Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who "Cold War"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS

Much as last week, the trailers gave the  impression that we seem to be continuing with a modified rerun of Series 5, so would this be the equivalent of "Victory of the Daleks"? More on that question as progress...

Joining the 60s/Second Doctor revival along with the Great Intelligence are the Ice Warriors and fittingly they've chosen that most Second Doctorish of settings, the "base under siege" story. As has been so far proven with the Great Intelligence that although these ideas are best part of 45 years old, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. I really enjoyed this particular setting, I was born in 1983 and I remember the Cold War as it was stumbling its way to its eventual thaw with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It's easy to forget what a knife edge the world was on. The Doctor's explanation of the events to Clara initially brought me up short, come on, everyone remembers this, I thought, but then it came to me that not only is Clara only 24, born in 1989 but also the target audience of young teenagers wouldn't necessarily be aware either. Gatiss did well to remind me that more than a few viewers are probably of a post millennial vintage and not 30 something's like myself. It was also a handy refresher of the "fixed moments in time" idea, I've got a sneaky suspicion we'll be seeing more of that this series! However while he was handily explaining the new (the TARDIS translation also got a refresher) we got the return of the TARDIS H.A.D.S (standing for "Hostile Action Displacement System) which has not seen in action since the Second Doctor adventure "The Krotons". Mark Gatiss very firmly nailing his fan colours to the wall there.

Gatiss, also being a horror aficionado knows that the best thing to do with your monster is to show as little of it as possible and let your audiences imagination do the rest. But he does this in a surprising way, breathing fresh life into the Ice Warriors by revealing a previously unseen ability and bringing new richness to this alien culture. The only slight complaint I heard among my fan chums was the lack of hissed "ssssss" sounds, so prevalent in their first incarnation. I wasn't too put out by it myself though, much like the early Cybermen their speech, although creepy made them hard to understand at times, especially on a watching on a wonky third generation VHS copy! Mind you adding to the culture does open the opportunity for pitfalls I do hope that they don't end up being Doctor Who's equivalent to the Klingons, all obsessed with personal honour and unnecessary shouting. However I feel that Gatiss was being reigned back slightly, in sure in an ideal world he would have ramped up the gore and tension but this is on at 6pm with the whole family watching. That scene of Skaldak clutching and stroking the head of Lieutenant Stepashin as he desperately negotiates for his life was plenty scary by itself.

As a lover of that Arnold Schwarzenegger magnum opus Predator I had more than a few reminders of it in this story, the crew being picked off one by one by being yanked into the ceiling, the unnatural speed and most of all the crackling, creaking hissing. If I have one criticism of the story it is that it seemed to lack that last killer blow that moves a story from good to great, whether he was restrained by the time slot or just didn't quite know how to resolve the story in the time remaining we may never know but as with Gatiss' previous efforts the wait for this viewer at least for him to deliver a truly great Doctor Who script goes on. Despite the criticism I've leveled at his writing what Gatiss really gets right is character, Matt Smith reigns in the Doctors goofy side for this weeks outing however his reaction to Skaldak behind him prompted a few giggles. If this episode was a homage to the Second Doctor's time then Matt Smith's performance was equal to Patrick Troughton's Doctor. Of all of his previous incarnations it's the Second Doctor I can see most here, whether running around corridors, accidentally breaking bits off the sub or passionately pleading for Skaldak to show mercy. Jenna-Louise Coleman is great as always confronted with her first really hairy situation travelling with the Doctor she copes admirably, combining a believable mix of terror and sheer curiosity. Steven Moffat has described these three episodes as an opening trio of stories and I feel that now we've really got to know her.

Mention must also be made of the guest cast, David Warner's pop music obsessed Professor was lovely I loved that all he really wanted to know about the future was if Ultravox had split up! And I really enjoyed Liam Cunnigham's Captain Zhukov pragmatic, noble and reigning in the blood thirst of his young second in command. I thought it was an interesting choice to set the action on a Soviet sub, it would have been all too easy to make it a British boat, its nice the soviets aren't mustache twirling villains, they're just men doing a job. So back to my opening question is this Series 5 take two? Well no, instead we a got a new take on Series 1's "Dalek", much as Rose was instrumental in breaking through to whatever passes for compassion in a Dalek, Clara uses the same methodology on Skaldak, citing his choice to show her and Gisenko mercy. While Dalek is a much superior story to Cold War, this is by itself a fine effort and probably Gatiss best Doctor Who script to date however I'm most interested to see if he can finally deliever that killer script later in this series.

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who "The Rings of Akhaten"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS

Last week in this here humble blog I compared "The Bells of St John" to "The Eleventh Hour" so would The Rings of Akhaten be Clara's equivalent of "The Beast Below"? Thus far in post 2005 Doctor Who the companions first ventures onto an alien planet/through time have been less that great, in series one The Doctor seems to think Rose will enjoy seeing her home planet incinerated but instead she's nearly murdered by a gobby trampoline, Martha ends up in Elizabethan England where she repeatedly sleazily chatted up by William Shakespeare, Donna gets to watch people get slaughtered by a volcano eruption and Amy has the treat of the dystopian nightmare of Starship UK and getting covered in Space Whale barf.

So how does Clara get on? Surprisingly well actually, she only suggests legging it about half an hour after I would have floated it as a possibility! The first trip for a companion these days is as much what the army call a "bottle test" as an adventure, so The Doctor can see if they've got the right stuff to travel with him and I would say that Clara passes with flying colours. Indeed I can imagine The Doctor observing from the shadows as Clara comforts the terrified Merry. Once again Jenna-Louise Coleman was on sparkling form in this episode, she was asked to do a lot in this outing and she rose to all the challenges presented.

 Demonstrating a willingness to get stuck in with a mad collection of alien life, dropping everything to hold the hand of a little girl and giving us a tantalizing glimpse of a possible future where she demanded to know if she was a replacement for someone from the doctors past. I don't imagine she's going to be too happy when she discovers the full extent of what's been happening, and remember that the doctor left a portrait of a former Clara in a 13th century monastery! Potential for quite the conflict there. Matt Smith is usually excellent so when he decides to step up the next level it leaves this viewer with her jaw on the floor "That Speech" as I've seen it referred to around the interwebz was just astonishing, interestingly it was also pretty much the exact opposite on the one Davros makes in the episode "Journeys End" maybe The Doctor is taking some speech making tips from his old nemesis!

Where that soliloquy speaks of the comprehensive destruction of everything The Doctor talks about how out of chaos the unique entity that is you is created. Mind you this wasn't the only speech The Doctor busts out here, his Blade Runner-esque rant at Grandfather is pretty effective to say the least but as you'd expect from Clara she's the one who ultimately saves the day. For me it also serves as a useful rebuttal to everyone who thinks this doctor is entirely too silly for his own good. Away from the acting this episode seems to have caused quite the division, 50% loved it whereas 50% found it to be a load of sentimental old tosh. First time writer Neil Cross previously of astonishingly grim crime drama Luther doesn't quite hit all the marks, the story feels sluggish and too drawn out to fill the 45 minute running time, fans will also be reminded of more than a few other post 2005 stories the sentient sun from "42" the group hymn from"Gridlock" The Doctors confrontation with Grandfather is much like him shouting at The Devil in "The Satan Pit" and the story overall is to me like a less depressing "The Beast Below" The Vigil were about as close to The Winders from that story as you dare get.

All this being said I think I firmly fall in the "love it" category, being a sentimental old git myself the bits where Clara gets her Mum's ring back and gives up "the most important leaf in the universe" had me looking around for the Kleenex. It surprised me that this story thread was paid off so early in Clara's journey, maybe Moffat is wary of introducing too many little mysteries into the narrative for fears of making her Amy Pond 2: Electric Boogaloo. I loved the design choices in this episode too, all the reds and golds made it feel lush and added to a sense of terrible beauty emanating from Grandfather. Ultimately this episode was a somewhat weak story saved by some truly top notch acting, some lovely script work and beautiful design and subsequently it feels like it becomes more than the sum of its parts.

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Killswitch Engage "Disarm The Descent"

Disarm The Descent album cover

Disarm The Descent is an album that should not exist, in the wake of the departure of lead vocalist Howard Jones whose soaring and powerful vocals propelled Killswitch Engage to metal mega stardom would cause many a band to simply implode, however KsE dusted themselves down, re-recruited old vocalist Jesse Leach and then have proceeded to make their strongest album for the best part of a decade.

Leach was with the band when they gave the US metal scene an almighty kick up the bum with 2002 release "Alive or Just Breathing" when just they were on the cup of breaking into the big time Leach departed the band to deal with a myriad of personal problems. The band then brought aboard former Blood Has Been Shed frontman Howard Jones who stepped in seemingly effortlessly, with Jones the band released their seminal 2004 effort "The End of Heartache" an album of wall to wall anthems. Many fans of the band instantly took to Jones, he is able to combine richness and power in clean vocals and somehow deliver equally stunning screams. However after the meteoric successes the subsequent album releases 2006s "As Daylight Dies" and 2009s "Killswitch Engage" showed a tiredness in the band, it felt like they were treading water and in particular Jones' lyrics became more depressive and lackluster.

Killswitch Engage circa 2013

Cut back to 2013 and Disarm The Descent sees Killswitch Engage returning to the highs to 2004, the track "The New Awakening" has gig anthem written all over it, "In Due Time" is the clear radio friendly single from this album, as off putting as some fans might find this concept it's a great example of the evolution of Jesse Leach's clean vocal skills. For a band mostly known for their melodic, hooky style they incorporate a surprising amount of heaviness in this record. "The Turning Point" is the stand out track here, a super crunchy opening followed by an excellent beat down, the clean Jesse vocals Vs Adam D's growls and clean backing vocals complement each other beautifully, something they rejuvenated in their collaboration in Times of Grace's "Hymn of a Broken Man" Leach brings and audible enthusiasm which Jones lacked after The End Of Heartache.

The band is back to lyrical core of positivity and love that separates Killswitch Engage from other bands, Jesse isn't as skilled a singer as Howard but as the record is an audible return to "Alive or Just Breathing" this addition of rawness and desperation just make the album more effective. Disarm The Descent won't be winning any album of the year awards and anyone picking up this album hoping for a whole new direction for the band is going to disappointed, what this album represents is a solid if not world shattering return to form after two flabby missteps.This albums true strength is that this albu
 m proves that in 2013 the European melo-death influenced US metal still has something relevant to say for itself.

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who "The Bells of St John"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS

It's the most wonderful time of the year, no gentle reader not Christmas or Talk Like A Pirate Day, it's time once again to welcome The Doctor back into living rooms all over the country. So with around 150 of my fellow fans I squeezed into a tiny pub somewhere in the frozen centre of London and turned my ear to The Bells of St John.

The typically madcap trailers leading up to this episode lead me to believe that this was going to be The Eleventh Hour take two, and that is no bad thing considering that The Eleventh Hour is one of my favourite stories since the 2005 return. For me this episode was The Eleventh Hour refined, where that episode can feel a little overwhelming as it races through timezones, plot points and baddies The Bells of St John takes all those beats and slows them down enough so that you can take in everything in one, beautifully crafted hit. This is exactly what I wanted to see in a series opener, it's light, tons of fun, literally laugh a minute and packed full of smashing performances. This is a example of how Doctor Who is a show for everybody, young, old, sci-fi fan or no I think a person who had never seen a minute of Doctor Who in their lives would find as much to enjoy here as a seasoned veteran of the Whoniverse.

Matt Smith and Jenna-Louise Coleman build on the momentum and chemistry they developed in The Snowmen, it feels like they've been doing the show together forever and they bounce around and off each other marvelously. Matt Smith is probably at his most "Second Doctor-ish" here, leaping about the place like Tigger one moment, brooding in a cassock the next. There was also some subtle touches in his acting that I only picked up second time round, check out the moment where he resigns himself to helping Clara "find the Wi-Fi" he drops into the bored monotone of a put upon IT helpdesk callcentre worker which made the  pub I was in laugh out loud. I loved the tenderness he brought through in this episode, the care he displayed towards Clara was one of a concerned friend rather that the romance angle so hated by some sections of fandom. After all only a true friend would start eating a biscuit then thoughtfully leave you half to enjoy upon waking up! Coleman was no slouch either, moving effortlessly from IT illiterate Nanny who dreams of travelling to saving a plane from plummeting to the ground (all while clutching a mug of coffee!), I really enjoyed the way she chose to portray Clara's growing knowledge thanks to being partially downloaded, laughing in a combination of excitement and nervousness as she effortlessly hacks into the impregnable Great Intelligence network.

Oswining!

Above all  though I absolutely loved this script by Doctor Who supremo The Moff, remember when I said this was laugh a minute? That's not an exaggeration, the fans I was with at the pub were giggling away at not only the physical comedy like the moment where The Doctor slowly winds the cable from the TARDIS phone around a hapless monk but also at some extremely nerdy in jokes, like when the drones at The Shard accidentally identify a phone box at Earls Court as the TARDIS. In the real world there is actually an old 1960s police box outside Earls Court Underground station, I've had my picture taken with it on more than one occasion. In typical Moffat style the baddie of the piece is something ordinary made scary, this time the Wi-Fi soup we all live in nowadays. The script also set up the forthcoming episodes nicely, the return of The Great Intelligence was unexpected and most welcome, again handily building on the momentum from last Christmas and there are lots of little mysteries that I think will have us coming back to this episode for a rewatch come the end of episode 8. Why are the ages of 16 and 23 missing from Clara's travel book? Who was the woman who gave Clara the number for the TARDIS? And just what is The Great Intelligence up to?

In conclusion this was a great start to the series, clutch to your sofas you clever fans, and enjoy...

Emma Talks Nerdy About: "The Rats" by James Herbert

On Wednesday the 20th of March the bestselling and probably most beloved horror writer in the UK James Herbert passed away at the age of 69. In the wake of this unexpected event the lovely Mr. Jim Moon of the marvelous Hypnobobs podcast did and excellent tribute to the man and his work.

I'd never read any James Herbert before this week, being a child of the 80s I was a little too young for his first explosion on to the horror scene in the 1970s. Growing up I favoured more fantastical, science fiction based writing, not really venturing into horror until I started reading Stephen King and HP Lovecraft in my mid teens. After listening to Jim's latest episode and discovering that a lot of Herbert's work was at some frankly insultingly cheap prices on Amazon's Kindle store I decided to take the plunge.I went for "The Rats" for my first venture into James Herbert's twisted imagination and boy, I wasn't disappointed.

"The Rats" does exactly was it says on the tin, it's an angry little splatter punk pulp novel, a video nasty in paperback form and don't take that statement as a negative criticism, after buying the book at 5 pm I had the book finished and I was onto reading the sequel "Lair" at 8.30 pm. I literally couldn't put this book down, it was fast paced, exciting and despite its age, surprisingly scary. The book was Herbert's very first attempt at writing and it shows, the book is pretty rough around the edges, the characters are so thinly written as to be almost invisible and the many sex scenes begin to come off as somewhat juvenile. Despite these flaws the quality that Herbert would display as he matured as a writer come through, particularly in the heartbreaking passage about the life and downward spiral of Mary Kelly, many other writers would have just had her and the group of meths swilling vagrants she has fallen in with as mere rat fodder but he takes the time to make her a real person with thoughts and feelings and her unpleasant, sad death genuinely made me upset. I expect the fact that she had the same name as the last known and most horribly mutilated of Jack The Ripper's victims is not a coincidence, another woman who was let down by the society that was supposed to protect her.

The setting of 1970s London was brilliantly drawn, this was truly the London that my grandparents and parents grew up in, the decaying wrecks of bombed out houses, the slum housing mixed in with the brutalist tower blocks and the abiding sense of ennui of a city gripped by strikes, power cuts and the three day week. As a life long resident of London suburbia as I read the book the locations were so well described I knew exactly where he was talking about, right down to the Tube station that the horrendous massacre takes place in, I've been there many times, in fact I think this added to the fear factor for me, I may never look at the tiny, jet black mice that infest the London Underground in quite the same way.

Simplistic and raw as "The Rats" may be in places the fact that it's still a remarkably effective and compelling novel the best part of forty years after it was first published speaks to the quality and talent of James Herbert's writing. I'm very glad that I picked up this book and I've now bought myself another five of his novels including the two sequels to "The Rats" and I can't wait to get stuck into them.

Don't forget to check out Hypnobobs here

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Doctor Who: "The Snowmen"

WARNING: THIS REVIEW HAS SPOILERS

This review previously appeared on my other blog emmahyam.wordpress.com, also this is an abbrivated review due to Christmas time overindulgence. 

I’ll come straight to the point with this review and say that I feel that with “The Snowmen” that the Doctor Who Christmas Special has finally come of age. This was an episode that struck the ideal balance of humour, scares and pathos so that it was not only a great hour of family entertainment but a fabulous episode of Doctor Who first and foremost.

Matt Smith, striding about Victorian London Town looking like an overgrown Artful Dodger was his usual excellent self, Vastra, Jenny and Strax were not only very welcome comic relief but also served as a great foil for a Doctor in the depths of grief over the fate of the Ponds. Special note must be made of the striking performance of Jenna Louise Coleman. Whether being a prim and proper governess or bouncing off the Doctor as a cheeky London barmaid she simply flies off the screen. Moffat has triumphed once again in setting up a fabulous little mystery to kick off the second half of series 7. Also for the old fans we have an interesting origin story for The Great Intelligence, foe of The Second Doctor.

I’m looking forward to seeing if they reoccur, Moffat is the only producer of the show to really play with causality in Doctor Who and really treat out main character as existing outside of time. With all sense of restraint thrown off, he’s freed to do anything. It also helps when the show seems this effortless and the dialogue so witty, It shows the incredible popularity of the show these days that within minutes of the episode finishing “it’s smaller on the outside” t shirts were available to buy online. Once again the wait for spring and the return of Doctor Who seems a very long way away.

Emma Talks Nerdy About: Friday the 13th Part 3 (1982)

The theatrical poster showcases the awesome 3D

This review previously appeared on my other blog "When Franchises Attack!" 

After another enormous box office success in Friday the 13th Part 2 the inevitable decision to make a second sequel was made, keeping the same director and kicking off a mere day after the latest massacre at Crystal Lake Friday the 13th part 3 tells the story of Final Girl Chris dragging her mates to the location where she was nearly killed by Jason once already to be horribly massacred along with a couple of hippies and the worlds most ineffectual biker gang. Nice one Chris.

eye popping FX at work there

In the hallowed tradition of many of its horror fellows the third installment of the Friday the 13th series is filmed in glorious 3D, watching the film 30 years on most of the pleasure in this comes only from spotting where the filmmakers chose to exploit the chance to have things pop out at the audience. For that statement read "every damn time they could find even the most tenuous excuse to do so". You are treated to such delights as a washing line pole, a yo-yo and even a joint flying out of the screen however its in the kills that the 3D proves most entertaining, Rick's eye being crushed out of his skull and flying out at you must rank as one of my favourite Jason maneuvers of the series.

You may detect from the tone of my review thus far that I'm not overly enamored of this movie, and you'd be correct, in comparison to its predecessors Friday the 13th Part 3 is a much more generic piece of work, the kills, apart from the use of the 3D, have stopped being innovative and interesting and slipped into being workman like. Characters like the aforementioned silly biker gang, the random religious nutter and the pair of hippies are there just to be chopped up by Jason instead of being a sympathetic and likable bunch of youngsters like in the previous films. For the first time in this franchise you get served up characters who you think "oh my God I can't wait until Jason kills you dead!" rather than "oh my God I hope they get away from him!" The acting by the entire cast is poor and Chris in contrast to her Final Girl compatriots is just downright dislikable and dumb as a post, why on Earth would you go back to a place where not only were you were nearly murdered but where a mass killing literally just happened and for all you know the killer is still on the loose in the area?

It's at this point where the films begin to resemble what the critics always said they were, gruesome for the sake of being gruesome, overly sexualised and mean spirited. The kills stop being scary and instead become laughable, unlike the previous two films where the violence, although it was explicit or unpleasant drove the plot and was there for a reason, in Part 3 the set piece kills seem to have been dreamed up first and then a film filled in around them. There is virtually no tension to be had, the direction is very flat in comparison to the director Steve Miner's work on Part 2, he seems to be bored of the whole enterprise and his film reflects that.

well... ow

Despite this there are some positives to take away from this film, Jason finally gains his hockey mask and is quite physically intimidating, although I've complained about the kills they are fun to see and if you want to just sit and enjoy a silly horror movie in the wee small hours with a group of mates, this is the one of the series I'd pick. I mean come on, Andy being cut in half while doing some hand walking and stuck in the rafters is silly but pretty awesome.

EMMA'S SCORE: 35 out of 100