A daily dose of sci-fi - Day 21

Favourite alien invasion movie/series

Alien invasion is a constant theme of sci-fi across books, TV, film and more. Unsurprising, really -- it involves aliens (sci-fi!) and keeps it grounded on Earth, which can be good for both relating things to your viewers and, perhaps even more importantly, the budget.

Torchwood: Children of Earth

It's not an invasion story per se: only one alien actually arrives and it's after, essentially, a bribe. But it's a bribe to stop an alien invasion (if I remember correctly), so I'm going to count it. And that's because it's bloody brilliant.

Torchwood was quite good through its first two series. Some episodes were brilliant, some were dire, and overall it felt half-thought-through and made up on the fly -- characters' behaviour changing from week to week, that kind of thing. I think more people wanted to like it, as a rare dose of adult-orientated genre TV in the UK, than actually genuinely did.

But that all changed with Children of Earth, which is flat out one of the greatest SF miniseries ever made, never mind its connections to previous Torchwood or Doctor Who or what have you. It's a cracking tale full of action, emotion, humour, tension, fear, heartbreak...

You don't need to have seen previous Torchwood to get it, and if you disliked previous Torchwood that shouldn't put you off: Children of Earth is exceptional.


Read about a daily dose of sci-fi, with links to the rest of the series, here.

Articles

Doctor Who And The End Of Time: Tennant's Last Moments by Charlie Jane Anders
(from io9)
Firstly, The Waters of Mars: yes, yes, yes! After setting up the concept of "some things must not be changed" to explain why the Doctor didn't just save everyone in The Fires of Pompeii, doing the same in a future-set episode is officially the new Best Idea Ever. Well done Russell & co for thinking of it -- it seems so obvious, yet I bet didn't occur to most people.
Anyway, this report includes more details on the trailers shown, and a few more bits of info on the Who panel... but hardly anything more than the weak article I found yesterday, so I'm led to assume there was really nothing to report. Ho hum.

Oh wait, what's this? A more thorough report. Yes indeed...

Live: Doctor Who panel at Comic-Con by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
Ah, right, nothing else news-y. Fans may wish to wade through the writer's irritating lack of Who knowledge (despite the fact he thinks he knows a lot, clearly) for the info present. Only news on Torchwood 4 is that it's not confirmed but is likely, etc etc.

Talking of Torchwood, what's this?

Live: Torchwood panel at Comic-Con by Neil Wilkes
(from Digital Spy)
Thanks to a series recently airing, there's a bit more to this panel than the Who one, though still little in the way of news. Probably the best bit: "RTD says he is "still reeling" from the success of [Children of Earth] and says no-one at the BBC saw it coming." Super.
Actually, even better: "Girl claims that RTD has "hurt" a lot of internet fans and accuses him of being "out of line" with killing Ianto. "I'm immensely sorry if people are sad, but I'm not changing my mind. I've got to be blunt about this, there have been campaigns to send packets of coffee to BBC Wales in protest. There have been nine packets sent. I'm not taking the mickey, but that's a very small number."" You tell 'em Russell!

Also from the Con...

Are You Ready For The Avatar Backlash? by Charlie Jane Anders
(from io9)
Remember what I said about Avatar not sounding that great? Well...

And on a final, related (not to Avatar, to Torchwood) note...

Torchwood Children Of Earth Soundtrack review by Cameron K McEwan
(from Den of Geek!)
I've not changed my opinion that Den of Geek is rubbish (because it is), but this review is worth reading purely for this comment:

The Ballad Of Ianto Jones [is] one of the album's highlights. Though ‘highlights' does not quite do it service or meaning. It's more of a ‘low'light in tone and emotion. Not a tune for those emotionally unstable 'fans' that can't handle drama.

Nice dig! I approve.

Articles

Bruce Feirstein interview: James Bond, Blood Stone and modernising GoldenEye by Michael Leader
(from Den of Geek!)
Interesting point in this interview: writing GoldenEye, the film, was all about having to move Bond into a new, post-Cold War world; now, writing the GoldenEye game remake, which updates the story to today, 15 years on from the film, involves updating it to a much-changed world again. Which is kind of interesting. It's also increased my already-quite-high interest in the game. Crap, I'm gonna have to buy a console again, aren't I...

Mark Gatiss interview: writing Sherlock, and where it’s heading next by Simon Brew (from Den of Geek!)
and
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle writes villains like no other by Steven Moffat (from guardian.co.uk)
Just to whet your appetite ahead of this Sunday's Sherlock series finale, here's a pair of articles: the first an interview with co-creator Mark Gatiss about the series' conception and where it may go next; the second by co-creator Steven Moffat on why Holmes' nemesis, Moriarty, is so legendary, plus which are the best screen versions.

And in other Sherlock news...

Sherlock DVD & Blu-ray Cover Art
(from Sherlocking)
Seems like we now have nearly all the details for the DVD/BD release of this excellent series: all three episodes (naturally), commentaries on the first and third, a half-hour making-of, and, perhaps best of all, the unaired one-hour pilot. It could only be better if they'd done commentaries on episode two and the pilot -- hopefully the making-of will cover why the latter was rejected and the series rethought.

Torchwood attracts Buffy, Breaking Bad, House writers by Maureen Ryan
(from The Watcher at Chicago Tribune)
Or, the list of writers for Torchwood's forthcoming fourth season. Only one other UK writer (besides RTD): John Fay, who penned the middling Mobile but also two episodes of the outstanding Children of Earth (aka Torchwood season 3, of course).
Of the three yanks now involved, one is Jane Espenson, of excellent work such as Buffy and Battlestar Galactica, while the other two I've not heard of, but have worked on the likes of The X Files and House. It'll be interesting to see how Americanised this makes a series that obviously started out as very British/Welsh.

Articles

Quite a few today -- maybe I should start breaking these down / posting them throughout the day?

Documentaries Being Screened In Empty Auditoriums In N.Y.
(from Studio Briefing)
"Nine documentary films are being screened in mostly empty theaters at a New York arthouse this week in order to quality for Oscar consideration... The New York Times reported that when its reporter looked into the 7:00 p.m. screenings, it found two theaters with not a single person in the seats and one with just three."

Filming under way for new series of Torchwood
(from BBC Press Office)
Press release announcing the third season of Torchwood, a single five-part story entitled Children of Earth. One of the main guest stars is Peter Capaldi, from Doctor Who's The Fires of Pompeii. Another case of spatial genetic multiplicity in Cardiff?

Ghostbusters Tops Funny Films Poll
(from WENN)
I love Ghostbusters, so this is worth reporting. Follow the links for more of the list.

Movie Reviews: Hamlet 2
(from Studio Briefing)
While the trailer looked surprisingly good, it seems the film itself is as bad as you'd expect.

Pitt and Clooney at Venice debut
(from BBC News)
"Pitt picked up an award that he won in Venice last year -- the best actor's prize for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. "You can run but you can't hide," Pitt joked as he accepted the award. "It was an honour to receive this last year and it remains an honour to accept this this year.""

The Strangers Set For A Sequel by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
Don't even really know what it is (and the article contains spoilers), but it makes this valid point: "Rogue is hoping that the [sequel] might see The Strangers develop into a Saw-like franchise. With the best will in the world, we hope not, for very few horror franchises have suffered from the law of diminishing returns like the Saw series. Isn’t it best to burn out with a couple of really good, strong efforts, than to fade away with increasingly awful sequels?"

Torchwood Season Three Revealed
(from Torchwood Official Site)
Mentioned purely for this quote: "Russell T Davies outlined his vision in a tone meeting with key production staff where he told them, 'I usually give you all one or two tone words when we have a meeting like this, but if I were to give you two words this time, they would be "Euros Lyn". More than ever before, this series of Torchwood will be director-led, and it will look absolutely amazing.'" How unusual, and therefore intriguing...

West Wing writer tackles Facebook
(from BBC News)
"Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin has agreed to make a film about the founders of social networking site Facebook... "I have a fairly specific idea of what the first 15 pages of the screenplay will be and no idea what will happen on pages 16 thru 130," he wrote. "I have very strong feelings about the internet and its effect on our national culture, but frankly those feelings are being countered by the sophistication, kindness, curiosity and wit of the posts in this site. You people are screwing me up with your civility and intelligence.""

Also:
Get Ready For Facebook: The Movie by Chris Hewitt
(from Empire Online)
Mentioned for these two somewhat amusing comments: "Empire has to ask: who is sad enough to start a fake Facebook page for Aaron Sorkin? ... should Sorkin’s next status update read, ‘Aaron was only kidding about the Facebook thing – it’s a very bad idea’?"

Torchwood: Children of Earth - BBC One Trailer

The highly atmospheric BBC One trail
for Torchwood: Children of Earth.

Articles

James Marsters' Captain John Hart Will Likely Not Be In Starz Torchwood Reboot by Carl Cortez
(from iF Magazine)
No surprise -- can't really imagine Captain John fitting in with a Children of Earth-style story. It'll be a shame if they never bring him back though.
Also, it's not really a reboot, is it? Not in the sense we usually mean, like Casino Royale or Star Trek. So tsk, stop that now, American journalists, who seem to think just because a US network is now a production partner rather than simply buying broadcast rights means it's now a Whole New Show.

Torchwood gets new title: The New World by James Hibberd
(from the live feed at The Hollywood Reporter)
Don't worry, they're not renaming the whole show: just as season three was called Torchwood: Children of Earth, season four is to be called Torchwood: The New World. Apt.

TV

Grand Designs Australia
1x03 Southport Heritage House
[Watch it (again) on 4oD.]

No Ordinary Family
1x13 No Ordinary Detention
Or No Ordinary Bottle Episode, as this is essentially three contrived-single-location stories smudged into one episode. Still, by NOF standards it was quite good. Shame they let British Villain Lady escape though.
(Technically it's not really a bottle episode -- plenty of guest actors and a couple of non-standard sets -- but, y'know, near enough.)

Single-Handed
2x02 The Lost Boys Part 2
Even better second half. Glad to see having to do three stories at once (the previous three were produced over several years) hasn't diminished the quality (yet, anyway).
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Torchwood: Miracle Day
4x03 Dead of Night
"It's fizzy in the UK and flat in the US." "Just about sums it up." A metaphor for the series itself, one wonders?
Ironically, those lines come in what I felt was the best episode of the season so far. Not close to Children of Earth level, true, but it's steadily improving.
The much-discussed sex scene cuts were unnoticeable, of course, but even more importantly, having seen the uncut version I can say we weren't missing anything; we still get everything that was going on -- the very definition of a pointless/gratuitous scene.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

The Tudors
4x09 Secrets of the Heart
What the hell just happened -- suddenly everyone looks about 20 years older! Well, most people -- they haven't bothered with some. Clearly time has jumped forward -- there's no mention of Henry's collapse last time, they've all decamped somewhere else -- but not by that much. And most of the aged make-up isn't that good anyway. I can only assume they ran out of money by this point.
Or maybe they were just too busy rushing through the story. After wasting so much time treading water or seen-it-before storylines in the first half of this final season, it's a shame they've had to speed through some decent plots as it draws to a close. Ah well, almost the whole thing's been a missed opportunity anyway.

Articles

Aliens, Actresses and Their Likenesses
(from Sideshow Collectibles)
"For the Sideshow Design and Development Team, the Queen Alien and Power Loader Dioramas were a labor of love and a long time coming... Some of you may have noticed that the woman behind the wheel looks a bit less like Sigourney Weaver than you may have expected, and well, here’s the scoop... Due to licensing issues with Sigourney Weaver’s likeness rights, we were unable to use Weaver’s portrait for Ripley in the Power Loader Diorama."
You've got to appreciate their honesty. It's also to their benefit, of course, because if buyers thought it was meant to look like Weaver then it would look like a poor sculpt. You can see pictures of the new face and whole diorama at the link.

EastEnders films Michael Jackson reference by Kris Green
(from Digital Spy)
"EastEnders has filmed a last-minute scene to be edited into tonight's episode referencing Michael Jackson's death... The three other major UK soaps - Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Hollyoaks - all confirmed that no last-minute editing will be made to tonight's episodes."
Says more about EastEnders than anything else.

Gaiman 'won’t write new Sandman comic' by Tim Parks
(from Digital Spy)
Neil Gaiman: "I wanted to do a 20th anniversary story, and it broke mostly because DC Comics would have loved me to do a 20th anniversary story at the same terms that were agreed upon in 1987, when I was a 26-year-old unknown... And my thought was, 'You know what, guys, it really doesn't work like that'. I wasn't going to do a deal at the same terms we had in 1987, and they were not willing to do any better than that."

Inglourious Basterds prequel still on? by James White
(from Total Film)
Lots of interesting bits & bobs about Tarantino's latest and its possible sequel/prequel from an interview with producer Harvey Weinstein. Did You Know fact of the day: for a while, it was going to be a Band of Brothers-esque TV series. That would've been... interesting...

Russell Davies Q&A on Doctor Who and Torchwood by Alan Sepinwall
(from What's Alan Watching?)
A rather good interview with outgoing Who supremo Russell T Davies about the forthcoming Who specials, forthcoming Torchwood miniseries Children of Earth, and his time on the series. Inevitably fans will have heard much of it before, but it's always nice to be reminded of the show's literally phenomenal success.

Fiction

Torchwood: Long Time Dead by Sarah Pinborough
Prologue
Chapters 1-4

This had to be the oddest choice of subject for the three Miracle Day prequel novels: it's conceivable that we might want to know how Gwen and Rhys got from the end of Children of Earth to their seclusion at the start of Miracle Day; it's conceivable we might like to learn more about Rex before we met him getting stabbed through the chest in a road accident; but do we really need a second revival of Suzie Costello and a peripheral connection to PC Andy? Well, we'll see -- great novels have been written for lesser reasons.

There's a slight potential problem/irritation for readers, though, in my opinion: by making the lead hero character a new one, DI Tom Cutler, we're ahead of him. A few chapters in and he has a weird fascination with the remains of the Hub and a figure he half remembers dressed in a Second World War greatcoat. If you're enough of a Torchwood fan to buy this novel, it's eminently obvious he's been Retconned and that figure is Jack even before the coat is mentioned. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe there's some twist here, but if there isn't and this goes too long… well, you need a good idea to make it still work when the reader is five steps ahead of your characters.

this week on 100 Films

The 2014 Advent Calendar continues this week on 100 Films in a Year, meaning there were another seven new reviews...


Dead Poets Society (1989)

Here’s a film all children should see, to understand the value of free thought and rejecting the system. Cynics probably find its purity of message, coupled with a tragic ending, to be over-sentimental and twee, but this earnestness is what makes it work.

Read more here.


Edge of Tomorrow, aka Live. Die. Repeat. (2014)

It’s Groundhog Day with shoot-the-aliens bits. It’s easy to be cynical about Edge of Tomorrow — it’s a mega-budgeted Tom Cruise actioner that sounds like a semi-rip-off of several other movies and was perceived as a flop (it wasn’t, at all) that no one knew how to sell. In fact, it’s a very entertaining movie — suitably exciting, surprisingly funny, and actually quite clever.

Read more here.


Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Inspired by the true story of a US Army DJ in Vietnam during the war, the resulting film is a showcase for star Robin Williams — reportedly, his antics aren’t even close to what really happened. Doesn’t matter though, does it, because this is Williams at his best.

Read more here.


Good Will Hunting (1997)

Damon and Williams have numerous incredible scenes together; encounters that feel like genuine slowly-evolving therapy, rather than the simplistic and implausible series of repeated revelations and breakthroughs that such treatment is often reduced to on screen. They run the emotional gamut, too, [including] intense humour — that’s what you get when you have Robin Williams at your disposal, of course. His Oscar is well earnt.

Read more here.


Pacific Rim (2013)

This is a film about giant monsters invading Earth, and we fight back with giant robots. It has the logic of the Japanese movies, anime and art that inspired it rather than any basis in the real world. Which is fine — del Toro has said it was aimed at 11-year-old boys (hence the “for over 13s” rating, of course), and it slots pretty neatly into that world.

Read more here.


Saving Mr. Banks (2013)

There’s fun to be had seeing the creation of a classic movie — I’m sure it’s not 100% the honest truth of how it went, but it is based on the tapes Travers insisted were made of the meetings, so it would seem the spirit is faithful. This isn’t a dry “making of” narrative, however, but a lively romp, as the two sides clash over jaunty tunes, characterisation, casting, and made-up words.

Read more here.


The Searchers (1956)

Westerns don’t come more renowned than this Ford-Wayne collaboration about the years-long hunt for a girl kidnapped by Native Americans. Alongside the usual Western thrills, peerlessly executed, it touches on themes of obsession and racism

Read more here.


Also this week, one archive review was re-posted...


Mrs Henderson Presents (2005)

Judi Dench is clearly having a whale of a time in this 1930s-set comedy about a 70-year-old widow who starts up a nude revue.

Read more here.


More next Sunday.

TV

Loose Women
6/7/09 edition
Featuring John Barrowman, who's always a riot.

Torchwood
3x01 Children of Earth: Day One
The new series of Torchwood gets off to a flying start -- a proper semi-political thriller, packed with all the requisite mystery and twists (and genuine ones at that!), but not losing any of the show's usual humour, character or quirkiness.
It also impressed in seeming to contain more plot and action than your average Torchwood episode, despite being the first not to tell a self-contained story. This may be the skill of having Russell T Davies back in the writer's chair -- imbuing more pace and interest into 59-minutes that tell just one fifth of a story than most writers can achieve telling a whole tale in 45 minutes. That's without mentioning how multi-faceted it was, managing to throw in horror and sci-fi plot points right beside domestic relationships, sweet character moments and broad comedy.
This is what Torchwood has been aiming to be all along, and it was fantastic. Let's just hope the rest of the story can live up to the opener...
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Articles

Blade Prequel Trilogy In The Works by Dave Golder
(from SFX)
The involvement of the original director -- and not, it seems, of Wesley Snipes -- is promising.

Monkey Island to return today by David Bradley
(from SFX)
"Launch Of The Screaming Narwhal is the first part of Tales Of Monkey Island, a five-game series with a whole new swashbuckling storyline... It launches on PC and WiiWare later today."

Torchwood BBC1 run starts with nearly 6m viewers by Leigh Holmwood
(from guardian.co.uk)
"Torchwood: Children of Earth brought 5.9 million viewers and a 26% share to BBC1 in the 9pm hour, comfortably winning its slot, according to unofficial overnight figures."

TV

The Diary of Anne Frank
Part 1 (of 5)
BBC One's new dramatisation of the famed teenage war diary, showing on consecutive nights this week -- the BBC's new favourite way to show drama, it seems, after Criminal Justice last year and Torchwood: Children of Earth later this, among other examples.
Well made, and well scheduled at 7pm too -- a good time for family viewing.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Eurovision: Your Country Needs You
Episode 1 (of 5)
This is certainly a... slightly different way to choose a Eurovision entry. Will it be any more successful? I highly doubt it. At least this is entertainingly camp at times though.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

The Graham Norton Show
4x13 (30/12/08 edition) [Christmas special; season finale]
Michael McIntyre is amazingly good, I say. Plenty of (mildly) festive fun with Graham, though it does feel a bit belated at this point. Christmas is rather over now, isn't it? (Still got Christmas TV to catch up on though. And Christmas chocolates.)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Pointless
4x52 (16/8/11 edition)
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Single-Handed
2x05 A Cold Heaven Part 1
Things aren't looking good for our Jack... but there's still a whole episode to go. Considering the relatively low ratings this has apparently been getting (scheduled against both Torchwood and The American Killing, I'm not massively surprised), I hope there's some comeuppances to be had in the final episode.
[Watch it (again) on ITV Player.]

Torchwood: Miracle Day
4x06 The Middle Men
On the one hand I feel this season is still improving; on the other it's still kind of... clumsy. It's lacking the right kind of subtlety that made Children of Earth so good, or makes other US imports (which is what this really is now) so popular. It's also lacking the regular utter barminess that made Torchwood so Torchwoody, actually -- I can see why so many still see it as a failure.
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

TV

Michael McIntyre's Comedy Roadshow
1x05 Belfast
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Torchwood
3x02 Children of Earth: Day Two
A brilliant second episode. Perhps not as packed as the first, but series like this need a good kick to get going and then can afford to slow the pace slightly in the middle. That said, with all the action going on, Torchwood certainly couldn't be accused of being slow-paced. For one, the JCB rescue/escape is an instant-classic action sequence.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Moses Jones
Part 1 (of 3)
A good little thriller, even if there were one or two logic holes. Hopefully Matt Smith will use a different accent when it comes to playing the 11th Doctor -- that one's a bit too similar to Tennant's for my taste.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Torchwood: Children of Earth Trailer
Looks good! Shame it's not going to be on for ages.

TV

Torchwood
3x04 Children of Earth: Day Four
An outstanding episode on every level: scary, exciting, surprising, funny and heartbreaking. Torchwood has really, finally come into its own with this miniseries (or maxi-episode, as I heard it described today, and it seems an even more fitting term). While it might be nice to see a return to 13 individual episodes next year, in many respects this format is even more exciting. Lord alone knows how they could top it though!
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

TV

Torchwood
3x03 Children of Earth: Day Three
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]

Music

Torchwood: Children of Earth - Original Television Soundtrack by Ben Foster
Tracks 1 - 25

TV

Torchwood
3x05 Children of Earth: Day Five [season finale]
Depressingly believable, and uncompromisingly excellent with it.
[Watch it (again) on iPlayer.]