Posts

4.21 She’s Come Undone She’s Come Undone wasn’t the cheeriest of adventures, but it let the dust settle after the revelations of the previous hour. Aria isn’t at all happy with this turn of events and, aside from attempting to confront Ezra at school, turn him over to the principal, and trashing his apartment, she also wants to run away (fair enough, seeing as she doesn’t seem to have parents anymore) from the rubble of her previously innocent and oblivious existence....

But it’s those episodes that really matter, of course, and Showtime’s latest stab at The Sopranos-esque family crime thriller is one that will certainly please a certain demographic. Starring Liev Schreiber, the obvious selling point for the show after standing out in numerous film roles, Ray Donovan sold itself as a crime-gangster drama from the start, and it’s only when watching the first season that you realise it has its sights set just as much on being a family drama....

Take chocolate. If you want to make a chocolate bar that’s going to take the world by storm, you need to come up with a recipe that’s so brilliant that people are going to come and buy your chocolate again and again. This recipe works for a while, but soon enough you have to bring something new to the table; otherwise, people are going to get bored. Chocolate bars are always being rebranded with something added, like KitKat Orange or White Malteasers....

1.20 Heart of Glory Once on the ship, the bridge crew monitors what Geordi can see, and Picard insists he give very specific verbal reports about everything, particularly Riker and Data, two things he could see for himself. So that experiment fails. They do, however, discover three Klingons! They bring them back to the Enterprise just as the freighter explodes. There’s a moment of tension where it looks like the away team has been killed – not, you understand, the tension of whether they’ve died or not, but the tension of whether we’re about to watch an episode about their crew-mates thinking they’ve died....

4.4 Suddenly Human The boy, named Jono, is initially defiant. He and his shipmates do nothing but rock and howl, like Wesley before his latest Starfleet entrance exam. Only when Picard arrives and is identified as the Captain do they engage with their rescuers, and Jono makes a formal request to return home. Meaning with the Talarians. At first, Picard is unsure what to do. An investigation by Dr. Crusher has discovered evidence that Jono has suffered multiple severe injuries over the last few years, and she believes that his captors brutalised him....

3.12 The High Ground Although she resists engaging with her captors, Crusher eventually gets talking with their leader, Finn, who explains that they need a doctor. He’s annoyed that the Federation is helping their enemies, but Crusher agrees to treat Finn’s sick and insists that the Federation is not taking sides. Meanwhile, Riker is off taking the other side. He’s met with Devos, the leader of the Rutian anti-terrorism force....

1.16 Too Short a Season As Karnas and Jameson speak, Troi looks suspicious, which is our first indication that everyone’s lying. Luckily, Jameson is a skilled negotiator and makes up a bunch of stuff to keep everyone off his back that Troi doesn’t notice. Later, in his quarters, Jameson is hit by some unexplained chest pains that he writes off as a result of his “treatments”. HMM! Crusher is confused by the medical records Jameson gave her, so she volunteers to spy on Jameson to see what’s going on....

“I didn’t dance in Poltergeist. That’s probably progress for me. I’m a big ham. Me and Chris Walken, we’re big hams. We love to dance.” Movie actors are often praised for their chameleonic qualities, particularly around the awards season, but there are certain actors that we love for trademarks. They’re still good actors, but fandom can always be less about their ability to disappear into a role and more about that thing that they always do....

It’s equally likely, though, that you’ll remember Sensible Software for the string of games that really made their name in the early 90s: Mega Lo Mania, Sensible Soccer and Cannon Fodder. Although very different in terms of gameplay, each game was united by their pace and addictive qualities, their slick programming and presentation, trademark tiny sprites and, again, a sly and sometimes dark sense of humour. Simply glancing at the cover provides an instant rush of half-forgotten memories: countless hours with friends in front of Sensible Soccer, with games ending in laughter and ridiculously high lines....

Here’s a note to any writers currently pitching a television show, who want to lay down one or two threads to help convince a TV executive to commission series two as soon as possible: watch the last ten minutes of Sherlock. The obvious thread awaiting resolution? Well, it’s just how will Sherlock and Watson get out of this one. If Sherlock shoots the explosives, then surely they all go up, and while I’m confident he’s got a cunning plan, or spotted something I haven’t, chances are there’s the best part of a year to wait yet....

The film opens with an ominous silhouetted figure listening to a merry rendition of “Up on the House Top” as he shaves and dons his Santa gear. Of course, he will be our requisite murderer for the remainder of the picture. Before the opening credits are done, he has electrocuted a man to death in Christmas lights and taken an axe off a wall to continue spreading holiday cheer downstairs....

Last week’s episode of Sons Of Anarchy was, by quite a long way, the weakest episode of the show’s entire run. It felt directionless, slow, and its only saving grace was the fantastic performance of an 85-year-old man. Last week ended with Gemma collapsing after hearing the news of Abel’s kidnap. This week opens with her waking up in a hospital bed, handcuffed to the rails. If you’ll cast your mind back to last week, Gemma called Agent Stahl to make a deal....

7.5 Some Strange Eruption For season seven, Some Strange Eruption may well be the episode that marks the upward turn. While this relatively low key instalment certainly did not cure many of the issues with the series (I really did not need that cover of Age Of Aquarius over the final montage), there was a lot to like this week. Above all else, this episode managed to restore some pathos to the Sons and remind us of why Jax is acting how he has been....

Mark Pickavance will be our guide, as we cross the final frontier one story at a time. Episode: 02Title: Charlie XStar Date: 1533.6Writer: D.C. Fontana (based on a story by Gene Roddenberry)First Shown: 15th September 1966 Charlie X was the first story written by D C Fontana for Star Trek, and it includes her distinctive mix of mind power and mayhem. It was shot eighth in the production order, and in this part of the season they were experimenting with the costumes....

“There’s a fluidity to Donald and Billy Dee’s (portrayal of Lando’s) sexuality,” Jonathan Kasdan said. “He doesn’t make any hard and fast rules. I think it’s fun. I don’t know where it will go.” However, the problem is that it probably won’t be explicitly confirmed in the movie. In the same interview Jonathan Kasdan stated, “I would have loved to have gotten a more explicitly LGBT character into this movie....

Star Wars Rebels Season 4 Episode 9 Hera Syndulla is one of the most enduring characters from Rebels. The mention of her name is blink-and-you’ll miss it in Rogue One, a bit of background detail that fans unfamiliar with Rebels might see as merely set dressing. But she was also brought to the younger set of viewers in Forces of Destiny, which confirms that she survives up until Return of the Jedi....

2.9 Visitation However, that is the least of the crew’s worries, as, when Destiny drops out of FTL, it saddles up next to a shuttle of Ancient design, which just happens to contain the members of the crew who left to set up a home on an Earth-like planet in the season one episode Faith. Col Young is rightly cautious about welcoming Caine and his deserters back to Destiny, as they seem a little creepier than I remember, especially since they have no idea how they turned up there and the majority of their memories have disappeared....

Supergirl Episode 13 I’m going to spoil this review somewhat right up front. I’m going to consider “For The Girl Who Has Everything” as the best episode of Supergirl so far. Certainly my favorite since “Fight or Flight.” It’s still an enormously flawed episode, but overall, I feel like the show took a step forward this week, and I do believe these successes can be built on. My usual complaints about Jimmy and Wynn?...

While her superhero work includes shows like Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Wolverine and the X-Men and Ultimate Spider-Man, she has been best known for 18 years as the voice of the half-human, half-demon superhero Raven on both the original Teen Titans series and the more recent Teen Titans Go!, playing the character both in serious mode and in the wacky, absurdist style of the latter, enormously popular series....

2.7 Restraint Just because you know your enemy, that doesn’t mean it’s easy to stop said enemy. For example, the kanima is Jackson; Scott and Stiles know this, but they can’t exactly overpower him when he’s out killing in lizard form. While Jackson isn’t a friend, he’s not in control of himself either; that’s no reason to simply follow a Derek Hale-type solution and just kill him outright. Stopping Jackson -and his mastermind – is the plan....