Doctor Who: Season 12, Episode 9 – Ascension of the Cybermen

“The Cybermen were defeated. The victims of a billion battles, broken. An empire of might and terror, fallen. Their weaknesses exploited, their armies outfought. Every empire has its time, and every empire falls. But that which is dead can live again – in the hands of a believer.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

The Cybermen are made up of parts. Spare parts, human and machine. So it’s apt that almost every latterday story about them has itself been made up of parts of other Cyber stories – and this was no exception. However, that didn’t stop it being a very, very good Doctor Who episode in a season that has been unexpectedly good after last year’s rather lacklustre effort. Continue reading “Doctor Who: Season 12, Episode 9 – Ascension of the Cybermen”

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 6 – This Extraordinary Being

“Who wants to be in the present when you can live in the past?”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

“Tonight, on a very special episode of Watchmen…” Yes, this week Watchmen continued to experiment with form, with a self-contained episode very different in style to any that have gone before. As with everything on this well-executed series, that’s something that has precedent in the original comic; for example, one issue is entitled Fearful Symmetry, and every page is the mirror image of its equivalent on the same sheet of paper. Hence, p1 is mirrored on p28, p2 on p27, and so on – until the very middle of the comic, where pages 14 and 15 mirror each other. Continue reading “Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 6 – This Extraordinary Being”

Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 4 – If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own

“In three days, she’ll know what I’ve done. And she’ll hate me for it.”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

Step forward, another major player, as this week’s Watchmen introduced us to Lady Trieu, the mysterious industrialist mentioned last time who bought up Veidt Industries in its creator’s absence. Lady Trieu made quite an entrance, in a portent-heavy prologue that incorporated many of the show’s ongoing motifs. Promising a seemingly happy (but childless) farming couple a baby of their own in exchange for their land, she’s clearly a force to be reckoned with despite her diminutive stature. Continue reading “Watchmen: Season 1, Episode 4 – If You Don’t Like My Story, Write Your Own”

Doctor Who Christmas Special 2016 – The Return of Doctor Mysterio

“The gemstone is giving you what it thinks you want. You’re a superhero!”

(SPOILER WARNING!)

It was inevitable, I suppose. Given the current domination of the big (and increasingly, small) screen by muscly men in spandex and rubber (the ones who aren’t in gay porn), it was only a matter of time until an honest to goodness superhero made his way onto Doctor Who. In a Christmas special only tangentially connected to Christmas (thank goodness), Steven Moffat managed to bring off this clash of styles with The Return of Doctor Mysterio, which managed to be both an enjoyable (if light) Doctor Who episode as well as a fond homage to comics superheroes in general. Continue reading “Doctor Who Christmas Special 2016 – The Return of Doctor Mysterio”