death is manifest, all the terror of Pyramids of Mars floods back to the Doctor. He barely beat this enemy before and just by the skin of his teeth. By throwing Sutekh into an eternity corridor he thought him long dead; not even Osirans live forever.

Things are grim. The Doctor is helpless. Sutekh reigns supreme again. There is no next time trailer but all we know is that the Doctor nd Mel speed through London on a motorbike. The city of London is consumed by a massive billowing cloud so how is this going to end? Tune in next week. For now I need to go lie down.

TW Reviews The Boys S04E03 We’ll Keep the Red Flag Flying Here

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright Amazon Prime

Time to get going as Sage and Firecracker’s individual agendas to spread the word of how evil the Starlighters are from child abuse to trying to replace everyone with non binary is gaining momentum. They claim the Starlighters have even created autism and not the cool type as seen in Rain Man. Sad thing is people in the real world believe shit like that; just look around you.

When Frenchie is forced to to take down a Homelander supporter who arrives at the Starlight headquarters to rescue the children they have locked in the cellar. Propaganda makes people lose their self reason and self thought especially when the headquarters has no cellar. But that is the power of the net and influencers especially in a pressure cooker environment stirred with a big wooden spoon in the shapes of Sage and Firecracker. I have to say I agree with the sentiment that Happy Holidays should revert back to Happy Christmas though in some sad excuse to twist it into an inclusive thing. Christmas is for everyone already; has been for years so leave it alone! It can’t get any more inclusive.

Homelander uses a choir and patriotism to shine his halo with an annoyed Sister Sage and Firecracker join the Seven. I think Sage has something else planned though as she is not happy her face is now public; she wanted to work from the shadows but once again Homelander has enforced his will on someone.

I am so glad that we are not hanging about as Joe Kesslar and Butcher team up to save Ryan and Starlight decides to go public again. Mother’s Milk wants to recruit A Train as a double agent much to the other’s dismay. But their proposd alliance is not as impossible as they think. The world is on a countdown to hell and they need to act fast to stop the superheroes. It is literally grab any straw time.

This episode is really about looking at yourself in the mirror and being real about who you are and what you see. Homelander is one step closer to a complete breakdown when he discovers Ryan has been with Butcher. He flips out at his son and ends up speaking to his conscience in the shattered mirror echoing the state of his mind now.

He and Sage try to get Victoria on their side at a Vought ice show celebrating and calling for people to put Christ back in Christmas. They want her to come out of the closet once she is President. But Hughie and Mother’s Milk are bugging the secret meeting. Shocking scene of the week is the bloodbath on ice. As Homelander unleashes the lasers from his eyes in pursuit of Hughie, a light right in the face makes him look away slicing several skaters in half in the process. Others flee and end up slicing hands off and slitting throats in the chaos. It is covered up of course.

They want Victoria to be who she is as well as Zoe in front of the world. Starlight’s good girl image is revealed by Firecracker to be a sham. In a sharp twist of events, Firecracker is fully justified in her vendetta against Starlight. And her crime is severely frowned upon in this day and age. It could derail her campaign totally. A Train saves Huggie from certain death but can’t fully bring himself to say he will work with the Boys to take down Vought. Frenchie is doing drugs again because of his secret and it is impacting on Kimiko. He cannot bring himself to look at himself because when he does the love of his life will look at him in a completely different way which will end their relationship. Hughie has to face his mother and discovers why she left him and it isn’t the reason he thought. Ashley is made a figurehead only at Vought and vows to leave but when she witnesses Homelander lasered a girl’s brains out for speaking to Starlight, she destroys her resignation letter and keeps her counsel.

Putting this human issues against the bigger canvas of Homelander’s machinations it is literally a visual symphony. But the most human and powerful moments are between Butcher and Ryan. Butcher cannot bring himself to drug the youngster to give him to Kesslar. Instead Butcher opens up to Ryan, the last vestige of his late wife Becca. He has always seen him as his son and their scenes playing table top football as they bond are heartwarming. Butcher will die to save this boy while Homelander sees Ryan as a trophy to be paraded and shaped to be his father’s son. Karl Urban is outstanding in this episode as the Butcher not shredded by grief and tragedy who loves his son unconditionally.

With all the mad sex and violence it is easy to forget just how much this series relies on the hearts of its characters to be broken. In a world of superheroes the only thing that keeps us human is the bonds between us and the ones we love.

TW Reviews The Boys S04E02 Life Among Septics or God Showed His Dick Today

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright Amazon Prime

So in this episode The Boys infiltrate a conference slammed with propoganda about the evil of the Starlighters for reconnaissance only. Kicked out of the gang, Butcher arrives and Mother’s Milk keeps him in close proximity. Despite the fact they all now know Butcher is dying, Mother’s Milk sees him as a liability and expels him from the team. Butcher is desperate to show they need him and he needs them but he has an agenda; Ryan. Propaganda is the name of the game here as Homelander’s campaign gains momentum.

I’m loving Sister Sage and her complete disregard of everything anyone has to say to her including Homelander. At the same time she tells Deep he has to be better than any human and not to let Ashley speak down to him. When Deep takes Sage’s advice to slap Ashley down betrays his need to sort his image too. He is still a threat to animals for banging his octopus and threatening Ashley gives him a false sense of power.

To further Homelander#s image, Ryan gets to play a superhero in his very own family friendly movie. However Dad and the Deep find their noses out of joint because they aren’t in the movie. So Sage arranges it for them. Noir hasn’t a clue what he’s doing in the suit looking stage directions from his fellow heroes and directors. I’m wondering how long before Homelander will stand his son’s doubts about what he is and what they are doing. Using the kid as propaganda to maintain Homelander’s good guy image shows how much Homelander is losing it. He needs to control everything even what should be his son’s solo movie debut. Ryan is to be shaped in his image.

Kimiko has flashbacks and is triggered by signs at the conference of kids in peril. Getting drunk lets her tell Frenchie that he has to go all the way with Colin and not use her as an ecuse to not take hold of that happy life. However sound that advice, it is not as simple as that. Frenchie has a secret.

Now Supernatural creator Eric Kripke adds yet another Supernatural icon to the Boys as Rob Benedict appears as Splinter. Rob played God in supernatural until the Winchesters kicked the crap out of him. Splinter is able to create himself new bodies in the Michael Keaton Multiplicity style. The Boys also meet Firecracker who can only spit sparks from her hand; a crap power. However her gift of the gab allows her to spew blatant lies about the Starlighters as an uber social media influencer. Again The Boys shows that the wilder the propaganda the more the ordinary Joe on the street will believe it. Homelander is right to a degree about humans; they are easily led. Is our self worth so low that we will latch on to any rubbish to the point we will riot?

The war of the superheroes continues as Starlight is out to kill A Train for his part in murdering the three fans last episode at the courthouse. However the divide between the heroes is deepening when A Train’s brother shows his sons that the stories their uncle is telling them is fake. Feeling isolted, he is desperate for some validation from his own family. You actually feel sorry for A Train who has not been happy in the superhero ranks for a long time so how long before he picks a side in this fight? The first foot on that path may have started as he gives Hughie and Starlight footage that will prove the Starlighters are innocent. Theey were nowhere near when the murders occurred. It is a clear reminder that family is all even to the bad guys as Hughie has also found since his mother turned up at his dad’s bedside and revealed she now is his power of attorney. Everyone is suffering even Mother’s Milk who, taunted by Butcher, beats him and wishes they could be brothers again.

Now every season, indeed sometimes every episode the Boys shock the audiences and this week is no exception. Ryan accidentally slams the stuntman into a building splattering him all over it. Homelander sees the boy has regrets and is constantly trying to worm his way into his mind to rid him of conscience. His kingdom must rise and if every human needs to be splattered then so be it.

Second of all Frenchie and Kimiko see Splinter doing the human centipede on himself before all hell breaks lose. Gros is an understatement but Sage has set a trap and full frontal Splinters mass to kill them. Butcher arrives to save them so when he is rejected it looks like Kesslar’s offer may be too tempting to resist.

You could ay this episode should have been called God Showed His Dick as Splinter keeps dividing more of his naked self to take the Boys out. We have naked and clothed Splinters left, right and centre attacking. Motherr’s Milk risks all to save Butcher and who knew the only way to stop such a foe was to kill the original body? Dean and Sam would have been proud. This is just a brilliant scene with so much to enjoy. With Firecracker surviving will she be back?

This episode’s social commentary is so on the nose with the world around us right now, you cannot fail to enjoy the references to the real world. It’s also how complicated personal issues can be amisdt the chaos. Frenchie is trapped by his secret about his connection to Colin’s family, Starlight is trapped by her refusal to become Starlight again even though it is badly needed. Hughie has it out with his mother while Butcher now stands alone; a dying man with no idea how to keep his promise before he dies. Even Homelander is held back by his son’s humanity. Ashley is now firmly on a leash after Deep’s threat to murder her; what power she thought she had ended in that second. She is now a toy to be used by the superheroes just as Homelander said. Butcher’s speech to Mother’s Milk after the battle is poignant and made even more so by being rejected outright by him.

We walk the line between what is good for the world against what is good for us as an individual. Sage is shaping out to be a more enjoyable version of the Flash’s Thinker. But has she an agenda of her own?

Another enjoyable slice of action but we are aware there are multiple bombs ticking. Which one will be blow first and who will be caught in the crossfire?

Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Doctor? Erm…Nobody

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photo copyright BBC

As the advert once said, it’s good to talk. And it’s also good to have a different perspective on things. Sometimes it takes a different set of eyes to show you something that you knew was niggling at the back of your head but couldn’t quite put your finger on. And that’s exactly what happened today.

I’ve been watching the new series of Doctor Who and it’s been a mixed experience which, if Jodie Whittaker’s run had never happened, would be seen as a distinct drop in story quality but because of the low quality of Whittaker’s and Chibnall’s run, feels better than it actually is.

Think about it; if Peter Capaldi’s Doctor had regenerated into Ncuti Gatwa’s Doctor it would have been a jarring change in quality. You go from the brilliance of the war speech in the Zygon Conversion to snot monsters. Things have been lacking somewhat, but there is something else missing; something that was pointed out to me. When it was, it was like a veil had been lifted from my eyes.

And it’s all thanks to Rogue.

The fifteenth Doctor is just loving life and in the trailer for the new season we saw a clip from Boom where he warned what would happen if he was blown up by the mine and turn the battlefield into dust. Oh, I thought, we’ll get to see this Doctor flex his muscles in the tradition of his previous incarnations. Like when the tenth Doctor brought down the Family of Blood, like the ninth when he taunted the lone Dalek in Utah, the eleventh in A good Man Goes To War and the twelfth in The Zygon Conversion. These are all powerful moments were the rage of the Doctor is unleashed on people that deserve it and even the thirteenth Doctor had a rare ‘rage’ moment in The Haunting of Villa Diodati when she refused to let Shelley be sacrificed to the lone Cyberman.

So when the fifteenth Doctor had his moment it Boom, it fell so flat. Listen, Gatwa was awesome in that episode as we saw the Doctor terrified and helpless to save Ruby from dying right in front of him. But the gravitas was missing and we haven’t really seen this yet in any of his televised adventures. Then again the stories haven’t merited that kind of performance. Only Boom so far has tapped on it but his kick in the balls moment of “I am the Doctor!” was lacking. Again, don’t get me wrong; Gatwa is superb in Boom, absolutely brilliant but his Doctor isn’t one to fear. He gives another great performance in The Devil’s Chord but it’s a man in fear, running and hiding in a cellar, after running and hiding from a snot monster in Space Babies. Not the actions of the mountain that is the Doctor.

Add to that the biggest problem we never caught on to so far.

Nobody knows who the Doctor is. Well, no one except Kate and the staff of UNIT. How can this be? The Doctor is a legend ‘woven throughout history’ Clive tells Rose and River Song says ‘I’ve seen whole armies turn and run away. And he’d just swagger off back to his Tardis and open the doors with a snap of his fingers..’. His name is known to gods and devils; to Guardians of Time and a little girl called Lorna Bucket who joined the army to find the man called the Doctor. And if nobody knows who the Doctor is then by default, nobody is in awe of the Doctor and nobody fears the Doctor.

Yes there are those who don’t know him but they have heard of the Time Lords of Gallifrey. Only the Sontarans and the Daleks have dared to try to conquer Time Lord society and failed. Even the Daleks chose to destroy the planet because they could not win the war. It is important the companions learn of the Doctor’s origins from his own lips like Martha did in Gridlock and Ruby did in Space Babies. Now it could be argued that the Flux has destroyed so much of the original universe that it claimed those who may know who the Doctor and his people are. But that doesn’t feel right.

The Doctor should enter a room like they’re already in charge; see the fourth Doctor in the Panopticon in the Deadly Assassin. Note the tenth Doctor, when the Titanic is about to crash surrounded by flames, give his ‘I am the Doctor’ speech or what about when the eleventh frightened away all the aliens they ever fought in The Pandorica Opens or behind the President’s desk in the Oval Office.

The fifteenth hasn’t done that yet and for me the gravitas has been partly lost by his constant costume changes which give him no constant identity. The beauty about the Doctor was that he could wear a velvet jacket, giant scarf, a stick of celery (or the most hideous outfit in his sixth incarnation) and he blended in and also commanded attention no matter where he was. Even Sylvester McCoy wore his question mark jumper around town and nobody flinched. They are the Doctor upon entering a room and his outfit is part of that identity, but this Doctor has costumed up for the 1960s in the Devil’s Chord, wore a pretty bland and non-descript outfit in Boom, was absent for most of 73 Yards and in Rogue he was just one of the crowd, another face, outfitted like everyone else, blending in; a curiosity for the snobs of 1813. Speaking of Rogue, for all his travels, I find it hard to believe that this master bounty hunter, who has travelled the galaxy, has never heard of either the Doctor or the Time Lords. It is clear he has been around for a long time given the state of his ship and travelled far and wide and, as a successful bounty hunter, we’re supposed to believe that he moves in networks that have never mentioned the Doctor?

And it was at that point my good buddy pointed out that the fear/reverence factor of the Doctor and his reputation is totally missing from this series. Now we have had the Doctor remove all mention of his name from the internet and the Dalek systems but all that was reversed later. And it maybe the stories are to blame but those stories came from people who know the show and its history as well as I do.

Now to be fair and cover all aspects, I have to point out that maybe the renaming of the show as ‘Season One’ is a fresh beginning. I mean, no-one knew the Doctor when Hartnell piloted the Tardis bar the Time Meddler and if that is the direction they want to move in then fair enough.

However to achieve this do not use the Anglican Army.

First seen in the Time of the Angels and Flesh and Stone as well as The Time of the Doctor and A Good Man Goes to War, this army knows the Doctor as a legend and are very well versed in him and his Gallifreyan origins. It provoked Madam Kavarian to launch a plan to turn Amy Pond’s daughter into a weapon to kill the Time Lord. His very name inspire people and her plan hurt the Doctor badly when he learned the truth. Yet when they meet Mundy she has no idea who he is even thought she learns he is a Time Lord and his name. Even when she discovers that the energy trapped in his body will take out half the planet if the mine goes off. He even tells her that he is a higher dimension lifeform and a complex complicated space time event but none of this rings a bell when it really should. After everything that had happened before the Doctor is as well known in their ranks as Jesus himself.

Now we have none of that. As I said UNIT Headquarters seem to be the only organisation that knows the Doctor and what he can do. We are approaching the Legend of Ruby Rose and Empire of Death so maybe we will see the Doctor that sent the Boneless back to hell as the man that kills the monsters. The man that monsters have nightmares about. The man whose memories would shatter all the glass avatars in Twice Upon A Time. Add to that the man whom, while exiled on Earth, had no problem raiding the wine and cheese of a high ranking diplomat simply because he could. The Doctor defies the ranks and fears no politician because he is the Doctor; simple as.

This Doctor cannot continue to simply run into a story, smile broadly, do a little dance, change outfits every story and shout ‘honey!’. He needs a gravitas that we almost saw at the end of Dot and Bubble when he experienced racism for the first time, but instead of gravitas we got gurning and shouting. Each Doctor can be identified from silhouette but without a definitive costume then that also leaves this Doctor adrift. The one he wore in Dot and Bubble accidentally became his signature because that end scene was the first Gatwa filmed. Subsequently his promo photos and behind the scenes video heralded the coat, checked trousers and orange T-shirt as his Doctor.

Don’t let the Daleks or any of the classic monsters be the first to fear this new Doctor’s arrival. Give us an unseen species that will tremble at the very mention of his name as has been established.

The universe without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about but a universe where the Doctor is no longer remembered is a nail in the deflating tyre that is Doctor Who.

TW Reviews The Boys S4E01 Department of Dirty Tricks

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

Photos copyright Amazon Prime

After the Soldier Boy saga last year we get more Supernatural stars as Jim Beaver (Bobby Singer) returns and Jeffrey Dean Morgan (John WInchester and the Walking Dead’s Negan) joins the cast as an old friend of Butcher’s (Karl Urban), Jim Kesslar.

So as Thin Lizzy famously sang, the Boys Are Back in Town and dark times are ahead. It amazes me how this episode reflects certain aspects of world events as we sit watching it. Homelander is put on trial for the murder of the citizen that hit his son Ryan with a plastic bottle at the end of the last series and unlike current events is found not guilty. Citizens are turning on each other over who they idolise and see as good for their country. They ignore the flaws to their cost unaware of the backstabbing and political knives that are being into their backs without their even knowing.

Everyone bad seems to have something to hide while the good guys are a mix of happy times and the stark reminder that life still goes on but it is only when tragedy strikes that you realise the world is not just all about superheroes.

Victoria Neuman’s campaign for political power is under attack by the Boys who are wanting Butcher out for good. He is suffering from the effects of Compound V with only a few months to live. He is haunted by his dead wife Becca who tells him to save Ryan but Butcher is on a downward spiral. This show is effectively a countdown to the inevitable clash between Homelander and Butcher. It is a dance of intellects as the show beautifully mirrors their mutual spiral into madness.

Homelander is tortured by bad dreams. He is surrounded by Yes Men which he hates yet if anyone dares contradict or challenge him he kills them. He is a walking contradiction. He has trouble with his prostate and humans disgust him. They cheer him when he saves someone then cheer him when he kills someone. He needs a way out and recruits Sister Sage, the smartest woman in the world. Together they formulate a new plan of pitting human against human to the point Homelander will swoop in and rule everyone. It’s also a sign that Homelander is mentally unstable and unable to think for himself.

With the appearance of Negan we get a brutal scene where three of Homelanders biggest fans are coldly beaten to death with baseball bats at Homelander’s command. Then their corpses are planted at a riot scene outside the courthouse as Homelander is found innocent triggered by Sage and made martyrs of. Dressed as one of Starlight’s people it makes it look like the Starlighters have gone against their message of peace and brutally slain three people for being Homelander supporters.

One of the fans murdered is the lover of Mother’s Milk’s ex wife leaving them to tell his daughter about the tragedy. In the midst of this Hughie is refusing to get rid of Butcher even going against Starlight’s advice. She in the meantime is refusing to don the Starlight mantle as her foundation struggles to get funds. However when Hughie’s father suffers a stroke and lies unconscious in a hospital bed, she must fly into the mayhem just in time to stop her friend being kicked to death. It also makes Hughie see just how much his obsession with killing the superheroes has robbed him of precious family moments. No doubt that this will play into the battle given season five is to be the last. At the same riot Frenchie saves lover, Colin, being beaten to death making this fight even more personal for them. This fight has now encroached the Boys personal lives reminding them what they are fighting for and what needs protected. The only thing the heroes are protecting is their dark secrets and lust for power.

Deep is hiding his octopus lover in his closet as he denies having sexual relations with her to the world. Black Noir and A Train are afraid for their lives under Homelander’s rule while Butcher is given an offer by Kesslar he may just take. Time is running out for them all so Butcher may well do anything to save Ryan and destroy Homelander.

Sister Sage is a great addition and a villain that works from the shadows manipulating the situation without people even knowing it. However now Mother’s Milk has seen her it won’t be long before he goes after her. Add to that A Train doesn’t like her from a past association then she will have to sleep with both eyes open.

It is a great opening that gives us the Yin and Yan of Butcher and Homelander with everyone else caught in their drama.

Perhaps the most terrifying moment comes when it is revealed that headpopping Victoria has pumped her daughter, Zoe, with Compound V tuning her into a vampiric monster. Think of the Reaper vampires from Blade 2 and you get the idea. Frenchie and Kimiko barely escape with their lives by leaping out an eighth floor building. Could Compound V now mutating people especially kids into creatures that superheroes would battle? And is there a hidden meaning when Homelander tells his son that they should be so close that they could merge? Is Ryan about to become a means to a very sick end? Why is Kesslar so keen on recruiting Butcher and is there a secret agenda to get rid of the superheroes once and for all the Boys don’t know about?

The Boys have not lost any of their edge and the quality has not dipped. This is going to be an interesting season.

Them Witches Be Bitches! TW Reviews Star Wars The Acolyte S01E03

By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues

So I was all excited to finally get to see a wookie Jedi Master explored in detail this week but instead got a flashback to the incident that has triggered this whole story.

Again we get a couple of revelations with biblical themes to it and see what happened that day; or do we?

First off seeing Kelcanna in ful Jedi robe mode was interesting and screamed buy the figure now (which I am going to but he’s the only one because there has never been one like him before) but it all fell rather flat. He can fix machines bringing in the ghost of Chewbacca but he contributed little else. Again this is such a waste of a character and demonstrates just how the writers do not know how to build tension or structure a story to shock and surprise. And for some reason, Kelcanna puts in mind of Billy Connoly the way his hair is done. I can’t help hearing the Big Yin in his heyday in concert with the hair flying.

And that’s how I feel about this episode. It’s flat and cliched while confusing the entire story told so far. The horror elements with the witches reveal are not scary; indeed I couldn’t help but laugh when they did their chant during the Ascension ceremony. Add to that whoever the lone witch who was cackling in the background was cringeworthy to say the least. I could so picture a lone extra seeing this as her big chance to stand out from the others and giving it a cackle large lol These are space witches so make them different just like Ahsoka did with hers. Maybe these are their ancestors; who knows? That solo cackle will stay with me forever for all the wrong reasons. To be honest all I could think of was the Hansel and Gretel movie with Jeremy Rinner. But this is Disney being lazy and not thinking how to make these witches different and innovative.

They use the Force or the Thread as they call it and while it does show us the divide between Mae and Osha, Mae just comes across as unhinged even as a child but given she ascended and gained some sort of witch force in her head then it might explain it. Osha wants to be a Jedi so when the four targeted Jedi arrive their presence especially Sol’s (still loving Lee Jung – Jae) causes Osha to want to leave against the witches intentions including her heartbroken mother. They talk of almost being extinct but it is clear the birth of the twin girls gave them a new hope. It looks like a hope that needs both of the girls to ascend but Oaha’s decision leaves them freaking out. It is touching to see her mother put Osha’s wishes first eve before the survival of the coven itself.

But the witches have a secret. The girls have no father; they were born from some dark magic and carried to term by one of the other witches. Now I assume it was dark magic and we get the cliched good twin, bad twin scenario. I get the Jedi ensuring children are not being taught the dark ways of the witches but the fact they take any kid that shows an inkling in the Force is disturbing. You don’t just take kids so they can be padawans. Even Sol didn’t want to go when he was four years old. Given how they treated Anakin in the Phantom Menace, the Jedi are fundamentally rotten to the core with the likes of Sol having any hint of conscience slapped down by Jedi law.

But it was Mae that started the fire that killed everyone. It wasn’t the Jedi so that begs the question as to why Torbin willingly took his own life last week because of what she did. You didn’t so anything son, catch a grip. It could be that Mae forced to him to take it with her Witch mind trick. Unless the dark force that Mae serves now caused the deaths of all the witches, making it look like it was because of Mae’s firestarter tendencies. I don’t know. I’m confused. I’m beginning to not care.

I’ll be honest and say “Was that it?” The writing structure here fails to deliver twists and turns is more like a bowl of spaghetti. It’s all over the place with underused characters that should be awesome but a shop window dummies. Let’s hope that this gears up in the remaining episodes or this will once again show how little Disney know about what makes great Star Wars.