As mentioned previously, Babylon 5 creator J Michael Straczynski is reuniting with former cast members to create some made-for-DVD B5 movies. More details are now emerging about who the main characters are, what the effects are going to be like and the shooting and release schedules. There’s a press release, too.
Pick the wrong sort of radio and kill the planet
Listen to the radio via your TV or computer? Then you’re killing the planet with CO2 emissions, apparently. That’s assuming you wouldn’t have had your TV or computer on already.
UK TV
Fifth-episode verdict: Torchwood
So here we are. Episode five of Torchwood. Again, an improvement from the second and third episodes but also an improvement from last week’s Cyberwoman.
Yet the thing is, they still managed to muck up a PJ Hammond script. How do you do that? It was classic Hammond, where everything was inexplicable, unstoppable, magical and scary. If RTD had simply handed it to Shaun O’Riordan, David McCallum and Joanna Lumley, we’d have had Sapphire and Steel: Assignment Seven, and we’d all have been duly grateful. But he didn’t and so the episode only managed to clock a “Partial Caruso” on the The Carusometer, which equates to “a show with two walk-on cameos by David Caruso, during both of which he takes off and puts on his sunglasses repeatedly”.
Where did it go wrong?
Well, the direction wasn’t awful, but there was some ridiculous (literal) signposting and there were close-ups on things we really didn’t need close-ups of (the Torchwood logo on the side of the stupid Range Rover for example. You’re supposed to be covert, nimrods). The music and sound effects were absolutely awful, removing any trace of menace from the direction – thank you again, Murray Gold. The CGI could have been knocked up in a copy of After Effects 1.0 in some bloke’s bedroom circa 1996. And the acting was, once again, as stiff as the Old Wood trees, particularly from Evil Child. It just goes to show there’s a lot more that goes into making a TV programme than just the script.
So it’s time for the fifth-episode verdict. As you can see from Torchwood‘s Carusometer for the first five episodes, we’ve gone through the whole gamut of bad readings. A simple average would give an overall reading just shy of four, a Major Caruso. Does it look like the show’s going to get any better than that? No, judging from the trailer for next week’s episode. So…
The Medium is Not Enough has declared Torchwood to be a 4 or “Major Caruso” on The Carusometer quality scale. A Major Caruso corresponds to “a show that David Caruso might exec produce or star in, or maybe write during a lunch break, perched at a strange angle on the side of a boat”.
Which is a pity, really, since it had such promise.
News
Another scoop from BBC Norfolk
BBC Norfolk, which always seems to be first with the Doctor Who news these days, has a nifty interview with Terry Molloy, who played Davros, creator of the Daleks, back in the 80s. He’s mainly plugging I, Davros (review of Purity coming this week and I’ve already covered Innocence), but it concludes with this potential spoiler. Or not.
MB: Are there any whisperings from the Doctor Who office in Cardiff whether Davros might return to our screens?
TM: You might think that, I couldn’t possibly comment.
MB: You could…
TM: But I won’t. It was worth a try. [He laughs]
You’ll have to watch the video to see if he laughs like Davros or not.
Kudos’ spy kids
Kudos, which makes Spooks (aka MI-5 to US viewers), has decided to produce a spy show for kids. Starring Red Dwarf‘s Danny John Jules, it’ll be set in an inner city high school and filmed in high def. Planned guest stars included Robert Llewellyn, Rula Lenska, Alex Ferns and Steve Furst. It’ll start in early 2007 on CBBC and run to ten episodes.