Month: February 2008

US TV

Review: Knight Rider

18 February 2008 Rob Buckley 8 Comments

In the US: Sunday 17th February, 9/8c, NBC
In the UK: Not yet acquired

The road of TV show revivals is littered with failures. The Invaders crashed and burned; Mission: Impossible found it impossible to get the ratings; Captain Scarlet wasn’t indestructible after all.

They’re tricky things to pull off for one thing. How do you create a new show that embodies the spirit of the original, without being so utterly derivative that there’s nothing new or interesting yet without changing so much of the show’s concept that it p*sses off all the fans of the original?

If you want proof of the problem, look at Knight Rider. Numerous people have tried to remake it, even though it only lasted four seasons in the first place. There was Knight Rider 2000 (okay), Knight Rider 2010 (abysmal, despite Hudson Leick being in it), and Team Knight Rider (sub-abysmal). David Hasselhoff has been trying to get a movie made of it. And now we have a back-door pilot for a new series called simply Knight Rider.

So what ingredients do we have this time from the original? Cheesiness? Check. A talking smart-arse indestructible black car? Check. A pretty ex-soap opera actor with minimal talent pretending to be an ex special forces soldier? Check. 

And what’s new? A Ford Mustang, Transformers, Val Kilmer, Baywatch tributes, lesbians, and a budget. Oh yes, and a Ford Mustang. Did I mention there’s a Ford Mustang? Apparently, there’s a Ford Mustang.

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Review: Big Finish downloads service

18 February 2008 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

Fingers crossed, I’ll be giving both Bride of Peladon and Catalyst a listen this week, which might mean I review them as soon as… next week.

However, I thought I’d draw your attention to a couple of things first. Number one is that Big Finish now has a podcast. It’s a little bit cringeworthy, but it’s worth listening to since you do get advance information and behind-the-scenes explanation. Most notable in that is the first podcast, in which Nick Briggs explains the rationale behind the pricing structure of the downloads service. Did you realise, for example, that the US pricing of downloads is about $7.99? If you can follow Nick’s reasoning for that in comparison to the £12.99 charge for the UK (which appears to amount to “they’ve been paying over the odds for ages now, so now it’s the UK’s turn”), you’re a smarter person than I.

It’s also got a blog (of sorts. Guys, have you heard of comments? Permalinks?) which occasionally turfs up a bit of news, too.

I’m also producing the next run of Doctor Who Companion Chronicles, which has been a fantastic experience. I’ve chosen the companions and the writers and come up with eight (yes eight – you heard it here first) stories that I hope will please others as much as they please me. Oooh, I wish I could reveal more. I wish I could tell you who is flying into the country in May to return as a character that was such a pivotal part of my childhood but, sadly, for now you have to guess. Likewise I can’t reveal which one star from the last series is coming back this year.

Let the guessing on that one begin.

Over the weekend, I decided to give the downloads service a try, just to let you all know what it’s like. Here were my experiences…

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Monday’s good morning and welcome news

18 February 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

US TV

UK TV

Review: Primeval 2×6

16 February 2008 Rob Buckley Post a comment

Remember Crimson Tide? No, probably not.

It was this submarine movie starring Gene Hackman. Thing was, they had Quentin Tarantino as script advisor.

You’d have never known for most of us. It chugged along like a regular movie. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, there’s this bizarre scene where they all discuss which version of the Silver Surfer was their favourite. Stood out like a bodybuilder at a vegetarians convention.

I mention this purely because tonight, I seemed to wander into a completely different show from the Primeval I’ve been watching for the last few weeks. No surprise there though: it was written by Paul Cornell.

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Life on Mars series one for free

16 February 2008 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Life On Mars: Complete Series 1

FYI, if you buy today’s Daily Star and then sign up for a 30-day free trial with Lovefilm, they’ll send you a free copy of the first series of Life on Mars. You can keep it and everything.

Which is nice. Or would be if I weren’t a member already.

Actually, I caught an episode of the first series of Life on Mars on Bravo the other night and it’s weird how it’s so much better and Gene Hunt is such a better character compared with Ashes to Ashes.

Still, Phillip Glenister says it really gets going with episode three, and episode two was very good, so I’m going to go with that recommendation for now.