Audio and radio play reviews

Review: Sapphire and Steel – Water Like A Stone

13 December 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment

Water Like A StoneNigel Fairs has a lot to answer for. The producer of the Big Finish range of Sapphire and Steel audio plays, it was his decision to make the stories more ’emotional’. The result, so far, has been something other than the Sapphire and Steel we came to know and love when we were growing up/bought the videos in the early 90s/bought the DVDs a couple of years ago. Instead of weird, alien logic, and morals that make no sense or are completely counter to conventional morality, we’ve had standard dramatic clichés (eg homophobia is bad) and plots that have drifted between comedic and uninteresting.

Now we have one of Fairs’ own stories, Water Like A Stone. It has good points, but for the most part, it has all the things wrong with it we’ve come to expect from the range.

Continue reading “Review: Sapphire and Steel – Water Like A Stone”

News

Wake up to the news

13 December 2006 Rob Buckley 3 Comments

Doctor Santas

Smell the TV coffee:

Doctor Who

Film

British TV

US TV

Torchwood’s back – on BBC2 first

12 December 2006 Rob Buckley 10 Comments

That second series of Torchwood has finally been commissioned. This time, it’ll air on BBC2 first.

The press release is full of ‘interesting’ quotes that sound slightly distant from reality:

Julian Bellamy, Controller of BBC Three, said: “Breaking all records on BBC Three is no mean feat and we’ve been proud to help build Torchwood into one of the most talked-about and eagerly-anticipated series of recent years.”

Jane Tranter said: “Torchwood is a modern and innovative drama that has truly captured the imagination of its audience, and we are very excited that there will be more of the adrenaline-fuelled, action-packed adventures of our team of Torchwood heroes.”

And then there’s

Russell T Davies said: “The whole team is bristling with ideas and we are delighted that Cardiff is going to be home to more monsters and mayhem.”

Gosh, RTD. You make it sound so… adult.

Top 10 films and TV shows of the year? Let’s meme!

12 December 2006 Rob Buckley 2 Comments

The American Film Institute publishes two top ten lists each year: the top 10 movies and the top 10 TV shows. This year’s has just come out. What do you think? And if they’re right, what does it say about 2006: a good year or a bad year?

AFI Movies of the Year

  • Babel
  • Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan
  • The Devil Wears Prada
  • Dreamgirls
  • Half Nelson
  • Happy Feet
  • Inside Man
  • Letters From Iwo Jima
  • Little Miss Sunshine
  • United 93

AFI TV Programmes of the Year

  • Battlestar Galactica
  • Dexter
  • Elizabeth I
  • Friday Night Lights
  • Heroes
  • The Office
  • South Park
  • 24
  • The West Wing
  • The Wire

I think there are some good ones in the TV list, but it’s not been a great year for movies, by the looks of it.

Still, let’s meme. I can’t help out with the films list for once, since I doubt I’ve seen 10 films in the cinema this year (Casino Royale and The Prestige would both be on such a list, and Inside Man was all right, I s’pose). But here’s my pick of the top 10 shows of the year, in no particular order, with links to my various comments on them.

Ooh. By the looks of it, I must be the only person in the world who hasn’t written about how great Planet Earth is. Well, it is. That’s all that’s needed.

So there’s the meme: top 10 TV shows, top 10 films or both. Any channel, from any country of origin, any language, so long as they aired or were distributed in 2006 and weren’t a repeat/re-run.

The morning’s news

12 December 2006 Rob Buckley 1 Comment
  • The Hollywood Reporter reckons the Sci Fi Channel is working on a remake of Flash Gordon. Part of an article looking at how US networks are warming to science-fiction.
  • A few spoilers over on E!’s Watch with Kristin: interesting snippets about Heroes, including confirmation that Claire’s gay best friend isn’t gay any more; more on Jack Bauer’s family in 24 (with one very important spoiler); useful stuff about Liev Schreiber’s forthcoming character in CSI; and some nuggets on BSG and Scrubs.
  • Mel Gibson’s new Mayan film, Apocalypto, might look historically authentic but it isn’t.