By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
A long time ago I went to Lisburn’s library for an evening with Matt Irvine. Matt was head fo special effects at the BBC for years and also the creator behind K9. His first job was the monster filled Jon Pertwee story the Curse of Peladon. He has covered so many shows including Blake’s 7, the Tripods and Robot Wars to name a few. I caught up with him then and recently found this video of that interview which was featured on FTN channel. Enjoy.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright BBC
First introduced in the third story of the fifth season of the show, it has been years since the Doctor faced the Martian Ice Warriors. Fans have asked for their return for a long time and they almost had it several times. Of all the numerous Doctor Who monsters, they under went the best evolution. Now they are back about to battle the eleventh Doctor and Clara in the show’s 50th year in Cold War. They have been redesigned yet retain their classic look. And we look back at their previous four appearances and give you the rundown on the green giants.
The warlord Martians of the Doctor Who universe first appeared opposite the second Doctor, Patrick Troughton in 1967. Created by Brian Hayles in an era where new monsters were literally spewing out of the show, the Ice Warriors are now classed as part of the golden era.
Their first story was aptly named the Ice Warriors. However as fans will know, this is in fact not the name of their species but rather the name given to them by the scientist, Walters, that found them buried in the ice ala the Thing. Jamie, Victoria and the Doctor battled to save a remote research station in a future Earth that has been consumed by a new ice age. The station is working to deal with the problem of massive glaciers when they find an alien frozen deep in the ice. It revives and kidnaps Victoria, played by Deborah Watling. It is revealed to be Varga, the captain of a spaceship still in the ice along with his squad. Mars is dead and they want Earth as their new home.
They made an immediate impact with viewers and fans alike. Huge lumbering reptiles housed themselves in reptilian body armour, the Ice Warriors spoke in a low hiss. Carry On star Bernard Bresslaw played the lead Ice Warrior. Given his height and build he helped burn the Martians into the minds of millions. The cover alone for the Target Novelisation of the story (left) is a pure work of art to this day and one of my personal favourites.
On the cover, their clamp-like hands are alive with energy but on the show they fired sonic guns. But nonetheless they were destined to return and soon. Visually, they were unlike anything that the Doctor had ever encountered. The Ice Warriors weren’t nimble or lithe but they were relentless. You could run but you could not hide. Fans trembled at the sight of Victoria, the innocent Victorian lady, trapped by falling ice, crying out for help as the monsters loomed down on her. This six-part story remains incomplete in the BBC archives but will be released this year on DVD using animation to replace the missing two episodes exclusive clips of which can be found on YouTube.
They soon returned in Seeds of Death, broadcast in 1969, where they again fixed their clamps on taking over the Earth. Again written by Hayles (he would pen all four of their televised adventures), we visit Earth at the end of the 21st century. All forms of transport are now obsolete and replaced by a global teleport system controlled from the moon- the T Mat. The second Doctor, along with Jamie (Fraser Hines) and Zoe (Wendy Padbury), land in a museum. Before long the global system fails and the Doctor goes to the moon in a rocket to solve the problem. There he meets the Ice Warriors again only this time there is a second caste here. The Ice Lords, in this case, Slaar, are more humanoid, faster and the brains of the operation are revealed here. They have almost military-styled helmets and cloaks to give them their place of power. They are more articulate than their foot soldiers and are deadlier in many ways. Like Judge Dredd, no Ice Warrior of either caste has ever been seen without their helmets. Only the lower jaws and chin is visible suggesting they are reptilian beneath the battle armour which may also act as a body temperature regulator. It is in this story that the classic line ‘You can’t kill me, I’m a genius!’ is said by the Doctor to save his life from two Ice Warriors. Their plan this time is to transport seeds all over the planet using the T mat which they now control. The seeds will burst open, releasing foam which sucks the oxygen from the atmosphere. All human life will die, leaving the world open to Ice Warrior population. Indeed the Doctor almost falls victim to the foam but manages to escape. He discovers that the seeds are only part of the plan as a signal is leading a Martian invasion force to Earth. The Doctor manages to divert the signal tricking them into flying into the sun before stopping Slaar and his minions.
They would return to face the third Doctor, Jon Pertwee, in the Curse of Peladon in 1972 and this time they were in colour. But this time the game had changed. The Tardis takes the Doctor and Jo Grant (Katy Manning) to the planet Peladon where the Galactic Federation is working to bring Peladon into its ranks.
Copyright BBC
However, forces are working against them by resurrecting the legend that is Aggedor, the great beast that will destroy all aliens before letting Peladon slide into alien ways. Lost in the catacombs of the palace, the Doctor and Jo meet an Ice Warrior and the Doctor thinks he knoCwho the enemy is. However this time round the Ice Warriors have given up their warrior ways and are peaceful ambassadors with the Federation. The Doctor must overcome his own prejudice to ally himself with them against forces trying to plunge Peladon back into the dark ages. Here we meet Ice Lord Izlyr played by Alan Bennion. Like the Klingons before them, Izlyr is the equivalent of Worf. He is a peacemaker, wary of their violent past and dedicated to bringing peace to the galaxy. It isn’t hard to imagine them as the Judoon of the Federation. The huge green armour almost like a walking alligator is even more imposing here and it is in Izlyr’s conversations with Jo Grant that we see that the species as a whole has really changed. This immediately elevates them to real characters rather than another monster. The scene where Izlyr sits beside Jo and comforts her when the Doctor is in danger lets the viewer know there is so much more to them than has been seen before. An Ice Warrior being concerned for another’s feelings defines them as people now. But in the subsequent sequel, the Monster of Peladon, this time with Sarah Jane Smith as the companion, the third Doctor meets a rogue splinter group of warriors that want to see a return to the old ways and intend on using the political situation on Peladon to do it. Alan Bennion again plays the Ice Lord called Azaxyr and he makes him completely different to Izlyr although they obviously look alike. Azaxyr has a fire within him that will only be quenched by the fires of war and conquest. It’s easy to see from the beautiful dialogue that there is a whole back story that occurred off screen that we are not privy to but can immediately picture. They have allied themselves with other factions within the Peladon hierarchy to bring about a new Ice Warrior empire. They are defeated as always and this was the last time we would see them.
At least on television screens.
There has been two attempts to bring them back. In the aborted Colin Baker season following the imposed hiatus by Michael Grade, the green giants would have returned in Mission to Magnus. This story would also have brought back the slug like Sil (Nabil Shaban), the Doctor’s enemy from Vengeance on Varos and Mindwarp. The story was almost lost but Target released it as a novel written by Philip Martin. In the aborted season following the show’s cancellation, it would have seen the seventh Doctor battle them once more and climaxed in Ace leaving the show for good. They would be mentioned in Castrovalva and again by the tenth Doctor in Waters of Mars. It seems that the enemy called the Flood, an entity that lives in water, was defeated by the Ice Warriors and sealed away to prevent them from ever rising again. He calls them a fine and noble race that built an empire from snow. It’s clear that the Doctor respects them as a race.
In comic strip form they would be the first monsters the seventh Doctor would face in A Cold Day in Hell. Here they are using a holiday planet’s weather control system to create a new home for themselves. Along with the shape-shifting penguin Frobisher and heat vampire Olla, they are once again defeated. Other appearances included an Ice Warrior being a companion to the eighth Doctor in a short-lived Radio Times comic strip written by Gary Russell. Ssard, along with human companion Stacy, would reappear in the BBC book Placebo Effect where they are now married. Long before the Daleks and Cybermen met in Doomsday, the Ice Warriors fought the metal giants in a comic strip in Doctor Who Weekly called Deathworld while a lone warrior, Harma, joined Dalek Killer Abslom Daak’s Star Tigers. The fifth Doctor had double trouble when the Ice Warriors and the Meddling Monk teamed up to create a new super weapon.
In novels they have been mentioned in The Last Resort, Fear Itself and Transit. In the seventh Doctor’s New adventures novel, new companion Benny, an archaeologist and an expert on Mars, joins the Doctor on a return trip to Peladon where the Ice Warriors are stirring up trouble again. Given their size and the diminutive stature of the Doctor, this would have been a great sight on television. Godengine by the late Craig Hinton delved deepest into the Martian history and is one of the most sought after books in the series. The final book in the New Adventures saw the debut of the 8th Doctor as the Ice Warriors invaded Earth. Teamed with companion Benny, it is spectacular with ships over London and a real end of the world adventure. It tied into the 3rd Doctor story Ambassadors of Death when it was revealed that the probe in that story had in fact made first contact with the Ice Warriors but it was all hushed up.
As always Big Finish has featured them in several productions. In the Resurrection of Mars, the eighth Doctor and Lucie witness the mass slaughter of a human colony in preparation for the emergence of the Ice Warriors again who are in suspended animation beneath the surface. The fifth Doctor and Peri in Red Dawn saw the first true first contact between humans and the Martians as they defend an ancient warrior’s tomb. He would then meet them again in the Judgment of Isskar which not only features a search for the Key to time but also acts as their origin story. He he would lose companion Erimem after meeting them again in the Bride of Peladon. They would also feature in the seventh Doctor Frozen Time where, like in their initial television adventure, a group of them are discovered in the ice. Benny would meet them in her own series Dance of the Dead.
It was the eleventh Doctor’s story Cold War where the answer was given as to what lay beneath that armour. The new design has been released and the clamp hands are gone, replaced by four fingers and a thumb. They still retain the classic alligator look though. Showrunner Stephen Moffat was reluctant to bring them back at all but writer Mark Gatiss persuaded him. So on a submarine somewhere in an icy sea, the battle took place. We saw the real Ice Warriors, reptilian beings who could remote control their armour suits.
To keep monsters fresh it’s important to try and bring something new and fresh every time they appear and the Peter capaldi adventure Empress of Mars did exactly that. We got to see out first female Ice Warrior, the Empress of the title. Even the sonic weapons got an upgrade compressing their victims into a ball. But with the new comes the old and Empress of Mars cleverly tied into the Peladon saga by revealing that this is the beginning of the Golden Age of the Ice Warriors when they join the Galactic Federation. Additionally the return of the one eyed Alpha Centauri is a brillaint and welcome surprise.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombi Blues
Copyright Owen Quinn
While many criticise the Walking Dead for not being as good as it used to be, this latest season had many sitting back waiting for the death bell to toll.
Why? Andrew Lincoln and Lauren Cohen both announced they would be leaving the show so many believed that the show would obviously crack forever. No folks, not by a long shot.
While both of them are still very much central characters in the comics (well, at least one definitely is), many speculated that the loss of Rick would be the beginning of the end. While the All Out War didn’t deliver as expected, people only remember the not so good seasons. It’s a bit like working in a call centre. You may have thirty great calls in a day with happy people but that one shit call is the one that spoils your day, cementing itself in your memory.
The previous season had seen the death of his son, Carl Grimes, from the show which was probably the biggest departure from the comics at that time. Carl is still very much alive in the comics indeed he is the focus of the final issue. He is pivotal to the Whisperers storyline as well as the Commonwealth. Many believe the death of Carl prompted Lincoln to give in his notice as they are very much the heart and soul of the show and comics respectively. For me the heart of the show has always been their bond as father and son.
Even Norman Reedus believed that removing key characters would undermine the heart of the show negatising everything they had built over the years.
Let’s face it, we do love these characters even the haters to a degree. If they disliked the show so much then they wouldn’t be so vocal. It shows they care. Well, guys, I’m here to tell you keep caring because these seemingly unfathomable departures have not only reinvigorated the show but made it a much better one.
Believe me when I tell you there is no one that cares about this show as much as me. I put off a kidney transplant just to go to my first Walker Stalker!
In many ways this season has reaffirmed the show at its most horrifying, the most it has been since the Terminus mini arc.
There were a lot of expectations when the first episode aired. We knew Rick and Maggie were going. We knew the new villains the Whisperers were coming amid rumours of time jumps and Negan and Daryl becoming the new show leads in multi million dollar pay cheques. While some watched thinking they were witnessing the death of a show that to them had become rotted, others watched loyal as ever confident and unafraid of the coming changes.
Although to be fair to the haters, some of their objections are completely justified. Some decisions sucked and the loss of Rick just seemed from the outside to viewers that the stars were jumping ship as it sinks from sight right before our eyes.
Wrong guys because this was the best season in ages. Not only did the loss of Rick and Maggie breathe new life into the series but the Whisperers are by far the most terrifying villains ever.
Going in we knew that Rick and Maggie would go within the first five episodes but not how?
We should mention the loss of some other favourites. We bid farewell to Jesus, Jadis, Tara and Enid too in a twist I never saw coming; more on that later.
As we now know Maggie vanished as an afterthought in the time jump having left to work with the mysterious Georgie as far as we know. Rick on the other hand got a send off that not only left the door open for a potential return (and three new television movies) but gave Daryl and Michonne new life.
Wounded and hallucinating, Rick meets the ghosts of characters past like Hershel, Shane and Sacha as he is pursued by a zombie herd. Say what you want but that moment when the cast charged onto the bridge to save Rick showed what the true family was. Every fan’s heart raced at this rare sighting of the cast together on screen in one place. The fact it was part of his hallucinations made the real departure even more heartbreaking.
Copyright AMC
Rick is stumbling across the bridge, both man and structure symbols of bringing the communities together, followed by too many zombies to fight in his weakened condition. He is about to be bitten when a timely arrow from his brother Daryl saves his life. His family race to save him including the new additions, Magna and co but they are separated. We see the spirit that has kept them all together from the start as they forget their differences to save one of their own even if the odds are stacked against them. They would die for each other for the greater future that both Carl and Rick desperately want to see. This would be beautifully mirrored later when Siddiq gives his emotional speech in the aftermath of the shocking pike scene.
Rick knows they will not succeed against this herd. They will die in the process and there is only one way to stop this herd. That iconic pose as a failing Rick aims his gun at a fallen crate of dynamite to save them all is a highlight that honours both the comics and television show. Destroying the bridge, Rick knows that what they have been building will be delayed but be built once more. They have survived everything this world has thrown against them, the loss so many loved ones and friends but still they fight for a better world. Their collective spirit had been almost lost especially with Negan’s reign but with the head Saviour defeated and imprisoned that future seems assured again.
The remaining unhappy Saviours were swiftly dealt with by the Oceanside dealing justice which shows that this bright future wasn’t perfect but workable. The seemingly now mellow Carol in a relationship with King Ezekiel burns the last problematic Saviours alive to protect Henry, her adopted son and bring back stolen supplies the communities have worked for. There is no room any more for compassion for those who work to undermine what Rick and the others have built. They are no strangers to doing what has to be done to survive.
With life so good now, that fierceness simmers underneath. They have ripped peoples’ throats out with their teeth, left Terminus’ Mary to be eaten alive by zombies, shot psychotic children they cared for and put down mothers who have just given birth.
Similarly with Maggie’s hanging of Gregory, the once head of Hilltop, persistent coward and would be assassin. No one will be tolerated in upsetting the new order. Even being drunk and disorderly earns you a spell in jail as Henry discovers.
In this paradise they have no problem killing serpents the moment they rock the boat. Knowing the herd could destroy all they have built, Rick sacrifices himself to save all.
In what is a breathtaking moment he shoots the dynamite taking pout the bridge and the herd. There cannot be one hater that couldn’t fail to be touched by Daryl breaking down in tears and walking away as he sees his friend dead. You can see he instantly regrets tricking Rick into a pit so Maggie could murder Negan for the deaths of all those he is responsible for especially Glen and Abraham. Her sparing the former Saviour leader is a reflection of Rick’s faith in them all.
There is hope in Rick’s death.
As the bridge burns and the characters react to his ‘death’ we know that they will honour everything the father and son hoped for them. This would be later seen in the signing of the charter that Ezekiel has endlessly campaigned for.
As we know an injured Rick is washed down the river only to found by Jadis who is picked up by a mysterious helicopter for some future storyline.
As far as everyone else is concerned Rick is dead going out as a hero for the people he loved.
Doing another time jump was a great idea as we get to see the legacy of Rick Grimes. Michonne has a son, Rick Junior. Judith wears Carl’s hat and can shoot a gun like her dad and brother. She is also the catalyst for a great storyline for Negan and brings out a new facet of the character. It is Rick’s daughter that brings hope and salvation to the nefarious character in the show.
Similarly the characters are all allowed to breathe and flourish giving us insight like never before.
Daryl is a loner and has a dog still searching for Rick. He has never found a body and there is no zombie Rick shambling about. He knows in his gut something is not right. It is also a testament to the faith he has in his brother even in seemingly hopeless circumstances. Daryl will be the protector of all the communities in honour of his late friend.
Copyright Owen Quinn
Tara and Jesus are now the heads of Hilltop in Maggie’s absence. Michonne leads Alexandria with a council consisting of both Aaron and Father Gabriel. She runs an isolationist existence, wary of strangers and as we discover, with very good reason. She doesn’t believe Ezekiel’s community bonding fair is a good idea with the emergence of the Whisperer threat but she goes along with it anyway with disastrous consequences.
We see Michonne as a conflicted leader trying to balance this new life alongside honouring Rick’s beliefs. The flashback to how a friend of hers turned up to Alexandria and turned against her almost killing her and taking the Alexandrian kids is brilliant. This is foreshadowed by the reveal of scars branded into both her and Daryl’s backs. It is a physical reminder of how dangerous the world can be and that sometimes kindness backfires when compassion brings you terror.
This is also reflected in her behaviour towards Angel, Luke and co in should they be allowed citizenship in the communities or fired back to the wilderness.
It is Judith that reminds her of what Rick would do. Sometimes you have to take a chance on people. The future is not built on isolating yourself from the world or refusing to show compassion. It is more than fitting that Judith is the one to make the jaded adults see through the eyes of a Grimes, reminding them of what Carl and Rick stood for.
What this season has done so brilliantly is cheat us.
Once we knew the Whisperers were coming we all thought who would die in an iconic comic moment. We were so certain who was going to end up on the pikes. Henry seemingly fulfilled the role of Carl in the Lydia storyline. Eyes rolled at the seeming easy way out for this story where one of our beloved characters was apparently easily replaced. As his father, Ezekiel would apparently be elevated to the Rick position to maintain a father son core to the series.
What none of us noticed was the amount of children our characters now had to protect in this new world. Aaron had Gracie, Michonne had RJ and Judith, Henry was Carol and Ezekiel’s son. Gerry has a family with Nabila and has another baby on the way. We even got a teenage gang Henry fell in with at the Hilltop. Teenagers being teenagers like any other show and seeing children laughing and playing again is a reflection of Carl and Rick’s vision.
Beautiful touches like the Kingdom’s search for a projector bulb to play a movie is a lovely touch. The wilderness of civilisation is not something they have to be in for survival any more. Now it’s like nipping to the corner shop for a pint of milk. For the first time in a long time people have homes to go to where the zombie world can be left behind.
Rick has proved Negan wrong as they are flourishing. There will never be a threat as terrifying as the Saviours ever again. Or so they think.
Again referencing Michonne’s scary friend turning children into killers her plan is almost small fry compared to something like Terminus, the Governor or the Saviours. Even the new sudden threat of the Highwaymen is quickly resolved by Carol and Ezekiel extending the hand of friendship and making a deal to let them see a movie. This may seem a brief story but it shows that the taste of normality can end a threat quickly. Employing them as the guys to protect the Kingdom’s roads is another progression. In the old days Carol would have shot them all right where they stood. There’s even comedy relief as all Jerry wants is his sword back. The news of his new baby brings such joy you can feel it on screen that the world is good.
All this gave a real sense that there was a future after all and the kids would remind the adults of those that have fallen.
It is these solid family units that would directly affect the future through the capture of a girl called Lydia.
In the mid season finale Jesus is brutally murdered by the Whisperers in a graveyard. The paranoia of the dead now talking through Eugene’s terrified ramblings gives an air of horror we haven’t really seen in a long time. This was the start of our subversion. A zombie attack at night in a graveyard is classic horror with disembodied voices coming from the darkness. The dead surround our heroes with Jesus going out with some beautifully choreographed zombie kills. However the leader of Hilltop is sidestepped by a zombie and stabbed through the heart much earlier than happened in the comics.
Just as an aside, this is one instant where the show did not fully utilise a character’s full potential which is a shame.
This changes everything as we find out people are wearing the skins of the dead and mingling freely among the dead. Later do we discover that they can influence the dead to follow them.
Danger is heightened as we no longer know who is a real zombie and who is a Whisperer. Daryl has a great solution that again shows he will do anything to keep the communities safe because it is what Rick would do; put an arrow in their leg. Although he doesn’t admit it Daryl is a vital part of the communities demonstrated through his interactions with Carol, Tara and new girl, Connie.
But the loss of Rick also propels Daryl to the forefront of the action. He must go up against the deadly leader of the Whisperers, Alpha played by Samantha Morton, in place of Maggie and Rick in the comics.
If ever a serpent was going to overturn the communities joint signing of the charter and wreck the historic fair, then it was going to be Alpha.
Truly, Alpha is nothing like any of the villains we have met so far. At this stage even Negan seems neutered by his incarceration and relationship with young Judith. Negan was many things but he would never harm children or murder without reason. He did protect families even if it was slightly twisted in his head.
Copyright Owen Quinn
With Alpha we have something never seen before. We see a villain, a female villain that cares for nothing of the old world. Her flashback episode and what happens to her husband shows she has a different view to everyone else.
To her the Kingdom is filled with sickness. It will simply drag the world back into what it was before and must be taken out.
To be fair, she does offer a peaceful trade for her daughter and promises to leave the communities alone if Lydia is returned.
Daryl knows that Lydia has been abused by her mother having spoken to her and refuses to give her up. It is morally wrong to return a child to that sort of life. You can feel the spirit of Rick Grimes saying the same thing. No matter what the consequences you must do the right thing.
Alpha shows how motherly she is when one of her followers has a baby that will not stop crying.
In one of the most terrifying moments of the show we see her simply give a gesture and the mother leaves her crying baby for the undead to feast on.
It is shocking and sickening that here we have a mother demanding her child back but ordering another to feed hers to zombies just because it won’t stop crying. Silence is golden to the Whisperers and Alpha rules by it. Again it is a beautiful symmetry by the writers that a deaf woman rescues the infant. The horror is accentuated by Connie’s desperate run through tall grass seen from her perspective. There is no sound and we see silent zombies try and grab her out of nowhere. We know the baby’s cries are drawing them but Connie must run on instinct. This is like something from All Quiet Here or the very best of Hitchcock. Beautifully written, beautifully directed and acted and utterly frightening.
Lydia willingly goes back to her mother and in another twisted mirror moment she thinks for a second her mother has come for her out of lvoe. Poor Lydia is sadly mistaken when she is slapped hard in the face and told she will call her mother Alpha like the others.
This could have been the end of it but Alpha can’t leave it there especially when Henry comes to rescue Lydia who strikes him just as her mother did her. Every family connection we have seen so far is foreign to Alpha. Although the moment where she breaks down in the woods after Lydia chooses to return with Henry to the Hilltop tells a different story. It also reinforces her ruthlessness. She murders one of her own who sees her so no one else will discover her weakness.
She also decapitates another of her followers for daring to question her and allows others to become zombies they can add to her collection.
The communities have taken her daughter from her so she infiltrates Ezekiel’s fair to see for herself. She wants to make a point and show she will tolerate no more interference with her people.
Her giant sidekick, Beta, played by Ryan Hurst is genuinely one of the creepiest villains to grace our screens. He never takes off his zombie mask and he almost kills Daryl in a fight you just can’t imagine Rick doing. Rick and Negan’s punch ups were perfect but this is almost a new level. There is something deranged and psychotic about these new villains. Killing Daryl for Beta will strike a blow to the citizens of Hilltop. You can literally feel the punches as Daryl is smashed against walls like a rag doll. It’s brutal with a reality of pure hatred. Daryl manages to defeat him by the skin of his teeth but Beta’s rage is far from sated. His loyalty to Alpha is fuelled by hatred of anything from the past, a past that has affected the giant as we will see in the future.The make up is fantastic giving him a demonesque appearance as if this thing has come from hell itself.
When Daryl, Carol, Michonne and Yumiko are captured by the Whisperers when they go searching for missing citizens, it is Alpha’s orders that keep them alive despite Beta’s want.
As Daryl faced her down at Hilltop, he is the one she chooses to reveal her secret weapon to. She controls a massive herd of zombies that she will release on the communities if they cross her again. We are the rot in society so Alpha intends to use the remnant citizens of the old world to secure her twisted way of life where it is acceptable to feed an infant to the dead.
Even Daryl knows they don’t stand a chance against something this massive. It’s rare he is shaken but this time even he is helpless.
There is a real sense of doom and the Whisperers holding the power card against which our heroes are helpless. A message has been sent and she declares the borders between their lands has been marked but doesn’t explain. Nothing fazes Daryl but even he is not prepared for what Alpha has done.
It is here we have the rug pulled from under us. We as an audience know the pike scene is coming.
In the comics we know Ezekiel and a pregnant Rosita are part of the line up but the show kicks us in the balls by changing that. The change strikes at the heart of Rick’s vision and the familial heart of the show.
The identities of the victims is revealed very cleverly as other characters are asking for the whereabouts of certain citizens. There is no allusion to something untoward until Lydia runs to Ezekiel to warn him her mother has been at the fair.
In beautiful wide shots the quartet along with a wounded Siddiq we see exactly where the missing citizens are. Siddiq collapses in tears as the camera reveals each victim along with shots of their friends and loved asking where they are.
Only this time we don’t get Ezekiel and Rosita as two of the dead. All those family ties and loved ones we have witnessed over the season have become things to be ripped apart by Alpha. Tara as leader of the Hilltop has been decapitated and her zombified had put on a spike. Hilltop’s doctor Enid is also there along with some of the teenage gang, two of the Highwaymen, Tammy who just took on a new baby along with her blacksmith husband who was training Henry. Last but not least Daryl grabs Carol as the camera reveals her worst nightmare as Lydia runs to Ezekiel to warn him her mother was in the Kingdom and she can’t find Henry. The would-be Carl replacement is the final victim with his zombified head on a pike.
With that the father/son heart that has existed since the start of the show is dead and buried.
Alpha has murdered Henry for taking her daughter away from her. It is shocking and symbolic that these characters have been chosen to die in this fashion rather than follow the comics. It spins off the characters in new directions eg Carol ending her marriage to Ezekiel because they are living a fairytale. No matter what they do there will always be some sort of threat ready to destroy their happiness.
No offence to Alpha but I’d steer clear of Carol forever. Ask the cannibals of Terminus what she did to them…oh wait, you can’t. They’re all dead. Bummer.
But in the closing scene of this episode we get the ghosts of Carl and Rick once more as Siddiq delivers his speech about what happened. We see the victims join together to fight and protect ach other until the end.
Alpha has underestimated the communities. Instead of delivering the story of fear as she intended, Siddiq gives a speech of hope. The victims were strangers who stood together facing their fate fighting and protecting each other until they died. They fought back and that’s what the communities must do to preserve their way of life against this new threat. No one could have imagined an enemy as twisted as the Whisperers. You can just imagine Carl smiling proudly at Siddiq because he is honouring the memories of all who have fallen by refusing to give in to fear.
Many have said that the final episode was a let down and that they were expecting a cliffhanger to keep them going over the hiatus.
I disagree. I think it was the perfect ending to the season. Winter has come as they say. The communities have fallen back to not only survive the winter but regroup and figure out how they are going to deal with the Whisperers. It is an episode of character moments and sets up season ten. Carol and Ezekiel split. The winter background evokes fairy tales like Frozen where the King and Queen rule but here it gets a dose of Walking Dead. Zombies in a winter wonderland also gives a dark vibe to the fairytale image. Will Carol go to her dark days as the Terminator to avenge the murder of her son? Will Ezekiel die trying to murder Alpha or Beta? How safe is Lydia given she will get the blame for her mother’s actions? Father Gabriel is willing to raise Rosita and Siddiq’s child with Eugene looking on but will happiness prevail? Negan is baiting anyone he can while saving Judith and showing he can be trusted. He has a connection to them now even if he does love to wind them up. His former enemies are now his Saviours, just as Rick said.
Everything is up in the air because we have now deviated from the comics and with Michonne leaving in season ten it leaves another major change to the comics. Again the rug has been pulled out from under us as we can no longer assume anything. That’s what I mean about this season; we thought we knew what was coming but by the end we didn’t. Now we question the future especially if you have read the comics and know how the Whisperer War turns out.
Even Alpha and her giant herd are readying for what is coming. Revenge is burning in her as self mutilating herself again demonstrating she is mad as a hatter. There is no doubt she will go to any lengths to ensure her peoples’ survival.
We don’t need a cliffhanger this season because when you look back we have had a lot happen to us over the weeks. The loss of so many major characters, the introduction of the scariest enemy yet that makes even Daryl afraid. New directions are forged by changing the comic by substituting characters relevant to the overall themes of this season. Themes like community and honouring the memories of those who have fallen by keeping their memories alive in our every day actions.
The last episode of this season was the breather we didn’t know we needed before we get plunged back into the hell that will be the Whisperer War. This season has proved it is time for people to give the show another chance.
Rick Grimes leaving has given it a brand new lease of life no one saw coming. The dead have been resurrected once again in an exciting and original way.
This season ended with a fractured fairytale theme. Get ready for the apocalypse in a way you’ve never seen before in a battle between the living and the dead. Many will die not with a scream but a whisper.
Rick’s departure not only brought new life to the show and the characters. It gave the show the boost it needed. Forget ratings mood hoovers and the naysayers, Walking Dead is back with a vengeance. I for one can’t wait to see how this plays out.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Copyright Owen Quinn Mace wielding Mentara by Stephen Mooney
Every race of bad guys needs a leader. To date we have seen arachnoid Mentara harvesting parties in Celtic times, trapped in a pocket dimension with the Time Warriors and making deals with humans in a twisted version of history. They have made an impact with their ruthless hunt for human food which was made even more horrific by the revelation in Summer’s End.
Such was the horror of their biggest secret that Varran was sent on a path to ensure the Mentara are stopped once and for all by any means necessary. Despite the data gathered from their previous encounters Varran cannot find anything leading to the location of the Mentara homeworld. So when a trip to the old Wild West in the latest book The Belbridge Mystery brings the Time Warriors to the Mentara homeworld Varran is faced with something that will challenge his very morals.
For this story we delve deeper into the Mentara culture than ever before so the Mentara needed a face; a main villain to give Varran someone to go head to head with.
To that end General Cade was born.
With the Mentara being tarantula centaurs the size of racehorses how could I make Cade stand out? Well if you think a Mentara warrior like Spiderman then Cade was going to be Venom.
Copyright Owen Quinn Mentara concept drawn by Stephen Mooney
What the Mentara are, why they do what they do is all down to Cade and his late father Hannon. When their world fell, Cade lost his entire family save for his father.
When a cruiser from the future fell to the surface, Cade and his father were able to scavenge the technology for themselves and begin the slow restoration of Mentar. It was also this ship that brought a life saving food source- human bodies.
From there and to protect this new trophy from the myriad of other rabid survivors the Dead Zone was created. Hannon saw within his son the fire needed to rebuild their world into a newer more secure power base. Hannon swore that never again would Mentar fall so far or the people turn on each other.
Using the new addictive human food source, Hannon was able to enhance its effects on Mentara biology. Using Cade as his test subject, it made the young Mentara bulkier and bigger than any existing Mentara. His muscled exterior reflects his iron will and determination which he utilises to full effect to rally the people into a unified force. The addictive human flesh inadvertently allows Cade to bring the people to his way of thinking.
Ruthless beyond words, Cade will think nothing of ripping the spine from any of his troopers for the slightest slip in protocol. When Hannon dies Cade carries on his father’s work and creating the Conglomerate, hi power base for controlling all Mentar.
Power is everything and that power secures Cade’s way. As long as the people are fed then their loyalty is without question. Cade relies on this but the emergence of the Nasgul, a mutant version of the Mentar along with the arrival of the Time Warriors threatens his entire power structure.
The race is on for Cade to eradicate both threats before they unravel Mentara society. He has guarded what lies in the Dead Zone for very good reason; a reason that not even Varran will discover until they meet again.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
We meet the various zombies that appear in the Zombie Blues books and learn the story behind their inclusion. This time up Dog Lover Zombie.
The thing about being a zombie is that like all evil, it takes the cocoon of normality and twists it into something the darkness can use against us.
In the first Zombie Blues book Dog Lover Zombie, it takes one of the most normal things in our lives and changes its meaning completely.
Most people have dogs or like dogs. YouTube is filled with dogs being protective of their families or sleeping beside new born babies. We have dogs risking their lives for the police and armed forces and we have guide dogs performing a life giving service. There is no doubt that dogs are part and parcel of our lives to the point where they are seen as family members.
We are a world of dog lovers; indeed the very phrase conjures images of happy families with kids cuddling their pet. No one can question that. However in Zombie Blues land that phrase becomes something quite different.
The zombies in Zombie Blues are programmed to eat anything that moves and that includes our pets. So from the undead perspective being a dog lover becomes something quite unsettling. Now imagine loving dogs was not only your business but part of your very psyche.
In Dog Lover Zombie we meet our first celebrity zombie, Canine Ken. Ken has a successful show dealing with unruly and nasty dogs which is global hit.
He grew up in a home in Kansas where dogs were part and parcel of family life. His mother from an early age saw his gift with dogs which went beyond the norm. Ken had a psychic link with them bar one type in particular. He hates Chihuahuas. They have their own level of thought that goes beyond any other canine and Ken gave up on them after he was attacked by one on his show; his only failure but also his highest rated one ever.
When the apocalypse hits Ken immediately springs to save his animals. His deep love for his animals is returned when he is saved from being bitten by a zombie by Lucy one of his rescue dogs.
In real life Lucy was my son’s dog. She was everything this story projects about dogs; loyal and protective especially of him. It was only right that she feature in this story.
Will the Zombie apocalypse destroy the millennia old bond between humans and their dogs? Has Mother Nature underestimated the strength of something that may well play a part in beating the armies of the undead?
Posted by Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Craig, a journalism graduate trying desperately to get a foothold in a fading industry, is going nowhere fast. While searching for a project to occupy himself, he stumbles across a blog written by a girl called Kami about internet rituals – challenges undertaken by those seeking to make contact with ghosts or other supernatural entities. Craig becomes obsessed, and when Kami suddenly disappears he goes in search of her. From there he is powerless to prevent his life spiralling out of control as he is drawn deeper and deeper into a dark, dangerous world where nothing is quite what it seems, a world populated not just by urban myths and hearsay, but by real-life killers. He thinks he is in control, but nothing can be further from the truth.
By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
What am I? I mean I know what a vampire is. A vampire drinks blood. But a vampire is immortal. I certainly am not immortal. Am I just a killer? Am I a serial murderer? That can’t be. I crave the blood. And sometimes I even need the blood. So what does this make me?I didn’t ask for the craving, but it is there. I didn’t ask to be this mortal who needs blood like a vampire in a storybook. Maybe this is what a vampire really is, someone like me. Maybe a vampire is only a mortal with an unnatural need to feed on the blood of humans. And how do I deal with this now? Do I continue to be a cold blooded killer? Or do I kill people who deserve to die? God knows there is no shortage of those in the world.
Posted By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
Jerrad Haines has been dreaming about killing his wife, Jackie, for a year. His fantasy is the only thing that gets him through each day of his broken marriage. But one day on his commute home, something happens that can make his dream a reality. Now he has to decide whether to act on it or let it go.
Posted By Owen Quinn author of the Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
From the dark, unhinged recesses of Jim Goforth’s mind, emerges another gruesome collective of stories delving into extreme realms. The world is full of monstrous people, monstrous things, monstrous deeds. What happens when you become involved, hopelessly ensnared in a nightmare world from which there is no escape? What happens when a lifetime of bad decisions comes back to haunt you? What happens when you are pushed into the darkest of corners, when the world you thought you knew becomes something else? Something horrifying, something ugly? The latest volume in the Extremes series assembles more horror tales that wallow in filth and fear, in perversion and pain, monstrosity and mayhem. All manner of things can drive a person to extremes. And beyond. You can go to Extremes; you can even go to More Extremes. Now and then, Greater Extremes are called for.
Posted by Owen Quinn author of he Time Warriors and Zombie Blues
As a child, did you hide under your blankets when you were scared?
After reading some of the scariest stories from new up-and-coming authors, we won’t blame you if you start hiding again. Take a journey with us into the twisted mind of horror and Editing Mee’s first horror story collection.
“The Fallout” travels through the unknown, while “Feast” will make you never want to love again.
Collective Darkness isn’t for the faint of heart. Read… if you dare.
The Time Warriors and Beyond 
