October 2015 – Simon’s Incoherent Blog

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 3 – Thank You

“Have you ever had to kill people, because they’d already killed your friends and they were coming for you next? Have you ever done things that made you feel afraid of yourself afterward? Have you ever been covered in so much blood that you didn’t know if it was yours, a Walker’s, or your friend’s?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Blimey. Even by Walking Dead standards, that was bleak. I mean, sure, there was plenty of action – and oodles of gore – but even this show rarely offers an episode so suffused with hopelessness. We knew the Wolves’ attack, and that blaring truck horn, had put a crimp in Rick’s Walker-herding plan, but I wasn’t prepared for quite how catastrophically wrong it all went as a result. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 3 – Thank You”

Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 6 – The Woman Who Lived

“Do you ever think, or care, what happens when you’ve flown away? I live in the world you leave behind.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

In a year dominated by two part stories, this was a bit of an odd one – not strictly a second part, but definitely a companion piece, or a sequel, to last week’s. As with all the best sequels, it (and its predecessor) can stand perfectly well on its own; but, as an examination of one character, they complement each other. Even more unusually, this had a different writer to last week, Torchwood’s Catherine Tregenna making her debut writing for the show. Continue reading “Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 6 – The Woman Who Lived”

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 2 – JSS

“How do you just live, when that’s the world?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After last week’s lesson about how ill-prepared they were to deal with the dead, this week’s Walking Dead saw the pampered Alexandrians get slapped in the face by the real world again – only this time by the living. I wasn’t entirely surprised to find that the blaring truck horn distracting the Walker herd at the end of last week was caused by the Wolves – I’d been expecting them to turn up. But I’d thought the show might have given the Alexandrians a little breathing room between dealing with hundreds of Walkers and the marauding living. Not a bit of it – The Walking Dead isn’t a show to give its characters a break. Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 2 – JSS”

Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 5 – The Girl Who Died

“We’re time travellers. We tread softly. It’s ok to make ripples, but not tidal waves.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

With the fifth episode of this much-improved series of Doctor Who, we’ve finally reached the episode with the much-trumpeted casting of Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams. As a stalwart of probably the most successful show right now, Williams’ casting generated much in the way of headlines; she’s certainly a talented actor, having shown herself to be more than capable of matching the likes of Charles Dance in a scene of heavy dialogue. And the ep was written by Jamie Mathieson (with some nudges form one Steven Moffat), who wrote two of my favourites last year, Mummy on the Orient Express and Flatline. Continue reading “Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 5 – The Girl Who Died”

The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 1 – First Time Again

“I know this sounds insane, but this is an insane world. We have to come for them before they come for us – it’s that simple.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

After six uneven weeks of its nascent spinoff, it comes as something of a relief to welcome back the original Walking Dead, in an extra length season premiere. Six years in, though, the show has seemingly explored nearly every possible storyline in their zombie apocalypse – can there be anything left to say, or is the show simply being prolonged because it’s AMC’s biggest hit? Continue reading “The Walking Dead: Season 6, Episode 1 – First Time Again”

Doctor Who: Season 9, Episode 4 – Before the Flood

“This isn’t about saving me, I’m a dead man walking. I’m changing history to save Clara.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It’s still a pretty good hit rate for this two-parter oriented season of Doctor Who. After a (very well done) slice of ultra-traditional Who last week, this week’s conclusion was very much riddled with what we are now bound to call “timey-wimeyness”. The fact that the ep opened with the Doctor giving a reasonably clear explanation of the bootstrap paradox set the tone for Toby Whithouse’s script from the very outset; last week was “trad-Who”, this week was “Nu-Who”. Continue reading “Doctor Who: Season 9, Episode 4 – Before the Flood”

Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 6 – The Good Man

“It doesn’t matter how you die. You come back. We all come back.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

This week saw Fear the Walking Dead reach its first season finale, and (finally) show some action. And some zombies. You know, more than one at a time. Continue reading “Fear the Walking Dead: Season 1, Episode 6 – The Good Man”

Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 3 – Under the Lake

“So, we are fighting an unknown homicidal force that’s taken the form of your commanding officer and a cowardly alien, underwater, in a nuclear reactor. Anything else I ought to know, someone got a peanut allergy or something?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

With ratings juggernaut and offence to human culture Strictly Come Dancing once again dominating Saturday evening (to the tune of two bloody hours), this week Doctor Who found itself ignominiously shoved away from its traditional teatime slot to the graveyard depths of 8.25, by which time many of us would normally have gone out. Cue the usual ill-informed bunch of Moffat-haters claiming that drastic drops in the overnight ratings heralded that The End is Nigh? Continue reading “Doctor Who: Series 9, Episode 3 – Under the Lake”