Phil Newton casts an eye on the TV scene letting you what you've missed and gives also give you the heads up on what to look out for.
 

No. 1 - 12th January 2008.

Happy New Year and welcome to my new TV Eye column. When Paul first approached me with the idea of contributing a regular blog to the FrightFest website I was flattered but at a bit of a loss as to what topic to write about. With Alan and Dave already covering the latest cinematic developments and with Giles cornering the DVD market, I eventually suggested writing about one area of the genre that receives little coverage outside of the forum – television.

Whilst there’s seemingly only a handful of horror-specific programmes broadcast on the small screen (Masters Of Horror and Jekyll are rare examples which spring to mind) there is however an abundance of genre-related product which we all enjoy watching, whether it be US imports like Heroes and 24, or homegrown shows such as Doctor Who and Life On Mars. In the coming months I’ll be casting my net over the latest series alongside anything else that catches my TV Eye in a lighthearted look at the best – and worst – of today’s television.

*** Be warned, there may be spoilers herein ***

For my first blog I’m going to look back over the recent holiday schedule, so where better place to begin than the Doctor Who Christmas Special (BBC One). If you’ve read my posts on the forum then you’ll already know that I’m a massive fan of the series. I grew up with the show as a kid and have many fond memories of watching the Tom Baker stories at teatime on a Saturday, as well as being an avid reader of Doctor Who Weekly (as it was back then) and collecting all the various ephemera available. I even recall one day a group of us from school sitting down to make a full audio recording of The Five Doctors from the Target novelisation with each of us taking several parts. Crazy days!

Fast forward twenty-five years and we have a revitalised show, one of the BBC’s flagships, with its now customary Christmas Day edition. Traditionally these have been patchy, but this year Voyage Of The Damned bucked the trend to give us a largely rewarding slice of sci-fi drama. Russell T. Davies story was essentially Poseidon in Space; the starship Titanic is on a collision course with Earth in a diabolic financial scam by failing business tycoon Max Capricorn. Whereas Davies’ recent episodes have been hit and miss – his hamfisted handling of The Master at the end of last season after such a promising set up – here he was on safer ground, delivering a script that crackled with wit and wisdom. The Doctor was on top form with Tennant giving one of his less screechy performances and having one of the best lines of the revived series so far – “I’m the Doctor, I’m a Timelord… And I’m the man who’s going to save your lives and all six billion on the planet below. Got a problem with that?”

Although the plot sagged badly in its mid-section and could have happily squeezed into the standard episode length, there was much to enjoy here with villainous duties undertaken by the menacing Hosts (basically Axons with haloes) and the ruthless Max Capricorn, portrayed as a cross between Davros and Dr. Evil! Bolstered by impressive production values and a starry cast including Geoffrey Palmer (As Time Goes By), Clive Swift (Keeping Up Appearances), George Costigan (The Long Firm), Russell Jovey (The History Boys) and Bernard Cribbins (Daleks’ Invasion Earth: 2150 AD) the main talking point was the casting of Kylie as Astrid, a waitress aboard the stricken ship. She gave a confident performance and would, I’m sure, have made a more popular choice of companion than Catherine Tate had the producers not decided to kill her off. Still, in an episode where numerous innocents perished and one scumbag in particular survived, this made an important point – “If you could decide who lives and who dies, that would make you a monster.”

There were weaknesses, sure; the numerous amount of times the Sonic Screwdriver gets the Doctor out of a tight squeeze (three) and the incongruous ending which rather suggested that money is the root to all happiness, surely not the correct message to be giving out even if Christmas is becoming more of a commercial exercise than a religious holiday these days. Still, with its Christmas setting there were plenty of other festive references from the hilarious accounts of our Christmas traditions as voiced by ‘Earthanomics’ expert Mr Copper – “They worship the great God Santa with fearsome claws and go to war with the country Turkey!” – to Christmas carols, snow fall, and even a rather cringe-making ‘Happy Christmas’ message from Her Majesty herself! Let’s hope this seasonal cheer bodes well for the season ahead.

Moving on to another sci-fi classic which has been blazing the comeback trail, Battlestar Galactica: Razor (Sky One) was a feature-length episode acting as a stop-gap until the fourth and final season is filmed. Set during the events of Season 2 when Captain Lee Adama was in charge of the Pegasus, it focused on a search and rescue mission, alongside scenes from Cain’s command ten months earlier, plus flashbacks to the first Cylon war. With its focus centering on feisty new Executive Officer Kendra Shaw (Stephanie Jacobsen), Razor proved to be much more than just filler, revealing further prophets of Starbuck’s destiny as well as a hitherto unmentioned plot strand involving a Cylon hybrid. Compelling viewing!

What other festive treats caught my TV Eye over the festive period? Well, I spotted Vincent Cassel popping up in Coronation Street (ITV1) (do an image search on Google for Vernon Tomlin and you’ll see what I mean), DCI Gene Hunt in a spoof version of Life On Mars during the underwhelming The Catherine Tate Show Christmas Special (BBC One), but perhaps the most bizarre programme on telly was First Cut: Murderers On The Dancefloor (C4), an all-too-brief look at the prisoners of Cebu Provincial Detention & Rehabilitation Center who stage elaborate dance routines to eighties pop classics - their interpretation of Michael Jackson’s Thriller has already received over 7 million views on YouTube - although whether they do it willingly or by force was open to much debate. Now, if only Michael Schofield and his pals could find themselves incarcerated at CPDRC then that would really liven up the next season of Prison Break…

Keep watching until the next time,

Phil.

__________________________________________________________________________

© London FrightFest Ltd. 2000-2007