"There's nothing only about being a girl..."

"The universe has to move forward. Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship... Everything has its time. And everything ends." 

A great deal has already been written this year about the late Elisabeth Sladen. Her untimely passing earlier this year lead to a mass outpouring of grief, and of celebration, that I don't think we had ever seen before.


As the organiser of the Merseyside Local Group of Doctor Who fans I was called upon by our local media to put into words the shock and sadness of tens of thousands of Doctor Who fans worldwide. It wasn't, and still isn't, easy to describe Lis, her career, and what she meant to fans and why she was so popular without straying into a long and involved ramble. So, at the time, I said my piece, we raised a glass in Liverpool to one of our own that we had sadly lost and then put things to rest.


Thinking about it in hindsight, I've realised she was a far more important part of my Doctor Who experience than I'd previously thought. A close friend at school was the one who got me into Doctor Who as a fan experience and he was besotted by Lis, therefore most of the videos I borrowed from him were late Pertwee and eary Tom Baker stories starring the lady herself. My friend also agented for her fan club and when he retired I took on the role leading to my earliest encounters with Lis. (I shall have to make a point of digging out my first interview with her soon and post it up here.)


Now, nearly eight months later, it's time to pick up the (figurative) pen again. While she would never be far from the thoughts of any Doctor Who fan, Lis is very much in the spotlight again with the transmission of the final episodes of The Sarah-Jane Adventures and the release of her much anticipated autobiography.


Elisabeth Sladen: The Autobiography. It never needed anything catchy or crass like "Who's That Girl?" Unlike other actors and actresses that have gone down this publishing route she always spoke for herself. Elisabeth Sladen. Sarah-Jane Smith. Nothing more had to be said. As the above quote from "The Monster of Peladon" goes, there's nothing 'only' about being a girl, let alone a Doctor Who girl.


Now, even Lis herself admitted that this book is a team effort, co-written with Jeff Hudson from many hours of interviews and discussions, but straight off the bat you can, almost spookily, hear her voice captured in the words that have been laid down. 

Bold Street Today (Courtesy of Google Street View).
The Shelagh Elliott-Clarke school was above the Jewellers
on the left hand side of the picture.

Starting with a potted family history and portrayal of her early life in Liverpool it's interesting from the point of view of being based in Liverpool to note mentions of familiar places. Lis refers to an early dance school being based on Bold Street (Up until recently just round the corner from the Merseyside Local Group's meeting venue and just across the road from a branch of Forbidden Planet) and makes mention of working on and having family holidays on my side of the river on the Wirral. It shouldn't have come as a surprise. I'm sure I've visited many places in common with Paul McGann or Tom Baker, but it still feels slightly bizarre, after all these years of walking particular streets, to think that I was following the footsteps of Lissie herself. 


Much of what follows will be familiar from years of interviews and convention anecdotes, so little is truly new or groundbreaking, but the book does give you at least an insight of Lis's feelings and personality beyond that of the public 'Sarah-Jane'. Who was Elisabeth Sladen? By turns she was hard-working, warm-hearted, generous, but she was also not backward if she felt you'd wronged her and terrible at any kind of forward planning (which she feels explains why her career ultimately took the shape that it did.) 


Obviously, the vast majority of the book covers her years in Doctor Who and her relatonship with the show in the years after. There's a sense of overwhelming joy and fun in the, albeit, hard work involved with churning out the show 26 episodes a year. Who did she get on with? Who didn't she get on with? That's for the book to reveal, but a glaring ommission is the ongoing mystery of who she replaced. Who had already been cast as the companion for season eleven that hadn't worked out? Barry Letts never let on, and now never will, and Lis similarly seemed to know, but doesn't give much away. (The chemistry between Miss X and Jon Pertwee didn't work and apparently she was quite a busty lady, which might prove problematic when running down corridors, but thats all we get.) It's amazing, given how many people have gone through the paperwork files for Doctor Who that this name has never been revealed, and potentially never will. 


Lis had always given the impression of a very positive person, so it shouldn't be a surprise that there are very few descriptions of bad experiences, so K9 and Company notwithstanding she celebrates her career in and out of Doctor Who, her adventures in america, her further adventures as a mother and her later return to the screen with Doctor Who and The Sarah-Jane Adventures. For obvious reasons, the book does feel a tad unfinished. The finished draft had sat in Lis's desk drawer untouched due to her illness, so she never had a chance to review and add anything further she might have felt was needed. The chapters covering The Sarah-Jane Adventures, in my humble opinion, are crying out for expansion, but in the end the pagecount contributed to any particular subject is proportional to its importance, so the Who sections will always be the biggest and don't leave you feeling short-changed.


The book in and of itself is classily presented, much like Lis, and includes a selection of personal and publicity photos that has become de rigueur for 'celebrity' biographies (Celebrity in quotes as Lis would never have considered herself as such) which, as with the rest of the book, gives us a glimpse into her life and adventures.


Elisabeth Sladen: The Autobiography now claims pride of place on my shelf next to "Who On Earth Is Tom Baker?", (or it will once my teenage daughter gives it back) just as I'm positive it will with many other Doctor Who fans. 

As mentioned before, the book coincided nicely with the transmission of season 5 (or at least the half of it that was completed on the tale end of season 4), so watching the 'final' adventures of Sarah-Jane Smith and her young friends is, again, an experience tinged with sadness and not a little frustration as these three stories maintain a level of quality across the run that hasn't been seen for a while. "Sky" is, in many respects, a retread of "Invasion of the Bane" in that Sarah-Jane and the plucky sideckicks have to save a child who has been created by aliens for nefarious reasons and the child ends up as part of the extended Smith family. Less of a reboot and more of a reaffirmation of what The Sarah-Jane Adventures is about. With Luke away at university and Rani and Clyde getting older, the cast needed a bit of freshening up and Sinead Michael has quickly proven herself as one of the new generation of 'not irritating' child actors. Would have loved to have seen more of her. Drama and comedy in equal measure and further mystery with the return of the Shopkeeper and his parrot. Will writer Phil Ford ever reveal the deal behind these characters? (Twitter @philfordesq and ask him.)


"The Curse of Clyde Langer" puts Daniel Anthony front and centre and, as always, demonstrates what a fine actor he is. It's rare for Doctor Who or The Sarah-Jane Adventures to touch on 'issues' quite as directly or effectively as this take on teen homelessness. The subject hasn't been couched in metaphor or made to look cool or attractive or exciting. Lily Loveless (another young actress who definitely has places to go following The Fades and Skins) performs a star turn next to Dan. Lily has an ability to perform a tough exterior with a soft-centre that makes her ideal for this kind of role and again we have a relationship left dangling that we'll never know the outcome of. The highlight of this run.


"The Man Who Never Was" isn't the strongest story to end the series on, but it still has plenty going for it. Tommy Knight is back as Luke, so we can finally have some sibling rivalry with his new 'sister', however it's James Dreyfuss who steals the show as the bitchy Harrison. Kudos for Gareth Roberts who turns in yet another stellar script. and manages to sneak in the rudest joke I've ever heard on a pre-5pm show. 

And so the series and the characters walk off into the sunset, leaving us wanting more, and it seems likely that AudioGo will be happy to fill that gap with the release of two more of their audio exclusive stories, this time read by Daniel Anthony and Anjli Mohindra. Doctor Who novelist par-excellence Martin Day gives us "Children of Steel", an evocative tale involving a steam-punk robot from the victorian age being woken up in the modern day. Doctor Who Magazine comic strip writer Scott Gray presents "Judgment Day", an adventure that sees Sarah-Jane called to account for her willingness to bend the truth for the greater good. A remarkably prescient tale given the current Leveson inquiry into media ethics which demonstrates that, just like "The Curse of Clyde Langer", The Sarah-Jane Adventures never shied away from big ideas just because it was a 'kids show'. Daniel and Anjli have some figuratively big boots to fill following Elisabeth Sladen's readings on the previous releases in this series, but both are assured readers and bring the team to life strongly. If AudioGo do continue the series in this manner then the legacy of Sarah-Jane and Elisabeth Sladen would be in good hands. 


And that's what we can be thankful for. Elisabeth may have passed on, we won't see Sarah-Jane in new adventures again, but she left behind a legacy of nearly 40 years worth of adventures with the Doctor and her new young friends which will never be far away. I just need to reach out for the DVD shelf and I can go right back to the beginning and there she will always be, holding her own against Sontarans and dark ages thugs with a massively scouse "GEROFF!" Never to be forgotten.

As the caption reads at the end of "The Man Who Never Was", "And the story goes on.... forever"

Elisabeth Sladen: The Autobiography is published by Aurum Press 

The Sarah-Jane Adventures: Children of Steel by Martin Day and Judgment Day by Scott Gray are published on CD and download by AudioGo 

Series 5 of The Sarah-Jane Adventures is currently listed for release on DVD and BluRay by 2Entertain in February 2012.

It's Beginning to Sound Alot Like Christmas...

Yes, the blog has been quiet for a few weeks. My deepest apologies and we should be business as usual from now on. We're into December and the festive season is only a few weeks away. As is customary in my house my iPod is full to bursting now with a permanent christmas playlist and I wanted to share my top 5 christmas albums that are currently in rotation. All the traditional songs are included on the player, but I can't help but collect christmas music so I often end up with umpteen cover versions of the same song. Here's the albums I think you can't be without over the yuletide period as an antidote to the usual fare of Wizzard, Wombles and White Christmas.

5. Trojan Christmas Box Set - Various Artists

Who cares about walking in a winter wonderland when you can feel the jamaican sun beating down on your christmas turkey thanks to one of the bumper compilations of reggae from Trojan. Just over three hours of classic chugging guitar riffs and hammond organ. Highlight is John Holt's rendition of Merry Xmas (War is Over). 

4. Tijuana Christmas - The Torero Band
From a Jamaican christmas to a Mexican one. Fantastically upbeat brass renditions of old carol staples like 'God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen' and 'Silent Night' that will banish any signs of boredom brought on by hearing these melody's for the millionth time. Admittedly the musicians are likely to be as Mexican as I am, but it's a forgotten gem nonetheless.

3. A Green and Red Christmas - The Muppets
With the forthcoming release of the new Muppets movie in the UK (We have to wait a whole two months more than the USA, Boo, Hiss...) it's time to introduce a new audience to this album and so it's getting a re-release. Frankly anything is vastly improved by the introduction of Muppets to it, so an album of Christmas classics performed by your favourite Muppets is a no-brainer. The headliners are all there:- Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie, but it's the covers of 'Zat You, Santa Claus?' and 'Run Rudolph Run' by The Electric Mayhem Band that really rock out.

2. Christmas Spirit... In my House - Joey Ramone
Jeffrey Hyman, instantly recognisable in look and voice under his stagename of Joey Ramone. This is more of an EP than a full album and was released, like his solo-album, posthumously in 2002. Five festive (or at least festive-ish) ongs as a grand tribute to the man who epitomised US punk. Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight) was originally a Ramones track from the album Brain Drain, but is still the stand out track of this small, but perfectly formed collection, beating out Joey's cover of What A Wonderful World by a Ramones-whisker. Gabba, Gabba, Hey! ONETWOTREETFOUR!

1. A Christmas Gift to You from Philles Records - Various Artists
The single greatest Christmas album in the world ever! Whether you're a lover of Phil Spector's 'wall of sound' or not, it contains, pound for pound, the single biggest concentration of great christmas music ever in its barely half-hour length. Not a duff track. Not a bum note. (Some modern compilations tend to spoil things by have Sir Cliff of Sodding Richards on them and anyway, they don't count because all these tracks were recorded for this album, not collected from elsewhere.) Surprisingly, not a big seller on its original release, this is the album that my family traditionally listens to as we open our presents on Christmas Day morning because, quite frankly, I need something a little up-tempo to wake me up at half-six. It's hard to pick a favourite on this album, but if I had to be pinned down then its The Ronettes rendition of 'Frosty the Snowman'.

Post-script: A number of artists nearly made it into the top five, so honourable mentions must got to the swinging Brian Setzer Orchestra, progsters the Trans-Siberian Orchestra and the ever lovely Tori Amos for their Christmassy albums without which it wouldn't be a particularly fun time of year.

Res Ipsa Loquitur

I have to admit, I've probably made a rod for my own back in starting this blog. But then the whole idea was to force myself into writing regularly, or at least more regularly than I have been in far too many years. The difficulty, so far, has been in finding things I want to write about. Not so bad when I've got a fresh delivery of things to review and be excited about, but when I'm in a lax period...

That said, I shouldn't find it hard to find something to write about. I still read alot. I still watch a fair amount of TV. Unfortunately, alot of the TV that's inflicted on me isn't exactly by choice. Take an avergae saturday night, for example. Being a family man I have the choice of either going to a different part of the house or living through the excruciating torture of "Strictly Come Dancing" and "The X-Factor" (Oh and don't get me started on the forthcoming return of "I'm a Celebrity, starve me to death in the Australian outback!!!!").

Yup, there's a great deal of crap that gets watched on my telly by my wife and daughter. "Gossip Girl", "Grey's Anatomy", "Glee", etc, etc. Some of it is even genre crap that, on the face of it, you'd think I'd be more receptive to (Hello "The Vampire Diaries", I'll be covering you and your twinkly "Twilight" brethren and actual decent blood-shirtsty vampires in a forthcoming blog!), but generally if it's crap, I'll call it that.

However, just occasionally my missus strikes upon a little nugget of gold. In amongst all that chick drama comes a little programme that could. Something hidden away (more than likely on SkyLiving) that we blokes will more often than not ignore, but is actually worthy of our attention.

"Drop Dead Diva" presents the life, or more precisely afterlife, of vapid blonde model Deb who dies in a car accident and at the gates of St. Peter is judged 'shallow' and manages to get herself sent back to earth in the body of Jane, a recently deceased, brilliant, plus-size lawyer. With the assistance of her very-own guardian angel, Fred, and Deb's friend Stacy, who are the only people who know her true identity, Deb integrates herself into Jane's life and along the way learns lessons about life, love, identity and the old maxim about beauty only being skin deep.

"Drop Dead Diva" isn't a show that revels in it's genreness (Is that even a word?), nor does it dwell on it. The genre aspects are a tool to tell its stories and explore its themes rather than the raison detre of the show. In many respects it comes across as a modern chick-lit era take on Quantum Leap crossed with Ally McBeal, without a dancing baby or cigar-smoking hologram, but more than making up for it with its own brand of oddness. Indeed, stretching the Ally McBeal comparison further it's refereshing to see an attractive curvy leading lady in the guise of Brooke Elliott as opposed bag of bones Calista Flockhart. (Harrison Ford may go for that, but I sure don't!)

Elliott is surrounded by a strong supporting cast of generally unknown or half-know actors who, in the best traditions of these ensemble shows, have their moments to shine and often do without distracting the audience from Deb (as Jane's) journey. This isn't to dismiss them. The ongoing B-plots and relationships (Fred the Angel loves Stacy and Stacy ends up cheating on him, Deb as Jane works with her former fiancee, Grayson, who she holds a torch for, the boss and the other hot-shot female lawyer seem to have an on-and-off thing, etc etc...) are just as well-drawn and important as the primary plots.

Given that the vast majority of the shows that my beloved other half watches have me silently yearning for an asteroid to put me out my misery Drop Dead Diva makes a pleasant change. A relaxed and funny show that I can, secretly, enjoy with the wife as a guilty pleasure.

It was Thirty Years ago... Yesterday...

The Date: November 2nd, 1981.
The Place: BBC 2

In preparation for the then forthcoming new season of Doctor Who with its new Doctor, Peter Davison, BBC 2 ran a season of repeats stripped four afternoons a week under the title "The Five faces of Doctor Who." Producer John Nathan-Turner chose five stories to represent the many faces of the Doctor.

I can remember some of that season quite vividly. It would have been the first time I can remember watching Doctor's other than Tom Baker on TV. I'm pretty sure I caught the repeat of "An Unearthly Child" as I have a memory of sixties London swooping away from us on the TARDIS viewscreen, but I don't recall seeing the rest of that weeks story. I definitely saw all of "The Krotons." The eponymous aliens with their weird crystalline design and odd voices stuck with me as well as any Dalek or Cyberman. "Carnival of Monsters" I think appealed to me because of the timey-wimey weirdness of being stuck in a loop rather than the monsters or the rather pants aliens and their attempted political chicanery. As for "The Three Doctors", how could anyone not be drawn to more than one Doctor in an adventure! All that said, I have absolutely no memory of "Logopolis" from the repeat or the original transmission, so I think I can safely say I never saw that one.

I wasn't a fan back then, but I was the typical target demographic for Doctor Who. Seven years old and loving adventure stories, especially space ones, so amongst the myriad Enid Blyton's I was reading by that point there was the odd Tom Swift or W.E. Johns and the many, many Target novels that I borrowed from the local library. An almost unprecedented opportunity to watch old Doctor Who stories in a world barely coming into the home video revolution and unable to imagine DVDs, Blu Rays, Internet Streaming or iPads. It was thrilling without, at the time, entirely understanding why.

Over the years I think we (as opposed to the Not-We) have all played the game of "The X Faces of Doctor Who" season. What would we air if we were choosing a story to represent every incarnation of the Doctor? (Indeed, what would Steven Moffat do? Hmm... That sounds like a T-Shirt slogan.) How do you pick just one story? What criteria do you use. Popularity? Perceived quality? The monsters? My personal choices are as follows and fit, generally, to the rule that we have to fit the season into a fifty minute slot. So classic episodes are aired two at a time (therefore four episode stories rather than five or three). Admittedly Paul McGann would have to have a special dispensation, but otherwise the rules should stand. I've chosen to avoid characters or aliens reappearing and also chosen to go with a completely different companion each time as well.

1. An Unearthly Child
In the beginning, there was the word... and the word was... Foggy. The only hold over from the original five faces season. How it all began as a 'mild curiosity in a junkyard' becoming a 'great spirit of adventure.'

2. The Tomb of the Cybermen
Thought lost forever by 1981, returned to the archives in the nineties, this is a great representation of the Monster years and is chosen as my appearance of the Doctor's second-best enemies.

3. Day of the Daleks
Daleks plus Timey-Wimey. How can it not be popular?

4. City of Death
Tom Baker at his most-bonkers. Douglas Adams at his wittiest. Doctor Who abroad. Ticks many, many boxes for me.

5. The Visitation
The Davison era is a tough one to pick from as it was 'my era', the one I grew up on. Earthshock would be the obvious choice, but as the Cybermen have already appeared I went for another of my strongest recollections. Not so much a 'celebrity-historical' as one of those 'How the Doctor caused history to happen' stories. I always love the final shot of flames licking round the road sign of Pudding Lane.

6. Vengeance on Varos
Colin Baker's era, being rather short, leads to one or two tough decisions. Daleks and Cybermen are already out. The Trial of a Timelord is far too long. Timelash and The Twin Dilemma aren't great stories, so we're left at a toss up with which I came down on the side of Eric Saward's parody of reality television.

7. The Curse of Fenric
Just to show that Doctor Who was getting really, really good again when they cancelled it.

8. The Movie
D'uh. No brainer.

9. Rose
To my mind, the modern Who reintroduction of the series couldn't have been done better (Regardless of what Russell T. Davies has subsequently said on rewatching) and deserves it's place here.

10. Smith and Jones
While there are potentially better episodes to choose, the ones I'd most likely go for are the 'Doctor-Lite' episodes like "Blink", so here's my pick.

11. Vincent and the Doctor
And finally, bang up to date with the new Doctor. Alright he's not that new anymore, but still. Vincent and the Doctor is one of the finest of the 'celebrity-historicals' and plucks all the right emotional chords to have you sobbing along at the end.

And there you have it. 11 stories. 11 Doctors. One big celebration which we'll never actually see on telly because, lets face it, with todays umpteen repeats on BBC3 or Watch or on DVD/Bluray there's no point for the primary channels (BBC's One or Two) to do this kind of repeat season. But it's still fun to dream...

A League of their Own!

It's been quite a busy week, so I've had little time to work up new material although I have several items I want to talk about. Hopefully we'll be back to business as usual next week.

In the meantime, here's another one from the archives, a review of the movie version of "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" originally written for Sci-Fi-London.

"The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" is the latest in the recent spate of property plundering by Hollywood of its lesser regarded medium, the comic book, and therefore comes with a weight of expectation, not only as an adaptation, but also in comparison to the most successful comic book based films of the last few years.

From the root material created by British dream team Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill, "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen / The League / LXG" (Pick title as preferred) features a series of figures from literature of the Victorian-era brought together by the mysterious 'M' on behalf of the British government, to foil the efforts of the equally mysterious 'Fantom' to bring about the unthinkable. A World War! It is somewhat surprising that although the idea of vastly different characters being united in prose has been a staple of authors like Phillip Jose Farmer and Kim Newman for a long time, we haven't seen this concept (surely the highest of the high) translated to the screen until now.

As a movie in its own right, "The League" has much to recommend it. Sean Connery in the role of league-patriarch and Indiana Jones-literary antecedent Alan Quartermain is at his butt-kicking best, even so many years after receiving his bus pass. Indeed, the entire league acquit themselves admirably amongst the whiz-bang action and special effects wizardry that is expected from a blockbuster in this mould, despite material, such as a scene of two virtually indestructible characters playing slice and dice to the death, seeming derivative in its resemblance to a similar scene in the far superior X2.

Sadly, the film is severely flawed in structure and execution. With the insertion of Tom Sawyer (Shane West) and Dorian Gray (Stuart Townsend) into the already large cast of characters from the comic-book (Mina Harker, Captain Nemo, The Invisible Man and Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde) it becomes hard to keep track of all the characters and in a desperate attempt to justify their involvement in the plot the film becomes too 'busy', eventually degenerating into a situation where we have to follow four different branches of the plot at once. Additionally, the film suffers from the clumsy attempts to fill the less literary aware members of the audience into the backgrounds of these characters. Wordy and dull expository scenes, seemingly dropped at random into the action, leave the audience metaphorically tripped up and sprawling on their faces.

Impressive to look at, but as an action film it sacrifices much of the literary charm of the source material. Ultimately, a brave attempt at translating one type of comic book into another kind of film and therefore disappointing to both fans of the book and the regular moviegoer.

“You Get A Lifetime”

This post is the first of a few that will present items of mine 'from the archives...'. I've written for fanzines and other web pages in the past, so I'll use the opportunity to represent some old pieces of writing to get them back out there all in one place.

This one is a review of Neil Gaiman's “THE SANDMAN: ENDLESS NIGHTS” originally written for Sci-Fi-London.

Over a period of nine years from 1987 to 1996, Neil Gaiman reworked a mostly disregarded Golden Age D.C. Comics superhero, “The Sandman” into one of the premier horror / fantasy sagas of the last twenty years and working himself up from a virtually unknown journalist to the multi-award winning, multi-talented member of the so-called ‘British Invasion’ of the American comics industry that we know today.

Ending “The Sandman”, quite appropriately and deliberately, with the tale of William Shakespeare writing “The Tempest”, Gaiman laid down his pen and turned to other works, leaving others to play in the toybox of his creation with only a fatherly eye and occasional guiding hand. The epic novel for adults “American Gods”, children’s fiction like “Coraline” (now out in paperback) and the recently released “The Wolves in the Walls” as well as turning his hand to film and television scripting and directing the film “A Short film about John Bolton” kept him busy enough, but he also finds time to keep an online journal up to date.

And always he maintained that he would return to his best known creations, Dream of the Endless and his six siblings who are not gods, but something far, far more that gods bow down to. Now Neil brings us a plush hardcover anthology entitled “Endless Nights” where each of the Endless is given their moment in the spotlight. Some are proper stories, with a beginning, a middle and an end, that show who these Endless are and how they affect the mere mortals whose brief lives they touch upon, while others are more like poetry with indescribably gorgeous or indescribably strange artwork.

To touch upon everything this book has to offer would take more space than is available here, but the highlights for this poor-Sandman starved reviewer are the erotically charged (and with such a subject how can it be anything else) Desire story, “What I’ve tasted of Desire” (art by Milo Manara) and “The Heart of a Star” (art by Miguelanxo Prado), a tale of King Morpheus, that is by turns beautifully heartfelt, monstrously ugly and inestimably silly, which I suppose sums up the whole saga of “The Sandman” in itself.

There is nothing in “Endless Nights” that would stop the casual reader from picking it up as the first example of “The Sandman” that they have ever read, but as a long time aficionado of the series I feel this is more of an “icing on the cake” situation where it would give more to the long term reader. Indeed, I suspect that the twenty pound price tag may scare of a large number of potential first timers, so while I can wholeheartedly praise this stunningly attractive tome, if you’ve come to the party late then I suggest you search out the trade paperback editions of the original series.

You’ll thank me for it.

Really.

2011 Postscript - Endless Nights is due to be reprinted as part of the fifth volume of the Absolute Sandman series due to be published in November.

"Better to burn out..."



The cast of The Fades (L to R):
Daniel Kaluuya, Lily Loveless, Iain De Caestecker,
Johnny Harris , Natalie Dormer

 Why is it that if we want to see some smart, genre-based drama, we have to turn to the americans? For science-fiction, at the moment, Fringe has to be the must-see show, for horror and the supernatural it's got to be True Blood. Outside of the Saturday night family slot, those of us in search of homegrown genre product have very little to choose from beyond the late night fare put out by Channel 4 or BBC Three. The former with Misfits and the latter having already done wonders by launching Torchwood and bringing us supernatural dramedy Being Human.

Recently BBC Three has launched its latest foray into horror with "The Fades." Set in a world where some of the dead  (the titular Fades) aren't ascending to wherever it is they go next (heaven, beyond, the other side etc) and some of them are, understandably, getting a bit pissy about it.

Enter Paul. He's 17 years old and he's more comfortable with his mate Mac and his knowledge of film and comics than with his twin sisters friend who he somewhat fancies (Sounds familiar to a good chunk of my readers I suspect). If normal teen/geek angst isn't enough, it also doesn't help that he can, in best 'Sixth Sense'-style "see dead people" and is receiving visions of the apocalypse. It turns out that he's an 'Angelic', one of the few who can see the Fades and, unfortunately, it looks like the dead are learning to regain some form of corporeality by killing and eating people.

Many of the cast and crew are recognisable faces and names from genre (whether that be the sci-fi/fantasy or teen genres) shows. Former Skins and Shameless writer Jack Thorne has created an original take on some of the standard supernatural tropes while combining it with many of the the themes and ideas found Skins, such as dysfunctional family relationships, mental illness and sexuality. His conception and realisation of the Fades themselves are a very nice compression of Vampire, Ghost and Zombie all-in-one handy supernatural package, while having two of our leads as 'geeks' gives us the opportunity to use discussion of other genre material as a short cut to describe the ideas to the audience, leaving us time to concentrate on more important things.

Perhaps unsurprisingly the cast has two members of two difference generations of Skins in it, Joe Dempsie and Lily Loveless, while Daniel Kaluuya, Tom Ellis and Claire Rushbrook will undoubtedly be recognised from their individual appearances in Doctor Who. The most recognisable face is likely to be unusual sight of This Life's Daniela Nardini sporting a dogcollar. However, it's Iain De Caestecker who has the hardest job leading the cast as Paul. Although a jobbing actor for a number of years including a stint as young Adam Barlow on Coronation Street, it is only now that he's making the leap to (borrowing the old theatrical term) juvenile lead. Physically he reminds me somewhat of a young Rafe Spall (Just thinner than Rafe was at that age) while his portrayal of poor confused Paul will strike a chord with any make geek of a certain age. He and Dan Kaluuya work together to show a strong, believable friendship between the two teens that makes them seem more like an old-married couple. (and indeed, if you hadn't worked that out they're seen sat at the opposite end of a bench to an old-married couple to subtly press home the comparison.) We'll see Iain next as the young James Herriot in "Young James" and I foresee a strong career ahead.

From the crew, Producer Caroline Skinner recently joined the team at BBC Wales to make Doctor Who and seems to have taken the director of the first three episodes, Farren Blackburn, with her to direct this years Christmas special. As a team, the production is slick and well presented. Edited to the cracking pace you'd expect from a modern set drama, the effects work (both practical and computer generated) successfully presents the more fantastical elements of the Fades and the Angelics without looking ropey. A special mention should be made of the full body prosthetic for the 'Chief Fade'. Wrinkly, old, emaciated, but vicious and blood-thirsty with it. A scary guy, just as he should be.

Regrettably, it's taken me a few weeks to get round to catching up on the episodes gathering virtual dust on my PVR, but I've now watched the first half of the series (up to a truly surprising cliffhanger) and strongly recommend that anyone who hasn't caught this yet leap on iPlayer as soon as possible to catch up on the show.

"The Fades" intelligently mixes exploration of life, death, mortality, love, sex and many other aspects of teen living in the UK with flesh-eating monsters and references to Neil Gaiman which can only make the show feel like it was produced by people like us and for people like us. For once, it's a secret we need to be sharing with others rather than keeping it ourselves.

Find out more at the http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/thefades

"Never been a faker..."

Going to the cinema, especially as a family, can be an expensive business these days. An average trip to our local multiplex (2 Adults, 1 Teen and 1 Child plus associated beverages) can cost upwards of Forty quid, so you can imagine it doesn't happen terribly often, especially with the high profile new releases. Frankly, I've lost count of the number of films in the last few years I missed at the cinema. However, Vue Cinemas have an early morning weekend strand called KIDS AM which prices family films at (currently) £1.25 a ticket. So, that's the four of us for less than a fiver. A veritable godsend that has meant we've been able to see recent films like Cars 2 and Rango for a reasonable price and all we have to do is sacrifice the Sunday morning lie-in.

Last Sunday I finally caught up on a recent film from my all-time number one greatest film-making hero. Yes, we went and saw "Spy Kids: All The Time In The World" from the worlds best known medical guinea-pig turned all round film-making renaissance man, Robert Rodriguez. 

I should go on record as saying that my favourite film of all-time is Rodriguez debut, "El Mariachi." It's generally a great, enjoyable action film, but the simple achievement of making it for $7000 makes it even more impressive. Take the DVD of the film with its director's commentary and 10 minute film school feature in conjunction with Rodriguez' diary "Rebel Without A Crew" and you have pretty much all you need to know about low-budget film-making. To describe reading the "Rebel" diaries as a transformative experience might be a little innacurate as I'm sat here blogging about it rather than a film-maker myself, but I did learn alot which has proven useful in scripting and film-making in the past.

Unlike some of his contemporaries (Quentin Tarantino and Kevin Smith being the obvious examples) Robert Rodriguez hasn't stayed in just the one style of film, be it action, horror, comedy, etc. While he's continued to work in the same vein that made him (Recent actioners include Sin City and Grindhouse follow-up Machete) Rodriguez has always made time for more family-orientated fare with films such as Shorts, Sharkboy & Lavagirl and the aforementioned Spy Kids franchise and I've loved them just as much as his more adult aimed movies. As a family-man himself Rodriguez obviously prides himself on making films that will entertain his own kids as well as the adults that accompany them.

"All The Time In The World" is a reboot and sequel to the series, working from the same premise as the first film. 'What if you found out your parents were spies?'. New tweens Rebecca and Cecil's (Rowan Blanchard and Mason Cook) father is career-obssessed and has no time for them while they in turn have no time for their step-mother (Jessica Alba taking over from Antonio Banderas as the retired spy). When Alba's character is called out of retirement to confront the suitably bonkers villain, The Timekeeper and his sidekick Tick-Tock, the kids find themselves accompanied on a mad adventure accompanied by a talking robot dog (voiced by Ricky Gervais) which leads them to take over as the next generation of Spy Kids from their predecessors (Alexa Vega and Daryl Sabara are all growed up!)

While plenty to be had here for new and old fans of the series (References to the first three films abound including a very brief cameo from Danny Trejo) Rodriguez has learnt the lessons of "Spy Kids 3D" so that this time the characters and themes aren't overshadowed by the action and adventure. Indeed, it has to be said that the FX work here is far beyond the green-screen work of the previous film, but with it being grounded in the real world it works much better than the Kiddie-Matrix stylings of "Game Over." The theme of this film is making time for your family because you don't know when that time will run out. As with any film of this genre it's a little heavy-handed on the theme, but you know what you're getting when you walk in the door, so you can't complain when it delivers what you expect.

A word about Aroma-scope or, as we all usually call it, Smell-o-vision. The third Spy Kids film was in 3D, so obviously someone wanted to find somewhere else to go with the fourth. At strategic points throughout the film you're asked to scratch and sniff a card that you are given but, to be honest, its a one-note gag and was entirely unnecessary. The film stands up in its own right and, speaking as someone who isn't bothered about 3D either, that's all it needs to do for me.

Lots of bond-style gadgets and visually dizzying action will keep the kids entertained throughout while Dad's like myself can appreciate Jessica Alba in a skin-tight catsuit (and the movie geeks can puzzle over Jessica Alba being Alexa Vega's aunt. They aren't THAT far apart in age.) Credit also to the supporting cast with Joel Mchale as the spy-hunting father and Entourage's Jeremy Piven who play it absolutely straight in role's that scenery-chewing would pull us right out of the film.

Whether you are previously familiar with the Spy Kids franchise or not you and your family will enjoy this mini-Bond epic for what it is, a pure escapist entertainment, and whether we see a Spy Kids 5 or not you should make time to sit down with the kids for "All The Time In The World."

"We are the Sherlock Holmes, english-speaking vernacular...."

"He is the Napoleon of Crime, Watson, the organiser of half that is evil and nearly all that is undetected in this great city..."

— Sherlock Holmes, "The Final Problem"

by Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle

So spoke the great detective on the subject of Professor James Moriarty, styled as Sherlock Holmes arch-nemesis by their creator Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. Despite only appearing directly in two stories of the Holmes canon ("The Final Problem" and "The Valley of Fear") and being referenced in a handful of others, he has gained an importance alongside the great detective that is, possibly, ill-deserved. While Conan-Doyle himself described the adversarial

relationship as a months-long battle of wits culminating in the well-known wrestling match at the Reichenbach Fall, this all happened in the pages of one short story. It is only through the embellishment of the canon by other writers and by films, television, radio and

theatre that Moriarty's stature has become equal to that of Holmes himself. 


Kim Newman's "Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles" is not the first time an author has expanded Moriarty's role and told tales from his side of the fence (Former James Bond novelist John Gardner, detective and science-fiction writer Michael Kurland and fantasy author Neil Gaiman have all written stories with Moriarty as the 'hero'), but it is, potentially, the most entertaining take on the subject. 

"The Hound of the D'Urbervilles" expands to novel-length a number of previously published short stories which run to a template of, as the author puts it, "one Doyle 'guest star', one other Victorian literary source, a parody title" and "a 'case' that doesn't turn out so well." "A Shambles in Belgravia" therefore is Irene Adler plus "The Prisoner of Zenda" equals the anti-"A Scandal in Bohemia". Written ostensibly by Colonel Sebastian "Basher" Moran, formely of the first Bangalore Pioneers, Moriarty's right-hand man and the chief protagonist of "The Empty House", "Hound..." takes us though seven 'cases' from Moriarty and Moran's first collaboration "A Volume in Vermillion" through encounters with the characters and situations of H.G. Wells, Thomas Hardy, Sax Rohmer, J. Milton Hayes and others through to an ending with "The Problem of the Final Adventure."

Styled (by the use of the character of Moran himself) as one part boys-own rollicking adventure yarn, one-part Holmesian pastiche and one-part comedy tale, much of the fun of the book (As with Newman's "Anno Dracula" series) comes from playing 'spot-the-reference.' The author is a noted expert on movies and genre fiction and his knowledge of his subjects (and research into them where there have been holes) fairly pours out onto the page successfully bringing to mind the feel of the victorian literature that it emulates.

Highlights abound.

• "Shambles..." starts with the single-greatest line associated with anything Sherlock Holmes-related, "To Professor Moriarty, she is always that bitch."
• "The Greek Ivertebrate" makes merry with the thorny issue of the multiple Moriarty brothers referenced in the canon (the Professor, the Colonel and the Station master) and which of them is called James.
• Moran scoffing at the references to various depictions of Moriarty in other fictions including as a time-traveller, a hologram and as Holmes himself.

With, not one, but two new interpretations of Moriarty on the screen thanks to the BBC's Sherlock and the Hollywood Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, this volume is a timely release. It can't, and doesn't, pretend to present a definitive version of Holmes adversary and potentially could put the Holmes purists into a state of apoplexy (I imagine their reaction to be somewhat like the more reactionary Doctor Who fans, only with more walking sticks and Horlicks...), but as a purely escapist entertainment or as a primer to other pieces of genre fiction that you may not have previously encountered then it can only be strongly recommended.

Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman. Titan Books. RRP £7.99
With thanks to Matt Anson

Recommended Further Reading:-
The Amateur Cracksman by E.W. Hornung
The Mystery of Dr. Fu-Manchu or, The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer
Carnacki the Ghost-Finder by William Hope Hodgson
A Bid for Fortune: or, Dr Nikola's Vendetta by Guy Boothby
Dr. Mabuse The Gambler by Norbert Jacques
Arsène Lupin, Gentleman Burglar by Maurice Leblanc
The Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
The Jewel of the Seven Stars by Bram Stoker
Anno Dracula by Kim Newman (Recently republished by Titan Books)

"I like Big Books..."

"I like big books and I cannot lie.
You other readers can’t deny
That when a kid walks in with "The Name of the Wind"
Like a hardbound brick of win. Story bling...."

- Baby Got Books
by Jim C. Hines
(with apologies to Sir Mixalot)

I can remember the very first "BIG" Doctor Who book that I possessed as a fan of the series. (We're defining Big as a book that is less for reading and more for battering small animals to death with.) It was a remaindered (or possibly second-hand) copy of Peter Haining's "25 Glorious Years."

It purported to give an overview and insight into the history of Doctor Who between its birth in 1963 and the silver anniversary year of 1988. The background to the shows production was still relatively new to me at the time. I'd just started reading Doctor Who Magazine and I was slowly picking up the Target novelisations here and there, so names like Verity Lambert and Sydney Newman were fresh discoveries. The gospel according to Peter Haining (because that's what it felt like, a holy book) was an easy read and had lots of pictorial material to break up the text. I can't remember how many times I read and re-read that book, losing myself in the wonder at what a (for want of a better word) big subject it was. In later years "25 Glorious Years" was joined by many similar books, alot of them written by Peter Haining, and to be honest as I got older I realised they weren't very good. It turned out that Haining wasn't a fountain of knowledge. He was a 'gun-for-hire' who could make a living out of churning out these books which weren't strictly accurate in places. He was eventually supplanted by other books from other writers like David J. Howe and Gary Russell. (Keep an eye on that second name, we'll come back to him later.) Writers who actually did proper research and had a true love of the series legacy. And I bought them too.

But I still remember the first Big book...

This Christmas will see many a fan, old and new, have their book shelves weighted down by further chunky tomes. "The Brilliant Book 2012" follows up on last years similarly titled "The Brilliant Book 2011" as an official guide to the production of this years series of Doctor Who. Covering the period from last years Christmas special "A Christmas Carol" through to "The Wedding of River Song" editor Clayton Hickman blends interview material with the main leads (Matt, Karen, Arthur and Alex) plus Clan Chief Big Boss McSporran (Steven Moffat) with factual and fictional information about each episode.

A breakdown of the story accompanies the runners and riders and where you've seen them before plus for the stats freaks there are plenty of numbers about each episode to keep you going. Favourite scenes, deleted scenes, and fantastic facts are present to cover everything you are likely to need to know about the episode in question. Highlights from the additional material include a factual page on former President Richard "Tricky Dicky" Nixon (reminiscent of the attempts at such items in Doctor Who annuals of old, only accurate), a comic strip adaptation of Neil Gaiman's unused opening scene for "The Doctors Wife" (Revealing Rory is a big fan of The Beatles) and a guide to "The Changing Hats of Doctor Who" (from Hartnell's Astrakhan to Matt Smith's cowboy hat.) I confidently predict the line "I wear a stovepipe. Stovepipe hats are cool" next year.

Each episode also comes complete with a piece of art by Lee Johnson which are reminiscent of the glory days of Andrew Skilleter and Alister Pearson's covers for the BBC Videos and novelisatons. Slickly presented, wittily written, by turns informative and entertaining it's everything Doctor Who should be. Only shame is that it's shrunk in size so it no longer sits comfortably alongside the aforementioned old annuals (or for that matter its own predecessor). Minor gripe, but you know how anal some fans can be.

And speaking of anal fans, have you ever thought about what we used to do in the days before Wikipedia and the internet? What did we do if we had a burning need to find out the answer to a particular question? (Which planet did Captain Cook find Mags the werewolf on in "The Greatest Show in the Galaxy?" Vulpana. Easy!) Reference bricks like "The Universal Databank" and the unfinished multi-volume "Encyclopaedia of the Worlds of Doctor Who" spring to mind, but is there a place for that sort of book in the modern era?

BBC Books and Gary Russell (There's that name again) certainly think so with the latest edition of "Doctor Who: The Encyclopaedia." Four years on from the last edition (as Gary points out in the introduction) and thats a great deal of new Who to fit into the book, but fit it he does, covering all free-to-air Doctor Who between "Rose" and "The Wedding of River Song" taking in "Attack of the Graske", the animated specials, The Adventure Games and special charity episodes from ABADDON to ZYGONS.

Given the nature of the book it's obviously not something you'ss spend time sitting down and reading from cover to cover. It's big (400 pages),  it's chunky, it's full of lovely images spread throughout the last 6 seasons of Doctor Who, but it will only be something that you dip into from time to time when you want to know an answer or feel a compelling urge to read up on the full history of a particular character. (Amy rates a whole two pages to herself while Rose only manages one-and-a-half.)

My favourite entry filed under "I did not know that" indicates that Bowie Base One from "The Waters of Mars" was built in Liverpool (Given my blog name, it's a given I'd check for any Merseyside references.) I'm pretty observant, but that one completely passed me by which proves just how much work will have gone into making this book as detailed and comprehensive as possible. Gary Russell himself has expressed an interest in a 'classic' Who volume of the encyclopaedia and if the level of quality displayed here can be kept up then I would support the idea.

In closing, I do wonder if today's new generation of fans will remember their first big books in the same way. They're still published. They're shinier. Prettier. Definitely more accurate. Will they hold the same level of fascination?

Doctor Who: The Brilliant Book 2012. Edited by Clayton Hickman. Published by BBC Books. RRP £12.99
Doctor Who: The Encyclopaedia by Gary Russell. Published by BBC Books. RRP £25.00

The Strange Case of the Random Rewatch

I found myself recently twiddling my thumbs and without anything on telly. I had only enough time to watch something about an hour long. The large pile of films that I haven't watched yet was therefore out so I reached for my complete Jeremy Brett Sherlock Holmes collection.

Although I'd started working my way through the Granada TV adaptation of the Holmes canon I had, annoyingly, forgotten where I had got up to, so with a sigh I decided I would have to start again.


To Sherlockians, the first story is "the one." That is not to say that it eclipses all that followed, but it is undoubtedly held representative of the canon and in all retellings it is the one that you will come back to time and time again. Therefore, I expected to find rewatching "A Scandal in Bohemia" to be a bit of a chore to be honest. I know the story in text, telly and radio versions inside out (not to mention back to front given the Leslie Klinger annotated set of the canon I have in pride of place on my bookshelf.)


Imagine how pleasantly surprised I am to find it is still compulsive viewing even on the umpteenth time round.


Jeremy Brett was always brilliant, (It goes without saying really) but I don't think I'd ever really paid attention to some of the subtleties of his acting before. Facial expression, physical mannerisms, all representative of an actor utterly consumed by the role.


Being more familiar with Edward Hardwicke as Watson I'd more or less forgotten how good David Burke is. A younger and slightly less fuddy-duddy Watson than Hardwicke and certainly not the slightly idiotic portrayal of, say, Nigel Bruce. Let's face it, Holmes would never hang around with a complete berk. Burke's Watson is a smart man in the prime of his life (barring 'the wound' that invalided him out of Afghanistan). It is only in comparison to Holmes that he is made to look inferior or to feel stupid, not that he actually is inferior or stupid. Indeed, Holmes himself often compliments his friend (in a slightly back--handed manner to-be-sure) when Watson tries to use what he has learnt of Holmes techniques even if his deduction prove to be wide of the mark.


I'll always have fond memories of the sumptuous Baker Street set on the Granada backlot which I had occasion to visit when the Granada Studios Tour was still open. It's amazing to think that its actually only a very short street and in comparison to the Coronation Street set around the corner, it is positively tiny. It's rare for me to compliment ITV on period drama, (Frankly the BBC have always been superior when it comes to period/costume drama) but the Granada team had the Victorian era of Holmes down perfectly.


I subsequently moved on to "The Dancing Men" and "The Naval Treaty". The supporting cast can usually be trusted to throw up some notable mentions. The Derbyshire constabulary represented by Kryten Mark 1 from Red Dwarf. David Ross in "The Dancing Men" and Blake himself, Gareth Thomas in "The Naval Treaty" as our examples herein.


As a period adaptation of the original canon I still feel that these episodes can't be beaten, so I'm very glad that the modern Holmes for the 21st Century (the Benedict Cumberbatch TV Series and the Robert Downey Jr movies) are going in a different direction rather than trying to beat an already superior product. The last couple of attempts at aping the Brett Holmes on television, both produced by the BBC suprisingly went somewhat wide of the mark. Richard Roxburgh in "The Hound of the Baskervilles" (during that period where played three different victorian literary characters... badly) and Rupert Everett in "The Case of the Silk Stocking" really only had one thing to recommend them and that was Ian Hart as Watson.


And after writing all that I'm in the mood for another episode.


Come Watson, the game's afoot...

42

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable..."

This is a review of "The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy," perhaps the most derided, certainly the most controversial entry to ever come out of the great canon of Douglas Adams. Looking for something to while away a quiet Saturday afternoon with the youngest I chose to dig out the 2005 feature film adaptation as it had been a) a very long time since I'd originally seen it (Thankyou for the freebie Empire magazine... I've never forgotten your kindness) and b) it seemed an ideal way to introduce it to a 4 year old who doesn't realise he has a boxset of the novels waiting for him when he gets older.

Back in '05 my thoughts, simply put, were as follows:- "HHGTTG film officially "Not ****"!"

And to be honest, six years on, I think that was me damning it with faint praise.

"...There is another theory which states that this has already happened."

I am definitely a fan of the originals (whichever you want to class as the originals). I love the novels, and the radio shows and the TV Adaptation. Arthur Dent will forever be personified by Simon Jones. Douglas Adams was a genius writer (when he could get around the almost permanent state of writers block that he seemed to live in in the latter part of his life). His death in 2001 deprived the world of, not only a great comic talent, but also an ardent futurist and commentator on our world and our treatment of it.

However, being as big a fan of the original Hitchhikers doesn't mean that you need to be utterly slavish to the original material in bringing it to a new generation and, for that matter, a new medium.

Did it hold up as a movie in its own right? Oh Yes. Absolutely categorically.

Does it hold up as a HHGTTG movie? In 2005 I answered that it was less clear, so now I think it's ripe for a reappraisal.

The issue with any literary adaptation (and not just in the case of translating Douglas words onto the big screen) is that movies are a visual medium. Rule number one is "Show, Don't Tell." In the case of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by showing and not telling you miss the whole point of the book / radio series whereby we are being told the story by The Book. You would never write an original movie from scratch about the same subject with the conceit of The Book itself narrating the plot and its background for us. And, of course, it wouldn't be Hitchhikers without the book. So what can you do? What did they do? What any self-respecting literary adaptor would have to do. They trimmed the unnecessary. They made the verbal and descriptive visual and expanded upon it while remaining true to the spirit of what came before.

Case in point. The introduction to the film takes the very short line about the Dolphins final message to mankind being "So Long and Thanks For All The Fish" and turns it into a three minute song and dance number performed by Dolphins. One line. Three minutes. Normally dead credits time, put to good entertaining use. Pure cinematic class from the first minute onwards.

Casting a film is, to a certain extent, always going to be an exercise in personal opinion (In this case that of the director, producers and casting people), but I can't argue with any of the choices made. In the odd case it might have seemed like a bizarre decision, but it all works.

Firstly, and most importantly, Martin Freeman proves himself capable of carrying the heavy lifting on a major motion picture with our new Arthur Dent for the 21st Century (I'm convinced this film will have been his calling card for The Hobbit). Arthur always needed a slightly world-weary everyman quality which Freeman has in spades and was the main reason he was the best thing about The Office and he continues to demonstrate this in Sherlock. Rapper turned actor Mos Def was, potentially, the bizarrest casting decision ever. Who could have known how well he'd work as a slightly understated, but still distinctly off-the-wall Ford Prefect? So what if he's an american? It makes the line about not being from Guildford even better! Sam Rockwell is the Zaphod Beeblebrox the universe has been waiting for. Zaphod is meant to be a larger than large, outer than out-there rock star and has demonstrated his ability in such roles before. A perfect fit. And then filling out the main cast is Zooey Deschanel. What can you say about Zooey Deschanel without dissolving into a gooey mess of gush. Kooky without being irritating. Smart, sexy and a perfect fit for the Arthur/Trillian relationship. (The first time we see her on the Heart of Gold don't those hot pants just give you a... shiver!) Not a dud amongst them! Even the secondary cast of voice actors and puppet masters, lead by Stephen Fry as the voice of The Book and Alan Rickman as the voice of Marvin, are a cherry on top of the cream. Only Stephen Fry could lend The Book the necessary gravitas without becoming ponderous. Only Alan Rickman could inject a necessary hint of sarcasm into the weary tones of Marvin! I can't imagine this film working with any other cast.

It has to be mentioned at this point that the best cast in the universe wouldn't have a pair of fetid dingo's kidneys chance in a supernova if they had to perform this film on a budget of tuppence ha'penny. Luckily, the budget is considerably more than that and it appears to be all on the screen. The design-work is sumptuous. From the simply elegant proto-iPad book (Now isn't that an app we're all waiting for?) to the simply astounding scale of the Vogon Constructor fleet or the Magrathean construction floor. And it's clever as well. The Heart of Gold, powered by an Infinite Impossibility Drive, that was basically created by a really hot cup of tea, look like a tea-cup and saucer. How perfect is that? Even with the pre-ponderance of CG work that was required to make a film of this scale work there was still plenty of physical items to make it feel solid, most importantly the design and realisation of the Vogons. CG Vogons wouldn't have worked. The vast slobbering animatronic Muppets (They were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop) bring proper life to beings that could have been rather dull and two-dimensional. The design department really were a bunch of hoopy froods.

"...almost, but not quite, entirely unlike tea..."

You can't write about this movie without making some kind of comment on the changes. The different stuff. The stuff that had the DNA die-hards leaping about and gnashing their teeth like Doctor Who fans when they're told the Doctor is half-human! Douglas always tinkered with Hitch-hikers. Every version differs from the previous ones in some way, shape or gelatinous multi-form. It never felt like change for changes sake, but it did keep the material fresh and by the time the movie came out it was, in parts, 25 year old material so contempt, bred by familiarity, was a definite danger. So, whether your feelings towards the new stuff are good, bad or indifferent it definitely had every right to be there.

Humma Kavula appears to be a setup for a plot arc that doesn't get resolved, and I suppose was deliberately left hanging for The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. He's not really a fully formed character. He's a plot device to get the crew to Magarathea and get the Point of View gun into their possession for the climax. It's not like Douglas never wrote characters like that before either and Humma's position as leader of a religion built out of the whole "Great Green Arkleseizure" thing is within the previously established universe, so ultimately doesn't seem out of place.

And the side-trip to Vogsphere also expands on something only previously skated across in previous incarnations of Hitchhiker. A full-on exploration of the Vogon's and their homeworld was well overdue and if anybody else had imagined that it would come across as a fantastic cross between Brazil and The Dark Crystal I'd have been very surprised.

Finally... Arthur and Trillian... The lurrrrve story. Arthur has always fancied Trillian. And lets face it, without the girl, and the party he completely failed to get off with her at, none of this infinitely improbable story would have happened (which is explicitly pointed out in dialogue in the movie), but she's never been that bothered about him before. To borrow a well known phrase, she wasn't that in to him. And Arthur needs her and more importantly the emotional connection she represents to not only whats gone before, but what he's striving to reach. Come on. They make a cute couple. Get over it already!

"Share and Enjoy!"

"The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" (2005) has its supporters and its detractors. As with any piece of literature or film it has its faults and foibles, but it is still a remarkably entertaining couple of hours that I would happily dig out on occasion.

In conclusion, it's sadly obvious that the time for Hitchhikers as a 'movie franchise' has been and gone. Those that made the decisions obviously felt that continuing with Restaurant wasn't the direction they wanted to go. And that's a shame, but we still have this film. For one shining moment The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy had a shedload of money thrown at it with an A-list cast and it rose above its humble BBC origins. It's never going to go away and it can sit proudly on the shelf on a shiny disc (the whole concept of which I'm sure
always appealed to Douglas himself) next to the CDs and other DVDs and books and sequels and computer games and towels. Hitchhikers will never end. It will never go away.

So long and...