Steven Moffat’s always game for a good script. Even on his worst days, he writes at a level Chris Chibnall can only dream of. Now Blink, this year’s Doctor-lite episode, was a very good script. It was scary, funny, cleverly plotted, with some good characterisation and dialogue served as the metaphorical icing on the cake.
But was Blink great? Not quiet.
Anyone else watching 24 – Day Zero, the highly amusing Flash prequel to everyone’s favourite preposterous Fox thriller? It’s worth tuning into an episode just to see the slightly rubbish looking animation. But it also does a relatively good job of recreating the feel of 24 in a short amount of time; they even got Kiefer Sutherland to voice Jack. It’s also filling in various gaps about how Nina and Jack got together before Day One.
I feel a little shortchanged they couldn’t get Sarah Clarke and Xander Berkeley to voice Nina Myers and George Mason, but I imagine that all that deodorant advertising sponsorship money can only stretch to one of the original actors.
Give it a whirl if you need to divert your attention for a while.
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Anyone interested in the history of British television will be aware of Lew Grade’s company, ITC. Dominating the 50s, 60s and 70s with shows such as The Adventures of Robin Hood, Danger Man, The Saint, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, The Prisoner, Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), Jesus of Nazareth, and Sapphire and Steel, ITC was a production powerhouse, the likes of which we’ll probably never see again.
Robert Sellers book, Cult TV: The Golden Age of ITC, attempts to chronicle at least some of that history. With a foreword by Sir Roger Moore and an afterword by Gerry Anderson, the book includes interviews with many of the shows’ surviving stars and production staff and provides some insight into their continuing success as cult television, even if it’s not the perfect .
As mentioned yesterday in my review of I.D., Big Finish has started to pair up audio plays on its double CD releases. I’m not exactly sure what to make of this policy. Yes, it ensures that certain plays are no longer padded beyond their natural lifespans, which can only be a good thing.
But it does mean that you can end up with two plays of very disparate qualities bundled together. I.D., a three-parter, comes with the one-part Urgent Calls. Now I.D. had more than a touch of rubbishness about it. Urgent Calls, however, is a far more interesting play. Should you buy I.D. just to have Urgent Calls?
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