A Change To Schedule

Wednesday is normally where I'd be posting a review of the 90's television series Space Precinct, however, going forward this will be changing. I've felt uncomfortable with posting the show the last couple of weeks, and have decided that now is not the time to be talking about a series that glorifies the police force.

Space Precinct is set in the future, on a world that has humans working alongside other species. The police captain is an alien, and the majority of the police aren't human. Despite being set in a place that should be celebrating inclusion there is not a single Black character in the main cast. Having watched the first four episodes of the series there was a single Black person on the show. Not only was this person a criminal, but their voice was literally silenced, with all of there lines being dubbed over by a white actor.

I understand that this is a series that's almost 30 years old, that it is a product of its time, but it's supposed to be representing a better future. There are works of art from this time and earlier that manage to promote equality and inclusion despite those things not being a product of the time they were made. The original Star Trek series is a prime example of this. This has not been the case with what I've seen of Space Precinct.

I would hope that there is no maliciousness involved in the show, but I also feel now is not the time to be highlighting a series that not only glorifies the police as a force for good, but has also silenced the only Black voice to appear in the series.

I might come back to this show in the future, but not now.

Some people might not be happy with this choice, they might feel like I'm trying to be PC or something like that. Whilst that is a part of it, as I completely stand by the Black Lives Matter movement, it's also because the series is making me feel a little uncomfortable; and I'm not going to go out of my way to watch a series that I'm not fully enjoying.

I'm not sure if another series is going to replace Space Precinct, or even if something else regular will replace it. We'll have to see what happens.

In the meantime, let's all remember to stand by each other, to support those voices being silenced, and to push for fairness and equality for all.


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The Wall by John Lanchester - Book Review

'Ravaged by the Change, an island nation in a time very like our own has built the Wall―an enormous concrete barrier around its entire coastline. Joseph Kavanagh, a new Defender, has one task: to protect his section of the Wall from the Others, the desperate souls who are trapped amid the rising seas outside and are a constant threat. Failure will result in death or a fate perhaps worse: being put to sea and made an Other himself. Beset by cold, loneliness, and fear, Kavanagh tries to fulfil his duties to his demanding Captain and Sergeant, even as he grows closer to his fellow Defenders. A dark part of him wonders whether it would be interesting if something did happen, if they came, if he had to fight for his life.'

I'd seen some mixed reviews for The Wall before I started reading it, with some people saying that they found it to be dull because nothing much happened for large portions of the book. Once I really got into the story, I kind of had to agree, not a whole lot happened for a long while. But rather than this being boring John Lanchester managed to give these sections of the book a strange sort of beauty and quality to these large sections of nothing that I couldn't help but be drawn into the world he was creating.

The long sections where Kavanagh spends weeks on the wall, staring out at a vast expanse of sea, waiting for the Others to do something, are dull. It's a character sitting on a bench for hours at a time watching the sea. When he's not doing this he's either sleeping, training, or going back home for short breaks where he does nothing. It shouldn't be exciting. It shouldn't be hugely entertaining. But like Kavanagh staring out at the vast waters, after a while you begin to enjoy the routine. You start to see the small beauty in things because you've got no choice but to find them just to have something to do.

These quieter moments of the book should be some of the worst in the book, especially compared to later parts of the story where big events happen, but they might be some of the moments that I enjoyed the most. The story has to fill these quiet times with something, so instead of story it's character that takes centre stage here.

We get to know Kavanagh through his boredom, through the strange poems he makes to describe the vast nothingness of his daily routine. We get to see how his mind works, and what makes him tick. We get to see him develop these friendships with his fellow Defenders, discovering more and more about them in those brief moments of downtime.

I came to know these characters so much better than I would have if there was a frenetic story going on that by the time something does happen to drive the narrative forward I was fully invested in them. I cared if they got hurt, I wanted them to succeed. John Lanchester spent so long building these characters, slowly adding more and more to them during these long moments of nothing that I didn't even realise how much I cared about them until some of them began to leave the story.

The second half of the book shifts things, however, and begins to explore the wider world of The Wall, and puts the characters in moments of danger and peril. It takes on a more action oriented approach, and begins to feel a little more like the dystopia survival you'd expect from the premise; and this makes the book even better.

These sections were hugely entertaining, and I think a lot of people would really enjoy them, but am worried that some might not make it to this point, having given up during the 'boring' sections of the book. If that's you, I think you've done both yourself and the author a disservice. These long sections of nothing at the beginning of the book make the more frenetic parts in the second half mean so much more. You've come to care for the characters, and you kind of feel like you've earned the excitement you get given.

I don't think The Wall is for everyone, and from some of the divisive reviews I've seen that's pretty evident. But, if you're willing to hold on a little bit, to sit through things you think you might not be enjoying you'll soon find that actually, these parts of the book are good, that they have a purpose.

The Wall is a very different kind of dystopia novel. It's a very personal story. It's not about the world the story is set in. It's not about the events that led to this awful new world. And it's not about someone rising up to challenge society and make it a better place. It's a story about a regular person, someone who's just trying to survive in the harsh reality. We all like to think we'd be the hero in a story, that we'd be the one rising up against the awful regime and fighting for change, but the odds are we'd probably just be a regular person, trying to just get through life, and this is who Kavanagh is. Despite how dramatic some of the moments in the story are its a human story, about a regular person just trying to live. And that makes it so much more real and meaningful than another story about a revolutionary hero.

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Daniel Radcliffe Responds To JK Rowling Transphobia

Following harmful statements made by the world famous Harry Potter author JK Rowling, read more here, titular star of the movies Daniel Radcliffe has responded, coming out in support of the trans community.

Radcliffe made the statement through the LGBTQ+ suicide prevention charity The Trevor Project.

I realize that certain press outlets will probably want to paint this as in-fighting between J.K. Rowling and myself, but that is really not what this is about, nor is it what’s important right now. While Jo is unquestionably responsible for the course my life has taken, as someone who has been honored to work with and continues to contribute to The Trevor Project for the last decade, and just as a human being, I feel compelled to say something at this moment.

Transgender women are women. Any statement to the contrary erases the identity and dignity of transgender people and goes against all advice given by professional health care associations who have far more expertise on this subject matter than either Jo or I. According to The Trevor Project, 78% of transgender and nonbinary youth reported being the subject of discrimination due to their gender identity. It’s clear that we need to do more to support transgender and nonbinary people, not invalidate their identities, and not cause further harm.

I am still learning how to be a better ally, so if you want to join me in learning more about transgender and nonbinary identities check out The Trevor Project’s Guide to Being an Ally to Transgender and Nonbinary Youth. It’s an introductory educational resource that covers a wide range of topics, including the differences between sex and gender, and shares best practices on how to support transgender and nonbinary people.

To all the people who now feel that their experience of the books has been tarnished or diminished, I am deeply sorry for the pain these comments have caused you. I really hope that you don’t entirely lose what was valuable in these stories to you. If these books taught you that love is the strongest force in the universe, capable of overcoming anything; if they taught you that strength is found in diversity, and that dogmatic ideas of pureness lead to the oppression of vulnerable groups; if you believe that a particular character is trans, nonbinary, or gender fluid, or that they are gay or bisexual; if you found anything in these stories that resonated with you and helped you at any time in your life — then that is between you and the book that you read, and it is sacred. And in my opinion nobody can touch that. It means to you what it means to you and I hope that these comments will not taint that too much.

Love always,

Dan

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Hope Island by Tim Major - Book Review

'Workaholic TV news producer Nina Scaife is determined to fight for her daughter, Laurie, after her partner Rob walks out on her. She takes Laurie to visit Rob's parents on the beautiful but remote Hope Island, to prove to her that they are still a family. But Rob's parents are wary of Nina, and the islanders are acting strangely. And as Nina struggles to reconnect with Laurie, the silent island children begin to lure her daughter away.

'Meanwhile, Nina tries to resist the scoop as she is drawn to a local artists' commune, the recently unearthed archaeological site on their land, and the dead body on the beach... '

I really enjoyed Tim Major's debut work Snakeskins, which came out last year. The mixture of  interesting science fiction, political conspiracy, and coming of age drama was wonderful to read, and made me very excited for Hope Island.

Hope Island was a much smaller story than I was expecting, in the sense that it was really the story of one family, and one woman in particular. Where Snakeskins had crafted a whole different world, this time Major focuses on a more personal level, as we see what happens when someone's world ends.

Nina Scaife has left her home and her all consuming job in the UK to travel to the US, visiting the parents of her partner Rob for the first time. Whilst she's never been to the remote Hope Island herself, her daughter Laurie has visited before, and Nina's hoping that her love of the island and her grandparents will make the news she has to break easier on them both. She plans to tell her teenage daughter, and Rob's parents, that Rob has walked out on them, leaving them for another woman that he's been seeing for years secretly.

We spend a good while with Nina as she struggles to find the right time to break this news. We see how much Rob leaving her has shaken a woman who seems to normally be a very strong and confident person. She's doubting herself, she' hurting. Add to that the fact that she's never really got on with her in-laws, and the fact that the island is remote and filled with strange people, it's a wonder Nina holds herself together so well.

Her whole life has been turned upside down, and she's having to face the possibility that she might not have been the best mother she could have, having put her career before her family for so many years. She's close to breaking.

I really enjoyed the switch from such a large scale story in Major's last book to this incredibly personal story, and so much of the first half of the book is given over to seeing Nina's reactions to these recent changes. She begins to lose herself a little, and it's a little like watching someone slip closer and closer to madness as you begin to realise she might be having something of an emotional breakdown.

Dotted throughout these early parts of the novel, however, are hints that something strange, and even sinister, might be happening on Hope Island. The children are weird. I don't just mean that they're into odd things or anything like that, you want to think Midwich Cuckoos type weird.

Whilst I did enjoy the personal drama that was happening in Hope Island that wasn't the thing I turned up for, I wanted the creepy horror that the blurb described. And whilst the book did get very creepy towards the end I couldn't help but feel that maybe we should have had some more stuff happen before to tease it out a little. Other than the kids acting very quite and a little off there wasn't much to remind me that this was supposed to be something of a horror, to the point where when things did become overtly horror I was almost taken by surprise as I was just reading a very real story about a woman whose relationship had just ended.

By the time things really started to happen we'd spent so long with Nina and her slipping emotions that there were a few things that happened where I was expecting it to be some kind of dream or hallucination. For some of these moments it was the case, but there was one particularly long and important sequence where I kept expecting Nina to wake up, so was thrown when she didn't. These kinds of feelings were exacerbated towards the end where the narrative kept flicking between the rel world and some kind of dreamscape.

I imagine this sense of confusion and paranoia were intentional on Major's part, to really put us in Nina's shoes, where you could never quite be sure if what was happening was real or not. It added to the sense of unease that permeated the book, but it also meant that I had to find myself concentrating hard on the narrative to keep track of things in my head; which did sadly take away a little of the enjoyment for me.

Overall, however, the book was very good, and Major was able to craft a slowly unfolding, creepy story that never gave you a moment to relax or feel at ease. The 'thing' that is behind the events (I won't really describe it in any way as to avoid spoiler) was something that I'd genuinely not seen before. It felt new and unique, something that almost couldn't work in any other format other than a written story. I was hugely impressed with the strange direction the book took towards the end, and how suddenly some of the weird little moments from earlier in the book all clicked into place and made perfect sense.

Hope Island subverted my expectations not only from the description, but also from what I was expecting based on Tim Major's other work. He's proven that he can craft a layered and intriguing personal story that will test the mind and push readers into bold new directions. A slow building and strange horror that's sure to stick out from the crowd.

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Author JK Rowling Engages In Open Transphobia On Social Media

Globally beloved author of the Harry Potter series JK Rowling has come under well deserved criticism online following a series of tweets where she openly engaged in hostile attacks on the transgender community.

Rowling has been suspected of holding transphobic views for a while now. She's been seen liking tweets from open transphobes that have been bigoted towards the trans community, and has even said some things that have set alarm bells ringing within the trans community. These previous times, however, have been 'explained' away as being innocent mistakes, or trans people trying to find fault in what she's said and drawing the wrong conclusion.

Last month, whilst responding to children about her new story The Ikabog Rowling sent a tweet to a child that included a copy and paste from a transphobic article. She apologised for doing so, and she and her defenders claimed that there was nothing transphobic in her actions as she was simply reading about an incident involving a trans person. Whilst reading about things is of course not transphobic, the fact that she was reading an article that refused to acknowledge that trans person's identity, and seemed to be copying it to her clipboard for later use, did make some uncomfortable.

That same day Rowling used her position of power and wealth to threaten a trans journalist with legal action to make them remove their article that criticised her.

All of what she has previously done has been defended and justified by her supporters, and the idea that she's a transphobe has continued to be pushed as some kind of conspiracy theory. All this changed last night, however, as the author engaged in several tweets that cannot be seen as anything as transphobic, and a hostile attack on the transgender community.

Rowling seems to have been spurred into this attack on the trans community after she saw an article that used the term 'people who menstruate'. The author felt that this was wrong as she believes the only people who can have periods are women. This invalidates a huge number of people, such as transgender men, non-binary people, and intersex people. It seems to push the idea that in order to be a woman one needs to have a period, something that trans women don't have, as well as some cis women for a number of reasons.

People justifiably called her out on these views and tried to inform her that her understanding of sex and gender was not only incorrect, but that sharing it the way she was was also confrontational and rude. Rowling defended her position by claiming that she had spoken to her 'butch lesbian friend', and that they had said it was okay. Yes, she used the 'I've got a black friend so aren't racist' excuse. Please, no one point out to her that queer people aren't one collective intelligence represented by her one friend, and that some lesbians are transphobes too.

Rowling has also tried to make herself the victim in this situation by claiming that people calling her a TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist) is somehow attacking her and her womanhood, equating the word to mean the same as 'bitch' and 'witch'. It's a shame that as one of the most famous authors on the planet she fails to understand what words are, and uses them completely wrong. But then you don't need to dig too deep into her books to see that her writing isn't the best. Perhaps understanding of language, like science, escapes her.

Rowling has tried to backpedal some of her comments, by claiming to be an ally to the trans people, saying that she would stand beside us if we were discriminated against. If we were discriminated against. If. In this one tweet Rowling has told the world that she doesn't think that trans people face discrimination. Despite engaging in it herself.

The level of disconnect that Rowling is displaying, to claim to have read masses of scientific texts on the subject, yet still denying the science, of saying she stands by the trans community, but then says we don't experience discrimination whilst engaging in it herself are absolutely staggering.

We all know (I hope) that Rowling has had a history of troubling things in her work. From goblins in Harry Potter that play on anti-simetic caricatures, to minimal representation for people of colour, to racist tropes and names, to making a transphobic character in one of her mystery books. She has repeatedly said and done things that are harmful to marginalised groups and has never apologised for them.

It's also worth noting that Rowling is friends with, and began a charity with, Baroness Nicholson, a member of the House of Lords who has not only openly attacked trans rights and legislation, but called a trans child a sexual predator.

Rowling has tweeted nothing about the Black Lives Matter movement. She hasn't given her solidarity or support to people fighting for their rights and their lives across the world right now. With all of her influence and power she's done nothing to help that cause. But she found time to make several tweets that target the trans community. During Pride Month no less.

JK Rowling is not a good person. The mask she wears to present herself as such has had cracks in it for a long while now, but it seems to have finally fallen away to show the bigot beneath. She engages in actions that are harmful and nasty. JK Rowling is a bigot, who is sharing bigoted views to attack a minority. It's time people stopped supporting her and giving her money. There are plenty of better people in the world, and charities that would make better use of the cash.


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[Rec] 2 – 10 Years Later

Originally published on Set The Tape

[Rec] 2 was released in the UK on 28th May 2010. Spoilers ahead!

The 2007 Spanish horror movie Rec was a pretty good film. It followed a documentary crew who were making a film about a night in the life of a local Fire Rescue crew, and the call they received that caused them to get trapped inside an apartment building. The film featured a new twist on the zombie/infection genre, and was relatively well received.

When it was announced that there was going to be a sequel, and one that would pick up only hours later, fans knew that writer/directors Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza would have to do something new and interesting to make sure that the sequel wasn’t just more of the same. And they managed this with a twist that I don’t think anyone was really expecting.

During the latter stages of the first film it’s revealed that the infection that’s spread through the residents of the apartment building began because a priest was treating a young girl for supposed demonic possession, and that the infection she carried spread out into the rest of the building. It was assumed by many fans that this was a disease that the priests had assumed was demonic in origin, as conditions such as epilepsy were in the past. What Rec 2 does, however, is twists this expectation and reveals that the entire infection is in fact mass demonic possession.

Yes, the ‘zombie/infected’ people are actually under the control of a demon that’s passing its control on to others through the blood, effectively building itself an army of crazed killers. This reveal completely changes the way you have to think about the sequel, and also makes you go back and reexamine the first film too. It’s also one of the few times that I’m aware of that a virus type film such as this is given a pure supernatural origin, and it certainly makes it stand out.

Despite this revelation, Rec 2 is very similar to the original. Whilst it gets into the action much quicker here, and there isn’t the slow building of tension as you’re waiting for something bad to happen, events run a very similar course. There’s something wrong inside the building, a team gets sent in, they battle the infected, and have to make their way to the top of the building. Things are made a little different with the introduction of multiple points of view as a number of the soldiers have cameras, and a group of teens manage to sneak inside, but it does feel in some ways a retreading of the original.

I think if you were to watch the two films back to back it would probably flow a bit better, and would feel like two halves of one story. This way you wouldn’t really mind so much that it’s happening in the same location, and that many of the characters have returned as infected.

Despite not really being too different from the first film I do kind of have a soft spot for it for the level of surprise I felt the first time I saw it. Rec 2 might not stand out amongst the rest of the Rec series (that would probably be Rec 3), but it certainly sticks out in my mind as a neat twist on the zombie/infection genre.

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Prince Of Darkness (1987) – Cinema From The Year I Was Born

Originally published on Set The Tape

If you ask people to name some of their favourite John Carpenter films they’ll usually give you some of the bigger names, like Halloween, The Thing, or Escape From New York. These are all great films, and ones that I love, but one that it seems that people often forget about is not only one of my favourites, but also from the year I was born: 1987’s Prince of Darkness.

Prince of Darkness follows an unnamed priest played by Donald Pleasance, who requests that quantum physicist Professor Birack (Victor Wong) and his students join him to investigate at a church in downtown Los Angeles. The church was home to the mysterious sect known as ‘The Brotherhood of Sleep’, which is all but gone. The priest needs assistance in investigating a mysterious cylinder in the church basement, filled with swirling green liquid, and a strange, ancient text.

The team of young scientists begin their investigation, discovering that the text claims the liquid is the corporeal embodiment of Satan. The liquid seems to defy all scientific logic, and the scientists begin to believe it may have otherworldly origins.

I’ve got to be honest, the combination of logic and the supernatural, of science and religion presented in Prince of Darkness is one of the things that I love most about this film. It takes the standard horror trope of otherworldly forces and tries to give it a grounding in our understanding of the modern world, presenting it as perhaps a science that we just don’t understand yet. The idea that Satan might be the son of an Anti-God, a being who presides in the anti-matter universe, is so crazy it’s actually kind of brilliant and something that could only come from a mind as creative and skilled as John Carpenter.

Despite some kind of new ideas about the science of the devil the film is very traditional horror fare, with a group of people trapped in a location they don’t want to be in as they’re slowly picked off one at a time. In this case it’s because the church gets surrounded by a group of homeless people under the influence of the supernatural forces, who will kill anyone trying to leave the building. The fact that these homeless killers are led by Alice Cooper makes these scenes kind of brilliant too, especially when Cooper breaks out his famous impaling bike trick from his live shows and uses it on one of the poor scientists.

Much of the action in Prince of Darkness is like this, sudden and violent, with some very gruesome and disturbing moments. Whilst the film doesn’t splash gore around it does show enough to leave you feeling very uncomfortable during these moments, and it’s more the abject fear that the characters go through that makes these deaths intense over blood and guts.

Thankfully, Carpenter seems to bring back a lot of the stuff that made Halloween such a good horror for this film, and relies on the slow build of tension during the early stages of the movie to keep viewers on edge. You spend time getting to know the characters, and begin to care about them to the point where some deaths will leave you crying out in disappointment as they’re people you wanted to see survive.

As with many of his films, Carpenter also provides the music for the film, and it immediately adds to the atmosphere. He knows how to produce tension through slow camera shots and creepy music in scenes that would otherwise be fairly stale and boring with other directors. There’s practically no scene in the film that doesn’t feel slightly wrong or creepy, even those before anything really happens, because of how Carpenter directs the camera and deploys the soundtrack in the right way.

Prince of Darkness might be one of the John Carpenter films that gets overshadowed by the director’s bigger hits, but is a film that should certainly not be forgotten about. Whether you’ve never seen it before, or just not seen it in a while, it’s definitely worth checking out for its amazing cast, bold ideas, and the ability to send chills down the spine every time.

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Space Precinct Episode 3 'Enforcer' - TV Review

Episode three of Space Precinct actually goes out of its way to focus on one of the characters for a change, and makes this the best episode of the series so far.

The episode opens on Skall Street, one of the most lawless parts of the city, and home to the Hydra Gang. An elderly Creon shopkeeper, Skeevan, is mugged by a member of the gang, but when a pair of aliens arrive on the scene to stop him the gang member suffers a heart attack and dies. These two aliens, a tarn called Trask, and an unidentified alien girl called Vala, begin to protect the citizens of Skall Street, taking on the members of the Hydra Gang. However, when they begin to demand money from the residents in exchange for this protection it becomes clear their motives are less than noble.

There's no great mystery to the plot in this episode, no killer to be found like in the last one, instead all the information is given to the viewer up front. That's because it seems like this episode isn't really about the crime at all, but instead it gives us an insight into the past of Captain Podly.

Over the course of the episode we learn that Podly grew up on Skall Street, and was even something of a crook himself when he was a kid. Having turned his life around and made something of himself he's angry that the people of his old home are being targeted, and wants to do something about it. The episode doesn't let this just sit in a clear black and white, however, as former friends of Podly call him out on the fact that he's essentially turned his back on his past. This raises some good moral questions on the issue, if Podly wasn't as concerned about Skall Street when it was being terrorised by the Hydra Gang, why should be suddenly care when someone is killing off the members of the gang now?

Honestly, this is the most thought that's been given to any of the characters in the show so far. Even Brogan, the hero of the series, hasn't really been given the spotlight in this way. We know he transferred from New York to Demeter City, but that's it. We don't know about his past, how he grew up, or really what drives him to be a good cop; yet we get that with Podly. It's a bold choice to have the first character focused episode be given over to a character who isn't even in the opening credits (as none of the alien actors are) but it's a very welcome one.

The 'surprise' reveal that Trask isn't the one killing people, but that he's using Vala to do it was pretty obvious, however, and I'm not sure if we were really supposed to suspect him or not. The episode doesn't seem to hide the fact that Trask can't be trusted, and the revelation that he's taking advantage of Vala seemed obvious before it happened. Despite this, Trask's a good character, and he's convincing as a villain taking advantage of the people around him. Towards the end of the episode he loses believably somewhat when he tries to send the police station crashing out of orbit as he becomes a bit more arch and transforms into a Saturday morning cartoon villain.

Overall 'Enforcer' is a very good episode, and probably the best of the series so far. Hopefully this is an indicator that the series will begin to look at their side characters more and put a bit of focus on the people rather than just the adventure of the week.



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Star Trek: Voyager – It Isn’t That Bad!

Originally published on Set The Tape

Since the return of Star Trek onto television thanks to Star Trek: Discovery and Star Trek: Picard it would seem as though the franchise has become something that fans inevitably argue over, mostly about what is and isn’t Star Trek. This isn’t anything new, however. Some fans were enraged when the franchise went back in time to explore the beginnings of the Federation in Enterprise; some were appalled with the flip-flopping behaviour and morals of the crew of Voyager; some said that it couldn’t be the same because Deep Space Nine didn’t go anywhere and was too dark; and some said The Next Generation was bad just because it wasn’t the original series.

People being angry about some aspect of the series is nothing new. Whilst some of these shows have since gone through something of a resurgence and found critical acclaim since their original airing, Deep Space Nine being a prime example, one that still seems to get a lot of hatred is Voyager.

Voyager gets a lot of hate despite previously being one of the most rewatched Star Trek shows on Netflix (according to a study by The Radio Times). It’s easy to point at things that make the show a little bad in places – Jennifer Lien’s Kes was pretty dull, and Captain Janeway (Kate Mulgrew) was a bit erratic at times – but that’s not what I’m doing here. Instead I’m going to argue that the show is actually better than you’d think.

The Crew

Now, the crew of Voyager are probably one of the most interesting groups in Star Trek. This doesn’t necessarily mean the best crew (that’s absolutely Deep Space Nine) but interesting at least. Whilst the divisions between the Starfleet and Maquis crew wasn’t massively explored, certainly not to the extent that it might be today, there were still many episodes that focused on this.

Over the seven seasons we saw that despite friendships and romantic relationships between the two groups they often still thought of themselves as two crews, and this led to conflict. Season seven’s ‘Repression’ is a great example of how even towards the end the two crews could still create drama.

The Doctor

Robert Picardo is easily the best actor on Voyager, and is one of the all time fan favourite characters in the entire franchise. Originally supposed to be a minor recurring character, he made his Emergency Medical Hologram into a being whose journey to sentience was as exciting and engaging as Data’s (Brent Spiner) in The Next Generation. We saw his character learn how to act human, how to form friendships with people. The crew went from thinking of him as a piece of equipment to a real person, and eventually a part of their family who they’d go through hell to protect.

Whilst there are too many great episodes about The Doctor to list here, season three’s ‘Real Life’ saw him programme himself a family, so that he could learn what it’s like to have a wife and children. Thanks to some unfortunate events he has to watch his daughter, who he genuinely loves, die in front of him in what might be the most emotionally moving episode the series ever made.

The Delta Quadrant

The main premise of Voyager, a lone ship lost on the other side of the galaxy, is still one of the best set-ups the franchise has ever given a series. We have a single ship that’s separated from home, with no back-up, no reinforcements, and every species they come across a potential threat. Whilst the show did kind of ignore this sometimes, with an apparent infinite supply of shuttles and torpedo's, and the ability to get the ship looking brand new after every battle, there were occasions where the scenario was executed very well and you really felt the stakes were high for the crew.

It also added a lot more mystery to the series, as unless it was a species that kept coming back to plague them, such as the Kazon, each week viewers would be getting something brand new that’d never been seen on Star Trek before. This led to some exciting and interesting new allies and villains in the show, including the vicious Hirogen, and the terrifying Vidiians.

The Borg

The Borg are hands down one of the best alien races in Star Trek, and have become as iconic as Klingons and Vulcans. Despite this, they only featured in half a dozen episodes of The Next Generation, and only appeared in one brief flashback on Deep Space Nine. Voyager, on the other hand, got to have a whole lot more fun with this big bad, as they had to literally pass through Borg territory to get home.

Voyager didn’t over-use the Borg, but managed to feature them a number of times and, in part thanks to the introduction of Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan), we got to learn so much more about them. The Borg episodes are easily some of the best Voyager has to offer, and really highlight how great a villain they are.


This isn’t an exhaustive list of what make Voyager a good show, but these are some of its best bits. But there is so much more about the show that’s good – great even. It takes a little while to find its feet, but seasons three onward are very good, and have some brilliant episodes. With the show celebrating its 25th anniversary, maybe now is a good time to give the series another go and discover that there’s actually a lot of good to be found here.

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Marvel Action: Avengers #10 – Comic Review

Originally Published on Set The Tape

Issue #10 of Marvel Action: Avengers seems to be a bit of a strange issue. To begin with it seems like a pretty simple set-up, A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) have taken over New York City, and rule it with an iron fist. They’re doing this, in part, thanks to having captured and brainwashed a number of heroes into working for them.

These heroes are A.I.M versions of themselves, fitting the colours and logo of the evil organisation, such as Spider-Mechanic, The Golden Witch, and Yellow Hulk. We learn all this through Captain America, who begins the issue as an enforcer for A.I.M. before being rescued by some of his fellow Avengers, who are now running a resistance group from a secret underground bunker.

All of this seems fairly simple, and is an interesting and engaging idea that would be good enough to play a story out of, especially as the few remaining Avengers would have to fight their former friends and colleagues to save the day. However, the final moments of the issue seem to hint that there’s actually a lot more going on here, and that everything we’d seen up to that point is simply an illusion inside Captain America’s head. There are hints that this may be due to the Fear Eaters, who were apparently beaten at the end of the last story.

Unfortunately, the issue ends there and we don’t get a clear answer to what’s going on. Now, this is bad because I want to know what happens next and have to wait to next issue to get some answers, but it’s also good comic writing as Matthew K. Manning has me wanting to know what happens next and waiting for the next issue.

I’m going to be interested in seeing if we’re going to be jumping in and out of this apparent A.I.M. illusion/dream; if the dream turns out to be real or not; or even if the events shown in the previous issue where they beat the Fear Eaters might have been fake and the heroes actually lost the battle. Or maybe there’s something else going on that doesn’t connect with those creatures at all?

Because all of the questions raised in this issue over what’s really happening I find it a little hard to say if it was a good start to the story or not. Either we’ve had a lot of set-up for what’s going on, or most of it’s just a dream and we’re just getting hints at other things to come. I think a lot of how this issue ends up feeling will largely depend on what happens in the subsequent parts, but I think this was pretty good.


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The Woman / Offspring – Film Review

Originally published on Set The Tape

We take a look at popular 2011 horror film The Woman and its lesser known 2009 predecessor Offspring, as Arrow Films brings them together on Blu-ray for the first time, in a new Limited Edition set. Warning: contains spoilers.

The Woman is a film that I’d heard of long before I’d watched it, and was one that I’d seen a lot of horror fans discussing when it first came out; usually talking about how disturbing it is. It centres of the Cleek family, who live in a large farmhouse on the edge of the woods. When the father Chris (Sean Bridgers) discovers a feral woman (Pollyanna McIntosh) living in the woods he decides to capture her, chain her up in his barn, and civilise her.

Whilst the woman is supposed to be a cannibalistic killer, which is seen a lot more in Offspring, I can’t say that I can really class her as the villain of The Woman. This isn’t a film about a family who end up having to try and survive a feral killer, but a story about one twisted man’s hatred of women, and desire to abuse people.

Chris Cleek rules his family with an iron fist. His wife is a quiet and meek woman, who gets beaten, he berates his son for not doing well enough, whilst seemingly grooming to become an abuser himself, and his eldest daughter is hiding a pregnancy that the film indicates he’s responsible for. Chris is the very real monster in this film, and that helps to make it all the more disturbing. Having a feral cannibal woman chained up in your barn might not be an experience many can identify with, but being stuck in an abusive home certainly is.

The film doesn’t tip its hand though, it very slowly draws you in by making you think this is a normal family and that Chris is a nice guy. Before you know it though it’s clear he’s a violent abuser, but by then it’s too late. Like being in an abusive relationship the film shows you a nice front before it hits you the brutal reality.

Things do take a more open, horror turn by the gory end, but by then it feels more like a relief, because it breaks the mounting tension that has built within the Cleek home. Whilst the abusers of the film do get their comeuppance it doesn’t feel like a victory, and it left me feeling depressed by the time the credits rolled. It wasn’t a bad film because of this, but it’s not a fun type of horror film; it’s a film that you need to be in the right mood for because of the constant sense of oppression and sadness that seems to permeate its entirety.

Offspring, by contrast, feels a lot more like what you’d expect from a cannibal horror movie. The film is less oppressive, and there are very clear distinctions between the heroes and villains. There are good people who fall victim to the woman’s feral family, and you root for them to survive. The cops are there to try and save the women and children, and the douche-bag ex-husband is a dick and gets what he deserves before the end.

It’s what I would expect from a film like this, it ticked all the boxes and didn’t really try to do anything different or special, so didn’t stand out to me as particularly great. That’s a note that falls much more on the shoulders of The Woman.

The set offered by Arrow Films is an interesting one, as it’s got a fairly standard, almost forgettable movie, and one that’s going to affect you a lot more and stick with you for longer. It certainly makes for an interesting study in how the series changed from one film to the next though, and makes for an engaging comparison between the two.

The Blu-ray also comes with a host of extras for each film, including multiple commentaries for each film, including newly recorded ones, cast and crew interviews, behind the scenes making-of’s, webisodes, and deleted scenes. Sadly, I was only provided with a screener for the movies, so didn’t get a chance to see these extras, but I’d definitely be interested to learn more about the films and their making, and think that the extras on offer here sound like they’d definitely scratch that itch.

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Black Trans Man Tony McDade Killed By Florida Police

On Wednesday 27th May Florida trans man Tony McDade was fatally shot and killed by a white police officer in a further incident of police violence towards the BIPOC community. The news of this incident came out during protests across the United States due to the police murder of another black man, George Floyd.

According to information from the Tallahassee police, Tony was a suspect in a stabbing incident. Tony was identified as the main suspect by the as of yet unnamed victim. This seems to be backed up by a post on Tony's social media, where he released a video stating that he wanted revenge for a beating that he was the victim of.

In the video Tony says 'You killed me, I'm gonna kill you'. He also said that this would lead to a stand-off with police. In his final post to Facebook he said 'I'm living suicidal right now'.

The police followed public tips for a person matching Tony's description, which led to a confrontation with him. According to Chief Lawrence Revell, Tony was armed with a gun and 'made a move consistent with using the firearm against the officer'. Rather than arrest Tony, the police shot and killed him. It has not been confirmed if any of the officers present at the incident were wearing a body-cam, or if their are any witnesses to the incident to corroborate that Tony was armed and threatening police officers; though according to the Human Rights Campaign several people managed to record the event.

Initial police and media reports about the incident misgendered Tony and used the incorrect name and pronouns. Thankfully friends and family came forward to correctly identify him.

Around 30 members of the local community gathered to hold a candlelight vigil following the killing. Residents from his apartment complex have also created a memorial next to a tree in the area where he was killed.

Following the incident the Executive Director of the National Black Justice Coalition released a statement to say 'It pains me to have learned about Tony McDade, who we understand was killed by a member of the Tallahassee Police Department yesterday morning. This tragic incident should be a reminder that hate crimes against Black LGBTQ/SGL people happen too frequently - often without the national public outcry that our cis and/or heteronormative brothers and sisters receive'.

Tori Cooper, the director off community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative at the Human Rights Campaign also released a statement. 'The Human Rights Campaign and the entire transgender and non-binary community demand accountability and answers for Tony’s death, and countless violent deaths of trans people, Black people and, disproportionately, Black transgender people. While these deaths are visible due to recordings and social media, we know far too many go completely ignored. Black people, LGBTQ people, and especially all LGBTQ people of colour are at greater risk for violence every day in this country. This must end. Our hearts are heavy as we mourn with Tony’s family and friends.'

According to the Human Rights Campaign, who track as many incidents as possible, at least another eleven other transgender or gender-nonconforming people have been violently killed in the US in 2020. This also marks yet another incident of a black person who has been killed by the police.

Police Chief Lawrence Revell said in a press conference that their was 'no indication' that the police officers involved acted wrongly, or that the killing was racially motivated.



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Space Precinct Episode 2 'Double Duty' - TV Review

I continue to be surprised that Space Precinct used to be shown during the early evenings when it first aired in the 90's, as this episode really leans into the horror side of sci-fi when a horrific alien creature commits brutal murders against a series of drug kingpins.

The episode opens with Officers Brogan and Haldane engaged in surveillance of a local drug dealer, Oturi Nissim. Having failed to find any evidence that Nissim is dealing in illegal black crystals during a raid, the duo are keeping an eye on his apartment to keep the pressure on the criminal. After they observe a pizza delivery being made to the apartment the mutilated body of Nissim lands on their police cruiser. When they investigate the apartment they find Nissim's body guards torn to pieces, and a young woman as the only survivor.

Investigating into the mysterious pizza delivery guy, they discover a much larger ring of black crystal smugglers, using the pizza delivery as a front. However, the thing that killed Nissim begins to take out the other dealers, before eventually appearing on the precinct house and attacking Officer Orrin.

The episode starts very strong, and the initial attack upon Nissim's apartment is done well, building up tension as Nissim discovers the remains of his men. Sadly, there were two things that distracted me slightly in these beginning moments. The first was that it seemed a little obvious that Aleesha, the pretty young woman who survived the attack, was the one responsible for the killings. The other thing was that the pizza delivery guy was played by Idris Elba. Whilst that's not distracting enough, he' been dubbed over by long time Gerry Anderson voice actor David Healy, who gives him a kind of cowboy-like accent.

After these opening moments the episode has the main duo trying to get to the bottom of the killings, which gives us a fun little police chase with amazing model work, as well as an intense shootout with a pair of drug dealers.

Despite their best efforts to try and track down the mysterious killer Brogan and Haldane struggle to make any traction, and begin to become suspects themselves as the only people to be present at both sets of killings. Whilst Captain Podly doesn't seem to believe this, it's a good world building moment when he tells them the mayor is clamouring for answers and pointing the finger at a pair of 'rogue' cops. We've not really learnt much about the workings of Demeter City outside of the police, but this throwaway line lets us know that the police don't operate in a vacuum, that they are answerable to people and the public can sway opinion.

Toward the end of the episode the characters begin to piece together the answer to the mystery, in part thanks to a sub-plot involving Brogan's son Matthew. This leads to a violent confrontation with Aleesha in her monster form that ends with the characters gunning her down. It's brutal and fast, and over before you've really had the chance to realise what's going on. I also refer to Aleesha's other form as a monster because whilst all of the other aliens we've seen in Space Precinct all seem like people, just ones that look different from us, Aleesha's other form is more of a feral beast, more akin to a wild animal than a person.

The episode also has a couple of sub-plots going on in the background. The first one, as I'd mentioned before, does tie into the main story as it helps Brogan to piece together what's happening. It involves his son Matthew and his new friend Inazy, who Brogan doesn't really like. He comes from a poorer part of the city, and is presented to be something of a tearaway, and when Brogan sees them with a strange bottle of glowing liquid he begins to suspect they're up to no good. However, it turns out that Inazy is actually a really good kid, and that the two teens have just been working on a school project together.

It's kind of nice that the episode worked this story in. Not only does it build on the Brogan family as seen in the first episode, who seemed a bit dull there, but it also adds to the message of the episode of not judging people by their first appearance. The sweet and innocent girl is actually a brutal killer, and the untrustworthy youth is a really good kid who's trying to do well at school. The two play into each other well, that even the moment when Brogan figures things out doesn't feel too corny as it's in a nice character scene.

The other sub-plot, on the other hand, seems to be something completely throw away, and feels like its in the episode to pad out the running time and to give the women something to do. It might seem a bit mean to say this, but the whole plot about the old bag lady who turns out to be a lost alien queen adds nothing to the other story, and this is the second episode in a row where both Officer Castle and Officer Took seem to be relegated to the background. I really hope that this isn't the start of a pattern where the female officers keep getting given pointless sub-plots to keep them sidelined.

'Double Duty' definitely leans into the sci-fi side of things more than the first episode did, but seems to find a really nice balance of science fiction and police procedural. It also continues to display great model work that gets utilised in brilliant chase sequences, though some of the other effects definitely haven't aged as well. A solid second episode for the series.

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Predator Stalking Shadows by James A. Moore and Mark Morris - Book Review

'In the aftermath of the events of Predator 2, U.S. Marine Scott Devlin is assigned to the clean-up operation in Los Angeles. He is soon thrust into a world of secretive government agents, highly-advanced technology, and an unstoppable juggernaut lone agent, Alan ‘Dutch’ Schaefer.

As Devlin rises through the ranks, working in elite counter-terrorist units, he gathers evidence, slowly piecing together the shocking truth of what he saw that night. Fighting for freedom from the jungles of South America to the Scottish Highlands, Devlin learns who the real enemy is, and how to fight for survival.

'He’s not the only one fighting back against the Hunters. Dutch has been working in the shadows ever since his first encounter in Central America, gathering knowledge, weapons, and team mates. Fighting both the Hunters and shadowy government agencies, Dutch and Devlin must team up to take the fight to the aliens – to become the predators.'

The Predator franchise has it's highs and lows, but generally has some very good films. The first three films in the series are all good for various different reasons, and whilst 2018's The Predator was generally seen as a disappointment that's still only one of the four films that's really classed as bad. Over the years the franchise has tried to expand out into different mediums, such as novels, comics, and video games. Whilst it's received acclaim in comics and games, novels tends not to be a medium where people sing its praises as much.

I've found that this can sometimes come down to the fact that it an be hard to capture a lot of the tension and horror that the films have on the written page, and that Predator books can sometimes feel a little flat. This is most certainly not the case with Predator Stalking Shadows, as I found it to not only be incredibly engaging and character driven, but at times was genuinely scary too.

Predator Stalking Shadows doesn't focus on just one event, on a singular predator incursion, and this really works to its advantage. Instead we follow Scott Devlin, a member of the US Marines, over the course of a number of decades as he slowly begins to learn the truth about the existence of these extraterrestrial hunters, and becomes drawn into the fight against them. As such, the book becomes more about him than the titular monsters; and this is such a good thing.

We get to see Scott as a relatively young man, fresh onto a special unit and going out on top secret missions. We get to see him get to know the soldiers around him, and we get to come to care for them the same way that he does. This means that when Scott and his comrades eventually end up in positions where they're going up against the Yautja you are hoping that these people make it through these encounters, and become genuinely heartbroken when some of them don't.

Not only was this so refreshing a development, I genuinely shed a couple of tears during one particularly poignant funeral scene, but I think it's probably the first time that I've ever really cared about a character death in the entire Predator franchise. Yes, it's disappointing when the cool marines die in the first film, and I genuinely hoped that Danny Trejo would have lasted longer in Predators, but this was the first time that I found myself caring about them as people, upset that they were leaving wives and children behind when they passed away.

But this is what the book is really good at. It's not a book about the spectacle of the predators, or the horror of being in their hunting ground, it's a story about the people in these situations. It's one of the most grounded, human stories in the entire franchise.

The book also features the return of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Dutch, and shows what he's been doing in the years since the first Predator film. He's the character that we occasionally see fighting the predators, and whilst these moments are fairly fleeting they do help to carry the story along, giving readers brief moments of action as the rest of the book works on character and world building. For as many times as we get to see Dutch in action against the creatures we also get second hand stories about what he's been doing and how his mission has been getting on. Rather than feeling cheated by these, hoping for a 'show don't tell' approach instead, they feel a lot more real. We're supposed to be following Scott and his particular journey, so it makes sense to stick with him and instead of seeing Dutch's moments seeing them through Scott's eyes; which is learning about them after the fact.

I don't know much about the game that this is setting up, Predator Hunting Grounds, and imagine that it's more laying some very background framework for the game and explaining why Dutch is still around, as I do know he appears in the game. But I have to be honest, I wouldn't have cared half as much about the game before reading this book. The book makes it feel like there's a more cohesive world inside the Predator franchise, it makes it feel like the films and this new game are connecting in more than just name and IP. And better yet, the book manages to stand on its own and stays a brilliant piece of work without needing to connect into the game.

Predator Stalking Shadows is easily one of the best Predator novels that I've read. It captures the feel and tension of the films without relying on it to make its story. It centres on realistic people, it makes you care about the characters and the world in ways the franchise hasn't before. A masterful piece of fiction.

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Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer - Book Review

'Twelve-year-old Artemis Fowl is a millionaire, a genius, and above all, a criminal mastermind. But even Artemis doesn't know what he's taken on when he kidnaps a fairy, Captain Holly Short of the LEPrecon Unit. These aren't the fairies of bedtime stories—they're dangerous! Full of unexpected twists and turns, Artemis Fowl is a riveting, magical adventure.'

I'd heard about the Artemis Fowl books for a while, but had never gotten around to reading them despite managing to acquire the entire series. This was largely due to having worked in a charity shop before becoming too ill to work and the set coming in one day. When the upcoming film was announced, and with the set sitting on a shelf in my library, I decided that it was probably about time that I got round to actually reading one.

To be honest, I'm not really sure what I was expecting going into it, I knew that Artemis is supposed to be some kind of super villain kid, and that their are fairies and magical creatures, but I wasn't expecting such a small story.

I've found that a lot of stories that involve younger people discovering about a hidden world of magic or the supernatural tend to take on a grand tone to it. Harry is the chosen one in Harry Potter, and whilst we don't learn the significance and importance of what Valkyrie Cain will become in Skulduggery Pleasant she does help defeat a powerful evil. These books throw the heroes into grand adventure and high stakes, but that's not the case with Artemis Fowl.

This could be because in essence Artemis isn't the hero of this particular story, but it the bad guy, but I think it also came down to the fact that despite involving fairies, trolls, and dwarfs, this story was about kidnapping and ransom. There was no grand adventure or any epic revelations, it's just about a group of police officers trying to get one of their colleagues back from a kidnapper.

I think that this might be part of the reason why I didn't really feel like the book clicked with me at any point. There was nothing overtly wrong with it, and it was entertaining enough, but it never really drew me in or made me care about anyone. There was a point in the book where it looked like one of the main characters was dead, and I didn't really care. There was no shock or disappointment, no cheer as it was revealed they were okay; I was reading it with a sense of detachment.

This was one of the biggest issues for me, that I felt detached for the whole book. I didn't learn enough about the fairy folk or their world to find them interesting, and the stuff I did learn seemed to only ever be related to the specific things happening their and then. Because of this I didn't really care that their world might become exposed, because I didn't know what their world was already. I didn't every learn enough about Artemis to care about his plots either. Yes, he wants money to try and continue to get by with his rich lifestyle, and to perhaps find his father; but he came across as a device to start the plot rather than a real person.

The characters that felt the most real were the non-human ones, but thanks to the pace at which the story progressed we never got to spend enough time with them to see what they were really like. They were always reacting to things, and the readers never got a chance to see what they were like in anything but a 'work' scenario. I get that these characters are fairy cops, but they're also people. Show that a bit more. Show what Holly's thinking, about how being taken prisoner is effecting her; then I'll start to care if she makes it out or not.

There are a lot of books aimed at younger readers that are able to keep adults entertained too, many of which have gone on to become globally successful franchises. I have to be honest though, I don't see much of that on offer in Artemis Fowl. The book is fine, and it will certainly appeal to the intended age group, but I don't think it's got enough to it to grab people who come to it later in life. I understand that this might be something that changes with the series over time, as a lot of books seem to mature as they progress through a series, growing with their fans, so I'll probably give the second book a go and see if this is the case here.

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