Eoghann Irving's Blog, page 12

Sherlock Christmas Special - The Abominable Bride

I'm not sure what exactly the expectations were for this year's Sherlock special The Abominable Bride. All the promotional material made it clear than unlike the regular series it was going to be set in the Victorian era and thus just a stand alone stocking-stuffer. And that's how it proceeded for let's say the first 60 minutes of its running time (I didn't use a stopwatch I may be off by 3 seconds). At which point it got, complicated.

Okay let's step back. Opening with a "previously on" was an interesting technique that actually worked really well because it gave the audience an easy way to compare and contrast modern Sherlock with this Victorian pastiche Sherlock. And just on that level it was quite fun. Of course it turned out to have another purpose as well, but we'll get there.

So the early sequences are basically a fun romp showing us Holmes and Watson meeting and establishing their relationship in an echo of what we've seen before and taking advantage of that fact and the period setting to throw a few barbs in there. There's a lot of humor in this episode. At times it verges on being too much and becoming a parody of itself, but I think it just stays on the right line of things.

There's also an interesting line of feminism running through the show for much of its run though it is a feminism that by the very nature of the source material is mostly talked about by men. Some people are going to have a problem with that but I'm really not sure how it can be avoided without completely throwing out the format both of this show and of Holmes stories in general.

So there's lots of fun to be had seeing familiar characters in familiar yet unfamiliar guises (Mycroft is a particular treat) and there's a creepy, spooky, gothic sort of mystery building up nicely. Along the way there were a few minor inconsistencies but I was mostly so wrapped up in enjoying things I didn't care. And then Moriarty appeared.

Now I love Andrew Scott's interpretation of Moriarty so I have no problem with the characters inclusion, but this was the point at which it became clear we were playing in the "Mind Palace" again. I'm not a big fan of the mind palace. I think it was overused in the last season and was not happy to see it appear in Doctor Who. But, once it became clear how it was being used, I found it very clever.

I imagine the switch to a more surreal mode of storytelling (jumping between present and past from one location to another) will not be universally popular though. For a start if your primary interest was the mystery of the titular Abominable Bride, they did kind of brush that off. I mean we got a solution and it stands up okay, but by that point the walls of reality had thoroughly crumbled so the denouement of the mystery was a surreal spectacle in its own right.

Would the episode have been stronger if it had just stuck to the original narrative? I think it would as a story. On the other hand doing this did enable a really deep dive into what makes Holmes who he is and his relationship with Watson. So, it's a bit of a trade off really. I think it comes down to which you think is the more important, the mystery element or the characters. There were really very few elements of the episode that I disliked, it's just that the two parts smashed together rather messily.

Between the sharp dialogue, the Victorian setting, the brilliant moments and some really good camera work I spent the entire time I was watching The Abominable Bride really enjoying it. The questions and pocking at it mostly came afterwards. So by that definition it's a success, but I fully expect to see a lot of reviews from people who hated it.

TV Review - The Expanse S01E04 - CQB

2015 has seen the rise and rise of serialized storytelling on tv. It's a trend that has been growing slowly for years but particularly with the likes of Netflix and Amazon it is coming into its own. While The Expanse is on a traditional cable tv channel it's very much serialized rather than episodic in nature. Hardly surprising perhaps given it seems to be a very faithful adaptation of the source material (a series of scifi books).

There's a lot to like about serialized storytelling not least of which is the ability to go unexpected places. In episodic tv you set up your "home locations" early on and keep returning to them. Not so, The Expanse where we keep getting the rug pulled out from underneath us as a location or character is set up and then summarily destroyed. Nobody is safe, nowhere is safe.

The downside to that is that it takes a lot of time for a serialized story to really set out its stall, establish its narrative thrust and get going. If you were to judge The Expanse by only its first or second episodes you wouldn't really be getting the full picture. As someone who has read all the books I know how much larger the story will get most viewers have to take that on trust. But I think this is the episode. If you don't enjoy The Expanse by the end of CQB then probably you're not going to.

The show isn't rushing and four episodes into its ten episode first season it is maybe a quarter of the way through book one of the series. Elements are put in place in this episode for the first time that will be key to the whole plot line. There's so much potential here that I'm really hoping we get to see it all.

At least in CQB you start to get some pay off. We get more insight into the political differences between Mars and Earth, we get a sense of their technological capabilities. We get the sort of battle that could only happen in zero-g (and that's something you rarely see in tv science fiction) and ever so slowly the larger plot begins to coalesce.

There's a lot going on here, many characters and factions, a mass of universe building. It's a lot to take in. Hopefully that plot momentum pushes people onwards as it's fair to say the characters are undeveloped at this point (as they were in the book too). That too will eventually change if we get that far.

If you like spaceship science fiction give this four episodes to grab you.

TV Review: Colony S01E01 - Pilot

I am predisposed to like science fiction shows so it's probably not a good sign when part way through the pilot of USA Network's new show Colony I found my attention drifting away from the screen and over to my laptop. It's not that it was boring so much as that I just didn't care about what was happening to the people on my screen.

I guess the opening sequence which subtly revealed the status quo of the world (it's been invaded by aliens, spoilers!) through the lens of a family just going about doing it's normal morning routine should probably have been a clue about the sort of show this is. It's not about action or spectacle and it is all about the character interactions. Some people love that stuff, but it just kind of bores me most of the time.

To make matters worse the science fiction elements were barely in play at all. The invading aliens were never actually seen, just talked about and apart from a lot of drones flying around there really wasn't much sign of advanced technology or anything else. In essence what you have here is people being beastly to each other, because that's what people do. Which is frequently true certainly, but not something I need to watch because it's depressing.

Josh Holloway and Sarah Wayne Callies do yeoman's work trying to give their characters personality, but the script doesn't give them anything to work with. They are prototypical mother and father archetypes and the children don't even merit that much personality. Why should I care about these characters if the writers apparently don't?

There's certainly some potential to the series. We're obviously supposed to be caught up in the conflict between the necessity of collaborating to save your family and the drive to resist and throw off the oppressing aliens. But the aliens aren't present so it's hard to care much about them and right now the resistance is exactly like every stereotypical resistance group you've ever seen on tv.  Compare this to the pilot set up for The Man in the High Castle which deals with some similar issues and it's a bit embarrassing really.

All of the above could certainly be overcome in the next few episodes if the characters are given some space to grown and show depth and if the villains of the piece get to become something more than jack booted thugs and paper thin collaborator stereotypes but they haven't given me a reason to come back and see that happen.

Even the hook at the end of the episode made me roll my eyes rather than perk up in interest. The last thing I want to see on tv is yet more examples of couples lying to each other in "dramatically interesting" but ultimately dubious ways when as the viewer I know perfectly well it will all come out and then everyone will be outraged and upset and...

You see there's really nothing terribly wrong with this show, but there's also nothing terribly right about it. It's full of familiar elements done to an adequate but unexceptional level and perhaps if you appreciate the family drama elements it will appeal more to you but for me it was simply dull.

Movie Review - Star Wars: The Force Awakens

This is Star Wars. Forget the prequels, hell forget the Ewoks. This is what got you excited to visit a "Galaxy far, far away" in the first place. The Force Awakens had a lot of goals to accomplish and I think it managed to do all of them (some better than others perhaps). It's not a literary movie, nor a particularly deep one but it is Star Wars.

The Force Awakens is not a reboot in the traditional sense, but it does wipe about 80% of the slate clean leaving future movies somewhere interesting to go. The prequels exist but they don't matter and the neat resolution that we were presented with at the end of Return of the Jedi is dismantled.

Just for clarity, this will not be a 100% spoiler free review. I can't address certain points without at least tangentially or broad brush referencing what happens in the movie. It's not going to be a blow-by-blow recap mind you, but if your spoiler-phobic and must watch the movie in a pure, virginal state then spare me the drama and don't read.

We Cheer for Rebels, Not Republics

Return of the Jedi gave us an ending. An overly neat one really if you think about how wars and rebellions really work but still it wrapped up the story nicely with a happy ending. The problem is that happy endings are boring if you need make three more movies out of them. So the first thing The Force Awakens needed to do was blow up that status quo. Mission accomplished.

Beyond that though we needed to have an underdog to cheer for. One of the (many) problems with the prequel movies was that most of the time the characters we were supposed to root for were in a position of power and superiority. That doesn't make for compelling action and adventure really.

The Force Awakens solves that problem by giving us the Resistance (the Rebellion by any other name), cutting them off from larger support and beefing up the opposition by visibly making the First Order the sort of military superpower that the Empire allegedly was, but we never really got to see. These stormtroopers are effective and ruthless and brutal where so often before they've been a bit of a joke.

Combining the New and the Old

My biggest fear for these new movies was that the films would pander too much towards the fans love of the original trilogy characters. A lot of the pre-release publicity was given over to the return of Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill and you can't really have a Star Wars sequel without at least addressing what happened to Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and Princess Leia. At the same time, you can't have a continuing action franchise that relies on 60-70 year old stars.

There's a danger when you mix established fan favorites with new characters that the old ones dominate and overshadow. The Force Awakens avoids this very effectively, first by giving the new characters time to breathe and establish themselves before the old familiar faces arrive on the scene and then by making sure that the new characters get the majority of the screen time. Even Harrison Ford, easily the most prominent of the original cast in this is clearly cast as secondary to Finn, Rey and Kylo Renn.

And let's talk about the new characters and actors for a moment. Star Wars is not renowned for its acting. In fact it is better known for taking good actors and making them rather mediocre. In this case however John Boyega and Daisy Ridley are excellent both on their own and together. There's a distinct chemistry to the scenes they share which is a pleasure to watch.  They give their characters emotional weight and make me want to keep following them.

Wait, Haven't I Seen This Before?

One of the criticisms that can be made about the movie is that it leans very heavily on its predecessors. In truth, it's sort of a "Star Wars megamix supercut". Someone on YouTube will eventually put together a scene by scene of all the previous elements referenced in this one movie I have no doubt.

It's not just the big (or planet sized) stuff either. There are emotional beats, plot elements and occasionally outright quotes. I think every iconic scene from all 6 previous movies is referenced in one way or another. In particular however there is no escaping the way the structure of this movie echoes A New Hope. Right from the beginning on a sandy planet with a droid escaping Stormtroopers... There are numerous other scenes that will immediately take you back to that first movie too.

This wasn't done by accident nor I think through lack of imagination. I believe it was a deliberate attempt to echo the start of the series. It's a signal of sorts that that you're going to get pure, unadulterated Star Wars not the talky, angst laden, drama that the prequels made it. In some ways then The Force Awakens is a palette cleanser. Hit the high notes, remind the audience what this is supposed to be about and set things up to move forward.

So It's Perfect Then?

No. It isn't perfect. There are several things I can nitpick. For example the story relies on coincidence to an absurd degree. So many people just happen to be in the right location on Jaku (an entire planet remember) at exactly the right time that it beggars belief. And then there's Han's arrival on the scene. It's also a little rushed in places because it's juggling a lot of characters and setting up a lot of plot. There are a few places where it feels like maybe I've missed a few scenes.

But my primary criticism relates to the character of Kylo Ren. Adam Driver gives a good performance, making the character almost relatable for much of the movie and showing us perhaps what could have been in the prequels if Annakin had been handled properly. Despite that however, the movie once again fails to really explain what the draw of the "Dark Side" is.

This has always been a weak spot for Star Wars. There's a lot of cliched talk that just about works when you're just general talk about "the force" but it falls down when you're showing why individuals are doing what they do. Ren says he's torn, but he never shows it in his actions. We're told that Supreme Leader Snoke essentially seduced Ren to the dark side, but not given any indication of the how or why of that. At one point he talks to the deformed mask of his grandfather asking to be shown the power of the dark side. Why? What does he expect to see? Why would he have any sympathy for Vader anyway?

I have similar problems with Snoke who is, on this initial outing, just Emperor Mark II. We don't get any motivations, nothing beyond evil, evil, eeeevil! This is fine when all they are doing is twirling their mustaches, but it gets more difficult when the movie expects me to care about them.

Some of this could be addressed in later movies of course, but that doesn't help when you're watching this one.

But it's Star Wars

None of those criticisms really amount to anything though because from the opening crawl onwards this movie feels like Star Wars in a way the prequels never achieved. It is fast paced, funny (and even the physical humor with the droids is actually funny), there are no lens-flares (thank you Abrams) and we even get wipes and fades!

The universe is grimy, gritty and worn down. It looks like Star Wars, it probably tastes like Star Wars. The fate of the galaxy is in the hands of a small group of rebels who are outnumbered and outpowered and yet we know they will find a way.

Watch, Wait for the DVD or Skip

Seriously?

Doctor Who S09E11 - Heaven Sent

Well if this isn't just the most Moffaty of Steven Moffat episodes. In many ways it epitomizes what Steven Moffat brings to Doctor Who, both the good and the bad. Heaven Sent is the much heralded Doctor on his own episode with a promised huge cliffhanger. And, based on the online commentary at least, it has proved to be very popular episode.

Which surprises me because as I said it's a very Moffat episode and not just the stuff everyone likes but the things people have been complaining about for several seasons now. Plus the cliffhanger really isn't anything to write home about.

Peter Capaldi

If you're compiling a list of positives for any episode from season 9 of Doctor Who then Peter Capaldi is at the top. He's had a number of stand out moments this season but until now he hasn't had to shoulder the weight of the whole show single handed. He does it here though and it doesn't look like he even breaks a sweat.

Over the course of the episode we get an angry Doctor, a scared Doctor, a plotting Doctor and a determined Doctor. And Capaldi makes us believe all of them and buy into the shift between the tones as well. At no point during this episode did it feel obvious that or boring that the Doctor was the only speaking character.

That's impressive.

Puzzling Moffat

As the Doctor notes in this episode he is trapped in a puzzle box. It's fair to say that the construction of the episode echoes that puzzlebox. It's all very carefully constructed and while I have a couple of niggles the logic holds up pretty well in the end.

Moffat is using some of his favorite plot elements here. We get weird time elements, little glimpses of the Doctor's past, deaths that aren't actually final. In fact it is all the things that Moffat has been accused of overusing in the last few years.

He doesn't even stop at picking from his favorite Doctor Who motifs, going as far as to blatantly steal Sherlock's "mind palace" and use it. And in many ways it fits least as well with the Doctor as it does with Sherlock Holmes but I found its use did pull me out of the story for a moment.

Heaven Sent has been legitimately praised for being something new. There's never been a Doctor Who story like it before. It's also a very clever story that uses recursion very well. Oddly enough though I found it emotionally distant. Despite the Doctor's early anger and the brief appearance of Clara, this story just did not carry the emotional weight with me that Face the Raven did. And in the end I think it is the lack of other characters that puts it several steps below stories like Blink or Silence in the Library for me.

In the end this is a story that is just a little too concerned with its own structure rather than telling itself.

That Cliffhanger

Were people really surpised by this one? It's been crystal clear since Day of the Doctor  that the Doctor would end up back on Gallifrey eventually. And there have been so many hints this season that I was definitely expecting it to happen this year.

I like where its going, I'm just (again) baffled by people's surprise and excitement.

I do wonder if you set aside the cliffhanger and the uniqueness of a Doctor only episode, if people would rate this story as highly as they seem to be. It will be interesting to see what people say about it in a couple of years time after its been rewatched a bit.

The Hybrid

So the Doctor is the hybrid? There are many ways to interpret that:

He's lying, he does that.
He's half-human (technically still canon though it's been carefully ignored)
We have been told that the Doctor would make a "good" Dalek...

Doctor Who S09E11 — Heaven Sent

Well if this isn’t just the most Moffaty of Steven Moffat episodes. In many ways it epitomizes what Steven Moffat brings to Doctor Who, both the good and the bad. Heaven Sent is the much heralded Doctor on his own episode with a promised huge cliffhanger. And, based on the online commentary at least, it has proved to be very popular episode.

Which surprises me because as I said it’s a very Moffat episode and not just the stuff everyone likes but the things people have been complaining about for several seasons now. Plus the cliffhanger really isn’t anything to write home about.

Peter Capaldi

If you’re compiling a list of positives for any episode from season 9 of Doctor Who then Peter Capaldi is at the top. He’s had a number of stand out moments this season but until now he hasn’t had to shoulder the weight of the whole show single handed. He does it here though and it doesn’t look like he even breaks a sweat.

Over the course of the episode we get an angry Doctor, a scared Doctor, a plotting Doctor and a determined Doctor. And Capaldi makes us believe all of them and buy into the shift between the tones as well. At no point during this episode did it feel obvious that or boring that the Doctor was the only speaking character.

That’s impressive.

Puzzling Moffat

As the Doctor notes in this episode he is trapped in a puzzle box. It’s fair to say that the construction of the episode echoes that puzzlebox. It’s all very carefully constructed and while I have a couple of niggles the logic holds up pretty well in the end.

Moffat is using some of his favorite plot elements here. We get weird time elements, little glimpses of the Doctor’s past, deaths that aren’t actually final. In fact it is all the things that Moffat has been accused of overusing in the last few years.

He doesn’t even stop at picking from his favorite Doctor Who motifs, going as far as to blatantly steal Sherlock’s “mind palace” and use it. And in many ways it fits least as well with the Doctor as it does with Sherlock Holmes but I found its use did pull me out of the story for a moment.

Heaven Sent has been legitimately praised for being something new. There’s never been a Doctor Who story like it before. It’s also a very clever story that uses recursion very well. Oddly enough though I found it emotionally distant. Despite the Doctor’s early anger and the brief appearance of Clara, this story just did not carry the emotional weight with me that Face the Raven did. And in the end I think it is the lack of other characters that puts it several steps below stories like Blink or Silence in the Library for me.

In the end this is a story that is just a little too concerned with its own structure rather than telling itself.

That Cliffhanger

Were people really surpised by this one? It’s been crystal clear since Day of the Doctor  that the Doctor would end up back on Gallifrey eventually. And there have been so many hints this season that I was definitely expecting it to happen this year.

I like where its going, I’m just (again) baffled by people’s surprise and excitement.

I do wonder if you set aside the cliffhanger and the uniqueness of a Doctor only episode, if people would rate this story as highly as they seem to be. It will be interesting to see what people say about it in a couple of years time after its been rewatched a bit.

The Hybrid

So the Doctor is the hybrid? There are many ways to interpret that:

He’s lying, he does that.
He’s half-human (technically still canon though it’s been carefully ignored)
We have been told that the Doctor would make a “good” Dalek…

TV Review: The Expanse S01E01 - Dulcinea

Those of you lamenting the lack of space based science fiction on tv should be very pleased about SyFy's latest series The Expanse which is adapted from a series of books by James S. A. Corey (actually a pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) because we're firmly in Space Opera territory here. While the story is set within our solar system we're looking at a (partially) terraformed Mars and assorted space stations.

The reason you don't see shows like this on TV very much is that even with modern CGI, doing them convincingly is expensive. People have become so used to movie style special effects that they are not at all forgiving of less convincing ones. Which is probably why SyFy is only giving us ten episodes in this first season.

It's also why, if you don't watch it, they won't do a second season. They've clearly put more budget behind it than most of their shows and the fact that they've done this early online release of the first episode (ahead of the actual December 14th premiere) shows that they've making an effort with this one.

So What's It All About?

Having read all the books in the series so far (five and counting) it's about a lot, but let's stick to the basics. It's set 200 years in the future and follows two primary plot threads: Detective Miller (Thomas Jayne) on Ceres Station as he tries to track down missing heiress Julie Mau and newly appointed XO Jim Holden (Steven Strait) on board the ice hauler Canterbury as they intercept a distress signal from another ship. Suffice to say things end up much more complicated than either one expects. Based on just this first episode it seems their going to stay fairly close to the plot of the first book.

This is space opera with a gritty coating. No phasers or teleporters. People have to do things the slow, difficult way. Even accelerating the ships requires the crew to be injected with a cocktail of drugs so they can survive. Belters, those who are born and work on the space stations in the asteroid belt have a different physiology as a result of spending all their time in zero-g and there are tensions between Earth, Mars and the belt.

It's Like Now, Only in the Future!

One of the things that science fiction can do is take current situations and examine them through the lens of the future. The tensions between the planets and the belters falls into that category. There's even a militant terrorist organization in the form of the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance). On the surface this may sound similar to series like Dark Matter or Killjoys but it wont (just) be about greedy corporations and there's a lot more depth to the politics and realpolitik of The Expanse.

I've seen some comments that the belters don't look very different to earthers in the pilot. Well, to be fair, they can only cast from earth born humans so that is a limitation. But in the first episode it was noticeable that they were picking tall and skinny actors as much as possible to try and emphasize the physical differences. They also didn't back away from belter slang which can make it challenging to follow some of the dialogue, at least until you start to recognize words and accents.

As you might expect from a space station the cast are about as diverse as you'll see anywhere on tv both in skin tones and accents. I find that quite refreshing and as far as I can tell it's mostly consistent with the books. I must admit I never bother picturing characters when I read about them so I don't have a "visual" to contradict except perhaps that I thought Miller was older.

Special and Not So Special Effects

This is a tv series not a $200 million movie. So if you're looking for effects on par with Interstellar or Star Wars: The Force Awakens you will be disappointed. They do, however, range from passable to good. There's a few iffy zero gravity scenes (particularly the sex scene) but for the most part they don't intrude on your enjoyment of the episode and in places they do evoke that all important sensawunda.

The sets are good, being suitably dirty and claustrophobic or impressively large depending on where the characters are. They feel real, even when they are not. If you remember Babylon 5 fondly, I think you will be impressed by how far TV space stations have come.

The other thing worth noting is the camera which floats and spins around, perfectly emphasising the zero-g nature of the environments or zooms in uncomfortably close to the characters faces, forcing you to feel their claustrophobia. It adds a lot to the atmosphere of the show.

It's a Matter of Character

Right now, going only from what has aired I think the characters are the weakest part of The Expanse. With the advantage of knowing what is to come, I fully expect that to change.

The actors seem at least solid in their roles but most of them haven't really had much screen time yet. Basically if you're not Holden or Miller you've only got to say a few lines if anything. And even those two feel pretty cliched. Yup, it's a cynical and world weary detective, whose ever seen one of those before!

All I can really say is give it time. Those characters will get deeper as the story unravels. There's a certain pulp feel to the source material but they are far more than the one note they've had a chance to play so far.

Should I Watch This?

If you like space based scifi then yes you absolutely should watch this. The show is not without flaws, but it has enormous potential and I enjoyed it.

TV Review: The Expanse S01E01 — Dulcinea

Those of you lamenting the lack of space based science fiction on tv should be very pleased about SyFy’s latest series The Expanse which is adapted from a series of books by James S. A. Corey (actually a pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) because we’re firmly in Space Opera territory here. While the story is set within our solar system we’re looking at a (partially) terraformed Mars and assorted space stations.

The reason you don’t see shows like this on TV very much is that even with modern CGI, doing them convincingly is expensive. People have become so used to movie style special effects that they are not at all forgiving of less convincing ones. Which is probably why SyFy is only giving us ten episodes in this first season.

It’s also why, if you don’t watch it, they won’t do a second season. They’ve clearly put more budget behind it than most of their shows and the fact that they’ve done this early online release of the first episode (ahead of the actual December 14th premiere) shows that they’ve making an effort with this one.

So What’s It All About?

Having read all the books in the series so far (five and counting) it’s about a lot, but let’s stick to the basics. It’s set 200 years in the future and follows two primary plot threads: Detective Miller (Thomas Jayne) on Ceres Station as he tries to track down missing heiress Julie Mau and newly appointed XO Jim Holden (Steven Strait) on board the ice hauler Canterbury as they intercept a distress signal from another ship. Suffice to say things end up much more complicated than either one expects. Based on just this first episode it seems their going to stay fairly close to the plot of the first book.

This is space opera with a gritty coating. No phasers or teleporters. People have to do things the slow, difficult way. Even accelerating the ships requires the crew to be injected with a cocktail of drugs so they can survive. Belters, those who are born and work on the space stations in the asteroid belt have a different physiology as a result of spending all their time in zero-g and there are tensions between Earth, Mars and the belt.

It’s Like Now, Only in the Future!

One of the things that science fiction can do is take current situations and examine them through the lens of the future. The tensions between the planets and the belters falls into that category. There’s even a militant terrorist organization in the form of the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance). On the surface this may sound similar to series like Dark Matter or Killjoys but it wont (just) be about greedy corporations and there’s a lot more depth to the politics and realpolitik of The Expanse.

I’ve seen some comments that the belters don’t look very different to earthers in the pilot. Well, to be fair, they can only cast from earth born humans so that is a limitation. But in the first episode it was noticeable that they were picking tall and skinny actors as much as possible to try and emphasize the physical differences. They also didn’t back away from belter slang which can make it challenging to follow some of the dialogue, at least until you start to recognize words and accents.

As you might expect from a space station the cast are about as diverse as you’ll see anywhere on tv both in skin tones and accents. I find that quite refreshing and as far as I can tell it’s mostly consistent with the books. I must admit I never bother picturing characters when I read about them so I don’t have a “visual” to contradict except perhaps that I thought Miller was older.

Special and Not So Special Effects

This is a tv series not a $200 million movie. So if you’re looking for effects on par with Interstellar or Star Wars: The Force Awakens you will be disappointed. They do, however, range from passable to good. There’s a few iffy zero gravity scenes (particularly the sex scene) but for the most part they don’t intrude on your enjoyment of the episode and in places they do evoke that all important sensawunda.

The sets are good, being suitably dirty and claustrophobic or impressively large depending on where the characters are. They feel real, even when they are not. If you remember Babylon 5 fondly, I think you will be impressed by how far TV space stations have come.

The other thing worth noting is the camera which floats and spins around, perfectly emphasising the zero-g nature of the environments or zooms in uncomfortably close to the characters faces, forcing you to feel their claustrophobia. It adds a lot to the atmosphere of the show.

It’s a Matter of Character

Right now, going only from what has aired I think the characters are the weakest part of The Expanse. With the advantage of knowing what is to come, I fully expect that to change.

The actors seem at least solid in their roles but most of them haven’t really had much screen time yet. Basically if you’re not Holden or Miller you’ve only got to say a few lines if anything. And even those two feel pretty cliched. Yup, it’s a cynical and world weary detective, whose ever seen one of those before!

All I can really say is give it time. Those characters will get deeper as the story unravels. There’s a certain pulp feel to the source material but they are far more than the one note they’ve had a chance to play so far.

Should I Watch This?

If you like space based scifi then yes you absolutely should watch this. The show is not without flaws, but it has enormous potential and I enjoyed it.

TV Review: The Expanse S01E01 — Dulcinea

Those of you lamenting the lack of space based science fiction on tv should be very pleased about SyFy’s latest series The Expanse which is adapted from a series of books by James S. A. Corey (actually a pen name for Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) because we’re firmly in Space Opera territory here. While the story is set within our solar system we’re looking at a (partially) terraformed Mars and assorted space stations.

The reason you don’t see shows like this on TV very much is that even with modern CGI, doing them convincingly is expensive. People have become so used to movie style special effects that they are not at all forgiving of less convincing ones. Which is probably why SyFy is only giving us ten episodes in this first season.

It’s also why, if you don’t watch it, they won’t do a second season. They’ve clearly put more budget behind it than most of their shows and the fact that they’ve done this early online release of the first episode (ahead of the actual December 14th premiere) shows that they’ve making an effort with this one.

So What’s It All About?

Having read all the books in the series so far (five and counting) it’s about a lot, but let’s stick to the basics. It’s set 200 years in the future and follows two primary plot threads: Detective Miller (Thomas Jayne) on Ceres Station as he tries to track down missing heiress Julie Mau and newly appointed XO Jim Holden (Steven Strait) on board the ice hauler Canterbury as they intercept a distress signal from another ship. Suffice to say things end up much more complicated than either one expects. Based on just this first episode it seems their going to stay fairly close to the plot of the first book.

This is space opera with a gritty coating. No phasers or teleporters. People have to do things the slow, difficult way. Even accelerating the ships requires the crew to be injected with a cocktail of drugs so they can survive. Belters, those who are born and work on the space stations in the asteroid belt have a different physiology as a result of spending all their time in zero-g and there are tensions between Earth, Mars and the belt.

It’s Like Now, Only in the Future!

One of the things that science fiction can do is take current situations and examine them through the lens of the future. The tensions between the planets and the belters falls into that category. There’s even a militant terrorist organization in the form of the OPA (Outer Planets Alliance). On the surface this may sound similar to series like Dark Matter or Killjoys but it wont (just) be about greedy corporations and there’s a lot more depth to the politics and realpolitik of The Expanse.

I’ve seen some comments that the belters don’t look very different to earthers in the pilot. Well, to be fair, they can only cast from earth born humans so that is a limitation. But in the first episode it was noticeable that they were picking tall and skinny actors as much as possible to try and emphasize the physical differences. They also didn’t back away from belter slang which can make it challenging to follow some of the dialogue, at least until you start to recognize words and accents.

As you might expect from a space station the cast are about as diverse as you’ll see anywhere on tv both in skin tones and accents. I find that quite refreshing and as far as I can tell it’s mostly consistent with the books. I must admit I never bother picturing characters when I read about them so I don’t have a “visual” to contradict except perhaps that I thought Miller was older.

Special and Not So Special Effects

This is a tv series not a $200 million movie. So if you’re looking for effects on par with Interstellar or Star Wars: The Force Awakens you will be disappointed. They do, however, range from passable to good. There’s a few iffy zero gravity scenes (particularly the sex scene) but for the most part they don’t intrude on your enjoyment of the episode and in places they do evoke that all important sensawunda.

The sets are good, being suitably dirty and claustrophobic or impressively large depending on where the characters are. They feel real, even when they are not. If you remember Babylon 5 fondly, I think you will be impressed by how far TV space stations have come.

The other thing worth noting is the camera which floats and spins around, perfectly emphasising the zero-g nature of the environments or zooms in uncomfortably close to the characters faces, forcing you to feel their claustrophobia. It adds a lot to the atmosphere of the show.

It’s a Matter of Character

Right now, going only from what has aired I think the characters are the weakest part of The Expanse. With the advantage of knowing what is to come, I fully expect that to change.

The actors seem at least solid in their roles but most of them haven’t really had much screen time yet. Basically if you’re not Holden or Miller you’ve only got to say a few lines if anything. And even those two feel pretty cliched. Yup, it’s a cynical and world weary detective, whose ever seen one of those before!

All I can really say is give it time. Those characters will get deeper as the story unravels. There’s a certain pulp feel to the source material but they are far more than the one note they’ve had a chance to play so far.

Should I Watch This?

If you like space based scifi then yes you absolutely should watch this. The show is not without flaws, but it has enormous potential and I enjoyed it.

Doctor Who S09E10 - Face the Raven

I'm always a bit reluctant to rank Doctors or seasons of the show but I will say that season 9 is one of my favorites. The stories haven't been perfect, they never are, but I've loved the slower pacing and the variety on offer. There's really only been one clunker in my book and fortunately Face the Raven wasn't it.

Generally I prefer two part stories because it gives things more time to breathe, but in this case the pacing was just fine. Yes, you could argue that this is really part 1 of a three parter, but you would be wrong. This is a stand alone story with a single mission.

Let's Kill Clara

Everything else in this story serves, at best, as a backdrop for the exit of the longest running companion in nu-Who history (not that it's actually that long, but still) and a lot of what we see here is paying off on the build up throughout the season. Without those elements it's fair to say my assessment of the story would be different, because it's a relatively slight affair really.

The mystery for example doesn't actually have that much depth to it. The tattoo, the hidden street and the "murder" are all solved in very little time at all. Nor do we really get a chance to explore what it means to have this refugee camp of aliens smack in the middle of London. It's all backdrop and I'm okay with that.

Throughout this season Clara has been acting increasingly recklessly and well, Doctorish. It's been noted and she's been warned, but like many young people she doesn't really believe she can die. After all she's seen the Doctor cheat death and save the day again and again and again.

And the thing is, Clara's actually quite good at being the Doctor. We've known that since the previous season. It's just that even the Doctor's luck runs out from time to time.

How Many Times is She Going To Leave?

There's a lot of criticism of the character of Clara online (much less of the actor it's worth noting) some of which stems from personality issues but perhaps more legitimately is the claim that she had no direction. I don't think that's true, but I do think her character arc has been warped by a number of off-screen events.

Being the companion who brought in a new Doctor inevitably impacted how she behaved and then her potential exit at the end of last season mean that she essentially had her arc completed. She got yet another potential exit written for the Christmas special, but decided to stay.

I'm glad she did because her portrayal this season and her exit is easily my favorite, but it's hard to dismiss the hiccups that all that uncertainty created when you look at the character's story as a whole.

They Always Run

Well, not always apparently. The whole point of this episode was to give Clara a significant death. And yes, it was significant, even if she didn't really save anyone. Because the point is not whether you actually save people, it's whether you try to. Clara acted bravely and died bravely. It was a great sendoff.

I'm sure it's not a coincidence that  her pose in death was so similar to the way the Doctor's reincarnations have happened in recent years, though with darkness billowing from her rather than light.

If the scene dragged out maybe a bit too long, it only made me wonder could there be a reprieve for the character? One last foolish hope to be dashed by the inevitability. Because somehow we all knew Clara was going to die. As soon as the rumors started about Jenna Coleman leaving there was an assumption that Clara wouldn't just fade away, she would die.

You Know Who I Am

And what an opportunity for Peter Capaldi to shine once more. Wordless compassion from a Doctor who isn't good with compassion and then fury pouring from him, aimed squarely at Ashildr. And Maisie Williams performance was pitch perfect. Suddenly the confident and ageless woman is a little girl once again, scared by what she is seeing.

But What About?

Yes the story took some shortcuts. It didn't properly explain why Ashildr could no longer cancel the contract, or indeed why if the Raven had to have a death she would have been able to in the first place. It also didn't explain why Clara couldn't have passed it on to the Doctor,  who could have survived.

In truth the whole trap was needlessly convoluted if you're being purely logical about it, but since I loved all the elements on screen I'm not sure what you could get rid of unless you turned it into a two parter. And then I think it would just have been too stretched out. Sometimes it's just better not to explain things and expect the audience to go along with you.

Should You Watch It?

Well, yeah. Companion exit stories are a mixed bag, but this is one of the best. I'd watch the rest of the season first though. You can skip Sleep no More.