We've got to take action ourselves

We (as in, but not limited to, socialists/social democrats, trade unionists, religious groups) are going to have to start dipping into our own pockets and setting up new public services ourselves because of the cuts. Communities and organisations. are going to have to do what the government doesn't want to. Indeed, that's actually how many schools got started originally in this country - church organised schools for poor children. We're going socially back to the Victorian era in this country sadly.

It will be four years at least before Labour can return to power and some of the changes are probably impossible to undo easily, if at all.

In the meantime, we can start building a better society from the grass-roots either by volunteering or by your money. It's a far more constructive use of our time than insulting each other.

Ghostbusters - the female version

So, I've watched the trailers for the Paul Feig Ghostbusters remake due out later this year - and I have to say that it's not that bad. Self-referential humour is very much the norm these days - and for those complaining about the black character; 1) I know more than one person like that in RL and 3) she's the sensible, practical one, which is actually a bonus. Not perfect, but a sight better than many black characters over the years. If the reviews are good enough, I might even go to the cinema for this one.

I appreciate that people might not like it and feel it's another cash grab, but cash grabs are older than you might think; Abbot and Costello were doing cash grab films... and in fact the first remake was in 1904... of the 1903 film The Great Train Robbery i.e. the first American film with an actual narrative plot...

Sir Ken Adam 1921-2016

The legenday set designer has died.

His work on the Bond movies is truly brilliant and set the standard for his successors to follow; even with the limited budget of Dr No, he did wonders... and when he got the 007 Stage to play with at Pinewood, he created a truly magnificent one:

The Supertanker set from The Spy Who Loved Me (MGM via IMDB)

In fact, I can truly say that nobody did it better in terms of set design. Rest in Peace.

Because I Got High (Review: 'Star Trek' 1.24, "This Side of Paradise")

I have wondered on more than one occasion during this watch if drugs were involved in the writing. In this case, you can wonder if drugs were involved in the acting...

****

The Enterprise crew beams down to a human colony on an agricultural world where by rights the entire population should have been killed by radiation - yet they are all alive and seemingly very happy.

Yep, it's another supposedly idyllic world that turns out to have something a great deal darker about it...

This review contains spoilers.

****
The reason why everyone is so happy is due to alien spores that give him perfect health and place them in a state of contented bliss. It's a message saying that the 'drugs don't work' which is possibly what might have been needed in the LSD decade, although Kirk's final comment that humanity needs to struggle to achieve things in order to be human is rather downbeat - especially in the show that is itself set in a sort of utopia where poverty is a thing of the past in the Federation.

The spores end up infecting the entire crew of the UFP spaceship, making Spock fall in love with an airy woman called Leila (she's got him on his knees!) and hang from a branch like a primate, McCoy gets very Southern indeed and Uhura demonstrates a hitherto not demonstrated technical ability when she sabotages the communications console. These first two are all pretty funny, but timing prohibits us from seeing Sulu or Scotty fully on the space whaccy-baccy, which is a pity, because Leila is pretty annoying.

Even Kirk gets infected, but his love for his ship manages to stop him from beaming down and destroys the spores. He realises that strong emotions are the way to deal with it and so ends up racially insulting Spock... repeatedly until he attacks him in a fight sequence with some obvious stunt doubles.

The guest stars are pretty forgettable - I couldn't even remember the name of the other guy, played by Frank Overton in his final TV role before dying a month after transmission of a heart attack aged only 49. I do note that the colony is somewhat ethnically diverse, which Trek has been at the forefront of to some extent.

Much of this is filmed on location; in a wood this time, as well as some farm buildings (at the oft used Golden Oak Ranch owned by Disney) that these blissed out characters somehow managed to erect. There are barns, but no-one even fires at the broad sides sadly...

Conclusion

A chance to see the crew of NCC-1701 acting out of character; this is an enjoyable tale even if possibly a bit too negative in its overall message.

8/10

Things what I have watched - February 2016

Castle

Got to say that I'm really not liking the Beckett/Castle 'break-up' arc; both parties are being stupid in this and I wish they would sort this thing out.

Agents of SHIELD

Jemma Simmons needs a hug. "4,722 Hours", the episode that explores what happened to her for over six months on an alien world was superb and very well acted by Elizabeth Henstridge. I see the FitzSimmons are not happy about her and Will, but he was literally the only guy on the planet. Also, going all PTSD on her return is understandable - she was too busy surviving previously.

FTL Kestrel Adventures

I'm just making a quick post to recommend this excellent animation series set in the world of the Faster Than Light game; if they ever do a sequel, this guy should be hired to do cutscenes.

In fact, someone should give him a full time job animation job.

Check it out here.

Seriously, I'm not enjoyed a machinima this much since Clear Skies (although it arguably isn't one).

Fringe 1.11: Bound

I love Olivia Dunham. Not in the romantic sense of the word (she's a fictional character for one thing) but in the sense that she has just become awesome. Yes, the bottom-kicking female has become a bit of a cliché these days, but if it ain't broke don't fix it.

She does indeed get out of her predicament in style, getting a guard to give her some water... then smashing the glass over his head. She then retrieves some key evidence before getting out and later on has some pretty awesome scenes. Before that, she ends up strapped to a stretcher while a guy in a very creepy mask (and distinctive shoes) looks at her, then gives her a spinal tap.

Speaking of spinal taps, this episode definitely goes up to 11 in several regards. Firstly, the deadly science thing of the week, which involves a gigantic cold virus killing people and coming out of their mouths. While cold viruses don't actually look like slugs (they're far more spherical in shape and can be bought as adorable plushies), it's still a very arresting image.

Also, Walter is definitely in the Mad Scientist category this week - giving LSD to a caterpillar for no obvious reason and showing a bit too much excitement about the Ebola virus while his son and Olivia look for said giant slug in a lecture theatre.

There's definitely some very shady conspiracy going on here; Olivia is now in something up to the neck of her stylish work suit.

Only drawback was the scenes with Olivia's sister and niece, which just seem too much like filler to me.

Conclusion

Minor family stuff aside, this was a very good episode of the show that is now well and truly kicked into gear.

9/10

EU renegotiation

I am in favour of continued membership of the EU. I believe that our membership benefits our economy and our place in the world. While not a perfect organisation, it is frequently maligned unfairly.

Cameron's renegotiation is at heart a selfish move to protect our country at the expense of millions of poorer people in Europe. People come here because this is a good country to live in and they can earn far more than in their own country. We should be working together to improve the lives of all Europeans, not engaging in discriminatory moves. Also, a benefits ban can have its own problems. What if someone comes here to work and then gets into a serious accident making them need disability benefit?

I'd like that to be clearer and have exceptions... but the way this government has been treating people on benefits doesn't fill me with confidence.

Nor am I confident that REMAIN will win the referendum, sadly.

I think I'll stick to apple juice (Review: 'Star Trek' 1.23, "A Taste of Armageddon")

When I saw the trailer for this on my DVD, I thought the hats were going to be the most ridiculous thing in this episode. I was wrong.

****

The Enterprise is on approach to an alien world with the aim to establish diplomatic relations with it when it receives a message telling it to stay away. However, they are ordered by the Ambassador on board to ignore that message and find themselves drawn into a very strange war indeed.

****

Much of science fiction, especially Star Trek, aims to make comments on our own society and times via the activities of fantasy worlds. How well it manages to do that varies; it can be subtle and brilliant... or it can be like having a slice of lemon wrapped round a large gold brick applied to your head, to quote The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Unfortunately this is a bit of a Gargle Blaster of an episode, intended as a commentary on the ongoing Vietnam War and coming across to me as one on the Cold War as well (remember this is five years after the Cuban Missiles Crisis) which comes across as heavy handed to me... also, a bit implausible. The central premise of the episode revolves around people willingly killing themselves because a computer has told them to do so. While I would agree that people have engaged in mass murder because someone told them it was the right thing, most humans do have a sense of self-preservation and surely some would have refused. Anyway, even the 'fake war' of the episode has real humanoid costs that would have an impact... and the length of time it has been going on is ridiculous. In short, the entire scenario falls apart at close examination.

Spock and Kirk don't have a great episode at all; Kirk is very unsubtle in his approach. The best of the crew is in fact Scotty, who refuses an order from Ambassador Fox that could get them all killed; reflecting a real incident in James Doohan's life where as an officer in the Royal Canadian Army, he refused to do something in a training exercise that would kill his own men.

Ambassador Fox (played by Gene Lyons, best known as the police commissioner on Ironside) is a complete and utter idiot; he clearly failed Common Sense. He ignores the message from the planet and overrides sensible decisions by the crew of the ship on the grounds of diplomacy, failing to realise (to quote Scotty) that sometimes the best form of diplomacy is indeed a fully armed phaser bank.

The planet is led by one Anan 7, played by David Opatoshu, a man with a suitably evil goatee and a slightly swarthy look that got a lot of roles as Middle Eastern characters over the years. He's clearly quite, quite insane. Apart from the guards in silly hats, the main other character on the planet is Mea 3, one of the few credited and on-screen appearances by Barbara Babcock (who mostly did uncredited voice work in the original series), who wears a classic female costume of this sort of era... or rather half one, which is pretty distracting.

The ending sees Kirk engage in some very reckless behaviour - basically risking a nuclear exchange between the two sides in order to force them to talk.

Finally, can we please stop these 'comedy' final scenes? They're getting irritating.

****
Conclusion

This is supposed to be a metaphor on the madness and stupidity of war. Unfortunately, it comes across as just stupid.

5/10

Mystery Science Theater 3000

In the not too distant future, somewhere in the US, a new series of Mystery Science Theater 3000, funded by fans to the tune of over $6 million, will go into production and I for one am very much looking forward to it.

The show can be summarised simply as "guy and two robots watch bad movies while making jokes about them"... but they're very good jokes. Indeed, it's influenced the whole way that people watch regular TV (including me) and the original remains a cult classic.

While you're waiting for the new lot, an array of episodes from across the eleven seasons can be watched here with others available for a small fee on the Rifftrax website (which of course was set up by former host Mike Nelson).

Now if you excuse me, I've got movie sign.

Crow: Hey, isn't he supposed to put his own riffs in here?

Sir Terry Wogan 1938-2016

The renowned broadcaster has died from cancer aged 77.

Sir Terry was a highly genial and entertaining presenter, loved by millions and for many years the host of Children in Need, something he would do (like nearly everyone else involved) without taking any money for it; helping that worthwhile cause to raise many, many millions.

He will be deeply missed. Rest in Peace.

Things What I Have Watched - January 2015

In this first of a new series, I do a brief look (a paragraph each tops) on some of the things I watched in the previous month.

Sherlock - The Abominable Bride

I have on more than one occasion wondered what Steven Moffat takes to come up with his strange ideas. This was a pretty weird instalment of the show that is the televisual equivalent of a bus (you wait ages and then three come along at once, although not in this case). Lot of humour and knowing references to the Holmesian canon, with one of the better twists I've seen, but flagged badly in the middle.

Tyrant - Season 2

While perhaps not the greatest series about, it does have a superb performance from Ashraf Barhom as Jamal al-Fayeed, the paranoid leader of Abuddin who is conflicted and yet pretty terrifying, notably killing a general with a model oil rig. This has got a Season 3.

Castle - Episodes 8.1 - 8.3

I was in fact spoiled for this by a website I won't name that slated the entire opening story. Well, the first two-parter was... not that good. Castle has never done international conspiracy well. That said, it was a strong Alexis episode. Fillion and Katic did the best they could with some pretty bad material - the ending of that story was drama for drama's sake. Episode 3 was a good deal better, but still, this will probably be axed come May and it's probably had its time now.

War and Peace

A sumptuous adaptation of Tolstoy's novel (which I reviewed here) that is pretty easy to follow once you've learned everyone's names, has a great cast and also has a truly superb display of hats. Seriously great hats of the sort you just don't get today.

Stan Lee's Lucky Man

Not too bad from the first episode, but does James Nesbitt do anything apart from snark in a Northern Irish accent?

Fringe 1.10: Safe

This episode features Amir Amirson, later to appear in The Blacklist and the plot here is actually more crazy than an episode of that show, which starts with a man getting literally stuck in a wall and ends with someone being teleported.

Speaking of crazy, Walter Bishop is definitely very funny in this one - his mind works in his own distinct way and no-one else can quite grasp how. However, Olivia and John are both very good in this - the scene in the bar with the card tricks in particular.

Jared Harris appears in this again and it's clear that he's doing what British actors do best - play bad guys. This also has an appearance by James Frain, a British-born actor who has turned up in quite a few American works, as a lawyer who has to get some unusual things for his client... and won't sadly appear again.

There's even a good cliffhanger as Abrams can now have his cake and eat it by putting the female lead in peril... which she will course get out of by herself in style.

Conclusion

A very good episode indeed - the show appears to have finally got fully going.

9/10

Alan Rickman 1946-2016

For the second time this week, the entertainment world has lost a legend, the British actor Alan Rickman.

While I've never seen Die Hard, I have watched all the Harry Potter films and can imagine no-one else as Severus Snape. In addition, he was great in Galaxy Quest. His death of cancer - a horrible condition - at only 69 leaves another void that can never be filled.

Rest in Peace.

The Moderate Irritation of Khan (Review: 'Star Trek' 1.22, "Space Seed")

Yes, we're reached one of the most famous episodes of the entire show - the one that got a sequel in one of the best movies of the franchise (let's not mention the other one, shall we?) and inspired William Shatner's hammiest line ever.

****
The Enterprise locates a derelict vessel floating in space broadcasting Morse code... a spaceship launched in the 1990s. One with life on board...

****
I'm going to start by saying that I wouldn't be seen dead, let along spend over two centuries asleep, wearing that net thing that we discover the crew of SS Botany Bay wearing. William Theiss was definitely a man who liked his bare flesh, that was for sure.

The triumvirate (now there's a word that I don't get to us every day) are very firmly established at by what today would be near the end of the first season instead of three-quarters of the way through; 29 episodes in the first run would be unthinkable today. Kirk's emotion versus Spock's logic makes a good mix, with both him and Bones having fun bantering with a guy who doesn't do 'banter'. Or irritation for that matter.

 It's interesting to note that this year, 2016, is the 20th 'anniversary' of Khan's departure in the first major bit of back story added to the Trek universe; another 'World War' would later get added to the continuity by the time Star Trek: First Contact was made. With not that many lines of dialogue, the rich seeds (no pun intended) were laid for many licensed works covering the 'Eugenics Wars', the first point where the prime universe diverges from our own in a big way. Of course, the creators of the show at the time did not think there would still be Star Trek being produced in 1996... let alone 2016.

Khan Noonien Singh, escaped former tyrant is deeply compelling and played superbly by the late Ricardo Montalbán who in his long career was also a strong advocate for improved representation of Latino actors in television and actually spent much of his life working with a severe back injury that would eventually put him in a wheelchair - including this role. His chest is definitely very impressive (and the director insists that was his real one in the The Wrath of Khan) and he comes across as very manly despite long hair... not to mention eyeshadow! It's also clear that Khan is a ruthless ruler; he's perfectly willing to suffocate Kirk et al to get what he wants.

Also, I'm going to have to add my annoyance at the depiction of near-suffocation in any fiction; you don't just end up walking off after losing consciousness from lack of oxygen (notable recent exception - The Librarians, in an episode that starred John de Lancie aka Q and was directed by Jonathan Frakes aka Riker).
 
Then we get McGivers... who doesn't really do much for feminism at all. Uhura does more in one glance after being slapped than McGivers, who falls head over heels in love with Khan. Her scenes with him are reminiscent (at least to someone who has never read them) of a Mills & Boon novel. Sigh...

Since Khan hasn't actually killed anyone, Kirk decides to put him and his crew on a barely hospitable planet where they can survive with their ingenuity. He's going to come to regret that later.

****
Conclusion

While Khan is a highly memorable villain, there is a fair bit wrong with this episode, namely the entire McGivers plot for one thing. Perhaps I would have ranked this higher on a first watch, but I can only give it...

7/10

David Bowie 1947-2016

The death of this musical legend came as a surprise to most of us considering his comeback in recent years - he'd only just released another album. It seems that he chose not to let his cancer stop him from producing and to go out still swinging as it were.

And he was definitely swinging. Going through multiple musical personas and genres over the years, he produced a big number of classics over 51 years in the business; "Life on Mars?", "Major Tom", "Ashes to Ashes" and "Let's Dance" for one thing. He even did acting.

He will be considered one of the all-time greats and will be deeply missed.

Rest in Peace.

All Together Now, In Their Hoods (Review: 'Star Trek' 1.21, "The Return of the Archons")

I've been getting into Star Trek Online recently and have bought myself a Tier 1 Constitution class vessel i.e. the same type as the Enterprise. It's a lot cooler to fight Klingon Birds of Prey in than the standard light cruiser you start with in the Federation faction.

Anyway, there's none of that in this episode, which starts strange and gets stranger...

****
While on another planet in search of a long lost spaceship, while dressed in rather old-fashioned clothing, Sulu and another crew member encounter some dudes in brown robes with big sticks. Only Sulu manages to beam back up and he ends up being very strange indeed...

Kirk and his team go down to discover a society with all the locals behaving very strangely indeed, including having an exactly 12 hour riot.

This review contains spoilers.

****
This episode contains a lot of 'possessed acting', as the locals are under the control of a mysterious computer called Landru that has decided to eliminate society's disorders but at the cost of free will. In short, this is a classic Star Trek story and was frankly pretty predictable.

We get McCoy possessed, while Kirk and Spock end up pretending to be possessed as they attempt to destroy the computer, freeing society from its control. All the regulars get good material and do a decent job of being 'possessed', something that sci-fi actors need to learn to be able to it seems. The late Lis Sladen from Doctor Who was a master of this in fact. We also get the amusing sight of Spock (whose big ears are pretty conspicuous) dressing like a monk.

Speaking of intervening in a society, this is the first mention of the Prime Directive in the show's history - and it immediately gets a loophole, in which getting involved to restore a society to its natural development is permissible.

The plot is a deeply philosophical one about the flaws of trying to create a perfect society, especially when machines are involved. The climax involves Kirk talking a computer to death through logic, something that reminds me of Zoe doing something similar in Doctor Who. We also get one of those 'humorous' endings in which Kirk says Spock would make a great computer.

None of the locals (who are all dressed in Western garb in an episode shot on a backlot used in Westerns) are particularly memorable in this; most of them do end up doing 'possessed acting' for most of the episode and I'm really not sure what the 'Festival'/Riot was all about.

The henchmen of the main villain dress in brown cloaks with hoods, reminding me after the episode of outfits worn in the Red Dwarf episode "Angels and Demons", which Kirk and Spock later take to infiltrate the main base. Difficult to take them entirely seriously nearly 50 years on considering how much this has been parodied since.

Conclusion

An interesting episode with a lot of philosophical concepts but not a classic.

7/10

****
Next up one of the most famous episodes of the entire run... "Space Seed".

2016 plans

Things are going to be somewhat less active in 2016, as I will be working on getting my novel finished and published, as well as other RL things. I will finish the current major history post on neutral nations of the Second World War, but I do not plan for any other of these on the blogs.

There will be fewer individual reviews; while I hope to do all the Doctor Who episodes, another Castle and another The Librarians among others, as well as some films, I will instead be doing a monthly feature called 'Telly I Watched', where I will be provide a brief opinion of the key series that I watched that month, say a paragraph each.

The US Presidential Election will get some coverage, as will elections in the UK, including the EU referendum if that happens this year.

Star Citizen will get a number of articles as will some other games.

As usual, all plans are subject to change without notice.

I wish you all a prosperous and healthy 2016.

Ich bin eine blonder Spionin (Grand Review: 'Homeland' Season 5)

So, Homeland came back for a fifth season after a mostly high-quality fourth run that moved away from the original plot, sending its leads to a new location... from which not all of them came out alive.

This review contains spoilers from the get-go.

So, Carrie Mathison is back, defending the US from terr...

Record needle scratch

No, she isn't. She's left the CIA after the events of the fourth season (so she didn't crash her car then) and is now in Berlin, working as the head of security for a German billionaire, where she can look after her toddler daughter, who really has inherited her late father's hair colour. In addition, she's acquired a new boyfriend... and a new religion. Carrie Mathison is now a paid-up member of the Roman Catholic Church.

While she's doing this, a pair of hackers working out of a sex club (OK, was it really necessary for the plot for that to be their location?)  decide to muck around with a jihadi recruitment time at the same time as the CIA are taking a look... and somehow manage to accidentally access the CIA servers, downloading thousands of documents relating to a rather dodgy activity.

Namely the fact that in order to conduct domestic surveillance on dodgy people in the Federal Republic of Germany while dealing with restrictive privacy laws as a result of what previous governments did on non-dodgy people... by getting the US to do their electronic eavesdropping for them.

This naturally leads to quite a few problems...

****
I won't be doing a full plot breakdown this time due to a lot happening and sheer lack of time to write this, so here are some of the salient points.

• Carrie in a balloon hat at a children's party? Both hilarious and adorable. Seriously, every scene in this could be improved by the balloon hat. The 1970s-style black wig is also welcome to return.
• Ms. Mathison is useless at her Listen checks; she gets ambushed from behind twice in this show. Also, bright blonde hair isn't very good in a game of hide and seek. Also, it's not a great idea to offer your gun to a terrorist.
• To try and figure out who is trying to kill her, Carrie decides to go off her meds to improve her thinking... which merely results in her going a bit crazy. Seriously, you don't do that sort of thing without professional medical personnel to hand. Also, I call scenes like that 'I want another Emmy scenes' as Claire Danes is clearly trying to get another one in them. 
• Howard Gordon, the show runner here, worked on 24 and it really shows; there are multiple episode endings that just needed a "beep beep beep".
• Also, Sean Callery's music remains superb; I'm looking to watch Jessica Jones at some point if I can find another legal avenue outside of Netflix and the fact that he's done the music for that is another reason to watch it.
• Speaking of Jack Bauer, Carrie gets a distinct lot of Bauer action; notably running into a train tunnel to stop a terrorist... but jumping out of the way of an oncoming train. That's a James Bond move (Skyfall in fact). I did consider retitling this 'Blonde, Jane Blonde'. Mind you, she's not totally 'half-nun, half-hitwoman' (she's definitely no nun) - getting distinctly upset after killing the terrorist. I'm not sure she's actually killed anyone face to face before, but I may be wrong here.
• Also, there's another distinctive mole in the form of Alison, who turns out to be working for the Russians. In one moment that would make Jack himself wince, she gets information from someone by shooting her bodyguard in the head, then kills him and then shoots herself in the shoulder to make it look like she didn't do it. As the seven F-bombs (I counted) she drops  immediately after makes clear, it would probably really hurt.
• Peter "The Mighty" Quinn really goes through the wringer here; being shot, then nearly killed by sarin gas and almost killed when Saul tries to wake him up to get key info from him. At the end, he's in a coma and Carrie is about to seemingly smother him with a pillow when the sun lights up the room - a rather odd cliffhanger. I really doubt he'll be coming back for Season 6.
• Saul Berenson is not a guy you want to mess with, especially in the bedroom. Alison ends up with the car she's in being shot up by four or five people with assault rifles, killing her and her Russian minders. That's definite overkill.
• Dar Adal is a really dislikeable fellow. Far too much of a 'smooth operator' for my tastes.
• The 'dissident journalist' Laura Sutton is very annoying, which may have been intentional on the part of the writers. She really isn't a sympathetic character, although recklessly releasing secret info onto the internet isn't a good idea. Exposing illegal practices needs to be done, but there are better ways to do it.
• Re Sutton, the secret world's perception means that any real mess-up tends to be put down as conspiracy i.e. an actual suicide of a suspect here.
• The shoot saw graffiti artists hired to write Arabic graffiti put 'Homeland is racist' instead of what they were meant to do. That said, few people really come out of this looking good. The Americans don't look great, the Germans are definitely dodgy... but the Russians come out worst of all, willing to let a major terrorist attack go down for their own ends.
• Berlin Hauptbahnhof features extensively here (and very nice looking it is) as a potential terrorist target - although I would note a geographical error; the Berlin U-Bahn doesn't go to Potsdam; the S-Bahn does and there's only one U-Bahn line that serves that station, U55, which only goes as far as the Brandenburg Gate - an extension to link it to U5 has been delayed until 2020. Indeed, Berlin looks very good throughout.
• The last episode does really peter out somewhat. 24 was able to keep the action going a lot better and not run out of steam 30 minutes before the end. The German billionaire's proposal (which sounded like he wanted to marry her!) was a bit out of left-field.

Conclusion

While not perfect and with some notable flaws, this is a strong season for Homeland and it will be interesting to see where our blonde spy goes next.

I don't want this killed with fire. I want Carrie to kill things with fire.

8/10

Where's Your Head At (Review: 'Doctor Who' 2015 Christmas Special, "The Husbands of River Song")

Yes, I did get the TARDIS LEGO set for Christmas. It took me nearly 5 hours to assemble it and bar some minor niggles, looks very nice. I built my own TARDIS console room out of LEGO as a kid, so it's nice to have the real thing.

****

While having a sulk on a human colony in the far future, the Doctor is unintentionally roped into a caper with his missus, River Song. Unfortunately, she doesn't recognise him due to the fact that they meet out of order (and she's not met this version), with hilarious consequences.

This review contains spoilers.

The Doctor quotes Hamlet, or something close to it and does end up getting very hammy at points in this episode. All the Doctors have eaten scenery at one point or another, including Capaldi, who is a good enough actor that he can overact effectively - most notably the scene where he does the whole "bigger on the inside" speech. He does a good job here, having gotten the 'old grump act' down to a fine art, but he really needs a proper companion to fully ground him. He makes a rather Bond-esque quip at the demise of one character, which is definitely off and his comment at a crash site that there's no-one worth saving also seems very cold.

Alex Kingston's River Song, like Flynn Carsen from The Librarians (of course played by Kingston's ER co-star Noah Wyle), is best in small doses. While her flirty, lightning quick personality is enjoyable in this episode, once she gets all slushy towards the end, I was rapidly getting bored. Unlike Root from Person of Interest or for that matter the Doctor himself, she lacks the level of development and overall charisma to sustain a regular role. (Goes to check if there is Doctor Who/Person of Interest fan fic with Root in it)

River isn't alone in her operation, in which she is attempting to retrieve a very valuable gem from inside the head of a genocidal dictator, being joined by Nardole (Matt Lucas) and Ramone (Phillip Rhys, who is best known to me for being a terrorist suspect in Season 2 of 24), the latter who is married to River. These are two reasonably well done male companions, although I must admit I've never really watched Little Britain. Both of them end up losing their heads - literally.

They lose their heads (which remain alive, something of a Moffat trademark over the years) at the hands of King Hydroflax, a dying tyrant who likes to eat his enemies after battle, whether they are alive or dead, and is still worshipped by those on his planet. Doctor Who has done wonders over the years of conjuring up entire worlds and campaigns in dialogue, with images being created in the dialogue that the writers of The Blacklist or Game of Thrones wouldn't put onto screen. Hydroflax's head is played by Greg Davies, a stand-up comic who at 2.03m (6 foot 8) is the second tallest actor to appear in the show this year - being beaten by the tallest man in Europe, one Neil Fingleton, who played the body of the Fisher King- at 30 centimetres higher, he has also played a giant in Game of Thrones and did the motion capture for Ultron in the most recent The Avengers movie. He (Davies) does a very good job with only his head sticking out of a red metal suit, which is separately voiced by Nonso Anozie, who demonstrates a ruthless efficiency to the point where to survive he will happily disintegrate his own head.

(Answer re Root - one is here - S4 spoilers)

Effects Speaking of disintegrating heads, I'm not sure that reducing one to a pile of ash is entirely suitable for 6pm on a Christmas Day; we also get an alien opening up his own head to retrieve a metal ball from inside it. Anyway, the days of 'wobbly sets' are long gone (indeed, they were never as big a feature as popular myth has it - some of the set design was superb considering the budget and space available, most notably the TARDIS) and as a result, the CGI is looking very good, especially the stuff nearer the end on Darillium.

As mention earlier, this is a very zany plot; something that wouldn't be out of place in an episode of The Blacklist (no crossovers there sadly). This said, once we're done with the caper, the romantic scenes at the end, which are setting up the 'end' for River in her timeline (i.e. "Silence in the Library/The Forest of the Dead" from Season 30) weren't holding my interest and I really didn't like the "happily ever after" caption at the end.

Conclusion

While there is a brilliant madcap energy in the first half of so this episode, it starts to lose the pace badly and by the end, I'd kind of had enough. Sixty minutes is too long a time for a Doctor Who episode in general unless it's really good and this isn't.

6/10