6.1 The Impossible Astronaut Crikey. Well there’s forty-five minutes of telly to put the cat amongst the proverbial pigeons. Teased for weeks by a quartet of Doctor Who Magazine front covers suggesting one of the Doctor, Rory, Amy or River would die in the first episode of the new series, it’s fair to suggest that not one of us would have suspected the former. Mind you, not one of us suspects that there won’t be a way to wriggle out of it somehow (and it will take some wriggling....

While this year’s set of conferences could arguably be described as solid rather than spectacular, gaming’s biggest companies still demonstrated that they had some treats in store for us over the coming year. Without further ado, here is a breakdown of all the biggest gaming news that happened at E3 this year. Microsoft kicked off their conference with a demo of the latest entry in the Call of Duty franchise, Advanced Warfare....

I must say that this year’s contest was pretty evenly matched. Every company had a distinct objective, whether it was redeeming themselves after a weak year or hitting it home after a great year — a year that will go down in gaming history, as the first year of a brand-new generation of consoles. For the most part, current-gen has been a success. Besides an affinity for useless peripherals, each new console has brought something new to the table....

First of all, Molly picked the worst possible place to hide from her pursuers: a family member’s house. In this case, it was the home of her estranged father, Quinn, who is a not-so-recovering alcoholic. Given the dubious task of taking Ethan out for dinner so that Molly and John can talk about things, Quinn was bound to screw things up. This was the only problem I had with this episode: unbelievably bad choices....

4.5 Mind Wars As we saw last week, not all strangers are trustworthy, but not all strangers are dangerous, either. Pope’s made a new friend, and this week it’s up to Tom Mason to make a couple of new friends while on the road from the internment camp with Weaver and Matt. Nick (Gil Bellows) and Cooper (Aaron Douglas) are friendly, they have food, and more importantly, they know who Tom is—the legendary Ghost who ran the skitters and mechs ragged in the concentration camp—and they’re more than willing to help out....

4.8 A Thing With Feathers As usual, Falling Skies takes the easier, happier way out. After the downturn in mood of last week’s episode, in which the Espheni scored a victory over the Second Mass thanks to some poor civic planning and an exposed, exploding gas line, Falling Skies reverts to the mean this week by using the miraculous alien technology at their disposal to correct a pesky, depressing turn away from the happy and soap opera that the show typically trades in....

1.16 Memories Of Murder But before I get into that, there’s a mystery to unravel about a women found dead as if she’d time travelled from the seventies, and how that links into fading memories of the past. That was at best so-so, mostly because of the writer’s insistence of using the ‘early character’ trick. This is the one where you’re introduced to the murderer very early in proceedings, and then entirely ignore that person until the late reveal....

Earlier in this season I derided Fringe for reliving the past glories of X-Files with an especially light monster-of-the-week episode. But in retrospect, this show is capable of delivering much better stories with a similar feel, and Snakehead falls into that category. This story was written by co-executive producer David Wilcox, who also wrote Fracture and has also contributed words to First Wave, Enterprise, Law & Order and the US Life On Mars....

Baelor Throughout the show’s marketing campaign, HBO have had Sean Bean front and centre. For those unfamiliar with the books, he was a recognisable face that would draw in curious viewers as well as those who were fans of the likes of Sharpe and Lord Of The Rings. His presence was reassuring and comforting, and despite the outbreak of war, many assumed that Ned Stark would rise to defeat those that had wronged his family and ride off into the sunset back to Winterfell....

4.5 First Of His Name It seems that no matter who is on screen this season, the episode is going to be good. A few minutes of Daenerys is very satisfying. Arya and the Hound hanging out by the fire can yield a wonderful example of physical acting. Brienne and Pod may be the most satisfying pairing the show’s had since Tyrion and Bronn (who are still awesome together). Aside from the notable exception of the controversial Jamie/Cersei scene from a couple of episodes ago, there hasn’t been much this season that hasn’t worked....

So Deano, joining the Essex lads for a night out in Barry, has learnt Welsh specially so that he can talk to Gav’s in-laws – who actually don’t know Welsh; who does? – and chat up Welsh girls in the clubs. Poor old Deano. his intentions are honourable but he’s thoroughly ensconced in his own world – one in which ‘toffee’ is a reasonable order to make in Starbucks – and needs Smithy The Wise to steer him through life....

Writers Ruth Jones and James Corden are fantastic when it comes to giving enough attention to the poignant scenes among the more farcical ones – something I think sets this comedy drama well apart from a lot of silly tat posing as comedy on the BBC. The scene in which Gavin and Stacey drove up to Essex immediately after the appointment was very moving, with the two characters utterly strained and unable to talk, but offering just a glance or a hand-squeeze in support of each other....

The goatpocalypse is inevitable in Coffee Stain Studios’ third-person adventure game about an evil goat with a taste for blood and carnage. Well, blood is a slight exagerration. There isn’t any gore, which is what makes Goat Simulator so charming. You almost forget that your task in the game is to commit mass murder while enjoying some pretty awesome skateboarding ramps and trampolines. Oh, there’s a jetpack, too. But really, you want blow as much shit up as possible to rack up points....

Gotham Season 2, Episode 18 Bruce and Jim are on the trail of “The Philosopher.” In watching this episode, I couldn’t believe that it took Gothamto get to this point in the Wayne murder case. Like, what have we even been doing for the last almost two seasons? Oh, yes. We’ve been watching Alfred brew Bruce tea and Gordon murder people in cold blood. Gothamgets back on track this week: Jim has decided not to return to the GCPD until after he solves the Waynes’ murder....

4.19 To Our Deaths And Beyond Ooops, wait, did I spoil the fact that Ra’s Al Ghul returns from the dead? Well, Ra’s Al Ghul returns from the dead and the whole Demon’s Head plot is so threadbare that it barely exists. Weeks back, Ra’s Al Ghul chose Barbara Kean as the new boss of the League of Shadows. The League splinters off with the female half backing Barbara and the male contingent seeking to resurrect Ra’s Al Ghul....

But once the first Green Lantern movie debuted to tepid reviews and box-office, the writing was on the wall, and it’s not clear just how far things got. But there was another movie in active development at the same time that Green Lantern was hitting cinemas that was definitely going to occupy the same narrative space: The Flash. The Flash TV series, by the way, shares a number of similarities with this script, like Barry’s penchant for voiceovers, his living with the West family after the murder of his mother, and a wheelchair-bound Eobard Thawne who heads up STAR Labs (complete with a particle accelerator that is key to unlocking parallel universes)....

5.7 Eve Of Destruction “We are at war.” And so our favourite fairy-tale-based procedural returns following its break for the holidays, and bloody hell, it’s back with a kick! To recap, Portland is under threat from the Wesen uprising. Nick, Monroe, Renard, Hank and Wu are trapped and all in serious danger until Juliette appears – blonde and back from the dead – to save them. We discover Juliette was still alive when Chavez took her and Trubel from Nick’s....

2.4 Takiawase Of all the shows on TV, Hannibal would be among the very last I would have imagined taking up the “dying with dignity” moral Gordian knot. But not only did Fuller raise the question, he turned it into one of the more horrific episodes thus far on the show. Kudos to him for the excellent casting of Amanda Plummer as this week’s psychopath, Katherine Pimm. While the episode focused only tangentially on the case in front of the team, we still got a deeply disturbing portrayal of the kind of Angel of Death psychotic who regularly makes appearances on shows like Criminal Minds and CSI (fill-in-the-city)....

Here it is. The time of year when this viewer shakes her fist angrily at the sky and curses God. Yes, it was with a heavy heart that I watched the season finale of Hannibal. All good things must come to an end, and in my opinion, nothing defines good television more than a series that knows both how and when to end (I am looking at you, first season of The Walking Dead)....

Normally I’d tell you in a roughly chronological way what happens in Heroes, but frankly I’m getting very bored with doing that. Not because nothing happens in ‘Angels and Monsters’, because plenty does. I’m getting entirely jarred by the way this season is developing, which is turning out to be worse than season 2. I’ve started to think back to events in season 1 and 2, and wonder why they don’t actual fit with the current story, even remotely....