Presented by Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Dovid lives in a perfect world, free of crime, war, or poverty, and everyone is given everything they could possibly need. The only thing that could be considered wrong with this world (and there is no-one really that engages in such consideration) is that before you reach the age of sixteen you will lose one of your senses. Your eyes will fall out, or your nose will slide off, your tongue will decompose, your ears will rip free, or your skin will rot and harden into scar tissue. And nobody thinks this is strange. People are given technological upgrades instead, that simulate the old sense-perception, and many even say improves upon it. In fact Dovid is distraught that he is the oldest person in the world at sixteen to have not received a single inability; he is abnormally normal. He lives a standard life in his self-sustaining island, which he never needs to leave, and has companionship in the form of his walls and their various smiley face facades. Dovid’s social interactions are limited to communications with his eyeless brother Mart, until his sixteenth birthday, when Dovid is convinced to leave his island and venture to a Physical Leisure Segment: a place where people are made to actually interact with other people in the flesh. The four options for this physical interaction are sexual, narcotic, violent or gluttonous; things that every normal person apparently does. But what if Dovid is not normal? What if he has already received his inability and it is not the ability of sight or sound or touch or taste or smell. What if it is a sense of perception beyond those standard five, and worse, what if there are others like him?
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
A huge thing that Doctor Who fans have thirsted after for years is a true resolution to the fact Donna Noble cannot remember her time with the Doctor.
At the emotional end to the Journey’s End, the Doctor is forced to wipe every trace of Donna’s time with him from her mind to rid her of his Time Lord consciousness. If he doesn’t then she will die. Through her grandfather Wilf and Catherine Tate’s performance; travelling through time had made the once fickle Donna a better person. She was all Love Island and Pringles before she jumped aboard the Tardis. What we experienced was a true character arc which elevated Donna from a shallow person, chained by her life and disparaging mother, to a free spirit who found herself at last. The moment she woke up and thought she had missed yet another planet wide almost disaster, the old Donna is back and it isn’t until you see the transformation that you realise just how subtle and deep it was.
But it didn’t sit well with fans and when Donna returned for the tenth Doctor’s final story, many hoped she would somehow get her memory back. She does briefly but the memory causes an energy release that saves her life from both the memories and the Master. But her time with the Doctor still remained lost to her.
So why does her wedding tug at the heart strings so much?
When we first met Donna in The Runaway Bride, her groom was marrying her to feed her to the Raacnoss who was about to unleash her plague of babies upon the world. Thankfully her new husband, Shaun Temple, has no such intentions. Wilf conveys they are just a normal couple settling for each other. He sees that Donna is just trundling along because she has lost her memories. While happy for his beloved granddaughter, Wilf and her mother Sylvia know this is merely a ghost making the best of things. Donna has tasted the universe and could soar so high but she is destined to be just another statistic. She will be no one special. Every parent and grandparent wants their children to be better than they were and do things they never got to do. While that thinking is common, it also should be recognised that by committing to a family and offspring you are going to be skint and struggle to give them the life you want for them. The cost sadly is you sacrifice your dreams but that is life. It’s also the siurce if untold riches.
Second of all, the Doctor lands at a discreet distance in the graveyard standing like a ghost in the background until Sylvia sees him. He hands Wilf and Sylvie an envelope and tells them he borrowed a quid of a lovely man named Geoffrey Noble, Donna’s late father whom we met in The Runaway Bride. “Have that on me,” was what he said. Sylvia’s face hits the floor. The actor was due to return for series 4 but he sadly was unable to and passed away from cancer. Bernard Cribbins was drafted in as Wilfred Mott and the rest is history.
He is the father figure to protect his granddaughter in her father’s absence. Every girl wants her dad to walk her down the aisle on her wedding day so Geoffrey’s absence would be felt deeply. Having recently lost my younger brother, I can completely empathise with this. I will never see him again. When there is a family gathering his absence will be a huge shadow hanging over it even though he would tell you to get out there and have fun. Grief is not about regrets; grief is the emptiness when families gather and there is one less person at the dinner table for Christmas. It’s about having to tell the kids where their uncle has gone and seeing in their little faces they don’t understand at all. As the 13th Doctor says it is only sad because what came before was so special. But while we laugh and tell tales of him or any loved one who has passed, we feel that loss so keenly because in the end memories are all we have. Donna remembers her father but these memories that lifted her to be better are gone. Ironically Donna will not recall her first wedding as the Doctor was involved so to her Shaub is her one true love.
There is no doubt her late husband was firmly on Sylvia’s mind on Donna’s wedding day so to have the Doctor give her such a gift when all she has done is berate him since they first met, is a stark reminder that though they may be gone, our loved ones are never far away. Indeed the Doctor has bought a lottery ticket for the triple rollover ensuring Donna will never want for anything again. After resetting his friend like a mobile phone, the Doctor is a broken man in the last hours of his life. Donna will forever be the one he lost as sure as he lost Adric, Katarina and Sara Kingdom. His Donna is dead and will never return and with his impending regeneration, the Doctor will get new body and move on never looking back because he dare not. All he can is hope the money and new Husband will make Donna happy. The Doctor thought he could by letting her travel with him but in the end he destroyed her.
The Time Lord leaves without a word and it is Bernard Cribbin’s tearful farewell salute that really kills you. That man could get a tear from a stone but again it is more than that. They say at a wedding you lose a son or daughter but gain one at the same time. This time it is not the case. Wilfred encouraged Donna to travel with the Doctor because he knew she would be a better person for it. But the Dalek invasion and Davros’ plans took all that away. Wilfred is living his life through Donna’s amazing adventures and with her memory compromised, he jumps at the chance to travel in the Tardis and fight alongside the Doctor. In some way this is him and Donna’s legacy and by fate’s hands it is Wilf that ends the tenth Doctor’s life. Yet two people have died; the worst of it is that new Donna is just a ghost of the granddaughter he knew. He cannot even speak to her about her time in the Tardis so the nobles live a life of lies. Wilf also knows that this is the last time he will see the Doctor hence his tearful kiss and salute. Life will never be the same again for the Nobles as just as they feel the loss of Geoffrey, Sylvia and Wilf will miss the Donna that was and the amazing time traveller that saved then took her soul.
However destiny, time and fate are contrary things and as we know Donna’s story is far from over. Maybe, just maybe, the universe decided that it could not continue without the empty Donna we love. Maybe it’s about time something was done about that. Apparently the Doctor regenerated recently and there’s a trailer going about where the Doctor and Donna are back together. As always stay tuned because the fans are about to get a long overdue gift….maybe.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright bbc
Last week in typical Donna fashion, she set fire to the brand new Tardis with a cup of coffee making it fly off uncontrollably to God knows where. En route they meet Isacc newton with his apple and a new word is introduced to the English language.
Now as they fall from the Tardis doors consumed by flames they find themselves somewhere that makes the Tardis run away in terror.
I went into this adventure with no prior knowledge of what was going to happen or any titbits whatsoever. A friend of mine would be sitting down in shock at that one because spoilers don’t annoy me in the slightest except when the twist is dumb (Yes you Star Trek Into Darkness ; Khan my ass). So what initially appeared as a talk filled story turned out to be an effects filled claustrophobic character piece that brings new sides to both the Doctor and Donna.
Trapped aboard a spaceship stuck in the middle of nowhere at the edge of the universe which is reconfiguring itself with a robot that takes a step with every configuration along with a bangimg and words they can’t make out, the travellers find themselves battling…themselves.
With no other cast it allows the story to focus on the Doctor and Donna and see what they are like fifteen years later. Are we the same people when we reunite with old friends? Old Donna was determined to travel with the Doctor forever but now her family is her focus. This trip with the Doctor is a fleeting thing for her and a step towards making sure he knows he is part of her family and welcome any time. So connected are the Nobles, old and new, with the Time Lord, he will always be family to them. Equally, you can see it in him too as he spoke about Wilf last episode and caught up on their lives. But she is the same old, kick ass Donna as ever but with time we change. And if Donna thinks her life has changed then the Doctor’s has been shattered and is still lying in pieces.
But these reveals are not made to each other but to two creatures that look exactly like them. Of course they don’t realise at first that it isn’t their friend until their arms are too long, literally. We get a touch of Mr Fantastic as limbs and jaws fall like rubber. There is a touch of the episode Midnight here as sthe aliens are assimilating the Doctor and Donna’s forms and minds so that when the Tardis returns they will take it. They are driven by what they can hear from our universe and want to live it all by whatever means necessary. They don’t want to be friends or allies; they just want to be complete. It also feels very fairy tale like with the giant Doctor and Donna bringing to mind Jack and the Beanstalk while the body popping Doctor reminds us of the Exorcist with a sprinkle of Event Horizon and the Black Hole. Maybe the Doctor used the salt trick like they use on leprechauns to test one theory.
We have only one episode before we lose this Doctor so we address how he feels about the revelations from the Timeless Children. His pain is that he no longer knows where he is from or where he belongs or who he truly is. While he is part of Donna’s family and once the Ponds’, this is a nice reflection and potential theme that his home is with people he loves. I think the whole Timeless Children story was a load of shit quite frankly that did not make sense and shoehorned and totally ignored elements of the show in to suit the new theory. Awful.
See how I show the illogic of it all by clicking on this link
The Doctor is hurting but does not show it and despite the love of his friends, he may never get over it unless he gets some answers. Again all he has to do is open the chameleon fob watch hidden in the Tardis and at least get some answers so am I the only one shouting this at the screen?
Once the mystery is solved and the Doctor and Donna escape, the Doctor wonders if he made a mistake with the salt deception because the walls of reality are thin here and you never know who is listening. Why does that concern him so much ala naming Daleks in Destination Skaro? Is this connected to the Meep’s boss mention last week to be resolved in the final episode? We land back on Earth and meet Wilf patiently waiitng in the alley for them. A couple of days have passed and the human race has gone violent on a massive scale.
It is lovely to see Bernard Cribbins again and his delight at seeing the tenth Doctor’s face is touching given Bernard’s subsequent passing. Again this Doctor is more open emotionally than his other self and his joy is palpable.
So this is it. The final batlle between the Celestial Toymaker before the regeneration, Donna leaves, Tennant leaves and Ncuti Gatwa takes over. But then again, will it be that simple and pedestrian? Bringing Tennant back could not end so mekly. There has to be a twist in the tale. Is the Toymaker behind all of this and if so why? Revenge? Amusement? The joy of touring the Doctor by pitting him against his favourite species?
Overall, Wild Blue Yonder is a marvellous mystery piece that gives us a glimpse behind the Doctor’s mask like never before, a reminder that evil can wear our face and solid performances and direction all round.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright bbc
So this was it; the episode where everything changes and a new era begins. But was it worth the wait? Was the hype justified for a 60th anniversary? The return of an old face, an old enemy an updated UNIT and nuggets of faceless foes for the future all blended in with the departure of the not only the Doctor but what we knew about regeneration.
When John Logie Baird televised the very first image on television, it was of a ventriloquist dummy called Stooky Bill. He bought the dummy from a toymaker’s shop owned by the Celestial Toymaker. He implanted a giggle in the head which burned itself into every screen and electronic imaging device in the world. Now with the world totally connected by the internet, the signal has driven everyone mad. Everyone now believes they are right from the ordinary person to politicians to kings and queens. Strange; I’ve been like that for years. it must have affected me early….
Neil Patrick Harris was superb as the Celestial Toymaker. His changing accent and dancing in the street as a French Man were just a prelude to his Spice Up Your Life entrance into UNIT. This was a brilliant moment compared to the Master’s Rasputin number and not cringe worthy at all. It just added to the over the top character as he revelled in the game with his old foe. Yet in his quiet moments was poised like a snake ready to strike. Did you know that Harris wasn’t in the running for the part until he was suggested by one of the producers? They knew he could sing, dance and cut cards, everything they needed the Toymaker to do and once sent the script, had to do it.
Tennant’s fear is palpable when he realises who he is facing as the world burns around him. The human puppet on a string is creepy and unnerving as are the Burtonesque puppets that attack Donna. The Toymaker apparently was let into our reality thanks to the Doctor’s salt trick at the edge of reality in Wild Blue Yonder. I find this hard to swallow to be honest because as we discover the Doctor’s regeneration from 113 to 14 when even his clothes regenerated had nothing to do with the Toymaker. Ignoring this when they keep referencing the Flux is sloppy. Are they really expecting us to believe that the Doctor is in so much inner pain that he can now regenerate outfits as well?
I can accept the notion of a biregeneration but not nitpicking the bits leading to these specials just to suit the story does not sit well. If they have the balls to mention a disaster like the Flux and it was the final straw for this Doctor’s literal breakdown but water down the clothes regeneration as her at the time simply wanting to come home to be with Donna is Chibnall worthy. No, it would have been much better to have the Toymaker kickstart this three parter out of amusement and revenge. Indeed yuo could still have doen the regeneration the same way but as a unexpected side effect of the Toymaker’s game. It’s time travel so the Doctor’s future actions influence the present; cause and effect.
UNIT have now become the Avengers Tower but drop the robot. However It was a very welcome surprise to see Mel Bush back working alongside Kate Stewart and having seen her in Power of the Doctor, we know she works alongside Tegan and Ace too. Also note Martha presumably still works for UNIT too. Thankfully her return was not a mere cameo but a full integral role. Her computer skills are at the fore and we even get a glimpse of an unseen story as she tells the Doctor what happened after she left him on Iceworld. After Sabolom’s death she came back to Earth. Her family were gone when she returned to Earth. As a new member of the Noble family it brings an unity to the history. I loved the line that Donna wasn’t the first red head in the Tardis. Mel’s presence also reminds the Doctor that his past is mostly good and she becomes a vital part of his regeneration. Mel will once again team up with the new Doctor in upcoming episodes.
One moment that brings a smile and is a great example of this unity is when the new Doctor asks Mel what she thinks of his new self. She says he is beautiful. The fourteenth Doctor leans in and says that she means still beautiful while Donna leans in and asks if he comes in a range of colours. The physical and comedic timing is impeccable as past and future stand together to defeat the Toymaker.
I mentioned nuggets for the future and we get them in spades. The Master is trapped inside the Toymaker’s gold tooth which is retrieved by someone with red nail varnish ala the Last of the Time Lords. It was lovely to hear all the previous Master’s laugh here. The Toymaker’s legions are coming too. Who is he who waits that scares even the Toymaker? Who is the Boss mentioned by the Meep? What is Mel’s role going to be in the upcoming fight?
So my question really is where is the 60th celebration? Was the Power of the Doctor it? Where are the other Doctors? The closest we come to is the Doctors talking in the Tardis about the journey they have taken. So many old adventures mentioned as this new exuberant Doctor, healed from the guilt of so much death and destruction in their wake thanks to the fourteenth Doctor needing a family to belong to. The mention of Adric is welcome but the reveal that they have lost Sarah Jane brings a chill. The Master’s laugh as I said, the fifth Doctor regeneration reference, “Feels different this time”, the Eccleston final moments regeneration score and Mel calling the Doctors fantastic recalls Eccleston and a variation on the Brigadier’s splendid chaps all of you quote. We also learn the Black and White Guardians were turned to voodoo dolls by the Toymaker and the Archangel Network is mentioned. Also talking with eyebrows is how the third Doctor (Jon Pertwee) introduced himself to Liz Shaw when he was exiled to UNIT and fought the Autons for the first time. Oh and God was turned into a jack in the box. It reminds us the Whoniverse is still churning in unseen stories. What we get is a mere glimpse. This along with the Doctor’s pep talk to himself is the celebration. So many stories, so many memories; friends we have lost, the friends we have found again. It is through Mel and Donna that he sees that he was nev forgotten but loved still. Not even decades across time and space can break those bonds. The Doctor just never let himself see them. Indeed could it be his meeting Sarah jane again as well as Jo Grant been a sign that he was subconsciously coming back to them on pupose like he did Donna?
Doctor Who is a legacy. Each and every person that has fought with him, died with and for him and left him are indelibly burned into his hearts. He doesn’t look back because it hurts too much. Like mental health and stress if you don’t open up and let it build, you will burn yourself out and fall apart. The biregeneration is a way for the series and the character to begin afresh.
We have seen this theme right from the ninth Doctor’s Time War survivor guilt to the twelfth Doctor refusing to regenerate because he cannot go on. The Doctor needs to stop and be loved as part of a family unit that shows him that he has done the right thing; a home where he is reminded he is loved in between the battles. They are the reason he fights. It was Sarah Jane that once told him in Journey’s End that he acts like a lonely man but he has the biggest family on Earth. If he took a second to look back he could see Davros was wrong; the Doctor does not turn his friends into weapons. He makes them better versions of themselves to fight the good fight and see the universe is more than just a tweet or instagram post.
He finds that loving home with the Nobles and Mel in the Noble’s garden having lunch. The simple joy of sitting down for a meal with people you love is precious. No monsters and no end of the world, just simple food and welcome company. Now that Donna has bagged a £120,00 with 5 weeks holiday a year job from UNIT she can afford it. Another great touch. I wonder does Mel, Ace and Tegan know?
This is a series reset at the end of the day with shades of sam Beckett was in control of the leaps all the time taste. You know the old saying that a person cannot be helped unless they want to be helped? Well here’s perfect example. Only the Doctor will listen to himself and when the new Doctor takes the old broken one in his arms, it speaks that it is okay now. You can stay and find what he has sought for so long with the Nobles. His new self can continue their journey free from guilt and anguish as is seen in the Christmas trailer with a new relish for life. And how exciting is it that there are now two Doctors roaming the universe? Of course the Meep labels the Doctor as the creature with two hearts so will the Boss come after the Tennant version and bring them together again? Who knows?
I have to mention the wheelchair access Tardis and I have to say I agree. It was a running joke for years as to K9 managed it. Having been a wheelchair user for a few months now I can tell you just how disabled unfriendly the world is. Places I took for granted I will never be able to go into again. It is embarrassing to have to rely on someone to tilt you back in your chair so you can access a house. That is if you have someone to help you do that.
Independance or rather the feeling of being independent is vital to anyone disabled given people do treat you differently. I am delighted that people especially children now have that in their heads that they too can join the Doctor aboard the Tardis because he cares for everyone. That’s the power and magic of Doctor Who. Even I can board the Tardis in my new state when before I walked just like everyone else. But keep the woke out. Asking wheelchair Shirley is it is okay to say parked a wheelchair gets my blood boiling. I will park my wheelchair where I want. There is no other word for it. And if you’re offended by that word go away. But if I wasn’t in a wheelchair I’d be rolling my eyes. I now have a new perspective and isn’t that really what this story is about? The Doctor gaining a new perspective through his own self. Ain’t that what he does with his companions? Let them see the universe through a new perspective?
I felt that the Star Beast and Wild Blue Yonder were woke influenced to a degree. Rose chiding the Doctor about assuming pronouns grated especially when on entering the Noble house to see the Meep, Rose exclaims “It’s that man!!” So having a double standard in your story just shows the stupidity of this. Representation is a wonderful thing which I try to put into my books on a constant basis but you need to write them respectfully too. You can’t just shoehorn them in for fear of being criticised. Rose is an important figure to many but she needs have her own voice not the writer’s. She is a great chance to show the struggles of a trans person at that age in a genuine and solid way surrounded by such down to earth characters as Donna, Shaun and Sylvia. I felt her pain when she was taunted in the street about her transitioning and would have threw a brick after the wee shits. Already I’m being protective of her which is exactly what I should be doing if the writing is spot on but keep agendas out of it.
But that is something we need work on. Times are changing, not all for the better so the show must too in order to survive. These three very different episodes were worthy additions to the Doctor Whoniverse and resolved and rebirthed a lot. Each very different in style and content. The last two especially impressed. Let’s face it, the Jodie Whittaker era was a disaster so their only hope was bring back the tenth Doctor as the fourteenth and resolve the Donna Noble story. They wanted to draw viewers back and hopefully Ncuti Gatwa will restore the golden age of Doctor Who wearing trousers this time. I think we are in for something very new but comfortably familiar at the same time in the months to come.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Matthew Perry once said that “There’s nothing better than a world where everyone’s trying to make each other laugh.”
And in the wake of his death that’s all I can see. The laughter and joy he brought to the world through his performance as Chandler Bing on the ten year run of Friends. What’s flooding back to me is all the Chandler moments that kept us entertained and his Odd Couple double act with Joey. I can hear Janice’s laugh, see the fear when he dated one of Joey’s sisters but couldn’t remember which, in bed with Monica in London, losing baby Ben on the bus, his transgender father, the duck and taking in a new roommate.
His sarcasm influenced the world and they fell in love with him. We all took on his mannerisms when dealing with our everyday lives and inwardly became our version of Chandler. Or we used something he had said in one of the episodes to make our point.
With the reruns, millions still do the Chandlerisms so it’s hard to accept that while we are all revelling in happy memories and moments from the show, Perry saw it through very different eyes. He saw his pain, his addiction and with every season what addiction or pain he could pinpoint. While he revealed all this in his recent book Friends, Lovers and a Big Terrible Thing., he also went public, speaking about his pain to help others. He was the master clown to us with his sharp timing and quick wit but behind the laughter was a deep pain. I believe that when he brought it out to the public, he saw just how loved he really was regardless of anything else. His humour never faltered even when discussing his addiction.
Like Robin Williams and Paul O’Grady, when the world thinks about Matthew Perry they will smile at all the joy he brought and today amid all those tears of sorrow, there will be equally be as many tears of laughter as we watch him in all his glory in Friends.
Rest easy sir because you were and always will be loved.
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.
“We’ve clawed our way out of hell to land simple assignments like home wrecking and adultery. You don’t want to go back to the horror we lived through before.”
For every yin there’s a yang, for every Batman there is a Joker but for Sam Beckett, his nemesis came in the form of a leaper that undid the good he did. While multiple leapers is nothing new for the new series of Quantum Leap, back in the original series it was Sam and Al alone jumping through time.
Sam had previously leaped into the body of Jimmy, a man with Down Syndrome who was destined to be put into an institution if Sam didn’t prove that Jimmy could be a functioning member of society. It really is one of the best and heartwarming episodes of the show. Sam sorted it all and to his surprise he once again became Jimmy in Deliver Us From Evil. His initial delight was quelled by the realisation that the life he had fixed was slowly being unraveled. Jimmy lived with his brother Frank (Seaquest’s John D’Aquino) and sister-in-law Connie (Laura Harrington) as well as his nephew Corey. Frank and Connie’s marriage is falling apart and Frank is on the verge of having an affair. Corey is deeply unhappy and will run away never to be seen again if Sam doesn’t stop him. When Sam confronts Connie he grabs her by the arms. This triggers an energy surge and Connie is revealed to be a leaper named Alia. She comes across at first as delighted to meet another leaper as she thought she was alone and is trying to get home. Sam is delighted that he is not alone and has many questions. Al is not so sure and advises caution.
Alia has a holographic helper too in the form of super bitch Zoey (Carolyn Seymour). She has a hand held device similar to Al’s and they are both serving a computer called Lothos. Alia is being forced to leap with Zoey her keeper. She urges her that this could be the leap that gets her home so Alia has to complete Lothos’ commands. They are part of an evil version of the Quantum Leap project in which they must undo everything Sam has done. Alia’s mission is to ensure Jimmy is put into an institution and destroy Frank and Connie’s marriage. But with the reveal of Sam’s existence, she is ordered to kill him. She engineers a situation where she and Jimmy are alone. After spinning Sam a story about the loneliness she feels as a leaper, she asks him to make love to her. But suddenly she is gouging her cheek with her fingernails and ripping her dress, to make it look like Jimmy has tried to rape her. She pulls a gun and threatens to shoot Sam. He talks her down while both holograms freak out; Zoey urging her to pull the trigger and Al shouting at Sam to move. Sam believes there is good in her as she is being forced to do these things. Zoey reminds her what they have gone through to land simple assignments and they cannot go back to it. Sam persists they are both part of the same coin and cannot exist without one another. Alia does not want to die but doesn’t want to go back to the horrors Lothos has in-store for them. She has killed many people and sees Sam as a way to escape. He manages to get through to her. This causes Zoey and Alia twist and distort as time snaps back to a time when Sam had saved Jimmy and the family. It’s the first time that time has reversed in the show and now Sam knows he is facing a new enemy that he cannot see and could wear any face just like him.
In season five Alia and Zoey return along with another evil observer, Thames. When Sam leaps into a campus nerd that parades as a superhero as a way of coping with his parents’ deaths, he encounters Alia gain. She is there to make sure Arnold is killed but sees in Sam a way to escape the Evil leaper Project. It is a punishment to leap and controlled by Lothos, her version of Ziggy. Sam thinks that if they are touching when they leap then they will leap together and end up in the same place and time. Alia helps save Arnold along with Al who persuades the young man to face his trauma. Now Alia has no idea if Sam’s idea is going to work so for her to take the risk indicates just what a horror show she is desperate to escape. It is more likely that she would be killed if the double leap doesn’t work.
Sam and Alia end up in a women’s prison as inmates Angel and Liz who have been accused of murdering fellow inmate Carol. Alia is now being hunted by Lothos and is on the verge of a breakdown from sheer terror. Sam hypnotises her into believing she is in fact Angel, changing her brain waves keeping her from being detected. Zoey has been forced to be a leaper as punishment for not killing Arnold. She leaps into prison warden Myers who is increasingly frustrated by not being able to track Alia. It’s interesting that they cannot track Sam at all and are relying on locating Alia to capture him too. As a leaper, Zoey is assigned an observer, Thames.
He has a smart mouth and seems to relish in his position of power. But Zoey is not taking any of his nonsense. She comes close to almost discovering that Sam and Alia are Liz and Angel. Alia’s mental state is crumbling and Sam is becoming desperate. Al gets Ziggy to reconfigure the prison’s electric fence to help unscramble Thames’ tracking device. Sam discovers what really happened to Carol and persuades sympathetic guard Vivian to help them. Once outside the perimeter, Thames manages to locate Alia. There is a shootout and Alia leaps independently as does Sam once the truth comes out that Myers got Carol pregnant and left her to bleed to death after an abortion gone wrong. Vivian cannot believe that Liz, Angel and Myers were all shot at point blank range but have no wounds. Zoey and Thames are ripped away by Lothos once they reveal that Alia is off their radar completely. Sam takes some comfort in the fact Alia is now beyond the reach of the Evil leaper Project but knows he will be hunted now too.
Thames played by Hinton Battle is almost a mirror version of Al with his smart remarks, fashion sense and seemingly position of power over the fallen Zoey. He is well suited to the task because he is intent on seeing Alia dead and anyone else that happens to get in the way. He revels in the suffering of others. From what we can gather from Alia and Zoey, Lothos controls the entire project and becoming a leaper is forced to do horrific deeds like murder in order to be elevated to simple things like home wrecking. It seems an observer is a step-up from leaper. The inclusion of Thames confirms the theory that leaper and observer go on this ladder of evil together as Zoey states that she and Alia have been a team from the start of their rule by Lothos.
With Quantum Leap’s cancellation we would never get to see that world but with the show’s parameters expanding, it is certain we would have gotten to see Lothos’ cruel world. As we know from the final episode that God has been watching over Sam but does not control the leaps; Sam does. So the inference we can take is that Lothos represents the Devil in the show with the likes of Thames and Zoey demons. Alia would be a sinner condemned to suffer in Hades while Sam and Al are the forces of good. Al could be described as as Sam’s guardian Angel. Indeed they both met a real Angel in the episode It’s a Wonderful Leap. Sam became a New York cab driver who has to get his medallion. He meets singer Angelita who is here to help him and can see Al with whom we get many comedic golden moments. In the Halloween Boogieman, Sam fights the Devil disguised as Al but this was shown to be a dream.
While the new series has their own version of an evil leaper, it is a totally different story. However as it is a continuation of the original series and not a rebbot means that Zoey, Thames, Lothos and Alia are still out there. It would be a missed opportunity to not bring them or a new version of them back to face Ben and Addison. Here’s hoping.
By and copyright of Oen Quinn author of the Time Warriros and Zombie Blues
cover by Conaire McMullan
The zombie rollercoaster continues as the undead continue to give us their view of being a rotting corpse under the control of Mother Nature. This time round we meet Comic Book zombie and the zombie who thinks the ending of Toy Story 3 is sacrilege. What happens when a zombie’s faith in God is rocked to its very foundation and why is the spirit of Elvis Presley still going strong in the vast roaming herds? A zombie tells why the covid pandemic was much preferable to being undead and why having a club foot makes you feel normal as a zombie. Plus more zombie characters than you can shake a stick at.
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Comparison Zombie
It felt like life quickly dissolved into draining a cycle of work, dinner, ten minutes with the kids, Internet, TV and the wife, sleep then repeat.
I’d worked since I was seventeen having totally messed up my A levels and failed them completely. There are points in everyone’s lives where you wish you had turned left instead of right. That was my first one right there. I had shone in my O level results (they don’t even call them that these days) with great grades but instead of picking the subjects with the higher grades, I picked the ones with the lower ones. To this day I have no idea why I did that but there as no teacher standing up to guide us to focus on our strengths. It was a grammar school where sports prowess was prevalent and students good at ports were favoured and almost revered.
Students like me who fell between the cracks of the jocks and the computer nerds sort of tended to fade into the background afraid to speak. Someone else who could kick a ball or write algorithms would more likely be the one who would be listened to.
Not me or those like me; never.
Woulda, shoulda, coulda.
I could never stand tall like those jocks with girls hanging off their arms from no age or who the teachers looked at differently from the likes of me. I was slightly overweight and wore glasses. People like me were the friend that the girls’ loved as a confidant but never saw in the shagging sense. Add to that the biggest thing that affected me from school was I was bullied relentlessly from primary school by the same guy and his gang. There is no easy answer to bullying no matter what anyone tells you. Fucking so called experts haven’t a clue what they are talking about mostly because they have never been bullied in the first place. I’m sure right now you all have an idea in your heads what bullying is but I can tell you bullying is like a dark ripple that can touch your entire life. Every victim will tell you of the isolation and loneliness. You have no confidence because you think that everyone thinks the same thing as the bully. You believe that if you stand up and fight back then you are going to get pummelled to death. There was no one who stood up for me. No one spoke up in my defence even on the quiet. I’m not like that now o course. My tongue could cut steel and I refuse to keep my mouth shut. My wife shakes her head sometimes at some of the things that come out of my gob. I didn’t care. I had been silent for too long. Since I was seven years old and after that fateful day in the playground, I had cowed in the shadows for a quiet life. The other guys around me that I went to school with just seemed to be doing what they should be and becoming men. They got their grades and moved on to what careers they had seemed destined to have. Some got married and were having kids while I just got pubic hair and grew taller. All the time I just got through each day best I could. I’m thankful there was no social media in my day.
No man is an island a friend later in life reminded me no matter how thick headed and independent I was in adult life. So before you start thinking I was a complete pussy let me take you to the day where what I should have done is flatten the bully. With one fist in his face my entire future might have changed.
There was this boy in my class, bit of a div, who was going about one lunch time asking everyone who they loved. He was getting the strangest looks and being told to piss off. I watched him and thought, you prat. Then he came to me.
One question; who do you love? And being the smart arse I was replied, “You.”
The class bully heard me. He leapt on it like a tiger on a gazelle. Suddenly his voice was joined by others, then more. It seemed the entire playground was chanting my name. It seemed to grow until it filled the entire world.
Mickey is a homo! Mickey is a homo! Oh by the way, my name is Michael, Michael Flanagan. I suppose I should have told you that at the start of my tale.
Presented by Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriros and Zombie Blues. Written by James Dwyer
In the first Season of Birth, the Twelve Weapons were born. They gave birth to children, who raised families of their own, and during the Season of Growth the world became a paradise of immortals and their kin. Then the first Season of Decay arrived and the Weapons watched their children suffer. When the first Season of Death arrived, the Weapons murdered them.
In the second Season of Birth, the Children of Weapons were reborn. But they did not forget their deaths, and they did not forgive those who killed them. Now in the Eighth Decay, the world once more prepares for Death, but it is a different death than they would have the Weapons believe.
Ruke, son of the infamous Adelis, Killer of Weapons, sets his sights on the next Weapons he vows to rid from this world. Grylia the Creator, Phapri the Divine, and Rhass the Supreme become his targets, but time is against him as the Season of Death draws closer with every moon.
Laena, beautiful and perfect, and unbearable to be around, is recruited by Ruke along with her brother Hoso, a freak named Fling, and a drunk called Whil. She’s never been surrounded by so many ugly and awful-smelling people in her life, but she figures killing Weapons might be fun.
And Rhalt, son of the dreaded Killer Caze, has returned. For Four Cycles he lived, and learned all he could about the lesser lives he loved, the Crafters, the Giants, the Serpents. And for Four Cycles he was dead, suddenly thrust back into a world filled with Tsiotes, Crataii, Takers, and Meats. Adapting to his new world will be a struggle since for all his lives he suffered the same number of deaths and they have left him broken. Will he become a killer like his father, or will he help rid the world of his mother instead and succeed in killing Rhass the Supreme.
The premise of my Zombie Blues books is that behind every dead zombie shell lies the former self trapped in a rotting shell and unable to communicate. While the Walking Dead finally cottoned on to a learning zombie for its final season and Land of the Dead showed us learning and growing zombies. We have seen all sorts of zombies on the big and small screens but we have never ever seen a singing zombie.
In Scout’s Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse, our heroes are fieeing from a zombie attack when they find themselves confronted by a lone zombie on the road. Being the good scout he is Augie (Joey Foster) uses his training to try and scare the zombie away. In his head if you roar at a bear it will find you intimidating and run away. However Augie soon realizes the zombie is mimicking him. Spotting the zombie is wearing a Britney T shirt, he tries a different tact resulting in one of the funniest on screen moments ever involving a zombie.
Video and photos copyright Broken Road Productions
The Time Warriors and Beyond 